"Hey, Otis, Olympia!" The partners looked up from their paperwork to see Oona, Head of Science, jogging towards them with a jumble of gadgets in her arms. "Can you guys help me find something that adds up to 1572?"
"Of course we can!" Olympia leapt up from her desk and took a couple of gadgets, examining the numbers.
"Hey, slow down, partner," Otis urged. "Oona, seriously, what's going on? This isn't another time loop problem, is it?"
Oona laughed aloud. "Oh, you're so funny, Otis! Actually, no, it isn't. Oscar just sent me the blueprints for this new gadget he invented - he calls it the Insideoutinator and claims it's the awesomest gadget ever - but I don't have enough spare parts after fixing the Curtianinator and Unphotoinator. So, if I want to find out how awesome this gadget really is, I have to combine gadgets."
"Don't you have other stuff to work on?"
"Yeah, but I put off the seventeenth dusting of the lab counters. Priorities, right?"
"Yeah. Priorities." Sighing internally, Otis stood up and picked up a gadget.
"Aaaaand done!" Olympia attached the last gadget to the contraption. "Lady and gentleman, we have ourselves an Insideoutinator!"
"How does this work again?" Otis inquired.
Oona explained, "According to Oscar, someone needs to zap someone else with the gadget, then zap them again when they're done. 'The signal we agreed on is two blinks,' he said. So, which of you wants to go first?"
"I'll do it." Otis was surprised that the words had just jumped out of his mouth like that. Admittedly, he was curious about what the Insideoutinator could do, and also a little worried, which was probably why he'd volunteered himself before his partner did anything reckless (and he knew she likely would).
"All right, Otis," Oona shrugged. "Just let me make sure I'm holding the gadget right - don't want to accidentally zap myself! Yeah, that's got it." The scientist poked one of the buttons on the makeshift gadget, and beams of colored light streamed out and enveloped her. When they dissipated, Oona was simply standing there, blinking furiously, the makeshift Insideoutinator still in her arms.
Olympia gasped in horror, but Otis managed to keep a straight face. "Well, that happened..."
"Thegadgethitustheconsoleisn'tworkingwe'reDOOOOOOOOOOMED!" Until Oona heard this panicked rant, she'd assumed she was dead, but now she was figuring otherwise. Guess I was holding it wrong after all, she thought with an internal chuckle. Or, at least, she thought it was internal. She could clearly hear her own words echoing back to her from outside.
"Fear, if you start screaming again," growled a male voice, "I swear to Odd that I will throw you straight through the window!"
"She's fainted again," another female voice sighed. "Guess the ThoughtCom was too much for her."
A new male voice scoffed, "Why was the ThoughtCom even working? The console is down. Oona's unconscious."
"No, I'm not!" Oona yelled, sitting up and clearly startling the five colorful humanoids before her. "I'm right here, aren't I?"
"Well, this changes things." This was spoken by a yellow girl with Oona's long brown hair and her own bright blue eyes, dressed up like a Ms. O. "Welcome to your Headquarters, Oona! I'm Joy."
"Nice to meet you, Joy!" Oona stepped over and grabbed Joy's hand. "Wait, did you say Headquarters? Where are Olympia and Otis?"
"Not that Headquarters," sighed the green guy in a Medical uniform. "You may not understand this right away, but this is your mind. We're your emotions. Call me Disgust, by the way."
"Yeah, I'm Sadness," a blue girl in a Maintenance uniform added pitifully. "I'm third in command up here. Fear's number two, but she fainted." Sadness indicated the skinny purple girl in a familiar-looking lab coat lying nearby.
Oona gushed, "Wow, Oscar was right! The Insideoutinator is awesome!"
"I know, right?!" Joy squealed. "Wait till you see the Personality Islands!" The yellow girl dragged the scientist over to a window on the far side of the room, where Oona could see colorful islands standing in a row. "Science Island is almost never down. There's one for your love of music, and one for being a total fangirl, and - oh, that one is all about Oscar. He's kind of a big deal here."
"That infernal 'Oscar Is Awesome' is always playing - " started the blocky red guy wearing what looked like an Investigation outfit. Suddenly, a golden orb dropped in from a tube in the ceiling and suspended in a beam. The aforementioned song began to play, and the red guy groaned aloud.
"That would be one of your memories," Joy explained. "It's yellow because I was at the console when we made it."
"That's really cool, you guys!" Oona started back towards the console. "Seriously, I think I should be getting back now."
Disgust shrugged and offered, "I think maybe we need to give Olympia and Otis the double-blink signal."
Sadness pressed the little blue button twice. Outside, the group could see Olympia fumbling with the gadget until she fired it. In a flash of light, Oona disappeared.
"So what are we going to tell Fear?"
"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Oona shouted as she returned to the real world. "Olympia, Otis, you have to try this. Seriously, you will not regret it."
"Is it really that cool?" Olympia inquired, eyes wide open and mouth grinning.
Oona smirked and held up the gadget. "Want to find out for yourself, girlfreind?"