Sudden Impulse

Helen began preparing for her interview early on Saturday, the next morning. Clad in her best suit and carrying with a record of her past small jobs and college education, she bid her family farewell at roughly eight o'clock in the living room. "Take care of the kids, Bob," she murmured as she planted a quick kiss on his cheek and handed over Jack-Jack. "This is going to be your first few hours watching them by yourself…so make sure that nothing bad happens or that anyone engages in any hazardous activity while I'm away, okay? No pressure."

"Yeah," Bob replied uneasily. "Nothing bad. No hazardous activities. No pressure…got it. Well, have a good day at…my work, honey." He returned the kiss, and Helen gave him one last grateful grin before leaving.

As soon as the door was closed Violet and Dash turned around and began to walk away.

"I'm going outside."

"I'm going to my room."

But before they could get away Jack-Jack gave in to a horrible sneeze. A jet of fire and steam exploded out of his mouth and hit the carpet, scorching it straight to the floorboards. Bob realized in horror that the baby he was holding was beginning to turn a bright red color. He hastily sat him down on the couch, only to have him sneeze again and set more flames to accompany the first.

"Does that kid have a cold or something?" Violet yelled with annoyance as she and Dash rushed to their father's aid. Violet did the first thing that she could think of to do and produced a force field around the fire. Unfortunately Jack-Jack had another hacking cough and emitted another fireball, which was deflected off of the force field and thrown into the wall. Bits of plaster and chipped paint burned off of the wall and littered the floor as the flame flickered restlessly.

"Smooth, Einstein!" Dash snapped angrily.

"Damn!" Violet cursed as she withdrew the force field.

"Don't say damn," Bob scolded as he picked up Jack-Jack again and sped into the kitchen to retrieve as much water as he could. He sat Jack-Jack in his high chair, grabbed a large plastic bucket, put it in the sink and filled it to the top with water. He returned to the living room to see Dash and Violet proceeding to beat each other up in the middle of the floor dangerously close to the fire.

"Don't you dare hit me!"

"Ow! Quit pulling my hair!"

"Stop! That tickles!"

"I'm going to KILL you!"

"Not if I kill you first!"

"Stop killing each other! And don't roll into the fire!" Bob cried out in dismay. He grabbed them both by the shirt collars and cast them all the way to the staircase in one throw. Then he heaved the bucket of water at the fire with such force that it smothered it almost instantly. He ran back to the kitchen, came back with more water, and attacked the spot on the wall, luckily ending up with the same result.

Bob put the bucket down on the floor. He looked around the room sadly, because of the large burn marks in the carpet and wall. He went back to the kitchen to get Jack-Jack, and sighed with relief when he found that he was back to normal and wasn't sneezing or coughing. "Don't think that this was your fault, all right Jack?" he said as he picked the baby boy up. "You can't control your powers yet. Besides that, you have a cold. But don't worry, when you grow and gain more control we'll find out how to beat it before it gets this bad."

Jack-Jack simply grinned his baby grin and gurgled happily.

For the next few hours Bob, Violet, and Dash hovered around the kitchen while Jack-Jack napped in his room, nervously awaiting the arrival of the Lady-Of-The-House. When she did come, Bob got up and went to greet her while Dash zipped up the stairs and Violet went into her invisible state before she followed him. The two of them didn't want to be around when Helen reached the living room.

"Hi honey! Uh, while you were gone, something happened that wasn't exactly in our complete—" Bob's voice began.

"WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED IN HERE?!"

A/N: That's it for chapter two. Nothing much to say, except I should probably mention:

DISCLAIMER: I do not, nor plan to, own the Incredibles. If I did, I wouldn't get the same fun out of writing fanfiction as I usually do. :0)