There was a flash of green and then suddenly the Iron Man suit went dead in the sky. Hawkeye announced the fact that the arc reactor was darkened across the comms with a feeling of dread. If the chest was not glowing unless another miracle happened like with the Hulk... Tony Stark was probably dead inside that suit.

If Tony Stark was dead that meant a number of things. Lack of funding mostly considering their main benefactor would soon become six feet under and he had a strong feeling that Pepper would not continue the funding seeing as she was fairly against the whole superhero business in the first place and she strongly disapproved of them all. Except possibly Bruce Banner. Natasha had been approved once until she was ousted as a spy, Pepper no longer held her in the same esteem as she once did. Perhaps it was some kind of feeling of betrayal.

Naturally if Tony was dead it also meant they no longer had a place to live as see section Pepper again. And of course the lack of new upgrades and a team member. Clint felt pretty bummed over the thought of losing the sweet upgrades.

Hulk was bounding towards Iron Man with purpose, Clint had no idea why but the Hulk was pretty set on catching Iron Man whenever he fell. Which happened far too often for a man who was, basically, inside a flying tank. It was a good sign though as the Hulk never bothered with the dead, the absolutely positively dead as a doornail dead. There was a chance Stark had not reached that level of dead yet. Which appeased the odd crushing feeling in his chest which felt like it was being squeezed too tightly.

Something else, something green, reached the suit before Hulk did however and before both the suit and the something green vanished in a flash. Clint had a pretty strong and extremely bad idea who exactly had caught the superhero in a tin can. He could hardly hold back his shudder.

Loki.

The spell had taken hold but he could not just leave without making sure it was all to plan. Magic could be a fickle, volatile thing and it was not always as clear cut as waving a magic wand and poof. Magic did as it wanted, you could guide it but it could (often more than not) garner unexpected results if not checked upon. Especially if it was a rush job and more than a simple illusion. Magic had an almost sentience that swords and sticks did not.

Besides he wanted to gloat, stand over the new form of the so called Iron Man and let Thor and his little playground club see what he could do. He removed the armour with a swish of his wrist; it was easy enough to do whilst it was powered down as it may have well been a heap of scrap metal. A very different story to when it was powered up especially accompanied by the thing in Anthony's chest which provided an almost protection from his skills like water running off a duck's back. Of course he was not completely protected as evidenced by the spell sticking.

It had worked. But was he really meant to look that small? For the age he was, the equivalent aged Asgardian was far larger and sturdier. Was it a Midgardian thing to look that fragile and tiny? Perhaps it was merely an Anthony Stark thing considering that he had never been a tall man. He resisted the urge to poke the unconscious child. Spells like these often rendered the holder unconscious for a while; it was easier for the shift when the mind was not whirling.

He was probably lingering for longer than he should but he had never really had the chance to examine a Midgardian child before. They were different. Did all children have that much wild hair? He had never really paid much attention to the children of Midgard whilst destroying their cities; if he was honest he had never really spent time with children in Asgard either.

Wasn't Anthony supposed to have made a circuit board at this age (Loki was nothing if not prepared, he does his research), how was one supposed to build anything with such small stumpy hands? Not used to denying himself he decided to prod such a small hand with a finger. He startled slightly when instinctively the small hand curled around his finger. It was a strange feeling. He did not really want to remove the hand.

Could he really trust the brutish, uncouth Avengers around such a delicate looking being? Especially that green beast, remembering how he felt swung around like a ragdoll and picturing it doing the same to this tiny being was not the pleasantest of thoughts. With a small almost defeated sigh he found that he had a niggling annoyance of a soft spot for children. He lifted the child, careful not to remove the grip around his finger, a cradle felt the natural way to hold the miniature Anthony with his full head of hair resting in the crook of his elbow.

Perhaps he could raise a little minion? He had originally just planned to trip the Avengers up by the lack of the Iron Man's input and forcing them to care for the small being. His plans just changed.

"Loki!" The bellow could only mean one person. Loki looked up in mild annoyance.

"I've not long got him to sleep, don't wake him up. Brother." Loki smirked as predictably his brother and his team faltered at his words. Thor was more cautious in his approach, well as cautious as the brute could ever be.

"Loki, what have you done?" Thor asked reproaching.

"Isn't Anthony looking extra cute today?" Loki taunted tilting his arms to showcase the 'new and improved' Anthony Stark. Loki was pleased to see that even the famed Black Widow could not quite keep the admonishment from her face. The Hulk had a look of confusion on his big green, dumb face which matched Thor's fairly well.

"You twisted bag of cats!" Clint spat out.

"Clint, you flatter me." Loki sneered at the archer; Barton flinched at the familiarity in the use of his name.

"What are you planning now." The Captain muttered oh so accusingly and as if he had any authority over Gods.

"Probably pasta for his lunch, a growing boy has got to eat. Maybe I'll get the Avenger shaped ones for a delicious twist of irony."

He almost wished he hadn't shrunken the Man of Iron at seeing their faces; at least Anthony Stark would have appreciated and responded to that humour rather than remained dour-faced bores.

"Very well, Ta-ta for now." Loki stated with his usual air of indifference before he was gone in a series of green sparkles as he was nothing if not dramatic.