Summary:
HAPPY PLAYER WEEK!
Alt 2: Found Family
Day 7: Red
And just as quickly it runs her over like an ambulance— because now there are sirens going off in her head. Sirens of recognition.
That scream from earlier, so frantic and pained, like a ball of anxiety had been hurled towards her.
It had called out something.
"RED!"
Red...
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FOR CLARIFICATIONS ON THIS AU: Player & Carmen are cats, and by this I mean they can morph between human and cat. So the "AU" is pretty much canon but with some extra traits, habits, and fluff.
But "this fic" is very different to canon.
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"There is... one valuable lesson I learned from you. One you didn't intend to teach." Carmen chuckles sinisterly.
She stops, holding the entrance to her coat with a wicked smile. Because she was finally, finally about to get her revenge. On the man who ruined her life, had it out for her since she was a kitten.
She's finally kicked him down, and he can hardly glare at her through his anguish. How pitiful.
Carmen Sandiego can feel that vengeance boil a hot red in her veins— pumping through her head, rushing with the toxic levels of adrenaline and feline neglect in her system.
And through it, she grins, almost purrs at the sight of Shadowsan dropped to his knees before her.
Her nemesis, rival, the last item on her criminal bucket list.
Carmen reaches in, "Only losers wear empty coats."
From her crimson coat, she manages Gray's crackle rod (hers now)— still smoking from the last time she'd fired it. And she watches Shadowsan's expression drop.
Blind to her own mind that had just been ruthlessly disfigured, Carmen turns the crackle rod's dial, feeling it ablaze and click in her hands. Quite literally crackling to life, sizzling hotly before her eyes.
Carmen angles the device to Shadowsan's face, feeling it thrum powerfully as his expression bleeds into something that makes her see beautiful reds. Victory.
"I would agree..." is all he says, pathetically, as the man reaches into his own coat and reveals something much smaller.
Her grip tightens, knuckles white, she goes to fire the object, or at the least threaten the stupid thing.
When she sees it... and isn't even allowed a second to register that before something slams into her crackle rod. Something she didn't see coming.
Carmen shrieks as she's thrown violently to her side. Her finger slams over the trigger and a pulse sends the device wildly from her fingertips.
And distinctly, she can hear that blood curtailing scream, just like the one Crackle had given her. One that meant success, she's hit someone... but as Carmen's head smashed into the ground, it doesn't feel as good.
A flash assaults her.
She crosses her arms over each other and gives a wincing smile, "Just... felt the need to connect with my other oldest friend from my school days."
Player softens, "Don't worry, Red. I'm not going anywhere."
"I know."
Player. A hacker, the boy on the screen, family, and... a best friend.
