Note: So some of the chapters will be smaller than others as they follow certain characters- others will simply have more to do than some. -E
Watching Clint's back recede down the hallway with Steve following close behind, Tony let out a long breath.
"Hey, uh," Bruce spoke up after a few moments of heavy silence, the two of them straining their ears to listen for anything out of the ordinary as Clint and Steve disappeared into the darkness. "How about the next building you design…"
"Yeah?"
"…we make sure the backup generators aren't in the basement?"
"Yeah," Tony paused as he turned one of the flashlights in his hand on and handing the other to Bruce, not taking his eyes off the darkened hallway even to blink. "Yeah." Bruce looked at Tony, his nervousness plain to read on his face. Letting out another short sigh, Tony gave him a half smile before heading out the door. "Follow me, it'll be fun."
Almost skittering after Tony, Bruce followed close behind, fumbling in his pajama pockets for his phone.
"Oh, that's nice," he mused bitterly. "My phone's still up in the room. Suppose there's no point in getting it now."
"Yeah, I don't know how much I'd want to go upstairs with whatever was on the footage up there."
"That's fair," Bruce agreed as he turned his flashlight on, the beam dull for a moment before bursting into life. Tony listened as he let out a small breath of relief at the added light to the otherwise dark hallway, the red security light very dimly lighting the hall in front of their beams. Walking in silence, the pair listened for any form of noise, but there was nothing. No building creaking, no sounds of life outside the two of them coming from any of the rooms. Shining his light over the walls occasionally as they passed by a seemingly endless count of doors on either side, he noted that nearly all of the doors no longer had any handles to them, just the same as the door they had somehow come out of. Making a beeline for the first door they passed with a handle, Tony tried to turn it, only to find it firm and locked.
"Excuse me?" He scolded the door, trying to jiggle it loose, only to have it stay completely in place, unbudging. "Don't you know who I am?!"
Several doors that kept their handles yielded the same results, despite any sort of poking or prodding Tony and Bruce tried.
"God," Tony suddenly exclaimed loudly, stopping in his tracks.
"What, what's wrong?" Bruce sounded panicked, quickly twisting and turning, shining his flashlight down both directions of the hallway before focusing on Tony.
"This means we have to take the fucking stairs!"
"I— Wait, that's what you're so concerned about?" Bruce rubbed at his temple, almost annoyed at Tony, the lack of sleep and the entire situation.
"Brucie, babe, that's-" Tony held his flashlight under his arm against his side as he counted off on his fingers. "…sixsev—eight floors! That's a lot of work for 5 in the morning."
"Eight floors down," Bruce pointed out, glancing down the hallway before furrowing his brow. "Hey, shouldn't we have run into the stairs by now? Or Clint and Steve? I really don't remember it taking so long to get to the stairwell." Blinking once, Tony looked at Bruce before looking down the hall towards where they were walking.
"Now that you mention it," Tony held his flashlight in his hand again as he picked up his pace towards the end of the hallway. "We were more distracted by the doors changing…" Bruce following close behind him as they came to a jog, seeming to not get any closer to the end of the hallway. Tony glanced up and began to notice the red security light appearing to continually cycle past them in 50 meter intervals, shining dully over and over as they jogged. Along with the cramp forming in his side, Tony began to get a queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach and he slowed back to a halt, Bruce following his lead. Glancing at Bruce, he slowly turned around on his heel to look behind them. In front of them stood the open doorway leading to the same control room they had left several minutes earlier. The red light in the ceiling of the room flashing quickly as though the bulb was beginning to go out.
"I…" Tony's voice trailed off as Bruce turned around.
"..but we…" Bruce trailed in turn as his mouth hung open. The light began flickering worse than before until it burned out completely, leaving only the two dull beams of their flashlights to shine the room in front of them.
"I think we have a bigger problem than the stairs," Tony finally finished.
"Clearly," Bruce agreed wholeheartedly. "Either we've fallen asleep and this is an insane dream, or we've both coincidentally lost our goddamn minds."
"Or both."