Disclaimer: The Incredibles and all related themes belong to Brad Bird and PixarDisney. I'm merely torturing- uh, borrowing them for my own amusement.
A/N: This is my first finished Incredibles fic. I've started others and will be posting them soon, and most are Violet and/or Mirage -centric. WARNING: This fic deals with drug use and violence. If you have problems with those subjects, don't read. Otherwise, please know that I am not a fan of angsty fiction, but this idea just struck me like lightning. Also, a little drug fact to here: while drugs like heroin and most speeders make the pupils tiny little specks, ecstacy and hallucinogens cause the pupils to grow extremely large.
Coming Down
"Dad, look out!" Violet 'Ghost' Parr shouted, throwing up a forcefield to deflect the bullets aimed at her father's head. Mr. Incredible stopped long enough to throw a relieved and thankful smile in his daughter's direction before taking off after the last conscious jewel thief. Having run out of ammunition, the criminal had taken off down the street. After watching one of his buddies get clobbered by the four-year-old hero known as Demon Child, the man was hoping that he could at least outrun the winded family of superheros. Looking back to see if Mr. Incredible was catching up to him, the thief felt a gust of wind before running smack into the fist of Mercury, Fastest Boy Alive. Ghost watched as her father helped her brother haul in the last criminal then turned to see her mother, Mrs. Incredible, stretch across the street to pick up Demon Child before he wandered off. All said and done, it was an easy takedown... so why was she breathing so hard?
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The sixteen-year-old girl took a deep, ragged breath as she stared at her blacklit ceiling.
The whole room was black so there weren't really any feedback colors, but the soft glow of the blacklight was preferred over total darkness. She could feel sweat dripping down her face and wondered for a moment what had brought her back to reality.
"Violet!" a voice shouted from down the hall. "Hurry it up! You don't want your dinner to get cold!" Sitting up in bed slowly, Violet steadied herself before moving across the room to crack open her door.
"Just a minute, Mom! I just need to wash up!" Violet slipped into the bathroom before her mother could respond and locked the door. Turning on the faucet, she inspected herself in the mirror before splashing cold water on her face. OK, my pupils aren't too huge, maybe they won't notice...please, don't let them notice! Wiping off the last of the water, Violet headed to the dining room.
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Sitting down at the table, Violet let her hair fall into her eyes as she watched her mother set out the plates. Her father was reading the sports section of the newspaper, as always, and didn't notice the struggle Helen was having with their middle child.
"For the last time, Dash, stop fidgeting! Did you forget to take your medication this morning?"
"Uh," the thirteen-year-old muttered as his eyes darted around the room. "Maybe. I don't think so. Maybe." This caught Robert Parr's attention, and he sighed as he laid down the paper.
"Dash, the agreement was that if you want to play sports, you have to take your medication. You know that!" The boy poked at his food nervously under his father's gaze.
Helen now had her attention diverted to the youngest member of the family. It was one of Jack-jack's quiet nights, so he had to be propped up in a high chair and force-fed. While Violet hated seeing that blank look on her youngest brother's face, she was inwardly thankful the boy wouldn't be screaming and throwing food all over the place. She had the vague sense that she needed to go somewhere tonight, and the last thing she needed was to worry about food in her hair. She started to zone out as the sound of her father arguing with Dash became a faint buzzing.
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Violet's mind slipped back to the stories of when her parents were young superheros. They were Elastigirl and Mr. Incredible, two of America's most famous heros...in her mind, at least. As the effects of the acid slowly faded, she found herself watching what really happened:
Helen Truax Parr had been a famous gymnast, bouncing around the matt like a rubberband, who was on her way to the Olympics when a teammate got jealous. One night while waiting for Bob to show up at their usual meeting spot, Helen was attacked by two masked thugs. They broke one of her legs and left her lying in the shadows, racked with tears and wondering why Bob hadn't shown up yet. By the time he did, the wound where the bone had broken through the skin had developed an infection. She had to have a BKA on her right leg- Below the Knee Amputation. The only bouncing she did now was from a slight limp in her prosthetic leg.
Robert Parr had once been known as Mr. Incredible, Heavyweight Champion of the World. He had also been headed toward the Olympics when a little runt named Sansuite had been paid to take a fall. Once word got out that the fight had been rigged, Bob was stripped of his boxing title and license. The worst part was that Bob had nothing to do with the pay off. He hadn't even known about it. After the media circus had finally found someone else to torture, the only fan Bob had left was an obsessive young boy named Buddy Pine. Bob wasn't fond of Buddy- his father was a known arms dealer who could pay his way out of anything -but Bob wasn't one to crush a kid's idealism. That was until the night Buddy's overenthusiastic pleading for Bob to teach him to box made Bob twenty minutes late for meeting up with Helen. The next time Bob saw Buddy, he barked at the kid, blaming him for the loss of his wife's leg as well as her dream. Bob knew it wasn't the kid's fault, but he was furious and had no one else to take it out on.
Shortly after that, Bob found himself under attack by nameless gunmen. An agent from the government named Rick Dicker contacted Bob and Helen and told them that Boss Pine was the main suspect, but they couldn't prove it was him. Until they could make a connection, Rick was to help the couple in any way possible, starting with relocation. Rick would find them a place to live, pay for the move, and even find Bob a new job- usually as a bouncer or something else low-profile. But Bob wasn't very good at low-profile. The whole 'wearing shades and concealing clothing' thing just never sat well with him. It made him feel like he was hiding, like he was a coward.
Violet grew up in this way- moving from place to place, praying that the black car driving past their house wouldn't roll down its windows to reveal automatic weapons. She was never allowed to participate in anything at school, and she didn't make any friends until she was eleven. She had met a shy girl like her who hung out with her older brother and his friends. They introduced her to the Wonderful World of Drugs.
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A knock on the door startled Violet back to the present. Bob looked at his watch before wolfing down the last of his food.
"That must be Lucius. I'll be back later, alright?" Violet watched her father head towards the door then watched as her mother followed him, stopping him as he grabbed his coat.
"Not tonight, Bob. Please. Stay home!" Helen whispered, though Violet could hear her quite clearly. "I don't see why you keep helping her. Lucius is used to the streets, let him handle this!" Bob gave a deep sigh.
"She saved my life, the least I can do is help protect hers! And the only reason Lucius is involved is because he gave me no choice when he found out about it! Otherwise, I would have never let him get involved in this. He's one of the best cops in town, Helen- it was either let him help or watch him lock her away."
This was an old argument; three years old, to be precise. For the last three years, Bob Parr worked during the day as a bodyguard for a local CEO that never left Metroville. He had no night job, but he went out two nights a week with his friend Detective Lucius Best and drove a woman to a corner in front of a cheap motel. They would park across the street and down a few blocks and spend the whole night watching her to make sure none of the men she went into the motel with tried to hurt her. Helen couldn't stand the younger woman, and Violet didn't blame her. She called herself Mirage, (there was no telling what her real name was), and she first approached Bob outside of the club he had been bouncing. She had attempted to seduce him, even offered herself to him freely, and was consistently turned down. After a couple of months of this, she came to him one night at closing time and asked him to drive her home. She thought someone might be following her. Bob had agreed, and he also agreed to follow her up to her apartment when they reached the building. The door to her apartment was jarred open, and Mirage asked him to check it out and see if whoever had broken in was still there. However, Mirage knew no one was in the apartment. The person who had "broken in" was down the hall, around the corner.
Having taken over the arms business after his father died, Buddy Pine had been a repeat customer for Mirage. One night, he showed up wild-eyed and offered her more money than she could imagine just for helping him take down this one man.
The set up was simple: she would follow Bob in and move off to the side while he checked out her place. By the time Bob came out of the bedroom, Buddy would be standing in the doorway with a pistol aimed right for Bob's heart. But after spending two months getting to know Bob, Mirage couldn't make herself stand by and watch the death of the nicest man she'd ever met who didn't want to screw her. When Bob walked out, Mirage threw herself in front of him and took a bullet in the back.
Violet was a little fuzzy on the details after that point. She knew her father had knocked the gun out of Buddy's hands somehow, and Buddy had tried to run. He had looked back for Bob when he reached the stairs, missed a step or something, and took a tumble down four flights. Mirage eventually made a full recovery, but the money Buddy had promised her had been made through illegal activities and thus belonged to the government. Her father, out of some depraved sense of gratitude, told Mirage he'd watch over her a for a couple of nights while she returned to hooking. It had turned into a weekly routine.
Violet didn't think Mirage was a bad person. She'd never seen the woman flirt with her father, and Mirage went out of her way to befriend her mother. Helen just didn't like her. She probably never would so long as Bob was spending every couple of nights watching the woman sell her body on the street.
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The sound of the phone ringing made Violet realize with a jolt that she had zoned out again. Her mother was back at the table, obviously having lost the argument with her father. The phone rang again, and her mother sighed in exasperation and moved to answer it. After a second, she called out.
"Vi, sweetie, it's Tony." Violet quickly slipped from the table and took the phone from her mother, shooing the woman off as she cradled the phone and turned towards the hall.
"T-tony? Hi," Violet practically whispered. Tony Rydinger was the coolest guy in school; and when he'd asked her out at age thirteen, it had been the happiest day of her life. Tony, the Cool Guy, wanted to date Violet, the Invisible Girl. She hadn't questioned what made him notice her. After the threat to her family was over, Violet no longer had to hide at the back of the class. She could join clubs and excel in academics, but most importantly she could stand up for herself and others. She tried to avoid fights, but she protected kids from bullies whenever and however she could. She just assumed his interest had something to do with her being more outgoing and, well, noticeable. That had been three years ago, though, and Violet had learned quickly that Tony wasn't as perfect as he seemed.
"Hey, Vi," Tony said over the noise in the background. It sounded like a party. "You didn't forget about tonight, did ya?" Obviously, she had forgotten, but she remembered now. Kyle Miller's parents were out of town, and he was having a party at his house. Lots of booze, lots of drugs, and lots of underage teens involved in illegal activities.
"Of course not," Violet quickly recovered. "I was just finishing up my dinner. C-can somebody come pick me up?" She heard him chuckle sweetly, and it filled her with a warm, happy feeling.
"Sure. Me and Mikey'll be there in a little bit. Oh, and Vi? That little 'problem' we talked about?" Tony said, and Violet clutched her belly as the warm happiness was replaced by a cold chill. Her problem- she forgot. How could she forget? Duh, went a little voice in her head. That's why you dropped five hits of acid at noon! Tony spoke again before she could say anything, "It'll be taken care of real soon. Tonight we'll finish raising up the cash, and tomorrow you and me'll head to the clinic, OK?" Violet muttered some affirmative response before hanging up. Turning back toward the kitchen, she moved to help the still-jumpy Dash clear off the table while their mother got the non-responsive Jack-jack ready for his bath.
"Mom?" Violet said before her mother reached the bathroom. "Tony's coming get me, and we're gonna be at Kyle's house all night. I probably won't be back 'til tomorrow afternoon, 'Kay?" Her mother gave a longsuffering sigh before telling her alright and reminding her to bring her cell phone. Violet knew her mother hated when she stayed out all night, but it couldn't be helped. When Tony wanted her to do something, she did it. In her mind, she didn't really have a choice.
After changing into party clothes, Violet took one last look in her bedroom mirror. Her eyes were almost completely normal again, and you had to really look to see the scars from where she used to cut herself. Violet jumped at the sound of a car honking, then made her way out to her boyfriend. She smiled as she slid into the car and Tony's waiting arms, knowing that soon she'd be able to escape again. They'd get to the party, she'd drop acid for the second time that day, and then everything would be better. She'd be back in that hallucination she'd been sculpting for so long.
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Her mother and father would be heros returned to glory, not broken sports stars with broken dreams.
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Dashiel Parr would be Mercury, the Fastest Boy Alive, not a would-be athlete suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder who couldn't stand taking his medicine.
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Jack-jack Parr would be a metamorph who could turn into fire or metal or a demon-like creature at will, not an autistic toddler with symptoms of Multiple Personality Disorder.
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And Tony would love her for her- not for her body, not because she would do anything he asked for just one more hit. Tomorrow would be spent at the mall getting ice cream, not at an Unplanned Pregnancy clinic taking care of her 'problem.'
Everything would be perfect- at least until she came back down again.