The next morning the kitchen was completely empty. I felt strange trying to find something to eat with no one else in there, but what else was I supposed to do? I was so hungry and I couldn't wait for someone else to come in and make me feel less like I was stealing. Thankfully there was enough food without names in the fridge that I could make myself something. I went with a basic omelet and then some peanut butter on toast once I found a jar in one of the cabinets.
I ate at the table in silence, the sound of my own chewing putting me on edge. I finished my food as quickly as possible and then rushed out of the kitchen after washing my dishes. I didn't want to be in there alone anymore.
Walking around the now destroyed Avengers Tower was so weird. There was still broken glass everywhere. Furniture sat in heaps of splintered wood and burned upholstery. It felt like a ghost town.
Finally, I found a few of the Avengers milling around in one of the backrooms. One side of the room was all windows which illuminated the room so well there weren't any other lights on. When I looked down, I almost threw up. I'd seen skyscrapers plenty of times, but I'd never been in one before. The tallest building I'd ever been in was a hospitals and it wasn't that tall. The only thing that kept me from completely freaking out was knowing that if I fell through a window somehow, I'd die immediately on impact or one of the flying superheroes behind me would save me Whichever happened first.
The only Avengers in the room were Bruce, Natasha, Clint, and Tony. Tony and Bruce were stationed by a computer but I couldn't tell what they were looking at. Natasha was sitting at the table with a tablet. She was scrolling through something, but it seemed like she was moving too fast to really see what she was looking at. Clint was doing nothing. I wondered if he did anything or if he just sat around and looked pretty for a while when there weren't any bad guys to shoot with an arrow.
"Did you eat already?" Natasha asked from behind me.
I stepped away from the window. "Yeah," I said.
"Ready to go home after all the excitement?" Clint asked.
"Definitely," I said, taking a seat across from him.
Thor walked into the room then. I could almost hear thunder clapping with every step he took. A few minutes later Steve walked in, too, and he was holding a tablet.
"We have a lead," He said. "Morning, Mavis." He added.
"Morning," I said.
Steve took his shield off his back and leaned it against a wall.
"What's the lead?" Tony asked. He straightened up and stretched his arms over his head.
Steve handed Thor the tablet. "A message," He said. "Ultron killed Strucker. Hill and I think he's working the Maximoffs."
Maximoffs? I looked at Steve but didn't say anything. I knew that name, but I didn't know where or why.
Thor turned and slammed the tablet into Tony's chest.
Tony took the tablet and glanced down at the screen. "He even did a Banksy at the crime scene."
"A what now?" I asked.
"Just ignore him," Clint said. "That's what I do."
Tony glared at us.
"It's a smoke screen," Natasha said. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"
"Strucker must have known something Ultron doesn't want us to know," Steve said.
Natasha turned to her own tablet. She hit a few buttons and did some scrolling, and then, "Ultron erased everything we have on Strucker," She said finally.
"Not everything," Tony said. He slammed the tablet into Thor's chest and left room.
"He's very rude," Thor said.
"You started it," I said. I looked at Steve. "Do you take your shield everywhere?"
"Never know when you're going to get into a fight," Steve said.
"Because being super strong isn't enough," I said. "You also have to have a very strong frisbee just in case."
Steve gave me a cheeky smile. "Exactly. Can never be too prepared."
A few minutes later, Tony came back with one of those file boxes I'd only seen on TV. I didn't think people actually used those.
"Anyone gonna help?" Tony asked, tossing the box onto the table.
Steve and Thor followed Tony off the room. Within minutes the table was filling up with boxes full of files and paperwork.
"If you're going to be sticking around for more than a couple days, you can at least make yourself useful," Tony said, looking at me. "Start looking through these files. Keyword: Strucker."
"Add HYDRA to the keyword list," Steve said. "Loki's Scepter, and Wanda and Pietro Maximoff."
Wand and Pietro? Quicksilver. I knew Quicksilver from the X-Men movie. And when I googled him I learned about his sister the Scarlet Witch. She wasn't in the X-Men movie, but I faintly remembered seeing someone with red powers in the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer. I made up my mind that when I got home I was going to do proper research into the Marvel characters because this was ridiculous.
I grabbed the nearest box to me and started digging through it. I knew the keywords I was looking for, but after literally five minutes my eyes started to glaze over. The little black letters started to smoosh together into a block of black text and I couldn't tell one letter from another. Random words jumped out at me as I searched but none of them seemed helpful. After another ten minutes, I was ready to jump out of the window. Sitting still wasn't my strong suit.
"I can't find anything," I groaned. "And my eyes hurt."
"You've been looking for fifteen minutes," Steve said.
"Okay, and?" I said. "Now I wanna die. Like, I know I'm helping save the world or whatever but it's also so fricken boring."
"That's almost a bad language word," Clint said. "Almost."
"Barton," Steve said.
"You know, Mavis, your attitude really isn't helping," Tony said.
"Your face isn't helping," I said.
Natasha snorted.
"Can you focus please?" Tony snapped. "The sooner we deal with this, the sooner we can get you back to your family."
I did my best to sit and focus, but eventually I really did feel like I was about explode. I couldn't tell if it was regular energy build up or superpower energy build up, but if I didn't move or do something, I really felt like I was going to burst.
"Wait, hold on," Tony said, glancing at a file Bruce was looking through. "I know him from back in the day. He sells black market arms off the coast of Africa."
"Which coast?" I asked.
"What?" Tony looked at me.
"Africa is a continent full of countries," I said. "You can't say 'African Coast.' You have to say a country. I'm not going to say off the coast of Europe if I mean Spain. Or off the coast of America when I mean California."
"Are you serious?" Tony asked.
"I believe in accuracy," I replied.
"You believe in being snotty, that's what you believe in," Tony said.
"Okay, back to business," Steve interjected. "Can I see that file?" Bruce handed it over.
"How do you know this guy?" Steve asked. "Ulyssess Klaue."
Tony made a face. "We, uh, rubbed elbows back when Stark Industries made weapons."
Steve glared at him.
"I didn't sell him anything," Tony said defensively. "But that was the way it was then. Last I saw him he said he found something new. Game changing."
Thor came to stand over Steve's shoulder. "You think this man has a connection to Strucker?"
Tony shrugged. "It's hard to know. I do know that Klaue sells illegal weapons and Strucker was part of an illegal shadow organization before he died. I don't think it's too much of a leap to assume they were in the same room at the same time at some point."
Thor grabbed a photo from the file. "This looks like a brand."
"It's really nice that you give each other a chance to speak," I said. "Like you're taking turns or something."
"Are you going to be this sarcastic forever?" Tony asked.
"Not forever," I said. "I won't live that long."
"Are we sure we can't find her family today?" Tony asked, looking at Natasha.
"I was thinking about that and I've decided with Ultron watching our every move, it's probably not a good idea to go looking for Mavis's family until we handle him," Natasha said.
"Great," Tony groaned.
"Can I see that picture?" Bruce asked.
Thor handed the picture over.
Bruce went to the computer and scanned the photo. After a few minutes he finally said, "It's a word in an African dialect. From what I can find, it's a meaner way of saying thief."
"Why aren't you getting angry at Bruce for not specifying what language the brand is from?" Tony asked.
"What language is the brand from?" I asked in my most annoying, saccharine voice.
"I'm going to kill her," Tony said.
"Add child murderer to the list of reasons not to like Tony Stark," I said. "Right under arms dealer and murder bot maker."
"The brand is from Wakanda," Bruce said. "Am I the only one who cares about finding Ultron or are you more interested in fighting with a child?" He turned to Tony.
"She's very annoying," Tony replied.
"Wakanda," Steve repeated. "If this guy got out Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." He trailed off, glancing at Tony, whose face had turned solemn.
"Dad said he got the last of it," Tony said quietly. "But if this guy's been brand as a thief, he could have just taken some."
"I'm not following," Bruce said. "What comes out of Wakanda?"
"The strongest metal on earth," Tony said.
Steve glanced at his shield leaning against the wall nearby. "So where's this guy now?"
Author's Note: Whoohoo another chapter and a relatively timely manner!
Hope y'all have a wonderful rest of your day, and happy Fall! I cannot wait for Halloween!