Timeline notes: Part 1 of this chapter is set three years before The Incredibles takes place (going by Helen's comment about officially getting moved in,) part 2 right after Syndrome's defeat, and the final part, of course, a few months later.

October, 1982, Stern Bild and Burbsville

"Hello?"

"Oh, hey, Barnaby. It's Bob Parr?"

"Oh, yes. Mr. Incredible."

Bob winced. "You have no idea how glad I am my wife can't hear you call me that right now."

"Oh. That sounds... ominous. Just a moment, here's Kotetsu."

Bob could hear, faintly, the sound of Kotetsu's "what happened?" and Barnaby saying something about "the Parrs." Of course Kaede would be his first worry. "Hey, Bob. What's wrong?"

"Another move..." Bob said, grimly, and he heard the creak of a couch as Kotetsu sat down.

"What was it this time?"

"'Bowling night' kinda blew up in my face. Well, both our faces, but Lucius and Honey don't have any kids needing to transfer schools..."

"Uh-oh."

"Sorry, I wasn't calling to dump on you. I just needed to let you know the new address, because Helen wasn't really sure where to send it - are you and Barnaby living together yet?"

"Not quite, but thinking about it. I leave stuff at his place, he leaves stuff at mine - you know how it is."

"It's a distant memory," Bob said. "So which address is better for mail?"

April, 1985, Metroville

Helen had sworn that every time Bob forced them to move, notifying everyone was his job, but with their house reduced to a smoking crater, she couldn't resist. Until they picked out a new place, they wouldn't have a landline or a permanent address, so she settled for sending out an email with a photo of the wreckage, a short explanation, and their temporary contact information, to everyone who was in the loop on their old line of work.

"Kotetsu still hasn't stopped laughing," Barnaby told her, over the phone. "Something about Bob winning forever. You seem in better spirits than I would have expected."

"It looks like we might actually be cleared to come out of retirement," she said. "And at this point I'm just happy we're all alive and in one piece, you know?"

"I understand completely," he said, with feeling. "Would you like to talk to Kotetsu? If he can contain himself?" He raised his voice a bit for that last, and she heard Kotetsu's indistinct protest.

"I should really get going," she said. "My sister always worries, and I wasn't able to get hold of her earlier. Just let him know we might be back in action. Or Bob will, when we get word."

"I'll let him know."

June, 1985, Stern Bild

The Parrs were the first guests to arrive. "I hope we're not too early," Helen said, when Barnaby and Kaede let them in.

"Not at all! Kotetsu and Antonio are out back," Barnaby said. "Let me show you the house before everyone else arrives."

To Kaede, this family wasn't the set of treasured old friends her dad knew; they were a group of people she'd met once, a little kid she'd half-babysat, and a series of Christmas cards, a birth announcement, and a couple of address-change cards over the years. They were also the Incredibles, the first new (or partly-new) group of heroes to emerge since the US ban on heroics had been lifted, and that was a lot more interesting to her.

She'd known they had powers, back when she met them the last time, but either she'd missed the part where they used to be heroes, or hadn't much cared. She'd been ten or eleven back then, and the fact she'd met the Stern Bild heroes, helped save them, was still so distant and crazy it felt like a dream sometimes; she didn't just assume her dad's friends were heroes, especially since she'd no sooner learned he was a hero than he retired and moved back home.

And that had been the summer he was retired, so she was still just dealing with the fact that her dad - her distant, lying, promise-breaking dad, who baby-talked her and forgot things and mailed her a stupid creepy Mad Bear toy after they nearly blew up the city - was a hero who'd risked his life and gone through hell for everybody's sake, and yet he was also a big, silly kid who watched a lot of TV and bought candy bars whenever they were in a checkout line and actually cheered when he made a basket with something he threw at a trash can. Barnaby, handsome and cool and good at everything, was actually no good at a lot of things, like understanding references to TV shows or listening to music written in the last hundred years. It had been a lot to adjust to all at once, so no wonder she barely paid attention to a family with two heroes who'd retired when she was practically a baby. Dash was the main one she remembered, the way he'd latched onto her, and how it had felt to run at that speed.

But Dad and Barnaby had moved in together, and she'd be moving in with them later this summer - she was already spending weekends in the city, helping them shop for things for her new room, convincing Dad she didn't want the same kind of canopy bed she'd had when she was like three - and so naturally when they threw a housewarming party they invited the family Dad had been friends with since before she was born. "Literally," Dad had said, and for once he wasn't misusing the word 'literally.' "Your mom was pregnant with you when she bumped into Elastigirl."

"Really?" she'd demanded, suddenly interested, so that was when he told her a lot more of the story. It was hard to get him to talk about her mom, sometimes, so this was doubly welcome.

It was still a little hard for her to get used to. The Stern Bild heroes were all familiar to her, but the Parrs weren't, so it was hard to get used to the idea that this normal-seeming lady, the big, slightly paunchy, balding man, the girl a few years younger than her, were heroes. The baby had powers, too, apparently. And there was Dash, the age she was when she met him.

"I remember you!" he said to her, hanging back as Barnaby began the tour. "Wanna race again?"

"Not in the house," Barnaby called over his shoulder.

"Of course not in the house," she said, rolling her eyes a little. Violet giggled; she'd hung back, too.

"You can copy powers, right?" Violet asked. "Any powers?"

"Yeah. Any powers so far, anyway. I've never found any I couldn't. Why?"

"I wanted to see what you can do with mine. I'm always looking for ideas."

"Sure, I can do that!" This was a perk she hadn't considered; a new batch of powers to copy. Maybe Mrs. Incredible would be willing to let her borrow hers, too. "Yours we can do here, probably. We'll have to find a place for a race later. There's a park not far from here. You need to be careful, though, don't run off any edges. There are safety rails, but I bet they'd stand up like tissue paper at high speeds." She wasn't at all used to the Gold Stage, and Dash had probably never been here before, even if they'd been to Stern Bild. It was mostly a fancy residential area, with some upscale shops - not the kind of thing tourists brought hyperactive kids to see.

"We saw that when we were coming in," Dash said. "Why's it built like that? It's really cool, but why?"

"Some of it's because of space, I know. We learned about it in history class. They started building up the stages back around the turn of the century, and they finished the Gold Stage back in the forties or so... I may not have been paying too much attention." They were both watching her, listening to her explanation. She kind of felt like the cool older sister all of a sudden. That'd probably last until Dragon Kid and Blue Rose showed up, so she should make the most of it while she could. "I don't remember the exact date, but I remember there was a black and white picture of Mr. Legend cutting the ribbon for the first tram ride up to the Gold Stage. And because of my dad I know when Mr. Legend started."

"I wonder if that's why our dad picked his name," Violet said. "Mr. Legend, Mr. Incredible... I need a hero name. I don't like Shrinking Violet."

"It sounds a lot like Ms. Violet from the Second League," Kaede said. "But her powers are nothing like yours."

"And it makes it sound like your power is to get really tiny," Dash added, and Violet shot him a look.

"Maybe, like, See-Through?" Kaede suggested. "Transparency?"

"Hmmm..."

"Do mine next!" Dash demanded. "Or do mine first! Mine's easier."

"Prism?" Kaede suggested. "I don't see how yours is easier. Flash is already taken and Dash is your real name."

"I like Prism!"

Kotetsu and Bob were sitting by the grill, letting Antonio handle the actual grilling. Helen was over by the patio with Bunny, Sky High and Blue Rose; the baby was a big draw, it turned out. Bunny was supposedly just being a host, but when Blue Rose passed him the baby, he took him over tentatively; Kotetsu watched, only halfway listening to Bob, as his partner - still the best word they had - gradually relaxed, bouncing the kid slightly. Seeing a smile spread out over Bunny's face was one of his favorite sights in the world.

Yeah, they'd be reviving the adoption discussion tonight, he figured. Good time for it, with Kaede here. See how she felt about babies after this. She was inside with the older Parr kids, at the moment, or maybe giving someone else the tour of the house, since he'd heard the doorbell ring earlier; he wasn't sure whether or not she should try holding Jack-Jack, whose array of powers sounded pretty scary. She didn't usually have a lot of control when she first got her hands on an ability, though she and Barnaby both swore up and down she was getting better. And it might actually be good to have someone who was able to talk try out the baby's powers, so Bob and Helen weren't constantly getting surprised. Helen's bright "he keeps us on our toes!" had sounded kind of forced.

And Kaede did have better control of her base power, now. She didn't automatically copy everyone she touched anymore. Maybe she could just hold the baby without bursting into flames or flying or anything. That might be best.

"So maybe I should have thought it was too good to be true, but at a time like that, it looked more like too good to pass up."

"You didn't think to ask anybody about it? See if it checked out?"

"It was all hush-hush, top-secret stuff! I didn't tell Lucius, I didn't even tell Helen! Now I know why they set it up that way, but at the time I took them at their word."

"You know, this Syndrome guy," Antonio said. "You said he made that Omnidroid thing, he made weapons, set it up so he could fly?"

"Rockets, too. All kinds of gadgets."

"That sounds kinda... familiar. Don't you think, Kotetsu?"

"Wait. Like..." He looked around, but he probably couldn't lower his voice enough for Bunny not to hear the word. "Like Ouroboros?" he said, lowering his voice anyway. Sure enough, Bunny's smile faded almost instantly, and Jack-Jack started to fuss. Bunny's eyes met Kotetsu's, and Kotetsu tried to smile reassuringly. I swear I'll fill you in, he mouthed, which probably accomplished very little - Bunny couldn't seem to read lips worth a damn, at least not his - but seemed to do the trick anyway. He went back to bouncing Jack-Jack on his hip, and the baby calmed down quickly.

"Yeah. The robots, the powered suits, things like that? Not necessarily that he was working for them directly, but he might have sold them equipment."

"I couldn't tell you, but I might be able to help," Bob said. "His second-in-command, Mirage, helped us get back home at the end. I don't know if the contact number I had for her is any good now, but I'm pretty sure I know people who can get in touch with her. If anyone would have that kind of info she'd be the one."

"Thanks, Bob. It'd mean a lot to Bunny. Both of us," he amended. He couldn't remember exactly how much of the story he'd passed along, or how much the Parrs would have remembered, but "Ouroboros killed his parents" was pretty well-known. Kaede stepped out onto the porch, leading Dragon Kid and Origami outside; Dragon Kid made a beeline for the baby, and Kotetsu grinned.

"Happy to help," Bob said. "I can't even tell you how good it is to be back in action, and with my whole family - I dunno, maybe it's irresponsible, but knowing we can all count on each other, it's like- It feels great."

"No, I know exactly what you mean," Kotetsu said. The family he counted on was just a bit bigger.