Accidental Avenger

Chapter 8

The next morning the kitchen was completely empty. I felt strange trying to find something to eat with no one else in there, but what else was I supposed to do? I was so hungry and I couldn't wait for someone else to come in and make me feel less like I was stealing. Thankfully there was enough food without names in the fridge that I could make myself something. I went with a basic omelet and then some peanut butter on toast once I found a jar in one of the cabinets.

I ate at the table in silence, the sound of my own chewing putting me on edge. I finished my food as quickly as possible and then rushed out of the kitchen after washing my dishes. I didn't want to be in there alone anymore.

Walking around the now destroyed Avengers Tower was so weird. There was still broken glass everywhere. Furniture sat in heaps of splintered wood and burned upholstery. It felt like a ghost town.

Finally, I found a few of the Avengers milling around in one of the backrooms. One side of the room was all windows which illuminated the room so well there weren't any other lights on. When I looked down, I almost threw up. I'd seen skyscrapers plenty of times, but I'd never been in one before. The tallest building I'd ever been in was a hospitals and it wasn't that tall. The only thing that kept me from completely freaking out was knowing that if I fell through a window somehow, I'd die immediately on impact or one of the flying superheroes behind me would save me Whichever happened first.

The only Avengers in the room were Bruce, Natasha, Clint, and Tony. Tony and Bruce were stationed by a computer but I couldn't tell what they were looking at. Natasha was sitting at the table with a tablet. She was scrolling through something, but it seemed like she was moving too fast to really see what she was looking at. Clint was doing nothing. I wondered if he did anything or if he just sat around and looked pretty for a while when there weren't any bad guys to shoot with an arrow.

"Did you eat already?" Natasha asked from behind me.

I stepped away from the window. "Yeah," I said.

"Ready to go home after all the excitement?" Clint asked.

"Definitely," I said, taking a seat across from him.

Thor walked into the room then. I could almost hear thunder clapping with every step he took. A few minutes later Steve walked in, too, and he was holding a tablet.

"We have a lead," He said. "Morning, Mavis." He added.

"Morning," I said.

Steve took his shield off his back and leaned it against a wall.

"What's the lead?" Tony asked. He straightened up and stretched his arms over his head.

Steve handed Thor the tablet. "A message," He said. "Ultron killed Strucker. Hill and I think he's working the Maximoffs."

Maximoffs? I looked at Steve but didn't say anything. I knew that name, but I didn't know where or why.

Thor turned and slammed the tablet into Tony's chest.

Tony took the tablet and glanced down at the screen. "He even did a Banksy at the crime scene."

"A what now?" I asked.

"Just ignore him," Clint said. "That's what I do."

Tony glared at us.

"It's a smoke screen," Natasha said. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"Strucker must have known something Ultron doesn't want us to know," Steve said.

Natasha turned to her own tablet. She hit a few buttons and did some scrolling, and then, "Ultron erased everything we have on Strucker," She said finally.