Maya Stark

Chapter 4: A Dream & Clint's Secret

I was made to go to bed around 4 am by dad, Nat, Clint, and Steve. It was a group effort, but I went up to my room. I didn't sleep well, maybe getting an hour or two of sleep. I get up after waking up for the fifth time and change into shorts and an old casual button-up shirt I stole from my dad. It was really comfortable. I throw my hair up into a ponytail as I walk towards the voices of the team.

  'Ultron killed Strucker,' Steve says as I get up the stairs. I walk up to my dad who was holding a tablet. Strucker was definitely dead. Peace is written on the wall with what looks like blood.

  'And,' my dad says, glancing at me for a second, 'he did a bansky job at the crime scene, just for us.'

  'This is a smokescreen,' I said.

  'Why send a message when you've just given a speech?' Nat said, agreeing with me.

  'Strucker knew something Ultron wanted us to miss,' Steve said.

  'Yeah, I bet he...' Nat looks through the computer. 'Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased.'

  'Not everything,' my dad says with a sigh.

  We spent a long time going through paper files that we had on Strucker. It was boring work.

  'Known associates,' Steve said, setting down another box. 'Well, Strucker had a lot of friends.'

  'Well, these people are all horrible,' Bruce comments.

  'Wait. I know that guy,' my dad says. Bruce hands him the photo he was looking at and I walk over to the table. 'From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms.' Steve gives him an accusing glare. 'There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very "Ahab".'

  Thor points to a Scar on the back of the guy's neck. 'This.'

  'Uh, it's a tattoo,' said dad. 'I don't think he had it.'

  'No,' Thor said, 'those are tattoos, this is a brand.'

  Bruce goes to the computer to figure out the brand. 'Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way.'

  'What dialect?' I ask.

  'Wakanada...?' Bruce tries. 'Wa...Wa...Wakanda.'

  'If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods...' I say looking at my dad.

  'I thought your father said he got the last of it?' Steve asks my dad.

  'I don't follow,' Bruce said. 'What comes out of Wakanda?'

  My dad looks at Steve's shield, 'The strongest metal on earth.'

  'Where is this guy now?' Steve asks.

  Turns out he was on a Salvage Yard along the African Coast. Field trip time.

  I lower myself to the ground in front of Steve and Thor, all masked up.

  'Don't compare me with Stark!' Ultron was saying to seemingly just the twins. 'He's a sickness!' 'Ahh, junior,' my dad says landing with a thunk next to me. 'You're gonna break your old man's heart.'

  'If I have to,' Ultron said.

  'We don't have to break anything,' Thor says.

  I open my mouth when Ultron says, 'Clearly you've never made an omelet.'

  'He beat me by one second!' I say rolling my eyes.

  'Ah,' Pietro Maximoff says walking a little closer, 'This is funny, Mr. Stark. Its what comfortable? Like old time?'