by Gideon Mills
“Eris?”
“Ha, no,” he said. “But we’ll never tell you.”
“Make quick work of them,” Eris said. “Do not underestimate my brother.”
Before I could react, Eris was gone, and the group of fifteen Paragons attacked us. This was going to be a fucking great time.
The one closest to me blasted a ball of fire that both Fleur and I easily avoided, but that caused us to nearly jump right into ThunderBolt’s electric charge. This was going to be a doozy for sure. I loved the challenge of it.
My heart was racing, and my body was getting stronger and stronger. Fighting gave me more power, and the bigger the fight the stronger I was. This was the biggest one yet. Even better than the first one I had here on Earth. These were Paragons and in many ways Gods themselves.
Fleur went to the right, and I took the left. This was going to be interesting with her. We had taken out the humans that Eris churned into a riot, but this was different. More.
Taking out the Paragons with ranged attacks was the key, but I didn’t know these people from Adam. The one that shot fire was my first priority. I closed the distance between us in a blink of an eye.
The one thing I had on most of these Paragons was my speed. Too fast for the fire-thrower to react, I punched him with a strength I hoped didn’t kill him. When I signed up to be a hero, I had agreed I wouldn’t kill unless I had to, and that had to be proven right.
I didn’t want to go to prison. Not that it would hold me, but still.
The man went flying in the air and landed in the distance. I was hit in the back and stumbled forward. I hadn’t been expecting that and turned to see a woman in bright red spandex with an X on her chest.
I had seen her in one of the previous issues of Paragons of America. She was a supervillain that did most of her work in Philadelphia. Bank robbing was her typical crime, and if I remembered correctly, she was like me in a way. Strong and hard to take down.
“So, you fancy yourself a God,” she said. The Paragon was taller than the average woman, with a thick frame, her face brutish. I didn’t enjoy looking at it. Black hair was pulled back tight and over her a stern face, one that would put fear into most.
“Stronggirl,” I said.
She groaned. “I fucking hate that name. Say it again, and I’ll rip your head off.”
“Stronggirl. . . isn’t that what my sister said to do anyway?”
The woman shrugged and punched me. This time I was expecting it, and the blow hit me with full force and did nothing. Her fist bounced off me, and I saw the look of horror on her face.
Then a blast of ice smashed into me, and I saw a tiny man dressed in blue and with blue skin shooting shards of ice all around him. He wasn’t controlling it very well, but it was effective. Fleur was having to avoid both the ice and the lighting from ThunderBolt.
She was going a decent job of it, but this had to be taking a toll on her. She had removed one of the villains already, which meant thirteen left.
I picked up Stronggirl and hurled her into the air. She’d land someplace far from here. I knew she’d live, and be back, but for now she was out of the picture. I rushed at the ice man. He was an unknown to me, but I couldn’t let him continue to shoot shards. If he hurt Fleur or an innocent person, I’d be pissed off and kill him.
A piece of ice as sharp as a blade smashed into me. It was so fine and intense that it actually pricked my skin. No blood, but still, I hadn’t expected that. It slowed me only a little before I was in front of ice dude. The man was half my height and looked up at me.
“You don’t scare me,” he said. His own voice failed him. He was cowering in fear and barely managed to get the words out. I flicked him in the side of the head with a finger, and he fell to the ground in a lump. He was out, and would be until the police arrived.
The sirens sounded. They were on the way and would be here soon. Though I had a feeling they would arrive just in time for clean-up duty. That seemed to be their modus operandi.
With the ice gone, Fleur made quick work of ThunderBolt. I moved to the next one, who had a stone fist, and knocked him out.
Fleur and I made fast work of the villains. The baddies didn’t seem to work well together, and we did. Moving with ease and precision, we had them all on the ground in time for the first police officer.
Stepping out of the car was my good friend McGarrett. He walked over. “Ares, Fleur. I see you have them taken care of.”
“You know how I do it,” I said.
McGarrett laughed. “That I do. Surprised to see you here, Fleur.”
“Believe me,” she said. “I am too, but Guardian and I needed his expertise.”
Shock covered McGarrett’s face. “Hey,” I said. “I have a lot of knowledge. I’m thousands of years old.”
The officer shook his head. “So you say.”
“I do.”
The man looked to Fleur and gave her a look that said Are you for real?
“Guardian and I had a Paragon we couldn’t figure out. Ares claims she’s his sister, Eris. Greek Goddess of Strife and something.”
“Discord,” I added.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Fleur gave me a look and shrugged as if that was an apology. “Ares has the most knowledge of Greek Gods and their powers. He was accommodating for Guardian.”
“I’m sure he was,” McGarrett said. “That and war is what Ares knows.”
“I know more than that,” I said. “Trust me, I know a lot.”
Everyone gave me a look that said I didn’t, and that didn’t sit well with me. I wasn’t going to argue with them. “Look. My sister is behind this, Eris. Goddess of Strike and Discord.”
“She did say that she had a boss.”
I was still trying to wrap my head around that. Eris really wasn’t the type to work for people. At least, not often. She rode into battle with me ages ago, but that was different. “I’m still trying to figure that out.”
“We need to stop her,” Fleur said.
That was the truth, and I was going to figure out how. Eris always messed up, and we would find her.
16
Some R & R
That night I was back in my apartment, alone. I tried to get Lola to stop by, but she was busy with Fleur, she said. There was a hint to what she was saying, and I wished, even more, I was with them. It made me wonder if I would ever have a chance with Fleur.
She had said I was attractive. That had to mean something.
Instead of focusing on Fleur and Lola, I pushed them out of my head, and started to focus on other important things. What I needed to do was some research. I had the internet open and read the latest headlines. Almost all of them were about Fleur and me.
It was interesting reading about myself in the context of a hero. This was vastly different from the stories of the glory days. This wasn’t the same as the mythology books. It wasn’t even like the many versions of me in modern literature and games.
They even had a good picture of Fleur and me. We looked good together—my massive bulk made her look small, and my dark hair a contrast to her flaming halo, but most of all, we were matched in fierceness. As I skimmed the website, I saw an article ripping ThunderBolt apart. I loved that one. The writer of the article didn’t hold back. It brought a smile to my face.
It was nice to see that others saw just what I did. This man was never a hero, and they showed that—how little he did; that he relied on recent graduates of Paragon Academy to do his work and then shoved them to the side.
ThunderBolt was a very bad hero, and I was glad to see him taken down. It was a small victory for me, but I was going to take it.
The next morning the latest edition of Paragons of America arrived. I had signed up for a subscription. Not that I could afford it, but it was going to be a very useful source of intel.
To my surprise, Eris was on the cover. So were Fleur and I. Whoever had taken this photo had been there before the attack. The main article asked if Eris, or I, was the r
eal villain. it implied that I had turned the great White Angel to the dark side.
It boiled my blood that they had turned me into the bad guy. It made me want to find the editor and writer and punch them in the face. Make them bleed for what they were saying. Trying to make me look bad. Make Fleur look bad.
A knock sounded at my door. I jumped up in my rage and answered it. Standing there were Fleur and Lola, both of them in regular clothes.
“I see you read it,” Lola said. They both walked in and shut the door behind them.
“I’m gonna kill them,” I said.
Fleur looked just as angry as me. “As much as I want to do just that,” she said. “I’ve spent years being a hero here, protecting the city, and they might have ruined that. But we can’t. it would just prove them right.”
That was true, and I hated it. I took a deep breath in and tried to relax. I had been clenching the magazine in my hand. It was a hot mess, and I slowly unfolded it. Walking back to my couch and sitting, I did my best to calm down. To let the anger out. Thinking of what my sister, Athena, would do. She would take this and use it.
“We need to find whoever took this photo,” I said.
“We do,” Lola said. “That person had knowledge of the attack. The meeting. They might be able to give us Eris’s home base.”
That would be extremely useful information. Stuff that we could take advantage of, but it wasn’t going to be easy. I thought back to the attack and what happened. Being a skilled general and warrior, I was used to taking in everything around me. Every little detail. Nothing was too small.
“There were three people in the area,” I said. “But I didn’t see a camera on any of them.”
Fleur nodded. “I didn’t see a camera either, but they can be tiny.”
Lola cleared her throat. “Hacker.”
Fleur and I looked at her. “You know the name of the guy?”
“No, but I do have the email address that sent it in. And the internet café that was used to send the email.”
That was a start. “Great.”
17
Old Fashioned Police work
We hit the streets, all three of us, and went to the café. It wasn’t too far from my place. Since the fight took place in my neighborhood, it wasn’t that big of a surprise.
The short walk over was pleasant, and I enjoyed the stroll with the women. They were both stunning to look at. I did enjoy a beautiful, powerful woman. “Once we take care of my sister,” I said. “Can we talk about your team and me?”
Lola had a big smile on her face, but Fleur didn’t appear as pleased. “We’ll see,” the White Angel said.
That was an improvement, and I was going to take it. She was at least warming up to me being on her team. As the café appeared in front of us, I saw it was one of the nicer places in the area.
The more I thought of about it, the more I believed I could protect this part of the city with help from my team, which would hopefully be Fleur and Lola. Maybe some more and preferably some super-hot woman. It wasn’t that I had a thing against men, but a woman was much better company. Perhaps it was all the time with my dad, and the big three in general.
Walking into the place, I took it all in. I hadn’t ever been in one of these. Back when I was last on Earth, they didn’t have computers, let alone cafés filled with them. It was one of the few things I enjoyed watching from my perch on Mount Olympus.
Computers changed the world, and so did the internet. Let alone companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google. We were in a place that those companies had made popular. Pretty much all the computers were being used, and from the looks of it they were doing all sorts of things.
Lola walked over to the counter and struck up a conversation with the employee. “I’m looking for a friend of mine,” she said. “He was here yesterday. Likes to take pictures.”
“Uh. We have a few people like that,” the pimple-faced man said.
Guardian smiled. “I’m sure. Look, my friend is a big Paragon groupie.”
I hadn’t thought of anyone being a groupie of Paragons, but back in the day, that was the case with the Gods. We all had our fans that crossed the line. Not just worshiping us, but going one step too far. I had my fair share of them, and temples built for me.
I thought about how humans were. It wouldn’t surprise me to find temples and statues of Paragons, with people worshiping them as Gods. They weren’t, that much was clear to me. Close but not quite there.
Maybe in an alternate reality they were Gods, and I never existed. I could see that in an infinite universe with many different versions of Earth. Maybe the force that I sense was coming was something from a different universe. That was just plain stupid, and I pushed the thought to the side.
“I think I know who you want,” the employee said. He was a slender kid that was probably in school. I wasn’t the best at judging ages. “He was at the computer on the end. Spent about an hour there. He was on the Paragons of America site for an hour.”
Lola grinned. “Sounds about right. Can I use that computer?”
“Sure thing.”
Lola strode over the one open computer. That was a lucky break, and Fleur and I followed her, taking the seat behind her. Lola started to work her magic on the keyboard. Again, her fingers danced.
“What you looking for?” I asked.
Lola smiled. “Anything that might tell me who this was.”
“The kid said he paid cash to use the computer. So credit cards are out of the question,” I said.
“Not good,” Fleur said. She was right, that was the simplest way to find this person. I didn’t know much about being a cop or a private investigator.
Lola shrugged. “I’ll find the man.”
It wasn’t long before she was smiling. “Let’s go.”
The hacker stood and waved to the employee. He was clearly smitten with her, and who could blame him. It wasn’t often a “ten” flirted with a guy like him. Not that I would know much about that.
We walked back to my shithole apartment before Lola spoke. “I found an address, but no name.”
Fleur appeared to be pleased. “Great. What’s the place?”
“You aren’t going to like it,” Lola said.
I tilted my head and watched the two. They had been teammates for a long time. Knew each other very well, and what they both liked and didn’t like.
“Hit me with it,” Fleur said.
Lola took a deep breath in. “Fifth Avenue, your old stomping ground. Midtown Manhattan.”
“Please don’t tell me,” Fleur said.
“Yes. Your parent's building, but not their place.”
“Great, just great.”
I didn’t know much about either of these two, other than they were heroes. That was it, and it looked like I was going to get a Fleur history lesson.
18
Damn, that’s expensive
This time Fleur insisted that I ride in the car with them. Lola sat in the back seat so that I would fit. And this time Fleur didn’t take any routes to hide where we were going. In many ways we went into a different city, a different world.
My place was a dump and for the poor. We ended up at one of the world’s most expensive buildings to live in. It was a tall building in Midtown Manhattan. Fleur pulled up to the valet, and exited the car.
“Miss Walker,” the valet said. “I see you have brought guests.”
The look the man gave me. That I was beneath him, and this place. That I wasn’t worthy of being near the likes of Fleur.
“Francis,” Fleur said. “You know Miss Clark, and this is my friend.”
I had never given them a name beside Ares, and I was sure that she didn’t want to say I was the Greek God of War. Right now, I needed a name and fast. I ran through the list of names I’ve seen for men these days.
“Blake David,” I said.
Fleur smiled. “Yes, Mister David will be joining me today.”
Francis, the valet, nodded. �
��As you say, Miss Walker.”
The man took the car, and we entered the building. Inside, it was clear as day that this was an upscale place. One where the elite of the city lived. Not just some celebrities, but the real upper echelon of the city. Those that truly ran the world, the actual top one percent. The billionaires, and more.
CEOs, presidents, and the like. I was about to rub elbows with the human Gods. This was a place where certain other of my brethren would fit in better. I didn’t rub shoulders with these people. I was a man of violence. These people had others do their dirty work.
“Is there something you want to tell me,” I said.
Fleur groaned. “No.”
Lola was trying her best to hide a giggle. “Just tell him.”
The two women eyed each other. It looked like they were having a nonverbal conversation. One I’ve had with Athena many times in the past, or even with Aphrodite. Maybe one day with them.
“I’m Fleur Walker and my father is the CEO of Walker Consolidated.”
Even though I hadn’t been here too long, that was a very familiar name. One that I was trying to place. “Isn’t that one of the biggest defense contractors in the world?”
She nodded. “Yes. My father is number two on the world’s richest men list.”
That was beyond impressive. She had money and a lot of it. “Is he a Paragon?”
“No, and he doesn’t like that I spend my days out fighting villains. He’s rather I be at his side running the family business, as my dear little brother is.”
Lola nodded. “Both Fleur and her brother are Paragons, but Finn, who can become intangible, has decided to not be a hero.”
That was interesting. “I see.”
“But we aren’t going to see dear old dad or my brother. What condo did you say the guy was in?”
Lola gave the room, and we headed there. This was going to be an exciting talk. Anyone that lived here was going to be much like Fleur’s family. We got to the door and paused.
