—chapter twelve:
the final countdown

"HEY JARVIS, PLAY
'THE FINAL COUNTDOWN'
  BY EUROPE."

The trip to Manhattan while inside the Quinjet was a bit of a long one. Jackson was seated, bouncing her leg up and down in a bout of anxiety. Steve, who was standing and holding onto a handle to keep him upright, noticed and sat down next to her as Clint and Natasha kept their eyes on the road ahead.

     "Nervous?" he asked. Jackson let out a huff of a laugh and smiled. "How could you tell? Was it the bouncing leg or my deadly silence?"

     "We can always turn around and put you back on the helicarrier if that's what you're worried about."

     "It's. . .it's not that. It's just. . ." Jackson sighed, trailing off, "I don't know if I'm gonna be of any use down there. I make one wrong move and everything goes sideways."

     "You're gonna be fine. I mean, you took on Loki by yourself. You almost got him to submit."

     "And taking on Loki got Coulson killed. See? One wrong move. Everything? Sideways." Jackson put her head in her hands before pushing her hair back. "I don't know what would've happened if Natasha hadn't gotten the scepter out of my hands. I probably could've hurt somebody."

     "Well, you didn't," Steve responded, smiling a little, "everyone's here and they're all intact."

     "You're right." Jackson nodded. "Gotta think of the positives."

     Steve held his fist out for her and she met his fist with hers in a bump. "You know how to fist bump?"

     "Hey, I may be old but I'm not that old, okay?"

     "Whatever you say, grandpa."

     Steve gave her a look and she only smiled in return before asking, "Hey, how much longer do you think it's gonna take to get us to Manhattan?"

    "About ten minutes," answered Clint. Jackson pouted. "But you said that ten minutes ago."

     "Fine. Ten more minutes."

    Jackson's only feasible response was to roll her eyes. Getting up, she looked through the windshield and out at the open sky, nothing but clouds blocking their view. Then there was a sudden wave of emotions crashing onto her as they got closer to the city, anguish, and all forms of fear pouring into her all at once.

     "Gah!" she gasped, falling to the floor of the Quinjet and grappling at her head. "Jackson!" Steve exclaimed, getting down next to her and sitting her up.

     "What's going on back there?" Natasha questioned. "I think she's feeling something," Steve answered, "Jackson, you gotta talk to us. What's happening?"

    Jackson slowly lifted her head and looked at Steve. "It's starting."

     Manhattan, New York finally came into view and something was kicking up a lot of the dust on the ground below.

     "Stark, we're on your three heading northeast," Natasha spoke into her earpiece. "Alright, buckle in, kids. This is gonna be rough."

     Jackson strapped herself in and Steve stood to hold onto the handle again. "When I said that I wanted to be in The Incredibles," Jackson mumbled, "this is not what I meant."

     "Guys, you got incoming," Tony heard Jackson say through her earpiece. There was a sharp turn and Jackson held onto the seat belt for dear life, then Clint and Natasha started shooting at the incoming Chitauri monsters.

    "Incoming already came in," Jackson responded, trying to loosen up the seat belt around her so she didn't feel so choked. After the monsters were cleared out, they began to circle the Stark tower now, most of its windows shattered broken from being blasted and thrown through. "Not to sound like a Debbie Downer but I don't think shooting at Loki is gonna work. The man's a god, he's practically impenetrable to some extent."

    "Have some faith, will you? I thought you were the optimist," Steve asked. There was a blast then, and Jackson could feel the Quinjet starting to fall. "Faith's starting to fall a little fast at the moment," she returned. Clint and Natasha tried their best to keep the jet at a steady level so they didn't wind up crash landing.

    The jet knocked into a pole and then landed into the ground, bringing up some of the concrete with it. As soon as the jet powered down and the door began to open, everyone was unbuckling and rushing to get out of their seats. Jackson was still in her spot, buckled in place. Steve turned around to look at her and asked, "You alright?"

    Drawing in a ragged breath, Jackson answered, "I'm fine. A little overwhelmed, but I'm alright."

    "You can stay here if you want but you can't stay here too long. You're gonna have to find cover soon." Steve nodded before heading out into the action, leaving Jackson alone.

    Leaning her head back against the wall, she closed her eyes. She drew in a breath, clenched her fists, and tried to calm her racing heart down. She laid a hand on the back of her neck and that's when she remembered the inking that was placed there out of spite, reminding her to be weary but to keep her brave face on. Stay afraid, but do it anyway.

    Unbuckling the seat belt, she rose from her seat and stepped out of the Quinjet and into the fire. She met up with the rest of them and nodded, confirming that she was ready to fight. "What's the game plan?"

    "We gotta get back up to the Stark tower to turn the Tesseract off," Steve instructed and then led the way. They all stopped when they saw the massive hole, tearing the sky apart and spitting out more of those wretched creatures. And then came out this giant metal skeleton of what looked like a medieval whale, with a spindly dorsal and heavy fins.

    "Jesus Christ," Jackson mumbled, scared straight but also in terrible awe of it all. It was a mindblowing thing to see and witness all at once, up close and personal. If she hadn't forced herself to come here and help locate the Tesseract, she might've been seeing this all from a small television screen. But seeing it for herself in real time was just different. As it passed by them, she had the urge to reach out and touch the thing but she reeled back and recoiled when she heard an echo of herself, One wrong move and everything goes sideways.

    More Chitauri began to spring from the gregarious monster, latching on to the sides of buildings, climbing up the walls, and attacking the windows, wreaking havoc on the city. "Stark, are you seeing this?" Steve asked, continuing to look at everything around him. "I'm seeing," Tony answered, "still working on believing. You guys got any update on Banner?"

     Steve asked, "Banner?" and a small shock went through Jackson at his name. She calmed herself straight away in order not to do anything stupid.

    "We gotta find cover," Jackson said instead, "we can't just stand around, they'll obliterate us."

    They all ducked and took cover behind a cab, and then tried to come up with a game plan. "We've got civilians trapped— " Clint started but then a rain fire of blasts started to come down as the army barraged through the city, setting things aflame and flipping cars over. It was anarchy.

    "They're fish in a barrel down there," Steve observed, then turning to Clint, Natasha, and Jackson. Natasha nodded. "Go. We've got this covered."

     "Think you can hold 'em off?"

     "Captain," Clint started, booting up his bow, "it'd be my genuine pleasure." He then stood up to fire his arrow and Natasha followed his lead, shooting at the monsters.

     "Are you okay with being here?" Steve asked Jackson. Jackson nodded. "While Nat and Clint are holding off the monsters, I can get the people trapped inside the bus and get them to safety."

     "Okay." Steve set off, jumping over the bridge and Jackson went over to the bus and began to pull the children out through the window and leading them out of the line of fire. Clint soon joined in, pulling the doors open and letting the people out. They both then ducked behind the cab again and Clint went back to shooting.

    "This is like Budapest all over again!" Natasha exclaimed over her gunfire. "You and I remember Budapest very differently," Clint smirked, continuing to shoot his arrows. Nothing but pure adrenaline was rushing through Jackson's veins at this point so, in the heat of the moment, she jumped over the cab and went to fight one of the monsters.

    Wondering if her nerve strikes would work, she applied the same pressure in the same spots to where she would normally paralyze people. It seemed to have worked because the monster ended up falling to the ground and releasing its weapon. Picking it up, she said, "Thank you" and began shooting at the others. She ran back to duck behind the cab and began shooting from there.

    "Where the hell have you been?" Clint asked, briefly turning to look at her. The eye contact was short as Jackson answered, "Kolkata."

    Clint nodded and they both returned to shooting at the enemy. "We can't stay back here," he spoke, "we gotta get in there. We're gonna run out of ammo soon and we need to reload."

    "Then let's get in there," Jackson smirked at the two of them and was the first to get a piece of the action.

    "Should I be worried?" Clint questioned, turning to Natasha.

    "She's been this way ever since I met her," Natasha answered, "it's just best to let her do her thing. She's not really the type to roll over."

    "Well, alright." Clint shrugged and the two of them soon went in to help.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
it's getting exciting !!