Shadowcat, Peregrine, and two med techs - Suzuki and de la Cruz - head out of the portal; he directs them, as fast as he safely can, toward the nearest injured person.

"Hey! Over here! Help!"

He and Peregrine are directed into position, to shift the rubble off the stranger's legs; de la Cruz and Suzuki get ready to move them.  On three - 

Their rescuee cringes slightly in anticipation, and—

—well. It's not as bad as it could have been. All the bits are still attached and in roughly the correct places. Modern medicine can probably treat this, unless it's worse than it looks, which to be fair it might be; not all injuries are obvious at a glance.

The fact that it's a fairly optimistic picture does not stop the injured party from venting a shocked, breathless sob and then passing out.

All right.  She and Suzuki will start treating this person for shock.  She sends Shadowcat back to the portal for med tech reinforcements and Peregrine to check out that relatively unwrecked med van, maybe teleport in and out with some blue gloves and N95s.

Okay.  Let's find the next nearest person that he and the other two med techs can get out from under the rubble, or otherwise get to relative safety, on their own.

There's no shortage of people trapped in the rubble, some in better condition than the first one, some worse. Many of them are relatively straightforward to get free, though sometimes they need a bit of calming down first so they don't hurt themselves further.

Shadowcat's most important contribution to most of them is brute strength; an esper is valuable for shifting chunks of wrecked macadam.  Occasionally, he can lay his hand on an injured leg or arm, gently enough to not damage it further, but firmly enough to be The Cause of the pain, and flick on his power to render his touch, and the pain it causes, more easily ignorable, for a moment.

His anaesthetic interventions are greatly appreciated. And the rubble shifting, too.

In addition to gloves and masks, Toby retrieves an efficiently-unfoldable stretcher which allows them to move their rescues into the dungeon, where they won't attract worms while they wait for backup.

Sitko waylays Bryce as the last victim is brought in.  "Any word from HQ?"

"Not yet," he murmurs.  "I - don't know what it means, that there's worms everywhere already."

"Me neither," she says, "other than nothing good."

Nod.

"Med staff will keep an eye on our new rescues," Sitko says.  "Go see Peregrine, get some guiding."

He nods.

He heads over to Toby and taps him on the shoulder and says, "You wanna get out of here?"

He snorts, and takes Bryce by the hand, and leads him around the corner where they can doff their gear and their shirts and make out in relative privacy.

Mmm.  There's always a moment of shivery relief, when he starts guiding - the difference between knowing it's his backlash talking and feeling that it is.

"Mmmmgood boy."

Cling cling kiss kiss.

Near the end, when they can afford to slow down a little, they come apart.  They're still holding to each other tightly.

"Did you see any sign of her," he whispers.

"No," he says quietly.  "Which is good news.  It means she most likely got taken rather than - "

He stops.

Nod.  Cling.

"Shit," he says, as his voice thickens.  "Shit.  We got a job to do - "

"You can take a minute," he says.  "I gotcha."

He nods.

He bites out a quiet sob, and another.