Chapter Text
“Red, you there?” Player said through Carmen’s comm-links.
“Yes Player, any updates?” She asked
“Yea, I intercepted more chatter about the caper tonight”
“What's it say?” Carmen raised an eyebrow
“There sending in more operatives, probably meaning that they plan on stealing more that just some artwork”
“I mean we are talking about the Swiss National Museum, it's rich in historical artifacts. But that means that we’ll need some reinforcements.” Carmen stood up from her chair, and started pacing back and forth in her room.
“Do you have a plan?” Player asked
“Were going to need some help from our ACME friends.” Carmen grabbed her phone, “I'm going to call Jules. I’ll fill you in later after the call.” Carmen disconnected from the line. She went into her contacts to call Julia. Her phone started ringing, she held it up to her ear waiting for her to answer.
“Carmen? Are you alright?” Julia answered
“Yes I’m ok,” Carmen took a deep breath “I’m going to need your help. We intercepted new chatter about the heist tonight. V.I.L.E decided to make this a group effort, giving them the advantage. How fast do you think you guys can get here?”
“We are still stationed here in Munich, I can inform Chief and be there in around two hours” she replied.
“Great. I'll drop you the meeting coordinates. Meet me there at around 8pm. See you soon.” Carmen hung up and informed the team about her plan. All that was left was to wait for Julia and her team to get here and inform them of their plan.
Carmen decided to take a final look through the museum to take notes of the artifacts that might be possible targets.
~~~~
It was around 7pm, and the museum was slowly emptying. Carmen decided to arrive early at the coordinates to keep a lookout. Zack and Ivy were parked nearby ready to roll into the parking lot. It didn’t take long for ACME to show. Carmen saw two ACME cars pull up in front of her. Julia and Devineaux came out of one car, and Zari and her partner out the other.
“Miss Sandiego”
“Agent Zari” Carmen took little time to greet the others. “Is this all of you?” she added.
“We have more agents on their way, they will secure the whole perimeter” Julia replied
“So what's the plan?” Devineaux asked
“We’re still not sure of the operatives involved, but we do have some possible targets.” Carmen brought out a map of the museum interior. “When we first intercepted intel they mentioned stealing some artwork.” She pointed at an area on the map. “But now that we know that they are out to steal more. We assume they want to get some old artifacts, maybe in this area” She pointed at another location on the map. “But we can not say for sure, we need to cover some ground-”
She was interrupted by the sudden buzz of Zari’s phone “This is Zari” they really couldn’t hear the other end of the conversation. “Understood,” she hung up the phone. “We have to get going. One of our agents just spotted an operative enter the building.”
They started making their way to the museum, and entered through the cafeteria area. Before they went their separate ways Carmen brought Julia to the side.
“Jules, before you go take these” Carmen got something from her pocket. “There comm-link earrings to keep in contact.”
“Oh ok, I put them on right now” Jules took off her pearl earrings, and put the comm-links on.
“And Jules please be careful, there's no telling which operatives are involved.” Carmen gave Julia’s hand a small squeeze.
“Agent Argent let's move it!” yelled Agent Zari from the distance.
“I’ll see you after” said Carmen. Julia started jogging to where the other agents were. Carmen decided to go the other way to cover more ground. She found the room she had pointed to earlier and started to secure artifacts one by one.
“Player, what else might be on V.I.L.E’s shopping list” She asked
“You’re clear in that room Red, there may be more two exhibits down to your right” he replied. Carmen started running towards the next exhibit.
“Jules, how are you guys doing?” Carmen asked her through the comms.
“We're doing good so far, we have secured a couple of artworks” She responded.
Carmen arrived at the exhibit Player said a bit after, but noticed that she wasn't alone. Tigress was also there, about to secure a glass jug.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in” Tigress said as she put the case in a duffle bag.
“Let me guess Cleo decided to go shopping?” Carmen crossed her hands and raised a brow.
Tigress slowly lowered the duffle bag to the ground, keeping an eye on Carmen. Tigress launched a punch towards Carmen. She dodged the punch. Carmen took the opportunity to take a cross jab to Tigress’ side. Tigress started throwing jabs and punches. Carmen decided to go more defensive and block them. Carmen saw a window to take another jab at Tigress, this time hitting her on the side of the jaw. She heard a small yelp coming from Tigress.
“Give it up Tigress you're not going to win this one” Carmen said.
“I might not, but I'm sure the rest of the team did,” She said, still holding her jaw. “It was fun distracting you though.” Before Carmen knew it Tigress was gone.
Carmen’s head was flooded with all these thoughts, but she had to get to Julia first. “Jules, how is the extraction doing?” There was no reply “Jules?” All she heard was static over the comms. She switched lines to communicate with Player. “Player, Jules isn’t answering her comms”
“Yea about that Red, It's been that way for a couple minutes” He said a little hesitantly.
All those thoughts started to flood Carmen’s head again. “Can you try and track the comms?”
“That's the other thing, the location that Im getting right now is at…”
“Where Player!?” Those words were said a little more aggressive than Carmen intended. She could feel how Player winced, but she wanted to know if Julia was alright.
“She’s at a hospital,” Player said. Carmen could feel her heart drop. She started to feel a lump at her throat. “I’ll drop you the coordinates,” Player added. Once Carmen got the coordinates she decided to walk to the hospital.
Carmen took a deep breath, “Could you please tell Zack and Ivy that i’m going to be off the grid for a while. I want to stay by Jules’ side.” Carmen didn’t really wait for a reply. She took off her earrings and put them in her pocket.
~~~~~
It took Carmen about 15 minutes to get to the hospital which was surrounded by ACME agents. She was so caught up with her thoughts that she bumped into a ACME agent outside the entrance.
“Im sorry, but you can not enter the premises”
“Please I need to see is Julia is alright” Carmen said desperately
“I’m sorry but I can't allow-” The agent was cut off by the distant voice of Chief. Which had just come out from a car.
“It’s ok you can let her in” She said while walking towards Carmen. “I will personally escort her to Agent Argents room.” Chief continued on to the entrance and nodded to Carmen to follow her.
“Thank you” Carmen said with a small smile. Chief just nodded and continued walking. Carmen noticed that she was as worried as she was. It didn't take long enough for them to get to Julia’s room.
“Agent Argent is in this room. I need to go check in on the other agents.” Chief said.
Carmen hesitated to open the door, she didn’t know what to expect. She wasn’t sure in what condition she would be in. Carmen took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. The room was dimly lit. She started to hear the beeping of the heart monitor. The lump in her throat started to build up again once she saw Julia.