With Great Power

By Jessie/Dory

Author Note: I'm so sorry guys – totally my fault this time, none of yours. I have emailed one person – but the not updating thing was just my fault. Keeps slipping my mind, unfortunately – but for that matter I was just not getting any ideas until now. I got The Incredibles DVD back on Tuesday and have been spending a lot of my time with it, lol.

In a random, yet related quick story – we've been reading Julius Caesar in my English class and there's one part where a character says something about a dream being 'a phantasm' and calling it an illusion or bad nightmare. Something to that effect – and of course I was psyched about that and immediately shared it with one of my friends (who happens to often review this story). Funny coincidence, huh? ) Oh – and to those who asked if this would end up being a J/C or a D/C – well, you'll have to wait till the end to find out, now won't you? For now though – since Dash and Cindy have to be together, moreof the romance will be with them since Jimmy isn't there. As for Jimmy and Violet- of course Jimmy may end up crushing on her, but do remember that Violet has a boyfriend.


Chapter 6: Power Outage

Dash narrowed his eyes at Phantasm – if anyone hadn't suspected her coming along, well, that'd be rather sad. Either way she stood in the darkness, still hooded with her hands behind her back and her silver eyes glowing dangerously. Although the two couldn't see it she was putting on a particularly evil smile as she stepped closer to the bars of the cage.

In a purposely cocky manner, Dash crossed his arms in response to Phantasm's previous 'boo' and replied, "Boo who?"

Cindy's eyes widened and she snapped her head towards him, "Ex-nay on the mock-ay," she whispered through tightly clenched teeth, whacking him in the arm slightly.

"Boohoo to you little super boy," she clapped her hands and the electric rays disappeared and a secret door into the cage opened up, closing behind her, she floated closer to Dash and Cindy, "For if you continue with this behavior, you'll be," she swooped down and picked Dash up by the neck, "well – about as dead as Syndrome."

Dash gasped from his suspension in midair, clenching her hand that held him and kicked his legs around to get free. He could scarcely breathe and felt weaker by the moment.

"LET HIM GO!" Cindy gave out a shaky scream, tears leaking from her eyes.

"As you wish, Pinky," Phantasm replied dreadfully slowly, and she simply let go of Dash from where she held him. He gave a yelp from shock at his sudden ability to breath. With barely a second to think, Cindy dove in front of Phantasm and caught Dash in her arms. Her arms and body crashed and skidded slightly on the ground; she exhaled her breath and rested her face on his stomach as she could barely move.

Phantasm gave an annoyed sigh, "Oh ruin all the fun, why don't you? I'll leave you two love-birds here for now and I'll be back later," she walked towards the secret door as Dash lifted his head up to watch her leave, "And if you need any assistance whatsoever -," the door snapped shut and the electric rays appeared once more, "Just – scream."

With that she disappeared and was gone once again.

Without a second of thought, Dash instantly sat up, adjusting his sitting position so he was no longer putting weight on Cindy's arms. He lifted her head up to see her face, for a moment her eyes were closed and she opened them slowly. Dash picked her up slightly and turned her around so that she was now lying on her back. He wrapped his arms around her into a hug, "Thanks Cindy."

Cindy coughed harshly as he hugged her, "No problem Dash," she turned to him with concern, "Are you ok? She was practically choking you!"

"Erm – she was choking me."

"Which makes my concern even more valid," Cindy confirmed, "It wasn't easy making a dive like that," she rubbed her bruised right arm cautiously.

Dash smiled, and then smoothed out his hair slightly, "Yeah well-p, you know I would have been fine all the same."

"Hey I didn't want Mr. Speedy getting his leg broken," she pointed out, stretching her sore body. She stretched her arms out a bit too much and sucked a large intake of air, suddenly clutching her stomach in pain.

His smile faded instantly, "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing!" She insisted instantly, then sucking in her breath through her teeth.

Dash helped her sit up slightly, "That nothing sounds like a lot of something."

She shook her head in disbelief and started mumbling to herself, "No – no I don't believe this is happening – not now -," she clutched her arms as if they were about to disappear.

"What- what's happening?" But Cindy didn't respond, her eyes clenched closed and her face scrunched together as tears slowly leaked from her eyes, "Cindy! Say something!" He grabbed her shoulders tightly, turned her to face him, and shook her slightly.

Suddenly Cindy started bawling like crazy, "I'm losing them – they're – gone – I – can – feel – it," she stated during sobs. Dash simply cocked his head in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"My -," she sobbed again, "Powers."

Dash's eyes turned a bit more serious, they squinted as if they were looking for a clearer answer that he could not see. But he simply could not understand her, "What about them?"

"I told you!" She put her hands over eyes and faced downward as she continued to cry. Dash grabbed her hands away from her wet face. She looked up at him, tears continuing to leak from her red eyes as she suffered from pain, her once pretty face was puffy and her cheeks were red.

He shook his head, "I don't understand you."

She took a deep breath, wincing from pain on the way, "Jimmy – said – we'd lose our powers in a few days. I – I must have over used them in some way – I don't know – but – they're starting to fade away. Always – always this has to happen at the stupidest of times," she yanked her right hand away from Dash's and pound it with anger into the ground. Surprisingly, it still left quite a dent.

"Now I understand even less," Dash responded quizzically as he stared at the indent, "You don't seem to have lost anything ..."

She shook her head, "Give it time – and look," she held up her muscle to him, "They're back to their normal and pathetic size. And give it a moment, I'm sure my flying ability will disappear momentarily too."

"How are you losing powers you were born with?" Dash was making no connection at all.

"BECAUSE I wasn't BORN with them!" Cindy screamed at him, not completely intentional, but at the moment her side lurched with a horrid thrust of pain and she couldn't say it in any softer tone.

Dash immediately let go of her hands, his eyes wide with shock, he slowly backed away, "You – you mean you – aren't a super?"

She sniffed, using her arm to push her tears away, "A super?"

He nodded intently, "You weren't born with them ... that's how most supers have their powers," he paused and thought about it, "Well some of the fictional ones – spider man for example – bitten by a spider type of thing. I don't know – my parents always told me that the supers they knew were all born with powers," he narrowed his eyes, "Unless – you aren't working for anyone, are you?"

She shook her head, sniffling slight from a runny nose, "No – Jimmy was driving Carl, Sheen, Libby and I in space – long story short we ended up with superpower skills. Everyone ended up with these amazing gifts, except for Jimmy," she smiled briefly at the mention of his name, "who was just orange with green hair," Dash stared at her, listening closely, "But then we were really bad at being superheroes and didn't know how to control our powers. The government captured us and tried to lock us up. Except for Jimmy – they deemed him harmless. At some point he got really angry and turned into this like orange-Hulk character. We escaped when we found out he was attacking Retroville. We all tried to get him back to normal, but after everyone had fainted from over-using their powers, I was the only person left. I ended up saying nice things to Jimmy, and then I guess fainted – Jimmy at some point turned back to normal. He saved us all," she took a deep breath.

"I don't see how this affects anything now," Dash replied, mainly to himself.

"-And said something about that our powers were going to kill us – if we had kept using them."

Dash's eyes went wide, "But – but even knowing that, you still used them, didn't you?"

She hung her head down in shame, "I did. Jimmy said that our powers would fully wear off in a few days. I couldn't resist though," she looked up at Dash in the eyes, "Do you understand? It was like -," she searched for the words.

"An addiction," Dash offered, remembering the words his sister had said to him that night in the ally before their parents had caught them.

She nodded soundlessly, but then continued, "So I guess this is it. Unless you can do something," she sighed, "we're completely dun fore."

Dash stared at her thoughtfully for a moment as she continued to hang her head down with closed eyes, wincing every so often to some inner pain of hers. He looked down at his feet, messaging his left foot slightly as it felt like it had been sprained. His head went back to her level, and paused for a moment. His right hand touched her cheek, pushing it to his level and holding it up. Cindy opened her eyes and stared blankly, almost drained from everything.

"You know as well as I do that a person doesn't need powers to pull stuff off, right?" He kept his hand in place and she simply sniffled in response, "Well I know right now I can't pull this off – especially without you, Cindy. Powers or not I think you're a cool girl."

She smiled from the corner of her lips, then lifting her hand up to touch Dash's hand, "Thanks, Dash." She leaned closer and kissed him on the cheek, he instantly blushed furiously. She laughed slightly, "Man if Jimmy happened to be here, he would so be red with fury and jealousy at the moment."


Jimmy paced back and forth, "So what are we suppose to do?" He put his hand on his chin and Sheen sat on the ground – watching the genius walk back and forth.

Carl sat next to Sheen, and Libby leaned on Sheen's shoulder, they all seemed to be in thought, but not quite as deeply as Jimmy. Violet was leaning against the building, crossing her arms and looking down at her feet. For a moment she looked up at Jimmy who was pacing and her heart sort of sunk.

"I don't know – I suppose she may have taken them to Nomanisan Island," Violet mused out loud.

Jimmy stopped and looked up at Violet curiously, "Where's that? It sounds vaguely familiar."

Violet pushed herself off the wall and walked towards Jimmy, "It's in the Pacific Ocean – was Syndrome's island. I imagine Mirage would be the one to own it now," she shrugged, "I don't know, but I bet if this is related to her in anyway, that's where they are."

"Hmm," Jimmy continued to think, he walked up to Violet a bit closer, "Do you have any way of contacting your brother?"

She pushed her hair behind her hair, "Contact as in -," she placed her free hand on her hips and her eyes went wide suddenly, "as a matter of fact .."

The others slowly stood up to come closer to hear what was going on. Sheen offered, "Oooh – do you guys have one of those 'Escape to Witch Mountain' things where you can send messages to one another through thought?" Sheen grabbed Violet by the arm and jumped up and down ecstatically.

She stared at him for a moment and shook her head, "No – we're not twins OR witches. And I'm not thinking of any mental super powers either."

"Then what else is there?" Carl questioned.

"Cell phone? Walkie-talkie?" Libby suggested, "Text messaging?"

Violet smiled and out of habit of grabbing her brother's hair, she ran her fingers through Jimmy's green hair. Out of shock, Jimmy gave a bright red blush, but said nothing. Violet continued, not really noticing Jimmy's shock, "I have a way of getting his exact location – not necessarily contacting, but at least we'll know where he is."

Out of her pocket she pulled a small trading card sized screen, "This is a bit above the cell phone technology."

Jimmy snapped back to normal and took it from her and looked at it briefly, "Amazing, who designed this?"

Violet snapped it out of Jimmy's hands and turned it on, "Edna Mode."

"Hey can I press the button?" Carl squealed, diving for the locator, unfortunately missing all together and winding up on the ground, groaning with pain.

Libby shook her head, "Be careful Carl, I can only give someone the heimlich once a day, ok?"

"HEY! Swallowing Sam's cat was just an accident!"

"Your friends are really weird," Violet arched an eyebrow to Jimmy, though it was hard to tell due to her mask, "But I think I like you guys," and she smiled, and then pressed the button to activate the locator.

She casually looked at the small screen where the location would be shown, her eyes went wide in terror.

"What-what's wrong?" Jimmy hesitated at her sudden shock, and watched the located slip from her fingers onto the ground.

Violet put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes, "This makes no sense."

Jimmy picked up the located at his feet and looked at it cautiously. His eyes went wide as well, "No -," he breathed. Violet collapsed slightly, wrapping her arms around Jimmy, Jimmy heaved slightly at her weight, but was able to hold her up, and he hugged her tightly for comfort.

Libby took it from Jimmy's hand and looked at it, "I don't understand – it's just highlighting a blue location – what does that mean?"

Violet lifted her head, "They're – or at least Dash is," she burst into sobs, "in the ocean!"

TO BE CONTINUED