The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

16| Our Fight's Over

A few hours later, maybe six or seven, according to her internal clock, Natasha was on the alert again after a quick nap when Ultron's bodies all left. She started working on the lock again, since Ultron had noticed the first time and taken the lockpicks away.

Faintly, she heard a familiar voice, calling her. "Natasha! Natasha!"

She scrambled up and clutched at the bars. "Bruce?" she said.

He walked into sight and she grinned, finally relieved after a few long hours.

"You alright?" Bruce asked her, a small smile reflected on his face.

"Yeah," Nat said. "Now I am, anyway."

Bruce laughed a little, before becoming serious. "Team's in the city. It's about to light up."

"I don't suppose you found a key lying around here somewhere?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, I did." Bruce hefted up an alien rifle and Natasha ducked behind a pillar as he blasted the lock to bits. He shoved the door aside and helped Nat out quickly.

"So, what's our play?" she asked, looking around the abandoned workshop. There was a gigantic hole in the middle of the room that could've fit ten Hulks.

Bruce checked out the cell she was held in. "I'm here to get you to safety."

Natasha turned around, half-disbelieving. "Job's not finished."

Bruce grimaced apologetically. "We could help out with the evacuation, but I can't be in a fight near civilians. And you've done plenty." He reached for her for a second before stopping himself. "Our fight is over."

Natasha gazed into his eyes, reading them, tyring to see how ready he was, how truthful. "So we just disappear?" she said softly.

"I know a place we can go," he replied.

Natasha considered her options. On one hand, leaving before the situation escalated would help out very much, any head start away from the government would. On the other, there were the people she would be leaving, her team, the civilians whose lives have been turned upside down because of them. She felt a twinge of guilt.

As she was about to speak, the cavern rumbled.

Bruce glanced between her and the door. "We gotta move."

Natasha caught his arm. "You're not going to turn green?" she asked.

"I've got a compelling reason to not lose my cool." The scientist gave her a smile.

Nat made a split-second decision. If they were going to be separated, if she was going to die in this fight... "I adore you," she whispered, and kissed him. Her hand was on his neck, constantly checking his pulse, and she felt another sharp stab of guilt before she shoved him into the pit. "But I need the other guy."

A beat later, the Hulk leaped up from the pit, and she resisted the instinct to step back. "Let's finish the job."

He lifted a large hand and gestured to his back.

A minute later, they were soaring through the sky, though Natasha had no time to enjoy the view. She was a little busy screaming, something she hasn't done in a while.

They landed on the floating city of Novi Grad, and Natasha was panting for breath. She looked up at the Hulk, who was staring at her in what seemed like concern. "I really hope this makes us even." She smiled at him. "Now go be a hero."

The big green lovely ran off, smashing metal creations in his path.

Natasha sighed and went to find her own robots to destroy. It was a quick hunt, and she headed for the bridge.

She got jumped halfway there, and before she could react, something made the creature go away. She looked up and saw Steve and Thor.

Steve helped her up. "Romanoff."

"Thanks," she huffed, and ran off to help some other people. She went back a few minutes later. "Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..."

"Not 'til everyone's safe." Steve smacked a robot away.

Natasha sighed. She hated what she was going to say next. "Everyone up here versus everyone down there? There's no math here."

Steve was adamant. "I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

"I'm not saying we leave." The captain glanced at her in a moment of no robots. Nat shrugged. "There are worse ways to go." She looked out onto the sunset of Novi Grad. "Where else am I going to get a view like this?"

Over her new comm, Natasha heard a familiar voice and she smiled to herself. "Glad you like the view, Romanoff," Fury said. "It's about to get better."

She caught her breath as a memory flew back at her. Three years ago today, the aftermath of Loki escaping the Helicarrier and stranding Bruce somewhere as the Hulk. The same Helicarrier that was broken, the one that Tony almost died fixing, slowly floated up from under the city.

"Nice, right?" Fury chuckled. "I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

A few seconds later, lifeboats began to deploy from the sides, and Pietro Maximoff ran up to them.

"This is SHIELD?" he asked Steve. Nat did a mental double take and she guessed that they were working with the Maximoffs now.

"This is what SHIELD is supposed to be." The captain replied.

Pietro nodded. "This is not so bad."

Natasha went and found more robots to fight. As the area she was in became deserted, she grabbed a tractor and drove towards the action.

"Romanoff?" Tony said over the comms. She was never so happy to hear that idiot's voice. "You and Banner better not be playing 'hide the zucchini'."

Natasha shook her head. "Relax, Shellhead, not all of us can fly." She got to the scene and met up with the team in the ruined church. "What's the play?"

Tony pointed at the thing stuck in the ground behind them. "That's the drill. If Ultron gets his hands on the core, we lose."

Natasha heard Thor ask some robots if that's all they've got, and she turned back to the robot army swarming the horizon.

"You had to ask," Steve told Thor.

Ultron gestured to the robots. "This is the best I can do. This is exactly what I wanted. All of you, against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

Tony looked at Steve. "Well, like the old man said..." he powered up his repulsors. "Together."

And the room burst into action.