Mr. Poe first drove the Parr children back to their three-bedroom suburban house, now nothing but a ruined, smoking shell. The shock was like a kick in the stomach.
"I could tell you didn't believe me," said Poe morosely. "I had to let you see it for yourselves."
Dash blurred past into the house, looking for anything that might be left. Nothing. His room, Violet's room, his father's private den full of Mr. Incredible posters and trophies... all gone.
Violet walked in slowly, blinking tears from her eyes. She was carrying Jack-Jack, who also began to cry.
"What could have happened?" she wailed. "Dad must have gotten mixed up in something really bad. He just bought two new cars. Where did he get the money if he lost his job?"
Suddenly Dash was at her elbow. He had a bulge of something stuffed under his shirt. "Psst, Violet! I found something. Remember how Mom brought home those new costumes and wouldn't explain them? Remember how we snuck ours out of her bag and hid them under the bed? I found them... and they're as good as new. Fireproof."
"What good is that now?" Violet snapped. "Who cares about costumes?"
"We might need them to help Mom and Dad," said Dash. "Your new costume can turn invisible with you, right? And mine didn't get hot from friction like my regular clothes do when I run."
"Come along, children," called Mr. Poe. "It's time to go meet your new guardian."
"Help me hide them from Poe, Vi," said Dash. "We don't want him to know about them."
Violet took the three costumes and quickly wrapped her invisibility costume around the others. When she concentrated and made her little finger invisible the costume vanished, too. Everything inside it was also shielded from sight.
She tucked her hand and the bundle under Jack-Jack as she carried him back to the car.
"Count Buddy usually lives on his own private island, but he has an old family home in the city. That's where we'll meet him," said Mr. Poe. He turned the car into an older part of the city which was paved in cobblestones.
"Here we are," Poe announced. "Your new home."
The Parr children looked out at the prettiest home on the block, made of well-scrubbed brick, with wide-open windows in which they could see assorted well-tended potted plants. An attractive woman with platinum-blond hair stood in the doorway.
"Hello," she said in a sultry voice, "You must be the children Count Buddy is adopting."
Violet smiled. Maybe things were not going to be quite so bad after all.
"Hi, I'm Violet and this my brother Dash and my baby brother Jack-Jack."
"I'm Justice Mirage," said the woman. "I work in the High Court, among other jobs..."
"So, you live with Count Buddy?" Dash asked.
"No," said Mirage with a sigh. "At the moment we're just neighbors. His house is over there."
The Parr children looked from the home of Justice Mirage to a miserable, dilapidated mansion next door. The place was grimy, sooty and looked like it was about to fall down, especially the tall and dingy tower that sagged to the left. Painted on the front door in white-on-black was a peculiar squashy letter, a large letter "S".
"Oh!" said Jack-Jack, meaning something like "What a terrible place! Let's sleep outdoors."
Poe led them up to the door and knocked. After a pause the door creaked open and the children saw Count Buddy for the first time.
"Hello, hello, hello. I'm your beloved Count Buddy," said the man in a cheerful voice that rang very false. He was quite pudgy and a wild shock of hair stood straight up from his head. He wore white gauntlets and had a long black cape wrapped around him. There was a bright gleam in his eyes.
"Well, I'll leave you to get acquainted," said Poe. "I have to get back to the Agency. There's been a rash of disappearances of supers who were under our protection program and it's making a lot of work for me."
Before the children could ask him anything more about this, Poe rushed back to his car and sped away.
"Come in, come in," said Buddy cheerfully. "I was sooo sorry to hear about your poor parents. I was your father's biggest fan, you know, back in the days when he was Mr. Incredible."
The living room he ushered them into was a filthy mess, with peeling wallpaper and paintings of the letter "S" hung crookedly on the walls.
"Sorry things are in a bit of a state," said Buddy. "I haven't lived here for years, since my parents passed away. It isn't convenient to take you out to the Island yet, so we'll have to make the best of it. I'm sure with a little work you can make it quite homey."
"We won't be here long," Dash said sullenly. "Our parents will come back for us!"
"You think so?" said Buddy with a mocking sneer. "We'll see... Meanwhile, I have a wonderful plan to tell you about."
"What?" asked Violet.
"Gaah gaah?" asked Jack-Jack suspiciously.
"I'm going to become a superhero, and you'll be my sidekicks!" said Count Buddy. He threw back his cape, revealing a superhero costume with a large squashy letter "S" on the chest. "I'm Syndrome!"
"What?" said Violet. "Isn't that against the law?"
"I plan to make my debut when there's a crisis so terrible they'll have to accept me," said Count Buddy.
"How do you know there'll be a terrible crisis?" asked Dash.
"Oh, I'm sure something will come up," said Count Buddy. "The world always needs saving. I will be magnificent... Syndrome and his three sidekicks: SynBoy, SynGirl, and SynTot! Then my reven... I mean my life, will be complete."
"Gaack!" said Jack-Jack, meaning "What horrible sidekick names." The other two children also grimaced.
"What if we don't want to?" demanded Dash, getting ready to run.
Syndrome fired a bright beam from his gauntlet that froze them in place and lifted them into the air.
"That would make me very angry, and I advise you not to make me angry. Your job will be to go into training, to do every little thing that pops into my head while I use my enormous fortune to prepare our grand entrance as supers."
He fired his jet-boots and flew with the children still in tow up the stairs into a dingy bedroom with one bed. With a whip of the beam he flung them to the floor.
"Now get some rest. You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow," said Syndrome.
There was a click as he locked the bedroom door.
