There were several ways of approaching the situation in a calm, rational and logical manner.
Unfortunately for the world at large, he was not feeling inclined to be calm, rational or logical.
Adam was in Medical, an anaesthetic-laced salve coating his face and heavy bandages over his eyes, sedated into a coma with a machine breathing for him. Fawn could talk about tissue regeneration, corneal transplants and synthetic skin all he liked, but Blue had eye injuries from chemical burns. Unless a miracle had happened, eye injuries like those spelled the end of a pilot’s flying days.
So Scarlet went hunting for the ones that dared to steal the sky from the man who was his brother in all but blood.
He hadn’t been told not to and he hadn’t been told he’d been taken off the mission, so in true Special Ops fashion, he took the loophole and exploited it. That he hadn’t given anyone the opportunity to tell him ‘no’ was a side issue. If they’d wanted to stop him, they should have been faster.
Now he was in a back alley bar, stalking a man in a rumpled cheap suit who talked too loudly and swung a cigarillo around like he was conducting an orchestra. Scarlet’s eyes narrowed as he considered potential uses for that cigarillo, caught himself and reflexively shook his head. No. Not like that. But it would be so easy to… No. He shook himself again, casting those thoughts aside.
There were reasons why he was rarely sent on solo missions these days and only when someone else would soon be following.
When the Mysterons had taken him, it changed something in him. He had a ruthlessness that hadn’t been there before. There were dark corners in his mind now, places that the light just couldn’t touch, and it was so very, very easy for him to stumble and fall into that seductive darkness. The others were his beacons, his wayfinders, helping him stay the course and not get lost in the night.
Now he was navigating without them and the darkness stalked him like a living thing, singing its siren song.
He hoped someone would be sent to find him before it was too late. But for now, he had work to do.