Chapter #4The Incredibles by: pixie   When we last left the intrepid Incredibles, they were in search of a criminal mastermind behind a rash of high-security jewel heists. The police were stumped and the government at a loss to keep the lid on supervillainous activity headlining the nightly news, so once again that First Family of Freedom, the Incredibles, were on the case!
A strange trail of events - footprints that changed size, allowing the thief to walk between security bars without difficulty; security guards’ eyewitness reports of masked thieves growing to as much as fifteen feet tall to flip over an armored truck; and a calling card that had unusual chemical residues on it - led the Incredibles to the secret lair of the larcenous lawbreaker, the self-identified shape-shifting Metamorpho-Sis! But, as it turned out, the entire trail had been laid deliberately for them to follow, luring the super-powered family into a trap…
INCREDI-FILES ENTRY:
METAMORPHO-SIS
AKA Violet Parr II, Rose Parr, Infrared
Origin: Scientific Calamity - when Doctor Dementor used an experimental phase-shifting discombobulator to turn a high school science lab full of teens into impulse-driven monsters under his command, Violet Parr - aka Ultraviolet of the Incredibles - was able to evacuate the lab before the device went off. However, she herself was bathed in its otherworldly radiation before Mr. Incredible could destroy the machine. When the smoke cleared, there were two Violet Parrs. At first they seemed identical, but as the Parr family tried to accommodate an additional new daughter, the clone they named Rose began to exhibit traits that were the opposite of Violet’s. Where Violet was reserved and self-doubting, Rose was overconfident and aggressive. Eventually Rose tried to replace Violet altogether, attempting to lock her in an old bathysphere and drop her into the ocean. But Violet used her powers to overcome the trap and confronted her clone sister alongside her family members. Rose - now calling herself Infrared - had the same powers as Violet but lacked the team spirit and familial trust that enabled the Incredibles to defeat her. They had Rose sent to a government facility where she would receive mental health counseling, but she managed to escape en route and has remained at large ever since.
===
Dash rocked back and forth at super speed, trying to jackhammer the electromagnets that held his wrists and ankles firmly in place, but it was no good. The restraints not only held him fast, they also sent an electric jolt through his body, putting a stop to his supersonically-increased momentum. All he got for his troubles was a dizzy spell that made him see stars. “Whoa…I don’t feel so good.”
“They’re electromagnets, Dash!” Violet complained in her distinctively sarcastic deep voice. “Did you really expect them to just fall apart from jiggling them?”
“They’re more than just electromagnets,” Mr. Incredible said gravely. “They’re using zero-point energy. I’ll never forget the devices Syndrome used to hold me prisoner when he made me think my family was gone forever.” Elastigirl looked over at her hulking husband and offered him a sympathetic look.
“At least we’re together this time,” she said. “That means we have a better chance of figuring a way out of these.”
“Oh yeah, like that’s really gonna work,” a familiar sarcastic teenaged voice said from the shadowy chamber. “I’m sure zero-point energy surrenders before the power of love and family and junk.” Emerging from the empty darkness of the chamber as reddish crackles of energy revealed her previously invisible form was a short but slender teen girl wearing what appeared to be the same costume as Violet, only with the reds and the blacks reversed. Though her face was identical to Violet, her irises were red and a mocking smirk curled her lip.
“Metamorpho-Sis!” Dash declared, “so it’s you!”
“That is the dumbest name you guys could have fallen for,” Infrared said, rolling her eyes. “I practically texted you my real identity with that one. Please do me a favor and never call me that again, okay? It makes me sad for you.” She stood in front of Dash and raised her red-gloved hand to his face, making it crackle with bright red forcefield-energies. He winced away as they popped and arced threateningly near his cheek. “Have you missed your big sister Infrared?”
“Stop it, Rose!” Elastigirl said sharply. “There’s no need to hurt any of us. We’re all right where you want us, isn’t that right?” She tugged at the electrocuffs that held her firmly in place. As soon as she started to stretch against the bonds that held her fast, looping one of her arms out to reach around Infrared’s neck, a jolt of electricity from the restraints shocked her, rendering her momentarily numbed and de-elasticized.
“Do you like them?” Rose asked, nodding at the buzzing machines which held the super-family in stasis. “It’s crazy how much of Syndrome’s old tech was never snatched up by the government. You can find it on the black market, being traded by back-alley dealers… I got these on Craigslist, of all things. Like, really, Craigslist is still a thing?” She shrugged.
“Whatever it is you have in mind,” Elastigirl said, “you don’t have to go through with it. Rose, you’re still my daughter, no matter how you came into the world. We just want to help you.”
“Oh, really?” Infrared asked, turning her attention to the older superheroine. “Do you really think of me as your daughter? Is that why you tried to ship me off to a government insane asylum?”
“You need help, Rose,” Elastigirl said. “What you tried to do to Violet, the way you lied to us all without even a little bit of guilt - you know there’s something wrong with you. We want to help you get better, and when you do, there’ll be a place for you in our family…”
“Look, Mom,” Rose retorted, overemphasizing the word to ridicule her, “you and I both know we’ll never be family. None of you will ever trust me again, and with good reason. So, I’m gonna hit the road. But I can’t just let you all come running after me to ruin things.”
“So you brought us all here just to kill us,” Mr. incredible said. “Is that it? You’re really going to do that to me, to Dash and Vi, to your mother?”
“Yup!” Infrared said with a satisfied grin. “But that’s not the only reason you’re here. I also needed bait.”
The family members looked at their nemesis with confusion, until Elastigirl’s eyes widened with realization. “No,” she said. “No. You leave him out of this. He’s never done anything to deserve —“
“No way!” Dash said. “You’re luring Frozone here? He’ll never fall for it!”
Rose stared at him in disbelief. “Oh my god, you are the absolute worst at this.” Dash looked at Violet and his mother searching for support, then tried to shrug in the zero-point restraints, earning himself a warning zap.
A door opened from the side of the dark cell and an automated cart rolled into sight. Atop the silver cart was a clear plexiglas cube containing a familiar figure: the sleepy form of an infant in a red jumper with a shock of blonde hair on his head.
“Leave Jack-Jack alone, I’m warning you,” Elastigirl repeated. Desperation was starting to fray her usual in-control-of-things manner. Infrared cast her an uncaring glance before pressing a few buttons on a remote control. The cart wheeled over to a large cylindrical mechanism that occupied the entire right side of the chamber where they were all being held. With a few more button proddings, the massive machine began to hum, making the concrete floor vibrate. A soft bluish glow started to emanate from the device, illuminating the chamber in a ghostly light.
The Incredibles watched, helplessly suspended from the zero-point matrix rack, as Infrared directed the robotic cart to stop directly in front of a nozzle that protruded from the massive, wall-occupying device.
“You can’t do this, Rose! It’s wrong! You have to know that! Some part of you has to know!” Elastigirl’s protests were spent on uncaring ears, however. Infrared barely looked over her shoulder at the mother her clone-sister was born of.
“I’m not going to hurt Jack-Jack, jeez, Mom,” Infrared said. “Don’t get all hysterical on me. I’m going to change him. Make him better. I mean, he’s already better than all of you put together. He has so many powers. All that’s holding him back is that he’s stil just an infant. Imagine what he’ll be able to do when he grows up.” She turned to look over the other suspended heroes. “And guess who’ll be there for him the entire time, to guide him and be his good little sister?”
Violet was annoyed by Rose’s constant longings for a big brother. Of all the weird things about her, she had an inexplicable desire to have everything in her life be the opposite of Violet’s life. Instead of little brothers, she wanted a big brother to look out for her and take care of her. It was strange considering how bold and outgoing Rose was. Violet, even though she was quiet, preferred to stay in the background and be overlooked, and didn’t have a lot of confidence in herself, couldn’t stand having to put up with Dash. Having an older version of him sounded awful beyond description.
So as her evil clone went on about her evil plans, Violet hatched a plan. She knew Rose would come up with a failsafe or dummy switch or back door that would allow her to escape these bonds in case her family managed to outsmart her and imprison her in the zero-point energy cuffs. Since they had the same suite of powers, all she had to do was work at it until she discovered how her double would engineer a way out.
The massive device was running at nearly full power capacity now. Its blue light was illuminating everything in the chamber.
Violet reached out with her forcefields inside the electrocuffs. She realized she could trip a switch in one - but which one?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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