Thank very much for the reviews, Jack-Jack Incredible, Dash, soccergurl1990 and FutureFanatic

They were much appreciated!

Any, next chapter

It seemed that Violet/Tony relationships were kind of popular here

Never actually occurred to me before

But it makes more sense to right it in

And I'm sorry I don't think I mentioned that:

A) Syndrome is dead – it's official.

B) They don't know about Jack-Jack's powers.

This one is set 5 months on from Chapter One

So I'll stop talking now

Enjoy! Love LJ xXx

---

Throw Me. Chapter Two. The Verdict

- o -

"Well, my dad said he once saw Mr. Incredible at the post office."

"Why would he go to a post office? He could just, like, use his powers and, like, magic letters places and stuff."

Violet ignores them but lets a small smile creep across her face, all the same. It is, in a way, really quite fun listening to the other kids in school competing with each other for the closest they've come to the regenerated supers. She can saunter calmly down the halls on her way to class and imagine all the different situations in which she calmly and stylishly plays her trump card. Of course she never would; she wasn't that stupid, but it's always fun to imagine. Putting her earphones in and turning up the volume, she checks the clock and heads for her locker.

"Yeah, well, get this – my brother's friend's cousin said that he found Frozone's old cape!"

"How d'you know it was his?"

"Frozone doesn't even wear a cape! Jesus, you're so stupid!"

"Hey, Violet! Violet? Vi!"

Violet turns, adjusting the dark green band in her hair, to see a familiar face struggling through the crowded halls. Tony Rydinger is not normally so ridiculously clumsy but his eyes are fixed on his new girlfriend as he calls out to her, one hand in the air, and fights the horde of kids.

"Hey Tony," she greets him when he arrives at her locker, breathless.

"Want to – sit outside for – lunch? Since it's a – nice day and all?"

Violet glances at him, nods and then laughs at his breathlessness while they head out through the bustling swarm of students still discussing the latest major save on the superhero front.

"No, no, no! The best part was when Mr. Incredible tore out that lamppost and pinned those two guys against a wall with it!"

"Man, that was sweet! How cool would it be if you could just...do that?"

She hopes Tony knows what she goes through for him. Violet rolls her eyes, reminiscent of her mother, at the endless banter between Tony's friends sitting out on the grass. The debates rage on between Tony and two of his friends whilst Violet sits quietly, trying to ignore them.

"Not a fan?" a voice beside her murmurs.

Violet jumps; she had almost forgotten Francis, sitting silently with his brown eyes watching the conversation rattle backwards and forwards from behind his overhanging black fringe. Francis was one of Tony's less annoying friends, but only because he tended to just sit and patiently listen. Violet smiles slightly, surprised to hear him speak up.

"Yeah, all the superhero talk gets to me after a while," she pauses, as she always does when talking on this topic, to check she's not giving anything away. "I get enough of it at home."

"Same here," Francis nods and briefly flashes a sympathetic smile. "My dad's in that business."

"Really?" Violet narrows her eyes and edges closer. Was this kid trying to say that his dad was...?

"One of those higher-ranking cops that has a speciality," Francis continues and Violet shakes herself. Of course he wouldn't give away his identity that easily. "He's always on about those evil superheroes they have to fill out paperwork on. I mean, Christ, he spends most of his time copying out transcripts from interviews and filing away evidence but he talks about it like it's his whole damn life."

An outburst like this from anyone would be a shock, but from the ever-passive Francis, Violet just doesn't know what to say.

"Okay." She hears herself say and the boy falls silent again. So maybe not all of Tony's friends are annoying, but they've certainly got some issues. Ignoring the enduring debates and the clearly troubled Francis, Violet mindlessly sits, pulling blades of grass from the soil, her curtain of dark hair shining bluer in the afternoon sun.

Now she is at home, sat similarly at the dinner table and twisting her fork in her plate of spaghetti. Normally on an average night she'd entertain herself by placing a force-field around Dash's plate everytime he stabbed his fork down to eat, but tonight something's different. Even Jack-Jack stays quiet. Dash glances across the table at his older sister and, wordlessly, they exchange a kind of rare sympathy with each other. Normally he'd be livening up dinner by snatching away items of her cutlery too quickly for her to see as she reaches for them, but tonight there's some kind of strange tension in the room.

"Five months is hardly enough," Helen breaks the silence finally and glances sharply at her husband.

Both Dash and Violet know what's going on; it's been making the news all over the city but especially, it seems, in the Parr household. Collaborator and so-called sidekick, Mirage, to the deceased boy-turned-super, Syndrome, who is held responsible for the deaths of many of the greatest Supers of his era; has been released after five months serving sentence in one of the governments own uniquely designed cells in the carefully constructed prison for such Supers. Of course, debates over this decision have rages through the courts, playgrounds and coffee-breaks of Metroville but none so fiercely as the dining room of the Parr's.

"Oh come on, you were there," Bob counters. "You saw her. She was helping us at the end – five months was too much."

"And that makes it alright does it? That she's 'seen the error of her ways'?" Helen snaps back. "She tried to kill two of your children."

"It wasn't her who pressed the button."

"But she didn't exactly protest, did she?"

In between the rising voices, the doorbell rings and both Dash and Violet's eyes flick between their arguing parents.

"She was acting under orders! Who knows how he blackmailed her!"

" – Mom, the door." Dash attempts to interrupt as the doorbell trills again, louder.

"Jesus, Bob – blackmail or not, surely the woman's got morals."

" – Dad, there's someone at the door."

"Wait a second; is this about what happened in the Containment Unit?" Bob realises slowly. And then it really is silent with only the shrill doorbell breaking it at intervals. Vi and Dash's heads still move backwards and forwards between the adults like spectators at Wimbledon, but Helen and Bob stay perfectly still, blazing eyes fixed firmly on each other.

"Dash," Helen speaks deliberately and with forced calm. "Please go and answer the door. I'm busy at the moment."

All too gladly, Dash slips down from his chair and runs to the door.

"This is nothing to do with what happened then," Helen begins.

"Nothing happened!" Bob interjects firmly.

"It's just that she's not exactly the most trustworthy person," she continues, ignoring her husband's protests.

"Erm – Mom?" Dash speaks up hesitantly and, with seamless synchronisation, Helen and Bob Parr turn their heads to see, of course, Mirage standing awkwardly in the door frame.

"Well, hi!" Bob greets, overly cheerful. The whole family plaster their faces with unconvincingly wide beams.

Mirage laughs nervously before admitting, finally, "I didn't know where else to go."

- o -