Dateline: Thursday, April 23, 1981, 5:32 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

Violet panicked when she discovered that her friendly cab was not so friendly after all. And what really added terror to her fear, if that were possible, was that her abductor had called her by her codename. How could he have known that? Where was he taking her? And who was he anyway? What she didn't realize until it was too late was that she asked all these questions aloud.

"You ask many questions, Python," said the evil cabbie, "questions whose answers you do not need to know." When he said that, he pulled what looked like a gas mask over his face. Thinking quickly, Violet reached for her wristwatch and pushed a different button just as the car filled up with an anesthetic gas. She tried to engage her captor in combat, but when she breathed in the gas, she slept the sleep of the drugged.

Back at Alpha Force's apartment at 1517 Oriental Avenue, Dash was taking a power nap when his watch went off, waking him up. He didn't realize what was going on until the watch's alarm beeped out an SOS. That could only mean that Violet was in serious trouble. He tried to contact his sister by the watch's two-way radio.

"Python, this is Rocket, come in, over!"

No response.

He dropped to his knees and prayed for strength, that he might find his sister and save her from certain death. Then he got up and put in a call to the sheriff.

"Chief, Alpha Force has a situation, sir!"

"Let me guess, Python has been abducted and you need me to use the tracking device in her watch so you can find her."

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"Never mind that. We have her location, she's in some sort of automobile, heading south on Marina Drive."

"The pier!" Dash made a quick change into his suit and ran as fast as he could to the docks of Metroville. He didn't realize that he forgot to put on his helmet!

When Violet woke up, she discovered that her feet were dangling just inches above the water! She wiggled and squirmed trying to break free of whatever it was that was holding her in place. But with every motion, something tugged at her extremely long hair. Then she realized what was going on: someone had hung her above the river by her own hair.

It must have been that cab driver, she thought. Oh well, I was due for a trim anyway.

Just then, Dash showed up. Violet was both surprised and exasperated to see her brother standing there without his helmet, the protector of his identity! But she was more than happy to see him there than to face this predicament all by herself.

"Dash! Thank God you've come!"

"Oh, Violet. I always imagined that the only way I could get you to cut your hair was if your life depended on it, and here you are!" Dash couldn't keep himself from laughing. Violet, however, was not amused.

"Are you finished?" she said in her standard issue smart-aleck voice.

"Just a minute…Ha, ha, ha…Okay, now I'm done."

Dash started to climb the beam that held up the plank from which Violet was dangling. He managed to get onto the horizontal beam when he realized something.

"Oh, damn!"

"What is it?" Violet asked.

"I can't cut you down from there."

"Why not? Are you afraid of heights or something?"

"No, I don't have a blade with me."

"No problem," said Violet, and she projected a force field in the shape of a knife where Dash could see it.

"Cool! I didn't know you could make your force fields different shapes!"

"Yeah, neither did I! I just found out today at work."

"All right!" Dash then proceeded to climb out onto the beam where his sister was dangling. He managed to make it to a spot where he could work, but he couldn't reach the knife that Violet was making. "Hey, Vi, could you please bring the knife a little higher?" Violet dispersed the knife and reformed it high enough for Dash to reach. He grabbed the knife, but then had a question. "Are you sure this thing can cut?"

"Believe me, I've tried it, and it works!" Dash, feeling a little more confident, started to work cutting Violet's long hair. He didn't get far before his sister had a complaint of her own. "Wait!"

"What is it, short stuff?"

"Is there any wa…hey! You know I hate it when you call me that!"

"Oh, Violet! You're 5'4", you have been for 9 years, and you always will be! Get over it already!"

Violet snorted. "As I was saying, is there any way you could get me out of here that doesn't involve me landing in the river?"

"There must be. Whoever it was that got you up here did so without standing on the water, that's for sure." Dash began to think deeply. "They probably laid your body out across this beam, tied your hair to it, then dropped you over the edge so you would dangle like this."

"Well, is there anyway you could pull me back up there?"

Dash looked crossly at his sister from his perch. "You WANT me to pull your hair?"

"Never mind, I'll just pull myself up." She tried to reach for the crossbeam, but she couldn't reach; her hair was just too freaking long. "All right, let's just get this over with."

Dash set back to work. When he got down to the last few stands of hair, he said to Violet, "Uh, you might want to hold your breath, sis!"

"I hate water!" Violet mumbled before she plugged up her nose and shut her mouth.

"TIMBER!" And with that, the very last strand of her hair was cut, dropping her into the river with a very big splash! When she landed, her concentration was broken, causing the knife to vanish. She did eventually resurface, praise God. After this, Dash jumped into the river feet first.

"Hey, Dash," said Violet, "did you notice that you forgot your helmet?"

"What? Oh, perfect."

"Now everyone you saw you this way is going to know who Rocket is."

"No problem, I know how to fix this!"

Violet was intrigued by Dash's confidence. "How can you fix this?"

"Easy. I'll get a new suit, and then Rocket will tell everyone that he got it before this incident."

"Oh, get real, Dash, who's going to believe that?"

"You'd be surprised!"

Upset and tired, the brethren of Alpha Force began to walk back home. When they got there, who should be waiting for them but-surprise-Mr. Von Braun?

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Parr's, Violet and Dash. Nice Rocket costume, but you forgot the helmet, Dash."

"I'm aware of that, Mr. Von Braun!"

"So, can I assume that you have your overdue rent money, Miss Parr?"

"I just got paid today, sir. I just need to go to the bank and cash my check, and I will pay you your deuce."

"See that you do, Violet. Remember, pay the rent late, and you get kicked out early!"

"Words to live by, Mr. Von Braun," said Dash as he and his sister re-entered apartment 31A.

(A/N: Okay, I think I need to stop here for now. This chapter was growing so long! Now I'm well aware that you guys are wondering what the item was that Dash ordered from Mirage. I will tell you in the next chapter, I promise! Chapter 10 in under construction! See you next week, same Alpha time, same Alpha channel!)