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 33- The turning tide.

Psychewave stood on the rooftop of a skyscraper that he had claimed as his own. The grand building was certainly more fitting of the future world ruler. He looked out at the devastated city around him. The streets were deathly quiet and the sun was beginning to set on his empire. By the time the sun set again this city would be destroyed and he could spread; move on to the next city, and the next, and the next. He would gather strength the further he moved and nothing would be able to stop him. His grand vision for the future would come true even if he had to force it on the world.

The world; that was the problem. It was too stuck in its ways. To make the new, you had to get rid of the old. From the ashes a new world would have to be built and it would be his world. The name of Psychewave would be remembered as the one who brought about the great change. It was all for the greater good. The end would justify any means necessary.

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

Away on the other side of town another person was watching he sunset from a much lower vantage point. Helen Parr; still dressed in her Elastagirl suit, stood silently at the bright, slowly dimming sky. She missed her children dearly. She barely saw Dash anymore; he was away so often saving the city; as were they all. But Jak-jak had been taken by the agency for his own protection and Violet was…god only knew how Violet was getting along. All communication out of the city was cut off. No news was coming in or out.

A hand touched her shoulder. Helen flinched, looked and smiled. It was Bob. She turned and hugged her husband and he wrapped his strong arms around her tightly. She felt a little better being in his tight embrace, but only marginally.
“What’s wrong Helen.” He said softly in her ear. She looked at her husband and kissed him passionately on the lips.
“I’m afraid.” She said softly. She turned and looked away to the view of the empty streets. “This whole city is on a knife edge; one little push the right way and we can still save it but the smallest shove in the other direction and the place will die. Yet all the criminals have been quiet. Too quiet.”
“The calm before the storm.” Bob muttered. He knew exactly what Helen was talking about. The worst criminals in the country had been sprung from prison and only a small percentage of them had been caught; and yet there had been barely a sight or sound of the others. Psychewave must be planning something with them; the final strike against the city that would determine the fate and future of everything. “We have to stay prepared, and prey that when it comes we can handle it.”
“I’ve been thinking about that.” She said solemnly. “When the time comes; if the situation turns desperate, I might be forced to use those moves I developed years ago, before we met.”
Bob grabbed Helen and forced her to look at him. She could see the fear in his eyes and couldn’t blame him for it. “I thought you said those moves put too much strain on your body; the last time you used them you almost killed yourself.”
“I remember bob. But I’m only speaking hypothetically; IF the situation becomes desperate enough, I might use them.”
“I’m sorry to say this Helen, but neither of us are at our peak anymore. We’re getting old. If either of us tried anything like that, god only knows what will happen.”
“I know Bob. I know.” She muttered. “But something big is going to happen. Maybe it’ll take something huge to stop it.”
“I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Bob said. Helen nodded her head. She hoped it didn’t come to that.

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

Shifter moved slowly through the streets, sniffing the air left and right. There were a thousand smells across the city and none of them were good. The life of the city was being sucked out of it by Psychewave. He had to find him and bring him down. There was still a chance that this city that could be saved, still pulled back, but only if Psychewave could be stopped soon.

He stopped and looked up. In front of him was a large and empty building, an abandoned factory. For a time Psychewave had used it as a base of operations. It was a stupid idea to think that he would come back here. Shifter didn’t even have to go inside to know that no one was there. The building stunk to high heaven of vermin. She slunk away and wandered onward down the street.

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

Psychewave gathered Alpha and Omega to his side. The two bodyguards who had once served Syndrome were now his loyal followers.
“Gather the gangs, inform the convicts, the two of you will lead them. Omega take the east side, Alpha take the west. It’s time to make the final move. Time to deal the killing blow and destroy this city.”

His two cybernetic disciples nodded their heads and walked away. Psychewave sat behind a desk he had claimed as his own and pulled a national map in front of him. Next he would move his wave of destruction to the capital city of this state. Then the next state capital and the next until he reached Washington D.C. itself. Once the nations capital fell the whole world would cry out to the supers for protection and his glorious vision would come to pass. And one day the name of Psychewave would be remembered as the visionary who brought the world into paradise by forcing it to accept the Supers as it’s leaders.
“Soon.” He muttered. “Soon the glorious day will come to pass.”

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

At the military base in the centre of the city, a siren started squealing loudly. All the soldiers mobilised and rushed to the weapons lockers. All the supers rushed to the central command post.
Captain Macintyre was waiting for them. Helen and Bob were the last to arrive. As well as Bob and Helen there was also Dash, their long time family friend Frozone, as well as new arrivals to the city; Guardian and Wondergirl. They were all the forces that could be spared to help defend the city.
The captain looked very worried as reports were handed to him from his underlings. He looked at each of the Supers in turn like they were all taking part in a funeral.
“Our scouts in the east and west sides of the city have reported massive movements of criminals. They had setting buildings alight, blowing up cars; destroying everything in their path. The scouts have taken in half a dozen refugee families that had to abandon their shelters and take to the streets.”
“The storms arrived.” Bob muttered. Helen looked at him and back to the captain.
“What’s the plan?”
“The forces are spreading fast, there are hundreds of criminals and their consuming the city.” He looked like someone had walked over his grave. “I don’t think we have enough forces to stop them all.”
“We have to try.” Wondergirl said.
“I didn’t say we wouldn’t.” The captain snapped. “But we’re going to be stretched thin. Dasher.” He looked down to Dash. “I want you to race through the city as fast as you can, try and find Shifter. We’re going to need every hand, or paw, we can get. If he doesn’t already know what’s happening, he needs to be filled in.”
Dash nodded his head. “Now?”
“Now.”
Dash raced off in a blur of red light. The captain continued.
“Mr Incredible, Guardian, Frozone. I’d like you to spread yourself over the east side. Eleastagirl and Wondergirl, I’d like you to take the west. I’ll divide my forces in two and spread them out over both areas of the city. We’re even drafting in all the remaining police force and any civilian who wants to help. But these riots are taking place over such a large area that I think, for the most part, we’ll all be on our own.”
“We’ll do our best.” Helen said.
“We can as nothing more.” The captain said solemnly. He pulled a pistol out of a holster around his waist and clicked off the safety. Even he had to throw himself onto the front line for this. “Let’s move.”

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

Helen sung and jumped from building to building. She didn’t need to be told where the riots were, all she had to do was head toward the large plumes of black smoke that were rising up into the sky. She still must have been a couple of miles away and she could already hear the shouts and cries of the rioters in her ears.

She swung up to the roof of a building and could see them. There were so many. M0ore then fifty convicts were charging down the street, tossing Molotov cocktails into buildings, smashing up cars, tearing the whole street apart. Helen looked behind her, along the course that the rioters would follow; there were no soldiers for backup, she would be all alone in this.

A frightened scream rang out over the shouts of the convicts. Fear could always be heard over the noise of anger. Helen’s sharp eyes darted to the source. A family were running out of their home, an apartment building; two parents and a young girl. Helen may have let such a large group of criminals move along until she could get more backup but not when a family was a stake; she had to protect the innocent civilians.

Grabbing onto the roof ledge Helen swung herself down at the gang. With a cry of anger she threw herself, feet first into the horde. This was not like the riots she had been thrown into before, these were not desperate, frightened citizens, these were hardened criminals and they were looking for a fight. Helen kicked half a dozen out of the way as she crashed into them. Whipping her arms forward she punched another two. But there were already ten more convicts waiting for her. One swung a golf club and cracked her over the side of the head. Helen staggered and fell, but flipped herself clear before anyone could kick her while she was down. Fist and weapons flew at her from all directions, she dodged and weaved but cried out as a baseball bat hit her in the chest. She staggered, winded and a large guy rushed forward and tried to punch her. Helen ducked low and shot her leg up, connecting with the guy’s family jewels. As he fell back five more criminals ran forward.

She couldn’t win, but running away wasn’t an option. She had to stop these criminals, it was her duty.

One jabbed a knife at her gut, Helen stretched herself out of the way, turning her body into a large C shape, the blade missed by inches. She was being surrounded. Someone grabbed her arms and tried to pull her to the ground, she whipped her leg around and kicked him across the face, knocking him out cold, bur as soon as he fell there were three more in his place. There were too many people. She was being overwhelmed. She couldn’t win unless…

Long ago Helen had thought up a way to increase her power, fight at her fullest so she wouldn’t to anyone, no matter how strong the opponent. She had always thought that if the situation ever came up it would be against a super villain and not a rioting mob of criminals, but these were such desperate times she had no choice. She had to evolve her skills by one step. Which is why she named this technique Level 2.

Helen stretched herself up as far as she could, grabbing the top of a building, she flew upwards from the ground and to safety. The rooftop would give her a chance to properly focus.

As soon as she was safe she squatted down and closed her eyes. She took several deep breaths and pushed the pressure through her body. Her legs started to swell, fattening up to two, three, four times their original size. The black boots of her outfit stretched to their limits; even Edna had never thought of them going through this. Helens legs were filling with blood; oxygen rich blood from her deep breaths. Using her legs like pumps she sped up the flow of blood through her body, to all her organs and muscles. If she were an ordinary person the blood pressure would rise so high her heart would explode but since her blood vessels and organs were like rubber she could handle it. It was a skill only she as an elastic-woman, could use. But it had an enormous down side; she was pushing her body above and beyond its limits Her body was hardly able to withstand it for long periods of time.

She had used it once and only once over twenty years ago when she had first thought up the technique. She had practised the manoeuvre and it had left her exhausted; on the verge of blacking out. She could only keep it up for three minutes before it had become too much for her. She wasn’t that young anymore, not that resilient. She didn’t know what it would do to her now but she knew it was all she could do if she stood a chance of taking down such a large crowd of people.

Her legs shrank in size quickly as the blood was pushed up through to every inch of her body. Her skin darkened, turning deep pink; almost red. Sweat broke out across every inch of her body, then suddenly evaporated, in thick clouds of steam. Helen’s body temperature was skyrocketing as the blood pressure spiked through every corner of her body. The started breathing quickly, like she’d just run a marathon; supplying more and more oxygen rich blood through her. Her muscles tensed, their strength increasing with every beet of her heart. She was becoming faster, stronger and more powerful than anyone else. She could be faster than Dash and Stronger than Bob; but only for three minutes and the clock was ticking.

Helen leaped from the rooftop, she flew through the air until she was right over the mob. “Stamp.” She whispered. She shot her foot downwards, stretching her leg at lightning speed. People scattered just in time as her powerful kick slammed into the asphalt. The road exploded under the force of the blow. Chunks of asphalt and concrete flew out showering all within range with debris from pebble to basketball sized chunks of rock. The dust quickly cleared and revealed a car sized crater in the middle of the street. Helen dropped down and landed by the side of the hole, giving everyone a view, for the first time, of her steaming red body. She didn’t sprang into action straight away, she was so fast that her limbs looked like a red and black blur as they moved. “Whip.” She muttered. She kicked her leg out, stretching it over a hundred yards in length. Sending it flying across the crowd she whacked more then twenty people in the chest and sent them flying.

Her leg returned to it’s normal size and shape before the first of the crooks had even hit the ground. Spinning around the face the rest of the gang she leapt toward them so fast she almost was too quick to be seen. Only those with the sharpest eyes could make out a red blur. “Taste my Gatling gun.” She screamed. She threw her fists at them, pulling her arms back and forward so fast that those who could see her thought Elastagirl’s arms had multiplied, she had dozens on both sides of her body. A storm of fists rained down on the twenty eight convicts, sending them flying through the air. Even those who tried to run away didn’t escape without being hit. Helen roared as she delivered bone shattering blows upon the criminal crowd. She could feel her heart pounding in her head, she couldn’t hold out much longer she had to finish this now.

As the last of the convicts went flying Helen staggered to a halt. She could feel her temperature dropping as her blood pressure returned to normal. She was covered in sweat but felt like she’d just walked naked through a blizzard. Her vision swam and she was struggling to even stay conscious, but she had done it; she had stopped the army of destruction in its path. All around her were the injured and unconscious bodies of the convicts. None of them would be getting up and starting any trouble again, not anytime soon. Army patrols would find them soon enough and take them into custody.

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

Shifter heard the explosion before he knew what was going on, all he knew was that it meant trouble and that was all he needed to know. He shifted into his full seven foot tall werewolf form and growled loudly as he raced to the scene.

He rounded a corner and leapt from an alleyway into the heart of the scene. He stopped and stared at the scene before him. There were half a dozen men, gang members judging from the lightning bolt insignia’s on the back’s of their matching leather jackets. The source of the explosion was a car; it was on fire and burning furiously. The six men were unconscious and lay scattered in the street. What had happened here?

He sniffed the air and froze. Below the scent of the men, and the overwhelming musk of the burning car, was a more familiar smell. It was impossible, it couldn’t be here unless…
“She’s back.”

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

Helen staggered to a halt. She still hadn’t caught her breath, let along regained her strength yet. But it seemed she was going to be fighting again sooner than she thought.

Coming down the street were a dozen men, but they were not alone. They were escorted by what could only be an accomplice of Psychewave. He stood tall and thin as a pole, clad in what looked like golden coloured armour. His skin was withered, like it had been dried out. His large eyes looked at her with contempt and when he smiled he looked like a skull. She didn’t know his name, but it was Alpha.

A few of the gang stepped forward, but Alpha held out his arms and stopped them. “She is mine.” He said in an electronic voice. They nodded, unwilling to argue with such a frightening creature. They turned and ran down an alleyway; off to reap destruction somewhere else. Helen wanted to stop them but she didn’t this this guy would let her. She would have to take him out first.

Helen pulled her arm back and shot out her fist, stretching her arm across the hundred yards at Alpha with a punch like a cannon ball. With astounding agility, Alpha leaped up and avoided the blow, landing on her arm; actually on Helen’s arm! With mind-boggling speed and grace he rushed along Helen’s outstretched arm toward her. Helen barely had time to blink in shock as Alpha kicked out his foot and whacked her square in the chin. Helen cried out as she flew backwards. A large splatter of blood flew out of her mouth and spattered on Alpha’s armour.

She crashed to the ground roughly and painfully. Her vision swam and blackened, she was falling unconscious. Taking her body to Level 2 combat ability had been draining enough but the strength of that thing would have been too much for her even if she wasn’t weakened.

She lay on the ground, barely finding the strength to keep her eyes open as Alpha walked slowly closer.

To be continued.