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Helen Parr focused on maintaining trajectory in the DevTech jet with the sudden turbulence. The storm that had been chasing them finally caught up, and was now swirling around them, threatening to rip the jet apart. A low growl came from Elastigirl as she fought to keep the yoke steady. Violet and Dash had been bickering just moments ago about not getting in the way of each other in the fight, but they stopped when the jet began to shake and rattle. The only sound, other than Helen’s small grunts from straining to stay in control, was the loud and repetitive beeping from the alarm systems. Dash’s hands covered his ears and his face was scrunched up tight. Bob turned to look at his son, concern plain on his face.
“Honey?” Mr. Parr called to the front of the jet, his face angled in her direction slightly, but not taking his eyes off of Dash. “You doing okay?”
“Not now,” Elastigirl yelled with gritted teeth. She glanced over to a monitor that showed their position relative to their target location: an oil rig off the coast of Louisiana. “Come on,” Helen muttered, turning her attention back to the sky. A crack of lightning burst through the air in front of the jet, and her eyes widened. “Hang on!” She shouted as she pushed forward on the yoke to dodge it, and the other three Parrs in the aircraft screamed. After the bolt dissipated, Helen planted her feet firmly on the ground and strained against the controls to pull the jet back up.
“Helen! ” Bob shouted.
“I’ve got it, Bob!” Elastigirl yelled back. Her arms burned in agony, but she gradually made progress on straightening the jet. The clouds disappeared in a flurry, as they had begun to fly below the storm. The sound of the rain on the jet was thunderous on its own, and drowned out the screams from the family and the long, low groan escaping Helen. With the super’s might and will, the aircraft finally straightened out. Elastigirl nearly collapsed with relief, panting and gasping. She knew that once she took her hands off the yoke, her aching muscles would not be able to lift them again for a while. So she clung to the sticks firmly and carried the Incredibles to the rig that sat on the horizon.
The jet was set to hover over the rig until summoned by Helen when needed. The supers suited up and outfitted themselves with parachutes to drop onto the site, while Mr. Incredible debriefed the kids on the mission. The oil rig was attacked earlier that day by two super villains. The eyewitness accounts were too shaken to give descriptions of the villains, other than one was capable of turning anything into “lava”, and they were both women. Helen looked firmly at her two oldest children. Newly graduated Violet was warming up her legs by lightly jogging in place. Dash was stretching, to her relief; she did not want a repeat of the track meet last year. The supers were ready.
Helen opened a hatch at the bottom of the jet for the family, and team, to jump out of. She leaned over the opening and saw with wide eyes that there were lifeboats full of people in uniform. “Those are all rig workers…” Elastigirl shouted over the wind and low roar of the jet’s engines. “They… they’re escaping. All of them.” The couple looked at each other, unsure of what to say. Bob tensed his jaw and nodded to his wife, who in turn pursed her lips and nodded back. They turned to their kids, heartbeats racing in all four of the supers, and in turn leapt out of the jet.
Elastigirl jumped first, followed by the kids, and finally Mr. Incredible. Dash cackled as the wind jiggled the skin on his face, and he made noises to hear how wobbly they sounded in the free-fall. Violet had clutched her chute’s string as soon as she was in the air, keeping a desperate grip on it so as to not struggle with finding it when the time came to release. Elastigirl signaled when parachutes should be pulled, and Violet yanked on hers a beat too early, reacting as soon as she saw her mother’s arm move. Helen winced as the harness yanked on her, and her arms screamed as they maneuvered through the gusts that drew her off course. The family glided to the tallest flat surface on the rig and regrouped as they landed.
Bob took a mental headcount, and asked “Where’s Vi?”
The three Parrs looked up at Violet, hanging overhead and making her way down to them. She drifted too far, just out of reach with her feet to land. Her hand shot out, and Violet created a small purple orb to kick off of. It was enough to get her to stumble several steps forward, but safely onto the roof. She straightened up with a hop and gave two thumbs up with an embarrassed grin to her family, who collectively sighed in relief. Mr. Incredible scoped the area below the roof that the group of supers were perched on. When he confirmed that the coast was clear, all four descended the fire escape as quietly as they could. While sneaking around the rig, the supers heard laughter and two voices. Elastigirl looked to Violet, who smiled deviously and vanished.
The invisible super turned the corner and saw two women, maybe in their late 20s, sitting around on crates and laughing together. They were wearing very similar suits, with inverted orange and black patterning. Both villains had their hair tied up, one in a single bun and the other with two, placed vertically down the center of her head. The women - twins, as Violet had presumed upon seeing them- were not wearing masks, but instead had orange and black streaks of makeup across their faces. Violet retreated with as much discretion as she could manage, but failed to notice a small screw that she’d passed on her way to peek, and it clicked across the metal ground. She inhaled through her teeth and ran.
As soon as she turned the corner, she collided with Dash. They were both knocked to the ground, and Violet’s invisibility snapped off. The siblings opened their eyes and realized immediately that they were trapped, with one twin behind each of them. Dash chuckled nervously and grabbed Violet’s hand. Before she could protest, the speedster zipped away with his sister in tow. A loud roar came from behind them, and Violet turned her head just in time to see a fiery ball of molten metal hurling at them. She raised her hand, but before she could put up a shield she fell over her brother, who had come to a sudden halt. The two collapsed, entangled. Dash looked up at the twin with two buns, who had appeared suddenly in front of him. She was grinning down at the young supers and cackled before disappearing with a static-like haze. He snapped his head around quickly to see the burning metal as it was finishing its trajectory - right at him and his sister.
Mr. Incredible yelled and chucked a steel beam like a javelin towards the two younger supers, and was able to make contact with the mass of twisted metal just in time to redirect it into the ocean beyond them. Violet and Dash slumped over, grateful to not be burning or crushed to death.
“Kids,” Bob shouted, “you okay?” He stepped towards them but the twin villain with two buns popped in front of him with a static haze, her head tilted slightly.
“Aw, the big man is worried about them,” she teased with a smile. The strongman hero reeled back to throw a punch before she dissipated. “I was hoping this would be fun, it seems like you won’t disappoint,” her voice said from behind him before she cried out in surprise.
“Sorry to spoil it for you,” Elastigirl said sarcastically, her arms wrapping thrice around the villain’s torso. The villain laughed again and kneeled to the ground before leaping into the air and landing behind the stretched super, whose arms were now held up over her head. She cried out in pain before the teleporting villain vanished again.
“My turn to heat things up ,” the other twin announced before placing her hands on the tower behind the Parr children. They looked up as the metal slowly melted away, and the beams creaked and groaned. Helen cried out and stretched her arms in an attempt to snatch them up and pull them to safety.
Just before she could, the first twin appeared and grabbed Elastigirl’s hands. Calling over her shoulder, she shouted “Laverne, that was too cheesy, even for you.” Helen grimaced and tried to pull her arms back in, but her muscles ached and screamed at her and she winced. The twin who held the super in a tight grasp snorted. “What’s wrong, Elastigirl?” the villain asked cheerfully. “Not at the top of your game? What a bore.” With that, she twisted around and flung the super towards her children, knocking them over. The tower continued to make agitated noises as Laverne eroded the structure at the base.
Violet pulled herself out of the dogpile and threw her hands out in front of her, facing the lava-powered villain. A forcefield formed around the twin, and she turned to scowl at the young adult super. Mr. Incredible rushed to his family, before something made contact with him. With a harsh pain in his side, he flew through the air and landed on the ground, winded and coughing. He looked up to see the first twin standing over him, eyes a solid black and a wide grin dominating her face. She held a beam over the hero, a static fuzziness around the edges.
“Patty, a little help??” Shouted Laverne. Pat scoffed and rolled her eyes. She delivered a swift kick to Bob’s side before turning towards the ongoing scuffle. Mr. Incredible raised himself slowly, huffing and holding his side. Dash jumped to his feet and charged Patty, faster than she could react. He tackled her and she slammed to the ground, gasping and holding the back of her head.
“Patty!” Laverne screeched from inside the forcefield, slamming her fists into the purple wall. Violet, proudly, was not having any difficulty holding the containment steady. She’d taken any chances she could get to practice, and every battle she fought over the last several years served as chances to experiment and grow stronger.
Elastigirl sat up and huffed at her aching muscles, assessing the scene with one eye squeezed shut from the pain. A thunderous groaning began to ring out above the scuffle, and the hero’s eyes widened, looking up into the sky. The tower above them creaked and roared, loud enough to cause Dash to cry out and cover his ears, dropping to his knees. Helen stared in horror as the tower began to lean, bending at the base, and threatening to collapse over them. It started slow but picked up speed rapidly as it crumpled. Loose beams landed harshly on top of Violet’s forcefield, the impact sending a shock through her and knocking her out, and the purple sphere fell. The tower creaked again and one of the massive rods of metal dropped on top of the pile upon Laverne, pinning her to the ground.
With a final massive groan, the oil rig’s tower snapped from the base and plummeted to the super-powered group below. Mr. Incredible leapt forward and caught the frame before it crushed his family beneath it. Lifting the beam as he stood, he made eye contact with Helen and shouted “Get them out of here!” Elastigirl looked between the knocked out Violet and the panting, wide-eyed Dash, who had just uncovered his ears. The mother attempted to pick up her daughter, but couldn’t lift her fully from the ground. Her arms shook, and it took all her strength to simply not drop Violet. With tears welling in her eyes, she looked up at her husband, and then behind him. She took in a sharp breath before screaming his name.
Bob turned his head just in time to see the steel beam swinging towards him. It connected with his knee, knocking it inward. The hero collapsed partway, and landed on the fresh injury. His howl from the pain shook Dash to full awareness. He faced his father, on his knees and filling the air with his screams as well as Helen’s, but still managing to keep the collapsing tower from crushing the supers. Dash told his mother to hang on tight, threw Violet over his shoulder, and wrapped an arm around Elastigirl’s waist. With a flash, he rushed his mom and sister to safety. He did not see Patty swing the steel beam again.
Mr. Parr waited until his family was in the clear, then ducked out of the way of the tower and let it fall to the ground as he also collapsed. This allowed the metal shaft, surrounded by static energy, to swing well over his head, and dragged Pat around with the inertia. She released the beam as she spun and soared through the air for a moment before it clattered to the ground. She stumbled but caught herself, and looked past the family of supers to her twin. The villain wailed at the sight of her sister knocked unconscious, and lost her focus on Bob just long enough for the hero to reach out and pull her leg out from underneath her. Patty was out as she made contact with the ground, and went limp.
Dash skittered to a halt and the weight of his sister and mother caused him to flounder, and the trio fell and slid across the metal floor. Elastigirl scrambled to her feet and ran to Mr. Incredible, calling his name through the tears streaming down her face. She threw herself over him, mumbling incoherently, and checked his vital signs. Bob’s breathing was slow, and ragged, but his heart raced. He winced and reached for his thigh, gripping it tightly. Helen gripped her husband’s left hand and raised it to her face, holding it tightly against her wet skin. Her eyes drifted down his body to his right knee, and the right, concave angle that it was stuck in. She weeped uncontrollably and leaned over Mr. Incredible, burying her face in his chest.
“I’m sorry…” she whispered in between gasps for air. “I’m so sorry…”
Violet woke as her brother gently shook her and she sat up, holding the back of her head. She looked to their mother, and saw her draped over the fallen super. The siblings felt their hearts pounding in their chests, and the aching throughout their bodies. Bob tried to raise his head, groaning in pain and sucking in air through his teeth. The sound of his pained breaths mixed with Helen’s sobs and apologizing, but Dash heard something else, too. He turned his head and saw in the dark sky that a new storm was approaching, with thunder rumbling threateningly in the distance.
