Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Blue)

I wish I could tell you I felt totally epic once we landed in Rogue City.

Unfortunately, this was not true.

After the plane ride, the other guy vanished into thin air. I guess he didn’t want me to see where he was going or something. It wasn’t like I could get any info out of him, anyway. The guy didn’t talk much.

Red had passed out long ago, and I was seriously worried. His breathing didn’t sound healthy, and the extent of my medical knowledge was that blood should probably stay on the inside. I had to get him to Green, and fast. But where the heck was Green?

I finally managed to get him out of the plane by freezing the ground under him and dragging him out. He was heavy, which meant I was gasping like a beached fish by the time I made it out of the airport.

Dang, what did this guy eat? Rocks?

It was around midnight, so the streets were deserted. I was exhausted, having refused to sleep on the plane so that I could keep an eye on the stranger. Plus, I hadn’t fully recovered from the poison yet, since the guy’s antidote clearly wasn’t a quick-acting one. Add this to all the work I’d done flying us out of Yellowton and now dragging Red around, and I was ready to just collapse there on the sidewalk and take a nap, just like he was doing. But my work wasn’t done yet. I needed to find Green.

Orange hunted you down, using your cell phone signal.

I stopped abruptly as Red’s words echoed in my head. Could it work? Maybe. I had to at least try.

Leaving Red under some bushes, I ran for the nearest payphone.

(Orange)

If I wasn’t such a night owl, something extremely bad could’ve happened. As in, dying bad.

My fingers flew over the keyboard, monitoring Argot’s communications. I’d just gotten word that he’d found Red and Blue, and I was trying to find out more, Green staring at the screen from next to me and urging me to hurry up. My brow furrowed as I tried to make out the words before me, my brain piecing together each piece of the puzzle to form an image I didn’t like.

“It says he trapped Red and Blue in Yellowton,” I reported, keeping my voice level. “And it’s only a matter of time.”

Green looked equal parts worried and furious. “I knew this would happen. I told him to take either you or me along, but noooo, the moron says he can do it all himself! I knew this was going to happen, I knew it, I knew it!”

Which is basically just Green for I hope they’re all right.

I ignored her ranting and focused on finding out more. Maybe, if we hurried, we could still save them…

At which point, the call came in.

The screen of my laptop lit up with a phone icon, alerting me to the fact that someone had just placed a phone call that had a lot to do with the members of the Seven. I opened the audio file it’d saved for me, and for the next minute or so, both Green and I listened, feeling more and more astonished and confused with each word.

“Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Seven, Argot, locations, Mask, rulers, whereabouts are Rogue City, payphone, Corin Street, hurry, Red hurt. Orange, if you can hear me, we need Green.”

It was a girl’s voice, and obviously, she knew a lot about us. But who in the world could it be? My first suspect would be Blue, but he was a guy, so that couldn’t be it. Whoever it was, though, was desperate enough to risk alerting Argot and Mask to their position, so we had to hurry. Unless…

“Trap?” Green suggested, frowning. I thought about it for a minute, then shook my head.

“There’s no way Argot would know that I’m a hacker. I’ve covered my traces too well for that. Obviously, this person knew this bit of info, because they just randomly placed a phone call that was meant for me.”

“Who did they call, anyway?”

My fingers started flying over the keys again. “That’s funny. It looks like they phoned the hotline of a newspaper. The Sapphire Days.”

“Should I go?” Green folded her arms. “If they’re as desperate as they sound, I should really get going now.”

I paused, thinking it over, analyzing the situation. I came up with a conclusion I didn’t like.

“All right, go,” I sighed. “But I’m coming with you.”

“You?” Green looked at me like I had two heads, which, to me, was entirely uncalled for. “You’re coming?”

“Do I have to say it twice?”

“But you never leave the base!”

I fixed her with a glare. “What do you think Red and I did for the year before you showed up? Sat around playing poker?”

Green’s eyes were wide, but she didn’t argue. I reluctantly shut down my laptop for the first time in…how long? I couldn’t remember. Maybe I really did have to get out more.

“Well… Let’s go, then,” she suggested, turning and walking toward the door. I followed, hoping against hope that it really was someone who needed help, so I wouldn’t have to fight. The last time I’d had to do that, I hadn’t enjoyed it. My attack magic was something I didn’t like to use unless I had to.

I shook my head and shut down my thoughts before the memories came in. Priorities, Orange.

Time to go save Red’s idiot bacon.

(Blue)

It sounded like he was dying.

Red’s breathing was shallow, and I could see him fight for air. It sounded like maybe one of his ribs had punctured a lung or something. I sincerely hoped that wasn’t the case, because he wouldn’t live for much longer if it were true.

I was lying flat on my stomach, under the bushes, waiting for Green to show up, hoping that maybe Argot was too busy to be monitoring phone calls, and that Orange happened to be online. (Unlikely, seeing as it was what, one in the morning?) My eyelids drooped, then snapped open as I fought to stay awake. I could sleep after Red was healed.

I bit down hard on my lip. Where in the world was Green? What if Orange didn’t get my message?

Why in the world I was so worried about someone I’d only known for about a week, (and a certified reckless idiot besides) I didn’t know. Maybe it was because he was the first person I’d known in a long time that I could sincerely call a friend. Maybe it was because he reminded me of…

Don’t even go there, Blue, I told myself. This is hardly the place nor the time to go reminiscing. Especially about that.

I closed my eyes, finally giving into my exhaustion for a single second. Was he going to die here? Would I be left alone – again?

“Reuben…?”

I jumped, my heart nearly stopping from sheer shock. It was Red, fists clenched, eyes still shut.

“Red?” I ventured. He didn’t respond. “Hey, dude, if you’re awake, then talk to me! Do you know where Green is? Red?”

Still no response.

Had he been talking in his sleep? If so, why couldn’t he tell me where the stupid base was? I didn’t know or care who Reuben was!

“They should be around here somewhere.”

For the second time in two minutes, I jumped. It was a male voice, sounding about my age. What if…

“I dunno, Orange. This looks like a total trap to me.” A girl’s voice this time. But I wasn’t focusing on that detail at the current moment. Orange? They’re here!

I scrambled out from under the bush, dirt and twigs clinging to my already dirty clothes and hair like socks when they were full of static. I probably looked like some demented alcoholic, but I didn’t care. The two people in front of me whirled around.

The girl was taller than me, with piercing emerald green eyes and a strict look about her that told me she was used to being in charge. Her dark brown hair was in a loose braid that flopped over her shoulder, and she wore a cloak over her clothes, probably because of the cold.

The boy was about the same height as her, with scruffy brown hair. He looked stiff and uncomfortable, and he was pale, the kind of pale that you’d be if you didn’t go outside very often. He wore thick glasses and a neutral expression on his face. Obviously, he didn’t want to be here.

“Orange and Green?” I asked, feeling exhilarated. Talk about finally!

“Yeah,” Green responded, looking wary. Her eyes studied me suspiciously, obviously wondering if I could be trusted. Which was perfectly reasonable, seeing as I was a random stranger who’d just popped up out of nowhere and she was a member of the Seven. (Seven million Lures on her head too. Seriously. These guys’re generous.)

I held up my hands. “It’s okay. I’m not armed. I’m Blue.”

Orange and Green exchanged glances.

“That’s a lie,” Orange said flatly. The moonlight was reflecting off his glasses, so it was hard to read his expression, but I assumed it mirrored Green’s. “Blue’s not a girl.”

I shook my head, holding up a strand of my hair. “No, the robots messed up. This is my Mark. See, I had this baseball cap on, and – ”

“How do we know you didn’t just dump a bottle of dye on your hair?” he interrupted. “You think we’re stupid? Unless you can prove it, you’re not Blue.”

I bit my lip, frustrated at the both of them. Red was about to die! I didn’t have time to waste standing around and chatting!

“Look, you can believe whatever you want. But Red’s hurt, and if you don’t help him, he’ll freaking die! Will you please just hear me out?”

“You’ve mentioned that,” Green said. “But I don’t see that moron anywhere near here.”

I pointed to the bush. “He’s under that. I’ll go drag him out – ”

“No way.” Orange folded his arms across his chest. “Green, check it out.”

To my surprise, Green waved her hand, and the leaves parted to reveal Red, still unconscious. Some of the suspicion in her eyes faded.

“Well, she wasn’t lying about that.”

“Can you please just heal him?” I pleaded. “You can interrogate me later!”

“As much as I’d like to just leave him there, I suppose I have to,” Green sighed, stepping forward. Orange kept his gaze on me as she knelt beside Red, holding her hands over him and closing her eyes. His wounds instantly closed up in front of my astonished eyes, the bruises fading, and I could see some bones shifting around under the skin. There were several cracking noises as his rib bones reattached themselves, and then Green was standing up, dusting off her knees.

It was hard to keep my eyes from bugging out after that one. That trick could really come in handy.

“Now what?” she asked, addressing Orange. “He’s healed, but what about her?”

“We wait until Red wakes up. He can tell us if she’s really Blue.”

“Yeah, but what if she’s got memory magic? She could’ve messed with his head!”

Orange sighed. “Memory magic is the most advanced type of magic, Green. From what I remember, just wiping our minds took at least a week. Even if Mask knew how to do it, he never could have captured Red and pulled it off in the time span between when he left and now.”

Green considered the issue for another second before nodding. “Well, if you say so.”

Red’s voice came out of nowhere, sounding so slurred that I couldn’t really understand what he’d said. It sounded something like “Reuben.”

The same name from before. Who in the world was this Reuben guy?

Green, who seemed to know something about whatever random thought Red was mumbling about, rolled her eyes, looking exasperated. “Oh, come on! Not that dream again!”

“Wha…?” His eyes blinked open, unfocused and confused. “Whazz goin’ on…?”

Red’s fingers flew up to his chest. “My ribs…”

“They don’t hurt anymore?” Green asked, standing over him. “Yeah, that would be thanks to me.”

“Green?!” His eyes flew wide open, and he bolted upright. “Where’s Blue? Oh, crayik, if that guy did anything to her, I’ll – ”

I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “Welcome back to the world, Sleeping Beauty.”

“Blue!” Now he was grinning, laughing even, from sheer relief. “We made it! Talk about finally!”

“Welcome back,” Orange said dryly, arms folded across his chest. “And thanks a lot for alerting every single police force to your presence. Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take me to clean this mess up?”

Unlike the way he greeted Green and I, Red just stared at him.

And stared.

And stared some more.

And, okay, a little bit more.

This went on for a while.

(I was beginning to wonder if he’d been hit with some kind of spell or something I hadn’t known about.)

“What are you,” he finally said weakly, “doing out of the base, RT? Or am I still just hallucinating?”

“Shut up and get off your behind,” was the reply. “We need to move before Argot finally gets his act together and realizes we’re all sitting out here like sitting ducks.”

Green shook her head, looking as if she were trying to keep back a smile. “Orange doesn’t like leaving the hideout unless he really has to,” she explained, probably spotting my confused look. “He’s weird that way.”

The smile broke through. “Also, sorry for being so suspicious and all, it’s just our default reaction to strangers. Especially since the news report said you were male.”

“My apologies as well,” Orange added stiffly, sounding like he was reading off a teleprompt. Red groaned, facepalming.

“Orange, you really need to get out more. That sounded as stiffer my clothes that one time Green dropped potato starch into the wash for some reason.”

Orange ignored both him and Green’s yell of, “YOU PUT THE POTATO STARCH IN THE LAUNDRY DETERGENT BOTTLE AND THE DETERGENT IN THE STARCH CONTAINER, IDIOT!!!”, instead choosing to say,

“We should get back to the base. I assume you want some food and sleep, correct?”

“You have no idea how much,” I sighed.

“It is about two in the morning,” Green agreed. “But first…”

She whirled around and punched Red hard in the stomach, to my complete and total shock. He doubled over, wheezing.

“WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!?!”

“For getting yourself plastered all over the news and hunted down by Argot,” was her reply. She turned, giving us all a sweet smile that seriously clashed with what she’d just done.

“Okay. We can go now.”