Violet sat at the kitchen table skimming through the ChiMera Industries’ handbook for new employees. She had just reached the section on sexual harassment when her mom informed her that Kari wasn’t available so she would have to baby sit her younger brothers during the upcoming evening.
“What do you mean?” Violet asked her mother suspiciously.
“I mean, exactly what I said.” Helen replied defensively, “Kari’s not available to baby sit, so I need you to watch Jack-Jack tonight.”
“I heard what you said, mother. I want to know what you mean by Kari not being available to baby sit. She’s always available. Always!”
“Not this evening.”
“And why not?”
“That’s none of your business, young lady.”
Violet stared daggers at her mother’s retreating back while she hit the speed dial button for Kari on her phone. After an unusually long series of clicks and beeps, she was connected to a recorded message. “We’re sorry but the number you have dialed is no longer in service. Please check the number and try again.” She checked the number and tried again, with the same results.
She confronted her mother in the hallway, “Did you guys ‘arrange’ this?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Yesterday, I kiss Kari and today she doesn’t come to school, her phone gets turned off and suddenly she’s ‘Unavailable’ for baby sitting?” She put her hands on her hips and shook her head, “That’s not very subtle, mom.”
“Your father and I had nothing to do with this…”
“The Agency kidnapped my friend? You think no one will notice she’s missing?”
“No one’s been kidnapped, Violet. Don’t be so dramatic.” Helen sighed and drew Violet over to the kitchen table. “Her father and mother both got offered great jobs in Norway; they left this morning to start their lives over there.
“Kari wouldn’t just leave without saying goodbye to me…”
Helen closed her eyes and lowered her head. “Not unless she didn’t remember you.”
Violet felt her stomach churning. “You wiped her mind? Made her forget all about me?” She looked down at her hands, “She was my best friend, she liked me when everyone else thought I was a freak.” Violet stood up and backed away from the table. Helen reached for her but the young woman couldn’t see anything, her brain just wasn’t processing images, it was too busy trying to understand her betrayal. “You took my best friend,” she accused her mother, “stole her from me because I kissed her.”
“No, honey, it’s not like that.”
“What is it like? Huh? What’s it like?” Violet hissed. “’Cause I’m lookin’ around and I don’t see her. She’s not here and you’re the one who sent her away. So, why don’t you tell me what it is like?” Violet advanced on her mom, shaking from her pent up anger. “It looks like there was something out of control and you controlled it. What’s next? You gonna control Tony? Dash…? Jack…? Me…? Who’s next to go to fucking Norway? Huh? Answer me!” She saw the tear rolling down her mom’s face, but somehow it just made her angrier. “If you want to get rid of someone, get rid of me! Send me to Norway, ‘cause I sure as hell don’t want to be here with you! I hate you!”
Violet stuffed all of her papers and handbooks into her backpack and stormed out of the house. Helen sat at the kitchen table and cried into her hands.
“I didn’t have a choice, Rick.” The young man said earnestly. “She kissed that girl and you know how much of a chatter box she is.”
“Ms. McKeen has been baby sitting for the Parrs for over two years. In that time, she has told exactly zero people about the odd things that happen with her young charges and we have had a remarkably effective team of supers residing in suburban Metroville.” His voice was calm, but Skippy Johnson could see a glimmer of anger in his eyes. “You’ve been part of my life for less than four months. During that time, Violet Parr has moved from being a reliable team leader to being a possible threat to national security, while The Incredibles have fallen from being the number one defenders of Metroville to being the leading cause of incidental damage to vital infrastructure.”
“What was I supposed to do?”
“You were supposed to watch and learn.” Rick Dicker pulled a form out of his desk and began filling it out. “From now on, you will sit quietly and watch me. You are not allowed to speak unless I speak directly to you. Also, you will not gesture or otherwise convey an opinion. You may take notes, and at the end of the day you will have forty-five minutes to ask questions about my decisions.” He looked up from his form and caught the eyes of the young man, “You will also never call me ‘Rick’ again. My name is ‘Agent Dicker.’” He paused for a few moments to let the instructions set in. “Is all of that clear, Skippy?”
Anger and resentment crossed the young man’s face, as well as frustration and a little bit of self pity, but he controlled it all and simply said, “Yes, Agent Dicker.”
“Good. Now get this form over to Evidence, we’re going to need some supplies.”
Johnson glanced down at the list of items the senior agent was requesting and his curiosity raged inside of him. But when he looked up at the man behind the desk, he understood that this was a test and he forced his mouth to stay shut as he left the room. On the way out, he passed Lucius Best and had to bite his tongue once more.
Lucius closed the door behind him and went over to the coffee pot. He offered a cup to Rick who declined with a small shake of his head. When he had made himself comfortable, Rick asked him about Violet.
“How’s it going with our problem child?”
“Not good.” Lucius replied, concentrating on cooling the coffee just enough to keep from burning his lip. “She’s pissed at everyone and everything. That includes me.”
“You heard what my idiot partner did?”
“Only for about an hour! She wouldn’t let it go. I barely talked her out of coming down here and trashing the place.” Rick raised an eyebrow. “Listen up, man,” Lucius continued, “You’re lucky she swung by my place first. She was on her way here to demand that you guys bring her friend back and tear the place apart if you didn’t.”
“Where is she now?”
“Honey’s feeding her and giving her a sympathetic ear. Don’t know if Honey’ll want anything to do with Helen for a few weeks.” Lucius chuckled, “I do know that once Violet calms down, my wife might just decide to come down here and tear the place apart herself.”
“Did Violet tell you why the girl was relocated?”
“Yeah, somethin’ about a kiss and controlling her life… Most of it didn’t make sense, but she’s young and easily excited. I figured, you guys ran out of zappy ray stuff or she’s immune to it now, so you had to remove her from the area for our protection…” He trailed off as he saw Rick’s dour expression. “If that wasn’t it, what happened?” Lucius demanded, upset about the proceedings for the first time.
Rick sighed, “How much time do you have Lucius?”
“For somethin’ like this, I got plenty of time.”
“A few weeks ago, the baby sitter kissed Violet. As near as we—“
“Waitaminit.” Lucius held up a hand. “The little red haired girl with the big mouth…?” Rick nodded. “Kissed Violet…?” Nod. “So you sent her to Iceland?” Lucius was on his feet, looming over the agent’s desk.
Rick craned his neck and looked up at Lucius, “Do you really think I would spend the money to send an entire family to Norway over a teenager’s kiss?” He kept his expression neutral until the tall man stepped back and lowered himself into the seat once more. “The Agency is here to make sure you guys don’t go rogue and take over the world. We don’t care who sleeps with whom.” He finally continued. “The kiss troubled Violet. She had a few nightmares and her parents asked us to step in and help. This is where it all went wrong, and it’s my fault. I let my junior partner have too much leeway and he screwed up. First we didn’t choose the right head shrinker, then we failed to pay attention to who she was hanging out with and finally, he sent the one person who might be able to calm our little problem child down out of the country.” He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “He screwed up royally. That means I screwed up and now that little girl might have to pay for it, Lucius.”
“Can we bring ‘em back?”
“Not convincingly, and even if we do, the damage is done in Violet’s mind.”
“Another psychiatrist…?”
“She’ll never trust another agency psych and we can’t have her talking to just anybody. The potential for compromising all the supers is too much.” He put his glasses back on and leaned forward over the desk. “No, we’re going to have to make a deal with the devil.”
“Which one?”
“You didn’t ask me who she was hanging out with…”
“OK, who was she hanging out with?”
“Mirage.”
Lucius sat back in shock. When he found his voice, all he could say was, “Helen’s not going to be happy about that.” It was something of an understatement.
Bob entered the house cautiously. The last time he had come in, it was to the sight of his daughter making out with another girl on the sofa. This time, everything seemed quiet, so he motioned for Dash to follow him into the house. It was blissfully devoid of any kissing teenagers or rampaging wives. He set Jack down in the living room and headed to his office. Halfway there it struck him; the house was too quiet. Sullen teenagers are usually quite loud in their efforts to express their displeasure over whatever you’ve recently done to embarrass them or piss them off. And, in Bob’s experience, angry wives often clean things at you, also quite noisily, also to express their displeasure at whatever you’ve recently done or forgotten to do. Was it possible that the girls had made up and gone shopping? He deposited his things in the office and headed into the kitchen. If Helen had left him a message it would be on the refrigerator.
The sight of his wife sitting quietly in the dimly lit kitchen startled him. “Helen?”
“She’s gone.” The words were filled with pain and self loathing.
Bob turned on the light and walked over to stand behind Helen. He placed a hand on her shoulder and gently began stroking her hair. “Who’s gone?” He moved to her side and sat down next to her. When he took her hands in his, he felt the sleeves of her sweater were soaking wet. Surprised, he asked her, “How long have you been here crying?”
“I don’t know… she’s gone.”
“Who’s gone…? Violet…?”
“She hates me.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t—“
“Don’t you patronize me Bob Parr!” she snapped, “I know what she said!”
“She didn’t mean it, hon… Kids are—“
“She’s not a kid any more!” Helen sobbed, “She knows what she’s saying and she means it.”
“C’mon, we’ll get in the car and go find her, she’s probably over at Kar—“ He broke off as Helen’s head snapped up at him, “I mean, maybe she went over to Tony’s…? Or that coffee shop she’s always hanging out at…”
Helen stood up and wiped her face absent-mindedly, “I’ll go over and check the coffee house, you drive by Tony’s.” she whispered.
“Um, I think we should stay together.” He said kindly, “You’re in no condition to drive and it’ll be better if we’re together when we find her.” She looked at him questioningly, “I mean for Violet.” He went on hastily, “If we’re together she’ll know we’re both worried about her.” She let it pass and he let out a sigh of relief. “Get your coat, I’ll get the boys and we’ll meet in the car.”
As she got up from the table, One of Violet’s ChiMera Industries brochures fell to the floor. Bob picked it up and set it on the counter. “Hey, what about this ‘Chi’ woman, she’s been talking about for the last few weeks, the one that owns the company she’s going to be working at this summer?” He picked the pamphlet back up and glanced through it. “Maybe there’s a number on here we can call…” he trailed off at the sight of Helen’s ashen face. “What?”
She snatched the brochure out of his hands and turned it around so he could see a panel on the back. Staring out at him with a shy smile was a picture of the owner of ChiMera Industries. He stared at it in disbelief for a few minutes before he realized that Helen was gone. “Helen…?” he called tentatively. “Hon, where’d you go?” He raised his voice, “Dash!”
“Yo!” the boy was suddenly standing right in front of him. A few papers floated gently to the ground from the hallway table.
“I need you to find your mom, and come right back here and tell me where she is.”
“What do I say to her?”
“Nothing.” Bob put on his most serious expression, “Find out where your mom is and then come straight back here and tell me.” He could see the boy’s curiosity was burning him up. “Violet might be in trouble, and your mom is going to try to help her, but she needs back-up.” He explained, hoping the kid would accept the half-truths. As Dash took off to find Helen, Bob called out to his younger son. “Jack, come to the kitchen.”
“’kay, da.” The toddler replied from the living room.
Bob picked him up and headed out to the car. “We’re going to visit Uncle Rick!” he said in a happy voice.
“Yay!” Jack gurgled. “May fire!” And burst into flames.
“Not until we get there, Jack.” Bob admonished him, still using an upbeat tone. “You know the rule, no making fire in the car.” Jack extinguished his flame but started to pout. “I promise that when you’re visiting Uncle Rick, you’ll get to make fire, OK squirt?”
“’kay, da.”
Bob had just finished belting Jack into his car seat when Dash appeared in front of him. “Mom’s on Third Street headed downtown.” He said with out a trace of exertion.
“Great job, son.” Bob kept his happy face on for the benefit of the boys, “Now head over to The Agency and tell Uncle Rick, we’re on out way.”
“Unka’ Rick!” Jack gurgled from the back seat. *Foom*
“No fire in the car, Jack!”
“Sorr, da.” *Moof*
Bob could tell that Dash was concerned, despite his efforts to keep a happy face on things. The boy’s expression was slightly pensive and he hesitated before taking off to The Agency. “Is Vi going to be alright?” He asked.
Bob studied his son’s earnest expression, concern for his sister obvious on his face, and realized the boy was growing up. He probably picked up something in his mother’s expression when he saw her, and he was most likely reading between the lines of his father’s cheerful voice. Bob dropped the forced smile and put his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I don’t know, Dash. I don’t even know if she’s really in trouble. I do know—“
“You know that if she’s in trouble we gotta do everything we can to help?” Dash interrupted.
Definitely growing up, Bob thought and let his pride shine through his face. “Exactly. Now go tell Uncle Rick I’m bringing Jack over for a visit, and then you and me are gonna go help your sister.”
“Right!” Dash saluted and took off at top speed.
“Unka’ Rick!” *Foom!*
“No fire in the car!”
“Sorr, da.” *moof*
Skippy Johnson sat in the break room glaring at his cup of coffee, resentment boiling in his mind and gut. He felt humiliated and he wanted revenge. Four months of catering to the whims of some high strung little bitch that needed a good spanking as far as he was concerned and nothing to show for it except a reprimand? Who found out about the girl’s connection to that known criminal? Who found out about her depraved sexual practices? That bastard Dicker was probably going to pin everything that went wrong squarely on the shoulders of his junior partner. Well, he wasn’t going to sit by and wait for the high mucky-mucks to erase his memories and give him a job at the Department of Motor Vehicles, he still had time to make everything right. It all started with that degenerate girl and her overbearing family. “They think they’re above the law because they’re supers,” he muttered to himself, “well, we’ve got plenty of ways to slap those pompous assholes down to earth, and once I make an example of Invisagirl the rest of them will fall right in line.” He left his cold coffee on the table and headed for the labs. He still had that controlling bastard, Dicker’s list and with a few additions, he was sure the Violet Parr situation would be under control in record time. Twenty minutes later, he left the building with two small items, both still experimental, but perfectly suited to what he had in mind, and headed for ChiMera Industries, dreaming of the commendations he was sure to receive.