Two Devils - Bucky Barnes X OC

Chapter 13

Doctor Cho takes out all the glass in Flora's skin and bandages her wounds in the lab. She looks up at Steve and shows him the rips in his jacket. "I'm sorry...I'll fix it."

"Flora I don't care about the jacket. I'm just glad your okay." He sighs.

Bruce shakes his head and walks over to the others, "All our work is gone. Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

Steve shakes his head. "Ultron."

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha nods.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

Maria looks up, "Nuclear codes."

"Nuclear codes. Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Flora asks.

"He didn't say dead. He said extinct."

"He also said he killed somebody." Clint says.

"But there wasn't anyone else in the building."

"Yes there was." Tony brings up the now-destroyed 3D image of Jarvis' consciousness.

Bruce shakes his head, "This is insane."

"Jarvis was the first line of defense. He would've shut Ultron down, it makes sense." Steve nods.

"No, Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is...rage." Flora says softly.

Suddenly Thor barges in and grabs hold of Tony by his throat, holding him up in the air.

"It's going around." Clint stands.

"Come on. Use your words, buddy." Tony struggles to breathe.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark."

Steve quickly steps over to them, "Thor! The Legionnaire."

Thor lets go of Tony. "Trail went cold about a hundred miles out but it's headed north, and it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"The genie's out of that bottle. Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand. You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?" Doctor Cho asks.

Tony starts laughing, Bruce subtly shakes his head at him to get him to stop. "You think this is funny?" Thor asks.

"No. It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so... is it so... it is. It's so terrible."

Thor starts to get angry again. "This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny. It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

Bruce steps over to him and lowers his voice, "Tony, maybe this might not be the time to-"

"Really?! That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

"Only when I've created a murder bot." He shrugs at Tony.

"We didn't. We weren't even close. Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than Shield." Steve says.

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?"

Rhodey shakes his head, "No, it's never come up."

Tony spins around to look at everyone. "Saved New York?"

"Never heard that."

"Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the live long day, but, that up there? That's... that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?" Tony looks at Steve.

"Together."

Tony shakes his head, "We'll lose."

"Then we'll do that together, too." Tony looks at him for a moment before turning away. "Thor's right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

Flora carefully changed out of her outfit and into something more comfortable. She joins the team as they all look at a photo of Strucker's body.

"What's going on?" She asks.

"Ultron killed Strucker."

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

"Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Flora crosses her arms.

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

Natasha turns, "Yeah, I bet he..." She looks at the computer for a moment. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

Tony turns, "Not everything."

Everyone gathers and starts going through Tony's physical files. Flora stays beside Thor and tries her best to read the papers.
"Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." She squints.

"Well, these people are all horrible."

"Wait. I know that guy." Bruce passes Tony the photo he was looking at. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms." Steve gives him an accusing look. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." He shows them the photo is of a man named Ulysses Klaue. "He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very Ahab."

Thor points to the scar on the back of Klaue's neck. "What's this?"

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

Thor shakes his head. "No, those are tattoos, this is a brand."

"Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way." Bruce nods.

"What dialect?" Flora asks.

"Wakanada...? Wa...Wa...Wakanda."

Flora turns to Steve and Tony, already knowing this place. "If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..."

Steve shakes his head. "I thought your father said he got the last of it?" He asks Tony.

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

"The strongest metal on earth." Everyone looks at Steve's shield.

"Where is this guy now?"