Slow and Speedy Win the Fight

84. Mask

Sheldon

It was finally the night when I actually had to be out on the field with Haresa. There was one issue though...

"Why do you have to wear that thing?" I asked them.

The blinding white fabric enveloped Haresa and the cape around their shoulders kept being blown from behind them before making its way into their face. Luckily their white mask seemed to protect them from looking cool so the cape slapping them in the face didn't look as stupid as it could've.

"Company said because I'm doing a team up with you, it was a good opportunity to match Blanc Enterprises' branding," they mumbled.

"Was that what you got in the mail today?" I asked them and they nodded. "You should've thrown it out and said it was lost in the mail."

"I know this was a ready-made outfit and not a custom-made one but it still goes around five thousand dollars alone and that's on the cheap side," Haresa mumbled. "I had no clue how it even got here this fast."

"You should've resold it for ten times the amount, Rudra told me that's a thing."

"Absolutely not, this is weapon-grade material."

"They still sell knives in stores, don't they? Those are weapons."

They gave me a "what the fuck" expression and decided to not respond to my comment.

"Strop messing around, we're here to work." They lightly slapped my arm, prompting me to mirror their action.

"I'll take you seriously when you aren't trying to be Blanc's clone."

"I'm not."

"Could've fooled me."

"Are you sure we can find anything here by the way?" Haresa asked. "It doesn't look like anyone has been here in ages."

We stood next to a dirt road and our building of interest was a worn down building in the distance that was missing a roof and the side of the wall was missing. It looked like it used to serve as a mini shopping mall.

"Of course, they haven't. If they were smart, they would've abandoned this place the moment they finished their business."

"Then what are we doing here?" They tugged at their newly donned costume.

"Finding their mistakes," I said.

We made our way to the mall. Haresa had attempted to use their super speed but tripped on their cape before taking a single step. I sighed and took out a stilyte metal shard from my bag. I yanked them back by the cape and before they could even react the fabric lay as a pile on the ground. I picked it up and wrapped it around my shoulders while they stared at me with their mouth hanging open.

"You ruined my costume! It's expensive!" They waved their arms wildly to emphasize their point.

"And now you're not a hazard to yourself," I pointed out. "If the company gets angry, just lie and say that it got damaged during the mission. If they're upset about how messed up it gets, say it was from battle or something."

"Why do you have so much stilyte on you?" Haresa said as they eyed my makeshift knife. "It's impossible to get."

"Focus," I said and pointed to the other side of the mall. "You check that side and I'll check the other."

They hesitated before reluctantly following my instructions. I found myself sweating from my own villain costume being pretty warm with the edition of the detached cape. Maybe I should've handed it back to them. I was going to put the shard away but I decided to just put it in my pocket just in case.

I trudged through the empty walkway and made my way into the first store without much thought. The remaining sign over the entrance was missing some letters and the remainder of the letters spelt out "E L E R S".

From what I could see it looked like it used to be a retail store as the leftover red lettering on the walls indicated that they used to have a men's, women's, and kid's section. The essential three genders of all retail stores.

This place was huge. It may take days before we could find anything wrong with this place.

I stepped into a pile of rubble and shook my foot. I swore out of the corner of my eye I saw a rat make a mad dash past me.

Not like this place wasn't off-putting enough already.

My hand protectively covered the watch on my wrist. If my watch broke right, I would lose my mind. I just finished repairing it and I didn't want to piece it back together again. I carefully took two steps forward and analyzed the area. It was so big, where should I even start looking?

"Did you find anything in here?"

My breath hitched in my throat and I spun around to see Haresa staring at me with their hands raised defensively.

"I finished doing my rounds. I even checked the other stores on your side before coming here."

My face puckered. "I know you have super speed but there was no way you did a thorough search in that amount of time."

"I've been doing this for years, Sheldon. Unlike you, I've improved in my heroing," they said.

"I would hope I didn't improve in any 'heroing.' It would conflict with my villain status," I shot back.

They pointed an accusatory finger at me. "And what have you found so far?"

"Nothing yet, it's only been," I looked at my watch. "Twenty minutes since we arrived here."

"That's like a lot of time. It's practically two hours."

"No!" I said, clearly distressed at this point. "It's not a lot of time!"

Haresa scoffed and seemed to take a quick look over the area and their shoulders slumped. "I don't really have the energy to search here. Is it alright if I take a five-minute break while you look around here?"

"Yeah, do whatever," I said with a finger pressing on my temple. "You might get in the way of my process anyways."

They didn't seem to take any offence to my statement as they walked to a corner. Their walk had a slight sway to it and I only sighed in resignation. I couldn't believe they got burnt out on using their power so quickly, they usually were bursting with nonstop energy when we were kids. At the same time, I lost my athletic ability so I suppose a decent amount of time had passed for significant changes to take place.

I was lost in my thoughts as my hand brushed the cash counter of the run-down store and a glimmer caught my eye.

A shiny metal plate was screwed down to the wall behind the counter and looked practically new. No dust, no dirt, and no rust like the other random metal found here. I grabbed my multitool from my bag and unfolded the screwdriver piece. I began to undo the screws and the thrum of my heart kept my hands moving at a steady pace.

The metal dropped to the ground and a devious smile broke out on my face.

"Haresa, I found something."