The Torres family arrived at the power plant on fumes, the large chain link gate closed.
The trip over had been mostly silent, no one willing to bring up the recent battle in the neighborhood or Cass's part in helping Gabriel escape. Cass broached the subject once, only to be shut down by Zavier.
"It's too soon to talk about this - everything is still too raw. As for your part," he paused, clenched jaws trying to keep the words he wanted to say from coming out. He took a moment to collect himself before replying. "As for your part, it's no different than the rest of the neighborhood. People got sucked into his bullshit and chose sides." Cass's objections were cut off when Zavier met his eyes in the rearview mirror.
"At any rate, it's pointless to talk about. Gabri - everything that happened, it caused a rift in our neighborhood right when we needed to come together. Pulling everyone back together is going to be pretty damned near impossible if we don't do something drastic. That's why we're here," Zavier said as the van rolled to a stop in front of the gate. In the distance the huge stacks that normally belched out steam were decidedly dormant. They got out of the car and scoped the area, Zavier studying the locking mechanism while Tess scanned the expanse of grass that had been left to grow wild these last couple of months.
"I doubt I can get the lock to work but we should be able to cut it pretty easily," Zavier said.
"Wait," Tess reached out and touched his arm. "Before you do that, there's something in the air…" She closed her eyes and inhaled through her nose. "It smells… I'm not totally sure how to describe it. Acrid? Bitter? More than that, though. There's something seriously wrong here, Z."
He studied the land through the gate. The plant itself was far in the distance, the miles of open ground blending to a forested buffer zone of trees - a requirement in case of a toxic leak or meltdown. Overall, nuclear power was the safest power on the planet - even a meltdown would quickly be buried under thousands of tons of sand that would melt into glass to encapsulate the radiation. Media loved to portray nuclear power plant failures as huge mushroom clouds of deadly radiation, but unless you were dumb enough to break into a nuclear plant after a meltdown you were safe from any potential effects.
"Well, do we turn back?" Zavier asked. "We need to get this power back up but if you say it's too dangerous we'll turn around and figure something else out."
Tess considered, then shook her head. "No, we need this. If it wasn't this there'd be some other danger we'd have to face. May as well pick our poison."
Zavier nodded and turned to the twins. "You guys get a vote too. What do you say?"
Cass hid his nerves with an indifferent shrug.
Luna took longer to answer. "I don't know," she drew the words out as she considered them. "Something inside is telling me that we need to go in there, but it's also saying we shouldn't. I don't know how to describe it, just that it feels like part of me is pushing us that way and part of me is pushing us away."
"That might be your Luck talking," Zavier said. "Can you concentrate on it more? Try to pick up any details of what it's telling you?"
Luna closed her eyes, her face scrunched up in concentration. "I think… it's saying you need to go in, Dad. It feels like it's a good thing for you, but bad for the rest of us."
"Okay then!" Zavier replied cheerfully.
"But it's saying it's a bad thing for us if you do."
"Woah, wait," he said. "What could be good for me but bad for you all?"
"I don't know," Luna's frustration strained her voice as she concentrated harder. "Okay, not so much bad for us, just that I feel like we should just turn around and go home. Bah!" she threw her hands up with frustration. "I don't know! I'm sorry, it's weird."
"That's okay, Honey," Tess said. "Do you feel like any of us are in danger?"
Luna could only shrug at that. "I don't know, I've never had this feeling before. I've been putting my points into Luck and I've started getting these impressions, but mostly it seems to happen automatically. Most of the time I don't even know if something was luck or Luck with a capital L."
"Well then," Zavier said, "what do you say? Turn back or proceed?"
Luna looked at the three of them watching her. "Why are you all staring at me? I don't know! Proceed, I guess!"
Tess cut through the lock and the gate was pushed aside, the vehicle moving slowly down the road leading to the plant.
"What is that?" Tess pointed ahead towards the plant but it was another few seconds before the others could see the small shapes flying toward them.
"Birds?" Zavier asked.
"I don't think so, they're moving too smoothly for that - and they're coming in really fast."
Zavier cried out in alarm as Luna lunged between the seats and jerked the steering wheel to the side. His shouted question was drowned out by a series of rapid thumps along the back of the SUV, light shining through the new holes.
"OUT!" Zavier yelled and rolled out of his door, watching as the rest of his family leapt from theirs, the vehicle rolling slowly over the curb and into the grass. Drones shot overhead and green bolts of plasma streaked into it, shredding the exterior and punching perfect circles through the metal. It rolled to a slow stop, engine ticking as more bolts cut clean holes through the engine compartment and throwing up dirt from underneath.
Zavier held up his hands in a "freeze" gesture and put one finger to his lips. The drones circled the vehicle before spinning rapidly in place, halting in quick, furtive movements, searching the surrounding areas.
There's no way they don't see us, Zavier thought, feeling ridiculous as he stood there like a statue. Tell me their vision isn't based on movement. He didn't know if that was the case or if it was a vehicle that caused them to react, but moments later the drones were fading into the distance with a low buzz.
"What was that?" Cass whispered.
"Plasma drones?" Zavier answered.
"I know they were drones, obviously," Cass's voice sounded affronted. "But why didn't they shoot at us?"
"I think they were just after the vehicle," Zavier replied. "Some sort of automated defense system?"
"What kind of defense system does a power plant have?" Tess asked. "Call me crazy, but I don't think power plants have automated drone sentinels."
"I guess they do now," Zavier said. They shared worried looks at what that could mean.
"Awe, our lunches!" Luna said and jogged over to where the small cooler had fallen onto the road. She kneeled on the pavement and began scooping them up into the cooler.
Zavier watched her go, eyebrow raised in surprise. The sound of the drones fading into the distance was lost behind the rustling of grass. Mental alarms went off when he realized that there wasn't any wind.
Without warning Tess was in the air, leaping a full six feet straight upwards. Zavier's question didn't have a chance to leave his throat before sharp pain shot through the bottom of his foot.
"Ow!" Zavier lifted his foot up just in time to see a slimy, segmented worm slither its way through a hole it had chewed through the sole of his boot, the wiggling body disappearing into the bottom of his foot. Horror dawned on his face when he looked down and saw hundreds of small, wriggling worms popping their heads out of the ground around him. They each sported octopus-like beaks that they were stretching toward his foot.
"CASS! BASH YOUR FATHER WITH THE SHIELD!" Tess was taking massive leaps through the air, barely touching the ground before launching into the air again.
Cass looked confused then looked down at his own feet and the worms trying unsuccessfully to burrow through his Boarcharge Boots. His shield was on his arm in an instant and he slammed into Zavier, sending him flying to land in a loose roll on the pavement.
Tess and Luna were at him in an instant but Zavier didn't have eyes for them. He tore at his boot, popping laces in his frenzy. Sweat beaded his brow as the pain in his foot intensified. He ripped it off with a scream and tore the sock away.
The rest of them gasped in horror at the sight of a wriggling body tracing paths under the skin of his foot. Already the digestive enzymes were burning holes in his skin and the worm was growing visibly larger as it ingested the goop that used to be Zavier's muscles and skin.
Shimmer was out in a flash and Tess was cutting through his skin, trying to catch the worm that was moving too unpredictably to catch. Zavier screamed again as it turned to move up his calf, trying to get away from Tess's knife.
There was an electric pop as Luna pressed her Lunar Rod against his calf where the worm was. Zavier's vision went white and he wished he could pass out from the pain rather than watching Tess cut into his calf to pull out a stunned worm that had grown to over six inches long. Tess threw it onto the ground and Cass stomped on the worm, splattering goo in every direction. Tess threw a couple of healing pills into Zavier's mouth and he swallowed them with a sigh of relief as the skin on his foot and leg regrew.
Zavier wiped sweat from his face and looked around in panic, relieved to see that the worms didn't seem inclined to venture out onto the pavement. "Holy fucking nightmare fuel, Batman," Zavier gasped out.
Tess helped him to his feet and he threw his arms around all three of them. "Thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys saved my bacon there. That was the most terrifying thing that has happened to me yet."
He picked up his boot and eyed the clean, round hole in the bottom. Another shudder went through him as he slipped it back on. "Okay then, no grass. Jesus Christ."
Tess patted him on the back. "That's enough of that, you're okay, Love."
Zavier gave one more dramatic shudder. "Next time you have a huge-ass worm wriggling through your body and eating you from the inside we'll see how much you swear."
She smiled and ruffled his hair, kissing him on the cheek. "You're right, that was scary and you're a very brave boy. You're okay though. Let's go see what other scary stuff is waiting for us."
"I swear to god if it's another worm…"