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.

“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.”