Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 27 - Dark Horizons

There was a major buzz in the community for the next few weeks. People were going nuts and drawing comparisons to the different fights in recent times. Many were able to draw the conclusion that the kid from the Thunder Fang fight was the same as the one from the Midnight Horror fight, and he was dubbed 'Guardian,' for his actions of protecting the people. Zayne liked the name. He wished he could have used it properly, rather than become a ghost of the future he wanted. The government very quickly tried to run in and cover the whole situation up. They declared it an unnatural phenomenon and even went so far as to call the entire assembly hall of people drug addicts and under the influence. Everyone knew those were total lies, and when the government tried to delete the videos people would just repost them almost immediately afterward. It was a mess.

This one reporter named Jim Jimmy was all over the place when it came to this stuff. He was in interviews, news reports, news articles, everywhere you looked for information on these monsters and heroes you saw his name. He was apparently a very famous reporter since many around the area had heard of him already. He was a determined and hardworking individual who would stop at nothing to find the truth or post his own thoughts on the truth. No one could get him to back down from his work, not even the government. Zayne found himself watching many of the reports or reading many articles from Jim Jimmy just to keep up with the news. No one else explained it quite as he did, and he did it almost perfectly.

Keith came home one day and declared that they'd found the source of the snow storms. An individual known as Avalanche was trying to soften up the area so he could turn it all into a winter wasteland for himself. Thankfully they got to him before he could finish the job, and he declared that the storms would finally come to an end. Sure enough, a day later the storms stopped altogether. Occasionally there was a shower here and there, and on an even rarer occasion there was a snow pocket, but overall the major events had ended. That meant that school, and by extension Zayne's entire life minus one large chunk of it, began once again. Damien's attitude continued to degrade, but he was much more open to Zayne now. His anger towards Ver and Keith seemed to amplify with Zayne's event, but he seemed to appreciate and get closer to Zayne through it as well. Zayne liked it.

The school was a buzz. Everyone was talking about the events and the videos. A new assembly passed in the school board and sixth to seventh hour was a gathering of the whole school to try and convince them that the event was fake and staged. No one believed them, which forced the school to crack down on anyone spreading those 'false statements.' Almost twenty people were given ISD before they even left the assembly room. A solid fifteen more were close, but their friends bailed them out. There was a stirring of emotions between Zayne and Aleah now that they couldn't discuss their unique reality even just between each other. They talked about everything they could except the Forces. This involved everything from plans for the future to family issues not related to Forces.

Austin and Aries were freaking OUT about the whole ordeal. This fueled their psychotic paranoia and they were going off about everything else possible that could be going on. Everyone was trying to figure out who the strange 'Guardian' guy was. People watched, rewatched, and then studied the video over and over to try and get a clear shot on the face, but thankfully Zayne had kept his back to the cameras through most of the videos. Even if they got a good look at his face it would be morphed and scaly, no one would be able to make out the details and figure out it was him. Not without special equipment that was, and the government was the only ones with that kind of tech. At least that was what Zayne hoped. Austin joked about having that kind of stuff, but he did that frequently and never proved true on it. Not to mention the fact that Aries, Zayne, and Aleah had all been to his house and saw everything he owned.

Police were everywhere now. The schools, government buildings, assembly halls, and pretty much every place where large gatherings could be held were all under constant surveillance now. Even though no one knew exactly what was going on, and many believed that the videos were just a hoax, the city wanted to be on the safe side. The damage was certainly real, that much had been proven. There were risks that the city didn't want to take with this, and their action on the events only stirred the bee's nest even more. You couldn't walk two steps out of your own front door without looking somewhere and seeing the news. Zayne was disgusted by it now. It was only drilling the knife of his new reality deeper with each passing moment. He was getting sick from it all.