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 7-The bond.

Shifter looked at Vanisher and she returned the expression. It was only just beginning to dawn on her what she had just done. No Super ever really had a sidekick, a few worked in teams but they went solo as often as they were together. Her parents were prime example of that. Not only had she just earned herself a permanent sidekick until the government decided otherwise but also she had just begun to realise what the public reaction might be. Shifter was not thought of fondly by the average person on the street and it would take more than a lot of work to convince them otherwise. Her own public opinion would suffer a lot of hatred before anything got better
“Well-” Mirage began. She looked around the office to make sure no other agents were within earshot “Violet, Michael, everything seems to be sorted. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
Violet hesitate. She knew that Mirage was only asking out of politeness but she did actually need something. “Actually…We could use a ride…I kinda crashed my bike.”
Mirage blinked a couple seconds in silence and sighed. She had asked, it wasn’t now only polite to fulfil her promise. She nodded her head and shrugged her shoulders.
“I suppose we can do that. But our vehicle cannot be seen in the residential area where you live, we’ll have to drop you off about a quarter of a mile from your home.”
“That’s fine by me.” Violet said. She rubbed at her face, at her temple. The mask felt slightly loose but it would stay on long enough for her to get home without compromising her identity.
Mirage went with Vanisher to where the bike had fallen, it wasn’t too far from the government van, no more than a hundred yards. As Vanisher approached the vehicle she could already see that there was a lot of damage. Chinks of metal and plastic were all over the road where the machine had skidded. Parts of the seat were torn apart, exposing the padding within. One of the handlebars was bent almost to a right angle and the back wheel had been punctured and the suspension was snapped clean in two. The worrying thing was the growing puddle of liquid was spreading across the road. ‘Damn’ Vanisher thought. ‘the fuel tank must be punctured.’ She gripped the bike the best she could and managed to heave it upright. The machine tottered unsteadily and the back end was sunk very low now the suspension was broken. Now it was upright the full damage could be seen, half the paintwork was gone and ground away revealing the steel beneath. She could see the hole that had been worn right into the metal around the fuel tank. The front and back lights were shattered and the frame itself had a long crack running down it. The whole machine needed serious repair.
“Edna is going to kill you.” Mirage said in shock. She had never seen such serious damage in any vehicle when the driver walked away practically unscratched.
Working together the two women managed to drag the bike to the black van. There would be just enough room inside to accommodate it. “I’ll take it to Edna’s after I drop you off.” Mirage said helpfully. “Do you have any civilian clothing?”
“Nothing.” Vanisher said sadly as they hoisted the heavy bike into the van. “I changed into my suit on the spur of the moment.” Vanisher jumped it the van and helped manoeuvre the bike to as far out of the way as possible. Even so two of the agents were now pinned to their desks and the driver was trapped in the front of the van. Vanisher, Shifter and Mirage (or Agent Price as she preferred to be known) were stuck in the back near the door and Mirage’s tiny office. “My plan.” Vanisher said, continuing. “Was for Shifter to turn into his wolf form and I would turn invisible. I could guide him back to my home. No one would suspect a stray dog. No offence.” She added looking down at the boy who was no older than her brother Dash. He looked sad, but nodded his head as if he understood. “It’s fine.” He muttered. Vanisher felt her heart melt slightly as she realised that Shifters sense of guilt and low sense of worth must have been eating away at him for so long. She’d felt the same for a while but she’d had Tony to help lift her out of the darkness. Shifter had been alone; she supposed that now was her chance to help Shifter.

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

The large black unmarked Winnebago pulled up at the edge of the Violet’s neighbourhood. She recognised the streets and a few of the homes. The door opened and a large animal that resembled a dog leaped out. The door closed the vehicle drove on.
“This way.” Vanisher whispered as she walked away. Her footsteps were almost silent but not beyond his sensitive wolf ears. Shifter followed the sounds of her feet all the way back to her home. It looked like a nice enough place, friendly and welcoming. Not anything like the kind of places he’d lived in over the last few years. There was a couple of cars on the driveway and Vanisher’s footsteps stopped suddenly and Shifter paused in his own tracks. He could smell her, she was very close.
“It looks like my family is home. You go and wait in the back yard.” Her voice whispered out of nowhere. “I’ll try and explain things to them.”

Shifter slinked off and Vanisher followed him only part of the way. When she came to the side of the house she stopped outside her bedroom. The window was partly open, just the way she’d left it. It slid up without a problem and she grabbed the frame and hauled herself up and inside of her bedroom. Only once she’d closed the drapes did she dare to turn visible again. She caught sight of herself in the mirror; she looked good in her royal purple suit with the large golden V on the chest contained within a black circle. Violet herself was a little worse for wear; her hair needed a comb and there was a lot of dirt on her face on the one side and a nasty looking graze on the other. All in all it had been a miracle that she’d come out of the bike accident still in once piece. Violet peeled the mask off her face and tossed it onto her bed. She looked at herself in the mirror and thought how odd she looked. With the mask on she was Vanisher; without it she was merely Violet in Vanisher’s costume. There was some overlapping but for the most part the two lived quite separate lives. No one who knew Violet could ever picture her knowing martial arts or riding around on a motorbike. Those same people would be hard pressed to picture Vanisher sitting in her bedroom struggling with her math homework or trying to find the right thing to wear to go on a date with her boyfriend. Not that Violet went on too many dates with Tony; when they did meet up they struggled to leave her bedroom. Not that either of them had too many complaints about that.

Violet grabbed her pink bathrobe and wrapped it tightly around her body. Her gloved hands and booted feet still showed along with a bit of her suit from her neck to the start of her cleavage. It would do for the moment; she would change into civilian clothing later. Violet opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the house.

Her father was in the living room and she could hear her mum in the kitchen. Before she had a chance to say anything to get their attention her youngest brother Jack-jack saw her and jumped down from the sofa. He ran at his big sister with a large smile on her face and his arms stretched out wide. “Vy Vy” He called out loudly, it was as close to Violet as he could manage at the moment. Violet smiled and scooped him up and gave him a big hug.
“Hi there little man.” She said sweetly, planting a big kiss on his tiny cheek.

Her dad jumped up from the sofa and her mum came out of the kitchen. Violet was supposed to be in school for another half an hour. Her parents saw the super suit under the robe and Violet placed Jack-jack back down onto the floor, letting him run off back to his mum. Helen was the first to say it. “Violet. What are the rules?” She said slowly and the tone that all parents seemed to know how to use that denoted both anger and disappointment without so much as a raised voice. Violet nodded her head sadly.
“No leaving school to do any Super work unless the entire city is in danger.” She said quoting what the rule. “But this was different.” She added in a pleading voice. “There was a report about Shifter…” She got no further because her father interrupted her.
“Not him again. Vi’ you have to learn to try and put this behind you. Shifter will be caught eventually. By either the police or another Super eventually. You aren’t the only person that wants to catch him. You can’t make it your own personal crusade.” He stepped closer and took his daughters hand. “Your mother and I are worried about you.” He said as gently as he could. “We think that this thing with Shifter is turning into an obsession.”
“No it’s alright.” Violet said. “You see I…” But she was interrupted again.
“It’s not alright.” Helen said, stepping closer to Violet. “We could understand the nightmares and the poor sleep. We even could understand Tony staying over so often.” She glanced at Bob who’d facial expression showed what he thought about Tony staying over so much. “But now you’re skipping school to try and get him. It’s like an addiction Vi’ and it’s getting out of hand.”
“I found him.” She yelled, interrupting both her parents before they could continue with their rant. “I found him and caught him.”

Their anger faded and was replaced by looks of joy. Helen looked proud of her daughter and underneath the pride was relief that perhaps now her obsession would be over. Then violet continued to speak and all the former emotions were replaced with many colder and darker ones; mostly worry.
“When I saw him, every idea I thought I had about him was gone. He wasn’t just some criminal or evil beast. He wasn’t the monster I’d made him out to be. He was just a kid.”
“Violet.” Bob began. “What did you do?”

Violet took a deep breath and tried to stop her hands from shaking; it was now or never. “I felt sorry for him. He shouldn’t go to jail; he was trying to make up for what he’d done.”
“What did you do?” Helen interrupted, sounding very worried. Violet rubbed her hands together nervously, she couldn’t meet her parents gaze.
“I just didn’t want him to go to jail.” She said as she walked over to the large glass doors that led onto the back yard. As soon as the doors were open a young boy stepped inside. He was a little older than Dash. His hair was greasy and filthy. He was thin and looked like he hadn’t eaten a decent meal in ages. He wore no other clothing than his suit which was very dirty and very, very smelly. Neither Bob nor Helen could take their eyes off the S on the chest of the costume. He looked up at the two adults with large, sad eyes. He placed his hands together and started to twiddle his fingers nervously.
“Mum, dad.” Violet said nervously. “This is Michael. You know him as Shifter.”

Bob charged at the boy at his full speed but barely got two steps toward Michael before Violet knocked him back with a force field. Bob fell to the floor and looked at his daughter with a rage she had never seen before. “Violet are you insane? You know what that boy did to you. He’s a wanted criminal for god’s sake.”
“Not any more.” Violet said, raising her voice to match her fathers. “They are giving him a second chance. Just like they gave me.”
“Violet, you earned that second chance.” Helen said. She hadn’t taken her eyes off Shifter and the boy was slowly edging his way behind Violet.
“And he wants to earn his.” Violet responded, she was starting to show a courage that she didn’t have a second ago. She had been so nervous about how her parents would react, now she knew. “I’m to blame. I talked agent Price into it.”
“Mirage.” Helen and Bob muttered. Violet continued on as if they’d said nothing.
“She understood at least.” Violet snapped. “She legally bound him to me. We both signed a…” She tried to remember the name. “An 8:15.”

Bob and Helen looked at each other, Violet guessed that they recognised what an 8:15 was and what it meant in real down-to-earth terms. The argument was over, they could keep on complaining but they would get nowhere.
“So you made him your side kick.” Bob said, he spoke slowly and sounded very angry. Violet nodded her head, feeling Michael’s grip on her arm tighten. He seemed terrified of what Violet’s parents would do to him.
“Gladly.” Violet said sternly. She reached around her back and took Michael’s hand, dragging him from his hiding place behind her back and to her side so Bob and Helen could get a good look at him. “Mum, dad. He just wants to make up for what he did. He’s sorry and just needs a chance to show it.”

Bob growled and looked at his wife, turning the situation over to her. She however was looking to him for the answer. Neither of them knew what to do. Eventually they both sighed and Bob shook his head as Helen spoke first. “It seems that you’ve put us in a place where we have no choice. Fine…he can stay, but he only sleeps on the sofa.”

Shifter looked like he was ready to faint with relief. Violet smiled but knew it was a small victory. She hadn’t convinced her parents of anything, she had only forced them to accept what could not be changed. It was a start at least.

Helen stormed off and Bob gave an angry glare at his daughter before he joined his wife. Violet waited until they were gone until she finally dropped the force field that had serated her from her angry parents.
“I thought he was going to kill me.” Muttered Shifter in a frightened voice. He had taken down criminals armed with guns and ran from police officers with bigger guns. Yet he hadn’t felt any real fear until he was faced with an angry father confronted with the image one of his daughters former tormenters.
“If I didn’t put up that field, I think he would have.” Violet said “It’s alright now. They won’t hurt you. No matter how angry they are, they won’t betray the government.”

She looked at him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Come on, lets see if we can find something for you to wear.” She took a sniff and wrinkled her nose. “Perhaps a shower first.”

Michael nodded his head and followed Violet as she gave him a brief tour of the place that was to become, more or less, his new home.

To be continued.