2015-

The Avengers minus Thor had been fighting HYDRA as a group for approximately the last six months. While it was hard work, it was rewarding knowing that they were successfully overpowering the evil group.

It had felt like unfinished business after the fall of SHIELD had revealed that there were still many HYDRA operatives and bases all around the world. Earning closure to that situation was nice.

Due to all of their successes, some of them public, the group had made quite the name for themselves. Everyone had known the Avengers due to the Battle of New York, but there was a two-and-a-half-year hiatus, so a lot of people had thought they had gone into incredibly early retirement.

But now that they were back in business they were very well-known, Natasha and Eleanor even sometimes got stopped in the street to sign things. It was weird being treated like a celebrity when they were practically just doing what they had done for a job at SHIELD, this time with a man in an iron suit by their side.

Natasha didn't particularly like the attention, whenever adults or children came up to them to say hello, she would give a small response and smile, whilst Eleanor did all of the talking.

She didn't really like it either but wanted to keep the people happy, so signed all of the paper that was pushed into her face, though she did enjoy it when kids came up to say hi, as she knew that they were genuine. Natasha would watch fondly as Eleanor animatedly told family-friendly tales of their adventures. She couldn't help but chuckle along with whatever kid was witnessing the story.

There was one very young kid around the age of three who had bumped his knee by falling off of his scooter beforehand but still waddled over to them to say hi, and Eleanor gushed over him. Wiping the residual tears away she cooed at how brave he was being and whipped out a lollipop to give to him, after getting the mother's permission. It was a sweet sight, literally, but Natasha was just confused at how her wife had pulled a lollipop out of thin air.

It wasn't all fun and games though, some people hated the Avengers with a burning passion, still holding blame in their hearts for the situation in 2012 New York. So while some magazines and tabloids put the group on their front pages to show their admiration, some tabloids tried to spread some gossip and a lot of dislike.

Much of it was laugh-worthy though, even if they were insulting them. Like the time Eleanor had run into the communal kitchen laughing hysterically at the front page of a tabloid with a badly photoshopped image of Natasha and Tony on a date with the bold title of "World's Mightiest Homewreckers - Black Widow cheats on wife".

Clint had almost got yet another kick in the shin from Natasha as he laughed just as hysterically beside her, but he managed to jump backwards. Unfortunately, he had jumped backwards into Bruce who spilt his cup of water all over the both of them at the impact, causing the younger woman to laugh even more, almost collapsing to the floor as her knees gave way.

As funny as the photoshop was, the PR team Tony had hired for situations like this did have to release some statements to stop the fire from spreading.

Eleanor had found it hilarious when a journalist walked up to them when they were shopping asking how it was being friends and coworkers after the divorce. Natasha very nearly punched the man so Eleanor had to drag her away from the fruits section before a hoard of apples was launched at the journalist's head.

It was a hard adjustment though, being in the public eye a lot, so downtime at the Avengers Tower was a blessing, and there was so much room, that it never felt like they were trapped inside if they wanted a few days with no prying eyes. There was some worry about whether any allies of the Red Room would make any attempts with getting Natasha back, with her being so well known it wouldn't be hard to track her down. But they supposed that even they wouldn't be stupid enough to go after an Avenger. Eleanor knew for sure that if anything happened to Natasha that they would all break the Earth apart to get her back.

The two women enjoyed the time spent in their small shared apartment block but also had surprising amounts of fun when in the communal areas as well. Tony for the most part had a really good sense of humour, except for the occasional comment that he didn't realise was offensive, to which Eleanor would slap him around the back of the head and make him put $10 in the "Stark's Screw-ups" jar. This money went towards buying new games and lots of takeout.

Tony could afford these things as it was, but the team found it amusing to be using money from the jar. Tony couldn't say the same.

Steve also invited Sam around a lot, which was a bonus as he was very fun to be around. Though they did spend a lot of time hiding out in Steve's room still doing their search for Bucky, they didn't tell anyone else that and neither did Natasha and Eleanor.

The only time they spoke about it was when they called them into Steve's room for a second opinion or aid with deciphering a resource. They had been in the intelligence business for a while after all so their knowledge was very much needed.

The group of heroes had settled into a routine. Well, as much of a routine as you could get with impromptu evil organisation base raids on the agenda. But with whatever semblance of routine they had, it was nice.

But then Thor showed up at the tower and threw a spanner into the well-oiled machine.

"The Sceptre's been taken", he breathlessly announced as he had sprinted across various areas of the tower trying to find everyone, the living room where they were watching "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" was the last place that he had looked in.

They all looked at him in extreme shock, a small part of it was Thor's sudden appearance, but most of it was from the fear that still surrounded the Sceptre. It was a dangerous tool, they knew that much from their fight against Loki and their army of Chitauri. So the fact that it was missing wasn't the most ideal situation.

Eleanor huffed as she paused the movie, no one likes pausing Keira Knightley, and rushed down to the lab along with everyone else.

Luckily Bruce and Tony kept the lab stocked with everything that they could ever need, including digitally with things like tracking algorithms. They still had the means to track the energy that the Sceptre had given off from their work on the old helicarrier lab, so were able to track it to a country in Europe. Sokovia.

A country that was unfortunate enough to be struggling with wars and unrest frequently. They were confused about why it would be in Sokovia of all places. But it all made sense when they pulled the location up on a satellite image and zoomed in.

The place practically screamed "secret HYDRA hide-out in the middle of nowhere", so now their main concern was why on Earth HYDRA wanted the sceptre. Once again, not ideal.

The immediate response was to gear up and hop into a quinjet with the destination being in the middle of nowhere in Sokovia. This had been brought up during one of the rare times where they all had a night off, so the mood wasn't very high as they all grumbled in annoyance as they flew out of the tower.

Tony had made new suits for both Natasha and Eleanor. Their suits were very similar to the SHIELD ones but without the logo. The main parts of the suits were both black, but Natasha had glowing blue lines on the side of hers as a pointer at the widow bites and electric gloves, Eleanor's had some yellow linings around the stitching for a "pop of colour". Nat also had her iconic black widow symbol on her belt, and Eleanor had a golden infinity symbol on hers. According to Tony, it was a hint that she would "Forever be annoying". Asshole.

This caused the media to coin her as "Agent Eternal" or "The Eternal Agent", which she didn't like all too much but as she was the only one without a hero name they had to call her something. "Black Widow and Agent Eternal" was commonly plastered on posters.

Steve had tried to boost morale during their time on the jet, but the entire team collectively shushed him very loudly when he had tried to begin one of his speeches, something that they found he did incredibly often. Sometimes they would find a way to listen along just to give the man something to hold onto, but at times like this, they didn't want to hear how this was a step closer to a safer world. They wanted to be back on the sofa eating junk food.

But alas, the group eventually landed in Sokovia. Eleanor immediately noticed the cold as they exited the quinjet, it had been snowing in the forest that they landed in, and they could definitely tell. Their breaths came out as puffs of smoke, and Eleanor was definitely shivering, she felt the cold more than the rest of the team which was something she got relentlessly bullied for by her wife and friends.

So when her teeth started absentmindedly chattering after splitting off into groups, Clint and Natasha shook their heads as they continued forward on foot.

The snow luckily concealed the sound of their footsteps, though it did make it harder to look for twigs as they caused the most noise in general, but luckily the three spies were able to not give away their positions and were completely silent in their movements. The same could not be said for their teammates who had taken the more loud approach in their advancements, loudly fighting Agents at the perimeter.

Because of this, when they came across an abandoned land rover with no roof in the middle of the forest Eleanor said "Fuck it", and hopped in, looking at the other two expectedly. "What? It's free real estate right, besides, everyone knows we're here now anyway".

They shrugged and Clint hopped in beside Eleanor as Natasha assumed the driver's seat. As they flew through the forest it attracted the attention of some of the HYDRA Agents that had previously had their attention on the other heroes. Shots and bombs started being fired at them, so it was Eleanor and Clint's job to try and stop that.

Clint could usually spot things from a mile off, so with his bow, his focus was on the Agents hiding in trees that were ready to drop explosives on their heads. Eleanor had her handguns and was focusing on shooting those that were on foot nearby.

After some successful driving from Natasha and successful shots from the other two, another car vehicle similar to theirs came up behind them and started shooting blue beams at them, all missing their target.

Natasha briefly looked behind and saw it had left smouldering holes in the surrounding trees, "What the hell is that?!".

Eleanor dropped to the floor to reload her guns before jumping up and aiming more shots at the tires of the car, "I dunno but I feel like we're in a fucking Star Wars movie!".

Whilst taking more shots she breathlessly exclaimed "You've got to be kidding me", as she spotted Tony flying next to them along with some Agents with jetpacks who were trying to get into their vehicle. "We've got company!".

One of them flew next to Nat and she grunted as she kicked her door open to send them flying. Another one came at them but Clint aimed an arrow that stuck to his head and then flooded them with an electric shock.

Meanwhile, Eleanor was still taking shots at the vehicle and had managed to burst the front tire, sending the vehicle crashing into a tree.

After a brief second of victory, another one came up beside them powering up yet another blaster gun. Just as Clint and Eleanor were taking aim Thor landed on top of the vehicle and hit the gunman away with Mjölnir, before swiftly taking flight again.

As they got closer to the destination, the blasts of laser beams and the explosions caused by them increased tenfold. Clint and Eleanor continued with their assault via bullets and arrows, taking out hoards of jetpacked HYDRA goons, and eventually, they closed in on where the rest of the Avengers had ended up being as well. Cap was on his motorbike, running people over. Effective, was what Eleanor thought as she shot someone flying behind him.

Hulk was out in full swing, throwing cars and tanks around, Thor was battering people, and Tony was blasting people away.

But then the wooden barricade came up, so Natasha turned the car sideways before they hit it and the three were left to leap over it. Both Natasha and Eleanor tucked their legs in ready to roll when they hit the floor, though Natasha extended a leg at the last second to kick a guard in the face. Thor and Tony flew over it, Hulk smashed through, Clint also jumped as he aimed more arrows at people simultaneously, and the Captain jumped over it on his motorbike.

When Eleanor landed she rolled sideways to avoid injury but immediately pushed herself up with her hands in a way that mimicked a cartwheel and slammed her foot into the chest of one of a guard and pushed him down with the impact. She landed standing upright on top of him and then continued running with Natasha and Clint. A jetpack would have probably been useful for them as well she thought to herself as the freezing air entered her burning lungs.

But the three spies continued sprinting behind the others, taking out guard after guard as they spotted the base in the distance.