Helen Parr: Well, I'm honored, that you re-registered just because of my story. Therefore I finished this chapter as fast as I could.

all reviewers: This chappy will be a little dark... but the sun will rise soon.

Disclaimer: The Incredibles don't belong to me... hm, I have a déjà vú.

Chapter 6: Changes

With a bad feeling in the stomach Lucius ran up the stairs. In the morning he had received a call from Rick Dicker, Bobs contact man in the government. The agent had told him over the phone, that Bob had not reported to him for already one week and that he hadn't also been able to reach the hero. Lucius had immediately tried to call Bob, but no one had picked up the phone. After the police station had confirmed too, that nobody had seen Mr. Incredible since a whole week, he had begun to worry about his friend seriously.

He panted, as he was finally standing in front of Bobs door and rest upon his knees. Even a powerful and athletic superhero like him could waste his breath, if he had been running up the stairs as fast as he had done. But this made no sense at all. Bob had always let somebody know, if he was ill or could not do his work because of a nasty matter. Something bad had to have happened to him. Lucius took another deep breath and reached for the doorhandle. To his surprise the door wasn't locked. Carefully he pushed open the door.

He twisted his lips in disgust, when the cloud of stench reached his nose. Bob was a bachelor boy, he granted, but not even he would let it come so far! Lucius couldn't imagine, that a living being could possibly bear this stink, but he had to check the apartment nonetheless. He inhaled deeply and then hold his breath. Bob owed him a huge favour for doing that!

He left the door behind him open, so that fresh air could reconquer this place again, while he was entering the dwelling. It was pitch-dark everywhere in the apartment. Somebody had put down the window-blinds and drawn all the curtains. In the dim light Lucius could just barely recognize, that all kinds of things were lying scattered on the floor, from pizza cartons up to dirty laundry. Cautionary he held his nose additionally. No, Bob would never stay in such a dirty cave, he had to be somewhere else.

Lucius was just going to leave, when he heard a quiet groan. He stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned his eyes toward the bedroom. For one moment he stayed listening deeply, but then he went slowly toward the ajar door. He did not have the slightest clue, who was actually inside there, but perhaps he or she knew, why the apartment was in such a desolate condition. The superhero stretched his free hand in order to be able to freeze each attacker immediately, then he pushed open the door jerkily. And he was such caught off guard, that he made the mistake to gasp for breath. He could not see much, but an extraordinary large human shape was lying in bed, so large, that it could only be Bob. His friend was apparently not chained to his bed, but he did not move. The whole floor was littered with garbage and the stench was even worse in here, if that was even possible.

With fast steps Lucius went through the room, raised the window-blinds with a jerk high and wrenched open the window. He ignored the tormented groans behind him, stretched his head out and inhaled deeply. As recently as then he took a look at the bed. It was indeed Bob, who was covering his eyes with one hand at the moment. Lucius frightened, when he saw over his friend. His clothes were full of small crumbs like the bed and stank of sweat. Bobs hair stuck out in all directions and Lucius could see a five o'clock shadow on his chin. He hadn't probably been in the bath for the whole week already.

"Bob!", he called out shaken. "What has happened to you?"

"Lucius?", Bob mumbled with hoarse voice. "Is that you?"

"Who else?", Lucius asked snappishly and eyed the chaos in the room. "Doesn't look like you have been waiting for someone to visit you."

Bob grumbled. "Close the window."

"So you can slowly asphyxiate yourself further in here?" Lucius shook his head. "No chance."

"If I want to asphyxiate myself, it's my affair. That doesn't regard you."

"Are you mental, Bob?", Lucius burst out vehemently. "Today Rick Dicker has called me, because he's getting worried about you! For a whole week nobody has seen you in the city and nevertheless you don't consider it necessary to call your contact man? You have to fulfil a duty, Bob!"

"A duty?"

Lucius winced frightened, when Bob suddenly roared furiously, clenched his fist and pierced the wall nearby. He hoped, that nobody had seen that outside, but that was a small problem at the moment. Fortunately Bobs rage waned fast, because his eyes had not gotten accustomed to the bright sunlight yet.

"Bob, what's the matter with you?", Lucius asked cautiously. "I just want to help you, man."

"Duty", Bob murmured, who had obviosly not heard him. "Duty! Yes, my duty is to hide my face so that nobody can recognize me! And only therefore she is... " At this point his voice slowed down. Lucius' chin sagged downward, when he saw astonished, that Bob began to cry. "Helen..."

"Helen?" Lucius managed to regain control of his mouth. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's gone", Bob answered numb. "Forever."

Lucius crossed his arms over the chest. "Come on, Bob, you need to throw me a bone here! Tell me at once, why you are that depressed!"

It took him still some more minutes, until he had got Bob to tell his history. And the longer he was listening, the better he could understand, why his friend was so low-spirited. Yes, when they had been on partol together, Mr. Incredible had often been romancing over Helen, but he would never have thought, that the muscleman had meant it that serious. His friend had really fallen in love with the girl. Lucius listened further patiently. He was just about to interrupt Bob, when that told him of his infidelity in cold blood, but the taller man simply continued speaking without paying attention to Lucius at all. And he was completely speechless, when Bob echoed Helens confession. Now was completely obvious to him, why the strongest man of the world was that dejected.

"Man", he whispered and leaned against the wall. Speechless he stared at Bob, who was staring at the opposite wall on his part. For a whole minute none of them was capable of saying something. Lucius found his voice again at first. He doubted anyhow, that Bob would have said something at all, so he had to start conversation again. "And now you believe, that Helen... is Elastigirl?" He could hardly believe, what he had just enunciated. Such a ludicrous coincidence was simply absurd... and probably Bob had been trying to convince himself of that for the whole week. Obviously unsuccessful.

"I don't know", Bob answered and showed him a jet-black look.

"However you THINK she is?"

For a moment he was afraid, that Bob would go ballistic again, but the giant did just sigh.

"I do not know, what I should believe anymore." His voice sounded completely hopeless. He had really intended to die within this house!

"Why haven't you searched for her?", Lucius asked shocked. What had become of the self-confident superhero in just a few days?

"I have!", Bob answered and clenched his fists, while a further tear ran down his cheek. "I have visited her apartment a dozen times, but she had already left. I have looked for her at each place we had been together and I have even asked Rick to confide Elastigirls secret identity to me... but he isn't allowed to do that."

„Now that's a lame excuse!" Lucius browbeated, when Bob looked at him startled. "Do you call that an answer to my question?", he wanted to hear. "You are Mr. Incredible! Even if you envisaged trouble in the past days, you have always faced up to the problem! You have somehow mastered each situation until now! And now you want me to believe, that you failed to find her because of such a trivial detail?" It tilt downwards to Bob. "Do you want me to tell you, what's wrong with you? You're scared, Bob! Scared, that she maybe could reject you again! Even though she's suffering just as much as you, if you told me the truth."

For one very long moment Bob stared at him motionless. Then Lucius recognized to his relief, that vitality began to flow through his friends body again. Bobs muscles tightened, he straightened himself and he became sharp-sighted again. He rose.

"You are right", he said with strong voice. "I was scared. But I have to fulfill a duty! I must find Helen!" Lucius could barely see the sad smile, that appeared on Bobs lips. "After all she is not the only one, who has got a dark secret."

"Such self-confidence suits you much better", Lucius decided contently and grinned at him. "Come on, I'll help you to clean up this mess and then we'll take Mr. Dicker to task. It would be simply laughable, if we couldn't get out Helens new address!" He frowned. „But in any case you should have a shower before."

This time Bob forced himself to smile. A faint smile, but a smile.

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The girl fought them tooth and nail, but she didn't stand a chance. The two guys, who had ambushed her, were much too strong. If she only had listened to her friend and had taken a taxi!

"Shut up, sweetie", the chap required grinning. A greedy expression sparkled in his eyes, which terrified the girl more than everything else. "We won't kill you."

„No, it would be too bad about you", his buddy agreed, who was holding her other arm. When the girl tried to scream, he covered her mouth with his hand. "If I was you, I wouldn't do that again", he hissed with suddenly serious voice. "Otherwise we'll perhaps change our mind!"

The girl was beside herself with fear, therefore she followed her instinct and bit the guys hand in front of her mouth. The man suppressed a cry and tore his hand away. She wanted to take the opportunity and call for help, when she was slapped in the face by the second man. Trembling she gave up her resistance.

"If you do that again, then you are dead, understand?", he snapped at her. Then he grinned cruelly. "And because you hurt my friend, you'll be very nice to him now, is that clear?"

"It's a waste of time to be nice to someone, who is unconscious."

All three heads jerked to the side, when they heard the new voice. The two surprised criminals shouldn't have done, because they were hit in the face at the same time and fell to the ground. The girl was totally scared stiff, unable to move with fear.

"Take a hike, kiddo", the voice added. It was the voice of a woman, but the girl was sure, that she didn't know her saviour. She sounded a little friendlier now, but a steely untertone resonated in her voice. "Leave this two to me."

When one of the two men wanted to grab the leg of the girl, another blow in his face told him not to, although there was nobody around him. The girl was still terribly scared, but she began to move hesitant and disappeared in the night. She asked herself, what was worse... the two men or this phantom, that had attacked the two without being seen.

As one of the two managed to get on his feet again and lifted his fists to fight his enemy, another punch hit his stomach. When he squirmed with pain, a kick against his head let him tumble against the wall. After a last just as fast blow into the face he lost his consciousness and sank down.

The second man had observed everything with frightened expression and was clever enough not to stand up. However he looked around hectically. He could see nobody!

"Where are you?", he called. "Why did you attack us?"

When he heard a noise behind himself, he turned around very fast. But there were just empty streets and darkness. Slowly he got the jitters.

"You are disgusting", the woman's voice sounded in the darkness, but this time she was standing somewhere in front of him. Again he looked in this direction, but there wasn't anything to be seen. „To ambush such a young girl twosome, who can't defend herself properly. Men can only think about one thing!"

"Who are you?", the criminal wanted to know. Slowly he got into a panic. "What have we done to you?"

"To me?" Scornful laughs sounded out of the dark. "You could not even hurt me, if you were armed! But you wanted to do violence to the girl, and that is absolutely inexcusable."

"Do you know her?", the man asked in order to gain some time. Perhaps someone would come by, who could help him against this phantom.

"I don't need to know her at all", the female voice answered coldly. "I would protect each woman against offscum like you."

„But who ARE you?", he asked desperately and looked around. "Why do you DO that?"

"So you want to see me?" Again he heard a short laugh. "Are you really sure? Well, if you want it so desperately... "

A silhouette slowly appeared in the darkness in front of the man. She was clearly a girl, who went towards him. But how had she been able to attack him at this distance? She had to have thrown something. Yes, that's how she did it. He compressed his lips and tightened his muscles. But he could see her now.

At an incredible speed, which not even himself would have put past him, he jumped up and lunged at the girl in front of him. But she had expected that. By making an appearingly impossible move she evaded his attack and let him stumble. In the next moment something hard hit him at the back and sent him falling to the ground. Immediately someone grabbed his arms, contorted them and kneed on his back. He groaned.

"That wasn't very wise", whispered the female voice into his ear. "Did you really think, that you could win against Elastigirl?"

The man cast up his eyes. "Elastigirl?", he screeched disbelievingly. "But... you left the city long time ago!"

"True, but now I am back again."

"Wait a moment", he answered and began to grin. "If you are really Elastigirl, then you aren't allowed to attack me any longer, if I surrender. A superheroine mustn't kill anybody."

"I dare say you're right."

The weight disappeared from his back. Demonstratively slow the criminal rose, turned abound and lifted both hands. She was indeed Elastigirl. He had seen her photo in the newspapers often enough. And she looked even better in natura. Her skintight supersuit veiled a perfect girlish figure. He grinned saucily.

„I have to congratulate you", he said. "You are looking much better than the kiddo." When Elastigirl clenched her fists, he lifted his hands even higher. "Ah-ah", he said sneeringly. "I surrendered, did you already forget? Someone who fights for law and order has to respect that."

"Law and order", Elastigirl repeated coldly. "I believed once, that nothing bad could happen to me, as long as I continued fighting for the good forces. But I was wrong. Everyone can get hurt, no matter how strong he is."

The bad guy began to feel queasy. The superheroine was acting completely out of character, he hadn't expected that. But even so he kept cool. Elastigirl was still a superheroine and therefore she wasn't allowed to hurt him, as long as he did not attack her. He and his friend would be put in prison for just a few weeks for attempted rape and would be free again after that, if he remained calm now. The kiddo would not come out and he would simply deny everything.

"Hey, I didn't hurt you", he straightened out as a precaution. "I am completely quiet and peaceful, you see? You cannot do anything except taking me to the flatfoots as long as... "

Suddenly Elastigirl moved so fast, that he could hardly see the kick coming. She spun around once and her extended leg crashed against his thorax. He was hurled to the side, smashed against the wall and sank down groaning. He felt, that something viscous flowed over his left eye.

"I have always fought for other people selflessly", he heard the voice of Elastigirl beside himself. "And nevertheless I have lost the one, whom I loved." She seized the man by the collar and set him on his feet. He groaned again. "If even the good ones have to bear such a misery, why shouldn't the bad guys suffer too?"

In this night several people suddenly woke up, because they had heard cries of pain. But in a large city bad things were happening at any time, therefore they ignored them and fell asleep again.