Chapter 3

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Steve, Maria and I exit the elevator and walk through the destruction Ultron caused last night. "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," Maria reports.

"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."

"Maximoffs," I say.

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

"Not anymore." She hands Steve a tablet and I look over at it. It shows a photo of Strucker's dead body with the word PEACE written in blood on the wall next to him.

"That doesn't look peaceful," I mumble.

Steve and I walk by Clint, who's standing in an empty hallway on his phone. "That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am."

"Barton," Steve interrupts, "we might have something."

"Gotta go." He hangs up and walks over to us.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"Girlfriend."

"Since when?" I ask. He doesn't answer me.

Steve, Clint, and I round up the rest of the Avengers and show them what we've found out.

"What's this?" Tony asks, looking at the photo of Strucker on the tablet Maria gave us.

"A message. Ultron killed Strucker."

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

"This is a smokescreen," Nat says. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

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

"Yeah, I bet he..." she looks at the computer screen. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything," Tony says.

"Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends," Steve says, reading from one of the many files we've been going through for the past few hours.

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