Loki Should Have Expected Tony To Be A Troublesome Child
He had thought it would have been a brilliant plan at first.
Iron Man had been the key member of the team that always thwarted his plans, he could deal with his brother any day, as he ‘the brute’ relied on his hammer and pure brawn, the Captain he could outsmart when it came to tactics. The Widow was a bit tougher to deal with, and the Hawk he could avoid. The Hulk was easy enough to outmanoeuvre if he saw him coming fast enough.
(His ankle still twinged every time the green rage monster turned up though).
But it was Iron Man that he could not throw off his tail.
The two of them were oh so similar, Stark could understand his plans on a level that no one else could, and so if his plans were to succeed, he needed Stark out of the picture.
Seeing as how the Man of Iron had been put out of commission twice so far due to being de – aged to a point he wasn’t that much of a threat (although he did note even as a child Stark could still outsmart those with lesser intelligence given the recordings he found on the Midgardian’s social media sites), that was the starting point of his brilliant scheme to keep Iron Man from foiling his next attempt at riling up the New Yorkers.
Really, at this point he only attacked for the sheer thrill of irritating his brother, he wasn’t feeling like world domination at all since that was a hassle he rather not face, leading the masses meant no time for causing trouble, and it was oh so rewarding when a scheme worked out just as planned.
However, he really should have taken into account that no matter what age Stark was, he was still a highly intelligent life form that knew just how to piss him off.
-o0o-
The entire team were freaking out when they discovered that Tony had gone missing.
Now, while this was common to some degree, Tony always left a memo or gave some indication that he might run off for a coffee break or he needed some air, but none of them had seen any sort of signs or indications that he was on one of his ‘freedom tangents’, and so of course when they found his lab empty, JARVIS unable to locate his creator . . .
Que the freak – out.
Only Winter seemed to keep himself calm (although on the inside he was silently screaming into the Void), and he did the one thing they really should have done in the first place.
They contacted Dante who was more than happy to locate Tony (they still had no idea how the man had a bigger network than Stark Industries but he did), and promptly informed them with a dead pan expression “Your resident trickster is responsible. And he’s de – aged Tony. But I wouldn’t worry, Loki will probably return him within the next 24 hours.” Before ending the video call.
While Dante’s words reassured them, knowing that Tony was in the hands of Loki . . .
They still panicked.
-o0o-
It had seemed like a good plan at first.
Stark had been working for a good solid 40 hours, and so wasn’t as quick to react when Loki had appeared in his lab.
Knocking the AI out for a few split seconds was easy, as he de –aged the insufferable inventor and disappeared with his cargo, landing in his current lair that he had created a month ago when Stark tracked down his last one, of course the Avengers raided it but he had fled once gathering his belongings.
The moment Stark woke though . . .
Odin’s Beard, the child was irritating!
While he could appreciate Stark’s thirst for knowledge, having an eight year old child asking multiple questions without needing to breathe, rifling through his books, inspecting every nook and cranny of the place, could cause the most calmest of monks to blow their fuse.
However, as Loki had lived with Thor for a brother, he was very close to that fuse snapping, only just.
From what he was aware of Stark’s home life (the newspapers were very informative), he could see a man who grew up neglected by his parents, growing up turning to knowledge rather than a fellow human, using sarcasm to protect himself . . .
He and Stark were very much alike, however where Stark had found support, Loki had found none, all those in Asgard were loyal to Odin and Thor, none cared for a trickster in a court of warriors. All expect his mother, who was now lost due to his carelessness.
Watching the boy sleep (after nearly destroying tome he had stolen from the Asgard archives he had forced the boy into slumber), he wondered how Stark would react knowing the truth behind the attack on Manhattan. From what he had seen from various trips into Stark’s labs (undetected of course), he could see Stark was sceptical about the attack and was trying to find the missing variable.
But since Thor wasn’t exactly the brightest light bulb in the galaxy, Stark was unable to connect the dots.
And now Stark was awake again, may the Norns help him through this battle.
He couldn’t even leave in fear of Stark destroying his belongings!
-o0o-
24 hours after Tony disappeared, Loki burst into the common room, placed a sleeping eight year old Tony in Bucky’s arms, and vanished leaving a wisp of green mist behind him.
Bucky practically cradled Tony in his arms, actually growling at the others who approached trying to see if Tony wasn’t injured (a whole day was the longest Winter had been unaware of his handlers location), so the others backed off while calling Doctor Strange.
The Sorcerer Supreme arrived in minutes, a smirking Dante trailing through the portal behind him (Clint was curious as to why the sentient cloak was partially wrapped around the hackers arm). It took Dante a few minutes to get Winter to calm down and allow Strange to return Tony to his adult form (at this point they should have the Doctor on speed dial).
Tony apparently didn’t remember anything about what happened while he was with Loki, although he mentions lots of dusty books and groans of frustration, but was just glad to be back with the team.