Paragons

Issue 18- Brick By Boring Brick

"I really mean it," said the woman in charge of the fire-fighting efforts, Pixie wasn't quite sure of what her rank was. "Without you guys, we would have lost that whole town. Thank you."

  Megan nervously shrugged as she did her best to fight the blood that rushed to her cheeks. "We wouldn't be here if you didn't call for us. Next time I'll try to be better prepared."

  The woman smiled at her. "You can't always prepare for these things. You guys did great, just know that. I hope I never have to, but I'll be calling you in again if we ever need you."

  "No you won't," a voice cut Megan off as she just opened her mouth to speak. She turned towards a man in a dark suit that moved towards her, flanked by a couple of men who were clearly security. "The federal government has expressly forbidden accepting any aid from Krakoa. We have made deals for their sovereignty in return for medicine, and we shall not pose a threat to them, but we do not require their help. If they weren't so greedy with their medicine we wouldn't need them at all."

  The woman took a deep breath as she stepped towards him. "Without them we would have lost control of the fire in this area."

  "Then perhaps you should do better." The man turned to Pixie and glared down at her. "I expect you and your friends will be off Australian soil within the next half-hour. I shall be watching until you are."

  Pixie watched with uncertainty as the man walked away from them, back towards a black SUV that was parked upon the nearby road.

  "Piece of shit," the woman snarled.

  "Who is he?"

  The woman took another breath. "Simon Wilford, the new Minister of Home Affairs. Don't know how that prick slimed his way into politics."

Megan's eyes widened as the name clicked in her head. "He was part of the Australian Glory Brotherhood, wasn't he? The anti-mutant group."

  The woman scoffed. "Anti-mutant is putting it lightly. They were barbarians; murdered a whole bunch of people, detonated some bombs, and worse. He was one of their main financers and somehow he managed to slink away without prison time. You'd think being a terrorist would stop you from getting into politics, turns out doesn't matter so much if you're white and rich. People love to hate people that aren't like them."

  Megan swallowed as she stared across at Wilford and felt a terrible dread in her gut. If he was still out and doing fine, then who else from the AGB was? Darktruth had sold them all out when he turned his back on them, the group he helped to start, and until that moment she'd always just assumed Frank and Bell had slipped the net by chance.

  If Wilford had not only gotten away, but also kept all his money and influence, and seemingly gained more, then it was possible he had helped them, and many others, do the same. Worse than that, he was a prominent mutant hater in a key position of a foreign country. The Quiet Council wouldn't like that, and she was terrified that such a fact could lead to actual war. Wars just got regular people killed while those like Wilford gained from them.

  "You should probably go," the woman suggested. "He is serious."

  Pixie exhaled as she nodded. "Yeah, okay. I'm just glad we could help."

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The Next Day, Manhattan, Lower East Side

Pretender swallowed as he pushed his way through the crowd. He started to doubt the intelligence of heading to New York. Certainly it was a crowded place and it was possible they could get lost amongst the population, but it also happened to have the highest density of super-humans in the world and was a popular place for mutants. Even if whoever was tasked with finding him didn't spot him, there was still a chance somebody friendly with Krakoa would.