Slow and Speedy Win the Fight

45. Debut

Haresa

Sheldon looked so shocked that day as he ran away from the cafeteria with puffed-up cheeks and red ears. I didn't think he could be that embarrassed before.

At the same time, I saw the boy cry a few times and I didn't think he had emotions aside from being a prick, evil gloating, and "leave me alone I want to be angsty" before he returned.

For the past week, Sheldon had been avoiding Rudra entirely and Rudra had been bugging me on any information I had about the villain. I refused to admit that I told Sheldon Rudra's not-so-secret feelings as I didn't want to make things more complicated than they were. If Rudra knew, he would probably chew me out and rant about the flow of romance and whatnot.

Sheldon hadn't appeared today and I didn't really think much about it. He did that sometimes so I continued on with my day as per usual. Maybe he was moving into his new place.

I checked my phone sneakily, to avoid the supervising gaze of Mr. Dunson. The hero app didn't show anything and I shoved it back into my hoodie pocket.

"Raise your hand for the movie you want to watch most next week. Don't put your hand up for both, okay?" Mr. Dunson said and some of the club members nodded in understanding. "Raise your hand if you want to watch Mulan?"

I raised my hand with a few others.

"Little Mermaid?"

Other hands got raised.

"Looks like we'll be watching Mulan." Mr. Dunson clasped his hands together.

My phone blared and I quickly took it out. A large notification took up my screen and I clicked on it and it took me to the details of the alert. A robbery was in progress and it seemed to be for the nearby pharmacy.

"So sorry, Mr. Dunson. Looks like duty calls." I immediately pulled off my hoodie to reveal the neon yellow cycling shirt. "Rudra, could you take care of my stuff?"

"I gotcha! Go kick ass!"

I took out my card and swiped it over the metal bracelet, letting it fall to the floor. I opened the window and jumped out, ready to face whatever villain that was waiting for me.

When I arrived at the scene, there were a few reporters and paparazzi buzzing in excitement. The small crowd surrounded the pharmacy behind caution tape and the sign on it read "Min's Pharmacy" with red and blue letters.

I slowly approached the crowd, unsure of how to bypass them without using my powers.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

"Ah! The co-star of the evening!" One man exclaimed and approached me with the camera tucked under his arm.

My eyebrows furrowed and I looked the man up and down. I swore I saw him before. That was when my eyes flicked up to his face again as the memory surged back.

"Oh, uh. Funny seeing you here."

"Would you like to not see me?" He asked and immediately vanished before reappearing again.

"Oh, haha. I see what you did." I paused. "Or didn't see?"

He snorted. "Go and take your place. The longer we wait the more time and money we're wasting for some small-time villain's debut."

"Oh, um, thanks, uhhh..."

"Craig Cryptly." He adjusted the camera so it would rest on his shoulder. "Don't step on my toes while you two duke it out by the way. It's hard getting good shots while carrying a heavy and expensive camera."

"Okay, nice... meeting you again?"

He gave a nod and I began making my way through the crowd. There was a small group of people in white coats and I approached them.

"Hi there, could you please tell me what's going on here?" I asked them.

"Well, we were working and someone came in and said that we no longer had to worry about working as he was taking the pharmacy to himself." One worker explained.

"I'll get a handle on the situation soon. Don't worry—"

"Wait, they have Andrea in there!" Another person exclaimed.

"Is Andrea a co-worker?"

As if on cue, the pharmacy's doors flung open and there was a woman texting on her phone with one hand while the other was held behind her back by a person in a full hazmat suit get-up.

"You can let go of me. I'm not going to do anything." The woman who I assume is Andrea said in annoyance. "I don't get paid enough to act scared for some pharmacy chain's promotional stunt."

She forcefully broke off the grip began to walk towards the crowd to reach safety all while grumbling under her breath.

I ducked under the tape and began making my way towards the suited figure.

"Hi there, I'm Haresa. I heard there was a disturbance in the area and had to see things for myself."

There was no response. The closer I got to the hazmat figure, the more eerily silent the figure was. After a few more steps I noticed music coming from the figure. It sounded like... a banjo?

A robotic voice began to sing. "Oh, MacDonald had a pharm. Ee-I-ee-I-Oh. And on this pharm, he had a—"

The figure exploded and multiple rubber-like chains wrapped around me. They bound my limbs and I fell onto the ground from the spectacle.

"Hare."

Sheldon stood in front of me, picking off bits of the remaining hazmat suit off his clothes. The collar of his turtle neck was larger and covered the bottom half of his face and he wore a hard-shelled green backpack to match. He even wore what seemed to be mechanic's gloves. His glasses were tinted green, obscuring his eyes from the world and I couldn't even read his expression. Judging from the mechanical-sounding laugh coming from him, he was pleased with himself.

"Why oh why, hello," Sheldon said in rhythm to the song. His voice was clearly different due to some sort of voice changer. "I didn't think you would be the hero to face off with me today."

I sighed internally. Looks like we'll have to pretend we don't know each other for spectacle's sake.

"You're up to something, aren't you?" Of course, he was but what else would I have said?

"No, I'm just doing my chores for the evening." There wasn't a hint of sarcasm to my surprise. "It seems someone left a dead rabbit on my doorstep and I have to clean up the mess."

There was a mixture of cheers and boos in the background. I'm betting people at this point had formed their opinion on Sheldon at this point since he got a strong reaction from the crowd. It wasn't a surprise since this wasn't his first time but most people probably didn't know that.

"I'm not dead yet, villain." I spat out, trying not to sound as robotic as his voice changer. "What should I call you?"

"Sheldon is just fine." The sound of explosives went off in the distance. I couldn't see his face but with the way his head moved, I could tell he was smiling. "Looks like it's ready."