Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue

(Lucas)

How do you define hopeless?

Okay, let’s picture this scene. You’re trapped on a cliff, no way to run, with a gunman right in front of you leveling a pistol at your head. Would that be hopeless?

No. Not really.

The gunman could decide to have a change of heart and not kill you after all. His gun could jam. Your good friend Kyle could come by with the military or something to save you. Heck, you could even take him out yourself with a rock or something, maybe.

That’s not really hopeless.

This is hopeless.

Three hundred armed guards, jammed tightly in every nook and cranny around you that’s possible to cram into. Even if one of them had a change of heart (which was seriously unlikely), it wouldn’t help you a single bit. Heck, even if twenty of them changed their minds, you’d be still be screwed. In front of you are four of the worst enemies you could ever face in Spectrum, people you’d never, ever be able to defeat alone. And all you’ve got on your side are a blonde hacker and a tiny mind-reader.

These odds were, frankly, not good.

I said the first word that came into my mind. It probably wasn’t the best thing to say around a ten-year-old, but it was a desperate situation, and I wasn’t really thinking.

Kari raised an eyebrow at me as Violet stared, scandalized.

I scowled back.

“Where the heck did all these reinforcements come from?” I muttered. We hadn’t seen anyone heading in, so how the heck had so many guards gotten here so quickly?

Or had the whole thing been a trap all along?

If it were Fallon alone, I would’ve assumed the guards were just illusions, and attacked him immediately. But I recognized the people around him, and my heart sank, because I knew Fallon would never make any illusions of these guys. He didn’t need to.

Argot’s elite team of assassins, one for each and every member of the Seven: The Opposites. Even one of which I could never hope to defeat. And there were four of them right there, facing us down.

Kyore, scowling in his usual metal suit, though it was strangely scorched in places. Caelin, leaning on a cane with a smirk on her face. Sandelle, probably just recovering from whatever Violet had done to her. And another guy whose name I couldn’t remember – Andrew? Andy?

“Anton,” Kari breathed, answering my silent question in a tone I hadn’t ever heard from her before. A tone that sounded almost like…

Fear?

But it couldn’t be. I had to believe it wasn’t. Because if Kari was afraid of this guy…

Then that scared me. And right now, that was really not a good thing.

I bit my lip hard. Even if I could take down Fallon, there’s no way we could defeat the others…

“Well, private?” Fallon asked, his voice smug with the feel of victory. “Any last words?”

“Go jump on a cactus,” I spat. My brain was frantically searching, trying to think of something, anything that could get us out of here alive. But there was nothing. I was drawing a complete blank.

Nothing.

I bit my lip almost hard enough to draw blood, squeezing my eyes shut.

Dammit, dammit, dammit!

Think, Lucas, think! There has to be a way. Nothing is impossible in this world, you just have to think!

Thinkthinkthinkthinkthink…

I was practically on the verge of having a panic attack, which I never did. But then –

What if they couldn’t see us?

I blinked in surprise.

That wasn’t my own thought.

Slowly, I looked down. Violet’s eyes were locked on mine, her gaze determined.

Oh.

But it didn’t help. Invisibility won’t work now. There are too many of them…

No. Not invisibility.

Violet didn’t blink as she tipped her head just the tiniest bit toward Fallon.

What if we could make them see whatever we wanted them to see?

Involuntarily, my eyes widened just a little.

Can you do that?

She hesitated, taking her eyes off mine for a split second, but then looked up again and gave one short nod.

Yes. I-I think so.

I nodded back. All right. If you can, then do it. I’ll keep ‘em busy.

“It’s futile, Lucas,” Fallon called, smiling. “No matter what plan you come up with, there’s no way you could win. Just give it up already. I promise your death will be swift.”

I pulled my sword out, getting ready to distract him while Violet got her spell ready. Kari shot me a disbelieving glance.

“You’re really going to try to fight your way out of this? I knew you were an idealist, hon, but I didn’t know you were completely insane as well!”

“Don’t worry.” I took in the sheer amount of enemies and swallowed, bracing myself. “I can do this.”

And then I charged.

I can’t honestly tell you what happened next. It was a blur of metal and desperation and bullets whizzing past close enough to tear my already tattered clothes. The guards fired blindly, not being able to see me and more often than not hitting each other, but I knew that sooner or later, one of the bullets would find its mark. No matter how it was done, fighting was suicide.

And everyone here knew it.

I stuck close to the ground, knowing there was less of a chance of me getting hit this way, and took out as many as I could without actually killing them. They were people, after all. People I’d been eating and sleeping and spending time around for the past six years.

Violet, hurry up!

I grabbed a guard’s legs right out from under him and spun, slamming him into every other baddie close enough to hit. They crashed to the ground as I dropped him, panting, but others quickly filled the gap.

“Violet, what’re you doing?!” I shouted, smashing my elbow into someone’s nose.

“I-It’s not working!” she cried back, sounding as if she were in tears. “I don’t know why – but it’s not working!”

Fallon’s laughter echoed through the hallway, and then she screamed, a high-pitched sound that slammed right into my heart and nearly got me killed when my body froze up on me.

“Well, now, this is exciting,” Anton drawled, smiling, as a bullet shot at point-black range ripped right through my arm. “Look at them, putting up such a good fight. It’s so fun to watch, don’t you agree?”

“You’re a freaking sadist, Anton,” Sandelle sighed, summarizing my thoughts about every single one of them just like that.

“C’mon, Sandy, have a little fun once in a while! Oh, but speaking of fun…”

The line of guards cleared up just a little, and I managed to get a single glimpse of him as he smirked. “Hey, there, Kari, darling. Long time no see, huh? How come you never called?”

Over the sounds of the fighting, I heard her impossibly calm reply. “Well, gee, Anton, I wonder whose fault that is?”

I wasn’t really in a position to ponder how they knew each other, but I figured Kari had strung this guy along somehow, and he was mad about it. Great. Just what I needed, another reason for someone on Mask’s side to want to kill me and everyone else with me.

But that wasn’t important right now. Violet was probably seriously hurt somewhere – I had to get to her, pronto. The problem, however, was obvious: there were way too many guards trying to stop me from doing exactly that. I fought my way forward as best I could, but there was no denying it – sooner or later, I was going down.

As it turned out, this inevitable outcome decided to occur sooner rather than later.

Because right then and there, I tripped.

Yup. That’s right.

I. Freaking. Tripped.

On what, I had no idea, but it was probably someone’s boot or something. All I knew was that something slammed hard into my legs when I tried running, and I went down.

It was one of the worst moments of my life. And quite possibly the last.

Someone’s boot stomped on me like I was dirt, and a surprised voice shrieked, “I’ve got him here! He’s down!”

Oh, freaking crap.

I tried to drag myself to my feet, but there were more boots stomping on me, one actually on my freaking face, keeping me down. I slashed blindly with my sword, but it deflected off something, and a couple seconds later, was wrenched out of my hand. One of the guys yelled out, “Commander Fallon! We’ve got him cornered!”

I gritted my teeth, trying my best not to shriek every single bad word running through my head at these jerks. Mostly because

1) I didn’t want Violet to hear.

2) It was going to be seriously pathetic if those were actually my last words.

3) The boot on top of my face was a muddy one, and I definitely did not want to see what this guy’s feet tasted like.

So I kept my mouth shut. I closed my eyes too, thinking, Well, at least I tried.

And that was when the lights suddenly went out.