"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 blasé, 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."

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"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!"