"Alright we're all clear here", the voice of Clint came through their earpieces as Eleanor lay in a daze whilst Nat was leaning over and clicking her fingers right in front of Eleanor's face to try and get her eyes to focus on them, which was proving to be a hard task.

"We are not clear! We are very not clear!", Steve responded along with a few grunts, showing that he was clearly still fighting the hoard of Ultron bots that were attacking them in the city centre.

"Alright, coming to you".

"Come on, El. Focus on my hands", Natasha sternly spoke, trying to get her wife to come back to reality after receiving what she thought was the headache of a lifetime.

Eleanor groaned and scoffed at the same time as she attempted to sit up, "What do you think I've been trying to do". Nat rolled her eyes and aided in getting Eleanor to sit up, looping her arms under her armpits to drag her out of the car backwards, and supporting her as she made a wobbly stand.

"You good?", cautiously Natasha let go of Eleanor and walked around to her front with her arms outstretched ready to catch her if needs be.

"Yeah, right as rain, let's go!", Eleanor made a move forward and immediately fell sideways and hit the hood of the car. "No, no, I'm good", she pushed Nat's arms away and jogged forward back into the fight.

"Eleanor Irina Romanoff, don't you dare go back out there! You're barely standing!", Natasha yelled from her spot next to the car. Oof, full-named Eleanor thought to herself as she grimaced, but simply turned to salute her wife as she continued her jog back to the robots, leaving Natasha mumbling all sorts of curses about her as she sprinted towards her.

Luckily, Eleanor's survival instincts kicked in when some bots came at her, so she hadn't been turned into roadkill like Natasha had thought when she saw the bots advancing on them again. She ran forward and dodged attacks to try and get to the part of the street she was on before being picked up, and her eyes lit up when she spotted the trusty metal pole. "Gotcha!".

She crouched down and collected the pole, blowing dust off of it as it had landed in the copious amounts of debris that lined the streets. Nat looked over from the distance in horror whilst she was fighting, at a bot approaching a seemingly oblivious Eleanor that was on the floor. Like previously, she was going to shout to get her attention, but she gave an impressed shrug when she saw Eleanor stand abruptly as she swung her body around to hit the bot's head off with perfect aim.

The fight continued, more bots kept coming forward and they had no clue where they were coming from, they just seemed to be spawning like in a video game. At some point, Steve had been pushed through the city enough to end up where Natasha and Eleanor were, which was a big help to have an extra person nearby, and in his case an extra two people.

Eleanor could feel her energy depleting, but knew that she couldn't stop, so she kept whacking as many bots as she could that ended up in her path. She did as best as she could do with the weapon that she had, and was managing to wield it with skill, aiming at parts of the bots that powered them down with minimal hits.

"Romanoff!", she heard Steve shout, which made her whip her head around to see Natasha being cornered by the hood of a car before Steve threw his shield through the bot that was almost right next to her.

"Thanks!", Nat shouted back, so Eleanor continued hitting the hoard of bots near her that had piled up in her brief distraction. Natasha picked up Steve's shield and fought off a bot with it before throwing it back to Steve who finished the job off, having more strength from the serum to force the shield through.

With more hits and punches, they were making good headway, but it wasn't enough. They were still being overpowered, and Eleanor was praying for a miracle. When she went to impale another bot in front of her, she stopped as she noticed red tendrils wrapping around it, along with other bots near before they were ripped apart. Eleanor turned on the spot a few times trying to find Wanda, but came up empty, though she knew that she was nearby.

She walked over to Natasha who was catching her breath, and they both watched with their heads tilted slightly as Steve ran through a building that had some missing walls, and out of sight. "Shall we?", Eleanor panted as she placed a hand on the small of Nat's back.

"We shall", Nat allowed herself to be guided forward by Eleanor until they broke apart to jog around the corner to enter the building. A few seconds later they spotted Steve and Wanda jogging toward them as well, and both parties stopped when seeing each other. "Rogers", Nat nodded, earning a nod in return.

Nat looked slightly confused to see that Wanda was suddenly on their side as that was something that Eleanor had forgotten to mention, but she had kind of guessed it from the red tendrils and just needed it to be confirmed. Eleanor nodded and smiled at Wanda who gave a small smile back before her face went blank again as she looked at Natasha who furrowed her brows slightly.

Eleanor had expected to have to mediate some hostility between the two, but was pleasantly surprised to hear, "Is that my jacket?". She had to stifle a laugh as she bit her lip and looked at Steve.

"She's with us", Steve replied simply.

"Still doesn't explain the jacket", Nat deadpanned, whilst Clint came running up behind them. Eleanor pursed her lips as she looked over at Wanda who puffed out a breath whilst she awkwardly looked behind her.

"Yeah, my bad, she needed a jacket and I knew you always have a few in your storage unit", Eleanor said before wincing at the end as Natasha turned to meet her gaze. When Natasha maintained her hard expression Eleanor was half-expecting to get thumped on the arm or something, so when Nat gave the smallest of smiles she breathed out an exaggerated sigh of relief and gave a thumbs-up to Wanda who had turned around again.

"I was gone for all of five minutes and you were auctioning off my things?", Nat smirked.

Eleanor shook her head and tugged the corners of her lips down and looked away dramatically, "It had to be done at some point, my therapist told me I had to move on", she sighed.

"You ass", Nat chuckled and elbowed her in the ribs, which Eleanor thought was incredibly rude. Though the laughing stopped as everyone started realising that the air around them was getting increasingly foggier with the new heights of the floating city.

"Fighting these robots is getting us nowhere", Steve exclaimed, being a real Debbie-downer.

"The air's getting thin, we go up much higher and people'll start dropping", Clint chimed in and Eleanor nodded, there was already a noticeable difference in air quality, at the minute it was bearable but the tables would soon turn.

Eleanor turned to look at Wanda again when her gaze over the city hardened, "There are people in the city still hiding".

"Bring 'em out". Wanda nodded at Steve and ran past the trio in front of her. "Barton", he nodded towards Wanda, gesturing for him to follow to not send the poor woman out there alone to deal with all of those people.

"I got her six", he breathed out, but not before looking at Nat and Eleanor to make sure they were okay before making his exit.

The two women gave each other a knowing look, one that was a good luck before they rejoined the battle again look, and moved towards Steve, "And us?", Nat asked even though she already knew the answer.

"We fight robots". Natasha then proceeded to pull out the batons from their holder on her back and held them out to her side.

"So cool", Eleanor muttered before she looked down at the pathetic metal pole in her hand that was looking a bit worse for wear.

There wasn't much time to dwell on how unprepared she was for this battle though before a crashing sound could be heard, making her jump out of her skin as she saw Pietro speeding through and stopping by the group, holding a robot hand. "Today? We fight robots today? Or is next month better for you?", he walked between them and tossed Steve the hand and began to walk off.

Eleanor walked after him, "Listen here Sonic, I'm getting sick of that attitude", she half-yelled after him with a smile as he sped off, though she was caught off guard when he sped back and stopped in front of her with a shit-eating grin.

"You want to come with?".

"Wh-", Eleanor turned back to face Nat and Steve, but before she could continue talking Pietro grabbed onto her free hand and dragged her along with him as he used his super-speed.

"Well that happened", Nat stated as Steve shrugged, and they ran off in the direction that the other two had sped off to.

---

When Pietro stopped at the edge of the city Eleanor thought that she was going to throw up. When she bent down to put her hands on her knees and gagged, Pietro began laughing at her, so she stood and pretended to hit him with the pole. He backed up with his hands up in surrender, "You didn't find that fun?".

"No! You could have at least picked me up so I wasn't being dragged behind you!".

Pietro shrugged and took a step back again, "I don't think your wife would have appreciated that", he mocked, making Eleanor let out a loud, short laugh.

"No, I don't think she would have done". Eleanor looked around and saw that the place was seemingly empty. It was eery without the bots around to fight them, "We must have got all the ones he let out first", Eleanor concluded.

Pietro nodded and started walking back towards the centre, "I'll be back!", he shouted over with a salute and laughed when Eleanor gave him one back before he sped off.

Eleanor was about to walk in the same direction but stopped to pay attention to what Steve was saying in comms. "The next wave is gonna hit any minute. What do you got, Stark?".

"Well, nothing great". Eleanor took note of how defeated Tony sounded, which was something that she didn't hear a lot, usually, the guys boosted ego allowed him to believe that he could do anything. So, if Tony thought that there was no way out of this then they were in deep shit. "Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface if you guys can get clear".

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan". Eleanor smiled as she saw that Nat and Steve had reached where she was. Natasha looked relieved to see that she had survived her million-mile-an-hour adventure.

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're gonna have to make a choice", Stark tried to reason.

"Cap, these people are going nowhere, if Stark finds a way to blow this rock-", Natasha also tried to make the Captain see reason.

"Not till everyone's safe".

Eleanor sighed and shook her head slightly, "Steve, there doesn't seem to be a way to do that".

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math there", Nat piled on.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it". Steve was getting more and more worked up over the idea of not being able to save everyone. It made sense but this was something that was out of their control. Eleanor began to chew her lip as she looked out over the edge of the city, what used to be trees and more houses was now nothing but the open air.

"I didn't say we should leave". Eleanor snapped her head round to face Nat. She knew it was likely that they were going to die on this hunk of rock, but hearing it being inferred out loud was a tough pill to swallow. They were going to die. But at least it wouldn't be in vain.

Eleanor swallowed thickly as Steve sighed whilst they both looked over at Nat who was weakly nodding, "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?", she reached out and took Eleanor's hand and gently rubbed over her beaten knuckles.

"It is pretty nifty", Eleanor chuckled lowly.

Despite the fact that she had basically just received the news that she was going to die, she wasn't particularly scared. There were some nerves around it, sure. There was bound to be. But she felt more at peace with it than anything, she was standing holding her soulmate's hand as they looked out onto the skyline. It wasn't going to be a death where one would lose the other and have to live on or one where they slowly die in pain. It would be over before they knew it, just like going to sleep, and a lot of people would live because of it.

She nodded and squeezed Nat's hand, everything had been leading up to this.

The moment was very quickly interrupted, however, by Fury intercepting their comms, "Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better".

Eleanor let her jaw get slack as she watched a helicarrier appear right in front of their eyes. "Nice, right? Pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do".

"Fury, you son of a bitch", Steve exclaimed.

Eleanor gasped in faux-shock, "Language, Steven!".

"Yeah, you kiss your mother with that mouth?", Fury responded. Steve looked over at Eleanor with a brow quirked, but he couldn't hide the small smile when she shrugged innocently.

She took a few steps backwards when Pietro suddenly sped in front of the duo, "Jesus Christ, Speedy, could you not?".

"No can do", he smirked before turning to look at the metal flying lifeboats being sent from the helicarrier, "This is SHIELD?".

"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be", Steve responded with a smile of relief.

"This is not so bad", Pietro grinned whilst squinting over at the helicarrier. Eleanor nodded, yeah, they weren't so bad.

After enough admiring had been done, the group split up to herd people into the different lifeboats dotted around the edge of the city. Natasha stationed herself at the one nearest whilst Natasha continued a few streets down to the next one. It was incredibly loud with the number of people shouting as they moved towards the 'boats', so Eleanor tried her best to block all of the different voices out as she hurried people into the vehicle and rushed around to pick up any who tripped during the rush. Stampedes of people are crazy and never help up the little guy who takes a stumble.

It didn't take long for Eleanor's boat to fill up, so after a quick check inside to make sure that everyone was okay, she gave the all-clear for it to take off, and watched as it took off into the sky and moved toward the helicarrier along with a couple of others.

Slowly but surely people were being saved.

"Thor, I got a plan!", Tony's voice came through as Eleanor worked on making her way toward Natasha who still had a hoard of people getting onto her lifeboat.

"We're out of time. They're coming for the core", was the response given. Making Eleanor slow her running down slightly as she took in what was just said, before shaking her head and sprinting at full speed again, directing some lost civilians on the way.

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier, Avengers, time to work for a living".

At hearing this, Natasha looked around to try and spot Eleanor so that they could make their way over together, as there was no way that Nat was about to leave her stranded somewhere in the city with the robots on the loose again. She smiled for a split second when she spotted her wife bolting towards her, and ran to meet her halfway. "You good?", Eleanor immediately asked when they reached each other.

"Yeah, yeah, we need to figure out a way to get to the middle, and fast", Nat sped out as Eleanor nodded weakly a few times and looked around.

"Oo, that!", she took off at a sprint again, leaving Natasha to tilt her head and furrow her brows before taking off after her.

"Hey, what are you doing!", she yelled after her wife, who just started pointing toward a yellow truck with a dozer blade on the front of it. "Fair enough", Nat muttered when they neared it.

Nat jumped into the driver's seat automatically, and Eleanor hopped in next to her. "Okay, fast as you can".

"I know El, I know", Nat smirked knowing that she usually tells her to slow down. She lurched the truck forward and pelted down the street, removing debris along the way. At some point, the bots had spotted them and began flying at them and blasting, but before they could get close to the front window, they were hit by the dozer blade and were either sent crashing to the side or were ran over.

"Romanoff, Hughes", Tony had a warning tone, which made Eleanor roll her eyes, they were the farthest out, and one of the only ones without super special enhancements. "You two better not be shackin' it up somewhere".

Eleanor's face scrunched up, "Ew, Tony".

"Relax, shellhead. Not all of us can fly", Natasha saved them from any more embarrassment as they continued ramming bots out of the way, and eventually the metal fencing around the church.

Eleanor jumped out and almost rolled her ankle by landing on the edge of a brick, which would have been embarrassing. Out of action before the fight begins thanks to a brick. Looking forward she could see Nat starting to walk in, so she promptly followed, being extra cautious in case there were any more bricks that were out to get her.

As they neared the inside of the church dome, which had some very intricate stone carvings lining the side that Eleanor thought were very cool, they noticed that the Avengers were in a circle around the metal core that could be their downfall. Eleanor let a small smile briefly rest on her lips when it reminded her of how they banded together in a circle during the Battle of New York. It was the first time that they had really been on the same page. She liked to think of it as the start of their family, even if it took a couple of years to properly come together after that.

"What's the drill?", Nat started when she took her place in the circle in the middle of Tony and Eleanor. Eleanor was in between Clint and Nat, which she was perfectly happy with, she trusted them the most.

"This is the drill", Tony pointed to the metal core, "If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose". Hulk then jumped down next to the dome and batted some robots away before joining the circle too. Just as Ultron came slowly hovering down.

Eleanor gripped the metal pole tighter as her jaw clenched. Nat turned around to do a check on her like she often does on missions, and handed one of her batons over. They'd both have to fight with one which wasn't ideal, but it was better than that pole with all of the bots that would come their way, and possibly Ultron himself.

"Here", Nat whispered when she passed it over.

"Are you sure?". When Nat nodded in confirmation Eleanor dropped the pole, took the baton and looked at it blankly before looking back to her wife who was searching her face expectedly, confused as to why she was staring so hard at the baton when Ultron was coming right towards them. Eleanor looked up a few seconds later, "You're telling me this whole time I've been fighting with that shitty stick for no reason?".

"Oops", Nat shrugged with a smirk before turning her attention back to the approaching murder bot.

"You little-".