The police hauled the taciturn Bald Eagle to the local station, Calvin Turnmire departed the scene under his own power after promising to see a doctor, Mirage vanished to parts unknown, and Helen drove Violet and Dash back to their house. They entered to find Bob with an apron over his shirt, trying to feed the restless Jack-Jack while watching the TV news.
"He coughed up something while you were gone," Bob reported to his wife. "It's still crawling around in the bathroom sink. I would've killed it, but I think it may be sentient."
As Helen relieved him of Jack-Jack's care, the doorbell rang. "Don't answer that," she ordered. "Bob, go into the bedroom and close the door."
"Why?" her husband wondered.
"Because there are certain people who shouldn't know the truth," Helen replied.
Bowing his head in resignation, Bob removed the apron and concealed himself inside the bedroom. Violet, meanwhile, looked through the peephole in the door. "It's the Hamiltons," she told her mother.
"Let them in," Helen instructed her, "but don't tell them anything. That goes for you too, Dash."
Violet opened the door, allowing Ike and Gloria Hamilton to enter with their daughter, Chris. "Hey, Vi," said the girl, who as usual was concealing half of her face with her hair.
"Hi, Chris," Violet responded, and the two began to chat.
Gloria wore an expression of deep concern which Helen doubted was genuine. "We watched the battle on TV," said the neighbor woman. "When you Incredibles have family squabbles, you don't kid around. What's gotten into Robert?"
Helen laid Jack-Jack on the floor next to Dash, folded her arms, and stared haughtily. "I don't see how that's any of your business."
"Normally we wouldn't dream of prying into your affairs," Gloria continued. "But this affects us as well as you. If you and Robert have another fight like the last one, you could wipe out the whole neighborhood."
"You already know more about us than you should," said Helen sharply. "I'm afraid I must ask you to leave now."
"All right, then," Ike interjected, his tone ominous. "We'll go visit your husband in prison, and listen to his side of the story."
Bob pressed his ear against the bedroom door, listening to the tense exchange. How he longed to explain his situation to the Hamiltons, and disabuse their minds--but he dared not. A rampaging, destructive Mr. Incredible would instill more fear in the hearts of villains than a powerless Mr. Incredible who could threaten no one.
"Chris, I think it's best if you and your parents don't get involved in this," Violet urged her friend.
"That's what I tried to tell them," said Chris quietly, "but they wouldn't listen to me."
Neither would they listen to Helen. "Cut the 'good neighbors' crap," she chided them. "You're afraid Bob will spill his guts about your true identities. Or worse, you want to take advantage of the division in our family, to destroy us."
"We don't want to destroy you," Ike insisted. "In fact, we were about to come to your aid when that woman with the pink mask showed up."
As Helen tried to persuade the stubborn Hamiltons to leave, the doorbell rang again. "Excuse me," said Violet to Chris, and she took another peek through the door. "It's Lucius and Honey," she announced with relief.
"Oh, how delightful," said Helen innocently. "Our friends Lucius and Honey have come to visit us." She flashed a devious grin at the Hamiltons. "I guess you'll have to go now."
"Lucius and Honey?" Ike repeated. "Are they supers as well?"
"No, just super friends," Helen answered. "Let them in, Vi."
A moment later Lucius and Honey Best were in the house, exchanging suspicious looks with the Hamiltons.
Helen performed some nervous introductions. "Lucius, Honey, these are the Hamiltons, our neighbors."
"Pleased to meet you," said Honey, shaking hands with Gloria.
"If you don't mind," said Lucius, "we have something very important to discuss with Helen."
"So do we," Ike said calmly, "and we were here first."
While the Bests and the Hamiltons argued over who would hold audience with Helen, the doorbell rang yet again. Violet checked the peephole. "Omigosh," she blurted out, "it's Mirage."
"What?" said Helen with surprise. "Let her in."
The blond woman, now maskless and wearing a gray satin dress, slipped past the door as Violet opened it. "The dinner invitation is for tomorrow evening," Helen reminded her.
"But I'm hungry now," said Mirage in a sultry tone.
Ike Hamilton leaned over to his wife's ear and whispered, "Another super."
The Hamiltons still refused to leave, and the silence became excruciating, as no one dared speak a meaningful word for fear of being exposed as a hero or villain. As impossible as it seemed, the doorbell rang again. "It's Maggie," Violet told her mother.
She opened the door, and in walked a middle-aged, somewhat rotund Hispanic woman wearing a floral bandanna, hoop earrings, and a variety of charm bracelets. "Welcome, Maggie," Helen greeted her.
"It's like a super convention," Ike quietly remarked to his wife.
"It's certainly getting crowded in here," said Helen to the Hamiltons. "But there's plenty of room in your house, which is where you should be headed right now."
"Perhaps you're right," Gloria responded. "I am starting to feel rather uncomfortable."
As she and her husband were making up their minds to depart, the new woman, Maggie, pressed her fingers against her temples and seemed to fall into a trance. Waving her hands as if groping in darkness, she shuffled toward the bedroom door and pulled it open before Helen could stop her. There, on the edge of the bed, sat the wide-eyed Robert Parr.
"He is here," intoned Maggie in a deep-throated voice.
"Who's here?" asked Lucius, and everyone in the house suddenly mobbed Helen and Maggie at the doorway. Bob's first impulse was to hide himself in the closet, but it was far too late.
"Shouldn't he be in prison?" Honey asked no one in particular.
"If you're here," Mirage inquired of Bob, "then who did I just defeat?"
"I demand to know what's going on," said Mr. Hamilton firmly.
"Nice going, Maggie," Helen scolded her garishly robed friend. "Or should I say, Magicadabra."
"Lo siento mucho," Maggie apologized. "Sometimes I control my powers, and sometimes they control me."
"I hope you can control some memory charms," said Helen. "The Hamiltons can't be trusted with what they've just seen."
"And what have we just seen?" Gloria wanted to know.
Bob stood up and gestured for the crowd to disperse so he could walk through. "I've lost my powers," he explained.
"Lost your powers?" said Mirage with alarm. "That's awful!"
"Then that wasn't you wrecking those buildings," Chris realized. "It was someone who looked like you, and had your powers."
"We call him Mr. Incred-Evil," Dash related.
"I thought you had been hypnotized," Maggie told Bob.
"I was afraid I'd have to fight you," Lucius added.
Mr. Hamilton motioned for his wife and daughter to accompany him. "We've had a lovely time, but we really need to go."
"You're not going anywhere," Helen snapped. "Maggie, hypnotize them."
While the Hispanic woman raised her arms and started to mutter, Ike and Gloria both nodded at Chris, who closed her eyes, brushed aside her hair, and underwent a quick and startling transformation. Helen and Violet looked away in time, but not so Honey, Mirage, and Maggie, who became entranced by the beautiful face of a blond boy who wore a girl's blouse and jeans several sizes too small for him.
"Unless you want to turn your house into a battlefield," said Mrs. Hamilton menacingly, "you'll let us go in peace."
"All right," said Helen in a defeated tone. "You can go."
"I'm sorry, Vi," said the blond boy as he turned to leave.
Once the Hamiltons had departed, the Parrs and their astonished guests discussed the things they had seen and learned.
"This day is getting weirder and weirder," Lucius remarked. "First a clone of Bob trashes Metroville, then I find out my kid's a superhero, and now I see a girl turn into a guy."
"Edgar's not much of a hero," said Helen. "He attacked Calvin Turnmire, the billionaire philanthropist, after I had specifically told him to leave the man alone."
"He wouldn't have done that without a good reason," said Honey.
"He thinks Turnmire is really a criminal overlord called The Solon," Helen related.
Upon hearing the name, Maggie clutched her head and collapsed to her knees. "Evil!" she wailed, her body quivering. "I sense great evil!"
"The Hamiltons are gone, Maggie," Helen pointed out.
The robed woman dropped her hands, and her eyes glazed over. "The Solon," she droned. "He possesses a weapon of unlimited power. He must be stopped."
Helen bent over and grasped Maggie by the shoulders, steadying her. "Tell us more," she urged. "What else do you know about The Solon?"
"That's all I've got," Maggie answered, struggling to her feet. "I'm sorry it's so vague, but the carpeting in your house is disrupting the flow of cosmic energy."
"Maggie's right more than half the time," said Lucius. "Maybe Edgar's on to something."
"We'll deal with The Solon later," said Helen decisively. "At the moment, let's concentrate on bringing back Bob's powers. Maggie?"
"His body has been completely changed," said the Hispanic woman as she scanned Bob from head to toe. "To restore his powers, I must first locate someone with the same powers, to use as a pattern."
"Like Mr. Incred-Evil," Dash suggested.
"Yes," Maggie agreed. "But even then, the spell is very difficult, and the slightest mistake could cripple or kill him."
"There must be another way," said Mirage with concern.
"The Permutare spell is much safer," said Maggie. "I can use it to switch the bodies of Bob and his clone."
"Wait a minute," Bob interjected. "What if my clone isn't exactly like me? What if he's...different...in some way?"
"That is a chance we must take," Maggie replied.
----
Stay tuned! More to come!