Honey, I Shrunk the Avengers

By NukaCola101

DISCLAIMER: All characters are copyrighted by Disney/Marvel. I own nothing.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Since the last story I wrote was on the heavy side, I wanted to write something light-hearted and fun, hence using one of my favorite childhood movies from the 80s as a source of inspiration. Read and Review!

It was a beautiful Saturday morning at the Avengers tower. After working non-stop for what seemed like months, the team of superheroes where finally getting a well-deserved break. With the upcoming two weeks off, each member of the team began to make plans. Clint was gearing up to go on a camping trip with Tony in tow. They encouraged Steve to come along, to which the soldier finally complied after Clint keep pestering him about it.

"This is gonna rock! I can't wait to catch some fish, relax and let's not forget the most important element." Clint held up a case of beer from the package store.

"Really now? You plan on being wasted for the entire trip?"

"Not all the time. Better get packing Steve; we leave in a few hours!" Clint reminded him as he skipped away happily with the beer in hand.

While Steve headed back toward his room; the sound of music caught his ear. Following the music, Steve saw the door to the training room was open. Upon peering inside, he saw that Natasha was in the middle of dancing. But it wasn't her normal choreographed routine. It was…different to say the least. While Steve was still unfamiliar with most music post-1940s, he was aware what decade the music coming from the stereo was (the 1980s). The song "Shake Your Love" by Debbie Gibson played on as Natasha was clearly engrossed with the beat. The dance she was performing was comprised of twists and tight, jerky moves. Steve had seen similar dance moves from a video Tony had showed him one day on the computer.

"The 1980s had some of the worst music in existence!" the billionaire commented as the video played.

While Steve couldn't agree with Tony (he actually didn't mind the song), the dancing the performers did in the video was terrible. Now that he was watching Natasha perform similar moves, Steve didn't mind. He stood quietly, watching the Russian dance. The fact that she was an accomplished dancer only made Steve become more drawn to her performance. She had a big smile on her face as she dipped and twirled, clearly enjoying her on-the-fly routine. Suddenly, Natasha looked up and saw that Steve was watching her. She nearly lost her footing due to being caught off-guard, but gracefully caught herself.

"Steve! I-I didn't notice you there in the doorway." She stammered and quickly turned down the volume on the stereo. Her cheeks where starting to blush from embarrassment, as were Steve's.

"Uh, sorry…I didn't mean to bother you."

"No, it's OK…just blowing off some steam; Clint was irritating me." Natasha stood awkwardly, still discomfited.

"I never figured you, of all people, would like music like that. Let alone be able to dance like that as well."

"It's a guilty pleasure of mine." she told Steve.

Steve tried to think of something to say, but nothing was coming out. He thought about telling Natasha that she was cute bopping along to the 1980s pop song, but he figured that she'd punch him for even having the guts to say that to her.

"Anyway, so I heard Clint is dragging you on his camping trip. You excited?" Natasha said; glad to have changed the subject.

"Yeah! I haven't been camping in years! Uh, no pun intended, of course."

She gave Steve a smile. "I'm glad he invited you Steve. You could use a little guy bonding time with Clint and Tony."

"True, but I found it surprising that Clint didn't invite you. After all, the two of you are like peanut butter and jelly: always together."

While the analogy was childish, it was true about Natasha and Clint. The spy and the archer where always teamed up for missions and now even being on a team, they never left one another's side.

"Just because Clint and I always work together doesn't mean we do everything together. We do enjoy our solitude from time to time."

"So, what are your plans now that most of us are going away?"

"Nothing really. I'm just going to relax and hang around the tower, I suppose." Natasha replied. Secretly, she was hoping that Steve had rejected Clint and Tony's invite. She wanted him to stay behind so that the two of them could spend their vacation together. In the other times she was with Steve, Natasha found him to be charming (and frustrating) watching the WWII hero come to grips with technology and other modern items. Other than that, the Russian always enjoyed the soldier's company.

The two stared at each other, trying to think of what to say next when Tony burst into the scene.

"So Cap's gonna go camping with me and bird boy, huh?" he said, playfully slapping Steve's back. The sudden blow nearly caused Steve to trip, but he caught himself before falling face first on the floor.

"Am I in over my head?" he asked Tony. "Perhaps, but I can guarantee that it'll be a camping trip unlike any you've ever experienced!"

Natasha crossed her arms over her chest and eyed Tony. "Sounds like a warning to me."

"Aw, don't act like that Nat. We promise to take care of little Stevie here well." Tony said in a motherly voice. He then pinched Steve's cheek as an over affectionate aunt would.

Steve slapped Tony's hand away as he rubbed the pain away. "I wish you didn't do that." He muttered.

"Loosen up, will ya? We are officially on vaca! No work, no girlfriends, no anything!" Tony exclaimed in happiness. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to finish packing. See you in a bit." He said as he left the room.

Steve gave Natasha an exasperated look.

"Maybe this camping trip isn't such a good idea, especially if Tony's involved."

"Go, you'll have fun." Natasha encouraged him. Steve smiled back at her. Maybe she was right, the trip did sound promising.

Bruce was held up in the lab as usually. Like Natasha, he planned on spending his time off at the tower. With Tony, Clint and Steve going camping, Bruce would finally have some peace and quiet. While he did enjoy the comradey of his team mates, Bruce was a loner by default. And with the other men away, Bruce could finally analyze that shrink ray Tony had been working on. The shrink ray had come into SHIELD's possession after they did a search of your typical villain-of-the-week's lair the Avengers recently defeated.

Tony, the ever engineering student that he was, had claimed the machine as his new project. "But you have several others that you've started on!" Bruce told him the day he saw Tony drag that machine into the lab.

"I get bored easily. Plus, it's a shrink ray, DUH! It's like something out of one of those old sci-fi B-movies."

Bruce had a soft spot for those kitschy films as much as Tony did, so the scientist didn't mind having the shrink ray in the lab. Tony had recently made some adjustments and repairs before the team's vacation. Bruce was instructed by Tony himself to run a few tests and jot down the results while he was away. He also gave Bruce permission to make any additional changes as he saw fit. But Bruce declined, as he wasn't as crafty as his friend.

"Alright then, but if anything happens, just enter that auto shut down code we came up with. I really don't want to come back and find the tower a pile of rubble." Tony told him as he was busy packing. Bruce nodded in response.

In the lab, Bruce was busy preparing to start the tests when his stomach growled in hunger. He headed to the kitchen to make something to eat when he saw the large case of beer near the counter.

"Gee, I wonder who's idea it was to buy this much beer." Bruce said with sarcasm as he started to make a sandwich.

Meanwhile, back in the lab, Tony was making sure Bruce had everything he might need for the shrink ray tests when Clint appeared. He was holding a football and showed it to Tony.

"Ready to toss the ol' pigskin when we get to the camp ground?"

"You bet! Think you've got a better throwing arm than me, Legolas?"

"Oooh, them's fightin' words." Clint said to Tony. "Wanna put your money where your mouth is?" He held the ball back, ready to throw.

"You better not throw that thing in here. If it breaks anything, it's coming out of your paycheck." Tony threatened.

"You think I'm that stupid? But then again, this is a pretty big space. We can always go to the lower floor and toss the ball without hitting anything…" Clint egged on.

Clint did have a point. The lower floor was mostly for storage and everything was already packed up tightly in boxes and crates. Plus Tony wasn't going let some young punk like Clint tease him about his supposed lack of sportsmanship.

"You're on!" Tony said and the two took the stairs to the lower level of the lab. After tossing the football back and forth for a bit, Clint backed up a few spaces.

"Go long, Tin Man!" he called and threw the football to Tony.

But Clint's aim was too high and he sent the ball flying over Tony's head. A crash was heard and the sound of something booting up.

"Shit!" Tony cursed and jetting up the stairs to the first floor.

"Oh man, I'm so sorry!" Clint apologized as he followed Tony.

The two saw where the football had landed: right on the shrink ray! The machine was powering up and was on a countdown to let the user know when it would go off. Tony sprinted to the shrink ray but it was too late. The shrink ray's barrel fired a beam toward the two men. Tony and Clint couldn't dodge it in time and let out shocked yelps as the beam hit them.

It was quiet…too quiet. Natasha knew that Clint had been in a boisterous mood the entire morning about the camping trip. She was starting to get annoyed with the archer after hearing him quip about how much beer he had bought for the trip.

"Even the fish are going to get drunk!" he told her.

"Says the lightweight who get plastered after having one pint of Guinness." Natasha retorted.

While Clint was trying to come up with a witty rebuttal, Natasha had sought solace in the training room. But that was well over an hour ago. She knew that the men would be leaving shortly, but it was odd that Clint didn't come to say good-bye to her. Natasha went to Clint's room and found him not there, as his duffle bag and camping supplies were still on the bed. In her pursuit of locating Clint, Natasha had run into Steve who was also looking for the agent. Steve wanted to ask Clint if they had any extra sleeping bags (Steve's sleeping bag was ripped and needed to be replaced).

"You're looking for Clint too? Just where has that dummy gone off to." Natasha said.

"Maybe Tony knows where he might be. Let's go check the lab." Steve suggested.

"Good idea. Tony's mostly likely down there anyway. Even before going on a trip, that guy's always tinkering away at something."

But when they arrived at the lab, Steve and Natasha found no one.

"Tony, you in here?" Steve called out. No response.

"Now this is odd." Natasha noticed the shrink ray was on. Right next to it was a football. "Those idiots." She muttered picking it up and showing the ball to Steve.

"Clint was here without a doubt. But where's he hiding?"

The shrink ray booted up once more and the countdown began. Steve panicked, wondering which button to push to stop the machine. Natasha hesitated as well. "Where's Bruce when you need him!" she said in frustration as she quickly glanced over her options.

The countdown ended and the shrink ray released a beam at Natasha, who was in the machine's firing range. Steve tried to pull her out of the way, but the beam hit the both of them.

Now sitting on the floor, Steve and Natasha where still. They felt fine, but where weary of their new surroundings. They got up and brushed off the electrical discharge from their clothes and bodies.

"Steve. Are we still in the lab?" Natasha asked as she was taking in the scene before them.

"I think so, but everything seems to be larger than before."

He was right. Natasha looked up and saw that the shrink ray was now the size of a skyscraper.

"Are we—"she started to say, but saw two figures running toward her and Steve. At first their cries where muffled, but once the figures came into view, Natasha and Steve immediately recognized them.

"Clint?!" "Tony?!"

Once all four of them met up, questions and answers started to fly out of their mouths.

"What the hell happened to us?" Natasha demanded Tony.

"Well, you can thank Joe Namath here." Tony thumbed over to Clint. "His throwing arm activated the shrink ray and now the four of us are the size of Micro Machines."

"Hey! I said I was sorry!" Clint spat.

"You two can duke it out later. For now, let's see if we can fix this. Tony, is there any way you can activate that machine from our current height?" Steve asked.

"Nope. And I have some bad news. I put an auto shut down on the shrink ray. Only Bruce and I know the code to over-ride it."

"Crap." Both Natasha and Clint grumbled.

"Well, we can't just be sitting ducks. We've got to try and get ahold of Bruce somehow."

"Cap. If any of us had our cellphones on us, it wouldn't do us any good. The signal would be too weak. I also can't do any voice commands for JARVIS to register, given our current size."

"Let's just hope Bruce picks up on why he's all by himself." Clint hoped. He huffed in frustration. "So much for our camping trip."

"Hey, let's not give up too soon. Bruce should be coming back to the lab at any moment." Steve said, trying to ease a worried Clint.