​    

​     Poof!

​     Valtair appeared in the tent that Egoneg lived in. He all but filled it. As it was, he had to stoop. Valtair was one huge, human-like entity, almost seven feet tall and near as thick. It was the metal, missile shape for a skull that made him more of an entity and not human at all if you really stopped to think about it.

​     "This place stinks," was the first thing he said, which was ironic because he had no nose that anyone had ever seen. 

​     It did stink, though.

​     Egoneg got smashed one night and projectile upchucked all over the inside of his tent, then never bothered to clean it up. Ever since then, his tent reeked of puke. Add to that the underlying odor of Egoneg's body sweat. Egoneg never washed his clothes. He never cleaned his sleeping bag either, so it, too, radiated waves of stale Egoneg sweat.

​     What the tent reeked most sharply of, however, was something inside the tent, something Egoneg had half eaten, then had never thrown away. But where was the uneaten food with such an offensive odor? No way to know. Garbage and worn clothes were everywhere.

​     As for Egoneg himself?

​     He sat on a stool and faced a corner of the tent. He had on the filthy bathrobe he wore ninety percent of the time. He wore sandals green with mold. His ankles were the only things that kept his shit encrusted underwear from dropping off his body completely.

     He was beating off.

​     His swollen dick was chafed and just the slightest bit bloody, he stroked it so relentlessly.

​     "Stop that!" Valtair barked, barely able to keep the disgust out of his voice.

​     "Just give me two more seconds, sir. I'm so...so..."

     Valtair kicked Egoneg in the spine.

     "Ow!"

​     "Pull your pants up, you useless little prick."

     "That hurt!"

​     Valtair brought the side of his fist against Egoneg's cheek. "Why are you talking?" he bellowed. "Did I say you could talk?"

     "You...You..."

     "Shut-up!"

​     "Yes sir. Yes sir." Egoneg dropped to his knees at Valtair's feet. "I'm sorry, sir. I lost my head, sir. You showed up so suddenly, and I...I..."

​     "I said, shut up!" Egoneg winced as Valtair raised his arm as if to strike Egoneg a second time. "And is there any possible way for you to stop those weird, sniveling sounds that you always make?"

     "I...I'll try, sir."

​     "Damn it, you're annoying."

     "Yes sir."

​     Valtair pointed a finger at Egoneg's skull.

     "I know I'm going to regret this," he said.

     From the end of his finger, a bolt of gray light bulleted to pierce Egoneg's forehead.

     Egoneg's reaction was immediate:

​     He dropped to the ground in total, trembling panic. Fear had been the Godzilla-sized beast that had tormented his inner Egoneg for as long as he could remember, but it had never been anything like ​this. Fear slammed into him like a grenade blast that wouldn't stop until he became nothing more that the lowliest bug on the planet that he'd always ever really been twitching amongst the garbage and clothes on the floor of his tent. His eyes rolled back in his skull until only the whites remained. He bit down on his tongue so that blood spurted down the front of his chin.

     Valtair counted to five, then said, "Get control of yourself."

     "I...I can't."

     "That overwhelming panic you're feeling right now?"

     "You bastard!" 

​     "That's yours to administer now. What I've given you is what you'd probably think of as a magic power, and that power is to cause others to feel what you're feeling right now. You've heard of someone hitting the panic button? From now on, ​you are the panic button. You want someone to quiver in fear, they will quiver in fear. You want someone to ​die from the panic you've inflicted on them, they will die. Now snap out of it. Listen to the sound of my voice. Follow the sound of my voice back to sanity." ​

​     It took a while. Egoneg trembled like a dog as he rose to his hands and knees, then trembled more as he rose to his feet. He shook his head as if fighting off an enemy struggling to take over his soul. 

​     Then, 

​     The trembling stopped.

​     "A cult leader was supposed to get that," Valtair said. "Eventually, she was to be a panic bomb that would cause the entire world to drop trembling to its knees. She was to work in tandem with the domitikan simulates The Fours put in place a few years ago. They were to empty as many bank accounts as they could while everyone else cowered and killed each other. That was supposed to be the Fifth Talon. That plan fell to pieces last year when the Azure destroyed the simulate program. Not that any of that matters in the long run. The Fours will gets its portal built one way or the other."

     "The point is, I've decided it's time The Fours and I parted ways. It's given me...indications...recently that it hasn't been pleased with the way things have been going here on Earth, and since I am the liaison...It's time for me to take my leave, is what I'm trying to say."

     "Which is where you come in, Egoneg. I have decided that you should be the one I instill with this power, rather than some self-delusional devil worshipper. Make a fuss. Go crazy, and, as everyone focuses their attention on you, I will slip away into the night. You'll eventually get squashed, but what do I care? You're Egoneg. You understand? Did you get a word of what I just told you?"

     Egoneg's eyes fluttered.

     Then Egoneg turned...

​     and, without a word, went through the flap that led to the rest of the homeless camp.

​     "Uh, are you sure that's such a great idea right now?" Valtair called after him. "First, don't you want to...Egoneg, at least put on your pants!"

​                                                         CONTINUE​