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Oliver and Kaz hadn’t found Mr. Terror. She’s in the wind, and her hideout they had been tracking her to had been blown to bits by the time they got there. The flight back to Mighty Med lasted maybe fifteen minutes, meaning their entire trip took an hour and a half max.
Which is why when they touched down outside of Mighty Med it was even more of a surprise to see nothing but a half-crumbled building. The Mighty Med logo was proudly on display at the top of it all, and there were superheroes, both dead and alive, strewn about. Some were struggling under debris, some were standing, and some were helping others out of it all.
Some weren’t moving at all.
The one that stood out to them most was Skylar, who was digging through the rubble with the most panic they’d ever seen on her. She’d been at school, trying to live a normie life since she didn’t have much hope of ever getting her powers back.
Oliver and Kaz ran over to her, checking on anybody they passed– checking pulses, asking if people were okay, Oliver helped pull the rubble off a couple people too. When they got to Skylar they realized why she was digging through that one spot. Horace’s name tag was sticking out from under a massive piece of debris that… probably killed him.
“Skylar, what happened?!”
“I don't know!” she’s crying, and it’s one of the first times they’ve ever seen her cry, “I came back from school in time to see the entire hospital collapse!”
They take a panicked, gasping breath, and step back when Oliver gestures, “I got it, you’re gonna hurt yourself.”
They watched him lift the rubble with an ease he shouldn’t be capable of. Underneath was the half caved in face of Horace Diaz.
The broken, half-scream, half-sob that was wrenched out of Skylar was anything but human. It was followed by barely a second of silence before she fell to her knees, one hand covering her face and the other reaching for Horace. She’s sobbing, guttural, terrifying noises mixed with frantic gasps for air like a drowning victim suddenly coming back to life.
Oliver managed to drop the rock behind them, and stay around for a few seconds before he cleared his throat and muttered, “I’m gonna go help the others,” and ran from the scene, like he was gonna throw up if he stayed any longer.
(He might’ve, the sight was one more gruesome than they’d ever seen. His jaw was shoved back into his throat, blood and gore painting the entire scene and the rocks around him red. The right half of his skull was completely collapsed, bits and pieces of brain scattered to the right)
Kaz might throw up, but he can’t… move.
While Skylar’s reaction was visceral, deep, pained screaming, Kaz feels like he’s been disconnected.
Like his emotions shut off at the sight of a father figure just… being gone.
Again.
(He’ll never hear Horace again. Never get scolded for messing up a procedure by him again, and never help him figure out parenting because he’s always wanted kids of his own and they were all learning how to have/be a dad together and he’ll never have that again–)
It? Hurts?
He’s not sure.
Everything feels far away, he feels lost. Like someone kicked him into space and he’s just aimlessly floating. His thoughts have screeched to a stop for what might be the first time in his life.
He’s confused.
Why did this happen?
He thinks someone might be touching him, but he doesn’t think he can focus on the real world when Horace’s body is right in front of him covered in blood and–
Skylar stopped screaming at some point, and it’s just enough to have him refocus on the world in worry. Enough to just barely process that she’s standing in front of him, pink snot and yellow tears smeared on her face. Her too-big, unnaturally pink eyes are bloodshot, but her lips are moving.
What’s she saying?
He’s scared now, because he can’t understand her.
He knows she’s speaking English but he can’t understand her, what’s going on? Why does it hurt? Horace is dead.
“Kaz!”
He thinks he’s fallen. There’s a sharp pain in his leg, he must’ve hit a corner when he landed.
(When did he fall?)
“Oliver!” Skylar screams, unable to grab Kaz before he goes down to his knees. His pant leg rips loudly when it and his leg catches on the corner of a piece of the wall. He’s not responding, but he’s crying. Face entirely blank, hands twitching. There were sparks around him, and that’s what brought Skylar out of her own misery. Something sparked and it popped against her skin and dragged her back to see Kaz.
Xe tried to get his attention, to no avail. He moved enough to look at her at one point, and for half a second his brows drew together in confusion before his glazed eyes dragged back to Horace’s body (his body, his body). Then he was falling, and he’s still not responding.
Oliver is by her side in an instant, climbing over a still half-intact wall to get to her from where he was unburying the body of Solar Flare, “What’s wrong?”
“He’s not responding!” xe shouts, and xe’s crying again, eyes burning in reaction to the kyiers pouring out of them. Xe’s gasping around xer tears, one hand on Kaz’s and the other covering her gasping mouth.
“Kaz?” Oliver crouches down, grabbing Kaz’s other hand and pretending he doesn’t see the pattern Skylar is squeezing into Kaz’s other hand, the one she said helped calm down Calderrans in times of need, “Kaz, can you hear me?”
Nothing.
Oliver knows their powers are still out of whack because they’re suddenly filled with a cold panic that radiates out from their chest. Ice crackles as it forms across their clothes, assisted by the mid-march chill. They try to keep it from their hands, but when they feel cold water drip off their hands they’re reminded that Kaz probably won’t even notice it.
(He’s not noticing much of anything right now, which is freaking Oliver out because Kaz is always a creature of sound and movement, always doing something but now he’s just sitting there staring blankly at the corpse behind them and fuck Horace is dead dead DEAD–)
Kaz is cold.
His hand is, at least. It’s a weird feeling amongst the not-feeling he’s experiencing. It makes it feel like he’s ever so slightly less lost in space. Like he’s still out in space but he can see the spaceship he’s supposed to be on.
A moment later, he feels cold and wet, and that’s enough to make him rip his hand away from whatever is wet and shake it out, “Gross!” he squawks, wiping the water(?) off onto his dirty jeans, “What was that?!”
“Kaz!” Skylar sounds relieved, and he’s engulfed in a three-person hug a second later, “You’re back!”
“What? Where’d I go?”
(He’s back on his spaceship now, and his spaceship is emotional repression and pretending like there isn’t a body in front of him)
“You weren’t responding to anything,” Oliver sounds quiet, the kind of quiet he only gets when they’re having Sad Boy Hours at sleepovers.
“Sorry, man, I don’t know what happened,” he lets out an awkward laugh, eyes firmly trained on the weird vaguely heart-shaped rock that’s just beside Skylar’s too-big shoes, because he knows if he sees it he’s going to fall out of the window he’s still leaning from.
Oliver lets go a few minutes later, but Skylar keeps him buried in her arms. They’re shaking now, and he’s pretty sure they’ve started crying again, “I’m going back to helping people out of the wreckage, okay? If you need me just yell.”
He feels a spark of anger, because why isn’t Oliver crying? Why isn’t he screaming, why isn’t he pissed?! Why does he seem perfectly fine when Horace is dead!
“What the hell, man?!” He’s saying it before he can stop himself, shoving Skylar off and standing to his feet (Why does his leg hurt? Is he bleeding?) Oliver doesn’t get a chance to say anything, furrowing his brows and opening his mouth to speak only for Kaz to cut him off.
“How are you not pissed?!” he gestures over where to knows the body is and pretends he’s just gesturing at the rubble, “He’s dead, they’re all dead, Oliver, and you’re acting like everything is fucking fine!”
“Kaz–,”
“No, because this is bullshit! We should be mourning and you don’t seem like you care at all!”
“Kaz, please-,”
“Why aren’t you angry?!”
“Because I can’t be, Kaz!” Oliver raises his voice to match his best friends, “Because I need to help people out of the remains of our only fucking safe place, Kaz! Because if I feel a single thing right now, I’m going to have a meltdown and I can’t do that right now!” he runs a hand through his hair and looks away, breathing heavily, “I just can’t right now, Kaz.”
Kaz doesn’t say anything, just watching Oliver go. Watches him wave down one of the nurses he doesn’t remember the name of and ask her to help him search for survivors
(and bodies.)