The Path of Redemption

The Incredibles: The path of redemption.
Englishwitch
Disclaimer: Disclaimer- I do not own The Incredibles, it is a Disney/ Pixar animation motion picture

Chapter 15- A hero falls.

Violet stepped through the crowds around her. The noise of the convention centre was almost deafening. Excited fans were all waiting to see Vanisher in person. While they were waiting they were snapping up all the merchandise that they could get their hands on. Vanisher tee shirts, action figures, pictures, and the first issue of the all new Vanisher comic book series which had a combination of real life and fictional adventures. Violet technically didn’t see any money from any of this stuff; it all went into a government account, which went to pay all of Violet’s expenses. So in a way she saw some of the cash.

Violet hadn’t wanted to do this in the wake of Psychewave’s release, and Edna’s kidnap. But too much had been organised to cancel at this late stage. Drickers himself admitted that if they could have cancelled he would have, but too much money had been put into the event, it had to go ahead. But he had poured some extra security into the event, just in case Psychewave chose that day to make his move. They could be seen standing by the walls in their black suits and dark glasses and stern expressions.

By Violet’s side Michael stayed close, he wanted to come but also he was legally obliged, he couldn’t go anywhere else without Violet by his side. Though technically he wasn’t bound by the 8:15 he still bound himself too it, it was a moral thing now. He looked absolutely terrified to be out in a crowd of so many people and was practically clinging to her arm. Violet couldn’t comfort him, she was as nervous as he was. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw a thousand Psychewave’s waiting to strike. Her hands were shaking. “Just try and keep a level head.” She said, as much to herself as to Michael.
“VIOLET.”

Violet jumped and spun around on the spot. The source of the screaming voice ran straight at her. It was her friend Chrissie, who was now sporting a Vanisher tee shirt and a large smile on her face. Chrissie sat next to Violet in History class and the too were on pretty friendly terms. “My god.” Violet said in astonishment. “What are you doing here?” The two of them exchanged a quick friendly hug and Chrissie shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, you said that this place was a pretty cool gig. A good day out. You were right.” She said, looking down at the new tee shirt she was wearing; purple with a black circle on the chest bearing a large gold V.
“Told you.” Violet said with a smile. Chrissie caught sight of Michael, looking nervous, by Violet’s side. “My cousin, Mike.” Violet explained without being asked. Violet ducked down and whispered something, at first Mike just shook his head. Chrissie watched, confused, as the two had a heated, if whispered, debate until finally Michael nodded his head. Finally Violet stood up and looked back to Chrissie. “Look, I’m sorry to just ask this out of the blue but can you look after him for a couple of minutes. I just need to, you know.”
Chrissie nodded, thinking that Violet needed to go to the bathroom. “Of course.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Why don‘t the two of you grab a seat close to the stage, Vanisher will be out in a little while.” Violet said with a smile. She pushed Michael toward Chrissie and rushed off as quickly as she could.

Violet was not going to the bathroom. She was going backstage to change into her super suit so she could meet and greet the fans and answer their questions for the next half hour. Violet liked to walk among the fans and see how they were feeling, it was good to walk among the common people.

At the door to the stage there was a security guard but a flash of a backstage pass and he let her right through. It was as simple as that. Officially fans could buy backstage passes and talk to the Super one to one in their dressing room. In reality no one had noticed that Violet was the only one at her conventions that had one.

********

At a distance, watching Violet carefully, were two people who looked a little too serious to be a part of the Vanisher fan club. David Conner and this photographer partner Leon. Saw her flash her badge and step backstage.
“There she goes.” David muttered.
“I still think your insane.” Leon shouted over the din of the people. “There’s no way that’s Vanisher.”
“You’re not getting paid to think, just take photo’s”
“I’m not getting paid at all.” Leon snapped. “You haven’t sold a story in weeks.”
“We just need a little more investigating and we’ll be able to sell the biggest story since the Kennedy assassination. A Super’s secret life revealed. Finding out the secrets of movie stars are going out of fashion, there’s nothing to find out anymore. But Supers are the last great mystery left.”
Leon sighed and shook his head. If he wanted a pay check, and to make the rent this month, he had to go along with this. “What do you need me to do?”
“You go to the stage and take a lot of pictures of Vanisher. I’m going to keep watch on that door. If you think that Violet is just some major fan. Then she’ll definitely come out to see the Q&A.”
“Fine.” Leon asked. He grabbed his camera and stalked off.

***********

Violet slipped the Super mask onto her face and looked in the mirror. Vanisher looked back at her and she new she was ready. She rubbed a couple of wrinkles out from around the waist and nodded. It was time to make her appearance to the public.

***********

Everyone was taking their seats as the lights dimmed and a voice called out over the speaker system. “Ladies and gentlemen, here she is; the one you’ve been waiting for, that modern day Amazon. The young warrior herself. You’re favourite hero and mine. The one, the only VANISHER.”

Backstage Vanisher shook hands with the guy by the microphone. “Thanks John.” She cried over the roar of applause of the fans. “But seriously…Amazon?”
The guy just nodded and laughed. “We’ll I said I’d give you a good entrance.”

Vanisher smiled and raised her arm, waving to the crowd as she stepped out onto the stage and the roar of applause and cheers went up from loud to deafening. So loud even Vanisher shouting “HELLO EVERYONE.” into the microphone was barely heard. She smiled and waved a lot more, getting a good look out to the crowd and occasionally being blinded by the flash of a camera that was close to the stage. There was supposed to be no flash photography, but no one ever really listened to that.

Slowly but surely the applause died down and Vanisher was about to talk when, out from the back of the room came a slow clapping. This person was not going stopping their applause. Everyone fell silent and turned to look at the source of the noise and Vanisher shielded her eyes against the glaring stage light and stared out into the crowd. Her heart pounded in her head, she was praying that this wasn’t who she thought it was.
“No.” She muttered. Unfortunately she was standing close to the microphone at the time and her voice carried out across the whole auditorium.

He stepped into the light, dressed in black uniform that made him look like a bad guy from star trek. There was a white P over the left breast, three inches long. He wasn’t wearing a mask, he had no identity to hide anymore. Richard King was dead, there was only Psychewave. “Hello Vanisher.” He called up to her. There was an unmistakeable venom in his voice.
“Psychewave.” Vanisher gasped out. Her voice carried out across the room by the microphone and the room was full of panicked talk as everyone realised exactly who was there in the room with them. People jumped from their seats and made for the exits, Psychewave snapped his fingers and all the doors in the auditorium slammed shut. The crowd ran into them and pounded at the doors with their fists but they would not yield. They were trapped.

Guards ran forward, weapons raised. Psychewave waved his arms and sent them flying into the walls and into unconsciousness. With a leap and the use of his telekinetic powers he flew up and onto the stage to face Vanisher.

They wasted no time with any fancy speech’s, there was no monologing between them. The attack was as sudden as it was brutal. Vanisher tried to trap Psychewave in a force field. Psychewave waved his arms and shattered the field with his telekinetic powers. He grabbed her with his telekinesis and threw Violet from her feet and flipped her head over heals, slamming her into the floor, hard. Violet cried out as a wave of pain crashed through her.

The doors to the auditorium flew open, Psychewave wasn’t interested in hostages, only Vanisher. She tried to trap him in another shield but he waved his arms and shattered it again.
“You can’t stop me Vanisher.” He growled. He raised his arm and grabbed Vaniser with his powers and threw her up into the rafters. She screamed and waved her arms as she flew up. Psychewave released his hold on her, intending for Vanisher to free fall down into the stage. She stretched out her arms and grabbed the lighting rig. The metal groaned for a second then snapped from it’s brackets; it was never meant to carry the weight of a human along with all the lights.

Down below Psychewave flew off the stage as the rig came crashing down. At the last possible second Vanisher surrounded herself with a shield and remained safe while the metal and electrics crashed and sparked around her. “I stopped you before.” Violet screamed from her place on the stage amongst the broken masonry. “I can do it again.”

Psychewave hovered ten feet in the air over the chairs of the auditorium, watching Violet try and untangle herself from the broken masonry. He laughed snidely and floated slowly over to her. “You think you know my power? You think because you have faced this demon and defeated it once before you are an expert? You know nothing of the force I command. Locked in that dark hole you tossed me into and trapped in my own head there was nothing but you. I know you better than you know yourself. I know the power that you hide, the darkness you fight against every waking second. It makes you weak. I have no conflict, I am strong. When I was rescued from that hell and escaped from those dreams it was for only one reason. There are no offers of alliance or mercy now. I come to break you.”

He grabbed her again with his telekinesis. Vanisher tried to protect herself with her shield but Psychewave squeezed his fists together and the shield bent, actually bent in several places. Vanisher stared, afraid, then the force field shattered and she felt those invisible hands grab her. She screamed as she flew up into the air then down again, slamming hard into the metal rigging of the former lighting rig. There were metal spikes all around her, one caught the edge of her face and sliced a deep gash in her cheek. But her suit held out, preventing further injury. Psychewave didn’t wait a second and threw her up into the air again and to the right, straight into the wall. Vanisher tried to protect herself but her force field was shattered in the split second before she hit the wall, leaving her vulnerable to feel the total force of the blow.

Her head swam with liquid lead and nothing but pain existed in her body. She couldn’t think straight. Psychewave didn’t hesitate, he wasn’t even giving her a chance to fight back; he came to kill her and he meant to do it. He waved his hand and slammed her down into a row of chairs. While you would think this was a soft landing, it wasn’t. The cheap seat snapped and flew apart around her, sending broken wood and metal crashing down and Vanisher landed on them and the floor.

Vanisher rolled upon landing, not that she had meant to, but she rolled under chairs and out of sight. Out of sight seemed to mean out of mind for Psychewave and while he couldn’t see her he couldn’t use his abilities on her. Giving her precious seconds needed to collect her thoughts.

She had fought Psychewave before but this time it was different. Perhaps before he had fought her with the secret hope that she would change her mind and come back to his side. Now he knew that was not possible and he meant to kill her. He was too brutal. Too strong. She had gone through too much punishment in too short a time. Every muscle was sluggish and trembling. All her strength was stretched and sapped, she was washed in weakness, mired in a panic of helplessness and through it all there was no respite, no chance to know where one pained ended and another began. There was nothing left and reality was smashed and splintered like the death of an impossible dream and all that remained was the minds desperate urge to get off the floor and strike back. Only there was no chance to do anything, no chance to even think about raising a fist in the relentless agony. She was drained and depleted…utterly empty

Psychewave waved his arms and a row of chair flew up into the air and crashed against the far wall. Violet was exposed and she tried to get to her feet but it was already too late. Psychewave grabbed her and she screamed, twisting and turning through the air until she slammed, upside down, into the wall. The concrete around her cracked, sending dust into the air. Psychewave raised his arms, fists clenched, and the entire row of seats he had thrown around flew up into the air and shot right at Vanisher. She screamed and closed her eyes, there was nothing else she could do to defend herself against the attack. The entire row of seat slammed into her, one, two, sometimes three at a time. And as they fell away from her body they just flew around to hit her again.

Such pain she had never known could exist outside hell itself. It was chipping away at whatever was left of her mind, body and even her soul. It was wearing her down toward nothing and nowhere. Vertigo was whirling out of control and she saw nothing but distorted images that went by in a confusing blur and every blow became the same each equally devastating and all adding up to the long plunge into hell. It was nightmarish, never ending, so harsh and brutal, something more primitive than even the wildest beast. The darkness was coming, it was almost welcomed and yet something stopped her surrendering and embracing the blessed relief of letting it all end. It was the final ray of light in the blackness ad the reason to keep on fighting. Yet, she knew, in the end, it would matter for nothing.

The barrage of chairs stopped and Violet was limply pulled from the wall. Her limbs were heavy, and she looked like a doll with the strings cut. Her head rolled forward and the world was only made up of light, shadow and dancing grey spots; there was no other detail. Psychewave brought her close, less than a foot from her face but he knew there was no fight left in her. “Let’s take this outside.”

He aimed a hand upwards to the ceiling and at once a deep crack ran across the plaster work. There was a groan of metal and a horrific snapping noise as a whole block of the roof came crashing down, breaking the chairs ad even the floor of the auditorium below and filling the room with brick dust that was illuminated by the single shaft of sunlight pouring in through the hole.

Psychewave flew out of the opening, dragging Vanisher along with him. He dropped her down onto the concrete roof, a part that wasn’t in danger of collapse. He ignored her while he surveyed his surroundings. The whole convention crowd were standing across the street and looking up at him, flying over the building. Police sirens could be heard in the distance. He turned his attention back to Vanisher.

She was struggling to get to her feet. But her limbs wouldn’t respond in the way she needed them to. Psychewave landed next to her and she raised a fist. His hand shot out first and slammed her across the jaw. She staggered, but it was a minor miracle that she stayed upright. Too much had happened too fast. There was no spring in her step; no agility or grace in her movements that had once been so natural. There was no more power, no more speed; no more reflexes. They had been drained away from her so long ago and what was left wasn’t close to enough to what she needed.

Psychewave grabbed her again, forcing her to stand stiff, as if her whole body was paralysed. He lifted her into the air a couple of feet and smiled like a vampire who had just spotted a blonde virgins neck.
“I could kill you, but death would only end your agony and silence your shame. I will not make you a martyr. You shall not live on as the incorruptible symbol that died trying to save the innocent. You shall live in disgrace and dishonour; beaten and broken.”

He held both hands out in front of him and Vanisher was tipped onto her back, lying flat in midair as if she were on some invisible bed. Psychewave raised his knee and brought his hands down as though snapping an invisible twig over his lap. Vanisher’s body bent backwards into a disturbing and unnatural shape the silent air was suddenly filled with bone chilling cracks. Then Vanisher’s scream filled the sky. The most agony filled scream than anyone had ever heard and even, for only a second, Psychewaves hard heart was softened. Then his hatred returned and he continued his resolve.

*************

The crowd below screamed and many felt tears come to their eyes when they heard that howl of pure suffering. A deathly silence fell on the crowd, their ears rang with the continuing cries of their ears. Such pain, such torment, none of them could even contemplate how anyone going through enough agony to let out a cry like that, could survive.

In the crowd a young man fought against the iron grip of a teenage girl. “Let me go.” Michael yelled. “I have to help her.”
“Don’t be stupid.” Chrissie cried at him. “You can’t do anything. VIOLET? WHERE ARE YOU.” She called out to the throng of people around her. But there came no reply.
Michael fought hard but the girl just wouldn’t let her go. He had on his Shifter suit below his normal clothing, but he couldn’t change here, in front of all these people; it would cause too more panic than there already was. Shifter was still a hated figure, the last thing he needed was an angry mob attacking him while he tried to help Vanisher.

***********

The screams fell silent and the crowd felt a coldness grow in their hearts. The cries died in their ears and there was nothing their panicked breaths in the air.

Then a figure came into sight It was Vanisher. She was flying, on her back and still; unnaturally still. She was went backwards at an unnatural angle. The crowd stared upwards and someone cried out as Psychewave came into view. He was stiff, his hands raised above his head and a large and evil smile on his face.
“Hear me now.” He cried out for all to hear. “I am Psychewave and this city is mine. Vanisher is no more. I rule these streets. I rule Metroville. HERE IS YOUR PRECIOUS HERO! YOUR WORSHIPPED PROTECTOR! TAKE HER AND BURY HER!”

He tossed her forward telekinetically. Vanisher limply fell forward, down toward the ground. Screams rung out in the crowd and even Chrissie let go of Michael to put her hands to her mouth. Michael ran forward; he had to risk it now. He shape shifted his body as quickly as he possibly could into his werewolf form.

He leapt upward as hard as his powerful legs would allow him and jumped almost fifteen feet up into the air, grabbing Vanisher as she went down. She slammed hard into him and he crashed down onto the ground, winded and in pain. But there was no time to stop. He staggered to his feet as quickly as he could. “I have you Vanisher.” He growled to her unconscious body. He cradled her close to his chest in his powerful arm. “You’re safe now.” He raced off, away from Psychewave and that accursed building as quickly as he could.

The crowd screamed and yelled in fright and confusion; they didn’t know what the hell was going on.

Up above Psychewave let Shifter go. The sudden appearance of his old sidekick had startled him and just as he was about to act he heard the fright and confusion from the crowd. Let them go and leave the people with their fear. Leave them with their bewilderment, it would only serve his purposes all the more.
“Interesting.” He muttered to himself. “Very interesting. An unexpected, but not exactly problematic, turn of events.” He turned and flew away. Leaving the audience, witnesses to his return and Vanisher’s defeat, behind him.

To be continued.