Chapter Text
“Are you sure about this, Red?”
“Don’t have much of a choice, Player.”
“‘Course we do! We could just not try and make conversation with ACME. Especially since we know VILE is in the area.”
Carmen sighed as this conversation was brought up again. VILE was planning to steal another priceless artifact, this time the Star of Asia, one of the worlds finest star sapphires from the National Museum of Natural History. So, naturally, Carmen was there to steal it first. This only proved difficult thanks to ACME’s interference.
Again.
“Plus, how do we know it won’t go wrong?” The ‘like last time’ went unsaid but Carmen still heard it. Stockholm was still a sore topic for the team.
“We’re taking extra safety procautions this time. Once we find Julia, we’ll explain the situation, have her tell ACME to back off, and steal the sapphire before VILE even arrives.”
She could hear him sigh on the other side of the call and resisted the urge to just call off the mission to lift his mood. She didn’t exactly like this plan either but it was their only option. ACME’s involvement was making capers not only dangerous for herself, but for her team as well.
The wrestling match in Vera Cruz Mexico was enough indication of this. Lupe, Devineaux, and her would have all been crushed by Brunt if she hadn’t gotten the remote from Devineaux’s pocket. That whole fight could have gone wrong because of Devineaux’s involvement.
She needed ACME to back off.
“Just.. be careful, Red,” Player relented.
“Always.”
“Hey, Carm, ACME has officially entered the party,” Zack's voice came through her comms.
“Copy that.” She watched from the roof of a building near the museum as the ACME agents surrounded the perimeter. She waited a few minutes before a certain someone caught her attention. She seemed to be lagging behind the rest of the agents.
‘Perfect, ’ Carmen thought to herself. She waited as the agents turned around a corner before skillfully jumping off her own building, using the balconies to get down safely. She waited until the last agent turned the corner before reaching over and placing a hand on Julia’s shoulder.
The agent gasped, turning around only to see Carmen. She relaxed upon seeing the thief before tensing up again. She opened her mouth to talk but Carmen was faster.
“Hey, Jules, we never finished our conversation, did we?”
“No, we.. we didn’t.”
“Would you like to?”
“You..” Julia stared at her confusedly, “you still trust me?”
“I don’t blame you for Stockholm. I know it wasn’t your fault,” She reassured. Julia seemed to sigh in relief at that. “With that said, I need a favor.”
“Of course,” Julia agreed. She was going to make it up to the thief.
“I need you to tell ACME to back off.”
Julia hesitated at that. “Is there a reason?”
“My team and I have a plan. But it won’t work if ACME interferes,” Carmen explained.
“So VILE is here,” Julia realized. “What are they planning to steal?”
“The Star of Asia. But they won’t find it,” Carmen smirked. “That is, if you agree.”
Julia nodded. “I’ll inform Chief.”
“Thanks, Jules. I knew I could count on you!” With that, the thief in red used her grappling hook and launched up to the roof of one of the buildings. She watched Julia make the call, the hologram of Chief didn’t seem too pleased but she agreed.
“ACME is leaving the premises, boss,” Zack’s voice came through the intercom.
“You’re up, Shadowsan,” she told the ninja. She could hear him grunt through the call, the closest thing she’d get to confirmation from him.
She kept watch on the east side of the building, making sure VILE wasn’t anywhere is sight. Zack had the north while Ivy took the west, and Player remained in the security system. The plan was simple. Shadowsan steals the sapphire while the rest of the team watch’s his back. If VILE showed up, Carmen would distract them, make them think she was after the jewel when in reality, she was just a decoy.
“Carm, there’s a certain kitty cat on the roof,” Ivy informed.
“Well then,” Carmen smirked, “we should go say hi, shouldn’t we?” She leapt off her own roof, using her grappling hook to make her way towards the roof of the museum. She only had one thought as she landed: ‘This better work or Player is never going to stop saying I told you so.’
__________________
“Are you sure about this, Chief?”
“We’re taking a risk, agent Zari. One I hope is worth it.”
“How do you know we can trust Sandiego? Especially after her little stunt with our servers not too long again.” The agent, Zari, pressed. She wasn’t a fan of Carmen Sandiego. Even if she was truly stealing only to stop VILE, which agent Argent insisted she was, it didn’t make the thefts any better.
“We’re about to find out once and for all if Ms. Sandiego is truly on our side.”
Zari sighed but didn’t respond. It wasn’t her call to make so instead, she went back to scouting. Just because they were ordered to not interfere doesn’t mean that she and her fellow agents couldn’t be prepared.
They could see the thief waiting on one of the rooftops. What she was doing up there was a mystery to all of them.
“Hey.. didn’t Sandiego have two accomplices?” The agent next to her, Carter, asked.
“She did,” Emily, another agent, answered.
“And wasn’t one Japanese?”
“Yeah.. why?”
“And wasn’t he one of the culprits that tortured one of our old agents, Devineaux?”
“Where are you going with this, agent Carter?” Zari snapped.
“He just sneaked into the building,” he pointed to one of the windows where, indeed, an old Japanese man just slipped through.
“Sandiego is still on the roof,” Emily pointed out.
“And VILE is nowhere to be found..” Davis, another agent, muttered.
Zari pulled out her pen and made the call. “Chief, we’ve been duped.”
__________________
“Look what the cat dragged in.”
Tigress turned to stare at the direction of the voice. “Carmen, been a while.”
“It has, hasn’t it?” The thief stepped out of the shadows. As usual, she was dressed in her usual red coat and fedora.
“Should of known you’d be here,” Tigress sneered, flexing her claws. “You just love making life difficult.”
“For VILE? Yeah, I do,” she got into her own fighting stance.
The two glared at each other before Tigress let out a battle cry and charged. Carmen easily averted the attack, side stepping before kicking the blonde away.
They fought for a few minutes, both trying to make their way to where the sapphire was kept (Carmen only pretended to keep up appearances).
“VILE should really work on their fighting class. It’s like you’re going easy on me, Tigress.”
“Then why don’t we make this more interesting!” A voice shouted from the roof.
Carmen barely had time to react before origami stars were thrown directly at her.
She dodged them, only to be met with a kick to the chest. She moved out of the way of the next kick, putting distance between her and the now three operatives.
“Paperstar, Spinkick, didn’t expect you here.”
“We didn’t want you to get bored,” another new voice, Flytrap, said before throwing one of her bolas. Dash Haber’s hat followed after.
She ducked underneath the hat but the bola caught onto her arm, trapping it to the pole behind her.
‘Shit.’
She searched around for something to cut it with as Spinkick launched at her. Something caught her eye and she reached for it. Grabbing one of Paperstar’s origami that had landed in her earlier attack, she cut the rope before rolling away to avoid Spinkick’s foot on her face.
“VILE must be really tired of losing if they let you all come,” She sneered, rolling out of the way of the hat, bolas, and origami being thrown her way.
“We wanted to get rid of our Sandiego problem, once and for all,” Haber smirked.
Carmen hated playing defense. Unfortunately, it was all she could do right now. Every time she tried to get close enough to land a hit, something was thrown at her. ‘Maybe she should get a long distance weapon for herself.’
Shadowsan’s voice came through her earrings, distracting her for a second. “I am in the jewel room. The sapphire will be in our possession in only a few moments.”
Carmen didn’t respond. If she did then VILE would know she was just a distraction.
Although with all the operatives here right now, there could be more waiting to get the jewel. But Shadowsan would have alerted her if there were any problems on his end. Which meant…
VILE had something planned.
She noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Tigress was making her way towards a door, presumably one that would lead to the sapphire.
‘Not gonna happen,’ Carmen thought as she picked up a discarded origami star and threw it at her. It wouldn’t have done nearly as much damage as it would have if Paperstar had thrown it. But the multicolor freak wasn’t the only one who knew how to handle sharp objects.
The star landed on the handle of the door, startling the blonde. ‘Ok, maybe that wasn’t the best idea.’ Now all the focus was back on her and Carmen was trapped. She had to get to more open ground. She couldn’t do anything in this cramped room. She had to get these operatives away from the sapphire, and away from Shadowsan.
She just had to wait for the perfect moment.
And…. now!
Haber’s hat was stuck in a pole from his last attack, Flytrap was out of bolos, the other operatives were all too far to reach her as they had stayed back to not get in the way of the flying objects. Now all she had to do was run before any of Paperstar’s origami hit her.
She reached the door, pulled it open and slammed it behind her. Paperstar’s origami was sticking through it.
She could hear their footsteps chasing after her as she raced through the hall. She felt more than she heard another bolo being thrown and ducked right into a hallway that led to a spiral staircase. Running up, the thundering of footsteps doesn’t stop but at least she was leading them away from Shadowsan. She saw a door at the top of the stairs and burst through them, only to end up on a huge terrace. A small fence, barely high enough to stop a little kid from falling, on three sides while the museum's wall was at her back. She turned and got into a fighting position, ready for when the operatives would barrel in.
She probably should have looked up first.
She notices the body too late, a foot kicking her in the chest and knocking her back. Le Chèvre stared back at her.
“Should of known you’d be here. A cliff like this is perfect for a goat like you,” she muttered, getting back on her feet and back into a proper stance.
“You didn’t really think you’d have a class reunion without us, did you?”
The ‘us’ registered too late and arms were circling around her waist, trapping her.
“Hola, mi amiga.”
She should have known. Where the goat goes, the mole isn’t too far behind.
The rest of the operatives burst in through the door before she could reply.
“What happened to only sending one or two operatives at a time,” Carmen muttered as they started moving towards her. Quickly, she stomped on El Topo’s foot before elbowing him in the gut. His grip loosened for a second and that was all she needed. Prying off his arms, she tossed him over her shoulder and directly at the operatives. Spinkick and Flytrap, likely to them still being new, didn’t react fast enough and got knocked over.
“The Faculty wanted to make sure you got to see everyone one last time,” Haber smirked.
And Carmen realized something. VILE didn’t expect her to escape today.
Well, if there was one thing Carmen loved to do it was to not meet VILE’s expectations.
She slowly started to form a rhythm as the fight raged on. Dodge Paperstar and Dash Haber’s attempt to decapitate her. Block Spinkicks kicks and knock Tigress back with one of her own. Sidestep Le Chèvre’s punch and use his momentum to throw him onto Tigress. Use the few seconds she has while they get up to charge at Paperstar. Duck under the origami and boyos sent her way. Take the punch that Paperstar throws in order to grab her pouch full of paper. Throw it off the cliff before she even notices. While doing so, Carmen catches a glimpse of something, or rather, somethings, near the bottom of the cliff and freezes. That was a mistake. She barely dodges the origami sword that Paperstar lunges at her with.
‘Where the hell did she get that from?!’
She feels her arm sting and notices the gash that’s left from Paperstar’s attack. ‘Well, a cut on the arm is better than a stab through the heart,’ she supposed. She continues to evade the attacks but can’t move out of the way quickly enough when Spinkick takes another kick at her and lands in between Le Chèvre and El Topo. Quickly, she rolls out of the way before she could get crushed only to be faced directly with Tigress and-
“Really?! Mime Bomb and Neal the Eel?!”
“Sorry love,” Neal smirked, “but you’re not getting out of this one.”
“We’ll see about that.”
She rushed back into the fight. Taking Mime Bomb out was easy, one roundhouse kick and he was down. Tigress, however, could actually fight back. It didn’t help when Neal slid up behind her and locked her arms behind her back. She jumped up and kicked out, landing a kick on the blonde's stomach before landing in a crouched position. She used her momentum to roll forward, bringing Neal with her before she pushed him off. Grabbing one of Flytraps discarded boyos, she tossed it behind her before moving on to a Spinkick. She heard it make contact with something, presumably Neal, and knew it wouldn’t hold for long. A couple of seconds at most.
“Red, Shadowsan got the sapphire. He’s meeting up with Zack and Ivy now. You can get out of there.”
“About that,” Carmen ducked under a punch and knocked Spinkick off his feet, only to be tackled by El Topo. “I don’t think that's possible.” She pushed the mole off and scrambled to get some distance between her and the operatives, ducking under Haber’s hat in the process.
“What do you mean?” Player asked. “Isn’t it just Tigress?”
“Ya, just Tigress,” she took a punch to the stomach and sidestepped the next. “And El Topo, Le Chèvre, Neal the Eel, Mime Bomb, Paperstar, Dash Haber, Spinkick, Flytrap-”
“WHAT?! Red, why didn’t you say anything?! I'm sending Shadowsan to your location now!”
“NO!” It came out more desperate than she wanted it and Paperstar utilized her momentary distraction to try with the sword again. “If you bring him here he’ll be in danger!”
“Red, you’re in danger! Can’t you jump and use your glider?”
“Not exactly,” duck, sweep Paperstar’s feet, grab the sword, get knocked down, “not unless I wanna deal with ACME. And they don’t look too happy.”
“But I thought they backed off!” She could hear the sound of him typing. “I knew this was a bad idea,” he muttered and Carmen knew she was getting an earful from him after this.
“Well, well, if it isn’t the little lamb.”
Carmen froze.
She knew that voice but.. it couldn’t be.
“Recognize her?” Tigress teased, swiping at her with her claws. Carmen blocked but had to step back. She was close to the edge. Too close for comfort. She ignored the discomfort in favor of listening to the voice again.
“The Faculty realized that these new operatives weren’t getting the job done.” The voice was coming from above. A quick look up and she saw the person walk out of the shadows and Carmen gasped at the familiar face. “So they brought in the originals.”
“…Katie?”
“It’s Timeturner.”
The operative, Timeturner, corrected. Her face was older. A scar just above her left eyebrow was now present and she grew taller and more muscular. But it was Katie. The same Katie that had arrived at the academy when Carmen was just a child. She was barely nine years old. She was one of the first operatives Carmen had truly befriended. She remembers talking her ear off with random history facts. She remembers begging the older girl to teach her fighting moves. She remembers Katie always playing with her, even when she was bombarded with homework. She remembers-
“Look at that. It seems little old Lambkins froze.”
Jonah.
That was Jonah. Another operative that turned to a friend from her time growing up on VILE island. One by one she saw several other operatives, all who she recognized from when she was a kid. All who used to be like an older brother or sister to her. Now… they looked like predators ready to pounce on their prey.
This has to be a sick joke. A really bad nightmare or-
“This was Maelstrom’s idea wasn’t it?”
James and Rosa, two operatives she had helped get together, both too stubborn and oblivious to admit that they were in love, laughed at her. Rosa going as far as to wipe a fake tear from her eye.
“Oh, Black Sheep, you were always one of the smart ones. But this was a communal idea.”
Carmen scoffed at that. So not only did the Faculty decide to fuck with her head by making her fight those she used to look up to, but those she used to consider as siblings had agreed that this was a good idea.
It hurt.
It hurt to know how they would have used to do anything for her. How they were always there for her.
And now…
“VILE had given you everything, little cub,” Katie spoke, walking in front of the group and stopping a few feet in front of her. “And you betrayed us. Why?”
“VILE is hurting people! This stealing is wrong!” She snapped.
“Like you ever cared about the morality of stealing,” Andrew, an operative she used to think of as a brother, scoffed. “You certainly didn’t when you repeatedly stole my pens, my socks, my desert. Shall I go on?”
“Stealing objects is one thing,” she glared at him. “Stealing lives is another.”
“You won’t be coming back, will you?” Rosa asked, her eyes soft.
“No.”
“I didn’t think so,” she sighed before her eyes hardened.
The glare shocked Carmen so much that she didn’t even register the gunshot until the bullet was deep into her leg. She wasnt sure if it was the gunshot or her scream that alerted Player.
“RED?! What’s going on?! CARMEN?!”
“Sharpshooter,” she greeted, ignoring all the memories that flooded in when she caught the operatives eyes. “I see your aim is still as sharp as ever.”
She was directly at the edge of the terrace now. Luckily, the operatives seemed to be taking a moment before they advanced. It gave her a chance to look over her injuries. Bullet wound, several cuts and gashes, she’d probably be sporting a black eye in the morning, her back felt like it was on fire, and Carmen wasn’t sure she could take any more kicks to the stomach.
All in all, she’s seen better days.
She ripped a part of her coat and used it to tie off the bullet wound.
Sharpshooter raised the gun again, glaring as she spoke. “You brought this on yourself Black Sheep.”
“It’s Carmen now.”
The gun went off and the battle began again.
__________________
Shadowsan was nearing the rental that they had acquired for the mission. He could see Zack and Ivy through the window, high-fiving excitedly at the successful caper. He allowed himself a small smile as he watched the two. He’d never admit it but he had grown a fondness for Carmen’s team. ‘Their team,’ a voice that sounded suspiciously like the Argentinian reminded him in his head.
He let his smile drop as they turned to greet him. If they ever saw him smile he knew the teasing would never stop.
“How’d it go?” Ivy asked as he reached the car, holding her hands out for the jewel. He passed it to her for safekeeping before answering.
“As we expected. I was able to get in and out with no problems.” Zack cheered in the back and Shadowsan chose to ignore it. “Have you heard anything from Carmen?”
“No, I haven’t,” Ivy answered as Zack started the car. Either Carmen would meet up with them here or they would rendezvous with her at a different location depending on how her distraction went. They had to be ready for either.
Zack turned to look at them, his cheerful mood had died down slightly as he got into his role as their getaway driver. “But that probably means that everything is fine on her end, right?”
“Probably,” Ivy agreed.
“How do you guys feel about Chinese for dinner tonight?” Zack asked as Shadowsan got in the car. “As a celebration for a job well done!”
“I could go for Chinese,” Ivy smirked. “But, sushi also sounds pretty good.”
Zack gagged at the suggestion and turned to glare at his sister. “Don’t even think about it!”
Shadowsan tuned the siblings out as they bickered on. Instead, focusing on the book he has brought with him. With all the traveling they did, he had taken to reading on the long flights. He was going to finish it on the plane ride home but now seemed like a fine time to continue it.
“Shadowsan! Carmen needs help. NOW!”
Or maybe not.
“Woah, Player, what’s going on? Where’s Carmen?” Ivy asked as Player’s voice came through their comms.
“ACME doubled back, too many operatives, heard a gun, and Carmen sounds like she’s in trouble, and-”
“Player! Breath! You need to calm down,” Ivy instructed. They could hear the sound of the hacker slowly taking in deep breaths and letting them go. A few seconds later he seemed to have calmed down. “Now, what’s going on?”
“Carmen’s surrounded. There’s over a dozen operatives on her and ACME has the perimeter surrounded. She has no exit plan. She’s trapped.”
“Where is she?” Shadowsan’s voice came through the intercom. Ivy and Zack turned to the empty space where Shadowsan had once resided. All that was left was his book.
“On a terrace on the south side of the building. It’s overlooking the cliff.”
“Ivy, Zack, go around the museum and see if you can talk to ACME. We need to figure out what went wrong,” Shadowsan ordered.
It was all Zack needed before slamming his foot on the gas and most likely breaking several road laws on his way to the other side of the museum.
“And Shadowsan..” Players voice, usually calm and collected was now sounding much more worried and childlike. Because that’s what he was. Player was a child and because of his maturity, the team often forgot that. “Please hurry.”
__________________
Carmen couldn’t keep this up for much longer.
Her foot was about ready to fall off and the rest of her body wasn’t feeling too good either. Luckily, Sharpshooter couldn’t take another shot without the risk of hitting one of the operatives.
Not so luckily, that still left over a dozen operatives to fight.
Carmen was tired. Her body was tired and she didn’t trust herself to blink lest she not wake up again.
She was getting sloppy. Taking too many hits. Not delivering enough blows. She wasn’t going to last much longer like this.
She couldn’t grapple her way out of this. Le Chèvre or any operative could easily climb after. She couldn’t jump to another roof because that would give Sharpshooter a clean shot. She couldn’t jump off with her glider. ACME was down there and they looked ready to arrest. And she wouldn’t be able to escape in her condition. ‘If only they knew how much of VILE was up here now,’ she thought bitterly.
She had to get out of here.
She had to escape.
She had to get back to her team.
She had to-
She walked right into a puff of blue smoke.
Her vison was starting to go blurry and… she knew that smoke…
She couldn’t keep her eyes open.
She blinked and Jonah was in front of her.
She blinked and she was too close to the railing, doubling over from the pain in her chest.
She blinked and there was shouting, but it was getting farther and farther away. The voices were getting drowned out and she was cold.
She blinked and-
..oh
__________________
“Player, how much further?”
“You’re almost there. Just finish your climb and you’ll be able to see her from the roof!”
Shadowsan was never much of a climber, preferring to hide in the shadows down on the ground. But right now climbing was the fastest way to reach Carmen. Going into the building would take too long. It was all unknown territory, the security systems would take too long to disable, and any ACME agents or VILE operatives could possibly still be inside. Instead, he was scaling the building to reach the other side where, hopefully, Carmen was. Luckily, she was outside on a terrace where he could easily reach from the roof.
Once he reached the roof he sprinted to the other side and was disgusted with the scene he was looking onto. Player was right. Carmen was in trouble.
“Did you find her?” Player’s anxious voice broke through his thoughts.
“I did.”
He started to slide down the roof, reaching a ledge he turned to climb the rest down. He would have jumped directly into the fight but the distance was to large. He would be doing no one any favors by earning himself a fatal injury. Instead, he had to carefully and slowly go down. And he hated it. Every second he was up here was another second where Carmen was in danger.
“There were no cameras on the oustide terrace for me to hack into. Is… is she ok?”
Perhaps that was a good thing. It was no secret among the team that Player and Carmen were extremely close. And no best friend should ever have to watch the other be tossed around like a rag doll. Carmen was a good fighter. She was one of the best thief’s VILE had ever produced. But even she couldn’t take on over a dozen operatives. And he knew that Carmen would never want anyone in her team, especially not Player, to watch her get hurt. As much as Shadowsan wanted to comfort the young hacker, he knew he would be lying if he said yes. And Player hated being treated as a child.
“You were right to worry.” He hated how he heard Player freeze as he proceeded that. He could hear him stop typing, could practically feel the guilt that was most likely coming from the hacker for not realizing sooner. Shadowsan felt the same way. He should have been checking in with her. Should have known that something was wrong. He should have-
He froze as one of the operatives gassed Carmen with a gas gun. The same one that the ACME agents use. He could see Carmen, who was already struggling with fighting over a dozen operatives and dealing with several injuries, start to wobble. One of the operatives kicked her in the chest and she was tossed back, her back hitting the railing hard. Screw it if he got injured, Shadowsan was going to jump down before-
….
Perhaps Carmen being on a terrace was not so lucky after all.
__________________
“Zack, Ivy, I will meet you on the other side of the building!”
“Shadowsan? What’s going on?” Ivy’s worried voice didn’t help the panic going through the ninja’s mind. He had to get down there. Had to make sure she was ok. He had to-
“Shadowsan?”
……
“Carmen fell.”
Shadowsan swears he heard the tires pop from how hard Zack slammed his foot on the gas pedal.
__________________
She was falling.
SHE WAS FALLING!
Shit!
Oh, her team was gonna be so mad at her.
They’d probably yell about her getting hurt again. But then they would just baby her. Just like after Stockholm.
Ivy would never let her off the couch. Zack would make her eat everything in the fridge. Shadowsan would check on her every twenty seconds. Player might never let her go on another mission again.
She wanted to groan at all the worrying that was going to happen soon enough. But it was caught in the wind.
Oh, yeah…
She was falling.
Fast.
Carmen was never one to panic but right now, there wasn’t any other word that would describe what she was doing.
She had to do something. The fall was too long and with all her injuries already…
Nothing good would come out of this if she hit that ice.
She had to slow down or stop falling or teleport or-
Carmen reached for a string that should have been tucked in her coat. Hoping against all odds that it wasn’t damaged in her fight she tugged hard .
Her glider shot out and caught the wind. At least she wasn’t falling anymore. Now she was gliding. Or maybe floating (it felt like she was floating). She blinked again and could see ACME under her. ‘Maybe she could steer away from them?’
She felt more that she heard another shot being fired. It could have been ACME. It could have been Sharpshooter.
It didn’t matter.
Her glider had a hole and she was leaning dangerously to the right, slowly inching towards the forest where all there was was sharp branches and thorny bushes. The winters snow masquerading just how dangerous it would be if she ended up there unconscious.
Images of Stockholm flashed in her mind and she shook them away.
With whatever energy she had left, she slid the glider off her shoulders. And now she was falling again.
‘Player was never going to let her forget this,’ she thought. And then she hit the ice and everything faded to black.
__________________
“Grab her!”
None of them were expecting Carmen to fall from the sky. The momentary shock was quickly dispelled as the thief pulled out her glider.
They were about to disperse, to move further back so they could follow the thief wherever she flew to. But then a bullet rang out. The glider was torn and Carmen was falling, fast.
She landed on the floor before anyone could move. And she wasn’t getting up.
“Agent Zari..”
One of the two agents that had went to secure Sandiego spoke up.
“Agent, secure her arms. We’ve seen her escape when in the most impossible situations.”
“But agent Zari-”
“She’s been able to defeat almost all of our agents before and I won’t be taking any risks-”
“AGENT ZARI, SHE’S NOT BREATHING!”
“…..”
“..what?!”
Julia abandoned the argument she was having with the holograph of Chief to race over to where Zari was standing. Chief got there first, transferring from Julia’s pen to Zari’s.
“She.. she can’t be-” Julia cut herself off with a gasp as she noticed the body.
The body that wasn’t moving. The body that was laying perfectly still. The body that was covered in scars and gashes and wounds and-
Julia looked away.
Instead, she focused her attention on the Chief. The same Chief who was looking at the body with nonchalance. As if it was just a dead weed that had overgrown. If she looked hard enough, Julia could swear she saw the woman gracing the tiniest of smiles.
“What the hell is wrong with you?”
Chief turned her head, not bothering with the rest of her body, to raise an eyebrow, her eyes hardening. “What was that, agent Argent?”
“How can you possibly be happy about this?!”
Chief finally turned her body away from the thief and directed her full attention onto the agent. “For one thing, we will finally have Carmen Sandiogo in our custody. And if she is gone,” Chief raised her hand to stop Julia before she could speak, “then we will have one less problem to worry about.”
Julia couldn’t take it anymore.
She snapped.
All the agents winced and turned away as Julia went off on Chief.
The raised voices were probably why nobody noticed anything amiss until too late.
The ice was starting to weaken and cracks were forming. Cracks that were slowly starting to move towards them, growing bigger and bigger. Agent Emily was the first to notice.
“Um.. Chief?”
Nobody seemed to hear her, not with the argument still going on strong.
“CHIEF!” The cracks were too big now. It wouldn’t hold all of their weight. “WE HAVE TO MOVE!”
Everyone gasped as they turned to stare at where Emily was pointing. One by one they all ran to get off the ice.
All except Julia. She was running the opposite way.
Zari noticed and ran back to go after her. She took hold of her arm and dragged her off the ice, ignoring the complaints coming from the woman.
Julia tried to resist, tried to run back. But it was useless. Zari’s grip was tight and it didn’t seem like it was going to loosen until they got off this ice.
A blur of something caught her eye in the nearby forest. If she didn’t know any better she’d say the silhouettes looked suspiciously human-like. Zari must have noticed too from the way her gaze drifted off to the edge of the forest before snapping back to right in front of her. Julia didn’t have it in her to care. Her gaze went back to the ice. To where the body of the fallen thief was still layed out. Unmoving. To where the cracks were moving towards, still growing bigger. To where they stopped at the thief before the cracks became too big and the ice broke. To where the body fell into the water, the current moving it away until Julia couldn’t even see it anymore.
Julia stared at the ice.
She stared at where Carmen’s body, her dead body, should have been.
And she didn’t stop.
__________________
“Dude, you can lay off!” Tigress snapped as Spinkick continued to jump on the ice, trying to form a crack. “The agents got spooked and they’re leaving. Stop!”
Just to annoy her further, Spinkick raised his foot high before stomping on the ice once more. .
Tigress scoffed and looked back at the scene of the agents panicking as the ice cracked. Admittedly, Carmen falling off the cliff was not part of the plan. In the end, this was a capture mission. With death being a last resort.
The second all the agents got off the ice they would sneak over, check the body, and, hopefully, take it back with them to VILE island.
“I don’t know why we’re doing this,” Flytrap muttered. “She looks dead to me.”
“We don’t know that for sure,” El Topo moved to stand next to Tigress, looking at the scene himself. Though, even with his statement, Tigress could see it in his eyes that he didn't truly believe his own words.
They heard the agents shout. They could see the body. How it was unmoving. But it just wasn’t possible. They’d all tried to kill Carmen so many times and she never. Stayed. Dead. So she couldn’t be now. She couldn’t be-
“Ugh! What is taking these agents so long?!” Paperstar groaned from her place lounging lazily on a strudy branch on a nearby tree. She was playing with some of her origami, turning them into stars before throwing them onto random trees, effectively impaling them.
“Calm down, they’re running away right now,” One of the older operatives, Rosa, if Tigress remembered correctly, spoke. “Does VILE not teach their operatives patience anymore?”
“Are they leaving the body?” Haber asked, leaning against the trunk of a tree while he twirled his hat on his finger.
“They are,” Jean-Paul confirmed. He turned to look back at Tigress and the two nodded.
Tigress turned to address all the operatives. “Let’s move.”
Mime Bomb moved in front of them all and held his hand out, preventing everyone from moving forward.
“What is he doing?” Spinkick demanded.
“I can’t believe VILE hired a mime,” James, another older operative, sighed. He was moving forward to push Mime Bomb out of the way before the mime turned and pointed to the cracks. They were spreading. The agents had all fled but it didn’t matter. If any of them went onto the ice now they would fall through and be swept up with the current. Like with what had just happened to Carmen right now. The water was probably so cold they’d get hyperthermia if they fell in. And they’d probably die. Which probably meant that if Carmen had somehow miraculously survived the fall and all her injuries, there was no way she would still be alive after her swim through the ice.
“She…”
“Well, she’s definitely dead now,” Neal cut Antonio off.
“So…” Flytrap started as she swayed uncertainly in her place. “Who’s going to tell the Faculty?”
Tigress groaned as everyone turned to stare at her before taking out her phone. ‘This was gonna suck.’
__________________
“Tigress,” Maelstrom greeted. “I hope this call means that the mission was a success.”
“Yes professor. Well… sort of,” the operative looked away at the last bit.
Maelstrom raised his eyebrow at that, indicating he wanted her to continue.
“It’s a success in that we’ll never have to worry about Fedora the Explorer again.”
“And that would be because?” Cleo demanded, tapping one perfectly manicured nail onto the table in annoyance.
“Well.. she’s-”
“She’s dead.” Sharpshooter announced, stepping to the front and taking the phone from Tigress.
….
“What?”
“This was a capture mission!” Cleo seethed.
“With all due respect Countess, you allowed death to be an option. I’m afraid that’s how the mission ended.”
“As a last resort!” Brunt yelled.
“Are you certain of her death?” Bellum spoke up, poking her head away from her many screens.
“Besides her injuries that included a bullet wound, many small cuts and scrapes, probably several broken bones, and likely a concussion, her fall off the cliff didn’t help.”
“Where is her body now?” Bellum questioned, interrupting Brunt before she could start yelling.
“We.. don’t know..”
“And why not?” Cleo demanded, losing more of her patience every second.
“It fell through the ice, Countess.” James spoke up. “Through the current it’ll probably end up somewhere in the forest.”
“You had one simple mission.” Brunt glared through the screen. Her knuckles tensed up as if she wanted to start a fight.
“My dear fellow Faculty, it seems we have overlooked the bright side of this situation.”
“Oh yeah?” Brunt scoffed. “And what would that be, Professor Maelstrom?”
Maelstrom turned to smirk at Coach. “That our Carmen Sandiego problem had finally been resolved. There will no longer be anything in our way.”
“VILE will finally be back on top,” Cleo realized. “Nothing can stop us.”
“Today is a new day,” Bellum agreed.
“Today,” Maelstrom looked back through the screen at all the operatives. “VILE has won.”
__________________
“Where is she?!”
“I- I don’t know!”
“She’s not here!
“We have to find her!”
After he finally reached the bottom of the cliff, he was met with two redheads panicking as they ran wildly around the pond. Shadowsan had to stop himself from joining Zack and Ivy in their desperate search for Carmen. One of them had to remain calm in this situation. Usually, he could count on Carmen and Player to keep their cool. However, this time one of them was panicking in his room while the other was unattainable. So Shadowsan was on his own.
He was so caught up in his thoughts and in his own search for the thief that he almost missed it when Zack stepped on the ice. Dashing forward, he pulled on the back of the boy's shirt and pulled him back. “If the ice cracked then it means it is unstable. It will crack under your body weight.”
Zack nodded before moving in the other direction to continue looking.
“Player, can you track her location?” Ivy desperately asked.
Shadowsan wanted to slap himself from not thinking of the idea before. Though, his hopes quickly died down when the hacker responded.
“I can’t! Her tracker is offline and she’s not answering her comms. They must have broken when she fell.”
“Fell…” Zack muttered, scartching his head as he thought out loud. His eyes widened as he came to realization and rushed from his place near the forest back to his sister and Shadowsan. “The pond is directly under the cliff. If Carm fell, wouldn’t she have ended up on it?”
“And if she fell onto the pond and the ice cracked-” Ivy gasped.
“Player, can you find a map of the forest that will show us where her body might end up through the current?” Shadowsan asked.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
They could hear the hacker typing away at his computer. It was a familiar sound in the middle of all this chaos. It was comforting.
“What if..?”
“Don’t say it.” Ivy demanded, cutting her brother off.
“It is an option that we should consider,” Shadowsan agreed.
“No! She’s not dead!”
“She fell a great distance,” Shadowsan stepped forwards to place a hand on the redhead’s shoulder. “There is a chance that she may have already been-”
“No.” Ivy denied.
“I…”
“Player! Did you find the maps?” Zack asked, eager to change the subject.
“I.. I did. I was also able to hack into one of ACME’s dones.”
“What did you find?” Shadowsan questioned.
“They had audio,” Shadowsan’s eyes widened at the admission, the hackers tone of voice only increasing his worry. “They said… they said she was dead.”
….
They all froze. They had to have heard him wrong.... right?
“…what?” Ivy whispered, the question barely audible.
“ACME said she wasn’t breathing.” Player voice cracked and they were reminded again of how young he was. “She’s… she’s gone.”
Ivy’s eyes welled up with tears as Zack sank to the ground. Shadowsan was starting to regret being so stoic and the team's residential calm person. Because right now, he wanted to sink along next to Zack and mourn with Ivy. But he couldn’t. Not yet.
“We have to find her body.”