PART 1
Lights flashed and sirens wailed; NYPD and SHIELD agents surrounded the tower. It was empty now, completely evacuated apart from the three people who lay unconscious on the 47th floor...
Pepper looked up from the mountain of paperwork on her desk; the news showing images of the tower where she lived, headlines of a quarantine scrolled across the screen. 'Dammit Tony! What'd you do now?' was the first thought that entered her mind, before the panic and worry set in.
She did a mental list; Bruce was away; visiting a clinic in Africa, due back next week and Thor was back in Asgard. Clint and Natasha had been away on a mission for SHIELD, but should be back any day now. Pepper wondered if they'd been there too, and where Steve had been when this had happened, or whether it was Tony alone who'd been involved this time.
As she listened to the news more details arose. There'd been some sort of disruption on one of the upper floors. Probably one of the labs. An unknown substance had been detected by JARVIS who had initiated an evacuation, only somehow JARVIS had been affected too and he'd been deactivated.
PART 2
Clint woke first; confusion clouding his thoughts. He'd just returned to Avengers Tower after a 2 week mission in Baghdad with Nat. The mission hadn't exactly gone to plan. But they'd met the objectives and both made it home relatively unscathed.
But now he was lay in the middle of one of Stark's labs; covered in the remnants of one of the walls.
He looked around, trying to get his bearings; Stark was lay on his stomach not far away.
Stark shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Clint was sat on his left, rubbing his forehead in pain and looking round the remains of the lab. Tony shifted himself. 'JARVIS' he tried to say, but no sound came out. He began to panic. 'Clint, Clint! Can you hear me? Have I gone deaf?'
Clint was still scanning the rest of the room; no doubt looking for his partner, completely oblivious to Tony's words. He clapped, trying to get Clint's attention; and although that failed, Tony heard the clap; a sigh of relief that he wasn't deaf. However that meant he was left unable to speak. Great.
Clint's thoughts of where exactly Nat could be were interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. He turned quickly; adopting a defensive position, to see it was only Tony. Clint hadn't heard him approach, he must have been deeper in thought that he'd realised.
"What the hell happened Stark?"
He didn't hear the words that left his mouth; his hands flew to his ears in panic. Tony shrugged in response, so obviously he had heard him, but Clint could hear nothing but a distant ringing.
Tony ran off, grabbing a pad of paper and pen, quickly scribbling down something before turning it towards Clint: 'I can't speak'
A look of concern flicked across Clint's face: "I can't hear"
The two men looked at each other, they'd both reached a stage of understanding. This hadn't happened by accident. Someone had somehow removed the use of one of their senses. Loss of hearing could occur after being near an explosion, but loss of speech was not a common side effect. They had to find Nat, both hoping she hadn't been affected by whatever had gotten to them.