Buddy's ears were ringing as he stared at four-fifths of the Incredible family. His heart was in his throat and he could feel himself nearly breaking out into a nervous sweat. The only one who had moved in the immeasurable time that had passed with Winston who was looking back and forth between the Parr family and the person who Winston knew to be James Everett.

"Syndrome?" Winston asked, confused. "Why does that sound familiar, Jim? Was that a B rate hero back in the day?"

"That man is Syndrome and he's dangerous! Get away from him, Winston!" shouted Helen Parr who had raised her fists.

"You know, that guy who made the evil giant robot that nearly destroyed the city!" shouted Dash.

"The man who murdered dozens of supers, including Gazerbeam," Robert seethed as his eyes bore into the living ghost before him. "You should be dead!"

"Jimmy, what the heck are they talking about?" Winston asked in confusion as he began to step away. "Guys, James here paid for Violet's funeral, helped me start a foundation in her name. He wouldn't hurt a fly! Tell them, Jim!"

Buddy's eyes darted to the stairway behind the superfamily briefly before landing on the face of his childhood hero once again.

"You were here the night Violet disappeared! Did you kill her? Is this some sick plot of yours? Kill my only daughter and rub it in my face?!"

"Jimmy, tell me this is just a big misunderstanding!"

"Hey Winston, get away from him!" Dash called out.

"Winston, get out of here and call Rick!" ordered Helen.

"Why are we all yelling?!" cried Jack-Jack.

The ringing in Buddy's ears finally stopped. He should have known that it was inevitable that the Parr's would want to meet the guy who had paid for Violet's funeral, he just assumed he would be informed about the meet and greet and could keep pushing it off. There wasn't a way out of this that kept him at James Everett. There was only fight or flight and neither of them seemed viable but he had to get out.

Not wanting to waste another moment, Buddy managed to raise his watch with the Zero Point Energy beam catching all four of the Parr's. It also caught Winston off guard.

"WOAH! Jimmy!? What the heck?!"

"Sorry Win, but it looks like I've got to bail out now. Be sure to take good care of Apple for me, and sorry about breaking the contract," Buddy stated as he side stepped around the imobile supers to make his way to the bottom of the stairs. He considered bringing them all to the roof with him and dropping them off but that would be breaking one of Violet's more unbreakable rules. He opted instead to throw the family back towards the elevator and redirected his beam to the chandelier and pulled the hazardous crystal glass down to at least slow the supers from following him up to the helipad.

Helen was the first one to recover and she was already giving orders to the rest of the family. "Dash, make sure he doesn't get away! Jack-Jack, stay with Winston to make sure he's safe until the NSA arrives!"

Buddy crashed through the final doors to the rooftops and continued to make a run for his vehicle but was cut off by the eldest boy of the Parr family. Buddy tried to catch the speedster in his ray but Dash avoided the beam with little effort. It wasn't until Dash went on the offensive that Buddy was able to catch him into his beam.

Sighing with relief, Buddy shook his head knowing the parents wouldn't be far behind. He turned just in time to see Elasti-girl's fist to connect to his jaw.

Stumbling back, he lost the hold on Dash and the trio spread out to not end up in the same predicament as before.

"It's over Syndrome!" Bob Parr shouted. "I don't know how you survived this long, but you aren't getting away this time!"

Buddy's way back into the building was blocked and there was no way that he'd be able to reach his aircraft without one of the Incredible's to stop him. He took a step back as he tried to reconsider his options.

He had no recourse with the supers before him- unless he was willing to fling them off the roof one by one, but that wasn't a viable option either. Violet would almost certainly kill him if he did that.

Lifting his hands up, Buddy offered a nervous smile.

"We can all just walk away right now. We don't need to get the NSA involved," Buddy said as calmly as he could and the hero's expression darkened.

"Who the hell said that we were going to be bringing you in?"

Buddy blinked in surprise. His family looked pretty thrown off by the bold statement as well. Killing off villains wasn't usually Mr. Incredible's method. Most deaths caused by him were either accidental or circumstantial, but Buddy wasn't going to call out this bluff.

"Bob, we need to bring him in. He's gotta answer for what he's done," Helen pressed as she directed her attention to her husband again. "Think about Gazerbeam and everyone else."

"He needs to answer for whatever the hell he did to Violet!"

"Well he can't do that if he's dead, right?" Dash asked looking away as well, no one noticing that Syndrome had taken another step back.

"FINE! I'll just snap off his limbs after he tells us why he killed Violet!" Bob shouted as he turned his head back to the villain who was checking out the bottom of his shoes. "Alright Syndrome! Answer honestly and I'll consider making it less painful."

"You know, Mr. Inconceivable, I gotta say, as enticing that offer is and as much as I'd like to talk to you about your daughter, I think I'd rather jump off the building!" And he proceeded to do just that.

The Parr family exchanged looks of shock to each other before they ran over to look over the edge of the building to see their enemy running down the side of the building and Mr. Incredible turned to his son.

"Dash! Go after him!"

"I'd love to dad, but I can't run down buildings, that's just falling!"

"Helen?!"

"He's too far down now, we'll have to try to catch up to him from below. Get to the car and we can suit up," Helen hissed as she was already turning back towards the rooftop entrance door.

Buddy ran on the side of the DevTech skyscraper thanking his brain for wearing the right shoes today while simultaneously cursing his luck that the Parr's were there to meet his alias. All this time he had believed Winston to be incapable of connecting the dots and it was that very same ineptitude that brought the masquerade to an end.

Bringing up the commlink to Violet's mask, Buddy tried to come up with a new game plan but everything was going to shit.

"Violet, where are you?!"

Violet had managed to throw off the NSA agents that were tailing her and was currently making her way towards the pickup point that Buddy had assigned for her.

"Did you get out early or something?'' she asked quietly within her helmet as she gave a wave to some fans on the other side of the street.

"I've been found-" Buddy's voice came through, making Violet stop in her tracks and turn to look towards the skyscraper as she listened to his out of breath voice continue. "I need you. It's- it's your family."

"What?"

"Your family knows I'm alive!"

"I'm on my way," Violet replied and activated her rocket boots, veering for DevTech tower.

Buddy came to a halt as he did his best to catch his breath. He was about half way down to the ground and was now standing on the first roof structure since he came from the helipad. He'd have to move again. Go underground again but now without the clout of death to shield him. He could see her coming from a distance and felt relief until he realized that the best shot they had getting out of town was a quarter mile up. He'd just have to grin and bear it. Activating the anti gravity soles again he lifted his foot up to the glass surface to start his trek back up but paused in seeing not his reflection but the image of Jack-Jack Parr glaring at him.

"Oh no."

The kid transformed into his scaly beast form, the clothes he was wearing tearing at the seams but still clung to him in tatters. Breaking through the glass, Jack-Jack lunged at the villain and all Buddy could do was shield himself from the attack and broken glass.

Jack-Jack raised an open claw to swipe at him again but was kicked back into the open window by WatchDog. Buddy was hauled to his feet by the masked avenger he had helped create and felt optimistic on the odds of escaping but then the rest of the family was already coming back onto the scene.

"Run, I'll cover you!" Violet hissed.

He didn't argue, he just ran up the side of the building he would soon hold no claim to.

WatchDog lifted their arms in a defensive position as the Incredible's neared again, all donning their super suits.

"WatchDog?! What are you doing here?" Dash asked but it was Mr. Incredible who put the pieces together as he saw his arch-nemesis getting away.

"They're working together! I knew that you weren't to be trusted! Didn't I tell everyone?!"

"Not now, honey," Elastigirl started as she turned her attention to the retreating figure of Syndrome. "Dash, get Syndrome, we'll handle WatchDog."

Dash nodded and turned to run up the side of the building but didn't manage to take so much as a step before WatchDog deployed three of the adhesive growing bullets at Dash's feet, pinning him in place. Recognizing the tech from Nomanisa, Mr. Incredible's face lit up, vindicated by the sight.

"THEY ARE WORKING TOGETHER!"

"Not now, Bob!" Elastigirl shouted back before she threw herself towards WatchDog who weaved out of the way in time to hit her with four of the pistol's ever-growing rounds. One on her elongated side that ended up folding over on top of the growing black ball, one to each of her hands and the other in the face.

WatchDog turned the gun then onto Mr. Incredible then but he already grabbed hold of the gun by the muzzle and was crushing it in his fist.

"Who's the Alpha Dog now?"

Having wasted precious seconds on that witty statement, WatchDog was already retaliating. A kick to the inside of his leg followed up by two devastating blows to the face. Mr. Incredible had his fair share of punches, but these hits felt like entire bricks colliding with his jaw. He stumbled back and Jack-Jack was leaping into the fight but WatchDog's boots lit up and they were taking off into the air after Syndrome.

Robert Parr watched with hateful eyes as the pair escaped, leaving the top of the tower in the aircraft that was parked there. He didn't know how Syndrome survived, but he was sure he knew someone who had answers.

The Incredible family, Winston Deavor, Apple, Rick Dicker and several other NSA agents were back on the penthouse floor of DevTech Tower, collecting all the evidence and information that they could on James Everett. Unfortunately, there wasn't much value to the info that they had. Everything was done by the books save for the false identity and the Home of Address was just a P.O. Box outside of the country.

Sitting at a table with a portable phone, Bob dialed the number that Rick had provided him with, doing his best not to crush the phone in his hand as he watched the agents deflate the bullets that were still attached to his family.

"Agent Mirage speaking,"

"Did you know?"

"Oh, hello Mr. Incredible. It's been a while since I've heard that voice of yours," Mirage said with a sickly pleasant voice, irritated that she was being accused of something from someone she would have considered a friend. "I hope the family is well, but you seem eager to get this call over with, so mind filling me in on what I should know?"

"That your boyfriend is still alive."

Mirage's eyes widened at the statement. That couldn't be true. Pinching the phone between her shoulder and her ear, Mirage began to search the NSA servers for the files on Buddy 'Syndrome' Pine. She had helped log every scrap of detail she could on the man, a task that took countless hours of her time, and a job that didn't garner her the trust she had hoped to gain. Instead of finding files she had helped create she came to a single message from the database.

'404 Error: Page Not Found'

"That motherfucker," Mirage hissed into the phone and she got a laugh on the other side of the line.

"Took the words right out of my mouth."

"I suppose you ran into him today? How many pieces is he in now?" Mirage asked, assuming that Mr. Incredible had finished what a turbine couldn't.

"He got away actually," Bob muttered as he turned his gaze to Winston and Rick who seemed to be in a very heated argument. I have a theory that your ex isn't done making robots, and I think that WatchDog is just a toy that he plays with." According to Winston's reports, the WatchDog's in person grabs match the days that Syndrome's alter ego was out of town."

"You don't say," Mirage mumbled as she began to type in some codes to track recent security anomalies. "To circle back to the beginning of our conversation, rest assured that I had no idea. But I do have good news for you."

"What's that?"

"I think I know how to find him. But before I give you that information I want you to promise me something."

"Depends on what it is, M," Bob said, passing a look to Helen who was finally released from Syndrome's tech.

"You let me get the first punch."

"Deal."


Entering his home, Buddy made his way towards the secret entrance of his sanctum.

"Pack only what you need. We leave in 15, and this isn't a discussion," he growled as an unmasked Violet chased after him

"We can still get ahead of this! We can go to the FBI and-"

"We can't do shit, Parr!" Buddy shouted, turning to face her. "I'm not sure if you realize this, but everybody who's in the NSA bad guy files, is also in the FBI bad guy files- And I haven't deleted my existence from that department yet. We're done. We had a good run, but hey, maybe in a decade or so from now, you can have another go, but as of now I am out!"

Violet's jaw unhinged slightly at the resignation of Buddy. As the elevator doors opened, Buddy walked straight into Violet's invisible force field. Cocking his head over his shoulder at her he narrowed his eyes before bringing out his best menacing smile.

"How did it feel to single handedly best your family. I mean I deserve some credit too, but I don't think your dad much appreciated WatchDog's involvement in my escape. We both already know that he wants me dead, but what do you think he'll do if he catches you, hmm?"

"We can still do this though! If we could just go to the press like I wanted for the SRA-"

"Who do you think the press is going to believe here, hmm? We come out swinging with the story of the century, that the government was killing super kids when it wasn't cool to be super, that might have worked last week- would have caused a shit show, but yeah, the media would have eaten it then, but if my name gets thrown out there, I am fucked. Do you hear me Vi? I will be screwed six ways by Sunday whenever my name gets leaked. I have your family to deal with, the NSA, the FBI, my current and former clients who need to cut the ties to save themselves, every fucking super that is remotely aware of what happened on Nomanisa-"

"I'll protect you," Violet said suddenly and Buddy's mouth went dry. How long ago was it that he cracked a joke that she wouldn't be his first choice as a bodyguard? Two months? Maybe more or less? Regardless of the timeline, he'd confidently say that he'd trust the super with his life, held more faith in her than any design he had come up with, but there was more to this problem.

"I won't let you," he found himself admitting. "You could get hurt, or worse."

"I'm capable of protecting both of us, thanks, or did you just forget that I managed to beat my family almost single handedly?"

"I'm not doubting your abilities, Parr. I know you can do it but I don't think you should do it. What if you mess up? What if you end up hurting someone you care about? Your family? A super you were chummy with? A civilian who is in the wrong place at the wrong time? Could you live with making a mistake like that again?"

Violet felt her heart twist at the insinuation. "It was an accident," she whispered back and Buddy moved closer to hold her face in his hands.

"And I'm a goddamn catastrophe, Violet. We can't fight this, okay? We can't. We had a good run but now we have to run... Run away with me."

Violet froze at the plea and shook her head tearfully.

"I can't."

"Please," he urged, stepping closer so that there was hardly any space between them. "I've got a hideaway in the Baltics- it's colder than I would like but nobody will ever find us there. I promise you'll never run out of books to read," he whispered as he kissed her cheek.

"I don't want to run or hide anymore, Buddy, I want to fight!"

"We can't stay in the open," he replied as he kissed her other cheek. "I know it's not what you want, and it's a far cry from my original intentions for you but damn it Violet. Please just let me win for once," Buddy breathed before kissing her lips fully.

Violet found herself caving, her lips reciprocating the desire that the villain was demanding.

"Who said you could break rule five?" Violet whispered bitterly as her hands went to his chest wanting to push him away but they instead clung to the business attire he wore.

"Just let me win, Vi," he begged between kisses. "Please, just let me get what I want this time."

Violet sobbed out as his lips came to her neck. She nodded furiously as she held him.

"Can we come to a compromise?" she rasped and Buddy pulled away just enough to look her in the eye. "You give me this last name. Okay Buddy Pine? You pull out this last name for me, no matter what it ends up being, you let me make sure that name ends up on a grave if it isn't already and I'll run away with you."

He wanted to say no but he knew it was the best deal he was going to get. He pulled her into the elevator with him and the pair descended, their lips not parting until the elevator doors opened again. He pulled away, this time and Violet tried to move with him but he held her back and shook his head.

"I'm going to start running the program to find your name with the recording from earlier. It's going to take a couple of hours so in the meantime start packing a bag, I'll be up soon," he said quickly before kissing her again and broke it off abruptly to run to the tech lab.

Violet watched him go until the doors were shut and she was on her way back up. She began cursing herself for falling in line so easily with him. He was manipulating her- wasn't he. All this time he had been ebbing her down, breaking down her walls little by little until it was all crashing down.

The doors opened again and Violet ran to her room, pulling the luggage case that was used for their vigilante getaways. She shoved whatever could fit, not caring about what outfits made it into the bag as she was coming to realize why she was willing to run away with him.

She could have killed him a hundred times over the last few weeks and he could have done the same to her in the weeks before that. She believed that she needed him for the tech stuff but she knew that he had built nearly everything so it could run on itself without him. She could have left him behind with her family but instead she fought them off for him.

She had every right to hate him. She had no reason in hell she should remotely trust him and yet here she was, two months in and knee deep in feelings for Syndrome.

There was a name for it that she had learned about in her criminal psychology course, wasn't there? When prisoners felt for their captors? It started with an S, after some city or town, and of course it ended with syndrome. But she hadn't been under lock and key for a few weeks- she tried to fight herself from feeling this way all the while wanting to hold onto this nearly forgotten sensation.

She couldn't like him this way. She wasn't looking for it and he didn't meet her basic qualifications in a significant other!

She wanted someone who was kind and understanding who had an IQ that was higher than two. That's what the bar was for the simple girl.

He met the last box for sure, the watch on her wrist was enough to prove that- but he was a killer, he wasn't kind or understanding!

He could be when he wanted to… Not that it should excuse him but he could be, and being kind is different than being nice. Being nice meant being polite or at least acting the part. Kindness meant putting the effort to care- and maybe she was biased now but it certainly looked like he cared. As for understanding, he had given her more say in how she could carry herself in the last month than most had given her in her entire life. They'd fight about it for sure, but he always heard her out.

She wanted to scream, and then she heard him at the door.

"Okay, ETA is about three hours for the name and then we can go- we just gotta hope that the boys and girls of the NSA aren't as fast as they used to be," Buddy said as he entered the room and looked to the single bag on the bed that wasn't even zipped up yet. "Parr, what are you waiting for? Let's pack up the jet and go," he ordered. He had a bug-out bag already waiting for him to go, it was just a matter of picking out what tech would come and what would stay to end up in smoke. "Violet?"

"Buddy, I can't go with you."

"Stop messing around. It's cold where we are going and I see you've got shorts in there."

"Buddy, can we just talk for a second-"

"Violet, we don't have time for this! You know what, actually it's fine, I can just order something for you to be ready at the cabin."

"Buddy, please-"

"What?! What is it?"

"Buddy, I love you."