Nicole continued…

Stan hit the ground with a thump, hands held up to his nose to try to stem the flow of blood. Before Nicole could react, both frat guys rushed in and started to kick him in the stomach, legs, whatever was close and unprotected. No one at the party tried to stop it, they just watched as one might watch a particularly good scene in a low budget action flick. Not surprising for a bunch of drunken college kids.

Nicole stepped in and tried to push them away, tears running down her face, screaming at them to stop. One of the frat guys spared a moment from his play to twist partway around and toss an elbow into Nicole’s chest hard enough to send her to the ground herself, had she not powered up automatically.

As it was, Nicole absorbed all the energy in the blow, only feeling the pressure of an elbow on her chest with no force behind it. The frat guy was too drunk to notice and turned right back to stomping on Stan.

Nicole didn’t understand what had just happened, but she was too concerned about her boyfriend to think about it. She just pushed one of the bros as hard as she could, desperate to get to Stan.

When she made physical contact with the guy she dumped the energy she had just absorbed right back into him. The force knocked him into the other bro and sent them both sprawling.

Not paying them any mind Nicole hurried to Stan’s side, kneeling down to check on him, make sure he was still conscious, see how badly he was hurt.

She didn’t have time to do anything besides see he was awake before one of the frat guys, back on his feet, grabbed her ponytail and jerked her up to her feet. Crying out in pain, Nicole didn’t see the meaty fist rushing towards her face. She didn’t feel the ensuing punch, just took all the energy from it like the elbow jab and stored it somewhere in her body.

Finally, the people at the party began to notice something wrong about this scene. A bunch of guys fighting, even holding one guy down and working him over, that was ok in their books, but one guy holding a girl steady while another attempted to rearrange her face and torso? No way was that going to slide!

Nicole had things wrapped up before anyone moved more than two steps.

The guy behind her who had one hand wrapped up in her ponytail and the other holding her right arm received her flailing left forearm in his chest. The energy she unconsciously released along with the strike didn’t just break three of his ribs, it shattered them. He crumpled to the ground with a gurgling scream that mercifully cut off when he slipped into unconsciousness.

The other guy stopped pounding her long enough to look at his comrade. Nicole took the opportunity to shove him with all of her physical strength, as well as release every bit of energy she had left. He flew back ten feet, crashing into the front door hard enough to rip it off its hinges (at almost the exact same time that Leslie was making similar work of her attacker). Both the door and the frat guy wound up on the front porch.

All was silent. Had Nicole taken the time to look around at the party goers, she would have seen them staring at her in fascination and fear. She ignored them all, having eyes only for Stan, who was slowly getting to his feet.

Nicole helped him up, nervously checking him for broken bones. He seemed ok, just very bruised up, but she insisted they go to the hospital anyway just to make sure.

Half an hour later found her sitting in the lobby of the University Hospital. A short distance away her boyfriend was being told he had a broken nose, two cracked ribs, and more bruises than the doctor could count.

She finally started thinking about what she had done, about the very real possibility that she had just manifested a super power. Pulling out her phone, she decided to try and reach the foremost authority of comic books in her life. If anybody would believe her about what had happened and, above all, help explain it, it was Jak. She just hoped he was awake.