I'm still a little confused here...you said that the PC's were lead to a remote locale in order to minimize damage so what in the name of Zues's butthole were their 'loved ones' doing there?!?!? I get the assault on Washington(Which, unless they are the only supers in the world should fail miserably, especially if you have an uber-villian who would not see this action as being in his best interests, i.e. Doom, Luthor, Dr. Destroyer, Magneto, etc.), but if they are loved ones then why are they at the fight in the first place? I can see if the 'bad guys'(US Gov. in this case) brought them, but if the supers themselves had a hand in it then they shouldn't be mad at their own stupidity. BTW as soon as supers came on the scene in any sane world there would immediately exist some kind of task force to keep up with the strengths and weaknesses of all known supers at least in America, and they would posses the abilities to exploit both. This doesn't mean a catch-all deus ex machina kind of thing(At least be clever and inventive), but it might be a good time to introduce said group. The reason I say this is because once this arc is finished, if they do happen to rule America(cringe), then this campaign is over...they ruled the US sooooo either they are eliminated or removed as a factor in the world as super heroes, but I can't see them going back pulling cats out of trees.