Part 1: Quarantine
Part 2: Odd Jobs
Part 3: Shuck
Part 4: The Old North
Part 5: Dirty Dave
Part 6: Multipliers
Part 7: Kilogold
Part 8: Analysis
Part 9: Reversal
Part 10: Miss Meta
Part 11: The Fourth Consortium
Part 12: Young Ghost
Part 13: Dungeon Diving
Part 14: Puzzles
Part 15: Calm Before the Storm
Part 16: Eventual
Part 17: Changing History
Part 18: The Gaze
Part 19: Panic
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.
With the overwhelming power of Panic, the group is now safe. For the moment.
“Ugh… my head. What the rift happened?”
Dante spun around, realizing Ghost was now awake, sitting up in his cot where he had been placed and watched over while unconscious. “Quite a lot happened. Shuck had to knock you out because-”
Ghost held up a finger. “Stop. Time toggle threat?”
“Exactly.”
“Right… well, I hate to give someone like him the benefit of the doubt like this. He’s clearly dishonest. But if he managed to trick all three of you Metas into keeping the truth from me when there is no threat, not much I can do about it. Am I to assume that the Eventual has been taken care of?”
Dante opened the door, light pouring into the dimply lit bunker. “See for yourself.”
Ghost, though still groggy and moving stiffly, walked outside the door. He saw a few small groups of people milling about, while the edge of a cliff was visible in the distance overlooking a far off grassland. After a moment, the light caster realized what had happened. “You had a gravity caster? One powerful enough to create a Float Pack of this size, as well as fight off the more powerful Vorpals targeting us?”
Dante scoffed. “Amazing. How do you already know all of that? Why would you not assume it was a large team of gravity casters that made this island?”
Ghost looked at Dante with a slightly condescending glance. “Because that makes it harder, not easier. The coordination required increases in complexity the more participants you have, and a Float Pack is not some simple, mass produced technique. If you wanted to destroy every structure you were lifting, then you could just have a mob of casters pump antigravity into the ground, but actually creating a stable island like this is dependant on a dozen different variables. Geological makeup, preexisting structures, size of island, shape of island… not to mention, doing all this while fending off attackers. A single actor is the most likely option.”
Dante shook his head. “We accuse Shuck of knowing a bit too much… what’s your excuse?”
Ghost grew visibly irritated. “I don’t need to explain myself to you. But if you must know, it’s because I’ve seen such casters firsthand in the past. It’s the main reason I’m selling my services at the moment; I need to get stronger. There are far too many casters who have the means and motivation to end me.”
Dante raised an eyebrow. “I thought you just needed the money?”
“… ok, AND I need the money.”
Ghost and Dante regrouped with Victor, who was in a shouting match with Shuck. “Shuck… none of that matters. Are you stupid, or are you deliberately missing the point?”
“How about neither? You are acting hysterical at the precise moment you have the least reason to be!”
Victor noticed Ghost, and turned his attention to the confused third party. “Ghost! Please, enlighten me… am I being hysterical? Unreasonable? Am I-”
Ghost glared at Victor, silencing him without a word. Ghost then spoke clearly and calmly. “I don’t have the necessary information, but until I have some other questions answered, I frankly don’t care. How are the evacuation activities proceeding?”
“While Dante kept an eye on things here, me and Mira jumped most of the survivors out. She’s in the middle of taking the last few right now.”
“Good, so whatever Vorpal was preventing time travel has been taken care of. Where are you sending them?”
“Pause, of course. After processing, they will be reinserted into their timeline at a confirmed safe time period. New identities and backgrounds to prevent anyone from finding out the truth of where they were taken from will be issued as well, per standard procedure for time refugees.”
Ghost breathed in deeply, rubbing his forehead as he breathed out slowly. “So it’s all taken care of. We can leave at any time, so why are we standing here?”
Victor pointed at Shuck. “Because I’m not taking Shuck anywhere until I get some satisfactory answers! I’m not the most powerful Meta, and that includes in regards to casting, time travel acumen, and even raw gravity casting. But I’m not a complete fool! I’m not going to be led around like a-”
Ghost cut off Victor. “Fine. If you really wish, explain to me how you aren’t a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum. What is your problem with Shuck?”
Victor, now given express permission, launched into his explanation. “So, some of this you already know, but I’m going to explain this in full. Shuck here was hired to help me save my family… first, through only earning some funds that he promptly claimed control over by manipulation, but later as a more direct assistant with promises of good intentions. During that time, he claimed a summoning card we had acquired failed when used, disappearing into nonexistence. Later, he very quickly accepted working for more nebulous terms once this whole business with a conspiracy bubbled up. I should have been more suspicious, but things were still moving too fast to notice this. Even you observed that he is untrustworthy, and-”
Ghost interrupted. “I see that most people are untrustworthy. Shuck was more shady than most, and the fact he is an associate of mine in my own future makes it doubly so.”
Victor frowned, confused at what Ghost was suggesting. “Wait… the fact that you know him later in your life makes him more shady?”
“It’s speculation, I’m under no delusions on my own integrity, and the likely course my later life will take. But Victor… do you not realize all of our current activities are extremely secretive? It’s the very basis for your powers of time travel; controlled ignorance. You keep yourselves and others in the dark deliberately to prevent paradoxes… time toggles, as you call them. How is Shuck being suspicious different from that?”
Victor pointed at Shuck while he had a clear accusatory tone in his voice. “He had a summoning card this whole time that would have solved our problems! Forget barely escaping, the… individual… he summoned with that card could have easily captured our attackers… alive, at that! We could have interrogated them, avoided the trap in Misty Cove, and never needed to get caught up in this whole Eventual business! This is only more suspicious when the summoning card he was previously given failed while I was not around to see it fail! All of that is just awful convenient, is it not?”
Shuck scoffed incredulously. “See what I mean, Ghost? It’s all absurd. I don’t even know what he is suggesting! That I’ve been holding back this whole time? That’s just being frugal with resources. It’s not-”
Ghost cut off Shuck with a single, cold comment. “I see what you mean, Victor.”
Shuck sputtered in disbelief. “Whoa, whoa, wait a minute… I’m sorry… what was that, Ghost? Are you toying with me?”
Ghost stared down Shuck with his burning red eyes. “Not at all. A conman looking to steal valuable summoning cards from unsuspecting Metas conducting business in Pause would behave exactly like you behave. Perhaps you would be more upstanding in your other endeavors if you wished to remain undetected, but then again… maybe you can’t help yourself.”
“Ghost, you are speaking nonsense!”
“No… no, I don’t think I am. Did you know, Shuck? A talented electro caster can mess with memories. That’s why most people won’t trust even a slightly dishonest electro caster if they are powerful. But I happen to know something else… while under direct observation, and without establishing any physical content, a sufficiently talented electro caster can subtlety influence people around him.”
Everyone looked at Shuck, who backed up as he grew more neurotic. “Now, wait a minute… how did we get to this point? You realize how much that summoning card cost, and now you think I have some nefarious plans?”
Victor spoke, now even more alarmed at the possible implications of what Ghost had just said. “We already know there is a group with nefarious plans… how do we know you weren’t part of this conspiracy from the start, Shuck? It helps explain why you know so much.”
Dante frowned, turning to Victor. “What do you think, Victor? You were the one who hired him. It’s your call.”
Victor spoke with decisiveness. “I had my doubts, but it’s clear now. Gatekeeper Shuck, you are under arrest for crimes against the timeline. As with all timeline citizens, your case will be examined…”
“No, no! This isn’t right, I haven’t done anything against you, Victor! You can’t do this!”
“…and you will receive due process to determine your guilt. Come quietly, or we will take you in by force if necessary.”
Shuck was silent searching for words before sighing in desperation and saying one final comment before he was to be taken to a jail cell outside of time. “Fold it… None of you have any idea how wrong you are.”
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
Gatekeepers, Book Two: Order of Gravitas
Same post on Minds