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.

"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."