Eli hadn't been doing much personal training. He'd actually lost a lot of interest in controlling the power at this point. He hadn't been in an incident, he hadn't been provoked in the recent times, although Arachnid could've very easily changed that, and he had everything he needed to keep him alive and entertained right in here. He was pretty content with his situation now, but Zayne wasn't about to let him give up just yet. It took some convincing, but finally, he'd gotten Eli back on track. The challenge now was getting Eli back to where they'd left off. Like Zayne and his injury, Eli had fallen back quite a bit from where he'd left off. Last time they trained Eli was able to somewhat stop his morphing from occurring. He'd failed a few times, which was why Zayne had a small dosage of sleeping chemicals to calm him down if it got too far.

Now, however, Eli was almost back to square one. He remembered how to do it, but the willpower and strength weren't there anymore. Building that back up was Zayne's top priority now. It also gave Zayne the opportunity to work on his personal strength too. The training session was this. Zayne would send Eli to do laps around the room. He would be tired and weak after a lot of running, so then they would test him. Obviously he wouldn't be able to hold in the Hybrid, but eventually, over time, he would build an endurance, both in physical and mental strength. Sooner or later he wouldn't be tired as often, or he wouldn't be tired as early. He'd also be able to eventually hold in the Hybrid even after all that running. Meanwhile, Zayne would use some of the weights in the room to build up his left arm's strength again. It worked out quite well Zayne had to admit.

They did this pattern several times from five to seven. Eli's tests amounted to a total of twelve tries. He was certainly lacking in the human strength department, which Zayne could understand. Eli himself wasn't a very muscular person, in fact, he was the exact opposite. But then again why bother improving human strength when you have the strengths and weaknesses of every single dinosaur from the past at your disposal? Eli's willpower and motivation also left much to be desired. He wasn't the kind of person to work for a lot of stuff. He even admitted, shamefully, that he would rather sit and wait for things to happen for him than he personally going out and doing them. Zayne noted the issue and filed it away for later. Right now Eli had Zayne to help him. Later he would need to highlight the importance of personal training.

Zayne's two-hour training spree on his arm didn't bear too many results. His arm was sore and in extreme pain by the end of the session, and he had only been able to improve his lift by about five pounds. He still had a long way to go to get himself back on his feet. At the end of the two hours, Zayne decided to try and leave Eli with some positive reinforcement about the training. Eli was very much a pessimist and a negative thinker about everything. Zayne had also noticed that Eli was somewhat consumed with asking if he was doing a good job as if he couldn't tell that his work was progress and he needed someone else to assure him of it. Eli had only admitted to the procrastination and lack of motivation, but Zayne picked up on several other things that Eli needed to improve if he wanted to make leaps and bounds in his attempt at fixing his life.

"So today was pretty good right?" Zayne started off asking.

Eli took deep breaths, obviously out of breath from the running as he paused for a moment, "If you say so then yeah, I guess it was."

"So tell me, what do you want to master first? What's your first goal in this training?" Zayne questioned as they sat down on the couch.

"What do you mean?"

"What do you want to master first?" Zayne repeated.

"Master? Like, control? Well, I would definitely like to be able to control when Hybrid appears. If I could snap my finger and make him appear or disappear that would make me feel better," Eli replied as he grabbed a glass of water from the counter and took a huge gulp.

"Okay cool. So you want to be able to control when the Hybrid is released. That's a great starter goal. But, let's think about this for a moment. When we talked about the Hybrid quite a while ago you said that it was like the Hybrid was a totally separate entity inside of you right?" Zayne was planning out where he wanted to go with this.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess. I mean I'm conscious and aware, but it's like there's a totally different person controlling the body itself," Eli explained.

"Okay, so how about we make stepping stones up to that ultimate goal of controlling Hybrid. What's something that you might want to think about before taking control of the entire body at once?" Zayne directed.

Eli contemplated the question for a moment, "I guess we're already started on being able to stop the eruption. That's part of the bigger goal."

"Exactly! Okay so now let's think of something else. When you're in the full Hybrid form you have control over hundreds of different dinosaur combinations. What if we trained you in using each specific dinosaur body part first so that when you get to the point of controlling the entire body, you know better combinations of dinosaur parts?" Zayne suggested.

"What do you mean?" Eli replied, lost on what Zayne was suggesting.

"Well with me and the Dragon's Heart I have only one morph ability, dragon. But with the Dino Heart, you have the ability to mix and match different dinosaur body parts across your body to have their different capabilities. Like a Hybrid, you can become multiple things at once. If you know how to use each of those individual parts better, that would make the overall product much better too," Zayne elaborated, trying to keep Eli's focus.

Eli seemed to pause for a moment before breaking a small smile on his face and saying, "Okay. I get it a little better now. So you're suggesting that we take smaller steps upwards that will lead to Hybrid control. Then, by the time we get there, I'll pretty much know everything I need to know in order to fully control him even better than before."

Zayne snapped his fingers and pointed at Eli approvingly, "Exactly."

"Zayne," someone spoke from the barrier entrance.

Immediately both teens looked to the barrier and saw Ver standing in the entrance with a heavy jacket on. Zayne hadn't noticed because of the training, but it was getting darker, and the wind had picked up. It was snowing too.

"L-let's get home before this g-gets any worse," Ver pleaded between chattering teeth.

Zayne and Eli said their goodbyes and Zayne cleaned up his mug of coffee. Ver and Eli exchanged a small hello and goodbye, then Eli went back to watching TV. But Zayne could see it in his eyes. Something was different about Eli now. He had a different outlook on the training now, which was Zayne's intention with that talk. Now he just needed to improve Eli's focus on personal training. That would be a little difficult, but Zayne had confidence that he could do it.

Zayne and Ver stepped from the barrier and immediately huddled together. They moved as quickly as possible across the growing snow on the path, making a quick beeline for the house. As Zayne ran he took note of the dropping temperature as the sun went down. If he had to guess this weather was already reaching below zero, especially since Zayne could feel his cheeks nearly freezing over despite him reaching body temperatures that forced him to glow. The two finally erupted through the glass doors and nearly slammed them shut behind them. They both stayed huddled together as they tried to warm themselves up faster. Keith wasn't home yet from work, and Damien was in his room in the back. A massive pot with steaming food rested on the stove, which Zayne spotted as he looked around the room trying to find the thermostat.

"What's for dinner?"

"C-chili, are you already warmed up?"

"Enough that I can move, you?"

"If I move I think I'll shatter," Ver joked as she tried to move but couldn't.

Zayne looked back out the glass doors to the backyard. The sun was gone now, but snow illuminated the land like it was still day. It was still dumping snow everywhere, and it had already reached two feet. Zayne sighed.

"Welp. At least school's canceled."

----------

Zayne laid in bed that night staring at the ceiling. The snow, nearly four hours later, was still being dumped down. The weatherman bumped up his prediction to around five and a half feet of snow. The most recent report Zayne was, which was thirty minutes ago, was that it had reached three feet and counting. It was obvious now that school, and by extension probably a lot of places around the area, were going to be closed for a while. Keith had been snowed out of the house, so he got a room at the nearest hotel and promised he'd be getting home as soon as possible. It was odd when Zayne listened to the conversation between Ver and him. Keith seemed to be stern and commanding as he talked, while Ver seemed concerned and even a little panicked. The changes in her voice gave way to that observation at least.

Whatever was causing this event had something to do with Ver and Keith. Zayne had been here long enough to know when something was wrong, and when it directly affected the family. Ver's worry and Keith's sense of urgency combined made Zayne wonder if there was something bigger going on here than he was being led on to believe. It was certainly possible. It wouldn't be the first time he was left out on something. Especially with the recent decrease in training, he'd been observant of anything he could to try and help his case. This worry from both of the adult figures in his life wasn't reassuring that everything was going to be alright. Something was wrong.

And so all Zayne could think about, over and over again until he fell asleep, was that something was wrong. But what? What could be wrong? What was causing this? Zayne fell asleep not knowing the answer. But Zayne promised himself before drifting off into slumber that he would figure out what was happening. He felt a warm, fuzzy excitement as he thought about it. Putting the Midnight Horror and Arachnid aside, this might be his first actual case and villain!

----------

The next day came with fulfilled expectations and other strange mysteries. For starters with the expectations, school was canceled. Zayne's phone was blowing up with texts from Aleah and the guys, all three of them ecstatic about the news. Austin and Aries were suggesting going to the library to play games or just hang out, but Zayne turned down the offer. He had several reasons for doing so. As for Aleah, well she just wanted to know if Zayne was alright. It took him a moment to remember that she knew about his secret, so when she asked if he was healing alright from the injury he panicked for a moment. After reassuring her that she didn't have to worry she decided to leave him be for the time and stopped texting him. Zayne didn't mind.

Zayne turned down Aries and Austin because he needed time home with Damien and Ver. He had been pretty distant from them recently since his training had flared up. Damien was pretty distant from him anyway, which probably had something to do with him continuing his training despite Damien telling him to stop. The issue had escalated to the point where Damien hardly even wanted to look at Zayne when they were near each other. Zayne wanted to try and improve that relationship back to its previous joyful status. Not to mention, if school got canceled, Zayne wasn't in the mood to go anywhere else no matter what weather it was. Especially if it was weather that he hated.

Another filled in expectation was the fact that Ver didn't want to train with Zayne today. She used the excuse that it was too difficult to get to the cave, especially when the ground was covered in nearly four foot three-inch snow. The turn out had been much less than the weatherman predicted, but it was still pretty bad. Most companies in the area had announced their closing doors until the weather passed by. What made things worse was the fact that there was another storm brewing in the distance, slowly encompassing the entire area again. Whatever was causing this wasn't letting up, and that gave Zayne a little confidence and a little fear. It gave him confidence because it meant more time to try and figure out who was causing this. It gave him fear because whatever this was, they certainly weren't just going to give up easily on their plan.

Ver's excuse, however, was immediately invalidated due to one simple fact. Zayne could burn a path through the snow. It was freezing cold, but during the day it was at a temperature that he could endure and work through. With his body, Zayne could burn through the snow and clear a path to the cave that they could then use to get back quickly before it got too dark and cold. Still, Zayne didn't pressure her. A few days in the house to just sit around do things for the heck of it. Zayne wondered if maybe they could watch TV together, or play a few games just to relieve some pressure. But then there was something else around the house today. The mysteries.

Even though it was eleven in the morning now Damien still hadn't woken up. Normally even by now he would be up and moving around, but when Zayne stepped into the hall he saw Damien's room still closed. Ver was in the living room watching the weather predictions for the next few days. Zayne stepped from the hall and entered the living room, then moved across the carpet and entered the kitchen. He looked out the window at the snowy wasteland of dead trees and birds floating around. The outside world looked uninviting and bitter, yet it held a sort of serene peacefulness in the sparkling snow. Zayne smiled as he opened the cabinets and got his pancake supplies once more.

Zayne pulled out the supplies he needed, including the machines he required to make the actual meal, and set everything up. The materials filled up the entire countertop, including his extras like chocolate chips and blueberries. Personally, he didn't like blueberries in pancakes and thought of them like pineapple on pizza, but he didn't dislike anyone else for wanting those things. Especially in this situation, he didn't care about the opinion because Ver preferred blueberries over anything else in her breakfast food. So Zayne began his work, mixing and spreading, cooking and implementing all of the ingredients. The smell filled the air steadily and eventually caught Ver's attention. She turned around in the couch and watched as Zayne gleefully moved around the kitchen, mixing and moving everything into place. Zayne hadn't noticed his watcher.

Finally, Zayne ended his work with nearly twelve pancakes, three of them with chocolate chips, six with blueberries, and three normal. He ensured that three plates were made, one with his chocolate chips, one with Ver's blueberries, and one with the extras. Using his right arm he carried his plate and Ver's plate to the table while balancing the extra plate on his left arm. He took it slow and steady as he moved, reacting as best he could when something shifted. After a good three minutes of careful shuffling over Zayne set the plates down and returned to the kitchen for utensils. Ver smiled as Zayne set up the table and got some milk from the fridge. He set up the breakfast meal like it was a romantic evening dinner, even going so far as to add a few candles here and there. She got up and turned off the TV, which finally alerted Zayne that she'd taken notice of his work.

"Hungry?" Zayne asked.

"I can fit a few in there," Ver replied as she tapped her stomach.

"I know you've already got coffee but I figured you'd want some milk too. Helps the stuff go down you know," Zayne conversed as he started cleaning up his messes that he'd made in the process of making the breakfast.

"No no no Zayne come over here. I'll clean that up later," Ver pleaded as she sat down and took a deep breath of the aroma of food.

"No no, it's my mess. I'll clean it up. You need the break today anyway, you know with all the training me and hunting down that escaped Mythic. Syrup?" Zayne held up the syrup bottle.

Ver held her hands up, "Toss it."

With a swift motion the bottle was in the air, then in Ver's hands. She opened the bottle and spread an acceptable amount on her pancakes, then closed it up and set it in the middle.

"I really shouldn't be eating this," Ver paused before taking her first bite.

Zayne put his finger on his lips and shushed her, "Just eat. It's comfort breakfast food."

Ver snorted and dove in. By the time Zayne had finished cleaning and sat down to eat Ver was going through her three extras. Zayne to this day still had to figure out just how she ate so much without being phased by it. Pancakes were very quick fillers, and yet Ver was eating six in one sitting without any sign of holding back. Perhaps it was just something her body had the ability to do. Zayne had read quite a while back about some people having the stomach capacity to eat more than others. It had something to do with their digestive systems being able to burn through food much faster than anyone else. Theoretically, if one's metabolism could chew through food really quickly then that person was also a very fast runner. They did some tests on the theory, but to their dismay, it was disproven with nearly seven of the ten people not meeting the requirements to prove their hypothesis.

Zayne started into his food when Damien came around the corner groggy and dead looking. His hair was a spiky mess, and his clothes were wrinkled into the next dimension. He gave Ver and Zayne a very baggy-eyed glare as he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a box of cereal, then started making himself a bowl. Zayne gave him a puzzled look and pointed to the pancakes. Damien just shook his head and took his cereal back into the hall, presumedly all the way back to his room. Zayne exchanged a look to Ver that conveyed confusion. Damien loved pancakes, and to this day Zayne had never seen him turn them down. There was definitely something going on with him.

The rest of the morning carried on with cleaning up the breakfast meal and watching the final reports on the weather. The final call was that the next storm to hit was going to be less intense, but it would still drop another foot or so of snow onto the previously hit area. The strange weather pattern and the focused area was strange and the cause was unknown to the reporters, so they turned to speculation and started throwing out theories that people that presented to them over their social media accounts. After the report ended they switched to a sports game somewhere, Zayne didn't see or really care all too much. What he did care about was the attention Ver brought to an article she had read earlier in the morning. Someone had presented an idea as to why or what was causing the strange weather. It startled Zayne the level of understanding and detail they used.

The person had started in by bringing up the obvious point that this storm was natural. The cause, however, was unknown, the reasoning was unknown, and the situation was dire. The person then began to explain his theory, that this storm was indeed being caused by some outside force or person. If Zayne was any normal person he would scoff and move on until he read down further. The writer began to tell about the recent strange attacks and events all around the world that were unnatural and had no explanation. The locals of the areas called them gods or titans, but the people were told by the government that they were just natural accidents. It was basically a massive recap of what Zayne had read months ago before Arachnid's first attempt on his life. The explosions, the battles, the missing people. Then the writer turned his attention to the Midnight Horror.

He wrote about the strange videos that had no explanation, and he also delved into how those videos couldn't have been altered. For one, the first video showed the kids in the forest being followed. Then those very same kids started vanishing. The second video didn't even reach the public until after the police investigated it. Police wouldn't just tamper with a video to try and scare people, that was legitimate. The level of knowledge and research this writer did was astonishing and quite frankly, scary to Zayne. He was determined to get the truth out, even if he didn't fully understand the truth.

After that, the writer began to discuss the strange battle in the city. He elaborated that the massive crater in the city, and afterward the sudden disappearance of the Midnight Horror could only lead to one conclusion. Someone had stepped in and stopped that monster from going any further. After listening to the interview with the man that Zayne had saved the writer decided that there were some people in the world who were unnatural, and very powerful. They wanted to do whatever they wanted with their power. But likewise, there were people in the world with the same level of power that would stand up to them and stop them. Going off of that knowledge the writer connected the dots that all of the explosions and 'natural events,' were all indeed caused by superpowered people.

Then the writer returned his attention to the storm. Zayne read the final few sentences slowly and carefully, taking in every single word with insight that he had now and knowledge that he wanted for later.

The article finished: "It's obvious that our world is inhabited by people with powers we do not understand. It is also obvious that some of those individuals seek to harm us with their powers. But what we should also be assured of is that there are people with powers who want to help us. This storm is just another chapter in a long story of events that have been occurring all throughout history, and at some point, someone will figure things out and stop it. All we have to do is sit back and wait for that moment to occur."

The article was written by the very reporter Zayne had seen interviewing the man he'd saved. Jim Jimmy. Despite just reading the report and all the serious information he'd taken in Zayne snickered. That was such a weird name to have.