Chapter Text
Coach Brunt, Maelstrom and Dr. Bellum sat in their chairs patiently awaiting the return of their fourth member, Countess Cleo. It was awkward silence while Bellum doodled a cat climbing a pyramid on some loose paper. Besides the sounds of pen on paper the only other sound being heard was Brunt tapping her finger on the table. The silence was interrupted by a helicopter from the distance which got louder and louder. Cleo has arrived. In a tizzy, Cleo stormed out of the helicopter and forced the door open before Vlad could hold the door open for her.
"She can't keep getting away with this. I've had it up to here with her interferences with our plans!” She brought her right hand up and stretched it above her head. She approached the table, slightly stomping. “Do you know how close we were? This close!”
“Hey Uh, I think your fingers are touching.” Coach Brunt inched closer for a better look. “Yep, definitely touching.” She snorted.
Bellum laughed. “You’re using a lot of hand gestures, Carmen Sandiego has you really riled up.” All Cleo could do was just glare back at her, but Bellum continued to smile anyways.
“That’s because it was within our grasps!” She blurts out while whipping her arm back down to her side. “If it weren’t for her and ACME teaming up, we would’ve had enough riches to fund our projects for ages, at least enough to get us out of this rat-infested castle we call a headquarters!”
“Countess, I understand your frustration. Believe me, we all feel the same way. No need to bring in our current living arrangements.” Maelstrom rubs his frontal temple and sighs. “Our recent failures have recently taken a major toll on our mental health and our remaining funds. Please, just have a seat and we can forget this all happened.” Bellum’s head shot up from her now completed picture of a cat on a pyramid, which surprisingly looked well drawn.
“Forget? Ah, that’s what I had forgotten to mention!” Dr. Bellum pushed her chair back and looked through her messy array of papers. The rest of the faculty looked to each other in confusion before redirecting their focus onto Bellum’s antics. Their eyes followed her as she brought a remote and some papers around the table and in front of their table next to Cleo. “Pardon me, Countess.” Cleo stepped to the side to make some room.
“What is this all about, Saira?” Cleo questioned.
“This is about our wiping problem!” She said confidently with no context whatsoever. A moment of awkward silence passes.
Maelstrom raises an eyebrow. “Perhaps you should provide some context.”
Bellum ponders for a moment before realizing what she said. “Oh, silly me.” She presses a button on the remote and brought down the big screen. “This is in reference to our mind wiper.” Clicking a button that shows a blueprint to their old mind wiper but with notes written on the borders. She grins. “It is fixed.”
There was a collective gasp. “Does that mean?” Coach Brunt asks hesitantly, hoping she understands what she hopes it means.
“Yes, this means it is ready to be used on a little Black Sheep.” Bellum replies.
Cleo puts her hand on Bellum’s shoulder, looks down at her colleague and smiles. “Excellent work Saira.”
Dr.Bellum chuckles, waves her hand, and tries to act nonchalant. “It was nothing really. Just extensive hours of combing through data to find any bugs. A toddler could do it. But not really, toddlers do not have the brain capacity for engineering and science.” Cleo did a small puff of a laugh. It was not funny, but Bellum has a way of being so straight forward it began to slightly amuse her on bad days.
Maelstrom stood up from his seat faster than any of them had ever seen before. He was almost oozing excitement, despite keeping his usual calm yet unsettling demeanor. “Enough of the chitchat ladies. Let’s get started right away. Coach, contact The Troll and instruct The Cleaners to follow his directions. Doctor Bellum and I will be heading to the lab to make some preparations. Oh, and Countess, please be ready to welcome our guest when she arrives.” Maelstrom walked out of the castle while Bellum trailed a little bit behind, leaving Cleo and Brunt by themselves to start the work.
“A shoulder touch and a smile? Countess, keep it in your pants next time, will ya?” Brunt teased.
Cleo took offence and scoffed. “Excuse me? What on earth are you talking about?”
Brunt rolled her eyes. “If you don’t get it, then it’s not even worth explaining.” She smiled and eyed Cleo before she opened up her phone to start doing her job.
Hours had passed. Everyone had done their jobs and were just waiting on an update.
Coach Brunt sat alone in the big empty faculty room. Cleo was fixing up a new room in the castle, using her eye for design to make it feel like home for a young adult. Though Brunt didn’t have any care for design, she’d rather not be sitting by herself like someone benched during a game. That was before she felt a buzz in her pocket. She quickly answered.
“We have Carmen Sandiego. We will be arriving shortly.” Thick accent, but definitely the cleaners. She couldn’t tell if it was Vlad or Boris, but it didn’t matter. They were almost the same person anyways, and besides, they have what they needed.
Brunt hit a quick dial on a remote and brought down the big screen again. Bellum and Maelstrom only needed one screen to talk, with Cleo on the other line. They awaited her response. “Our little Black Sheep will be home shortly.”
Maelstrom grinned. “Excellent.”
“Coming off a little too malicious there.” Bellum pointed out.
He groaned in response. “Coach Brunt, please double check with The Cleaners and affirm they will bring her directly to the castle lab. We are ready on our end.” Before hanging up abruptly.
“Quick confirmation Countess, her room is ready, right?” Coach asked.
“Do you take me for some lazy fool, of course it is ready. You should see it, it has-” But was interrupted by Brunt.
“I think I hear the helicopter! Fwoosh fwoosh! Gotta run.” She quickly hung up the call. Dodged that bullet. Lucky for her, The Cleaners were within the vicinity and helicopter could be heard. So, technically she wasn’t lying. Brunt got out of her seat and stretched. She was sitting for a while, so she needed to get the blood flowing. She walked to the doors as the helicopter started to land. She stood back as the wind forcefully blew on trees and on her face.
Once the helicopter landed and the blades stopped spinning, the door swung open. Boris had Carmen swung over his shoulder. Somehow she was still completely knocked out. Either she was exhausted, or she just can’t take being tased. Brunt approached Boris.
“Let me take her, Mama Bear got this.” Boris just nodded silently. She opened her arms and took Carmen from his shoulder and cradled her. In a way, she really did look like a mother. One that was carrying her daughter to the house after she fell asleep on a long car ride. It felt right to her.
Once Brunt reached the lab. Maelstrom and Bellum were waiting patiently. Bellum was at her computer, doing some final runs through some code so everything would run smoothly. While Maelstrom was just supervising.
“Wonderful Coach! Please set her down on the table.” He said as he gestured to a hard metal table.
Brunt just stared at the metal table that had cuffs sticking out. “What kind of torture device is this?”
Doctor Bellum dropped whatever she was focusing on and turned around. “Torture? Coach. The mind wiper does not hurt.”
“Uh, I was talking about the cuffs.”
“Oh, the cuffs? Yeah, those might hurt. Also, prolonged resistance might be borderline mental torture.”
“Uh-huh.” Coach said suspiciously, still holding Carmen in her arms.
“Just put her down, you can’t be in here when she wakes up.” Maelstrom demanded. Coach just nodded. She could tell they were annoying him. He isn’t a patient man, especially when there’s something he wants personally. She one by one closed the cuffs. She couldn’t help but feel this was too much, after all, they did raise her. They had been planning this ever since Carmen defected from VILE. She always known one day her Lambkins would return home one way or another, but she always hoped she’d come back willingly.