1st Ladies: Sharing Each Other's Shoes 01

{Excerpts from Memoirs Of An Invisible Woman}

It's amazing when I think of how our lives just happened to parallel each other.

I became involved with an adventurous über genius and ended up being, of all things, a super heroine. My childhood friend, Janet Van Dyne, later did the same thing.

Hank Pym was already the Ant-Man when they first met. She became his partner, the Wasp, almost immediately afterwards. I won't go into the details since it IS Jan's story to tell.  But I will say that Jan became the Wasp to avenge the death of her father. Murdered by an extra-terrestrial called Pilai. And I mention this only because it's another parallel in our lives. MY father was also murdered by an extra-terrestrial. The Skrull warlord, Morrat. (I'll get to that in a later chapter.)

Like Reed and I, Jan and Hank also fell in love and eventually got married. (Sadly they divorced some years afterwards.)

Anyway. Jan became the Winsome Wasp a year or so after I became the Invisible Girl.  And, except for the X-Man known as Marvel Girl, we were the only super heroines around at the time. Old friends, and now peers, we'd often got together for lunch, special events, (after Jan went public with her identity), or to share an adventure together.

Just the two of us.

One such adventure, or brief incident as it really was, we actually shared each other's shoes so to speak.

We were having lunch at one of Jan's favorite country clubs. A place geared exclusively for the rich and well to do.  As we waited for our ridiculously overpriced meal, (Jan's treat,) we chatted about her new team. The recently formed Avengers.

Was Thor a method actor? Playing a part to the hilt? Or was he delusional and truely believed he was the actual god of thunder? Or WAS he the actual god of thunder? Was it possible that there was some weird truth behind the Norse myth?

Thank God the Hulk was gone.

Iron Man looked a whole lot sexier in the form-fitting red and gold armor than he did in that hot water heater of an outfit he wore previously.

And did Hank become a Giant-Man because he felt outclassed by the likes of Thor, Iron Man and the Hulk?

Before we could get into Hank's motivations, just like in those crime dramas on TV, a group of armed thugs suddenly busted in.

Their intention was just to rob us. They were on us so fast I couldn't risk turning invisible. If they saw me fade out it would have made the situation far worse for everyone else. Fortunately nobody recognized me. Maybe because I had just changed my hair style and wasn't wearing the blue bodysuit with a big "4" on my chest. Whatever the reason, thank heavens, none of them, robber and victim alike, suspected that the Invisible Girl was amongst them.  

Jan still had a secret identity at the time. So no one knew the Wasp was there as well.  Unfortunately there wasn't anything she could have done anyway. I can turn my power on and off at will. But Jan needed a special gas comprised of Pym-Particles to reduce her size and bring forth her wings.  The Pym gas was located in small cylinders on the belt of her costume. Which she  locked up in the trunk of her limo. My friend was just as helpless as everyone else at that moment. Including, as it turned out, me.

All I had to do was just bide my time and wait for the right moment to strike. That was my plan. 

So what happened?

Someone triggered an alarm.  The police showed up and had the place surrounded.  The hold up was now a hostage situation. We were all taken to various closets and store rooms where our captors bound and gagged us before locking us up inside. 

Jan and I were tied up together in a store room. She couldn't shrink and, invisible or not, I was pretty damned useless. I wouldn't discover my force field for several more months.  So, tied up as I was, I couldn't do a damned thing.

Thank God I was wrong. 

To be continued by 

Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl and Janet Van Dyne, the Winsome Wasp (c) MARVEL whose SOLE remaining lifeline to 's wallet is the soon to end Fantastic Four. 

Commission for  thanks for the commission.