I own nothing.

This new story is a Carmen Sandiego suspense thriller at 30,000 feet! It also won't be as long as I'm planning to make my other ones so there won't be as many scenes, descriptions, and Breaking Bad & Sopranos references. "After a mission, Carmen and company are forced to take a commercial flight back home after a snafu from Player. However, not as all that it seems as Carmen quickly learns this was a ruse by V.I.L.E. to plant a bomb on the plane! Now forced to conceal herself from A.C.M.E. still pursuing her and a new V.I.L.E. operative poised to take her down, Carmen must save the day without being detected all while stuck on this floating ticking time bomb! And perhaps rekindle an old flame as well. CarmenxGraham. Do leave a review and enjoy.

The Red Eye Caper

1: "Lufthansa 67"

Berlin, Germany. A museum curator frantically unlocks the doors to his office. He is a heavyset German man who was wishing he was tying one on over at his favorite local beer hall. He was quickly followed by three individuals in very well-fitting blue three piece suits, they were A.C.M.E.'s finest agents…well, they were three A.C.M.E. agents: Chase Devineaux, Julia Argent, and Zari, who seemingly has no last name and who I am surely convinced is actually a robot.

"And I am telling you, sir, the paintings are right here. They never left" The curator explained.

"Let us be the judges of that, Mr. Hoeffler" Chase boomed in his French accent.

"See for yourself" The curator, Mr. Hoeffler opened up several boxes hastily left in his office, which contained a bevy of well-preserved stolen paintings, all of which were on loan to the museum. Chase and Zari were of course stunned whereas Julia knew the truth, she always seemed to.

"Sacre bleu! The paintings!"

"But, they're right here" Zari added with her face about as animated as usual.

"My word, they're all here. All the Picassos" Julia said studying them. "Carmen Sandiego never—"

"Stole them at all; blah-blah-blah" Chase sighed, popping a breath mint and then shoving a toothpick into his mouth, letting it stick out like he suddenly became a grizzled detective from a 1950's crime novel. Julia merely stood there with a mild smug smile. Mr. Hoeffler took the paintings in the box and placed them on a dolly before happily wheeling them out, leaving the three agents alone.

Zari dropped her A.C.M.E. pen to the floor and Chief appeared as her hologrammed self. "Agents, report."

"The paintings were recovered Chief, all seven" Zari explained.

"And in perfect condition, I might add" Julia added.

"And is it safe to assume our little red friend is nowhere to be seen?" Chief asked, to three nods. "Ugh. Fine. We'll have A.C.M.E. continue to monitor the situation, in the meantime, you three are probably exhausted. We've booked you a flight. It leaves in two hours so you'd better hurry."

"Booked? As in a commercial flight?" Chase asked.

"Chief, this is highly irregular" Zari continued.

"Budget cuts, it was a tough decision but I had to slash our travel expenses. Plus there was some weird leer jet race or something and getting a chartered plane out of Berlin this weekend was all but imposible.I do apologize, agents. I hope to see you back at base shortly" Chief then vanished while the three agents looked at one another.

Over at the local hotel, Carmen and crew were packing up their things in their deluxe suite. Carmen, already packed, sat on the bed and was debriefing with Player. "And now what?"

"Now, we just wait for the museum curator to find the paintings."

"And for a certain Chase Devineaux to fall flat on his face when he realizes they're not stolen?"

"Hopefully the hood of a Mercedes won't be what breaks his fall this time" Carmen chuckled.

Zack then burst into Carmen's room. "Ready to go Carm. Yo, is that Player? Hey bud, when's our plane getting in, I could crush a wicked nap right about now,"

"Yeeeeeeah, about that" Player guiltily began to rub the back of his head.

"Player. Carmen no likey that look. Spill."

"Well, I was trying to charter your plane, but the system glitched for whatever reason. All I could get you was a commercial flight."

"What!?"

"What!?"

"What!?" Ivy burst in, hearing the conversation. "Did my ears just deceive me or did our hacker genius just say we're flying tourist?"

"Ugh. Sorry gang. It was the best I could do on short notice"

"Okay-okay, not a problem" Carmen assured them. "We have to check out tomorrow, maybe we can get a flight then?"

"No can-do. Our charter flights are booked solid for a week, some sort of billionaire plane race, thing. They actually rent the planes, can you believe that?"

"Okay, fine. Why don't we just get another hotel for the night, wait out the rich-person dog fight and leave the day after?" Carmen asked.

"Yeeeeeeeah—"

"About that" Zack and Ivy finished Player's sentence in unison.

"Let me guess, because of the rich-person jet regatta, everyone is coming far and wide and there's no hotel rooms available for three hundred miles or so?" Carmen guessed.

"Four hundred, actually."

"But it's like, fifteen hours to San Diego!" Ivy complained.

"Actually, seventeen, you have a two hour layover in Seattle" Player added. "Again, sorry."

Carmen made a facepalm. "Do you at least have fake ID's for us?" she asked.

"Of course, I'm not a moron. I have your "passports" coming with some room service."

"Mmm, room service" Zack mused.

"But here are your tickets" suddenly, on each of their phones popped a ticket for "Lufthansa flight 67. It's an Airbus A380, biggest commercial airliner in the world."

Zack read his name on the ticket: "Oh cool. I'm Mike Truesdale"

"And I'm your twin sister Mary Truesdale. This is wicked awesome" Ivy added, high fiving her brother.

Shadowsan then entered the conversation. "Did I hear the child computer genius correctly?" he asked.

"Yup" Carmen sighed.

Shadowsan checked his phone. "Shinzo Naykatana. Hmm, not bad."

"Wait! Hold up, back this crazy plane up for a second!"

"Something wrong, Red?"

"My name. Chloe Monahan? What about me screams Chloe Monahan to you? Everyone else's name makes sense!"

"Sorry, it was the best my random name generator could come up with" Player shrugged.

"You are a computer hacking prodigy, you couldn't have—I dunno went with something a bit more focused—Carla Martinez, Christina Montalban, Camila Mendes. See, I just gave you three different identities without trying!"

Zack put an arm around "Chloe" "As a fellow Irish, let me be the first to welcome you into our brood!" he joked. "I hope you like whiskey, potatoes, the color green, and issues with your father" he added to a list of very hurtful stereotypes. Carmen responded by appropriately pushing him away.

"Hey, if it makes you feel any better, Red, you got the last first class seat."

"Wait, what?"

"We're flying coach?" Ivy snapped.

"Like I said, best I could do. Heh-heh, sorry guys" Player ended the transmission while Carmen had the last laugh.

"Hey, you all got normal names, I got a seat that turns into a bed. Tradeoffs" Carmen smirked. "Come on. The sooner we get there, the sooner we get this over with"

"Yes."

"Ditto."

"I agree." Everyone gathered up their belongings, only waiting for their passports to be delivered to them so they could get their journey over with.

Smash cut to Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport. We'll fast forward through security because that's tense no matter who you are. Over at the gate, everyone stood in their respective lines. Carmen being in first class was in a closer line for the plane. Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan stood in their line further back, complete with crying toddlers and annoyed tourists.

"Remind me not to get Player a birthday present" Ivy groaned. "At least not a good one."

"Dually noted" Shadowsan nodded emotionlessly.

"Seventeen hours. Seventeen hours, ugh. This is gonna suck worse than a seafood buffet" Zack sighed. "Where we all sitting, anyway?"

"Let's see" Ivy read her ticket. "Lower level, row 75, seat B—aw, I have a middle seat? Player's not getting a Christmas present, either" she pouted.

"That's weird, I'm row 109 seat D" Zack said.

"Huh, but I am row 24 seat H" Shadowsan said reading his ticket.

"What the heck! We're not even sitting together?" Ivy groaned.

"The ancient ones have a saying about discomfort…" Shadowsan began

"Well the ancient ones can kiss my butt. They never had to sit in a middle seat in a packed plane filled with annoying mouth breathers" Ivy complained, crossing her arms. A portly couple turned around and glared at the redheaded girl. "Yeah-yeah, keep it moving" she sighed.

"Could this get any worse?" Zack groaned.

Hello, worse. From about a dozen people behind them, the A.C.M.E. agents who of course had to be on the same plane were very impatiently waiting for their turn to board. Chase was being especially difficult; I mean, you know, more so than usual.

"And we have to fly coach!" he complained. "The icing on the crepe suzette of misery."

"It won't be so bad" Julia shrugged. "We are sitting together. It gives a chance to grow as agents and form new bonds we never previously had."

Zari pulled a visibly annoyed Chase aside. "Not to worry Agent Devineaux, I have some sleeping pills we can take."

"Ah, thank you, Agent Zari."

"It's Ambien, it's powerful stuff so whatever you do, do not resist the urge to sleep" she warned him, putting the salmon colored pill into his hands.

"Are you kidding me? I will sleep like a rock" Chase quickly downed it with a chaser from the criminally overpriced smart water he bought in the duty free shop. Zari just shoved hers into her face and made one gulp.

"Ooh, I downloaded this app on my phone. We can learn a comprehensive historiography on every country we fly over, doesn't that sound fun?" Julia asked. Chase and Zari looked at one another and quickly knocked back another pill each, which certainly broke Julia's heart.

Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan took notice of the three behind them. "Aw man. It's Devineaux, and Jules…and, the other one who I think might actually be a robot" Zack scream-whispered.

"What are the odds?" Ivy shrugged.

"Yes, it is quite odd, isn't it?" Shadowsan thought.

"No Shadowsan, I said: "what are the odds", it's already odd."

"Shh" he whispered. "Do you not find it strange that we just happen to be on the same plane?" he asked.

"I mean…A.C.M.E. has to get around too" Ivy shrugged.

"It is a big plane. We'll never see each other" Zack assured them. "Just as long as it doesn't get any worse."

But, as the laws of television dictate, it must get worse! For in front of our heroes was another group of three. This time it was V.I.L.E.'s answer to the Three Stooges: El Topo, Le Chevre, and Tigress, each dressed in more civilian clothes than their usual V.I.L.E. battle ware. Each were responsible for the bungled art heist, and were also subjugated to mismanaged budgets which forced them onto this flight.

"Go steal a legendary coffee recipe in Seattle" Tigress snapped, mocking their new orders from the faculty. "And then they make us fly coach in this glorified sky bus. I'd sell my soul for just one Ambien."

"Well, at least we are not getting our memories erased for failing again" El Topo shrugged.

"If it makes us forget this trip mon ami, then sign me up for a memory swipe" Le Chevre sighed.

"Ditto" Tigress nodded, she then smirked. "But hey, we do have other plans that are much more fun, don't we, boys?"

The three snickered. "Did the faculty give you the identity of the new agent?" El Topo asked.

"No. We're not even supposed to know who he is. But he'll give us a sign and that's when we bail…leaving little Black Sheep in quite the precarious situation" Tigress smiled.

"What is his name?" Le Chevre whispered.

"Red Eye, or something stupid" she shrugged.

And now back to Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan.

"Tigress?"

"Le Chevre?"

"Um…the mole guy?" Zack said the last one, can you tell? "Top—something?"

"Great, A.C.M.E. and V.I.L.E." Shadowsan groaned.

"And all in a flying tin can with nowhere to run. We gotta warn Carmen!" Ivy insisted but before they could—

"Guten Aband passengers, Lufthansa flight 67, with connecting service to Seattle, Washington, and then non-stop to San Diego, California. At this time we would like to board all our First Class passengers, bitte" a flight attendant called over a loud speaker. Carmen, who was third in line walked right on.

"What do we do now?" Ivy asked. "We can't just leave, they'll spot all us for sure."

"Relax. We'll monitor them. Make sure they do nothing suspicious." Shadowsan explained.

"You mean…like real ninjas?" Zack asked.

"Just call me Donatello" Ivy smirked.

"You're both more like Michelangelo and in the first place; no. We will do this right. Plus, it gives us something to do instead of being bored" Shadowsan smiled. "

"Aw man, as long as this doesn't get any wor—" Ivy and Shadowsan put their mouths over Zack's mouth before he could in fact make the situation worse.

Carmen, with her hood up so as to avoid prying eyes made her way to the second floor of the plane, which had two stories running from both ends of it. It was the first class section. As she walked, she noticed a man putting his bag in overhead storage. He had on a leather duster jacket with a black eye patch over his right eye. He had short but curly hair, and a mustache goatee beard combination which was perfectly trimmed. Carmen saw on his extended arm his wrist was exposed, revealing a red eye tattoo on the left wrist.

"Hmm, that's either Dan Crenshaw or a V.I.L.E. operative?" she whispered. "Nah, you're seeing things, Carmen." Carmen—or rather Chloe Monahan found her seat, which was in fact one of those cool recliners which transformed into a bad. She threw her bag in the overhead storage and happily took the window seat.

"Fake name aside, good work, Player" She said to herself. Instead of going right to her phone like your average millennial which would reveal an onslaught of S.O.S. texts from Ivy, Carmen took her complimentary blanket and eye mask resting on the seat and was ready for an evening of not being bothered.

"Ooh, silk. Not bad, Lufthansa."

But as she was about to get comfortable she noticed someone walked over to the seat next to her. Carmen had already put on the mask. "Excuse me?"

Carmen opened up her mask and got a good look at the individual. She was a slender woman maybe a few years older than Carmen. She was well dressed, with long flowing red hair, and green eyes.

"This is row C?"

"If not, I'm in the wrong seat" Carmen said.

The woman put a briefcase in the overhead above her and sat next to Carmen. "I only ask cause sometimes I get so indecisive I think I'm on the wrong plane. I'm Kim" she said extending a hand.

"Possible?"

"No, but I get that a lot. Just Kim. And do I have the pleasure of making this cross-Atlantic trip with?"

Carmen shrugged. "Chloe Monahan" she sighed. "Business or pleasure?"

"Why, are you buying the drinks?" Kim chuckled. "I'm kidding. Business. I work for the Los Angeles Times, I'm a reporter. I detail a lot of the thefts that go on in these museums, and they all seem to have one thing in common, you know?"

"A lady in red?" Carmen "guessed".

"Yeah, exactly! How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess."

"What about you, Chloe Monahan, what's your story?"

"I run a non-profit, I was…doing an event an event at the Reichstag" she lied.

"Wow, you seem so young."

"Well you know, it's no big" Carmen chuckled.

"Your parents must be so proud" Kim mused.

"Yeah, right" Carmen trailed, this being an obvious sore subject with her as she was in a desperate search for her mother since finding out she may still be out there while now knowing her father was in fact killed.

Kim continued to babble on about some kind of nonsense as the two buckled up, the plane was about to take off. Carmen never had a fear of flying, she had done a lot in the past year or so after escaping V.I.L.E. but something about this flight was making her feel uneasy. Maybe it was flying with a ton of people who may be able to identify her. There was nowhere to run, or maybe there was something uneasy about the guy with the red eye tattoo. Either way, something made Carmen believe this was gonna be an incredibly long flight.

Back down in steerage. Zari, Chase, and Julia were buckled into their seats, Zari was already in her mask and blanket, albeit not nearly as nice as the ones in first class, and was already passed out. Julia was getting ready for fifteen or so hours of history lessons while Chase punched his uncomfortable pillow against his headrest.

"Now, pay close attention Miss Argent. I want to spend this evening doing nothing but sleep. Do not wake me up for the flight attendants, do not wake me up for some boring and dull art history facts, and do not wake me to watch The Notebook with you again. I'd sooner stab my eyes with tiny pitchforks" Chase explained.

"Of course."

"Wake me only for the following two situations: either Marion Cotillard is professing her love to me or the plane is going down. No exceptions!"

"Same" Zari muttered. "But switch Cotillard for Patrick…Swayze" she murmured before drifting off to sleep to Chase and Julia's confusion.

"He has been dead for at least ten years" Chase interjected, which fell on deaf ears as Zari began to snore.

"It's the medication, it causes you to do strange things. You should sleep, Agent Devineaux, the last thing we need is a mishap at thirty thousand feet" Julia warned.

"No worries there" Chase did his best to get comfortable in the seat.

"Wait, what if Carmen Sandiego is on the plane? Shall I wake you up then?" she asked.

"Ha! Carmen Sandiego is a lot of things, and taking a commercial airline is not one of them. She's probably kilometers…away" Chase started to drift off. He looked forward and squinted his eyes seeing Shadowsan in his seat. "Hey that's…that's the…baguette man" Chase woozily lost consciousness while Julia went back to her history.

The plan started to reach its cruising altitude and Carmen felt a bit easier as the fasten seat belt sign was turned off.

"Alright folks, this is captain Gunderson speaking" the captain began over the intercom. "We've reached our cruising altitude of thirty thousand feet and you are now free to roam about the cabin. Our flight attendants will be by shortly to take drink and dinner orders. We thank you very much for choosing Lufthansa and have a nice flight."

Carmen needed to clear her head. She got off of her seat bed and went out into the cabin, walking out of first class and into business class where there was an open bar. As she was walking she noticed a familiar voice down in business class.

"Excuse me, stewardess. I hate to be bothersome…or stereotypical, but have you any vegemite on this thing?"

Carmen's eyes went wide. It was none other than her former V.I.L.E. friend turned memory wiped civilian: Graham, the artist formerly known as Crackle. Carmen froze. She didn't want to just run up to him. Maybe he didn't remember her? Well, of course he did, he had helped her on two separate occasions and had a sort of inkling on what the former black sheep now did for a living.

But she was happy considering they could take this time while stuck on this tin can in the sky to catch up. It's not like she had a mission or anything really imperative to do and it would prove to be—

BUZZ-BUZZ-BUZZ.

As Graham looked Carmen's way, she felt her pocket buzz. It was her phone, which she had set to airplane mode but was set to the aircraft's Wifi, so she could receive texts. Most were from Ivy which Carmen didn't notice because there was a message sent from an UNKNOWN number which greatly disturbed the red thief.

GREETINGS CARMEN SANDIEGO. IF YOU ARE READING THIS, THEN YOU ARE ABOARD LUFTHANSA FLIGHT 67 NOW AT CRUISING ALTITUDE. IT IS MY JOB TO INFORM YOU THERE IS A BOMB HIDDEN ON THIS AIRCRAFT COURTESY OF MYSELF AND YOUR FRIENDS AT V.I.L.E. IT IS SET TO EXPLODE IN SEVEN HOURS TIME, STARTING NOW. DON'T BOTHER WARNING ANYONE, IT'LL CAUSE A PANIC, AND IT'LL EXPOSE WHO YOU ARE. YOU'LL HAVE TO FIGURE THIS ONE OUT FOR YOURSELF, BLACK SHEEP. GOOD LUCK.

-RED EYE.

In shock, Carmen dropped her phone to the ground and looked back to a waving Graham, giving a thousand yard stare.

Okay, that'll do for now. Thanks for reading everyone and leave me a review, and give me suggestions as to who Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan should be sitting next to on the plane. Who knows, your character might appear. Goodnight everybody!