Hill, Steve, and I ride the elevators, the doors opening at the room we had the party in. I look around and see no ones cleaned it up.
This is going to bother me.
"He's all over the globe," Hill said. I jump, not having been paying attention to whatever they have been talking about. We start walking through the room. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying out the place." Hill informs us as we start up the stairs.
"Fatalities?" Steve asks.
"Is that why I'm here right now?" I ask. She looks down at me for a moment before turning to Steve.
"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see, so no O'Conner. We won't need you on this." Hill says as we make our way to another flight of stairs. What I wouldn't kill- - correction- - What I wouldn't mortally wound to have Pietro's powers right now. Wait! Something too fast to see? I look up at them.
"Maximoffs. That makes sense he'd go to them. They have someone in common." Steve comments.
"Not anymore." Hill says. I walk over next to Steve as we stop on the stairs, looking at the poor dead mean leaning against a wall... With his own blood on the wall, someone wrote, peace.
"Something tells me that this guys death wasn't so peaceful." I remark, slighting amused by my own wording.
"Go see if you can find out anymore more about it, ok?" Steve orders Hill. She nods before walking away.
My head snaps over as I hear a voice. I smack Steve's chest and point over at it. The both of us start sneaking closer to the voice.
"That's a negative. I answer to you." I peer over before narrowing my eyes at who seems to be Clint talking to someone on the phone.
"Do you think he's working against us?" I ask, heavily confused. Steve shakes his head.
"He wouldn't." He says simply before making himself known and walking closer to him.
"Steve!" I whisper/yell. But he ignores me and keeps going. I groan and skip forward to catch up with him.
"Yes, ma'am." He says as we walk past him. So it's a woman.
"Barton. Might have something." Steve informs.
"Gotta go." Clint says as he angles himself away from us.
"Who was that?" Steve asks, quickly glancing down at me.
"Girlfriend." Clint says shortly. Steve nods.
"But you said you didn't have a girlfriend." I say as Steve starts pulling me away and into the lab as Clint follows us.
"I don't like this Steve. I don't like not knowing everything." I ground out, whispering so Clint doesn't hear us.
"Feels different, huh." He laughs lightly, looking down at me in amusement. I nudge him.
"Shut up."
The three of us walk into the lab. Steve hands Thor Hills tablet.
"Whats this?" Tony asks.
"A message. Ultron killed Strucker." Steve informs as Thor slaps the tablet into Tony's stomach. Tony grabs it and inspects it.
"And He did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony jokes. I laugh lightly.
"Haha, that's almost as good of a joke as your company." I smile.
"Oh, really? Does your company make billi-"
"This is a smoke screen." Natasha interrupts Tony from his rebuttal. "Why send a message when you've given a speech?" Natasha asks.
"Campaigning?" I ask quietly.
"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve catches on.
"Yeah, I bet he... yup. Everything we had on Struckers been erased." Natasha says as he computer she was using completed its search. Bruce and I look at each other in alarm before I look down at the computer.
"Not everything." Steve says, using suspense. I give him a blank look.
"Just spit it out, ok?" I ask. He sighs.
"Paper files."
*******
We all stand around the room, dozens of boxes all around. We probably each have about five we need to look through.
I dramatically throw the top off of my first one.
"This'll be fun. A nice team bonding exercise." I say sarcastically as I fling another box top off.
"Hey!" Bruce shouts. I look over in surprise and find that my box top hit him. I sputter out my laughter.
"I, am so sorry." I keep laughing. Bruce sighs heavily before nodding at me that it was ok.
"Baron Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve says as he plops down a box of known associates.
"That's surprising." I mumble.
"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce comments.
"Wait. I know that guy." Tony says, pointing at the file Bruce holds.
"Now that's not surprising." I smile sarcastically. Tony ignores me as he grabs the file.
"From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Tony informs. I watch with amusement as Steve sends him a look.
"There are conventions. All right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything." Tony defends himself. I snort.
"He was talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very ahab." Tony continues as we continue to look through the files.
"This?" Thor taps on a file. I peer over, leaning against the table in order to see.
"Ah, it's a tattoo, I don't think he had it." Tony says. I cry out in frustration before getting up and making my way over to Thor.
"No," I say, getting a good look at the picture now. "Those are tattoos," I point to them. "This is a brand." I tap the weird thing on his neck. I quickly make my way over to the closest computer. Bruce sits down and everyone is probably lurking in the back.
"I think it's African Dialect for "theif"; For a better phrase." I mumble. Bruce quickly types on the computer, using the picture we had of him in the recognition software.
"Oh, yeah. It is a word in African Dialect meaning thief in a much less friendly way," Bruce says. He looks up at me with a smile. "You were right."
"Aren't I always?" I smile back.
"What dialect?" Steve asks curiously.
"Wakanda." Bruce and I say at the same time. I look down at him weirdly as he keeps trying to say the name right. I pat his shoulder.
"Hey, Hey. Calm yourself," I laugh. "It's Wa-Kan-Da." I pronounce slowly. Tony slowly looks over at Steve.
"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony trails off.
"I thought your father said he got the last of it." Steve says. Bruce and I walk over to them.
"I don't follow. What comes out of Wakanda?" Bruce asks. My eyes fall past Steve and onto his shield.
"The strongest metal on earth." Steve says as all our eyes turn to look at the shield that literally stopped Thor's- - who is a god- - hammer.
"Where is this guy now?" Steve asks. I nod, making my way back over to the computer. I can feel everyone following me. I spin into the chair and in front of the desk that just so happens to have a computer on it. I immediately start typing.
"We're looking for sightings, anywhere you can find em." Steve says.
"Obviously," I mutter before continuing on. "So, I'm guessing somewhere in Africa right? I mean, he probably wants to stay close to home. Culture shock is a bitch, believe me, I know. He wouldn't go out in public much and if he did, it's probably somewhere mega sketch." I ramble on to myself and whoever's listening gets some extra information. I continue typing till I hear a ping that makes me smile widely.
"Well don't I just love tourists." I say cheekily.
"What is it?" Tony asks, pushing himself through the small crowd to look at the screen.
"A couple of tourists taking a picture near the African Coast... and if you look closely." I trail off, pointing at what looks like a blurry picture to them.
"I don't see anything." Steve says lightly.
"Oh right. Forgot you guys are normal." I say before enhancing the picture as much as I can.
"Haven't been called that in about seventy years." Steve whispers.
"So, to you guys, it's not a great picture. But if you look closely you can definitely see some resemblances and if you look even closer..." I point at something.
"His brand." Thor comments. I nod.
"Bingo." I smirk. I drag the picture away and type quickly.
"Now, to find his exact location. We need to find some places around the area that are most likely large and abandoned. Large, so that he can continue on with his work that's probably very dangerous. And abandoned so no one goes creeping through his super secret stuff." I inform them on as much as I can. I continue typing till I hear another satisfying ping.
"Ok. So there are quite a few abandoned building in or close to the coast," I say before I begin looking at satellite images of all the buildings. "But. The only building that's big enough, would be the abandoned salvage yard." I finish, smiling brightly.
"Let's suit up, people." Tony says and they all go off in different directions. I grin, bounding out of my seat and heading to my suit.
"I love when you say that."
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A/N: I just gotta say, this was an amazing time to start watching Criminal Minds again... ;))