Syndrome scrambled to hold onto something – anything. He didn't want to die, especially like this. Chopped up into little bits by his own jet turbine? Not something anyone wanted to happen to them.

He looked down as his cape caught in the blades, panic spread across his face, here it was, the end of Syndrome. Then an idea came to him. It probably wouldn't work, but it was better than doing nothing. At least he would go down fighting.

He pointed his finger at the blades as he was pulled towards it, activating the zero-point energy. Closing his eyes, he expected to be shredded into mincemeat, but it never came. Opening his eyes, he found he was suspended in mid-air, having been caught in the energy beam.

BOOM!

Syndrome was knocked unconscious by the blast of his manta-jet exploding.

Upon waking up, he couldn't believe his eyes. He was on the street he had lived on when he was ten years old. But how had that happened? That was miles away from where the Incredibles lived. Oh well, at least he was alive.

Sitting up, he rubbed his head. He had a killer headache and would give anything for a Tylenol. He noticed his hair wasn't up anymore; instead it was hanging down around his head. Syndrome figured this was actually better because it would hide his face. As it was, he needed a change of clothes. The last thing he wanted was someone recognizing him.

He walked down the oh-so-familiar street, towards where he knew there was a Wal-Mart. It was where he had got the things to make the IncrediBoy costume so many years ago.

He was getting a lot of weird stares, but he was all too used to that. He used to get all kinds of stares in school. So he simply continued walking, entering Wal-Mart and heading towards the men's section. He grabbed the first pair of dark pants he found that fit, and grabbed a long black overcoat. Knowing they would fit, he took them to the checkout, not feeling like trying to steal them. He was too tired, and his head still hurt from his headache.

He looked up at the cashier, who was smiling happily at him. "That would be $35.59 sir!" Syndrome pulled a fifty-dollar bill out of his pocket, knowing that his credit cards would be cancelled…damn government. He knew the neighborhood, that at least was in his favor. He knew every place there was to hide in.

Taking the bag with his new clothes in them, he went to the Dairy Queen next door, heading to the bathroom. Smiling when he found it was empty, he quickly went into the middle stall. They were always the cleanest.

Quickly pulling the pants on over the pants of his costume, He left when someone else came in. Pulling on the jacket, he found he got less stares with it covering the giant 'S' on his shirt. Idiots didn't know fashion when they saw it. He remembered his mask, but decided to leave it on. He didn't want to make it too easy for the cops.

Syndrome walked up to the counter and ordered an Oreo Blizzard, sitting down facing the window. He wanted to be able to see if anyone was coming in. Then at least he would be able to give these nobodies a show they'd remember. He smiled as he thought of the headlines:

'Syndrome Returns to hometown; gives the bums something to remember'

'Syndrome Returns and gets Revenge on Childhood Bullies'

Then there'd be some awful picture that made him look evil, when all he was really doing was pointing out something.

A couple of kids came in, laughing. One in particular caught Syndrome's eye. It was a kid that looks surprisingly like he did when he was ten. The other's looked like kids he used to hang around. But that couldn't be possible, it was downright impossible. Heck with unlikely.

Looking at his watch, it said that it was the day it was supposed to be, the day that he was supposed to have saved the city. But now he started to wonder. When he had been building his gloves, there had been some abnormalities that he had to overcome. What if one of those abnormalities had been the space-time continuum? It was possible.

He watched as the kids walked up to the counter and listened to them. The kid had his voice, slightly higher, but his voice hadn't deepened till he was almost twelve. The kid ordered an Oreo blizzard, just as Syndrome had. He had been a fan his whole life.

They sat near him, within hearing distance. Deciding that he had nothing better to do, he slowed down on his Blizzard. He wanted to know who this kid was, if not a younger version of himself. He also needed to think of what he was going to do. He knew where Mr. Incredible had lived, had been keeping track of his previous houses.

He laughed. He hadn't been able to find Incredibles current house, but he had found the previous houses easy as pie. How much sense did that not make?

Looking back at the table, he remembered what day this was. It was the day after Mr. Incredible had turned him down, told him that he couldn't be his sidekick. He quickly decided on a plan of action.

Finishing his blizzard, he threw the garbage in the garbage can and went out the door, heading to a place he had gone so many times before.

Buddy's friend, who was sitting across from him, nodded to the guy who had just left.

"He kinda looks like you, only older and angrier." Mitch said.

"Yeah, wanna follow him?" the person beside him, John, asked. He had finished a while ago.

"Not really." Buddy answered them.

"Awww, come on! Who knows, maybe you'll meet up with Mr. Incredible!" John laughed, nudging Buddy in his side playfully.

"Shut up John, you know what I think about Mr. Incredible." Buddy said, glaring at John for bringing the Super up.

"Let's follow him anyways, he kept looking at us as if he knew us. I wanna know who he is. Plus, we have nothing else to do, it's summer!" Mitch suggested, finishing his cone.

"Fine… But we can't get too close; we don't want him noticing us." Buddy sighed, standing up. He was almost done his blizzard anyways.

Syndrome shoved his hands into his pockets, fuming over what had happened. How could Mirage have betrayed him? Why? If it had been because of what had happened in the containment unit, he had apologized twice, once in the hallway and once in the security room.

Looking at the street signs, Syndrome turned down Caldwell street. He knew this street like the back of his hand. Three doors down was a nice old lady that gave anyone who came up to her door cookies. the house on the left had three generations of a family living in it. Five doors down on the right was Incredibles house. It had been under a false name, Robert Smith. Syndrome knew it was his false name, to keep anyone following him off his tracks.

Looking back, he saw a couple kids jump and hide. Smiling, he knew instinctively who it was. He had been dragged into following many people by his childhood friends. It had been one of their favorite passtimes. He himself had always tried to talk them out of it, but they had always been able to talk him into it. He still wondered why they had liked it so much.

Stopping, he looked at the house, 10 Caldwell street. Syndrome quickly erased his memories of all the times he had gotten into trouble at his friends hands, to look at the house. He needed to think of a plan, preferably quickly. He cursed Rick Dicker, taking his island paradise away from him, where he would have had a plan within three minutes with his computers.

A car pulled into the drive, with a man in it. Syndrome figured it was Mr. Incredible. The government had told all Supers to lay low for a while, so they could figure out what to do. Smiling, a plan started forming in his mind. Mr. Incredible couldn't be Mr. Incredible out of uniform, it would blow his cover. The was the perfect chance, to finally get his revenge, before Mr. Incredible even ruined his life.

Walking up to Mr. Incredible, Syndrome wondered what he would say. "Hi, I'm new around here and don't have a clue as to where I am." He said, saying the first thing that came to his mind. It wasn't that bad an idea either. Sometimes he surprised even himself.

"Oh, Hi. I didn't know anyone knew had moved in. My name's Bob Smith, and this is Helen." Bob said, motioning to the lady coming out of the passenger side door.

"Hi! I guess I'm not the only new person around here." Helen said, smiling nicely.

"Guess not, I thought I was the newest, guess I was beaten to the punch. I'm Buddy." He said, shaking Helens outstreached hand, then kissing her knuckles. He wondered how far Incredible would let him go. Apparently he didn't mind too much, because he was just smiling. Maybe he had some friends who flirted with his wife.

"Guess not." Helen said, smiling. "So where do you live?"

"Umm..." How was he going to get himself out of this one? He could simply say his old house, but then that kid would most probably hear. Play dumb! yes, that usually worked. "I, uh... don't really know the number. Only the vague place. That sounds kinda stupid huh?" Syndrome said, smiling and rubbing his head while wondering if he had ever sounded cheezier.

"No, not at all. Come on in, maybe we can help. These houses do all look alike at first" Bob said, smiling. When Syndrome said no, he didn't want to impose, Bob shook his head in return. "I insist! I love meeting the neighbors. I still don't know everyone around here and i've lived here for a few years.

Buddy hid behind a lamppost, watching the man who Mitch and John said looked like him. Who was he? The guy wasn't him, Buddy was right there. It was impossible to be in two places at once, wasn't it? The man followed the people into the house, but was obviously reluctant to do so.

When the people were inside the house, Buddy, Mitch, and John all came out of their hiding places to try and figure out who theses people were.

"Now I'm sure of it. Buddy, maybe he's an identical twin from another planet." Mitch said, going straight to the sci-fi he loved so much.

"No, there's no such thing as aliens stupid, everyone knows that. Maybe he's a clone, and the scientists increased the ageing process so that they could do experiments on him, but he's escaped and is trying to find Buddy so that he'd be the only Buddy Pine there is." John said, smiling.

"You're both wrong. He's not an alien, and he's not a clone. He's not even like me, he's too old. He doesn't even look like me, I'm not that ugly." Buddy said, arms crossed stubbornly.

"You wanna wait for him to come back out? Then we could ask him who he is." John suggested.

"I gotta get home soon." Mitch said, checking his watch.

"Yeah, I wanna find out who he is." Buddy said, nodding in agreement.

An hour later Syndrome walked out of Mr. Incredible's house, smiling, waving good-bye and saying thanks for the help, even though he hadn't needed it. They didn't know that though.

Syndrome smiled. Incredible wasn't too bad when he wasn't trying to kill you. He was actually a really nice guy. Too bad he wasn't going to live to see next week if Syndrome had anything to do with it. He smiled as a plan came to his mind.

He looked up, because he had been looking down while he had been thinking of the plan that was formulating in his mind. He was standing face to face with a younger version of himself, and boy did he look ticked. His arms were crossed, and he had an angry look on his face.

"What's your problem, swallow a bug?" He said, the grin from before quickly disappearing. He had to be careful what he said, he didn't want to change his future.

"Who are you?" the kid asked. Two more kids came up behind him with similar looks on their faces. Syndrome instantly recognized them as John and Mitch.

"I'm someone you won't know for a long time." Syndrome said, ruffling the kids hair and walking around him, a small smile forcing it's way onto his face. He had hated it when people had done that to him as a kid, and now he knew why they had done it. It was just so fun!

"Hey! I'm not done talking to you! Get back here!" The kid shouted, running in front of Syndrome. Sighing, Syndrome grabbed the kid's shoulders, moving him bodily out of his way, but making sure not to hurt him.

"You may not be done with me, but I'm done with you." Syndrome said, continuing on. He wondered if he still sounded like that, so annoying. He'd have to ask someone when - if he got back to his own time.

"C'mon Buddy, let's just leave. He's too scared to talk to us." He heard Mitch say. Syndrome stopped. That guy had always gotten to him, now he that he was bigger than the kid, he could do something about it.

Syndrome turned around to look at them. They all had smug looks on their faces, as if they had won something or gotten out of homework.

"Shut up Mitch. John, you stay out of this, 'cause I know you wanna say something. Buddy, you're coming with me for a little while." Syndrome said, grabbing the kid's arm and leading him away. Mitch and John had done as they were told, being too awestruck that someone they didn't even know knew their names. Buddy wasn't putting up too much of a fight, also awestruck that a man who looked like him, and sounded like him knew his name.

"Who are you?" Buddy finally asked, pulling his arm out of Syndrome's grip. Syndrome sighed, and knelt down to look the kid in the face.

"It's a long story, most of which you can't hear. Here's the long and short of it, I'm you, only from fifteen years in the future. I know this sounds like something Mitch would say, but it's true. You can't tell anyone, because they'll think we're both crazy. If you don't believe me, ask me something only you would know. Don't take me to the word though, I won't remember every little detail. It has been fifteen years after all." Syndrome said, wishing that there was someone else he could turn to. He could tell the kid was trying to think of a question, something he would never forget, but only he knew.

"Here's a question, what's my dad's favorite saying?" Buddy asked, smiling. Syndrome laughed, that one was easy.

"Are you kidding? 'No man is an island, I named my island base for it." Syndrome said, smiling. Buddy was a little surprised, but not impressed.

"Lucky guess. Who's my favorite super?" Buddy asked, smiling. Syndrome knew this one easy too.

"Trick question, you don't have one anymore. If it was two day's ago, I would have said Mr. Incredible, but yesterday you tried to get him to let you become his sidekick, but he said no and sent you home." Syndrome said, trying to think if he had left any key facts out. As far as he could remember he hadn't.

"I didn't even tell mom and dad that!" Buddy said. If he hadn't believed Syndrome before, he sure did now.

"You believe me now?" Syndrome asked, smiling. Buddy nodded quickly.

"You - I - we, have an island base?" Buddy asked excitedly.

"Had, it was taken away from me." Syndrome said bitterly, practically spitting the words out.

"Why? what did you do?" Buddy asked, sounding a little scared now.

"Nothing big, tried to save a city but was stopped by Mr. Incredible. Then I tried to get his kid as payback and he stopped me again. That's when I ended up here." Syndrome said, wondering why he was telling the kid so much. If anything, he should know as little as possible. But it felt good to confide in someone, Mirage hadn't listened when he had talked to her about his life. But this kid was actually interested, was actually listening to what he had to say.

"We should do something! I have my rocket boots, I can help you!" Buddy's face lit up at the prospect of helping. Syndrome smiled, but shook his head.

"I can't let you endanger yourself, endanger me. I can handle Mr. Incredible myself, I have before." Syndrome said. "I can't tell you anything else, I've already probably told you too much as it is."

"But -"

"Go home. If you're home after five mom will ground you for a week." Syndrome said, smiling at Buddy's face. It was a mix of dissapointment and amazement. Sighing, Syndrome's memory was going back to what was now the night before, when all his hopes and dreams had been dashed in one swipe of Mr. Incredible's hand.

"If you want to help, it'll throw a real wrench in the works, but i'll find a way if you want." Syndrome said, not wanting the kid to hate his future self. That wouldn't be a very good thing. The kid's face lit up again. Looking over the kid's shoulder, Syndrome found that Mitch and John had left.

"What time is it?" Syndrome asked, looking automatically at his watch, only to remember that it was the wrong time.

"Umm... four-thirty. I should probably get going. How will I find you?" Buddy asked. It was a good question, but then he remembered something.

"You remember the lady next door? The one with the extra room for rent?" Syndrome asked, smiling. It took the kid a few minutes to clue in, but when he did, he matched Syndrome evil smile perfectly.