Unexpected

IX

After Tony and Steve decided to stop fighting like toddlers, the team decided it was best to look for Ultron, find him before he could find them. According to Maria Hill, Ultron had gone to the Maximov twins, whom Nina didn't know. Maria had to explain the twins' powers, which weren't too hard for her to understand.

Steve walked into the room and called for Nina. "We found something."

"What's this," Stark asked as soon as they walked into the room and Steve passed an iPad around.

"A message," Steve told them. "Ultron killed Strucker." Thor slapped the iPad onto Tony's stomach, obviously still upset about him having created a killer robot. 

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene just for us," Tony nodded, handing the tablet to Nina, who frowned at the image. 

"This is a smoke screen," Natasha said.

"Right," Nina agreed. "Why send a message when you've just delivered a speech?" 

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Steve guessed, earning a nod from Nina. 

"Yeah," Nat nodded, using the computer she was sitting at to search the files on Strucker. "Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything."

♧♧♧

Two hours later, ant the group was still going through boxes and boxes of paper documents, searching for any information about Strucker that might have been useful.

"This one looks oddly familiar," Nina told the team, looking at a picture of a guy in the file she was holding. She held it out for the rest of the team to see.

"Yeah, I know that guy," Tony nodded. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms," he said, earning a pointed look from Steve. "There are conventions. You meet people, alright? I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something knew, a game changer. Was all very Ahab. 

"This?" Thor asked, pointing at a picture of the guy's neck. 

"That's a tattoo," Tony said condescendingly. 

"No, those are tattoo's," Nina shook her head, showing them the tattoos on the man's chest and arms. "That looks more like a brand."

Bruce sat by the computer and scanned the document, searching the interface for that symbol. 

"Oh, yeah," he told them when the scan was complete. "It's a word in an African dialect, meaning 'thief'," he explained. "In a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Steve asked. 

"It's Wakanda, isn't it?" Nina sighed. 

"Wakanda, yeah," Bruce told her. Tony, Steve and Nina shared a look and it immediately worried the rest of the team.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony trailed it off.

"I thought you said Howard had gotten the last of it," Steve spoke to Nina. 

"It was definitely not the last of it, Wakanda is a big place," Nina shook her head. She knew exactly what Wakanda was like. She knew that they pretended to be a poor, third world country when in fact they were one of the richest there was.

"And you couldn't have given us a heads up?" Tony snapped at her.

"How was I supposed to know something like this would happen? And for your information, your father also knew it wasn't the last of it."

"I don't follow," Bruce stepped in. "What comes out of Wakanda?" 

"Strongest metal on earth," Steve gestured to his shield.

♧♧♧

The team quickly got on their jet and flew to the African Coast, where they knew they could find Klaw, the man who supposedly was in possession of Vibranium. They infiltrated the base very easily, realising Ultron was already there when they heard him speak. 

"Don't compare me with Stark!" he was yelling out, kicking the Klaw guy on the face and down the stairs. "It's a thing with me. Stark is.. he's a sickness!"

"Ah, Junior," Tony mocked him, landing right in front of him, along Steve and Thor. Nina, Natasha and Clint were on his other side, watching the Maximov Twins. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."

"If I have to," Ultron said, approaching the trio slowly. 

"Nobody has to break anything," Thor countered.

"You've clearly never made an omelet," Ultron commented sarcastically. 

"He beat me by one second," Tony shook his head. 

"I'm sorry, did that robot just make a joke?" Natasha asked Nina.

"Unfortunately, it seems so."

"Ah, yes. He's funny, Mr. Stark," Pietro Maximov entered the conversation. "It's what, comfortable? Like old time?" he asked, nodding his head at the dozens of nukes that filled the base. 

"This was never my life," Tony told him.

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve tried to convince the kids. 

"Oh, we will," Wanda assured him.

"I know you've suffered-" He was cut off by Ultron scoffing. 

"Captain America, God's righteous man," he shook his head. "Pretending you could live a life without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but-"

"If you believe in peace, let us keep it," Thor tried once more.

"I think you're confusing 'peace' with 'quiet'," Ultron told him. 

"Uh-huh," Tony scoffed. "What's the Vibranium for?"

"I'm glad you asked that," Ultron told him. "Because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan." Ultron raised his hand and used what looked like a very powerful magnet to pull Tony forward, then pushing him so hard into the wall that it cracked and broke. And just like that, all hell broke loose.