✓ | Darkness.

chapter eight

CHAPTER EIGHT: PEACE

Olive, Steve and Maria rounded a corner in the compound as Maria told the other two what she knows so far. They entered the room where the party was held. Where Ultron attacked.

"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 spoke as the three walked up the stairs.

"Was anyone killed?" Olive asked while looking over at Maria.

"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and 'something to fast to see'." Maria stated, looking to Olive with a knowing look. Olive felt a chill run down her spine, and dread begin to pool in her stomach.

"Wanda and Pietro." Olive mumbled, looking down in thought. Steve put a hand on her shoulder giving her a comforting smile. Olive glanced at his hand, not used to comfort from others, especially strangers, but she decided not to move it.

"That makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common." Steve nodded at Maria.

"Not anymore." Maria said before handing Steve a tablet. Olive's eyes widened at the photo on the screen. It was Strucker, dead. On the wall that he was leaned up against was written 'peace' in his blood. She wasn't sure if it was wrong to feel the slightest bit of satisfaction, but she did. That man was the cause for her nightmares and trauma. She hated him more than words could explain.

The three continued to walk in sync until Maria suddenly went a different direction. Olive, on the other hand, continued to follow Steve to wherever he was going as she wasn't very familiar with the building yet. Two weeks, and she didn't know her way around-typical.

Eventually, the two came to a stop once they neared Clint. "Barton. Might have something." Steve told the man as they approached him.

Clint glanced at the two, his phone held up to his ear. "I gotta go." He mumbled to the person on the other end of the line.

"Who was that?" Olive asked curiously, her head tilted.

"Girlfriend." Clint replied casually, shrugging as he did so. Olive frowned at the comment.

"But... you said you didn't have a girlfriend." Olive mumbled in confusion.

"Just because I said it doesn't mean it's true." Clint replied with a smile as he walked over to Steve and Olive.

"Oh, okay." She nodded, "so you're a liar."

"Let's go, Maximoff."

When everyone was gathered in the same room, Steve handed Thor the tablet. "What's this?" Tony asked, walking over.

"A message." Steve replied, his tone professional. "Ultron killed Strucker." He finished softly, his arms crossed.

Thor shoved the tablet into Tony's chest, causing the shorter man to take it, and look at the photo on the screen. "And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony sighed before looking at Steve.

Natasha hummed in thought, "This is a smoke screen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha questioned with furrowed brows.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve quickly realized. Olive nodded her head in agreement, as she was thinking the same thing.

"Yeah I bet he..." Natasha sat down at a desk, quickly typing something into the computer in front of her. She sighed softly, "yeah. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased."

Realization crossed Tony's face, and he shook his head, "not everything." The team and Olive furrowed their brows in confusion.

The small group walked into a room and grabbed a bunch of boxes full of information, of sorts (Olive guessed). After a short while, they were drowning in paper files. "Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve sighed, his hands going through his own box of files.

"You could say that again." Olive mumbled softly while looking through another box.

"That's right, you would know." Tony realized, pointing a finger to Olive, who glanced up at him. "Do you think there's anything you might know about this that could be useful?" Tony asked, before looking back to his box of files. Olive hummed softly, thinking deeply to see if there was anything useful that she knew of the subject.

Bruce on the other hand, didn't hear the conversation and started talking about something else. "These people are all horrible." He mumbled softly as he held a file in his hands.

"Wait." Olive leaned over, pointing to the picture that Bruce was holding. "I know that guy." Olive and Tony said in sync. Olive slowly turned her head so that she was looking at Tony with a raised brow. He sighed softly before explaining.

"From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Tony said before handing Olive the picture as Thor looked over her shoulder to get a better look. Steve gave Tony an unimpressed look. "There are conventions, all right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything." Tony quickly defended himself.

"Every time I saw him he was talking about finding something new, a game-changer." Olive spoke up, still looking at the picture a she tried to remember. She spotted the man at Hydra only a few times, it was odd to say the least.

"This?" Thor pointed, looking at a marking on the man in the picture. Tony leaned over for a moment to look at it before shrugging.

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

"No those are tattoos, this is a brand." Thor quickly corrected.

Tony furrowed his brows at the brand. "What does it mean?" He asked, and Bruce was quick to answer.

"Oh yeah," Bruce nodded, "it's a word in an African Dialect meaning 'thief'. In a much less friendly way." The man pushed his glasses up his nose as he spoke, looking over at a computer from across the room.

"What dialect?" Steve questioned.

"Wakanada." Bruce struggled to pronounce the word, "Wa- Wakanda." He nodded, finally getting it right.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some other trade goods..." Tony trailed off with a sigh, looking over to Steve.

Steve furrowed his brows in confusion, "I thought your father said he got the last of it."

"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce began to make his way over, his voice laced with deep confusion.

Tony paused for a moment before answering, "The strongest metal on Earth." He glanced over to Steve's shield, which was leaned up against a desk.

The man who owns the shield then spoke up, "Where is this guy now?" He asked.

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lizzie speaks...

hello