Antony
Once upon a time, there lived a small young ant named Antony. He was special—or, I would rather say, a little different from the others.
First of all, he had a small build, so he looked a little skinny even among ants, who were mostly skeleton. He was also a little weaker than the other ants.
But that didn't mean Antony was a weak or timid ant.
He was courageous and brave, full of life, always optimistic and adventurous. And this very nature of his became a worry for the queen ant.
Because Antony was different from the others, the queen became more attentive towards him. This caused jealousy among many of the other ants, but Antony didn't care.
He was too busy searching for a purpose in life.
He often questioned himself.
"Why am I like this? Why am I not like everyone else?"
Whenever he asked his mother these questions, the queen ant always gave him the same answer.
"You are special. That's why you are different."
Antony believed what his mother told him, but he still questioned himself a lot.
"I may be different, or perhaps even special, but I must have a purpose in my life."
So Antony decided to find that purpose.
Unfortunately, the very search for his life's purpose became a source of trouble for everyone else.
Antony was always coming up with strange ideas.
Sometimes, he would flood the colony with water so that he could supply water to every room, thinking that nobody would have to go all the way to the storage area to get water.
Another time, he created strong winds to give everyone some relief from the heat.
His intentions were always good, but his strange ideas often caused problems for everyone else.
Yet his mother never told him to stop, nor did she ever get angry with him. She would simply laugh at his strange ideas.
In fact, she specially created a damage-control force so that Antony's ideas wouldn't accidentally destroy the entire colony.
And Antony was never out of ideas.
He was always trying his best to be of some help to everyone, and especially to his mother.
One day, Antony noticed that the ants were constantly carrying fruits and vegetables from outside the colony. It was tiring work, and he wondered why they had to go through all that trouble.
So he came up with another idea.
He decided to grow fruits and vegetables inside the colony so that his people wouldn't have to do the tiresome work of bringing them from outside. They would be able to get everything they needed right there in the colony.
Excited by his new idea, Antony started growing trees.
Soon, small saplings began to appear.
And surprisingly, they didn't cause any damage to the colony.
For several days, everything seemed perfectly fine.
But then the ants began to worry.
Antony had been unusually quiet for the last few days.
"Is he ill?"
"Or is he planning something dangerous?"
The worried ants approached the queen and asked her what Antony was up to.
Even the queen began to worry.
She immediately sent a member of the damage-control force to check on him.
When the damage-control member reached Antony and saw what he was trying to do, they became scared.
They hurriedly stopped Antony, destroyed all the saplings, and avoided what they believed could have been another disaster for the colony.
Antony was left confused.
He couldn't understand why everyone was so frightened by a few harmless little plants.
After this incident, the ants became even more worried.
"What if Antony tries something even more dangerous someday and actually destroys the colony?"
They reached the queen and asked her to put some restrictions on Antony. At the very least, they thought, he should not be allowed to conduct his experiments inside the colony.
The queen understood their concerns and assured them that she would talk to Antony.
But that was easier said than done.
She called Antony, and he came to see her.
"Mother, did you need something?" Antony asked.
The queen didn't know how to tell him to stop his experiments. So instead, she asked him how he was doing.
That was a mistake.
Antony immediately began explaining his new ideas.
As he continued talking, the queen started to worry.
Finally, she said, "Why don't you try experimenting outside the colony first? You will have much more space and freedom there. Once your ideas give better results, we can think about bringing them into the colony."
Antony agreed.
He thought his mother was simply trying to help him.
And with that, the queen managed to solve both problems without making anyone unhappy.
Antony could continue exploring his ideas, and the rest of the colony could finally breathe a little easier.
Or so they thought.
After that, Antony started conducting his dangerous experiments outside the colony.
He exploded many things, and the queen and the other ants were glad that Antony had finally moved his experiments away from their homes.
But this created another problem.
All the little ants loved watching Antony's experiments.
For them, it was entertainment.
So the queen assigned the damage-control team to keep the little ants safe while they watched Antony's experiments.
Meanwhile, Antony continued with his failures.
Sometimes he tried to grow vegetables. Sometimes he set off firecrackers. Sometimes he poured strange liquids all around the colony.
Because of his experiments, the damage-control team even had to build a bridge so that the ants could safely move around the colony.
Antony's days became busy with destruction.
He had unknowingly become the Ant of Destruction, and his experiments became one of the biggest sources of entertainment for many of the ants.
Some ants even started betting on Antony's new ideas.
They would argue about whether his next experiment would be more destructive than the previous one.
The little ants would bet their precious candies against each other, trying to guess which idea would cause more destruction.
And some of Antony's experiments were truly colony-blowing.
Antony was like the Iron Man of the Ant-Verse, but there was one small difference.
Iron Man never failed.
Antony never succeeded. 😂
But Antony had one quality that even his failures could never defeat: consistency.
He never gave up.
No matter how many experiments failed or how many disasters he caused, he always came back with another idea.
His resilience began to inspire many of the younger ants.
The little ants who had been watching Antony's experiments for days began to become more interested in what he was doing.
Antony noticed them.
He watched them for many days as they followed his experiments and tried to learn from him.
Then one day, Antony had an idea.
"Why don't I assemble them and create my own team? Then we can work together, do more experiments, and work much faster!"
And so, Antony finally assembled the Antvengers.
They decided that they would work together.
Together, they would destroy everything.
Ahhmm...
I mean, they would help everyone and improve everyone's lives. 😂
Antony was super excited after getting his own team.
He was fully charged and immediately began planning what they should do next.
But this gave the damage-control team a massive headache.
The Antvengers were already enough trouble when they were working alone.
Now that they had gathered together under Antony's leadership, they would surely blast something or cause some bigger disaster.
The damage-control team called an emergency meeting and discussed what they should do to stop the Antvengers from destroying everything.
The room was full of tension.
Everyone was giving strange ideas.
One ant said,
"Why don't we lock Antony up for a few days?"
Another said,
"Why don't we throw him from the top floor? That way his bones will be broken and he will be forced to stop his experiments for some days."
Someone else said,
"Let's steal their equipment and supplies."
And others suggested other things.
But the team leader wasn't happy with anyone's idea.
Then an old ant spoke.
"Why don't you send someone to distract Antony?"
Everyone looked at him.
The old ant continued,
"Send a beautiful girl ant with skeleton legs to pretend she is interested in his experiments. While pretending to be interested, she can keep him distracted and stop him from making anything. That will give us some time so we can think about what to do next."
The damage-control team took their idea and their concerns to the queen ant.
After hearing them out, the queen said,
"You can try it if you want, but I'm not very motivated by your idea. You might not succeed this way. But anyway, you can give it a try."
The damage-control team leader went and brought the most beautiful ant girl in the colony to distract Antony.
She arrived while showing interest in learning how to conduct experiments.
Many ants became excited when they saw her because normally talking to her was almost impossible. She was always surrounded by admirers.
But this time, they finally got a chance to meet her.
Unfortunately, she wasn't interested in the other ants.
Her target was Antony.
She went looking for him.
Eventually, she found Antony working on his experiments.
She approached him slowly, trying every possible way to get his attention.
Finally, she reached Antony and asked with a sweet smile,
"You are doing so much fun work. Can you teach me too?"
She was fully confident that Antony would immediately be on his knees trying to impress her.
But Antony completely ignored her.
Just like Thor ignored his fat belly in Avengers: Endgame. 😂
Without giving her a second thought, Antony continued with his work, excitedly thinking about what he should do next to destroy everything.
Ahhmm...
I mean...
To help his people.
Ahhmm...
His ants.
He was determined to make their lives more comfortable.
And the beautiful ant girl stood there, completely ignored, wondering what had just happened. 😂
So Antony and the Antvengers were busy being the Ants of Destruction, while the damage-control team was busy saving everyone.
When the queen ant and the other ants heard about the damage-control team's failed attempt, they all laughed hard.
Then everyone simply got busy with their own lives.
Meanwhile, Antony and his gang were busy doing their business.
Hours turned into days.
Days turned into months.
The nearby fields were full of crops.
But this was also a period when the colony faced danger every year.
Grasshoppers. 🦗
Every year, the grasshoppers came to eat the crops, and at the same time, they destroyed the ants' colony.
It wasn't the first time this had happened.
But this time, Antony was thinking about how he could save his colony from those villains.
This time, he wasn't alone.
He had his full team.
And Antony knew that his ideas were not really working when it came to helping anyone. He had seen how many times he had caused damage.
So he thought,
"Why don't I create something that kills or defeats grasshoppers?"
He was called the Ant of Destruction, and he was aware of it.
So he decided,
"Let's make something that causes destruction, but not to our people. To our enemy."
Antony gathered all his team members and came up with an idea.
They would lay traps all around the colony.
They would also create cannons that would throw rocks.
This way, they could prevent the grasshoppers from destroying their colony.
Everyone got excited and began working.
Meanwhile, the damage-control team was concerned—not about Antony succeeding, but about him accidentally destroying their own colony.
But the queen ant said that she was certain Antony would never do something that could completely destroy their colony.
So Antony worked on making the cannons while the damage-control team made sure nothing went out of control.
Then came the day.
The grasshoppers finally arrived.
As usual, they began eating everything.
They destroyed the fields.
Then they saw the ant colony.
And they moved toward it.
Everyone was afraid.
But Antony was ready.
He had laid traps all around the colony.
The moment a grasshopper touched the ant colony, the traps would be activated.
And it really happened.
A grasshopper landed on the ant colony.
The traps activated.
Some grasshoppers had their legs injured.
Some had their wings damaged.
This angered the rest of the grasshoppers.
They left the fields and came toward the colony in full force.
Everyone became scared.
They thought this time they were dead for sure.
Every time the grasshoppers came, they would destroy their colony and leave the ants alive.
But this time, it wouldn't happen.
They would perish for sure.
And they all started cursing Antony in their hearts.
But Antony was ready.
He was focused.
He commanded his Antvengers and called out, just like Captain America,
"Antvengers, assemble!"
Ahhm...
Not really. 😂
But they got to work.
Everyone took their positions.
Then they launched the cannons.
The grasshoppers were not ready for this.
The surprise attack was too much for them.
They were scared because the cannons were firing nonstop.
The damage was too much for them, and the pain was something they were not accustomed to.
They became terrified.
Then they ran.
They ran faster than they had come.
Everyone was surprised and confused.
Nobody knew what had just happened.
The Antvengers were celebrating their first victory, while everyone else was watching them just like fools.
The queen ant laughed and said,
"See? I told you Antony would never do something that would completely destroy our colony."
She was laughing and feeling proud.
Then someone whispered from behind,
"Then what was the reason we stopped him from experimenting in the colony?"
The queen ant looked at the damage-control team.
And the ant who had asked the question was disappeared the next moment.
The damage-control team knew exactly what they had to do. 😂
Everyone celebrated and thanked Antony.
And the queen ant was the happiest person of all.
Because now Antony had finally done something good...
for the first time.
The End.
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Antony Will Return 🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜🐜
