Metastasis, Part 16: Eventual
Table of Contents available here.
Synopsis(spoilers ahead if you want to read the story from the beginning)
Victor Meta is a time traveler who lived with his wife Janet and his young daughter Mira in a quaint timeline on the edge of obscurity. However, one day he was ambushed by soldiers of the Legion, and was forced to ally with a con artist named Shuck to save them from certain doom. By carefully manipulating time, he was barely successful, thanks to additional help surprisingly provided by his own daughter, now an adult time traveler.
But all of that pales in comparison to the revelation that Mira brings. They were not alone in being targeted. The time traveling family of Meta has been attacked throughout history. Ghost, another Gatekeeper who helped Dante Meta escape the coordinated assault, has joined the effort alongside that same Meta to find the masterminds behind the attack. And now, they all are working together to unravel the mystery of the Legion's ability to coordinate throughout time.
Their investigation begins at the mysterious Misty Cove, where they discovered and opened a massive vault. Inside, they discovered a multi colored puzzle cube that Shuck couldn't solve. Victor managed to solve it, but then vanished. They eventually learned he had subconsciously been forced to jump to a time period undergoing a catastrophic conflict called an Eventual.
With no other options and the simple knowledge of the danger they are running into being their only advantage, they are now forced to attempt a rescue.
***
Mira wasn’t sure how long she waited. She went around in a haze, too distracted by the looming threat to pay attention to anything. It might have been hours, it might have been days. She found it impossible to say for sure. But she finally swallowed her trepidation, and approached Shuck as he relaxed on a couch, half asleep. “I’m ready, now.”
Shuck sprung to his feet, briefly stretching before walking up. “About time… let’s put this matter to rest.”
After a shaky inhale, and more shaky exhale, Mira grabbed Shuck’s shoulder, and made the time jump.
All around was destruction, explosions, and cries of pain. Massive structures that could have housed hundreds had been devastated down to their ruined frames, rubble spilling out in all directions. People shouted in the confusion as shapeshifting monsters tore people apart, or were torn apart. One four legged spider monster rapidly charged at Mira, disturbingly human face yelling with dislocated jaw as it tried to stab her in the chest with one of it’s razor sharp legs. A lightning bolt from Shuck sent its charred remains flailing away before it could complete its assault. “Look alive, Mira!”
Mira was still stunned, mumbling in disbelief at the horror surrounding her. “It was… supposed to be safe… it… it had to be.”
With the time traveler not responding, Shuck simply grabbed her and ran for cover. He managed to fry two other Vorpals that tried to catch him before sliding underneath a ledge to hide. Quickly making sure to prop it up in case the rubble shifted, Shuck laid underneath with Mira as they observed the battle.
It was nearly over, as Vorpals fell one after another. Several men were killed, but the Vorpals were eventually entirely wiped out. Mira shook with fear, leaving Shuck to again pull her out with him while he went to talk with the survivors. “Hey, we are looking for a caster named Ghost and-”
The soldier yelled over Shuck. “You! If you want to live, follow me! We have a fortified bunker a short distance from here!”
Shuck nodded, pulling Mira along until she found the will to actually walk. They were rushed into an open manhole cover, and underneath found a group of absolutely filthy refugees inhabiting an unbelievably cramped bunker.
Shuck was led into another room with a table, likely meant for planning and discussion, where he saw not only Ghost and Dante Meta, but also Victor Meta. He walked up. “Well, that was easy…”
Ghost looked at Shuck with burning eyes. “You might say that, coming in at the end of the battle like that. I would be lying if I agreed. I saw you when you popped into the time period… I was on the other side of the battlefield. And this wasn’t the first battle we’ve fought in.”
Dante answered the obvious question Shuck had before he even uttered it. “There is some Vorpal out there… it can block time jumps out of here. No record of that exists within descriptions of Eventuals, but I suppose we should have expected it… we are stuck here in this time period until that Vorpal dies. It’s only a matter of time, but the question is if we can survive that long.”
Shuck grimaced. “But that hardly matters, correct?”
Mira walked in, questioning Shuck’s comment after she had run over for a tearful hug with her father. “What do you mean?”
Shuck looked around, making sure no other survivors were around listening. “It’s simple. We run to a remote location with no natural resources. These Vorpals are an invading force targeting populations, they can’t check every corner of the world. Ghost can provide cloaking while we travel, and I can help run decoy tactics should any forces get too close to detect us while cloaked. Then, once we get there, we just wait it out using time stasis until we can leave the era entirely.”
Everyone was silent. Ghost, after considering it, nodded. “Yeah… That could work.”
Mira was taken aback. “Are you suggesting… we abandon everyone here?”
Ghost argued on Shuck’s behalf. “Absolutely. We can’t save them all, we don’t have the manpower. Nor do we have the capability to save more than one of them with the number of Metas we have here, and attempting to do so might cause an internal riot. Best course of action is to slip away during the next conflict and be written off as M.I.A.”
“That’s… horrible! We can’t abandon these people!”
“We can’t save them, either. Are you suggesting we die with them?”
Shuck put his hand on Mira’s shoulder, who recoiled with anger at the touch. “Mira… I killed three Vorpals. We are facing thousands. If I hadn’t of been there, you might already be dead.”
Mira scowled. “It’s not right! This was supposed to be a safe area!”
“Mira, it’s-”
“No! This is all wrong, something must have changed. Something-”
Mira’s face lit up. “We are supposed to help.”
Dante began to grow worried, alongside everyone except Mira. “Mira, we aren’t here for heroics. We are here-”
“We are absolutely here for heroics! We came to save Victor! Why not save as many other people as we can?”
Victor spoke up. “Mira, I appreciate the second time you have helped me out, but I would honestly prefer my daughter leave me to die rather than to just die alongside me. You aren’t equipped for this.”
Mira took out a full deck of cards. “But I am equipped for this!”
Everyone stared at the deck of cards. There was at least fifty. Victor slowly and carefully took one, flipping it around in his hand as he inspected it. “Mira… how did you get all of these?”
“It’s called investing. I’ve bought and sold summoning cards my entire life, and this is my emergency stockpile I carry with me at all times. All of them are class four casters at least, and I have one class six. Should that not be enough to hold off the Vorpal horde?”
Victor frowned. “It’s hard to say… Ghost? You seem to be our combat expert, what do you think?”
Ghost tapped his finger on his crossed arm, thinking. “Well… I would need to look through the cards we have. Maybe. It also depends how many more waves of Vorpals we have to deal with… it’s possible, but inadvisable. Are we sure we want to try? One of us might end up dead, if not all of us.”
An alarm sounded. A soldier began shouting. “All able-bodied warriors, with me! Don’t bother hiding down here if you can fight, because once everyone on top is dead, the Vorpals are no doubt gonna start tearing people apart down here!”
Mira looked at Ghost. “There’s no time to look through the cards, now! What do we do?”
Ghost pushed past Mira. “Shuck, with me… Victor, Dante, you come too… we need to buy some time the only way I know how.”
The approaching wave of Vorpals back above ground was a wave of pure death. Contorted faces and lashing limbs, soulless eyes and ear piercing screams. Mira watched from short distance away, determined to help if needed by taking a chance with one of her cards.
Ghost drew two swords of burning light from nowhere. “Victor, Dante, begin throwing anything you can find at them. Shuck, watch my back. I’m going in.”
Before anyone could stop him, Ghost ran directly at the wave, causing it to break apart and try circling around him. Shuck took shots at any Vorpal that Ghost didn’t immediately kill, but to his shock…
There weren’t many that he didn’t.
Ghost tore apart the horde, slicing with blinding speed as he chained together strikes. He split into two, and then three, versions of himself. With an almost unearthly volume, the copies of Ghost shouted together as he fought. “Foul Vorpals… face my Prism Sword Dance!”
Shock was nearly speechless. “At that age… he already knew Prism.”
Ghost fusion jumped a hundred feet in the air as several flying Vorpals pursued him. Branching light beams quickly put an end to that, as Ghost shouted his named attacks. “Blood Constellation!”
Larger Vorpals bellowed as the tried throwing boulders at him, but most were pulled back down like meteors by Victor and Dante using their gravity control together. The smaller ones they couldn’t influence enough were dodged by Ghost as he ran alongside buildings, as if he was entirely weightless and possessed super human agility.
Ghost landed back on the ground, glowing brighter by the second. He stood for a second as the routed Vorpals regrouped and began moving in his direction. Ghost dropped his light swords as he put both palms forward, shouting with determination. “Dual Charge Beam!”
The air burned as beams of blinding light shot out, melting anything in their path, after devastating the majority of still living Vorpals, the small minority that avoided the beam retreated. The soldiers were half in awe of what just happened, while the other half cheered in victory.
Ghost collapsed.
The Dante grabbed the nearly unconscious Ghost and helped pull him inside the bunker, while an amazed soldier questioned Dante. “Excuse me, what the rift was that? I saw him fight before, and he was capable… but I didn’t see anything like that.”
Dante laid Ghost down on a cot while he explained for the exhausted Gatekeeper. “He’s a monstrously powerful caster. Class seven, but unlike many other class sevens, he is actually well trained for combat.”
The soldier was incredulous. “He’s not even an adult, yet!”
Dante smiled. “Yeah… I couldn’t afford his combat prowess when he’s an adult. But unfortunately, I don’t think he can pull the same maneuvers when the next wave comes. Even he has a limit.”
Ghost spoke weakly. “Dante… stop… speaking for me… bring me… Mira…”
Mira was pulled next to Ghost, looking at him with confusion. “Ghost, if you can do all that, why-”
Ghost coughed hoarsely before asking for water. Someone handed him a bottle that he gulped down before speaking. “Mira, I’m only human. I might have a few more Charge Beams in me before a full nights rest and a meal would be essential for me to do more than stand at attention. Hand me those cards.”
Mira sheepishly handed over the deck, that Ghost began flipping through and setting aside individual cards into piles. Mira watched with continued bewilderment. “Ghost, none of the casters that we can summon through these cards can come close to the power output you showed.”
Ghost grumbled. “We don’t need power, we need an organized defense. I can send the Vorpals packing once, maybe twice, but eventually they will come back. If we are serious about this, we need to sustainably hold them back, not just obliterate a couple waves.”
“But… why not just obliterate them? That sounds so much easier…”
Ghost grew irritated. “Because we don’t have a full team of casters like me! Consistently using overwhelming force is wasteful, inefficient. We are forced to use what we do have responsibly if we want more than just a couple of us to survive.”
Mira withdrew away from Ghost, suddenly reminded of the seriousness of their situation. “Oh.”
“Look… Mira. Get Shuck in here, maybe we can formulate some strategies with what we have. Both of us are suited for commanding units given our energy types and skill sets.”
Mira left to find Shuck, pulling him aside. “Shuck?”
“Yeah?”
“We are going to get out of here alive, right?”
Shuck laughed nervously. “Well, I can only speak for myself… but I didn’t really plan on dying here.”
Mira sulked. “Don’t joke. This is serious, I’m really worried… I don’t want to let anyone else die, but I don’t want to die, either. So… just promise me that we will make it, all right?”
Shuck grew impatient. “Yes, yes, Mira… we’re going to make it. Don’t worry about it.”
In a flurry, several things happened. Mira gave Shuck a quick peck on the cheek. She told him that Ghost wanted to speak with him. And then she quickly walked away, disappearing into the milling crowd huddled in the underground bunker.
***
Thanks for reading! If you are enjoying the story, you might also enjoy some of my other published work on Amazon! It’s set in the same fictional universe, but follows different characters.
Gatekeepers, Book One: Unquestionable Truth