A Series of Incredible Events
Fourteen-year-old Violet sighed. She was not was not particularly enjoying her day at the beach with her young brother and her other infant sibling. As the eldest of the three children, it seemed she was always being asked to take responsibility for them. This morning, their mother had seemed particularly anxious to get them out of the way. They had decided to go by trolley to the beach, which had very few people on this foggy day.
Violet was trying to amuse herself by skipping rocks across the murky water. She picked up a small, flat stone and threw it as hard as she could with her right hand. Unexpectedly, it disappeared in mid-air without hitting the water at all!
"Dash!" Violet said sharply. "Did you do that?"
"Heh-heh. What?" said her brother Dash, dropping a small, flat stone behind him.
Violet blasted out a small purple force-field ball at Dash, who used his super-speed running ability to dodge easily.
Baby Jack-Jack gurgled with amusement. Unlike his two siblings he had not yet manifested any super-powers. (His mother had once noticed four deep puncture marks in the side of his metal crib, but she had attributed that to a defect in the crib rather than the baby's response to a nightmare.)
If you are interested in stories with happy endings, I suggest that you immediately exit this page and look elsewhere. Few happy things will occur in the lives of the Parr children from this point on. Although they all had charming facial features and possessed super-powers, the Parrs were extremely unlucky and everything that happened to them was rife with misery and despair.
Out of the fog surrounding the beach came striding a man with a sad face and a large nose. The children recognized him as Mr. Rick Poe, a government agent who had helped the family to relocate on several occasions when their father had blown their cover.
"I'm afraid I have bad news for you children," Poe said. "Your parents have both disappeared and your house has burned to the ground. I'm going to have to relocate you with a new guardian."
"No! No! No!" said Dash, rushing up to Poe. "You've got it wrong. Dad is on a business trip."
"Mother went to check up on him," said Violet. "She said he was either in trouble, or he was going to be. Dash and I were going to tag along, but we couldn't find a babysitter for Jack-Jack in time so we changed our minds. I'm sure they're both all right..."
"I doubt it," said Poe glumly. "Your father has a reputation for getting himself into trouble. He's not as strong and fit as he was in his younger days. In any case, the government has to assume the worst when a super's home is suddenly incinerated."
"Our house burned up?" said Dash in a shocked voice. "Our rooms, all our stuff...?"
"Gone," said Poe. "I was going to relocate you again after your father blew his cover at the insurance company and lost his job. I should have done it. An old enemy must have caught up with him."
"Blew his cover?" asked Dash.
"Lost his job?" asked Violet.
"Gaaah?" asked Jack-Jack.
"That happened months ago," said Poe. "You didn't know?"
"No!" Violet and Dash said together, suddenly feeling very shaky.
"Never mind that now," said Poe. "I have to relocate you for your own safety. Budget cuts have reduced funding for our agency, but fortunately there's a wealthy government contractor who is willing to become your guardian."
"Who is it?" asked Dash.
"He bought himself a title from some little European country," said Poe. "Everyone calls him Count Buddy."