I braced myself for the oncoming storm, clenching my hands into fists. I couldn't feel anything in them anymore, the charred skin slick and bright red. Blood dripped from the cracks in the tissue down my knuckles and onto the dirty asphalt below. I am a fighter, like Loki said, an aquamancer. But I doubted myself.

An anxious glance at the others confirmed my fears, that we were all terrified. We all doubted that we could win. Natasha was the first to speak up, making sure we all saw the hundreds of aliens swarming out of the portal.

"Call it, Captain." Tony said, his voice firm and emotionless. I was sure he was just as freaked out as the rest of us.

"Alright," Steve started, "Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment." Then he began to give directions, where everyone belonged. Barton was to stand on a high rooftop, picking off those he could and letting us know who was going where. Tony handed me an earpiece, finally, to make sure I could stay in the loop. Tony's role was crowd control, herding strays back to the fight. Both having received orders, Tony grabbed Barton around the middle.

"Better clench up, Legolas." He said, lifting off to deliver the archer to an optimal position. I would have laughed if I wasn't so scared of everyone dying.

"Thor," Steve continued. The blond god met his eyes. So that's what his name was. "Try to bottleneck that portal, slow them down. You've got the lightning, light those bastards up." Thor nodded in compliance, swinging his hammer so fast that when he lifted his arm he flew into the sky.

"Nat, Jackie, you two stay with me, we keep the fighting on the ground." We both nodded in agreement. I felt better knowing I'd have two experts with me. Then lastly, he turned to the Hulk. The green beast turned to him sharply, teeth bared and brows furrowed with rage.

"Hulk, smash." That was all Steve had to say. The Hulk grinned, then launched himself at a cluster of aliens that were clinging to a building. He must have gone 200 feet! He ripped the creatures from the wall, letting several drop to their deaths before he leapt to a building across the street. I could watch this for hours, but there was work to do.

I overheard Tony and Barton discuss a group of the monsters on those hoverbikes tight on Tony's trail. Barton suggested a tight turn, smart. I imagine the friction required for slowing down enough to avoid momentum carrying you… Wait, damn these high school physics classes, making me smarter.

I broke out of my thoughts by several small groups on foot approaching from both sides of the street. We split up, taking on as many as we could. Romanoff with her incredible hand-to-hand skills and a blaster that she looted from a dead alien. Steve with his brute strength and sharp-edged shield. And then there was me, boiling them alive, freezing them solid, and generally grabbing their water filled bodies and launching them high enough in the sky that the fall would kill them. Whatever works.

After they all died, Romanoff leaned back against a car, panting as Steve and I approached to regroup. She met his eyes with concern.

"Captain, none of this is going to be worth a damn unless we can close that portal." She pointed out. I knew she was right. There were too many, and they seemed to have an infinite number of troops behind that wormhole. And Pendragon was nowhere to be found. I prayed silently that we would not find him amongst the dead when this was over, if we even survived.

"Yeah but what are we going to do? Guns can't touch it." Steve pointed out. I knew my magic wouldn't be any good here unless it was over a body of water, and even then, I'd need Pen's help to lift that much water.

"Maybe it's not about the guns." She said, and we all turned back to the portal. It was above the Stark Tower. Then it hit us, the Cube. The path was crawling with Chitauri, it would take to long on foot.

"If you want to get up there, you're going to need a ride." Steve added. I looked up to see a hoverbike fly overhead.

"How about one of those?" I asked. Romanoff wearily threw down the alien weapon she'd been holding and walked across the road, turning back to face us, "I could use a boost though." She added. Steve readied his shield.

"You sure about this?" He asked, concerned. She bent her knees in a way reminiscent of a runner's pose. She looked up and nodded.

"Yeah," She said, not wholly convinced, "It's gonna be fun." Then she ran at Steve, leaping off a car towards the shield. The combined maneuver between the both of them propelled her some 10 feet into the air, just in time to grab hold of a passing vehicle. Steve and I watch for a moment as she zipped off before a blast crumbled the concrete barrier by his shoulder.

The aliens that we'd spotted in the distance made it over to us. We braced ourselves for the skirmish.

Steve ran at them first, putting himself in the middle of the group and making himself the target. I threw my magic towards as many as I could, freezing exclusively. Then I pushed them, knocking their icy bodies to the ground where they shattered.

A red metallic blur blew past me, smashing several other frozen corpses and landing next to Steve. He lifted his shield in Tony's direction, who blasted it with his propulsion gadgets on his hands. I don't know what they're called, sue me. The resulting laser was reflected off the metal, incinerating any alien in its path. Then Tony was gone, leaving Steve and I only a couple more monsters to pick off. For once, I was starting to think we had a chance.

I magically ripped an alien that had been pinning Steve away from him, throwing it into the air for a death by concrete impact. I heard on the earpiece Barton calling us to a location, cornered civilians, something we couldn't stand for.

Although we were both exhausted, me more so than Steve, we took off running for the bank where the people were trapped. We made it just in time to see the aliens about to execute the civilians, fish in a bucket style with a bomb, before Steve whipped one with his shield. It also happened to be the one holding the explosive.

The other aliens on the balcony over the bank readied their guns, taking aim at him. Without his shield, he was defenseless, so he dove behind a table. I could hear the bomb still beeping. I threw my hand up and froze a couple of the offending beasts solid. While the other two were shock at the sudden frostiness of their comrades, I ran for the bomb.

"Jackie, no!" Steve shouted, before grappling with another alien who had tried to grab me from behind. While they struggled, I boiled the one who Steve had thrown the shield at.

"Everyone out!" I screamed, while the panicking Chitauri fell over the side, breaking his neck when he met the marble floor. The people started to try and file out, but it was too packed, and the doors were too small. Steve threw the alien he was fighting against the wall, there it landed on the bomb. It was just about to blow, beeping rapidly.

Steve grabbed his shield and me, covering us while we sprinted to a window. Then the bomb went off. I must have blacked out because the next thing I knew I was lying on top of Steve on a dented car outside the bank. My ears were ringing, and my head was hurting bad.

I rolled off of him and tried to stand, offering my hand to help him up. I only remembered the burn when he didn't accept my help. We leaned against the broken vehicle, catching our breath and waiting for our hearing to return as people filtered out of the building.

The military had arrived, and firefighters were directing people to safety. That's when I saw a familiar face come around the corner. Brilliant blue eyes widened in horror when they met mine, and he took off running for me at a sprint.

"Pendragon!" I screamed as he met me with a firm embrace, "It's you, oh gods I thought I lost you!"

"Shh," he said, hugging me tightly and stroking my hair, "It's alright, I've got you." I felt my eyes sting as the tears I've been bottling up for the entire battle broke loose.

"Pendragon," Steve addressed him, "Glad to see you here, we could use another set of hands." I pushed on Pen's shirt, leaving bloody and black charred handprints on his chest. That's when he noticed.

"Oh my god, Jackie," he gasped in shock, "Your hands…"

"Loki did it," I told him, shaking my head, "I'm fine, it doesn't hurt-"

"Doesn't hurt!?" He interrupted before Steve called our attention back to him. Suddenly the ground shook, and a sound that I can only now attribute to a collapsing building rang almost as loud as the roar of the whale monster that likely destroyed it.

"As you can probably tell, the city is being flattened, and we need your help," Steve said bluntly, "You have the same powers Jackie does, and if you've been hiding out here, you probably have more energy. You're obviously in better shape than she is, and she's still fighting."

"These aliens are filled with water," I added, "With your help, we can freeze, and boil, and toss about any enemy that comes our way." Pendragon's pale complexion got even more pale when he realized that I've been killing voluntarily since he'd left. "It's them, or us and every single man, woman, and child on this planet. We can't afford to be compassionate, Pen." I pleaded, and he nodded gravely.

"What can I do to help?"