Carmen Sandiego 2019 One-Shot Book

Bonding Moment

     Author's Note: This fic was actually a collab with Detective Marshmallow over on Discord! And she is also known as PerculiarPen on AO3! Go check her out, she's SUPER talented and an amazing friend!! We both worked very hard to give this fic to you guys today, so enjoy it!

    Happy Reading!

                       ___________

   
     Carmen Sandiego peeked her head through the door to Zack's hotel room.

    She saw the boy in question sitting on his bed. With his phone in one hand and a bag of chips in the other.

Carmen knocked on the door frame, making him look up from his phone.

   "Zack, can we..talk?"

     Zack frowned, but nodded, putting his chips aside as Carmen sat on the edge of the bed.

    "Oh, uh, yeah sure, Carm. What's up?"

Carmen took a deep breath, before opening her mouth to speak. "Are you..okay?"

  Zack gave her a fake smile. "Yeah, I'm fine! Why? Is somethin the matter?"

     Carmen scooted closer to him on the bed, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

   "I'm talking about what happened last night. You've been closed in ever since then and you've gotten me a little concerned." Carmen said, while studying Zack's expression as it changed from his usual upbeat and bright look to a more saddened one.

Zack sighed.  "You've noticed that, huh?...... Well, I guess I just feel upset. I messed up big time last night and I dragged Ivy into it. Then ya yelled at us. And I just felt like I broke our team up because of my problems with Trey Sterling."

   It was Carmen's turn to sigh, as she looked at him sternly. But she wasn't mad at him. Not like she was last night.

   "...I gave you two a chance to tell me what happened, but you refused. As for Trey Sterling, what's the big deal about him? Why do you let him get into your head so easily?" She said, gently rubbing Zack's shoulder.

  When asked that question, Zack threw his hands in the air frantically out of frustration.

   " 'Cause racin' was my passion! Me and Ivy worked hard to get to where we were while he sat in his fancy mansion, or whatever, being waited by all his butlers! We had to work hard while all he had ta do was shove money at everythin'!

  It's not fair! We deserved more than what we got. At least Ivy deserves more. She's a freakin' genius! And nobody knows it! Well, aside from you Carm.... ya get what I'm tryin' ta say, right?"

     He looked at his boss and friend with pure hope in his eyes. While he wasn't sure if she understood him or not, he really hoped she did.

    Carmen, of course, knew what he was talking about. She's been where he and Ivy were when she was still at VILE Academy. But it was a little different, since her entire upbringing there was a lie. But..she trained extra hard to be the amazing thief she is today.

    And Sheena barely did anything besides  succeed in Coach Brunt's fighting class.

     The other classes? She already had experience in before. But no one ever knew how and why. So, that part of Sheena's, Tigress's, intelligence is a mystery.

     One that Carmen wouldn't bother to solve, really.

   A part of her would like to thank the Faculty, but the other part doesn't think they even deserve to be talked about even if she has to talk about them during debriefing.