— «» Frozone Dicked «» —
«» No Incredible Family - Chapter Eleven «»
«» all about: however you live life - someone will stab the knife in «»
«» — A.N — «»
Two gombeen fics decided to bulk out way to feck big to fit into No Incredible Family. They're exiled in Norn Iron as fics of their own. No Incredible Sparks is the fire story. No Incredible Uplift is the air story. Shyte yes: handily, alphabetically right in order below No Inc Family at FFN.
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The dinosaur bones rise slowly and unwillingly out of the mountain lake, in the far reaches of Canada: blackened, twisted, melted, contorted they are far more like some creature out of the Triassic than the remnants of a vision of future travel. For the watching Incredibles the ruins of the airship may as well be some extinct creature; all of their dreams, their hopes, their bright, new future have gone down with it and died with it. The busy scene of activity is thronged with Canadian functionaries, with Rick Dicker and his teams, even Frozone is there; yet the Incredibles feel utterly bereft, alone and isolated. In this Omnidroid Age, ever since the machinations of Syndrome put the superheroes back on the map, it has just been a litany of fatalities: Snug, Rainbow and Violet are all listed among the missing in action. Snug is clearly dead, Rainbow is probably dead, Violet is unaccounted for.
They all of them mourn and feel the waste of lives, the hollowness of absence and the pang of chances lost. Less than a day ago the world had been shining, bright and full of promise. Mr Incredible had made his gaffes and was still making them, bungling the family life, yet he had done what he thought was his best to mend the cracks in the Parr Family. They were all well settled back into a renewed family home, living together and sharing missions together. Bob Incredible had got over his fret with his wife, his lust for his daughter and his ire at the new superhero upstaging him.
It had been the easiest matter for Bob to forgive Rainbow: from the instant they had first teamed up together they had very nearly coupled together as well. It was only the girl's conscience and the problems facing any cheating husband that had slowed the inevitable at all. Only yesterday he and she had been on the verge of consummating the little death; now he has to face the likely reality of her actual death.
Rainbow had been good for Bob, for all of the Incredible family: from that first mission with Bob to missions with all of the family she had rapidly become an essential and integral member of the Incredible Team. Frozone and Mr Incredible hadn't been seeing eye-to-eye for a while so there was a hole in the team ready to fill. For all of that, the instant he heard of this disaster, Frozone had jetted himself into the wilds to support the Incredibles. He wasn't any part of the original disaster but he is here now, for his confreres. Back before now: all the Incredible Family felt as if Rainbow had been part of them for years, so it was entirely natural for them to ask her along to Canada with them.
A new venture was starting, to provide airship tours over the Great Lakes and links between the two North American nations. It had the blessing of the governments and the Incredibles had been asked to come along and launch the venture. Yesterday had been their very first day here and they had been living the celebrity mogul lifestyle. The only dissenter had been Violet: she didn't want to come on the trip, she tagged Rainbow as Mirage and she never did welcome Rainbow.
Bob and Dash had been eager to bring Rainbow on holiday with them, while Helen demurred over family tensions, so they hit on a dreadful compromise. None of them let Violet know Rainbow was coming and made it a surprise on the day. It was more than a surprise: it was a shock for all of them, as Violet overloaded her powers and snuffed herself out of existence. That had been on their first day there; on yesterday, on their second day Violet had refused to come out of her hotel room.
Thus far it was a typical day for a celebrity family: the teen was off in a strop, the mom was busy with the lad and pop seized the chance to dodge away with his illicit lover. Bob took Rainbow off into the airship with great hope that this was going to be their first time of many times. It was never going to be so easy for superheroes: they wandered right into the middle of a supervillain team. Those villains had wanted a chance to ambush the Incredibles and Mr Incredible had almost served himself up on a plate. It was Rainbow who had changed the menu: she had got Mr Incredible safely away but only because she left herself in the trap.
Frozone looks over at Bob Parr, for all of their rows lately, he feels for the man. Mr Incredible must feel sick to think of all the degradation and torture which Rainbow took instead of him. Frozone knows Bob must be cursing himself for not being part of this adventure and not doing more but what could he have done? The zeppelin had taken to the air and Bob was injured anyway; so it had to be Elastigirl who got aboard, freed Rainbow and then paired with the girl to beat the villains. Lucius sighs, Helen and Bob can't blame themselves for this catastrophe. How were they to know Rainbow would be the fool hero to stay onboard a burning, crashing airship, to steer it away from towns and civilians and to steer herself right into death. Okay so nobody has come up with a body yet but how the damn can anyone walk away from that!
How are the Parrs ever going to live with this double loss? The absence of Violet is like a knife in Lucius' gut; damn he cares for that girl, so how must Helen, Bob and Dash be feeling. Only yesterday morning they'd reckoned it was fine to leave Violet alone in the hotel for a few hours, to work off her sulk. Then everyone had done clean forgot about the girl for all of the day, while they got on with the herowork of rescuing the airship and Rainbow. Nobody had so much as thought to wonder how or where Violet was until late in the day. Yes, thinks Lucius, much too late in the day. Way too late in Violet's life! Dang you guys, sure you're my pals, but you're damn fools too. You go out and upstage your own kid with Rainbow, you park her to go out with Rainbow and then you forget about her the whole day, while you fuss over Rainbow. Why are you surprised to find the kid has done a runner. Good luck on finding her too; Violet ain't no normal homeless kid on the lam, she done be invisible too.
Lucius' thoughts are interrupted by Dicker, who takes him aside for a private talk in the N.S.A rocket ship. In fact it isn't so much a talk as a kidnap, as the craft takes off. Shortly after: a reluctant Frozone is being led through a thriving, humming, energetic government complex; one that doesn't exist out there, in the middle of nowhere. They stop in one vast and subterranean hangar where (for once) Frozone is lost for a glib reply.
« That! That's Bob's house. Why? »
« Oh it isn't entirely the Parr residence, just what we could gather up from the remains of the wreckage. The rest of it is fabricated; you'll see why soon enough. Why don't you come over here, into this bunker, you'll be much more comfortable. »
Even as Dicker is leading Frozone into the observation post, alarms are wailing and lights strobing. The door of the chamber is hardly shut before there is a thunderous roar that shakes even the secure bunker. Frozone stares out, with his jaw agape, at the flying, whirling debris that had been a doppelgänger of his friends' house only moments before. He rounds on Dicker.
« How? Why? What crazy games have you rubber-stamped now? »
« What can I say Lucius. I'm a government servant, everything has to be filed away properly; you know that. We're going to rebuild that house again and explode it again and do it another thousand times if we have to. You know how it is; I've got to tick the right box in the Home Explosion Questionnaire. »
« Rick, Dick, Dicker, you dusty bookworm. Bob done told us: the gas went sparky. You gotta have faith; they was champs way back in the day; when you was just a tea-boy. Man I've known these guys their whole career. I'm the cool-daddy unofficial uncle to a wrangle of supercharged ankle biters. None of them has the bones for that! »
« I wish I shared your confidence but I'm not paid enough for that. Walk with me.
They set off, back the way they have come to the rocket-ship, and are swallowed by a raging sea of water, right in the middle of an empty chamber. It is as if Dicker and Frozone are two ghosts attending a drama at sea. The waves crash, the storm rages and a snow-globe (with a disintegrating rattletrap of a ship inside of it) forges a path through it all. Mr Incredible and Invisible are perched unsteadily atop of it. There is a sudden flash from the ship and the waters inside the globe abruptly seethe like a demon cauldron. This is repeated time and again, it doesn't seem to affect Bob Parr at all, yet Violet shudders in pain at each concussion.
« Mad crazy! Dicker! The glaciator isn't happy; you all better explain this now. We aren't in the middle of no fool storm; you got some doohickey playing me. What you up to? »
« It's only a hologram, they're a real help in my line of work. Let's you see all manner of things you wouldn't otherwise. Tell me, Lucius, you're in pollution-control now, what's your professional opinion of the Col Flynn that Bob rescued. »
While Frozone responds and the conversation winds on, they are back at and onto the rocket-ship. It whisks them away, even as the two men spar with each other.
« That was some fool crazy rescue. Tell you; when this here ice-hopper saw it on tee-vee I was grinning like a shark. Bob sure has still got it, means I don't got be to worrying over his dumb ass, all of the time. Don't matter none that there's an iron wall between us now, I gotta give him the medal, how he kept it all together aaaand brought it all home. Classic Bob riff, gotta hand it to the man. »
« Yes, you most certainly do, nobody sees past that Hercules act of his and he doesn't even know it. Lucius, you've got to know, I'm taking a big chance explaining all this to you but I think you're still the Parr's friend and will come through for them, for me, when you know all of the dangers. That hologram wasn't any mock-up but genuine footage of the Col Flynn rescue. »
« Whoa, stop the globe and melt the ice-caps, Helen told me Bob took Violet along but I done thought the girl faded into the wallpaper, like always. Who sprinkled her with Miracle-Gro, she done grown up fast. Sure is lucky to have another full-bore superhero out there. How come none of that got shown? Press got their shots of one hot poster girl — whoooo, yeh, I remember, you gotta be dead to forget that smoking, bod — but seems they had a whole parcel more. »
« Fortunately, for all of us, that wasn't the image they preferred. Yes, it has taken a great deal of effort but the media have become our accomplices. You have to agree, a simple message is best. Give the Great American Public the one hero they can believe in and they'll spend anything to buy into the message. Getting to Mr Incredible, in time to shake hands, over a burning omnidroid, that was how our new president won the election. Trust me Lucius; nobody wants a second hero blurring the picture or heroes with characters of their own »
« Then what the tomfool was that? Why you showing me the Col Flynn? Me and Bob have been mates, buds, pals since the ice age, but I gotta say, he wasn't the hero out there, walking on the water. I done reckon Violet could have docked that ship all by her own self. What does she get for it? Gets made into a jack-off snack for the world. It's plain criminal! »
« Lucius, Lucius, Lucius, I thought I was talking to an adult here. Tell me how can it be a crime, when we make the laws? The Incredible Family is the best thing for the country since Lincoln; an All American Family, with superpowers. »
The two men are sitting either side of a table in the rocket-ship that is fast closing on their next tour spot. Dicker lays out a series of photos on the table, like cards, to set out his case.
« I'm talking laws all the way up to the president here, Lucius. This is what my job is about now: I'm not managing the Incredibles, I'm managing their image. This is the package. [he deals] Mrs Mom Incredible, Miss Academic Incredible, Junior Athlete Incredible and Mr Incredible American Hero. The president is counting on me to keep that ticket clean; it's going to buy him another term in the White House. You can see why I'm worried that the Incredible Family is turning into a Family of Incredibles, all going their own ways. »
The rocket-ship is passive now and the two men step out into, yet another hangar, but this one is entirely different from the luxury of the government base. It is a cramped, grubby and smoke damaged workshop of a place. Lucius and Dicker step out carefully, the place seems abused and liable to fall down at a cough, it is worse yet in the open air. They are in Metroville, at the rail station, in the stockyards.
There is barely a vehicle there and not one fully built and permanent building, other than their own one, set on the far outskirts. The rails are warped, buckled, melted, vanished and excised. The signs of once-upon-a-time buildings are everywhere: in ashes, spoilheaps, wreckage. A firestorm has swept across the economic nexus of Metroville to flame it away. It could be a thousand times worse though: there are no memorials, no corpses, nothing of explosions and all of the wagons are yet to be seen, thrust to the safety of the margins, outside of the firezone. Dicker rounds on Frozone, before the hero can utter one syllable.
« Yes. Lucius, I know that you know this. Naturally the government keeps a watch on all of you superheroes. Please, Lucius, I don't want to hear it: you have powers and you use them, so you're a superhero, however much you announce your retirement. We are all grateful that you were here, to stop this crisis from becoming a disaster. The truth is, if your friends, the Parrs, hadn't been in the middle of a family row, if Bob hadn't been out of sorts, none of this would have happened. It has been months and the yard is only back to half capacity.»
Dicker is leading the way across the freightyard: high-stepping over bear-trap rails, pacing between sleepers, edging around rubble and past stacks of construction material. He gestures around, to take in the anthill busyness, of a high octane reconstitution underway. He doesn't halt until he comes to a stop, under a water-tower, at one edge of the yard, where it is clear that there were once many sheds.
« Do you see, Frozone. Bob lost the plot and knocked down a whole row of dominoes that ended up with this. Mr Incredible caused the prison riot, he mishandled it, that supervillain Firedrake escaped and then the crook set this up. We wouldn't need you superheroes if you didn't keep making the messes that you pull us out of. You think that is the worst? In the middle of it we have those two girls with powers we can't even measure. You were here, when the traps went off, when all of the junction went up in flames, you saw Violet. »
« Man oh Man. Did I ever. Mr Incredible done benched her with the chore of emptying out the offices. I am telling you, that is one nightmare mess, herding those damnfool civilians. Violet didn't even try. Girl whipped up a parcel of those bubbles she has, grabbed up all of those sheep, like snowmen in a globe. Then she done flew them all the way across the lake, where they weren't no bother to nobody. »
« So, Lucius, did you ever wonder how powerful Violet is now? You make it sound as if it wasn't any more trouble to her than picking dandelions. Have you any idea of what power-rank that gives her, or of what else she can do now? No. I didn't think so. I don't know; my agency doesn't know; the government doesn't know. We had her in our labs all the way until she made school age, then we let her go That worries me Lucius: I know the rest of the Parrs and their physical abilities, I can predict them, control them, if you like; not Violet. »
A brief flurry of a snowstorm forms over DIcker's head, to paint him with a dusting of chill flakes.
« Ricky! Dicky! Dicker. Take off your damnfool hat; your brains are taking a squeezing. Violet ain't no monologuing supervillain. Girl needs a good jolt of the old icemaker confidence to even lift her head. They was all here, under, this tower, saving out the folks in the workshops. That manbait Rainbow, the new hero on the block, and all of the Incredibles. Not Violet though. She done went and vanished, soon as she done what she was told. Girl ain't never to be seen in the thick of it. »
« Does that seem right to you Lucius? Violet might accept being treated like the hatstand, she might even think of herself as the doormat but have you ever known her not to try to be the hero? All those years that she was our guest lab rat, we tried to break her, naturally we tried, but we never suceeded. This is Little Miss Disappear, just because you don't notice her doesn't mean it's safe to ignore her. You saw how she was airbrushed out of the sea rescue; I suggest you check out a few other incidents in the media and ask yourself what you aren't seeing. That old visit of them to Geneva, the mall raid on Valentine's Day and Dash fighting in the museum.
Dicker heaves a deep sigh as he moves off in another direction, threading around the maze of the reconstruction site and taking Frozone to the unscathed platform concourse.
« That's bad enough, having one girl who isn't seen, but then you have to add in another girl, who is seen too much. Violet and Rainbow; they're polar opposites and each of them is a major headache for me. Tell me, Lucius, you saw her working with the Invisibles, what do you think of her. »
« Dicker! You ask the most dang fool questions. My honey will for certain string me up if she hears this. Back in the day Elastigirl was the global doll and Bob the lucky fool that beat me out to her. Rainbow! She be Elastigirl 2.0! Had her around in the day; me and Bob would have made a twosome out of those foxes. Gotta say I think Bob's forgot where he is and who he is; he's spinning that jive like a young cock that don't have no wife and family at his back. Rainbow don't seem none to unhappy about it neither. »
« Damn! Frozone! Who'd envy me my job. If the president gets a whisper that his All American Super Family aren't squeaky clean, I'll end up snow clearing in Alaska. Rainbow might be the media darling but she is my own personal nightmare. We can't find out the first thing about her: who she is, where she comes from, what she can do, or even understand how she fits to the Incredibles like hand and glove. That was enough of a problem, even before the debacle of Canada. Now we have Rainbow and Violet both missing in action. Then there is this! »
This is a small-scale model of a zeppelin taking pride of place in the central hall of the train station. It is a promotion for a new travel venture. It happens to be just large enough for two adult humans to sit inside the gondola; except for it being hung from the ceiling. That is no obstacle to Dicker and he soon has Frozone sitting down to a horrorshow movie.
« Lucius. Nobody can have missed the publicity over the new airship tours between ourselves and Canada. Yes, even the initial disaster was headline news and you've seen the fallout from that yourself. What isn't common knowledge is that it is a three cornered venture, between our two governments and a private company. You've got major players involved and the Incredibles and we lost two superheroes at it. Not good. I arranged for the Incredibles to launch the project. I thought that, if they had some family time, away from all the tensions in the States, it would rebuild the family. I should have known better, my life is cursed, Bob invited Rainbow along too and she came. »
« The Damn! »
« Yes. And it gets better. Watch this. Some clips we got and parts of the terrorist broadcast. »
A projector starts up in the tiny and darkened cabin: Frozone is immersed in a world of blood and betrayals. The montage spins out and even the glaciator chills at what he is seeing. The past comes alive.
There is the Canadian field, with the airship grounded. There are the Incredible family: relaxed and happy at sharing the ordinary pleasures of an outdoor fete. There are Bob, Helen, Dash and Violet as one unit. Violet wanders a little ahead of the rest and that is when the atom bomb explodes. Rainbow soars in to land; Violet stares into the clouds with horror on her face; then Violet is gone into transparency; not just her but everything near to her also. It is clear Violet felt so violated that her powers lashed out of control. Then the film jumps to the next day. The remaining Incredibles and Rainbow are out enjoying the fair and (Lucius hates himself for thinking it) Rainbow is far more the life and soul of the day than ever Violet was.
That is the image everybody takes away (those who were there and those who see the recordings later): Rainbow was the darling of the fair. She lived up to her name and her mastery of imagery. She made a puppet show for the childer, out of nothing but light and air. It is proof, if any were needed, that Violet and Rainbow are two separate people. To suppose that one is the alter ego of the other is to say that she faced the impossibility of being two people in the one place and with the one family.
She had to become just one body; yet in such a way that nobody ever challenged the reality of two persons. How can anyone doubt it though: when the two were seen in the same place, at the same time and reacting to one another. How can anyone doubt it? All of the clues are there and yet nobody has ever thought to run the calculations. Where you have one puppet show you can, just as easily, have two. It is certain, that the two were seen together, yet they were never heard together. Beyond anything, Rainbow is the very mistress of illusion.
The pictures elide: here Rainbow nudges Bob; the couple (and that is what they are) vanish into the airship. What they intend is all too easily read but there are no images of them with the airship (Frozone is heartily thankful). There aren't, until it rises into the air and Bob is falling out of it, unconscious, to the ground. Frozone gasps to see his friend in such peril.
Luckily the gal has powers. There is Rainbow leaning out of the hatch and Bob gets wrapped in a dark cloud, which guides him to a safe landing. It is all too clear there is some enemy lurking aboard the zeppelin, as Rainbow shudders in the doorway, grimaces in pain and grips tight to the framework. For all of that, the one detail that sears into Lucius' brain is that both Bob and Rainbow are naked from the waist up.
The next collection of shots are appalling and Lucius feels his breakfast returning on him. When he and Bob and all of them found they had powers, and chose to use them for good, the worst that ever happened to them was that they would collect some marks from a brawl or be captured and threatened, till one of their comrades rescued them. It was life lived in the brass band style, yet clean and hygienic. That world is not the world of today: Rainbow had saved Mr Incredible but the only way she could do that was by letting herself be caught.
The new heroine, (the daring pretty) is there: stripped, chained, whipped and gashed. To make the point of how much they dare the entire cadre of supervillains take a turn at torturing and abusing the helpless, young, heroine. The Incredibles are shown that even superheroes are helpless at times. This is no cartoon story: the damage will take months to heal, even if Rainbow survives and escapes. From what Frozone notes, in this film, the girl is done for: The thugs have left her a mask but taken all else off her: clothes. dignity, strength.
There follows a long pause in the show, then there are fragmented snatches of images from the airship. It is like a stop-motion display: Elastigirl appears - Elastigirl frees Rainbow - Elastigirl is caught - Rainbow saves Elastigirl - the duo beat the crooks. Frozone is numb: this is the species of battle in which undying bonds are forged. It will take catastrophe or death to separate this pair now. Death! Yes! It is hovering in the wings, as the next images show fire taking hold of the airship, show Elastigirl making good her escape. The movie flickers and wanes to a close. Nothing shows Rainbow bidding adieu to death.
Frozone tardily returns his attention to the cramped limits of the simulacra zeppelin. The two men descend and walk through the busy railway station, as they continue their talk.
« You see, Lucius, that's the disaster I have to package up. All the Incredibles have to come out clean and I've got to paste Mr Incredible into the star role, without him looking like a teenager with his hand in his pants. Less than half a year since the Incredibles moved back into their own home and built a new team. They've made more of Rainbow in months than of Violet in a lifetime. Bob wanted Rainbow for his new Elastigirl and Helen suspected it. »
« Dicker! Those aren't any fool puppets. They're people, running, hurting. dying! »
« What can I say? I'm glad the zeppelin went down in flames and Rainbow with it. Cloud with a silver lining; it's media hell but one less grief in my life. It would have been the cherry on the cake, if Violet had burnt up too, but at least she has vanished, in her own way. Lucius! Don't you look at me like that; you know the girl has always been trouble. I won't be sorry if neither of them ever turn up again. But they might and that is why I need you, Lucius.
« Me? What the damnfool has it got to do with me? I sure am sorry those two girls got fed into the mincer but don't look at me to bring them back. I'm too long out of the game. »
« Lucius, Lucius, Lucius! Don't try to fool me. You're no idealist! You're no Mr Incredible. You're just in the game for yourself. You know what I am saying. America needs confidence, America needs to believe in itself. The president needs America to be strong. The whole house of cards sits on the All American Superhero Family.
Dicker gestures around the station concourse, even here is littered with superhero brands.
« We need a solid family, a united family and we only need one hero. Be glad that Violet and Rainbow went the way they did. It's far better than what I would have done to them, if they ever spoilt our upright Mr Incredible. An All American Supraman is valuable property. The girls wll never be worth that; they're expendable and you can't pretend different. »
« Why the damnfool are you spilling me all of this? I don't want to know none of it. Feels like I'm sitting on a grenade. Paste me with a flamethrower, before you are getting me hunting down those two gals. »
« No Lucius. I don't want anybody found. I want you to stay close to the Parrs and let me know all about their lives. If Violet or Rainbow do return; you will have to close them down. »
« The hell! You want me to play spy and do the dirty on my friends. Find somebody else. »
« Lucius, Lucius, Lucius; my direct orders from the president are to keep Bob larger than life and in the spotlight. There is only room for a single hero in America. Canada was just about ideal for me, the way it worked out. I wish we had the bodies though, superheroes have such a nasty habit of returning. »
Dicker has stopped walking, to stand and face Lucius directly. He needs the superhero to understand this. Dicker reaches out and clasps Lucius' shoulders and stares into the eyes of Frozone. The government agent continues.
« If any of those girls sneak back to the Parrs you make sure they keep out of the spotlight. If Mr Incredible loses his glow he is going to have a tragic death to face. That's a good image: it sells, it gives him character. Remember! Heroes go down under a sniper as easily as anyone. Frozone! Don't make me pull the trigger on either of the girls. »
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Next chapter almost didn't get writ & damn the feck so nearly not posted. FFN is getting pushed to limits of tolerance there but the flipside to the Incredibles' golden life needs to be told. Most of all when Violet has her very own personal take on the rough side of life. Dicker might want to play hardball but could be Violet plays nastier. Tis something of her Hidden Months.
The damn: my line was going to be "marching band lifestyle" but that is a cute hoor ticking pipe bomb of a term round my parts. Got way too shyte much history. Feck yeh got a fic in the works around that Prod & Rebel game too: tis half writ & is gonna slide right into the Black Lagoon — or Dubh Linn in another tongue. So many fux echoes my head is dancing on a barn door.