I shakily clutched the phone against my ear and listened as it rang a few times. A brief sense of relief went through me when he picked up on the other end.

"Parr residence, Robert speaking," Bob answered.

"Hey, honey," I greeted.

"Oh! Hey Helen," he replied cheerfully. "I was wondering where you were. Figured you'd be home by now."

"Yeah, I know. Just ran into some… unexpected delays."

"Oh? What do you mean?"

Yes, what do I mean? I had to think fast. "Well… I… I mean, that Mom and Dad actually called…"

"Oh boy, your parents. What's up with them?"

"Well uh,... Mom's feeling a bit under the weather. And with Dad out working, she's kind of need of someone to take care of her."

"Ah, I see."

"But it shouldn't be too long," I added hurriedly. "A few days at most, until she can see a doctor."

"Right, that's fine. I understand, I know how it is. Duty calls!"

"Heh-heh, yep." I giggled at the enthusiasm in his voice. "How was your day today?"

"Eh, not too bad. Jack-Jack has been pretty stable with his powers. Dash did all his homework. Vi even got to work a full shift with Doc Sunbright. It's been a challenge trying to get the lab set back to its old self after those goons looted the place last week."

I nodded, remembering the ski-masked for that we brought into custody that night. "Well, I feel bad for Doc Sunbright, but I'm impressed you got Violet to get through an afternoon of work."

"Well," Bob chuckled, "it certainly wasn't easy. Vi's been very moody… I take it she's still having a hard time letting Xander go."

I nodded. "Just try to give her some space. She'll snap out of it soon."

"I sure hope so. I already miss you," he said softly.

"I know sweetie. I miss you too. But I'll be home in just a couple of days. I mean, you know how my parents are…"

"Ohhh boy do I," he muttered. "I don't think either of them really ever warmed up to me, especially your dad!"

"Exactly! That's why I didn't want you to come! You and the kids are much better off at home while I take care of this…"

"I understand, honey. You watch your parents, and I'll watch our kids."

"All right. Stay safe. I'll check in with you tomorrow."

"All right. I'm about to tuck the kids into bed and hit the sack myself. Love you, honey"

"I love you too. 'Night"

I almost slammed the receiver down, sighing in relief. The first challenge was over. Next to me, I could feel Mirage's eyes glowering.

"Well done." She said. "I almost believed you myself"

"Shut up" I hissed, shoving a finger only a few inches from her face. She had no right to be judging me.

She put her hands up defensively. "No need to get angry, Mrs. Incredible. It was a compliment!"

"Complimenting me on lying to my husband isn't a compliment." I distracted myself by monitoring the settings on the plane's dashboard. "Auto-pilot is locked in. Weather reports are all clear. It should be an uneventful flight." I paused for a moment, side-eyeing her. "Provided no one shoots any… I don't know…. Missiles at us."

She scoffed, crossing her arms. "That's not fair."

I gave her a hard look. "You're right. There's no children on this plane. So why would anyone want to blow it up?"

"That wasn't me, it was Syndrome!" She insisted. Her tone sounded like that of a young child, pouting about something that she didn't want to admit was wrong. She was probably a child when the Super ban went into effect, I thought bitterly, well-aware of her youth. Her voice brought my attention back.

"And I didn't - "

"Don't start!" I said, raising my voice. "I already have a pretty good idea of what you did do." I ran down the list. "You seduced my husband into a secret life of adventure. You persuaded him to lie to me and to our kids. Whatever it was you supposedly didn't do, it doesn't mitigate what you did do."

I expected a stronger reaction from her, but she only sat there staring at me with a rather unimpressed look. "Hypocrite" she muttered.

I was taken aback. "What?!"

She sat up in her seat."Oh let's see… Since I happen to know we're not on the way to visit your parents, and I know that you just lied to your husband and kids, you can get right off your imaginary high horse and stop acting like you're so much better than me! Okay?"

"This is different" I insisted, though her claims against me were pretty glaring. Now I was starting to sound like the child.

She dismissed me with a wave of her hand. "Whatever."

"This is Xerex! Bob can't know that Xerex is back. He just can't!"

Mirage scoffed again. "I don't see why not. In fact, I argued with the agency that Mr. Incredible should be the one to handle this mission." She looked pointedly at me while she explained, though I kept my mouth shut and suppressed the anger boiling inside me. "Why it was given to you instead…"

"Xerex is my ex-boyfriend!" I finally burst out, unable to contain it any longer.

Mirage seemed indifferent to the reveal. What was with her?!

She shook her head. "I don't believe you."

"Well it's true, okay?" I winced, briefly recounting our relationship. I'd met him about a year before Bob, and we'd been together for a bit of time before anybody had found out about what he'd really been doing. "I was young. He was a famous humanitarian. No one knew he was also a criminal - "

"No… I mean… how can you sit there and judge me for working with Syndrome?" She chuckled in disbelief. "The whole thing just exposes more of your hypocrisy."

I threw my hands in the air in exasperation. "Oh, I don't know why I told you in the first place! Look, it was different!" It was!... somehow.

"It's always different when it's you, isn't it?!"

I wanted to continue the talk, explain how I wasn't aware of the man's malicious schemes, before I could retort, our conversation was cut short at the blaring sound of the plane's alarm. We both gasped at the same time.

"Missiles!" Mirage shouted, pointing urgently at the radar. Four white specks of light were converging directly toward the large white dot in the middle.

"What?!" I exclaimed, more surprised if anything. I was only joking before about missiles. This can't be happening again!

"They're coming in fast… two… no… three…"

I half-heard as she spoke, my hand reaching for the dashboard of the plane.

"I've activated the auto-pilot…" I said.

"But the missiles are coming in too fast! We can't - "

WHAP! My hand went across her cheek with a hard smacking sound that resonated in the little compartment. Boy did that feel good to do.

She instantly cradled her cheek from the blow. "What was that for?!"

"You were hysterical," I lied.

"No I wasn't!"

I ignored her. "It was pre-emptive. Come on!" I unbuckled my seatbelt and rose from the seat.

"We should be flying the plane! Those missiles - "

WHAP!

I was starting to like this.

"Stop slapping me!" she whined, her other cheek now beginning to mark with redness.

I wanted to laugh, but time was running out, and the beeping at the control panel continued, making our escape more urgent. "Maybe later. In!" and with that we both jumped into the escape pod and flung ourselves out from the sky. I heard the missiles collide with the plane moments later, the deafening noise being followed by the debris falling dangerously all around us. Thankfully, the pod landed in the water without so much as a scratch. Luck was favoring me once more.