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“We shouldn’t have brought the kids,” Helen said.
Having dropped Jack Jack at Edna’s (to the delight of them both), Bob, Helen, Violet, Dash and Karen had super-suited up and climbed into the Incredimobile. Engaging the flight mode, they’d taken off and headed straight for the Super Fight in downtown New Urbem.
“Aw Mom, we can handle the crowds and damage control,” Dash said, disappointed to be out of the fight.
“I’m serious about that,” Mr. Incredible threatened. “I don’t want you three anywhere near Timekeeper. He’s one of the most dangerous villains alive.”
“According to these files, he’s got a threat rating of twelve,” Violet said, reading from the data screen embedded in the seat in front of her. “You’re only a nine, Dad!”
“Nine point one,” Mr. Incredible corrected her.
“It’s exponential, Dad,” Violet explained. “Every point is a factor higher than the previous. Even with all of us there’s no way we’ll be able to handle a twelve. I mean, that’s insane!”
Mr. Incredible piloted the Incredijet towards the smoke and dust rising above the New Urbem skyline. Below them, they saw a crowd gathering around a field command station – police cars, fire engines, ambulances, all waiting clearance to head into the action. Some people had gathered in a park, lying on the ground, while doctors and nurses tended to the worst of their injuries, loading the worst cases into waiting ambulances.
“He’s been in a maximum security prison for twenty years,” Karen said. “How did he get out?”
“Something about testifying against his old partners-in-crime, the World Conquerors,” Helen said. “Stupid of them to bring him all the way to New Urbem. There’s no way a vehicular depowerer would be strong enough to hold him for the entire length of the trip from the Penitentiary of Solitude.”
“I read in Popular Mechanics, something about a new powercore,” Mr. Incredible said. “Okay, game faces, kids. We’re here.”
From the view ahead of them as they landed, it was clear they had found the right place. Crowds of people were running toward them, away from something further ahead; in the distance, clouds of dust, smoke from fires, a fire hydrant spewing water high in the air, and – a blast of green lightning arced high into the sky.
“C’mon!” Elastigirl said, stretching out the door before the Incredijet had even landed. The kids followed her as quickly as possible, and Karen felt a thrill to be running alongside her childhood hero.
At the edge of the police cordon – which, they noticed, had wisely been abandoned by the police – Elastigirl turned to the younger heroes.
“Crowd control, damage control, don’t get anywhere near him,” she ordered, then turned and slingshot up and into the dust cloud.
“Stay safe!” Mr. Incredible added, charging into the dust cloud.
Dash muttered, “Staying safe and being a super don’t exactly go hand-in-hand,” then zipped off to rescue civilians.
“Fires?” Ultraviolet asked.
Voyd nodded. “Fires.”
First they portaled to the roof of a nearby building, then went looking for a fire to fight. Ultraviolet found one quickly enough, and Voyd opened a portal from a gushing fire hydrant directly to the air right over the burning building, directing the geyser and quenching the flames. On the street below, the firefighters who had responded to the fire cheered them.
But the building had already grown unstable, and charred rubble began to fall. The firefighters ran, but not fast enough, hampered by the rubble already in the way.
“Karen!” Violet exclaimed.
“I see them!” Voyd said, opening a portal for Ultraviolet to jump through. She slammed a force field between the firefighters and the falling masonry.
“Quick!” Voyd yelled to the retreating firefighters, ushering them through the portal and out of harm’s way. They ran through as quickly as possible, then Voyd yelled, “U.V.! Come on!”
“One… sec…” Ultraviolet groaned through gritted teeth, pushing as hard as she could. The rubble and wreckage of the building fell to the side, and Ultraviolet stepped back through the portal, letting her force field dissipate as she did so.
An explosion half a block away announced the arrival of the Super Fight, much too close for comfort. A familiar form crashed through a department store, smashing into a car parked across the street.
“Brick!” Voyd yelled, jumping through a portal in the rooftop to emerge on the street not far from her fallen friend. Ultraviolet followed through immediately.
The huge form of Brick lay in the crumpled car, shaking her head to clear it. One eye had swollen shut, blood flowed from her nose, and she spat out a tooth.
“Connie, are you okay?” Voyd asked as she grabbed her friend’s hand to pull her to her feet. Brick gave her a gap-toothed grin and a thumb’s-up… then collapsed backwards and passed out, crushing the car under her massive bulk.
“No no no,” Voyd stammered, looking around for a solution.
“Can you portal her to the hospital?” Ultraviolet asked.
“No, it’s too far,” Voyd answered. “But maybe I can reach the first-aid station we flew over?”
Ultraviolet nodded and wrapped Brick in a forcefield, lifting her out of the wrecked car. Voyd concentrated and, with a pain-filled groan, opened a portal just big enough to fit her unconscious and wounded friend through, where she was immediately grabbed by doctors.
Voyd wiped at a sudden trickle of wetness on her upper lip, and her green glove came away smeared red-brown with blood.
“Baby, are you okay?” Ultraviolet asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
Voyd nodded. “Just a little far to portal that much mass.”
The department store Brick had blasted through suddenly disappeared in a crackle of green lightning, only to be replaced with towering trees.
“What the?” Voyd stammered. Ultraviolet shook her head in confusion.
“Look out!” Elastigirl yelled from above, and trees splintered and exploded as Mr. Incredible crashed through the mini-forest.
Elastigirl dodged a blast of green lightning and grabbed her husband, wrapping her arms around him just as he was about to smash into the building across the street. She set him down and turned to the young heroes.
“Girls, run!” she screamed.
Mr. Incredible shook his head and stood up, picked up the wreckage of the car Brick had destroyed and threw it through the forest, which immediately turned back into a department store. The car smashed into the brick face of the store, and Mr. Incredible let out a frustrated groan.
“Go! Get out of here!” Elastigirl ordered, and then wrapped herself around two light poles so Mr. Incredible could slingshot himself over the building. Just as he reached the apogee of his flight, though, he was blasted by green lightning and found himself flying backwards – the exact reverse of the arc that had taken him over the building, directly into Elastigirl, who instinctively inflated to soften the blow.
“Dad! Mom!” Ultraviolet yelled, running towards her parents.
Time slowed for Karen. At least it seemed to her it slowed. Maybe it was the sudden appearance of the Timekeeper, emerging from the front door of the department store? Had she been blasted by green lightning? She couldn’t remember that happening, but would she, if Timekeeper had blasted her and slowed down her time? Was she getting younger? Older? Would she be bounced down some unexpected evolutionary path, like the policeman who’d been turned into a caveman?
Timekeeper’s green lightning blasted from his hands towards the family.
Ultraviolet instinctively bubbled a force field around her as she dove in the way.
When the lightning hit the force field, Violet shrieked so loudly and so violently, so filled with pain and anguish and terror, that Voyd’s entire universe contracted to that sound, a sound she knew would live in her nightmares forever.
“NO!” Voyd shrieked, rage and terror and righteous fury filling her, fuelling her. She glanced around, made a decision. With a wave of her hands, she opened a portal under a nearby parked car. It fell through, disappearing, and Voyd ran to Violet’s side. Elastigirl wrapped her daughter in her arms, the terror gripping her heart clearly visible on her face.
Timekeeper laughed maniacally, stepping towards the four of them. Voyd glanced up, raised her hands. Timekeeper’s fists crackled with another green lightning blast but he looked up, distracted by her movement.
Voyd caught the falling car with one portal and opened another right beside Timekeeper. The car slammed into the villain at near terminal speed, crushing him into the side of the building.
Violet was twitching and crackling with green lightning and purple force bubbles popping in and out of existence all around her. She thrashed in obvious agony and screamed again.
“We need to get her to a hospital!” Elastigirl said, lifting her daughter. “Bob, can you throw us that far?”
“There’s no way!” Mr. Incredible said, pulling the remote for the Incredijet out of his pocket.
The car that had crushed the Timekeeper flew backwards away from him. Without Voyd’s portal to fly back through, it tumbled down the street.
“I’ll take her!” Voyd yelled. “But the hospital won’t be able to help! This is Supers damage! I’ll get her to the bio division at DevTech! It’s closer!”
Elastigirl looked torn for half a second, then nodded in agreement, passing her daughter to Voyd. She took a moment to smooth the hair out of Violet’s face, then kissed her forehead. Tears ran down Elastigirl’s face, but the look on her face as she turned to face Timekeeper was pure homicidal fury.
Voyd hefted the twitching Violet over her shoulders and began to move away from the battle. “Hang on Angel, hang on, hang on…”
Frozone appeared from around a corner, followed by He-Lectrix, Screech, and Krushauer, and they raced past her to join Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl. The sounds of battle behind her increased: explosions, crashes, orders yelled and screams of pain, warning shouts and Screech’s shrieks, the crackle of energy and electricity and smashing fists and shattered ice.
Voyd took a deep breath, focussing on picturing the hallway outside the Bio Division at Devtech. She’d never gone that far with a portal, never attempted an out-of-sight port from an unfamiliar place, distracted by the explosions and crashes and screams, weighed down with the mass of another person. Self-doubt began to crumble at her will, and she felt the tendrils of panic begin to grip her.
“Baby?” Violet called out, in pain, in fear, then she screamed, spasms twisting her body and forcing Voyd to one knee to keep from dropping her.
The portal opened. Karen carried Violet through. People were running all around her. Someone shouted for help. Someone else helped Karen put Violet down on a gurney. They started to pull Violet away.
“Wait!” Karen begged, leaning in, kissing Violet on the lips, placing a hand on her cheek and, forehead to forehead, whispered, “I love you. Please don’t go. Please, I love you, I love you. Please.”
Violet began to jerk and writhe and spasm and twitch. Someone took Karen’s shoulders and pulled her out of the way.
“Please,” she begged as the gurney hurried into a DevTech lab. “Save her. Save her, please!”
When the doors to the lab closed, Karen broke down and sobbed, hands hiding her face, sliding down the wall to crumple on the floor. She became aware of a hand on her shoulder. A DevTech employee had crouched near her, placed a hand on her shoulder.
“It’ll be okay,” the woman said.
Karen forced herself to nod, choking back sobs. The sobs turned to coughs. She covered her mouth. The coughing got worse.
Red spattered her glove. Red ran down her chin, spattering her super-suit, the wall, the floor. Karen looked at the woman, whose face went from concerned to horrified. The woman stood, backed away, yelled for help.
Karen shook her head as she coughed and coughed. She felt herself falling, felt the sudden stop of contact with the floor, coughs and pain doubling her over, blood everywhere. She squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t quite understand what was happening. People were yelling, hands lifted her up, the coughing wouldn’t stop, she couldn’t breathe, she batted at hands that were trying to do something to her, turned, turning away, she needed to get away, she closed her eyes and tried to open a portal but the familiar crackle of blue-green energy stayed just out of reach.
Karen’s last thought before she fell into darkness was, At least I saved Violet.