𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 || 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯

CARTER MUST'VE BEEN DOWN 2 SHOTS OF VODKA WHEN HE STUMBLED INTO THE KITCHEN TO FIND THE TEAM AND THE ADDITION OF NICK FURY. The tingles of the substance were helping him wind down after so long of sitting around and waiting. And it wasn't like anything else was going on at the moment. Laura had cooked everyone up some food and now, Fury was supposedly back in the picture.

"Anyone care to tell me who this is?" Fury asked, looking amongst the group.

"Carter Locke. He's from a different universe. He's helping us with our Ultron problem and trying to get his girlfriend back," Clint summarised from his spot on the couch with Laura by his side.

Carter pulled out a chair at the end of the table to the right of Natasha. Giving her a brief smile as he placed the bottle of vodka in front of him and slumped in the chair. "Something tells me if you're here, you must have agents settled where Nova is."

Fury stared at the man for a moment. "That would be a correct suspicion."

"Even if it isn't what she wants?"

"Carter." Natasha's low tone created discord for Carter to relent from his aggression toward the ex-director. Lifting his hand in surrender, he poured himself another shot of vodka and exhaled heavily. Somehow loving the burning, bitter taste to grace his throat as he stared at Fury.

It wasn't any secret that the girl's relationship with her adoptive father wasn't sunshine and rainbows. And in a lot of cases, he got to hear about the multitude of problems from all variations of Nova. He knew enough for him to hold his own opinion of the man.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Fury stated. "My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve inquired from his spot at the doorframe breaking into the kitchen and living room.

"Oh, he's easy to track. He's everywhere. He's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit," Fury said. "It still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though."

From the back, Tony tossed a dart at the board. "Is he still going after launch codes?"

"Yes, he is," Fury said, spreading butter across the pieces of bread he'd taken. "But he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony confessed, using the comparisons between himself and his creation.

Pouring himself another shot, Carter nodded in agreement. "I mean, Tony is right. If there's anything I've learned it is that Ultron is Tony in a lot of ways. Maybe they don't share the oh-so-wonderful thought of genocide, but they're the same." Downing the liquid, he placed the glass down with a clink. "We gotta assume this guy is going to get access eventually."

"I'm going to act like you didn't just compare me to that asshat because of our peace pact." Carter smirked at the man, winking.

"Well, I contacted our friends at the Nexus about that," Fury said, peeling pieces of ham and placing them on the bread.

Steve looked up, frowning. "Nexus?"

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there. Fastest access on Earth," Bruce explained.

"So, what did they say?" Clint asked, inspecting one of the darts.

"He's fixated on the missiles. But the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" A heavy thunk sounded at the impact of Clint's dart hitting a bullseye and flying past Tony's face. He looked at the dart and then Clint, glaring. Clint could only shrug, a smirk etched on his lips.

"Parties unknown," Fury answered.

"Still doesn't change the fact that he can just brute force it," Carter muttered.

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy. That's not the same thing," Fury corrected. "Still, I'd pay holding money to know who it is."

Fury grasped the door frame from the back, pursing his lips. "I might need to visit Oslo," he announced. "Find our unknown."

Natasha sighed. "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kinda hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

"I do. I have you." Natasha glanced at Tony and sighed as the man continued. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere. Ears, everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up. Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission. And whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave."

Carter clenched his jaw, able to see through Judge's and the Hound's eyes. Sat awake watching the children with Laura's heartbeat steady as slept. He glanced at Clint for a moment before staring at the bottle of Vodka.

He didn't have much here. He didn't have his family or Wanda. And with Wanda, she stood on the side of a world disfigured and morphed into the creation of what Ultron wished it to be. Carter, as it stood, would end up either escaping or being killed in that process. But the innocents of his teammate's lives being eradicated left a bitter taste on the back of his throat. Almost enough to make him vomit at the very thought.

"So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard," Fury encouraged, sitting at the opposite end of the table.

Natasha looked at Steve, smirking. "Steve doesn't like that kind of talk."

Steve raised a brow, the edge of his lips curving. "You know what, Romanoff?" The response only made her smirk widen in amusement.

"So, what does he want?" Fury asked aloud, glancing around at the team.

"To become better," Steve answered. "Better than us. He's keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies. The human form is inefficient. Biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it," Tony speculated.

Natasha looked between Banner and Tony. "When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

"The thing I'm stuck on is the addition of nukes," Carter confessed, eyebrows tensing in thought. "Steve pointed it out the night of the attack. He wants us extinct. So, what if the nukes are for a power move? I mean, he never said he was going to kill the human race. If anything, a lot of what he said entailed that he was protecting everyone from us."

"They don't need to be protected. They need to evolve." The team looked to Bruce who stared down at one of Lila's drawings of a butterfly. He looked up at them. "Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Fury asked.

Bruce thought for a brief moment before looking amongst the team. "Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

THEY ARRIVED IN SEOUL WITH BOTH STEVE AND CARTER WALKING TO THE EDGE OF ONE OF THE ROOFTOPS. The Quinjet with both Natasha and Clint inside flew overhead. In the distance, the U-GIN Genetic Research Facility sat secluded on the water. Their main target and lead of where Ultron could very well be.

"Two minutes," Steve announced. "Stay close."

Exhaling heavily, Carter stretched his legs. "So, how 'bout it, Cap? Ready for some leg work?"

"Don't worry about me. Just keep up," Steve commented, earning a grin from Carter as they started their journey toward the facility.

The team had split up with Bruce heading back to the tower, Tony going to Nexus, and the rest of the team left to pursue Ultron. Carter tried to make an argument to potentially be useful with the handoff of the cradle when they would get it back to Tony. But Steve thought his assistance with the potentiality of fighting Ultron would be a better asset than guarding some sort of coffin responsible for Ultron's next step toward his full realization.

Entering the facility, Carter glanced at the few dead bodies scattered across the lobby. "Clint, inform first responders of casualties at the facility." He ran closely behind Steve, following the arrows toward the lab.

Coming to a flight of stairs, Steve sighed. "Gotta be kidding me."

"I got it." Grabbing the supersoldier by the scruff of his suit, he teleported them to the top and manifested his rifle.

The two moved toward the lab where bodies of scientists were found dead from what seemed like blasts. "Secure the lab," Carter ordered as he kept watch of the door. All the while checking the pulses of the scientists likely dead.

Securing the sling around his body firmly, he began to move the bodies out of the way and accordingly. His jaw clenched as he brushed his finger over their eyes, shutting them before standing to his feet.

On the surface, Carter had been mistaken for a soldier. His numbness to the sight of bodies could easily direct that assumption, along with his skill around a weapon. But the man, at his heart, was a scientist and an inventor. He shouldn't have gotten used to the sight of corpses or the metallic scent in the air. But his mission came at the cost of that. Something that he had accepted a long time ago.

Grasping his rifle, he backed toward Steve who talked to an injured Helen Cho. "You have to get the Cradle to Stark."

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

The woman nodded, inhaling sharply. "Go."

As Steve stood to his feet, Carter twisted his hand with a golden tendril touching the woman's wound. "It'll keep you alive until the first responders get here. Stay strong," he told the woman, earning a grateful smile before he turned and followed the Captain.

"Did you guys copy that?" Steve called out, both him and Carter making it outside.

"We did," Clint confirmed.

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

"There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above, you guys. On the loop by the bridge," Clint pointed out. Steve slightly tapped Carter's chest and the two began to run toward a ladder, giving them a perfect way up. "It's them. You got three with the Cradle, one in the cab. I could take out the driver."

"Negative. That truck crashes, the gem could level the city," Steve told him, climbing over the ledge of the highway. Reaching over, Carter took his hand as the man said, "We need to draw out Ultron."

Carter moved to the edge of the freeway and saw the U-GIN truck approaching. Glancing at Steve, he said, "Just so you know, I wasn't good at long jump."

"Well, right now is the perfect time to be good at it." As the truck began to get close beneath them, the pair sprinted to the opposite ledge and leapt off.

Carter grunted as his balance wavered from the opposing motion of the truck, practically propelling his body forward to keep himself from falling.

"Leave me alone!" A blast sounded inside the truck with the back door swinging open, Steve grunting in pain.

Grasping his rifle, Carter began to fire at random as the door Steve hung onto was shot again with the supersoldier lying on it as it stayed attached by a thread. "Carter, be careful!"

"I'm not the one who pissed off the oversized man-child!" Carter yelled, dodging as a blast pierced through the ceiling of the truck, nearly hitting him.

"Just help me keep him that way then!" Steve replied.

"You're no match for him, Cap," Clint announced.

"Thanks, Barton."

Carter continued to fire rounds into the truck, convinced that his bullets wouldn't even dent the Cradle or scratch the Gem Cho had warned them about. His gaze flickered to Steve who had been sent flying onto the front of a car following the truck. Quickly recovering and using one passing by to propel him over. Catching his arm in time, Carter yanked the man by his side.

From the back of the truck, the two watched as Ultron appeared with his repulsor aiming at them. "You know what's in that Cradle?" He fired which Steve used his shield to deflect. "The power to make real change. And that terrifies you."

"I wouldn't call it a comfort."

The three began to fight with Steve throwing his shield at the bot as Carter used his powers, quickly ghosting his hand over the magazine before firing rounds at the bot, ducking and weaving to avoid the bot's blasts.

When Steve was sent flying back from one of the repulsor blasts, his shield discarded off the truck as well, Carter took the liberty to face Ultron alone. "How about some classic duke 'em outs, huh? Can't be a pussy, right?"

"Who are you?" Ultron questioned, landing on the truck and closing the space.

Carter infused his powers in his fists as he and Ultron went one-for-one. Both exchange hits and both feel the other's power. Ultron, for once, had no way of predicting Carter's fighting style because he was a ghost, and Carter used this to his advantage as he tore chunks of Ultron's body apart with each punch. Withstanding the metal that met his face and body, swallowing down the blood that invaded his taste buds.

"Locke!" Over his shoulder, Steve launched himself at Ultron using Carter's crouched position. But that only opened Carter up to be kicked in the face and sent flying off of the truck.

Quickly, Carter extended his arms above his head and yelled, "Judge!" The bird manifested and his claws grabbed the man and kept him afloat. As Ultron continued to fight Steve and take out Natasha on her bike with the bot lifting chunks of Earth to block paths, Carter extended a hand out with a groan.

Two puddles of ink appeared with Rex and Vash leaping out. Rex caught Steve who was sent flying off the truck with the road ahead of him becoming destroyed by Ultron. Vash placed himself in front of the destroyed road and used his ink body to soften the blow of the vehicles unable to stop whilst Steve was propelled forward from Rex's back, returning to face Ultron.

Taking the chance, Judge lowered Carter just enough and tossed the man toward the bot. Carter infused his powers into his knee and drove it into Ultron's jaw, causing the bot to stumble back.

"You are bothersome," Ultron stated.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," Carter replied, landing blows on the bot with Steve joining in.

The truck's movement didn't fully play a factor in Carter's mind. His focus solely on either destroying or buying the team time to retrieve the Cradle. Only able to hear ringing as he continued to trade blows and attacks with Ultron as his heart pounded in his ears.

Through sluggish blows and heavier impacts from Ultron, Carter could feel his strength dwindling. Either Steve saw this or wanted to get a moment to breathe, but he had grabbed Ultron and tossed him into an overpass pillar. But it'd only been for a moment before Ultron regained his float and tackled the man off the truck and into the train adjacent.

Carter exhaled shakily, placing his hands on his knees. "The two bots are heading back towards you," Clint announced, confusing Carter for a moment. "Nat, whatever you're going to do, do it now."

Turning around, Carter caught sight of Natasha maneuvering around parked vehicles. "I'm going in. Cap, can you keep him occupied?" She asked.

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

Moving toward the edge, Carter dropped to a knee and braced one hand on the edge of the open end of the truck with the other held out in the air. Natasha, standing up on the bike, noticing the truck slowly backing up, ready to block the path, jumped. Carter caught her hand and swung her inside before tiredly climbing down and taking her helpful hand.

As she approached the Cradle, her gaze flickered to Carter who stumbled forward, exhaling shakily. "You good?"

He was quick to wave her off. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. Let's just deal with this."

They both moved to the monitor at the end of the Cradle, tapping on the screen before "USER OVERRIDE DENIED," appeared. Carter sighed. "Why can't this sonofabitch just be stupid one time-!" Before he could finish, two thuds could be heard along the outside of the truck, making both Natasha and Carter glance around. "That can't be good."

Without warning, the container of the truck jostled before lifting into the air, the back end tipping. It threw Natasha's balance off as Carter quickly caught her hand with his other hand grabbing the straps holding the Cradle stationary. "I got ya!"

Pulling her to grab ahold of the straps, Carter forced himself to a crouch. Sure that if he pulled his gloves off, his knuckles would be a pale white from the vice grip he had on the straps.

"Okay, package is airborne," Clint announced.

Carter groaned in annoyance. "We know, Clint! Don't fire, Nat and I are still inside!"

"What the hell are you two-"

"Just be ready. We're sending the package to you," Natasha replied, as she passed a knife to Carter who began to cut at the straps.

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

Natasha let out a laugh, shaking her head. "Uh, you might wish you hadn't asked that."

Clint began to line the cabin up with the trailer. Both Carter and Natasha continued to cut through the straps relentlessly despite the ache in their arms.

"I lost him! He's heading your way!" Steve announced over the coms, making Carter groan as he placed the knife in his pocket.

"Nat, we gotta go," Clint urged.

Carter huffed. "Fuck this." Pulling his rifle out, he shot the buckles and tossed the weapon aside before grasping the side of the Cradle. Natasha planted an explosive before following in suit as they rode the Cradle that slid out of the trailer.

The instant howling of wind pierced Carter's eardrums as his stomach rolled at the sight of the cabin being lined up perfectly catching the Cradle. But the moment it did, Carter heard a grunt and spun around, seeing Ultron starting to fly away with Natasha in his grasp.

"Nat!" Leaping off the cradle, Judge's large figure caught him and propelled him toward the two. He grabbed the bot's head and began to pull, roaring in anger with Judge biting the bot's arm and ripping it off clean.

"Get. Off!" Ultron shot Carter in the chest which seemed to be the final blow for the man whose strength had been fraying the moment he was left to help Nat.

He watched Judge's large figure try to reach him before flickering out with orange sparks. Carter's heavy eyes stared up, eyelids growing heavier as the voices of Clint and Steve could be heard faintly over the howling winds and muffled voices.

Until he felt the concrete impact of water with a river of blood pooling from his lips. But despite the pain. Despite the trembling of his body. He smiled. A genuine one at that. And for once, he let his eyes flicker shut.