Dateline: Thursday, April 23, 1981, 8:57 AM, Pacific Daylight Time.
Violet stepped out of Kari's 1980 Toyota Camry as she pulled into the parking lot of the Black and White department store.
"Hey, Vi!" Kari called after her, "Listen, I can't pick you up at 5:00 today; I have a dentist's appointment."
"No problem, I'll take a taxi," Violet responded.
Kari burned rubber before leaving. Violet walked into the building, saying hello to people as she made her way to the stairs. She climbed up three flights to the "Cube Farm", as her co-workers liked to call it, on the fourth floor. It wasn't more than a few seconds before Violet was sitting at her desk, working. And by "working", I mean playing solitaire with a deck of cards she keeps in her desk drawers. Of course, her game was interrupted when an unidentified male entered her cubicle.
"Excuse me, are you Violet Parr?" he asked.
"Violet Parr, Director of Personnel, at your service," she stood up to shake his hand. "You must be an applicant for the position in electronics. Have a seat."
He sat down in a chair across from Violet as he handed her his resume.
"Okay, let's see here…Mr. Wilson, it says here that you used to work for our competitor, the Red and Blue department store, in the same position you're seeking here. May I ask why your employment was terminated?"
"Actually, I quit my previous job so I could spend time with my family, but then," Mr. Wilson started to tear up, "my wife and kid spilt on me, so now I need this job, so much."
It was clear that Violet was not fazed by Mr. Wilson's sob story. "Yeah, well, that story better be true, but even if it is, it won't help you."
"So, that's it? I'm just getting the brush-off?" Mr. Wilson managed to say amid the tears.
"No, no, no, that's not it at all!" Violet said in an attempt to calm him down. "I'm just saying, I've got a lot of applicants for this job, and I don't want you to expect to get this job just because you're down on your luck."
"That is another way of saying 'Forget about it!' Just like 'Thanks for stopping by!' means 'We never want to see you again!'" Now Mr. Wilson was bawling.
"Oh, don't worry about it," Violet said, trying to be reassuring. "There's plenty of other jobs out there for you."
"No, there isn't!" Mr. Wilson screamed. "If your company won't have me, who will?"
Now it was clear to Violet that this man didn't need a job, he needed therapy. She produced a pen and some paper. "Okay, I'm going to recommend you to a Dr. Wilcox, who has an office on the corner of 5th and Indiana; you talk to her for a while, then you come back here and we'll see if we can't get you that job, okay?"
Mr. Wilson nodded and left Violet's cube, although still crying. Once he was gone, Violet resumed her game. However, she didn't get the chance to turn over one card before she was interrupted by a familiar voice behind her, that of her boss, Mr. Black.
"Excuse me, Parr," he said, "I need a favor."
"What is it, chief?" Violet said, feigning enthusiasm.
"Well, even though I have recently taken a pay cut, I have come to realize that there is a whole phone book of people who are worse off than I am." With that he produced the residential white pages and dropped on Violet's desk with a sonorous thud. "I want you to transcribe the names and phone numbers of those people and have it on my desk by 5:00 PM."
Violet gave her boss a cross look. "I'll not only transcribe their names and numbers, but I'll type it too, on the exact same paper, in the exact same font and size."
Mr. Black was visibly impressed. "It sounds too good to be true. This better not be a trick, Parr."
Violet just grinned smugly as Mr. Black returned to his office. She was about to resume her game when, you guessed it, something else interrupted her. This time, it was her watch going off. When she looked at it, she saw that a little red light in the shape of the letter A was flashing on its face.
Oh, no, not now, she thought to herself, I haven't even had lunch yet! Oh well, duty calls. She got up from her desk and rushed down the stairs. She found the women's changing rooms and ducked inside the first vacant one she could find. Once there, she pressed a button on her watch.
"Python reporting," she said into the watch.
Meanwhile, Dash was in the chemistry lab at Metroville High. He was handling a test tube filled with very strong acid when his watch went off. He noticed that the Alpha signal was flashing, so he ran at a plausible speed to the men's room. What he didn't notice was that he had inadvertently dropped the tube with the acid still inside it. Luckily, another student dive caught it before it ate through the floor. But, I digress.
Anyway, Dash found an empty stall in the bathroom and ducked inside. Once there, he pushed the same button on his watch that Violet pushed on hers.
"Rocket reporting," he said into the watch.
"We have a report of a new super villain on the offensive," came the voice of the sheriff. "He seems to have a massive cannon which he is using to destroy suburban residences. We have tried to quell him, but so far we have met with only…" The supers could hear explosions in the background "…unsuccess."
"Where is this guy right now?" asked Violet.
"Right now he is in the Sapphire Village, on Lumber Lane."
"We're on our way," said Alpha Force.
(A/N: Whoo! Suspense! Oh, by the way, I had to change Chapter 4 slightly. As it turns out, Kari's last name is McKean, not McAllister. Oops! Hey, thanks a million to everyone who has read my story so far. It gets better in the later chapters (I hope). Stay tuned for Chapter 6, same Alpha time, same Alpha channel! I'm sorry, I just had to say that! Anyway, happy trails!)