Stone. ~ S.Rogers

~14~

AURORA ODINSDOTTIR

"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 said, and I sighed, knowing this was going to take a lot of work to clean up.

"Fatalities?" Steve asked, and Maria nodded.

"Only when engaged." She said, and I stayed silent.

"Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see."

"Maximoffs." Steve said, making me nod.

"Well, that makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common." I said, but Maria shook her head.

"Not anymore."

She handed Steve a tablet, and I looked that the image on it.

It was Baron Struckers dead body, with the word 'peace' written in blood on the wall.

Graphic.

We walked past Clint, who was on the phone, and I stopped.

"That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am."

"Barton, we might have something." Steve interrupted, and Clint looked over to us.

"Gotta go." He said into his phone, quickly hanging up and walking over to us.

"Who was that?" Steve asked, making Clint shrug.

"Girlfriend."

We walking into the labs, where everyone was, and pulled up the photo, showing it to everyone.

"What's this?" Tony asked, and I looked at him, crossing my arms over my chest.

"A message." I answered, and Steve took the tablet back.

"Ultron killed Strucker."

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us." Tony joked, but everyone was unamused.

"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Nat asked, and I just shrugged.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss." Steve said, making me smile.

Smart.

"Yeah, I bet he-" Nat started, but quickly went on the computer, turning to look at us after a few clicks.

"Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything." Tony said, pulling out the paper files we have on Strucker, and we began going through them.

"Known associates." I said, handing Steve a file, and he opened it.

"Well, Strucker had a lot of friends."

"Well, these people are all horrible." Bruce sighed, but Tony pointed to a photo of a man on the file.

"Wait. I know that guy."