Incredibles III: Technovillain

by Inc 234

The Parrs have no time to savor victory; Technovillain, the Underminer's master, surfaces and the stakes are higher. They must defeat Technovillain, super droid Thanatos, a global infestation of millions of smaller droids, and the computer, or we're back to the stone age. Superpowers, and genius, are pushed to the breaking point trying to prevent world-wide economic collapse.

Incredibles III: the Technovillain

-Most of the first half of this story is still in work.-

-Thank you for your patients-

by

Inc 234

Based on the original Pixar film The Incredibles©

Written and Directed

by

Brad Bird

With few exceptions, the characters, and place names are copyrighted by

Pixar Animation Studios

1200 Park Ave, Emeryville, CA 94608

(510) 922-3000

The story is an original work of fiction by the author,

any similarities to creative work done by Pixar Animation Studios is purely coincidental.

To the best of the author's knowledge, all original characters are a fabrication of the author

Any similarities to Copyrighted characters or actual people are coincidental.

The Incredibles logo used for the book cover is copyrighted by Pixar

It was copied from an open source and modified by the author.

2005

Introduction

Taken from the end of Incredibles 2

"Mom! Dad! Come over here," Dash exclaimed. "Look."

Violet and Dash were watching the little TV in the waiting area, when a news flash interrupted their show.

"…repeating, the major banks in US, Europe and Japan had their assets frozen moments ago, by an unknown villain. This unidentified, technological super villain has demanded total acknowledgment of his supremacy by all peoples of the earth or all data will be lost; accounts, transactions, files…everything. This would be a catastrophe of epic proportions, destroying the economic world as we know it. It would take a genius, a mental superhero, the likes of which the world has never known to stop him…"

"Who's got the intellect to stop a guy like that?" Helen asked softly to no one in particular.

Then, as revelation seemed to come to the four members of the Parr family simultaneously, they turned their heads towards the airfield, and watched as a small government plane lifted off a dark runway.

1

Technovillian Idolizing Syndrome

(Still in Work)

How he did it, no one knows, but every network had been hijacked, even the local public broadcasters weren't exempt from the virus. In short, no matter which of the four stations you tuned the TV – or radio – you had to put up with it.

"Hey dad, you want me to turn it off?" Dash asked after tolerating it as long as he could.

"No not yet, I want to see what this guy's up to, I imagine he's a little upset about the government's attempts at taking him out. Besides, he won't last forever I hope, and the news will be coming on after him – maybe."

As the three of them watched, they didn't notice Helen answer the door.

And Technovillain droned on.

"You pathetic little people; you are small and insignificant, your minds narrow, your vision short, unable to grasp the concept of the vastness of my plan. You think my death or incarceration will some how make things easier? Oh, blind people. My termination will only be the beginning of woe..."

"He sounds like an idiot," Dash observed as he watched Technovillain's production.

"Sounds more like Shakespeare gone super-villain. He can't really talk that way," mused Violet.

"He's not an idiot," came Buddy's voice from behind. "And yeah, he really talks that way."

The trio turned, surprised to see Buddy and Rick.

"Buddy!" Dash said with excitement.

"You know him?" Bob asked genuinely surprised.

Buddy took in a deep breath and let it out. "Yep…yeah I do."

"As Syndrome lives forever in my creation, so I too, if martyred, will become immortal, the life my mentor and I have given to technology will reign supreme and invincible as an autonomous being and fulfill our destiny," the oratory continued.

"Mentor?!" everyone seemed to exclaim at once.

All eyes were fixed on Buddy.

"But, if destruction should befall our child, woe be to all; the plagues of chaos, misery and death will inundate earth for all time. Heed me now and remember my words; for in the time of disobedience, certain destruction shall consume you as a disease: methodical and merciless," the long speech finally ending.

"Buddy, he can't be serious," said a disbelieving Bob.

"Oh, he's serious alright – dead serious," Buddy stated

"How do you know so much about this guy?"

"He worked for me out on the island."

"What?" Bob exclaimed in surprise.

"I told all of you about him on our walk back to town...you know, after the Underminer."

"That's Nick?

"Yeah."

"I thought you knew about Nick from research or something."

"No, Nickolas D. Thanatos, was almost my right hand on the island."

The Parrs just stared at him in amazement. "Anything else you haven't told us that we need to know?"

"Well, he was the pride of the Greek people; incredibly intelligent, handsome, charismatic...he had everything. That is until the government saw his true nature, I don't know what happened, but not only did he become an embarrassment, he posed one of the greatest threats to the country. So they got rid of him."

"Exiled?"

"Yeah."

"If he posed such a threat, why didn't they lock him up?"

"He hadn't done anything wrong, just a threat. They wanted to watch him...just not in their country."

"That's when I got him, 'exiling' him to the island. The government was more than happy with the arrangement. Yep, he was my kind of..." Buddy paused a moment, "...he was Syndrome's kind of guy."

"Why didn't you come out with this earlier?"

"I knew he had potential and a lust for power; but not to this level."

"So, this the guy you referred to after the Underminer thing."

"One in the same."

2

Technovillain Used the Underminer to Buy Time

(Still in Work)

3

Technovillain's Plot Discovered

(Still in Work)

4

Introducing Thanatos

(Still in Work)

It was obvious the little MG-sized droid was in trouble, something had malfunctioned and it was unable to perform its intended duties.

Technically advanced droids –Technadroids – were designed to be disposable, no repair; just put them out of their misery. But they're virtually indestructible; they can't destroy each other and there is no self destruct command, this is initiated by the droid itself, should it become necessary.

This droid however was malfunctioning, it wasn't calculating with a full deck and was totally lost; aimlessly wondering around like an escapee from a loony bin.

The required solution came via a one second laser burst. The result was total annihilation of the droid and a 100 foot diameter wasteland.

Thanatos had arrived.

Named after the Greek god of death, as was its creator, this indestructible and sadistically lethal super-droid had only two purposes…serve its master and live up to its name.

A Technadroid itself, but of massive proportions, not only in size, but fire power. At over 60 feet long and 25 feet wide this monster covered a lot of ground and with the top of the primary weapon 13 feet above street level, it occupied almost four times the space of an Abrams tank.

Add to that, Thanatos' mass is about 5 times that of the Abrams. In spite of it's tremendous mass, it easily hovered about a foot over the pavement...no treads, no moving parts, no sound. In short it was the most intimidating weapons platform ever created by mankind and, very soon, would become the most feared.

The secondary weapon, a laser type, even at low power, did what seemed impossible; it took out a droid. The primary weapon would be deployed within the hour and its destructive power would shake the world.

"Now we have that minor problem taken care of," Techno said to himself. "Let's get back to business, and show the world what you and I can do."

The mission was to take out one of the largest buildings in Metroville in under ten seconds.

Techno watched the larger of the two monitors as he guided the superdroid through the city via the droid's real-time feed to the complex. Besides the video, a host of other information was available, mainly systems status for both Thanatos and the target.

Technovillain was fully aware of his droid capabilities, but he enjoyed the hands-on "driving" – especially in this case.

Thanatos was Techno's extension, and through the droid, satisfied his own lust for control and power; and in a few minutes, he would show everyone just who it was that had control of the power.

The little people didn't listen, didn't believe or just mocked the super villain. That's OK, in a few minutes, they would all listen, believe and show him the honor that he knew was rightfully his.

-iii-

Techno navigated the monster through the city; because of its incredible mass, progress was slow, but like time itself, unstoppable. In moments he would be at the Metroville Exchange, one of the largest, best known and most important buildings in town.

Although the well-known landmark was not the primary headquarters for the exchange anymore, it still represented the economic world in that area of the country – for a few more minutes anyway.

Thanatos turned onto Exchange Boulevard, engulfing the median as it bulldozed between the two inside lanes, the target now appeared a few blocks away – dead center; the wedge-shaped historical structure dividing the wide, four-lane road, like a ship slicing through still water.

Techno sighed sarcastically as he pondered its magnificence – then fired.

A blinding flash of pure energy erupted from the barrel, traveled along the median and impacted the structure's first floor entrance, instantly caving in the front of the building's first two floors; a millisecond later, the first four floors ceased to exist as they exploded simultaneously. The rest of the structure conducted Thanatos' power like a lightning rod, each floor shattering as the raw power made its way up to the top of the doomed building. It didn't take long for what remained of the annex to collapse into the basement.

The particle beam lasted three seconds, the exchange was gone in five.

"Five seconds," Techno said with a smile. "Better than planned."

After surveying the destruction for a moment, Techno laced his hands behind his head, let out a deep breath as he relaxed in his chair.

"Nicholas D. Thanatos, you sir…are god," he said quietly to himself.

5

The Search for Dash

(Still in Work)

"We can split up from here, and meet back in five minutes."

"Vi can go with you and I'll take Dash," Helen added.

There was an uneasy stillness in the air as Helen looked around.

"Bob, where's Dash?"

A half hour fact finding tour, now became an all out search and rescue mission.

-iii-

The three of them came to a large corridor marked "B West"; it was wide, very long and extremely well lit. There were several large open doorways equally spaced on the right side of the large hallway, but every one of them was protected by a laser gate, similar to E's driveway security gate but with the parallel beams at a much tighter spacing. The crew at the complex jokingly refer to them as "bread slicers".

If anybody came down from either end there would be nowhere to hide.

Bob, Helen and Violet were just about to enter the corridor when they heard distant voices ahead.

Without a sound, they split up; Bob and Vi went back down the hall they just came from, and Helen took the hall on the other side of the corridor, which turned out to be nothing more than a vestibule.

The voices were getting closer quickly, Helen had nowhere to go and her options were few.

First option: she could try a surprise attack, but by the sound there were three or four of them, possibly more…all armed and probably couldn't get to Techno' anyway before he zapped her.

Unlike Syndrome's Zero Point Energy, 'Mr. Laser' had weapon for every occasion; the one in his suit had only one function and the results were not only intolerable, but permanent.

Second option: she could flatten herself against the wall and wait for them to pass, but the security Techno' kept around himself would more than likely find her.

The voices were closing in on her; she could see the weapon-mounted lights peering through the laser gates into the long, seemingly empty room, Techno's security didn't take anything for granted. Time and options were running out.

6

Rescue

Helen looked at the laser gate next to her; the bottom beam was about a quarter inch above the floor. 'Option three, how convenient' she thought. Limbo-like, she squeezed between the floor and the lower beam and made it into the room just as security started their inspection of the vestibule.

The forward security team were doing exactly what Helen thought they would do; checking the intersecting hallways before the boss got there, they were fast but thorough, it's obvious they're good at what they do. If Helen had been anywhere in that empty vestibule, she would have been discovered.

Techno and crew were now approaching the intersection.

Helen watched them as they walked into view of the last protected doorway; Techno with a guard walking beside him and two guards aft.

Then, for no apparent reason, the master and his entourage stopped and remained quiet, Techno peered into the intersection as if he saw something or someone but wasn't quite sure.

'The corridor should be clear,' she thought. 'Both Bob and Violet were well out of the way.'

Yet there they were, just standing there as if there were some unseen problem, something going on that they couldn't quite put their finger on.

It was then that Helen got a good look at the soldier accompanying his boss and the item that was carried on is back like a load of firewood. The little wad of humanity was trussed, hand to foot with a chain attached and unceremoniously thrown over his shoulder

"Dash!" She whispered to herself.

Helen fought the temptation to try and free her son – the results would be disastrous.

Helen knew that any miscalculation on her part may result in the surgical removal of her arm. E said the suit was virtually indestructible. The suit may be good against shrapnel, but how would it hold up under a laser's energy?

Would the suit reflect the beam totally? Would it burn right through leaving a once ten foot arm in a neat, but bleeding, section on the floor? Or would the material, remaining undamaged, pass the laser energy through to her arm leaving the severed limb in her suit?

She weighed the options and decided not to take a chance; Bob and Violet were further down the hall out of sight, so the gamble was unnecessary. Besides, she wasn't the type to leave her host to clean up portions of her bloody appendage off his otherwise immaculate floor.

Helen was wishing the gates weren't active. This is too perfect; get the main bad guy, save Dash…but can't do either.

So there she was; ten feet away in the shadows, and couldn't do anything but look on and grit her teeth in frustration.

-iii-

5 minutes earlier on the other side of the complex.

The Technovillain had finalized the first part of his plan for technical domination. With the needed information in hand, he started out on the eight minute walk to the main computer room to put the plan into action...fate would make sure it would never happen.

"Grab the kid, let's go," Techno ordered.

His security took there accustomed places; two in front and two to the rear. The soldier, with Dash…shackled and chained, stayed at the boss's side; swinging the tightly bound load over his shoulder.

Techno's strides were long and deliberate, a man with a mission. Within minutes they were entering Corridor B East, with Techno going over some last minute instructions. Less than a minute later, they were coming to the next intersecting hallway at the west end of the corridor, the entourage slowing to give forward security time to check everything out.

Techno unexpectedly stopped in mid stride, the others immediately followed suit.

He thought he saw something in front, slightly off to the side, approaching the group; he turned his head slightly to put in his center vision – it stopped. It resembled a disturbance in the air, like heat rising off hot asphalt; or it could be something in the energy realm. The power-villain's visor only picked up energy deviations, so heat waves were out.

He almost passed it off as an anomaly. But anomalies don't approach you, then stop when you look at them. He knew of no energy weapon that had this type of technology; in its own strange way it acted human, but he knew of no human who could manipulate energy like this – unless of course, it was a super.

It was a slim possibility, official database records identified only two supers still in existence…Elastigirl and Frozone; but he owned a third one. If there's a third, then quite possibly a fourth.

He could have zapped it right then and there, but it might be worth keeping; another trophy. If not, well, that was easily taken care of.

He put it to the test.

"You. Show yourself," Techno ordered the disturbance.

But it remained there.

Techno didn't play games or take chances, he perceived a threat, the threat didn't respond.

He chose to eliminate the trophy; one super was fine, but it seemed now there were more…how many more was uncertain. By destroying this little rodent, it was one less super to worry with and by lifting the guard's burden, it freed up one more soldier to deal with the intruders.

It was also a form of retaliation.

He looked at the soldier next to him and made an almost imperceptible gesture with his head. The soldier obeyed, immediately lifting Dash of his back and with arms fully extended over his head, prepared to feed the little super to the bread slicer.

The invisible rebel, if in fact that's what it was, was standing against his will…and no one goes against the will of the Technovillain.

-iii-

Helen had convinced herself to lay low and let Bob and Vi handle things further down the hall, she would take up the rear.

Then she heard something that changed everything. Techno was giving orders to no one.

'VIOLET? It can't be her; she can't be seen.' Helen's mind was racing.

'It can't be, yet all indications point to the fact. But why would she try to sneak up on these guys without back up? Where's Bob? If it is her; how can Techno see her…his visor maybe…how can his visor let him see something invisible?'

Whether or not it was Violet, the situation had been altered – grimly. She watched as Techno turned to the soldier holding Dash and give him a non-verbal order. With that, he pulled Dash off and held him high over his head. Helen didn't need to be psychic to understand the command.

The time for caution and analytical thinking was over.

Without hesitation her arm shot out of the darkened room, centered between two of the deadly beams, catching the soldier in the neck just under the angle of the jaw, allowing him to become one with the wall.

She immediately whipped her arm back in, but not before grabbing Techno by the visor and dragging him into the laser gate head first, he died in a microsecond, vaporized by a device of his own making.

With the guard now standing against the wall unconscious, Dash started on his eight foot plummet to the concrete floor; head down, without the ability to maneuver.

Helen's arm shot back out and instinctively grabbed the chain in an effort to slow his fall; not thinking that her out-stretched arm's diminished strength would have no effect on his descent and would more than likely pull her arm through multiple beams. Miraculously he stopped, Helen looked on the scene in amazement.

Dash felt the tug on the chain attached to his shackles and opened his eyes, he saw his mother's outstretched arm holding the chain as he dangled a mere six inches from the floor.

"Thanks mom," he said with a smile.

A second later boots appeared, he looked up and saw Violet with both hands clutching the chain in a death grip.

"What about me?" Violet sounding perturbed as she strained at the weight.

She lowered him the best she could, but his head still hit the concrete a little harder than he thought necessary.

"Oww, hey, watch it, that hurt."

"If you were a little lighter it wouldn't have."

"Yeah, well if you were a little stronger it wouldn't have either."

"I'm strong enough to stand a little bump on the head."

"Little bump? You cracked my scull."

"The only thing that cracked was the floor."

Their juvenile battle of wits was postponed by a gray and white streak overhead.

The two simultaneously looked down the corridor to see were the projectile was heading. Both of Techno's rear security guards were sprinting for safety with one of the forward guards flying at them and gaining.

He caught them both just under the knees and continued unabated, while the once fleeing guards flipped backwards and landed on their backs. Their helmets may have saved their lives, but they would still be out for a while and hurt even longer.

The siblings looked back in the direction of the launch; dad was coming over to release Dash, mom was keeping an eye out and the remaining security guard was still resting were he dropped.

Bob soon set Dash free and they were on their way again, as a family.

"When this is over, I'm getting you a set of weights," Dash told Violet as he rubbed his head.

-iii-

"We've done all we can for right now, let's get back into town and help clean up some of these…" Bob trailed off in mid-sentence as he saw Helen's expression. She appeared distracted; lost in deep thought, struggling with some profound problem.

"Helen, you OK?" Bob said concerned.

"I've never done that before," Helen replied without emotion.

"Done what?"

"Techno."

"You did what you've always done…"

"No! We catch bad guys Bob, not…" Helen paused. "We catch them and turn them over. Sometimes they get hurt, maybe worse…but we don't…do what I did."

"Helen, this is our job, our responsibility…it's...it's what we do. What happened was inevitable; sooner or later it was bound to happen. It was the only option open."

"I hated him Bob. I didn't do it because there was no alternative; I did it because of what he was going to do to our son. Techno was evil, hateful and sadistic. I killed him out of hatred Bob, not duty," Helen's bitter words pouring out.

"You saved Dash, Violet and yourself…if you hadn't…well…you saved me too," Bob's words were comforting.

Helen knew Bob was right; there were no other options, she carried out her responsibilities and her family was safe. She also knew that although hatred is a destructive feeling, it was nevertheless understandable in this case. But most importantly, she knew that if she dwelt on it too long, it would start to affect her judgment. A very dangerous thing in their profession.

She thought about it for a moment, buried it deep, then went back to work.

7

Dash Saves Violet

Violet brought her force field up just in time to prevent disaster, but again the energy was deflected and came within feet of hitting an innocent by-stander.

"I don't understand it" she said to herself, "My shield usually absorbs this type of energy, not deflect it."

She pondered, "Maybe if I try it straight on."

Her chance to block a technadroid's energy weapon head-on came soon. As she placed herself between the weapon and it's intended target she made a conscious effort to have her shield directly in front of and perpendicular to the energy stream. As hoped, her shield did in fact absorb the energy, but it was more than she anticipated; her shield shattered like safety glass, the resulting explosion hurling her about twenty yards back. Violet lay face down in the street, her unconscious body's unique heat signature picked up by the droid's scanners. The droid temporarily sidetracks from his directive to terminate the "soft target" which it calculated was a threat to the mission. Rather than using its energy on something so frail, the droid would crush her as it continued on his original mission. With only two inches between the hovering weapons platform and the ground, no one but Helen could survive the encounter.

-III-

Dash saw his motionless sister half a block away and the impending doom quickly closing in on her. He closed the gap in just time, only a fraction of a second before the droid had made it to her position.

Dash snatched her up, and carried her off to where he hoped they would be safe, but the droid, witnessing the rescue, armed it's weapon and fired repeatedly on the two; Dash doing his best to out-maneuver the blasts of energy while carrying his unconscious sister.

He thought this was going to be quick and easy; out-run the droid, find a safe place for Vi, wake her up and get back to it…energy conservation was not on the list of things to do. But a priority communication from the attacker, set all droids in the local area out after the pair. Dash was running full bore, not knowing the droid had called up fifty reinforcements.

Now, his plans were starting to fall apart as the unconscious burden took it's toll. His strength and speed were deteriorating rapidly as he zigzagged through the streets and alley-ways in an all-out attempt at dodging the pounding from his pursuers.

-III-

"Where are you going?" Bob asked, as Helen started off in Dash's direction.

"I've got to find the kids. It looks like Vi got hit pretty hard, she's going to need help," Helen responded, with more than a hint of worry in her voice.

"Dash is probably miles away by now. Violet just got shook up a little, she's pretty tough. C'mon, they'll be fine," Bob said, trying to project confidence.

"The droid went to track them down Bob." she came back matter-of-factly.

"It can't keep up with Dash, you know that. It'll get tired and go find something else to do. Don't worry," Bob said reassuringly. "Right now we have to find some way to secure the temple area so Buddy can do…what ever it is that Buddy does," he continued.

Helen still felt uneasy about the situation, but relented and joined Bob with the task at hand. 'Bob's right,' Helen thought, 'Vi's tougher than she looks. They'll be alright…I hope.'

Bob and Helen reached the temple area, only to find a single technidroid watching the complex. The others had either left or were in the process of leaving.

"Hey, this might turn out easier than expected," Bob said to himself with a small smile.

"I don't know, it looks too easy, something up; and it can't be good," Helen commented.

"Aw, c'mon, you gotta' be positive," Bob said a little more lightly.

"No, I've gotta' be realistic," said Helen, concern still in her voice.

-III-

As Dash turned down a side street, he scanned the area, "No bad guys," he said quietly. Gently laying his sister down he shook her shoulders in an attempt to get a response.

"Wake-up," Dash said under his breath. "Wake-up. Please wake-up. C'mon Vi, please."

No response.

Suddenly there was an ominous noise close by and getting closer. Dash again picked up his precious cargo and took off. This time there was some hesitation in his navigation, Dash knew his way around most of the city, but now he found himself in unfamiliar territory. Panic set in as he blindly created a path through an endless maze of blurry buildings. Not knowing the layout, could prove costly.

With efficient communication, the droids used all their available programming as one deadly unit. Because of the random velocity and direction of the target, the droids stowed their weapons, choosing instead to use their heat signature, real-time velocity and direction info; this info then coupled with a hyper-detailed map of the city, gave the droids all the power they needed to trap the two targets, now classed as Alpha and Bravo, and destroy them. Like demonic sheep dogs driving a lamb to a slaughtering chute, the droids were systematically driving Dash and Violet to a dead-end.

Dash's speed and maneuvering had bought them a little more time. Nearing exhaustion and breathing deep, he again put her down and shook her, hoping this time he would see some sign of movement.

"C'mon Vi, wake-up…I'm getting…real tired…I need…help…please." He pleaded between breaths.

The sickening throbbing hum of the droids could now be heard off in the distance, with effort Dash hoisted Vi up over his shoulders, and continued on in what seemed a never ending chase. Virtually every street he crossed, he saw a droid or two scanning the area. Only when the scanners were pointed in a safe direction, he proceeded. 'These guys are everywhere' he thought. 'There has to be a way to keep these things away from us, or at least out-run them.'

Suddenly, Dash thought up the perfect plan.

A narrow alley proved to be the next safe spot, he lowered Violet to the ground, behind a stack of boxes.

"Vi…listen…I'm going to leave…you here…for just a little while…OK?" he said between deep breaths, "…I can't carry us…both any more. I'm going to get them…to follow me…then out-run 'em. I'll find help… come back…everything… OK. Promise."

No longer laden, Dash took off. In spite his exhaustion, he could still out-run them. And he would, as soon as he got far enough away and got their attention…which he did.

A droid, on its way to the couple's last known location, paused for a moment as Dash flagged it down. After a quick scan, it proceeded on its way…towards Violet-Alpha, the main target. Dash stood there in amazement.

"What…?" He said in disbelief.

Then he realized…"It's not me…it's…it's her"

Grabbing his stomach, Dash felt a wave of sickness come over him like nothing he ever experienced. His brilliant plan may have cost his sister her life.

-III-

Bob's microcomm came to life, "Bob - Buddy, you there."

"Yeah Buddy, wha'cha got?"

"What's the situation like out there," Buddy's voice sounding a little tense.

"Great! Only one droid is guarding the complex. This may be my lucky day."

"Do you see any of the others?" Buddy's voice sounding obviously nervous.

"Yeah, but they're haulin' outa here."

"Yeah," Buddy said flatly.

Bob hesitated a moment. "Hey, this is good…isn't it?"

"Bob, every droid in the area has received a priority command to terminate a high-level threat."

"Well that should take the pressure off for a little while, give us some time."

Bob heard only silence.

"You there Buddy?"

"Yeah," came another flat response. "Bob…Violet's the threat."

-III-

Pangs of guilt drove Dash hard. Buildings blurred together as he ran between them full bore, there was no slowing down, not even to maneuver around attacking droids. They fired on him now they sensed he was returning to Alpha's location; but, as before, it was virtually impossible to get a fix on him. Dash blasted past any droid in his way; over, around or between.

He made it back to the safe spot before the droids; but they weren't far behind. He had to come up with another plan, but did so with reserve, so far all he did was invite one disaster after another.

His mind started to wander and began to laundry-list the times he would slice-and-dice Violet for every little mistake, real or perceived; in a way, he was glad she was out cold, because he was screwing up by the numbers and Vi wouldn't have let him forget any time soon.

Judging by increasing number and position of the droids, Dash figured they were trying to encircle him. If he could get around one of them in the outer perimeter, he would stand a good chance of leaving them all behind. Then maybe they'd give up. The plan sounded good, it might work.

'Yeah, only if my luck changes,' he thought.

With only seconds to spare, Dash once again heaved Vi up on his shoulders and was on his way. It wasn't long before he saw a droid pulling up the rear; within fifty yards and gaining. Out of time, Dash took a right at the next intersection. His plan was to take the next right alley and circle around the following droid, then take off on a perpendicular path once the droid had turned corner. His plan soon became yet another fantasy; just after making the turn, he saw another droid strait ahead coming at him, while a second appeared out of an alley; the same alley he was planning to used as a detour.

Dash took the only option available to him at the time, the alley to the left.

As soon as he made the left turn, his heart stopped; fifty feet in front of him loomed a solid brick wall.

The lamb was in the chute.

He turned to run, but his energy was gone, and with sound of the approaching droids, so was his hope. On the brink of total collapse and lungs on fire, Dash quietly fell against the wall, and held his big sister.

"I'm sorry Vi," he said quietly.

Dash leaned silent against the wall holding on to Violet, who's slow, shallow breaths contrasted with his. Dash's breaths were deep and deliberate, his rapid heart did it's best to keep up with the demand placed on it. Over his natural rhythms, Dash could hear the loud, ceaseless hums of the enforcing droids. If he had just given it more thought and done something different they wouldn't be in this mess, maybe if Vi hadn't done what she did, they wouldn't be waiting for the inevitable.

'No,' he thought. 'Vi did the best she knew how, and so did I, stuff like this happens to people, even when doing the right things.'

He remembered his mom telling him once, that there is something good in every bad situation, right now he was hard pressed to see one; but as he held the limp body of his sleeping sister, he knew she was at peace.

'Maybe,' Dash thought. 'this is the good in the situation. It would be over soon and Violet would never know what happened.'

He straightened up on cramping, unsteady legs, determined that he and Violet would make one last symbolic stand; they were superheroes, the end wouldn't find them sitting down - they would be standing heroically and facing their enemy unafraid. Dash owed Violet a lot, a debt he didn't have time to repay. Giving Violet a chance to die like the hero she was, with dignity, is the best he could do. Dash labored to get Vi vertical, the best he got was his sister over one shoulder with her legs dangling in front of him.

'That will have to do.'

As he stood tall, waiting on the inevitable, he could feel arms encircling his waist, holding him tight.

"Oh great!" he he said with exasperation. "Now you wake up!"

As the three droids slowly approached the alley, the two on the outside stopped and covered any escape rout, while the one in the middle went in for the kill. Armed and ready, the droid turned into the alley and prepared to fire, but stopped dead in it's tracks. It scanned the entire area, then just sat there... confused.

The targets weregone.

8

Helped from Above

Crouching low, Helen watched the droid scanning in a vain attempt to find its prey, as she remained motionless on the rooftop, holding the two sleeping super heroes. After a few seconds the droids pulled out, then, so did she.

-iii-

Dash dreamed he was laying down; his head softly nestled in his mother's lap, listening to hear heartbeats, soft hands gently stroking his hair.

'This has got to be heaven…' he thought, '…and I didn't even feel a thing.' He was now fully conscious, but afraid to open his eyes.

After a few minutes he realized this was happening, the sounds and smells were different, familiar voices replaced the constant, monotonous hums and the need to see his mother's face again made it worth the risk. He slowly opened his eyes.

"Mom?" he asked weakly.

The familiar red super-suit came in to focus, then the masked face…

"VIOLET!" The name exploding from his lips.

With a start, he was on his feet.

"What…how in the…what…how did you get there? How did I get here?…Where…" the words pouring out. Dash took a deep breath and slowed down a bit. "Where am we…I…I mean…us…what happened?" he took a quick look around. "Where's mom?"

Violet couldn't help but giggle at her wide-eyed, totally confused little brother.

"I'm right here sweetie," came his mom's voice from behind. "Finally decide to get up?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess I needed a little nap."

"Nap? You were out most of the day and all night – it's morning now."

Dash still looking around, his eyes seeing, but his brain not quite comprehending. As the marathon sleep-induced fog in his head began to thin out a bit, he tried to separate dream from reality.

He was in a very large building; mom was here, Buddy working the keyboard a furious pace and Violet just sitting there grinning at him like she had seen a rip in the seat of his suit. He needed some answers, because right now, he was totally out of the loop.

"Do you know what happened mom?"

"I pulled you and Violet out of the alley, don't you remember?."

"I felt arms around my waist, but I thought they were Vi's," Dash stood there trying to think this out. "That's all I can remember."

"Total exhaustion…pulling about 9 G's…" Buddy interjected over his shoulder, "…I'm surprised you remember anything."

"How do you know what happened?" Dash asked suspiciously.

"Let's see," Buddy began as he looked up at the ceiling, recalling the events. "Initial velocity 94 miles per hour, decreasing at a negative exponential rate. You covered a little more than 17 miles in about 20 minutes, terminating approximately 1 mile down range from origin. Get yanked up four stories in half a second," Buddy said, relating from memory. "I'd be tired too."

"Let's try that again, and could you make it just a little harder to understand please," Dash said with a bit of sarcasm.

"OK. It took you 20 minutes to make an ultra-convoluted 17 mile semi-circle that ended up about a mile from here. Your mom yanked you both up to the roof-top within a second of the droid rounding the corner to fire. Difficult enough for ya?" Buddy returning the sarcasm.

"How do you know all this anyway?"

"Saw the whole thing on TV, in living color and totally commercial free."

"How did you know were I would be?" turning to his mom.

"Buddy guided me to your position a couple of seconds before you got there."

"Alright Buddy, how did you know were I would end up?"

"Easy, you see these little dots, the red and the green?" Buddy said as he pointed to a hyper-map.

"Yeah."

"The red 'B' is you…the 'A' is Violet, the green numbers are them, every time a droid scans you, the info is processed and compiled, the info fed to all the other droids and uses it to organize the attack…and I see what the lead sees." Buddy now directing Dash's attention to the smaller of the two main monitors.

Buddy whent back to the hyper-map.

"The four small red "X's"…here and the other two…here, are all the smaller dead-end streets calculated to be in your path.

It was impossible for them to hit you. So…drive you into a dead-end and they gotcha'. I could hit you with a rock with my eyes closed. A technidroid would have no problem."

"OK, so how did you know which little red 'X' I would be standing on?"

Dash said, clearly impressed.

"Simple deduction my dear Watson," He started in a lame British accent, then decided to drop it. "You did follow a trend…of sorts. That trend would eventually put you about…here. So I directed your mom out to that area. As you progressed, I narrowed possibilities down. When you made the right turn…here, the only option was this 'X' . Your mom was was there waiting on ya'."

"Man! You make it sound so easy, I should have thought that one out myself," Dash said in amazement.

"As Watson said to Holmes," Buddy muttered rhetorically.

"Huh?"

"Nothing. It's obvious you don't read much outside of comics," he said, more to himself than Dash.

Dash finally realized they were in the temple complex.

"So this is what it's like on the inside, cool. A lot bigger than it looks from outside," Dash said as he looked around.

"Much like a call box I know of," Buddy said with a knowing grin.

"What are you talking about?"

"Never mind, you wouldn't understand anyway," Buddy sighed.

"Wait, I thought you said it would be next to impossible to get access to this place; it was too well guarded."

"Well, we got a break on that. Ironic really if you think of it; they leave the complex to search for you while you're in the complex watching them."

9

Dash: Insert Foot

"Mom and dad seem powerless, that leaves Buddy and me," Violet said thoughtfully.

"Well, like you can do anything, you're totally useless."

The reply stung hard. Yesterday's failure battling the technidroid rendered Violet unconscious for about an hour, but no physical damage was done; however, psychologically she was still in ICU.

Violet felt that her shame was being waved in her face. With a verbal knife in her chest and tears welling up, Violet did the only thing her hormonally chaotic mind could think of at the time, disappear – and run.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Dash knew that's not what he wanted to say.

"Violet?" Dash said apologetically. "I didn't mean it…that…way." his sentence trailed off with a sigh, he knew Vi had left.

'I screw everything up,' he thought with contempt.

"Dashell Parr, what possessed you to say that?!" Helen blurted out, still disbelieving what she heard.

"That's not what I meant mom…I didn't mean she was useless, I…I meant she's as useless as we are…that's not it. Ah...um…we're all use…that is…" Dash decided not to dig deeper and cut his losses, "Oh, I don't know what I meant."

"We have to find her," said Bob, not knowing what he would do if he did.

"She'll be OK. Some things just have to…she just trying to work things out."

"What's wrong with her anyway. She's gotten really touchy, like no matter what I say it 'hurts her feelings'. I think she's an over-reactionary," Dash observed.

"She's just growing up Dash," sighed Helen.

"Yeah, well I'm growing up too, but I act normal."

"I don't think that's the kind of growing up your mom meant."

"What then?"

"Adolescents."

Dash just stared at his dad.

"Could you be a little more ambiguous please?" he asked finally.

Bob thought for a bit; adolescents, for him, is a concept hard to describe anyway, but complicated by the fact that the audience is a twelve-year-old and that you yourself don't fully understand it.

"It's her body….ah…changing inside, well outside too. And…ah…well, something to do with, ah…hormones…ah…chemical things, that…well, effect emotions and like her, ah…thinking…and…ah…well, other things too, you know…understand? Sort of?"

Dash stood there staring blankly at his dad.

"Ohhh Kayy…yeah…I think I do," Dash responded honestly, knowing that he understood that his dad was totally clueless.

"You'll be there soon enough," his mom told him.

"Will I act as stupid as Violet?"

Bob and Helen looked at each other with a knowing look, then simultaneously…

"Worse."

10

Strategy Meeting

The droid was just sitting there, motionless, obviously in a defensive posture, waiting for something to happen. Dash came up from behind with just that purpose in mind, the idea wasn't to damage it of course, just get its attention.

"You look bored," He said under his breath as he heaved a rock.

The barrel of the droids laser swung around, locked-on and fired, the response being quicker than Dash had expected as he maneuvered out of the path of the single round. The blast striking him on the hip was mitigated by the material in the suit, the injury wasn't bad, it just hurt – a lot.

Dash took off. The droid followed, firing a series of rounds in quick succession, the shots coming too close for his comfort as he dodged the deadly bullets of light. The trick for Dash was not to elude the Technodroid, but to have it follow him while staying alive.

The droid hadn't gone ten yards down the street, when there was an explosion. The little droid shot up about fifteen feet, flipped and landed inverted on its turret. The firing stopped and was replaced by a high-pitched tone. Dash didn't know what the sound was, but knew this wasn't good, and took off. A few seconds later it blew up, taking with it everything within a hundred feet.

As the dust was clearing, the manhole cover slid over to the side, Dash got there as his dad was emerging from the sewer access.

"It worked!" Dash sounding both triumphant and little surprised.

"Yeah, it did, but we need to find another way to do it. It ain't pretty down there."

"I can tell," Dash said covering his mouth and nose.

The experiment was a success; Dash had lured the droid over the manhole and when he did, Bob catapulted the droid from underneath, the first time anyone had gotten that close to a droid undetected.

One down…a million to go.

-iii-

It was one of many impromptu meetings, but this was the most important. The discussion centered around the destruction of Thanatos and the start of the game plan for freeing the world of the global pest.

"Well, we found one of their weaknesses; turn them over. They probably realize they can't get back over, so they just self-destruct."

"I knew they could be defeated, it was just a matter of time. It's a good start…but, we'll have to find a way to do it on a massive scale.

"How big a scale?"

"Well, conservatively there are over a million of these pests world-wide; if you could kill one every minute, 24 hours a day, it would take you…almost two years. Plus there's got to be a secret factory or two around somewhere that crank them out by the hundreds.

First we have to destroy Thanatos, then the factories, finally the droids.

"Thanatos…sounds demonic." Helen said to no one in particular.

"You're not far off Helen. Thanatos is the Greek god of death. Not the dead…but death itself. He is indestructible to mortals, infinitely powerful and incredibly violent."

"So, we're up against a droid that is an indestructible…powerful…violent…god of death?"

"Correct."

"Great."

"How does it compare to the Omnidroid?"

"Compared to Thanatos, Omnidroids comes out of specially marked boxes of cereal." he answered without humor

"How much do you actually know about this thing?" Helen inquired.

"Just generalities really, nothing we could use."

"Like what?"

"Well, I know that it's the Technovillain's 'flagship', it's classified as a technadroid, but has seventy times the mass and is infinitely better equipped. The power-plant could probably power the greater New York area."

"What about weapons?"

"The other droids have one weapon, Thanatos has two offensive and one defensive, I don't have specs on any of them, but I can tell you that they're like nothing I've ever seen."

Buddy thought for a moment, "For the sake of discussion, I'll call the secondary offensive weapon a 'laser' and his primary a 'particle beam', I don't know how accurate the analogy is, but it will give you an idea."

"Thanatos's laser is more than eight times that of a standard droid. The particle beam weapon can level any building in Metroville within three to five seconds…I've seen him do it."

"There should be some way I could…"

"Sorry Bob." Buddy interrupted, "I know what you're going to say, I assure you the defense system can't be penetrated by any means we know of."

"Oh come on, I should be able to…"

"Remember the containment field on Nomanisan?" Buddy cutting him short again,

Buddy didn't like bringing up something he was trying to forget, but there was no time for lengthy explanations and the point had to be made.

Bob knew full well what Buddy meant.

"Oh, yeah…well we have a problem."

"If Bob can't do anything, I don't see too much success in my area…what about Dash?"

"Its defenses are continuous, even when firing its weapon, speed won't work in this case."

"Vi?" Bob offered with hesitation.

"Well, I've thought about her. Technically, she's the only hope we have…being as her powers operate in the energy realm. Problem is, her field can't stand up against his secondary weapon; you saw what happened to her against a small droid and its energy is a fraction of Thanatos's. Throw in his particle beam…"

Buddy hesitated a moment, "But, supposing…again, for discussion…it did, the power of this thing is…immense. If it were to hit her and her shield miraculously remained intact, the blast could easily throw her two or three hundred yards; not fifteen or twenty like the droid did." Buddy shook his head, "Her chances of survival are...well, not good."

"That's the best we have?"

"I'm sorry Bob, it's the best I can do."

"So, that's the deal?" Bob replied, sounding more like a statement than a question.

"That's the deal."

"Is there anything you can do?" suggested Helen.

"Yeah, this is a technology thing…more in your line." Bob lightening up a bit.

"Don't think it hasn't been on my mind…constantly. I've analyzed it from every angle…and trust me, it would take a miracle."

"Define miracle."

Buddy counted on his fingers for emphasis,

"IF, I can get into the main complex for more than a day or two. IF, I get into the main computer. IF, you keep Thanatos of my back while I'm in there. IF, I can gain access to the high-level memory.

A lot of IF's Bob…a lot of miracle."

"How long is 'a while'."

"Days, weeks…" he shrugged, "...don't know." he said flatly.

"Wait a minute…" Bob said with a nervous laugh, "…you're telling us, that you don't know how long it will take to gain access to your own programs?"

"Bob," Buddy said with some agitation, "I don't even know IF I can get in."

"IF, Bob, right now is a big word."

11

Violet Gets Educated

Violet strolled aimlessly to the outskirts of town, looking at the ground as she walked, deep in thought.

She didn't know how long she'd been walking, but she was getting tired, her legs were getting sore. Thoughts were playing and replaying in her mind as she tried to sort things out, she needed to sit for awhile and think, but was too restless and decided to keep going.

A few minutes later, she came across a brick retaining wall, just right height to sit on and rest…so she did. Violet situated herself, put her feet up and pulled her knees to her chest in a fetal position. Hugging her legs, and resting her head on her knees, she continued to think.

'Sure, Dash and I had arguments before,' she thought, 'and even stopped speaking a time or two…for a little while anyway. But, why did he say what he did? Does he really hate me that much?'

The idea seemed too remote to even give it much thought.

"Why am I being so sensitive about stuff…what's happening to me?"

"He probably didn't mean it…I never gave him a chance."

"Why am I doing this? What's wrong with me?"

"Who am I anyway?"

Violet seriously contemplated the last question for a few moments. She took of her mask and looked at it for a minute or two, running her fingers over it thoughtfully. "Who are you?" she asked rhetorically.

Violet replaced her mask, closed her eyes and thought.

The sound of running water broke her thoughts, she looked to her right to see what was making the sound. The water was coming from a highly patinated 19th century looking bronze thing, the centerpiece for the fountain she chose as a resting place.

Something past the fountain caught her eye. About fifty feet away was a large stately looking building, Victorian, more than likely. An original city office building? Government perhaps? Maybe an old college?

It was hard to tell, there was nothing to hint at its use; no signs, no people, it didn't even appear to be in use for that matter. There were no curtains or blinds on the dark, empty windows. It was deserted but not abandoned. It was very well kept, from the extensive gardens and grounds to the new paint and solid bricks; it had all the appearances of just being built, only the tell-tail thickness of many coats of paint on the woodwork gave a clue as to its 19th century construction.

It's simple, quiet grandeur was intimidating, but Violet was drawn to it. She entered through the large front doors into a great hall, only the light from the domed rotunda lit the interior. Even in the dim light, Violet could see the deep paneled walls and columns.

The aromatic smell of old leather and dark, aged wood surrounded her, she felt this was a place of faith, wisdom and trust, long before she read those same words engraved on the rotunda's open, second floor framework. As she looked around, she began to feel what little self-worth she still had slip away; it seemed to her, that a deserted building possessed qualities she would never have.

Uncertainty and despair filled her, she started thinking that perhaps her brother was right and that he meant exactly what he said, she was useless. Useless to her family and everyone else; but worse, to herself…a total failure.

Unable to reconcile events in her mind or fill the emptiness that that weighed so heavy in her heart, she sat down by a column, and started to cry.

-iii-

"It looks like you could use a friend." The soft, fatherly voice sounded close.

Violet looked up to see a man standing about five feet in front of her, an older man in nondescript clothes. She didn't hear him come into the rotunda and should have been startled, but for some reason she was unafraid, even comforted by his presents.

"Who are you?" she asked through her tears.

"A friend" came the simple reply.

"You wouldn't want to be mine." She said quietly, looking at the floor.

"Why?"

"Because…"

"Because why?"

"I'm a failure." she said after a pause.

"Why are you a failure?"

She thought for a second, then answered.

"I don't understand my powers, I can't use them…I have no control." she began, "A lot of people think the supers are freaks of nature. Sometimes I wish I could just be normal" she added with a little frustration, "If supers have powers they understand and use them to help people…well...if they're freaks…" she paused, "...what does that make me?"

"A young lady with a very special gift." he said kindly, "Violet, if you gave up this profound power…the world looses. Everyone is special in their own way, they all have something to give.

If they hide their gift, whether great or small…never using it, were would we be?

If you allow a few people to make you become less than you are, everyone suffers.

Sweetheart, don't hide what makes you special, develop it, work to make it greater, be the best you can possibly be."

She thought for a moment.

"Well, my mom said that I had more power than I thought. Don't think…don't worry, she told me…" Violet reminisced. "…and that, when the time came, I would know what to do…that, it was in my blood."

"Your mom's started you in the right direction."

"Yeh, she was right, I mean, I did do better, but I think she overestimated the power in me...I've done good with small problems, but the really big ones…I always failed…" she stated factually, "…little people do little things I guess." she sighed.

"You say your mom overestimates you; I say you could be underestimating yourself." the friend suggested.

"Maybe, but how can anyone over - or under - estimate something they don't understand?"

Violet, you've always known about your powers. Your intuition, your instinct, has full understanding of every aspect of your gift.

"So why don't I understand it myself?" she asked puzzled.

"If by that, you mean your conscious…your intellect, it's because the intellect is seeking knowledge it can't possibly use.

For instance, if your facing a dangerous situation, your intellect would think it illogical to turn control over to a part of you that it considered weak.

Sometimes when you trust your instinct you do things that seem illogical to your intellect. But you do it, and in the final analysis, it proves to be the best action. Sometimes it's better not to think." the friend said, reinforcing Helen's words.

"That's what mom said."

"Your mother's wise." he said thoughtfully.

She continued, eyes looking past the walls. "But I don't understand…someone my size…have that much power."

Her eyes turned to her friend.

"What is it in me that makes it? How can a little person produce enough power to defeat something as big as Thanatos? It's…it's impossible."

Her friend stood there listening quietly, then said:

"Intellect sees the impossible, instinct doesn't understand the concept. Instinct sees what eyes can't, fully understands what can't be comprehended, it has no boundaries, or fear."

He paused for a second, "The only way for your intellect to understand, is to shut down totally and give complete domination to the intuition".

"How can I do that?"

"You can't, but even if you could…it would be very dangerous," he said with concern, "Just learn to yield to your intuition Violet, use it, it's your greatest power."

"But how can I use something I don't understand?" she asked, raising her voice in frustration.

"Everyone else knows what they have; they see it, touch it, they understand it. I have things in me…about me…powers…that I just…" anger causes her to choke up momentarily. "Just let me know…I need answers…I need some understanding of my power." she said, almost begging. "Please."

Violet looked earnestly at him through moist eyes, expectations of wisdom to guide her, keys of ancient understanding to unlock the door to her cluttered mind and set her free.

But what came was just a simple analogy, too simple perhaps, for her to grasp its deeper meaning.

"Violet…" Her friend began, "…'power' has more than one meaning, don't always focus on the obvious. A dying general isn't weak."

Violet sat there waiting for him to continue. But after a few seconds, it was obvious this cryptic message was the answer.

"I…don't understand." she said a little puzzled, still turning it over in her mind.

"You will" He said softly, "When the time comes, you will."

"But, if I go against Thanatos now…I'll die." she looked at him, "Won't I?"

"That's up to you." he replied.

"But, what if…" Violet stopped herself in mid sentence, her friend was gone.

"Trust your instinct Violet." her friends words echoed softly of the walls, then faded out.

Wisdom had been transferred. She just didn't know it…yet.

-iii-

Violet left the old college, but stops for a minute to contemplate the encounter with this mysterious man she calls her friend. Standing on the portico, she thinks about the puzzling wisdom of the dying general.

Then slowly walked away from the main building towards the fountain, where she paused a moment before leaving to rejoin her family. Again, she sat on the fountain's wall, pulled her knees to her chest and contemplated the events of the past half hour. Her thoughts were interrupted by a strange silence; the water had stopped, as she turned to look at the fountain, what she saw made her gasp.

The fountain was dry and the building…gone.

Violet jumped down and slowly walked towards the remnants, starring at the emptiness in disbelief, looking around trying to figure out what went wrong with her mind. All she saw was an old commemorative marker placed on what remained of the portico, it was the only indication that a structure ever existed. She cautiously approached the marker and read the plaque; the inscription was simple, but shook her to the core, she stared at the last line, reading several times 'Destroyed May 27, 1961.'

"1961...that was three years ago." she said softly.

'It was so real.' she thought, 'I'm losing my mind, I just know it.' she thought again trying to convince herself she wasn't going insane, 'It has to be…everything happens for a reason.'

Violet turned slowly to leave, half expecting to see Rod Serling there welcoming her to the Twilight Zone.

Something inside though convinced her that all was well and that what she learned would be of the greatest importance when the time came.

'Don't worry, just go with it,' it seemed to say. Intuitively she knew the mission and that time was short, the petty problems of the past were forgotten.

As she started to leave, she looked back at the emptiness, "Trust instinct." she said thoughtfully to herself, then made an irrevocable decision: never again would there be any doubt in her mind, she knew who she was and what she must do.

Driven by new hope, an uncertain confidence and a dying general; she ran towards the temple to be with her family and face the harbinger of death like the superhero she was.

12

Showdown: Violet vs. Thanatos

Arrival

As Violet left the college, she knew she had to rejoin her family and do what she could to help. Putting an end to the infestation was a job only Buddy could do. Hers…keeping Buddy safe, which meant dealing with Thanatos. She didn't know what to expect or how her powers could be of use, but she was not going to give up…not this time.

With the Technovillain dead, the main computer would go into autocratic mode and carry out the main directives. One of the directives is the safeguarding of the temple area, the realm of Thanatos.

Vi figured that Thanatos would position himself at, or close to, the temple protecting the main computer complex, which is exactly were Buddy was in his attempts to gain access to the droids' programming and hopefully put an end to the global threat.

-iii-

After jogging at a steady pace for about half an hour, Violet was approaching the metro area, the temple complex was to the other side. The old college didn't seem that far away while she strolled along, lost in her thoughts. But now that she had a mission, some purpose to get back where she needed to be, it seemed to take forever.

As she neared downtown, Violet began to sense something, it was like a type of awareness in the back of her mind that seemed to envelope her whole body, in a way, controlling her.

She felt, not saw, the enemy; this had happened before, but not as strong as now. As a droid approached her from the front, she felt what could only be thought of as a small energy surge. A fraction of a second later the droid's laser pulsed, catching Violet off guard. Despite the surprise attack, Vi's shield was up, absorbing the impact. After the pulse was dissipated, the shield vanished.

Violet stood there for a moment, trying to put things together, when she felt another surge. She didn't need a Doctorate in physics to start understanding. Again, her shield was up just long enough to absorb the pulses from the attack droid.

Violet began to feel other surges around her, but this time she was on the run. The attacks seemed to come from everywhere in rapid succession, each time her hands and shields were up in time. Even the unseen attacks from the rear were fended off with amazing accuracy. Violet no longer thought of defense, it seemed to be taking care of itself. Her mind was on the mission at hand.

-iii-

The droids scanned her as she entered the city and fired on her, but there was no pursuit this time. The orders were to fire at will in the attempts to take her out, but because it was determined that target Alpha's powers were defensive in nature the main computer ordered that no droid was to leave their position. Even with this advantage, Violet still had it rough cutting through the gauntlet as she made her way to the late Technovillain's command center.

-iii-

The sun was setting as Violet approached the grounds, she saw her mom and dad fifty yards outside the main entrance, their faces showed a grave concern, not only for her disappearance, but the darkness that would soon arrive; both literally and figuratively.

Soon she had joined up with them.

"Where have you been sweetie?" Helen said relieved as Violet came within a few yards. "We were getting a little concerned."

"Yeah, we were a bit worried." Bob echoed.

Violet was about to tell them everything that happened while she was gone, but thought better of it:

'Let's see…' she thought, 'I went into a building I never saw before, because it didn't exist; I was inspired with life changing wisdom that I don't understand by a non-existent man that I call my friend…then I came back here to boldly face and defeat the deadliest machine ever to be conceived by the mind of man. Yep, I'm certifiable.'

"Just out." came her reply finally.

"Just out? Thanatos is coming to protect this place, and you were 'just out'?"

Ambiguity was the best card to play, "There were things I had to…work out."

"It would be nice if you could 'work out' a way to stop this thing." said Bob, unintentionally letting some sarcasm slip in.

"Don't make fun of me dad." Violet bristled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Bob said apologetically.

"I came back to see what I could do to stop Thanatos" she stated.

"Stop him?" Bob questioned, a little surprised. "What makes you think you could even slow him down?"

"I have my powers." Violet shot back. She knew that was bordering on disrespect…now is not the time for a battle of wills, she backed off with a little bit more humility.

"I just have to find a…ah…different way to use them."

"Your shield couldn't stand up against a techidroid." Bob sounding more like a concerned father. "What makes you think you have a chance against something a hundred times worse?"

"Because I didn't fully understand my powers. I still don't know everything, but I do have more confidence now."

"Look…" she continued hurriedly , "…you know who you are and what you can do, you know your powers and their limitations; mom and Dash the same. But I don't even know how my powers work and I certainly don't know their limits. I'm trying to understand stuff I can't see, there's a lot of unknowns here; but I do know, I can do this."

"I understand Vi but…"

"Dad, I failed before, but not this time."

"Honey, you tried your best…" Helen interjected.

"That's the problem mom, I tried. I'm tired of just…trying, I'm tired of doubting, I'm tired of…failing. I'm going to do this."

"Sweetheart, sometime people fail. It doesn't mean you didn't do your best…it just…happens." Helen consoled.

Violet turned to her dad,

"Dad, I can do this. I know who I am and I know what I gotta' do. I'm the only chance Buddy has right now…and you know that."

"You can't do this on your own, you need help."

"And where is it coming from dad!?" Violet said putting aside her tact and humility.

"We're all here, We can do this…together, as a family." Bob said grasping.

"Do what, get killed? Dad, against Thanatos you're useless." the pointed words shot out.

She said what she needed to say, but not quite the way she meant to say it. The surprise and hurt showed clearly in her dad's face. They both knew he was incapable of dealing with Thanatos and was grasping for anything that would keep her from imminent death.

He stood there with a pain in his heart more humiliating than being less than a man; he felt he was a failure as a father.

As the words left her mouth, Violet knew she had crossed the line, but there was no time for debate. The situation was becoming critical, and she had to stand her ground, no matter what. But standing her ground didn't have to mean stabbing someone you love with the same verbal dagger she pulled out of herself earlier.

She placed her hands gently on his arm.

"I love you daddy...I'm sorry." her words were soothing, "You're a great man and you can do great things. But not this."

"Vi, please," he said quietly, "we can…"

"No dad! I'm going to finish it."

With that said, she turned and was on her way. She had run out of time.

"Violet…" Bob called out half-hearted.

"Bob." Helen said softly, "Let her go."

First Attack

The situation had now become intolerable for Violet.

The droids were on their way to controlling the world, that was bad enough. But now, they had the members of her family hurting each other, they were making a mockery of her family's special gifts and they actually thought themselves as unstoppable.

Yeh, it was one thing to commit a crime, she would help fight them, that's her job. But the transgressions had come against her family; now, it's personal. In Violet's mind, there are no more attempts or tries; her sole purpose in life was to finish it, one way or another.

She entered the temple, positioned herself and cleared her mind.

-iii-

Violet stood resolute at the east end of the Gallery, waiting for the inevitable.

The wait wasn't long, a loud muffled hum followed by an explosive entrance through the west wall announced the god of death.

Violet stood there facing him, unflinching.

There was a long pause as Thanatos scanned Violet. The scan was evaluated; it was Alpha, a target almost terminated by a droid with much less power than himself. The protective shield Alpha produced was weak and ineffective against their weaponry.

Thanatos set his secondary weapon's power to 100% and prepared to fire.

-iii-

As the super-droid scanned her, Violet remained still, calm and focused. She was giving more control to her intuition. It seemed strange, but she had no fear, and with an almost unnatural piece of mind, she could sense Thanatos's power fluxes, the type of power and it's strength; the intuitive Violet had a greater sensitivity to, and more understanding of energy and particle physics than anyone on the planet. It was like reading the droid's mind; the bad guy was unknowingly telling her what he was going to do, how he was going to do it and when.

Violet sensed an increase in energy just prior to him firing his secondary, her shield was up and waiting. The blast hit hard, some energy being absorbed, the remainder sprayed off of her shield like a high pressure stream of water off a brick wall. The resulting force pushed Violet back a few yards, sliding her on the smooth marble floor, but her shield remained strong…initially.

But the droid's onslaught was wearing Violet down at a rapid pace; she started questioning her intuitive self…a grave mistake.

At once, she shifted more of the control to her reasoning and tried to think her way out of the situation; a decision that almost cost her and her family's lives. Almost immediately her shield's color faded, thousands of little cracks appeared and it began to shatter at the edges as intellect fought intuition for control. Her arms began to shake involuntarily, then her legs, soon her whole body was consumed. She dropped to one knee pressing her convulsing body into the shield, soon she was on both knees, giving everything she had to maintain what was left of the protective barrier.

-iii-

Bob and Helen could only stand by and watch as the events unfolded.

Bob was a father who loved his daughter more than life, but couldn't bear it any more, the surreal images sent waves of nausea through his body, he had to turn away.

Helen couldn't take her eyes off Violet, even now, she cherished every second her daughter was alive, 'There's a chance' she thought. But Helen was realistic and knew her daughter's chances were diminishing rapidly; blinding tears flowed freely down her face, she lost sight of Vi and her hope and felt certain she was witnessing the last seconds of her little girl's life.

-iii-

Dash too, was now watching in disbelief. His sister's seemingly inevitable destruction being displayed on the monitor.

The first few seconds he was celebrating his sister's success. He knew it was too early to determine the outcome; anything could happen. But this looked like it had good possibilities, Violet withstood the initial blast of the laser, 'If she can get through that, she should be able to handle anything.'

But soon he saw Vi's shield start to fail, then her body shaking uncontrollably, 'This isn't happening' he thought, 'She's a super…she's supposed to win…that's the way it's supposed to be.' But Dash had to consider reality; this wasn't the comics or Saturday morning TV…this was real.

Just off to the right of Violets image was an indicator showing Alpha's force-field power remaining; and the percentages were falling quickly. Dash didn't notice, as he stood gazing in disbelief at the monitor, the only thing he saw falling quickly was his big sister.

Violet was losing the battle; Thanatos was biding his time.

Revelation

Violet felt her life slipping away; she was dying, just like the general in the cryptic solution. Her dimmed, nearly useless eyes stared blankly at the floor. Her brain had all but shut down, and no longer had the capacity to think. 'Thoughts' were dream-like like visions and voices in her head; intuition controlled them.

Intuition had given the intellect a clue as to the way her power worked, it hoped the intellect would figure it out and they could work together, but there wasn't enough time; now it would have to be spelled out…it was a matter of survival. The danger was, that the intellect would have to be shut down, it would also have to balance its master between life and death while it got its point across.

In her fuzzy mind Violet saw the supreme commander, mortally wounded, approaching eternity while her troops stood around her, silent, anxiously awaited her last command.

She floated towards the general. She overheard one of soldiers quietly imploring in a tone that suggested that time and space itself was doomed unless an order was issued, "Ma'am," he began, "please…give the order. The army that serves you is greater than the enemy; but we can do nothing until commanded to do so. All will be lost soon."

The officers all looked on the expiring chief; looking at her face, watching her lips, waiting for the command to free humanity, Violet was there with them, looking on. Suddenly, she recoiled in shock; the face that lead the vast army…was hers.

Violet now understood. The only outward indication…her eyes; once listless, now revealed that she had solved the cryptic analogy: A dying general is not weak; he still has intrinsic authority, power. His commands are obeyed by his troops, power that executes orders.

"You have more power than you realize" her mom's voice drifting in her mind.

The movement of her lips, barley noticeable; her voice almost inaudible, as the hoarse whisper of revelation passed through them,

"I don't create…I command…I am the general."

At the threshold of death, Violet closed her eyes.

The general was about to issue the order.

-iii-

Exhausted to the point of death, unable to hold herself up without the help of her force field, incapable of thinking and out of options; Violet was now ready to trust her instincts to the fullest.

What she did defied logic; with eyes closed, she reduced what was left of her force-field to no bigger than an inch in diameter, without the support of the wall, her torso sagged and would have hit the floor if it wasn't for her hands, which seemed to be supported by the juncture of the two concentrated powers; his a bright blinding red, hers a deep translucent purple.

With what little energy that remained in her she pulled herself up to a kneeling position, the now dense energy field was a mere six inches from her face, directly in front of Thanatos's high energy laser, with nothing between her and the raging power than her two separated hands.

She remained still for a moment as if tapping into a pure source energy, replenishing some of the tremendous amount of power lost during the first attack, regaining a little bit of what was brutally taken from her.

Her fingers began moving, almost imperceptibly, gently coaxing the two forces to integrate, as if negotiating a peace treaty between two warring superpowers. The demarcation of red and purple blurred, the negotiations were complete; the superpowers were now allies.

Violet slowly parted her hands, the small dot of purplish-red began to expand, taking with it the terminus of Thanatos's beam, spreading it out until both combined to form a solid wall.

The unstoppable, sadistic power that once attacked Violet's force field, now helped supply the energy for it.

Violet, still on her knees, collapsed on the new wall; physically, mentally and emotionally depleted. Rest would have to come later however, right now the impossible had to be accomplished. Summoning everything in her, she willed her left leg forward, positioning it under her in the attempt to stand, but it was too much to ask, the leg wobbled and fell. Her right leg too was powerless. But, her intuition was telling her that now is not the time to quit, there's no time to rest, she must get to her feet. Now.

Violet made another attempt, reminding herself of the promise she gave her dad just ten minutes ago. "I'm going to finish it."

-iii-

Dash no longer watched, but merely looked at the monitor. Hope had turned to desperation and desperation to unbelief then hopelessness as he sat and stared blankly at the monitor. Then his mind caught something his eyes missed.

He started watching again, not daring to smile, he was filling with new hope, his lips forming silent words of encouragement as his body subconsciously moved as to will his sister up. Then he just stood there, a big smile on his face…he knew now, that somehow, everything would be OK.

-iii-

Bob had to turn away, Helen had to remain and watch. But now, with hands on her face, she stared at the floor, unable to lift her eyes up an inch or two for fear of what she would see; Violet's chances she felt, were gone.

It seemed an eternity, but Thanatos had not made any forward movement. Something was keeping him there. Helen couldn't bear it any longer, with one eye open, she slowly glanced up. It took a second, but now both eyes were wide with amazement. Transfixed, she could scarcely reach back and gently coax Bob to join her.

Her pull was gentle but firm, Bob reluctantly gave in, but keeping his gaze downward. Helen used her other hand to lift his head up, he looked up tentatively…then joined his wife in watching the scene with wonder.

Violet was now standing; her body was shaky and buffeted hard by the raging power, but she was standing. Even with her eyes closed, her face showed the unyielding determination of a general who would no longer settle for just trying…or failing.

The enemy's weapons were no longer a threat, but an ally and gave Vi a free ride…a chance to recover.

-iii-

If a machine possessed the attributes of a human, Thanatos would be enraged. This thing just hijacked the energy of the most powerful weapon ever conceived. It is a target, not a weapon, what's happening now is impossible…it does not compute.

Running scenarios and calculations at a furious pace, Thanatos was determined to find out just what went wrong.

With calculations complete, Thanatos was no closer to knowing the reason for Alpha's apparent success. Alpha's force-field used the same power as before, adaptation of some type was the only logical conclusion. What type of adaptation and how it was used to integrate his energy was still a mystery.

The full power laser strike should have terminated the target instantly if the calculations were right, yet after two minutes, Alpha not only survived, but had annexed his power.

The laser strike should have destroyed the shield instantly, but didn't. A particle strike however, would destroy not only Alpha and it's shield, but the east half of the building as well.

Thanatos readied his particle weapon, selected power output for 50%, and prepared to fire. 50% was overkill to the extreme; but he wasn't going to take any more chances… not with this target.

-iii-

The outer rim of Thanatos's stocky barrel lit up, the brilliant flash of energy shot out, engulfing the weaker beam as it traveled towards Violet. The impact was spectacular, Violet, although behind her laser supported force-field, was physically jolted back by the concussion, but remained upright, calm, focused and in control; not the quite the effect Thanatos was after.

The particle beam didn't punch through as calculated, it simply skated over the expanding junction and joined the force-field wall, hitting the building itself. Every part of the structure touched by the beam exploded violently, the concussion so great it knocked Bob and Helen several feet away from where they were standing, throwing them down to the ground. Thanatos himself was displaced a foot or two back.

After the peals of thunder subsided and the dust settled, only two things remained unchanged; the particle beam continued to stream and Violet continued to stand.

-iii-

Both parents and brother watched Violet as she ceased being a victim and took control. Dash in the main control room watching the scene on the monitor and her parents from their vantage point behind the west wall, ironically right next to Thanatos.

Second Attack

If Thanatos had a human brain, he would have gone totally insane…this situation was now officially past all logic.

At 50%, his power utterly destroyed everything it touched…except the target.

At 100%, his awesome power did little more; concentric rings of ionized particles traveled the length of the raging stream, while vaporizing everything within its proximity…except the target.

At 150%, a power setting outside the safe limitations, caused a virtual firestorm, a wildfire driven by hundred mile an hour winds. Everything was being systematically disintegrated…except the target.

He backed his power to 50% then shut down.

Surrounded by the charred remains of the structure, Thanatos sat in the silence and pondered.

-iii-

Dash watched as Thanatos shut down.

"She did it! Yeah…" he jumped and spun around, unable to control his excitement.

"Yeah…who's super now, dude!" Dash said to the monitor, in a slightly superior, in-your-face tone.

"So wadda' ya' think of the Vi'ster now…huh, Buddy?"

An uneasy silence caused Dash to turn in Buddy's direction.

"Buddy?" Dash repeated, a little less excited this time.

Dash's smile slowly left his face as he saw his mentor just sitting there, studying the monitor, his face showing grave concern.

"What's…wrong?" Dash's voice a little tentative.

"It's not over." Buddy replied quietly, still watching the monitor.

"Wadda' mean? She whipped him. He gave her everything he had…and she still whipped him…bad."

"He hasn't given up…he's thinking."

Dash knew Buddy was right, as long as Thanatos functions, he'll keep attacking Violet.

"He's a machine…she's only human." Dash said to himself as the realization set in.

The only way out was to destroy the droid, but that was impossible. Thanatos's success, like Violet's eventual failure, seemed a certainty. It was only a matter of time.

Dash and Vi had seen a few impossible situations, but always managed to escape, the rescuers were always there; they've always had mom, dad or each other. But, mom and dad couldn't do anything, neither could he; there's no rescue this time, Violet was on her own.

Dash felt helpless, there had to be something he could do.

Whether it was to encourage his sister, comfort himself or a little of both; he did the only thing his twelve year-old mind could come up with; run out to the gallery and be with her.

-iii-

Violet stood there, shield up, exhausted.

Thanatos stood there too, full power, thinking.

Dash ran up from behind, grabbing Violet around the waist, nearly knocking her down. She opened her eyes a little, looked down and saw Dash there, arms around her, squeezing tight. Violet dropped her shield and put her arm around Dash's shoulders.

"W-What are you doing!?" he said in a low, but very excited voice.

"I'm worn out." her voice was weary

"You've got to think of some way to beat him…don't give up!"

"Dash, I'm too tired to think."

"Don't say that…com'on, ya gotta think of something." his voice starting to show emotion.

She showed Dash a trace of a grin, "I don't have to think…I'm just waiting for him to make his last mistake."

"You do…" he lightened up a little, then looked puzzled, "…what kind of mistake?"

"Thinking I would stand by and let him hurt my little brother."

Dash stood there with his arms around her, wondering what his sister was going to do. With that, an all too familiar hum filled the remains of the gallery, Thanatos was powering up for a full scale particle strike.

Dash refused to leave his sister's side. He closed is eyes tight and held on for dear life.

Violet closed her eyes…and relaxed.

As the end of Thanatos' barrel started to light up, Dash, although believing in his sister's success, instinctively shut his eyes, turned his head and squeezed her tight, burying his face into her side .

Violet tilted her head towards Dash, even with her eyes closed, she gave the impression that she was looking on him. A hint of a reassuring smile, unseen by him, crossed her face. She then faced center, smile gone and waited for Thanatos to make his mistake.

-iii-

The target's defenses were still down, if he fired now he would have the element of surprise; taking every advantage…he attacked.

Only the white-hot particle beam shot out the barrel of the demonic droid this time…Thanatos had learned; Violet knew it was coming, she could feel it long before he fired…and she was ready.

Thanatos' energy stream was on its way to the target before Violet responded; she gave him his lead, the least she could do for the condemned droid.

Violet issued the order; the troops were there in an instant, untold power amassing at a single point in space…directly in the path of Thanatos' particle beam, standing ready to protect their leader.

The closer the droid's beam got to Violet, the more energy packed in this micro-battleground. The energy density was incredible, Thanatos' particle beam dulled in comparison to the light given off by the marble-sized sun. When the two meet, it will be like nothing ever seen.

Thanatos calculated his success at 99.9% within the first millisecond after impact.

Violet knew her success at 100%…five minutes ago.

-iii-

Two of the most concentrated powers on the planet met.

This time there was no integration, no bonding, no messing around. At the second of impact, Violet's half inch diameter bomb exploded into a solid wall, taking with it Thanatos's energy and spreading it well past the perimeter of the building. The noise created should have been deafening, but all Violet heard was a pop and a rush of wind. The enormous energy provided a shield that was virtually soundproof.

-iii-

Violet stood there, her body trembling, but not from exhaustion as before. This time it was raw energy running through and around her.

With eyes still closed, Violet tilted her head towards her brother, her voice highly distorted by the enormous surges of power.

"Dash, go back in and tell Buddy everything's going to be alright." Then she faced forward again, "I'm going to finish this."

-iii-

Dash was back in the computer room within a second.

"Vi said she's finishing Thanatos." Dash's voice strong with hope.

Buddy just nodded his head in acknowledgment. He thought the world of Violet Parr and was clearly impressed by her unimaginable performance thus far; but, he didn't share the same optimism so unashamedly expressed by her younger sibling.

Buddy stopped for a moment, and looked at Dash watching his sister with fascination and simple trust.

"I wish I were like you." he said softly; then continued his laborious task of hacking the world's most secure system.

Dash stood in front of the monitor, wide-eyed, still amazed at his sister's power over the demonic machine. Suddenly, something changed; he had a puzzled expression as he tried to figure out what it was.

"I can't believe her shield's still holding out." Buddy said out loud to himself as he labored on the subroutine.

Dash picked up on Buddy's comment as he watched his sister, his eyes widened a bit as the revelation set in.

"Her shield!" Dash said in a loud whisper.

"Mmm, what's that"? Buddy asked half distracted.

"She's not using it" Dash replied, eyes still fixed on the images.

"What?" Buddy said flatly, still distracted. "Not using what?"

"Her shield." he replied in disbelief and wonder.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Buddy said a little confused as he wheeled his chair over a few feet to get a better view of what Dash was transfixed on. It only took a second or two for the full realization to set in. With mouth open, Buddy sat and joined Dash in staring at the impossible.

"She owns him." Buddy whispered to himself.

Violet was standing there; strait and tall, arms down by her side, head high and eyes closed, relaxed; as if she were standing in the sunlight, feeling the warmth on her face while a cool breeze ruffled her hair.

She controlled Thanatos' energy…completely.

Yeah, the general was in command.

-iii-

Target Alpha was nothing special, but for some unknown reason could summon up incredible energy. The concept of a biologic energy weapon was too much contradiction, even for his first-generation, artificial intelligence mind.

But right now, the energy field Alpha had been radiating was no longer there, this thing was using his energy, and the 150% output he currently produced had the same effect as 100. 200, even if it were possible to produce it, would have no effect.

His programming told him that all soft targets in and near the complex would have to be destroyed to keep the system safe and he must do what is necessary to fulfill the program directives. Only if the primary objective proved to be impossible, then all effort must be made to terminate the central computer, with this done each droid would be made autonomous.

Thanatos started running scenarios at a blinding pace.

Any beam of energy he produced, he reasoned, has been anticipated by Alpha, giving the target time to plan a defense. That defense has included manipulation of energy…in particular, his. Therefore, energy weapons were of no use…the problem is, these are the only weapons he possessed. He continued running scenarios.

-iii-

Violet had him. Her intuition knew that no matter what happened, the moment Thanatos fired his weapon, it would be the last time. It was a deadly game of chess; an amateur had challenged the master and the master would have him in mate soon; he had no options.

He could shut down and regroup, but anything he put out could be stopped be Alpha. As a weapon against this target, he was totally useless, and he knew it. So that option was out.

The only thing he could do was to keep firing. Violet made sure of it.

By shutting down her force field first, using only the energy supplied by Thanatos himself; she appeared helpless, luring the droid into a false sense of superiority…and he was buying into it.

Because target Alpha was using his energy to defend itself, self-destruct seemed the best alternative, this would terminate the power and leave the soft target defenseless, resulting in the destruction of both Alpha and the main computer. But, what happened next, took away that option too. Thanatos didn't mind however, he -in his own way- relished the irony of it.

Violet started manipulating the beam of energy back toward the droid; sending waves of power back into the transmitter and frying it. The massive amounts of power being reflected back into Thanatos' weapons systems would totally destroy it, reducing him to nothing more than a burned-up static display in the city's central park…if he was lucky. A more realistic scenario would be total annihilation; an explosion of epic proportion, destroying everything within a quarter-mile.

Why should he destroy himself, when Alpha will do it for him and unwittingly take out itself and the computer?

If only he could laugh.

Destruction of Thanatos

Buddy watched the monitor with horror; in the main video area he saw what Thanatos saw; but, layered over it was the scenario Thanatos had chosen as the result of Violet's action.

The status boards confirmed the scenario; every critical system status was in the red; reflected power input and temp were off the scale and the main power generator was heading for meltdown.

He saw that Thanatos's force field was no longer around himself, but rather the power plant area. Thanatos was using his auxiliary power to generate a force field to confine the energy.

Thanatos wasn't going to stop her and Buddy knew why; whether he turned the force field off himself or allowed Violet to do it for him…he would pop like a kiloton balloon, the computer would be destroyed, the droids would dismantle the world and nothing could stop any of it.

"W-What are you doing?" Buddy hoarsely questioned the monitor in total disbelief.

"Who?" Dash asked.

"You're insane!" He continued with mounting frustration, ignoring Dash.

"What's wrong?" Dash asking Buddy directly.

"Violet's going to annihilate Thanatos…" Buddy began, still staring at the monitor.

"Cool, I gotta' see this." Dash said as he headed towards the gallery.

"…and us too." he finished. But Dash was already on his way to the gallery and didn't hear.

"Where are you going?" Buddy yelled, more commanding than asking.

"I want to be with Violet" Dash stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "This is probably the biggest thing she'll ever do, I want to be there."

"Look Dash, I don't know why your sister's doing this, but in a few seconds Thanatos is going to melt down, and when he does, there won't be anything left for a half mile in any direction." he blurted out with frustration.

"You said yourself that the power she controls from Thanatos is stronger than anything she can produce, we'll be OK"

"Dash, listen to what you're saying. Think!" Buddy said with a greater frustration in his voice. "When Thanatos goes, so does his energy. Violet doesn't have her force-field up, so there's nothing to stop the explosion from vaporizing all of us!"

Dash thought for a second.

"I'm sure she'll think of something"

"Think of something?" Buddy, yelling in desperation now "Dash, Vi's on autopilot, she's not thinking of anything!"

Dash, without hesitating, turned and resumed his short walk.

"What makes you think we'll survive this?"

Dash stopped, turned his head back towards Buddy.

"She's my sister." he replied.

A second later Dash was gone.

-iii-

Thanatos ran his power plant to 202% continuous, much higher than what is considered safe for even short durations. The power compartment now sustained temperatures that would melt most known elements and pressures of unimaginable magnitude.

The only thing keeping it together was an intense force-field. The protective shield that proved to be an invincible barrier for the massive droid, was now surrounding just the power plant area, it was the only thing that could contain the incalculable explosive energy.

Without his invisible armor, Thanatos was vulnerable, but it didn't matter…in a few seconds the power unit's force-field would be shut down.

-iii-

Dash was out in the gallery, standing a small distance behind his sister, watching in total admiration.

Buddy reached for the keyboard to continue the seemingly never-ending task, but stopped and thought for a second; there was no use. Hacking no longer had a future, so he took a deep breath and sank into his chair and blankly stared at the monitor.

96.1% and climbing, 96 percent of what Buddy didn't know; and didn't really care.

"I wanted to be the hero..." he said in quiet defeat "…be there to help people…all I ever wanted to do…was help".

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I was so close".

For the first time in his life he relaxed and just let his mind wander, it felt good. He turned his head a little to the side and looked over at Dash's empty chair.

"I wanted to grow up to be like you ya know." Buddy said, half smiling.

Buddy liked Dash; he had a simple faith in his sister, a simple way of looking at things, Buddy couldn't remember ever having anything but complexities and disappointments… even as a child.

He sat there looking at the ceiling, speaking low into an empty room, "I'm kind of envious of you; if Violet succeeds, you'll be a happy kid. If she doesn't…" he thought for a second and sighed "…well, you'll still be a happy kid."

"Your dad should be proud of…"

"Your dad!" he shot out. Jumping up with a start, he lunged for the micro-link.

-iii-

Bob's micro-comm erupted with panic; it was Buddy's voice, streaming warnings with so much fearful excitement it was almost unintelligible, but Bob caught all the important words.

"Get small!" Bob commanded as he snatched Helen up like a rag doll.

Helen squeezed herself in as tight as she could.

Bob tucked her under his arm, shielding her with his body as he ran, carrying her like a football and trying to make every precious yard he could. There was a short wall in the distance…if he could make it. It would be like using a flag pole to hide from a tornado; not much good, but better than nothing.

Bob was close enough to the wall to make a dive for it, he was almost over when there was a blinding flash.

-iii-

The end of Thanatos mirrored his existence: short and violent.

A brilliant flash vaporized everything within a hundred yards, the shock wave carried on leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Like the thunder that quaked the area, it too faded as it reverberated out into the distance.

As predicted, the explosion laid waste to everything within a quarter-mile, everything that is, except what was protected by Violet's force field.

The force field…yet another error added to Thanatos' list of miscalculations.

The droid's destruction only terminated the feed, not the shield itself; Violet had control of that. Thanatos found out too late: you can't fight something you have no understanding of.

-iii-

She neither heard nor felt anything, just stood there in silence. Something inside let her know it was over, she no longer felt the presence of her enemy, only calm.

Her protective field didn't have to be shut down, it just faded away with the peels of thunder, Violet just stood there, listening to the sound of quiet.

She slowly opened her eyes a bit and surveyed the wasteland, slowly scanning from her right, until she saw her parents standing there, together. She gave them a weak, but triumphant smile; then turned around, straitened herself up and walked with deliberate, albeit shaky, steps towards the main control room.

"Told ya'" Helen whispered to Bob. Then walked off to be with her daughter, leaving Bob standing there with a look of absolute amazement.

"Yeah," he sighed finally.

-iii-

Violet met Dash as she entered the vestibule connecting the gallery with the control room.

"Well, whadda' think? Pretty awesome, eh?" Violet said weakly with mock swagger as they walked together towards the main computer area.

"Huh? Oh, ah yeah…ah whatever." replied Dash, in an off-hand manner, typical of a sibling. But his faces showed a new level of respect for his older sister. He gave her a hug as they continued on. Violet couldn't help but give Dash a little smile…returning the hug.

-iii-

Bob and Helen made their appearance in the control room's foyer shortly after Vi and Dash.

Helen's face showed relief in a tired, almost dreamy way; Bob's, a look of pride and fascination. Suddenly Bob's expression turned inquisitive as he glanced around slightly.

"I feel a draft." he said as he tried to figure out where it was coming from.

Helen too, looked around until she saw the back of Bob's suit. The sight hit her hard and did everything to suppress a gut-wrenching laugh.

"I think E needs to make you another suit." she said, giggling.

Realizing the explosion had ripped his suit from neck to ankle, he stopped and stared menacingly at Helen.

"What's so funny." he said slowly, glaring at her.

"Nothing." she said, gaining some composure as she continued walking.

Helen stopped for a moment and turned to Bob.

"I'm… I…I'm…laughing with you…" Helen now starting to lose her grip.

"I'm not laughing." Bob's expression not changing.

"I'm…s-s-sorry…I know it's…not…f-f-f-funny." Helen let loose; her laughter fading away as she made her way towards the control room.

Bob looked around in desperation, something in one of the open offices caught Bob's attention.

"I'll be right back." he growled to the empty hallway.

13

Buddy Hacker

Buddy banged the desk in frustration almost knocking his coffee over. He had been working furiously for days in an attempt to break into the main program, running only on adrenaline and caffeine. The greatest intellect on the planet was feeling the effects of sleep deprivation and unsolvable problems.

"Everything is blocked..." he said venting his anger, "…doors, windows, everything…this is my creation and I can't find a way in." Buddy didn't like being defeated, especially by his own programs.

"How about the basement?" Dash added quietly, trying his own analogy.

"Doesn't have one." Buddy replied, more tired than mad.

"You'll find a way…it's probably so simple you overlooked it." only Violet knew she was speaking from her own recent experience dealing with the new-found understanding of her powers.

"There's nothing simple about my programming, or the modifications this Technojerk made." frustration building back into Buddy's tone.

"Maybe if you took a break, you know, relax…try to clear your min…"

"I don't need Ti Chi Violet!" Buddy exploded, "I need a solution, a-a key…some answers" Buddy held his head as if it would come off without the restraint, "…I just need to get in." he quietly finished. The room became dead quiet. Buddy realized Vi was only trying to help, just like the others. He just wasn't used to the support.

His mind quickly flashed back to when he was her age and only trying to help and his hero unceremoniously squelched him.

"I'm sorry Violet," Buddy said quietly, "I know you were trying to help…and I do truly appreciate it, thank you." he said apologetically.

He got up slowly, stretching his back into shape and looked over the massive computer as if trying to read its mind, then turned to leave the room.

"What's wrong Buddy?" Dash asked with genuine concern.

"Nothing little hero…" he sighed, "…I just need a break."

-iii-

Once outside the computer room, Buddy gazed at the nothingness that once was a great temple, built and dedicated by a super villain to himself. Buddy placed his hands against one of the massive walls and laid his head on them.

"Syndrome lives in all that I create." he said softly to himself, paraphrasing a portion of Techno's egotistical speech, "Ha, you didn't create anything loser. I created it, you just added pro…gramming."

Revelation slowly came to Buddy; he hurried back to the console, and without a word, went to work.

Buddy sat there for a few seconds, shaking his head, "Noooo, it can't be that easy." he said to himself.

With fingers flying over the keyboard, Buddy was no longer experimenting, he knew exactly where he was heading and the look on his face showed it.

Noticing the change in Buddy's attitude, Dash asked him if he had remembered something.

"I told you earlier little man, that there was no basement; there is however, a crawl space."

" A crawl space?" questioned Dash.

"Yah, a seemingly innocuous program…" he started.

What he was after, now showed on the monitor

"…guarded by none other than…" Buddy paused a moment, finding it hard to type in the password.

He pressed the keys slowly, "S-Y-N-D-R-O-M-E."

Buddy looked at the name for a second, sighed, then pressed "enter".

"Password accepted." came a smooth feminine voice from the computer.

"Voice recognition required for this level." the voice continued.

Buddy cleared his throat, took a deep breath and nervously wet his lips, "Syndrome" he said with authority, then glanced towards the others apologetically.

"It's OK Buddy, do what ya gotta do." Bob told him with understanding.

"Syndrome authorized, welcome back master."

The days of mental overload had paid off, he was in. There was a collective sigh of relief from everyone, but Buddy; now his brain was in high gear. He had just taken control of the ultimate power…now, he had to figure out how to use it.

"Press some buttons, destroy these things and lets go home." Bob said with an air of celebration.

"I wish it were that easy." Buddy said thinking.

"What now?" Bob sighed heavily, at the emergence of yet another roadblock.

"There is no 'self destruct' button, it's part of Techno's security protocol. It's there to keep hackers from doing exactly what we're trying to do."

"Too bad you can't instruct them to flip out like the one Thanatos had to care of the other day." Dash thought aloud.

"Which one?" Buddy inquired.

"Oh dude, don't you remember? The wacko that Thanatos blew to pieces. The one that looked like a dog chasing it's tail?" Dash reminded him.

"Well, unfortunately, we don't have anything like Thanatos' power and I doubt seriously there is a wacko dog command."

Buddy typed in requests enabling the voice/keyboard commands.

"Voice activated." came the response from the computer.

"Let's do a little navigating, and see what we have to work with. I'll start with the security side."

"Enable B527." was Buddy's first order.

"B527 enabled." came the response.

"It's still there?" he questioned to himself.

"Display properties."

Buddy looked at the information on his monitor. The B527 was his, the best national defense program ever written, but was now used as a slave, doing background work to defend the Technovillain's empire.

"What can I do with an enslaved security program?" he mused.

"Dash said something about wacko, couldn't you give the computer a virus or something?" Violet said brainstorming.

"That's a good idea Vi, but 527 would shut it down as soon as it entered, and because it came from my authorization it would lock me out…I would never get back in. Still…" He trailed off.

The idea was good, Buddy couldn't shake it; so he pondered a minute.

"A virus…" Buddy said to himself, "…527 wouldn't hesitate and its got the horse-power to do it."

Then Buddy started laughing to himself, almost giddy, as his fingers ran over the key board. "You're a genius Vi."

What was displayed made no sense what so ever to anybody there, except Buddy and 527.

"OK, I'm a genius, thanks…but what's that?"

"I've identified a new virus, this is the information on it. I'll download it to 527 and he will use the info to destroy the infection and save the day. And the best thing is, he won't lock me out…he may even thank me for it."

Buddy selected the download option and pressed enter. When the monitor showed the download complete, he gave the run command.

A few seconds later, 'Virus detected. Isolated." was displayed, followed by 'Next: Isolate, clean, delete program.'

Buddy smiled as he elected to keep the 'virus' in isolation…for the time being.

A sinister chuckle quietly filled the air.

"So, what happened?"

"I found the virus, detached it and stuck it in isolation."

"What particular virus is that?"

"Technojerks main program." With that, Buddy exploded with laughter.

Buddy's laughter subsided after a bit as he worked hard at the keyboard.

"Alright! '27 is the primary program." exclaimed a cautiously jubilant Buddy. "We're going places now…I just wish I knew where we were going."

"Can't you shut the droids down like you did Techno's program?"

"No. The two main programs this system used were integrated with each other, the droids on the other hand have additional programming that allows it to think for itself if need be."

"How about giving them a virus?"

"Can't do that either, the 527 is purely a defensive program, it won't knowingly transfer malware; also, it's set up so that portion can't be deprogrammed, if I tried, it would shut me down. No, we got to think of some way to deal with these guys in a way that they think we're trying to help them."

Buddy sat and thought, running one scenario after another through his mind. Brainstorming with the others.

-iii-

Dash looked behind him and saw his dad for the first time since the destruction of Thanatos. His eyes widened as he saw his dad in the makeshift covering he used to hide his embarrassment. Dash opened his mouth to say something…

"Turn around. Pay attention." Bob snapped in a low voice.

Smiling, Dash did as he was told.

The elapsed time was only a few minutes, but seemed forever under the circumstances.

"Mad dog." Buddy muttered under his breath.

"Computer." Buddy commanded.

"Prepare emergency command burst: Syndrome 1, priority: 01 Able Able ."

"ECB ready."

"Burst info:

One - unidentified malware found in safety protocol software, shut safety down, await anti-virus updates.

Two - targets transmitting malware on emergency frequency, neutralize all targets not master using this frequency.

Three - Transmit update status, this frequency at 2.0 sec intervals.

Four - end."

"ECB awaiting execute."

"Execute."

"Computer, disable emergency transceiver."

"ERT disabled."

"What was that all about?"

"Y'said you wanted to see them chase their tales; this may do it, I hope."

"Why would they attack their own transmissions, they gotta realize they're after themselves."

"Why do you think I had them shutdown their safeties?"

"OK, I sort of understand what you're doing, but how will it help? They can't kill each other."

"Yah, I know. But it may keep them busy until we can come up with something better."

Then after a pause, "I don't know if it's going to work or not, but it may prove to be interesting."

Buddy selected outside programming for one of the larger monitors and tuned it to the local news, he didn't think Thanatos would mind, the droid no longer needed it. What they saw was more than interesting; it blew them away.

"Wow! Did you see that?" Dash exclaimed loudly as he saw one droid destroy another.

"How'd he do it Buddy?"

"I…I don't know little man…gotta' be a malfunction with the droid."

Buddy's analysis proved to be a little off when they witnessed a droid in a good defensive position take out four more, then lock in on himself, going around in circles doing the mad dog. This went on until being taken out by another passing droid, which then, with no other signals in the area, started in on himself. After a few seconds, it went into auto-destruct mode.

Buddy just stared in amazement.

"The safety software must have more control over the shield than I thought and may have degraded it or shut it down completely." Buddy said, still finding the turn of events hard to believe.

-iii-

"Well, this is working out better than I…" Buddy stopped mid-sentence when he turned his chair and saw Bob's lame attempt at coverage.

"Whoa. Mister Incredible…nice suit dude!" Buddy guffawed. A few seconds later when he caught his breath, he leaned forward in his chair to get a little closer to Bob and in a quiet, mock serious tone, he whispered, "Hey! Ya think E could make me a suit like that?" Buddy busted as he got up and left the room.

The two kids looked at him, biting their lips, eyes watering, trying hard not to laugh. But, Buddy's laughter reverberating off the walls as he was leaving didn't help matters.

"Not a sound, or you'll be grounded for the rest of eternity." Bob threatened with a low growl.

The two got up, turned quietly and headed out in a fast walk, hoping they could make it outside before blowing up.

-iii-

Helen was the only one left, she looked at Bob and smiled.

The only thing Bob could find on such short notice was some office curtains, and one panel was enough to wrap around him and cover the most important parts of the shredded suit, it was wrapped around his chest and just barely long enough to make it, almost, to mid thigh. With the gathering on top, and the way it hung on his torso, it had the effect of making Bob look like a super hero drag queen in a mini dress.

"Go on, say it. I know you want to." Bob said giving in.

"Let's go by Edna's on the way home. On second thought...we really need to go home first and get you some c-c-clothes."

As they walked out together, Bob asked if what he wore really looked that stupid.

"Not stupid…" Helen said thinking, "…but I think a pair of tan pumps would finish off your ensemble better then those boots."

Bob couldn't help but smile, "No more than three inch heels though."

They both laughed as they left the control room behind and felt the cool breeze of free air.

-iii-

The Incredibles and Buddy looked around at the remains of the "factory" surveying the wreckage.

"Well, I guess we don't have to worry about this one. It would be nice if this happened to the others." Buddy said out-loud to himself."

"What do you think happened?" Dash asked him wondering.

"My best guess; that because the command came from the central computer, it was installed as any other program would be. The droids started firing and when there were no more left…the sole survivor destroyed the machinery, maybe thinking it as the enemy's creator. I don't know…but it seems to fit the facts."

14

Violet Sees Her Friend Again

The Parrs walked out of the remnants of the factory into the cool night air with Buddy not far behind. Violet had stopped to gaze upwards, the sky was clear and black and the stars looked unusually bright, 'Beautiful' she thought.

"You did good Violet" came a soft, familiar voice.

Violet turned her head slightly and saw her friend and smiled "Thank you…for everything." she said warmly. "Will I see you again…you know, if I need a little help?"

"When you're calm and your mind relaxed, you'll know I'm there…guaranteed."

"Who are you talking to sweetie." her mom's voice catching her attention.

Violet turned and faced her mom and thought for a second.

"Myself." she said with a smile, "Just talking to myself".

15

Self-actualization

It was a small gathering, just the Parrs and Buddy. No celebrations, no war stories; only friends and family together in reflection of past events.

Buddy sat there, gazing at the table but not seeing it. Lost in thought at how circumstances had changed, the evolution of relationships from intense hatred to healthy admiration.

Buddy had still not fully processed the fact that he was considered a super hero, that would take some time. For right now, he was content to have a family, a real one, the most important part of which was Dash.

Although he had truly earned Bob's respect, something he held dearer than being a hero, he had, without trying, become Dash's mentor. A serious responsibility; not one to be taken lightly. The weight was greater than that of anything he had ever had to deal with, but he cherished the burden.

-iii-

There was a light knock on the door, Dash went to answer. Bob and Helen looked up to see Rick leaning his head forward while he stood in the half opened doorway. Buddy continued to gaze off in thought.

"Bob…" Rick said in a solemn tone, "…we have a problem."

Bob and Helen looked at each other.

The news didn't escape Buddy's attention, even though still fixed on a distant thought, his face showed a tell-tail smile.

END