"There's something strange about this building," Violet said. "Did you notice there's a second elevator door that's only on this floor?"
It was the day after their arrival at 667 Blackout Boulevard and the children were adapting to the new 'in' lifestyle. Esmé had bought them new pinstriped clothes that were all much too large, especially Jack-Jack's. They had tried the parsley soda (which tasted awful) and they had gone out to dinner at a posh restaurant called "Dock Ock's" that served only fresh octopus (which was disgusting). Jerome told them he didn't care for octopus, but Esmé said it was 'in' and he never liked to argue.
Today Jerome was at work and Esmé had gone out to meet with an auctioneer named Gunther who was setting up an auction of incredibly 'in' things, so the children had a chance to explore on their own.
They went to the door of the extra elevator and pushed the button. The door opened into a black, empty shaft. They could faintly hear the sound of voices calling below.
"Gescend," said Jack-Jack, which meant "I think we ought to see what's down there."
"So do I, Jack-Jack," said Violet, "But how can we get down there?"
"I know," said Dash, "We could get a whole lot of neckties from the apartment, tie them together into a long rope, and climb down."
"Dash, that would be ridiculously dangerous," said Violet. "Only characters in a children's book could get away with something like that. We're superheros, not mountain climbers."
"You have a better idea?" asked Dash resentfully.
Violet looked up the shaft. It seemed to continue up for another floor, even though this was supposed to be the penthouse.
"There may be something up there," she suggested. "I'll make a sloping force field and you can run up and check."
Dash did this, and he called down, "There's an abandoned meeting room up here, and there's a huge rope-ladder rolled up by the shaft. I'll start it unrolling."
Violet dropped the force-field and let the rope-ladder come down. Dash climbed back down. The three of them began the long descent on the rope-ladder, with Violet carrying Jack-Jack in one arm. It was hard work even with a ladder and all three were glad they hadn't tried climbing a rope made of neckties.
Midway down the shaft, Jack-Jack put his ear to the wall and listened. Classical music was playing in the room next to the elevator. Jack-Jack looked dreamy and he began to float upward from Violet's arm.
"Jack-Jack, is that a new power?" asked Violet.
The question broke his concentration and he plopped back into her arms."
"Floatie," Jack-Jack said.
"Maybe listening to music would bring out your powers," Dash said.
"Kari once told me, when she was still my friend, that she plays Mozart for the babies she sits so it will make them smarter," said Violet. "We can try it later. Right now we need to keep climbing."
They finally made it down the shaft, and found an enormous cage at the bottom in the center of the room. Inside were Duncan and Isadora Rydinger! The Incredibles rushed forward and hugged them through the bars.
"Oh, it's so good to see you! I was afraid Count Buddy was going to kill you!" said Violet.
"He's been keeping us prisoners," said Isadora.
"I think he wants to use us as hostages or as bait for a trap for you. Be careful," said Duncan.
The Incredibles tried everything they could to free their friends, but nothing they could do was able to bend or break the bars of the cage. Even Jack-Jack's metallic and monster forms weren't enough.
"What about your flaming form?" suggested Violet. "We could soften the bars if we heated them enough."
Jack-Jack tried, but his abilities were still too dependent on having something nearby to copy from. He produced only feeble orange flames that quickly died down.
"We need to go back up and get a cigarette lighter from Esmé's room," Violet said.
The Parrs began the long climb up the rope ladder.
"Wait," called Duncan. "I should transfer to you some memories about the V.F.D."
"No time now," said Dash. "You can do it when we come back."
Three-quarter of the way up, one side of the ladder suddenly went limp and the whole thing began to lurch and sway.
"Goodbye, Incredibles," said a voice from above them.
The children realized it was the voice of Esmé Sansweet, just as she cut through the other side of the ladder.
Then they were falling...