Steel Hearts

- 14 -

It didn't take long to fly back to the city. Barton had lowered the quintet down to a rooftop not far away from Dr. Cho's lab, dropping Steve and me off there. We had decided to split into teams of two.

"Two minutes. Stay close," Steve says to not only me but Barton and Nat as well over comms once we had hopped the railing and could see our destination in the distance.

"Ya know, I still don't know why we didn't have Barton drop us on the next building," I grumble as the two of us quickly and nimbly make our way over to the heavily windowed building, blowing a puff of air out of my lungs to move a piece of my brown hair out of my face as I swing down to the ground so we can walk instead of climb, "Work smarter not harder."

"It's not that far," Steve responds, a tinge of humor lacing his words. Our footsteps fell into time with each other, his gate slowing to match mine.

"We have to cross a lake," I state as we come upon the water, gesturing toward it as we stop. Tossing a force field out over the top of the water, I swing my legs over the railing and jump down onto it with Steve following.

"That's why I brought you."

"And here I thought you just liked working with me. I'm hurt, Rogers," my tone sarcastic as I focus on the force fields beneath our feet, careful to not let either of us drop into the water as we ran.

"You told me you weren't going to leave me. I'm not leaving you," his eyes sparkle as he looks down at me, the two of us still running. My knees go weak but I keep pushing my legs further so that we make it to the building.

Every door that was locked was kicked open, slamming into the wall beside it as the two of us sprinted up the stairwell to the lab. When we finally got there, broken glass littered the floor and sparks flew from an exposed wire. Ultron had known we were coming.

"Dr. Cho!" Steve said urgently, quickly running over to the woman lying against the wall. Her shoulder had been hit with some sort of blaster and she was bleeding heavily. I spot a pack of gauze nearby and throw it to Steve who places it on the wound, putting pressure on it to stop the bleeding.

"He's uploading himself into the body," Helen breathed heavily, clearly in pain as she gripped Steve's hand on her shoulder.

"Where?" I drop to my knees beside her, the poor woman was drenched in sweat.

"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."

"First, we have to find it," Steve says and she tells us to go, knowing that if we didn't find the cradle some really bad things were going to happen.

"Did you guys copy that?" I press my finger to my earpiece, hopeful that the reception wasn't bad and they could hear what she had to say.

"We did," Barton responds as Steve pulls me away from Helen, the two of us taking off the way we came.

"I got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him," Nat tells us. I point to the fire escape, pulling him behind me toward the roof exit and up the ladder.

"There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you guys. 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."

 Running across my force fields, we make it to the loop Barton was talking about in no time. 

"Negative. That truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron," Steve says, the two of us clambering up another ladder onto the bridge above the truck. Without any warning, he leaps from the bridge onto the top of the trailer.