Autumn stared around the large dining hall with interest as soldiers and the families of soldiers made their way into the large room. Heidi had invited her and Aria to join her family at the base for a holiday dinner. Autumn's mother had been home for Christmas day but had to leave by the next morning.
Colonel Clegg had the room decorated with 2011 banners and a giant Happy New Year stencil hanging from the high ceiling. Autumn had expected a couple hundred people, but there were less than fifty when they closed the doors and began serving the food. Autumn couldn't help the smile that lit her face as she smelled the food filling the table. She hadn't indulged in a normal meal since Heidi had put her on her new diet. Heidi had insisted that she needed to indulge every once in a while or she would snap and start binge eating.
About halfway through the meal, a female soldier who looked vaguely familiar opened the double doors and pushed a man through in a wheelchair. He had an oxygen tank as well as an IV hooked up to him. He looked like he should have been dead several days ago. His eyes had huge dark bruises beneath them, and he was wheezing laboriously as the soldier wheeled him closer to the table.
Heidi took one look at the suffering man and immediately arose and walked over to him. The soldier pushing him was staring at Heidi with a pleading look in her dark brown eyes. Heidi put her ear next to the man's chest, listening intently. After almost a minute of silently listening, she stood back and took a deep breath.
"PNEUMA!" Heidi bellowed into the silence. A brilliant arc of white light burst out of the man's chest, accompanied by a deafening boom. The lights flickered, and then completely went out.
Autumn blinked in the sudden darkness, unable to see a thing.
"What happened?" someone asked nervously.
"PHOS" Heidi muttered, and the hall was suddenly filled with a directionless light that illuminated everything.
The man in the wheelchair was slowly pulling the cannula out of his nose with a stunned expression on his face.
"How do you feel, Tim?" the soldier behind him asked. She walked around to stand in front of him, her eyes shining with hope.
"What happened?" he asked in shock as he slowly stood up.
"You're all better now," the soldier told him, looking at Heidi hopefully. Heidi nodded, and then grunted as the soldier barreled into her, wrapping her in a tight bear hug.
"Thank you so much, Heidi," the soldier said in a tearful voice. "He's the only family I had left."
Autumn watched the exchange curiously. The soldier seemed to know Heidi quite well. Autumn suddenly frowned as she remembered why the soldier looked familiar. She was the woman that had been following them from the school to Heidi's house. Did the Colonel have soldiers following them around? She should have expected it—Colonel Rockwell wasn't the type of man to take chances.
Colonel Clegg was sitting at the head of the table watching Heidi with keen interest. Autumn wondered how much he knew about Heidi's peculiar abilities. She had heard that Colonel Rockwell had been friends with the base commander since they were children.
"Can someone explain what the hell just happened?" a stocky woman with dark hair tied in a bun asked in disbelief. "And where the hell is that weird light coming from?"
Heidi turned to look at the woman, her eyes on fire. The woman shrank back as the powerful gaze pinned her to her seat. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out as she felt the full force of Heidi's presence flood the room. In the presence of something so vast and great, there were simply no words adequate for communication.
Heidi turned back to the man, her eyes still burning with intensity. "No more smoking. If you smoke again, you will die immediately."
The man gulped and nodded vigorously.
Heidi stared into his eyes for a moment and then nodded in satisfaction. She returned to the table across from Autumn and sat down as if nothing had happened.
"Power?" Autumn whispered with a raised eyebrow.
Heidi blinked, then nodded. "ERGON", she murmured, and the power flickered back on.
"Well done," Aria mouthed at Heidi with an approving smile.
"That was pretty cool," a female soldier sitting next to Heidi said conversationally.
"Thanks," Heidi said as the godlike presence vanished. "I have a PHD in coolness, if you ever want lessons."
The soldiers around her laughed and the tension in the room dissipated. Autumn could tell some of the other dinner guests wanted to ask questions, but the soldiers around them steered the conversation clear of anything supernatural as soon as someone looked like they wanted to bring the subject up. Autumn wondered how many soldiers had been following them around, and for how long. She would have to start paying more attention.