He wasn't expecting fanfare, but he figured that at least Hunk would bring Keith. Sure, they weren't best friends, but it wasn't every day he got out of jail for vigilante thievery.

Lance, for his part, did not regret most of his incarceration. The Galra Corporation hid major secrets that hurt people, and his work helped uncover some of those secrets. He only wished he could have revealed more before he was caught and imprisoned. His only regret was the dishonor on his family. The siblings supported him in public during his trial, but only Veronica and Rachel visited him in prison. His brothers refused and his poor parents… Needless to say, the McClains were collateral damage.

But the past was the past, and all that mattered now was rebuilding his shattered life starting with greeting his best friend in the whole world.

"Hunk!" He jumped into his buddy's waiting arms.

"Lance the Sharpshooter is finally out of the slammer!" Hunk spun him around like a rag doll, but Lance did not mind. Two years had passed without a Hunk Hug, and he savored every moment of it.

"I've missed your hugs, but I need my body back if I am going to get started on the straight and narrow."

"Oh yeah." Hunk lowered Lance gently. "Am I taking you to Rachel's or Veronica's?"

"Neither. My parole officer says he found a place for me at a halfway house until I find a job. How hard could that be?"

Lance carried the box of meager possessions he had to Hunk's van. "Thanks again for taking me in man. It's surprisingly hard for a felon to find work."

"I told you that Vrepit Sal runs a tight ship. You wouldn't be a dishwasher let alone allowed near the food. He is a high-end employer." Hunk pulled away from the halfway house.

"You would think someone would give an aerospace engineer a job. I have a master's degree!" Lance whined as he leaned back in the van's seat.

Hunk snorted. "And you used it to be Robin Hood."

At least he was good at being Robin Hood. Sharpshooter had found plenty of workarounds in the Galra systems to bring down real bad people before he was caught. All Lance McClain could do was get fired from the local mall hangout.

"I don't see you running around building flying cars either," Lance grumbled.

Engineering had brought the two together at Altea Tech during their freshman year. A random assignment as project partners plus a taste of Hunk's cooking made them best friends. Nothing could separate them after that. Lance went on to get his master's while Hunk found a job with an engineering firm. His firm worked with Galra Corp. Once Lance finished his degree, Hunk hooked him up in the aeronautics division of Galra.

That was where all of their trouble began. While conducting quality control checks on one of the newer models, Lance found shortcuts and forgeries all over the paperwork. One of the models was a passenger plane set to launch commercially in a matter of months. Lance found out that these cuts were not limited to his division, but were rampant throughout the entire company.

He tried his best to catch everything, but he got sloppy towards the end. Hunk and Keith offered to confess as well in solidarity, but he refused their offer. No point in ruining three lives when one was enough.

From what Hunk had said, he and Keith abandoned any connection to their former positions at Galra Corp. Hunk was a small scale mechanic in his family's garage and Keith… well, Hunk never explained specifically what Keith did. All he mentioned was that he moved into his dad's old shack in the desert.

Hunk broke the silence in the van. "I don't mention it enough, but thanks, man." He patted Lance on the shoulder. "You hide it well, but prison-"

"It's okay Hunk." He smiled at his best friend. "You don't have to say it for me to understand. I got you and you got me."

They turned into their destination, and Lance looked up. "Hey, you didn't tell me that you moved!"

Hunk avoided his eyes and looked sheepish. "Well, I didn't…" and then he muttered something under his breath that Lance could not catch.

"What was that?" He asked, crossing his arms. "I didn't hear you."

"Just leave your stuff here and come with me. And listen to the whole spiel before you make any decisions, okay?" Lance knew that voice. That was Hunk's "I want to help you blow the whistle but I am scared of everything that entails" voice. He trusted Hunk with his life, but the big guy had a penchant for landing him in sticky situations.

The house in front of them was a Victorian home that screamed old money, or at the very least, well off eccentric. There was a freaking spire on it. What kind of house had spires anymore? Lance was pretty sure spires were reserved for haunted houses abandoned in the woods, not suburban neighborhoods.

"Don't worry! We'll be in and out," Hunk reassured him and knocked on the door. It swung open by itself to an empty entryway. They entered to check and see if it was really empty or just a hoax.

Lance let out a high pitched squeak and said, "Hunk, you brought me to a haunted house. Thank you for the experience, but I am leaving now."

The door behind them swung shut, and he heard the faint thud of a deadbolt. He turned to his former friend and hissed, "If I die here tonight, I am haunting your ghost till the end of time."

Hunk mutely nodded as he started to walk down the dimly lit hallway. It was sunny outside, but with all of the thick lace covering every window, no one could tell.

"Come on, they should be in here." Hunk pointed to a large oak door.

"Who is they?!" Lance was slightly ashamed at the squeak in his voice, but fear drove the shame away.

The door opened with a groan and revealed a short woman standing with arms akimbo and an impatient glare. Her honey eyes flashed in the hallway's light, and Lance was entranced.

"If you two are ready, we would like to discuss business with you. Is that alright?" Her sharp words broke him from his trance.

Lance scowled and was about to retort when Hunk spoke first. "Don't blame Lance, Pidge. He's not used to the secrecy."

Another voice came from next to the fireplace. "That's not what it said in the newspapers. After all, what is Robin Hood without a little secrecy." A sharply-dressed woman rose from a chair in the room and approached Lance. Her short golden hair was coiffed at the neck, and the only jewelry Lance could see was a wedding band and earrings. If this woman had money, she was not ostentatious about it. She looked him up and down not once, but three times. "You will fit." She returned to her seat next to the fire.

Hunk gave him a little shove to push him toward the other empty chairs. The younger woman stood next to the fireplace and kept the unimpressed look on her face. He focused on the woman sitting across from him at the time being.

"My name is Colleen Holt and I have a proposition for you, Mr. McClain. Have you ever heard of Antman?"