Funny seeing you here- A Carulia Fanfiction

A Message

"Any guess on what they're stealing this time?" Player's voice rang out in Carmen's ear.

Carmen watched Flytrap disappear around a corner, waiting a moment before following. The blonde woman was wearing a thick jacket, clearly unused to snow, or at least the thick, unrelenting kind that swirled through the air of Boston at nine in the morning. The fine, cold powder was mostly white now, as it drifted gracefully to the ground in piles, but soon it would be black and grey with city smog and dirt. Carmen stumbled a bit as her foot sunk into a snowdrift that was deeper than it looked.

The twins were back in San Diego. Carmen knew it wasn't that they wanted to help, but she knew a thing or two about escaping your past. It was fine, though. Boston's streets were too crowded to get much use out of a getaway driver, and VILE could afford a taxi.

Carmen navigated around a crowd of what looked like high school or college students, spread across the sidewalk as they laughed and talked. She stopped a moment, reminded of what her life could have been like. Had Jules once been one of those students, unaware of VILE and ACME and everything in between, just trying to pass the next class? "No idea."

Carmen took great care to stay out of the operative's line of sight. She was a bit nervous about facing Flytrap again and wanted to avoid a confrontation- if Frytrap whipped out the bolas when she was completely alone, save for Player's voice, it wouldn't be easy to get past her and figure out what VILE was after.

"Well, there's some museum trinkets that might be worth a bit, but I don't see why VILE would come here for those." Player's voice was thick with irritation. He liked to be on top of VILE, normally was, but this latest caper, whatever it was, didn't have any information about it on Player's "usual sources" (The dark web), or the hard drive. Not that the had drive was particularly recent- it had been about a year since Shadowsan had given it to her- but it still had information about heists on it, would until the next hard drive came on December first. Whatever this caper was, it was completely unlisted.

Maybe Flytrap's gone rogue, The thief thought with an amused smirk, thinking back to her first caper. She dismissed the thought as quickly as it came; it seemed unlikely. What could the bola-slinging woman gain from defecting for VILE?

Suddenly, with no indication- no look over her shoulder, no slight hesitation, Flytrap burst into a full on sprint; cutting through crowds, almost tripping over a large dog that barked as she raced past, and sumburging herself entirely into the city's near constant rush hour, out of Carmen's sight.

"Flytrap's on the run," Carmen breathed. A person with the largest poodle she had ever seen gave her a strange look as they walked by, dog in tow.

Confused, but determined not to lose her, Carmen followed. She caught some glimpses of the lady's straw colored braid through the thick crowds, the only indicators that she was going the right way.

Then she was in a narrow space between two apartment buildings, completely alone, the sounds of the city behind her.

"Where is she?" Player asked. He must have seen Carmen slow down on her tracker.

"I don't know." Carmen kept walking forward, frustrated. She was reminded of La Chevre's disappearance in Rio, but this time, there was no hidden trapdoor under an armchair.

Something caught her eye.

"What's that?" Carmen murmured. She didn't even realize she had said it aloud until the words left her mouth.

"What's what, red?"

"Some sort of... photograph?" The lady superthief crouched and reached for the piece of paper, partially wedged under a half-centimeter gap between a brick and the pavement. She grabbed it hesitantly, worried about a trap, but there was nothing. There was writing on the back, but that was faded, perhaps by the dampness of the alleyway.

"It's..." Carmen began as she flipped it over.

And stopped short.

She tasted bile.

Her first thought was some sort of prank. It was a picture, one of someone's still form huddled against a doorway, their face hidden partially from the camera. Carmen thought she saw blood on the ear facing the lens. It could have been some sort of twisted halloween decoration, or a bootleged photo of a show.

But the photo was clear, detailed, traken from a photography camera. Whoever had taken this picture didn't take it in a hurry, or intentionally blur it to hide the bad quality of the decorations. They had taken this photo with still, calm hands, as if they had all the time in the world to document a moment in time, a place.

This was real.

This was a threat.

Or proof of a job well done.

Carmen's heart leapt into her throat as she scanned the photo once more, taking in short bluish-black hair of the figure, beige, slightly yellowing wallpaper enclosing a white wooden doorframe.

She flipped over the note again, the words now strikingly clear.

I told you that you couldn't save everyone, Sandiego. Let's see if you can save this one.

Then, an address. Not far from here.

And a date, set for three days from now.

But it read more like a deadline.

The note had no name. It didn't need a name.

VILE.

Carmen's fingers clenched around the edges of the paper, crinkling the image a bit.

"Red?" Player's voice was a bit morew urgent- he'd heard Carmen's voice drop away, breath that she hadn't realized that she was holding unable to fill the gap due to its absence. "What is it? What's the caper?"

Carmen cleared her throat. But still, when she spoke, her voice was strained, and rasped on the last syllable.

"Jules.." Carmen took a deep breath, trying to clear out the thoughts that raced through her mind, slamming into eachother and keeping her from forming a coherent response.

She couldn't let- wouldn't figure out what VILE would do if that trime ran out. She didn't want- wasn't able to to see Julia in Chase's position: A vacant stare, mind so scrambled that she was unable to tell allies from enemies.

Plus, the stakes were higher, because even if Carmen didn't know how to treat it, even if Jules didn't know how to accept it, they were allies.

And Carmen was done with her allies getting hurt.

She realized Player was still waiting for a response. She stuffed the photo intp her pocket and spoke with some of her old strength in her voice again.

"Flytrap wasn't here to steal something. She was here to deliver a message."
"And that is?" Player's words tumbled out of his mouth a little too quickly.

Carmen swallowed the lump in her throat. "Julia's in trouble. And we're going to help her."

So folks, in case you didn't notice, I moved this all from fanfiction.net within around 10 minutes. But, I'm not done next chapter. So see y'all then!