The peaceful quiet of the evening air was shattered by great cracks of gunfire echoing through the damp forest. Angry shouts could be heard along with the sound of something quite large fleeing through the underbrush. Large black paws scrambled over logs and through streams and intelligent brown eyes darted frantically around for a vantage point or hiding place.

"Don't let it get away! Kill it if you have to!"

"Sir, it's heading east towards the freeway. We can't pursue if it gets past that, the other side of the freeway is military land."

"Idiot! Shut up! It understands you!"

The yelling of the three men shooting at him was, fortunately, very easy for their quarry to hear and as the last one had stated, he understood them perfectly. He dug his paws in deeper and somehow ran faster, dodging around trees to keep evading the bullets still flying through the forest. He had a safe zone to reach now and he was determined he was not going to die today.

He finally broke through the trees onto a freeway and barely managed to avoid running into the side of a truck that was roaring past. He skipped to the side as it passed and bolted across the rest of the road, diving into the trees on the other side. He hunkered down low, panting heavily and waited to see what would happen.

The men had stopped shooting on approaching the freeway and he could see them at the edge of the trees shouting at each other and swearing. It looked like they really wouldn't follow him any further. He let his head fall to the ground for a moment in relief. He'd done it! After five months of trying he'd finally escaped!

Now he just had to figure out where he was and try to get home. Wait, no, first he had to figure out how the hell to tell someone who he was. If he turned up in New York City as a huge, filthy, black wolf he'd cause a panic and probably end up on the wrong side of the Avengers. No he needed to approach this carefully, no matter how much he just wanted to go back to his tower, and his bots, and his Roadey, and his Bucky. God he missed his Bucky.

Tony shook head and snarled at himself, he had to concentrate on the issue, he could miss Buck later. He was thinking his best bet would be to approach Clint first as he had some experience with animals and was a known dog lover. Hopefully this would make him hesitate to kill a wolf. And really there was only one way to approach Clint in his current form.

With a plan in mind, he heaved himself up and set off in a slightly north easterly direction, he could smell the signs of a town that way and hopefully he would be able to figure out where in the hell he was.

Clint was sitting in the common room of Avenger's Tower along with the rest of the Avengers, minus Tony. That was actually why they were all gathered there, the fact that they were minus Tony. They had all been searching for any sign or rumour of him for five, long, stressful months now and there hadn't been even a hint of the genius. They had all returned to New York to regroup and trade any intel in person. To make it short none of them had any new intel or leads. It was depressing, Clint hated being depressed and feeling useless. And he was already starting to feel bad looking at the state Bucky was in. The poor guy looked ragged and worn with huge bags under his eyes and a look of such sorrow in his eyes that Clint kinda wanted to hug him. Which is pretty crazy when you remember that the guy is the most infamous assassin in the world.

They were all just kind of sitting in the lounge staring into space stuck in their own thoughts when Clint's phone started blaring Lee Brice's A Woman Like You, making everyone jump. He fumbled for his phone swearing and blushing.

"Hey honey, what's up? It's pretty late for you to be calling, are the kids ok?"

"Um, well, I know you have a lot on your plate right now and I know it's important to keep looking for Tony, that's important to me as well. I don't want you to have to stop for even a day, but I was kind of hoping maybe you could make your monthly stop in now?"

Clint frowned, it wasn't like Laura to waffle like that. "Of course, I'll get in the quinjet and head right over as soon as I grab my bag. What's happened?"

"Well, it's probably nothing to worry about and I have the kids upstairs, so they're fine, it's just a bit strange and unnerving and weird and I'd like you to please come deal with it."

"Laura, honey, you're freaking me out. What is it?"

"Well I'm kinda freaking out so I guess I'm having trouble with being coherent right now. I'm sorry, I'll start at the beginning. Um, I was just finishing bathing Nathaniel when Lila and Cooper came running in telling me there was a dog at the door and asking to keep it. I took Nate with me and followed them back to the front door and there was the biggest fucking wolf I have ever seen just sitting there panting at us. I gave Nate to Cooper and told him and Lila to go upstairs and lock themselves in our room. Then, and I swear to god this is true! The fucking thing stands up and opens the fucking door with its paws. I thought I was dead, but the bloody thing just comes in and lays down at my feet whimpering and wagging it's tail and now it is sitting on our lounge staring at me while I'm talking to you and I swear to god the fucking thing is laughing at me!"

Clint had stopped moving entirely and he now turned to Nat who was watching him intently. "Ok Laura I'll be there in two hours, do not try to touch it, go up with the kids."

"Just hurry up Clint, it's scarring the shit out of me."

"I'll be there soon, Love you."

"Love you."

He hung up while still keeping eye contact with Nat. "I'm taking the jet, now, I'll come back when I sort this out. There is some kind of wolf in my house with my kids."

Nat's eyes flashed with concern. "Want an assist?"

"No we need you here going over the pitiful intel we have looking for Tony, I'll call if it's more than I can deal with, but I should be fine. From what Laura said it's not being aggressive, just acting really weird."

"Ok, let us know if you need any of us."