1A/N: I know I know, taking on a new endeavor like this even though I haven t finished any of my other stories yet and I m working on them. I have just had a bit of writer s block for a year or two now. If anyone wants to try their hand at working at any of them I am open to ideas and even a collaboration, especially on some of my older works that haven t been updated in a long while.
Before the Heist
When I was just a child I was caught in a fire, where I do not know. All I remember of my life before this fire, in which I lost my parents, was the fact my name was Carmen, I was born on March 1st, 1986 and I happened to be in the city of San Diego, California. All I had left when I was dropped at an orphanage upon being released from the hospital, where I was diagnosed with Smoke induced Amnesia, was my mother s locket.
I was given my name by the women who ran the orphanage in San Fransisco that I would soon find to be my home. She felt that it had a nice ring to it. And so, do I. That is where I had stayed throughout my childhood. I cannot say it was the best orphanage, but far from the worst. No two people I would later hold most dear were placed in what I felt was the worst orphanage there could be to be placed in.
When I had aged out of the system, I had nowhere to go until Acme detective agency came into my life. It was not Acme as it was during my days as a thief, no it was run like your average police agency. No high-tech gadgets, no quick info scans, no C5 corridors, nothing but your wit, your know how, not to mention your connections. I had joined in the year 1985, with my solo days I took risks some risks that the higher ups thought were too great but they could not deny that my methods got the results that they hoped for.
I had quickly flown through the ranks being placed on bigger and bigger cases until I was 19 and placed on one with Suhara, who would eventually become a mentor to be teaching me new things that I never knew before. Things like patience, peace, Zen training, even fighting styles I didn t know. Though this partnership didn t last long soon boring of the attachment soon after I had run out of challenges from the man. I had returned to my solo career at the age of 20 but the peace was only to last a few months.
When working on the Maelstrom case I was approached by the inspector of my little corner of Acme to help field test the new Computerized Holographic Imaging Educational Facilitator or Chief for short. In hindsight they realized putting a brand-new robot that hasn t seen real field work yet on a case like Maelstrom s wasn t the wisest, but I will admit that he did come in handy with the case and I might not have caught Dr. Gunnar Maelstrom without him, it was on this case that I first used the info scan, and subsequently realized that you have to be specific if you want the things to be quick.
Though something Maelstrom had said to me on this case wouldn t stop rattling in my head even to this day, We are two sides to the same coin detective... only I will admit that the allure of the heist compels me. And right now, you are trying to steal my freedom! Even I don t quiet remember what drove me to being the thief that I was before I sat to right this memoir of my thieving days, but I can tell you this, what he said drove me to be the best, and to not harm anyone or anything with my heists. Too many priceless works were destroyed in his quest for riches and far too many died in the process. Though for me even one life lost was too much. Even at twenty years old I had seen more action, more danger, more death than your average police officer.
I had left Acme on the Eve of my twenty-third birthday, a mere three years after the Robotic Chief became the one that we know today, he never did use that body again after the Maelstrom conviction.
I feared every day that I was a thief that was Maelstrom said was true, but with the help of a certain detective I never did become that foul man. But that is a story for another time.
