Chapter 7

Syndrome flew downtown, where a huge, five-legged robot was rampaging. A laser turret projected from the top of its spherical body, firing blasts at the army tanks that were vainly trying to stop it. It scuttled deeper into town, crushing abandoned cars into the road with its enormous four-clawed feet.

Syndrome flew himself and his "sidekicks" above the heads of the fleeing citizens.

"Never fear," he said, "I'll teach that hunk of metal some manners!"

"Who's that?" called one of the men in the crowd. "Dynaguy?"

"No, I'm a new superhero," said the Count with pride. "I'm Syndrome, and these are my sidekicks SynBoy and SynGirl!"

A black helicopter swooped down beside them; inside was Rick Poe with a megaphone.

"Ordinarily I'd tell you to cease and desist. But today we need all the help we can get," Poe called. He nodded to the children. "I'm glad to see you're adjusting to life with your new father and are participating in family activities."

"You're happy to, aren't you, children?" said Syndrome, his finger on the button.

"Yes sir, Mr. Syndrome, sir," Violet and Dash chorused as they had been ordered.

"Good for you!" called Poe. "I'll be watching from a safe distance."

Syndrome flew over to the robot and threw a fake punch, planning to cause one of its legs to detach using a control in his glove. But when he tried to press the remote-control button, he found that his left hand was surrounded by a close-fitting purple force field!

"Cut that out, or I'll call my guards!" snarled Syndrome. His finger darted toward the call button, but stopped when he realized it was on the same hand as the Omnidroid control.

Meanwhile, the Omnidroid had analyzed the situation. "PRELIMINARY ID: SYNDROME, NON-HOSTILE. NEW INPUT: MADE ATTACKING GESTURE. UNKNOWN FORCE FIELD ON HAND. RECLASSIFY: HOSTILE."

WHAP! The leg Syndrome had wanted to detach struck at him and sent him flying. He landed on top of a roof two blocks away, unconscious. His gauntlet was left behind, held in Violet's force-field.

Violet willed the force-field bubble to herself. She put the gauntlet on her own left hand and found the control for the jet boots. In a moment she was able to lower Dash and herself to the ground.

"Good one, Vi!" said Dash. "How'd you find out so much about Syndrome's stuff?"

"No time. We've got to get out of here before the Omnidroid notices us," Violet said.

The laser turret swiveled their way. Violet put up a force field around herself and her brother just in time to deflect a deadly beam. Dash began to run, propelling the force-field ball like a hampster's exercise wheel. Violet hovered in the middle.

The droid leapt after them, only to be deflected by a slippery ramp of ice that suddenly appeared in its path. It skidded and flipped completely over, landing on its "back", but the symmetric design of the robot allowed it to stand on its feet immediately and attack the new opponent.

"Who's that?" Violet asked.

Dash said "That's Frozone, a super with ice powers who worked with Dad sometimes. We've gotta help him."

"First we have to save Jack-Jack," said Violet. "Count Buddy might recover and call his guards."

"OK, hang on to your force field," said Dash. He set off running at top speed, rocketing to Count Buddy's home. They didn't stop when the reached the house, but crashed through the doors and raced up the stairs of the tower.

Jack-Jack was sitting on the floor, surrounded by knocked-out guards. The cage was still hanging out the window but its bars had been bent open.

"Glomph glomph!" said Jack-Jack, which meant "Piece of cake!"

"So now we go back and help?" asked Dash.

"Yes, but not in these costumes," said Violet. "If we beat the Omnidroid as Syndrome's sidekicks, he wins. He's got Mom and Dad and he's only waiting until they see him triumph to kill them."

"What?" said Dash. "He's got Dad and Mom? How do you know all this?"

"It's amazing what you can learn in a library," said Violet.

She went over to the corner where their red costumes had been tossed and picked them up.

"We've got to beat the Omnidroid before Count Buddy wakes up and does it himself," Violet said.

"But can we beat it at all? That thing looked really tough," said Dash.

"I've got a plan," said Violet. "But I'll have to work fast with my left hand, and I'm not left-handed." She explained the plan.

A few moment later, all three were speeding back to the battle zone in their true costumes. Dash ran inside the force-field ball again. Violet hovered in the middle, holding Jack-Jack with her right arm.

Frozone was nowhere to be seen, and the robot was rampaging again. Dash charged up a hill at top velocity, building up enough speed that the three of them launched into the air.

The Omnidroid was good at calculating trajectories. It rotated so that one of its legs faced them and raised the leg, preparing to swat them out of the sky the instant they got into range.

"Now!" thought Violet. She triggered the remote button that Syndrome had intended to use, disengaging the leg from its socket. The leg toppled out of the way, and Violet attached the force-field bubble onto the empty leg socket.

"Now it's up to you, Jack-Jack!" said Violet. She held her little brother up and let him touch the metal surface.

Jack-Jack absorbed the strength of the metal and immediately morphed himself into a small copy of the Omnidroid.

"You have to get into the central core and cut the red and blue cables," Violet told him. "That will shut it off."

Jack-Jack tore into the leg socket, which was slightly weaker than the rest of the outside armor. He crawled down a maintenance channel toward the heart of the machine.

Meanwhile, the Omnidroid was trying to fight back. The curvature of the sphere prevented any use of the lasers, but it used an adjacent arm to smash into the force-field again and again.

"I can't hold this... much longer..." Violet gasped. "I hope... Jack-Jack hurries."

The Omnidroid suddenly chose a new tactic. "LEARNED FROM MR. INCREDIBLE BATTLE: DANGEROUS TO ATTTACK INTO SELF. USE ROTATIONAL FORCE TO EJECT INTRUDERS." It retracted all of arms and started spinning as fast as it could.

Violet and Dash were pinned to the outside wall of the force field by centrifugal force. Inside, Jack-Jack was barely hanging on. But the longer he was in contact with the robot the more power he absorbed. Step by step he advanced.

"Too much... blacking out.." said Violet.

She tried as hard as she could to stay conscious. If she went under, the force-field would drop and both of them would be slung into space!

"Hang... in... there... Sis," said Dash.

Suddenly the machine gave an shudder and shut off. Jack-Jack had managed to disconnect the central power core. The Omnidroid gradually spun to a stop.

Jack-Jack crawled dizzily back down the tunnel and into the bubble, still in mini-droid form.

"That was too close..." Violet gasped, on the point of collapse. She lowered them to the ground with the force-field.

"It was awesome!" said Dash. "We did it! Together we beat the Omnidroid!"

"Gaboo!" said Jack-Jack, morphing back to baby form.

People came running up to them.

"That was just like the good old days of supers!" said one elderly man.

"Who are you kids?" asked a woman.

"We work with Mr. Incredible," said Dash.

"Yes," said Violet, taking a deep breath and standing up straight and proud. "You can call us... The Incredibles."

"Garoogh!" crowed Jack-Jack as the crowd applauded.

Poe's black helicopter landed nearby, and he walked over to them.

"Good work, children. You've done great service for your country. I wish I knew what terrorist was behind that robot."

"Count Buddy was!" said Dash. "It was all a plot to make himself a famous super."

"Aha," said Poe, "In that case, we'll lock up his assets. He won't be able to sneeze without our finding out."

"One more thing, sir," said Violet. "We think our parents are being held prisoner on Nomanisan Island. Could you send someone to help them?"

"You think they're there, but you don't know for certain?" said Poe. "I'm afraid I can't waste our limited funding on a possible wild-goose chase. Sorry."

"Glaaagh!" said Jack-Jack disgustedly.

Suddenly the air turned chilly and an ice-slide appeared out of thin air. Frozone came sliding down it.

"You kids saved the city," he said. "I tried to fight that monster but it kicked my butt. If there's ever anything I can do for you..."

"We could use a place to stay for a little while," said Violet quickly.

"My place is yours, compadres," said Frozone.

"I'll gladly transfer their guardianship to you temporarily," said Poe. "Until something more permanent can be found."

"Hey Frozone, do you have lots of cool super stuff at your place?" asked Dash.

"Well, I hope you like lots of snakes," said Frozone.

"Snakes! Wow!" said Dash.

"I'm a herpetologist in my day job. My powers make cold-blooded critters sleepy and easy to handle."

As Frozone transported them across the city on his ice-slide, the Parrs children had the impression that their misfortunes was finally over, that Frozone might be able to help them find their parents and put this nightmare behind them. And you, dear reader, may wish to imagine this too and cease to read these unfortunate tales. Because their impression was entirely wrong...