Backup.
For once in his life, Tommy Maximoff was caught off guard. @biokinetix
The hand came swinging out of nowhere, the doombot far larger than the others. He’d just kicked the last one safely away from him when he felt a gust of air, turning towards it only to be smacked face first with a palm as large as he was.
Flying through the air suddenly didn’t feel so slow, and the wall came too fast for him to brace for it. The momentum carried him right through to the next street, skidding to a stop on the asphalt amidst the battle rubble.
The swarms were too massive for anyone to stop, but another backup member of gods know which team stopped long enough to check for a pulse and radio for medical backup, giving a vague street location and a warning that the guy was bleeding from his face and his neck looked broken.
On the outskirts of the battlefield, a handful of other junior X-Men were waiting to fight as backup and support. They were far enough back that they were out of the thick of things, but close enough that they could get in there within five minutes if they were called in. When the signal for medical came in, Josh made it to Tommy in two.
The speedster had barely moved from his uncomfortable and unnatural sprawl on the ground when Josh dropped to his knees, snapping his fingers in front of unfocused eyes to try to get the other to respond. The fight was starting to shift away from their location, but it was still far too close for comfort and they couldn’t dawdle. “Tommy? Tommy, can you hear me? We need to move you, Tommy, can you understand?”
It didn’t take a doctor to see that Tommy was in bad shape. His eyes were halfway open but he didn’t react to the snapping, only interrupting Josh with a groan of pain as he tried to shift. His body was trying to heal itself, debris already healed into his palms and cheek, but even his body couldn’t heal away the trauma that had been done to his spine so easily. Normally, Josh would just fix him right there but given the fact that the building Tommy had just been thrown through was looking worryingly unstable and the giant bot was still close enough that they could feel every step. Josh needed to focus to fix severe damage and that wasn’t going to happen here.
Josh called over the comm for a stretcher so that they could get him to one of the nearby SHIELD trucks, making quick work of bracing Tommy’s neck with a cervical collar. No matter how many he’d been on, field missions always frayed on Josh’s nerves, but he’d gotten here with time to spare and his friend was going to be okay. He tried to talk to him again, but he couldn’t get a clear reaction from him before the stretcher came, so he just kept him from moving whenever he tried and busied himself with slowing the blood flow from his shattered nose. He gave him an easy smile as they arrived and moved it into position.
“We got you, Tommy, just don’t move dude. We don’t want you to fuck yourself up beyond repair, buddy.”
Regardless of their attempts to be gentle, the movement earned a scream of pain and a wet, choking cough as new blood ran down his throat. Between the pain and panic, Tommy was out cold before they picked him up.
Getting Tommy stabilized was the easy part. Stopping the bleeding, closing up the open wounds, realigning broken bones - those were things Josh could do with his eyes closed. It was done by time he was secured in the truck. Rebuilding Tommy’s nose and the chunks of flesh that had been bitten out, dealing with the internal bleeding under his deceptively untorn suit, and the delicate work of repairing his nervous system correctly was a lot more work.
Knowing that the truck could potentially move at any time to get out of the battle zone, Josh didn’t think twice before strapping Tommy down. They couldn’t afford to have him be jostled any more than he already had been. When he was sure that he wasn’t going anywhere, he settled in and pressed his hands to Tommy’s chest to get to the tedious work of stitching his friend back together.
It took a while for Josh to get everything stable and back where it was supposed to be, and by then he was lightheaded and unsteady on his feet. He’d never bothered to anesthetize him, it wasn’t necessary with him unconscious and he knew from experience that he’d burn it off anyway. Given his current state, Tommy would likely wake up on his own soon, now that all the painful work has been completed.
When consciousness came back to Tommy, it was sluggish and slow, the improved spinal support and blood and air flow helping him sort himself out. Everything was fine and dandy up until he registered his inability to move, and the warm pressure on his chest.
Josh was beginning to zone out from the effort when there was the sudden smell of nylon burning, Tommy’s body jerking violently under his touch and hands snapping to grip his forearm tightly. The other man half sat up, wild alarm and no recollection in his eyes as heat built up too quick under his palms. Josh tried to yank away but the grip was punishingly tight, and in his state, it only took a few seconds for the molecules to hit their breaking point of instability.
Tommy snapped out of his panic as a cloud of blood and gore spread from his hands, a crash sounding as Josh’s body fell back. The smell of burnt flesh filled the small metal room, the bloody mist coating him as the horror dawned on his face.
“Josh? Josh, oh my god--”
It took a moment for Josh’s brain to catch up with his body, a brief moment of no pain. He got as far as noting that Tommy had somehow fallen off the table and was coming toward him when the pain hit him like a train. Tommy was mumbling increasingly speedy apologies when Josh shrieked, instinctively rolling into the wall protectively. He couldn’t hear Tommy over the sound of his own panic. Tommy followed him, fumbling for something to press against the -- fuck, his entire arm was gone. He pushed his own returning panic to speak as clearly as he could manage - shaky, too loud, but clearly. “Josh, listen to me, Josh!”
He could hear Tommy trying to speak to him but he couldn’t open his eyes to look at the other. All his brain could register was the intense burning pain. He gasped for air, trying to respond but no words were coming out. When he eventually pushed out a sentence, all he could say was “Call McCoy.” Tommy nodded and fumbled for Josh’s remaining hand to force him to hold the packing to his shoulder before he moved away to find a communicator. It didn’t take long to get confirmation and direction for where to go, and he slammed his fist on the metal separating the back from the cab of the truck, wondering if there was even someone in there for all the screaming they hadn’t paid attention to. There was a response, though, and he relayed the instructions.
The truck shifted, and Tommy bolted back to support Josh as it began to move. He was back to rushing apologies he knew Josh wouldn’t be focusing on. He estimated they’d gone a few blocks when Josh suddenly shoved him away and the packing, digging his nails into the intact skin above the wound. There was no way he was going to be able to reattach the arm but he needed to stop the bleeding and try to close the stump. Tommy yelped as he fell back, almost bolting forward to keep Josh from hurting himself, but he stopped and let him do what he was doing. He was the healer, after all. If his trust was misplaced, he could always move in to tackle him. It was over in an instant, though, the bleeding stopping up and the skin beginning to stitch itself closed.
It wasn’t his first wound by far, not even the first amputation. He couldn’t stop the phantom pains of nerve endings being blown apart. He panted heavily, just on the verge of consciousness, and laid down to press his face into the metal floor. Gradually, his breathing eased as the panic of bleeding out subsided and the pain became a dull throb. He turned his head just enough to meet Tommy’s gaze with one eye and gave him a long forced exhale. “You okay?” He rasped.
Tommy relaxed as the wound was healed, his own adrenaline finally beginning to ebb away, leaving behind the beginnings of a migraine and the return of stabbing pain from his wounds. The question caught him entirely off guard and earned a startled laugh edging on hysterical.
“Me? Am I okay? What about you? You’re more injured than I am.”
Was he okay? Josh had to think about the answer. His whole body was on fire and he was on the floor missing an arm, but at the same time, the wound was closed and he was no longer at any risk of bleeding out.
“M’tired.”
Well, it was an answer. Tommy didn’t expect anything better out of him and inched closer, not quite reaching out for him. “I—can I touch you? We’re on our way to see Hank but I need to check your blood pressure and shit in the meantime.”
“You don’t know shit about blood pressure.” Josh huffed weakly at Tommy. It was supposed to be a joke but it came out flat. Whatever. Tommy could do what he wanted, right now a nap on the floor was looking pretty damn appealing.
As Josh embraced sleep, Tommy sighed and maneuvered his friend carefully to check and monitor his vitals. “You don’t know shit about what I’ve studied. We’re gonna be there soon, buddy.”
When they got there, Josh was whisked away and a nurse tried to accost Tommy where he’d been left behind. He could feel things that weren’t supposed to be there under his skin as he clenched his fists, and the bright lights were making his migraine almost too much to bear without giving up on consciousness, but he shook his head and curled up anyway.
He didn’t know what was going on on the battlefield or wherever McCoy had taken Josh, and the panic settled low in his gut.
Time passed without him realizing it, and when Billy finally realized he was gone and teleported in, he was still coated in blood and gore.
It was going to be a long night.