Paragons

Issue 4- Invaders Must Die

Trigger Warning- Putting a special warning before this part as it deals in racism and racist language. It's definitely in a negative context, but a warning is still needed.

Gezag City, The Holy Nation of Gezag

Darktruth was well aware of the eyes that followed; filled with suspicion, disgust, and even hatred. He knew that if given the chance any of the people behind those eyes wouldn't hesitate to let that hatred out with fists or any weapon they could find. He also knew that none of those eyes were directed at him.

 "Why did you bring me?" groaned Cody as he kept pace beside him, head down as he followed along the path.

 Cody was a young man, not even in his twenties, with hair cropped short and shorter yet around the sides. His brown eyes were filled with the kind of youth that would likely die in a few short years. His skin was also dark, something that wasn't much appreciated at all in the Nation of Gezag.

 "You wanted a job, so I brought you on a job," Darktruth replied with a smile that Cody could plainly see was not as warm as he tried to make it, and did nothing to ease the churning in his stomach. "Also you're not getting paid, so think of this like an internship."

 Cody's dark brows lowered down upon his eyes. "Are you getting paid for this?"

 There was a pause, an unusually long one, before Darktruth replied. "In a way."

 "What kind of way?"

 "The kind of way that means I can't pay you. Were you always this annoying?"

 "I kinda hope so, given you'd kidnapped me."

 "You stuck around but."

 "I didn't even know where we were half the time."

 "Fair."

 They continued a distance further down the busy main road, Cody the lone person upon it who had skin darker than a tan and very well aware of that fact. He followed Darktruth around a corner and upon the end of the street before them sat a large building made of fine white stone, the roof adorned with carvings of a variety of animals from the African mainland.

 "The centre of Gezag governance, and a tribute to white nationalism." Darktruth gestured widely toward the building with a small flourish. "We just need to go in, find whoever is the person we need, and then find out why our Krakoan medicine didn't get to the people it was meant to get to."

 "So easy," Cody muttered. "So why did you actually bring me."

 "Well, given that I'm trying to get the medicine for the Africans who are no-class citizens in their own land I was worried it all felt a little too 'White Saviour' if I did it all myself," he replied with a small smile. "So you kinda balance out my whiteness. Also it looks super unprofessional if I just start shooting people for being racist arseholes, but if they go at you because they're racist arseholes I'm a professional for protecting my co-worker. You."

 Cody groaned as he placed a palm to the side of his head. "So, basically, either way you're just using me? You do realise that 'protecting' me would swing you back to 'White Saviour' territory? And aren't you not allowed to kill humans or something now?"

 "Well... yes, yes, and technically yes. Though I have no idea what happens if I do kill a human and then just don't go back to Krakoa. Do they hunt me down? Do I get to fight Magneto? Also very lucky that that law isn't retroactive, because I have killed so, so, so many humans. Y'know, I don't actually know what they do to mutants who break the laws. They're very big on the fact they don't have prisons, and any mutant who dies just gets brought back by their stupid resurrection thing. Maybe they'd just ban me from the island, which wouldn't be much different than my life had been up until recently."