Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, Home by the Sea, Epilogue (Dying Informant, 29)
Title: Home by the Sea, Epilogue: Picking Up the Pieces
Author/Artist: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Theme(s): 29; Second chances will not be the same, it will be better.
Character: the Dying Informant
Fandom: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (except for Daniels, Adelo, and Borealis) and the story is!
Cross-posted to 31_days, 10_hurt_comfort, and my journal
The winds whipped up like a twister, as though sucking up all of the remnants of the house’s evil. It was difficult to breathe; so difficult, but the brothers refused to release each other from the hug as they hit the deck.
Finally, all went quiet, but it was still as dark as it had been.
“...Well…” said the Messenger. “…My shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore…”
“Neither does mine…” said the Inspector.
“Mine doesn’t hurt, either…!” the Techie exclaimed.
“Mine does!” the Informant yelped. “You’re sitting on it, Techie!”
“Oh…!” the brunet gasped, helping him up. “Sorry…!”
“Hey, I’m alright…” the boy grinned, hugging him. “And it looks like you are, too…”
“Sure-you broke the curse, Infy!” the Messenger exclaimed, glomping him. “Now let’s go back upstairs and make sure that the others are alright…”
The Inspector frowned. There wasn’t any noise coming from upstairs, which prompted them to hurry back to the hall.
“Well…!” the Informant mused.
The Rookie, the Recruiting Officer, and Borealis were standing in the middle of the hall, looking particularly smug as Adelo was standing with his back to the wall, staring down the eyes of the ghosts.
“He has come!” a female spirit exclaimed. “Our liberator!”
The ghosts all swarmed around the Informant.
“You have freed us,” said the lead ghosts. “We are in your debt and your service, Boy. Command us. Tell us to take care of this wretch, and we shall do so-we shall have our vengeance upon him. Say the world, young master.”
The Informant glanced at the ghosts in surprise, and then glanced at Adelo.
“Come on, Kid…” he said, trembling. “I was going to let your friends go; I swear it! I never meant any harm to you or your friends.”
“You know, if we had those Millennium Scales, they’d be out of balance…” the messenger mused.
“Why, because he’s lying?” asked the Inspector.
“Yeah… Guess that’s where they got the expression of a dishonest person being crooked…”
But the Techie was concerned with the dark expression in the Informant’s eyes.
“Little brother…?” he asked, tentatively, causing the others to notice as well.
“Are you afraid of suffering?” the Informant asked Adelo. “You don’t know what it was like, being in here for five weeks. You don’t know what I’ve been through. I still have words to discuss with V.I.L.E. But you’re the real reason this happened. You sold them on the idea. You’re the reason I suffered!”
“Little brother… please…” the Techie stammered.
“Give us the word…” said the lead ghost. “We will strike down your foe.”
“Little brother, don’t…” the Techie pleaded, running forward to grab his arm. “I’ve nearly lost you so many times these past several weeks. Please don’t let me lose you again… Please…”
The Informant turned to glance at him, startled by his words.
“Techie…” he whispered. He glanced at his other friends, who were also staring at him, concerned.
He drew a deep breath and turned back to glare at Adelo.
“I’m not going to have them attack you,” he said. He turned back to the ghosts. “You’ve been captive for far too long; you don’t need to be in my service. I release you. Go to wherever it is you’ve been wanting to go for all these years…” He glanced back at his brothers and sighed. “I, for one, am going home. The Home by the Sea is a prison no longer.”
He cast one more dark glance at Adelo as he slipped the handcuffs on him, but brightened up considerably as the Techie hugged him in relief.
“That’s the little brother I know…” the brunet whispered. “He’s still with me.”
“He always will be…” the Informant promised. “Now let’s knock the roof off this popsicle stand!”
“My sentiments exactly!” the Messenger exclaimed, leading the group out the door.
“Hey, we’re not going to have room for this creep…” said the Rookie, glancing at Adelo. “What do we do…?”
“Get him to hand over the keys to his van,” said the Informant.
The Rookie smirked as he saw the van, sleek and slim, obviously built for speed.
“Can I drive?” he asked the Recruiting Officer, his eyes glinting.
“Uh… sure…” the Officer said, with a shrug.
It was decided that they would leave first; the Informant wanted to go look around the grounds and say goodbye to the ghosts who were finally leaving.
“I’m surprised that you’d want to come back here at all…” said the Inspector, as the Informant waved to the departing spirits, all of whom were finally feeling happy again.
“Well, it’s not a bad house…” said the boy, glancing at it. “Lovely view…”
“Infy, you don’t have to hide the hurt,” said the Messenger. “You don’t have to put up a front for us, of all people…”
“You’ve bounced back so far, so quickly,” the Techie said, softly. “It’s nothing short of a miracle. But it’s impossible for you to have gone through this and… not fully recover from it.”
The boy’s shoulders trembled.
“It hurt…” he said. “It still hurts… It’s going to hurt for a long time.”
“But that’s no reason to pretend that it doesn’t,” said the Messenger, hugging him close. “Hey… I missed you, Infy. So I want to help you recover from this, too.”
“We all want to help…” said the Inspector. “And even if it takes a long time, let us be there for you.”
“The ghosts are all gone…” said the Techie. “Why don’t we go home and say goodbye to this place?”
“I could use forty winks…” the boy admitted. “Or twenty, at the very least…”
The Techie smiled.
“Don’t worry; the Messenger won’t drive like a maniac…” he said. “Though you should’ve seen me…”
“Yeah, you should’ve!” the Messenger said, with a shake of his head. “Careening across the Brooklyn Bridge… Man, I won’t forget that anytime soon!”
“It was a one-time thing,” the brunet assured him.
And the Informant began to smile again, Borealis prancing beside them as they headed to the ACME car and drove home, pausing to blink as three mice ran from the house and into the nearby patch of grass, where a mouse with golden fur seemed to be waiting for them.
The boy saw them out of the corner of his eye, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Everyone was free.
****************************
The walls… the walls were closing in… closer… closer…
“I can’t breathe…” he gasped. “I can’t…”
“Get used to this place, Kid,” Adelo said. “You’re staying here forever.”
“No…!” the Informant gasped, clutching at his own throat in agony.
The stuffiness… oh, for air… If only he could breathe and get some welcome oxygen to his tortured lungs…
“Little brother…!?”
The boy did gasp for breath, suddenly flying awake upon staring into the Techie’s eyes.
“We’re home…” the Techie said, gently. Judging by the boy’s expression, he had just awoken from a nightmare. The Techie helped him up and out of the car, and his brothers all walked him to the alley.
“About time you got back!” Mrs. Pumpkinclanger said, seeing them arrive.
“Gosh, Mrs. P… You didn’t have to wait up for us…” said the Messenger, with a smile.
“I most certainly did not!” she bluffed. “I woke up to young Rookie going on and on about some ‘sweet ride’ he had on the way back here, after apprehending that Adelo thug!”
But somehow the Informant knew that it had been worry keeping her awake. He smiled.
“Now take care of yourself and let me sleep! Good night!” Mrs. Pumpkinclanger ordered, shutting her window.
“She missed you too,” the Inspector said. “But don’t expect her to let anyone know.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think she would…” said the Informant, with a shake of his head. Borealis started barking, as though wondering where the cat was, which prompted the brothers to usher the husky inside.
“I think I’m just going to have a quick bite to eat and head back to sleep…” the Informant began, but he trailed off at the sight of Mr. Daniels standing by the Recruiting Officer’s desk, with the Officer and the Rookie trying to calm him down about something.
“They let him out of the mental hospital…” the Techie realized. But of course they would have… He would’ve been restored to normal once the curse had lifted. And the vanishing “shoulder tattoo” and sudden regain of the full powers of speech would’ve been more than enough for any skeptical nurse.
“I’m telling you, they said that detective who spoke to me came from this here place,” Daniels was saying. “And he knows…” he trailed off as he noticed the Informant. “…that kid…”
The Informant let out a slight whimper, facing Daniels for the first time since getting framed. He turned to make a run for the door.
“Don’t you go anywhere,” Daniels ordered. “There’s something I gotta say to you…”
“He didn’t do it!” the Techie said. “It was Adelo!”
“That creep turned poor Infy into a cynic-it took me forever to break through that ice-cold shield he had put up!” said the Messenger. “But after meeting that creep, I can totally see why poor Infy thought he had to put it up in the first place!”
“Adelo was the one who burned the farmhouse…” said the Inspector. “And he left our friend here to die in the blaze.”
“I know that now,” said Daniels, humbly. “That’s why I’m here-to apologize.”
The Informant blinked.
“I should’ve seen it in the fear in your eyes back then…” said Daniels. “You had been traumatized by what had happened. But, no… I didn’t want to understand. I wanted to point fingers at someone, and you were the likely candidate. I should’ve sensed it when Adelo cursed me, but I still wanted to blame you.
“But I was aware of what you did back in the house, Kid. We could all hear Adelo trying to convince you not to destroy that sphere. And that was when I realized who the real villain was. I’m sorry for misunderstanding you.”
“Um… that’s… okay…” the Informant stammered.
“Before the fire, I always thought you were a good kid. Somehow, when I saw you tagging around with Adelo, I had a feeling you were going bad.”
“Oh, Infy can never go bad…” the Messenger declared. “Maybe he can get a little turned around and pushed and shoved to the wrong direction, but he always comes back, and ends up going where he needs to.”
“You see to it that it’s what he keeps doing,” Daniels ordered.
The Messenger saluted.
“We all will,” the Inspector assured him.
“And as for you, Kid…” said Daniels. “You’re finally in with a good crowd. You make sure it stays that way, got it?”
The Informant finally managed a smile, and nodded.
With that, Daniels took his leave of them.
“I wonder where he’s going…” said the boy, sadly. “Because of Adelo, he lost ten years. At least I only lost five weeks…”
“That’s five weeks too many…” the Techie whispered.
“I know…” the Informant said. “But picking up the pieces is going to be far more difficult for him than it will be for me… and that’s not going to be easy, either.”
“That’s where we come in,” said the Messenger. “And the first order of business is for us to make sure you get the rest of those forty winks. Go to your room!”
“Aww…” the boy kidded. “Can’t I stay up a little longer…?”
“You get some good sleep, and we’ll discuss about extending your curfew…” said the older agent, putting on an authoritative voice. “Now, march!”
The Informant shrugged at the Rookie and the recruiting Officer, who both smiled, pleased that he was indeed on the road to recovery.
The brothers headed upstairs, and the Informant clambered onto the top bunk.
“We’re keeping all of our doors open,” said the Inspector. “So if you need us, just holler.”
“Got it…” said the Techie.
Satisfied, the others headed to their rooms, and the Techie sat on his bunk.
“Little brother…” he said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t stop Adelo from taking you a second time…”
“It’s alright…” the boy said, softly. “We ended up breaking the curse…”
“It was all you,” the Techie said.
“I beg to differ…” the Informant insisted.
“I’m no hero…” the Techie said. “I couldn’t even find out who this Mendoza creep was…” He clenched a fist. “I can’t let him run around free after what he did to you… He’s the real reason why you’re suffering-not Adelo. V.I.L.E. wouldn’t have been able to take you if he hadn’t decided to use you as a guinea pig.”
“Don’t lose yourself to anger, Techie…” the Informant pleaded.
“I won’t…” the older agent promised. “But I won’t let him run free, either. But the last thing I would want is to lose myself… Or see you lose yourself. That was a very commendable thing you did-letting the ghosts go without them haunting Adelo.”
“…I was tempted to sic them on him…” the Informant confessed, clearly upset that he had been.
“A lesser man would’ve gone through with it,” the Techie said. “I probably would’ve gone through with it…”
“…I guess I’m just too nice for my own good…” the Informant said.
“Maybe…”said the Techie. “But you wouldn’t be you otherwise. You wouldn’t be the brother I know and love. And I’m blessed to know the real you.”
“Well…” said the Informant. “You guys are the reason why I am who I am today… All that carrying me along…”
“You’ve carried us, too, little brother…” the Techie said.
“Yeah…” the Informant said. Let the nightmares come, he decided. He could take them-he had his friends, and they would see to it that everything would continue to be alright in the real world.
The boy let out a tremendous yawn.
“Oh, Mama… goodnight…” he said, falling asleep practically as his head hit the pillow.
And the Techie smiled, at peace at last.
His brother was back for good.
Author/Artist: Crystal Rose of Pollux (rose_of_pollux)
Theme(s): 29; Second chances will not be the same, it will be better.
Character: the Dying Informant
Fandom: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine (except for Daniels, Adelo, and Borealis) and the story is!
Cross-posted to 31_days, 10_hurt_comfort, and my journal
The winds whipped up like a twister, as though sucking up all of the remnants of the house’s evil. It was difficult to breathe; so difficult, but the brothers refused to release each other from the hug as they hit the deck.
Finally, all went quiet, but it was still as dark as it had been.
“...Well…” said the Messenger. “…My shoulder doesn’t hurt anymore…”
“Neither does mine…” said the Inspector.
“Mine doesn’t hurt, either…!” the Techie exclaimed.
“Mine does!” the Informant yelped. “You’re sitting on it, Techie!”
“Oh…!” the brunet gasped, helping him up. “Sorry…!”
“Hey, I’m alright…” the boy grinned, hugging him. “And it looks like you are, too…”
“Sure-you broke the curse, Infy!” the Messenger exclaimed, glomping him. “Now let’s go back upstairs and make sure that the others are alright…”
The Inspector frowned. There wasn’t any noise coming from upstairs, which prompted them to hurry back to the hall.
“Well…!” the Informant mused.
The Rookie, the Recruiting Officer, and Borealis were standing in the middle of the hall, looking particularly smug as Adelo was standing with his back to the wall, staring down the eyes of the ghosts.
“He has come!” a female spirit exclaimed. “Our liberator!”
The ghosts all swarmed around the Informant.
“You have freed us,” said the lead ghosts. “We are in your debt and your service, Boy. Command us. Tell us to take care of this wretch, and we shall do so-we shall have our vengeance upon him. Say the world, young master.”
The Informant glanced at the ghosts in surprise, and then glanced at Adelo.
“Come on, Kid…” he said, trembling. “I was going to let your friends go; I swear it! I never meant any harm to you or your friends.”
“You know, if we had those Millennium Scales, they’d be out of balance…” the messenger mused.
“Why, because he’s lying?” asked the Inspector.
“Yeah… Guess that’s where they got the expression of a dishonest person being crooked…”
But the Techie was concerned with the dark expression in the Informant’s eyes.
“Little brother…?” he asked, tentatively, causing the others to notice as well.
“Are you afraid of suffering?” the Informant asked Adelo. “You don’t know what it was like, being in here for five weeks. You don’t know what I’ve been through. I still have words to discuss with V.I.L.E. But you’re the real reason this happened. You sold them on the idea. You’re the reason I suffered!”
“Little brother… please…” the Techie stammered.
“Give us the word…” said the lead ghost. “We will strike down your foe.”
“Little brother, don’t…” the Techie pleaded, running forward to grab his arm. “I’ve nearly lost you so many times these past several weeks. Please don’t let me lose you again… Please…”
The Informant turned to glance at him, startled by his words.
“Techie…” he whispered. He glanced at his other friends, who were also staring at him, concerned.
He drew a deep breath and turned back to glare at Adelo.
“I’m not going to have them attack you,” he said. He turned back to the ghosts. “You’ve been captive for far too long; you don’t need to be in my service. I release you. Go to wherever it is you’ve been wanting to go for all these years…” He glanced back at his brothers and sighed. “I, for one, am going home. The Home by the Sea is a prison no longer.”
He cast one more dark glance at Adelo as he slipped the handcuffs on him, but brightened up considerably as the Techie hugged him in relief.
“That’s the little brother I know…” the brunet whispered. “He’s still with me.”
“He always will be…” the Informant promised. “Now let’s knock the roof off this popsicle stand!”
“My sentiments exactly!” the Messenger exclaimed, leading the group out the door.
“Hey, we’re not going to have room for this creep…” said the Rookie, glancing at Adelo. “What do we do…?”
“Get him to hand over the keys to his van,” said the Informant.
The Rookie smirked as he saw the van, sleek and slim, obviously built for speed.
“Can I drive?” he asked the Recruiting Officer, his eyes glinting.
“Uh… sure…” the Officer said, with a shrug.
It was decided that they would leave first; the Informant wanted to go look around the grounds and say goodbye to the ghosts who were finally leaving.
“I’m surprised that you’d want to come back here at all…” said the Inspector, as the Informant waved to the departing spirits, all of whom were finally feeling happy again.
“Well, it’s not a bad house…” said the boy, glancing at it. “Lovely view…”
“Infy, you don’t have to hide the hurt,” said the Messenger. “You don’t have to put up a front for us, of all people…”
“You’ve bounced back so far, so quickly,” the Techie said, softly. “It’s nothing short of a miracle. But it’s impossible for you to have gone through this and… not fully recover from it.”
The boy’s shoulders trembled.
“It hurt…” he said. “It still hurts… It’s going to hurt for a long time.”
“But that’s no reason to pretend that it doesn’t,” said the Messenger, hugging him close. “Hey… I missed you, Infy. So I want to help you recover from this, too.”
“We all want to help…” said the Inspector. “And even if it takes a long time, let us be there for you.”
“The ghosts are all gone…” said the Techie. “Why don’t we go home and say goodbye to this place?”
“I could use forty winks…” the boy admitted. “Or twenty, at the very least…”
The Techie smiled.
“Don’t worry; the Messenger won’t drive like a maniac…” he said. “Though you should’ve seen me…”
“Yeah, you should’ve!” the Messenger said, with a shake of his head. “Careening across the Brooklyn Bridge… Man, I won’t forget that anytime soon!”
“It was a one-time thing,” the brunet assured him.
And the Informant began to smile again, Borealis prancing beside them as they headed to the ACME car and drove home, pausing to blink as three mice ran from the house and into the nearby patch of grass, where a mouse with golden fur seemed to be waiting for them.
The boy saw them out of the corner of his eye, a slight smile playing on his lips.
Everyone was free.
****************************
The walls… the walls were closing in… closer… closer…
“I can’t breathe…” he gasped. “I can’t…”
“Get used to this place, Kid,” Adelo said. “You’re staying here forever.”
“No…!” the Informant gasped, clutching at his own throat in agony.
The stuffiness… oh, for air… If only he could breathe and get some welcome oxygen to his tortured lungs…
“Little brother…!?”
The boy did gasp for breath, suddenly flying awake upon staring into the Techie’s eyes.
“We’re home…” the Techie said, gently. Judging by the boy’s expression, he had just awoken from a nightmare. The Techie helped him up and out of the car, and his brothers all walked him to the alley.
“About time you got back!” Mrs. Pumpkinclanger said, seeing them arrive.
“Gosh, Mrs. P… You didn’t have to wait up for us…” said the Messenger, with a smile.
“I most certainly did not!” she bluffed. “I woke up to young Rookie going on and on about some ‘sweet ride’ he had on the way back here, after apprehending that Adelo thug!”
But somehow the Informant knew that it had been worry keeping her awake. He smiled.
“Now take care of yourself and let me sleep! Good night!” Mrs. Pumpkinclanger ordered, shutting her window.
“She missed you too,” the Inspector said. “But don’t expect her to let anyone know.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think she would…” said the Informant, with a shake of his head. Borealis started barking, as though wondering where the cat was, which prompted the brothers to usher the husky inside.
“I think I’m just going to have a quick bite to eat and head back to sleep…” the Informant began, but he trailed off at the sight of Mr. Daniels standing by the Recruiting Officer’s desk, with the Officer and the Rookie trying to calm him down about something.
“They let him out of the mental hospital…” the Techie realized. But of course they would have… He would’ve been restored to normal once the curse had lifted. And the vanishing “shoulder tattoo” and sudden regain of the full powers of speech would’ve been more than enough for any skeptical nurse.
“I’m telling you, they said that detective who spoke to me came from this here place,” Daniels was saying. “And he knows…” he trailed off as he noticed the Informant. “…that kid…”
The Informant let out a slight whimper, facing Daniels for the first time since getting framed. He turned to make a run for the door.
“Don’t you go anywhere,” Daniels ordered. “There’s something I gotta say to you…”
“He didn’t do it!” the Techie said. “It was Adelo!”
“That creep turned poor Infy into a cynic-it took me forever to break through that ice-cold shield he had put up!” said the Messenger. “But after meeting that creep, I can totally see why poor Infy thought he had to put it up in the first place!”
“Adelo was the one who burned the farmhouse…” said the Inspector. “And he left our friend here to die in the blaze.”
“I know that now,” said Daniels, humbly. “That’s why I’m here-to apologize.”
The Informant blinked.
“I should’ve seen it in the fear in your eyes back then…” said Daniels. “You had been traumatized by what had happened. But, no… I didn’t want to understand. I wanted to point fingers at someone, and you were the likely candidate. I should’ve sensed it when Adelo cursed me, but I still wanted to blame you.
“But I was aware of what you did back in the house, Kid. We could all hear Adelo trying to convince you not to destroy that sphere. And that was when I realized who the real villain was. I’m sorry for misunderstanding you.”
“Um… that’s… okay…” the Informant stammered.
“Before the fire, I always thought you were a good kid. Somehow, when I saw you tagging around with Adelo, I had a feeling you were going bad.”
“Oh, Infy can never go bad…” the Messenger declared. “Maybe he can get a little turned around and pushed and shoved to the wrong direction, but he always comes back, and ends up going where he needs to.”
“You see to it that it’s what he keeps doing,” Daniels ordered.
The Messenger saluted.
“We all will,” the Inspector assured him.
“And as for you, Kid…” said Daniels. “You’re finally in with a good crowd. You make sure it stays that way, got it?”
The Informant finally managed a smile, and nodded.
With that, Daniels took his leave of them.
“I wonder where he’s going…” said the boy, sadly. “Because of Adelo, he lost ten years. At least I only lost five weeks…”
“That’s five weeks too many…” the Techie whispered.
“I know…” the Informant said. “But picking up the pieces is going to be far more difficult for him than it will be for me… and that’s not going to be easy, either.”
“That’s where we come in,” said the Messenger. “And the first order of business is for us to make sure you get the rest of those forty winks. Go to your room!”
“Aww…” the boy kidded. “Can’t I stay up a little longer…?”
“You get some good sleep, and we’ll discuss about extending your curfew…” said the older agent, putting on an authoritative voice. “Now, march!”
The Informant shrugged at the Rookie and the recruiting Officer, who both smiled, pleased that he was indeed on the road to recovery.
The brothers headed upstairs, and the Informant clambered onto the top bunk.
“We’re keeping all of our doors open,” said the Inspector. “So if you need us, just holler.”
“Got it…” said the Techie.
Satisfied, the others headed to their rooms, and the Techie sat on his bunk.
“Little brother…” he said. “I’m sorry we couldn’t stop Adelo from taking you a second time…”
“It’s alright…” the boy said, softly. “We ended up breaking the curse…”
“It was all you,” the Techie said.
“I beg to differ…” the Informant insisted.
“I’m no hero…” the Techie said. “I couldn’t even find out who this Mendoza creep was…” He clenched a fist. “I can’t let him run around free after what he did to you… He’s the real reason why you’re suffering-not Adelo. V.I.L.E. wouldn’t have been able to take you if he hadn’t decided to use you as a guinea pig.”
“Don’t lose yourself to anger, Techie…” the Informant pleaded.
“I won’t…” the older agent promised. “But I won’t let him run free, either. But the last thing I would want is to lose myself… Or see you lose yourself. That was a very commendable thing you did-letting the ghosts go without them haunting Adelo.”
“…I was tempted to sic them on him…” the Informant confessed, clearly upset that he had been.
“A lesser man would’ve gone through with it,” the Techie said. “I probably would’ve gone through with it…”
“…I guess I’m just too nice for my own good…” the Informant said.
“Maybe…”said the Techie. “But you wouldn’t be you otherwise. You wouldn’t be the brother I know and love. And I’m blessed to know the real you.”
“Well…” said the Informant. “You guys are the reason why I am who I am today… All that carrying me along…”
“You’ve carried us, too, little brother…” the Techie said.
“Yeah…” the Informant said. Let the nightmares come, he decided. He could take them-he had his friends, and they would see to it that everything would continue to be alright in the real world.
The boy let out a tremendous yawn.
“Oh, Mama… goodnight…” he said, falling asleep practically as his head hit the pillow.
And the Techie smiled, at peace at last.
His brother was back for good.