Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Lucas)

Yellowton.

Mask’s main headquarters, and the city most set against the Seven. Nicknamed the Land of Happiness for its huge amounts of casinos, amusement parks, and malls. It’s also called the Land of Sunshine, because Yellowton happens to be the hottest city around in the summer. So people alternate between Yellowton and Sapphire City for vacation spots – Yellowton in winter, Sapphire City in summer. A pretty decent arrangement.

That is, if you’re not a member of the Seven who really hates crowds. And seeing as it was winter at the current moment, I wasn’t doing too well.

Kari moved through the tightly packed crowd of people like she was walking down a completely empty street. As for me, well, let’s just say I wasn’t doing as well as she was.

“Sorry, excuse me, oops, pardon me – oof!”

That last part was because I faceplanted into an extremely fat dude who’d stepped directly in my path. He glowered at me.

“Watch where you’re going, filth.”

Okay, so I’ve mentioned that Yellowton is the place with the most Mask-supporters, right? Guess how I reacted to that one.

Kari stopped me before I could punch him in the face and run for it. “Burgh?”

The fat dude forgot about me in an instant. “Kari! What’re you doing here?”

“Oh, nothing.” She examined her fingernails, smiling. “Just a little job here and there. What have you been up to?”

“Well, you know, around,” Burgh said, extremely vaguely. “So, uh, how’re you doing?”

“All right. Well, I don’t have much time to chat, so I guess I’ll have to say goodbye here.” She flashed him a sweet smile and grabbed onto my arm. I scowled at her. Back off.

“You know this puny idiot?” he asked, giving me a look of pure disgust.

“Oh, he’s the one I’m doing the job for. See you later!” Kari gave a little wave and practically dragged me away.

I glared at her and jerked away as soon as he was out of sight. “Who was that guy? One of your boyfriends?”

“What makes you think that I’m dating anyone?”

“Oh, please,” I snorted. “You act as if I haven’t met you.”

“Boys are fun to string around, I’ll admit.” She flashed me an indecipherable look. “But a serious relationship isn’t really my kind of thing. And isn’t the whole dating thing a promise to have a serious relationship?”

I gave her a long, level look. “And why is that?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know? We’re almost there, so keep your mind on the subject, Lucas. Priorities are, after all, priorities.” And with this cryptic response, she spun around and continued walking.

I followed, trying to keep a lid on my unreasonable irritation. What did Kari’s past life matter to me? I didn’t need to know everything she’d been through.

But something about her annoyed me to no end. The way she seemed to know more about me than she let on. The fact that she probably knew exactly who I was and could turn me in at any moment. (Actually, I should probably say would.) But the way I’d found out about her in the first place was the thing that worried me the most.

She’d done work for Mask. That, I knew extremely well. Kari was one of Fallon’s well-known military contacts, and it was from him that I’d first learned about her.

Kari Shine is my main hired hacker, he’d told me. She’s the best, from what I know. But her loyalties are unclear. Shine is the type who will do anything for anyone, at the right price. Once you pay her to do a job, you can trust her to get the job done – but at what cost, you will never know. If you are ever unfortunate enough to have to rely on her and her alone, do not trust her with any more information than you must. Not under any circumstances.

Well, I’d already pretty much smashed a million of Fallon’s rules by helping a member of the Seven, so one more shouldn’t really matter.

“Here it is.” Kari’s voice broke into my thoughts. “Yellowton Prison. When do you want to strike?”

Yellowton Prison was strangely vacant, a welcome contrast to the crushing crowds in the rest of the city. (I guess no one wanted to see criminals when there were more interesting things to be doing, like gambling or whatever.) The building was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence that was buzzing with electricity, and there was a row of thorn bushes behind that. The building itself looked innocent enough, but I knew there were enough traps and sensors in there to destroy an army.

“Dark,” I replied shortly.

“I was hoping you’d be a little more specific.”

“All right, fine. After sunset.”

“Really, Lucas, dear, do you expect me to be able to read minds?”

“Hour after sunset, then.”

“That would mean we have an hour, seeing as the sun happens to be setting. And what do you propose we do for this hour?”

I was already walking away. “I’ll be doing some recon. You can do whatever you want. Just be back here on time.”

“That’ll do. Well, I’ll see you then.”

I didn’t respond, instead choosing to duck into a dark alleyway and vanish. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

I really didn’t need to do any reconnaissance, seeing as I’d been here who knows how many times. It was an excuse to get Kari out of the way so I could rest for a bit and gather my thoughts.

Violet’s pale face floated into my thoughts, all wide amethyst eyes. I’d hated having to leave her behind, but I didn’t have a choice. Not if I wanted to get out of there alive.

Sorry, Vi. I know I promised we’d get out together.

But then the image changed. Violet eyes became brilliant ocean blue, the worn red cloak faded away to be replaced by a tattered gray blanket. A smile appeared on the new girl’s face as she held out something to me.

A bright red apple.

My eyes flew open. Not again.

I had to stop thinking about the past. Focus on right now, Lucas.

That’s what she would’ve wanted.

I bit my lip, then got up. I still had a while before I had to meet Kari, so I really needed something to do.

Let’s see why Yellowton’s called the Land of Happiness.

Forty-five minutes of using my invisibility to sneak into amusement parks and such later, I was waiting by the Yellowton Prison.

Kari was late. As expected.

If I had a watch, I’d be staring at it and stomping my foot in exasperation.

Where in the world is she?

I seriously did not want to leave Violet at the mercy of Argot for any longer than necessary. A feeling that was not, apparently, shared by Kari Shine.

“Impatient, aren’t you?”

I scowled at Kari, who’d just materialized out of nowhere. “You’re late.”

“Sorry, Lucas dear, traffic was terrible.” She studied the building, a smile appearing on her lips. “Shall we get started? If my memory serves correct, you should have examined the perimeters. So tell me, where do we enter?”

“The roof. There are only three guards up there. I can take those guys out easy.”

“Really. And how do you propose we get up to the roof?”

“Follow me.”

Using the shadows made by the bushes for cover, I led Kari to a corner of the fence.

“The wiring’s damaged here,” I explained. “So the electricity doesn’t work in this one place. But it’s only big enough for you to stick your hand into. Can you turn off a power source without a passcode?”

“Darling, I can do something that easy in my sleep. Where is it?”

“Right there.” I motioned to a silver box attached to the fence. “Just mess with the wiring or whatever. But be careful, that thing can give one heck of a shock if it thinks you’re doing something not-so-good to it. This place has seriously good technology.”

“Of course it does. After all, this is a very…particular prison.”

I didn’t reply. What reply could I give? But I kept my hand on my sword, just in case.

Kari stepped in front of me, then bent over and did something that I couldn’t see but involved strange crackling noises. She was finished in about two seconds, then tapped the fence with a finger to show that the electricity was gone.

“Perfectly safe. Now I assume we scale the fence?”

“You assume right. Need a boost?”

“Please, hon, you act as if I’ve never done anything like this before.” Kari grabbed the fence and practically skipped over to the other side as well as I could. I followed, frowning.

“I thought you were a hacker.” I kept my voice low, to prevent any of the guards hearing me. There were none in sight, but this place was teeming with them on a regular day. Now that Violet was here, there were probably even more.

“There’s no rule saying that hackers can’t climb now, is there?” was the reply. “Now how do you suppose we get across that?”

She motioned to the wide open space between the fence and the building. The spotlights blazing onto it made the whole thing as bright as day. Kari did have a point, no one short of a ghost could pass through that without getting seen by either one of the security cameras or a guard.

Unless, of course, you had the same advantage that ghosts did – invisibility.

I tapped the camouflage device hooked to my pants. “This should do it.”

“Oh, really? And what about the thermal sensors?”

“No thermal sensors out here. They were going to get some in, but they haven’t arrived yet. The inside’s loaded with them, though.”

“You sound like you know a lot about this place. Are you sure you haven’t…been here before?” Her tone was teasing, meant to throw me off.

I scowled and used her own quote. “Wouldn’t you like to know? Let’s move. We can’t stand here chatting all night, you know.”

“That would definitely be a bad option,” she agreed. “But one simple thing – are you sure that device works for two people?”

I held out my hand, inwardly shuddering at the close contact, but knowing it couldn’t be helped. “Let’s find out.”

She took it.

I vanished both of us, then dashed across the field as fast as I could, keeping my footsteps light and quick. Kari kept up easily, another trait I found out of place. What kind of a hacker was this physically fit?

But of course, she does it for hire, so that probably means she gets jobs like this a lot, I decided. I highly doubted that the answer was that simple, but it was the best I could do.

“All right. Once we get inside, there’ll be motion and heat sensors, traps, lasers, guards guard dogs, the works. You ready?”

“Please. Is that all?”

I took this as a yes.

“There’s a ladder around the corner. They use it for repairs and stuff like that. Problem is, there’ll most likely be guards posted there. So here’s the deal: You go for the ladder, I take out the guards. Got it?”

She nodded, and we both slipped around the corner, invisible.

This was where it got tricky. For Kari to get the ladder, she and I had to split up. Which would immediately make her visible. But I couldn’t get it myself, because what kind of idiot sent a hacker to do the fighting?

Kari let go before I did, turning visible. She immediately slipped into the shadows, which really didn’t help at all, her blond hair standing out like a highlight against the dull gray wall.

So of course, the guards, being not blind and all, spotted her at once.

“Hey!” one of them cried, but that was all he managed to say before I slammed the hilt of my sword into the back of his head and he collapsed like a ton of bricks.

“Barry!” the other guy gasped, whipping out his stun baton, but I smashed it out of his hand with the flat of my blade and conked him over the head with it as well.

“Who’re you?” the third and final one growled, deflecting my sword with his baton. (A really nice move, seeing as my sword was two feet longer.) He hurled a knife at me, which I deflected, wincing at the sharp, metallic sound that rang out way too audibly. This wasn’t good.

Then, out of nowhere, he hit the ground just like his two buddies had.

Kari stood behind him, ladder in hand, one eyebrow raised. She’d apparently whacked him on the head with it.

I scowled. “I had it under control.”

“I got bored,” was the response. “Now hurry up, superhero. We have a jail to break into.”

She leaned the ladder against the wall and skipped up exactly the same way she’d scaled the fence. I grabbed the rungs and followed.

We were met at the top by a guy the size of a truck, with bulging muscles and a nasty scar across his face.

“Hi,” was all he said before whipping a gigantic spiky club at me.

I ducked it, then kicked at his legs, trying to trip him. The kick collided directly with his shin, which had to hurt right?

He just laughed.

The guy was wearing shin guards. These guards were prepared.

“That kick reminded me of some kid I met. One I seriously dislike. And since you reminded me of him, you’re now officially on my dislike list too,” he growled.

“That’s nice. Do I get a lollipop?” I lunged, but he smashed my sword aside, knocking it out of my hands. The amount of raw power this guy had was crazy.

“Nope,” he replied, bringing his club down. I rolled, barely managing to avoid it.

And then Kari slammed a foot into his face in a kick worthy of me. Right into his ugly scar.

“That’s not nice,” she lectured, landing on her feet as lightly as a cat. “You should always give out lollipops.”

“You little brat!” He whipped the club at her, but she flipped over it. I lunged at him from behind, managing to slice a gash in his side as he twisted away.

He cursed. “Harold, where are you?! I need backup!”

Out of nowhere, a guy just as big as he was exploded out of the door leading inside. I gritted my teeth.

This wasn’t exactly in my plans. But there was no way out of it now. All I could do was kick these idiots’ butts and try to break Violet out without ringing too many alarm bells.

Or not, I suddenly realized. There’s no need to kick their butts.

I dived low, sliding between the first guy’s legs. He whirled around and slammed the club down, barely catching my leg and scraping a gash in it. I gritted my teeth and ran toward the door, Kari following. The two goons scrambled after us, but we had gravity on our side – they weighed a lot more than we did. I flew through the door like lightning, Kari blasting through at the last minute and slamming it shut.

“We gotta hurry,” I told her, already sprinting down the hallway as quietly as possible. “They know we’re here. From now on, it’s gonna be chaos.”

“I’d already gleaned that tiny bit of information from the fact that there are two extremely large men on the other side of that door attempting to kill us,” she replied dryly.

“I’m glad you understand.”

Suddenly, the room exploded in sound. In the desperate race to the door, I’d forgotten about the alarms. But it wasn’t as if it mattered anymore.

“Just run!” I yelled, giving up on stealth altogether. We took a right at the end of the corridor, then a left, then leaped down a flight of stairs. I’d memorized Violet’s cell number, and it had to be somewhere near here…

“Corridor Seven,” I muttered. “That’s here. So she’s gotta be at the end…”

And then I froze, icy shock and horror filling my veins. The cell at the end…was completely empty.

“Well, it appears we’ve taken a wrong turn,” Kari commented, much too calmly, in my opinion.

“That’s impossible. She’s gotta be here.” My mind whirled, trying to piece together the puzzle and failing. “Corridor Seven. This is the only place she could be.”

“Well, Lucas dear, it appears they’ve moved her.”

“But where would they move her?” I bit my lip angrily. “This is the one place where…”

Kari tapped a finger against her chin. “Now think, hon. If you were Mask, would you really keep a member of the Seven where the general public thinks they’re kept? Much too risky, isn’t it?”

“She was here four days ago!”

“So maybe they kept her here first. But just one thing…” Kari’s eyes narrowed. “You are trying to break out a member of the Seven, aren’t you?”

My own eyes narrowed back. “What makes you think that?”

“I specifically said a member of the Seven. Not criminal, or even high-priority criminal. I said a member of the Seven, and you didn’t deny it.”

I mentally cursed myself, glaring daggers at her. “So what? That’s none of your bu – ”

“There they are!”

I spun around to see a huge group of guards charging toward us. The corridor was a dead end. There was no way out except to fight them all.

So that’s what I did.

I ran forward, whipping out my sword and blindly charging through the crowd. There wasn’t any need to fight – all I needed to do was get out. Metal clanged against metal, sparks flying everywhere as I ducked and wove my way through the guards. Somewhere in the back of my mind I could hear Kari’s shouts as she flew after me, both of us desperate to get out of the jail and figure out our next move. That is, if we got out alive.

“There are too many of them!” Kari yelled, ducking a punch. She’d found a stun baton somewhere and was using it to whack the guards silly. “Any ideas?!”

I gritted my teeth. “We need to break through!”

“I already said…” She slammed the baton mercilessly into a guard, who howled, then jabbed it into another’s stomach. “There are too many!”

I gritted my teeth. How could I have been so stupid?

Why hadn’t I thought things through? Why hadn’t I just paused for a minute to think?

That stubbornness of yours is going to get you killed one day, Fallon had told me. Why hadn’t I listened?

I deflected a blow, then turned invisible, smashing through a group of guards only to see another standing in my way. I charged them, but one managed to get off a lucky hit, making me see stars. I materialized with a gigantic headache, scowling.

Kari landed next to me after performing a perfect flip over a fallen guard. “I don’t see any way out. What was your original plan, anyway?”

“If we make it to Corridor Seven, I’ll show you,” I panted, slamming a foot into the stomach of a guard.

“Lucas, dear, I doubt we’d be able to move a foot in these conditions.”

“Well, we have to make it to Corridor Seven, because if we don’t – ”

“Listen to the lady, private, she happens to be correct,” a very familiar, creaky voice interrupted. I froze, my blood running cold.

“Argot.”

Mask’s pet assassin strolled down the hall, the guards moving aside and leaving as he did. They probably knew just as well as I did that once he was here, it was all over.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Miss Shine here as well! I thought you were loyal to Mask, unlike all the other drooling buffoons who oppose.”

Kari regarded him calmly, much too calmly, in my opinion. “I’m not loyal to anyone, dearie, except myself.”

“I see. I assume Lucas here agreed to pay you in exchange for your services?”

“You assume correct.”

Argot shook his head. “Whatever am I to do with you, Miss Shine? You were only working for the money, so it seems an awful shame to arrest you, especially when someone of your services could be so helpful to my master’s plans. So here’s what I’ll do. If I pay you your fee, would you be so kind as to turn the other way and pretend this entire debacle did not happen?”

“I might be persuaded,” was the reply, with no surprise to me. Why should she stay? It was only a job for her, after all. I was the one who screwed up, so I had to pay the price. It was only business.

Then why did I feel so angry at her for leaving?

“Well, then, here is your fee. The standard is one hundred Lures, if memory serves correct.” He held out a stack of bills, which Kari took.

“Sorry, Lucas dear,” she told me with a smile. “Nothing personal, but I do have a life to live, you know.”

“No need for apologies,” I replied coldly. “I never expected you to stick around anyway.”

“Well, this is where I’ll take my leave, then. Goodbye to both of you.”

She strolled down the corridor and disappeared around the corner. Argot watched, humming a tune I didn’t recognize.

“I’ll take care of her soon,” he commented. “She knows too much, and after all, the villains should never have to pay.”

I ignored this, gripped the handle of my sword, and struck as fast as I could, using the moment of distraction. But to no avail – Argot blocked the strike with his cane as easily as if he were catching a ball, without even looking at me.

“Now, now, Lucas,” he chided. “Let’s not get too cheeky. After all, I am perfectly capable of ending your life right now.”

“Where’s Violet?” I growled. “What did you do to her?”

“Violet? Oh, you mean that pathetic whiny brat?” He turned to face me and smiled a terrifying smile. “I simply gave her what she deserved.”

My knuckles turned white as my hands clenched. “She’s only ten years old, you monster.”

“Babies die at birth all the time.” He waved it away like it was nothing, which to Argot, it was. “Is this really any different? You’re standing in my master’s way, therefore you must be eliminated.”

I struck again, slamming my sword into his cane with a fury that probably could’ve pushed even Fallon back. He didn’t even budge.

“Why do you even care about her so much, anyway? Is it simply because she is one of you? Or is it for another reason? One involving another girl?” Argot’s eyes glinted with malice. “One that you lost?”

The words hit hard. I slashed blindly, trying and failing to hold back my anger. “I’ll kill you. All by myself if I have to. I’ll kill you!”

“Been there, done that. I must say, I thought you’d be able to entertain me for a bit longer than this. This is getting tiresome. I think I’ll end it now.”

The blows came fast now, faster than lightning. I barely managed to deflect the first one, and didn’t even have a hope of blocking the second. The third was a feint, the fourth a blur I barely even saw. I lashed out wildly, with no luck whatsoever. His cane slammed into my face with a sickening crack, then while the room spun, he delivered a kick to the back of my head. I hit the ground, the room spinning wildly out of control.

“Eight hits. I’m getting old,” he tutted, shaking his head. I pushed myself up on my hands and knees, then fell. Everything was blinking in and out of focus, slowly fading away.

The last thing I saw was Argot’s smug face looking down at me.

“Sweet dreams, Lucas,”he cackled as the world went black.

“See you in your nightmares.”