Psych the Avengers Out

Overboard

Jay hits the ground face first in a pile of confused limbs. Her nose cracks and she feels blood begin to pour down her face as a glassy pain erupts in her head. Her left arm shifts unnaturally underneath her and her wrist bends wrong, snapping against the tiled floor with a sharp crack. She can't draw a big enough breath to even scream in pain under the mass of people on top of her. A hand is curled protectively around her upper arm and someone is hauling her backwards, onto her feet and pushing her along, trying to get her moving but Jay is too disoriented from the pain and the fall and the watering of her eyes in response to the bleeding nose.

"Jay, come on!" Natasha is yelling. Natasha is pulling her, out of the line of fire as the Warren Biochem thugs open fire in the room and a crash of splintering wood is heard next to the distinct sound of a repulsor blast from the Iron Man suit. Clint is neck to her, bow drawn taunt with an arrow nocked and pointed behind them at the melee of noise. Almost drowsily, Jay stumbles forward and Natasha yanks viciously on her arm to pull her out of the conference room and down the hall.

"We need to get her to the platform, if possible!" Clint yells over the noise and Natasha veers, jerking Jay around a corner. The reality of the situation is starting to settle back in and Jay picks up the pace, running behind Natasha, Clint covering their backs. A crash and a roar behind them tell her that the Hulk is awake and bullets ping after them as they sprint to the aircraft platform. Clint shoves a knife into her hand and she grasps the handle in her good hand. Her other wrist is broken, flopping painfully up and down as they run and she squeezes back the water from her eyes so she can see better. The chase is what she is used to, where she excels and adrenaline swims through her blood like a familiar song.

They burst out onto the deck, the sunlight momentarily blinding her and she raises her bad wrist over her eyes to shield them. They are watering from the pain, the brightness and the close proximity of her nose injury. The movement costs her. She hears the discharge of the gun after the bullets imbed themselves into her leg. An uncontrolled shriek of agony rips out of her and her leg gives way. A shadow of a person crosses her view and Clint stands protectively over her as Natasha returns fire. A mewling sound, like a baby kitten reaches her ears, harsh and fluid-filled. It takes her moments to realize that the sound is coming from her own lips and that she's going into shock. The echo of one last bullet shatters the bright sky and them someone is picking her up underneath her knees and her shoulders and running with her across the deck. She feels like a floppy rag doll, stitches coming out and head lolling about without any direction.

Clint sets her down and rips the outer layer of her jeans from her upper leg, his biceps rippling with the effort. He curses when he counts four bullets lodged in her skin. He grabs Jay's face, rough hands moving the skin on her cheeks as he shakes her head and tries to get a reaction.   "Hey, kid, c'mon," he shouts and Jay's eyes try in vain to focus on him but she's losing consciousness and blood and Natasha can't hold this position much longer.

"We need to move," Natasha says crisply as she fires, taking out two men. Clint quickly wraps a length of bandage around Jay's thigh as tightly as he can without cutting off her circulation to slow down the bleeding. Some gurgling, pain-filled cry slips past her lips. She looks like hell with a bashed in nose, a broken wrist and four bullets imbedded in her leg. He mumbles, "sorry, kid," and picks her up. Her breath hitches and her eyes glaze over in pain.

They run across the deck of the Helicarrier, headed for the Quinjet parked between two helicopters. Clint briefly thinks about how Fury didn't want Jay to know she was on the Helicarrier but now that it's blatantly obvious to Jay as they sprint across the deck. But, he reasons, it's not as if she's coherent right now anyways. Natasha is ahead of him, climbing into the jet to prep the engines where it's parked on the edge of the flight deck. Bullets ping into the jet but then Nat gets the weapons systems online and the Black Widow lets the Warren Biochem thugs have it.