Cat Got Your Tongue?

Chapter 16

"He's all over the globe." Maria informed Steve and I. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place." She said as I scrolled through a tablet with more information.

"Fatalities?" Steve asked as we walked back to where we had 'set up camp'.

"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears and something too fast to see." She clarified, using her finger to scroll the tablet down further, directing me.

"Maximoffs." Steve said obviously. "Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have something in common."

I scrolled down a little further to see a picture of Struckers dead body sat up against a dirty wall, 'peace' written in his blood behind him. "Not anymore." I mumbled, showing him the picture. Steve stuck his head in the door way of the hallway where Clint was on the phone with Laura.

"That's a negative.... I answer to you.... Yes ma'am." Steve interupted him.

"Barton, we might have something." He said, catching his attention.

"Gotta go." He said into the phone before hanging up quickly. He walked towards us as Steve gave him a frown.

"Who was that?" He asked, trying not to pry.

"Girlfriend." He replied bluntly, giving me a small smile telling me she was OK after Steve dismissed it.

"What's this?" Tony asked as I dropped the tablet onto the table in front of the team to show them. We gathered around the picture as Steve and I spoke.

"A message." Steve said, crossing his arms.

"Ultron killed Stucker." I elaborated.

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony remarked, picking up the tabled to have a closer look.

"This is a smokescreen." Natasha said, slightly flustered. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

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

"Yeah, I bet he..." Natasha trailed of as she looked at the files on Strucker, everything being erased. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker is gone."

"Not everything." Tony and I muttered at the same time, sharing a look and going off to the storage room.

We pulled out all the physical files we had on Strucker, searching for any and everything that could help us figure this out. "Known associates. Well, Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve said sarcastically.

"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce sighed and threw a bunch of loose pieces of paper, all holding photos and names of people he had connections with, onto the table, one of them catching my eye. I picked it up to look at it further.

"Wait, Tony isn't he..." I trailed off, showing him the file.

"I know that guy." He said, taking the paper from me. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms." Steve gave him an accusing look. "There's conventions, alright? You meet people, I didn't sell him anything." He looked back at the picture, satisfied with his argument. "He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'ahab'."

Thor steps in, pointing at a mark on his neck. "This?" He asks stupidly.

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

"No, those are tattoos." I said pointing to his arm that was covered in black ink. "This is a brand."

Bruce quickly identified it on the computer. "Oh, yeah, it's a word in African dialect meaning thief, in a muck less friendly way." He clarified, turning back to us.

"What dialect?" I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me.

Bruce frowned. "Wa-ka-nada?" He stuttered. "Wa... Wa... Wakanda?" He turned from the computer to see our reactions.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda..." Tony trailed off and I partly finished for him.

"With some of their trading goods..." But I trailed off too.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it?" Steve directed his question towards Tony but Bruce interrupted.

"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" He asked, looking at us through his glasses.

Tony looked down at the captains sheild that was perched up against the cabinet. "The strongest metal on earth." He answered.

"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked, leaping into action.

"Ahhh, Junior," Tony said as he interupted Ultron's speech about Tony being a sickness. "your gonna break your old mans heart." He said, faking hurt. Thor, Steve and I stood a couple steps behind him. I caught Wanda's eye and gave her a sympathetic look, showing I care.

"If I have to." Ultron replied to Tony, crossing his metal arms across his chest.

"We don't have to break anything." Thor said, his authoritive voice echoing.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet." The metal man said, making me huff.

"He beat me by one second." Tony and I muttered at the same time, causing him to smile but me to frown.

The maxim off kid stepped forward. "Ah, this is funny, Mr Stark. It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" He said, a menacing grin on his face.

"This was never his life." I said, my voice cracking as I was a little louder than anticipated. "And it doesn't have to be yours either." I said, going back soft. Ugh, Fury would kill me.

"You two can still walk away from this." Steve said, clutching his sheild tighter.

"Oh, we will." The girl said, sarcastically.

"I know you've suffered," He started again but was cut off.

"Ugghhh! Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but...." Ultron exasperated, then trailed off.

"If you believe in peace, then let us keep it." Thor said.

"I think your confusing peace with quiet." Ultron grinned.

"No one asked for you opinion, now can we move on?" I said, getting slightly annoyed.

"Yuh-huh. What's the vibranium for?" Tony asked, getting straight to the point.

"I'm glad you asked that, because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." He said, his face morphing into a giant grin. Suddenly, iron legions burst through the the walls beside him, knocking me and Cap off our feet. Tony clashes with Ultron in the air and begins fighting him while we take on the rest of the bots and the twins.

I make my way round, taking down some legions here and there. I end up with a slash on my stomach and a throbbing headache from head butting something. A blue wind whips past my head and almost knocks me from the railing so I teleport out of the way of it, and into Wanda's way. Red murk clouds my vision and everything goes black. I can no longer hear the noise of the battle but I don't care.