*** = listener speaking

Can be monetised, just please link back to either this post or my YouTube!

Gender(s) can be changed if wanted!

~~~

[metal/heavy door opens]

Good morning, sidekick. Did you sleep well?

I’ve brought you breakfast. I figured me delivering it this morning instead of one of my underlings would convince you not to try continuing your hunger strike.

I don’t want to have to force feed you again after all.

***

Ah, my bad. You still are against me calling you ‘sidekick’.

Don’t worry, I don’t mean it as you being my sidekick, unfortunately.

Though I also don’t mean it about you being that hero’s sidekick either…

I’m just calling you it like how you would call a doctor ‘doctor’ or a waitress ‘waitress’. That sort of thing.

But since you don’t want me to, I won’t.

Unlike that former hero partner of yours, I actually care about your comfort after all.

***

I may be willing to comply with your boundaries, but I will not stop my slander of that waste of space.

The fact you still wish to defend the hero system and that most stark piece of evidence of its corruption is… concerning.

Do you feel like you have to stick up for them? They’re not a childhood friend or something corny like that?

Because you need to pick better friends if they are – and that’s coming from someone who kidnapped you while simultaneously destroying the Heroes HQ.

***

I may not be as well-versed in friendship as you and all those other fakes who claim to be ‘good’ – not including you – but I know a bad relationship when I see it.

Again, coming from the person who has tricked and deceived many to serve their own purposes.

You’ve been here… what? 4 months?

The hero hasn’t once tried to come get you.

Nor has… anyone from the hero agency.

I’ll even let you review the tapes from around our lair here so you can confirm it.

I remember you dealing with that one minor retail thief that ended up being the retail owner when you were starting out, so I’m sure you’ll be able to tell if the footage is doctored or not.

***

If it had only been a few weeks, or even a whole month, sure, you could use the ‘they were recovering from the attack on the Hero HQ’ argument.

But it’s been four. Months.

You were the sidekick of the top hero in the country – one of the top heroes in the whole world.

You don’t think rescuing someone with that amount of status should be a priority?

***

You are no longer their sidekick.

Even if you stubbornly try to argue that you are, I shall make it clear now that I am not ever letting you ago outside of this lair, until I can fully trust that you are on my side.

You need to wake up and face reality.

They do not care about you.

They have abandoned you.

***

Ah…

My apologies. I did not mean to make you cry.

[speaker wipes away listener’s tears]

I just merely want you to see reality for what it is.

It pains me to see you defending someone who hurt you so much, both mentally and physically…

Even when I tried to get rid of that false hero, you would jump in the way of the attack when I barely had time to cancel or divert it.

While I admired your protective spirit, to see you ready to risk your own life, acting like it was the most natural thing for you to forfeit your life for the hero with such a dull look in yours eyes…

It made my boil.

You need to recognise your own worth. Your own kind soul that they have tried to twist to make you a sacrificial pawn.

***

Hey-

[listener starts attacking speaker; speaker blocks but doesn’t hit back]

You know it’s true. You-

Careful, now. I don’t want to have to pin you down.

[speaker chuckles]

You know, unlike that pathetic hero, you’re actually still pretty good at a fight when-

-When you’re angry.

Shouldn’t have said that, from the looks of it…

You’re still crying. You’re-

***

That’s the first time you’ve told me to shut up… it hurts a little.

[speaker stops blocking]

Alright; go ahead.

You want to hit me?

Hit me.

[listener attacks speaker for a while; the attacks eventually slow to a stop, and speaker pats listener on the head]

There you go… have you got your frustration out?

Ouch, you really did a number on me… let this be a lesson as to why I still need to defend myself, even if I’m far more durable than those ‘heroes’.

Not that I’d ever give them a chance like this.

***

[speaker chuckles]

You’re apologising to me?

Never thought I’d live to see the day the mighty hero’s sidekick would apologise to the ‘symbol of all evil’.

But don’t worry about it. I told you to hit me – if anything, I should be thanking you for finally listening to me.

***

Hey, hey. You didn’t do anything wrong.

I’m more surprised you didn’t snap and attack me sooner.

By all accounts, you’ve been a very polite prisoner.

It’s actually cute how you would keep talking to your guards even when you weren’t begging them to turn against me and set you free.

Though I suppose at least part of that must have been loneliness.

The guards still quite like you, though.

They did try to convince me to let you go… I was annoyed, I’ll admit, but relax, I let them off with a warning since I knew you’d get all upset and blame yourself if I punished them.

***

Of course it was because of you.

My own desires are to upheave the hero world and start it anew with people who have genuinely good hearts… but if you’d rather burn down the whole city for what it did to you, I would gladly do so.

I don’t keep all my prisoners in comfy bedrooms and treat them to luxurious meals.

I thought that would have been obvious.

…Perhaps this should make my intentions clearer.

[speaker pulls a hard-drive out of their pocket]

While I’ve been keeping you here these past four months, I tool advantage of the confusion at the Hero HQ to obtain some… helpful footage.

The arrogance of that scum ‘hero’ was more than I imagined. To think they wouldn’t care about berating and hurting you in front of security cameras.

My hacker was also able to retrieve emails between higher-ups about covering up these incidents, and similar ones with other sidekicks.

All of this information is stored on this hard drive… here.

[speaker hands listener the hard drive]

It’s yours to do what you want with it.

***

I’m not lying. I have no back-up hard-drive or disk this information is stored on.

It’s worthless to me, since I can go toe-to-toe with the heroes without having to use methods like these.

But for you, that hard drive means you can finally show the world what that fake hero put you through. What all those fake heroes have put their sidekicks through.

You can shatter their reputation in an instance with this. The world will know exactly how much of a horrific fraud they are.

Or you could destroy it. Pretend I never gave it to you, and let the world continue as it is.

The choice… is yours.

***

[speaker sighs in relief]

I’m glad. They don’t deserve any ounce of fame after what they did to you.

Come with me. I’m sure you’re aware, but I have a broadcasting room. We can force it on to every screen so no one can ignore it.

***

Yes, I’m letting you out just like that.

I saw the determination in your eyes. No one can deny your resolve.

And personally… I don’t want to. I want to trust you, so you can trust me.

Let’s show the world the truth… my dear partner.