Chapter 3 of Book the 3rd, Wishy-Washy

Two things saved them when the house exploded. The first was that they were all wearing the virtually-indestructible costumes that Josephine Mode designed. The costumes deflected most of the blast, leaving them with only a few scorch marks on the backs of their heads. The second thing was that force of the explosion sent them through the already-broken window. Perhaps that wasn't such a good thing, because the house was a long way above the lake.

Dash's super-speed reactions kicked in, and suddenly all he debris falling around him seemed to freeze in midair. There were boards, pipes, bricks, and bits of furniture everywhere. To him they seemed like platforms in a 3D maze, like the ones in Mario games he had played and easily beaten.

He began leaping from one falling object to another. He reached Jack-Jack first, then Violet. At the speed he was going he was able to pull them along with him, though the extra mass made it harder to change directions. Several times he misjudged the jumps and nearly smashed into chunks of debris.

Finally he leaped a patch of floor that was just barely attached to the foundations by a few shaky beams, and the extra pressure made it start to give way. Dash made one final mighty leap through the front door of the house and onto solid ground. Behind him the rest of the building collapsed and fell into the water.

"Goowow," said Jack-Jack, which meant "Wow!"

"There was an explosion, and the next instant here we were," said Violet.

"Nothing to it," said Dash.

"Now all we need to do is find a boat, figure out how to sail it, and go rescue Josephine," said Violet.

"It's a snap," Dash said, full of his own success.

It wasn't a snap. The had to evade several of Syndrome's guards who were roaming around the town. At the docks they had to fight the one who could have been either a man or a woman. When they finally got the ship going, a huge storm was going on and they could barely see to navigate to Aargh Isle with all the rain and tossing waves.

At last they made it to the cave on Aargh Isle, and went inside to look for her.

"Josephine! E! Are you in there?" Violet called.

"Here I am, dahlinks. Haff you brought any groceries?" Josephine called back.

"Groceries? Why?" asked Dash.

"I vant to liff here for a few months, then zneak out of the country and ztart over vith a new name," Josephine said. "That vey ve have no troubles vith that awful Zyndrome. You come vith me, too."

"No!" said Violet. "We have to confront Syndrome. He has our parents!"

"Best I stay in hidink, anyvey," said 'E'.

"No, you have to challenge that fake suicide note he made you write," said Violet. "He'll steal your money, costumes, and any weapons you have stored away and be worse than ever."

"You hate design thieves, don't you?" said Dash. "Syndrome is the biggest one of them all."

"Very vell, I come back vith you," said Josephine. "But I ztill think this is big miztake."

As they started to sail back, they noticed many dark shapes converging on their boat.

"Ze leeches!" cried Josephine fearfully. "I hope zat none of you has eaten anything for ze last half-hour."

Jack-Jack gave a guilty burp and tried to hide a banana peel. The water began to boil with hungry leeches all around them.

Then they noticed larger boat headed their way. Suddenly, it shot a bolt of crackling energy across their bow!

"Zyndrome, vith vun of my atomic cannons," said Josephine. "I told you, this was big miztake."