Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Insulted (07/11/24)
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TITLE: Jubenile Taunts | Previous Challenge Entry
By Art Westefeld
07/18/24 -
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She was on patrol, because Permafrost had escaped police custody, again. She wasn’t totally surprised. He was only six years old, and the police didn’t take him seriously. Nonetheless, he was still a superpowered criminal, and Loretta felt responsible to capture him again, his motive of helping his mom not withstanding.
Like his mom, Lady Freeze, he needed heat to maintain his icy exterior, so Hotstuff was concentrating on heat related areas. She tried to think like a little kid again, to predict where he would strike next. As she flew over a Hyper Burger, she noticed the alarm was going off. Even if it wasn;t Permafrost, she needed to investigate.
An instant later, she was facing her diminutive foe. “Don’t come any closer!” he yelled at her. “I don’t want any girl super cooties!”
She rolled her eyes under her cowl. Aloud she said, “I won’t give you anything but another trip back to juvie.”
He taunted, "You're just a dumb super-meddler.”
Loretta thought, ‘I could engage in a war of insults, or I could find a way to grab him.’ She was wearing gloves, but they were porous enough to allow her fire powers to pass through without damaging them. Hotstuff was reasonably certain that if she touched the pint sized menace, he’d draw the heat out of her and get stronger.
She remembered hearing a classmate talking about the protection they had to wear when cleaning the fryers, and flew over Permafrost's head to the kitchen to see if there was similar protection there.
As she flew over Permafrost, he stuck out his tongue and said, “That’s right, run, chicken!”
Ignoring him, she landed in the back of the kitchen and asked a cowering worker if they had any heat resistant gloves for cleaning the fryers. Unaccustomed to being the victim of a supervillain robbery, the woman nodded hastily and pointed to an alcove, “Iinn ttthere. You need boxing gggloves?”
Loretta smiled reassuringly at the worker, “Something like that.”
The gloves, designed to cover an adults arm past the elbows, were comically large on Hotstuff, and reduced her offensive abilities, since she wasn’t looking to destroy any property unnecessarily.
Flying back out to confront Permafrost, he took one look at the oversized gloves she was wearing and laughed, “You look dumber than usual. You can’t touch me, so I’ll just take all the money and leave, Glovegirl.”
Loretta growled, “Name’s Hotstuff little iceboy.”
“Still can’t touch me or I’ll suck the fire right out of you,” he jeered.
“Thanks for the reminder, Captain Obvious,” she taunted back. “Now hold still or I’ll have to spank you.”
Permafrost raised his hands to shoulder height, telegraphing that he planned on catching Hotstuff’s hands when she got close enough.
She didn’t give him a chance. Balling up her fist inside the bulky glove, she punched him in the chin. It didn’t knock him unconscious, but it knocked him off his feet. He unleashed an icy blast at Hotstuff, who countered by raising her temperature. He cried out, “No fair, you big bully!”
At that moment, the police arrived wearing thermal gloves and wielding a power dampening collar and handcuffs. Snapping them on Permafrost, they smiled at Hotstuff, and thanked her for delaying his escape.
She grinned and responded, “Nothing my dad wouldn’t have done.” Looking down at the weeping Permafrost she scolded, “Grow up and take your punishment like a big boy, squirt.”
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