As much as she loved her brothers, babysitting was not a job Violet happily volunteered for. Or volunteered for at all, to be exact, but somehow, on a rainy summer's day, she was stuck having to watch over Dash and Jack-Jack whilst her parents helped evacuate a city.
What frustrated her beyond belief was not really the babysitting since Dash entertained himself playing computer games and Jack-Jack quite contentedly read in a corner, but the fact that she could help. At seventeen and fourteen respectively, Violet and Dash both were more than old enough to help evacuate a city about to be hit by a tsunami.
Dash especially, Violet begrudgingly admitted to herself as she thrummed her fingers over the counter. Jack-Jack lifted his head at the sound, lifted an eyebrow at his sister, and returned to his book.
For a nine-year-old, the youngest Parr acted extremely mature, but Violet thought it only made sense since his powers were the most volatile. He had to learn at a very young age that life was not just a game, that people got hurt and that he was incredibly dangerous. Edna and some other research scientist she knew speculated that during puberty he will either lose most of his abilities or settle on a select few.
In the meantime, Jack-Jack had become more and more reluctant in general to use his powers after nearly getting himself and a civilian stuck inside a wall whilst trying to phase through it. Vi's bedroom was next to Jack-Jack's, and for weeks after the incident she found herself being woken up by her own paranoia or her baby brother's whimpers. Not fun.
Speaking of not fun, the squiggles of advanced Calculus glared up at her from the homework she was supposed to be doing. Algebra she liked, algebra she could do, but calculus… she just found it hard to visualise. The sun had long since set, the rain kept pouring, the skies kept darkening and so did her mood.
"Snacks?" Jack-Jack's voice echoed across the room.
When Violet's eyes darted to his face once more, she found the lopsided grin she could hear in his voice. "Gosh, yes," she smiled gratefully and got up to rifle through the cupboards and fridge.
Absentmindedly, she hummed her dad's theme song as she cut up carrots and cucumber to go with the half a tub of garlic hummus she found in the fridge. She heard a shuffle behind her but paid it no mind. In her family, a presence in the kitchen meant Dash.
As a speedster, his metabolism was something to be envied. He ate enough to feed the entire family twice over.
"There's still some of your granola clusters in the drawer if you want," she offered and then hissed when she accidentally sliced her finger. "Ouch, dammit!" However, her throbbing finger was quickly forgotten at the feel of something cold and hard pressing at the back of her neck.
"You okay?" Jack-Jack called from the living room.
"Tell him you're fine," a cold voice growled. "Or one of my friends detonates the lovely little sparkler we've already rigged in the other room. Bye-bye, brothers." He chuckled at his own success at alliteration. With a bang and a groan, the lights went out and the house went silent. The power had been cut.
Outwardly, there was not a hair out of place or a bead of sweat in sight. Violet looked calm, but inside she was a seething mass of energy. How? What? When? How did they sneak in without notice? The Parr house had only the best security money could buy, and surely three semi-trained supers would have noticed a freakin' bomb?! And a bomb meant something more malicious than your average house-robbery. Did the burglars know the Parrs were supers?
"Super-duper, Dash, no worries!" She hoped her brothers would catch the smattering of clues in the response.
As if in answer to her emotions, the sky outside rumbled and the rain poured down harder. Ah. Maybe that's why the burglars weren't noticed and were able to sneak in. The lightning has been messing with the power grid and the thunder masked their noise. Smart, definitely. And either super or extremely patient, having to wait for a storm.
The constant stream of thoughts analysing and sifting through and processing information was a distant hum at the back of her mind. "What do you want?" she whispered. Having already put up a forcefield hugging the shape of her body, Violet was not at all worried about the gun in her captor's hands. But she did not know what other toys he had, who he was or how many friends he brought along.
"Not much. Just revenge," he said nonchalantly. "With parents like yours, you couldn't really believe that their enemies wouldn't come knocking sooner or later."
"Why, good evening, fine sir! Can I interest you in a Band-Aid?" Dash sounded smug, on the verge of laughter, a tactic that never failed to get the blood boiling when directed at sisters and villains alike.
"Shit!" The man swung around and started firing. His weapon, automatic, still was no match for a speedster.
Faster than she could blink, Dash had already whooshed passed and whisked her to the living room.
"They're loose!" She heard from the kitchen but ignored it in favour of checking that both her brothers were whole.
Dash, still half a head shorter than her, stood by her side, vibrating with excitement. Jack-Jack stood next to the window, so she could only just see his shadow and the faint gleam that told her he was in his metallic form.
"Who are these guys?" Dash gushed, following her as she rushed to Jack-Jack's side. "I hit the panic button, counted three others. Should I go for help? Check the perimeter? They're between us and the panic room."
Her mind whirled with the barrage of information he spouted at her. "Apparently there's a bomb," was all she could think to say to him but it seemed to shut him up satisfactorily.
With a gush of air, he was off again without having been told, searching for the bomb and likely checking the perimeter as well. The burglars, although Violet doubted that was all they were, would likely feel the breeze but they would still be unable to stop him. If Dash could find the bomb, he could probably disarm it as well, having trained with Lucius and Dad to do just that.
Violet placed her hand gently on Jack-Jack's wrist. She knew he was tough and mature and whatever, but he was still her baby brother. His pulse fluttered against her fingertips like a caged hummingbird, his metallic skin flickering from cold to hot as he struggled to maintain the form. His powers had been a bit glitchy over the past month or so. "Hey, everything's okay." He searched her face and she tried to smile. "Do you think you could portal us to the panic room?"
Jack-Jack cringed and suddenly flickered in and out of sight, taking his sister with him. His invisibility was more like a chameleon than whatever it was that Violet did, but she'd trained with him so often that her brain just followed him automatically. It made her dizzy.
"I don't know, Vi." He was scared. He'd only been on rescue missions before and she didn't blame him.
Couldn't blame him.
Anger, repressed for the past couple of years, bubbled to the surface once more. As much as she loved her powers, helping people, feeling special, she hated them too for what they made her parents and brothers suffer on a daily basis.
She breathed deeply and swallowed it all down once more, a furious fire heating her belly and making her even more determined to get them out of this without a scratch. "Try?" she prompted with a reassuring squeeze and he nodded.
Dash reappeared by her side. She glanced at him and started. His eyes were wide with shock; he was panting. Panting! What on earth could elicit such a reaction? Her own heartbeat sped up.
"The bomb… it… it's…" Dash looked lost and panicked. "I don't know where they got it, but it's going to take out the entire house. I don't even know if the fancy walls will hold. And I can't disarm it. I've never seen anything like it." He gasped for breath. "The house is in lockdown. I can't get out. There's five in the house but they've got fancy suits and equipment. And the one guy! Half a face, Vi!" Another gasp. "Vi, who are these guys?"
How the heck should she know? But she had to breathe and remain calm. Her brothers counted on her. "Well, they're just going to blow themselves up then. The walls will hold and we'll be all cosy in the panic room. Right?" She nudged Jack-Jack. He nodded reluctantly and held out his other hand, the one that Violet wasn't clutching in an ever-tightening grip.
A muscle above Dash's eye twitched but he took his brother's hand. As Jack-Jack closed his eyes to concentrate, Dash shot his sister a doubtful look and she smiled reassuringly, because that's what big sisters do.
The violet shimmer of her force field expanded to include her siblings and she tried to prepare herself for the bellybutton-tugging, tummy-twisting feeling of being sucked through another dimension and spat out somewhere else.
Before it could happen though, a massive impact hit her force field. She nearly lost focus from the shock of it, but only tugged it in closer and reinforced it thrice over.
Four blobs of shadow filtered into her line of sight. One, a woman with dark hair piled on top of her head, carried a still smoking contraption over one shoulder. They wore weird costumes, shimmery in the arcs of lightning that suddenly lit the room.
"-you! A force field? Don't make me laugh!" The drone of thunder had cut off most of his initial speech. Not that Violet got a chance to negotiate or stall, because suddenly the fifth member of the troupe came into view. Half of his body was a melted mess like hot wax dripping down a candle. He seemed proud of his scars since his suit was cut in such a way as to show the maximum amount of skin. His eyes were completely mad, darting around the room as if they struggled to fix upon something for more than a few seconds. He pressed a button on his wrist and with a hiss, a thin film of shimmery liquid crept across his skin.
Violet could only watch the scenario unfold. If the bomb was as powerful as Dash though, she wasn't sure her shield would hold. She was certainly stronger than ever before, but the blast would likely leave her unconscious or extremely weak and her brothers on their own. But she had to have faith that Jack-Jack could get them out. Dash was both cursing and begging at Jack-Jack to hurry up, and Violet hated the desperateness of the situation. And how powerless she felt.
The melted man grinned suddenly, completely covered by the shimmery film. For a few seconds his gaze alighted on her own and such unimaginable hate burned there. "Detonate," he ordered and licked his lips, relishing the order. A henchwoman to his left clicked her fingers.
"Fuck!" Dash yelled, his hair standing up wildly due to the static electricity in the air. "Now, Useless, now!" Jack-Jack shouted back, a wordless yell of frustration, anger and pent-up self-loathing. His eyes glowed red, blue, then white. Violet had only a second to think of how much she loved them and to gather them closer within her shield.
A lance of white-hot energy traced around the room, spitting sparks in random directions. Thunder boomed and her world imploded into shards of pain.
Review? Yay, nay? Speculations, continuations, ideas, suggestions - all are welcome. I encourage constructive criticism and promise to take it to heart.
Thanks for reading!
