Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Chapter 14

(Blue)

If I’d had time to laugh before freezing up the barrel ofhis missile-launcher, I would have.

As it was,I barely had enough time to cast the spell and tackle everyone to the groundbefore the laws of physics came into effect. “GET DOWN!!!”

KA-BOOM!!!

The resultingexplosion blew the entire mechanical arm off, sending smoke and pieces of metaleverywhere. Everyone except Red, who was apparently immune to smoke, startedcoughing.

"That wasthe coolest thing ever!” he yelled.

“Is… Iseveryone all right?!” Green gasped.

“We’re allfine, Green,” Orangecoughed. “Give us a little warning next time, okay, Blue?”

“Sorryabout that,” I apologized. “But I kinda didn’t want him to shoot me dead rightthen and there.”

“Where is he?” Red wondered. “Keeree’s a prettybig guy. But I don’t see him – WHOA!!!”

Iron Man,whose name was apparently Keeree, lifted Red right off the ground with hisother hand, a not-very-happy look on his face.

“The name,”he hissed before smashing him face-first into the ground, “is Kyore, brat! Are you deaf? Or juststupid? Actually, it’s probably the latter. Doyou have any idea what you did to me?!”

Red gagged,spiting out blood. His nose was bleeding hard. “And I told you my name’s Red! Ithought I blew you up already, Keeree!”

“Well,apparently, you were wrong!” He lifted his foot to stomp on Red, but I took theadvantage while he was off-balance and landed a flying kick onto his side,making him topple over. He landed so hard, he made the ground shake.

“Thanks,Blue!” Red wiped away some of the blood on his face (it just came back a fewseconds later) and took something from his pocket. He flung it at Kyore anddropped to the ground, yelling,

“GETDOWN!!!”

And thenthe second explosion of the night happened.

“Oh, notagain!” Green coughed. “Red!”

“What? Atleast it got rid of him! Hurry up and get the data, Orange!”

Orange was already at themiraculously undamaged computers. “Shut up and let me concentrate!”

“THE SAMETRICK WON’T WORK ON ME TWICE, BRAT!!!”

Kyore appearedout of nowhere and punched Red so hard, he went flying. There was a sickeningcrack as his fist connected, Red’s ribs breaking yet again.

“Crayik!”he wheezed. “Ow…”

Greendashed toward him, but skidded to a stop as Kyore blocked her path. “Uh-uh-uh,little missy. That would be way too easy, now, wouldn’t it?”

“ICICLEBARRAGE!!!” I shouted.

Kyore wasforced to duck to avoid the icicles, and Green took the opportunity to dashright past him to get to Red.

“Oh, no,you don’t!” he screamed, but I slid in front of him, yelling,

“FREEZE!!!”

His entirebody was immediately encased in ice. I hit the ground, gasping for breath. Thefull-body freeze spell was one of the most advanced ice magic techniques, so ittook almost all of my magic to use it. But it wouldn’t hold him forever. Thespell was designed for humans, and this guy was more robot than human.

My headspun from magic overuse, the room blurring before me. No! I couldn’t pass outnow, I had to get away! I was about two feet from the bad guy, he’d kill me theinstant he got free!

I managedto push myself up on my elbows and knees, but instantly collapsed. Magic ran onnormal energy, so using a spell that was too big for you would feel likerunning five miles when you barely had the capability to run one. Meaning thatuntil I regained that energy, I wouldn’t even be able to move. Which wouldprobably have catastrophic results, seeing as Kyore’s ice shell had justcracked. Was I going to die?

“Hold on,Blue, I got you!”

Red shovedme across the floor just as Kyore exploded out of the ice. Green was instantlyat my side, magic spilling from her fingertips into me.

“Th…Thanks,Gr-Green…” I gasped. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”

“You arenot fine. That was the largest amount of magic overuse I’ve ever seen in mylife. What was that spell, anyway?”

“High-rankingfreeze spell.” I forced myself onto my knees, wobbling. “I have to go…helpRed…”

“No, you’restaying right here until you regain your energy. I don’t care if I have toknock you out myself; you’re staying here. Got that?”

“But… Red!”

“No, Blue.He can hold Kyore for five minutes.”

“I… But…”

“Look.”Green’s eyes were hard. “When I was with Red and Orange alone, I had no one to tell me tostop. You know how they are, they think they can go on forever without hurting.I did too. Until one day, when we all almost got killed because we didn’t knowwhen to quit. So listen to me and stop protesting already!”

I bit mylip, but nodded. Red smacked into the wall beside me, but instantly leapt tohis feet again, spitting flames.

“Crayik!When did he get so freaking strong?!”

He leapedat Kyore again, but was smacked aside like a fly. The robot-man had justnoticed Orange,sitting at the computer, his fingers flying almost faster than humanelypossible.

“Trying toretrieve the data, huh? Like I’m going to let you!” Kyore took a swing at Orange, who ducked. Thehuge metal fist slammed into the computer instead, instantly reducing it to apile of smoldering junk. Orangecursed, leaping out of the seat and ducking under Kyore’s arm. But he was tooslow. The mechanical fingers managed to snag his arm at the very last minute.

“Orange!He’s a robot! A machine! Can’t you blow him up?!” I screamed.

Orange didn’t reply, justtwisted, trying to get out of Kyore’s grasp. The robot-man threw back his headand laughed, lifting him into the air.

“Dude!RT!!! Just blow the idiot up!!!” Red yelled, running to help him.

“If I could do that, I would’ve done it in thefirst place!” Orange snapped. “He’s partly human, justenough so that I can’t – ”

He was cutoff by Kyore smashing him face-first into the wall, then tossing him onto thefloor like a rag doll. Red launched a flying kick at him, his entire body on fire, but therobot-man simply stepped aside, letting him fly past. Red skidded to a stop,then whirled around, sending more flames at Kyore, who just closed his eyes andlaughed, letting the fire wash over him.

“Metaldoesn’t burn, silly boy,” he jeered. “And my armor is made of a specialmagic-reinforced metal that doesn’t melt, either. I think it’s about time thatone of you were finally taken care of, don’t you think?”

His handvanished into a hole in his mechanical arm, to be replaced with a long blade.Laughing, he raised it over Orange,who was struggling and failing to get up.

And thenRed hurled a cup of coffee from whereverinto his face.

Kyorescreeched as the searing liquid, kept hot by the thermos it was in, burned him.“YOU LITTLE BRAT!!!!”

“I knewbarely drinkable toxic waste would come in handy sometime!” Red yelled.

“Where theheck did you…?!” Green stammered, looking dumbfounded.

Using themoment of distraction, I scrambled to my feet. I knew I’d only get one chanceat this.

“BLIZZARD!!!”

The entireroom was instantly obscured in a whirling maelstrom of wind and snow. Icoughed, dropping to my knees.

“Blue, no!” Green screamed over the sound ofthe storm.

“Use…storm…getout…” was the last thing I managed to choke out before the world startedflickering.

Andthen…everything went black.