To The End [Steve Rogers]

5 - Power and Despair

When Jessica finally reaches the equipment room, she finds it in complete disarray from both the explosion and the Hulk. She walks cautiously, stepping on large chunks of broken glass as she goes.

A giant hole in the wall leads straight through to the aircraft bay on the other side. Maybe if she didn't have the super soldier abilities coursing through her, she would be trembling at the sight, but instead she peeks through, spotting Thor and Hulk battling it out.

"Jess," a shallow voice calls from behind her.

Turning around, she sees Natasha sitting in the corner. She's shaking, but other than that, she seems okay.

"Get out of here, Nat," she whispers. "Someone's gotta go get Barton."

With hearing her friend's name, Natasha finally meets Jessica's eyes. She nods once, rising to her feet and disappears behind the pipes.

There's another roar, this one obviously much closer. Her entire body shakes with the walls around her, but she steps through the hole anyways.

"Thor!" She yells, catching both of their attention.

Upon seeing her, Thor loses his grip against the Hulk and is basically thrown at her feet.

"Lady Jess," he greets her before turning serious. "It is not safe here."

She holds back her sarcastic, 'no duh'. Hulk charges towards them and throws his hand out wildly as if to smack her off her feet, but Thor grabs his arm. With a single twist, he uses it as a booster to jump onto his back.

Thor presses the handle of his hammer into Hulk's throat, shouting, "Go! I have this under control."

She ignores him because frankly, he's incorrect. With Hulk struggling to rip him off his back, she's able to stand out of his eyesight and place a shaking hand below his ribcage.

Instead of the usual picture that appears when she touches someone, all she gets from Hulk is red. She blinks rapidly, and the longer she holds onto him, the easier it is to make it fade from view.

Jessica has never held onto someone this long, but she's also never encountered someone as powerful as the Hulk before. His body rocks as his strength is weakened, but her powers are not strong enough to completely subdue him in such a short amount of time.

It does, however, give her the advantage. When Hulk finally knocks Thor off of him, she becomes his next target. The small woman, almost an ant compared to him, looks up suddenly as he notices her.

Another mighty roar shakes the building. Jessica winces, though the sound doesn't hurt her. It's the furious look in his eyes that makes her shake.

"Dr. Banner," she tries, holding up a calming hand.

Thor is nowhere to be found, but she's not completely helpless. With his own power, Jessica catches Hulk's thrown fist with an equal amount of force. He retaliates by trying to kick her, but she twists her own leg to sweep him off his feet.

Thor emerges from behind a shredded jet. He summons his hammer back into his hand and comes to stand beside her, "Oh, this is going to be fun."

Hulk gets up and charges them again. In his current state, there's no way to make sense of how he's weaker than her, but the thought only makes him angrier. She dodges his punches and touches him whenever she can to fuel the effects. Thor knocks him in the head with his hammer but is still caught by his arm in the process and thrown into a nearby wall.

There's another roar as Hulk attempts to claim his victory over the god. Before Jessica can counter him, bullets rain on them from outside.

Hulk turns, looking out the window at the fighter jet that is targeting them. Jessica sees it too, holding up her once injured arm to shield her eyes. While she does feel the bullets bouncing off of her, she really isn't too bothered by them. Hulk, on the other hand, is clearly annoyed by the intrusion. He leaps through the window and soars across the sky to attack the jet.