Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 55 - Guardian City High School: 5 Months Later

Aleah forced her way through the front doors and ran up the stairs as fast as she could, her heart beating and her eyes watering. After five months of nothing she finally got the message from Kaleb. He was okay. After that scary, life changing Meteor he'd used five months ago she finally had clarity. He was alive, and he was ready for the world ahead. Aleah entered the main lobby room of the now fully repaired high school, a huge crowd of people clapping and cheering around her as she pushed her way past everyone. She had to see it for herself. She couldn't wait any longer. Five months. Five long months not knowing where he was, how he was, or if she would ever see him again. Five months of torture. All for this one moment. She pushed past the final circle of the bubble and slammed into the back of Eli, who turned and greeted her warmly. She didn't have time for greetings, but she gave him a simple hello and moved ahead. Eli followed, grabbing Aries and Austin by the arms and pulling them ahead too. She pushed past one final person and saw, at the middle of all these people cheering, was Zayne using his right arm to arm wrestle Damien. His right arm looked perfectly fine.
"Oh my god!" Aleah exclaimed as she ran up and stood in front of the table, both Zayne and Damien looking up to her while continuing their battle.
"Aleah! Hey!" Damien exclaimed happily with a low grunt.
"I'm so glad you got my message!" Zayne said as, simultaneously without difficulty, he slammed Damien's fist onto the table.
"Are you freaking kidding me!? You use one hundred percent once and all of a sudden the entire spectrum is at your disposal? How much?" Damien bellowed.
"Thirty percent," Zayne smiled as he embraced Aleah's worried bear hug.
"God dang it, Eli's still got the record for thirty five," Damien grumbled as everyone began dispersing.
"Why are you pushing yourself like this!?" Aleah asked in frustration.
"Doctor's orders. Arm wrestling not only to keep my arm's strength growing but also to test my power spectrum. I guess Damien kind of talked about it already," Zayne chuckled.
"What about spectrums?"
"After his arm healed back we did tests on his power. Apparently the Dragon's Heart was blocking his power output above twenty five until he needed to go further. After the whole Death Blade thing the Dragon's Heart removed the blocker, so now he has full control over how much power he uses and when he needs to use it. Basically Death Blade was just a test to see if Zayne could handle the full power, and he passed. With flying colors apparently," Eli rolled his eyes as he pointed to the fully healed right arm.
"Yeah hold on I thought you totally eviscerated that with the punch?" Aleah accused.
"I did. But thankfully the Dragon's Heart had my back. After we merged again and I started my healing process the arm gradually regenerated, and now, five months later, it's back and better than ever before. The Dragon's Heart really is a miracle," Zayne happily explained as he observed the arm from afar.
    Zayne felt the grip around him tighten as Aleah looked to the arm with him. She looked back up to him, a doubtful glimmer in her pupil.
"Are you done? Is it finally over?" Aleah asked, a finger tapping his chest.
Zayne sighed, lowering his arm and resting his head on hers, "No. I've got a feeling it never will be. I'm the Guardian. I have to do this."
Aleah let go a long sigh too, closing her eyes as they stood there, everyone around them talking and laughing and enjoying life once more, "Well if that's the case, then I guess that's just the reality I have to live with isn't it?"
    Zayne smiled as the bells rang and everyone began flooding into the school halls, Eli, Damien, Aries, and Austin all apart of that crowd. Zayne and Aleah followed in behind them all, neither of them wanting to let go until the very last second possible. Finally they did say goodbye, and they split off to their classes of the day. Zayne's day started about as he'd expected on his first day back, filled with cheers, congratulations, and thankful cries from the students and such. Everything was perfect. Life was back on track. Life was back to normal. For once in his life in the last two years, normal seemed to fit the description of this time, and that made him happy.

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"Mag sir, reports just in from the astronomy teams."
    Mag took the papers and looked them over, seeing the data and the trajectory they listed. He smiled. After further review the astronomy researchers had finally pinpointed Death Blade's location in the solar system. Currently he was floating somewhere around Mars, and would eventually get sucked up into its atmosphere and be stuck there forever. Even if he somehow managed to survive Zayne's attack there was no way for him to return to Earth, thus no way for him endanger them anymore. The reports were looking good. He handed the papers back to the assistant and dismissed them, his gaze returning to the cameras set up in the school to monitor Zayne's movements. While Death Blade's threat had been dealt with, the MRaCD didn't want to take risks that might lead to Zayne's encounter with another villain of similar interests and resolve. Although Zayne had proven quite effectively in his recovery that he was quite capable of handling himself now. Mag had no doubt in his mind that this was no longer a problem he should concern himself with.
"General Mag sir," a friendly voice called to him from behind.
"Yes, Ver?" Mag replied as he turned to face Ver and Keith, suits on and faces expressing interest in getting back out into the field.
"We would like to begin a morning patrol. Maybe catch ourselves some of those Blade Avengers while we're out," Keith stated.
"Acknowledged, but first I'd like you to head out to the old mansion first. I think there's something there you might want to see," Mag replied as he watched their faces shift slightly, a hint of curiosity taking root.
"Sir yes sir," Keith replied as they both turned and made their exit to their old home.
"Mag," Miller called out from behind him.
Mag turned and marched over to Miller at his desk, leaning over his chair to see what it was he wanted to see, "What is it my boy? We've got all the time in the world."
"There's just been a distress signal from our Florida station sir. They report a single Mythic attacking the beaches. They currently have him contained, but within the next five minutes or so they estimate he'll be free. Who shall I send?" Miller asked.
"Ah send the Child Heroes at'm. They've been out of the action for a while," Mag causally ordered as he slapped Miller's shoulder and returned to the center of the command center.
    As he stood there his eyes wandered across the monitors until they rested on the room once again. The pod in which the nightmare erupted from had finally been disposed of, and now there was only a small, empty concrete room on the screen. Another individual perked up and started typing in commands frantically next to Mag, drawing his attention to the screen which focused on three cells, each holding one of the MRaCD's most dangerous Mythic criminals. All three were empty, the containment cells broken. Mag turned to another desk nearby with a communicator that he quickly swapped to his personal lobby room.
"Kaleb, Kaleb are you there?"
"Yes sir, what's the problem?"
"Get me the Ancient Forces, now! They've got some work to do," Mag smiled as he looked up to the monitor, which all switched to cameras of the city and maps that showed three Mythic signals, Arachnid, Stone, and Thunder Fang all on the run from their pursuing Mystic members.
"The message has been sent sir, they'll be at the base as fast as they can get there," Kaleb said over the comms.
"Tell them don't bother. They'll know what their after when they see it," Mag replied as he closed the comms and began barking orders to the command center personnel for clean up arrangements.