Ver led Zayne out of the cave and all the way back to the house within minutes, a record time now that they could freely use some of their power. Zayne had figured out within his personal training that he could manipulate the strength in his legs without morphing them to speed himself up. Instead of even thinking about using the Dragon's Heart to boost himself he could just improve his human skills. Despite his newfound abilities, Zayne was still in awe of Ver. Her powers as a Mystic to control wind currents made her a force of nature, almost literally. In order to enhance her own speed, she simply forced the currents to sit below her body, then float her to wherever she wanted in seconds. Of course, she went slower for Zayne, but they had a very nice and speedy travel to the house anyway.

As they reached the deck and stopped Zayne caught his breath before asking just what field test he would be doing this time. The last one he was supposed to do was fight the Midnight Horror with Ver and Keith. That was supposed to test his teamwork, ability to take orders from higher authorities, and test his basic combat abilities. Instead, however, it became a test of his resolve and his combat abilities. Since he'd missed out on the teamwork and orders tests, Zayne was curious if this second one would make up for those.

"No, they won't. You will be performing this test alone as well," Ver assured him.

"So what am I supposed to do for this one?" Zayne prodded.

"This field test will experiment with your newly discovered basic combat abilities and your skills under pressure. This test isn't an actual experience like the Midnight Horror. This one is a fabricated scenario that you will have to experience," Ver explained as she pointed towards the cave.

"Okay. Lay it on me."

Ver nodded and began the description, "The scenario is this. You are a pro Dragon Force member and you've discovered a Mythic who has been threatening a nearby city with his destructive power. The cave is his lair, which you will need to destroy. Did you notice that red button I set up earlier? That's the button you need to hit to win. However, the villain is here and waiting for you. Your mission is to defeat the villain and ensure he does not escape while also trying to destroy his base."

Zayne chuckled to himself as he soaked in the situation. It was like any superhero movie plotline. Like old heroes and villains meeting for the last time for a final battle, except this was real. Well, a fake test within a real-world situation that could have been imagined as a fake world. It was weird when Zayne zoomed out on the perspective.

"So I have to defeat the villain and make sure they don't escape, then destroy their base to win, right?"

"Correct."

Zayne paused for a moment before saying that he was ready. One question still evaded him about the situation. If Ver was here, then who was going to be his training villain? He posed the question to Ver. She simply smiled in reply and asked if he was ready.

"Well I'm not gonna be ready if I don't know who I'm fighting," Zayne answered.

"That's the reality of being a member of the fighting force. You won't always know who you're fighting..." Ver gave Zayne an almost evil smile, "...or when they'll strike."

As soon as Ver finished her sentence the sky above began to darken and rumble. Massive black clouds rolled above in the sky and roared loudly with their thunder. Rain began gently pouring down in small, rapid droplets. Ver used the wind currents to create a bubble around her, blocking out the rain. Zayne, on the other hand, became soaked. Zayne looked up to the sky and observed the distance. Only around the cave and the house was there rain and thunder. Everywhere else was just cloudy or partly cloudy, most likely to try and evade any unwanted attention from passers-by, which were rare but possible out here.

"Who am I fighting?" Zayne had to raise his voice because of the thunder and rain.

"Why don't you go find out?" Was all that Ver replied with as she walked inside and stood on the other side of the glass doors.

After Ver had separated herself from the situation Zayne turned towards the cave to try and find anything that might explain what was happening. The rain was very quickly becoming intense, the massive amounts of bucket filled rain coming down on top of him. Zayne felt cold and helpless in the situation until he saw the individual resting at the entrance of the cave. Even through the heavy rain, Zayne could see the individual with his enhanced vision. He didn't recognize anything about the person though.

They were tall, with a metallic suit on them that covered their entire body. The whole thing was all metal, although what kind Zayne couldn't tell. The whole suit was just one big metallic stripe that covered his entire body except his feet, hands, and head. The feet were covered in a sort of black, bouncy material. His hands were covered in the same black material, although the very ends of each finger hole on the glove was cut off, revealing the human skin beneath them. The head was covered by a mask and shoulder piece that was connected around the neck. The shoulder covers were large, compared to the actual form of the individual they seemed bulky and weighing down. The shoulder pads expanding out to almost a foot beyond his shoulder width, coming to an end in several pointy metallic tips.

The helmet was odd in design. It was made of the black material that the feet and gloves were made of, but there were no openings in it. It wrapped around and covered the entire face, ensuring that no human details were visible. The front part of the mask was made of some sort of one-sided glass, the almost visor like screen taking up the entire front portion of the mask. Whoever was beneath that mask, they obviously wanted to make sure their identity was kept a secret while also not limiting skills and abilities as best as possible.

The figure had his left hand stretched towards the sky, the wind and rain plowing into him just as much as Zayne. No doubt that was the villain Zayne had to defeat. The rain was cold, the wind only making it worse. Zayne slowed himself down. Before he took off he needed to focus on his current situation. He needed to improve his own condition before advancing. Zayne blocked out all the noise he could and focused. He felt the heat rising in his chest, spreading throughout his body. His veins began to glow, contrasting the darkness of the clouds and rain. Like a beacon he shined, ready to begin. Zayne took off running towards the cave. The figure above threw down his hand which he'd been holding up, now pointing towards Zayne.

The clouds above rumbled and shook, then shot out a massive and startling bolt of lightning. Zayne was startled by the attack, and he couldn't stop fast enough to avoid it. The lightning struck him and sent shockwave after shockwave across his body. When it was over Zayne could feel his muscles tensing up and retracting here and there. He rechanneled more energy to those areas and got back up. This time he took off running slower, and with his feet constantly tapping the ground in a position so that he could jump. The figure above raised his hand up and then threw it down again, repeating the motion he'd done before. Zayne stopped running just in time and jumped, just barely evading the rapid shock of lightning that struck the ground below him. When Zayne landed he took off again, now within a minute's distance from the cave base.

The figure above held up both hands now, then started throwing them down and pulling them back up in a pattern, sending a constant stream of lightning at Zayne. Zayne knew that in this situation jumping wasn't going to cut it. Besides him not being able to get enough air time, the villain would no doubt assume that would be his next strategy. So this time...

Zayne internally ripped the Dragon's Heart open and dropped the energy straight to his legs. He knew what would happen after the fact, but it was a risk worth taking to get the job done quickly. The energy melted into both legs and then spread out, forcing them to expand and stretch, growing over with red scales beneath the suit. Zayne took off at full speed, sidestepping and ducking under every lightning bolt that came at him. His upper body didn't have the power of the Dragon's Heart, so he was cold and getting tired. Zayne forced the thoughts aside. He reached the bottom of the cliff up to the cave and stopped. The mental image of his first training day came into mind as he bent down in less than a second, then launched himself up with just enough force to reach the entrance.

The villain above stopped attacking as Zayne flew up, then stopped right in front of him in mid-air. Zayne gave the villain a confident smile as he threw a leg out and slammed it into the enemies chest. Despite the suit and metal, the villain took the full impact and flew backward, crashing right into the back wall of the cave base. Zayne's legs morphed back, but just before it returned into the Dragon's Heart Zayne directed the energy to his arm, which he threw out and grabbed the ledge with just before falling. Despite the throbbing pain in his head and body Zayne pulled himself up and stood at the entrance triumphantly. The villain laid on the floor unconscious and the storm outside was quickly fading. Zayne stumbled over to the back end of the main room and slammed his fist into the button set on the desk. He'd won.

----------

"Wait what!?" Zayne exclaimed as the training villain took his mask off.

Behind the tinted glass of the mask was Keith, who gave Zayne a toothy grin of approval. Just to make sure Zayne knew he'd done good Keith rubbed his gut, right where Zayne had slammed into him. Zayne was both proud and confused about the situation. Why was Keith acting as the field test villain?

"Since I was your teacher and we both knew each other's abilities I knew the field test would be biased. Instead, I decided to have someone who didn't know anything about your powers, and someone you knew no knowledge of, to act against. Make sense?" Ver explained.

"Yeah sure, I guess but..." Zayne trailed for a moment as he took off his gloves.

"But what?" Keith asked curiously, wincing in a mild amount of pain.

"Why were practicing monologuing a few days ago?"

All color on Keith's face drained for a moment before he nervously smiled in reply, "I-well uh, that was um, it was uh..."

"He was intending on monologuing to you as a villain to make things a little more realistic," Ver spoke for her husband, "But you ended the fight sooner than he could get to it."

"To be honest I was underestimating you, while can also be a big reality in villain fights," Keith eagerly changed the subject.

"Yes, which is something I told you NOT to do," Ver sternly repeated.

Now that Zayne thought back to it he did remember her saying that, didn't she? Keith was struggling to keep his cool now. So many things he'd planned for that went wrong. Zayne honestly felt bad for him by this point.

"Anyway, well, it was fun. I'm glad I got to see first hand how your training is coming along," Keith said as he stood up and tapped something on his neck.

In an instant, the metallic suit around Keith's entire body began to retract and shrink towards his neck. Zayne noticed a small device on his neck that seemed to be absorbing the entire suit. It was so small however that Zayne wondered just how it could fit all of that material into itself. As the metal shrank away it was replaced by casual clothes underneath. Apparently, Keith had been wearing work clothes beneath all of that metal. Zayne noticed that Keith was surprisingly well dressed for how he normally looked. It spiked his curiosity, which Keith took notice of. When the suit was all gone he turned to Zayne.

"I have a meeting with some other individuals on this hunt we have. We may have found a trail leading to the individual we're looking for, so I got called in. Have to make myself look good," Keith explained as he started heading for the cave entrance.

"Wait, Keith," Zayne called out just before he left.

Keith half turned towards him.

"What's with the neck piece?" Zayne asked as he pointed towards the little device.

Keith gently felt around it and laughed, "Oh you mean how does it work? This little thing can hold billions of cells and atoms within it, ready to be released. Whenever I tap the button it releases the atoms and cells in a metallic structure around my body, allowing me to conduct electricity. My hands, head, and feet are covered in rubber to protect them from severe damage."

Zayne let out a small, 'huh,' then waved goodbye as Keith left. Once his adoptive father was gone Zayne returned to taking off his own suit. While he was taking it off he kept thinking about how he wanted one of those little things too. It'd certainly make getting his suit off and on easier. Maybe later, he thought.

"So," Ver spoke up from her chair as she sipped some tea, "what's your plan for the week after next?"

Zayne was taking off his boots when Ver had asked. When he looked up, stopping his process for a moment, Ver chuckled. He gave her a confused look until it finally clicked in his mind what she was talking about. The School Dance. He'd totally forgotten about that. Was it really already that close? How long had it been since Aleah asked him to go? Weeks? Was it a month ago? Zayne's mind was racing. Zayne suddenly formed and ran through a checklist in his head.

He and Aleah were going to the mall this Wednesday to get a suit for him, so that was taken care of. Aleah's family knew Zayne, and he knew them to a certain degree. The family had approved of Zayne taking Aleah, so that was taken care of. Next was the ride, which Aleah said that Kaleb was going to provide. The ride was taken care of now, so that just left his ability to dance and have a good time, coupled with his ability to socially interact. Zayne was good in large crowds, but in one on one conversations, especially in a stressful setting with his girlfriend, he sometimes lost it. Perhaps that was something he could work on in his personal training time was improving his social level. Then again would he really need to?

Over the last few weeks, Zayne had been improving his social standing in the multiple ladders across the school. He'd actually been doing pretty well. So far he'd defused almost ten questions from people who had wondered why he came to school with minor injuries so often. Usually, a subtle excuse that he pushed himself too hard at training would do, and the injury would heal up later. Still, there were a few who were evading Zayne's attempts to become friends with everyone. Zayne would eventually get to them. For now, he would worry about those who accepted him first. Sooner or later he wouldn't have to worry about kids in school getting suspicious, but for now, he would need to take it easy and careful. Meaning also that he would have to be cautious at the dance as well.

"I'm working things out," Zayne replied.

"Good. Good, cause I'd hate to see you mess up in front of your crush," Ver laughed.

"Wow, thanks for the confidence boost, really helps," Zayne replied with heavy sarcasm intended.

Ver turned in her chair towards the scanner and leaned back with her tea. She seemed preoccupied with something on the screen.

"What are your plans for while I'm gone?" Zayne asked.

"You're looking at them right now," Ver replied without taking her eyes off the monitor.

"And what if you find him earlier?" Zayne questioned.

"Then I'll go do something else," Ver answered indifferently.

"Found anything important?" Zayne addressed the monitor.

Ver sighed heavily, "No. Nothing at all. Not even a facial recognition of Anton. He's doing a fantastic job of hiding himself."

"If these satellites scan faces, movement, and Mythic signatures he can't be doing that good at hiding, can he?" Zayne wondered out loud.

"The satellites scan for facial recognition in the cities, towns, and other populated areas. Not forests. That's for the movement satellites, but they only scan for strange movement activities. For sifting out the movements of forest creatures we scan for Mythic signatures, but it only picks up signals if they are using their powers. There are also small windows in which the satellites don't work. If Anton found a way to exploit any one of these forms of scans then he would be practically invisible to the radar. He's doing fairly well so far."

"Well if the scans ever do pick him up," Zayne said as he folded up the last of his suit into a nice pile, "I want to be the first to know."

Ver smiled to him as she took another sip of tea, "You will."

----------

Zayne closed the sliding glass door behind him and sighed. When he turned around the first thing he saw was Damien leaning against the wall next to him giving him a sort of judgemental stare. Startled by the sudden appearance of his cousin Zayne took a step back from the doors and gave Damien a look up and down. Damien didn't budge at all, he just continued sitting there staring. Zayne awkwardly chuckled and gathered himself before returning to a normal stance.

"What are you doing?" Zayne curiously joked as he started walking towards the kitchen, "You're kind of freaking me out."

Damien lifted himself off the wall and slowly followed in Zayne's footsteps, stopping right on the other side of the island guarding the kitchen, "So you've been doing pretty well huh?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Zayne replied as he closed the fridge and poured himself some chocolate milk.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Damien asked.

"I mean, it's exciting yeah. I personally can't wait to get out there and start helping people," Zayne answered as he took his glass and started heading for the couches.

Suddenly Damien bolted in front of Zayne faster than he could even see his cousin. Damien was staring right through Zayne's soul, giving him a very serious stare down from top to bottom. Zayne was unsettled by the expression Damien had.

"Listen well cousin cause I'm only going to say this once. This training isn't going to make you invincible. You're not going to become the hero you see in the movies all the time. This life you're choosing is going to end in hell for you and everyone else around you and there is no middle ground. You will never be a real hero, just a tool. I found that out the hard way. I hope you won't have to. Make the right choice. Stop your training now, or end up just like our parents."

With that, Damien shoved past Zayne and made a straight beeline for his room down the hall. He was obviously angry, worked up over the subject that he'd just discussed. Zayne could tell from the amount of force and power he put into each step he took afterward. The amount of hate radiating off of Damien was drastically different from his actual personality that Zayne had seen before. Zayne had to be honest with himself, this sudden side of Damien startled him.

Zayne blinked rapidly as if he was trying to get something out of his eyes. When he turned to look at Damien he was met with nothing but the dark hallway behind him. Zayne let out a deep and confused sigh before advancing and plopping into the couch in front of him. What did he mean? What did Damien mean he'd found out the hard way? He'd never even gone past training... had he? Damien hated his secret life, but Zayne fully immersed himself in it. They had totally different opinions on the subject, and Zayne had already declared that he wasn't going to try and change Damien's mind, so why was he trying to change his? The questions stewed in his mind for several minutes before he remembered why he sat down in the first place. He took a sip of his chocolate milk and grabbed the TV controller.

When the news came on Zayne let out a disgusted grunt before changing to their streaming service. The news annoyed Zayne at this point. The world news was fine, but the local news was absolutely intolerable. The only thing Zayne had heard them talk about for the last few times he'd checked in was the sudden disappearance of the Midnight Horror and the supposed 'Guardian Angel' looking over the city now. While Zayne did appreciate the recognition, he was strongly annoyed by the repetition of their discussions. As Zayne took another sip of his milk he felt a sudden rush of cold air flow over him. When he looked towards the sliding glass doors to see if Ver had come in he saw no one there, and the doors were still closed. When he turned back towards the hall he felt the cold air slam into his face. Zayne shivered. He couldn't remember the last time he'd shivered that.