“You think you’re awfully tough, don’t you?”

The two figures stood atop the roof, eyeing one another with a fierce intensity. The wind was scarce but the air on top of the skyscraper was chill. The sun sat high in the midday sky with nary a cloud in sight. Down below on streets did flow a thousand busy feet, oblivious to the two men 80 stories above them.

“Not another step closer,” the imp replied, holding up a small chunk of lead. The small creature stood at roughly three feet and had pale grey skin. His eyes were black and his ears were pointed. “You damn psychics. Wretched do-gooders is what you are. Who’re you sucking up to, boy scout? Do you want a goddamn medal? Should I phone in and have a plaque made up in your honour?”

“You’re the mouthiest little bastard I’ve ever met, you know that?” The second was of a much taller stature and had a more vibrant, lively colour to his skin. His brown hair was brushed to the side by the wind. His jeans and black spring jacket contrasted sharply with the sewn clothes of the imp.

“Oh no! No, no, no, no! You don’t get to talk about me, you dirty, horrid psychic. You’re the filth of this time, I hope you know. In my time, we had real do-gooders. Mages and wizards and warlocks and the like. The world grew dim the day you pompous twits gave up on magic.”

“Just give the store owner back his jewelry.”

“No,” the imp spat back.

Demmy rolled his eyes. “Well, your argument has me convinced.”

“Don’t use your sarcasm on me, psychic! I know all about you troublesome lot. Don’t like lead, do you? I bet you just hate this, don’t you?” he asked, wiggling the piece of metal in his hand to and fro. “Either you let me go or I’ll throw this at you, right now. I hear it does horrible things to your insides.”

The smile faded from Demmy’s face. “The millisecond that piece of lead leaves your hand, I will rip you apart, molecule by molecule. There’ll be nothing left of you by the time it reaches me.”

The tiny grey being stopped wiggling the metal around. He looked at his shoes for a moment and then back up at Demmy. “You can’t do that. I’ve run into others of you. I know you can’t do that.” His bold statement was met by Demmy’s challenging eyes. “Fine! You bloody vermin. I swear, we imps should have done away with you all while you were still rare. My descendants were fools.”

“Just give me the goddamn bag.”

“No.”

Demmy had had enough of that. Lead or no lead, he charged forward at the imp, whose eyes widened. The tiny little beast turned and ran as fast as his little legs would carry him over the edge of the building. It was his last escape route and he’d been contemplating it for the past few minutes.

To his surprise and great horror, he turned around midfall to see that Demmy had followed him over the edge and was falling at a faster rate. He’d hoped to collect more precious stones on his journey to the future, but the troubled, little, time travelling imp decided the risk had grown too large. With a high-pitched little squeak, he jumped through a portal back into his own time.

Demmy quickly analysed the area where the imp had disappeared. Then, without a word, he released the majority of his stored energy to rip the hole back open.

As he fell with his head to the ground, the last thing Demmy saw was the blur of windows of the building adjacent to him. The blinding reflection of the sun was gone in an instant as the skyscraper disappeared and was replaced by green. A second later, Demmy hit the ground with a loud thud and let out a cry of agony.

~

OoC - I put it in the Battle Arena because I figured it would lean more heavily toward battling than adventure.

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