Dark and Forgotten • (Bucky Barnes) • CAPTWS (Slow Updates)

3.10

The next day.

Sloan stared at himself through the bathroom mirror, eyebags under his eyes, showing how little sleep he had last night. He was kept awake from the vision of James. Of memories of their love, of nightmares filled with what-ifs. Sloan couldn't forget him.

His perfect James.

Now replaced by a broken version of him.

Sloan sighs, lowering his head.

....

Sloan exits the bathroom, walking down the hall and towards the kitchen, hearing voice from that direction. He stops at the door, seeing Fury sitting with the rest of the team. Fury looks up and eyes the mutant. "Glad you can join us princess, got enough beauty sleep?"

The group laughs at his expense.

.....

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. 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." Fury says as he leans back in his chair.

"What about Ultron himself?" Seo-Joon asked, ignoring the look his father sent him. He was curious and it's not like they weren't wondering themselves. Fury hums, knocking his boots against the floor. "Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though." Fury says

Tony leans forward, his shoulder brushing Sloan's arm, but he ignores the heat coming from. "He still going after launch codes?" Tony asks "Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway." Fury says "I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare." Tony gloats, earning a scoff from Natasha. Sloan shook his head, he didn't doubt his genius.

"Nerd." Clint scoffs under his breath. Tony rolls his eyes, while the others smirk in amusement. "Talk dirty to me, I like degradation." Tony teases, earning a gag from the archer and a cackle from Nat.

Fury rolls his eyes. "Okay back on topic. I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that." Fury says "NEXUS?" Steve asks, confused. "It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth." Banner says

"So what'd they say?" Sloan asks, crossing his arms over his chest. "He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed." Fury says

"By whom?" Tony asks fiddling with his empty coffee cup. "Parties unknown." Fury says "Do we have an ally?" Natasha asks "Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is." Fury says

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our unknown." Tony says "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that." Natasha says with a small shrug.

"I do, I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, and ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard." Fury says

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk." Natasha says with a stifled grin, "You know what, Romanoff?" Steve asks with a playful smile. Sloan eyed the two with interested eyes, watching the exchange. Natasha smiles mischievously at the blond Roger.

"So what does he want?" Fury asks, disrupting the exchange. Steve pushes himself away from the wall he was leaning against. "To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies." Steve says

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

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed." Sloan says with a frustrated roll of his tongue. "And they don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve." Sloan says