Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Chapter 33

(Green)

“Why didn’t you bring it up?”

A few feet away, there was a family enjoying a picnic on thegrass, and Orangewaited until they were out of hearing range to reply.

“Because I felt it would be improper to mention anything infront of Blue. And really, what would be the point of another fight? We do havelimited time to replace Violet, you know.” He glanced at me. “The question is, whydidn’t you?”

“Because I didn’t want to mention it in front of Blueeither.”

We walked on in silence for a while before he spoke. “Blue’sdifferent.”

“Yeah. She’s not a revenge-seeker. There’s no one in theworld she wants to kill besides Argot, and even that’s only because of thingshe’s done to other people. But…”

He nodded, finishing the sentence. “She’s lost someone too.”

“Yeah. But not like us. It’s different.” I paused. “She’slucky.”

Orangestopped walking and turned. “Green, what exactly happened back there?”

I unconsciously rubbed my thumbnail again, not meeting hiseyes. “I thought you weren’t going to ask me that.”

“Blue isn’t here now. She’s searching the other side of thecity with Red.”

“I know that.”

“You don’t have to hide anything from anyone right now.”

“I know.”

“What happened?”

My hand closed into a fist. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“She took your healing, didn’t she?”

I didn’t respond.

“She took part of your healing with your Mark. The sameway they took my own magic.”

“Your magic came back.” I fought to keep my voice steady, tohold back my fear. “Mine will too.”

His voice was soft. “No, it didn’t. You know it didn’t.”

I couldn’t hold back my words.

“I know we’re not supposed to ask this. I know it’s probablypainful, and that you don’t want to talk about it, and everything else, but Ineed to know.” I looked directly at him. “How did it happen?”

His eyes hardened, and he abruptly turned and began walkingagain without a word.

I scowled.

“Quit being a jerk,Orange. Youknow what happened to me!”

He didn’t respond, so I ran to catch up with him, notwanting to have to yell out sensitive matters in front of the entirety of Viole Town.

“I’ll ask Red,” I threatened. “He’ll tell me. I’ll make him tell me.”

He gave me a sidewise look. “Will he?”

I almost snapped right there and then. My own freaking magic had been taken away from me, whichwas seriously one of the scariest things I could think of. I needed to know howto fix it, but the one person who could tell me about that was being the silentjerk he was. It took every ounce of self-control I had to not send a forestshooting up over Viole at that exact moment.

“Look.” I struggled to keep my tone neutral. “I need to know, Orange. That lady’s got my magic, and if Idon’t get it back soon, somebody could die.”I emphasized the “die” part so he’d know just how serious it was. “Iwouldn’t pry for any other reason, but right now, I need to know.”

Orangewas quiet, and I thought he wasn’t going to respond until he did.

“You might think you need to know, Green" he said softly, "but the thing is, doyou really want to know?”

(Blue)

“We’ve been back and forth across the entire village for two days, and we haven’t found a singlefreaking thing!” Red raged,flame-kicking a soda can into the sand. “There is absolutely nothing here!”

The sun was setting across the ocean waves, which should’vebeen a photo-perfect moment, only nobody had a camera and nobody felt liketaking a picture. We were on an abandoned stretch of beach that Green hadfenced off early yesterday morning with a spell when we’d arrived, the plane acouple feet away where Orangehad almost crash-landed it.

“I don’t understand it,” he said, staring at the sand as ifit held the answer to all of life’s mysteries. “We’ve been everywhere. There’s no other place she could be. Where is she?”

“Million-dollar question, genius,” Red shot back, his temperflaring. “If we knew that, then we wouldn’t be looking now, would we?!”

Orange’seyes narrowed. “It was a rhetorical question. There’s no need to be so temperamental.”

“I’m sick of this!” he snapped, throwing his hands up in theair. The sand under his foot turned to liquid glass as it exploded into angryflames. “I’m sick of following random loose ends and hoping they’ll leadsomewhere important. I’m sick of feeling like a total idiot all the time. I’msick of the way Mask thinks he can pull all the strings, and I’m sick of theway he’s right, because we’re being stupid! And I can’t figure out how we’rebeing stupid, and it’s driving me crazy!I need to punch something in the facealready!”

I bit my lip and didn’t look at him, staring silently at thewater, watching the golden flecks of the day’s last sunlight dance on thewaves. They sparkled like sequins, spinning, distracting, bedazzling everyonewho looked at them with their brilliance. Distracting…

A distraction.

Oh. Of course!

And suddenly, just like that, it clicked.

I stood up so abruptly, I almost knocked over Orange’s laptop. “Ofcourse!”

“Huh?” Red stared at me like I’d just grown another head andthree arms. “Blue?”

“It’s genius,” I breathed. “No one would think to look there!”

Now everyone was giving me the exact same look as Red.

“Did you figure it out?” Green asked. Her tone wasskeptical, but there was a hopeful look in her eyes.

I nodded, a huge smile spreading across my face. “There’sonly one place in Viole we haven’t checked yet.”

“And that would be?”

I turned and pointed toward the sun. The sun that wassetting over the ocean waves, turning them the color of Red’s eyes.

“There,” I said softly. “That’s where it is. The only placewe haven’t looked.”

We left the shop a note that saying we’d return the scubagear as soon as possible, and hiked back down to the beach to begin the search.

I was ready to dive in and get going, and I would’ve done itright away too if I hadn’t noticed the others staring at me with a weird lookon their faces. And that’s when I realized that I was probably the only one whoknew how to swim.

“Blue…?” Red began nervously, probably about to inform me ofthis exact flaw in our plans. “I don’t – ”

“It’s pretty straightforward,” I replied, cutting him off.“Move your arms like this, and kick your legs to go forward. If you get caughtin a current or whatever, don’t freak out. It’s not like you don’t have anyair, so just go with the flow and try to edge your way out somehow. Water isn’tlike land; it’s harder to fight against. So the important thing to remember isto go with the flow. Do what feels natural. Got it?”

Looking slightly caught off guard, he nodded. “Sure. Got it.Are you sure this is safe?”

“Safe or not, you’re just going to have to deal, becausethis is the only lead we have,” Orangereplied, handing out tiny earphone-thingies. “These are communication devices.I only have four, so don’t lose them. They weren’t easy to steal.”

“Uh-huh,” Red agreed, inserting the earbuds. “Four days wespent making plans to break into that equipment factory. It blew up in the end,but Orangeliked these, so he kept them. Good thing he did, it turned out.”

“Are they waterproof?” Green had the misfortune to ask, andboth Red and Orangelooked at her as if she were the stupidest person in the world.

“Forget I asked.”

“Okay, so everybody ready?” I asked.

“When are we ever?” Green sighed.

I smiled. “Point taken. Let’s just do this thing.”

I waded into the ocean, waves washing over my feet, soakingin the salty sea air, the powerful waves, feeling the tide slowly rising, thecurrents somewhere far away flowing. This was my element. The ocean was myhome.

I made it far enough out so that the water reached my waistand turned back to see how the others were doing. Orange and Green were right behind me, butRed was cringing with every step, the look on his face almost terrified. Andthat’s when I realized something extremely strange.

Red, who I’d always thought was completely fearless… wasafraid of water.

I blinked at this a few times before splashing back to meethim. He looked surprised to see me coming back, cocking his head to the sideand asking,

“What, did you already replace it?”

“Nope,” I replied, taking his arm and pulling him fartherout. “But you looked like you needed some help.”

He stumbled, eyes suddenly going wide. “Whoa! I’m fine,Blue. Just go on, it’s okay.”

“You are not fine. How come you didn’t mention that you hada fear of water?”

“I do not have a fear of water,” he scoffed.

I just looked at him.

“I don’t!”

I waited, eyebrows raised.

His shoulders slumped. “Okay, maybe just a little. But I’m afire-user. You think a fire-user’s gonna be best friends with the ocean?”

“Probably not, but at the rate you’re going, we’ll probablyend up replaceing Violet sometime next year. Come on. The ocean might not be yourbest friend, but it’s mine.” I flashed him a smile. “It’s not going to hurtyou.”

“You sure?” he asked dryly.

The water was up to my chin now, so I slipped on my mask andgave him a thumbs-up. Then I dived under, watching Red’s startled face vanishfrom view.

Orangewas already farther out than I was, and Green appeared a moment later. Red wasright after her, shuddering once his entire body was submerged.

I turned back to Orangeand saw him wave us over, the universal sign for Hurry up. Years of spending afternoons at the beach kicked in, andI swam after him, barely remembering to turn on the waterproof flashlight we’dgotten along with the scuba gear. Night had fallen a while ago, and withoutRed’s fire magic, it was pitch black in the water. Not good. It would beextremely difficult to replace whatever Mask was hiding in these conditions.

“You think we’re going to have enough air to last until wereplace her?” I asked worriedly.

Orange’s voice sounded strange and sloshy, probably becausewe were in the water. “Hopefully. If not, we’re going to have to come back tothe surface and dive down again. It could take all night.”

“All night?!” Red demanded. “Hold on, RT, that can’t beright. I’m not staying down here the whole night.”

“I don’t think it really matters anymore what you want,Red,” Orangereplied dryly. “So if you don’t want to literally spend the night with thefishes, I suggest you start searching.”

I dived lower, searching the ocean floor. Nothing. Orange was probablyright; this really could take all night. Possibly more.

Fortunately for us, however, it didn’t.

“Hey, you guys,” Green reported, her voice crackling. “Ijust found something here. It looks pretty sus – WHOA!!!”

Then silence. Almost deafening silence.

“Green?” I asked, the water around me suddenly feeling muchtoo cold. “Green?”

There was no reply. Not good.

“Red! Orange!Green just – ”

“I know,” Orangeresponded. “She disappeared. There’s this weird thing… I’m – ”

And then Orange’s voice cut off midsentence, completesilence following. My eyes widened.

“Orange?”

No reply.

“Orange! What’s going on?!”

He still didn’t reply, and my body went limp, dead in thewater, fear paralyzing my entire body. Whathappened?

“Red?! Red, are you still there?” I demanded, looking allaround me. It was too dark. I was completely blind, and it was beyondterrifying.

PleaselethimbetherePleaselethimbetherePleaselethimbethere…

“I’m right here,” he replied, much to my relief. “I see you.Don’t move, I’ll be there in a second. What happened to the other two?”

“I don’t know! They just vanished out of nowhere!” I waspanicking by now, my voice rising.

“Not good. Blue, do you see me?”

I did. It wasn’t hard, his eyes were glowing. “Yeah. This isbad. I think Mask booby-trapped the whole place.”

“Maybe. That’s possi… Huh?!”

At which point, right in front of my eyes, Red disappeared.

“Red?! Red?!”

Nothing again. No reply.

“Red, this isn’t funny! Answerme!”

Still no reply.

“Red, please! Orange, Green?! Somebodysay something! Anything!”

Complete silence.

I was all alone.

Nobody’s coming tohelp you.

At that point, everything just stopped working.

Can you imagine that kind of terror? Picture yourselfsomewhere no one else can reach, and everything’s pitch black except the faintlight of your tiny flashlight, a light too feeble to even begin to penetratethat crushing, overpowering blackness. Everyone you care about has justvanished without a trace into that awful darkness, and no matter how loud youscream, they’re not answering. After a while, your brain registers that it’shopeless – and at that point, you give up. You can’t breathe, can’t feel, can’tmove a single tiny bit. Everything goes limp, and your eyesight blurs fromsheer, absolute terror, not that it matters because of that soul-crushingblackness. And there’s only one thought running through your head, over andover again:

Please don’t leave mealone again. I don’t want to be left behind again. Don’t leave me all alonehere, please, please, please don’t leave me all alone here…

It felt like a dream, only worse, because this was reallife.

I might’ve died down there. Everything in me had alreadygiven up. Spectrum might’ve been doomed.

And then, out of nowhere, I spotted a tiny flash of lightsomewhere in that darkness.

At first I thought I’d imagined it. What kind of weirdocoincidence is that? But then it appeared again, just for a second, just longenough for me to pinpoint exactly where it was and start swimming toward itlike it was my last shred of hope. Which it was.

I reached the light and hovered over it, hoping againsthope. And then, to my complete and utter shock, there was a sudden, faint burstof light from something down below.

It was a circle of rocks, with a symbol in the middle: twomasks, one happy, one sad. I immediately recognized it as the symbol of Mask.

So, without even thinking about what I was doing, I divedtoward it.

For a second, nothing happened.

And then I was thrown into what felt like the biggestwashing machine in the world.

Water slammed me in the face, tossed me upside down andbackward and right side up again, jerking me down, into Mask’s symbol. Isqueezed my eyes shut and braced myself for the impact – that never came.

I shot straight through and into a place that I can’t reallydescribe for you, because all I knew after that was water and spinning andhaving my scuba mask wrenched off from the force and thinking, I’m going to be SO dizzy when this thing isover.

And then whatever it was spat me out at the other end, whereI collided with something that immediately grunted, “OOF!!!” in a voice thatsounded like a dream come true.

I had to cough up what seemed like a gazillion tons of saltwater before I could even try to choke out, “Red!”

“The one and only.” Red eyed me, looking concerned. “Whoa.You’re a mess.”

“Like you’re looking so much better,” I responded, becausehe looked just as bad as I did, hair and clothes sopping wet, eyes red from thesalt water. (Well, redder anyway.) We were in an empty room surrounded by solidmetal walls. I glanced behind, wondering what I’d just come through, but therewas nothing there, just flat, smooth metal. The only way out was a thick metaldoor protected by a keypad. It looked exactly like the type of place where Maskwould hide Violet.

Hmm. Maybe we’d actually had a lucky break.

Green appeared behind Red, looking exhausted but happy.

“You made it,” she said to me, sounding relieved. “Wewould’ve come back for you, only it looks like this is a one-way portal. Areyou hurt anywhere?”

I shook my head, suddenly remembering why we were here inthe first place. “Where exactly are we? And what do you mean, portal?”

“Ingenious,” Orangemused. He was standing in front of the wall, inspecting it. “To be able tobuild a portal like this, that performs its duties independently… It must’vetaken quite a bit of magic, along with careful preparations. And to have theother end located on the ocean floor… One of the only good things you’llprobably ever hear me say about Mask is that he’s a genius.”

“So are you,” Red pointed out. “Now quit geeking out overthe wall and come on. We’d better move before somebody decides to open thatdoor and replace us in here.”

At which point, the door opened to reveal three guards wholooked extremely surprised to discover us in the room.

“Too late,” he sighed.

One of them opened his mouth to yell, but I clamped bothhands together, calling out, “Vacancy Compression!” All three guards reachedtoward their throats simultaneously and promptly passed out.

“Whoa.” Red whistled, staring at the defeated guards. “Canyou teach me how to do that?”

“I would, but I highly doubt you’d be able to pull it off.”

I carefully stepped over the guards and entered a widetunnel, lit by a couple of lanterns hanging from the walls. They obviouslyhadn’t bothered reinforcing this area with metal, seeing as the walls were justsolid rock, like the walls in any kind of underground cavern. There were even acouple of stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

But I barely took in any of this, mostly because the firstthing I noticed was the cold.

The overpowering, teeth-chattering, get-me-out-of-here-before-I-freeze-to-deathcold.

My diving suit had been ripped apart by the portal, makingthe insulation useless, and I was dripping wet, which really didn’t helpmatters. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Green hug her shoulders, teethchattering uncontrollably, and even Orangelooked uncomfortable, rubbing his arms to warm them up. So I turned to Red.

“Mind giving us a little heat?”

“Yeah, sure.”

I was immediately blasted by a wave of heat, and his bodyslowly began glowing bright red, like an actual heater. I sighed.

“Much better. Thanks.”

“No problem.”

The problem with the temperature solved, Green turned herattention to a more serious issue. “Which way do we go from here? This place isa total maze!”

Unexpectedly, both Red and Orange blurted out “Right” at theexact same time, then stared at each other like they’d both just found out theyboth had an obsession with eating shoes.

Green looked from one to the other, a dumbfounded look onher face. “Okaaay. When did you two get synchronized minds?”

Orangejust raised an eyebrow as Red shrugged.

“I don’t even know. I just… I just feel like we should go right.”

“You just feel likewe should go right,” she repeated dubiously.

“Uh. Yeah.”

“And that’s not creepy at all,” Green muttered. “Guess we’reheaded right, then.”

She headed to the right, leaving us to follow. Which we did,of course, because truth be told, the place was pretty creepy. Even with Red’sheat, there was a chill in the air, the kind of chill that meant terror anddeath and everything else associated with Mask. Which was probably actually agood thing. It meant we were in the right place.

We’d been walking two minutes before Red and Orange both stiffened andwarned us of incoming guards.

At the exact same time.

Again.

It was beginning to creep me out.

“How do you even know that?”I demanded, because really, it was totally unfair that only the boys got toknow this stuff.

Orangestudied me for a second before deciding not to answer, while Red just shook hishead.

“I don’t know. Something’stelling me where to go, what to do… It feels like my magic, but not really, atthe same time. Kinda like Rogue City, only not really.”

“Kinda like Rogue City, but not really,” Irepeated slowly, an idea forming. “What if – ”

“ALERT. ALERT. HOSTILE INTRUDERS. DESTROY AT ALL COSTS.”

And, like an idiot, I’d totally forgotten about the guards.

“They’re protecting this place with Robo-cops?!” Red asked, a grin making its way across his face. “Sweet!”

And before anyone could say anything at all, he was runningat the robots, grabbing one by the laser arm, and slamming it into another,smashing both of them to bits.

“Oh, for chocolate’s sake,” Green sighed, and ran to help.

“Tornado Barrage!” I called, sending a flurry of spinningwinds toward the baddies and sweeping most of them off their feet. Red’s flamestook them out a second later, sending twisted chunks of molten metal rainingdown on us. He cracked a dangerous grin.

“Who wants more?”

And, of course, because Robo-cops are some of the stupidestthings in the world, the rest of them charged us all at once.

Something shot out like lightning, coiling around two of therobots. Green smiled darkly, a rare sight, and yanked, snapping them both inhalf with a whip of thorny vines.

I made a mental note to never classify Green as just a healer ever again.

More robots poured out from wherever, replacing the oneswe’d already destroyed, but Orangewas there, disabling them almost the instant they appeared. He looked almost bored, and I was reminded yet again thatour techie was probably one of the most terrifying people in Spectrum, despiteall appearances. And that I shouldn’t forget it. Or else.

And then the enemy wised up.

I blew up a robot by expanding the air inside it, thenlooked up to replace that the stream of robots had stopped. But something else wasapproaching through the smoke and fire, something that looked vaguely familiar…

“You again?!” Red demanded, sounding dumbfounded.

And my eyes widened as Kyore stepped out of the smoke andsmiled through his armor.

“Well, well, well. What a coincidence, meeting you all here.”