ã€ŠPlanetary Cultivationã€‹


 Prologue: We are not alone

    The people of Earth learned they were not alone in the galaxy. Not the hard way, where an invading alien species overruns the world. Not through an easy way, where aliens came bearing messages of peace. And not even a way where the people of Earth were the discoverers of another race.

    Instead it was with a single man, nearly human looking, appearing in the United Nations building during the height of discussions about great hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters ravaging the world. The discussion of relief and its cost, who would get it, and other facts trailed off as a nearly seven foot tall man stood in front of the podium. It was not that he had walked up and demanded attention, but that suddenly he was there where no one was previously. Cropped black hair faded into his dark, nearly black skin as he looked out over the delegates for a moment.

    ¡°Representatives of your world¡¯s Empires and Sects, I am Lei Zhaohui and per the Rite of Ragnarok, I have come to challenge your greatest Masters over the right to the cultivation of your world¡¯s soul. Bar my way and retain your right to ascend to the Heavens. Fail, and your world will only support my own Divine cultivation.¡± Everyone there heard his words in their own language, though he did not speak. Instead, the strength of his presence alone forced concepts to take root in their minds that translated to understanding.

    The man did not receive an answer from the room, and so looked around at them. Men and women were mostly unconscious and the few that stayed aware were failing to raise themselves from the floor or the tables they had fallen against. ¡°Mortals? Mortals at a Conclave of Portents? Surely your masters jest, trying my patience in this manner!¡± A scowl appeared.

    The feeling of presence flowed heavy, crushing those around him as it reached out further into the world. The scowl on his face deepened for a moment, before slowly turning to confusion and then dismay. His presence, holding the people down, faded as he deigned to finally speak. ¡°Hundreds of thousands of mortals fly above the land in mockery of a Heaven cultivation. Nothing on this planet even ranks as an Initiate. What world is this?¡± Zhaohui looked at the barely recovering mortals in the gathering. ¡°How long ago was it your ancestors gave up cultivating their strength and that of this world?¡± His words were in an unknown language, but still carried hints of concept behind them that allowed them to be understood.

    ¡°F-Fuck yo-you,¡± one man stated, arm holding down a button of some kind. A door opened and several men shakily entered, guns held in wavering grasps, silent alarm flashing behind them. Seeing an unknown man standing, with everyone else unconscious or barely moving themselves, they opened fire.

    ¡°Interesting.¡± Zhaohui held up a hand, looking at the first of the bullets, plucked in flight. The rest slid off his body, kinetic energy completely removed instead of just ricocheting away. ¡°Even with no cultivation behind it, I believe this would require at least a Profound realm cultivator to react to these in flight. Though, even against Initiates at the third body meridian they wouldn¡¯t leave much more than bruises.¡± The handful of spent bullets fall. ¡°No matter.¡±

    Zhaohui¡¯s presence flowed throughout the room again and beyond, but only a light touch this time instead of the crushing power of his anger. ¡°Rejoice mortals, for this Lei Zhaohui came to your world to conquer your Heavenly realm for his own. In finding none, I will take on the trouble of cultivating your world¡¯s soul until the Heavenly realm is accessible. By the Rite of Ragnarok, should one of your own stand in my way when your Heaven realm matures, I will stand aside, defeated in my challenge. Should none be there, your Heaven will bow to me.¡±

    As the alien man calmly sat in a lotus position, his voice echoed through his presence one last time, ¡°You may address my august presence at any time, and I will answer to the strength of your world¡¯s soul.¡±

    All this may have been hidden by those in charge, as are many other things, except for two reasons. The first being: the original seeking presence looking for Heaven had bowed the head of every mortal, causing the crashing of every plane and jet, with near total death of their passengers. The second: the concept of voice and challenge that flowed through Zhaohui¡¯s presence spoke directly to every mortal on Earth.

    ~~~

    February 8th, 20XX

    Cultivation Era Year 1

    Nicole Firen, twenty-year-old college freshman, stared at the computer screen for a long moment, a swirling mass of greens and blues showing a storm off the coast of Alaska. A second monitor contained a spreadsheet of numbers. "Three standard deviations off the last fifty years. Better, warmer. I''d probably have to go back to the late 1900s before this looked normal." Notes were written down on a separate tablet, words transcribed into typed text. I paused, sighing and grabbing a long braid of my hair, fraying the red ends. "How does one being do this?"

    The being in question was the unmoving Lei Zhaohui, still sitting in the UN building in New York. Six months without a single movement, and there had been dozens if not hundreds of attempts to move him. From simple lifting to dismantling the stage below him¡ªwhere he now floated in midair¡ªto literally strapping him to increasingly larger vehicles to attempt to pull him away. Nothing affected him. They''d eventually vacuum sealed him in a box and were in the process of rebuilding the UN room to close him off. You would think he hadn''t even noticed but¡­

    "What is the strength of our world''s soul?" I asked quietly, focusing on that light, ephemeral touch I couldn''t explain inside me. The answer reverberated through my body, words unspoken but heard anyways.

    Your world''s soul has not even lit its dantian. It remains as mortal as you and your people, replied that damn voice, with a touch of patient amusement strung through it. The same voice that had echoed across the world six months prior. The same answer every time I voiced the question.

    After that day, where millions died falling from the sky in airplanes worldwide, something had changed. The runaway climate change of the world¡ªscientists screaming it would cause the end of human habitable life¡ªhad slowed within days, and now looked well on its way into a reversal. I had even seen on the web where some thought plants were actually getting stronger, crops providing heartier yields.

    Thankfully, other than grounding human flight, nothing else seemed to have ended with Zhaohui''s appearance. Satellites still flew in the sky, electricity still worked, zombies weren''t running amok. For an apocalypse¡ªfor Ragnarok¡ªit seemed pretty lowkey. Hand in hand with all those old apocalypse movies though, there were lots of religious people going crazy for one reason or another.

    Lifting my head I looked past the little cubicle I''d ensconced myself in, I saw a small number of others in the library. A few dealing with the older books, most with a tablet of their own doing research or homework. A couple of guys off in the corner, tablets laid out with projected wireframes above them. Design students or just playing some mech game, I couldn''t tell from my seat. It was quiet in the library, since all the religious studies classes had been cancelled and a lot of students had been told to argue theology off campus.

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    Shifting back again, I pulled up a new browser window and typed ¡¯What is a dantian?¡¯ but didn''t hit enter. I knew what was already out there. Thousands and thousands of pages, details to the nth degree on it. Six months ago, I''d known something about it being Chinese medicine and energy. If you didn''t even know that, when you asked about the world''s soul, supposedly you were told the soul wasn''t awake.

    But now? I hit search. Now, millions of words detailing a dantian in the extreme. Everyone knew what a dantian was. Video clips of people claiming ''meridians cleaned!'' or ''dragon veins are the path to the dantian!'' while knocking holes in walls and throwing each other around like they were in a movie. Some of them had to be fake, like the one titled "I''ll be the next Goku!" and throwing beams of gold energy around. Every bit of old lore surrounding the concept had been taken, translated, and argued a million different ways.

    Descriptions of surges of energy, thousands of different people claiming they had figured something out. Energy within used to do superhuman feats. Mystic ''masters'' doing the impossible. And beyond the ''august presence'' I could feel to ask about the world, I could almost taste the slightest whispering feather of something inside of me too, trying to course through me every time I thought of it. I pushed back against it once more, refusing to let it do anything. Keep it down, keep it not doing anything.

    There were a lot of results of people killing themselves accidentally too. Falling over dead with no reason, losing control at the wrong time, the energy backlashing and crippling them. A lot of times caught on video, shared with warnings, but never a good explanation on what they did wrong. If anyone even knew what they did wrong.

    Closing the browser, I looked at my homework still up and wrote a single line below it. "Climate science and weather projection is impossible when one person can put their finger on a global scale and determine what the climate is." Documentation saved and closed. I''d figure out what to argue with the professor later. I needed to stretch and move for a bit.

    "What is the strength of the world''s soul?" I asked quietly again, as I stood from the desk and began to make my way out of the library. And as always, the patiently amused answer, Your world''s soul has not even lit its dantian. It remains as mortal as you and your people.

    I''d settle for at least attempting to harass the guy responsible for all the changes instead. There was always a subtle shift in ¡¯spoken¡¯ tone instead of sounding like a recorded message, so maybe it actually took a bit of his concentration away. Added a second or two onto however long it took.

    ~~~

    Midwest Central College had a reasonable gym, though it was mostly filled with weights, weight machines, and various body builder equipment, rather than catering to a larger group that might want to do yoga, running, or anything else. It did have a single set of uneven bars and a balance beam, a bare nod to the gymnastics I preferred, but even if there was a clearing large enough for floor practice, it¡¯d probably be half full of people using it for other things.

    The room definitely wasn¡¯t Olympic level or anything, but neither was my skill. Dropping my workout bag, I watched another girl, Melissa, spin around one of the uneven bars for a moment with our mutual friend Karen playing spotter for her. Melissa spun gracefully for a moment on the higher bar, arms fully stretched out as she went round a few times.

    ¡°Flying high today?¡± I asked, sitting next to Karen and beginning to stretch. The feather of something tried to push towards my muscles and once again I pushed it back down.

    Karen nodded, keeping her eyes on Melissa on the bars. ¡°Lotta energy going around today. I watched Tony throw an extra two hundred pounds on his weights earlier.¡± Karen glanced at me, and my confused look, before continuing to look back to the bars. ¡°Claimed he¡¯d hit the second Meridian or whatever. He pulled off twenty reps with eight hundred pounds though. Walked away staggering, but pretty damn impressive.¡±

    ¡°He added a third of his current lifting weight again? OK, color me impressed.¡± I watched as Melissa went twice more around the bars before letting go, rotating once in midair before landing with a small bounce on the mat safely. That was the most important part. No matter how good you made it look on the bars, a bad landing could cost you in a competition, or worse an ankle if you came down really badly. I gave a thumbs up as Melissa stepped off the mats. ¡°Going up again, or need a rest?¡±

    ¡°One more.¡± Melissa nodded to me in answer. ¡°I¡¯ve had a good day today.¡±

    ¡°At least you did,¡± I grumbled quietly. ¡°How am I supposed to put together a weather projection that isn¡¯t a banner saying ¡®Ask the idiot in the box.¡¯¡±

    Karen laughed as Melissa got back up on the uneven bars, swinging once more. I swear she cracked a smirk at me too. I decided to finish stretching, but added a light jab her way too. ¡°Think he¡¯s even got DNA?¡± The biology major twitched, but her smirk shifted to a half smile.

    After a minute and another safe landing, Melissa finished and dropped down next to me, stretching to cool down. I stood up and prepped myself. I wished once more there was room for a floor routine, but there wasn¡¯t.

    Jump. Grab. Spin a few times for momentum. Release to the other bar. Spin. Turn.

    It wasn¡¯t zen, but the concentration on the bars let everything else fade away.

    Spin. Spin. Hold. Turn.

    Clamp down on the feathery thread as it tried to reach through to my arms. No.

    Swap again. Short spins on the waist. Back to the higher bar. Start spinning backwards for the landing.

    The thread again. Push down.

    The moment crystalized as I began the last half spin to release. It wasn¡¯t the same thread, the same feathery bit of power or whatever it was. It never had been. There were now dozens of threads I could feel now, all clamped together. And I could sense I¡¯d just pushed something into a critical mass. No longer individual pieces, they all merged into a single pool that for just a heartbeat flooded through me.

    My hands numbly released the bar, my body sent tumbling.

    A second heartbeat, and it condensed back into a pool once more, but a pool of energy. Power. Fire. Light. I couldn¡¯t describe it.

    I landed, falling heavily onto the mats, nearly thirty feet away and crashing next to several weight machines. I didn¡¯t feel hurt in the least as I sat up, people starting to react. I saw Karen already two steps closer to me.

    ¡°What is the strength of the world¡¯s soul?¡± The words almost fell from my lips unbidden.

    Your world¡¯s soul has not even lit its dantian. It remains as mortal as your people. The voice echoed in me, and I could actually feel it vibrating against whatever the pool was inside me. The patient amusement faded, interest perking instead. Unlike your own dantian. You have taken the first step to Heaven, one of only four of your people to not tread a false path.

    ¡°What is a dantian?¡± I whispered even as several helped me up, checking me over and ready to rush me to a nurse or hospital.

    I didn¡¯t get an answer.

 Chapter 1: First Cultivation

    February 9<sup>th</sup>

    ¡°No, seriously Dad, I¡¯m fine.¡±  I¡¯d propped the tablet up on a shelf, so Dad¡¯s projected head was at least level with me.  The tablet¡¯s projectors could only move an image so far, and I¡¯d never gotten used to looking down at a talking head on a table.  ¡°I took a spill yesterday.  I got checked over.  No broken bones, bruising, concussions, or anything.¡±

    Pausing, I took a step back.  ¡°Swap over to flat, see for yourself.¡±  Like he hadn¡¯t already swapped it over so his connection would show video instead of a projection.  But my step back gave him a better view, and I turned a circle and then easily stretched a leg out behind me.  ¡°See, no injuries.¡±

    ¡°You said yourself.  You tumbled after a thirty foot throw from the bars.  It¡¯s not possible to be completely unharmed from something like that.¡±  His voice was full of skepticism, not believing his eyes.

    On the fly video editing could do a lot, but I didn¡¯t have anything like that running.  The tablet was still on Dad¡¯s account too, so not like he didn¡¯t know everything I had loaded on the thing.

    ¡°Well¡± I started, smiling for the camera, ¡°you know how if you ask about the world soul¡¯s strength and get told about the dantian and such?¡±

    Dad¡¯s face immediately dropped.  ¡°Mystic bullshit.¡±

    ¡°Is it really if I actually used it?¡±  I asked.  I could still feel that pool inside me, a slow current spinning a circle in it.

    ¡°It¡¯s not measurable, repeatable, or trainable.  So it¡¯s not safe or reliable.  So yes, it¡¯s mystic bullshit.¡±  His voice was calm, but undeterred.  ¡°Three weeks ago, we had one of the guys in the shop playing around with it and decided he could move one of the big lathes without getting an exo on or grabbing a forklift.  That bullshit gave out on him halfway through moving it and he crushed his arm, nearly lost his arm and life.¡±

    A hand appeared in his image, rubbing his forehead and temple.  ¡°I¡¯m happy it kept you from harm, really honey.  But don¡¯t rely on it happening.  It¡¯d be a nearly two day drive to get to you.¡±

    Measurable, repeatable, trainable.  That was the engineer in him.  ¡°Got it, no mystic bullshit unless it passes engineering.¡± I replied, my eyes catching the blinking time on the screen behind him.  ¡°I¡¯ve only got a few minutes before I head out for my next class, say hi to Mom for me?¡±

    Dad chuckled.  ¡°Will do.  She¡¯s going to be mad she missed your call, but at least I can start with you¡¯re ok before telling her about your spill.  Go stick your head in the clouds.¡±

    ¡°Meteorology is more than just clouds Dad.¡± I whined back at him, the running joke for years on my interest and now college major.

    He smiled, then vanished as the call ended.

    ¡°How do you measure something intangible?¡± I asked myself.  The currently slowly turned in that internal pool, feeling like it slightly overflowed whatever it was.  My dantian, I guess.  I could actually feel the overflow buzz in me slightly, like I¡¯d had just a little too much caffeine.  Trying to mess with that overflow was like trying to purposely force my face red.  A whole lot of pressure, a little bit of response, and a feeling of lightheadedness afterwards.

    So yeah, not safe or reliable.  Repeatable though, if this morning was any example.  Too bad it wasn¡¯t like the threads had been earlier, wanting to interact with whatever activity I was doing.  ¡°What is the strength of the world¡¯s soul?¡±

    Your world¡¯s soul has not even lit its dantian.  It remains as mortal as your people. Patience amusement, a slight bit of extra weight from the presence as certain words echoed against my pool, and possibly a bit of a feeling of interest.  Other than not including me in being as mortal as my people, no change in his words, no additions like yesterday.  No insights into what I¡¯d done to myself.

    ¡°What¡¯s a dantian, and what does lighting it do?¡± I tried to address that presence with a different question, to no answer.  ¡°Asshole.¡±

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    I grabbed the tablet, shoving it in my bag.  I hadn¡¯t been lying that I had to get moving for class soon.  Downstairs to the dorm lobby I glanced at the display next to the door out.  A bright yellow seven blinked, and below it sat what looked like a mostly full jug of pump sunscreen.  Huh, pretty low UV index even for Missouri winter.  I could probably get away with just staying under the covered walkways without needing to slather on extra sunscreen.  Perks of redheaded fair skin, yay.

    Next to the door, apparently waiting on me, was Karen.  She smiled as she grabbed her own bag.  As we walked out the door I noticed the heavy clouds.  Snow.  That¡¯d help explain the index.

    ¡°So, you ok after yesterday?  I know you walked away from your crash and everything, but¡­¡±

    ¡°As I just finished telling my dad, I¡¯m fine.  Clean bill of health.¡±

    Karen nodded, taking me at my word.  ¡°So you joining the superhero club then?¡±

    ¡°Wait, what?¡± I stopped, looking at her confused.  ¡°Superhero club?¡±  I stepped off to the side of the walkway, still shaded but not blocking others walking by.

    ¡°Dantian Seekers, officially.  Chartered academic club and everything.  There¡¯s around forty people in it with bonafide superhuman feats like your unharmed fall.  And a couple dozen more of us that act as watchers or spotters for the others when they¡¯re practicing.  We¡¯re basically trying to figure out how it all works.¡± She explained.

    ¡°Let me guess, Melissa is in it?  How about the other guy you mentioned yesterday?¡±

    ¡°Melissa is, yeah.  Her claim to fame is she crushed one of the uneven bars right before Christmas.  Gripped hard enough to compress it like a tube of dough.¡±  Karen answered.  ¡°Tony though?  Nah, he spouted off some shit about ¡®Grinding solo is faster¡¯ like life¡¯s a game.¡±

    ¡°Huh.  I did just promise I wouldn¡¯t do anything stupid with ¡®mystic bullshit¡¯ as Dad referred to it as.¡±  I warned her.

    A shrug answered me.  ¡°We don¡¯t push you to use it.  Honestly, I don¡¯t think you actually tried to use it yesterday.  But for a lot of them?  It comes and goes and that¡¯s what I watch for.  Try to help catch them if something fails halfway through.¡±  She looked out over the open quad.  ¡°Tony for example, and whatever he¡¯s claiming as second Meridian.  He was free lifting that eight hundred pounds.  What would happen if it failed him at the last second, and he¡¯d dropped it on himself?  Squish.  He didn¡¯t have anyone spotting him like would be normal for any bodybuilder.  Much less his barely there muscles.¡±

    ¡°Let me think about it.¡± Such a decisive answer.  ¡°We have to get to class anyways.¡±

    ~~~

    English poetry was boring.  Ye Olde English worse.  So instead, I sat there, thinking over Karen¡¯s offer.  And my promise to Dad.  And what the idiot in the box said yesterday.  I drummed my fingers on the flexible glass keyboard embedded into the desk.

    Forty plus people, not even counting more like Tony who weren¡¯t pooling knowledge.  If I was supposedly the forth on the ¡®true path¡¯ then it was likely they were all doing something wrong.  What proof did I have, other than Lei Idiot no longer said I was as mortal as my people?  Not like anyone else could hear that.  And lifting near half a ton or crushing good steel bars was a lot better ignore a bad fall.

    The screen shifted as the professor started on some other deep meaning.  I ignored it and thought about the pool of energy.  The dantian.  That slowly circulating spin in it.  The overflow.

    ¡°What is the strength of the world¡¯s soul?¡± I whispered and received the same answer as always.

    But the words seem to echo against my dantian.  Push.  What was the word, resonate?  I whispered the question again and again.  Each time, a little push.  A little pull.  Messing with the dantian.  The fourth repeat, it seemed to hit the current just right that it spun a tiny bit faster.  And the overflow got bigger for just a moment, before the current returned to its normal spin.

    I mentally threw myself at that current, willing it to go faster.  It was like trying to pedal a bike from a standstill when it was in thirtieth gear.  But it starting spinning.  The overflow grew.

    A voice said something, I ignored it.

    The spinning picked up, almost painful but I could let it slow down to just under that.  It took effort to keep the current spinning faster than it wanted.  ¡°What is the strength of the world¡¯s soul?¡± I whispered again.

    Your [world¡¯s soul] has not even lit its [dantian].  It remains as mortal as your people.  The amused answer again.  But words in it felt deeper, stronger.  Like there was more behind it.

    He was an alien.  He probably didn¡¯t speak English, or German, or Chinese, or any of the hundreds of languages the internet said he responded in.  So how did we understand him?

    A huge slam in front of me had me all of a sudden focusing back on the class.  A huge, actual physical book had been slammed on the desk in front of me.  The Olde English prop.  I looked up at the teacher.

    ¡°So nice of you to rejoin us.¡± Professor Jones did not look amused.  ¡°You¡¯re excused from class, and I¡¯ll file the report for destruction of school property here shortly.¡±  He looked down at my station.

    I followed his gaze and realized two things.  I¡¯d drummed my fingers straight through the glass without even noticing.  And somehow without moving, I was a sweaty sticky mess.

 Chapter 2: Joining the Seekers

    Staggering out of the classroom, I slumped down for a moment against the wall trying to catch my breath.  I felt like I¡¯d run a marathon in ten minutes.

    Back to lazily spinning, the energy in my dantian wasn¡¯t even overflowing anymore.  It was nearly empty, actually.  I recalled what dad said about one of the guys crushing his arm as the ¡®mystic bullshit¡¯ stopped halfway through.  Karen¡¯s comments about spotters for people.  Yeah, I could see how it would be necessary.

    But the energy in the pool was refilling relatively quickly?  The current was¡­ Huh.  It was generating energy.  From where?  Did I have a mini-fusion reactor or a perpetual motion machine somehow sitting in my chest?

    After only another minute, the energy overflowed again and I could feel the overflow energizing me again, being absorbed.  Shallow pool?  But if I could make the current spin faster, it generated more power and made a bigger overflow.  But took effort from me to do it?  Shouldn¡¯t I just be able to use that extra generated power to spin it then?  I¡¯m so confused.  What the hell is a dantian?

    I stood up again, not even shaky anymore.  A sniff proved I still needed to get cleaned up though.  So, shower and then figure something out.  Like not losing my scholarship for breaking monitors.

    ~~~

    Several hours later found me sitting tucked onto a comfy couch in the dorm common area, trying to research dantians again, but there was entirely too wide of a net to cast to even know where to start.  I¡¯d sent a message earlier to Karen, because an academic club really sounded like they¡¯d at least have done the major pruning of weirdness.

    I¡¯d more or less ignored the message about next semester registration now being blocked until a miscellaneous repair fee of several thousand dollars was paid.  Several tabs of actual homework requirements begged for attention as well to no avail.

    ¡°So, superhero club!¡±  Karen dropped into a chair nearby, startling me.  ¡°You¡¯ve decided to give up your mild mannered life and take up caped crusading.  Did you want to be a hero, anti-hero, or anti-villain?  Dantian Seekers isn¡¯t currently looking to work with actual villains right now, I believe.  And since I know you¡¯ve had a power usage, sidekick is out.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± My confusion was likely written all across my face as I put my own tablet down.

    ¡°Yeah, I was going to suggest the Bouncing Gymnast as your superhero name, but you¡¯re not quite developed enough to have the most common superpower.¡±  Karen trailed off at the look on my face, and finally broke down laughing.  ¡°Sorry, sorry.  Just messing with you.  So, what¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re not completely wrong.¡±  I said, trying to reset myself past the joke with a laugh of my own.  ¡°I managed to shove my fingers through one of the glasstop keyboards earlier today trying to mess with whatever happened to me.    It doesn¡¯t really feel like it¡¯s going to go away and if it isn¡¯t I need to be able to trust it.  Not just not notice when I¡¯m breaking things.¡±

    ¡°Ow, damn.¡±  Karen looked to my hands.  ¡°You manage to stop before you hurt yourself?¡±

    ¡°I chipped more clearcoat than I actually chipped in nail or even scratched my fingers.  And I¡¯d gotten past my first knuckle before Professor Jones actually caught my attention.¡±  I waved my fingers around.  ¡°Felt like I¡¯d run a marathon and wiped out, but not actually hurt.¡±

    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s a bit different than I would have expected.  I thought you would have been arms, or maybe core.  Guess you did hands.¡±  Karen murmured.  I gave her another confused look.  ¡°How whatever power you get starts up.  I¡¯ll get to that in a minute.  I can run through the application stuff for Dantian Seekers if you want me to?¡±

    I nodded.  ¡°Yeah.  Less researching how everyone else is doing this.¡±

    She clicked a few things on her own tablet, pulling something up.  ¡°Alright, so first thing.  Dantian Seekers requires two things.  One, if someone else is attempting to do something with their power and you can, play spotter for them.  Basically, be ready to help or get help.  Second is you¡¯re a Seeker like you¡¯d be a member of a sorority.  No joining, dumping a local copy of everything we have, then dropping us.  Yes, we had a few people do it already.  Now as part of the application you agree to a ten thousand dollar fine if you do, plus paying back anything else the Seekers pay for you.¡±

    ¡°Who¡¯d be that much of an asshole?¡±  I asked, nodding to the requirements.

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    Karen snorted.  ¡°Mr. Solo grinding is better, for one.  Alright, auth here.¡±  She turned the tablet to me, a single page document up with the application and fine agreement up.  The fine was actually only required in the first five years if you left yourself.  After that, you only agreed to pay back anything else the Seekers paid for you.  Easy enough, so I used two fingers to auth sign it.

    ¡°Alright, come on.  I¡¯ll take you to superhero HQ.  Otherwise known as Building 17.¡±  I gave Karen a look.  ¡°What?  It¡¯s still superhero club, I can call it that.¡±

    ¡°I have homework.¡±

    ¡°Due tonight or tomorrow?¡±  I shook my head.  ¡°Then come on.  I can go over the rest of the basic stuff I¡¯ve got with you on the way over there, introduce you, then let you go back to the evils of Trig and idiot projection.¡±

    I let her pull me up, not like it was that hard to tempt me from homework.  ¡°So, basic stuff?  How much isn¡¯t basic?  I mean, it¡¯s only been six months since we¡¯ve even known this stuff might exist.¡±

    ¡°The power of the human collective wikis.  Well, that and apparently the Seekers got a pretty big grant, so I think there was a purchase of a lot of cloud computing to put stuff together.¡±  She shrugged, flipping something new open on her tablet as we walked.  ¡°So anyways, first thing up is what¡¯s being called your element.  There¡¯s a whole bunch of these, some of them really creepy.  Hopefully you¡¯re not one of those who thinks they need to drink blood or something.¡±

    ¡°I keep finding myself more and more confused.¡±  And if I was supposedly one of very few not on a false path, worried.

    ¡°No, seriously.  There¡¯s a few people out there that insist they get stronger drinking other people¡¯s blood.  I saw a post a couple of months ago from someone saying they were a zombie.  Haven¡¯t seen it again.  I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s because he killed himself, or got arrested for trying to eat brains.¡±  Karen shuddered.

    ¡°But really, like ninety percent or more say it¡¯s more like real elements.  So, yours.  Does it feel like a fire you¡¯re pulling from, clay you break off and use, blowing air through yourself, squeezing water from something?  There¡¯s a lot of people that say things like beating metal into shape and other things.  Religious crazies too, but I didn¡¯t see you shouting scripture when you came off the bars yesterday.¡±

    That was a lot.  ¡°Uhh, originally it was like light threads that blew through me, that I had to hold back?  But now it¡¯s more like a pool with a current.¡±  I answered.

    Now Karen was giving me an odd look.  ¡°It changed?  Must be one of those weird cases.  But since it¡¯s a pool now, we¡¯ll put down water.  That gives you a focus.  If that doesn¡¯t work, you can always try air since that¡¯s what the first one kinda sounded like.¡±

    ¡°Now, another basic is the only thing everyone seems to agree on is there¡¯s stops in the power.  Once you get through a stop, your power gets stronger.  Gates, merdians, chakra points, nodes.  Whatever you want to call them.¡±

    I paused after we got into the building.  ¡°Which one is right?  Or least wrong, or whatever?¡±  Because this now sounded a lot like ¡®throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks.¡¯

    ¡°All of them, I think?¡±  Karen shrugged.  ¡°I can¡¯t use it, though I hope someone figures out how to teach it because I¡¯d like to.  But different ways work better for different people.  Hold on, you¡¯ll see.  We¡¯ve got a converted lecture hall and a couple of offices.¡±

    I don¡¯t know what I expected when Karen walked me into the hall, but dozens of full sized display panels showing a mix of scaled up old papers and clips of random cartoons was not it.  Each of the panels showed a person with spots highlighted, some weird energy system, or a mix of the two.  At one of the displays a guy had some full body scan he was flipping different super-imposed images onto, looking at something between them.

    Elsewhere in the room there were desks and tables, a couple of them with people sitting at them looking at personal tablets.

    A polite cough drew my attention back to the entrance again, where a guy was sitting at one of the desks.  ¡°Nicole Firen?  I¡¯m Danny Sidre, President of the Dantian Seekers.  Your application automatically was sent over to me once you signed.¡±

    Well, that at least explained how he guessed my name.  ¡°That¡¯s me.¡±  I looked back out over the room again.  ¡°Uhh, I¡¯m not exactly sure what...¡±

    ¡°I needed the props, so I hadn¡¯t gotten to this yet, Danny.¡±  Karen offered from beside me.  ¡°Like I was saying, all of them seem to work so it¡¯s a matter of figuring out which one is best for you.  And when I say all of them, there¡¯s been people able to use everything from old Chinese stuff to anime and everything in between.¡±  She waved a hand towards the displays.  ¡°So you can look up different things that have worked and see what works for you.¡±

    Mystic bullshit. I thought to myself with Dad¡¯s overtones.

    ¡°We also can get full body CT scans or a few other things, if you want to try to map it directly onto yourself.¡±  Danny added, motioning to the guy still superimposing different features onto what I now figured to be himself.  ¡°Generally, if you can give me a good argument for some test I can try to arrange it.¡±

    ¡°This is a little overwhelming, and quite a bit stranger than I was expecting.¡±  I offered.

    Danny smiled.  ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I understand.  And yeah, it¡¯s definitely a lot.¡±  He typed something on his screen.  ¡°Alright, I flagged your school account for the Seeker¡¯s app, so you can pull it onto your tablet whenever.  It¡¯s a little barebones, but you can see who¡¯s up for spotting you if you¡¯re going to try your power purposely, or register any times you¡¯d be available to spot for others.  Right now you¡¯ve only got search functionality for research, you can¡¯t download anything.  You¡¯ll have to come here for the actual information.  After a month, local caching gets unlocked.¡±

    ¡°So, welcome to Dantian Seekers.¡±  Danny said, before pointing at Karen.  ¡°Not superhero club.¡±  She laughed then pouted.

    Figuring any of this out was going to take me a while.

 Chapter 3: Showdown at Sundown

    February 23rd

    Over the course of two weeks, I''d dug into any number of things in the Seeker''s information and come away with a couple of points the Seekers had developed that seemed common across everyone.

    The first being it took effort every time to use. Unless you were actively using it, you weren''t any stronger, faster, or better. When spinning the current in my own power, a twenty five pound hand weight didn''t feel any heavier than a five pound one. I''d wear myself out again after only a few minutes though. I wasn''t sure how true this was though as even without effort, a five pound and a one pound weight didn''t seem any different to me.

    But if I tried when I was exhausted, or pushed that overflow back into my center, I could tell the difference between those weights again. That observation went on my personal list of differences.

    The second point was that it was easier to draw the power out when you were exercising, or more specifically doing whatever it was when you first managed to draw out your power. It didn''t seem any different to me, but I had shifted my workout schedule to align better with Karen and Melissa, since gymnastics was Melissa''s thing as well. That way we''d have two spotters for us.

    I''d offered to help Karen get started with a gymnastics routine, to maybe kickstart her getting something but she''d turned me down. Melissa had apparently offered similar a while back, too. She was hoping that just general workouts would eventually work for her because she didn''t want to be a gymnast.

    Beyond homework and classes, I''d dove into trying to figure this out. Sitting in the Seeker''s lecture hall, flipping through different pictures that represented different views of power. I''d spent two days poking through the ones tagged as water and short of hoping for no hidden depth Cthulhu type things, none of them spoke to me. Then again, they all were about river flows in the body or tracing veins or other flowing things. I had what amounted to an easily spilled puddle.

    But how would you make a puddle bigger? Dig it deeper? How?

    The third point tied somewhat back to the first point. Every power generated from nothing, was used, and then was gone. Which was completely different to the center of my power, but was really similar to what it''d been before.

    My musings were interrupted by my tablet getting pulled away. "Superheroes are supposed to be all about the action. You haven''t even been off campus in a couple of weeks." I looked up at Karen frowning at me. "Let''s go clubbing, maybe pick up a distraction or two," Karen gave me an eyebrow wiggle at that, "and just have fun."

    "Not legal for drinking yet. Wait until April if you want to see me drunk and stupid." I pulled the tablet back, saved the stuff I''d been working on, and then slid it back into my nearby bag. "But I''m going in circles."

    "You go in circles enough during your routine." Karen interrupted.

    I smiled at the comment. "Going out sounds good."

    "And I know when your birthday is. But we''re not planning on drinking tonight. You, me, Melissa. We''re going out to just have fun, dance, maybe get you a guy as a good distraction."

    "Melissa is coming too? Are you staging an intervention or something?"

    "Somewhat." Karen replied without shame. "We used to do things then you holed up in here. And you researching this hard infected Melissa, I haven''t been able to get her out to do anything either. So you''re both going to put down the books and come have some fun."

    "I did say going out sounds good. So where are we going?"

    "Sundown."

    ~~~~~~

    Rolla wasn''t a big city, but it was a decent sized college town so there were things to do off-campus that kept college students busy in normal times. The Sundown Club was one of those things, a nightclub that opened as the sun went down. They did a fun morning after breakfast if you were there all night too, but I normally wasn''t one to stay for eight or more hours just to get a free meal.

    Late February meant cold, even though it was a clear sky evening as the three of us were dropped off at the entrance. A few patches of unmelted snow were shoveled off to one side or another, but the main walkway was cleared. Even with the tang of exhaust, the air was crisp and nice, especially considering how bright the day had been only a few hours ago.

    "Definitely a good idea." I said outloud, and Karen nodded.

    Melissa was almost overly energetic but somehow still seemed a bit wore down herself. She let out a long breath of her own. "Destressing ahead!" She pointed ahead and we all laughed.

    It was only a few minutes to get into the club itself, registering our IDs and group against the drink system. Anyone caught drinking underage was banned from Sundown for three months. To ensure someone else didn''t buy you the drink, anyone drinking underage got anyone they came to the club with in the past month banned as well. I thought it worked pretty well to keep peer pressure down.

    Heavy bass beats hit almost as soon as you got past the front door but the room was lit in reds, oranges, and yellows mimicking the sunset of the day. On bad weather days, they muted the colors to match. There were already plenty of people on the floor, more set up at cocktail and full sized tables, and an energy that could almost be felt sizzled in the air.

    ~~~

    A few hours later found the three of us sitting at one of the tables, with a couple of guys sitting down with us as well.

    "Seriously?" I looked them both over. One blond, one darker brown, both fairly athletic looking. The blond looked familiar for some reason. I did have to admit though, Karen knew my type. Michelle snickered.

    "Ash is actually here for me." Karen grinned, wrapping an arm around the blond. That explained the familiarity. Her on again off again boyfriend was apparently on again. She waved at the other guy. "He''s all yours if you want him."

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    "Mike." He offered. "I''m a friend of Ash''s. In full honesty I wasn''t here to get set up, I thought I was playing wingman to Ash."

    "Fair enough." I answered back. "Let''s see how the night goes. College or local?" Though it was still loud at the club, it wasn''t too hard to take a little while downtime to get to know each other. And might be worth some fun.

    We all spent a few minutes talking with me finding out Mike was a local, before the table was interrupted, rather rudely.

    Hands slammed down on the table, rattling all the drinks. A rather wild-eyed guy was staring, eyes going between Karen and Melissa, his arms shaking badly enough I wondered if he was high on something. "You two! I know you''re still in that damn group!"

    "Hold on just a second there." The guy had slammed between Karen and Ash, and now Ash was standing up, getting ready to push him away.

    The guy grabbed a handful of Ash''s jacket and lifted him off his feet, throwing him backwards nearly ten feet and crashing into another table.

    The music still beat heavily, but a whole lot of conversations died at that moment.

    "What the hell?" Melissa was looking between the much skinner guy and Ash, now groaning as he got off the table.

    "I broke through the second, but now I can''t." His voice almost did sound like a junkie, looking for a hit. "I can barely get past the first now. I need the info you have, I know you have it. What do I need to do to fix this?"

    Karen and Melissa both pushed away from the table as fast as they could, Karen''s eyes widening. "Tony? What-"

    I dove at Karen as the man, Tony apparently, literally threw the table to the side and knocking both Melissa and Mike over and made a grab for my friend. I pulled her away as Tony was reaching for her, hands out like claws.

    "What are you on?" I demanded.

    A groan as Melissa pushed the table off both her and Mike, before she slumped. She grasped her other shoulder in pain.

    "It''s been months since I got anything from your shit. I know someone''s figured out a fix by now." Tony roared, literally batting me away from Karen as he grabbed her. "Why can''t I get through my second meridian anymore? Why am I losing it!?"

    Tony shook her, and from where I''d landed on the floor, I could see the deathly fear in Karen''s eyes as his fingers dug deeper into her arms. I staggered up, thankfully barely bruised compared to what had happened to the others.

    I wasn''t a fighter, but I did keep my nails short. And Dad taught me keep a straight wrist if I had to punch someone.

    Ash jumped him over leveraging Tony with sheer size freeing Karen as Tony was startled into letting go. But Tony was nearly breaking the bear hug somehow, as Karen fell and scrambled back.

    "Hold him!" I shouted.

    "Calm down, asshole." Ash grunted, struggling.

    Spin spin, current. I thought to myself. I need everything in that little pool.

    Ash got an elbow in his gut, doubling him over just as my own power flooded into me. I''d get one hit before I was in danger too. I wasn''t a fighter, but hitting center mass wasn''t that hard. Time felt like it slowed as I punched, Tony recognizing a fist coming at him and trying to move. I hit, and everything in that pool moved with my punch.

    As Tony crashed into the table Ash had just vacated, I slumped for a moment, before the energy flowed back to normal, the current churning the overflow into my body. I thought I''d put everything into that though, why was there any left to flow at the moment?

    ~~~

    It took a good twenty minutes for the cops to show up, and in the meantime the management had tied Tony up to a chair with what I thought looked like saran wrap. I giggled a little again at the sight, even as Tony strained against the plastic binding. The paramedic looking him over called a cop over, who switched to cuffs and cut away the plastic that was cutting into his wrists.

    "You ok?" Melissa nudged me from her seat next to me, both of us waiting our turn to give statements. She was holding a towel of ice onto her shoulder. Karen and Ash sat at another table talking to one cop, while Mike spoke to another. Karen looked wiped, while both Ash and Mike just looked somewhat confused. Karen also had bandages wrapped around her arms, and I''d seen some pretty deep bruising on her arms before they''d been wrapped up.

    I motioned to the tied up Tony. "Just¡­ What the hell?"

    Melissa sighed and gingerly shrugged. "I assume he meant the Dantian Seekers when he said group, but I''m fairly certain nothing was stopping him from rejoining? And I have no clue what else he was ranting about."

    "Ms. Firen?" I turned at the voice and saw yet another cop, putting a thumb drive in a baggie, then pocketing it. He tapped a little device hung from his badge. A red dot lit up on it. "We can get your statement here in a moment, but I''ve reviewed the club footage and it matches with what everyone else is saying so I don''t think your story is going to change anything. But for the record, can you explain how you did it and why you thought a punch strong enough to send an adult several feet was necessary?"

    "Weird dantian powers?" I offered as the answer to his first question. "And after he threw a guy into a table, flipped another one like it was nothing, and then was in the processing of trying to put his fingers directly through a friend, I figured I had to try anything."

    "And if the entire night''s footage of the club is reviewed, we won''t find any evidence of the three of you starting anything with him?" I nodded my agreement. "Alright, if the paramedics don''t want anyone hauled to the hospital, you all are free to go then. We''ve got your address at the dorms in case anything else comes up."

    "We are so not set up to deal with tiny chicks with super strength." I heard him grumble as he moved on to others in the club.

 Chapter 4: Lighting a Second Dantian

    I sat in the dining hall the next morning, nursing a drink and picking at breakfast. Melissa had joined me, but Karen wasn''t feeling up to it. She''d actually argued with the paramedics last night to not be sent in for observation, but apparently this morning was a different story.

    I''d seen day after pictures of people after car wrecks and I could almost guess that''s about how her arms felt and looked right now.

    "You know, I didn''t tell Karen, but I was treating last night as a celebration. I''d managed to break through the first block." Melissa said quietly.

    I blinked, having to think for a moment on what she meant before getting it. "Huh. Congrats." I paused for a second. "And then last night happened. Yeah, little bit of a damper on it."

    "Funny." Melissa stretched her arm, the shoulder apparently causing her no pain this morning. "My power feels like lightning strikes, I even blew through my block like hitting a lightning rod. But last night? I couldn''t react."

    "I''m still trying to figure out why I did that last night myself." I shook my head. "Grabbing Karen away from what''s his name, sure. But actually taking a swing at him? I''ve never actually gotten into a fight."

    I was quiet for a minute. "But hey, you broke through a block. Does that mean you''re not considered mortal anymore?" I mentally crossed my fingers.

    "Not mortal?" Melissa gave me a funny look. "Not sure what you mean."

    "When I ask ''What is the strength of the world''s soul?''" the amused answer echoed through me, still with that weird emphasis, "he not longer says as mortal as you and your people. Only as mortal as your people."

    Melissa dutifully repeated the same question. "No, I''m still as mortal. Weird. What''s the difference?"

    "The dantian. You remember when I threw myself off the bars?" Melissa nodded. "I hadn''t been trying to use any power. Almost since day one of the alien and his presence, I''ve been shoving it down, not wanting it to mess with me."

    I paused, thinking back myself. "Then, all of a sudden I realized I wasn''t pushing the same bit of power back, because there it all was in a big pile inside me. It all kinda collapsed into itself, and now it''s just sitting there, all the time, pushing a little bit of power. And I can spin it for more." I tapped my chest. "Just sitting there right under my heart. Then I asked, found out he didn''t consider me mortal, and actually said I was one of like four not on a false path."

    "And you decided to just... not tell anyone?"

    "Tell them what? Crazy guy in my head says you''re all doing it wrong?" I pulled out my tablet, flipping it to the notes I''d been taking. "I''ve been trying to figure it out. There''s millions of people out there doing something extraordinary. Short of the alien idiot actually announcing I''m right, who''d believe me? It''s not like you''re not getting results yourself."

    I imagined the actual response and just shook my head. "Heck, ninety-nine percent of them are probably stronger than me. You''re probably stronger than me, if getting past the first block isn''t the same thing as the dantian. To be honest?" I looked at Melissa. "I kinda hoped it was and people just weren''t being truthful."

    "Yeah, I can see that." Glad I was being given the benefit of the doubt, then she continued. "So, how do I get on that true path?"

    "Wait, just like that?"

    Melissa shrugged. "I just broke through my first block yesterday, so even if you''re wrong, it''s not like I''m really far into this anyways. I know there''s at least one person out there who claims they''ve made it through like five blocks."

    "Let''s not try this with breakfast in front of us then."

    ~~~

    "You really think she''s going to want to watch me try this?" Melissa asked me as we walked down the dorm hall.

    I shrugged. "Worst case scenario is she says no, but I want to check on her anyways."

    I stopped at a door and rapped on it a couple of times.

    "Hey Karen." I called through it. "You okay?"

    There wasn''t an answer at the door for a moment, before it opened to reveal Ash instead of Karen. "Oh, hey." A thin sheen of sweat was on his forehead, and he was obviously about to say something else. "Come on in you two."

    He stepped out of the doorway, letting us in. Inside, Karen was sitting on a couch in a tanktop staring at the TV, the heat in the little studio dorm blasting like mad. Her arms were covered in deep purple and black bruising. I winced seeing them.

    She looked up. "Hey."

    Ash dropped into a chair, manly attempting to hiding a wince of his own. "How are you two doing?"

    I was quiet. Melissa answered. "Honestly, not hurting somehow. You guys fairing alright?"

    Karen winced a shrug. "Bruised, but nothing like the cops said to watch out for from last night." She turned her attention away from the TV. "Hurts like hell to put anything on them though, so yeah."

    The room was quiet for a moment, no one able to figure out anything to say to that.

    "Hey, so we kinda figured out something at breakfast earlier and figured you might want to watch." I spoke into the silence. At both Karen and Ash''s look of interest, I explained.

    "So, what?" Ash looked at Melissa. "You''re going to try to do whatever Nicole did? Because the alien is saying something different to her?"

    "About that. It''s not like she''s actually hurt doing it her way either, and that was a hell of a punch last night." Melissa gave a small grin.

    "Do we need to go to the gym then?" Karen asked. "I''m... not really up for that right now."

    I shook my head. "Not yet, maybe if we can''t do it here. I didn''t think you wanted to go anywhere so maybe just clear space in here and do some stretches to get into the same mindset."

    "That I''m good with." The gloom seemed to be banished from Karen''s voice now, at least. "Ash, you mind helping move the couch and stuff?"

    Within a few minutes, the little living room was clear enough for Melissa and I to sit on the floor, with Karen and Ash now sitting on the couch pushed against the wall.

    "So, just take the power, hold it, and keep grabbing and holding more of it then?" Melissa asked, starting to stretch out.

    "That doesn''t sound quite right, but maybe since you''re already past a block. Try?"

    Melissa nodded and closed her eyes as she slowly stretched out in her warmup reaching out past her toes. I could almost see when she grabbed her power, as her fingers dug slightly into the worn carpet. She slowly released the stretch and repeated, before she paused. "Yeah, I can kind of get a second bit of power, but I can''t pull it past the block like I did with the first one."

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    "Don''t pull it past the block then. I was pushing it down, trying to not use it. Can you bring it back before the block and hold the two there?"

    Melissa nodded. "About like what I did to break the block, I had to build a bigger strike. But just keep holding it back."

    "It''s probably going to take more than two bits though. I''d held it back dozens of times, thinking it was all the same single bit of power." I explained. "How many can you pull up?"

    She didn''t answer immediately, but each time Melissa stretched her body, she let out a breath of concentration. After a few breaths, she gave a full body twitch. "How the heck do you hold this? It almost feels like it''s shocking me internally."

    That worried me. "Mine didn''t feel like anything until afterwards. You ok?"

    "Kinda¡­Kinda like a joybuzzer. Isn''t electric... shocks to the heart bad?"

    Ash answered her. "Defibrillation. Maybe you should stop Melissa." He pulled out a phone. "I''m dialing 911 if you start looking like you touched live wire."

    Melissa paused between two stretches, motionless before she let out a long breath. "No, I''m ok. If I hold it steady, it doesn''t shock me."

    The three of us watched her carefully as she very slowly resumed her different stretches. Five minutes went by, then we started getting close to ten. Watching her stretch was weird when you''re trying to see something, but not seeing anything different.

    "Lightning.. in a bottle maybe." Melissa breathed out, speaking for the first time in minutes.

    Now, I could almost feel something weird happening. Almost like static electricity in the room, but centered on Melissa but still tried to reach out to shock us as well as I saw both Karen and Ash lean back. I could feel the overflow coming from my own dantian pushing back against the feeling, and without meaning to it spun it a little faster, not letting the overflow get bigger but pushing more of my energy out against hers.

    Something shifted, clicked. Melissa opened her eyes and stared into nothing, even as I felt all the electricity pull back. Like trying to describe color to a blind man, except now I could see but I didn''t know what I was looking at. A small portion of Melissa''s body seemed more real than the rest of her, and I could feel the energy flowing from her, spinning on its own. It then slowed down but didn''t stop.

    "What the heck?"

    Melissa''s eyes focused again, staring at me. Or more appropriately, at my chest where I still had my own current spinning ever so slightly faster than normal still. I took a deep breath of my own, and it returned to its own languid spinning.

    Pulling my tablet over to me, I flicked the lecure recording software on. "Recording this unless you say stop. So, in detail, what''d you do?"

    Sitting up from her last stretch with both Karen and Ash''s eyes on her, she thought for a moment. "I pulled back from the first block, like you said. I then kept pulling power, but then pushing them together. When I broke through the block the first time, it only needed to be combined once."

    She paused again. "For this? At least thirty, I kinda lost count. I had to slow down after the first few though, that''s when it started really fighting me and I got shocked. Eventually, there was enough that it started feeling like a big storm, you know when you can feel the lightning and thunder. But bottled inside me." She waved a hand. "Then it, collapsed I think? Like you were talking about, into a pool of energy inside me. It still feels like lightning though."

    Melissa looked at me. "Seriously, what''s the freaky thing in your heart? All of a sudden I could feel pressure and when I opened my eyes, I could feel it was you."

    I shrugged. "I can''t feel myself, but that''s not a bad description for what you feel like. Does this change anything?" I pushed myself a little, the energy flowing out a little more and Melissa''s eyes widened.

    "Yeah. I can feel it more clearly."

    "For scientific purposes," Karen cut in, eyes wide. "I can''t feel anything from either of you. Though I felt the weird storm thing right before you said ''what the heck'' and then it all went away."

    "Me either." Ash added.

    I tapped my cheek. "So you can only feel it if you have one then? You originally broke a block. Is it still broken?"

    Melissa closed her eyes. "I can''t really move it... Oh wait, you said you had to spin the energy to get it to move..." I could feel the energy in her grow for a moment and it actually seemed to branch away from it''s single spot in her for a moment. "It''s like I cut a channel before, but I can''t make enough flow towards it?"

    "Inconclusive then." I said for the recording. "Alright, big question then. Ask about the world''s soul."

    Melissa asked, then looked almost flabbergasted. "You are the first to step off the cliff of the false path?" she said, hopefully echoing what she was told. She then repeated her question. "Damn it. He''s not repeating the extra stuff. But yeah, I''m apparently not counted as mortal anymore either."

    "What is the strength of the world''s soul?" I asked for myself.

    Your [world''s soul] has not even lit its da?????n???t?i?????a?????n??. It remains as mortal as your people. The word dantian had changed again, I could actually feel something about it. It felt like a purer bit of my own power, and Melissa''s, and many, many more examples. "Dantian, power to define yourself?" I asked quietly, trying to put that something into my own words, directing the question at that presence to no answer.

    "So, any ideas on how to get a dantian for someone that doesn''t have this power?" Ash asked.

    I shook my head. "Not yet. I''ve got so many more questions now though." I looked at Melissa and where I could still vaguely feel the power flowing from her, pretty much the same place on her body where mine was. "Didn''t Danny say we could get full body CT scans?"

    "Yeah, the Seekers have bought a few scans from the hospital before for people." Karen said. "Maybe we can figure out what''s up between you two, and then get me in on this!" She pumped her arm, then yelped. "OK, still hurts. Damn."

 Chapter 5: This is my dantian

    February 25th?

    "So, you all want CAT scans?" Danny looked between Melissa and me. Karen stood nearby with Ash, a light longsleeve shirt pulled over her arms. "Not that I''m going to say no as long as you''re not trying to bypass an actual medical need, Karen, but care to share the reason?"

    As we''d discussed, I answered. "Testing a theory. I think we''ve figured something out about the dantian, but we need to see the similarities between me and Melissa, and the differences between us and them."

    Danny nodded. "So this is your experiment then?" I nodded. "Alright, the Dantian Seekers will cover it then, as long as you share the scan results. Costs are all going under your name, or are you splitting it out? I don''t believe your friend" Danny motioned to Ash, "is a Seeker, so if you''re splitting it, who is picking up his?"

    Wait, what? "Costs under my name?"

    "You did sign that any costs the Seekers cover will be paid back if you ever leave. As this is your request, the cost of four CAT scans will be logged to you unless you all decide otherwise." He tapped a few keys. "Looks like the school system has a charge for repair of school property on your name too, with the flag that it''s for a power related reason which is why I can see it. I can cover that too, if you''d like."

    I looked back to the others who looked about as unsure as I felt. "Mine then, I guess? And okay on the repair?" It wasn''t like the Seekers was a bad group to belong to. Though now that I thought about the costs...

    Again Danny nodded. "Alright. I''ll get you guys scheduled at the hospital. Give me a few days."

    "That''s it?" I asked, surprised.

    "It''s not like this is going to be an actual medical procedure, so I don''t need a doctor''s referral on you guys, or insurance, or anything else like that." He explained. "Since there''s four of you, they might have to split you over a couple of days though. No issues with that?"

    I shook my head. "No, I don''t think that will make a difference. Thanks for getting this set up."

    We left, heading back to the dorm area. Once we got there, I looked at the others chagrined. "Sorry, I didn''t think about having to coordinate this."

    "Or the cost." Ash added.

    "Or that." I ruefully agreed as we sat down at one of gathering couches.

    "Why''d you want to be so vague, anyways?" Melissa asked.

    I looked around, not seeing anyone nearby. "A couple of reasons. The first being people like Tony. Ten grand is expensive for me, but it''d be cheap enough for a lot of people to get freebie info. And I realize now the Seekers paying for other stuff is to keep you tied to them if you figure out anything good. But if you could get all the work we''ve done or will do for ten thousand?" I nodded to Karen and Ash. "Especially if we figure out how to get on the ''true path'' for anyone. I eat a lot of debt for others to get it cheaper."

    Ash nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. I mean, if you figure it out and teach anyone it''s teachable past that point. Get exclusivity, right?"

    "I mean, I''m not against people learning it. I just want it to mean something for me too, you know?" I replied.

    "What''s the other reason then?" Karen asked.

    "The amount to teach." I answered with embarrassment. "I mean, it took Melissa less than an hour to figure it out. I want there to actually be something of substance to learn. At least figure out some more about the dantian and getting to the first block, maybe through it."

    Karen started laughing, trying to not jostle her bruises. "Really? Doesn''t your second reason answer your first? Get people on your path easily, then you can rake them over the coals to learn the more advanced stuff."

    "I''d whack you with a pillow if it wouldn''t hurt you."

    "Before you start a pillow fight, are we doing anything else? I know we cleared the morning somehow expecting immediate results." Melissa asked.

    "Figure out how to increase stamina?" I shrugged. "If I push the spin to max, I only get a few minutes before I''m basically dry."

    ~~~

    March 3rd?

    It had only taken a day for Danny to get it arranged, but it was almost a week before we were scheduled in for the CAT scan. Both Melissa and I had taken the last few days to try to push our abilities to last longer, but just flooding ourselves with it required a stopwatch to validate any results after four days. The pool of power in me was just slightly deeper, giving me all of an extra eight seconds after dozens of times draining myself dry.

    Melissa was further behind me, and had actually only gotten three seconds added to her initial record. I could still actually feel that weird branch coming out of her when she spun her power. The channel towards the first block she''d broken through.

    I knew there had to be something missing, I just couldn''t figure out what.

    Thankfully though, the four of us had managed to get scheduled all for the same day, a two-hour block of time at Phelps hospital.

    "You know, we''ve done some of these before for the school, but it''s normally running med students through training." The technician, Brandon by the name on his badge, noted. "But hey, whatever. We''ve got enough time for all four of you, plus some time for me to go over what your results look like. Who''s first?"

    "Me first, Karen, Melissa, then Nicole last." Ash immediately spoke up.

    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    The tech nodded. "Alright, hop up on the bed and lay down then. I''m running normal thickness scanning, so you''ll get a pretty good 3-D image of your body." He then shooed us towards a side room. "No need to multi-dose everyone, you can watch the scans from the office."

    Ash laid down and then Brandon joined us in the office, where he pulled up a program that spread across several monitors. "Left monitor will show the building image, wait, hold on." He stuck his head back out of the room. "Hey Ash, censor or no censor on your nether region?"

    "Whatever. I ain''t got nothing to hide." He laughed.

    Dropping back into his seat, he nodded. "Sorry about that. I don''t normally have others in here unless they''re doctors or others who I don''t have to censor for. Anyways, like I was saying. Left monitor will show the building image. Center monitor shows the current slice being taken."

    We could see the right monitor was the program itself.

    "Hope you guys brought something to read. It''s a good twenty minutes per person." Brandon noted.

    I pulled out my tablet and started reading through some homework as the minutes went by, but did watch as the imaging went through Ash''s chest. Once he was done, Brandon called out to him as the machine spun down. "Alright, you''re good. Next up, and do you want censors?"

    Karen nodded. "Lower half please."

    As Karen was getting situated, Brandon pulled a small drive from his computer and offered it to Ash as he walked in. "Here''s yours. It''ll load on any good 3-D modelling program."

    Karen''s went the same, and then it was Melissa''s turn. I turned off my table to watch this one, very interested to see what was different. "No extra, Melissa." She nodded to me.

    Once the machine got down to her heart, Brandon looked at the imaging as the machine seemed to slow down. "What the heck is that? It''s taking forever to image." A small spiral thing seemed embedded in her, weird tight loops going around it. "A nodule or tumor?"

    It took almost five minutes for the CAT scanner to finish on that portion of Melissa''s body, and then finished up with Brandon monitoring it the entire time, staring at the full body picture and the strange thing that seemed to pulse even in the image.

    "That was strange." Melissa said, getting out of it. "It like stopped on me, and it almost seemed like I could feel the scanning."

    Brandon turned the monitor. "You''ve got something weird there. You might want to actually get that looked at."

    "If we''re right, you''ll find that in me too." I told him, moving out to the scanner room. "Let''s go."

    He pulled another drive out, handing it over to Melissa and reprepped the scanner again. "You want to just focus there then?" He asked me.

    "Nope. Need to get a full scan of me too." As I laid down, I started spinning my power just a little faster. At max, I''d exhaust myself within a minutes, but I wanted to know if it was any different when active.

    As I lay there the bed slowly inserted itself into the scanner, the imager flipping around me. I held the amount of energy I was pushing out steady as it started spinning around my chest.

    "What the actual..." I heard come from the office. It still took another fifteen minutes of lying there still until it was done, before I slid out of the machine and could get up.

    Walking into the office, Brandon was manipulating the program to pull up the spot there under my heart. Or not a spot, as the program seemed to spin around it from multiple viewpoints for a moment as the various spirals seemed to circle an actual glowing central point. "OK, this is creepy. What is it?"

    <div>

    "Drive please." I held out my hand. He handed it over. "As far as we can tell? My dantian." I gave him his answer. "Thank you. Alright guys, let''s go see if we can mess with this."

    "Your dantian? Oh come on. What the hell." Brandon followed us out of the office. "Give me more than that."

    "Would if I could, but that''s why we got the scans done." I answered him.

    ~~~

    We sat in my dorm, a borrowed 3-D projector throwing the image of two different supposed dantians up. We''d stripped the scans of most of the body parts to get a better look at the one thing.

    "If you were to collapse mine a little, it''d look a lot like Melissa''s." I pointed out. "I was pushing my power a little, so maybe that makes it expand?"

    "So what are the spiral loops around it?" Karen poked a finger into the things. "Just part of it, or something else?"

    "This looks really familiar for some reason." Ash looked it over, actually reaching out and causing mine to spin. I blinked, my stomach twisting watching it. "I just don''t remember from where, or what."

    Karen''s hand shot up to her mouth and another to the wildly spinning image, stopping it. "I''m gonna puke if it keeps doing that."

    "It''s like it''s spinning on multiple axes at once though." He didn''t spin it again though. "What do you think your Seeker people are going to think about it?"

    "We do have to give them the info, don''t we." I asked, staring at it. "I don''t have to explain it though. Which is good, because I really don''t even know what I''d explain right now."

 Chapter 6: The first breakthrough

    March 6th?

    It''d been a few days since I''d handed over the scans to Danny and pretty much ran before he could review them and find what we had. I did have to buckle down for class occasionally.

    Which this time worked out to a two day bender of math and spreadsheets for a project presentation in climatology, that had been my off and on again bane for the past two months, even more than a dantian was turning out to be.

    Most of the rest of the class had picked local or small home areas to do trending and forecasting against, and it showed. No major variations to anything they did, projecting weather patterns one, three, and five days out and then comparing that versus what the weather actually was.

    A notice popped up on my tablet Call me when you get a chance. Dad. I just talked to him yesterday, weird. Didn''t sound like an emergency though.

    "Ms. Firen, you''re up."

    Connecting to the projector system from my tablet, an image of a rather large storm off the coast of Alaska appeared. "Projecting winter storm quantity and strength, utilizing previous year metrics and average local weather patterns. Current local weather patterns were mapped with GOES-22."

    Professor Auren nodded for me to continue.

    "Based on previous year metrics, going back twenty years to get enough data to draw from, the two month period of January first through March first should have had at least one major storm that dropped an average of six feet of snow on the Alaskan coast in a twenty-four hour window, along with half a dozen other storms in this time period with a combined accumulation of four feet." I tapped, and the simulated storm rolled over the coast of Alaska, reds and blacks lighting up in locations where the worst of the snow would be.

    "Looks about right. How''d the day to day projections work against it, and how did it work in reality?" The professor asked, looking a little more interested to not be given the local weather forecast for the tenth time in the last hour.

    "Day to day projections and actual weather showed the correct number of storms. However, in all cases there was at least a forty percent reduction in precipitation, local wind strength, and general storm energy." I flipped the image over from the computed one to the actual weather system that had rolled through Alaska recently.

    Professor Auren gave me a strange, almost hesitant look.

    "Energy can''t be created or destroyed and a massive shift in weather on this level would have visible repercussions on an even larger scale. Grabbing a few random numbers from the Canadian side shows some fluctuations as well. The overall Canadian effect is the same, with a severe reduction in storm strength. Honestly, enough of a reduction that other systems should have shifted to fill in the gaps, but the Alaskan system alone doesn''t seem to be seeing surges from arctic or Siberian weather systems but the school doesn''t provide access to satellite coverage for those."

    "And your conjecture is the alien is causing this, from New York?"

    I shrugged. "All I''ve got is numbers and dates, and he''s the only new variable I know about unless the lizard people running the government finally decided to kick the weather control machine on to stop global warming."

    I got a lot of laughs from the class.

    "Upload your findings, I''ll run validations against them." Auren sighed.

    I did so. "There''s plenty of rumblings about it on the web too, so I''m not the only one noticing." I offered. "It''s really only visible in larger projections and historical datasets. Otherwise, it just looks like a milder local winter."

    "Alright." He nodded to me and I shut my connection off. "Mr. Truden, you''re up next. Wow me with the local weather again." There was a nervous laugh.

    ~~~

    Heading out of class, I pulled an earpiece out, clipped it in, and tapped Dad''s contact. It connected almost immediately. "Hey, what''s up?"

    "You know, I''d forgotten I get a report monthly on new apps on all the account tablets. Dantian Seekers? I thought you agreed no mystic bullshit so you didn''t get hurt." Dad''s voice was concerned but sounded a bit amused as well.

    "I agreed not until it passed engineering. Which, right now? It doesn''t. I''ve got a little bit of data and a CAT scan that shows up with something weird, but not much more." I answered him, walking to the exit. 12 was blinking on the door, and I eyed the bright afternoon sun. I pulled the sleeves on my jacket down and hoodie up, before heading out.

    "What are you doing with it then? I thankfully haven''t gotten any calls as your emergency contact."

    I left, headed out to the dining hall. "Minimal weights. One, five, and twenty-five pounders. Even if it fails out on me, I can lift twenty-five pounds without issue."

    Dad hmmed for a moment. "Well, at least you''re not trying to do anything crazy with it. Just, keep your mother and I in the loop, would you? It''s not like either of us has it, but I''d really like to know my little girl doesn''t just have her head in the clouds on more things."

    "Daad." I grinned and whined at him. "But alright, I will."

    "So, what are you hoping to get out of it anyways?" Now he turned curious.

    "Dunno. The alien turned up out of the blue without a spaceship and might be messing with stuff in the world, based on the weather project I''m finishing up. Everything I''ve seen with it so far is really local, so either I''m too early or he''s got hidden technology doing more."

    "Your insights are fascinating, and I wish you''d log them and your tests with the Seekers." A new voice broke in from right behind me.

    "GAH!" I screamed, dropping my bag and spinning around.

    "Nicole!?" Dad''s voice yelled into my ear.

    Danny had apparently crossed paths with me, or something, and was standing with a smile on his face. "Sorry, I didn''t mean to startle you."

    I took a deep breath. "Sorry about that Dad, someone from the Seekers is here and scared me."

    "You okay then?" Dad asked, still worried.

    "Yeah. Let me call you back in a bit, alright?"

    "Alright, if nothing else I''ll talk to you this evening when your mother calls." He said, before I heard the beep that ended the call.

    "Damn it, why''d you sneak up on me?" I nearly growled at Danny.

    "I didn''t mean to sneak up on you." He answered mildly. "I''d honestly hoped to catch you leaving your class, as I wanted to discuss the scans you provided to the Seekers. I saw you were on a call and just decided to follow and wait, but then you started talking about it, and I couldn''t help but commenting. Sorry."

    "I''m going to get a late lunch. What''d you want to talk about it?" I picked my bag back up and clipped the earpiece in, continuing to walk.

    Danny followed. Drat.

    "While I have the scans from you and your friends, you did say the scan was testing a theory about the dantian. And two of the results had quite the strange little thing in your bodies. Do you believe that is a dantian?" He asked. "I do have to admit, I have scans of several people that have come through the Seekers, both with and without a power, and none of them show that little weird body part."

    "I''m still putting together some thoughts and ideas about it." I said slowly. "But yeah, maybe."

    "I do wish you''d upload that data then. Oh, wait." Danny paused. "You haven''t been a member for over a month yet, have you? The app would be hard locked down. It''s only a few days, but I''ll get it unlocked for you so you''ll have access to the full repository and able to upload your notes into the system."

    "I''ll hold onto them until I get more detail, but thanks." I answered him.

    Danny just gave me a look. "Where''s your spirit of scientific discovery? Of making a mark on history with the discovery of something new? To share with your fellow man so we don''t all have to reinvent the wheel every time?"

    "Hidden behind a requirement that anything the Seekers do for me, I owe them the cost back."

    "Bah. It''s only for five years, then it gets wiped out. No one ever reads the contract." Danny scoffed.

    I paused, thinking back. "I''ll think about it."

    He grinned. "Do so. You do have some fascinating insights that I''d love to get a better handle on. If your methods are giving good results, maybe we can get the rest of the Seekers in on it."

    "Well, I''m at least going to think it over during lunch." I answered as we got to the dining hall. "So unless you''re buying, I''ll talk to you later."

    Danny shook his head. "No, I''ve got to get back to my office to upgrade your app rights."

    I headed into the dining hall without him then, grabbing a quick meal and sitting at a table. I pulled up the copy of the contract I''d authed a few weeks ago, looking it back over again.

    "Who doesn''t read the contract, now?" The ten grand fine was waived after five years, but it didn''t say anything about the other costs the Seekers paid for you. I could see how you could argue it, but it still didn''t explicitly say it.

    A notification popped up for an upgrade of the Seeker app about twenty minutes later, and I looked at it. Same basic thing, but I was now authorized to download anything directly to my tablet. I approved the storage permissions and shrugged. Maybe later when I actually had more than a couple of weight lifting spreadsheets and Melissa''s recording.

    Thinking of who, I pulled up the school messaging system and sent her a note, seeing if she had practice time. We''d shared class schedules when we''d aligned our workout schedules, but that didn''t mean she wasn''t working on something else either.

    Hey, nothing going on here. Meet over at Karen''s?

    I looked at the schedule. Nah, she''s in Composition right now, head over to my dorm.

    ~~~

    The projector again was displaying both dantians, and I frowned. "So, the spirals on mine are bigger and further apart, and I was actively using my power at the time. You weren''t doing anything extra, and the spirals are smaller and nearly completely covering the center. Either case, the internal little center bit here," I managed to enlarge mine, "still seems larger on yours. So, whatcha think?"

    "I had my power longer, and broke through a block? Maybe that''s the actual power, and the spirals are the blocks?" Melissa took her shot in the dark. She pointed to the odd little piece dangling from the spiral closest to her center. "Where I broke through, maybe?"

    "Really wish we''d had a better chance to do a baseline for both of us." I restored both of them to their initial projections. "Because this is a really freaky thing to be in the body. It doesn''t actually have any connections to other organs from what I can see in the scans."

    I sighed. "This damn thing gives more questions than answers. I was hoping if we found something, it''d at least be useful." I turned off the projector. "Alright, practice. Two power variables. Longest time you can push, and highest minimum weight you can ignore. Any luck on the weight side for you?"

    Melissa shook her head. "Nope. Still at the same point."

    "And time takes forever to add to." I muttered. "Well, since time''s increasing, let''s try to figure out why." I flicked the lecture recording software on again. "Confirming. When pushing the power for adding to total time, I am pushing the power the same amount every time, even if it''s not a new maximum. Melissa?"

    "Same. It took me a few tries to get that sense, but yeah. I''m not adding anything extra."

    "Alright, the only thing that changes the time is how much we''re cycling that power for the overflow. I''ve got two ideas of tests, and they''re probably both going to hurt. Test One, we push against that pain point that is the maximum we can, see if pushing past that causes growth in the time we can overflow. Test Two, cycle power even when holding back the overflow, see if we can build up pressure."

    Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    Melissa thought for a second. "Considering the amount of power overflowing changes my minimum ignored weight, can we mark Test One as a test for that? We already know it''s painful to push up against that, so I''d like to leave known pain for later."

    "So, hold back the overflow, and cycle it faster to make more overflow anyways?" I asked.

    "Yeah. Also, when did you switch to cycle?"

    "More concise than spinning a current in circles." I answered. "Anyways, let''s go ahead and try it."

    Melissa nodded and I tossed her one of the five pound weights for measuring. I picked up my own then closed my eyes to concentrate on the pool of power inside me, the current lazily spinning circles. In what as far as I could tell an infinite circle, an infinite cycle.

    The weight in my hand was negligible and I pulled the overflow back into the center. I still couldn''t describe how I could do that, I just knew how. The weight in my hand felt more solid, actually causing muscles in my arm to tense to hold it now.

    I pushed the cycle faster, just a bit, and could feel the overflow almost slosh up against my demand to not actually overflow. No pain so far.

    I held it that way for a few minutes, then pushed it a little faster. Still no pain. I held it there, actually feeling myself get a little tired like I''d been jogging. I pushed a little more, and felt the overflow actually slip my grasp, the weight in my hand becoming nearly ignorable again.

    Slowing the cycle back down again, I regained control. I gave it a moment, then tested my control again. Slower, then faster. Slower then faster. Slower then f-

    "You know, if you guys were going to get this sweaty, you could have at least invited a couple of guys over to make it a real party."

    "GAH!" I nearly threw the weight at the voice, before opening my eyes just to watch Melissa not control her reflexes and throw a five pound weight nearly straight up, before it fell to the ground between them.

    I was drenched in sweat. "How did I not hear you come in?" I asked, actually panting now. "Wait, you should still be in class?"

    "No?" Karen shook her head. "I''ve been out of class for thirty minutes, sitting here for ten. Neither of you heard me come in, you were concentrating and sweating hard. If you were testing your stamina records, I don''t have the stopwatch but you''ve both beaten them."

    Wait, ten minutes? Thirty minutes? "We were testing something else." I answered with confusion, flipping the lecture recording software off. It blinked fifty seven minutes and eighteen seconds.

    I peered internally, and having let go of the power it was just slightly refilling again, not enough inside of it to overflow to my body yet. But there was more empty to fill than I normally had when I fully emptied it. "Huh." I flipped the recording software back on. "Test Two successful. Well of available power seems to be drastically increased."

    "Damn. Majorly." Melissa agreed, having thrown herself onto her back.

    "So if that was Test Two, what was Test One?" Karen asked, eyebrow up in question.

    I shook my head. "We didn''t do Test One, because we figured it''d hurt. Maybe try it next?"

    "Food first, and I want a shower." Melissa argued from her spot. "I''m sweating enough to have done six hours of workout. Hungry enough for that too."

    I staggered up, realizing that even though I''d had lunch less than, apparently, two hours ago I was pretty hungry myself. "Alright, go ahead and snag my shower, I''ll catch Karen up. Then I''ll shower and we get an early dinner." I tapped my tablet with a toe, clicking the recording software back off.

    As Melissa rolled to her own feet and grabbed her duffel, I grabbed the tablet and started playing the recording back for her.

    After only a couple of minutes, the recording got quiet. "Is this going to be like fifty minutes of you guys breathing then? Maybe broken up somewhere with the door opening when I come in?"

    I out of breath laughed. "Looks like."

    She frowned. "From everything I know, I can see why Test One would hurt. And from now on, if you guys are going to do Test Two, you still need a spotter. Would you guys have wasted away to nothing if you weren''t interrupted?"

    "That''s... a really good question I don''t know the answer to." I winced. "Sorry?"

    "You should be."

    Melissa took that moment to come back into my living room, and Karen started in on her while I made my escape to the shower.

    ~~~

    As we sat around with delivered pizza, Karen pointed a breadstick at both of us. "No more being dumb testing things without me, Ash, or someone else here to actually keep an eye out. Understand me?"

    "Yeah, it was dumb. Dad would yell at me too." I answered while Melissa nodded around a slice. "Oh yeah, I''ve gotta call them this evening too. So I''ve only got at best a couple of hours until then."

    "I''ll give you each thirty minutes, separately, for your Test One. You said it''s likely to hurt, I don''t want to have to try to help both of you at once if that''s the case." Karen gave as a requirement.

    I nodded. "I''ll go first then. If it hurts, give me more time to take an aspirin and get over it before the parental call."

    We quickly finished up the meal and I sat back on the floor, stretched out for a moment. I turned the recorder back on. After the shower, meal, and rest, my dantian had filled back up to it''s normal amount, slightly overflowing again. "Test One. Cycling enough overflow to hit the max limit, then pushing further. Actively touching that point causes stress pain. I am expecting to be in more pain, hopefully just like stressing muscles past a normal limit."

    Karen nodded as I picked up the five pound weight in one hand, and the twenty five in the other. The five pounder felt like lifting a smaller weight, while the twenty five still took plenty of effort.

    Actively cycling my power didn''t require closing my eyes and concentrating, only if I was trying to hold it up and wall it in. The overflow came out rapidly and I could feel it spill into my body.

    The twenty-five pound weight became nigh effortless to hold up, the strain vanishing.

    I pushed, the overflow going further. Not escaping my body, but reverberating against something else. The overflow in my whole body, felt like it was pushing against something small still at my dantian. The strain of something holding back.

    I imagined the spirals I''d seen in the image. If the inner core was my dantian, maybe the flood was going around the spirals, and the strain was where I hit the spiral. Now I closed my eyes, focusing on that image, pretending I could truly see inside myself, see that first spiral wrapping around my core. I pushed at it, cycled power specifically to push against it. I felt an internal spasm, an unused muscle contracting and pulsing in time with the cycle that created my power. I whimpered but refused to give up.

    "You ok?" I heard Karen ask and managed a tight nod.

    The power pushed again, and something seemed to give a bit. I could feel the power flowing into a new area, another well it was filling up. But something was pushing it back, pain and blackness and refuse.

    There was something there, and rather than infuse myself with the overflow in general, I focused on that spot pushing back. For once, the overflow of power listened, went where I wanted. It felt like it carved a channel. No, cleared a channel that led to that other pool. It fell in, everything going into that new pool.

    Darkness and yuck overflowed from it, instead of my power. I could taste it on my tongue, bile and the pizza we just ate, remnants of lunch and somehow, weirdly, a feeling of ignorance.

    "Nicole! Nicole!" I heard both Karen and Melissa yell in alarm, but I could see the blackness thinning out, my power starting to show through this new pool. But my dantian was nearly empty, I wasn''t sure what would happen if it emptied. Just a moment longer and... and... it was done, everything clear, barely a drop left in my dantian.

    Now, both my dantian and this new pool pulsed at the same time, linked together. A flood of energy seemed to explode from the dantian current, filling itself back up and flowing into the other pool. The extra flow stopped, power now cycling gently between the two.

    I opened my eyes as I continued to hear my name being called.

    "Oh. Oh god. What the hell?" I was covered, not in sweat as I was expecting, but some weird black goop. My workout clothes were definitely going in the garbage. Possibly a fire, based on how bad everything smelled at the moment.

    "Are you ok?" Karen was nearly grabbing me, trying to find a clean piece of clothing to do so. Good luck there.

    I coughed, but nodded. "Doing alright."

    "Nevermind, she''s ok. I thought she was choking on something and panicked." Melissa said, and I noticed her holding a tablet. Oh, 911.

    "And everything is good now?" The voice echoed out.

    "Yeah, I think so. She''s talking now." Melissa answered the operator.

    "Alright. Have a good night then."

    She very carefully turned off the call without facing it to me. "What. The. Actual. Hell?"

    To be honest¡­ "I found the first block? Getting past it was weird." I offered, before looking to my own tablet and seeing the red light still on. "I pushed past the stress point, found something like a pit of black goopy weirdness." I paused, looking at my skin and fairly ruined clothes. "And my power started trying to fill it in. Looked kinda like this stuff."

    "Yeah, you were wincing and making painful sounds, then all of a sudden starting bleeding out black goo. Very Exorcist of you." Karen stated.

    "Yeah, I focused on it, then my power stopped just filling me in general and started filling it up. I nearly didn''t have enough to clean it out, it seemed to be pushing back against me. Once it was clear, well, they were linked. Somehow I filled everything back up."

    I looked at the twenty five pound weight in my hand. "It''s not effortless, but nearly. And I''m not cycling faster. Surface area of the overflow, maybe?"

    "Go get cleaned up, science afterwards." Melissa pointed me away. "You were only doing that for like ten minutes." She clicked off my recorder.

    I went and took another shower, making a special garbage trip for the completely soiled clothes. I''d probably need to get a carpet cleaner for the living room and pray that worked.

    "Alright, I want to try." Melissa said.

    I pointed to another room. "Kitchen. I can mop easier than try to clean carpet."

    We all laughed and Melissa hung her head with a smile as she moved into the kitchen. I turned the recorder back on as she sat down and started doing the same thing, and within a couple of minutes she closed her eyes, concentrating. I could see little winces coming from her. "Can''t...Can''t get it past." She whispered. "Hole. Losing power...to fill it."

    I watched as she sweated out the smallest amount of that same black goop before she blew out her breath, eyes open and looking at us. "Just that little bit? Why''d I get more?"

    She coughed. "Yeah, little different for me. I pushed past that same painful point and found that black pool of goop. But when my power tried to get to it, it went the same path I originally broke through, I could tell."

    She paused. "It was like a hole or a void or something. It ate up my power to fill it up. Literally, my dantian is a hell of a lot shallower now, almost as shallow as before we started this. I barely got any power into that pool before my dantian was empty. And now it feels even thicker there."

    "I''m kinda afraid of what would have happened if I didn''t have enough power to fill that hole."

 Interlude: DantianResearchNotes.doc

    Search complete. Loading DantianResearchNotes.doc remotely.

    <hr>

    February 10th?

    The Dantian Seekers have an absolutely huge database of information, scraped from millions of forums and tens of thousands of videos. It''s also highly searchable, and uses some pretty decent filtering system to weigh your search terms against what''s in the database. Honestly, it''s like someone bought a pretty good search engine and then optimized it for this stuff.

    I''m probably not treading any new ground just looking through their stuff, since whoever put it together knows how to work it better and had more money to throw at it, but it''s also not set up to just give newbies good data. There is a kind of wiki framework built in, but it''s pretty blank.

    Searches for false path and Lei Zhaohui don''t return many results, although separately there''s a decent bit of conversation dozens of different ways something worked for this person or another. Zhaohui comes up more as a curiosity, since whatever he''s doing isn''t really known.

    February 12th?

    Collecting a lot of similarities in different false paths. People post a lot about what didn''t work for them, but not nearly as much on what is working. But since everything apparently works for at least one person? You can get a lot of ''barely worked'' ideas that might align better with your own method of doing this.

    There''s a lot of ''anime'' type paths. More examples to pick and choose from, I guess. But I''ve yet to pick a random TV show, comic, or obscure mythological powerset and not be able to find at least a few references to someone having tried it. Infinite monkeys with infinite typewriters situation.

    Though, even in any powerset that is ''always on'' like most powers, anyone trying to duplicate it isn''t able to keep it running. Pull up power, use it, power gone until you pull it up again.

    Funny video of that guy running through plywood walls, then bouncing off the last one at the end due to missing his timing.

    Though, I''ve always got a little running regardless. Weird, and a point in favor of the alien not just stacking lies on lies.

    February 15th?

    Glad I don''t have a boyfriend. Lot of people trying the power of love yesterday. Doesn''t seem like many people have ''serenading'' as the key to their power.

    February 16th?

    Karen noted my power sounded like a water element, but nothing I''ve searched really sounds right. Even assuming the alien wasn''t lying and pretty much everyone else is on a false path, I''m not certain how much flowing water, mystic healing arts, or becoming one with the nature of water really sounds like my power. Or me.

    February 24th?

    Necessity is the mother of all invention. Somehow, I panicked enough during the fight last night that I was able to specifically overflow more into my punch than just generally into my body. Can''t figure out how to do it again. I''d rather not put myself in that situation again to see if it''s just an under stress ability.

    Afternoon addendum:

    Apparently, you can pull people onto the correct path. Or at least off the false path. Doing so changed what the alien said to Melissa. Attached recording. She''s now the first off the false path and no longer mortal. Weirdly, we can feel each other''s power.

    We''ve decided to try to get CAT scans to see if it''s any different. Karen and Ash are going to be control subjects. We probably need to find someone else on the false path to see what their scans would be like. Maybe they''re uploaded into the Seeker system, will have to look.

    Dantian: Power to define yourself? There''s something in what the alien is saying. Almost like you can define the word by what he''s saying.

    [Attachment: <u>LectureRecorder0224.mp5</u>]

    February 25th?

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    Seekers do have anonymized CAT scan data for a few people, three guys, one girl. Nothing appears to be off on their scans.

    Spinning the current testing with Melissa. Wiping yourself out with the power doesn''t seem to do much to increase length of time it''s usable at a higher rate of spin. See supplementary tracking charts <u>here</u>.

    Also, future note. Redefining ''spinning the current of power'' as cycling. Since it does it spin it''s own, it''s more of a cycle that you can adjust. Also, more concise.

    March 3rd?

    Scans today at Phelps. Myself and Melissa have a strange not-organ showing up where we can feel the power. Dantian. Looks interesting, but just because we cycle to power it up, doesn''t mean you should spin the 3-D projection of it.

    Provided scans to Danny with Dantian Seekers (also, weird name coincidence. Danny, Dantian). Didn''t give him any other data, not sure what data I''d have. Definitely not sure what I was expecting, either.

    March 6th?

    Ran into Danny today looking for research notes on whatever I''ve been working on. Not much to give him, what data I have is pretty imprecise and not really useful with the possible exception of ''Get off the false path'' and what the right path does, I don''t know yet.

    March 7th?

    Last night''s cycling tests were bizarrely successful. See attached recording.

    For future reference, Test Two will be referred to as the ''power gathering'' test or exercise. Test One will be the ''block cleaning'' test or exercise.

    Use of the power gathering exercise increased the depth of the dantian by multiple times. New length of time unknown, but exercise lasted for nearly an hour before being startled out of it by Karen. Limitations unknown. Dad would be thrilled, mystic bullshit.

    Block Cleaning has a lot of dangerous points. I nearly drained my dantian clearing the block, will need a better measurement. Worse case, Melissa''s breakthrough on the false path apparently created a hole that ate everything from her dantian we''d just built to fix the hole. When she hit the block, she didn''t have nearly enough to clear it. Now she''s reporting it feels thicker than ever. We''re going to be testing again in a few days, she''ll be building power up first so we can try to get a measurement of what''s needed.

    Whatever is in the block seemed to boil out of our bodies. I threw everything I could away, and the carpet is probably a lost cause. Melissa didn''t really get anything out due to having to fix the hole. Karen asked us to keep it for next time, she''ll see if she can run it through the bio lab to figure out what it is.

    With the first breakthrough, baseline is about two-thirds what my max ignore was at full cycle previously. We''ll have to be careful testing my new cycling max, and possibly Melissa''s.

    Might be interesting to see the differences in our CAT scans now, but there''s the argument over paying to give them my hard work at this point.

    Attachment: [<u>LectureRecording0306.mp5</u>]

    <hr>

    Document flagged for Auto-Retrieval on update.

    He looked at the last line of the document, musing. Honestly, with real data being produced, it''d be worth wiping out any debt she owed and actually hiring her on as an actual researcher. Lord knew he wasn''t aware of anyone else with tangible evidence. Thousands of hours of video, sure. Eye witness reports of people doing things well outside their physical capabilities, yeah.

    But a working method, that might be reproducible, trainable, and to a level of actual usefulness? She was being cautious about max strength numbers, but just based on what weight she could basically ignore as a baseline, DARPA might not have just been throwing money down a pit like he''d assumed when they actually gave a half million dollar grant to the Seekers.

    Too bad this true path was apparently noticeable to others, or he''d try it himself. As it was, he''d quit pushing his power due to the noted damage and would see if Nicole would officially provide her research notes eventually. He''d have to be careful about pushing her now though.

 Chapter 7: A break

    March 10th?

    It was interesting, to say the least. Arms outstretched, one hand holding a five pound weight, the other holding fifteen. A physically larger, heavier mass in one hand. To know that it should be harder to hold one weight up than the other, especially after twenty minutes.

    But that was conceptually. In reality, I blew out my breath and flipped the heavier weight in my hand like it was nothing. Caught it without having to give due to its weight. Intellectually, I knew there was a different between the two different barbell weights. But physically, no.

    "Do you know how to juggle? I''m seeing some hilarity down the line juggling weights other people can''t even pick up." Ash asked, sitting nearby.

    I set the weights back down in their slots, looking around the gym. Ash was covering for the others, as both Melissa and Karen had begged off to just the testing we were doing later tonight.

    Maybe I did need to slow down a bit. I''d again spent the past few days doing nothing but playing with weights, cycling, and making notes against all of this. It was fun and interesting, but still. I side-eyed Ash, who caught my appraising glance.

    He shook his head at me. "I don''t play those games on Karen, Nicole. I''ll call Mike if you want a lunch date, I think he''d still be interested in taking his clubbing savior out for the afternoon, even a couple of weeks later."

    I winced but still laughed. "I didn''t think I was being that obvious."

    "It''s how Karen and I started dating the first time a year ago. She asked for a ''workout'' buddy." He grinned. "Subtle she ain''t, but it''s nice being that straight forward. But yeah, I''ve had a couple others do the same thing last time we had a cool down a while back." He paused. "Actually probably around the time she joined the Seekers. I wonder if she just got that distracted? The blond jokes kinda tell themselves sometimes."

    I laughed and flipped by own long red braid around. "None here, promise. But yeah, call him for me? Or give me his number, I''ll surprise him."

    Ash laughed as well. "I''ll call him, but I''m sending you his number too."

    "Tell him two hours?" I grabbed my bag. "I''ll call in about twenty to confirm though thanks. I need to get cleaned up."

    ~~~

    It turned out Mike''s vehicle was nicer truck, and I grinned as I got in. "Thanks. I need to get away for a little bit, do something different."

    Mike had a light jacket and jeans on and looked just a touch embarrassed as he started pulling away from the dorm parking lot. "So, what then? Normally there''s more alcohol involved, not having a friend call me up and doing basically a half blind date."

    "Lunch." I answered after a moment. "Then we get lost for a few hours wherever you wanna go. I have to be back this evening for some stuff with Melissa and Karen."

    "Dantian Seeker stuff, right?" Mike asked as he pulled onto 66 and I made a noise of agreement. "Weird stuff. I started looking a little more after the club a few weeks ago. Police records are public, ya know? There''s been several people arrested for stupid shit like that night."

    I sighed. "Yeah, probably. I''m trying to take at least an afternoon break from it though." I threw him a half-smile. "We never did get to finish our conversation last time. All I remember is you said you''re local to here, right?"

    "Yep. Born and raised. I''m actually a firefighter here." Mike at least accepted the change of subject easily enough.

    "Neat. Do you guys stay busy?" I paused. "Wait, busy is bad. That''d mean a lot of fires."

    Mike chuckled. "We do a little EMT and such as well, but yeah. I''d rather be stuck at the station on shift than out. Being out usually means we''re being sent to a problem. How about you?"

    "Meteorology. Weather." I grinned. "Really, I like chaos theory but I don''t like theoretical stuff."

    "Huh." We pulled up to a diner. "Brains, beauty, and brawn. Fun combination."

    "I''d argue the brawn part, but¡­" I sighed a bit. "So, what''s this place?" I looked at the sign for Penelope''s Restaurant.

    "A local breakfast slash lunch place. I figured something a little more local than a chain." Mike nudged me and then got out.

    "Sounds interesting." I got out as well.

    Turns out the food wasn''t bad at all, and we''d managed to keep up a fairly good conversation the entire time.

    After we left, I raised an eyebrow at Mike. "So, how do you want to kill some time this afternoon?"

    "You did say you wanted to do something different earlier. Ever tried a polar bear plunge?" Mike grinned as he got on 63.

    What? "Isn''t that where you run into freezing water for no reason? I don''t even have a bathing suit."

    His grin got wider. "Not that much difference in exposure between a bikini and skinny dipping, right? And I''ve got towels and even a couple of thermal blankets in the back."

    "True." I smiled at the implicit challenge. "Alright, you''re on. You get to lead the way. Where we going?"

    "Brays Lake, it''s like fifteen minutes."

    Definitely something different for the afternoon. I bounced slightly in the seat as I watched the road, throwing looks at Mike occasionally.

    We pulled off a county road, then off-roaded onto a dirt path. We finally got to the edge of the lake Mike was talking about.

    I got out of the truck and looked around, only to spot no one else. Probably because it was still pretty cool at nearly 50¡ã. Not a cloud in the sky either. "I''m going to burn to cinders. When I''m as red as my hair, I''m going to blame you. Understood?" I pointed at Mike, who was standing on the other side of the truck watching me with a half smile.

    "I''ve got sunscreen, I''m not dumb." He pulled a spray bottle out from the door. "Or you can just in and out quick. Or call it off completely." He offered.

    Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    "I didn''t say no, I said I was going to blame you." I answered, waving a hand at him. "Now chop, chop. I also said you get to lead the way." I stared at him.

    ~~~

    We''d spent a good hour playing, both in and out of the water, before we finally got bundled back up and Mike threw the thermal blankets over our clothed and shivering selves.

    "So, fulfill your requirement for an interesting afternoon?" He leaned into me. "How are you already that warm?"

    My dantian was nearly cycling itself, energy overflowing outwards and warming me faster than normal. I thought I''d not froze as quickly in the water, but... "Dantian Seeker stuff, I''m fairly certain."

    "Well, that''s a cheat." He laughed. "So? Good afternoon?"

    I pretended to think about it for a moment. "Yeah, pretty damn good. I think I''ll keep you."

    A light poke in my side. "Wasn''t I the one that collected you today? Doesn''t that mean I get to keep you?"

    "Mutual keepening." I offered.

    "Fair."

    We sat for a few more minutes before I got up, tossing my blanket at him. "So, you''re welcome to hang around when we do Seeker stuff this evening."

    "I was going to ask." Mike pulled the blanket off and stood himself. "You about ready to go then?"

    "I''m probably crispy in places not meant to crisp, so unfortunately yeah." I stretched for a moment, trying to feel if there were any sunburn spots already pulling or pinching.

    "It''s still fairly early. We can just drive around for a bit if you''d like? There''s some fun dirt trails in the conservation."

    I checked my watch. "As long as we''re back in a few hours, sure."

    ~~~

    [Breathe]

    What the fuck? I didn''t ask... Next to me, Mike took a huge, ragged breath.

    B?????????r?????e????a???????t??????h????e?????????????

    The word pressed against me and I struggled back against it, the energy inside me buffering me slightly. I cycled it as fast as I could, the pressure lessening.

    It was more than a word. It was a demand. A command. Not even directed at me, at anyone.

    "Pull over, pull over, pull over!" I chanted at Mike, hoping he could understand me. Thankfully, he slammed the breaks, stopping us on the trail.

    He seemed to be struggling, trying to continually breath in. "Breathing includes exhale. In, out, in, out!"

    We''d been riding with the windows down and the heat blasting, and now the very air around us seemed to be getting heavier, a cold wind whipping through the trees. Mike blew his breath out.

    B????????????????r???????????????e????????a?????????t??????????????????h???????????????e??????????????

    The wind swirled around the truck as Mike gasped in again. I could almost taste something in the air. "OUT! Breathe out too!" I yelled.

    I''d spent three days pushing my dantian, cycling power. I''d learned that the extra power slowly bled out if not used, but my focused testing for the three days had left me with quite a lot. I''d been hoping to discover another block after Melissa pushed through her first this evening. Increase my knowledge of this power.

    Instead, I threw everything I had into cycling, grabbing Mike''s arm across the console. I pushed at the presence that until now had been quiescent and docile, only bothering to answer a single question. "Breathe in and out, asshole!"

    Mike''s eyes were wide as he tried to focus on me while coughing.

    I started slowly breathing myself, focusing on that. Focusing on how Mike was nearly choking just trying to breath. "In and out, in and out." I yelled again, pushing against what was probably nothing good in my dantian. I could feel a reverberation in that place underneath my heart. I was worried about hurting something.

    But the alien had once killed millions by crashing every plane. Did he even breathe the same way we did? I frantically recalled the articles that he was vacuum sealed in the UN.

    I could almost feel that interest from the presence again. "[Breathe in and out]!" I yelled one last time, at the presence. At Mike. At myself. Something inside me broke, trickling energy hurting even as I expelled it somehow directly at Zhaohui''s presence.

    I could taste blood. Water. Air. Earth. Concrete. Pollution. Fire. Trees. A million different tastes, a billion different sensations as I tried to follow my own words. In. Out.

    [Breathe]

    It felt different this time. Guided. Something inhaled power, converted it, and exhaled it. A heartbeat. It happened again, in reverse a billion times as the exhale was inhaled.

    Your people are as unborn children, unknowing of their first breath and must be guided even here. The voice echoed in my mind, and I could literally feel the difference of focus, directly on me. There was a tinge of disappointment about the statement.

    Next to me though, Mike was finally breathing normally again, ragged but even draws of breath coming in.

    There were flows now, something I could feel. They felt thicker than my entire body, but every breath I took felt like a piece of it flowed into me. Where it touched my dantian, there was a tiny brush against it. I exhaled, and that energy flowed back out.

    But... It felt similar to how Melissa''s power felt, but on an almost unimaginable scale of size. Like it was... "What is the strength of the world''s soul?"

    Your world''s soul has awakened, lit its dantian on its first breath. Mortal no more, the way to Heaven begins to open.

    The echo of the alien''s words hurt, my dantian exhausted and empty and unable to buffer me. I felt the words scrape against me like it was against my very soul.

 Chapter 8: Fallout

    We both just sat in the truck for a several minutes. Mike trying to steady his breath while I tried to straighten myself out, having curled up from the pain.

    "Damn. What was that?" Mike slumped back into his seat.

    I had to nearly peel my fingers off of his arm, clear impressions of my fingers left behind. Internally, my dantian cycled slowly, scraped raw and clear but slowly starting to fill again. "The alien. Did something."

    A ringing started up, and caller ID picked up on the dash of ''Station.''

    "Hold on." Mike reached out and tapped answer. "Go for Mike."

    "You ok?" A voice immediately asked, voice a little wheezy. "I don''t know what just happened, but it trashed everyone here at the station, and now we''re getting overwhelmed with 911 callouts. If you''re good, I need you to come in, shifts be damned."

    Mike gave me a look. "Better than the guys there, it sounds. I''ve got someone with me, give me thirty to drop her off and get back. We''re on the conservatory and I don''t think I''m going to trust Uber right now."

    A pained laugh. "I wouldn''t either."

    "See you soon then. Out." Mike hung up without waiting for a reply and shifted the truck back into drive. "Sorry Nicole. I''ll get you back to your dorm, but..."

    I shook my head. "No, I understand. I need to call my parents, check on them. Where''s my bag."

    As Mike started driving out, I unbuckled and turned around, trying to fish my bag out from the back. Grabbing it, then my tablet out of it, I quickly hit call.

    The signal dipped weird and didn''t connect for a very long moment, before finally placing the call. A female face showed up on my tablet. "Mom! Where''s Dad? Are you guys ok?"

    Her face was pale and shaky. "We''re at the store, your father plowed a cart into a soda display. Thankfully, it didn''t all fall on him. We''re going to go get checked out at the clinic here shortly. What happened, are you ok?"

    "I''m fine. You guys are ok though? You heard the breathe thing too?" Mom nodded and I winced. "That probably happened everywhere then. There''s probably going to be some really long lines at the clinic."

    The scene shifted and Dad''s face appeared. "You okay honey?" I nodded, but he frowned for a moment. "Are you in a car? Are you sure you''re ok? You''re not on the way to the hospital yourself, right?"

    "No, no. I''m fine." Mentally apologizing to Mike, I tipped the screen in his direction for a moment. "I wasn''t driving, and we were going slow when it happened."

    "Huh." Dad gave me a look.

    "Can we do that talk later?" I asked plaintively. "I just wanted to make sure you guys were ok. I need to call and check on Karen and the others back at the dorms."

    "Sure, sure." Mom''s voice said. "Call your friends, check on them. I hope they''re ok too."

    "Stay safe." Dad said, and then ended the call.

    "Sorry about that." I apologized to Mike. "I didn''t want to do the whole parent intro that way."

    Mike laughed, swinging back onto the county road off the trails. "Nah, you''re fine. Could be a whole lot worse."

    I tapped Karen''s contact info next and waited. And waited with no answer. "Shit." I clicked Melissa next, who thankfully answered after a moment.

    "You ok?" I immediately asked, looking between her and trying to see the background behind her.

    "Yeah, I''m fine. It didn''t hit me nearly as hard as anyone else I''ve seen." Melissa paused. "Karen''s been running around checking on the other Seekers. They actually took it really hard."

    I nodded, thinking. "Alright, I''m only a few minutes away, Mike''s bringing me back."

    "Mike? Who?" I tilted the tablet again. "Oh, hi! Good on you, Nicole!"

    "And now I''m a hunk of meat." He was watching the road though, and everything did seem quieter than normal. "I don''t dance on firepoles."

    I giggled, echoed by Melissa on the call. "Alright, see you in a few. Meeting you at the Seeker building?"

    ~~~

    Mike didn''t waste any time dropping me off, taking a kiss and running.

    The campus felt off. It wasn''t always loud, but there was almost always people going around. Now, there was almost no one. It really felt eerie. I let myself into the building and headed for the lecture hall.

    Once in, I found Melissa and several other people milling about. If the campus felt eerie, this room just felt off.

    "Hey." I pulled up a seat next to Melissa, who was making some sort of document on a tablet. "OK?"

    "Yeah." Melissa turned the tablet towards me. "Apparently, any of the Seekers with power are all reporting they feel like absolute shit. I started doing an informal poll."

    I looked the document over, it looked like a cross-referenced short questionnaire. Power yes/no, Number of breakthroughs, scale of 1-10 how bad did it feel. If 10, what previously was a 10 and what would it be now.

    Huh, someone reported four breakthroughs. Felt like a ten, previous ten had been a multiple compound leg fracture. Now a four. I had a full body wince. "How are some of these people still standing?"

    "Whatever it was, it didn''t linger Ms. Firen." Danny walked up and sat down. "But for myself, I would liken it to trying to breath around a bat shoved into my lungs. Ten out of ten, would not do again."

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    It was rude of me, but I stared. He looked perfectly fine, but he gave off a sense that felt like he''d gone several rounds with Mike Tyson. "I think it did."

    "Well, seeing that is likely a difference between whatever your research uncovered and the rest of us. Though, I don''t think Ms. Belle has noticed anything off." Melissa frowned but shook her head. "Which brings me to the crux of my problem."

    He picked up one of the other tablets nearby and logged in. "Obviously, you''re doing something right. And far be it from me to stop you from doing so." He started pulling something up. "I, on behalf of the Dantian Seekers organization, am willing to pay you whatever amount either of us can come up with that zeroes out any possible money you might owe the Seekers up to this point. Including any penalties if you were to leave the Seekers right now. In return, I get whatever research you''ve done up to this point."

    That...wasn''t a bad deal? "And what if my research is bad?"

    "Just based on your medical scans? And that you can somehow sense what happened or similar? It''s at least not as bad as anyone else." He coughed, and I could nearly watch the jerking action reverberate through that invisible wound.

    "Additionally, if your research is in any way repeatable, I''d like to officially hire you. So instead of the Seekers doing you favors to be repaid, your research is funded." He offered me the tablet.

    Hesitantly, I took it and read it over. It was short and already signed by Danny on behalf of the Seekers. Still, I read it over quickly. It was an agreement that all costs associated with my membership of the Seekers was waived and, "Wait, you''re just going to give me fifteen thousand dollars as research dues?"

    "It''s easier for both of us to just use the exit clause of your Seekers membership. You then turn around and hand the Seekers their dues right back. Then you either rejoin the Seekers as a member again without the same contract, or I just give you a job offer." He smiled. "The extra five grand is a bonus either way. But how does seventy thousand a year sound to start with for a job?"

    I''d been doing it basically as a part time job anyways, but to be paid that much to just continue? "Why?"

    "Nicole, if I may," Danny paused and I nodded. "Nicole, seven months ago was a terrorist attack by something that makes the human race look like we''re playing with sticks and stones. Today, he chose to attack us again and only by the grace of God did the alien decide to relent and not choke to death every person on the planet."

    There was that feeling of unease. I''d almost pushed it aside earlier.

    "You? Your CAT scans and probably your research? I think you''ve got fire from the gods."

    I smiled weakly. "Didn''t Prometheus get chained to a rock for doing that?"

    "Bah." Danny waved that off. "Metaphor extended too far. Serious though, at least let me clean the slate about the money."

    "Alright, fine." I read over the document one more time, then signed. "I guess my last act as a Seeker member is going to be to upload my research notes, huh?" I pulled out my own tablet, pulling up the Seeker app.

    "I guess so."

    I looked across the room. Danny''s issues were much easier to sense with him sitting right there, but with him as a frame of reference, most of the people in the room were easy to recognize as little pockets of damage that echoed and pulsed their issues. Curious, I tried to cycle my own dantian for additional power to see if it''d make any difference, and felt my own internal twinge as I forced an overflow before I had filled up to normal levels. It cycled, but not nearly as easily or generated the same amount of extra power.

    Danny''s damage sharpened though for a moment. Rends in his chest, but a weight on top of it, pressing down and smothering it.

    I realized something and looked at Melissa. I couldn''t sense her. "Melissa? I can''t feel you?"

    She frowned. "I can still feel you. And I''m not hurt. Hold on." And then I felt her power move, flowing above something to be noticeable. "I''m cycling it, can you feel it now?" I nodded, then it vanished again.

    "Weird. It was as if you had background noise hiding you?" I thought outloud. That sense of heaviness in the air was somewhat sitting around everyone.

    "See? This is the kind of thing I want to hire you for." Danny smacked his hand on the table. "New things, not just putting together a freaking database of random shit."

    I dropped my notes, recordings, and spreadsheets into a ''For Review'' bucket in the app before closing it. "Don''t do anything stupid with my notes, Danny. Especially after today, I have no clue what your dantian would look like if what Melissa and I did is repeatable."

    He brightened. "If you''ve documented it, I can always get a CAT scan after I do the same thing." He then slumped slightly. "The hospitals are going to be swamped, aren''t they?"

    "Let''s see if we can find Karen. Melissa, you figure you have at least three hours worth of cycle stored up, right?" She nodded. "Then we may still have a date with a plastic dropcloth and a kitchen floor."

    Danny and Melissa stared at me, though Melissa laughed crazily.

 Chapter 9: How far is Heaven?

    March 11th?

    It''d been entirely too late last night by the time we found Karen, so instead this morning found me flipping through a few news articles to start the morning and doing some searches in the Seeker database for anything new as well, curious as to the reactions. The dining hall was closed for the morning, probably with people recovering. I had to do with a snack out of a machine and soda before retreating back to my dorm.

    My access into the database had a title change from Student to Researcher, probably Danny flagging me differently last night now that I''d signed the agreement. Which reminded me, I still needed to get that check, officially leave, and play that song and dance.

    And probably talk to Dad about that job.

    Mainstream media had plenty of articles about yesterday being an attack, questioning how it had happened, why, and what the response should or even could be from various governments. It really was scary that one being could reach out and touch not just you, but every person worldwide, possibly without effort.

    I took a deep breath, still tasting the strange energy in the air. A blend of everything both natural and manmade.

    One being, affecting everyone as a side effect of what he was really doing.

    It was one thing, a very scary thing, but one thing to be able to cause every plane in the world to crash. It affected plenty of people, but it was still something visible, with a cause and effect. Plane crashed, people died. It''d even been given that as a name, "The Crash". But people worked around it. Auto-pilot on cargo planes got updated real fast and suddenly cruise ships were the hottest thing to get across the ocean.

    But it was a completely other, scary and dangerous thing for an intangible voice to hurt you and everyone you knew. There was no arm to claw against, no person to beg mercy from.

    I started getting into more of the articles with estimates of death tolls. The Crash had been estimated to kill between eight and nine million people. A big number, but a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the world population.

    This though? Several articles were playing fast and loose with numbers, but there were a lot of common guesses.

    Anyone in delicate surgery for that almost two minute long window? Assumed lost on the table.

    Incapable of holding your breath for at least ninety seconds? There were reports of seizures and aneurysms. There were guesses of ninety percent of the over seventy population didn''t make it out without some direct effect.

    That wasn''t even including all the people driving in the middle of the day. Massive car crashes as people blindly flailed.

    Estimates ranged from a hundred million to eight hundred million dead yesterday. Didn''t initial estimates usually get revised higher from disasters?

    Morbidly and slightly afraid, I used the Seeker''s search engine to find any more precise information. There were plenty of articles about the elderly, about people already in high risk jobs. Someone had to have checked, wrote articles on...

    An article about NICU patients, one there about a maternity ward. Raw numbers probably misposted from Children''s Hospital of Atlanta.

    Babies up to around fifteen months. No issues. The maternity ward article even had a video of a nurse nearly falling over but the babies around her with no problems. Why?

    But it looked like any child older than that had the same issues as anyone else. Could the kid hold their breath long enough?

    The search popped up another article, released less than an hour ago. This one had a possible answer. Babies didn''t understand language.

    I pushed the tablet away. Yesterday was like ashes now. It had been quiet, but I hadn''t seen anyone truly hurt. Even the Seekers who had taken bigger damage from it, were still alive. Injured in a way no one really knew of, but generally alright.

    But that was a lie. College students, by and large? In the age range and health category to probably be fine if they weren''t doing anything else dangerous. Karen had been a wreck last night when Melissa and I had found her. I wonder if she did find someone hurt or dead.

    I''d let the repercussions slide off of me, because it hadn''t actually affected me. I''d managed to talk Mike through it.

    Oh god. What if I hadn''t managed to yell at the alien somehow? I''d been the fourth and he hadn''t said what number Melissa was, but could everyone not on the ''true path'' have died yesterday?

    The room spun for a moment, and I put my head down. Deep breaths as I felt my own dantian spinning on a wobbly tilt as well before settling after long moments of trying to not hyper ventilate.

    No, the world soul would have awakened and the alien would have quit pushing people regardless. I might have saved some, but it wouldn''t have been everyone dying.

    "What did a hundred million lives buy? What is the strength of the world''s soul?" I whispered.

    The world''s [dantian] is lit. The first step on the path to its Heavenly Realm has been taken.

    The words scraped against me, echoed into me through my own dantian. I could feel the extra meaning behind dantian, visualization of my own, but there was a lot missing. Things I didn''t know and couldn''t grasp right now. There had to be more meaning behind Heavenly Realm as well, but I had no understanding of it at all.

    I might have been spending a lot of time on researching this recently, but it was the interest of a new hobby. I cycled my energy, feeling it from my dantian into the pool of my first breakthrough and the forward again to yet another pool. A second breakthrough, done while basically screaming into the void. I hadn''t ended up covered in gunk yesterday thankfully, but it felt shallow, weak.

    The energy flowed and followed its own path back. At least it didn''t hurt anymore unlike yesterday.

    "How far is the Heavenly Realm?" I asked, not expecting an answer and not disappointed. If Zhaohui wanted someone waiting for him when the Heavenly Realm opened, someone would be waiting for him. With, what did they call it? A butcher''s bill.

    I pulled up Melissa''s contact and called her, getting an answer. "You still have plenty of built up cycling, right?"

    "Yes..." Melissa looked at me worried. "What''s the matter?"

    "Do you mind one more there while you try for a breakthrough then? I want to see if I can help Danny too, all the Seekers need I think." I answered.

    "If you''ll tell me what''s the matter, I don''t mind."

    I glanced at the time. "I just spent the last hour and change looking at the news. The first estimates from yesterday? Anywhere from one to seven percent of the world just died. I''ve made it through two breakthroughs. You''re going to make it through the first one today."

    I looked directly at her on the screen. "What if he does that for every step? If I can get through two breakthroughs within a month of lighting my own dantian?"

    The blood drained from Melissa''s face.

    "Yeah. I have no clue how to get to this Heavenly Realm, but if they both start with the dantian, we just have to stay ahead of him." I shook my head. "Stay ahead of someone who knows what they''re doing. I just hope the Earth being so much bigger than a person really slows him down."

    "Yeah, fine. Karen''s bringing Ash anyways. Is Mike going to be there?"

    I shrugged. "I''m going to send him a message and offer, but he''s probably busy as hell right now. He''s a firefighter."

    "Alright, see you in an hour. I''m going to go check on Karen. Ash is probably already over at her place."

    I gave a faint grin. "Don''t catch them in a bad spot."

    "That''s the whole point of not calling ahead." Melissa gave a somewhat forced grin back and hung up.

    I called Danny next. Even over video, he still looked a little beat up and tired.

    Before I could say anything, he explained. "I stayed up most of the night looking over your research notes. You''re definitely hired if you want the job."

    "Explains my Researcher title in the Seekers system then. And yes, I''m taking the job. Did you try anything last night?"

    He shook his head. "No. After your warning and just generally feeling like crap around two am, I didn''t think it safe to try."

    "Good. It''s going to be a tight fit, but do you think you can come over to my dorm in an hour? Melissa, Karen, and Karen''s boyfriend Ash are going to be here while Melissa tries her first breakthrough. I want to see if we can get you on the right path too."

    Danny looked at me. "You''re awfully focused, and you look worse than you did yesterday."

    "I''ve been going through the news. It''s been pretty bad." I replied.

    "Yeah. I told you, an act of terrorism."

    "See you in an hour then?" I repeated my question and he nodded. "Alright, later."

    I hung up.

    I debated calling Mike, but didn''t want to interrupt him. I''d message him instead.

    Mike. If you get this, you''re welcome to come by. We''re going to do Seeker stuff at noon. You''re welcome after that too if you don''t get this in time. -Nicole

    ~~~

    The living room of my dorm was cramped with five people in it, and that was without Mike. He''d sent a message all of ten minutes ago after waking from a catnap, but the firehouse was still on full duty runs for the day. He''d be off-shift again this evening as long as nothing else went crazy.

    "What''s this?" I asked, taking the papers Danny was offering me.

    "Your receipt for ten thousand dollars cash paid for leaving the Seekers, a check for the remainder five thousand, and your job offer. Read that over and sign at your leisure, I''m not going to interrupt this." Danny answered.

    I looked at the paperwork, shrugged, and put it on a table and then flipped my recorder on again.

    "Alright, before we even start, baselines." I pulled up some notes. "Ash, what''s your last name? And you Danny?"

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Carson." Ash answered. "You''re baselining me?"

    "Sidre."

    "Everyone." I answered. "Alright. Ash Carson, no power correct? Answer outloud" I looked at him and he agreed. "Karen Dubin, no power." She nodded as well and agreed. "Danny Sidre, false path. How many breakthroughs did you make?"

    "One."

    I noted that down. "Melissa Belle. Ex false path with one breakthrough. True path, no breakthroughs."

    "Yes."

    "And myself, Nicole Firen, true path, two breakthroughs. Kinda wish we could get scans of everyone."

    "Wouldn''t the scans not show anything?" Danny frowned. "With the exception of you and Melissa, no other medical scans I know of have shown anything like your dantian."

    "And then yesterday happened. Which brings me to question one of this session. Does the air seem different to anyone?"

    "Yes." Chorused everyone.

    I pointed at Ash. "Alright, Ash, you first. Description please."

    "It''s heavier, thicker. Like there''s more of it." Ash answered.

    I nodded. "Anything else?" He shook his head. "Alright, Karen. How does it feel to you?"

    "The same as Ash. I used to live in Colorado in the mountains, and coming to low elevations felt like this before I got used to it."

    "Maybe we can check to see if atmospheric pressure is different then. Anything else?"

    "No."

    "Alright. Danny?"

    "It''s sitting on me. It''s like it has an actual weight to it. Based on your notes I was reading through, I''ve been trying to ready my power, and that weight is making it much, much harder to pull that energy out. I''m hoping I can pull enough out to do this."

    "Melissa?"

    "It''s energy. It pushes against me, and I can feel it grounding out my power? I can cycle just fine, but every breath a little bit of that power tries to enter my dantian and burns out."

    I wrote down her description, pausing. "Is it making you burn your stored energy faster? Do you think you still have several hours built up?"

    "A little faster, but I''ve been holding back and building up, keeping up with the drain."

    "Alright." I looked at everyone else. "For completeness, it feels like power to me as well. But I can literally feel separation in it, like it''s a little bit earthy, a little air. Something that tastes like car exhaust, buildings, and a bit of trees. Yesterday in the conservatory it was a lot more trees and a lot of other things as well." I shuddered. "Like blood."

    "The alien said the world''s soul took its first breath and lit its dantian." I started.

    "Wait, are you thinking we''re literally breathing in what the earth is exhaling?" Karen interrupted.

    "Probably. That''s what I got out of that third breathe yesterday." I nodded.

    "Wasn''t just me that felt that difference then." Ash noted quietly.

    "So, we''ve got one guaranteed experiment today, one possible, and a crazy idea I don''t even like to suggest, but it''s something that probably needs to be tested." I started. "Guaranteed is Melissa going for her first breakthrough. Possible idea is Danny trying to get on the true path." I looked at him. "We are NOT going to be trying for a breakthrough for you until you get a CAT scan. Melissa''s breakthrough on the false path hurt her, and I want to know if you''ve got the same problem first."

    "I probably do. And I''ve been in first breakthrough for a good three months, which probably makes it worse." Danny had a morose look.

    "The crazy idea, well..." I looked at Karen and Ash. "Involves trying to get you power. I''m not even going to go over how that might work right now though."

    They both looked intrigued. "Seriously. If we''re going to do something stupid, I want to fully go over it with you both, not just half ass this. We have to beat the alien to the Heavenly Realm and I want to pack the race, but I''m not going to make completely stupid risks."

    Karen actually pouted while Ash nodded.

    "Alright, Melissa. You''re up." I pointed to the kitchen, where a painter''s drop cloth was already laid out.

    "I will kick you if you stare too much." Melissa looked at Danny as she said it.

    "I''m at least fifteen years older than you." He replied.

    "Doesn''t stop a creeper." Melissa began stripping down, stopping at a sports bra and a bikini bottom.

    "I don''t know if it was because it was my second breakthrough, or just yesterday, but I didn''t have any weird shit the second time." I offered as Melissa sat down on the plastic tarp.

    "That''d be great."

    I pulled up a timer. "Melissa Belle, attempting first breakthrough. Estimate of three hours full cycle overflow stored. For comparison''s sake, I believe I had maybe thirty minutes on my first breakthrough. Tell me when."

    Melissa nodded, going into a full split. "Go."

    I clicked the timer on as Melissa began stretching. To my senses, a storm seemed to flow out of nowhere from the other gymnast, lightning tingling against the power in the air.

    "Are we going to watch her stretch for what, three hours?" Danny looked around, blinking.

    "No." I answered. "She''s pushing beyond that point. Does anyone else feel something coming from her?"

    "No?" Ash said. Karen stared at her for a moment. "I''d like to say yes, but no."

    "Ozone." Danny answered. "The air is still weighing on me, but now it feels like lightning as well."

    I checked to make sure the recorder was catching Danny''s comment when Karen made a gagging sound. "Oh god, that''s gross."

    "Don''t touch her. That''s the same weird gross shit that came out of me." It seemed to be coming from all over her skin, but Melissa didn''t notice even as she went from one sitting stretch to another, her hands blackening as the morass dripped from her in almost solid chunks at first, before finally starting to liquefy.

    "That is disgusting." Ash made a face. "I''ve smelled gym bags and compost heaps better than that shit."

    After only a few more minutes, Melissa seemed to have sweated it all out, the yuck still on her body but also dripped off onto the plastic. "At least this time it''s not going to take a steam vac."

    Melissa opened her eyes, looked around, and shuddered. "I made it, but oh god this is horrible." The lightning storm ebbed back as I stopped the timer, but I could now feel her dantian slowly spinning again, apparently above the background of the air now.

    "Take a shower in a minute, it''s already ready. But details first. You made it?"

    "Yeah." Melissa looked at the goop. "It actually resisted, and I could see the bit of power I tried with the first time. I had to break through that first before I could start clearing out the block. It was like a solid at first. I know you said it only took you thirty minutes worth of full cycle time to go through, but I''d put what it took me as almost two hours worth." Melissa gave a look of confusion. "Wow, I''d go through the remainder fast. That''s a lot more area to overflow from."

    "Yeah, I noticed that myself. But it took you that much extra to break through?" Melissa agreed. "Alright, new rule for breakthroughs then. We build up until we''re literally losing more than we can cycle back in before trying a block." I tossed an old pair of slippers to her. "You know where the bathroom is, please try not to drip on anything."

    As Melissa left, Danny looked at the goop on the tarp. "Suddenly, I''m not looking forward to first breakthrough again."

    I immediately rebutted him. "You''re not going to go for a breakthrough. Even without the new rule, until we have a CAT scan of your dantian to know what''s screwed up and how much you might need to fix it, you''re not going to try."

    I picked up the tarp by the corners and dumped the entire thing in an empty garbage bag. "You wanted something for the biolab, right Karen?" I heard the shower kick on.

    "I almost want to say no." She was pale and looked to be trying to not throw up.

    "Heh." I nodded my agreement to that. "Ready Danny?"

    "Pull power out of my breakthrough, start stacking it?" He asked.

    I nodded. "Go for it. It''s probably going to be easier however you originally figured out your power though."

    "Your dorm really doesn''t have room for Karate forms. I''ll just sit and try. If it doesn''t work, maybe we''ll try somewhere I can actually move."

    "If you can, count out the number of times you pull your power together." I asked.

    Danny sat seiza and nodded, looking out at nothing. "One. Two. Three." He paused. "Three. Four. Five." He paused again. "Outside energy is managing to smother it sometimes. Five."

    We waited while Danny counted quietly, several times having to repeat himself. "Fifty-five. Fifty-six. Holy shit!"

    It sputtered and burned, pushing away the energy in the air from him as I literally felt his dantian form. A critical mass formed from nothing, then flooded his body, before returning to his heart and swirling, before falling low enough that the power in the air hid his dantian.

    "Cycle it Danny, move it around. I thought I saw something."

    The feeling of warm fire spun up and I stared at Danny intently. It wasn''t a smooth rotation at all, it looped into itself, snagging on things, before looping outside of itself and starting over.

    "Go ahead and let it go. Don''t try to push hard on it at all."

    Danny was just staring in wonder at his hands. "I don''t have to call it up?"

    Even the sense of beating I''d felt yesterday and earlier today was quickly fading from him. "Alright. Get a feel for it, don''t spin it up anymore. You need a scan before anything else. I know you saw Melissa go into her breakthrough, and you have my research notes on what happened before. Still, please don''t."

    Danny nodded distractedly. "Yeah, no screwing myself over any more."

    I smiled, then looked to Ash and Karen. Oddly, they both gave me apprehensive looks. "So, time to discuss my crazy plan. I promise, you don''t have to do it if you don''t want."

 Chapter 10: A Crazy Plan

    "You sure you can trust a couple of blonds with it?" Ash joked. Karen reached up from her seat on the floor and whacked him. "Abuse, abuse." He deadpanned.

    I grinned. "Seriously though." Danny and Melissa were paying just as much attention as Karen and Ash. "I have only weird conjectures and a guess to go off of on this, but I do think it''s possible."

    "I''ve been trying to get a power for months. I told you I was hoping someone would figure out how to teach this when you joined the Seekers." Karen mimed cracking her knuckles. "I''m not going to stop now."

    I nodded. "Alright, I had some thoughts about it last night and this morning and the answers you guys gave when we got started makes me think there is more there." I paused, gathering myself for a moment. "Breathe."

    Everyone flinched, even though I wasn''t trying to put the same power behind it as the alien had. As I pushed back at him. I thought to myself.

    "That last time yesterday, did anyone feel anything more in depth about it?" All I got was confused negative looks, except Ash.

    "Maybe a slightly different connotation to the word." He offered. "Like being told to breathe out instead of in. Finally."

    "I thought he was just done doing whatever, and finally let us all go?" Danny looked at Ash then me. There was a worried cast to his face.

    I shook my head. "I don''t think so. I got a lot more from it than even that. The earth breathes in power from somewhere, changes it, and breathes it back out. Inhale, exhale. Like I said earlier, we''re breathing in that exhale. I''m hoping you two can use that exhale as power."

    "Breathe in, do something with that power, and then exhale?" Danny asked again. "That sounds a lot like what we were doing wrong."

    Melissa drummed her fingers nervously. "Yeah, I know Karen wanted this ability, but..."

    "I can hold my breath for a good two minutes though. I bet I could do a lot with it in that time!" Karen broke in. "No more sidekick!" She jumped up from the floor.

    Ash snagged her and pulled her into the chair with him. "No."

    I shook my head. "I wasn''t done, I said hear out the entire idea. What we," and I waved my hand between myself, Melissa, and Danny, "look to have done is something with internal power and finding our dantian. Building it possibly."

    I pulled my braid around, fidgeting with the long end in a nervous habit. "But it still follows a general understanding. I don''t know where the power comes from in us, but we used it and then once we hit the right way to do it, bam. Dantian. What I want you guys to do is the same, but use that external power to build or uncover a dantian for yourself."

    Everyone paused to think that through.

    "I can''t see anything obviously wrong with that idea." Ash started slowly. "I mean, there''s probably a million things we could be doing wrong. But for this tiny, tiny subset of what we do know at this point, I don''t think it could hurt?"

    "It tried to smother my power when I got on the right path, and it caused Melissa to burn her power faster than she was expecting." Danny answered. "What if using external and internal power sources are incompatible and we end up causing each other to cancel out? I can kind of feel what Melissa was talking about, power brushing up against me that doesn''t mix well."

    Danny paused. "Heck, what if using an external power source is like hooking up to a huge generator, and you''re not rated for that level of influx? Not like there''s a GFCI switch on this."

    "Don''t know, don''t care. Gonna try it anyways." Karen grinned brightly.

    "Karen-" Ash started, but was cut off.

    "No, seriously. If Danny''s right and this is like hooking up to a generator, then it got started yesterday." Karen pointed to Danny, then Melissa, then me. "Levels of breakthrough. Right now, the earth is a Danny. If I''m gonna get burned, I''d rather it''d be now than when it''s Melissa or Nicole. Or God forbid, the alien Zhaohui."

    I paused. "And Danny''s other thought?"

    "About cancelling each other out? Then we test how far we have to be apart before it stops doing it. Or I don''t go any further through the breakthroughs and I''m a little bit of cancel out and not a lot." Karen shrugged, hand running through her blond hair, flipping it over a shoulder. "You''re not going to talk me out of this."

    Ash sighed and grabbed her hand, pulling it down. "Your call." He then looked at me. "Do you need someone to play control and not try this?"

    I shook my head. "There''s over seven billion people playing control right now. I mean, you could possibly even call it a double blind test since they don''t know it and if they manage to get power this way as well, it''s good info too if we find out about it."

    "Alright, you''re still in then." Karen grinned, leaning back in his lap and kissing him.

    "Unfortunately, if it''s in the air it''s probably going to be better for you two to not be breathing each other''s air to try this." I smiled.

    Ash got up, letting Karen flop back into his chair and moved across the room, sitting down. Karen pouted at him, but then laughed. "Alright. So what do we do? I''m not going to try just breathing in forever until I pop a vein or something, right?" He asked.

    I shook my head, still playing with my braid, fraying the ends to look like fire. "No. What I want to try is simple in theory, but I have no clue how you''re going to do it, or how long it''s going to take." I flipped the braid back around my shoulder. I focused, putting my thoughts on what I''d picked up from the alien yesterday and how I''d managed to actually talk back to him somehow. I cycled, pushing power out and spoke. "[Breathe.]"

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Huh, the cycle outflow imbalanced itself through my second-A feeling of acute interest and curiosity bloomed from Zhaohui''s presence, but only a flinch and then confused looks from Karen and Ash. Melissa, sitting next to me sat up straight, stared at me, and squeaked just a bit.

    "Just breathe? I mean, I kinda do that all the time." Karen looked at me.

    "You sure, blondie?" Ash tossed her way.

    "As much as you, blondie." She fired back with a grin.

    "Shit, shit." I jumped up and waved my hands around in the air frantically as I ignored Karen and Ash. "Go away, go away. Nothing interesting here. Nope, nope, we''re not doing anything."

    "Nicole, what in the world?" Melissa spoke up, watching me worriedly. "I felt that?"

    The curiosity shifted to amusement and then patronizing somehow, before it faded away. The feeling of interest lingered for a moment and I held my breath ignoring the others until it too faded.

    I slumped back into my chair.

    "No, seriously. What did you just do?" Melissa asked as everyone started crowding me a bit to check on me. "Are you hurt?"

    I pushed them back as I sat back up, somehow nearly scraped clean of energy in my dantian again. "Something stupid." I replied. "I didn''t hurt myself, but I tried to push the intent I felt yesterday at you guys on how to breathe."

    "I got that." Melissa answered. "Literally. Though I don''t know how, but I feel like I know exactly how I could breathe and get power from the air. You think it''d work for me?"

    "I didn''t get it." Ash and Karen said at almost the exact same time.

    This empty on power, I could feel the external energy pushing against me as well, trying to fill my dantian and flow into both of my breakthroughs. It felt off, like it wouldn''t be exactly my power if I let it flow. "It might, but I don''t know what it''d do. If you test it, please record everything?"

    Melissa nodded. "Later then."

    "You want to try that again then Nicole? Maybe if we sit closer to you first?" Ash asked, getting back up from the floor.

    I shook my head. "I''m nearly empty from trying once. And worse, even if you guys didn''t hear me...the alien did and started paying attention to me. I could feel interest and curiosity."

    "Yeah, let''s not." Danny''s eyes were wide. No one disagreed.

    "Alright. Can I try explaining then?" Melissa asked. "I got it, so maybe I can make it make sense?"

    Everyone looked at me. "Go for it. I''m just going to sit here and pretend to not be interesting for a bit." I pulled my legs up to my chest in the chair and just nodded to them, watching.

    Everyone gave me one last look before focusing on Melissa. "Alright, from what I got? There is power, energy, in the air. You breathe in, hold the air inside you, and separate that energy out for yourself. Then you breathe out and repeat. You keep doing it until you''re filled? Full? Something like that."

    "Yes, because I''m already so good at separating nitrogen from oxygen in the air now, figuring out the extra and filtering it internally will be so easy." Karen snapped, the biology major coming out. "Shouldn''t take me but a minute to tweak my pulmonary alveoli to also grab energy too."

    I giggled and Karen stared at me. "You have any better explanation?" I shook my head. "Seriously. Breathe in air, separate energy, breathe out. Rinse and repeat? That''s all you''ve got?"

    Melissa shrugged. "It''s hard to explain when you don''t already have energy to know what it feels like. What''d you call it earlier? Just heavy?"

    "Thicker too." Ash added.

    Melissa hmm''d. "Maybe part of this requires some mental flexibility? I mean, I can feel power and my dantian and where my new breakthrough pools at, but it''s not like I could have told you before where that breakthrough was at in my body." Melissa drew a circle over her left breast. "Here, by the way. If my dantian is a little spot under the heart, the first breakthrough is like a flowing circle here. But not a circle? Maybe an orbit? I don''t really have the words to describe it."

    I perked up. "Same. So that''s at least something trackable then for later."

    "Anyways. Maybe it''s a bit of mind over matter. Think about holding that heaviness in you when you breathe out?"

    Ash purposely took a deep breath and held it in. After fifteen seconds, he slowly let it out. "Honestly, it feels like playing pretend. I''d say it absolutely is if it wasn''t for the fact that you guys all do have a power."

    "Nothing?" Karen asked.

    He shrugged. "I dunno, maybe? Like I said, feels like playing pretend. Nothing to do but keep trying."

    Ash took another breath, and Karen started as well.

    "Really nothing better you can tell them?" I asked Melissa.

    She shook her head. "It''s hard to explain. I feel like once you start getting it, it''ll be easier."

    Danny, Melissa, and I all watched the two breath for a few minutes. Honestly, the definition of boring.

    Finally after almost twenty minutes, Ash coughed and shuddered. "Bleh. OK, not pretend. I lost whatever the hell it was." He looked at the three of us. Karen watched and listened, but continued breathing herself.

    "It''s not trying to settle around my heart like you guys. More in my gut. I thought I had gas and then it moved. I wasn''t really concentrating on it, and it fell apart." He explained.

    "Well. It''s a start." I grinned. "But it sounds like it''s going to take a while. I haven''t had anything to eat since a tiny breakfast, you guys mind if I see if the dining hall is open?"

    "Mind if I go with you, Nicole?" Danny stood. "Melissa should be ok to watch them, if you''re ok with everyone in your dorm still."

    "Sure."

 Chapter 11: External Energy Sources

    I pulled a thin jacket on and left, Danny following me. Exiting the dorm into the sunny early afternoon, I frowned at the UV index on the door blinking a six but Danny spoke up as we walked out, derailing that thought.

    "You said you want to pack the race." Danny mentioned as we walked between the buildings. "Are you looking to teach every Seeker? Anyone that comes up and asks?"

    I sighed, thinking back to Karen and Ash sitting in my dorm trying to figure out dantians and power without having either to begin with. "Yes? No? I don''t know."

    "As part of your job, I was going to ask you to at least get some people started. If you want to do more, I won''t complain there either." Danny responded. "There''s a lot of things I''d like to get more concrete information on, and probably a lot of things you can think of as well."

    "Yeah." My mind wandered for a moment, back to the news articles from this morning. "It''s a lot. I want to know as much as I can about this. But does that mean racing ahead of everyone else to try to get to this Heavenly Realm first? Or would incremental increases that we then teach everyone boost us all there quicker?"

    I sighed. "There''s no giants to stand on the shoulders of here."

    "True, but you do have resources. I''m not looking to just hire you and kick back. It might take a few days for the hospitals to calm down, but we''ll get access back to scans. If we need to figure out something else, there''s ways."

    Danny shoved his hands in his pockets for a moment, before pulling them back out. "Your original research is still technically pending approval. You haven''t signed the job offer yet, which I''m not pushing you to right now, so what we''ve done today isn''t technically the Seekers to disseminate without your approval. But once I get a few days to put it all together, I''ll be sending anything official I have up."

    "Up?"

    "Yeah." Danny stopped for a moment. "Oh wait, you haven''t read the job offer and probably didn''t care who funded the Seekers. We''re funded through a grant from DARPA. It was a small grant, but then again I think they''ve funded a few dozen different groups once people started getting weird abilities. I know-"

    I stopped him. "Wait, DARPA? Like the government?" He nodded. "I mean, I get why the government would want to understand this, but shouldn''t there be super secret facilities and military bases dedicated to this? Area 51 type stuff?"

    "There probably is. But Nicole, that just means once I report you''ve made a breakthrough in this? You''ll get to pack the race. They''ll take any research you''re willing to write up that''s repeatable, and then yes, there will probably be military and Area 51 people diving into this. I half assume you''ll only be on the Seeker payroll for months if you keep providing actionable research. DARPA will probably want to hire you directly."

    Danny started walking again, motioning for me. I almost stumbled after him, unable to really connect the dots on that.

    We walked in silence for the rest of the way to the dining hall, Danny holding the door open for me.

    Thankfully there were people there now and a few of the vendors open, but everyone seemed to be watching the TVs intently while they ate. I looked, and the bottom fell out of my stomach.

    Federal Crisis! scrolled across the bottom of every screen, from different news sources. Most of the TVs had closed captioning on, but apparently the sound had been turned on for one of the stations.

    "-passing of the majority of the Senate and over thirty percent of the House, it''s not expected that any congressional activities will take place on the Hill until most the empty seats are appointed by the states again. Three members of the Supreme Court have released video statements with their condolences for the massive loss of life. We''ve managed to confirm two more Justices, including the Chief Justice, are currently at Walter Reed alive but with no answer as to their condition." The man on the news gave a grim nod to the camera. "We have not had confirmation of the survival of either the president or vice president and with the death of both the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate, the American people are left to look at the Cabinet for a president to finish the term."

    The show went on, pulling up the known survivors of the cabinet and it looked like they were going over them like it was election time. I finally noticed the Live moniker wasn''t thrown up on the screen either.

    I''d stopped only a few steps into the hall with Danny stopped beside me. "Holy hell." I whispered.

    "I''d heard this morning about deaths in congress, but I guess they finally got some sort of total count of deaths in the government." Danny said as he whistled quietly. "I know it''s a running joke about a gerontocracy, but damn."

    "The hits just keep on coming." I shook my head. More definition to the loss of life. I vaguely wondered if the two justices at the hospital would make it.

    I ran through one of the fast food stands, getting a burger and some fries before sitting at one of the tables.

    Danny gave me a confused look. "You don''t want to run back immediately?"

    "No. I probably would have if you hadn''t came as well, but since you''re here and you were talking about the job offer? What do you actually want me to do?" I motioned to the TVs. "And since you said the Seekers are DARPA funded, is that going to affect it?"

    Danny sat down across from me. "Short term, I doubt it. There''s still half a year on the grant. Longer term? I still doubt it. Even using the false path information, we''d have something to show. What you''ve got just so far? It''s enough for several years worth of research and money."

    "As for what I want you to do?" Danny smiled. "Exactly what you are, but more formalized. Theoretical and applied research. Whatever ideas you have on this power, on the dantian. Hell, on whatever happened to the world yesterday. Throw me, yourself, and your friends into this. I''ll try to teach it if you want to research other parts of it. If you want to teach it to everyone and research that, go for it."

    I was a little taken aback. "That''s... a lot of carte blanche for this."

    "You''re at least writing the book on this, Nicole." Danny looked serious. "You said there''s no giants to stand on the shoulders of. So you''re forging the path. I''m going to try my damndest at this as well and hopefully catch up to you. But right now, you''re leading the way."

    "No pressure." I muttered.

    "You don''t have to." Danny offered, but I could easily tell his heart wasn''t in saying that. "I can pick it up, chase the breakthroughs and all of that."

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    I shook my head. "I''d still play at using it. I might as well get paid to play with it. And teach it too." I finished my burger. "Alright, let''s go make sure Karen and Ash are ok."

    I looked at the TVs again as we walked out, still on the news loop about the government. Insane.

    ~~~

    "Gulping and hyperventilating isn''t going to help, Karen." Melissa was saying as we walked back in.

    Well, that was an interesting statement to walk into. My little living room still had both Karen and Ash sitting there, but Karen looked pretty frustrated while Ash was still breathing evenly. "Everyone still OK?"

    Ash nodded, breathing out a "Yeah" as he continued. "Still building though."

    Karen glared at him, then between me and Melissa. "Every time I think I get something going, it feels like it tickles then falls apart."

    We''d been gone a good forty-five minutes or so between eating, paying attention to the news a bit, and discussing the job with Danny. If Ash was still going and Karen hadn''t even really got started, I could understand the frustration.

    Danny gave me a nod towards Karen.

    I nodded back, dropping down to sit in front of Karen myself, noting my tablet was still recording. I was going to have a lot of dead time to parse through. I thought for a moment. "Alright, what do you mean tickle?"

    Karen blew her breath out, frustrated. "I get up to twenty or thirty breaths and I start feeling something that I''m trying to squeeze into a tiny ball. It feels kind of like the pit in your stomach on a rollercoaster. Within a couple of breaths of that, the pit seems to invert and turn into butterflies in my stomach, I get a ticklish feeling, and then it all falls apart."

    Something sounded off about her description, but I couldn''t put my finger on what. I looked over to Ash who was paying attention while doing his own breathing still. "Ash, what about you?"

    "Not squeezing." He answered on another breath out.

    That definitely sounded wrong as well. "Wait, what? How big does it feel in you then?"

    Ash cupped his hands around most of his stomach.

    I pulled my tablet down from the table, swapping apps but making sure it was still recording. I pulled up two specific images. Mine and Melissa''s dantian.

    "I''ve only got two examples, and they not the external power, but the dantian, at least initially? It''s small. Tiny even. Your heart is about the size of your fist, see?" I made a fist and put it next to that image. "The dantian? A single curled up finger."

    "Ash, every time you breath in now, quit pulling in more. Make the energy you already have smaller." I cupped my hands around my stomach in the same manner he had, then showed the comparison to my dantian. "If it starts feeling like a pit like Karen described, stop making it smaller and pull in more power."

    I think looked to my other friend. "Karen, I think you either had it right and just need to push through, or maybe just needed more power before you squeeze it as hard as you were."

    She frowned at projected image of the dantian, thinking. "Maybe?" Then blew her breath out again in frustration. "Alright, trying again then."

    "And you weren''t sure about teaching." Danny scoffed from where he was watching.

    I shrugged and watched.

    It took another ten minutes of listening to the two of them breathe while Danny and Melissa watched while I reviewed some notes, but soon I looked up, feeling something strange coming from Ash.

    "Flip." Breath in. "Fold." Breath out. "Spin." Breath in. "Squeeze." The air felt like it bent towards him for a moment and for an instant I felt energy rotate in multiple directions at one, inward and outward, clockwise and anti-clockwise. Then it settled.

    I turned to look at Karen, who was watching Ash intently even as she continued breathing. And it happened again. Energy folded in on itself, spinning up even as power in the air ethereally flowed into her. Then vanished. Ash had a huge grin on his face watching her.

    "Yes!" Karen shouted. "I got it!"

    "Woo!" I shouted myself, pumping a fist up. "Alright, what''s it like?"

    "A pool with a current like you said." Karen nodded to herself. "But not so much an overflow coming from it? More an exchange, but I''m pulling in more than is flowing out."

    I reached into my workout box and pulled out the five-pound weight and tossed it to her along with the one-pound one. "Feel any different?" I looked over at Ash. "I''d do the same for you, but you probably don''t really notice that much difference on those. Maybe a ten pounder for you, if I had one."

    Ash nodded, his attention focused more inwards for some reason anyways.

    Karen hefted the two weights in different hands held out. "A little bit? We should have tested this before hand." She did easily flip them both at the same time though.

    "Notice anything different with your dantian while you do?"

    She tilted her head, hair falling to one side. "The exchange is more even now? I''m pushing out about as much as is flowing in."

    "Ash? How''s it feel to you?"

    "Hmm?" He focused back on us again.

    "Don''t blond out on us, Ash." Karen called with a grin. "How''s it feel?"

    He shook his head, grinning back, but still distracted. "Strange. There''s something about it that''s weird."

    "Weird how?" I asked, focusing on him now. Slightly worried because of course we weren''t going to have everyone go right. "No current? No overflow or as Karen called it an exchange?"

    "No." He held out a hand for a moment, staring at it as he rotated his hand in multiple directions, grasping and making a fist at the same time. "There''s just, more to it than that. I can feel the current, generating power and flowing out and into me. I can feel a little trickle of power flowing into the dantian. But there''s something else."

    "What else?" Melissa questioned.

    He paused, looking around. "Damned if I know. But I think everything worked. What kind of tests are we doing with this now?"

    "I''ve been doing minimal weight testing. I guess we should probably try finding general maximums." I turned off the dantian projection and flipped back to the recording software. "Any other observations from anyone else?"

    A chorus of "No"s had me turning the recorder off. "Alright Karen, Ash. Let''s hold off trying to cycle for more power or time or anything until we get some baselines of you both now."

    "I''ll see what I can do for CAT scans. Nicole, if you want to sign that paperwork soon please, get it back to me." Danny said. "I''m going to start writing my portion of this up."

 Chapter 12: The Need for Training

    March 16th?

    Writing up summaries for someone who was there for most of the work was strange, but I understood why since Danny was going to be sending the research to others.

    Classes had been cancelled for a couple of days and then all the teachers had only slowly figured out what their responses were, so we''d gotten a fair bit done with Seeker things.

    Unfortunately, only Ash had any sort of pre-dantian records of his max deadlift. The 217 pound man could originally deadlift four hundred pounds. Now he was up to four seventy-five as a baseline, and five twenty-five if he cycled. And that was with no breakthroughs, as Danny hadn''t gotten us any time for baseline CT scans.

    I grinned at the numbers on the screen. My 5''2", 113 pound gymnast self could hilariously match his cycling max as a baseline, and pushing my cycling to max I was able to get up to six hundred pounds. Both Ash and Mike had been spotting me just in case, but I''d walked away sore but unhurt.

    Mike had literally pouted at me out lifting him but had agreed to wait on trying to ignite his own dantian to get a CT scan so we could have a real full baseline on someone.

    I double checked over a few last numbers, labeling out how long each of us could cycle at full strength after building up. I was up to feeling like five hours, Melissa at four, Danny almost up to two, but both Ash and Karen had noted trying to build up cycling time just caused their exchange to mostly flow out faster instead of dig deeper.

    I saved the document into my little corner of the Seeker app before closing out and checking the time. I''d spent a good chunk of the morning putting my notes together, thankfully stretched out on my bed instead of sitting at a cramped desk in the library this time.

    I got up, stretching out for a moment, still a little tense. Mike wouldn''t be off shift until this evening, but we were still planning a dinner date. Maybe a jog and then some bar time at the gym would loosen me up a bit.

    ~~~

    Earbuds in and music on, I hopped onto the treadmill and started jogging. The newer ones in the gym had an automatic sensor in them that measured your pace and adjusted for you, which was nice.

    After a few minutes, I started zoning out just jogging forward but couldn''t really feel the burn yet. I picked up my pace, still in the zone as I finally started feeling a bit of exertion. Energy from my dantian flushed through me and I heard over my music a beeping. Looking down, I frowned for a second as the treadmill was maxing out at 14 miles an hour. I didn''t think I was moving that fast. Increased strength meant faster running, maybe?

    Mentally noting that and internally shrugging, I continued on. I had a thirty minute timer set, so I could just focus on the cardio for a bit.

    A few minutes later, something flickered in my peripheral vision but I didn''t have a chance to react as something slammed into my arm, literally picking me up off the treadmill and throwing me halfway across the area, slamming into several other exercise machines and people.

    I rolled to a halt, my arm screaming in pain and stunned for a moment as I looked back to see what had happened.

    Someone was standing at the treadmill I had been on, a long bar hefted over his shoulder. Both the bar and the guy looked familiar, but I couldn''t place the guy. The bar, on the other hand, was a weightlifter barbell without the weights. Didn''t that thing weigh like fifty pounds all by itself? Did I get hit with that?

    I staggered up to my feet as everyone just looked between the guy and me.

    "What the fuck?" was the comment from a lot of people, including me. A couple of people nearby crawled out from the wreckage on their own, definitely worse for the wear. Several more people were looking at me with disbelief.

    "How the hell are you still standing bitch?" The guy just looked at me, then at the bar casually held on one shoulder. "That should have crushed you."

    He grinned, and definitely not a pleasant one. "Guess I get to beat out of you how you''re doing that, Seeker."

    That clicked it. "Tony?" The idiot from the nightclub?

    He just continued grinning at me, taking the bar in a two handed grip.

    "Hey, come on dude. What the hell. Put it down, security''s already been called." Another guy called out, staying away from Tony. Understandably.

    "Nah, it''s cool." He just continued grinning at me. "See, I figured something out. Ain''t no one around here strong enough to tell me no. So I''m gonna beat out of your pretty head anything else I might want to know, then I''m going to walk out of here."

    Fear shot through me as I looked for the closest exit.

    "No, no. See, I''m gonna get what I want. I''ll let you try to fight me, but you run? I''ll just head over to the Seeker hall and thrash anyone I find. I''ll eventually catch up to you, too." He let out a broken chuckle. "So, let''s play."

    "How about no, asshole?" One of the other guys dove not at him, but at the bar, grabbing and trying to yank it away from him. Tony just firmed up his grip and shoved it forward. The bar pierced the guy''s stomach and he let go.

    Yanking it back, the end now slick with blood, Tony just shook his head. "Told ya no one''s strong enough to tell me no."

    Now people really started panicking, most of them making a beeline for the nearest exit with more alarms going off as the emergency exits started sounding off. The other guy just lay there bleeding as Tony stepped over him towards me.

    I couldn''t feel anything like a dantian from him, but I couldn''t from anyone else unless they''d had a breakthrough or were cycling. Was he still on the false path? God my arm hurt, I hope it wasn''t broken.

    "Yeah, if this is how you''re acting with no information, I don''t want to know what you''d be like actually knowing something." I said bravely, looking around. I might be able to take him just fighting, but not with that bar in his hands. I wasn''t going to hold to not breaking a bone against a full powered swing of that thing again.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    "Well, come on then." Tony waded in, swinging the bar like it was nothing, catching another treadmill with it and knocking the top half of it in my general direction.

    I jumped away from the flying plastic and electronics, falling into a roll and coming back onto my feet.

    "I guess running around is allowed." Tony''s smirked at me. "I mean, it''s not like it''s going to change anything."

    "Yeah it will." I said quietly to myself. I''d come up near the rowing machines and grabbed one of the loose benches. If I could deadlift five hundred pounds, then... with a grunt I spun it around and flung it at Tony.

    Tony, surprise written all over his face, barely managed to bat the bench out of the way with his bar as he blew out his breath. "Damn, full of surprises. How long can you keep that up?"

    I immediately threw the remaining two benches at him as hard as I could, eyeing the bar once he hit them both away. The six foot long bar was no longer completely straight, having bent in his blocks.

    I tried to spot any other easy to throw objects while keeping an eye on him, backing up as he stalked at me.

    "You know, I''ll admit. I didn''t think you''d be strong enough to not fall apart after that first hit." He lunged, swinging the bar sideways and sending an ear piercing ring through the gym as I ducked underneath and the bar crashed into the rowing machine itself.

    I quickly moved out of his reach, trying to get to the other side of the gym.

    "I figured you weren''t more than a girl with a little taste of power, needing four of your friends to land a hit on me. It hurt, yeah, but I figured you probably weren''t even at a single breakthrough."

    He swung the barbell again and I had to jump away again as the barbell this time crunched into the floor. "I thought I was losing it, but then you know what happened?" He blew out his breath again, yanking the barbell straight out of the floor. "Breathe. So simple. I''d been losing it, but now? Fifth breakthrough! There''s nothing stopping me!"

    I turned and ran towards the weights.

    "Fuck that, no." I heard before the barbell plowed into my back, knocking me breathless to the ground and the barbell bounced away. My back was all sorts of hurting as I lay there.

    "See, as soon as I figure out what''s the deal with your defense, I couple it with my impossible strength, and then things really get started."

    I looked up and saw I''d been knocked near enough to the weight section, but there weren''t any free weights nearby. Only another barbell with a lot of weight already on it. I stood back up.

    "Honestly, I''m seriously impressed. Your spine should probably be bruised if not broken." Tony laughed again. "This is what I''m talking about. Now I''m gonna wrap this around you, and you''re gonna talk so you don''t end up dead."

    I cycled and instantly my pain lessened to a point that was nearly unbelievable. I grabbed the weighted barbell, turning and lifting it in a swing. It strained my muscles and I could feel my fingers literally digging into the steel, but the barbell Tony held didn''t do much more than slow it down as it crashed into him, sending him stumbling into more equipment.

    His footing lost, Tony fell backwards. He was moaning in pain as I stumbled over myself. His right arm was crushed in, the weights I''d swung having nearly pulped the upper arm and elbow. His left hand was covering it, likely where he''d tried to catch it. "I''m stronger than you are." He breathed out. "How the hell," he coughed, flecks of blood coming out of his mouth.

    That was bad, wasn''t it?

    "How the hell?"

    "You''re on the wrong path Tony." I was sore, but I wasn''t bleeding. I could feel bruises all over though. "And I''m not going to help you. I''ve done nothing to you and you attacked me, tried to kill me. I''m giving you no answers, no understanding."

    I looked around, seeing the only other person still lying in the room. "Fuck, I hope he''s okay."

    This close, I could feel it when Tony did something. A twisting, folding, pull from something I couldn''t understand as he looped it back multiple times to make it bigger before breaking. A chunk of something I could feel shouldn''t be broken off the way he did. But it was shoved into his good arm as I turned back around.

    "Kill you!" he growled, yanking the barbell again. This close, I could feel the difference.

    I cycled once more and caught it. "You''re killing yourself." He fell back with a cry of pain as his destroyed arm bled. "More than physically."

    My cycling overflowed on its own as I stared at Tony''s sputtering, bleeding body with holes in his self that had nothing to do with his body. Somehow, I''d broken through again.

    ~~~

    I watched somewhat numb as paramedics wrapped Tony''s arm and others were already leaving with the stabbed guy for the hospital. In front of me, another was checking me over as Mike wandered in from resetting the fire alarm that had gone off sometime previously.

    I was sitting on one of the few unbroken benches in the area telling my story of what went on. The nice paramedic lady and attending police officer didn''t seem to want to buy my story about what had happened.

    I sighed and reached out. Even without cycling, I was able to lift up one side of the in contention barbell weapon. Two hundred pounds almost wasn''t even a strain at this point. "I don''t know if there''s cameras here, but he started it. If you can find anyone that ran off, they''ll be able to back it up."

    Everyone watching my straight arm lift of well more than my body weight just stared for a long moment.

    "I can see pattern bruising on your arm and back where you were struck." The paramedic said after motioning me to set the weight back down. "I''d also have preferred you didn''t prove your point with your injured arm. I''d like you to come in for x-rays to ensure you don''t actually have any hairline fractures. Especially if you should have broken bones based on your story."

    I nodded to her, then looked at Mike. "So much for dinner, sorry."

    He shook his head. "It''s fine. We''ll pick something up afterwards."

 Chapter 13: Medical Examination

    "Why do I have to ride in in a wheelchair?" I asked while getting settled into the chair as requested.

    The paramedic shook his head. "You''re here for x-rays, and honestly should have been in a stretcher this entire ride after what you described as happening. The wheelchair is a compromise. Stay in it until a doctor says otherwise." He looked awfully tired, dark circles under his eyes.

    I didn''t have any good answer to that. As they wheeled me inside, I saw a couple of 18-wheeler trailers parked nearby and another ambulance near it.

    I got parked off to one side at a table as the paramedic started filling out some information for my intake. Part of the paperwork was handed over to me to fill out. "Did my bag and tablet make it here? I need to call my parents."

    The paramedic yawned before reaching around the wheelchair, pulling my bag forward.

    "Oh, sorry." I put the paperwork aside, digging into my bag and pulling out my tablet. I set it up and debated for a moment, finally hitting Mom''s contact.

    It didn''t connect, leaving me with her voicemail. Better not to worry her in a message. "Hey mom, just trying to call you. I''ll call Dad next."

    I hung up, trying him next. His picked up, audio only. "Nicole? You don''t normally call me at work. Everything OK?" I could hear equipment in the background.

    "I think I''m fine, but I''m at the ER right now to get looked over. I got attacked at the school." I''d have probably been easier about it with Mom.

    "Hold, on. What? What happened? Just a second. Harry, I''ve got to take this call. My daughter''s at the ER." The background machinery sound started fading out. "What happened?"

    "Someone started a fight with me, I got hit by one of those weightlifting barbells a couple of times." I answered. I realized my answer was a little blas¨¦, but I couldn''t quite figure out how I was supposed to respond. I''d been afraid and panicking at the time, but once I realized I wasn''t really hurt, I was just numb now. The paramedic looked at me, then at my paperwork. I nodded to him. The paramedic just leaned against the intake desk, listening. "It was the same guy that attacked us at the club a few weeks ago."

    "A barbell? Isn''t that one of those- Hold on, I need to get somewhere with a screen. Harry, I''m probably going to be leaving shortly, call the boss for me?"

    I started filling in the paperwork as I listened to Dad yell at a couple more people. I could imagine him getting off the shop floor and heading to his office. After a moment, his face popped up on the tablet. "What do you mean, hit by a barbell? Where? What happened?"

    I picked up the tablet and panned it down me. Dad paled a little seeing me in a wheelchair. "I can walk. The paramedic just said not to. I''m not hurting, I promise."

    "Nicole. Story, now."

    "I was at the school gym and running on the treadmill. I didn''t notice him, and he knocked me off the treadmill with the barbell, sent me flying." I paused. "My arm hurt like hell, but not like something was broken. He threatened to kill a whole bunch of people if I didn''t fight him."

    I felt a catch in my chest, I hiccupped. "Someone else tried to get it away from him and got the thing straight through his gut."

    "Honey, shh, shh. Deep breaths." Dad''s voice was quiet as he watched me with a helpless look. Not that I saw, looking at my hands.

    "I threw stuff at him. Like, hundred pound benches. I didn''t want to get hit again." I took a shuddering breath and both the nurse and the paramedic started watching me closer. "I tried to run to find something bigger to throw, and he threw the barbell at me. Hit me in the back."

    Dad''s voice was still quiet as he answered. "It''s OK, you''re OK."

    "He was threatening to kill me. Would have if I hadn''t been tougher than he expected. I hit him with a weighted barbell. Several hundred pounds." I stared at nothing. "I think he still managed to block it though. It probably should have killed him. It crushed his arm."

    "Miss Firen, Miss Firen. Focus. You''re not there." I heard the paramedic saying, sounding as if he was far away. I looked up but he was right there. He wasn''t touching me, but I flinched anyways. There was a weird squeal.

    "Nicole? Nicole, answer me." Dad''s voice rang out in alarm from the call.

    "I''m. I''m OK." I took another shuddering breath. "No issues." I looked down at the tablet, seeing my finger impressions in the plastic table. "I''m good."

    "You look like you''re having a panic attack, Miss Firen." The paramedic said. "Mr. Firen?"

    "I''m her father."

    The paramedic nodded. "She''s not showing any signs of external physical trauma. Due to recent events, it''s probably going to take a while to get x-rays though. Can you or her mother come in to sit with her?"

    "We''re both half a day away. I''ll get on the road shortly though. I''ve got at least one number for her friend. Nicole, is it ok if I call Karen to come up there?"

    I nodded. "I can call the others too, right?" I looked between the nurse and paramedic.

    "I can''t promise they''ll be allowed back." The nurse cautioned even as she agreed.

    "You don''t have to come Dad. I''m OK, really."

    "No, I don''t think you are, Nicole. You''ve gotten caught up in this mystic bullshit and now it''s getting you in trouble." Dad said. "If you''re not hurt, maybe you should come home for a semester."

    "I''m trying to not make it bullshit Dad. It''s even teachable now!" I stared at the screen in panic. "Measurable, repeatable, teachable!"

    "I''ll call your friend Karen. Hopefully I can get on the road in an hour or so with your mom. We''ll be there tomorrow." He smiled at me. "I love you, but you really do have your head in the clouds."

    I half-choked a laugh back.

    "Call me if you can if something changes, or I expect Karen likely will. See you soon."

    "Bye Dad."

    His image vanished, my desktop showing back up.

    "Call your friends, then I''ll sit with you while you finish up the paperwork, alright?" The paramedic offered.

    ~~~

    Thirty minutes later Karen and Ash had showed up. Mike was still on shift for a few more hours. Melissa had said she was on her way.

    I was still waiting on someone to take me back for an x-ray, so they found me parked near the nurse''s station in the ER, silently tapping away on my tablet.

    "Oh my god, are you OK?" Karen ran up and almost hugged me but then stopped at the last second.

    I looked up and smiled, nodding. "Yeah. A little bored, but not hurting."

    "Do you know how much sensation you don''t have internally?" Karen shook a finger at me as Ash came up behind her. "You don''t feel nearly as well inside, there''s just not the same amount of pain receptors and nerves."

    "Can we move her a bit, over to the chairs?" Ash asked, looking at the nurse who nodded. He grabbed the wheelchair handles and drove me over to the normal sitting area. They both then sat down, obviously looking me over.

    I looked down at myself, finally noticing the fact that my workout clothes were a mess, scuffed and ripped in a couple of places. It probably didn''t look great. "I''m alright. I was panicking earlier, but alright now. I don''t think I''m really hurt now."

    "Now?" Karen caught that, tilting her head to look me over.

    "Now." I agreed. "During the fight, I cycled to lift something and the pain nearly stopped. It fully stopped before they even got the ambulance there."

    "I think we need a better description of the fight. What happened?" Karen asked. "And I am going to keep your parents updated, just FYI."

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    "Traitor." I half smiled. I shuddered, but went through the story again. "Whatever the power is before you light your dantian, you''re literally ripping it up to empower yourself. I could feel Tony hurting himself there at the end. Whatever it is, he ripped a piece out, and wove it in and out of something. Each time, it got bigger, then he used it to strengthen himself when he attacked."

    I tapped my tablet. "I''m trying to document it, but just describing it gives me the heebie jeebies."

    "Quit doing work. You should be focused on getting better." Ash admonished me.

    "And do what then?" asked.

    "Work isn''t a bad distraction from here." Karen shuddered a bit herself. "Especially those trailers outside."

    I gave her a curious look, one Ash mimicked. "What''s in the trailers? I saw an ambulance at one earlier."

    Karen looked at me. "There''s only so many places to hold dead bodies. I know a nurse intern here, and the world waking? The breathe thing? At least three hundred people in Rolla died. The morgues can hold maybe forty before they''d end up stacking bodies like a woodpile. Those are cold trucks to store the bodies in." She looked a little haunted. "I found two of those bodies that day."

    Ash pulled her closer, giving her a hug over the chair arm.

    "It''s cool that we''re able to light our own dantian now." Karen looked out the ER doors, but the trucks weren''t visible. "But it cost so many lives."

    I didn''t have an answer for her. I still assumed it wouldn''t have killed everyone even if I hadn''t managed to yell at Zhaohui.

    But how many more bodies would Karen have found, would I have found, if it''d taken a few more minutes?

    We were all quiet for a bit before a nurse finally came up. "Nicole Firen? We can get your scans done now."

    I smiled at her, noticing she looked exhausted as well. I shoved my tablet back into my bag and offered it to Karen before looking at her. "I''m all yours. I can walk if you want?"

    She shook her head. "Nope. You''re wheelchair bound until we have good results." She got behind the wheelchair and started pushing me out of the room. "Shouldn''t be long, then I can bring you back out here to your friends."

    Ash and Karen waved goodbye to me as I was pushed through the entry doors.

    As she wheeled me through the ER, I quietly asked a question. "So, how bad was it a few days ago?"

    "Everyone''s asking that." Her voice came from over my shoulder. "And we can''t answer due to privacy reasons, even in general numbers. I''ll just say it''s been quiet but busy." We went through a door into a room with a scanner and a bed.

    "A CT scan?" I guessed. It''d be odd to get one when Danny was trying to schedule these. I was wheeled up to the table.

    "No. We''re just going to take chest and arm x-rays with you laying down. More in-depth scans if you need them." She came around the wheelchair to help me up although I didn''t need it and I laid down. "Nice hair."

    The braid had come partially lose at some point, making my hair almost spill around me. "Thanks."

    She pulled a machine over me and took several pictures, followed by something that did a full sized picture of my skeleton. "Alright. I''ve got to get these uploaded. The doctor will be in to read them shortly."

    I nodded. "Do I get to get up, get back in the wheelchair, what?"

    "Stay on the table, sorry." She stifled a yawn and left.

    I waited patiently. For the first ten minutes. Looking around and staring at random pieces of equipment only kept my attention for a few more. So I closed my eyes and just thought.

    I wondered if Mom and Dad were on the road yet. They probably weren''t out of Texas yet even if they''d left almost immediately after I talked to Dad and that wasn''t likely. That was going to be a fight with him, even if I wasn''t hurt right now. I''d gotten a job dealing with the dantian, I was trying to make it a real thing instead of mystic bullshit.

    I wondered who Karen had found dead, was it someone she knew? She''d bounced back pretty quick, or was hiding it pretty well. I wasn''t sure. Ash probably did. I should ask him instead of just being blunt with Karen. Then I''d go find the ice cream for us both.

    I wondered if the police were going to be able to keep Tony locked up. He was probably getting treated here too, I wondered if they were able to control him here. I worried. Whatever he''d done to himself, I felt like he hadn''t completely destroyed whatever that was he was using for power yet.

    I cycled my dantian, the energy flow generating from seemingly nothing. I wondered where it came from. The flow sped up slightly, coursing through my breakthroughs. It touched on my third one, the one I hadn''t tried for at the end of the fight. Just as deep and strong as the first one.

    My second breakthrough was still shallower, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was due to the weirdness of how I talked to Zhaohui. How I''d managed to do it saying breathe the day after when the energy had unbalanced towards that breakthrough and spilled out to Melissa. And attracted the alien''s attention.

    The energy at least flowed cleanly through me. I focused on my dantian, remembering what Tony had felt like. Was there something like that in there? Something outside my vision, folded up along a line I couldn''t see but might be able to feel?

    "Nicole Firen?"

    My name startled me out of concentration. I opened my eyes, a doctor stood there. He didn''t seem nearly as tired as the nurses. "That''s me."

    He nodded and tapped a screen. A flat picture of my chest came up, another of my left arm. I could see circled on there were the spots I''d been hit by the barbell.

    "I''m Doctor Irean. Do you mind if I check these spots visually please?" He asked and I nodded. He came over and gingerly touched the spot on my arm where I''d hit when I was slammed across the room. After a moment of no reaction, he pushed a little harder against several points. "Any pain?"

    I could feel him pressing in, a couple of times pushing in at the exact spots where I''d been struck. But... "No sir."

    "Alright. Carefully roll over for me please. I''d like to see your spine."

    I did as instructed, and felt his hands press on different points on my back, generally following where the barbell had hit across my spine and shoulder blades. "No pain here either?"

    I shook my head.

    "Alright, go ahead and sit up. Take it easy though." I rolled up to a sitting position and looked at him. "I had to cross reference your paramedic''s notes to even know where to look." He tapped the images of my arm and chest. "Your x-rays show zero damage." He looked at the crisp images. "Honestly, the bone image is unusually sharper than normal x-rays show."

    Might as well ask. "Does it show my heart? Anything strange around there?"

    He tapped the darker part. "No? Are you having chest pains?"

    "No. Just when I got a CAT scan there was something strange under my heart and I wondered if this would show it as well." I replied to his question. Why didn''t this show my dantian, I wondered.

    "A CT scan is a much higher resolution 3-D image. A normal x-ray is a much more flattened image. Are you worried about it? Or did the doctor that saw it worry?"

    I shook my head, stray hairs framing my face for a moment. "No, it was a voluntary thing to see what I think is my dantian."

    Doctor Irean just gave me a look and sighed. "Just be careful, Nicole. We could do with less deaths, not more. But you''re clear for what you were brought in for. I''ll send a nurse back to clear you out. You''re good to walk again."

    I beamed at him. "Thank you!"

 Chapter 14: Teaching Moments

    March 17th?

    My clean bill of health had talked my parents into at least getting a hotel room for the night halfway through, instead of driving through the night, but they were still coming. It left me feeling apprehensive for when they showed up later today.

    About as apprehensive as the cop sitting in my little dorm kitchen taking my witness statement again. "We''ve corroborated your earlier statement with other witnesses that came forward yesterday. I spent a some time looking up your attacker last night as well, and he was barely three days out from his first offense."

    "Is the other guy going to be alright? Tony put that bar straight through him."

    "I believe the other victim is in stable condition, but I can''t talk about it. But I can promise you there are a multitude of charges being leveled at Mr. Tony Direz, starting with assault with a deadly weapon and I believe attempted manslaughter." The officer answered.

    He hesitated before continuing on. "From your own testimony, you hit him with several hundred pounds of a weighted barbell, correct?"

    "Wouldn''t answering something like that be me attacking him? Am I getting charged for that?" My braid was in my hands again, giving my fingers something to play with.

    "It''s already in your testimony, so if there were going to be charges you''ve already given that information out."

    "Oh."

    He flipped the recorder on his vest off, the light dimming and vanishing. "It''s more of a theoretical question I''d like answered anyways. Based on your statement and the literal finger gouges I saw in those weights; do you think a jail cell could hold you? Or Mr. Direz?"

    "I''ve never been in a jail cell. I have no clue?"

    "Understandable. Sounds crazy, but do you think you could go through a solid concrete wall? Bend steel bars?" The cop looked like he felt crazy just asking the questions. The bad thing was, I had to think for a moment. Could I?

    Up to a point, I could ignore the weight of an object. We''d tested general strength, so we know what a max deadlift was. But we hadn''t really tested anything else. But if nothing else, the attack proved I could survive hits that should kill someone else. Not ignore them, no. But fight through them yes.

    "I''ve never tested it. But I don''t think I''m strong enough to do it." I paused again, thinking of the breakthroughs. "Not yet, at least."

    The officer grimaced. "Not yet, huh? Great, all we''re going to need is a couple idiots with your power playing at jail break or rioting. Wonder if how many on the force we''ve got?" He seemed to be more talking to himself.

    Could Tony? Probably not. Not and not get himself killed. I wouldn''t have to worry about him, hopefully.

    I answered him musings anyways. "Talk to Danny. I was able to teach a few people, but I don''t want to just teach one or two at a time and I think he was going to set something up."

    "You can teach this? How hard is it?" He shook his head. "Wait, I''m getting sidetracked. Just give me his contact for later, please. Back to my original question. You don''t think you could break out of a jail cell? What do you mean by not yet?"

    I looked about the kitchen for a moment, but didn''t see anything useful for an example. "I could probably just about tie the woman''s weightlifting record right now, but not beat it. Men''s is even higher by several hundred pounds. But there are levels to this. Blocks that you breakthrough and you''re then stronger. So no, not yet."

    "Well, that''s something at least." The cop nodded once more. "Thank you for your information, and if you''ll give me this Danny''s number, I''ll get out of your hair."

    ~~~

    Elizabeth Firen was a fairly short woman but still taller than her daughter by an inch. She had strawberry blond hair that was shoulder length and cut to swish when she turned her head too fast. She''d grin and tell you she ruled her household with an iron fist, but really it was more of a need for her family to not make her sad.

    She was also, to Nicole''s despair, checking over her daughter almost frantically.

    "Mom, Mom. I''m not hurt. They didn''t even keep me overnight in the ER. I told you that." I scowled at dad. "And when neither of you believed me, it took three other people agreeing to get you guys to at least stop to sleep last night."

    Frank Firen looked at both women, took into consideration her statement of not being hurt, then crushed his daughter in a hug. He didn''t touch six feet tall, but still lifted her off her feet for a moment.

    "Gak!" I hadn''t had a bearhug in years, and almost panicked again. "Dad, lemme go!" I could feel the squeeze, but it just didn''t feel like he was actually squeezing me too hard. I could push and get loose, but would that hurt Dad?

    Honestly, it was only the feeling of how easy the hug would have been to break that kept me from imagining it was something else wrapped around me.

    I was dropped back to my feet with Dad none the wiser, except as I took a deep breath he looked at me closely. "Sorry."

    "Let''s not stand in your hallway, let us in." Mom chided me like she hadn''t been the one to nearly yank me out to check on me.

    With how many people had been in my dorm in the past month and change, I was considering getting a couch instead of the three mismatched chairs that currently sat in the living room. But it was enough for us at the moment.

    "How, exactly, is it that you''re not hurt?" Dad asked immediately after we all got sat down. "Don''t get me wrong honey, I''m hilariously grateful you''re not, but I did the math. Forty-five pounds of steel barbell swung at speeds high enough to send you flying even a few feet is enough to break bones."

    I looked down at the carpet. Huh, still a bit of black there. I thought I got it all.

    "Sweetie?" Mom asked, worry in her voice.

    My head came up and I looked at both of them, before smiling. "My dantian. I''d make it through two breakthroughs, and it hurt but I didn''t break anything. Um, it was also more like twenty or thirty feet I was sent flying?"

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    I shouldn''t have said that. Mom gasped and jumped out of her chair, immediately hugging me. I hugged her back but I could almost see the numbers changing in Dad''s head, the engineer redoing the math with new data.

    His eyes narrowed. "Mystic bullshit. I wasn''t surprised when you said you were throwing benches. I''m ok with it saving you, really. But those forces? You should have been nearly folded in two. Give me one good reason you should stay here where you''ve been attacked twice over this shit and you''re literally relying on the unreliable to survive things that should flat out kill you."

    "I''ve got a job here, I''m being paid to study it!" I panicked, eyes wide as I stared at Dad from Mom''s tightening embrace. "And the way I''m doing it? The right way? It''s always working. It''s not like the guy from your shop where it cuts out. I know my limits and if I don''t push past them, I don''t run out of energy."

    Dad crossed his arms. "That''s an excuse to stay here and keep studying it. FSU has a good weather program you could transfer into. What stops you from leaving here and going there instead? Where you''re not involved in apparently homicidal manchildren wanting to kill you for being part of this Seeker group." His fingers drummed on his arms, waiting.

    I paused and thought for a moment, but really. There was only one answer to that. "Because it''s not going to make a difference. When this first happened, we both agreed it was mystic bullshit because you couldn''t control it, measure it. I can now. I''ve got logs and tests and notes and everything that I can use to show you it''s not just bullshit, it''s viable. But the reason it''s not going to make a difference? It is teachable."

    I looked from Dad to Mom still holding onto me and gently pulled myself away, standing up. "Anyone can learn this. The very, very basics probably within a few days at worst if they try. I''m at like three stages above that basic part, but I don''t know where it tops out, other than using the alien as a high end model." I tugged my braid around again, the nervous habit coming back in full force with a yank that helped me to focus.

    Dad had a look of suspicion. "A few days for anyone? I did some research on my own when this happened back in February. People got this bullshit at about one in every ten thousand people."

    I shook my head. "That thing a week ago, it changed everything. I taught Karen how to use it, basically with really good guesses!" I had to get it through to him. "What happens if I stop? Obviously, someone else will make it to the alien''s Heavenly Realm. But all those other people that try to get there? How many more idiots like Tony are going to be able to take what they want?"

    "Teach us then." Mom spoke up from where she was sitting, and both Dad and I gave her a look. "If even the basics are teachable in days, teach us. That will prove it to your father that it''s not a niche thing. Even if that niche thing pretty much killed the feds."

    I swallowed and Dad noticed. "Don''t want to prove it''s not teachable? That it actually is mystic bullshit."

    "No, that''s not it. I don''t know about Mom, but you''d probably not learn just because you''re you." I smiled wanly. "Pull your chair over to Mom''s. I''m only going to do this once."

    Dad gave me an odd look but shrugged and did so.

    Fuck you. I thought loudly at that presence that I hadn''t even asked about the world''s soul in a week. I then looked at my parents. I focused on everything I''d understood from the horror of the 10th?. Of everything I''d gone over with Melissa, with Ash, with Karen. Everything Ash and Karen had described for me in painstaking detail when they lit their own dantian. How it''d felt, how the power in the air acted. The interplay of that power exchange and how it worked in their own dantian. Even the cycling I did in my own dantian, things I had figured out over the past month and a half.

    I took one of their hands in one of my own. I cycled everything I had in me currently, focusing on tilting that flow into my second breakthrough. Something clicked, like any number of words finally making a sentence.

    "[Breathe]"

    I jumped when Mom literally screamed in my face and they both pulled their hands back like they were burned.

    A full [Art of Awakening], at the [Initiate''s Realm]? Truly youngling, you walk the razor''s edge. The alien''s presence again focused on me with interest and a feeling of almost pride washing through it. The words echoed and scraped against me once more as I ran myself dry but I ignored both the feeling and the alien.

    Both of my parents were staring at me as I staggered on my feet. "Sorry." I weakly smiled. "Pushed past a limit, I''m kinda hurting now. But did you understand?"

    "I understand you scared the absolute hell out of me, Nicole!" Mom''s voice was about three octaves higher than normal.

    Dad got up, stabilizing me in another bearhug against him. Remotely, I noticed that drained like this the squeeze wasn''t breakable. "Honey, what was that?"

    "I''m not going to spend days fighting you over how to do this. Not when I could do that, even if it hurts and scares me." Dad hugs were pretty awesome, just letting him hold me up while I tried to cycle any little bit of strength back into myself.

    I jerked in Dad''s arms, unable to turn around as I still felt something literally pull itself together behind me in the vicinity of Mom. Folded into itself, looped through itself. It felt the opposite of what Tony had done to himself at the end of that fight. And then it tucked itself away like Karen, Ash, or Danny''s power.

    "Frank, just do it. Nicole''s not wrong." Mom said.

    Still held in the hug, I literally could feel it in him. We''d spent a week breathing this air with power in it. Fragments of power building in the body, but oh so slow. What Dad did, what I''d told him, showed him, was to take those fragments and build something whole out of it. Pieces and parts collided in him, somehow becoming bigger and yet not changing total size until I could feel the cool energy fold itself up completely and ignite.

    "Teachable." I said quietly as Dad let me go, and I slumped over to the empty chair.

 Interlude: Danny, DARPA, and Dantians. Delightful

    March 17<sup>th</sup>

    Dr. Benjamin Wissen

    Originally, we''d assumed an individual alien, no matter how weirdly powerful they might be, would eventually fall to some weapon we could procure or manufacture. There''d been the odd thoughts about invading alien armies that would likely steamroll us, but just one belligerent being? Something would work, if only we had enough time.

    It''d been seven months. In the first month, the public saw part of what was attempted. What they didn''t see was things like the CDC breaking out the weaponized ebola and attempts with diamond blades to pierce his body. His body didn''t shed material like skin flakes or hair, and even the hair on his head couldn''t be shaved off.

    Medical equipment couldn''t get a read on him, high doses of x-rays, radiation, or other high energy particles that could be quickly sourced didn''t phase him or give any information about his body back. He didn''t seem to breath, but that didn''t stop us from immediately sealing every possible orifice on his body to try to choke him to death.

    After that first month of throwing shit at a wall to see what stuck, the best and brightest of the US government decided to crowdsource possible solutions. Or as it was impolitely referred to as, crowdsourcing additional shit.

    Thus DARPA grant HR501120S0034 was born, titled "Seeking methods of interaction with the alien Lei Zhaohui or a dantian''.

    Eighty three separate responses were deemed worth funding, but with very few results.

    "A method to annoy the alien into a different answer'' had paid two hundred volunteers to rapid fire question the alien about the world''s soul for two weeks straight, staggering the people so that the question was being asked non-stop every minute. It was deemed a probable drop in the bucket compared to even just the casual ask of eleven and a half billion people occasionally in that time, but would provide for possible data on if the alien could be annoyed into doing something to the people.

    The group of volunteers had a statistically higher than so far average chance of developing powers, with ninety seven of the two hundred having accessed the same power as was being reported in the rest of the world. They were all being monitored now as a separate project.

    There were three separate projects involving monitoring for different energy signatures, to try to determine if the alien''s ''cultivating'' was doing anything to the local flora or fauna. And if it was, could we interrupt it.

    Why we''d approved a study of all possible religious endtime scenarios I wasn''t sure beyond the whole Rite of Ragnarok thing, but whatever.

    And this was all under one grant. I was managing six total grants involving the alien, and I knew of at least two others managing grants in the commercial and military sectors.

    My computer dinged, reminding me of the virtual meeting in five minutes. I sighed, but pulled up the actually rather large read-ahead documentation that''d been sent with the meeting request. Dantian Seekers, "Project to connect users of power together in a college setting and analyze available information against active abilities."

    The prospectus wasn''t bad, and the underlying theory wasn''t horrible. We''d authorized access into a couple of active scrape datastores with the appropriate commercial interfaces in front of it. The funding was a little on the high side, but getting fast tracked as a college academic society and rental of part of a college building was listed as expenses.

    There was a recent new expense for an additional researcher role, but still well within budget. Interesting. Added the day before what was being referred to in the office as the Gasp. First or Last, depending on how morbid people felt like being.

    I was about to go into the recent reports when my computer dinged again, and I pulled up the meeting. Already joined was Danny Sidre, the lead and until recently only person directly attached to the grant. My secretary joined a moment later.

    "Mr. Sidre." I nodded to his image. "Sorry about the wait. I had your group and forty others request a meeting within hours of that debacle a week ago."

    "Dr. Wissen." Danny nodded back. "I was hoping to get in touch with you even sooner, but if there were that many other groups, I''m actually kind of worried what else happened that overshadowed what I sent in."

    "To be honest, a lot of requests for additional funding, comments about the alien''s answer changing, and asks for additional insight to the newest issue from DARPA." I sighed. "This isn''t going to be more of the same, is it?"

    Danny frowned now. "No. I''d flagged it high priority as I was shown. Didn''t anyone get a chance to review what''s already been sent in? I honestly expected to just go over it and the new data I have as of late yesterday."

    I started pulling up the attached reports. "It''s been fairly insane around here with demands coming in from higher up. I''ve gone over maybe eight intake reports from the grant this week." The report was correctly flagged high priority, but had come in on the 10<sup>th</sup>. Pretty much everything that day had been flagged that way, and internal requirements and emergencies had basically shoved it aside and it didn''t get reviewed. "I''ve got it now. Go ahead." Interesting visual aids.

    "Damn it." Danny shook his head and could see him shuffling a bit, probably pulling up the report himself. "Alright, to start off. People can have dantians too."

    He paused, but I shrugged and just motioned for him to continue.

    "The attached 3-D scans are CT scans of two students in my group, one of whom I''ve hired as a researcher. We believe these to be their dantian and instead of the way the power is currently understood to work, these dantians are full time active and provide a baseline level of strength. My researcher is saying Zhaohui actually called it a true path when she asked about the world''s soul. He only did it once apparently, but it was part of her notes."

    I suddenly found myself scrambling. "Hold on, hold on. What?"

    Danny sighed and rubbed his temples. "I thought someone would have read through this already. Hell, I was expecting to be called almost immediately after and was really worried there were other things going on even worse than what we knew about for our findings to get ignored. My researcher, Nicole, was told the common way we''ve been understanding this power is a false path. She and her friend managed to get onto the true path and have made measurable improvements to their abilities."

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    I was reeling already, but held a hand up to stop him. "There''s more?" Danny nodded. "Please give me five minutes, I need to pull a few other people into this."

    Danny gulped but nodded.

    I immediately blasted out to anyone and everyone available on alien projects to join with a priority one, drop anything not remotely sensitive requirement. I flagged the call to be mute except for myself and Danny just before dozens of other names came up on the call. And ensured the meeting was being recorded.

    "Mr. Sidre, you now have multiple teams utmost attention for as long as you need. Can you please start over? Teams, I''m forwarding links to the documentation now. You''re muted until Mr. Sidre has had a chance to go over his report initially. And then, like the sane, responsible people you are paid to be, you''re not going to start talking over each other."

    Danny chuckled, and most of the team were either laughing inaudibly themselves or looking chagrined. Danny repeated his initial statements, and I could see my people splitting time between watching him and reading on second screens. There were several ''what the hell'' looks spreading around the video chat.

    "Additionally, these images are from March 3<sup>rd</sup>, an entire week before Zhaohui''s attack. If you''ll look at the image labeled Melissa, you can see a hook or flaw in the first ring, which is not in Nicole''s image. We''ve tentatively determined this is a result of a false path breakthrough, and the lady in question had to repair it before she could increase her minimum always available power. By breakthrough, I am referring to what has been alternately referred to as a meridian, a blockage, a chakra gate, or probably any other dozen terms that once passed your power gets stronger. I''d like to emphasize that these breakthroughs don''t just increase power you can utilize, but the baseline minimum."

    I had to mute myself to softly breath out my own ''What the fuck?'' and start taking notes on questions I now had.

    "On the 11<sup>th</sup>, Nicole gathered a few people together in what I originally assumed was desperation after the attack. I was one of her invitees, and as part of that meeting she got me onto the same path as herself and her friend. The desperation part was two people in the group had no previous signs of power. And within a few hours and with several very good guesses, was able to have them light their dantian as well."

    Danny paused, almost hesitating before he continued. "As part of that teaching... She told them to breathe. In a similar manner as to the attack, but at such a short range that I didn''t feel any difference. She then panicked as she apparently drew the alien''s attention somehow."

    Half a dozen people immediately came off mute and started yelling questions. I had to remute the entire group again, then unmuted myself and Danny. "Again, please wait until Mr. Sidre has completed his delivery. But holy hell." I took a breath myself. "Do you have any more?"

    "Yes." Danny answered, but now seemed hesitant. "I have more, but this is reported data that still needs to be reviewed. Nicole apparently was attacked yesterday, and spent a chunk of her time at the hospital documenting what happened for some reason. I''m just going to hit what I feel are the highlights. Please note, I still need to talk to her about this so I''m not completely sure on the story behind it, nor have I had a chance to actually find her to verify her health. I do plan on that part today if I can."

    Danny took a moment on screen to compose himself. "Hit by user on false path, claimed fifth meridian. Barbell into upper right arm, thrown approximately thirty feet. Arm was hurt, but still usable."

    "Multiple exercise benches thrown in self-defense. Verify weight, no issues throwing them."

    "Barbell struck back lengthwise from throw. Bruising strength."

    "Full cycle strike back with weighted barbell. Noticed afterwards four hundred pounds on barbell. Appears to have finger gouges in plates. Cycle weighted to first breakthrough instead of even spacing. At cycling, most of pain from earlier hits went away. Assumed suppressed, but later realized it must have been healed."

    "...did something to himself in that last attack. Ripped a chunk of power out. Pieces missing in him. False path? Third breakthrough acquired somehow."

    Danny quit reading. "Again, I don''t have the full story on this." He waited a moment before continuing. "As for what else has been going on, I''ve sent a note out to the rest of the students involved with Dantian Seekers advising them to limit use of their power due to damage caused by the attack. I''m going to be scheduling an all hands in the next day or two. Either Nicole or myself will be attempting to shift people onto this true path."

    Then Danny threw himself to the wolves, though he probably didn''t realize exactly how badly. "That''s the broad strokes of everything I have at the moment. I guess it''s question time."

    I looked and wasn''t surprised to see everyone had their virtual hands up with questions. "Alright, I''m going to pick people and unmute them. If all your questions get answered, go ahead and lower your hand. Mr. Sidre, this is probably going to be a long call."

    I picked at random.

    "Mr. Sidre. Do you know if your researcher can communicate with the alien at any time?"

    "I don''t think so. She panicked about his interest, so it''s more like he noticed her doing something unique enough to catch his attention."

    "Do you know how many times then that she''s done something interesting enough to warrant his attention?"

    Danny thought. "I haven''t asked. My guess is probably twice though. When she was told she wasn''t on the false path, and then when she managed to speak somewhat like the breathe attack."

    "Can we get into your training session?"

    "Uhh, maybe?" Danny looked taken aback at that.

    I cut in for that. "Mr. Sidre, while I do want to send a couple of people, I''m not going to ask you to support a massive number of additional people at this time. At best, I''ll ask for a train the trainer session from you or this Nicole, with discussion for any additional tabled until later."

    Danny fielded questions for another thirty minutes, but like any truly new research field, answers were mostly conjecture or things just not known yet.

    Finally though, I cut off any additional questions. "Alright Mr. Sidre, I think we''ve exhausted our pool of even vaguely reasonable questions we can ask at this time. Team, thank you for your time, we''ll be going through the data in more depth as soon as I can get everyone together. Mr. Sidre, please hang on while everyone else kicks off."

    Every dropped but Danny after a moment. "Alright Mr. Sidre. Danny. What resources do you need? What can I throw dollars or people at right now?" I pulled open a new document for additional notes.

    "Um, a line of credit for the local hospital here, so we can get CT scans for everyone. As I noted earlier, we''d like to baseline everyone on something visible we can measure." Danny started with.

    I nodded. "Alright, at least one CT machine along with someone trained to use it. Do you believe you need other types of medical scans as well? Nevermind, I''ll assume yes and we''ll get a list of different types of scans that can be done of the body and who you can hire trained on them."

    "What?" Danny looked slightly like a deer in headlights.

    "There was a decent bit of conversation flying around while you were answering questions. If you can intro someone to this within hours, it''s not going to behoove us to slow roll or try to hide that. That, and I don''t believe you have NDAs for the students anyways."

    At Danny''s continued bewilderment, I continued. "Danny. You came to me with what you thought was extremely important data. I agree with you. I also don''t think you realized how important this may end up. I''m going to have to continue up my chain of command to highlight your project. It''s unfortunate the SecDef was one of those that died last week and the new president hasn''t refilled her cabinet yet."

    "I may eventually get overruled on this, but I''ve got a lot of leeway right now. Assume you''ve got an extra zero on your budget for the rest of the year."

    "If we''re going to get equipment and you want me to hire people, should I start looking for office space?" Danny started losing his shocked look. "Does this become a company? I''m not even certain how I''d run one."

    "That does bring up some issues, yes. I''m not certain we''d want to commercialize your research past the basics either." I paused, thinking. "Ideally your Dantian Seekers become a think tank and we get your researcher to sign an NDA and hire whoever seems best at this, having them sign an NDA as well. Give out introductory information to anyone, but keep the harder to teach or learn items to yourselves and only sell that data to the US."

    "What do you plan to do with this?" Danny asked. "I mean, there seems to be a big gap between even Nicole and the alien."

    I shrugged but smiled. "Not really going to be my call, but the US currently has two entire branches of the military who can''t do their job. I know there were a lot of plans being made on what to do with the Air Force and Space Force. This may become one of them."

    <div>

    ~~~

    A research institute, even a defense one, doesn''t generally have a rapid response to anything. However, give a bunch of geeks something new to look at, and you can get some pretty fast and interesting results if you didn''t question who they called to get their info.

    Danny had uploaded the rest of the data he had, even the raw notes that Nicole hadn''t cleaned up. As I perused the marked up documents I nodded along. After a few minutes, I picked up the phone to make another call. "Good afternoon Ms. Swibel. This is Ben Wissen over with alien research. I''m going to need to speak to the director as soon as he''s available. Faster, if you think you can bump someone off his calendar."

    "He was supposed to be leaving for the day in twenty minutes. Do you want to have a call while he''s driving?"

    "No, I believe he needs to stay for this conversation in a secure room. I''ll be over in a few minutes." I might have overstepped my bounds a bit by putting a good chunk of the slush fund on the line, but he''d agree with me. The real question would be who to get on the road to Rolla tonight, and did we see if someone could deal with a Tony Direz while they were out there. The police report didn''t give anyone good feelings about the man.

 Chapter 15: Tilting Worldviews

    I was still a little wobbly, but managed to pull back enough from the hug to look at Dad. "So?" I asked.

    "It''s definitely different." Dad answered, stepping back himself after making sure I was stable on my feet. "What do we do with it?"

    "Honestly, we''re all still trying to figure that out. I was hired as a researcher for it." I sat back down in my own chair. "It''s been pretty much extra strength for everyone, but using the alien as an example of what you can get to? We really don''t know."

    [Art of Awakening] and [Initiate''s Realm]. "I mean, what I did for you guys? I don''t know if anyone else can do it." I could feel the framework of it now, I could string it all together again with ease rather than have to build it from scratch each time. I could feel the cost too, more than just my energy. It ate a bit of the depth of my dantian. Nothing I couldn''t recover, but also nothing I''d want to do if I didn''t have plenty of depth built up to support it.

    "Well, this resets pretty much all of the arguments I was thinking about on the way here." Dad ruefully said, taking his own seat. He looked between Mom and me. "I guess the only question I have left is how do we help you?"

    "Help? I mean you guys have jobs. Lives in Austin. The house. You can''t just drop all that and stay up here, can you?" I panicked. Just slightly.

    Mom just shook her head. "Sweetie, I had horrible thoughts we were going to have to push you back to the doctors, or your Dad was going to talk you into leaving and we were going to move you. You''re right we can''t just leave everything back home to itself, but we can at least be around for a few days if you need us."

    Mom paused, looking at her hands with an odd look and flexing her fingers. "Or so you can show us some more of whatever this dantian stuff is."

    "You''re one hundred percent sure you''re not hurt then, Nicole?" Dad asked before I could answer Mom. I nodded and Dad blew out his breath again, running a hand through his own red hair. "Then your Mom and I will go find a hotel, maybe get something to eat. Think on what we can help you with. If you want us to help with this ''dantian stuff''," here he looked at Mom with a raised eyebrow as he air quoted her, "then we''re going to do it right and measured since you said you have notes and tracking on it. Not just jump straight in."

    Mom just smiled. "Fine, fine. Nicole, would you walk us out then?"

    ~~~

    I flopped onto the bed with a sigh. Cop, then classes, then parents and lighting their dantians and everything else that had implications of, stupid alien. Maybe I could just lay here for ten minutes and relax.

    ...

    Why am I getting a call now? Why did I taunt Murphy... Oh wait, I''d fallen asleep. Hooray for a two hour nap.

    Noting who it was, I tapped the answer button and the tablet projected Melissa''s head upwards. "Really? You''re going to make me stare at a ceiling while watching me?"

    "Laying down, too lazy to put it on a stand. What''s up?" I was also staring at the ceiling too, so we were even anyways.

    "Danny sent a message out to all the Seekers about a free training class on the dantian in a couple of days that would be good for even those without power. Then sent me a message asking if I wouldn''t mind providing an example of a dantian user since you were unavailable. And also asked if I knew how you were doing."

    I sat up, confused. "I didn''t call Danny about going to the hospital, so how- Oh. I was updating notes on my research doc, and it''s in the Seeker app. Heh, guess I should call him too. But did he say what kind of example he wanted from you for this?" I asked back.

    "Not really. Just an example."

    "You''re the only one with a breakthrough right, so maybe something with that." I rolled over and flipped the tablet up. Weird artifacts went Melissa''s face as the projector compensated. "Let''s pull it off video and call him? That way I can let him know I''m ok at the same time."

    Projected conference calls were creepy anyways, watching head swaps between speakers.

    Danny answered pretty quick. "Nicole? You OK?"

    I laughed. "Yeah, it was a little over the top and I don''t think I want to use the gym any time soon, but I''m OK. My parents are in town now though. I guess I should have put more in my notes?"

    "I''m glad you''re alright." Danny replied. "And yeah, I hoped you were OK but I wasn''t sure if you were."

    "Just FYI Danny, it''s creepy asking in message about her too." Melissa chimed in. "Might make me wonder if you''re a stalker."

    "Ouch, alright. I apologize to you both." There was a wince in Danny''s voice. "I assume you wanted to talk about the messages I just sent out?"

    "Yeah. What training class, and what do you need an example of?" I asked.

    "I sent a previous message out to all the Seekers last week advising them to not use their power. I didn''t tell them it was a false path, but I''m hoping that we can get them off of it. I need someone as an example of being on the right path and it not just being power in fits and spurts." Danny paused. "I don''t have any breakthroughs yet, so I can''t use myself as a good example. I''m not high enough off a normal baseline."

    "That, and it''s obvious if a girl does it?" Melissa asked with snark.

    "Well, yes."

    "If you get something other than gym weight plates, I''ll help too." I added. I don''t think I wanted to see large free weights again for a while.

    "You sure? Just off what I got from the notes you made, I''m surprised you''re not on bed rest for at least a few days." Danny asked me.

    "I''m half surprised too, but yeah."

    Danny hmm''d. "Well, if you''re sure. I''m good with trying to teach those that already have power, but do you think you can handle the non-powered people? I don''t know if I can do a split like that."

    Weird timing, I thought to myself. "Sure, I guess. I''m going to need to document it, but I''m also not lighting everyone''s dantian for them."

    "What!?" echoed from two separate voices on the call.

    "Yeah. One day, we''re going to look back on this and realize we probably stumbled into all the easy things and wish we could do it again. But yes, I figured out how to assist people directly. And even basically got damn applause from the alien over it." I grumbled.

    This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    I couldn''t try to not be interesting and still do this. Better his interest in me than him not even notice taking out another sizable portion of the population.

    "Nicole." Melissa started before I interrupted.

    "No, no. It''s fine. I think. It should be? I mean, Tony hurt me more than the alien''s direct attention has."

    "What a rousing seal of approval that is." Danny drawled. "But OK. Please document all that. Actually, can you come over to the Seeker office in the morning at 10 if you don''t have class? I need to go over some stuff with you anyways, Nicole."

    "Alright."

    "Anything I can help with there?" Melissa asked.

    "No." Danny denied. "It''s actually about her being paid and the contract supporting the Dantian Seekers."

    "Oh, bleh."

    "Now I''m wondering if I should just have breakfast with my parents instead." I laughed and said my goodbyes.

    ~~~

    March 18th?

    I actually had a chance to eat breakfast with Mom and Dad, talking with them a little bit after they''d had a night to get used to having a dantian. The Hampton had a decent breakfast diner.

    Which was a nice start to what was quickly becoming a very strange morning.

    "Nicole, this is Senior Master Sergeant Michael Dialgo, Lieutenant Colonel Lucas Young, and Mr. Brent Russell. I had a request to add a few people to the training class tomorrow by DARPA." Danny flatly introduced the three men in the room with him. "Remember when I told you your research was important?"

    I nodded, unsure.

    "Yeah. I apparently underestimated it a bit." Danny looked a little overwhelmed and irritated.

    "Miss Firen." The one not introduced as military started. "I do apologize for the sudden intrusion. Please, have a seat." He motioned.

    The only chair left at least was near the door, instead of having to walk past everyone. I sat, purposely stilling my hands and the itch to grab my braid.

    "I''m Brent Russell with DARPA. I don''t know if Mr. Sidre told you but he had a meeting scheduled yesterday afternoon with one of my superiors to go over the data that has been forwarded on behalf of the Seekers. Quite honestly, this is the most actionable dataset we''ve gotten for all the efforts we''ve put to understanding the alien. So, first and foremost, thank you for everything you have done."

    He sounded very earnest, but the two military people sitting there quietly while Danny just listened with a sour look bothered me. "Danny, you didn''t tell me anything about this."

    "I thought it''d be a video conference. Imagine my surprise when they showed up thirty minutes ago." Danny grumped.

    "Lieutenant Colonel Young and Sergeant Dialgo are from Goodfellow, and I and a driver were shoved into a car about six thirty last night and told to make it here for this meeting. My driver is actually napping in the car." Brent answered. "It was apparently decided that we needed to have a few people in the Seeker''s first training session."

    "First? Hold on, I''m missing something." Now I was confused.

    "Nicole was in the hospital two days ago, I didn''t know she was out until yesterday evening, and I didn''t know you all were going to be here today." Danny spoke up. "So she''s even further behind on this than I am, and I had the damn call with Dr. Wissen yesterday."

    Brent gave a friendly smile. "Ah, sorry about that. I think we''re all having a hard time keeping everyone in the same loops. Due to the results the Seekers have provided, DARPA has decided to increase funding for them by an order of a magnitude. I understand the Seekers have been hamstrung by the lack of accessible time with medical scans and there may be other problems that having access to more funds can assist with."

    "A better facility than a couple of offices and a lecture hall at a college, for example, with scanning equipment that belongs to the team and people to run it. What we''re hoping to do Miss Firen is take your researcher position and give it more structure, get the Seekers some additional help there too." He paused. "Hire some of your friends that have unofficially helped the Seekers put together what has already been done."

    I was quiet, thinking. Danny spoke up again though. "And these gentlemen?" He waved a hand at the still silent military men. "They just here to learn and then leave?"

    "As a train the trainer session, yes. Sergeant Dialgo doesn''t have any of these powers and Lieutenant Colonel Young is on what has been referred to as the false path. I believe he''s had one-"

    "Two." The military man spoke up for the first time, his voice even.

    Brent continued on easily. "two breakthroughs, in your terms. So someone to learn both of your methods and take it back to teach others, instead of routing hundreds of people through here."

    "I''m feeling just a little bit overwhelmed." I finally said. "Training the Seekers, fine. The false path looks like it''s killing people when you get far enough on it. Really, I''m good with trying to keep anyone from dying. But facilities, buying equipment? You''re the government! Why don''t you already have all this? Have people already doing all this?"

    Brent just gave that easy smile again. "Area 51, right? Everyone would like to think the government has a million tricks up their sleeves, that we are already working on all the answers before the questions get asked. Even the bad answers sometimes."

    He sat back in the chair, waving a hand around the room. "But every answer starts somewhere. For this issue, for this alien? Our answers lie in the Dantian Seekers. We want the Seekers to be the people doing this, because this group is already answering questions we haven''t figured out yet. Equipment? That''s easy, but Rolla isn''t a military town with a base nearby, so we''d have to bring it in and use local facilities. Unless the Seekers want to move to Fort Leonard. Which is always a possibility if that''s the case."

    "Can we get some actual time to think about this?" Danny interrupted. "You''ve thrown a whole lot more at the two of us than I was expecting, especially with you showing up here."

    "Ah, yeah. Assuming they pick up the lessons quick enough tomorrow, I know the Sergeant and Lieutenant Colonel will need to leave afterwards. But I''ve been tagged as your long term liaison with DARPA, so take your time. We''ve got reservations at the Hampton."

 Chapter 16: A Moment to Breathe

    After they''d left, I just looked at Danny in confusion. "I know you told me DARPA funded the Dantian Seekers, but I don''t think I expected that."

    "I wasn''t really either." Danny sighed. He quickly went over what had happened in his meeting yesterday. "I thought this meeting was going to be coordinating getting a few of their people trained. Not showing up here with people to train and everything else." Danny sighed. "He''s probably out already looking for a place to put equipment at."

    "So what I am supposed to do? Just go with it? I mean, why bring the military guys today and they didn''t say anything? Did they want me to just go ahead and try to teach them now?"

    "I didn''t expect your research to be this groundbreaking, but I did offer to handle it all in your place once and you said no." Danny reminded me. "Before yesterday, I thought the Seekers would get hounded for information pretty regularly, and once we''d gotten a few other people started it would spread out the burden. After my call yesterday," Danny nodded to the office door, "I thought we were getting enough funding to do whatever you wanted to get as many people as possible here learning this."

    Danny tapped his desk, pulling a document up on his screen. "And now the scope is even bigger. But you said you wanted to pack the race, right? You can''t directly teach everyone."

    "You thought about this already, didn''t you." It wasn''t a question. Danny made a little too much sense.

    "Not to the point of DARPA showing up at the door today, no. But when I asked for a line of credit at the hospital for the CAT scans we need, I instead got told they''d buy machines and give me money to hire someone to run them."

    "I''m not a businessman, I have no idea how to run a company." Danny said self-deprecatingly. "I told them as much if that''s what they wanted to turn the Seekers into. Hiring you with the job title of ''Keep doing what you''re doing'' is one thing. Managing a whole bunch of people doing different things? No."

    He closed the document, sighing. "You know, I originally wrote for that grant not to discover great things, but honestly for something that would be an easy paycheck for a few years. Put a whole bunch of college kids into a room, give them something to play with, maybe have a few stupid insights to feed back. Then you started making waves with really interesting stuff. Then the Gasp."

    "Gasp?" I asked.

    "It''s what they''re calling the alien''s attack. But yeah. I couldn''t in any faith not start pushing for something after that. And when I told them I couldn''t run a business, DARPA suggested a think tank. And Brent''s probably here to be the one that actually makes this work."

    Danny laughed without humor and looked at me. "Think you could use me as an assistant once I''m not even pretending to be running this thing anymore?"

    "Sure." I laughed back, then realized he wasn''t joking. "Damn it."

    I stood and looked at the little office, still somewhat cramped with three extra chairs even if they weren''t full. From what I''d seen since I joined the Seekers, Danny was right that he hadn''t had to do a lot. But there probably would be a lot more in the future. Now I sort of wanted Brent back to be pushing all that stuff, because the guy I expected to have a handle on it... Well, he had a handle. It just wasn''t attached to anything.

    "Class is going to be in the hall tomorrow, right?"

    "Ours and the next door one. It''s a bit different fixing false path than putting others on the right one, so I didn''t want to confuse it." Danny agreed.

    "I''ll be here in the morning then. But I''m going to cut afternoon classes and think. Check in my parents." I gave Danny a half-grin. "They came in town because I was in the hospital. Did you know that one?"

    ~~~

    I dialed, smiling as Mike showed up on screen. "Hey."

    "You OK? They already release you?" Mike looked worried, his eyes trying to look me over. "That was a hell of a fight."

    "I was actually out that night. Sorry about not calling you yesterday though, the cops showed up looking for more details, then my parents showed up, then I ended up crashing for a while. And only randomly found out Danny''s scheduling training for people for their dantians."

    Mike whistled. "You''re not going to be involved though, right? I mean, you should probably be resting for a few more days."

    "By the time I got to the hospital? I wasn''t hurt. You saw me lift that weight there in the gym. I kinda had a mental meltdown though."

    "Nicole, are you really OK then?"

    "Part of the reason I''m calling you. I thought you were off shift, so I was hoping you wouldn''t mind taking me down to that lake again." I gave him a bright smile.

    "You have a bathing suit this time?" He laughed.

    I shook my head. "No, things went even crazier this morning and I got a few things pointed out to me. I figured we don''t need a baseline scan of you, so we can kickstart your dantian and see how that works out for you."

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    "And then you''ll tell me what went crazy this morning? I don''t want you stressing yourself out on my behalf."

    "I will."

    "Then I''ll be over there shortly." Mike grinned at me before cutting the call.

    I puttered around in my dorm for a little bit, feeling out that energy form. [Art of Awakening]. It was like a shortcut on how to light your dantian using the energy in the air. Even a packaged instruction on how to use that energy to deepen your dantian.

    It was strange though. Ash and Karen, and now my parents, would have to both hold back their overflow of energy, while simultaneously letting that external exchange only flow into them. Whereas I just had to cycle faster while holding back that overflow.

    I wondered what the difference actually was.

    But the technique required my own energy to cycle against the other person. Pushing my energy outside the bounds of my body was expensive in terms of cycle requirements, so skin to skin felt like the easiest option.

    But the alien''s term [Art of Awakening] had a feeling of more behind it, like I was just skimming the first page of a book.

    My tablet dinged, and I looked at it, seeing a message from Mike. I grabbed the all-in-one, shoved it into my bag, and was out the door.

    "Hey." I gave him a kiss as I got in, smiling. "Thanks."

    "Nah, no problem. You sure you don''t want to hang out with your parents though, while they''re here?" Mike offered.

    "I talked to Mom for a bit before I called you. They''re going to come to the lesson thing tomorrow, but right now Dad''s running about a billion tests on himself." I remarked fondly. "You''re welcome to come as well. It''ll be about nine."

    "Sure."

    We listened to the radio for the short time it took to get to the lake, Mike backing up to the edge. We got out and he dropped the tail gate and we sat down.

    I leaned up against him for a moment, looking out over the peaceful lake. I purposely breathed in, drawing the energy with the air and cycling it into me, mimicking how Ash and Karen pulled in the extra energy. Water, metal, and even pollution were weird notes to taste, and there were dozens more in tiny amounts. My dantian wouldn''t actually take it as energy unlike theirs did, but it still burbled through me, riding on top of my own energy before flowing out of my breakthroughs. Heart, sternum, and spine. Specifically, after looking it up, at the C6 vertebrae.

    Mike didn''t say anything, just wrapped an arm around me, letting me get myself straight. He did help himself to my braid though, pulling the ends out a bit as he played with it.

    After a few minutes of just breathing in the air, I finally sat up fully and took the length of hair back, rebraiding the last six inches. I turned to face him. "So, do you want to do this the long way, or the ''Let Nicole test something mostly untried on me that should work instantly'' way?"

    "If you need a guinea pig and it''s not going to make me choke, you''re welcome to test something. If you think I''m going to choke like the other day, I''d rather do the long way." Mike answered, looking down at me.

    "You''re sweet, throwing yourself into the unknown." I smiled, leaned up, and kissed him.

    I mentally took stock of my own dantian. I''d been pushing the depth of my dantian as far as I could in the last two days. Half out of fear of being attacked again and half because I''d found the extra energy just felt right rather than letting it get as shallow as it sat at normally.

    Taking his hands into my own, I focused. Technically, I didn''t have to say words with this. All it required was the correct shape of will and cycled energy through my breakthrough, overflow it into my hands and then Mike. But words had meaning. "Art of Awakening: [Dantian]"

    I immediately and mentally flipped off the alien''s presence even as his interest peaked along with the energy flowing out of me, taking a small portion of my dantian''s strength with it.

    "Holy shit." Mike''s eyes were wide as I felt the energy flush from me to him. The energy didn''t settle near his heart, where my dantian sat. It didn''t settle near his stomach, where the others created their own dantian. It just seemed to diffuse against him in a weird vibration before settling and vanishing.

    "You get that?" I asked him, but I was pretty sure I knew the answer already.

    Mike looked at our held hands in odd wonder, before shaking himself. "Yeah. Do it now?" I nodded.

    Again, I could feel the dantian''s creation. Mike took a full breath, and every bit of power used from it. The energy swirled in Mike''s stomach area, spun and folded into itself in a way I couldn''t explain, but was completely natural except it wasn''t supposed to be. There wasn''t a specific type of energy feel to it this time before it faded.

    "Neat." I mentally filed away that sensation again as Mike gave me a look. "Sorry, just the way it feels from this side when you did that."

    "Yeah, you give off a weird feeling too." Mike nudged me.

    I nodded. "Melissa does too, but only after she made her first breakthrough."

    Mike laid back in the truckbed, looking up. "When do you get breakthroughs, anyways? Or how, I guess."

    I shook my head, leaning against Mike''s legs. "Not today. The rule we''re running on is you have to fill and deepen your dantian until you can''t anymore before you try. And we haven''t had anyone try with their dantian lit like yours is, so I''d rather not have an issue where I need to try to drive your truck." I dug an elbow into his thigh, eliciting a yelp.

    "Ow, I get it. No need to get violent. No trying a breakthrough."

    I pulled my arm back, eyes wide. "Shit, I didn''t actually hurt you, did I?" I couldn''t tell through his heavy jeans.

    "Not really." Mike sat back up, pretending a hurt face and rubbing his leg. "You''ve got some bony elbows though."

    "I''m not kissing it to make it better, ass." I grinned at him but did give him a kiss anyways.

    We just sat there for a few more minutes.

    "So what was the crazy this morning?" Mike finally asked. I sighed and Mike immediately continued on. "You don''t actually have to tell me."

    "No, it''s nothing actually bad, I think." I thought for a moment. "The Dantian Seekers are funded by DARPA and someone from there showed up this morning with a couple of Air Force guys. The Air Force guys are here to get training and go back, but the DARPA guy is here to stay. Danny thinks he''s here to make the Seekers a company or something."

    I jumped off the tailgate, kicking at the ground. "It''s like, slow down half a second. I''m in college. I''m a college freshman. How the heck am I supposed to wrap my head around this?"

    "You don''t want to?" Mike asked.

    "No, I do. This is interesting. Had this been two weeks ago, I would have jumped in immediately. Now I see there''s going to be a whole lot more pressure. But I still want to. Just, I would have liked it to be a little less ''deep end and see if you can swim'' you know?"

    "Is anyone else doing better than you then?" Mike asked. I gave him a quizzical look. "Seriously. You just randomly gave. me. power. You more or less walked away from something I would have put money on another person being permanently crippled. So, is anyone else doing better than you, or something else just as good?"

    I sighed. "No. Not that I know of."

    "Then you''re writing the book on it. Don''t worry, you''ll be fine."

 Chapter 17: Class in Session

    March 19th?

    I felt much calmer this morning, having spent some quality time with both Mike and my parents last night, even if I had to poke Dad until he quit making notes. He''d tested at least a dozen things I hadn''t thought of other than just straight strength and while I was happy he wanted to help, I also didn''t want him hurting himself either.

    Still, the Seeker hall was more filled than I''d seen since I joined, almost thirty people milling about an hour before the time set for this class. Someone had apparently found a dolly and had shanghaied the vending machine from down the hall into the room and plugged it in near the entrance. I spotted the two military guys, not in uniform, standing back against a wall.

    The normal full sized screens were moved off to one side and lined up next to each other. The tables had been rearranged to where it really did look like a lecture hall for once instead of just a gathering area. Vending machine notwithstanding.

    I spotted Danny standing near his office and made my way over as he watched the room. "Is this everyone?"

    He shook his head. "About half, maybe a little less. I doubt we''ll get everyone, just like I doubt everyone actually paid attention to my request to not use their power. I''m glad you''re early, you have a few minutes to talk this over? You probably noticed those two," he nodded towards the military guys, "but Brent''s here hiding in my office too."

    "Sure. I was hoping to figure out how we were actually going to do this today anyways." I followed Danny into the office where as noted, Brent was sitting working on something on an actual laptop. He looked up as we both entered and closed the lid of it.

    "Good morning Miss Firen, Mr. Sidre. Are the Dantian Seekers ready to take their next step?" Brent looked between the two of us calmly.

    Danny looked at me for a moment before he spoke. "I believe we are. There''s about an hour before we start this. I was going to take the portion of the Seekers that are on the false path and walk them through getting on the correct path. Nicole is going to deal with those who don''t have any power and teach them."

    He nodded. "And the vending machine you talked the Sergeant into helping you wheel in?" Brent looked a little amused at that as I sat down in one of the chairs.

    "Establishing credentials." Danny answered as he sat at his desk. "I was going to have Melissa show off with more weights than she really should be able to lift, but she''s only on the first breakthrough. Nicole''s on her third, and the vending machine is right at her max when she was on the second." Danny then looked over to me. "You think your third breakthrough made a big difference?"

    "Maybe? I know it made some difference, but we haven''t really had a chance to figure out how much I can do now." I shrugged, trying to keep an even keel. "What do you want me to do with it?"

    "You said no weight plates, so I had to quickly figure out something." Danny grinned now. "I''ll have you lift it at some point to prove a point."

    "If I can get my arms around it enough." I frowned towards the door and the unseen vending machine. "I don''t have the greatest reach."

    "At worst, hug from the corner like it''s a box. You could probably get enough grip that way." Brent mentioned. "But that is a second step. What is your first step going to be to start this?"

    "Hi, you know me and this is Nicole. You''re doing it wrong and we''re going to show you the right way?" Danny offered sheepishly. "I do have the screens out there set up to show Nicole''s original dantian scan."

    Brent groaned. "Your showmanship isn''t bad, but your thoughts on public speaking are abysmal." Brent thought for a moment. "You wrote a decent prospectus when you wrote for your grant, work from that. Explain the situation better to them."

    He then looked at me. "If you want to work into his credential building, you''ll either want to play up being small before removing all doubt about your strength, or possibly just take charge. I will tell you Lieutenant Colonel Young is only here because he was ordered to be. Here."

    Brent opened the laptop again, logging back into it. He pulled up a document that had the Lieutenant Colonel''s picture on the top. "Young believes this power is a weapon we''re going to have to wield against the alien and he has been diligently training it. He is an example of someone with multiple breakthroughs that you are going to have to convince to start over, that he''s hurting himself." Brent paused. "Well, not Young specifically because he''ll follow orders and his orders include learning your method. But anyone out there that has three breakthroughs or whatever they want to call them, you might lose them."

    I frowned. "I don''t think I can just take charge like that. Do you really think we''ll lose people?"

    "I don''t believe all of them will even show up today, no." Brent shrugged. "Success will breed success though, especially in those that gain power when they had none."

    "Speaking of power, you never did say if you had any Brent." Danny noted. "You joining in today?"

    Brent nodded. "I don''t have any, so I will be joining Miss Firen''s group. The research you''ve provided so far would have been enough for me to attempt it if I had power."

    I tilted my head, debating. "Are you expecting to have to teach this to people?"

    "I''d prefer not to, as I''m sure I will have enough on my plate as your liaison. Why?" Brent answered and asked back.

    "Because I can ignite a dantian the easy way once a day at best, because it takes me hours to rebuild what I burn out of my dantian doing it. And since I haven''t figured out how I''d teach this to someone else, I''d rather a teacher learn the longer way." I looked at Brent who listened with interest. "Hand please."

    He offered his hand with an interested look and I took a breath, focusing on my dantian before grabbing his hand. A flex of power and strength as I pushed concepts to him. "Art of Awakening: [Dantian]."

    Huh, Mike was the only one who didn''t flinch away from me when I did this so far. Brent jerked back so hard he actually tipped over in the chair.

    "Damn, you OK? I didn''t mean for that to startle you that badly." I probably should have held onto his hand a little harder so he couldn''t yank back. Maybe.

    "Fuck." Brent rolled off the chair and stood, shaking his hand and staring at me. "What did you do?"

    "The quick and easy way to tell you how to light your dantian. I don''t know how to teach that to anyone else."

    "If you can do that, then why wouldn''t...Nevermind, I don''t think I would have wanted that to happen from the alien." Brent shook himself. "So, like this?"

    It was still interesting to feel a dantian being lit, but... "You know, it''s going to be odd if everyone out there does this today. It''ll be almost a normal thing at that point."

    "Eventually, yes." Brent shrugged, but he had a little more energy in his voice. "But it wasn''t normal for me. And it will not be for those out there either. Normal will be when it becomes a normal school subject, or like getting a driver''s license."

    "Huh. That helps." Danny said. "That actually gives me a talking point."

    "First rule of having a dantian, don''t try to push your limits until you''ve pulled in as much as you can and deepened your dantian''s power." I advised Brent who nodded.

    "We''ve got about ten minutes, we should probably at least go wait out there." Brent said after checking the time and grabbing his laptop and a suitcase.

    Danny and I nodded our agreement.

    Leaving Danny''s office, a few more people had shown up but not the sixty or so that was all of the Seekers membership. Melissa, Ash, and Karen were all sitting at a table for moral support for us, thankfully.

    And Mom and Dad had apparently managed to find their way in the right building and were actually sitting with Mike. I felt a little frisson of fear, how long had they been here. How long had Mike been here? I was supposed to be there for their first meeting!

    I quickly headed over. I might only have a few minutes, but I could at least see what damage control I needed to do.

    "Hey." I said to all three of them, trying to smile.

    "Your dad recognized me from last week when you called them." Mike offered with a ''what can you do?'' shrug.

    Mom rolled her eyes at both of them. "We''re not going to make a scene or anything, honey. It''s unprofessional. Maybe we can all go to lunch or something later?" where we can have that conversation was left unsaid.

    "Alright?" I looked at Mike who nodded his agreement, then I shook my head ruefully. "Alright, cool. You guys will be coming with me to the other room once Danny gets everyone going."

    "Sounds good honey." Dad answered. "Go ahead, we''ll be alright here until then." He shooed me off.

    I made my way back to the front of the room where Danny was turning on the screens. "I guess I''m ready." Brent was sitting at a desk off to the side.

    Danny nodded, looking at me before looking out over the gathered people. "Good morning, everyone." Danny''s voice boomed over the speakers. I looked closer and noticed a lapel mic. "It''s just about nine, so I''m going to assume we''ve got everyone that''s going to show up."

    It was maybe half the Seekers, and I didn''t even know which of them already had power and which didn''t.

    "I believe you all know me, even if I haven''t had much to do with the day to day business of the Dantian Seekers. But I''m Danny Sidre, and I am the academic club head for the Seekers. With me here in Nicole Firen, one of your fellow club members." Danny waved a hand towards me. I half waved to the room, nervous.

    "I know most of you joined the Seekers either trying to figure out the extent of your power or possibly how to get this new power for yourselves. But the original reason this group was founded was to bring together everyone and use the collective to attempt to determine what a dantian is, thus the Dantian Seekers. The only real clues we had were what the alien Lei Zhaohui said and the extraordinary powers people started having."

    "And then the alien did something and now says the dantian is lit. Get on with it." A guy called.

    Danny nodded. "True, the world''s soul lit its dantian, wherever that is. But that isn''t the only dantian." He clicked a remote, and the screens lit up. Stretched across all of them was my original CT scan. "This is also a dantian. And every person in this room can have one. If you have power today, you''re hurting yourself using it without one. With a dantian, the power doesn''t go away. You don''t grab it and use it until it fades. Until you grab more. With a dantian, a good portion of that strength becomes your regular strength."

    I figured that was my cue. I''d eyeballed the vending machine previously, and it wasn''t one that was on legs so Brent''s suggestion of a box pickup was probably necessary. Walking over I pulled the power from the wall and squatted down. I cycled for a moment and pushed the vending machine onto it''s side edge a bit, getting my hands underneath it. Standing with it was actually a lot easier than I expected.

    "Holy shit." I heard called, but didn''t pay attention. It was bulky and hard to keep balanced while coming fully up from my squat. "Bullshit!"

    "Nicole managed to create her own dantian recently and has pushed through breakthroughs as well." Danny remarked.

    "I could do that too." One guy called.

    My arms weren''t shaking from the strain or anything, but I had to keep one arm as far under it as possible to provide balance, with it tipped slightly backwards into my other arm.

    "You might be able to Mr. Jacobs." I heard Danny say after a moment. "I believe you''d registered as having gone through two breakthroughs yourself. But how long could you hold it up?"

    "Danny, you should have told me you were going to have me continue holding this." I complained, trying to find a good way to keep it balanced. I didn''t have long enough arms to really get fully under it.

    "Feeling like you''re going to lose it?" I heard the previous voice call.

    "No." I snapped back. "It''s awkward holding it though." And then it starting tipping off my arm and I panicked, trying to grab anything I could on the back to steady it. My fingers curled into something and I yanked, pulling it back upright as I finally got spun around.

    "Thankfully, the Seekers can easily spare the replacement money for that." Brent drawled as I looked around the room with the machine now fairly easily resting on my arm.

    I craned my head around as best I could to the back of the vending machine to see what I''d grabbed and broke, only to find my fingers were gripped into the thin metal backplate. "Huh."

    I noticed my parents and Mike were halfway out of their seats before they settled back down. "Danny, how heavy is this supposed to be?"

    "Five to six hundred pounds." Danny gave me an odd look as I actually shifted my arm underneath it to stop a pinch in my bicep from the edge. "Plus the weight of whatever food is still in there."

    "Yeah, we''re definitely going to have to test my new max lift." I grinned at him, then out to everyone else. "How long do I hold this up then?" I eased up on cycling little by little as I didn''t think going all out was necessary and was relieved to find it was within my normal strength so I was able to stop the extra cycling. I still was fairly low after Brent''s dantian.

    "A while longer please." Danny answered me before addressing the room again. "As you can see, Nicole''s not really having any trouble and yes, I will let anyone who wants to make sure the vending machine is real and you can test it''s weight."

    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    "One day, I hope that a person lighting their dantian is common. Today though, it isn''t. Today, we would like to assist every one of you in lighting your own dantians to repair the damage you''ve done to yourself. Those of you who don''t have any power, we''ll teach you to gain it. I would like to think we''ll all be taking the first steps on the right path."

    Danny looked out over everyone and sighed. "Yeah, that sounded a lot more heroic in my head." Now he got a few chuckles. "We''ll take questions for a few minutes, then I''d like to actually get started with the training part."

    "What do I lose doing this?" Of course, it was the military guy speaking up. He probably already knew too.

    "The blocks you already went through." Danny answered him simply. "I lost mine and I''m in the process of fixing what it did to me. We already have one person that fixed theirs, and they''ve already made their initial breakthrough back."

    The earlier guy spoke up again. "Wait, you want me to start over?" I finally got a good look at him, he was a darker skinned guy, thin and wearing a ballcap indoors for some reason.

    "I want you to not kill yourself." I shot back in Danny''s place. "You keep breaking blocks the way you are, it''s going to do something you can''t fix eventually."

    "Like what?" The guy scoffed.

    "Whatever we''re pulling this power from?" I started, shifting myself and my vending machine to face him. "The way you''re doing it, it eventually ends. I felt that from the guy that attacked me in the gym. He''s on his last dregs of it."

    "What do you mean, felt?" A girl sitting near my parents spoke up.

    "Wait, you were in that fight that ruined the gym?"

    I ignored the second question. "When you''re on this path, you can sometimes feel others on it as well, kinda like a six sense. I can''t really feel it from people doing it wrong, the way you are now. But him? He felt like a hole he''d dug so much out."

    They were mostly quiet for a minute before another guy spoke up. "So can I minmax? Can I do both?"

    "What?" Danny looked confused.

    He grinned. "Since you can teach people to use power your way, can I do that and still keep the power my way? Use them both?"

    Danny looked at me and I shrugged. "You''re welcome to try I guess, but I don''t know if it''s possible or even safe." I answered. "Please don''t hurt yourself?"

    He looked uneasy.

    "On that note, I do have release forms for everyone to sign." Brent spoke up and both Danny and I looked at him as he continued. "It''s a simple release form that if you hurt yourself in attempting anything explained by the Dantian Seekers today, you indemnify them from liability." He opened his suitcase and pulled a sheaf of papers. He stood and started passing them out along with pens.

    "You brought a lawyer?" Someone asked.

    "Let''s go with that." Brent answered. "If you don''t sign, I do not believe you will be allowed participation in today''s lesson. If you learn from someone else that was here, that will be between you and them."

    We lost a few people to that, huffing as they left, but there wasn''t anything I could do about it. The final count was thirty-seven people, and that included six people in the audience that already had a lit dantian.

    "Alright, everyone that currently has power, please stay here. Everyone else, Nicole will be taking you next door to the other hall and teaching you." Danny announced. "I promise, we are not hiding anything but the method of building and lighting a dantian are different depending on where you start."

    I gently set the vending machine down, prying my fingers out from the back to find no broken skin. I walked to the door and waited, watching as quite a few people checked the vending machine, trying to lift and move it themselves. A couple of the guys were able to struggle it up, but it still proved my point.

    The sergeant just walked over to me, nodded, and leaned against the wall waiting for everyone else to separate themselves.

    It took a few minutes, but I ended up with the larger share of people at twenty-four following me to the other lecture hall. It was set up with chairs and desks and I waved everyone towards them. "Alright everyone, get comfortable. We''re going to be here for a little while."

    They all moved to different parts of the room, enough room for people to take individual areas for themselves.

    I looked everyone over after they got settled, most of them sitting at the desks but a couple of people choosing to sit on the floor or remain standing. Mom, Dad, and the others who already had dantians were grouped up with each other, watching me and the rest of the class as well.

    "I''ve thought about this a bit, and realized it''s probably going to sound a lot like a new age hippy. Laugh if you want, but it''s how I''m going to explain it." I started. "When the alien caused the world''s soul to light, he told the world to breathe. Underlying to that, was the idea of how to breathe. The earth breathes in some type of energy, uses it, then exhales out a new energy. That new energy is what has made the air feel different to everyone."

    I paused, taking a deep breath myself, pulling the energies. Metal, concrete, earth, wood, and small bits of others. Strange that metal and concrete were energy as much as earth or wood was. "Every breath you take, you pull a little bit of that energy into you. But you don''t do anything with it, so you breathe it right back out. Or at least most of it. I think some does get left behind, but it''s incoherent."

    "Remember how I said I can feel others on this path? That same sense is what you can feel the power with as well. It will feel like you''re just imagining it at first, but I promise you will be doing something."

    I looked around, but no one seemed completely disbelieving so far. "So what we''re going to be doing is breathing, and taking that energy from the air and keeping it. Once you keep enough of it, that is how you form a dantian."

    I held up a fist. "The size of the human heart is about the size of your fist." I extended my thumb. "And one knuckle is about the size of the dantian. So when you breathe in the air and pull out the energy, you''re going to be slowly pushing it all together until it gets down to this size."

    I nodded towards Ash and Karen. "As we''ve learned previously, if you make it too small too fast, you won''t have enough energy to actually form it and you''ll lose what you''re building. Don''t squeeze it enough and it will never form either."

    "So yes, this sounds a lot like new age hippy meditation. It''s the closest I can actually come to describing it to you. Because describing how to wiggle your ears when you''ve never moved those muscles is the more scientific way I can think of it. But I can''t even touch this muscle to try to let you feel what should be moving." I looked over my ''students.'' Not really any looks of disregard at all. I guess having seen others with power made you a bit more willing to believe in anything to get it.

    "Alright, breaths should be five to ten seconds long, holding it in. You''re probably going to feel dumb until it starts building, but that''s fine. Get comfortable, stretch, move. Whatever you can do to be able to just breathe." I didn''t dare push, if only because trying to tag this many people in this large a room would probably do really bad things to my own power. But they also had to learn the, heh, mundane way so it would be something they were doing, not something they were given. Especially the sergeant.

    "You don''t have to be in time with anyone, you don''t have to match breaths with someone else. This is you, your breath, and your dantian. And you don''t have to get every bit of power with every breath. You won''t stop breathing and there will always be more power in your next breath." I said finally.

    "When you do finally ignite it, you''ll know. And when you do, you''re welcome to mess with it but if something starts hurting, I already know what it is. Don''t push past that pain, I''ll explain afterwards."

    A few more people got out of chairs and sat at desks, one guy even sitting in a weird pose I recognized as similar to the way the alien was sitting the last time I saw a picture before he was boxed up.

    Some eyes closed, some open. Some people stared right at me like I had the immediate answer I wasn''t giving them, others just looked around almost aimlessly. Mom and Dad were smiling as they watched me teach, while Mike and the others seemed more curious to watch the students.

    I guessed Ash and Karen would be really interested, considering I was using a lot of the descriptors they had used, combined with what we all could feel of the energy flowing.

    What was interesting was I could almost feel, perhaps imagine, the energy in the room thinning out slightly after a few minutes as everyone purposely didn''t breathe out as much energy as they were breathing in.

    Did it swirl closer towards the guy in the back because he drained more with each breath?

    Did it thicken around the sergeant because he wasn''t taking in energy nearly as fast as those around him?

    I wasn''t sure. I could feel little rivulets flow around though, drawing from a much wider energy surrounding the room. It didn''t require an open window to replenish, and it wasn''t like eighteen people could suck all the air out of a room either.

    Five minutes went by without anything changing, but Ash and Karen had taken much longer themselves. Starting about the ten minute mark, several people got up or changed positions, the sergeant actually moving a few desks to pace.

    At the fifteen minute mark, almost half the room jerked as one as I felt someone in the other room manage igniting their own dantian. "Well, any of you who felt that were probably pretty close to having formed your dantian. Any of you manage to not lose it when someone in the other room lit theirs?"

    All I got were headshakes and no''s. "Well, at least now you know what it feels like, maybe you can ignore it now. There were probably plenty of people over there that got startled out of their own as well."

    It took another twenty minutes, and two more dantians igniting next door, before someone in my room managed it. There was the same looping and folding sensation before it tucked itself away and the guy, someone I thought I recognized from one of my core classes, opened his eyes and jumped up laughing. Nearly cackling. "Yes, yes! Hah!"

    After the previous jump scares from the other room, most of those in here had managed to ignore a dantian igniting even if it was closer to them. I still saw those nearest to him lose their breathing as he almost started dancing.

    "Shh. Don''t screw everyone else up." I told him, trying to not be too loud myself. "Sit there and play with the power if you want, just remember don''t push past any pain."

    He nodded.

    In the end, it took a little over three hours for everyone in my room to light their dantian. I''d kept a count of those I felt in the other room, and most of those guys managed it within the first hour, with only two coming in much later than the others.

    But once everyone was done, I clapped my hands to get their attention. "Now that you know what it feels like, what the sensation is, welcome to the first step on what''s probably going to be a long journey. As much as we might wish, no one''s going to wake up tomorrow and go beat up Zhaohui. If you do, more power to you though."

    There were a couple of distracted laughs.

    "Now, your power flows out of your dantian and into your body. It technically is even flowing out of your body a bit when you breathe out, and you breathe in new energy to replace it. If any of you pushed yourselves to where it hurt, that hurt is your first block, where you make your first breakthrough. But the energy you have as a default is not enough to break the block. You''ll just hurt yourself if you try."

    I motioned to Karen and Ash, still sitting but had been looking slightly bored. They perked up at me singling them out. "Karen and Ash are the first two people to have ignited their dantian the same way you all did today. So they''ve already been testing how to build up your energy. As they''ve discovered, when you breathe in your dantian is now taking some of that energy and converting it to your own power, and the rest escapes you. Strengthening yourself is the same as what you just did. Breathe in the energy, take it into your dantian, and breathe out. Each breath will deepen the well of energy your dantian draws from."

    "After a while though, your dantian will automatically start pushing that extra energy back out and make the well shallower. The rule we''re working from to make sure no one hurts themselves is don''t try pushing past that block until you''ve pulled in so much power that your dantian is pushing it back out as fast as you''re filling it."

    People were nodding and I noticed several different recorders out and others taking notes now. "As a plus that I can tell from myself? Each time you make a breakthrough, that well doesn''t stay as shallow as it is now. So after each breakthrough, you''ll dig deeper but it won''t always be the same base." Except my art, but I wasn''t going to bring that up. Though... "If you ever do something that it somehow does end up getting shallower, you can dig it deeper again. But please, please. Let me or Danny know what you did. We are still learning every day."

 Chapter 18: The ball starts rolling

    March 20th?

    Yesterday had gone well in pretty much all instances. Thirty-one people had lit their dantian, Danny had warned everyone about the holes to be filled like what Melissa had found. Most of them were even willing to wait a day or two before filling in any holes if we could get scans done soon. The late lunch with Mom, Dad, and Mike had even gone off without a hitch and they tentatively approved of Mike. I grinned again at that thought.

    Mom and Dad were now on their way back home and Dad had a copy of the Seeker app he was going to load anything he figured out into. I had a feeling he''d be pushing the guys at his office on it as well.

    Now I sat in Danny''s office with him and Brent, trying to figure out how we were going to move forward.

    "The lieutenant colonel and sergeant left yesterday, so you don''t have to worry about them. They''ll be the focus of any number of medical procedures and tests, and the results will make it back here. They are also going to start teaching your method of dantian creation, once they get a full understanding of the basics they''ve been taught." Brent noted.

    "That still leaves twenty-nine people that we''ve asked to hold off to see if we can get CAT scans of, or do we just let them do their thing as well? And I know the others need scans, and me too I guess" I asked, flicking through the list of people from yesterday.

    Brent smiled. "Phelps suddenly had additional funding to support overtime and bonuses for two of their techs. So there are eight slots this evening and tomorrow evening. And likely any evening they can have enough lead time to ensure scheduling. So that gives you sixteen slots. And if anyone would like to go to Fort Leonard, we can-"

    "Leonard Wood." Danny cut in. "Sorry, but Leonard Wood. Or Fort Leonard Wood."

    "Fort Leonard Wood then. But we can utilize their facility as that base is the garrison for the Army Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear School. I can get the Seekers priority access to equipment there, as it will take a week or so to source equipment to bring in directly for you all." Brent paused, looking at Danny. "Speaking of which, do you have any idea where you would like to anchor the Dantian Seekers at? If you''re absorbing all of yesterday''s students in a more direct manner, a single lecture hall isn''t going to be enough."

    Danny nodded. "Yeah, I actually have been thinking about it. We''re likely to get medical equipment, training gear, and other stuff, right? And other things as we come up with the need?" Brent nodded. "Most of the office space around here isn''t really big enough then. Rolla isn''t a big city, after all."

    Danny turned the monitor on his desk and pulled up a street view. "How about the old Menard''s on Westside then? If I remember right, they had second floor offices we could use and then plenty of open space to put stuff in." Danny looked a little nervous at the offering.

    "Thinking large. Appropriate." Brent nodded. "I was worried I might have to guide you away from a strip mall rental." Danny''s nervousness vanished and he smiled. "I would recommend the Seekers continue their academic club here however. It will serve as a more general contact point for the students."

    Danny nodded and I shrugged.

    "Now, I do have something a bit more interesting for both of you this morning. Both the lieutenant colonel and sergeant were recording yesterday''s training and provided me with those recordings before they left yesterday. Between that and all the research the Seekers have provided, I had several people at DARPA last night putting this together. It''s not a finished product without some additional dantian visuals and confirmation of a breakthrough from someone in your portion of the training from yesterday, Nicole."

    Brent nodded to Danny. "If you''ll pull up the most recent upload into the Administration portion of the Seeker app, Danny?"

    With a slightly confused look, Danny navigated his system there, pulling up a cryptically named document on the monitor.

    I choked on air as I read the title. The Firen method of cultivating power in a personal dantian. The subheading wasn''t any better. Derived from initial harmful paths of power and the alien Lei Zhaohui''s actions on the world''s dantian.

    I was listed as the primary source and author. Holy shit.

    "What''s this?" Danny''s eyes were wide as he asked my own question.

    Brent had a laugh in his eyes at our reactions but was serious as he answered. "All the research you did, the teaching yesterday? DARPA would like to publish it. Even if not a single additional person on the false path follows this there are still billions of people without power that this will make a difference to. If you don''t want it named after you, it can be changed to the Seeker method."

    I was wide-eyed as I stole the mouse from Danny, scrolling the document and looking at the contents. "I didn''t actually write this though?"

    "Ghostwritten for you, and at least ninety-five percent of this is drawn directly from your own research notes and yesterday."

    I hmm''d an answer as I started actually reading it. It wasn''t long really, only a few pages with inserts waiting for additional imagery and notes. "Cultivating though?"

    "When the alien originally blasted everyone, he talked about cultivating the world''s soul. We also have transcripts available from what the delegates at the UN heard when he wasn''t blasting the world at once and he mentioned cultivating personal strength as well. I can get you that if you want." Brent replied.

    "So we''re just taking the alien''s terms for this then?" Danny asked, reading alongside me. "Cultivators, cultivation?"

    "The two of you are the experts right now, other than the alien. If you want to call it something else, name it." Brent offered. "New words and terms always sound weird until they''ve been referred to enough. Unless you''re German. Then you shove together descriptions until you get a new word." He laughed a little.

    Danny laughed as well and I smiled, still looking through the document. Embedded videos of the teaching we''d done yesterday, including Danny''s original speech and me lifting the vending machine. I pulled that up. It was kind of interesting to see me do that.

    "Didn''t Dr. Wissen talk about NDAs and commercialization of this and whatnot though?" Danny asked as I finished up skipping through the other students failing to pick up the vending machine like I had.

    "It will honestly be up to you all if you commercialize anything, as just what you are doing now is causing a pretty big debate in DC. But everyone needs to know what they are capable of. Sell additional training in more comprehensive basics once you figure it out. Or give them away and keep the best things to yourself. DARPA just has to be kept in the loop on everything. But what you do with it otherwise will be your choice." Brent explained.

    "I''d rather lots of people have access to as much as they can. Unless we figure out something like how he''s making everyone not want to get on a plane." I said distractedly, getting to the end of the document finally. "Brent, are we going to include the black goop in this?"

    "Black goop?" He looked curious.

    "Didn''t I put that in my notes somewhere?" I paused, thinking back. "I could swear... Well." I sighed. "When you go through that first block, you basically sweat out some weird black crap. We collected the stuff Melissa sweated out and Karen was going to try to use the lab here she has access to, to try figure out what it is." I paused, thinking back. "And by sweat it out, I mean you end up nearly covered in it. At least it didn''t happen to me on the second and third breakthroughs."

    "I think we definitely want to include that then." Brent looked slightly perturbed. "I can imagine the panic that will cause if it happens without a warning."

    "It''s definitely pretty disgusting looking." Danny added.

    "If we get Karen or Ash their initial CAT scan today, I think both of them were ready to try their first breakthrough anyways. We can ask if either of them mind being recorded so we can include it?" I offered.

    "Good then. So you''re good with the research being released then?" Brent turned the conversation back to his original question.

    "Never expected to get something named after me." I smiled. "Sure, I guess."

    "Good to hear. Now, how do you want to handle the CAT scans for tonight? I would prefer the two of you and Ms. Belle get scanned tonight so we can have good examples of getting off the false path and breakthroughs, but how would you like to handle the other available slots?"

    ~~~

    That evening we piled into several vehicles and headed over to Phelps for the CAT scans. It turned out the tech from last time, Brandon, was the one on duty again.

    "You know, I don''t think I''ve ever been offered overtime for a non-medical emergency before." Brandon asked leadingly as Danny got situated on the bed as the first person of the evening. "Much less a basically ongoing offer for you guys."

    "We''re trying to not interrupt the normal operations of the hospital." Danny answered, finally getting comfortable on the scan bed. "I can probably give you a better answer in a few days."

    "Meh." Brandon harrumphed. "Whatever then. I was told you guys wanted as detailed scans as you could though? If I crank the slices up on this to maximum, we''re not going to be able to do full body scans on all six of you. Should we set up to just focus on whatever the hell that weird thing was last time? What''d you call it?"

    "The dantian." I answered. "And yeah. It''ll be a little different for each of us though, but no full body scans this time."

    "Fun. Alright. First up then, where we shooting you at tonight?"

    "Heart area for Danny." I answered, pulling out a sheet I''d written earlier.

    Danny Sidre: Heart

    Ash Carson: Stomach

    Karen Dubin: Stomach

    Mike Clay: Stomach

    Nicole Firen: Heart, chest, upper spine

    Melissa Belle: Heart

    Ash Carson: Stomach, Heart

    Danny Sidre: Heart

    Brandon read over the list. "I mean, y''all are the bosses, but why go twice? We''ll save some time if I just do Ash''s stomach and heart areas at the same time."

    "Would you believe we expect it to be different?" I asked.

    "Sure, whatever. Ain''t ever seen that weird thing in any medical texts before, so not like I''ve got any answers." He waved me off. "Alright, there''s too many of you to cram into my little office for hours, so go sit in the hall."

    "Danny and I need to see the results on everyone." I warned him.

    He waved again. "Yeah, but I''m not spending the next four hours having you stare over my shoulder. You can come look when they''re ran."

    We all exited the room as he started on Danny''s scan.

    "So what do we do for the next thirty?" Mike asked. "Or hell, probably next hour and a half before it my turn?"

    "Brent apparently threw a lot of weight around, as we''ve got one of the empty hospital rooms with attached showers available to us upstairs. Ash, Karen, that''s where we''re going to set up recording for the two of you to attempt a breakthrough after your initial scans."

    "I don''t get a second scan then?" Karen asked.

    "If it goes fast enough after Danny''s second, sure. But Danny''s going to attempt to fix any pits he''s got instead of try a breakthrough, so we want to see the differences." I told her. "We''re getting others scanned tomorrow and might even see if that offer for Leonard Wood is real, if you want to get a second scan tomorrow."

    "Wait, on the Army base?" Mike asked.

    "Yeah." I nodded. "Oh, I should probably run this through Danny and Brent first, but Brent brought it up already. So, anyone want a part time job with the Dantian Seekers? It does pay, but I don''t know any of the specifics yet really."

    "Really?" Melissa looked curious. "What''s the job?"

    "Basically figuring this out. If you''re being paid to get poked and prodded at and do all the stuff, I''ll feel better at least, instead of just trying to drag you all out and you guys don''t get anything out of it."

    "Superstrength isn''t a bad pay either." Ash answered. "But I''m pretty ok with it."

    Mike just nudged me. "I can''t take another job that interferes with the station."

    "Part time, I promise." I told him back. "Alright, now let''s see if we can find that room upstairs."

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    About twenty five minutes later we had talked to an unimpressed nurse, found the room held for us, and made it back down to the scan lab to find Danny waiting on his, looking concerned at the image on a tablet.

    He looked up as we came into the hall. "You know, if this is only one bad breakthrough, I honestly fear what some of those at three or four will look like." He turned the tablet so we could all see, and I at least flinched.

    The first ring around Danny''s dantian didn''t just have the single weird hook like Melissa''s did. Instead, it had multiple pieces pulled from it basically in all three dimensions, a few of them actually touching that center area and others reaching outwards. A few spots were completely black like there was nothing there, and one piece looked almost like it was touching that second ring.

    I silently wondered if that piece had touched, if Danny would have made a second false path breakthrough.

    Danny gave me a look. "So? Thoughts?"

    "You can''t fix it without trying." I said slowly. "But god, that''s horrible."

    "Yeah." He sighed. "Push to fix one, figure out from there then?" He asked.

    "Let''s get Ash getting scanned first." I looked over to Ash and waved him forward. "Times a wasting. Come on."

    Brandon got Ash started and I sat back down across from Danny. "Alright, you''re definitely not going for a breakthrough tonight. At all." I pointed to the tablet again. "Fix one and stop. If you feel like it takes more than even ten percent, cycle again until you''re full up. We''re not finding out what happens if you empty everything into that and still need more."

    Danny nodded, looking down at the image on the tablet with a bit of a shudder. He closed his eyes.

    And then we all flinched and shuddered when we felt Danny''s cycling start and almost immediately hit whatever that problem was, his energy flickering oddly and vanishing into nothing. I don''t think we all meant to just stare at him, but it was like a train wreck.

    After a good fifteen minutes of feeling weird spikes and disappearances in Danny''s energy the flow evened out before his cycling slowed and then slid underneath the general energy in the air again.

    Danny gagged as he opened his eyes. "Oh god." He started taking deep gulps of air as we all looked around for something for him to throw up in before he seemed to get his stomach under control. "One. One pit, and it felt like it''d never get full."

    That was worrying. "How much did it take?"

    "Almost a quarter of everything I''d built up." He replied. "If they''re all like that, this may take weeks to fix. I don''t even know if that was a big issue or not." Danny then sighed. "Build and spend. Feels like my paycheck." He laughed ruefully.

    "You set your paycheck, Danny." I reminded him.

    Ash came out a few minutes later and we found out there was a definite limitation on how far that sense of Danny fixing himself stretched, as he hadn''t felt it while in the scan.

    The look on his face was pretty amusing to the rest of us as Danny switched from refilling his energy to filling a hole again and Ash flinched pretty hard himself.

    Ash silently handed over the drive with his scan on it while he stared at Danny and I sent Karen in next. Loading up the image I smiled. "Looks like mine, no weirdness. Just the fact that it''s lower than ours. At least we''re having some luck."

    "Yeah, but what is it?" Ash asked. "I mean, I know it''s a dantian, but it''s basically intersecting other organs."

    "Huh." He was right. The computer had parsed out the other parts of his body, but if you loaded them back in, it was actually sitting partially inside the diaphragm. "That is strange. I don''t know how it''s doing that."

    I sighed. "Nevermind about the no weirdness thing, I guess. Are you still good to try a breakthrough?"

    He nodded. "Might as well. Then I''m on the list to get that scanned, right?"

    "Alright. Be right back guys. Keep an eye on Danny for me?" I asked and got several headnods.

    Upstairs past the disapproving nurse and in the room, Ash hopped up on one of the two beds. "You did bring an extra set of clothes, right?"

    Ash nodded to the duffel he''d brought.

    "Just checking. Alright, tablet and we''ll get you recording." Ash gave me his tablet and I pulled up the same lecture recording software, this time toggling it to video recording before putting it on a stand with the camera pointed at him.

    I started the recording. "Ash Carson. External energy dantian. Zero breakthroughs. Ash is attempting his first breakthrough. Expected time is less than an hour. Ready Ash?"

    He looked slightly uncomfortable being recorded while he basically did nothing visible, but nodded.

    "Alright, go ahead then. Cycle past the pain point until you feel a pool. As we discussed, fill that pool with your energy, overflow whatever''s in it with your own energy. You have to finish or from what we discovered with Melissa, it''ll just be harder next time. I''ll be back with Karen in about half an hour."

    Ash closed his eyes and I left the room.

    Downstairs I found everyone just sitting around and Danny sitting there with a bottle of water. "It''s like running a marathon." He explained. "I hope I''m filling in the big issues first, because it takes more than just the dantian energy doing this."

    "You want to stop and wait for your second scan to find out then?" I asked him.

    "I may end up doing that whether I like it or not. I don''t know if I''ve got the stamina to fill more than one or two up."

    I grabbed a snack from one of the vending machines while we waited for Karen, who eventually came out.

    "Mine looks the same as Ash''s does. Let''s go!" She basically drug me upstairs after I sent Mike into the room for his scan, where we found Ash finishing getting dressed after a shower, the bed he''d been using nearly ruined in black tarry goop.

    "You''re not wrong, that''s absolutely disgusting. Karen, did you ever figure out what that is?" Ash asked her.

    "Kinda? Like ninety percent of it is cellular detritus. Like decades worth of dead skin cells, hair, and general other body junk if you could collect it all and make a compost out of it. There''s a small bit of it that I don''t know though, and I have no real way of figuring it out. I''m still messing with it though."

    "Wonder what that part is." I said. "Wonder if we can get someone else to test it too?"

    "I''ve got like half a gallon of Melissa''s left, so you''re welcome to some if you know anyone else who wants to play with it." Karen laughed. "Now, outta the way. I wanna do this breakthrough."

    "First, any issues with your breakthrough Ash?"

    He gave a solid no, so we set up Karen''s tablet similarly but I didn''t start it as Ash started speaking.

    "You want company?" Ash asked her. Karen gave him a raised eyebrow before looking at me. I raised my hands. "I''ll wait downstairs."

    Downstairs, Melissa gave me a look as I came back alone. "Ash decided to keep Karen company while she did her breakthough."

    Melissa just laughed. Danny just shook his head, having some actual dinner in front of him, probably having gone to the hospital cafeteria.

    Mike finished up shortly thereafter, coming out with a thumb drive and handing it over. "Dude says it looks like Ash and Karen''s, so no issues I guess?" I gave him a kiss in exchange. "You ok if I run? My shift starts in a couple of hours."

    I pretended a pout at him, which earned me a kiss before I smiled. "Go on. I hope for a quiet shift."

    "Maybe I can spend a bit of time working on this build up thing, right?" He waved to Melissa and Danny. "Later."

    As it was my turn, I went into the scan room myself again. "Ready to keep going?"

    "You know, we don''t normally do dozens of scans in a day, but we''ve only got so many techs that actually know how to run this and other stuff." Brandon yawned. "If you people weren''t weird with this dantian thing, it wouldn''t even be worth the overtime to do this. So you''re wanting an upper chest and neck set then?"

    "If that gets heart, sternum, and my upper spine in my neck, yes."

    "Yeah, that''ll cover it. You expecting something interesting like that first guy? Or just getting another picture of yours? What''s normal for this?" Brandon asked.

    I shrugged. "We''re still figuring that out. Danny''s is definitely not."

    "Alright. Well, let''s get you started then."

    I laid down as Brandon walked back into his office and the machine started scanning. As much as I''d been running around the almost two hours previously, the thirty minutes I had to just lay there as the CAT scan machine spun around me building a 3-D xray of my body was boring. I was purposely not cycling or anything as I didn''t want anything extra in the scan this time.

    As I finally was slide out of the scanner, Brandon came back out. "Alright, you''re weird as hell. What the hell?"

    I got up and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

    "Come on." He waved me in and I followed. Pulled up on the screen was the 3-D build out of my dantian, but the inner three rings were missing.

    "I''d ask where are those inner rings, but you know, don''t you?" He asked me.

    "Top part of the heart." He shifted the image, and partially peeking out of what I thought was the left atrium was a thicker ring than if it had been on my dantian. If it was a physical object I''d be internally bleeding to death.

    "What the hell?" he whispered.

    "Sternum and C6 vertebrae." I said instead of answering him. My sternum had another ring encircling the thinnest portion of that bone and the final ring was nestled either between or actually in the nerves of that part of my neck.

    "Why aren''t you dead?"

    It was a good question. While the dantian and all those rings were total the size of a single joint and could be waived off as a weird internal growth, this couldn''t. The first breakthrough was in a piece of my heart, the second was wrapped around my sternum, and the third should probably have severed nerves to get where it was at.

    "Melissa should only have the one at her heart at least?" I offered him. "We should be releasing something more official soon, so maybe we can have answers then. Or at least better reasoning."

    Brandon exported the findings out onto another drive, handing it over. "Yeah. Because now I have legitimate questions."

    So did I, honestly. I walked out and sent Melissa in without giving her any extra details. Ash and Karen had made it back down, and Karen was quite bouncy. And in different clothes. "Manage it?"

    "Heck yeah!" She was beaming. "But now the power I''m drawing in feels a lot thinner."

    I passed my scan over to Danny while pulling up my tablet and a document. "Oh? What do you mean?"

    "The energy I''m pulling in is actually not as heavy as the energy I''m putting out now. I''m not actually losing more energy than I''m making, but it''s strange." Karen frowned.

    "I actually tried cycling to deepen my dantian like before." Ash added. "It''s harder to do so with the thinner energy."

    This definitely sounded not as great. "Like how?"

    Ash thought for a moment. "If I was washing loose sand out of my dantian before, it''s more like packed dirt now? And the pressure I''m washing it out with hasn''t changed. I can still do it, it just takes more time and concentrated effort."

    "Well that''s a pain. Everyone''s coming up weird tonight."

    We talked it over for a little bit and I showed them my scan from Danny''s system and we marveled over the fact I wasn''t dead. Which was a little morbid.

    Then Melissa''s scan came up as expected finally, even if her only breakthrough was in her heart as well and she was appropriately freaked out.

    When we sent Ash and Danny back for their final scans it was getting late and we were getting tired. Twenty minutes after Ash was done finding out he had the same ring through his heart, Danny came back out with a ranting Brandon behind him. "You cannot just change things in the three hours you were sitting there. What the actual hell, all of you?"

    Danny just pulled a card out of his wallet. "Would you like a job doing this more full time?"

    "Go away. I''m getting someone else to cover this shit tomorrow, I''m done." Brandon stormed off.

    "Danny looked at us. "Two of the center touch points are gone and several little tears are filled back in."

 Chapter 19: Seeking beyond College

    March 26th?

    The label scarring on the building still read Menards, I noticed as I got out of Mike''s truck. There were a handful of other vehicles in the parking lot, mostly a spill over from the strip mall next door. But a few were parked up near the storefront with his truck.

    "Huh. He actually did it then. Leased the entire building for you guys?" Mike shook his head as he got out as well. "I know you were talking about those CT machines, but you could put a dozen of those in the old grocery section and still have most of the store left over. What does Danny plan on doing with all of that space?"

    "Training and testing areas. More than just medical scans of people." I said as we walked up to the building. "Danny''s interested to find out if the strength increases are percentage based and work the same for everyone. But I''m already up to almost eight-fifty on deadlift, so the school equipment is already getting outclassed."

    I boggled at that for a moment. I''d looked up records and that blew away world records for women. And I was a gymnast twig compared to those videos.

    "Brent probably has lists of things DARPA wants to see done too." I added.

    The sliding glass doors had a sign taped up onto it.

    Dantian Seekers

    Hours by Appointment Only

    (573) 555-7328

    However, the doors slid open without issue. Inside all the lights were on, thankfully, so it didn''t feel like a horror movie. However, the empty registers and aisles were weird enough.

    "Danny?" I yelled, my voice echoing as we walked in.

    "We''re up here." Danny voiced called from above us and I looked up, seeing what looked like a hallway on a second floor. It might have had a glass wall at one point, but it was empty and open otherwise. "Stairs are off to the right."

    Mike noticed it first, motioning to the staircase tucked partially against the wall.

    The view over the top of all the aisles was interesting and really showed the area the building had. It was eerie to see the place from a higher vantage, completely quiet and empty though.

    One of the offices was actually a conference room where we found Danny and several others.

    "Glad you made it." Danny grinned at me. "Welcome to the new offices."

    Spread out over a couple of folding tables were several huge sheets of paper with printing and hand drawings already on them.

    Ash was sitting at one edge with several pencils nearby while Brent was sitting in a chair, laptop balanced in his lap.

    "Thanks." I smiled and looked over those here. "Where''s Karen and Melissa?"

    "Looking over the back storage area. It''s been empty here long enough they''re checking to make sure there are no break-ins or homeless." Brent answered.

    Mike looked over the tables. "So what''s all this then?"

    "General fill in the blank for what you guys want this place to be." Ash answered. "The open floorplan when you get rid of all the aisles is almost 150,000 square feet."

    Mike and I both looked, interested. "So what''s already in here then?"

    "The back half is split between a medical area that Brent''s playing with the design on his own, and the other side is a gym on steroids, because we''ve been using the hell out of the school stuff."

    Mike looked back out the conference room to overlook the store. "How many people do you expect to be using this gym at once?" He questioned. "Because you''re marking out something probably a hundred people could easily use at once."

    "Probably not that many." Danny answered. "But I thought we might need more area for additional weights and such. I was also going to leave a section open for more general exercise and practice too."

    Mike nodded. "It''s more expensive, but they do make smart gear that you can ramp up weight on without adding additional size to it. We''ve got one at the station, it''s a pulley system with tensioners. It goes up to around a thousand pounds."

    "Can it go higher?" I asked him. "If each breakthrough just adds more impossible strength, a thousand pounds might not be anyone''s max eventually."

    "Not ours, but there''s probably better ones out there."

    "Go ahead and base it on that then." Brent said distractedly while still working on his laptop. "You can afford it."

    "We''re still going to need a receptionist area." Danny traced out a small spot up front. "I know I made the sign says hours by appointment only, but we''re still going to have people coming in."

    Ash shrugged and penciled in the tiny cutout. "Anything bigger?"

    "A dozen quiet room type areas?" I offered and immediately got weird looks. "Seriously. Breakthrough rooms, meditation rooms, whatever you want to call them. Somewhere you can not ruin your carpet with goop." I waved at the section that had medical written on it. "We borrowed a hospital room in between runs of the CAT scans. Might as well have areas on hand here. And make them comfortable."

    "We''re not zoned for living areas, just so you know. So, no pretending this is your dorm or a hotel or something." Danny cautioned.

    "I''m not expecting to move into one of them." I told him. "I just know if we''re going to be tracking and testing people lighting the dantians and making breakthroughs, we need somewhere for people to do it."

    "Danny." Brent interrupted. "Did any of the larger screens or even a TV get left behind? Or did you bring one in already, possibly?"

    "I don''t think so, no. What''s up?" Danny looked worried.

    "Nicole''s paper was published by DARPA two days ago. It was sent out in normal channels and even pushed to a few other sites that we know of that are high usage for people looking into this power." Brent was looking at something on his laptop as he spoke. "Yesterday, there was a massive spike of inquiries to DARPA over her paper. By today, enough people lit their dantian with your method that you''ve hit the news."

    That started a mad scramble of everyone to pull out their own tablet or other internet source. I pulled up a news site of my own to see DARPA research paper unlocks secret of dantian! as the mainline article. God, it sounded a tabloid or Onion headline.

    I clicked through with Mike reading over my shoulder. Firen method, Dantian Seekers, block breakthroughs, tested by news members to work. were just a few highlights. God, my name was plastered all over it too.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    I looked up to see everyone reading on their own or looking between Brent and me. "Nevermind, are we sure I can''t move in and hide here?"

    "Still no, but damn." Danny shook his head. "We definitely need to get this place together even quicker now. Alright, anything else we specifically need right now in here?" He looked over to Brent.

    Brent shook his head. "Anything to give you more authority or validity isn''t something you can get in the next few days. That comes with time and more credentials. DARPA recognizes the Seekers as experts in this field, but that will only suffice for so long until you have more proof on your own." He looked around at the handful of us here. "The only thing I can really think of right now, is if more of you were into multiple breakthroughs. Danny, how far are you along with healing yourself?"

    "Probably a day or two. I haven''t hit anything big, but I''m still getting little bumps instead of finding that block to clean out." He admitted.

    "I think you need to finish that then." Brent nodded. "Nicole, you?"

    "I''m at the third one." I could self-assess the extra energy I''d been cycling in my dantian, and it was about as full as it could be. "It''s been less than two weeks since I hit it, but I may have the energy to get through."

    "You''re the one blazing this trail." Brent said. "If you think it''s safe there."

    "So, what. The rest of us should try to clear the first block already too?" Mike asked. "This is a little crazy that you all made national news, but isn''t this a little quick?"

    "The research released points to clearing the blocks. The people running the Seekers should have all gone through the minimum they''re releasing. Perhaps be on the leading edge of the research and be further." Brent explained.

    "It''s called bleeding edge. And for a reason." Ash commented.

    "Let''s not argue. How about we at least try to get this place roughly set up like we''re looking at? We use the aisles for walls right now and maybe hit a furniture store for a decent desk to throw up front." I interrupted. "It can''t be that hard to shove everything around, right?"

    It turned out, that shelving was light enough for anyone to pick up, but due to the bulk and not wanting to destroy it two people were necessary to maneuver it around. It took several hours but we had a rough buildout in aisles of the different areas.

    There''s a lot of empty space in roughly 40,000 square foot chunks.

    ~~~

    I sat in Mike''s truck in the dorm parking lot afterwards, just being quiet for a moment, and looking at the building. And the news van parked nearby.

    "You OK to go in?" Mike looked vaguely uneasy at the van as well.

    Neither of us could see a news crew, but that only made me worry more that they were already in the common area just waiting on me to show up.

    "You''re welcome to crash over in my apartment?" Mike offered.

    I gave serious thought to that but shook my head. "Hopefully I can at least foist them off on the Seeker hall here, or get them to go downtown. I don''t want to just walk in there and get asked a bunch of questions." I sighed, leaned over, and gave Mike a kiss. "Walk me in though?"

    He laughed but cut the engine. "I''m sure you could beat up anything I can protect you from, but sure. What''s the thing you always see in shows? ''No comment'' and just keep moving? How do you think they''ll recognize you anyways?"

    "Someone on campus will have told them." I answered as I got out of the truck.

    Thoughts of paparazzi and shouted questions in my mind, we walked into the dorm as I half expected cameras or something crazy. So when I got a few looks for who came in, and only an older guy getting up from a table and immediately heading towards us, I was surprised. Thankfully in a good way. Of course, most of the rest of the room had apparently been watching him and now were focused on us.

    He had thinning brown hair and glasses, but was dressed sharply and carried a small satchel of his own with Fox2 emblazoned on it. "Ms. Nicole Firen?"

    I nodded.

    "I''m Gary Bisley from Fox2 St. Louis. Do you have time for some questions or an interview?" He asked with an easy tone, offering what looked like an employee badge with Fox2

    I looked around. "You know, I was half expecting cameramen and shouted questions and all sorts of stuff."

    He rolled his eyes but smiled. "No, this isn''t a press conference or Hollywood. I do have a cameraman if you''re willing to do an actual interview, but he''s actually grabbing an early dinner at the school''s dining hall."

    I paused and Mike bumped me a little. "We just spent the better part of today basically setting up the Dantian Seeker''s new office area. They''ve got a phone number you can call to speak with their lead." Mike told him.

    He nodded to me. "That''s fine, I can leave the general overview of the interview questions I was sent with, and I''ll contact your boss. Can I get just a few questions answered now though? I promise, no more than three."

    "Yeah, I don''t promise to have any good answers for you though." I cautioned him. "We''re only a little bit ahead of what that paper already has in it."

    "That''s fine." He pulled a small handheld from his satchel. "I''ll get your email here in a moment to send the interview outline to, but questions I can get an answer on first. Alright, first one. According to your paper and the video, you''re at three ''breakthroughs.'' Do you know or have a projection on how many more there might be afterwards?"

    "Honestly, my best guess is five more, just based on the rings left around my dantian. How you go from here to the alien in five more breakthroughs though, I don''t know."

    He nodded. "Are you aware of any fatalities associated with someone creating a dantian through your method?"

    "Wait, what?" I asked. "What do you mean fatalities? People dying? No. We had a group of thirty people create a dantian and while some people are having to fix their dantian before they can get through breakthroughs, no. And I know that was documented."

    "Mmhmm. Final question then. Do you think DARPA should have released a barely tested procedure that according to your own work has only been studied for less than two weeks to the populace at large, which is highly dangerous, likely self-harming, and has had zero testing done for side effects?"

 Chapter 20: Answers and Decisions

    I''ll admit, I blanked for a moment trying to parse his question. "What the hell? Highly dangerous and likely self-harming? Where the hell do you get that from?"

    "Nicole." Mike cautioned me, but I waved him off.

    "From your own data." Gary smiled thinly. "Your method induces the creation of an unknown foreign object in the body and in what you call breakthroughs it spreads. You know what else starts small and spreads through the body? Cancer."

    I started to rebut him before he continued. "And even worse, your procedure is easily triggerable in everyone apparently. At least before people with power were a smaller number and it didn''t literally infect them. You''re doing the alien''s work for him, killing us all off."

    "Are you about finished?" I seethed, noticing there were more people now listening into our conversation, with several people apparently recording. "I am not doing the alien''s work. I am doing everything I can figure out how to actually get to a point we can beat him. Either by actually beating him or at his own shit. I have no clue what a heavenly realm is, but getting there first means he''d go away according to his own words."

    "And you believe those words? Maybe you''re just deluded instead of explicitly doing the alien''s work." The newsman said, still waving his little handheld. "Are you normally this angry? Perhaps increased aggression is a side effect of your procedure. It would be nice if the side effects of your procedure had actually been studied so we could know."

    I snapped my own hand out, grabbing his wrist and stilling the handheld and narrowing my eyes at him. "You''re going to twist anything I say however you want it."

    I felt a hand on my shoulder. "Don''t, Nicole." Mike said again. "Just have him talk to Danny."

    Gary looked placidly at his own hand, giving barely a tug. "Are you going to attack me? I''m fairly certain I can''t stop someone capable of lifting what you did in that video, if it wasn''t staged."

    It''d be easy, I realized. A little squeeze and I could probably snap his wrist. Easier than when I''d gripped through the vending machine and I hadn''t even really recognized doing that until afterwards.

    "Twist this instead." I said instead, energy surging. "Art of Awakening: [Dantian]." I wasn''t being nice about it as my power crashed against him and I felt a glimpse of what my power echoed against, something outside my vision but outlined by my power and the asshole newsman''s own self.

    Pretty much everyone I could see flinched at my words.

    "What-What did you do?" He seemed to have trouble controlling himself as I let him go.

    "Gave you the instructions on how to light your dantian so you can see if increased aggression is a side effect yourself." I turned, finally seeing Mike who had a worried look on his face. "I should have taken you up on your offer, Mike."

    "I don''t want to do whatever it is! How do I get it out of my head?!" He was half panicking now. "You''re going to be thrown in jail for assault! Make this stop!"

    "I let your hand go. I didn''t attack you." I shrugged before turning and walking out.

    "Nicole, what the hell?" Mike asked me as we got outside. I shook my head and kept walking to his truck, before slumping down next to it.

    I was shaking a bit, but I couldn''t tell if it was anger or frustration or anything else. Even just adrenaline wearing off.

    "I probably shouldn''t have done that." I muttered.

    "You think?" Mike shook his head, offering a hand down to me. I grabbed it and he pulled me back up. "Though he was probably hoping for bigger reaction. He was pretty much asking for it." He pulled me into a hug and I just held on for a moment.

    "Hey, you! What the hell did you do to Gary?" I heard shouted and looked back towards the dorm. There was someone else storming out towards us.

    Mike stared at him and he startled to a temporary halt. "If we''re not willing to deal with them, we should probably leave."

    "I''m going to run to the lake. Meet me there?" I mumbled against him.

    "Run?" Mike questioned and I nodded my head. "Be careful on 63, but I''m going to follow behind you."

    I squeezed a hug into him then took off. Probably startling Mike and the other guy, considering I startled myself at how fast it was to dodge between cars and get onto the actual road.

    Long strides ate up the road as I ran, dodging other pedestrians with an ease I wasn''t expecting. People almost seemed like they were standing still as I moved around them. I blew through a crosswalk in what felt like maybe six steps and was passing the athletic fields before I realized how fast I was moving.

    I stopped for a moment, getting some really strange looks from the people on the street. I''d gone half a mile in maybe three or four minutes and it wasn''t even a stretch. But it felt good to just let it go and move. How much had I, had we, been holding back?

    I cycled, let go, and just flat-out ran. Dodging people started to get actually difficult as I was afraid to even bump into them now as I''d probably end up throwing both myself and them from the collision. A step sideways and I was running in the bike lane, keeping up with some of the actual vehicle traffic somehow. Wind from my own run blowing my heavy braid backwards, exhilaration pumping as I pushed myself as hard as I could.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    I wondered at how fast I was running. Away the thought darkly crossed my mind for a moment, before I shook it off.

    The light ahead at Lanning was red and traffic was going across, but I didn''t want to stop. I had an absurd amount of forward momentum built up however and the bike lane was clear all the way up to the light. There was a car turning right though, crossed into the lane.

    "Screw it." I whispered in the last few seconds as I came up to the light at full speed. "Spirit of Simone, don''t fail me now."

    I kipped up, starting my first turn moving faster than I had ever before. My palms pressed heavily into the ground and I saw my braid swing through the air as I pushed off with my hands, getting probably ten feet forward as I landed with a crouch exactly where I''d hoped to right at the car.

    The guy driving had wide eyes as he stared at me as I came out of the crouch in a hard push into the next flip. It was unfortunate the ground didn''t have the normal bounce a vault run would have, but it didn''t matter at this point. Hands out, I pushed down as hard as I could on the hood of the car halfway through the flip, giving myself more lift for crossing the car.

    And wasn''t expecting nearly the air I got, tumbling madly through the air across the entire street coming back down in a half roll instead of neatly landing. I rolled off a shoulder onto my back, sliding a little bit before coming to a halt and managing a final push that somehow gave me enough push to come back onto my feet.

    I looked myself over, shocked that my clothes were barely even scuffed. When I''d thrown myself further than I meant to, I''d expected to come away pretty badly roadrashed if not worse.

    Apparently, others had too, as traffic had come to a halt and the guy whose car I used as a vault was halfway out of it to check on me. "I''m OK." I called while patting myself over one more time, catching my breath.

    The guy hesitated before getting back in his car and I waved him off.

    At least the shakes I had from the news guy were gone, even if that jump had been about as dumb as answering any questions.

    "Maybe I should just wait on Mike." I told myself, looking back up 63 to wait. Even caught by traffic he shouldn''t be more than a few minutes behind me.

    I sighed. There really hadn''t been a way to get out of that conversation well once it started. I should have ignored him. Should have taken Mike up on just going over to his place. But no, I had to just rush in.

    I continued to grumble at myself until I saw Mike''s truck slowly coming down the road with him watching all the pedestrians. Looking for me. I waved him down and he pulled over.

    I got in with a smile.

    "You left your bag at my truck." Mike shook his head. "Also, How long were you waiting on me? You tore off faster than I thought you could from the parking lot and then ran two miles." He looked me over. "You OK?"

    I thought about it. "I was only running for about five minutes. Damn. And yeah, I''m OK. You think there''s going to be a lot of blowback from what I did?"

    "Probably. I don''t have Danny''s number, so call him and let him know what''s up. Maybe between him and the DARPA guy they can figure something out."

    He pulled up the dialer for his truck and I punched in Danny''s number from my own tablet. By the time he''d answered, conferenced in Brent, and I explained what had happened, Mike had already gotten to the lake and pulled up.

    Brent sighed over the call. "I hadn''t expected someone to put enough together literally today to get someone here, otherwise I would have given you some idea of what to expect. I apologize for that."

    "So what do I do then?" I asked. "I''m going to bum a couch from Mike tonight, but what about tomorrow?"

    "We can likely put some pressure on the school for interruption of the dorms by letting that happen, but that''s more reactive." Brent replied. "You''re drawing a paycheck, it''d probably be reasonable to get a rental of your own instead of stay at the dorms." He hesitated. "You could also withdraw from the college completely, which would reduce your time there to anything you''re doing as Seeker business."

    "I''m still managing classes. Maybe not do full time though. I still want to get a degree." I answered.

    "It will continue to expose you, but as you will. You''re now a much more visible public figure." Brent cautioned. "That being said I believe I can handle this particular reporter problem, however I''d like you to just push anyone else directly to Danny or myself until we have some time to come up with better general answers and teach you how to actually evade questions you don''t want to answer."

 Chapter 21: Realignment

    March 27th?

    Mike dropped me off at the office before heading off to the station for his own shift. There were more cars parked in the lot than yesterday, but thankfully I didn''t see any news vans.

    Walking in, I was surprised to find someone had managed to get partition walls and put a desk up at the reception area we''d planned yesterday. There was even a full sized screen standing in a corner, a dantian spinning in place on the image.

    A dark-skinned, middle-aged lady sat at the desk and was working on something, but looked up as I entered. "Good morning." She glanced to a little board standing on the desk before back at me. "Miss Nicole Firen?"

    I nodded slowly.

    She smiled again. "I''m Tasha Weaver. Mr. Russell and Mr. Sidre hired me late yesterday to be the general receptionist and personal assistant for the three of you. I''ve started reviewing different apartments in the area and I''ve already determined a few that are relatively close if you''d like to review them yourself? Single family home rentals are a little more expensive and I''d need to know your requirements before I started looking into those."

    I peered at her suspiciously. She just smiled at me. "Yes Miss Firen, I am an out-of-town hire if that''s what you''re wondering. The apartment search is just as much for me as it is for you."

    I sighed. "Do you deal with reporters too?"

    "That''s one of my jobs, yes. Unfortunately, I don''t have business cards for you yet. I''m expecting to get those in the next few days." She nodded. "But I have not been contacted by any news agencies yet and I believe your calendar is empty at the moment, but you have class at one. Mr. Russell is upstairs, however he is the only one in the office right now. There is an expected shipment of gym equipment this afternoon."

    I stared, a little overwhelmed. "OK, thanks?"

    She nodded. "If you don''t want to see my choices for apartments now, would you like me to forward them to your school account? I don''t believe there is a full network set up here yet so there isn''t another account I could send them to."

    "Yeah, sure." I answered hesitantly. "I need to go talk to Brent." I said to myself, looking around. The partition walls weren''t blocking access out into the larger area thankfully, so I nodded to Tasha and walked towards the stairs.

    "Let me know if you need anything ma''am." She called after me.

    I found which room Brent had claimed for his own office on the second try and stopped in the entrance. "Who''s Tasha whatshername?"

    Brent looked up from his laptop, sitting at a desk I was fairly certain hadn''t been there yesterday. "Tasha Weaver is an excellent administrator and while being a personal assistant is a little low for her qualifications, she felt the prestige of working for the Dantian Seekers would easily make up the difference. She''s also already lit her dantian based on your research."

    "And I assume that her from out-of-town remark means she''s also from DARPA?" I frowned.

    "Correct. The Seekers need someone to funnel all the public interest to rather than accost it''s members randomly and she has the credentials needed to do so." He actually had a chagrined look on his face. "I had thought I could handle this by myself long enough to let you all grow more organically, but I admit I didn''t expect this rapid of a response from the media either."

    "Hold on." I left and grabbed a chair from the conference room, returning with it. "Alright. What the hell?"

    "A little background, I used to be an assistant diplomat with the Department of State before I moved over to DARPA several years ago, so I have a number of soft skills along with the relative technical knowledge required to run projects with DARPA." Brent started. "And when I was chosen to be your liaison with the government, it''s not like I didn''t have other work I was doing. I''ve been spending an hour or two every night since I got here helping to transition that work to other teams."

    "So you''ve been busier than you should have been?" I asked.

    "Not just that. Danny isn''t bad if he knows there''s a problem to work on, but he doesn''t have a whole lot of push to figure out how to build the Dantian Seekers from weekend warriors to a full-time activity. So basically I was hoping to guide him into realizing things he needed so he could ask for help on them. I was caught off-guard by how fast the media caught onto your paper and didn''t think of warning you all about that."

    Brent ran a hand through his hair, grumbling for a moment. "Really, I am decent at a lot of things. A jack of all trades. But one thing I''m not is multiple people. I only have so many hours in the day and since this is ramping up faster than Danny can keep up with, I''m going to have to start pulling in resources directly. Tasha is with Public Affairs and while I hate to load multiple things on her as well, I''m trying to as minimally as possible impact you all. So I don''t taint whatever made you all capable of figuring the dantian and the alien out."

    I dropped my head into my hands, groaning. "Danny told me on the day you showed up he expected to end up pushed aside since I was making pretty much all the progress with this. He figured I''d end up running everything." I looked up. "Please tell me he''s not just coasting until that actually happens?"

    Brent cursed himself. "You don''t have your lead of R&D running everything, they don''t have time for R&D then."

    "You''re going to have to be upfront with him about that then." I sighed. "Classes end at the end of April and I thought about going part time there. Dammit. Is there anything more the others can help out with?"

    Brent shook his head no. "They are your research team. They''re not going to be the people running the medical equipment or making sure the gym stays in working order. They''re not going to be the IT people that will have to source, build, and run the Seeker''s actual network rather than running off a handful of systems I bought at Wal-Mart last night. This is going to take at a minimum twenty to thirty more people just for support positions to allow you to do research."

    "Can''t you just actually take it over then?" I nearly begged.

    "No. Not and stay a liaison to DARPA and actually run funding. There has to be at least some degree of separation otherwise you''ll end up with enough red tape to choke this entire group."

    "Damn. Alright, when Danny gets in can we just lay everything out then and make him do all this stuff today, or at least as much as we can? Put jobs out, stuff like that?" I paused. "He is coming here today, right?"

    Brent checked the time and closed his eyes for a moment. "I would expect he''d have been here already, but maybe he went into his office on campus. Let me call him." Brent put the call on speaker.

    "Brent? Morning. What''s up?"

    "Are you coming into the office?" Brent calmly asked.

    "I''m in my office on campus for the students here? Did you need something?"

    "You realize this building is actually your primary office now and you''re the only one that has signing authority for shipments. Nicole and I are both here, along with your new hire from last night. Perhaps you should actually meet her face to face?"

    "Yeah, sorry. Didn''t even think about all that. Give me a little bit and I''ll be there."

    "Sooner rather than later, Danny." Brent said before hanging up. He then looked at me. "I do believe the last great idea he had was to hire you with the job of ''continue doing what you were doing.'' And then promptly decided to give you other work."

    "Well, in the vein of ''continue what I was doing'' I did figure out something yesterday after I thought about it." I offered.

    Brent breathed out. "Go on."

    "We''re not giving ourselves enough credit on what these breakthroughs are doing for us. Being able to outlift anyone is neat, but there''s more to it than that. I think we''re holding ourselves back without meaning to."

    I held up a finger. "My original lighting of my dantian, I ended up throwing myself thirty feet in the school gym and walked away with pretty much no bruises after landing outside the mats." I raised a second finger. "Second breakthrough, I took an Olympic style barbell swung at me and didn''t actually break bones. I wasn''t even really hurt by the time the paramedics were around." A third finger. "Yesterday, I was keeping up with slower traffic running down 63. I decided to be dumb and pulled a vault off a car, threw myself across the entire intersection, and stood back up without a scratch. Or winding myself." I listed off my three major moments.

    "Heck, even in the training class, I literally put my fingers through the metal backing and didn''t even scratch myself. It''s more than just strength. It''s also stamina and resistance like your skin is more than just easily broken flesh."

    "How far does that go for you?" Brent''s eyes were wide.

    "I can still cut my hair." I laughed. "But I really didn''t feel like testing it too far last night. I did figure out something for impact testing though. Mike freaked out a little when I did it at his apartment."

    "Oh?"

    "Yeah, I can show you." I got up and walked back into the hallway with Brent following and stepped up to the ledge showing the first floor. The aisles were still blocking off the sections, the partition walls around the receptionist area just for show. I could see Tasha typing away on something.

    "I''m fairly certain anyone could reasonably survive jumping, if that''s what you''re going to do." Brent said cautiously.

    I took a breath. "Walking away from a jump at this height is easy. It''s dropping this height and landing with your knees locked and not even noticing the hit that''s a little crazy."

    I''d done two and three foot tests for over an hour with Mike last night before he even vaguely was comfortable with letting me test larger falls. But after describing yesterday''s accident to him and the hours of examples, he finally gave in.

    "Tasha?" I called and she looked up. "Don''t scream." I hopped off the edge and dropped the roughly fifteen feet to the ground even as I held my breath and cycled. I hit the ground pretty much heels first and physically felt just the tiniest of impact through my sneakers, most of it echoing through the energy spilling out of my dantian and breakthroughs. The impact there did lessen the energy available for a moment before my cycling refreshed it.

    Tasha did scream a little still, even as I took a few steps in an unnecessary need to shake off the fall. I bent at the knees, but they didn''t even pop from the stress of the impact. I looked back up at Brent. "I don''t know at what level of breakthroughs anyone else is good for that though. Hell, I don''t even know how to test for that."

    Tasha immediately got up from her desk and ran over to start checking on me. I''m fairly certain Brent was just blinking at me from up there, as he shook his head after a moment. "You''re OK?" he called down with disbelief.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Yeah, no issues!" I called back up.

    "You sure about that?" Tasha started poking at my back and hips. "No pain at all?"

    "Nope." I answered her. Purposely falling to land like that was still a little bit of an adrenaline rush because I knew it should hurt, but it didn''t.

    "So, thought then." Brent called back down. "Can you jump back up? Your able to stand with multiple times your own weight, so what''s a good jump look like?"

    "Don''t put more crazy ideas into her head you idiot!" Tasha yelled from next to me as I laughed.

    "I didn''t think of that." I mused.

    Tasha carefully smacked my arm. "You could have seriously broken most of your body with that stunt. Don''t do something else that could harm you. You might have hairline fractures in your legs that another major drop could finish the job. You should be headed to the hospital. Hell, one of us should be driving you there."

    I pulled my leg up into a standing split, not the easiest thing to do in even loose jeans. "It really didn''t hurt me. Trust me."

    "Brent, if she''s going to do something this stupid please come down here first so we can rush her out if and when this turns out bad." Tasha shook her head.

    "Alright, alright." Brent seemed a lot more accepting of the crazy than Tasha was.

    Once he was down and waiting next to me, I crouched down and touched the ground. A good jump had the leg''s full strength behind it. Just jumping with only slightly bent knees wouldn''t give anywhere near the same height. "Ready?" I asked, getting one positive answer and one grump.

    I cycled my energy again, trying to direct the overflow of energy into my lower half more than just in general. Looking up at the open air entrance back to the offices upstairs. I jumped up as straight as I could, trying to add just enough forward that if I got up anywhere near close enough I''d be able to reach something.

    I shocked myself getting my head just slightly high enough to see onto the second floor and grabbed out, pulling myself up a little more.

    "Damn, you managed it!" Brent called from below me as I hung there for a second. "You OK?"

    I swung my lower body forward before coming backwards even harder and did a half circle back, throwing my leg into the window and pulling myself in. "Yeah, made it. Couldn''t quite just jump in though."

    I turned and confused to watch Tasha stomp over to the computer for a moment. She typed something, looked over at me and just shook her head. "The record for a high jump is 8 feet. At a run. You just did that from a damn standstill." She called out, before shaking her head again. "This is honestly crazy."

    ~~~

    Danny showed up shortly after and Brent sequestered them off while I pulled a chair downstairs to do some research on my own, sitting in a corner of the receptionist area. I glanced over Tasha''s apartment choices, but other than figuring if they were within the salary I was being paid, I wasn''t sure what was best. I could probably ask Mike or Danny later about the neighborhoods they were in, at least.

    I then spent a good hour or more flipping through different websites on impact testing, reflex tests, and all sorts of other things. Most of them didn''t look scalable to test for activities that should cripple people normally. I sighed and finally closed the searches.

    "Problem ma''am?" Tasha asked.

    I looked up at her and shrugged. "Trying to figure out how to test all those things that we can probably do now, that normal medicine and science say wouldn''t even be good to try. I''d rather not just have a series of ledges to jump off of. For one, someone would definitely try something outside their ability. For two, that drop earlier wasn''t high enough for me to say it was near my max."

    Tasha boggled at me for that statement. "It wasn''t?"

    "I don''t know how you''d get from where I''m at to the alien, but remember all the stuff that''s been tried on him? I''m still fairly certain it''d work on me, but there''s every good chance we can get to where a terminal velocity fall isn''t fatal. Or noticeable. And that probably isn''t even scratching what Zhaohui can do." I shook my head at that. Not like there were any skydivers anymore, but I bet BASE jumpers would find it thrilling to just fall from any building without a parachute.

    Tasha paused, imagining for a moment. "That sounds...interesting. So, do you think I''d be good for a two foot fall like you did earlier? What do you think is inside the boundaries for someone with just their dantian lit?"

    "Honestly, I don''t know. You can feel the impact getting absorbed in your power, but I''m really not willing to test what happens if you overload the absorption. I can tell you how to safely at least feel the absorption though." I smiled.

    Tasha tilted her head at me. "Oh?"

    "Yeah. Mike''s made his first breakthrough, but we figured a simple way to at least feel it out that shouldn''t hurt anyone unless they''re really dumb about it." I stood up and motioned for Tasha to do so as well. She did and I frowned. "Kick your heels off."

    She did so, losing a couple of inches in height. Woo, almost down to my size! "Alright, you''re just going to basically bunny hop on your toes and land on your heels. Keep your legs straight and knees locked when you do so."

    I demonstrated, only coming a few inches off the ground with my own hop before hitting the ground. After the fall earlier, this was really nothing but I could still feel the impact as almost nothing physically and a ghost of it in my energy.

    Tasha repeated it and stared at me. "There wasn''t any more feeling than just a normal step?" She did it again, coming down on her heels as heavily as she could. "I can feel the push in my dantian. It feels like a ripple or something, weird."

    "As far as I can tell, it''s redistributing the energy. All that force you''re landing with still goes somewhere, it''s just the dantian''s energy is absorbing it like shocks. Which is why I wouldn''t want to see if you do more than what you can absorb. You''d probably hurt yourself or your dantian. Or both. Or explode. Who knows."

    "Hey Nicole!" Brent''s voice called from above, and I looked up to see both him and Danny watching. "You have a moment?"

    I blushed a bit at the unexpected audience. "Yeah, sure." I looked at Tasha first though. "If you''re going to test this, only do so until it pushes your energy back like half. And please don''t just try walking off the desk."

    "I''ll be careful." She nodded. "I''ve got other work to do as well, anyways."

    I headed upstairs to find Brent and Danny back in Brent''s office. Brent waved to the extra chair probably stolen from the conference room and I sat.

    "So, sorry." Danny said. He looked like he''d been verbally beaten. "Brent''s spent the past hour outlining all the things that goes into keeping a big project running and honestly why I suck."

    "I didn''t put it that way." Brent said mildly but didn''t exactly argue it from where he was sitting.

    "But I''m not wrong, either." Danny replied with a sigh. "So yeah, if I want you to keep figuring things out, I need to make sure everything else is out of your way to do so. So, sorry. I kinda thought it''d be more like you''d figure stuff out and then show us, then go figure more things out."

    "You''re forgiven." I answered him. "So what does that mean then?"

    "I''m going to need a lot of help." Danny laughed self-deprecatingly. "But I''m going to start trying to put together stuff to get more people and gear. Brent''s going to double-check it all, but I''m going to have to burn some midnight oil to try to catch up."

    Brent nodded but before he could say anything there was a shudder in the air and ground, just barely able to be felt. Brent''s eyes went wide. "The power in the air got heavier?"

    My eyes widened. "What is the strength of the world''s soul?" I pointedly asked at Zhaohui''s presence. Brent and Danny quickly repeated me.

    Your world has cleared the first block of the [Initiate''s Realm] and grows to match.

    "Initiate''s Realm again." I breathed. "Grows to match?" I purposely took another deep breath as Danny and Brent both looked a little panicked but not sure what to panick over.

    The power in the air was definitely thicker and better mixed now, but I could still parse out the individual energies. I had a stray thought we should try to teach this too, before I figured out what the difference was. "Earth and fire. There''s a lot more earth and fire in the power."

    "Tasha! Start searching news sites, figure out what just changed! We didn''t get hit directly this time!" Brent yelled, already turning to his own computer. Another small bumpy rumble went through our feet. "Fuck, earthquakes? Here?"

    "Oh god." I heard faintly from downstairs about ten minutes later, only to hear Tasha''s voice keep rising. "Oh god oh god oh god."

    I bolted out of the room Danny behind me as a wild eyed Brent just kept trying to figure out something from his system. "What is it?" I called down to her.

    Tasha looked up, her eyes wide and nearly completely white. "California." She scrambled for a remote on her desk, swapping the screen over to something else. A live video.

    "-ing it the big one, quakes are shaking up and down the California coast. We''re not certain exactly what''s going on, but reports of chasms opening up in the major cities have been confirmed by limited drone footage." The reporter on screen was pale. "We''ve lost most ground based communication already with our sister station in San Diego, but satellite uplinks are still working."

    The screen changed to a eye in the sky view, being buffeted around like mad from something. Already, there was a massive amount of destruction with buildings cracked and rends deep into the earth. Black smoke rose from fires and the depths.

    "Questions towards the alien are just coming back with the earth growing, but this looks more like dying to me." The reporter''s voice said as an overlay. "Yes, I''m blaming the damn alien." He then got quiet as the drone footage shook for a moment as a skyscraper shook from a nearby rift growing even wider, then the drone cut out as debris filled it''s camera. "Find another upload, somewhere!" the reporter''s voice was panicky.

    The three of us just stared as the reporter came back on screen, not at all calm, but tried to continue on anyways.

    "It''s not just California." Brent''s voice said with quiet horror. "I connected back into the DARPA network and used that to hit the geological survey. It''s every fault worldwide. But they''re all separating." I turned and looked back to see Brent standing up woodenly from his desk. "Every one of them is separating, even the subduction zones. There''s been panicked reports already of magma flows."

    "Oh god." I repeated Tasha''s prayer. Earth and fire. And then had a worse thought. "Yellowstone?"

    "If Yellowstone had gone off, we''d already know. I can''t even fathom what''s going on."

 Chapter 22: Aftershocks

    March 31st?

    For three days, the Earth heaved and bled magma onto the surface. Three days of absolute terror and fear the world was falling apart without any control. Activities that should have happened on a geological timescale happened instead in a geological blink. Lakes of lava flowing up from the interior of the earth that seemed to have all the heat drawn from them, only to shatter as more material broke them up from below.

    A rather large portion of everything had shut down as people had fearfully watched over the New Madrid Seismic Zone just southeast of Rolla but nothing had come of it.

    For three days, the Dantian Seekers had held classes for what felt like half the population of Rolla as word of mouth had spread that we could teach people to gain and use power. It didn''t matter how many copies of my research were available, people wanted classes.

    I hadn''t blamed them, it was something to do to keep their minds off the feeling of the end of the world.

    Everyone on my ''team'' from Michelle to Mike, had all pitched in. Ash and Melissa had both managed their second breakthrough where we learned that anyone on an external path apparently black gunked themselves on that breakthrough as well. Ash wasn''t happy to learn that the hard way and had to get rid of a set of clothes himself. Karen had stolen a sample for testing.

    The local grocery stores and Wal-Mart had basically been stripped bare of food and other supplies too.

    "Officially as of 3:48 this morning, various sites around the world still running that monitor seismic activity stopped recording any new activity in any plate edges worldwide." Brent was a little dead-eyed as he read off, using his DARPA laptop to reach back into systems for information the news would probably hear about soon too. "USGS survey teams are already in route, although we have no clue how long it will take them to get there with this insanity. The government lost contact with onsite teams and hasn''t re-established them yet."

    "So we survived, yay?" I asked, slumped into a chair of my own. The past three days had been stressful in ways I didn''t know I could stress. I''d started dodging a certain twelve year old boy who had ignited his dantian in one of my lessons, because he assumed since I was the strongest I should go beat up the alien soon.

    "Survived is a good word for it." Brent continued looking at his laptop as he spoke. "The west coast all the way up to Alaska is a disaster and satellite imagery shows the coast is expanded by half a dozen miles or more pretty much all the way up. Asia is bad enough off that all their port cities are likely a hundred miles inland now and probably on fire from the damage."

    "Fire won''t last for long." I mumbled, dropping my head against the table. "It''s going to rain for months with all the water vapor."

    "Months?" Danny sounded worried.

    "The earth''s surface is about seventy percent water." Brent said. "Well, was. All those fault lines of magma coming up, a lot were underwater. For three days. That boiled a lot of water."

    "And it''ll have to come down. Unless the alien decides to continue playing weird with our weather and just yank it all back into the ocean, weather patterns are completely screwed and we''re going not going to see the sun for a while." I said into my arms. "That rain that started yesterday? Welcome to monsoon season. Projections are moderate rain in the morning followed by heavy thunderstorms in the afternoon. By night it should taper off into just a deluge. Forecast for the week is much the same." I waved a hand as if showing off something. "Wear a raincoat, find your galoshes."

    "Rain just starts the problems." Brent sighed. "Deep sea fiber was lost obviously, but depending on exactly how bad the cloud cover gets, the satellite mesh for internet is going to get seriously spotty."

    I looked up in time to see a confused look on Danny''s face. "I thought there was like eighty thousand or more satellites up there, solely for the internet? Hell, that''s why they were sending datacenters in rockets up for the past decade."

    Brent nodded. "A deep enough cloud cover can kill even the strongest signal, and when that happens you normally get routed via fiber to other locations. Somewhat hard to do that when the entire sky ends up covered in deep clouds and you can''t just accept the latency to be routed to another continent. Connection is reasonable now, but it''s liable to get worse."

    "Brent, is the list of things screwed up or still working shorter?" I asked. "Because I''m getting serious post-apocalypse vibes from all this now."

    "Things are still limping along. We have power, don''t we?" Brent looked up at the lights, but they failed to accept the taunt and stayed on. "The grid was sixty percent renewables, but with the likely loss of all the wind farms on the west coast and solar being a loss for the next few months, all those ''just in case'' mothballed power plants are probably running again."

    Brent looked at the two of us. "Discounting the west coast, the continental US survived this with limited impact. I don''t have good answers for you for anywhere else in the world though, besides just looking at the fault line maps and guessing."

    "Fuck." I sighed.

    "I do have to ask, Nicole." Danny started and I looked back to him. "It''s probably a dumb question, but if the earth is going through breakthroughs as well...Well, you know where yours are. Is it possible to figure out where it maps to on the earth? Or do you think we''re just going to see more insane lava next time?"

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Brent looked like he was going to say something, but then paused and looked at me. I shook my head. "Sure, just as soon as you tell me where the sternum of the world would be. That''s where the second ring ends up at."

    "Worth a question though." Brent noted. "But I don''t think we can do something with one data point."

    Danny smiled bitterly. "I just hope we''re still here when we have more data points then."

    "So the earth broke a bit, but we''re not as broken as some places." I summed up. "Which is why Tasha still has an interview scheduled for us tomorrow. I can''t even wish we''d broken enough to not have that still happening though. Even that Bisley guy would be a lesser evil."

    "It''s an interview for the Dantian Seekers, and honestly primarily you." Brent answered. "And this is honestly to counter a bit of the idiots that are saying your paper being released cause the alien to strike back to keep us from beating him."

    "I hadn''t seen that one." Danny looked startled. "Did they have an answer as to what we''re supposed to do without having power?"

    Brent shook his head. "I think the idea they''re pushing is that it should have only been shared in limited numbers to keep it secret. Military weapons and soforth."

    "That''s more coherent than my uncle''s normal ramblings he gets from them." I shook my head. "Whatever. We''ve still got time before any classes this morning, right?" A nod from Danny. "I''m going to go practice some." I paused. "Let me know if there''s something I can do?"

    "Will do." Brent and Danny both said.

    "Thanks."

    I left the conference room and grabbed my duffel from what''d been given over to me as my office. Walking back into the hallway, I smiled to myself as I jumped out and came down lightly in the receptionist area, bending my knees and feeling little impact physically and only a fleeting push in my energy.

    Tasha still startled though as I landed nearly at her desk. "Don''t do that!" Her voice was a little high from surprise.

    I grinned just a bit. "Sorry." I breathed out. "Just trying to stretch a bit. I didn''t look, anyone else in right now?"

    "Karen''s in right now, Ms. Firen. There''s a class with a few people scheduled in an hour, I believe Melissa is supposed to be in by then to handle it." Tasha looked past me where it was raining. "I need to find some umbrella bags."

    "Danny needs to find more help too." I muttered, to Tasha''s knowing nod. "Alright, I''m going to the gym."

    Past the partition walls was a wide open, empty space that still showed markings where we''d moved all the remaining aisles. Off to the left half of the empty was a wall of aisles, providing a room where we had a handful of beds, now covered with waterproof coversheets that people had to change if they had a breakthrough.

    The back half was split between a still mostly empty medical area, filled only with a handful of first aid supplies. The other portion was supposed to be the gym, but only had a bunch of waterproof matting placed.

    The insanity of the past few days had kept anything more from being done, and honestly I applauded the delivery guy for still making that initial delivery right after it all started.

    I changed in the side restroom before going into the aisled off gym area, noticing Karen was already in there, stretching.

    "Hey." I called over to her and she looked up. "Doing good?"

    She nodded. "Yeah. How''d the meeting with the boss go?"

    "Good news, the world stopped sweating out magma. Bad news, lots of stuff is pretty screwed up." I summed up for her. "We''re lucky we aren''t in California or Asia."

    "Yeah, I saw a few clips of the Middle East too. I''m fairly certain there''s a lot of glass desert." Karen sighed. "What are we going to do?"

    "Get stronger?" I asked. "About the only thing we can do, unless someone comes up with a miracle thing to drive of the alien, we have to assume if we reach his requirement he''ll leave us be." I dropped down next to her, starting to stretch myself.

    Karen gave me a look. "You sound like you''re rehearsing."

    "Yeah. Somehow, I''m still stuck doing an interview tomorrow with the Associated Press. Danny is too, but I get to be the focus." I switched into full splits, right hand touching left toes and barely felt the stretch. I sighed.

    "That bad?" Karen crossed her legs, looking at me.

    "Yes. No. Kinda. But that''s not what''s really bothering me." I hadn''t bothered to come out of my stretch as I talked, not even straining. "I''m not exerting myself warming up. My routines don''t even push me." I complained.

    "Huh. That''s weird." Karen looked at me still holding the stretch.

    I brought one hand back and pushed into the gym mat, easily giving myself enough momentum to come up on one foot, still holding my toes with the other hand. I then let my leg drop. "I feel like I''m not going to be able to make the next breakthrough unless I can push hard enough, and I don''t know if just energy is enough. My last two breakthroughs, I threw everything into doing something and that''s when I managed it."

    "Does Danny need to look into an obstacle course for you?" Karen grinned.

    "Maybe." I laughed, sitting back down and falling onto my back. I stared up at the open beams running across the ceiling. "Maybe not?"

    "No." Karen said, catching where I was looking. "You''re insane."

    "I''d need to test my falls first." I agreed. "Maybe something to look into after the interview tomorrow."

 Chapter 23: The Interview

    I tapped nervously at the desk in my office, trying to figure out what I should be doing with myself while I waited. It really wasn''t much of an office, just a full-sized desk and a couple of chairs. I didn''t have any degrees to hang from the wall or additional research papers to show off. I did at least have a full computer, which had its advantages over my tablet and screen keyboard. Pulled up currently was Brent''s list of things to remember and a cheat sheet of questions to ignore.

    The rain outside was fairly heavy and honestly, I was half surprised the AP reporter still wanted to do a face-to-face interview. But nobody had cancelled with Tasha, so on it went.

    "You OK?" Danny poked his head in, wearing a blazer to be dressed up a bit himself. "It''s still an hour until your part of the interview and you''re already keyed up." He came in and sat down.

    "The AP is a much better source to be interviewed by." Danny said. "And I''m fairly certain since Brent and Tasha set it up, they''ve got much better ground rules to play by instead of ambushing you."

    I nodded, taking a deep breath before blowing it out. "Yeah, yeah. But since all I''ve got to go off of is the last crazy, it''s hard."

    Danny nodded but didn''t say anything.

    "And I know it''s better set up. Just jitters. So, what are you expecting to be interviewed on?"

    "Why I set the Seekers up, what we''re doing in general and maybe planning on doing in the future. Answer some of the hits they''re throwing at us from Fox and the other sources. Do we have any idea on what the alien did, or plans to do in the future." Danny listed off. "You''ll probably get a lot of the same questions minus the creation of the Seekers."

    I made a face. "Fun."

    "We''ll deal with it. I''m going first, so hopefully I get the black eyes instead of you." Danny answered. "That''s supposed to be part of my job, right?"

    "And hiring people." I joked.

    "Yeah, yeah." Danny sighed. "I actually had a few people I was supposed to interview myself, but the seeming end of the world had them blow me off. I''m still trying, I promise."

    We chatted for a few more minutes before an alert popped up on both my computer and my tablet, and I heard a ping coming from Danny''s pocket as well.

    "Guess they showed up early to get set up." Danny gave me a smile. "Shall we?"

    Brent was waiting for us at the stairs and gave us both an easy smile before we continued. Downstairs, there were two people I didn''t recognize chatting with Tasha. There were a couple of wet bags near them.

    "Good morning." Danny said and I echoed him.

    "Good morning." The woman said, smiling at Danny. She had short brown hair that somehow was still bouncy even with all the rain outside and stood about the same height at Danny, which put her several inches taller than me still. She was dressed in a grey powersuit while the guy was dressed in jeans and a jacket. "I''m Aida Messina with the Associated Press, and this is my cameraman slash partner Keith Sanders." The taller man nodded his head. "Thanks for having us."

    "Thanks for coming out. I''m Danny Sidre, head of the Dantian Seekers and this is Nicole Firen our primary researcher." Danny answered. "Has everyone been on pins and needles where you''re from?"

    "Like I wish you wouldn''t believe." Aida answered to a sad laugh from Keith. "We''ve actually got field kits for food in the car because shipping is already hit or miss."

    "I''m just happy there''s still working charging stations for the car." Keith added.

    I blinked, having to take a second to put that together. "That bad?"

    "The west coast is basically gone, the east coast shorelines pulled back, and Florida about doubled its peninsula size." Aida explained and I got yet another sinking feeling. "Thankfully you all are closer to the major sources of food and processing so you may end up better off. But that''s an entirely different story that I can point you all to." She gave a sharp smile. "Today, we get to talk about you all."

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    "Where are we setting up?" Keith asked.

    "Upstairs, in my office then Nicole''s."

    Back upstairs, it only took Keith a few minutes to pull out equipment from the bags and get them set up and then set himself off to a side to monitor it and make a few adjustments as Danny sat at his desk. I listened for a moment as Aida tested the equipment before getting up myself. "I''m gonna go."

    "You OK?" Danny called to me as I was already almost out the door.

    I took a deep breath. I was doing that a lot today. "Yeah, just going to go work on something until it''s my turn."

    I went back and sat down in my office, just staring at the screen for moment before pulling up the notes system attached to the Seeker app that everyone was still using. Hadn''t Karen put a request in for me to do something?

    I fiddled around for a few minutes before there was a knock on the doorframe and I looked up. The camera guy Keith was standing there, holding a laptop. "Got a moment?"

    "Don''t they need you in there?" Thankfully, Danny''s office was on the other side of the conference room so I couldn''t hear their interview, but still.

    "Ninety-five percent of it''s automated, and I''ve got the little bits from here. Most of the non-live stuff we do I''m the editor for as well." He waved the laptop in one hand. "But yeah, do you have a minute before Aida gets done in there?"

    I tensed, then sighed. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Have a seat." I waved at the chair. "If you start in on me though, I''m throwing you out." Maybe physically.

    He sat, putting the laptop in the other chair. I noticed it was showing the interview in the other room, but silent. "Fair." He answered. "I saw Bisley''s piece on your research, so I completely understand. That''s actually what I wanted to ask about if you don''t mind."

    "The reporter or my research? I haven''t seen his piece." I answered.

    "That''s a problem. You don''t know what you''re fighting unless you know what they''re saying." Keith shook his head at me. "So, the first claim is releasing your paper caused the alien to try to kill everyone with what just happened. What''s your answer to that?"

    I looked at him. "He''s already making it to where we can''t fly and the Gasp. If he wanted us dead, I''m certain he wouldn''t need to be that indirect."

    Keith smiled. "Good answer. What about the fact that your research is freely available, letting criminals and adversarial countries gain access to this power?" He asked.

    "Did you light your dantian using my research?" I countered his question.

    "Actually, yes."

    "So you know how easy it actually ends up being. Short of knowing to hold in the energy, a yoga instructor or other relaxation guru could probably figure it out. I just put it out there without any weird trappings someone else would have." I gave him his answer. "And a simple, easy way to light it is in everyone''s benefit if we can get to the point of removing the alien one way or another."

    "One way or another, which leads into the last point that was used to attack you. Why do you believe the alien''s words?" Keith prompted me.

    I rolled my eyes at him. "Same reason about killing us all. Either we don''t use this power and he finishes whatever he''s doing and takes this Heavenly Realm, or we use this power and hope he follows through on what he said and leaves us be if we beat him there. Considering what else is happening to the earth, I''d rather have power to possibly survive some the insanity we''re being inflicted with."

    "So your belief is that we''re better off with this power, regardless of the ends it gets put to?" Keith asked.

    "Yes. It''s possible to get power, so it''s better we know everyone has it than run into someone with it when lots of people don''t."

    "That''s definitely one way to look at it." Keith nodded to me. "So, your research and the Seekers here then. What are you expecting out of it?"

    I paused, thinking. And then had a separate thought. "I thought Aida was doing the interviews?" I questioned him.

    Keith grinned widely. "I''m her partner and camera guy. I''m just as capable as asking questions as she is. Besides, I gave you an even shake to defend yourself rather that just push you to answer questions the way I want you to. But that''s the reason you have to pay attention to questions anyone asks you. Pretty much everyone has an agenda."

    "And yours?" I sighed.

    "Doing a favor for a friend, but also doing this interview. You want to continue? I promise we''ll go over everything and give you a chance to expound on any of it." Keith gave me an easy smile.

    "Fine." I scowled for a moment before collecting myself again, flipping my own computer screen back to the list Brent had left me. "You wanted to know what I want to do with this research, right?"

    "And the Seekers as a whole, yes." Keith added.

    I paused, thinking for a long moment. "Assuming what we''re doing is the beginning stages of what the alien does, I think we''re on a long path. The alien says the earth cleared the first block of the Initiate''s Realm. If that matches to what we''re doing, then I don''t think finishing whatever is happening with the rings around the dantian is the end of this. You wouldn''t be an initiate and finish something, right? So I want to figure that out. I want everyone to know what that takes to get through the Initiate''s Realm, to whatever is beyond."

    I paused again. "Because it may take everyone. We keep getting hit with this shit like the Gasp, like the earth literally revolting around us. For all I know, the second block for the earth is going to play Noah and the flood. There''s billions of us. Someone''s got to have a chance. Even if it''s not me or Danny or you. What''s the saying? We won''t go quietly into the night?"

    Keith nodded quietly. "Rage, rage, against the dying of the light."

    "I''m not the light. Everyone is. Hell, the dantian is. I don''t know. But we''re racing the earth to the Heavenly Realm and I told Danny, I want to pack the race. I''ll be someone else''s stepping stone instead of a crab in a bucket if it comes down to it."

 Chapter 24: Birthday Breakthrough

    April 3rd?

    "Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Nicole. Happy Birthday to you."

    Really, I was touched as everyone finished singing to me. The Seeker office was closed as we all gathered in the conference room for what I thought was a meeting, only for Karen to spring an honest to god strawberry cake with candles on me.

    I blew out the mismatched cake candles before looking around. "So, where the heck did you get a cake from? I don''t know if any bakeries are open or anything." One of the downsides of the world basically attempting to blow itself up, a lot of the incoming trucks had less and less mass produced goods and more staples and simple ingredients.

    "I bought the stuff a few weeks ago." Karen answered. "So it''s just been waiting on your birthday. Twenty-one, congrats!"

    Mike handed me the first slice of the cake and I looked at the heavily frosted piece before taking a bite. It''d been less than a month since the alien had tried to choke everyone. Less than a week since all the lava started, even if that only took a few days to mostly subside. So Karen getting a cake mix just a few weeks ago made sense. Somehow.

    "Thanks." I said, instead of voicing my thoughts.

    "Unfortunately, the plan to get you completely drunk fell through as I think every drop of alcohol in the city has already been drunk." Karen continued. "The bars are closed, Sundown is closed, and I can''t even get a cheap box of wine from Wal-Mart at this point."

    "Can you get anything at Wal-Mart right now?" Ash semi joked.

    "So, I know you''ve been trying to figure out a way to really push yourself, Nicole, to get past the next block." Danny interrupted. "And for your birthday, I think I''ve got a good method to help with that."

    "Oh?" Brent actually started looking interested.

    Danny nodded. "Karen brought up the idea of building an obstacle course to me, but I wanted to take it a step further. We still have plenty of those gondola aisles and they support several hundred pounds."

    "Wait, what are you going to do with them? Stack them for climbing?" I asked, imagining that dangerous pile.

    "No." Danny laughed a bit and shook his head. "No, I did a little research. A gymnast balance beam is four inches wide. The solid cap on those aisles is three inches."

    I tilted my head thinking. I wasn''t half bad on it, and I knew a few routines. "That''s a good idea. The extra balance needed would make me focus more."

    "That''s the first half. The second half is all that extra room and setting it up so you can go between them." Danny grinned. "Think you can manage eight foot jumps between them?"

    "I want to try it now." Melissa answered with a longing look. "Share your present, Nicole?"

    I laughed myself. "Yeah, but me first. Thanks Danny."

    "Well, it''s going to take all of us to set this up today, so consider it a group present." Danny held up his own slice. "But first, finish cake."

    ~~~

    "How do you want to do this then?" I asked, looking over the forty or fifty aisle shelves we had left even after framing out the other areas. We weren''t likely to get a whole lot of materials anytime soon either.

    Danny waved a hand into the empty area behind the receptionist area. "Make a cross with four of them, then space the crosses out with anywhere between five and ten feet between them. That way you''ve got long runs and jumps and whatnot."

    "Can we set one up, make sure this works how we think it''s going to before we do more?" Ash asked. "In case we need to set up it differently."

    "Easy enough."

    We pulled a few of the units away from the wall and set them up. I kicked off my shoes and climbed up the lower shelves and stood on the top shelf and then stepped onto the thin metal beam. It wasn''t too different from a normal balance beam.

    From above, the cross made the primary run around twenty feet long, but there was a three foot gap if I wanted to go in a ninety degree turn.

    "Stable enough to stand here." I noted, before starting to walk, one foot tightly in front of the other to check movement. Six feet up in the air, it wobbled slightly but nothing I couldn''t adjust for. "This isn''t bad at all."

    Leaning down, I discovered a missing inch made it a lot harder for hand placement. I could almost grab it like a bar rather than pivot on my palms. Still, I adjusted and slowly lifted my legs into the air. No real shake. I let my legs back down and came to my feet again. Then tested a full cartwheel with ease.

    "Going full out?" Melissa called from where she was watching.

    After all the different falls I''d been practicing in the past few days trying to push myself, I didn''t really fear falling just six feet. I seriously doubted even landing on my head would even fully concuss me if I could absorb the blow with energy instead of my skull.

    "Yep." I backed up to the beginning of the beam and eyeballed the distance. Twenty feet wasn''t much longer than a normal beam, but the fact that it was two different units could throw it off a bit. Full out.

    Full speed cartwheel, solid landing on the beam. Bounce once as the beam shakes a bit into a single flip, land as the beam stabilized. Hands go out forward and back to balance before I jump hard, clearing at least three feet up and able to do splits in the air and then come down almost on pointe with time to spare.

    I get to the center, one foot on either side of the two parts and consider. Going to either side would require either a jump or a long step at almost two feet. Turning and barely standing on my heels I cycle my dantian and do a twisting flip off the beam with it rocking back and miss the side aisle. I end up hitting a shelf, crashing off of it, and back onto the floor. Even as I fell, I could feel the push as I basically bounce off.

    I started laughing as everyone ran over to me. "That''s great. We probably need to anchor them a little better though. I wasn''t expecting the thing to not have enough weight to support my jump."

    Mike offered a hand then pulled me to my feet. "Scrapes, bruises?"

    "Nope. But I could tell it required more focus to stay up there, so it''s going to be good. Can we go ahead and set the rest up?" I smiled at everyone.

    "Yeah, yeah." Melissa said, eyeballing the aisle. I wondered about the possibilities of parkour, and if we could all do this soon.

    About twenty minutes into moving the rest of the aisles Mike''s phone went off. He gave it an odd look before answering. "This is Mike." He paused, listening. "They''ve said every month there''s pretty much nothing to do. And we''re activating now? Christ."

    Another pause, longer this time as Mike nodded slowly to his conversation. "Damn it, alright. I have to let the station know, I''ll leave in the morning unless it''s an emergency.

    "Fuck. Alright, give me two hours then. It''s still another almost three hours to Whiteman though." Mike listened for another moment then hung up while we all looked at him.

    "You wouldn''t happen to know why the Missouri Air National Guard just got called for Title 32 activation with immediate report in, would you?" Mike looked at Brent. "I''m fairly certain we''re not flying anything anywhere."

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    "No." Brent said slowly. "I know President Robertson and what''s left of Congress declared a state of emergency at the start of the eruptions, but I haven''t heard anything about Missouri that would make it necessary for any national guard to be federally activated."

    "Well, we were. And now I''ve got two hours to get my shit together and head out. I''m low man on that recall roster too, so lots of people have probably already been called." Mike looked at me. "Sorry it''s ruining your birthday and doing this."

    "Not much of a choice, huh?" I gave him a worried look. "It''s probably bad, but I hope it''s not catastrophic."

    "Yeah, I didn''t get a reason, just a come in." Mike scowled. "Sorry guys, I''ll keep you updated."

    I gave him an uneasy hug goodbye and everyone else said their goodbyes as well and Mike left.

    Brent watched where he left for a moment before turning back to the rest of us. "I''m going to go do some research. Nicole, please manage that breakthrough? We''re somewhat using everyone here as a litmus test for how long these take. It only took you two days to go from your first to your second, and while Melissa and Ash took longer, I don''t want to suggest we may already be in the window of the alien managing to do the earth''s second breakthrough."

    I paled slightly at that thought. Maybe that''s why the guard was being activated, in preparation rather than a specific issue.

    It was with quiet energy we finished putting everything together. In the end, there was a quite an almost maze of aisles with the longest stretch being probably a hundred and twenty feet with increasing large gaps. The last one had a full twenty feet and while I knew I''d vaulted further before, it still looked pretty intimidating to try to land on a three inch shaky beam after a long jump.

    Which, really, is what we were going for.

    Melissa easily pulled herself up onto what was going to be the starting point instead of climbing, not straining herself with her own two breakthroughs. She whistled, looking over it from the higher vantage. "I hope we have everything lined up perfectly. That''s a couple of really, really long jumps over there."

    "If I fall, I fall. I get back up. Short of beating the hell out of each other, I think we''re pretty well outside scrapes and bruises by the second breakthrough." I replied, even though Karen and Ash watched with a little trepidation. Tasha stood further back, to keep an eye on the front door but still able to watch us.

    Melissa hopped down with a bit of a smirk at me. I took that as the challenge she offered it as, and jumped the six feet straight up to the beam, sticking the landing on it.

    I judged the landscape in front of me, taking in the straight run and the random offshoots that were the rest of the crosses and where they led to. If we could actually keep balance up here with multiple people, that''d probably be great stress for pushing blocks. Something to think about.

    I then judged myself. I had plenty of energy to push my cycling with. The energy flowed easily from my dantian through my breakthroughs and back. Each one leading to the next, but I couldn''t get a feel for where the next one really would be. Would that point go up into my skull, into my brain? Would I need a brain scan to see another ring impossibly sitting up there? How about down my spine?

    I didn''t know, and that''s why I wanted to have to exert myself. It just seemed easier to be able to flood past that line of demarcation in my body and find that pool to clear, if I also had something focusing me externally. Melissa had easily done her second breakthrough as had Ash, but they had me and my scans to be able to tell them where to push to.

    I plotted out the path I''d take, saving the long run for last. Hopefully we''d set everything up right.

    I treated it more like a floor routine, just on tighter lines, holding tight to my sense of placement. I jumped forward, landing and rolling into a one arm cartwheel, balancing on my hand. My foot came down and I pushed off, leaving the aisle rocking slightly as I made a ninety degree turn and landed correctly this time on the next beam over a two foot gap.

    I danced forward, leaping the next gap in grace and maneuvering myself in a fairly big circle though a series of cartwheels, flips, and dance moves. I slowly built up the pressure on myself as I cycled energy through me, pushing out of my dantian, through the cleared blocks and flooding myself with energy. Between one jump and another I skipped over half the beam, landing back on the floor between aisles, twisting into a backflip that planted me right back up where I should be.

    I finished moving through the circle, half giddy over the power flooding me before I pulled it back a bit from my head, having not found anything there. The edges of my vision blurred again, and I hadn''t even noticed them getting crisper until the effect of my power was diluted once more. I pushed lower into my body even as I got back to my original starting point for this new routine.

    There was almost a double ache in my back, like it split and I had to pick a path. I gritted my teeth as I started the long run, ignoring choice as I did a double flip over fifteen feet, landing across the first gap. Sweat was building on me now as I cycled harder, faster. Pushing at those spots, demanding to know what was behind them.

    A handstand into a backflip and my footing came down well as I arched backwards, building up speed in my flips. I hit past the pain on both paths, and suddenly my power was flowing into two separate pools, two blockages. A fission of fear went through me, did I have enough to clear two at once? Why two? I was already committed though.

    I came off the second piece, purposely rolling to the ground and then coming to my feet. I used the momentum to jump and vault back onto the second to last aisle. Energy cycled through me. Flowed through me. Thundered through me. I dug deep into myself cycling as fast as I could to generate more power, desperate to not come up short. Both blocks were nearly clear, nearly added to my own.

    I charged forward, not even tumbling on the beam now. The twenty foot gap and I was going to make it, even without a vault. One last push.

    Something tipped. Gave. Released. Both blocks gave way at once and an absolute rush of my own power bounced back into me as I stared into myself. Something glimmered, a shape of me but greater, angles going off in impossible directions. A form I was building of my dantian.

    I blinked and missed the step, tumbling off the end of the aisle beam. My hands flashed out in front of me, power surging through five breakthroughs as it flowed directly to my shoulder blades and I pushed. Upside down, I saw everyone from the height of the ceiling before I slowly spun and gravity reasserted itself and I came down.

    Landing beyond the last aisle I''d been trying to jump to. I raised both hands in an ending salute for a routine, before I dropped to the floor. Wondering what I''d seen.

 Chapter 25: Reality Ensues

    I waved to the others as they started running towards me, trying to get my thoughts in order. That glimmer faded as I calmed, excess energy no longer tracing through me and it.

    "I don''t think I''ve ever seen a flip from a handstand go thirty feet long and nearly to the ceiling before." Melissa looked at me with a little disbelief. "That was a hell of a block, apparently."

    "Two." I said distractedly, getting up. "I need to go write this down."

    "Wait, two? What? Nicole!"

    I didn''t turn back at Karen''s call, heading back to the front of the building. I simultaneously felt lighter yet more solid. Energized beyond what the normal overflow buzzed me with. I jumped onto the partition wall and used it as a step up to the open second floor hallway with a lot more ease than I should have.

    "Holy shit." Ash voiced his own opinion.

    "Hey, you guys already done? I''ve got something-" Brent said as he saw me come through the opening.

    "Just a second." I shook my head, bypassing him and heading straight for my office. I pulled up my notes and a previous scan. Left and right shoulder blades. Both drawing the same amount of energy so I couldn''t tell which was the fourth or fifth block.

    The flow of energy didn''t feel split either. The same amount of flow that went into my third breakthrough, flowed out of it in both directions. It was somehow doubling itself there.

    Building something with the dantian and breakthroughs. Looked like me, but not fully. Sketchy, with lines that vanished and reappeared touching the different rings.

    I finally looked up after ten minutes of typing and attempting to describe to find everyone in the office, staring at me with worry. I saved the nearly three pages of new notes. "Sorry. Just, I can literally feel a difference now. And I don''t know if it''s because I hit a different threshold, went through two blocks at once, or what."

    "You''re not hurt though? Nothing hurts or anything?" Brent cautiously asked.

    I shook my head. "No. I do want everyone to look over my stuff though. And push it up to your DARPA people."

    "I can, but I''ve got something for you all first on why Mike was called up. I''ve been a little too focused on the Seekers here, apparently." Brent motioned us all into the conference room, where he turned on the TV he''d acquired. A computer desktop was displayed.

    "Alright, there was a White House video release about an hour ago. It''s fairly short, but, well, I''ll just let it speak for itself." Brent kicked on the video.

    A woman, about fifty with gray streaked black hair sat at the president''s desk. She looked half exhausted and already well on her way through the other half.

    "My fellow Americans. You probably don''t recognize me, as no one really is able to name everyone in a Presidential cabinet. I am Brianna Robertson, previously the Secretary of Commerce and now President of the United States, filling out President Maldonado''s remaining term. I come to the citizens today to give guidance and warning in equal measure."

    She shifted a bit, not uncomfortably but almost as if she were trying to stay awake. "One week ago, the alien proved that not only could he attack us directly as he did a month ago, but that he could turn our very planet against us for his own purposes. While we have spent months attempting to make any sort of response against him for the now three times he has struck the populace of the world.

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    "While we may not have succeeded yet, attempts are ongoing. But in the meantime, we must live with the actions taken against us and persevere. There are many ramifications we must deal with, from California being split in two, to the entire eastern seaboard of the United States now being landlocked with new coastlines anywhere from twenty to fifty miles into what used to be the continental shelf. I would speak to you of wildfires raging in California and threatening what remains of that state, except the three days of global evaporation of the oceans has caused a buildup of cloud cover that has started a rain that my experts tell me will last at least the next four months."

    She paused and took a deep breath of her own. "That is only the beginnings of the problems we face, and from what reports we have received from around the world we may have gotten off easier than others. But I have authorized the activation of all reservists and all national guard units under Title 32, placing them under federal control until such time as we have stabilized in the face of the dire times ahead of the country.

    This military activation will serve a threefold purpose. The first will be to stabilize our internal supply chains by providing support as necessary. The people of the United States will not go hungry. The second will be for the Corps of Engineers to begin local undertakings to shore up rivers and dams before weeks and months of rain become even worse problem. The final purpose will be to restore our national ports in the northern portion of Oregon and Washington. The damage to that portion of the west coast was less severe and with the deeper waters it began with, there is hope we can connect back."

    The woman smiled now, tired eyes looking a little lighter. "As part of this activation of the armed forces however, we will begin a new training with them that some of you may have heard or seen recently. Power cultivation provides everyone with additional strength and stamina and the men and women of the military will receive this training to keep them healthier and stronger. But we will not keep the methods of this power hidden from the populace. General instructions have been provided and will be available on the White House and Congressional websites today. Military members will receive as much additional instruction as can be provided while still maintaining their current missions."

    She finally nodded. "Great people of the United States of America, I wish us all luck and strength in the near future as we overcome these obstacles. We will prove to the alien Lei Zhaohui that it was a folly to chose our planet, our country, to attack."

    The video cut out and there was silence in the room for a very long moment.

    "Did your method just get a presidential seal of approval?" Ash''s voice was quiet.

    "No, the question is did we just get used as a recruiting pitch." I asked and looked at Brent who nodded.

    "You did. I don''t know how many people will take it though." Brent replied. "The bigger point is the government is promising you won''t go hungry. Using the military to support the supply chains like that sounds a lot like nationalizing agriculture and several steps up that particular chain. That''s a lot more desperate than I want to hear, and I didn''t get any clue of that from my contacts back home."

    "The reporter said shipping wasn''t great already, and that was days ago. Groceries are kinda slim here too, but I thought that would eventually clear itself up." Danny said.

    "That''s a pipe dream. We were just starting to see ripples from all the dead of the Gasp start in on the system before this happened." Brent countered. "But the fact that the President of the United States isn''t even alluding to a food problem but outright saying we''re working on it means someone in DC has determined there''s going to be an even bigger issue. I assume because of flooding farmlands and no good sunlight. Damn." He sighed. "We might be making a trip to Fort Leonard Wood ourselves for food stocks, if any of you only have a few days worth. If the Dantian Seekers research is being used as part of a recruiting pitch, we shouldn''t have any issue getting rations or something, if only to keep you all working."

    "Good thing I have new stuff to send in?" I hesitantly asked.

    "Yeah. Alright, who needs food? Let''s start getting together some supply lists. Local groceries are about to have a run on them, so discount buying anything for at least a day or two unless you can be there when a truck gets unloaded."

 Chapter 26: Military Supplies

    April 4th?

    Fort Leonard Wood was like small town of its own, apparently built to solely support the activities of itself. I hadn''t come with the original group of people Brent had set up to get CT scans, so this was my first time dealing with getting onto a base.

    Watching out the rain slick window from the visitor''s center, I could see a lot of armed gate guards watching over everything. Though there weren''t many vehicles driving up, each time one did someone looked into every window and the trunk and then get waved through after having some sort of ID checked.

    At the counter, Brent had been quietly talking with a military guy for almost ten minutes while Ash, Danny, and myself were all sitting around waiting. There didn''t seem to be anyone else willing to visit, as the room was empty other than us. The parking lot had been pretty empty other than the truck and cars we''d driven here today.

    Danny and Ash were already not paying much attention, messing with their own devices. I wish I''d thought of bringing mine in as well and debated the trek back through the rain again to grab it. I looked at Brent and realized the quiet conversation looked like it had moved closer to a quiet argument.

    "Danny, can I get the keys? I left my tablet in your car thinking it''d be quick in here."

    Danny looked up from his own phone and nodded, digging in a pocket. "Go for it." He tossed me the keys and I headed out, grabbing the umbrella on the way.

    Outside, the rain was coming down in a steady beat, making the chilly air even more yuck. Rainwater puddled everywhere already on the road and parking lot. Thankfully the area wasn''t heavily built up, I was already worried what would happen in Rolla once the ground hit maximum saturation and rain kept coming.

    Before going back inside, I took a deep breath of the air, cycling the power and feeling the weight of the different pieces of it. Fire and Earth still seemed passively heavier than everything else. Did that mean the lava was still flowing up?

    There was a lighter feeling of water and the woods, obviously the rain and the forest that surrounded the base. I could only barely tease out anything else with the water washing everything else away.

    Ash and Melissa had both been able to start feeling the differences in the power as well, something we were now tentatively labelling as doable at the second breakthrough. Blowing out my breath, I let the energy flow out of me as well as it suffused back into the greater whole.

    Back inside, Brent was now arguing with someone on the phone while Danny watched with interest. Ash was ignoring the whole thing.

    "What changed?" I asked quietly, returning to my seat and handing the keys back over.

    "Dunno. The desk guy apparently finally got fed up and told Brent he didn''t have orders for any visitors allowed and Brent just got on the phone and started calling someone." Danny answered. "Last time we were here, Brent was just able to sign like twenty people on with his own ID, so not sure what''s different this time."

    "Look, I''m not saying call up the general. But this was supposed to have been cleared with the Command Sergeant Major last night and the right paperwork at least sent in. We''re not even going to be on base for more than an hour or two." Brent was directing into the phone.

    He paused, listening.

    "Yes. Yes. Yeah, we have three vehicles. A couple of cars and a truck. Yeah, I''ll hold."

    Brent tapped his foot, sighing at the ceiling.

    I flipped my tablet on, seeing there was a decent signal at the moment and started browsing the web. While some of the sites I''d previously used for research were much quieter, there were still posts coming in from around the world. Mostly people that were trying to find others as well, and underlying all of it a note of panic as I saw a lot of questions of what to do.

    I wished I knew.

    The sites that only a month ago that were full of people trying to figure out the dantian were a lot quieter too. There was a spike in topics from when my paper originally was posted, then within a couple of days the sites nearly went silent as time hit when the lava began. Posts went down to nearly nothing and again reflected people trying to survive more than anything. But there were also people praising the extra strength they''d gained, that extra time each day they could push through and weren''t as tired as easily.

    "Yes, I realize how petty this sounds for whose signature is on that paperwork." Brent''s voice interrupted again and I looked up. "So yes, I realize you''re trying to confirm it. I can conference the director in, I have his direct line." Another quiet moment as Brent listened. "Huh, I wasn''t expecting them to be tracking it that closely. Do we need to wait for orders to come down the chain here?" Brent had a smile on his face.

    "Alright, twenty to thirty minutes for an escort, got it." Brent put the phone back into a pocket before looking at the man at the front desk. "We''ll wait a bit if you don''t mind."

    "Your call." The guy looked back at the computer he was working on.

    Brent came back over and sat down with a grump. We all looked at him expectantly. "Apparently due to the general muster, they''ve decided to deny any and all visitors that aren''t already cleared access to the base. Which means I can''t just sign you all in." He ran his hand across his face. "What a pain, and what a waste of a phone call."

    "What do you mean?" Ash asked. "Who''d you call?"

    "My boss back in DC, who conferenced in the people he worked with here to get us authority to pick things up today. Apparently, they thought I was just bringing other military in to get our things, so they didn''t bother to bring this up to the right people to bypass this." He waved a hand towards the front desk.

    "I offered to bring in my director to the conversation to assist validating us when apparently someone decided to get involved on the base''s side and suddenly everything got a lot smoother and we''re getting an escort here shortly."

    "I thought the government ran on red tape. This feels like we''re getting to cut through a lot of it." Danny remarked.

    "It does. I cut a lot of it last night, but I''m not surprised there were still snags."

    "So we just wait for the escort?" I asked and got a headnod from Brent. "Hope you''re right then."

    I turned back to the particular forum I''d been on, as there were a few people that had reported getting through their first block and had posted questions about feeling the power in the air and what it was like.

    I wrote up my own post, describing what the sensations were able to be split into at the second breakthrough and tagged the handful of people that were making the other posts. I waited a few minutes and a few refreshes, but the viewed count didn''t even go up. I hoped someone might see it eventually.

    I continued checking for a few minutes on some pretty eerily empty forums and boards I''d found via the Seeker app searching, before the door into the visitor center opened and several men in army fatigues walked in.

    The guy at the front desk looked up and I saw him jump up and stand straight. "Attention!" He yelled, catching the few other guys working in the office who all turned, saw the group coming in, and all stood as well. I looked at the others to see if we should stand, but Danny and Ash just shrugged. Brent shook his head at us as he stood, his eyes on the leader.

    The lead of the new group was an older man with salt and pepper hair and a won''t take crap look on his face. He had a small bird embroidered on his chest and Williams on his nametag. "At ease." He called back and the guys behind the counter relaxed.

    "Colonel Williams." Brent said mildly. "I didn''t expect to get a senior officer as an escort."

    "You''re getting an escort while I get some questions answered for medical. Which of you is the most familiar with this dantian shit?" His tone of voice matched the look on his face.

    Brent didn''t flinch, but Danny and Ash both looked at me which caused the colonel to look at me as well. I saw Brent just take a deep breath at that.

    "Ms. Firen is our expert, but I don''t know if we can actually answer any medical related questions you might have."

    "I''ll take what I can get." He looked at the front desk guy. "Get them passes, now."

    The colonel then looked at me again. "Ms. Firen? As in the Firen method, the thing causing us to have to rewrite every medical procedure remoting dealing with soldier health? Perfect. I''d hope you have some answers for your own research."

    I stood myself. "What do you mean?"

    "We''ll discuss it at the warehouse, I''m not having a conversation standing here." He looked over at the rapidly typing guy. "They clear yet?"

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    "Just a moment and yes sir."

    Shortly thereafter we found ourselves being passed through the front gate with ease and directed to a bunch of warehouses on the east side of the base. The military guys there directed us to pull into the warehouse directly instead of parking outside in the rain.

    Once in, Colonel Williams looked at the half pallet of boxed MREs and a few other things waiting to be loaded over to us, looked at the two cars and a truck, and just shook his head. "You somehow got the Secretary of the Army''s signature for supply release, solely to get a few months'' worth of MREs and toilet paper? Christ on a crapper. No wonder there were questions all the way up to the General last night over this."

    "Based on the President''s declaration yesterday and the attendant Executive Order? Either this will be enough to tide over the Dantian Seeker''s group until sufficient supply chain controls are established, or much harsher methods will be required that nothing I could requisition today would make much of a difference." Brent explained.

    "You''re not as wrong as I wish you were." Colonel Williams said non-committedly. "Alright, let''s go to a conference room."

    Another military guy lead the way to a nearby conference room where we all sat down, the Colonel at the head of the table. A thin tablet was offered to him, which he took and clicked through a few things before looking back up.

    "As I have doubts any of you besides possibly Mr. Russell knows who I am, I am Colonel Joseph Williams, Commander for the US Army Medical Department Activity. I''m responsible for all health on base here and most of the central portion of the US. So imagine my surprise when we get a thin little document provided to us by the Commander in Chief a few days ago that says ''go forth and do this'' with about as much background and medical understanding as I have in underwater basket weaving."

    He looked me over grimly. "It takes about three hours to read through your research paper and about a half a day more to light this dantian. I''ve done it myself, without any of your listed extra breakthroughs, it''s still a noticeable health improvement. However, these block breakthroughs, I have no listed recommendations on time or anything, so we cannot build a recommended training regime for this." He tapped something on his tablet, reading for a moment. "Additionally, I already have six reported cases across my command of soldiers who have reported a collapse in this dantian and inability to rebuild it. Two soldiers in comas."

    He looked at me. "That''s eight total injuries in less than forty eight hours, two major ones which have caused possible permanent loss. The other six I don''t even know how to classify minor or major. I can order a medical halt in my command, pass this up the chain and recommend the Army Surgeon General do the same, but considering this is public knowledge and the CIC wants this done, I''d rather craft guidelines to stop injuries from happening."

    He turned the tablet to me, some program pulled up with names across the top in tabs. Even from a quick glance I could see a lot of medical stuff listed on the first tab''s person. "What can you tell me?"

    "Should I even be looking at this?" I asked, not taking the tablet.

    "I''m listed as their resident doctor and you''re my only expert. As long as you''re not talking to anyone else about anything you see in these files, HIPPA is covered. What is the problem with my soldiers?"

    I gingerly took the tablet, looking at the text heavy screen about a Private First Class Snuffy. There was a whole lot of medical jargon I didn''t really recognize but there was also a freeform box that someone had written a lot of notes in as well. That mostly went over my head anyways, but I did at least recognize some dantian stuff in it.

    "I''m not certain really what you think I''ll know just from reading this? I mean, it lists a medical issue of ''lost dantian'' and a whole bunch of medical tests. I''m not a doctor." I looked back at the Colonel. "I mean, did they describe anything about their dantian or what they were doing previously with the power, or anything?"

    "I know someone did correlations on them already, at least for these six." He took the tablet back, flicking through something for a few minutes then stopped. "Here. Looks like all six of the lost dantian had power beforehand. One of my coma soldiers listed the same, but I don''t have anything on the last one as he didn''t actually fill out any of the minimal paperwork we threw together before soldiers were supposed to try this."

    This time, most of the fields were gone that I didn''t recognize, with just a few notation boxes.

    Previous access to power before Firen Method attempt. Y/N

    If Y, please list number of blocks/meridians/breakthroughs/etc. that were passed.

    Please list activities being attempted.

    They all listed at least one breakthrough, and one guy listed six. I double checked his and he was flagged as the guy in the coma. I winced. It wasn''t possible they didn''t already think that was the case that large numbers of previous blocks were a problem. I know my paper had showed Danny''s unfixed dantian.

    The notes for all the other guys indicated they were going to be attempting dantian and a breakthough. One guy listed trying for two.

    "Didn''t the paper say you should have as much energy built up as possible before trying a breakthrough?" I asked to myself.

    "It did. But what is as much? I need some hard numbers Ms. Firen. I''ve already come to a few conclusions, but I''d like to hear your thoughts myself."

    "Danny''s dantian is the scan we provided that looked tore up as hell. It took him days worth of energy build up to repair it and he always cycled back up to full strength each time before he went to the next one. Danny''s just recently make his first breakthrough because of it."

    "I''m guessing you think losing your dantian is the result of not having enough to fix the problems before breakthroughs?" Brent interrupted with a question.

    Williams nodded his agreement. "That''s my assumption, yes. If that''s the opinion of my expert, I need some hard numbers. What is being full on this power? How can I measure it. How long can the soldiers expect to take between each of these breakthroughs?"

    "Slow them down, because everyone we''re working with I tell them to not try until they can''t cycle any more power into themselves." I answered him with frustration. "We''ve only had a decent number of people to check this with for a couple of weeks. And by decent, I mean less than a hundred. The best I can tell you is that. And your guy in a coma? The highest anyone we had that created a dantian on the false path had four breakthroughs previously."

    Danny spoke up. "He told me it felt like he was gutting himself to build it that day in training. He thought it was supposed to feel that way, as using the power had started to feel like that. He gave us his CT scan, and his dantian looked half shattered. Anyone worse off than that, I don''t know."

    "Damn it." Colonel Williams sighed and took back the tablet. "So, slowing them down. We have to require milestones and goals. How long does it take to cycle to full power? A day, a week? I''ve been busy enough in the last few days that I''ve only had a few hours total to try to build this up. And it wears itself down too."

    "It requires more time after each breakthrough to fully build up. I probably took fifteen or twenty hours total after my first breakthrough. I was stupid on my first one myself, so I couldn''t give you a number there." I paused. "And it''s more used up than wore down. That extra just gets used if you''re not holding onto it."

    "Alright, that at least gives me something to work with, though I wish you had better figures." Colonel Williams noted. "Now I just have to keep a bunch of soldiers from throwing themselves off a new cliff that they''re being told to climb with minimal guidance."

    He looked at me, then at one of his men in the room as well. "So, did you notice anything off about the Sergeant here?"

    I looked at him and shrugged.

    "He''s one of my men who collapsed their dantian." Williams finished.

    I winced and took another look at him, but still didn''t see anything. "You can''t cycle or anything?"

    "No ma''am." He seemed a little worried to be singled out.

    "Yeah, no. I can only feel someone''s power when they''re cycling or if they''re at a higher breakthrough than the world is at. I''m sorry."

    "Not your fault, ma''am."

    Colonel Williams sighed. "Well, we at least have some answers, even if they''re not all I wanted. You all are free to go, Sergeant go ahead and escort them out if their stuff is finished being loaded."

 Chapter 27: Spiritual Growth

    It was back in Rolla, back in the Dantian Seeker offices, as I helped carry the several hundred tightly packed MREs in shipping boxes, that Ash asked the question I was trying to figure out how to phrase.

    "Are we just supposed to live off MREs and pray everything else is taken care of before they run out?" He dropped the box he was holding onto the stack of others. "Because I really feel like we''re just pantomiming life still working. Even if the alien gave up right now and left, the world is still pretty fucked."

    Brent stilled where he was standing.

    "I got notification this morning with my schedule for classes next semester. Classes. Are there even going to be teachers? Did an automated system just click the next checkbox and send it out? What about my parents in St. Louis. What happens to them in another week when anything left in the trucking system runs out and all the grocery stores come up truly empty? Riots, or everyone just dies starving?"

    "That''s what the activation was about." Brent turned. "I know I drew a grim picture yesterday, but as bad as everything is? There''s more infrastructure still running here than after the worst natural disasters. If we were in California I''d be worried because it''s likely a massive wasteland of destruction. But we literally still have running water and power here without even a boil water notice. If people don''t panic and continue with their lives, there''s a fair chance life will continue. It''s only if everyone panics and causes more panic that we''re going to be in trouble."

    "So how fast until we hit that point?" Danny asked. "Because previous worldwide emergencies have shown we''re not going to be sane about this for much longer."

    "Depends on how well supply lines are visibly maintained for the illusion of normalcy. It''s ironic but probably not the worst thing the Secretary of Commerce ended up President." Brent sighed. "If anyone needs to leave to family, they''re welcome to. I''m pulling all the strings I have to keep everything here in working order, but all those strings rely on the government maintaining authority."

    ~~~

    The next almost two weeks were touch and go in a lot of ways.

    The rains continued pretty much nonstop and the retention ponds started seriously filling up. I found that there were several places downtown that had bad drainage and volunteered my time helping clear things up. Having gone through five breakthroughs, my biggest issue wasn''t the currents that were created, but getting to things to find the appropriate ways to leverage my impossible strength without causing additional problems.

    The sight of my good, albeit wet, Samaritan work at least blunted the complaints of the idiots that wanted to blame me or anyone else for the alien''s actions. It''s really hard to sling mud at someone already covered in it trying to help keep downtown from flooding after more then thirty inches of rain in four days.

    I''d somewhat fallen out of the news cycle anyways as the press took the time to eviscerate the government for both their lack of response to a developing crisis and for the activation of the reserves and Guard to attempt to handle the crisis. Even though they didn''t usually bring both those points up in the same breath, it was still hard for me to believe that people didn''t call that out. Or maybe some did but just didn''t end up on whichever news was running at the time.

    I was just happy that there were plenty of undeveloped ground around the city to absorb the rains. I was purposely keeping out of touch with what was happening in bigger cities that relied solely on drainage and normally light rainfall. The internet never truly faded out, but there were lots of people that no longer showed up on any of the dantian sites I''d been tracking. I hoped they were just busy and not dead, but I couldn''t know. A few people had commented on my post about sensing the different parts of power, so there were people still out there at least.

    I called Mom and Dad daily, half to check on them and half to give them assurances we were doing decent. Dad had never quite gotten over the COVID-19 paranoia, and ever since day one of the alien showing up he''d had several months'' worth of dry goods reserved for what he''d at the time called a rainy day. I grinned and bore his daily complaint to me that having my head in the clouds was bad because I was short enough everyone else was getting wet now too. Dad had made a second breakthrough as well, though Mom was just barely into her first.

    The flow of food and goods stuttered in, never quite stopping but the shelves emptied pretty much as quickly as they were stocked. Meats quickly became much scarcer though.

    ~~~

    April 14th?

    Really, it was the lack of meat that had prompted Ash to grab a few others of the Seekers to head out earlier this morning to the Mark Twain National Forest to try their hand at hunting anything. I''d heard talk of trying for deer, pig, or even turkey. I wished them luck and tried not to guess at how many people were probably already out there with the same idea.

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    I was sitting out the second floor window, staring out over the interior of the Seeker building. If you weren''t interested in food or things that could help in the day-to-day apocalypse panic, it wasn''t impossible to get things. Brent had finally managed to get a few pieces of medical equipment into that section and the gym section had a few dozen pieces of equipment for training on and testing max capabilities.

    My balance beam run was still set up though, which was fun to watch people try to mimic myself or Melissa on it. Power did not mean balance and coordination, so we''d lost a few of the aisles as people attempted the same runs they''d watched me do and they crashed, bringing the gear down around them.

    It was now recommended to be at least second breakthrough to test yourself, if only because the inevitable crash was causing injuries and the last thing anyone wanted right now was more than scrapes and bruises to happen. Especially since all but the heaviest gauge needles apparently bent on even a first breakthrough person''s skin. No one had figured out a way to safely draw blood at the second breakthrough for medical purposes and I shuddered at what would probably be necessary for me if I ended up needing shots. I know Brent had mentioned blood tests and I wasn''t sure how that was going to work now.

    Danny had come through though and found several personal trainers that ended up without a job and were available to work with people. Brandon from the hospital had very reluctantly, and I think at a good payraise, accepted the first job running the equipment and being the general first aid on duty person.

    One of the screens in the receptionist area showed a cleaned-up scan of my dantian and breakthroughs, the fourth and fifth half embedded in each shoulder blade and connected to all the major muscle groups.

    We even had a singular IT guy now, currently flirting with Tasha below as he was doing something to her computer. Mine had already been joined to the network he was setting up. It hadn''t changed much as far as I could tell, but that wasn''t my field.

    All-in-all, the Dantian Seekers really felt like they were coming together nicely even in the face of the world trying to descend into madness. What we were coming together into I wasn''t fully certain, but at least we were moving forward into something.

    My pocket buzzed and I pulled out my earpiece, now riding on the network wireless here back to my tablet. "Ash? What''s up? You guys back already?"

    "Yeah, we''re outside around back. We got a pretty big boar that one of the guys is stripped for cooking, but also found something pretty odd. Can you come open up the loading dock?"

    "Sure, give me a minute." I dropped down from my perch, startling the IT guy but making Tasha laugh this time, and headed back.

    Hitting the button on the loading dock gate, it opened and I saw Ash''s truck backed up. Instead of a pig like I''d expected, there was instead an entire bush with a lot of soil piled in the back of the truck. Huh, blackberries. Didn''t the berries not grow for another couple of months?

    "You brought back a blackberry bush? Are we going to make jam?" I joked.

    Ash shook his head. "Check the power coming off of it." He said.

    Power? Off a plant? I cycled in with my next breath, explicitly feeling the energy around me. Something I had to do instead of everyone on that external energy who could apparently always minimally feel it after their second breakthrough.

    Earth and fire separated first, the heavier energy from the first block still strongest. Water that echoed all the rain. Tainted earth that was concrete and pollution. Wood-

    "Wait, why is this thing by itself giving off enough energy of wood that I feel like I should actually be in the woods?"

    "OK, I''m not crazy then. The others couldn''t understand why I wanted to dig this thing up in its entirety. There were a bunch of piglets eating the berries and I''m fairly certain with the way they were eating, this thing should have been stripped bare already."

    I just looked at the unassuming bush for a moment. "Alright! Let''s figure out how to replant this thorny mess and find someone who actually knows how to be a gardener. If it''s going to grow berries like that and feel like an entire forest, maybe not the entire world is trying to kill us. Was this the only one? Were there more?"

    "Only one I could find. I don''t think I would have found it at all if one of the piglets that ran off didn''t kinda feel like a moving bit of earth energy. That''s how we found momma and got her."

 Chapter 28: Healthy Growth

    While the blackberry bush was unassuming in that it looked like any other berry plant, it had an almost four foot diameter root system that had lots of little shoots broken off, likely where it''d already been eaten. The still large remainder of the bush with berries on it was still fairly impressive on it''s own.

    "Planting it outside here is just asking for the entire thing to get washed away in the rain. It''s one thing in the woods where there''s plenty of other plants to absorb the extra water." Karen was crouched down next to the bush as she stared between it and a tablet, Ash holding an umbrella over them both.

    My hope that Karen''s biology major would mean she knew plants didn''t work out, but the internet makes amateur experts of us all.

    "It''s supposed to be a full sunlight plant with trellis or something for the vines. Canes." She read off.

    I looked up to the sky while hiding under my own raincoat at the dark clouds covering up any sign of blue. "We can put it somewhere that should be full sun, but I doubt we''re going to get that for a while. We''d still have the problem of too much rain washing it away though."

    "Do we have roof access?" Ash asked.

    "Maybe?" Melissa spoke up while sitting in the loading dock to stay dry. "I think I saw a locked ladder thing on the side of the building."

    "Can we just put a planter up there then?" He asked. "Get one of those build your own greenhouse kits or something to keep it from getting drowned. Heck, maybe Lowes still has seeds, we could try a whole rooftop garden thing."

    "Huh, sounds interesting." I looked up to the roofline. "Let''s put this inside for the moment and see if anyone has that stuff. If it isn''t all bought out or something."

    ~~~

    As it turns out, growing your own food was a valid option to a lot of people and every planter box, two by four, and greenhouse gardening kit was completely out of stock, less likely to be restocked than groceries even. I''d gotten an apology from one guy because he admitted employees were buying things off the trucks before they stocked.

    What we ended up with was several kid''s plastic swimming pools, several hundred feet of PVC pipes and connectors, and the rest of the stock of clear painter''s tarps. Danny donated a shovel from his place as well for collecting dirt but instead of heading back to the Seekers building, Karen nixed that idea.

    "We''re either going to the conservation or back to where you found that thing in the first place, Ash," she said while downloading more random gardening items. "There wasn''t any potting soil or fertilizer, so we need good soil instead of the random dirt from the lot next door. Whatever''s up with those blackberries, I don''t want us killing it accidentally."

    "We''ve been running around too much today already, so conservation it is. I don''t have the charge left to get out there and back right now." Ash decided.

    So the four of us climbed back into the truck and headed out with a shovel and a mission to fill three plastic swimming pools with dirt.

    The roads out there weren''t bad, but as soon as we got onto the conservation and had a good look at the trails, I knew we weren''t going to be driving deep into the woods here.

    Ash pulled off to the side of the road, looking down one of the markers for offroad driving. "Mark Twain''s trails are a hell of a lot better packed, they hadn''t washed out."

    The mostly dirt trails had turned to mud in the continuous rain, slick and deep looking. I looked down at my sneakers and sighed. "Well, at least my feet will wash off quick." I pulled off my shoes and socks, tucked them under the seat of the truck, popped the door, and hopped out.

    The asphalt out here was already cracked with rainwater pouring into it and I wondered how long before this washed out too.

    Turning, the rain splattering against my raincoat, I looked at the others still sitting in the truck. "Walking thirty or forty feet into the woods isn''t going to hurt anyone."

    "Do you know how much a full swimming pool of dirt is going to weigh?" Ash, the mathematics major, asked.

    I shrugged at his question. "About as much as it was going to weigh getting it onto the roof from a fire escape ladder?"

    "That''s a really good point." Melissa laughed sardonically. "How are we going to get it up there?"

    I pulled one of the boxed pools over and opened it, pulling the collapsible plastic kiddie pool from the box. "Lift it? I figure as long as the bottom doesn''t fall out of these, you hold on with one hand and climb up with the other."

    "Uh, Nicole. Those things hold probably twenty cubic feet in them. I looked at Lowes, a cubic foot of topsoil is around eighty pounds. So, you''re looking at around sixteen hundred pounds of dirt."

    "Water isn''t that much lighter, right? So it''s not likely to rip if we''re careful." I answered, before realizing what the complaint actually was. I grinned evilly at all three of them, still dry inside the truck. "None of you have made the third breakthrough yet, have you? It might take a handful of trips up then. It''ll be good training, we can start here and you guys might push through. Come on!"

    And with that realization, three groans replied as they started pulling off their own shoes and getting ready to be muddy.

    We tromped out through the mud to the sounds of rain and mud squishing through toes as we easily sunk an inch or more in the almost overly saturated ground.

    "Eww, eww, eww. Gross, gross." Melissa chanted under her breath as we walked. "We''ve only got one shovel, why are we all out here?"

    "What, you expected to watch and provide commentary while I shoveled?" Ash joked.

    "I was." Karen grinned as she nudged him under their shared umbrella. "I was going to just hold the umbrella for you and look pretty."

    "Oh? What if I wanted to hold the umbrella and let you shovel for a bit?" Ash moved the umbrella off of Karen, letting the rain start to drench her.

    She squeaked. "Hey!"

    "Yeah, you''re right. That''s not fair." Ash closed the umbrella completely before she could get back under it, letting them both get soaked. "There you go."

    "You ass." She jumped at him, trying to grab at the umbrella as Melissa and I laughed. Karen misjudged her strength though, taking both of them off their feet as she slammed into him, causing them to tumble into the brush and mud.

    Which just made Melissa and I laugh even harder at the two of them, the umbrella now bent under Ash and probably unusable.

    "Damn it." Ash muttered as Karen basically sat up on his chest, laughing as well. "Should have braced myself."

    "Serves you right for taking the umbrella away." Karen laughed one last time before standing up. "Guess I can help shovel now."

    Ash stood up as well, frowning. "Ripped my shirt. What''d I hit? Did it get me?"

    There was a rather large gash down the back to side of his shirt, but not really any damage to him. Caught in some of the fibers of his shirt were wood splinters and looking at the pile they''d fallen into, I saw a snapped branch half impaled into the ground.

    I whistled. "Well, that should have hurt a hell of a lot." I pointed the branch out.

    "Yeah, really glad this power makes it harder to hurt us in general. I probably would need the ER if that''d got me."

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    The rain was already starting to puddle up where Ash had landed and I shrugged, pointing to the ground with the shovel. "Eh, since we''ve already started digging your grave then, should we go ahead and start loading up dirt here?"

    We cleared a space to keep the plastic from getting ripped unrolled the first pool completely. Setting it up I rolled my eyes as the rain slowly started to fill it up. "Oh goodie, a timer."

    I took a breath, cycling and drawing in the energy around me. I figured Ash or Karen would have said something if they noticed anything, but now that I knew there was weird stuff we might sense it would be a good habit to build.

    Nothing found, I spiked the shovel into the ground, bending and lifting a rather large amount of soil up and tossed it into the pool. Well, what I thought was a rather large amount. It looked pretty paltry sitting in the pool, slowly dissolving into rainy mud.

    "You guys want to help dig? Even by hand it''ll be faster."

    Ash, Melissa, and Karen all pitched in and within about twenty minutes we''d half filled the pool up before I called a halt. "Alright, we need to make sure it''s not going to rip. Everyone in a circle around the pool, let''s check."

    Half full and with four people, getting our hands underneath the pool and lifting it was pretty lightweight. If Ash''s math had been right, this was really only about eight hundred pounds split between the four of us.

    The plastic stitching didn''t seem to be pulling and while the center part sunk back towards the ground, it seemed alright so far. "Does anyone think the plastic is stressed or stretching on them?" All nos. "Alright, let''s set it back down and finish."

    Another twenty minutes and we had a pretty good pit dug and a full swimming pool of dirt was ours. We test lifted it again and while it was a little heavy, it seemed reasonably strong enough to hold up.

    "Ready?" I asked, holding my end.

    "Walking it back to the truck?" Melissa replied.

    "You guys are." I smiled and slowly let go of my part, letting the rest of the weight split between them. Eight hundred pounds split four ways was only two hundred each, but splitting sixteen hundred between three people was over five hundred pounds, give or take a bit.

    They staggered but managed to keep holding it up. "Hey!" Ash grunted at me.

    "You guys need the stress here. I''m going to be the one hauling it up the building," I noted as I watched carefully, ready to help if needed. "I''ll go drop the tailgate, how does that sound?"

    "Like I should have tackled you earlier instead." Karen answered back.

    It wasn''t more than a few minutes back to the truck, but they were all straining by the time they got back. Melissa more so than the other two and she nearly had her eyes closed in concentration.

    I dropped the tailgate and jumped into the back as they got the pool mostly situated on and slid it in a bit. I grabbed both sides and folded it slightly, lifting it slowly across the split between actual truck bed and the tailgate so the bottom didn''t rip.

    Karen leaned against the tailgate, breathing deeply. "Damn, slogging through the mud made that even worse."

    I looked back the way they''d come seeing deep pits where they''d walked. "Why are there only two sets of mudhole footprints for you guys?"

    "Mine aren''t there." Melissa was sitting on the curb, just letting the rain fall on her as she rested. "Tried something dumb, it worked." She looked up at us. "That was more exhausting that just walking through the mud. Entirely less gross though."

    She then held up a foot and I realized there wasn''t any mud caked up her shins like Ash and Karen had.

    "That whole thing when you jump down and the force is absorbed by your energy? I was trying to do the same thing with all the extra weight. It worked to the point I even was absorbing the force of my own walking. But damn am I tired." Melissa smiled in the rain.

    "Explain that one better please. I want to know." Karen begged. "I don''t want to walk in the mud."

    "I think we''re going to have to do this in multiple trips anyways." Ash eyed his truck. "That''s heavier than I thought. We''d probably push past the max safe weight on my truck with two of them and us. So head back and Melissa tries to teach us a cool new trick?"

    "And all three of you get to do enough dragging stuff up the building to have an honest attempt at your third breakthrough." I added. "You guys need to keep pushing too."

    "No worries there." Melissa shook her head, still catching her breath. "I was pushing so hard I managed it, then blew all the extra energy that gave me almost immediately as well."

    "Well now I''m doubly interested in learning it. If you can push through a block with it, that''s definitely something we want to publish to everyone." I grinned excitedly.

    "Whee. Alright, let''s get back then." Ash commented as he closed the tailgate up. I pulled the other two pools out of their boxes and unfolded them, trying to cover up all the soil so it didn''t just turn into mud too.

    We basically let the rain clean the mud off of us and got into the truck and headed back.

    ~~~

    Back at the Seekers building, Ash pulled back around to the loading dock again as Danny had been called and had it open for us. Thankfully there were plenty of towels even if we didn''t have any changes of clothing here.

    Once we were dry, all attention was given to Melissa who had retrieved one of the heavier rubber weight plates from the gym.

    "OK, first thing, I don''t even know how well this actually works," she started. "I''ve been somewhat messing with it for a few days now on the balance beam run more than anything else to try to help my jumps."

    She hefted the fifty pound weight. "So as Nicole found out, if you fall from a height the impact is absorbed into your energy, spending some of it. I''ve been trying to manually do that for normal falls and steps. The extra weight we were carrying just made it more obvious what I needed to do." She jumped with the weight, getting about four feet in the air. "Every step is like a jump down, but just enough to negate that force. Apparently, negate it enough and you don''t impact the ground at all."

    "That''s it?" Karen looked confused. "Just jump instead of step?"

    She shook her head. "No, each step is like a tiny fall. You have to purposely ripple your energy to absorb all the impact. That''s why it was easier with the weight. I had more impact I could feel, even if it took more energy to negate."

    I was about to say something and noticed the blackberry bush we''d set to the side, already drooping. "Let me get this thing on the roof first, then I want to try."

    We had to split the soil between two pools because of the weight for one person to lift it, but I got the soil up on the roof within a couple of trips and we quickly set up a makeshift greenhouse. "Alright plant, please don''t die on us."

    I took a deep breath, cycling in. Feeling the energy around me for a moment.

    Energy seemed to flow into the blackberry plant like it was cycling too, and the sense of wood energy around it thickened.

    "Lots of new things today. Hopefully we can get you some friends, or grow some more of you."

 Chapter 29: Correcting Misunderstandings

    April 15th?

    Overnight, the blackberry canes had bloomed out of the root system, curling three feet up the makeshift trellis we''d created out of PVC yesterday. Green berries peeked around leaves, some already hinting at darker color. The lower vines that had already existed yesterday held berries ripe and ready.

    "Seriously, can I get a clipping and bring it over to the college?" Karen asked from where we both stood under the stretched painter''s tarp, keeping us mostly dry and the full sized berry bush from being over watered and drowned. "It''s fruiting out of season and is growing like it''s on steroids. We don''t have anyone that''s a gardener or botanist or anything. Hell, I''m only a second-year biology major."

    I shrugged. "Sure. Not like it wasn''t tore up even worse yesterday when Ash brought it in." I cycled in, noticing the plant was actually giving off more wood energy now that it wasn''t half eaten. "Something to document. Wonder how large it''ll grow?"

    "We''d eventually get sick of eating blackberries," Karen noted as she bent down, leaning in to the bush. A quick snap and one of the vines broke free near the top of the soil. She pulled away with a good chunk of plant vine with ripe and unripe berries on it. "Cool, thanks."

    "Can you get them into the Seeker app? I''ve been dumping my research notes and random stuff into the wiki there, but not many others have."

    "I can." Karen paused. "Can you find out if it''s still requiring joining the Seekers directly to do so? Did Danny ever get the paperwork updated? I don''t think teachers are going to want to sign a five year contract thing for a school club."

    I rubbed my eyes against the onset of a headache and sighed, "He would miss something like that, wouldn''t he?" I looked up to the gray sky and shook my head. "Alright, I''ll go check with Danny and probably Brent."

    I grabbed my raincoat and headed down the fire escape, not wanting just yet to test Melissa''s no impact technique from several stories up into the mud. I''d explained yesterday how the difference felt before and after the alien had congratulated me on my Art of Awakening and Melissa had agreed it still felt like she was brute forcing it.

    Danny wasn''t at his office, but I did find him on the gym mats with a few other people. Danny and another were carefully going through a karate spar, which I thought was kind of odd to watch happen in basically slow motion. I stood off to the side watching with the three others that were nursing bruises.

    Danny was squared off against someone I didn''t recognize, a dark haired guy with glasses. He and Danny would take turns throwing a kick or a punch and blocking against it. I wasn''t super familiar with martial arts, but I was fairly certain spars were supposed to be faster.

    "What''s up?"

    Danny and the other guy backed off of each other once they noticed me. "We''re testing sparring capabilities." I tilted my head in question. "So far, we''ve figured out just in regular contact it feels more like light contact sparring if you''re at the same level. Regular contact against someone with less breakthroughs than you and that person feels the hits a lot harder than regular contact." He motioned to the other people near me. "Cycling with them attacking? They might as well be wearing gloves.

    "Cycling against someone at your level, it basically becomes full contact sparring again." Danny looked at me. "Want to test what it''s like with multiple breakthroughs between us?"

    "Actually, I need to talk to you about the Seekers app and giving people access to it," I disagreed.

    "Damn, work calls." Danny looked back to the others, "Sorry guys. Nicole, give me a second to get changed?" He asked.

    "Yeah, I''ll be in your office."

    I only had to wait a few minutes before Danny got back, changed out of his gi and into normal clothes. "Alright, what''s up with the Seeker app?"

    "Do you still have to be a full member of the Seekers to get into it?" I asked and Danny nodded. "So, do you still have to sign the five year contract thing?"

    "Oh. Yeah. Probably need to get rid of that." Danny looked chagrined at the callout. "Probably should cancel it for anyone still on it too, huh?"

    "That''d be helpful. Karen''s going to try to get some of the professors at the school to look at the blackberry bush on the roof, see what''s up with it. I wanted them to put their notes into the Seeker wiki." I paused. "Speaking of which, you are putting things like what you were talking about earlier with sparring in, right?"

    "I write up notes and send them to you?" Danny hesitantly replied.

    I sighed, "Send them where?"

    "Oh, you probably don''t check your school account regularly anymore, do you? It''s still the address tied to your Seeker account."

    "Jesus Christ, Danny," I palmed my face. "I haven''t been back to class in weeks. We''ve been a little busy. And the Seeker app system has a wiki setup of its own. Alright, first thing''s first. Get rid of the requirement for the contract to join the Seekers. That way Karen can hopefully get others into the damn thing. While you do that, I''m grabbing Brent and the IT guy."

    I left Danny typing away at his computer while I headed to Brent''s office who thankfully was there. "Brent, do you know where the IT guy is?"

    "Seth?" Brent asked. "He''s probably in the medical area, tying the equipment into the network here."

    "We''re having to fix the Seeker app because Danny still had a stupid school contract as required to join and use the system. We''ve got a wiki system in it and I''ve basically been the only one using it. Once Danny does that, can Seth make the wiki part of the seeker app public? Is it already?" I asked. "I just found out Danny''s been sending me notes, but it''s hitting my school account because that''s what''s registered in the Seekers app. I need to get my account fixed and then start moving all his stuff over. And hopefully getting others to use it."

    "Wait, what?" Brent stopped me. "I think I''m missing something here. I''ve been spending the past week trying to get some sort of documentation system together and we''ve already had one?" At least I wasn''t the only one getting headaches from this mess as Brent rubbed his temples. "I should have looked deeper into what resources you all had been hooked into before I came out here."

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    "What, have you been sending me stuff too?" This was rapidly becoming a mess.

    "No, I got notice from DARPA a little over a week ago that Goodfellow has some initial results from their officer and enlisted training, in the realm of half a terabyte of raw imagery and annotations so I''ve been trying to finesse somewhere to receive it all. I thought you all had just been connected to a scraper, not a storage and wiki solution. Must be something Danny set up with the funding." Brent chuckled. "So let''s get Seth and see what we can do with this."

    Twenty minutes in the conference room, it turned out it was easy enough for Danny to remove the contract from access to the Seeker app.

    "I strongly suggest you keep the search system locked behind a different permission set however. I recognize the system being used and it''s not really well designed to have untrained users running massive queries against it." Brent noted.

    "You picked a decent system for the backend on the wiki though." Seth added, looking over that portion. "Petabyte storage and front end on the same datacenter satellite, so there''s no link latency there. Looks like I can toggle read access to the public and it has account identity management already configured through whatever the Seeker app is using. If you want someone to maintain this though, you''re going to need more people."

    "I know a few people for that." Brent distractedly replied, now manipulating something else. I had a feeling he was already starting to move data.

    "More out of town hires?" I gave Brent a look.

    He shook his head while still focused. "They''ve been here a few weeks already, so no."

    "Are you staging people here just waiting on us to ask?" Danny frowned. "I''d rather you just tell me what I need instead of waiting for us to run against problems."

    "No, they''ve been here for other reasons, but they can do basic IT work." Brent finally looked up from his computer. "Probably unneeded reasons at this point, but it never hurts."

    "I get my own IT shop then?" Seth broke in.

    "Sure, convert over one of the back storage areas." Danny answered. "It''s going to continue to be hell to get office supplies though. And are we going to learn what those unneeded reasons are, Brent?"

    "They''re here for you guys and Rolla in general in case of emergencies," is all Brent would answer. "Nicole, I''ve got the documentation uploaded to this wiki database, it does thankfully let me lock stuff to certain accounts until it''s been reviewed. You''ll probably want to just parcel it out into more useful pieces than just unlocking for public the raw data anyways."

    I nodded. "Fun, alright. You were saying something about images too?"

    Brent gave me my own nod. "That''s the bulk of the transfer, and that''ll take at least overnight. Just don''t click any links in the source documents at the moment."

    "Cool. I''m going back to my office unless anyone''s got anything for me?" No one disagreed, so I got up.

    "Danny, can we talk about this contract and how unenforceable it was?" Brent asked as I grabbed my bag. I slowed to listen to the answer.

    "It was knee-jerk reaction to theft." Was his only defense.

    ~~~

    The wiki suddenly had a single extra link titled Goodfellow results that I followed, bringing up a table of contents and about sixty pages below that. I started at the top with the generalized results.

    Number of airmen in training group: 873

    Number of airmen with power for external dantian testing: 67

    Final number of airmen with dantian: 871

    Internal: 51

    External: 820

    Final number of airmen with first breakthrough

    Internal: 49

    External: 707

    Huh, did they run into the same issues as Fort Leonard Wood? Was this getting shared to them and the other bases?

    The first ten pages were fairly detailed information on every one of the initial sixty seven people that were on the false path with power ahead of time. Number of blocks they''d gone through, how long they''d had power, how often they used it. It even went into things I wouldn''t have wondered about, all the way down to blood type and questions about pregnancy and periods.

    I felt better about someone running another testing site, at least. It felt like Colonel Williams had been thrown in the deep end, but these guys at least knew how to swim.

    The next section worried me a little though.

    Failures

    Two airmen (Subjects 118 and 704) reported previous power with breakthroughs at 5th? and 4th? stage, respectively. Upon utilizing Internal Dantian Firen Method, both subjects collapsed and continue to be on medical treatment for coma. No other airmen at 5th? stage in training group. Three other airmen at 4th? stage prior to Subject 704 successfully completed Internal generation.

    Two other airmen at 4th? stage were pulled from program for further study.

    Sixteen (2 first, 6 second, 8 third prior breakthrough) airmen with Internal Dantian Firen Method creation chose to participate in rapid push for first breakthrough without following caveated healing notes. Authorized by base commander after full review with airmen. Internal Dantian recognized as full collapse without any results in subsequent CAT, MRI, PET, or ultrasound scans.

    Addendum: All sixteen airmen successfully followed secondary attempt at External Dantian Firen Method creation. Subsequent scans showed normal External Dantian, no signs of Internal Dantian. Damage previously seen in Internal Dantian not reflected on external.

    Yeah, I definitely needed to ask Brent if this was getting forwarded to others.

 Chapter 30: Data Gathering

    April 16th?

    Danny was up in his office, interviewing the first of the two people Brent had suggested. Probably just a formality, considering the source, but Danny was in charge of actually knowing them all. I''d gotten a look at the two possible new hires and they really did both strike me as similar to all the people we''d seen at Fort Leonard Wood, just not in uniform.

    Instead of interjecting myself into that process for the moment, I''d retreated to my own office to continue trying to parse through the information Brent had uploaded, figure out what all notes that Danny had mailed me to my school account before that email got deactivated, and put some of my own thoughts down as well.

    Someone had spent a good bit of time writing up the military stuff into an easily read format, it was just a slog to read through it all. The synopsis and summaries for each section made it easier though. Conjecture that the dantian and breakthroughs were hard tissue, since MRIs and ultrasounds didn''t reveal anything but the CT and PET scans did. The fluoroscopy videos were the most interesting, as they''d apparently injected the contrast dyes directly into where the dantian was at.

    The fluoroscopy scans weren''t done on internal dantian people from the looks of it, with a note about the location of that dantian too close to the heart to currently risk.

    But each video of the external dantian scans showed a different flow of the contrast dyes though. It would start at the dantian, thin out, and then most of it would vanish while the remainder just slowly spread in the body near the injection site. The vanished parts of the dye would reappear in different locations between the dantian and the first breakthrough, but never be a full connection line. At the first breakthrough, a lot of the dye bloomed and spread there as well.

    In two tests, the subjects were apparently pushing towards the second breakthrough as small bits of the dye appeared between the heart and the sternum but there was never a bloom.

    By the time I''d even gotten close to linking enough of the wiki into the military research, several hours had gone by and I''d heard the two guys being interviewed leave. I''d done at least enough to get others into the specific sections, so I moved onto the next chunk of data.

    Danny''s information was more sporadic and dealt a lot more with his karate and training. He had some interesting insights though. Going through forms and kata apparently didn''t push him into exerting himself anymore, similarly to how normal floor and bar routines didn''t do anything for me either; hence we''d ended up setting up the balance beam run.

    He''d only been trying to spar for the last few days and that provided a lot more useful exertion and use of dantian energy. I started pulling that data into the wiki in a reasonable format under the ''Usage of Dantian Energy'' heading where I''d listed the other things including the increased durability, run speeds, and jumping. I then sublinked it to a testing question on if sparring negated the other person''s energy, or just bypassed.

    I tentatively put down the assumption they negated each other, since a bypass would probably hurt a hell of a lot more to get hit with the full strength. I thought of the fight with Tony on that.

    Danny had wanted to test with me the difference in multiple breakthrough levels yesterday. That''d probably be good, although I didn''t really know karate or other martial arts other than ''straight wrist and don''t hold your thumb when you punch'' from Dad.

    If nothing else, it''d be interesting to try and might give me something better to do than debate how to set up ever increasing weird gymnastics setups to keep pushing myself.

    Finally, my notes section was more esoteric than most and really needed good indexing. I''d written down everything I could remember about each breakthrough and what it''d felt like. My Art of Awakening, how it''d felt before and after I''d ''finished'' it. And a few weird conjectures about what else I could do with it, but I''d need more understanding if I wanted to try to wake an animal''s dantian. Could they even have one?

    I''d made notes on all the different times the alien had given me personal attention, except during the Gasp. That time I still wasn''t sure what to think about, but probably should at least discuss it with Danny or Brent.

    Each of the different answers Zhaohui had given back about the strength of the world''s soul, and how at one point he hadn''t included me with being mortal. The strange sensation of building or molding something on my last breakthrough. Zhaohui hadn''t answered with any additional interest that time, but it was weird enough to me.

    In fact¡­ "What is the strength of the world''s soul?"

    Your world has cleared the first block of the [Initiate''s Realm] and grows to match.

    The answer roiled through me. Again, amused patience. The interest was still there, but it felt like the alien wasn''t really paying attention. That sense of more definition to the Initiate''s Realm. I wish I''d paid more attention to the world''s soul part when he was still saying that. ''World'' by itself didn''t seem to have the same connotations to it.

    The alien''s words seemed to strike me harder now that I had more breakthroughs, like I could feel it better.

    Brent had uploaded the transcript from when Zhaohui had spoken at the United Nations to the system as well. It wasn''t anything you could get additional depth from, but just the words had some value.

    I didn''t want to test bulletproof if third body meridian was the third breakthrough of the Initiate''s Realm, but Profound Realm cultivator was interesting, though I didn''t know what that would actually mean.

    I dropped that into the tree I had built out with ''Alien'' as the top part of it. The bottom part was Initiate''s Realm, and the Profound and Heavenly Realms were on there with question marks as well.

    Heavenly Realm was very likely higher than Profound, but was that the level of the alien?

    "What is the Initiate''s Realm?" I prompted to that sense of the alien. No answer. The only time I''d managed to actually get a response, I''d been panicking and thrown everything into pushing that mental concept of breathing out.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    "What is the strength of the world''s soul?" I focused on the second part of the answer, bringing to mind all the information I knew about the dantian, the breakthroughs, and those rings separated but somehow still connected. I pushed energy, tilted through my second breakthrough, with the question.

    Your world has cleared the first block of the I???n??????i???t?????i????????????a??????????t?????e??????''?????????s??????????? ???R???????????e????????a??????l?????m???????? and grows to match.

    The words were the same, but so much more was packed into the phrase. A feeling of differences and growth and self.

    I turned that sensation right back around. I''d only had a single breakthrough when I''d managed to talk directly to Zhaohui before, and I had more energy now to spare. I cycled, pushing a good bit of my stored energy towards that presence, along with my question. "What is the [Initiate''s Realm]?"

    I was overwhelmed with sensation as an answer was given, in that same reflexive tone as the original question''s answer. The first step off the mortal path, preparing the body to energize the sleeping soul.

    I could see a path in mists up a mountain. I couldn''t see the end and I was only at the beginning, but each step I had already taken only led to a plateau, before the path continued again. I could see several plateaus before distance and mist swallowed them up whole.

    The scene shifted and suddenly I was a warrior in a battle. Ahead, a command I could take. Further beyond that, a small army I could lead. The battle raged ever onwards, unending.

    Shift again. A small spark, becoming the heart of larger and larger blazes until I could build up big enough to burn the entire world.

    The imagery in the reply struck harder, shaking me internally as I felt the energy of my dantian ring like a struck bell, each of my breakthroughs ringing with it. More sensation and imagery as the form of me I''d seen slightly shimmered into being once again in my power, the rough self-image quivering in my energy; and I could suddenly feel the alien''s presence wrapped around it, and around me. Define yourself or be defined by your actions.

    Then the image and feeling faded away again as my temples suddenly throbbed in pain and stars exploded in my vision. "Damn, what happened?" I moaned, dropping my head into my arms.

    Five, ten, then finally fifteen minutes later the pain finally started edging off from ocular migraine to just a head pounding throb, all the while I could feel the energy in me touching upon the headache, taking bits and pieces away.

    I tried to cycle to make the energy take that pain away faster, but it only caused the energy to overflow into the headache, making it worse. I quickly stopped and let it do what it wanted.

    I gently stood, trying to not jostle myself any more than I already felt shaken up. I was fairly steady on my feet, but I still felt weak. At least this time, I wasn''t scraped raw and empty of energy. I got to the door of my office. "Danny, Brent? Either of you guys there? Melissa? Anyone?"

    Brent came out of his little office after a minute and caught sight of me leaning against the wall. "What happened!?" He rushed down the hallway to me.

    "I made the mistake of figuring out how to get better answers from the alien." My head still throbbed at the memories. "Can you get Brandon? I''d really like some aspirin or something."

    A few minutes later I was nursing a glass of water in the conference room with several others.

    "So?" Brent asked. "Can you share?" Danny, Brandon, and Melissa all looked interested in my response as well.

    I thought for a moment. "Has anyone actually tried to understand more of what Lei Zhaohui is saying? I know I''ve gone over that before, where if you concentrate on what you know about what he''s saying, you can actually kind of feel the word as a definition?"

    "I know Ash has, remember, he said the breathe thing sounded different," Melissa recalled. "I''ve tried it a few times, but don''t really notice anything, though."

    "Anyone else?"

    "Maybe? It is hard to tell, but his voice does seem to sound¡­stranger¡­on certain phrases." Danny added thoughtfully.

    "I doubt he actually speaks any of our languages, so we''ve got to be understanding him somehow¡­" I remarked. "And you''ve all seen in my notes where I''ve done some dumb things that were interesting enough the alien actually spoke to me?"

    Everyone but Brandon nodded their agreement.

    "Yeah, you should probably go through and read the stuff," I said to him. I took a deep breath. "But yeah. My second breakthrough was yelling at him during the Gasp that we needed to breathe in and out. It actually caught his attention and he changed what he was saying. And basically called us babies needing our hands held."

    There''s the dumbfounded looks and Brent madly scrambling to take notes.

    "I was putting together the different research notes on the wiki, and tried to poke some more information out of the alien. I figured out how to turn ''Initiate''s Realm'' back into a question to him. I wasn''t ready for the answer." I winced just thinking about the overwhelming nature of what I''d seen, more than what I''d heard.

    "Can you share the answer?" Melissa''s question.

    "The first step off the mortal path, preparing the body to energize the sleeping soul," I answered her. "That''s not what hurt, though. I saw paths. Up a mountain, leading armies. Being a fire to consume the world. Others. Then the alien seemed to catch onto what I was doing and cut me off. He then said to define myself or be defined by my actions. I felt like my brain tried to literally break."

    "Not something to try again soon then." Brent frowned.

    "Not immediately, but we have to keep moving forward though, right? The only thing that was similar between all those paths were places that shifted greater. And there were at least four in each path, but I couldn''t see beyond that."

 Interlude: An Alien Perspective

    <div>

    Ten thousand mortal lifetimes ago, he had been but an individual warrior, toiling under the auspices of Heaven, striving to honor ancestors and gods alike as war raged across his homeland.  Many others fell to his blade and skill.  He had trained to the peak of his strength and won some minor accolades from the commanders of his people for his daring.

    Finally, the small recognitions had piled up and he was presented with a great prize.  The weakest of the energy pills, crafted to align a mortal body with the energies the gods of his world, husbanded for their greatest endeavors.

    Taking the pill set him alight, drove the fury of combat and strength into him along with igniting the fires of the dantian inside him.  No longer would he be a simple warrior of his little people, he would be a proud cultivator that dominated the battlefield!  The gods walked the greater cosmos in their battles, but he would stride the mortal lands in their name and rise as their servant.

    But the Heavens truly had a sense of humor, as he found himself back among the weakest of the people.  Cultivators of the Initiate Realm were barely more than mortal among even the weakest of those who walked the path to Heaven.  And the qi of the world was highly regimented, filling the soul only slowly.  Greater accolades in combat and bravery were required to have the land offer up its energy to strengthen him.  All the while the land greedily drank in their own cast offs.

    Many of his peers were those that suppressed the weaker around them instead, feeding on their cultivation to hasten their own.  The only rule as laid down by those above was to not destroy someone¡¯s cultivation completely, as that was the fastest way to anger the Heavens.

    But he grew in the sparse space afforded, fighting the battles that would gain him the most strength and drive his enemies before him.  He did not steal from the cultivation of those who became junior to him as he grew, for their weakness was not something he wished to include in himself.

    The great city-masters and lords of the regions noticed him as his strength grew.  Neither content nor growing when defending the people, he was instead sent to be among those who conquered new land.  He eventually rose beyond the near mortal Initiates and began striding ever forward into the higher realms.

    It was once he neared the entrance to Heaven, a dozen mortal lifetimes later, that he learned of the true nature of his world.  The land could not support those who would leave it behind.  Much like those who preyed on the weaker of his near mortal time, the draw of the earth upon his cultivation grew greater with each step up the mountain to Heaven he took.

    And at that peak, he found he would have to take back from the world to lift himself into Heaven.  He was reminded of the voracious hunger of the world¡¯s qi.  How much was natural and how much were those in his place taking, just on a wider scale than the lower Realms?

    He wanted Heaven, he wanted to walk among his gods, but his soul was that of a being who had conquered his enemies, drove them before him.  Found worthy enemies that drove him to the limits of his strength.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    He could conquer his world, bend it in its entirety to him, yet that would require Divinity himself, not just to walk among the Heavens.

    So instead, he turned in on himself and conquered his own energy.  He ascended to the Heavenly Realm upon his own soul, and found only more of the same as his world was.  Instead of lower realm cultivators fighting for mortal purposes, those in the Heavenly Realm fought for the direct approval of the gods, to be given a greater feast of the energies of the world.

    Turned aside by empires and Heavenly Sects alike, he turned to building his own soul¡¯s strength through formation and alchemy, defining his Dao as one who conquers the strong, not feeding from carrion among the weak.

    And it finally came to the point where stepping into the realm Divine was possible, but no amount of his own effort would suffice.  For his soul had grown in size and strength that it must have a Heaven to rest upon.  It was then he discovered the qi of the gods of his world shaped the Heavenly Realm, and thus shaped the earthly Realms, in their own likeness.  And his burgeoning divinity was nowhere near the strength to conquer the dozen cultivator gods, some of whom had their divinity resting in multiple Heavens.

    And so he turned to formations once more, invoking the same Rite that other burgeoning Divine Realm cultivators invoked.  Echoed through his Dao, the Rite of Ragnarok.  Bring me to a world with a Heaven that will support my cultivation.  That both my Way and Dao will find pleasing.

    ~~~

    He refused to sup upon the essence of a world unworthy of his conquering, so why an entire world of mortals?  The Rite used his own Dao, tasted of his own cultivation, to resonate with the Dao of the universe to find, within its infinite reaches, a world that matched.  To fail after invoking the Rite was to accept the loss of multiple realms of cultivation at a minimum.

    The first possible answer lay in the weapons the mortal used.  Something easy at hand that could harm a cultivator, required a second realm to even appropriately react to it.  A world that produced mortals such as this must have a soul of such strength that it would be a great fight against its Heaven.

    But the Heavenly Realm did not exist here, the mortal earth did not support anything.  As he expanded himself across the world and into its center, he found it.  Wounded nigh unto death, shattered and broken.  This world¡¯s soul had taken a divine strike before it even found itself.  The tower broken enough that even the mortals strayed from it and did not speak a single world¡¯s language.

    He knew of the flows of qi in the world such that fixing this world¡¯s soul to at least the third realm would take less than a revolution of this planet around its star.  But to impose such a change upon the planet would impose such a change upon the mortals.  And if this world answered to his rite, then it would be much more beneficial for the people of this world to remain themselves and strengthen his return, instead of becoming much like those he had left behind.

    ~~~

    In a world devoid of cultivation and no singular language imposed by the world¡¯s soul, it only took a moment to hold his soul up against not only the fragments of the broken, but also against the deeply slumbering souls of these mortals.  And so very, very few used the echoes of their soul instead of tearing their soul apart for power.

    His own soul and qi already surrounded them and for those who tore themselves apart, his energy served as a cover for the damage they did.  But enough damage and their soul would collapse, leaving a body that had no attachment to their greater self.

    The girl was interesting, questing in her own way.  He hadn¡¯t noticed when the world¡¯s soul had finally stitched itself together that his command for life reverberated into them as well.

    But she was bound and determined to harm herself climbing mountains when she hadn¡¯t taken the step off the first hill.

 Chapter 31: A New Question

    April 17th?

    ¡°How do you define yourself, if not by your actions?¡± I quietly asked myself.

    I sat on the edge of the building, letting the rain fall around me as I stared off into the distance. No answers came from the rain, nor the sight of roads and trees beyond the parking lot. I cycled in, letting the energy fill me. Fire and earth slept, stronger than the rest of the passive mix of energy. Actively pushing was wood, emanating from the plant on the rooftop nearby.

    Behind me, several people were taking soil measurements and other measurements of the blackberry bush underneath the makeshift greenhouse. Karen had managed to snag a couple of professors and researchers from the school and over the past couple of days; the bush had proven its worth by fruiting almost at a visible pace. Replanted clippings apparently didn¡¯t have nearly the speed, but still grew out of season.

    A tiny portion of the root had been clipped as well, but the moment it had been the cycling of wood energy from that portion of the root had faded. The root was still growing in another pot, but it hadn¡¯t pushed up canes overnight nor was it building up any strength as well. A couple of us had panicked that cutting the root had stopped the main plant from whatever it was doing, but thankfully the root had just sealed off the cut portion and continued happily on.

    To further its growth, several more people were building an actual framework of a greenhouse. It¡¯d taken Danny a couple of days and throwing quite a bit of money around to buy the Seekers way past the queue of other jobs to get that happening. Danny had confessed that it wouldn¡¯t be hard for us to build it but he couldn¡¯t actually find the materials, only a company that already had them.

    Danny was trying to find someone to install an internal staircase up as well, but that was a bigger project. Not everyone wanted to climb up a fire ladder, which I understood. But apparently the complaint was it was too difficult to expect everyone to do so.

    Apparently not everyone wanted to light their dantian, much less go through the blocks. I couldn¡¯t understand that, honestly. If everyone had as hard a time as I did after the third, I could see possibly stopping then. But why put zero effort into gaining free strength and stamina? The literal extra energy?

    ¡°You guys need me to bring anything down?¡± I looked at the handful of workers and researchers once again. At no positive responses, I shrugged.

    Taking a deep breath, I pushed off the edge dropping the thirty-ish feet to the wet concrete below. Melissa still hadn¡¯t finished her technique, but a thirty foot drop was still within my own ability to absorb without issue.

    Entering the building, I shook the water off and hung the raincoat up, letting it drip into the buckets underneath the hooks. ¡°How¡¯s it going?¡± I asked Tasha.

    The woman in question looked up from her computer and nodded at me. ¡°Alright. I¡¯ve fielded a few questions regarding if you were going to be teaching any classes soon. Did you want to plan one?¡±

    I dropped into a chair. ¡°I¡¯m not certain what I¡¯d be teaching, besides possibly trying to monitor people making further breakthroughs? Or maybe falling lessons?¡±

    ¡°The gist of the questions revolved around similar things, yes. I think people are hoping to see what it looks like with more breakthroughs,¡± Tasha agreed. ¡°You¡¯re somewhat of a goal right now for others. I¡¯m tracking everyone that¡¯s a direct member of the Dantian Seekers and anyone else that¡¯s been willing to give us their information, and most people are only in their first or second breakthrough.¡±

    She smiled. ¡°Ironically, the people who didn¡¯t have power are more numerous in the second breakthrough category. Everyone¡¯s being really good about following the ¡®fix your dantian¡¯ requirement so the others are somewhat lagging behind.¡±

    I shrugged. ¡°I guess I don¡¯t mind, but I don¡¯t like the idea of just showing off that I¡¯m stronger than everyone else. That doesn¡¯t seem right.¡±

    ¡°So, what do you want to do a class on then?¡± Tasha asked me.

    ¡°Let me think on it a bit, I don¡¯t know just yet. I don¡¯t mind showing off some, but I want it to have a reason.¡± Which reminded me... ¡°Hey, is Danny upstairs or doing his karate thing?¡±

    ¡°His karate thing.¡± Tasha smiled a little. ¡°Did you need him?¡±

    ¡°No, he was asking a couple of days ago to test something with me and sparring with more breakthroughs. I¡¯ll go find him, thanks.¡± I nodded to Tasha and got up.

    After changing into my own workout clothes, I found Danny again sparring against someone else, but only the two of them were there and no onlookers this time. They were sparring at non-slow speeds this time.

    ¡°Hey Danny, I called, making them separate, bowing to each other. ¡°I¡¯ve got some time if you want to do that difference between multiple breakthroughs testing you were talking about?¡±

    Danny looked me over. ¡°You sure your head is feeling alright? You were hurting pretty bad yesterday.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°I¡¯m OK. Headache¡¯s gone with no soreness remaining.¡± I looked between them. ¡°So, how do we do this?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m Pat,¡± the other guy introduced himself. ¡°So, do you have any martial arts training?¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°Only what my dad taught me. Wrist straight, thumb on the outside if you have to punch someone.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s not wrong at least,¡± he laughed. ¡°Since Danny¡¯s higher than I am, I assume you¡¯re going to be using me for a test on those differences?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± Danny immediately said. ¡°Nicole¡¯s at five, I¡¯m at two, you¡¯re at one. We¡¯re going to have to be stupidly careful letting her hit us. I was more thinking of getting the block pads and having Nicole block hits until she¡¯s comfortable trying without them.¡±

    ¡°Wait, five?¡± Pat whistled. ¡°I didn¡¯t realize. Yeah. Let¡¯s definitely get you blocking first then, no beginner punches.¡±

    Danny grabbed a couple of small pads that were hung up on a wall and slipped them onto his hands. ¡°Alright, punching pads. These are basically used to train hits to specific areas, or there¡¯s the bigger one used to block kicks.¡±

    He held the pads up in front of him and Pat punched out a few times, denting them fairly heavily with each strike. ¡°Honestly, I don¡¯t expect them to last too long, we can put some pretty heavy damage on them even now. But we can use them right now just to let you get the feel for it.¡±

    Danny pulled them off and offered them to me. I grabbed them and fumbled for a second before slipping them on. I held up my hands in front of me, the pads facing outwards. ¡°Like this?¡±

    Danny adjusted my hands a bit. ¡°Alright. Just brace yourself and let Pat punch the pads. We¡¯ll work up to full strength, I promise.¡±

    I nodded and put one foot back a little. It was kind of strange, since the height difference was enough that to hold them up for his punching he¡¯d be punching next to my head.

    After feeling the first few punches¡ªmore like hesitant feather taps¡ªagainst the pads, I just gave him a look. ¡°You¡¯re barely even hitting. You guys were going faster during your test spars a few days ago.¡± Pat nodded and then started punching a bit harder, switching to using his back arm. I frowned as the strikes hit the pad but still didn¡¯t push my own arm back, much less make me need to actually brace myself. There was a bit of echo through the energy flowing in me, but it felt almost negligible. ¡°How hard are you hitting?¡±

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    Pat paused. ¡°I actually practice Judo so honestly I¡¯m not a straight punch type of person. But I¡¯m throwing backhand punches with a good bit of strength, yet hitting the pad is like punching a padded wall. You¡¯re not giving in the least.¡±

    I tilted my head. ¡°Huh.¡± I looked at Danny. ¡°Do you want him to punch my hand then? Or what¡¯s next?¡±

    Danny looked between the two of us. ¡°Try a couple of punches without the pad. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to make much difference though.¡±

    I pulled the pad off and held my hand out, open palm facing Pat.

    ¡°Don¡¯t lock your elbow please,¡± Pat asked, and I crooked my arm slightly. He took a couple of tentative punches at my hand which didn¡¯t move, before he threw a haymaker, solidly connecting with my arm. I felt the impact that time, but it still didn¡¯t move my arm. ¡°That¡¯s entirely unfair,¡± he complained, showing a half-disbelieving stare.

    ¡°For science¡¯s sake, were you cycling?¡± Danny asked.

    ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m fairly certain that was a brick breaking punch and you didn¡¯t even move. I¡¯m not certain you actually had to strain.¡± Pat gave me a look.

    ¡°I was bracing for the impact and actually felt that, if it helps?¡± I offered.

    ¡°Not really.¡±

    ¡°Are you good with me doing a few punches into your hand then, Nicole?¡± Danny asked. ¡°It¡¯s not going to take long to realize I¡¯m probably not going to be much better.¡±

    I nodded, holding my open palm out again. Danny¡¯s punches were a little stronger and I had to actually pay attention to the hits to keep my arm steady, but not much else.

    ¡°Can I try something?¡± Pat asked after Danny gave up.

    I turned to look at him. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±

    He shook his head. ¡°Something slightly different. Reach out your arm like you were punching at me?¡± Shrugging, I did so. His hand lashed out, grabbed past my wrist, and twisted to my elbow; his other hand going into my shoulder and putting weight against it as the sudden movement caught me off-guard and forced me to bend over. ¡°You OK?¡± he asked, not going any further.

    My elbow and shoulder twinged but didn¡¯t truly hurt as he pushed against me. It took me a second to mentally go over what he did, before I pushed back, bent my arm back the way it had come, and stood up.

    Pat grunted as he tried to resist. ¡°Damn, you shouldn¡¯t have the strength to do that. Literally. The pressure against your joints shouldn¡¯t let you.¡±

    ¡°So soft martial arts aren¡¯t a counter for the breakthrough difference either,¡± Danny mused. ¡°Or at least not grabs. Pat, you think you could redirect a punch?¡±

    Pat looked at Danny then at me. ¡°If she can walk herself out of an arm lock, doubtful.¡±

    ¡°Try the same one again?¡± I asked, holding my arm out. I had a thought about that. Pat nodded and grabbed out at me again. Knowing what was coming, I cycled and resisted the action completely.

    He grunted at my immovability, put both hands on my wrist, and threw me with a pivot of his hips. I landed, rolled, and came right back up as if it¡¯d been an expected gymnast tumble.

    ¡°If you recognize it, you can pretty much negate me, huh?¡± Pat asked and I nodded. ¡°About the only thing I¡¯ve got is you¡¯re so lightweight that I can easily pick you up and throw you even if I¡¯m not using your own strength to do it. But that doesn¡¯t do me any real good except for a ringout.¡±

    ¡°Do I get to do punching now or something?¡±

    Pat paled just slightly and Danny frowned. ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain you could put your fist through an actual concrete wall without issue. I¡¯m willing to carefully try it, since I believe you said Tony was claiming the fifth breakthrough on the false path when you were on your second.¡±

    ¡°He had a steel barbell. I don¡¯t know if that helps or hinders the idea though. I don¡¯t think it had any sort of energy in it, where if I punch you¡ªit will.¡±

    Danny nodded thoughtfully before grabbing one of the pads and putting it on. He held his hand up away from his body. ¡°Non-dominant hand and ready to fall. Punch the outside edge of the pad if you can and work your way up on how hard you swing. I¡¯m fully willing to just take a spill instead of trying to resist.¡±

    ¡°You who are about to fall, we salute you.¡± Pat had gotten a water bottle from somewhere and used it to salute Danny.

    As I tried to mimic the stance Pat had been using, Danny spoke up. ¡°Another step forward. Back arm down lower, front fist up a little higher. Front fist is for shorter punches and less strong. Back fist is for stronger punches, turn with your hips. Just try not to miss and punch my wrist or something please?¡± He laughed, but there was a little nervousness to it.

    I lightly tapped the pad with my fist a few times before punching just a little bit harder. Danny¡¯s hand rocked back, but he didn¡¯t really move. ¡°Stronger?¡± I looked at him.

    He nodded.

    I short punched a few more times, each time trying to hit a little harder, still not cycling. After the fourth one, Danny stumbled back.

    ¡°Hold on, hold on. Ow, I¡¯m really starting to feel that, even though you¡¯re not really catching more than a couple of fingers.¡± He rolled his shoulder and came back up. ¡°Alright, cycling now. Do a few with your back arm, then I want one really good hit. But not cycling your power at the same time, please.¡±

    I could actually sense warm energy flowing off of Danny a bit as he cycled. It actually gave me a bit better of a sense of where his hand was in the pad. I took a few easy aiming punches at the pad to make sure I could actually hit where I was going to try and Danny adjusted his footing. He really was preparing for a fall, left leg back and basically ready to be pushed.

    I centered myself and punched. This time I could feel Danny¡¯s energy where I connected and it seemed to actually push back against me in resistance, but my own energy blew right past it as my hand connected with the pad and Danny¡¯s hand inside of it.

    His arm flew backwards and Danny spun. Maybe partially on purpose, but also out of control as he fell onto the mats with enough spin he actually landed face first. He lay there for a moment.

    ¡°You OK?¡± I asked worriedly.

    Danny lay there for another second before rolling back over, rubbing his shoulder. ¡°Just thankful you don¡¯t have good aim.¡± He laughed. ¡°I turned my wrist and you didn¡¯t hit my hand full on, so I didn¡¯t take the full hit. I still had to throw myself to not have my arm wrenched out of socket. Glad I didn¡¯t resist or that could have caused some wrist issues.¡±

    ¡°Seriously?¡± Pat asked.

    Danny sat up, still rubbing at his shoulder. ¡°Yeah, you probably really wouldn¡¯t do any good redirecting a punch anywhere she didn¡¯t want it to go. Especially if she was trained.¡± He then groaned as he stood up. ¡°I¡¯m going to go get a couple of aspirin.¡±

    As he walked off, I turned to Pat. ¡°Hey, question for you.¡±

    He looked at me and nodded.

    ¡°How would you define yourself, without actions that define you?¡± I paraphrased the statement.

    ¡°Uhh. Husband, father of one? Warehouse worker? Fisher?¡± he offered, not sure where the question came from.

    ¡°And defining yourself with your power?¡± I pressed.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It helps at the warehouse, but that¡¯s using it which is an action. Why?¡±

    ¡°I did something dumb and actually got a comment out of the alien for it. ¡®Define yourself or be defined by your actions,¡¯¡± I explained. ¡°So I¡¯m trying to figure that out. I mean, I can say I was a student, now I¡¯m a researcher. But I don¡¯t see how that works with this power either. Thanks though.¡±

 Chapter 32: An Open Forum

    Board ¨C Seeker General

    Topic: Open Forum

    Posted by: NicoleFiren

    April 17th?

    The Dantian Seeker forums are now open for general use, thanks IT guys, with edits to the wiki restricted to Seeker members. I¡¯m dropping links on all the sites I¡¯ve been on, please drop links for anyone else as well. Our initial paper and new research released by DARPA will include links to here as we¡¯re sourcing any and all information we can.

    Please help everyone by contributing anything you¡¯ve discovered. I¡¯ve put in a handful of things that we¡¯ve seen nearby. You will get full credit for your findings!

    Nicole Firen

    Lead Researcher

    Dantian Seekers

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> Weird Stuff -> Australia

    Topic: Great Barrier Reef

    Posted by: DownUnderWarrior2001

    April 18th?

    I¡¯d figured by now the rains would have gotten water back over the reef, it¡¯s crazy. If you can deal with the rubble, you can walk out to the reef. That poor coral, even all this rain didn¡¯t keep it alive. Guess it¡¯s just a great barrier now, huh?

    Speaking of walking out to it, I was out there yesterday looking for dinner, since a lot of animals seem to have migrated to what¡¯s basically a bunch of standing stone and soft sand. Nearly lost a leg to a crab, almost a metre long. I thought harlequin crabs only got a few centimetres long? I got a <u>picture</u> of him, hiding in a pool of rainwater. Looks pretty well fed if he got that big. I¡¯m going to have to bring something bigger back to get him tomorrow. I wasn¡¯t expecting crabs like that guy.

    This the sort of thing you¡¯re looking for here?

    -> NicoleFiren

    Replied: April 18th

    Yeah! Are you able to sense if it has energy? Can you tell what it has?

    -> DownUnderWarrior2001

    Replied: April 18th?

    Isn¡¯t that the thing listed under second breakthrough? I¡¯ve only gotten one, but I¡¯ll see if I can find someone who will go.

    -> DownUnderWarrior2001

    Replied: April 19th?

    Holy hell. It took a couple of twelve gauge slugs to stop that thing, it actually chased my buddy and me. The shell is hard as hell. My mate said it had water energy. Almost 3 kilos of crab claw alone though, not bad for one guy. There were a few smaller ones in the pool too, so I¡¯ll keep an eye on the area.

    -> NicoleFiren

    Replied: April 19th?

    Thank you! I¡¯ve updated the wiki under abnormal creatures. If you want your actual name on it, message me.

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> Safety -> Asia

    Topic: Lava Rifts

    Posted by: Forager

    April 21st?

    I¡¯m shocked your site works. They¡¯ve really been screwing with the Great Firewall out here and they¡¯ve been conscripting people like mad. Your paper basically became required reading and instructions over here though, so congrats?

    I live near one of the fault lines, so figured I¡¯d post for anyone that¡¯s worried: the rifts are actually fully cool. I got stuck with a job of carefully drilling into one, about four miles into the rift. (Don¡¯t ask, please.) It¡¯s cool all the way down, at least a couple hundred feet. The lava rock is a weird mix of hard chunks, almost like obsidian, and silt, like it¡¯s been broken up already. Some neat geodes out of it, but they all got confiscated. Here¡¯s a <u>pic of one</u> that got cracked before it was taken. Some weird powder was in the center hollow.

    -> NicoleFiren

    Replied: April 21st?

    Don¡¯t take too many risks if you can? Thank you for the picture! I¡¯m happy you¡¯re safe!

    -> CaliSurvivor13

    Replied: April 22nd?

    I¡¯ve found a few of those stones myself, trying to pick through rubble outside Oakland. Didn¡¯t realize they were geodes.

    -> NicoleFiren

    Replied: April 22nd?

    Oh wow, are you OK?

    -> CaliSurvivor13

    Replied: April 22nd?

    Yeah, after everything stopped shaking and splitting. San Francisco Bay is like another ten miles from us now. San Francisco¡¯s been split in two, too. Really strange. The bay is more like a lake too, but the rains have been filling it back up.

    We¡¯re camped out in a tent city nearby, lots of military and soup kitchens out here.

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> Dantian -> General

    Topic: Breakthroughs

    Posted by: NicoleFiren

    April 25th?

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    I¡¯ve been poked by a lot of people about breakthroughs and what do I know about them. Beyond pointing out the wiki where we did upload a model of my dantian and breakthroughs, I¡¯ll post answers to questions I¡¯ve been asked here. Yes, any random trivia knowledge will get formalized and released appropriately to the wiki and other places instead of having to dig it out of replies.

    1. What order do the breakthroughs go through?

    a. Heart, Sternum, Neck (Spine), Shoulders.

    i. The shoulders seem to be two different breakthroughs and I basically accidented into them at the same time. We haven¡¯t had anyone else get to the point of trying for their fourth, so I don¡¯t have further information on it at this time.

    b. I can tell there are more, but I don¡¯t know how many/where. There¡¯s been some other people researching how to tell, but since we haven¡¯t figured out how to get a needle through my skin, I¡¯m out on self-testing that.

    2. Why are breakthroughs with external energy Dantians more difficult?

    a. Internal dantians were built from some internal power people had, we don¡¯t know what that power is yet. External ones use whatever power the Earth has, so our best guess so far is once you get past the Earth¡¯s breakthrough level it¡¯s harder.

    3. Issues with Breakthroughs.

    a. Please see the <u>wiki entry</u> from the large scale recording of testing if you¡¯re having issues. If yours doesn¡¯t match, I¡¯m willing to help/discuss/whatever to try to figure it out.

    -> IrishDantians

    Replied: April 27th?

    So yeah, your point three? External Dantian here, made it through first breakthrough. I¡¯ve tried several times to make the second one and haven¡¯t been able to. That ¡®pool¡¯ you clear out just kept getting sludgier and sludgier, and now it¡¯s basically a brick.

    I might have been a little hasty the first couple of times, but what can I do to fix it?

    -> NicoleFiren

    Replied: April 27th?

    One of the people on my team, Melissa, didn¡¯t manage to clear her first breakthrough the first time either. She had to clear out the power she¡¯d put into it the first time before she could clear the actual block. That¡¯s why there¡¯s so many notes to make sure you¡¯re completely full on power before you try.

    I¡¯m not certain what to tell you without something to look at though. The only thing I could guess right now is wait until you are completely, completely full to try again.

    Private Message

    NicoleFiren, IrishDantians

    Subject: Bad breakthrough

    ->NicoleFiren

    April 28th?

    I don¡¯t know how easy it would be, but if you could get some sort of scan? CT, PET, or fluoroscopy scans have shown the dantian and breakthroughs, so if you get one of those I can make better guesses?

    ->IrishDantians

    April 29th?

    Yeah, I can¡¯t just show up at the hospital and get one of those, and no doc¡¯s going to agree I need one. I have been building up everything I possibly could for the past couple of days and tried again this morning. Pretty much didn¡¯t move. Any way I could just restart the entire dantian/breakthrough thing and try again from scratch? I¡¯ll do it right next time if I can.

    -> NicoleFiren

    April 29th?

    I¡¯m honestly not sure. That sounds dangerous. But I guess no more than anything else we¡¯re all doing with it. If you try anything, please let people around you know so they can check on you, and anything you do please also let me know?

    But I¡¯m seriously not condoning just randomly trying stuff, OK? At least put together a plan of what you want to do, let me see it, and maybe we can put more than one head into thought?

    -> IrishDantians

    April 30th?

    Yeah, on my own head be it. I just hate that I may have screwed this up and can¡¯t fix it. I¡¯ll send you something.

    I closed the message out and sighed. The forum was quickly picking up users and I wasn¡¯t going to be able to talk to everyone with a problem pretty soon. IrishDantians wasn¡¯t the first person to rush and mess something up, but he was the first to float the idea of trying to restart this. That was definitely a question I couldn¡¯t answer and I hoped he didn¡¯t do something even worse to himself.

    But even if he just took his power away from himself, what was the worse thing? He would have to restart? Maybe not be able to do it again at all? It wasn¡¯t like losing a limb or something.

    I paused at that. I¡¯d gotten used to the extra power myself already, would I like to go back to ¡®normal¡¯? No. So that would suck. Hopefully he¡¯d at least outline what he wanted to do and we could bounce it around here too.

    How would you restart it anyways? It¡¯s not like an external dantian had issues with the rings you could purposely fail to repair and have collapse, like an internal one.

 Chapter 33: Water you doing?

    May 2nd?

    ¡°I want to emphasize this,¡± I told the small group sitting in front of me. ¡°If you are not one hundred percent ready to try a breakthrough, don¡¯t. As in, when you cycle and hold in energy, you still bleed off as much as you¡¯re pulling back in.¡±

    The little meditation-slash-relaxation and breakthrough area had changed a good bit in the past month. Gone were the store aisles acting as walls for the entire section. In their place were solid office partition walls. Splitting off the individual rooms were nicer screen partitions. The central section was still open and was where I sat in front of the seven people that had signed up for a lesson on energy cycling. This was the third class I¡¯d done and was the smallest so far.

    ¡°So as soon as we¡¯re at that point then we should be good to try, right?¡± one woman asked. She looked to be double my age with a bit of gray in her hair, especially at the roots.

    ¡°Only if you think you¡¯re ready. I take the time to purposely cycle every day, for at least an hour. I try to keep that cycling going as well during the day. I made my last breakthrough almost a month ago and I¡¯ve been full on power for almost three weeks.¡± I paused. ¡°But I don¡¯t think I¡¯m ready to push it, myself. My second and third breakthroughs were when I was pushing myself hard for a good reason. My fourth and fifth we purposely set something up to push me, and I barely made it.¡±

    I looked them over. ¡°I pushed some friends of mine hard for their third breakthrough a couple of weeks ago. The only one that made it? Melissa. She was pushing herself even harder trying to do a trick with her energy. Karen and Ash didn¡¯t make it through. Now yes, Melissa isn¡¯t using external energy like you all are, and like Karen and Ash are as well. But I¡¯m still of the opinion it needs to mean something for you. And yes, Karen and Ash have both since managed their third breakthrough, so it is doable.¡±

    ¡°I just want to be able to lift half a ton like it¡¯s nothing.¡± A young boy grinned, running a hand through his hair. ¡°Is that so much to ask?¡± The older woman, his mom, just cuffed him upside the head.

    ¡°For your third breakthrough, probably.¡± I lifted an eyebrow in his direction but he just kept grinning. I shook my head. ¡°Whatever. Alright, let¡¯s get started.¡± I clapped my hands. ¡°Remember. Anything you learn, we all learn.¡±

    I stood up. ¡°This is at your own pace, but I do want you all to start at the same time. Hold everything in that you can, everything you¡¯re generating. Cycle and pull in the external energy.¡±

    Since we were so separated from it, those of us that generated our energy completely internally could apparently feel the energy flows better when others cycled. I breathed in, cycling the energy around me. As my little class did the equivalent of holding their breath while drinking, I could feel dips and swirls as they cycled.

    I wished I was an artist, or had a camera capable of seeing it. Cycling while holding back for a breakthrough was completely different from normal cycling. Normally, I could feel the energy of the person build up stronger, flowing out in tiny waves and threads that seemed to grow more numerous with each breakthrough, even as the power in the air mixed and matched the person.

    But when they held their energy back? The better they held their portion of the energy to themselves, the more it felt like a drain and I could feel the energy swirling as it siphoned away. Different patterns and whorls as they drew it into themselves with only a minor release back depending on how well they were stopping their flow.

    After a few minutes I frowned and looked at the kid, then my cheatsheet for names. ¡°Robert, what are you doing?¡± The energy was acting oddly around him, thickening in part, but also only a thin piece of it was going to him?

    ¡°Uhh, cycling?¡± he offered, being obviously vague.

    ¡°Do it right,¡± his mother hissed at him.

    I shook my head. ¡°You¡¯re doing something different, which is interesting. What¡¯s up?¡±

    He looked between his mom and me. She sighed.

    He got a mulish look on his face. ¡°Since I made the second breakthrough a few weeks ago and could tell, I like the feel of the water energy better. So I¡¯m only pulling that part from the air and cycling just that.¡±

    I opened my mouth to say something, paused, then stopped. I looked at the other five people in the class who were watching. ¡°Anyone else doing the same?¡± Five negatives. ¡°Alright, you guys keep cycling. We¡¯re going to go have a discussion.¡±

    The boy frowned as he got up with his mom and we moved over to one of the other rooms.

    ¡°You mind if I record this? Or do I just need to take notes?¡± I asked, motioning with my tablet.

    ¡°Record it, I guess?¡± the mom, Stacey Brooks from my cheatsheet, answered. ¡°He¡¯s not hurting himself doing this, right?¡±

    I flipped the recording on. ¡°Alright. Robert Brooks here with mother Stacey Brooks. Question asked before recording began if Robert is hurting himself cycling the way he is.¡±

    I looked at the kid, still with a mulish look on his face and ready to argue. ¡°Probably not, no.¡± I answered his mom, which made the look on Robert¡¯s face soften. ¡°Robert, go ahead and give me the full story, if you would.¡±

    Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!

    ¡°I¡¯ve been keeping up with all the stuff being put up on the forums and wiki and stuff. So a couple of weeks ago when I made my second breakthrough I tried doing the types of energy sensing thing. The fire and the earth is from the lava and stuff, right? Well there¡¯s been lots of water energy too from all the rain and I like the rain, so I tried to cycle just that part.¡± He grinned at me. ¡°It¡¯s kinda hard to get just the water part, but easier now than when I started.¡±

    I drummed my fingers against my leg, thinking. Mom looked at her kid, face worried, as I didn¡¯t immediately say yay or nay about what he was doing. ¡°So, are you still trying to cycle just water then, even when you¡¯re not building up?¡±

    ¡°Kinda?¡± he answered. ¡°I mean, if I¡¯m not paying attention I get everything, but I¡¯ve been trying to only do water when I can. I can tell it¡¯s doing something different, too. The energy my dantian makes feels different.¡±

    Oh. Oh goodie. ¡°Different how?¡± I couldn¡¯t keep the worry out of my voice and now both mom and kid looked a little more worried.

    ¡°Kinda like it¡¯s more watery? Even when I cycle everything, stuff like the fire and earth energy don¡¯t seem to exchange as well anymore.¡± He paused. ¡°I¡¯m not going to turn to water, am I?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think so. Can you cycle normally? Not to build up or anything, just like if you were going to lift that half a ton you were talking about.¡± I gave him a smile.

    He did so, and I could feel his energy moving. It did feel like water, just a bit. ¡°Alright, now just the water stuff?¡±

    This time the water feeling was much more pronounced, but even that was just saying I could notice a mist instead of just getting a couple of raindrops in the face. ¡°Alright.¡±

    He stopped and his mom looked at me. ¡°I could kind of feel that difference myself. Honestly, I was hoping it wasn¡¯t anything different, which is why I didn¡¯t say anything when we came in today.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s not the first one to feel like a type of energy rather than just straight ¡®energy,¡¯¡± I air quoted the word. ¡°He¡¯s just the first person I know of using external energy for a dantian to do it. Danny and Melissa both feel more specifically of an energy type. Fire and electricity.¡±

    ¡°So I¡¯m good to keep doing it then?¡± Robert asked.

    I looked at his mom. ¡°That¡¯s actually between you and your mom. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s specifically hurting you, but you¡¯re doing something new and kids aren¡¯t usually the test subjects for anything new.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t really stop him though, can I?¡± Stacey sighed and Robert got a huge grin. ¡°So what do I do to make it as safe as possible?¡±

    I had Robert cycle a few more times, both normally and his only water cycling trick, then looked back at his mom. ¡°You¡¯re certain? I¡¯m fairly certain I can find some gruesome stories from someone out there about doing stupid things with this power that hurt them. Heck, I even have one about the wrong way to use power without a dantian that felt like the guy was ripping chunks out of himself.¡±

    She sighed and looked at her son who looked a little green at my description, but still determined. ¡°He¡¯s as hard headed as his dad, so yes.¡±

    I nodded and looked at Robert. ¡°Alright, welcome to testing then. First thing to know about testing something new? It sucks because you¡¯re going to have to write down or record everything you can. You said it feels different cycling, right?¡±

    He nodded, unsure.

    ¡°You still feel mostly like normal energy to me, even when you cycle just water. So to limit variables, no attempting breakthroughs or anything until you feel just as much like water as Danny or Melissa feel like their energies.¡± I looked at Stacey. ¡°Can you bring him in every couple of days?¡±

    ¡°Or his father, yes,¡± she answered.

    ¡°Alright, I want to know down to the minute how often you¡¯re purposely cycling just water. You need to make note of that so we can try to track how long this takes.¡± I looked at Robert again. ¡°Cycling just water is probably less total energy than cycling everything?¡± He nodded. ¡°Then we¡¯re going to have to quantify that too.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a lot of work,¡± he complained.

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to just cycle everything and try to get back to normal?¡± I offered. ¡°It probably wouldn¡¯t take much. You don¡¯t feel all that much like water yet.¡±

    The mulish look was back. ¡°No, I wanna.¡±

    ¡°Then help everyone out. It¡¯s called the Firen Method because I was the first one to document exactly how to build a dantian for everyone else to do. If we can document all of this and it¡¯s repeatable, we¡¯ll probably start calling it the Brooks Energy Conversion Method or something like that eventually,¡± I dangled.

    ¡°Ooh, deal!¡± Robert grinned. ¡°Can it be the Robert Brooks Energy Conversion Method?¡±

    ¡°Mine¡¯s not even the Nicole Firen Method,¡± I laughed. ¡°But if it¡¯s well documented enough, who knows. Remember, we need as much detail as you can on everything you¡¯re doing with it.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m gonna drown you in info then!¡±

    Stacey just shook her head. ¡°If only you did that for your homework.¡±

    I clicked off the recorder. ¡°Every day something new, huh?¡±

 Chapter 34: The Great Storm

    I finished up with Stacey and Robert and didn¡¯t have any further interruptions to the class, finishing it without anyone else coming up with a strange problem or even making a breakthrough. My speech about waiting until you really felt ready had stuck, apparently.

    Two of them had asked to stay and use the individual rooms for a while, which was fine. Robert had looked at the rooms with a question to his mom, but she¡¯d just taken him out. I imagined he¡¯d be doing a lot of writing in the next few days though.

    After changing back out of my workout clothes and into my normal choice of loose long shorts and nearly sleeveless shirt, I wandered about the building for a little bit, just checking in on things because I could. Seth¡¯s two new minions were settled well into their roles of whatever web domain work was needed, along with random other stuff as well.

    The medical area looked more like a small hospital section now, with a couple of beds inside of screens, the various big pieces of equipment off to one side, and Brandon sitting at a desk, chatting with someone I didn¡¯t recognize offhand. Arrayed on the desk between them was a bunch of different needles.

    ¡°Hey,¡± he spoke up, seeing me. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m just wandering at the moment. You guys?¡±

    ¡°Discussing different weapons of patient destruction.¡± The woman waved a hand towards the needles.

    I gave her a strange look. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I actually don¡¯t think I know you?¡±

    She just gave me a smile. ¡°Amy Diaz. I was hired about a week ago for general nursing. I¡¯m honestly hoping you¡¯re not going to hurt yourself any time soon, as I don¡¯t know what we could do for you, other than oral medication.¡±

    Confusion cleared, I smiled back at her. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not really certain either. Let me know if you come up with any ideas.¡±

    We chatted for a few more minutes before I left. The gym was clear, which left me little procrastination to do there, so I headed back to my office.

    I logged into my computer after I sat down and sighed a soft smile. Another project, another piece of the puzzle¡ª the full size still unknown. I pulled up an internal tracker in the system and put in an earbud, starting the recording from earlier to transcribe it over.

    Just putting the data over wasn¡¯t long, but annotating some interesting points on it took longer.

    If Robert could convert himself over to water, what was the purpose of doing so? Did he get some benefit from making water energy instead of normal energy?

    Were Danny and Melissa actually making fire and electricity energy themselves? What made them different from me¡ªor any of the dozen other Seekers¡ªthat didn¡¯t seem to pick up an actual energy type.

    Electricity, lightning perhaps, didn¡¯t seem to be represented in that base mix of energy in the air either. How do you get to that from what was there? The sense of concrete was like a weird earth, blood was a twisted water.

    Something to test with Danny and Melissa, then, see if they could figure out anything interesting elementally, instead of just general power related.

    I wrote up an email to them to help with the kid, in case I wasn¡¯t around when his parents brought him by, and linked them into the project, along with Brent. Hopefully it wouldn¡¯t take Robert months to make the shift.

    That done, I closed out the framework of that project and looked over the others I had.

    IrishDantians from the forum hadn¡¯t gotten back to me with what he thought would be possible to reset his dantian and breakthroughs. I hadn¡¯t actually seen him online since that last message, which worried me. But I¡¯d assume he was just having other issues for another day or two, before getting really worried.

    Melissa¡¯s technique was listed with me as a student on it, and she¡¯d grabbed Ash for his math brain, that project had pages and pages of force projections, equations, and guesstimated measurements of power usage for various attempts she¡¯d made. I could follow maybe a quarter of the math before it started looking like a word salad due to the variables there. If she got it working, I hoped it didn¡¯t require complete understanding of everything there. Or at least got simplified.

    My own personal project about defining yourself was next. Different links of things I¡¯d pulled up; from the psychology definition of self, ¡°a person''s experience as a single, unitary, autonomous being that is separate from others, experienced with continuity through time and place.¡± to a bunch of recommendations of just sitting down and writing out who you are and want to be.

    I¡¯d poked at a few of those, filling in some of it, but it wasn¡¯t the easiest thing to look at yourself. Besides, if I¡¯d done this last year, all these answers would be completely different.

    I was about to continue messing with that when something changed. I looked up, trying to figure out what it was. No one had called my name, right?

    I looked around the little office, nothing different.

    Brent walked in. ¡°Nicole?¡± He looked confused, but also worried. ¡°The rain just...stopped. But the water¡¯s heavier. The alien kicked another block.¡±

    That¡¯s what it was, the rain that had been more or less steady for over a month was no longer hitting against the walls of the building, providing the background noise.

    The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    Wait. ¡°What?¡± I cycled in, the energy in the air had changed. Now the sense of water had become as strong as earth and fire. Somehow it also had an air, a wind, element to it? ¡°What is the strength of the world¡¯s soul?¡± We couldn¡¯t take another grow to match.

    Your world has cleared the second block of the [Initiate¡¯s Realm] and begins to regain its balance.

    ¡°Regain its balance? What does that mean?¡± I asked but didn¡¯t truly try to push the question to the alien. Or wait for Brent to try to answer. There were no windows in the offices, so instead I was up and out in a flash, dropping through the hallway to the first floor and out the door.

    The sky above was still dark and gray, but not a drop of rain was falling. Indeed, the clouds were whipping so fast across the sky that it looked like ripples in a pond. The entire sky seemed to move and crawl.

    ¡°The clouds are going southwest,¡± I pointed out. ¡°And there¡¯s barely a breeze right now. Upper atmosphere must be insane right now.¡± I looked up at the sky again. ¡°Maybe we can get the satellite imagery to track that down.¡±

    ¡°Wait, Nicole!¡± Brent tried calling out, but I was already running back inside.

    I bounced up to my office again and pulled up old links, hoping my school credentials hadn¡¯t actually been dropped. Links probably existed in the Seeker search as well, but I knew this program.

    Thankfully they hadn¡¯t and as Brent made it back up to my office with Tasha in tow, I was getting the GOES-22 loaded back up. My jaw dropped as I stared at the screen.

    ¡°What?¡± Brent asked, voice a little peeved. Probably at my running around.

    ¡°If this is regaining balance, I do believe Mother Nature is absolutely pissed at us,¡± I answered, turning the screen around.

    On it, the satellite covering the west coast of the US was pulled up, the last view I¡¯d been using when I¡¯d been doing a project, now over two months ago. On it, massive cloud cover and storm cells were being pulled offshore into the Pacific Ocean in real time.

    When the rain had started, I¡¯d joked about the weather patterns being completely screwed over. What had happened was rain chances had increased by magnitudes, but not completely drenching the entire planet. A ten percent chance of rain was guaranteed rain, but the deserts ¡®only¡¯ had like a seventy percent chance.

    This though? We all watched in various stages of shock and awe as the entire cloud cover across North America was pulled away into the south Pacific at speeds that were likely several hundred miles per hour. The edges of the radar showed storm cells being pulled in easterly into the massive swell from Asia and Australia as well.

    ¡°You know, that looks like a hurricane spin,¡± Tasha mentioned, voice trembling a bit in horror.

    I shook my head and just watched, a little worried as it proved to be fairly true as clouds continued to be pulled into the storm. If it was centered in the Pacific though... I pulled up a second window, flipping to another satellite. Over Europe and Africa, already the near-complete cloud cover was missing, edges of it showing flow both east and west towards the Pacific.

    I grabbed the ruler tool and measured, then rolled the timeline back to figure out how long the clouds had been moving. Maybe half an hour. Circumference of the Earth was nearly 25,000 miles give or take whatever the lava had done... ¡°Maybe four hours.¡±

    ¡°Until?¡± Brent asked.

    ¡°Until all the clouds and storms are pulled there. God only knows what¡¯s going to happen once it gets there, though,¡± I answered.

    I flipped back to the Pacific Ocean view, where the storm really was starting to pick up a rotation. I grabbed the ruler tool again. ¡°Almost six hundred miles across already. Holy shit.¡±

    The link shortly thereafter died, probably as the entirety of the human population started trying to figure out what was happening.

    ¡°So, what do we do?¡± Tasha asked, looking between the two of us.

    ¡°What can we do? A super hurricane like that building up? Batten down the hatches maybe?¡± I cursed, looking at that last image before everything quit loading. ¡°Brent, can you find anything out?¡±

    He nodded. ¡°I¡¯ll try. I expect we¡¯re going to get a lot of people looking to us for answers though.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll go back downstairs,¡± Tasha replied. ¡°Danny¡¯s dealing with the school. Do you want me to call everyone in?¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°Not unless we can figure out something we need to do. Let them know to try to figure out somewhere safe where they are.¡±

    ¡°Come on Nicole, I¡¯ll see if I can get into an NGA feed.¡± Brent pulled me from my seat and we went to his office.

    He did manage to find one, and we sat there watching the feed while a whole lot of scientists freaked the hell out. Really useful information over the few hours until the massive amounts of water in the atmosphere was drawn into one place.

    A huge swirling storm that ended up nearly 2,500 miles in diameter, just churning in the south Pacific. There were any number of little islands that were probably lost at this point. But in yet more avoidance of any known meteorological understanding, the storm seemed almost pinned in place.

 Chapter 35: The Storm of Damocles

    May 3rd?

    The massive storm had condensed somewhat overnight, now measuring only a mere 2,000 miles in diameter or so according to radar, but now showed no signs of getting any smaller. Or moving. It threw off weather of its own instead, affecting the high- and low-pressure systems around it instead of being pushed around itself. Estimates put the center of the storm at nearly 810 millibar, lower than any other sea level pressure ever recorded.

    French Polynesia, American Samoa, and any number of other little islands that had grown larger due to the water pulling away were now getting pounded. I vaguely wondered if they would end up eroded back into the water completely.

    I also wondered how standard hurricane convection even worked with a storm this large and in this section of the ocean. Between the southern part hanging out not too far from Antarctica and it not moving, the heat energy of the ocean should be dropping like mad, which would cause this thing to eventually, maybe, move.

    News stations all over the world were covering the newest insanity. Meteorologists were on air, describing ramifications of the storm to weather patterns, likely locations the storm could move to, and any number of other facts. Given just as much credence was the fact that between the alien and whatever this second block that was cleared was, we just didn¡¯t know.

    We had all gathered in the conference room that morning just to try to get a handle on it, somehow.

    ¡°So¡­ Do we just hope this thing is going to do like the lava did and stop being insane in a few days?¡± Danny asked. ¡°Maybe it¡¯ll just drop all the extra water back into the ocean there and then just fall apart?¡±

    ¡°Or it just continues to drop pressure, pulling in additional moisture as a low pressure sink across the entire world, and even more places become deserts,¡± I shrugged my response. ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know. We¡¯ve got barely any knowledge of the lava rifts, and now there¡¯s a storm that even if we could fly, I don¡¯t think any hurricane hunter would want to go into.¡±

    ¡°Anything you can poke off the alien?¡± Karen asked.

    I shook my head. ¡°I¡¯m not getting anything more from him than words. Anyone else?¡±

    ¡°I only wish.¡± Danny looked at the superstorm again. ¡°How the hell is that thing any kind of balance?¡±

    ¡°At least it didn¡¯t continue raining for just a few more days,¡± Melissa answered after a moment. ¡°Then we¡¯d have people claiming forty days and forty nights of rain.¡±

    ¡°Oh god,¡± Danny groaned.

    ¡°Exactly!¡± Melissa laughed.

    I shook my head at her. ¡°So we just wait and hope for nothing to happen with this thing?¡±

    ¡°Only thing we can do,¡± Brent responded.

    ~~~

    After the meeting, I grabbed my tablet and went up the fire ladder again to the roof, determined to enjoy the sunny day after the month of bad weather.

    The blackberry bush was doing fine, now underneath real glass. Clippings from the bush had been replanted and they weren¡¯t growing with the same maddening speed the original bush was, but still out of season growth was impressive. The new clippings didn¡¯t give off additional wood energy either.

    The researchers from the college were running two tests on the overly fruiting bush. The first was a test of how many times it would refruit before it stopped, another was to see what would happen if a few berries weren¡¯t picked and what would happen over a longer timeframe. Three cane vines each had a single blackberry that had been carefully noted on the trellis to not be picked.

    Each of those berries were almost two weeks old, super dark, and plump as hell. The most interesting thing was two of them were giving off as much wood energy as the root of the plant was. I was half tempted to ask if eating them was on the test charts, but figured maybe they¡¯d replant and grow more of the fast growing bushes too.

    It was something to check into, though, what the extra energy would do to someone who ate it. Actually¡­ I logged into the forum and posted the question, asking if anyone had had food that maintained that energy through cooking, and if so, had it been any different? I tagged the couple of people that had posted about finding flora or fauna with energy and had collected it for whatever reason.

    I flipped tabs over to satellite view once more, just to watch the storm for a minute. Had it moved? No. Had it changed? Not really, just an unnaturally immobile, but still spinning, hurricane shaped storm throwing off estimated two hundred plus mile per hour winds.

    Back to the forum, I actually did have a reply from IrishDantians, finally. With the planet¡¯s latest block cleared, he was scrapping his previous plans and was now working on a different idea. The mention of his previous idea of using someone else to basically beat his dantian in until it collapsed was a bad idea anyways, so I replied with encouragement for less abusive attempts.

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    I fooled around on the forum for a bit, not a lot of activity going on that I hadn¡¯t already seen. A lot of questions about the storm that Danny raised had already been made on an announcement that we didn¡¯t have any further idea than anyone else did.

    I extended my internet ranging a little bit, hitting the wider internet now that the cloud cover was gone and we basically had full strength access once more, minus the undersea cables.

    A lot of the overseas news was about the rains and what had happened, a lot of homes flooded after receiving half a years¡¯ worth of rain or more in a month. Contacts for shelters, a few stories about uptick in crime due to criminals with dantians. More stories of other criminals not being as strong as the people they were attacking and getting their just deserts.

    American news was worse, just as polarized if not more so than before the alien. Articles screaming about a coup as the military was used to ensure food supplies more or less continued on; while other articles praised the semi-rapid action as the only thing that had kept the country fed.

    I¡¯d gotten a few messages from Mike on that, his national guard unit having trained everyone to their first breakthrough then had been assigned to basically be convoy guards and supplementary bodies for road construction work with the Corps of Engineers and Seabees.

    I frowned at an article that came up more locally, complaining about people that were egging the alien on to higher acts of destruction. Published this morning and it didn¡¯t even bother insinuating anything, just flat out claimed that playing the alien¡¯s game was only going to make things worse for everyone and that the storm was going to be used against us all.

    I rolled my eyes at that, then looked at the article author. Newsmax, Gary Bisley. Oh Lord. That idiot had another pulpit to spew stupidity.

    I nearly checked the satellite view again before stopping myself and sighing. Checking it every hour or two wasn¡¯t going to change anything. Given how fast it had built up and how big it was, I would probably learn about it moving when it showed up rather than from getting lucky on watching radar.

    ¡°Hey!¡± a voice called and I turned in time to see Melissa pull herself over the fire ladder onto the roof with me. ¡°How goes it?¡±

    I waved back to her, setting the tablet down. ¡°Quietly, actually. What¡¯s up?¡±

    She laid out on the edge of the roof, stretching for a moment. I watched, bemused, as I realized how neither of us really had a fear of falling anymore. At this height, we¡¯d have to work at it to get hurt in a fall.

    ¡°I missed the sun¡­¡± she said quietly, just soaking in the reasonable heat of the day.

    I chuckled. ¡°I won¡¯t miss having to get the sunscreen back out. Did you happen to catch what the index was?¡±

    ¡°Four. It¡¯s been lower since the Gasp, and even with a fully sunny day, it¡¯s not any higher,¡± Melissa said, eyes still closed. ¡°As much as I¡¯m worried about the storm, I can at least enjoy this.¡±

    Huh. It has been lower since then. I wondered about the ozone layer then, if the Gasp or something else the alien had done had fixed it. More to question.

    ¡°So, what¡¯s the plan, boss lady? Where do we go from here?¡± Melissa asked.

    I looked out over the parking lot, beyond it and the ditches, past the highway. There was still some traffic on the roads. People still living their lives as best they could as everyone tried to hold things together.

    ¡°How¡¯s that technique of yours?¡± I asked, not directly answering her question.

    Melissa shifted slightly, opening her eyes to look at me. ¡°Maybe nearly there?¡±

    I nodded to that. ¡°Once you finish with it, I want to see how teachable it really is. And then maybe get you and Danny poking at that elemental energy thing and see if it¡¯s actually something you can do anything with. You saw my project with Robert, right?¡±

    Melissa sat up and swung her legs over the edge. ¡°The kid cycling water energy? Yeah. I know I picked up your art thing before, but I¡¯m kinda leery on what cycling it will do to me. I haven¡¯t really found any lightning in it.¡±

    ¡°Maybe something for Danny then, there¡¯s plenty of fire.¡± I paused. ¡°The alien¡¯s affecting the entire globe, and all the weird stuff happening with the Earth¡¯s blocks too. We¡¯ve been stuck pretty much with just body stuff except my art of awakening. I¡¯d like to figure out something else we can do. Keep us occupied from things we can¡¯t change.¡±

    I looked southwest again, seeing only a few puffy white clouds.

 Chapter 36: E.L.F.

    May 6th?

    The storm had seemingly settled into place, held where it was at by forces no one as of yet could explain. It was uneasy to watch, however, as even staying in place the storm surge coming off it was whipping pretty heavily into New Zealand and Chile. News reports at least did mention most of the islands had been slowly evacuated months ago, as the populations there hadn¡¯t been sustainable without air travel.

    ¡°So does that mean we get an Earth¡¯s White Spot?¡± Robert asked me with a grin.

    The kid was in for his third checkup on his water cycling technique and was clicking through a game idly on his own tablet while I attuned to feel the energy flowing through him, reading over what he¡¯d brought. We were sitting in the relaxation area again, his mom waiting nearby.

    ¡°What?¡± I frowned. ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°Well, Jupiter has a Great Red Spot, right?¡± Robert closed out of the game and pulled up an image after a moment¡¯s search. ¡°Jupiter¡¯s Red Spot. If the storm doesn¡¯t move or go away, would the Earth¡¯s be called a Great White Spot?¡± His eyes lit up as he continued on. ¡°Oooh, if it does, does that mean Jupiter might have a world soul or something?¡±

    I paused, half ready to talk about his first question as he posed the second one. ¡°Jupiter¡¯s a gas giant,¡± I said instead. ¡°If Earth becomes a gas giant, we have no planet to live on. So let¡¯s hope not.¡± I poked him. ¡°Alright anyways, go ahead and cycle. Let¡¯s see what you feel like.¡±

    Robert frowned at my comment before nodding. He started cycling and I watched, feeling the sense of energy that he gave off. He¡¯d moved from mist to somewhat moist, still mostly neutral energy though. ¡°Slowly making it there, I think.¡±

    ¡°Did he get a lot further then?¡± his mom, Stacey, asked.

    I tilted my hand in the air back and forth. ¡°He¡¯s still solidly neutral, but more water than he was. Like if we threw a bucket of water at him instead of just being misty.¡± Robert gave me a cautious look. ¡°I¡¯m not actually going to throw water at you.¡±

    I did look him over, though. ¡°So, your notes are mainly your time spent cycling water energy. What about the amount of water? Did all the rain going away make it harder?¡±

    ¡°Kind of?¡± Robert answered, pausing his cycling to actually think through his answer. ¡°The energy was everywhere in the rain, but now there¡¯s just as much in the normal energy to pull out.¡± He made a face. ¡°I have to work a little harder to get the same amount?¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡± That was interesting actually. We didn¡¯t have a real baseline for how much of the individual parts of the earth¡¯s power there was.

    I was about to comment when my tablet beeped, a message popping up from Tasha with a High Priority flag on it. Need you at the front desk now!

    I frowned at the message, since, along with myself, it was also to both Brent and Danny. ¡°I¡¯ll be right back. Tasha needs me up front.¡±

    ¡°OK?¡± Stacey half asked.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be back in a minute, no worries.¡± I nodded to them both before leaving, heading up front past the balance beam run.

    Entering the receptionist area, I saw Tasha sitting awkwardly, staring at two people who stood at ease near the entrance.

    The first guy was pretty heavily built, with tanned skin and a lot of scarring on his face going down into the tight shirt he wore. He looked vaguely unhappy about just standing there, and on catching sight of me his face downturned even more as he scowled.

    The other was an older guy who looked like one of the homeless; scraggly beard, a little crazy eyes, and all. He was carrying a backpack that¡¯d definitely seen better days, beaten up and possibly even a little burned. On seeing me, I could feel him starting to cycle his energy. Maybe a little more than Danny was capable of, but not quite what anyone I¡¯d felt on their third breakthrough push out.

    ¡°You needed me, Tasha?¡± I didn¡¯t take my eyes off the two, though I wondered where Danny and Brent were.

    ¡°Hello, traitor,¡± the first guy said before Tasha could reply. ¡°I¡¯m here to give you the only warning you¡¯re going to receive.¡±

    I retreated a half step, taken aback. ¡°Excuse me?¡±

    He spit at me from a distance. ¡°You have betrayed this world, doing the alien¡¯s work to take it over on his behalf. You steal power directly from the Earth using the alien¡¯s methods and teach others, while the Earth is forced to grow according to the alien¡¯s whims. I have seen the pains of the Earth as it tries to throw off the chains that bind it. The storm that the planet builds to attack those who attack it.¡±

    I was now completely confused; even as both men gave me accusing, almost deranged, looks. ¡°Doing the alien¡¯s work? Take a few steps back, you¡¯ve confused me on this.¡± I¡¯d prefer if they took a few real steps back too, just based on the crazy now showing.

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    ¡°Your, heh, ¡®method.¡¯ Made from the alien¡¯s teachings. Only going to do what he wants it to do.¡± The older guy actually sounded like he was chittering his words. ¡°You betray all. To gain his power instead of Earth¡¯s.¡±

    ¡°Do you deny your methods come from the alien?¡± the first guy demanded. ¡°You cannot expect anyone to believe you do not have the same motives as the alien, if you push his methods and agenda. You would hand our planet over to him!¡±

    ¡°One, who the fuck are you two?¡± I could take someone bitching at me, now that I knew that¡¯s what was going to happen. ¡°And two, I have not gotten a damned bit of method or instruction from the damn alien. I want all this destruction to stop just as much as anyone else.¡±

    ¡°And you would do so by selling everyone out, enslaving them to the alien¡¯s powers,¡± the first guy said. ¡°I am Barry McDonald and we represent the Earth Liberation Front. We had thought that human civilization was the greatest threat to the world, but the alien is a worse one.¡±

    ¡°Oh god, you really are crazies,¡± Danny¡¯s voice responded as he finally came downstairs. ¡°Thank you for your time, the office is closed without an appointment. I believe the next appointment available for you gentlemen is going to be the thirty-second of Nevuary.¡±

    ¡°In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.¡± Barry grinned through bared teeth at me, ignoring Danny. ¡°But I have both eyes open. I was in California when the land bled. I glimpsed it, I saw the soul of the world, chained by the alien¡¯s power.¡±

    Suddenly I could feel a great amount of power cycling through him, all earth energy. Not quite as much as my own power, but it was exchanging like it was external energy.

    ¡°The Earth breathes. And we breathe with it. But you, you are a taint. You do not breathe with it,¡± the unintroduced guy chittered once more. ¡°Your breath taints. All those you teach taint. Alien taint.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ve already recovered what you stole from the Earth, but I will give you two days to renounce yourself to the world and make amends. Then if you haven¡¯t, I will tear everything here apart. Joe.¡± Barry nodded to his companion, who dug into his backpack.

    He pulled a stone from his bag. ¡°Contemplate. A broken soul.¡± He threw it at me, and I managed to catch it. I looked at the fist sized stone that seemed to have its own energy for a moment, before looking back.

    Barry and the apparent Joe were already walking out of the office. Barry turned back. ¡°And I did not idly mean tear everything here apart.¡± The earth energy cycling in him seemed to focus into one arm for a moment, then down to his fist. He punched the exterior wall as he walked out.

    His punch blew a hole in the block wall, cracks spiderwebbing more than a foot away from the hit.

    ¡°Call the police, Tasha.¡± Danny watched them walk out. ¡°I¡¯m fairly certain Brent got pictures of them we can provide.¡±

    ~~~

    An hour later there were several responding officers that showed up to take statements and evidence. Everyone in the Seekers was in the conference room with the officers and we¡¯d send everyone else home. ¡°Destruction of private property, threats of violence. Anything else this Barry McDonald did?¡±

    ¡°Theft,¡± Karen answered them, her hands still dirty from picking through dirt. ¡°I went onto the roof and one of them stole the entire bush and anything else with energy from up there.¡±

    ¡°A bush?¡± The cop looked confused.

    ¡°An experiment subject,¡± Brent corrected. ¡°A highly valuable one.¡±

    He noted that as well. ¡°Alright, theft. I¡¯ve got documentation you¡¯ll need to fill out declaring value and whatnot. Now, as for the threat to come back in two days, we can provide an officer here to arrest either of them if they show up and cause more damage.¡±

    ¡°How are you going to manage that?¡± I asked.

    ¡°How we normally would?¡± The officer replied with a somewhat confused look.

    I shook my head. ¡°As a reminder, this Barry guy put his fist straight through a concrete wall. Snapping a pair of handcuffs shouldn¡¯t be any harder.¡±

    He was quiet for a moment. ¡°I can ask the Chief if he¡¯ll send the SWAT team out then? I¡¯m not sure what else to say.¡±

    ¡°They¡¯re eco-terrorists,¡± Brent answered for him, ¡°threatening terror against American citizens. The Earth Liberation Front has been declared an ecoterrorist group for decades at this point. SWAT should be the minimum answer at this point since we know when they¡¯re returning.¡±

 Chapter 37: Planning for Defense

    After the police had left, I looked at everyone still in the conference room, then directly at Brent. ¡°Ecoterrorists?¡±

    ¡°Primarily sabotage and guerilla warfare,¡± Brent nodded. ¡°I did some research on them while we were waiting for the police, and I¡¯m a little worried as attacks like this aren¡¯t in the Elves normal modus operandi.¡± He paused. ¡°Well, stealing the blackberry bush would be, but a straight up threat like what they left?¡±

    ¡°So do we hope for the SWAT team or do you make phone calls and things happen?¡± Danny said. ¡°I won¡¯t complain if you have something you haven¡¯t mentioned this time.¡±

    The resident DARPA and government link blew out his breath. ¡°There are a few different ways to answer that question. The problem is anyone capable of casually putting their fist through a wall like that isn¡¯t going to be conventionally stoppable.¡± Brent looked at everyone else, then back to me. ¡°Nicole, do you think he has as many breakthroughs as you do?¡±

    I shrugged, unsure. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Barry was cycling more energy than anyone else here I¡¯ve felt, but I couldn¡¯t tell you how much I can actually cycle in comparison. The other one, Joe, didn¡¯t cycle as much as anyone at their third breakthrough.¡±

    ¡°So at least four for Barry. And just because there were only two of them today doesn¡¯t mean this cell doesn¡¯t have more than just them.¡± Brent nodded and looked at Danny, then everyone else. ¡°Here¡¯s the thing. Your normal SWAT team would have to treat at least Barry as a threat they can¡¯t put down with anything short of lethal means. We¡¯ve all seen Nicole walk away from things that would cause serious harm to anyone without a dantian.¡±

    He looked between Karen, Melissa, and the others. ¡°And even you all are pretty much impervious to the various scrapes and bruises you should be getting going about your daily lives.¡±

    ¡°So, what, because they can¡¯t deal with these guys without killing them, we should just do what they said?¡± Karen frowned.

    Brent shook his head. ¡°Lord, no. They are terrorists. I just want you all to understand what¡¯s likely going to happen. If the Rolla police take this seriously and treat them as actual terrorists, they¡¯re likely only going to get one opportunity to surrender before fairly lethal methods are used. Anyone I could call, they will treat this as an anti-terrorist operation and likely it will start lethal. And what I¡¯m worried about is, what will it take to get lethal?¡±

    I recalled a statement from the alien that Brent had given me. ¡°Third body merdian wouldn¡¯t leave much more than bruises?¡± I questioned.

    ¡°That¡¯s what I was thinking, yes. However, a level two or three-a bulletproof vest would provide roughly the same level of protection against the caliber of bullet the alien caught.¡± Brent sighed. ¡°So the real question will end up being when does the ¡®not more than bruises¡¯ extend to stronger bullets. Not something any of us would have tested.¡±

    There were several pale faces around the table at the thought.

    ¡°That still doesn¡¯t answer the question of what we¡¯re supposed to do?¡± Melissa spoke up. ¡°I don¡¯t really want to be here if people are going to start shooting at someone else.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to be. I don¡¯t want to stop our work, but I don¡¯t want anyone here getting hurt, either,¡± I spoke up. ¡°Damn, I hate this. He¡¯s obviously not going to listen to reason.¡±

    ¡°Your only other option is going to be positioning the Seekers in a more defensible manner,¡± Brent spoke up. ¡°While fences and walls won¡¯t stop someone at your level from ignoring them, it does provide something you can send people to walk around and watch.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re suggesting we move to a military base again,¡± Danny sighed.

    ¡°It¡¯s only an option and not even one you specifically need to do. I¡¯ll be honest, I wasn¡¯t expecting a homegrown terrorist attack, but they wouldn¡¯t have been able to reach you on a base,¡± Brent answered him.

    ¡°And then we have to figure out how to get all the people we¡¯re already involved with here onto base, Brent. I doubt we could do that in two days, or even turn this place into something like that in two days, either.¡± I shook my head. ¡°SWAT, or your people, both, whatever. We¡¯ll have as few people here as we can otherwise.¡±

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Brent nodded. ¡°The only people I¡¯ll have easy call-in on are a few on low-profile duty, an actual anti-terrorism team is something I don¡¯t have access to. But there will be a few more people with federal IDs to make things easier.¡±

    I hesitated for a moment, then looked at Danny. ¡°Since your martial arts was negating each other¡¯s energy, what can I learn in a couple of days? In the worst case scenario.¡±

    Danny shook his head. ¡°Nothing super useful, it takes time and practice, like anything else. You already know how to fall from being a gymnast, so the best I think I could do is give you a few pointers on stance and basic attacks. But they won¡¯t be ingrained in two days.¡±

    ¡°Better than nothing, I guess. Anyone else have anything?¡± I looked around.

    ¡°What¡¯s with that rock?¡± Karen asked. ¡°I¡¯m surprised they gave you anything with energy after stealing the bush.¡±

    I got up and grabbed the rock from a side table, setting it on the conference table. The fist sized stone was a dark ashy color, relatively solid, and seemed to swirl with energy of its own. It didn¡¯t cycle the energy, unlike the bush or anyone else did. It just seemed to sit inside the stone, static, and seemed to be a balance of different elements. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water.

    ¡°The homeless looking guy told me to contemplate a broken soul, then threw it at me. Beyond having energy, not sure what it is.¡± I rolled it forward to Karen, who stopped it and picked it up herself.

    ¡°It¡¯s weird. Don¡¯t know why you¡¯d call this a broken soul though? Because it¡¯s not cycling?¡±

    ¡°Can we not play with the unknown object the terrorists left behind? At least not when we¡¯re all here, in case it ends up a bomb?¡± Brent was watching it and Karen closely.

    Karen carefully set the rock down, eyes wide. ¡°Didn¡¯t think of that. Looks like it¡¯s an unopened geode though.¡±

    ¡°Why would they leave this and then say they¡¯re coming back, though?¡± I asked, not picking the stone back up myself yet.

    ¡°Guerilla warfare, remember? I¡¯d have strong doubts about them even following through on two days if I didn¡¯t think they are insane enough to think they can dictate terms at will,¡± Brent said with a shake of his head. ¡°Let¡¯s just leave the stone somewhere out of the way in case it is a bomb and deal with it later.¡±

    ~~~

    ¡°You know, I hate the idea of hand-to-hand combat against terrorists. That¡¯s literally what the military and guns are for,¡± Danny noted. ¡°Fist up a little higher, tuck your other arm back a bit.¡±

    I adjusted my stance. ¡°Yeah, but what are we going to do? I assume the military is looking into something to overcome defenses, because they want to kill the alien. But I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve found anything outside a person that can go through the base defense this energy gives us. Honestly, I wouldn¡¯t know about it at all if it wasn¡¯t for your karate practices.¡±

    Danny looked me over and nodded. ¡°Go ahead and drop the stance. Walk for a second again, then take the stance again.¡±

    I dropped my arms and walked in a quick circle. Trying to quickly memorize a body position wasn¡¯t easy. I then got back into the karate stance.

    ¡°And yes, that¡¯s what¡¯s got me worried. I understand and agree with giving everyone power so you¡¯re at least expecting someone to have it. And more people to try to figure it all out. I just didn¡¯t think we¡¯d end up explicitly being opposed by someone because of it.¡± Danny looked over my stance and didn¡¯t find anything wrong this time. ¡°Alright, front fist, punch out slowly. Keep your knuckles lined up vertically.¡±

    Danny stood in front of me as I slowly punched forward. He grabbed my fist and guided it. ¡°Center mass is what you¡¯re aiming for. Funny enough, you¡¯d want to hit the breastbone if you could. Wonder if you¡¯d do something to that breakthrough if you hit it hard enough.¡± He paused at the thought and laughed. ¡°Not that I want you to do it to me.¡±

    I smiled. ¡°Yeah, no. I¡¯m fairly certain that¡¯d be pretty painful either way.¡± Danny let go of my fist and I pulled back to the starting stance, and he poked my arm back a little further into the correct position again.

    Danny nodded. ¡°Alright, a hundred punches there. Then we do the back fist for power. And repeat. You¡¯re not going to learn any real kata or sparring in two days. All you¡¯re going to have is dodge and punch.¡±

    I slowly punched out and reset. Every ten or so punches, Danny would have me move around then get back into position. Or he¡¯d swat at my head to make me dodge then reset.

    Half way through, I spoke up again, ¡°You know, the biggest surprise of that whole thing is they were on external dantians. And if Barry is on the fourth one or higher, that¡¯s even better than anyone here¡¯s done so far. Wish I knew how he¡¯d pushed that fast when I know everyone¡¯s having a hard time building up enough with external to do it.¡±

    Danny took a swing at my head and I ducked it again. ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯ll share how he did it,¡± Danny remarked.

    ¡°Probably not. But if he shared, it might make beating the alien easier.¡± I punched out again.

    ¡°And sadly, he believes he¡¯s doing just that by threatening us,¡± Danny reminded me.

    Not that I needed it. It didn¡¯t need to be this difficult. I punched hard at the thought and Danny fell back, flinching.

    ¡°Shit, warn me if you¡¯re going to punch faster. I really don¡¯t need my chest caved in,¡± Danny complained. ¡°If you want to go full speed, that¡¯s fine. But I¡¯m not going to let you use my chest as a guiding point if you do.¡±

    I winced. ¡°Sorry. Lost in thought for a moment.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s not have two different thoughts going on at once then. We¡¯ll finish up with the basic punches and then you can practice while thinking other things. We¡¯ll set up the punching bag and you can blow that apart like Steve Rogers.¡±

 Chapter 38: Nicole vs Barry

    May 8th?

    ¡°This is stupid. You even said yourself that they¡¯re terrorists. Which is why we¡¯re here,¡± the officer in the black uniform argued. ¡°Now you want to talk to him? I¡¯m perfectly happy to let you do that after their group is no longer a threat.¡±

    I stood up with a sigh, wandering towards the conference room entrance and looked out over the interior of the building.

    I hadn¡¯t realized how many people now worked for or with the Dantian Seekers, until the old Menard¡¯s building was nearly empty again and near silence rang throughout. The separation between sections meant I didn¡¯t see everyone all at once; only the people in the gym if I was working out or when I noted a good portion of the breakthrough rooms were in use when I went through there.

    Now, only a handful of people were in the building today and all of those were either sitting in the conference room except for the six SWAT guys on the roof keeping watch.

    I turned back. ¡°He wants me to stop working on this. Obviously I¡¯m not going to, but if they have a different method that helps people drawing power externally do so faster or better? It¡¯s something everyone needs to know.¡±

    ¡°Miss Firen, you¡¯re asking to negotiate with someone claiming to be a terrorist. Very little is going to stop them from lying to you because you¡¯re putting them in a position of power,¡± the officer answered back.

    ¡°And you guys aren¡¯t the answer to that?¡± I asked. ¡°I saw one of the guns your guys took up the ladder. I¡¯m fairly certain that makes our side equal.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re still putting yourself basically within arm¡¯s reach of them, Nicole,¡± Brent responded. ¡°And you¡¯re not trained to deal with hostage situations or anything similar. Especially if you become the hostage.¡±

    ¡°You guys aren¡¯t above the Earth¡¯s level, right?¡± I changed tack. ¡°Karen and Ash are. Trying to get another breakthrough above the Earth is stupid hard for external energy according to them. And the fourth one is even harder from what I could tell when I did mine. If they¡¯ve got a better way to do it, wouldn¡¯t it be better for us to know it as well?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re insane.¡± The officer rubbed his face. ¡°Fine, but we¡¯re not letting them into the building. You get to have your conversation outside where my men have plenty of range.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ~~~

    The compromise had me sitting on a desk we¡¯d pulled outside into the parking lot and a few chairs a good eight feet away. Enough space that the SWAT team on the roof had the ability to aim beyond me. I¡¯d still been asked to not make any sudden moves though.

    It was almost two hours of sitting out there playing on my tablet before an older model electric car quietly pulled into the parking lot. By the time I¡¯d set the tablet aside and stood, the same two men had gotten out of the car and from across the parking lot I could just about make out their confused looks. I didn¡¯t say anything, just stood up behind the desk and waved them forward.

    Once they were close enough, I gave them a half-smile. ¡°Looks like I win the bet. Everyone else assumed you guys would come skulking in from the woods to the north. I bet you¡¯d just show up without a care.¡±

    ¡°You did not renounce yourself and your alien¡¯s methods. Do you intend to instead defend them here and now?¡± Barry asked as I could feel his energy start cycling faster.

    I took a deep breath, cycling my own power. ¡°No, I expect you both to sit down and talk. Because we¡¯re all adults. And you¡¯re not bulletproof.¡±

    ¡°Wha¡ª¡± Barry started.

    I didn¡¯t let him answer, but instead continued talking to try to keep him off balance like Brent had suggested. ¡°You claimed to be part of a terrorist group, caused damage, and left after giving us a day you¡¯d be back. Did you think the cops wouldn¡¯t believe us?¡± I paused, looking at the two. ¡°You seriously didn¡¯t expect a SWAT team?¡±

    ¡°So, you¡¯ve duped the police into doing the alien¡¯s bidding as well then.¡± Barry scowled, not sitting but also no longer approaching. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t be surprised.¡±

    ¡°Jesus, you¡¯re the one claiming to be a terrorist. You know what they wanted to do? Shoot you and be done with it. I ended up in a forty-five minute argument just to get a chance to talk this shit out.¡± I threw my hands up in frustration for a moment, before taking another breath to calm down again. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t I be the young, stupid, impulsive one?¡±

    ¡°Believing alien is stupid. Heh. So yes you are.¡± Joe grinned at me. ¡°Give up alien ways? No longer stupid, impulsive.¡±

    I leveled a glare at him. ¡°I had zero assistance from the alien. Anything I learned, I learned the hard way.¡± I then looked at Barry again. ¡°If you have a better way, don¡¯t just tell me to quit what I¡¯m doing. Prove yours is better, because I¡¯m not forcing anyone to use my method.¡±

    ¡°Joe. Call on the land.¡± Barry looked over at the crazy one. Joe¡¯s energy immediately started rising as he cycled, and now it fully felt like wood energy whereas two days ago it had been neutral. It quickly crested to at least a third breakthrough too. ¡°Joe integrated the pieces of the land you had stolen. Not as powerful as the earth itself, but what grows on the earth is strong as well.¡±

    ¡°You ate the bush and berries,¡± I deadpanned, still watching Joe¡¯s energy play. ¡°We had someone eat one of the berries with energy already and it gave them a temporary bit of wood energy. You figured out how to make it part of your own power then?¡±

    ¡°It is not our power! It is the power of the Earth, escaping the grasp of the alien. We are harvesting it to fight the alien and his minions such as yourself!¡± Barry spat at me.

    I sat back on the desk, looking the two of them over. ¡°Did you at least leave the main blackberry bush still with energy? If you ate it all, you don¡¯t have anything to prove your method is repeatable and works better than mine. And we¡¯re out our entire project growing those things and trying to make them stronger.¡±

    ¡°Berries were soul fragment. Need more than that. Heh. Or broken souls. Beat you to prove Earth right. Alien wrong,¡± Joe chittered, eyes cutting over to Barry.

    ¡°So you did eat the entire thing.¡± I sighed.

    ¡°No, he took the soul of the plant into himself,¡± Barry disagreed, shaking his head at Joe. ¡°It¡¯s unfortunate it didn¡¯t give him the same strength I gained from drawing a fragment of the Earth into myself.¡± Barry looked past me at the building. ¡°That building represents everything you do on the alien¡¯s behalf. Which is why we wished to tear it down and have you renounce the alien.¡±

    He made a fist, looking down at it. ¡°But even if we destroy it now, it won¡¯t stop you. You¡¯ll continue to do the alien¡¯s work, turning the Earth over to the alien.¡± He looked over to Joe, tossing him a set of keys. ¡°Go to the car and leave. If there¡¯s one point she made, it¡¯s that we¡¯re going to need to grow the souls of the Earth, not just take them. And,¡± Barry looked at me watching warily, ¡°you¡¯re not stronger than her yet.¡±

    ¡°Barry? Barry?¡± Joe looked between the two of us. ¡°Fuck.¡± He turned and ran.

    I half expected the guys on the roof to shoot him, but they didn¡¯t. Guess they weren¡¯t going to shoot someone running away when they hadn¡¯t actually done anything yet.

    I was glad. I didn¡¯t want to see anyone shot. ¡°So what, then? You prove you¡¯re stronger than me? Beat me up? What does that really do?¡±

    ¡°It proves the power we can gain directly from the Earth supersedes the power the alien showed you how to get. It proves he isn¡¯t all powerful and we can beat him, because he needs to subvert people to do his work for him.¡±

    Barry brought his fist up and looked at me. ¡°When the lava came up in California, I was on one of the fault lines. I glimpsed something there, the soul of the Earth. And an alien energy choking it. The Earth was fighting back against him. And an infinitely small piece entered me, tearing through me.¡±

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    He pulled the neck of his shirt down, showing the scars that ran further down his body. ¡°These scars are from the heat of the battle I watched. I bear these scars on behalf of the planet.¡±

    I felt his energy cycling up in his entire body, unlike last time when it only cycled into his arm. The scars went from white to earthy brown, before the color began to bleed into his skin. Behind him, the little car was peeling out of the parking lot.

    ¡°The Earth answers me in my moment of need. I cannot kill this snake by crushing its head, but you are the alien¡¯s strongest link to taking our world. I can remove you!¡±

    Barry started to charge me, fist raised high. I started to stand back up from leaning against the desk, not sure what I was going to do other than defend myself when Barry was suddenly thrown back forty feet, landing on his back and not moving.

    I screamed in surprise, looking at the flung body then back to the building, where I could now see someone with a rifle of some kind. I blinked at them.

    ¡°Hah. Haha. Hahahaha,¡± Barry¡¯s voice laughed behind me, straining and pained. I turned, expecting to see blood pooling around his body as he lay there, only to see him slowly rolling to his side and getting up to his knees. ¡°I told you. The Earth answers me in my moment of need. A single bullet fired into the Earth isn¡¯t even noticeable.¡±

    His hands gripped into the concrete as more bullets fired at him and I could feel the depths of the energy he was pushing out. Was it as much as my own? More? Less?

    The hail of bullets stopped after a moment. ¡°You asked if I was bulletproof. With the Earth¡¯s help it appears I am, though Joe couldn¡¯t have asked the Earth for its defense.¡± Barry finished climbing to his feet, the ground around him shattered from his grip and the pressure of holding against the bullets. His shirt tattered and torn. ¡°Now, where was I?¡±

    I flung Tasha¡¯s desk at him. If bullets could throw him back, he could still be affected by the weight of things. Too bad I didn¡¯t have a barbell this time.

    The desk hit, but stopped as Barry caught it and threw it aside. And then almost faster than I was expecting, Barry was in front of me swinging a haymaker. My smaller stature worked in my favor as I tumbled backwards, coming up onto my feet several paces away as Barry didn¡¯t quite catch his own balance from the run and then not connecting.

    I took up the basic karate stance Danny had shown me, fists up and ready. Jab, punch, and try not to get hit.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got probably half a foot of reach on you, girlie. Don¡¯t make this harder on yourself than it has to be.¡± Right fist cocked back, he ran at me again swinging.

    It was my sense of spatial awareness that helped, moving to the side as his fist whistled by. I didn¡¯t know how to move in the karate stance though, so I had to abandon it as I ducked under his arm, trying to punch out with my own fist as I cycled and pushed my own energy out.

    My lack of reach was apparent too, as my fist barely hit against his right side before I was fully extended. I could feel the energy in his skin resist my own, repulsing me. He did grunt from the impact though.

    Barry¡¯s elbow then crashed down against the side of my head and I crumpled backwards from the blow¡¯s force, though it didn¡¯t truly hurt.

    ¡°You¡¯re weak, girl. The Earth provides more than your alien master does.¡± Barry looked down on me, before we both heard the retort of the rifle again and Barry was sent flying off to one side again.

    I jumped up to my own feet as Barry got up, staggering, holding up his hand in case he was shot again. ¡°They will run out of bullets eventually.¡± Whatever he¡¯d been shot with this time at least left a huge mark across his chest, visible even through the scar discoloration.

    ¡°The alien gives me nothing. I don¡¯t work for him, I¡¯m not a pawn of his, I¡¯m not a dupe of his. Jesus Christ, why can¡¯t you get that through your head?¡± My cycling of energy was too generalized to easily get through whatever he was doing to his skin. But it wasn¡¯t making him any stronger, just tougher.

    Barry charged me again and no bullets fired, so I ducked and dodged. I threw punches when I could, barely tapping against him as I tried to figure anything out about his power or my own. ¡°Float like a butterfly, but damn I can¡¯t even sting like a bee,¡± I breathed to myself. Each punch though, the power cycling through me seemed to surge outwards at my own efforts. Maybe I could commit and throw the hardest punch I could. Could I force the flow?

    I took another hit to get around Barry and swung at him from behind, coming with a back fist of my own, twisting at the hips to add as much power and swing as possible.

    That punch connected against his back as I cycled, trying to push the flow through my arm instead of just in general into my body. I felt the resistance again, but it didn¡¯t completely negate me this time.

    Barry stumbled forward a few steps. ¡°Fuck, what the hell?¡± His hand went to his back, holding it.

    I noticed my knuckles had left a pretty deep impression in his back, actually. He turned towards me once more.

    However, I took a few steps back myself. ¡°You don¡¯t have as many breakthroughs, do you? Heart, chest, neck. One or both shoulders?¡±

    ¡°How many places I¡¯ve been connected to the Earth is no concern to you.¡± Barry rolled his shoulders, eliciting cracks I could hear. ¡°One good hit isn¡¯t going to save you.¡±

    I shook my head. ¡°You¡¯ve only ever hit me with your right arm. So I¡¯m going to guess just that shoulder. It¡¯s stronger, isn¡¯t it?¡± Barry didn¡¯t answer. ¡°This is going to come down to attrition. I¡¯ve made it public I have five breakthroughs. The moment you don¡¯t have enough energy to support whatever you¡¯re doing to your skin, it¡¯s over.¡±

    Barry moved to keep me between himself and the building. ¡°And then what? You kill me? Or your little minions up there going to shove a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger, see if I¡¯m weaker going directly to the brain?¡±

    My stomach roiled a bit at that thought. ¡°I¡¯d rather not. What can I tell you to make you believe I¡¯m not part of a conspiracy with the alien?¡±

    ¡°Nothing short of killing the alien,¡± Barry spat. He looked up at the building, then back to me. ¡°But you are right about one thing. I¡¯m doing the Earth no good here.¡±

    He turned and ran, and with more distance between us the SWAT team on the roof took a few more shots but he was running erratically and fast enough they didn¡¯t hit him.

    He was out of the parking lot and almost out of sight in under a minute. I dropped to the ground myself.

    ¡°Damn it.¡±

    After a minute, Danny and Brent came out of the building as one of the guys on the roof came down carrying a medical kit. ¡°You OK?¡± Danny asked, even as the SWAT guy started looking me over.

    ¡°A little sore,¡± I replied. ¡°What are we going to do?¡±

    ¡°There are several men following the car, so we¡¯ll know where Joe goes,¡± Brent answered. ¡°I assume Barry is going to meet up with him, then either Rolla¡¯s SWAT team will go in after them if I can¡¯t get an anti-terrorist team pulled here fast enough.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re going to lose information though. He had something like my Art, but for his body. It¡¯s what made him more bulletproof. And Joe managed to fully convert his energy to wood in two days, along with what was probably another breakthrough.¡±

    ¡°With all due respect ma¡¯am, your actual fight was maybe a minute long with what I assume was a few dozen punches. The reason we couldn¡¯t give better cover fire is you were both moving fast enough we couldn¡¯t pull a good shot on him except when you were majorly spread apart or had paused to talk,¡± the SWAT medic said. ¡°That¡¯s not the sort of thing we¡¯re going to go against with anything less than everything we have too.¡±

    I stood up, looking to where I¡¯d last seen Barry. ¡°Stubborn asshole.¡± My hands shook a little. But he¡¯d been trying to kill me. And I wasn¡¯t trying to kill him.

 Chapter 39: The Consequences of My Own Actions

    The rest of the SWAT team had quickly left, trying to follow either of the two ecoterrorists. After I got a tentative all clear from their medic, Brent pulled both myself and Danny back into the conference room.

    ¡°Congratulations on starting an arms race with a terrorist,¡± Brent told me in a disapproving tone. ¡°I hope whatever you got out of it was worth it.¡±

    ¡°Bu¡ªWait, an arms race?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve proven you aren¡¯t able to, or at least won¡¯t, hurt Barry enough to stop him. And he¡¯s seen he actually is at least semi-bulletproof,¡± Brent reminded me. ¡°So now he¡¯s likely to attempt to get even stronger and since you don¡¯t know how his method works, there¡¯s no telling his timeframe.¡±

    I winced. ¡°Then I need to get stronger too, right?¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s the arms race. Can you get stronger? Will you be willing to stop him before conventional methods are completely unable to stop either of you?¡± Brent sighed and looked between Danny and me. ¡°So, right now you¡¯ve got approximately two choices. Choice one involves moving to Fort Leonard Wood and leaving a group of people to run this facility, similar to when you moved out of the school as your primary location. Danny, you could even stay behind as the primary facilitator here if you really wanted to.¡±

    ¡°And the other option is to secure this place?¡± Danny asked.

    ¡°No, we¡¯re past being able to do that now.¡± Brent shook his head. ¡°We¡¯re too close to the strip mall to close off this building well enough, Nicole is too easily accessible with the fact that you¡¯re now being targeted by terrorists. No, option two is to pick another military base and move everything there. I know that would be more of a burden to everyone, considering the work you¡¯re doing with some of the people that live here.¡±

    ¡°Is it really that bad?¡± I asked. Wasn¡¯t that going a little overboard?

    ¡°Nicole, the results of your fight out there are going to rewrite ten thousand different rules of engagement as soon as I report it. The military is going to have to figure out how to tell the strength of someone, which is going to require people at that level, or at least trained to that. The Secret Service will suddenly need people who can do the same. You said Barry had a technique that made him that bulletproof? If he can teach that, do you realize the number of people that literally will be able to walk through current security procedures and do whatever they want?¡± Brent paused his rant. ¡°Fuck, I need to call this in now. I wonder if Whiteman has any drone bombers¡­¡± he muttered as he got up and walked into his office.

    ¡°Did he say drone bombers?¡± I asked, a little white myself.

    ¡°He¡¯s got a point,¡± Danny said faintly, almost to himself. ¡°As long as you keep up with them, you¡¯re fairly safe, but what if someone like Barry walked up to the White House? There¡¯d be nothing anyone could do to stop a wall destroying punch from blowing through the fence. Lord knows if they could be stopped with rifle fire or similar.¡± Danny then gave a half-hearted chuckle. ¡°And we probably shouldn¡¯t choose a president solely on their ability to deal with an attacker.¡±

    I closed my eyes and let my head drop into my arms on the table. ¡°Damn it.¡±

    Seen through that lens, this was the first time I might actually agree with some of that reporter¡¯s rhetoric about giving everyone the ability to access this power. But then again, Barry hadn¡¯t used my method... I sighed out loud. ¡°There¡¯s not a good answer to any of this, is there?¡± I asked through my arms.

    ¡°No,¡± Danny agreed with me. ¡°But then again, life¡¯s full of tough choices, isn¡¯t it? You¡¯re probably going to need to pick up some actual self-defense lessons too.¡±

    I sat back up. ¡°That thought had crossed my mind. We were basically both brawling out there. If I¡¯d known how to actually take him down and pin him, we¡¯d be having a completely different conversation.¡±

    I grabbed my tablet which had been recovered from outside as well, banged up but still working. ¡°Alright, suck it up time then. What projects do we have going on that aren¡¯t easily movable?¡±

    Danny thought for a moment. ¡°Your project with Robert trying to cycle water. Which takes on a new urgency if that makes it easier to get breakthroughs. The small group lessons you¡¯ve been doing. I was hoping to more formalize a mixed martial arts thing. Melissa and Karen have both been trying to keep up with college work on top of whatever various things they¡¯ve been doing for you,¡± He listed out.

    I nodded, taking notes. ¡°Fort Leonard Wood is a commute, but that¡¯s not impossible to do. Especially now that it¡¯s not flooding daily. Karen¡¯s been mainly dealing with the plants upstairs and now we¡¯ve got to start that over from scratch. We can switch schedules for Robert to come back here, or maybe we can get his parents to bring him over.¡±

    I paused, tapping the screen. ¡°Melissa¡¯s finishing up her technique and supposed to be teaching that, which can be done anywhere. I wanted her and you to try doing something elementally too, since you both are internal energy and had an actual element. How¡¯s that going for you?¡±

    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°I can raise my temperature to mild fever on command,¡± Danny shrugged. ¡°I don¡¯t know if that¡¯s on purpose or because of strain. I¡¯ll let you know if I figure out something better with it.¡±

    ¡°Ah.¡± I tapped the screen. ¡°I¡¯ve only done a few of the small group lessons, but those have been pretty useful to just get different thoughts on the same process. But again, something we can schedule around.¡± I sighed. ¡°There¡¯s nothing major stopping us from moving then. Mike¡¯s a long distance relationship and hell, being on a base might actually be easier to see him,¡± I laughed to myself at the thought. ¡°Downsides are going to include that sucky amount of time to get onto base like we saw when we were there.¡±

    ¡°At least base life means we¡¯re least likely to have problems with things the military is keeping up with, though,¡± Danny noted for me.

    ¡°What do you mean?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how often you¡¯ve been shopping, but things are getting expensive. No more cheap Chinese imports of clothing and things. All those ¡®Buy American¡¯ people from previous decades must be pretty smug right now, since we¡¯ve been cut off from overseas shipping. Automated air freight only and with them having more faults? Supply and demand. Supply has gone down and demand probably hasn¡¯t changed much.¡±

    I paused, thinking. I didn¡¯t just buy anything off the racks, but there had been the fairly frequent few dollar jumps in prices. ¡°Huh. I guess I hadn¡¯t really noticed. I¡¯ve been making a hell of a lot more from my Seeker paycheck than I have before, so a lot of it¡¯s still been going into savings.¡±

    ¡°I expect we¡¯re going to have a semi-permanent military presence in agriculture to keep inflation and supply under control, but a lot of other businesses are going to change.¡± Danny nodded towards Brent¡¯s office. ¡°The Seekers aren¡¯t a business in the normal sense of the word, but Brent¡¯s been going over a whole lot of that sort of thing with me.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡°Speaking of business, if we¡¯re moving. Would you rather job benefits or cash to buy stuff yourself?¡± Danny asked me.

    I gave him a confused look. ¡°You¡¯ve already got medical benefits and things for me as part of this job?¡±

    ¡°No, I mean support benefits. A company car, but more in the realm of ¡®a company whatever you need¡¯ type thing,¡± Danny replied. ¡°You¡¯re going to get a pay raise regardless, I¡¯m just trying to figure out if it should be enough to let you buy a house and everything that goes with that, or if you¡¯d rather I just hire someone to handle all of that, have the Seekers purchase a house and supply it to you as a job perk.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know?¡± I offered, quickly overwhelmed.

    Danny nodded. ¡°I figured. We¡¯ll just do it through company perks and bump your salary to whatever¡¯s necessary to cover taxes for it. One of the random benefits of having Brent is getting him to call random people in the government to answer stupid questions. Like IRS taxes.¡±

    ¡°Fun,¡± I dryly responded. ¡°Hey, speaking of phone calls. Do you think Brent¡¯s actually going to get a bomber to shoot those guys?¡±

    ¡°When he starts talking about getting people in the government to do things, I¡¯ve yet to see him undersell what he¡¯s trying to get done,¡± Danny answered my question.

    I looked towards Brent¡¯s office and hesitated, before getting up and heading that way. Danny gave me a look before getting up himself and following.

    Inside the office, Brent was looking at his computer while talking on the phone. ¡°I¡¯ve got both pairs following their car right now, they¡¯ve got their trackers running. Rolla SWAT and a good portion of the rest of their force should be attempting to follow the primary target if they¡¯ve followed directions. Conventional SWAT weapons have had limited effect on the primary, however.¡±

    Brent paused, listening, and then looked over at us. He motioned for us to sit. ¡°Yes, assume NIJ level four body armor capability or better with an unknown length of time before resistance breakdown.¡±

    He was quiet again for a moment as he listened to the response. ¡°Correct, which is why I¡¯m requesting a resource acquisition. Kick it up the chain, I don¡¯t have eyes on the primary at the moment so we¡¯ve got some time, but the primary may be capable of teaching this to others. Look at case five assumptions.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re welcome to jump through my contacts with them. I¡¯m sending them over now,¡± Brent answered another question quickly. ¡°Detail One is in my office, is there anything else you need from me right now?¡± He listened for a moment. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll call back if I get anything before you.¡±

    Brent then hung up with whoever he was talking to and looked at us. ¡°Yes?¡±

    ¡°Fort Leonard Wood,¡± I answered. ¡°Can I still hold some classes here though?¡±

    Brent seemed to mentally shift gears and nodded. ¡°They won¡¯t be on any set schedule and you¡¯ll have to accept some actual guards. I¡¯d rather get people authorization to come onto base instead, however. Do you have any issues with adding more people to your classes? Or doing a few more in general if you need to keep the class size small?¡±

    ¡°I can,¡± I said, after thinking about it for a moment. ¡°Not like I¡¯m going to have a whole lot to do otherwise, right?¡±

    ¡°Beyond the fact that I doubt we¡¯d be capable of doing it, you¡¯re not going to be a prisoner or anything like that,¡± Brent disagreed with a shake of his head. ¡°This is for general protection of everyone involved, not to isolate you. What would have happened if Barry had decided to just start destroying the building two days ago? I¡¯m fairly certain falling beams would have majorly hurt those it didn¡¯t kill. You¡¯re the only one I¡¯d make any assumptions on getting out of it lightly and even then I wouldn¡¯t assume that before I saw Barry taking NATO rounds like a champ today.¡±

    I cursed mentally, another thing I hadn¡¯t thought of. ¡°You don¡¯t have to sell it to me anymore. Danny¡¯s even going to have the Seekers buy a house for me, apparently.¡±

    ¡°Once we¡¯ve got this a little more under control, I¡¯ll make some more calls to start getting everything moved,¡± Brent responded. ¡°Danny, are you staying or going as well?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll commute. I¡¯m hoping to keep this place as our headquarters. It¡¯ll make us a little easier to reach for normal stuff, but keep the bigger things separated too,¡± Danny answered.

    ¡°Sounds like a plan. Nicole, I¡¯ll leave it up to you to discuss with your friends and team how they want to handle it. Anything sensitive will need to stay on base, though.¡± Brent looked at me again.

    ¡°I¡¯ll talk to them. And we¡¯ll figure out who in the Seekers can make it to the base instead of just coming here.¡±

 Chapter 40: Behind Military Lines

    May 11th?

    Thirty minutes down the interstate from Rolla was Fort Leonard Wood. Twenty minutes of getting IDs checked and winding through the Army base was the base enlisted housing. A few minutes past that, backed up to the on-base woods, was officer and family housing.

    Melissa had decided to throw herself full time into the Seekers and asked if she could bum a room from me when we moved. I¡¯d brought it up to Danny in front of Brent. Brent then decided to preempt the Seekers by arranging for a family housing unit on base, which included base access and everything that went along with that.

    Staying in the mostly unfurnished house three days later was interesting, though. This morning, I sat on the nice back porch that looked out over a somewhat muddy lawn that was still struggling to grow from the water deluge. Past the lawn it quickly turned to a tangle of trees that stretched out all the way to the base fence, only crossing a few small roads.

    Sitting across from me was Melissa, both of us quietly pushing our individual power. I breathed in, cycling my energy tightly in myself. Already full on power, I wasn¡¯t yet trying for the next breakthrough, instead I was trying to gain a better control over my power. Instead of a general flood of energy into myself, I tried to guide the overflow in myself. Test where in my body I could send that energy in particular and see if it reacted like a block. Testing how I could possibly do something similar to what Barry had done to strengthen himself with his earth technique.

    I frowned. Barry. I knew moving here made it a lot harder for Barry to figure out where I was and the Seekers building in Rolla now had a few actual military guards for general protection, even if Barry could probably walk through them. But he hadn¡¯t shown up again. Joe was apparently under observation at a motel in Rolla, as Brent had said the people following Joe saw him meet up with several others before splitting apart.

    I exhaled, letting go and letting my energy flow outward normally once more. A repeated idle thought crossed my mind as I wondered what happened to the energy I didn¡¯t use when it overflowed. I was fairly certain we were breaking the law of conservation of energy, so where did that ¡®waste¡¯ energy go?

    Not something I could answer right now, we didn¡¯t even have a good way to measure energy in the first place. I put the thought aside once more.

    Inhale. Cycle. Exhale. Release.

    Breathe. Why, though? I could understand the people using the Earth¡¯s energy needing to breathe it in and exhale the exchange. But I wasn¡¯t using external power, it was all internal to myself.

    I got up, irritated with myself now and unable to focus. Melissa looked at me, and I could sense her cycling, the energy rolling off of her. The feel of lightning sparking, before it faded away.

    ¡°You OK?¡± Melissa asked, looking worried and standing from where she¡¯d been sitting on a step.

    ¡°Just¡­this. Everything.¡± I waved my hand around, encompassing the house, the base. Hell, the world as far as I was concerned. ¡°We¡¯re well beyond me bitching and wanting things to go back to the way things were before the alien arrived. But can I complain for one minute to have a new normal settle?¡±

    The plaintive tone to my voice set Melissa off and I felt her cycling slow back to it¡¯s normal rate as she laughed. ¡°We¡¯re actively working to figure out how to kick an alien at his own game when no one knows the rules. We¡¯re not going to have normal until we at least know the rules we¡¯re playing by.¡±

    I sighed, looking out past the lawn to the woods. ¡°Yeah, and who the hell knows what ¡®regained balance¡¯ is going to end up being,¡± I airquoted Zhaohui. ¡°I wish I could get a better understanding when he says that piece.¡±

    Although, just in case¡­ ¡°What is the strength of the world¡¯s soul?¡± I hadn¡¯t asked in a few days.

    Your world has cleared the second block of the [Initiate¡¯s Realm] and begins to regain its balance.

    The words pushed against me. But even knowing what he was going to say and focusing on the last part of the sentence, I couldn¡¯t get anything else.

    ¡°Yeah, still nothing.¡± I shrugged, unable to do anything else. ¡°Nothing I¡¯ve done recently has apparently been interesting enough to get his attention to dig something else out from him either.¡± I paused and laughed. ¡°At least it¡¯s another point we¡¯re not doing anything for the alien, though.¡±

    ¡°Also in ¡®no help from the alien¡¯ news, I think I¡¯ve gotten my light walking trick figured out. I¡¯ve been messing with it all morning and I¡¯ve got it down to forming my energy just right, instead of the brute force absorbing impact I was doing.¡± Melissa grinned.

    ¡°Wait, seriously?¡± I looked at her. ¡°That¡¯s awesome. What is it?¡± I sat back at the table. ¡°Come on, explain.¡±

    ¡°Alright, so a really dumb, doesn¡¯t actually explain it, explanation? Lift yourself,¡± Melissa started. ¡°It doesn¡¯t make sense, but that¡¯s basically what I¡¯m doing.¡±

    I almost said something, but instead nodded and waited for her to continue.

    ¡°I originally started with the whole ¡®absorb the impact¡¯ thing because that¡¯s how I got started with it back when we were dirt digging. I then started looking into things like surface tension and how maybe I was reducing my weight to something that didn¡¯t break the mud¡¯s surface tension,¡± Melissa explained before continuing. ¡°I mean, I could stand on a scale and by brute forcing it I literally got lighter on the scale. So, it made sense.¡± She paused.

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    I took the offered interruption. ¡°How¡¯d you get from that to lift yourself? And how the hell do you lift yourself?¡±

    ¡°I was going back through everything we had recorded on weight and whatnot. It was actually the first training class you did, holding the vending machine, that made me stop and think.¡±

    Melissa flexed her arm. ¡°I¡¯ve got muscle, but nowhere near enough to lift something like that, especially as easy as you did that. But you can. And I can. And that thing is heavier than I am. So if we¡¯re lifting weights with energy and my weight is less than my maximum lift, why can¡¯t I lift myself with that energy?¡±

    ¡°Because you should need something to provide a lift from? I mean, I¡¯ve seen people lift themselves via pulleys and buckets.¡± That sounded almost like a cartoon. ¡°Can you literally lift yourself in the air?¡±

    ¡°No, not that far. I haven¡¯t figured it out that well, so I still need something at least vaguely solid to do it from.¡± Melissa motioned me to stand back up, so I did. ¡°Here, boost me up on your hands, I¡¯ll show you.¡±

    I set my feet and held out my arm, palm up. Melissa jumped up onto my hand. Huh. ¡°I can still feel your weight.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I wanted to make sure you saw the difference.¡± This close to her, I could feel Melissa¡¯s power cycle as she did something and I felt the strangest sensation in my hand as the energy cycling in her legs and feet seemed to stiffen up, pulling up on her body. The weight of the adult in my hand vanished just as fast.

    ¡°Holy shit,¡± I whispered, holding my hand steady. ¡°You have no weight.¡±

    Melissa took a step off my hand, dropping onto the back of my chair without tipping it. ¡°Moving is like shifting my weight around, but still holding it.¡±

    ¡°Alright, let me grab a tablet to record this, then you¡¯re going to go over this whole thing with me. This is definitely something new and good.¡± I was in and out of the house in a moment, returning with my tablet and clicking the recorder on.

    Melissa nodded to me and the tablet. ¡°Alright, the first thing I had to figure out was how to disentangle how much of something I¡¯m lifting is me physically versus with energy. Hopefully we don¡¯t have to go through a week or two of my tests on surface tension to figure this out for you.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what do you mean disentangle?¡± I paused her.

    ¡°Just that. After all those surface tension experiments, I finally figured out how to tell just how much of a lift is my energy versus me. So you need to be able to tell how your energy is doing the lifting when you pick up something heavy.¡±

    ¡°This is going to be a pain in the ass.¡±

    ~~~

    When Brent came by an hour later with some paperwork, the look on his face was pretty priceless.

    Even as I was picking up the empty fridge we¡¯d drug onto the porch, Melissa was sitting on what looked like empty air.

    ¡°What on Earth?¡± he asked, trying not to interrupt. ¡°Melissa, are you flying somehow?¡±

    She shook her head, grinning. ¡°Sitting on some fishing line. Twenty pound test we found in a closet that someone hadn¡¯t gotten rid of when they moved out. It¡¯s a lot harder than it looks.¡±

    I set the fridge down, frowning at it and then my arms. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m not going to figure this out immediately. I kind of see what you¡¯re getting at, Melissa, but it¡¯s almost more instinctive than purposeful. Like learning to move an involuntary muscle.¡±

    ¡°Karen would love that description,¡± Melissa laughed, before hopping down from the line. It didn¡¯t even lift up like she¡¯d be placing any weight on it or the limbs we¡¯d tied the string to. ¡°That¡¯s seriously exhausting to sit on that, by the way. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve burned energy that fast since I lit my dantian.¡±

    ¡°Melissa figured out that technique she started a few weeks ago. Turns out if you try hard enough, you can negate your weight. Or maybe mass. We haven¡¯t figured out which yet. Gravity still appears to work though, so no flying.¡± I looked at the fridge with a frown. ¡°I¡¯m still trying to get her step one myself.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s mildly terrifying,¡± Brent agreed. ¡°What else does it do?¡±

    ¡°Still working on that,¡± Melissa answered. ¡°I figured I should be able to jump like nobody¡¯s business, but I haven¡¯t been able to use this yet and also apply my strength to a jump as well. Anytime I try, it collapses and I¡¯m back to my normal weight.¡±

    ¡°The less said about me trying to lightly toss you onto that string the first time though, the better.¡± I laughed and Melissa just blew a raspberry at me.

    ¡°Huh.¡± Brent then shook his paperwork. ¡°I¡¯ve got a schedule for your Combatives training course. I¡¯d prefer if both of you were going.¡±

    ¡°Combatives?¡± I asked. The answer sounded obvious, but still. ¡°A fighting course?¡±

    ¡°Army Combatives are a military martial art, yes. The base has multiple trainers, so I¡¯ve arranged for a two hour evening lesson daily until further notice. Either just you, Nicole, or both of you.¡± Brent paused, then looked to Melissa. ¡°I¡¯d like to learn whatever this trick is as well. Is it teachable to someone using the Earth¡¯s energy?¡±

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t see why not,¡± Melissa answered, then looked at me and shrugged. ¡°Aren¡¯t you the one teaching stuff, though?¡±

    ¡°Only what I know. You¡¯ve got something new, let¡¯s teach everyone we can and see where it goes.¡± I looked at Brent. ¡°I think actually using it¡¯s going to be limited to those who can lift their own weight just with energy, so you may not be able to on just the first breakthrough.¡±

    ¡°The theory can probably be taught to anyone to get started,¡± Melissa chimed in.

 Chapter 41: Light Steps and Training

    We adjourned to the kitchen where I put the fridge back in place mostly no worse for the wear. Melissa busied herself for a moment grabbing coffee.

    ¡°So did you come over just to drop the training schedule off, or what?¡± I asked, sitting down at the table.

    ¡°More than just that.¡± Brent sat as well then pulled out his paperwork again. ¡°We should have a building in the early stages of ready for use in the next week or two. Thankfully, so far there hasn¡¯t been any need for hard to acquire gear.¡± He passed a few sheets with a printout of an office layout, combined with what looked like a greenhouse and other outdoor stuff.

    ¡°Setting up the same way again?¡± Melissa said, sitting down next to Brent and looking at the paperwork upside down.

    ¡°Somewhat.¡± Brent nodded to Melissa. ¡°While I still believe I should have made the call to just shoot Barry immediately instead of letting it escalate the way it did, we are using what you learned during that fight, Nicole.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± I asked. Brent had apologized once already for not taking the choice from me, but even if it had worked we wouldn¡¯t know what we¡¯d lost.

    ¡°We have enough people in California at the second breakthrough now that can sense energy. The military is buying any geodes people are finding that have energy in them, along with any plants that do as well.¡± Brent looked at a list. ¡°We¡¯ve got nearly two dozen geodes and a full-sized persimmon tree so far from the San Francisco area and we¡¯re reaching out to others that have posted on your forums as well.¡±

    ¡°Huh, really?¡± I blinked. ¡°In just a couple of days? Also, another fruit bearing plant?¡±

    Brent nodded. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of dross, however. Almost three hundred total geodes. And following up on plants is hard if they weren¡¯t already in planters.¡± He referenced the paperwork again. ¡°I don¡¯t know how long it will take to get a full tree here. And two instances of fruiting plants does not make a pattern. You¡¯ve had several people discussing other plants on the forums that we¡¯re looking into as well.¡± Brent then offered me the full list.

    There were a few spots marked with animals and other things they were trying to reach out to people to get. ¡°Animals too? Well, with that many options, maybe we can figure out Barry¡¯s method then.¡± I stopped at one. ¡°Hey, didn¡¯t they kill that crab?¡±

    Brent shrugged. ¡°Apparently, they found a few more. I¡¯m honestly hoping we have a way to move creatures like that. Strange creatures are easier to spot than plants.¡±

    ¡°So what do we have here then?¡± Melissa asked. ¡°Besides the one stone the Elves left, that is.¡±

    ¡°I believe eight of them were flown in on an autopilot cargo plane yesterday morning.¡± Brent tapped the paperwork I was looking at. ¡°There should be an onsite note for anything here. I¡¯d rather we not do anything with the geode left by them until you¡¯ve had a chance to compare it against the ones we¡¯ve acquired without their influence.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s fine.¡± I answered with a nod. ¡°Can we go look at the ones we¡¯ve got now then?¡±

    ~~~

    We¡¯d picked up a small box from a depot near the airport and had returned back to the house, spilling them out across the kitchen table. The eight stones varied in size and general color, ranging from the smallest tan stone being a quarter inch across to a red-black stone that was a good three inches across and extremely craggy. Setting them all out on the table, I could sense that static, non-cycling, energy in each of them. Interestingly, they each felt like they had differing amounts of power inside. Not by too much, but just enough to be noticeable.

    ¡°Same five element types in all of them.¡± I mused. ¡°Wood, fire, earth, metal, water. Isn¡¯t that the Chinese elements?¡±

    I arranged the rocks from least power to greatest. Surprisingly, it didn¡¯t follow the sizes.

    Melissa looked up from her tablet after searching that question. ¡°Yeah. Huh, you think it¡¯s a coincidence?¡±

    ¡°Dunno. When the storm got put together, it felt like air or wind along with water.¡± I nudged the weakest stone, watching it roll around before stabilizing again. ¡°Just like the other one though, it¡¯s not moving energy. Just sitting there.¡±

    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°So that¡¯s a point in favor of the other stone not having anything wrong with it then.¡± Brent noted, sitting a bit away from the table himself.

    ¡°So, how is this thing a broken soul? Or eight of them.¡± I picked up one of them. ¡°Any ideas?¡±

    ¡°A stupid one, sure.¡± Melissa responded, picking one of them up herself. ¡°Do you think the energy in here is bigger or smaller than my head?¡±

    Brent sputtered out a laugh. ¡°I¡¯ve read that list. No eating the rocks. We can¡¯t do surgery on you to get them out, and I don¡¯t think you want to try passing a stone of that size.¡±

    Melissa shook her head. ¡°No, not physically eating them.¡± She turned the rock around in her hand. ¡°Remember you caught me with that breathe when you were teaching Ash and Karen? Is there anything stopping me from trying to pull on this for power instead of the more general external energy of the Earth?¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes there is.¡± Brent said before I could answer. ¡°There are thousands of military on base right now that I am fairly certain we could find any number of volunteers or at least voluntolds. Neither of you are risking yourselves on this if there are options.¡±

    I paused before sighing with a nod. ¡°It¡¯s an idea, especially since Barry and Joe said they took souls inside themselves. Karen ate one of those blackberries and it just gave a little extra wood energy before spending itself, but I don¡¯t think she tried to actively cycle it. And we didn¡¯t have something that was more than one energy type before.¡± I looked at Brent. ¡°So it¡¯s something to test then.¡±

    ¡°Let me make a couple of phone calls then.¡± Brent pulled a cellphone out, immediately getting onto that.

    Melissa looked at the rock in her hand again. ¡°You think anything interesting is going to happen with these?¡±

    ¡°Maybe?¡± I waved my hand back and forth gesture. ¡°It could be it locks someone¡¯s power to a specific level, or they could do nothing. Or something else. No clue. Eight¡¯s not really enough for a good test, but it¡¯s a start.¡±

    While we waited for Brent to finish his phone calls, I went back to attempting Melissa¡¯s technique. Separate how much my own power was lifting something compared to what I was physically doing was odd. Energy overflowed from my dantian and breakthrough points, suffusing into my body which made me stronger.

    I messed around with the overflow in myself for a few minutes trying to restrict it, then when that failed alter it. Any changes I could start to enforce almost immediately were corrected by the energy flowing out from me, smoothing it out and returning to the normal excess created by my cycling.

    It wasn¡¯t too long before Brent closed his phone and I had to put aside the attempts.

    ¡°You had a class for the soldiers scheduled in three days, so the students are being contacted for people willing to test this.¡± Brent began. ¡°That will also give us a few more days to get as many geodes or other energy holding items here that we can for testing.¡±

    ¡°That easy?¡± I asked, eyebrow raised.

    ¡°That simple from your and my perspective, but simple isn¡¯t easy. Other people will be doing a lot of work in the next 48 hours to make it happen. But anything new that comes, it¡¯s better we understand it instead of getting caught on the backfoot again.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°So, do you want to work on the theory of this with us then? See if you can figure it out? Or do you have other work to do?¡±

    Brent shook his head. ¡°Unfortunately, I do have some other work. I would appreciate being kept up on this, once you¡¯re able to successfully teach it. I¡¯ll be back this evening to drive you over to the Combatives class.¡±

    After Brent left, I returned my attention back to Melissa. ¡°Alright, I think I¡¯m going to need to see you do this again. I can¡¯t quite pick out the energy right. You feel up to showing off some more?¡±

    ¡°Sure. Just not sitting on the fishing line again. I have to burn a little too much energy to stay up there and balanced.¡± Melissa got up from the table and we went outside once more. ¡°Try not to toss me into the sky again?¡±

    I laughed, holding my hands out. ¡°No promises. It didn¡¯t hurt you anyways.¡±

    She just gave me a look before laughing herself and jumped, landing on her heels in my palms. ¡°I¡¯m half tempted to get something heavy so you can really tell the difference.¡±

    Melissa¡¯s energy flickered from smooth overflow to almost pulling away from my hands and stabilizing as she said that. I shook my head. ¡°I can sense it, it¡¯s just trying to figure out how to do the same with my energy. I¡¯m hoping to figure it out from sensing you doing it.¡±

    She shifted to a handstand and I felt the same energy flicker in her hands and wrists, pulling itself into a stable configuration. Her hair fell over my hands as she grinned at me.

    ¡°How the hell do you keep the overflow from just going right back over that?¡± I groused, trying to grab and stabilize my own energy in the same way.

    ¡°I¡¯m not pushing nearly as much as you? I¡¯m only on my third breakthrough and you¡¯re higher than that.¡±

    ¡°You need to try for four eventually.¡± I said offhand. ¡°Are you not full up on your cycling though?¡±

    ¡°Half or so.¡± Melissa said. ¡°I don¡¯t keep myself topped off all the time. You think that has something to do with it?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s going to take a couple of hours to let enough of my excess burn off naturally for me to find out.¡± I answered. ¡°Can¡¯t hurt to try.¡±

    ~~~

    Three hours and several parkour leaps over the house later, I stood on the gutter attached to the two- story building laughing at myself. It clicked, just like my Art of Awakening did. But whereas my Art of Awakening spent all the energy I cycled and more, expelling and removing it from me, this technique instead cost energy for each use. It stayed stable for maybe half a minute or so and I had to provide additional energy to keep it going. Energy that had been all in use by cycling.

    Damn it.

 Chapter 42

    "Seriously?" Melissa watched as I hopped back down from the gutter. She shook her head. "I took weeks to figure that out, and you pick it up in basically a day?"

    I grinned at her, buoyed by the success. "You had all the parts to it, and being able to sense how you were doing it was a major help. I definitely wouldn''t have been able to do it without feeling your energy pull you up. It does eat up energy though, doesn''t it?"

    Checking myself one more time, I nodded. Falling from the second floor and not even worrying about the height was still interesting in and of itself, even beyond the parkour I''d been doing to burn off the excess energy flowing through me. "Actually, without you figuring it out first, I don''t know if I ever would have. The only other actual technique I know and used requires me to be full up on energy to spend it. So having to build up and use energy specifically for doing this is different."

    I walked back into the house, Melissa following as we continued.

    "So, something new then." Melissa looked thoughtful. "Two different ways to do a technique?" She dropped back onto the couch.

    I shook my head. "Three, I think. Have available energy and spend it specifically on a technique, like yours-which you still need to name-," I looked at her, holding a finger up, then held up a second. "Second type being like my Art of Awakening, which requires me to have a lot of energy already built up to burn off. Third is just the general cycling to hold onto power which makes us even stronger overall." I ended with a third finger held up.

    "Maybe two and a half." Melissa shook her head. "General cycling seems like just a slow burn technique if we''re comparing it to mine. Which how about calling it Featherwalking?"

    I grabbed my tablet from the kitchen table and crashed onto the couch as well, pulling up the wiki and throwing our thoughts there so others could find out. "Featherwalking sounds fun. And you''re probably right. Damn, does that mean we could have found out all sorts of other things if I hadn''t been making us all push on cycling for the energy overflow? Damn, damn, damn."

    "Hey, live and learn, right? And it''s not like we weren''t doing something with the energy." Melissa waved a hand around. "It''s a measurable difference between no overflow and full up as far as you can push it." She then wrinkled her nose and stood. "Alright, I stink. I''m going to go take a shower."

    I was feeling pretty grubby myself but tapped the tablet with a finger. "I''ll take one before Brent comes back to grab us for class. I want to get this organized a bit first."

    ~~~

    Board ¨C Seeker General

    Topic: Techniques

    Posted By: NicoleFiren

    May 12th?

    I''ve added a new <u>wiki section</u> and sub-forum to the board, Techniques. The wiki will stay locked for update to only Seekers, but we''ll be asking for anyone to provide verifiable abilities they''ve figured out. Full credit and whatever else I can do if you''re sharing.

    The technique forum is open for anyone to post about anything they''ve managed or seen or even want to guess at. Please practice safely!

    (Topic has been locked).

    Wiki:Techniques

    If you are on this page and have not recently reviewed <u>Energy</u> please do so for additional information on maximum cycling and why it''s no longer always the best idea. General cycling is also listed as a technique below.

    We currently know of two ways to use techniques. Anyone who has additional methods, please share on the forum.

    The two current methods have been tentatively marked as active and passive uses of energy. Active uses require you to have already cycled enough energy from your dantian to use, and using the technique expends that energy.

    Passive techniques require you to not be at your maximum energy use from cycling, and appear to reduce the amount of energy in your dantian to use.

    In either case, energy used is gone until you''ve had recovery time to bring the energy back into your dantian.

    Cycling/Overflow Cycling

    Effect: Drawing energy into yourself to fill your dantian. Energy in your dantian is required for all other techniques. Overflow cycling, or drawing enough energy into your dantian to flow power past your dantian and breakthroughs, creates active energy. Overflow cycling also gives a general extra bit of strength, the more you overflow, the more strength.

    Currently, overflow cycling well beyond your maximum is the only known method to get past a block and breakthrough.

    Art of Awakening

    Creator: Nicole Firen

    Has been taught to others: No

    Energy Type: Active

    Energy Use: Everything

    Description: Uses your own energy to show others how to ignite their dantian. So far, everyone taught via this method has gone on to ignite their dantian with external energy.

    Feathersteps

    Creator: Melissa Belle

    Has been taught to others: Yes

    Energy Type: Passive

    Energy Use: Less than a single breakthrough, rapid use

    Description: Reduces weight to nearly nothing. Must stay in contact with some sort of object, but capable of supporting yourself on any object. Tested up to including fishing line tied on tree branches, with no noticeable bending of branches or line.

    Unknown Defense Technique

    Creator: ?Barry McDonald?

    Has been taught to others: Unknown

    Energy Type: Unknown

    Energy Use: Unknown

    Description: Made the user much more durable during a fight. Unknown actual effect.

    ~~~

    May 14th?

    I''d ignited a fair bit of conversation on the board about the tiny list of techniques we knew, but unfortunately no one else had come forward with their own. I knew people had to have them, YouTube and the like were still littered with videos of people''s efforts from before the Earth''s dantian was lit. But either no one wanted to share or they hadn''t figured out how to do those things when they weren''t on the false path. Or they weren''t on our site, which was entirely possible too.

    Still, I''d almost take Barry or someone claiming to be an ELF at least confirming more of their stuff too. If he wanted to prove our method was wrong, he''d need to actually do something again.

    I tapped the browser closed once more, refreshing wasn''t going to make anything show up faster if no one was there. I flipped over to the energy stone documentation, looking between it and the table in front of me once more. In just a few days, we''d grown from having eight geodes holding energy to nineteen.

    "Ready?" Danny sat to my left, there as the lead for the Dantian Seekers. He''d taken the time since Barry''s attack to get himself through his third breakthrough and it''d taken me the better part of the day to get him even the basic understanding of Feathersteps.

    Melissa wasn''t even having that much luck teaching Karen and Ash her own technique. I had low hopes for the general class later this evening.

    "Not particularly, but that''s not going to stop this." I grumbled.

    "It''s an all-volunteer military, Ms. Firen." Major Clarke, assigned to this project from the military medical group, interjected from my right. "And all actual volunteers for this as well. They''re getting hazard pay as well."

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    I shrugged. Testing energy from the geodes was something we wanted to do, but none of the Seekers were in the initial test group. Ash and Melissa had both wanted to try, but we''d been reluctantly convinced to let the military take the first risks. "Guess we get started then."

    The major clicked something on his own tablet and a few minutes later several men and women in uniform were led into the room.

    Six men and two women, eight volunteers. According to the notes, all junior enlisted with no more than two breakthroughs. There were three additional nurses as well in case of issues.

    The volunteers came to attention and the Major waved them down before nodding to Danny who stood. "Good morning. I''m Danny Sidre and the current lead of the Dantian Seekers. With me is Nicole Firen, here to assist in our testing today." I gave a nervous smile.

    Danny waved to the table between us and them. "What we have here is a set of geodes that have their own stable energy in them. Our testing today will be to see if it is possible for anyone to cycle the energy inside the geodes. Either instead of, or with, the energy you normally cycle. We have enough for two tests for everyone, and a third for most of you but we''re going to start with just one stone. Now, if you''ll all come collect a single stone of your choice and a questionnaire, we can get started. And if you feel like you need a specific stone, why you think so is question one. And unless two people decide they need a specific stone, you''ll get whichever one you want."

    The volunteers already had most of the information we needed tracked, but we did need to know what they considered themselves at currently with regards to their own energy levels. Thankfully military people wear nametags, so I was able to mark down my own estimates of what I thought their cycling levels were at and if I thought any of them had a specific feel to their energy, like Danny''s fire affinity. They also had long free-form boxes for if and/or when they managed to pull on the geode''s energy to describe in detail.

    As the group came up to collect their items, I stopped focusing so much on the individuals and focused more on the energy in the room. I wasn''t sure I was actually the one with the best senses for feeling out someone else''s energy, but as the one with the most breakthroughs we didn''t have anyone more sensitive to it.

    The energy flow in the room made whorls and eddies around everyone, some drawing in deeper than others as I made guesses to who had two breakthroughs versus one or even just a lit dantian. Muddying the waters there was the amount of energy each person was cycling as well, as the pull and overflow of energy would be less if a particular person wasn''t cycling their full amount of overflow.

    Heck, my own overflow was less than my usual, having learned my own lesson about needing to reserve some energy to use for Feathersteps.

    "Relax, sit on the mats if you want to. Do whatever you normally do when practicing cycling." Danny called after a moment when all the paperwork was complete and the volunteers were sitting at tables of their own, studying the stones. "If you have any questions, Nicole or I will try to answer them, but this is new for everyone."

    No one immediately asked any questions. I could feel/see/sense the energy in the room move a little more though, drawing into our testers at various speeds. Then overflowing back out in a ripple from them. The static energy in the geodes appeared to be buffered by the various flows, but not affected.

    I waited a few minutes in quiet as well, just watching the various flows. After ten, I decided to speak up. "No one''s cycling appears to be affecting the energy in their geodes. Can anyone feel the energy in the geode when they cycle?"

    "Yeah, it''s a literal rock of energy." One woman spoke up, getting a couple of chuckles. "I can feel the energy I''m cycling in just flow around it." The others voiced similar thoughts.

    "Alright. Well, let''s keep at it then." I responded.

    Thirty more minutes passed. I''d gotten used to the quiet of cycling and watching others cycle back in Rolla when I ran those classes, so it was easy enough for me to focus on them. Danny seemed more twitchy and bored, while Major Clarke continued to work on something on his own. The nurses stayed busy monitoring vitals of the testers, but they looked bored with nothing happening.

    One guy blew out his breath and looked up from where he was sitting. "Can I just crack it open?" he asked, holding the stone up. Jennings according to his nametag.

    I looked left and right and got two shrugs. "Go for it, though please move further away from everyone else first. Do you need a hammer?"

    Jennings shook his head. "I think I can break it without it." He got up and moved over to an empty corner of the room, sitting down.

    I checked my notes, two breakthroughs. The geodes were just hollow stones, so he probably could pretty easily, actually. I focused on him from across the room before frowning. Too many people and their own energy between us. I moved, giving myself direct line of sight. "Go for it."

    With everyone now watching, Jennings squeezed the stone. It resisted for a moment, before cracking apart. Jennings jerked back along with most of the rest of the room as we all felt the energy inside of the stone release before breaking somewhat into the component elements and dissipating into the general energy flow.

    I frowned, trying to mentally compare how much was released to what vanished. "Did you manage to cycle any of that?"

    "I, uh, might have been a little startled and didn''t manage to cycle anything when the energy jumped like that?" Jennings gave a sheepish grin.

    I rolled my eyes, but still nodded and grabbed another geode. I then tossed it over. "Try again." I then looked to the other watching volunteers. "If this works, we''ll have the rest of you try it as well."

    Jennings caught the geode and took a deep breath. Power eddied around him more as he began cycling, the overflow starting to make little whorls going outward. After a few minutes and with another deep breath, he cracked the geode.

    Well, that''s disappointing. I thought to myself even as Jennings frowned. "Barely anything, ma''am. I could feel it break apart, but I didn''t really get anything extra from it."

    I nodded with a sigh. "It blew energy away from you, so anything extra you got from the geode was countered by the lost of the energy you were already cycling into yourself. Breaking them isn''t the answer, but we''re at least one less possibility. It''s got to be something simple we''re missing."

    "Ma''am?" Another one asked.

    "We know for a fact people are able to take in this energy and utilize it, we just don''t know how. Considering who did it originally, I doubt it''s anything long and drawn out." I thought to Barry and Joe. Maybe we could get someone to talk to Joe if they were still tracking him? Brent hadn''t mentioned them for a few days now.

    I grabbed another stone and threw it to Jennings again. "Alright, let''s keep trying without breaking them."

 Chapter 43

    In the end we broke four more stones over the course of two hours, different people trying to capture the energy before it fled. The closer to actually empty of energy you were seemed to provide a little bit of additional energy, but still not enough to make it seem worth it.

    And it should be. Picking apart what Joe had said, they used these ''broken souls'' to jump their cultivation up. He''d eaten the soul of the blackberry bush to get his next breakthrough, but it didn''t sound like the bush provided the entire breakthrough.

    I sighed, playing with one of the leftover rocks for a moment, eyes unfocused as I felt at the energy in it. I didn''t draw external energy in myself, so figuring out how to direct this stone''s energy into me wouldn''t be any easier than the testers had earlier.

    "You do realize, you don''t always have to be the one to discover and figure out everything, right?" I focused again, looking across the desk to where Brent was sitting. "The whole point of having other people in the Seekers, and having access to the military, is quite literally to throw more people at a problem to try to solve it."

    Brent gave me a half smile. "Yes, pretty much all of the groundwork is yours. And you''ll probably be at the forefront of dozens of new things. But one person can''t do everything. And not in one day."

    "Yeah, but how many of those dozen things are actually going to be new?" I waved the stone around. "Like this thing. We''re duplicating work we pretty much know the elves did. How many more things are we going to learn that could have been shared and built on faster?" I didn''t think I was quite ranting, but I was probably close. "I vaguely understand wanting to be special and be the next Goku with energy beams, but damn it why not be the next Roshi instead and actually make something of it?"

    Brent chuckled before almost sliding into a full out laugh before I pinned him with a stare.

    "Sorry. But it is funny. You do know that for every person like you, willing to push forward and share what you''ve learned, there''s at least a thousand people who are quite happy to just take whatever they can and just wallow in their mediocrity? And dozens more that would take anything they learned and monopolize or monetize it?" He paused. "And those numbers are probably low."

    I slumped. "Yeah. I know. But it still sucks." I blew out my breath and looked down at the geode again, tossing it between my hands. "So, question. Any possibility of tracking down one of the elves and me trying to get them to explain this? Weren''t your guys following Joe still from last week?"

    I got a nonplused look. "You want to attempt to talk to the terrorists that want to likely kill you. Again. Interrupt whatever possible operations are being run to try to track down their leadership and other cells. Just to try to negotiate with someone who tried to take your head off."

    Shaking my head at that, I answered. "I don''t want to talk to Barry, no. Tried that and failed. But there''s others right? It''s not just those two, and they can''t all be frothing at the mouth."

    "Terrorists usually are. Or cultists, if they were being honest about their Earth versus the alien comments." Brent disagreed. "I can''t stop you from going back to Rolla and wandering around until you get accosted by someone, but I can decide to not point you at anyone we''re tracking or in the process of arresting or other actions."

    "Give it a few days, someone will figure it out here. You''ve also got a good chunk of the US military following your footsteps and it''s only been two and a half days for anyone to try to build any techniques up. Remember, most people would have been doing the same thing you were and trying to cycle all of their energy into overflow, so that blocks any passive energy use techniques from being used."

    I paused at that. "Yeah, and Melissa did take weeks to figure hers out from first principles¡­" I trailed off.

    Brent gave me a smile. "Exactly. Try working on something else. For example, I''ve got the reports of all the soldiers across the nation. Most are I-1 or I-2, but there are people already at I-3 and looking to move up. You''re going to lose your lead on them."

    "I-1? I-2? What''s that?"

    Brent laughed again. "Sorry, the military is already making acronyms. What breakthrough levels they have. We know the alien calls it the Initiate''s Realm, so I-1 would be one breakthrough. So you''re an I-5 in military parlance. I know the fourth and fifth ones were much harder for you, but people are going to catch up eventually."

    I thought back. It''d been six weeks ago or so when I made that double breakthrough. "I''ve been just a little busy." I replied back defensively. "You know, elves, moving here. The damn rains that only very recently stopped? And aren''t you going to tell me not to risk myself like with these?" I held the geode up again.

    Brent gave a great sigh. "You''ve already been forging that path, you''re the one leading everyone else up the Initiate''s Realm. The geode thing was because it wasn''t a one off thing, or something that only you could uniquely do. Take some time for yourself though." He then grinned at me. "We don''t need you standing on the third step of a staircase to help us up. We need someone at the top of the staircase to keep the alien from knocking us all down."

    "Fine." I stood, tossing the geode onto his desk. "You deal with that, I''ll try pushing further."

    ~~~

    Brent sat staring at the geode for several minutes, until a beep from the computer next to him pulled his attention away. Looking at it, he raised an eyebrow. Nearly fifty an hour. Nicole normally keeps with traffic instead of outrunning it.

    The programming on the traffic cameras had to be upgraded when people routinely started running twenty plus miles an hour, as they were starting to error on people moving faster than the slowest posted speed limits.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    It also let them try to figure out everyone''s general max speed. Nicole herself had shown inconsistencies when she was being tested, so facial recognition had been slaved into the system to keep an eye out on everyone for better baseline and knowledge.

    Heaving a sigh, Brent placed a call. After a moment, an older man dressed in a well pressed suit projected itself into the chair Nicole had recently vacated. He had a look of no nonsense about him, and his light blue eyes did not reflect the thin smile he showed Brent upon appearing.

    "I was denied removing a threat to Ms. Firen''s wellbeing, and now she''s explicitly asking to figure out how to use those people to further our understanding. Which is eminently a good idea if we''re not going to be ending whoever we possibly can and neutralizing the rest." Brent started in. "Seeing as how I''ve been basically locked out of any information on the group, you''re lucky I had a good reason to redirect Ms. Firen instead of giving her what little I do know and standing back. However, she''s not going to stay distracted forever and she does still have friends in Rolla. You''re playing with fire, and it''s not a lit match."

    "Your time spent advising as an insurgency specialist is showing, Brent." The man''s already thin smile vanished. "However, the ELF cell has been claimed for counter operations. They''ll be managed and once integrated, we''ll forward any necessary details to you for dissemination to your project. In the meantime, you''re dealing with a bunch of civilians, led by a twenty-one year old woman. You shouldn''t be having any issue keeping them on focus."

    "Kyle, my focus is ''get Nicole to discover more about this power and make it accessible to the military.'' It does me no good to let her get focused on something already done." Brent scowled at the other man. "We have plenty of safe and effective results considering it''s been barely two months since I was brought into her group. Why are you risking fucking something up with this, just to try to co-opt an actively hostile group?"

    The man was quiet for a moment, his eyes flickering to a screen unseen on Brent''s side of the call. Finally he nodded and did something on his end. "Alright, you''re flagged as read in. China. The orient might have been the biggest hit with all the tectonic plate shifting, but that hasn''t stopped the Chinese from laying claims to wide swaths of land. From other operations we already had running over there, their military is actively conscripting anyone and everyone that shows more than a bit of this power. Death rates are through the roof, but they''re basically iterating through ten thousand different things a day."

    He looked at Brent. "Your group is projected to provide a high level of civilian improvements, and release them. We need something more offensive, and Firen''s fight with the ELF cell showed we''re quickly getting outside of normal capability to deal with it. We need a countermeasure in case the Chinese or anyone else decides to walk or ship an army at us. Additionally, the US military started out highly projected into other countries. We have limited ways to get our people back now, without sending troop carriers we don''t really have to get them."

    Brent didn''t say anything for a long moment. "And what, you think I couldn''t redirect the Seekers into a more military mindset? I wouldn''t want to, but if they need to learn to protect themselves more and share that out-"

    "No." Kyle interrupted. "Analysts think the Chinese are going to burn through their viable military population fast enough in their expansion that we''ll only have to repel them a few times. Domestic and internal applications of this power are going to be what see us through whatever the hell the alien throws at us next. We just need our own viable throwaway force to fend the Chinese off and possibly provide a measuring stick for your girl''s group. Once we''re done getting targeted by our enemies, we can expand ourselves."

    "I don''t particularly like this idea."

    Kyle frowned now. "Why? It gives you an answer as to why we''re not taking out the ELF cell and why your entire operation is being left to grow more or less organically."

    "You catch that tiger by the tail, what do you do with it next?" Brent asked rhetorically. "You''re not going to be able to internally sabotage an operation you have zero idea how it works. Whoever you get in with the elves isn''t going to have enough ability to sabotage anything that won''t get caught out."

    "Leave that to us."

    Brent sighed again, rubbing at his temples. "Since I don''t appear to have any choice, fine. Do I already have access to anything you might have collected yet?" Kyle nodded. "I''ll review it then because I''m damn sure not going to wait for you to parcel shit out to me. I make no promises about keeping any of the Dantian Seekers from trying to remove the elves if they become an issue they can''t ignore."

    "Appreciated." The projection blinked out.

    "God damned generals prepping to fight the previous war." Brent groused, fingers flying over the keyboard as he accessed the new project, throwing a look at the geode Nicole had left.

    Already, it was approaching statistical significance that whatever Nicole was teaching or showing off happened easier and faster than anyone else. The largest percentage of US I-3s per dantian lit people wasn''t anywhere military, it was Rolla. And more specifically, the groups that had been training under Nicole''s direction. The second largest was oddly enough in Whiteman, where Nicole''s short timed boyfriend was stationed.

    Sergeant Clay was even in the middle that of, having been conscripted as a trainer when it was discovered he had more training and breakthroughs than most and had easily made I-3 since the guard''s activation.

    Alright Nicole, you asked me to take care of the geodes, and I have access to hopefully something to show for it. Let''s see what we can find on the elves.

 Chapter 44

    I stomped back into the house, having run most of the way across base, thoroughly irritated at both Brent and myself. He was right, I couldn''t do everything myself. But dammit, there were billions of others out there that could be doing something too.

    We were watching the alien cause the world to go through breakthroughs and cause everyone massive problems. It wasn''t like before when everything was fine and it was more just for fun that-

    "You OK?" Karen''s voice cut through my internal monologue.

    I looked up, seeing I''d wandered into the backyard without realizing it. Melissa, Karen, Ash, and Danny were all outside, with Melissa trying to teach everyone Feathersteps. While they''d apparently stopped at my entrance, Melissa was currently balanced on the fishing line again with Danny trying to keep himself balanced on a rope held by Ash and Karen. The bow in the rope showed Danny hadn''t figured it out yet.

    "Meh." I waved at them all. "Aggravated over the testing earlier. And Brent saying I should give over a few things and work on making higher breakthroughs."

    Mellissa stepped off her own line, dropping back to the ground lightly and Danny made an ungraceful half stumble to the ground as Karen let go of her end of the rope.

    "Cycling in energy is a pain now though." Karen noted. "It''s thin and condensing it is a lot of effort." When everyone looked at her, she blushed. "I''ve been trying to build up for my next one."

    Ash and nodded his head while Danny frowned.

    "I''ve heard that a lot from everyone using the Earth''s energy." I nodded towards both Karen and Ash. "Internal, that doesn''t seem to be a problem." I waved a hand towards Melissa and Danny before including myself. "My problem is trying to gauge if I can actually generate enough energy in my own dantian to hit the next breakthrough."

    "The first few were pretty easy though?" Danny asked. He pulled a few chairs off the porch for everyone to sit. "I mean, I honestly felt like I had plenty of energy to clean the block out."

    "Yeah, no. Remember when Nicole and I were first testing it, we both nearly didn''t have enough energy." Melissa interjected.

    I nodded. "That''s why we were originally cycling for max overflow, basically training to have all that energy right at the edge of what we were capable of cycling, then pushing everything still in the dantian out to easily hit that block, clean it, and breakthrough."

    "So you were at your max for weeks before you let it fall back for Feathersteps, right?" Ash asked. "Wish I could hold that level of cycling up, but you did. How long do you think you need for the next block?"

    "My breakthroughs split, if you''ll recall. Do I pick one and go for it? Do they combine back again?" I listed out. "We''ve had several people report clogging themselves so badly they can''t breakthrough anymore because they can''t make enough energy to clear everything out. What happens if I do that to myself?"

    "So you want someone else to figure it out then?" Danny prompted. "That''s a pretty big change from everything you''ve been doing so far."

    I blew out my breath and shook my head. "No, I just don''t want to become a cautionary tale of what not to do." I nodded to myself then looked around. "It''s going to take me a day or two to cycle all the way back up again and balance out the overflow before I can really try."

    "Do we need to find some massive gymnastics parkour for you here? Or are you going to come to Rolla?" Danny asked. "We still have all the rickety equipment set up, you can do that again."

    I thought back to that last breakthrough, the effort and pressure I''d pushed. That shape of a greater me. "No. I think I can push myself without needing something external this time, I know what it really felt like."

    ~~~

    May 17th?

    In order to use Feathersteps and any other possible passive energy techniques, I''d let my cycling lapse enough to only overflow into the first two breakthroughs. Bringing myself back up to all five again felt almost odd. An internal static tingle that faded after a little bit.

    I''d spent three days cycling energy from my dantian through my body. Though all of my breakthroughs. Coming back to the absolute maximum I could cycle without ending up losing more in overflow than I was bringing out of my dantian.

    I opened my eyes again, letting the energy rush through me still. Alone in my bedroom, I''d cloistered myself away this morning while I focused. Bed shoved off to one side as I sat on a mat, towels underneath. I hadn''t had any goop since my first breakthrough, but no sense in risking it.

    "What''s the next breakthrough?" I whispered to myself, eyes closing once more as I imagined my body, the line power that flowed from my dantian, nestled underneath my heart. That power flowed into my heart, beating in time. Then to my sternum, buried in my breastbone where I could feel it strengthen my body, also creating the odd sensation that was how I pushed energy out when I used the Art of Awakening.

    From there, it flowed once more through me into my neck, wrapping around my spine. I could almost imagine the energy touching my nerves, little jolts of energy there, though nothing visible or truly testable on any equipment we''d tried so far.

    Then the split, somehow carrying the full power of my energy in two directions at once, against the law of conservation of energy. Each line of power ending in a shoulder blade. Overflow from those points seemed to strengthen my upper body more than it did my lower body, but was that the purpose or just a side-effect of proximity?

    Tentatively, I cycled additional energy out of my dantian, holding the energy tight as it passed through the first three breakthroughs. Pushing forward, it wanted to split. Instead, I held even tighter to it, drawing the extra energy all down one side and gently out my left shoulder blade. I wanted only to find where the next block was, not start clearing it yet. So I didn''t flood the power out, because I knew if I fully hit the block, I would have to clear it.

    The energy felt a little tight as I pushed it down my body. Then it started to pinch, then quickly became a pull. Then actual pain as I felt my energy unbalance, stars blooming behind my eyelids as the energy overflowing my breakthroughs actually churned, sloshing and crashing against itself.

    I abandoned the test, frantically trying to figure out what I''d done to myself. The abandoned energy actually snapped back into my shoulder and rubber banded all the way up to my third breakthrough, flushing outwards like a violent cycling overflow. The energy sent my entire body ringing with breakthroughs and dantian alike going numb for a moment before relaxing once more.

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    I coughed, tasting blood in the back of my throat. Panicking, I started rolling my tongue around trying to figure out what I''d done before slumping in relief. I''d bitten into my cheek in panic and then choked on my own blood.

    I dropped my face into my hands, taking a shuddering breath. I grabbed a towel edge and blotted out my mouth, the bleeding already stopped. My energy already slowly smoothing back out to flows from my dantian into my body. Not much missing thankfully.

    "What was that?" I asked into the empty room, before grabbing at my tablet standing on a nightstand. I stopped the recording intent on winding it back to watch myself... "Two hours forty-five minutes? Did I start recording early or something?"

    A quick glance at the time showed I hadn''t started recording early. Still, I started the recording over just in case.

    "What''s the next breakthrough?" I heard myself say in the first few minutes. How did I lose track of time that badly? I shook my head and ran the recording to the last ten minutes. I watched as I was dead still for several minutes, before tremors I didn''t even know I was having started. Finally a full body flinch as I watched myself grit my teeth, likely when I bit my cheek.

    All leading up to me eventually reaching out to grabbing the tablet.

    Nothing physical I could see that started the problem, only responses to it. Maybe I can use that? I downloaded a motion sensor app and played with it for a moment, setting the sensitivity to maximum and a minimum alert time. Setting the tablet back up, I sat down in front of it again, easily setting it off.

    I sat there for a moment, letting the alert quiet. Then slightly moved just a hand.

    BEEP BEEP BEEP

    I took a deep breath, setting of the sensor again, before starting again.

    Going through my dantian and breakthroughs one more time, I felt a little tremor in them that stilled as I slowly pulled energy through me. At the third breakthrough, I pulled the energy down the other path this time. Cycling the energy into my right shoulder this time, I paused, making sure absolutely everything felt correct and not off.

    I then slowly let it wash into myself. No tightness this time, at least not immediately. A little more and I felt it the energy thicken and tighten once more, my tablet firing as well. Instantly, I relaxed the energy back instead of just letting it go.

    No snapback this time, and I could feel the tension leaving as well. I ''retreated'' backwards once more. Did it split, just to immediately merge again? I was forcing power that wanted to split down a single path, deviating from its natural path.

    I cycled, pushing again. This time, letting the energy split naturally and filling both breakthroughs in my shoulders. My energy truly felt like it''d been doubled, the split carrying all the same power it had previously. It wasn''t half the original power, or just a shell.

    Carefully, I flooded outwards. No tightness. No thickening. No alarm.

    If the two points were supposed to merge again, I couldn''t see how it would be down my arms. So instead, I pushed lower. Tracing the flow of power in the image in my head of myself. That image I''d seen forming of my power when I''d made my last breakthroughs.

    Outside of the flow between breakthroughs, it wasn''t drawing a line to try to connect the two points. Instead, it was a gentle wave of cycled power looking for a sink as I pushed more questing energy through me.

    Something at the base of my spine maybe? But my power flinched away from that spot and I vaguely noted I might have heard the alarm. I wondered if that spot was another breakthough I shouldn''t touch yet?

    Instead, I let the energy instead flow down my sides for a moment to no avail. Maybe it wasn''t in my lower half? Maybe in my head?

    I was just about to stop when the energy seemed to being flowing into something at my hips. I immediately stopped the extra flow. I didn''t want to start a process I couldn''t finish. But each flow of energy wanted to sink into its own block. Was I going to have to do two breakthroughs again? Could you even call it two if I didn''t have a choice? Had I been wrong about Barry being on a fourth breakthrough. Was it a difference between internal and external energy?

    Was it a difference between my method and whatever his was? Did ELF have a reason to believe there was a real issue?

    Those answers didn''t matter. Not right now, not when it wouldn''t make a difference to what I was doing at this moment. I took mental stock of myself as I let the energy ebb back into balance.

    I was only a few hours of cycling short of what I felt was my current maximum. Build it all back up, then push those two blocks. Whether we could call it the fifth, sixth, or seventh breakthroughs we could figure out afterwards.

    ~~~

    Power flowed again, down my sides, dodging that spot in my spine. As little extra power spent hitting those two spots on my hips and then it all sunk in. Both blocks felt deep and wide, massive reservoirs that represented challenge and opportunity.

    For long minutes, it seemed as if I could continually pour my energy into those blocks and nothing would happen. The darkness in them not lightening to the clear power that flowed from my dantian. My cycling sped up, energy flowing faster.

    Should I have waited and used the equipment? Would that have pushed me harder for this?

    If this failed, I''d do that next. But the setup last time was crazy enough that we couldn''t keep increasing that forever.

    But this would have to fail first. And I wouldn''t call it that until my dantian was completely dry. I pushed myself. Drew everything I could, flooding those two blocks.

    The blocks were clearing and as they did so, the self-image in my mind grew clearer, more detailed. I could see the individual breakthroughs shining through my own skin, tracery of energy flowing from the center of the image.

    For some reason, I held something in my hands. Try as I might, I couldn''t figure out what it was, but I also couldn''t shift the image either. Trying to just caused me to lose focus on finishing the blocks, so I left it be.

    And then the blocks broke. The energy expanded, flowing through the breakthroughs and then backwards to my dantian.

    I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.

    BEEP BEEP BEEP

 Chapter 45

    May 21st?

    Even four days later, I still felt an almost unreal level of energy bubbling in me, somewhere almost double what I''d had. Enough that even with the most minimal cycling I could feel the tiny amount energy travelling out of my dantian and into each breakthrough. Even that little bit strengthened me and as I felt it pass outside of me it felt like the overflow was hitting parched ground and being absorbed.

    I let out a breath and opened my eyes, looking out over Rolla from the Seeker office roof with a smile on my lips. Cycling a decent chunk of power along with Feathersteps had turned a thirty minute drive into a thirty-five minute somewhat comfortable run between Leonard Wood and Rolla.

    Three hours until class and testing at the Seeker office would give me plenty of time to wander around for a bit. Maybe get a late breakfast.

    ~~~

    Standing in front of the diner, apparently proselytizing, was a fairly well-built guy with pulled back brown hair, dressed in street clothes. I had to laugh quietly as he waved papers around at the few people that were actually stopped to listen to him. I walked closer to bypass him for the diner.

    "Join us in the fight for the Earth! Each one of us is necessary to add to the bulwark against the alien, to ease the pain the planet feels! And in return, the planet gives to us a tiny fraction of itself to strengthen ourselves and it!" He handed off one of his printed sheets to one of the people listening, who looked like he really didn''t want to take it. I imagined the trash can inside the diner was pretty full. "Do not become a Seeker of the Alien, for the alien only brings ruin!"

    Huh, he feels like two breakthroughs, but he''s not cycling at all? But what''s the whole Seeker of the Alien thing? I could hear the emphasis on the title.

    As I got closer, he noticed me and his eyes went massively wide as he whitened.

    "Are you trying to knock me out? Jesus." He stumbled back a bit, color coming into his face again as he took several deep breaths. The other people watching him looked between the two of us, as if I was going to attack him or something.

    "Huh?" I, on the other hand, was just confused. "I''m not looking to knock you out or whatever. I was actually just going to get food."

    "You''re a Seeker and you''re casually wasting more energy than I can hold total. I can literally feel it coming off of you." He looked me over once, eyes resting for a moment on my hair. "You''re Nicole, aren''t you? I was told not to bother you, so if you''ll excuse me I''ll let you get to your food."

    Well, that''s interesting. I thought to myself as he started edging backwards into the parking lot. I held up a hand, gesturing to him. "Actually, can we talk for a few minutes?"

    "So you can beat me to prove the alien''s ways are stronger than the Earth?" He asked, sounding like he was quoting someone else.

    The other people around us started to back off, and I saw one guy get his phone out, pointing it towards us.

    "Christ, you are with ELF, aren''t you? No, I just said I''m not going to beat you up or anything." I rubbed my face. "I just want to ask you a few questions. You might have answers I''d like to get from one of your bosses, and then you can go back to this without any issue." I waved towards the gathered people and then his papers, still held up almost as a shield against me.

    He took a deep breath. "I will not reveal any of our secrets to you, but if you wish to hear our message I would be¡­delighted¡­ to convert you to our cause." He paused and gestured at me. "Could you, um, not do that though? Waste all that power? It''s unnerving."

    I looked down at myself, confused again, then looked to the others including the guy still recording. "Not sure what I''m doing that''s wasting power? Any of you unnerved?"

    I got headshakes and generally confused looks back even from the couple of them that I could tell had lit dantians. "Don''t think I''m doing anything, what do you mean?" I directed back to the ELF guy.

    "You are a massive hole in the fabric of the Earth." He shook his head. "Umm, let me start from the beginning. I am Zach, and originally a member of the Earth Liberation Front. However, a few weeks ago we were informed about the fight Mr. McDonald had with you. Due to the discussion that happened then, we have altered our methods to better fight the alien and the methods he has given you and your Seekers to kill the planet for him."

    I crossed my arms and tapped my foot. "I have gotten nothing from the alien that I wasn''t able to discover on my own. I didn''t get a 101 book on how to do any of this."

    "And yet, you are heads and shoulders above anyone else I have seen or heard of." Zach noted. "But anyone who receives this power drains the planet of energy, uses it, and then emits a tainted energy back out. Much like a coal power plant eats fuel and then pollutes the world to generate power."

    The crowd around us started to wander off, less interested in hearing an argument rather than watching.

    I doublechecked the sense I was getting from him about his own energy. "Are you any better then? You''ve got what, two breakthroughs from what I can tell?"

    "We are calling them layers, but yes. But while I do enjoy the passive benefits of it, you''ll notice I''m not drawing on that power at all. We refuse to harm the planet unless there is a greater benefit to the planet in doing so. Mr. McDonald opposed you as a representative of the alien, so he drew on the planet to fight you."

    I sighed. "Not that I agree with you, but if Barry had actually, you know, said anything like that, we could have started looking into it." I stopped for a moment, looking at him. "Do you, or Barry, or anyone in your group even realize I''m not drawing on any sort of external energy? Yes, a lot of the people in the Seekers do, but not everyone." I cycled faster, drawing energy up through myself. More than necessary to keep my current overflow running, before letting it settle again.

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    Zach staggered back for a moment, blinking rapidly at me. "Please don''t do that. And that just proves even more that you''re connected to the alien. Likely directly to whatever he uses for a power source. I can see that your power pollutes just as much as someone using the earth''s does. More maybe, considering how much you can use."

    I rolled my eyes. "So what''s it going to take to make you believe I''m not in cahoots with the alien? Barry said killing Zhaohui, but I don''t see that happening anytime soon." Zach made to speak before I continued on. "Because I don''t think any of us are anywhere near his strength, not because I don''t want him dead or gone."

    "Beyond that? Proof that your actions help the planet rather than hurt it. But considering I can feel the power coming off you laying across the area around us like a filmy coating? When you have dozens of people in your Seeker building that make it feel like the worst of the polluting power plants I''ve ever seen? You have a long road ahead of you." Zach shrugged. "Will you still your stolen source of power? Only use it in defense of planet?"

    "You can''t advance your power without building it up." I answered him, trying to feel if my overflow was actually coating anything. I couldn''t tell. "And why not work with us to figure out a way to mitigate what you see are issues? Not advancing is going to be a fast track to letting the alien have whatever way he wants with the Earth."

    He tsk''d and shook his head. "The best way to mitigate nuclear waste is to not make a nuke. I added my second layer from the Earth''s castoffs from the fight with the alien. So instead of escalating, we are maintaining with the planet. I can see we won''t see eye to eye on any of this, so I don''t think it''s going to be worth my time to continue."

    "Well, at least we didn''t devolve into a fight." I picked at the one silver lining. "You''re welcome to come by the Seeker building if you ever want to try to work with us to figure it out though."

    "Past military security into a secured building that I''ve already described as a bad power plant? No thank you." Zach actually laughed at that, before offering me one of his sheets. "But you''re welcome to come listen to me or anyone else of our group speak."

    I looked down at the sheet. Were they really giving their address out as a known ecoterrorist group? No, just times and street locations for open air discussions. "Maybe."

    He nodded. "I''ll leave you to your breakfast then, and move on myself. Have a good day."

    ~~~

    After handing off Zach''s flyer to one of the military guys, I''d spent a couple of hours prepping myself and the Seeker meditation area for the larger group that was coming in.

    "Good afternoon everyone." I smiled at the group, happy to be back in our own building again. The group was an eclectic mix of Seekers, locals, and military from the base all at their third breakthrough, Melissa among them. "Today, we''re going to be working on pushing forward for your fourth breakthrough."

    Everyone nodded or murmured agreement, seeing as how this was explicitly set up for this.

    "You might notice that we have nearly as many volunteer staff as there is testers today, and that is for one major reason. There are going to be multiple paths you can take doing this, and what works for one person may not work for you. So our volunteer staff are here to monitor you to ensure that you don''t hurt yourself."

    I tapped the screen beside me and a projected model of a body came up, my own breakthroughs mapped onto the model. The first three were lit. "A few of you are using internal energy, the majority of you are using external energy. When I went past my third breakthrough, I ended up triggering both at once." I tapped the projection on the neck, and the lit energy line split and evenly went through both shoulders.

    "I know of at least one case where a breakthrough from three only went to one shoulder instead of both, so it is viable that you could do either shoulder or both. When you''re pushing for this, I want you to all pay extremely close attention to your energies. Any discomfort at all, and you stop pushing it. Pinches, pressure, anything except an even flow towards a breakthrough and you stop."

    I tapped the screen again and the projected model disappeared. The video I''d recorded of myself came up. "I recently managed to push past fifth and technically into seventh. I want you to watch for what happened when I tried each individual breakthrough to understand what I consider the minimum risk you could be taking. I don''t know what would have happened if I''d ignored what was happening to me."

    They all watched my tremors, what one of the military docs who''d already seen this referred to as almost a seizure. "If your energy starts to rebel at all, you''re doing something massively wrong. You shouldn''t fight yourself, instead figure out what works best for you. Our volunteers are here to help and stop you if something starts going wrong."

    There were several serious looks at the video and one person looked honestly queasy. "Can I withdraw now?"

    "Sure, this is all voluntary. If you don''t want to do this, I cannot and will not push you for it."

    One guy got up and left, looking a little sheepish as he did so. I mentally wished him the best. As the rest of the students and volunteers got started, I settled in to focus more on the energies that were flowing in the room.

    My fourth and fifth breakthroughs might have been quick, but the ones after that were hours long. I didn''t know how quickly or not these might take today, or if it would happen at all.

    I also wanted to try to watch for any sort of issues with the energy in the air as they all cycled so much, see if I could notice anything that might hint at the problem Zach had with us. Either to disprove him, or to understand the problem.

 Chapter 46

    Watching the thirty odd various students slash testers push themselves for their fourth breakthrough was an exercise in what is likely was like to be on LSD as energy overflowed and spilled, rippling between people before fading into the background. Over the course of the first hour, not a single person managed to breakthrough, although the four people using internal energy appeared to be closer than the rest.

    The first five minutes had been fairly horrifying though, with nearly every person not picking their path correctly at first. The recording probably looked a lot like the entire room was having an epileptic seizure all at once with the various volunteers shaking people out of their attempts if they weren''t already stopping.

    Of course, pretty much everyone had initially tried for a double breakthrough like I had done. Two people were the only ones to not have their body revolt over it. Both were external energy users. I''d half thought it might be the internal users that could skip forward but I found myself wrong. Just another note for the future.

    The path each person''s energy wanted to take over the last hour didn''t follow any specific patterns, though this group probably wasn''t large enough to actually get a significant pattern to emerge.

    But left handed people only slightly leaned towards their left shoulder. The one naturally ambidextrous person was a right shoulder energy flow. Four military were trained ambidextrous and one of them was capable of a dual breakthrough.

    People who considered themselves more emotional had no greater leaning towards one side or the other versus those who considered themselves more logical. Type A or Type B personalities, if anyone could classify themselves, didn''t seem to have a significant effect.

    I sighed, thinking back while pulling through all my notes. Was there anything I could actually do to help, or was I just going to be a bystander while everyone went their own way for this? I paused on a note from a month ago, a discussion I''d had with Brent and the others. When I''d managed to get Zhaohui to answer to what the Initiate''s Realm was.

    I pondered the answer and the images I''d received for a moment. It still felt right, even after my previous breakthroughs. That image I could still call up in my mind of myself, holding some nebulous object even seemed to resonate with it. I couldn''t identify the object, but the image it was more than a daydream because I could not shift myself out of what my mind insisted were school clothes, or force the object to take shape.

    I had two ideas, one that might hurt me if I had to try to use my Art of Awakening for a breakthrough.

    I doublechecked a few things and then stood, setting my tablet aside. My voice easily projected across the quiet room as I started walking among everyone to try my first idea. "What is the Initiate''s Realm? When you ask the alien about the world''s soul, he says it has made it past the second block of the Initiate''s Realm. I don''t know what level of research any of you have done on the Seeker wiki, but I did once manage to parrot the phrase Initiate''s Realm back at the alien the same as we ask about the world''s should. I got a response."

    Most of the room had stopped pushing themselves and I now had their rapt attention. We''d posted that response up on the wiki about the Initiate''s Realm, and three weeks later Barry and ELF showed up claiming I was working with the alien. If that was the reason why, I really did wish they''d talked more beforehand.

    I ended that train of thought, refocusing on the here and now. "The first step off the mortal path, preparing the body to energize the sleeping soul." I held up a hand, even though no one looked to interrupt me as I made a slow circuit among the people. "Whatever you might think about souls or mortal paths, at a minimum we are doing things to our bodies that no human has done before."

    I got back to the front of the class, tapping the screen and causing the projected model of the body came up. "This is a model, not you. Not me. You''re not preparing a model, you''re dealing with your own body. When you are pushing to find your next block, I want you to build in your mind the image of yourself with the power that flows inside you. When that power flows beyond your current breakthroughs, it brings with it greater clarity of that image."

    I paused, a half-quirked smile on my lips. "That power helps to define the image you have of yourself. Let it." I shut down the projection again, watching everyone. "Questions?"

    There were a few thoughtful looks, but no voiced questions. Instead, everyone seemed to focus again as I watched from the front of the room again.

    Over ten minutes passed. Define yourself before your actions define you. Maybe they could define themselves here, or maybe the action of doing this would define them. Maybe it wouldn''t even help at all. Maybe-

    Sensing someone''s attempt at a breakthrough was interesting from the outside. The overflow of power coming from the person''s body suddenly dipping to almost non-existent levels as it fell into a block. My eyes flicked towards my roster, quickly matching up student to status. George, internal energy. The rest of the class seemed to lean away from him and for several more minutes I could barely feel the flow of energy he used to push through the block in his right shoulder.

    Then the block broke. Energy that had been poured into the block rolled outward in overflow for a moment before I could sense and almost see the energy flowed inward again in his cycling, touching his dantian. His power itself seemed just a touch thicker, more potent. Thinking back to Zach''s comment, I could see how you might consider a breakthrough an additional layer.

    Then one of the other guys closest to George jerked where he was sitting, falling to one side as a hand flashed out to steady himself. Camo uniform easily gave him away as one of the military from the base. "Ms. Firen, permission to speak?" He looked at me.

    I looked at the roster again, Warrant Officer, address as Mr. or Chief, external energy. "Yes, Chief McInnis?"

    "Cycling just got the tiniest bit easier for me. Almost couldn''t tell and probably wouldn''t have been able to if I wasn''t sitting literally right next to him when that happened." He jerked a thumb to George, who was still somewhat out of it as he righted his own energy after the breakthrough with a volunteer holding him steady.

    "More detail, please." The class was being recorded, but because there was no way to actually record energy flow that we knew of, so verbal descriptions were all we had.

    "I was cycling when Mr.-" he trailed off for a moment.

    "Bivens." I answered the unspoken question.

    "-when Mr. Bivens broke through. I believe I have a relatively good level of feel for energy flows, and when the breakthrough happened the amount of external energy available to cycle into myself increased. Almost not even a noticeable amount, and even now I couldn''t tell you if the energy is still a little more or back to what it was."

    "No one move." I called out to the room quickly. "Do you think you were cycling the stronger overflow from George?"

    "I don''t think so, no." He shook his head. "Before you ask, it''s somewhat of a drinking game on base that''s become a semi-training exercise. Figuring out who someone is by the feel of their energy. The energy I cycled didn''t have Mr. Bivens'' feel to it after the increase."

    I needed to get into that training exercise, but I nodded to Chief McInnis, thinking. "You said it was a tiny amount, do you think the ''feel'' of George could have gotten lost in the larger feel of the external energy?"

    "Possibly, ma''am. You''re more the expert than I am."

    I shook my head. "I don''t use external energy, so I''m learning just about everything with all of you."

    "Ask the alien?" Someone else spoke up.

    I laughed. "I don''t know how to, honestly. I''ve done the equivalent of repeating back words in a language I don''t know to him, and ''How does energy work?'' isn''t something he''s said that I could say back. Besides, I''m not going to automatically trust anything I could learn from him."

    I clapped my hands to ensure I had everyone''s attention. "Alright, pausing on trying for fourth breakthrough for a moment. Everyone, let''s clear the central area. Chief, you''re in the central area. I''d like you to cycle, but not push for a breakthrough. I want to see if we can duplicate this."

    It was the work of a minute to get everything in place.

    "Test one. Third breakthrough, internal energy user. Melissa, please approach Chief McInnis cycling as much as you can, no breakthrough attempt please. See if you can focus your overflow towards him." I waved Melissa forward.

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    Melissa stepped forward and I could feel the energy overflowing from her increase. Even having known her for months at this point, I couldn''t really feel something specifically ''Melissa'' in that overflow¡­unless you were specifically talking about the general crackle of electricity in her energy. No one else I''d seen had that, but give me ten other people who didn''t feel like a specific element and I couldn''t tell them apart.

    Melissa stood there for almost five minutes focusing, although I could almost see her rolling her eyes.

    "No changes, ma''am." The chief spoke up finally.

    "That''s alright. We''re setting a baseline first." I replied. "Melissa, you''re good. Back up and George come up."

    "Test two. Fourth breakthrough, internal energy user." I said outloud for the recording. George took Melissa''s place near Chief McInnis. "I know you haven''t really had a chance to figure your breakthrough out George, but just cycle as much as you feel safe to. Again, towards Chief McInnis if you can."

    George did so, and I could feel more energy flowing from him than Melissa had been pushing out. George didn''t look quite strained, but the African American''s brow was creased at his own effort.

    "It''s like getting hit with a light breeze." The Chief murmured, but shook his head after a moment. "I''m not getting anything from him and what I''m cycling doesn''t feel any stronger this time."

    I waited a moment still to see if anything changed. "Alright, step back George."

    He did, and I gave the man a thumbs up. "Go get some water or something, let someone check your vitals. I really shouldn''t have asked you to push like that."

    George shrugged. "Meh. Kinda like stretching a muscle you didn''t know was tense." He did as told though, heading over to sit next to one of the volunteer nurses who already had a couple of instruments ready.

    I turned back around to the main group. "Test three." I paused, looking at the Chief. "Seventh breakthrough, internal energy user. You ready Chief?"

    He nodded but looked a little apprehensive.

    I stepped up, sitting on the mat facing McInnis, at the same distance George had originally been sitting from him and where Melissa had stood as well. I closed my eyes and focused for a moment on my dantian.

    The energy flowing out of me was just a little over two breakthroughs worth, dedicated to overflow cycling. Energy I had pushed out this morning before my run here.

    An amount that felt just above what I could passively make without even pushing myself.

    "I apologize if this is bad for you."

    The spinning energy in my dantian went from lazy circles to a whirlpool. I did not try to guide and build up the energy into my breakthroughs, instead letting it flood out of me, multiple times what I''d just been pushing. I''d never really tried to finesse where my energy went after it left me, but I found ''in front instead of all around me'' to be vaguely doable.

    Even eyes closed I could sense my overflow smack into the military officer, but I kept it up for a full sixty count before slowing down again, letting my dantian return to it''s normal flows again.

    I opened my eyes to find Chief with one hand on the floor bracing against my direction. His energy overflow was only slowly building back up on him as well. "Well, that was a unique experience." He coughed. "Like I was in a wind tunnel, it blew my cycling all around. But no, couldn''t do anything with everything you were throwing at me. It actually mostly stopped me from actually getting any energy to cycle in at all."

    "Interesting." I replied, not able to think of anything else to call it. "Did you get anything else from it?"

    The chief looked hesitant. "Let me get my thoughts on it together first ma''am, but maybe."

    I nodded and looked to the rest of the class. "Alright, let''s go ahead and try to finish up with what we were originally here for then. I''m sorry for interrupting. At this point though, I''ll ask everyone to please pay close attention to their cycling and what you''re drawing in."

    As everyone got resituated, I pulled George over to talk. "Did you need to do anything special, was there any reason you can think of for right over left or over both?"

    "The visualization thing helped, I was thinking of the model when pushing it." He answered. "Switching to that I pretty quickly found the block when I know I was flooding the same area beforehand when I was thinking of the model. As for the right versus left? I''m right handed maybe? I don''t know."

    I nodded, taking notes even as this was being recorded. "Can you explain how you were thinking about yourself? Standing, sitting? Doing something, or somewhere?"

    "Just thinking about me sitting here, maybe like a third person view on myself. Should I have been doing more?" He asked.

    "Not if it worked for you." I responded with a quick shake of my head. "I''m going to need a lot more examples before we can make any calls on what works best. You are welcome to stay here a while longer, or if you''ve got a clean bill of health you can leave if you need to. I''d like you to write down anything else you can think of though, either way."

    "I''ll hang around a little bit longer. I do IT from home, so it''s not like I''m missing my job." George smiled. "I wasn''t able to push everything at Mr. McInnis, so I''ll take a bit here to try to get myself together first."

    I nodded. "Alright."

    ~~~

    Two and a half more hours and we had three more people hit their fourth breakthrough. Melissa was the only other internal user and two of the external users managed it. The goop from the external users was enough that I and pretty much everyone else was really worried about those two having anything left inside their body at all. They''d been hauled into the actual medical facility we had onsite with a doctor I didn''t know Danny had even hired cleaning them up and checking them out.

    The Phelps med center was on standby if they were needed, but the two guys were in surprisingly good moods for having lost around ten percent body volume in black tarry shit that had to be hosed off of them.

    After pretty much everyone else had left and I''d gone back upstairs to my office, I noticed Chief McInnis was sitting outside my door waiting. I recalled his earlier statement. "You get your thoughts together, Chief?"

    "Yes ma''am, somewhat. I''ve got some questions that might fill in blanks before I go over my thoughts though. Do you mind answering them?"

    "Sure. Come on in." I opened the door and entered myself, sitting at the small computer desk. Chief McInnis took the sole other chair in the room and sat across from me. "Ask away."

    "When you were cycling earlier, were you pushing everything you could?"

    I thought for a moment and weighed the energy I''d called on mentally. "Pretty close, yeah? It wasn''t cycled for building up for stability in my system, so I kinda pushed my dantian for everything it could give me in a burst, instead."

    He nodded, not showing his thoughts on that. "And do you know if Mr. Bivens was doing similar?"

    I shook my head. "No, he said he wasn''t quite able to push everything he could. He assumed it was because he''d just broken through."

    The chief nodded again, pausing. "Alright, that somewhat tracks but is a little worrisome. I don''t know if you could call it generation or capacity or something, but what Mr. Bivens threw at me was probably thirty to forty percent more than I can currently hold and steadily cycle at the third breakthrough. You however? Whatever you threw at me felt like maybe five times my ability."

    "I''m not able to tell closer than that because it was just that much more than I could handle, since you nearly blew my cycling apart with your own. Would you be interested in testing that against someone on two or fewer breakthroughs? See if you can actually completely stop someone from cycling if you overwhelm them?"

    I frowned. "I can''t imagine what that would do to someone if I did that. It sounds dangerous for them, and if I''d known it would nearly do that to you today, I wouldn''t have tried."

    "Your call ma''am. I am required to file a report back on my testing with leadership though, just so you understand." He answered.

    "I''m not stupid." I replied. "If someone important wants to force a test on another base, I can''t stop them. Tell them I''d rather be there to watch if they''re going to find some way of testing this. I just don''t want to be the one to do it."

    "Yes ma''am." Chief McInnis stood and saluted me before leaving.

 Chapter 47

    June 2nd?

    I looked over the spreadsheet of students, both here on base and in Rolla, with a sigh. Getting others over the hump to the fourth breakthrough was not as easy as that first session made me think. Four on the first day had turned into only one more over the past week and a half. Seven people had only partially cleared their breakthrough, causing the block to harden like Melissa''s had.

    One guy had immediately tried again, only to fail once more and according to him the block was nearly solid with his own energy. He''d had high hopes too, since he was one of two that had a chance for a double breakthrough.

    After digging into it further with the five that had managed their breakthrough, a pattern was starting to show up. Everyone who''d broken through had been actively doing cycling for multiple hours a day, every day. The lower end of that being three or four hours

    Granted, pretty much everyone else had been putting in at least thirty to forty-five minutes a day which sounded like a good amount of time compared to daily physical workouts.

    "So how much total time do you think is necessary?" Brent asked, looking at the projected spreadsheet himself. He had called this meeting for a general information sharing session and I''d hoped he had something to share as well.

    "Not how much time we''re spending on it daily?" Melissa replied from where she was sitting. Her own voice sounded more devil''s advocate than anything.

    I shook my head. "No, if only for the fact that I don''t think anyone could get to where the alien is if it''s a daily requirement that gets larger between each breakthrough. Or if you missed a single day, would you have to completely start over?"

    "It is possible though." Danny argued. "I mean, the alien''s been pretty much non-communicative since he got here and talked at the UN." He took a moment to type on his tablet. "Venus takes two hundred and forty three Earth days to have one day. What if this entire time has basically been a morning for him?"

    "Then he''s won, because I don''t think anyone''s going to survive the sleep deprivation needed to push cycling for that long if that''s what you need to be at his level." I frowned and everyone nodded slowly. "I went from three to five on my birthday, and went from two to three in mid March. I''d been pushing myself daily to max out my cycling well before we figured out we needed to leave some for techniques. So say around five hours a day at least. Maybe seventy-five hours of cycling?"

    "That''s within the realm of a long weekend binge if you can do it all close to at once." Melissa noted with a smile. "I''ve got a little brother who can binge video games longer if you let him."

    "Are you wanting to put official recommended numbers up then, Nicole?" Brent asked, looking over the small list again with hesitation in his voice.

    I paused, having already been thinking about it. "I was thinking so, yes?"

    He shook his head. "Can I convince you to hold off a little bit first? Give me whatever numbers you''re thinking of and say¡­ double whatever timeframe you''re thinking of. We''ll coordinate a specific test through the military to see if we can narrow down those numbers better instead of putting out a guess. With the issue of it splitting from breakthrough three, you''re going to want to have safety margins and bigger warnings for people, especially since we''re not going to be able to put a ''don''t try this at home'' warning." He chuckled. "Because everyone who gets this information will explicitly be trying it at home."

    I laughed at the joke.

    "I''d probably be a good test subject too." Ash brought up, having been quiet so far. He motioned to Karen sitting next to him. "Neither of us really pushed all that hard for four, since it''s doubly hard being higher than the planet''s breakthrough."

    Karen elbowed him. "Speak for yourself. I''ve been doing two or three hours a night the last month."

    "Alright, so I''m the slacker here, apparently." Ash frowned to himself.

    I laughed as Karen nodded her agreement. "A hundred hours and two weeks." I answered to Brent. "It feels like I''m rocketing through breakthroughs and there''s got to be something more than just enough cycling time to get there. If nothing else, the mental image of yourself is something that helped the others breakthrough as well."

    Brent nodded, making some notes. "So I''ve got four weeks then, and then we can put together something more official to release as a follow-up to your DARPA released paper? I know it''s only been a couple of months since the original paper, but we can do a new release up through the fourth breakthrough instead of just having people trawl a wiki for random facts."

    "Yeah, sure. Am I being ghostwritten for this one too?"

    "If you''d like, or we can just release it with multiple primary sources." Brent offered. "Let me know which, it''s not like I have to know today."

    "OK. What''s next, Brent you have something?" I asked.

    "Actually, can I go?" Ash interrupted. "I actually do have an excuse for not pushing my fourth breakthrough and it''s likely useful."

    I winced at the pointed comment. "Yeah, sorry. Go ahead Ash." I tossed him the projector fob, the distance killing the projection of my spreadsheet.

    Ash caught it, but didn''t activate his own tablet. "I''ve been talking to a few people on the forums and stuff. Not many people want to post up how to do their cool shit and a lot of complaints about how what they were able to do before they can barely muster up enough energy to do now. There''s actually some bitching your method is actually hamstringing everyone so you can be better."

    The room shifted for moment as I dropped my head into my hands. "Wait, first I''m working with the alien, now I''m making it worse for everyone?" I boggled.

    "I''ll remind you of the hit piece from the media guy for reference on how some people suck." Ash answered. "But there are some people who have posted they''ve gotten a few things to work again, and a lot of people trying Feathersteps. There''s a lot of complaints about not being able to pull it off before second breakthrough, and no one''s said they got their own stuff working again until after their second breakthrough either."

    "So are we thinking techniques need at least a second breakthrough to have enough power to do anything other than make yourself stronger?" Danny asked, looking thoughtful.

    "Probably, but that''s not the good part. I managed to find someone reasonably local willing to show off, named Luke. He was even willing to teach me a bit. Bitched when I could hold it longer than him." Ash grinned. "He''s a part-time blacksmith outside Springfield who swears by coal."

    "So you''ve been driving off daily to learn blacksmithing?" Karen elbowed him again. "You could have at least brought me along, I could use a change of scenery."

    Ash grinned, accepting the blow this time. "You''ve been dealing with Rolla. But not blacksmithing. He calls it imbuing the fire. He gets his fire going, pushes his energy into the fire, and then converts his energy into that fire. He gets exact precise control of the heat it''s putting out."

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "Wait, converts it?" Danny nearly demanded, his own energy actually cycling a little, reminding me that Danny seemed to be fire natured like Robert had managed to get his own nature shifted to water from cycling just that.

    "Yeah. I know you''re fire, but he''s neutral. So am I, but watch." Ash pulled out a lighter, flicking it on. An orange yellow flame lit up. "He''s got better control than I do, so I wasn''t going to show this off yet until I''d gotten it down better, but hey."

    I felt Ash start cycling energy and it seemed to collect in his body for a moment, before the overflow spilled fully out of his neck and flowed down his arm to the flame. Just as it hit the flame, it seemed to shift to fiery energy itself.

    "It still requires a fuel source, but¡­" The flame shifted colors, quickly turning white and then pure blue like it was coming from a blowtorch. Ash''s energy continued to slowly flow into it. "This''ll run out of lighter fluid before I run out of energy, but this is actually hotter than a lighter should actually be able to put out. Honestly, the flame should probably be melting the plastic."

    "Is it actually hot then?" Karen had shifted a little away when the lighter came out, but started reaching out for it before quickly pulling her hand back. "Yeah, I can feel plenty of heat."

    "Took me two weeks of him explaining and showing it to me before I figured it out. And I mean, like four or five hours a day with him using it off and on for his little business. The only reason he even went that far for me is I commissioned like eight thousand dollars worth of random knives and such from him and stuck around while he was working." Ash shrugged, letting the flame die. "Got a nice little switchblade out of it too. Don''t know what I''m going to do with the other couple of random daggers."

    I had a headache from staring at the flame, almost a migraine pounding but shook it off and blinked the spots out of my eyes. "That''s amazing. Can you do that to any fire?"

    Ash sighed, shaking his head. "Oddly, no. It''s easiest with his coal fires, not too bad with those propane forges, and pretty crap with my lighter, though less with welder flames. Funny enough, anything further away from what he was showing me it takes more energy to get the fire imbued. Hell, a charcoal fire on a grill is harder than anything Luke had in his shop, which is what really gets me since it''s all coal right? Can''t figure that one out."

    "Have you tried duplicating his setup here?" Brent asked, furiously taking notes. "And I''ll get you reimbursed for the training you got him to give you."

    Ash gave him a look. "I ain''t gonna be some sort of master blacksmith because a guy taught me a neat trick."

    "No, but there''s a lot of things that use fire that we could use that ''trick'' on, especially if it somehow manages to burn differently. If that lighter burns hotter than it should, you might be burning off byproducts or your energy is literally additional, better burning, fuel. Either would be a very interesting offshoot of that."

    "Huh. Sure, whatever. Glad to help even if that''s what''s kept me from pushing for the next breakthrough." Ash looked over at me.

    I smiled wanly, still feeling a little off from the bright flame. "I''m not going to complain. Fourth is some sort of big jump, so you want to make sure you''re ready."

    I could see Melissa looking at me from the corner of my eye. "You ok? You look a little pale."

    "Yeah, just all of a sudden a headache. I''ll take something after this." I took a deep breath, centering myself. "Any more cool surprises on that, Ash?"

    "Wish I did, but nope. All good here now."

    "Then I''ll go ahead." Brent nodded, getting the projector fob handed off. The projector flickered back on again. "I''ve got two things I''d like to go over. First being an unmanned hurricane hunter that was sent into the Pacific storm, second are some results I''ve managed to uncover with getting at the energy in those geodes and hopefully some of the other plants we''ve had arriving on base. I''ve got a short video from the UAV first-"

    Everything lurched. Something twisted and lifted, and I stood, holding onto the table, feeling myself pale.

    "Nicole!? What''s wrong?" Danny asked. Did no one else feel it?

    Another twist, this time in a direction I couldn''t actually point to. A facet of something I couldn''t really understand, a flowing something that swung and dove, slipping into places nearby. I could feel my gorge rising as I barely noticed everyone in the room rising in panic, staring at me.

    Something unfolded, but it wasn''t actually folded up, just out of sight. A bloom of energy building, that actually recognizable but on a scale nearly unimaginable. Fuck.

    I nearly lost my lunch as another loop seemed to shudder into place nearby. "What is the strength of the world''s soul?" I managed to bite out, keeping lunch down by sheer force of will. Everyone stared at me for a long moment before repeating my words.

    It actually took almost thirty seconds before I got an answer, the longest I''d ever waited on Zhaohui''s response. Thirty seconds where things just kept building.

    Perceptive child.

    And then the external energy flowing shifted. Fire and Earth, Air and Water. Now joined by Wood, sliding into place with it. The world itself shifting with the energy, something adding to itself before I started losing track of the impossible direction the shift flowed through.

    I then felt a black energy pushing against the risen energy, increasing to match the newer power before fading from my senses.

    Everyone else staggered as that happened, no one missing that final shift.

    Your world grows quickly to surpass the third block of the [Initiate''s Realm] by gorging upon its provided feast.

    My wooziness and headache abruptly vanished, the pressure fading even as my grasp on that direction disappeared completely. "Third breakthough."

    "Well, that''ll make getting my fourth breakthrough easier." Ash noted before continuing. "Wonder what insanity that caused. You OK, Nicole? Did it do something to you?"

    I stayed leaning against the table, even if I was feeling better. I looked around the room. "What-" I took a deep breath again, trying to clear my head. "What did you feel?"

    Wood energy was the general consensus. I looked at Melissa, the second highest breakthrough in the room. "Nothing else? Just Wood? You didn''t feel the breakthrough itself? Something, anything else?"

    Melissa shook her head.

    "My fear is the new addition is Wood, and we''re surrounded by quite the number of woods." Brent said quietly. "Which feeds into what I wanted to show you from the storm, hopefully before anything else happens now. Nicole, are you ok for the next few minutes or do I need to get medical over to here?"

    I swallowed, saliva going down easily as my body settled itself. "I''m good. Go ahead." I sat back down.

 Chapter 48

    The room was a little more tense as Brent pulled up an image of the Pacific Ocean, complete with still image of the massive multiple thousand mile across storm.

    "Current hurricane hunter planes have a range of roughly three thousand miles. Normally that means about half that out and then the same in return, but with everything considered the military was willing to throw away a UAV hunter to try to get into the eye of the storm to get some data."

    The image changed, adding a plane marker in Hawaii. "Launched from an airbase in Hawaii, the hunter flew directly to what satellite imagery showed was the massive eye of the storm. Additionally, a naval carrier was just inside the storm for surface imaging." A ship icon appeared, somewhat inside of the storm, maybe a hundred miles judging by the scale.

    "The ship was registering winds of thirty five miles an hour and was holding at this point along the hunter''s path. Higher winds and storm surge would likely have caused damage to the ship. At three hours into the flight, the hunter passed within visible range of the carrier and automated handshakes were passed from the hunter with confirmation of position, heading, and speed. UAVs are generally GPS driven, but use local known sites to add additional confirmation."

    The plane icon moved, following the path, with GPS coordinates and speed. "The hunter continued on, and about sixty-five miles close to the eye...Well, this happened. This is via GPS tracking."

    The icon continued on past the ship, then suddenly slowed to nearly a crawl, the reported speed dropping to barely thirty knots and then vanished completely.

    "Did the plane vanish?" I asked before Brent continued on.

    "Hold on, I''m getting there. Since the alien''s grounding of all manned flight, all military autopilot systems now have panic logic to attempt to backtrack using local systems along its previous path back to its origination point if GPS is lost or doesn''t match with local systems for more than ten minutes. After another forty minutes or so, the plane reappeared back on navigation."

    The icon reappeared and moved back towards the ship. "Once within range of the carrier, they got a full dump of the data. The hunter''s local system overrides showed zero change in speed and a decision was made to follow the same path by the carrier."

    "The carrier duplicated the same effect?" Danny asked.

    "Differently, but yes." Brent nodded, as the plane icon continued back to Hawaii while the ship moved forward. "GPS reported nearly no movement of the ship before being unable to track the ship. The ship then turned and came back across whatever line was the problem." The ship icon reappeared, pretty much in the same spot. "Only problem is they went off in a pretty large half-circle eastward. They should have shown back up on GPS nearly two hundred miles further east."

    "Wait, did they teleport or something? What the hell? That ain''t the Bermuda Triangle." Danny voiced my thought.

    "We''re still not certain, but all American ships and planes have been directed to not get near the storm. And this information is being provided to all maritime partners."

    "So what does that have to do with us? Or the recent breakthrough?" Ash asked, looking at the flight skips still.

    "I contacted NGA." Brent answered. "For all that the issues with the first planet breakthrough caused the fault lines to bring up tons of lava, boil oceans, and literally split a good sized chunk of California away into new land..." Brent trailed off. "GPS and geospatial mapping are tracking maybe twenty to thirty yards of offset where the fault lines split, adding up to maybe half a mile between the different faults. When we know based on first hand accounts that the total distance has been physically traveled to nearly ten miles across, with an even larger diagonal."

    "Please don''t say this happens there too." Danny waved his hand at the storm projection.

    Brent nodded. "To a smaller degree, it appears so. We had a few volunteers go through certain area faults and mapped a total of eighteen shifts similar to that one, at roughly even points of just over half a mile a shift. GPS monitoring alters to faster or slower speeds and then vanishes. Tight monitoring of people''s GPS shows straight line crossing comes out as expected, but deviations end up coming out in all sorts of random patterns." Brent stopped and sighed deeply. "It''s not like we can stop people crossing the fault lines because it is a literal cut across California and it hasn''t hurt anyone yet. And because there''s not enough manpower to fence off hundreds if not thousands of miles of fault lines."

    "And now you''re worried that the woods nearby just massively jumped in size, or became some sort of weird teleporting thing?" I asked. I drummed my fingers on the table. A silent nod answered me. "Great, so we could be a thousand miles from Rolla, or anywhere else. How do we figure that out?"

    "The base still has power, so it''s not like it affected here directly." Brent answered. "We''ll alert the base commander to what the likely problem is, and he can put people on the roads to local cities and we''ll find out if there''s any local problems. I''ll send it up my chain as well and it can be validated in the rest of the US as well."

    Brent clicked off the projector. "Much as I was going to say when it was only about the storm, there is nothing we can do to change the issue. I just wanted you all aware of what''s going on. Let''s not go running off like crazy people without a plan or even a place to check." He looked around at everyone, before stopping at me specifically.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I shrugged at the look. "As long as my parents are safe and we can still do our stuff, I guess sure."

    Brent waited until there were nods from everyone else. "Alright, I do have good news though." Brent pulled out a handful of the energy filled geodes we''d all probably sensed and rolled them onto the table. "We''ve had a breakthrough here, we can get around half of the energy from these, no issues."

    Melissa snatched one up. "Seriously? Cool! So... what was the trick?" Karen grabbed one too while the rest of us looked at Brent.

    "As everything about this seems to come down to, breathing." Brent chuckled. "It''s an active energy usage. Hold the stone up to your mouth, cycle energy out of your body through your mouth to around the stone, break the stone, and breath in your own energy, the energy in the stone, and the geode dust inside."

    "Wait, we have to breath in dust? Wouldn''t that be bad for you?" Karen paused before completely following Brent''s directions.

    Thankfully, no one else had started either. "Please let the man finish talking." I verbally poked at her.

    Brent nodded to me. "We had the same worry and did extensive chest x-rays and other tests on the first person that did this. Whatever the dust is while it''s holding energy, it''s gone after you breath it in. If you just crack the geode without it working though, the crystal dust inside sticks around but doesn''t appear useful for anything. But if you''re not breathing in the dust, energy intake is like it was during initial testing. Nearly nothing."

    "Anything useful from it then? How much is half the energy?" Melissa asked.

    "Our I-0 tester immediately had to go through first breakthrough, the energy was too much for him. He then took three more and had a second breakthrough from I-1 to I-2." Brent rolled his eyes. "We weren''t expecting someone to do that, the mess to clean up was horrendous."

    "Why didn''t you bring this up earlier then when we were talking higher breakthroughs and time necessary? If you can just devour a bunch of these and make it through breakthroughs?" I frowned. "I mean, even if it''s an increasing number of geodes needed, it''s still a way to get up quickly."

    "Partially because of a limited number of geodes available, but mostly because any of our testers that did get a breakthrough using these had issues. Weak output compared to similar breakthrough level people, stamina issues, and a few other things." Brent explained. "That I-0 tester that did two breakthroughs, for example? Reported that both breakthroughs felt like they should have been larger, and he still couldn''t cycle enough energy to fill them up normally. If we''re lucky, he can spend a few weeks building himself back up to average."

    I picked the closest geode up myself and looked at it. Felt the static energy held in the stone. "So good for a quick breakthrough, but has downsides."

    I thought back to the few people on the forums who''d blocked themselves. To the double blocked guy from my own class. "Can we fix people who are blocked? How about how far you think you could push someone with these? All the way up to my level? If we got thousands of them, to the alien?"

    "All good questions. I''ve had two days of results with these, so I don''t have answers for you. But I seriously doubt we''re going to get someone up to your level with this, much less the alien, even if we had the numbers of them necessary. Otherwise Barry would have been at your level or beyond."

    Well, that was oddly both a relief and a disappointment. No easy way to beat the alien then. "Wanna show us? You''ve already tried one of these, I assume? And were any of your testers internal energy?"

    "Yes and yes. I''ve done this once this morning to make sure I could show you all, and we did have one of the internal energy users as a tester with no ill effects."

    Brent took a stone and held it up, then put it close to his mouth before pausing and looking down at himself before looking back up. "I probably should have worn something worth losing, I''m already close to full on energy from testing this morning and it''s been nearly two weeks since my last breakthrough." He smiled at me and looked around the room. "At least I''m not trying to surpass the planet''s energy level now, right?"

    "I''ll go get some towels and water." Melissa quickly got up and left the room.

    He centered himself and then energy flowed from the breakthrough in his chest upwards to his throat. He breathed outward, the energy collecting around the stone and his fingers.

    A squeeze and the geode shattered into pieces. The energy tried to go in all directions but snagged passing through Brent''s energy and fingers, then he breathed in. The was almost a visible shift in the air as the energy seemed to be caught in the inhale before it broke into pieces as well, pulled into Brent''s lungs. Brent''s energy didn''t seem to return to him, but I saw the geode energy flush through him, filling his dantian before rushing outwards.

    Brent shut his eyes and groaned as the energy swelled and vanished into his neck and after a long moment black goop oozed from the man. But not nearly as much as I''d seen from others.

    After a moment, he opened his eyes. "For the record, it''s no better the second time. Yuck. And yeah, the breakthrough feels like there''s still pieces of blockage hanging around in it. But I still feel like I have a deeper energy to tap even if I need to figure out how to fully clear that block still." He looked around. "Did Melissa have to go to another building for towels?"

    <b>Spoiler</b>: New Wiki Entries <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>

    I''m going to start tracking major changes to the Seeker Wiki at the end of chapters where they happen, though one of the entries here is from Chapter 47.

    <b>Spoiler</b>: Techniques <input type=''button'' value=''Show'' class=''spoilerButton''>

    Imbue the Flame

    Creator: Lucas Bonel

    Has been taught to others: Yes (Ash Carson)

    Energy Type: Active

    Energy Use: Less than a single breakthrough but variable, continuous feed. See Description for additional details

    Description: Imbues a forging coal flame with your own energy converted to flame. Allows precise control over temperature and flame, but uses fuel at a higher rate dependent on multiple factors. May be used on other types of flames, but energy use cost goes up the further from a forge flame you get.

    Energy Draw

    Creator: Multiple

    Has been taught to others: Yes

    Energy Type: Active

    Energy Use: Minimal

    Description: Draw energy stored in a geode stone into your own dantian. Warning: energy excess can force breakthroughs at low levels. Testing ongoing for drawing energy from other objects with energy other than geodes.

 Chapter 49

    June 8th?

    It''d only taken a couple of days for the first reports of issues to crop up with roads missing or weirdness in a forest, but the first reports hadn''t been anywhere near us. The Amazon Rainforest, the Black Forest in Germany, and the Congo all quickly had found locations where dozens of square miles were doing something unexpected.

    According to Brent the local governments weren''t doing anything with them. Instead, they were more focused on issues with keeping their portion of the world running rather than investigating anomalies. Officially at least.

    I looked out the window as the Jeep drove along the service road in the Mark Twain National Forest towards our destination. We''re probably not official government business either.

    "Hey, looks like we''re there. I see a couple of trucks up the road." Ash interrupted my musing.

    Looking forward, I saw two military trucks pulled off the side of the road and a barricade across the road itself. Behind that what looked like a semi-circle taking a good bit out of the road. As we pulled up, I had to rub my eyes. "Wait a second. Did anyone else just see more of the road appear as we got closer?"

    "Like we''re going around a wall, but you can see through it to trees? I''m confused as all hell." Ash stopped and we all got out, Karen and Melissa stepping out of the backseats.

    A couple of men got out of one of the convoy trucks. I noticed one more standing in the bed of the other truck with a machine gun. "You would be the group we''re supposed to expect?" One of them asked, looking the four of us in askance.

    They all felt about second breakthrough, and I thought I could vaguely feel another one further ahead but not? I could sense their energy cycle a little faster as they questioned us.

    "I''m Nicole Firen. This is Ash Carson, Melissa Belle, and Karen Dubin with the Dantian Seekers. We''ve got base IDs from Leonard Wood if you want to see them?" I offered up my little base ID card, putting the weird feeling to the side for the moment.

    "Can''t really miss you, ma''am." The other said. "At least, I hope no one else around here feels nearly as strong as you do." He still took the card though and looked at it before handing it back to me.

    "So, what is this?" Karen asked, looking at the edge of the road and trying to peer around to the other side.

    "Unknown, really. The road outage was reported to a local ranger station yesterday along with someone disappearing while driving across it. We''ve currently got one person just on the other side of the edge in case the missing person shows up, but we''ve also got a few barricades halfway through so he knows how to get back."

    "How to get back?" I asked and then looked closer at one of the barricades. Which looked cut in half with one side not propped up by anything. "What?"

    "Easier to see than explain. Watch one moment." He turned and walked to the barrier, putting a hand on it and walked away. At the same edge of where the barricade was at, he vanished.

    "Holy shit!"

    I could still feel his energy though? Still in front of us, but not? I couldn''t figure it out.

    Abruptly, the soldier reappeared. "So yeah. Be careful on the other side. There''s no roads or anything, so if you wander too far you might have issues getting back."

    "Thanks." I smiled and looked at the others. "Well, let''s see what we can¡­ Well, I guess not see?"

    As I walked up to the barricade, Ash spoke up behind me to the guard. "So, what all have you guys figured out about this so far?"

    Picking up a stick, I pushed it through with no issues. The end of the stick was cut off exactly, no weird fuzzing or the whole thing disappearing even though I was holding part of it back. But the guard had vanished all at once.

    Curious, I tossed the stick in and it vanished piecemeal as well. Then startled me a moment later by flying back out. "What the hell?"

    "There''s someone not eight feet inside there, you probably hit him with the stick." The guard called with a laugh.

    "Sorry!" I called through.

    "Yeah, can''t hear past it either." I heard from behind me.

    "Huh." I took a half step forward before my wrist was caught. Looking backwards I saw Karen and gave her a questioning look.

    "I realize there doesn''t seem to be any issue going through, but let''s at least make a bit of a human chain in, just in case?" she asked me. "Melissa, come grab my other hand."

    So chained, I stepped forward. I expected to maybe feel or sense something strange, but I didn''t. Just that suddenly my view changed. There was a wide expanse of forest ahead of me, undergrowth here and there and oddly trampled straight ahead. Standing a bit off to the side was a man in uniform.

    Before I could say anything, I felt a squeeze on my wrist and I turned, only to find no one behind me. No military trucks or anything. Another squeeze and I looked down, seeing an impression of Karen''s hand on my wrist, but I couldn''t actually see her. I squeezed my hand back lightly, feeling resistance but not pressure or actually seeing her myself.

    Carefully, I reached out with my free hand and poked where Karen''s arm should be, only for my finger to pass through it. "OK, that''s creepy."

    Even more creepy, I realized, was where the trucks should have been was no road. Just what looked liked miles of empty woods, with nothing more than the half of a barricade sticking through to mark where we came from.

    "Welcome to the weird." The guard said, a very wan smile on his face.

    There was a tugging on my wrist. "Yeah, be right back." And I was quite happy to follow the pull, slipping back past that demarcation point.

    There were trucks again, and I could feel Karen holding my wrist. Funny how solidly she was holding me. Or was that me holding her.

    "You OK?" I asked. "Did anything happen to you? Did you feel me try to poke your arm?"

    "You literally vanished while I was holding you. That''s a little freaky." Karen stepped back away from the edge more. "I could tell I was still holding you, but that''s it. And no, no pokes. What the hell?"

    "I''m fairly certain people aren''t disappearing in California on the faults or Brent would have mentioned that." Melissa was staring at the edge. "What''s over there?"

    "Forest. Lots of forest. No road, no convoy trucks." I paused, then looked back to the guards watching us, Ash standing nearby. "There was forest past the barrier on that side, but how would you get to it? If you just walk there, you end up back here."

    He shrugged. "Ma''am, we know as much as you do right now. Couldn''t tell you. I''m just glad the barricades actually sit on both sides without issue, because otherwise you could seriously lose people there. Don''t know if you saw where a car punched through the growth over there, but the driver could have been seriously lost because he didn''t know where to go to get back out."

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    "Let me grab the rope." Ash said, wandering back to the car and getting the several thousand foot spools of nylon rope we''d brought.

    "You just happen to have that much rope just lying around?" The guard asked.

    I shook my head. "No, we brought it because we figured we might need to tie a path back to the road if this expanded like it did in California. Now it''s even more necessary to even know how to get back." I nodded to the others. "Come on, other than the really weird visual shift, you wouldn''t know anything happened."

    "Just a moment." The guard rummaged through the truck, coming back with a set of walkie talkies. "These don''t work across that line, but hopefully they''ll work while you''re in there and with the guard on the other side."

    "Thanks!" I said as Melissa grabbed them.

    Passing back through, the guard on the other side just gave us all a look at the spools of rope and walkie talkies. "You going out there?" I nodded. "You''re braver than I am. We''re taking shifts being on this side listening in case the lost guy yells or something, but we''re not going out there." He clicked a button on the mic on his shoulder and a beep came out of the walkie talkies. "Good, short range works. Keep me updated?"

    "Nicole, this isn''t right." Ash said, which immediately put me on guard and looking around.

    "What isn''t?"

    "Where the hell did all this come from?" Ash waved a hand everywhere. "Seriously. This is like an untouched forest. It''s not somehow lava pushing up and cooling, creating a rocky area that I could at least vaguely understand where the ground is coming from." Ash gave an aggravated snort at everything. "Where did we get a hundred years of forest growing in a week?"

    "Teleportation? I don''t know." I calmed a bit and looked around once more myself. "Huh. You can hear a few birds and stuff too. Air is cleaner too maybe?" At least he hadn''t meant anything else.

    "Can you not make those kinds of guesses, please?" The guard asked, whitefaced. "I''d much prefer to think I''m about thirty feet from the rest of my squad, just behind a wall."

    "Sorry." Melissa replied to him. "And yeah, we''ll keep in contact."

    I pointed to the broken undergrowth. "Do you think that''s where the car went through?"

    "That''s the only thing unnaturally disturbed here, ma''am." The guard offered.

    Ash unspooled some of the rope, tying it off to the barricade.

    "Anyone sense anything, first?" I asked, opening myself up and reaching outwards to the external energy around me. I still couldn''t cycle it in, even after learning to pull in the geode energy, but I could still feel the flows. A whole lot of Wood in the mix along with a decent amount of Earth. Nearly nothing of Fire. Air and Water seemed about balanced with each other, but less than Earth. Next to me, I could feel the individual dantians of Ash, Melissa, Karen, and the guard, but nothing else hit me.

    I could feel the guard react by cycling as I watched him take a step back.

    "You know, that''s the first time I''ve really felt you do that." Karen looked at me, slightly wide-eyed herself. "I know you do that back there," she motioned back towards the not there military trucks, "but here you seemed less repressed? Less held back?"

    "Huh." I hadn''t done anything differently. "Sorry man." I offered to the guard. "But seriously, anyone sense anything? I didn''t."

    I got to see what Karen meant as the three of them seemed to almost unveil something inside themselves into the energy around us. It lapped against me but even with all three of them doing it, it was more like a gentle wave of their energy against me. "I see what you mean."

    "You''re like a magnitude deeper than him." Melissa nodded to the guard. "And you still feel like you have way more depth than I do. Three more makes that much of a difference, huh? But yeah, nothing I can feel."

    "Nope." "Nada." Were the answers from Ash and Karen.

    "Let''s do some exploring then."

    We strung out the rope as we walked deeper into the woods following the breaks caused by what was hopefully the car that was reported to have crashed through here. About eight hundred yards worth of rope in, around a couple of trees that looked nearly sideswiped, we finally found a car crashed into a tree trunk nearly as thick as the car.

    "Anyone alive over there?" Karen called as we cautiously approached.

    I frowned, looking at the beatup white electric Prius. "That car looks familiar..."

    "California tags." Ash noted, setting down the rope spool and coming around. "Airbags went off, nobody in it." He hit the walkie talkie. "Found the car, no one''s here."

    Copy. Came the tinny voice back.

    "Hello, anyone out there?" Karen yelled a little louder.

    It was Melissa who answered. "Get out of the way!" she yelled at her. I caught a glimpse of a huge spider dropping down onto Karen who ran as told instead of looking confused.

    The spider fell onto the uncovered ground, almost knee high in size and with a sense of Wood flowing from it that almost faded into the background energy if I didn''t pay attention.

    "God don''t let this be Mirkwood." I said, looking around to make sure there weren''t more spiders. Ash ran up and managed a good punt of the spider with his full strength, gifting the arachnid with enough lift to send it sailing into a tree trunk. It slowly climbed the tree, leaving some green ichor behind.

    There were a few webs well up in the trees above us, but nothing to say thousands of man-sized spiders like what flashed through my mind for a moment. Paying attention, I could feel Wood energy being cycled above us, split from the general energy flows. Multiple spots too.

    "Keep an eye on the canopy." I cautioned, a little superfluous considering the scare. "Let''s tie off to the car and then see if there''s anything that can be used as a weapon in it." Maybe whoever owned the vehicle travelled with a full little league worth of baseball bats?

    The front of the car was crumpled and both driver and passenger airbags had gone off. Junk food wrappers in the baseboards.

    "There''s a spare tire, but the lug wrench is missing." Ash groused from in the trunk. "Someone else probably already had this idea."

    "You still have that lighter, right Ash?" Karen asked, looking up.

    "Yessss," he drawled out, "but I''m not going to try to burn down the forest because of spiders. We can just run back."

    Karen gave a tug on one of the backdoors, sending the car rocking slightly. "No, just help me cut off a door. I need something really big to squish spiders with."

    "Dibs on the trunk lid." I called, coming around. Between Ash''s lighter blowtorch and brute strength ripping, we managed to get the doors off just as half a dozen spiders started crawling down the trees.

    After a frantic few minutes of slamming hundred pound doors onto the ground and trees, we managed to kill off the spiders.

 Chapter 50

    Once the spiders were all quite thoroughly killed, I stopped and took a moment to take stock of everything.

    One of the doors was badly bent and warped from being slammed into a tree and partially wrapping around it. That''d been Karen''s first strike and squish.

    Ash''s door had several dents and the window shattered where somehow a spider had survived being driven into the dirt and managed to break through the glass window to escape.

    I''d had two attack me, but I''d batted one jumping spider hard enough to splatter it and impaled the other.

    Then I noticed Melissa checking herself over. "You OK?" I asked with a bit of alarm.

    "One of them jumped on me, I don''t think it bit me though."

    Checking her over, there were a couple of tears in the back of her blouse and a superficial scratch running down the back of her arm.

    "I don''t see any bleeding other than the scratch, and that''s pretty much stopped already. I think we got off lucky." I let out my breath.

    Melissa sank to the ground with a shudder. "Maybe more than we should have. Did anyone really pay attention to their energy?"

    "They had a lot more energy than the crabs or other stuff Brent''s been having brought in?" Karen offered, moving to sit on the edge of the now well torn apart car. "Like, about what the geodes have actually." She winced as the car shifted.

    "They were cycling energy, not just that they had a lot. I didn''t pay attention to how much, but you could feel them cycling." I added.

    Melissa shook her head. "They had breakthroughs. Not just that they had a dantian and could cycle energy, they had two breakthroughs. I put everything I could easily cycle into my overflow, two breakthroughs above them and still got caught. I think if they''d ganged up on one of us, only Nicole could have gotten through that." She looked at me. "And maybe not even you, just by dent of numbers."

    I paled slightly. "Yeah, where''s the radio. I think we need to call the guard and let him know."

    "Dropped it in the trunk when we yanked the top off of it." Ash answered. Karen turned and peered into the trunk before pulling it out and offering it up.

    I grabbed it and hit the button. "If you see spiders the size of large dogs, shoot first. Or possibly run first. But don''t let them catch you. We just lucked into killing six of them that had two breakthroughs."

    "I''m sorry, repeat that again. Spiders the size of dogs? Over."

    "Yeah. And two breakthroughs. Don''t know if those were normal for out here or not." I replied.

    "Understood. I''m going to see if we have any bigger guns on the truck, in case you call back and I''m not available. Over."

    "Not a bad idea." Ash looked out over our little battlezone. "I don''t think we want to try exploring more without something better to take out those spiders. I know I''m never going to not carry something around now, knowing these things exist." He kicked at the mostly broken door. "We''re probably lucky the doors were sturdy enough to take us swinging them and breaking the spiders."

    Ash then paused, looking into the woods suspiciously. "God, I hope they''re top of the foodchain here, I''d hate to see what eats those. Or have to deal with it."

    "And now you''ve jinxed us. All in favor of a fast retreat?" Melissa looked around.

    "Aye." "Aye."

    "Ay-". I startled, looking deeper into the woods. "Yi-yi.... Uhh, anyone else feel that?"

    That being a rather large source of Earth energy, moving towards us. Whatever it was felt like static energy, not cycling at all, but more than anyone else except me. Unfortunately, it was at least somewhat coming from the direction we''d strung out the rope.

    "Shit. I did jinx us." Ash cursed. "Nicole, you think we can flip the car at least to be a shield?"

    "Electric car batteries, we don''t want them to explode on us." Karen hopped off the car. "We need to at least make sure the bottom''s not facing us."

    "Did you already go through?" I asked into the radio, to no answer. I cursed quietly to myself before helping to flip the car onto its side. "Alright, if it looks like it''s slow, we cut and run, follow the rope back out of here. Otherwise..." I took a deep breath, deepening my cycling. "I''ll keep whatever it is distracted long enough for you guys to go, then I''ll be right behind you."

    "This is a shit plan." Karen stated while huddled behind the car.

    "Voting''s open for another plan, until whatever the hell that is gets here." I offered. Considering we could all feel it getting closer, no one spoke up.

    After a moment, I heard heavy steps and it finally got close enough to spot, coming into view as a seriously disheveled person, his shirt ripped into pieces and pants not in much better shape. His face was almost blackened in dirt and as he staggered up holding onto our rope with exhaustion in his frame. I saw a scowl form on his face, pulling at scars, as he took the sight of me in. He held a bent up lug wrench in his other hand, covered in some sort of goo.

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    "Holy shit, Barry?" I yelped. He wasn''t cycling, but he was holding enough energy for five breakthroughs.

    "Firen. I shouldn''t have hoped to find actual help out here." His scowl deepened. "Even when I find a part of the planet free of the alien''s taint, here you are spreading it again. And you''ve absolutely destroyed my car."

    "Screw you, we had to have something to kill spiders. Did you see them? Did you see their size?" Karen stepped out from behind the now less useful barrier.

    "I saw them." Barry''s fist around the wrench squeezed. "Joe figured since they were Wood and weaker than us, they were guides sent to us by the planet. Why we ended up in here. Nature loves a free meal though."

    "Ah, sorry?" I offered. "He was crazy, but he didn''t deserve to die."

    "He was the one that saw this place, guided us here. And now I see it was a trap, that we sprung in your place. You should have been the one exploring here to spread the alien''s energy and the planet would have trapped you instead. At least I can die in this trap knowing you will go with me." Barry slumped down against a tree.

    "No one''s trapped in here dude, we can get out of here." Ash said, coming from behind the car as well. "We killed the spiders, we can just leave. No problems."

    "I killed dozens of them. The planet''s defenders only recognize humans as a threat, even those of us who wish to help." He lifted the tire iron, and I saw two of the arms had been bent into a sort of guard and the wrench head was broken off into a point. "If you have a way out, then I should kill whoever of you I can to reduce your numbers. Even if it is just slightly." He staggered to his feet.

    "Back behind the car." I waved Ash and Karen back, before they could come out any further. "We already had this fight, Barry. I''m two breakthroughs over you now. It won''t be nearly as close a fight this time."

    "I''m stronger too, and you don''t have useful backup this time girl. Your friends aren''t snipers." Within a second, his still energy began cycling and pulling in additional energy from around him. His overflow spilled out and I could actually sense it hardening his body, his skin going dark as the scars on him stood out in stark relief. Then his energy sparked and flowed into the wrench, a bright tang of metal somehow changed from his earth. "And I have a much better weapon."

    "Well damn." I took a step back myself, cycling everything I had and trying to point the overflow at Barry to push his own away, to not much effect.

    "Not enough, girl. The earth stands with me." He held his makeshift but energy infused weapon in front of him, point leveled at me. "You dodge and I''m going to go straight to your friends."

    I''d spent nearly a month at this point in Army Combatives training, funnily enough because of this exact person and this exact reason. Combatives options one and two were never really going to be my goto for dealing with anyone though. No disengaging to regain projectile range, no secondary weapon to utilize. Instead, option three. Close the distance and gain control.

    Energy flickered through me in Feathersteps as I dashed forward, feeling like I nearly teleported the twenty feet between us. Startled surprise flickered through his face as well as he drove the point of his makeshift shiv at me.

    The blade was longer than the dummy knives I''d trained against, but that just meant stepping to the side a half step earlier. Coming to Barry''s out side, I grabbed his forearm and struck his elbow with my palm, with enough force that I would have snapped any of the instructors'' bones.

    It didn''t even jar him and this close I could see the guard was actually wrapped around his wrist so even if he let it go it wouldn''t drop. I pulled back to hit again, this time with every bit of force I could.

    Barry bent at the elbow, stepping in to try to drive his elbow into my chest, which let me turn and step behind him, grabbing at his weapon guard and pulling his own wrist against his throat.

    "Just stop, damn it." I pulled his wrist harder, but whatever his defensive technique was, I couldn''t get enough pressure to start choking him out.

    He grabbed my wrist with his other hand and I braced to get thrown. Instead, he lifted me just enough to pull me off the ground. "Burn girl."

    I didn''t have a chance to react or understand what he meant before he charged at the overturned car, weapon awkwardly pointed straight at it. I tried to yank my arm back but couldn''t before Barry made it to the car, the pointed end of his wrench weapon plunging into the underside battery and turning to expose me.

    In a fraction of a second, I could see the flame sparking forward out of the piercing. I instantly quit fighting to choke Barry, quit trying to hold him back. Instead, I flooded everything out of me towards that spark.

    Ash making fire from neutral energy, Barry making metal from earth energy.

    Water water water water water!

    Then there was white fire.

 Chapter 51

    It''d taken Ash over week to learn to convert his energy into fire and for a specific ability. Robert had taken a month of cycling just the water portion of the external energy to shift himself over to being water.

    I strongly doubted Barry had managed to figure out how to convert his own energy into metal in the half day he''d been lost and fighting spiders.

    I still prayed for a miracle. Water Water Water! As the fire flared at me from the puncture in white hot flames, my energy did not shift to water and suffocate the fire. Did not shift to earth to shield me.

    As the first flames hit my right shoulder to begin its searing destructive work and a scream started crawling out of my throat, a miracle of protection did not occur.

    But as I continued flooding every erg of power I had out of me, I felt for the barest fraction of a moment a shift. A motion that I couldn''t explain even if I had been rational. I shoved harder at that motion even as I felt like I went up in flame, and as my energy hit the car directly my energy became for an instant tangible.

    The destroyed wreck of a car was hit with a force that didn''t just move it, but threw it like a child having a tantrum. The ton of car lifted with no visible means and rocketed away like it had been swatted, crashing high against a nearby tree and turning into a giant fireball as the entire thing went up in flames.

    Screams and adrenaline coursed through me as Barry stumbled, his balance lost as his weapon lost contact with a suddenly missing vehicle. He tipped to the side and myself with him and I planted a foot, trying to spin to break his wrist and pin him. Only for my spin to literally throw him over me and crashing into another tree dozens of feet away as I swayed, quickly brushing away the flames that had caught on my shirt...but hadn''t really burned me?

    I felt scooped out, nearly as bad as the last time I''d used the Art of Awakening. I wasn''t completely empty though and urged my dantian to spin even as it and I ached. I needed to keep up, but the loss of that much energy was making me half drunk, half drugged, and all sorts of out of it.

    I glanced to the side, hoping to see my friends. Ash and Melissa were thrown off to one side but staring at the fireball. Karen lay flattened against the ground arms over her head where the car had been, unmoving. I swayed again for a moment in fear before she looked up at me.

    I looked back at Barry who was climbing to his feet unsteadily. The tree I''d thrown him into had a huge depression from where he''d hit. He stared at me for a moment from a distance I was honestly surprised to throw. His cycling, which seemed to be solely focused into his weapon and earth technique, skipped a beat and I could almost feel the energy he was feeding into the earth technique becoming unstable.

    My shoulder ached like hell, but there weren''t any more flames on my clothes. No melted skin from being held to the fire for the second I was.

    "I threw you back, Barry." I got out, my mind a little loopy as I tried to make a point. "No one else, me." I waved wildly towards the burning fireball in the tree. "You tried to kill me and my friends, I got rid of that too." I didn''t have a weapon, the last few pieces of the car either too far away or entirely too destroyed to be useful.

    It didn''t matter at the moment, I raised a fist at him. "And if you don''t throw away that stupid weapon, sit down, and give the fuck up, I''m going go find a spider around here to feed you to. You can find Joe that way."

    Barry just stared at me for a long moment as I felt my dantian generate more energy, clearing up my head just a bit more.

    The stray thought hit me that it''d be nice to have a few dozen of those geodes right now.

    Barry took a moment to stare at the burning car in the tree, turned back to where the car had originally been at. He stumbled forward for a minute before more of his dwindling energy flared into his earth technique. "What did you do, Firen?"

    "I wasn''t kidding, Barry. Throw the damn thing away and give up. There''s not a jail in the world that can probably hold you at this point and even after this I still don''t want to kill you because killing you means I''ve killed someone and you can''t really take that back." I rambled. "But I really want to make sure my friends are OK and you standing there not giving up means I can''t check on them."

    My energy finally lapped into my first breakthrough. Great, another nearly thirty or so times and I''ll be back up to full. It cleared my head a little more though, and I realized Barry probably hadn''t used nearly as much energy up as I did in that one instant, but I was already pulling back to even on what I could feel he was still holding.

    "If I have to go through you to be able to check on my friends, I''m going to do what I have to."

    The metal tip of his weapon dulled and Barry pulled the bent bar slightly, letting his hand slip through. He tossed it away, but only like ten feet. I could move that far in like a second if I needed to.

    "Fine, check your friends." Barry moved and sat even further away from his weapon. Thankfully also away from the others. "I still want to know what you did."

    I mostly ignored him, half stumbling over to Karen first. "You good?"

    Karen was hyperventilating. Probably the definition of not good. "It was blowing up in my face! Then, then it blew over my head!"

    Scrapes on her arms. No blood on her face. "You''re good for the moment. Don''t change that." I helped her sit up.

    I managed to walk straight over to Ash and Melissa. I eyeballed them both even as my energy continued its slow rise. Something vaguely told me I was about as right as Karen was at the moment. "Good?"

    Melissa nodded. Ash shook his head and somewhat held out his leg, where a piece of shrapnel was lodged into his lower leg behind his shin. "I''ll survive though, no worries!" Ash said looking unsure at my face.

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    "We need to get you to the military guys. Maybe they have something. Or they can at least get us to a hospital." I nodded to myself. That made sense.

    "Firen, I still want to know what you did." Barry spoke up again and I glared at him. "For a moment, your energy felt like this place. No alien, no taint. What did you do?" His voice was pleading and demanding in equal measure.

    My energy finally filled enough for my second breakthrough and I felt an unknown pain ease. And with that, definitely confirmation something was still wrong. "I''m glad you''re finally realizing I''m not working with the alien. But my friends first, remember? And since your car decided to impale my friend, I need to get him safe first."

    "Fine, whatever. Lead the way out, I''ll follow." Barry stood and I finally felt the energy in him let go, the earth technique fading into nothing before his cycling stilled completely. Barely over one breakthrough''s worth of energy.

    I shuddered for some reason at the feeling, Barry leaving himself nearly empty. "You first, follow the rope. I wonder if the guard heard the car explode?" I leaned down, grabbing Ash and picking him up, staggering for a second as I did. Ash grimaced but didn''t say anything.

    "Did you hear an explosion?" Melissa asked, and I turned to look at her. Holding the radio. Oh. I wonder if he''d gotten back with a bigger gun?

    "Negative. Did something blow up? Over."

    "The car." Melissa answered. "We''re coming back. Ash got hurt, something in his leg. And with a possible problem person." She eyeballed Barry.

    "Understood. I''ll let them know we need a medical kit. Over."

    Ash was doing his best to keep it compressed, which was honestly fairly impressive since I didn''t see much blood flowing. "Half a mile back, you good?"

    "If I say yes, do I have to walk it?" Ash asked with a pained chuckle.

    I didn''t say anything, just shifted a little to keep him in a bridal carry and started walking.

    "What did you do, Firen." Barry insisted from where he was standing, taking short breaths.

    "Later. Walk."

    ~~~

    "Put him in the back of the jeep and get him to a hospital. We''ve got his leg in a partial tourniquet for the blood flow, but you need to get it out and stitched up. Beyond us here." One of the military guards said. "Hopefully they''ve got something that can actually stitch you there."

    "Oh yeah, third breakthrough. Normal needles can''t really draw blood." Ash gave another painful laugh as I lifted him again and then moved over to the Jeep, settling him in the backseat. "This sucks."

    By this point, I felt back up to about my fourth breakthrough, which fixed some sort of deprivation I hadn''t known I could cause. I still felt really far away though.

    "Karen, Melissa. Get him to Phelps, I''ll catch up."

    Karen climbed into the back with her boyfriend while Melissa drove, getting turned around and about peeling out leaving.

    "Now will you finally tell me what you did?" Barry demanded and I turned to him.

    And my adrenaline finally dropped and I sagged, tears welling up.

    "Ma''am?!" I heard. "Is she going into shock?"

    Barry sat down against one of the trucks with a wince, ignoring the guard with a gun trained on him as he watched me and I watched him. I watched him.

    ~~~

    I snapped out of it suddenly and it was dark, with some sort of bandage on my shoulder.

    "About damn time, Firen." I heard a voice behind me. Why was I staring at the wheel of one of the trucks? I turned and saw Barry and several guards, more than I recalled being there originally. Who were the new guys? "About damn time you snapped out of it." Barry repeated himself.

    "Now, are you going to tell me what you did? It''s the only reason I''m still here after all." He glared at a soldier, the one that had been holding a gun on Barry. Earlier?

    "I panicked and threw everything at the fire." I could hear the dull tone in my voice as the imagery from earlier flashed in my head. "Somehow managed to make it physical to blow the entire car away."

    "I don''t care about that, congrats you survived. Might have been different if I''d had a chance to tamper with the car batteries ahead of time. But right before you hit the car, you did something. The energy you were throwing around felt different. Like the forest, it didn''t have the damn alien''s feel all over it. You did something where your power didn''t taint everything around it at that moment. What was it? Do it again. If you''re not working with the alien, do it again and prove it to me."

    I laughed. It was all I could do. "If I knew what I did, or how I did it, I''d do it again." Damn it, now he gives me a way to show I wasn''t working with the alien?

    "Need me to try to kill you again?" Barry asked with honest curiosity.

    I immediately started cycling energy, glad it felt more or less back to normal. "Fuck no and fuck you. I''ll figure it out." I shook my head, ready in case he decided to push it anyways.

    "That''s not it. You''re just dumping alien energy into the planet again." Barry looked disappointed then turned and walked away, giving a generous sidestep to the scoop out in the road, then glared at a guard that stepped up to stop him.

    "Barry." I called and he paused. "I stand by what I said before about my friends. And if we get into a fight again, I''m not going to assume how strong I need to be based on training. I''m just going to hit you as hard as I can until you stop moving."

    "Right." He chuckled and continued walking away.

    I debated stopping him then, since he still felt like he barely had a breakthrough worth of energy and literally wasn''t cycling. But forcing him into a fight now was counter-productive to checking on Ash. But why wasn''t he up to full energy again as well?

    I looked at all the military around me and sighed. "Alright, who''s going back to Leonard Wood? I need a ride to Phelps in Rolla. And maybe someone''s phone."

 Chapter 52

    "Medical glue? Seriously?" I looked at Ash''s wrapped leg while crowded into the hospital room with Karen and Melissa.

    "They couldn''t find anything to really pierce skin and do it neatly. Unlike projectile steel, which does cut skin, but thankfully didn''t hit anything major. Also, I''m going to go on record and say pain pills are way suckier than an IV drip. They take forever to kick in." Ash laid back. "They figure I''m probably going to be wheelchair bound for a week or two, then crutches. Depends on how well I heal up. But since they sealed it pretty close to evenly it shouldn''t be bad."

    "I should have thrown everything that first hit. Then Barry wouldn''t have had a chance to escalate." I lambasted myself.

    Melissa spoke up quietly. "Speaking of Barry, what happened? I figured you''d be no more than twenty minutes behind us, not four hours. Did you have to wait for someone to come deal with him?"

    I blinked away the memory of fire. "I¡­had a mini breakdown, I think. Once we got you guys going, I just kinda stopped for a few hours or so?" At least my cycling had continued while I was blanking out. "Weirdly, Barry was still there waiting once I started focusing again. Apparently, I did something that made my energy feel ''not alien tainted'' whatever that means. He wanted me to do it again, probably show him how." I paused, thinking back to his weird comment. "Offered to try to kill me again to force it? But politely. Then he just left. I didn''t try to stop him because I needed to come check on you guys."

    "He''s insane." Karen frankly stated.

    "Nicole." Ash said seriously and I looked at him. "Next time you end up in a throw down with Barry, don''t try to break an arm. Break his face. And I mean that literally. And that''s if one of us doesn''t don''t get to him first, because I''m not going to hide next time if I have a weapon."

    "But he was finally willing to start talking about the whole ''they think we''re alien tainted'' though, and they still have techniques we could learn from them!" I protested, but my heart really wasn''t completely in it.

    "I think..." Melissa started. "You''re putting too much effort into trying to collect every bit of information about cultivation."

    "What?"

    "Most mornings you''re up before I am and I find you cycling on the back porch or the roof, which I usually join you at. After that you tool around on the forums, collecting whatever random bits people are posting and putting them onto the wiki. I''ve seen some of the research lists you''ve been making from that too. Things to look into, things to give to Brent to have looked into. I''ve helped you poke around with the handful of plants with energy that have been brought on base."

    I nodded, that sounded right.

    "Then you either head to the training area in Leonard Wood and spend a good chunk of the day there. Helping out soldiers however you can. Or more recently, run here to Rolla and hold freeform classes for anyone available to look into things. Either way, you''re right there with them, trying to learn and teach at the same time." Melissa continued. "Then we have Combatives. And while after today I''m glad we''ve been going; it still revolves around cultivating. Afterwards, I can usually catch you on the couch looking into anything else Brent, Danny, or anyone else in the Seekers has dropped into the system over the course of the day. Late evening, you''ll end with another hour or so of cycling and playing with Feathersteps by parkouring over the house and backyard."

    "OK?" I wasn''t sure where Melissa was going with this. "I''ve changed up my schedule plenty, depending on what''s going on that day."

    "Yeah, testing geodes. Group meetings about the Seekers and how we''re doing over all. Working with specific tests like the fourth breakthrough testing. I understand that beating the alien is important, I really do. More than this being a nine to five job. We''re turning this cultivating into a lifestyle, because god damn giant spiders and who knows what''s next. But you''re making it into an obsession to know every little thing about this. Take a step back for a moment."

    "I don''t think I''m obsessing." I argued. "We need all the information we can get, we don''t know what''s going to be important. And if we put that information out there, others can build on it and we all get better that way."

    "A few techniques we don''t know and a crazy man''s words that you didn''t do something ''alien tainted'' in a fight with him." Ash interrupted. "That juice is not worth the squeeze. I''ve been thinking about it, not much else to do in here besides watch TV and wait for the Percocet to kick in. I''ve got a few ideas about it, if you want to hear?"

    I sighed. "Sure, go ahead."

    "Option one is he''s telling the truth. Whatever you did to the car did make your energy feel different to him. I didn''t notice any difference, but I could be wrong. Karen, Melissa? You notice anything different about Nicole''s energy when she did that?"

    "Other than a whole lot of it, no." Karen answered.

    Melissa thought for a second. "About the same as what you did to that McInnis guy, but it didn''t feel different to me."

    Ash nodded to them. "Maybe Barry''s a lot more sensitive and noticed something we didn''t and that''s what he was talking about. However, that leads into Option two. Even if you did something different with your energy, you''re putting a lot of stock into the words of a guy that has had no compunctions about trying to kill you. How do you know he''s not wrong or wants to screw you over in general?"

    "But-"

    "Which leads me to Option three. He was lying out his ass because you were beating his ass. He changed his tune pretty damn quick after you cratered him into a tree after all, so it''s entirely possible he said whatever he could to not have you finish him off." Ash stared at me for a moment, before shifting with a wince to adjust his leg.

    "He was still there hours after when he could have walked away when I was out, and still demanded to know what I''d done." I blew out my breath. "But, you might be right. They still have techniques we don''t though. You''re right that I cratered him into a tree, and holy shit over that, but he got up. That Earth defense technique, if we can get anywhere near as strong as the alien and just ignore hits from him? That juice is worth it."

    "Again, you''re obsessing over knowing everything right now." Melissa interjected. "Barry''s known that technique for at best a few months. Get someone in the Seekers to reinvent that wheel. We probably have someone already cycling Earth energy that can try."

    "Two." I muttered.

    "Exactly." Melissa smiled at me. "And if they can''t, we haven''t really asked Brent for anything crazy. Ask him to find however many people in the military cycling Earth to try. You have resources that don''t have to be crazy terrorists who want to kill you and us."

    "I might even have a good starter idea for the Metal energy dagger tip thing." Ash noted. "But not until I''m at least out of the hospital, alright? They''ll get mad at me for starting fires in here."

    Arms went around me as Karen enveloped me in a hug. "Let''s go get some crappy hospital food, talk about stupid shit for a while, then you get some sleep." I felt a tightness in my chest start to turn loose.

    ~~~

    June 9th?

    First thing the next morning I stood in front of Sergeant First Class Collins, my and several other peoples Combatives trainer. "I''d like to add staff work to my Combatives training."

    The salt and peppered older man laughed for a moment before looking at the serious face I was giving him. "Staff? I guess that''s better than the idiots always coming in with pawn shop swords and asking to add it. But any staff I put in your hands you''re going to snap in a few strikes. Hell, you''re more deadly bare handed just by the strength you can put behind a punch." He leaned back in his desk chair. "Normal extensions to Combatives are combat knives as a secondary weapon. I can at least get some good knives you might have to work at to crumple."

    I shook my head. "I''ll carry a steel pole if needed, but I need something with more reach than a knife. We had to squash dog-sized spiders with car doors because we didn''t have anything else. A staff I could hit them around with. Or if it''s strong enough, I could pierce them with it. And it''d give me more options against someone else."

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    I paused. Could we figure out Barry''s Metal energy trick? Would it make a metal staff harder? Surely there would be a Wood version I could use for a normal staff too.

    "But yeah. I need something a little more like a weapon than just basic Combatives." I finished.

    "Dog sized. You''re not talking little dogs either, are you?" Collins sighed as I shook my head and measured out their size. "What the actual hell is going on."

    "There''s a spot in Mark Twain that you can walk into and be somewhere else. It was untouched woods that had huge spiders and maybe other stuff too." I sighed and looked around the office for a moment. "You know, there''s a decent chance we''ll find an entrance to little places like that closer to here too, since all we know is they''re wooded. So it''s probably best for everyone to be prepared."

    He gave me a gimlet eye. "MPs are the only ones authorized to carry firearms on base. You want that changed, I am most definitely not the one to be talking to Nicole. Your boss has a hell of a lot more weight in those sorts of conversations."

    "Danny?" I startled.

    "No." Collins stood. "Look, I''ll see about getting some staves, I can get you started but I don''t normally teach on that subject. I''ll even see if we can find someone that can teach you more. Up to you to not break things though. Just give me day or two."

    "Thanks." I smiled thinly. "But I make no guarantees about not breaking things."

    "Ms. Firen?" Collins narrowed his eyes.

    I sighed. "I''m going to end up breaking things figuring out how hard I can actually hit, and when I need to. I tried to break someone''s elbow with an open hand strike and he shrugged it off. And the strike was strong enough to break you. So no, I''m not deadly enough bare handed if it comes down to it."

    "No one''s going to want to spar with you if you''re threatening something like that." Collins noted, now completely serious. "And I won''t allow you to permanently injure anyone here either."

    "I can still hold back in spars, Sergeant Collins. I just need to figure out what not holding back is like as well."

    I left without another word.

    ~~~

    Sitting on a roof staring out over the edge of the woods was a nice way to let my mind wander. The early afternoon sun was warm on my skin while the occasional breeze rippled the trees.

    From the edge of housing here on base, I could look out over a few miles or so of woods before everything blurred together. Was there another spot to walk through in those woods? There wasn''t anything obvious to delineate it. No fault lines to demarcate it. No huge storm to suggest not sailing or flying into it.

    Just, pockets of woods that were different. Massive bugs that had breakthroughs. Probably assholes messing with my head.

    I swung my hand, letting my new collapsible baton snap out. Just over two feet and if I tried to stab a spider it''d probably just collapse back together. But for the moment, better than nothing. I cycled a little extra energy, pushing it towards the baton, but it didn''t magically shift to metal or do anything special. The energy clung for just a moment before fading away into the background.

    I cycled a bit more energy and pushed it out again, trying to shove it like I had yesterday. But whatever out of my mind twist I''d done, it wasn''t that easily repeatable. Push, pull, twist, turn.

    I smiled to myself, thinking what it must look like to someone able to sense energy and watching. Here I was cycling enough energy outwards to match someone in three breakthroughs going all out, and all the energy was doing was weird movements and collapsing on itself as I even tried tying it into a knot a few times. And it was only a small effort for me.

    Whacking the energy with more barely clinging onto the baton energy didn''t do anything either, though it was both fun and interesting to watch it break apart that way too.

    I''d been playing with my energy for over an hour when a ringtone went off in my pocket. I pulled out the earpiece and shrugged, putting it in and tapping to answer. "Hello?"

    "Hey honey, how are you?" Dad''s voice asked.

    "Hey. Alright, I guess. Tomorrow''s the normal time I call you. What''s up?" I replied back.

    "Karen called. Why didn''t you call me to let me know you''d been in another fight?"

    I nearly slipped off the roof. Damn it, Karen. "I wasn''t really hurt, just a little heat burned. Ash actually got hurt a lot more, he''s the one in the hospital right now."

    "Uh huh. Pull the other one, it''s got bells on. You got in another fight and your friend Ash ended up hurt because of the other person in the fight?"

    "Yeah." I slumped a bit. "It was like ten seconds worth of a fight. It shouldn''t have happened like that."

    "Nicole, Karen didn''t go into all the details of it, but she did say you didn''t start it. So you can''t hold yourself responsible for fights you don''t start. Your own actions in the fight yes, but not for anyone else''s. Now, while I hope your friend in the hospital is OK, I want to know how you''re really feeling."

    A flash of fire then throwing it backwards before I realized the flames didn''t burn. Barry demanding to know what I''d done instead of keeping the fight going, and wanting to go through him to make sure the others were OK.

    Where to start.

    "I got kinda thrown at an electric car battery fire." I heard a gasp. Oh, Mom was listening in too. "It...didn''t hurt like I thought it would, and I managed to knock the entire car away somehow. But Ash ended up getting car shrapnel in his leg because it somewhat exploded. So Ash getting hurt kinda is my fault. The fight ended pretty quick after that. So, feeling kinda sucky?"

    I looked at the baton and swung it out again, letting it extend. "I am trying to get to a point that it won''t happen again though."

    "Nicole, unless you threw a car at your friend, it''s not your fault." Mom''s voice.

    "Well, not at him. But over all of them because they''d been using it as a shield."

    "Still not your fault." Mom insisted. "Where are you at right now?" She then asked.

    "Sitting on my roof? I''m trying to figure out how to do something." I responded with confusion.

    "No, you''re sitting there moping. Go mope around someone else, you''re always in a better mood with other people. Even if you still do whatever you''re trying to do now, you need a friend. I''d say go find that boyfriend of yours, but he''s still on activated reservist duty, right?"

    Mike? I hadn''t heard from him in almost a month come to think of it, maybe I really had been a little obsessively focusing. "Yeah, I''ll go find someone to talk to. Or at least hang around."

    "And call us when something happens. I don''t like your friends calling instead to let us know, and you probably wouldn''t have said anything when you called tomorrow." Dad spoke up. "I am glad you ended the fight quickly before you got hurt."

    He was probably right about not telling them, though I wasn''t sure if I''d ended that fight or it just stopped. "Alright. I''ll go bug someone. And I''ll send you a selfie to show you I''m not hurt."

    "Thank you, sweetie." Mom sounded a bit relieved.

    "Love you guys."

    "Don''t leave your head in the clouds, Nicole." Dad responded. "And we love you too."

    "Dad." I couldn''t help but laugh as he hung up.

    Who to go bother though? Ash was still in the hospital, Karen probably hanging out there too. I could call Melissa.

    That''d work for a start. I collapsed the baton and stuck it through its belt loop holder, hopping down from the roof. I''d need to call to find out if she was available though, and if I was going to need to head to Rolla again since she hadn''t been at the house today.

    I tapped my earpiece a few times, listening to it scroll through contacts before dialing.

 Chapter 53

    A couple hours later I pulled into the Seeker parking lot, nearly a dozen other cars nearby. Lighter than usual, but probably because of how late I was actually showing up.

    Walking in I waved to Tasha still running the front desk. "Afternoon." The still open ceiling echoed for a moment as I heard a faint clang.

    "Oh, good afternoon Ms. Firen. I didn''t have you on schedule for anything this afternoon?" She clicked something on her screen. "Did you have something you needed to do? There''s a few people in the gym and someone''s got your crazy run reserved right now if you wanted to observe."

    That explained the clanging. "Not today." I shook my head, but a thought crossed my mind. "Although if you could find out if either of our two Earth cycling people are available in the next day or two, that''d be great. Samantha and Jacob I think? I''ve got something I''d like to run by them."

    "I can find out their available times, yes ma''am. Fit them onto your schedule at your earliest convenience?" Tasha took down the notes.

    "Please. Also, Melissa said she was going to be here for a while this afternoon?"

    Tasha nodded. "She showed up earlier with Mr. Sidre and your friends, yes. That was fun, I didn''t realize how non-ADA compliant we''d set up some of the hallways." At my confused look, she continued. "Getting Ash set up in the medical area. It was harder than expected to get his wheelchair around without moving some of the partitions."

    "Huh. I didn''t realize we had a good enough setup for more than dantian scanning and basic first aid." I mused. "That where they''re at now?"

    "Melissa reserved a couple of rooms in Meditation, so probably there." Tasha corrected me.

    I found Melissa in the meditation area staring down at a pair of long daggers sitting in front of her, her fingertips resting on them. The daggers only had an edge on one side and an interesting wave pattern in the blade.

    Melissa''s energy was rapidly overflowing and collecting on the blades before slowly vanishing into the background energy. It looked a lot like what I had been doing earlier with my baton, but she seemed to be having a bit more luck than me as the energy was holding longer.

    Nearby, a couple of partitions to the medical area had been taken down and Ash was sitting in a wheelchair alternately watching TV and keeping an eye on what Melissa was doing. Karen sat in a chair beside him, mostly doing something on a tablet.

    "What''s up?" I asked quietly, trying to not disturb Melissa. "Thought it was going to be a couple of days at least for you to get out?"

    "You apparently have an overnight staff. Danny swung by the hospital this morning and negotiated my release and recovery to here." Ash answered, thumbing backwards. There was a couple of hospital cots and a female nurse sitting at a desk who looked up and nodded our way. "I don''t want to put weight on it anytime soon, but it seems to be healing pretty damn well already. Gonna be a fun scar."

    I didn''t say anything for a long moment but seeing Ash in good spirits was a balm to my worries about him getting hurt in the first place.

    "I thought it was going to be a couple of days of you taking it easy too?" Karen asked, giving me a look.

    "Is that why you called my dad?" I asked, getting an unrepentant nod and smile back. "And I am taking it easy. I haven''t done half the stuff today I normally would have already. No forums, no staring at other people''s information. I had a chat with Sergeant Collins and spent some quiet time messing around with my energy before my parents called."

    Ash nodded and Karen smiled.

    "Speaking of energy, trying to figure out the metal energy trick?" I asked quietly, waving a hand towards Melissa who was still throwing energy at the daggers.

    Melissa paused for a second and looked up.

    "You look like you''re doing about the same thing I was earlier. Just throwing energy at it and hoping you hit something?" I pulled my baton out and snapped it open before cycling energy out and into the baton. Which again, just flowed off with only the slightest of hesitation.

    I got a couple of new looks for the weapon but considering Melissa was playing with daggers I didn''t know she owned, no comments were made.

    "Not exactly. Barry shifted his Earth energy to Metal, but I don''t have any Earth or Metal energy to start with." Melissa answered. "So instead I''m just trying to use my electrical feeling energy to do something. Shocking, or magnetic, or something to at least figure out a base of."

    She flooded the daggers again with energy. This time I paid closer attention and could feel Melissa''s electrical energy trying to do something specific. Line up in the daggers, maybe?

    "We started with my fire technique as a basis, but it really doesn''t work for Melissa." Ash started. "I''m honestly hoping it''s workable for you and just an issue with Melissa having a specific energy already."

    I grabbed a chair, spinning it around to sit against the back. "Alright, what''s up?"

    Ash settled back in his wheelchair. "So, in general when I, Karen, or anyone else using external energy cycles, we just basically pull in whatever''s around locally into the dantian and it blends into becoming our energy to use. The water kid or others using specific energy pull just the energy they need, I think was the thought, but yeah. The breakthroughs are interesting too since they''re adding a lot of extra energy, but there''s usually a little bit of several different energy types anyways. That forest was interesting because of how much wasn''t there, actually."

    I nodded and paid a bit more attention to the energy around me. "Yeah, there''s little bit of metal and even a tiny bit of something that feels like concrete here, along with the different heavier breakthrough energy types. I didn''t notice either in that forest either, just the breakthrough stuff and pretty well slanted to wood."

    "Yeah, but in general we pull all that stuff in through cycling. So when I want to use Imbue the Flame, I had to learn to pick that fire energy out of the blend and overflow just that into the fire I was working with. And even beyond that, I need a really good idea of what I''m using the flame for so it can stick." Ash paused and considered. "Huh, which would probably explain a few things. Luke taught while forging, so I keep thinking of it as a forge fire and control for that. Wonder how hard it''s going to be to actually shift that?"

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    "Before you get completely sidetracked, finish up." Karen poked him. "You got further with this story with Melissa earlier."

    I laughed at that, even as Ash poked her back.

    "Yeah, yeah. So I don''t know how Barry did the whole earth to metal conversion thing, but I figured there shouldn''t be too many issues with just grabbing metal out of what we''re cycling and working directly with that energy." Ash continued.

    "Except I''m all electricity and internal energy, so I don''t actually grab external energy for use." Melissa spoke up. "I can prod out little bits of air and water, but definitely no metal so far. Or earth."

    Ash nodded to her. "Which we don''t know if that is an internal energy thing or a you thing. Danny''s internal and fire, but he hasn''t came back in since getting me situated. But no other energies is why Melissa is trying to figure out something specific with electricity on those daggers I had made by Luke."

    Karen then looked at me. "So we figure you might be able to answer that question. Can you pull specific elements out of your energy like an external user, or do you have some specific energy too?"

    Huh. "I never really thought about it. Not like Feathersteps or Awakening need a specific element." I closed my eyes for a moment and cycled, letting the energy gently overflow. The external energy swirled a bit as my own wafted through it, but nothing I cycled out was specific to any element. No, wait. Ash said he had to overflow a specific piece of it that was already fire.

    I carefully poked at the energy flowing from my dantian through my breakthroughs, wary of another half seizure. It easily enough parted in my mental fingers like a flow from a stream, merging back together before continuing on its way. I compared it to the watery energy in the room, but it didn''t have the same feel to it. Nor to the air, earth, wood, or fire. Not to the electricity coming from Melissa.

    I didn''t want to have to start really digging into my dantian for this. Seemed a little much to mess with what was generating my energy. "Do you have to track the fire you''re blending into your dantian to split it back out at a breakthrough, or what?" I asked, still focusing inward. "Because if you have to track fire, I don''t have any to start with I think."

    Ash tilted his hand back and forth. "A bit at first. I spent the first couple of days with Luke just watching my cycling inflow and how it went through, I figured out that it more or less becomes even amounts of fire, earth, and water wrapped in air. Wood burns into fire, that little bit of concrete crumbles into earth, stuff like that. There''s tiny little bits that don''t, but not much at all."

    "Huh." I opened my eyes and looked at Ash curiously. "Air? Not wood and metal, like in the geodes?"

    "Nope. I thought that was odd too. But yeah, most of the wood cycled in just ends up burning away before it comes out of my dantian." I felt Ash cycle for a moment before he sputtered. "What the hell? The wood doesn''t burn now, it''s just kinda growing into my energy alongside the other types." He looked around, his eyes landing on his leg. "You think it was the breakthrough or the forest we were in?"

    Karen was quickly documenting on her tablet, eyes bright.

    "I''d guess the breakthrough, since the forest stuff likely happened because of the breakthrough." More questions than answers. And answers that just made more questions. And distractions. "Deal with one thing at a time though, let me see if I can get anything specific out of my energy first."

    I got out of the chair and settled on one of the mats to get a little more comfortable. I looked over Melissa one more time, watching for a moment as her energy flowed into the daggers. Then focused on Ash who was cycling much harder now, not overflowing fire this time.

    Maybe instead of splitting out something just as the energy was leaving my dantian, I could move further outward. I cycled my own energy a little faster, letting the energy lap outwards. First breakthrough then the second. I focused for a moment on the energy at the third breakthrough when it split but didn''t reduce in power or strength, maybe something there?

    Touching on the flows leaving there, I could almost feel a bit of a difference. Not stronger, but more in focus maybe? The energy flowing from my shoulder breakthroughs was again a bit more focused, a little denser seeming. Different though for each. Again separately but more refined when the energy passed through my hips and naturally left the breakthroughs into my body.

    Mentally I carefully split the flow again. Just a separate flow that rejoined the energy that coursed into my breakthrough before suffusing my body, then ebbing back. Huh, the ebb back flowed back towards my dantian again.

    Maybe the backflow was missing something the outward flow had? Maybe I could follow that and find a way to differentiate the elements that hopefully made up my energy.

    Following the backflow was harder though, it barely seemed to exist, slipping away from sight even faster than the energy that flowed into each breakthrough. Then I metaphorically stared my dantian down, trying to find the flow that was returning to it. It took some time and effort, watching my cycling, seeing that spinning energy generate my power before I realized where that return flow was at.

    Bit and pieces of that higher focus, more refined energy was burbling out of the cycling itself. The refinement then faded from the energy before being released into the overall flow of energy again.

    I followed the energy again, this time not skipping anywhere. Out of the dantian. A tiny bit of overflow even there, but the vast majority moving into my first breakthrough, which now seemed so shallow when considered all by itself. Even though three months when it was the entirety of my power it seemed to hold so much.

    But the energy that spilled from it did not have any additional focus or refinement, it just flowed onwards, both into my body and from my heart to my breastbone. Where I''d accidentally managed to break through yelling at the alien. Where the few times I''d ran energy through when I used my Art of Awakening. It was here it first gained a little touch of something, that first minor refinement.

    Then it built as it went through the breakthroughs, before returning again to my dantian. Cycling. Not just only in my dantian, but through the entire system of dantian and breakthroughs.

    I paused, letting my energy just flow over and through me. Was that additional refinement something I could use? Was that how to find metal, or fire, or anything else in my energy?

    I opened my eyes, my muscles a little stiff for some reason. Somehow, Ash had gotten a table pulled up to him and he and Karen were sitting at it with Danny. Melissa was still nearby, but I could see she wasn''t flowing energy to the daggers anymore.

    "You were pretty out of it, you OK?" Karen gave me a worried look. "It''s been over an hour."

    I cracked my neck. "Huh, that really didn''t feel that long." I looked around. "Since I obviously wasn''t paying attention, did you ask Danny the element thing too?"

    "Yeah." Danny nodded. "I easily get fire, I''m going to have to practice myself to see if I can find anything else."

    Made sense. Then I addressed the question I really had. "Ash, when you get fire. At what point in your breakthroughs can you pull it out? When it becomes that even amount you were talking about? If so, when does it actually become even?"

    Ash nodded his answer. "Yeah, when it''s even. And what do you mean when it becomes even? It just eventually evens out?"

    "There''s a point where you cycle it in, that''s your dantian. Then it flows through you and becomes evened out. Where? Immediately after leaving your dantian?"

    "Huh, uhh¡­" It wasn''t difficult to feel Ash begin to seriously cycle his energy after pulling out his lighter, pulling in external flows as he clicked the striker and a sharp blue flame came out. "It all spills out of my dantian messed up and messy. I''m overflowing the fire at my third breakthrough." He spoke distractedly. The flame flickered uncontrolled for a moment and Ash swayed as the flame lost some of its shape. "Second breakthrough it''s just barely evened out though. Coming into that breakthrough it''s a mess even if I still could pull the fire out specifically for overflow."

    "And before that? Can you get fire to overflow at the first breakthrough?" I prompted. "Be really careful trying."

    "No." Ash answered flatly after less than a second. "It''s my energy, but it''s basically trying to pull a single thing out of a huge snarl and not evened out then." His let the extra cycling fall aside. "You figure out how to get it then?"

    "Well, I think I found what might work. It''s not an element yet, but maybe something I can work with."

 Chapter 54

    The question of whether or not that refinement of my energy actually worked to become an element wasn''t going to be easy to test. I nodded to myself, ready to begin though.

    Ash apparently noted my determination and spoke up. "Nicole, it took me days to learn this. Don''t force it."

    I shook my head. "I''m not going to force anything."

    "You could at least explain what you''re going to do first, you know." Danny spoke up. "Melissa and I would love to know, since we''re both using internal energy as well."

    Danny then motioned behind me. "You''ve got a few people still here as well. Maybe explain to everyone how you got from Ash''s external fire to whatever your internal one is?"

    I turned slightly and noticed there were still a few others in the meditation area as well, mostly focusing on me. "You know, you reserve the rooms for yourselves right?" I said to them with a rueful grin. "Not that I don''t end up working with people in here anyways."

    I rolled to my feet, dropping the baton on the little table. "Let me get one of the big screens real quick."

    "You''re supposed to be taking it easier." Melissa threw a look while grabbing the daggers, putting them back into sheathes and setting them aside.

    With the work of a few minutes, I''d gotten one of the breakthrough projections pulled up to a group of eight. "Alright, Danny and Melissa are internal energy. Anyone else?"

    One of the other four raised a hand.

    "Alright. I don''t think you have a specific element in your energy?" He shook his head. "So three internal, five external. One internal without a specific element." I looked over the others. "I don''t believe any of you aligned yourselves to an energy type?" I didn''t get any disagreements. "Five external with no specific element as well then. Finally myself, internal and no element as well. Let''s call this a small group testing of energy type extraction."

    I looked over, and Karen had her tablet set up on the table for recording. She nodded.

    "First thing, names and breakthrough numbers please." I mentally assessed everyone first to assess my own sensing as well.

    Ash three, Karen three, Melissa four, Danny three. Our other internal energy guy was Will at two, one external lady at two, and two more guys at four. Matched with what I thought.

    "You guys push through recently through fourth?" Two agreements. "Congrats on that. It''ll be helpful for what I''m hoping to see here, I think."

    I then addressed the room. "Alright, I''ll go over how I understand this from Ash on the external side. I one hundred percent want anyone to interrupt if your energy does something different, if you don''t understand, or if you want me to shut up and let Ash explain it." I got a few laughs from that. "Seriously. I want to make certain what I''m thinking is actually how this works for you all. At each point, I''ll go over what I think are differences with internal."

    I clicked the image over to the external dantian image and pointed to the spot near the stomach. "When you cycle energy, you pull energy from the world around you into your dantian. Once you do that, it becomes your own energy. Correct?" Too bad we didn''t have anything that could on the fly mark this up. Oh well.

    A murmur of agreements from that. I then swapped the image to the one with the internal dantian and pointed to it, right under the heart. "For those of us using internal energy, our cycling generates energy on its own. I''m not certain if it''s faster or slower than external energy to build up. Thoughts there?"

    "I''ve wiped myself a couple of times." Will answered. "Seems to recover slower than my wife. She seems to just pull more back in faster than I can generate." He motioned to the lady sitting next to him.

    "Never really measured that myself." Melissa shrugged.

    Danny shook his head. "Me either."

    "Slackers." I grinned to take the sting out of the comment. "However, what I do know is that cycling external energy becomes harder once you''re over the earth''s breakthrough level. Correct, you two?" I pointed to the others.

    "Yes ma''am."

    I nodded my agreement. "Internal, I don''t have that issue, or at least haven''t so far. I''ve been as far as four breakthroughs above earth level and my energy doesn''t ''get thinner'' or ''not fill as deeply'' as I''ve heard complaints."

    "Now, what happens with that energy in breakthroughs. According to Ash, the energy is pretty jumbled when it comes from your dantian and flows through the first breakthrough. For Ash it primarily starts to balance out into the elements of the earth''s breakthroughs, does it do the same for you all? Fire, Earth, Air, Water? Wood very recently?" I paused and took in the uncertain looks. "Take a few moments to look at your energy. If you can''t tell, that''s fine."

    Three different cyclings picked up as I watched them all pull harder at the energy; I then looked at Danny and Melissa and caught Will''s eye as well. "It doesn''t seem to me we have anything that really happens with us in the first breakthrough. Unless any of you have a different experience?"

    "Nope." "No." "Not that I''ve even tried, Ms. Firen." That last comment from Will.

    "Alright. We''ll give our other three a few more minutes before I move on then." I nodded to the still cycling others. Karen had started cycling too but had managed to keep her attention more on me.

    "The elements are fairly even here, Nicole. It''s hard to say it balances when it''s not super unbalanced with what I''m cycling it in." Karen said after a moment. "Unorganized after being cycled together, but nothing really more than the rest. And yes, all five."

    "Alright then." I nodded. It made sense, and we could probably test the actual balancing in the forest or somewhere else.

    Once the others had more or less the same grasp on the concept, I continued. "Now we get to what Ash does with his Imbue the Flame technique, and what I hope can be done with any of the elements you''re cycling." Ash rolled his eyes, but my other external cultivators were paying close attention. "As part of the technique, Ash overflows just the fire portion of his energy out his breakthrough and into a flame."

    "You''re about a quarter right." Ash interrupted me.

    I paused and took a half step back. "Go for it."

    Ash''s wheelchair didn''t really allow for him to easily move forward without getting the table out of the way, but after a moment we''d adjusted.

    "I cycle and push the fire portion of my energy into my breakthrough specifically faster than the rest of it. Then overflow. The overflow is then fire, which I then use on a flame." Ash pulled out his lighter and clicked it. "Damn, burned all the fuel. But yeah, more fire in the breakthrough than anything else and I get fire specific energy when I overflow, rather than a little bit of everything."

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    "I heard you talking about trying second and third breakthroughs." One of the guys spoke up. "What''s the difference?"

    "How much fire I can get and how long I can keep the fire going." Ash answered. "Energy going into my second breakthrough is still a lot more tangled together than it is going into my third, which means I can''t get nearly the same amount split out to overflow. And even then, using my second breakthrough I''m skipping out on the extra pool of energy that is the third."

    He nodded, thinking for a moment. "Huh, so at four I''d have even more time and maybe a better flame? Or water, or whatever?"

    "You still have to do something with it." Ash answered. "It took me days to learn to adjust the heat of the flame and it''s size." He clicked the lighter again. "And it still uses fuel, so no playing firebender. At least so far."

    "You could pull off a Colonel Mustang though." Will piped up and got a couple of curious looks and a fond sigh from his wife. "Ah, Full Metal Alchemist. He used fire sparks to create really huge fires."

    "Huh, not something I thought about." Ash looked at the lighter and sparked it a few times as he cycled. "Doesn''t work with what I normally try with my technique though."

    "How about us?" Will asked. "I''m not cycling in elements and don''t naturally have a fire or lightning to play with." He motioned to Danny and Melissa.

    I nodded. "As far as I can tell, we instead refine what we have. Starting at my second breakthrough, parts of my energy get more refined with each breakthrough it passes through. My thought is to take some of that refined energy and see what I can get out of it. Instead of it just being my energy, can I push the refinement to fire? Or metal?"

    "Which I do not recommend anyone explicitly trying tonight." Danny called, standing up. "Ash said it took him days to get the fire overflow and then days more figuring out how to explicitly imbue the flame. And just because you have a good idea," he nodded to Will, "obviously doesn''t mean it worked out immediately even for Ash who already had fire."

    "Unfortunately, Danny''s right. While I would love for all of us to walk out of here with a new technique tonight, it''s not going to happen." I looked at a clock hung on the wall. "It''s already pushing seven. We''ll get this cleaned up and posted to the Seeker site for everyone."

    "I''ll even put up a bounty." Danny added, drawing looks. "A once per person payment for anyone who can duplicate Ash''s technique themselves or come up with something new. It has to be something explainable either through Nicole and Ash''s overview today, or you have to be able to explain how it works if not."

    After we''d gotten everything cleaned up and mostly gone home, I caught up with Danny in his office. "What''s up with a bounty?"

    "Ash''s initiative to go learn his technique was one of the very few leads on that sort of thing that''s panned out. You''re putting up everything we learn for others, but we get very little back. Hell, I would have expected a few more things to come down to us solely from the military, but it''s all been supplies and materials."

    "I''ve got four different energy cycling plants including one with fire of all things, half a dozen critters that do the same, and Brent just provided us with how the geodes work." I argued. "That''s definitely something."

    Danny shook his head. "But until the geodes, nothing explicitly useful for us. A lot of things to study and make useful, but shouldn''t someone in the US military have come up with a technique or two? We''ve got nearly four hundred people in the Seekers, but most of them treat this as a new sort of gym membership. They come to us for improvement, they''re not dedicated to trying to create something new."

    I slumped down into Danny''s guest chair. "So, what, DARPA and the military are screwing us over? Couldn''t it just be they''re already doing a lot of other normal military stuff?"

    "I don''t think they''re screwing us over." Danny disagreed. "I just think we''re being left to our own devices until we explicitly need something or hit some other issue. If a soldier came up with a technique to make a bullet pierce someone at a high breakthrough level? We probably wouldn''t be told, short of finding out Barry finally got shot. And the military hasn''t got a lot of people just sitting around doing nothing. They''re out digging ditches."

    I laughed. "Digging ditches? Dad called that makework."

    Danny pulled something up and then turned his monitor towards me. It was a news story from near DC in a place called Newport News. "Army Corps of Engineers Continues to Work with Navy to Refloat Shipyard," I read off. Glancing through the article it was about the efforts to create locks to refloat the ships and get them out to sea again. There was a larger map in the article as well, with an outline of Virginia and a lot of extra land going east, with a line drawn to the water.

    "We basically lost the entire eastern seaboard''s access to water in the first breakthrough, remember? Everything that wasn''t already on the seas has been stranded on land until someone can get them back out to sea, sometimes a hundred miles or more. And everything that was still out there needs some sort of dock to get to, to unload. Miami and that area were the least affected from what I''ve read, so that''s basically become the eastern hub for the entire US." Danny explained. "I kinda think if we hadn''t been hit so hard by Barry and the Earth Liberation Front elves, we would have been completely left out of the military thing and just stayed with DARPA here."

    "Huh." I still had a hard time wrapping my head around it. Things had gotten a little more bare in Rolla and Leonard Wood, but nothing to that extent.

    "So unless we explicitly go looking to come up with a cultivation fix for a current problem, I think we''re basically being treated as a thinktank. Good ideas and things come out of us, and other people put them to use. Coming all the way back around to your original question, the bounty is there to get people to actually bring us things they''d rather keep to themselves so we can continue to do stuff and not have to reinvent everyone''s wheel. And you can quit trying to make nice with ELF. Or at least their more insane leadership."

    "The others talked to you about that, huh?"

    "Yeah."

 Interlude: A Second True Path

    Shang Haoran was a dutiful man of the government who played a minor role in the running of the coastal city of Xiamen. To him had been given the role of clerk with the Port Authority, assisting managing the trafficking of commercial ships coming from nearby Taiwan. It was, all in all, a well-paying job that he took pride in ensuring everything went smoothly.

    He had also been blessed with a beautiful wife and a both beautiful and precocious young daughter. At six years of age, little Xiu''s energy had driven both her parents to distraction but never anger.

    Father and daughter stood today at the airport, waiting on her mother to return from an unfortunate trip to visit her own parents. Her mother had passed suddenly and father was not taking it well. She had seen to her mother''s final requirements before cajoling her father into moving to Xiamen to be closer to his granddaughter.

    As the two stood waiting, plane in a holding pattern above, a presence overcame Haoran and Xiu, forcing the little girl to collapse and the father to kneel, holding himself over his daughter. Long moments passed as the earth shuddered from nearby impacts before it finally let up.

    Haoran stayed down for a moment, comforting his crying daughter before slowly standing. Picking up the little girl as he did so he had just begun to look around before something reverberated through his being.

    Rejoice mortals, for this Lei Zhaohui came to your world to conquer your Heavenly realm for his own. In finding none, I will take on the trouble of cultivating your world''s soul until the Heavenly realm is accessible. By the Rite of Ragnarok, should one of your own stand in my way when your Heaven realm matures, I will stand aside defeated in my challenge. Should none be there, your Heaven will bow to me.

    You may address my august presence at any time, and I will answer to the strength of your world''s soul.

    Haoran understood the words, but not the reasoning behind them. Shortly thereafter, alarms began going off.

    ~~~

    Xiu was inconsolable, not understanding why her mother did not come back on the plane. Why her father had to talk to many people and not taking her to lunch with mother as promised. Why dinner ended up being late with mother still not there, as father finally broke down crying and apologizing to her.

    Haoran was furious, a rage that felt so black he almost felt lost in it. His wife''s plane had crashed and the only reason he knew what little he did was having been in the airport when her plane had nose dived from the sky. Whatever this Zhaohui monster was, it needed to die. The only thing that pulled him back from the edges of his rage and grief was the fact that his daughter needed him, for if he was gone she would have no one.

    ~~~

    Haoran bowed his head before the picture of his wife. There would be no body to bury, the destruction of the plane too great to recover any bodies, much less survivors.

    The only consolation the Party had been able to offer was one week to get his affairs and himself back together. Even then he was urged to cut it short if possible, because seaborne cargo and passengers were going to start taking an even larger importance now that planes were driving fear into the hearts of everyone.

    His contacts locally had told him every recovered blackbox had shown navigation shattering and going offline. Physical measurements of the equipment showed the pilots pushing the planes down.

    "May you and the world''s soul rot for all eternity for what you did to my wife." He addressed the presence that pervaded everything now.

    Your world''s soul has not even lit its dantian. It remains as mortal as you and your people.

    He knew what a dantian was supposed to be, had studied literature and history in college. But even if he knew more, he would not touch anything to do with the creature that had stolen his wife from him.

    "Father, where''s Mother?" Xiu''s voice reached him and Haoran swallowed back his anger. He would be strong for his little girl. She needed her happy Father to guard her against the world.

    ~~~

    It was only a few weeks later that Haoran''s world changed once more. He had barely been able to keep his rage and grief in check to make it through each day at work, the only peace when he was at home ensuring Xiu was as happy as she could be. The nights of their both crying was lessening, but leaving an empty hole in both their lives.

    "Haoran, did you see the idiot this morning?" was asked of him, a co-worker looking into his little office. "Someone was parkouring off the buildings and cars!"

    "Then I hope someone managed to get his citizen ID and report him. I imagine the hit to his social credit will cause him to quit."

    "No, no. He was going nearly ten meters up one of the buildings then jumping between moving cars! Though, he apparently mistimed a jump because he ended up getting plowed into. No need to worry about his social credit when he''s in the hospital. Or possibly dead."

    It was the first instance of someone doing a superhuman feat, but would not be the last.

    ~~~

    Even the introduction of a massive penalty to their social credit for ''inappropriate use of superhuman prowess'' only slowed the tide of madness that seemed to befall random people in Xiamen.

    People that insisted the lore that was the dantian was wrong, there needed not be a golden core or compressing of spiritual energy from the world into one''s self. The world had no spiritual energy, you only needed to find that feathery touch in yourself and draw on it to gain the power spoken of.

    The stories did not match perfectly with the modern examples, but why would they? Thousands of years of stories would shift a telling and there was no guarantee that the stories held but a tiny kernel of truth anyways.

    Already conscriptions were being called for those whose social credit fell too far due to their own outbursts to redeem themselves in any other way. Perhaps a few years serving would calm them down, was the general thought.

    "Father, Father! Mother''s here!" Xiu''s voice rose from her room and Haoran''s heart both leapt and froze. What madness now?

    Inside the little girl''s room sat a ghostly form of his wife in the chair she read from, hugging her daughter who was sobbing back into her lap.

    "My love!" she called, the ghostly woman somehow pulling her daughter up to her feet and she beckoned him to join the two.

    She was solid enough to barely touch, but did not speak as his wife did. He pulled Xiu away to her cries and frowns from the ghost, but Xiu knew her father did not mean harm.

    Further questions revealed the apparition knew many things of his daughter, some of him, and very few things of the woman who was his wife. Before long Haoran understood what he was speaking to. A six-year old''s view of her mother caught up in the insanity that was this world now. An illusion plucked from her mind and given form by the power she had somehow harnessed. Perhaps she was a true fragment of his wife, but not a hope he would expect.

    "My little girl, what you are doing is likely to hurt you and her." He waved to the apparition, not wanting to name it. "Let her go for now."

    "It only hurt for a moment in my prayer, Father."

    Xiu eventually agreed to only call upon the shade at home and to not speak of it in school. There would be too many problems for what appeared to be a ghost woman.

    Haoran pushed down the thread that offered him power, an outlet to his rage he felt against the alien. A release of his hidden hope, to complete the illusion of his wife and bring her back to both husband and daughter.

    ~~~

    A month more went by, having to deal with the secret of his daughter creating an image of her mother at home. Of every few days denying what was obviously a devilish offer of power inside of him, calling him to fill in the blanks that were in the ghost''s mannerisms and memories.

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    He was repeatedly lauded by Xiu''s teachers for helping his daughter through the worst of times as she calmed in school, almost returning to the happy girl she had been previously.

    The laurels heaped on him counteracted the swears he was getting from those he worked with, as his rage, anger, and sorrow threatened to overwhelm him and boil out onto his coworkers, until one day as his daughter spoke to the ghost again.

    The thread rose once more, offering him the ability to complete the image in front of him. His will was weakening, but he pushed it down once more, only for something to snap in place and he could feel his emotions swirl through him. Hate to the left of his heart and Hope to the right, compressing into a ball that overflowed with his emotion and energy. It left him feeling drained, until the unwanted presence of Zhaohui focused once on him, unbidden.

    You are the first of your kind to take the true path, denying your soul''s offer to attain a dantian of your own.

    ~~~

    The little ball of energetic emotion spilled itself easily with nothing to catch. It''s actions vaguely resembled the stories, but was still wrong. And how could he trust the alien''s words either way. Did gaining a dantian mean he denied his own soul for something he truly could have had? For the energy that flowed from him now was not enough to fill the apparition his daughter could call.

    Doing so made the apparition flicker with new emotion, but also spilled the hate in himself into his daughter and he could not stand to see that emotion bloom on his little Xiu coupled with a complete non-understanding of where that feeling came from.

    If this was all he had, he would have to master himself and it so he didn''t hurt his daughter.

    ~~~

    One meridian was enough to let him hold the energy that his emotions created in his dantian, but not separate the individual emotions out. The second did let him do so, and at that point he was happy because he could then provide additional emotion into the apparition Xiu could call upon without harming Xiu herself.

    Xiu had improved her own ability by leaps and bounds, multiple times increasing the ability of the ghost to where he was beginning to believe his daughter had managed to call her back. It just took Xiu long enough to call all of her back, for the ghost could now speak of things she had shared with only him.

    And the ability to impart emotion worked wonders at his job, smoothing tempers and bringing others around to the correct way of thinking much easier than hours of arguments.

    He could not let go of the hate that drove him, but found placating it with hope becoming easier.

    ~~~

    B????????????????r???????????????e????????a?????????t??????????????????h???????????????e??????????????

    Xiu choked and it was all he could do to not choke himself, but Zhaohui''s command only demanded of him what he''d already done. The vision of his wife vanished in his daughter''s distress and he could only pray for she could not hear his screams.

    [Breathe]

    Energy flowed around him, not just from him. But more importantly, his daughter breathed.

    He would hold her through the night, not sure what he could do if the alien did that again. Hate that he might have begun to let go cycled once more, driving him.

    ~~~

    "By order of the Party of China, all government officials are to follow the steps outlined, unless you have already created a dantian. Failure to do so within the next three days will be grounds for termination from your job, regardless of position."

    The outlined steps were obviously stripped from a US document, whoever the Firen woman was, for it had that certain cadence of translation that was someone quickly doing something instead of doing it well.

    The described steps and results matched fairly well with the idea of a dantian, better than his own did or what Xiu''s ability was. It was deeper into the document itself that fear found root in his heart, for the description of what happened to several of those who failed to create a dantian of themselves could do to themselves with their untempered power. And Xiu had multiple times increased her ability.

    ~~~

    "Xiu, send your mother''s spirit away for a moment. I need you to do something." Haoran picked up his daughter, holding her tightly for a moment.

    The ghost of his wife smiled for a moment before vanishing into nothing.

    Haoran quietly explained to Xiu that the way she was calling her mother''s spirit was hurting her. "It will take us a little while to get you back to calling upon her once more, but it will be safer."

    Haoran feared his little girl had made too many strides forward in her ability, what the American girl called breakthroughs. And so with a pained heart, he gave Xiu directions to create a dantian that was not what Zhaohui had called the true path. As the little ball of energy formed, sealing off whatever hole had been created in her, Haoran held back tears. Hope did not die, but the hate that drove his cycling grew to include himself.

    ~~~

    He had sent himself past the third meridian and was quietly working with Xiu for her first attempt when the land heaved.

    Earthquakes as the very earth split apart, fire rising and quenching the sea around Xiamen. Their entire world thrown into chaos as what once was a prosperous port city became landlocked and shattered. Haoran had survived and found Xiu safe within a few hours, but the city itself became hysterical.

    Martial law was easily declared by the 73rd? Group Army to restore order, but Haoran spent several days talking his way up the chain of command so he could know how best to help. He was assisted in that very few in the chain of command were those of a self dantian and even fewer, if any, understood the path Haoran had.

    For the Party and China, the 73rd? would cross the now dry Taiwan Strait to secure a new route. The fact that the route now had nearly sixty extra miles than it should was little issue, save the necessary fuel for the tanks.

    Haoran would stand next to the general during the Taiwanese surrender, speaking to those who held strife against China in their hearts. There were a few who had already cleansed a meridian or two of self and they were marked out when they proved resistant to Haoran''s pleas for peace with China.

    ~~~

    You have a gift best used to serve the Party in greater locations.

    We will help you ensure your daughter will be taken care of, provided with the best of care.

    Come, accept your elevation in the eyes of the Party.

    Haoran did not know if it was fear of someone growing as powerful as the alien, or solely the stories that told of men who had no equal that they wished to use him with Xiu held hostage to his good behavior.

    He objected through the man sent to bring him to Shanghai and fled. The land that was the Taiwan Straight was already being referred to as the Shimmerlands, for one could easily get lost among the rocks and spires and move in directions that did not show on maps. There were already those from Taiwan who had chosen to not obey China''s edicts, and he would find himself among them and use them.

    The rains would only make it easier for Xiu to draw air while he researched. No story of ancient China or others could explain why the meridians were in odd locations, but the Firen girl was quite helpful in posting every nattering thought and finding to make use of. Berift of government support as he was now, he could not afford to fall behind.

    He would breach Heaven to reclaim his wife, the mother of his little Xiu.

 Chapter 55

    June 13th?

    I assumed that since it took Ash two days to figure out how to pull fire from his own energy, it''d take me a couple of days as well to at least get a handle on it. With four more breakthroughs, I''d at least have a greater set of different comparisons to make with that refinement, if nothing else.

    Four days later I was ready to start pulling my hair out if it weren''t for the fact that I liked my hair. My damn energy didn''t want to split apart into elements, refine itself into an element, or basically be anything but a flow of energy that I could now with a high degree of certainty point out which parts were refined in each breakthrough.

    Even Will had come in and claimed a bounty late last night for showing Danny he could pull the tiniest bit of metal energy from his second breakthrough, although he didn''t get even ten percent of what he was overflowing normally.

    What was interesting about those refined bits of my own energy though was overflowing it into Feathersteps made it to where I could feasibly wallrun. Which had been a fun two hour diversion yesterday, but wasn''t an element.

    I bounced a little on my feet dragging my thoughts back to the present as I heard my name called.

    Sergeant Collins was standing on the practice mat in front of the class. He''d apparently wasted little time getting up to his third breakthrough, but then again most of the rest of the class felt at the same level. "Alright Ms. Firen. As part of showing me why you need to learn to not hold back, I''d like the rest of the class to learn what the difference is when you''re not holding back." He motioned me forwards.

    I frowned but stepped up. "I thought you''d explicitly said you didn''t want me to permanently injure someone?"

    He nodded. "And I still don''t. I want you to fully defend yourself to your absolute best ability but not strike back. You''ll be defending against me."

    "Yes sir." I sighed slightly to myself. I checked to make sure my hair was pinned correctly before taking a defensive stance as the rest of the class took several steps backwards themselves.

    I wasn''t sure if Sergeant Collins was trying to prove something to me or to the class, but he was already cycling heavily as he took his own stance.

    The hardest thing I''d had to train, and something I was still actively trying to do so, was my reaction speed. Cycling energy through my body into basic overflow, I easily became stronger and faster than what the passive cycling gave me. The extra strength and speed didn''t automatically mean I could react to someone else by the same magnitude I got stronger, however. Reflex testing showed I was scraping the fastest possible human reaction times, but I still could move faster than I could really adjust for, which led to what Collins had called me overcommitting.

    Dedicating the first five breakthroughs worth of my energy to overflow left me with just under half my total flow free for Feathersteps but was still more than twice Sergeant Collins was able to bring fully to bear. I only wished I''d been able to figure out another technique as well.

    Collins'' eyes widened before he nodded, then moved forward. I watched as a kick lashed out from the side, aiming into my chest. Prior training stated I should only block if I had no other choice, otherwise dodge it. A guy that outweighed me in eighty pounds of muscle would easily knock me around otherwise. It would be easy to take two steps backwards and let the kick fly past.

    I overflowed a bit of that refinement back into myself and Featherstepped backwards in a hop. Collins'' leg passed through the spot I''d been standing, but at that point I was nearly six feet away, foot back to balance myself.

    Collins brought his leg back down and looked at me for a short moment before rushing forward again, this time pushing forward with jabs and punches, nothing with long windup times. I blocked a punch that turned into an attempt to elbow me in the gut, which required a little bit of of extra movement again to dodge.

    A grab and tug on my wrist to hyper-extend my arm was resisted with a similar tug back and Collins abandoned that attack to continue on. I dodged left to avoid a throat strike, a fist going over my shoulder by several inches.

    I gave ground around the room, ensuring I defended myself from any actual hits for a few minutes before the sergeant stopped, but neither of us was breathing hard.

    "Even though you''re four breakthroughs above me, skill is still winning out against you, Ms. Firen. There were any number of points you could have countered me and did not take advantage of it."

    "Counter attacks aren''t a defense though and you said to not strike back?" I asked. "You''re not going to complain if you end up hurt from me doing that, are you?"

    "The difference between an I-0 and an I-3 is fairly large but is feasible to overcome through skill." He answered. "There''s only one more than that different between us. You''re welcome to use counters, I apologize for not defining that better."

    "Alright. Again then please?" I asked.

    I could have presented a wall. At this point I was fairly certain I could flat out no-sell the attacks without flinching, but that both felt wrong and I didn''t want to block something and find out I wasn''t completely right.

    Instead, the first attack Collins threw I sidestepped and lashed out to grab his wrist. My overcommitting issue arose as I literally knocked his arm away before I could quite close my hand around him, but the blow to his wrist still pushed him into a spin.

    He recovered and continued the spin under his own control, angling low to step underneath my arm likely to grab me from behind, then dive forward to pin me.

    I instead Featherstepped forward two steps leaving him hugging air as I turned around, my hair apparently now unpinned as it snapped in the air from my movement with the sergeant holding my hair tie and nothing else. "I can''t learn any skills if I can literally walk away from you by not holding back. But I need skill for in case I run into more people that are around my level."

    I looked around the open gym, seeing the additional mats piled up against a wall. I then stepped back at Collins, getting into his face. He started reacting but I''d already been moving, balling my hand up in his shirt before spinning and throwing him at the mats while letting my energy flow off of me. The energy seemed to almost streamline the motion of flinging the sergeant.

    Collins flew thirty or so feet without arcing, smashing into the mats and rolling off, then he staggered up to his feet.

    "That was a fairly good toss on my part, but I definitely didn''t whip you around and throw you with everything I could." I paused, assessing the energy I''d used. It''d almost resonated with the act of throwing Collins. Weird, need to remember that.

    He shook his head before focusing on me. "You''re still tied to physics, so if someone threw you the same would happen. But getting hold of you would definitely be the problem if you''re not holding back. I begin to see the problem."

    He turned to the class. "So today''s lesson is the difficulty in overcoming a major difference in power between breakthroughs. I had thought to make the point that it''s still possible but the opposite point appears to have been made for me."

    "If you had a technique or something, you likely could have done better." I disagreed. "Both times I moved the hell away from you, I used Feathersteps to reduce my weight and move faster, which I know has been offered to anyone who wants to learn. You could have similarly followed me with the technique. Or if you used something more offensive it might be enough to overcome the general defense I was using."

    "Point taken." Collins answered me back with a sigh, but I was watching the class to see if anyone might offer up knowing a technique of their own. There were some interesting looks on faces, but no one explicitly spoke up and I sighed myself.

    "Alright, we''ll move onto the next part of today''s lesson, I''d like to have a few volunteers to pressure Ms. Firen while she is defending."

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    "This is going to turn into how many five year olds can you take in a fight." I complained. "How is this supposed to be helping me understand what not holding back is like?"

    "I''d assumed if you can be pressured enough you can at least learn to fully utilize your defense. Then you can work yourself up to offense while I try to find someone at least at I-5, but that''s proving quite difficult."

    I grumbled to myself, looking around before spotting the training dummies. "Sure, whatever. One test first though please." I went over and grabbed two of the human weight and sized dummies, carrying them back over. "Someone I-3, please go ahead and throw this at a wall as hard as you can."

    Collins gave me a look, but motioned to one of the guys. He easily picked the dummy up, hefting it and throwing it while cycling. It hit against the nearby wall and fairly well broke apart, the seams on it bursting and sand splattering.

    There were some assessing looks at the dummy. "I''m fairly certain those are generally tougher than someone who hasn''t even lit their dantian yet, or maybe an I-0." I spoke up.

    "Now here''s my throw." I cycled deeper than I had when I threw Sergeant Collins, digging at least as deep as when I threw Barry. Holding onto the dummy by the waist so I wouldn''t rip off an arm, I spun in a circle once to wind up a bit before letting go. Again, the motion of doing so seemed to echo with my energy.

    The dummy rocketed through the air, crashing into the mats I''d previously thrown Collins into. The impact blasted away several of the mats and the dummy pinned one of the mats to the wall before the dummy exploded into a sand cloud and pieces of leather. After a moment the sand cloud fell and the mat was obviously torn through.

    Now I was getting the assessing looks and a little fear. I sighed at the fear. "And that''s my throw. Now, granted. You''re all stronger and tougher than the dummy is, but I also can put more power behind my throw than what I did with Sergeant Collins. So, if I managed to snag one of you and throw you as hard as I could, you''d probably break the wall. Hopefully without breaking yourself, but I don''t know that. I threw a guy at I-5 with a defensive technique into a huge tree and cratered the tree, but he more or less shrugged it off."

    Collins made a face, looking at the exploded dummy. "Point made."

    "My point, actually, is each breakthrough is giving more energy than the last. You have several more times the energy than an I-1. I have several times your energy, but that''s more like thirty times an I-1. You''re all within a breakthrough of each other, so you guys don''t see the strength you''re throwing around when compared to people lower than you. I doubt I''m actually thirty times stronger than someone just getting started, but..."

    "So how much are you holding back when you spar?" Someone in the class asked, and I looked at Sergeant Collins in question.

    He nodded to me.

    I sighed again, feeling a little discouraged. "Alright, whatever. Show and tell time. Come up here please, since I''m apparently not going to get to any good training myself today."

    "I have a staff trainer for you afterwards." Collins said and I perked up. "I can at least get that much right."

    I grinned as the other guy came up and nodded to him. "Three, right?"

    "Yes ma''am." He nodded as well.

    I put my hands up as if I were holding target bags, overflowing my energy through my body and specifically to them. "Work your way up, but hit my hands with everything you want."

    I took a moment for him to take me seriously and zero in on striking my palms, but each time he hit I felt a little bit of pushback at my energy as I negated the additional pressure he was striking with and then added a little more to hold myself steady. It slowly went up as I stood there basically ignoring his punches, not even having to adjust my arms. Finally, he threw a hilariously telegraphed haymaker, trying to step through my arm to at least make me move. I concentrated specifically for that one.

    "Fuck, fuck." He fell back holding his shoulder after failing to move my arm again. "About dislocated my shoulder on the sudden stop. Holy hell."

    "I did at least brace better for that one." I offered him and then looked to the class and Collins. Wasn''t sure if I needed to, but he did give me plenty of time to do so.

    ~~~

    I was honestly pleased with the nearly six foot length of tungsten carbide I''d been given for a bo staff, the extra piece of it showing I could grip the thing well enough to hold without worrying I''d put grip marks into it. The lesson was interesting as well, even if I''d just started with stances and not whacking myself.

    But now I was back at the house thinking on my energy. Specifically overflowing the refined parts had made Feathersteps easier to use and even opened the technique up a little. I''d have to check with Melissa or Ash to see if they could see a difference as well.

    But the energy seemed to also instinctively help in throwing Collins and then the dummy. And something had ''thrown'' the car in the fight with Barry. I muddled through my thoughts, trying to chase down something with it.

    "Why are you always staring off into nothing on a roof, somewhere?" Melissa''s voice asked from behind me and I turned to see her standing there, back from her own Combatives class. The daggers Ash had made were in sheathes on her sides, apparently selected as her weapon of choice. I''d stick with something with a little more range myself.

    "Because it''s usually peaceful up here." I poked back at her, before patting the shingles. "Grab a seat though, how goes it?"

    "Fairly well. Sergeant Collins had me put wax on the edges of the daggers before he''d start teaching me to use them. He looked a little beat up, you help with that?" She looked at the length of metal across my lap.

    "Yeah, but not with this." I relayed the earlier lesson and Melissa winced.

    "I was going to volunteer if you needed someone to spar with, but even at my level it probably wouldn''t be enough, would it?"

    "You''d be better than others right now, but yeah." I said slowly. "Hey, did you figure out anything better with your energy? I wanted to run something by you."

    "It''s more a refined electricity for me, not just a refinement in general." Melissa shook her head. "I get what feels like a stronger current, or maybe a higher difference in voltage. It does help on the daggers, it channels well through them. Not sure what it''d do to someone." She paused. "Doing it too long makes my energy in general feel a little weaker though, until I cycle enough to bring it back up."

    "Try it with Feathersteps. I don''t want to bias you, but I was able to do something a little more with my energy that way."

    As Melissa started to play with that, I considered. Melissa''s refinement was more electrical. But Will was able to get metal, and I knew he wasn''t metal energy like Melissa or Danny were specific elements. But since I wasn''t getting metal or anything, did I have a specific energy as well? Something to do with throwing?

    "Nothing different that I can tell?" Melissa called and I looked at her, standing on the gutter as she walked back and forth.

    "Try running up and down the wall." I replied, offering what I''d discovered.

    As Melissa fell on her face trying to attach to the wall, I narrowed my eyes. It''d been almost obvious to me when I used the energy to try moving up the wall. Did it mean something different for me?

    Overflowing the energy I jogged down the wall of the house in a few steps, hair falling downwards. I hopped off the wall and aligned myself back to the ground. "No?"

    "Not in the least." Melissa griped. "That looks like fun too."

    Movement or motion as my energy type then? I jogged back up the wall and stopped halfway, only for my feet to immediately slip as the vertical wall quit being a viable surface and I fell off, barely catching myself in time to not eat a face full of dirt.

    "Huh."

 Chapter 56

    June 22nd?

    "Hey Nicole, you''ve got mail."

    I looked up from the computer and saw Ash standing there. He wasn''t working out yet, but was already able to fully put his own weight on his leg, no crutches needed. He held up an envelope and tossed it at me.

    I caught the mail and closed down the report I was reading, giving the envelope a puzzled look. "I think this is the first time I''ve gotten mail here addressed to me specifically. Normally people just email me."

    "Secret admirer?" Ash laughed as he sat down in a chair.

    I rolled my eyes. "Right." The envelope contained a single piece of folded paper and as I unfolded it, I noticed it was handwritten.

    Nicole,

    On your website you have a bounty put up for any and all techniques or abilities. While I assume you''re probably keeping the dangerous stuff for yourself, I do have something I can share that seems to be pretty basic but isn''t listed on your site. Maybe it''s something you thought obvious?

    As for the bounty, I''d like to trade it for assistance for my brother who is up in your area. The last couple of times I talked to him, he looked like shit and I suspect it''s something energy related, considering he got called up by that idiotic group he''s a member of. I''ll include his mobile number, but I''m going to have to trust how honest you''ve been on the forums and your website that you''ll help and not just take this stuff and run with it.

    The technique is an extension of overflow cycling. I think it''s doable with any level of breakthroughs, but it''s probably not useful at first because it needs a decent flow of energy.

    Overflow cycling makes you stronger. But you can push that overflow off of yourself and into clothes or something you''re holding. It makes those things stronger and tougher, just like the overflow makes you stronger. Clothes and things can''t hold nearly the overflow though, so it''s not like you can use a cardboard tube as a sword and expect it to hold up. But I was able to use it on a branch to pin the head of a python capable of eating people. Explicitly a branch from the tree the snake had just knocked over, so yeah.

    The overflowed strength is hard to get to leave your body at first, because the energy will just overflow off without taking the strength too if you''re not really focused on it. Once you get the hang of it though, it''s not hard to reproduce.

    My brother can use the technique as well, if that helps to get you to help him. His name is Zach Ivers, here''s his number.

    Thank you ahead of time.

    Arthur Ivers

    -Guild of Extraordinary Floridamen

    I chuckled at the tagline, but there was a lot to unpack in the letter.

    "Everything good?" Ash asked.

    "Danny''s bounty working, but I''m more worried about the rest of the stuff in here." I offered it to Ash who took it and read for a moment.

    Ash frowned. "Energy related and an idiotic group here? Sounds like ELF. But didn''t Barry and Joe come from California?"

    "Doesn''t mean they didn''t get others in from elsewhere." I looked at the envelope again, postmarked the fourteenth and from Tampa. "A week old, but still a few days after Danny posted that bounty up." I tapped the desk for a moment, thinking. "About a month ago, I had a run-in with a street preacher type dude named Zach that said he was from ELF. He seemed fine then."

    "Going to call? I mean, worst case scenario is this technique is crap and it''s just someone wanting to scream at you." Ash looked at the letter again. "Though man eating snakes in Florida sounds like there''s a hidden forest in the Everglades."

    "Or a hidden swamp." I smiled a bit. "Can''t hurt, especially if we call first before even attempting the technique. If it''s ELF and they''re trying to make me hurt myself, I''d rather call and find that out."

    "Huh, didn''t think of that." Ash frowned at the letter. "Good point."

    I punched in the number and called, leaving it on speaker.

    After a couple of rings, the other end picked up. "Hello?" a confused voice asked. The connected screen didn''t pop up with video, so it might have actually been a real cell phone instead of a tablet or other camera call.  Or a headset.

    "Zach Ivers? Your brother Arthur gave me this number."

    "Why?" The voice was suddenly much less confused and more suspicious.

    I took a breath. "Because he thinks you''re having energy related issues and he wanted to sell me on trying to help you. You''re ELF, aren''t you? This is Nicole Firen."

    There was a nearly sobbing cackle that came over the phone. "So he got someone that''s directly opposed to us to call me? He wants me to accept alien energy just to do better? I''m not doing that bad, am I?"

    "No clue." I sighed. "Your brother gave me a directions on overflowing into clothes and such as basically a bribe to try to help you."

    There was a long pause on the other side of the call. "Arthur thinks so, apparently. I''m not going to come to your building, but for my brother''s sake I''ll meet you somewhere public."

    I traded looks with Ash. "How about the diner on 8th??"

    ~~~

    The still feeling of someone not actually cycling their energy in the slightest was what led me right to the guy when I stepped into the diner. I didn''t look around, but did notice Ash and Karen having a late breakfast a bit away, having gotten here earlier.

    There were several other people with dantians and even a breakthrough here and there as well, but only one that wasn''t cycling.

    Zach looked severely strained as I walked up to the table, his eyes snapping to me. "Why do so few others recognize what all your energy is doing?" He muttered to himself.

    Up close, his own energy felt even more awkward than just not cycling, like something was off balance in it. He was dressed comfortably enough, though his hair seemed a lot more unkempt than I vaguely recalled it being last time I''d seen him.

    "What''s up?" I asked, taking the chair on the opposite side of the table.

    Zach was quiet and I ordered water while waiting for him to speak up. After a few minutes of him being quiet, he finally started. "Mr. McDonald got into a fight a couple of weeks ago and Joe died. He said he had to fight his way out of dozens of powerful spiders and ended up stopping you from polluting an untouched part of the Earth." He paused.

    "Not the way I recall that fight going but I ended up leaving that hidden forest, so sure, whatever." I confirmed.

    "Well, he tapped us out of sources refilling himself. Every broken soul we still had left, the handful of plants we''d been trying to grow to get natural energy. Consumed it all. It didn''t fill him up, but he left after that saying he''d be back with replacements." Zach looked down again as the water showed up.

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    "And?" I prompted.

    Zach gave out a pained half sob. "He came back with a massive spider several days later, all the legs cut off. Just it''s body was bigger than a basketball and had all sorts of wood energy. He wanted to use it''s spawn as a source of energy. It ended up dead later that night, but he''d spent a lot of his energy getting it and we didn''t have anything else."

    Zach gave me a look that actually sent a thrill of fear down my spine. "Did you know people can be used as a source of energy? He knew how to tap half a dozen of us and ripped the earth energy out of us. Treated our energy just like another broken soul."

    I had to quickly swallow bile back at the thought of that. I looked Zach over but from what I could see, I didn''t see how someone would just eat his energy like one of the geodes. Knowing that though, I could faintly tell the energy he had was definitely missing earth.

    "Oh my god. What the hell?" I whispered.

    "So now you know, yes, I have problems. Congratulations, you''re going to win the fight against ELF because Mr. McDonald has apparently gone off the deep end trying to find something wherever that untouched earth is at."

    I would have thought the military was still guarding that spot in the forest, but that was something else. "Leave ELF." I offered Zach as a stupid easy answer. "Hell, cycle energy to replace what got yanked from you."

    "Cycling energy is not the answer, it''s only when you stop cycling do you see and feel the energy of the alien trying to choke the planet." Zach answered back with heat, getting us a few looks from the others in the diner. "And ELF has a purpose, even if it doesn''t seem like it."

    I sighed. "I don''t want the alien taking whatever Heaven ends up being either. Look, tell you what. I''ll pay for lunch and then we have plenty of geodes since the military is basically trying to collect them in bulk. I''ll give you enough geodes to fix whatever energy issue you have right now so you can show me the technique your brother wrote about, and I''ll give you some more as your bounty. That''s the only thing I''m going to be able to do for you, if you''re going to stick around that dangerous idiot."

    Zach looked fairly hopeful at that offer. "I can do that. But not at your building." He looked around. "You know, without Joe, Mr. McDonald is the only one really violently against you. The rest of us know you''re wrong but violence isn''t going to be the answer."

    I raised an eyebrow. "Good to know, but I''m not going to go look for him either. I''ll suggest again you all just leave ELF. Or at least his version of ELF."

    ~~~

    After lunch, I collected a few dozen geodes from storage and shoved them into a duffel, heading back out with Ash and Karen actually with me this time.

    Zach was waiting for us in Buehler Park and gave the three of us a wary look.

    "I want a couple of other people to watch the technique too. It''s going to be easier to learn and teach if multiple of us have seen it." I answered his unasked question. "Now, I''m thinking you''re still about second breakthrough, so getting you back up should be no more than four or five to start with?" I dug into the bag and came out with several of the smaller geodes and offered them over.

    "I''ve never had to fix whatever this is before, so I won''t even guess." Zach replied taking them. Zach then took the first geode and in a manner almost exactly like Brent had showed us, cracked it while his energy moved for the first time I''d seen. When he breathed the energy in however, he lost almost nothing as the energy flowed then stilled in him.

    "You know, random question." Karen spoke up. "Why water, wood, fire, earth, and metal in those things? If they formed during the first breakthrough, shouldn''t they be only fire and earth? Or if they were changing based on breakthroughs, why not be fire, earth, air, water, and wood?"

    Zach paused before breaking the second one. "I don''t know. I just know I''m taking in the planet''s energy to store it. Cycling it destroys parts of the power as the alien''s energy messes with it. It''s one of the major reasons we don''t cycle unless we''re using an ability."

    "I''m learning more about you all today than I have since Barry showed up." I mentioned offhand as Zach went through a second then a third geode. "Does that mean the balance of energies you''re holding is the same five in the geode?"

    Ash and Karen stared at him and he shifted uncomfortably. "Yeah, it is."

    "Huh." I replied.

    Zach pulled in the energy off a fourth geode and he finally no longer felt like something was missing from him, at least.

    Ash leaned over and whispered something to Karen, but I wasn''t close enough to catch what he said.

    "One more to top off, then I''ll show you the technique." Zach waved to a few tree branches he''d stacked up nearby.

    I shrugged and handed over another geode. Zach started pulling in the energy in that one as well, before he suddenly froze up and I felt his energy actually spasm and nearly tear as Zach tried to scream but couldn''t force the air out his lungs.

    "Shit, he''s having a seizure!" Ash jumped forward, grabbing the other man and holding tightly as he shook in place.

    Suddenly it felt as if something pierced through him, the energy already in his body crashing through the new tear and flushing completely out of his body. Zach went limp. "Ah. Ahm. I''m okay." He finally got out.

    "You just had a seizure or something, maybe an aneurism." Ash disagreed.

    Zach took a shuddering breath and shook Ash back. He then looked at me. "You of everyone here should recognize it. I''d finally gotten enough energy to open myself deeper to the Earth''s energy."

    "Dude, if that''s what you call a breakthrough, they''re not supposed to be anything like that. Hell, you''re empty again." Karen just stared at him.

    "Oh that''s right." Zach looked over to Karen. "When I went through my first breakthrough before ELF figured out what was going on, the alien''s energy did buoy me through that and tainted me even further."

    "Brent didn''t have a clean breakthrough before with these." I looked at the duffel of geodes and then back to Zach. "But it wasn''t anything like that. Are you sure you''re OK?"

    "Yeah." Zach stood back up. "But it used up all the energy to breakthrough. I hate to ask, but I''m going to need more before I can show you the technique."

    I tossed him the duffel. "Just don''t do that again."

    The technique ended up being exactly as described, fairly useful looking, and we sent Zach off with the rest of the geodes. None of us really wanted to deal with them for the moment.

    A few minutes after Zach left, Ash looked at me. "He feels exactly like one of those geodes. Like if I could figure out how to crack him, I could just pull that energy in."

    I was quiet, because I could feel how to crack his dantian. Enough pressure from my own energy against his non-cycling energy and it would be almost too easy.

 Chapter 57

    June 24th?

    Brent looked at me after I''d gone over the past couple of days with him, between getting several people started on trying to overflow that strength and how we''d come across the technique.

    "I''m reminded of the conversation we had less than two months ago." Brent rubbed his face. "About starting an arms race with a terrorist. But now you''re re-arming them too?"

    I blinked unbelievingly. "That''s what you get from all that?"

    "What else am I supposed to get?" Brent waved at the letter I''d brought to show him. "You were given free information. At worst, you should have just paid for that lunch and left. But you gave this Zach assistance, actually made him stronger, and sent him away with enough geodes to fix at least one other person!"

    "I applaud your decision to have someone else available in case it was a trap. But that''s about the end of any good decision making you were doing. Why didn''t you bring this to someone else so we could do some investigation first?"

    "Because of this." I tapped the letter. "¡­you''re probably keeping the dangerous stuff for yourself¡­ I''m not stupid. I know the military is probably testing that whole ''knock the energy away from people'' effect we figured out with Chief McInnis. And there''s probably thousands of military people at I-4 trying to get to I-5 that I don''t know about with military specific techniques that don''t involve us. Based off the information we''ve built and that''s probably why you asked for double time before we published anything again."

    I huffed. "I''m letting you know what I found out Barry is up to. And that I helped someone Barry had hurt and told him to get the hell out of there." Ash and Karen had agreed with me that what we''d felt from Zach didn''t need to be explicitly called out, only that Barry had apparently stolen some of their energy because they were out of geodes.

    We actually were now keeping a dangerous secret to ourselves, because I didn''t want to even suggest to anyone how it might work. Just telling Brent something was possible might get the military trying it outside where we were able to watch, but I wanted them to be aware it could happen.

    Stealing other people''s energy wasn''t something I wanted to see happen, at all.

    "So instead of focusing on the fact that I let someone walk with all of ten extra geodes, how about the fact that we now have a technique that people can use to make things stronger? It''s not Barry''s earth defense technique, but I bet it''s more widely applicable. And that we now know more on how ELF is doing their cultivation and why? Or how about giant man eating snakes in Florida that we know people are having to take care of themselves?"

    Brent shrugged at the accusation. "The gains may have been worth the risks and losses then. And I do know there is a sizable number of people right now attempting to get to I-5, yes. But I didn''t ask to delay publishing solely for that. I asked for people to test different variables. Less daily cycling but more time between. More daily cycling but only a single week before trying for their next breakthrough. Things that you need numbers to test, but the Seekers don''t have."

    "Solely." I repeated then sighed myself. "People suck."

    Brent gave me look. "It was never going to be like the movies, Nicole. Aliens shows up, everyone on Earth puts aside everything else to stop them. It probably wouldn''t even be like that even if we were directly attacked instead of what actually happened. People do suck, but we''re still here."

    "Quit destroying my faith in basic human goodness." I said drolly.

    "Sure, sure." Brent chuckled with a sad undertone. "I do have a couple of things I need to go over with you. That OK?"

    I nodded, coming back off the edge of the chair to instead sink into it.

    Brent took a moment. "It''s been over a month since you had a breakthrough. Even if you consider double time for getting two again, shouldn''t you be trying for your next one?"

    "I''ve been testing the waters there, so to speak." I hesitated. "It''s not going to be one or the other moving this time either, but I don''t think it''s going to be a double breakthrough again." I thought about that spot at my lower spine. "I think the two paths are going to merge again. I want to make sure I''m plenty ready for that." I gave a short laugh. "I''m honestly worried about how my energy will actually react to it."

    "Oh?" Brent looked interested.

    "Motion, or more appropriately, momentum." I answered. "Don''t know how that''s an element instead of, you know, fire, but that''s what mine is."

    I picked up a book from Brent''s desk and held it in an open palm. I overflowed that refined energy specifically into both of my palms and held the empty hand up to Brent. "Here, punch."

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    "OK?" Brent leaned forward and punched into my hand. His fist stopped when he hit my palm and the book instead flew directly up. He blinked in confusion as I caught the book coming back down.

    "I have to provide at least as much energy as I''m being hit with, but I can basically be a Newton''s Cradle. If I Featherstep with it, I can keep feeding energy to ignore outside forces to keep moving. Again, as much energy as is affecting me though. And if I stop, all those forces come back." I set the book down.

    Brent looked dumbfounded. "That''s flat out amazing. I haven''t seen any reports on this? Can anyone else do this? Or even get your momentum type energy?"

    "I''ve been keeping it typed up privately, waiting to add it to your research stuff." I answered him. "Nothing to hide, but I assumed you wanted as much as we could put into the new paper. Electricity and fire haven''t added anything different to Feathersteps."

    "As for others, not yet. We''ve got so few people with a straight energy type that I''d be surprised if you could find someone else with mine. We know how to purposely shift someone from a neutral to a type, but I wouldn''t know where to find an external energy flow that was momentum."

    Brent got a thoughtful look. "Huh, unfortunate. Oh I see though. If your energy is merging in a breakthrough, you''re worried about what cycling will do afterwards when it''s in a loop?"

    "Yep."

    "I''m not going to be the one to tell you to do otherwise. It''s your energy." Brent nodded.

    "Thanks. And I''m still four breakthroughs above the earth too, so..." I paused and waited for a moment while Brent looked at me. "Sorry, accidentally tried to invoke Murphy but I don''t think he was listening. What else?"

    "Funny you mentioned McInnis and energy testing earlier. Goodfellow AFB actually reached out to me because they do want to test it with some volunteers. Chief McInnis did note your request to be involved but not the one doing it and Colonel Young is willing to grant it. They''re hoping for some non-lethal methods of stopping people with energy to be able to disseminate to the police."

    The non-lethal bit was probably a nod to me, but I wasn''t going to argue. Not with Brent at least. "When?"

    He didn''t bother pulling up a calendar. "Next week, they''re willing to bring people up here."

    "Sure." They''d do it regardless, but at least this way I''d get eyes on it as well.

    ~~~

    After the meeting I headed back to the house. I found Melissa practicing with her daggers again, trying the new overflow technique. "Any success?"

    "Eh." She slowed in the kata. "A bit. I can shift it around but getting it to actually flow onto my daggers with the energy isn''t happening yet."

    "Want to go check something out with me, Karen, and Ash? Or stay working on this?" I asked.

    Melissa paused. "What''s up?"

    "I want to go check out that hidden forest again."

    <hr>

    Spoiler: New Wiki Entries <input class="spoilerButton" type="button" value="Show">

    Techniques

    Feathersteps (Typed)

    Creator: Nicole Firen

    Has been taught to others:

    Energy Type: Passive

    Energy Use: Requires elementally based energy. Same costs as Feathersteps.

    Description: Using refined elemental energy, Feathersteps may be altered to do something different. Fire and electricity have had no noticeable effects. ''Momentum'' as an energy type allows wall running, but you must always be moving.

    Ivers'' Overflow

    Creators: Arthur and Zach Ivers

    Has been taught to others: Yes

    Energy Type: Passive

    Energy Use: At least the first breakthrough

    Description: Overflowing the strength provided by overflow cycling off of the body and onto clothes or held items. This technique requires practice and a more continuous flow of energy. Adds strength to items. Diminishing returns past approximately two breakthroughs worth of energy. Experimentation underway to determine ways to push this further.

    [Locked to Seekers until 7/20 or release of Breakthroughs Paper]

    Nicole''s Cradle

    Creator: Nicole Firen

    Has been taught to others: No

    Energy Type: Passive

    Energy Use: Variable

    Description: By applying momentum based energy to two or more parts of the body, user may echo force through their energy from one struck location to another, similar in action to the center ball of a Newton''s Cradle. Energy use varies, with minimum energy requirement being set by the force to be redirected.

 Chapter 58

    "So what''s in the backpacks?" Karen asked after she and Ash were picked up.

    "More rope, some snacks and MREs, a compass, radios. A couple of cameras and a few small empty containers." Ash had tossed in a three foot long sledgehammer and a machete next to my staff buried under the backpacks in question.

    "Adventurer''s pack. I think the ten foot pole is a few feet short though." Ash proved his nerd credentials.

    "Har har." I deadpanned as I got the jeep onto 72 for the drive.

    "What are you looking for out there anyways?" Karen continued after elbowing Ash. "I don''t think we could find a terrarium large enough for one of those spiders if that''s what you''re thinking."

    "You''d better not be hoping to get those spiders." Melissa said. "They''re bad enough small, but those things are big time creepy crawlers."

    I actually laughed this time. "No, I just want to get some information about it. The geodes we''ve got are mostly from California, which is the closest point of the first breakthrough. No one''s going to be going into the storm anytime soon, so these little forest areas are probably our best bet to find our own source of them."

    "You''re obviously not the first one to think of this." Ash shook his head. "I''m fairly certain you''re stealing this idea from ELF after what Zach told us."

    I shrugged while driving. "I''ve been curious about what else in in there since the first time we were there. An entire area, larger on the inside than on the outside? That''s worth exploring on its own. But yes, if ELF is trying to get things out of there, I want to know what they''re finding besides spiders."

    "Not to mention it lets us possibly have a source of energy related things that aren''t just provided by Brent." Karen added. "I''m all for it."

    "Also, how they''re getting things out." I finished. "There should be some sort of access control on it, right? I mean, any of us could easily jump a fence but still."

    "So, how would you keep someone around your level out of it then?" Melissa prompted me.

    "I''d...uhh..." I drew a blank on it. Thinking on the base defenses, there were miles of fencing that would be almost less than a hop to bypass as the only barrier. "Depending on exactly how big it is, yeah. I don''t think there''s much that could stop me because it''s not a building. You''d need someone at the same level and able to react to them fast enough to stop them."

    ~~~

    An hour later in Mark Twain National Forest I slowed the Jeep down, coming to a halt at the barrier blocking the turn off that would lead to the hidden forest a couple miles further. "Road Closed." I read off the barriers stretched across.

    A somewhat more obvious barrier was the convoy truck parked lengthwise across the road behind the sign barrier and the two men sitting on the tailgate with automatic rifles, both watching. Both were at third breakthroughs.

    One of them came over and I rolled the window down. He gave me an assessing, uneasy look before speaking. "Sorry, road''s closed for the foreseeable future due to training maneuvers."

    "Training maneuvers in the area of hidden forest?" I asked. "We were headed there ourselves to do some investigating." I pulled out my base ID and showed it to him. "We were here a couple of weeks ago when it was first found."

    He looked a little startled before taking the ID. "Give me a moment, please."

    As he walked away, Ash spoke up. "Huh, yours doesn''t have that green stripe. Why''d you get a military one instead of a contractor?"

    "Dunno." I watched as the guard handed the card over to the other, who scanned it with a small handheld reader then got on what looked like a radio. "It''s just what I was issued to get on base."

    "Mind if I see it when he gets back?" Ash asked.

    "Sure."

    We waited almost fifteen minutes more as I started to get a little nervous before the guard came back and held up my ID, comparing me to the picture before offering it back. "Do you need us to move the truck ma''am?"

    I looked at the signs of vehicles that had pulled through the grass to the side. "I think I can make it."

    "Yes ma''am. They''re expecting you." The guard made an aborted attempt at a salute before standing aside.

    After he stepped back I reversed the Jeep before pulling around the convoy truck and continuing on. I handed my ID over to Ash as requested.

    "Who the hell made you a SES four?" Ash asked after a moment. "You''re the civilian version of a general."

    "You know as much as I do. I''m a general?" I laughed to cover confusion. "How the hell did Brent do that?"

    "Civilian, so not a real general or in the military chain of command." Ash noted.

    I would have commented more, but had to slow down again as we reached our destination. There were nearly a dozen people out surrounding an eight foot chain-link fence that ran into the woods. A handful of trees were cut down to provide additional space between the fence and the woods with someone working on cutting down another on the far side of the road away from the fencing.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    Three of the people here felt at four breakthroughs while everyone else was at three. Definitely impressive.

    I pulled over next to several other vehicles at a trailer and we all got out.

    One of the men came over. Interestingly not one of the guys at I-4. "Good afternoon Ms. Firen, I''m Captain Walker. I have to admit, I wasn''t expecting to have an SES randomly show up." He eyed me and the others over for a moment. "Nor for an SES to be so young. I had to call in to actually confirm our equipment wasn''t broken, sorry for the delay."

    I looked at my military ID, noting the DARPA logo and the SES-4 marker on it along with a few other things. "I''ve got more questions for someone else, Captain Walker. To be honest, I didn''t know I was an SES." I got a look of utter confusion from the captain. "I''d say someone''s pulling my leg, but you said it was right."

    "I want to ask questions as well, but I think it''d be better if I didn''t right now after the call I had." The captain said. "If you''re here investigating, I''m sorry to say we don''t have a lot of info yet. We''ve been primarily involved with locking this thing down first."

    "We actually planned on going in, but I didn''t think we''d find all this." I waved towards the work going on. "It was just a couple of trucks and some guards last time."

    "Yes ma''am. It was decided a larger, more permanent presence was necessary after the men stationed here were nearly overrun by spiders coming out from the other side. The fence runs the perimeter of the effect and gives us enough time to react to anything coming from there if we''re close enough."

    "Close enough?" Ash asked.

    "The effect is an approximately two mile circle that we''re getting cameras set up recording the fence and occasional patrols." He turned and waved to the receding fence line going in both directions. "We''ve had spiders come out from multiple different edges and I''ve sent in men. There''s breakpoints in the effect line somewhere that end up sending you to different parts of where ever this is. Ends up out of radio range in some cases."

    "We were planning on sticking together." I noted. "Is there any issues with us going in?"

    The officer gave me a look. "I''m not going to gainsay you without a lot more to back it up, considering your strength. But I don''t have enough men to send a group with you and my command knows you''re here. If you''re willing to at least take one extra man with you, there''s not much I can do to stop you."

    I shrugged. "You can just tell me no and we''ll leave until I find the right person to get let in. I''m not going to force my way past you."

    "I have the strangest feeling when you go looking the right person is going to be you, ma''am." The captain shook his head. "Let me get one of my men."

    ~~~

    Our backpacks had been mostly deemed insufficient and were quickly replaced with several packs the military had on hand and we were introduced to SERE Specialist Hughes.

    Hughes was a heavily built, sandy haired guy that was one of the three people onsite with four breakthroughs, in Air Force camo. "Melee weapons?" He asked as he took us in. I''d retrieved my staff, Melissa had her sheathed daggers. Ash was carrying the sledgehammer like it was nothing and Karen looked vaguely uneasy with the machete Ash had handed her.

    Hughes had some sort of automatic rifle and probably plenty of extra ammo in his own pack.

    "We were expecting to have to fend off spiders, and it didn''t seem like a good idea to have to only use what was available. There likely wouldn''t be a car to tear apart this time." I answered his question.

    He nodded. "Sounds good. As your temporary military attach¨¦ however, I''ll still request that if anything happens you leave things to me."

    "I can probably take the hits from anything better than you can. How about we just work together if we find more spiders?"

    "Yes ma''am."

    ~~~

    When we stepped past the demarcation line onto the other side, I wasn''t surprised that there was more military presence. A few of the nearby trees had been knocked down as well to create a clearing and another convoy truck was parked in here with a few other people in uniform standing guard.

    Even still, the energy in this place felt cleaner even as wood surged in strength compared to the others. I looked up through the hole in the canopy created by the downed trees and saw blue skies and clouds, clearer skies that it was just a few steps away.

    Specialist Hughes waved to the guards on this side before motioning us forward. "How do you want to do this, ma''am?"

    "We were just going to pick a direction and walk."

    Hughes nodded. "Pick your direction then, ma''am. I suggest letting me take one side however so I have better lines of sight and you stay centered. If you''re going to end up needing to use your weapons, you''ll need space to do so in, so everyone will need to be spaced apart a bit."

    We went forward into the woods, walking quietly while keeping an eye out for anything interesting. The same pines and oaks were on this side as they were outside, but it was a lot more silent.

    "So, what do you think the spiders eat?" Ash asked after we''d gone nearly eight miles and poking at things without finding much. "I haven''t seen anything like, you know, five foot butterflies or other upscaled normal creatures that spiders eat."

    "That''s a good question. Whatever the planet or the alien did to create this place, you''d think there''d be more of a full ecological biome here than just bushes, trees, and spiders." Karen answered him.

    "There''s been a few signs of normal animals." Hughes answered. "We''ve been a little too noisy to have anything stick around us though."

    "Like them eating bobcats and boar is any better of a thought." Ash looked around. "I kinda would have thought we would have already run into the spiders again, considering how easily we found them last time and everything."

    "Hey!" Melissa hopped down from the tree she''d climbed. "Looks like there''s a pretty big break ahead in the trees."

    ~~~

    The break turned out to be almost half a mile ahead and turned out to be a pretty large lake with a stream feeding into and away from it.

    The lake itself was quite idyllic and serene, with the water being crystal clear. The lake edges were almost beach like.

    The only real issue was the stream feeding off of the lake was built up in a dam made of webs that stretched at least ten feet across the water and actually down into it. Thankfully not where we broke out of the trees, but close enough we could see dozens of the dog sized spiders on the webs.

    I watched slightly dumbfounded for a moment along with the others, before a fish almost as large as the spiders seemed to come backwards out of the lake to go downstream swimming hard to go back upstream, only to get caught in the web. Immediately, several of the closest spiders converged on the fish and had it wrapped up and unmoving in seconds.

    "How strong is that current that a fish can''t outswim it?" Hughes asked.

    Karen chopped a large branch off a tree with her machete and threw it into the stream where it pretty quickly got pulled away by the current, though the water still looked glassy.

    "You''re going to piss them off!" Hughes hissed, but unable to stop the stick throw in time. "Back up, everyone. Now." His stepped forward and his rifle came up, pointing towards the web.

    We retreated slightly off the shore and watched as the limb floated away and then into the web dam. The stick caught for a second before the web seemed to shake as the spiders froze, then the limb started freely floating through the webbing like it wasn''t there.

    "Huh."

    "Hey, you feel that?" Melissa stepped back out of the forest onto the riverbank. "Water energy getting pulled like the current, but it''s getting caught up in lakebed."

 Chapter 59

    "Huh, interesting," I knelt down a bit on the shore. Water energy was flowing in the river and a pretty good chunk of it was getting diverted deeper into the lake. It didn''t seem like it was coming back up.

    "Why on earth would you try and set those things off?" Hughes spun on Karen.

    "You asked how fast the current was. And spiders get random shit caught in their webs all the time and cut it loose, so I wasn''t worried about it," I heard Karen tell him.

    I glanced towards the spider nest myself to see the spiders had more or less settled again before looking at the lake again. The water was really clear, but I still couldn''t quite see the bottom. Was there something down there cycling water and pulling in the energy? It was almost too even of a draw though.

    "Be that as it may, I''m still responsible for the safety of the four of you," Hughes retorted. "So please refrain from doing something insane without at least running it past me first."

    "We were able to kill half a dozen of those things last time we were here, and we weren''t even ready for them." Melissa added. "I don''t want to have to fight them with daggers really, but between a staff, a sledge, a machete, and your gun I think we''re pretty well safe if we piss them off."

    I stood up. "Let''s try to not start issues if we''re not all ready though. At least speak up before you do something like that, please."

    Karen nodded to Hughes. "Sorry about that then. I didn''t think it''d be a problem, honestly."

    I judged the water again and sighed. "Too bad we don''t have anything to go down into the lake with. I am curious what''s under there."

    "The current would yank you into those spiders first," Hughes reminded me.

    "We could probably clear them out first," I said after eyeballing the spider dam one more time. "If they''re all the same as last time, they weren''t nearly as tough as cycling makes us. But since we''re not swimming, the only reason I can think of would be to collect the spider silk, see if it''s as tough as normal spider silk."

    "Keep them from coming out of here?" Ash offered another reason, idly swinging his sledgehammer.

    Hughes spoke up again. "We''ve come somewhere between eight and nine miles. Beyond the fact that that''s larger than the area that''s been affected outside, do spiders range that far?"

    Karen answered him. "I think they can. It probably would take several generations for that sort of movement by normal spiders. These guys?" She waved her hand towards the dam. "Dunno in that case. They''ve probably got as much movement speed as normal people."

    "So is that a vote for or against?" I asked for clarification. Hughes gave me a bit of an alarmed look.

    "For, but we probably need to get them off the web if you want to collect it. It''s going to suck if it''s normal spider web sticky. We won''t want to deal with that much of it for too long." Karen shuddered.

    I laughed but touched my own hair, imagining that much web stuck to me. "Yeah," I then looked at Hughes who was giving me a very disapproving look. "What?"

    "This is not what I thought you meant earlier when you said work together if we find more spiders," He answered. "I assume you want me to take shots until they''re all dead or moving off their web?"

    I nodded. "It''s that or we start pulling limbs from trees to throw at them."

    Specialist Hughes sighed, lifting the rifle again and sighting it in. "I''m only doing this because it''s kill them now or have a chance on them coming out unexpectedly at everyone else." A whisper of energy cycled through him as he gripped the gun tighter.

    I jerked when he pulled the trigger as the noise was almost deafening after it''d been so quiet. No more than a hundred feet away one of the spiders jerked as it suddenly took on several new holes before collapsing on the web.

    The noise of the shots died almost as soon as it started.

    "Shouldn''t you shoot the rest of them?" I asked, my voice quiet as he was still aiming. The spiders themselves seemed to be agitated now with the body of one of them hanging from the webbing.

    "Checking reactions first. They haven''t died from a single shot before and I don''t want to waste ammo," Hughes answered.

    The spiders were webbing up the body of the dead one but didn''t seem to react to what had killed it so far.

    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    "Taking additional shots."

    It took barely a second for six shots to drop a second spider and then five more to drop a third before the spiders reacted. At least fifty spiders seemed to suddenly flow out of and off random parts of the webbing in a dark wave of skittering limbs and onto both shores.

    "I''ll cover the other side of the river," Hughes bit out while shifting his aim and firing. "Get whatever you can on this side." The clip on his gun dropped as Hughes released it ,and he had another loaded before it hit the ground.

    I took off, crossing the distance in about three steps. I heard the others react a little slower, but in nearly an instant I was at the edge of the river feeding off the lake, staff swinging. Forms designed for fighting a person didn''t do well against multi-legged creatures that only came up to thigh height but sweeps and downward strikes worked well enough.

    The spiders didn''t all go straight for me, trying to split up and escape whatever was causing them death. The first few died easily enough to entirely overpowered strikes from my staff, with one spider''s top half sailing part way into the lake. I couldn''t be in enough places to stop them all.

    Then there was a surge of energy from behind me as the others caught up. I heard a heavy thump and splatter, and I spun to catch up to another spider and saw Ash lifting his sledgehammer off the broken body of a spider and looking for his next target.

    Karen was wildly chopping at two more, catching more legs than bodies but stopping them all the same after a few legs went missing. Melissa was sticking with her, daggers filling with hair raising energy as she finished off whatever Karen dismembered.

    I swung again, cycling deep as I did and piercing the ground as the tip of my staff went through another spider body. It still twitched and tried to lunge away, unlike how quickly the rest of the spiders died. I took a moment to get a better look at it.

    "Shit, this''s one at three!" I called back. "Be careful for more!" I put my foot through the spider before pulling my staff out of the ground, making sure the spider was dead before unpinning it. I turned again, looking for another spider coming off the dam.

    "Out!" I heard called a moment later and then Hughes was in the thick of the fight with us, wielding a combat knife of his own. "Out of ammo, we''re going to lose what''s still on the other side."

    "Damn it!" I''d probably blame this on adrenaline later. "Stay with them, watch out for I-3s." I shifted, pushing energy into Feathersteps and ran straight across the river, barely taking a hop to go from one bank to the other and finding myself trailing spiders fleeing into the woods.

    I lashed out at the back of the pack, catching the last few with my staff like a golf club, trying to put down as many as I could as quickly as possible.

    Another surge of energy came from behind me, more wild and completely wood. Something hit my upper arm as I turned and external wood energy pulsed. Sticky webbing exploded from the goo on my shoulder, hitting my staff before hardening. There were a couple of three breakthrough spiders now between me and the dam, both half turned themselves to point their spinnerets at me.

    More wood energy surged from them as both spiders fired webbing at me. I dodged out of the way, feeling the glob of webbing on me flex instead of break as I moved to get closer, staff held forward. I had to put a decent bit of effort into my arm and wrist to keep my full range of motion as I pinned the first spider''s head with my staff. The webbing flexed instead of broke, trying to rubber band my staff back to my arm.

    Wood flowed from the other spider again and I quickly moved. Webbing flew past me and I pulled my staff out of the first spider''s head and whipped it down, shattering the second.

    The webbing finally overflexed on the staff, snapping and popping back into my arm. "Ow, ow, damn."

    I looked around, but there weren''t any more spiders coming off the dam and what few had been left were long gone into the woods now. I stood among over nearly two dozen dead spiders.

    Looking back over the river, I couldn''t see any spiders there either. There were dozens of downed spiders as well, most more violently dead than the bullet wounds that had killed most of the spiders on the other side.

    I saw Melissa sitting on the ground carefully scraping webbing off her legs with Karen''s assistance, both wielding a dagger. Other than that, they looked OK.

    "You get a web shooter too?" Ash asked from where he was sitting and checking the bandage on his leg. Thankfully I didn''t see any bloodstains.

    I pulled at the webbing still attached to my arm. It wasn''t sticky anymore but still hard to pull. "A couple of them, but I was faster once I knew they did it."

    "Here," Hughes offered me his knife. "It cuts easily enough. The web shooter on this side was I-3, were the ones over there as well?"

    "Yeah, they were." I took the knife and scrapped it against my staff, the webbing starting to peel off like glue.

    Hughes frowned at that. "Unknown abilities and we got lucky there were a lot more of the weaker ones then. This could have been bad if there were more web shooters."

    "It''s strong enough I couldn''t break it. I had to cut myself free." Melissa said, finally getting the last off of her legs. "There was only one we had to deal with."

    Hughes looked us over. "Now, I know you''re all still riding high on adrenaline, but let me know if you start coming down and feeling off. Your first firefight can cause panics afterwards."

    "Hah!" Karen laughed. "We were expecting spiders this time. This was nowhere near as bad as unarmed against spiders then death threats and an exploding car."

    "Just offering my assistance," Hughes shrugged before pulling open his pack. "Ms. Firen, I didn''t expect to blow through seven mags in a single sortie, as it took a clip per two or three spiders. I''ve got one more full loadout available. I''m going to make the recommendation we start thinking about heading back," he looked up to the sky, which was a little darker. "I''d prefer we not get caught out at night in an unknown environment."

    "I want to go upstream a bit first," I disagreed. "We saw a fish come through, so it''s not likely we''ll find another spider nest on the river, and I want to see if we can find where the water energy is coming from. If we don''t find something fairly quick, we''ll head back here, grab some of the spider silk, and leave. Sound good everyone?"

    "I''m up for it." "Sure." "No more spiders though."

    "Yes ma''am. You''re the boss."

 Chapter 60

    We followed the edge of the lake to the fast-flowing river feeding in and headed upstream. Within a mile, the river had deepened and widened, the flow of water slowing as it got further from the shallow sections that caused the rapid movement.

    Here and there in almost deeper sections of the river had been small colonies of fish and plant life, the likely source of the food the spiders had been feasting upon.

    The river twisted further as we went, the land beginning to rise and fall in unequal measure, the languid river easing through the path of least resistance. All the while, the energy flowing with the water subtly got stronger, almost heavier.

    It was as we went around one of those hills that we came upon the source of the river, nearly an hour''s fast pace from the lake we''d left behind.

    It was, to use an underwhelming term, beautiful. We all came to a sudden stop.

    The earth gave way to a sunken grotto, spread out almost a thousand feet in front of and away from us. From walls of stone and crystal flowed tinkling water, soft crashes that misted and hid most of the shift from wall to water. Light reflected through the crystals as well, breaking into rainbows of flickering colors that dyed the air itself dozens of hues and shades.

    The river we had followed to this source started here, from waters that flowed out of this grotto. Yet the waters here were lower than the river we followed, but the grotto did not flood, instead the water somehow seemed to languorously flow upwards to the rim of the grotto before making its way downstream, drawn up from the shallow lake.

    In the center of the grotto was a singular tree growing out of the water. It seemed as if it should be taller than any other tree outside the grotto, towering over them all yet it instead fit perfectly inside the grotto, not reaching above the height of anything around it.

    The massive trunk twisted upwards, almost flowering into it''s various branches that spread into a vast portion of the sunken landscape. The branches were held up by nothing, yet for the hundreds of feet they extended from the main trunk they dropped not an inch, leaving the tree looking like a massive funnel tapering into its trunk. Hundreds of orbs of soft green light hovered in the branches and a good number floated just above the waters below as well, as if they had fallen.

    Myriad energy types seemed to swirl and dance throughout the entire grotto. Water flowed everywhere and was drawn in by the tree, only for the tree itself to give off wood. The wood drifted before being drawn into the crystals and crackling as fire. Fire bloomed, burned, and then banked itself on the stone as earth.

    The earth energy seeped into everything as it dug deeper into the walls and I could sense the energy shift to a metal that felt off, almost dissonant, before the dissonance faded as metal melted back to water, flowing outwards again into the grotto lake.

    And around the whole thing danced air. Wood breathed air. Air fed the fire. Water and air bubbled together, and air whistled around and through earth in carefree manner. The only energy it didn''t touch was the buried sense of metal.

    Extraneous water energy flowed with the river out, while the other energies flowed outwards in their own fashion, creating a subtle pressure against the senses as they melded with and became part of the general energy of the area. If I wasn''t standing here watching the shifting of energies I wouldn''t have noticed, hadn''t felt it until I saw it.

    "Ho-ly shit."

    "What is this place?" I whispered myself, looking around.

    "It''s...stronger." Hughes said quietly as I felt his cycling increase. The edges of the flows pulled into him. "The energy coming out of there isn''t as thin as it is elsewhere. It''s like my I level isn''t higher than the planet''s."

    It didn''t feel any stronger to me, but then again I didn''t normally cycle externally. "Want to explore it then?"

    "Yes." Was the quickly voiced consensus.

    Hopping down the few feet into the grotto, I immediately noticed something as we did. Like throwing stones in a still pond, every one of us caused a ripple in the flow of energy as soon as we actually stepped into the grotto.

    Karen and Ash were barely enough to be noticeable, their own overflow fading quickly into the other energy flows as they cycled. Hughes''s energy, a breakthrough above them, took a bit more as his energy overflow took longer to settle.

    Melissa''s was a much bigger splash. Her electrical energy had no matching flow to fall into and bounced among the energy. It channeled through the water and air until it ground itself out in the walls, absorbed by the earth and metal there. The lack of cycling external energy in seemed to mean her energy pushed harder outwards as well.

    But if Melissa''s was a bigger splash, mine seemed more like cannonballing into it. In a wave as big as everyone else combined, my own overflow seemed to race forward, bounding among the other energies. Water flowed faster while the air sped up. Fire energy flickered and burned like an accelerant had been added even as the wood grew quicker in turn. Even the earth energy seemed to shift and shudder when my overflow reached it.

    We froze just inside. I quickly began slowing my cycling, feeling as if I was taking tiny short breaths in doing so. But my overflow slowed from seven breakthroughs to six, to five, then down to four before I felt like any more would be to stop breathing at all.

    "Slow your cycling if you can, guys." I said, sensing the energies start to shake off the effects of my stronger overflow.

    After a long moment, everyone''s energy overflow was much lower and the flows in the grotto were absorbing the ripples of our own power much easier.

    "We didn''t seem to be hurting it? Our overflows looked like they were feeding it." Melissa asked as we continued to look.

    I shrugged. "No, but I want to mess with the energy here as little as possible at first. If we are feeding it, can we overfeed it? Is it like overcharging a battery until it explodes?"

    "No fish in the water." Hughes noted before immediately wading in, the water only coming up to his thigh. "Barely a current. How is water flowing uphill out of this into the river?"

    "Since you''re now in there, can you grab one of those green orbs, if it''s solid?" I asked.

    Hughes nodded and started wading further out to the closest of the orbs.

    "There''s a little bit of grit he kicked up floating up the stream." Karen was kneeling at the edge of the flow where it starting moving up. She pulled off her shoes.

    "Be careful." Ash warned, but didn''t stop her.

    We watched as Karen also waded in, but into the upward flowing water. She promptly fell over sideways into the water before splashing around and then getting back on her feet and looking down at the water. "It''s not moving fast enough to go upwards. If anything, it feels like it''s going downhill just a bit."

    "Uhh, Karen. Are you purposely doing that?" Ash asked her as I stared a little shocked.

    Karen was standing straight up, if straight up was lined up with the angle upwards the water was flowing.

    Karen turned to look at us and her eyes went wide. "Whoa. What the hell?" She came back out of the water and almost ate dirt falling before Ash caught her. "That''s a really screwy transition."

    I started to unlace my own shoes before there was another splashing as Hughes came back, holding something small in his hand. "As soon as you touch them, the green glow dies. Then you just get this." He stepped out of the water, offering it to me.

    It was a little crystal shell, shaped almost like a walnut. But what was even more interesting was it held all the energies of the grotto in it in a stable amount, not cycling itself. But in these, air seemed to wrap around the five other elements in an almost braid inside instead of being non-existent in the geodes. The metal energy seemed off from the others still though. Was metal going to be a breakthrough eventually, or was it just something off?

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    I sat looking at the crystal and then looked out over the grotto where probably hundreds of orbs dotted the branches of the tree and dozens were easily visible on the still waters.

    I took a deep breath, trying to not also let my cycling kick back up yet. "Alright, we''re going to need to actually spend some time figuring this one out. Hughes, grab a few more if they don''t seem to be doing anything."

    I stood up, getting into one of the bags and coming out with the cameras. "Let''s get some pictures taken. I don''t care if you can''t actually see it, I want photos of everywhere it feels like energy is converting from one type to another here. Then we''ll head back because we''re going to need some more heads to discuss this."

    ~~~

    June 29th?

    Take a few days to get all your facts and I''ll get a meeting of people that can make some major decisions to help support the needs of the DARPA project you''re in charge of. Brent had said.

    So, I had. I don''t know why I hadn''t expected the meeting to have nearly thirty attendees split half between people in military uniform and the rest in expensive looking suits. Every one of them had an active dantian, though, and ranged from one to three breakthroughs.

    Unlike presentations I''d previously given in classes and even some more recently during Seeker training, we did appear to have everyone''s rapt attention. Which was both nice and still a little frightening.

    "Good morning. Today''s meeting is to discuss a major finding under DARPA project Cultivation, what it means, and what is needed from the Department of Defense and other sections of the government." Brent addressed everyone. "Some of you have different levels of awareness of what has been going on in the local area recently and I know overview notes were sent out, however I have Ms. Nicole Firen here as the project leader to go more in depth. I''ll turn it over to Nicole."

    Brent stepped back and I stepped up. Behind me, the screen came to life showing a map cutout of Mark Twain National Forest with a section highlighted.

    "There is an approximately two-mile circular area of the Mark Twain National Forest that has what we''re calling a hidden forest. This hidden forest is an area where you can walk across the boundary between the Mark Twain and this forest and vanish from here and appear there."

    A click and the screen changed, showing a video of the section of road. Someone purposely crossed back and forth several times, disappearing and reappearing as they did so.

    "This hidden forest is larger on the inside than it is outside. Based on testing done in the last few days with the Seekers and assistance from onsite military, the scale of difference is almost one hundred times larger in circumference. So whereas it looks like from the outside to be less than a square mile, inside by square footage you could fit the entire states of Rhode Island and Delaware."

    I paused for a moment to let that sink in. "The interior of the hidden forest is, as named, mostly forest. In general, the flora and fauna are the same as here, but there are a few differences we''ve discovered so far. To begin with, these-"

    The screen changed again, showing multiple pictures of the huge spiders, mostly them dead. "-are the first examples we know of massive animals to have breakthroughs. You may be aware of other animals around the world and also brought here to Leonard Wood that cycle energy and have a dantian, but these spiders have two and three breakthroughs. I-2 and I-3."

    I could see a general sense of ill ease hit a lot of people at these pictures. Then again, the spiders were technically stronger than over half the people here.

    "These spiders weigh between fifteen and twenty-five pounds. Heavier and larger appear to tend to I-3. I-3 spiders have the ability to spit a web strong enough to nearly instantly bind anyone at I-1 or lower. Great strength or a sharp edge is required to break the thread otherwise."

    Someone near the front spoke up, a middle aged man with his hair just turning grey. "Please don''t tell me DARPA wants to collect these spiders for their webs or something insane."

    I shook my head. "While their web does appear to have as great if not greater strength than normal spider silk, no. This is an overview of one of the major dangers of the hidden forest. And in saying that, we have been killing any spiders we come across, along with any we find that cross the line and end up back in the Mark Twain. Someone else can come up with a spider husbanding project if they want to try."

    I paused, looking back at the screen for a moment. "No, part of the request today is a larger force presence in the Mark Twain to ensure nothing wanders out and into the local area. It''s only about seven miles straight to two different nearby towns, and the city of Salem is only fifteen miles away. I don''t think anyone wants an apex predator like these setting up webs like these." I clicked again, and the original spider dam nest appeared. "There were fifty to sixty of the spiders living in this dam, at least five of which were I-3."

    I paused and waited, to see if anyone had further comments but no one spoke up.

    "Not all of the news is doom and gloom, however. We were able to discover this." I clicked one more time, and a panorama of the grotto appeared. The picture got a few whistles as they looked at the details.

    "No photoshop here. This tree has a canopy that fills nearly the entire grotto it''s in, measuring in at nearly fourteen acres. If you look carefully, you can see someone about halfway to the tree trunk. The trunk itself is about ninety or a hundred feet in thickness. The orbs you see are a form of energy geode, similar to what I think you''re all familiar with. The ones still in the tree are actively drawing in the energy of the local area, while the ones on the water are stable and usable."

    "Between the semi-renewable formation of these geodes and the fact that external energy users seem to not feel a difference above I-3 here, I''d like to get additional people for protection of the area, testing of cultivation here, and also some people to search for additional things inside the hidden forest."

    "This is a hell of a find, Ms. Firen. I can definitely see the need to keep this under wraps, just based off the spiders alone." An older man in military uniform spoke up. "Not to mention having a large resource of these geodes and a place to send our best soldiers to get stronger."

    "This isn''t the only hidden area, sir." I disagreed. "Keeping it under wraps isn''t going to do any good when Florida has at least one in the Everglades. I''ve been talking to someone there already and they''re actively searching for where they''re getting thirty foot pythons from, to try to corral that. It''s even possible we have more than one in the Mark Twain, but no one''s found a second one here yet."

    "Wait, who are you talking with in Florida? MacDill?" Another man spoke up, this one with light blue eyes and in a well pressed suit. His voice was sharp, and his second breakthrough energy churned.

    "No, a local group down there. They''re calling themselves the Guild of Extraordinary Floridamen, but they''ve got a good number of I-2 and some I-3 people. I don''t know if they''ll have something like the grotto in theirs, but I warned them so they could find where the snakes are coming from."

    "Why are you not classifying any of this? Why is it not already classified as national defense secrets?" The same man demanded.

    "I''m already letting you delay things I''d rather post up immediately for people. I''m not going to withhold information about dangerous places from people." I answered back. "What the hell do you want to classify as national defense anyways?"

    "That entire grotto!" He bit out without yelling and I sighed.

    "No."

 Chapter 61

    "Ms. Firen, I don''t believe you have the unilateral authority you think you do to keep this unclassified, if it is determined to be a matter of national security." Someone else spoke up. "While Kyle needs to not get nearly as worked up as he is, you''re asking for a lot of effort. Effort that would normally be qualified as homeland defense. Means and methods for military actions are almost always classified even when the action is public, and stationing soldiers for combat at a site where cultivation is better would most assuredly fall under means and methods."

    "Besides," the now named Kyle spoke again, "would you allow anyone access to the site? I''m not even speaking of you using the military as what amounts to tour guides, I know there''s been local issues with the ecoterrorist group ELF. Would you like to let them in and get stronger as well?"

    "Excuse me?" Brent interrupted incredulously from where he was sitting.

    "I''d rather hear Nicole''s thoughts, Mr. Russell." Kyle shook his head at him, and I looked between the two for a moment.

    I was missing something between them. "ELF? No. From everything I''ve seen and heard from them already, they''re less an ecoterrorist group at this point and more a Jonestown cult. I''d be willing to try to entice some of their people out of ELF, but," I paused, assessing this Kyle. "But that''s not even what I''m saying, so you''re dragging me off topic."

    I looked past Kyle and to the others in the room. "You''re not classifying the existence of these hidden forests because you can''t. People are already talking about ones in other countries and exploring them. I''ve been talking to people in Florida to try to find that one. Means and methods for military actions? You already don''t let people onto base without permission or into combat areas unless you''re part of the military. Those requirements are already there. I just want to ensure people are actually kept safe since this isn''t some location in another country things are happening in."

    The room was quiet. "So you''re not opposed to military control of these resources then?"

    "The military has already taken ownership of the one in Mark Twain." I countered. "So, not in these circumstances. Not as long as people are being protected from what could come out of there. I''m not that hypocritical to deny that DARPA and the military have provided a massive amount of support we likely couldn''t have gotten elsewhere. But we''ve been publishing all of our findings, and I see no reason to stop that."

    I looked to Brent who was looking unhappy towards Kyle, then looked at Kyle who apparently had finally gotten hold of himself and was blank faced. I then addressed the room again. "However, that doesn''t address the general issue of other hidden forests, or swamps, or any other thing we might discover that the government doesn''t control but will probably have useful things. Human nature, overall, is to be greedy. We seem to only work together better when there is something we can''t do for ourselves."

    I motioned towards the screen, still showing the grotto and the crystals. "I can''t change human nature. What I want is to make sure that everyone looking at us sees there is a greater benefit to working with us, rather than hoarding knowledge and power to yourself. My longterm goal for this? Beating the alien, which means being able to stand against him whenever the Heaven realm matures, whatever that ends up meaning. We are struggling against someone who knows all the rules of his game and the only thing we have on our side is numbers. We have to be ten billion people on one team against him, not ten billion teams."

    "As optimistic as you are, Ms. Firen, your own words betray you." Kyle spoke up once I''d finished. "You''re not going to get the leadership of other countries to offer up any secrets they have because you''re not bringing anything to the table they can''t get for free. And you yourself are not completely unique. I''m fairly certain I can find someone serving in the government with an internal dantian at I-5 or 6 that correctly understands the need for secrecy that could take over being the face of this project for you. Then you can return to doing the research you want to do without needing to worry about how the government is using the results you''re willing to give away."

    I stared at him for a moment while no one else in the audience countered him before another voice finally spoke up. "You''re completely out of line, Kyle." Brent stood up from where he was at, nearly spitting his words. "This meeting is to go over findings of one facet of this project and the way forward, not dig at the entire project''s foundation because whatever classified projects you have running may not be returning nearly the same level of results."

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    There were a few looks from the audience at me at that statement, but seeing as this was the first time I''d even met this guy I had little clue about what other projects there might be. It did make the animosity between the two make a little more sense though.

    "I started out doing this four months ago." I interrupted them and pulling attention back to myself. "We''re all still learning everything about any of this. You''re getting results from what you''ve made into my project. Go fix a real problem instead of making me into one when the Seekers are not."

    I took a deep breath as I realized I''d gotten myself worked up enough that my energy was overflowing out into the room, though nowhere near enough yet to actually mess with anyone else''s cycling. I reined myself in though. "Does anyone have any questions that relate to the Mark Twain area, or the grotto specifically?"

    "Actually, yes." Another man spoke up, tapping on his own tablet. "How many people do you see being able to utilize the grotto''s effects at once? The notes for this grotto say energy sources like people cause oddities?"

    I smiled at him, glad to pull the meeting back onto a useful track. "That''s one of the things we''re still in the process of validating. It looks as though letting the energy of the area settle after introducing small numbers of people works to bring more in, but I don''t have hard maximum numbers yet."

    ~~~

    An hour later, after answering enough pertinent questions, the meeting was over and everyone else had left. I sunk back down into a chair on the dais.

    I looked at Brent. "I pretty much expected them to want to claim sole ownership of the area. I''m not surprised with having to argue against hiding everything about it. But what the hell was with the guy trying to rip everything out from underneath me?"

    He sighed and shook his head. "Kyle''s a retired Army general now working with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. ODNI likely has several classified projects that he''s responsible for that you''re not authorized to know about, so even if I know something about them I couldn''t discuss them with you."

    I thought about that for a moment in light of the previous meeting. "And he wants to bring us in under his control, instead of DARPA giving us freer rein?"

    "I''ll have to let you draw your own conclusions there, unfortunately. I''d personally like to believe he just wants to keep your discoveries to the government, but his actions today make me not so sure."

    Brent stood. "I am sorry though. You shouldn''t have been the target for Kyle trying something with your project. That sort of fight should have happened with my boss. I''ll bring it up with them."

    "I shouldn''t have been the target for Barry either, but here we are." I stood as well. "I''ll just start expecting it next time I have to give a brief on our stuff to anyone outside the Seekers."

    "So will I, apparently." Brent replied with a sigh.

    ~~~

    "So how''d the meeting go?" Melissa asked as she walked into our conference room in the Rolla Seeker office. She was the last to show up for my sudden meeting with our core group. Ash, Karen, and Danny were already here with Brent having been left back at Leonard Wood to deal with his bosses.

    I shook my head. "We''ve got at least one person that wants to close off and classify everything about the grotto and the forest. And considering most of the rest of them didn''t disagree with him, I don''t know how many people are actually on our side of things."

    "So, you think they''re going to kick us out of there then?" Danny asked.

    "No, because they don''t have someone to replace us with. Yet. So we''re going to have to ensure that sharing this information is actually for the best." I answered him.

    "The forums have been taking off a bit since we posted up the Iver''s overflow technique and people realized we aren''t going to take credit for their stuff." Karen offered from where she was sitting. "I''ve been watching the technique subforum and there''s been several people complaining they could have provided that too."

    "I don''t think I''ve seen anyone claiming a bounty though?" Danny voiced another question. "Are they actually posting up anything new?"

    "Yeah, there were a few things." Karen frowned. "How much did we actually publish the bounty thing?"

    "Enough that Arthur figured out we had one." I answered. "But that''s one of the things I want to start pushing harder. I want more than just our names splashed across the techniques page, or anything else that someone''s got a good idea on."

    "One of the things. What else?" Melissa asked.

    "Five breakthroughs or better for everyone here, and I''m going to push my eighth one. Ash, Karen, I know that''s asking more of you guys, but I''m also going to stick you two into the grotto testing group as much as I can if it helps you. We''re going to need data that isn''t filtered through a soldier first, just to make sure it''s not being withheld from us to start with."

 Chapter 62

    Board ¨C Seeker General

    Topic: Information Bounty

    Posted by: DannySidre (Seeker)

    June 10th?

    Good day. The Dantian Seekers are offering a bounty on all cultivation information, pending confirmation of that information. Bounty starts at ten thousand dollars for useable information.

    [Topic Locked]

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> Techniques

    Topic: Ivers'' Overflow

    Posted by: Kamayami

    June 25th

    Who are these Ivers guys? They''re not on the list of Dantian Seekers. Neat little technique, hope I can pull it off.

    -> KarenDubin (Seeker)

    They''re not. They sent in a technique to us, we validated it was possible, and they got a bounty and the technique named after them because they didn''t name it themselves.

    -> Kamayami

    June 26th

    Wait, you guys aren''t taking credit for stuff? And what''s this about a bounty?

    -> TheMainFloridaman

    Nope, that''s my technique.

    -> ZeroZero7

    June 27th

    Damn, I already knew how to do this.

    Page (1,2,3,<u>4</u>)

    -> CapitalWorkings

    June 30th

    @TheMainFloridaman, @ZeroZero7

    Been trying this for a couple of days. I can''t quite figure out how you''d push overflow into something? I lose control of it as soon as I get it off myself.

    -> TheMainFloridaman

    You have to keep hold of it even as you push it away. You can''t just throw the energy at something and hope it sticks.

    -> CapitalWorkings

    I''ll keep trying, thanks!

    -> KarenDubin (Seeker)

    @Kamayami: We''re offering a bounty, Danny should have posted about it... <u>Here</u>.

    Oh, it''s not stickied and fell off the front page. Fixed that.

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> Techniques

    Topic: Bamboo Overgrowth Forest

    Posted by: Paloneia

    June 29th

    @Seekers, thanks for the overflow specific energy article. I was able to use wood specific energy for something fun. I''ve been able to make this work with non-aspected energy but much better this way.

    Bamboo can grow up to a few feet a day during the growing season, but if you give a shoot energy you can get the entire plant growth in an hour with regular energy. If you pull out wood energy for it specifically, see <u>here</u>. I''ve got three breakthroughs and the damn shoot ate everything I could feed it. Result? An entire season''s worth of growth in that same hour.

    It actually grew fast enough that the roots starting pushing out and new bamboo shoots started growing, which is why I call it a forest.

    How to do it: Somewhat like Imbue the Flame, but you have to focus the energy on the bamboo growth. Regular energy or wood specific, it needs at least three breakthroughs worth of energy before it kicks in.

    (Edit) How do I claim a bounty on this?

    -> NotWingedOne

    I want to call hax on this, even after watching the clip. Or at least wonder what it did to the nutrients in the soil to get growth like that.

    Does this work on other plants too? Your ''how to'' is entirely lacking in good descriptions.

    -> TheMainFloridaman

    Semi-instant weapons. That''s what I''m seeing here.

    Though I agree with NotWingedOne, I can''t figure this out from your description alone. I''m pretty sure the bounty requires something useable, more than a video that could be faked, though I don''t think yours is.

    You should try to get some of those really big bamboo species, instant tower!

    -> Paloneia

    Honestly, I''m focusing on the bamboo because my family eats a lot of the shoots as a vegetable. I''d rather get a lot more of the root runners for new shoots than an entire bamboo stalk, and I''m not certain what I''d do with a bunch of fifty foot bamboo poles if I got one of those dragon bamboo plants.

    I tried it on some of the veggies in my wife''s garden, no success. Doesn''t seem to have the same feel for growing like the bamboo does.

    And as for a better how to, I''m not certain what to tell you both? The key is focusing on the growth. Before the wiki article about splitting energies it took an hour to get a day''s worth of growth, both ways are completely exhausting but non wood energy is a lot less worth the effort.

    Page (1,<u>2</u>)

    -> KarenDubin (Seeker)

    July 1st?

    Hey Paloneia, we''ve created a space for your technique on the wiki and marked it unconfirmed. Once someone can reproduce it or we can confirm it another way, we can get you the bounty. You can message me directly with personal details.

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> Weird Stuff

    Topic: Hidden Lands

    Posted by: NicoleFiren (Seeker)

    June 30th?

    New <u>Wiki article</u> up about hidden areas, discussion here please.

    Generalities: Areas that you can walk into that you vanish into. The areas are, so far, much larger inside than they are looking at it from the outside. The one closest to us here is less than a square mile outside, and nearly two thousand square miles inside of forestland.

    If you find one, please be extremely careful. The one here has spiders with two and three breakthroughs and are larger than some dogs. <u>Pic1</u>, <u>Pic2</u>, <u>Pic3</u>. These spiders don''t seem to mind trying to hunt other large prey including people. We''re taking steps here to keep ours safe with the help of local military.

    If you find one, please report it to law enforcement, local military, us, or anyone please. Confirmation to the Seekers will be considered a high priority payout for our bounty.

    The nearby hidden forest here has some pretty interesting things, more than just spiders. We have found a large grotto where cultivation is easier and <u>geodes</u> seem to be forming as seeds on a <u>massive tree</u>.

    Again, please be extremely careful when exploring these places.

    -> TheMainFloridaman

    Still looking for the one here in Central Florida. We''ve got maneater snakes down here coming across Alligator Alley and the Everglades. Honestly though, I''d rather the single breakthrough snakes than gators with the same.

    Page (1,2,<u>3</u>)

    -> IrishDantians

    July 2nd?

    At least you all have semi-normal animals. I''m fairly certain there''s one of these places kicking around here with pooka running the show. The Emerald Isle might be part of greater Europe now, but that doesn''t explain the wild dogs I''ve seen. Red glowing eyes ain''t normal and definitely fits a pooka. Haven''t gotten close enough to one yet myself to notice a breakthrough on them though because they seem smart enough to stay away from people.

    -> Kamayami

    Great, just what we need. Smart things coming out of these places. Hope someone''s up to keeping those things pinned in.

    Board ¨C Seeker General -> General Cultivation

    Topic: DARPA Second Paper Release [Pinned]

    Posted by: NicoleFiren (Seeker)

    July 8th?

    All,

    Following on the original release from DARPA back in April, a second paper has been released. You can read it on <u>DARPA''s official release</u>, or here on the <u>Seeker wiki</u>. We''re still in the process of linking all the subjects to other pages, give us a few days to make it more useful.

    Additional information will eventually be rolled into more papers to be released, but that information may or may not be repeats of things we''ve already put out here, just collected into a more concise format.

    ~~~

    Excerpts from Dantian Seekers release

    What is a dantian?

    This space partially repeats the original Firen Method paper with more information and context provided.

    A Dantian is an energy source that is created inside the body. This energy source appears to be a sort of perpetual motion machine (PPM) and the energy drawn from it is the excess energy from the PPM.

    The energy used to create a dantian is drawn from the same energy in the world, or in much more rare cases personal internal energy from before the planet''s dantian was lit. There have been no known cases of people without dantians gaining access to personal energy to create a dantian since that point in time.

    Human level dantians created from planetary energy tend to match the current primary planetary energy, including shifting to that set of energies if the type of primary energy changes, such as during a planetary breakthrough.

    Human level dantians created from personal internal energy tend towards having a singular energy type, but not always.

    What is energy?

    Energy from the dantian and from the planet currently defy proper definition. As of this writing, general primary energy from the planet appears to be made up of five distinct energy types. Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and Wood. These energy types were not nearly as prevalent until specific planetary breakthroughs. The composition of planetary energy before the first breakthrough, but post planetary dantian, is unknown as it was not tested at that time.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    Additional, non-primary, energy types have been recorded in locations that have high concentrations of different materials. Known non-primary external energy types are concrete, pollution, and metal.

    Internal dantians are also capable of generating non-primary energy types. Known currently is momentum.

    Current conjecture on non-primary external energy types is that they may eventually be incorporated into planetary breakthroughs. More data on other energy types is being researched.

    Current conjecture on non-primary internal energy types is limited based on access to individuals with these more esoteric energies.

    What are breakthroughs?

    There are currently two types of known breakthroughs. Planetary and human level.

    A planetary level breakthrough is currently known to be a point in time where the dantian of the planet begins creating additional energy types, which also coincides with shifts to the planet itself to possibly provide for that energy creation. Current planetary breakthroughs are as follows:

    <ul>

    <li>Fire/Earth

    <ul>

    <li>This breakthrough appears to have caused most major fault lines on the planet to immediately shift and pull apart from each other with subsequent release of lava and magma.</li>

    <li>As many major fault lines are located under oceans, this boiled a large amount of water into massive rainfalls.</li>

    <li>The result of this caused massive retraction in the oceans, dropping the sea level by dozens to hundreds of feet in some locations.</li>

    </ul>

    </li>

    <li>Air/Water

    <ul>

    <li>This breakthrough collected large amounts of the previous breakthrough''s rain effect and appears to have centered it into a vast hurricane in the Pacific Ocean. Rain effects of the hurricane do not appear to be refilling the oceans back to their original level.</li>

    </ul>

    </li>

    <li>Wood

    <ul>

    <li>This breakthrough appears to have not had a major impact on planetary geography.</li>

    <li>This energy appears to be instead be collecting in major wooded areas and creating geographic areas unbound to the planetary physical location.</li>

    </ul>

    </li>

    </ul>

    A human level breakthrough is a point in the body where energy from the dantian floods into, creating a sort of holding point for additional energy. This additional energy also speeds up the generation of energy by the dantian to the point that total energy refill time tracks to be roughly the same regardless of the higher amount of total energy available.

    There are seven known human breakthroughs. After the third breakthrough, there are options on which path can be taken.

    <ul>

    <li>Heart</li>

    <li>Sternum</li>

    <li>C6 vertebrae</li>

    <li>Scapula (Left or Right)</li>

    <li>Scapula (Opposite of Breakthrough 4)</li>

    <li>Pelvis, illum body (Left or Right)</li>

    <li>Pelvis, illum body (Opposite of Breakthrough 6)</li>

    </ul>

    Breakthroughs into four and beyond appear to need more than just additional energy flooding into the body until the breakthrough is filled.

    Breakthrough Four can be the left or right scapula of the body or both at once. Careful testing of the body''s energy flow must be done to ascertain the natural flow to the breakthrough.

    There is no current understanding of which of the three options in breakthrough four an individual person is more likely to have.

    Models of the human body tend towards failure as a mental image in the process of breakthrough four and beyond. It is highly recommended that a personal image be developed with the precise locations of your personal breakthroughs mapped as testing has noted this assists in further breakthroughs.

    Geodes or other sources of external energy may be utilized to assist in needed energy for breakthroughs, however it has been noted on multiple occasions that these breakthroughs have issues. Specifically, breakthroughs do not seem as fully ''clear'' until enough cycling is taken to clear out remaining issues.

    ~~~

    I smiled as I finished linking the breakthrough section on the wiki to everything additional we had on the further breakthroughs and possible options, though there wasn''t much we had yet. Melissa might be close to six, but both Ash and Karen had had a hard time pushing into five. Karen had failed once even using the extra energy from the grotto and I had some private notes pulled up showing she''d used eleven of the grotto geodes on her second attempt to blast past the block she''d created to make it.

    Finishing, I sat against the bed. Based on everything Brent had collected with thousands of people hitting fourth breakthrough and dozens hitting fifth, additional activities that used energy appeared to detract from actually making the breakthrough itself. Something else that was listed multiple times on the Seeker wiki now, even if it only was mentioned once or twice deeper in the DARPA document.

    So, even if my energy was momentum, I didn''t specifically need to be moving because my energy was. It held all my momentum and I''d keep moving it forward. Even as it cycled back around into my dantian.

    I had thirty of the geodes on my desk, but I didn''t want to rely on this for my first attempt. Maybe if I screwed this up, but it felt like a crutch and we had documented breakthroughs that relied on them weren''t as good as ones done solely by yourself.

    I shook my head. Quit distracting yourself I admonished mentally.

    I brought up that image of myself in my mind, highly detailed yet still I hadn''t figured out what I was holding. The image didn''t shift in my mind even if I pushed to try. Instead, eight points lit up as I cycled my energy faster. Dantian and seven breakthroughs and I imagined the flows forward and back, though I still couldn''t trace it all through myself, the energy somehow disappearing and reappearing, not flowing like blood.

    I''d gently pushed before. Testing if going out one side or the other was better and neither was. I''d slowly stretched down my legs, towards my arms, and even trying to skip back into my head. All just slightly pained as the wrong way to try to go with my energy to break through.

    Instead, I focused on the one point I''d found that seemed receptive. Another spot on my spine, this time much lower.

    Energy overflowed out of both of the points in my hips, turning in on myself as it travelled upwards. The two flows met and melded, twisting into a singular flow that went backwards up the sacrum and then touched into the lumbar part of my spine. There, that singular flow fell into nothing. I cycled deeply, pulling everything I had into that one spot.

    To immediate effect, the darkness in that breakthrough seemed to banish itself. Instead, I found the two flows of my energy had quit twisting together and were instead fighting at that same point. Pressure spiked through my body and I winced, fighting the urge to release the flows and let them fade away.

    The two points pressed at each other and I wasn''t sure what I was supposed to do even as I kept feeding them both. Should I let one overcome the other? Would this have been easier if I hadn''t had double breakthroughs and knew which way to go?

    Nothing changed, and yet everything did as pressure continued to rise in my energy and in my body as I could almost feel my bones humming, then the hum pressed back into my heart, then my dantian.

    I''d have to let go, then use the geodes to push past whatever the block was. But wouldn''t the energy feed both sides of this pressure again? Which should win?

    Can''t you both just connect in and flow out!? I grit my teeth, vaguely hearing my watch go off for my heart monitor. I tried to push the competing flows through the breakthrough, let them fight it out after that point where it could be released.

    It didn''t work.

    I was ready to just pick a side as I felt my blood pounding in my ears, starting to overcome my concentration. Just let the energy flow even if it was off balance, maybe I could fix it in the next breakthrough. Maybe just have more flowing back to my dantian than was flowing out of me... I almost paused, but by then my own energy wouldn''t let me, the momentum had built up too much.

    Maybe that was it, those backflows back to my dantian, those points that were so hard to find I hadn''t until recently even known they existed. Where in this breakthrough did they exist? Could I shove both flows through that instead?

    The breakthrough, still unformed, seemed almost impossible to assess as the streams of energy flickered together to fill it in their weaving before they clashed. But the backflow was there, energy already streaming away. And right at the point where the two flows clashed together. Somehow at that point, but not at that point and almost invisible to everything I could sense.

    That impossible direction again, and I shoved the dueling flows of energy at it.

    Instead of both of them going into it, the flows seemed to bypass each other first, then both went into the backflow and also out of my breakthrough at the same time and I almost felt a crash in my body as the humming of energy and thundering of blood in my ears calmed as I made it through.

    Eight.

    It seemed to suffuse my body for a moment as energy flowed from everywhere in me, before pulling back once more and steadily cycling.

    I opened my eyes.

 Chapter 63

    "Nicole?" Melissa jumped from where she was sitting across from me and immediately was leaning down almost in my face, worry and uncertainty in her voice.

    "She''s awake?" Another voice spoke up from behind me in my room, and I startled. How many people were in the house all of a sudden?

    "Yes?" I asked in confusion. I looked over my shoulder and readjusted my shirt which was somehow askew. Across the bed I could see a paramedic coming across the room. Just at the first breakthrough too.

    "How are you feeling? Can you move?" He asked, pulling out a penlight. "Do you mind if I take a look at your pupils?"

    I nodded, a little bewildered at the commotion, and then he beamed the little light into my eyes.

    He frowned. "No real reaction, you may have concussed yourself with whatever you did." He looked at the tablet still sitting on my desk and then put two fingers to my throat. "Your heart rate is at least back to acceptable, so how do you feel? Anything fuzzy? Do you feel dizzy?"

    "Not really?" I looked around and didn''t get any spinning. "I heard the alarm, but how bad was it?"

    "Your alarm was going off for several minutes by the time I got up here." Melissa answered. "Twenty minutes or more by the time we got a paramedic here."

    "Your heart rate had climbed to almost two-fifty beats per minute shortly before I got here and stayed there," the paramedic explained. "I defibbed you twice and you didn''t even notice." He put two fingers to my throat again then watched the health monitor on my tablet for a moment.

    "If it wasn''t for the fact that everything else about your health looked right, though with your pupillary reaction..." He looked at Melissa. "Can I check yours as well?"

    Melissa shrugged.

    He took a moment to check her eyes as well. "No reaction there either. Was the light bright at all to either of you?" Melissa shook her head and I did so as well. "Well, there goes several baselines for medical records." He sighed before putting the penlight away. "Do you believe you need to go to the hospital? I realize we''re not going to be able to offer much other than someone to watch you if there''s a problem at your high level. Not if your heart doesn''t care about going that high and we can''t do anything to help with that."

    "I''m going to be getting looked over later for my breakthrough." I answered him with a shake of my head. "I''m feeling fine right now otherwise."

    Melissa gave me a look but didn''t say anything as the paramedic sighed and nodded himself. "I''m going to have someone come by for a wellness check in four hours. Call 911 again if necessary please."

    ~~~

    After he''d packed up his medical gear and we saw him out, Melissa spun on me. "What the hell did you do to yourself?"

    "Pushed through my eighth breakthrough?" I half asked. "You knew I was going to be trying today."

    "Not that!" Melissa almost yelled before grabbing my arm and pulling me into the bathroom. "This!"

    Two people in the mirror''s reflection stared back, Melissa and myself. But as I raised a hand to touch my face in surprise, I traced a surprise. The sharp cut of my chin had softened slightly, and the touch of a square jaw I''d inherited from my dad had a little more definition. Somehow my hair had brightened a few shades and there was even a hint of natural blush under the freckles on my skin.

    Nothing truly major for any single thing, but all taken together, it was something that stood out nicely. And it wasn''t anything I hated, but nothing I''d spend hours of time trying to do with makeup or anything either. I scrubbed my face with my hands, but nothing changed, then grabbed a towel and tried again to the same non-effect.

    "What the hell?" I asked my reflection. No answer was forthcoming.

    "Did the breakthrough do this?" Melissa stared at me. "Damn, if it did that''s impressive."

    "Yeah." I trailed off, checking myself over once more. "It did some weird things with my energy as well." I left the bathroom and sat down at the table.

    Melissa followed. "Like what?" She asked with curiosity. "I can tell your energy is stronger, but it doesn''t feel like it doubled or anything crazy?"

    "Definitely not doubled, more like an extra quarter." I agreed. "But when I broke through, I had to push the energy in a different direction." I paused, assessing myself. The two flows still mixed together into my eighth breakthrough then overflowed into my body and also backflowed to my dantian. I could almost see the direction it moved backwards, but not quite. "Not in or out, or anything like that."

    "Huh." Melissa looked me over again. "So a whole lot different with this one. You worried me though, when you weren''t even responding to the paramedic''s defibrillator. I probably need to call Ash though, he and the others were driving back in from Rolla. I need to let them know you didn''t cause yourself a heart attack."

    "Heh," I chuckled. "No heart attack, though I definitely felt my blood pressure going nuts." I drummed my fingers on the table and looked at the time. "Go ahead and call, then let''s head over to the hospital. I want to get the x-ray of this one done and they can do whatever checks they can on me."

    ~~~

    A couple of hours later I was sitting in a small office, Melissa and the others waiting outside. "You''re starting to become a black box, Ms. Firen." The tech stated, pulling up images. "You can see from your previous CT scan that we had better fidelity on your bone structure and other areas. Now they''re starting to get washed out."

    The images of my newest scan were definitely not as crisp as they''d been when I was scanned at my last breakthrough. Though there was still enough detail to see that my dantian no longer had any of the additional rings around it. And in my lower spine was that last ring that had originally been around my dantian, now bright against the blurred bone.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    "I wonder why the breakthrough is so clear?" I asked idly.

    "This is the best of multiple scans." The tech answered to my surprise. "You pointed out where this one was and I made sure to rescan it a few times. This is a composite image, so I can pick and choose slices. Is there anything else you need ma''am?" He pulled the USB drive from the system and offered it. "This is your copy, we''ve got your records updated."

    I took the drive with a nod and stood. "No, but thanks."

    "Alright. I think one of the nurses wanted to speak with you before you left." He gave me a nod back.

    Exiting the examination office, I smiled to myself as I felt the flux of energy in the area. There was at least a dozen people at their second or third breakthroughs and the various cycling energies were interesting to sense now, I could almost feel a difference in them spilling in and out of each person. I walked over to the nurse''s station. "Did you guys need something else from me?"

    One of the nurses looked up. "Ah, Ms. Firen, yes?" I nodded. "Due to the 911 call on you earlier, I need to get your vitals again along with a blood draw if it''s possible."

    I raised an eyebrow at her last statement. "I don''t think a blood draw is physically possible? But vitals are fine."

    She pointed to a nearby chair. "Sit there please, and I''d like to try anyways."

    Shrugging, I did as requested. Blood pressure and heart rate, temperature and other general points were done without issue. Then the nurse pulled out a slim needle and tourniquet.

    "I''d like you to relax as best you can, but still hold still. If I get the needle in and you jerk, you''re liable to bend or break it." She tied the tourniquet around my arm and set the needle edge against my skin. "Ready?"

    I took a deep breath and then relaxed and the nurse tugged on the binding a little more to tighten it again. "Go for it."

    Her cycling deepened, three breakthroughs spilling all their energy out of her and focusing on the needle. She pressed the needle to the visible vein in my forearm. For a moment nothing happened as she slowly pressured the needle before the overflow coming off her narrowed even further on the needle. I nearly jumped anyways as it pierced through the skin and blood started coming out into the line.

    She blew out her breath. "Don''t move a muscle in your arm, and I mean that literally." She grabbed a few vials and started filling them.

    "How''d you pull that off?" I asked with honest curiosity, keeping my breathing light and trying to stay both relaxed and frozen at the same time.

    "Ivers'' Overflow. I wasn''t sure it''d be strong enough for your skin, but I''ve gotten I-5s. Part of it seems to be you being aware and relaxed so you''re not fighting it." She replied, paying closer attention to the blood vials she was filling.

    "I wouldn''t have thought of it for needles. And you''re only at three breakthroughs, that''s really impressive." I grinned at her.

    "Thanks, I put pretty much everything I had into it just in case." She finished with the third and final vial. "Alright, all done."

    She pulled the needle and I flinched as I felt the needle sliding out, the muscle in my forearm tightening and I felt a pinch. The needle finished coming out, badly bent. She tapped it and the bent portion fell off. "Thank you for not doing that earlier," she said drolly. "Let me add a band-aid and then you''re good to go."

    As I walked back into the waiting room, I was a little surprised to see Danny waiting with everyone else. "Huh, who''d you leave back in charge in Rolla?" I asked, catching their attention.

    "They can run without me for a while, but Tasha. And you have more of an effect on day to day things there anyways." Danny answered simply, then did a doubletake at me. "What the heck happened to you?"

    Ash and Karen were both staring a little as well.

    "The breakthrough, we''re thinking." Melissa answered on my behalf. "And I told you she looked a little different."

    "I approve." Ash grinned before getting smacked by Karen. "Ow, sorry."

    I held up the drive. "I''ll go over what I know back at the house."

    ~~~

    "So, energy assisted makeover, a good chunk of extra energy, and some new weird direction?" Karen asked after I''d gone over the earlier part of the day.

    "Honestly, that directional thing sounds familiar." Ash spoke up, snapping his fingers. "Damn, what was it?" He pulled out his phone and started tapping at it.

    I looked at him and shrugged. "If anything of this is something we know, I''ll be happy. But yeah. I think the biggest thing we''re going to have to make note of is being able to push the flows in that direction. Otherwise it just doesn''t seem like it''s going to work."

    "What I''m worried about is the amount of energy you got." Danny chimed in. "It''s a little more with each breakthrough, but nothing like the first few. It basically doubled each time up to the fourth breakthrough, but after that the fifth one didn''t get nearly that, and you said the eighth one was only a quarter or so more? Are we doing something wrong that it''s not doubling every time?"

    I offered Danny the same shrug. "Try something different then. You''re just as welcome to do so as anyone else. I know I''m trailblazing like mad, but nothing says what I''m doing is perfect."

    "Just that following the path you''re making means we''re less likely to hit the potholes you are." Karen interrupted from her seat. "Instead we''re trying to help catch you when you hit them instead, Miss two-fifty beats per minute."

    "Watch it." I laughed.

    "So, what''s next then?" Melissa asked me and the room in general.

    "Other than what Ash might figure out from his searching?" I motioned to the man still searching for something on his phone. "Keep moving forward. We''ve gotten almost a dozen little techniques and such reported for bounty in the past week and a half. We''re running out of our people to put on trying to learn these techniques from description and scratch. I think we''re going to need to recruit more people to be actual Dantian Seekers, rather than join the Dantian Seeker gym."

    Danny laughed, and I knew it was because I was parroting his own words from a month ago.

    I gave him a half-hearted glare. "Yuk it up. We''re going to need more people we can tell to do things, rather than pulling volunteers from the classes we''re running. Can we do that Danny?"

    "Depends. We''re currently running a minimal ''gym'' fee so we can have a cashflow, but most of the Seeker funds come from the DARPA grant. Do you want to dig deeper in on that with Brent, or start charging extra?" Danny offered his opinion. "And before you ask, right now it''s about two or three thousand a month we''re getting from those fees from about five hundred people, which wouldn''t be enough to pay for anything if we dropped DARPA completely."

    "DARPA then." I replied after a moment. "I don''t want to put barriers to us on people, we''ll have to try to pull off self-sufficiency later, I guess."

    "Hah, here we go." Ash interrupted. "In my damn math class book, just as the shit hit the fan with the Gasp. Dimensional analysis with orientation and frame of reference."

    "Come again?" I asked.

    "I was just getting into this before we pulled out of the classes for all this. But from what I recall it was all about direction being based on your frame of reference and orientation. If I''m facing you and point left, it''s pointing right to you. That type of thing."

    "And that tells you what that direction is somehow?" Karen asked quizzically.

    "Not exactly, but I think it means you don''t have the right frame of reference for that direction." Ash frowned. "I don''t know exactly."

    "Go find someone that can answer it better then, Ash." I sighed. "Before we lean further on Brent for that too."

    I looked back at Danny. "We are going to have to start structuring it more though. We get a few more people to research, a few more to teach. Split all the classes we''re doing by experience or breakthrough number maybe. You good for hiring?"

    "Yep." Danny nodded. "I''ve noticed a fair number of people are barely employed in Rolla now, so we should be able to hire easily enough. Just need to find people that are willing to do weird things with their energy all day."

 Chapter 64

    July 14th

    Professor Weston was a tenured professor at Midwest Central and taught a lot of the higher level math courses. I had just started getting to the three and four thousand level courses he commonly taught that were required in my degree program before everything cultivation had happened. Ash, being a year ahead of me and mainlining a mathematics degree, had had several classes with the older man and apparently had been able to get a meeting with him, then another to drag me into it.

    As I entered his office with Ash, I was a little surprised to find I didn''t sense any energy from him, not even a lit dantian. Still, I sat at one of the chairs across from his desk and smiled as Ash took the other. "Thanks for seeing me, sir."

    "It wasn''t nearly as much trouble as you might think." He smiled. "My office hours have been taken up much less than usual with students due to so many withdrawals, but that''s neither here nor there. Mr. Carson gave me a general overview of what you were looking to discuss, and I admit it sounds fascinating. Can you go further in depth on it, Ms. Firen?"

    "Call me Nicole please," I started. "But yes."

    I pulled out my tablet and switched to the generic body image we used to show off the breakthrough points. Setting it down I switched the image into projection mode.

    "For some background since you don''t have a dantian, when one is created it ends up here or here, depending on if it''s a personal internal energy used or the energy around us." I pointed with my pen to the point at the stomach, then just below the heart. "Then as you go through the breakthroughs we know of, the energy flows stronger through you to each point."

    I traced the pathways from the dantian through each breakthrough, my pen causing the model to light up in response.

    "Ignoring the fact that we don''t actually know the source of the energy, each time it hits a breakthrough, the energy goes one of three ways. It can slightly overflow into the body. Through a pathway to the next breakthrough if you have it. Or backflow back into the dantian."

    "I believe I''ve seen this model before," Weston said. "The higher breakthrough spots are new to me though."

    "What I''m here for today is what happened when I managed this eighth breakthrough here. To go through a breakthrough, you basically have to push enough energy into it to clear it out and add it to the flow coming from your dantian. I pulled energy from both six and seven, and the flows wrapped into each other before going into the eighth breakthrough. Instead of only clearing it out, they were basically pushing into each other with increasing force. Trust me that wasn''t fun." I winced and laughed just slightly. "I fixed it by basically feeling out where the backflow back to my dantian was supposed to be in that breakthrough and shoved the energy there, hoping both of them would flow in the same direction."

    "And?" Weston prompted.

    "When I shoved the energy towards what should be the backflow back to my dantian, I felt for a moment it move in a way I literally can''t describe, but it was basically an impossible direction. The energy flows between breakthroughs and back to the dantian don''t follow a completely traceable path, I already knew that. We''ve even had a fluoroscopic procedure done and the dyes flow from one area to the next without going through all the same space. I''m don''t think it''s teleportation, but this is the first time I''ve noticed that directional movement like that and I honestly don''t know what it is."

    Professor Weston nodded, taking notes. "You said like that. Have you felt it any other time?"

    I paused, thinking. "During the third planet breakthrough, actually."

    "Not useful as a test point then, that''s not something I think we''ll see repeated." Weston noted, tapping his pen against the paper. "Honestly, based on what you''re describing I have an idea on what you''re not seeing."

    "Really? That easily?" I blinked.

    "It does have to do with your frame of reference, as Mr. Carson was trying to explain to me a couple of days ago. Would you like an example?"

    Weston was already reaching into his desk even as I answered. "Yes please!"

    He pulled out a sheet of graph paper and quickly sketched an x-y axis on it and drew a single line. He then ripped a small strip of paper and laid it perpendicular across the line, creating an X. "Consider the paper a second line on the graph. Now, we can describe both lines by their starting and endpoint points on the graph, by the fact that the cross each other, and several other ways." He then put his finger on the strip of paper and slid it across the graph. "I can even translate one of the lines across the graph by moving it. With me so far?"

    Ash and I nodded.

    "Now, here''s your example." He picked up the strip of paper and then laid it back down on the graph in a different spot. "From the perspective of the x-y axis graph, my line vanished and reappeared somewhere else. Without using the z-axis, describe what I just did."

    "You picked-" I stopped myself. "No, picking it up is the z-axis. So the line moved along known x and y axes and additionally along an unknown axis." I paused and looked at the paper, getting it. "Are you saying you think the energy is moving through the fourth dimension? Isn''t that supposed to be time?"

    Weston nodded. "From Mr. Carson''s original descriptions and your more in depth ones, yes. It''s generally described as the w axis, and movement in it is ana and kata. As for time being the fourth dimension, take our example here again." He picked up the scrap of paper. "The graph only knows from where the line was removed, and eventually when it is returned to. It doesn''t know the path the line takes. In our tiny example here," Weston lightly folded the graph, "it doesn''t even recognize that I can shorten the distance between two points on the graph by manipulation of its world. Faster and slower time." He set the graph back down, then put the scrap ''line'' on it.

    "It obviously becomes a lot more involved when you begin looking at three dimensions into fourth, but the basis stays the same. If your energy is moving in an impossible direction and then ending up back where you understand it, I would believe it moves ana or kata through the fourth dimension, then returns kata or ana back to you."

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    I sat back, mulling that thought over.

    "So what can we actually do with that knowledge, professor?" Ash asked.

    He shrugged. "I honestly don''t know. What can you do with it? Other than being able to put a name to that direction, the fact that you personally, Ms. Firen, can sense anything about it puts you ahead of all but the most powerful supercomputers that are specifically designed to detect blackhole wave energy according to Einstein''s theories."

    "Being able to put a name to it helps though." I spoke up. "Thank you."

    "You''re welcome. Honestly, this conversation has been the most fascinating thing I''ve heard about this energy so far. Possible personal usage of a fourth dimension? It''d make for an amazing study."

    "You want a job?" I asked dryly. "We''re stumbling through the practicals of using this energy. I''d love if someone could actually build a real theory on it."

    Weston looked nonplussed. "I''ve read both DARPA papers your group has released, and they were reasonably well documented for a barely known phenomenon. Do you need personnel that badly? Running a study such as this should be something well within your means currently I would hope."

    I shook my head. "We''re building documentation and theories around this after we''ve already managed to get results. God only knows what we''re missing because of that, and we''re expanding now for additional people to at least teach what we do know. I also want more people to poke at the edges, because Ash can do things I can''t, and I can do things he can''t."

    Weston nodded thoughtfully. "You''ve discovered fire, but don''t know all the ways to start fire, or ways to use it. I''m willing to help you at least provisionally, though it will have to be around my schedule here. If these abilities are as personal as they seem to appear, you''re going to need a lot of testers and results."

    "We work with what we''ve got." I answered. "We can always make whoever we hire for teaching test as well, and I do have access to a large amount of data from the military people."

    "When did this become a job interview?" Ash complained.

    ~~~

    Breakthrough to breakthrough. Breakthrough overflow into body. Breakthrough back into dantian. Stare at where it disappeared from my mental sight, likely shifting ana or kata to travel back, only to return again.

    Shift the mental picture to try to stare at where it was coming from. Try to study the energy, see where it was coming from instead of when it shifted.

    Just like I could overflow specific parts of my energy to use, it wasn''t hard to specifically send that energy into the backflow either. That was the underlying bit about cycling to build up for a breakthrough, after all.

    I could watch the energy vanish, and watch it reappear and know it was the same bit of energy I''d started with. But I couldn''t track it at all when it slipped into that other phase.

    "Nicole, what the heck is all this about personal Seeker documentation? And some specific hires you''re looking for?" Danny asked, coming into my office.

    I opened my eyes, looking up at him from the yoga mat where I''d been staring down my own energy. "I tentatively hired Professor James Weston from the college, as he''s done studies for his doctorate before and now wants to do a study on cultivation based on the stuff Ash and I talked to him about. But we need more specific research type people and a lot of data points. So, specific hires and wanting to open documentation up for anyone even remotely attached to the Seekers to explicitly provide data to us, similar to what we''ve gotten from DARPA about the military guys."

    I stood up, stretching. "I''m still going to try to push ahead as far and honestly as fast as I can. But there''s hundreds of people here in Rolla alone who have something they can share that can help everyone. I''m not going to and don''t want to make providing that information required for anyone we''re not paying a salary to, but I am thinking about making it a requirement for anyone joining more than whatever we end up making our basic classes."

    "Your decision to make." Danny nodded. "But I thought we were all about sharing everything we could with everyone?"

    "I am, and everything not stupidly dangerous will be available." Primarily eating other people''s energy. "Just not always from a class. Look it up in our free library instead of getting instructor led training." I shook my head and then looked over Danny''s shoulder out onto the floor. "I''m not leaving anyone on Team Humanity behind, Danny."

    "Never said you were, I just wanted to know what was going on." Danny nodded.

    "Speaking of Team Humanity, did you see the video someone posted to the forums yesterday? The bulldozer thing?" I shifted over to my desk.

    "No?" Danny sat down as well and I turned the monitor so he could see.

    "Yeah, outside Norfolk apparently someone in the Corps of Engineers got tired of how slow their digging was going with the equipment and decided to do something about it, probably not originally approved." I pulled up the video in question. From a drone vantage point, it showed a dozen men with as many bulldozer blades in front of them, the blades dug into the ground as the people ran. Dirt was flying off to one side as the blades were angled all to fling the dirt in the same direction.

    "What the-?" Danny laughed as he watched.

    "They''ve got to be all four or five breakthroughs, but it was posted saying they were using a combination of Feathersteps and Ivers'' to do thirty mile an hour runs digging down nearly two feet a run, seventy or so feet across." I winced as I saw something fly up in the video, even though I''d watched it before. "Ivers'' is obviously being used to not care when they hit coral or stone, I''m pretty certain that would ruin the blade eventually."

    "Go Corps of Engineers." Danny stated, whistling.

    "Go Team Humanity." I corrected. "Two different shared techniques being used. Otherwise we''d still have guys slowly digging trenches."

 Chapter 65

    July 16th

    It was nearly two in the morning, I noted with a yawn but continued reading through applicants. We''d only set up a minimal qualification for the position with the Seekers, namely having at least three breakthroughs. Even after only a few days, we''d netted nearly a thousand applicants from all over the US, and only sixty were anywhere nearby.

    Researchers and teachers needed. Apply with Dantian Seekers. Must have minimum of three breakthroughs and willing to spend full time hours working on energy cultivation. I laughed to myself as I randomly picked another resume. Earl Cox in New Mexico, laboratory technician. Willing to teach, yes. Willing to relocate, no. Why even apply? I asked myself. The jobs were explicitly here in Rolla, we weren''t setting up remote sites. If that were to happen, that would have to be sometime in the future when we were more capable.

    Sighing, I closed the resume and updated the filter to list to people willing to move, instead of just by current job. That at least lowered the list to several hundred people with research type jobs, so maybe I coul-

    New energies flowed from that impossible direction once more and I reeled from the sensation.

    A firey energy that burned even brighter than it had previously, air and wood being drawn on heavily as the fire banked itself to earth. Earth that seemed to then crack open, an explosion of new metal energy that melted towards water but also seemed to be forged in the excess fire energy.

    Even before I could orient myself to address Zhaohui''s presence to ask, the answer echoed directly from the energy around me.

    Your world''s soul has completed its own cycle, though it remains imbalanced. I shall no longer cycle your world''s [energy] for you.

    And from the various types energies something pulled back. From fire, water, wood, and earth it almost felt like a pressure that had been holding those parts of the energy let go. The energy around me seemed to shift on its own now, flowing together and converting among the six types. Something I hadn''t even noticed it wasn''t truly doing. Earth to metal. Metal to water. Water split apart to air and wood. Wood breathed out air and burned into fire. Fire fed on the air and burned out back into earth again.

    "Nicole!" Melissa came tearing into the room in pajamas a minute later, eyes wild as she looked around. "What the hell?"

    "Breakthough." I answered, shaking my head. "The alien did something else this time too."

    "Yeah, last time the alien offered up anything, it was to choke everyone telling us to breathe." Melissa frowned.

    The pressure that had grasped all the energy was still there, just barely on this side of that extra dimensional direction, if Weston was right. It seemed tied up in the presence Zhaohui still maintained.

    I hadn''t done this in a while, but neither had the alien actually openly offered a word to ask back. I cycled my energy out of my body, overflowing heavily as I focused on repeating that one word back at him. Focusing on what I knew of my energy, and the energy around us. "What energy?"

    Melissa gave me a quizzical look.

    I frowned. I was missing something. I''d used multiple times the energy I''d had to ask this time than I''d had when I had successfully parroted back Initiate''s Realm. If anything, it should have been easier.

    I focused on a different question, one I''d had a previous answer on. Throwing all the energy I could overflow from my breakthrough, pulling absolutely everything I could. "What is the Initiate''s Realm?"

    And still I was missing something. I scowled. "What is the strength of the world''s soul?"

    Something seemed to shiver through Zhaohui''s presence, coming in from that direction before I felt the answer. So he was still answering, at least.

    Your world''s soul has completed its own cycle, though it remains imbalanced. I shall no longer cycle your world''s [energy] for you.

    It shivered and echoed through my own energy, causing my chest to actually hurt a bit. Where my second breakthrough was. The breakthrough that had happened yelling back at the alien, months ago. It had seemed to heal and deepen from being as shallow as it originally was, but...

    This time, instead of pulling deeply on the greatest energy output I could, I instead pulled from the small overflow that was coming from that breakthrough specifically. It seemed to spill from my grip in that same other direction even as I directed it in the manner I could actually use. "What e???n???e???r???g???y????"

    Every one of my breakthroughs suddenly seemed to constrict as if I''d choked and all of them higher than my second started to trickle backwards into it, cutting off the normal backflow to my dantian.

    Blackness coalesced from that pressure and built a form I''d only seen in a video. "Oh shit." I breathed out painfully and Melissa looked at me, then towards the figure that had appeared. Her eyes widened and she jumped forward to put her own body between me and the alien.

    "You would harm the balance of your body asking questions you do not need answers of." He didn''t truly speak, but the sounds he made were backed by an overwhelming power that became understanding as it thundered across me.

    My breakthroughs seemed to scream in protest as energy tried to cycle within me, but still flowed out my second breakthrough heavier than it should, very little making it to the next breakthrough. The energy that resided in my eighth breakthrough was slowly lessening as it flowed down the split to the lower points.

    And then the flow of my energy stopped all together as something crashed against me, freezing my energy from flowing at all. "You may fail or succeed to repair your body and soul afterwards. Instead of receiving answers from this one, you will instead indulge one''s curiosity."

    I barely grabbed onto Melissa''s shoulder as all my strength left me in one moment. She caught me, and I felt for the first time in months real pain as I was squeezed too hard. I cried out and Melissa let go as I fell to the couch.

    "What did you do to her?!" Melissa screamed, seemingly torn between staying between us and just flat out attacking.

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    "This one will let you continue to bleed your soul through your body if you would like, Initiate." Zhaohui''s ''voice'' seemed almost amused, yet it didn''t hurt me anymore to hear it.

    I couldn''t cycle. Probably for the best if I''d done something to myself, but the alien was the only one stopping me from hurting maybe? "What''s...your questions?" I coughed out, still in phantom pain. I could still feel the pathways of my energy frozen and constricted. It was more than the pain of using everything up like I''d done before, instead a maddening sensation of nothingness pressing from senses I had already become used to feeling through.

    "You created interest in yourself when you opened a [meridian/breakthrough] with your soul to speak, and then further when you offered of yourself to others in awakening. It is unfortunate to see you failed in continuing that path, and now attempt its vestige." Zhaohui''s statement shook, and somehow one of the words seemed to overlap each other. I failed a path?

    "One sees your world and still sees your hand guiding the multitude, even those who do not need you to define a path for them. Yet you obviously have not the strength of soul to reach to others nor have your disciples made it around your world to instruct. And those who you personally awakened," the air in front of him flickered, showing my parents, Brent, Mike, and event that idiot news reporter before fading again, "are not enforced upon your path either. One is curious as to your method of providing orthodoxy." His not voice asked.

    "Orthodoxy?" Melissa asked even as she stepped backwards to continue covering me. I felt like an invalid, trying to grasp something I didn''t have anymore. "Isn''t that a church thing?" The alien didn''t respond.

    I wasn''t providing religion, I was-Oh. "You want to know how we''re providing training to everyone? Do you even know what the internet is?"

    "This one would not need their curiosity sated if so."

    I fell back against the couch cushions, still not certain this was even happening. If it wasn''t for the pain I already felt, I''d assume I''d fallen asleep and was dreaming. I ached.

    "This." Melissa grabbed my tablet from the couch, staring at me before waving the tablet at the alien. "Anything you put on one of these, we can make available to anyone else in the world." Worry lined Melissa''s face as she looked back at me again.

    "A secret tome?" Zhaohui focused on it. "It has no [qi/energy], a mortal creation?"

    I could vaguely feel a sense of pressure, next to nothing compared to what was already freezing my energy, but it floored Melissa, making her fall down at my feet.

    "And it does not respond to demands. One is impressed with those who shall serve in this Lei Zhaohui''s ranks." The alien stated then turned his consideration on me. "If you swear to this Lei Zhaohui now, this one will realign your soul and body in return."

    Even with all my energy suppressed, even knowing I''d probably badly screwed myself over, I still shook my head. "No." I grit out, trying futilely to push back against the pressure now.

    The alien vanished. And whatever pressure he had been holding against me vanished as well and my senses roared back along with the pain of my breakthroughs beginning to run in reverse.

    "What the fuck?" Melissa asked as she staggered back to her feet, before realizing. "How do I help, what do I do?"

    I shook my head again. My energy was flowing out of my breakthrough, one much lower that my maximum now. Was the damn alien taunting me with what I''d done to myself?

    A fair bit of the energy had flowed out of my eighth breakthrough now and I could feel the edges of my energy now pulling back from that direction. Directions.

    "Nicole? Nicole, do I call 911?" Melissa asked.

    "No. They can''t. Fix this." And I had a bad feeling that my breakthrough unravelling would be bad in general too.

    It seemed like playing tug of war with broken arms as I grasped the energy still overflowing from that breakthrough. Energy fought itself, built up momentum wanting to continue to push even as I held the path it took closed, pushing it once more in the path it should be taking. Against the flow of energy falling back down from the higher breakthroughs.

    Six higher breakthroughs trying to shove back down towards two smaller breakthroughs and the only thing even barely helping was my dantian was still cycling power upwards. But it felt like a stalemate, again two flows of energy pushing against each other. But I only truly had control of one this time.

    "Not enough...energy." I managed to get out, still with my eyes closed and focusing. How long could I keep pushing it back before the breakthroughs actually fell without any energy in them?

    A crack like shattering glass and I felt energy bloom against my face before quickly fading. Then again, and again as something fell on my skin. "Pull it in Nicole! I know you don''t use external energy, but fucking pull it in!"

    Another shattering crack and this time I gave slightly, enough to grab and pull in the energy as I breathed in. A few more and my energy had built up enough coming from my dantian to shift the contesting energies upwards into my third breakthrough.

    From there it was a winnable fight, Melissa timing geodes to my breaths as I fought and built momentum back. By the time I broached my eighth breakthrough again though, everything felt thin and weak. The flows of energy within me cycled almost listlessly.

    I opened my eyes again, realizing I was half covered in shattered crystal.

    "You OK?" Melissa asked, and I sat up.

    "Maybe, but only thanks to you." I leaned forward and hugged her, receiving a very light hug back. "Without those geodes I don''t think I would have had enough to push it back again."

    Melissa''s hug grew stronger, but it didn''t hurt. I held on for a moment before pushing back. "I don''t know if I really fixed it though."

    She sat back, staring at me for a moment. "You still feel stronger than me. And not seven breakthroughs stronger."

    "I don''t know." I looked at my hands, carefully cycled, then closed them in a tight squeeze. Energy flowed and overflowed. It didn''t feel like nearly enough.

 Chapter 66

    "You OK?" Brent asked from the screen. "You look like shit. Did the breakthrough hit you harder than anyone else?"

    In less than an hour, the planet had had a breakthrough, I''d thoroughly screwed myself up, had a hair-raising conversation with the alien, hopefully managed some sort of fix, and now Brent had called. Melissa answered as I was too busy trying to figure out what I''d done to myself.

    But seeing as how the alien''s original message this morning probably hadn''t left anyone asleep all over the world, Brent being awake wasn''t a surprise, I guess.

    Brent looked a little haggard as he asked the question. I apparently looked worse. "Not the breakthrough." I started. My dantian still cycled, energy still flowed within me. "Did you catch the emphasis on the word energy?"

    "Maybe? I honestly thought the house was on fire when the breakthrough woke me up, so I wasn''t paying enough attention." Brent answered. "Did you understand more? Was it that bad?"

    "I tried to ask back. And apparently haven''t been using it enough, or something." I took a deep breath. "I broke something, or at least gouged a hole in my breakthrough. And the alien showed up to tell me how I was screwing myself over."

    "What." Brent''s voice nearly broke.

    "Yeah, he showed up literally out of that presence you can ask about the world''s soul." I answered. "He froze everything about my energy bleeding out of me, told me I broke the balance of my body and soul, then demanded to know how people all over the world were following my orthodoxy. Melissa showed him a tablet. He doesn''t know what the internet is."

    I laughed, a choked thing, at the face Brent was making. It was just as surreal on my side.

    "He offered to fix me if I joined him, I told him no. He then vanished and I started breaking again. Melissa ended up helping me with pretty much the entire geode store we''ve got here and I think I patched myself up, but I have no clue how well."

    "I''m going to have to find out who is panicking at the UN building and the White House now, but is there anything I can do for you first?" Brent asked, and I could already see him typing on his end.

    "Right now?" I thought about my art of awakening, that I might have been able to do something different with it. Was that just a vestigial ability now too? "Nothing immediate, no. Maybe once you''ve got more time. Melissa did turn on the recorder, so we''ve got a few minutes clip of him I''ll send to you. Whatever he was doing, we were the only ones actually talking."

    "Alright, thanks. Get some sleep, or at least some rest. I''m going to have to cause some headaches." Brent looked like he was already about to start three other calls.

    I nodded then hung up, then sent the video over.

    "So now that everyone going to be panicking about the alien running around, what do we do?" Melissa asked from where she was sitting, watching me.

    "Figure out what I did wrong and hopefully fix it." I answered with a resigned shrug. "Can you get Danny to cancel my classes or get someone else to cover them for me for a couple of days?"

    "I''ll cover what I can and get Danny to find someone for the rest, sure." Melissa nodded. "That''s easy stuff. What else?"

    "If I knew, I''d tell you. Or tell myself, at least." I chuckled a bit at my own joke. "Right now, all I''ve got is me and whatever pieces I''d talked out of the alien." I changed screens on the tablet, pulling up some notes.

    I saw Melissa give me a long look. "I''m gonna go for a run then. Want me to grab breakfast on the way back?"

    "Sure." I nodded, already getting in my own notes as Melissa left.

    ~~~

    "Lighting my dantian, pre Gasp. When I yelled at him during the Gasp, making my second breakthrough. The first time I did the Art of Awakening, without even talking directly at him he talked to me. Asking about the Initiate''s Realm." I listed off the few times I''d caught the alien''s direct attention. "And tonight. Wasn''t really a whole lot."

    I thought back. "First time was basically congrats on not being on a false path. Second time was more exasperation on people in general. Third time was me walking a razor''s edge. Last time was actual possibly useful information."

    Preparing the body to energize the sleeping soul.

    I tapped my fingers on the table. "Then saying tonight I screwed up my body and soul." I looked at my notes again. "That''s right, I had that horrible migraine after I asked about the Initiate''s Realm. I thought it was because of what I saw during that, but was it because I was at five breakthroughs when I did it? So, what? I did multiple different preparations or something?"

    I cycled energy deeper and let it overflow, mentally assessing each breakthrough as my energy flowed through it, absently taking notes on my tablet as well.

    The first was fine, no issues I could tell. The second breakthrough still had an imprint of energy against it, the result of shoving more than two dozen of the crystal geodes energy at my breakthrough to stem the energy bleed.

    A little bit of energy passed through it to overflow into my body still, but it was a pinprick in the patch instead of the natural flow my other breakthroughs had.

    Three through seven weren''t messed up. Eighth... still overflowed into my body, still had the same backflow towards my dantian. But the energy itself seemed to lack nearly that same amount of refinement of energy it''d had previously.

    I sighed and stood up, walking across the room. Cautiously, I overflowed specifically for that refinement and fed the momentum into Feathersteps. No difference in feeling there.

    I stepped onto the wall and kept walking. So my specific momentum energy was still accessible. I stepped off the wall and reassessed. It had noticeably decreased though, even if it was rebuilding. I waited a few minutes as my energy slowly refined itself, stopping at that lower level again.

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    I grabbed the tablet again off the table and then fell onto the couch. "Two major problems then. The patch on my second breakthrough, and my energy not refining itself nearly enough."

    No clue on how to fix the energy refining, but I had an idea on the patch. It was just uncycled energy, much like what the ELF idiots were doing to themselves because they refused to cycle it. Focusing on that patch again, I could feel the very edges of it being soaked in my energy, in my actual breakthrough. Cycling deeper as if I were building energy to try for a new breakthrough, I could feel the merger point between breakthrough and patch mesh a little more as my energy flowed faster and heavier, held internally rather than overflowing outside of me.

    Hopefully it''d just be a matter of time to have the energy just become my energy again, instead of being a band-aid.

    Then my body twitched in pain and I had to ease the cycling. "No forcing it then." I muttered. Instead, I just closed my eyes and concentrated on maintaining that general flow.

    ~~~

    That evening, Brent swung by to check on me and give Melissa and I an update on what trouble he''d caused.

    "Honestly, I''m glad you took video." Brent to Melissa. "According to every camera and sensor on the alien, he stayed where he was the entire time. He''s still there, actually."

    "What?" Melissa paused. "How the hell?"

    "No clue." Brent slumped in the chair, scrubbing at his face. "Without that video, well, they''d still believe you two because it''s not something you lie about, but it makes for faster belief."

    "Great, so now he can be there and wherever else he wants to be at the same time?" Melissa asked.

    "He already has been." I answered her from the couch. After spending all day riding the edge of how much energy I could cycle without hurting myself, I wasn''t even sure how much I''d made a dint in that patch. Not to mention the exhaustion it''d given me.

    Brent gave me a look. "How do you mean?"

    "His ''august presence'' is still here." I waved my hand around. "He noticed before when I did something without talking to him. The fact that he can apparently make a second body is scary as hell, but he''s already capable of answering anyone, anywhere, who asks about the world''s soul. The only place I haven''t felt it is in the hidden forest."

    "I hadn''t thought of it that way. That''s unpleasant." Brent noted.

    "Speaking of things I''ve done," I sat up a little more, "do me a favor, Brent. Cycle as deeply as you can please. You''re still third breakthrough, right?"

    "Yes?" Brent answered cautiously, but did as asked. "There hasn''t really been a need for me to push higher." The slow influx of energy into Brent gained depth as he cycled, pulling energy in faster even as his own overflow spilled out of him. "What are you testing?"

    "Stupid things the alien said." I answered, watching the energy pull into him. "He mentioned people I personally awakened not being forced on my path."

    Brent''s energy slowed. "You want to try forcing me on your path? Also, aren''t you hurt?"

    "No, I don''t want to force you onto my path. Especially if it''s just another thing I didn''t do but could have. I just want to know if you can do anything with my energy. I''m not going to do anything active other than sit nearer to you, so if that hurts me it''s better to know now."

    Saying so, I hopped off the couch and took a seat at the kitchen table with him and Melissa. "Keep cycling, tell me if anything changes for you."

    My natural cycling was about a tenth of my maximum strength. A portion of that backflowed to my dantian again in the greater cycle, the rest overflowed into my body. Some of that overflow was absorbed by my body and the rest was the actual energy that left me to disappear into the greater flows around us.

    Sitting next to Brent as he deeply cycled, I was basically in the eddies of energy he was pulling into himself. From what we''d seen and tested previously, one person''s overflow didn''t mess with another''s cycling unless you were purposefully throwing energy to try to stop them. Even the testing with the people from Goodfellow a couple of weeks ago proved the same thing.

    This time, however, the excess that was flowing off of me was getting caught up in Brent''s cycling, pulling in with everything else.

    "Huh." Brent said within moments. "I can actually feel your different energy as a separate thing when it cycles in. Though, as soon as it''s out of my dantian and going to the first breakthrough it splits apart into air and water."

    "Something else we missed then, huh." Melissa said, watching with interest. "Or is it just your technique taught him to pull from more than just one source of external energy?"

    "Go for it." Brent offered and I got back up while Melissa scooted closer. Melissa had no issues ramping up to her maximum and pushing out over Brent''s cycling.

    He shook his head after a moment, confirming what we both saw. "Nothing extra there."

    I snapped my fingers. "Damn. And I don''t want to do any more in depth testing until I''m not hurting anymore either."

    "It''s an interesting trick at least." Brent nodded. "I wonder if you could supplement someone above what the earth''s breakthrough level is with your overflow."

    "You''re not testing that anytime soon." Melissa interrupted. "You''d need to at least get one above the Earth yourself Brent, or we''d have to get someone else you''ve awakened Nicole. And that list wasn''t very big."

    "Did that reporter ever do more than ignite his dantian?" I wondered out loud.

    "After you''ve healed. You said so yourself, Nicole." Melissa whacked my shoulder.

    "I''ll look into it." Brent offered, only to get a smack himself as well.