Cherries & Porcupines (part 4)
As rumours about Megamind and Maddy are spreading, the latter is reminded of extremely painful memories.
Long story short, this chapter is essentially focused on Maddy and contains lots of angst.
“Hey, don’t talk so fast, I’m trying to take notes here!” Maddy reminded the blue alien. “So, you were talking about the importance of presentation?”
“Presentation is everything. Especially for super villains. It’s very important for heroes too.”
As Megamind kept ranting, the camera girl kept taking notes in a notebook with her favourite light blue pen. At some point, he moved his high back chair next to her in order to take a look at what she had written so far. She quickly closed her notebook.
“Could you not do that, please?” she asked. “I don’t like people starring at my sloppy handwriting.”
He chuckled and said “you call this sloppy?” then took a random page hanging on a string next to him and showed it to her as if it was some sort of contest.
“I don’t even know what language that is ; I can’t know if it’s written properly or not”, Maddy explained.
“It’s Ee-nglish.”
“…You mean English.”
“That’s what I said.”
The woman in black stared at the page again.
“Congrats, you have the worst handwriting I have ever seen.”
“I know.” He moved his chair to be in front of her again. “Only Minion and I can read it. The brain-bots still have difficulties deciphering it. Speaking of Minion…” he stood, took the page from Maddy’s hand and put it back on its string. “It’s time we go patrol now.”
“What, it’s already that late?” she checked the time on her phone. “Oh. It is. Can you… take me back home during your patrol, please? I’d rather not go outside alone at this hour.”
“No problem. What kind of hero would I be if I didn’t make sure the citizens of Metrocity can go back home safely at night? Just tell me where you live and the invisible car will take you there.”
Maddy stood up and put her pen safely in her pocket.
“I’ve always dreamt of owning an invisible car”, she smiled. “But I guess sitting in someone else’s invisible car is close enough, right?”
As she was speaking, Minion approached.
“Actually, the boss modified it yesterday. He added seatbelts” the fish explained.
“You mean there weren’t seatbelts before?”
“He added them because Miss Ritchi said she wouldn’t get in the car again if there wasn’t any -”
Megamind cut him off :
“Minion, we don’t have time for this! We already have a really important mission for tonight: making sure this citizen comes back home safely tonight.”
Minion stopped the invisible car in front of Maddy’s apartment block. While she was busy unfastening her seatbelt, Megamind got out of the vehicle to open the door for her. That’s what he was supposed to do, right?
She climbed off the back of the car, took two steps and turned around to look at the two aliens.
“Thanks for the ride, guys. That was nice of you.”
“That was the least we could do, Miss Manson”, Minion smiled from the driver’s seat.
“Good luck on your patrol!” the camera girl said.
“Good night, Maddy” the blue man replied.
He got back in the car while the woman in black disappeared in the building. Minion rolled the window up, becoming invisible again, and then both aliens left to patrol other parts of the city.
As Maddy entered her apartment, she wondered what Cherry was doing right now. She was probably sleeping. She would send her her notes tomorrow. And then, her partner would start drawing some sketches. The camera girl absolutely loved Cherry’s style. She was also a bit jealous because she couldn’t draw to save her life. But she could do other things, like writing.
And she did write a lot for the webcomic project. Even though Megamind never mentioned his childhood, he still had a lot to say.
All the people who had fled Metro City after Megamind took it over or when Tighten was destroying it where now coming back. Roxanne and Maddy were asked to make a report on the subject. They went to various locations, including a school in front of which they intended to interview the teachers about the children returning to class and the parents who had just come back to the city with their families now that it was safe.
The adults gave the camera girl weird looks, but she was used to it. Before they could start their first interview of a teacher, he said to Roxanne :
“Your camera girl here should take all those spikes off, she’s going to scare the children.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m some girl with a camera, I’m soooooo scary” Maddy commented sarcastically.
“Come on, it’s just some studs and spikes”, Roxanne pointed out. “Beside, just take a look at the children. They don’t seem to be scared.”
While she was speaking, she could see her camera girl crouch down to let a little boy touch the longer spikes on her shoulders.
“It’s not even pointy”, the child noticed.
“Of course it’s not. Those who made this jacket didn’t want the customers to hurt themselves.”
“What are they for?”
“The spikes? Nothing. I just like how they look.”
“How many do you have?”
“Still not enough”, the woman in black laughed.
“Hum, that’s really cute Maddy, but we have an interview to do…” Roxanne reminded her.
“Sorry.”
The rest of the day went on as planned until reporter and camera girl went back to the office, where one of their co-workers handed them a magazine, saying “you might want to take a look at this.” Roxanne took it in her hand.
On the front page was a picture of Maddy and Megamind standing next to her apartment block. The headline read “MEGAMIND’S NEW LOVE INTEREST?”
The camera girl facepalmed really hard.
“They can’t be serious…”
Roxanne opened the magazine.
“It’s a tabloid, not serious journalism”, she pointed out.
“He just escorted me to my home a couple of time! Do they know you can take someone home without being interested in them or whatever?”
“They don’t care. They just want to sell that piece of crap they call a magazine.”
Maddy sighed heavily.
“Why do they even care who other people date or not anyway…”
The reporter sighed as well.
“I don’t know…”
Maddy spent the next day avoiding questions. At least now that people thought there was something between Megamind and her, they left Roxanne alone, but she was tired of this situation already. She had always been expected to be nice to everybody no matter what, however when a man was nice to her everybody thought he was interested in her.
Also, she had heard someone make a comment about how disgusting it was to date an alien.
Disgusting. She had been called “disgusting” before, years ago. She remembered it like it was yesterday. She remembered how her brother and her mother didn’t say a thing while she grabbed her bag. She remembered she had packed her most important belongings in a bag in advance because she knew what would happen. She remembered when her father silently opened the door. She knew what that meant. She went through the door and took a step outside. She remembered her father’s voice behind her saying “you are disgusting”. She remembered the sound of the door being slammed really hard.
So when she heard some random person on the street pronounce the same word just after she had finished shooting a report, she simply broke down and left Roxanne, the camera and the van right there and went back home. That word brought back too many painful memories she had tried to forget. But she knew she’d never forget.
As she entered her tiny apartment, she threw her jacket in that old armchair she had found one day in a junkyard. Her gloves and bracelet quickly followed.
The word still echoed in her head. She walked in the bathroom, removed her clothes and proceeded to take a long, burning hot shower. There, in the middle of the bathtub, she suddenly crouched down and cried. She wasn’t disgusting, was she? She didn’t do anything wrong, why did so many people treat her like she was the scum of the earth? Like her own family did, ten years ago…
Suddenly, she heard a noise, like footstep in the next room. She turned the shower off and listened closely. Everything was silent again. Maybe the footsteps were a figment of Maddy’s imagination. Maybe they weren’t.
She silently stepped out of the bathtub and grabbed a towel, still listening.
She put her sky blue bathrobe on and looked for something she could use as a weapon if necessary. All she could find was a pair of scissors she grabbed firmly as she left the bathroom. The next thing she knew, something hit the back of her head. Then, everything went black.
When Maddy woke up, her hands were chained to a wall behind her. She could see metal bars in front of and next to her : she was in some sort of cage. A cage in a lab. In front of the cage stood a video camera on a tripod. It was the same kind of camera she used everyday. Probably stolen. She tugged at the chains even though she knew it was useless. Her knees were shaking and her heart was beating insanely fast. She tried to calm down and think. Panicking wouldn’t do her any good. But what else could she do?
“What would Roxanne do?” she muttered to herself.
“I see you’re awake at last!” said a voice coming from the shadows in the corner of the room.
A middle-aged man wearing a lab coat splattered in red paint approached the cage. Was that cheap paint supposed to look like blood?
The camera girl now knew what Roxanne would do : stall for time.
“Who are you? What is this place? What do you want?”
“They call me Doctor Moreau, this is my laboratory, and I want to use you to lure your boyfriend right into my -”
“You read too many tabloids, Mister I Took My Name From A H.G Wells Novel”, Maddy interrupted him. “Megamind’s not my boyfriend. He’s already taken and so am I. You kidnapped me for nothing.”
“It doesn’t matter. If that traitor to the villainous cause really wants to be a hero, he will be looking for you anyway. But when he finds you… it will be too late.”
An evil laugh followed.
The villain then proceeded to turn the camera on.
“Ol- Hello?” Megamind said when he answered his cellphone.
“It’s Roxanne. Maddy left right after we finished shooting, she doesn’t answer her phone and she isn’t in her apartment. I’m worried.”
“Do you have any idea where she could be?”
“… Because of that tabloid I showed you, people now think there’s something between you and her. And the hero’s girlfriend or supposed girlfriend is always a target for villains… I’m afraid she might have been kidnapped. That’s why I’m calling you.”
“I know every place a villain could use to conduct their evil plans in Metrocity. I’ve visited all of them myself. I’ll find her.”
“Make it quick. She may be in great danger right now.”
Note : I remember reading that bad handwriting could be a sign of intelligence. I couldn't help thinking that if it's true, Megamind must have the worst handwriting ever. ^^
Long story short, this chapter is essentially focused on Maddy and contains lots of angst.
“Hey, don’t talk so fast, I’m trying to take notes here!” Maddy reminded the blue alien. “So, you were talking about the importance of presentation?”
“Presentation is everything. Especially for super villains. It’s very important for heroes too.”
As Megamind kept ranting, the camera girl kept taking notes in a notebook with her favourite light blue pen. At some point, he moved his high back chair next to her in order to take a look at what she had written so far. She quickly closed her notebook.
“Could you not do that, please?” she asked. “I don’t like people starring at my sloppy handwriting.”
He chuckled and said “you call this sloppy?” then took a random page hanging on a string next to him and showed it to her as if it was some sort of contest.
“I don’t even know what language that is ; I can’t know if it’s written properly or not”, Maddy explained.
“It’s Ee-nglish.”
“…You mean English.”
“That’s what I said.”
The woman in black stared at the page again.
“Congrats, you have the worst handwriting I have ever seen.”
“I know.” He moved his chair to be in front of her again. “Only Minion and I can read it. The brain-bots still have difficulties deciphering it. Speaking of Minion…” he stood, took the page from Maddy’s hand and put it back on its string. “It’s time we go patrol now.”
“What, it’s already that late?” she checked the time on her phone. “Oh. It is. Can you… take me back home during your patrol, please? I’d rather not go outside alone at this hour.”
“No problem. What kind of hero would I be if I didn’t make sure the citizens of Metrocity can go back home safely at night? Just tell me where you live and the invisible car will take you there.”
Maddy stood up and put her pen safely in her pocket.
“I’ve always dreamt of owning an invisible car”, she smiled. “But I guess sitting in someone else’s invisible car is close enough, right?”
As she was speaking, Minion approached.
“Actually, the boss modified it yesterday. He added seatbelts” the fish explained.
“You mean there weren’t seatbelts before?”
“He added them because Miss Ritchi said she wouldn’t get in the car again if there wasn’t any -”
Megamind cut him off :
“Minion, we don’t have time for this! We already have a really important mission for tonight: making sure this citizen comes back home safely tonight.”
Minion stopped the invisible car in front of Maddy’s apartment block. While she was busy unfastening her seatbelt, Megamind got out of the vehicle to open the door for her. That’s what he was supposed to do, right?
She climbed off the back of the car, took two steps and turned around to look at the two aliens.
“Thanks for the ride, guys. That was nice of you.”
“That was the least we could do, Miss Manson”, Minion smiled from the driver’s seat.
“Good luck on your patrol!” the camera girl said.
“Good night, Maddy” the blue man replied.
He got back in the car while the woman in black disappeared in the building. Minion rolled the window up, becoming invisible again, and then both aliens left to patrol other parts of the city.
As Maddy entered her apartment, she wondered what Cherry was doing right now. She was probably sleeping. She would send her her notes tomorrow. And then, her partner would start drawing some sketches. The camera girl absolutely loved Cherry’s style. She was also a bit jealous because she couldn’t draw to save her life. But she could do other things, like writing.
And she did write a lot for the webcomic project. Even though Megamind never mentioned his childhood, he still had a lot to say.
All the people who had fled Metro City after Megamind took it over or when Tighten was destroying it where now coming back. Roxanne and Maddy were asked to make a report on the subject. They went to various locations, including a school in front of which they intended to interview the teachers about the children returning to class and the parents who had just come back to the city with their families now that it was safe.
The adults gave the camera girl weird looks, but she was used to it. Before they could start their first interview of a teacher, he said to Roxanne :
“Your camera girl here should take all those spikes off, she’s going to scare the children.”
“Oh, yeah, I’m some girl with a camera, I’m soooooo scary” Maddy commented sarcastically.
“Come on, it’s just some studs and spikes”, Roxanne pointed out. “Beside, just take a look at the children. They don’t seem to be scared.”
While she was speaking, she could see her camera girl crouch down to let a little boy touch the longer spikes on her shoulders.
“It’s not even pointy”, the child noticed.
“Of course it’s not. Those who made this jacket didn’t want the customers to hurt themselves.”
“What are they for?”
“The spikes? Nothing. I just like how they look.”
“How many do you have?”
“Still not enough”, the woman in black laughed.
“Hum, that’s really cute Maddy, but we have an interview to do…” Roxanne reminded her.
“Sorry.”
The rest of the day went on as planned until reporter and camera girl went back to the office, where one of their co-workers handed them a magazine, saying “you might want to take a look at this.” Roxanne took it in her hand.
On the front page was a picture of Maddy and Megamind standing next to her apartment block. The headline read “MEGAMIND’S NEW LOVE INTEREST?”
The camera girl facepalmed really hard.
“They can’t be serious…”
Roxanne opened the magazine.
“It’s a tabloid, not serious journalism”, she pointed out.
“He just escorted me to my home a couple of time! Do they know you can take someone home without being interested in them or whatever?”
“They don’t care. They just want to sell that piece of crap they call a magazine.”
Maddy sighed heavily.
“Why do they even care who other people date or not anyway…”
The reporter sighed as well.
“I don’t know…”
Maddy spent the next day avoiding questions. At least now that people thought there was something between Megamind and her, they left Roxanne alone, but she was tired of this situation already. She had always been expected to be nice to everybody no matter what, however when a man was nice to her everybody thought he was interested in her.
Also, she had heard someone make a comment about how disgusting it was to date an alien.
Disgusting. She had been called “disgusting” before, years ago. She remembered it like it was yesterday. She remembered how her brother and her mother didn’t say a thing while she grabbed her bag. She remembered she had packed her most important belongings in a bag in advance because she knew what would happen. She remembered when her father silently opened the door. She knew what that meant. She went through the door and took a step outside. She remembered her father’s voice behind her saying “you are disgusting”. She remembered the sound of the door being slammed really hard.
So when she heard some random person on the street pronounce the same word just after she had finished shooting a report, she simply broke down and left Roxanne, the camera and the van right there and went back home. That word brought back too many painful memories she had tried to forget. But she knew she’d never forget.
As she entered her tiny apartment, she threw her jacket in that old armchair she had found one day in a junkyard. Her gloves and bracelet quickly followed.
The word still echoed in her head. She walked in the bathroom, removed her clothes and proceeded to take a long, burning hot shower. There, in the middle of the bathtub, she suddenly crouched down and cried. She wasn’t disgusting, was she? She didn’t do anything wrong, why did so many people treat her like she was the scum of the earth? Like her own family did, ten years ago…
Suddenly, she heard a noise, like footstep in the next room. She turned the shower off and listened closely. Everything was silent again. Maybe the footsteps were a figment of Maddy’s imagination. Maybe they weren’t.
She silently stepped out of the bathtub and grabbed a towel, still listening.
She put her sky blue bathrobe on and looked for something she could use as a weapon if necessary. All she could find was a pair of scissors she grabbed firmly as she left the bathroom. The next thing she knew, something hit the back of her head. Then, everything went black.
When Maddy woke up, her hands were chained to a wall behind her. She could see metal bars in front of and next to her : she was in some sort of cage. A cage in a lab. In front of the cage stood a video camera on a tripod. It was the same kind of camera she used everyday. Probably stolen. She tugged at the chains even though she knew it was useless. Her knees were shaking and her heart was beating insanely fast. She tried to calm down and think. Panicking wouldn’t do her any good. But what else could she do?
“What would Roxanne do?” she muttered to herself.
“I see you’re awake at last!” said a voice coming from the shadows in the corner of the room.
A middle-aged man wearing a lab coat splattered in red paint approached the cage. Was that cheap paint supposed to look like blood?
The camera girl now knew what Roxanne would do : stall for time.
“Who are you? What is this place? What do you want?”
“They call me Doctor Moreau, this is my laboratory, and I want to use you to lure your boyfriend right into my -”
“You read too many tabloids, Mister I Took My Name From A H.G Wells Novel”, Maddy interrupted him. “Megamind’s not my boyfriend. He’s already taken and so am I. You kidnapped me for nothing.”
“It doesn’t matter. If that traitor to the villainous cause really wants to be a hero, he will be looking for you anyway. But when he finds you… it will be too late.”
An evil laugh followed.
The villain then proceeded to turn the camera on.
“Ol- Hello?” Megamind said when he answered his cellphone.
“It’s Roxanne. Maddy left right after we finished shooting, she doesn’t answer her phone and she isn’t in her apartment. I’m worried.”
“Do you have any idea where she could be?”
“… Because of that tabloid I showed you, people now think there’s something between you and her. And the hero’s girlfriend or supposed girlfriend is always a target for villains… I’m afraid she might have been kidnapped. That’s why I’m calling you.”
“I know every place a villain could use to conduct their evil plans in Metrocity. I’ve visited all of them myself. I’ll find her.”
“Make it quick. She may be in great danger right now.”
Note : I remember reading that bad handwriting could be a sign of intelligence. I couldn't help thinking that if it's true, Megamind must have the worst handwriting ever. ^^