Shattered Mind (Chapter 5)
Title: Shattered Mind
Author: Max Evelyn (Fearcat on Livejournal)
Beta’s: dal_niente, Joanhello and scarlet_frostz (members from the megamind_movie Community on Livejournal)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Post-movie story, Megamind’s newest invention explodes setting stage for something a new to hit Metro City.
Author's Note: Okay guys here’s the latest chapter, I’m still working on all future chapters as I found a large error with in the stories end and it’s made me to rewrite so parts of chapters 6 to 9.
~
Continuing From: Declaration of Truth and Justice
Previous Chapters: Prologue / 1&2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
~
They had been following the path of destruction left behind by Behemoth for a few minutes. They were now well within the area the monster had last been seen.
Back at the crater site, Markus had told Roxanne he was going to move his men into position to stop this monster, but he didn’t want Megamind to get hit in the crossfire. So he let her use one of his army jeeps to send word to the blue alien. Minion had very bluntly said he was going with her whether she like it or not, so with more help from Markus, she had moved Minion into the back seat. They were now speeding down the roads towards the dangerous area. Her camerawomen sat next to her in silence. This was her first month working with Roxanne and she loved it.
Minion’s robotic body sat in the back of the jeep. He swam in his bowl to face them in the front. He briefly saw something fly up into the air; then it headed north away from the city.
His brown eyes knew who it was. “Where’s he going so fast?” he said out loud.
Roxanne held the wheel with one hand and turned to looked over at Minion, then up, then back to the road. Time was not on their side. She put her foot down, making the jeep go a little faster.
It was another five minutes later that Rosina called out in an alarmed tone, “Roxie, floor it, girl!"
The reason became perfectly clear as the whole jeep was suddenly flung into a parked car on the passenger side. Everyone screamed in surprise as the jeep seemed to bounce and hit another the vehicle; then it came to a sudden stop.
Everything became silent for a long time. Roxanne sat back in her seat. She looked to Rosina. Seeing that she was all right and awake, she looked back over her shoulder at Minion. He smiled at her.
“Miss Ritchi, are you all right?”
Nodding carefully, “Yes, Minion”
“Oh, I’m glad.” He moved his working leg to try and kick the door open. It made a loud clang sound but, other than that, nothing.
A very loud howl fill the quiet space making everyone in the jeep stop dead and look at each other with wide eyes.
****
Moments before the jeep crashed, Megamind had just dodged another fiery fist, then landed on the ground and rolled away just as Behemoth hit the ground where he had been.
Then the jeep came into view. He jumped out of its way and watched as it crashed. This distracted Behemoth and took its focus away. Slightly crouched on the ground, Megamind watched as the demon moved closer.
Raising a eyebrow as he heard a loud clang coming from the jeep, he could then make out Minion’s voice. The cold voice from within him screamed out *Minion!*
****
From within the jeep all three waited for something to happen. Then the trio heard a second voice that sounded full of rage. “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM, YOU--” The rest was drowned out by the monster howling in rage.
From inside the jeep, Minion could make out slightly blurry images through the window. His eyes widened at the figure who stood there between them and the monster.
He noticed that the new armour had been activated as it was now glowing a bright blue. “SIR, SIR!” he called, Minion panicked and started kicking at the door but it was jammed. The panicked tone from the fish made both women in the front turn to the fish. “SIR! Turn the armour off!”
He turned to Roxanne. “Miss Ritchi, tell him to turn it off. He’ll listen to you. Please tell him."
She met Minion's eyes, then looked out the window at Megamind. He looked really good in that new body armour. The armour was in segments, black limbs alternating with silver-blue collar, short vest and pants sections. What looked like an abstract representation of his spine was represented in glowing pink over his real spine. Two silver-blue bands went most of the way around his abdomen, ending in glowing points on either side of the gaps at centre-front in each one. There was a silver-blue vambrace on his left wrist with a glowing panel on the back, over a bicep-length black glove; the right had a short black glove and his watch. The only spikes were on the shoulder guards, which stood out slightly. His boots were styled like engineers boots, but mostly blue, with black soles, ankle straps anchored with silver triangular fasteners and calf straps with silver buckles. She noticed that he seemed to be faster in his movements; she looked back at the fish, shocked. “What’s happening to him?”
Minion looked out the window. “It’s Sir’s new battle armour. You see down his spine? That’s where the artificial neural net connects directly to his nervous system. It enhances all his movements because Sir wanted it to be super fast. We hadn’t had time to fully test it in a real fight.” Minion looked at her with panicked eyes. “Sir wanted to wear it at the press conference but I didn’t know he was still wearing it now. He really needs to turn it off."
Rosina spoke up. “He looks to be holding that thing off okay.”
“I found out the night before the conference that the armour has a few errors."
Roxanne looked from the window to the fish. “Errors like what?”
“Mostly to do with energy levels. Let's say if Sir was exposed to a massive electrostatic shock, it would overload his mind in ways I don’t want to think about.” Minion gave a worried smile. “Sir and I built the armour together. It’s made only for his body. It’s the closest he’s going to get to being psychic."
“He looks tired.” Rosina turned in her seat to look out. Roxanne also looked; she noticed there seemed something different about Megamind’s moments.
This news made Roxanne a little uneasy. “Minion, will the armour keep him safe?” He looked at her, unsure. She looked up in the sky out the front window. “And where is Wayne?"
“Why bother with him? He’s only just abandoned Sir again.” The fish turned back to the door and started banged on the door harder “SIR!."
****
Then that calm voice within his mind returned with terrible power. *Attack now.* Megamind jumped up high and with his right leg ready he kicked the demon’s face.
At the same moment a giant hand reached out like lighting and grabbed his right leg, It’s a good thing I have this armour on, the beast lifted him up and growled at him.
Megamind suddenly felt crushing heat from the lava-made hand. Oh, hell. I really wish I turned off the connections to my nervous system. His own body tried to regulate the armor's temperature.
He slowly made his body swing while upside down. Holding his gun in his right hand, he fired. He knew it would do nothing to hurt the monster, but he had to do something.
Suddenly, all that heated pain was forgotten as he was flung back.
Megamind’s eyes widened in a new type of pain as his back hit the wall of a building completely in the view of the jeep. He slid down and fell to the ground coughing hard. The armour was dulling the pain in his whole body but his mind was on fire. He couldn’t move much as pain rippled around within his mind making everything blurry; the throbbing headache had returned with new force.
He closed his eyes and wished he could do the same to his ears as very loud sound was just torture. He tried hard to block out both types of pain. He wished Wayne would just hurry up now. He felt the cold mind within him, and he had to use all his will power to force it back.
****
Behemoth moved in closer. Megamind slowly raised his head to meet red eyes full of hatred. Within himself a calm control took hold. *Trust me.* He weakly gave a mental nod and then his body slowly rose up. His eyes blazed violet and then narrowed. He stood staring at the demon.
Moments later he felt something impact hard into the ground and freezing air pass him. Shaking his head, Megamind felt the unknown mind once again withdraw into the shadows of his awareness. Confused, he turned his head as he felt strong hands move around his sides. In a gust of wind he fell something pick him up and move him away, fast. He blinked a few times to try and clear his vision. It was still blurry, but he could make out Wayne’s figure.
Knowing now that everything was safe, he reached down to the armour controls and keyed in the shut-down code. He sighed heavily as he felt the power go off and relaxed a little. It took awhile but slowly his sight returned to him; the throbbing headache remained, but quieter then before.
He leaned against Wayne for support. Shaking his head slightly, he looked over at what had stopped the lava monster. He smiled. That soon turned into a grin. Then he just started to laugh, not caring how he sounded. He looked at Wayne, then pointed at the item in question and just laughed.
Wayne looked down at him, full of worry. He wasn’t sure what to do with Megamind the way he was acting. Even back in his days as a villain, nobody knew what to do with him when he laughed insanely like he was doing right then. He asked, unsure, “Little buddy, are you all right?”
“Oh… I’m fine, throbbing headache but fine… I so can’t… believe… you dropped… an iceberg on him.”
That was all he managed to work out from the still madly laughing Megamind. Wayne suddenly felt very worried about the blue alien’s mind. “Err, okay.”
Megamind was still giggling but calming down when finally the jammed door from the jeep was kicked away and from within it a blur of brown and gray moved fast towards both aliens.
Megamind turned his head and saw that Minion was moving on his knuckles like real gorillas do. The strong upper arms kept him from hitting the ground and his legs were being dragged.
“Oh sir!”
The moment he saw that Megamind was all right, Minion spun around, facing the ex-superhero. He rarely showed his anger, but he was mad at Wayne for leaving his friend. He didn’t speak. The fish just narrowed his eyes dangerously at Wayne.
Wayne didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the fish. He gulped at seeing him look at him like that and then noticed the fish’s teeth. Wayne wondered then, what if Megamind got badly hurt or, worse, killed? What could this seemingly innocent fish do? The wrath he could unleash upon the one who did that act was truly unknown. It took Wayne awhile to speak as he was trapped within those amber eyes. “Look, I was going as fast I could, but cutting that thing free wasn’t easy--” he looked at his blue friend, then back “--and I had a time limit to get back here before Blue got roasted.”
Minion just stood and glaring at him. Megamind’s eyesight had returned to the point were everything had stopped being so blurry and he didn’t feel so dizzy anymore. He saw how his lifelong friend and ex-rival were looking at each other. He sighed. “Wayne, Minion, will you both calm down? I’m fine.” Megamind slurred his words a little. The throbbing headache had lessened to a dull thud in his head, as he was now being supported by Roxanne.
He heard her say, “Are you all right? You had us all very worried for a moment back there.”
He nodded and grinned at Roxanne.
She smiled back. “Is that armour off now?” He nodded.
Lifting his arm up he showed her the controls that clearly were powered off. Then he spoke to her, completely ignoring the fish and ex-hero stand-off. Roxanne was watching, but turned to look at him.
“Yeah. It needs more testing, but it had a really good workout just now.” He grinned wider. “I know where the problems are with it, so next time will be more effective.”
Minion turned in his bowl, forgetting Wayne. “Oh, Sir, I did a few scans on the armour and found an error in the neural net connection.”
Raising an eyebrow Megamind looked at him. “An error? What kind?”
“A week before we uploaded the coding into the armour, someone hacked into the computer network in the Lair. They downloaded tons of files. There were viruses in every one.” The fish looked at him. “One of the files was uploaded into the armour.” Minion looked his friend up and down for a moment. He smiled. “Don’t worry, Sir. I tracked this man down and he's now with the police.”
“Do you think the armour is safe?” Megamind asked
Minion smiled. “Yeah. Just stay away from anything that gives off high levels of electromagnetic radiation.”
Megamind keep this mouth shut. He had just had a big fight with this Behemoth and worried his friends. He didn’t want to add more. He would let them know later. Feeling better on his feet, he stepped away from Roxanne’s arms and looked briefly at Wayne before looking past his shoulder at the iceberg that blocked the street.
“Wayne, can I ask why you went and got an iceberg? I did have a freeze gun back at the Lair.”
“Sir, I called the brainbots to bring it.”
Megamind turned smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“Oh, now you tell me.”
Minion and Roxanne smiled as the ex-hero turned and looked up at the iceberg behind them.
Roxanne looked at the iceberg and understood why Megamind had been laughing; she then looked at Wayne and tried not to laugh herself but couldn’t resist. “Really, Wayne, an iceberg?”
The trio of heroes looked at each other, then at her.
Minion turned away and with some difficultly moved to the side of the street. He hated not being able to help his boss and friend. Seeing his lifelong friend upset, Megamind moved away from Roxanne, who was now in a deep convention with Wayne. Stepping closer to the fish he asked, “What’s up, Minion?”
The fish turned slightly in the water to look at him. The others had walked away to give them space. Amber eyes met green. “Sir, why did you trust Wayne? He’s always hurt us in the past.”
“Minion, I had no choice. It would have taken a while for the brainbots to arrive with the gun. Who knows what the monster could have done to the city in that time?” He watched his friend closely. He opened his mouth to say more but stopped half way and he then turned slowly.
*It’s not dead,* the calm voice spoke. *Watch it move.*
Megamind’s whole body turned to look at the iceberg with narrowed eyes. From his spot on the ground Minion was trying to watch him and the large object as well.
****
Not long later, a small group of brainbots appeared, two of them carrying a large gun. It had four barrels with small spikes going all the way around. The chamber was made of some type of clear material; within it was a pale blue liquid that looked almost like gas.
Taking the gun from the brainbots, Megamind started walking closer to the iceberg, his eyes widened with excitement. “Been awhile since I’ve use this baby.” He patted the gun lightly. Roxanne rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound was heard echoing around the street. This made all but Megamind jump and turn to look at the iceberg.
Moments later a large chunk of it fell to the ground.
*****
The loud cracking sound continued to be heard coming from the iceberg for some time. The group were rooted on the spot, just watching large chunks fall to the ground. Through the hole where part of it had fallen away, Megamind could make out a closed eye. Suddenly it opened and the beast stared at him.
The calm voice spoke. *Move closer. We need to finish this.*
Minion was still watching his friend, noticing that he seemed to go into a trancelike state and then he started moving closer to the iceberg.
Megamind stopped a few meters away and stood, staring up at the demon with unfocused eyes, his right eye violet and his left green. He held the gun close and watched the creature trapped within the ice.
The fish was the one closest; no one else seemed to have noticed his strange state until a large chunk fell and landed next to the unaware blue alien.
“Megamind!” Roxanne yelled but she got no reaction from him.
Minion rushed forward on his robotic arms and jumped up onto his working leg long enough to grab him, pulling him back just as a large chunk hit the ground where he had been. Both of them fell backward.
Hitting the ground and landing on Minion’s chest snapped Megamind back to reality. He shook his head. He was looking back at Minion who was also looking at him, concerned. In that moment Megamind remembered what happened with the machine at the east lair. “Minion, something happened. I --”
The voice roared into life. *Don’t tell him or the others about me.*
“Why not?” Megamind mumbled lowly.
*Because they will lock us away.*
“They won't do that to me.”
*Us,* the voice growled out.
“You’re in my head.”
“Sir, are you all right?”
*Just don’t tell them. I’ll explain later.*
Minion watched as Megamind stood and turned away from him for a moment. Then he mumbled, “Yes, yes, I’m fine, Minion, hmm, ok, fine. Later, then.” As he spoke, he raised the gun that the brainbots had given him. He changed the setting on it to ‘deep freeze’ without looking.
The two friends looked at each other, then nodded. Minion felt something was up with his friend but this was not the place or time to ask. He got up on his arms using his good leg for balance, rushed back to where both women stood and led them behind the jeep.
Megamind took a step closer to the slowly melting iceberg; he lifted up the gun and held the four barrels with one hand and butt in the other. His eyes moved back over at Wayne, whose eyes met his in confusion.
“Use your cold breathe while I use my snowflake gun.” He thought about renaming the gun after this with a smile.
Wayne nodded in understanding and he stepped closer, he heard the ex-villain count out, “One, two, three, FIRE!”
The surrounding area was suddenly hit with blizzard conditions. The air all around started to freeze. Anything that got hit by the combined powers was suddenly frozen and would take ages to be freed.
Minion, Roxanne and Rosina were hiding behind the jeep. A cold cloud hung in the air, slowly flowing past the edge of the jeep. Roxanne slowly looked around the corner to watch the ice reforming. She noticed worriedly that the deep cold was causing Minion’s bowl to frost up. She placed her hand on his robotic arm and smiled at him. He smiled back weakly. He didn’t like the cold.
After some time, Wayne had to stop as he was out of breath. He looked at his blue friend, knowing that the gun had a lot more power; he noticed the manic look in Megamind’s eyes and thought it was a trick of the light as he saw the blue man’s eye were violet not green. He looked up at the reforming ice in hope, but all too quickly the ice shattered and the lava demon moved. The beast’s right arm lifted and suddenly smashed the rest of the ice, freeing its body. Then, instead of resuming its attack, it held still.
The beast had a look of what could be called pain on it’s face. It fell to the ground on what were once it’s knees. It howled in pain. Minutes later, green flames flicked all around them. The flames gave off incredible heat, melting away the ice and rock that cover its large body, leaving only a small human form in a pool of warm water.
Roxanne who had stepped away from the van called out, “He’s changing back?”
Megamind walked closer to the fallen man, who lay on his side. He raised a hand to Jeremy's face. No reaction. He then knelt next to him and placed a hand on his back.
“It’s a good thing too; I don’t think my body could handle much more of that electromagnetic radiation”.
Concern for his close friend’s health had Minion moving up. “Sir, with everything that was happening, I forgot to do a scan on Mr Autumn’s changed body. Are you in any pain?” He stood on his knuckles close to the blue alien, not bothering with the looks he was getting from Roxanne.
“I’ll be okay, Minion.” He down at Minion’s damaged suit and into brown eyes. “It wasn’t that bad. I just feel a little sick.”
“We should get back to the Lair, then.” It seemed the rest of the world had been blocked out as the two spoke. “I’ll have the brainbots scan you for any cell damage and I’ll clean your suit.” He smiled warmly.
Megamind smiled back at his friend. “Thanks. A good night sleep would be wonderful right about now”.
Suddenly both ex-villains heard someone close to them cough. They turned to see Roxanne, Rosina and Wayne starring at them. Both of them looked at each other then turned away, Minion took a few steps away.
Megamind looked down at Jeremy again, knowing the police couldn’t do much with something like this. He lifted his left arm up and pressing a key on the computer mounted in the vambrace on his left wrist. Its screen lit up and dialling tones were heard. Then it was answered.
“I was wondering when I would here from you, Afeeke.”
“Markus, you can bring your soldiers in. The monster’s been dealt with.”
“Right, good work. Will be there shortly.” Megamind hung up.
“Uh?” Roxanne stepped closer to the aliens. She took one look at Wayne. He was looking away. Does he know why Megamind was calling the military? her mind screamed at her. Oh, God, the military. She turned back to the blue alien. “Megamind, whose soldiers? Who have you called?” She looked down at his back.
Megamind spoke without turning to looking up. “Roxanne, lots of people helped as us while we were growing up in prison.” He stood and turned slightly to face her. “Not many knew about Major General Alan Greenfield. I have a lot to thank the man for.” He then stood up and faced her. He smiled. “Don’t worry. These guys are all right.”
Wayne looked down at the man on the ground. He was slowly moving. In a low tone, he said, “Markus is coming to help him. Right.” He looked up at Megamind.
Megamind smiled. “Yes, he is.” He looked back at Roxanne. “The General’s the reason why --” His eyes went out of focus as a painful memory wasted over him. He fought to push it away.
Roxanne touched his shoulder and smiled.
After moment, he shook it off and looked back at them with a weak smile. “Alan made a deal with me shortly after one our battles four years ago.” He looked over at Wayne, who was looking down at the human on the ground.
Megamind continued. “I agreed to it. I always surprise him by keeping to the military rules.” He smiled, slowly standing as four large army vehicles rolled up.
Roxanne eyes widened, as a man got out of one at the vehicles and started walked over to the five of them. He looked just like the Warden, but older.
Green eyes locked with dark brown ones. Roxanne watched as her boyfriend's smile changed to a wide grin.
“Hey, boys. It’s been a while,” the older man called happily.
The blue man shook his head and watched as more soldiers came out of the backs of the vehicles. “Ah, Uncle.” He came over to meet the older man but noticed something in the corner of his eye.
It was another older man, this one dressed in white lab coat. Walking over to the group with this man were three soldiers one. In the lead was a man, a Lieutenant Colonel with dark hair and cold eyes, followed by a Major with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and a female First Lieutenant with red hair and blue eye. Megamind didn't recognized any of them and from the look on his Uncle’s face he didn’t know either. Megamind turned his head and looked at the fourth man. The only movement to come from the blue alien was him breathing. He growled within his mind. This was one human he truly wanted to kill.
This man didn’t bother to look at anyone. His gaze was fixed down at Jeremy’s body with a cold smile. Megamind’s eye narrowed with pure hatred. Dark his thoughts filled his mind.
To be Continued
Author: Max Evelyn (Fearcat on Livejournal)
Beta’s: dal_niente, Joanhello and scarlet_frostz (members from the megamind_movie Community on Livejournal)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Post-movie story, Megamind’s newest invention explodes setting stage for something a new to hit Metro City.
Author's Note: Okay guys here’s the latest chapter, I’m still working on all future chapters as I found a large error with in the stories end and it’s made me to rewrite so parts of chapters 6 to 9.
~
Continuing From: Declaration of Truth and Justice
Previous Chapters: Prologue / 1&2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
~
They had been following the path of destruction left behind by Behemoth for a few minutes. They were now well within the area the monster had last been seen.
Back at the crater site, Markus had told Roxanne he was going to move his men into position to stop this monster, but he didn’t want Megamind to get hit in the crossfire. So he let her use one of his army jeeps to send word to the blue alien. Minion had very bluntly said he was going with her whether she like it or not, so with more help from Markus, she had moved Minion into the back seat. They were now speeding down the roads towards the dangerous area. Her camerawomen sat next to her in silence. This was her first month working with Roxanne and she loved it.
Minion’s robotic body sat in the back of the jeep. He swam in his bowl to face them in the front. He briefly saw something fly up into the air; then it headed north away from the city.
His brown eyes knew who it was. “Where’s he going so fast?” he said out loud.
Roxanne held the wheel with one hand and turned to looked over at Minion, then up, then back to the road. Time was not on their side. She put her foot down, making the jeep go a little faster.
It was another five minutes later that Rosina called out in an alarmed tone, “Roxie, floor it, girl!"
The reason became perfectly clear as the whole jeep was suddenly flung into a parked car on the passenger side. Everyone screamed in surprise as the jeep seemed to bounce and hit another the vehicle; then it came to a sudden stop.
Everything became silent for a long time. Roxanne sat back in her seat. She looked to Rosina. Seeing that she was all right and awake, she looked back over her shoulder at Minion. He smiled at her.
“Miss Ritchi, are you all right?”
Nodding carefully, “Yes, Minion”
“Oh, I’m glad.” He moved his working leg to try and kick the door open. It made a loud clang sound but, other than that, nothing.
A very loud howl fill the quiet space making everyone in the jeep stop dead and look at each other with wide eyes.
****
Moments before the jeep crashed, Megamind had just dodged another fiery fist, then landed on the ground and rolled away just as Behemoth hit the ground where he had been.
Then the jeep came into view. He jumped out of its way and watched as it crashed. This distracted Behemoth and took its focus away. Slightly crouched on the ground, Megamind watched as the demon moved closer.
Raising a eyebrow as he heard a loud clang coming from the jeep, he could then make out Minion’s voice. The cold voice from within him screamed out *Minion!*
****
From within the jeep all three waited for something to happen. Then the trio heard a second voice that sounded full of rage. “GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THEM, YOU--” The rest was drowned out by the monster howling in rage.
From inside the jeep, Minion could make out slightly blurry images through the window. His eyes widened at the figure who stood there between them and the monster.
He noticed that the new armour had been activated as it was now glowing a bright blue. “SIR, SIR!” he called, Minion panicked and started kicking at the door but it was jammed. The panicked tone from the fish made both women in the front turn to the fish. “SIR! Turn the armour off!”
He turned to Roxanne. “Miss Ritchi, tell him to turn it off. He’ll listen to you. Please tell him."
She met Minion's eyes, then looked out the window at Megamind. He looked really good in that new body armour. The armour was in segments, black limbs alternating with silver-blue collar, short vest and pants sections. What looked like an abstract representation of his spine was represented in glowing pink over his real spine. Two silver-blue bands went most of the way around his abdomen, ending in glowing points on either side of the gaps at centre-front in each one. There was a silver-blue vambrace on his left wrist with a glowing panel on the back, over a bicep-length black glove; the right had a short black glove and his watch. The only spikes were on the shoulder guards, which stood out slightly. His boots were styled like engineers boots, but mostly blue, with black soles, ankle straps anchored with silver triangular fasteners and calf straps with silver buckles. She noticed that he seemed to be faster in his movements; she looked back at the fish, shocked. “What’s happening to him?”
Minion looked out the window. “It’s Sir’s new battle armour. You see down his spine? That’s where the artificial neural net connects directly to his nervous system. It enhances all his movements because Sir wanted it to be super fast. We hadn’t had time to fully test it in a real fight.” Minion looked at her with panicked eyes. “Sir wanted to wear it at the press conference but I didn’t know he was still wearing it now. He really needs to turn it off."
Rosina spoke up. “He looks to be holding that thing off okay.”
“I found out the night before the conference that the armour has a few errors."
Roxanne looked from the window to the fish. “Errors like what?”
“Mostly to do with energy levels. Let's say if Sir was exposed to a massive electrostatic shock, it would overload his mind in ways I don’t want to think about.” Minion gave a worried smile. “Sir and I built the armour together. It’s made only for his body. It’s the closest he’s going to get to being psychic."
“He looks tired.” Rosina turned in her seat to look out. Roxanne also looked; she noticed there seemed something different about Megamind’s moments.
This news made Roxanne a little uneasy. “Minion, will the armour keep him safe?” He looked at her, unsure. She looked up in the sky out the front window. “And where is Wayne?"
“Why bother with him? He’s only just abandoned Sir again.” The fish turned back to the door and started banged on the door harder “SIR!."
****
Then that calm voice within his mind returned with terrible power. *Attack now.* Megamind jumped up high and with his right leg ready he kicked the demon’s face.
At the same moment a giant hand reached out like lighting and grabbed his right leg, It’s a good thing I have this armour on, the beast lifted him up and growled at him.
Megamind suddenly felt crushing heat from the lava-made hand. Oh, hell. I really wish I turned off the connections to my nervous system. His own body tried to regulate the armor's temperature.
He slowly made his body swing while upside down. Holding his gun in his right hand, he fired. He knew it would do nothing to hurt the monster, but he had to do something.
Suddenly, all that heated pain was forgotten as he was flung back.
Megamind’s eyes widened in a new type of pain as his back hit the wall of a building completely in the view of the jeep. He slid down and fell to the ground coughing hard. The armour was dulling the pain in his whole body but his mind was on fire. He couldn’t move much as pain rippled around within his mind making everything blurry; the throbbing headache had returned with new force.
He closed his eyes and wished he could do the same to his ears as very loud sound was just torture. He tried hard to block out both types of pain. He wished Wayne would just hurry up now. He felt the cold mind within him, and he had to use all his will power to force it back.
****
Behemoth moved in closer. Megamind slowly raised his head to meet red eyes full of hatred. Within himself a calm control took hold. *Trust me.* He weakly gave a mental nod and then his body slowly rose up. His eyes blazed violet and then narrowed. He stood staring at the demon.
Moments later he felt something impact hard into the ground and freezing air pass him. Shaking his head, Megamind felt the unknown mind once again withdraw into the shadows of his awareness. Confused, he turned his head as he felt strong hands move around his sides. In a gust of wind he fell something pick him up and move him away, fast. He blinked a few times to try and clear his vision. It was still blurry, but he could make out Wayne’s figure.
Knowing now that everything was safe, he reached down to the armour controls and keyed in the shut-down code. He sighed heavily as he felt the power go off and relaxed a little. It took awhile but slowly his sight returned to him; the throbbing headache remained, but quieter then before.
He leaned against Wayne for support. Shaking his head slightly, he looked over at what had stopped the lava monster. He smiled. That soon turned into a grin. Then he just started to laugh, not caring how he sounded. He looked at Wayne, then pointed at the item in question and just laughed.
Wayne looked down at him, full of worry. He wasn’t sure what to do with Megamind the way he was acting. Even back in his days as a villain, nobody knew what to do with him when he laughed insanely like he was doing right then. He asked, unsure, “Little buddy, are you all right?”
“Oh… I’m fine, throbbing headache but fine… I so can’t… believe… you dropped… an iceberg on him.”
That was all he managed to work out from the still madly laughing Megamind. Wayne suddenly felt very worried about the blue alien’s mind. “Err, okay.”
Megamind was still giggling but calming down when finally the jammed door from the jeep was kicked away and from within it a blur of brown and gray moved fast towards both aliens.
Megamind turned his head and saw that Minion was moving on his knuckles like real gorillas do. The strong upper arms kept him from hitting the ground and his legs were being dragged.
“Oh sir!”
The moment he saw that Megamind was all right, Minion spun around, facing the ex-superhero. He rarely showed his anger, but he was mad at Wayne for leaving his friend. He didn’t speak. The fish just narrowed his eyes dangerously at Wayne.
Wayne didn’t want to get on the wrong side of the fish. He gulped at seeing him look at him like that and then noticed the fish’s teeth. Wayne wondered then, what if Megamind got badly hurt or, worse, killed? What could this seemingly innocent fish do? The wrath he could unleash upon the one who did that act was truly unknown. It took Wayne awhile to speak as he was trapped within those amber eyes. “Look, I was going as fast I could, but cutting that thing free wasn’t easy--” he looked at his blue friend, then back “--and I had a time limit to get back here before Blue got roasted.”
Minion just stood and glaring at him. Megamind’s eyesight had returned to the point were everything had stopped being so blurry and he didn’t feel so dizzy anymore. He saw how his lifelong friend and ex-rival were looking at each other. He sighed. “Wayne, Minion, will you both calm down? I’m fine.” Megamind slurred his words a little. The throbbing headache had lessened to a dull thud in his head, as he was now being supported by Roxanne.
He heard her say, “Are you all right? You had us all very worried for a moment back there.”
He nodded and grinned at Roxanne.
She smiled back. “Is that armour off now?” He nodded.
Lifting his arm up he showed her the controls that clearly were powered off. Then he spoke to her, completely ignoring the fish and ex-hero stand-off. Roxanne was watching, but turned to look at him.
“Yeah. It needs more testing, but it had a really good workout just now.” He grinned wider. “I know where the problems are with it, so next time will be more effective.”
Minion turned in his bowl, forgetting Wayne. “Oh, Sir, I did a few scans on the armour and found an error in the neural net connection.”
Raising an eyebrow Megamind looked at him. “An error? What kind?”
“A week before we uploaded the coding into the armour, someone hacked into the computer network in the Lair. They downloaded tons of files. There were viruses in every one.” The fish looked at him. “One of the files was uploaded into the armour.” Minion looked his friend up and down for a moment. He smiled. “Don’t worry, Sir. I tracked this man down and he's now with the police.”
“Do you think the armour is safe?” Megamind asked
Minion smiled. “Yeah. Just stay away from anything that gives off high levels of electromagnetic radiation.”
Megamind keep this mouth shut. He had just had a big fight with this Behemoth and worried his friends. He didn’t want to add more. He would let them know later. Feeling better on his feet, he stepped away from Roxanne’s arms and looked briefly at Wayne before looking past his shoulder at the iceberg that blocked the street.
“Wayne, can I ask why you went and got an iceberg? I did have a freeze gun back at the Lair.”
“Sir, I called the brainbots to bring it.”
Megamind turned smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“Oh, now you tell me.”
Minion and Roxanne smiled as the ex-hero turned and looked up at the iceberg behind them.
Roxanne looked at the iceberg and understood why Megamind had been laughing; she then looked at Wayne and tried not to laugh herself but couldn’t resist. “Really, Wayne, an iceberg?”
The trio of heroes looked at each other, then at her.
Minion turned away and with some difficultly moved to the side of the street. He hated not being able to help his boss and friend. Seeing his lifelong friend upset, Megamind moved away from Roxanne, who was now in a deep convention with Wayne. Stepping closer to the fish he asked, “What’s up, Minion?”
The fish turned slightly in the water to look at him. The others had walked away to give them space. Amber eyes met green. “Sir, why did you trust Wayne? He’s always hurt us in the past.”
“Minion, I had no choice. It would have taken a while for the brainbots to arrive with the gun. Who knows what the monster could have done to the city in that time?” He watched his friend closely. He opened his mouth to say more but stopped half way and he then turned slowly.
*It’s not dead,* the calm voice spoke. *Watch it move.*
Megamind’s whole body turned to look at the iceberg with narrowed eyes. From his spot on the ground Minion was trying to watch him and the large object as well.
****
Not long later, a small group of brainbots appeared, two of them carrying a large gun. It had four barrels with small spikes going all the way around. The chamber was made of some type of clear material; within it was a pale blue liquid that looked almost like gas.
Taking the gun from the brainbots, Megamind started walking closer to the iceberg, his eyes widened with excitement. “Been awhile since I’ve use this baby.” He patted the gun lightly. Roxanne rolled her eyes.
Suddenly, a loud cracking sound was heard echoing around the street. This made all but Megamind jump and turn to look at the iceberg.
Moments later a large chunk of it fell to the ground.
*****
The loud cracking sound continued to be heard coming from the iceberg for some time. The group were rooted on the spot, just watching large chunks fall to the ground. Through the hole where part of it had fallen away, Megamind could make out a closed eye. Suddenly it opened and the beast stared at him.
The calm voice spoke. *Move closer. We need to finish this.*
Minion was still watching his friend, noticing that he seemed to go into a trancelike state and then he started moving closer to the iceberg.
Megamind stopped a few meters away and stood, staring up at the demon with unfocused eyes, his right eye violet and his left green. He held the gun close and watched the creature trapped within the ice.
The fish was the one closest; no one else seemed to have noticed his strange state until a large chunk fell and landed next to the unaware blue alien.
“Megamind!” Roxanne yelled but she got no reaction from him.
Minion rushed forward on his robotic arms and jumped up onto his working leg long enough to grab him, pulling him back just as a large chunk hit the ground where he had been. Both of them fell backward.
Hitting the ground and landing on Minion’s chest snapped Megamind back to reality. He shook his head. He was looking back at Minion who was also looking at him, concerned. In that moment Megamind remembered what happened with the machine at the east lair. “Minion, something happened. I --”
The voice roared into life. *Don’t tell him or the others about me.*
“Why not?” Megamind mumbled lowly.
*Because they will lock us away.*
“They won't do that to me.”
*Us,* the voice growled out.
“You’re in my head.”
“Sir, are you all right?”
*Just don’t tell them. I’ll explain later.*
Minion watched as Megamind stood and turned away from him for a moment. Then he mumbled, “Yes, yes, I’m fine, Minion, hmm, ok, fine. Later, then.” As he spoke, he raised the gun that the brainbots had given him. He changed the setting on it to ‘deep freeze’ without looking.
The two friends looked at each other, then nodded. Minion felt something was up with his friend but this was not the place or time to ask. He got up on his arms using his good leg for balance, rushed back to where both women stood and led them behind the jeep.
Megamind took a step closer to the slowly melting iceberg; he lifted up the gun and held the four barrels with one hand and butt in the other. His eyes moved back over at Wayne, whose eyes met his in confusion.
“Use your cold breathe while I use my snowflake gun.” He thought about renaming the gun after this with a smile.
Wayne nodded in understanding and he stepped closer, he heard the ex-villain count out, “One, two, three, FIRE!”
The surrounding area was suddenly hit with blizzard conditions. The air all around started to freeze. Anything that got hit by the combined powers was suddenly frozen and would take ages to be freed.
Minion, Roxanne and Rosina were hiding behind the jeep. A cold cloud hung in the air, slowly flowing past the edge of the jeep. Roxanne slowly looked around the corner to watch the ice reforming. She noticed worriedly that the deep cold was causing Minion’s bowl to frost up. She placed her hand on his robotic arm and smiled at him. He smiled back weakly. He didn’t like the cold.
After some time, Wayne had to stop as he was out of breath. He looked at his blue friend, knowing that the gun had a lot more power; he noticed the manic look in Megamind’s eyes and thought it was a trick of the light as he saw the blue man’s eye were violet not green. He looked up at the reforming ice in hope, but all too quickly the ice shattered and the lava demon moved. The beast’s right arm lifted and suddenly smashed the rest of the ice, freeing its body. Then, instead of resuming its attack, it held still.
The beast had a look of what could be called pain on it’s face. It fell to the ground on what were once it’s knees. It howled in pain. Minutes later, green flames flicked all around them. The flames gave off incredible heat, melting away the ice and rock that cover its large body, leaving only a small human form in a pool of warm water.
Roxanne who had stepped away from the van called out, “He’s changing back?”
Megamind walked closer to the fallen man, who lay on his side. He raised a hand to Jeremy's face. No reaction. He then knelt next to him and placed a hand on his back.
“It’s a good thing too; I don’t think my body could handle much more of that electromagnetic radiation”.
Concern for his close friend’s health had Minion moving up. “Sir, with everything that was happening, I forgot to do a scan on Mr Autumn’s changed body. Are you in any pain?” He stood on his knuckles close to the blue alien, not bothering with the looks he was getting from Roxanne.
“I’ll be okay, Minion.” He down at Minion’s damaged suit and into brown eyes. “It wasn’t that bad. I just feel a little sick.”
“We should get back to the Lair, then.” It seemed the rest of the world had been blocked out as the two spoke. “I’ll have the brainbots scan you for any cell damage and I’ll clean your suit.” He smiled warmly.
Megamind smiled back at his friend. “Thanks. A good night sleep would be wonderful right about now”.
Suddenly both ex-villains heard someone close to them cough. They turned to see Roxanne, Rosina and Wayne starring at them. Both of them looked at each other then turned away, Minion took a few steps away.
Megamind looked down at Jeremy again, knowing the police couldn’t do much with something like this. He lifted his left arm up and pressing a key on the computer mounted in the vambrace on his left wrist. Its screen lit up and dialling tones were heard. Then it was answered.
“I was wondering when I would here from you, Afeeke.”
“Markus, you can bring your soldiers in. The monster’s been dealt with.”
“Right, good work. Will be there shortly.” Megamind hung up.
“Uh?” Roxanne stepped closer to the aliens. She took one look at Wayne. He was looking away. Does he know why Megamind was calling the military? her mind screamed at her. Oh, God, the military. She turned back to the blue alien. “Megamind, whose soldiers? Who have you called?” She looked down at his back.
Megamind spoke without turning to looking up. “Roxanne, lots of people helped as us while we were growing up in prison.” He stood and turned slightly to face her. “Not many knew about Major General Alan Greenfield. I have a lot to thank the man for.” He then stood up and faced her. He smiled. “Don’t worry. These guys are all right.”
Wayne looked down at the man on the ground. He was slowly moving. In a low tone, he said, “Markus is coming to help him. Right.” He looked up at Megamind.
Megamind smiled. “Yes, he is.” He looked back at Roxanne. “The General’s the reason why --” His eyes went out of focus as a painful memory wasted over him. He fought to push it away.
Roxanne touched his shoulder and smiled.
After moment, he shook it off and looked back at them with a weak smile. “Alan made a deal with me shortly after one our battles four years ago.” He looked over at Wayne, who was looking down at the human on the ground.
Megamind continued. “I agreed to it. I always surprise him by keeping to the military rules.” He smiled, slowly standing as four large army vehicles rolled up.
Roxanne eyes widened, as a man got out of one at the vehicles and started walked over to the five of them. He looked just like the Warden, but older.
Green eyes locked with dark brown ones. Roxanne watched as her boyfriend's smile changed to a wide grin.
“Hey, boys. It’s been a while,” the older man called happily.
The blue man shook his head and watched as more soldiers came out of the backs of the vehicles. “Ah, Uncle.” He came over to meet the older man but noticed something in the corner of his eye.
It was another older man, this one dressed in white lab coat. Walking over to the group with this man were three soldiers one. In the lead was a man, a Lieutenant Colonel with dark hair and cold eyes, followed by a Major with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes and a female First Lieutenant with red hair and blue eye. Megamind didn't recognized any of them and from the look on his Uncle’s face he didn’t know either. Megamind turned his head and looked at the fourth man. The only movement to come from the blue alien was him breathing. He growled within his mind. This was one human he truly wanted to kill.
This man didn’t bother to look at anyone. His gaze was fixed down at Jeremy’s body with a cold smile. Megamind’s eye narrowed with pure hatred. Dark his thoughts filled his mind.
To be Continued