(Hiatus) Carmen Sandiego One Shots

The Life of a "Player"

Requested by giomilla1

This one shot is made to explore Player's daily life, perhaps what he goes through during a mission, and maybe what he might do during the day. I'm sure we've all wondered about school, and his parents.

This is part 50!!!

Remember, requests open back up in two days, this Sunday, June 7th. Warning, updates will still be a bit random and slow.

Player POV

I was running on less than four hours of sleep for the past three days, the almost constant pounding in my head accompanied by several cups of coffee and a six pack of energy drinks. Their tastes were all starting to blend together at this point, but that wasn't exactly the biggest problem I was dealing with.

"C'mon, Red," I muttered, one hand tearing through my ragged brown hair as my leg bounced anxiously. The glare of my many screens was irritating me, and I gave a huff as I dimmed them and slipped on a pair of sunglasses. I'd been sitting in this chair for a straight nine hours while I maneuvered Carmen to a high-security weaponry vault, and every little disturbance on the cameras had my eyes darting between monitors as my fingers went flying over the keys.

She was almost there... and I knew she was exhausted, too. Carmen had gotten even less sleep than me with this mission, which sounded absolutely terrible because I was more than ready to pass out, but I also knew she'd be ok. If there was one thing Carmen had, that was resilience.

Honestly, I was needing some of that myself right about now.

Clicking on Zack's line, I asked, "How are you holding up, man?"

His deep sigh rang softly from the microphone. "I've been better, but I'm more worried about the girls. You been checkin' on Ivy and Carm?"

"Of course. Red's still on route, and Ivy's safe." The ginger had hidden herself in a storage closet at Carmen's command, and she'd stay there until I signaled for her to jump out and aide her friend in their escape.

Zack laughed, stopping quickly. "I don't even know what's funny, Player," he muttered. "Ack, I'm starving! I mean, honestly, what does it take to get a sandwich and a mattress around here!?"

"Zack," I deadpanned, "you're gonna have to wait for food and sleep like the rest of us. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday."

He gasped, sousing almost offended. "Player! A growing boy like you needs to eat, to nourish his body!"

There was a beat of silence, in which I raised an eyebrow.

The older burst into hysterical giggles, his weary mind causing him to lose a grip on the current situation. "You-you know what's funny, Player?" he hiccuped, attempting to regain his breath. "I didn't even s-say anything funny!"

And with that I knew Zack would be of little help in the rest of this caper, what with him not reacting well to sleep deprivation. I sighed and turned off his line, pressing on Carmen's. "Doing alright, Red?" I inquired softly, noting to be quiet.

"Never felt better," she joked, and a smile twitched on my lips. "Of course, I'm currently chock full of adrenaline, which is numbing the burn in my legs and the cloud in my head, but, hey. Just another Tuesday, am I right?"

"Absolutely," I agreed, leaning back to stretch in my chair. "You're just a few yards away from your target, actually. Keep on your current path, and you'll find the vault's door waiting for you."

"OK," she murmured thoughtfully, her blinking dot slowing slightly on my screen. "You'll be ready to open it?"

"Way ahead of you." I had prepared the disarming codes earlier when she and Ivy had first entered the building, taking extra care as I went over them to smooth out any nicks in the numbers. "Just get there safely and quietly, and we'll be golden."