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summary: okay, bear with me. I know Gray has already been EVIL, but what if....EVIL-ER??? Picture this: after the train debacle, he gets back to VILE and they think he's gone SOFT, that he let Carmen go because they used to be friends. So....instead of mind-wiping him, they REPROGRAM HIM. INTO A KILLER WEAPON HELL BENT ON HUNTING CARMEN DOWN. (feel free to be flabbergasted)
Be warned, though, this is a bit of a longer story that i'm going to be breaking into 2 or 3 parts. I might even make a separate short story for it. So its a long chapter and there isn't much redcrackle except til the end because its just pt.1 and has lots of self-indulgent exposition bc i love the caper structure of the episodes and felt like writing a one-shot akin to that. Yeah. ;D
word count: 6,451 (idk how that happened)
. . .
Apr 27
21:42, M.M.T.
Rakhine, Myanmar
The night was ash and unwelcoming, but summer was easily felt. Humidity and moisture weighted the environment, and Carmen's body felt its affects. Her auburn hair stood on its ends, and sweat collected along every curve of limb or flesh. The heat was unbearable, and if not for the collection of tools tucked within its seams, Carmen would've considered ditching her coat.
As she crept through the sprawling, hilly wilderness, her comms crackled to life within her ears. "Having fun, Red?"
Carmen chuckled. " 'Fun' is not the word I would use, Player. This heat is turning my hair into a monster."
"Might I suggest the investment into a, how do you girls say, a hair tie?"
She smirked, amused. "It'd cramp my style."
"You're probably the only super thief in the world prioritizing fashion over functionality."
"Hey, my hair is plenty functional. You've never seen it whip someone's face off." Carmen was mostly joking, but a thought of her hair slapping into Tigress's face when they were brawling top-side of a moving Hauler in Indonesia materialized. Good times.
Player laughed, and she inferenced that the creaking sound that followed was him leaning back in his custom Swivel-inator 360. The latest in Swivel Chair Technology. She had it sent over for his birthday last month. "OK, your hair aside, how're things looking on scene?"
Carmen re-surveyed her surroundings. She was situated in camouflage a few hills away from a secret VILE-backed weapons base in Myanmar—a hulking, grey compound in the middle of a dense, mountainous rainforest that was encircled by the expected rotating platoon of guards. That was key—guards. Not operatives.
