SIMON'S POV

As Eleanor and I took off in my Munkmobile, one question kept bubbling up to the center of my mind. "WHY!?" Why was this golden baseball card so important? What purpose did it serve? Was this as much of a scheme as Eleanor thought? More importantly, WHY DID I CHOOSE TO SNEAK OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO HELP HER!? She had manipulated me once again, by complimenting my skills and inventions. I did love wild crazy adventures, apparently. I knew that about myself now. I was willing to admit it. Something kept telling me this was going to go above and beyond an adventure. Even I need a place to draw the line.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" I asked my accomplice in the mint tank top and black gloves.

She folded her arms as she watched me with a very annoyed face. "Absolutely!"

"What if we just…told a professional detective spy what we know?" I offered. I missed my bed already.

She shook her head. "Too risky. You can't trust anyone."

"But this is…potentially extremely dangerous." I argued.

"A spy's life is ALWAYS in danger." Eleanor snapped back. "You knew what you signed up for. Stop trying to back out!"

I wouldn't give up. She wasn't thinking straight. "I think the authorities could help us, you know, have our backs in case things get ugly."

I received nothing but an eyeroll.

"Eleanor?" I turned to look at her momentarily, before focusing back on the expanse of midnight sky.

"We can't tell the authorities, or anyone. We'll wind up in trouble for hacking. Like I said before, the only way we can prove we're an asset is by SOLVING the case." She replied coldly.

"And what if there IS no case? What if we're chasing after a huge misunderstanding?" I asked, gripping the steering wheel tighter.

"Then…." Eleanor's voice trailed off. She narrowed her eyes and curled her lip angrily. I could sense she was frustrated. Frustrated with me and with the case, most likely. "Then I don't KNOW what to do." She admitted. "Officer Dangus told me not to play detective where real crimes are concerned."

"And you know why he told you that!?" I could feel my fur bristle. "Because you SHOULDN'T play detective where real crimes are concerned!"

"I'm not PLAYING." She told me, stressing the last word. "I'm trying to prove that I have what it takes to be a super spy or a detective. It's my dream job, Simon. I was built for it!"

I sharply swerved to avoid crashing into a large building. "Well,…" I wasn't sure what to say to that. "M…Maybe you c…could choose a different dream job?"

"Say that one more time, and I will throw you out of this thing and go catch the bad guys myself!" Eleanor threatened, her blonde tail puffed out. Wait a second, why was she STANDING UP!?

"Please…return to your seat while the vehicle is in motion." I gulped. Would she really toss me out?

The ornery girl sat back down. "Why are you so flip-floppy?"

"I beg your pardon?" I dipped the Munkmobile lower in the sky as we came to a clearing. The GPS was functioning perfectly. We would arrive in no time. Not that…I wanted to arrive anymore. This was going too far.

"You know, how you say one thing and then immediately decide that you regret it. You agree to fun things and then bail at the last minute." My partner stated matter of factly. "Does indecisive behavior run in your family, Simon?"

Yes. Yes it does. Would I tell her that? No. It would only give her another means to manipulate me. "I….I….can we please talk about something else?" I internally scolded myself over my less than brilliant retort.

"Sure, let's talk strategy." Eleanor leaned back in the seat. "I don't suppose this thing has a cloaking device."

"It does." I smiled. I enjoyed discussing the various things my inventions could do. "As well as a searchlight, infrared sensors, and an arsenal of defensive weapons. I did use this thing to fight off pizza drones, remember?"

"Cool!" She exclaimed. "Anyway, I was thinking, once we get to the house, we activate the cloaking device and then we sneak inside. We'll scour the place for any possible clues and then meet back outside at a rendezvous point."

"Do we have any plans for what we do if either of us are spotted?" I hoped she had at least SOMETHING. I was sick of winging it.

The youngest Chipette smirked. "I won't be spotted. My whole body is like a cloaking device. No one sees me unless I want them to, and sometimes not even then."

"And…what about me?" A forest of trees came into view. The Munkmobile was tricky to maneuver through them all. This was the price I paid for flying too low to the ground.

"You're a smart guy." She reached over and patted my head. "I'm sure you can think of something."

My memory doesn't work as well under stress, but I thought back to the multitude of things I loaded inside the Munkmobile. Among them was my invisible suit,tucked away inside a blue duffel bag. I hadn't used it in years, but I hoped it would still work. "Right. Yes, I can." My paws were all sweaty. Darn it! I was still nervous.

"Calm down, partner." Eleanor looked concerned for my well-being.

"Saying calm down will not MAKE ME CALM!" I shouted, gripping the steering wheel and flying in and out from between multiple trees. It was like the world's most difficult driving test…where the orange cones were gigantic and could impact your car greatly should you run into them.

Eleanor unbuckled and leapt from her seat again. "I can drive if you need me to."

My panic level was exponentially increasing by the second. Too many trees. Too many things that could go wrong. Why was I allowing myself to fly the Munkmobile when I haven't slept well and should be asleep right now!? WHY!? "No!" I shouted. "I can handle it….just….let me…." I broke out in hives almost instantly. "I CAN'T! I CAN'T DO THIS! ARE WE NUTS!? ARE WE NUTS!?"

"Simon, BREATHE!" Eleanor tried to tug the steering wheel out of my hands, but I held on for dear life.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" I wailed, having a full on panic attack. My hands felt numb, my mouth was like sandpaper.

"Yes, we are, if you don't LET ME DRIVE!" The pigtailed girl screeched. "LET GO, SIMON! JUST LET GO!"

"I CAN'T! I CAN'T!" I tried my best to focus, but I was truly in no shape to drive. And that's when we crashed. The large oak tree came out of nowhere, we had almost made it out of the forest and then….everything went dark. I think….I think I may have passed out.

ELEANOR'S POV

Simon was being such a stubborn twit! He was panicking, not thinking clearly, and he was flaking out on me AGAIN. Yet, he wouldn't let go of the freakin' steering wheel so I could drive us out of this mess until he was no longer hyperventilating.

"SIMON, STOP BEING AN IDIOT AND LET GO!" I begged. I could see the giant oak tree coming up. Unless Simon swerved, we would be on a collision course. Who knows what kind of damage it could do?

Simon turned his head to look at me, murmuring something incomprehensible. Then, his eyes closed and he slumped over the dashboard.

"NO NO NO!" I growled. "SIMON!"

Hitting the tree now was inevitable. I had a new mission. Keep both of us safe and alive! I hastily unbuckled Simon from his seat and dragged him into the back of the Munkmobile where all the gadgets were kept.

"Come on, come on, he's gotta have something to protect us in here." I said as we accelerated forward.

I rummaged through the supplies at hyperspeed until I found something labeled INFLATABLE FORCE FIELD. I pressed a button, hoping it wouldn't explode. The force field formed around both of us, and all the gear we brought, like a giant unpoppable bubble. "Whoah!"

Not a second too soon. I braced for impact. The Munkmobile slammed into the tree at full force and fell to the ground. It had been horribly dented and mangled, but less than I was expecting. This thing must really be built tough.

I struggled to figure out how to deflate the force field bubble. We were so close to our destination. I could make it there on foot if I could break free. Unfortunately, I couldn't. I would have to wait for Simon to wake up.

While I waited, I thought about all the nefarious plots the golden baseball card could be part of. Maybe they planned to auction it off to the highest bidder and use the money to buy better burglary equipment. Maybe they planned to copy the card using some high tech gadget and then become filthy rich selling all of the gold cards. Maybe the plot wasn't about money. Maybe the rare golden baseball card was created specifically to house a secret code message for the bad guys, to alert them of a good place for their next heist. What if they planned to use the card as a key card for a secret spy facility or something!? The possibilities were endless.

"I have a heeeeadache." The sound of Simon's voice ended my train of thought. He was awake now! We could continue the mission!

"Welcome back, Simon. Any idea how we get out of this trouble bubble?" I asked, chuckling.

He blinked sleepily and then stretched as far as he could, only to be stopped by the edge of the bubble and the wall of our spy gear. "Huh?" He became only slightly more lucid. "Oh…uh….there should be….a button…the same one you pushed to activate it."

"I don't see it." I moaned. "I've looked around this thing 20 times."

He gently lifted his blue duffel bag and exposed the extremely tiny button. Pressing it once, I felt the bubble force field be sucked away, back into a form that looked like a roll of clear film.

"You make some of the weirdest inventions." I commented, tucking the device inside one of the other containers.

"Thanks for…saving us." The chipmunk in blue said softly. "That was some quick thinking."

"Are we still going to be able to complete the mission?" I asked, opening the back door and stepping outside to survey the damage of the Munkmobile.

Simon tried to use one of the front doors, but both had been damaged in the crash. He climbed out through the back door and sighed. "I'm not sure."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" I screamed, kicking a rock on the forest floor.

"Now, you need to calm down." He told me stoically. It seemed the panic attack had fritzed out his emotions. "I can repair it, but it might take some time."

"We could go on foot!" I started to run, but his strong hand pulled me back.

"Absolutely not. It'll be safer in the Munkmobile. I'm confident I can get it working again. Why don't you reorganize and pack the gear while I do some quick repairs?" He tried to open one of the front doors again and grunted.

I crawled into the back and grabbed him a toolbox. "And you promise you won't double cross me and drive us back home?" I held the toolbox high into the air, above his head since I was inside the flying machine and he was on the ground.

"Fine. Okay, yes. I promise. But, after this mission tonight, you need to let me sleep. I'm becoming irrational and it's unsettling."

"Deal!" I agreed.

As I packed all the gear back into an organized pile, I could hear clinks and clanks and sputtering as Simon fiddled with things. He tested the Munkmobile over and over, seeing if it could start. It was not looking good. We were so close, and now we probably were going to miss our shot. The mysterious people would move to a new place and we'd lose track of them forever.

"BLASTED THING!" Simon's emotions were coming back to the surface again, mostly anger.

I decided to do him a favor and try and fix the busted doors. I started pounding on the driver's side door with all my might.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Simon shouted from outside, where he was repairing the engine.

"FIXING THE DOOR!" I replied.

"LEAVE IT BE!" He yelled.

I ignored him and hit the door with a swift kick! It opened! "Yes!" I cheered.

Then, the door fell off its hinges and crashed to the ground below.

I turned around to see a pair of angry blue eyes glaring at me in the window, illuminated only by a flashlight. "I told you to leave it be."

"Oops." I said sheepishly.

"You'll be paying to replace that." He informed me, swinging himself around and climbing inside through the doorless opening.

"Totally. Totally." I agreed. "So, did you get the engine working? Can this thing fly again?"

He turned the key in the ignition and the Munkmobile groaned and sputtered to life. "It'll work….but probably not for very long."

"How long is "not very long?" I strapped myself in the passenger seat. "Is it…an hour? Three hours? Five hours?"

"I don't know." Simon ran his fingers through his messy hair. "Look, Eleanor, I need you to know that…if we continue the mission, there's a chance we're going to run into problems getting home."

"Not an issue. If the cloaking device still works, we can camp out wherever." I suggested.

Simon activated the cloaking device. "Oh, swell." He commented. "This is using even more power."

"Then we'll be super fast!" I slipped on a pair of special spy sunglasses.

"We have three hours, tops." He adjusted his round blue glasses. "I hope I don't regret this."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Think about it, Simon. We could be saving lives by stopping these guys. Chain reaction schemes are…"

"A big deal. Yes, I know." He rubbed his forehead as the cloaked Munkmobile lifted into the air. "I still don't know why I'm doing this. How did I get into this mess?"

I decided he would benefit from a subject change. "If the cloaking device uses so much power, why activate it now? Save it for when we arrive."

He kept his eyes on the sky. "Because I don't want someone spotting us and thinking we're a UFO. Then, we would have a bigger mess on our hands."

That is probably why we went through the forest instead of flying above it. It made sense now! "Right on. I didn't even consider that."

We sat in silence for a little bit, before Simon spoke up again. "I'm doing this mainly for you, you know. Because I know how much it means to you to see this through."

"I know." I stared out at the twinkling stars as we approached our destination. "And I'm sorry I'm making this…hard on you. I promise when we solve the case, I won't tell anyone you were involved unless you want me to."

He nodded appreciatively, then he gestured with his hand at the GPS. "Get your walkie talkie ready." He smiled. "We're due to arrive in ten more minutes."

This was it! It was time to find some bigger and better clues. Time to prove to everyone how useful I can be, even though my methods are…questionable. I, the under-appreciated Eleanor Miller, would save the world someday. I could feel it in my bones.

Something sinister is coming. Will Simon and Eleanor be able to make it out of "Headquarters" alive? Find out in the next 3 chapters. I'm warning you, they are INTENSE.