To Be a Hero

"Epilogue"

Cara was worried. There could be a wide variety of reasons why.

First of all was this new hero on the scene. The poor guy had been getting dragged by most of the LPD, just because of his powers ever since he showed up. It's not like he could choose his power, and he did a better job at catching criminals than they did. They were probably jealous. Or they couldn't put their personal biases aside. They weren't big Technoblade fans either come to think of it, they hadn't been when he showed up, they weren't now. Maybe their biases were against heroes in general. Maybe they were jealous after all. Just recently there had been a raid by Technoblade and some associates on a couple of warehouses that were thought to be abandoned. Details were sparse, but one thing everyone knew now was that Schlatt was dead. He'd been found in one of his underground facilities Police had found after hearing about Technoblade's appearance. Several henchmen were also arrested.

She walked through the station, heading to where the detective offices were. Most of the officers ignored her, but some shot her dirty looks. Probably because of her general support of the city's heroes. Not to mention that she'd told off the actual sheriff on the local reality show a little while back. He hadn't been too happy about that, but it wasn't her fault his argument was flawed.

The second was her sons. Clay had been coming home with bruises and such more often the last couple of weeks. They'd talked about getting in fights, but to be fair it was usually from defending his friend George. She didn't know the boy's past, but he seemed very prone to attracting muggers and other violent people. Yesterday Clay had asked if George could stay at their house for a while, since he had nowhere else to go other than Nick's house. And she of course said yes, but she planned on asking questions. Clay was notorious for keeping secrets, and normally she'd respect that, but she at least wanted some answers so she could understand the situation and help George more. He was a good kid, and she had always been worried that he came from an abusive household, with his timid demeanor, The way he flinched at loud noises or raised voices, how he seemed to stay over at his friends' houses more than his own. He was practically a son to her at this point...She didn't want to push him or Clay about the situation but she wanted to be able to do more to help him.

Then, there was her youngest, Foolish. Though she worried about him for different reasons. He was going to high school next year, which in itself worried her. High school was scary, she remembered her own experience. She knew there was probably nothing to worry about, but she still couldn't help having that in the back of her mind. Not to mention she could tell he was keeping secrets of his own. Call it mother's intuition. She didn't want to pry into his life either, and respect his privacy, like with Clay and George, but she wished that he'd confide in her sometimes. But if she learned anything from Clay, and herself when she was younger, teenagers needed their space, so she didn't bug him about it. He'd come to her if it was anything important, right?

Ah, her mind was wandering again...she stopped by where the coffee machine was, but just grabbed the pitcher of water that was by it, grabbing a plastic cup and filling it before resuming her walk.

The third thing, or rather person, that was swirling around her mind was Bad, an ironic name if you knew him. He was a friend of hers, a fellow detective on the force. He was older than her by a few years, but they'd become fast friends on her first day, offering her some "welcome muffins" he'd baked himself. Apparently it was a tradition of his. Now, Bad himself wouldn't be cause for her concern. He was friendly with everyone, chastised men several times bigger than him for their language, and got excited whenever he saw a cute animal. No, what worried her was his sudden absence. He hadn't shown up to work the last few days, with no notice whatsoever. He was a dedicated person, and he cared about every case that he took on. It wasn't like him to just stop showing up.

So many worries, so little time... she thought to herself, chuckling weakly, though it wasn't really funny. Bad had mentioned he'd been looking into an interesting case last week..but he was scarce on details, either because he wanted to keep it secret or he didn't know any. Maybe that had something to do with it? She hoped not. The last thing she wanted was for him to be in danger.

She shook her head as she walked down the hallway, passing her office. Stay positive Cara... Bad's office was at the end of the hall, and she wanted to see if there were any clues, just to see if anything would be helpful, and hopefully put her worries at ease. No one else seemed that worried. He might have taken a few mental health days. He could be on vacation. But Bad would have known she would worry if he didn't tell anyone he was doing so. And he hadn't. So that probably wasn't it...but she could hope at least.

She pushed the door open slowly. It creaked, and she stuck her head in. It was dark, and when she turned the light on, everything looked pretty orderly. Bad was always neat. She looked around his desk, but nothing popped out that much. There was a picture of Bad and his friend Skeppy on his desk, a pencil cup by it. There were some papers in a neat pile by the computer, but none of those were anything of importance at the moment.

She started looking through the drawers then, and while the top drawers had nothing, the bottom right drawer bore fruit. A manilla folder. As Cara picked it up, reading the words COLD CASE stamped on the front, scanning through the contents with wide eyes. This case hadn't been open for over a decade, before she had joined, after an incident involving two of the detectives working the case and no suspects were named or arrested. It had been widely accepted that it had gone dormant, and the remaining detective who'd been on the case had retired early only a few months after the case had gone cold. Bad had been looking into it after all these years? Why? Maybe he hadn't believed it was as dormant as everyone thought? This case in particular only pushed her suspicion that It must have something to do with his disappearance. After all, the cult they had been investigating over ten years ago were suspected of the disappearances of several people. She tightened her grip on the folder, walking to the door then down the hallway to her own office.

I'll find you Bad... She thought to herself

The name of the cult, the subject of the case, bounced around in her mind as she set the file on her desk, sitting down and opening it. This was her case now, and she was going to figure out whatever was going on with it if it was the last thing she did. So, she got to studying old leads on the case, getting accustomed to the name of the infamous cult from over a decade ago.

The Eggpire...