Daredevil: Civil War

Chapter 6: War Machine

It was back to work in DC. It seemed every day that the crowd that gathered around us on our way to court seemed to grow bigger and bigger everyday. I could feel every emotion of anger, hate, and disgust in the people. They threw apples and even a knife at some point. Men...women....children...everyone thought we were in support of murder. It was the last day in court for us, we had to make a strong case.

The prosecution was awkwardly silent during the testimony of a construction worker whose family was saved by the fantastic four, while in the process having his entire construction site destroyed. Something was off..... "Your honor, we have one final witness we'd like to call to the stand." The judge motioned to the witness stand "by all means, go ahead." I looked over to the prosecution, he seemed oddly confident. What in gods name is going on? "The prosecution would like to call Colonel James Rhodes to the stand." Holy. Crap. How did they get a hold of him? I thought he was serving in Afghanistan. James walked in the court with his suit on. He took it off when he went towards the witness stand. Unlike tony, James didn't need the suit for his chest, he wore it for his job in the army. Almost all of the recent victories over seas in the last few months were all because of him and his suit. The prosecutor started "Now James....how do you fall on the sides of this bill?" James looked at his suit, then back to the prosecutor "I'm signing up. It's a duty to my country and my nation. I've never seen a bill so monumental, so controversial....when we all know that it's right. Why don't we need to sign with the government? I already have with my time in the service, and I understand everything that this bill wants. It's like the gun bill. We can't just let random people grab a gun and start firing off, no matter what their intentions are, just like we can't let a random kid put on a suit and say he's a hero. We need to license and register these people into the United States government." Ouch. I don't think we can recover from a testimony like that. Foggy looked at me. He seemed to give of an aura of 'we are screwed big time'. But the prosecutor wasn't done. Maybe he'd make a mistake. "Was there ever a time where you've seen superheroes gone to far? Where they took to destruction for their own fun?" James thought for a moment. Even I knew war machine was part of that problem. Even people like iron man and spider man have taken their anger out on the populace at some point in their careers. "There have been some" sighed James "but they haven't been attempts on the populace. They simply were mad, and started to let it out on buildings and cars and aliens. We owe these heroes a lot, but they owe us more." The courtroom was abuzz with chatter about the supposed owed amount. "The prosecution has no more questions your honors." He walked away slowly, as if trying to say "your move slick." Man was that a tough 10 minutes. I had no idea how to follow that up. "Mr. Murdock, your cross examination." I can't even come up with something to talk to him about. He's got an airtight part. "Um......" is all I can make out. Foggy whispers over to me "I don't think we have anything to turn his ideas on their heads. We should just move on." I thought about this for a second...if I didn't have any questions for him as Matt Murdock, maybe I did as daredevil. "No cross examination needed your honor." The justices looked surprised. "Well....ok then. You are free to go Mr. Rhodes" James left with a soldiers salut and hoped back into his suit. The prosecution had rested, and so did I. It was time to ask James the real questions.

(I know kind of short. The whole "asking James questions" thing will be down in the war machine civil war book. That way you'll have to read both if you want the full story. It is currently in the works so you'll have to wait. Hope you've all enjoyed the book so far!)