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 1- The unfading scars.

Violet sat bolt upright in her bed. A ghost of a scream escaped her throat and she felt the hot stings of tears in her eyes. Her bedroom was still dark and everything was twisted into monstrous shapes by the shadows. She wiped a cold sweat from her brow and sat still for several seconds trying to catch her breath. There was a gentle moan by her side startled her and Violet teetered dangerously close to the edge of her bed for what seemed like hours. Tony wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up and although she couldn’t see them Violet could feel his eyes looking at her with concern.
“Another nightmare?” He said, resting a hand on her shoulder. His touch made some of her fear begin to fade and a slight warmth rekindle in her core.
“Not as bad this time.” She said quietly. “It’s alright.” She lay down again and Tony returned to her side a second later. “I’m already forgetting it. I just want to sleep”

Tony was spending the night, as he had done many times over the last two months. They were a comfort to each other after what they had been through with Psychewave and his attempts to try and capture the city. While their wounds had healed and their bruises had faded some hurts ran to deep. Both Violet and Tony had been plagued by terrible nightmares ever since that day. But while Tony’s had faded with time bringing uneasy, but unbroken sleep, Violets night terrors didn’t seem to want to release their hold on her just yet.

They lay side by side and Violet draped an arm across Tony. Within minutes he drifted back to sleep and while Violet closed her eyes and lay still, her mind would not shut down and she couldn’t find rest during the remainder of the night.

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

In the early hours of the dawn near the city centre, a tired young woman was making her way home. Night shifts were making her feel crappy but a paycheck was a paycheck at the end of the day, or night as the case may be. She felt like she needed a coffee, but even the almighty Starbucks wasn’t open at this time of the morning.

She turned left and took a short cut down an ally; it cut ten minutes off her journey back to her apartment. She didn’t notice a figure step out of the shadows but she felt the knife press against her back and the tight grip of a hand on her shoulder.
“Money now.” He growled. She froze and he pulled her closer and wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed the cold steal against her throat.
“I said now.”

All she could hear was her heart pounding in her head. Her inaction angered him and he shoved her hard making the poor girl stagger into a wall. He stepped closer to her and she could see the knife blade shine in the early morning light. He didn’t say anything and glared at her with angry and desperate eyes.

There was a clatter of metal and both of them jumped. The young woman screamed and flung her hands to her face for a second. From between the trashcans stepped a filthy and starving looking dog that looked at the two of them with its large eyes. The man paid no more head to the animal as soon as he saw it wasn’t a police officer and turned his attention back to the woman. He jumped down by her side and grabbed her hair and pressed the knife to her throat.
“I said give me your money bitch, now.”

She screamed and from the darkness came a spine-chilling howl. Her attacker looked around and his eyes focused on the slowly approaching animal.
“That’s not a dog.” He said in fright.

The animal reared up its hind legs and its body began to shift and change. Bones cracked and muscles began to swell. The attacker backed away from the transforming animal. The woman stared in surprise as a seven foot tall creature took a step toward the two of them.
“A werewolf.” She whispered in shock.

The would-be thief jumped to his feet and held his knife out as the werewolf took a step forward.
“Back off…man. I’ll cut ya’ I swear.”

With one swipe of his powerful arm the werewolf sent the blade flying through the air and into the shadows. The thief gripped his wrist, the strike made it throb painfully. He cried out and turned to run from the monster. The werewolf dived forward, jumping with its powerful legs making the creature practically fly through the air. He pounded his fists into the thief’s back and the guy cried out painfully as he collapsed to the ground and fell unconscious as his head hit the concrete.

The young woman watched from her spot by the wall, shaking uncontrollably as she saw the mighty beast took down her attacker. He turned back to glance at her and she cringed away from the beast, she couldn’t stand to look into his large primal yellow eyes. Then suddenly he turned away and grabbed her attacker by the belt of his jeans and the collar of his jacket. He picked the guy up like he was a suitcase and began walking off. She watched him vanish and it was a full ten minutes before she even dared to move.

At a police station less than half a mile away sergeant Anderson was just starting his shift. He breathed deeply the smell of the fresh coffee and yawned loudly, he knew it was going to be one of those days.

Suddenly a large object burst through the doors and slid along the floor. The sergeant fell from his chair in surprise, spilling the coffee on the floor. Behind him was a sudden chaotic shouts as other officers burst from their offices and locker rooms to see what the noise was about.

A man lay unconscious on the floor of the station, he was grubby and poorly dressed. He groaned weakly but didn’t wake up. Sergeant Anderson scrabbled onto his feet and ran past the guy (he wasn’t going anywhere) and burst out of the front doors, three of his fellow officers followed him.

A large werewolf was standing in the middle of the road and howled deafeningly. It suddenly turned and ran down the street at an unbelievable speed for a creature that size. They all instantly recognised who it was, no one could forget Shifter, the muscular henchman of Psychewave who tried to take over the city. Sergeant Anderson was the first to act, he pulled out his gun and fired at the Super villain without even shouting ‘freeze.’ It was too late. Shifter twisted and transformed down into his wolf form and ran into the nearby alleyway’s and was gone. Anderson re-holstered his gun and turned to his confused colleagues.
“Was that who I think it was?” They nodded in confirmation.
“What the hell was he doing here?” One guy asked. They turned and went back inside, another officer was already cuffing the unconscious guy. He looked up to his three colleagues and grabbed the guys hair to pull his head back and give them a look at the criminals face.
“James Rushman. Wanted on three counts of assault and four counts of armed robbery.” The young officer said in a gleeful astonishment.

The three officers looked at each other in confusion. Had the villainous henchman just acted like a genuine Super?

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

Violet got out of bed at eight AM. She didn’t know whether she had slept or not but it was no longer the early hours and the rest of the household was beginning to awake and it was becoming a decent time for her to be up and around the house.

Tony was still asleep and looked so peaceful and cute that she didn’t want to disturb him. She eased herself out of the bed and tiptoed gently across the floor. She caught sight of herself in the mirror and froze. Her poor sleep patterns had aged her and she had gone from looking sixteen almost to twenty. The dark marks actually had began to look like two black eyes, if she put on her super mask she doubted she would need the little smattering of black makeup around her eyes, necessary to help hide her identity.

She shook her head and grabbed her dressing gown, wrapping it tightly around her body. The nightmares weren’t as bad as they had been and, on average, she was getting more sleep with each night even if it didn’t feel like it sometimes.

She tiptoed out of the bedroom and down the hall to the kitchen. She would get a little breakfast, even though she didn’t feel hungry, pour a glass of orange juice for Tony and say a little goodbye before going out on an early morning patrol for a couple of hours. She needed to get out and clear her head after the night before.

As she poured herself a bowl of cereal she clicked on a small TV in the kitchen to catch some of the morning news, it might tell her some of the hotspots to patrol.
“…Within two weeks. And finally a strange report has come in from a downtown police station.” Violet poured the milk over her breakfast and listened with moderate interest. Anything to do with the police could mean something to do. “It appears that in the early hours of this morning a criminal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that had been wanted by the police for are robbery and assault was literally thrown through the front doors by a large individual that matches the description of the wanted criminal Super-villain, Shifter.”

Violet froze with the spoon just inches from her mouth. She didn’t even notice the milk dripping onto the table. “Officers are unsure as to what Shifters motives might have been to apprehend the criminal and are unwilling to speculate. Government agents are taking all the details they can and want to assure the public that they are doing everything they can to capture the Super villain.”

Violet threw her cereal bowl at the TV and ran from the kitchen. The set sparked and went blank and dead in a puff of smoke and the smell of burning plastic. Violet ran into the living room and stood in the middle of the room taking deep breaths and trying to fight back the tears. She had heard no mention of Shifter ever since the day Psychewave had been captured two months ago. Shifter had just disappeared and no one had heard anything more than rumours ever since. This was the first concrete sighting that had been made by anyone since then. And this wasn’t just anyone, these were police officers, city officials. Their word was law it had to be trusted.
“Violet, honey?”
Violet spun round, it was her mother. She raced forward and Helen wrapped her arms around her daughter and held her tightly as Violet broke down and sobbed onto her shoulder. The very mention of Shifter had dragged up all the old painful memories that she had put behind her over the last two months and opened the old wounds. Helen was patient, just as any mother would be, she held Violet tight and lovingly and made small shushing noises to sooth her.
“Honey? What’s the matter?”
Violet looked up at her mother and meant to say everything, she meant to tell her about the report she had just seen and what it was doing to her deep inside. But when it came to it the words became stuck in her throat and she fell silent. How could anyone, even her mother understand? She eased herself out of Helen’s grip, working against Helen’s will and instincts, and moved to her bedroom. Helen made to follow but Violet shook her head and made the woman hesitate.
“Just give me a minute mum, please?”
Helen didn’t want to give Violet a minute, she wanted to hold her, find out what was upsetting her daughter and make everything better. Violet had been through so much, more than most go through in their lifetimes and everyone had learned in that time that not everything could be cured by a mothers hug. She nodded her head Violet gently closed the door.

Violet slid to the floor and looked over at her sleeping lover in the bed. If anyone could come close to understanding what she had been through it was Tony. He had suffered just as much at Psychewave’s hands as she had. But she didn’t wave him up, she couldn’t find the will to go over there and stir him. Instead her eyes glanced over to her closet and the secret compartment she knew lay in the back of it. Within this compartment hung her Super suit. She wanted to slip it on and go out into the world as Vanisher. As Vanisher as had a separate set of problems and duties that Violet didn’t have and vice versa. As Vanisher she could leave her Violet problems behind and forget them for a little while. But she didn’t want to do that for two reasons. One; it was something that she had been in the habit of doing two months ago and had probably been something that had made it easier for Psychewave to manipulate her. Two; She didn’t trust her Vanisher self very much anymore. Although Rick, Tony and her parents had tried to assure her that the pubic opinion said no one held any real negative feelings against Vanisher because she had turned and fought back against Psychewave and Shifter. She couldn’t help but feel guilty and afraid whenever she put on her suit. She had done so many things while she was under his control, she had hurt so many people, her parents included. Everyone said they had forgiven her but Violet thought she saw people looking at her differently and that included Dash and her parents. At times she even thought she caught Tony giving her odd glances. She didn’t know whether these looks were real or just paranoia brought on by her own personal guilt. People may have forgiven her, but she knew she had a long way to go before she could forgive herself.

Tony stirred and his eyes opened. There was a few seconds of bleariness and he stretched, groaned and rubbed his eyes, then he noticed Violet sitting in front of the door and sat up on the bed.
“Vi’? What’s the matter?” He slid out of bed and came over to kneel by her side. She looked at his with her large, sad eyes and felt tears rising again.
“Shifter.” She said as the first tears ran down her cheeks. “He’s back.”

Tony made to try and hold her but Violet brushed him off and climbed to her feet and moved toward her closet. Tony scrabbled to get up, he knew what she was going to.
“Violet?” He demanded. She pulled open her closet and slid open the secret compartment in the back.
“I have to get him Tony. I have to find that Thing and make him pay.” She said the word ‘Thing’ with a capital letter you could tell by her tone. “I won’t let him get away with the things he did.”

She pulled the royal purple coloured suit off its coat hanger and began to pull off her nightclothes. Tony grabbed her arms and forced her to be still. She glared at him and tried to free herself but he was too determined to make her stop.
“Vi’ please, think about this. What are you going to do? There are a million places Shifter could hide in downtown alone. You can’t find him by yourself. You need to trust agent Dicker. He’s in charge of hundreds of people and I’ll bet their doing everything they can to find him.”

Violet dropped her arms to her side and nodded her head.
“I know Tony, I know.” She tossed her suit onto her bed and stared at its stage empty shape almost with a longing. “I Just feel like I have to do something. I have to try. I’ve faced him down before, I had my chance and he got away. I don’t want someone to get hurt because of what I did.”

Tony nodded and put a hand on her shoulder. Then pulled her close and Violet hugged him tightly.
“I know Violet. I know.” He said soothingly. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, something he knew she liked.

The moment was suddenly spoiled as Tony’s stomach growled loudly. Violet pulled away and smiled. It made him feel good to see her smile, she did it so little.
“Come one hot stuff.” She said jokingly. “Let’s get you some breakfast.” She moved her hand down to between Tony’s legs and brushed lightly at his cock through his pyjamas. “We need to keep your strength up.”

They both laughed lightly and began to make their way out of the bedroom. As soon as the door was open they picked up the scent of bacon and coffee coming from the kitchen. Violet leaned up, Tony was a few inches taller than her, and kissed her boyfriend on the cheek.
“You go ahead lover. I just need to go to the bathroom.”

Tony kissed her back and walked on to the kitchen. Violet genuinely needed to use the bathroom and went to do her business. For a couple of minutes she managed to convince herself that she could leave it in the hands of Rick Dicker and his men. But it was on the way back toward the kitchen from the bathroom that the flash of purple through her open bedroom door caught her eye and made her freeze. She looked at the gold V on the black circle without blinking, whether it was for seconds, minutes or hours she didn’t know. She’d had her chance once and it had slipped away from her and now she was being given the opportunity to correct that mistake.

After Violet had supposedly been in the bathroom for over ten minutes Tony sighed and continued to eat the breakfast Mrs. Parr had made. There was no need to check, he knew both Violet and her suit were gone and he didn’t blame her for going, not one little bit.

To be continued.