San Francisco.
Cross had all the researchers leave.
He carefully loaded the yellow vial onto the test platform.
Since becoming CEO of Pym Technologies, Cross had rarely done this sort of work himself.
With that kind of time on his hands, he could easily have called in a graduate student from a prestigious university to run the experiment.
All he needed to do was keep calculating his next move.
But that did not mean he could not conduct experiments. On the contrary, he was extremely intelligent.
Hank Pym was a proud man, and a selfish one.
He regarded Pym Particles as his own property. Whether it was S.H.I.E.L.D. or his own daughter, he had never taught or revealed the slightest thing about them.
Cross had won Hank Pym's favor and stood out among his students not just through his cunning, but, most importantly, through sufficient talent.
It was precisely that talent, which threatened the exclusivity of Pym Particles, that had made Hank Pym begin to dislike him.
But that had made no difference. Cross's cunning had been enough to give him control of the company.
Hank Pym could not remove Cross from his position as CEO through any legitimate means.
Instead, Cross had ousted Hank Pym from the board.
If Cross had one flaw, it had to be his lack of vision.
With all that talent and cunning, he had set his sights on Pym Particles, something capable of changing the world.
Yet all he could think about was making shrinking suits and selling them to arms dealers and intelligence organizations for money.
Fortunately, that outlook had changed after he met John.
In the laboratory's tense atmosphere, even Cross could not help feeling nervous as he stared fixedly at the machine.
He pressed the activation button, and four mechanical arms