By the time they'd re-assimilated to the party, Buddy had another drink in hand thanks to a passing waiter. Violet took one for herself as well. She was dying of curiosity by this time, but he refused to say any more. Instead, they ended up dancing to a particularly catchy song. She tried not to feel like she was in a 'save the last dance' movie before one of Buddy's affiliates had come upon them and interrupted.
"Oh, Miss Violet! Lovely to see you again!" The man in the suit said. She recognized him as the man from Russia and smiled as pleasantly she could. It seemed as though the man had an incredible memory. Or perhaps Buddy had talked about her during his trip. Even the idea that she might've been mentioned caused her to blush. Violet joined into the conversation where she could and Mirage appeared not long after. She looked thankful to have this moment of kind conversation; Violet could only guess that the estranged ex had called her as well.
"And that's when I said, 'That's not a motherboard, you idiot! That's my mother!'" A few drinks later had brought forth every corny joke the group could think of. They sat around a table away from the dancers. Even Buddy found himself chuckling at a few of the really bad ones. Several other people had joined the table that Violet had recognized from before as well. Regardless of the fact that she wasn't supposed to be here, she felt welcome and almost at home. For a moment it as was if she'd never had that last argument with Buddy at all. Hell, maybe it was the liquor, but he was surprisingly bubbly considering the night as it had happened.
"Hey, hey. We need a toast." The red-head finally spoke up, and the group fetched up their drinks with a roar of approval. Violet snickered, raising her nearly empty glass.
"To the best damn party in Metroville." The Russian smiled, and the table agreed.
"To the greatest, brightest group of co-workers in the world." Mirage nodded, and the table agreed.
"To a successful future!" Said another and again, the table agreed.
"Now, a lot of you that have been around for a long time probably know that I'm a little crazy." Buddy grinned, and the table groaned. Mirage rolled her eyes, putting her hand on his glass and attempting to push it down.
"There you go with the monologues!" She laughed.
"Hey now, humor me for a minute!" He whined, slipping his glass out of her grip with chuckles from the crowd. "You all may have seen some pretty bad times, but this girl," He pointed down at Violet, and she immediately blushed from being picked out. "I guarantee she's seen the worst. She showed me how fun insanity could really be and I almost let it get away." The table let out a collective 'aww' that embarrassed her senseless. She hoped that he could see how much she hated being the center of attention, but it seemed as though his monologue hadn't ended. "I asked you a question once. What's the craziest thing you've done lately?"
"Listen to you ramble, so far." Violet muttered softly. The crowd toasted their drinks to that, laughing too hard to drink at first. While they were distracted, Buddy leaned in close to her ear with that same terrible grin that she'd seen back in his office.
"It's about to get crazier, babe."
Before she could blink he'd removed himself from the table. Violet looked around to find him but he'd disappeared into the crowd just as quickly. Even Mirage had curious expression. They didn't have to think about it for long. The podium at the front of the party was now occupied by Buddy tapping on the microphone for everyone's attention. The music silenced and the crowd turned to face the speaker. Violet had no idea how he could stand up there in front of those hundreds, possibly thousands of people with such confidence. Perhaps his career of villainy had readied him for public speaking. "How's everything going?"
The crowd cheered happily, and he nodded with a smile. "Great. Thanks everyone for coming, we wouldn't be what we are without each and every one of you. On a little bit of a side note, I promised someone that I could do things better, so here it goes. Violet? Wanna get married?" She would've tried to hide under the table if her heart hadn't leaped into her throat at the question at hand. Now there was an entire party staring at her, wondering the answer to such a sudden question. It looked as though he'd finally shown her how crazy he could get. However, it was her turn now.
"Absolutely not!" She shouted back, shocking the crowd and leaving the man behind the podium with his mouth hanging open.
"That.. was a serious question." He smiled nervously.
"That was a serious answer!" She shouted back, and he clearly had nothing else to say on the matter. For the first time since their first meeting, she'd thrown him completely off balance and the realization was right there on his face. He could've stood up there in neutral for the rest of the night had the floor suddenly not begun to shake. The party was interrupted suddenly by a strange laughter beyond the movement. Patrons ran back and forth away from the villain who was attempting to crash their party. Violet and Buddy's eyes met for a moment as if telling her that he had nothing to do with it.
"You'll suffer the wrath of the Underminer!" The villain had finally made himself known right in the middle of the floor. Buddy could've face palmed and Violet shook her head. He obviously hadn't meant to land in this spot from the look on his confused face. The CEO turned and walked away, leaving Violet unsure of what to do. Her super suit.. she'd left it in the car, thankfully. Not even a moment passed before she'd rushed out the door while the bad guy went on with his spiel anyway. She slammed her car door shut, rummaging through the back seat and changing up as quickly as she could. It wasn't until after she put her mask on that there was a knock on the window, startling her.
"You'll at least consider it, right?" Buddy rushed the question, and Violet sat there with her mouth open. She opened the door at him.
"This isn't exactly the best time for this discussion!"
"Later?"
"Later!" And then she was gone. Violet re-appeared at the scene of the crime not long after, ready to defend against whatever the crazy villain had planned, and he looked happy to see her. They immediately fell into battle, destroying what had once been a beautiful party setup. All she had to do was give the other supers enough time to arrive. Keep the guy busy.
The Underminer had cackled madly during his cat-and mouse chase, pointing an oddly shaped drill-gun at Violet. Before he could shoot however, the gun had been shot out of his hand and skidded across the broken floor. Violet stopped dead as the Underminer gasped angrily. He turned to glare in the direction the shot had come from, and immediately paled.
"S-Syndrome?" Violet looked up as well, smiling.
"You're in my turf, Miney." The suddenly returned Syndrome frowned down at his wrists, making an adjustment to his left gauntlet with a tiny screwdriver and paying very little mind to the shocked and confused villain below. The Underminer began on some kind of scared babble while the red-head-from-the-dead tapped his heel, activating the rocket boots that to his satisfaction, still worked perfectly. "You remember what happened to the last guy, I hope."
"Y-y... We thought y-you were dead..."
"Is that what they've been saying?" He raised an eyebrow, floating gently down to the top of the Underminer's tank. The other villain shrunk back as Syndrome took several steps towards him with a gravely curious expression. "They weren't entirely wrong."
"It hasn't been the same w-without you, sir, but-"
"Cut the crap, Miney, it doesn't suit you at all." Violet tilted her head from her place on the ground. It was clear that he hadn't forgotten his alter-ego at all. In fact, he was eating the whole thing right up. The fact that, even so long after leaving, he could still leave people cowering in terror kept a very amused smile on his face. It also made him happy to know that he'd left such a terrible impact on the way things were run. "I died quite a while ago, Miney. But I was left rolling over in my grave at the pathetic excuses for villainy that were left behind."
"Well, you're the best..."
"Damn right I'm the best!" He replied sharply, his zero-point energy grabbing the cowering man's helmet and lifting him into the air. Syndrome smiled as the lowly creature scrambled from suffocation. "I'm disappointed, Miney! I wanted to retire a happy man, but you and your idiots can't do anything without me!"
"Sh-Sorry..."
"You should be sorry." He tossed the helm and man lightly off the side of the tank. He landed on the ground with a plop, gasping for air. Violet should have broken this up and put both of them in their places but the fact that Syndrome was purposely hamming it up for his own entertainment was just too funny. He hadn't had the chance to be a bad guy in such a long time, she couldn't help but allow him the opportunity to have a little fun. "Old habits die hard, Miney. Would you like them to die on you, or do I get my playmate back now?"
"Y-yes sir..."
"You're a good man. Might wanna work on that." Syndrome sneered as the Underminer stumbled back into his tank and promptly disappeared. This left Syndrome and Incredigirl together, but he didn't seem all that interested in fighting. In fact, he snickered.
"Couldn't help myself, the guy's such a wuss."
"You know I'm supposed to try and stop you now, right?" She smirked.
"I think I may have accidentally saved the day already," Syndrome jammed a thumb over his shoulder at the giant hole in his dance floor. "But you're welcome to try. Take it easy on me, though. It's been a while." He winked, taking off and making the first shot that bounced off of her force field.
"Do your worst." She grinned wildly, vanishing from sight and sending several shots out at Syndrome to set him off balance from the get-go. One particular move she had to commend him on, had nearly knocked the wind out of her. She'd been chasing him up the stairs and he'd charged up the zero-point energy and sent it down the rail, shocking her pretty damn hard. She'd gotten him back with a force field in his flight path which to Syndrome, felt like the equivalent of zooming into a brick wall. What should have been a serious encounter ended in more laughter then pain, however. He ran and she chased, and while the whole thing was exhausting, they were having too much fun to call it quits.
"It's later, did you think about it!" Syndrome shouted over the carnage, ducking out of the way of purple bolts of energy.
"If you're gonna keep attacking me, I'm not so sure!" She smiled as he groaned. She came back down to the ground level where she'd last seen him, but there was no Syndrome in sight. The sudden silence in the room caused Violet to let her guard down for a moment, re-appearing to have a look around. In that split moment she'd been frozen. Syndrome came out from his hiding place in a shadowy area underneath the stairwell, smirking.
"Haven't lost my touch yet," He moved across the open area to the wall she'd been frozen at, peering at her in a creepy-yet-loving way. "Could probably go back full time after a few upgrades. This stuff is dated now." He released the energy and leaned in for a kiss which she moved away from tauntingly.
"The suspense is thrilling, isn't it?" She smirked slyly as he was caught by his own words. Unfortunately this game caused as much torture to her as he stood there and waited for her to give in, as close as he could. "Have you missed it?"
"More than you know."
"Are you sure you want to marry me?"
"Not until you say yes." She let a breath out, becoming more and more uncomfortable with even such a small amount of space between them. All she wanted to do was jump into his arms and go along with it without a care in the world at whoever saw. Why she had to make things so hard on herself was beyond her, but he didn't seem to be having so much trouble. He whispered into her ear softly, and she took a breath in. "What's it going to take, Incredigirl?"
"A proper proposal, for one." The response caused him to cock his head with a look that screamed 'are you serious?'. She smiled apathetically, responding silently to the silently asked question. He pondered for a moment then rolled his eyes and did as he was told. He peered up at her from his kneeling position as if to ask, 'happy now?'
"How does it feel to grovel, Syndrome?"
"That's low." He muttered with a raised eyebrow. "My ego has been appropriately humbled, so are you going to marry me or not?"
"Are you going to fix my phone?" She smirked.
"Violet." Syndrome sighed. He'd get her back for this. Very soon.
"Get up here, damnit."