Story: Fata Morgana Coils of Hope, Fear, and Tragedy (chapter 1)

[Author's notes: The first chapter to a story that I will finish no matter how long it takes. So that means anything else is on hold of course. Some self aware humor that I think is fitting of The Incredibles universe. No breaking the fourth wall or anything but they are aware of various superhero/villain tropes much in the line of Kim Possible.]

Dank, shadowy, abysmal, limited decor all in all it almost looked like the countless other villainous hideouts Mirage had infiltrated over the past four years since she began working for the N.S.A. One of the more notable exceptions were the strange glowing runes that seemed to adorn the entire hideout, she had been informed of the possibility of magic but she thought that was just Dicker being paranoid. Still though considering all she has seen over the years the revelation of magic didn’t faze her as much as the mechanized tyrannosaurus wearing a top hat. Suppressing the urge to giggle at the thought of Tronasaurus’ various attempts to wreak havoc Mirage took another picture of the runes using a camera hidden in her glove. She may have hated the bureaucracy of the National Supers Agency but she certainly loved the toys even if they weren’t quite as advanced as Syndrome’s they got the job done. Speaking of jobs her current assignment was unfortunately taking far too long, it couldn’t be helped however since there were too many unknowns even with her back up not far off Mirage had to take it slow. She had yet to encounter any guards or even another room, it seemed like this place was an endless hallway that merely led to another hallway and so on. The sound of the stone shifting interrupted her musings as two men dressed in what could have been dark brown robes emerged from a hidden panel in the wall. The problem with a constant series of hallways was there was very little room to hide and unlike a certain someone Mirage lacked any means of turning invisible. Weighing her options within the fraction of a second Mirage charged the duo hoping to catch them before they could react. Bringing her right knee up Mirage thrust her leg out into a powerful sidekick hitting the first man in his side and knocking him right into his companion. Literally pouncing upon the opportunity Mirage attacked the second man with a vicious blow to the head knocking him out. Before she could turn her attentions to the first man she noticed the chaotic sparks of electricity arcing their way out of the man she was on top of doing more damage to his companion than to Mirage.

“Uhh is that jumpsuit of yours insulated?” The man asked once he realized his attack had no effect. Mirage answered with a punch to his face.

Once she was sure the two men were incapacitated Mirage typed the passcode into her glove that would contact her backup. Not wanting to make the same mistake Helen did six years ago Mirage opted to use a soundless coded signal to communicate with Violet. The code went as follows; Mirage would send a signal to a device in Violet’s glove which would quietly vibrate. Should the coast be clear on Violet’s end she would communicate verbally, if the coast wasn’t clear Violet would signal back to Mirage. After a few seconds Mirage received the signal indicating things were not clear on Violet’s end. Cursing under her breath Mirage quietly stepped into the room the two men had emerged from.
Cabinets, cupboards, tables, all littered with scrolls and papers in a manner that suggested that these supposed cultists didn’t care much for organization. Unlike her Violet, but then again if they had to grow up with Bob and Dash’s various messes they might have developed a mild case of O.C.D. as well. Mirage suppressed another giggle as she tried to banish the various images of possible reactions Violet would have if she saw this mess.
‘Really Mirage.’ The spy thought to herself. ‘You should know better than to-‘ The faint sound of scuffling feet interrupted her reverie and within the span of a second she dropped the papers she had been going through and drew her primary pistol from its holster at the right side of her hip. Glaring down the iron sights of her laser pistol Mirage gazed at the terrifying sight of… a mouse waggling its whiskers at her.

‘Odd up until those two cultists appeared I haven’t seen any signs of life at all.’ The way the rodent stared at her was unnerving however, pointing her primary pistol at the rodent, she decided better safe than sorry. After all she had heard countless tales of a certain hairless mole rat having thwarted the bad guys, who’s to say the bad guys haven’t got one of their own? Before Mirage could even pull the trigger though the rodent leapt at her its body twisting, contorting, growing until it had adopted the form of one of the most dangerous creatures known. The form of man.

“Shifty…” Mirage hissed through gritted teeth as she struggled to free herself from Shifty’s elongated arm as it wrapped around her upper body pinning her arms to her sides. “I wasn’t aware you learned how to change your mass.”

“That’s not all thanks to the boss I can even make clothing out of my own skin now!”

“And yet you still choose to form that tacky suit? Really Shifty you look more like your about to go to some cubicle at a dead end office job. And with that haircut I’d say a cubicle at some insurance company.”

“Hey!” Shifty exclaimed evidently far more offended than Mirage had anticipated. “Chicks dig the suit! Speaking of suits I am digging the white body suit, had I known female agents of the N.S.A. dressed like this maybe I would of joined up with them.”

“Have.” Mirage corrected.

“Excuse me?”

“The correct way of saying that is “I would have joined up”. If you lived with the person I do you would learn to speak properly all the time too. Also this suit isn’t for you.” With that Mirage fell to the ground hoping to knock Shifty off balance. Although Mirage’s actions took him by surprise Shifty elongated his arm further to accommodate for Mirage’s actions. Still this leeway allowed more than enough room to bring her foot square between Shifty’s legs. Taking advantage of Shifty’s slackened grip Mirage immediately jumped back to her feet and drew her secondary pistol as well. As Mirage unleashed a barrage of laser fire at the rogue super, Shifty’s form flowed and slithered as he transformed into a serpent barely managing to avoid the worst of Mirage’s gunfire.

While Shifty slithered away from Mirage’s onslaught he weighed his options. Survival took precedence over his bosses’ fury and with that he shouted; “Arcaniss bex!” What followed was chaos as the walls, floor, and ceiling reconfigured.
----------------------------------------------------------------

‘A mad man must have designed this place!’ Violet thought to herself as her quarry descended down yet another spiral stair case. She had followed this strange figure through what seemed like an infinite amount of corridors only to give way to one spiral stair case after another with only a brief hallway breaking up the monotony. The quarry was as far as she could tell unaware that she was following him, just to be sure Violet made sure as to avoid the worst of the cobwebs and dust that littered this infuriatingly dirty place. As amusing as the prospect of him turning around to see a seemingly floating web covering her invisible form she didn’t know what the man was capable of as such she refused to risk exposure. That and the idea of being covered in a dirty cobweb nearly mad her gag, she couldn’t begin to imagine how much it would distract her in a fight. Plus she could just hear the endless lecture her mother would give her; “That was a mission missy not a picnic!” or “I knew partnering you up with Mirage was a bad idea, she never takes anything seriously and her bad influence is affecting you now!”

“Sounds like your mother is quite the fussy lady.”

“…Oh crap you can read minds.” Violet stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Her quarry turned around allowing Violet to finally not see the face of the man she had been shadowing. The tall, lanky man opted to wear a flowing, immaculate, white robe seemingly unmarred by the sea of dust and debris of the hallways the two had traveled through. Hiding his face was an equally clean white helmet with a crest that curved upwards from the top not unlike certain exotic birds. The only blemish on the helmet was a glowing circle on the face plate which Violet assumed was the man’s eyes. Briefly contemplating how well one could see in such an object, and strongly hoping that his ability to read minds couldn’t give away her exact location, Violet unleashed a wave of force upon her opponent sending him careening over the railing of the spiral staircase.

“Oh crap! Oh crap! Oh crap! I just meant to knock him down! That shouldn’t have been enough to push him that far!” Violet nearly screamed as she frantically ran to the railing. Hesitating for a brief moment before tentatively looking over the edge the sight that greeted Violet was at once very nauseating, slightly comforting, and incredibly worrisome. Despite falling nearly sixty feet the man had gotten up and if the sickening cracking and squelching sounds were any indication he was popping his shattered limbs into their rightful places. “You can regenerate too?!”

After a brief but futile attempt at cleaning his bloodstained robe the man looked upward. “Looks like you really can’t control yourself can you my dear?” The man calmly stated as he walked out of Violet’s sight.

“He’s just trying to mess with me.” Violet whispered to herself as she tried to calm her rapidly fraying nerves. “Okay I can do this.”

And with a great heave Violet hurled herself over the railing. Concentrating just like she first did with Mirage a few weeks ago, Violet created a form fitting force field around her body and closed her eyes as the ground rapidly approached. She expected the brief pang of mental anguish that occurred whenever her force field was struck by something large, but what she didn’t expect was for her force field to still be intact let alone the fact that she was still standing. “Looks like all those “training” sessions with Mirage paid off.” The young super said with a wry smile as a blush graced her features. Before Violet could celebrate her little victory a tremor that shook though the entire complex signaling that both the stair well she was in and the adjacent hallway had begun to collapse. “Of course they have a ceiling crushing trap as well!” Violet shouted in frustration as she ran down the ever narrowing hallway.
----------------------------------------------------------------

“Well now this is certainly getting interesting…” Mirage had chased Shifty out into the jungle and was alive and well despite the efforts of the various bits of shifting hallway that just tried to put a premature end to her life. Now though it seemed Shifty had a few more tricks up his sleeve as he had taken the form of a large t-rex like creature with three heads. Despite Shifty’s newfound prowess with his shape shifting the creature that Mirage gazed upon now looked like it was only tenuously held together with webs of brown flesh and scales barely holding its exposed musculature together. “The problem with that form is you give me one hell of a target!” Mirage then unleashed three blasts of laser fire from her pistols but for each blast that found its mark the flesh bubbled briefly before another monstrous dino head erupted forth.

“Fool I AM the most powerful crook ever!” All six of Shifty’s heads roared in unison.

“Most interesting. Well Shifty I must say I am impressed.” Despite her bravado Mirage was desperately trying to think of a way to defeat this behemoth while she dodged its various snapping maws, Mirage dove underneath Shifty only to be kicked aside. Thankfully the mutated monstrosity’s legs were not exactly made for kicking and although Mirage was winded nothing appeared to be broken. “All things considered I think I’d rather get kicked than listen to his…” It dawned on Mirage that if a head sprouted wherever she shot than maybe… “Okay Shifty you’re not the only one with a few tricks!”
----------------------------------------------------------------

Just when she thought her lungs would give out and sparing an idle thought as to where the hell the robed man was she leapt out of the hallway and into a large chamber just as the hallway completely collapsed behind her. While Violet attempted to catch her breath she tapped the hidden button in her glove signaling Mirage.

“Invisigirl you okay?” The question was punctuated by grunts, laser fire and the general sounds of combat.

“Yeah, relatively speaking anyway… so what’s going on with you?” Violet said hoping Mirage could hear her over her haggard breathing.

“Oh you know the- will you stop doing that!” Violet could hear a frustrated grunt followed by a loud roar. “Sorry about that Shifty lured me outside so he could have enough room to transform into some giant t-rex thing that keeps sprouting more heads. Anyway you- damn that was close. You remember the code phrase?”

“Yup.” A few years back the N.S.A. came up with various code phrases for their teams just in case a shape shifter like Shifty tried to infiltrate them. An idea initiated by her brother of all people needless to say everyone was both surprised and impressed by his foresight.

“Good I’ll talk to you later this shouldn’t take long.” And with that Violet was left with radio silence.

Briefly looking around the chamber for anything suspicious and finding nothing other than the colossal, stone double doors Violet decided to bite the bullet and go over to them. The stone doors each depicted scenes of destruction being perpetuated by terrible creatures borne of nightmares. Despite the rampant destruction and slaughter presented there were still people depicted as bent down in worship of these beings. “Okay things are getting really creepy here I mean seriously who would worship those things?” As if to respond to the super’s query the double doors grinded open revealing room that was a mix between library, science lab, and throne room. The same woeful décor of cobwebs and dust permeated the room like all the others before it. Chemical beakers filled with liquids that Violet dare not contemplate sat side by side with what she assumed were tomes of arcane lore. However the nauseating smell emanating from the various beakers and tubes took a back seat to the grey robed figure that abruptly stood up from the throne at the far end of the room. One might have been drawn to how out of place her grey robes where, that might be the case had Violet not encountered a robed meta human prior to this encounter. Or one might find it odd that the sclera of the robed woman’s eyes were pitch black however this did little to unnerve the young super. No the thing that Violet found most disturbing was the fact that the robed woman shared her face. Normally round cheeks and shy smile hardened into a scowl, jet black hair spilling over to cover half her face just like Violet herself wore her hair all those years ago. The being exuded an aura of spite and hatred so great that Violet was forced to take a step back and struggle for breath as the other woman’s aura seemingly drained the very oxygen from the room.

“Clone or alternate universe?”

“Take a guess!” The robed woman snarled as she raised her hand and unleashed a volley of energy beams.

[End notes: Feel free to let me know what ya think. Halfway through the second chapter so hopefully things won't take to much longer. And since I posted this on ff.net first the next chapter is coming here first.]

Story: Fata Morgana Coils of Hope, Fear, and Tragedy (chapter 1)

Chapter 1