「9」

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"I'll take Natasha, Clint, and Alyssa," said Steve as he grabbed his shield.

After Bruce's evaluation, everybody began to get ready to get to their assigned destination.

Alyssa made it clear that she wouldn't go anywhere with her father, so Steve reluctantly assigned her to come with him to Seoul.

As soon as Tony and Bruce went on their way, Steve, Clint, Natasha, and Alyssa boarded the Quinjet. The ride to Seol was quick, but they still needed longer than usual.

Clint let Steve and Alyssa out near the lab and then continued flying. He ordered them to stay close as he and Alyssa approached the laboratory.

It was quiet, and everyone seemed to have disappeared. They entered the labs and found one trashed and damaged. Dr. Cho was laying on the ground, her shoulder badly hurt.

"Dr. Cho!" shouted Steve, and he ran towards her immediately covering her shoulder with bandages.

"He's uploading himself into the body," she said, panting.

"Where?" asked Alyssa, observing the doctor.

"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," Helen sighed, pressing down on her shoulder and looking at Steve.

"First, we have to find it," Steve answered.

"Over there," said Alyssa, motioning to a gaping hole in the concrete walls.

"Go," Helen uttered, her breathing still heavy.

"Did you guys copy that?" Steve asked, referring to Clint and Nat.

"We did," Clint replied.

"I got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him," Natasha said, managing the screens and overlooking traffic.

Clint looked around, his brows furrowed. Down on the streets he spotted a truck, the lab logo painted on its exterior.

"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," Clint stated, focusing entirely on the truck.

"No, that truck crashes, the gem could level the city," responded Alyssa as she followed Steve up a ladder.

"We need to draw out Ultron," Steve added, spying the truck heading toward them.

He readied himself before jumping off the bridge, right on top of the truck's roof.

Oh, come on. Stupid super soldier.

Taking a few steps back, she ran towards the edge and jumped, her hands grabbing the door handles as she steadied herself with her feet.

"Way to go, Cap. Sometimes I think you forget that not everyone's a freaking-" she got cut off when a blast hit the metal doors, almost sending Alyssa onto the highway.

"Alyssa!" Steve yelled, trying to grab her hand from atop the roof. But another blast pulled the door off its hinges, and Alyssa now hung onto the scraps of metal, trying not to fall to her death.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy. Let's try to keep him that way!" she shouted.

"You're not a match for him, kid. Neither is Cap," Clint said into the comms.

"Thanks, Barton," Alyssa panted, grabbing the metal tightly between her fingers.

Steve tried to reach her when Ultron appeared and blasted the Captain into the traffic.

"Steve!" Alyssa shrieked, seeing him hit a car.

Steve quickly got up, swinging himself onto another car and then back up on the truck.

"You take care of the girl," Ultron said to his drones as he flew behind Steve.

"You know what's in that cradle? The power to make real change," the robot said, once more blasting Steve in the face, who deflected with his shield.

Down by Alyssa, Ultron's drones tried to detach the door from the truck.

Pulling herself up to the side, she was just in time before the door fell off.

That was way too close.

The robots noticed her and grabbed her legs, trying to pull her toward them.

"No, get off. Bad robots!" Alyssa yelled and kicked one of them so hard that her foot got caught in the wires. Twisting her legs, she ripped them and the robot shut down, falling into the traffic.

Turning around, she got a glimpse of the Cradle and saw that the download was almost finished.

Suddenly a metal hand appeared from behind her and grabbed her throat, pressing down.

Alyssa's hands barely got to her guns, when she was flung through the air and away from the truck.

She hit the ground hard, her breath leaving her lungs. Thankfully she didn't hit any cars, but she was now way too far away to catch up with the truck.

Bloody and bruised, she crawled toward the edge of the street and sat down. It was a miracle that she didn't break any bones.

"Uh, guys? I kinda... got kicked off the ride," she panted into the comms.

"Don't worry, I'll come pick you up," answered Natasha.

Alyssa could hear a motorcycle engine rumbling through the comms, and she soon spotted Nat's red hair between the traffic.

"You need a hand?" she smirked, stopping her bike for a moment as she leaned down and took Alyssa by the arm.

The younger girl laughed as she got hurled onto the motorcycle.

"Hang on tight," commanded Natasha and Alyssa did so, holding onto Nat's waist as they sped off once more.

They could hear Steve grunting and struggling through the comms, and Nat took every shortcut she could find.

She grabbed Cap's shield off the street, flinging it up to him when they finally caught up to the truck.

Even more pissed off than he already was, Ultron ripped out a piece of ground, cutting off Nat and Alyssa.

Groaning, Nat took another route, scrambling through pedestrians and taking sharp turns.

"Sorry, coming through! Out of the way!" Alyssa shouted, hanging onto Natasha for dear life. "Beep beep!"

"Clint, can you draw out the guards?" asked Natasha.

"Let's find out," Clint answered. By shooting at Ultron, the guards inside the truck swarmed out, and Clint managed to keep them away.

At least for a while.

"They're heading back towards you. So whatever you're gonna do, do it now," mentioned Clint.

"We're going in. Cap, can you keep him occupied?" Nat asked, approaching the truck.

"What do you think I've been doing?" Steve panted.

"Just keep fighting, old man. I'm sure wannabe Terminator has some kind of weak point," said Alyssa, following Nat as she jumped into the open cargo compartment of the truck.

They observed the Cradle, when suddenly the truck got lifted. Ultron's drones managed to get under the truck, pushing it higher and higher in the air.

Nat and Alyssa almost tumbled out, but they got a hold of some rigging.

"Okay, the package is airborne. I have a clean shot," stated Clint, flying behind the truck.

"Negative, we are still in the truck," Natasha replied.

"What the hell are you..."

"Just be ready. We're sending the package to you."

"How do you want me to take it?" Clint questioned.

"Uh, you might wish you hadn't asked that," Alyssa mentioned, watching Nat as she cut through the Cradle's fastening.

Suddenly Steve's voice rang out. "I lost him. He's headed your way!"

"Nat, we gotta go," added Clint urgently.

"Okay. Ally, you go before me. Hang on tight, understand?"

Alyssa nodded, and Nat cut the last string, placing a bomb on the wall. She jumped on the Cradle behind Alyssa as it slid out of the compartment.

They landed rough, little sparks flying through the air at the metal-on-metal contact.

The bomb that Nat had placed went off, when all of a sudden a metal hand reached out and grabbed her by the ankle, promptly pulling her out of the jet.

"Natasha!" Alyssa and Clint yelled simultaneously.

"Cap, you seen Nat?" Alyssa yelled, trying to labor her breathing.

"If you have the package, get it to Tony! Go!" Steve answered.

"Do you have eyes on Nat?" Clint asked, frustrated.

"Go!" repeated Steve.

Clint thought for a moment before hitting the dashboard and typing in the coordinates. "Damn it!"

In the back of the jet, Alyssa finished anchoring the Cradle in place before heading over to Barton.

"We can't leave Nat, Clint," she pleaded.

"You heard Steve. We need to get out of here. Nat will be fine... she'll be fine," he said, almost as if he was reassuring himself.

Leaning against the wall, Alyssa covered her face with her arm and let out a sigh.

Don't worry, Nat. We'll get you back.