operation: melt

Prolougue: to dislike

"Hey, Gren, have you met the new phighter yet?" Parasol(or Para for short) asked her brother figure, Grenade. Hearing that, he perked up. "New phighter?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I've met her and she's really nice! Her name's Confetti."

Hearing the name, Grenade's eyes narrowed. "Oh, her? Yeah, I... don't like her." Para's eyes held a look of disappointment, before she replied, "But I haven't seen you talk to her..." Grenade groaned, before retorting, "I don't like her as she's from Theives' Den, and I'm from Blackrock." Para gathered her thoughts for a few silent moments before she replied, "Isn't Blackrock's main rival Playground? Not Theives' Den?"

Grenade groaned, before he said, "The last reason I hate her is because my gut tells me so. Now, leave me alone and stop bugging me, will you?" Para just shrugged in reply, before walking away.

———

"So you're Slingshot, Skateboard and Boombox?" Confetti asked, still familiarising herself with the others. Boombox chuckled, giving her a thumbs-up before replying, "Yeah. Took you long enough to learn our names; for a second I thought you were going to mix Skateboard with Sword for the tenth time." Confetti smiled, adding, "And those three over there are Rocket, Sword, Medkit and Zuka?" Slingshot nodded, before adding: "Of course you've met Parasol, seen Subspace, Hyperlaser and his cat Princess, Katana, Vine Staff, Shurike—"

"—not all, actually. She hasn't met our local emo guy yet."

Confetti tilted her head slightly, not noticing the distressed looks on their faces, before asking softly, "And who is that 'emo guy' you're talking about?"

"Grenade."

At that point, a loud 'KABOOM' exploded a few feet behind them, eliciting a fearful yelp from Confetti. Skateboard turned towards her, before asking:

"What's wrong, 'Fetti?"

"I have a fear– of explosions!"

Silence filled the air between the four of them, before Boombox broke the silence: "I think you're not gonna like him then."

KABOOM. Another yelp of terror from Confetti.

Slingshot turned away from Boombox to her, hurriedly urging, "Run. Go, now!" Confetti took a few steps away, before looking back for a moment. Turning back, she forced herself to run in the opposite direction from her newfound friends, soon out of sight.

Slingshot sighed, looking at Skateboard, before saying, "Grenade hasn't talked to her. I wonder why." Seeing Grenade walk towards the three of them, each of them had to compose themselves hurriedly.

Grenade, on seeing them, asked, "That was Confetti, the new girl, right?" Skateboard forced himself to answer:

"Yeah, it was her."

Grenade nodded, smirking slightly. "And I see she is scared of explosions?"

The others nodded. On hearing that information, Grenade's smirk grew slightly malicious. "Great," he said, "she'll get a good 'surprise' every time she sees me."

Slingshot, Boombox and Skateboard glanced at each other, before Slingshot said, "You haven't even talked to her once."

"And I don't like her. Gut tells me that she's not good."

"Fine, but give her a chance, will ya?!"

"Maybe. But for now, no."

The trio fell silent, before walking away from him.

———

"So, I noticed," Para said to Confetti, "that my 'brother' is drawn to you." Hearing that, Confetti looked up. "Really? He's cold to me all of the time."

"Well, most of the time. But he went near you; normally he doesn't care about others. That's out of character for him. Suspicious, hm?"

"I.. don't know.."

Para tutted softly, before replying, "Do me a favor?"

Confetti perked up at the word 'favor'. "What can I do?"

"Since he seems so interested in you, melt his stupid and probably useless façade, will you? He's 22, for god's sake!"

Confetti laughed softly, before adding: "But that won't be an favor, then. It would be an operation."

Para smiled at her. "Then so be it. Let's call it operation: melt, then.

Confetti smiled. "Then,"

"..let operation:melt begin."