strings of destiny → age of ultron

[5]

Tony stood off to the side of the room, writing something down on an electronic notepad. Zoza was near him, watching her uncle closely. He had become a bit distant towards her since the party, and she felt guilty. She felt like the robot grabbing her was her fault, and that she could've stopped it. She had explained what had happened to her friends and boyfriend, and they had been trying to comfort her, but it wasn't working. After a while, she just stopped replying to their messages. Tony soon left the room, going to join the others, Blossom, and Cynthia, at the upper levels. Zoza tagged along silently, making sure to keep away from Marie. She was too young, after all.

"What's this?" he asked, pulling his niece to his side.

"A message. Ultron killed Strucker," Steve said, and Thor pushed a tablet into Tony, still not pleased with him. Blossom glanced over to the picture and swallowed, looking at the words 'peace' written on the wall behind him, in blood.

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us," Tony said, looking at the screen all while trying to keep it away from Zoza's prying eyes.

"This is a smokescreen. Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha asked, and Steve crossed his arms, looking to her.

"Strucker knew something Ultron wanted us to miss," he said, glancing at his wife.

"Yeah, I bet he... Yeah. Everything we had on Strucker's been erased," Nat huffed, looking at the team.

"Not everything."

The team set to rummaging around in boxes upon boxes, all containing intel files from SHIELD. Zoza pulled out a few and read through them, sticking her tongue out. Blossom nodded as she poured through others, nodding when she came across all too familiar ones from her time in SHIELD.

"Well, these people are all horrible," Bruce said.

"They sure are," Zoza agreed.

"Wait, I know that guy," Tony said, holding out his hand for the file. In exchange for that, he also received a surprised look from his niece, which he brushed off.

"From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms," he explained.

"Learn something new everyday," Zoza muttered, earning a chuckle from Blossom. She looked to the older woman, who winked at her and shut the file she was reading. Steve looked at Tony, and he was quick to cover himself.

"There are conventions. All right? You meet people. I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer. It was all very, Ahab."

"This?" Thor held up a picture, and Tony glanced at it.

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

"Those are tattoos, this is a brand."

"Oh, yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning "thief."" Bruce was at the computer, with Cynthia by his side. "In a much less friendly way."

"Hold up, there's a friendly way?" Blossom asked, leaning against Steve.

"What dialect?" Steve asked, reaching around to give his wife's hip a squeeze.

"Wakanada. Uh, Wakanda," Bruce said, earning a hand squeeze and a reassuring smile from his wife.

"If this guy got out of Wakanda with some of their trade goods..." Tony muttered.

"I thought your father said he got the last of it," Steve said, and Zoza looked around, extremely confused. Blossom leaned against the wall, watching as Bruce and Cynthia joined the rest of the group.