What's stolen

Stolen long ago

"Hey Red, you there?"

Carmen jumps, not ready for the sudden voice in her ear. It had been so long since she had heard Player's voice coming out of the earpiece. Since VILE had been taken down and she had finally gone to meet her mother, Carmen had kept talking to her oldest friend through normal phone, like anyone around her would. She had however kept the red pendant as a reminder of what she had gone through.

"Player? What's up?"

Hearing her speak, her mother who had been sitting in front of her looks up with a questioning look. Seeing it, Carmen shrugs her shoulders as an answer for now. It was weird for him to suddenly use the old system and she started to grow worried.

"How would you feel about getting into the field once more?"

Yeah, she didn't have a good feeling about any off this.

"What happened?"

She could feel how she's falling into her old self once more or had that even left her to begin. Rising from the seat, she starts to walk around, not being able to be sitting in this moment.

"According to ACME, VILE has managed to escape. I have to say, it took them longer than I would have expected."

Player starts to explain, and Carmen can hear him type away on the other side of the line.

"Well, they were striped of everything they had and the VILE agent's that wasn't captured would have a hard time trying to get them out."

Carmen explains, her mind going through the list of VILE agents that was still out there, going through what she knew about them and who would be able to pull of a prison break.

"Well, ACME's new Crime-net, there is going to be a caper going down in a few days and someone have to make sure to put a stop to it before it happens."

Carmen finds herself freeze over the news. She knew what her oldest friend is trying to do, and had this been 2 years ago, she would have jumped at the opportunity to take down VILE at any moment. Now, now things were different. Turning her head, her eyes lands on the woman she had grown close too during these 2 years.

"Player..."

A tired sigh was let out as she spoke to tag name.

"Carmen."

Hearing her mother speak up, Carmen turns her full attention towards her mother, surprised that she had spoken up.

"Go!"

"What?"

"Go, take care of whatever is happening."

Carmen blinks a few times, completely lost at what is going on. Her mother rises from her seat, taking the few steps towards her. With a hand on Carmen's shoulder, she gives her long-time missing daughter a warm smile.

"It has been amazing to have you here, helping out and finally get the time to get to know you. But you have the wandering soul of your father and I can see you are not happy being stuck here. You need to be out there, seeing the world and putting things right is what you love and what you need to do."

"She has a good point there, Red."

And now they were teaming up on her. Taking a deep breath, Carmen let what her mother had said sink in, and she knew the woman in front of her is right. She loved spending time with her and kids in the orphanage, but there was a hunger that couldn't be satisfied with this life. She missed the thrill, the adventure. To see the world and all its history, to make sure that history stayed where it belonged. To see her favourite agent and listen to her rambling on about just those things.