Red shadows in the night.
"Let's see... this matrix seems to be the one blocking the access to the important ones... If I apply an inverse one... the values reset and I can easily untangle it." I quickly write down the inverse on the air and what once looked as an impenetrable security spell was reset to an identity. Seems it worked just like in maths.
"What do we have here? Material... no, time... yes, feed... yes, alarm... interesting. Time to pick the lock." I focused on the matrices that controlled the duration and the energy of the spell I was currently held within, trying to reduce the duration of the spell without alerting the caster, who was relatively close to my position.
The time matrix slowly started losing value, as the energy one gained it at a constant rate, in order to keep an equilibrium between both of them that would let me go unnoticed. I simply had to control the rate at which the exchange happened. Millennia turned into centuries, centuries into years and years into months, all in a lapse of only a couple of hours. I was only minutes away from breaking the spell, and that was when the problems started.
You see, keeping a balance for some hours can be difficult, especially if your mind starts wandering around, thinking about other things.
From all the clothes, why I had to choose those?
Suddenly, I noticed how the matrices started to violently change the drain rate, indicating stability problems. "Shit, the alarm is going to be triggered in seconds. Better if I end this now".
=?=
In the middle of the night, one of the statues of the Canterlot gardens suddenly broke apart in a loud and bright explosion. In the epicenter, a young woman with auburn hair and a cinnamon complexion lay down in the grass. Suddenly her gray eyes shot wide open, and her gloved hands searched through the red trench coat she wore. Then the girl looked at her surroundings until she spotted a red cordovan hat with a black band on the center of it. Without hesitation, she took it and accommodated it over her head before running into the darkness of the garden's maze.
=?=
"C'mon, answer please" I thought as I ran through the blackness of the maze. The person I was trying to contact was the only one that I trusted with all my heart to help me with my situation. I could try to find a way out alone since this maze wasn't so complex and I had certain tools to neglect the walls, but I wanted to avoid detection, and I needed vectors to exit the maze without having all the guards chasing me.
Finally, my wish came true and the voice of a male teenager could be heard from the other side of the line. "Red, is that you?" He simply asked.
"Yes, Player. Surprised?"
A long silence was heard on the other side before an answer was heard. "...I should be surprised, but knowing you I'm starting to think that I should not" he replied.
"I will explain all later, but now I need your help to escape the castle. Right now I am in the maze and I'm not in the mood of being chased. Not after what I went through."
"Makes sense. Now you should go to your left." He suddenly indicated.
"Always alert to everything. No wonder that you are the best, Player." I complimented him as I took the turn he indicated.
"Oh, it's nothing, really."
As I kept running through the maze I saw at the end of the corridor I was currently in a light that was approaching from the left side. I heard some mumbling also, so I supposed that there was more than one guard approaching.
"Player guards approaching at nine. Any possible detours through the maze?"
"...Don't think so. Guards are going in the opposite direction through all the other corridors, so your best option now is to hide, Red."
I internally cursed my luck as I crouched under the bushes that made up the wall. I made myself enough space so that my red clothes did not get seen.
Not many seconds later, I could hear their footsteps approaching but this time I could notice some worry in their voices.
"What's going on? Why are we running?"
"The central informed of unusual activity in the gardens. We need to check it out and inform, as usual."
"And I hoped for a quiet night..." Okay, that's lazy.
I waited for them to move further before getting out of my cover. "Player, my head start time is running out. How much until the castle perimeter?"
"Take the left, take the right, cross the wall and you are out..."
"Was that supposed to rhyme?"
"Umm..."
I simply rolled my eyes and sighed. "Anyways, keep an eye for any alerts or nearby guards, okay?"
"Got it. I just found the radio frequency that they are using. I'm gonna hook you to it now." And suddenly static was heard for some seconds until new voices appeared on the communications channel. "It is one way, so we can talk without them listening, just like eavesdropping through a wall."
"Speaking of walls, I'm already there" I announced to him. "I hope that the spell did not affect my aim." I slide down my right arm to let a metallic contraption reach my hand, which I then proceed to unfold until it took a shape similar to a very thin gun. I aimed it right to the upper border of the wall and pressed the trigger of the contraption.
My body recoiled a bit from the shot, but nevertheless, the hook reached its target. Then I took a quick look to make sure that the cable was correctly extended. Seeing that I was good to go, I ran towards the wall as I started to roll up the hook, making it possible to wall run to the top of it. With a little extra effort, I managed to roll over one of the wall apertures, and I took a second to catch a breath.
'Note to self: practice more with the hook.'
Not gonna lie, my arm was a bit sore from that wall run, makes me wonder how I actually performed it successfully. Now I simply needed to get down...
And then I noticed a red light coming from the right side of my face. I stood up and I saw a flare ascending through the sky, followed by an intense chatter on the comms.
I quickly secured the hook to the outer side of the wall and started my descent. "Player, head start is out. Which is the shortest route that can take me outside the city?"
"Let me see... the closest exit is five blocks away in a straight line, but it is very dangerous, considering the artifact needed. However, if you..."
"Guess I will have to go through the danger zone" I interrupt him.
"Are you sure Red? You did not practice a lot with it yet."
"Then I will have to practice on the field" I replied after crossing a road at full speed. Four left.
"...Okay then" he hesitated, "just be careful."
I kept running down the road towards the edge of the city, and before I could think I was already a block apart from there. I would have preferred to blend in with a crowd, but given it was night already and who I was possibly confronting with this escape I think it would have not mattered.
"Red, guards are coming in your direction. You will need to hide again!" He was right. If I jumped as soon as I reached the border the aerial patrol would catch me, given they were as close as Player said. But if I hid long enough for them to disperse...
However, I had reached the city border. Only a railing separated me from... a very long fall.
"They are closing in! You need to act now Carmen!"
The railing area was quite open so going alongside would be dumb since I would be immediately spotted. Going back would probably end in a not so friendly meeting, and hiding in the roofs would make me an easy target for aerial guards.
I looked again at the railing and peeked down, and an idea formed in my mind. Canterlot was constructed at the side of a mountain, and some places such as where I was standing were platforms, so what if I hanged from the city?
"I cannot be seriously considering this."
Now, I'm not usually afraid from heights, but that is when I am equipped with safety harnesses and all that stuff, and right now the only object that remotely resembled that was my grappling hook, and I had only that.
Come on, you just climbed a wall, from which you could have fallen to a potential death with no sweat, what's holding you?" I ask myself.
'Dunno. Maybe the fact that I have to shoot the hook while falling, and I could rip off my arm with a sudden stop?' I reply to myself sarcastically.
"Then use both hands."
'But...'
"Carmen, If you don't at least attempt it, you will end back in that garden. Is that what you want?"
...
'Yolo.'
=?=
Guards suddenly surged from a dark street into the perimeter border of the city, following a possible trail of a very sneaky woman.
"Guards, report" a commanding female voice could be heard behind the search party that was formed.
"The trail seems to end here, princess. It disappears after the railing, and if she jumped then the trail has been lost to the wind, so we have no lead now." The leader explained.
"She could have not gone too far yet. Keep searching. I will alert the aerial patrol."
"Yes, ma'am" and the guards continued their way through the perimeter.
Like many others, Princess Luna has hoped for a quiet night after finally capturing and imprisoning the elusive red thief, only to find out that she escaped in less than 12 hours. It was very conflicting. The spell should have kept her in stone for at least one thousand years, but remembering her curriculum, she should have expected this to happen. But still, how was she able to break such a powerful spell? Is break even the correct word? No, she knew that the thief would not use such a basic action. She knew that somehow Carmen manipulated the spell. Still, the method used was unknown to her.
"You won't get too far. The world wants you behind the bars, Carmen Sandiego."
=?=
'don't look down don't look down don't look down-'
I kept reciting the same phrase in my mind as I hung from my hook with all the strength of my arms, waiting for the guards to go as far from my location as possible.
My thoughts got interrupted by the intercom. "Carmen, you still there?"
"Huh? Oh, yes, in one piece, completely fine, zero problems." I lied.
"Guess that hanging from deadly heights is not your cup of tea, huh? Well, good news, guards are gone, so you can descend with no trouble." He announced.
I let out a sigh. "And it also seems that I don't need to risk using the delta wing." I also added.
"What do you mean?"
"The platform is closer to the mountain than I expected, so I can rappel all the way down to the base" I explained to him.
"Aren't you exhausted from your escape, Carmen? You could descend more quickly through the air."
"While you are right, I think that If I stay away from visible sites I will be able to avoid anyone who wants me back as a garden ornament," I replied.
"Ok then, If you need any help, I will be awake all night. Have you thought of any place to lay low meanwhile?"
"Now that you mention it, which is the closest settlement to Canterlot?"
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What? Hiatus??
9471471
Did you read the author's note?
9471472
Oh, my bad.
9471477
No problem.
forgive me asking, but whats this supposed to be about? The title and the story description explains very little.
9471511
By the cover art? As a guy who grew up in the 90s, I'd recognize that silhouette anywhere: That's Carmen Sandiego's shadow, so I guess she'll be involved in some way?
9471544
i thought thats who it was and honestly I vaguely think this story might be about the new carmen sandiago cartoon
9471561
It is a displaced fic. The protagonist is a fan of the franchise, mainly thanks to the new series. How she ended being a thief is something I plan to expand on later. The main reason I started writing this was to give to the displaced group a character the has weaknesses, as the mary sue trope is predominant on the group. I will update the description, but I want to make it so that when you look at it you know that it has something different.
Feel free to ask any other questions that you may have.
Just seeing the cover art makes me wanna read this.
Will there an explanation of how she ended up here? Is she the original carmen? Is it a human changed into carmen? Or is this a AU where carmen existed in equestria and not the human world?
9471616
She is a human turned Carmen, and there will be an explanation dispersed through the chapters.
9471619
Will you be keeping your story pure aka no cross-overs or will you be planning on her meeting other displaced? Depending on which path you choose, you will be attracting different readers who love or hate cross-overs.
9471628
I'm considering self-crossovers. Mainly because I'm building my own multiverse cluster in which the different displaced actually knew each other before. But for most of the story the focus will be on Carmen's life on her Equestria.
9471645
Good choice.
I may have not watched the newest series but I do have this nostalgia bomb whenever I read that name:
I'll keep this story under my radar.
9471511
I just updated the description. go and check it out.