Early the next morning, at around six o'clock, a car sped through the city of Metroville, heading out towards the suburbs. And within that car, curled up in the back seat, a very sleepy Kate Goldin was doing her best to keep herself awake by staring up through the window at the multitude of skyscrapers that towered over the wide road they were driving down. Kate was the only passenger, and driving the small, unimpressive vehicle was Mitch, Kate's friend and fellow researcher. He cruised down the main road at a swift yet casual pace, while enjoying the unfamiliar sights of the slick, ultra-modern city.
Kate, twenty years of age yet forever young at heart, was an accomplished researcher and investigator, mainly an expert on 'paranormal lifeforms', but her expertise covered just about anything that was considered strange or unusual. She was British, as was Mitch, but, by a sheer stroke of luck, she and the rest of her team were already in America – about a day's journey away from Metroville, in fact – when they had first received word about a giant robot destroying the city, and the alleged 'return of the Supers'. Well, Kate had done a good deal of work on super-heroes in the past, though funnily enough, it was usually the 'bad guys' that Kate always ended up lavishing most of her attention on. This was old news to her fellow researchers, who were well familiar with Kate's rebellious side – if it was dangerous, crazy, or just liked breaking the rules, Kate would always be the only girl for the job. There was just something about her that allowed her to befriend the unbefriendible. Although, admittedly, most of her subjects were usually far from being human.
So, figuring that where there was a destructive robot, there was usually someone powering it, Kate had been assigned to get to the city as soon as possible and record the events. And Mitch, being that he was in charge of the team's rented car, had been assigned to get her there. Meanwhile, a group of the research company's American affiliates were already there on the scene, and had agreed to keep Kate and Mitch up-to-date on current events until the two of them arrived.
They had travelled almost non-stop throughout the day in their efforts to reach Metroville. But throughout that journey, the events occurring in the city were rapidly changing. At one point, in sheer frustration, Mitch had nearly turned the car around and headed back the way they had come when they had received word that the robot, or 'Omnidroid' as it was rumoured to be called, had already been completely destroyed. What kept them going was the report that followed – a rumour about the one who had been controlling the robot, a crazed genius who had invented technology that most thought only existed in science-fiction films. But, that evening, they received a new report. The villain had been defeated, though not just defeated – killed.
So as it turned out, by the time Mitch and Kate reached Metroville, they had ended up with a completely different assignment to the one they had set out for. Now they were on their way to investigate the death of this alleged villain, and find out exactly what had happened the evening before. By now, the mood in the car had grown understandably sombre – Kate was half asleep, and Mitch was trying to make the best out of the situation by admiring the scenery. They had not been able to stop in at a hotel for the night, since they had been ordered to get to the site as early in the morning as possible, so as to conduct their investigations before the nosy neighbours emerged to conduct investigations of their own. But the two researchers had to admit, the fact that they were going to be among the first few people to have access to the site of the disaster was pretty amazing, and hardly an offer either of them could afford to pass up.
The sudden sound of a ringing phone jolted Kate from the doze she had unwittingly slipped into.
The bronze-haired, green-eyed young woman, wearing a pair of comfy old jeans and a loose, long-sleeved shirt, stretched out as best she could in the cramped space as she listened to Mitch talk on the phone.
"Oh right…yeah, it's downloading now…Wow, that's one crazy hairdo…Ok, yeah, we'll be there in fifteen. Bye."
"What was that?" Kate asked tiredly as Mitch hung up and dropped the mobile phone onto the front passenger next to his lap-top, which he had switched on a few moments ago.
"The team just sent me a photo of the villain guy." Pulling up at the traffic lights, Mitch glanced at the digital photo which now filled the screen of his lap-top, and he began to grin. "Hey Kate, take a look, I think you'll like this guy…"
Unclipping her seatbelt, Kate leaned forward and grabbed the lap-top, then sat back down, resting the slim computer on her knees.
The photo was out of focus – obviously someone had taken it in a hurry – but still, there he was, hovering in mid-air, wearing a black and white suit with a dark cape fluttering behind him. A bolt of blue-white lightning trailed from his left hand, forming some sort of shimmering force-field which, amazingly, held a full-size tanker up in the air as if it weighed nothing at all. And, even through the blurriness of the photo, it was possible to see a smug smile on the man's face.
"Dan told me that our bad-guy's name is…was…'Syndrome'." Mitch told Kate as she stared at the picture with keen interest. The dark-haired man chuckled before continuing, "But what sort of syndrome, that's what I want to know… 'Compulsively-jamming-finger-into-electrical-socket Syndrome'?"
Kate grinned at this, noting the villain's fiery, seemingly gravity-defying hairstyle. But her eyes were thoughtful.
"Syndrome…" she murmured to herself, idly tracing the white 'S' of the man's suit with a finger. He looked like an interesting character, this Syndrome, and Kate felt a strange yet familiar sadness creep over her – if only she'd found out about this sooner, then maybe she could have saved him from his fate…
About ten minutes later, the pair of investigators finally reached the suburbs. Kate was wide awake now, and was trying to direct Mitch through the endless maze of streets with the help of a map. But in the end, they spotted their goal easily – it was the only site with a thick cloud of black smoke rising up from it.
As Mitch brought the car to a halt, parking alongside the curb, Kate stared out through the window at what she assumed had once been a house – now a charred, smoking heap of brick, wood, and metal. A small team of researchers and forensics were already there, clambering around on the unsteady mountain of debris, helping each other to overturn wooden beams or sheets of metal. All of them appeared to be searching for something.
Very intrigued now, Kate hopped out of the car and started wandering towards the chaotic scene, Mitch following behind her. A tall, sandy-haired man with chiselled features – Kate assumed him to be the one called Dan – jogged over to her, greeting her with a nod and a smile. Kate noticed, as Dan approached, that he was carrying some sort of white wristband in his hand, and she eyed it curiously for a moment before looking up and smiling at Dan.
"Hi." He said, shaking Kate's hand in a brief, business-like manner before falling in line beside her. "Glad you could make it. So, how much do you know?"
"Well, I know that the giant robot which attacked the city was being controlled by a man named Syndrome, who later met his end here, apparently. I also know about the Supers, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere after something like fifteen years of being in hiding or something…" Kate responded in her rambling, slightly eccentric tone.
"Ah, well we've learnt a great deal more since then." Dan said with a solemn smile. He stopped walking, and Kate turned to face him.
"This," Dan gestured to the wrecked building, "Used to be a house that belonged to a family of Supers. Five of them in total, and each with their own special super-powers. Collectively, they're known as the 'Incredibles', and it was them that managed to defeat the Omnidroid. Now, obviously the Incredibles had encountered Syndrome and his inventions beforehand, since they knew where to intercept the robot and how to destroy it. But we reckon this goes a little deeper than your conventional super-villain attack on mankind, because when I snapped that photo, Syndrome was helping people – he saved a load of citizens from being crushed by a tanker."
Kate nodded slowly, frowning in confusion. "So, the villain unleashes his giant robot on the city, then starts fighting against it, even though he's the one that's controlling it- Oh…." The realization hit her then, and suddenly she understood. Understood why.
"Yeah." Said Dan, nodding. "Our villain fancied playing hero, and so he set up his own enemy to defeat. But, things obviously didn't go as planned. That robot – its intelligence was unlike anything we've ever known from man-made robotics. It had the capability to learn, the capability to get smarter as its experience grew. Well, it soon learned that Syndrome was the one controlling it, and so it swatted him away, then just carried on doing whatever it wanted. That's when the Incredibles came in, and 'saved the day', as the phrase goes.
Later on in the evening, the family encountered Syndrome again, this time right here at their house. We don't know the details of what happened, but going by what we've gathered from eye-witnesses and the debris left over from the conflict, it seems that Syndrome got a car thrown at him while he was making a getaway in an aircraft. He got knocked into one of the turbine engines, and was presumably, well, shredded."
"Oh, God…" Kate groaned, shutting her eyes for a moment. What a horrible way to die.
When she opened her eyes, there was anger in them. "So, Syndrome was trying to leave, and the heroes threw a car at him?"
Dan shrugged. "I guess they were trying to prevent him from escaping. I seriously doubt they intended to kill him."
Kate let out a long, drawn-out sigh, and glanced around at the chaotic site. "Well," she said finally, "Sounds like you've got everything covered. So, why do you need me and Mitch to be here, exactly?"
Dan smiled. "Well, here's the real puzzle to all this – the forensic team have been searching this site over and over, but they can't find any…remains."
Kate looked up. "Oh?"
"I mean, it's possible that everything got burnt up in the explosion that followed the accident, but there still should have been something – they can't even find anything around the engine itself. Which suggests…"
A smile slowly crept over Kate's face. "…that he's still alive?"
"It's possible. And if he is, then he can't be far from here because no one has seen him since last evening. This is where you come in."
Kate grinned. "I'll take a look around." She said casually, hoisting her scruffy backpack over her left shoulder.
Dan grinned back at her. "Great. Oh, and…" he held up the item he'd be holding loosely in his hand throughout the conversation. "We found this near the house. It's one of the bands Syndrome was wearing round his wrist. It contains some sort of zero-point energy device, but we haven't figured out how to make it work. We thought maybe you could help us with it."
Dan then handed the wrist-band to Kate, and she accepted it eagerly, turning the strange gadget over in her hands as she observed it keenly.
"We also found this amongst the rubble…" Dan continued, as he moved to the right and picked up a metallic object from the remains of a low brick wall.
"A jet-pack of some sort, from Syndrome's rocket-boots, we presume. Here, you can have that too." He grinned at Kate. "Y'know, just in case you find Syndrome and he wants it back."
"Wow, gifts!" Kate commented in her usual odd way, taking the second and equally strange item.
Dan smiled. "Alright then, well, I'll leave you to it." He then looked to Mitch, who'd been hovering by Kate's side since their arrival. "Hey Mitch, we're currently putting together a report on the super-powers of each member of the Incredibles family. You want to take a look at what we've got so far?"
Mitch nodded. "Sure." He replied, before looking at Kate and saying, "I'll see you later, ok?"
"Ok, see ya." Kate responded in a distant tone as the two men wandered off. She was still studying the two artefacts she'd been handed. Both were surprisingly light in weight, yet they also looked very intricate and expensive (especially the wrist-band, with its numerous unmarked buttons), and Kate cradled them delicately in her arms, fearful of accidentally setting something off.
After a while, she began to move away from the site. She stepped out into the road and then stopped, looking around slowly, narrowing her eyes as she took in every detail of her surroundings. As far as she could see, bits of twisted metal from the exploded aircraft littered the streets. No one had begun the laborious process of tidying up yet.
As she stared about, she idly ran a hand over the white wrist-band, as a Psychic might handle a treasured object while trying to contact the owner. Kate was indeed famous amongst her co-workers for her heightened instincts – gifted with a strange sort of sixth sense that allowed her to understand the minds of people and creatures alike in a way that was almost inhuman.
However, Kate had always found humans considerably more predictable than… 'not-humans', and so it didn't take great concentration of thought to come to a conclusion on where to start her search. If I was a defeated super-villain where would I hide, was the obvious question she'd asked herself, and after a while her eyes had come to rest on a set of sign-posts at the end of the street, one particular sign-post adorned simply with the word 'park'.
After walking for about ten minutes, Kate had reached her destination. It was quite a large park, made bright by numerous flower-beds, childrens' climbing-frames and swings, and well-kept turf. There was a pleasant, if rather man-made feel about it, except of course for the copse situated at the park's centre – probably the dwindled remains of what had once been a mighty forest. The trees were not particularly tall, and so their branches – bearing thick, dark leaves – hung low to the ground. Kate headed towards the copse almost immediately, mainly because it was the only real source of cover in the park, but also because she could see – amazingly – bits of debris hanging in the trees, glinting in the early morning sunshine.
Must have been one heck of an explosion... Kate thought to herself, her heart sinking slightly.
Entering the copse was like stepping into a completely different environment from the rest of the bright, sunny park. The sprawling trees created a shadowy, secluded atmosphere – the thick leaves blocked out most of the sun, keeping the temperature pleasantly cool. Pigeons and other smaller birds clattered noisily through the foliage, causing Kate to glance up and see several chunks of sheet metal wedged in the topmost branches.
On moving towards the centre of the copse, the trees became more widely spaced, and it was here that Kate came across one particularly large sheet of metal lying on the ground – bent down the middle, it had formed a sort of tent shape. Kate could not begin to imagine how such a large object had been flung so far across the suburbs, but then she supposed that it had been part of an airborne craft, after all.
Idle curiosity getting the better of her, Kate stepped up to the sheet of metal and kicked it.
The resulting reverberating clang was to be expected, but the angry shout that radiated from somewhere underneath the metal surprised Kate so much that she almost fell over backwards. "Hey!" the voice had said crossly.
Kate had stumbled back, but she was quick to step forward again, this time crouching down on hands and knees by the opening of the metal 'tent', and staring at the figure who sat huddled within, half concealed by shadow.
"Hey yourself." Kate said with a happy grin, but receiving only an angry glare from a pair of cold blue eyes framed by a black mask.
"I suppose there's really no point in me asking if you're Syndrome, since you obviously are Syndrome…" Kate continued excitedly as she took in the man's odd appearance as best she could in the gloom. Clad in a skin-tight black and white suit. White gloves, white boots. Pronounced chin, intense eyes, topped by that wild hairstyle which stood so tall that it was currently squashed up against the metallic roof of the make-shift shelter. This was Syndrome. She'd found him. Alive.
Needless to say, Syndrome was not sharing Kate's enthusiasm. He just seemed to stare at her without actually seeing her.
Calming her initial excitement, Kate shuffled a little further inside the shelter, holding out the wrist-band and jet-pack that she'd been carrying with her. She placed them on the ground, as close to Syndrome as she dared, and he quickly picked them both up, studying them thoughtfully.
It was only as Kate's eyes became more accustomed to the gloom that she realised that Syndrome was in seriously bad shape. He was not simply being anti-social, he was just in a complete daze. His eyes were unfocussed and distant, his movements were sluggish. His cape was in tatters, and his glossy suit was torn in several places, revealing deep cuts. The worst wound was a deep, open slice across his right shoulder. He had obviously lost a considerable amount of blood.
While Kate pondered this with growing concern, Syndrome had clipped the wrist-band back into place, and was now busily reattaching the jet-pack to his boot.
After a while, Kate spoke up. "Look, I've got a first-aid kit in my bag if you -
"I've got to get out of here." Syndrome announced suddenly, cutting Kate off. He then abruptly stood up, the sheet of metal being lifted up with him for a moment before it tumbled back against a tree-trunk with a noisy clunk. Kate stood up too, watching the fiery-haired man wince and briefly clutch at his bleeding shoulder, before strolling off through the trees. Despite everything, there was a confident swagger in his step that Kate would have smiled at, were it not for her worrying about his health.
Kate followed Syndrome out of the copse, stepping out into the open just in time to see him pause and press a series of buttons on one of his wrist-bands. Then, suddenly, his rocket-boots burst into life, and he swiftly rose up from the ground, angling his body in an expert manner that suggested a lot of practise. And then, like some strange, twisted version of Superman, he shot off into the sky, heading off towards the city.
Immediately, Kate began to run, even though she knew she stood no chance of keeping pace with those rocket-boots. But, as she tore across the field, she saw Mitch's car pull up at the edge of the park. Seeing Mitch step out of the car, Kate headed towards him.
"Mitch! Look! Look up!" Kate shouted, pointing wildly at the sky as she ran. She saw Mitch look up, saw his jaw drop as he beheld Syndrome flying across the sky.
Kate skidded to an abrupt halt next to Mitch, having to grab his arm to prevent herself from falling over.
"Mitch! It's Syndrome! He's alive!" Kate exclaimed, barely pausing for breath. "I found him! He was in the copse!"
Now she did pause, letting her breathing calm for a moment before continuing in a more level tone, "He's got some nasty wounds, Mitch. He's lost a lot of blood. You know what people can get like in that state – they become numb to the effects of their wounds, and they think they can do things but they can't. Now he's going into the city and I don't know why, and the police or someone will find him and they'll catch him! I have to help him, Mitch."
Mitch nodded. "Ok. Get in the car, then. Let's get moving before we lose sight of him."