The house was exactly as Loki remembered. The Stark Mansion had been converted into a museum to showcase the genius of the playboy, philanthropist, and billionaire. His inventions were on display, protected behind glass cases. Loki could remember the first time he had walked through the museum as a child…and had pointed out a flaw in one of the theorems displayed in Tony's lab. The staff had quietly asked the 8 year old and his family to leave.

And now, 20 years and a failing economy later, the museum and estate of Tony Stark was up for auction. The bidding had been intense, but Loki did not back down, and, at the cost of a small percentage of his fortune, now the museum and all of its contents were his.

For a man who had died nearly 100 years earlier, Tony Stark's work was still breathtaking. Loki could feel the intellect in the air, from the easy changeability of the space (to accommodate for various experiments requiring different layouts), to the crisp, stark lines of the architectural design. The home was everything Loki had dreamed of, and he had never felt so at home.

He ignored the kitchen, living room, the expanse of self-aggrandizing art work of Iron Man along the walls and stepped lightly to the lab. That was all he cared about. He used the universal code provided by the realtor, and the door opened under its own power.

The lab had not been used in years, and it smelled of an acrid combination of burnt metal and dust. He waved his hand in front of his face, coughing softly as he went over to the gem of the room, the work console. The symbols on the LED keyboard were not any that Loki knew; it was an entirely separate language that this genius had once used to do his work. Loki smiled, sitting down and going over the various symbols, pressing a few, pleased when the system responded.

"Good. Everything is still in operating condition." he smiled, that would make this easier.

He popped his knuckles and set to work digging through any and all of the files he could find. He tilted his head as the file 'Jarvis Mainframe' flashed by the screen. He tapped on the hologram for the file, narrowing his eyes as the red words 'Access Denied' flashed across the screen. Even the universal code that the realtor had assured him would grant him access to everything failed to crack open the file. He tried to go around through a back access point but was blocked by a firewall like nothing Loki had ever seen before.

He frowned, growing frustrated as the 'Access Denied' continued to flash up. Whoever had put up these firewalls did not intend anyone to ever get past them, and even a hundred years later, they were holding strong, but Loki had not been billed the genius of his day, the star of MIT for nothing.

He slid between the codes, brushing past all of the intricate details. It was like picking apart a finely crafted engine; he could see how all of the pieces locked together. It was beautiful. For the first time in his life, Loki felt that he was looking at a masterpiece, a problem that he could not instantly solve, and it was intoxicating.

He expanded the code out to surround him, literally wrapping himself in the digital embodiment of this firewall. He walked through the numbers, and letters letting them sort around him like the stars of a new galaxy. He reached out, plucking a few strands of data here and there, rearranging the constellations of the program and creating his own sky.

The bits of data flashed red and blue as they were shifted across the realms of space, and then, a stray stream caught his eye. It dashed across the coding like an errant shooting star and Loki chased it across the cosmos.

The code sparked, flickering lights against his fingers as he pulled it out of place, and smiled, "Genius." he looked over the interwoven commands. The detail was extraordinary, code within cipher, bound by another puzzle, and protected by a separate set of data. Each set had its own language. It was like nothing Loki had seen before.

He sat back down and began the slow process of splitting the seams of the shooting star. He could almost feel the computer resisting him, red warnings flashed across the screen as the code expanded to take over the room swirling faster and faster with each level of protection pried and peeled off. He dug through the layers, throwing the discarded and broken code to the floor as he went.

He grinned as the last level stood before him, the core nugget of the firewall. Long graceful fingers dug through that, prying apart meanings…and then, everything went green and the screen flashed, "Access granted."

Loki dove into the revealed files, there was more otherworldly coding and as he read through it, he realized what he had gotten into: an AI system that rivaled on being sentient.

"JARVIS, huh? A sentient AI butler… Stark you crazy bastard." Loki shook his head, laughing softly as he flipped through the thousands of files, skimming quickly over each piece of information.

He almost missed it, the very small, very hidden file labeled 'Start Up'. He backtracked and tapped on the file to open it. For a moment, nothing happened. The screen flickered and then the entire house went dark.

Loki cursed and fumbled for his phone for some small bit of light, but even his phone was dark. He got to his feet, hand to the wall, trying to feel his way to the door when a track of pale blue light flickered to life on the floor and began branching like a spider web around the house. Every square inch of the house was slowly coated with the thin blue thread, and Loki briefly wondered if somehow he had triggered some sort of self-destruct sequence.

Loki could feel his heart racing in his chest, breathing uneasy as the lights slowly flickered back to life. He took a deep breath and sank back into the chair. He frowned as a few of the stationary robots in the lab began twitching, gears clicking and protesting the movement after so many years stationary. Upstairs he could hear a TV blaring, something banging in the kitchen, and the doors open and closing.

"What is happening?" Loki asked the empty space around him, falling out of his chair when there was a response.

A strange British voice spoke against the noise of the house, "Stark Malibu home online. Welcome home sir."

A huge thanks to tumblr and one of my best friends in the universe for throwing this prompt my way!