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Winter had at long last given away to Spring. It was on a nice, quiet Saturday afternoon that the Incredicar screeched onto the scene, down by the Municiberg harbor, which had been cordoned off by police cars. News crews were setting up when Mr. Incredible, Elasti-girl, Ultraviolet, the Dash, Incredibaby and Voyd had spilled out of the supercar.
“What’s the problem, officer?” Mr. Incredible asked the first cop he saw.
“THERE IT IS!” someone screamed before the young officer could answer.
Everyone turned to look. A giant tentacle appeared over one building, smashing it to rubble. A giant, flaming, tentacle.
“Uh, Dad…?” the Dash asked nervously.
The giant flaming tentacle heaved and hauled at the ruined building, pulling something along behind it. A huge octopus, a hundred feet high, bright orange and aflame, appeared atop the rubble. Seven other tentacles, each hundreds of feet long and covered with suckers the size of manhole covers, began reaching for the nearby rubble, cars, and buildings, intent on only one thing, destruction.
“Dash, Ultraviolet, Voyd, clear the area of civilians,” Elasti-girl ordered. “Bob?”
“On it,” Mr. Incredible answered, picking up a nearby car.
Elasti-girl stretched herself around two light posts, and Mr. Incredible fit the car into her makeshift slingshot. With the ease of long practice, Mr. Incredible hauled back and back and back until he heard his wife yell “NOW!” and immediately let go.
The car flew into the air, crashing into the fiery monstrosity and exploding. The giant octopus thrashed and roared in pain and rage.
“Sure hope they had insurance,” Mr. Incredible said to his wife as they sped toward the monster.
“Let it go, Mr. Incredible.”
“Old habits,” Mr. Incredible chuckled.
The Dash sped off at high speed, bringing bystanders back behind the police cordon, leaving them dizzy and disoriented at suddenly finding themselves out of harm’s way.
As was their standard operating procedure lately, Voyd opened a portal in the street that opened up on top of a nearby building, and she and Ultraviolet jumped through. From up there, with a better view of the area, Ultraviolet began launching protective force bubbles around people who were too close to the action. The Dash would then roll them to safety. Voyd caught falling debris in portals that dumped the rubble safely in the nearby harbor.
Incredibaby teleported into the fight, grew to a huge size, turned metal and punched the fire octopus right between the eyes. It appeared dazed for a moment, then shrugged it off, picked up Incredibaby and launched him into the harbour.
“Voyd!” Ultraviolet yelled over the chaos of screams, explosions, thundering punches and crashing tentacles.
Voyd turned and looked where Ultraviolet had pointed – a rooftop across the street and down the block had a news crew set up in the perfect spot for a great view and a messy death.
Voyd groaned as she opened a portal up that far away and Ultraviolet jumped through, catching the news crew in a force bubble just as a huge tentacle slammed into the side of the building.
“Hurry!” Voyd yelled, waving her hands to get Ultraviolet to go faster.
Ultraviolet pulled on her force bubble, launching it through the portal and following right after, just as the building collapsed behind her. Voyd grabbed her with both arms, holding her tight for a moment.
“Don’t do that again? Please?” Voyd asked, not letting go. Ultraviolet snugged into the hug, then looked up at her friend.
“Promise,” she said, just as a crash of rubble began to tumble down all around them. Voyd opened another portal to just past the police cordon and ushered the frightened news crew through.
Huge chunks of masonry, bricks, girders, and office furniture rained down on them.
“Vi, let’s go!” Voyd yelled.
Ultraviolet looked over her shoulder at her partner, holding back the rain of debris with a force bubble. “Go!” she yelled. “I’ve got this!”
“We’ll go together!” Voyd replied, opening a new portal closer to Violet. “On three, jump through!”
“If I go first, the bubble will collapse!”
“I’m not going without you!”
“Baby, just go!”
Voyd shook her head, grabbed Ultraviolet by the waist and hauled her through the portal. As they fell through, the force bubble collapsed. But pieces of rubble made it through Voyd’s portal before she had a chance to close it, and a brick struck her head. She collapsed onto Ultraviolet’s prone body.
“Voyd?” Ultraviolet asked, terror squeezing her heart. She rolled Voyd over in her lap, brushing teal hair suddenly gone bright red out of her face.
“Voyd, baby, baby no, no no no no no! VOYD! Baby?! Baby? Come on come on come on please baby please please be okay please be okay!”
The gash on Voyd’s head wasn’t deep but was bleeding profusely. Ultraviolet lay her down on the street and tried to remember her first aid lessons.
“It’s okay, baby, you’ll be okay, I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere, okay?” Ultraviolet rambled, taking Voyd’s hand to check her pulse and holding it close to her face. She kissed the back of Voyd’s gloved hand, not sure when she’d started crying. “It’s okay, it’s okay baby, I promise.” She lifted one of Voyd’s eyelids then the other, not really sure what she was looking for and not seeing anything but Voyd’s bright, beautiful teal eyes… and one pupil was larger than the other. Ultraviolet couldn’t remember what that meant, but she knew it wasn’t good.
Ultraviolet kissed the back of Voyd’s hand again and wiped at the blood pouring down her face. She looked up, trying to spot any help, when she saw the octopus falling onto them.
The force bubble was instinct; covering Voyd with her own body was a choice, instantly made and never hesitated. Darkness covered them as the octopus’ body blocked out all light. Even the dim glow of Ultraviolet’s force bubble was barely enough to see by.
Grunting with the effort, Ultraviolet forced her force bubble big enough to lift her head. Voyd groaned.
“Shh, baby, it’s okay, I’m here,” Ultraviolet said. She slipped her hand between them, pulling her insignia from her chest. She activated the communicator and the light at the same time.
The view did nothing to improve her mood - the force bubble was surrounded by writhing tentacles, sure to leave her with a lifetime of nightmares. Huge suckers tried to latch onto the force bubble, with no luck.
“Mom!” she yelled into the communicator.
“Vi! Where are you?” her mother replied.
“Under the octopus! Voyd’s hurt, she got hit in the head, pupils dilated-”
“One crisis at a time! We’ll get you out!”
“Hurry!”
“Vi….?” Voyd said weakly. “Wha happ’n…”
Ultraviolet grinned, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks.
“Shh, shh, baby, you’re going to be fine.”
“M’ head hurts.”
“You got hurt but you’re going to be fine,” Ultraviolet
“‘Course I am, I’m with you,” Voyd said, one hand reaching up to stroke Ultraviolet’s cheek. “Always safe with you... You’re my guardian angel.”
Ultraviolet made a noise that might have been a laugh and might have been a sob and probably fell somewhere between the two. “Okay baby, okay, you’re okay. Mom and Dad are coming to save us.”
“Already saved me… angel…” Voyd’s eyes rolled up under her eyelids and her hand slipped from Ultraviolet’s cheek.
Ultraviolet went very, very still, and the world seemed to recede away. The noise of battle seemed far off, and all her emotions faded away until all that was left was a white hot core of resolve.
“No.”
A single word, a simple word, a rejection, a decision.
The fire octopus had destroyed two blocks of buildings and had begun its third. Mr. Incredible had scorch marks all over his costume, and Elasti-girl’s hadn’t fared much better. Frozone had joined them at one point but the heat the huge monster was putting out melted his ice attacks before they had any impact. The Dash and Incredibaby were both panting and out of breath.
“What do we do?” Frozone asked. “It’s going to keep destroying the city if we don’t think of something.”
“I’m out of ideas,” Mr. Incredible admitted. “Devtech Strike Force?”
“Violet’s under there, Bob!” Elasti-girl snapped at him.
“Look!” Dash yelled.
The fire octopus had stopped, and a decidedly confused expression rippled across its octopoid features. It began to wriggle and writhe, tentacles flailing, when suddenly from beneath it a wave of purple energy flashed out, encasing the monster in a force bubble. The bubble toppled over, off of a young woman standing with her hands stretched out, pushing.
“Vi!” Elasti-girl screamed, at her daughter’s side in a heartbeat, faster even than the Dash.
Ultraviolet twisted her hands and the fire octopus shrieked, the force bubble shrinking around it.
“Vi?” the Dash asked, suddenly unsure of his sister.
“It hurt her,” Ultraviolet said quietly, and the lack of emotion in her voice scared Elasti-girl more than she would ever admit.
“Dump it in the harbor, sweetheart,” Elasti-girl said, wrapping an arm around her daughter’s shoulders. “The water will put out the fire and the Coast Guard can net it.”
A trickle of blood ran from Ultraviolet’s nostril. Elasti-girl’s arms snaked up her daughter’s arms, wrapping them, forcing them down. Mr. Incredible’s strong hands rested on Ultraviolet’s shoulders.
“Violet,” he said, his voice quiet. “She’ll be alright. The paramedics are already here.”
Ultraviolet blinked, once, twice, then dumped the fire octopus into the harbor as though she didn’t care one way or another. The hiss of steam and the shrieking of the monster filled the air.
“I’ll ride with Voyd to the hospital,” she said quietly to her parents, following the stretcher and the paramedics to the ambulance.
Mr. Incredible and Elasti-girl shared a look.
“That was so far out it was almost scary,” the Dash said.
“Almost!” Incredibaby agreed.
The family joined Ultraviolet and Voyd at Municiberg General Hospital, where a doctor informed them that Voyd had a mild concussion, some scrapes and scratches, but could be released in the morning.
“Ah… your daughter,” the doctor added. “She’s refused to leave.”
In the private room, Ultraviolet sat at Voyd’s bedside, holding her hand. Voyd’s head was wrapped in bandages. The gash in her scalp had needed five stitches.
Ultraviolet rested her head for a moment on the mattress, adrenaline crash and exhaustion fighting a winning battle against consciousness. But a twitch from Voyd’s hand woke her up instantly.
“Violet…?”
“I’m here,” Violet said. “You’re okay. You got hit in the head.”
“That must by why it hurts so much.”
Violet tried but couldn’t hold back the tears as she laughed at Karen’s joke. “The doctor says you can come home tomorrow.”
“Oh,” Karen said, disappointment in her weary voice. She seemed to drift off again, but said, “Did I really call you my guardian angel?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And you called me... baby?”
“Yes.”
“I like that.”
“Okay,” Violet said, grinning. “I do too.”
Karen smiled. “Tired.”
“You rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Promise?”
“Promise,” Violet nodded. “But you have to promise me you won’t ever get hurt again.”
“How can I get hurt? Got an angel watching over me.”
Karen rolled onto her side toward Violet, pulling her hand closer. Violet rested her head on Karen’s mattress and watched her fall asleep. Only once she was sure Karen was all right, breathing regularly, face peaceful, did Violet close her eyes.
When Karen woke in the morning, Violet was still there, still holding her hand.