Assigned • s.r

Badass

I was mad. I was angry. I was furious.
But I needed to get something done and I couldn't have this clouding my thoughts. We fled our way onto the jet but I stopped, wanting to say goodbye to Laura and the kids. They were on the porch watching us leave.
I jogged back to the porch and I lifted Lila up in my arms.
"I'm gonna miss you Lila." I smile.
"Don't leave!" She whined and I put her down.
"I have to babe, it's work," I frown, lifting her chin up with my finger. "I'll see you later, okay?"
She smiles and nods. She engulfs me into a last hug. I close my eyes and imagine what it's like to have my own kids, have my own baby girl or boy to hold in my arms. I smile. I put her down and kiss her forehead.
I look at Cooper and smile.
"Hey buddy."
"Hey Auntie Charlie." He says. I crouch down to his height and I speak lowly.
"Be good to your momma, got me? She's got another one of you coming our way and she can't take care of you all alone. Be nice to your sister and your upcoming brother. Okay?"
"Okay." He nods and smiles.
"I love you." I smile.
"I love you too." He laughs and hugs me. I get up and I look at Laura.
"Hey sugar momma."
"Hey." She smiles.
"We'll see you guys soon alright? Don't doubt any of it."
"I don't Charlie," she smiles and looks down. Her smile fades away. "Be safe okay? All of you. I can't end up finding out something happened out there-"
"Hey, you're doubting. Don't doubt. We'll be alright out there. Don't you worry about us. Worry about Charles," I point to her stomach. "Nice ring to it." I smile.
"It does." She agrees.
I crouch down to her stomach.
"Don't give her a hard time alright kid? Can't wait to see you." I say and kiss her belly.
I stand up and give Laura a hug. "See you soon."
I run to the jet and we take off. I lay down on one of the cushions. Steve sits next to me.
"Hey darlin'." He says, I smile. "How are you doing?"
"I'm doing okay. How's my handsome man?" I smile and put my head on his shoulder.
"I'm doing fine. I'm just worrying about you.."
"Don't worry about me, worry about the world."

••

"There's incoming," Ultron says. "The Quinjet. We have to move."
"That's not a problem." Helen Cho says, pretending she's still under Ultron's power. She pauses the upload. Ultron sighs in annoyance and shoots her across the room. The twins get startled and Pietro picks Wanda up and they bolt out.
"Wait-guys-but-" Ultron protests.
"They'll understand. When they see, they'll understand. I just need a little more time." Ultron says to himself, pulling out the cord connected to his head.
••
"Two minutes. Stay close." Steve says, with me by his side. The Quinjet takes off.
We run in the lab and everything is demolished. We see Helen Cho on the ground, she's wounded and can barley breathe.
"Dr. Cho!"
We run to her and crouch down to her level.
"He's uploading himself into the body." She breaths.
"Where?" Steve asks as he presses a piece of cloth on her shoulder. She shakes her head. He stands up to leave but she pulls him back down.
"The real power is inside the cradle. The gem, it's power is uncontainable. You can't just blow it up. You have to get the cradle to Stark."
"First, I have to find it."
"Go."
"Helen, what about you?" I ask worriedly.
"I'll be alright. Go.." She breaths and smiles.
Steve and I start running out of there.
"Did you guys copy that?" I say.
"We did." Clint clarifies.
"I got a private get taking off across town. No manifest. That could be him." I hear Natasha over the ear pieces.
"There. It's a truck from the lab. Right above you guys, on the loop by the bridge," Clint says to us. Steve and I look at each other. "It's them. You got three with the cradle, one with the cab. I could take out he driver."
"Negative! That truck crashes, the gem could level the city. We need to draw out Ultron." Steve says. We are on the bridge and we see the truck coming our way. We go to the other side of the bridge, run, and jump off of the bridge, landing on top of the truck. Steve slides off of the sides but grabs on tightly. I slide on the back of the truck and hold onto the bars on the back doors. In a matter of seconds, I'm shot to the side by Ultron and the door swings open. One door flies off but the other is stuck at the bottom, and I'm laying on the door that's scraping against the floor.
"Well, he's definitely unhappy." I say.
"You're not a match for him guys. Both of you!" Clint says. I stop crawling.
"Thanks Barton." We say in unison.
I crawl up the door and Steve is on the side of the truck, maneuvering his way towards me. Ultron pushes me back with the push of some air, and I land on a car, breaking the windshield.
"Charlotte!" Steve yells.
"I'm fine," I pant, "I'm okay."
I get up and grab onto another trucks mirror handle. I push myself up and land on top of the truck. Steve stands beside me.
"You know what's in that Cradle?" Ultron says, shooting his concussion blasters at Steve. He quickly turns around and it bounces off of his shield like nothing. "The power to make real change. And that terrifies you." Ultron says.
Steve grabs his shield and throws it at Ultron. "I wouldn't call it a comfort."
Ultron falls off but he flies back up and starts shooting at us. Steve throws his shield into his chest and he gets angry.
"Stop!" Ultron throws the shield on the floor. He shoots Steve and he falls by the front of the truck.
I grab my gun and start shooting at him. He tries shooting me but I dodge them, some of them. He growls and runs after me.
"This is a time you need to use your powers, doll." Steve pants. I sigh and close my eyes.
No, No, no. I think. I try and push the power out of my body, when I feel a huge weight being pulled off of my shoulders, I open my eyes back up and I see Ultron stunned. He tries kicking back at me again and it's like hitting a wall. Steve gets back on the truck and stands by me.
"Well done babe."
"We got a window. Four, three.." Clint says to Natasha, I hear through the ear piece. "Give em' hell." Clint says to Natasha.
A few seconds later she laughs.
"I'm always picking up after you boys." She says.
Ultron gets angry, he kicks, punches and scratches at the shield I put around Steve and I. I start to loose control of the shield from having it up for so long. I have to get used to this. Ultron charges, Steve and I start attacking. He shoots at me but he fails, it ricochets right off of my body. He sees that he has nothing that can hurt me, Steve gets behind him, and wraps his arms around his neck.
"They're heading under the overpass. I've got no shot." Clint says.
"Which way?"
"Hard right," he pauses. "Now."
Ultron pulls one of Steve's arms back and twists it. Steve grunts. Ultron holds him by his neck. I run and jump on his back, pulling him down with my body weight. When I see Natasha with the shield on a motorcycle next to the truck, I jump off of Ultron. She throws Steve his shield and he strikes him across the face with it, he falls.
Ultron pulls up the concrete that Natasha was coming up on, but she stopped.
Ultron blasted Steve with his concussion blasters. Steve flew into another car. Ultron pulled the concrete up in front of that car, which made it flip. My eyes widened, another car tried stopping, but it flipped as well. Steve jumped off of the car and started running. While another car was coming at him at a fast rate, it flipped and he jumped right on the top. It started sliding behind the truck. I look to my right and I see Ultron's hand coming to hit me. I duck and he stumbles.
Steve jumps back on and we both start fighting him. He's throwing punches left from right at Steve. I decide to climb up his back.
"What are you doing little girl!?" Ultron yells.  He grabs me by my arm and flings me over his shoulder. I slam on top of the truck and groan in pain.
"Come on Charlie. Get up." Clint says anxiously.
"Fuck, that hurt."
"Hurt him back."
I look up and he continues to fight Steve.
"Clint can you draw out the guards?"
"Let's find out."
The Quinjet comes around the corner and starts shooting at Ultron simultaneously. Other robots smaller than Ultron come out of the truck and head for the Quinjet. I get up and get my knife out. Steve punches Ultron and he flies into hard concrete under a bridge. Ultron takes control, flying into Steve, and into a train window. I step back and jump into that window.
"They're heading back towards you guys. Whatever you're going to do, do it now."
"Charlotte!" Steve yells.
"Yolo." I groan in pain.
He throws his shield at Ultron but he blocks it. It comes back to Steve. Ultron flies towards us, I duck and Steve jumps. I turn around like nothing happened. Ultron punches me in the face and my face turns. I wipe my lip with my finger and look at it. Blood was on it. I charge at him with my knife, when he tried to hit me I would kick his hand away. He got angry and pushed me back with air.
"Don't want to go too hard on the princess, now do we?" He says. I clinch my jaw.
"I'm going in, Cap, Charlie, can you keep him occupied?" Nat says.
"What do you think we've been doing?" I pant.
He walks slowly towards us.
"Princess?" Steve questioned. "You're gonna wish you didn't say that."
I ran towards Ultron and started throwing punches at him. I had gloves on of course, but it still hurt like hell. He's metal.
"Strong arm for a girl like you," he says. "But I can do better." He says and punches me. Steve jumps and kicks him in the chest. Sending him flying back. I hear Natasha yelp in my ear piece.
"Nat, you good?"
"I will be." She struggles to say.
"The package is airborne," Clint says. "I have a clean shot."
"Negative. I am still in the truck."
"What the hell are you-"
"Just be ready. I'm sending the package to you."
"How do you want me to take it?"
"Uh, you might wish you hadn't asked that." I break into a laugh and continue to fight. Ultron throws punches at Steve. He punches him right in the side. Steve grunts in pain. Ultron turns to me and he slaps me with the backside of his hand, hardly, and I fall on the floor. A gust of blue flies past me and Ultron gets pushed to the side. He goes after the guy who came after him, but two huge metal bars block his way, with red outlining them.
"Please, don't do this."
"What choice do we have?" The girl says in a Russian accent. Steve and I look at each other.
"Pietro and Wanda." I say. He nods.
Ultron puts his hand up to shoot at Pietro but he ducks, shooting at the front of the train. Ultron kicks at the subway door and flies out.
"We lost him! He's headed your way!"
"Nat, we gotta go." I hear Clint hurry.
We run to the front and the driver was shot dead. We look up and the end of the railroad is coming.
"Nat!" Clint yells. My eyes widen. "Cap, You see Nat?"
"If you have the package, get it to Stark! Go!" Steve yells. We run off of the railroad.
"Steve, what about Nat!?" I panic.
"Do you have eyes on Nat?"
"Go!"
"Steve!" I yell.
"We need to get this done Charlotte." He says, walking back and meeting with the twins.
"Shit!" I yell and hit the desk.
"There's civilians in our path," he says. Pietro runs out, dashing from one place to the other, getting civilians out of the trains way. "Can you stop this thing?" He says to Wanda. Steve and I fall to the floor from the impact with buildings.  A few seconds later The train stopped and we walked to the twins.
"I need to take a minute." Pietro pants.
"I'm very tempted not to give you one."
"The Cradle. Did you get it?"
"Stark will take care of it."
She looked at us terrified. "No he won't."
"You don't know what you're talking about. Stark's not crazy."
"He will do anything to make things right." She says.
"Stark, come in,"Steve says, turning around and looking at me. I looked at him furiously then turned my gaze to the twins.
"Stark. Anyone on comms."
"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it. Where do you think he gets that?"
••