Sorry, everyone, for the late update. My job takes up a lot of time and energy. It's the curse of the day gig. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, including:

Everyone who sent in alternate names for Violet the Super. All good suggestions. I'll stick with the Shield for now, but I still might change it if something sounds more appropriate. I got a couple of suggestions for Envision as a new name. It sounds really cool, but it doesn't really say anything about the super. It makes her sound like a psychic (Maybe it's a latent power)

Concolor. Everyone's review spurred me on, but your review give me a little kick when I needed it to finish chapter 3 and put it out. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think.

I forgot to mention it before, but I do not own The Incredibles. Or the Flash.

B-----------------------------------

Waiting outside his school, Dash saw his mom's car come to the curb for him. He ran over and got in. He greeted his mom in the same way he had every day for the past two weeks. "You know, if you'd let me just run home, you wouldn't have to keep picking me up like this. It'd save you a lot of time."

Helen smiled indulgently at her son. She was actually grateful for the routine annoyance this time. Violet hadn't said anything since she got home. "Dash, we're back to being active superheroes, but we still have to keep it secret."

"But I'll wear my uniform! Pleeease?"

"Dash, if people notice that Junior Flash is leaving from your school every day at three, someone will figure it out. That's an extra clue to our identities that we don't need to leave."

Dash looked out the window grumpily. Not that he'd expected her to say yes this time, but it was still disappointing. And Junior Flash? Why did the public have to give him that name? He'd never met the guy. He watched the suburban scenery going by, and realized it was different from usual.

"Hey, this isn't the way to Violet's school. Aren't we going to pick her up?"

"Well, Violet had to go home early today. There was a little problem at her school this morning."

"So she got most of the day off? Lucky."

Helen hesitated, but she knew she'd have to talk to Dash about it sooner or later, and it was better to do it sooner. "Dash, the reason Violet's school was closed was that a student brought a gun to school and shot some people."

"What? Why?"

"No one really knows."

"Well, is Violet OK?"

"She's fine, honey. She was able to stop him before he killed anyone. But, she's still recovering from the incident, so we'll need you to be understanding if she's a little moody." Helen stopped the car at a red light.

"When isn't she moody?"

Helen's voice grew a little stern. "Dash. Violet needs you to be on your best behavior. No arguments, no little brother antics. OK?"

"OK."

"OK."

Helen turned her full concentration back to driving as the light turned green. That wasn't so bad, she thought, not noticing that Dash was quiet on the way home, almost as quiet as Violet had been.

B-----------------------------------------------------

Bob Parr got home early that evening. He found Helen on the couch in the living room, sewing a rip in a pair of Dash's pants. "Hi, honey," he said, leaning down to kiss his wife.

"Welcome home. Was everything OK at work?"

Bob set his suitcase down and sat down in the easy chair. "Oh, yeah. Mr. Peterson was very understanding. Turns out he's got a daughter not much older than Violet. Anyway, I was only gone for an hour. It was all over by the time I got there. How's Vi?

Helen put her sewing down. "Quiet. She's barely said a word since we got home. She's in her room now."

"I guess she's still pretty shook up. Did she tell you that the guy shot himself right in front of her?"

"I heard it on the news. At least that was the only fatality. She did well."

Bob was looking in the direction of Violet's room. "She did." He looked back at his wife. "Have you started dinner yet?"

"No, I was waiting for you to come home."

"Well, I was thinking maybe we should go out tonight."

Helen nodded. "Good idea. Something special is just what this family needs."

Bob got up. "Let me put my work stuff away, and then we can go." He picked up his briefcase and headed towards the den.

Helen got up and left the living room. She went down the hallway and found Violet's room, with the door closed. She knocked softly, and the door opened, revealing Violet. "Hi, sweetie. You OK?"

Violet went back to sitting on her bed. "I'm fine, Mom. Is Dad back? I thought I heard him come in."

Helen nodded. "He's home from work. He wants to take us out to dinner tonight. Where do you want to go?"

Violet hesitated. "Mom, if it's OK, I'd rather not."

"You don't want to go to a nice restaurant?"

"Right."

"Vi, it's been a rough day for you, and going out to dinner may be just what we need to get our minds off of it."

Violet looked at her mother incredulously. "Rough day? Rough day!"

Helen realized that she'd struck a nerve. "Vi, calm down."

Violet wasn't listening. "Mom, I was right there in front of him, as close as I am to you! I thought I had him, and he … he…" Violet looked down, and put her hand in front of her eyes. Her expression showed she was trying to keep from crying.

Helen stepped forward and put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. Violet shrugged it off, and regained her composure. Her hand came down from her eyes and she looked at her mother. "Mom, I appreciate what you and Dad are trying to do, but if we go out to take my mind off of today, then it will just remind me that I need my mind taken off of today. I just want a normal evening, normal dinner, just … normal. Can you understand that?"

Helen nodded. "OK. I guess I understand. I'll warm us up some soup. Sound good?"

Violet managed a weak smile for her mother's benefit. "Great." She went back to sit on the bed.

Helen turned to go, then turned back. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Violet picked up the magazine she had been reading. "No, I don't."

"OK, sweetheart. I'll call you when dinner's ready." Helen left the room and pulled the door so that it was left open a crack. She started to walk to the kitchen when a four-foot tall blur whizzed right in front of her, startling her. "Dash, slow down inside the house!" she yelled at her exuberant son, who was now nowhere to be seen.

B--------------------------------------------------

Dinner had been very quiet. Bob talked about his day at work, but that went only so far. Violet didn't say a thing, and Dash was uncharacteristically silent. Even the baby seemed to have caught the mood.

After dinner, Bob was in the kitchen washing dishes. Normally they used the dishwasher, but Helen know that Bob did the dishes himself when something was bothering him. She moved behind him and hugged him tightly "Maybe that's why people get married. To have someone to worry with."

Bob smiled at his wife's observation. She knew him pretty well, all right.

Helen moved so she was next to Bob. She rubbed his arm in a reassuring way. "Bob, she'll be OK."

"Oh, I know that." Bob finished drying the last plate and set it down. "It's just that this was the first time since Syndrome that she tackled a bad guy on her own, and it had to be one of her own classmates. And then he had to commit suicide in front of her. Not the way I would have wanted it to happen."

"At least she stopped him before he killed anyone. That would have been worse."

"True."

The phone rang. Bob picked the receiver up. "Hello, Parr residence. Yes. Oh, hello, Principal Weisz. Yes? Oh, good. That's a relief. Yes, I'll tell her, she'll be happy to hear that. Yes, she is. Oh, she's OK, a little shook up, but OK. Thanks. Good night." Bob hung up the phone and looked at Helen. "That was the principal at Violet's school. That security guard that Violet took care of, Mr. Stalcup? He's out of surgery, and he's going to be OK. Full recovery."

"Thank goodness."

"Yeah. I'll go and tell Violet. Might cheer her up." Bob left the kitchen and Helen started putting the cleaned dishes away.

Bob found his daughter's door closed. He knocked softly. "Honey? It's Daddy. Mind if I come in?"

Violet opened the door. She was already dressed for bed in her nightgown. The lamp on her desk was turned on, indicating that she had been working on homework.

Bob didn't move to enter the room. "Good news, honey. I just heard from your principal. Mr. Stalcup's going to be OK."

"Oh, good." Violet was quiet for a moment. "At least I saved somebody." She went back to sit at her desk.

Bob entered the room. "Vi, you saved a lot of people today."

"Not everyone."

"Vi, there was nothing you could have done about that."

"Yes, there was."

"It happened too fast. Even we supers have limits."

Violet looked up at her father. "Dad, it has nothing to do with being a super. I could have saved him before. I might have prevented all this."

Bob sat on the bed, facing Violet. "What do you mean, honey?"

"Calvin wasn't just someone who I went to school with. He was a friend. We didn't hang out together that much, but we talked often, between classes, after school. I even had a crush on him when we were in 5th grade. When I started dating Tony, I don't know, I guess we drifted apart. It wasn't the same anymore. You see what I'm saying, Dad? Maybe if I'd put in an extra effort before, I could have helped him. I could have saved him before it came to this. If."

Violet fell silent. Bob looked at his daughter. "Sweetie, do you remember Syndrome?"

"Of course."

"Well, he wasn't always Syndrome. When I first met him, he was a little boy named Buddy. And he was Mr. Incredible's biggest fan."

Violet listened as her Dad began telling the story of a boy named Buddy and a villain named Syndrome.

B-----------------------------------------------------

Helen finished putting the dishes away and went to the living room to find Dash watching TV. He was flipping through channels quickly, so quickly that Helen could barely follow. Dash became frustrated with the selection and threw the remote at the wall. "Whoa," exclaimed Helen as she extended her arm to catch the errant controller. She turned off the TV and set the remote down on the coffee table. "OK, champ," she said as her arm returned to its normal length, "What's wrong?"

Dash turned away. "Nothing."

Helen sat next to her son on the couch. "Dash."

"Nothing's wrong."

"Is it about what happened to Violet today?" When Dash didn't answer, Helen continued, "Dash, Violet's just going through a rough time. She'll be back to normal."

"I know."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I …I don't know." Dash looked at his mother, then turned away again.

Helen looked at her son and thought for a moment. "I'm going to take a stab at this. I think what's bothering you is that Violet went up against a dangerous person today, and you weren't there to protect her."

Dash looked at his mom. Helen wrapped an arm around her son. "You know how I felt this morning? When I heard about the shooting, I wanted to just drop everything and go. But I couldn't, and it almost drove me crazy. I was frustrated, and angry, and I just wanted to lash out. Is that about how you felt when I told you about the shooting?"

Dash thought about it for a minute. "Well, yeah. I'm her brother. I'm supposed to be there for her."

Helen nodded. "You know what got me through it? I know that you kids are smart, and strong, and you know how to handle yourselves. Dash, part of caring about someone is having faith in them that they can take care of things by themselves if they have to. I have faith in Violet, and I have faith in you. And that faith wasn't misplaced. She did fine. And so will you, when you have to handle a situation alone. That won't stop me from worrying, but it will help me deal with it. The important thing for you to know is that she got through it and she's OK. OK?" She gave her son a hug, and she could tell that he felt better.

B---------------------------------------------

Violet hadn't moved the while time her father was talking. She could tell that the incident had had an effect on him. This was a side of him she had never seen before.

"So, while we did defeat Syndrome, and stopped his ultimate plan, sometimes I still wonder if things would have been different if I'd just been a little more understanding fifteen years ago. I thought a hard line would straighten him out, but it just made things worse. My point is, Violet, that we all make mistakes, it's just a part of living. And sometimes, the mistakes have consequences. Maybe you could have saved Calvin, maybe you couldn't have, we'll probably never know. But what you do is take that experience, learn from it, figure out how to do better the next time, and most importantly, get on with your life. A wise man once told me, 'It doesn't make much sense to worry about what you should have done. It makes more sense to think about what you're going to do next.'" Bob saw his daughter pondering this and nodding to herself. He leaned in a little closer. "Does that help?"

Violet thought about it, and for the first time since that morning, she seemed to get a hint of a genuine smile on her face. "You know, Dad, I think it does. Thanks."

Bob hugged his little girl. "Anytime, sweetie." He kissed her on the forehead and broke the hug. "It's probably time you went to bed. There's no school tomorrow, so sleep in as long as you need to."

Violet looked at the clock. "I think I will." She put her homework in her textbook and closed it. Bob went to the doorway, watched her pull the covers over herself, and turned out the light for his daughter. He went to the living room to find Helen and Dash watching a documentary on jet fighters, and soon he was as into it as his son was. An hour later, the Incredibles family was asleep for the night.

E--------------------------------------------------

The end? No way! It's going to take more than one heart-to-heart talk and a good night's sleep for Violet to get over this. Next chapter: Violet and Tony.

Please keep sending the reviews. You all are my editors, and we're working together to make this a better story. Thanks.