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Dash wakes Violet up by shaking her arm, its still dark outside though he's turned on her lamp. He was practically vibrating with excitement as he told her she needed to get up because, according to him, Uncle Lucius and Aunt Honey were downstairs with a box of photographs.
When Violet asked her brother why he was excited about this, he said the box was full of superheroes.
She followed her brother downstairs, and found her mother and auntie sat on the couch, while her dad and uncle sat on the floor, riffling through a cardboard archive box.
"Dashiell Robert Parr" called their mother's voice, "I know you did not wake your sister up to look at old photographs"
Safe to say, Dash went to sit next to his father.
Once everybody had made themselves comfortable, Violet peered into the box of photos.
"Can you tell us about it?" Violet asked timidly.
"Being a superhero?" Bob clarified eagerly.
"Yeah! Like what made the golden age… well golden!" Dash was always excited by superheroes, no matter the context.
Helen laughed- amused by her son's excitement, and perhaps by her husband’s too.
Bob spreads the pictures out across the floor. "What do you wanna know?"
Bob was always happy to talk about the good old days, especially when he had an interested audience. Lucius scoffs, completely immune to Bob’s joy, he’d been rehashing the glory days for years now. Though he still leans in to get involved.
"Whose this?" Dash says tapping a photograph of his dad and uncle with a tall man he didn't recognise
"That's Gazerbeam" Lucius tells him, smiling fondly.
"Where is he now?" Dash asks.
"Syndrome got him"
There is a beat of silence."Who was he then?" Violet asks, because she always knew how to correct her brother's mistakes.
"He was a real good guy" Bob says, and picks up the photo of his old friend, to get a better look.
"He was a real pain in the ass" Lucius jokes, earning him a light smack from Helen, who is sat too far away for it to be considered fair play.
"He was a bit of a stickler, but that had its perks"
"Meaning he did the hard work, and you got his glory?" Lucius pushed at Bob's shoulder.
"Exactly."
They go through other heroes, Helen tells them about Downburst, and Lucius talks about Thunderhead.
"What about him?" Violet asks, pointing at a picture in the pile.
A blonde man, dressed in blue, with perfect hair and shining eyes. Dash nudged her, mocking her for choosing a heartthrob out of the stack.
"That's Jack". Bob replied, though his voiced sounded far away.
"Gamma Jack" Helen supplied, "Now he was an ass"
"Ah no" Lucius disagreed lightheartedly, "he was just a kid."
"Here you go" Honey says, placing another stack of photos in front of the kids.
Though this pile was different, it wasn't full of different supers. Some of Frozone and Mr Incredible, or Gamma Jack and Gazerbeam, or all four of them together. Gamma Jack smiled in every photo- Gazerbeam smiled in every photo he shared with Gamma Jack. Sometimes the four of them weren't even in their suits, they were bowling, eating, or even in one photo- fishing. Doing just about anything at all, together.
Lucius pointed at a photo: A clipping from a newspaper it seemed- a few superheroes all gathered around Gamma Jack. Clearly Gamma Jack's suit had been damaged as his skin was peeking out of the sea of blue in patches. He was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. Lucius went on, telling a tale of fire, and chaos, and how Jack had in many ways been both the cause and solution.
"He sounds dangerous" Violet says, cowed by Gamma Jack's audacious reputation.
"He was" her dad acknowledged, "but he was passionate and brilliant"
"And Beamer never let it go too far" Lucius added. Pointing at the super next to the grinning devil, who looked on disapproving.
"He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to listen" Dash said, sounding more thrilled by the idea than his sister.
Helen laughs at that, "Oh he'd listen, if it was Gazerbeam."
Violet picks a different photo, something about this story is hurting her, like she had known the men in these photos, or maybe grieved that she never would.
Helen leans down then, to tell her daughter about Anna- or Psycwave as she'd been known.
Dash makes a fuss about one of the photos, showing it to his dad.
"Jesus, I didn't know this existed" Bob exclaims, taking the photo, delicately out of his son’s hand.
Lucius glances over, and breathes in slightly, "Shit, that might have been the last time I saw them". Honey kicks him for swearing in front of the kids, and then places a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Violet! You're in this one!" Dash says, doing a lap.
"Calm down Dash!" Helen admonishes, though reaches out to catch him, affectionate.
Bob turns the photo around.
Helen laughs, but Violet doesn't make a sound- that feeling again, though this time she understands it.
There’s a toddler in the photo, she looks to be about two, three at the most. She's smiling, laughing most likely.
A blonde man, dressed in a green jumper is lying on the floor smiling ear to ear. He is reaching his arms up, palms flat, tiny hands pressed against his, like she is doing a handstand.
Those hands are Violet's, a tall man, with glasses and brown hair, holds her by her feet so that she doesn't fall out of the blonde man's grasp.
Gamma Jack and Gazerbeam, or according to the caption written underneath the photo:
"Violet playing gymnastics with Uncle Jack and Uncle Simon- 12.09.1960"
"I met them?!" Violet exclaims.
“I’ll say" Lucius chuckles.
Helen laughs, " Oh God! Do you remember how she’d whine every time they left the room?”
Violet quiets, it's strange to see herself in a photo she doesn't know, she can't even recall the room that makes up its setting.
"Why didn't I meet them?!" Dash asks, offended.
"They got relocated, some trouble that Jack got into" Bob answers.
"Both of them?" Dash asks, confused as to why Simon had to leave if Jack was the trouble.
Bob just hums and doesn't elaborate, Dash doesn't get it, but Violet understands.
She can almost remember them, how they were always together, how she'd stand between them holding a hand from each- swinging as high as they'd lift her.
She turns to her Aunt Honey who, according to the caption, had taken the photo, "can I have this?"
"Of course sweetheart" she replies.
So Violet holds on to it, gentle but firm, and wills herself to never forget them.