Dateline: Thursday, July 9, 1981, 2:05 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.

When last we left our favorite team of five supers, plants under the command of Harriet Kriznek, the Witch Queen, had four of them tied up. Only Liquegirl could save them, but she had fallen and couldn't get up. It was thirty minutes or so later that the squishy super was finally able to stand on her own two feet. Then, with the help of her TAG glove, she could transfer her powers to her teammates, so that they could slip right out.

"All right, now, let's get that witch!" Python said.

"Wait!" Liquegirl protested. "I've been thinking about this, and I don't think we have to kill her after all!"

"What do you mean?"

"If we can neutralize her magic, all her active spells will be broken, including the one on Loren. So, what we need is peanut oil."

"Remember, her magic is the strongest in the world," Heartthrob pointed out.

"So?"

"So, we're going to need a lot more peanut oil." He laughed at his own lame joke.

"Are you sure this plan is going to work, dear?" asked Rocket.

"No, but it's the best I could come up with."

"But, Kim," said Blind Tracy, "what if your plan doesn't work?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. If we get to it, that is."

"All right, José, we'll use your speed and these gloves to get to Atlantic Avenue while Dash gets the peanut oil." Python handed Rocket a fistful of bucks. "Oh, and Dash, don't get the biggest size there is, like you did last time, okay?"

"What? I only got the one-liter bottle!"

"Of cough syrup?"

Everybody laughed.

Rocket sped away. Heartthrob grabbed Python's hand with his glove, TAGing her. Python then TAGed Liquegirl, who TAGed Blind Tracy. The four of them took off running. Within three minutes, they were at the doorstep of 5772 Atlantic Avenue. Loren was just outside.

"Oh, so you guys decided to help me after all? Thank you!"

"Yeah," Liquegirl interrupted, "thank us later, when we win. Now Loren, I need to know something, will peanut oil neutralize your mother's magic?"

"Yes, yes it would! Why didn't I think of that? That's genius!"

"Yeah, thanks, is she inside?"

Loren nodded. The team rushed inside to face Harriet Kriznek for (hopefully) the last time. They found her frantically searching the kitchen cabinets.

"Where's the damn nutmeg?" she screeched. "I need that nutmeg to produce a new batch of MagiClones…"

"(patent pending)!" Python finished.

The Witch Queen whirled around at the sound of her voice. "Hmm. Thirty-five minutes to escape. With your reputations, I was expecting something a little more impressive. No matter, I learned my lesson: never assume that a superhero is dead. Now, where's Rocket? Is he dead?"

"My brother's location is none of your concern, madam!"

Just then, Rocket showed up.

"Hey guys, I couldn't find the peanut oil, so I got corn oil instead, will that do?"

Python rolled her eyes. "No, that won't do! Now take this back and get peanut oil!"

"But the store you sent me to doesn't carry peanut oil!"

"Which store is it, the Winn-Dixie on Ventnor?" asked Harriet.

"No, it's the Piggly-Wiggly on 16th Street," Rocket answered.

"Oh, they have peanut oil, but you won't find it with the oil, it's on aisle 9 with the peanut products."

"Okay, thanks." Rocket sped away again.

"Wait," the Witch Queen said, "what the hell just happened here?"

It was all Python could do to keep from laughing out loud. Everyone else, on the other hand, was laughing himself or herself silly. Soon, she couldn't resist it any longer and started laughing too.

"Stop laughing at me!" Harriet screamed. But the supers didn't stop laughing. "It's not funny!" she insisted.

"Actually," Heartthrob said between laughs, "it is!"

"Oh, that does it!" the Witch Queen bellowed. "It's high time I took you guys down a peg!" She stuck her hands out and began to hum. Her entire body emitted that same old blue magical glow. Only then did the team stop laughing. Well, actually, Blind Tracy didn't stop laughing right away, she only stopped when she realized that nobody else was laughing.

"What is she doing?" she asked.

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure we're not going to like it!" said Python.

Harriet fired a large orb of magical energy directly at Heartthrob, the closest super to her. There was a small explosion, like the kind that comes from matter and anti-matter annihilation. He fell over backward, hitting his head against a table, hard.

"What in the world? I thought we were immune to her magic!"

"You girls are, for now!" the witch explained. "But your Latino friend has just had his anti-magic shield fried! I bet you didn't know that magic is also anti-anti-magic!"

"Anti-anti-magic?" Liquegirl asked sarcastically. "Make that name up yourself, did you?"

"You shut your mouth!" Harriet released another orb of blue light from her hand, which turned the now vulnerable Heartthrob into a rock. As you can imagine, the others were a little disheartened by this little debacle.

"Okay," Python said with a small crack in her voice, "anybody got any bright ideas?"

"Yeah," said Liquegirl, "hide!" She ducked behind her respected leader, who turned herself invisible, thus revealing the one hiding behind her. "Violet!" she yelled before running off to find a new hiding place. Blind Tracy was left standing alone in the den.

"Um, guys? Come on; don't leave me here all by myself! Oh, Lord, it's that field trip to the zoo all over again!" She wasn't really bugging out; she was just lulling the Witch Queen into a false sense of security. Okay, so maybe she was a little creeped out, but wouldn't you be? Anyway, Blind Tracy could sense Harriet coming up behind her, preparing to cast her spell. Mentally, she grabbed the witch's hand and pointed it right back into her own face.

"Go ahead," she challenged, "cast a spell. See what happens!"

"Did you forget that I have another hand?"

"Yeah, I did, actually, but thanks for reminding me!"

"D'oh!" The Witch Queen was ashamed of her big mistake. Now she had both her arms trapped by the finger-less grip of Blind Tracy's telekinesis. She tried to shake herself free; because she thought it would work like before.

"Oh, no, you don't!" the sightless super shouted. She doubled up her grip, and lifted the witch off the ground. She bound her legs too, so that she couldn't move at all.

"Put me down!" Harriet demanded.

"Okey-dokey!" Blind Tracy answered in her best innocent voice. She oriented the witch so that she was parallel to the floor and facing downward.

"No, wait!" she protested, but it was too late. Blind Tracy had already released her to the will of gravity.

THUD

"I hate comedy fights," she muttered.

From behind the couch, Liquegirl saw the whole thing. "Hey, boss, I think our red-haired friend has the witch under control," she said into her radio.

"Good."

"All right, I'm pretty sure that she won't willingly ingest the peanut oil, so we're going to have to open up a wound on her body. Got your sword?"

"No, I left it at home, like an idiot!"

"Okay, this is not a problem," Liquegirl assured Python. "We'll have to improvise. Can you make it to the kitchen drawers?"

"No problem! Python out."

Still invisible, Python quietly crept into the kitchen. She started to search the drawers for a knife.

But Harriet had sharp eyes. When she noticed the kitchen drawers opening and closing seemingly by themselves, she began to suspect something was up. She shook herself more violently than ever before, hoping that the blind psychic wouldn't be able to keep up. Once she got a hand free, she zapped her opponent's anti-magic shield. The force exerted on Blind Tracy caused her to drop Harriet. Once free, the witch wasted no time in turning poor Ashley Cohen into a paperweight.

Uh, oh, Python thought. She had seen this in her peripheral vision.

"All right, Python," wheezed the elderly woman, "I know you're there! Now why don't you show yourself already?"

Per her wishes, Python became visible. She spun around and held a butcher knife aloft.

"Hey, be careful with that! Wouldn't want anybody to get hurt, now, would we?"

"Be careful with what?" Python asked. "Oh, did you mean this?" She waved the knife around. The Witch Queen followed the tip of the blade with very nervous eyes.

Python lunged at her, and she stepped back. She managed to back Harriet up against the wall. She lifted the blade and prepared to strike, but the Witch Queen countered with her magic. Python knew this would destroy her anti-magic barrier, so she quickly dropped the blade, hoping against all hope that it would cut her opponent. The miraculous thing was that it did! Harriet screeched, then seethed as she examined the spot where the blade had struck her. Purple witch's blood came forth from the open wound.

Excellent, Liquegirl thought, still in hiding, all we need now is for Dash to get back with that peanut oil.

Python scrambled to her feet. She knew that the Witch Queen's next move would be to turn her into some inanimate object, like she did Heartthrob and Blind Tracy. Not wanting that to happen, she turned invisible again and waited quietly.

"Come out, come out, wherever you aren't!" Harriet coaxed. Python delivered a few punches to the enemy, escaping retaliation just in time, so that she couldn't pinpoint her location.

While Python kept the Witch Queen busy, Liquegirl sloshed her way to the front door and squeezed her head through the keyhole to see if her husband had returned yet. She saw him on the front lawn talking with Loren.

"Dash! What are you doing? We need that peanut oil!"

"Sorry, hon, but Loren here was doing something, I asked…"

"I don't want to hear it, just get in here, now!" Just then, she felt a sharp pain in her side and a strong force pushing her to the right. She made her discomfort quite apparent as she unwillingly pulled her head out of the door. She hit the wall with a loud splat!

As Liquegirl later found out, the cause of pain and the push was Harriet, annihilating her anti-magic shield. Once her shield was down, the witch froze her in a block of solid ice.

"Why don't you just chill out here for a minute?" she joked.

At that moment, Rocket burst in, peanut oil of death in hand. "All right, you! Your moment of truth has come!"

"I highly doubt that it would be wise of you to make threats, Mr. Rocket. Look around at your defeated teammates!" She pointed out that Kim was a Popsicle, Ashley was a paperweight, and José was a rock.

"So?" said Rocket.

"So? So, all I have to do is find your sister, and Alpha Force is as good as history!"

At this point, Rocket had an idea. "Yeah, I guess your right, especially since my sister is such a lousy superhero."

"What?" Python shouted, turning visible.

Rocket winked his eye, telling his sister that the time had come for "The Move".

"I said, you are a sucky superhero!"

"You're one to talk! Your only power is running away from the enemy!"

"Or, am I running toward them? You forgot that, didn't you, short stuff?"

"You know how much I hate it when you call me that!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, short stuff; did I offend your short stuff, short stuff?"

"At least I didn't have to wear diapers until I was six!"

Rocket gasped. This wasn't part of "The Move," but he tap-danced around it.

"I thought we agreed not to speak of that ever again!" he said.

"We did, but I had my fingers crossed!" answered Python.

"See! You proved my point! You blow at hero work, because you have no moral fiber!"

"I have no moral fiber? This, from the kid who went trick-or-treating without a costume…at age seventeen!"

"Yeah, well, at least I don't smoke!" Rocket spat.

"Neither do I!"

"Really?" Rocket reached into Python's super suit, despite her pleas to "get your hands off me!" He pulled out a crumbled cardboard box about the size of a deck of cards. "What are these?" he asked knowingly.

"They're not mine!" Python insisted. "I'm holding them for a friend!"

"Which friend?"

"Umm…Smitty?"

"LIAR!"
"How do you know?"

"You told me he only likes Lucky Strike, and these are Marlboro's!"

Python winked, suggesting that they complete "The Move." Rocket winked back in agreement.

"All right, they are mine, but what does it matter?" Python shouted. "We have a job to do right now, and arguing won't get it done!"

"Fine, but let the record show that I proved my point!" Rocket answered, shoving his sister for emphasis.

"Fine!" Python said, slapping him.

"Fine!" Rocket said, slapping her back.

"Fine!" they said at the same time. Then, also simultaneously, they punched old Harriet Kriznek right in the jaw. The witch went down like a felled tree. She never saw it coming.

"Quick, the oil!" Python shouted. Rocket splashed the peanut oil he was still holding onto the Witch Queen. Some of it fell onto her open wound.

"AAAAAAH!" She stood up straight and grabbed her arm, where her cut was. "It burns, it burns!" She looked and the wound once more and gasped in horror as her blood rapidly changed from purple to red. "No! Nooooooo!"

While this was happening, Blind Tracy, Heartthrob, and Liquegirl all returned to their normal forms. The house rapidly fell into a sorry state of disrepair. Most of the furniture vanished. And to top it off, Harriet's clothes became rags.

"You cursed brats!" she spat, "look what you've done! I'm ruined!"
"No, you're normal," Python pointed out, "just like your son. Oh, that reminds me!" She poked her head out of what was left of the front door. "Loren, it's done! The curse on you has been lifted, you can move out now!"

"What?" the (former) Witch Queen asked. She went out onto the front lawn to talk with her son. "You did this? You asked them to disenchant me, so you could move out?"

"No, I asked them to kill you, but this works too!"

"But why?"

"Because I don't want to be a 35 year old man who still lives with his mother!"

"Oh, well that's reasonable. Why didn't you say so seventeen years ago, I would have let you go!"

"Huh? But what about the hex, and the bursting into flames thing?"

"There was never a hex! I never placed one! I just said all that stuff because I was upset, I didn't use magic! You could have moved away at any time!"

Everybody groaned.

"Loren! You put us through all that grief for nothing!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't know! I was so sure!"

"Come on," Heartthrob said, "let's get out of here." The rest of the team agreed.

Using Rocket's speed and the TAG gloves, they rushed back to the intersection where they left the Alphamobile…only to discover that it wasn't there.

"Please don't tell me that our car got towed again!" Python said.

"Our car got towed again," said Liquegirl.

"I told you not to tell me that!"

"First, we get shipped to Europe on a fraudulent mission, then we have to fight our own clones, then we kick a witch to the curb for no reason at all, and now this!" Rocket fumed. "This week's gone all to hell!"

"Hey, it wasn't all bad!" said Liquegirl, "what about our wedding?"

"Oh, whoopee, one bright spot in a week of udder misery…" Rocket saw that he had hurt his wife's feelings. "…Uh, I mean, umm, I love you?"

"Nice save, brother," Heartthrob commented. "So, how are we supposed to get home now?"

Just as soon as he did, who should happen by but Kari McKean?

"Hey, Violet!" she said. "What have you been up to? I haven't seen you in three months!"

"Funny you should ask…"

(A/N: How was that for a twist ending? It was such a surprise, I didn't even see it coming! I probably shouldn't have said that that was an ending, because I'm not done yet. I've still got three more chapters left, and they're not going to be boring filler. At least, I hope they won't be. Until next time, review!)