At sunrise the Parrs were panting and exhausted from a night of forced running and crawling.
"Sorry... (gasp) ...Vi... (gasp) ...should've... (gasp) ...listened ... (gasp) ...to you," said Dash. "Never... (gasp) ... thought I'd ... (gasp) ... hate running."
Abruptly, the bands on their ankles allowed them to stop. They wanted to flop to the ground but instead they looked warily at Count Buddy, wondering what he would do next.
"Oooh, that was so much fun," Syndrome said with an evil chuckle. "Too much fun not to do it again. I'd love to keep you running in the hot noonday sun, but too many people might see and ask awkward questions. We'll start again tonight, same bat-time, same bat-channel."
"What.. (pant) makes you think... (pant) ...we'll come back?" Violet asked.
"You will, because of the little red button on this remote control," said Syndrome. "There are explosives in your S.O.R.E. devices. If you don't show up, you blow up. If you try to take them off, you blow up. They have audio sensors too. If you try to tell anyone about them, you blow up."
"How'd you know... I wanted to go out for track... so much?" said Dash, who had recovered a little of his breath.
"Psycwave picked up a few hot tips for me when she controlled your mind," said Buddy. "TTFN time -- ta-ta for now. See you tonight!"
He fired up his jet boots and flew away. The children walked stiffly back to the school. Syndrome had them so much in his power that he could afford to toy with them. It was demoralizing, a word which here means dispiriting, a word which hear means disheartening, a word which here means discouraging, and so on.
Sore and exhausted as they were, they still had to attend classes and work as usual. Doing anything out of the ordinary might be taken as an attempt to communicate and put their friends in danger.
"... I went to the grocery store. Bananas were on sale. The End," droned Mr. Remora.
Kari Melita put up her hand, "Mr. Remora, Violet is falling asleep in class."
"No," said Violet quickly. "I was just resting my eyes."
Every day after class Duncan had been meeting with Violet and Dash to transfer to them his photographic memories of the trivia they would be expected to know for the next test. Today they tried to avoid him.
"Hey, wait up Violet," said Duncan. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," Violet said. "Leave us alone."
But she touched his arm in desperation as she passed by him, and the memories at the front of her mind flooded into him -- the memories of Count Buddy and what he said about the S.O.R.E. restraints.
Duncan and Isadora spent the time before dinner in a council of war. The Parrs ate at a table by themselves, but Duncan brushed by Violet as he went to put away his tray, and he silently transferred the Rydinger's plans to her memory.
The Rydinger Triplets followed the Parrs to the Orphan Shack but stayed outside, out of range of the audio pickups in their restraints.
Isadora chanted:
"Transfer, rings, to us from Parrs.
We want to make their troubles ours."
The binding rings instantly shifted over to Duncan and Isadora's ankles. The ring sensors didn't pick up on the teleportation move and no alarms were triggered. The Rydingers began to walk away from the Orphan's Shack and toward the running field.
The moment the rings were off, Violet told her siblings the plan.
"Duncan and Isadora are walking to the field in our place. Isadora is carrying a doll about Jack-Jack's size," said Violet.
"Gimilar?" said Jack-Jack, meaning "Will that really fool Syndrome?"
"It only has to fool him for a few seconds from a distance in this poor light. We'll get to the field by a back way, ambush him, and get the remote control away from him before he can use it," said Violet.
"All right," said Dash. "Let's go!"
They headed out the door of the Orphan's Shack, only to run into Vice-Principal Nero.
"Aha, I was looking for you!" Nero said. "I heard a report that you were sleeping in class today. I came to prove it and give you a punishment."
"Punish us later," said Dash. "We've got to get somewhere!"
"I know you do, but that can wait," came the voice of Syndrome. "I'm here to see you fail the pop-quiz your teachers have arranged." He stood beside Nero.
"When you fail, Coach Genghis here has kindly volunteered to supervise punishment laps for you during the day tomorrow," said Vice-Principal Nero.
The Incredibles remembered Count Buddy's desire to get them running in the hot noonday sun. They decided to play along for now. If they used their powers to get the remote control now, it would blow their cover with the Vice-Principal. Since Count Buddy was here the Rydingers were safe for the moment.
"It's nice that we caught you before you left," said Syndrome. "But I had men stationed at the track to send you back here in case you passed us in the dark. I didn't want you to miss this."
Now the Parrs were anxious for their friends. Could Duncan and Isadora fool Syndrome's guards? They had to pass this test quickly!
Coach Genghis blew his whistle and Mr. Remora and Mrs. Bass stepped forward. They began firing questions at the two elder Parrs.
"What was the length of the cucumber we measured yesterday?" asked Mrs. Bass.
"Thirty-seven and a half centimeters," said Dash quickly, using the photographic memories transferred from Duncan.
"What was the color of the farm tractor the boy saw in my sixteenth story yesterday?" asked Mr. Remora.
"Red," answered Violet promptly.
"I think you should ask them some from today," said Count Buddy with a smirk.
"What was the thickness of the matchstick?" asked Mrs. Bass.
"Two millimeters," said Dash. He happened to remember it even though Duncan had not given him photographic memories today.
"What was the fruit that was on special in my grocery store story I told when you were 'resting your eyes'?" Remora asked Violet.
Violet hesitated for an instant because she really had been asleep. But there was only one kind of fruit Mr. Remora cared about...
"Bananas!" she guessed.
"Vice-Principal Nero, these children haven't been sleeping in class. They've gotten every question correct," said Mrs. Bass.
"Reluctantly, I have to agree," said Mr. Remora.
"No extra punishment this time, but I'll catch you sooner or later," said Nero. "You're guilty, guilty, guilty!" He and the two teachers walked away.
Syndrome's cell phone rang. "Hello," he said. "You've got the kids? No you don't, they're right here in front of me. Could Jack-Jack be morphed into a baby-doll? Probably he could, but why would he? He's right here, I tell you. They're impostors! Take them into the plane and..."
Too late, he realized that an invisible hand had removed his remote control from his belt. Violet switched it off and tossed it to Jack-Jack, who burst into flame and incinerated it. (Jack-Jack's powers were getting stronger and he needed only the reminder of the nearby flame-powered jet boots to set himself off this time.)
Dash delivered a flying kick to Syndrome's face. "Here's for trying to make me hate running!"
Suddenly there was the roar of a jet engine hovering overhead. Inside the open cargo bay door, the Parrs could see Duncan and Isadora being held hostage by Count Buddy's guards.
"Let me escape or your friends die," said Syndrome. He fired up the rocket boots and shot up to the plane.
The Incredibles hesitated, not wanting Duncan and Isadora to be hurt. There was no time to decide what to do. Syndrome reached the plane and it flew away.
Dash felt a piece of paper suddenly appear in his hand. It read,
"If you want to rescue me,
Find out about the V.F.D."
"It's from Isadora," Dash said. "She must have used a cantrip to send me this note."
"What could she mean by 'The V.F.D'?" asked Violet.
The three were extremely downcast. This time Syndrome had won, taking from them the only real friends they had found in this whole sad series of events.
"I guess you failed that pop-quiz, didn't you, cakesniffers?" came the rude voice of Kari Melita Spatts. "You should never have messed up my babysitting job."
"You probably couldn't have handled Jack-Jack anyway," said Dash.
"Hah! I'm an expert on babies," said Kari over-confidently. "I can take anything that little brat can dish out."
"Gooh guuh?" said Jack-Jack, meaning "Wanna bet?" He burst into flames.
"Yaah, the baby's exploding!" yelled Kari. She ran away as fast as she could.
"I think we need to be relocated again," said Violet.
"I hope we are," said Dash. "We have to rescue Duncan and Isadora."