Metastasis, Part 19: Panic
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.
They now find themselves in the middle of a veritable warzone, facing contorted monsters called Vorpals. With few options left and other lives at stake, they throw in with a group of survivors to try holding back the encroaching horde. But it proved too much, and with their backs against the wall, Shuck played his trump card, ironically in the form of a summoning card.
The target? Panic.
***
The man in battle armor looked back at Shuck. “Wait a sec… I know you! Shuck! W-what’s the meaning of this?!”
Shuck addressed the newly summoned man. “Panic… it’s been awhile. But I’m afraid we don’t have much time to catch up. I need you to clean up this mess.”
Gaze pulled back his fist, now attempting to bring both of his clenched hands down on top of Panic. They bounced off an invisible barrier, sending the giant Vorpal recoiling backwards. Panic looked at the Vorpal, an expression of terror mixed with anger on his face. “A… giant Vorpal? Oh, no… no, no, no… Shuck, what have you done? Where am I?”
“You are in an Eventual. It’s either you fight, or we, all of us, will very likely die.”
Panic furrowed his brow as he stared down Shuck. “Y-you’re serious… aren’t you? By the rift!”
Mira spoke up, unable to form an opinion on the man who so effortlessly fended off an attack, and yet exuded such a hesitant aura. “Shuck, who is this? Why did you knock out Ghost? What’s going on!?!”
Panic crossed his arms, trying to look more tough, though that did little in offsetting his clearly tormented expression. The man couldn't have tried to look more uncomfortable. “M-my name is P-P-Panic! Class seven Gatekeeper, w-warrior of-”
Gaze was getting up in the distance, about to make his way back at the group as Shuck reminded Panic of the danger. “Enough talk! Panic, this is serious; take out all nearby Vorpals! Now!”
A series of ruins all levitated off the ground, and simultaneously slammed into Gaze like meteors. The assault continued until the mound stopped moving, and the ash of a deceased Vorpal beginning to blow out of the newly created mountain of destruction. Panic seemed to barely notice, still more concerned about where he was. “S-Shuck, why did you bring me here? Was this one of your plans, a-am I in some kind of danger?”
Mira watched in disbelief. Panic had already killed Gaze while barely moving or showing exertion, and still seemed to be concerned about a more ambiguous danger. Shuck again explained briefly. “Panic, this really isn’t a complicated situation. It’s very simple. We are surrounded by enemy forces with a severe lack of resources to combat them. You are our last effort to stop them.”
Shuck struggled to accept the answer. “Really? T-that’s all?”
“Yes, that’s all.”
Panic’s expression changed to one of cold determination. He gripped his mallet with one hand, holding it next to him with very little effort. He let out a slow, focused breath. “Okay… okay. I can do this, I can do this… just… gotta relax a bit… b-bring down the heart rate…”
A black, leathery skinned Vorpal landed immediately next to Panic, screeching as it’s alien mouth parted in three sections. It had several rows of teeth, with six pairs of spindly arms. Panic yelled in horror, spinning with his mallet as he slammed it against the monster. With a delayed boom, the Vorpal was launched at blinding speed, creating a small puff of dust as it collided with the side of a distant building. “Fold it! Scared the rift out of me… Not a problem. Just, just… need to get some space. Between us and them, that is… hey!”
Panic turned to Mira, having finished mumbling to himself, but his stutter returned to Mira’s continued bewilderment. “C-could you get everyone still alive to center around this point?”
Shuck cut in. “We have a central point a short distance from here. That is where people are retreating to already.”
“That works t-too! I can already sense it… all the movement, converging, while being pursued by… t-them…”
Mira frowned. “Wait, aren’t you a gravity caster? How are you sensing-”
Panic shushed Mira viciously. “Quiet! Please! So much going on that I’m not prepared for, I need to focus! I need quiet! I need… I don’t know, I need to fix all of this!”
Panic threw his mallet into the air, and it stopped suddenly before flying off in a random direction. A short time later, it could be seen tearing along the ground in the distance, demolishing anything it touched in it’s frantic flight. Eventually, it came hurtling in an arch back into Panic’s outstretched hand. “Shuck! Alert everyone! I set up a p-perimeter. I guarantee safety to everyone within it.”
Shuck nodded, while Mira was pulled away by Shuck to prevent more distractions for Panic. “Come on, Mira… he’s got this covered.”
“Covered? It looks like all he did was draw a line in the dirt a mile from here! What’s he going to-”
The ground shook underneath them, causing both to stumble briefly. Mira’s face went completely white. “What the rift was that?”
Shuck ignored the question. “Come on, we don’t have much time. We need to get back to the base and make sure to get the word out.”
Shuck and Mira, after grabbing a speechless Victor, a confused Dante, and an unconscious Ghost, met up with the survivors. The earthquakes continued, growing in frequency, while the Vorpals all but disappeared. However, there was a mysterious number of devastating craters with smashed pieces of rubble sitting within them.
Victor, after seeing Mira’s questions go unanswered, finally found the will to ask his own. “Shuck… you have a lot of explaining to do. Who is Panic? Why did you knock out Ghost? And what are these earthquakes?”
Shuck looked around. “Is everyone accounted for? Did everyone who is still alive make it back?”
“Don’t dodge the question, Shuck!”
Shuck sighed, breaking away from another conversation where he apparently got the assurances he wanted. “Okay, great… what was that, Victor? Did you say something?”
“Yes, I said something! I asked who the rift is Panic?!”
Shuck’s expression changed, as if something just clicked. “Oh, right… Panic is Ghost’s son.”
The parts of the disorganized group that heard the comment grew silent, while those who had not wondered what everyone else had heard to elicit such a reaction. All three Meta’s were horrified, while Victor stammered as he tried to confirm his worst fear. “You brought… someone’s immediate descendant to the same time period as their own father… when their FATHER IS ONLY A KID?!?”
Shuck shrugged. “Yeah, just about. That’s why I had to put a mental block on Ghost. He’ll wake up with a nasty headache, but-”
“Forget that! How does this NOT end with a time toggle? Who created that summoning card?”
Shuck tapped his chin. “Hmm, let me think… I believe it was Mira.”
Victor grabbed Shuck by the neck with both hands. “You homicidal monster! Why did you involve her in all this?! WHY?!?”
Shuck shocked Victor slightly to make him let go, readjusting his outfit with a slight air of indignation. “Hmph… no need to yell. I don’t recall the rule that forced me to go through her parent. She’s an adult. Or was when she made the card. I don’t think the version of her with us now has actually made the card… cause, you know, time travel. Easy to get twisted like this.”
Victor composed himself, and checked Mira wasn’t nearby. He confirmed she was a short distance away talking with someone else, so she wasn’t hearing any of the conversation. Victor lowered his voice. “You spurious… fine. Let’s assume, for a moment, that you aren’t a dangerous lunatic playing with forces far beyond your ability to control.”
“...I’m getting that lecture from a time traveler?”
Victor scowled. “Anyways… I must know. How is Panic holding off the Vorpals? I’ve seen class seven casters. There are a few in our own ranks. They can’t do what he is doing. Not even Ghost could-”
The ground shook again, knocking most people off their feet, Victor included. Shuck remained firmly standing, looking down at Victor with a strange darkness in his eyes. As if he had just seen something terrifying and horrific, but not surprising. “Panic is class seven in name only… he’s a lot like Ghost, just fully grown, and therefore closer to his true potential. And now, in just a moment… you will understand. You will understand why I would have preferred to do almost anything before using even a second of his summoning card.”
Cracks ran across the ground, rupturing chasms now cracking the very ground. But then, the ground pulled back together, tilting back and forth underneath foot as everyone stumbled about. Those who had been on a ship recognized the sensation, though they still failed to understand. That is, until they looked up and around them.
Panic was flying above them, hands outstretched and feet planted firmly on the head of his gravity mallet. He uttered one final phrase as he opened his tightly closed eyes.
“By the power of Gravity… I command my will be made Reality. Ascend, Island of Chaos!”
The ground rose into the sky, the previously drawn rough perimeter marking the edges of the new floating island. Vorpals clambered around the edges with malice focused on their prey moving just outside their reach, but the sheer ferocity of the gravitational forces on that border tore them apart almost instantaneously when they grew bold enough to attempt boarding the island.
The gravity on the island equalized, and no one found any difficulty while trying to stand or walk around. Gathering her courage, Mira decided to fly up to Panic, who looked slightly strained, but otherwise much more calm. “Panic? Did you just create… a floating island?!?”
Panic raised an eyebrow as he looked at Mira. He crossed his arms. “F-floating island is what a non-gravity caster would call it. You should really know better. It’s a high yield gravity fabrication, set up around a d-defined area with multiple tethers through the ground to hold the whole thing together while also protecting everyone on top. You know, with a gravity torrent acting as a primitive force field. In short, it’s a Float Pack, just a really b-big one.”
Mira struggled to keep up, but being a gravity caster and never before considering herself as particularly untalented, she tried her best to hide her ignorance. “I… see. But how do you have power for all this? I would estimate to do something like this, you would need over… a hundred casters! At least!”
Panic laughed, and for just a moment failed to stutter even once in his response. “Ah, now I see. You don’t know yet. I’m surprised Shuck let you speak to me, but I guess he already knows you don’t know and that I know not to tell you that I know. But, in retrospect, that sentence was a rather convoluted mess… forget I even said anything.”
“Wait, what? What don’t I know?”
Panic’s expression grew fierce again as a shadow fell on him. Mira spun around, and flew backward in shock as she saw a massive sky beast made up of smoke. It roared as it charged right at Panic with open maw, while the gravity caster calmly extended one hand and spoke casually to Mira as the beast approached at a frantic rate. “Real heroes exist, Mira. If you find your Will, you can do the impossible. It’s not easy, it’s not quick… but if you search hard enough…”
A dark beam pierced through the shadow beast, collapsing it inwards as Panic whispered under his breath the name of the technique. “Black Hole Blast.”
As the beam of focused gravitational energy so intense that not even light escaped it slowly faded under Panic’s flawless control, leaving no trace of his attacker, he finished his sentence. “...you can find the power to make things right.”
Mira flew in front of Panic. “You have to teach me! Teach me how to be as strong as you!”
Panic smiled with one eyebrow raised. “An infinity c-caster asking a normal caster for help gaining power? That’s rather b-backwards, isn’t it?”
“Time travel doesn’t let me do… that! I want to learn how to fight like that! Crushing Vorpals and lifting small islands like it’s nothing… that’s real power!”
Panic sighed before responding. “If you can’t accomplish everything I can with your own infinity casting, you aren’t using it right. Don’t focus on what you lack, but r-rather learn to wield what makes you s-special. Time travel is even more powerful than you think. B-but with that, I think my time should be about done. It’s been nice talking with-”
Panic vanished in the blink of an eye, before Mira could question him further. The time contained by the summoning card having run out, he had been returned to his original time.
***
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