To The Moon and Back (A Marvel Fanfiction)

#4 Fight and Flight

My paws fly over the ground nimbly, my tongue hangs out of my mouth. I've run long distances before but I've never run for this long in one direction. Usually the track ends or I face a wall, but this, this is exhilarating. It might've even been fun if not for the circumstances. I taste the air. There's five or six wolves on me and a bunch more back there.

How many wolves are there and why are they all here now? How did they escape the blast?

A spark of hope fills me. Maybe Vulcan made it out. My mind flashes back to his dying body telling me to run. He probably didn't make it. And I'm going to have to accept that. But not right now. I shake the memories from my mind and run on until I can see my target.

Natasha lies limply in the mouth of the beast. She must have passed out. I clear a log easily. I actually like my wolf form a lot, I'm comfortable with it. I used to hate it so much, I felt foolish. But I really enjoy the heightened hearing and the fact that I can trick people into thinking that I have no idea what's going on, that I'm just a clueless animal. I also like to curl into a ball while I sleep, and my senses will jolt me awake if someone drew near. No one could ever sneak up on me. Vulcan hated his wolf, he said it made him feel dirty. Also, the scientists make us take wolf or werewolf forms for the tests and experiments, so sometimes when I'm in wolf I can get triggered more easily into flashbacks. It's whatever. It's my life, or it was my life. And hopefully it'll stay like that because I do not want to go back to the lab.

I pick up the pace. As I get close, I think I know what wolf is carrying the woman. I think it's Hutch. He is a scientist who was a former soldier for Russia, and he volunteered to let the scientists do the experiment on him. He's one of the biggest wolves I've seen, and he's crazy strong and fast. And smart. As I run I increase my size a little bit by growing my bones at the growth plate and multiplying my cells, stretching my muscles and skin, elongating my teeth a little for good measure...you get the idea. I don't know how or why I can change my size, I just can. The scientists always seem excited when I do it. Shapeshifters just have one or two main forms that always were the same size. I just know that back in the lab when I just wanted to shrink into the ground and disappear away from all the tools I would be smaller, but in fights I'd be bigger. Or fluffier. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. That's part of the reason the scientists put the silver cuffs on me to temporarily null my powers, they didn't want me shapeshifting to different sizes while they were running tests.

As I'm running my mind tries to warn me one last time:. What are you doing? Why are you going towards danger instead of running away?

I answer: Part of me doesn't know. And part of me fears that if HYDRA kills all these people that saved me from sharing the same fate as my father, they might take me back and chain me up for good.

The werewolf runs into a clearing and then stops, standing up on his hind legs. He looks menacing, he's huge, about 9 feet tall. The woman's body dangles out of his mouth, and his jaws leave little bloody marks where he holds her. He dumps her unmercifully onto the ground and snarls in no specific direction. He knows I've followed him.

"Come out Katya, wherever you are." He says in a sing sing voice. At the edge of the woods, I tuck my tail in between my legs. I'm scared I'm about to get ripped apart. The courage that filled me earlier at the base is mostly gone. I'm tired and just want to feel safe again. I take a deep breath and muster up my strength. I test out my energy, but I don't have much left. Using it would be too draining after the feat I pulled off yesterday. I'll just have to fight the old fashioned way. I look longingly at the lady, willing her to get up and fight, but it looks like I'm on my own for this one.

I walk into the clearing with my ears pressed against the back of my head and my wings outstretched. I growl and swish my tail from side to side. We stalk each other in a circle.