Tangled Paths | Bucky Barnes

Chapter 13: Here we Go

13
Here we go

A few days later the team had woken up just before sunrise and got to work. For the last few days, they were exhausting their resources. Darla sat beside Nat at a computer desk in the lab nursing a cup of coffee. They'd just finished a FaceTime call with Rhodey discussing the fact that he was attempting to keep the United Nations off the Avenger's backs for the time being and that things on his end were in an uproar due to the mess Ultron's been making. He was wiping out robotics facility's around the world with little to no casualties.

Bruce was attempting to recover and re-draw up some of his work a little ways away and Tony was sitting on a couch with a laptop working on his plans for the new compound his construction team was currently working on in upstate New York. Thor was pacing the upper deck of the lab when Cap and Clint walked in. "He's working with the Maximoffs," Steve said holding an iPad as he approached the desk.

"Who?" Darla asked with a yawn.
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, they're genetically modified twins. They were a problem for us in Sakovia." Tony explained as he got up from the couch by the window behind her and approached. Thor did so too.
"Well, it makes sense. They have a common enemy." Natasha said.
"Not anymore," Cap replied as he turned the screen to show nat. Darla tucked into Nat's right shoulder to get a better view of the screen. The photo was of Strucker who lay in a cell with his hands tied behind his back and a bullet hole in his forehead. The word 'Peace' was smeared onto the wall in his blood.
Thor yanked the tablet out of Steve's hand and looked at the photo before shoving the tablet into Tony's chest. He'd been extremely angry with Tony since the party and not speaking much to anyone. Tony turned the iPad around to look at it. Bruce walked up and also looked over his shoulder.
"Damn. And he did a Banksy at the crime scene just for us." Tony said as he stared at the photo.
"This is a smoke screen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Nat asked looking up at the group.
"Maybe Strucker knew something that he wanted you us, to miss," Darla said correcting herself as the team looked at her. Natasha looked like a lightbulb went off in her head and started typing quickly on the computer.
"I Bet he- yup. Everything we've had on Strucker's been erased." Nat sighed in defeat. As the words 'data corrupt' came up on the screen. Darla grabbed the keyboard and began to type on it to see if there was any way to get it back as the team continued to talk.
"Well, even if we can't recover it he doesn't have everything," Darla said. The team looked at her confused. "I gotta make a phone call." She said as she got up and left the room.

Within the hour a shield truck rolled up to the tower and a group of delivery men filled the elevator with boxes of paper files. At this point, everyone had moved up to Tony's penthouse and each member of the team grabbed a box and began to dig into the folders as they sat around Tony's dining room table.
"Well, these people are all terrible," Bruce said as he read a file of people that Strucker was in business with. He showed the man to Tony.
"Wait, I know that guy," Tony said as he grabbed the file from Bruce and the group crowded around. "I met him back in the day, he operates off the African coast, he's in black market arms," Tony explained as he handed the file back. Steve shot Tony a glare.
"Look, there are conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." Tony reassured Steve. He dropped his look and read into the file with Thor. Tony thought back to the conversations he'd had with the man. "At the time he was talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very, Ahab." Tony said as Bruce got up and moved to Tony's computer desk. Thor pointed at the picture of the guy in the file. He had a brand on the back of his neck.
"What's this?" Thor asked as he showed the photo to Steve.
"Ahhh it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it at the time," Tony said as he looked over at the photo.
"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." He said pointing at it once more.
"Can you bring that here?" Bruce asked. Thor brought it over and he scanned the photo into the computer. He started running the database for the meaning of the brand in hopes to find a match. Darla continued to look through files, Nats feet were propped up in Darla's lap as they read through them together.
"Oh, yeah, I found it, it's a word in African dialect meaning "thief". Bruce said to the group. "In a much less friendly way." He followed up after reading something off the screen.
"What dialect?" Steve asked.
"Uhhhh W-Waka-Nada?" Bruce said as he read it off the screen. He thought that wasn't right and read it again. "W-w-Wakanda." He corrected himself. Tony and Steve shared a concerned look.