𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

𝘓𝘐𝘍𝘌 𝘐𝘚 𝘈 𝘏𝘐𝘎𝘏𝘞𝘈𝘠

━━━ MEILANI LEAPT UP ONTO THE ROOF OF ONE OF THE BUILDINGS WITH STEVE FROM THE JET CLINT CURRENTLY OPERATED, LANDING GENTLY ONTO HER FEET AND OFFERING STEVE A GRIN WHEN HE NODDED AT HER, IMPRESSED. She followed him across the short roof to the railing on the other end that gave a perfect view of where Dr. Cho's lab rested in the middle of the water. It was a multi-layered, glass building with each layer being slightly more curved or cubed than the next which made it look that much more expensive and like something out of one of the sci-fi movies Stiles used to make Meilani and Adrian sit through.

"Two minutes. Stay close, Clint," Steve instructed, glancing over his shoulder to where Clint hovered the jet next to the roof that Meilani and Steve stood on. He shifted his attention over to Meilani and jerked his head in the direction of the jet. "Stay back with Clint and Natasha just in case they need your help."

"You're not going to that lab by yourself, Steve," Meilani argued, pointing her finger in the direction of the glass building. "You need back up, too, and Nat can definitely hold her own while also backing up Clint. You intimidated by me or something, Captain?"

A small smile twitched its way onto Steve's face while Clint and Natasha's amused laughter could be heard through the coms in Meilani and Steve's ears. If Meilani didn't know any better, she was sure that there was a hint of red on his cheeks. However, part of her tried to convince herself it was from the sun and not because she had said something that genuinely affected him. As if she couldn't already smell the chemosignals from him whenever he stood around her, only solidifying more to her that she'd been right when they first about Steve potentially being the soul mate Deaton had told her about back in Beacon Hills.

"Steve, I love her. Can we please keep her? She can be the tower's cute little puppy," Natasha bemused as Clint drove the jet off in the opposite direction, clearly taking the hint from Meilani that she wouldn't be leaving Steve's side.

"If anyone's the puppy, it's Sawyer," Meilani mumbled back, winking at Steve before she took off across the roof tops to get herself towards the lab.

Successfully getting across the rooftops without any pedestrians in the small town seeing them, Steve and Meilani dropped down onto the pier below and crept their way across it and around the side of the lab. Meilani made sure to keep her ears out for anything that sounded off or suspicious, but she couldn't hear anything over the moving water around them or the sounds of beeping cars and pedestrians back in the town shouting to each other. Either they were actually lucky and Ultron hadn't come to the lab like they suspected or he was already inside and knew better than to make too much noise in the chance Meilani showed up. No doubt the robot would be smart enough to know of Meilani's enhanced hearing.

Weaving their way through the still and empty lab, Meilani felt the dread settle momentarily as she silently prayed that Ultron hadn't actually taken off with Dr. Cho. She rushed off ahead of Steve, using her abilities to propel her through the many rooms and corridors of the lab before she finally picked up a scent near by. Only one, but Meilani instantly knew it to be Dr. Cho from the last time she'd seen her at the party at the tower that Tony had thrown. 

"Dr. Cho!" Steve called from behind Meilani, coming up behind her in the main part of the lab. Lights had been shattered and broken above haphazardly, raining down electricity and sparks down on to the room around them. It left the room in a dim sort of lighting that made it feel like the duo had just stepped into some sort of horror movie, especially with the scent of Dr. Cho's blood burning Meilani's nostrils as if she'd been slashed by the angry slasher of the film.

Dr. Cho had propped herself up against one of the white crates, hair falling from her bun and blood smeared across her cheeks and the front of her white and blue lab clothes. She grunted softly in pain when Meilani dropped to her knees next to the scientist and ripped off the bottom of her black tank top to press into the wound on Dr. Cho's right shoulder. 

"Dr. Cho, are you alright?" Meilani asked in concern, pressing her free hand to Dr. Cho's other shoulder and taking her pain from her. Black veins formed along Meilani's hand and disappeared up into her black leather jacket sleeve, her face contorting momentarily as the brunt of Dr. Cho's pain evaporated into her.

Dr. Cho offered Meilani a grateful smile, her body slumping a bit more against the crate as her pain slowly washed away like a wave crashing to the ocean and breaking away. "He's uploading himself into the body, but — but 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."

Steve nodded in understanding to Dr. Cho's words, absorbing all of them and storing it away for use later. "Right, but we need to find it first."

"It's okay . . . you can go," Dr. Cho assured the duo who both eyed warily for a second, neither one of them enjoying the idea of leaving Dr. Cho alone while she bled. Sure, her pain was gone thanks to Meilani, but Meilani could only take the pain but not heal her. She'd need medical help . . . and soon.

"Natasha, Clint, did you copy that?" Steve asked into the coms, standing up to his full height when Dr. Cho yelled at him and Meilani again to get moving so they could find out where the Cradle was headed.

"We did," came Clint's response, the sound of multiple items being tapped on the control pad in the jet being heard over the coms.

"I got a private jet taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him."

"There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you and the little wolf, Cap. On the loop by the bridge. It's them. You got three with the Cradle and one in the cab. I could take out the driver."

Steve jerked his head to the side for Meilani to follow him and the two took off out of the lab and back towards the town near the area that Clint mentioned. "Negative. If that truck explodes, the gem could level the city and kill innocent people. We need to draw out Ultron."

Meilani took Steve's offered hand to help her up the ladder that lead to the upper most level of the curve that went right down to the lowest level of the high way. It must not have been rush hour as not as many cars as Meilani expected sped along on the high way, a car length or two between each car as they moved together in sync. However, the one car that stood out the most was the white and blue truck that had Dr. Cho's lab's symbol plastered across either side of the haul on the back of the cab. She nudged Steve in the arm and pointed in the direction the truck was headed, pin pointing the route they'd have to take on foot.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Steve questioned Meilani, taking off in a sprint across the upper most level of the highway towards the ledge that would lead down to the other level that the truck was headed towards.

"If you jump, I jump," Meilani voiced out loud, leaping off the edge with Steve at the same moment. She landed on the top of the haul on one knee while Steve somersaulted to his feet. 

"Did you just superhero land?" Steve balked at Meilani's landing, blinking as she popped up onto feet with a shrug.

"Like Apollo always says — gotta make it look cool or you're doing it wrong," Meilani responded, turning on her heel and running to the back of the haul and dropping down so she hung from the edge right near the door. She could hear Ultron inside, huff in annoyance to leave him alone.

Before Meilani could process what was happening, she heard the sound of something firing up and then the doors to the back of the truck burst open. The doors flew out to either side and banged Meilani's back and head into the side of the truck, earning a yelp of pain from the wolf as her head spun for a moment before righting itself again. She could hear Steve scream from her on the top of the truck and when the doors swung back around with Steve bending down to try and help her back up, Ultron let out another blaster from his arm. It sent the doors flying off from the top of the truck and landing so it dragged along the highway like a ramp. Meilani had to shoot her hand out and grabbed Steve's glove covered hand to keep him from flying off onto the highway.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy!" Steve yelled over the wind and the scraping of the metal door along the highway, hand gripping to Meilani's as the true alpha tugged at him to pull him up onto the door with her. "Gonna try and keep him that way!"

"You're not a match for him, Cap. Even with Meilani's alpha strength and healing, I don't even think she's a match for him."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Arrows," Meilani grumbled in annoyance to Clint, letting out a breath when she finally pulled Steve up onto the door with her.

Steve pushed himself to his feet and attempted to stabilize his feet on the door like it was some sort of metal surfboard. He eventually steadied himself and met the glowing, robotic eyes of Ultron who held his palm up once again. Just as Steve went to grab his shield from his back, Ultron let out a force of energy and sent Steve flying off the door and crashing onto the car behind the truck.

"Steve!" Meilani cried, shoving to her feet and rushing into the haul of the truck. She leapt into the air and shifted, letting out a roar as she came down on Ultron with her claws swinging. A few sparks erupted from Ultron but he easily got back up again and grabbed Meilani by the neck, flying out with her and up to the top of the haul again where Steve now stood. 

"Meilani — "Steve was cut off by Ultron sending another blast at him that he effectively deflected with his shield.

"You know what's in that Cradle?" Ultron taunted, throwing Meilani at Steve which sent the duo crashing down onto the top of the haul. A soft grunt fell from the duo as Meilani crashed onto him and he broke their fall with his shield beneath them, hands on Meilani's hips to keep her from flying off the haul and into a car. "The power to make real change and that terrifies you all."

Steve chuckled hoarsely and humorlessly, getting back to his feet with Meilani's help — albeit the duo wearing matching pink faces from being thrusted onto each other like a stack of pancakes. He kicked off his shield and chucked it at Ultron like a frisbee. "I wouldn't call that comfort."

Ultron flew around every throw of Steve's shield, dodging each one like he knew it was coming. And, in some way, Meilani figured he probably did know when and where it would be coming. If he was as smart as Tony mentioned, he could probably pick up Steve's strategies and catalog them in his robotic brain. Almost like a computer when it memorized people's passwords. "Stop it."

Meilani gasped as Ultron threw the shield into traffic, sending it rolling and skidding along the highway as sparks flew from the sides of it. With the shield now gone, Ultron was able to blast Steve once again and sent him flying backwards of the haul and onto the cab where he clung to the sideview mirror. Her eyes glowed red dangerously at Ultron and she charged towards him, leaping up into the air where he hovered and grabbing his head. The two fell down onto the haul where she crashed his head into the metal. Sparks flew out from where he crashed, but that didn't deter him in the least with Meilani ducking under the overpass that sped overhead and Steve hauling himself back up onto the haul.

The sound of a motorcycle approaching and Meilani sighed in relief to herself when she saw it was Natasha with Steve's shield. Once the Romanoff woman was on the side of the truck, she chucked the shield back up to Steve and winked at Meilani and Steve when they sent her mirroring looks of gratitude.

"Natasha, you've never been more beautiful!" Meilani hollered down to the red head while Steve used the shield to hit away Ultron when he tried to fly back at Steve and Meilani to knock them off the haul.

Noticing Natasha on the side, Ultron turned and blasted the highway in front of her, creating a whole in the highway where she was head. The red head had just enough time to put all the weight onto the front tire of the bike and spin it to the side before the broken part of the highway would have sent her and the bike flying through the air.

Meilani tore her eyes from Ultron to double check on Natasha, which gave Ultron an opening to blast Meilani and send her flying back onto a coming car. Glass broke around her from the windshield and her body was sore as she shook, trying to get herself back to her feet. She leapt off the car and began to run after the truck, ignoring the vague ache through her body from being slammed onto metal and glass. Ultron sent two other blasts behind her, causing the two cars on either side of her to fly up into the air and she ducked out of the way of one of them, but was not so lucky with the other car. Glass rained down on her and she skidded underneath the car flying down from right above her head, ducking and covering her head as the window of the backseat crashed over her and she yelped, crashing down to the ground.

Glass clung to the sleeves of her leather jacket, one shard protruding from her thigh as she dizzily stumbled to her feet and stood through the window on the other side. She weakly and shakily pulled herself up onto the top of the car, blinking her eyes to try and reorient herself again. The sound of the motorcycle was heard to her right and Meilani was yanked onto it by Natasha. Meilani scrambled to hold onto Natasha, ripping out the shard in her thigh with one hand while the other clung to the red head.

"Are you with me, Meilani?" Natasha shouted over her shoulder to Meilani who clung to her so she wouldn't go flying off the back. "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Meilani squeezed her eyes shut as she felt slightly dizzy again for a second, willing her body to just heal already. While also sending silent apologies to Isaac who had felt everything that just happened to her through their mate bond. She could already hear Adrian freaking out back at the house because Isaac definitely was making Meilani look worse than she was. "Y-yeah, I'm here. Sl-slightly dizzy, but he-here. I — I think. And . . . you're not even holding a-any fingers up, Nat."

Natasha smirked to herself and propelled the motorcycle further along the side of the highway, out of the blasting zone that Ultron seemed to love. "At least I know you're not half dead, baby."

"Call me baby and y-you might ne-need to buy me d-dinner," Meilani laughed softly, cheek resting against Natasha's back as she tried to use the moment to try and heal the best she could. The wound in her thigh might take a minute to heal up with how deep the shard had gone, but she could at least stop her head from spinning like a crazy top toy. 

Meilani could hear Natasha and Clint going back and forth over the coms and Steve coming through once when Natasha asked him to keep Ultron distracted. As if he and Meilani hadn't been doing that the entire time. She could feel the motorcycle kick forward and Meilani lifted her cheek off Natasha's back to see they were steadily approaching the back of the empty haul again. Natasha shouted over her shoulder to Meilani to prepare to jump and, with a half warning, Natasha leapt off the motorcycle and into the open haul with Meilani dizzily following after her. 

The duo stood above the chamber, a light blue light illuminating their faces with a small screen set up on the front of it where the controls were. Natasha dropped to her knees before it to try and figure out how to shut off the Cradle until they could get it back to Tony and the rest of the team and pack. The red head had just gotten to the screen where she would try to override it when her and Meilani were thrown onto their backs, the haul going up into the air. 

"The truck is now airborne. I have a clean shot."

"Yeah, a clean shot of Nat and I!" Meilani scrambled to press on her com, eyes widening as she struggled to her feet and hobbled onto her good leg. She could see the jet with Clint in it following behind the now flying haul. "Don't even think about shooting this thing."

"The hell are you two still — "

"Just be ready!" Natasha shouted at Clint, nodding for Meilani to get on the Cradle and grab on.

"Okay, and how would you like to me take it?!"

Natasha scrunched up her nose and shook her head, pressing something to the wall above Meilani's head that started a ten second count down. She mumbled something about Clint not wanting to ask that before she leapt onto the Cradle next to Meilani, sending the Cradle flying out the back of the haul and just narrowly making it onto the ramp that hung out of the jet. Though, Meilani, Natasha and Clint weren't able to celebrate the victory as Natasha had been grabbed right out of the back of the jet by Ultron who whizzed off.

"Natasha!" Meilani and Clint screamed in unison with Meilani rolling off the thing and limping her way over to Clint to peer out the windshield. 

"Meilani, your leg!" Clint exclaimed, noticing the dark stain in Meilani's jeans while the true alpha gripped to the back of Clint's chair for support. The wound was already beginning to heal, but that didn't make standing on it hurt or burn any less than it currently did.

Meilani shot him an exasperated look, though she was internally thankful he worried over her. "Not the main problem right now. Steve, do you see Nat anywhere? Ultron flew off with her after we landed in the jet."

"If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!"

"What?! No, Steve, I'm not leaving you," Meilani argued, brown eyes frantically searching around them for any sight of Steve or Natasha. "Or Natasha. No man is left behind!"

"Barton, get Meilani and the package out of here now! I'll get to Nat and take care of this."

Before Meilani could open her mouth to argue with Steve to let them stay and fight, Clint sighed and kick started the jet to shoot off back in the direction of the tower. Her looks of surprise went ignored by Clint as he flew the jet towards New York City, leaving behind Steve and Natasha to deal with Ultron and his two robots.

"I cannot believe you left them behind, Clint," Meilani huffed, dropping into the passenger chair next to Clint's. She grimaced when she peeled the sides of the rip in her jeans to reveal the gash that looked smaller than it had before with half dried blood caked around it. "What if Nat's hurt?"

"Steve will get to her and she'll be fine," Clint said and Meilani wasn't sure if he was trying to convince himself of that or Meilani. His eyes drifted away from the windshield and to Meilani's healing gash. "You sure you okay? I can put this thing on autopilot and help patch you up. Clean the glass out of your hair."

Meilani furrowed her eyebrows, but eventually released a laugh when Clint reached forward and gently brushed some tiny shards of glass from the tangles of Meilani's brown curls. She shook her head, causing more tiny shards to fall out. "No, I'll heal. However, I can assure you my pack's freaking out back at the house. Isaac may or may not be sporting my injuries right now. Well . . . at least the blood of it . . . which is either worse or better depending on how you look at it."

"I think either is pretty bad, especially if your little friend Adrian sees it," Clint teased, zooming the jet over the water and relaxing back in his chair as they still had a good bit before they'd hit Manhattan again. "He seems to be rather protective over you."

Meilani inwardly grimaced, praying to whatever god was out there that Adrian was still with Bruce and Stiles and not with the others. She didn't even want to think how Adrian would react if she returned back after he'd seen Isaac all bloody and dizzy like she had been. No doubt it would have freaked out the Martin boy and Meilani would be lucky if she would even be let out of his sight after it. 

The only thing she tried to focus on was the fact that they had the Cradle and that hopefully Steve and Natasha were both alright. She didn't know what she'd do if something happened to Natasha . . . or Steve.

word count: ( 3.7k )

— i love natasha and meilani with my whole entire being. that's it. that's the author's note.