Tony stood at the head of the conference table in his boardroom. Pepper sat to his right, studiously taking notes - about what Tony wasn't sure as, so far, the meeting had been filled with nothing but silence.
Tony looked around the table at the people who, just a few short hours ago, had been classed as Earth's mightiest heroes. Steve sat with his back to the window that filled up one half of the room; his short, dark-blonde hair was slightly mussed as though he had been running his hands through it all night. His blue eyes looked tired and the light bags under them looked out of place on his little-boy face. The disgruntled pout and slightly furrowed brow had been an almost permanent fixture on his face since the transformation had happened.
Next to the young captain a tiny black combat boot was propped up on the table. A mop of wavy, red hair and a pair of startling green eyes was all Tony could make out of the mini assassin.
Bruce sat directly opposite to Tony with his hands folded, but fidgeting, upon the table. Unlike the night before, Bruce had made some effort to tame his hair into a more respectable style. He chewed his lip nervously, waiting for Tony to start talking.
Finally, Tony looked to Clint and Thor who were sitting next to Pepper. Clint had spiked his mousy brown hair in to a mohawk making him look, to Tony, like an extra in an 80's coming-of-age movie. His Shield-issued uniform looked little more than a Hallowe'en costume on his small frame.
Thor had pulled his hair back into a ponytail; his eyes were downcast, one hand firmly grasping Mjolnir, which looked ridiculously large in his now-small fist.
Tony cleared his throat, glanced at Pepper for reassurance, and jumped straight in.
"Listen up, kids! Clearly, we have a little problem on our hands and, until we get this mess sorted out, you're all officially grounded". Tony was glad to see his joke brought forth more smiles than scowls. He smiled back at his comrades, trying hard to claw down the panic that was wrapping tightly around his chest. How in the seven hells am I supposed to fix this?
"Tony, if I may?" It was strange to hear such a young boy sounding so authoritative. Tony took a seat, gesturing for Steve to go ahead and say what was on his mind.
"I appreciate that like this", he gestured to his new, compact stature, "we don't pose much of a threat to Loki, but we can't just sit on our asses –"
"Language" cut in Clint with an impish grin on his face. Steve ignored the archer completely.
"- and let him wreak havoc; and we certainly can't expect others to step into our shoes. We may not be able to go up against him physically but –"
"Can't we?"
This time Steve did pause, glancing to his left at the source of the interruption.
"If we want to be listened to then we sit properly at the table, young lady".
Tony was treated to an eyeroll from Natasha, but the combat boot slid off the table and she sat a little straighter in her chair. Even with her adjusted position, however, her chin still barely reached above the tabletop.
"You think we could fight him like this?" Steve was incredulous, looking about at his colleagues for support. "We barely survived his army when we were firing on all cylinders."
Natasha shrugged a tiny shoulder.
"I don't think we need to take him on exactly as we are".
She shrugged again and looked disinterestedly around the room.
"Care to share with the class, Red? Or should we play a game of 20 questions? … and don't you roll your eyes at me, young lady!"
"Call me 'young lady' one more time, Stark; I dare you".
Tony visibly gulped and sat back quietly in his chair, under no illusions that Natasha's new kindergarten physique took nothing away from her deadly nature.
"But as to sharing," she finally continued. "I think we could use your Ultron design… but maybe modify some of the suits so we can be in them, and we could each control a certain unit of them".
Tony stared, dumbfounded, at the tiny girl in front of him; her green eyes stared back unwaveringly.
"How…? When…? What...?" Tony looked to Bruce and Pepper looking for any sign that either of them had revealed his secrets to the spy; however, both looked as shocked as him at Nat's words. He turned back to Natasha and was met with her unflinching gaze.
"You've been snooping", he finally got out, pointing an accusing finger in her direction. The redhead scoffed at him.
"Please, Tony," she drawled, a slight smirk on her rosebud lips, "it's my job to snoop".
Tony found it difficult to argue with that, but it still rankled him, more than he'd ever let on, that someone he now considered a friend could spy on him. He had considered his lab his safe haven but now he wasn't so sure. Is she still reporting on me to Fury?
"Don't worry," she added softly, "I'm not feeding info back to anyone, not even Nick". Great, so she's a mind-reader now too.
"What is this Ultron?" asked Thor, speaking for the first time since Loki had weaved his magic spell.
Tony sighed, rubbing his tired eyes and wondering how best to present his master plan. He had not been prepared to share this with everyone just yet; he was unsure how they would react to such a bold undertaking.
"Ultron is a programme I have been working on since New York, with a little help from my good friend, Bruce".
Bruce gave a shy, clipped smile as he avoided the curious gazes of his teammates.
"We need to protect the earth from whatever the hell is out there," he pointed skyward, although he was sure everyone had understood where he meant, " but we're too few, and there are already so many threats here that are surrounding us; there's no way we can do the job we're here to do without some help. So," he paused, looking at the young expectant faces before him, "I've created a programme that could mobilise a suit of armour around the whole world, which could neutralise any threat before it even shows up on our radars".
A stunned silence followed this announcement.
"And…that would actually work? How would you control them?" this from the archer whose only interactions with technological advances, as far as Tony had witnessed, involved exploding arrows.
"I wouldn't control them directly," Tony explained patiently, "the programme would run itself, kind of like Jarvis, and the suits would be coded to respond appropriately to threats and have an almost hive functionality so that they could work together instinctually as a unit…a little like us".
"Are they ready?" asked Steve. Tony took a moment to answer; he had been sure that Steve would be the biggest nay-sayer about his plan, which is maybe why he'd never shared his ideas with the group before.
"Not quite," he admitted. "At least they're not ready to go off-planet yet. Plus, I need some more time to work on their instincts; they don't quite understand how to recognise non-violent threats just yet. But they can work together, and I can override them to follow my commands".
His comrades looked suitably impressed, which help tend to Tony's ego a little.
"And you can get us suited up too, yes?" Tony was almost awed at the tiny redhead's flawless ability to still radiate such a fearless aura, even though she looked like a six-year-old.
"Yes", Tony acquiesced, reluctantly, "but it's going to take time. Believe it or not, I hadn't planned on sending a bunch of kids out to fight crime, so none of my suits would be appropriate for any of you just yet. I'll need to get your new measurements, for a start, and I'll need to re-programme some of the bots to respond to each of your commands, and see how I can get you to work as one with a suit that'll be two foot taller than you".
He looked at them all, feeling a little sadness in his heart. Although he knew they were mentally the same people they had been last night, their little childish faces were making him feel like a monster sending kids off to fight a war.
"Right", Tony clapped his hands, making sure that he had everyone's attention, "if we're really going to do this then we need to get to work. Pepper, if you wouldn't mind being my glamorous assistant; we have a long few days ahead of us"
"First things first," said Pepper as she gracefully stood from the table. "Shopping!"
Tony looked alarmed at her unexpected announcement.
"Pep, I really think we have more pressing things to attend to, don't you?!"
Pepper rolled her eyes good naturedly at her genius partner.
"The only clothes that have shrunken to kiddy size are the ones they were wearing when they transformed. They can't be walking around in dirty clothes all the time, especially when we don't know whether we can actually turn them back". She finished with an apologetic smile to the group, who looked more than a little perturbed with the idea of being stuck as children forever.
Pepper gathered her things and left the boardroom, promising to be back as soon as she could. The others all turned to look back at Tony expectantly.
"Well" boomed Thor, looking happier than he had all day, "spot of lunch, anyone?"
Tony sighed resignedly.
"Jarvis," he called as he started to follow Pepper out of the boardroom, "get some burgers sent up to the lab for us please".
"Of course, Mr Stark".
A chorus of childish cheers followed Tony of out the door, and he allowed himself a small smile at the sound.