Hey. R'n'R. Coulson's alive in this, by the way...

Thanks for the great reviews - I will keep going (All thanks to LittleWeasleyGirl!)

Hehehe. Natasha and Clint whump.

I LIVE FOR TORTURING XD

And a House M.D. 'Games' reference.

Steve Rogers perched on the edge of the bench, walkie-talkie pressed against his ear.

"Come on... come on, Natasha... Pick up..." Steve grumbled through gritted teeth. Nick Fury paced beside him, with Coulson pacing further away. After a long silence, Natasha picked up.

"St-Steve... I... we... agh..." After a crackled of static, the walkie-talkie cut off. But it was enough to trace the phone.

A few hours later, Natasha blinked and sat up, but her head throbbed so much she could only shift her weight a little upwards. She heard calling, and saw Steve's worried face before she passed out.

Tony was running on a treadmill; a present from Pepper, after he'd complained that he couldn't do any good exercise because he wasn't needed anywhere as Iron Man - or Tony Stark. After a good half-hour of sprinting, he wiped the perspiration from his brow and had a large gulp of Gatorade. Then he sat for a minute, looking through files of his suit on a a screen, then he climbed back onto the treadmill and ran again.

No longer than two minutes later, a dizzying sensation washed over him. He fell to the floor, twitching, but not making any noises.

Pepper found him there two hours later. She panicked and called S.H.I.E.L.D.; who picked him up to take him to their specialised hospital bay.

Tony sat up groggily, then looked down to see a new arc reactor in his chest. He'd been working on one, and Bruce Banner, or the greeny-meeny-hulkie-wulkie as Tony sometimes called him, had finished it. Looking left, Tony could see Natasha staring at him. He started, but realised her vacant eyes weren't focused - she was asleep - but she looked gaunt, pale and extremely thin. Covered in cuts, bruises and bloody bandages, in some places all three, she looked terrible. Looking right, Tony could see Clint lying in bed, IVs strapped to his arms and an oxygen mask pinned to his face. He was swathed in bandages soaked with blood.

"We didn't think Clint would survive." A voice rang out, and Tony jumped. He hadn't seen Maria Hill sitting in a chair beside Natasha's bed. Tony grimaced, then pulled himself into a sitting position. Clint suddenly jerked, his eyes flying open.

"Bloody hell! It's too dark! Turn the fucking lights on!" Clint yelled, and Tony frowned.

"Dark? Clint, it's so bright in here I have to squint!" His answer was followed by silence. Then,

"What? I can barely hear you... speak up." Clint spoke, a little too loudly. Tony frowned.

"I'm shouting!" Tony yelled, and Clint replied,

"Louder!" Clint screamed, and Maria grabbed a syringe and injected it into the IV tube, sedating Clint.

"What was that about?" Tony asked, confused.

"Uh... well, the thing that attacked him and Natasha did sufficient harm to his sight and hearing. Spinal injuries on them both have paralysed them..." Maria trailed off, biting her lip at the horrified expression on Tony's face.

"Oh..." Tony looked away. Bruce entered, speaking to a doctor.

"... Other symptoms?" The doctor was asking.

"I can see the elevated temperatures and restlessness. I think they have something other than their injuries. We can start by inducing seizures" came Bruce's gruff reply. A large device was wheeled in, and tabs and tubes were stuck to Natasha and Clint's foreheads. They were woken, and Bruce explained the situation.

"We'll try and induce a seizure, to cancel out possibilities of illnesses. The machine was turned on, and for a moment Natasha and Clint gazed silently at the machine. It began to flash and play strange noises, but their mouths stayed resolutely shut around the oxygen tubes. Suddenly Natasha's eyes came into focus and she began to convulse and jerk. Clint soon deteriorated into the same condition, jerking and twitching. Tony was confused.

"Are they seizing or dancing?"

"Seizing." came the reply. Tony stared then recoiled in disgust.

"Isn't there any other way to check?"

"No. I assure you that if there was, I would use it."