Dateline: Thursday, April 23, 1981, 6:48 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

"Oh, man! I almost forgot!" Dash exclaimed. "I have to go by Mirage's place and pick something up!"

"What is it?" Violet asked. But Dash was already out the door. "Whatever it is, I'm sure it will help our cause," she said to no one in particular. She figured that the time it would take her brother to get to Mirage's house and back would be just enough time for her to put in a call to the team's costume designer, Edna Mode.

"I'd like to speak to Edna, please," she began.

"This is Edna," said the voice on the other end.

"E, it's Violet."

"Violet who?"

"Don't give me that, E! You know very well Violet who!"

"I'm sorry, my memory is not what it used to be. I might recognize your codename if you told it to me."

Violet sighed. She never liked using her codename when she wasn't in her super suit, but desperate times call for desperate measures. "It's Python."

"DARLING!" screamed Edna so loudly, that Violet almost dropped the receiver. "I'm glad you called, I was just thinking that Alpha Force might need my services in the near future. I know what happened as far as Dash's identity is concerned."

"You know about this? But how?"

"I saw it on the news, darling. He needs a new suit, that much is beyond argument. But what I wanted to talk to you about is that massive creature on your scalp that you seem to think is a hairstyle."

This came to Violet as quite a shock! "My hair? What's wrong with my hair?"
"Darling, if something is a threat to your life, it must be got rid of as soon as possible! With hair that reaches down to your knees like that, you might as well be wearing a cape, and you know how I feel about those!"

Violet knew she had to stop Edna before she got into her speech against capes. "Yes, E, okay, I get you! So what do you recommend?"

"I happen to have a cousin who knows a thing or two about hairstyling. His name is June. So what time should I send June over to your place?"

"A man named June?" is what Violet started to ask, but E cut her off.

"Don't make me beg, darling, I won't do it you know!"

"Beg? No, I just need you to make Dash a new suit!"

"Yes, yes, darling, I'll start to work right away, and his suit will be ready before your next assignment. And don't worry about June, he will be there first thing tomorrow morning, I insist, okay? Okay, good-bye, darling." Click. Dial tone.

As it turned out, Violet's estimation was right in target. As soon as she hung up the phone, Dash returned, with a strange metal box.

"This is what I ordered from Mirage," he began, "it will revolutionize the way we fight crime!"

"How is a box going to help our cause, Dash?"

Dash quickly shifted his expression from excitement to contempt. "Not the box, egghead, it's INSIDE the box!"

"Oh, yeah, I knew that," Violet said, feeling like a complete fool. "So, uh, how do you get it open?"

Dash pressed his thumb against the thumbprint recognition pad. "It only opens for my thumbprint," he explained. The box opened, and Violet saw what was inside.

Now, her reaction to the sight of the object is difficult to describe in words, but I shall do the best I can. First, she screamed. After screaming non-stop for about four seconds, she paused, inhaled deeply, and continued to scream. About two seconds after that, a bug (or something bug-like in nature) flew up her throat, and she started coughing. She continued to cough until the bug (or whatever) was dislodged from her windpipe, causing her to make a disgusting noise at the end. She breathed heavily until she had enough strength to yell at Dash. Then…

"A GUN? Dash! You bought a gun?"

"Not just any gun," he boasted, "a .45 Glock. It can shoot the stamp off an envelope from 30 feet!"

"I don't want to hear about this…murder weapon, Dash!"

"Vi, it's not a murder weapon!"

"Not yet, anyway, but it will be, eventually! And you think it will help us?"

"Of course! The bad guys won't want to mess with a super hero who has a firearm!"

"Dash, super heroes and firearms simply do not mix!"

Dash looked at his sister confusedly. "I'm not sure I follow your logic."

"Listen, kids look up to super heroes. Kids don't learn, they imitate, okay? If they see a super hero with a gun, they're gonna want to carry guns. If kids carry guns, some poor little defenseless child is gonna get shot, and die. Then the parents find out why the kids have guns, they start coming after us, and before you know it, we'll all be back underground again, and it will all be YOUR FAULT!"

"Oh, come on, Violet," complained Dash, "don't you think you're blowing this way out of proportion?"

"Don't give me excuses, Dashell! Just get that killing machine out of my apartment!"

Dash was expecting his sister's disapproval so far, but what she had just said offended him. Now he was upset.

"First of all," he began, "my name is on the deed too, so this is our apartment. Second of all, this is not a killing machine, it is a high velocity projectile launcher."

"Could you say that last one in English, please?"

"Guns don't kill people, PEOPLE kill people."

Violet stared at her brother with the evil eye. "People WITH guns kill people."

For a long time after that, neither of them said anything. That day, hour, and minute, both Violet and Dash finally understood the saying "You could cut the tension with a knife". But then, the tension lifted when the doorbell rang. Violet quickly shut the case, which still had the gun inside, then answered the door.

It was Kari McKean. "Hey guys, whatcha up to?"

Violet looked back at Dash, who didn't even give a shadow of a response. "Nothing," she said.

"Cool! You guys want to join me at the bar for dinner tonight?"

Anything to get my mind off of what Dash just did, Violet thought. "Okay."

The three climbed down the stairs of 1517 Oriental Avenue, down to where Kari had parked her 1980 Toyota Camry. They drove off into the moonrise.

(A/N: This right here is what sells stories these days: controversy! So, what do you guys think? Should Violet kick Dash out? Should she steal the gun and hock it? Should she let him keep it? Should she let him maybe use it on missions? Oh, one more thing…the story doesn't stop here! Chapter 11 is currently in production. See you all next time!)