The Avengers had eventually gathered in the lab, most of them confused or disappointed in the actions that had led up the situation they now found themselves in.

"All our work is gone." Bruce choked out from where he stood by the monitor. "Ultron cleared out, used the internet as an escape hatch."

"Ultron," Steve repeated, the disappointment in his voice overwhelming.

"He's been in everything. Files, surveillance. Probably knows more about us than we know about each other." Natasha said, looking over to Aquila who sent her a small smile in return.

"He's in your files, he's in the internet. What if he decides to access something a little more exciting?"

Aquila's eyes widened once she realized what Rhodes was referring to.

"Nuclear codes," Maria said from where she stood, voicing Aquila's thoughts/

"Nuclear codes," Rhodes repeated. "Look, we need to make some calls, assuming we still can."

"Nukes? He said he wanted us dead," Nat asked looking around in confusion.

"He didn't say 'dead'. He said 'extinct'," Steve corrected.

"He also said he killed somebody."

"There's wasn't anyone else in the building," Maria spoke up.

"Oh god," Aquila muttered, the realization coming to her.

"What?" Nat asked her.

"Yes, there was," Tony said answering for Aquila.

The room grew extremely quiet as Tony brought up a 3D diagram of Jarvis's mainframe which was destroyed.

"What?" Bruce asked sadly, walking around the diagram examining the severity of the destruction.

"Jarvis was the first line of defense," Steve said.

"He would've shut Ultron down." Aquila continued following Steve's thoughts.

"It makes sense." Steve finished.

"No," Bruce replied. "Ultron could've assimilated Jarvis. This isn't strategy, this is. . .rage."

Aquila quickly jumped out of the way as Thor stomped into the room, a hand outstretched which soon found its place around Tony's throat.

"Whoa, easy there," Aquila said, holding her hands up.

"Use your words, buddy." Tony just about managed to choke out with Thor's hand still around his throat."

"I have more than enough words to describe you, Stark,"

"Thor!" Steve shouted as Aquila rolled her eyes. "The Legionnaire."

Thor dropped Tony to the floor. "Trail went cold about one hundred miles out, but it went north. And it has the scepter." Thor said as everyone sighed in disappointment again. "So now we have to retrieve it again."

"The genie's out of that bottle," Natasha said, stepping forward to fall in line next to Aquila. "Clear and present is Ultron."

"I don't understand." Dr. Cho spoke up from where she stood, sounding distressed. "You built this program. Why is it trying to kill us?"

Laughter filled the air, coming directly from where Tony stood. The man, as usual, seemed incapable of giving a simple explanation.

"You think this is funny?" Thor shouted.

"No." Tony quickly replied. "It's probably not, right? Is this very terrible? Is it so. . .is it so. . .it is. It's so terrible."

"This could've been avoided if you hadn't played with something you don't understand."

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

"Tony," Bruce said. "Maybe this might not be the time to. . ."

"Really?" Tony asked in exasperation. "That's it? You just roll over, show your belly, every time somebody snarls."

"Well, I certainly didn't miss this," Aquila shouted out sarcastically.

"Only when I've created a murder bot."

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

"Well, you did something right. And you did it right here. The Avengers were supposed to be different than S. H. I. E. L. D."

"Anybody remember when I carried a nuke through a wormhole?" Tony asked the group, his arrogance shining through as usual.

"No, it's never come up," Rhodes shook his head sarcastically in return.

"Saved New York?"

"No, never heard of that."

"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 live long day, but, that up there? That's. . . that's the end game. How were you guys planning on beating that?"

"Together."

"We'll lose."

"Then we'll do that together, too."

Aquila was spinning lazily on a chair near where Natasha was typing frantically at a computer, her skills not being anything of use to the team at the moment.

For a rare moment, it was quiet other than the tapping of the keyboard and the occasional squeak from Aquila's chair.

However, like most things it didn't last long as Steve walked in Maria and Clint right behind him, none of them pleased.

A tablet was being passed around the room and Aquila pushed her chair over to see what was being shown.

"What's this?" Tony asked, once again voicing Aquila's thoughts.

"A message," Steve replied. "Ultron killed Strucker."

Aquila looked at the tablet in shock, observing the image of the corpse of Strucker and one word written on the wall behind him in blood: PEACE.

"And he did a Banksy at the crime scene, just for us."

"This is a smoke screen," Aquila said, looking around the room.

"Why send a message when you've just given a speech?" Natasha said, following Aquila's thoughts.

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss."

"Yeah, I bet he. . .yeah." Natasha said, the computer showing that all records had been deleted. "Everything we had on Strucker's been erased."

"What about the physical files?" Aquila suggested, regretting her words even as she said them.

Eventually, Aquila's idea worked, they were all tasked with several files each and soon enough one that looked promising appeared.

"Wait, I know that guy." Tony suddenly blurted out. "From back in the day. He operates off the African coast, black market arms."

Steve sent an accusing look, Tony's way, prompting Tony to quickly start defending himself. "There are conventions alright? You meed people, I didn't sell him anything. He was talking about finding something new, a game changer, it was all very 'Ahab'."

"Hang on. . . what's that?" Aquila asked, pointing to a mark on his neck. "I don't think that's a tattoo, looks more like a brand."

"Oh yeah," Bruce said from where he stood in front of a computer. "It's a word in an African dialect meaning thief, in a much less friendly way."

"What dialect?" Steve asked.

"Wakanada?" Bruce stammered out, unsure how to pronounce it.

"Wakanda." Aquila corrected Bruce with a smile.

"How do you know that?" Bruce asked her with a confused look, he wasn't the only one either.

"What?" Aquila asked with a shrug. "I know people from there, alright?"

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

"I thought your father said he got the last of it," Steve asked.

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

"The strongest metal on earth."