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«» No Incredible Family - Chapter One «»
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VIOLET PARR — MURDERER — DARK SECRET OF INVISIBLE REVEALED
That was the headline all of the adult Parrs feared and one they all dreaded to be true. Helen knew though that her husband and their father would do all that had to be done to bring the girl to her senses. In truth Elastigirl felt more afraid of the storm and the fight that was going to break out at home tonight than almost any other of the encounters that she'd seen in her dramatic life but it was a drama that had to be. For all that: if she had known the deadly drama it was going to turn out to be and the disasters it would ultimately lead to even as a wife and a mother she might have sent Violet off for adoption at that very moment.
Helen took a long, deep, deep breath and counted to a hundred as the whole house shook roughly; her darling husband was home and, though she loved him truly, greatly, deeply, she still wished that he'd rein back his strength when he had a rage on him. She knew what this was about all too well enough but that wasn't going to make it any the easier. Most of the family knew what it was about in fact and that most definitely hadn't made things any easier. It wasn't just Violet's body-count that was the problem it was that Bob Parr had seen his girl in action. He'd rung home to say so and to say he'd be having more than a few words with his daughter about how every villain she got near seemed to earn a tombstone. Dash simply hadn't let up with his teasing …
« Who's going to be in big trooooubbbble when dad gets home. »
Till Violet was fit to murder him and Helen didn't even want to begin to think how likely a prospect that was.
One thing she knew about her hubby: he was always straight to the point and the point today was what the kids had been up to in town: nothing at all the kind of thing other parents had to worry over of course ... their little treasures didn't ever suit-up and break out an array of superpowers to fight crime and mayhem. They'd done quite well by themselves today in fact and she really was proud of them. It had been a minor incident, not a natural catastrophe or even any kind of a superfoe; just some ordinary, human villains but a lot of them, with heavy firepower, plenty of innocent bystanders and all boxed indoors.
Dashiell and Violet, or Dash and Invisible when costumed, had taken out the entire gang all by their ownsome with only one, tiny piece of property damage, no harm to any bystanders or themselves and a hundred percent clean-up rate. By all accounts they'd left to spontaneous applause from everybody who'd been there, except the villains of course and a particular handful of those villains especially. That was the sore spot … the gangsters that Invisible had faced and the harm that had come to them. It is just this which has Daddy Incredible thundering at his own girl right now: the damage she'd done to the poor, ickle, wickle, cwiminals.
He'd been the one who'd insisted every individual on the team had enough legal nous to know how to keep on Supering within the law or — as he had put it:
« They packed us away once; never again! »
Helen had to agree with him there. The kicker was that the Supers still hadn't the legal immunity that actions by the other Emergency Services had and wasn't that all that they were ... one other Emergency Service in fancy dress? The one cast iron defence they had was to show that they had acted in self-defence; not that (in the real world) you'd actually want to wait for the knife to be stuck in your gut before you hit back.
Unless you were Violet that was; she was always the awkward one who the villains got that lethal edge over. It had to be pure bad luck on the girl and on her assailants; Helen surely hoped so; as she flinched at the suspicions that lurked in the deeps of her own mind. Was it possible that Invisible, that Violet would juggle events until she was in a trap and had a cast-iron alibi for fighting back against her enemies and fighting back so hard that they were immobilised, incapacitated or … in a pine box.
Violet, the Invisble Girl, had had to go from a standing start to giving a hundred and ten per cent when they'd faced off against Syndrome and she had struggled so hard to make the grade; with all her insecurities piled on top of her she hadn't just been fighting Syndrome ... she'd been fighting herself too. Violet had stepped up to the mark fantastically for the Incredibles: she'd made a thing of it; not a broken reed but a storming human torch, who'd set herself alight for her family and the greater good. For all that: Helen feared for her girl more than for any of the others.
There was so very much, still, that could dampen the child's spirit, put out that new spark — Helen hated that her girl had to always be full on as a Super and to suffer so many mishaps but it was, oh so clear, that if Violet eased off in the least she'd falter and fail; lose all that she'd gained. For all her abilities Violet had always been a shy, self-effacing, self-doubter.
Most folk would take her for little more than a shrinking Violet and always end up surprised that, somehow, Violet always succeeded at whatever she set her mind to … yet that was only ever once she could bring her mind around to the fact that she could do the whatever. She was only now starting to show a bold face, now that she was earning her place as a fledgling heroine. Helen hardly ever saw her daughter showing her full potential openly and for all to see; except when that daughter was suited up and everything of her coalesced and clicked into the best that Violet could be.
It was a concern but you just couldn't have things all ways: could not go full throttle and soft pedal; could not stay legal and stay safe, or hold back yet win out. Dash had safely disarmed and simply bound some few of the raiders but most had met Violet and then the morgue. Life was scarcely as simple as it had been when Helen had first set out to be a Super. Nowadays they had to perpetually thread Scylla and Charybdis by being Good and being Legal … each one alone in that endeavour in every action they undertook and some were simply better at walking the tightrope than others — while Violet fell off every single time.
Mr Incredible Parr, bless him, hadn't a clue to these details he had a family, a team with talents and he wanted, expected those talents to be used, to shine out, to be respected and admired. He never once could or would understand why it might not be decent or right for Dash to thrash all of those unpowered runners that he competed against. Bob refused to understand that it was irrelevant as to how an athlete was enhanced (by drugs, surgery, genes or powers) it still ploughed up the level playing field that all of the athletes were meant to share equally and compete on fairly.
In the same vein, he couldn't at all see why a daughter with the least tangible and least offensive assets of them all might happen to feel the need to push herself as hard as she could go. It all came so easy to him he never could see how an Invisible Girl would never hold back or turn aside in any mission but always drive in up to the hilt. The worst of it was that Helen's daughter was the best of students; the girl never came home with work that wasn't in the top tier and she was way above grade average; she'd always had her own private power … she was the school swot.
God Above couldn't say what would happen if she used that power on her Powers; put that level of application and dedication into developing her superself. Violet, mused Helen, was one mixed up kid; a true Jekyll and Hyde — you just couldn't say which way the force of her nature would turn. The one certainty was that when she and her father clashed it was always like a hurricane meeting a typhoon. Today Mr Parr came home as the parent who had to read the Riot Act to his daughter; typically she came right back in at him with:
« We're all fashion victims pop! We've paid way over the odds just to be Incredibles Incognito! Dicker made you into Mr Incredible Megabucks, moms are ten for a cent in the burbs and I'm always invisible girl. Look at me, do you see a kids' party turn? Ghost Girl I don't think so! »
It was hardly a speech made to mollify the man; as he made clear:
« That's enough! You know the Supers Act makes us pay for government help and makes it a state secret. Everybody thinks I've sold out now and I don't hear anybody giving me a choice about it. But you should know better; your mom and me taught you the responsibility of that costume. Have you any idea at all what the body count of your bubbles was today? Do you even know how many lives you've wrecked, crashing around the way you do? You don't see your mother and me letting our idents run our lives; do you ! »
It was an old argument, a staple part of the diet of family rows but Violet still bit:
« Like you need to; nobody else's tag turns them into just nothing. Invisible Girl call that an ident! That's every geek at school! Yeh and I'm less than that; cut down to just "Invisble". Where's the hero? Where's the girl? Where's me? I could be Incredigirl. I should be Incredigirl or does that make me too much part of the family? »
« No; no, no, no. No more Incredi girls or boys or cats or dogs or whatever! » Incredidad exclaimed.
Meanwhile, Helen tried to pour oil on stormy waters, as she chucked Violet under the chin and soothed:
« You know how hard it is to get the right tag, sweetling, I was only that bit older than you when I started out as Elastigirl and now I'm, well, not a teen anymore and a married mom too. Sure, you didn't get to pick; people put the tag on you but that's good, it means they're thinking about you. »
« Why did it have to be Invisible, though? » Violet protested — as Dash made his contribution:
« Mom's elastic, Dad's incredible, I'm dashing and you go POP outta here! »
Dash made the sound effect to his words and Violet was raging:
« You so don't know what I can do, you've no idea; I've been training with Edna. She told me: I'm not just your invisible wall - what I've got is light and energy You can do anything with them if you're smart! »
Dash was entirely unimpressed as he mocked:
« Oh Darlinck, violet is SO lazzt season, try tartan, juzzt for me. — Yeah. Right. In-vis-i-bull what can you do? What? What? What've you got then huh? Speed, Flight, Teleportation, Ghosting, Super Strength, X Ray Vision, Death Ray, Mind Control, Magnetism, Animal Talk? »
Violet's response was bitterly on-the-spot and sarcastic:
« Keep the speed, I don't want a flea up my butt; yes, yes, aye, uh huh, yeh, yep, yup; as if, I'm not Metaman. Sure I can talk to animals, I'm talking to you, aren't I? I can do myself in tartan and illusions too; how'd you like an illusion of my fist up your nose! » Their father had had quite enough by now:
« Violet! Nobody's interested in what you think you can do. It's your real tricks that make the problem. I was in the mall. I saw how crazy you got. What happened to that gunsel was de ... plorable ».
He'd been going to say «deliberate» but managed to turn the word aside at the last second. He had seen the fatal incident from its start to the gunsel's finish. It was far too close a call to say if Violet had meant what happened to happen or not and that was a conversation he didn't even want to have with himself right now. Much better to focus on immediate matters.
« If you can't use the powers you have responsibly perhaps you shouldn't use them at all. »
That was a foul ball for sure but Violet pitched it right back:
«What! We're the most responsible family in America. Here's Little Miss Disappear, her super power is keeping the family secret. There's the human cheetah making out he's the human snail and I'm ... I'm Guyless Girl. Don't worry about me having dates dad; like you said those eggshell guys break too easy. Maybe I should date you dad; you're the guy for me; I'd sure like to, you're the only hero I know. We wouldn't even have to worry about having kids like you and mom do, as all the energy I throw out has me sterilised ... yeh I heard you and mom and the boffin talking; nice holiday treat, when were you going to let me in on that surprise? Or maybe you were too busy figuring out how to get your bit now you and mom are single beds! »
« SILENCE RINGS »
Violet crumples to her knees; curls up: « OH! — Get away from me! — All of you! »
Violet energy blossoms; a ball that swells to fill the room; that sends the family flying through the Open Plan. A hush and then ... just the creak and crack of furniture shattering; explosions of timber; sandstorms of glass; hailstorms of plaster. The shriek and groan of bricks and mortar stressed to their limits. Doors planing through the air. Lintels, jambs and cills javelining across space. Fizz and fume of electrics shorting, overloading, burning. Walls and ceilings curve, bulge, belly outwards, billow upwards. Bedrooms become hills, basements become craters. Struts spang and zing, like rubber bands tensed too far.
Elastigirl expands, extends; entwines herself around doorways, corners, columns ... attempting to encapsulate the epicentre of chaos ... to contain, compress, control the devastation, the destruction, the daughter. It isn't enough, it isn't a fraction of nearly enough: the sphere surges, swells: it pushes house and superheroine both to snapping point. All of the energy and effort, all of the strength and power Elastigirl has poured into the disaster has been as effectual as a water pistol against a supernova. She hasn't slowed the expanding explosion of anger and energy by an iota and is fast being pressed to where her over-wrought anatomy will give way like blown bubble-gum.
Mr Incredible is as infuriated and as empowered as he ever has been; that his daughter would think this, say this, do this. Not once, ever, in all of his engagements with Syndrome has he felt the explosive, atom bomb of energy that is driving him now: not against the first robot nor the second, not when he hostaged Mirage not when he hurled the car. If he's thinking of his daughter at all it is as an ingrate, a turncoat, a third column threat to his family, their existence, their home, the life they've built up. Every erg of this ire and energy is pounded into the sphere with one handed, two handed, double fisted blows and for all it achieves it might as well be snow falling on a furnace.
Dash, smallest and lightest of the family threesome has been flung the furthest; been given the fullest view of the action but, for all this, he can find no opening, no opportunity to overturn the tide of events. Worse even than that is that he can see Jack Jack asleep in a cot in a kitchen about to collapse like a house of cards. He plays the card of last resort for all small boys, be they Super or not; he yells for mom and dad. They are far too busy to hear him or heed him, however. Thankfully his big sis isn't so far away or so far removed — the hue and cry reaches her; the needs of her family penetrate the bubble about her, in the way nothing else could. Violet drops her defences, drops the sphere, drops everything and droops, dismal and apologetic:
« Mom, Dad I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make such a mess; I'll make it up to you. »
They say nothing; they hardly know what to say; they can barely speak to her:
« Go to your room young lady; we'll talk later. Right now I'm not even sure I know who you are. »
That stings, it cuts deep and Violet can barely get out more than a few words before mounting the bust stairs:
« That's not fair; you never give me a chance to be me. Well, fine; you won't have any more trouble from your Violet.»
With that Violet shut herself away in the remains of her room; where she sat and gazed stonily out of the twisted window for an eternity, finally the tears dried on her face and the burning in her chest dulled to an ache. She murmured to herself: « No. You won't have any more trouble ... not from Violet Parr. » and a vivid glow gathered itself around her clenched fists, where it burned for the longest time.