Nemesis Theory: Chapter #18
Title: Nemesis Theory, Chapter #18
Authors: Raggedpelt and Yami Neko Tsuki
Summary: An intruder goes digging through Megamind's room, Roxanne and Megs have a talk, Minion's behaving strangely aggressive, and Hal muses on his new life in prison.
Wordcount: 1,778
Rating: This particular chapter is rated R. Rating of overall story will range from PG to NC-17.
Other notes: Most of Roxanne, Minion, and Galaria's dialogue in this chapter was written by Yami Neko Tsuki.
Previous Chapters:
Chapter #1: Whiskered Evil
Chapter #2: Milk and the Third Degree
Chapter #3: Said Too Soon
Chapter #4: The Offer
Chapter #5: Rust
Chapter #6: Little Lab of Horrors
Chapter #7: The Junkyard
Chapter #8: Friends In Low Places
Chapter #9: All That Glitters
Chapter #10: Blind Date
Chapter #11: Barbs (NSFW!!)
Chapter #12: Responsibility
Chapter #13: Sideways
Chapter #14: Not About Revenge
Chapter #15: Magnets, How Do They Work?
Chapter #16: Dr. Pepper and UFO's
Chapter #17: Home Invasion
****
While Sarinth was off talking to who knows who, Servant was up readying the ship, and Minion was down clearing a space in the hangar, Galaria slipped away back into the lair, occasionally ducking out of the way to evade a patrolling Brainbot. After a close-call or two she finally made her way over to the rickety-looking elevator that Sarinth had so obviously steered her away from during his little tour.
With a smirk, she stepped into it; fortunately the controls were clearly labeled, so it was easy enough to figure out how to get it to go up to the small second floor above it. What was he hiding up there? The elevator rattled to life with a sickening lurch, taking her to the next level. It stopped at a short, dimly lit hallway with a single door at the end. Quivering in excitement, she scampered over, quickly pulling out a device to scan for any traps. Nope, nothing.
Biting her lip in excitement, Galaria pushed the door open to find… just a small, dingy room. The lighting would have been very poor to human eyes, but she could see easily enough in the darkness--a good thing, given that there was no light source in the room.
It was fairly sparsely furnished. In one corner lay an ancient, tattered mattress on the floor, with a few thin, ragged blankets piled on top of it. A shelf on the wall held a few pieces of junk. An old binky, a photograph of Sarinth as a child with some offspring of the primates that called this place home (odd; that one in the middle of the group almost looked like a Glau), the cracked pieces of a broken fish-orb, and an old worn notebook.
Aside from the bric-a-brac on the shelf, and the rotten old mattress, the room was empty. She would have almost written it off as forgotten, if not for the fact that everything in here was meticulously dusted and cared for. Perhaps he was hiding something better in here, somehow? An idea striking her, Galaria walked over and felt under the dingy mattress.
A moment later she had pulled out a red silk scarf. It was pretty enough, she supposed, and had a light floral scent to it, but as to what significance it held or why he would have hidden it, she had no idea. With a small shrug, she folded it up and stowed it carefully back where she had found it.
Galaria looked back over at the shelf, the notebook catching her eye. After a moment of hesitation, she walked over and opened it, flipping through the pages. They all had that scratchy, unreadable nonsense that the denizens of this planet substituted for actual writing; completely unreadable. However, judging by the sketches and diagrams in it, it seemed to be a record of sorts, detailing various injuries he had received. A starting number of them.
Further along, it contained many, many anatomical drawings of himself and the royalfish that functioned as his servant, apparently his best efforts at puzzling out their own unique biology. She couldn't understand the notes he had made, but judging by the drawings and diagrams he had done relatively well with his estimations. On the last few marked pages were some relatively new drawings, clearly images of a female royalfish. Interesting; more theories on his part, or had he found a specimen?
All at once, it hit Galaria that she should probably head back. It wouldn't do to have them get suspicious. She carefully shut the notebook and placed it back where it had been, heading back downstairs.
****
Megamind walked over to his planning area, looking around, "Minion, are you here?"
Minion swam out from where he'd been comforting Sideways so that Megamind could see him in the tank, "Right here, sir."
"I'm going to head over to Roxie's for a while. You, uh, you don't need to worry about our guests."
Minion looked at Megamind for a long moment, "Sir, did you dehydrate them?"
"What kind of question is that? Of course I did! I can't have her poking around my lab, she'd break something!"
"Sir, they-"
"I just need some time to think, alright?"
"…I understand, but they'll be angry later."
Megamind turned and walked out; a few moments later, Sideways peeked out of the castle, her colors still pale and her fins clamped. He gave her a friendly smile and swam back over, giving her a gentle nuzzle, "It's okay, everybody's gone now."
Her color recovered a little bit, "I wish he wouldn't bring strangers down here."
"Well, they're supposed to stay in the hangar, so you shouldn't see them around too much. And they won't be here long."
Sideways nodded a little, and swam out past him, brushing her long fins against him in a way that had to be intentional; it made his lateral lines positively hum. Relishing the sensation for a long moment, Minion turned to swim after her.
"So.. if… if he goes, who feeds us?"
"Well," Minion replied, "I still have the suit, so I could feed us. But I don't think he's going to leave."
"I don't like her."
He gave her an affectionate nudge, "None of us do."
Abruptly, Sideways's colors darkened to the point of being nearly black, making her orange eyes stand out vividly. Instinctively (or maybe not) Minion shot backwards to give her a little more space. "She should keep that slithering thing away from the tank," grumbled Sideways, "Or she might not get it back."
"I don't think we'll have t-" Minion fell silent as he spotted a guppy poking around right near the entrance to the castle. That was WAY too close. Without a second's thought, he charged at it, snapping threateningly. The terrified little fish darted off to let him have it, leaving Minion wondering why exactly he'd done that. Since when did he care if other fish swam in the castle?
If Sideways thought his behavior was strange, she didn't mention it. The pretty female just swam back into the cave, and went back to digging. She kept moving the aquarium gravel away from one corner of the castle floor, like she was trying to get down to the glass bottom. Of course, she didn't have hands or claws, so she dug by picking up each pebble in her mouth and moving it.
Minion watched her work for a bit, then hesitantly said, "May I ask why you're doing that?"
She paused for a moment, frowning, "I really don't know. I think maybe I'm just bored."
He started to ask another question, but just then the school of zebra danios swam entirely too close to the castle. Sideways forgotten for the moment, he turned and charged at them, driving them back to the other side of the tank.
****
Roxanne hesitated, unsure what to say. Finally, it was Megamind who broke the uncomfortable silence with a weak laugh.
"How crazy is this, huh?" he said, giving her a nervous grin.
"Yeah, um… at least you're not alone anymore?" she forced a smile, already regretting saying that. Even if they hadn't shown up, he wasn't alone. He had her. Megamind realized that, right?
He walked over and flopped down on her couch as if he owned it. That sense of familiarity hadn't been there a few months ago; it had taken a long time for him to become comfortable in her space.
"I'm happy here," he said, laying his head back, "I don't see how she can't understand that."
Roxanne walked over, snuggling in next to him. She rested her head against his bony shoulder, listening to his breathing, "I don't want you to leave."
Megamind responded by resting a gloved finger on her chin, tilting her head upwards so he could kiss her. He held the kiss for an exquisitely long moment before breaking it off. "I'm not going anywhere, Roxanne. …And I don't see how they could need me like she claims, no matter who my parents were. After all, they've done well enough without me for the past 29 years."
She rested her hand lightly on his, "I'm sure she was just excited about having managed to find you."
"So, uh, any advice on getting them to not yell at me once I re-hydrate them?"
"Not really. Hey, maybe it could be a good thing, she'll be so mad at you that she'll leave you alone." Oh god, wait, remember who you're talking to. "Please don't try to make her mad on purpose though."
He answered that with a light chuckle, "Oh, trust me, I learned my lesson about 'berserk buttons' with Titan."
She sighed in relief, "Good."
"Besides," he continued, "I don't want to completely alienate her. There's... there's stuff I want to know, y'know? Who wouldn't be curious about what their life was originally 'supposed' to be like?"
Roxanne nodded a little. Inside she knew she was probably being selfish, but she didn't want him to know more. What if they had all this amazing technology and he decided he liked them better? What then?
Megamind just put an arm around her, pulling her close.
****
Hal groaned a little, resting his head against the cool wall of the cell. That helped a little, but not much. Man, this was crap-tacular. Stuck in prison cell, no video games, no girls, and he felt lousy to boot. He'd had headaches once or twice before, but nothing ever like this.
"Will you quit your fucking whining?" growled a voice from the top bunk. Oh, right, and the lovely company too. Hal was pretty sure that his new "friend" Mitch was just a shaved bear with some bad tattoos. There was no way he could be that big and terrifying without at least one of his parents having been a grizzly. Hal fucking hated that guy. Granted, because he was Mitch's.. uh.. "friend", nobody else in Cellblock D messed with him, but the protection really wasn't worth the price of admission.
And the worst part was he couldn't even remember half the shit that he'd been thrown in here for. Everything was such a nauseating blur, with little flashes of lucidity now and then. He remembered most of the early stuff, like when Spacedad was training him, but so much after that was a blur. The first really clear memory he had was two cops beating the hell out of him once they got him back to the station.
He was supposed to save the day and get the girl. Not rot in a cell and be the girl.
What the hell had happened!?
Chapter #19: Brainbot #505
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