"Luna, go get your brother and tell him we're leaving. He's coming with us."
"I'll try, mom, but he said he's not ready to come back yet."
Tess stopped her packing and fixed Luna with a look, then stormed out of the house. With the voice of every parent yelling for their kid to come inside she shouted into the neighborhood at large. "CASSIAN! You quit your moping and get your butt in here right now! We are getting the power back on and you are coming with us. Don't make me come hunt you down!"
Her voice echoed through the silent neighborhood, then a voice responded from a backyard a few houses down.
"I'm not coming, mom. You guys do it without me."
Tess's face went dark with irritation and impatience, then she was gone at a sprint. Anyone watching would barely have been able to track her motion as she flashed across the street and leaped directly onto the roof of a house before flipping into the backyard behind it. There was a sharp cry of alarm and a short scuffle, then she was storming out between two houses dragging a teenage boy by his collar. Lightning started to appear around his feet but she shook him.
"So help me god, Cass, if you pull that speedster crap on me and I have to chase you down I will make the entire neighborhood watch me spank you like you're a kid again."
The lightning stopped but he still pulled at her hand, useless as it may be. Tess had reached level 12 and was stronger than any pre-System Olympic athlete. He would have had more luck cutting his shirt off than forcing her to release her grip.
"Fine! I'll come with. Can you just let me go?"
She stopped dragging him and stared into his face, judging if he was telling her the truth. She nodded hesitantly and released his collar, muscles tensed to grab him again if he tried to run.
He just stood up and tugged at his shirt, trying to regain some of his dignity. "You didn't need to do that."
"You didn't need to pout like a man-baby," she said. "You want to be treated like a man, act like one. Now, enough of that. Let's go grab everyone else and head to the power plant. We need to get this neighborhood back up and running. Your dad wants to start helping make everyone stronger, he wants to build some sort of community militia or army or something and he thinks the first step is giving them the comfort of electricity."
Cass paled at her words. "They're not going to trust us. They're not going to trust me."
They stopped and she turned to regard her son. She hated seeing the shame on his face but was glad it was there. Better that than no shame at all. She reached out to hug him but thought better of it, resting her hand on his shoulder instead.
"They probably won't, Honey. But if you're going to make up for what you've done you'll have to start somewhere. Let's take the first step, we'll figure the rest out later."
Cass mumbled something under his breath but her perfect hearing caught it. She froze in place, her heartbeat doubling. Through gritted teeth she asked, "What was that?"
He looked up in shock, surprised that she'd heard him. He waffled but realized it was too late to lie. "I just said that Gabriel brought everyone together and built an army."
"The things that son-of-a-bitch did…" Tess's voice was quavering.
"I know, mom! I know," Cass cut her off. "I'm not saying everything he did was great or that his motivations were pure, I'm just saying that he DID bring everyone together."
Tess took a deep, steadying breath. Don't start this fight now. Focus on the task at hand. Without a word she turned and stalked back to the house, Cass following silently behind her.
Twenty minutes later they were in the SUV and pulling onto the road. Zavier had been surprised to see Cass, but a warning look from Tess made him hold back the hug he wanted to throw around the boy. Instead, he just nodded as Cass walked past him to grab his supplies from the house. Zavier looked at the gas gauge with no small amount of trepidation.
"We may have to siphon some gas, we're running a little low here," he said.
"Plenty of cars on the way," Tess replied.
Zavier put the car into drive with an "Excelsior!" but was interrupted by a small figure running across the street, waving its arms frantically.
"Is that Madison?" Zavier asked.
She skidded to a stop in front of the SUV and Luna jumped out of the vehicle, running around to meet her. The two girls hugged tightly, then Luna cupped Madison's face in her hands and leaned down to give her a lasting kiss on the lips. Zavier and Tess met each others' gazes with raised eyebrows, then Luna was back in the car.
"So…" Zavier said.
"Shut up, dad," Luna replied, refusing to meet his grinning expression in the mirror.
"What?" He said. "I was just going to say 'EXCELSIOR!'"