Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Blue)

Red and I jerked away from each other with lightning speed.

The instant I spun around, I found myself staring at the last person I’d expected to see standing behind me.

“G-Green?!”

“The one and only.” Green folded her arms. “So what in the world were you two doing while I was gone?”

“Nothing!” I squeaked at the exact same time as Red drawled,

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

She raised an eyebrow. “… Uh-huh. I leave for a couple of hours, and everything falls apart, doesn’t it.”

“What made you decide to come back?” I asked, because in my opinion, a subject change was greatly needed at the current moment. To my relief, Green didn’t press the issue – just shrugged and replied,

“I had to come back. Where was I supposed to go? I went off to steam for a while and now I’m back. So, I know the answer’s probably no, but did you at least try to come up with some kind of plan while I was gone?”

Red and I exchanged looks.

“Um,” I said.

“Funny story about that, actually…” he coughed.

I gave my best guilty look and told the truth. “Nope. Not at all.”

Green sighed. “You guys are useless.”

“Actually, I do have a plan,” Orange cut in, stepping out from behind Green and making me jump. I’d completely forgotten about him, what with all the chatting Red and I had done. “While these two were having their little moment and you were off ‘steaming,’ I sat down and did some thinking. And I’ve managed to narrow things down a little.”

Green glanced at him, and to my surprise, she didn’t say anything harsh to him. Just nodded and asked, “Like how?”

It was strangely, eerily… normal.

Almost to the point where it was disturbing.

I mean, I’d been expecting some yelling and angry looks. At least the Silent Treatment, you know?

But then here was Green, acting as if nothing were wrong, not looking irritated at him at all.

Something didn’t feel right.

But, of course, Orange didn’t even bat an eye at that. “Well, she’s not in Yellowton. According to the records I just hacked into, they transferred her. Unfortunately, they didn’t think to mention where.”

“Okay, so that just leaves the other six ginormous cities she could be in,” Red replied dryly. “How is that supposed to help?”

“I’m getting there. She’s not in Orange Village, either. There aren’t any prisons or secure places there except SPACE, and frankly, we’ve already searched that.”

“Completely decimated is more like it,” I couldn’t help putting in.

“Searched, decimated, the semantics aren’t important. So she’s not in Yellowton or Orange Village. I highly doubt she’s in Greene Wood, since their prisons are mostly made out of wood, which wouldn’t be very effective against Red’s fire magic. And speaking of not very effective, let’s just rule out Indigo Island and Sapphire City too. Sapphire City is Blue’s city. It fuels her magic, so she’ll have a lot more energy there than anywhere else, and Argot’s not going to want that in an opponent. Indigo Island is the most Mask-resistant city, so we definitely would have heard about some kind of fight if he tried to move anything there. So that narrows it down to Rogue City and Viole Town.”

Everyone but Orange’s jaws dropped.

“What?” he asked, sounding slightly miffed by the astonished looks.

“Did you,” Red asked faintly, “just narrow it down from pretty much a million places to two?”

“How is that even possible?” I wondered aloud.

Orange raised his eyebrows. “Common sense? Logic?”

“Being the supergenius known as Orange?” Red suggested.

Green just shook her head. “Unbelievable. So, I assume we head to one of those cities now?”

“Viole. Rogue City is out for the same reason as Sapphire City, so I’d say Viole.” Orange paused. “But it might leave us with insufficient time to search anywhere else if I’m wrong.”

“Uh… RT, I think you’re doing your math wrong,” Red cut in. “It takes five days to get from Rogue City to Viole if you have a car, which we don’t. Even if we are a little farther south than that, we’ve already wasted three days doing whatever. We’re not going to make it in time. Especially since we don’t have any means of transportation whatsoever.”

Orange actually smirked. “Think outside of the box, Red. Who said we didn’t have any means of transportation whatsoever?”

I couldn’t believe we were doing this again.

We were either really crazy, really stupid, or really desperate. My bet would be on stupid.

Because seriously – why would we be doing this if we weren’t?

At Orange’s insistence, we’d hiked south for over two hours until we reached Orange Village. Once in the village, he’d led us somewhere along a path that took another hour, pausing, for some reason, to have Red steal a blonde wig. (Note to self: Do not put any valuable items near Red if you don’t want him getting to them. The guy could steal an elephant and lead it out the front door without anyone knowing.) My feet ached like crazy, but all of that was forgotten when Orange finally told us what he had in mind.

It was crazy.

And stupid.

And absolutely insane.

So insane, I had to double-check to see if it was Red who was talking.

To my actual and complete shock, it wasn’t.

So, I was forced to accept the reality that Orange, usually one of the more rational ones of the group, had gone totally, absolutely nuts.

“You did it in Yellowton, didn’t you?” he pointed out. “It worked then.”

“Uh, yeah. That was because we crash-landed inside the fence,” I argued. “We can’t do that now. For one thing, I can’t carry all of you. I’ll drop somebody or pass out. Plus, did you see the spotlights around the fence? These guys’re serious about their airport security! We can’t sneak in past there, much less into an airplane!”

“Who said anything about sneaking in?” he asked calmly. “We’re going to stroll in and board just like any other citizens.”

“Like how?”

“Like this. Here you go.”

He tossed something at me, and I instinctively reached up. It smacked into my hand: a passport, with the name Lani Periwinkle. Inside, I found an ID with the same name.

“You made this?” I asked, stunned.

“Of course I made it. Where else do you think I got it from? The sky?”

Red snatched his out of the air and flipped it open, pulling out his own ID. “Ryan Peterson? Hey, how’d you know this is the name I like to use?”

“How long have I known you?”

“Point taken.”

Green held hers up, looking dumbfounded. “I get how you knew his, but how’d you know my old alias? I never told you it!”

Orange sighed. “Are you really going to ask me that?”

She paused. “You hacked into something, huh?”

“Your school records. Good job with the perfect attendance, by the way. Let’s move. If we’re not there by nine, we’ll have to wait three more hours, and frankly, I’d rather not waste any more time than we already have.”

He set off toward the airport lights.

“He’s been busy, hasn’t he?” I remarked.

“Only him,” Green sighed, shaking her head. “Only him.”

Red was already jogging after Orange. “Come on, you two! Last one there’s a slimy Mask supporter!”

(Red)

Blue, I learned, had the role of ditzy mall girl down so well it was almost inhuman.

Or maybe it was just the curly blond hair that threw me off. I wasn’t used to seeing Blue as a clueless blonde. Or a clueless anything, for that matter.

“Can you, like, even believe it?” she gushed. “We’re totally going to have, like, sooo much fun on this trip! OMG! I can’t even wait!”

“Dude,” Orange said, sounding bored. “Calm down. The flight’s gonna take, like, hours. Just chill, okay?”

… Okay, so maybe ditzy mall Blue weirded me out. But bored surfer dude Orange?

Now that was terrifying.

“How can you even say that?! I can’t wait! I just wanna, like, get on the plane and zoom!” She threw out her arms for emphasis, accidentally hitting some guy. He scowled at her, but she just giggled like a pro. “Sorry! OMG, what is taking so long? Is it supposed to take this long?”

I pushed up my nerd glasses, pretending to almost drop the stack of books I’d swiped from a nearby bookstore. “Well, Lani, I think it – Wh-Whoa!”

“Got it!” Blue sang, stabilizing the book pile. “You’re, like, so clumsy, Ryan!”

I faked a laugh, trying my best to reproduce the line Orange had told me as best as possible. “Sorry! But apparently a larger part of my, uh, brain is dedicated to… smarts rather than… balance.”

But I must’ve gotten it wrong, because he glared at me. I ignored the glare as best I could, but it wasn’t easy.

(Seriously, you try having an Orange death glare trained on you. Ugh.)

“Tickets?” a bored security guard asked, making me jump. (And earn yet another dirty look from Orange.) I looked at Green, who stepped forward and handed him the tickets. (Add counterfeit to Orange’s list of talents – and crimes.) The guard scribbled something on them, then told us to take off our shoes and walk through the metal detector.

Standard procedure. Everything was going great.

Until, of course, it wasn’t.

The instant I stepped through the metal detector, the alarm went off.

My first thought was that I had to freeze. So I did.

My second was, Sweet cupcakes, that is REALLY loud.

My third was that we were screwed.

The security guard came rushing over. But luckily for me, so did Orange, Green, and Blue.

“Oh, for jellybeans’ sake,” Green complained, sounding exactly like the genuinely exasperated girl she was. “I told you to get rid of those glasses, like, a week ago!”

I played along, not that I had a choice. “Oh, come on! What’s wrong with my glasses? They still work, you know!”

“Please, Ryan. They set off the metal detector.”

“What’s going on here?” the security guard demanded.

“This happens all the time,” Green sighed theatrically. “I mean, I keep telling him to get some new glasses, at least the ones with the plastic frames, but he never listens!”

“I think his glasses set off the metal detector,” Blue informed the guard helpfully. “Sorry about that!”

“Well, even so, we can’t take the risk. Don’t move, kid.”

And the security guard proceeded to pat me down.

I almost burst out laughing. There were a million ways I could smuggle things into the airport even if he patted me down. These guys weren’t really all that well-trained, were they?

But then again, the typical Rogue City native was out for a wallet or a necklace, something to give them a bite to eat. Blowing up airports and airplanes was more of an insane criminal kind of thing.

More, I suddenly realized, of something Argot would do. The person these guys worked for.

Talk about ironic.

The guard stepped back, apparently satisfied. “Okay, kid, looks like you’re clean.”

I nodded politely and turned around, about to just stroll away and pretend this never happened.

And I came so close to doing it, too.

Suddenly, a hand clamped down on my shoulder. Orange.

“On the count of three,” he hissed, glancing at the security guard, who was listening to something on his walkie-talkie, “Run.”

“What? Why?”

“One.”

Blue sidled up to us, Green behind her. “What’s going on?”

“Two.”

The security guard slipped his walkie-talkie back onto his belt and turned toward us. His expression was angry.

“Three!”

Orange bolted, and I had no choice but to follow.

The metal detector went off again as he passed through, chaos exploding inside the airport. People screamed and got the heck out of the way, dragging their kids along with them. (Which was good, because then we didn’t have to waste time knocking anyone over.) Others frantically demanded to know what was going on. Some looked at the security guards chasing us and joined them, hoping to become some kind of hero by catching us. (They probably would have – seven million dollars, remember?) And a few just looked up from their devices, shook their heads as this happened every day, and went back to whatever they were doing.

Those were my favorite.

“What the heck is going on?!” I demanded. “Why are we running?!”

“The metal detector doesn’t only detect metal,” Orange explained, frowning. We were now in the waiting area, a couple planes visible outside the windows. “Its programming allows it to detect the deoxyribonucleic acid of fugitives and alert both the main system and general public of its findings!”

“Which means what in English?!”

“The machine detected your DNA and told security we’re here!”

Green appeared to my left, her eyes hard. “What’re we supposed to do now?”

“Plan B!” Orange swerved to the right, toward a group of people who were boarding a plane.

“Plan B?! And what the heck is Plan B?!”

A corner of his mouth quirked upward. “These people are going to find out firsthand the true meaning of why you don’t say ‘hijack’ on a plane.”

“What?!”

“Flight to Viole Town, boarding now!” a cheery voice announced over the loudspeakers. How convenient.

Orange barreled through the crowd of people waiting for the door to the plane to open, and I finally realized what he had in mind.

I couldn’t hold back my grin. “Sweet!”

“What the heck are we doing?!” Green cried as we charged past the panicking people toward Orange.

I increased my speed, knowing we had to do this fast or not at all. “Something I’ve always wanted to do!”

“Which is?!”

“Hurry up!” Orange snapped.

The door to the plane was opening, the flight attendant probably having no idea what was about to happen. I ran even faster.

We exploded through the door just in time, almost knocking over the poor flight attendant that opened it. Orange unceremoniously shoved her out, then slammed the door shut behind us.

But we weren’t safe yet. We still had the pilot to deal with, plus the other attendants.

“I’ll deal with the attendants, you get the pilot,” I told Orange, and strolled toward the back of the plane. He nodded and headed the opposite way.

I found two flight attendants cowering in the back, looking like they were about to pee their pants.

“Are we going to die?!” one of them gasped.

I raised an eyebrow. “Not if you just stay there for the whole flight and don’t do anything stupid.”

“We won’t!” he promised fervently, and the other one nodded quickly.

I popped out my contacts and smirked, enjoying their looks of shock. “You sure about that?”

“We’re sure! We’re very, very sure!”

“All right then. That means everyone’s going to have a nice, peaceful flight.”

Just then, the engine rumbled to life, and I grinned. “Looks like he’s done.”

Five minutes later, the (former) pilot had joined the attendants in the back, and I was sitting across the aisle from Blue, downing a can of apple juice I’d found in the back.

“I cannot believe we just hijacked a plane,” she said.

“Welcome to the fugitive life,” I replied calmly.

“Red, we just hijacked a plane.”

“Again, welcome to the fugitive life.”

“How the heck can you be so calm about this?!”

I shrugged. “It’s easier than freaking out.”

She groaned. “I’m on a plane with a whole bunch of certified nutsos. I can’t believe this.”

I glanced at her. “So you’re not freaked out about riding on a flying motorcycle, sneaking into a plane, kicking a whole bunch of Argot’s minions’ butts, blowing up a house, or any of the other crazy stuff we did, but you’re freaked out about hijacking a plane?”

She paused. “Point taken.”

The fasten-seatbelt light made a pinging noise and turned off. Orange’s idea of a joke.

“So… Exactly how many hours is this flight supposed to last?” Green asked.

“I dunno. Ask the pilot,” I replied, pointing to the front.

Coincidentally (or maybe not – he could have supersonic hearing for all we knew), Orange chose that moment to announce though the intercom, “If nothing interrupts us, we should be in Viole in… oh, about six hours.”

“Guess that answers your question,” Blue shrugged.

But then he probably shouldn’t have said, “If nothing interrupts us.”

Because at that moment, something did.

“What the?!”

The shout echoed though the plane, and Green groaned.

“I knew this was going to happen. I knew it.”

At which point, the plane took a nosedive.

We all screamed as gravity went loopy and ears went pop. (The pilot had a surprisingly girly scream, I learned.)

“What the heck is going on in there?!” Green shrieked in the general direction of Orange.

“Sorry,” he called as the plane stabilized itself again. “Had to dodge the missile they fired at us.”

“You had to dodge the WHAT?!”

“You didn’t really think they’d just let us fly out of there, right?”

“We’re gonna die,” one of the flight attendants squeaked. “I want my mommy!”

“We’re not going to die,” Blue reassured him.

There was a pause.

“Right?”

I looked at her. “Do you want me to answer that honestly, or…?”

“Change of plans. We’re going to die.”

“You guys realize that this is the second flying piece of machinery we’ve been on today, right?” Green demanded, her voice getting higher as she panicked. “Why haven’t we learned?! Whose dumb idea was it to freaking hijack a plane?!”

“It was not a dumb idea, and we are not going to die, thank you very much,” Orange snapped. “You really think I haven’t considered the possibility that they might come after us?”

“Okay, you might be able to dodge a normal missile, but the second they send in a homing one, we’re – ”

KA-BOOM!!!

The entire plane shook, and my face smacked into a seat as I was knocked off my feet. The pilot and attendants screamed yet again, and Green demanded,

“What the heck just happened?!”

“Homing missile,” Orange replied, sounding just as calm as if he were telling her it was sunny outside.

“What?!” Green leaped to her feet.

Blue gasped. “Did it hit us?!”

“No. I blew it up.”

“You did what?!”

“In case you weren’t aware of the fact, my magic happens to work on missiles as well. So I simply detonated it before it came within range.” He paused. “I did miscalculate slightly, however. We got caught up in the backlash a little.”

“You scared me half to death!” Green snapped. “Do me a favor: Don’t miscalculate next time!”

“I wasn’t planning to!”

I got to my feet and shoved open a window, planning to scout ahead and see if there were any missiles heading our way. But I knew just as well as everyone else that it was useless. Orange knew they were coming way before they came close enough for me to see. Our lives were entirely in his hands now.

Exhaustion suddenly came over me, and I slumped into the seat. I hadn’t even gotten that much sleep last night in the first place because of that dream, and it was probably somewhere past midnight. I was ready to pass out, so having nothing else to do, I closed my eyes.

“Are you taking a nap?” Blue asked in disbelief.

I nodded without even bothering to open my eyes. “Aren’t you tired?”

“We are being attacked with missiles, and you are taking a nap.”

“Right. Good night, Blue.”

There was an exasperated sigh, and next thing I knew, she slid into the seat next to me. “Well, then, I hope you don’t snore, because I need one too.”

I shrugged. “How should I know if I snore or not? It’s not like I can hear myself when I sleep.”

“… Nobody ever told you?”

“Nope.”

She sighed. “Whatever. Good night, Red.”

“Night, Blue.”

I was out five seconds after the words left my mouth.