Gruesome Twosome, Part Four-  Lizard Out Of Hell 

	"What IS the meaning of this, stop it right now!!" Carmen ordered, 
staring with unexplainable horror and worry at a huge TV monitor directly 
in front of her. The image that it held made her heart stop with fright. The 
fuzzy picture showed three oversize lizards firing in the direction of Ivy 
and Zack in a museum where she had just stolen a diamond. She turned to the 
huge, scaly lizard dressed in a purple robe standing to her right. "God, 
what are they doing? Tell them to stop, they'll kill them!!" 

        "The problem with that being..." the lizard replied with an evil grin 
spreading slowly across his terribly horrid face. 

        "Dragonous, when I said I would steal that diamond for you-" 

        "If I remember your EXACT words, Carmen, you said that you would be 
happy to combine our technology and steal that stone for me, but there are 
two top detectives in the Acme Agency that would try to stop you and usually 
succeeded!" 

        "And you said you would distract them, DISTRACT them, Dragonous! 
THIS goes far beyond the very limits of distracting as far as I'm concerned. 
I thought you would slow them down, not try to BLOW THEIR BRAINS OUT!!" 

        "But, Carmen, think of it! With them out of your hair permanently 
you could steal anything you wish! And with our combined technology no one 
could stop you, no one could stop US!! We could rule this planet TOGETHER, 
you and I! I could be the king of this universe, with you as my fair queen!!" 

        "You have me all wrong, I'm a thief, not a KILLER!!" 

        "Everyone must have a hobby!!" Dragonous pointed out as he intently 
watched the screen. "Yes, very good, finish them, FINISH THEM!!" he cried out 
as the biggest lizard discovered Ivy and Zack's hiding place behind the 
table and pushed it away. 

        "NOO!!" Carmen cried out, very close to tears by this time (which 
was usually very unusual for her), "STOP, DON'T, NOO!! Have you no 
conscience at ALL?!?" 

        "I might ask YOU the same question, " Dragonous roared at her. "Did 
anyone MAKE you become a thief? Is what YOU'RE doing any more moral and just 
than what THEY'RE about to do? Face facts, Carmen! What we're both doing is 
basically the same, we're taking things that belong to others. You just take 
objects, I take anything that stands in my way, REGUARDLESS!!" he waved his 
hand in front of the screen, "Do it Siege, give our 'Partner' a 
demonstration of how we handle things around here!!" he turned to Carmen,  
"And if I were you, from now on I might LOOK IN THE MIRROR before I judge 
anyone!!" 

        "Stop this," Carmen cried out, "This is NOT the same! There are many 
other ways to slow people down or get them off your case than killing, if 
you'll just let me tell you about them!! I happen to know that there is a 
CONSIDERABLE difference between an object and a HUMAN LIFE!! You can replace 
any object if any thing happens to it, but there is no way you can replace a 
human life!" 

        "Oh, really? Have you seen my DNA Accelerator?" 

        "You've only tried it on animals, not on humans!!" 

        "Maybe perhaps you'd like to volunteer your friends up there as our first 
experiments, just to see?"  Before Carmen could respond to this, a huge 
machine broke through the locked door of the museum and to her amazement six 
ducks flew out of it and began firing down on Dragonous's henchmen. 

        "What? MORE aliens??" she whispered. 

        "CURSES!!" Dragonous yelled. Turning to Carmen he told her," 
Remember those OTHER aliens I told you about? The one's who imprisoned my 
ancestors?" 

        "If your ancestors were anything like you, I can see why," Carmen 
thought to herself as she watched. Dragonous's men were now leaving Ivy and 
Zack alone and were now fighting the ducks. A few of them beckoned to the 
detectives, and one duck with rather long hair tossed a gun to Zack, while 
another one with hair as red as Ivy's grabbed her arm, whispered something 
to her, and they both started inflicting some impressive martial-arts moves 
on the henchmen. 

        "ENOUGH!!" Dragonous cried out on his communicator, "RETREAT!!" he 
ordered and turned off the screen. 

        "Soo, you're not so tough if they fight back, are you Dragonous?" 
Carmen asked as the henchmen appeared before them. 

        "Well, not exactly," Dragonous said, " Actually, I was thinking 
about what you said about there being other ways to get annoying people out 
of your hair?" 

        "Why, yes, I do have a few. It involves my own personal inventions. 
With these devices that I always keep near me in this coat, I've planned 
several means of distracting people and getting them to leave you be rather 
than killing!!" 

        "Really? Well, that IS interesting, perhaps maybe I would like to know 
about them after all!" Behind him, his henchmen started snickering quietly. 
Quickly, Dragonous turned around and gave them a filthy look that swiftly 
silenced them. 

        "Sorry," Siege muttered. 

        "Why don't we go into the other room and talk about them?" Dragonous 
asked, leading Carmen halfway across the room. He stopped her suddenly, "But 
first, may I see your inventions in your coat?" Carmen didn't know if that 
was wise and she noticed that he had a terrible look in his eye that made 
her shake inwardly. 

        "No," she said at last, "I won't give it to you when I can just as 
easily take my inventions out and show you myself!" 

        "I think you might want to change your mind," Dragonous said 
angrily. "Siege, grab her!" Dragonous yelled. Immediately Siege seized 
Carmen and pinned her down while Dragonous ripped off her coat. "Chameleon, 
trap her!!" he yelled. As Siege quickly let go of her, immediately the 
smallest lizard pulled a nearby switch and electric beams busted out all 
around. Carmen realized she had been lead to a huge platform that was the 
source of the beams. 

        "What... how..." was all she could manage. 

        "Thank you for the coat," Dragonous sneered. "Don't worry, I'll be 
sure to remember you and your huge help after all the authorities bow down 
before me!!" 

        "You fiend!!" Carmen yelled," You horrid, terrible, beast from 
hell!! You'll never get away with this you child of the devil!!" 

        "That's where your wrong!" Dragonous sneered, waving her coat 
triumphantly, "To quote you, 'With our combined technology nothing will be 
able to stop us!' Come," he told his henchmen," Let us use these gifts our 
'Partner' so generously gave us to repower the Raptor!!" He lead them out 
with a grand flourish. 

        "Have a really rotten night!!" one of the henchmen sneered at Carmen 
before turning out the lights, closing the door, and leaving her alone and 
sobbing in the dark. 

	To be continued...