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So instead, he managed to say, “Uh. Er. Glugh. Blargh.”

Seth stared at him with a strange look on his face.

Owen smiled the way he did when he was about to be a dick. “Eh. I suppose he’s all right. But if we’re going to talk about cool Extraordinaries, we should probably talk about Pyro Storm.”

Which… okay. That was fair. Even though Pyro Storm wastechnicallya villain and caused mayhem and chaos with his dastardly deeds, he was still Shadow Star’s archnemesis, and had to be acknowledged. Plus, he had really muscular thighs, and often posed in ridiculous positions while cackling maniacally. Nick had to appreciate the thighs and the cackling. It seemed like a lot of work. Nick’s own thighs were sticklike, and when he tried to cackle, he sounded like a chicken watching the eggs it’d laid being turned into omelets.

“I’ll allow it,” Nick said begrudgingly. “Pyro Stormiscool, even if he’s a bad guy.”

Owen arched an eyebrow. “Why does anyone have to be bad? What if we’re all misunderstood?”

Nick glared at him. “You really can’t believe that. It’s black andwhite. There’s no in between. Good is good. Evil is evil. One is a jerk who burns things because he’s a pyromaniac or something. The other is a paragon of virtue who saves people and controls shadows and climbs walls.” That was Nick’s favorite part, and it should be everyone else’s.

“Pyro Storm does control fire,” Owen said. “And Shadow Star is all about the shadows. One is dark. The other burns it away. It’s poignant, if you think about it. Opposites.”

“You’re so dumb,” Seth muttered. “Life isn’t a comic book. Extraordinaries aren’t everything. So what if they can do things others can’t? That doesn’t make them more special than the rest of us. It doesn’t work like that.”

Owen leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Then why don’t you tell us how itdoeswork, Seth? Seeing as how you apparently know better than the rest of us.”

Nick didn’t quite know what was going on. Were they still flirting? God, he hoped not. “Maybe we should—”

Owen flashed that dangerous grin again, all teeth. “It seems our Seth here thinks all this Extraordinary stuff is dumb. How do you feel about that, Nicky?”

If there was one thing Nick hated aside from having to console someone whom he’d made out with or being faced with his crush on an Extraordinary, it was being put on the spot. His brain tended to misfire more often than it didn’t, and he was feeling a little dizzy. “Um. Well.”

Everyone waited.

Instant flop sweat. “You both made good points,” Nick said hastily. “And while I normally am so on board with picking sides, I don’t know that I can, at this moment in time, without more data.”

Seth stood abruptly, glaring at Owen, who smiled lazily up at him. “I have to go,” he said through gritted teeth.

And with that, he grabbed his backpack and headed toward the exit.

Nick stared after him, wondering what the hell had happened. Since when did Seth feel so strongly about Extraordinaries? Normally, he indulged Nick’s diatribes about them, but to get this upset? It wasn’t like him.

“Go after him,” Gibby snapped. “You can’t let him walk away like that.”

Owen snorted. “He’s throwing one of his fits. Let him be. He’ll get over it. He always does.”

“Do you remember that time about ten minutes ago when I nearly broke that jock’s fingers?” Jazz asked him sweetly. “I can show you what would have happened if he hadn’t apologized, if you want.”

Owen paled.

“Go,” Gibby said to Nick, jerking her head in the direction Seth had gone.

“Going,” Nick said. He shouldered his backpack as he stood, glancing down at the others.

Owen winked at him.

Nick flipped him off before following his best friend out of the cafeteria.