PART 1

Pepper was re-directed to SHIELD HQ once she left Stark Industries for the day, as she was unable to return home. She located Coulson, Hill, Fury and Steve in one of the meeting rooms. So Steve wasn't there when the incident had occurred. She found herself praying that nothing too serious was happening, and that whoever had been in the tower was okay.

"JARVIS was unable to send us any useful information before it was shut down" Hill informed the others.

"How many people were inside?" Pepper asked. She was concerned. Concerned about her boyfriend, her friends, the staff...

"Just Mr. Stark, and Agents Romanoff and Barton as far as we're aware, everyone else was evacuated before the explosion but we're working on finding out for sure"

"Explosion?! Do we know if..."

"All three are alive Ms. Potts, but that's all we do know"

Pepper looked at the four people before her. She knew they were worried too. But they didn't show it like she did.

"Let me go in?" Steve asked, desperation showing in his voice. "They could be in serious trouble in there"

"No way Mr. Rogers. Not until we know what the hell happened in there. We can't risk losing you too" Fury answered sternly. "But I guess its a good idea if you suit up in the event we figure this out soon"

"Yes sir" And with that, Steve turned to leave, followed by Coulson.

Hill turned to leave too, pausing to turn to Pepper: "I'm going to check in with the research team, want to come?"
"I've got nothing else to do"

PART 2

After a short search Tony and Clint had found Natasha. She was still unconscious, a large piece of wall covered most of her torso, and there was shattered glass everywhere. Clint lifted the heavy piece of concrete from his partners body while Tony pulled her free. They lay her on the floor and Clint checked Natasha over; apart from a few cracked ribs and a deep cut on her head that gushed blood down her face, she was okay. They'd have to wait until she woke to see if she too had lost the use of one of her senses.

The next few hours passed slowly. Clint, unable to hear anything, was incredibly jumpy, especially every time Tony poked him in order to get his attention. Tony was getting frustrated at his own lack of ability to voice his many thoughts, the pen and paper in his hands functioned much slower than his mind and his voice.

Natasha stirred quietly, Tony threw a balled up piece of paper at Clint. He turned angrily, but soon realised why he had wanted his attention.

"Nat, Nat, can you hear me?" He said as he rushed towards her.

"Volume down, Barton" she slurred in response, her eyes still tightly closed as she came too.

Clint turned to Tony who nodded. She could both hear and speak. At least that was something.
She opened her eyes and sat up with a start, panic written all over her face.

"What is it Nat? What's wrong?"She rubbed her eyes, blinking hard. Her hands gripped Clint's shoulders, her fingers tightening around his shirt.

"Clint, I can't see anything"
Tony gasped, or tried to.

"Tony, what's going on?" Clint asked urgently.

He scribbled one word on the pad in front of him, showing Clint: 'blind'

"Oh Nat... I'm so sorry. We'll fix it. I promise!"

"Clint, what happened? Where's Tony?"

Clint turned to face Tony helplessly.

"Clint? Clint talk to me? What the hell is going on?!" She said shaking his shoulders slightly in desperation for an answer; she was staring straight through him, he was inches from her face and yet she couldn't see him. Tony quickly wrote a one word instruction to Clint: 'explain'.

"Nat, that artifact Thor dropped off last week, you remember? Well it exploded... Something happened to us; Tony can't speak and I can't hear. JARVIS is down so no help from him... And we're under quarantine, locked in the tower!"

"Seriously?"

Tony nodded, "yes" Clint voiced for him.

"Fuck!"

The last thing Natasha remembered was walking into Tony's lab on the 33rd floor with Clint. They'd been debating the mission and what had gone wrong. She blamed bad intel; leading her, Clint and two junior agents into a situation they hadn't been prepared or equipped for, while Clint blamed the other agents incompetence; stating the bad judgement of the other team had cause the whole thing to go to pot. In reality: it was a combination of the two.

They'd come straight to this floor after receiving an urgent message from Tony. "Guys! Guys come look at this! This is so cool!" "What exactly..." Clint had begun before he saw it. A silver sphere, about the size of an orange, was vibrating and glowing, floating several inches above one of the work stations near the center of the lab. Tony was stood peering at it in amazement. Clint tried to prod it, Natasha's hand wrapped round his wrist before he could, she just shook her head.

A high pitched screech escaped from the sphere as the light grew brighter, pulsating; the sphere began to increase in size, swelling to the size of a soccer ball. "I didn't do anything!" Clint said, hands up. That was when the thing exploded, sending the three of them flying backwards, Natasha through a partition wall, and that was when it all went black.