In today's chapter-sode, Carmen is stacked with an explosive problem on her hands, not to mention an explosive reunion between herself and her dear old friend Graham, the artist formerly known as Crackle, Zack, Ivy, and Shadowsan adjust to their uncomfortable surroundings and we try to examine exactly who this mysterious "Red Eye" character is. Leave a review and enjoy.

2: "Dead to Me"

In a brief flashback, we're still on the ground, because I neglected to show our three other anti-heroes getting into comedic shenanigans in their seats. (Thanks by the way for those who contributed)

Zack was already annoyed and scared simultaneously. Annoyed that they were forced to fly coach home to San Diego in a packed flight no-less, but also scared that both V.I.L.E. and A.C.M.E. were on the same flying car with little in the way of warning Carmen. As Zack painstakingly found his way to his coach seat, he would be more annoyed as he cringed looking at the very person he would be sharing a row with.

"Well-well-well, look what the exhaust pipe spit out" It was Zack's preppy blue-blooded arch rival in the wide and wild world of racing: Trey Sterling. Zack's eye twitched a little as this was quite possibly the last thing he needed.

"Trey Sterling" Zack hissed. He looked at his ticket and then at the row above him, yup; it was the correct row alright. "Player is dead to me" he muttered, taking an uncomfortable seat next the only person he hated more than V.I.L.E…besides anyone who referred to Boston as Bean-town.

Ivy was already the most annoyed at Player for his supposed snafu in trying to get them a flight which made her think why they never had their own charter plane on standby, it's not like they—I mean, like V.I.L.E. couldn't afford it. But, she was about to get a big dose of sitcom irony. As she finagled her carry-on bag through the isle she got to her seat, which remember was a middle seat, and who should her companions be? The two overweight "mouth breathers" she insulted while in line.

"Bobby, where did you put the iPad?" the woman asked.

"It's in the laptop bag Janice, I told you fifty times" The man answered. The two stared at Ivy who stared back at them.

"Oh no" Ivy looked at her ticket, and then at the row number…then her ticket…then the row number…and do this for about five times until the denial wore off. "Player, is so dead to me" Ivy huffed,

"Hey Jan, look, it's miss high and mighty."

"Oh yeah, from the line, what did she call us? Oh yeah, a bunch of annoying mouth breathers" Janice, the woman said snarkily.

"Speaking of mouth breathing, Jan, got any more of those chili fries from the food court?" Bobby, the man, asked.

Ivy fumed, channeling her twin brother's inner rage. "DEAD TO ME!" she hollered. (By the way, if you enjoy yourself some Netflix, watch the series: Dead To Me, it's very good).

Now over to Shadowsan, who was inadvertently sitting a few rows ahead of the A.C.M.E. agents and was the last thing Chase Devineaux saw before drifting off into sweet and blissful Ambien induced sleep-land.

He was in a more chipper mood than the twins. For one, while he did have to sit in coach, his row was not filled, and the only other seat occupied was of a young boy sitting at the window. He was about Player's age, maybe a few years older, preteens or so, brown hair with bangs covering his forehead, a genuine all around American looking youngster.

Shadowsan sneakily took his aisle seat. He looked back and could see Ivy sandwiched between the heavy Bobby and Janice in her seat of misery. Shadowsan smirked and sat down, only for the kid to now be staring right at him.

The boy wore an orange shirt with a blue vest, an oddly enough, a brown trapper hat. "Are you a ninja?" he asked Shadowsan matter-of-factly. Old stone-face raised a rather stoic eyebrow. "Because I look Japanese that therefore makes ma a ninja?" he asked the boy.

"I dunno, you just look like a ninja" the boy shrugged. "I'm Mason" the boy said, holding out his hand.

"Shinzo" Shadowsan shook back. "You are alone?"

"Yeah, I live in Piedmont, California I got to connect to San Francisco when we land. I was visiting my great uncles, they travel the world and find cool stuff. I usually travel with my twin sister but—" Before Mason could continue, he could see Shadowsan already put on a sleeping mask and turn his head. "Annnnnd you're ignoring me, got it" Mason sighed.

Okay, now that you're up to snuff, we can go back to the flight at hand. Ending our flashback we return to Carmen now in the air. She had just finished reading the very scary and very cryptic text seemingly send by V.I.L.E.'s latest and scariest operative: Red Eye. Carmen gave Graham another look, seeing he had gotten up and was already walking towards her. She once again belayed answering Ivy's frantic texts about their traveling companions and went to the timer feature setting a timer for 7:00:00 hours. The time it will take for the bomb to go ka-bluey.

Carmen quickly stashed her phone and put on the bravest smile she could as Graham walked over. "Well, well, well. The elusive Carmen Sandiego" Graham happily said.

"Graham! Hey, it's you" Carmen chuckled nervously. "Wha-what are you doing here?" she asked.

"Well I thought I'd try and flap my arms to get to Seattle, but this seems a lot more stable" he joked.

"Ha-ha-ha, funny" Carmen gulped.

"Hey, it's good to see you, again. What brings you to Berlin?"

"Ummmmm…" Carmen stammered, her mind in too many places to think of a suitable lie.

"It wouldn't happen to be about that "secret service" you provide, now would it?" Graham coyly asked.

"Um—yes, it would, in fact" which wasn't a lie.

"Oh, so that's settled then, right? Is there any danger here?" Graham asked, still probably shaken up from his last run-in with V.I.L.E. Now Carmen had to lie.

"Of course not. Everything's peachy keen, heh-heh-heh" Carmen gulped.

"Well good" Graham smiled. "Hey, since you're here, maybe we can, you know, get another cup of coffee or something?" he nervously asked. "It's not like you can sneak off anywhere this time" he half-joked.

"Yup, totally" Carmen shrugged.

"There's a bar here in business class, I'm sure it's not as hoity or toity as first class but it gets the job done."

"Sounds good" Carmen nervously smiled.

Graham led her over to the nice bar right by the first class and business class partition. "G'day mate. Sprechen sie coffee?" Graham asked the bar tender who was older and sported a short gray haircut. Graham assumed was German.

"Sprechen sie Englisch?" the unamused bar tender retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"Um, right, of course. Latte for me, and whatever the lady is having."

"Black coffee, strong, really—REALLY strong" Carmen huffed.

"Coming right up" The bar tender quickly prepared both drinks.

"So, is it safe to ask exactly what brought you to the land of strudel and Oktoberfest?" Graham asked.

"Uh-you first" Carmen insisted.

"I thought I got contracted by the Berlin Theatre Troupe to do lighting for a few showings of Swan Lake, only to find out my airfare was paid for but it was otherwise a lie" Graham explained to Carmen's raised eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yeah, right? It was super strange. But then my manager gave me a call and said he could make it up to me, got our whole crew going to Seattle for three weeks of work. Les Misérables" Graham explained. "Here's hoping that goes better, eh?"

"Yeah" Carmen said a bit puzzled.

Their coffees were prepared for them, each with a few opened packs of stevia next to them, meaning they were already in the cup. Carmen's of course was just a burnt cup of hot bitter caffeine, while Graham's latte looked a lot nicer, except for the milk foam art which read JERK on it.

"Ha, guess someone doesn't have a sense of humor" Graham said smugly to the bar tender, who was helping another guest.

Carmen was now more perplexed than ever. This had to be the work of V.I.L.E., I mean why else have Graham on this particular flight with a bomb on it if for no other reason than to raise the stakes and confuse her?

"Right then, now, spill the beans. What brings you to Berlin, hmm?" Graham asked.

"I was…I was trying to stop someone from stealing some priceless Picasso paintings" Carmen explained, again, not a lie.

"Cheeky. How'd that go?"

"Like clockwork" Carmen nervously gulped, she checked her phone. 6:39:32. "Crud."

"Something wrong?" Graham asked.

"Um, I actually have to go to the restroom, I'll be right back" Carmen assured him.

"We call it the dunny. I can teach you some more slang, if you're interested?" Graham asked, taking a sultry sip of his latte. Carmen blushed.

But, before she could do anything, Kim; Carmen's seat mate made her way into business class and the two eyed up one another. "Oh, hey Chloe." Carmen winced, and shuffled away towards the back of the plane. She hoped Graham wouldn't hear that, but unfortunately…

"Chloe? Her name's Carmen" he said with a very raised eyebrow.

She didn't notice Mr. Eye-patch man in his seat which made Carmen all the more suspicious of his actions. Anyway, she found a set of stairs which took her down to the main level of the plane and the closest ally of hers to the back was—

"And do you remember in that other amateur race when I lapped you?" Trey asked Zack who was contemplating the consequences of strangling him.

"Yup, good times all around" He snarled. "Hey, remember when you're dad offered me and my sister a job on YOUR racing crew? Remember that, Trey?"

Before he could rebut and call Zack a host of hurtful names, Carmen sauntered up next to him, frantic and frazzled as ever. "Hey, "Mike" can I talk to you in private for a min—" Carmen stopped herself after seeing a smug Trey sitting next to a visibly agitated Zack "Whoa…"

"Yeah, whoa" Zack sneered.

"Player really screwed up, didn't he?" she whispered.

"He is SO dead to me" Zack stood up.

"Well hey there" Trey smirked. "You look familiar."

"Fat chance creep" Carmen hissed.

"Hard to get, huh?"

"Forget it, Trey. "Chloe", isn't interested in you" Zack said before sticking out his tongue at his rival.

Carmen then took Zack aside. "Hey, what's up? Ivy's been trying to text you since before we got on."

"Never mind that! We got bigger problems, Zack!" Carmen scream-whispered before looking around to see no one was paying attention. "Listen carefully, V.I.L.E. put a bomb on this pl—"

"A bomb!?"

"WHAT?"

"A BOMB!?"

Carmen face-palmed as Zack's slip of the tongue caused some understandable panic. She then did damage control. "No-no, he's kidding. He's totally-totally kidding. There's no bomb, everything's fine, go back to your seats" Carmen assured the scared passengers before turning her angry attention to Zack.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I—whoa!"

Carmen forced Zack to the back by an empty stewardess station and pinned him against the fuselage. "What's the matter with you?" she asked with gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry, Carm, it's just—"

"It's just there's a small list of things you NEVER say on a plane, Zack! Gun, fire, and BOMB are on the top of that list!"

"What about snakes?"

"Er—f-fine, snakes; But…huh, actually in your defense it is probably a much longer list…but, still! You never yell bomb on a plane!" Carmen warned him.

"So, there is no bomb?"

Carmen face palmed again. "Yes, there is, but we don't want to freak out everyone on the plane, now do we?"

"Riiiiiiight, and then we find the bomb ourselves—"

"And disarm it, good boy" Carmen said, slapping him gently on the cheek. "We gotta get your sister and Shadowsan and start searching, oh; and to make matters worse, V.I.L.E. has some new operative trying to make sure we don't succeed. He's called Red Eye."

"You mean on top of Tigress, Le Chevre, and El Topo?" Zack asked.

"Wait, say what now?"

"Oh…you really didn't read the texts, did you?"

"Wait, you mean Tigress…Le Chevre…and El Topo…are on this flight, too?" Carmen asked, teeth still gritted.

"Yup, wicked bad, right?"

"So wicked bad!" Carmen groaned.

"Oh, I'm sorry—"

Carmen and Zack turned to see none other than Jules walking down the aisle towards them, nearly colliding into a drink cart. With quick thinking, Carmen threw herself and Zack into a nearby restroom, quickly slamming it shut.

It was nice on the inside, even for a coach flight. With a slight twitch in her left eye, mostly from all the caffeine, Carmen turned to Zack. "Jules Argent is on this flight?"

"Oh, and Chase Devineaux and the chick I'm pretty sure is actually a robot."

Carmen fumed, ready to shout.

"It's okay Carm, you can scream. I know I want to right about now."

Carmen grabbed a towel and shouted into it. "Graham's on this flight, too!"

"Gr-Graham? Our Graham? That Graham?"

"No Zack, the other Graham you and I both know that I would mention by first name! And he saw me already, and my nosy seat mate Kim, who knows me as Chloe Monahan just called me that in front of Graham who only knows me as Carmen. So now he is gonna spill the beans to Kim who is a reporter for the LA Times doing a spread on OUR exploits!" Carmen fumed. "And that is the first domino to a bunch of larger dominoes which equals us getting arrested by A.C.M.E.!"

"Whoa, this is heavy" Zack sighed.

"Right!? Ugh! This has Professor Maelstrom written all over it. No one else could be this potent with psychological warfare quite like him."

"I thought that coach lady hated you more?"

"Please, Coach Brunt's idea for a genius plan is tear down a wall, beat up the forward sentries smash, grab, escape. No, this is all Maelstrom."

"Anyway, what do you know about this Red Eye, guy?" Zack asked.

"I think I may be able to ID him, there was a guy who was very suspicious near where I'm sitting. He's mid-forties, Caucasian, curly brown hair with a mustache, goatee, beard combination—oh, and an eye patch over his right eye" Carmen explained.

"Red Eye is Dan Crenshaw?" Zack asked.

"What? No."

"Cause it sounds like you're describing Dan Crenshaw—"

"Um, hello? Are you almost done?" came an unfortunately familiar voice from outside.

"It's Jules" Carmen whispered.

"Um, occu-pado!" Zack called.

"Oh, that is fine, I will wait" Jules called from outside.

"Can we trust Jules?" Zack asked.

"Normally, but how long before Devineaux and the other one get wind of it? And you know if there is one person will cause a scene at thirty thousand feet—"

"It's Chase Devineaux. Boy, what I wouldn't give for a wicked distraction right about now—"

On the cue, the plane was picking up some turbulence. They heard the ding of the fasten seat belt sign.

"Oh my. I must get back to my seat" They heard Jules call from outside. The pitter-patter of her feet started to cease, just as the turbulence did moments later.

"Well, that was convenient" Carmen shrugged. "Okay, you get started on this side of the plane, I'll get Ivy and Shadowsan. Check back to me if you have anything and I mean anything—and one more thing Zack…" Carmen warned him.

"No bomb talk?" Zack asked.

"No bomb talk!" Carmen sneered, before exiting the bathroom.

"Whew. Well, it beats sitting next to Trey, I guess" Zack shrugged.

Shadowsan was enjoying a peaceful and medication-free sleep. This wasn't even interrupted by the turbulence. But it was about to be interrupted. Shadowsan's eyes were awoken when his mask was thrust off of him. The culprit? Ivy.

"What?" he asked, annoyed.

"Shadowsan, I am begging you, I am on my knees begging, I will do anything, will you please-please-please-please switch seats with me, please?"

"And sit next to those two imbeciles you just insulted? Forget it, prankster" Shadowsan snapped.

"Please Shadowsan—"

"That's Shinzo—"

"To heck with the Shinzo! They're sharing photos of their boring vacation and eating chili cheese fries! And my seat is broken! I am so desperate" It was then that Ivy noticed the empty seat next to Shadowsan. "Wait a sec…is anyone in that seat?"

"Yes, half of it is my other armrest and half is…" Shadowsan blanked on Mason's name.

"Oh, Mason. Hi."

"Yes, Mason's other armrest."

"You're cruel. You're a cruel-cruel man, you know that?" Ivy sneered, though comedically.

"I am aware" he said proud of his small-time cruelty.

"I will remember this, mark my words "Shinzo" I will remember. I know where you sleep" Ivy said with more comedic scorn.

Mason then noticed in front of them was another stewardess station. This one in particular there was a small closet where the door opened (though the door was to them and not the opening) and then shut quickly. There were then the very familiar noises of scuffling.

"That looks a little suspicious, no?" Mason asked.

Shadowsan then thought for a moment, and looked at Ivy. "Could be you-know-who" or a few-you-know-who's, you know?" she said.

"Fine, I'll check it out. You can have my seat until I get back" Shadowsan said, standing up, and an excited Ivy immediately sat down.

"Yes! Ah, comfort. No talks about children, medical problems, or complaints about which bag the iPad is in" Ivy mused calmly. She then turned to Mason. "Hey, I'm Ivvvvvv-Mary, Truesdale."

"Mason. He a friend of yours?"

"Yeah, sorta. We're traveling together, him, our boss and my twin brother."

"You're a twin? I'm a twin. I got a twin sister" Mason added.

"Wicked cool."

Now over to Shadowsan. He sneaked over to the what appeared to be the closet door, and slowly opened it, but as he did, the plane was hit with more turbulence and it knocked him down. He was woozy when he got up, and saw the door was now ajar. He opened it up and inside was a standard relatively tiny closet for a plane this size. But on the inside was a pantry of various foods, and the only occupant, was the Eye-patch man, sitting on the floor, like he had been knocked down and was rubbing his head.

He and Shadowsan stared each other down for a moment. "Hey" the man said.

"Hey" Shadowsan added. He noticed an overturned unit box of stevia…

Carmen was making her way up the fuselage towards Ivy and Shadowsan's seats. But she stopped when she noticed a familiar face she definitely did not want to see…Tigress. The queen of mean was getting up for a stretch from her seat. While she was looking away, Carmen tried to sneak past her, while brazenly and surreptitiously pushing her back into her seat, and ending up on Le Chevre's lap.

"Hey!"

"It wasn't me."

Tigress got up and saw the back of Carmen's head as she headed up the aisle. "Well, well, well" she smirked. She made her way towards her prey.

Carmen speed walked past Ivy's seat, seeing Janice and Bobby she understood why Ivy wasn't there. A few many rows up she came across Ivy sitting in Shadowsan's seat and as she past, Ivy caught a glimpse.

"Carmen! Did you get my—"

"Tigress coming! Need distraction!" Carmen boomed, walking past.

Ivy looked down the aisle and saw Tigress approaching fast. With quick thinking, Ivy made a fake yawn and stuck out her left leg, which Tigress comically tripped over. When she got up she turned her head, very angry.

"Who dares…" Her eyes locked with Ivy's look of disdain. "YOU!"

Carmen continued to look for Shadowsan as she was now in the forward Stewardess station, where most of the non-premade meals were in fact prepared. It was two long aisles, each being connected by a couple connecting hallways at various spots. It seemed eerie. Carmen looked around for Shadowsan as he clearly wasn't in his seat. As she ventured more to the front, she saw someone stumble over from one of the side hallways. Carmen quickly took cover as she wasn't seen.

She saw it was the Bar tender from earlier…who didn't have a sense of humor. He seemed nervous, and clearly had things in his hand. He went into what looked like another closet. Carmen raised an eyebrow. Her hero senses told her this was the right time to follow. As Carmen sneaked her way inside the closet, which was filled with various boxes of food and things, The man turned around just as the plane hit more turbulence. A box then fell from a top shelf above the bar tender and knocked him out cold…too cold.

"Oh my gosh!"

Carmen ran over to see in his hands spilled out a few packs of stevia, and an empty vial of something. Carmen noticed in his ruffled Lufthansa employee uniform, which was partially unbuttoned, there was a tattoo on the man's chest. Carmen slowly opened the shirt, revealing a tattoo…it read V.I.L.E. Carmen stood back bewildered.

"That must've been Red Eye!" But then, she felt a presence behind her.

"Wow." Carmen turned around and gasped. "Kim!"

"Geez, boy he sure looks dead, to me." Kim said very surprised.

Alright, I think we can end it there. More drama and comedy will be had soon boys and girls, and thanks so much for reading my work, it puts a smile on my face. Do leave a review with your suggestions and happy reading. Goodnight Everybody!