FIC: howl (mcu, ensemble, pg-13) for escritoireazul
For escritoireazul who wanted Natasha and Wanda and werewolves
howl (mcu, ensemble, pg-13)
Leaves and branches pulled at Natasha's hair as she ran through the dark forest. Her lungs burned; she could feel her pulse throbbing at her jawline.
"Does anyone copy?" she said again, and again silence filtered through her earpiece.
Behind her, echoing through the night, was the howl.
***
Tony, who was supposed to be retired, got them into this mess. One day, Natasha checked her very private email to discover a message from Stark. Annoyed that she'd been found out, Natasha considered deleting it, or sending him the link to a pornado, but curiosity, as it often did, got the better of her, and she opened the message.
Weird goings on down South. Naturally, I thought of you. Say hi to Rhodey for me.
The attachment was a newspaper article from Rolling Fork, Mississippi, detailing a number of strange sightings following the bust of an illegal drug manufacturer in the county. Statements from the sheriff's office indicated that no one was sure, exactly, what the lab had been manufacturing, but that it hadn't been any of the usual recreational drugs given the chemicals found on site. Also reported were a number of dead lab animals. The sightings after the police took down the lab included mutilated livestock and reports of strange looking dogs. The official line from the sheriff's office was that some of the lab animals had escaped and, on some sort of PCP-like drug high, were harassing the townspeople.
Natasha didn't really see what this had to do with her, but she showed the article to Steve, anyway.
"Couldn't hurt to check it out," he said.
***
The Avengers assembled to Sharkey County, Mississippi. They found the lab swathed in police tape; Natasha saw Steve hesitate, rolled her eyes, and pushed right through it.
The lab was dirty and disorganized in a way that suggested the police tossing the place or someone leaving in a hurry. Maybe both. There was shattered glass on most of the lab tables, and volatile chemicals had been left unstoppered, as if they had been abandoned mid-experiment.
The dead lab animals the paper mentioned had either been an exaggeration, or the police had removed them. There were cages, though, lining one of the walls, but the cages were only large enough for small animals--rabbits, maybe--nothing as big as a dog.
Natasha zeroed in on a filing cabinet, broke the lock, and began rifling through the paperwork inside.
"Maybe this is Stark's idea of a joke," Steve said.
"Then he would have sent the link to you, not Natasha," Rhodey said.
Clint poked around the broken glass and abandoned chemicals on the lab tables. "Anyone else worried about, I don't know, tetanus or something?"
"I think you should be more worried about chemical burns, frankly," Rhodey said, and Clint jumped back.
Sam eyed Wanda. "You picking up anything on your psychic radio?"
Wanda walked through the space, her hands splayed and stiff on either side of her, her head tilted slightly.
"It's hard to read," she said. "Almost...almost like animals."
"There were animals here," Vision said.
Wanda's lips pinched, but she didn't say anything.
"Hey," Natasha said, looking up from the papers. "It looks like our good doctor here was doing some serious Frankensteining."
Steve squinted over her shoulder. "I have no idea how to read this."
Rhodey stuck his head in. "They look like schematics," he said. "Almost like...is that a wolf?"
"And a human," Natasha said.
Sam's nose scrunched up. "Like, breeding?" he asked.
"You know how scientists will do stuff like put the bioluminescent genes of a jellyfish into a frog to make it glow?" Natasha said, but she was met mostly with blank stares. "It's like that."
"So, not breeding like getting jiggy with it?" Clint said. "But breeding like Mendel?"
"Right. Petri dish babies."
"Petri dish werewolf babies?" Sam said.
Clint chuckled. "I can't believe there are werewolves. I mean, really. Werewolves."
"Given the transformation experiments that have occurred even within this group," Vision said, "werewolves are almost a logical conclusion."
"Almost," Steve said.
"Yes," Vision said. "Almost."
***
They set up camp in a nearby Motel 6 with some crappy Chinese takeout.
"So, what's the plan here?" Clint said. "I mean...do we hunt these things?"
"They're part people," Steve said. "And they're really not hurting anyone..."
"Except Bessie," Natasha said. "Anyway, I say this requires some further inquiry."
Clint frowned. "Do we have to wait for a full moon, or...?"
Natasha gave him a look.
***
Rhodey found a map of the area in the motel lobby, and plotted the reported sighting sites. He, Steve, and Sam looked over the resulting pattern; after some back and forth, they had traced a perimeter and found the epicenter.
"We should look here," Rhodey said.
***
It was late when they arrived at the sweet spot on Rhodey's map, a lush forest a ways off the road. They suited up, earpieces and all, and checked the frequency. They outfitted themselves with weapons, flashlights, and an enlargement of Rhodey's map.
Steve divided up the territory, and off they went.
***
Natasha followed the map, winding her way into the dense forest.
"We should have done this in the morning," she muttered.
"Roger that," Sam said, and then the radio fuzzed out. Natasha frowned and tapped her earpiece, but there was just static.
Natasha climbed over a clutch of roots and dark, sticky mud, looking up past the pines to the moon. Clint's joke had been right on the money; it was a full moon, huge and luminous in the night sky.
Natasha's boot caught on another root just as she cleared the first snarl; she fell--a sharp jolt of pain, and then something warm coursing down her leg.
"Shit," she said, and picked herself up, hoping the bleed wasn't too bad. It felt okay.
And then she heard the howling, behind her, all around her. Growing closer, growing louder, crescendoing. Natasha thought back to the pictures in the news article, the mutilated cattle. She realized suddenly that she was bleeding; her scent was in the air, and she was in their hunting ground.
Natasha ran.
"I think I found our friends!" she said. "Does anyone copy? Hello?"
The radio was silent. Natasha could hear bodies moving through the trees, the whisper of predators moving through the night. Adrenaline tunneled her vision; all she could see was the next step. She was running into a clearing, the trees giving way. Her earpiece whispered, indistinct.
"Does anyone copy?"
Finally, the radio crackled. Wanda's voice, tinny: "I copy."
Natasha was knocked to the ground as an enormous wave of energy pulsed through the forest. She looked up in time to see the red tendrils of Wanda's energy shield dissipate, leaving only the black night sky and the huge moon.
The howling stopped. Natasha was coming to her feet, brushing the pine needles from her clothes, as she saw Wanda approach, running at full speed.
"Are they coming?" Natasha asked.
Wanda stopped before her, panting, her hair loose and wild, her eyes wide.
"No," she said. "But I can hear them. I can hear them singing."
Wanda raised her face to the sky, the moon making her enraptured face opalescent. Natasha looked at Wanda, the bliss on her face, and caught her breath.