"Okay," Romeo said to the ceiling, "so maybe I didn't totally think this through."
"Why?" the girl next to him half-wailed half-sobbed, and he totally would've started feeling guilty about it except – oh yeah, it was all her flipping idiot fault.
"Y'know, I used to like rock candy," Romeo mumbled, giving the shiny structure binding him in place a half-hearted lick. They had warned him, he remembered ruefully. The others had told him that Airstream was one of the worst villains to go after, and he hadn't listened. Which was why he'd been sitting in a stupidly hard to break rock candy casing for the past half hour, licking at the stuff until his tongue turned to sandpaper.
It sucked, and Airstream was no help. Who creates a freaking doomsday device that encases people in candy? Who forgets to program the thing to not target themselves? Who forgets to put in a reverse button, for chocolate's sake?!
The white cat across from him glared daggers at the both of them, as if to say, You're all idiots.
Romeo kind of agreed.
"Are you sure there's no failsafe of any kind?" he sighed for the umpteenth time.
"We're going to have to wait until Natsu shows up," the villain beside him replied miserably. "I'm such a failure…"
"Who in the world is Natsu?" Romeo demanded, but the girl only turned away, looking like all her dreams had been crushed to pieces and mumbling about how she'd be so disappointed, I'm such a horrible villain, can't even make a good doomsday device, I'm going to have to study the Rulebook for hours and hours…
He sighed. "Well, I hope this Natsu guy is going to show up soon, because we were going to order in pizza tonight, and I had so better not – "
"Weeeenddyyyyy!"
SkyHigh suddenly perked up. "Natsu!"
"Oh, thank God," was all Romeo could say.
The door slammed open to reveal a person with ridiculously pink hair, who… otherwise looked completely normal.
Romeo blinked. He'd been expecting another supervillain or something. But aside from the hair, this dude looked like any other high school student.
Oh, wait, never mind – the dude was backing away with wide eyes. That looked like typical caught-supervillain behavior. Maybe…
Romeo was just beginning to realize that he'd actually just seen a supervillain's secret identity when Natsu turned to Airstream and hissed, "Superhero?"
She nodded. Or tried to, anyway.
"Archenemy?"
"No, we just met."
"Oh." Natsu looked from her to Romeo, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Do you want him as an arch nemesis?"
She blinked. "Um…"
"Hands off, foul beast!"
And suddenly, like a brilliant comet, there was Sting, shattering the window and streaking into the room.
"Nobody move or I'll shoot!" he yelled.
There was a very awkward silence after this statement.
"Who the heck are you?" Natsu asked blankly.
Sting stared at him. "Are you serious."
"Should I know you, or…"
"I'm Incandescence," Sting spluttered. "I've been in the newspapers, like, five times. I'm a superhero. I'm famous."
Natsu still looked lost. "Uhh… Okay?"
"He's one of the Twin Dragons," Romeo put in, because after all, Sting was trying to save him, so the least he could do was give the guy some help.
"Okay, nope, still lost on me. Are you like, buddies with Lucy or something?"
To Romeo's surprise, Sting's face went colder than a blizzard.
"You know where Lucy is?!"
Natsu raised a finger. Lowered it. "Uh."
"Okay, change of plans." Sting grabbed Airstream, who squeaked. "Tell me where Salamander is. Or the kid gets it."
Natsu's disbelieving gaze shot from Sting to Airstream, then back up at Sting's face. "You're kidding, right?"
"Tell me where Salamander is!" Sting roared.
"Did something happen to Lucy?" Romeo questioned, suddenly worried for the older girl. He'd never seen Sting freak out like this before.
But he never got his reply, because then Natsu leaned back against the doorway and raised an eyebrow.
"Don't know what you're making such a fuss for, man. You looking for Salamander?"
He cracked a grin, thumb coming up to point directly at his own face. "You're looking at him."