“You went through an awful lot of trouble to get this feed to me,” Spaceman asked as he flew high about Astro City, tablet in hand. The small computer depicted a hulking human with a class of kidnapped students. [i]I just need to keep him talking till I can figure out where they are.[/i] “What do you want with me, Hominid?”

“Yes, well, I figured this was the [i]only[/i] way to hold your attention for any length of time. Here’s the deal: all you have to do is listen to a little… [i]proposition[/i] I have, and these wonderful children here won’t die,” Hominid said grasping one of the students by the throat. [i]He always drolls on in that pretentious pseudo-British accent. For a man that has supposedly lived forever, you would think he would have it down by now. He sounds like a knock-off Tim Curry.[/i]

“Look, mate, I must feed on living humans to survive, and I [i]will[/i] survive. A regular human would last me about a month, maybe, if its particularly virile. But I find most humans, sadly, disappointing. After all, I [i]do[/i] have a bit of flesh to feed!” The caveman bellowed out a chorus of laughter, slapping his own over-sized frame.

“Now, I can go on like this, feeding on thousands of humans in hundreds of years… Orrrr, you could simply let me feed on [i]you[/i]. Your life-force has that wonderful energy attached to it, I would be sated for centuriesss. Why, you would be such a humanitarian. Think of the lives you would save. And I [i]do[/i] promise to leave you a little life left. You could get on with your life–”

“No.” Hominid was taken aback by Spaceman’s abrupt answer. [i]There they are, in that abandoned factory.[/i]

“But I have not finished extolling all of my reasoning. I assure you, this is the most humanitarian–”

“Enough. I’ve heard enough.” Neil scowled, his eyes narrowing, focusing on the building.

Obviously flustered by his lack of traction, Hominid had dropped his ridiculous accent. “If you don’t let me feed on you, then I will feed on others. You might as well have killed those with your bare hands!”

A volley of energy rocketed from Spaceman’s hand, blasting open the ceiling like a tin can, casting all into confusion and chaos. Spaceman can down directly on Hominid, blasting the over-sized Neanderthal with purple energy, knocking the brute out.

“Words never seem to be enough,” Spaceman said to himself.