Holy shit. What the hell happened to me? That was the first coherent thought Spencer had as he slowly woke. He felt like he'd been hit by a freight train. A low groan slid past his lips despite his best efforts to keep it in. There was another sound then that jerked Spencer back to consciousness faster than anything else could have. "Pidge?" Alex called out.

Reality came back in with a crash. Scott, Alex! They'd been in a plane, the storm, some kind of crash and then the plane spiraling out of control. Spencer's eyes snapped open and it took him a moment to see through the semi darkness. The plane. They were still in the plane. A quick look told him that they'd crashed. All around him was smoke and twisted metal and broken glass. Oh, God. The plane had crashed. Where were his brothers? Were they okay?"

"Pidge?"

That had Spencer jumping slightly. He'd forgotten he'd heard Alex's voice in the shock of seeing the wreckage they were in. Gathering energy, he forced himself to speak. "Here!" Wincing, he asked "Scott?"

"I got him." The grumbled words came from somewhere in front of him.

A sigh of relief slid out. Both brothers were alive. Thank you, thank you. Next step, figure out how to get the hell out of here. Spencer looked down at himself, mentally assessing his condition. At the same time, Alex called out "Stay where you are, I'm coming to you. How bad you hurt?"

"Could be worse." Spencer grunted out. He tried to lift one arm and had to fight back a wince. Shoulder might be dislocated. Potential break in arm his brain supplied. Okay, next arm. He lifted that one and was successful; only a tiny ache. He reached for the buckle that still held him to the seat and tried to find the button to unhook it. He'd worry about the rest of him in a moment. "You two?"

There was some movement up ahead and a piece of metal shifted to reveal Alex. "Been hurt worse. Some cuts, bruises. Don't think anything's broken." Blood and sweat stained the man's face but Spencer could've sobbed for joy at seeing him. The seriousness of his look had Spencer's worry growing even more. "I got Scott outside already. I woke up first, got him out and propped up by a tree. The back end's on fire, pidge. We gotta move."

Spencer's hand scrambled faster at his belt. Alex moved enough to get toward him, knocking more things out of the way. The more he came into view, the more Spencer could see his injuries. Blood stained the stomach of his shirt and he was limping slightly. There were visible cuts on his arms and a wound on his head, most likely from hitting glass, but for the most part he looked like he'd gotten off pretty damn lucky. Alex was holding a knife in his hand that he used to reach out when he got close and cut Spencer's straps off. "Come on." Alex said gruffly. "Let me help you out. Lean on me."

There wasn't any real choice. Spencer's head spun as Alex helped him out of his seat and his body screamed at the movement, injuries protesting so loudly he couldn't tell what came from where. Willpower had him gritting his teeth and he trusted himself to Alex's hands, closing his eyes and following the low instructions until all of a sudden there was fresh air and another voice called out "Spence!"

Despite the aches in his legs, Spencer put one foot in front of the other, able to tell they were on solid ground now. He opened his eyes and saw Scott just ahead, leaning back against a tree. The first sight of his brother had him stumbling a little. Alex had to catch him and help steady him once more. "Scotty." The word was pulled from Spencer, aching slightly. His older brother looked horrible. There was blood on Scott's face, on his pants, on his shirt. Everywhere. Spencer's eyes quickly found the sources of quite a bit of it. Scott's left leg was definitely broken and there was a large cut in it. It looked like there was another on his chest and there were other cuts on his skin. The glass. That had to be from the glass. But by some merciful blessing, the man had his glasses on and they weren't broken. How the hell had they gotten so lucky?

When they got close, Alex started to lower him down but Spencer shook his head and stuck his good hand out on the tree. There was no time to sit down. Alex gave him a strange look. "Pidge, you need to sit so we can take a look at you. You're bleeding!"

"There's no time for that." Spencer said through gritted teeth.

"What? I'd say we've got all the damn time in the world. We're not exactly going anywhere fast!"

"No, he's right." Scott interrupted. His voice was low, with a hazy edge to it that showed he was in pain. "We've got to move, Alex. Now."

Alex looked between them with confusion. "What the hell are you guys talking about?"

Looking down, Spencer saw the same knowledge in Scott's face that he knew was in his. He took a deep breath and looked back at Alex. "That wasn't lightning that brought us down, Alex. I would've felt that."

"Someone shot at us." Scott added in. His head tipped back against the tree. "And whoever shot at us is probably going to try to make sure we didn't survive. We stay here and we're sitting ducks." He paused to draw in a few breaths, obviously trying to battle back pain. When he spoke again, there was just a hint of the old command in his voice. "Can you salvage any of our supplies off the plane? There's no telling where we are or what we'll need. There's a medical kit in there that's going to come in handy. Any bags with clothes too so we can make bandages."

Swearing lowly, Alex didn't waste any time, turning on his heel and racing toward the smoking plane. While he did that, Spencer took a few deep breaths, trying to get himself under control. His knee throbbed like a giant bruise, telling him he'd probably knocked it around some in the crash. There were so many other parts of him that throbbed and stung and told him his brothers weren't the only ones hurt. For the moment he pushed that back and made himself focus on Scott. As Alex would say—this is going to suck. "Come on, let's get you on your feet. You think you can stand?"

"I'll stand, but I make no promises on how well."

Snorting, Spencer braced his legs and reached out to take Scott's hand. It took quite a lot of swearing, sweat, pain, and more effort than either would've liked to admit to get Scott upright. But eventually the two were both on their feet, practically leaning against one another and the tree as they panted and tried to keep from passing out. When they were both breathing normally, Scott reached a hand up toward the arm Spencer had curled against his chest. "How bad?"

"It's nothing." Spencer insisted. Now that Scott was upright, Spencer wasn't liking all the blood he could see. "We need to wrap you before you bleed everywhere."

Scott shook his head, wheezing a little. "Not here…gotta get away first. Gotta find shelter…before dark."

The worst part was, Spencer knew he was right. But how far could they all travel like this? How well could they move while injured? Scott wasn't going to be able to walk well with his leg the way it was and Spencer only had one good hand to work with and Alex had been limping and there was the blood on the stomach of his shirt that suggested he was injured there. They were one hell of a set right now, each of them beaten and bleeding. But they had not a damn choice in this. They had to move, now, before anything more happened.

As if to prove his thoughts true, Spencer felt something just on the edge of his shields. He spun, eyes scanning around him, senses reaching to try and find out where it was coming from. Alex emerged from the plane, bags slung over his arm and in his hands, and Spencer felt a burst of satisfaction and glee that didn't come from Alex and he shouted "Run!"

Alex shot forward at the command just in the nick of time; gunfire spat across the ground where he'd been moments before. With the storm still above them, Spencer drew on the electricity in the air, sending a bolt in the direction of the gunfire. He didn't hit anyone but it provided the perfect cover for Alex to reach them. He and Spencer both grabbed on Scott, slinging his arms over their shoulders so that they held him up on either side and they started moving as fast as they could. Spencer sent another bolt of lightning behind them and then another, hoping to cover them as best as he could. Voices shouted and more guns fired, bullets whizzing past them.

"Over here!" Alex snapped out, yanking them to the left. The trio practically fell behind the rocks Alex took them to, dropping down out the line of fire. Alex dropped their bags down and Spencer saw his bag on the top. He was helping to settle Scott down, so he couldn't reach for it. "Alex, my bag." He said quickly. "My gun's in there."

Alex grabbed the bag and dug inside, yanking out Spencer's gun. Instead of handing it over, he checked to make sure it was loaded and then crouched low at the edge of the rock. "Give me some cover. Then drive them toward the plane."

This wasn't the time to argue. Alex was the better shot and they both knew it, not to mention he was the most mobile of them right now. This was the smart way to play it. Rising up, Spencer gathered energy. He couldn't send a blast from where he was without drawing all gunfire at him, so he called another lightning bolt, snapping one, two, three down into the ground near where it sounded like the guns were firing from. With those for cover, Alex raced out from behind the rock, darting into the slowly darkening forest. Spencer set up a quick prayer for the man and then focused on himself and Scott.

Scott braced a hand on the rock and tried to leverage himself up some. "Damn the man. Where the hell does he think he's going?"

"Get down!" Spencer hissed, shoving at Scott's shoulder. "You're in no condition to be upright."

"The hell with that! Get me in the right direction. I can still help with defense till Alex does whatever stupid thing he's doing."

Shoving once more at Scott's shoulder, Spencer pushed back his own fear and worries for Alex and focused instead on doing his part. "I said get down, Scott!" The snap to his words had Scott actually listening, surprise radiating from him. Spencer ignored it and drew himself up again, using his extra senses more than his eyes. Between his sense of electricity and his empathy, he easily mapped out in his head the bodies that were near enough for him to feel. Alex said to drive them toward the plane; mapping out their locations, Spencer readied energy and prepared to do just that. He waited for a break in gunfire and then he rose, taking the energy he'd gathered and pushing it out in one giant burst, knocking the bodies back, sending them flying toward the clearing. He heard gunfire and saw two men go down. Seven more were rising from the ground, recovering from his blast. Spencer sent out blasts of energy from his hand, firing them at the ground, driving the men further and further back. He saw a blast hit the ground that he recognized as one of Alex's.

The seven men were in the clearing, right by the wreckage, and Spencer heard Alex shout out "The plane! Hit the plane!" and he knew what his brother had planned. Spencer fought back the nausea that rose at the idea of what he was about to do, reminding himself that friendlies didn't come after them with assault rifles and these men wanted them dead, and then he called a bolt of lightning from the sky and sent it right into the plane, praying Alex got to cover in time. There was a loud boom and that was all Spencer heard as his body slipped down the rock to crumple on the ground.

When he came to once more, hands were yanking him up off the ground and he could hear a familiar angry voice demanding that he get up, move, move! Spencer reacted instinctively, his legs trying to move before his eyes were fully open. He tripped and stumbled and was jerked back upright once more. Sound cleared again and he could understand the voice yelling at him and knew it was Alex. "Come on, dammit. Move, pidge! That's going to be a hell of a beacon for anyone miles around and I sure as hell don't plan on being here when they get here! Move!"

Spencer forced his eyes open and made himself start to move. He yanked away from Alex's arm, adrenaline waking him up faster than an entire pot of coffee and much quicker too. When bags were thrust at him, he slung them on his good shoulder without complaint. He took one look and saw Scott trying to limp forward and he rushed to him, darting down under his arm and going to support him, Alex moving to Scott's other side until they were carrying him like they'd been doing before. With fire and smoke rising behind them and rain—when had it started raining? It hadn't been raining before!—falling faster and faster, the three men took off into the trees.

Here in this dense forest Spencer was far out of his element and he knew it. Because of that, he let Alex direct their course, though he doubted Alex really knew where the hell they were going either. The trio stumbled their way along, not even talking in their effort to try and save their breath. It was taking all their energy to simply walk. They kept alert as they moved, listening for the sounds of anyone coming after them. How long they moved, Spencer wasn't sure. Best guess, he figured maybe a half an hour, maybe a little more. But suddenly in the break of the trees he saw something just ahead. Shelter! "Look!" he gasped out. It looked like an old barn of some sort, half falling apart. It looked like Heaven.

When they got close, the trees thinned out and they were going to have to be in the open to get to the barn doors. "Spence." Scott's voice was low and strained, just barely there. "You sense anyone? Anyone at all?"

It took more concentration than normal for Spencer to push out his senses. After feeling for a moment, he shook his head. "Nothing but a few little things I'd guess are animals round and about."

"Then let's move. It's our best defense to hide and plan."

"No shit?" Alex quipped breathily. Even he was sounding out of breath from their walk. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

Scott grunted as his leg slid over the ground and his face lost a little more color. "Fuck off, Alex."

"What would your students think if they heard you swearing?"

The breathless bickering continued as they closed the last bit of distance between them and the barn. Alex broke away long enough to get the door open and then they limped inside. Spencer couldn't help his relief as they got inside of the walls. Maybe it wasn't the perfect shelter and maybe everything in the world had gone to shit but they were out of the rain and in a place they could plan and they were all alive. At the moment, that would have to be enough.