Paragons 3

by Gideon Mills

With things going to plan, I wasn’t sure what I had to do. But we had to do more and put an end to all of this.

  I was in my room, watching a movie, which I hadn’t done much since I arrived back on Earth. It was different being here versus on Mount Olympus. I could watch any movie I wanted there from the comfort of my own living room. Not the case here.

  As I sat on the couch thinking of Felicity and Athena, hoping they were safe, my phone rang. On it was a number that I didn’t recognize, but I answered anyway.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Thank god, you answered,” a familiar voice said.

  “Zeke, what’s wrong?”

  The man sounded scared and there were strange sounds in the background. “I don’t know how,” Zeke said. “But some people found me and know I’m a Paragon. Trying to take me in. Fuck.”

  “Get him.” I heard in the background. That made my skin crawl.

  “Where are you?”

  The next thing I heard was clangs and more screams. “Zeke!”

  Nothing, the line went dead. I couldn’t believe what I’d just heard. The anti-Paragon people had him, and they would be taking him to a camp. I couldn’t allow that to happen. Zeke was a good man and helped me out more than once since I’d arrived on Earth.

  I rushed to the front part of the hideout; thankfully Lola and Fleur were there, and McGarrett too.

  Fleur looked at me. “What’s wrong?”

  “Zeke called,” I said. “Some anti-Paragon people found him and it sounded like they got him.”

  Everyone’s faces went ghost-white in horror. “We can’t let them take him,” Fleur said.

  “Agreed.” I was on edge and ready for a fight. These people were going after any and all Paragons. Zeke had never hurt a person, and his powers weren’t the type to cause harm. Being a human lie detector wasn’t going to hurt people. Not in the way that Fenrir was talking about.

  McGarrett gritted his teeth. “I’ll go back to my precinct and see what I can find out.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lola went to work on her computer system. Her long delicate fingers typed away.

  It felt like a lifetime passed with nothing happening. The longer we took to react the more likely we would lose Zeke. I couldn’t allow that to happen.

  Finally, Lola found the location of the call that Zeke made to me. Fleur and I rushed out of the hideout, and she started to the car.

  “No time,” I said. Instead, I picked her up in my arms, and leaped away. I could move through the city much faster than any car could.

  It didn’t take me too long to arrive at the destination. Zeke was gone. Setting Fleur down, she looked even more white. “You okay?”

  She nodded. “Not used to traveling like that. Just takes some getting used to.”

  I smiled. I forget that some people can’t handle moving at the speeds a God can. “Sorry.”

  She waved me off, and we went to work. The area was between his apartment and his pawnshop. The place of the abduction was covered in a layer of grime. That was the norm these days. Had been ever since I arrived, and I felt partially to blame for it all. Bringing this chaos to Earth with Eris, and then Reign. Now we had Fenrir.

  Shaking my head, I remembered I needed to focus on now. Find Zeke and then get him to safety.

  With my enhanced senses, I took in the area. The alley we stood in was behind an apartment building, and some businesses. It wasn’t traveled much and appeared to be used by the locals as a shortcut. One that Zeke probably knew extremely well.

  On the ground was his phone, and one of his shoes.

  “They left behind the only thing we could use to track him,” Fleur said.

  She was right and that didn’t help my anger. Again, I felt like I was failing one that had helped me. Too many times had that happened in my lifetime and I needed to fix that. I was a fucking God and shouldn’t be letting down those around me.

  “There.” I pointed to the end of the alley. The apartment building had several security cameras. “Think Lola could hack those?”

  “If anyone can, it is her.” Fleur made the call.

  In the meantime, we continued to search for any other leads to find our friend. Maybe he could leave us a clue to find him. My phone rang again, this time it was McGarrett.

  “The anti-Paragon force has no registered events right now,” McGarrett said.

  “That isn’t good.” If it was one of them we might be able to find him, but then again, we’d risk the anger of Fenrir. Not that I would mind putting it up for him.

  “Though,” McGarrett said. “A college here says a group has taken to kidnapping Paragons and trying to sell them to the force for money.”

  I groaned. That was disgusting. “Any leads on them?”

  “Nothing that will be any use. Just that it’s happening in Queens and the Bronx mostly.”

  That didn’t help us much.

  “Thanks,” I said. “We’ll figure out something.”

  “Sorry,” McGarrett said. “I’ll try to learn more.”

  “Be careful.”

  It wasn’t the safest for me to be out and about. Since I was one of the most recognized Paragons in the world at this point, but I didn’t care. I went around and started to ask some people if they saw anything.

  No one was willing to talk, and I got the impression some of them wanted to, but they feared to be seen helping any Paragons out in the open. That infuriated me to no end, and just added to the tension I was feeling. Fleur was doing the same thing. We split up, hoping we could cover more ground and maybe Lola would find us a lead.

  I had told her about what McGarrett had learned. She was busy with both that lead, and the cameras. With both of those we might be able to find Zeke. Luck had to be on our side. I looked up to my old home, Tyche was the Goddess of luck or fortune. “Tyche help me out. Give me something.”

  Fleur arrived just then and was on her phone. “Lola got the video.”

  I couldn’t help but smile.

  28

  A Cruel World

  Going back to the alley for some privacy, we viewed the video Lola sent to Fleur’s phone. It was grainy and hard to see what was going on.

  Zeke was running for his life, and behind him were a dozen people. It clearly wasn’t the anti-Paragon unit. It had to be some of the people that McGarrett mentioned, who wanted to turn him in.

  The video was so low quality that there was no way to make any real identification of the group that caught up to Zeke and gave him a beating. They ganged up on him, and kicked the shit out of him.

  My blood boiled watching it unfold in front of us. It didn’t last long, before they picked him up and dragged him away to a waiting cargo van that was just in the camera’s view.

  “Can you make out what that logo is?” I asked.

  “I can,” Lola said. “There is a flower shop, around the corner.”

  She gave us the address. That was our next lead.

  The shop was close as Lola said. On the door was a ‘be back in ten minutes’ sign. “I’m not waiting,” I said.

  “Ten minutes might be all Zeke has,” Fleur said.

  The door was locked but wasn’t going to slow me down one bit. Any Paragon with any amount of super strength could break down a door. Fleur didn’t let me just bust it open. Instead, she used a hair clip and picked the lock. She had it open in less than a minute, it wasn’t the most elaborate lock in the world.

  As we walked into the flower shop, we were greeted with the expected scent of flowers. It nearly overwhelmed me. A bell sounded as we entered.

  To my surprise, a person exited from the back of the shop. “How’d you get in?”

  The person stopped dead in their tracked. “Ares?”

  “That’s me,” I said. There was no time for beating around the bush here. “A car with your logo on it was used to kidnap a friend of mine.”

  The lady, who had to be in her late fifties or early sixties, looked stunned. Her jaw dropped. She ran
her hand through her gray-streaked hair that was shoulder length. “That little shit,” she said.

  “Who?” Fleur asked.

  “My nephew.” The woman didn’t look happy. “My brother begged me to hire him. Tobias has been nothing but trouble. He’s been hanging out with the wrong sort recently and well, anti-Paragon people.”

  “I see,” Fleur said. “Any ideas as to where he and his friends might take someone.”

  “Please,” I said. “I don’t want my friend ending up in some sort of camp. He’s never hurt anyone. His powers aren’t combat related. He’s a great man.”

  She nodded. “I’m not like my nephew. Not saying I’m some sort of Paragon groupie, but I see the need for them to help out with the powerful gangs and the like.”

  That was nice to hear. “So?”

  “A warehouse in Queens,” she said. “I think they have a few there.”

  I groaned. She gave us the address, and we left her. I hoped she was right, and if we could stop this little group all the better.

  Across town at the warehouse, we arrived and it was clear that this was the place. Zeke just had to be inside. There were several cars parked near the place, and I could see the tire tracks of the van going inside one of the large doors that would let trucks in and out.

  “We got this,” I said. “Go in and take them out.”

  Fleur nodded. “Don’t hurt them.”

  As much as I wanted to cause them as much pain as possible, I knew that wouldn’t help our cause.

  Taking a deep breath in, I charged the building. Zeke had to be in there, and if this Tobias’s aunt was right, others as well.

  I crashed through a brick wall and sent them flying through the air. Fleur ran in behind me. We were in a large open room, that had been set up into a makeshift jail. Sure enough, there were several people being held.

  Now more than ever, I wanted to kill those responsible. To make them pay for doing this. If they thought they could get away with this, they had another think coming.

  With my speed, I ran though the place, freeing all the prisoners, and sure enough Zeke was here. He was covered in bruises and still not conscious. They did a number on him. Each and every person here was a low-level Paragon. This was horrid, and beyond vile.

  Fleur went to work attacking all the kidnappers. They weren’t ready for us at all. I didn’t even have to join Fleur in the fight. With her superior fighting ability she took them out with ease.

  In a matter of minutes we had the place taken apart. Fleur tied up all the people, and then turned to the Paragons. “Get out of here,” she said. “Go someplace where you can lay low.”

  They nodded and rushed away. Zeke was on the ground. “We have to take him out of here,” I said.

  “I know,” Fleur said. “I know a person that can watch him, and keep him safe. Let me call McGarrett first.”

  She made the call, and the police would come and talk to these people, and I hoped arrest them.

  29

  Secret Hospital

  Fleur directed me to the other side of the city, to a place that I hadn’t been to since I arrived. It didn’t look like much from the outside, but Fleur assured me that once inside, Zeke would be safe.

  “What is this place?” I asked.

  “Someplace I set up with Lola a long time ago to help out those in need.”

  Fleur and Lola had done a lot of great work in the city long before I ever arrived. There was a reason the White Angel was one of the most famous heroes in the world without me.

  Inside, I was surprised to see a shelter for the homeless. Along with a place to treat people who were sick. I was in awe of it all.

  If Fleur had done this, she was beyond a good person. A fucking saint.

  We were greeted by a man dressed in a pair of torn jeans and a dress shirt. “White Angel,” he said. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be hiding out?”

  Fleur smiled. “I’m doing my best, but a friend of mine needed help.”

  That was when he saw me and Zeke.

  “Take him to the back,” the man said.

  “Thank you, Isiah,” Fleur said.

  It didn’t take long to have Zeke in a bed and a nurse looking him over. “Don’t you worry,” Fleur said. “Not many people know this place helps Paragons.”

  That was good to hear. “I can’t believe you have a place like this.”

  “We try, it isn’t set up to help many. Just those that are on the streets, and if my father or even the police learned of it, it would be gone in an instant.”

  She was right about that. It wouldn’t be much use for hiding too many, but it would keep Zeke safe in the short term.

  We couldn’t stay long, since word might get out that Ares and the White Angel were here. That would cause Fenrir to send his goons, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen.

  Thanking Isiah, we left and went back to Lola.

  I was thankful to save Zeke, but it showed me how bad the city was. New York was in trouble, and so was the rest of the world. We had to fix this and make it better. I just hoped we had the right plan. That the paths we were going down would work.

  30

  Breaking News

  After what felt like a lifetime, but in reality, was only a few weeks, I sat at the war table and watched the news. Fleur and Lola were on either side of me. McGarrett and Janet were here too. This was only the second time that Janet had ever been here, and she was impressed with Lola’s setup, a bank of monitors that sat next to each other. Her keyboard in front of them. Lola somehow managed to keep the desk clear of anything else.

  The two had geeked out over the computers and other tech the first time she was here last week. It was nice to see the pair bonding and relaxing, as the stress couldn’t be good for Janet, and her pregnancy. The last thing I wanted to see was McGarrett’s wife and future child be hurt by this.

  Over the years, I saw a few of mine go through stuff that wasn’t fair. Being the child of a God wasn’t easy, and even though some of them knew me well, and let me be a good father, some wouldn’t let me. That had hurt, and it was my own fault. Just because I was a God didn’t mean I was perfect. I did the best that I could when I could.

  On the screen was the mayor, and she didn’t look happy. “Today was dreadful,” McGarrett said.

  I could only imagine; on the screen, the mayor was talking about working with the new federal agency that was headed by Fenrir. This man was like Reign on crack or speed. He had even more pull and power, and that was extremely terrifying.

  “You did what you had to,” Fleur said.

  McGarrett was forced to hand over all the backups the NYPD had on Paragons. “How does that affect us?” I asked.

  Lola smiled. “Not at all.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “They have your old apartment on file,” McGarrett said. “And for Fleur, they have her father's place.”

  It didn’t surprise me that they didn’t have this place on file, but her dad’s apartment in Manhattan was a bit of a shock. “Really?”

  Fleur smiled. “My way of sticking it to the old prick.”

  “Does that mean he’ll have to raid his own apartment?”

  “By the books,” McGarrett said. “But we all know he isn’t one to go by the books. He’ll not let that make the news.”

  While we had been successful in getting more and more bad press on him in the news, there was no way we would be able to get that on there.

  As we watched the mayor, a call came in through the video chat, and it was someone that I knew well, Mako.

  Lola answered it, and his wrinkled mug replaced the news program.

  “Mako,” Fleur said. “What can we do for you?”

  The man smiled. “It’s what I can do for you,” he said. “I found a Senator that is willing to talk, and I have some tech that might be useful in avoiding the new Paragon sniffers.”

  I groaned. That had been on the news last night. Walker and his compan
y found a way to tell if a person was a Paragon without drawing blood. They just had to be in the area of one, and the device would sound alarms. That was going to wreak havoc on the Paragon community.

  Many people didn’t tell anyone they were Paragons. Not wanting to be heroes or villains, doing their best to live normal everyday lives. That was going to change very soon, once that device went into mass production.

  “You found a way to mask?” Lola asked. “I’ve been trying but failing.”

  Mako smiled. “It’s rare that I can beat the great Lola,” he said in a playful tone. It was nice to see that even Mako, one of the richest and most powerful people in the world, could have a sense of humor and respect Lola.

  31

  Fenrir not Happy

  The next day, we got to see one of the best press conferences since I’ve been back on Earth. It was brilliant and made my day. It occurred as Fenrir left his mega-building, the one that was constructed to show just how powerful he was.

  Walker Consolidated headquarters was the tallest building in New York City, and that was saying something. It pierced the sky higher than anything else in the world. Fenrir made sure of that.

  If anyone asked me, I would call it an eyesore, but that was my own personal taste. Some of the articles written about the building loved it.

  As the man exited the building, he was ambushed by the news media. They had taken to stalking him and asking him questions all the time. It was his own doing, and now it bit him in the butt. Fucking brilliant.

  “Is it true that you are harboring a Paragon?” A blond reporter for one of the local stations asked.

  Fenrir crinkled his nose, and his nostrils flared. His face was red with anger and disgust at even the thought of having a Paragon with him, or so I thought.

  “I am not,” he said. “My vile daughter, as you all know, is a Paragon. She goes by the name White Angel. She is no angel.”