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
The training had been brutal. After recruiting a kinetic caster who went by the name Isgor, they practiced different scenarios incessantly. They couldn’t begin to hope to go through all possibilities for opponent casters, but they did review the more common team dynamics.
The overall plan had gone through several iterations. Both Shuck and Isgor were more than a little discouraged at the revelation that Victor could only time jump one person at the time. Combined with the fact that their enemies were likely immune to being torn from time via a one way summoning card, due to their anti-Meta technology, their options were very limited.
As the two sat eating their final meal before returning to the quarantined time for the final showdown, Shuck quizzed Victor, while Isgor was already time sliced into a summoning card ready to be deployed for the final battle against real opponents. That way, they could get around Victor’s one person limit for time jumps. “So… let’s review. What opponents would be best case scenario?”
Victor groaned before answering, still aching from the strenuous simulated combat he had been subjected to. It bothered him quite a bit that he seemed to be the only one unaccustomed to such activity. “Gravity casters, no doubt.”
“And why is that?”
“Why the repetition? We know already.”
“Then just answer the question…”
Victor sighed. “Because out of all the casting types, gravity has the weakest energy shielding abilities as well as the slowest attack speed. They are good at kiting opponents and biding their time, but they aren’t strikers. But all of that is moot, because there is no way they are gravity casters.”
Shuck tapped the table, barely touching his own food as he continued. “Right… worst case scenario is a majority of kinetic or thermal casters. They are going to cause area of attack hazards immediately. So… what’s the strategy?”
“Obviously, get my family to safety as fast as possible. I jump both of us in, then I grab my daughter. Oh, but before that I drop the summoning card…”
Shuck almost exploded. “Fold it, Victor! You still don’t have it right, and you have the GALL to complain that I’m being obsessive??? Just give me the card, I’ll do it!”
Victor surrendered the card to Shuck. “Fine. But I just forgot that part, I-”
“No! We can’t afford a mistake like that! Repeat it again, from the top!”
Victor was still deeply concerned about his family, but still managed to find annoyance at Shuck’s strange insistence on memorizing the plan so perfectly. “Ok, fine. I jump both of us in. Now that you have it, you will drop the summoning card for Isgor and grab the connected pocketwatch to keep an eye on the time while I grab Mira. I jump her back to Pause, then leave her there while I jump back. I provide any quick assistance I can in fighting off the Legion soldiers, but the priority is getting my wife out. Then, after jumping back to the fight, I help either finish off our opponents or escape them so I can jump you back out.”
Shuck was generally satisfied with the description of the plan. “And you are certain that won’t cause problems with the summoning card? Jumping back while he still has time left? What if they have one of those shackle artifacts?”
“I asked some other Meta who are experts on the subject, and they said such shackles can’t work on people who only exist within a time period because of an active time manipulation. As always, once his time limit runs out, he will automatically return to where I time sliced him. I wish I could have asked him about how the battle went, since he technically has already fought, but obviously I can’t do that because that would be paradoxical. Foldin’ time toggles…”
Shuck nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. “All right, then. We have done all the planning an preparations we can… are you ready?”
Victor was not ready. But at the same time, he was unwilling to wait any longer not knowing if his family was okay. “As ready as I will ever be. Let’s do this.”
Victor and Shuck walked silently to the proper position, right in the middle of a bridge where Victor had originally tumbled in from when escaping the Legion. Victor fought the urge to hold his breath as he made the jump.
The Legion were already running at him and his family, but he dove towards his daughter. He felt something cut his ear as lightning erupted behind him, Shuck likely leading an attack against the enemy. Victor time jumped again, breathing rapidly as the intense situation he had just been in, however briefly, wore on his psyche.
He hunched over as he breathed heavily. Because the time period was quarantined against other time travelers, no other Metas would be getting into that area for the next minute since he broke the quarantine. He prepared for another time jump as Mira tugged on his pants. “Daddy, where are we? Where did Mommy go?”
Victor knelt down, putting a hand on his daughters shoulder. Even while his wife was still in immediate danger, he was overjoyed at the fact his daughter no longer was. “We are in the future city of Pause. I need you to stay here by yourself for just a little while. Don’t worry, everyone here is your friend… there is no safer place.”
“I… don’t understand, though. How did we get here, Daddy?”
Victor smiled. “I promise, I’ll explain everything later. But for now, I need to finish what I started and go get your mom. Be good while I’m gone, all right?”
Mira looked around, still confused at her surroundings and overflowing with questions. “But… why don’t these bridges have railings? Why is everything the same color… Why are the buildings-”
Victor jumped back. He was in less of a rush while not actually within the quarantined time period, but it became more difficult to get to the same spot if too much time was spent elsewhere. He couldn’t dally.
When he got back, he found he couldn’t move. His legs were anchored to the floor, and he realized why. Three of the Legionnaires were kinetic casters, all cooperating to put up a stasis field around him. He managed to turn his head towards Shuck, and saw him in a similar predicament. To his dismay and confusion, Isgor was nowhere to be seen. He struggled to question Shuck, who simply looked at him and answered the unspoken query. “Summoning card… failed…”
Victor felt despair creeping in. The only thing that causes a summoning card to fail is if the situation you summoned them into would have resulted in their death. Isgor was easily stronger than him, though his strength compared to Shuck was more of a mystery. They were very quickly approaching worst case scenario territory.
One of the Legion pulled his wife with bound writs behind him as a prisoner, boiling Victor’s blood. With great difficulty, he managed to speak. “Stop… leave… my… wife…”
The same Legionnaire, a man dressed exactly the same as all the others, stopped suddenly. He let go of Janet who was then immediately anchored in place by the kinetic casters’ stasis field, crossed his arms nonchalantly behind his back as he strode up and spoke directly to Victor. His voice was disguised with a voice modulator, garbling it to the point of borderline incomprehensibility. “We have left the ransom instructions on the table. If you try anything, she dies. That is all.”
Lightning erupted from Shuck, throwing the Legionnaire tumbling against the wall and knocking shelves off the walls. The man calmly stood up, dusted himself off, and turned towards Shuck. “Hmm… electro caster. What is your name?”
Shuck flashed a smile. While still fundamentally immobile, he was able to move a bit more than Victor could. “The names Shuck.”
The Legionnaire drew his sword and stabbed into Shuck. “I’ll remember that name.”
Shuck coughed in pain as the man pulled his sword back, eyeing the blade as he was confused at the lack of blood. “That’s unexpected… what class are you?”
Shuck was less disrespectful in his tone as he responded again. “Four.”
The Legionnaire stabbed a different part of Shuck, shaking his head with a grimace. Victor struggled against his own static field, but it held firm. “That’s a lie… clearly, you are performing some trickery to prevent yourself from bleeding out right now. Yet, you aren’t capable enough to stop me outright, or escape the stasis field… I’m now very curious exactly where you-”
To everyone’s shock, Miss Meta came charging through the window, shattering the glass and interrupting the would be kidnappers. With a flick of her risk, the table covered with a still warm dinner flew at the kinetic casters maintaining the kinetic field. It shattered harmlessly against them, but Shuck used the opportunity to overpower his own bonds in their moment of distraction.
Lightning arcing between his fingers, he zapped the one who had been tormenting him, as well as one of the kinetic casters. The stasis field now completely failed as they lost control, and the remaining two kinetic casters instead opted to charge at their opponents instead.
But it was too late. Victor, Shuck, and the mysterious Miss Meta knew exactly what to do now. Victor grabbed his wife, and Miss Meta grabbed Shuck. At the same time, both Metas dropped from the timeline, leaving the Legionnaires yelling in frustrated rage.
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