I May be Cold, but You are Hot

Chapter Thirteen: Hot and Cold, Blue and Orange, Who Will Win?

                  

Grant's POV

          "Oh, Fighting Flame! I'm so glad you could join us. I was just about to teach this man a lesson about who's king in this city," I say menacingly. Ice starts to form on my hands.

          "Let me deal with this, Killer Kool. I'll let you leave this time, just go," he tries to negotiate. Flames flare from his hands.

          "Come on, Hothead, you know I can take care of this guy better than you."

          "I guess we'll have to do it the hard way."

          He throws a ball of fire at me, and I don't have time to move. It hits me in the chest. Ice bursts from mem going in every direction. Flame must've been hit because I saw him fly backward and hit the ground. I put a thin layer of ice over the burn so it will quit hurting. Ice is like medicine to me, but on burns it only works for a short time. I run to where the freeze-gunman is and put him in a solid block of ice before he has time to react. The gun is sticking out, so I take it and run back to where the fighting is going on.

          Sparky is battling Flame's sidekick, but he seems to just absorb the shock. Suddenly, I'm hit from the side. I fall to the ground and look up to see Flame standing over me. I can tell the ice really got to him because his lips are as blue as my eyes.

          "Where's the gunman?" He tries to be intimidating but fails miserably. I got what I came for, so I tell him exactly where he is.

          "Stretch! Let's go!" Flame yells to his companion.

          "Before you go..." I trail off and hit him in the back with a blast of dry ice.

          He turns to me, his eyes blazing. "Your morals must be low for you to stab a man in the back." He pulls back his arm, about to throw another ball of flames at me, but my response gets to him.

          "No lower than yours must be if you're going to hit a man while he's down," I smirk at him, and his face grows hard.

          "Come on, Stretch," he says, leaving me.

          "Sparky! Where are you?" I don't think I can stand on my own. I can probably fly us back to the house, though.

          "We have to get you back to the apartment. Can you fly?" I can see the worry written on her face.

          "Of course I can fly!" I shout, faking confidence. "I'm stronger than I look."

          "Can you get up by yourself?" She asks, putting her hands on her hips. All signs of worry are gone, and that was exactly my intention.

          "Just help me, will you?" I hold out my free hand. I'm still holding the freeze gun in the other.

          She helps me up, and we fly back to our place. My landing could've been better. We basically crashed into the ground.

          "Dammit, Grant!" She yells at me.

          I didn't notice how injured she was until now. There's blood streaming from her head and bruises on her face. Her knuckles are bruised and bloodied as well.

          "I'm sorry," I mumble.

          "Let's just go inside," she says exasperatedly.

          She helps me into the elevator and then into out apartment. I put the gun on the table, lie down on the couch, and remove my suit. When Sparky walks back from getting our medicine kit, she gasps.

          "Grant, that burn is worse than I thought. We might have to take you to the hospital."

          "How would we explain this? A normal person wouldn't be able to function with a burn like this. I'm surprised that I'm able to, considering fire is one of the few ways I can die." I can heal faster than normal people, unless I'm burned. Burns hurt more than anything and heal the slowest.

          "You need to melt the ice off of it so I can patch it up."

          "That's going to hurt like hell," I murmur, and she glares at me. "Alright, alright, I'll melt it." I put my hand over my chest, and the ice turns to water.

          "I'm going to dry this up with a towel. It might hurt a bit," Sparky warns.

          "I'm already in killer pain!" She presses the towel on my burn. "SPARKY!" I yell out in pain.

          "Sorry, Grant. That was the worst part. It's only going to get better now."

          "You better be right," I hiss through gritted teeth.

          "Imagine how much damage you did to Flame, though. He's probably in worse pain than you."

          I nod. "I'm sure that's true. I hit him hard."