"Be careful what you wish for...." Part 1

			by Lio

	Carmen breathed a sigh of relief as she successfully hacked into ACME's computer.
"That's one thing that when the way I planned today," she thought, "I wonder if  
the Chief is worried about me..."

	He was.
 
        "Carmen if you ever let things get that out of hand again I will instantly
give Zack and Ivy orders to shoot you out of the sky!!!!!!" he fumed.
 
        "Hello Chief," Carmen said with a smile.

        "Hello? Hello?  You could have died today and all you can say is hello?!?!?!"

        "All right... Hello Chief how are you today?" 

        The Chief's electronic head turned a bright angry red as he tried to talk calmly.  

        "Well Carmen I'm doing as well as can be expected for someone, if they were 
human would have suffered 6 consecutive heart attack since this morning!" As 
he continued his head grew redder and redder and began to swell like a balloon. 
"I'm in the same condition that anyone would be in after seeing the remains of  
a great detective fall several stories and then catching herself inches from certain death!
That's how I'm feeling!"  With that the Chief's head burst like a party favor.
 
        "Chief it's okay, I'm fine and no one else got hurt."

        "I'm sorry Carmen but when that cable failed there was no way you should 
have survived! Pure luck is the only reason you're here talking to me."
 
        "Luck and repelling equipment Chief."

        "I wouldn't go appraising your inventions too highly Carmen, they're what got
you into that mess."
 
        "They're also what got me out. Besides Sara can fix the locking system before
my next heist."

        "I can't believe that Psycho Sara is still working for you."
 
        "What? Who's psycho?" asked a confused Carmen.
 
        "Your loyal employee Sara Bellum. Psycho Sara is her nickname on the net." 

        Carmen smirked "Thankfully she doesn't know yet. If she did every VILE agent
would know in a few minutes! Still it does suit her...."

        "It fits her to a 't' that's why I'm worried." explained the Chief. "I don't 
think she has that extra glazed donut she needs to make a full dozen."

        "Chief I'll know if she needs more help than I've already given her. At  
this point in time she's doing fine and I trust her to use the help I've provided 
if she ever needs it."

        "I don't care if she has a clean bill of health from Freud himself! I'm still
concerned. There's always the possibility of human error in any situation."
 
        "Chief I understand and accept the risks of taking her back into VILE. Besides
what do you know about human error?"

        "Hey! I may be a robot simulation of a human head but I've got feelings  
too!" huffed Chief "For instance right now I'm feeling annoyed that you won't 
consider my views about Sara Bellum, and hurt that you're making fun of me in the  
process!"

        "Chief, I'm sorry. I didn't think you'd take it personally." soothed Carmen,
"and even though I don't agree with your view of Sara I will consider it. All right?"

        The Chief calmed down. "All right." 

        "Now any other human feelings you need to get off your mind?"
 
        "Well I'm feeling amazed that after all this time you could still give me
ulcers if I had a stomach," he confessed.
 
        Carmen laughed. "I'll take that as a complement, Chief."
 
        "Soooooo," began the Chief who had started to relax back to his normal self,
"Aside from today's brush-with-death how have you been?"
 
        "Just fine, if not bored out of my head. It's been business as usual around
here. If you don't count the frequent unexplainable power surges that have been
happening lately, it's downright mind-numbing."
 
        "Same here at ACME. All's been pretty quiet except for us having to deal 
with a brilliant, though at this point in time shortsighted, former employee."  
joked the Chief.  "She got it into her head that it would be more challenging to 
cause crimes rather than prevent them and ever since then we've been chasing her
around the globe trying to stop her!"

        "Really Chief? Gee is she dangerous?" asked Carmen playing along.
 
        "No but she's annoying a lot of people and destroying any chance of becoming
a law abiding citizen of any country."

        "Don't worry Chief!" Carmen declared,  "I'll bring her in for you!"
 
        The Chief smiled. "How long has it been since you last said that?"
 
        Carmen stopped to think. "I think the last time I said that was during my
last case at ACME before.....well before everything changed." She smiled at the
old memory "I used to say it frequently. It was pretty cheesy, even for the eighties...."
 
        "Still I wouldn't mind hearing it again once in a while."
 
        "What, do you want me to start adding it into my daily conversations? Chief
I do care for you very much but I am definetly not going to..."
 
        "No, I mean I'd like hearing you speak it back at ACME once in a while."
 
        Carmen sighed "Chief let's not go through this again. I've told you before,
I can't come back to ACME yet, and I still can't."
 
        "I could work something out. Change a few files create a few ID papers...."
 
        "CHIEF! exclaimed Carmen, shocked.
 
        "Well I could..."
 
        "Chief, in case you've forgotten, I'm a criminal! And a very well known  
one! I can't just disappear off the face of the earth!"
 
        "You have before."
 
        "If you're referring to when I faked my death, I was living in a cave for 
a week. That definetly isn't an experience that I would like to relive." 

        "But you could survive..."

        "Chief there is no way I would ever concider coming back to ACME!" Carmen 
burst out. 

        For a second they were both speechless. 

        "Well if you feel that way, from now on I'll just leave you alone," said 
the Chief softly. He started to break the connection.

        "No! Chief wait! I didn't mean it like that!"

        "Then how did you mean to say it?" asked Chief as he came back into focus.
 
        "I didn't mean to say it at all! I didn't mean to hurt your feelings in  
any way. I don't want to stop talking to you or break any connections I might still
have at ACME. I just wanted you to stop pestering me about something I don$t 
plan on doing!" After she said it Carmen realized that that had come out wrong  
as well. 

        "Really."
 
        "Chief cut it out! You know what I mean."
 
        "What do you mean Carmen?"

        "Man, what has gotten into him?" Thought Carmen. Just as she was going to
explain, the lights went out in the room and the computer went dead. 

        "ARRGH! What a time for another blackout!" Carmen yelled into the dark. A 
minute later as the lights popped back on she checked the computer she had been 
working on for any sign of the Chief. The connection had been severed by the bl 
ackout and the computer started rebooting automatically. She sighed and slumped  
down into a nearby chair. She had never seen the Chief so annoyed at her choice  
of becoming a crook.  "Could it be because of the failure of the locking system 
this afternoon?" she wondered out loud, "Stuff like that has never upset him 
before but maybe I pushed his limit one time too..."
 
RERORERORERORERO.... 

       Carmen clapped her hands over her ears as a siren went off from inside the
computer. She typed in the code to shut it off and checked the systems checklist
for what was wrong. The blackout had erased quite a few important files. "Great.
My day is just getting better and better," thought Carmen. She started to pick
through the virtual reckage to see if there was anything worth saving, when something
caught her attention. A few of the files that were marked as erased had been
picked up by VILE's mainframe and then strangly placed them in a computer 
elsewhere in the Manor. She traced the computer's location to Sara Bellums labortories. 

        "Hmmm...maybe I should take the Chief's advice and have a talk with Sara..." 


		To be continued...