By John Little
"The Incredibles" Fan Fiction
Author's Notes: I'm writing this for four reasons. First of all, it's hard for me to get into the habit of writing fanfics, so I figured that a nice one-shot might help me along that road (the only thing I've ever been vaguely proud of was a story called Edward Kidnastoff for the Zelda stories...but I digress). Second, I enjoyed the Incredibles, but I thought that the characters of Violet and Dash needed a bit more in the way of characterization. Third, I've always been interested in the whole "super name" phenomenon. Finally, I didn't see any Incredibles fanfics out there yet. Maybe, just maybe, I can be first.
Anyway, I doubt that this'll be getting to anyone's favorites list any time soon. But still, if you somehow trudge through the whole thing, then I guess some good was done here.
Regardless, you're not here to hear my rantings. You're here to read. Enjoy!
"IncrediGIRL?!"
Bob Parr, more popularly known to the people of the world as Mr. Incredible, looked up from his waffles as his daughter, Violet, angrily shook the morning newspaper in his face.
"What type of a lame name is that?! I mean, the witnesses saw my powers...invisibility, and force fields...and the best that the newspaper can do is Incredigirl?"
Bob took the newspaper and looked at it. The front page was filled with a picture of the entire Parr family minus Jack-Jack locked into a climactic battle against a mutant anaconda that had escaped from a government research facility two days earlier. Bob turned the page and quickly skimmed the article, stopping only when he found the upsetting passage:
"While grateful for the protection offered by this team of supers, many take issue with the inclusion of children in the dangerous lifestyle. 'While we know that Mr. Incredible is highly experienced in the field of heroics, and that the same goes for this Mrs. Incredible if she is, as rumored, Elastigirl, there is simply no way that these children are prepared for the dangers inherent in their position,' said police chief Neil Sorrows. 'The elder Incredibles need to seriously rethink the inclusion of an Incrediboy and Incredigirl in their war on crime.'"
Besides shuddering at the name Incrediboy, Bob didn't really know how to respond to this. His wife was taking a phone call in the other room, and Dash, having finished his breakfast before everyone else, couldn't provide a standard interruption.
"Well, Violet," Bob began, quickly trying to come up with some sagely wisdom, "You know, most supers don't choose their own names."
"But you did!" Violet interjected. "Even your old blue costumes have the letter I on them!"
"Actually, um...that's not technically true...." Bob hadn't wanted to take the conversation down this road, but it seemed very much like it might have to. "You see, if you look at my earliest costume designs, you'll notice that the dot is actually just a rounded extension of the vertical bar. I was originally "The Tower", but that name didn't....catch on."
"Really?" Violet had never heard anyone mentioned 'The Tower' before. "Why not?"
"Well, you see, it was my first night on the job so to speak, and I didn't really know what I was doing back then. I let some fifth string villain....I think his name was Gambling Problem, or something....get away. What made it worse was the fact that there was another well established hero on the case who probably would have been able to catch Gambling Problem if I hadn't gotten in the way. On the news that night, this other hero was angry, of course, and referred to me as "Mr. Incredible", despite the fact that he knew very well that I was The Tower. Well, since I had a badly drawn logo, people just naturally assumed that Mr. Incredible was what I wanted to be called. So I just rolled with it. As soon as I was able to become well established enough to get an appointment with Edna Mode, I had the design modified enough to be unmistakable from an I."
"Woah. So...I can't do anything about it?"
"Oh, no, you can definitely do things about it. I think that your Mother was able to keep the name that she started out with. She might be willing to tell you how she pulled that off after she gets off the phone."
"Oh! Okay."
And with that, Violet left Bob to his waffles. Bob took a few more bites, and chewed thoughtfully.
"Incrediboy...sure hope that that one doesn't stick...."
AUTHOR'S CLOSING NOTE:
Okay. So. In the fifteen minutes that I spent writing this, a category for the Incredibles popped up with seven stories in it. Heh-heh...oh, well. There's still the three other reasons I had for writing this.
;-)