The Torn Soldier: The Untold Story

Shattered Visions.

(TW: graphic scenes and mentions of blood further into the chapter)

As the hours went by none of the Avengers really got any rest or sleep.

Even if they could, they had to find Ultron before it was too late. Everyone was still shaken up by the disastrous ending to last night even if some hid it better than others.

Karolina had gone down to the kitchen to get Natasha a cup of coffee, she returned just at the right time to hear the latest news. She placed the mug in front of the keyboard before lifting her head to Steve.

"Ultron killed Strucker."

He could've been a clue and now was already left to rot but not without being used as a message by Ultron. Either way there had to be a trace.

After Thor had looked at the image on the screen he pushed it into Stark roughly.

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

"This is a smoke screen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha asked, turning in her chair to look at the rest of them.

"Unless Strucker knew something." Karolina suggested.

Steve nodded, "Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."

"Yeah I bet he... yeah." Natasha's train of thought seemed to derail as she faced back towards the screen of the computer continuing to type away.

Karolina looked at her then at the screen, "Yeah, everything we had on Strucker has been erased." Natasha said and looked back at Steve.

"Not everything."

"Oh I really don't like the sound of that." Karolina looked at Steve as he started to walk away.

"Yeah I really don't like this." Kar looked around at all the paper files in boxes.

Natasha hands her a box full and in exchange Karolina sighed. Natasha playfully rolled her eyes at her and started to rummage through another stack.

Karolina took off the top of the box and looked through some before the boys found something.

"Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve pointed out.

Thor threw another lid off one of the boxes when it went right into the direction of Kar. She catches it mid-air still looking through the box with her other hand, "Watch it box god."

He looked over at her and tried to look annoyed at the nickname but soon looked back down with a lighter expression written on his features when he continued to look.

"Well these people are all horrible." Banner said to Tony as Karolina failed to mention the majority of these guys she had, in one way or another, been in contact with.

"Wait, I know that guy." Tony reaches for a file in Banner's hand. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms."

Steve gave him a look filled with disappointment before Tony defended his statement. "There are conventions, alright? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything."

"He was talking about finding something new, a game-changer. It was all very Ahab."

Thor stopped Tony when he pointed at something in the picture. "This?" He says in a questioning manner.

"Ah, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it." Tony was going to go back to something else before Thor shook his head, "No, those are tattoos." He drew a circle around a different area of Klaue's neck in the picture of what he was talking about with his finger, "This, is a brand."