Chapter Text
On a plane flying over Dubai, United Arab Emirates
“You know, all this stuff with blimps and supercars today made an idea pop into my head.” Zack said out of the blue, as most of Team Red did their own thing. Ivy was reading her usual car magazines when drinking an entire can of Pepsi and Carmen was sitting on one of the couches reading a book.
“Oh no, Zack has an idea, RUN.” Player said dramatically from Carmen’s laptop screen. Causing Zack to pout at the teenager on the screen.
“No, he’s right, everyone RUN.” Ivy quipped from where she sat, earning a glare from her little brother.
Zack groaned. “Come on guys! Hear me out!”
Suddenly, the entire room went silent, and no one was speaking at all. Not even Carmen, who usually chimed into these kind of conversations by now. But nope. No one spoke for 2 minutes straight until Carmen broke the silence.
“...Zack, don’t take this the wrong way, but whenever you say you have an idea things tend to get a little..messy.”
Zack stared at Carmen for a brief second, before scoffing at her. “Okay, wow, Carm, what a nice way of saying I suck at ideas.”
Carmen shook her head, putting her book down. “No, no, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying whenever we do something you suggest, we always end up having bad luck.”
Zack scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest. “Give me ONE example.”
Ivy rolled her eyes at her little brother. “Hibachi. Last month.”
Zack froze, before starting to laugh his ass off. “That wasn’t a disaster! We had fun, didn’t we?”
Carmen and Ivy both looked at each other briefly, before looking back at the slightly younger man sitting across from them eating his bag of chips. Carmen crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down.
“Zack, you burned your entire hand when accidentally touching the stove when the chef was cooking!” Carmen nearly exclaimed, having a flashback of that entire incident play inside her head.
Zack scoffed. “It wasn’t that bad! It just took one trip to the ER.”
Ivy snorted as she slurped on her Pepsi. “Yeah, and almost an hour of you screaming about how you were gonna die.”
Zack waved his hands frantically in the air as he got on the defensive. “I felt like I was gonna die!”
Carmen sighed, sitting down beside him on his side of the couch. “Look, our point is..we don’t want you to get hurt like that anymore. Hell, we vowed to never go to Hibachi that often ever again after that entire incident. So whatever idea you have now, you can still..well, share it, but it may not be put into action.”
Zack scoffed, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away from the two women. “I was only gonna suggest we get a blimp! Y’know, for Team Red! Imagine how amazing it would be to have one.”
Ivy glared at him, not believing what just came out of her little brother’s mouth. Seriously, how idiotic can he get? A blimp? Is he fucking serious?!
“Zack, that’s a terrible idea! Tell him, Carm.” Carmen has common sense, and wouldn’t let him do something as reckless as this…right?
“No, actually, he may be onto something.” Carmen said, shocked that for once Zack had an idea that wasn’t going to completely end up in disaster.
“WHAT?!”
Carmen shrugged, leaning back against the couch she was sitting on. “Yeah, I mean, this way, we won’t have much trouble returning stolen things back to their owners..like we did today, with the supercar. Ugh, that was unpleasant.” She said, before going into Leader Mode again. “We just have to buy one that would be less obvious so VILE doesn’t track us down.”
Zack smirked. “Leave that one to me!”
“‘Zachary's Gourmet Cupcakes’” Carmen read off the paper that displayed what their blimp looked like. “Huh. This could actually work.”
Zack grinned as he opened up another package of things to transfer on their blimp as they drove it back to the base. “Oh yeah! This way, VILE would never be able to tell who’s actually operating this baby!”
Carmen raised an eyebrow at him, as he took out what appeared to be a mug. “Uh..are those mugs?”
Zack’s face gleamed as he nodded, pulling out a bunch of them to show her. “Yup! They’re really expensive ones I picked up before we left the UAE! I even got some custom made for us.”
Carmen snorted. Of course out of all things Zack would spend his award money on, it would be something random like this. But hey! At least he didn’t spend it on a lifetime supply of food. However…it made her curious about what these mugs were. Even if this whole thing was…cheesy.
“And what exactly are these custom made mugs you got us?” Carmen asked him, earning a soft nudge, and then a mug appeared in her hand. It was a dark red mug that said #1 Woman in Red in bold white letters.
“Well…that’s only one of the others I have. Especially for you, since you're our boss and all.” Zack shrugged, taking out another mug for himself.
“Wait, how many more mugs did you get?” Okay, now Carmen was curious.
Zack stepped aside and pointed to an entire box of them labeled Team Red Mugs , and saw how every mug had been specifically made for every member of the team, including Player, even if he wasn’t there in person.
“Zack.”
“Yeah, Carm?”
“You’re officially my favorite.”
“OH YEAH!”