Loud House: Where in the world is Lincoln Sandiego

Between capers

Week's back there was the Boston Tea party Caper. The wind pulled harshly at Carmen's jacket. Her adopted son besides her. Her coattails whipped wildly as the helicopter containing on-site personnel was ferried away to the skies by The Cleaners. Despite their escape, she sighed in relief.

Another caper, another major strike at VILE's revenue. This time around, the hideout for their latest money printing scheme had been the basement of an abandoned building in a large metropolitan area. Thousands of people likely passed by this place everyday, unaware of the millions of dollars in funny money being produced just below their feet.

Even without any VILE personnel captured, Carmen was certain the local law enforcements were going to be quite pleased with what they found. There was still a dozen printing presses left behind in the basement and Carmen had made sure to get her hands on the money prints used to recreate the phony bills.

She would leave them for the police to find once they arrived, unless ACME was on top of their game. In which case she would personally pass them off to her favorite agent.

All in all, another successful sortie. Carmen  prep ceded to step off the ledge first where she'd been staring down the helicopter when-

"La, la-la, la, la." Paper Star hummed as she skipped up the stairs. The echo of the staircase must have carried her voice, because Carmen was already looking her way once she emerged from the rooftop access door. Though Lincoln smirked as he disappeared and left the two girls alone.

"Carmen." She said. There was sharp businesslike tone to her voice. This was to be over with quickly. "You always have a habit of turning up where other people don't want you."

"Paper Star." Carmen had been prepared for this moment. Not exactly like this, but she'd been practicing for the next time they'd meet "Listen, I just want to talk."

"Talk?" The chuckle that crept past her lips was edged with venom. "There's nothing left to say."

"Yes, there is. I want to tell you what I was too afraid to say when I left VILE Isle."

Paper Star almost physically recoiled. "What?" Her voice was quiet, but steeped in anger.

Carmen took a deep breath, then let it out. "I want you to come with me. Neither one of us want to be what VILE wants to turn us into, so let's just leave. We'll travel the world and I won't have to lose my best friend..." She took a step forward. "-ever again. I'm so sorry for what I did before, but I can do the right thing now. I want you to come with me."

The paper folding thief gawked at her in disbelief. Her surprise, her apprehension, quickly disappeared. "You left me behind and you think one apology is going to make me forgive you? Make me leave behind the life I built for myself without you?!"

"Paper Star-" Carmen started to say

"No! You don't get to talk over me about this or try to apologize for abandoning me. Do you know what the faculty was like after you escaped? How they looked at me knowing that I was your friend? I had to work twice as hard as everybody else just to get them to even consider me loyal enough for graduation!"

She visibly shook, as if her body was being blown around by the wind. "But I did it. I stepped on who I needed to and carved a place for myself in VILE. Without you! So why do you come back now and make me feel so-?!"

Beneath them, the building shook and a thunderous boom echoed throughout the night. Smoke billowed from the broken windows on the lower levels and rose from the rooftop access doorway.