Giorgio Carlisle and his assistant led the six heroes into the building and down a big hall with numerous glass windows lining the edges, allowing them to peer into the rooms. Although empty, The Viper deduced that they were likely meant for conferences between the head of the council and his members, though their exact purpose remained unknown.
Soon, the eight of them reached a meeting hall consisting of a long, wide, rectangular table and ten chairs; one stationed at each of the short ends and four lining each of the two long ends. The summoned heroes immediately took a seat, with Carlisle at the front, The Viper, Duncan Drevis, and The Crawler on one side, and Nightclaw, Powerhouse, and Coldsnap on the other; though the werewolf opted to just move her chair out of the way and remain standing in its place. Carlisle's aide didn't sit down; he remained standing at his employer's side. Once everyone was in position, three of the chairs remained unused.
"So what did you mean when you said there was more to the message than you originally let us in on?" The Viper asked again, bent on pressuring him for more information. The sooner she was given a legitimate reason to believe this was a trap, the better. "I'll have you know you're wasting a lot of our time right now.....who knows what's going on in this cities we normally look after?"
Carlisle clasped his hands and rested them on the table as he gave her a long glance. "Oh no, Viper, I assure you.....this matter is bigger than all of us."
The heroine raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
His gaze drifted left and right at regular intervals, taking care to give all six heroes equal attention.....or at least, as much as he could, anyway. "The Global Defense Council is an organization that was formed to keep peace and order across the world, both from threats born from it.....and otherwise."
All of the heroes looked worriedly at each other. "Umm.....'otherwise'?" Duncan verified.
"Earthly dangers such as domestic and international terrorists, unauthorized missile strikes from other countries, acts of sabotage and espionage from the inside.....you name it, we do it. That's all the public knows, anyway. What they don't know is that we also keep tabs on threats that are not of this Earth, too."
Nightclaw tilted her head curiously. "What.....?"
"And how exactly do you do that?" Coldsnap asked.
"I have a large firm of scientists who work in an extensive, sprawling lab below this facility. They monitor everything about time and space itself, from the multiverse, to the pantheon, to alternate timelines and dimensions," Carlisle continued.
Everyone blinked in disbelief.
".....Okay, now I've seen it all," Powerhouse snarked.
"Please.....allow me to conclude, and you may all ask your burning questions later," the head requested. "In the past, they have detected a few anomalies, but they were all taken care of before we got around to acting. Perhaps you might recall a few of them?"
".....What kinds of things have you found, sir?" The Crawler asked.
"For one thing, the Egyptian god of death, Anubis, attempted to go rogue and use humanity's vast collection of souls to both sustain himself and to grow powerful enough to declare himself the sole ruler of the planet. Thankfully, his plot was brought to a screeching halt by one James Markovsky, a.k.a. Powerhouse, and his companion, Apis---the Egyptian god of strength and fertility," Carlisle began as he looked at the titular hero. "Anubis bonded with a rather disgusting man named Jerry 'The Ibis' Gigliotti, the leader of the Avian Wing brothel, to further his goals, correct? Am I wrong there?"
YOU ARE READING
The Paragons
Teen Fiction~PARAGON CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: PHASE 1, BOOK 6~ *This novel serves as the culmination of all five PCU novels that have come before it, and it is the 6th and final novel of Phase 1 of the PCU. You will get the most out of it if you've read all of them...
