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New York wasn't particularly known for its massive earthquakes, not for as long as Peter had lived anyway, and to be fair, it still wasn't. It just so happened though, that this wasn't any normal earthquake.
Nope.
Today the ground wasn't shaking because of any moving tectonic plates. It wasn't shaking in the normal, natural, way that it did on a pretty much weekly basis somewhere in the world.
Today it was shaking because of the massive robot which was running rampant through the streets. It was like some kind of movie plot, and while Peter was physically down on the streets in his Spiderman suit, helping heard everyone out of the robots path, mentally he was cured up in the corner of an empty room, rocking in place as he tried to figure out when his life became the plot of some awful knock-off Godzilla movie.
"Peter! Cling on!" Tony yelled from his vantage point in the sky. Peter knew what it meant, the robot was taking another step and unless Peter wanted to find himself sprawled across the floor, he needed to send a web out and cling on.
Rapid fire webs caught as many people as Peter could reach, only sending a web for himself to cling onto moments before the shockwaves rumbled through the ground, knocking a few more buildings down and sending debris flying in every direction. Peter would have to work hard to get everyone freed from that before the robots next step.
He could only hope he managed it.
"You're clear Underoos," Tony yelled what just have been only a few moments later, the sound of his repulsors filling the now almost silent streets as he flew towards the robot, trying to help the rest of the Avengers take it down and minimise damage, while Peter, Wanda, Sam, Rohdey and Scott were on evacuation duty.
It really said a lot about how big of a deal this robot was. The Avengers had called every friend they had that could suit up and help with the evacuation, and once everyone was out the way, the fight.
Peter had no idea where it had come from. Unlike last time it hadn't been created by Tony and Bruce, and although Peter assumed that the Avengers must know, they had been in too much of a hurry to stop and explain what it was, where it had come from, or anything at all really. Tony had just called him, told him he needed to help evacuation, and then disappeared off to continue fighting.
"This way," Peter yelled, waving the disoriented and scared civilians towards the safe house they had set up. "Just keep going." Once he was certain they would be able to continue in the correct general direction, Peter turned to the rubble. He wasn't certain that there was anyone in them, but Karen could detect head signatures of something, and Peter wasn't just going to leave just because he didn't know exactly what it was. There was something warm, probably something living, and Peter was there to help.
"Hello?" he called, hoping that he would get an answer, but overall unsurprised when he didn't. "I'm coming to get you out!" he continued saying. It made him feel better, and he had the feeling that if there really was someone trapped and they just couldn't respond, it would make them feel better too. "Just stay still, I'm coming."
The debri was heavy, cumbersome stuff which dug into his hands and tried to drag him down before he could even begin to lift it. Some of the pieces were bigger than he was, and he had to leave them, and some of the other pieces were essential to the entire structure of the pile, and pulling them out would squish anyone trapped inside. It was a high stakes game of Jenga, and Peter had never enjoyed Jenga.
He advanced slowly, piece by piece, slowly revealing the hollow which lay in the centre of the pile, only held up by a single beam which must have fallen off a building, and luckily landed point up, just tall enough to keep the slab of concrete above it off the ground.
No one seemed hurt, he couldn't see any blood anyway, but he could see two small children and what appeared to be - in the dim of the hollow - their pet dog. Peter didn't know where their parents were, but he wasted no time in pulling them out, checking them for injuries, and handing them off to the next civilian who looked like they could help. Peter would have loved to take them to safety himself, but there were at least five more piles of rubble which he needed to check, and dig through if needed.
"Hey kid," Tony said, landing with a clunk next to Peter after his round of attacks on the robot had apparently ended. Peter spared him a quick thumbs up, already turning to an old building which looked abandoned, but had at least one heat signature in it which Peter needed to check out before he could move on. The piles had all been empty, which was a relief, but the job wasn't done until everyone was safe. "How’s the evacuation going?”
“Good,” Peter replied, pulling all the concentration he normally reserved for school exams and Lego building into his task right now, his task of saving anyone he could. He was in charge of this stretch, and he would die before he let not paying attention cost a life.
"Need any help?"
"Don't you need to be helping fight Mr Robot over there?" Peter asked, watching as Karen scanned the surrounding area to make sure there was only the abandoned- or not so abandoned right now - building left.
"It could predict my movements," Tony shrugged, like it was no big deal, "Probably because of my suit. I couldn't fight it, so here I am."
Peter nodded in understanding, "come on then." He made a come here motion with his hand, walking into the building and watching out the corner of his eye as Tony followed. They made quick work of clearing it out the small family who'd been hiding there quickly leaving to follow their directions to the safe house. Peter and Tony were about to leave themselves, when it happened.
The ground shook, another step having been taken by the robot, and the wall which had been the only entrance started to fall, crumbling to pieces and trapping Peter and Tony inside the building.
"Oh no," Peter whispered in the empty quietness when the dust settled. The walls were thick, no one would hear if they yelled, and - Peter pulled out his phone to check - no signal. The cell tower must have fallen, or at least be being blocked in some way, so they couldn't call for help either.
"Well, not exactly how I saw my evening going," Tony muttered as he sat himself down on the floor, "but I've been through worse."
Peter had to agree with that. It was fine. They had both been through worse. This wasn't the first time that Peter had been trapped in a building… with no way to call for help… stuck there… crushed… just waiting to spend-
"Peter! Kid it's okay, just breathe," Tony's voice sounded panicked as his hands pressed against Peter's chest, trying to coax him into taking deeper breaths, even though the panic filling his mind is too much for him to even be worrying about breathing.
"It's okay, we can get out, you just need to calm down a bit and then we can work together to move some rubble to get out. It's okay."
It took another five minutes of gentle words and reassurances before Peter's breaths started evening out, every muscle in his body exhausted. He just wanted to curl up and go to sleep, but he couldn't right then, not while they still needed to get out.
"You ready to just get out of here?" Tony asked, watching in badly veiled concern as Peter staggered to his feet and slowly walked towards the fallen wall, picking up a piece of rock and moving it out the way.
"I just want to go home," Peter sighed, grabbing another, slightly larger, rock, "so let's do this." Tony nodded, walking forwards to start moving pieces of rubble, very carefully blasting some of the larger pieces to bits.
They could do it. It might take a while, but they would get out.