The Metatronic Chronicles: A Minor Inconvenience
Chapter 11

The trip to the north was a first for the two young angels. Their usual exercise routes followed both the equator and over the North Pole, but they had never stopped over the Antarctic Ocean to enjoy the atmosphere. Even Daniel, usually a summer sun addict, had to admit that the views were spectacular though the mountain range below was illuminated only by the moon and stars. He found himself wondering what it might be like to live there during the long darkness of an arctic winter.

It had only been a few months and the teenagers were still learning their way around the planet, but now it was Michael the archangel who was running the show and he knew exactly where he was going. Daniel trailed along behind in his wake trying hard to keep up. The air was extremely frigid in the high atmosphere, the winds powerful and treacherous but Michael didn’t seem to notice these things as he focused in on a particular stretch of marble-like ice mountains on the northern coast of Alaska, above the Arctic Circle.

“What would he want here?” Daniel asked his brother telepathically. “It’s beautiful, but it doesn’t seem like the kind of place he would choose to hang his hat.” That was true. They had known Rick Gannon all their lives and he was never one to do anything too far removed from where the action was. He was always interested in the ladies and very involved with his music, but quick to fly off the handle and suspicious of anything new or strange. How he was taking this metamorphosis into the angel Gabriel was anyone’s guess but choosing to ‘hang his hat’ in the Shublik Mountains of northern Alaska seemed very out of character indeed.

“I would guess that he is experimenting up here,” Michael answered. “There aren’t many people around at this altitude, making it a good place to exercise and develop new skills.”

“What does that mean?” Daniel asked.

“That he may be learning more efficient means to kill us. But who knows for sure until we replace him?” Michael began descending rapidly. “I think I may have a lead on him. I can sense something going on near that peak ahead.” He was heading toward a massive giant of a mountain, easily over twelve thousand feet, nestled in with two other lesser behemoths who together formed a gigantic wall of snow, ice and rock. Gliding easily through passes and over smaller mountains, Michael seemed intent on one particular spot on the tallest peak’s southern face.

As they drew close, Daniel started to feel a strange vibration running through his body. He tried to shake it off but it kept getting stronger. “Michael, what am I feeling?” he asked as they finally settled into a deep crevice on the mountain. “It feels like someone is running a vacuum cleaner in my gut!”

“I feel it too.” Michael took a quick look around. “The closer we get to him, the stronger it gets. It’s emanating from Gabriel.”

“It sucks,” Daniel said bluntly, trying to figure out what Michael was looking for.

His brother soon found his objective, a small opening beneath an overhanging piece of rock so covered in ice that the hole was nearly impossible to see. “See that?” Michael pointed out. “That little hole will lead us to him. It probably opens up into a bigger area where he has some freedom of movement. Come on!”

He leapt up to the area he pointed out and before Daniel could say anything, had disappeared into the opening. “Aw hell!” Daniel growled, then followed his brother into what opened up into a passageway formed out of densely packed and crushed rocks that wound away into the darkness. Michael glanced back at him. “I don’t think he’s aware of us so I want you to stay here out of his way for the time being. He probably isn’t too dangerous but if he’s using this mountain to gather energy and expend it, he may not exactly be our old boyhood friend anymore. I’ll go replace him and see what’s going on. If it’s safe, I will call you.”

Daniel couldn’t believe his ears. “ What do you mean, safe? I’ve never been afraid of another angel in my life! As I recall, I’ve done my share of damage to some of our brothers and sisters—why should I fear Gabriel?”

“Because although Rick was a buddy, Gabriel isn’t and never has been.” Michael returned briefly and gave Daniel a quick hug. “Stay here my brother—you won’t miss any fun, I promise. I just don’t want it to seem like an invading army of angels has arrived to take him on! Who knows—this could be a test from Asmodeus or even Derasthe! How we handle it could very well come back to haunt us!”

“You’ll owe me one, Michael!” Daniel sat down on a nearby rock, his anger evident but he did as his brother asked. “But if I hear or sense anything that indicates he’s going to harm you, I will be there instantly!”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to that.” Michael disappeared down into the darkness of the passageway, leaving Daniel sitting there frustrated and hoping that they didn’t wind up bringing a dead angel back to the Gannon household, particularly not a dead Wilder or even two.

The passageway was rough and often grew too narrow to pass, forcing Michael to spirit himself through the rock much as he had done at St. Mary’s Church. Although his angelically turbocharged vision allowed him to see very well most of the time, he was challenged to see in the complete absence of light. Moving in pitch darkness, feeling his way along was a slow process that forced him to use his developing scanning ability to replace the correct path. His feet told him that he was going downward, into the center of the ancient peak, and he wondered if it was volcanic. He hadn’t noticed a cone or crater when landing, but then he wasn’t a trained geologist and his observational abilities were still being drilled into him.

Then his question was answered as a small glimmer of red light appeared in front of him, causing the path to illuminate brilliantly under his angelic eyes. A sudden blast of warm air told him that wherever he was going, it was much warmer than the weather outside. “Just my luck,” he muttered, remembering a movie he had seen, Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. “Where are James Mason and Pat Boone when you need them?”

As if in answer, a wider opening became apparent and he slipped through it, coming into an immense chamber illuminated by what appeared to be a large piece of phosphoric rock. Small rivulets of red-hot molten lava dripped slowly down one wall, which he assumed to be a cracking crater wall. The internal vibration he felt from Gabriel’s presence was now nearly overpowering, indicating that the angel was very close by.

“Welcome to hell.” A deep but familiar voice came from above. Michael looked up and saw that what he assumed to be the phosphoric rock was actually a brilliantly glowing ball of energy—Gabriel. It floated down toward him and came to a gentle settling on a giant boulder a few feet away. “Am I to assume that you are here for me?”

Michael took a long look at a power he had not seen for many thousands of years. “I don’t know. Am I?” he finally answered. “Your parents are worried about you, Rick. They sent me to see if you are all right.” Michael watched the glowing ball float down off the boulder and come toward him, slowly forming itself into an angel recognizable as their old friend---deep red waves cascading down his back between giant matching wings, sparkling sea green eyes blazing in suspicion and a billowing cloud of energy pulsating from every pore of his body. Gabriel was an impressive physical specimen with political importance even in their ancestral home and now here Michael was, eye to eye with an angel so powerful that he could possibly vaporize him with a single thought.

“I am not he.” Gabriel leaned in for a close look at the angel before him. “I know you. You’re Michael Wilder, his friend.”

“Rick’s friend, yes.” Michael felt nerves tugging at him but resolved to let Michael the fully capable archangel handle this and not Michael the frightened school kid. “I came looking for you at your house and your parents said you got wings some months ago and have been unable to deal with your…um…change. You need to go home. They love you and are very worried about you.”

Gabriel didn’t answer, as he looked Michael over thoroughly. “You’re new at this,” he muttered as he took a thorough scan. “And Derasthe…and Leila…are training you. You’re integrated with the boy…doesn’t he hold you back?”

“No, he is I. We are one.” Michael realized that Gabriel and Rick were not integrated—not even close to it. The angel was completely in control. “May I ask…is Rick in there with you? Is he all right?”

Gabriel’s expression changed briefly into one of fear as Rick came forward. “I’m all right, Michael, but scared to death. Help me!” The fearful look left—Gabriel was back in control. “Ignore him. He is well, but useless.” He reached out to touch Michael briefly on the shoulder as if in friendship. “You should put the young parasite inside you away yourself. Do you know your angelic name yet? I like to know who I’m dealing with.”

“I am Michael.”

This seemed to surprise Gabriel a bit, causing him to step back and take up a position a few yards further away. Apparently Gabriel knew something Michael didn’t as he bowed his head briefly and then from nowhere came his angelic broadsword. He touched the sword to his forehead in salute. “My apologies, my prince. I didn’t recognize you with the youth obscuring your visage. Maybe you should peel him off and kill him?”

Michael was surprised to hear himself addressed as ‘my prince’ and it took a moment to shake it off, but he quickly decided to use Gabriel’s apparent misidentification of him to advantage. “I have no interest in doing that, Gabriel. I need him and he needs me. We are the same.”

“If you say so.” The big angel slowly circled him, his gem-encrusted silver blade still dangerously in hand. “But if you are entertaining thoughts of forcing me to allow this youth Richard to inhabit my body with me, I most strenuously object.”

“Why object, Gabriel? How can he harm you?”

“He is weak and sniveling. He doesn’t even qualify as a brat. When I came to him he was nothing, an ineffectual boy still in school, spying on naked nuns and performing sexual acts on himself. He was perverted, sleazy, and arrogant, had bad taste in clothing and was less than pleasant to be with. Why saddle myself with such a waste of flesh?”

Michael had to admit to himself that Gabriel’s description of Rick was pretty accurate. “Gabriel, he is human. He will learn to be better and that’s why you are here. I know how you feel but when the integration is done you will feel differently. You have a chance to make a difference to this boy. Why not do it?” Michael felt as if he was reliving the angel Daniel’s refusing to integrate with his brother, but this time the angel involved was no duty angel but a powerful archangel in his own right. “It will not harm you and who knows, it might be fun?”

Gabriel regarded him with suspicion, the blade moving dangerously close to a kill position. “I don’t like humans. Why should I want to be one?”

That was a good question that Michael himself wanted to know, but he took a guess. “Maybe he wants us to understand why he created humans and what their place is in the universe better.”

That seemed to set Gabriel off a bit and the sword suddenly was pointed directly at Michael’s heart. “Metatron! The sound of that name makes me want to kill you here and now. The creation of humans…the universes…is a perversion according to those who call themselves the Fallen. Maybe they are right. Metatron gave humans a path to angelhood! Do you want humans to join our ranks?”

“I have not thought about it, Gabriel, but maybe it’s not a bad thing if Metatron has designed them to that purpose.” Michael’s heart went up into his throat as he felt the glittering blade cut slightly into his chest.

After a few tense moments, Gabriel seemed to relent a bit and pulled the sword away. “I am sworn to Metatron, so begrudgingly, I tolerate these ‘lessons’ he likes to hand out.” Gabriel turned away and Michael took a breath of relief but to his surprise, Gabriel turned back and flung the sword directly at his heart. Without thinking, Michael threw up a protective shield of energy that the sword bounced off from and it fell harmlessly to the floor.

“Ah hah!” Gabriel crowed. “You had doubts but few angels could repel that blade so easily! You are a prince of the realm of angels and a son of Metatron like me. What in the stars do you want with this youth clinging inside you?”

Now Michael was getting angry. “Because we are one, together! We are the same being! I’m tired of telling you this! If you integrate with Rick Gannon, you will not cease to exist!” He calmed down a bit. “You’ll just be more of an asshole than you already are!”

“An asshole?” Gabriel echoed, his eyes narrowing.

“A loveable asshole, if you prefer.” Michael was no longer frightened of him. In fact, it was becoming apparent that the most frightened angel here was Gabriel. “Didn’t Asmodeus explain any of this to you?”

“Asmodeus doesn’t tell me shit, he just trains me,” Gabriel answered, settling down on a large rock to contemplate his next action.

The next question had to be asked. “Gabriel, are you one of the Fallen?”

“No! They are ungracious fools who question Metatron’s motives for creating the universes and sentient beings in the first place. I only question his directive that I be involved…so personally. I didn’t want to be here but I was ordered and so it was. But to be saddled with a repulsive brat for a human side…couldn’t it at least have been a brilliant leader or general? Why this child? Why here?”

“You were a gift to his parents,” Michael answered. “A gift in exchange for helping to take care of my brother and I throughout our lives. In turn, my brother and I will be taking care of my son who is yet to be born. He is Metatron.”

“If Metatron is coming to this world also,” Gabriel answered, somewhat surprised by the turn of coming events. “Then I am sworn to protect him also. What does he have need of you and your brother for? And who is your brother?”

“He’s outside. You can meet him if you like.”

Gabriel rose from the rock and took a heroic stance. “Bring him in. I will not harm him.”

“Daniel!” Michael sent a telepathic summons to Daniel. “Come in---carefully!”

Moments later, Daniel was peeking in from the passageway. “What’s going on?” he asked, his eyes glued to the statuesque giant that was Gabriel. “Holy shit! You’re a big mutha, aren’t you?”

Gabriel took a long look at Daniel as the new arrival cautiously made his way down from the entry and joined his brother. “You are Daniel,” he finally said. “The child inside me remembers you very well. You were Richard’s friend.”

“And still are if you would let Rick come out.” Michael glanced at his brother. “Gabriel here is having reservations like you did.”

“Oh you mean the one about having a rotten human brat inside you that you would rather kill than be a part of?” Daniel asked. “Hey yeah, I know the feeling.”

“That would be the one.” Michael looked back at Gabriel. “Daniel here felt the same way you did. But he came around and now they seem to be getting along just fine together. My own human side is nearly completely integrated and I’ve grown quite fond of him, so much so that we will soon no longer consider ourselves two sides of the same person, but one very complex, interesting being.”

Gabriel took a long hard look at the two young angels before him, thinking over his chances of just killing them and leaving the planet for good. However, a prince of the realm, especially a high ranking one like Michael, would be enough of a match for him that perhaps the effort wasn’t worth it.

On the other hand, Daniel might make a good fight but it was apparent that Michael was very protective of him. Even with their relative inexperience at being angels again, Michael could unconsciously draw up enough power to tip the scales.

Finally he made a decision. Gabriel retreated and in his place came a very confused, grateful young musician named Richard Gregory Gannon. “Hi guys,” came the weak, almost tearful response. “He’s left me here for the time being. I think he’s going to try it.”

“Rick!” Michael nearly flew over to give him a hug, Daniel close behind.

After a few nearly tearful moments, they finally separated and took long relaxed looks at each other. Finally Daniel started laughing. “Can you believe this? Can you believe it!”

“No.” Rick shook his head, causing Gabriel’s thick mane of deep red hair to fall in his eyes. He quickly produced a thick leather strip from nowhere and tied it back out of his face. “This hair drives me crazy!”

“Us too,” Michael agreed. “Can you come back to your folks’ house with us? They are nuts with worry!”

Rick couldn’t stop looking at his two friends. “You guys look amazing! When did it happen?”

“In October,” Michael answered. “Happy Halloween, huh? But get this one—our dad is an angel too, just immersed in a human body.”

“Is my dad an angel?” Rick quickly asked. “He sure doesn’t look it!”

“No, he isn’t but I think if there was a way to scientifically tell who your mother and father were, it would turn out to be your mom and dad. We think an angel may have enabled your mom to get pregnant and gave them you.” Michael couldn’t get enough of looking back at his friend. Rick had previously been at least three inches shorter and fifty pounds lighter, but as an angel he was nearly seven feet, eight inches tall, two inches over Michael and three over Daniel. “So Gabriel is quite the physical specimen, isn’t he?”

“Tell me about it,” Rick said, looking down at the huge angelic body he had been blessed with. “And the guy doesn’t even work out! He’s like Andre the Giant or something, only way better. Is there a way to get back to being human at all?”

“Yes, absolutely.” Michael realized that Rick had little experience as an angel despite having had his wings for a year. “But we’ll do that when you get home. Did he teach you how to fly?”

“Asmodeus did. He taught me some things but Gabriel interfered quite a bit. It was easy for him to just push Asmodeus around because I guess Asmodeus wasn’t in his real body or something. It was like he was just sort of a projected image who came to me and Gabriel would toss him out before we got much done.” So that explained how Asmodeus could be in two places at once—even from the church in that vaporous form he could still command enough power and energy to project a doppelganger elsewhere.

“So what was Gabriel’s purpose in coming here?” Daniel asked as they headed toward the passageway out.

“He was gathering energy from this volcano but I’m not sure why. He didn’t tell me much about himself but being inside him, I could sort of just eavesdrop on his thoughts sometimes. He didn’t seem to care.” Rick quickly found his way through the passage, physically pulverizing rocks that Michael had passed through magically earlier. “He also used it to try to get used to being in a physical form again—he blasted that cavern out, leaving the crater wall so thin that the lava came through it. I hope that this area is sparsely populated because I think the dome on this volcano is going to collapse and it will become active again.”

“Wow, this is a volcano?” Daniel asked as they finally emerged back into the arctic twilight.

“I’ll ask Derasthe to check it out,“ Michael started to say but Rick cut him off.

“No. No Derasthe, no Leila, no one else.” Rick seemed genuinely alarmed at the thought of contacting them. “Gabriel doesn’t trust them and he can make it miserable for me if I allow you to do that. I don’t know who they are but please, don’t!”

“I won’t.” Michael glanced curiously at his brother, who shrugged back. “I can deal with it myself. I’ll make sure the walls are filled in again, I can do that much. But for now, let’s get you home.”

The trip home didn’t take long and they were soon settling in a remote area out behind the Gannon home. With a thought, Michael and Daniel became their human selves again and even though they knew that Rick was big, the shock of seeing him a full twelve inches taller and in wings still reverberated. He looked down at them forlornly. “I have no idea how you did that.”

“Come on, bend down a bit,” Michael said, reaching up toward him. “I can jump start you on this one. Once you go through it, you’ll be able to do it yourself, I promise. It’s easy.”

Rick bent down slightly and let Michael touch his forehead between his eyes. He felt a slight shock and the world suddenly came up to meet him. He was once more two inches shorter than Michael. “I think it liked it better the other way,” he joked weakly then looked down. “Oh my god where are my clothes? I’m naked as a newborn!”

Michael quickly spirited some clothes out to him, the teenager’s uniform of a t-shirt and jeans and some underwear. Rick put them on and was soon more comfortable. “Now I want to go home.”

A few seconds later, he was opening the front door. “Mom? Dad? I’m home!”

The answering rush to the door by his parents and subsequent hug took up most of the next few minutes, finally breaking up when Doc realized that Michael and Daniel were hanging back, watching the family reunion. He held out his arms and took them in a big bear hug. “Thank you!” He was nearly sobbing. “Thank you so much. We haven’t seen him this way in months!”

“You’re welcome,” Michael said, genuinely pleased to have done a good thing for them. This good-deed stuff could be addictive. “So, we’re going to head home now and let you folks have some time together. If Gabriel tries to come back, give us a call and we’ll see, but he has promised to try to do this thing with Rick. If it succeeds, you’ll have him almost as he was, just a little rougher around the edges, I guess.”

Angela waved tearfully, her arms still around her son while Doc just shook their hands. “Come back for dinner tonight, boys. We’ll celebrate!”

“Sure, we’ll come back!” Michael nodded, “but nothing for us thanks. We don’t get too hungry anymore.”

“Of course, of course!” Doc hugged them both again and moments later they were on their way home.