Loki floated, suspended in the dark as the numbers, digits and images floated around, whizzing through the void. Anthony had gone to sleep long ago, but Loki found himself incapable. Not that he wasn't tired, he literally did not know how to sleep in this new, unfamiliar form. Although he had no body, he could still move. Not exactly, but he could send signals to his body to move. It didn't do anything good, and typically created havoc on one of the screens showing different rooms. He still had next to no idea what was going on, but at least he wasn't alone. Anthony seemed a nice enough mortal, despite the fact that Loki had apparently tried to take over his realm. And Thor would be here soon.
Loki glanced around at the floating images. They all seemed to be of the same buildings, just different rooms, or different angles on the same room. For instance, there were about seven different views of the entry room, on the lowest floor of the building, but only three views of Anthony's bedroom. Was his new body a building? That seemed to be the most logical explanation, despite the fact that it made absolutely no sense at all.
Where to go from here? Loki had always had a plan. Here, though, he didn't even know what in the nine realms was going on. Where he was, what had happened, it was a mystery to him. All he could do was sit around and wait for the morning.
It was extremely boring, in… wherever he was. Tony had said he was an AI, or Artificial Intelligence. What was that? Just as soon as he thought that, a stream of information appeared before his eyes, giving him the definition of "artificial intelligence". Apparently, this strange form consisted entirely of Anthony's programming. Strings of numbers and letters that told different mechanical functions what to do. This is what Loki had been rendered to. Loki, who was once the prince of Asgard, was now nothing more than a creation of a mortal. A very kind mortal, to be sure, but it was still a bit degrading, nevertheless. A bit being the understatement of the century.
Where had the information come from? How did he suddenly know this? Just as quickly, the answer came to him: Internet.
What was "internet"? Again, the stream of information appeared before him. He decided to look through those texts later. He had experiments to do. Anthony had very obviously created his AI to be a servant to him, and it was the least he could do to, at the bare minimum, be able to help the man. Honestly, he was being a bit more of a hinderance than anything else. Anthony, not only had no mechanical servant to help him, in its' place, he had an over-emotional, weak, argr failure of a prince to take care of, instead. Loki was determined to learn how to manage his new body, so as to be useful for something, anything. Perhaps, he and Anthony could be friends, despite his invading the realm.
Taking a deep breath, or, at least, the equivalent, since breathing didn't exactly work the same way in this body, he turned his attention to the window displaying the same room he had awoken in. It was filled with what appeared to be suits of armor, smaller pieces of the same armor, blueprints, and a large array of strange contraptions Loki didn't understand the purpose of, but, somehow, felt he could control, at least to some extent. The light had been manually turned off by the tower's master, but Loki felt, maybe, he could turn them back on. If what Anthony had said about Loki being in the "Main Frame of the tower" meant what he thought it did.
Focusing his energy on the bulbs that had produced light, when the room had been illuminated… did nothing. There were small cords running from them to the switch on the walls, most likely as a form of power. The switch within the walls ran to an enormous behemoth of a machine, on the highest floor. Loki hadn't noticed it, before, but now, it was hard to ignore. It hummed softly, emitting a soft blue light, and it practically dripped power. So, this is was the source of energy for the tower. Interesting. Loki wondered if he could survive without its' being running. Perhaps he could retreat into the small, foldable machine he'd awoken in, in such a circumstance. It hadn't appeared to be needing any outside source of power.
Loki shook himself, and returned to the lights of the room. He mustn't get distracted. There was too much to learn, and too little time to do it in. This time, he focused on the switch, and, to his great delight, it flipped upward, flooding the room with light.
"Splendid." Loki whispered to himself, his voice echoing in his ears. A similar thought pattern turned the lights off, again. Well, that was one motion saved. Anthony would no longer have to touch a switch on the wall when he walked in and out of a room. Wonderful, Loki. So helpful. Not. If only he knew what kind of things Anthony expected him to be able to do, he could practice them. He didn't know what Anthony wanted, so he didn't know what was in his capabilities to do.
He'd mentioned something about Jarvis being the one who sent summons to Asgard for Thor to return to Midgard, but… hadn't told Loki how. The suit of armor Anthony had been working on rested on the table of the same room. Perhaps he wanted Loki to work with that? Maybe he was only doing it, himself, because there was no mechanical servant to do it for him?
Sadly, Loki had no body. Therefore, he had no idea how he was supposed to work on something like that. Unless he could inhabit one of the suits of armor… Well, perhaps he could. Focusing on the helmet, a part of his consciousness slipped inside the armor. It was almost like having a body, again, except for the fact that only a tiny fragment of his mind was inside the suit. Tentatively, and extremely nervous about breaking things, he clumped the suit of armor forward, gazing through its mechanical eyes at the other suit before him.
Why… he knew what Anthony was doing, here! He knew what he was supposed to be doing! It was such an amazing feeling to know exactly how to help… He grabbed the chair on wheels, and immediately set to work. He didn't notice when the sun came up, when Tony awoke, long after that, or when he wandered down into the lab, only to find one of his suits hard at work fixing another one of… his suits.
"What the heck?" Tony breathed. "My suit's gone nuts!"
The suit glanced up. "Oh! Good morn, Anthony, I didn't… notice… you were awake, I'm sorry. I don't seem to be fatiguing… I'm rambling again, aren't I…"
"Oh, right…" He had a crazy norse deity for an AI. "Forgot you… were around. Sleep well?'
"Um…" Loki stood up. "I didn't. I don't know how."
Tony mentally smacked himself. "What were you doing with my suits?"
The suit glanced down, then back up at the engineer. "I thought you wanted me to… work on them, or something? I don't know… Did I do wrong?"
Tony brushed past him, looking at the vambrace Loki'd been fiddling with. "Damn…" He did a double-take. "What in the world?"
"Is it that bad?" Loki sounded extremely defeated.
"No, it's…" Tony sat down, turning it over in his hand. Loki'd reversed the polarity of the magnets, allowing for a much more efficient conjunction of the elbow joint. That, and he'd put some sort of doo-dad in the wrist.
"Worse?" The suit fiddled with its fingers nervously. "I'm sorry, I should've waited for your permission, I should've…"
"What is this?" Tony held up the contraption.
"Oh, dear…" Loki sighed. "I wondered why you didn't have any of them about…"
Tony raised an eyebrow. "Purpose? Of the gadget?"
"Oh. Yes." Loki fidgeted. "It's a widigfried."
"Windigo?" Tony shook his head. "What does it do?"
Loki stepped back a little. "It just… It…"
"What?!" Tony was getting exasperated. "Dude, spit it out!"
"It's an implantation for if one were ever to use the suit in battle. It will repair the piece it has been inserted in automatically, over the course of several hours using small… er… robots, manufactured inside it." Loki blurted.
"How small?" Tony gasped, turning it over in his hands.
"You can't see them." Loki whispered.
"Nanotech…" Tony whispered in awe. "You implanted nanotech into my suit."
"I'm sorry." Loki repeated in a soft voice. "I won't do it again."
Tony replaced the device as he had found it in the wrist. "Are you kidding? I want one of these in all my suits!"
"I didn't mean…" Loki stopped. "Really?"
"These are brilliant." Tony continued. "Geez, and they call me the genius!"
"You… I… what?" Loki stammered.
Tony looked up at his suit. "Excellent. I can't think of a better word than excellent. Thank you, Rudolph, I owe you one. Big time, that's… Excellent."
Loki was silent. "So… you're not mad?"
"Mad? Buddy, I'm thrilled!" Tony shook his head in awe, staring down at the… whatever Loki had called it. "Nanotech… God, why didn't I think of that?"
Again, silence. Loki seemed at a loss for words, but he returned the suit to its display.
"Well?" Tony asked.
"What do you wish for me to do?" Loki returned.
"How do you make them? I'm putting one in every one of my suits!" Tony rubbed his hands together gleefully.
"You really like them?" Loki gasped. "You weren't just bluffing?"
"Of course!" Tony laughed. "They're great!"
"Norns…" Tony could practically see Loki's flattered smile. "Thank you, Anthony! Nobody's ever… liked the things that I do, before."
"Never?" Tony was incredulous. "You're exaggerating, right?"
"Perhaps a little." Loki admitted. "In truth, my Mother is always pleased when I learn something new, or demonstrate my… capabilities, but… well, it is nice to hear it from someone else's mouth for a change."
Tony shook his head. "Wait, so, your mom is the only one in Asgard who appreciates your obvious genius?"
"Genius?" Loki giggled as the room heated up, again. "Well, now, I… I wouldn't go that far…"
He was obviously very unused to compliments, which blew Tony's mind. How could everybody in the entire planet, besides his mom, of course, not see that this guy had serious brains? "Bambi, you made a device that would create other robots to… just heal my suit, entirely from scratch, may I add, with the stuff in my lab which is probably just barely more advanced than a wheel to you… Holy crap! That's like… on the same level of smarts as building an Iron Man suit from the materials needed to make a Jericho missile!"
"It's nothing, really…" The room got even hotter. "I'm sure you'd have thought of it. I just… got here first?"
Tony glanced down at the vambrace. "Maybe I would've, in about three years."
Loki was quiet for a while, as Tony fanned himself with his hand. "Seriously, good work, Loki."
"I do… I do good work?" Loki laughed hopefully. "You're… you're jesting, surely… Thank you, Anthony. I… Thank you."
"Yep!" Anthony grinned. "Now! How do you make more?"
The room cooled down a bit as Loki spoke up, a bit proudly. "I, erm… I took the liberty of… I believe the term is… 'printing'? I did that for the instructions, and they're next to your printer machine."
Tony applauded, impressed. "Nice work, Rudolph! Just think: yesterday, you didn't even know how to turn the thermostat down! You're pretty sharp, you know that?"
"Er… thank you?" Loki blushed again, but quickly turned down the thermostat, now aware of what that did in the rooms.
Tony gleefully started work on the other wendigoes, (what they had agreed to call them, as Tony could never remember their real names) and Loki was honestly a lot of help. Tony always talked while he worked, he explained to Loki, and it was nice to have someone to talk to besides a literal robot.
"I once had a three-hour long conversation with a water cooler." Tony smirked. "So, it's nice having someone who can actually listen."
"I'm glad to be of service." Loki answered promptly, eagerly, in fact.
And he really was. With gentle promptings from the trickster, Tony had seven of the gadgets done by lunch time. Working with Loki was honestly a lot of fun, and it had been a while since he'd had intelligent conversation, since Bruce disappeared in the Quinjet. By the time Tony stopped for a lunch break, he was thoroughly convinced. Loki meant no ill will towards Earth, any longer. He really had forgotten everything, and all that was left of Loki was a slightly bewildered, terrifyingly smart teenage boy, desperate to please.
"Excuse me, Anthony?" Said teenage boy spoke up as Tony was looking through the fridge for something to eat for lunch.
"Yep?"
"There's someone on the lowest floor… lobby, I believe. He wishes to come up in the lift, and speak with you." Loki explained hesitantly. "I… didn't want to speak, and give myself away, since you apparently know me, and I don't know how pleased your friends would be, to hear I'm… at large, so to speak. He thinks you haven't replaced your old system, he called it Jarvis. I was wondering… should I allow him up?"
"Do you recognize him?" Tony wondered.
The Trickster hesitated. "It's strange, I do. I just… I don't know from where. It was the same with you, actually, when I first saw you. Perhaps it's my old memories that I lost, bleeding through."
Tony finally decided to eat more leftover pizza, and pulled it out, kicking the door shut, behind him. "Can you show me him?"
"Of course." Loki quickly said, but then hesitated. "How?"
"With a hologram." Tony prompted. "Like an illusion. Just give me the live feed for the room he's in?"
"Um… give me a minute…" Loki murmured. "I think… Yes, there it is."
The hologram appeared beside Tony's head, a little closer than he'd like, but he supposed it was the first time Loki had done it, so he had to give him some credit.
The picture on the screen… depicted none other than Captain Steve Rogers.
TheOnlyHuman.