Bruce couldn't feel him. The other guy. He knew that it didn't really make any sense, but as hard as he tried, he couldn't feel the "hulk's" presence anywhere in his body, let alone his mind. Part of him knew that this was wrong. This wasn't right. For some reason, though, this thought kept getting pushed aside and he couldn't seem to figure out why. Not feeling him… Was weird… Wasn't it? Bruce's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he thought, his head beginning to ache as he did so. 'No,' he scolded himself. 'Focus on what's going on!' Looking at Tony quickly in the dim lights of their flashlights, he pressed his lips tightly together, worry clear on his face.

"So?" Bruce asked after a few moments of silence. "Any new ideas?"

"Uh, yeah, working on that," Tony informed him, though Bruce had the suspicion that his mind was about as blank as Bruce's was when it came to what to possibly do next. "So where are we? We uh…"

"We couldn't get to the stairs, for… Whatever reason. The hallway seemed to magically somehow extend itself to no end."

"Which is—"

"Impossible, yes," Bruce's head was hurting more and more by the passing minute.

"—and the doors have no handles, which is—"

"Also impossible."

"Right," Tony finally glanced at Bruce, looking as confused and freaked out as Bruce felt. "So do you remember tripping on acid or any other sort of hallucinogenic before or after starting up Mario Kart?"

"Not that I can recall, no," Bruce licked his lips to wet them.

"Perfect," Tony concluded, spinning around and pointing his light down the way they had came as though he just remembered that their backs were entirely exposed. Jumping slightly, Bruce turned to look behind them, too, sighing softly when he saw nothing.

"D-did you hear something?" Bruce asked, hoping that he didn't.

"Not a damn thing," Tony admitted, his face screwing up at the thought. "Not a single damn thing."

"So it isn't just me?" Bruce asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"Nnnnope," Tony turned back to face forwards again, regripping the light in his hand. "Not just you…"

'You can't feel him,' a voice in Bruce's head sounded suddenly, causing him to jump again. Straightening his back, he laughed almost awkwardly.

"Shivers," he explained quickly, giving Tony a small smile to which Tony nodded at. It was weird, wasn't it? Bruce urged his mind to remember why, though… Wasn't… Wasn't there only one other time he had felt this way? When was it? All thought of the Hulk immediately seemed to vanish from Bruce's mind again as Tony spoke.

"So I figure," Tony paused as he scratched the back of his neck lightly. "We have about three options. We could a, keep trying to get to the stairs?" Tony's face screwed up again at the weird idea that they were unable to get to them in the first place. "Or b, go back to the control room and wait to see if any sort of miracle happens and the backup power generators come up by themselves."

"You know that's not how they work," It was his turn to make a face. "That was only two. What was the third option?"

"Go back upstairs, pretend none of this ever happened and go to sleep?" Tony offered with a sheepish grin. Sighing heavily, Bruce rubbed at one of his temples with his fingers. "I'm taking that as a no-go on option c?"

"You got it," Bruce didn't even look at him. Trying to form a solid plan with Tony was usually difficult under normal conditions. But under conditions that questioned the very fabric of their reality? It was seeming more impossible with every passing second. Stifling a yawn behind the back of his free hand, Bruce rubbed roughly at his cheek under his eye. He was already exhausted, they had stayed up all night after all. He had been hoping to be in bed before 5 am, but clearly that idea was more of a dream than anything he'd be getting in the near future.

"So? What do you think?" Tony didn't bother to hide his own yawn as he watched Bruce. Bruce thought for what felt like hours before finally pushing back his shoulders to stretch his back, sighing yet again.

"Waiting would probably be worse," he pointed out, annoyance clear in his voice for a moment before he cleared his throat. "We should just… Try again, I guess?" Extending one arm towards the direction the stairs were supposedly in, Tony 'allowed him' to go first.

"After you!"

"Oh, I'm so glad," Bruce replied, voice full of sarcasm. Stepping past Tony, he held the light in his hand as steady as he could manage, ignoring the walls and doors on them entirely this time, hoping that it would make a difference.

"I knew you would be," Tony shot back as he followed quickly behind.

"I'm just going to ignore the doors this time," Bruce informed Tony, thinking maybe if they both ignored them, then they wouldn't be real.

"That's an idea," Tony said slowly, his eyebrows coming together as if trying to figure out why, but he seemed to copy him anyway.

Within just a few moments and a turn in the hall, the pair stopped dead in their tracks, standing directly in front of the door leading to the stairwell. Holding his breath, Bruce glanced out of the corner of his eye at Tony, seeing that his shock was mirrored on Tony's face. Slowly reaching out towards the door's push bar, Tony's fingers brushed ever so slightly against the metal of the bar. Letting out a large sigh of relief, he relaxed, Bruce following in suit.

"Holyshitit'sreal," he breathed, turning to grin at Bruce as he pushed the bar in to open the door. Stepping into the cool stairwell, Bruce shivered and brought his elbows tight against his sides. At least they had another red security light over their heads- it was something at least besides their own small beams. "How many floors again?"

"Down eight," Bruce told him, his voice echoing in the stairwell and the pair quickly began to descend down the stairs to the basement levels. After several flights of stairs, they heard a door open somewhere below them. Slowing down their pace, they stopped and listened.

"Clint!" Steve's voice sounded from below. "Clint is that you?" Glancing at each other in the dim red light, their faces matched in confusion.

"Steve?" Bruce called back, continuing his way down the stairs.

"Did you lose Barton?" Tony asked, following quickly down.

"Wh- Damn it," They heard Steve mutter quietly to himself, his voice echoed slightly by the stairwell. After a few moments, the pair stopped short so as not to run straight into Steve, very clearly lacking his Clint. "I was hoping the sound I heard was him." He explained quickly, glancing up the stairs before looking back at the two.

"How did you get separated?"

"He ran off ahead," Steve had a mixture of annoyance and concern on his face, as though he couldn't decide which he should be. "I thought I'd just find him somewhere on the bottom floor, but I searched the whole thing and didn't see him anywhere. So, I've been looking for him." Brows furrowing together, Bruce looked at Tony before focusing back on Steve.

"And… Obviously, this bottom floor was B-6, right?"

"Yeah," Steve ran his fingers through his hair quickly. "No B-7."

"I tried telling him," Tony pointed out. "So alright, now we've got two missing Bartons?"

"It would seem—" The three men jumped as Bruce was cut off by the seemingly deafening ring of Tony's phone. Turning it slightly in his hand so he could see the screen as he simultaneously shut off the sound, Tony's face lit up.

"Thor! Maybe we can get some answers, see if anything was up in the apartment." Answering the call, he turned on the speakerphone and spoke loudly into the mic. "Thor! Got any news for us, buddy?" He paused, but there was no answer. The men exchanged glances, listening to the silence. "…Thor?" More silence. "Hello? Are you there?" Bruce could hear a tinge of worry in Tony's voice now.

All at once there was a low sound- almost like a laugh coming from the speaker. The trio froze as they heard a crunch and watched the screen as the call lost its connection.

"….That sounded good…." Bruce finally spoke up, the three of them still staring at the phone as it dimmed before the screen shut off completely, timing out.

"That sounded like this problem might be escalating," Steve corrected him. "And quickly."

"I think it might be safe to say that we should be doing no more splitting up," Tony added on.

"I can agree to that!" Bruce smiled weakly, it fading almost immediately into a grimace. There was a pause as they tried to decide how to go about this mess of a situation. "So who do we try and find first? Or do we still try and get the power on first?"

"We don't know if they have enough time for us to get the lights on first," Steve pointed out matter-of-factly. "We should probably go for the Bartons first, we're closest to them. Thor is over 20 floors above us, so for now at least, he'll have to be on his own." Bruce watched as Steve pressed his lips together tightly as if the thought pained him to say out loud. He was very thankful, however, to have someone who knew how to form plans with them this time to make things go at least a little bit smoother.

"Good luck, buddy," Tony said, looking up at the ceiling before turning his attention back towards the other two. "You said you checked the entire bottom floor?" Twisting around and shining his flashlight towards the wall to look for the floor number, Bruce could almost visibly see the gears working in Tony's head.

"Tony," he warned and Steve looked between the two of them.

"What?"

"Tony we need to find them first," Bruce said quickly.

"But we're on the right floor," Tony looked at Bruce, an almost wild look in his eye. It was the kind of look he always had before he did something stupid and got them into trouble.

"Tony," he pressed more firmly, hoping Steve would back him up before his resolve failed him, as it nearly always did.
"How long would it take?" Steve asked instead, his eyes trained on Tony, his face unreadable. Bruce felt his stomach drop. This was wrong. This was all so, so wrong. He felt as though his tongue were suddenly made of lead, leaving him unable to voice his concerns but somehow, he knew… This isn't how this was supposed to happen, it-

"Less than 10 minutes," He heard Tony say, but his voice sounded far away, despite him standing right next to Bruce. He could feel his panic growing. "5, tops." There was a pause.

"Alright, let's do it." Steve decided. "But quickly."

This was all wrong.