Note: Sheldon as a kid will be referred to with she/her pronouns via the perspective of Haresa as a kid. A lot of the flashbacks will be using the pronouns the characters used as kids because they haven't fully worked out their gender identities or had come out at that time. If this makes any uncomfy, this is your heads up.

Haresa

It was never easy to be the only child hero in the city. My worries and fears were completely different from other kids.

Regular kids had to worry about creepy men giving away candy in a big white van.

On the other hand, I had to constantly worry about being accidentally held hostage in a robbery.

There were zip ties around my wrists and it was uncomfortably pressed up against my back. I grunted as I wriggled around while trying to seem as calm as possible. Seemed like I wouldn’t be able to get out of this bind easily. There was an adult next to me tied up as well but she seemed uninterested by the whole ordeal. It seemed like it was a regular occurrence to her.

“What’s with the twerp?” The gruff voice of one of the perpetrators called out to the other.

“I’m not a twerp!” My whine was loud and annoying enough to make the man wince.

He scowled. “How old are you kid?”

“I’m turning twelve in three months!”

“You’re still a twerp then.”

“Hey!”

“Enough. She’s going to make her appearance soon. We need to get into our place and make sure we’re in character,” another man barked.

“Why the hell do we have to wear these stupid-looking hats?” The first guy was holding up a weird-looking helmet. It was gold and it was shaped like the top half of an egg.

They definitely seemed like henchmen and not villain masterminds.

“It’s not only good looking but it’s also safety equipment.”

“It’s spray-painted gold with cardboard. You’d think we’d at least have something with better craftmanship–”

“Silence.”

A woman stood in front of the group with white wings stretched out from her sides and she was wearing a white and black bodysuit with gold accents. She had a gold mask with feather details covering her eyes and her lips were smeared orange. Her hair black and white hair was tied into a bun, probably to avoid it getting tangled with her wings.

“Oh my god, not you again.” I groaned loudly.

“Excuse me?!” Her mouth was open in outrage. “Do you not know I am one of the greatest villains in the area? I am Goosette!”

“Then why don’t any of your plans succeed?” A henchman muttered which prompted an elbow jab.

I let out an irritated sigh and lift my arms over my head before placing them in my lap.

“Holy crap, how did the kid do that?” A henchman gasped.

“I dunno, I heard my teacher say that I had to be double-jointed or something. It’s like my superpower.”

“Very funny kid.” Goosette narrowed her eyes at me. “Do I know you?”

“Haresa.”

“I don’t recall still.”

I tilted my head to the side. “The hero.”

“I know many heroes.” She flipped a strand of dark hair over her shoulder.

 “The one made in a lab?”

“There are many lab people.”

“The one that you fought at city hall.”

She shifted her weight to her other leg with her head tilted upwards in thought. “Hmmm… I don’t remember.”

Seriously? I scrunched up my nose. “I destroyed your makeup?”

“OH MY GOD, IT’S YOUUUUU.”

“Anyways, just monologue bird lady. We’re having pizza tonight at my place and I don’t want to miss it. Nothing is worse than cold pizza.”

“Not like a brat like you would understand the art of supervillainy,” Goosette scoffed.

“I’m not a brat.”

“Shut up, I’m talking!”

I rolled my eyes. She was probably going to forget me again.

“As I was saying,” she cleared her throat. “Blanc Enterprises is the perfect place to not only get publicity but to release a toy line! I’ve been recently seeing toys of this little Asian girl hero in yellow clothing selling like hotcakes. Why would children want to play with someone so ordinary-looking when they can have–”

She paused to give a dramatic flap of her wings and posed with her arms in the air.

“A beautiful figurine of me?”

I blinked. “It’s because you’re old.”

“I am very young!”

“How old are you?”

“I am twenty-two plus seven years.”

“You’re thirty?”

“No! I am not thirty yet! I told you that I am twenty-two plus seven years.”

I furrowed my eyebrows in thought. I don’t like math. “That’s so old.”

“You little brat–”

“Pardon, but you said you wanted to get an action figure?” A woman beside me asked.

“Yes.”

“We have an online form that you can fill out if you wanted to do that. We are in full support of creating toys for little heroes and villains especially for holiday sets–”

“Who has time for forms? I want a toy made right now!”

I chewed on the zip tie with my teeth as I watched the exchange. How do I end up as a hostage so often? I thought people would recognize me as a hero at this point.

“You do know that production takes up to three years depending on the production and budget. Not to mention the amount of time for samples and–”

“I will have my toy line! Blanc will just have to surrender to me or else everyone in this building will face very sudden deaths. My little eggheads, find the rest of the people in the building and gather them here.”

“These are all the people in the building.”

“Only two people?”

“Yes, it’s a holiday ma’am.”

“Then why is this brat here?”

“She was just picking up some paperwork and I was going to close the building for the evening so I could head home and relax for the day.”

I didn’t even see her at the desk earlier. I just saw my papers there like the person on the phone had told me.

“Are you done monologuing?” I looked to Goosette expectedly.

“Yes, thank you for asking.”

“Good.”

I pull my wrists apart and the zip tie breaks immediately. I jump to my feet and ready myself into the fighting stance.

“That kid really just chewed through the plastic.” A henchman said with wide eyes.

“And you did nothing to stop her!” Goosette squawked. “Go and hold down that child!”

Before he could turn to face me, I was already behind him. My foot connected to the back of his head, sending his body crashing to the ground. He laid there limply but luckily there was no blood. The helmet seemed to have come in handy.

“What are you standing around for? Get her!”

Goosette screeched the order at the remaining henchman and he sighed.

“Excuse me, while I fly to the top of the building and let the adoring cameras pay attention to me! Do not mess this up.” Goosette then flew out of the window, which left the henchman alone with me.

“Look, I don’t want to do this,” he whispered to me quietly. “Can you pretend to hit me and then I dramatically faint or something like that?”

“Hm, sure. Makes my job easier too.”

I prepared myself to give him a light kick when there was an explosion.

Rubble littered the floor and a small silhouette could be seen in the dust. When it died down, the familiar ponytail was accompanied by a green and brown uniform. The outline of a greenish-brown forcefield could be seen before it slowly blinked out of existence.

“Shelly?!”

“Thank you for the greeting, hare. Unfortunately, I’m not here for you today.” Shelly wiped the dust off the side of her face. My eyes instantly went to the turtle patterned bandage on her cheek.

“What is with the commotion! You are ruining my on-screen ti–Hey!”

Just as Goosette had flown in to be immediately trapped in one of Shelly’s forcefields. The henchman that was standing next to me was also put into one of Shelly’s forcefields. He sighed and immediately took his phone out of his pocket. He began to type on it and Goosette reacted with muffled screeching.

“You cannot cage this bird!” Goosette flapped her wings angrily as she pounded the forcefield with a fist.

“I just did.”

“Well… there goes my desk. I better get reimbursed for that.” I heard the woman muttered.

“By hero’s code, I can’t just let you destroy a building without any consequences.”

“Hero code, shmero code. You haven’t beaten me yet, hare. Slow and steady has always won the race.” The eleven-year-old looked me dead in the eyes and I couldn’t help feel slightly intimidated by her stare.

“W-well, I won’t give up!”

“You never do, do you?”

She took a step forward and something dropped from her bag. It landed on the ground noisily and my eyes widened. It was a syringe.

“Kid, did you just steal the syringes from the basement?”

“Um…. My creator would call it borrowing with no intention of returning it.”

“Well, looks like we’ll have to reschedule the free vaccination event then.” The woman seemed very irritated and seemed to be thinking about it intensely.

“I’ll get back your syringes lady!” I put my hands into fists, ready to fight.

“I guess we’re really doing this.” She sighed and stretched an arm over her head. “Come at me, speedy. I don’t have all day.”

She used up three forcefields so far already… she should only have three forcefields left.

I ran.

She flicked her hand in my direction. I jumped onto the ceiling and hopped down just as swiftly. I glanced up and saw a forcefield stuck on the ceiling.

Four used.

I felt the air crackle around me. I ran away.

That’s five now.

I looked forward. The air was crackling in front of me and I realized what was happening. Not this time.

I jumped upwards. The forcefield formed and I found myself comfortably standing on top of it.

Six!

“Haha! I got you now, slowpoke!”

I lunged towards her with a stretched leg. She stared back at me but something shifted in her eyes. She held up her hand with a smirk. That was when I felt my foot hit a wall.

“Lucky number seven.”

“That’s not fair! You were supposed to have six not seven! Come back here and fight me like a real tortoise!” I pouted and kicked the forcefield again. Despite the forcefields looking like it was made up of hexagonal bricks, the forcefield was as sturdy as a cemented brick wall.

“Well, I recently learned how to create seven shields total now. Not my fault that I just am better than you.” Shelly gave me a shrug. “Bye, Haresa. It was fun playing with you. If I had any control over our situations, we'd never see each other again.”

I didn’t think much about that moment. She really did mean it when she said bye. This was the last time I saw her. She seemed to have vanished out of thin air. I never thought I would have ever seen her again.

She seemed so happy skipping out of the room with her bag of syringes. In retrospect, what the hell would a kid do with a ton of syringes?

No matter how many questions I had, they wouldn’t get answered at that moment.