Slow and Speedy Win the Fight

102. Ignore

Sheldon

NOTICE OF KIDNAPPING

To the hero, Haresa (and the villainous sidekick Sheldon),

As per legislation 4.5.ii, I have to let you know that I kidnapped Rudra and will keep him hostage until he gives us the location of the glasses or until Sheldon willingly hands over the project he's been working on for months. I know he'll have a spare key somewhere so hand it over and your friend will be returned with no harm done whatsoever. More details are in the following pages.

Cordialement,

Reynard

I crumpled the paper in my fist and was about to rip it in half before Haresa plucked it from my hands to skim through the pages.

"We'll also need to submit this to the agencies so it wouldn't be a good idea to destroy this," Haresa muttered. Whether they were speaking to me or themself was unclear but I responded anyway.

"He called me a villainous sidekick."

Haresa didn't blink. "It'll be the perfect chance for you to hash it out with your ex then."

They sat down on their chair before they took out a notebook from their desk drawer and began to jot down notes from Reynard's notice.

While I had glimpses of Haresa's room before, it was the first time that I had a proper look at it. I thought it would be far more barren but it was messier than I expected. Clothes were draped on the end of their unmade bed, random gadgets seemed to gather on their bedside table, and a combination of instant pictures and posters of other heroes hung on their wall.

I had imagined their room to be neat, and plain. Maybe even boring. I knew they were always on the "side of justice" and always going out trying to save the day but seeing their room it just felt like they weren't as up top of things as someone would expect from a hero.

"He wants us to meet him at one of Webspun's buildings. This one seems to be located in the suburbs," Haresa said.

I let out a ragged sigh and ran a hand through my hair. That place. It had to be that place.

Haresa's head whipped to me and seemed to have noticed my discontent. "Do you know something about this place?"

I shook my head. "No. I mean. Yes. But it's not useful information."

"Care to share anyway? Maybe there's something useful still even if you don't think it," they said.

My mind flashed back to the last time I was at the Webspun building. The cold and dim rooms. The meaningless talks that the creator and the odd man had together. Their plans involved me at the time.

My mouth formed a line and I closed my eyes to collect my thoughts.

"I was there a few times because the creator needed to do business with the CEO, I don't know if it's still the same guy," I said. "Demetri Ragno was his name if I remember."

"Why did you have to come with your creator?"

I shook my head. "Because he sucks. Anyways, what details do you want that you think could help?"

"Building layout, maybe," they said. "Stairs, elevators, vents maybe but I'd rather not travel through vent. Vents are dusty and are hard to navigate."

"There was a special key the creator had that allowed him to take a private elevator to Ragno's office directly and then back. I didn't spend much time exploring the place since they stuck me in the corner of the office with a tablet while they talked to themselves."

"How often were you there?" They asked.

"Probably three times but it felt like I wasn't there at all," I said. "They tended to ignore me if I wasn't doing anything deemed noteworthy enough."

Haresa seemed troubled by my answer and seemed to write something down in their notebook.

I closed my eyes and rubbed the heels of my hands against my forehead while tilting my head back.

"Okay." I let my hands fall to my sides. "We're definitely going to be split up early on. It's the standard tactic. Reynard will want to fight me since he thinks he'll be able to take me down easily and can team up with Carabao to take you down. I may have ranted about you to him a few times but I never described how I managed to defeat you as kids."

Haresa nodded before they leaned their head backward so they could meet my gaze. "Then we should have you meet up with Carabao."

"No, I wouldn't be able to escape him as fast as you do."

"But he can slow down time."

"Which is why we need to distract him," I said. "He seems to have a limit on what he can slow down. Like one or two things at a time."

"And what's Reynard's weakness? We know he can teleport."

"That's the frustrating part, I didn't know how could do that until recently and I don't know his limits still."

"Then what do we do?" They asked.

I hesitated.

After a few seconds, my resolve hardened and I straightened my back.

"Surprise them. We got three days till we have to meet them. That's more than enough time to learn some tricks."