Together | Steve Rogers

4

Steve and Lauren ride up the elevator.  They've been sitting in silence for too long.

" You okay?" He asks.

" Didn't have a nightmare last night. That's good," She responds as she keeps her eyes on the door.

Once the doors open, they're greeted by Maria.

" He's all over the globe. Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs", Maria says as they walk up the stairs of the tower, shards of glass still lingering on the floor, " Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place".

" Fatalities?", Steve asks.

" Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see", She says as they walk up another staircase.

" Maximoffs", I add, " That makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common".

" Not anymore", Maria says, handing Steve a tablet with a picture of Strucker dead, with the word 'PEACE' written on the wall in his blood.

Steve and Lauren then walk over to Clint while he's on the phone.

" Barton. Might have something", Steve says.

" I gotta go", Clint says, then hangs up the phone.

" Who was that?", Steve asks.

" Girlfriend", Clint says.

Lauren sends him a smirk and he squints his eyes at her.

They all walk into the office.

"What's this?", Tony asks once Steve hands Thor the tablet.

" A message. Ultron killed Strucker", Steve says as Thor roughly passes the tablet to Tony.

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

" This is a smoke screen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?", Nat asks.

" Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss", Lauren says.

" Yeah, I bet he... yeah. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased. Everything's gone", She says from the desktop.

" Not everything", Tony adds.

The Avengers now looking through files. Paper after paper after paper in the hopes to find something useful.

" Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends", Steve says as he sets a box down on the table.

" Well, these people are all horrible", Bruce says.

" Wait. I know that guy", Tony says as he grabs a file from Bruce, " From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms", earning a look from Steve and Lauren," There are conventions. All right? You meet people. I didn't sell anything. You, little missy, do not get to judge. Romanoff knew me back in the day where my suits were poisoning me... but you didn't. He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab".

" This?", Thor asks, pointing to a mark on the man's neck.

" It's a tattoo,I don't think he had it", Tony says.

" Those are tattoos, this is a brand", Thor says.

" Yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief. In a much less friendly way", Bruce says.

" What dialect?", Steve asks.

" Wakanada. Wa-Wa-Wakanda", Bruce says, causing Steve and Tony to share a look.

" If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods...", Tony says.

" I thought your father said he got the last of it", Steve says.

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

" The strongest metal on Earth," Tony says as they stare at the shield," And, hey, where were you when your sister from another mister was getting all buddy-buddy with me?"

" Can we stay on subject" Lauren says.

" If you just answer the question then---", He starts.

" I wasn't asking," She interrupts.

Tony sighs, but obliges.

Lauren exits the room to get a cup of coffee. As she pours the liquid into a cup, someone appears next to her.

" What number is this?" Natasha asks as she hands her best friend oatmilk.

" 8," Lauren responds as she stirs the drink.

" Didn't sleep?" Natasha asks.

" Didn't want to," Lauren responds, then sips her coffee.

" You might want to sit this one out. You can't fight Ultron running on empty."

" Nat... I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

As Lauren walks off, Clint walks up to Natasha.

" She cranky?" He asks.

" Sleep deprived," Natasha responds.

Clint chuckles.

" Like Morocco?"

" Worse."