Zuchino walked into the common room, wearing the new Saiyan armor Stark made for him. It was colored very similarly to his old armory but his bodysuit was made to zip up from the front and the armor (thanks to Zuchino's input) now had armor covering for the shoulders. It was still a mess from the battle the night before, given the lack of time to clean due to trying to locate Ultron. Zuchino reattached his wrist computer and put on scouter just as Steve popped up behind him.

"Anything on the scouter?" He asked as Zuchino shook his head.

"Nah, I don't think Ultron would have a ki signature," Zuchino stated before typing in a few commands. He and Steve began walking to the stairs before the elevator doors opened to reveal Maria Hill. She looked at the two as she stepped out and smiled.

"I ship it." She teased as Steve looked confused and Zuchino gave a sarcastic smirk.

"Hahaha, very funny," Zuchino said before turning to Steve. "You don't wanna know.

"Anyway, I've been monitoring the news reports across the world all night. From what I can tell, he's been all over the globe." Maria informed as they began walking up the stairs. "Robotics labs, weapons facilities, jet propulsion labs, reports of a metal man, or men, coming in and emptying the place."

"Fatalities?" Steve asked.

"Only when engaged. Mostly guys left in a fugue state going on about old memories, worst fears, and something too fast to see." Both Zuchino and Steve exchanged a glance.

"The Maximoffs." Zuchino sighed. "That makes sense he'd go to them, they have someone in common at least."

"Not anymore." Maria handed Steve a tablet showing a photo of Strucker's dead body with the word PEACE written in blood on the wall next to him.

"Damn it, I wanted to do that." Zuchino sighed before they continued up the stairs. "Though the juxtaposition doesn't help soothe any worries."

"I'll go monitor the reports to see if I can find any other specifics," Maria stated before walking down the opposite hallway. They continued up another flight of stairs before hearing Clint say, "That's a negative. I answer to you. Yes, ma'am."

"Barton," Steve called out, grabbing his attention. "We may have something."

"Gotta go." He hung up and stuck his phone back in his pocket before noticing their questioning expressions. "Girlfriend."

"Didn't know you had one," Zuchino stated before turning to continue. "You gonna introduce us or are you scared your crazy family will chase her away?"

"If you keep talking like that, a little bit," Clint stated before they finally reached the lab. Natasha sat at the computer running facial recognition before Zuchino handed the tablet to Thor, who grimaced. Everyone started approaching and Tony asked, "What's this?"

Thor shoved the tablet into Tony's chest with a glare.

"A message," Zuchino stated. "Ultron killed Strucker."

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

"Wouldn't this usually be a good thing?" Bruce asked.

"No. That's not good." Zuchino argued. "He's showing us his hand. This isn't his pattern."

"This has got to be a smokescreen," Natasha added as Zuchino nodded in her direction in agreement. "Why send a message when you've just given a speech?"

"Strucker knew something that Ultron wanted us to miss," Zuchino stated, his mind wandering back to the artificial ki conspiracy he was investigating.

"Yeah, I bet he…." Natasha hit some keys on the keyboard. "Yep. Everything we had on Strucker has been erased."

"Not everything," Steve stated, giving a small smirk at Zuchino, who sighed.

The Saiyan opened up a new box of files at the new Avengers location being built. According to Stark, it was his father's old warehouses that he thought made the perfect location for the next Avengers location, with it being further out and away from the city. They tore through the paper files that Steve suggested they print out long ago (and Zuchino disagreed, but he was gladly giving Steve his props). As a failsafe, Tony had them stored here in the already constructed meeting room. Better it be somewhere more unsuspecting than leaving it at the tower.

"Known associates." Steve read aloud the box's title before beginning to sort through it and handing a file to Bruce. "Well, Strucker had a lot of friends."

"And all of them all horrible," Bruce added, looking through his document.

"Wait. I know that guy." Tony called out. Bruce handed him the file and he observed it for a few seconds. "From back in the day. Ulysses Klaue. He operates off the African coast, black market arms." Steve shot Tony an accusing glare that Tony mocked. "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.'"

Thor pointed to a strange scar on the back of Klaue's neck. "This."

Tony looked over. "Uh, it's a tattoo. I don't think he had it…."

"No, those are tattoos, this is a brand." Thor clarified as Zuchino nodded.

"Yep, that's a brand…and I think I saw it in the database…" Zuchino stated as he walked off to the computer with the photo. After scanning the photo, he quickly began running an identification checker. "I got a hit," Zuchino called out as everyone quickly gathered around him.

"I remember it now, it means "thief" in an African dialect…well, more loosely translated." He explained.

"What dialect?" Steve interrogated.

"Wakanda." The Saiyan answered.

Tony looked over at Steve. "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 asked as Zuchino's eyes began to widen.

"I'm not following." Bruce chimed in. "What comes out of Wakanda?"

Tony looked at Steve's shield. "The strongest metal on earth."

"Where is this guy now?" Steve asked.

Their ship landed a ways back from the ship. Zuchino powered up his scouter and raised a hologram of the ship from his wrist computer. It detected two abnormally high power levels on the ship, letting them know the metas (at the very least) had made it there before them. Bruce had elected to stay back, seeing that a contained area being not good for the Hulk to go.

"Let's go," Zuchino stated as they quickly began infiltrating the ship.

"Stark is nothing!" Zuchino heard Ultron's voice roar out before he heard a wet smack. "I'm sorry, I'm-oh" That's when he and Steve saw what happened, he cut off Klaue's arm. "I'm sure that's gonna be okay. I'm sorry. It's just that I don't understand—don't compare me with Stark!" He stated before kicking the arm's dealer into a nearby stairway. "It's a thing with me. Stark is—he's a sickness!"

"Ahh, Junior." Tony got everyone's attention as he descended from the air with Zuchino, Thor, and Steve walking up behind him. "You're gonna break your old man's heart."

"If I have to." Ultron shot back.

"We don't have to break anything," Thor stated cautiously, but.

"Clearly you've never made an omelet," Ultron quickly fired back before Tony turned to Asgardian and admitted, "He beat me by one second."

"Ah, this is funny, Mr. Stark," Pietro said, walking up to the group. "It's what, comfortable? Like old times?" He said as he looked down at the weapons.

"This was never my life." Tony defended.

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve added.

"Oh, we will." Wanda fired back with a death glare.

Steve ignored her comment and continued. "I know you've suffered-"

Ultron cut him off with a loud groan and chuckled out, "Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but-"

"If you really believe in peace, then let us keep it," Zuchino cut the robot off, his energy level beginning to rise.

"You're one to talk about keeping the peace, Mr. Destroyer of Worlds. You couldn't even keep your own planet from being destroyed." Ultron fired back, met only with stony glare from teh Saiyan. "You all mistake peace from quiet."

"Yuh-huh. What's the Vibranium for?" Tony cut in.

"I'm glad you asked that because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan!" Ultron sarcastically said before his robot dropped down to distract Zuchino, Steve, and Thor from Ultron using a wave of artificial ki to blast throw Tony back. Zuchino grabbed the robot, but it created an energy shield. In the shock of the robot's use of artificial ki, he was left prone to be slammed in the face with a punch. Quickly wiping away his shock, he blasted the robot with a ki wave. The wave was too powerful and quickly overpowered the robot's defense. With him down, Zuchino quickly formed a ki blast and threw it towards the female Maximoff. However, she quickly dissipated his blast with a red wave of energy before firing it at him, sending him skidding back.

"Well, that's new," Zuchino stated to himself before a larger robot grabbed him and threw him into the glass observatory. The observatory bent at his impact before the robot charged and dashed into his chest. Zuchino snarled before transforming into a Super Saiyan. He brought his arms above his head and slammed his fist down into the back of the cybernetic combatant. He slammed down into the ground as the many soldiers began firing at him.

With the bullets bouncing off his armor, his hand began to glow yellow. He waved it and all the rifles exploded in their hands, disabling them easily. When he turned his attention back to the robot, it had fired a red ball of ki towards him and it slammed into his chest. After struggling a few seconds, he unleashed a kiai from his chest that canceled out the ki wave and quickly formed his own attack. He curled his fingers behind his head as he charged up. The warrior flew towards him and threw a punch, but it hit the air. Searching around, it looked down to see Zuchino floating beneath him with a fuchsia ki ball in his hands.

"Galick Gun!" He fired the wave, which slammed into the robot and carried him through the roof of the ship. It exploded in the sky, which made the Saiyan sigh. He landed on the ground just as his comms came to life.

"Thor, status." Steve came through his comms.

"The girl tried to warp my mind. Take special care, I doubt a human could keep her a bay. Fortunately, I am…" Thor suddenly stopped.

"Thor?" Zuchino called into his comms before he rushed something that forced him into a cluster of barrels. He looked up to see Pietro smirking at him. "Okay, you son of a bitch." Zuchino began before he felt something enter his mind, something weird. But he quickly ignored it and began rushing the speedster before everything seemed to melt away from him, leaving him in a black void.

"The hell?" Zuchino muttered, trying to figure out what just happened. Maybe the witch…the witch! She invaded his mind!

"Oh, poor little Zuchi." A familiar and cold voice cut through the silence like a knife. He turned to see a white alien floating in the darkness with a sadistic smirk cutting across his face. Freeza.

"What?! No, I-I-I…"

"You killed me? Oh yes, you did. Quite viciously like I might add, but you should know by now killing me was merely the beginning." Freeza chuckled. "Or maybe that type of thinking is too advanced for a monkey such as yourself?" Zuchino's eyes narrowed as he dashed forward to punch nothing. Freeza had practically evaporated into the air.

"Oh, touched a nerve did I?" The voice came from behind him. Before he could turn, a hard fist struck him in the back of the head that sent him flying through the air. He tried to stop himself, but it seemed like he had no control over his body. His eyes opened to see Freeza flying over him with that cruel smirk of his. The smirk he only saw before he killed someone. "I know what you're thinking right now? How could you ever let someone as pitiful as that witch infect your mind? Some Super Saiyan you are, you're so super, you let your entire race get killed off before you could ever hope to do something."

His body suddenly stopped before they appeared. The entire Saiyan race stood before him…but…they looked dead. Cucumba's body was riddled with wounds and blood continued pouring out of them. Pasley, the lead guard of King Vegeta, stood there with her eyes gouged out and a large hole in her chest. And the King himself stood in front of the entire Saiyan race, his face bloodied and upper lip missing. In his chest was a single beam wound right where it hit him that day.

"King Vegeta?" His voice was heavily hoarse, probably due to the sob that wrecked its way from his throat.

"All of us…we lost because you weren't there."

"My King, I'm sorry I couldn't-"

"Oh, Zuchino." Vegeta's voice cut through his. "Always an excuse. Never can take responsibility for your actions. I tried with you, every single your lowly parent were killed in that explosion. I took you in and upgraded you to royal blood…and you let me die."

"No, I didn't! I fought for you!"

"Silence!" Vegeta's voice boomed around the abyss, making him get quiet. "You watched from the ship as the beam pierced my heart! You knew the Irkens and Furons were corrupt, yet you said nothing!"

"I had my suspicions but I…"

"You knew! And you let me work with them anyway!" Vegeta roared at him.

"Such a shame, Zuchi." Freeza said as he stepped out from behind the undead King with his arms crossed and head hung low. "You let your King knowingly walk into a trap…and because of that, he died."

"Freeza, shut up!"

"Why? Don't like having your guilty conscience haunt you?" Another voice called out. Zuchino turned to see Paragus walking up behind him. "You didn't seem too guilty when you let my son be sent off. Or when you blasted him into oblivion."

Zuchino tried to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat.

"Nothing to say, huh? My boy was forced to suffer for years, losing his sanity every day while you lived like royalty!" Paragus spat at him. "And then you try to rectify it like that is going to help!"

"Paragus…"

"Zuchino?" Another voice said and he turned to see a younger Broly looking at him. "Why did you send me off?"

"I-I-I…"

"What, cat got your tongue?" Freeza asked as he came and stood next to the young Saiyan. "You were jealous of his latent abilities weren't you?"

"Just as I knew." Paragus snarled from the side. "You were always jealous!"

"And you knew that if he grew up and became more powerful than you, he would then get the position of head bootlicker."

"Shut up." Zuchino snarled as his fists tightened.

"I mean, after all, what would happen to you after that but only being sent back to the lower class...with the scum. No, we couldn't have that, now could we?"

"Shut up!" Zuchino repeated, looking up at Freeza's gleefully taunting eyes.

"And then if you went back there, who would ever take you seriously now? You lost your title and your rank. I most certainly wouldn't keep you on as my lieutenant. Wow, now pondering it Zuchino, at least I was honest in my sadism. But you...you condemned an innocent child to a fate worse than death just to keep your position. And now you've lied about for so long, you've began to believe that lie. I wonder what your little human friends would do if they knew the truth about that decision. Oh, maybe they would cut off all contact with you. I most certainly wouldn't want someone like you working with me. If you're willing to betray your own people, well whose next?"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Zuchino roared as he blasted off and punched Freeza directly in the face…but he didn't. Before his eyes, Freeza shifted into the face of Broly, looking up at him with shock. He looked down to see his fist has gone directly through the young boy's chest…and he could feel the heart in his hands. "No…" Zuchino breathed out as he withdrew his arm to see the still-beating heart clutched in his fist. He looked back up just in time to see Broly's eyes roll into the back of his head and the boy's body collapsed. He couldn't breathe, tears quickly welled in his eyes before streaming down his cheeks.

"Zuchi," Freeza stated as he walked up behind the Saiyan, motionless in shock, "what have you done? You just can't stop killing your own people. I would've thought you were satiated just eradicating life across the globe." Zuchino turned and saw what was the biggest mob of people he'd ever seen before. All different races…races he eradicated with a smile on his face. Like the Saiyans, they were visibly dead. One was even blown in half from the torso up.

"And just like a pet," Freeza continued, "you did whatever I asked and you did it sloppily. I wonder how long before you kill off your little Avenger pals on that planet? Let's see."

Suddenly, he was back on the ship. Pierto and Wanda seemed to be gone at the moment. In fact, the entire ship seemed empty. Suddenly, Tony dropped from the ceiling.

"I got Ultron, you guys," Tony said cheerfully as the rest of them soon emerged from whatever hiding hole they occupied beforehand. Even Bruce, he must've helped out Tony in some way. "Did you secure Vibranium?"

"Yea, now it just leaves us with this one last task," Steve said before his eyes narrowed at Zuchino, who could only give a questioning look. "I think it's about time we've suspended your contract, Zuchino."

"Wait what?"

"What, did you honestly think we would keep a space Hitler on this team?" Tony inquired, his plate shooting up to show his eyes were red. That's he finally noticed, all of their eyes were red. It was like they were…possessed.

"You have killed billions of people across the known universe," Natasha said, stepping forward before Zuchino saw it. It was Wanda Maximoff controlling their minds. "It's time that you either leave this planet or you die."

"Natasha, stop, she's controlling your mind!" Zuchino cried, but there was no reaction. Instead, they all stared forward at him before Bruce quickly grew into the Hulk and Tony's faceplate shut down. Steve threw his shield directly at his head, but Zuchino caught it. However, Mjølnir slammed him into the walkway. Tony fired multiple blasts down on him, all strong enough to break the skin. However, Zuchino created an energy shield. The Hulk charged forward and smashed down with enough force to pop it like a bubble. Shocked, he wasn't prepared to defend against the large fist slamming into his head. That's when Steve came down and elbowed him in the face.

Zuchin fell to the ground on his back and quickly rolled over to avoid instant decapitation via Steve's shield. He blocked a few punches from the Super Soldier before bending back to avoid the Mjølnir strike Thor was aiming for. He quickly teleported away, but Tony was prepared for where he was. The second he reappeared, Tony fired missiles at him. He dodged them before looking over to Maximoff. He dashed over but was struck in the face by a kick. That's when he saw it, Natasha floating in the air like…like she was using ki.

"Benefits of working with her. She taught me something you never even considered." She snarled before raising her arms up and quickly charging up a red ball of ki. He just quickly got to his feet to jump above it, but the force of the powerful explosion knocked him off balance and subject to netting shot from Tony's wrist launcher. He flew back, strung up in the net before he powered up, quickly trying to think of a way to distract them all so he could get to Wanda. That's when his mind went to a certain technique.

All the Avengers rushed towards him just as he raised his hands to eyes, fingers splayed out, and roared, "Solar Flare." Blinding white light emitted from his face, blinding the Avengers and giving him the ample opportunity to quickly move over to Wanda and throw a fiery black ball of energy towards her. She looked up in shock before she smiled wickedly. Once the ball of energy came close, she kicked it up in the air with little effort. The ball of ki went sailing upwards into the air, leaving the Saiyan stunned. Then he noticed, the flesh around her foot seemed to have been torn away like a costume. It revealed an ebony foot with four toes. That's when she powered up and her skin seemed to peel off like a costume, revealing Freeza underneath.

He smirked up at him. "Surprised to see me? I told you we were going to have some fun. And much fun as I would have to kill your little friends one by one, I think this will be even more spectacular!" With that, he dashed at the Saiyan. Zuchino raised his arms to defend himself before he realized that Freeza disappeared.

Was it another hallucination? Was the girl toying with his mind?

"I'm afraid not." Freeza's voice echoed through his mind. "Now, let's see what this monkey's body can do."

By now, the possessed Avengers had regained their sight and their eyes were no longer red.

"What's happening?" Steve asked as he looked up at Zuchino floating up in the sky. "Zuchino?"

"Run!" Zuchino tried to scream, but his mouth wouldn't move. Instead, he could hear his own voice say, "Yea, I got Ultron."

"Good, I think I blacked out there for a second." Tony chuckled.

No, get out of here! Zuchino screamed out to no avail. His body lowered to the ground and he could feel his hand behind his back beginning to charge up. No, Freeza, stop!

"Great, now that Ultron is finished, we can go searching for the scepter," Thor smirked as he looked at the Saiyan. "Thank you, Zuch-" The sentence was cut short as his hand shot forward and blasted a red beam of ki through the Asgardian's chest.

NO! His mind screamed out as blood streamed from Thor's mouth. Everyone watched in shock as Thor stumbled back before falling to a knee, looking up at Zuchino with accusatory eyes. Then the light drained from them as he fell forward, a pool of blood quickly formed around him. All the other Avengers looked at him as the Saiyan's body chuckled and looked at them, "I always hated Asgardians."

The Hulk was the first to react, charging to the Saiyan and bringing his fist downward. But the Saiyan's body very easily blocked the punch and the next two that followed before he flipped into the air. Zuchino grabbed the radiation monster's head between his thighs and violent wretched them to the side, a sickening crack echoing throughout the ship.

"NO!" Natasha screamed as the Hulk fell to the ground. She charged forward, firing off her guns at the Saiyan. The bullets bounced harmlessly against his body. Once they ran out of ammo, Natasha threw them to the side and charged the Saiyan with a kick. But Zuchino's hand grabbed her leg and picked up her in the air. He flung her across the ship and threw a black ball of ki after to her. She collided with the railing, her back snapping but the scream couldn't even be heard over the explosion rocked the ship.

Zuchino was in shock. He was watching his own body kill off his friends. He continued to struggle, but nothing seemed to work.

"Three down, three to go." His voice started before his hand fired a finger blast over his shoulder. It quickly exploded in front of Clint, exploding him. "Oops, two. My bad." Tony flew forward, but the Saiyan telekinetically gripped his friend and began pushing his hands closer. Almost immediately, the suit of armor began imploding with Tony's screaming being very well-heard over the comms. But soon they stopped as the suit began contorting until it formed the perfect sphere. Satisfied, his body dropped it and all that stood was Steve.

"How long?" He simply asked, looking forward without fear. "How long have you been leading us on?"

"Since the very beginning." Zuchino's body stated with a smirk while its owner was screaming the opposite. "You all fell for it so well. Why would someone like I co-mingle with you weaklings? I just wanted somewhere to spend some time before I got bored."

"I understand." Steve simply said, his fist tightening around the shield.

Please run, Steve Zuchino begged in his mind.

"So you're going to destroy this planet too?"

"As soon as I finish you off."

"Then I don't want to go down without a fight!" Steve roared as he ran forward with his shield reared back. Then, the hand grabbed the Super Soldier's arm and shoved the Saiyan's hand through Steve's chest. That's when the spirit of Freeza evaporated from his body, appearing behind Steve with a malicious grin. Steve's knees buckled as blood poured from his mouth. Tears quickly streamed down his chest while the Saiyan watched his best friend die in his arms at his own hands.

"I'm so sorry." Zuchino sobbed out while Freeza cackled. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Zuchino?"

He was back, right where he had left reality: lying in a pile of barrels on that cursed ship. Except Steve was standing directly in front of him. Zuchino's frazzled mind couldn't comprehend it. Everything had felt so real. But Steve was kneeling in front of him, his eyes reflecting worry and concern. Zuchino's kept letting out short, labored gasps as he grabbed Steve's arms.

"Is this real? Are you real?" He choked out as Steve looked at him. The Super Soldier grabbed his arms and tried to lower them, but they wouldn't move. "Damn it, are you real?! Fucking answer me!" Zuchino roared as Steve's eyes widened before he nodded.

"Yes, I'm real." He stated as Zuchino's face practically fell into relief before he hugged the soldier to him. Steve lurched forward, very confused by the sudden show from affection from the Saiyan before he felt it. Zuchino was crying. His shoulders were rapidly moving up and down. He quickly rubbed the Saiyan's back and let him sob into his chest.

Zuchino sat in the chair, his knees pulled up to his chest. After Steve managed to pry him off and get him on his feet, they quickly got back to the ship with Thor, Clint, and Natasha. Tony brought back Bruce with a grimace. He didn't need to say anything, they immediately knew what happened. No one was willing to make an order on where they should go to next, so Clint took over flying to some unknown location. Steve sat in the chair next to Zuchino, quiet and silently contemplating the vision that witch had given, same went for Natasha, who was seated near the center, and Thor, who was pacing the ship. Banner sat on the floor, curled up in a blanket and very overcome with grief.

"The news is loving you guys," Maria said over the monitor, speaking to Tony. "Nobody else is. There's been no official call for Banner's arrest, but it's in the air."

"Stark Relief Foundation?" Tony inquired.

"Already on the scene. How's the team?"

"Everyone's…" Tony looked back at the battered team before turning back to her, "we took a hit. We'll shake it off."

"Well, for now, I'd stay in stealth mode, and stay away from here," Maria suggested.

"So, run and hide?"

"Until we can find Ultron, I don't have a lot else to offer."

"Neither do we." Tony looked back once more before he switched the monitor off, ending the call. He walked up to the cockpit and asked Clint, "Hey, you wanna switch out?"

"No, I'm good," Clint answered. "If you wanna get some kip, now's a good time, cause we're still a few hours out."

"A few hours from where?"

"A safe house."