Chapter 31: Pain and Terror
"The more the panic grows, the more uplifting the image of a man who refuses to bow to terror"
-Ernst Junger

For a moment everything seemed to go dark, it was hard to move and it was hard to even breath.  Peter opened his eyes to nothing but darkness and rubble surrounding him, his mask almost felt like it was suffocating him as he tried to move and realized he was stuck. He began to panic and was quick to rip the ski-mask off his head. It seemed like he got lucky, none of the structure seemed to have crushed him or made any serious damage, but he still could feel that if he even tried to stand up the remaining stone around him would crumble down. He could feel his entire body shaking as he tried to make sense of what happened, it was all so fast. One second he was standing in the middle of the room with Ember, he heard her start to say something and the next thing he knows an explosion went off and the whole building seemed to collapse. At the thought of his fighting partner he tried to look around and try to find her.

"Ember" he croaked out, his voice coming out lower than he intended. He could feel himself beginning to panic as he got no response, "Ember!" He croaked louder but still nothing, as far as he could see the Ice Sorceress was nowhere around. At some point during the explosion it seemed like the two heroes got separated. Peter let put a cry as he moved more frantically looking for his friend only to feel more rubble coming above him. He had to stop moving or he could really get trapped in there, he tried to think but the thumping of his heart only seemed to get louder, his body seemed to shake more and more and he could just feel complete panic coursing through his body. He was alone and petrified, one wrong move and he could die, and as that thought sinked in he only seemed to grow more restless . "Hello? Hello! Please, hey. Hey, please. I'm down here. " He kept calling praying, hoping someone could come save him, he cried as loud as his vocal cords aloud him and yet no one seemed to hear his pleas "I'm down here. I'm stuck. I'm stuck. I can't move. I can't-"

His cries were stopped by the sound of pained scream. He turned his head a little to his right were the scream came from and found a what seemed like a wall a couple meters away from him, and thats when he caught a glimpse of a hand, crashed by a whole piece of structure.  On the other side of the wall was Ember Snow, waking up from her unconscious state only to feel unmeasurable pain on her right arm, and she could help but let out a scream and cries. The last thing she remembered was creating a blast of wind in an attempt to protect herself and Peter from the explosion bit something must have hit her because she blacked out and got separated from the teenage boy. However, Peter Parker was far from her mind as the only thing she could focus on was pain and panic, she could hardly breath and felt like she was about to die right there. Sobs racked her entire body, as she began to whimper, silently begging for someone to come help her.

"Ember!" Peter shouted as he recognized the screams of the blonde girl, but he got no response only more cries from the girl making him panic even more. "Ember!" He cried again louder this time hoping she could hear him.

He was about to give up when a voice called his name. "P-peter!" Ember croaked out, as the boy's screams reached her ears, trying to calm down. The boy let out a sigh of relief, she was alive and right know that seemed to do something to calm him down. "P-peter it h-hurts, " Ember sobbed as she tried to look around to find the boy but she couldn't see anything.  It was then that she turned to where the wall separating the two teenagers was, only to find her right arm completely trapped beneath the structure. Panic began to curse through her veins again as she attempted to move only to feel more pain, "Peter I can't, I c-can't move" she let out another cry making Peter's heart thump faster worried for his friend.

From his side Peter Parker could feel a panic attack coming, he could hear her struggling with something and he wanted to help but it seemed like no matter how hard he tried to push the column above his head and stand up it barely moved an inch. Maybe if he had his real suit he could've done something but right now he couldn't do anything. He felt useless , he couldn't move, they were supposed to save the day and now it see,ed like he couldn't even do anything to save himself and help Ember. It seemed like everyone was right he was no hero, he was a kid playing pretend and he couldn't help anyone.

"I can't" he cried, tears streaming down his face as he realized they were stuck. Before he could say anything else, Ember's cries seemed to die down by the sound of structure falling down. The sound coming from the blonde's side, Ember immediately looked up only to find the structure above her head beginning to fall, ready to crush her completely. For a moment she thought this was it she was about to die crushed by stone, but then instincts kicked in as she raised her left hand to create a blast of wind  in front of her, the wind acting as a shield  just before the structure crushed her skull.
It was taking a lot of energy from the blond being able to shield herself from the structure specially since she could still feel the pain on her other arm, and it seemed like it was getting harder and harder to breath.

"Peter, I need help" she called, it was getting harder to focus on her powers as the seconds ran by and the pain in her arm wasn't helping.

"I can't do it!" Peter shouted back, as he tried and failed once again to lift the structure.

"Peter, please I can't hold it much longer" Ember called out, feeling her eyelids dropping, her vision beginning to fill with black spots as she felt her energy leaving her body. Her left arm starting to drop, but she kept fighting it.

"I'm sorry, Em. I just can't do it" Peter panted as he felt like the world was crashing down on him, if something happened to Ember it would be on him, all because he was a pathetic excuse for a superhero.

"Of course you can! Peter you're one of the strongest people I know. You're a hero, you can do anything." Ember said, wanting nothing more but to reach for him and help him,  "I believe in you Peter Parker, but now its time for you to believe in yourself"

Peter knew she was right, he had to calm down, he tried to stop his panting and his shaking hands. He looked down at the puddle of water where his mask laid forgotten, Ember's words of encouragement  going through his mind followed by Tony Stark's voice 'If you're nothing without this suit, then you shouldn't have it.' The suit didn't make the hero he was strong without it, he could do it.
"Come on Spider-Man" he heard Ember call out to him again, she was right he had to believe im himself, not in his mask. His strength came from him, he was Spider-Man and he could do it. A suit didn't make him a hero.

With a newfound determination, Peter pressed his palms above his head a took a deep breath as he began to push with all the strength he had while muttering words of encouragement to himself. "Come on, Peter. Come on, Spider-Man"

He could fee the structure moving, it was working, he kept pushing until he was finally able to stand up holding the piece of metal above his head and with one last grunt throwing it away.

Ember felt a smile forming on her lips as she heard him from the other side, knowing he did it. "That's my Peter" she felt proud, but the smile began to slip off as she felt blood dripping down her nose and the sleep almost overpowering her. Just as she was about to pass out she felt the wight on her right arm being taken away, she didn't even had time to feel relived a as the shield above her head flickered into nothing and her eyes closed.

Peter Parker stood above her holding the structure that was about to hit her above his head, and throwing it away. He could feel his heart almost stop as he took in the unconscious girl beneath him. Her eyes closed and her face filled with dirt, blood trailing down her nose and on the side of her head. She looked pale, more than usual, and her blonde hair seemed to be darkened by the blood coming from her head.

"Hey, hey" Peter gasped as he kneeled down next to her, lifting her head onto his lap, quickly feeling for a pulse and letting out the biggest sigh of relief when he found one. He caressed her cheek, brushing some hair put of her face as he silently cried. She was alive but it was still scary, he silently begged her to open her eyes. He was about to pick her up and carry her out when she let out a pained gasp and opened her eyes. "Hey, hey, whats wrong?" He asked, stopping his movements before he hurt her even more.

"I knew you could do it" she whispered bringing her left hand to his cheek l a smile breaking into her face, just before another flash of pain made her wince.  "My arm, it hurts" she panted.

Peter turned to look at her right arm, in his worry he forgot about how it had been crushed before he managed to get the stone off. He winced at the sight of it but tried to hide it from her. It looked bad, it was bend in odd ways, definitely broken. Purple marks covering it going from right above her elbow to her wrist.

"How bad is it?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper clearly still tired.

"Just don't move it" Peter said, reaching down to her pockets in search for her phone, but Ember only frowned at his words not even paying attention to what he was doing.

"It should be healing" she muttered.

"What?" Peter asked , nit really listening to her as he finally found her phone. The screen was smashed, but he almost cried out of happiness as he saw it still worked.

"I've healed from fractures in seconds, it should've started healing the moment you threw the structure off" Ember kept mumbling things but his only thought was on getting her out of there an to a hospital. Thats when she felt it, the warmth on her shoulder, she was too focused on other things to even notice how much her shoulder hurt. She reached for it with her  left hand only to find it pooling with blood. "Peter, I'm bleeding" those words did snap Peter out off his focus on trying to dial a number on her phone.

"What?!" He panicked as he turned to see her left hand dripping in blood, there was a lot. That wasn't a good sign. He looked to her right shoulder and froze as he saw the amount of blood drenching her right side. He reached for her suit trying to get it out of the way to get a better look at her wound. His eyes widened as he noticed a whole on her shoulder a steel bar peeking through it. "Oh god" if he moved her he could kill her, he had no way on knowing if the bar had punctured something or if the moment he lifted her she would bleed even more, and based on her right side she was already bleeding a lot.

"What is it?" Ember asked, seeing him pale as he dialed on her phone. Seeing he was panicking and didn't answer he reached for her shoulder once again and felt the bar. "Is it from my back?"

"991 what's your emergency" came a voice from her phone, Ember eyes widening in panic as she realized what he was doing with her phone.

"I-i need an ambulance, m-my" before he could say anything else a blizzard threw the phone to the other side smashing it agains a wall. He turned to look at Ember who had her left hand raised at him like she was mad "What was that?!"

"I can't go to a hospital"  Ember answered, lowering her left hand and trying to push herself up, only for Peter to quickly stop her .

"Woah woah, you have a piece of metal coming out of your body!" He whispered shouted, stopping her from moving. She let out a small wince as she tried to fight him off, but it was no use, she was still weakened and he had super strength.

"Peter, the moment they get that thing out of my arm I will start healing" Ember explained giving him pleading eyes "how would I explain that"

"How can you be sure?" Peter opened and closed his mouth trying to make sense of her words. "Remember your burnt hand?! That took days to heal!" He quickly stood up and went to pick up her phone.

"That was different!" Ember rolled her eyes before blasting the phone further from him as he bent down to reach it, making him send her an angry look which she ignored. "Burns take longer, because I can't handle fire but this I can heal"

Peter didn't even turn to look at  her as he grabbed the phone before Ember was able to stop him. "Shit" he cursed under his breath as he tried to turn it on and nothing happened. It was officially broken. He began thinking how to get her out of there, "You need help, but I cant carry you out. I could go get help, but I don't want to leave you here." Peter began pacing trying to find a solution, paying no mind to the blonde trying to catch his attention. "I mean we could wait here, someone had to hear the explosion right? Someone has to come, oh my god but what if you die before they get he-"

"Peter Parker!" Ember shouted cutting him off "come here right this second!"

He had to admit that even in her pale almost sickly state she was still pretty scary and the glare she was giving him made him listen and rush to her side as fast as his legs allowed him.

"I need you to lift me up" she casually said, once he reaches her side.

"Are you crazy?!" He shouted, beginning to worry she also had a head injury "you'll bleed out!" He argued shaking his head about to start pacing again when her hand caught his arm and stopped him from going anywhere.

"I told you, I will heal as soon as you get the bar out" Ember explained, giving him a pity look as she saw him start to shake his head. She could tell he was still panicking he has dome nothing but panic since the explosion and she could tell he was terrified of hurting her. In an attempt to cal, him down she reached for his cheek once again and watched as he let out a sigh leaning onto her touch "Do you trust me?"

Peter let a sigh as he nodded in defeat, positioning his arms around her body  moving her an inch up, he began muttering apologies a he saw the pain in her eyes, tears forming on her beautiful green eyes almost making him stop. She whispered some reassuring word back before he gave a final pull and lofted her up in his arms, away from the metal bar that was sticking from the ground. Ember felt nothing but relief as she felt the pressure of her shoulder, while Peter kept looking at the wound expectantly waiting for it to start healing as he felt blood dripping from his arm. For a second he thought it wasnt working and that he just killed Ember Snow but then right before his eyes he saw the wound healing leaving nothing but blood stains that would eventually dry out.

"Told you" she whispered, leaning her head against the crook of his neck, his head leaning above hers as he felt his heartbeat  finally slowing  down. They both felt like they could breath again, he began climbing above what was left to the rubble and away from the building right where they had left the car. It was then that she remembered why they were even there in the first place, they had no time to rest. "Peter you have to go" He gave her a confused, glance as she began to let go of him, and standing next to him. "You need to go after Toomes"

Peter almost slapped himself, he was so worried about her that he forgot about the moving and the Vulture. "What about you?"

Ember smiled before lifting her right arm a little, it wasn't as bruised anymore but she still cradle it like it hurt "I'll catch up in a minute but you need to go, before its too late"

❅

[word count: 2996]
I don't even know what this is, sorry to anyone reading this lol

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