Nina Wyndia The Third: thanks for the nice review.
Who Knows: I've been changing character names from "The Incredibles" to fit them into SOUE, so in my story he's Phil. As for Duncan and Isadora (and Tony and Kari), wait and see... (I think I will lower the rating to K+ instead of T, also).
Chapter 3, Machinery
Loud banging noises woke the Parrs at 6:00AM. A man in a curly white wig, wearing a hospital mask that squashed his enormous nose, was standing in the door and banging two metal pots together.
"Get up, you lazy things!" he shouted. "Time to get to work on the logs!"
The other workers groaned, stretched, and covered their ears at the cacophony -- which here means "the loud noise of two metal pots being banged together by a man in a curly white wig and a hospital mask."
"Hi, Foreman Dubcutondy," said Phil tiredly but cheerfully. "I'd like to introduce our three newest workers: Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack Parr."
"More midgets!" snarled Dubcutondy. "How can I get the work done if they keep sending me midgets?"
"We're not midgets," said Violet, "We're..."
Phil nudged her and whispered. "Sir says its better that we pretend to be midgets. That way he won't get in trouble with the law."
"Ok, all of you," said Dubcutondy. "March to the mill and get to work! Logs are waiting!" He started banging the pans again.
"Don't we get breakfast?" Dash shouted over the noise.
"Yop! Gomest!" Jack-Jack agreed.
"You get no more food until lunch, you greedy midget," said Dubcutondy.
Dash grumbled, but he went out the door with the others.
There was a huge pile of trees in the yard. One of the workers went to a log-pincher machine and lowered the top tree in the pile to the ground.
"Get the debarkers!" yelled Dubcutondy. "Scrape that log clean!"
The debarkers were long, thin metal rectangles. The idea was to scrape them against the logs and strip off the bark. When Dash thought no-one was looking, he used super-speed to take off large sections of bark quickly. Violet expanded small force-fields under the bark to make it come off easier. Jack-Jack absorbed the properties of the metal debarkers into his hands to make them stronger and tougher for the work. It was still very tedious, which here means "unbelievably boring."
Nobody noticed but Phil, who whispered to them, "I won't tell. Working with supers is totally awesome!"
After fourteen logs, the foreman called a break. "Here's your gum. You have five minutes for lunch."
"We get to eat gum for lunch! Isn't that great!" said Phil happily.
Dash yelled to the foreman, "Gum isn't enough for lunch!"
Dubcutondy looked at Dash sharply, then opened a second box he had kept to the side. "Ok, you can have this, too."
He tossed Dash a candy bar. The other workers crowded around Dubcutondy hungrily, but he said "Only the first guy that asks gets one! It's a morale booster."
Nobody seemed to have improved morale except for Dash, who wolfed down the whole bar in an instant.
"Dash!" said Violet, "What about sharing?"
"Sa'ree," said Dash with his mouth full.
After lunch, they had only been working a little while when Dash began to complain.
"I can't see! There are spots in my eyes," said Dash.
"Then you'd better go to the eye doctor," said Foreman Dubcutondy quickly. He called Charles to escort Dash there.
The other workers muttered about favoritism.
"He didn't let me have sick time when I cut off my finger yesterday," said one.
"I bet Dash just got on his good side," said Phil.
It was late in the day before Dash returned from the optometrist. He seemed distracted, gazing off into space.
"How did it go, Dash?" Violet asked.
"Fine! Don't bother me!" said Dash in a hostile tone.
"Glleeh!" said Jack-Jack, which meant "I guess it was pretty bad and you don't want to talk about it right now."
Dash stared into space and ignored his brother.
"Get back to work," yelled Dubcutondy. "Do it now, Dash!" There was a strange tone in his voice as he said this to Dash.
Violet looked quickly at Dash to see how he would react to this. Suddenly, she saw Dash disappear for an instant and reappear in the same place. No-one except someone who had grown up with his super-speed would have noticed it.
"Dash must have pulled some kind of prank," she thought. "Maybe the foreman's about to sit on a thumbtack or something."
"Look out!" someone yelled.
A log was sliding loose from the pinchers. It was going to drop right on top of Phil! Violet fired up a small force-field under the log, trying to save Phil without giving herself away. She managed to deflect the log enough that it landed on the boy's left toe instead of on his head. The other end of the log fell onto a machine that tied lumber into bundles, smashing it.
Phil limped over to Violet. "I was lucky you were there," he said. "And I'm lucky I'm right-footed."
"Most people would say 'Ow, my toe'" said Violet.
"That too," said Phil. He sat down suddenly, grabbing his foot. "Ow, my toe!"
A door opened in the main building and Sir came running out.
"What was that crashing sound?" he demanded.
"There was an accident, Sir," said Violet. "Phil's foot is hurt."
"I don't care about that," said Sir crossly. "What about the string machine? It cost an inordinate amount of money. I'm going to find out who's responsible for this. Dubcutondy!"
"Yes, Sir?" said the foreman in a much softer tone than he had used with the workers.
"What just happened here?" said Sir.
"A log just came loose from the pinchers, Sir. Nobody was near the machine when it happened," said Dubcutondy.
"I don't like it," said Sir. "I pay you to keep this place working like a well-oiled clock, and now this happens."
"Sorry, Sir," said Dubcutondy.
"I have closed-circuit cameras watching the yard, and tonight I'll replay the tapes and see what's been going on around here," said Sir. "Meanwhile, stop work for the day. I can't afford any more accidents."
Sir stomped back into the main building. The workers went back to the barracks, happy to have an early break. The three Incredibles were left alone in the yard for a moment.
"Dash, what went wrong?" Violet said to Dash. "Did you do that? I can't believe you'd pull a prank that dangerous."
"I don't know what you're talking about," said Dash coldly.
"That high-speed stunt you just did. I saw you move," said Violet.
"I didn't move from this spot," said Dash.
"Gooot!" said Jack-Jack.
"Jack-Jack's right," said Violet. "We're on your side and we don't want you in trouble. We'll help you cover for it. But we need to know what happened."
"I didn't do anything," said Dash. "Stop bothering me!"
He turned and ran into the building.
"We've got to do something," said Violet. "If Sir watches that tape and sees Dash, or if he sees any of the super-powers we used today, we could be in big trouble."
"Dssh!" said Jack-Jack.
"Yes, something has gotten into Dash. We have to find a way to help him," said Violet. "I'm just not sure how..."