Mostly the big fire was out. So a very tired Near Absolute Hero flew away from the scene towards the base of the Mother Earth Force. Something that had bat wings much like his own approached him, coming from the direction of the base.
Near Absolute Hero was intrigued. He thought it might be an American soldier outfitted with the wings from the pentagon. But as the two got closer, Near Absolute Hero could make out that the other wings were different and overall the UFO was smaller.
As they got nearer it looked to be like a winged gargoyle with a trident in its hand. They approached and both began circling each other.
“Who are you?” asked/yelled Near Absolute Hero.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out!” the living gargoyle yelled.
“What are you?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out!”
“Leave me be, then!”
“I may leave you be but I’m certainly not going to leave this city be!”
Near Absolute Hero sighed. He wasn’t going to get out of this without a fight. With his cold gun he tried hitting the creature’s trident holding hand.
“Ooh hoo! That tickles!” said the flying gargoyle.
Near Absolute Hero didn’t want to shoot his cold gun any longer. That would be risking frostbite. So he tried his new superhero trick. He said aloud “Ice balls from the sky!” and let his cold gun hand and arm go limp. The computer and exoskeleton in his suit moved his arm and trigger finger up over the flying gargoyle’s head and the gun made the water vapour into ice balls that fell on the creature.
But the creature lifted its head and swallowed each ice ball whole. They were the size of tennis balls and would have hurt or injured some lesser creature.
“You don’t know what I am,” said the creature. “I am the Ice Demon. Someone summoned me from the coldest bowels of Hell. So I ate him and here I am now.”
“So you do not cooperate with the summoner. I’ll make sure I spread that publicly so no one summons a creature such as you, again”
“I think it’s time to lay waste to this city. Obviously you can’t stop me.”
“Just a minute,” said Near Absolute Hero. He had one last trick to try against the Ice Demon. He spun around in the air so his back and wings faced the Ice Demon. But most importantly his back pack which attached to the cold gun faced the creature.
He shot in the opposite direction, away from the Ice Demon. He turned the setting of his gun to its very highest. His wings fanned the air at the Ice Demon. He looked around, over his shoulder at the Ice Demon. The demon looked very ill and was getting worse till suddenly it went “poof” and it disappeared from this plane of existence.
“Back to the coldest bowels of Hell, I hope!” said Near Absolute Hero. He looked all around while continuing to circle. Finally, he decided that his interpretation was correct. He headed back to the Mother Earth Force’s base.
On the way he praised his back pack. “Never again will I call what you produce back there ‘waste heat’. The heat is a feature, not a bug.”
“Hmmm! Maybe I should call myself Old Hot and Cold.” He mused this as he landed at the base and yawned. He would have a well deserved sleep.
