by Gideon Mills
Paragons 2
Gods and Superheroes
Gideon Mills
Copyright © 2019 Gideon Mills All Right Reserved
Cover Art by Michael Vasilev
Typography by Dark Cover Designs
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, whether by electronic or mechanical, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations for reviews.
For everyone fighting to make the world a better place
Contents
1. Always more
2. Cast out
3. What do we do?
4. Stop, be smart
5. Broadway
6. Investigations
7. Time Travel?
8. Lola
9. Surprise Allies
10. Broadway
11. Pawnshops galore
12. Back at the Hideout
13. Threesome baby
14. Stakeout Time
15. McGarrett
16. The Talk
17. Planning
18. A God?
19. The Calm Before the Storm
20. Marie Summers
21. Reign and McGarrett
22. Third Street Dragons
23. Confrontation
24. Annoyed
25. Bored
26. Stefan Cole
27. History
28. Trouble
29. Hurry up and Wait
30. Fuck
31. Ouch
32. Reaching the Top Floor
33. A Fight to Remember
34. A Blur of Activity
35. The Mayor
36. A Fight in Central park
37. Victory
38. Fenrir
Author Notes
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Gideon Mills
1
Always more
It was hard to believe that a month had passed since I sent my sister to the Underworld. I was sure that Hades was having his way with her, and that Eris regretted tricking me into coming to Earth.
Not that it had been too hard to trick me, since I had been going back and forth on coming here. Defying my father's orders to remain away from the humans. Zeus could be a real jackass at times. Sometimes I wondered if he had that lightning rod shoved up his ass.
He didn’t follow his own rules most of the time. I still had a feeling that he was coming to Earth on the down low ever since he imposed the “no coming here” rule after World War II.
It was the early morning hours, and I was still in my room. I had officially joined the team and had my own bedroom here at Fleur’s. I wasn’t the only one to do that. Felicity had arrived and never left as well. That had been a pleasant surprise. She was a fun one, and I enjoyed talking to her as much as to Lola and Fleur, but I haven’t slept with her.
I was in love with both Fleur and Lola, and had a feeling that I might be developing those feeling for the squirrelkin as well. She was so damn chipper and fun to be around. Always cracking jokes, not that I got half of them.
Even though I spent years watching the humans, I didn’t pick up on the human subtleties. Had to be a human versus God difference. Oh well. She still was damn fun to be around.
A knock sounded on my door. “Come in.”
Slowly opening the door, one of the most beautiful women I had ever seen walked in. Fleur Walker, also known as the White Angel. A Paragon who could learn any and all martial arts. She was in a league of her own in many ways. I adored her. Her flaming red hair was short around her face and made her look incredibly hot.
“You look fetching,” I said, never one to hide how I felt about her. I had chased her ever since I arrived on Earth and finally won her over.
“As do you,” she purred.
She shut the door and walked over to me. Her floral scent enveloped me and took me to the last time we made love. The night before, and pretty much every night, I was with one or the other. I couldn’t get enough of them and wanted them every second of every day. Sure, we had more to do than just fuck. Not that I viewed what we did as fucking. That was all my previous times with women; this was different.
I kissed her and held her tightly against me, feeling her large breasts press against my own firm body. She was nearly as hard as I was from all the working out. It was enough to start my cock growing.
She pushed me away. “I wish we could, but you have a guest.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Me?”
Fleur nodded. “Yes. She claims to be your sister.”
Now I was really concerned. “And you let her in?”
Fleur laughed. “She made some vow of not doing us any harm, and said it was urgent that she speak to you.”
“A vow?” That was interesting and made me think of a few sisters. “Who did she say she was?”
“Athena.”
That was the last person I expected to see here on Earth. Of all my siblings, she was one of the most strait-laced around. Maybe my sister Enyo, or Artemis, but not Athena. She followed Dad and did as he commanded.
“You sure?”
Fleur nodded. “Lola was. Athena seems pretty adamant about being a Greek Goddess.”
I groaned. They still were hesitant to believe that I was truly the God of War. That I lived in Olympus and was one of the Twelve Olympians. One day when I had the ability to travel back and forth, I would take them to my former home and prove it to them once and for all.
There were other ways to prove who I was, but they revolved around the Underworld, and that was the last thing I wanted to expose Fleur and Lola to. My loves were too innocent for that. Finn and Reign had seen and believed, but they were both damaged for it.
“Very well,” I said. “I guess we’ll have to wait for some fun.”
That was painful, as making love to Fleur was one of the most thrilling things in the world. She knew what she was doing and what she liked. It was a pleasure to be with such a woman. It was hot as she instructed me to do what she wanted. Her directions were firm and knowledgeable.
“Later,” she purred. She watched as I selected clothes out of the enormous wardrobe she’d purchased for me to wear. Being a Walker, Fleur came from money, and yet this was all self-earned. Some people and families were just destined to have money and power. The Walker family was one of them. Fleur had many talents, and making money was one of them.
One of these days, I would have to pick her brain on what she did. How she was able to make so much money. It was mind-boggling to me, and I had money from being here in the past. Not that I was able to access it yet, and that still irritated me.
I put on a pair of jeans that I was sure Fleur got for me so she could stare at my ass. They were a bit tighter than any I would have purchased. Then I donned a T-shirt with my favorite cartoon character, Korra. I didn’t care that it wasn’t manly or whatever. I watched the shit out of the show back on Olympus.
“You look nice,” Fleur said.
“Thank you. Let’s go see this sister of mine.”
Walking through the halls, we arrived back in the main area of the hideout in a few minutes. The place was that big, not that one would be able to tell by looking at it from the outside. To the untrained eye, it was a typical warehouse in New York City.
Lola and Felicity were standing in front of an attractive woman. She had the long, brown flowing hair that Athena favored, and a business pantsuit on. That would be what Athena chose to wear in this day and age here on Earth to blend in.
The closer I got, the more it became clear that it was her. I was still having trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that Athena was here on Earth.
As we approached the three women, all turned and focused
on us. Athena turned her slate-gray eyes on me, their usual flintiness softened by a look of concern. The same expression she’d had when we talked before I jumped to Earth.
When we were close enough to be heard, I said, “Before you scold me—”
“I’m not here to scold you,” Athena interrupted. “I don’t even want to be here. I was cast out.”
My jaw dropped, and I looked at her in fear and confusion.
2
Cast out
“What do you mean?” I finally asked. It was hard to recover from that. Not many Gods had been cast out of Olympus. To be forced out against their will was not normal by any stretch of the imagination.
Athena groaned. “After you defeated Eris, I went to the edge of Olympus. Hera was there, looking down on you.”
“That doesn’t surprise me,” I said. “She spoke to me after I arrived and asked me to send Eris to Hades.”
Athena nodded. “Makes sense; Eris served her purpose and had to be dealt with. Or she thought Eris would be able to defeat you.”
I was lost and not sure what Athena was talking about. “What?”
The Goddess of Wisdom sighed. “Hera set this up. She wanted you to come to Earth. She wants to kill all the humans.”
Everyone knew that my mother wasn’t a fan of the humans, but she tolerated them since they were much of the source of our power. Without the humans, the Gods would be weaker and have little to do. We’d just go back to battling the Titans or worrying about Gaia.
“Why?” I asked.
Athena pursed her lips. “My guess is she is sick of father and the rest of us having relationships with humans.”
“She wouldn’t,” I said. “She knows that we love them. That we need them.”
“Your mother is the real monster of the gods,” Athena said. “Not Eris. Not you. She’s worse than the Titans, or the giants.”
I closed my eyes. It was true that many people viewed me as a monster for what I personified. Yet, I wasn’t that man anymore. It had been a long time since I had been the God that sought only war and violence and thrived on blood, even the Romans knew I wasn’t that God anymore, and helped me change, for Mars I was much more loved.
“Hera might not love humankind,” I said. “But she knows they are needed.”
“Hold the fuck up,” Lola said. “You’re acting like we aren’t here, and that humans are different.”
Athena turned to her and smiled. “You are different. My brother clearly loves you, but you are human, and he is a God.”
Lola started up again, talking faster than even usual. “You’re serious. Look, what is going on?”
“That is what I want to know,” Felicity said. “We already have Reign and Belladonna to deal with.”
We hadn’t made any progress on that front, which was exceedingly frustrating. McGarrett had been working to see what he could learn about the man. There was lots on the internet about Reign, but we needed to prove that he was working for the unseen force. Which, apparently, was my mother.
Before I could voice my thoughts on that, Fleur spoke. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “Hera, Goddess of Women, Queen of the Gods, wants to kill us all. She is the person behind Reign and my father?”
“Correct,” Athena said. “I like you. Straight to the point.”
“We can’t defeat a god that doesn’t come here,” Lola pointed out.
That was a problem, and one for another day. “Very true.”
Felicity’s tail was curled up, and she was rubbing her ears. Being a squirrelkin, she was different than most Paragons and had a very unique look and one I rather liked. She had arrived to tell us about Reign and his assistant Belladonna not too long ago. She did the ear-rubbing when she was nervous and scared. It was adorable, but I hated that she was frightened. The squirrelkin was growing on me by the second. “We have to focus on Reign,” she said. “If we let Reign and Belladonna run rampant, the Paragons will die.”
“Agreed,” Athena said.
“Okay,” Lola said. All the women appeared to relax some, but still the tension was thick in the room.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
Athena narrowed her eyes. “Help you. I can’t go back to Mount Olympus.”
My sister and I hadn’t been the best at working together in the past. “You sure? We don’t tend to see eye to eye.”
Athena smirked. “Mars and Minerva were able to work better. And you look more like Mars than Ares to me.”
The three humans looked at each other and Lola mouthed “Mars?”
Athena saw it and went on to explain how we were both two sides of the same coin. That we evolved to fit the needs of the culture that needed us. In the modern era I had been Ares, but I’d recently shifted back to Mars in many ways.
What many people have forgotten was that the Greek Gods and the Roman Gods were one and the same. I was just as much Mars, as I was Ares. Athena was the same too. Most of us were that way. While we were different as both versions of us, we were the same person. Minerva was just as much the same in Roman as Greek. At times, being two Gods was confusing, but I made it work.
“I see,” Felicity said. “So interesting.”
She was right and it was fun to talk about. Yet, it was hard to live. Sometimes I had trouble knowing who I was, and what I was doing. The battle between the two could be hard to come out of.
Right now, I called myself Ares, but Athena was right. I saw it already and even acknowledged it. I was more Mars, but I wasn’t going to use that name. I always preferred the name Ares.
“As interesting as it is,” Fleur said. “We have a Goddess that wants to destroy us, and humans that are doing her bidding.”
“We do,” I said. “We need to take out Reign.”
3
What do we do?
Athena walked over to a large, high-gloss table. It was our war table and strategy area. Not that we had much of a strategy since McGarrett was low on the totem pole at the department.
Reign had had him fired before and was looking for a way to do it again. Even the Paragons couldn’t work as usual in the city. In most of the country, the Paragons were free to work the way they always had, but in New York City Reign had enacted laws to prevent Paragons from helping anyone.
Not that many followed them. I saw many Paragons out patrolling the city. None of the police messed with them, but that didn’t mean it was safe. When Reign saw them, he enforced the law. So a few had been stripped of their powers in the last month.
It still pissed me off that Reign was doing that. I wished that I knew how to give them their powers back. I wondered if that was even possible since I knew very little about how or why some humans had superpowers to begin with.
“Athena.” She was the Goddess of Wisdom and might be able to figure this out. “Do you think it’s possible to reverse what Reign has done? Give the Paragons their powers back?”
My half-sister rubbed her chin. She was deep in thought and might be that way for a while. When she was thinking hard, she turned into a statue. I laughed inside as I pictured her as the old Greek statues. She mirrored that right now, besides the outfit.
Lola titled her head and waved her hands in front of Athena. “Wow,” Lola said. “She really is lost.”
“No,” Felicity said. “I’ve done that too. Think so hard I don’t see the world around me.”
“Oh yeah?” Lola asked. “Be careful around me.” Lola was teasing her.
“Oh,” Felicity said. “I’m sure it would be fun to come back to that.”
Fleur groaned. “Not the time or place.”
The redhaired woman was all for having some fun, and she enjoyed Lola just as much as I did. But she also didn’t like talking about it in front of people she wasn’t involved with. Not that she was stuck up about it, or close to a prude. Fleur just wanted to keep it between her and the one she was with.
I respected that, and would never kiss and tell. The four of us waited for Athena t
o come back to reality.
“Does she do this often?” Fleur asked.
I nodded. “More than she would care to admit, but a lot.”
Ten minutes later, Athena finally spoke. “It depends on how the device works. How it blocks them. If it’s a mental block, I think I could work around that. But if it somehow actually alters the person’s DNA, that would likely be beyond my powers to change. Maybe one of the others back home could.”
I nodded. “Okay. So it might be possible, that’s good. We’ll need all the help we can get against Hera. She must be building an army of some kind.”
“Most likely,” Athena said. “She might not leave Olympus, but she does have connections to Titans, Cyclops, Giants, and other Underworld creatures.”
That would be a force that we wouldn’t be able to handle. So many creatures of mythology would be next to impossible for us to defeat if my mother unleashed them on the world. The Minotaur, Gorgon, Chimera, and more. None would be pleasant to deal with, and if released all at one time…fuck, we’d be done for. We’d need an army of Paragons and Gods.
“What are you thinking?” Lola asked.
“Just how bad this could all go,” I said. I didn’t want to be too specific for her. There was no need to scare my love.
“Me too,” Fleur said.
“Me three,” Felicity added. “Fuck. I don’t want to have my tail cut off.”