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."

"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.