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Jared knew that he shouldn't be throwing himself into such a funk over everything, but it was just what happened win these sort of scenarios. Something terrible had happened and despite the fact that he was right in the middle of it, he walked away unaffected. Again. Not a scratch, not a bump, not a bruise. It was like he'd been telling people ever since it happened. He hadn't risked a fucking thing.

Petra had. The cadets had. The rescue teams had.

He had been in the center of it and yet still apart from it as he was trapped in his stupid damn bubble.

Rather than continue to hover and be moody around Petra, Adrian, Kitty and the rest, Jared was outside, walking and trying to decide if he should maybe go find Bobby and see if he could talk him into making giant ice slides. Or looking for something equally as distracting. Like maybe trying to bungee jump off a building.

Though most of the week had been rainy, Saturday was shaping up to be a nice, sunny day. The change in weather had brought tourists and locals alike out of hiding, and the mall was buzzing with activity. The students and chaperons of the Xavier Academy were spread throughout the mall and museum buildings, having agreed upon times to meet up and check in before being sent off to see as much as possible in the time they had. By about an hour after lunchtime, a lot of them had breezed through at least one of the museums and were headed on to their scheduled tours or to their next destination.

Few, if any, really noticed the young man crossing the grass in front of the castle, wearing nothing that identified him as a member of any of the numerous school groups on the grounds that day. He was obviously disoriented, sweating profusely and staggering as he made his way out of the castle and across the mall. He stumbled once and nearly fell to his knees before he recovered, which prompted a girl nearby to stop and take notice of him. She asked him if he needed help, laid a hand on his shoulder as he turned wide, pain-filled eyes on her...and then they both disappeared in a blast of heat and light that ripped across the mall like a tiny nuclear explosion.

The people nearest the blast were incinerated almost instantly, though the heat dissipated away quickly as a concussive blast rolled across the lawn, tossing people in front of it like rag dolls thrown by a giant's hand. The west wing of the castle simply buckled at the impact, stone toppling down to crush the dozens of unsuspecting tourists in and around it before they even had time to register the explosion. The east wing buckled and groaned dangerously as well, its collapse simply slower and less complete as the shock wave continued on, buckling walls and foundations, blowing out windows and bringing down sections of roof in the buildings beyond.

But even as the initial explosion finally reached its limit, a domino effect magnified the chaos as hundreds of powered tourists, adults and children alike, reflexively powered up in response to the catastrophe, some of them losing control entirely. There were smaller explosions and tongues of flame here and there among the ruins as dust swirled in the air, and it was only a matter of moments before the first sirens began to wail in the distance. At the scene of the disaster, though, the sound of them was lost almost completely in the sound of panicked voices crying out in fear and pain.


(OOC: Please create sub-threads below for the events and immediate aftermath. Feel free to actually play out the actual explosion and how your character responds or to simply do a narrative of what happened to them and move to the aftermath if you're more comfortable with that. Remember, there's about a ten minute window of opportunity for heroism before local emergency responders and SHIELD will be on site and beginning to take over, though the cadets will definitely be co-opted into the rescue effort. The worst injured will, initially, be taken to area hospitals once rescued, but the Academy students will, once stable, be transported back to the school's med center for continuing treatment there. Parents are, of course, welcome to take their children home for treatment if they desire, but between the school and the SHIELD facility attached to it, they have access to pretty much the best healers in the country. This does, however, still mean a relatively slow recovery for anyone with severe injuries given the general caliber of even exceptionally talented healers does not begin to compare to the very very few omega healers scattered across the globe.)

ETA: GUYS, WE KINDA SUCK AND FORGOT TO TELL YOU THAT THEY GOT BUSED UP TO DC FRIDAY AFTER SCHOOL so they could have all of Saturday at the Smithsonian, and thus why they already got to see cool stuff Saturday before boom rather than spending it all on a bus. Also, for sleeping arrangements, if your roomie went you got matched up with them plus the 2 others you share a suite with (so 4 to a room, and if you have no PC/NPC roomies then NPCs will have taken the spots), other than the chaperons who got spread around in singles for supervisory purposes. Sorry!

Jared was pretty damn good at video games, and he would brag endlessly about it if given the chance. Especially if it meant that he could impress a pretty girl. With Petra, though, he wasn't as worried about impressing her. It was easy to be around Petra. Not that she didn't occasionally make him nervous or want to be better behaved, but he never felt like he needed to do something entirely foolish to get her attention. Not that that would stop him from doing something foolish.

"So you have to get the box from there to there," he said. He was sitting on the floor, back against one of the couches in the Games Room of the Student Activities Center. It had taken a wee bit of threatening and wheedling on his part, but he had gotten everyone else to clear out. He held the remote and went through the first level without even moving his hands. The field did all the work for him. It was one of the skills he was proud of. "Like that. Want to try the next one?" he asked, holding the remote out to her.

He wanted to pull her over and settle her sitting between his legs, against his chest, but he wasn't sure if it would be appropriate. Plus it might also wind up depressing him, which was not what he wanted.

Solemnly Petra handed Jared the television remote as she sat next to him on the couch. Her knitting bag was on the floor, a project already in her hand and she snuggled close to Jared for a moment before settling in to watch whatever he picked. In the back of her mind Petra knew that, no matter what she did, Jared couldn't feel it. But he could see it and she hoped he appreciated the effort. She wasn't going to treat him any differently than she'd treat any guy she was- well, were they dating officially? She'd have to ask Kitty or Meg how many dates it took to be official.

In any case, she didn't care if he couldn't feel her touch him. He was a nice guy, she liked spending time with him and he was rapidly becoming the object of several in-class daydreams. Good think they happened in chemistry where she didn't need to pay much attention to ace the tests.

"Pick whatever you want," Petra encouraged as she smiled at Jared. "I only half watch anyway," she added as she positioned the knitting needles in her hands and continued her project.

Jared liked Petra. She was pretty, sweet and it had been pretty adorable that she had asked him on a date. At Hull House it had always been Jared asking the girls out, and it wasn't as though there was much of anywhere to go or anything to do in Hamilton. Movie dates were nice although sometimes they could pose a bit of a problem. What with girls expecting certain things. Well, to be honest, what with him expecting certain things, too.

That wouldn't be an issue with Petra. Jared was pretty sure she wasn't expecting anything. Other than a fun night, which Jared was more than capable of providing.

Hell, he wasn't really even sure that she'd meant for it to be a date, which was also adorable.

Jared had wandered outside and stolen an early blooming flower--he had no idea what it was--from one of the flowerbeds. He was still dressed in his normal t-shirt, hoodie and jeans combination although he had been careful to pick all unstable molecule ones so he wouldn't have to worry about holes or stains. There was something to be said for the weird unconventional clothing.

"Hey, Pet, you ready," he called out as he knocked on her door.

Chase was glad he'd brought his skiing gear. It made waiting outside in just below freezing temps easier. He'd had to rebuild his cover a bit, but thanks to Drake and his tendency to blow snow at any excuse, there was more than enough snow still for a short term assault.

It hadn't been that hard to convert his small portable tennis ball launcher for snow. It wasn't like he expected it to last any longer than the day. Not with people who could blow up buildings as a knee jerk reaction. Which was probably why this was dumb, but thus far, the most exciting thing that had happened was getting together with Gert.

That was awesome. But that just meant he had a partner-in-crime. Which was pointless unless they were making some sort of trouble. So, snowball ambush outside their dorm early Sunday morning.

For now all there was to do is drink coffee and wait for their first victims though. "So am I gonna get a treat for this genius idea?" he teased Gert as he looked back at her over his shoulder.

As long as Jared had his skateboard, he was happy. A lot of the things he had grown up considering to be his, other than his clothes, had been left behind at Hull House. The staff would have liked to give the boys more, but there just wasn't the money for it. Jared hadn't minded all that much. It might have mattered more if he could have been able to properly touch and feel his meager belongings, but it was hard to make emotional connections to things when he couldn't manage a physical connection to them. The counselor at Hull House said he employed this tactic when it came to people as well. Jared had simply shrugged, refusing to acknowledge the words one way or another.

His board, though? They hadn't taken that away. He wouldn't have let them. Even if they hadn't given it to him, he would have found a way to smuggle it out. Hell, what were they gonna do? He was already leaving. There would be no sense in kicking him out. The skateboard was nothing special. It was beat up with mismatched tires and stickers on it of bands he hadn't even heard of much less liked. Still, though, it was his board. He had done the best he could with it. Snowboards and skis were easy to just use his force field to recreate, but he hadn't been able to manage a skateboard replacement yet.

Jared had wanted to teach Adrian to skateboard for a while, but considering how easily his brother seemed to get hurt, it just hadn't seemed advisable. But here there were healers, which made things a little less risky. Besides. Adrian needed to start growing some balls.

Jared made a lazy circle on his board, keeping an eye on the school as he did so to try and catch a glimpse of his brother. There would be nothing fancy. Not today. Well. Maybe something a little fancy. Close to fancy. Something Adrian could use to impress those girls he seemed to be so leery of.

Jared had enjoyed playing some basketball with the other students but always wandered around when meal times popped up. He'd wait until things had died down a little and then he'd strap the zapper to his face and find something to convert to energy for himself. More than likely he'd go with something boring like wheat bread or oatmeal. His body seemed to function best when it was given a lot of carbs. Watching other kids munch down on grub--or worse watch him with his damn bug zapper food converter thing--made him anxious. When Jared was anxious, he got angry. When Jared was angry, he picked fights with people. Random, stupid fights that didn't have any sort of rhyme or reason behind them. It was still way too early for him to be getting into trouble at this school.

"Give it at least a fucking month, Corbo," he muttered to himself as he wandered down the corridor, hands shoved deep into the pockets of his hoodie.

Then he caught site of a face he thought he recognized. "Hey. You're Kitty, right?"