Tony had a big mouth. It was a universally acknowledged fact. He was a renowned smartass and could talk anyone's ear off if they let him go on for long enough with interrupting him - though, let's be honest, no one interrupts Tony Stark.
This extended to supervillains. Apparently, even they had their limits before Iron Man's snark-filled taunts tipped them over the edge.
It shouldn't have been surprising. It really shouldn't have. They should have been prepared for something like this ages ago, but honestly, the rest of the team had become acclimated to the engineer's incessant ramblings and so tuned them out unless it was something relating to the situation. Which, really, was why no one noticed at first that Tony's digs at the sorcerer they were fighting had hyped him up into a green whirlstorm of rage - right at the same time that thunder shook the skies and a sharp blue bolt of lightning preceded Thor as he landed in front of the now-crumpled-and-slightly-smoking sorcerer.
It wasn't entirely their fault that they missed the zap of blue light that had struck their friend only milliseconds before the sorcerer's fall.
Steve breathed a sigh of relief at the Asgardian's timely appearance - for all their powers, villains with magic at their disposal were generally a tad harder to eliminate without the help of Thor. He approached the Thunderer and clapped a solid hand to his shoulder. "Nice timing."
Thor nodded solemnly. "I would have arrived sooner had he not clouded his presence with a screen of magic," he said, gesturing at the sorcerer who was still collapsed on the floor and didn't look like he was going to be moving any time soon.
"It's fine. I think we were handling it as well as we could, though I don't know how much longer we would have lasted." Steve looked around and spotted Barton helping Romanoff out of the rubble of a broken wall where she'd been flung into a few moments before. The agents then made their way over, looking not too bad considering.
He realised who was missing when the quiet hit him - the same time that Clint glanced around and asked, "Where's Stark?"
"He was right... here..." Steve frowned at the space where he knew he'd seen Iron Man last, only for his eyes to drop down to the ground and then widen in shock.
Behind him, someone groaned. "Oh god..."
-x-
Tony groaned when the fog in his head started to recede. His whole body was aching, muscles throbbing like the time the Hulk had accidentally knocked him into the Statue of Liberty. Only this time it felt more like he'd simultaneously pulled all his muscles and moving them at the moment was so out of the question.
He settled for just squinting his eyes open for now. His head wasn't really pounding like he'd expected, so the light didn't affect him - no concussion then. He lay there, slightly dazed and very achy, staring around him. Despite the lack of complete clarity in his thoughts, he frowned at what he saw. Something was off. Everything looked... weird. Disproportionate. Like he was looking up at the buildings from several stories below ground level. Okay, they were skyscrapers, but surely they weren't that tall?
Puzzled, Tony worked to get his arms under him so he could lean on his elbows and see properly. His biceps shook with the weight but he ignored it. The first thing he realised was that the street was a hell of a lot bigger than it had been. Then he heard his name being called out hesitantly by a familiar voice that seemed, somehow, too loud. Eyebrows furrowed, Tony turned his head in the direction of his teammates and yelped in shock, his arms collapsing from the strain as he tried to jump up. He rolled onto his side, breathing heavily, and slowly stared around him. Cap was the closest, having been the one to call him, and... okay, Tony knew the guy was huge (what with the super soldier serum and all) but he was not that big.
Neither were Clint, Natasha, or Thor, for that matter.
Tony glanced down at himself. He was still wearing the Iron Man suit. His limbs were intact. His head was fine. His goddamn eyes were fine, too.
Seemed like the only thing that wasn't was his size.
Tony fell back onto his back with a curse and stared up at the sky - the only thing around him that didn't look horribly large. "Why," he groaned.
Not surprisingly, the sky didn't answer.
-x-
Steve had prided himself on having adapted to the quirks of this new life, but a whole lifetime's worth of preparation could not have set him for something like this. There had never been a moment in his entire life (which, fine, was barely twenty-five years despite his 70-odd-year slumber – but this was a whole new century, for goodness' sake) where he had been so unprepared like this one.
He didn't quite know how to handle this, bar standing there and gaping at his now 6-inch-short teammate in a stunned manner.
"What… What just happened?" he said faintly. He was dimly aware of Clint moving forward a few steps until he was level with Steve, also staring in disbelief at the small red-clad figure lying on the pavement.
Thor's booming voice startled him out of his daze. "It appears the Man of Iron has been struck by the sorcerer's hand and become minuscule in size."
"You think?" Clint muttered.
"Is he at least conscious?" Natasha asked from behind them as she put away her phone, having called up SHIELD to take away the sorcerer.
Steve opened his mouth but snapped it shut as their teammate sat up and, slowly, got to his feet. Tony glared up at them, as if daring them to say something, and snapped a peevish "Unfortunately, yeah." His voice was a bit higher than it would normally be, but otherwise he seemed fine – albeit the obvious.
Steve's mouth set into a thin line. He was not going to laugh. Not only because Tony looked like he might- no, scratch that- he most definitely would blast his now-tiny repulsors right into his eyes if he did, but because he was team captain, god dammit. He had to get a handle on this situation and laughing would not help.
Clint, on the other hand, had no such qualms and he burst out laughing immediately. Tony scowled at him (Steve had a moment to be relieved that the Iron Man suit could not shoot out of the eyes) before shooting up on his thrusters, flying past Barton and simultaneously zapping him with a short close blast at his right knee.
Needless to say, Clint wasn't laughing anymore.
Steve, still feeling rather lost and helpless, trailed along with the rest of the team as they moved back to their quinjet.
It was a long, tense ride back to Stark Tower; definitely not helped by Thor plucking a very-much-sulking Tony out of the air where he was hovering (probably so he didn't feel so inadequate in size compared to them) and holding him up to examine him, claiming almost delightfully, "This sorcery is reminiscent of my brother's tricks from when we were much younger! I have not encountered such magic in years."
"Amazing," Tony said flatly, his arms crossed and tone tense, even as his legs dangled beneath him almost pathetically. "Put me down, Thor, or I will shoot you."
Thor didn't seem put-out at all. Steve considered intervening, but decided against it after a couple seconds' worth of internal debate. Thor could handle himself and Steve wasn't entirely sure he could deal with a sulking/angry miniature Tony Stark right now. He may or may not be still wrapping his head around certain things. He was also a little busy being glad that Barton was in the pilot's seat and not back there with them to goad Tony into blasting somewhere a bit more painful than his knee.
"Fear not, Friend Stark," Thor was now saying, oblivious to the death glares he was getting. "The effects of such spells tend to wear off given time." Steve wasn't the only one to sigh in relief at this. Unfortunately, Thor didn't stop there. "Unless, of course, the sorcerer's intent was one of permanence."
The string of curses emitting from Tony's mouth would have probably been a lot more scandalizing had his voice not risen even higher in his frustration. Rather, it was just a little bit endearing.
Steve thought now would be a good time to prevent Thor's eyes being fried off, and he said hastily, "It might not have been, but he's in SHIELD's hands now in any case. I'm sure we can get him to reverse it."
Tony scoffed, though he did look slightly less irritated. Steve sighed again and leaned back in his seat, running a hand through his short hair wearily.
It was going to be a long day.
A/N: I fully intended to write this idea as a long one-shot, but, well, I kinda have scattered ideas and situations to put them in that might not all fit together in a one-shot.
Or, I'm a little bit too lazy to write the whole story up in one and chapters are funner. xP
Anyway. This story is dedicated to my best friend Renae who inadvertently gave me the idea after a discussion we had about certain awesome/badass/adorable characters/people who are also adorably short. (Point in case: Tony Stark/RDJ. *flails*) And then I quite savagely got ambushed by bunnies who demanded to know what would happen if our very favourite awesome short Avenger went miniature.
Aaaaand here's the result. Or the beginning of it, anyway. Tiny!Tony. *amused* I almost feel bad for putting him in this situation. Heavy emphasis on the almost. xD
Would love to get some feedback! Especially on the characters - I'm getting a feel for Steve here, haven't written his point of view before. Also, first time writing Thor so. Hope it's not shabby as a first attempt. Review and I will let you play with tiny!Tony because reviews are amazing and inspiring things. They tend to guilt-trip me into updating things when I go a while without writing anything because I'm generally just a lazy person (I know, it's horrible.) and also serve as ego-boosters but, ah, let's not go there, hey?
Right, I'm off. :) Cheers, fellas~
izzy.