Chapter Text
“Player?” the woman's eyebrows lifted in an unimpressed fashion.
He nodded as he folded his legs onto the chair and started gnawing and reopening the scab on his lip.
“Interesting. Now, what do you know about Chase Devineaux and Julia Argent?”
Player tilted his head. “If I, hypothetically, knew who those two were, why should I tell you?”
“Because,” she said calmly “you are a criminal. You may be a child, but it's clear your mind doesn't match your age. Thus we will be treating you as we would an adult, and if an adult connected to one of the most famous criminals in the world refused to tell us what they knew we would stop at nothing to get that information.”
“So torture.” Player stated bluntly. “You're gonna torture me. If I don't tell you what I know, I mean.”
The woman had no reaction.
Player huffed out a breath through his nose. “It's hard not to know them. Chase has had an obsession with catching Red for so long it's actually funny. It's less funny that he screws up everytime he tries to do his job. I like Julia though, she's nice and keeps her mind open to possibilities other than it's the fault of ‘la femme rouge’.”
“I asked what you knew about them, not your personal opinion.”
“Yet you still wrote that down.” He said with a grin. “Chase Devineaux used to be an interpol agent based in Paris, before being partnered with Julia Argent, also from interpol, and the two of them teamed up to stop Red from committing heinous crimes. It's basically a reality show.”
The woman was quickly losing her patience. “And what do you know about VILE?”
Player's chest tightened as he forced a smile. “VILE? Haven't heard of ‘em.”
An electronic shock ripped into his chest from the chair, tearing a scream from his throat as his body seized up. He was left gasping for air and holding his chest tightly as he squeezed his eyes shut. One hand was yanked away from his chest, and the sleeve was pushed up to show his bare arm before being shoved against the arm of the chair so the manacles could clamp back down to hold him in place. He desperately tried to wriggle his wrist free so he could get off the chair, but naturally no such luck came. Finally, he forced himself to look up at the woman, only to see a mask of blank calm as she held up two VILE harddrives for him to see.
“I would recommend not lying. It will not help your situation.” She said shortly.
Player swallowed thickly before replying. “Villainous International League of Evil. They're a group of select individuals that steal and resell expensive artifacts.”
“Are you or Sandiego a part of VILE?”
He shook his head. “Our job is to steal from them and to return the items.”
“How and why are you a part of this?”
“Listen this is getting-”
A smaller shock ran through him and he let out a pained yelp, scowling as his arm seized up again.
“I will not be repeating my questions.” She stated.
“Lady, this shit is getting kinda personal, and honestly it’s hard to trust people with sensitive information when they’re literally shocking it out of you.”
The room was silent for a long moment as the air felt heavy and Player kept his gaze trained on the woman. She was glancing at him over her glasses as she typed something down on what seemed to be a holographic table.
That was one cool tablet.
“You do realize we are the good guys in this situation?” She asked.
“Yeah, at this point it's kinda hard to tell.”
“So I suppose you expect us to… earn your trust?”
“I mean that would be preferable but it's too late after you had me kidnapped, left me chained to a fence, nearly let me pass out from the heat, then drugged me and dragged me here.”
The woman pursed her lips as she studied him, then looked down and started typing into the tablet again.
“Your questioning will be resumed at another time, but for now you will be shown where you will be living during your stay here.”
The cuff around his wrist unlocked and he gingerly removed his arm from its grasp as the door swung open and a woman with a gentle smile stepped in and moved to stand beside the taller one.
“This is Agent Zari, she will be monitoring you during your time here. She will take over now, as I have more important matters to get to.” She nodded at the woman once before turning and walking out of the room.
The agent's voice was cold as she spoke, reminding Player of a rather disinterested teacher that only made an appearance out of requirement.
"Get up."
Player frowned as he carefully slid forward so he could slowly get to his feet without his knees giving out. He had a few questions to ask, but she seemed more like the type to gag him than answer.
"Follow me. You have a room tailored to your skills, and a meal is already waiting for you."
Player didn't even try to hide how his eyes lit up at the prospect of eating, and he quickly stumbled after her as she walked into the hallway.
As they made their way to his room he tried to memorize the path they took, but it didn't take long for him to realize the hallways were made with little to no identifying features- which was perhaps an intentional tactic to confuse prisoners like him- and instead just having blank glowing panels to the left of each door.
The agent turned to him, a clinical coldness in her eye as she became to talk.
"This is your room. You will not enter or exit it without an escort. There is a bathroom attached, so don't use that as an excuse to leave." She seemingly entered a passcode on a screen that displayed no numbers, and the door slid open.
The room was dark as he walked in, but after a moment the lights flickered on and illuminated the bleak walls and sparsely decorated area.
"Its uh…" Player started, nudging the metal bedframe with his foot, "very welcoming."
Agent Zari sighed and glanced up from the file she was holding, as if his being there was making her day significantly worse. "It's a temporary holding room for when a criminals fate is undecided. Now eat, your food is on your desk."
Sure enough, when Player glanced over there sat a plate of bread and some sort of soup with a glass of water.
"Can you-" he started, as he turned back to Agent Zari before hesitating and blinking in surprise. The door was closed, which means he was alone. Finally.
Hurrying over to the desk, he barely sat down before he grabbed the glass of water, but by the time he downed half of it he remembered- thanks to a trip Carmen had taken to the Sahara- to try to drink it slowly. As he more carefully ate, or tried to, he glanced around for any sort of technology that could help in an escape attempt.
He sighed as he softly dropped his spoon into the empty soup bowl. He… hadn't been alone like this for a long time. Not since he found Carmen, and they started working as a team. Pushing the food platter aside, he laid his head down in his arms and stared at the blank white wall.
Did Carmen know what happened to him?
Would she be able to find him without him helping behind the scenes?
Would she even be able to track VILE anymore?
He groaned as he squeezed his eyes shut and scratched at his head, trying desperately to block out the thoughts. Worrying wasn't going to help but he didn't know what else to do. He couldn't even contact Carmen to tell her he was okay. Ish.
Maybe not okay, but alive.
Alive and being held captive by ACME.