Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Chapter 4

(Green)

“Ah…Ah… ACHOO!!!”

I yanked the covers up to my chin, shivering from the cold and cursing our hideout’s lack of a heater for about the hundredth time. It was freezing in Rogue City at this time of the year, and our hideout was a real dump, full of cracks and holes that let in the cold. (Oh, the miracles of architecture – not.) When Red was here, it wasn’t so bad, since he could heat up the whole place with his magic, but right now, he was off looking for Blue. Which was why I was in bed in the middle of the day, shivering, with a box of tissues for my newly developed cold.

“Hey, Green. You’d better take a look at this,” Orange said, staring at the screen of his laptop. He was across the room, a blanket across his lap, glasses perched on the edge of his nose as his fingers flew across the keyboard. He clicked on something, and turned the laptop around so I could see the webpage he’d pulled up.

“Oh, you cannot be serious,” I groaned.

The news headlines in front of me screamed, in capital letters, “MAGIC USERS DETECTED IN SAPPHIRE CITY! A WHOLE TEAM OF POLICE OFFICERS TAKEN DOWN!”

That idiot.

“Maybe it’s not him,” I suggested hopefully. “Maybe this is Blue.”

“Wanna bet? Look. Notice how parts of it are charred. That’s pure Red, there.” Orange’s expression was neutral, as always. “Looks like our friend managed to make the news yet again.”

“I’m going to kill him,” I swore. “That moron!”

“Moron he may be, but he managed to find Blue, so I’ll give him points for that.”

“Oh yeah? And what makes you think that? For all we know, he could’ve gotten himself discovered and needed a quick getaway.”

“Because if it were just Red, then all the parts would be either burned or melted. The landscape would look like a bunch of silver rivers of lava. Only about half of this is melted and burnt, meaning that Red had help. Most likely, Blue.”

“That, and the fact that you read the article.” I scanned the news report as closely as possible. “Apparently one of the robots got off a message to Mask. Says here that it was two boys, which means Blue is male. Aw, darn it. I was hoping for some girl talk for once.”

“You're only going to have to deal with him if Red manages to get his butt all the way up here without getting himself and Blue killed,” Orange pointed out, turning his laptop around again so that it faced him. He frowned, then began typing away again. "And we both know just how likely that is."

I leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of the screen. "What're you doing?"

“Damage control. I'm trying to erase as much of them from the police records as I can, but since it's already hit the press, it's going to be a nightmare. Tell me why we decided to send him again?"

"According to you, he was the most expendable."

He scowled. "I'm starting to see why."

I leaned back, sighing. “Well, if he ever does manage to get here, he'd better do it soon so I can kill him. This place is too boring otherwise. And cold.”

Orange didn’t reply, and I didn’t expect him to. Burrowing under the covers, I cursed the hideout’s lack of a heater yet again.

Where the heck IS that idiot?!

(Blue)

“Two boys?!”

I stared in disbelief at the newspaper I’d just fished out from a recycle bin. Any news of magic was reported instantly, which was why there was already an article on us even though the incredibly eventful day hadn’t even ended yet. “Two boys? Who the heck wrote this article?”

“Well, Blue, you happen to be wearing a baseball cap over your hair, and the robots aren’t really designed for that kind of close examination,” Red drawled with a smirk.

My face grew hot as I yanked the bill of the cap lower over my face. It wasn’t like me to forget about details like this.

“Oh. Right.”

“Anyway, now that we finally made it to Greene Wood, we should get a move on and find a place to sleep. Well, you need a place to sleep. I need to replenish my fire supply.”

“Your fire supply?”

“Yeah. I absorb flames, then use ‘em in combat. Since I can’t reabsorb fire once I’ve used it, I need to go get some more in my system. I’m running kinda low now, seeing as I’ve just blown up a house and kicked a few robots’ butts. Plus, I wasn’t at full capacity when you found me in the first place.”

I wondered exactly how he’d gotten away from the Mask minions after being detected, but I didn’t want to seem nosy. “That’s very nice to know and all, but it’s already dark, and I don’t know anything about Greene Wood. You know any places to sleep, and some cash for food besides? I’m running low, seeing as you burned down my house and everything in it.”

“What, are you mad about that? In my defense, I did think you were one of Argot’s minions.”

“Yeah, same here. Let’s get a move on. I really wanna meet Green and Orange.”

We continued walking down one of the narrower streets in Greene Wood, trying to avoid as many people as possible. I kept my head down low, and didn’t look at anyone. If they saw my face, they’d know I was a girl, and then there’d be awkward questions about why I was hiding my hair. I really wished I had a cloak or a bottle of dye, but right now, that wasn’t possible. We barely had enough money to buy food, let alone a cloak. And Red had destroyed all my dye along with my house. (Real nice decision there.)

Not that I minded, though. Losing my house was a small price to pay for being able to join the fight. After all, it wasn’t even my own house, and it wasn’t like I owned a lot of stuff anyway.

“Not sure why you want to meet the others so much.” Red’s voice broke into my thoughts, his tone lofty, his hands behind his head. “I mean, I know I’m awesome and all, but trust me, the others aren’t as cool.”

I flashed him a smirk. “Yeah, sure. You’re probably the lamest one of the bunch.”

“Not true.”

“I dunno, Red, seems that way to me.”

“Are you kidding me? You can’t possibly tell me you didn’t think I was awesome when I decimated those robots.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

I didn’t say anything for a few seconds, but then the words slipped out of my mouth. “So, what’re they like?”

“What, Orange and Green?”

“Yeah. Tell me about them.”

“Well, one thing about Orange. You can do whatever you like, just don’t mess with his laptop. You mess with his laptop, you’re screwed. First words out of his mouth after I introduced myself. He’s lovable that way.

“So Orange is a tough guy?”

“No, the words I’d use are technogeek and better with machines than people. He’s… I guess you could call him a genius, of sorts. Doesn’t talk too much, though.”

I nodded. “So, what about Green? What’s… Wait, is Green a he or a she?”

He snorted. “Green is pretty much the most annoying girl on the planet.”

“Annoying? Like how?”

“Like, she’s crazy strict. And completely ridiculous. Everything has to go according to her rules, and she flies off the handle whenever I do anything fun.”

From what I’ve seen of Red and his antics, Green probably has every right to fly off the handle whenever he does something he deems “fun,” and I told him so.

“Oh, come on, Blue, not you too,” he complained. “I don’t want another Green on my tail. You seemed pretty cool when you were destroying the heck out of those robots, so don’t screw it up, okay?”

“Pfft. All right, maybe that was a little fun.” I smiled, then turned serious. “But seriously, breaking into people’s houses and burning them down can get you killed. I can see why Green’s keeping an eye on you.”

“I’ve faced off against Argot twice, and I’m still alive. I don’t think you need to worry about me, Blue.”

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned that. How’d you run into Argot? Did you, like, go after him alone because you didn’t want to wait for the rest of the Seven to show up or something?”

He was silent after this statement, and I realized I’d hit the nail on the head. “Are you kidding me? You tried to take down Argot alone twice?!”

“Once,” he snapped, suddenly cold. “Once was all it took. I went after him one time, and that was the biggest mistake of my life. I’ve wised up now. I’m not gonna let what happened then happen again.”

“So what happened the second time?” I inquired, making a mental note to ask him later what he meant by “what happened then”. “If you only went looking for him once, how’d you run into Argot again?”

“It was yesterday, actually. Right here, in Greene Wood. He caught up to me when I was heading to Sapphire City, looking for you.”

“Wait, wait, wait. You knew I was in Sapphire City? How?”

I was seriously alarmed at this bit of info. If Red had known, chances are, Argot probably would’ve known too. And having the bad guys know my location wasn’t all that high on my to-do list.

“No worries, Blue. Orange hunted you down, using your cell phone signal. He’s hacked into tons of stuff, including the store records, and he has this program that picks out any mention of the Seven in cell phone chatter and stuff. So when the name Lani Zaffre came up with a couple of records he said were not-so-obviously forged, he sent me to check it out. Zaffre is a shade of blue, after all.”

I breathed a tiny sigh of relief. “That’s good. I really don’t want Argot or Mask knowing my whereabouts.”

“Yeah, that might’ve ended just a little bit badly. We’re here.”

I looked around, then gave him a confused look. “There’s nothing here.”

“Ah, that’s because you’re looking in the wrong place.” He grinned, then pointed upward. “Look this way.”

I looked up. “There’s still nothing there.”

“Well, you have to go up a bit before it shows up.” he admitted, looking around. “No one’s here. Okay, follow me, and hurry.”

To my surprise, he backed up a bit, took a running start, then jumped, catching hold of one of the tree branches above us. In a flash, he’d already climbed to about twenty feet above me.

“Come on!” he called down. “You gonna stand there all day?”

I pushed down the air around me, shooting like a rocket off the ground and landing softly on the branch above him. “Wasn’t planning to. So, are you coming?”

“No fair!” he complained. “Air magic is cheating!”

I rolled my eyes and flew to the next highest branch. “Whatever. So, where is this hideout of yours?”

“Gotta go up a little more before you see it. And keep your voice down, will you? I don’t want anyone hearing us. Talking bird rumors and all that. Not fun to clean up.”

I didn’t respond, instead choosing to fly even farther upward. Once I reached the middle of the tree, about a hundred feet off the ground (Greene Wood trees are unnaturally tall), my eyes widened.

“Whoa.”

There, in the branches of the tree next to the one I was in, barely distinguishable in the shadows, was a small treehouse. It was covered with leaves, disguising it even more as just another part of the tree. If I hadn’t been right next to it, I’d never have known it was there.

“Cool, huh?” Red swung himself up, not even breathing hard. “Green’s idea. I really gotta give her credit for doing this. It’s pretty good. But don’t tell her I said that.”

“It’s…” I tried to find words to describe the marvel before me. “Amazing. Totally amazing.”

“Yeah, sure, it’s pretty cool. Come on, get in. I’ll light up the lanterns.”

He disappeared into the treehouse, and some light appeared, shining through cracks in the wood. I followed, watching as he summoned a tiny flame on his finger, touching it to the ten lantern wicks and lighting them up. In no time at all, the tiny room was flooded with light.

“All right,” he announced, looking satisfied. “Blue, you mind taking this match and burning one of those sacks over there?”

I dragged on of the sacks behind me over to him. “What, this? Why?”

“So I can absorb the fire,” was his casual reply. “I’m clean out. It took everything I had just to light up the lanterns.”

I set the cloth on fire and handed it to him as carefully as possible, seeing as we were in a wooden house. (And as everyone knows, wooden house plus fire equals not-so-good scenario.) He stuck a hand into the flames, which quickly vanished, absorbed in his skin. Red let out a contented sigh.

“Okay, that should keep me going for a while. The fire’ll spread inside me, just like anywhere else, so I don’t have to fuel up for a while. Let’s get some re – ”

The rest of his sentence was lost as he yawned. “Dang, I’m sleepy. ’Night, Blue.”

“’Night, Red.”

I yanked one of the sacks over me, using it as a makeshift blanket, and dragged over another one to use as a pillow. Red didn’t even bother with blankets or pillows – he’d already passed out.

I stared out of one of the cracks at the stars above, which twinkled exactly where they always did. A familiar sight, among the unfamiliar terrain of Greene Wood.

Feeling comforted by this, I turned over and fell asleep.

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