RICKROLL; p. bouchard

2. Meal Time

"Hey. Wake up. We're here."

You feel someone shaking you ever so slightly, as you shift in your sleep.
"Five.. more.. minutes.." you yawn, shifting back into a comfortable sleeping position.
The lady in red sighs, and plugs the aux cord in.
You immediately jolt up from hearing the tune, with wide eyes as "Never Gonna Give You Up" blares from the car speakers. The redheaded woman wakes up aswell.
You huff, as Player's almost maniacal laughter can be heard from the speakers, and get out of the car.
Outside the car, you notice that the woman in red has changed clothes, going from wearing a bright red trenchcoat to a more casual red jacket and shorts combo. She looks gorgeous, as per usual.
One of the redheads lead the way, yelling "Oh yeah, meal time!" as the other redhead follows closely behind.
As you enter the restaurant, the familiar ring of the windchime greets your ears, and you immediately know what restaurant you've arrived in. It's one that you visit quite frequently, to the point where they have your usual order on the menu.
The cashier sees you and her face immediately lights up.
"Y/N! long time, no see! What can i do for you today?" She smiles, leaning against the counter.
"Cas! How've you been?"
"Really good, actually! Since your order got it's place on the menu, we've been getting a lot more customers who want to do the same thing. It's kinda weird, but like, yay for popularity!"
she waved her hands around, making you chuckle.
"You've actually caught us at one of our rare, relatively empty moments."
She says as she looks around the room, particularly at the three you came with.
"What about these guys? Are they from campus?"
"Uhm, sure, yeah, They are from campus!" you divert your focus to them, partially to avoid her suspicious gaze, and partially to gauge their appearances and memorize them.
Cas eventually nodded and went up to the others to write down their orders as you went to your favourite table to sit.
It had a lovely window view, and an electric outlet underneath the table.
You sat as the others joined you on the table. The redheads that you assumed were twins were discussing what to order, while the lady in red plugged her laptop into the outlet.
"These all sound so good!" one says, practically frothing at the mouth.
"Ooh, i wanna try this, and this, and oh my god," he looked at the menu again, "'The Y/N Special'? You have a food named after you?"
he asked, awe-struck.
"Yeah, they do," Cas laughed, "It's actually our bestseller."
You look around and space out for a moment as the redhead made his order,
The lady in red's computer starts up and a kid about your age with a serious expression who you can only assume is Player pops up on the screen.
An ominous silence fills the room, and you find yourself holding your breath in suspense as he breaks that silence.
"Y/N. I have a few words to say to you. One, how the fuck,"
The lady in red shoots him a glare that had 'watch your language' written all over it, which he ignored,
"did you manage to break into my system and why was it a fucking rickroll virus of all things?!" he yelled, enunciating the curse words.
You let out a chuckle, which he does not take kindly to.
"You think this is funny?"
"I mean, yeah," you hold back a full laugh as you wave your hands around to gesture at the whole.. everything.
"Considering your approach thus far, how could i not? You've had me unconscious in your car for what, hours? And still, i'm not dead, my organs feel like they're still in my body, and none of you have even told me your names. What the hell are we doing?"
"Wait, what? We told you our names in the car!" one of the redheads say, eyes wide. The other redhead elbows him,
"They were asleep then, of course they didn't hear us."
The lady in red nods in agreement, and turns her head to you.
"My name is Carmen. Carmen Sandiego." She extends a hand to shake yours, which you take hesitantly.
"Y/N."
Immediately afterwards, the redheaded man goes up to you and shakes your hand as well as basically your entire
arm.
"I'm Zack-", he shifted his position and gestured to the other redhead, "-and this is Ivy!"
"We're twins, and we're from Boston."
Ivy said, putting her hands on her hips.
That explains the accent, you think to yourself as you nod along.
"We actually have another member, Shadowsan, but he's out of comission and resting at the base for now."
Carmen says as Zack winces, reminded of the event.
You barely notice though, as Player interrupts.
"Alright, as nice as this is, we have a plane to San Diego to catch tomorrow at noon. I've booked you guys at a hotel, so be there after you're done eating."
You almost do a double take at what he just said, and how he said it so non-chalantly.
"Excuse me?"
"You're excused."
"Wh- That's not- A PLANE??? EXPLAIN???"
You fumble over your words.
Player just shrugs,
"Back to home base. We need to debrief Shadowsan in person and get started on properly training you."
"..Training?"
You ask again, wide-eyed. He scoffs lightly.
"What are you, a parrot? Those V.I.L.E. guys are still after you, y'know. You could either get caught by them again, or come with us and learn to defend yourself and help our cause."
"What even is your cause? And what the fuck is a vial?"
"V.I.L.E. is an evil organization that masquerades as an Import/Export company. They steal valuable art, historical artifacts, medicine, technology, and the like from the general public for selfish gains.
We steal those things back from them, and give it back to the people."
Player says, like he's rehearsed this before in his brain.
"That makes sense, i guess," you hum in response. "Though, it doesn't explain why you booked a plane and a hotel?"
"Our headquarters are at San Diego. You can't go back to your dorm because V.I.L.E. might come for you again.
Your hacking skills are impressive, and they're gonna want you for themselves.
We figure you might not want to get indoctrinated by and work for Capitalism Incarnate™, so we're giving you free food, shelter and a two month long training course on how to defend yourself against them.
At the end of which, you can either join us in our cause or go home and live peacefully." He flicks at the fidget spinner on his desk as he talks.
As you're trying to process all this new, baffling information, Cas arrives at the table with everyone's food. You all thank her as she places the food down, and dig in.
And before you know it, your plates and bowls are empty, and you guys are walking back to the car as Zack and Ivy tell you about the amazing adventures they've been on-epic sound effects included.
You enter the car, Player clickity clacks at his keyboard and the coordinates to the hotel show up on the car's GPS.
Zack flashes the mirror a smile, and y'all proceed to book it to the hotel.
The exterior of the hotel is surprisingly comforting. It's a tall brown building with the word HOTEL on it in a giant font, nothing too out of the ordinary. Just what you need after a day as hectic as this one.
Carmen talks to the clerk and you all make your way to your room.
The room is relatively big, has four beds, one window and a table decked with foldable chairs.
Zack calls dibs on the softest bed, Ivy goes for the one with the window and Carmen takes the largest bed leaving you with the only bed that has an outlet, which you plug your phone into immediately.
As you all get settled in bed, Zack and Ivy recount more adventures they've had to you, while Carmen and Player also add in their fair share of commentary.
These clowns might not be so bad, you think to yourself as you slowly drift to sleep.
__________♡________☆_______♡__________

a/n: HOLY SHIT IT'S FINALLY DONE
okay so i'm really really sorry it took so long but life's been so hectic that i legit forgot abt this fic TvT
anyways sorry for the massive infodump in the chapter and i hope you pester me for more if you liked this. au revoir.