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The mission was simple. The X-Men are on their way to help with the relief efforts after a terrorist attack on another major city. Recently they’ve been doing everything they can just for the privilege of being allowed to live in peace. Peter’s never been one to back down, or whine about what he’s told to do, but he’s also been one of the two X-Men who have gone on every mission in the last week. Which surprisingly came up to nine in total.
Him and Raven were supposed to have the day off, but this called for all hands on deck. Charles is even sitting across from Peter. As apprehensive as they all were about him coming to the site of a disaster as large as this one, he insisted that his power would be helpful. More specifically he’s planning on keeping trapped victims calm while the others work to get them free. However, they look like a pretty poor lot.
Raven is falling asleep in her chair, her head resting on Charles’ shoulder though she protested him coming the most. Scott and Jean are holding hands and silently staring at each other, weirdos. Storm is fidgeting almost as much as Peter is, and Hank is in the cockpit. The only one not there is Kurt, and he’s stuck at home with a broken wrist.
Peter finds himself wringing his fingers, a habit that his doctor was convinced was going to damage his hands. He barely takes notice of it, knowing that he’s too tired and jittery to actually make himself stop for more than a few seconds. Luckily it’s not too long before they land at the scene of the attack. At least as close as they can with how much wreckage and debris there is. Raven stands up, then turns to Charles.
“Alright, tell us the plan.”
“I’m going to stay here, and extend my reach to whomever needs it. Just let me know through the comms. We’re going to be coordinating with the first responders that are already on the scene. We don’t have much information on what happened so stay on your toes. Now, Jean and Scott, you’re going to head to meet the firefighters. Scott, you can’t try to activate your powers for any reason. This place is too unstable for any amount of error, and Jean, you can be a great help in getting people out.
Peter and Hank, I want you two to start checking and clearing areas. Peter is fast enough to get through areas and find out if there are victims trapped, and Hank will be a good backup for you. Raven, I want you to stay with me. You’re half asleep so you can’t be of much help in such a dangerous area, and I need someone there that can handle it if anything happens. Storm, your powers are also a bit too dangerous so I want you to hang back until we have another task for you that will be safe for you to work on. Any questions?”
No one says anything so Charles nods.
“Let’s get going then.”
Raven pushes Charles out, and they make sure to head straight to the relief center that’s been set up that’s just far enough away from them to make sure that the plane didn’t bother them. Charles immediately starts talking to them, but Peter can’t seem to listen. It’s only a few minutes before he calls for all of their attention again to give them their areas that they’re supposed to cover. Hank is quick to grab Peter’s arm to let them know that he’s ready to go. Peter grins.
“Ok, I’ll take you to the start of our area, then I’ll start looking alone. If I find someone, I’ll bring you there,” Peter suggests, and Hank nods.
“Yeah, that works.”
They continue on like that for a while with Peter safely locating over a dozen victims for the first responders to get out, and rescuing just as many without the help of the first responders in half an hour.
That’s when Peter looks at Hank and says, “Ok, so it’s not safe for me to help transport these people with the first responders. So I’m going ahead. Are you coming, or do you want to help them, then we can meet back up?”
“They probably need my help more than you do, so I’ll go with them. I’ll reach you over the comms once I’m ready for you to pick me up.”
Peter nods. After all, whatever helps the most people is what they’re going to do. Peter sits down on one of the larger pieces of debris, letting himself breathe for a minute while Hank and the first responders work on getting the people back to the first aid station. Now that he’s slowed down a little, he can feel how tired he is. His bones ache, and his muscles are really sore. It takes a few minutes before he can force himself to his feet.
He starts running again, heading to the next section for him to check. He only makes it about half way there before his foot snags on a rock, and he tumbles to the ground. He can hear something in his chest crack when he lands.
“Shit.”
He sits up quickly, pain flaring around his lower ribs. It doesn’t feel that bad though.
“Quicksilver, are you alright?” Charles asks through the comms, and that’s when Peter realizes that his comm was still actively on when he fell.
Before he can answer, the ground starts to tremble.
“What is that?” he asks, placing his hand down on the ground with his fingers splayed out. The ground continues to tremble, so Peter climbs to his feet. “There’s something happening in the East quarter of the disaster zone. The ground is trembling, and I’m not-”
He’s cut off by a high whining noise. He flinches and covers his ears, but then he sees someone in the distance. He runs towards them, thinking that it was going to be someone in trouble, or one of the first responders that he should get out of there before the ground shaking turned into something else. However, he stops dead in his tracks when he sees a man dressed in what looks like a trash bag. The shaking is worse, and he has to rebalance not to fall. Before he can ask the man what he’s doing, the dirt and debris actually starts to split apart, and Peter is thrown to the ground. His vision goes black as soon as he hits the ground.
He wakes up to someone’s voice calling his name. It’s surprisingly dark, and it takes him a minute to remember where he is. For just a minute he was convinced that he woke up in the school far too early for the sun to have come up. Once he does realize where he is, that’s when he also realizes that the voice calling his name is in his head.
Charles?
Oh, thank God you woke up. I was starting to get really worried. There was some kind of earthquake. We think it was caused by a mutant because of how limited the affected area was. Do you know where you are?
Peter looks around, but he can’t see anything. It’s just really dark.
No, I don’t know. I can’t even remember where I was when the earthquake happened, but I was definitely in the affected area.
Ok, are you hurt?
Peter takes stock of his body before responding.
No, I think I’m good. I can’t really move, but I’m not in any pain or anything. I think the worst I have is a concussion. Something feels off, but not bad. I just can’t seem to put my finger on what it is.
Well, you seem coherent so just stay alert and wait for us to find you.
Will do boss.
He can feel when Charles ends their connection. It’s oddly quiet aside from something dripping nearby. He finds himself idly wondering what could possibly be dripping since there was no water source nearby when he fell. It takes a while of sitting in the dark alone for him to realize what feels so wrong. He’s still, completely still, and doesn’t even feel fidgety. Even after working almost nonstop, and not getting more than a few hours of sleep for a whole week, he was still fidgeting. Most of the time he can’t stop moving, but now he doesn’t even feel the need to.
It sets off alarm bells in his head, but he can’t seem to bring himself to care. That feels like another red flag, but he lets both go. His head starts to feel floaty after a while, and he’s pretty sure that he’s drifting in and out of consciousness. He doesn’t feel Charles’ voice in his head, so he decides that he can’t have been trapped for a long time.
It feels like a long time, and his entire body is starting to feel like pins and needles are sticking every inch of his skin, and with it more pain follows. His left leg starts to feel like it’s on fire, and his hip feels completely wrong. The feeling is mostly gone from his right leg, and his right wrist and hand is also burning. The feeling in his fingers on that hand haven’t fully come back, and he can’t seem to curl them, but most of the feeling in his body is back even if it has brought a lot of pain. He curls his left fingers just to prove to himself that he can. The pins and needles light back up.
Maybe I have been here longer than I thought. I think my whole body might be asleep. I still can’t move much even though I can feel everything again. I definitely lied when I said that I wasn’t injured. So many things hurt now.
He lets himself drift off again, because it’s easier than being awake though somewhere in the back of his mind, he does think that it might not be safe to sleep. He doesn’t listen to that tiny voice of reason, and goes back to sleep. When he wakes up the next time, someone is calling his name again except this time it’s not in his head. It’s the first time that he’s heard someone’s voice in God only knows how long, and it sounds odd. Like really far away and kind of tinny. He opens his eyes and it’s ridiculously bright. He has to close them immediately.
“Ow,” he whispers, his voice almost completely gone.
Then he passes out again. He wakes up to something beeping. It sounds irregular and quiet, which somehow makes it even more annoying. He can feel someone’s hand in his hair this time, and he squints his eyes enough to see who it is. It takes a few seconds for him to realize exactly what’s happening.
He’s in the jet, the person whose hand is in his hair is Raven, and her mouth is moving. She’s looking right at him, but he can’t hear what she’s saying. As he starts coming back into his own body, he can feel how much everything hurts. He’s pretty sure he’s dying in that moment. Then he hears Charles’ voice in his head even though he can’t see him anywhere.
Shh, it’s going to be alright. We’re going home right now, and we’re going to get you treated. You’re alright, just go back to sleep.
Even though he doesn’t pass out for a while, he does have a sense of calm covering him. He can’t feel most of his injuries, and he’s teetering on the brink of consciousness for a while before slipping under again.
The next time he wakes up isn’t so pleasant. He wakes up to liquid fire rushing through his legs, and his hand is throbbing. He’s definitely crying, but he still can’t hear any of the sounds that he’s making though he can feel them in his chest. The lights above him are bright, and Hank is standing over him, talking quickly. His vision blurs, and he feels his muscles start to spasm. Someone grabs his head, then everything goes black again.
The hand is back in his hair when he wakes up again. Though this time he can hear muffled conversation. It sounds like he’s underwater. Peter pulls his heavy eyes open. The speaking immediately stops. He turns his head and he can see Raven and Charles. Raven is still petting his hair though now they’re both looking at him.
“Hey, how are you feeling?” Raven asks though he has to read her lips to catch most of it.
“Why are you whispering?”
Raven and Charles glance at each other with a frown. Then Charles speaks directly into his head.
We’re not whispering, Peter. Your ears were damaged.
What happened?
You were trapped under the rubble for almost fifty hours. After I lost contact with you, we had no way of knowing where you were. There was such a large affected area, and we had a hard time finding you. I think you were far more hurt than you thought.
How bad was it?
Your left leg was badly broken as was your right hand. Your hearing was also damaged, and you have a pretty bad concussion. The issue comes in with your accelerated healing.
Peter blinks, trying to put the pieces together in his head as Charles pauses.
Your leg and hand started trying to heal without being properly set. We had to rebreak your leg to set it properly, but that is going to heal fine. Your hand was worse off. It was practically crushed and so it didn’t really matter what we did to try to set it properly, we think there’s going to be permanent damage.
Oh, my hearing?
We’re not sure about that one since your accelerated healing is going to play into it, but we’re hopeful.
But I’ll be able to walk and run fine, right?
Yes, we managed the injuries in your leg, and that will make a full recovery.
Peter sighs, turning his head into Raven’s hand. A single tear slips down his face as he closes his eyes, and lets himself drift off again.