Metastasis, Part 4: The Old North

Part 1: Quarantine
Part 2: Odd Jobs
Part 3: Shuck

Victor, wearing his new wide brim hat and time period correct clothes, wandered around the dusty town. Somehow, Shuck had convinced him to time jump both of them to a place even more backwards than Colossus in Shuck’s own time period. “All right, Shuck… I’ll bite. How can we possibly make any profit here?”

Shuck walked up to Victor and shoved a bag of gold into his hands. “There is no place easier. While you were meandering, I was already making some deals.”

With a measure of awe, Victor inspected one of the gold pieces. It certainly looked real, though it baffled him how Shuck could have moved so fast. “Is this… stolen?”

“If I was you, I wouldn’t ask so many questions. It could become inconvenient. But no, it’s not what you would call stolen.”

“Then… how?”

Shuck looked around cautiously, then produced a trinket from his cloak. “I just did a couple trading chains. I swap things for slightly higher values, until I get something of much higher value. I then sell that to the auction, and pocket the additional up charge. The taxes here are almost nonexistent, so the margin can be extremely thin; no faster trading hub exists that I’m aware of than this spot, right now. I had almost thought my intel I had on the Old North was too good to be true…”

Victor rebagged the gold, and gave Shuck a disapproving look. “What you are doing could be classified as tax fraud. Going to other time periods to amass wealth by avoiding taxes is-”

“Yes, yes, such a tragedy. I’m paying less money in taxes, sound the alarm. If you are going to get so up tight about minor infractions, I guess I can only hope that you don’t find out about any necessary… actions… I take to get us out of trouble should the need arise. But that was just to get some petty change for the real job.”

Victor looked around. He counted no fewer than three fist fights breaking out at that very moment, so he didn’t doubt that Shuck might be right. Taking more direct action to avoid being taken advantage of might be necessary in the lawless Old North. “Okay, then… what’s the job you had in mind?”

Shuck flashed a smug grin, and started towards the saloon. “Follow my lead.”

He pushed open the doors dramatically, drawing a great deal of attention from the attendees. He sauntered up to the counter, and ordered a drink for himself and Victor. “Bartender, give me a misty blue, on the rocks. Just water for my friend, he’s not one for drinking.”

The bartender deftly switched from cleaning a glass to spinning the glass in a variety of flashy maneuvers, fire dancing along the rim as he filled it with several different brands of alcohol before sliding it across the counter into Shuck’s hand. Afterward, he blandly poured a glass of water and set it in front of Victor with an air of condescension. Ignoring Victor, the barman addressed Shuck. “That’s a rather strong drink ya ordered, there. Ya sure you can handle it?”

Shuck answered by downing the shot it in one gulp, slamming the now empty glass back down. “Hit me again. Me and my acquaintance here have business in this town later, but at the moment my one goal is to get wasted.”

The bartender had another glass in front of Shuck as he was asking the next question. “Well, well. What kinda business we talking about?”

Shuck was not slowing down on the alcohol, though his speech was already starting to slur a bit. “Me and hims…? We are bounty hunters. We got a lead on some criminals in town that ain’t gonna be on the run for much longer… that ring any bells?”

The bartender raised an eyebrow in suspicion as he placed yet another glass in front of Shuck. “Youse certainly wouldn’t be talking about Dirty Dave, would ya? No ones stupid enough to go after him!”

Shuck took a moment not to catch a breath, but to once again down his drink in one gulp, now drifting from side to side slightly as he struggled to remain upright. “Wellsh… maybe wes are stupid enough. Or maybe wes are just shmart enough to catch him.”

Several other patrons stood up as Victor, the bartender, and everyone else except for Shuck grew wary. Victor tried to shake Shuck out of his drunken stupor. “Shuck, I think some of these people work for that man… maybe we should…”

Shuck laughed loudly, slamming his final drink down as he stood up. “You thinksh I’m scared of a buncha lowlifes? Fold it! I’ll take em all on!”

One solid swing from a thug later, and Shuck was face down on the ground.

Victor backed towards the exit. “Easy, fellas… I’m not with him, I just-”

A fat man stood between him and the door, arms crossed. “You think us fools? You won’t be leaving here alive.”

Victor stretched out his hand, lifting the now panicking fat man with little effort. “Well, if you wish to engage violence, then I’ll just say this…”

The fat man was sent flying into a table, knocking a slab of steak into the air as the table splintered under his mass. The meat started a slow orbit around Victor as he crossed both his fingers, carefully manipulating the gravitational fields as he prepared his expert verbal quip. “It’s been nice… meating you!”

The remaining thugs looked at each other, confused. Victor sighed. “It’s a pun on… I have a steak here, which is meat, and… you know what? Nevermind.”

As one man charged, the steak flew at him, slapping him in the face. Several more lobbed fireballs at Victor, which he barely managed to dodge. Throwing more food from various tables and tossing the occasional thug that got a little too close, the enemy numbers quickly dwindled. One managed to get behind him and attempt to hold him down, to which Victor just laughed. “You think your weight means anything to me?”

The man was sent flying into the ceiling, and came tumbling back down as he barely cushioned his fall with a short jet of fire. Most of the thugs were clearly fire casters, especially given the geographical area, but he knew they couldn’t get too liberal with fireballs within the mostly wooden and alcohol soaked saloon without risking blowing themselves up too. A few more thrown food items later, and Victor was satisfied he had proven his point to the men as they scraped themselves up and fled.

The bartender eyed Victor suspiciously as he made his way back to the bar. “You know you are going to pay for all the damages, right?”

The bag of gold Shuck had obtained was already coming in handy as Victor dropped a few coins onto the bar. “Of course… though that concerns me less than the fact the man I hired couldn’t last a second against some ruffians.”

“He’s your employee? Not the other way around?”

Shuck stood up suddenly, letting out a hiccup but still very much conscious and standing straight. “Ah, yes… that is true, in a fashion. I would say we are more partners.”

It became clearer to Victor that Shuck had taken a dive to avoid the fight. “Excuse me? Partners, after you were completely useless just now?”

“Consider it a test. I wanted to see how tough you were. I was hoping for something more… spectacular, but I would say it was good enough. Now, we can get on with more serious business. Bartender, what do you know of this Dirty Dave?”

The bartender filled up another drink, to which Shuck quickly grabbed and downed, this time not acting like he was getting drunk. “So, you are serious… I suppose I can talk, now that his spies are gone, but if anyone asks, you didn’t hear it from me. Got it?”

Shuck laughed heartily. “Naturally. Us and you? After this conversation, we never spoke about anything beyond pleasantries. Anyone who says different is clearly a liar. Right Vic, ol’ chum?”

Victor was still fuming at doing the heavy lifting while Shuck just smooth talked people, but couldn’t argue with Shuck at this point. All that mattered was seeing the job through so he could then see his family safe again. “Right.”

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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

The Agency

Same post on Minds