Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

Oneshot. Drabble.

A/N: I don't own the Incredibles.

Summary: Evelyn gleefully prepared to have the trio of the best superheroes fight the two children they were suppose to protect. Her plot was a success and forcing a psychological battle against the children fighting their own parents and surrogate uncle to properly apprehend them would be easy. A baby happily jumps into Elastigirl's arms, smiling at his mother. Evelyn paused . . . She knows how to deal with it. Yet, Evelyn remains paused.

Evelyn grinned as she saw the children in front of their three caregivers and protectors.

This'll be easy, thought Evelyn, It requires just a bit of impartiality to their emotions. They're just kids; instigate some psychological warfare and there'll be minimal damage. They'll only have their own feelings to blame; Mr. Incredible was easy, these kids should be a cakewalk to handle by comparison.

A baby flew into the air and suddenly dropped into Elastigirl's arms. Evelyn's eyes widened and she could hear her own voice utter a gasp.

"A . . . Super baby?!"

This shouldn't be surprising . . . of course, Supers' have babies who are also supers' thought Evelyn, she had looked over the same files as her brother and had even seen pictures when they had chosen Helen as their popculture icon. Evelyn knew this about Helen; she had taken Winston's offer to help provide for her family. Helen had spoke to her endlessly about her home life to Evelyn when they were growing closer as frie - Ahem!, when I was skillfully manipulating her for my aims.

Evelyn wasn't suddenly rationalizing; she was the villain Screensaver, and so what if Helen was the only person that she had come to like? It just meant that she hadn't properly explored her social skills and put too much value in the dichotomy of her being the secret genius and her brother being the arrogant, boisterous, and social one. Evelyn had happily used her social skills to her advantage for her aims. She knew that Supers had children who were born just like their parents; Evelyn had tried to rationalize her actions as Helen's fault for choosing to accept the offer and somehow trying to help her family was selfish or something . . . Evelyn could see the baby giggling and smiling at the screen. She knew the Super baby was just happy to be in his mother's arms again and clearly didn't know that his mother was under Evelyn's control. The logical conclusion was obvious . . .

Order her to kill it, concluded Evelyn, and she was absolutely not trying to dehumanize an innocent baby to make such a decision. This is the only chance I'll get . . . I just order Hel- Elastigirl to kill her chi . . . to kill that . . . I just order . . . I . . . . All it'll take is one command and that unpredictable abomin - abomin . . . helpless baby; NO! Not helpless! That . . . I . . .

Evelyn paused.

All it'll take is one command! Just one! Just make her do it and don't think about it too deeply! This is all for the plan! I'm the villain Screenslaver, society must remove its passivity, because the Supers are a cancer to self-betterment!

Don't think about brainwashing a mother to kill her own child too deeply? Are you a moron?

Shut up! It's all for the plan! I'll go to jail if I don't do this, at this point! I just . . . I just order her and she'll . . . she'll . . .

She'll either have lifelong grief and blame herself for what she'll stupidly believe to be a test of willpower and not your powers rewiring her neurotransmitters. She'll live her whole life seeing the grave of her child and living with a deep emotional pain for the rest of her life similar to Mom before her eventual death, but far worse. That is, if she doesn't kill herself after learning what YOU ordered her to do to her helpless baby.

Shut up! This is necessary, and besides, I'm evil now! I knew I would have to do unsavory things, I knew Winston wouldn't approve and I'm probably spitting on my parents graves . . . I knew all this! I worked it out! This . . . this'll be the ultimate vengeance! My plan will succeed and Supers will get what they deserve!

Ah yes, attempting to rationalize your deep hatred for your father due to his poor decision-making that got himself killed by blaming it on the convenient scapegoat of Supers being some homogenized, generalized evil under the pretense you're bringing a hefty dose of reality and truth to a broken world.

SHUT UP! I . . . I won't allow moral sentiments to blind me! What I'm doing is logical to stem the tide of passivity and general stupidity that filters into the humdrum life of ignorant masses! Besides, our country always goes to war and kills people; this is war, it's no different!

Is it logical? Or are you only now gaining the epiphany that what you're doing has real world consequences on people who you're only just realizing aren't invincible and also need equal rights and protection? Homogenizing can only go so far; you're not stupid enough to just leave it at generalizations. You're only now realizing that people being passive is a choice of their own making, they can choose and not choose to behave as such; but what YOU are instigating is a campaign of persecution against people that were made helpless by the very system that you detest. And with that persecution comes violence including rape and murder. Even framing it as war includes instances of rape and murder. Supers aren't invulnerable. They need protection too.

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

You just wanted a convenient scapegoat so that you didn't have to look logically at your father's choice and conclude that it was his own fault for being an idiot. You NEEDED to latch onto something else to hate because you loved your father too much to hate him for being so stupid.

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

Being logical about it killed you inside; you didn't want to acknowledge that Mother's emotional grief and subsequent death could also be blamed on your father's stupidity. You didn't want to acknowledge or accept the harsh truth. You could diagnose your brother's maladaptive biases, but you failed to ever account for your own; you deluded yourself into believing you were objective, when you knew from post-modernist philosophy that no objective truth can be found from a single human's subjective experience. Being logical doesn't mean that you don't have biases that impede your judgment.

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!

So, what will it be? Are you going to be a so-called villain and force a compassionate and kind woman, who has shown you nothing but a heartfelt desire for friendship, to murder her helpless son because it's convenient for your plans?

SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I . . .

You're far too compassionate and well-adjusted due to two blissfully stupid, but loving parents who raised you right to do such a thing. And, let's face it, you really value Helen as a friend and secretly adore her too much to ever do something so vile to her.

Evelyn stared as the baby of Helen, Jack-Jack, adorably turned into a monster and threw her brainwashing goggles off of his mother. Frustration spiked within Evelyn, and just as cynical humor and a strange feeling of self-effacing humor at seeing a baby turn into a monster to throw her brainwashing goggles off of his mother.

"No! No, no . . ."

Evelyn ran and convinced herself that she wasn't secretly relieved and pleased that she hadn't gone through with it. Things slowly became a blur as she ran through the motions almost automatically, predicting her own downfall. She screamed at Winston to climb aboard her plane, only for him to jump off it after refusing. She tried to get away from Elastigirl with her skillful maneuvering, but the portal woman's abilities and Elastigirl's tenacity proved too much.

A flash of a possible what-if came unbidden in her mind:

Red-eyed and tearstained from all the crying, Elastigirl glared at her with hate in her eyes. Screenslaver grinned at her.

"Gonna kill me? Not very heroic of you, is it?"

Suddenly, Elastigirl's vengeful visage slowly broke down to a vulnerable, heartbroken image. Tears streaked down her face. ". . . Why?" She croaked the words pathetically. "Why? What did I ever . . .Why my baby? If you hated me so much, who couldn't you just kill me instead?!"

"Oh uh . . . spur of the moment," said Screenslaver through her mask. Elastigirl stared at her stupefied as if unable to process the answer. "It's your own fault; you didn't have the willpower to break through my control. I watched as you did it though. It's your own fault for being weak."

Elastigirl's visage changed. Hate was no longer the primary emotion; murder was in her eyes. Screenslaver laughed through her mask. She could make use of this to get her wish of making Supers illegal, after all.

Evelyn screamed as Elastigirl broke through the door. Elastigirl's glare of righteous justice squared solely upon Evelyn. "We could have been friends, you know, if the circumstances were different . . ."

A stab sensation shot through Evelyn's heart and a feeling of relief for not going through with such a horrible act overcame her.

"I HATE YOU!" screamed Evelyn, glaring at Helen. Screaming it as loudly as she could to convince herself to believe it. This was all Elastigirl's fault, after all. Helen just gave her a confused look that held a hint of worry. DAMN HER!

And it was absolutely true! Evelyn truly attempted to convince herself that she hated Helen, even though she really quite liked her as a friend, valued their friendship, and would never admit that she had destroyed her own plans because of the immorality of what her actions would have done to Helen. Evelyn growled in frustration and forced her getaway plane to rise into the sky.

I'll . . . I'll just kill her then! That'll prove it! That'll prove I'm right!

Yeah, right. You're just going to break into a villain monologue and let her kick your ass, because you actually don't want her to be harmed. You'll just try to escape after pretending to lose in this plane fight.

Evelyn went through the motions; she could have easily gotten a gun and shot Helen in the head when Helen needed oxygen, but instead found herself arrogantly insulting her friend - er - archenemy! Yes, archenemy! Sure enough, Helen punched her out and grabbed the oxygen mask. Eventually, after a scuffle, Evelyn leapt out from the broken windows. She smiled, and then frowned upon seeing that damnable Elastigirl fly at her with such tenacity. The stupid portal girl making it difficult again for Evelyn to maneuver out of Helen's elastic reach. This time, to save Evelyn's life.

Eventually, she was caught and her life spared thanks to Helen; her ship was forced to a stop, which she knew would happen once Frozone's goggles were removed, and she was placed under handcuffs by the police.

Evelyn glared at Helen, who gave her a look of concern. Evelyn insulted her; something about superhero actions not mattering or some such. Evelyn had just let loose the first torrent that came to her mind. Helen's damnable gaze looked at her with disappointment and she proclaimed that she had saved Evelyn's life. The police doors closed; Evelyn knew that Winston would use this as a ploy to push adamantly for Superheroes to be re-recognized and Evelyn didn't have the heart to hate him for it or for Superheroes seeking recognition under the law.

Evelyn placed her head back and looked at the car ceiling. Helen didn't know it, and Evelyn would never admit it even to herself, but instead of Screenslaver killing Jack-Jack, Jack-Jack's mere existence and Evelyn being forced to acknowledge it had effectively killed Screenslaver. All that was left was a bitter, resentful woman who hated herself too much to apologize to the closest thing that Evelyn ever had to a cherished friend.