"I was going to kill thousands of men and women, I was going to stamp them out like ants!" -Violet Parr
Violet had already been awake for an hour as she watched the sunrise from her window. The quarters she was given were a vast improvement over the hospital room that had been her home during the previous weeks. Her window looked out over the main quad of the base. To her right, the administration building where General Veers worked stood along with the base hospital. Straight ahead was a grassy field and then, beyond that, the runway with its hangars stretching into the distance.
She had been standing at the window looking but seeing nothing. Violet was deep in thought, going over in her head what General Veers had said last night about her potential. She still didn't feel like any sort of hero. If anything, she reasoned, a villain would be more appropriate considering her behavior last night. "Or a fool," she said out loud.
As she stood at the window, her attention turned to a vehicle driving parallel to the runway. It was traveling the road that led to the bomb range. "It must be coming back," Violet thought. This was strange. General Veers had told her no one in their right mind would go to bomb range considering the danger. As the vehicle approached she could see it was an ambulance.
Leaving her quarters, she went downstairs to the building's entrance. Outside she could see that the ambulance had pulled up to the base hospital. She recognized a few of the orderlies from last night as they stood waiting. Opening the rear doors of the ambulance, they pulled out a gurney. On this gurney lay a large black bag. Violet swallowed nervously, she knew a body bag when she saw one and this one was occupied. The orderlies were wheeling it into the building.
Violet, her eyes still following the gurney, turned to the military policeman who was on guard duty outside the building housing her quarters. He was an intimidating man, stocky, and well over six feet tall. He was aware Violet was standing to his left but he seemed to be ignoring her. "Sir, who is that? What happened?"
"That would be Lt. Walters ma'am." The MP kept his eyes forward, remaining at attention as he spoke. The gurney had now disappeared.
"Was there some sort of accident?" Violet knew answering her questions could not be high on this MP's list of duties but she persisted. He stood as before but at her second inquiry he turned his head in her direction. He looked at her with a combination of revulsion and pity. If Violet had still thought of herself a child, the next words the MP spoke slammed the door on that stage of her life permanently.
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"Hello?" James answered his phone with a yawn.
"I killed him!" It was Violet on the phone. She was sobbing almost uncontrollably and it took a moment for James to both understand and process what she was saying.
"Vi? What? You killed him? What are you talking about?" James was now fully awake.
"Last night," her crying was lessening and her voice becoming stronger. "Last night, it's a long story but I was attacked."
James knew the basics of last night's events. After the bomb went off the base had gone on full alert. From his barrack's he had watched Violet approach and then stop just short of the runway. She had been mind-bogglingly huge. He had no idea just how big but he had to crane his neck out of his window to see her full stature and his barracks was two miles from the runway! Her face had been filled with fury. In that face he had seen his worst fears, he had seen imminent death. He had watched, spellbound, as she lifted her foot with the obvious intention of crushing whatever lay at her feet. She had then backed off from her aggressive stance and crouched down on her hands and knees, lowering her head to the ground as if to get a closer look at the object she, moments before, was going to obliterate. Finally, she shrunk away out of James' view. All this occurring over the span of a few minutes. He hoped Violet would explain but he knew this was not the time. Of course as far as Violet knew, James was at home getting ready for school. "Vi, you said you killed someone? Was he trying to hurt you?"
"No!" Fresh sobs from Violet erupted. She began: "He was a lieutenant in the army, he was watching what I was doing on that bomb range and reporting it back to the general."
"I heard explosions last night." James interjected but Violet ignored him.
"There were a lot of bombs, I thought they were attacking me. I grew bigger to protect myself. After the last bomb I was so angry!" She paused. James stayed silent allowing Violet to collect her thoughts. "I walked back to the base...I was going to destroy it James! I was going to wipe it off the face of the earth!" James tried to interrupt but Violet continued. "I was going to kill thousands of men and women, I was going to stamp them out like ants!" James swallowed hard at this.
"Vi!" James was able to get her attention. "You are not a killer! You would never do anything like that! You know this! You were angry and hurt but you are not a monster!"
"But I killed him James! As I walked back to base I stepped on the bunker he was in. I crushed him and I didn't know!" More crying.
James wished he could simply run across the base and hold Violet at this moment she needed him most. He also knew it was out of the question. He was actually relieved at her breakdown. She was ripping herself apart over this man's death, if it impacted her to this degree then she is still Violet. She hasn't lost her humanity yet as Dr. Korlov feared.
James spoke next. "Vi, it was an accident. Your power is both awesome and terrible, you can snuff out a life so easily. You must remain in control Vi! What was the lieutenant's name?"
"Walters, Joseph Walters...he had a wife and a daughter and..." Violet broke down again.
"Vi listen to me!" James said it as a command. "Remember that name Vi, this can't happen again! You are Violet Parr, you are not a killer, you are not a monster!"
"I need to see you!" Her voice was pleading. James knew he walked a fine line; if the general felt he was hindering the project in any way, James would never see Violet again. He thought quickly.
"Ask the general if I can have a pass to see you. He gave you your phone so maybe he will let you see me."
"O-ok," Violet's crying had subsided once more. "I love you James."
"I love you too." At that moment he knew he meant every word.
Hanging up, James immediately went to see Dr. Korlov.
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"I would like to speak to the General please." Violet sat quietly outside General Veers office. After waiting ten minutes, the secretary told Violet that General Veers would now see her.
His office was dark. The walls were made of rich mahogany paneling, almost every inch was covered in weapons of historical significance. To Violet, the office looked more like a museum than anything else. At the far end stood the generals desk but he was not there. Looking to her right, Violet saw the general standing at the only window in the room. He was watching something outside, his hands behind his back. The window's blinds created a pattern of light and shadow across his face and body. It seemed that he had not noticed her, or if he had he was ignoring her. She walked to the chair positioned in front of his desk and sat down. The general still kept his attention outside, the silence in the room was deafening. Violet turned her attention to the General's desk. Aside from the paperwork there was only one item of note. A photograph in a frame. A picture of a young girl, jet black hair and pale skin. She looked ten or eleven years old. The girl smiled at Violet from her frame. General Veers' hand took the frame, startling Violet. He turned it, looked at it, and smiled. Violet could see both love and sorrow in his eyes. General Veers put the frame back on his desk but had it turned so the girl was no longer visible to Violet.
"Good morning Violet, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"
"I wanted to talk to you about Lt. Walters." Violet looked down, unable to meet the General's eyes. General Veers stood back up and walked back to the window. He gestured for Violet to join him. Standing at his side, she looked down at the base's quad. She could see a woman walking to her car, she was carrying a toddler.
"Mrs. Walters," General Veers answered Violets question before she voiced it. She leaned forward trying to get a better look but the woman's back was to her. "She has just met with Colonel Peters, her husband's commanding officer. He has just informed her that her husband has died. I was watching her enter the building when you came in."
"I want to see her!" Violet pleaded, "I want to tell her I'm sorry!"
"And tell her what? That her husband was unceremoniously squashed under your boot last night? No Violet, Lt. Walters was one of the best officers I have had the pleasure of leading. Let's not make his death any more meaningless than it already is." The general went back to his desk and Violet joined him.
"I killed him!" Violet began "I am not a killer!" Her words echoed what James had told her not more than an hour ago.
"Violet, you're telling me things I already know. Have you asked yourself why I stood my ground last night on the runway? Why I even was out there in mortal danger in the first place?" Violet shook her head. "Even as you held your foot above me, ready to end me like that!" He snapped his fingers for emphasis. "I knew you were not a killer." General Veers leaned back in his chair and picked up the photograph on his desk. "Yes, you killed him Violet....People die." He touched the face in the photograph as he spoke, momentary lost in his own thoughts.
"Who is she?" General Veers ignored Violet's question, putting the photograph back on his desk.
"You didn't come here to tell me things I already know my dear. Please tell me what you really want." His directness was only tempered by his smile; a father's smile. She recognized it for what it was.
"I want to see James." She held her breath.
"Done." Violet was grinning from ear to ear. "My secretary will fill out the necessary pass. After last night I think you need someone to talk to." He let out a small laugh, "someone to talk to that's not old enough to be your father." She began to stand when General Veers leaned forward, his voice once again low. "Before you go Violet, there is one more thing we need to discuss..."
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"James!" Violet threw her arms around his neck. He held her tightly by the waist. "The general practically insisted that you visit me!"
"I have no doubt," James thought to himself.
"I've never been on a real army base before! It's like I'm a special agent!" He pantomimed a salute for comedic effect. Violet laughed, the first laugh since last night. This is why she needed him. He could make her laugh even in situations like this.
"I need to see something James, I've been waiting for you...I need you to be with me." James nodded. Holding his hand, she led him on the road toward the bomb range.
It took two hours to get to their destination. Violet thought how she covered the same distance last night in less than eight minutes. As they walked they both marveled at the enormous footprints pressed deep into the soil. Boot prints Violet had made last night. Many were deep enough for them to begin filling with groundwater. Standing on a hill of churned earth at the toe or one such print, James announced: "I hear by declare this, 'Lake Violet!'" He acted as if he was about to dive in. He looked down at Violet, this time she did not laugh. She was looking for one footprint in particular.
Cresting a hill she found it. One of her footprints, seemingly no different than the others except for one small detail. This print had also begun to fill with water but she could still see the crushed remains of a concrete structure at the bottom. James, seeing the pulverized bunker, stopped making jokes. Silently Violet climbed down into the print, carefully picking her way through the tumbled dirt and rock. She stood at the edge of the small pool that had formed at the footprint's lowest level. The reinforced roof of the bunker was still more or less intact, but under it was nothing but smashed concrete and twisted metal. She could also see where someone had dug into the rubble. "That's where they must have found him." She was speaking more to herself than to James. He stood beside her, both looking at the depressing pile. "I didn't even feel it! I didn't even know! God I was just walking and I crushed him like he was nothing!" James stepped in front of her and held her. She looked over his shoulder, she could not take her eyes off that concrete roof.
They had seen the first of her colossal footprints an hour ago. Since then she had been repeating the same thing over and over in her mind: "Joseph Walters: A soldier, a husband, a father...not an..."
"NOT AN ANT!" She screamed this at her enormous boot print as if it her culpable in her crime. James continued to hold her, remaining silent. He knew this was something she needed to work out herself. A war was happening inside Violet. The victor, James knew, held in their hands the fate of everyone, quite literally. She pulled her head back to look at James.
"I want Lt. Walters' death to mean something, to have a purpose beyond this." Her eyes went back to the concrete tomb. "Back at the hospital when I first showed you that I had powers you said I was a 'superhero.' I still don't think I am a hero but I have the chance to maybe make a difference." James' eyes widened, his heart sank at what she said next.
"I'm going on a mission, James." Her eyes still locked on the crushed bunker. "Maybe I can make a difference."
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Author's Note:
This story doesn't have any scenes where Violet is a giantess. This is more about how she is dealing with death and how that will shape her, for better or worse, in the overall story. Death is both exciting and terrible...it is not easily dismissed, as anyone who as experienced the loss of someone close knows. Throughout this story I've wanted Violet to behave as any of us would. Thanks for reading, Violet is about to get to be the hero...stay tuned