Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
Prologue

(Red)

“CATCH HIM!!!”

Thevoice shot through the air like a bullet, ringing in my ears, and I winced. Hewas close. Too close.

“Nottoday, suckers!” I yelled, worn-out sneakers slapping the pavement. But it wasa bluff. I was completely exhausted, and we both knew it. I didn’t know how longI could hold them back.

“You’llnever get to Blue, boy. I’ll never let you!” Argot screamed. “So why prolongyour death?!”

“Sorry,I dunno what the heck ‘never’ means!”

Iswerved around a corner, weaving my way around the paths and trees of GreeneWood. Just a little more. Only half a mile left until I could replace Blue.

Mybreath was ragged, and when I glanced back, I caught a flash of black cape asArgot teleported next to me, swinging a thin blade that would’ve slammed atfull force into my face if I hadn’t ducked as fast as humanely possible at thevery last second. I hit the ground and rolled, then heard a clicking sound ashis companion’s missiles targeted me. I was exhausted beyond belief, but I wasup and running the second the sound reached my ears, mostly because a full-bodytackle from a flaming hunk of metal would probably hurt a lot more than myaching legs did at the second.

Thissituation was ridiculous. How hard could it be to lose an old man and an idiot wearinga ton of metal, anyway?!

I slid under a huge tree root that archedupward, suddenly noticing how many of these trees there were. Greene Wood wasbeautiful this time of year, with its crazy amount of plants and animals, but theonly thing I felt toward the ridiculous number of trees was annoyance. Iwould’ve made it to Sapphire City half an hour ago if it weren’t for themgetting in my way every two seconds.

Ipassed by a street sign, taking my eyes off the road for just a moment to readit. Apparently, I was on Apple Street.

Good.According to the map I’d had to memorize back in Rogue City, I was almost tothe border, and safety. There was no way they could replace me in Sapphire City;the place was beyond gigantic. Not in a million years.

Buthow was I supposed to reach it without dying or getting caught first?

Iwas out of firepower; I’d used too much already. It would regenerate in anhour, but I didn’t have that long. I wasn’t even sure I had five minutes.

“Gas,gas, gas…” I muttered, searching the half-forest-half-village for any sign of oilor gas. There was none. Greene Wood people were a little too crazy about protecting the environment. Not that I didn’t likebeing green and all, but hello, my lifewas on the line here! Wasn’t there just one freaking canister?!

"Giveit up, boy!” Argot, the man in the black cape, cackled. “You won’t replace anyfuel here! Unless, of course, you burn the trees – but you wouldn’t dare!”

Thatone almost made me snap. He was handing me a direct challenge on a platter,something he knew was almost impossible for me to resist. But he was right. Iwouldn’t burn down any of the trees in Greene Wood, not now, not ever. If I setone alight, the whole place would go down, and the people with it. I couldn’tdo that.

“Crayik,crayik, crayik!” I swore, using a word I’d invented myself. I didn’t have thetime or the money to deal with Green’s stupid swear jar.

“Whatthe heck am I supposed to do?! I should’ve taken Orange with me!” I muttered.“Heck, even Green would be a help now!"

Ifound myself wishing that the mysterious Blue would somehow just appear inGreene Wood instead of Sapphire City and save my freaking bacon already. Iimmediately scolded myself for that.

You’reRed, you idiot! You’ve gotten out of way stickier situations than this one! Getyour stupid act together!

“Nogas. No wood. Heck, I probably can’t even use fire, because I might burn downthe whole place. What am I supposed to do?!”

Itallied up my options. One, somehow keep running until I reached Sapphire City.(Highly unlikely.) Two, give up and surrender to Argot and his minion. (Uh, like,flipping no.) Three, risk burning down the whole forest. (Last resort.) Four,frontal assault. (I couldn’t fight with my power level down like this.) So thatleft one option.

Bluffmy way out of this mess.

“Hey,Argot!” I skidded to a halt, and my knees almost gave out. “I give up. Isurrender!”

Everythingcame to a standstill.

Argotand his buddy just stared at me like I had two heads.

“It’sa trap,” Iron Man Wannabe concluded, and I almost facepalmed. Yeah, General Akbar, it’s a trap!

“Whatare you playing at, boy?” Argot demanded, and I shrugged, secretly mustering upevery last bit of my power and pulling a trap that I didn’t like, since it tookme at least two minutes to activate. Two minutes too long, in my opinion.

“Nothing.I’m serious. I surrender.”

“Doyou honestly expect us to believe that? What’s to stop me from ripping yourface off, right now?” Iron Man Wannabe snapped.

“What,you tired of yours? I can see why, dude, it looks like a horse’s b – “

IronMan Wannabe lunged, and I dodged. His fist missed me by about two inches.

“Calmdown, Kyore!” Argot hissed. “He’s taunting you!”

“Ah,so that’s your name. It has more letters than I thought it’d have, though. Ididn’t know you could spell that far!”

Kyorewas probably scowling, but I couldn’t tell, seeing as he had a helmet on. Hewouldn’t for long, though. I was gonna blow his head off.

Ifelt my pocket for my sunglasses. Good. Still there. Sometimes, I forgot theywere on, and in an occasion like this, I needed them off. This was crucial.With them on, I couldn’t set my trap, and let’s be honest here, without mytrap, I’m screwed.

“Whatare you trying to do?” Argot demanded. “First, you tell us that you surrender,and now you act like you want a fight. What will it be? Fight, or surrender?”

“Youknow what, I think I’ll fight. But you’d better leave Keeree over there out;he’d run crying to his momma in two seconds!”

IronMan Wannabe tried, he really did. I could tell. But the temptation of punchingmy face in won over following orders. With a huge roar, he lunged. Isidestepped the attack, but as he passed by, I inserted a secret little packageinto the hole I’d melted in his armor with my eyes. (Now you see why I couldn’tbe wearing sunglasses?) He was so angry, he didn’t even notice.

Sucker.

“Myname,” he seethed, hands balled into fists, “Is Kyore, brat!”

“Cool,”I said cheerily. “Mine’s Red.”

Andthen I blew up the explosives in his armor.

Theexplosion wasn’t very big, and I knew that with the technology the enemy had,he’d be patched up in no time. But it gave me a distraction, which was the onlything I really needed. So, after I absorbed most of the flames so that the firewouldn’t spread too far and made sure they were both knocked out, I knew it wastime to go.

“Well,then, fellows, fun playing with you, but I’ve gotta go replace Blue now.” Imock-saluted. “Seeya again sometime.”

AsI walked off, hands in my pockets, I couldn’t keep the big, goofy grin off myface.

Red, two,Argot, zero.