9 - History
“Let’s not go there” I gave him a small smile that I didn’t really mean or put effort into. Ancient history, Ha, doesn’t feel that ancient. Call it what it really is, trauma, that’s what he meant. Hell, I was past it but somethings you never get over. My ‘history’ with metas and masks, almost killed me. It broke my heart and a lot of bones. Stark knew my rules and where they came from. I don’t work meta cases. And I don’t talk about her, about Julia. But I couldn’t get mad at him. Stark really/truly cared but he didn’t know the whole story, I couldn’t tell him. tell anyone for that matter, And when I say that. I mean I’m not allowed to. That story is burrowed deep in some D.O.D vault guarded by a forest of red tape, top secret beyond black. Stark had read my service record, the non-redacted one. He knew I lost someone and that I blamed myself. Classic survivors guilt I’m told. Call it whatever you want.But this wasn’t it. This case was not about me. I could help with this. Couldn’t hurt, right? “If you ever want to talk. About her. About anything. I’m alway here. You know that right?”“Yeah. yeah” I remembered Julia. “Thanks”. I said and gave him a honest smile and meant it.
“About the case” I said, wanting to change to the subject “Can’t tell you anything you don’t already know, not really. But we can solve this we’re not half bad you know” I took a sip of my coffee, realizing it had gone cold.“Yeah I know, I just hoped you knew more about him, thought you knew who he was” He said rubbing his forehead,“Is that what this is? You thought that I knew who he was and that I’d tell? Give up his identity. You know how dangerous that is. Illegal too” I responded, surprised.“I know the rules” he replied “You aren’t above breaking a few”“Bending” I corrected. “Well I don’t know. So there, but we can do without” I said honestly.
The rules Stark was talking about was the Masked Hero Act. You see the rules in our state, our city, is a bit different than in the rest of country. The masked heroes patrolling our city are important. Not for security, not really. Don’t get me wrong, they do good and make people feel safe. No if you ask me the good they do is probably matched by the bad they attract. The freaks that hound our city looking for a challenge. But that is not it, Millenium City IS the city of heroes. People come from all over to watch the metas in bright colors fly through the skyline. We need them, we can’t be Millenium City without them. So the city passed the Masked Hero Act back in the 80ties. It makes life a bit harder for people like Stark and myself. The law, in the words of our illustrious politicians, is there to “protect the privacy of the individual that choose to wear a mask and protect our great city”.
Basically it means powered vigilantism was legalised and has been legal for over 20 years. It means that all criminal cases involving masks and metas goes to the Major Crimes taskforce. It also made it illegal to run fingerprints or blood from masked heroes, only F.A.T.E agents can do that. Meaning that it is illegal to reveal the identity of superheroes. Makes cases like this very delicate. Stark didn’t want to lose his job, get sued or worse. He was a cop, a good one. Real police. above all he wanted to solve this thing. I knew the mystery gnawed at him as much as it did me. I could help, screw my self imposed rules and pity. A man was dead.“How can I help? Anything. Just don’t make me do something super illegal” I said
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