xp_logs | Jane, Yvette - Monday Afternoon

There's an accident at a Red X volunteer site.

The problem with disasters, Jane reflected, was that once the immediate danger was over, people tended to forget about all of the clean-up work that went into making things right again. She looked up from her clipboard at the damaged building before her. One of the reasons that she liked working with Red X so much is that they didn't forget, and came back to help, instead. Tomorrow they'd start work on this building, putting it back together and making it useful once again. The front facade was smashed in a number of places, and there was gaping hole on the fourth floor. The hole was burned at the edges, and gave the building the unsettling appearance of having had an eye gouged out of it. Still, the engineers said it was stable and safe, (or as safe it could be, considering,) and it would be easier to fix the structure instead of trying to rebuild it.

Slipping inside the front door into what had been a ground floor bodega, she noted that it had been pretty well cleaned out. Looters probably had gotten to the food a long time ago, and the Red X crew had been clearing out the rest of the building so that they'd have room to work. A couple of fixtures had big orange 'x's spraypainted on them, indicating that they couldn't be salvaged. The rest would be moved off site until they were done. Jane peeked inside one of the large, walk-in coolers and immediately regretted it as the dank, fetid air inside assaulted her.

As she slowly wandered up the stairs, she began to check off the empty apartments on her list. The door to 3C stuck when she tried to open it, and she slammed her shoulder against it hard. It popped open with a painful squeal, and Jane stepped inside cautiously. "Hello?" she called into the silent room, belatedly wishing that she'd thought to grab a partner to come with her. "Is anyone here? Because if you are, you really shouldn't be."

The stillness of the apartment was broken by the sounds of something shuffling in the far room. It hissed quietly into the air before ending in a bright tinkle of broken glass. Curious, she followed the noise into the kitchen. "Oh, man..." she muttered surveying the scene before her.

The back corner of the kitchen had collapsed into itself, and the floor angled crazily towards a sucking pile of rubble that was threatening to pull down the nearby refrigerator into it. Jane watched as a pile of dishes slid down the angled counter and crashed to the floor. Flipping through her worksheets, she marked down the newly discovered problem. It was so easy to miss things when there was so much to do.

Turning, she started back towards the apartment door when a louder, much more ominous creak sounded behind her. Glancing back, she gasped as the wall of the kitchen gave way in a shriek of twisting metal and splintering wood, leaving nothing but empty space behind it. The floor shifted under her feet as the missing wall destabilized the building further, and she began to slide backwards towards the hole.

Jane tried to bolt for the door, her hands grabbing for purchase on the frame, but the floor disappeared under her feet just in time for the ceiling to come down on her head.

--

She'd dropped off on the Red X work in New York, especially after the rock throwing incident with Jane, but Yvette had too much of a social conscience to stay completely away, especially on top of her conversation with Cammie and the school play project. It had left her thinking about the shuttered life they had at the mansion, and here was a way for her to get out and about and do something useful - with the added safety of the Red Cross workers supervising and Jane not so far away. She was in the middle of clearing away debris - cutting it down so that it could be hauled away - when there was a rumble from the building across the way and a cloud of dust erupting from the broken windows. Yvette paused, but not worried until she saw Red Cross workers running towards the building and heard the shouts and then her heart sank. Someone had been inside. Dropping what she was doing, she hurried over, to see if there was anything she could do.

"Woah there, kiddo," said one of the relief workers as she reached the building, holding up an arm to stop her. "Building's not stable - we don't want to risk anyone else being hurt."

"How many are being in there?" she asked, stopping obediently. "Perhaps my powers...?"

"Looks like just the one. They're some people in there now, digging her out..." There were shouts from inside, some rumbling, and then several workers appeared, hurrying out as they carrying a limp form on a stretcher.

"Jane!" This time Yvette ducked under the man's arm and made her way to the rescuers. "Jane? Are you all right?" There was another rumble from the building and they all hustled away as quickly as they could, Yvette trying to avoid getting underfoot and stay as close to Jane as possible. The older girl didn't look good, covered in plaster dust and bleeding from several small cuts. She was semiconscious at best, blinking blearily at Yvette as she was carried to an ambulance.

"Miss?" It was an EMT, speaking to her. "Miss, do you know her?"

"Yes," Yvette replied, tearing her eyes away. Her own were blazing brightly with worry and fear. "We are..." How to describe the situation? "She is living at my boarding school. Will she be all right?"

"She will after treatment. Do you want to come with her in the ambulance? We'll need someone to contact her family or next of kin."

Yvette nodded at once. This was bigger then her own powers issues and fear of crowds and the outside world. Jane needed her. "Of course."