Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Lucas)

“Oh, for jellybeans’ sake.”

My eyes flew open, and I instinctively grabbed for my sword, remembering too late that I was in prison and it wasn’t there. I was still slightly out of it, the nightmares I’d been having for days haunting my thoughts. (Fallon hadn’t been kidding about those – he’d probably gotten some drugs in me or something.) My fingers closed around empty air as the voice continued, sounding exasperated,

“You’re not even trying to get out? You’re taking a nap? I thought you were better than this, Lucas dear.”

I looked up to see the very last person I’d have expected to see standing in my prison cell.

“Kari?!”

“The one and only.”

I was probably hallucinating, but I might as well play along. It wasn’t like I had anything else to do in this place.

“What the… Why the heck are you here?!”

She held a finger to her lips. “Keep your voice down, hon, we don’t want to inform all the guards of that certain bit of information, do we?”

“I thought you left,” I hissed, lowering my voice to a whisper. “Why are you here?”

She raised her eyebrows. “I was paid to do a job, Lucas, and once I’m paid, I’m obliged to finish the task. But we really shouldn’t be standing around chatting like this, should we? After all, wouldn’t you much rather be out there?”

A knowing smile appeared on her face. “Violet’s waiting, you know.”

I froze. “How did you…”

“Corridor Seven, wasn’t it? Really, do you think I’m stupid? Seven people, seven corridors. Of course it was Violet you were looking for.” She folded her arms. “But we need to leave now. More time to chat and catch up on things later. Follow me.”

Kari disabled the electronic lock on the door with no problem, pushing it open just a crack to see if anyone else was out there. The coast was clear, but she glanced back at me, asking, “I don’t suppose they let you keep the camouflage device?”

I felt for it, and to my surprise, it was there. “Actually, they did.”

After all, it was broken. They probably thought it was harmless.

A sloppy mistake they would pay for later.

“Then if you wouldn’t mind vanishing us, we should be on our way.”

I took her outstretched hand and vanished both of us, slipping out the door in the process. Kari took the lead from there, walking right past a group of clueless guards like she was strolling down the street.

“I need to get my sword,” I mouthed to her once the guards were out of earshot. “Do you know where it is?”

“I’m here to rescue you, Lucas, not your sword. You can get a new one later.”

“No, I can’t. Only places that work for Mask manufacture weapons, and if you haven’t noticed, he and I aren’t exactly best buddies.”

“And if you haven’t noticed, I’m the type of girl who happens to have acquaintances in some very… special places.”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “I’m beginning to wonder exactly what kind of things you’ve been doing.”

Kari gave me an indecipherable look. “Now is hardly the time or the place for that kind of thing, don’t you think?”

I didn’t reply, mostly because she was right. Priorities first, as I kept having to remind myself.

We reached a brightly lit hallway, and Kari stopped short. I did too, a second later.

“Damn,” I swore.

“You know him?” Kari asked, glancing at me.

“Yeah.” I dropped the invisibility, eyes narrowing at the man in front of me. “Or at least, I thought I did.”

Commander Fallon calmly unsheathed his sword. “Now, now, Lucas, let’s play nice here, shall we? I must say, though, this isn’t a very interesting escape attempt.”

He glanced at Kari. “And didn’t I tell you not to trust Miss Shine unless you could help it? I expected much better from you, Lucas.”

I reached for my own sword, realized yet again that I didn’t have it, and resorted to glaring instead. “You expected much better from me? Who are you to expect anything from me? I was never your pawn, Commander, and I’ll never be. So if you’re going to kill me, quit wasting everyone’s time and try already.”

“Brave words, Lucas.” Fallon stepped toward us, his eyes icy cold. “You must really want to die.”

“At least then I wouldn’t have to listen to your boring, long speeches,” I shot back. “So if you’re going to attack, then just do it already.”

Kari grabbed my arm. “Lucas, hon, is it really a good idea to say that to the man with the weapon? Seeing as, oh, I don’t know… We’re completely unarmed?”

I folded my arms and stared him down. “I can beat him even without a weapon.”

Fallon pointed his sword directly at my face. “Is that a challenge, private?”

“Yeah, Commander,” I snapped. “And you’re going to lose.”

Something changed in Fallon’s expression, and he lunged, almost faster than my eyes could register.

Almost.

I flipped and altered gravity, my boots slamming into the ceiling along with Kari’s heels. I was running even before my feet even connected, knowing I had only one chance at this, and it was going to have to be fast or not at all.

“What’re you doing?” Kari demanded, keeping up with me almost too easily. “How are you doing this?”

I told her the truth: “I worked for Mask. If you rank high enough, you get magic, which I did. We have to get out of here. Which way?”

“You called that man Commander. So that’s why?”

“You can run a search on me or whatever once we get out, just tell me which way to go!”

“Left. Very nice trick, by the way.”

“I try.”

I made a hard left, then heard footsteps behind us and bit my lip. Fallon.

“He’s not going to let us escape very easily, is he?” Kari noted.

“He’s an Opposite. I assume you know what that means?”

She flashed me a knowing smile. “Whose Opposite, now?”

I hesitated, then lied. “I don’t know.”

“Somehow, Lucas dear, I sincerely doubt that’s the truth.”

“Believe what you want. All I care about right now is getting the heck out of here.”

“Yes, and that’s a perfectly nice goal for right now, but there’s something you haven’t told me.”

If one of the most dangerous people in Spectrum hadn’t happened to be on my tail, I would’ve laughed. “There’s a lot of things I haven’t told you.”

“One very important thing that concerns the man behind us.”

“Yeah, well, if you haven’t noticed, I’m not the type to pour out my soul to people I barely know. And the reason I know that guy happens to be something I don’t like to talk about.”

“Not that, Lucas dear. It’s much more important than what you may or may not want to tell me.”

Her tone was wasn’t teasing or lighthearted anymore, and that’s what made me glance at her warily and ask, “What?”

“You called him Commander. Therefore, he’s ranked higher than you. So if you have magic, that would mean – ”

But she never finished that sentence, because…

KA-BOOM!!!

And then everything was fire and smoke and terror, because the world had just freaking exploded.

I don’t even know if I screamed. I don’t know if Kari screamed. The explosion happened in a single instant.

And that’s when everything went black.