Sorry it's taken me so long to update! Please review and I'll update quicker, pinky promise :)

'That one looks like a balloon.'

'I can think of something ruder it also resembles.'

'Oh my god, Tony.'

'Clint?'

'He's right.'

'What is with you two?!'

Tony chuckled and opened another can of cola, accidentally-on-purpose getting Steve in the face with the spray.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the three men and adjusted her sunglasses. The four of them were lounging on the deck of the helicarrier while it was still in the water, soaking up the sun, a crate of cola between them. Thor was still in Asgard dealing with the whole my-brother-tried-to-take-over-the-world thing, and Bruce was in Harlem, spending the day with Betty Ross.

'Agent Romanoff, report to the bridge,' Nick Fury's voice chirped in her ear.

'On my way,' Natasha replied, pulling herself to her feet. 'Gentlemen,' she said, nodding at Tony, Steve and Clint.

The three of them nodded back at her. 'Natasha,' they said in unison.

XxXxXxX

Fury looked up as Natasha strolled in. 'Agent Romanoff,' he said. 'I need clarification on your report.'

'Of course,' Natasha said, sitting down at the briefing table.

'You said in your report that you found traces of an unknown substance.'

'A gas, yes sir,' Natasha clarified.

Fury frowned at her report. 'And you said that although the scanner picked up traces of this gas, you could not see any canisters of the substance?'

'That is correct,' Natasha said. 'I mentioned in my report that I thought whatever the gas was it was deemed to be so important that it was taken by AIM when they escaped the building. I asked Stark to try and analyse the data but he couldn't find anything.'

Steve wandered past them, looking a bit pink around the ears.

'Sunburnt, Captain?' Natasha teased.

'Maybe a bit,' Steve admitted. 'Stark and Barton are still out there, the rest of the deck is deserted, it's so hot out there, they must be nuts.'

Natasha smirked.

'Sir… I'm reading something, there's an unknown material in the air vents,' of the SHIELD drones said from his computer.

Fury pulled up the info on his screen. 'What kind of material?' he asked.

Natasha frowned. 'It has the same composition as the gas I found at the AIM labs,' she said.

Then, suddenly, green gas began pouring itself out of the air vents and surrounded the bridge. The agents were forced to their knees coughing. Natasha and Steve instinctively put their hands over the mouths and tried to not breath the gas in, but it replaced the oxygen in the room and found its way into their nostrils. The SHIELD crew and the two Avengers collapsed on the deck as everything suddenly went dark.

XxXxXxX

'Natasha's been gone ages,' Tony remarked, texting Pepper on his StarkPhone.

'Tasha, we will drink all the cola if you're not back soon,' Clint warned into his radio.

Nothing but static met his ears.

'Nat?' he said, frowning. 'Steve? Come in.'

Nothing.

Clint looked at Tony. 'Something's wrong,' he said. 'We need to get back onto the bridge.

The two of them ran across the empty flight deck and into the helicarrier. Tony paused. 'Where is everyone?' he asked, as the two of them made their way to the bridge. The corridors were deserted and Clint suddenly found himself wishing he had his bow on them.

The two of them entered the bridge and stopped suddenly, staring wide eyed around them.

'Um…' Tony said, staring at the still running computer screens and the still warm cups of coffee. 'Where's everyone gone?'

XxXxXxX

'It wasn't until later when we checked the camera feed that we saw what had happened,' Tony told Charlotte. 'Everyone collapsed then the gas was sucked back up into the vents and they all kind of… disappeared, like on Star Trek.'

Charlotte shivered. 'That sounds well creepy,' she said.

Tony nodded. 'It was,' he agreed. 'We've been trying to track everyone down for over a month, so far we've only found Natasha, Captain America is still missing.'

'What about the Hulk? Or his alter ego?' Charlotte asked.

'We'd hoped that because he was off the ship he wouldn't have been affected,' Tony said. 'Unfortunately that wasn't the case and he too has vanished.'

'But if it wasn't the gas, that must mean someone's taken him,' Charlotte said.

Tony nodded. 'It's not a nice thought,' he agreed. 'But none of this explains how Natasha got that head injury.'

Charlotte flicked through Natasha's notes. 'It was a road traffic collision,' she said. 'She was hit by a car, the driver said she "suddenly appeared out of nowhere" and he didn't have enough time to brake.'

Tony frowned. 'So they were taken from the helicarrier and deposited on the ground, but why?'

Charlotte shrugged. 'Don't look at me,' she said. 'I'm just her nurse.'

'Don't say that!' Tony said, staring at her. 'You're more than that, you've been taken care of her for this past month, you look after people, that says a lot about you. I've always thought it takes a very special kind of person to be a nurse.'

Charlotte beamed at the praise. 'Maybe someone wanted to get them off the helicarrier,' she theorised. 'To steal data?'

Tony shook his head. 'Nothing was reported as stolen, we couldn't find any sign of a forced entry either, plus I think someone would have noticed if a boat suddenly came towards us.

'How did the gas get on board?' Charlotte said.

Tony shrugged. 'We're still trying to figure that one out,' he said.

'Oh! I have an idea!' Charlotte said excitedly. 'You said they all disappeared, like a beam or something, right?'

Tony nodded.

'Well, maybe that same technology, the transportation beam thing, is how the gas got on board.'

Tony grinned. 'See, I told you you were special,' he said. 'And that should mean that if I can determine when and where the gas was administered, I may be able to track it back to its source.'

Charlotte paused. 'You don't think… it's him, do you?'

'Loki?' Tony said. He shook his head. 'No, Loki is with Thor on Asgard, whatever happened, it's of Earth origin.

'Tony!' Clint said in his ear. 'Thor's back from Asgard.'

'Okay, I'll come back,' Tony said. 'Sorry, Charlotte, gotta go, our friendly neighbourhood Norse God has reappeared.'

'Say hi from me,' Charlotte said.

'Will do,' Tony promised. 'And keep an eye on Natasha for me.'

He grabbed her hand and pulled out a pen, scribbling a number down on it.

'That's my phone number,' he said. 'If anything happens, and I mean anything, call me.'

'You got it,' Charlotte said, beaming with pride and excitement.

'I'll see you later,' Tony said, bowing his head to her and disappearing out into the corridor.

Please review!