A skin-tight black suit clung to Carla's body, leaving little to the imagination. A hood hung off her shoulders, silver accents lining the hem. Now that she took another look at her outfit, a lot of silver lined the hems of her suit. She also wore her black athletic shoes and fingerless gloves, completing the attire.

The fabric felt durable but breathable, which was a good thing considering she didn't want to get too hot and sweaty in the suit. Although, she did feel kind of naked since it almost felt like nothing when she put it on. Carla's face flushed pink, realizing that she did look a bit provocative with her curves being accentuated in the outfit.

She put up her red hair into a high ponytail with an elastic that she wore on her wrist as she followed Natasha to the quinjet on the helipad upstairs.

Natasha smirked, "Well, aren't you Avenger-ready?"

Carla snorted, "Funny joke."

"I wasn't joking. You're more capable than you realize," she responded.

Carla chose to ignore the comment. The last thing that she ever was, was an Avenger. Avengers were heroes who were selfless and did everything for the good of humanity. Carla was a teenager who was only concerned with her family's future and didn't care too much about helping humanity. Sure, if there was someone in trouble and she was right there to stop it, she wasn't so cruel as to let them suffer right in front of her. She just wasn't interested in actively searching out to help those in need. That was the difference.

She's not a hero and she never will be. Heroes eventually die off. Her mother was a hero in Carla's eyes, always concerned with helping others no matter what. Her mother often volunteered at homeless shelters in her free time. And just like heroes do, her mother perished trying to protect her daughter by sacrificing herself.

They entered the quinjet on the roof, Carla taking a seat on the bench. Tony scrutinized his niece's outfit.

He frowned, "Where'd you get that outfit?"

Carla sheepishly smiled, glancing over at Natasha. The spy smiled innocently as Tony gave her an exasperated look. Thor grinned at the mechanic.

"I think Lady Carla looks very capable in her attire," the Asgardian commented.

"Thanks," Carla grinned. Her smile slightly dropped as she bit her lip, "I think Asgardian armour looks really cool, though."

Which was true, as she remembered Sif's attire and the outfits the Warrior's Three had were fascinating. And the capes. She was a little jealous that she couldn't really wear a cape if she wanted to without looking too outlandish and weird.

Thor gave her a confused look, "You've only ever seen my attire, so how would you know that?"

Her eyes widened, realizing her slip up. She nervously laughed, hoping to seem genuine, "That's what I meant… Your armour looks cool."

The God of Thunder nodded, grasping her explanation. When he became distracted by talking to Bruce, she let out a small sigh of relief.

She watched as Natasha and Clint took the wheel, directing the quinjet as they took off into the sky.

Hours later, they landed in a hot, dry, and grassy field in the outskirts of Johannesburg. All but Bruce and Carla exited the quinjet before Tony gave her a serious look.

"You wait here, and if anything happens, you call me right away. Got it?"

His niece nodded in response. They left soon after, leaving the two to hang out in the jet.

Bruce sighed, "You know, sometimes I wish I could control the big guy so I could be a better help."

Carla shrugged, "You're already a big help. I mean, besides me and Tony you're the only one who's a nerd in the science department." She crossed her arms as she leaned her head back on the interior wall, "Plus, Tony and I are more like mechanics and technicians. You have capabilities that we don't have."

He smiled in gratitude, "Thanks."

She smiled, "Now we get to wait in boredom as the others do the fun stuff."

They talked about random subjects to waste time as they waited for the others to return. Meanwhile, Carla nervously looked outside the jet to catch sight of the twins. It wasn't until a couple hours later that it was Bruce who first noticed them out in the distance.

Bruce furrowed his eyebrows, "There's a couple of kids over there."

The teen snapped her head towards where he pointed, eyes locking with a man and woman. She groaned.

The man grabbed his sister around her waist. Carla immediately turned to Bruce, kicking him away into the front of the jet. He crashed into the chair, giving the teen a confused look. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he passed out.

She winced, "Sorry, but I can't risk the Hulk coming out."

Before he could respond, she immediately raised her hands, blocking him off with a thick wall of ice. Her arms were now colored a dark blue again. She suddenly felt a kick to her back as she was sent crashing into the side of the jet. She rolled over onto her knee, not even waiting to see where they stood as she flicked her hand and sent several daggers of ice out in front of her.

Pietro grabbed his sister, dodging most of the daggers. One nicked his cheek, a small line of blood trailing down his face. Carla grimaced as they both stared down one another.

Wanda looked at the girl in surprise, "Who are you?"

She scowled, "None of your business. And," She raised her hand to wipe the blood from her nose, "You're both idiots for helping Ultron."

Wanda frowned, face flushed red, "You all think yourselves as heroes, when in reality you hurt and kill people along the way. How can you live with yourself?"

Carla rolled her eyes, "Who said I was a hero? People die every day, no matter what the Avengers do or don't do. They can't save everyone, but they try to save as many as possible." She stood up from her place on the floor, left shoulder screaming in pain. "And what you're about to do won't make you any better than your so-called enemies."

Pietro scoffed, "It will only make the world realize how demented the Avengers are."

"Fine," Carla held out her hands. "Then I have no other choice."

She immediately shot out more daggers of ice. The two disappeared from her sight. Anticipating this, she turned around and swung out her left leg, colliding with the side of Pietro's abdomen. His body easily crashed into the wall, just as she was about to apprehend the other twin, she was too late.

Wanda waved her hands beside Carla's head, red light dancing across her fingertips. Carla lowered her hands, falling to her knees on the floor. She was compromised. Wanda screamed as she fell to the floor, gasping for air.

Pietro got up from the floor, hissing in pain from his side. He quickly rushed to her aid, worry etched across his features.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She nodded, eyes watering, "I'm fine." He turned to the wall of ice that blocked off half of the jet, including the Hulk. "We've spent too much time here, we should leave before they come back. It looks like we won't be able to get to the big guy."

Pietro nodded, watching his sister with regret as he picked her up and took off from the area.

Carla was sitting on the couch in her old apartment. Everything was the same as she remembered it. Her mother appeared in the room from the kitchen, smiling.

She looked at the woman in confusion, "Mama?"

Her mother looked… younger. Her skin was more smooth and youthful, and her hair was cut short above her shoulders. She seemed to be in her mid-twenties.

Morgan smiled, "Carla, I didn't know you'd be home so soon…" Her smile widened, her head tilting, "Did you say goodbye to your father?"

Carla frowned, "My father?"

Red seeped into her mother's shirt. Morgan looked down at herself, pouting. "Awh, this is my favorite shirt."

The teen watched in horror, "You're… bleeding."

Morgan looked up from her shirt, sighing. "Why, of course I am." Her eyes widened, mouth gaping, "Oh! I left something in the car. I'll be right back!"

Carla blinked before her mother was gone. She got up from the couch, walking to the front door. She opened it, and walked outside. The world around her blurred, dizzying her senses. She closed her eyes, rubbing the side of her head before opening them.

Her eyes opened, and everything was seemingly dark. She was surrounded by metal walls, similar to the quinjet but bigger. Was she on a helicarrier? A... spaceship?

She walked around the hallways, trying to find a way out of this place. She entered a bigger room, and she gasped. There were many dead bodies littering the floor. She didn't notice the current party in front of her. Her gaze dragged up to see Thanos, Thor, Loki… and her mother.

Thor had a short haircut and was trapped in metal scraps. Loki was kneeling on the floor, holding his injured side. Her mother was alongside him, tears running down her face. Thanos reached down and grabbed Morgan by the throat, lifting her up in the air in a chokehold. She choked and gasped as she struggled for air.

Carla's heart clenched, "Stop!"

Thanos brought his gaze to the teen, expression full of pity. She seethed, "Let her go."

Thanos sighed, "Poor Carla. You have no idea of the tragedy your existence came from. Your friends and family are all dead. There's nothing left for you to do but to just sit there and take it."

She looked around, seeing familiar faces in the crowd of bodies. Tony, Natasha, Bruce… everyone she knew littered the floor, large bloody holes in their chests. She screamed.

"Yes... Mourn while you can. I have no choice but to kill off the rest of your family." Thanos squeezed Morgan's neck, a loud crack resounding before he dropped her body on the floor.

Thor screamed through his muzzle and Loki stared at her body in disbelief. Loki stood up, materializing a blade in his left hand. Before he could attempt to slice Thanos' throat, the titan disappeared along with Thor. Carla and Loki were left alone in the room. His green eyes locked with Carla's.

He grimaced, "I'm sorry."

"For what?" She hiccuped, cheeks heated and wet with salty tears. Her body felt weird, like it was becoming numb. It felt as though pins and needles were poking at her in all directions. She looked down at herself, hands fading away into dust-like particles. Carla watched with mild amazement and horror as her body started to fade away up her torso. She looked back up at Loki, brown eyes searching for an answer.

"For everything."

Her eyes shot open, the pulse from her heart pumping rapidly. Tears ran down her face as horror and confusion took hold of her thoughts.

"Carla?"

She looked around, realizing she was on the floor of the jet. Clint was at the front directing the flying quinjet. She noticed that they had taken down her ice wall, but wasn't too surprised considering their abilities. Tony was crouched above her on the floor, stress and concern reflected in his expression. She took deep breaths, calming down her heart rate.

Carla sighed, "What happened?"

Tony winced, "Same as you."

The dream, or vision, whatever it was… was weird. Thanos was her biggest fear and target so it would be natural that he would be in that nightmare, but he seemed to know her in that vision. It also didn't make sense to her that Loki was there, too. He was in immense anguish and regret, something she never really knew him to be. Maybe… he knew something that she didn't know. After all, he knows Thanos, and maybe Thanos knew about her mother and father. Why else would she have such a strange vision? Or Carla really could've just been overthinking things and Loki was really just apologizing for the attack on New York.

She looked to Bruce who sat on the bench across from her. "Sorry about earlier..."

He shrugged, "It's fine. You've got one hell of a kick, though."

"How long was I out?" Carla asked as she moved herself up into a sitting position against the bench.

"A couple of hours," Tony answered. "You had a concussion. Bruce explained what happened before he got knocked out. Wanna tell us what happened?"

Carla frowned, "The Maximoff twins came, as Bruce already might've told you. I'm positive Wanda was intending to unleash the Hulk with her abilities. I blocked them off from him and tried my best to defend myself, until they were able to compromise me."

Tony sighed, "Smart move, considering the circumstances. At least you seem fine... We're hiding out for now from Ultron to recover."

Carla nodded, getting up from the floor and seating herself on the bench. A dull pain went through her shoulder, indicating that it had already started to heal. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She could've sworn that she at least fractured her shoulder… now it felt like a minor injury. Perhaps ice powers included healing capabilities?

At this point, she wasn't very much surprised. The world was already so crazy that she didn't think there was anything that could top what she's already been through.

The quinjet soon landed on a grassy, rural field not far from a large farmhouse. Carla already had figured it was Clint's home. They left the quinjet and followed Clint down the hill as they took in their surroundings. The weather was warm, yet cloudy as the group made their way into the front door of the house.

They made a right into the living room, where Clint called out in the house, "Honey, I'm home." A woman with a very swollen stomach appeared from the kitchen, surprised.

"Hi. Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead," the archer explained, walking to meet his wife to embrace her.

"Hey," she greeted, giving him a peck on the lips.

Tony looked at the couple with disbelief, turning to Thor, "This is an agent of some kind."

Clint brought his attention back to the group, "Gentleman, this is Laura."

She smiled, awkwardly staring at the group, "I know all your names."

Hurried footsteps resounded from the stairs, two children running into the room to greet their father, "Ooh, incoming."

Clint quickly picked up his daughter as she exclaimed, "Dad!"

"I see her!" He hugged his son, kissing the top of his head, "Hey, buddy! How you guys doing? Ooh…"

Everyone watched with surprise, while Carla and Natasha took in the scene with amusement. Tony spoke, "These are… smaller agents."

"Look at your face! Oh, my goodness!" He set her back down onto the floor.

"Did you bring Auntie Nat?" his daughter questioned.

Natasha walked to them from her spot, grinning, "Why don't you hug her and find out?"

The young girl rushed into Natasha's arms before the woman picked her up. "Sorry for barging in on you," Steve apologized to the couple.

"Yeah, we would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed," Tony added on.

Clint brushed it off, "Yeah, well Fury helped me set this up when I joined. He kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low."

As Natasha went to talk to Laura, Thor accidentally stepped on some legos. Steve watched as he awkwardly shoved them away with his shoe. Clint's daughter walked up to Thor, staring up at him curiously. Distress went across Thor's features before he left the room, heading right out the front door. Carla watched as Steve followed, probably confused about the Asgardian's odd behavior.

Tony looked back to Carla, "What was that about?"

"Who knows?" She innocently retorted.

After settling in and conversing with each other, Laura had set Tony and Steve to work on chopping logs. The others went on their way to settle into their rooms and while Carla was the odd one out, she chose to just spend the night on the couch.

She was watching TV when Clint's daughter came downstairs from her bedroom, curious to meet the teenager. The little girl looked up at her as Carla gave her a pleasant smile.

The girl smiled shyly, "Hi. I'm Lila."

"That's a pretty name. I'm Carla," she held out her hand in greeting.

Lila awkwardly shook her hand before retracting it back to nervously play with her hair, "Thank you… Do you wanna pick flowers with me?"

She looked at the young girl in surprise, "Sure. Let's go ask your mother, first."

Carla got up from the couch and walked to the kitchen, Lila trailing close behind her. Laura was currently washing dishes, scrubbing a plate with a sponge in the sink. Laura looked over her shoulder and made eye contact with Carla, smiling.

"I think Clint mentioned your name before, but I can't really remember it. I didn't know you were an Avenger," she said.

The teen laughed, "I'm not an Avenger, but to be fair I do have some cool abilities and stuff. My name's Carla."

Laura rose an eyebrow, "Well, you sure look like a part of the team... You're Mr. Stark's niece, right?"

"Yeah," she affirmed. "Anyways, I was wondering if I could take Lila out to go flower picking. She seems just as bored as I am, actually," she joked.

Laura grinned, gaze drifting to her daughter, "Alright. Make sure you stay close to Carla, and thank her for taking you, okay?"

The young girl nodded. Carla grinned, taking Lila's hand. "Then we'll be off. I'll bring her back before dark."

The mother nodded before Carla took Lila out of the house. They walked through the grass and up the hill, where they sat and found a small area full of colorful flowers. They spent their time picking the best ones and making flower crowns and bracelets.

Lila smiled, "I wanna make one for Auntie Nat! Do you think she'll like it?"

An image of the typical, fierce Black Widow with a flower crown was a little amusing in Carla's mind. She nodded, "Definitely. In fact, let's make flower crowns for everyone."

The girl enthusiastically nodded, grabbing another pink peony to loop and tie into her workpiece. They spent about an hour making crowns, finished and satisfied with their goal. Lila and Carla donned matching crowns made with white peonies on their heads. They weren't too far from the house, and they only had about twenty minutes until sundown.

"Hey, you wanna see something cool?" Carla asked, an idea coming to mind.

Lila nodded, curious. Carla held out her hands, cupping them together. The skin on her hands and arms turned blue as Lila watched with awe. The teenager simply thought about what she wanted in her head, and a rose made of ice materialized in her hands.

She pinched the stem of the rose between her fingers and held it out to Lila, "Here. It'll melt soon, but I can always make more."

Lila accepted the rose, staring at it with a mixture of admiration and shock. She blinked up at the older girl, furrowing her eyebrows, "Are you like Elsa?"

Carla chuckled, taking it as a compliment from the young girl. "Something like that."

They gathered up the flower crowns before heading back to the farmhouse. The walk took about five or so minutes until they passed the front door. Carla was expecting to see a certain SHIELD director around somewhere, so she had made some extra flower crowns for good measure. They entered the living room and saw many of which spread out in the living room and kitchen. The team looked at Carla and Lila in surprise as they had hands full of flower crowns.

Lila grinned, running up to her father before handing him a white crown, "Dad! Look what I made you!" She then showed him the rose-shaped ice figure, "Carla made this for me, too!"

Clint enthusiastically accepted the crown and placed it on his head, "That's nice, Lila! How do I look?"

"Like a true princess," Tony commented.

Carla smirked, "Well, we made enough for everyone, so you better appreciate them."

Her uncle gave the teen a look of disdain. Carla playfully stuck out her tongue in response. She gave the rest of the crowns for Lila to pass out to everyone, who all accepted with gratitude towards the young Barton. Carla looked around the room to notice Nick Fury, wearing his iconic eyepatch, was scrutinizing the scene with slight amusement.

Until Lila went up to him and handed him a pink flower crown, fully expecting him to wear it. The bemused party watched as the rigid man placed the crown on his head, albeit begrudgingly. Carla donned a shit-eating grin. The sight before her was pretty hilarious.

He sighed, serving himself a drink, "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."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

"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," explained Fury, taking a sip from his glass.

Tony and Carla took turns throwing darts. He handed the darts back to Carla, "He still going after launch codes?"

Carla's first dart hit the board dead-center. Fury replied, "Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony commented. Carla rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that," he retorted.

Steve had a puzzled look, "NEXUS?"

Tony tossed the next dart which hit the edge of the board. The teen gave him a smug look. "It's the world internet hub in Oslo, every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth," Bruce clarified.

"So what'd they say?" Clint asked.

Fury said, "He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

Carla tossed another dart that joined her first one in the center. Tony sighed and plucked them off the board. "By whom?"

Clint sent a dart dead-center in front of Tony's face. Tony frowned at him, to which the archer simply shrugged. "Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" asked Natasha, who was seated on the dining table.

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

Tony walked into the room from the dartboard, "I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown.'"

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," the spy responded sarcastically.

"I do, I have you," he defended. Carla walked in after putting away the darts, leaning against the wall. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, 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 seated himself at the edge of the table.

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," joked Natasha.

Steve gave her a dry look, "You know what, Romanoff?" The woman responded with a mischievous smile. Carla smirked, understanding the reference.

"So what does he want?" questioned Fury.

"To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies," Steve responded.

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

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha commented.

Bruce held a pondering look, holding his hand to his mouth. "They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" asked Fury.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?" asked Bruce.

An epiphany kicked in amongst the group at his question. Carla groaned, "He plans to create a new body."

Everyone immediately set to work on preparing to leave. Fury took Carla and Tony aside, face serious. "While I leave Dr. Banner and Carla off at the tower, you better be knowing what you're doing, Stark."

Carla sighed in disappointment before crossing her arms, "I guess the drama's over for me, then." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Don't be too disheartened."

A couple hours later in the quinjet, Fury dropped Carla and Bruce at the tower. The two geniuses anxiously waited around the laboratory. Carla absentmindedly pulled at her hair as she watched Bruce set up the lab equipment for the artificial vessel to destroy. She bottled up her emotions so that she wouldn't worry and distract Bruce from his tasks.

Tony arrived shortly after. He probably used his suit, which she assumed since it was a faster way of air transport. Bruce gave him a brief "Hello" before going back to setting some program on the computer. Carla gave the mechanic a small smile that didn't entirely reach her eyes. Her eyes started to water while she opened her mouth and yawned, the lack of sleep now dawning on her.

Tony looked over his niece worriedly, "Why don't you go rest? You certainly need it."

"Alright. No complaints there," she readily agreed. "Wake me up if anything happens." Tony simply nodded in response. She got up from her seat at the lab table, heading for the stairs.

Hey guys, sorry for the abrupt cliffhanger. This was sitting in my docs because I was planning to write like 7k-10k words or so, but decided to go ahead and update this today. It's been a long break as I've been busy with a lot of things senior year, until this last Friday when my school was shut down for two weeks due to the coronavirus. It's been updated again today for school to be closed until April 17th. With the current situation, schools are probably not going to be open until the summer.

With that said, things I was looking forward to (my animal hospital internship, FFA state convention, prom, gradnite, maybe graduation, etc.) are more than likely cancelled/postponed.

I'm hella depressed lmao. During these times I'm going to eat way too many quarantine snacks, playing games, sleeping, and probably writing fanfiction since I have nothing better to do lol.

Stay safe and healthy,

Navi.