Dateline: Wednesday, July 8, 1981, 12:22 PM, Pacific Daylight Time
"Hey, Violet," said Smitty. "So, how'd the operation go?"
"It went well," she said. "I'm 100 percent."
"Good. Oh, did you hear what happened to Jenkins?"
"No, what?"
"Somebody leaked to Mr. Black that she was stealing paper from the copier."
"No way!" Violet said in mock surprise. "Who would do such a thing?"
"She told me that you did it. But that's not true, is it?"
"Well, I didn't tell him per se, I just might have casually mentioned to Mr. Black that Sarah told me not to tell him something." She added a sly wink at the end.
"Oh, Vi, that's diabolical! You're an evil genius!"
Smitty intended that to be a compliment, but he wasn't aware that the term 'evil genius' was the complete antithesis of what Violet really was. She grabbed him by the collar and ordered him to take it back. Not wanting to be beat up by a girl, Smitty retracted his comment. Presently, Jenkins stepped up to the water cooler where they were.
"Violet," she said without emotion.
"Sarah," was the response.
"Oh, I just remembered, I have work to do!" Smitty excused himself. The two women refused to look each other in the eye.
"So, Mr. Black found out I was stealing paper from the copier."
"Yeah, I heard."
Sarah cleared her throat. "There's a rumor going around that you told him."
"Who, me? I would never tell him that!"
Sarah narrowed her eyes at Violet. "Don't give me that, Parr, I know it was you!"
"Oh, well, if you know so much, why'd you do it in the first place?"
"That's none of your concern, little Miss Nosy. But what is your concern…is this!"
Sarah flipped a lever that clearly had been placed there this morning. It started a ball bearing rolling down a chute. Violet followed the chute and saw that at the end of it was a domino chain. Sarah had set up a Rube Goldberg device of sorts, the upshot of which was the depositing of some unknown substance all over Vi's cube.
"My desk!" she screamed. Violet quickly rushed to grab all the personal things off her desk (photos, her Rubik's Cube, action figures of her parents, etc.). She managed to evacuate her cubicle just seconds before the chain reaction was complete. Her desk, her files, her chair, everything she didn't grab was covered in old cheese.
"Ha!" Violet shouted triumphantly. "Everything you destroyed was company property! Face!"
Just then, Mr. Black happened by. He noticed the very large mess in Violet's cube. After all, how could he not? He looked at the two women.
"She did it!" they said at the same time, pointing at each other.
"Oh, yeah, this is what I need. I spent the whole day just hoping I would see my employees acting like three-year-olds, and wouldn't you know it? Here you are!"
"Mr. Black, you have to believe me, the whole thing was set up by Jenkins here!"
"Jenkins, is this true?"
"No, sir!" she lied, "I've been working all day."
"Then where are those advertising reports I asked you to do this morning?"
"I, uh, haven't exactly finished them yet, sir."
"Well, how far along are you?"
"I, uh, haven't exactly started them yet, sir."
"No? Then what the hell have you been doing all day, Sarah?"
Sarah said nothing.
"Don't you think you should get on the stick, Jenkins? You wouldn't want to make me unhappy, now, would you?"
"Yes, sir, right away, sir!" Sarah left.
"And as for you, Parr, if I were you, I'd think about putting in a little overtime to make up for those lost wages. You can start by cleaning up this mess."
"But, sir, I…"
"Unless you'd rather work in a mess, of course. But, you don't, do you?"
"No, sir."
"Then get moving!" Mr. Black turned and left.
Violet groaned in agony. None of this was her fault, yet she was being punished for it. She should have told Mr. Black off; she would have been in the right. But the big cheese was right, the overtime pay was more important to her than being right. She got a mop from the janitor and started scrubbing. By one o'clock, she had finished the floor. She was just about to start on her desk when her watch went off.
Oh, this is good timing! She thought. Okay, what to do? Do I save the world or do I get back to work? If I don't do this, I might get fired. If I don't dress out, the city could get destroyed. Hmm, not exactly a trick question.
She ducked into the fourth floor ladies room and spoke into the radio.
"Python reporting,"
"This is Papa Bear," came the response. "Papa Bear" was the sheriff's codename for use on the radio. "I've got a contact on the line who needs to speak with you, Python."
"Who is it?"
"It's our informant concerning those evil clones."
"Put him through."
"Violet, listen, I've got some bad news," said Loren.
"What?"
"My mother found out I was holding Omega Force back, so she wrested control back from me, and she's preparing to use them."
"Good, because we're finally ready for them. Give me the coordinates."
"The strike will be at the Lone Oak Mall, in about an hour."
"Roger. Alert the rest of the team, I've got something else I need to take care of. Python out."
Violet cleaned off an area on her desk then stuck a Post-it™ to it. On the note, she wrote "Sorry I couldn't stay and finish, sir, but my other duties called me away, again." She didn't say what those duties were, for fear someone else might read it and put two and two together. Then she ducked into the women's changing room to dress out. As Python, she drove back home to pick up her sword. When she got there, she found the rest of the team already in costume and ready to go.
"About time!" Liquegirl said. "It's going to take us a half an hour to get there! Now hand over the keys!"
"What are you talking about?" Rocket asked. "Python's the leader, so she gets to drive!"
"No, no," said Python, "Your wife and I had an agreement, she'll drive from now on."
"Then I call shotgun!" said Rocket.
"Fine, whatever, let's just get in the car and go!"
And that's what they did.
(A/N: Look alive, you guys! The action's finally picking up again! And just when you thought this story was dying, too! Sorry, I won't be able to update much in the near future; I've got a lot of schoolwork to do.)