To say I was displeased would be putting what I was feeling in the moment in the mildest of terms. Now don’t get me wrong, nobody loves my mom more than me, except maybe my dad but she could be so infuriating at times. Like now, I was fuming as I was packing up what I was taking to college. Her excuse was that she didn’t think I’d win the scholarship when she signed up under my name; there were at least a million people who applied. I was planning on following in my father’s footsteps as a forest management ranger. After all, he taught me everything he knew. However, that would have to wait until I failed this engineering course I was taking through this scholarship.

The only good thing about this scholarship was that the dorm and utilities were completely free. Even that could backfire if I got a bad roommate. Who knows, maybe I could go to a sorority party and get laid. I laughed out loud at the absurd thought. Grabbing my hunting knife and throwing it in my duffle bag I was finished and ready to go. I never went anywhere without my knife; my father gave it to me when I turned ten. It seldom left my person and I was sad I wouldn’t be allowed to carry it on my person on campus. I picked up my bag and walked to my door, I got the strangest feeling in my gut like I was afraid I wouldn’t ever come back. I dismissed it quickly and walked into the hall closing the door behind me.

“Are you ready to go Cub?” asked my father from the end of the hall, he called me by my nickname I acquired in one of my past adventures. That’s a story for another time. I nodded to my father as I walked to the main part of the house. He took my bag and headed out to the car.

“I’m sure you’ll do just fine honey.” My mother said in an encouraging tone. I shook my head.

“Thanks, mom but you and I both know I don’t have a mind for these things.”

“I’m sure you’ll do great all the same.” She replied, she smiled and hugged me. After a short goodbye, I went out to the car. My single bag had already been loaded. My father leaned on the car waiting for me to come out.

“Ready?” he asked as I came out of the house.

“As I’ll ever be.” I sighed and got in the passenger’s seat.

It was a miserable 6-hour drive to the campus, my parents only had one car and I couldn’t afford one so my father drove me to my new home. The campus had a dedicated bus on the city route to transportation wasn’t a huge issue; I was still a long way from home in an unfamiliar place. I grabbed my bag, said my goodbyes to my father, and headed for the office.

I was finally taken to my dorm and introduced to my roommate. My first impressions of him were not that great, to be honest. He wasn’t a bad guy he was just weird. Maybe that’s not the right word. Eccentric seemed to describe Trevor Arentino rather well. His dreadlocks and pale skin gave a strange contradiction. He was fairly decent once I got to know him.

Four months after I entered college, things were going exactly as I expected. My grades were very low and I was failing. I wasn’t stressing that much though, after all the scholarship was a full scholarship, meaning we never paid a cent for it. Trevor and I got to be pretty good friends during that time, I wasn’t sure what he was even doing here, it didn’t seem like he attended any classes, he spent most of his time online looking at obscure websites about myths and legends. He wasn’t a slob though which I was relieved of, he kept his part of the dorm neat and tidy.

I was sitting at my small desk finishing an assignment, I was distracted and it took me a while to finish. Once I did finish I crashed on my bed, a moment later a knock sounded on the door. I got up and opened the door, outside stood a delivery man holding a small package.

“Package for Argent Wolfram, please sign here.” He said as handed me a clipboard. As I signed I heard Trevor yell around the corner.

“Is that the pizza guy?”

“No, just a package,” I yelled back. I handed the clipboard back to the man and took the package. After closing the door I went to the table in the center of our dorm. Trevor came over as well, he looked puzzled.

“I didn’t order anything, is it for you?” I nodded and took out a pocket knife to open the box.

“It’s a birthday package,” I explained. My roommate raised a thick eyebrow.

“Dude that’s awesome, when is your birthday?”

“Today” I replied, it was true. Today I had been alive for nineteen years in this harsh world. Quite the accomplishment I thought.

“Why didn’t you tell me, I will be right back,” Trevor replied before hurrying away in search of something. I opened the box and inside was a card and a small compass. This was my grandfather’s compass, one of my dad’s most prized possessions. I was surprised and very moved. My dad loved this compass almost as much as my mother and me. I opened up the card; it was an unadorned plain card.

Happy birthday my boy, I know I’m not there and I wish I was but work has been putting me through hell. Once my boss caught wind of me planning to retire he’s been trying to squeeze every last bit of work out of me he can, I don’t blame the guy for it though. It’s been hard for the Department to get new employees, you know I’m not one to brag but I’m the best damn ranger they’ve had in the last hundred years. And yes I am retiring; this job is getting to be too much for these old bones. On that note I thought you could use this little gift more than me, it was your grandfathers. He once claimed it gave him the luck of the gods, who knows, he might be right. That old compass has gotten me out of several sticky situations, and maybe it can help you now Cub.

PS: If you lose it or break it my boot is going up your ass boy.

I laughed at the PS at the bottom of the card; I picked up the compass and looked at it closely. Turning it over I see my grandfather’s initials carved onto the back. The small needle never failed to point north, I smiled remembering the first time my father showed me this compass. A few seconds later Trevor came back into the room with a very old leather-bound book. It had no writing on the cover, just a plain marred cover.

“Happy birthday Argent!” Trevor said proudly.

“Thanks man, but what is it?”

“The guide to ultimate power,” Trevor replied, I couldn’t tell if he was joking or high. Maybe both. I chuckled, picking up my things and walking to my room. Because of the scholarship, our dorm was huge compared to the other dorms; there were a kitchen and living room, and two closet-size bedrooms. My bedroom barely fits my bed and a shelf. I set the things on my shelf, taking the book and crashing on my bed. I opened the first page; on it was a diagram of a man executing some kind of martial arts move. I moved on to the writing, finding it was in a different language. I kept on going through the pages, seeing lots more martial arts moves, diagrams, and writing that I couldn’t read. At the end of the book, there was a compartment, sitting inside it was a small pendant on a silver chain. The pendant was a green stone, now that was cool. I took it out and put it on. I hadn’t realized I had spent the entire day looking at this book. I needed to get some sleep since I had a class in the morning.

As I climbed the stairs to my dorm I realized that after the last six months since I had started I was beginning to get rather fat. When I first arrived I could climb these 4 flights of stairs without breathing heavily. Now I was panting and sweating, this was a problem. I was never a fitness nut, but I was always a very active person.

So over the next week, I started building a workout routine, thank goodness the college had a gym for the students. At first, I did a mile run, fifty pull-ups, sit-ups, and push-ups, even just this was excruciating at first but as I regained my former athletic prowess it got to be rather easy.

As I was running back to the dorm I remembered those martial art diagrams in the book from Trevor. I walked into the dorm to find Trevor hard at play again; he and one of his other buddies were playing a racing game on the TV.

“Have a good workout?” asked Trevor as he saw me walk in.

“Yeah, who’s winning?”

“Him, you know I suck at racing games.”

“You're still better than me, if you need to feel better about yourself I can race you later.” I joked. Trevor flipped me the bird causing his car to crash. I walked away chuckling. I walked to my room and grabbed my book off my shelf and flipped the first page where I last saw the first diagram. I nearly dropped the book in surprise when I realized I could understand the writing. I knew it wasn’t in English but I could still read it like it was.

When I finished reading the page I was shocked to find that this was part of a much bigger set of moves, but to properly execute these moves they have to be ingrained in your muscle memory. I went to the next page and read it. I was skeptical when it started explaining the way to move what the book refers to as inner energy around fictional pathways in the body. However, with nothing better to do at the moment, I decided to try it out. I sat down on my bed and crossed my legs, resting my hands on my knees. I began to breathe very deeply and slowly. Remembering the words in the book I tried to empty my mind and picture the energy from outside my body flowing into my skin and through the pathways seen in the diagram. I wasn’t sure how long I had sat there but it was very calming, I decided to try to do this once a day even if the inner energy concept was BS. Emptying my mind again I pictured the energy flowing into me again. On instinct I pictured energy as lightning; suddenly I felt a small sensation traveling through the areas the diagram showed the pathways.

“What the hell?” I said quietly. I felt a buzz in my back pocket; I pulled out my phone and looked at the low battery notification. This had to be a coincidence since the human body can’t pull electricity from things. Of that I was sure, I grabbed my laptop and tried to repeat what I had done. The laptop's battery was at seventy-three percent, I started the process again. Picturing energy flowing into my body, this time it was faster. I opened my eyes and saw my laptop's battery percentage draining visibly; it went all the way down to zero percent and died. As it died I felt the energy suddenly stop.

“Great, I am now a human battery,” I said, but I was incredibly excited. However I figured I probably shouldn’t say anything to anyone, I’d rather not become anyone’s lab rat. I turned to another page in the book with a diagram for how to expel the energy I had collected. It explained that I could simply push it out of my body, into my muscles, or coat my body in it. I decided to start with the first example and just expel it. I realized that I could feel how much energy I had. I began guiding the energy along my arm to my fingertips; I saw small electrical arcs between my fingers. I felt the depletion of my energy, quickly stopping the flow of energy I started to feel my reserve filling back up. I wasn’t sure how though, I checked my phone, the battery was still exactly where it had been earlier. I didn’t feel the energy entering my body either. I wondered if there were other types of energy. The book didn’t mention different types of energy; it did mention that meditating in energy-rich areas. Maybe different places had different energies, this led to another idea: If I can absorb electricity then maybe I can absorb or control other energies as well. I decided to test this; I went out to the kitchen and opened the freezer. After ten minutes and Trevor yelling at me to close the door, I figured that wouldn’t work. I sat down on the couch and watched the movie Trevor was watching. During the movie a particular line made me freeze. Force, how did I forget that? Not the mythical controlling force of a galaxy far away, but kinetic energy. Anything moving has kinetic energy, which is generated by movement. I jumped up with a grin and rushed to my room to grab my book. Getting the book I threw on my shoes and rushed to the door, leaving a bewildered Trevor sitting on the couch.

Unknowingly I directed energy down into my legs; I barely remember that I took the stairs five at a time when I reached the roof. I wasn’t even out of breath; I immediately opened the book to the first page. I began to execute the two simple punches in the diagram. As I did so I started trying to absorb the kinetic energy, the force generated by my moving fists. I started to feel the flow of energy; I directed the new energy towards my arms.

I nearly lost rhythm when the amount of energy I was gathering increased exponentially. I started channeling more energy to my arms and again the amount I gathered increased. Was this cheating? The more energy I expended the more I received. I added an hour of energy absorption to my workout routine.

An hour after my discovery I walked down to the end of the hall the communal bathrooms. As I walked past a mirror I nearly slipped on the wet floor, I was ripped. I knew that shouldn’t be possible, but it wasn’t the strangest thing to happen to me recently. I showered and walked back to my room, too lazy to put my shirt back on. As I walked in Trevor turned the corner and both the book he was holding and his jaw dropped.

“Dude! Since when in the hell did you have an eight-pack?” he asked. I shrugged and walked past him to my room. I lay down on my bed and fell asleep.

Two months after my discovery of kinetic energy, things had been pretty normal. Except for the fact that somehow even without using any inner energy I could lift four-hundred lbs. with each arm, at the same time. I had taken to using the gym at night since it was empty most of the time. People started looking at me like a freak when I lifted two-hundred lbs. under each arm. I had kept absorbing kinetic energy and I could do some pretty amazing things, which is why I’m here now in the nearly abandoned port section of my city. I was walking through the warehouses with my senses fully extended. I had begun to be able to identify different types of energy after I had absorbed enough of it. On my way home from researching at the library for a paper I had to write, I felt a small amount of unknown energy be absorbed. I decided to test it out and released a tiny amount of it. A second later I somehow ended up on the roof of my dorm in an instant. I realized this was spatial energy, I had briefly considered how to find it but I didn’t think it would be so easy. So here I was the next day following the hints of spatial energy. I weaved through rusting metal buildings and climbed over piles of garbage and scrap.

“How are we gonna get in there?” I heard a gruff voice ask. I quickly hid around a corner as two men in suits passed by. I had a funny feeling these men were here for the same reason I was. I tailed them as best I could, they didn’t seem to be very cautious.

“We need to get a hold of that meteor; readings said it might be dangerous.” Said the other man. I nearly tripped over an aluminum can as I followed them. They arrived at a warehouse that looked exactly like the ones around it. What the hell was going on? The men tried to open the door, unsuccessful one man said he would be back with a tool. The other man walked around the corner and I heard the sound of liquid hitting the ground, disgusting. I channeled kinetic energy into my whole body and jumped, the great thing about kinetic energy, or force as I’ve taken to calling it, is that it generates motion and lets me control the direction the motion is going. In this case, up. I right as I clear the roof I let the energy return to its place in my core and step smoothly onto the roof. I notice a window in the center of the roof and I walk above it. The spatial energy gets stronger as I approach, kneeling I look through the dirty glass. Unable to see anything I see if there is a way inside. I notice the window can be opened but it’s locked with a padlock. I channel electrical energy to my fingertips; I use my finger like a cutting torch and burn through the lock. As I hoped it was relatively quiet and the man waiting outside the building wasn’t alerted. I open the window and look down. The warehouse is filled with clutter; however, I think I found what I’m looking for. On a worktable on a platform in a corner of the warehouse is a glowing oval object. I channel the spatial energy and focus on a spot in front of the table. Letting the energy out, I find myself in that spot instantly. I grin at the implications of this new ability, even though I have no freaking clue how it works. I know I don’t have much time so I rush to the work table and pick up the object. I don't have any time to examine it since I hear the two men at the door trying to break in. I use my new ability again and appear on the roof of the warehouse. I hear the door open below me with a loud screech. I need to get out of here; I take the last of my spatial energy and picture my dorm building’s roof.