Chapter 4: Detective Work

Charlie sat cross legged on the floor mattress, scrawling in the notebook to the gentle sound of porn in the background.

It had been two days since Shadow Witch had talked to the Copper Knight, and she still hadn't heard anything from her father. She liked to think that he was working on an elaborate sting operation with local police.

She pictured it in her head often. Heroes from all around the world would be involved; the Copper Knight, Crimson Vision, Supernova, and Cipher too. It would be totally sick, with a lot of explosions and exciting fight sequences. A cool background track would be good too, something with a lot of guitars, or maybe something more techno, with a badass beat drop.

In the meantime, (when she wasn't daydreaming up elaborate wish fulfillment fantasies) she spent most of her time writing down everything she could gather about Shadow Witch. She looked over notebook, and everything she had written so far.

•Lives in a gross old house

•Maybe socially awkward?

•Seems to know the Copper Knight well (too well, if you ask me...)

•Knows about secret projects at the company

•First name may start with the letter 'B'

•Terrible at cooking

•Like really bad

•Seems to be working alone

•Possibly not straight?

•Has pretty nice butt

•Never takes off suit (that I've seen. Does she have different ones? Does she even wash them?)

•Awkwardly polite?

•Wears super tall platform boots, so maybe insecure about height

She tapped her pen against her chin as she thought. What did all of this mean? It was probably for the best that she went to college for business. It seemed, right now at least, that she would make a terrible detective.

A snap. This one didn't scare her as much. She was getting used to it.

"Breakfast." Shadow Witch said, holding a plate of subpar eggs and toast.

"Thanks." Charlie grumbled.

"Still haven't heard from your father." Shadow Witch said, placing the plate on the dresser. "He's taking his time."

"I'm just as puzzled as you are." Charlie said, looking up from her notes. Puzzled in more ways than one, that was for sure.

"..." Shadow Witch awkwardly stared without talking as usual. "Goodbye then."

"Hold on!" Charlie hopped up and grabbed her hand before she could teleport away.

Shadow Witch tipped her helmeted head to look down at her hand.

"...what is this?" She asked, lifting up their interlocked fingers as if it were some kind of creature she had never seen before.

"Let's... talk." Charlie said, squeezing her hand and smiling softly at her.

"What are you... doing?" Shadow Witch asked slowly.

"Just trying to get to know you better." Charlie said, trying to be as coy as possible.

Shadow Witch snatched her hand back and turned away from her.

"Ew."

Charlie sighed dramatically and threw herself down on the mattress.

"Come on!" She whined as annoyingly as possible. "I'm bored. There's nothing to do here. Can't you at least talk to me?"

"I have things to do. I can't just sit around and babysit you."

"You probably don't have that much to do." Charlie said. "Can't you just tell me something about yourself?"

"Huh?"

"Like, do you have any allergies?"

"..."

They stared at each other silently for a while.

"....I'm lactose intolerant?" Shadow Witch said unsurely.

Charlie snatched her notebook back up and added another bullet point.

"Lack—lactose..." she paused. "How do you spell that?"

"It's not that hard to spell."

"Whatever, I'll know what it means." Charlie grumbled to herself as she scribbled it down.

Shadow Witch snatched the notebook from her hands and looked down at it.

"Are you... taking notes on me?"

"What's you'd favorite color?"

Was Charlie's snickering response.

"'Has a pretty nice butt'? what the hell is this?!"

Charlie snorted and gestured to her entire body.

"Don't act like you don't agree. Why else would you wear that skin tight catsuit all the time? To show off your body, right?"

"Because I fight with evasion and sneaking!" Shadow Witch said, slapping her hand against her palm with each syllable. "The catsuit keeps my movement unrestricted! I don't wear armor or something because I'm not a tank or a heavy hitter!"

Charlie doubtfully raised an eyebrow.

"And the platform boots?"

Shadow Witch was silent, her body tense.

"You're so annoying!" She snapped.

"Well I've been locked in this room for like five days! I'm starting to go crazy!" Charlie yelled back.

"Oh no! Locked in here for five whole days! How awful! If you think this sucks, imagine five years.

Your situation isn't as bad as you may think. You could have been born into much worse. You're just a spoiled brat who doesn't know how good she has it!" Shadow Witch yelled.

Then, she all at once seemed to deflate and took a step away. "I— please excuse me."

She snapped away.

"Damn weirdo..." Charlie grumbled under breath.

Still, I probably shouldn't provoke her. Charlie thought. She could be crazy. She might snap and kill me.

A couple of hours later, Shadow Witch came back. She handed Charlie her food, and then awkwardly stood beside her without talking. After a good five minutes, Charlie turned to her and asked;

"What are you doing?"

"You said you were lonely." She said.

"Oh, uh— yeah. Are you actually going to talk to me though? Or are you just going to stand in the corner and stare at me?"

"It depends." Shadow Witch said. "What do you want to talk about?"

Charlie stabbed the macaroni and cheese on her plate and took a bite. It tasted artificial, and slightly chewy. It was definitely from a box, and it was definitely overcooked.

"Oh! How about you tell me what the thing is that you want my father to give you so badly?" Charlie said after she had swallowed.

"If you don't know, I'm not telling you." Shadow Witch said. "All that's important is that it belongs to me, and I want it."

Geez. Maybe I should have just told her to leave me alone.

Charlie sighed and looked back up at her.

"If you don't get this... thing... that you want, you're not going to kill me, are you?" Charlie asked as she picked at her food.

"Don't be stupid." Shadow Witch said quietly. "What good would that do me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if they won't give me what I want while you're alive, they definitely won't give it to me if you end up dead." Shadow With said.

"Have you ever... killed anyone?"

"No. Of course not."

Charlie raised her eyebrows.

"Why do you look surprised?"

"Well, I mean, you're a villain." Charlie said.

"What makes me a villain?"

Charlie let out an incredulous laugh.

"You're kidding, right? You kidnapped me, you wear a spooky black suit that makes your voice all deep, you live in this creepy house with no exits, you have no regard for the law... do you want me to go on?"

"So I'm a villain to you, and maybe to society at large. But what does that mean anyway? Society's definition of what's good and what's bad is changing all the time." Shadow Witch said.

"Don't try to get philosophical on me." Charlie rolled her eyes. "You're clearly not a good guy. Kidnapping has pretty much always been not a good thing."

"I wasn't implying that I was a good guy, just that morality in general maybe be as black and white as you think."

Just as Charlie opened her mouth to respond, a muffled beeping filled the room. Charlie glanced around in confusion, but her eyes eventually landed on Shadow Witch, who pressed a button on her helmet.

"What is that? A bomb?" Charlie said nervously. It was only half a joke.

Shadow Witch abruptly stood up.

"No. I've got someone on the secure line."

Charlie followed her up off of the mattress.

"Is it my dad? Can I talk to him?!" She said, practically hopping up and down beside the woman.

"Let's find out."

A hand clamped down on Charlie's shoulder.

"Wait—"

In a flash, they were back in the dimly lit computer room, and Charlie was dry heaving in the floor.

"Dammit." She grumbled, pulling herself up.

Shadow Witch offered her hand, and Charlie used it to pull herself upright. Once she had more or less recovered, Shadow Witch marched over to her computer station, and started once again furiously typing away.

This time it actually was her father who appeared on the screen.

"Thank you for finally contacting me, Mr. Delacqua, I—"

Charlie dashed over, and promptly pushed Shadow Witch out of her chair so she could take her place in front of the screen.

"Hi, dad!" She said, waving furiously.

Both her father and the guards that stood on either side of her stared at her, wide eyed. He opened his mouth to speak, but before any words came out, Shadow Witch yanked her back by the collar of her shirt.

"Hey, I was taking to him!" Charlie complained.

"Hush." Shadow Witch said, taking her place. "You'll get your turn. Stop acting like a child."

Charlie quickly resigned to pouting in the corner, arms crossed just out of frame, and Shadow Witch turned back to the screen.

"Anyway. Thank you for finally contacting me. You've agreed to my terms, I would assume?"

"Actually." Her father started, tone even. "I have thought about it and I would like to make a counter offer of my own."

Shadow Witch tapped her gloves fingers impatiently on the desk. "And that is?"

"Give me my daughter back, and you stay out of The Hole."

Charlie winced and glanced down at Shadow Witch, expecting her to lash back at him, but she sat silently. Being threatened with The Hole wasn't something to take lightly; the government only sent the villains who were the worst of the worst there.

"I'm afraid I can't agree to that Mr. Delacqua." Shadow Witch said. "My terms stand."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Charlie's father said. "Then it looks like we will have to start taking more aggressive action against you."

"I look forward to it." Shadow Witch said, then quickly ended the call.

"Hey!" Charlie shouted. "You said I would get my turn to talk with him!"

The villain shrugged.

"He was being uncooperative. Maybe next time."

"That's so unfair!" Charlie said. "If you're going to kidnap me and hold me here against my will, the least you can do is let me talk to my father!"

Shadow Witch easily pushed past her.

"Like I said, maybe next time."

"Wha— you can't just—"

Shadow Witch roughly grabbed her wrist and snapped. In a dizzying flash, they were back in the musty, windowless prison.

Charlie stumbled back up, staring up under Shadow Witch's ridged figure, dark and looming.

"Wrong. I can do whatever I want."

And with that, she was gone.