2015.02.14 - Accounting the Accountant

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Kilroy looks at the house of the Three Brothers Dimm. They're on probation, but he has it on good authority they'll get their powers back and soon. Whose free will was he helping? With the money magic he had done before, there was always a balance...so what if giving someone Fated free will ruined the good fate of others? Who was he to decide? But doing nothing was clearly not a choice either.

A car drives by, and someone throws a bottle at Kilroy's head. He ducks and the car drives off. He might actually be a mutant after all, and people are...cautious around Mutants right now. It's the 12th time it has happened today.

"You should probably b-be more careful," comes a voice from a nearby alley. If Kilroy looks over, he'll find a certain costumed teen hero and Agent of the Presence stepping out of the shadows but not the alley itself just yet. Axiom knows costumed heroes draw attention. "Before the r-r-real crazy ones show up."

Kilroy says, "I'm not worried about the Crazy Ones. Not anymore, but thank you for your concern Axiom. I presume this is not a social call?"

"You're n-n-not worried about the ones that would start a big, dangerous fight here in the city?" Axiom asks, blinking a few times. Shaking it off, Axiom takes a breath. "Well I'm n-n-not here on orders from umm..." he gestures upwards vaguely. "But I did come for something k-kind of serious."

Kilroy says, "Ask him about Providence sometime. You're the high end of the spectrum. Providence isn't. And I wouldn't fight them. They'd get themselves arrested. Unless they're coming with Sentinels, they're not a problem. I've had an upgrade. How can I help?"

"No...he'd probably just say something confusing," Axiom admits. "And that's the kind of thing I came here to talk about. The whole upgrade thing and what h-happened with Magneto," he sighs. "I w-w-wanted to hear what you have to say about all of it."

Kilroy says, "If someone asked you to tell you about the theological ramifications of the Presence and every known religion individually could you do it?

That's a complicated topic but I can give you the thumbnail version. The upgrade is complicated. Turns out I am something called a master channeler. A long time ago the fates killed a God...who had been given a very important gift....and not only was he killed but all memory of him was erased. A few months ago, while She was screwing with my mind...Carmen Sandiego stole him. I...went away. I don't want to talk about that. Not ever. But when I came back, she got bored, broke the circle and inadvertently broke the curse...I had a choice then...let Veolus really pass into nothingness ...or co exist with him and let his gift be applied...I choose the latter.

As far as Erik? He's a pompous ass who is a homicidal maniac. Sorry, STUPID homicidal maniac. I knew he has monstrous tendencies but felt we shared a passion to help the mutants of Genosha. I did that....but when I was cursed by ...Her...no one in Genosha gave a crap. I resigned and left. Glad I did, because we do not share ANY kind of vision on Genosha. Magneto is no different than Kim Jong Il. He just has more powers and a British accent."

"No b-but I'm not the up...huge big head honcho of the multiverse," Axiom replies with a little quiet laugh. He falls silent though, listening to Kilroy speak. He knows about the god and the curse from his own poking around. "And what gift d-does that god have now? With you?" he asks carefully.

Of course the topic of Magneto gets him tensing up a little. "Didn't you n-notice that when he was invading those countries and dropping the island on them? I m-m-mean...he went full fledged super villain back then. It took -a lot- to keep Adara from going after the entire island the way it wanted to."

Kilroy says, "I did notice. I also noticed that Serbia was the reason for millions of displaced and genocided during the Balkan war, the camps were real. As for Russia....yeah. Not a moral bastion there either. I was THERE in the control room following the money and the body counts. The effort to keep the casualties low was greater than any parallel I've found in history. The man, at the time, might not have loved humans, but saw the importance of keeping the causalities to a minimum. Not ONE person died from landing that Island...

Given how the world treats mutants, helping them felt like the expedient thing to do at the time. Obviously, I was wrong. But I do not regret helping raise a country of exiles from poverty. Magneto would get the weapons no matter what I did...and as he is learning now...the power of wealth only works if you play by international rules...even if he gets gold from space...once he converts it to currency he's toast if he spends it anywhere but his island. No, I ensure Genosha had MORE than just the bare draconian necessities....or did...before Children's Scribble dumped most of it into the ocean.

As for my gift? Oh, its simple really. I can tell anyone the price of anything. ANYTHING. Including how to change their fate."

"Adara said different about that but..." Axiom sighs. "I'm not saying shutting down those camps and programs was a bad thing. Just the methods. If you had information about the camps and all that you c-could have just passed it along to people that could do things without declaring war, causing all that d-d-destruction, and spreading fear," he pauses, rubbing his forehead. "I saw Genosha before he started rising it...and b-b-before he took over completely. It wasn't nearly as bad as draconian. I m-mean it wasn't the US but..." he shrugs.

And cue another little sigh. "I thought so," he says. "There was...a -big- meeting at the Infinite Embassy about that," he says with a small smile. "You know one of the goddesses of fate actually asked if they could send someone to banish you to the Bleed? She was -mad-," he chuckles a little, remembering her expression. "It was like watching internet comments personified into a face."

Kilroy says, "Interesting." He smiles,"I'd say the same of the Fates. Oh, I know their duties are necessary for cosmic balance and all that, but much of their power was granted by Destiny. Destiny felt a need for a balance given some of their...shall we say....personal over reach sometimes?

As far as the camps....yes. I could have given the League the information, but you have to understand I'd just been accused by Shield directly and the JLA indirectly of being a terrorist just for helping out Genosha's economy. We hadn't met yet, not really. The only regular members of the heroic community I trusted were Zatanna and Team Genesis. Team Genesis has talent...not that level of talent.

I made a mistake. But I'm human. I made what I thought was the right call at the time."

He shrugs. He doesn't say ANYTHING about Genosha before Magneto. He's seen Collar's experimental records. Making the trains run on time never excuses slavery. Ever.

"I haven't seen Destiny since my um...t-tests," Axiom chuckles. He'd run into some of the Endless then. "Nothing r-really happened at that meeting but a bunch of yelling," he assures Kilroy. "I think they're going to have another one eventually though. I was only there for the last p-part of it since I got summoned for something else," he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Why not tell Zatanna then?" he asks, having complete faith in the mistress of magic to step in if there'd been trouble. He falls otherwise quiet, nodding a bit. He'd only meant that Genosha's economy hadn't been 'people in dirt huts'. He'd been less than pleased about the slavery of course and all that stopped him from intervening himself at the time was his lack of travel methods then. "So what're you g-going to do about Genosha now?"

Kilroy says, "I wish I could do nothing. The poor souls there are trapped, unable to leave, likely too afraid even dare think thoughts of freedom. Magneto has control of it physically and more over, even without the angels, most are fanatically devoted to him. I messed with Erik's mind a bit, but he's more concerned with killing humans at this point for me to distract him for long. I don't know....More than likely I will keep an eye out an aid someone more willing and powerful than I to deal with him. I wish I'd picked somewhere else for my time and effort, but what's done is done."

He considers a moment, "I'll likely do what I always do. Clean up the mess. I can't defeat Magneto directly, even as a God, but I can minimize the damage, bleed his external assets, especially the brotherhood, and poke him in the eye from time to time because I can. Apparently I'm good at that."

He smiles and then sighs as he looks at the shattered bottle. He is silent for a full minute before saying, "I didn't tell Zatanna because I saw the man Erik could be, and most definitely is not. I was blinded by the possibilities of a man who could not only make the world a better place but break the draconian death grip Fate has on this world...can't you...FEEL it? The status quo of evil? As if we're one giant ...ant farm? I was desperate to fight evil in a lasting way, and he seemed the best way to do it. I made it worse. I have near cosmic power if I give it to the wrong person now, so I'm obviously going to be a lot more cynical about it. But I can't...do ...nothing."

Even if sometimes he really really wants to."

"All it t-takes for evil to win is for the good guys to do nothing," Axiom chirps, a flicker of blue washing over him. Endless hope and faith in this one. "The um...higher ups aren't getting directly involved yet unless he does something big or Circe or Enchantress c-c-causes trouble again," he adds, frowning at the sky again a moment. That was at least what he'd been told.

When asked about what he feels, Axiom just shifts awkwardly. "It's...complicated," he says, not even sure of it himself. "But well...I can't go after Magneto directly b-but I know a couple mutant shelters and clinics that could use some help with financial stuff if you're looking for somewhere to start."

Kilroy says, "Yeah, that's a tempting thing right? I mean in the right time and place I could make everyone on Earth billionaires....My grandfather warned me about the Weimar...but he warned me about flying too....Grandfather was awesome....he was also sometimes wrong. I need to increase the amount of wealth I create in the world...hell, my monetary skills alone can do more than flying around hitting morons with Rai stones....So yes Axiom, if you need money for anything, just ask." He creates two thousand dollars in a wad of cash from thin air,"its not like I have a shortage. Now that the curse is broken I think it best to NOT use magically created money for magical causes...no more invisible Rai stones anymore, but I happen to have billions squirreled away of the real stuff, so I can make the shelters and clinics funded to the gills. Hell...you know heroes with more clout than I do..if we could tap even a TENTH of Genosha's frozen billions it would do titanic good. And piss off Magneto. Sure I could move it myself...but I couldn't do it invisibly any more. I'm TRYING ...more or less...to follow the rules at this point."

Axiom snickers a little. "Thanks but there are people out there that need the money more than me. My boyfriend is umm...well off," Axiom blushes furiously at that. "I was thinking more along the lines of just teaching them b-better money skills and helping them through red tape stuff but h-however you want to help," he says. "I'll see who I can talk to and," he pauses, taking his phone from his belt as it gives the 'alarm!' chime. "Oh...umm...speaking of smacking m-morons, I have to go stop the Shocker," he says, slipping his phone away. "I'll see you later."