Colors

Chapter 3 (3): Pink Cotton Candy

Zahra stood in awe. Not only because she had, once again, found another Color -two even-, but because of the powers the two had.

The redhead, Roy, especially. The thin layer of bright red pulsed like a beating heart. No wonder he had drawn a crowd. If the words the girl had spoken were anything to go by, and he had lost control of his power, it would have been no surprise if all of Paramount could sense him.

The eye-catching red demanded attention -much like Nasryn's power. However, the sort of attention the two powers sought was entirely different.

Nasryn's power sought for a romantic sort of attention. It was breathtakingly beautiful at first glance, but only on the surface.

The new redhead's power, however, wouldn't be described as beautiful. Looking at him, Zahra couldn't help but think he belonged with the knights on Ejder. His power like a suit of armor that gleamed in the sunlight.

If he was a knight, then the girl was a princess. Her bright pink power glowed, covering the redhead in soft pink light.

As Zahra looked at the girl, she noticed something. Ever since the girl came, Raven's power seemed to disappear. The light not only fell over the redhead but also shined into Raven's cloud, nulling it as it did the red power.

"Zahra?" asked Raven as he tried to figure out what she was looking at. Zahra blinked, deactivating her power.

"You were right!" cheered Zahra, earning her confused looks from not just the two new Colors, but also Raven. "They're Colors."

Raven's confused face shifted into one of surprise, but Zahra's comment only deepened the other two's confusion. They exchanged glances and shrugs between each other before the redhead finally asked, "What exactly do you mean by us being "Colors"? Last I checked I was still human."

"The definition is currently debatable," replied Raven unhelpfully. "Based on what little we've figured out, it's people who have powers and unnaturally colored hair and eyes. Sound familiar?"

Now it was their turn to be surprised. Their reactions were slightly different than Zahra had imagined they would be, but considering their circumstances, entirely reasonable. The fantasy Zahra had in her mind that they would be just as happy as she had been wasn't reasonable.

The eyes of the pink-haired girl flashed worry. Her mouth slowly opened like she was going to say something, but quickly closed. She inched behind Roy whoin turn, stepped in front of her.

Roy's eyes looked between Raven and Zahra, no longer worried about the other man. His fingers curled around the hilt of his sword. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Right," replied Raven in a doubtful tone. "And I'm assuming you dyed your hair and are wearing contacts too. That weird crowd of people was entirely coincidence."

Although Raven was speaking sarcastically, his eyes kept glancing down towards Roy's sword. He wasn't willing to bet Roy didn't know how to use it. In fact, he had already taken a step back and was silently hoping that Zahra had a plan.

Unfortunately for Zahra, Raven wasn't making it any easier for her to settle things down. As soon as Roy pulled his sword out, Raven took another step back and said, "I see it was all a misunderstanding. We'll go look for another pair of highly suspicious people with brightly colored hair."

"Wait," said Roy, ignoring Raven's last sentence. "And what if this hadn't been a big misunderstanding? Then what would you have done?"

Raven glanced at Zahra pleadingly, but she wasn't looking at him. "Then we'd tell you two that we're also Colors. And I'd tell you that my power is the ability to see emotions... and other powers."