𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐍𝐎𝐖, 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑━︎━︎ N. Romanoff (𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑑)

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR:
VIBRANIUM

NATASHA SAT AT THE COMPUTER, Olivia standing behind her with her hands on the back of the chair as she watched the screen. Thor was standing on the left side of Natasha when suddenly Steve walked up to him, tablet in his hands as he passed it over to Thor who took it from his grasp. Tony appeared, making his way over to Thor as he asked, "What's this?"

"A message." Steve answered as Thor slammed the tablet into Tony's chest. Tony took it from him. "Ultron killed Strucker."

Tony flipped the tablet to face him. "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."

Natasha, having caught sight of the image, said, "This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Tony passed the tablet over to Olivia who took it, staring down at the screen and humming as her eyebrows rose.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve concluded, arms crossed over his chest.

Natasha turned her attention back to the computer. "Yeah, I bet he. . . yeah." The words "Record Deleted" popped up on the screen. "Everything we had on Strucker's been erased."

"Not everything." Steve denied. Next thing Olivia knew they were all going through boxes and boxes of files. Olivia smiled in amusement every time Thor would pick up a new box, tossing the lid like it was Frisbee to a location he didn't care to know about. Steve sat down another box. "Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends."

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

"Did you expect them to be good?" Olivia asked, placing another box onto the table.

"Wait. I know that guy." Tony pointed towards one of the files that had been in Bruce's hands. He reached over, taking the file from Bruce. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Steve gave him a look and Tony quickly defended himself. "There are conventions. All right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything." He closed the file, taking a page from it that had the man's picture. "He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab."

Thor, who was now holding the picture, pointed at a mark on the man's neck. "This?"

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

"No those are tattoos, this is a brand."

Bruce was quick to upload the photo, quickly finding out what the brand was. "Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief'. In a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Steve asked.

"Wakanada." He paused, squinting at the screen. "Wa. . . Wa. . . Wakanda."