There's a saying that what goes up must come down, and because of gravity that is normally true. But when applied to people's lives it need not be so. Some people seem to be up all the time, but in the case of the unfortunate Parr children, everything seemed to be going down and down with very little up. For example, at present they were being hustled to an afternoon's entertainment which would consist of either being thrown to hungry lions or watching someone else being thrown to hungry lions, and two of the people doing the hustling were their parents, who had forgotten who they really were. That felt very down indeed.
Violet was still wearing the scarf and the loose-fitting yellow clown costume with red polka-dots that she had put on for the freak show this morning. It seemed to her very inappropriate attire for being thrown to lions (if there is appropriate attire for that - perhaps a suit of armor would be best).
Dash was wearing his sister's invisible costume, so that the only thing visible was his head. This was handy for pretending to be part of a two-headed freak, but it made it difficult for him to go into action. If he stopped holding onto Violet's back, his costume would instantly turn bright red and his secret identity would be exposed. He might be willing to do that in a pinch - which here means "if the situation became desperate enough," but just at the moment he and Violet were already in a pinch, that is, held in the viselike grip of Hugo the Hunchback.
Jack-Jack was morphed into the hairy form of Chabo the Wolf Baby and he was held under the other arm of Hugo. But there was something he could do as they walked toward the lion pit. First, he absorbed power from Hugo/Mr. Incredible. Now Jack-Jack was incredibly strong. He used that strength to slip an arm free and touch Colette/Elastigirl, who was walking close beside Hugo. Now Jack-Jack could stretch. He carefully stretched out an arm and touched the back of Kevin/Macroburst without being noticed. Now Jack-Jack could create wind gusts.
Madame Lulu/Everseer came running up to them. "Hurry, freaks, crowd is waiting and growing restless, please!"
As Lulu moved behind them to hurry them along, Jack-Jack managed to stretch out a hand and brush it against her. It worked; Lulu was too preoccupied to notice. Now Jack-Jack had telepathy.
A large crowd, almost a mob, had gathered at the edge of a pit with nine hungry lions. "Feed the lions, feed the lions," they chanted.
Syndrome, his guards, and Esmé were there. Count Buddy was wearing a black business suit with a large white "S" on the lapel. He was giving an interview to a reporter from the "Daily Punctuation."
"No, the person who was killed by the child supervillains was Count Brody. I am Count Buddy. I supplied these fine genetically-enhanced lions to the Caligula Carnival. They are ultra-fast and ultra-strong, not to mention ultra-hungry. Even a super might have trouble with them."
"I can see the headlines now," said the reporter. "FREAK FED TO SUPER-LIONS SUPPLIED BY COUNT BUDDY, WHO IS NOT COUNT BRODY, WHO IS DEAD."
Sydrome noticed the arrival of the freaks and waved the reporter away.
"And now the moment we've all been waiting for," Syndrome said. "The freaks are here. Which one shall have the honor of feeding the lions? The envelope, please."
Esmé handed him an envelope with a folded paper. As Syndrome made a big production of unfolding the paper, Jack-Jack relayed a plan to his siblings using telepathy.
"Gaa goo diving board, gabbu H. G. Wells, goo gust geeg!" he told them.
"And the lucky winner is... Beverly and Elliot, the two-headed freak!" announced Syndrome.
The crowd cheered. "Feed the lions! Feed the lions!"
"Either you push in Madame Lulu and join us, or you're on your own," whispered Hugo as he let Violet and Dash go.
Violet walked forward onto the board that projected out over the lion pit. "My fellow head and I are honored to be chosen," she said.
"You are?" said Syndrome. "All right then, jump in. The crowd is eager to see violence and sloppy eating."
"Wouldn't the audience rather see someone push us in? That would be more violent," Dash said. "Why don't you come out and do it, Count Buddy?"
"I, ahem, I'm really allergic to cats," Count Buddy protested. "You do it, Madame Lulu."
"Me? I am fortune-teller, not lion-feeder, please," Madame Lulu said.
"Why not have one of the other freaks do it?" suggested Esmé. "They want to work for you."
"Really? All right, if they do they can have a job," said Syndrome.
"Let me do it," said Kevin. "I can push with two equally-strong hands."
"No, me!" said Colette, contorting herself toward the board.
"Me," said Hugo.
"It's my job to do the dirty work for Count Buddy," said the hook-handed guard. "No freak gets to do my job!"
"No, it's my job!" said the bald-headed guard who went by the name Dubcutondy.
"Somebody do it and get it over with!" howled someone in the mob. "I'm tired of waiting!"
A fight broke out between the freaks, Madame Lulu, Syndrome's guards, and the crowd. Everyone was pushing and shoving each other.
"Now, while they're all distracted," whispered Violet to Dash.
"Forget it, I'll jump. Here goes!" yelled Dash.
Violet raised her arms to cover her face, blocking the view of Dash's head from those who were still looking. Dash zipped down from her back at super-speed and gave the board a super-fast kick while holding onto Violet's legs. The board launched them both high into the air.
At the very top of the trajectory, Violet went invisible. Dash helped her strip off the scarf and the loose-fitting clown costume at super-speed and then ducked his head inside the invisible costume he was wearing. Now neither of the two could be seen.
All the eyes of the audience turned toward the bright clown costume which was falling on its own. It caught the air and puffed out like a parachute.
Dash and Violet weren't falling because Jack-Jack had created a gust of wind under them. Even though he couldn't see them, he knew exactly where they were by telepathy. He blew them away from the pit and they landed safely a good distance beyond the crowd.
Nobody was looking their way. All eyes were on the clown costume which had fallen into the pit; the lions tore at it. The audience gasped in surprise and confusion.
"What happened?" one woman asked. "What goes up must come down, right?"
"Dash, I need something to wear," said Violet. "Would you run back to the caravan and get my old clothes?"
Dash was back in an instant with her old overalls, a spare clown costume and a spare scarf. Violet put them on.
People in the crowd were beginning to yell. "Hey, what happened to the freak? Where's the blood? We wanted violence and sloppy eating and you gave us a stupid disappearing act instead!"
The mob began to riot. With all the pushing and shoving going on, nobody saw who pushed Dubcutondy and Madame Lulu into the pit.
Dubcutondy never had a chance. Everseer might have escaped, but something made him panic. His last words were, "Don't touch me! You've got germs!"
In the confusion, Jack-Jack used his strength and elasticity to slip free from Hugo's grip. He used wind control to fly over the heads of the mob and rejoin his siblings.
"Whoo!" Jack-Jack said, which meant "Whew!" He morphed to his normal form.
"Is that you, Beverly and Elliot?" came a voice from around the corner of a nearby tent.
It was Syndrome's voice, so Violet and Dash instantly re-formed the two-headed freak and Jack-Jack went back to being Chabo.
"That was some magic act," said Syndrome. "You'll have to tell me how you did it some time. I've decided you and your fellow freaks are worthy to join my troops. Here, take a torch and help me burn this place up. I want to destroy all the evidence I had anything to do with these deaths."
The three Parrs were very reluctant to do this, but they decided staying together with their parents was the best option. Hopefully they could get the collars off them soon and restore their normal minds.
After the arson, everyone got into Syndrome's plane.
"We're going to Mortality Mountains next," said Syndrome. "I have some unfinished business there."
They were flying high over the sheer cubical rocks of Mortality Mountains when Syndrome suddenly turned on "Beverly and Elliot" and zapped them with a paralyzing zero-point energy beam. He caught "Chabo" in another beam a moment later.
"Madame Lulu told me who you really were this morning," said Syndrome with an evil chuckle. "I've decided to keep the baby around a while to suffer, but I certainly don't need you two. I don't need any more sidekicks either, now that I have SynMan, SynWoman, and SynKid."
Syndrome pointed to Hugo, Colette, and Kevin and gave a huge guffaw. "Mwa hee hoo! Open the trapdoor, SynMan!"
Hugo pulled a lever and a trapdoor opened in the bottom of the plane.
"Thank you for flying the friendly skies of Syndrome airlines. You have just completed the safest part of your trip. G'bye!" said Syndrome.
With that, Syndrome used the zero-point beam to drop Violet and Dash out of the plane.
They were about to experience in person the fact that what goes up must come down.