"Thor?" Natasha's voice came over his comms an hour later. "Loki plans to unleash the Hulk. You and Sokolov, meet me in the lab," she said.

"Let's go, Sokolov," Thor said.

The two hurried down the hallway and joined Natasha in the hallway for Banner's lab. Magdalena firmly ignored Natasha's eyes as they walked into the room.

Tony, Steve, Fury and Bruce were already in there talking.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked Natasha, nodding at the large machine gun on the table.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?" Natasha said.

"I was in Calcutta, I was pretty well removed," Bruce said.

"Loki's manipulating you," Natasha said.

"And you've been doing what exactly?" Bruce scoffed.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," Bruce said.

"Because of him," Fury pointed at Thor.

"Me?" Thor said confusedly.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned," Fury said loudly. Magdalena rolled her eyes. Americans.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet," Thor said.

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled," Fury said.

"Like you controlled the cube?" Steve said.

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war," Thor said.

"You forced our hand. We had to come up with something," Fury said.

"Nuclear deterrent. 'Cause that always calms everything right down," Tony said sarcastically. A brief smile spread across Magdalena's face at how funny Tony actually was.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury growled.

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Steve started.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?" Tony said.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve said.

"I thought humans were more evolved than this," Thor said.

"Americans aren't," Magdalena said offhandedly.

"Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?" Fury raged at Thor.

"Did you always give your champions such mistrust?" Thor said.

"Are you all really that naive? SHIELD monitors potential threats," Natasha said.

"Captain America is on the threat potential watch list?" Bruce frowned.

"You're on that list? Are you above or below angry bees?" Tony asked Steve.

"I swear to God, Stark, one more crack-" Steve started.

"Threatening! I feel threatened!" Tony yelled.

Magdalena sighed and rolled her eyes. Idiots. Absolute idiots.

"You speak of control, yet you court chaos," Thor said.

"It's his MO, isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're... we're a time-bomb," Bruce said.

"You need to step away," Fury warned him.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam?" Tony said, wrapping his arm around Steve's shoulder.

"You know damn well why! Back off!" Steve shoved Tony back off of him.

Now they were fighting, Magdalena thought to herself. And they called themselves adults and superheroes.

"Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me," Tony glared at Steve as he levelled with him.

"Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?" Steve said.

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist," Tony fired back.

"I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. Yeah, I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you," Steve said angrily.

"I think I would just cut the wire," Tony shrugged.

"Always a way out... You know, you may not be a threat, but you better stop pretending to be a hero," Steve said.

"A hero? Like you? You're a lab rat, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle!" Tony exploded.

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds," Steve demanded. Thor laughed at them mockingly.

"You people are so petty... and tiny," he said.

"Yeah, this is a team," Bruce sighed.

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Banner back to his-" Fury started.

"Where? You rented my room," Bruce said sarcastically.

"The cell was just in case-" Fury tried.

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't! I know! I tried!" Bruce yelled. They all stared at him in surprise. "I got low. I didn't see an end, so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out! So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good, until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk!" he said. He turned to look at Natasha. "You wanna know my secret, Agent Romanoff? You wanna know how I stay calm?" he said.

Magdalena had to admit that she had often pondered doing the same thing as Bruce. HYDRA were after her for her powers, the Red Room because of her training. She knew they would kill her if they found her, but she had always lived for the fight and this one was no different.

"Dr. Banner, put down the scepter," Steve said cautiously. Bruce looked down and his eyes widened when he saw he was holding it.

The computer beeped loudly and everyone turned to look at it.

"Got it," Tony said. Bruce put the scepter down and headed to the computer. He looked at Magdalena.

"Sorry, kid. You don't get to see my little party trick after all," he said.

"Located the Tesseract?" Thor asked. Steve nodded.

"I can get there faster," Tony said.

"Look, all of us-" Steve tried.

"The Tesseract belongs on Asgard, no human is a match for it," Thor said. Tony turned to leave but Steve grabbed him.

"You're not going alone!" he said.

"You gonna stop me?" Tony laughed.

"Put on the suit, let's find out," Steve said.

"I'm not afraid to hit an old man," Tony said.

"Put on the suit," Steve growled.

"Oh my god!" Bruce cried, looking at the tesseract.

There was a loud bang and Magdalena was launched backwards from the impact. Natasha and Bruce flew with her and their combined weights smashed the window behind them. They fell down into the lower equipment room, landing on the floor.

Bruce was further away from Natasha and Magdalena. Natasha was partially stuck under a pipe and Magdalena was curled up in a ball, clutching the bleeding wounds on her arm and stomach.

Her head was spinning and all she could taste was blood in her mouth from accidentally biting her tongue when she fell. She could feel a throbbing pain in her stomach and she groaned. Something was stuck inside of her.

Magdalena winced as she pulled her jacket off. She ripped the sleeve off, wrapping it tightly around her arm. She pulled one end into her mouth and made a knot, pulling to tighten it with her teeth and good arm.

She hissed as she felt the circulation in her arm cut off slightly, but she carried on pulling until she was sure the bleeding would stop. She looked down at her stomach, seeing a shard of glass was sticking out of her, just above her left hip.

She pulled it out quickly. More blood gushed out of the wound but Magdalena just grabbed her jacket and her knife. She cut the other arm off and cut down the seam, then cut the material down the middle to create two thin strips.

She tied them around her hips to keep pressure on the wound, thanking god she hadn't had much access to food lately so she was skinnier than normal. It made it easier to keep the binding tight enough to stem the bleeding for now.

She finished and looked at Natasha and Bruce. Bruce was growling on the floor, on his hands and knees as he started to turn green. Natasha was quickly trying to calm him down.

"Fucking Americans," Magdalena muttered to herself.

She quickly slid across the floor to Natasha's side and put her hands out to lift the heavy metal pipe.

"Doctor... Bruce, you gotta fight it. This is just what Loki wants. We're gonna be okay. Listen to me," Natasha said, shooting a look at Magdalena to be quick with moving the pipe.

Two SHIELD soldiers hurried down the stairs behind Bruce but Natasha waved them away. They bolted away as quickly as they'd came.

"We're gonna be okay. Right? I swear on my life I will get you out of this, you will walk away, and never-" Natasha said.

"Your life?" Bruce scoffed. His voice had changed from normal to deeper and there was a maddening look in his eyes. Another explosion rocked the Helicarrier and Bruce turned to look at them.

"Banner," Magdalena said warningly.

Bruce looked at her, a knowing look in his eye now. Magdalena knew this was their last warning before he changed into the Hulk.

Magdalena rolled her eyes and quickly used her powers to lift the pipe off of Natasha's leg. Natasha got to her feet just as Bruce rolled away from them, now fully transformed.

Magdalena had already headed towards the stairs to run away, but Natasha hadn't followed. Magdalena didn't care. Natasha was not her problem. She could get herself killed if she wanted to.

The Hulk turned and growled at them.

Magdalena quickly picked up her pace, Natasha on her heels. They raced up the metal stairs but the Hulk thundered after them. Magdalena climbed onto the walkway just as Hulk knocked the rest of the stairs out from under Natasha's feet.

Natasha jumped and grabbed a hold of the bars, swinging through them to drop beside Magdalena.

Magdalena looked behind her and saw a turbine had stopped moving, the gap wide enough for them to roll through. Magdalena rolled through, Natasha following her lead, and climbed down onto the catwalk.

The Hulk grabbed the part they were on and yanked it down. Magdalena and Natasha leapt forward, jumping down a gap at the side of the catwalk. Natasha made to run away but Magdalena stopped. They needed a distraction.

She stared intently at one of the large pipes on the floor behind the Hulk. She tilted her gaze up and the pipe shot into the air. It clanged against the ceiling and then clattered on the floor as she turned to run. The Hulk spun around and they made their escape.

Natasha shoved Magdalena down under the catwalk and Magdalena rolled out of the fall, landing behind a large stack of crates. Natasha rolled beside her, the two of them panting quietly as they tried to keep hiding from the Hulk.

"Okay, we gotta move," Natasha panted.

Magdalena took a minute to wipe the blood sliding down her arm from her cut and nodded.

"Yeah, or we're gonna die," she said flatly. She pulled her gun out of her belt and the two started to crawl under the catwalk.

Natasha stopped, so Magdalena did, too. She listened carefully, hearing the thuds of the Hulk taking steps from above them. Natasha stood up, motioning for Magdalena to get ready to use her powers. Magdalena  nodded. She stood up, following behind Natasha as they climbed onto the catwalk.

They spun around to see the Hulk roaring at them. Magdalena's eyes fell to a liquid nitrogen pipe above his head. She tilted her head and it snapped, the gas hissing as it spilled onto the Hulk.

He roared and started hitting it, giving Natasha and Magdalena the cue to run.

They took off down the catwalk, Magdalena at the back so she could keep moving objects in the Hulk's way as he pursued them.

"Sokolov, hurry!" Natasha yelled, jumping off the end of the catwalk. Magdalena jumped off, ducking her head as the Hulk swung his arm out.

It didn't matter, in the end, because the Hulk caught her and Natasha in his swing. They were launched against the metal vents harshly.

Magdalena's head smacked against the metal and she fell to the floor, unconscious beside Natasha.

"Sokolov?" Natasha muttered, shaking the teenager slumped on the floor. "Sokolov, wake up," she hissed. Her hands slid to Magdalena's neck to find her pulse. "You're alive," she sighed.

Magdalena stirred as Natasha started shaking her again. A small whine fell from her lips as she registered the pounding pain in her head but she forced her heavy eyes open.

Natasha was staring down at her, pure worry etched on her face. She was leaning over her body, knees pressing lightly into her right side. Magdalena pushed Natasha away as she sat up, groaning as her stomach wound panged.

"Are you okay?" Natasha said quickly.

Magdalena ignored her, checking the bindings around her wounds were still tight enough.

"Sokolov-" Natasha started.

"Does anybody copy?" Fury's voice came over their comms. Natasha raised an eyebrow at Magdalena to ask if she was up for whatever this was. Magdalena nodded once.

"This is Agent Romanoff and Sokolov. We copy," Natasha said.

"It's Barton. He took out our systems. He's headed for the detention level," Fury said.

"On it," Natasha said.

Magdalena and Natasha got to their feet, running off to find this Barton man.

Magdalena hid in the shadows of the detention level. She could see Barton marching down the catwalk, could see Natasha hiding behind some rubble caused from the explosion. Natasha nodded at her and Magdalena raised her hands.

Slowly, pieces of machinery started to rise in the air. Barton looked up with a frown, getting his bow ready. Natasha jumped out of her hiding spot and grabbed the bow, letting the arrow fire off somewhere else.

Barton quickly turned, a fight ensuing between the two of them.

"Get ready!" Natasha called, ducking as Barton tried to punch her in the face.

Magdalena moved some of the machinery in Barton's way as Natasha knocked him back. It didn't stop him, though, as he just jumped over it and started attacking Natasha again.

Magdalena groaned and climbed out from her hiding spot, running over to help physically.

"Call yourself a Widow and you can't even fight the dollar store version of Katniss Everdeen," Magdalena muttered to herself.

She kicked Barton from behind, him falling to his knees. Natasha grabbed him by the throat, punching him in the face. Magdalena's legs fell out from under her as Barton kicked his ankle out. She rolled backwards out of the wall, back slamming against the metal behind her.

She groaned, pulling her knife out of her belt as she got back to her feet. She turned, seeing he was holding a knife to Natasha's throat.

"I'll kill her," Barton said warningly.

Magdalena didn't think she'd care if he did, but she could hardly leave Natasha to die. She was cruel but she wasn't a complete monster.

"I'll kill you," Magdalena said, spinning the knife in her fingers.

She quickly looked over his shoulder and a piece of machinery raced towards them. Barton dropped the knife and ducked to avoid it hitting him in the head. Natasha dropped down, sliding away from him as he struggled to his knees.

Magdalena did a spin kick, knocking Barton's head into the heavy metal railings. The thud echoed around the room and Natasha nodded gratefully at Magdalena for helping her out.

Magdalena focused on the machinery floating above herself and broke a small piece off, letting the other part shatter behind them. She floated the smaller piece over Barton's head.

He stared confusedly at them.

"Natasha?" Clint mumbled, blinking up at her in surprise.

Magdalena looked at Natasha. Natasha nodded. Magdalena looked back at Barton and let the machinery fall onto his head.

He crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

"You're good," Natasha said, kneeling to make sure he still had a pulse.

Magdalena didn't answer.

"I know your moves," she continued. She got to her feet again. Her gaze fell to Magdalena. She looked away. "You're from the Red Room, aren't you?" Natasha said.

Magdalena turned and started walking away.

"Sokolov," Natasha called after her.

Magdalena left the room and jogged up the stairs to find somewhere she could patch herself up.

She did not need Natasha Romanoff creating any more problems for her.

"Sokolov?" Steve barged into the room Maria Hill had told him Magdalena was in. She looked up from where she was stitching her stomach up in the mirror.

"What?" she said.

"Are you okay?" Steve frowned.

"What do you want?" Magdalena rolled her eyes.

"You have a suit?" Steve said.

"Do I look like I'm silly enough to prance around in a leotard?" Magdalena snorted.

"I don't prance," Steve said slowly.

"Sure you don't, ice cube," Magdalena said.

She cut the remaining thread off and threw the needle into the trash bin. She stood up, pulling her bloody t-shirt back down over herself.

"We're going to fight Loki. Are you in or not?" Steve said quickly. Magdalena looked up at him.

She could leave but, while she hated to admit it, she was actually kind of enjoying her time with SHIELD. Sure, she had almost been murdered, but that always happened so she wasn't really phased. She kind of even liked a few of the people she was here with.

Except Natasha for poking in her business, but she was a good enough fighter to let that go for now.

And, here with SHIELD, she was safe from HYDRA and the Red Room. She didn't exactly want to be fighting a war that wasn't hers but she would to remain safe, to remain alive. She had to survive and the pain would make her stronger.

That was what her father had always said, drilled it into Magdalena's head as he had experimented on her, as he tormented the family with abuse, as he had handed Magdalena over to the Red Room in the first place. She had to survive and the pain would make her stronger.

"I'm in," Magdalena said.

"Good. Let's go," Steve said.

"Stark, we're heading north east," Natasha said into the radio as she, Magdalena, Steve and Clint flew inside the Quinjet into New York City.

"What, did you stop for drive-thru? Swing up Park, I'm gonna lay 'em out for you," Tony said into the radio.

"On it," Barton said, turning the joysticks to send them up Park.

Magdalena peered out of the window, mouth falling open as she saw what the hell Loki had done to the city.

"Holy shit," she muttered.

"Langu-" Steve started, but cut himself off when he saw it, too.

There was an enormous blue beam shooting up to a portal in the sky where monsters were flying out of. Monsters were circling the city, following Tony in his suit.

Natasha pressed the button to deploy the machine gun, getting her finger ready for when the monsters reached the intersection they were facing.

"Go," Barton nodded.

Natasha pressed the button and watched as the gun fired bullets at the monsters. Most of them were hit, but a lot continued to follow Tony around.

Barton looked out of the window to his left and nodded.

"Got the target," he said. Magdalena looked and saw Loki and Thor fighting on the Stark tower bridge.

"See them," Natasha agreed.

Barton turned the jet towards them and aimed the minigun at Loki. Loki aimed his scepter back at the jet and let off a blast of energy.

"Move it!" Steve yelled.

Barton and Natasha both reached to pull the jet up but the jet was already on fire.

"Open the ramp," Magdalena said quickly, hurrying towards the back doors.

"Why?" Natasha cried, slamming the button to open it anyway.

"So I can save our asses, dipshit," Magdalena rolled her eyes.

She crawled up the half opened ramp and wriggled through the gap, grabbing onto the outside of the plane as the wind blew her hair in her face. She climbed onto the top of the plane, putting her hands flat on the metal so it could absorb the full extent of her powers.

The hot fire from the wing was licking at her skin but Magdalena ignored the burns she was getting. She focused her entire being on getting this plane to the ground without killing anybody inside or out of it.

The plane started to slow down in it's descent and Magdalena looked around for where she could land it. She saw a large enough courtyard outside a large building and nodded.

That would work.

"Okay, Magdalena, let's do this," she muttered to herself.

She sent the plane downwards, but the landing was still not amazing. She managed it safely, though, and slid off the plane as it skidded to a stop outside of the building.

She landed on the floor and Magdalena nodded to herself.

"Hey!" Steve burst out of the back of the jet with Natasha and Barton on his heels. "That was amazing!" he cried.

"Thank you," Magdalena flashed him a brief smile. She turned to Natasha and Barton. "You have plan?" she said.

"We have to get back up there," Barton said.

"Come on," Natasha started running down the road. The other three followed in quick succession.

The city fell silent for a second as they reached a fourpoint intersection. A dark shadow started spreading over them as something roared horrifically. Magdalena looked up, feeling her mouth drop open.

"I did not sign up for this bullshit," she said.

A Chitauri space whale was flying out of the portal and over them. Hundreds of the Chitauri soldiers jumped off of the monster's body, scaling the sides of buildings or sliding down to the streets. Some started firing at innocent people, blowing them up where they stood.

"Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve said into comms.

"I'm seeing, still working on believing. Where's Banner? Has he shown up yet?" Tony said.

"Banner?" Steve said.

"Just keep me posted," Tony said.

The four of them ran to hide behind upturned taxis to make a plan.

"Guys," Magdalena nodded into the sky.

Loki was flying his army down the street. He pointed at things with his scepter as he passed, blowing them up and killing the people around them.

"Those people need assistance down there," Steve nodded down the side of the bridge. Magdalena looked over, seeing the soldiers had landed near people and were firing at them.

Natasha leaned over the taxi and shot a Chitauri soldier advancing on them.

"We got this. It's good. Go!" Natasha said.

"You think you can hold them off?" Steve asked Clint.

"Captain," Clint pulled a trigger on his bow, mechanically choosing an arrow. "It would be my genuine pleasure," he said.

Clint shot an arrow into the monster's head, giving Steve enough seconds to jump down off the bridge. There was an explosion from Clint's arrow and Magdalena got herself in position to throw cars at the soldiers coming towards them.

"There's a bus!" Clint said, motioning to a bus with people trapped just behind them.

Magdalena threw a car at wave of the soldiers, crushing them into the floor.

"Go. I got this," Magdalena said quickly.

"Okay," Clint said, slightly breathless in surprise.

Clint and Natasha ran off to empty the bus while Magdalena threw cars and broken building pieces at the advancing army.

"I am never coming on another mission with you idiots again," she told Natasha as Natasha dropped down beside her to help fight them off.

"Believe me," Natasha fired at two soldiers, "I don't blame you," Natasha said.