Heartless

Chapter 28

We were on the quinjet. Steve had said something about needing to get a Cradle to Stark. Nat and Clint were already searching. I was in the bathroom, washing my face off. Each time I brushed against a wound, pain coursed through me. I winced. There was a knock on the door. "Come in," I said, my voice hoarse.

The door opened and Katherine came in. "Hey. How you doing?"

"Lots of physical pain, furious at Tony. Why?"

"Just wondering. Hey, Steve says we'll be landing soon."

I sighed. "Alright, I'll be out in a minute." I rinsed the cloth out and headed to the seat I was supposed to sit in.

"Negative! If that truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron," I heard Steve say. He got up and went to the door of the jet.

"Steve, parachute?" I said, holding one out to him.

"No, I'm good." And with that, he jumped out of the jet, onto a truck.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "He's gonna get himself killed," I muttered. "He's gonna bloody get himself killed."

"Alright, Monica, you gotta go."

- - -

The truck door blasted open. "STEVE!" I shouted. When it swung forward, we saw him still clinging to it. I sighed, clutching my chest.

"Well, he's definitely unhappy," Steve said.

"No shit, Sherlock." I said.

"Monica, Steve doesn't like that kind of language, remember?" Kate said over the comms.

Steve ignored us. "I'm gonna try and keep him that way."

"You're not a match for him, Cap," Clint said.

I heard him sigh. "Thanks, Barton."

Steve crawled up the ramp to get inside. Ultron blasted him off and onto the windshield of the car behind them. I leaped down onto the truck and pulled Steve up.

"You okay, Rogers?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."

Ultron flew up to the roof and said, "Miss Capello. You escaped. Well. You wanna know what's in that Cradle?" He fired at us and Steve blocked it with his shield. "The power to make real change, and that terrifies you."

"I wouldn't call it a comfort," he said, throwing his shield at Ultron. Ultron deflected it back to Steve and he caught it. "Monica, get going." Ultron fired at him again.

"What, are you insane? Hell, no." I pulled a knife out from my boot. "Hey ugly!" I shouted to Ultron. I waved my knife in the sunlight. "Bet you didn't know I had this." I slid under him and sliced a wire. I smirked, saying, "You got on the wrong side of me."

We continued battling, two-on-one. Steve's shield got stuck in Ultron's chest. He threw it off the truck and said, "Stop it." He blasted us and we rolled off the truck. We held on until he grabbed us. He went for me first, strangling and choking me. Steve tried to get him off.

"We got a window," Clint said. "Four, three... Give 'em hell." Nat and Kate dropped down from the quinjet on bikes. Nat grabbed Steve's shield from the road.

"I'm always picking up after you boys," she said.

"We're heading under the overpass, I've got no shot," Clint said.

"Which way?" Katherine asked.

"Hard right," Clint said. "Now."

Nat and Kate rode by. Nat tossed Steve his shield and me a gun. Steve knocked Ultron off of me. Steve was knocked off and I continued fighting Ultron. Steve jumped back up and helped me.