LIGHT.
004. | ❛ wakanda. ❜

"All our work is gone." Bruce states, " Ultron cleared it out. He used the Internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron." Steve states

"He's been in everything." Natasha states, "Flies, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other."

"He's in your flies, he's in the Internet," Rhodey states as he stands up, glancing over all of them, "What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

"Nuclear codes." Caroline states as Steve was pulling the last of the glass out of Caroline's leg. Short seconds later, Caroline's skin started to heal.

"Nuclear codes," Kiara repeats," Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead." Natasha lashes out at him.

"He didn't say 'dead' He said 'extinct'." Steve corrects her as Caroline lets out a sigh.

"He also said he killed somebody," Clint adds

"There wasn't anyone else in the building. Who could have he possibly killed?" Caroline asked

"Yes, there was," Tony says as he walks into the middle of the room showing a destroyed Jarvis to the rest of the team.

"What?" Bruce mutters as he looks at Jarvis, "This is insane."

"Jarvis was the first line of defense," Steve states, "He would have shut Ultron down. It makes sense."

"No, Ultron could have assimilated Jarvis," Bruce corrects him, "This isn't strategy. This is... rage."

Thor enters the room as he makes his way over towards Tony, wrapping his hand around his throat, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Steve yells trying to split it up.

"It's going around." Caroline not helping the situation.

"Come on, use your words, buddy." Tony chokes out.

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark." Thor snarls at him, clearly not letting go.

"Thor. The Legionnaire." Steve says to him, making him put Tony down.

"Trail went cold about one hundred miles out, but it's headed north," Thor answers before glaring back to Tony, "And it has the scepter. Now we have to retrieve it, again."

"Genie's out of that bottle," Natasha states, "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand." Helen speaks up, "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Tony walks over to the computer screen and stares down at it. When he starts laughing, everyone turns to face him with a face.

"You think this is funny?" Thor asked him.

"No," Tony answers him as he turns around, "It's probably not, right? This is very terrible. Is it so.. Is its so... It is. It's so terrible."

"This could have been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand." Thor spat at him.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is funny." Tony says to him, "It's a hoot that you don't get why we need this."

"Tony, maybe this might not be the time." Bruce speaks up.

"Really? That's it?" Tony asked as he turns to face Bruce, "You just roll over, show your belly every time somebody snarls?"

"Only when I've created a murder bot," Bruce states

"We didn't. We weren't even close," Tony reminds him, " Were we close to an interface?"

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here." Steve says trying to break up the argument, "The Avengers were supposed to be different than SHIELD."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked, "Saved New York? Recall that? A hostile alien army came charging through a hole in space. We're standing three hundred feet below it. We're the Avengers. We can bust arms dealers all the livelong day, but that up there, that's.....That's the endgame. How were you guys planning on beating that>"

"Together." Steve answers, getting a grasp on Caroline's hand.

"We'll lose," Tony says being the same pessimistic

"Then we'll do that together, too." Steve adds, "Thor right. Ultron's calling us out. And I'd like to find him before he's ready for us. The world's a big place. Let's start making it smaller."

_______________________

"He's all over the globe." Maria states as her, Steve, and Caroline exit the elevator, walking to the shattered remains of the living area.

"Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs. Reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."

"Fatalities?" Steve asked as the three of them started to climb the stairs, with Caroline already panting for breath.

"Only when engaged." Maria answered, "Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fear, and 'something too fast to see"

"Maximoffs," Caroline states knowing of one other person that was faster than her, "That makes sense that he'd go to them. At least they have someone in common."

"Not anymore," Maria states as she hands the couple the tablet, showing a picture of Strucker with a splatter of blood on the wall behind him. As well as the word 'PEACE' written on the wall blood.

Caroline and Steve make their way through the tower, walking in on all of the Avengers going through boxes of files. She meets Steve's eyes for a quick second before diving in into all the files. She goes through at least three different files, waiting for someone to find something.

"Known associates. Baron Strucker had a lot of friends." Steve states as they all go through files.

"Well, these people are all horrible." Banner states as he goes through his current file, but Tony sees something and stops Banner from tossing it away.

"Wait, I know that guy." Tony states as Bruce hands him the file.

"From back in the day. He operates off the African coast. Black market arms." Steve gives him a look before Tony continues, "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 asked pointing to the mark on the man's neck.

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

"Those are tattoos, this is a brand." Thor examines it more.

"Oh yeah. It's a word in an African dialect meaning 'thief'. In a much less friendly way." Bruce states as he reads off the computer.

"What dialect?" Caroline asked, tilting her head.

"Wakanada. Wakanda." Bruce stammers, making Steve, Caroline , and Tony glance at each other.

"What's going on?" Natasha asked the three who were the only ones that knew what was going on.

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

"I thought your father said he got the last of it.' Steve replies to Tony.

"I don't follow." Bruce states as he stands up and waling over to the others,

" I don't either" Clint cuts in, "What comes out of Wakanda?"

"The strongest metal on Earth." Tony answers, while Steve and Caroline glance over towards Steve's shield.