The Incredibles - Incredible life

By BenRG

Disclaimer

The Incredibles were created by Disney/PIXAR. They are the trademark property of their creators. This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the World Wide Web.

Author's Notes

This story starts as the rubble settles and the Parr family can, at last, relax after the most horrible few days of their lives. This story is fairly plot-free. Basically, it is an attempt to answer the question of where the Parrs will go from here. Will they take up the mask and the spandex again? Will they be 'relocated' again? And what kind of future awaits the kids?

There will be some familiar faces here and a few new ones. You may see stuff that is strongly reminiscent of other 'The Incredibles' fan-fictions. This is not cheap plagiarism (honest!). The fact is that the other authors inspired me. Without their imagination, this story would not exist.

I think that I may have inadvertently misled my readers somewhat in the previous chapter. Helen doesn't have anything particular against Normals. However, she has a lot against Normals who fear and try to suppress the Super community while still expecting it to be there to fight for them against extraordinary threats. She also has little patience for fools, as you might have guessed from the movie.

You will see a demonstration of how much trust she puts in certain Normals in this chapter.

Censor: PG (Fantasy violence and teen emotional angst)

Chapter 1 – Harder Than It Looks

It was the morning after the night before and, if Dash Parr had thought that a life as a costumed adventurer was a romantic ideal lifestyle, he was about to get a rude awakening. Literally.

"Okay, Dash, honey! Time to get up!"

Dash, like most children, was long attuned to reacting to his mother's words and so his mind snapped out of sleep immediately. "Huh?" The boy blinked at his surroundings in a disoriented way, unused to the hotel room where he was currently staying. He blinked up at his mother's familiar face, framed with her auburn hair. "Is it time to get ready for school, Mom?"

Helen grinned down at her oldest son. "No, Dash. At least not your usual school. We're starting a special schooling today, just for you and Violet."

That was enough to make Dash's mind engage. The agreements of the previous day suddenly came rushing back into his mind and he realised that this was the day that he had been longing for since his first conscious awareness that he was somehow different from the other kids in his class at school. Today was the day that his parents would start training him (and his sister, although that didn't register too much in his mind) to be a Superhero.

For once in his life, Dash didn't allow anything to slow down his super-fast morning routine. He was washed, dressed, groomed and in the top floor dining area set aside by the Sheraton company almost before his mother could walk the ten yards there from his bedroom.

Much to Dash's disgust, his sister was already there. Like a lot of teenage girls, Violet was going through a 'healthy eating' thing. Personally, Dash would never understand why anyone would select muesli (or 'squirrel food', as he preferred to think of it) over bacon & eggs or even (his favourite), pancakes with plenty of golden syrup. Dash used his super speed to start shovelling this morning's breakfast, toasted bagels with virtually all the selection of spreads that one could imagine, into his mouth as fast as possible.

Violet couldn't help but grimace at her younger brother's gastronomic haste. "That is too gross for words!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that you're slow in the mornings!"

"This early in the morning, no one is meant to be fast," Violet remarked, pointing over her shoulder to a wall clock that read… 6:30am. Dash had to admit to himself that it was pretty early, but he didn't see any reason why that should slow down how fast he ate his breakfast. "No coffee for Dash this morning, Mom," Violet said to her mother, who was sipping on the liquid wake-up call in question.

"He'll get juice, just like you young lady," Helen replied from where she was leaning against the wall near the table with all the food piled on it ready to be served.

At that point Bob entered, wearing tracksuit pants and a gym top that showed a lot of his broad, muscled chest. Helen's eyebrows went up and she realised, much to her relief, that fifteen years hadn't lessened her physical attraction to her husband by one bit. "Morning, Bob!" Was there a little bit of a growl in her voice?

Bob grinned at his wife's reaction to his work-out clothes. "Morning, honey. Morning, kids!" Bob walked over to Helen to give her a kiss. Then he sat down and picked up some bagels of his own. He buttered one and put on some marmalade then placed the plate in front of Violet, much to the girl's clear surprise. "You might want to eat some heavy stuff today, Princess," he said in a tone that didn't encourage debate. "You'll need all the energy that you can get today."

Violet shrugged and did as her father asked. One bagel wasn't the end of the world, after all, and it would be worth it.

"So Dad, what are we doing today?" Dash was clearly impatient. "Do you want to measure how fast I can run, or teach me some tricks to use my speed for other stuff?"

"Nah, plenty of time for that later," Bob replied. "You've got to learn the basic stuff, first."

"The basic stuff?" Dash was confused.

"Basic unarmed combat and self defence," Helen explained. She had to laugh at her children's expressions. "Yeah, who needs it, right? We're Supers! Well, let me tell you a secret, kids. Your powers will only take you so far and, if you can't fight without them, then you might as well not have them at all!" Helen suddenly levered herself off the wall and walked over to Bob. Figuring that he knew what his wife was thinking of, he stood up and walked over to meet her. "Physical power isn't everything, you know," she commented.

Bob suddenly lunged towards his wife. Helen didn't react by using her stretching powers; rather, she turned against Bob's charge, grabbed a hand and threw the huge man over her shoulder to the ground. The impact seemingly made the whole building shake. With a single fluid move, Helen moved her grip to Bob's shoulders, flipped him over so he was face down, jumped astride of him and had him in a headlock. "One twitch and I break his neck," Helen said dryly. "All without one single use of my powers."

Helen released Bob and stood up. Bob smiled at his wife and, almost too quick for even Dash to follow, he swept her feet out from underneath her with a low kick and, in a moment, had her pinned with her arms behind her back. "If you can't do this, and if you can't counter it, you are in big trouble from the first moment that you get into a fight," Helen said, still managing to sound like a teacher for all she was practically buried under Bob's bulk. "Thank you dear, I'm sure that you will have fun counting my bruises tonight."

Bob leapt to his feet, surprisingly nimble for such a huge man. "Hey, I wasn't going to let you have all the fun, honey."

Violet and Dash's eyes were practically bugging out at this point. The two kids' eyes met. "Do you think that we are going to hurt tonight?" Dash squeaked to his elder sister. Violet just shrugged, her eyes very wide.

After arranging for a baby-sitter for Jack-Jack (a woman in dark glasses who the kids bet was a NSA agent), the family set off in the mini-van for the older part of Metroville.

"So, how did you get exclusive use of this gym, Dad?" Violet had changed into a gymnast's slip and was standing barefoot on a training mat in the middle of the main training area of what looked like an old boxing school in a run-down neighbourhood.

"Well, you can't be a superhero for eight years straight without picking up the occasional contact here and there," Bob explained modestly. "Besides, this place is owned by someone that you might know."

"We do?" Dash started looking around him as if the mystery owner would suddenly materialise out of thin air. "Who?"

"Impatient as ever, huh kid?" asked a familiar voice.

"Uncle Lucius!" Dash and Violet cried out simultaneously and ran over to greet their father's oldest friend. Linus Best, aka Frozone, grinned as the two kids slammed into him for a hug.

"Hey there little Supers! Are you loose?"

"Is this your gym, Uncle?" Violet asked, her usual shyness absent thanks to excitement and anticipation.

"Well… almost…" Lucius said with his best 'mystery man' expression.

"You could say it belongs to his better half," a warm, feminine, chocolate-toned voice purred.

"Aunt Honey…! Er… Is it?" Violet's confusion was well-founded. Lucius' wife had stepped out of the shadows, where the girl was certain that she had been since the Parrs had entered the training area. Instead of her usual casual or formal wear, the woman was wearing a black, leather-like figure-hugging armoured jump-suit. The woman's long, braided hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, giving her face a severe and dangerous aspect. The hairs on the back of the girl's neck rose as she took in the various blunt and edged implements of violence holstered in various parts of the costume, ranging from a Japanese katana sword slung over her back to a selection of shuriken throwing stars attached to her wrist guards.

Dash, seeing Honey Best wearing what looked like a superhero's costume, came to the obvious conclusion. "You're a Super! Wow! I never knew!"

"Wrong, child," the woman purred in her smooth Alabama tones. "I'm a Normal. Not that that's gonna make your lives any easier."

Dash shot his mother and father a rather annoyed look. "I thought that we were going to learn how to fight?"

"And you are, Dash," Helen said. "Honey is one of the best fighters on earth, Normal or Super."

Dash looked sceptical. Violet probably felt the same way, in Honey's view, but she was a lot more polite and wasn't about to sneer at a family friend. "I tell you what, kids," Honey said with a dangerous smile, "let's see what you can do. Dump me on mah butt and we'll say that I don't have anything to show you."

Dash shrugged. "Well, I need a workout to loosen up anyway." The boy looked at his sister. "Just like the guards on the island?" Violet nodded. The girl shimmered and vanished (her gym wear had been treated with Edna's invisibility-reactive chemicals). Dash hopped from foot to foot and suddenly lanced forwards.

Their strategy was simple – the kids had already tried this and it had worked – Dash would act as a distraction, while Violet would sneak up and blindside the bad guy. This proven tactic worked on Honey right up until the two of them got within three feet of her. Honey took up a strange, almost balletic posture, one hand held up for balance and the other touching the hilt of her katana. As Dash shot towards her on his distraction run, the woman suddenly pirouetted, dropping down low, a set of nunchucks unfolding from her outstretched hand and knocking the boy's legs from underneath him. Dash tumbled through the air with a cry of surprise and pain, but Honey was still moving. Her katana flashed from its' over-the-back scabbard, made a silver arc through the air and a suddenly-visible Violet stood, frozen, the razor-sharp blade poised against the side of her neck.

"Leave my sister alone!" Dash charged right for Honey. The mocha-skinned woman back-flipped away from the super-fast charge. As Dash arced around, still accelerating, he saw four flashes of silvery light leaving Honey's free hand, not heading towards him… but towards where he was going! Dash's reaction time was blindingly fast, but Honey's aim had been so precise that he was only able to dodge three of the four projectiles. There was a tearing sound and the three shuriken nailed him to the wall of the gym, one over the right shoulder and the other two either side of his body.

Violet had taken the opportunity of a five-second distraction as Honey handled her brother to assemble her force shield and charge the woman, hoping to knock her flat bowling-pin style. Honey swung to face the oncoming girl, her normally warm and expressive face an icy mask of concentration. Much to Violet's shock, Honey was leading with her sword. The weapon touched the exact front of the shield bubble… and a combination of its tiny surface area and low relative energy allowed it right through! Violet braked before the katana could spit her like a kebab. Violet tried to back-pedal, but was so off-balance that she fell on her backside, Honey following with her sword to keep its tip pressed against the girl's breastbone.

"Slow blade bites deeper, darlin'," Honey murmured with a dangerous smile. "Bang! You and your bro are both dead!" Honey reached out with her other hand to pull a pale and trembling Violet to her feet. Then, with an understandable swagger, she walked over to Dash to unpin him from the wall. "Sorry, Dash, honey. I guess I ruined yuh tee-shirt."

"I've got more of them," Dash said, sounding awed. "But… WOW! Where did you learn to fight like that, Aunt Honey?"

"Well, that is how your Uncle Lucius and I met, kiddo!"

"Yeah," Lucius said. "She was an assassin when we first met; one of the best. Fortunately, I was able to teach her the error of her ways and the rest is history!"

Honey snorted and shot her husband an intimate look. "I kicked your ass, ice-boy. However, I wasn't ready for mah employer to turn out to be such a creep!" She turned back to Dash. "He decided that I was a little too smart and honourable for his liking, so he drugged me and hung me up in th' Gator Pit right next to your Uncle Lucius. The two of us together broke out and handed the creep over to the Feds. I decided to hang out with Lucius, to keep him outa trouble, you understand, and, as the man says, the rest is history!"

The woman swaggered over to her husband and the two exchanged a kiss that made a recovering Violet go bright red and made Dash mime retching. "But if you want to know who taught me to fight, it was this guy – a halfblooded Japanese, I think – called Bill. He had his own dojo, that's a school of oriental fighting techniques, kids. What most people didn't know was that he trained assassins! I wasn't even the best – there was this blonde chick that he really dug. He'd go crazy jealous if a guy even looked at her!" Honey shook her head. "Man, that always makes her so mad! She'll kill Bill one of these days!"

Dash was suitably impressed. "Wow!" he said again. "So you are going to teach us how to fight like that?"

"'Course not," Honey replied. "Everyone has their own ideal fighting style, which they have to learn all by themselves; Yours will probably incorporate your powers in some ways. I'm just going to teach you the basic techniques of unarmed combat and how to beat various kinds of attack and weapon."

"Great!" Dash looked as if he expected her to start right away.

Honey grinned. "Not so fast, Speedster! First, you are going to have to learn to move."

"Move?" Violet sounded surprised.

"Yep, honey-child, how to move. You can't just take up judo in one day! You've got to loosen up your muscles first!"

For all Honey insisted that they were just 'loosening up', the kids were sore by lunchtime after an intensive beginner's course in Tai Chi. Then came the entertainment. Honey went up against their father and mother, plus Lucius. The woman could move almost as fast as Dash when she put her mind to it. Furthermore, it was pretty clear that the four of them had sparred like this before, so they all had a clear familiarity with the others' moves.

What impressed the kids was that, even when they started using their powers, the three adult Supers were having a hard time trying to bring Honey down. Heck, it was difficult getting past the whirling web of steel and wood that her weapons were creating around her. It wasn't until their mother somehow managed to dodge around the various arcs of motion and used herself as a living net to tangle the agile Normal's limbs that Bob was able to get close enough to get Honey in a bear hug. Then Lucius froze the heels of his wife's boots to the floor and it was all over.

"Hey, Dash?"

"Yeah, Sis?"

"Did you see the way Mom and Dad were moving?"

Dash nodded. "Aunt Honey could barely connect with them! Mom might have used her powers to help her dodge, but they weren't as much help as I thought they'd be, and I never knew that Dad could move like that!"

"And that cool trick when Dad used a super-strong clap to knock those throwing knives from the air! I never knew that was possible!" Violet added, as excited as her brother.

Bob smiled as he helped Honey unstick her boots from the floor. "And that's the point, kids," he said at last. "Our powers are a tool to use when we're fighting, but they are only part of the arsenal, not all of it. That is why you are learning these skills for yourselves."

The two youngsters nodded. For the first time, they were beginning to realise exactly what being a superhero really involved.

That evening, the older Parr children were in an excited state, for all they were as sore as they were the previous night. Under Honey's expert direction, they had learnt to stretch their limbs and muscles in ways that they hadn't even believed possible previously. "It was a good start today, kids," Bob announced to his family as they ate dinner. "You should be proud of how you handled yourselves today. Honey was impressed too, I could tell."

"Heck, we didn't even last fifteen seconds," Dash remarked as he stirred his potatoes around on his plate.

"Most people don't last five," Helen remarked as she fed some pureed carrot in to Jack-Jack's mouth. The super-powered baby giggled but, for once, didn't make a show of not swallowing his dinner.

Violet had already decided that Honey was now her second biggest hero after her mother. "Did Aunt Honey teach you and Mom to fight too, Dad?"

"Heck, no," Bob chuckled. "We started in the business years before Linus first met her." Bob ate some of his steak before continuing. "I was in the school boxing team, and also in the football team as a quarterback. I learnt how punch, how to block and, more importantly, how to dodge there. The rest I learnt the hard way as I gained experience."

"I was in the gymnastics team at high school," Helen revealed as she wiped Jack-Jack's face and gave her baby a sip of water. "You probably can still see the forms of floor gymnastics in a lot of my moves. I discovered karate and judo a few years after I started in the super-heroics business and incorporated it into my fighting style." Helen turned to face her older children before continuing. "You kids are lucky that you won't have to learn too much the hard way. Your father and I decided that you would have the basic skills before you start out. We had to take the lumps and the pain to learn how to defend ourselves on the streets."

There was a thoughtful pause before Dash spoke. "So, are we going to be training with Aunt Honey every day now?"

Helen shook her head. "I'm afraid not, kids. The schools will be reopening next Monday now that the post-Omni Droid cleanup is finished. You will be going right back to classes; we'll fit your special training into your evenings… assuming that you get your homework finished on time."

"What?" Dash dropped his fork.

"Mom!" Violet couldn't help blurt out.

"What, you thought that we were going to let you drop out?" Bob asked, his brows arching up his forehead. Dash and Violet looked at each other in a way that suggested that neither of them had really been thinking about school at all. Since Bob's second departure for Nomanisan Island (my God, was that only four days ago?), their normal lives had been on hold. It had almost been as if their everyday existences had come to an end when they had put on their costumes and gone to the airfield where the aeroplane that Helen had obtained had been waiting.

"It sucks, having to go to school like nothing has changed," Dash complained in a sulky tone.

"That's the whole point of a 'secret identity'," Helen said, keeping an amused smile from her face. "You two are going to go right on leading 'normal' lives, as far as everyone else is concerned, anyway. Like I told you, if you want to be superheroes, that is going to be a separate life. On one hand, we have Violet and Dash Parr and on the other hand, with no hint of any connection between them, we have…" Helen paused and looked at her two kids. "Who are you anyway?"

Violet looked at Dash and suddenly felt a hand grab her heart. "You want us to choose our code-names now?" The girl looked stunned.

Dash didn't hesitate for a second, which was appropriate really. "I'm The Dash!" Dash announced.

Bob and Helen grinned. "And no one will question why you have the same name as a boy who, by a curious coincidence, looks exactly like you?" Bob asked.

Dash flushed with embarrassment. Now someone had actually said it, it did sound a bit dumb. "I didn't think about that," he admitted quietly. "Er… I dunno, I suppose." The boy paused and thought for a moment before being hit by an inspiration. "What was it that Aunt Honey called me…? Oh yeah. She called me 'Speedster'. That is the name I'll use. I'm The Speedster!" The boy looked proud and slightly nervous, looking towards his parents for approval.

Bob nodded in approval. "That's good, son. It fits your powers while being nice and cryptic too." The big man turned to his daughter. "What about you, princess?"

Violet smiled in a shy way. "I've always know what I would call myself from the first moment that I vanished while trying to do my hair in the mirror one morning." The girl sat up slightly straighter, sensing how important this moment was. "I am InvisiGirl." Violet turned to her mother with a slightly impish grin. "Just so that everyone knows who my mother is."

Helen had to exert all her will not to start bawling at hearing that. Instead she stood over, walked over to Violet to take her hands. "Honey, you do not know how incredibly proud that hearing that makes me."

Bob smiled and stepped around the table so that he could put his hands on both of his older children's shoulders. "InvisiGirl and The Speedster," he said with a big smile. "Welcome to The Incredibles."

That night, Helen and Bob lay in bed together. The woman held onto her husband, cushioning her head against his broad chest. "Bob?"

"Hmmm?"

"Are we wrong, doing this?" Bob quirked an eyebrow and looked at his wife. "I mean, Dash is ten and shouldn't be worrying about anything other than playing with his toy racers and throwing spit balls at girls. Violet is thirteen and should only be worrying about acne, fashion and boys. Instead we are training them to fight as part of a war on crime! Are we crazy or just bad parents?"

Bob sighed. "Helen, right now, we are just teaching them to survive with their powers." Bob considered his next words carefully. "How did you feel, during the past fifteen years, when something was happening, you knew that you could do something but that you weren't allowed to?"

"I tried not to think about it. It was hard, though, Bob. I felt like I was going crazy some days."

Bob nodded. "The kids must feel the same way, Helen. Dash, especially, has been straining at the leash since his powers first manifested themselves. Violet is suffering just as bad from not being allowed to use her abilities; she's just better at hiding these things." Bob hugged Helen a bit harder. "Helen, I am convinced that if we don't give them a controlled outlet for their need to use their powers, they would eventually do so in an uncontrolled way. At least this way, they will have the chance to understand their powers and decide if they want to really do this. We don't tell them yes or no, we let them experience and know whether they want to do this for the rest of their lives."

Helen nodded. "I worry, Bob."

"I do to, love. They are still my kids, you know. It will be difficult, in a fight, keeping an eye on them and doing the job. That is why we are training them, so that, when the time comes, they can look after themselves."

Helen smiled. "You are a lot smarter than you look, you know," she said with a slow smile.

"Thanks, I think," Bob muttered.

There was another long pause before Helen spoke again. "Bob?"

"Hmmm?"

"Does your healing factor still work?"

"Of course it does! What kind of question is that?"

Helen suddenly swung herself up on top of her husband wearing a feral smile. "I just wanted to make sure that you are all healed after that fight; I just fell in love with you all over again and want to make sure that you know it." There was an ultra-flexible motion as only ElastiWoman could do and Helen's negligée fluttered to the floor.

"Oh boy!"

And so the days continued and lengthened into weeks.

Dash and Violet were soon back at school. If their classmates noticed any obvious difference in the two youngsters' demeanour, it was easy to explain it away as the lasting affects of having a psychotic super villain break into your house and try to kidnap your baby brother.

However, both young people were progressing with their training and it showed.

Violet's friends, Lisa (the wannabe cheerleader) and Claire (the super-nerd) both immediately found that, if they weren't looking directly at the dark-haired girl, they would have trouble determining where she was as she had stopped making a sound as she walked. Honey had mentioned that she had spotted Violet while she was invisible because she could hear the girl's movements, so she taught her young god-daughter how to go completely undetectable to the human senses.

Violet had also gained a great deal of poise and self-confidence. Suddenly knowing who and what you are and realising that you are not a 'freak' who should be ashamed of an aspect of your fundamental nature can make a world of difference to a teenager's emotional balance. Suddenly, Violet was a bright, outgoing girl; still quiet, but no longer vanishing if someone looked directly at her. One person who noticed the difference was one Tony Rydinger, who found himself wondering how he could have previously not noticed the dark-haired, pale-skinned girl whose movements seemed to become more and more like dance steps with every passing day.

Dash, too, seemed to change. His principal noticed with relief that the boy seemed to have gained a certain degree of discipline and the ability to think through his actions in advance. He put it down to the boy's mother having finally permitted him to join the school athletics team, giving him an outlet for his boundless energy. Everyone noticed that Dash had also lost a lot of his former sullen demeanour. It was as if someone had released some pressure on the boy's mind, letting him break free from some emotional prison. Heck! He had even slowed down somewhat! His teachers noticed that the boy had stopped his continual fidgeting.

Dash had a near-miss with authority when he beat up the worst bully in his grade, a boy named Moe, who was infamous for extorting money from smaller kids. Still, although the principal would not tolerate fighting, he couldn't fault Dash's desire to help those less fortunate than himself. He also hoped that the boy's increasing maturity and responsibility would also act as a positive influence on his circle of friends who had previously been known as the underachievers in his grade.

Dash had loudly attributed to these changes to a 'keep fit' regime that his parents had suddenly inflicted on his sister and him. Violet wasn't as talkative, but she clearly was suddenly stronger and fitter. Lisa had even let it be known that her friend had gained a 'six-pack' and could quite easily lift even large piles of books.

As the two youngsters got on with their everyday lives, in the evenings came the preparations for the future. After teaching the two Parr kids stealth, the ability to dodge, roll with blows and move in a way that prevented blows from falling in the first place, Honey went on to teach them offensive moves. They learnt how to knock down an enemy quickly and decisively, how to disarm any opponent and how to optimise the level of force used so that you could disable without injuring or killing.

As their physical training began to reach its conclusion, Bob and Helen took over, helping the kids evaluate and experiment with their powers. Bob, whose powers were more physical, taught Dash to use his speed in unexpected ways, creating vortexes of wind and water and even using speed to penetrate surmount seemingly impassable barriers. Helen, meanwhile, spent time helping Violet use her abilities in new ways, learning how to understand the sensations caused by her powers and use those sensations to change the manifestation of those powers. In a short time, the girl was creating shaped force fields of many kinds for different purposes.

Next came a visit to their parents' friend and mentor, the fashion guru and superhero technologist Edna Mode. Edna was an eccentric, as anyone who knew the woman would say. However, she understood the needs of a Super. Based on the descriptions of the battles on Nomanisan Island and the subsequent battle against the Omni Droid in the financial district, she had modified the Incredibles' costumes. All of them now had utility equipment of various types scattered over their costumes in pouches on gloves, boots and belts.

Dash's costume changed the least, apart from a modified mask that extended around his head to cover his ears – the boy had complained that the slipstream when he was travelling at high speeds made it impossible to hear. Edna had also modified his boots to include ultra-high traction treads that, theoretically, should allow the boy to run up sheer vertical surfaces when travelling at high speeds.

Violet's costume now included a wide variety of bugs and sensing apparatus that fed into displays in the girl's mask. Edna had cannily realised the girl's powers lent themselves to reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. These modifications would allow the girl to see in total darkness and hear even the quietest footsteps. Further modifications to the materials of the suit would minimise her own vulnerability to sensors that might not be fooled by her invisibility.

Helen's costume now included a selection of fold-out tools that the woman could use to disable electronic locks and open ventilation grids with ease. Helen did not intend to get caught in any automatic doors again any time soon! Helen also had contact suction cups added to the palms of her gloves and the soles of her boots, increasing her ability to scale surfaces when there were insufficient handholds for even a woman of her legendary flexibility.

Bob's costume had received another layer of collision-absorbing armour, including especially thick wrist and shin guards to allow him to block even the strongest blow without difficulty. Based on a special request from the big man, Edna also included electromagnetic induction coils in the gloves and boots to allow Bob to break any mechanical form of restraint (from spherical electromagnetic restraints up to the largest claw of the largest Omni Droid) with greater ease.

"Darling, you will be careful with those…! What am I saying, of course you will! Edna knows you well enough now!"

Bob looked up from where he was memorising the controls of the induction coils on his right glove. "Is there a problem with these things?" he asked. Edna was good, but her definition of 'irrelevant glitch' could be painful for the unprepared.

"No, no!" Edna replied, gesturing with her cigarette holder. "No, they are just a little more powerful than my usual creations." The little woman took one look at Helen's expression and decided that elaborating might be healthy. "Electromagnetic pulses can… how does one say it…? They have an irritatingly destructive effect on complex electronics. Who knows what you may break you clumsy boy?"

Bob grinned, imagining an Omni Droid shorting out and collapsing in on itself like a giant constructor set. "That isn't a problem, Edna."

Edna smiled in her usual, disturbing fashion. "It is if you are on a 'plane with an electronic robot pilot, darling."

Was it really only three months? Sometimes, Violet felt as if it were a lifetime. Now, she stood on the rooftop of an uptown Metroville skyscraper with her mother. Somewhere to the north, her father was standing on a similar rooftop with her brother, ready to carry out the final test to see if all the effort had been worth it.

"Honey, are you awake?"

InvisiGirl shook her head. She could go wool-gathering on her own time. Tonight, the stakes were real. "I'm ready ElastiWoman," she announced quietly. "Let's do this."

ElastiWoman smiled slightly. "Let's go," she commanded her daughter. The woman turned and ran forwards. Upon reaching the edge of the roof, she extended her legs, allowing her to bridge the 40-foot gap in a single stride. Just a few paces behind her, InvisiGirl crouched, jumped and leapt over the abyss. Reaching out with her will, the girl created an invisible force-field 'slide' connected to the other roof, which she surfed down to reach the rooftop. From roof to roof, the incredible mother and daughter pairing raced onwards until they heard a scream.

"Down in the alleyway," ElastiWoman snapped, turning on a heel. A quick look revealed a woman in the alley, surrounded by three knife-wielding thugs. Who knew what nefarious aims that they had in mind? ElastiWoman dived off of the roof, extending her arms ahead of her to grab an air conditioning unit half way down to break her fall. InvisiGirl leapt over too, creating a force-field bubble around her to act as both an airbrake and as a shock absorber.

The three thugs must have been quite surprised when the two women dropped out of the air in front of them. ElastiWoman was a living blur of motion, disarming one of the men and knocking the other out with a stretching punch-kick combination. InvisiGirl's force field bubble bounced once as she arrived at ground level and the girl dispelled it in mid air, tumbling into a rolling overhead kick that sent the third thug slamming face-first into the nearest wall, already unconscious.

ElastiWoman had already seized the last thug, now unarmed and terrified, with a stretched arm that had wrapped around him like a serpent. "Who… Who are you?" he whimpered.

"We're your worst nightmare come true, creep!" the superheroine snarled. "Think about tonight the next time you fancy terrorising some helpless person! Yours InvisiGirl!" ElastiWoman yanked her arm back, sending the man staggering across the alleyway, spinning like a gyroscope.

"I've got him, Mom!" The girl jumped into the air, leaping over the spinning man and slamming her right fist backwards into his face in a single fluid motion as he tumbled past. The last mugger/rapist/whatever crashed into the garbage piled in the alleyway and was still, quite unconscious.

"Th…! Thank you!" the woman said, shaking like a leaf. "They chased me all the way from the subway station…! I don't know what they were going to do to me!"

"You'll be okay," InvisiGirl said kindly, putting a supporting arm on the woman's shoulder. "You should 'phone a cab and call the police from your house. We'll watch until you are away from here." Without a word, ElastiWoman wrapped a hand around her daughter's waist and reached out to an overhead flagpole with the other and tugged them both into the air.

A few minutes later, the woman was getting into a yellow cab, she looked up and, as promised, the two superheroines were still watching from a ledge on the side of a building. Uncertainly, the woman waved in thanks. ElastiWoman waved back and then reached for the nearest roof, tugging herself away. InvisiGirl created a force field bubble and jumped, bouncing off the blacktop like a giant pinball and landing on the same roof that her mother hand just tugged herself up to. In a moment, the mother and daughter superheroines were gone from sight.

A day later, a proud Bob Parr was adding some new press cuttings to his collection in his den. "New Heroes on the Block! Father and Son Crime-Fighters Foil Bank Robbery!" the first screamed. "Angels of the Night! Mother and Daughter Supers Prevent Kidnap!" declared the second.

"We're back," Bob murmured.

To be continued…