"All right. Does the super-villain have a name?"
    "A name?" Eclipse looked at Alchemy, who shook her head, "Uhh... Miss Tree."
    "You got it."
    "Oh, and by the way, thanks for your help so much. You bring this off with style and we'll give you an extra personal day this month, I know how hard you work."
    "Love you guys."
    Alchemy gave Eclipse a hard glance, "Did you just offer our non existent secretary time off?"
    "Yeah. I figure a good benefits package is important."
    Alchemy lit a cigarette and sighed.
    They decided as a group that it would be a good idea to get hold of any available information about Sequoia; to that end, they called Scott.

"Excuse me, Mr. Sequoia, could I possibly talk you out of rampaging through the city?" Scott inquired. An inarticulate roar was his only answer. Then the call from the Justice Defenders came through.
    "We need to get everything we can on Sequoia," Eclipse told him. "Do you know anyone who can help?"
    "Ah, good idea," he approved. "Give me a moment, let me dial out on my other line." Having two communications devices built right into his body came in downright handy sometimes. He called his office back in Boston.
    "Hello?" Felix's laconic voice answered.
    "Good morning," Scott chirped.
    The voice sighed faintly. "Hi Scott, how are you?"
    "All right. How are you this morning?"
    "Oh, things have been a little bit hectic. What can I do for you?"
    "Well, I'm currently riding on the shoulders of a giant anthropomorphic redwood that's swimming toward Seattle, and I was wondering if we have anything about Sequoia in the files."
    "Well, that certainly beats the toilet being stopped up and the coffee maker not working. Hold on just a minute."
    "Who is it, my good man?" a second voice inquired in the background.
    "Our ersatz boss."
    "Excellent. How is he doing out there?"
    "Just fine. He's riding on the back of a giant redwood tree."
    "Not THAT giant redwood tree!" Larry exclaimed—dramatically, of course.
    "Oh, you're familiar with Sequoia, are you?" He returned his attention to the phone. "Got the files right here, what do you need?"
    "Anything useful?"
    "Um, he's about 200 feet tall, amazingly, phenomenally strong, used to toss the Great Hunt around... used by a whole bunch of villains during the 1950s. Originally showed up in the 1930s, they think, no one knows where the thing came from or why. Usually it's fairly peace-loving, if it's left alone it just sits there and tries to root."
    "It seems that Phil Chlora, Master of Evil Plant Life—"
    "Hold on, I'll call up the file."
    "—is attempting to use it as a catspaw."
    "He wouldn't be the first... oh, nice headgear," Felix commented.
    "Yeah, it looks like a giant foam rubber Venus fly trap, really."
    "Ooh," was the ex-villain's remark as he scanned down the file. "Tougher than he looks,"
    "He'd almost have to be. Other than his pathological dread of darkness and the fact that he has frankly some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard, anything interesting?"
    "Yeah, he was always a scenery-chewer from what I understand. Mind you, the only one of us who ever did any work with him, was at the very, very edge of his career, Toy Man worked with him once back when he was stopping and this idiot was starting up. Then he went underground for a few years, popped back up again in his perennial, heh, war with this cardboard guy. That's a stupid town. Get out of that town, boss," Felix suggested. "Do you have a fax there, a modem line, something so I can send this information?"
    "One second, let me check the other line." He conferred with the Justice Defenders, got the number and passed it on to Felix.
    "OK, I'll send the whole thing over to you. And Phoenix is acting like a bozo and strutting around the town again, and I think there's been another gang infestation," he added.
    "So, no real difference, then?"
    "No, pretty much par for the course."
    "OK. Thank you kindly."
    "No problem. You have yourself a nice day and have fun with the giant redwood tree. Oh, and should we call the plumber?"
    "Well, I don't really use the thing, but I suppose you do, so yes."
    "OK. He says go ahead with the plumber," Felix relayed.
    "Well thank god for that!" Larry exclaimed.
    "I'm sorry, we needed confirmation." That was Stephanie.
    "You work for us as well," he reminded her.
    "But he's the real—" Click.
    So, things hadn't changed back at the office.
    "Do you guys want me to stay with the giant redwood?" he asked the others. "Or do you think we can find it again?"
    "Well, that depends on whether or not Phil's going to make an appearance somewhere and try to get it to do something," Eclipse said.
    "Then I will lurk inconspicuously amongst its branches," he agreed cheerfully.

The others returned to headquarters. It only took four tries to get the correct code through the security system, because it was using the code from three months ago rather than the one for the current month, but that wasn't bad, really. At least the door did open this time.
    There was no secretary, nor was the fax number she had given Eclipse to give to Scott in existence.
    There were, however, neatly stacked piles of fax paper full of information, and a message from John Smith of Henchmen, Inc., a wad of chewing gum stuck underneath a chair and several gum packets in the garbage. The coffee, which had been percolating for about sixteen hours now, no longer bore any resemblance to the original beverage.
    "Apparently your ghost has started answering the phone," Scott observed placidly when apprised of this situation by Eclipse.

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