Dateline: Thursday, April 23, 1981, 10:28 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

Kari was astonished, but not surprised. Sure, she didn't see it coming: Violet and Dash being abducted by this strange person in a green jacket. But she wasn't surprised, because she was prepared. She reached into her handbag and produced her weapon, a .22 Magnum. She aimed it in Green Jacket's direction.

"DON'T MOVE!" she screamed. Green Jacket reached for the sky, trembling. "Now, you are going to do exactly as I say, or I'm going to plant six lead bullets into that big hole in your skull where your brain should be, you dig?" Green Jacket nodded. Kari gestured with the gun briefly to point at the trunk of the car, before pointing it back at the would-be abductor. "First, get my friends out of your trunk." The still trembling person did as Ms. McKean said. Violet clambered out of the trunk quickly. "Are you okay?" Kari asked.

"I'm fine," said Violet, "only, how did I get out here?"

"This guy tried to abduct you and your brother, but I saved you!"

Violet got a good look at Green Jacket. "Hey, I know you! You're that evil cabbie who kidnapped me earlier today!"

Green Jacket gasped. "Python?"

Then Kari gasped. "Okay, who are you, and how do you know her codename?"

Violet gasped as well. "Wait a minute, did you just say what my codename was?"

"Yeah," Green Jacket said, "how the f do you know her codename?"

Kari just smiled smugly, then said, "Python here has been my best friend since middle school. I've known all along."

Violet was understandably upset. "And you were planning on telling me this when?"

"Whenever the situation became so dire that there was no choice for me but to tell you that I knew, i.e., right now." In her peripheral vision, Kari noticed Green Jacket trying to get away. She fired a warning shot two inches in front of his/her face. "Get your butt back over here and tell us who you are and how you know who Python is!"

Green Jacket did as Kari said. "I am the Wicked Wichard of the West-by-Northwest."

"You can say that again," quipped Violet. "What the hell is a 'Wichard'?"

"A way for me to disguise my true gender," he (she?) said with a laugh.

"O-Kay," said Kari with a phony smile, while still pointing her gun at the Wichard, "but that still doesn't explain how you know her codename."

"My powers are great!" s/he exclaimed to a peal of thunder, "and I have spies everywhere. They have seen you and Rocket changing clothes in dark alleys."

"I see," said Violet, "but there's still one thing I don't understand."

"What are you talking about?" interrupted Kari. "It makes perfect sense…" But she was stopped by a quick jab to the stomach from Violet.

Vi continued, "What did you intend to do with us once you had kidnapped us?" She didn't really care what the answer was; she just wanted the Wichard to start monologuing.

"Well, I thought you would never ask…" s/he began, alerting Violet that now was the time to strike. "You see, I need the two of you as ingredients for a potion I am…" But the Wichard's trailed off when Violet delivered a blow to the back of his (her?) head with a nearby piece of pipe. "Ooh," s/he moaned as s/he fell onto the concrete. The Wicked Wichard of the West-by-Northwest was out for the count.

"Okay, we gotta get Dash and we gotta get home before she wakes up!" Violet said in a state of panic.

"Don't you mean before HE wakes up?" asked Kari.

"Whatever, let's just get the hell out of here!"

At that moment, Dash was waking up from his alcohol-induced slumber. "Dash!" Violet exclaimed. "Are you okay?"

"I don't think so, Mom. I don't know if I can go to school today," he mumbled drunkenly.

"Oh, great, he's been drinking again!" Violet was now at her wit's end with her brother. "Come on, Kari, let's get him back home."

The two females lifted Dash and carefully threw him into the back seat of Kari's Camry. Then Ms. McKean drove the weary supers back to 1517 Oriental Avenue. As Vi stepped out, Kari called out to her.

"Listen," she said, "today is officially the very last day that I drive you to work!"

"WHAT?" Violet screamed. "Then what do you expect me to do, walk there? We had a deal, McKean!"

"Yes, we did. I would drive you to work until you didn't need me to do so anymore. And come tomorrow, you won't."

Violet was confused. "What are you saying, Kari?"

"Here, catch," she said as she tossed the keys to the Camry in Vi's direction. Violet caught them in mid-air. Then Kari stepped out of the driver's seat and onto the curb.

"But Kari," Violet protested, "how will you get home?"

"I'll get a taxicab. Besides, my dad just bought me a new car yesterday."

"Thank you," Vi said in tears. She hugged her friend as she walked off. Then Violet opened the back door of the car and dragged Dash out.

"The spin is rooming," mumbled Dash.

"Oh, no. I am NOT dragging you up two flights of stairs to your bed. You can just sleep in the car tonight!" And with that, Violet shoved her brother back into the car and locked all the doors. Then she started to climb the stairs that led back home when she remembered something: that crazy "Wichard" would probably wake up and kidnap Dash if she left him out there all night. Reluctantly, she reopened the car and lifted her brother up onto her shoulders in a fireman's carry.

Inside apartment 31A, Violet had tucked Dash in for the night and was sitting on the couch watching TV with her feet on the coffee table. Actually, it wasn't a coffee table per se, it was a giant cable spool that they found and were using as a coffee table. But, I digress. She feel asleep in front of the TV, all the while thinking that this apartment was the closest she and Dash would ever come to being homeless.

(A/N: Yea! No more stuff about April 23! I am NEVER going to write so much stuff about a single day ever again! Actually, come to think of it, I probably will, but I SO don't want to. You see the thing is, the way I'm writing this story is unique. I have many abstract ideas buzzing around in my skull, and as I'm writing, I try to put them all in some logical sequence. Does that sound stupid to anyone? Listen to me, I'm babbling about writing and nobody's even reading this part, I'll bet. Okay, I've said enough. Chapter 13 is under way. See ya!)