Tony will blame it on the agents working in the lab that day. Jane will blame it on the carelessness of a particular person. Loki, being the particular person, will blame it on Tony. Who is right doesn't matter. The three of them had a situation on their hands. Well, the latter two did; Tony was merely dragged into it by them.
"This is as much as your fault as anybody's," Jane hissed at the billionaire gawking at her. "You are taking responsibility, too, and would you stop staring?" She crossed her arms over her chest, turning sideways, and let out a harsh sigh. "It's bad enough this happened. Your staring isn't helping at all."
Tony shut his mouth slowly and swallowed hard as he assessed the two individuals that used to be Dr. Jane Foster and Loki of Asgard. Jane Foster was an esteemed astrophysicist who gained his respect as she worked to build her own portable Bi-Frost. Loki was an Asgardian. That was the only thing he had going for him. Otherwise he was a fallen prince who thought he could tangle with Earth's mightiest heroes and had his butt handed to him with a side of fries. Now they weren't Dr. Jane Foster and Loki of Asgard. Now they were shorter. Jane wasn't much shorter, Tony thought with a smirk, but that was beside the point. Now the two were definitely not the right size… or age for that matter.
"What do you plan on doing to change us back, mortal?" Loki, or the short stack that was supposed to be Loki, spat.
Tony glared at him. He was Loki alright – same black hair, albeit shorter; same green eyes; same narrow, pale face. The only difference was that he was now smaller and his frame had shrunken; barely any muscle definition – if there was any before, there definitely wasn't any now. "This isn't exactly my fault, Reindeer Games." For some reason now that Loki looked younger, the nickname didn't give him the same sense of amusement it used to. Now it felt empty, almost forced. Loki didn't look like Loki – he looked like the lovechild of Loki. Tony narrowed his eyes, really studying him now. Who would the mother of that be?
"Tony, this isn't the time to place blame."
He looked over to the once renowned astrophysicist turned awkward. And that was the only word for it. Loki, though barely, still looked like himself. Jane on the other hand was close to unrecognizable. Hair that was usually neat and straight, now shot out in a mess of tangles, and was in desperate need of a brush. Set a bit down her nose were a big pair of round glasses that obscured most of her face. Tony noticed she barely opened her mouth when she spoke, but when she did he would see flashes of silver.
Her confidence was there, but it was a sliver of what it once was. Where she used to radiate self-assurance, now she hunched over, curling inward as if she meant to close in on herself.
"This is a perfect time to place blame," Loki muttered. "Let's not forget who was in the lab with the Tesseract."
Jane shot daggers into the side of his head. "Are you seriously blaming this on me? Me? I was doing my job and then you, you egoistical maniac, came into my lab-"
Her words were cut off in a gasp as cold fingers gripped her throat in a binding vice. Loki's arm had shot out and now his eyes bore into hers menacingly. "I may not be the same strength as before," he hissed through clenched teeth. "but I can still crush your windpipe like a twig if you don't shut your mouth."
"Hey!" Tony grabbed Loki's shoulder and shoved him aside, stepping protectively in front of Jane. "Keep your hands to yourself. Just because you reverted into an even bigger whiny, irrationally emotional brat doesn't mean you can go around strangling girls that hurt your feelings." He said the last few words especially mockingly as he stared down the god. Actually, he stared up – Loki, though shorter, still had a few inches on the short billionaire.
Loki broke eye contact first. His attention was drawn to a tiny gasp behind Tony. He watched Jane as she touched her neck delicately, her face tense with fear. His eyes flickered back to Tony. The man was glaring. He sighed. This wasn't getting him anywhere closer to becoming the right age. "I'll behave." He said that, yet he couldn't help the large grin and playful tone of his words, making them seem insincere. Not that they weren't; he only wanted to get through this awkward situation faster.
Tony pulled back minutely, still on high alert. "How did this happen?" he mumbled under his breath.
/
/
The blue cube hadn't shown any signs of activity for days. Jane held back a groan as she watched the inactive cube resting placidly, carelessly, mockingly on its pedestal. Her scientific dream. A cube that could do anything. Or so she was told. Now she had to figure out all the ins and outs that made it so it could accomplish such feats. The only problem – the start to many more – was that it decided to remain stoic. Just her luck – S.H.I.E.L.D. finally gave her the green light for studying the scientific find of the century, the millennium, and it decided to shut her out. Jane smiled a bit at that. The cube couldn't shut her out; it's not as if it was sentient. She furrowed her brow. That may not be entirely true. As she recalled, the cube reacted more when in the presence of Asgardians. Thor had told her that the Tesseract was from Asgard, which would explain why it seemed to become more energetic when with people from there. Too bad Thor wasn't around – Jane wasn't sure where he went; she hadn't seen him all day.
She bit back her frustrations and focused more on the data from earlier readings. The data didn't lie; the cube's energy levels spiked whenever an Asgardian was near. Jane tried not to focus too much on just who that Asgardian was or the fact that he was a mere few doors down. Not really 'a few doors,' but he was in the proximity and that alone raised the hair on her neck. She vaguely wondered if he was too busy to help her with her data by standing near the cube, but that idea was immediately squashed. It not only frightened her, it was all around a bad idea to have him anywhere near the cube. Even if he did cause it to react. Thor could get it to react, too. But, where was he? Jane swiveled her neck to scan the lab as if he would appear at any minute. Nope. She went back to intently studying the cube.
/
/
Loki sat on the bed provided in his 'cell' as his eyes skimmed his surroundings once more. This glass containment was similar to his previous one, but there were alterations that, though unnoticeable to a mortal eye, he could pick out easily. The floors were reinforced with stronger metal alloys. Running along the edges were bolts the size of a mortal fist and the glass was substantially thicker. He almost laughed at the foolishness in it all; nothing the mortals created could truly hold him – if he remained prisoner it was because he chose to. The only restraint holding him from shattering the glass and stepping out free was the air lock resting precariously below him like a slumbering troll he was hesitant to awaken. Tiresome was the only way to describe the situation. S.H.I.E.L.D. was relocating him and the Tesseract while they studied it, and someone's harebrained idea was to transfer both of them on the same helicarrier. If Loki didn't know better, he would have thought it was his own scheme in the making. Unfortunately, he couldn't take credit for this. Somewhere there was an idiot spewing ruinous plans that worked in Loki's favor. He would have to thank that idiot.
Gratitude would have to wait. For now he had to escape from this glass box without disturbing the slumbering burden beneath him. That was when things became tricky; he was entirely unsure how to begin. Maybe he could trick Thor into opening the door. A smirk lit his face as he remembered Thor falling for a similar trick the previous time he was in a glass container. How many times could he get Thor to fall for that? No. That wouldn't work this time. The trick had been done. If he played it again, he would lose his advantage of unpredictability. Something else, there had to be something else he could use to escape. Once freed, he'd make his way to the lab where he knew scientists were busy studying the many secrets they'd never get from the Tesseract, and easily pluck it from them like candy from babies. Then he would… then he would…
Loki sat up a bit straighter. What would he do? Grab the Tesseract and then? What? He stilled as he sorted through the possibilities. There were too many. He didn't exactly have a follow-through plan, but he could work out details after obtaining the Tesseract. Right now he had to find the way out of his confinement. An oddity caught his attention. He turned his head to see what it was. A smile spread across his face. One of the bolts was half a centimeter out of place. He had suspicion that his idiot was also in charge of creating his prison.
/
/
Jane was on her computer, looking over the data, when the door slid open. She looked up, but no one was in the entrance. It closed silently. She didn't think too much of it. Chalked it up to her mind playing tricks on her after being cooped up for so long. There have been similar moments of uncertainty as she studied the Cube. Once she was so entranced in her work, she nearly jabbed a fellow scientist's – Robert's? – throat out when he startled her. Turning back to her computer, she continued scanning over the files. Again she was leafing through the dates from when Loki traveled through the Cube into their world. She couldn't focus. Something about the air felt wrong. The room suddenly felt smaller, more cramped even though she knew she was alone. She looked over at the Cube and nearly had a heart attack. Standing behind it, bathed in its unearthly glow was Loki.
Her breath caught in her throat. "L… Lo…"
Loki looked up from studying the Tesseract and grinned. He could have kept himself invisible; he was when he opened the entrance to the lab. He was intent on staying invisible. It had been his whole plan. However, when he saw Jane clacking away on her keyboard, he had the sudden desire to see her panic. It wasn't much. It would be a tiny bit of mischief, but after being locked up for a few weeks, he was more than entitled to some.
"Jane Foster," he spoke her name slowly, keeping his voice low. "Brilliant scientist. Now you're reduced to providing your services to a blundering idiot."
If she was afraid that last comment sapped the fear clean out of her and quickly replaced it with searing anger. "Excuse you?" she seethed between clenched teeth. "Who gave you the right to criticize me?"
Loki's eyes widened, but before it became noticeable, he stopped. He outwardly wore a snarl, but on the inside, he was smiling at her sudden false bravado. There was fire in her, one he hadn't noticed through the eyes of the Destroyer. She had a fire in her and he wanted to be the one to put it out. Watch the light die in her eyes, watch her spirit be crushed. Make Thor watch. He almost smiled at the thought, but caught himself. "Who gave me the right?" he spat. He was about to continue when the doors to the lab slid open with a completely assembled Iron Man suit most likely harboring Tony Stark in the doorway.
"Step away from the cube," Tony warned as he held up his hands, which were already beginning to glow. His head turned minutely towards Jane as he added, "And the astrophysicist."
Time was up. Now wasn't the time for taunting. Loki had to move. On instinct, he pushed Jane out of the way and lunged for the cube, his hand already locking around it.
Tony fired at Loki.
The Asgardian pulled out of the way, but heat scorched his hand. Blue erupted all around, engulfing him and Jane. He hit the ground, beginning to feel sharp pains rack his body. The pain, the horrible, searing pain was manageable. He tried, with every bit of conscious thought to shove away the pain into the back of his mind, but found he could not. It was strong and persistent, and every cell in his body felt as if it were screaming. Only a short moment, but in that moment, fire and hot flashes of lightning crackled through his nerves. Then it stopped. He blacked out.
Tony cursed under his breath as he lifted himself off the ground. The blast threw him into the doors, but the suit took the brunt of the impact. Smoke billowed in clouds around the room, obscuring his vision. As he stared into the haze, his eyes caught sight of two shadowy figures sprawled out on the ground and next to them a faint blue glow. "Jane," he called as he rushed over. When he approached the two figures, he realized something was wrong. The haze thinned and soon he could make out long, brown hair splayed on the ground. "Jane." He knelt beside her body and had Jarvis read him her vitals. Heart rate: normal; breathing: normal. Everything was checking out until Jarvis told him something alarming. "Sir, her hormones have significantly increased. Her body seems to have reverted into more of a teenage system."
Tony quickly moved her hair from her face and jolted back. That was not Dr. Jane Foster's face. That was a younger version of Dr. Jane's Foster face, but awkward times one-hundred. Someone groaned behind him. Now he could see where Loki landed a few feet away and that certainly wasn't the God of Mischief he was used to seeing. A boy, who looked like he should be in high school, laid on his side with his pale, narrow face and familiar cheek bones visible to Tony. He cursed under his breath again.
/
/
"And that, Cyclops, is how your leading researcher and number one prisoner were turned into teeny brats," Tony concluded as he finished telling Nick Fury what happened.
/
This idea started out as just a scene I had thought of to tell Skye-Writes-21 as a cute Lokane thing. Then the scene sort of spiraled out of control and now here we are with the introduction to the story. Speaking of, Skye-Writes-21 pointed out a mistake that I have yet to correct and that is Loki's eye color. They're not really green, at least not in the movies, but I kind of like the idea of them being green better and so I'm turning a blind eye to it.
Preview from Chapter One:
"Since you're teenagers, you're going to be put into a high school for the time being."
"What?" Jane exclaimed, mouth hanging loosely. "What are you thinking? You can't place Loki in a high school!"