till the end of the line

25 Mind Control

The elevator doors opened as Steve, Hill, and I walked out while Hill briefed us.

"He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."

Steve sighed as I stayed quiet, simply following behind, "Fatalities?"

"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see."

"Maximoffs. Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common."

"Not anymore."

We stopped at the top of the stairs as she handed me a tablet. Steve looked over my shoulder as I lowered my eyes only to see a photo of Strucker's dead body. And next to the body was the word PEACE written in blood on the wall.

Sighing I handed the tablet to Hill before walking off to one of the other meeting rooms. Steve following behind.

~

Once everyone had gathered, Steve passed around the photo as I crossed my arms, listening.

Tony raised his brow as he passed the tablet to Bruce, "What's this?"

"A message. Ultron killed Strucker."

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."

I rolled my eyes as I met Steve's before Natasha shook her head, "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."

"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha turned to the computer screen as she pressed a few keys before nodding, "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything."

Tony shook his head as he tossed a pen in the air before leading us to another room where we searched through physical files.

I gave up after a while and leaned back in a chair as I played a simple phone game. I sat in the corner saying nothing while gaining a new high score.

"Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve spoke as I passed a new level.

"Well, these people are all horrible," Bruce said as I bit my lip before saving my character from the jump.

"Wait. I know that guy. From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."

I looked up and then a chime sounded from my phone as everyone turned to me, "Are you playing a game, Katerina?"

"No... Maybe, what's it to you, Thor?"

Steve turned to me and raised his brow as he cocked his head seriously, "Kat, we're looking for a lead, and your playing games?"

I met his eyes and we held the contact for a moment before I leaned back in my seat and smirked, "Yeah."

He let out a chuckle and shook his head before he looked up again, "Alright, somewhat expected. Anyways, Tony, you said you recognized something?"

Everyone froze for a split second before they all turned to Tony who just sighed and nodded, "Right, well there are conventions. You meet people... I didn't sell him anything. He was just talking about finding something new, a game-changer, it was all very 'Ahab.'"

I started a new level after I had looked up to see Thor pointing to something in the photo Tony held, "What's this?"

"Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it-"