Hot and Cold

The Might of Extalia

~*****~

When we finally get free, I get hauled behind Natsu as if I were a rag doll. "Hey, Gray!" Natsu bellows.

"What?" Gray drones once Natsu reaches him.

"You can't run from me forever, can you, jerk?" Natsu barks as I slump to the ground, dizzy and exhausted.

"I was busy taking out this clown." Gray hummed as I sit up.

"Did you have to strip him down?" I ask irritably.

Natsu grasps Sugarboy from the ground and starts shaking him. "All right, you creep, gimme that stupid key. I'm done playing with you!"

"This would be a lot easier if you just look over here for a second." Gray commented dryly.

I sigh as I stand up. "You forget he's got two braincells that are on vacation." I mention.

Gray laughs. "You got that right. Things are starting to go our way. But we're not totally out of the woods just yet. By the way-- where's Lucy?"

"I think she's still stuck," I mention impishly. "I got carried off like a bag of garbage cause I used Ballad's flight to get me out of that mess-- oh my god, we forgot Ballad, too."

Natsu giggles. "She's gonna be pissed when they get here."

"Wait, what do you mean stuck?" Gray asked. I hum delicately and start whistling as if I had nothing to do with it. "Anyway-- we got it man. I know this key is gonna work. You hear me? We can save our friends with this."

"Say what?" Natsu asks.

"The King of Edolas wants to fire the Dragon Chain Cannon at the Floating Island the Lacrima's on, so it'll crash into Extalia. No good. But if we can hit the Lacrima directly with the Dragon Slayer Magic that the cannon fires, we can turn everyone back to normal.

"I don't really understand, but it sounds like a plan to me!" Natsu cheers.

"You just wanna fire it, don't you?" I laugh. Natsu just beams and rubs the back of his head.

Gray just smirks for a moment before turning his head over his shoulder. "I think the cannon is just up ahead of us."

"All right! Let's get to it!" Natsu chimes.

"Hold on, there's one problem." Gray says.

"What's that?" I ask curiously.

"We can't get inside the chamber where they're keeping it." Gray explains.

"Sure we can!" Natsu exclaims. "We'll just use our magic to blow open the door and barge right in."

"That's not gonna work," Gray states. "Supposedly, it's made from some kind of wizard canceller anti magic Lacrima, so it's not gonna be that easy."

"It won't hurt to try," I mention.

"And if it doesn't work? Then what?" Gray asks.

I hum delicately, my finger tapping on my chin. "I'm workin' on that part."

Gray grimaces, but we all turn to gaze over our shoulder at the sound of someone approaching us. "So I found you." Erza's voice rings out. My brow twitches just a bit. It's not our Erza. "And it seems that you have the key."

"Whoa-- it's Erza!" Natsu gasps.

"Hang on, something's not right," Gray says.

"Are you dumb, of course it isn't," I snap at him. "That's Erza Knightwalker, not Erza Scarlet!" I hiss at him.