Dateline: Tuesday, July 7, 1981, 1:30 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

While Violet was percolating in her cell, Dash led the rest of the team to the sheriff's office. When they found it, Sheriff Baker was inside, with an open bottle of bourbon on his desk, and crying his eyes out. They were all astonished; it's not natural to see such a large man in such an emotional state.

"Sir," said Dash in a no-nonsense tone of voice, "we believe you have an innocent woman in your custody."

"I know I do," James sobbed, "and I'm so sorry!" Then he started bawling again. He reached for the liquor, but Kim snatched it away from his grasp.

"Isn't it a little early for you to be drinking?" she asked. While the bottle was in her hand, Kim took a little sniff of it. Then she took a little swig herself.

"Don't you start too," said José as he grabbed the booze from Kim and dumped it in the garbage.

"Sir," said Ashley, "if you know that she's innocent, why don't you just let her go?"

"I can't," he answered. "We need solid evidence of her innocence before we can release her."

"We've got solid evidence!" Dash screamed. "Wait, what's she charged with?"

"Armed robbery of the Central Bank of Metroville, on the night of July 6, 1981," said James.

"July 6?" said José. "We were all in Europe that day! There's no way Violet could have done it!"

"I know, but we can't use that as evidence!" Barker moaned.

"Why not?"

"Because the information about your mission is classified; it can't be released to the general public."

"But the mission's over! Why isn't it declassified yet?"

"We can't declassify it until after an official debriefing, and then we have to wait another 48 hours, and by then it will be too late!"

"So there's nothing we can do?"

"Even if the data wasn't classified, it wouldn't refute the tape."

"Whoa!" said Dash. "You have a tape of Violet robbing the bank?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Let's have a look at it. I'll bet there's something wrong with it that will completely exonerate my sister!"

"Hey, Dash," said Ashley, "since when do you know what 'exonerate' means?"

"Shut up!"

The fractured Alpha Force followed the sheriff into the evidence room. There, he cued up the tape from the bank's security camera. Since Ashley couldn't see the tape, Kim had to describe it to her.

They saw someone enter on the left side of the frame. This person looked an awful lot like Violet, but they all knew that it wasn't. They couldn't, however, prove this. The person in the tape was wearing what appeared to be a copy of Violet's super suit, except where the team logo was supposed to be there was a strange symbol they couldn't identify.

As they tape continued, they saw the Violet impersonator pull out a gun and start waving it around. She pulled out a very large bag and handed it to the teller. She stuck the gun in his face, obviously telling him to empty the register. The teller did as he was told. Once she had the cash, the anti-Violet turned invisible and sprinted for the door. When the tape finished, the supers were all agog.

"Wait a minute!" said Dash. "Run the tape back!"

"To where?" asked the sheriff.

"To where the robber turned invisible." James cued up the tape and they saw that part again.

"What is it? Did you see something?" asked José.

"No," Dash said dejectedly. "I thought I did. Whoever this is has a genuine power of invisibility. The only problem is there's only one person on the planet with that power, and that's old short stuff."

"I thought Violet didn't like to be called that, Dash," Ashley pointed out.

"Well, do you see Violet here now? Wait, don't answer that." Dash had forgotten for a moment that she was blind.

"Short stuff?" Kim wondered outloud. "THAT'S IT! Sir, run the tape back to the part where the robber enters the bank."

James did. At the moment when the anti-Violet entered, Kim paused the tape. "See?"

"See what?" asked the men.

"Look right here, on the side of the doorway. What do you see?"

"It's a ruler," said James. "They stick them there so the tellers can see how tall a robber is as he runs for it."

"Precisely! Now, look again. What do you see?"

José squinted to get a better view. "Hmm. This woman is at least six feet tall."

"But Violet is only five foot four!" Dash shouted. "No way that was my sister!"

"Wait!" said Ashley. "Didn't the robber turn invisible? Didn't the robber look just like Violet?"

"Yeah, but the eight inch height difference means that it couldn't possibly be her!"

"And I believe that, but what I want to know is: if the woman in the tape isn't our leader, then who, or what, is it?"

"It's not Violet, but a cheap clone of her, created to destroy her reputation," said a stranger whom the others couldn't see. They whipped around looking for the one who spoke.

"Who are you?" asked James. "Show yourself!"

A blonde man stepped out of the shadows. By the scar over his left eye, Dash recognized him right away.

"The Wicked Wichard!"

"Not anymore, I'm not," he said. "Since I lost my magic, I'm not a wizard, and I'm not so wicked. Call me Loren, okay?"

"Okay, Loren," said Kim, "you've got a lot of explaining to do. You don't have to be a magician to figure out what questions I want answered, so start talking!"

Loren sighed. "Okay, the reason I became a stripper was that it was…"

"No, not that, you idiot! How do you know that the woman in the video is a clone of Violet?"

"Oh, that. My mother made her. I watched her do it."

"But how?"

"She used magic, duh!"

"You mean," said Dash, "your mother is a witch?"

"Yes, and I'll explain everything in full detail later. Right now, shouldn't we be getting Violet out from behind bars?"

"Oh, yeah, right!" The six of them (including Loren) raced back to Violet's cell. Once there, the sheriff opened it up.

"You're free, Vi," said Dash, "all the charges are dropped!"

"Oh, thank you guys," she exulted, but then she caught sight of Loren Kriznek. Then she remembered what Futureboy had told her earlier. "Hello, Loren," she said without emotion.

"Listen, Pyth, er, I mean, Violet, I'm sorry that I tried to kill you and your friends last April. I want to help you guys with what's coming up ahead."

"You're forgiven," Violet said, "but what is coming up ahead?"

"Get comfortable," said Loren, "this is going to be a long story."

(A/N: I think I'd better stop here. I hope this will be the climax of the story, when all the hidden things are laid open for all to see. Everything will make sense soon, or maybe it won't, I'm not sure. Until next time, review!)