For what felt like the millionth time in the last week, the gang suited up. This time around it was more uncomfortable than normal. They hadn't had time to clean their suits, and all of the spares were back in the Tower.

So, they were getting into the suits that they had been anxiously sweating in for hours on end. Eleanor failed to hold back a gag as she slipped her arms into her suit, and she looked at Natasha who also looked less than enthused with this situation.

They would definitely be asking Stark for some self-cleaning suits when they got back home.

The pair snuck back downstairs with cat-like movements so as to not wake the sleeping children and ran into Laura and Clint saying their goodbyes on the downstairs landing. The other Avengers were apparently already on the jet.

"Hey!", Laura greeted them with a fake smile. She always found it hard when they directly left the farm to go on a mission, it made the whole thing seem more real for her instead of being able to live in denial.

"We'll be okay, Laura", Nat reassured and wrapped her in a tight hug, before moving back to let Eleanor get her own squeeze in.

"She's right, we gotta come back to see little Elliott", she smirked as she took a step back and put her hands on Laura's shoulders.

"Nathaniel", Nat grumbled and rolled her eyes. There was a collective sombre chuckle from the four before Clint gave his wife a final goodbye hug, and they left for the jet.

Banner was leaving with Fury to go back to the tower, so the numbers on the jet were low without Thor there. Only Steve, Clint, Tony, Eleanor, and Natasha were aboard. Eleanor chewed on her nails as the jet started, not having the whole team there was causing some stress. She just hoped that nothing would go wrong due to the lack of numbers.

Tony was going to fly over to Oslo, Norway with his Iron Man suit when the jet was slightly closer, it was still going to be a long flight for him but the suit could get places fast. The other four were headed to Seoul, South Korea, to visit Helen Cho's lab and hopefully stop Ultron from using The Regeneration Cradle to create a new, unbeatable body.

They all just hoped that their string of bad luck fighting Ultron was over. It was getting tiring and demoralising now. Especially as Ultron was planning to destroy the Earth, that wasn't something to take lightly, there was no room for any more screw-ups.

Seeing the nerves on the younger woman's face, Nat sat next to her and yanked her onto her lap in one swift movement, earning a surprised yelp from her. "What are you doing?", Eleanor laughed.

"Can I not give my wife a hug?", Nat gave a faux-pout. Eleanor shook her head playfully and pinched Nat in the ribs before settling her head down onto her. The moment that Eleanor couldn't see her face anymore, Nat's face dropped as she placed her chin on Eleanor's shoulder. Nat was nervous too, but with everything that had happened over the last 24 hours, she didn't want to give her anything else to worry about.

The two remained in each other's hold for the entire journey, trying to block everything bad in the world out whilst they could.

---

A hefty flight later, the Avengers, excluding Tony, arrived in sunny Seoul. The group had to split up to be able to get the job done. It had been decided that Steve and Eleanor would go into the lab together, and Natasha and Clint would hang back in the jet ready to aid in whatever way they could, depending on what the situation in the lab was.

Nat and Eleanor were disappointed that they were being split up, usually, they were placed together on missions as their workplace dynamic was efficient, their skills blended well together. But Cap wanted Eleanor to accompany him, mostly because she was the fastest runner on the team, after Steve of course. So, if anyone had a chance at outrunning some of Ultron's Legionnaires, it was her. Clint used to call her "Speedy Gonzales" a lot when they first met in training at the Triskelion, which she didn't really care for.

Whilst Clint worked on manoeuvring the jet so that the hatch was hovering over the roof of a random building, Nat walked over to Eleanor who was waiting by Steve at the back. "Be careful, okay?".

"I always am", Eleanor smiled and gave Natasha an Eskimo kiss before the hatch fully opened.

"You ready?", Steve turned to her, when she gave confirmation, he looked over to Nat who bore her eyes into him. He gave her a curt nod as a signal that he would keep her wife safe which put Nat's mind at ease.

Slightly.

Nat watched with her breath held as Steve and Eleanor leapt out of the jet and landed with a hard thud on the roof. But at seeing no broken ankles, she breathed out a sigh of relief and looked out for as long as she could before the hatch closed and the jet turned itself around to face them.

Eleanor looked back to the front window with a smirk and gave a small salute before she and Steve walked over to the side of the roof, the jet now flying away to not draw attention to itself.

"Two minutes. Stay close", Steve spoke into his comms. Eleanor thought that the lab looked 'awesome'. The exterior had glass panels going all the way around it, giving it that modern look that everyone went for these days. The unusual shape of it also caught her eye as well, the curvature and how it dipped in at different levels with balconies. It looked like it would be a fun place to work in.

The lab was also situated on the edge of that part of the city on the water, so it was rather isolated, only connected to the city via a bridge, which wasn't great in terms of getting there quickly by foot.

Steve turned to Eleanor and smiled, "Hop on?", he gestured to his back. She quirked a brow, confused at what he intended to do, but complied and clambered onto his back in piggyback style. The shield on his back made it hard to cling on so she had to wrap her legs around his waist and hold onto his shoulders tightly.

"Okay, why am I up-", the words were ripped from her throat when Steve yelled "Hold on!" and strategically jumped from the building and onto a balcony below, then immediately swinging his legs over the bar to jump to the floor. He had to make sure that his muscle memory didn't make him do a roll to lessen the impact and crush Eleanor. He had already done that to her once and didn't fancy doing it again.

Eleanor's eyes clamped shut during the free-fall as she held in a blood-curtling scream, her stomach felt like it had flown up to her mouth, and her hair, even though in a ponytail was whipping about everywhere. All in all, one of the worst experiences of her life.

When landing Steve stumbled slightly and Eleanor immediately leapt off of his back and looked at him as though he was crazy, "Are you kidding me, Steven?!", she shouted with her arms waving in the air.

He shrugged unapologetically, "Come on, we gotta go". Mumbling a string of profanities under her breath at the super-soldier, she took off at a sprint after him. She fell behind a bit but was able to keep a close enough distance to him considering his enhancements. He was always only about 10 paces in front.

They whipped through the streets of Seoul, avoiding pedestrians and cars with lots of close calls. Civilians shouted at them for being so rude as they rushed past, making Eleanor wince even though she couldn't understand the language. The tone of some of them was more than enough to let her know what they were saying.

Just as Steve had predicted, it had only taken two minutes to arrive at the lab, and as they neared the entrance, it was immediately obvious that something wasn't right. A lab that should have been buzzing with life was uncharacteristically quiet and entering only proved their assumption.

As they sprinted through Eleanor consistently had to put her arms up to cover her face at small electrical buzzings and explosions happening due to damaged equipment. It wouldn't be ideal to go blind by having her eyes hit by some sparks. Ultron had definitely been and gone, they were too late to do this the easy way, and they were too late to save everyone.

Her heart dropped at seeing either dead or severely injured Doctors and staff lying on the floor. Clearly, Ultron did not care about the collateral damage. Guilt bubbled up as she looked at the lifeless figures on the floor, and she had to force herself to continue chasing after Steve.

They sprinted through what felt like the entirety of the lab before reaching Helen Cho's lab room. The first thing that Eleanor noticed when entering the room as her run slowed down were the large tubes in the middle of the floor, indicating that something had been removed from the room. Most likely The Regeneration Cradle.

"Dr. Cho!", Steve exclaimed which brought her attention over to the injured Doctor lying on the floor to the side. Eleanor's mouth went dry as she walked over to the pair. Steve pressed a white cloth to Dr Cho's injured, bloodied shoulder after sitting her up. Eleanor was relieved to see that the woman was still alive, at seeing the numerous amounts of dead bodies throughout the building, she had assumed the worst.

Eleanor crouched down next to her as well and nodded reassuringly whilst taking hold of her hand when she started talking, out of breath and clearly in pain. "He's uploading himself into the body". Her eyes flicked back and forth between Steve and Eleanor, not having the capacity to decide who to focus on.

"Where?". When Steve didn't get an answer as Helen breathed out in more pain, he looked to the other side of the room and tried to get up. But Dr Cho clamped her free hand down onto his arm to stop that from happening.

"The real power is inside the Cradle. The gem, its power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the Cradle to Stark". Eleanor frowned, what gem was she talking about? Whatever it was, it was clearly incredibly dangerous, she seemed very shaken up when explaining it to the two Avengers, and it was rare to see her shaken up.

"First I have to find it".

"Go", she breathed out.

"Are you going to be okay?", Eleanor placed a hand on her good shoulder, being careful not to aggravate her injuries. They needed to get the Cradle but they couldn't just leave Helen to die.

Dr Cho nodded gratefully, "Help is on the way". Eleanor smiled and made her way over to Steve who was swiftly making his way out of the building. She had no choice but to take her word for it.

"Did you guys copy that?", he spoke, hoping that Natasha and Clint who were flying over the city had heard what Helen had said.

"We did".

"I got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him", Nat spoke after Clint.

Though Clint proved that it was a different vehicle, "There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you, Cap. On the loop by the bridge. It's them, you got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver".

Eleanor's eyes immediately widened as they made their way over to the looped road that Clint had mentioned and started climbing up the side of it via a ladder, "No!", she blurted out and shook her head, though the two on the jet couldn't see her frantic movements. Helen had just explained that the magic stone would be fatal if it were to be damaged.

"Negative", Steve piled on, "That truck crashes, the gem could level the city". The two made it to the top of the ladder and hopped onto the road, avoiding passing cars.

"El, again!", Steve yelled and waved his arm to point at his back once more. Eleanor would rather eat a book than do another fall.

Though she had no time to argue, the truck was approaching them rapidly on the road below, so she yelled "Fuck!", whilst jumping onto the Captain's back in koala mode again. Steve panted in anticipation of another harsh landing, and sprinted to the other side of the road and leapt off of the bridge.

He timed it perfectly as the two dropped onto the roof of the truck. This time was not as smooth for Eleanor, however, as Steve flew backwards, where he would usually land on his shield, his shield landed on Eleanor. He half-shouted a "Sorry", but had to rush to the back of the truck. Briefly, she was winded, but in sheer desperation of the situation, willed her lungs to take in more air as she rolled onto her front and swivelled to face Steve who had now jumped onto the rear truck doors.

Natasha had been watching from the jet that was hovering nearby and grimaced at seeing the two jump onto the truck. So much for keeping her safe, the guy had just almost broken Eleanor's ribs.

Eleanor shuffled forward in an army crawl to get closer to the doors, and was about to poke her head down to see if Steve was okay. But she was glad that she didn't get the chance to as the door was blasted backwards, sending Steve flying to the side of the truck as he hung on. That was a very near headache.

He managed to use his feet to boost the door back around to where it was supposed to be, but Ultron proceeded to blast it off of its hinges. Eleanor watched with her jaw dropped as Steve was thrown into the air in a starfish position, and landed on the ramp that had been blown forward.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy. I'm gonna try and keep him that way", Steve shouted into comms as he clung onto the ramp.

"You're both no match for him".

"Thanks, Barton", Steve breathed out.

"Yeah, real life of the party, Tweety Bird", Eleanor spoke dryly as she began moving forward again, hoping to be of some help in keeping Ultron temporarily distracted. That was one of her specialities: being annoying.

Her movements stopped though when she saw Steve get blasted into a car behind. Luckily he managed to stay on the hood and not get run over. She hated to admit it, but Clint had been right, they were hilariously outgunned by him. It was just a case of keeping themselves alive long enough.

Steve jumped and swung off of a truck's wing mirror to jump back onto the top of the truck behind Eleanor. He crouched defensively whilst she was still splayed on her stomach waiting for an opportunity to make her move, trying not to be blown off the top of the vehicle, especially as they were on a highway.

When Steve landed, Ultron flew out and hovered over the back of the truck. Eleanor tensed at how close she was to the bot as he started speaking, "You know what's in that cradle?", he shot at Steve again but it hit the vibranium shield, "The power to make real change, and that terrifies you".

Ultron seemed to smirk and then looked down at Eleanor, apparently, he was not aware of her presence on the truck alongside the Captain. "What are you-? Never mind", he aimed his hand at Eleanor, wanting to blast her. She knew that there was nothing that she could do to brace for that kind of shot, but she still immediately sat up and shuffled backwards instinctively.

"El!", Steve shouted, which swiftly got her attention. She turned as he tossed her the shield just in time. Raising it to cover her body, she felt the impact of Ultron's blast as it pushed her back slightly, but she wasn't dead. Thank God for vibranium.

Steve grabbed ahold of Eleanor's collar to drag her behind him protectively and took his shield back just before Ultron started to send blast after blast at the super-soldier, also aiming for Eleanor every now and then. All hits were expertly stopped by Steve's shield, but then he went ahead and lost it when it got lodged in Ultron's arm, who batted it away onto the road.

She gulped at the loss of the only way to protect themselves from Ultron, but that train of thought was immediately out of the window when she had to duck to avoid Steve smacking her onto the road in front of the truck as he flew back from enduring a blast. He managed to grab ahold of the driver's door, but this now left Eleanor in the spotlight.

Sighing, she shakily stood and spoke into the comms, "You might have to un-pancake me after this".

"What?", Nat's voice came through gruffly, confused and terrified of what those words meant.

There was no time to reply as Ultron made his move, Eleanor dodged a blast by throwing herself onto her back and then jumping up onto her feet. She ran at Ultron who was aiming another blast, but she caught him off guard when she jumped directly onto him. He started flailing about as though she was a spider that he was trying to shake off.

Multiple times she had almost become roadkill, but with all of the luck in the world, she managed to cling to the bot and moved onto his back. "Get off!", he screeched as he continued writhing. When he spun around in fast circles for a moment, she thought she was going to throw up, though that would probably make the bot angry if she hurled on him so it wasn't the worst thing in the world.

She grunted a few times as she held on for dear life, but her movements slowed when she heard Nat's voice say "I'm always picking up after you boys", through the comms. She had no clue what her wife was talking about, but the brief distraction had meant that Ultron had thrown her arms off, and she was now just dangling by her feet as one leg immediately flew over Ultron's shoulder to keep her there.

Whilst she worked on not dying, she heard Clint giving Natasha directions, which meant only one thing. Nat was on her motorbike. In any other situation, Eleanor would have been thinking about how cool Nat looked on her bike, but now was not the time.

It didn't take long for Natasha to appear by the side of the truck and throw the shield she had collected on her way up to Steve. When she spotted Eleanor dangling upside down on the back of Ultron whilst he shook his body around frantically, her eyes practically fell out of her sockets. She would be sure to give Eleanor a smack round the ear when they got out of this for being so reckless.

Eleanor gave her wife a halfhearted wave, but now that Steve had his shield back and was climbing back up to the top of the truck, she backflipped off of the bot and landed in a wobbly crouched position behind him. Just in time for Steve to hit him around the face.

She watched as Steve and Ultron's position changed during their fight, meaning Steve's back was now facing her, the blasts directed in her direction.

Natasha had been slowed down by Ultron lifting the ground in front of her, leaving her to have to catch up with the truck again with Ultron Legionnaires shooting at her. Through the comms, she could hear Nat telling civilians to move out of the way, but what really caught her off guard was hearing a small "Beep beep".

As much as she wanted to, there was no time to tease her wife for being so adorable, Steve was thrown backwards, hitting Eleanor off of the truck with him. Luckily she landed on the incredibly unstable ramp. Steve, however, got into quite the tumble with rolling cars, but somehow propelled himself off of the underside of one and jumped back onto the roof to continue his fight with Ultron.

Eleanor once again was clinging on for dear life as the ramp began rattling, looking like it was about to collapse onto the road. That wasn't the part that scared her most, however.