The wind blew her dark curls in front of her face, but even as they blinded her sight temporarily, she still caught a whiff from the wind traveling just under her nose. The smell was so familiar. Sokovia was the closest she'd been back to Ukraine and the forest's smells and sounds around them were all too similar to what she remembered. It felt weird to be standing on two legs, yet she knew those monsters of her past had to be set aside for now. They had work to do.

"What do you mean you're leaving me in the truck alone?" Clint whined at Natasha as he was loading the vehicle with supplies, ammunition, extra arrows….

"I've got my own ride Barton," she smirked at Clint before turning to her. Oh, Natasha… Why was it that one look from her made Milena's mind get gushy and her feelings soft? To say she had fallen was an understatement as she opened her arms up to embrace the wild redhead and felt the warmth of the back of her neck on her palm as she held them together. Their foreheads met in the middle and they smiled while gazing into each other's eyes before letting them close with full faith that they were both safe with each other.

"Are you ready?" Natasha silently told Milena through her thoughts.

"I'm ready to get this over with so I can have you to myself," she responded playfully.

She heard Natasha laugh in her head. "What happened to the little shy girl I met all those months ago who was afraid of her own shadow?"

"She fell in love…." Milena opened her eyes and smile before placing a quick peck on Natasha's plump lips. They were always so sweet to her and she had to hold back from smiling too wide as she noticed Clint watching them with a mischievous eye.

"Hey ladies, save it for the locker room," he said teasingly while climbing into the truck's front.

"Oh, you know I will," Natasha winked at Milena before nudging her head to the side, suggesting her that it was time.

All she had to do was leap forward and before she touched the ground her hands had grown into paws ten times bigger and her face protruded forward as she felt her nose shifting forwards, her eyes sharpening, and her mouth opening as her teeth grew. The hairs on her back shivered in the cold as she realized there was snow on the ground, but that only added to the formidable face she gave Clint as she showed him her teeth from behind her snarled mouth in an amusing warning that made Natasha laugh. She growled slightly, but playfully, before allowing the archer to pat her head as she came up beside his truck and knelt down slightly.

"That's my girl," Natasha beamed at how fierce she'd become before throwing herself up onto the giant wolf that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest.

"Romanoff, Barton, Telivola, are we in the clear?" the three suddenly heard Steve's voice in their ears.

"All set Rogers. We've got a direct route from the southwest position. Rendezvous in twenty seconds?"

"Yeah, if you can keep up," Tony's voice laughed next. "I saw Fluffy digging into the Cocoa Puffs this morning and you know dog's aren't supposed to eat chocolate."

Milena growled and her shoulders tensed before Natasha rubbed behind her ear. "Oh, you're really getting it after this is all over, Stark," she warned him.

"Great," he said smartly just as Milena could hear his thrusters revving up about five miles northeast of them. "Anyone wanna place any bets?"

"Mine's on Telivola,"Clint admitted without hesitation.

"Same," agreed Natasha.

"Hmmm," Thor chirped in from his position. The Asgardian had only recently arrived, but Milena knew from meeting him the first time that he didn't see her as a monster and that comforted her. Thor was, well, strange, but very open-minded for someone as old as he was… They had so many conversations about Asgard and he'd told her that she would love the Rainbow Bridge. He'd said that she could run it to her heart's content. "I would love to see this battle between Stark and our lady of the wolves… I will wager a hundred tarts of pop on Telivola!"

"Ah, c'mon guys," Tony whined. "No one at all believes in me?"

"I'd like to believe that you could remember why we're here," Steve criticized their side conversation. "Hulk?"

"RAAAAHHHHHH!" they could all hear the other guy beat his chest from a distance

"Alright… on my mark…. Three, two…"

Her hind legs extended from their contracted position in an instant as she shot off like a bullet into the depths of the forest at top speed. Even though she was technically a canine, she flashed a very human-like smile as she glanced back and saw Clint struggling to accelerate as fast as she had with his tires bumping up and over tree roots and hills.

"RAAAAAAAAAAHH!" the Hulk's roars suddenly grew louder as the green monster flung himself in front of the two while taking out a squad of soldiers that had been gradually approaching. Her legs began pumping harder against the snow on the ground and she saw Hulk casually ripping up a few men from the ground and they neared the summit of the base.

She easily dodged the puny bullets that flew past her as the familiar sound of Thor's hammer shot through the air above them and the Asgardian could be seen throwing strikes of lightning down bellow onto helpless Hydra soldiers.

Not far up ahead, Cap slid on his motorcycle and dragged a poor fellow beside him as his body practically shred into pieces from the friction on the forest floor. Throwing him off carelessly, he belted down hills and through trees while dodging the enemy's blue beams with ease.

Clint's truck was now nearing them as another truck was launched just above his by the Hulk who was literally tearing through any person he saw. Milena felt a hard nudge by her ribs from Natasha digging her heels into her side; she was telling her to slow down just a bit. As the wolf trotted up a hill to decelerate, the widow made her side aerial dismount off her back and landed on the shoulders of a Hydra soldier who was soon taken down.

Now Tony was flying close to the ground near all of them as they all came upon the same clearing in the forest where a couple of soldiers were defending a small fence. As the wolf flew through the air with her teammates on each of her sides, she was sure that they had just got the money shot before she sunk her teeth into a soldier she landed on.

Man she loved her job.

"Shit!" they all heard Tony exclaim to no surprise.

"Language," Cap retorted as if giving him a strict warning. "JARVIS, what's the view from upstairs?"

While JARVIS and Thor promptly figured out where Loki's scepter was located Natasha headed into action. "Let's have some fun while the boys are busy," she teased pulling out her guns. This was nothing but child's play to her. With Hulk, Clint, Natasha, and her outside surrounding the base they were nothing close to short on offensive manpower. Since S.H.I.E.L.D dissolved they had gotten pretty used to more low-key missions without much backup.

But while the fighting outside continued Milena let herself get caught up in the moment for just a second too long. She normally would've smelled a human headed directly towards their group before he even began to take his first steps. There was never a sound of a twig breaking or a heart beating that got past her ears which constantly twitched and moved in every direction. But this one…. this thing was something she had never encountered before.

As soon as she detected him he was gone again.

"You didn't see that coming?" the accented male voice asked before Milena lost his location again. He had appeared and disappeared in seconds near Clint who was on the ground now. To make matters worse, Milena turned her head in every direction possible trying to track the culprit but failed to notice the bullet headed straight for her teammate. Clint was hit off guard and Natasha ran over to help him.

"We have an enhanced in the field," Rogers noted as if reading Milena's mind. They both knew this thing was not human and weren't entirely sure how to handle it. It, or he, had taken Milena by surprise and distracted her which never occurred before. If there were more of them then they might be in more trouble. Her canine face contracted slightly where her eyebrows would have been as if she were furrowing them in frustration.

"Somebody wanna deal with that bunker?" Natasha called for assistance and was quickly answered by Banner who smashed into the entire thing with his body. "Thank you," her voice brightly chirped before she turned her attention back to Clint's wound. From what she knew it was only a pretty basic flesh wound but he still needed some meds.

Milena gazed over towards the widow knelt over the hawk with her ears pushed slightly back and her head tilted. A puzzled face with beating yellow eyes stared into the green ones once they looked up from the injury they were focused on. "You know what to do," Natasha said encouragingly and gave a quick nod. Milena instantly took off in a light trot headed into the direction she had last seen the Hulk plow through. It didn't take very long at all to find him passive aggressively ripping trees apart with all of his excessive anger energy balled up inside with no more guys to take it out on.

He huffed and looked around anxiously for something to smash as Milena came to a stop and crouched back onto her hind legs to fall into a sitting position. The Hulk took a double take when he noticed the wolf standing a few dozen feet away and crunched his face up in anger only for a short moment before recognizing the friendly presence. His lack of smashing seemed to give Milena permission to slowly walk closer towards him. Despite her being a pretty oversized beast, the Hulk seemed to grow taller and taller until he was skyscraper height as she walked further and further into his shadow. But never taking her eyes off of him, she turned to his slightly uncurled fist and gently began to push her nose towards him.

Once his fist relaxed completely, Milena was able to run her entire back of fur through his hand before quickly walking away. She left the big guy so silent as he stared at his massive green hand before stumbling backwards. He lost balance as the transformation took place before leaving an exhausted and shirtless Bruce crawling to lean up a tree.

Milena's transformation was much easier. She took three steps forward: Two on her paws and the last finally on her human feet as she rose to her normal size. She was over to Bruce in the next second to help him stand.

"Uh, thank you, Milena," Bruce said softly with an awkward smile on his face. But despite both of them never exchanging too many words when this occurred, Milena knew Bruce truly was grateful. The emotions that ran through his mind at the moment were overwhelming for any normal person as she also understood. It bonded them closer just by being near each other for comfort and she felt much better too. Then a slightly ominous voice shook them in both their ears.

"I got the scepter."