Upon arrival at the tower, the Cradle was moved into Stark and Banner's lab. Eleanor slowly followed behind the group, her legs felt like jelly and her head felt spaced out like someone was slowly inflating a balloon within her brain. She had to keep blinking and looking around with wide eyes to stop them from closing permanently and having her body flop to the floor.

The only thing that was stopping her mind and body from shutting down due to pain and exhaustion from being used as a chew toy by Ultron, was the need to start tracking Natasha down. So, ignoring how her knees were close to buckling with each step, she headed over to the lab.

Looking around, she just wanted to cry. Natasha was somewhere out there alone and in the hands of a robot who wanted to end the world and had killed to send a message before. It wasn't much reassurance to her that she could guarantee that her wife was alive, though she was hopeful as Ultron hadn't sent a photo over as he had done with Strucker. She was praying for it to stay that way.

Bruce and Tony were on the other side of the lab doing God knows what, and Steve had scuttled off to somewhere else in the tower with Wanda and Pietro to get them some food and drink, so Eleanor naturally followed Clint over to the cradle. She wrapped her arms around herself as she walked forward, seeking some form of warmth and comfort.

She stood a few steps back from the Cradle, wanting nothing to do with it. It was that machine that had allowed Ultron the opportunity to build a body, consequently making the Avengers chase after it and leading to Natasha's disappearance. Eleanor knew it was silly to blame the Cradle itself, it was an impressive piece of technology with the ability to save lives, but it was tricky for her not to feel some distaste towards it. They gained the Cradle and lost Natasha.

Clint on the other hand jumped on top of it and crouched to be able to get a good look at whatever was inside and to see if they could get it open. "What the hell", he mumbled. This did pique her interest, but she was still hesitant to move forward. "El, come look", Clint waved her over. She rolled her eyes slightly but moved forward, she didn't care about the Cradle anymore, she just wanted to start the search for Natasha.

But when she peered into the top of the glass she couldn't help but get lost in what was there. She narrowed her eyes at it and tried to take it all in. Lying down inside was a red man, presumably made of human tissue and vibranium, with a yellow stone in his head. On its own, it just looked like a human dipped in body paint, but with the materials it was made out of along with the gem, there was no doubt about it that this was a powerful being.

"This thing is sealed tight", Clint hopped off of the Cradle when Bruce and Tony approached. Eleanor turned to face them but made sure to keep her face void of emotion, she didn't want their pity right now. Throughout the flight, Tony kept sending looks her way, and although he meant well she couldn't help but get frustrated by it.

"We're gonna need to access the program, break it down from within", Bruce placed his hand on the Cradle, standing next to Eleanor. Her nose scrunched slightly and she slipped out from beside the Cradle and made her way over to Clint.

"Any chance Natasha might leave you a message outside the Internet? Old-school spy stuff?", Tony turned to face the two whilst Bruce walked over to a computer.

"There are some nets we can cast", Clint tapped Eleanor's elbow to get her to follow, "We'll find her". With newfound determination, the pair went downstairs to where some old communications setups were stored. It had been a while since Eleanor had had to do things 'old-school', but it was like riding a bike. For many years before SHIELD technology hit its peak, they used all sorts of machines and programmes. It was also part of the recruitment training for just-in-case scenarios.

In this scenario, it was paying off. Clint set up some programmes on the computer that would work on picking up any radio frequencies and tuned it to fit their needs. No specific channels, just global. That of course meant that they might pick up on some kids playing with old equipment in their parent's basement, but they would know if it was Nat, she would use a signal at the beginning of her message.

Whilst Clint set the computer up, Eleanor worked on hooking up the radars and machines to pick up different frequencies and signals to the computer to work with the programmes.

With a loud sigh, she flopped back onto the seat next to Clint and slumped down. Her nerves were going through the roof, it had only been a few minutes since the initial set-up and she was already getting impatient with having nothing come through.

Seeing her leg bouncing up and down, Clint turned to face her and patted her shoulder, "She'll reach out, we've done this kind of thing all sorts of times, we'll get something, just give her time", he reassured. She turned her head slightly to look at him, trying to detect any uncertainty, but she could see that Clint really believed that she would reach out to them.

She nodded and puffed her cheeks out slightly as she exhaled loudly and dryly chuckled, "Just sucks".

"I know", Clint frowned and turned back to the computer, whilst Eleanor kept her eyes on the unmoving pin on the frequency detector. Her eyes were burning as she barely blinked, but just like the pain going through the rest of her body, she ignored it.

Seconds began to feel like years as they sat in silence, but hope burned in her chest when the pins started flickering and static came through. Jumping forward and accidentally slamming her abdomen into the desk in front of her, she picked up the headphones and listened in. Morse code, that was a good start.

As she listened and translated the code in her head, she scowled at realising that it wasn't Nat who they had picked up on. Someone was just spelling out a bunch of different profanities that Eleanor was tempted to genuinely repeat at the false alarm. "Just some kids". She saw Clint's demeanour droop slightly, but he softly smiled as she leaned back into her chair.

Back in the silence, Eleanor's mind drifted over to the worst again. She was terrified that the reason for the radio silence on Natasha's end was that Ultron had killed her. There was also the possibility that she couldn't find anything to make a communication device in the first place, but then that brings the issue of how the hell were they going to find her. Her mind wondered how Nat was doing right now, was she in pain, scared?

It was a long twenty minutes of Eleanor spiralling, her chest felt like it was getting tighter with each passing second, but she did a good job of hiding it. Clint sat unaware next to her at the state of his friend.

When she felt that all hope was lost, they were startled by more static coming through. Eleanor was hesitant to reach for the headphones, not wanting to have to deal with more disappointment again, so Clint grabbed them and held one side up to his ears.

Eleanor watched as a smile slowly formed on Clint's face, and once again hope burned through her. "Is it Nat?", she sat up and leaned forward.

"Yeah, it's her, she typed 'E.L' thrice as her signal before coordinates", Clint rushed out as he turned to the computer to hone in on Natasha's whereabouts via satellite imaging. Eleanor began smiling brightly, Nat was alive and had managed to against all odds create a device to signal them. She just hoped that they would be able to reach her in time so as to not allow that status to change.

Practically hopping up and down on her seat with excitement, she leaned forward to Clint and spoke so fast that she wasn't even sure that he would understand her, "I'll go up and tell the others to haul ass, you stay here in case she sends anything else".

"Aye aye Captain", Clint joked, his spirits also skyrocketing after Nat's communications. Eleanor let out a loud, breathy chuckle of relief and sprinted out of the room, skidding around the corner and almost slamming into a wall as she took off towards the stairs.

She was moving at such a speed that she might as well have either been flying, or been Pietro. But when she arrived on one of the upper levels of the lab where Bruce and Tony had been working, she paused at seeing the backs of the twins and Steve at the entrance of the room with high tensions.

"You don't know what you're doing!", Steve half-shouted with a clear and stern tone making Eleanor tilt her head in confusion as she politely moved past the twins and towards Steve's left side.

"And you do? She's not in your head?", Bruce retorted with a calm level of anger towards Steve and Wanda that Eleanor had never seen from the man before, it made her quite uncomfortable.

"Uh, what's going on?", she interjected as her high spirits from finding Nat now took an immediate plummet.

"I know you're angry", Wanda moved next to Eleanor, making her jump ever so slightly at how quietly she had moved. Bruce was clearly holding a grudge at the whole 'seeing your worst fears' situation, but Eleanor was more mellow about the situation. Sure, she had been initially livid, but after mulling it over and how the twins had jumped in to help them after realising they were batting for the wrong team, she didn't mind them. She too had batted for the wrong team for many years without realising.

That wasn't to say that she trusted the twins completely, but she had nothing against them being here and working for their trust.

"Oh, we're way past that. I could choke the life out of you and never change a shade". Yeah, definitely a nasty grudge.

Eleanor had noticed the way that Wanda's face hardened slightly from her side profile, with a sense of disappointment. Though they were new to the little team, Eleanor wasn't going to take death threats toward anyone. It's never the right thing to do even if you hate someone, that's just sinking to a level lower than them.

"Banner", she warned and took a step forward to try and place herself between the Hulk and the witch, not noticing the way Wanda looked at the back of her head with curiosity.

"After everything that's happened", Steve also took a step forward.

"It's nothing compared to what's coming!", Tony interjected with venom lacing his words, making Eleanor even more confused with what she had walked in on. Just moments ago she had been excited to go and find her wife, and now there were tense arguments and death threats.

"Can someone please explain what the hell is going on?", Eleanor flung her hands up into the air and let them flop to her sides in exasperation.

"They're trying to put their own thing into the Cradle, but they don't know what's in there!", Wanda explained with the volume of her voice slowly rising throughout her statement. Eleanor's eyebrows shot up as she looked between the two scientists. An unexpected and reckless move, it has some of Ultron's schematics in, chances are it would blow them to smithereens.

"This isn't a game!", Steve piled on as Eleanor let out a deep sigh wishing that Nat were there. She would be able to knock some sense into them.

Before anyone could get a word in again, Pietro began his manic sprint around the room, unplugging the Cradle and wires of computers and other machines. "No, no. Go on. You were saying?". The sound of glass then shattering along with a gunshot made Eleanor stumble back slightly as she watched Pietro fall through the floor into the room that Clint and Eleanor had just been in.

"Pietro!", Wanda rushed forward to check if her brother was okay, whilst Eleanor just crouched down and pinched the bridge of her nose wondering what the fuck was going on. Though her head whipped around to the sound of Tony's computer beeping.

"I'm rerouting the upload", the man stated as he turned to continue his task. Yet again Eleanor flinched, making her stand when Steve threw his shield to bounce off some monitors but was then blasted back when Tony summoned his Iron Man suit hand.

"ENOUGH!", Eleanor yelled through gritted teeth as she marched over to the Cradle, but stopped in her tracks at seeing Banner put Wanda in a headlock. Whilst Steve and Tony had managed to blast each other through the glass walls, Eleanor made a move over to Banner. "What the hell are you doing?", she half-yelled, anticipating a fight to break out.

Apparently, Wanda could protect herself though, as she blasted some red magic through herself to reach Banner, and then turned and pushed him away further. Neat party trick.

"Christ almighty", Eleanor mumbled, but at seeing Wanda look over at the Cradle with horror, she turned around to see what else was happening for herself. What she was not expecting was Thor running up to it and leaping on top of it before summoning lightning and directing it at the Cradle.

"Wait!", Banner tried, but it was no use, all the group could do was move back so as to not get struck by lightning, and watch helplessly as the computer started flashing with a power overload. This was the opposite of the outcome that she wanted.

The group watched in anticipation as everything was silent for a split second, though this only lasted for a moment. The Cradle exploded with blue light, sending Thor flying backwards whilst the rest of the group moved themselves away.

Out of the Cradle, surrounded by a dramatic fog, was a red and silver man made out of vibranium crouching on one knee. Eleanor gulped wondering if it was Ultron or if they had successfully made another being outside of Ultron's influence.

When the man stood he looked around at the group as though they were all threats, not easing the fear of this being their enemy. When eye contact with Thor was made, something seemed to click within the man's head, and he went flying towards Thor with vicious intent. The God merely grabbed him by the shoulders and flung him behind, sending him smashing through a glass wall and through the party room.

Eleanor winced at yet more glass smashing and anticipated him to go flying through the other window as well, but he managed to stop himself and seemed to be staring out into the New York skyline.

Whilst the others watched with tentative interest, Steve and Thor jumped down through the now broken wall, and onto the floor below. Though Thor held his hand out to stop Steve from attacking the mysterious new figure, who seemed to be quite calm now as he looked out into the world.

The rest all followed the God and Soldier down, via the more appropriate method of using the stairs. Tony, Pietro, and Wanda took the left set of stairs, whilst Eleanor followed Clint down the right set. Apparently, he had shown up during the fight without her noticing, most likely due to Banner deciding it was a good idea to put someone in a headlock.

"I haven't had the chance to tell them about Nat yet due to them all being asshats", she whispered to the archer, who nodded whilst rolling his eyes, just as frustrated with the team as Eleanor was. Nothing ever seemed to be simple with the group, there was always something.

The mysterious red man floated back over to them, now with a grey-green tone across his body aside from his hands and face, to resemble a suit and a maroon colour on his feet for boots. It was a much better look as Eleanor did feel like she was looking at him naked, even if it was a form of AI.

Thor took slow steps towards him, aiming to not anger him once again, which seemed to work as there were no more people being thrown through glass walls. "I am sorry. That was... odd. Thank you", he turned to Thor and nodded, a moment later summoning his own yellow cape to match Thor's red one.

Eleanor frowned as she looked at the man intently, he had the exact same voice as a certain AI that had been sorely missed over the last few days. "Jarvis?", she took a step forward. This just received a confused look from the red man whilst Steve stepped forward as well.

"Thor? You helped create this?".

"I've had a vision. A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life, and at its centre is that", the God pointed at the glowing yellow stone in its head.

"What? The gem?", Banner too took a step forward. Eleanor narrowed her eyes on it, trying to figure out what it could do and what kind of impact this gem could have if it was as important as Thor said it was. 'A whirlpool that sucks in all hope of life' didn't sound particularly promising.

"It's the Mind Stone. It's one of the six Infinity Stones. The greatest power in the universe, unparalleled in its destructive capabilities".

"Then why would you bring-", Steve started voicing most of the team's concerns, if it was so powerful, dangerous and most likely sought after, why in the world would Thor bring it here?

"Because Stark is right".

"Oh, it's definitely the end of times". Eleanor couldn't help but let a small smile tug at her lips at Banner's words, since the whole 'creating a murder bot' thing, Thor hadn't exactly seen eye to eye with Stark and Banner. So, this was new.

"The Avengers cannot defeat Ultron". Well, that's just a ray of positivity, Eleanor thought to herself as a divet formed between her eyebrows.

"Not alone", the red man stepped forward inserting itself back into the narrative.

"El's right, why does your vision sound like Jarvis?", Steve questioned as the red man continued to walk forward into the middle of the group.

"We reconfigured Jarvis' matrix to create something new", Tony walked towards it, analysing his work.

"I think I've had my fill of new".

"You think I'm a child of Ultron?", the thing spoke after Steve.

"I mean... yes", Eleanor shrugged and crossed her arms when it turned to look at her with a face of uncertainty.

"I'm not Ultron. I am not Jarvis. I am... I am", he concluded softly as he looked around at no one in particular.

"I looked in your head and saw annihilation", Wanda took slow steps towards him, Pietro looking unhappy that she was potentially putting herself in danger.

"Look again".

Clint scoffed from beside her and also moved forward, Eleanor now seemed to be the only one outside of the inner circle, not that she minded, she just wanted to drag them all by the ears over to Sokovia to go and get Natasha. "Her seal of approval means jack to me". Apparently, every person in the room aside from the red man, her own brother, and Eleanor held a big grudge. Eleanor didn't exactly blame them, but there was bigger fish to fry.

"Their powers, the horrors in our heads, Ultron himself, they all came from the Mind Stone". Yet again, another reason for them to fear the gem that was now in their Tower. "And they're nothing compared to what it can unleash. But with it on our side-".

"Is it?", Steve interrupted, the corners of Eleanor's lips tugged down as she slowly nodded. Valid question. "Are you? On our side?".