Paragons 3

by Gideon Mills

  Back in the car, I sat and turned to Fleur. “Time to go.”

  Lola sighed. “I was so looking forward to see the tech Mako talked about.”

  I knew that she was but there was no way we could stay here. “I was looking forward to Stan afterword,” I said. “But we have to go back to the hideout and figure this out.”

  “We do,” Lola said. “Such a shame.”

  35

  Sorting it Out

  Back at the headquarters, my heart still pounded from the fight. It wasn’t the most intense one I had even been in. Yet, it had me jacked up. Not knowing how they found us had me going.

  I couldn’t help myself and I was pacing back in froth in the front part of the building that was our home. The cave for us to work out of, though it wasn’t really a cave, but I noticed a lot of heroes called their places caves. Must be influenced by the one comic too much.

  “Please sit down,” Fleur said.

  I stopped pacing and looked at her. “I can’t, just too worked up. How did Fenrir and his minions know we’d be there?”

  Lola was at her workstation tirelessly typing away. Her fingers were the loudest thing in the room right now. Drowning out the ever-consistent hum of all the electronic equipment in the room.

  Fleur had turned the TV on to the local news. So far there had been no word on my attack. With how long it took us to get back, that had been a bit of a shock. We all had figured Fenrir would be using this against us.

  Suddenly an alert came for an incoming call on our secured line. This had to be Mako, and he had a lot to answer for.

  Lola jumped up from her station and joined us in the spot where we all could be seen by the caller.

  “Mako,” Fleur said. “What in the world was that?”

  The man had sweat pouring down his face. Now more than ever he looked his age, and I almost felt bad for him. Almost.

  “I have no idea,” Mako said. He pulled out a handkerchief and rubbed it over his forehead. “I think I have a mole.”

  That was one of the scenarios that had been playing out in my head. It wasn’t the easiest one to fix and deal with. If it had been Mako, that was a simple fix. Part of me didn’t trust the man. He was really an unknown factor in all of this.

  “How do we know it wasn’t you?” I asked. My tone was harsh and not remotely friendly. Lola and Fleur gave me glances out of the corner of their eyes but didn’t turn to face me.

  Mako didn’t appear fazed by what I said or by my tone. “I know it looks bad for me,” he said. “I told you to go there. I set this all up and that happens. I’ve been the one to start us working together. It looks terrible and I know it.”

  All of it looked bad and made me never want to trust him or another outside person until we had Fenrir and my mother taken care of. Right now, I wasn’t even sure I could trust my own family. Outside of Athena, none of them had been here to help. Dear Uncle Poseidon said he would help, but I hadn’t seen any real sign of that.

  “Mako,” Lola said. “Do you have any ideas as to who the inside person is?”

  The older man nodded. “I do, but I would like to keep that in-house for the moment.”

  That, I didn’t like and made me question him some more. “Why?”

  Mako sighed. “It’s a person I care about, and I want to be one hundred percent.”

  I could respect that, and understood it completely. When a person we love betrays us, it can be something hard to deal with and figure out. Now was not the time to press him, but soon he would need to answer for us.

  “Take your time,” I said. “But we can’t waste too much time.”

  Our plans in social media had been working. And the lack of news from Athena and Felicity meant their plans were working too. It was up to us to find another way in and take Fenrir out.

  “I’ll get back to you tonight or tomorrow,” Mako said. “I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

  “Very well,’ Fleur said.

  36

  Stan the Man

  That afternoon, we left to see Stan at the hospice. With little else to do, that was one of the few things that would make me feel productive. I needed that now more than ever.

  Just waiting for others had never been one of my strengths, and I didn’t see that developing any time soon. Throughout history I had always been that way. No matter what version of me the people worshipped. I led from the front and got my hands dirty.

  Thankfully, the hospice was in the city and we didn’t need to rely on the Third Street Dragons to get us out of the city again. How the old man had gotten back to the city, I didn’t know.

  Lola was a master at creating false documents, and backstopping them on the internet. Though they would never be able to get us out of the city. None of us had the ability to change the way we looked. Disguises worked to a certain degree.

  Using Lola’s fake IDs, we arrived at the hospice. Before we left Lola made sure that visiting was allowed, and the hours. We were right in the middle of the time allotted for that.

  “We are here for Stan Keebler,” I said.

  The woman eyed me with a suspicious look. “Mister Keebler doesn’t get many visitors.”

  That didn’t surprise me, since he had been homeless. From what Fleur had said he didn’t have much of a family. His work was his life for most of it, and now that he didn’t have that, he was alone. That was a sad thought. One that I didn’t like at all. No one should be alone. We all need love, and family in our life.

  “I’m a friend,” I said. “I met him not too long ago, and he gave me advice and I just want to thank him.”

  The attendant at the front desk smiled. “Stan dishing out advice, that sounds just like him. Always wanting to help others.”

  “Very much so, and why I wanted to say hi. Let him know he helped me out.”

  “I’ll see if he is up to seeing you,” she said. “What is your name?”

  “Just tell him the vet from Connecticut is here.”

  She gave me a funny look but left to see if Stan would see us.

  Lola leaned in close to me and held my hand. Fleur was on the other side of me. Even though I only met the man once, I felt like I knew him much longer. He had shown me a wisdom that was rarely seen in most of the humans. Especially in this day and age. While I had to admit, I fully embraced much of the modern technology back on Mount Olympus.

  While I was here, I saw the real damage some of that was doing. We were using social media to help us, but I couldn’t help but feel like it created some sort of separation between us and the people that were right around us. I could not deny that it allowed people to be in touch with those across the globe.

  That wasn’t even to mention the obsession with smartphones in general, and other technology. Again, I loved the creations and the way they helped us find more knowledge and the like. It just meant that many people seemed lost in them and not in the world to which they belonged.

  After several minutes, the woman appeared. “Stan will see you,” she said.

  Then she led us back through several hallways that had a very familiar smell to me. One of near-death. Very sterile. It was one of the many reasons people did not like places like this. The constant reminder of death and that they were mortal.

  That was something I didn’t have to worry about, but the smell still set me on edge. While I might not die, those around me would. They would one day be taken from me, and sent to the afterworld. Sent to Hades and his unrelenting control. I hated that thought and wished it wasn’t the case, but I didn’t have the power to change that. Only my dear father could, and I knew he was too cruel to do something for me. He never had in his life.

  Arriving at the room, the woman gestured for us to go in. Once inside the tiny room, it was instantly cramped with the three of us in it. Stan looked up from the bed and smiled.

  “I thought I might be seeing you again.” The fragile old man had a big smile on his face. One that said he didn’t care about leaving here and knew
that he had made his mark on the world. That was a rare face, and knowledge. Most humans feared death and leaving here. Thinking they didn’t impact the world. They did. Trust me, all humans leave their mark on the world.

  “You helped me out,” I said. “And I need your help again.”

  Stan chuckled. “If you say so.”

  It was then that he saw Fleur and Lola. It was clear that he knew who Fleur was and again smiled, but this time a tear streaked down his face. “My dear little Fleur,” he said. “It has been a very long time.”

  She nodded. “Stan.”

  “And the Guardian is with you.”

  Lola smiled. It was clear to me that she liked being recognized.

  “Stan,” I said.

  “I’m guessing you want to know about the Walkers?”

  I nodded. “I do.”

  “I don’t see how I can tell you more about them than young Fleur here.”

  “Stan,” she said. “I really don’t know my father, and my grandfather even less. I distanced myself from them as soon as I could.”

  The wrinkled old man smiled. “Understandable. I’ll tell you what I can about them.”

  Stan and Fabian started the company seventy years ago with a loan. Both of them had, at the time, a similar vision of creating technology to help move America into the forefront of the world. They started with smaller electronics, and then Fabian saw the potential of moving into weapons.

  It was a long time before Stan relented and allowed the company to move into that area, and it paid off. The company started to make more money than either knew what to do with.

  The real change in Fabian came when he had Fenrir, and then lost his wife. She was one of the first Paragons, and her power wasn’t controllable. She died from that, and Fabian never recovered.

  “I didn’t know that,” Fleur said.

  “Your grandfather kept it under wraps,” Stan said. “Both your mother and grandmother died from Paragons.”

  Fleur nodded. “No wonder my dad hates them.”

  “It’s not a surprise,” Stan said. “But your mother and grandmother would be appalled. Both viewed Paragons as the next step. The way to keep the world safe from the unknown.”

  If only we could use that, help to convince Fenrir not to do this. Maybe seeing his own mother be pro-Paragon would help, or even his wife. Though I doubted that we would ever be able to do that.

  “If you go to the old Walker building that we started in,” Stan said. “You might be able to find a video I made with Irene. Once she learned that she might die, she begged me to help her record her final wishes. If Fenrir sees that, it might help.”

  “Thank you,” Fleur said. That was just what we needed. It might not stop this completely, since Fenrir was under the control of my mother and she wasn’t one to give up easily.

  Now we had yet another plan to help defeat Fenrir and Hera. One piece of many, and I hoped each would be enough.

  37

  Chaos around America

  The next few days were long and boring. I longed to be out and stopping all the bad in the world. The news was filled with awful things happening across the city, and the country. As much as our campaigns to prove that Paragons were people, and good, were working, many people in the country were still going out and hurting any Paragons they saw.

  It hurt every time I turned on the TV and saw another attack against a Paragon. They had to take it too, unable to defend themselves for fear of making the situation worse for others. Since the few that did defend themselves and took action were turned into villains.

  It sickened me to witness that as well. Seeing Paragons that were heroes before this all started and now they were hated. Not like Thunderprick, but actual heroes. Ones that worked hand in hand with Fleur, Bionic Man, and Major Thorn in the past. Not to mention others.

  The magazine had shown them as some of the best, but they were being attacked not once, or twice, but more. They flipped and defended themselves. The news ran with that and made them out to be vile scum. Worse than even those that were actual villains.

  That was what hurt me the most. I wanted to get out and help them. To travel to Miami, to Denver, or Portland to help them out. Yet, I couldn’t even keep the ones here in New York City safe. It was maddening.

  Fleur appeared next to me on the fifth day after meeting Stan. We were no closer to a solution and I wanted to run to the old building that housed Walker Consolidated, but it was under lock and key. By not only Fenrir and his men, but by the federal government.

  It had been home to an explosion many years ago, and condemned. The fallout from that had nearly destroyed the reputation of Fabian, but Fenrir had been able to fix it all. Using bullying tactics and money that he threw around like it grew on trees. For him it did, and that was one of the many issues we had. While Fleur had money and that helped, it was nothing compared to her dad.

  Not even Mako could help us in that area. He was still trying to weed out the mole in his company, and we hadn’t heard back from him. That was starting to be a concern.

  I didn’t want to lose that ally, even though I wasn’t so sure it was one.

  All this weighed on me, and that didn’t even mention that Felicity and Athena were still gone. I tried to reach out to some of the few supernatural beings that I could reach, and no word. That was bringing me down.

  “You okay?” Fleur asked.

  I shrugged. “Not really.”

  “I’m sorry,” she said.

  “Don’t be.” All of us were having a hard time with all of this swirling around us. Not being able to work freely made it all the more tough. I thought it had been bad with Reign, but he was simple in comparison. He was a power-hungry man, but he actually lacked real power. Unlike Fenrir who had the power, and the vileness to use it to get what he wanted. That was a very dangerous combination.

  “I miss her too,” Fleur said. “And I hate not being able to help.”

  “I just wish we could just go get that video.”

  “If it is even there.” Fleur had a look of doubt on her face. She had waited until we got back to the hideout to tell me about the building going down in the accident. I should have remembered it.

  That had been big enough that a few of the Gods on Mount Olympus had talked about it. Though I hadn’t been that interested in the incident, since it wasn’t directly related to war. Sure the company made weapons that I had wanted to try out, but they weren’t soldiers.

  It had been wrong of me to ignore the men and women that didn’t worship me. Even these days the soldiers really didn’t, not directly at least. But in my mind any man or woman serving in the military did. That was the way I thought and felt.

  Now I realized it wasn’t just the people in the military or on the police force, but all the Paragons that fought for their cause. All the scientists creating weapons to help those fight. All the modern-day blacksmiths. While the current blacksmith might fall more under Hephaestus and work behind a computer as engineers, they were still part of my clan too.

  Though right now, that wasn’t the problem. We needed to get to the old building and see what it held. And had to hear back from Mako.

  Not to mention, I longed to hear from my sister and Felicity. I missed the squirrelkin a lot and needed her here. All three of the women I loved helped me get through these hard times.

  38

  A Way In

  The next day, Fleur walked to me in the large area that was used as the hub of the hideout. McGarrett was here, and so was Lola. They were over at Lola’s workstation talking. I had ventured over to the mini-gym area to clear my head.

  “Do Gods actually need to work out?” Fleur asked.

  “That depends on what you mean. To stay fit, no,” I said. It was true that I could eat anything and everything and look pretty much the same. If I wanted my body to change it was more a matter of what I wanted myself to look like. Magic was a tricky thing and I wasn’t a master of that. My sister Eris was much better at that,
as was Ate. Others had it down better than I as well.

  For me it rather enjoyed the look I had. My chiseled face and body, and the hair. My appearance had served me well, and I saw no need to alter it.

  “But?”

  I smiled, having gotten a little distracted. “I need to train to keep up my skills in combat. That can and will go rusty. A millennium of training might let some talents stay in my mind, but still training is required to stay at my peak.”

  She nodded. “You are indeed at your peak.”

  Her tone was playful and inviting, as it always was these days. It was hard to believe that at first Fleur and I didn’t get off to a great start. She had wanted nothing to do with me, and I had trouble figuring that out. She was one of the rare people on Earth to not be drawn to me right away.

  “What are they talking about?” I asked, pointing over to Lola and McGarrett.

  “McGarrett might have found a way to get into the old Walker building.”

  That was great news, and I hoped he was right. That meant we wouldn’t be sitting around here doing nothing as the world was going into chaos. With both sides fighting for what they believed in.

  It was beyond frustrating that the people were torn on the issue. I had hoped that more would see the Paragons as human and part of them. But Fenrir had done his job well. It didn’t help that Eris and Reign before him had set up the table; he had swooped in and made the situation even worse.