Not quite sure what part of my mind this one came wrong, but I'm proud of it anyway :) Please please PLEASE review, I will grant you some chocolate chip cakes I just made :)

There was a strange buzzing noise coming from somewhere, and he could smell dirt, something rotting and blood in his nostrils.

Tony battered his ear randomly, obviously finding that a buzzing noise was the worst of his problems, it was then he realised the noise was actually coming from his ear.

There was something heavy on his chest and his vision was dark. Tony tried to open his eyes but then realised that actually they were already open, and it really was just pitch black.

Well this doesn't look good, he thought to himself, his body kicking into 'fight, flight, or stay the fuck where you are' mode. Tony tried to get to his feet but the heavy thing on his chest wasn't impressed with that idea. He tried to brush the thing off but his fingers met something soft that felt suspiciously like skin. Tony took a deep breath, then regretted it as he coughed up a load of dirt. His fingers searched for whatever it was he'd found a minute ago and he realised the skin belonged to someone's hand. He squeezed it and the thing made a 'hrr' noise.

Tony tried to find where the thing's head would be (if it was a human) and felt soft hair, hair too long to belong to a man, well, one of the Avengers anyway.

'Natasha?' he croaked, sounding like a 70 year old man. 'That you?'

The thing didn't respond, and Tony felt around him, trying to find something to hold onto in the pitch black so he could sit up. His searching hand found something thin that appeared to be attached to a wall that didn't give way when he pulled on it. Tony pulled himself up holding the thing, which he was pretty sure judging by the hair and the faint traces of perfume was Natasha, up with him. Something jangled and pain seared through his wrist and feet. Tony swore as he released that there was a chain clapped tightly around both his wrists and both his ankles, attaching him to something.

Now sat upright and cradling the thing (Natasha?) in one arm, Tony patted down his shirt, ripping the material away from his arc and illuminating the room in a soft blue light. The light shone on the thing's face and Tony discovered he was right in thinking it was his fiery Russian teammate, who also had both wrists and ankles clamped tightly in a chain, both their chains attached to a metal circle clamped securely into the wall.

'Natasha?' he said softly, shaking her lightly. 'You okay?' His fingers searched for a pulse in her neck and he let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding when he found it beating fiercely under her skin.

Natasha didn't move and Tony turned his head to the side, trying to find the door or a way out, or at least something he could use to cut through the chains. Instead he found the thing he'd used to pull himself upright, the thin thing that had been attached to a wall.

A skeleton that appeared to have melted into the wall, its jaws wide open in what must have been an agonising scream as its flesh burned.

Tony yelped and scooted away from it, holding Natasha protectively into his chest. The chain pulled tight on his foot and pain erupted through his body, replaced by panic as he released that around him in what looked like a tiny cell were hundreds of skeletons, tiny bones and rotting flesh with hair still attached to the bodies.

Tony closed his eyes and choked down the bile burning in his throat. When he opened them again he looked at Natasha and Natasha only, forcing himself to ignore the environment he was in.

'I'm gonna get us out of this, Tasha,' he said. 'I swear, I'm going to get us out.' With the horror of his room pushed slightly out of his mind now he had a goal, Tony was also able to focus on that persistent buzzing noise coming from his ear. Tony pulled Natasha onto his lap, keeping her limbs away from the… stuff on the floor… and felt in his ear for its source. He came away with the small SHIELD comm radio buzzing furiously in his palm, small wires hanging out of it.

The radio.

Tony gently traced the outside of Natasha's ear, searching for her radio but coming up squat.

It must have fallen out when we were thrown/dragged/chucked in here, Tony reasoned.

'Okay, something to do, distraction, fix the damn radio,' Tony said out loud, trying to pull himself together. 'First, find something small enough to use to put wires back in.'

Tony decided to not look around the room for something to use in fear of uttering a girly scream and throwing up over Natasha, instead searching on his body for something small and metallic that he could use to reconnect the wires and get communication back up with his team.

Nothing.

Not to be disheartened, Tony patted down Natasha's clothes, wishing she was wearing her usual catsuit which probably had a spare radio in its pocket. Tony fingers found something small and blunt, quickly realising it was an earring. Tony gently pulled it out of her ear and held it up to the Arc, exactly the right shape and not sharp enough to break through the radio. Tony picked up the earset and pulled off the cover, exposing the wires underneath. He gently prodded them back into their sockets with the earring, clicking them into place. The radio whistled and vibrated on his palm, a sign it was working.

Tony grinned and clicked the cover back onto it, pushing it into his ear.

'Guys, come in, can anyone hear me?'

XxXxXxX

'Steve I swear you're going to dislocate your arm if you keep pulling that hard, stop!' Bruce said.

Steve stopped trying to pull the chain free from the wall and sat back on the ground, out of breath. 'We have to find the others,' he said between gasps. 'They could be in trouble.'

'They might find us, remember,' Bruce said reassuringly, trying to keep away from the carcass of whatever that hell that was on the floor next to him. 'Any luck with the radio?'

Steve shook his head. 'Nothing but static,' he said. 'Yours?'

Bruce shook his head. 'Nothing.'

The light from Steve's penlight flickered, casting eerie shadows across the room. 'The battery isn't going to hold out for much longer,' Steve said. 'I better turn it off to save the power.'

Bruce grimaced, not liking the idea of sitting in the pitch black. 'It's at times like these I envy Tony having a built-in nightlight.'

Steve turned off the light and choking darkness descended on them. Bruce took long deep breaths just to prove to himself that he still could.

Steve sensed his discomfort and tried to keep his mind off it. 'Who do you think is with who?' he asked.

Bruce shrugged. 'I wouldn't like to guess,' he said. 'But I think whoever's orchestrated this probably paired us up so there are no two strong team members together. With that in mind I'm guessing that Tony is either with Clint or Tasha and Thor is either with Tony or Clint.'

'Surely the Hulk would count as a strong team mate?' Steve asked.

'They probably know I wouldn't risk it in a cell this size,' Bruce said. 'I'd squash you.'

Steve chuckled. 'What a way to go,' he said.

They sat in silence for a few moments until Bruce got freaked by the darkness. 'I wonder what the others are doing,' he said.

'Well, I'm sure Tony is driving whoever he's with insane,' Steve said. 'And Thor is probably trying to smash the ground with his bare fists.'

Bruce nodded. 'That actually sounds very likely,' he said. 'I just hope everyone's okay.'

'Me too,' Steve said. 'I'm sure they are, we all stand up for each other and protect each other.'

Bruce nodded grimly. 'You're not wrong,' he said.

XxXxXxX

'YOU ARE NO MATCH FOR THE MIGHTY THOR!' Thor bellowed, smashing the ground with Mjolnir repeatedly.

'Thor, please, you're giving me a headache, and that hammer-smash-floor thing clearly isn't working,' Clint said, watching amused.

'Do you have a better plan?' Thor asked, continuing to play whack-a-mole with the floor.

'Do I have a plan at all would be a better question,' Clint muttered. He shifted away a few more feet from the skeleton in the corner. Now that Natasha wasn't here he didn't have to pretend that they didn't freak him out.

'Perhaps our fellow comrades will have heard the noise,' Thor said, pausing to examine the lack of damage he'd done to the floor.

'I wouldn't be surprised if the whole of the Eastern Seaboard hadn't heard the noise,' Clint said, eyebrow raised. 'They probably thought it was another earthquake.'

'How long do we have before the light goes out?' Thor asked.

Clint glanced up at the glowstick he'd attached to the ceiling. 'Those things last for a while,' he said. 'I'd say about another 6 hours. Shame there isn't a fridge here, Tony reckons they last longer if you put them in a fridge.'

'Do you think our comrades are safe?' Thor asked, looking worried.

'I sure as hell hope so,' Clint said. 'If they're not I'm going to strangle all of them for making us worry. And what's up with Mew-Mew? Why isn't it blasting the floor to smithereens?'

He examined Mjolnir. 'It doesn't feel right,' he said. 'I believe there's some kind of powerful magic here preventing it from charging.'

'Sounds like a dampening field to me,' Clint said, who enjoyed many Star Trek movie marathons with Tony and Bruce on the weekends.

'A what?' Thor asked, confused.

'Magic,' Clint said, not feeling bothered enough to explain himself.

'Powerful magic,' Thor agreed.

Clint felt for the radio in his ear, he'd tried to send a message a minute ago but all he'd got was the bzzzzt indicating that the other's radios weren't functioning.

'How the hell do we get out of here?' he asked, glumly. 'Where ever here even is, there's no doors or windows, we're basically stuck in a four sided concrete block.'

'We shall find a way,' Thor said reassuringly. 'We must have got in here somehow, therefore we must also be able to get out again.'

'I hope you're right,' Clint said. 'Cause I for one was looking forward to eating some of those biscuits that Pepper made.'

'Pepper?' Thor said, confused.

Clint furrowed his brow at him, then realised that actually Thor hadn't met Pepper, or heard of her. He'd been in Asgard for a while after the whole Avengers vs. Loki thing.

'Pepper is Tony's girlfriend,' he explained. 'His better half.'

Thor stared at him in shock. 'Tony has a… female companion?' he asked.

'A girlfriend, yeah,' Clint said. 'There was a big "well it's about time" press thing when that came out.'

'How long has he known her?' Thor asked.

'About 11 years.'

'And when did they become romantically involved?'

'About 8 months ago.'

Thor nodded understandingly. 'Then I agree,' he said. 'It is "about time".'

'That woman is a godsend,' Clint said. 'And she makes these mean ginger biscuits.'

'Guys, come in, can anyone hear me?' Clint's radio sparked to life and his finger stabbed the respond button.

'Tony? That you?'

'Oh thank god, I thought I was having some horrible nightmare,' Tony's voice said, sounding ridiculously cheerful despite their situation.

'Wait, what did you just say?' Bruce asked over the com.

'Bruce! You're alive!' Tony said, sounding happy.

'Rewind to the bit about the nightmare,' Steve said.

'Capsicle? You too? And you mean the whole "this is like some horrible nightm…" oh shit.'

There was an awful pause from everyone on their radios as they realised exactly what happened and exactly why they couldn't get out.

'We're stuck in our own minds, aren't we?' Tony said, sounding slightly scared.

Steve sounded much the same. 'Yes,' he said. 'I believe we are. We all drank that tea thing he gave us didn't we?'

'Sonofabitch,' Bruce swore.

'I don't follow,' Thor said, looking at Clint.

'Remember that Dr Sergot gave us that tea when we got to the lab?' Clint said. 'The doctor that ordered a routine blood test? The doctor that told us about the dream quarantine thing he'd created?'

'Shit,' Tony said, summing up all of their thoughts in one simple word. 'He must have put sedative in that tea. Real fucking powerful if it managed to bring Thor down.'

'Wait, where's Natasha?' Clint said, panicking.

'She's with me,' Tony reassured him. 'She's fine, she's just unconscious.'

'How do we get out?' Thor asked. 'If we are "trapped in our own minds"? And where are our bodies?'

'Tony? Bruce? You two are the science geeks?' Clint said, shrugged at Thor.

'The whole idea of a dream quarantine is that you can't get out,' Tony said. 'At least, that's how that creepy doctor guy explained it. And our bodies are probably lying on the floor of that lab in some form of coma.'

'There must be a failsafe of some kind,' Bruce said. 'A way for us to override it?'

Clint could almost hear Tony shrug over the comm. 'I don't know,' he said. 'I'm not an expert on this.'

Tony's 'I don't know' was enough to send a chill through everyone's spine. Tony knew everything.

'Do you guys all have the "pitch black, scary skeletons, chained to a wall, no exit" dream that Bruce and I are having?' Steve asked.

There was mutual agreement at this and then Tony voiced an interesting point: 'I thought in dreams you couldn't do things like turn the lights on and off, or feel pain?' he pointed out.

'That's true,' Bruce said. 'Maybe this isn't a dream as such, maybe it's just our imagination running wild while we're in a coma state?'

'How do people wake up from dreams?' Natasha's voice came from over the comm suddenly.

'Tasha! You okay?' Clint asked, worried.

'I'm fine, although I woke up on Tony, which is slightly disconcerting.'

'Did you want to wake up facing the rotten carcass of whatever the hell that is in the corner? Plus, you're still sat on me, so obviously you're not that bothered.'

'You're comfy to sit on and the floor is filthy and these jeans are new.'

'Guys, I think we're losing you? You sound quieter,' Steve's voice interjected suddenly.

'We're sharing a comm,' Tony said. 'Natasha lost hers.'

'Anyway, to answer your question, people wake up in loads of different ways,' Bruce said, butting through their bickering. 'Through external stimuli such as a loud noise in the background, through a "kick", when you jump off a cliff or something in a dream, or naturally on your own.'

'Well there's no cliffs for us to jump off so that isn't an option,' Natasha said, sounding annoyed.

'Plus, if I remember what that sonofabitch doctor said, if you die in a quarantine dream, you die in reality,' Tony said.

'Shit,' Clint said.

There was a pause as the six of them tried to think of something to say that could reassure the others, coming up squat.

'Well if anyone thinks of a plan, feel free to share,' Steve said.

'Pepper's going to kill me, I had a board meeting today,' Tony remarked.

They all felt his pain.

Pleaseeeeee review, pretty please? I'll update quicker.