Confessions of a Chaotic Earth-Shaker. [Open.]

[Terra Moonscar]

((This Takes Place About Two Weeks After The 'Escape' Topic.))

So here she was, Terra Moonscar, sitting by herself on a blue-bench at the local Mall. Her eyes dart around to the cheerleaders, jocks, nerds, goths, divas, and other classifications that would appear to be too endless to describe. Rolling her eyes, Terra smirks. Even people were judged on the 'do-you-deserve-to-live-or-not' theory at a place as simple as the Mall. The teenaged-girl found it funny how such diseases make their way around. Sighing, Terra picks up a "New York Times" newspaper that contains a coffee-smudge that happened to be lying uselessly on the waxed-tile floor nearby. Terra then begins laughing hysterically only seconds after browsing through the latest topics, for she finds herself to be included in one of them.

Chaotic Teenager Still On The Loose[/u]
The young fourteen-year old girl Terra Moonscar still remains on the loose after crippling the school she attended, harming several students. Police believe this girl to be classified as a "Mutant". Fellow classmates described this girl to be quiet and constantly seeming as if she were planning a terroristic attack. Moonscar is believed to be somewhere near Manhattan after local N.Y.P.D discovered a ruptured park, as well as injured men who appeared to believe they'd seen the girl and that she attacked them. Locals are warned to be on the look-out for this chaotic teenager for she is known as an aggressive person and is expected to harm anyone that gets in her way.

Terra continues to giggle spastically, dropping the document at her feet and gasping for air from the horrific laughter rising from her lungs. A few citizens look at her with strange looks as to why she was rolling around like an idiot. However, time only proves to be the devil when one keen middle-aged man notices her from the headlines.

Observant Man: "H-Hey! You're that girl! The girl from the paper! Everyone! She's a mutant! She killed innocent children! Get her!"

A few passersby notice who she is as well and began barking angrily, throwing horrible insults in her direction. They mob began to grow larger, grasping nearby objects such as trash cans as weapons. They begin to move closer to the fourteen-year old.

"Stay away from me!"

Is the only response that screamed from Terra's lips as she stood up on the blue-bench, quivering in fear as the mob began throwing the objects in her direction. A Star buck's cup smacks her straight in the face, causing hot coffee to burn her severely. While Terra closes her eyes in agony, another man launches the trash-can at her, hitting her in the stomach and causing her to collapse from the bench and hit the solid floor below.

"P-Please...stop..."

Terra begs as the people draw near her, kicking her and punching her with pure hatred. Tears leak from the teenaged-girl's eyes, blood searing from the burns upon her skin. An instant later a large rumbling can be heard throughout the building, causing small objects to tremble. The gut-clenching feeling arises in Terra's stomach as the tiled floor rips apart violently, the earth beneath it attaching itself to Terra's skin in a protective armor.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Mall erupts into chaos as the rest of the building shakes horrifically, causing the floor to tear itself apart and form rifts which people begin to fall into. Screaming and pandemonium ripple through the air as the large fragments of the roof begin to collapse on the civilians. A gas-leak ignites fire in every direction as the fuel lands on the food court's fast-food ovens. The glass windows above shatter, raining down upon the citizens, stabbing some in the eye or other parts of the body. As the tiled floor is now completely torn apart, the earth beneath it begins to sink inward, bringing the mall down with it.

Once the Mall and several of the civilians who didn't escape now reside within the earth, the sinking stops and all that is left is Terra's body, still incased in the protective armor. The Police and Ambulance Forces arrive on the scene in complete awe as where a public shopping center used to be now leaves only dirt and rocks behind.

((By the way, if you guys don't like how I submerged a mall into the earth, you can say it was a different one or something seeing as how there isn't just one mall in New York.))

[Warren Worthington III]

> “Everyone! She's a mutant! She killed innocent children! Get her!"

The words reach Warren faintly as he wanders around the CD shop, looking for an appropriate birthday gift for Josh’s sister. He doesn’t recognize the speaker’s voice; whoever it is, he’s somewhere on the other end of the corridor. If it weren’t for Warren’s enhanced hearing, he wouldn’t even have noticed it.

For the love of God… are we still at the ‘get it, it’s a mutant’ stage? Not that it entirely surprises him, really… he’s been around enough to know that there will always be a community of die-hard haters, and it will be years, or decades, or who knows how long before the norm changes enough that the diehards can’t get a mob going with just a few shouts.

The weirdest part for him is how schizophrenic the public is. Here he is, walking around the mall, amassing nothing much worse than some black looks and the occasional snub. Meanwhile, not half a mile away, some mutant woman is being hounded in public. There are days he just doesn’t understand how both reactions can co-exist… and yet, they do.

People, he concludes, not for the first time, don’t make an enormous amount of sense.

All of this ruminating goes on while he makes his way out of the store and down the central mall atrium, trying to track the source of the initial shouting. It’s getting louder, now, and he launches himself into the air to get a better line of sight through the crowds.

> " Stay away from me! P-Please...stop..." "

The girl’s voice is terrified and uncontrolled, and Warren tracks it to a knot of people not far from the Food Court. "Get away from her!!!" he shouts, to no avail… this mob is clearly too far gone to reason with, and he wonders whether their minds are being manipulated somehow.

Then things get weird. His hearing picks up the rumbling before anyone else notices it, and his years living in California provide an instant identification. Earthquake? Here? he thinks for a moment, before realizing he’s being stupid. Oh. Mutant powers. Josh and Toni had reported an encounter with an earth-effect telekinetic earlier, and he’d read something in his morning paper about a “Terra Moonscar” – some gonzo bit of yellow journalism, full of unsubstantiated accusations about terrorist attacks and aggressiveness. He’s guessing, from the way the current earthquake matches up with the results, that’s that’s who the girl is.

By now, he’s close enough that his windsense can pick up what’s going on at the center of the mob. The girl is no longer defenseless… that’s good. The shoppers she’s about to drop a shopping mall on, though, remain so. "EVERYBODY OUT OF THE BUILDING, NOW!!!" he bellows, and is pleased to see a number of previously dazed and shocked civilians following his instructions.

Not enough of them, though. He doesn’t herd much more than a few families out of the mall before the ceiling starts to collapse, and it’s all he can do then to keep himself alive. He sees the woman fifteen feet away, wearing a supermarket apron and a button that reads “Hi, I’m Jenise!,” just in time to protect her from a shower of glass and debris – he’s aware of the glass lacerating his wings, but he’ll heal – but he’s not fast enough to protect the two panicked football players from suffering the same fate. Or the woman pushing the baby carriage, or the angry-looking man fleeing in the wrong direction. Dammit! There’s too many of them! It’s all happening too fast!!!

He’s not sure if he manages to save the green-haired girl with the lip-piercing or not… the chunk of masonry that would have pulped her skull grazes his own, leaving him dazed and semi-conscious. It’s nothing less than a miracle he isn’t killed himself.

When he recovers his senses, the Mall is gone… nothing left but ruins and rocks. Off to the side, the survivors are crying, in fear or in pain. Underneath the debris, he can hear the muffled cries and frantic movements of trapped civilians. And in the middle of all of it, a humanoid figure of stone.

OK. Need to deal with her before the emergency crews arrive. If she’s hostile, she’ll end up killing them as well. He can already hear the sirens approaching.

He folds his wings back, wincing at the pain of glass shards still trapped in his flexing muscles, and approaches the woman slowly, hands far out from his sides.

"Hi. My name’s Warren. I’m guessing you’re Terra." He looks around at the debris, trying very hard not to let his anger and disgust show on his face. She might not have intended this, he reminds himself, and tries to sound as calm as possible. "There are injured people caught under the debris. If you can use your powers to uncover them, that would be a great help to the emergency crews."

[Terra Moonscar]

Terra remains deadly silent in her protective earthen shell, listening to the chaos that erupts outside of her position. Tears began to swell up in the girl's eyes, raining down her cheeks in small floods. Her body shakes violently, goosebumps covering her entire body at the realization of what she had caused. Great, she crippled a school and now she caused a torrential earthquake that tore the mall apart. What else could possibly happen?

>"Hi. My name’s Warren. I’m guessing you’re Terra."

Terra's body freezes and her breath becomes quiet in fear of the person outside hearing her. How does he know her name? And with all the pandemonium breaking lose, this male was taking the time to exchange greeting and names?

>"There are injured people caught under the debris. If you can use your powers to uncover them, that would be a great help to the emergency crews."

She hears him speaking again and the panic hits her even harder. So she had harmed several people...did she possibly kill anyone? This was just all too frightening for the teenaged-girl, and fear rises higher once she hears the blaring sirens of the N.Y.P.D entering the area. They were here for her! She was thought to be a 'terrorist' after all, and now that she had caused this crisis...it would be unspeakable in the eyes of the public. Terra's voice responded to this 'Warren' in a frantic shout.

"I-I can't! They'll k-kill me! P-Please...I didn't mean for this all to h-happen! This is just a-all too much! I gotta' run! I c-can't die! Oh my god..I am going to die!"

Terra was obviously having some kind of symptom close to a panic attack, or maybe it was just over-reacting, however in this situation it was all too serious. She remains deadly still within her earthen protection in fear of being shot to death.

[Veronica Devereux]

Walking through the massive mall, Veronica could be seen with several bags in her hands, each swaying back and forth every time she took a step forward. Most of the bags were pink and decorated with lace, the words "Victoria's Secret" printed on either sides of the bags in cursive. Stopping by every window that had a cute top or sexy lingerie, "oohs" and "aahs" could be heard coming from the blonde, her shopping ADD as she calls it kicking in.

As she made her way toward the middle of the mall, she could hear several people shouting, and she saw a crowd gathering around some girl standing on a bench. Curious as to what was going on, Veronica made her way over to the group, and spotted Warren there, trying to beat the crowd back. Backing away from the crowd, she walked a circle around them, she made her way to stand next to Warren."What the hell is--"

>"H-Hey! You're that girl! The girl from the paper! Everyone! She's a mutant! She killed innocent children! Get her!" This caught Veronica's attention, and she couldn't help but turn to the crowd to scope out the man who could have possibly said such horrible things about the frightened girl. Unable to find the rude man who shouted the comment, she felt her body tumble forward, sending her and her newly purchased bras into the ground, the contents of the bags spilling onto the floor. Using the bench, she managed to pull herself up as the crowd began to run away, many of them running over her bras."Damnit, I just bought those!" she mentally cursed, unsure if she was able to curse in front of a teacher.

Standing up, Veronica took several long strides back as she felt another wave travel through the ground, this one slightly more powerful than the first. A scream across the way catches her attention, followed by a large chunk of wall falling down near her. A scream erupts from her throat as more chunks begin to cascade around her, most of them landing merely inches from her person. Using her arms as a shield, she held them above her as the rest of the wall caved in, followed by the mall in its entirety. A dome of wind have formed around her just in time, boring a hole through the wall, allowing her to escape. Climbing out of the hole, Veronica coughed and waved her hand in front of her, dust lingering in the air.

"Oh dear.." she mumbled out, barely able to hear her own voice over the shouts and screams of others calling out to their loved ones. Her eyes scanned over the debris, an occasional arm or leg here and there. This was bad, definitely bad, but Veronica didn't know what to do. For once in her life, the blonde was unsure of what her next action should be. Staggering off of the wall, the girl nearly tumbled into the rocks, but regained her composure."What the hell happened?!" she called out, doubting anyone would be able to give her an answer.

>>"There are injured people caught under the debris. If you can use your powers to uncover them, that would be a great help to the emergency crews." This particular voice rang out, and sounded somewhat familiar to her. Jumping over the broken rock and wall, she managed to find her way over to Warren, who seemed to be talking to a....Rock? Strangely enough, the rock was answering back!"Ok, I swear I must be dead or something." she murmured as she looked at Warren, who had large amounts of glass shards sticking out from his wings."are you ok, War, those cuts could get infected." she explained, reaching out to pick a shard out of his wing.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh banks the Blackbird around the site of the disaster. His stomach churns slightly at the utter devastation. There are a lot of people who died down there. And there are even more still trapped.

That afternoon, he’d been on his way to drop some people from the Institute off at SHIELD headquarters, in Washington. After their time in the future, Ororo had determined that Colonel Fury could be trusted with the truth – that SHIELD had betrayed them all. They’d learned that Fury had led one of the numerous resistance movements in 2027. Since then, they’d been working with him and a few of his most trusted soldiers to prevent the worst from happening.

However, while in flight, Josh had pulled waves of distress and pain from his mental link with Warren. He’d been on the verge of changing course to New York City when Fury had gotten online and asked them to do the very same thing. Something about a natural disaster and a mall collapsing… Fury had been yelling a lot to others in the background, and the sound coming from the SHIELD situation room had been almost deafening.

“God, it’s even worse than I thought.” Outside the ship, he can see police, firefighters, and medical staff at the edge of the rubble, trying to begin making headway against it. As he sets the ship down, he sees a few of them scurry towards them. Warren is somewhere here… but I think he’s safe.

“Okay guys, it’s showtime. Remember… this is a chance to show the country that not all of us go blowing up buildings like Magneto did.” He grabs one of the earpieces from the charger and heads down the ramp.

One of the firefighters is there to meet them, and pumps his hand enthusiastically. “Lieutenant Derek Rand. It’s great to meet you, sir. Colonel Fury said that you guys should be able to give you a hand?”

Josh shakes his hand back. “Call me Josh… everyone else does. Yeah, we’re here to do whatever we can to help.”

The firefighter looks immensely relieved. “Thank god… we’ve no idea how this happened. Maybe if you can tell me what you people can do I can figure out how you can help us?”

Josh nods as they move past the medical area. “Well, I can use telekinesis. My maximum lift varies, depending on the circumstances, but in general it’s several tons. I also have some medical training, and my telekinetic powers tend to come in handy in surgery –for example, something that’s inaccessible to a pair of forceps isn’t usually a problem with telekinesis.” He points to the others. “Toni Craft. Her body is composed of a superdense iron and her strength is unparalleled. Jack Russell – don’t be alarmed at the transformation. His wolf form grants him enhanced reflexes, strength, and dexterity. He might be able to sniff out people trapped, too…” Josh is careful to not mention his telepathy. Telepathically-based mutations were often those that brought on the most hysteria, and they’d managed to keep his under wraps from the media so far.

Rand looks thrilled. “If you guys can help us start moving some wreckage, that would be great. Getting things stable enough to start moving in is always the hardest. I’ll let you know if the medics need any help, then.” He claps Josh on the shoulder and leads them towards the collapse. A ladder team is currently spraying water onto the roaring blaze.

Warren… are you okay? Toni, Jack and I are here to help the firefighters.

[Warren Worthington III]

> " I-I can't! They'll k-kill me! P-Please...I didn't mean for this all to h-happen! This is just a-all too much! I gotta' run! I c-can't die! Oh my god..I am going to die!"

Warren sighs. Well, I suppose it was too much to ask that she’d be coherent. At least she’s not actively trying to kill anybody… that’s something.

"You aren’t going to die today. Which is more than a lot of people are going to be able to say.” No, no, no he chastises himself. That’s exactly the wrong tack to be taking with this girl – she’s obviously not prepared yet to take responsibility for what she’s done.

Behind him he is aware of Veronica’s approach, and his heart pounds in his chest… he hadn’t even known she was in the mall. "Thanks… but don’t worry about the wings for now," he adds, not unkindly. "I’m pretty resistant to infection. Are you OK? Were any other students with you? " It feels ghoulish to even ask, given how many innocent bystanders have just been killed or injured, but Warren’s no different from anyone else that way: he worries more about the kids he knows.

The police and emergency workers have arrived – responsive, that’s good, but it means the situation with Terra has just become even more volatile.

> Warren… are you okay? Toni, Jack and I are here to help the firefighters.

Thank God! Josh, Vero and I are here. We’ve got the earthshifter you ran into at the park here, too… she’s not actively hostile, but she’s not entirely sane either. Heavily traumatized, at best. Can you hold the cops and emergency service folk back for a few minutes? If I can’t talk her down, she’s likely to freak out and the casualty rate is going to climb.

"The thing is, if you keep running, this sort of thing will keep happening. Believe me, I know… I’ve worked with a lot of young mutants. You can learn to control this, but you’re going to need to calm down and focus. Can you do that?"

He’s skeptical as to whether she can, but his options are limited. With the mass she’s accreted, he doubts he can lift her off the ground, and until she’s either calmed down or removed from the location there’s no way emergency operations are going to get started. Even just by trying to protect herself she could shift the rock underneath her, crushing survivors and emergency workers alike.

And every second he waits might mean life or death to her victims.

[Veronica Devereux]

> "You aren’t going to die today. Which is more than a lot of people are going to be able to say.” At hearing this, Veronica's head swiveled to look at Warren, a look of anger and confusion on her face. As she had turned her head, a gasp passed her lips."Mean!" she yelled out, even though he was less than five feet from her. Weren't they suppose to be comforting when it came to handling mutants that could kill them in a split second? Apparently Warren didn't get the memo."Don't say that, could make her feel even worse!" she hissed, her eyes narrowed at the winged-male.

> "Thanks… but don’t worry about the wings for now, I’m pretty resistant to infection. Are you OK? Were any other students with you? " Retracting her hand, the blonde allowed the small shard she already plucked fall to the ground, shattering upon impact. Stepping on the broken glass, she allowed her shoe to grind it in, a sound that made her shudder."I'm fine..Except for the fact my bras are now ruined!" she murmured, this time throwing a glare at the rock even if the girl couldn't see it."No," she acknowledged his second question, to whcih she shook her head."Nope, just my by my lonesome. I was shopping over at Victoria's Secret when I heard shouting and saw the crowd, then I came over here." she explained, knowing he didn't ask for what she was doing here, but she felt the need to tell it anyways.

> "The thing is, if you keep running, this sort of thing will keep happening. Believe me, I know… I’ve worked with a lot of young mutants. You can learn to control this, but you’re going to need to calm down and focus. Can you do that?" Wanting to be of some help, Veronica took a few steps toward the rock dome, tapping her knuckles against it."He's right, dahling," she called out, unsure of how loud she should be," Running isn't an option, and it definately isn't one right now. Listen," she paused, surpised at how soft her voice actually was when speaking to the earth controller,"We've all gone through this before, sooner of later. I know I have, and let me tell you, that was worse than my peri-- Errh, that's not important right now. What is though, is that you focus on helping those innocent people."

[Terra Moonscar]

Apparently some time while Terra was hyperventilating, a female came to the scene and began speaking to this 'Warren'. She began breathing at odd rates again due to her constant panic. Holding it in long enough, she was able to hear part of the couple's conversation.

>"You aren’t going to die today. Which is more than a lot of people are going to be able to say.”

>"Mean! Don't say that, could make her feel even worse!"

More of the conversation was just odd babbling about bras from the female, and then Terra notices that Warren begins speaking to her again. As does the female.

>"The thing is, if you keep running, this sort of thing will keep happening. Believe me, I know… I’ve worked with a lot of young mutants. You can learn to control this, but you’re going to need to calm down and focus. Can you do that?"

>"He's right, dahling, running isn't an option, and it definitely isn't one right now. Listen, we've all gone through this before, sooner of later. I know I have, and let me tell you, that was worse than my peri-- Errh, that's not important right now. What is though, is that you focus on helping those innocent people."

"I...I'll try!"

Terra shouts in response. Closing her eyes she begins to breath in and out several times to calm herself down. She even hums a show tune of her favorite t.v. drama, Degrassi. Oddly, this helps to calm down the young girl a lot, and as she presses her hands upward on the earthen shell, it breaks loose, crumbling all around her in small fragments. Terra pulls herself up, dusting her clothing off not that it was anywhere near expensive clothing. Her eyes then dart around at the scene and a gasp escapes her lungs.

"I...I did this...?"

Tears began to fill the young girl's eyes as she realizes that she must have killed so many innocent people. This was all her fault...and then, she notices the cops surveying the scene and starts to panic again.

"T-They're gonna' know that I did it! Oh my god! I'm just a kid! I c-can't go to jail! I gotta' run!"

Terra shifts her body around, about to sprint away from the area until she notices a baby stroller stuck under a large fragment of the Mall's roof. Her eyes widen in despair as she moves toward the stroller slowly and places her hands gently on the fragment that crushed it. The roof piece instantly tears itself apart, revealing the baby stroller...and more gruesome, a woman underneath the stroller...dead. Somehow the baby survived due to the mother protecting the fall and the stroller's top protecting anything from hitting the baby's head. Terra lifts the baby into her arms and holds it securely until she glances toward Warren, finally noticing that the male had large white wings sprouting from his back. She moves over to the male slowly and hands the crying baby up for him to receive.

Her eyes then dart back to the innocent mother that was crushed and killed underneath the massive weight. Her skin appears to be so pale, cold...her eyes have lost their color. The woman's hair contains a great deal of dust within it, and blood appears to be spilling from the back of her head. Terra's eyes start to water again until she wipes them off on her sleeve.

"So many...people..."

[Warren Worthington III]

For a while, it seems Terra is going to lose it again, and Warren tenses. But she responds well to Veronica’s comments, at least enough to pull out of her – literal – shell, and he relaxes slightly. At least now he can carry her away if he has to.

She loses it again when she notices the police, and he tenses again… the aftermath of this is going to be hard enough to deal with without mutants attacking police officers. She sounds a bit like a broken record, but really that’s not too surprising… she’s clearly traumatized.

And the fact is, with the trail of death and destruction she’s left behind her, she’s right to fear imprisonment. On the other hand, it’s not like any jail would hold her, anyway… and she is a minor. Warren has some confidence that he and Ororo can convince a judge to transfer Terra into the Institute’s custody, if the Institute agrees to offer reparations. Which is going to be… expensive. And that’s not even counting the property damage and civil suits the Institute will be liable for if they take responsibility for Terra.

Not to mention the odds that she’ll level the Institute itself.

Well. One crippling problem at a time. Right now, the most important thing is to save these people’s lives.

> " So many...people... "

He nods slowly, taking the baby from her arms. "Yeah. But you can’t worry about that right now. You can’t worry about the police, either. Terra, I know this is hard, but right now, we have to worry about saving as many of the survivors as we can. That’s why the police are here, to save lives. Do you think you can let them do that without panicking? Or would you rather I take you somewhere safe?"

[Terra Moonscar]

>"Yeah. But you can’t worry about that right now. You can’t worry about the police, either. Terra, I know this is hard, but right now, we have to worry about saving as many of the survivors as we can. That’s why the police are here, to save lives. Do you think you can let them do that without panicking? Or would you rather I take you somewhere safe?"

"N-No...I caused this, I have to fix it."

All of a sudden a determined look plants itself upon Terra's expression. Her eyes darted around the scene, observing what she might or might not be able to do to give aid. The girl's energy was already running on low from her panic attack which sunk the Mall, however there has to be something. Walking over to what used to be the center of the Mall, now filled with rattled debris, Terra leans down to the ground, sitting upon her knees. From here she places her palms on the the solid ground, closing her eyes and focusing with all intention to help these innocent people.

In a radius of thirty feet, the ground began to shake once again signifying that Terra's abilities were alert. The fragments that surround her began to quiver violently before tearing themselves apart into nothing more but dust that started rising in the air. Bodies soon began to appear, many dead, many breathing heavily with horrid fatalities.

"I..I found some!"

Terra calls out to Warren and the female. However, her body began to slow down, her own breathing becoming heavy. She had wasted too much energy doing all of this. Her vision is blurring randomly.

"I-I don't think...I can do that again..."

[Warren Worthington III]

> " I..I found some! I-I don't think...I can do that again... "

And thank God for that, thinks Warren privately. This girl is an unbelievable powerhouse, clearly, but it’s reassuring to know that she does eventually get tired.

More important is that she seems to be thinking about someone other than herself, finally. With a little luck they can keep that going… and after this fiasco, they’re going to need all the luck they can get just to stay in place.

"Excellent, Terra. Thanks for the help. Now, how about we get out of the way and let the professionals take care of things?" He offers his hand to the girl while thinking in Josh’s direction. OK. I think she’s calmed down now. Just remind the police they don’t want to try and arrest her now, it will probably cause another cascade. The Institute will take responsibility for her, for now.

[Jack Russell]

Okay guys, it’s showtime. Remember… this is a chance to show the country that not all of us go blowing up buildings like Magneto did.[/color]

Gravely, Jack emerges from behind Josh, getting a sensory overload of smoke, ash, blood, screams, and sirens. He hasn't bothered with the earpiece, knowing better by now than to follow cue. The same grim expression he'd been bearing for several weeks remains unchanged, even as he looks upon the wreckage left smoldering in a pit of rubble.

The three of them approach a firefighter to assess the situation, but Jack manages a glance at Toni before he just continues on in haste. Any second wasted is a second they could never get back for someone dying. Lieutenant Derek Rand. It’s great to meet you, sir. Colonel Fury said that you guys should be able to give you a hand? Call me Josh… everyone else does. Yeah, we’re here to do whatever we can to help. Jack only partially listens as Josh gives the firefighter a rundown on the three of them, making sure to expressly notify Lieutenant Rand of his physical change. It would make no difference; there's no way he could manage the affair without being noticed and stirring up a negative reaction of his presence.

Without warning, Jack shifts, and he can already feel eyes on him. Trying not to give it anymore thought, he approaches the lip of the wreckage before slipping over the edge.

Jack treads lightly. God.. who knows how many people are down under all this. He strains to listen over the panic, trying to locate the nearest civilian. Across the pit, firefighters are trying to move chunks of rubble many times their size. Jack bounds up the side of the crater before landing in a crouch on the jagged remains of a counter. Quickly, he approaches and roughly pushes his way through. Obviously human, they draw back stunned, a few of them nervously reaching for their sharper tools. Chuffing, Jack narrows his eyes, in no mood to place nice. He turns his back and works his hands beneath the diagonal slab and slowly pulls it up until he can heft it over his head.

Beneath the chunk of what used to be a wall, there are a few survivors and the bloody remains of some dead, the last moments of their lives splattered across the wreckage.

The firefighters slip underneath the giant tablet, quickly trying to usher out the living and the ones they could save. Over Jack's head, the slab slides a little, loosing leverage. He works his jaws, trying to say something.

"Hhur..," is all he can get out, and Jack snarls to himself in frustration. Shit! Trying to buy them some time, he takes a step forward to get a better grip.

[Terra Moonscar]

>"Excellent, Terra. Thanks for the help. Now, how about we get out of the way and let the professionals take care of things?"

Terra nods in acceptance as she grips onto Warren's hand, expecting him to lead her out of this horrid place. Hopefully his companions and the federal officials would be able to take care of the rest of this mess. From this point, the young girl allows Warren to lead her, still having no idea that he is a part of the group who approached her two weeks ago. She halts their progress, pulling a card out from her pocket.

"Uhm, Warren, I believe these people can help out as well. They came looking for me two weeks ago asking me to join their school or something. They have mutant abilities just like us! They could help us both! And that female friend of yours!"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh is placed with a group of firefighters and other emergency workers who are trying to move a large chunk of debris. Straining slightly, he levitates a steel I-beam long enough for other workers to brace it. The looks of amazement on their face make him grin slightly, but it also embarrasses him a little. Nearby, a group of police officers are talking to survivors, who look horribly shell-shocked.

> Thank God! Josh, Vero and I are here. We’ve got the earthshifter you ran into at the park here, too… she’s not actively hostile, but she’s not entirely sane either. Heavily traumatized, at best. Can you hold the cops and emergency service folk back for a few minutes? If I can’t talk her down, she’s likely to freak out and the casualty rate is going to climb.

Josh's jaw drops. Her? I give up. Can we have Magneto instead? At least I expected him to attack me. He resists the urge to roll his eyes. She wasn't entirely sane there, either. Watch her... she's got a couple bolts loose, I think. And... I'm really glad you're okay. You scared the crap out of me. Neither of them are in view, but it's all Josh can do to keep himself from running to find Warren.

Right now we're trying to pull survivors from the edge of the disaster. If she was the epicenter of the whole quake, we're a ways from you. Josh's eyes flick to the crowd of police officers.

"It was a girl! She brought the whole thing down on us. We were far enough away to escape, but..." The person's face twists in agony. "But... my daughter... I don't know if she's alive or dead!"

One of the police officers looks puzzled. "How could a girl do this?"

The victim is teetering on the edge of his sanity. "Because she was a mutant! I saw the ground rippling around her. I don't know how she did it... but she did." The man starts sobbing into the blanket wrapped around his bloody clothing.

The firefighters just want to rescue the survivors. But the police know it was her. I think things could get bad... Josh begins probing a huge chunk of concrete for structural weaknesses with his telekinesis. "There... if I can lift up this part, you guys should be able to break it off."

> OK. I think she’s calmed down now. Just remind the police they don’t want to try and arrest her now, it will probably cause another cascade. The Institute will take responsibility for her, for now.

Warren, should the Institute even take responsibility for her? Terra attacked Toni and me. I tried to tell her that she could hurt someone, but she ignored me. If we get too wrapped up in this, we could have some serious legal problems on our hands.

Josh carefully lifts himself off the ground with his powers to get a better view on their current problem. "It's stuck, there. We need to move that larger piece first." Pained minds claw out at him, and he shudders. "There are survivors in there, I think." The rescue crew doesn't question him, but they look a little surprised. I mean, I guess the Institute could take her in for the moment, but she's angry. Angry and dangerous. And wasn't much interested in coming with us the first time.

[Warren Worthington III]

> Warren, should the Institute even take responsibility for her? [..] If we get too wrapped up in this, we could have some serious legal problems on our hands.

Correction: we will have serious legal problems on our hands. And if we don't...? He lets the thought trail off unfinished, not wanting to think about the consequences of letting this girl wander like a time bomb through the world.

Part of him wants to leave the decision up to Josh, knowing perfectly well that he'll reach the same conclusion -- they can't abandon this girl just because it's dangerous. But he's got other things on his mind, and it's mostly just a habit he's picked up from teaching, anyway. So he just states the conclusion himself: I don't see where we have a choice, frankly.

He chuckles as Terra shows him the emergency card. "Actually, Terra, I am one of those people, and they're already helping out. They're working their way in from the periphery now... we just need to get out of their way. Are you ready?" He latches an arm under hers and prepares to launch them both into the air.