Dinner with the Family
Dash and Ray walks all the way from the city to the Parr residence. Dash looks at his watch and it reads 7:30. He looks up at the black sky and the moon beams on the couple. The stars twinkle in the night sky. Finally, the two of them were able to reach the Parr residence. Dash and Ray exchange glances and smiles. Dash steps up on the front porch and he rings the doorbell. The two of them waits for a few seconds, until the door swings open. A tall woman with brown hair, white shirt and black pants stands in front. She stares at the two children and smiles.
"Hello Dash." said Helen.
"Hey, mom." Dash smiles. Helen then turns her attention to the girl next to her son.
"And who would this be?" she asks. Dash looks back at Ray.
"Oh, sorry." Ray said. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ray. I believe your son saved my life a couple days ago."
"Well now." Helen smiles. "It's very nice to meet you Ray." Helen holds out her hand. Ray grasps the mother's palm and the two of them starts shaking hands. But during the hand shake, Ray, Dash and Helen hear a monstrous grumbling sound. Dash and Helen stares at Ray. Ray giggles as she rubs her stomach.
"Oh, that reminds me." Dash says. "Mom, is it alright if Ray stays for dinner?" Helen looks at the two children.
"Well come on in! It's chilly out there and I don't want to see you kids shivering all night." Ray and Dash entered the house. Helen closes the door behind them and heads back to the kitchen. "Dinner will be ready in just a few minutes." she says.
Dash smiles as he notices Ray moving around the house, observing everything she sees. Ray looks around the house and notices pictures of the family, shiny gold medals, artistic paintings and other interesting things. Ray looks back at Dash and the two of them exchange smiles.
"You and your family have a very, VERY, nice house." she complements.
"Thanks." Dash said.
"It's not fair. You and your family are so lucky."
"Lucky? How are we lucky? Just because we have super powers, doesn't mean we're…"
"Dash, that's the point. You have a family that is filled with super heroes. That's why you guys are lucky. You guys get to save the world everyday, you get to go places no other people have been to, you get to beat up the bad guys, you get all of these cool medals,…"
"And of course, there are some down sides of being a super hero." said a voice. Dash and Ray looks down the hallway and the two of them sees a long dark black haired teenaged girl with a black top and bluish jeans. It was Violet. She heads into the living room where Dash and Ray are standing. Violet is carrying cute, little, baby Jack-Jack around her arms. Jack-Jack was fast asleep. But when Violet stops walking, his small eyes open up. He looks in front of him and he sees his brother Dash along with Ray. Jack-Jack smiles and he claps his hands. He reaches his arms toward Ray.
"Ray, this is my sister, Violet. She has the power to turn invisible and she can generate force fields." Ray and Violet shakes hands and smiles. Ray then turns her attention to the baby held in Violet's arms.
"And who would this cute little guy be? And what are his super powers?" she asks.
"This is our baby brother, Jack-Jack." Violet said. "And we're not a hundred percent sure on what his powers could be. All we seen are he can burst into flames, he can levitate, and he can disappear through walls. But he's a baby. He's nothing but possibilities."
"Aw! He's so cute! I wish I can hug him!" Ray exclaims. Jack-Jack bursts into laughter. Ray's hands are about a foot away from the baby. But then, Jack-Jack turns to Violet's chest and he spits all over her shirt. Dash and Ray stares at Jack-Jack and then at the teenaged girl.
"Uh…" Violet said as she wipes the drool off her shirt. "I'll put him down here so we can talk for a little bit." Violet sets Jack-Jack on the floor and she leaves the room. The baby starts crawling around Dash and Ray. Violet comes back to the living room with a bucket of toys. She dumps them in front of the baby. Jack-Jack sees the toys and he immediately starts playing with them.
"So tell me Violet." Ray says.
"Please, call me Vi. Everyone does actually."
"Okay Vi. Tell me. Is it really easy being a super just like your brothers and your parents?
"Easy?" Violet complained. "You have no idea how hard it is being a super. In fact, I just want to be normal like everyone else. But no! I'm stuck being born with super powers. Just trust me. Being a super is difficult, especially if you yearn to be normal."
"Really?" Ray asks. "Because the way I see it, I find that being a super hero can be fun. I mean, you guys get to save the world, go to places no one has ever been to, you get to…WHOA!" Ray feels a little tingle on her foot. She, Dash and Violet looks down and the three of them sees Jack-Jack playing with Ray's shoe lace. The three of them smiles as they watch Jack-Jack pulling and tugging on Ray's shoe lace. Jack-Jack rolls in laughter after having so much fun. He then starts biting on Ray's shoe lace.
"AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Dash, Violet and Ray said at the same time. Violet bends down and she wraps Jack-Jack around her arms. She lifts him up and she starts rocking him.
"Come on Jack-Jack." Violet said. "Diner will be ready in a few minutes. Violet and Jack-Jack leaves the living room, leaving Dash and Ray all by themselves. Ray and Dash exchange glances and smiles.
"Your sister seems pretty nice." Ray says.
"Yeah." Dash agrees. "Long time ago, we used to fight everyday. But now that we're supers, we're like…" Dash puts his two index fingers together. He smiles, but then an odd look replaces it. Slowly, he separates his fingers until they are six inches apart from each other. "…this. That's how close we are."
"Wow. That's interesting. I didn't know that…" Ray was about to finish her sentence, when she and Dash hears the door open. They turned around and they see Bob in a suit with a briefcase.
"Hey Dad." Dash says. Bob looks down at his son.
"Hey son." he said. His eyes then turn towards Ray. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Ray. She's my friend from school." Dash introduces. "She is the girl I was talking about this morning." Bob takes a good look at the ten year old girl. Ray on the other hand gazes deeply at Bob, looking as if he was a god or something.
"WOW!" she says softly. "I can't believe it! I'm standing right in front of Mr. Incredible! Oh my God! This is a dream come true! I've heard so many great things about you, Mr. Incredible. I…"
"Whoa." Bob says excitedly. "Slow down there, little girl. I'm just your average superhero doing his job."
"But you're my favorite super hero. It's a pleasure meeting you." Ray said. She extends her hand. Bob looks down at Ray's small palms. He smiles and he grasps the girl's hand. He shakes her hand, but Ray lets out a holler of pain. Hearing this, he lets his super strong grip on Ray's hand loose.
"Sorry." he apologizes. "I still need to work on my touch. I'll see you at the dinner table" Bob picks up his suitcase and he heads to the kitchen. He sees his wife, Helen cooking some stake. He gives her a small kiss on the cheek.
"How was work?" Helen asks.
"It's fine." Bob answers. "That girl that Dash invited seems pretty nice."
"Yeah, I know." Helen agrees. "Dinner will be ready in less than a minute. Call the kids."
"Kids!" Bob calls. "Dinner's ready!" One by one, the kids enter the kitchen. Dash and Ray are the first ones to enter the kitchen. They sit down next to each other at the table. Helen places a plate in front of the ten year old children. Violet enters the kitchen, carrying her baby brother, Jack-Jack. She sets Jack-Jack on his high chair right next to Ray. Violet sits down at the table next to Dash. She looks up and she sees a boy with black hair entering the kitchen.
"Hey mom." said Sean. "I'm starving. What's for…" he stops. He notices Ray sitting next to Dash and the two of them were laughing. "…dinner." Sean finishes awkwardly. Dash looks behind him and he sees Sean with a weird look on his face.
"Hey Sean." he said. "This is my girlfriend, Ray." Sean drops his mouth. He would exchange glances at Dash, then Ray. Sean then smiles and he breaks into laughter.
"Oh my God." he laughs. "Dash? Ray? Together? WOOOOOOOOO! I didn't see that coming. I thought it was just going to be a date. But I didn't expect…"
"Sean, that's enough!" Helen orders. Sean sees the glare in his mother's eyes as he slumps to his seat. "Ray is our guest. Treat her respectfully as if she's part of the family."
"Yes mom." Sean mumbles. Helen and Bob carries the food over to the table. The kids observe the steak, pasta and roast beef on the table.
"All right!" Dash yells. "Let's eat!" He is about to dig his fork into a piece of steak. But then, Helen stretches her arms to catch her son's arms. She glares at Dash.
"Dash!" she says. "I'm surprised at you. Ray is our guest. Why don't you be a gentlemen and let her have what she wants first?" Dash looks embarrassingly at Ray, who is giving him a cute look. Dash lets out a long sigh.
"Oh…all right. Ray, do you want some steak?" Ray gives a charming to her boyfriend.
"Sure." Ray says. Dash carefully cuts a large piece of steak. He sets the steak down on Ray's plate. The rest of the Parr family starts eating their food. For five minutes, the kids would chew on their food, Helen would feed Jack-Jack while making funny faces and Bob would dully read the newspaper. After a couple minutes of silence, Helen looks at Ray and starts a conversation.
"So, Ray. Tell us about yourself." Helen asks.
"Honestly, Mrs. Parr." Ray responds. "There's really nothing to know about me. I mean, I'm just an ordinary, average girl. I'm nothing compared to the six of you."
"That's not true Ray." Dash says. "What are you talking about you are nothing compared to us? You are everything to me. You mean so much to me." Ray gazes into Dash's tiny eyes and she starts blushing.
"Awwwwww!" Violet said. "That's got to be the first time I here my little brother said something that sweet." The whole family, including Ray begins to laugh. Jack-Jack starts bouncing on his high chair. The laughter slowly settles and the family continues eating. Ray looks at each of the Parr family.
"Um." she said. "I may not be one of the Incredibles like you guys, but what is the toughest thing about being a super hero?" The whole dining room fell into silence. Everyone starts looking at each other, hoping one of them would answer. Sean, Violet and Dash drops their forks, Jack-Jack ceases his bouncing on his high chair, Helen and Bob stares at Ray oddly. "What? Was it something I said?"
No, sweetie." Helen said. "It's not your fault. All of us have some troubles being a super hero. For example, my husband has a very difficult time living a normal life. For me, the hardest thing about being a super hero is raising four children, especially when they all have super powers and they can't seem to control it."
"How about you, Vi?" Ray asks. "What is the toughest thing about being a superhero?"
"Well," Violet answers. "I have two things that makes my life tough. One is I hardly get a chance to go on a date with my boyfriend. Every time we do something together, there is always some crime that's just been committed and it's my duty to fix the problem. I'll give anything just for the two of us to be left alone with no crime or evil out there to disturb us."
"What's the other thing?" Sean asks.
"You guys putting pressure on me." Violet replies. "When you guys are in danger, I'm always the one who does the saving. Every time I put up a force field, I lose a great amount of energy. Sooner or later, I'll lose consciousness and you guys won't have any protection."
"Well, sorry Vi!" Dash say sarcastically.
"How about you Dash?" Ray asks. "What's the toughest thing about being a super hero?"
"Me?" Dash asks. "Honestly Ray, nothing! My life has never been better, now that I'm living a life of a super hero."
"Showoff." Violet mumbles, causing Ray to giggle a little bit. The whole family chuckles a little bit before continuing eating. Helen resumes feeding Jack-Jack and making weird faces at him. Jack-Jack couldn't help but laugh at his mom. Ray notices Jack-Jack's adorable laugh. She moves in closer to the baby.
"Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!" she says. "Jack-Jack is the cutest, most adorable little thing I've ever seen. I just want to hug him." she reaches her arms toward the baby. Jack-Jack looks toward Ray. He gives a huge smile and starts cooing. Jack-Jack starts bouncing up and down on his chair. Jack-Jack was so excited, his eyes begins to turn blue. Ray stops and she stares at the baby. Then, without warning, Jack-Jack fires a bluish laser beam out of his eyes. The beam heads straight at Ray.
"WHOA!" she screams. She barely manages to dodge the beam. The laser beam that Jack-Jack fires flies all over the kitchen. The beam ricochets off the silver pots. It then bounces off a mirror. After the laser beam bounces off another silver cooking pot, it heads straight back to the dining room, where the Parr family and Ray are. The laser beam is heading straight towards Violet. Reacting quickly, she puts up a force field to block the laser beam. The beam bounds off Violet's force field and it heads straight for Ray.
"Ray! Look out!" Dash yells. As the beam draws closer, a large amount of energy builds up in Ray. She clenches her fists tightly. Then, all of the sudden, she throws out her arms. A large force field appears in front of her and in front of the family. The blue laser beam bounces off Ray's force field and heads straight back at Violet. The teenaged girl projects another force field to protect herself. The laser beam nails the force field so hard, it breaks through and the beam pounds Violet in the chest. Violet is sent fling in the dining room. She slams into a wall and she loses consciousness. The family runs toward the fallen teenager.
"Violet!" Helen cries. She checks for pulses. "Violet, speak to me!" Helen bursts into tears. Sean and Bob observes the unconscious body. A huge glare appears on their faces. Sean clenches his fist and his claws pops out. When Bob clenches his fist, his knuckles begins to crack. The two of them turns toward Ray. Ray sees their terrifying looks on their faces. She becomes petrified and scared.
"You." Sean growls.
"Um." Ray says fearfully. "It's not what you think. I…I…I didn't mean to hurt her. It was just an accident."
"ACCIDENT!" Bob roars. "You almost killed my daughter! You call that an accident?" Bob and Sean slowly moves toward the ten year old girl. Ray was backed into a wall. There are tears in her eyes. She looks back at Dash for help. Dash was speechless. He doesn't know what to say or what to do.
"Dash." Ray cries. "Help me." Dash looks at Sean and Bob first. Then his eyes met Ray's. He closes his eyes and he shakes his head. Then, without saying a word, he drags himself up the stairs. He locks himself in his room and he starts weeping. The entire family can hear him from downstairs. Ray looks around the house. She then sprints to the living room. Bob and Sean chases after her. She crashes through a window and lands smoothly on the grass outside. Without hesitating, she immediately gets back to her feet and sprints as fast as she could toward the city. She dares never to look back at the Parr residence. Sean and Bob observes the broken glass Ray slams through.
"I'll get her!" Sean says. He is about to chase after Ray, when Bob places his hand on his shoulder.
"Forget about her." Bob says. Sean sighs and the two of them heads back to the dining room. They find Helen blowing her nose and Jack-Jack holding Violet's arm.
"How is she?" Sean asks.
"She'll be fine." Bob says. He approaches to his daughter's body. He carries up the stairs and into her room. He sets Violet down on the bed. He brushes her long dark black hair. Slowly, Violet's eyes begins to open.
"Wha…wha…what's happen to me?" she asks. Bob smiles.
"You know that girl Dash invited to our house?" he asks. Violet nods. "Well, she was actually Mirror. The Mirror that is working for the Eviles. The Mirror that almost killed you and your brothers."
"Whoa." Violet says. "How's Dash? Is he going to be alright?" Bob looks down without saying a word. He shrugs and Violet rests her head on her pillow. Bob kisses her on the head, turns off the lights and closes the door. He heads back down the stairs. He finds Helen sitting on a couch.
"How is she?" she asks.
"She's fine." Bob answers.
"I'm worried Bob. Not about Ray, but about Dash. I bet after seeing who Ray really is, I think Dash is feeling kind of…guilty. She was a really nice girl. I never expect her to be part of the Eviles. I wonder what's going on in Dash's mind right now." Bob and Helen sighs as they watch the stars twinkle and the moon sail over the night sky. Meanwhile, Ray runs alone in the dark, cold night. Shivering and feeling rejected, she slowly makes her way toward the city, hoping that she will find someone who still loves her.