I spent more than a week looking into that video and its contents. The name Mysteria was almost too popular among stage performers, magicians, mystics and fortune tellers, so it took quite some time to sift through those, but in the end, I failed to find anyone resembling the girl from that video. I even tried the face recognition software I had at hand, but there was no trace of the girl online. I have however found an incomplete record of an incident, that closely matched the scene depicted in the movie. A concerned citizen had reported the scene pretty much in the same way as it happened, but when the patrol arrived, there was no sign of a body, shooter or even a bullet casing, like it never happened in a first place.
As for the cop who was tailing the girl -- it was even harder to try and find out anything about him. Even though he was one of two main protagonists in that video, his face was covered in shadow almost entire time and there was not much else to work with. Even his uniform did not match the one that should be worn by the cops from the report. In fact, I was not able to find out any city that had cops dressed precisely like this. It looked more like mash up of few different uniforms, some kind of archetypal police wardrobe and I added it up to creative license. The filmmaker probably just made it up.
But so far, the video was my only lead and I tried to pick up some clues I've might missed the first time I watched it. Though I was in the streets during most of my days, trying to help people and prevent crimes, I have found time each evening to watch it one or two times, but I was still none the wiser about what its purpose was. At least I've got used to the weird static noise and flashing letters, so it did not bother me that much when I went for re-watch. It was mostly a waste of my hi-tech home media system, but at least I could do my crime fighting research from my comfy chair. Only problem was that I was stuck and needed more evidence.
From what my sources told me; cops were struggling the same way. Every time they arrived at the crime scene too late; it was already cleared out and if they found the same calling card as me, there was no one who would be able to deduce anything useful from the file. Then again, I was still not sure if they have found the same recording and I could not exactly ask them about it. My cover identity was a marketing analyst, which helped me get steady salary and kept me under the radar, but at the same time, there was hardly a thing I could do to get in cops good graces.
I had to hope that those thieves would make a mistake, but so far, they proved to be extremely competent and streak of robberies continued. I had my hands full most of the time. During last week alone I was able to stop a gas leak, returned a lost child, saved a guy stuck in a sewer and was shot by bank robbers. And whatever others tell you, do not believe them. Being shot at is a pretty unpleasant feeling even though small caliber bullets do not hurt me that much. They do leave some bruises and luckily the robbers did not have any really powerful weapons. There was only one instance of jewel theft, but the patrol got there before me and I could only watch from the roof.
It was almost like the culprits had someone on the inside and were able keep a step ahead of both the police and me. But I knew everyone made mistakes and I would be ready for them as soon as they slipped up. In the meantime, there was enough work for me to do around the city. Even when there were no crimes, someone with powers like mine could always help people who got into dangerous situations.
"Defender! Defender! Defender!" crowd was shouting all around me when I rescued couple of people from hideous car crash just in time before it all caught fire.
I have never been doing this superhero thing to be celebrated, but times like these felt extremely good, because I was making a difference. I gave them my signature salute and moved away as the fire truck and medics moved in as there was no more need for my skills. However, I did just get a warning signal in my earpiece. Apparently, there was robbery in progress and it was going on right now only two blocks away from my current location. This was my chance to get them and I wouldn't let it slip through my hands. I was strong, fast and still felt great after my last stunt.
There was no movement at the location and I immediately got frustrated. Was it possible, that they already cleared the place out and went away? I got the warning even before the cops did, so there was no reason for them to be alarmed. But the inside of store was completely empty and there was nobody to be seen. After a quick sweep, I finally noticed someone moving away through a back alley and I jumped ahead to block their exit. The figure stopped in the shade of covered passageway and I was only barely able to discern a slim frame of a person standing in a defensive position.
"So, you are the Defender, right?" a rich woman's voice came out of the shadow.
"Yes, that is who I am and you should know, there is no use for running."
"They say you can outrun a car, punch through a brick wall and bullets don't hurt you at all."
"All of that is true, so you can see how it would be very stupid for you to try and run away."
She sighed heavily and took two steps towards me, which finally got me a good look at who I was dealing with. She was dressed in a tightly fitted black overalls -- pretty handy if you needed to move freely say during robbery, but somehow her amazing figure made this outfit look attractive. There was a small bag in her hand, but nothing that would really fit all the jewels from the store. Speaking of jewelry, she was wearing something shiny around her neck, but it was still too far from me to discern. Her raven-black hair was tied back in a ponytail, so I could get a good look at her face and it took me only a split of a second before I realized something.
"Aren't you the girl from the video?" I spoke before I could stop myself.
"You have seen my movie?" she sounded surprised, but at the same time I noticed something else in her tone. A hint of pride maybe?
"I did, would you mind telling me why it was found in a crime scene very much resembling one you are running from right now?"
"I am not running at all, sir. Quite the opposite," she took few more steps closer to me and slowly stroked her neck.
"There is no point in running, so answer my question."
"Of course I will, mister Defender. But would you mind answering something for me first? How many times did you see my movie?"
"Five, maybe seven times," I low-balled the number because it suddenly felt weird to admit watching it more.
"Oh, does it mean you are my fan now?" she smirked.
"That is enough, time for my questions now."
"Sure, sir. I will answer everything truthfully, just ask your questions," she moved even closer and fiddled with the pendant on her neck. It closely resembled the one from her movie and it was catching light in a very interesting way.
"Would you mind telling me, why are you fleeing the crime scene?"
"Are you sure that is what I was doing?" reflection of her amulet shone into my eyes. "I was just in a hurry, trying to get home."
"It still looks very suspicious, no one else was around the store when it got robbed."
"But that isn't really any evidence of a crime, is it?" another flash.
"It is not," she was right of course and I tried to get my thoughts in order. "But your movie was already found on previous crime scenes. You do not find that odd?"
"It is movie I am starring in, not my movie. Anyone could have left that there. Did you maybe consider someone trying to frame me?"
"Frame you?" I frowned because that notion was not very convincing. "Why would they bother to do that?"
"I don't know, sir. You are the one investigating this crime, maybe you could try to look into it. I mean, you don't really have any direct evidence against me, do you?" she took another step closer and I could clearly see her pendant now -- it had the same symbol as in the movie.
"No, I don't have any direct evidence against you," everything was purely circumstantial at this point.
"See and even the things that currently point to me could not really be considered evidence at all, right?"
"Yeah, they are not really evidence," I nodded, because those things would be probably useless at the court. I did steal the recording from the crime scene in the first place.
