Learning to be Selfish - 1
Title: Learning to be Selfish
Chapter: 1/? (I know how it will end, I just don't know how many chapters it will take to get there XD It could be 3, it could be 6, who knows XD)
Rating: PG-ish?
Word Count: 4987
Pairings/Characters: Megamind/Roxanne, Megamind, Roxanne, Minion, Music Man
Summary: Megamind decides to go down with style and give the city back its Hero at the same time. Alternate!Ending to the Movie and the events that follow.
Disclaimer: I PROMISE THAT THIS STORY WILL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING.
Note 1: So this idea came from a post filled with plot bunnies up for grabs, heavens, like, MONTHS and MONTHS ago. I went looking for it but I can’t find it anywhere for the life of me. I’ve spent hours trying to find it and I have failed sob sob sob. WHOEVER YOU ARE TELL ME SO I CAN BE LIKE “THIS WAS THEIR IDEA I JUST TOOK IT AND RAN.” This is the whole ‘Minion fakes Megamind’s death while in disguise and Megamind assumes the role of Metro Man’ bunny. (I do remember that when I expressed interest in it I had to promise megabluelove that I would give it a happy ending. Thus the disclaimer above XDDDDD. <3)
Note 2: invderlava and I are still working on The Day Before no worries. I’ve just had most of this chapter written out for, well for months, but finally had the time to finish it. I think I’ve finally figure out how to portion out this fanfic writing time thing. XD Chapter Three of The Day Before will be out sooooooon. Pwomise!
Now, without further ado~ Beta'd by the fantasticinvderlava , the fic!
"--and there is no Queen of England!"
It was in that very moment that Roxanne decided Hal couldn't get any scarier.
That amount of sheer ignorance coupled with his Super Powers was probably the most terrifying thing she could have imagined. However, she was quickly distracted by this raise in her own personal terror level by the loudly projected guitars signaling the beginning of "Welcome to the Jungle." Her eyes widened and she raised them to the familiar, ominous black cloud that was rising and encircling the tower slowly like a crescent moon.
"You DARE challenge Megamind?" a familiar voice boomed through the speakers of the Brain Bots and Roxanne felt her heart soar.
He came back.
She knew that he would. Well, she had hoped that she knew that he would, but she had been awful to him. She wouldn’t have really blamed him for not coming back. ...Of course she would probably have ended up dead, but they weren’t out of the woods yet on that note anyway.
Tighten leapt off of the edge of the leaning skyscraper and flew up to meet the shadowy silhouette of Megamind's profile. "This town isn't big enough for two super villains!" he retorted, clenching his fists, getting ready for a fight.
To the surprise of Tighten and Roxanne, and the shock and awe (and possibly pants wetting terror) of the citizens below, a giant mass of Brain Bots in the form of Megamind's head flew down towards the red head. "Oh, you're a villain all right," the head taunted with Megamind's voice, getting in close, its green eyes widening for emphasis. "Just not a super one!"
"Oh yeah?" the super villain countered lamely. "What's the difference?!" he demanded.
As the instrumental of the song reached a crescendo and a steady beat thumped out almost like a drum roll, the mouth of the Brain Bot Megamind Head opened and the petite blue super villain strutted down the red lit tongue, commanding the attention of everyone who could see him.
"PRESENTATION!" Megamind announced and threw his hands out, a giant grin exploding on his face as laser lights shone forth from the back of the head of Brain Bots.
Roxanne couldn’t help but let out a laugh of relief and happiness. She knew-- she knew that he would come back, and of course it would be in a spectacular fashion. This had to be the crowning moment of his career.
Tighten let out an incoherent scream of rage and lunged forward towards the genius. The Brain Bots beneath his feet suddenly dropped out from under Megamind and he fell to land on his hoverbike below as the rest of the Brain Bots making up the head closed up around the raging villain.
Roxanne then heard the tower finally crack and start to fall. Her attention immediately flew to the fact that she was now plummeting while tied to the top of a sky scraper. Few things in life made Roxanne Ritchi scream. Being flung over a building was one. Falling thousands of feet through the air was another.
~~~
Minion grunted quietly as he landed on the hoverbike. He knew it would support Sir dropping from such a height, but him disguised as Sir? Not nearly as definite. Something much more pressing caught his attention, however. He heard Miss Ritchi scream. Looking up, the fish saw the Brain Bots that had let him drop had rushed down and grabbed onto the tower, trying to stop it from falling with all of their tiny might. The descent of the tower barely slowed and Minion quickly revved the hoverbike's engine and shot down towards it.
When he got to her, Roxanne for her part had stopped screaming and was looking at him gratefully, bordering on adoring. Minion had to fight off a blush as he reached out, tugging on the street sign that was securing her to the tower top. It was stuck on pretty good, which was probably for the best, because Minion then realized that while Roxanne wouldn't think twice about him ripping a metal sign from around her, the boss would never be able to.
"I knew you'd come back!" she shouted to him over the wind rushing past their ears. Rather, her ears and his speakers.
"Well," Minion shouted back to her in his boss' voice. "That made one of us!" he finished as he pulled out the spare dehydration gun from the holster at his side and fired it, reducing the metal pole to tiny blue cubes flying up past them into the air. Although his meaning was far different from what Roxanne thought it was, it was true.
Minion hadn't been sure whether or not he was going to come back. But Sir was the most important thing in the world to Minion. He knew that the whole "I don't need you!" had been a childish outburst, but it had still hurt. Very deeply. He honestly hadn’t been sure if he'd ever be able to forgive him for finally just being too selfish.
But when Minion had seen the destruction Tighten had caused and knew that his boss had gone to fight him in the battle bot like they had planned, and then found no sign of him, Minion felt his tiny fish heart race with panic and concern for his charge's safety. It really was Minion's sole purpose in life to look after him and even if he had other hobbies, Sir was still his top priority and he'd never change that, even if he wanted to. So once he found out his boss had gone back to prison, he went straight away to break him out.
Released, Roxanne started to fly up and away from him since the tower had more mass to fall faster. Minion quickly reached out and grabbed onto her ankle, pulling her back down onto the bike with him as he took off towards the ground and away from the skyscraper and Tighten.
The disguise watches never ceased to amaze Minion. In his opinion they were the best inventions that Sir had ever made. It managed to not only project an image, but mimic the texture, even the mass of the disguise, which was the only reason Roxanne didn't feel metal and fur as she wrapped her arms around his torso tightly. He heard the reporter gasp and then she shouted, "What's the plan?!" in a panicked voice.
Glancing over his shoulder, Minion was somehow only half surprised to see Tighten under the fallen skyscraper, hefting it into the air like a javelin. This was definitely not in the plan that he and Sir had worked out. "Well," Minion began, gripping the handles of the hoverbike more firmly. "It mostly involves... Not. Dying." he finished firmly, looking back at her, trying to keep his voice from sounding too concerned about what was possibly imminent death.
Roxanne's expression told him he didn't do a great job at keeping the expression of possible imminent death off of his face but she clutched at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders, moving her eyes firmly forward. "I like that plan," she said desperately.
The incredibly loud sound of creaking metal permeated the air as Tighten tossed the top of the sky scraper at them. Minion revved the bike again, putting it to top speed as he zoomed down the road. The sky scraper hit the pavement behind him and the air rushing out from under it knocked the hoverbike up and it crashed back down to the concrete, scraping, breaking, and ruining several of the hover pads. They half hovered, half skidded down the road, the back end fishtailing.
"Go faster! Make this thing go faster--!" Roxanne was screaming at him as she looked over his shoulder. A quick glance in the side view mirror told him that it was gaining on them.
Desperately he looked to the controls, twisting the handles to try and gain more speed. However, every meter was going down. He was losing power and stability. He'd never be able to turn it or swerve out of the way and they were slowing down fast. “I can’t control it!” he shouted to her over his shoulder before looking back at the road in front of them. Miss Ritchi. He needed to protect her. To save her. That was the whole point of this mission after all. Thinking quickly, he looked around. He spotted a red awning over a store on the far side of the road. It was far enough away that it wouldn't be affected by anything more than dust. It was his only shot.
Praying that the rods of the awning would hold, he swung the bike out as far to the side as he could to get momentum before swinging it back just as fast, tossing Roxanne off of the bike and into the air.
He couldn't look to see if she landed safely because the bike kept going as it tried to continue away from the sky scraper. He had gotten Miss Ritchi off the bike not all too soon, because the power to the front hover pads finally went out and the nose of the bike pitched forward, hitting the ground. Minion yelped as he was thrown and he was sent tumbling across the concrete and pavement, hitting the fountain with a loud crack. He heard the glass of his dome shatter and felt the water starting to drain out as he fluttered about in a bit of a panic. Then, his suit jolted as the spear-like tip of the tower impaled the suit and most of its inner circuitry. The force of the blow knocked him back into the flat side of one of the broken shards of glass of his bowl, making him see stars.
~~~
Roxanne shrieked as Megamind tossed her from the bike. She had not been expecting that at all. She braced herself for an awful impact with the road or sidewalk, but instead felt herself bounce off of the heavy canvas of a store awning. She let out a small yelp as the awning gave way under her second bounce. Luckily, only half of it fell and so she rolled down it as if it was an impromptu roll down a hill. The reporter did her best to cushion her head as she hit the concrete, scraping her arms as she rolled. But that wasn't her biggest concern.
Immediately upon stopping, her head shot up in time to see Megamind go flying off of the hoverbike as it pitched forward and the skyscraper skid after him, tearing up the road. The building came to a halt with a great crash and a greater deal of dust. Coughing, Roxanne looked up, desperately trying to see through all the dust. It cleared enough that she could see... that she could see Megamind slumped over the broken rubble of the fountain with the sky scraper looking like... looking like it had...
Her heart caught in her throat and she pushed herself to her feet, stumbling slightly. "No," she whispered brokenly, starting to run for him.
A sudden crash and subsequent rippling through the ground caused her to come to a halt, turning quickly in fear. Hal-- no, Tighten stood there and raised his arms in a celebratory gesture.
"Well that was easy!" he laughed, amused at how easily he had taken Megamind out. "Guess there's just one loose end now!" he called to her before raising his foot, kicking out hard into the back of an overturned bus.
Roxanne's eyes went wide and she stood, frozen, like a deer in the headlights, as the giant tonnage of metal flew at her, causing sparks to come up from the pavement. She finally regained herself in time to crouch in a fetal position instinctively, covering her head, even though it wouldn't prevent her from being crushed.
However, there wasn't an impact. There was the high pitched sound of metal slicing and she raised her head slowly in time to see two halves of the bus go skidding away on either side of her. Roxanne's blue eyes widened in disbelief and she uncovered her head, slowly turning, still crouched, to see Metro Man standing in front of her, his arm outstretched from where it had split the bus right down the middle.
Straightening with a smirk in Tighten's direction, the hero brushed a bit of metal dust from his shoulder. "Please, let’s have a little respect for public transportation," he said, putting on one of his trademark grins.
Roxanne stared at his back, disbelieving. "You came back...!" she exclaimed. She was grateful, confused, and upset all at once. He'd saved her. He'd come back to save all of them. But he had been so adamant about not doing so. Why would he...? And why... why couldn't he have shown up two minutes earlier? Megamind...
"You were right, Roxanne," Metro Man said, turning to look at her seriously, though with a small smile on his face. "I never should have left."
"Whoa... I-- I thought you were dead," Tighten stammered, staring at him.
Turning back to Tighten, Metro Man chuckled and sauntered towards him slowly. "My death was... greatly exaggerated." He punched one fist into his other open palm. "So... you're the punk I've heard about." The supposedly dead hero flexed his calve muscles, sending out a tangible shock-wave.
Tighten yelped in surprise and raised a hand as if to shield himself. Then, he scrambled back and took off. Metro Man then bent slightly before rocketing off after him just as fast.
Roxanne stared after them for a moment before biting her lip hard. She turned, scrambling over to the fountain and the fallen super villain. She raced to his side, hopping over the rubble getting between them. She dropped to her knees and stared at where the skyscraper had run him through. Her vision almost immediately became distorted as tears began to well up in her eyes. She blinked them back, refusing to cry in front of him. Placing her hand to his cheek, she turned his head slightly, purposefully ignored the dark substance slowly dripping to the pole to the ground.
He groaned and turned his head slightly into her touch, seeming to have to force his eyes open. “I’m sorry,” he whispered weakly. “I did the best I could…”
“I’m so proud of you...” she said, sniffing loudly and swallowing hard.
Minion really hoped the boss knew what he was doing. Miss Ritchi sounded like she was about to cry. He wasn’t sure about this part of the plan. He could end the charade right there. Not all of the mechanics of the suit were broken, he could reach up and turn off the watch, tell her who the real hero was…
But he didn’t.
The boss had been so adamant.… It was another lie to Miss Ritchi, but the boss wasn’t being selfish when he told him the plan. He could tell that Sir really thought this would be what was best for Miss Ritchi and for the city. He himself would be all right without water for several more minutes thanks to his alien fish physiology, and several Brain Bots were already on their way to pick him up. So, Minion didn’t say anything. He gave her a tiny smile and let his eyes slide shut again instead.
"--Hey," Roxanne said, her eyes widening slightly. She reached out, putting a hand on his shoulder to shake him. Then she stopped, staring. Slowly, she slid her hand down across the leather to rest it on his chest. She swallowed hard. She couldn't feel a heartbeat.
She couldn't breathe. This wasn't... this wasn't happening. He couldn't die. He had just saved her, he tried to save the city. Megamind couldn’t die. He always bounced back. Metro Man had knocked him around, his own inventions had exploded around him-- he was always fine. Always...
She didn’t even look up as Metro Man flew by in a gust of wind, chasing Tighten through the air.
~~~
Megamind zoomed through the square, arms forward, keeping his sights locked on the hero turned villain flying so desperately away from him. If it hadn’t been such a serious situation, Megamind would have relished in someone who wasn’t just a random citizen actually taking him this seriously. Granted, at the moment he looked like Metro Man, which probably added to the intimidation factor, but who cared about those sorts of little details anyway?
Everything hinged on this deception, he knew that. Without the de-fuser gun or the real Metro Man, they didn’t stand a chance of actually defeating Tighten. “Going somewhere?” he taunted, smirking confidently.
Megamind wasn’t sure whether he was surprised or just amused by how easy playing Metro Man seemed to come to him. They’d known each other all their lives, he knew the way the hero walked, the timing with which he delivered taunts, and which super move he would use and when. Begrudgingly, he had to admit to himself that the super powered man could probably say the same thing about what he knew about his villain.
Tighten yelped and turned mid-flight to look up at him just as he struck another pose fitting the supposedly dead hero of Metro City. “Besides jail?” he continued, putting on the smarmiest grin he possibly could. The red headed villain flew faster, desperately weaving to try and escape the white clad hero. Megamind quickly used the boost in his jet pack to arc around and end up in front of Tighten.
With a yelp, the villain scrambled to a halt just as Megamind reached out and grabbed a hold of the front of his cape in a daring move. “No, not the face, man! Please!” he whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut as the disguised villain turned hero pulled back his fist as if to punch him.
“If you know what’s good for you, Tighten, you’ll stay out of Metross---City!” Megamind quickly corrected himself, wincing inwardly as it still came out as Metrosity to his ears. “For good!”
Tighten however, seemed to buy it and quickly put on a burst of speed, backing up and giving him a double thumbs up. “Y-you got it!” he assured him, nodding quickly before taking off in a flash, leaving nothing but a trail of dust behind him.
Megamind exhaled, staring after him, lowering his fist fractionally. I... I did it...? he thought to himself before slowly turning to float down to the street below. A crowd was slowly coming out from their hiding places to see him, but Roxanne was still kneeling by the broken fountain, staring blankly after the retreating forms of Brain Bots carrying away Minion, who was still in disguise.
He took a breath and hesitated just a moment before floating over to her. “...Roxanne--” he began before a swarm of people rushed in, cheering, surrounding them both. They were both blocked in and he was finding himself growing increasingly uncomfortable at the invasion of his personal space. He was also growing increasingly concerned because Roxanne didn’t seem to be reacting at all. She had to still be in shock from the whole thing. He knew that his sort of kidnappings never prepared her for this. When someone moving in too close accidentally jostled her, Megamind knew that he had had enough.
“--Citizens!” he began, fighting to keep the cool, amiable persona he needed to come across in character. “I’m sure that you all have a lot of questions and I’m very glad that you are all safe, but right now I think that I should be taking Mi--Roxanne home, now.”
He didn’t give them the option to refuse and stepped forward purposefully, the crowd parting for him. The disguised former villain carefully scooped Roxanne into his arms. For a moment she tensed, but then seemed to realize just who was carrying her and the reporter managed to relax, ever so slightly.
The flight to her apartment was completely silent and Megamind couldn’t help but be even more worried. The shock of everything really must have gotten to her or she’d be wanting to... celebrate with everyone else, right?
When he touched down on her balcony, she slid out of his arms wordlessly and he reluctantly let her go. A part of him told him to just tell her who he was and that everything was okay but-- he’d lost his chance, he’d hurt her, and he didn’t want to confuse or hurt her anymore. It was better this way. Better for her, better for the city...
“You’ll be alright?” he asked hesitantly as he took a step back towards the edge of the balcony.
All he received was a muted nod. She didn’t even turn to look at him. He supposed she was probably still pretty mad at Metro Man for abandoning them all.
Truth be told, Megamind understood where the man was coming from, mostly anyway. The hero had spent his whole life being what other people wanted him to be, and he was finally, finally doing something for himself, being selfish in a way, but in a way he needed to be, for his own sake. He himself had spent his whole life being what he thought he was destined to be, being... being selfish in horrible ways, and now he was finally doing something for others, something selfless. It was hard, but... for Roxanne, even for the city that he’d come to actually care about, he could do it.
“...Right, then. Well, if you need me, just... ...yeah.” he murmured, tripping over his words. He hated leaving her alone like this, but he had to go back to the Lair and make sure that Minion was all right. And they needed to pack up and move the Lair. He couldn’t have her or anyone else finding him out.
When she gave him another curt nod, her back still to him, he took that as a dismissal and hopped off the balcony, flying back towards the industrial district.
~~~
After Metro Man was gone, Roxanne stepped slowly into her apartment, still in shock. She stopped just inside, staring at the floor and at the dirty, pink house slippers she was wearing. Slowly, she raised her eyes to look at the rest of the room and her breath caught in her throat.
The clues, the pieces of paper, were still hanging from the ceiling. He had just been at her apartment that day, standing in her living room, looking out her window, looking at the notes.
His notes.
Roxanne stared at them for a long time and felt her eyes burning again, but nothing came out. Her fists clenched and she reached up, ripping a few of the pieces of paper down with an angry cry. She stared at the crumpled notes in her hands and let out a choked sound that would have been a sob if tears had been involved. Then, she started ripping them all down, angry at herself, angry at Hal, at Metro Man, at the situation, at the city, at the world.
The reporter screamed and yelled as she tore down every single scrap of paper she had duplicated from his lair. Every single clue that, when he had been disguised as Bernard, the two of them had poured over trying to “figure out” what Megamind was up to. It was a good thing that more than half of her apartment building was empty because of people leaving the city; a neighbor might have been very concerned at all the noise coming from her apartment, not that she would have cared at this point.
She ended up knocking over a lamp and an end table in the process. Pictures she loved came off the walls, decorations she had hand-picked for the furnishings ended up on the floor. She couldn’t look at any of it. Not when he had just been here. Just here, talking with her, asking her for help, and now…
When they were all torn down, she stood in the middle of her now trashed living room. Breathing hard, she stared at all the ruined little pieces of paper on her floor, shredded like fallen confetti. She took in a shuddering breath, her eyes burning again.
She couldn’t stay here.
~~~
Roxanne’s feet carried her mechanically through the shattered city. She ignored anyone who tried talking to her, but most people were too busy picking up the remnants of their own broken lives to try speaking with her anyway. She walked long enough that it began to grow dark, but she didn’t notice.
She didn’t even realize where she had ended up going until she walked, literally, into nothing. That knocked her out of the funk she had been in and she stopped, staring at the nothing in front of her.
“…What on earth...?” she began, reaching forward, touching… metal.
She pulled in a sharp breath and glanced around. This was the corner… the corner where she had dumped him. She’d walked into the invisible car.
Desperately, without really knowing why, she groped for the door handle of the car. She scraped her knuckles on a spike and knocked her other arm into the side mirror before she found it. Once she did, she pulled the door open quickly.
She stood there, staring at the empty interior and wondered just what she had been expecting. For him to be sitting in there or something? “Haha! I fooled you, didn’t I??” he would have crowed gleefully.
Staring at the now visible and very empty inside, Roxanne took a deep breath and got in, shutting the door behind her. She sat there on the leather seat and noticed that the keys were still in the ignition. He had leapt out so fast to stop her…
The reporter swallowed hard and shook her head a little, letting her nosy reporter instincts take over instead, looking around the interior. There were all manner of buttons, dials, and switches. There were three pedals on the floor and the seat itself was incredibly large, which made sense since Minion was usually the one driving. In the back was- was the de-fuser gun. She swallowed again and shifted, climbing into the back seat from the front. She couldn’t count the times she had been in this backseat, nine times out of ten unconscious.
She pulled the gun into her lap and stared down at it. If they’d had this from the start…
She shook her head and shoved it onto the floor of the car with a clatter, burying her face in her hands. It was done. Tighten was gone. Metro Man had run him off. It didn’t make any sense, he could just go and terrorize some other poor city. But then, the prison really wouldn’t have been able to hold the super powered villain, anyway...
She dragged her fingers down her face slowly until they only covered her mouth and then she blinked, feeling something soft against her bare heel as she shifted it.
She bent over and reached under the seat, slowly straightening back up holding what appeared to be one of Megamind’s spare capes. She stared at it for a long, long moment before a drop of water fell on it. She blinked in surprise and another two drops fell. It couldn’t be raining in the car- Oh.
Raising a hand slowly to her face she realized the tears had finally come. They were streaming down her face, making what little makeup she had put on that morning run down and stain her cheeks. Realizing she was finally crying caused a fresh wave of tears to well up in her eyes and she squeezed them shut, letting out a shaky sob.
She’d broken his heart in the worst of ways. She had been angry, she’d lashed out, saying the worst words she could in a way she knew would hurt him the most. She had also thought she could never have loved him. She’d loved Bernard, right? But no… it was Megamind that she had fallen in love with. It didn’t matter what face he was wearing, he was always him, she had just never seen it.
He had been a part of her life for so long, for so many years. Even though he was ‘evil’, through all the years of kidnappings she had become fond of him in a way. Then, without knowing it, she’d fallen in love with him, and when that scared her, she‘d rejected him fully and had broken his heart. Then, she selfishly called for him when she‘d needed him.
And he had answered her call. And he had risked his life for her.
And... and he had died saving her.
She flopped limply to the side, laying across the back seat, clutching the blue and black silky material to her chest. The whole car still smelled like that stupid cologne he had worn on their date.
She curled into the leather seat and cried her heart out for all the things she had lost, and for everything that she would never have.
~~~
CHAPTER TWO~~~~~~~>>>>
Chapter: 1/? (I know how it will end, I just don't know how many chapters it will take to get there XD It could be 3, it could be 6, who knows XD)
Rating: PG-ish?
Word Count: 4987
Pairings/Characters: Megamind/Roxanne, Megamind, Roxanne, Minion, Music Man
Summary: Megamind decides to go down with style and give the city back its Hero at the same time. Alternate!Ending to the Movie and the events that follow.
Disclaimer: I PROMISE THAT THIS STORY WILL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING.
Note 1: So this idea came from a post filled with plot bunnies up for grabs, heavens, like, MONTHS and MONTHS ago. I went looking for it but I can’t find it anywhere for the life of me. I’ve spent hours trying to find it and I have failed sob sob sob. WHOEVER YOU ARE TELL ME SO I CAN BE LIKE “THIS WAS THEIR IDEA I JUST TOOK IT AND RAN.” This is the whole ‘Minion fakes Megamind’s death while in disguise and Megamind assumes the role of Metro Man’ bunny. (I do remember that when I expressed interest in it I had to promise megabluelove that I would give it a happy ending. Thus the disclaimer above XDDDDD. <3)
Note 2: invderlava and I are still working on The Day Before no worries. I’ve just had most of this chapter written out for, well for months, but finally had the time to finish it. I think I’ve finally figure out how to portion out this fanfic writing time thing. XD Chapter Three of The Day Before will be out sooooooon. Pwomise!
Now, without further ado~ Beta'd by the fantasticinvderlava , the fic!
"--and there is no Queen of England!"
It was in that very moment that Roxanne decided Hal couldn't get any scarier.
That amount of sheer ignorance coupled with his Super Powers was probably the most terrifying thing she could have imagined. However, she was quickly distracted by this raise in her own personal terror level by the loudly projected guitars signaling the beginning of "Welcome to the Jungle." Her eyes widened and she raised them to the familiar, ominous black cloud that was rising and encircling the tower slowly like a crescent moon.
"You DARE challenge Megamind?" a familiar voice boomed through the speakers of the Brain Bots and Roxanne felt her heart soar.
He came back.
She knew that he would. Well, she had hoped that she knew that he would, but she had been awful to him. She wouldn’t have really blamed him for not coming back. ...Of course she would probably have ended up dead, but they weren’t out of the woods yet on that note anyway.
Tighten leapt off of the edge of the leaning skyscraper and flew up to meet the shadowy silhouette of Megamind's profile. "This town isn't big enough for two super villains!" he retorted, clenching his fists, getting ready for a fight.
To the surprise of Tighten and Roxanne, and the shock and awe (and possibly pants wetting terror) of the citizens below, a giant mass of Brain Bots in the form of Megamind's head flew down towards the red head. "Oh, you're a villain all right," the head taunted with Megamind's voice, getting in close, its green eyes widening for emphasis. "Just not a super one!"
"Oh yeah?" the super villain countered lamely. "What's the difference?!" he demanded.
As the instrumental of the song reached a crescendo and a steady beat thumped out almost like a drum roll, the mouth of the Brain Bot Megamind Head opened and the petite blue super villain strutted down the red lit tongue, commanding the attention of everyone who could see him.
"PRESENTATION!" Megamind announced and threw his hands out, a giant grin exploding on his face as laser lights shone forth from the back of the head of Brain Bots.
Roxanne couldn’t help but let out a laugh of relief and happiness. She knew-- she knew that he would come back, and of course it would be in a spectacular fashion. This had to be the crowning moment of his career.
Tighten let out an incoherent scream of rage and lunged forward towards the genius. The Brain Bots beneath his feet suddenly dropped out from under Megamind and he fell to land on his hoverbike below as the rest of the Brain Bots making up the head closed up around the raging villain.
Roxanne then heard the tower finally crack and start to fall. Her attention immediately flew to the fact that she was now plummeting while tied to the top of a sky scraper. Few things in life made Roxanne Ritchi scream. Being flung over a building was one. Falling thousands of feet through the air was another.
~~~
Minion grunted quietly as he landed on the hoverbike. He knew it would support Sir dropping from such a height, but him disguised as Sir? Not nearly as definite. Something much more pressing caught his attention, however. He heard Miss Ritchi scream. Looking up, the fish saw the Brain Bots that had let him drop had rushed down and grabbed onto the tower, trying to stop it from falling with all of their tiny might. The descent of the tower barely slowed and Minion quickly revved the hoverbike's engine and shot down towards it.
When he got to her, Roxanne for her part had stopped screaming and was looking at him gratefully, bordering on adoring. Minion had to fight off a blush as he reached out, tugging on the street sign that was securing her to the tower top. It was stuck on pretty good, which was probably for the best, because Minion then realized that while Roxanne wouldn't think twice about him ripping a metal sign from around her, the boss would never be able to.
"I knew you'd come back!" she shouted to him over the wind rushing past their ears. Rather, her ears and his speakers.
"Well," Minion shouted back to her in his boss' voice. "That made one of us!" he finished as he pulled out the spare dehydration gun from the holster at his side and fired it, reducing the metal pole to tiny blue cubes flying up past them into the air. Although his meaning was far different from what Roxanne thought it was, it was true.
Minion hadn't been sure whether or not he was going to come back. But Sir was the most important thing in the world to Minion. He knew that the whole "I don't need you!" had been a childish outburst, but it had still hurt. Very deeply. He honestly hadn’t been sure if he'd ever be able to forgive him for finally just being too selfish.
But when Minion had seen the destruction Tighten had caused and knew that his boss had gone to fight him in the battle bot like they had planned, and then found no sign of him, Minion felt his tiny fish heart race with panic and concern for his charge's safety. It really was Minion's sole purpose in life to look after him and even if he had other hobbies, Sir was still his top priority and he'd never change that, even if he wanted to. So once he found out his boss had gone back to prison, he went straight away to break him out.
Released, Roxanne started to fly up and away from him since the tower had more mass to fall faster. Minion quickly reached out and grabbed onto her ankle, pulling her back down onto the bike with him as he took off towards the ground and away from the skyscraper and Tighten.
The disguise watches never ceased to amaze Minion. In his opinion they were the best inventions that Sir had ever made. It managed to not only project an image, but mimic the texture, even the mass of the disguise, which was the only reason Roxanne didn't feel metal and fur as she wrapped her arms around his torso tightly. He heard the reporter gasp and then she shouted, "What's the plan?!" in a panicked voice.
Glancing over his shoulder, Minion was somehow only half surprised to see Tighten under the fallen skyscraper, hefting it into the air like a javelin. This was definitely not in the plan that he and Sir had worked out. "Well," Minion began, gripping the handles of the hoverbike more firmly. "It mostly involves... Not. Dying." he finished firmly, looking back at her, trying to keep his voice from sounding too concerned about what was possibly imminent death.
Roxanne's expression told him he didn't do a great job at keeping the expression of possible imminent death off of his face but she clutched at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his shoulders, moving her eyes firmly forward. "I like that plan," she said desperately.
The incredibly loud sound of creaking metal permeated the air as Tighten tossed the top of the sky scraper at them. Minion revved the bike again, putting it to top speed as he zoomed down the road. The sky scraper hit the pavement behind him and the air rushing out from under it knocked the hoverbike up and it crashed back down to the concrete, scraping, breaking, and ruining several of the hover pads. They half hovered, half skidded down the road, the back end fishtailing.
"Go faster! Make this thing go faster--!" Roxanne was screaming at him as she looked over his shoulder. A quick glance in the side view mirror told him that it was gaining on them.
Desperately he looked to the controls, twisting the handles to try and gain more speed. However, every meter was going down. He was losing power and stability. He'd never be able to turn it or swerve out of the way and they were slowing down fast. “I can’t control it!” he shouted to her over his shoulder before looking back at the road in front of them. Miss Ritchi. He needed to protect her. To save her. That was the whole point of this mission after all. Thinking quickly, he looked around. He spotted a red awning over a store on the far side of the road. It was far enough away that it wouldn't be affected by anything more than dust. It was his only shot.
Praying that the rods of the awning would hold, he swung the bike out as far to the side as he could to get momentum before swinging it back just as fast, tossing Roxanne off of the bike and into the air.
He couldn't look to see if she landed safely because the bike kept going as it tried to continue away from the sky scraper. He had gotten Miss Ritchi off the bike not all too soon, because the power to the front hover pads finally went out and the nose of the bike pitched forward, hitting the ground. Minion yelped as he was thrown and he was sent tumbling across the concrete and pavement, hitting the fountain with a loud crack. He heard the glass of his dome shatter and felt the water starting to drain out as he fluttered about in a bit of a panic. Then, his suit jolted as the spear-like tip of the tower impaled the suit and most of its inner circuitry. The force of the blow knocked him back into the flat side of one of the broken shards of glass of his bowl, making him see stars.
~~~
Roxanne shrieked as Megamind tossed her from the bike. She had not been expecting that at all. She braced herself for an awful impact with the road or sidewalk, but instead felt herself bounce off of the heavy canvas of a store awning. She let out a small yelp as the awning gave way under her second bounce. Luckily, only half of it fell and so she rolled down it as if it was an impromptu roll down a hill. The reporter did her best to cushion her head as she hit the concrete, scraping her arms as she rolled. But that wasn't her biggest concern.
Immediately upon stopping, her head shot up in time to see Megamind go flying off of the hoverbike as it pitched forward and the skyscraper skid after him, tearing up the road. The building came to a halt with a great crash and a greater deal of dust. Coughing, Roxanne looked up, desperately trying to see through all the dust. It cleared enough that she could see... that she could see Megamind slumped over the broken rubble of the fountain with the sky scraper looking like... looking like it had...
Her heart caught in her throat and she pushed herself to her feet, stumbling slightly. "No," she whispered brokenly, starting to run for him.
A sudden crash and subsequent rippling through the ground caused her to come to a halt, turning quickly in fear. Hal-- no, Tighten stood there and raised his arms in a celebratory gesture.
"Well that was easy!" he laughed, amused at how easily he had taken Megamind out. "Guess there's just one loose end now!" he called to her before raising his foot, kicking out hard into the back of an overturned bus.
Roxanne's eyes went wide and she stood, frozen, like a deer in the headlights, as the giant tonnage of metal flew at her, causing sparks to come up from the pavement. She finally regained herself in time to crouch in a fetal position instinctively, covering her head, even though it wouldn't prevent her from being crushed.
However, there wasn't an impact. There was the high pitched sound of metal slicing and she raised her head slowly in time to see two halves of the bus go skidding away on either side of her. Roxanne's blue eyes widened in disbelief and she uncovered her head, slowly turning, still crouched, to see Metro Man standing in front of her, his arm outstretched from where it had split the bus right down the middle.
Straightening with a smirk in Tighten's direction, the hero brushed a bit of metal dust from his shoulder. "Please, let’s have a little respect for public transportation," he said, putting on one of his trademark grins.
Roxanne stared at his back, disbelieving. "You came back...!" she exclaimed. She was grateful, confused, and upset all at once. He'd saved her. He'd come back to save all of them. But he had been so adamant about not doing so. Why would he...? And why... why couldn't he have shown up two minutes earlier? Megamind...
"You were right, Roxanne," Metro Man said, turning to look at her seriously, though with a small smile on his face. "I never should have left."
"Whoa... I-- I thought you were dead," Tighten stammered, staring at him.
Turning back to Tighten, Metro Man chuckled and sauntered towards him slowly. "My death was... greatly exaggerated." He punched one fist into his other open palm. "So... you're the punk I've heard about." The supposedly dead hero flexed his calve muscles, sending out a tangible shock-wave.
Tighten yelped in surprise and raised a hand as if to shield himself. Then, he scrambled back and took off. Metro Man then bent slightly before rocketing off after him just as fast.
Roxanne stared after them for a moment before biting her lip hard. She turned, scrambling over to the fountain and the fallen super villain. She raced to his side, hopping over the rubble getting between them. She dropped to her knees and stared at where the skyscraper had run him through. Her vision almost immediately became distorted as tears began to well up in her eyes. She blinked them back, refusing to cry in front of him. Placing her hand to his cheek, she turned his head slightly, purposefully ignored the dark substance slowly dripping to the pole to the ground.
He groaned and turned his head slightly into her touch, seeming to have to force his eyes open. “I’m sorry,” he whispered weakly. “I did the best I could…”
“I’m so proud of you...” she said, sniffing loudly and swallowing hard.
Minion really hoped the boss knew what he was doing. Miss Ritchi sounded like she was about to cry. He wasn’t sure about this part of the plan. He could end the charade right there. Not all of the mechanics of the suit were broken, he could reach up and turn off the watch, tell her who the real hero was…
But he didn’t.
The boss had been so adamant.… It was another lie to Miss Ritchi, but the boss wasn’t being selfish when he told him the plan. He could tell that Sir really thought this would be what was best for Miss Ritchi and for the city. He himself would be all right without water for several more minutes thanks to his alien fish physiology, and several Brain Bots were already on their way to pick him up. So, Minion didn’t say anything. He gave her a tiny smile and let his eyes slide shut again instead.
"--Hey," Roxanne said, her eyes widening slightly. She reached out, putting a hand on his shoulder to shake him. Then she stopped, staring. Slowly, she slid her hand down across the leather to rest it on his chest. She swallowed hard. She couldn't feel a heartbeat.
She couldn't breathe. This wasn't... this wasn't happening. He couldn't die. He had just saved her, he tried to save the city. Megamind couldn’t die. He always bounced back. Metro Man had knocked him around, his own inventions had exploded around him-- he was always fine. Always...
She didn’t even look up as Metro Man flew by in a gust of wind, chasing Tighten through the air.
~~~
Megamind zoomed through the square, arms forward, keeping his sights locked on the hero turned villain flying so desperately away from him. If it hadn’t been such a serious situation, Megamind would have relished in someone who wasn’t just a random citizen actually taking him this seriously. Granted, at the moment he looked like Metro Man, which probably added to the intimidation factor, but who cared about those sorts of little details anyway?
Everything hinged on this deception, he knew that. Without the de-fuser gun or the real Metro Man, they didn’t stand a chance of actually defeating Tighten. “Going somewhere?” he taunted, smirking confidently.
Megamind wasn’t sure whether he was surprised or just amused by how easy playing Metro Man seemed to come to him. They’d known each other all their lives, he knew the way the hero walked, the timing with which he delivered taunts, and which super move he would use and when. Begrudgingly, he had to admit to himself that the super powered man could probably say the same thing about what he knew about his villain.
Tighten yelped and turned mid-flight to look up at him just as he struck another pose fitting the supposedly dead hero of Metro City. “Besides jail?” he continued, putting on the smarmiest grin he possibly could. The red headed villain flew faster, desperately weaving to try and escape the white clad hero. Megamind quickly used the boost in his jet pack to arc around and end up in front of Tighten.
With a yelp, the villain scrambled to a halt just as Megamind reached out and grabbed a hold of the front of his cape in a daring move. “No, not the face, man! Please!” he whimpered, squeezing his eyes shut as the disguised villain turned hero pulled back his fist as if to punch him.
“If you know what’s good for you, Tighten, you’ll stay out of Metross---City!” Megamind quickly corrected himself, wincing inwardly as it still came out as Metrosity to his ears. “For good!”
Tighten however, seemed to buy it and quickly put on a burst of speed, backing up and giving him a double thumbs up. “Y-you got it!” he assured him, nodding quickly before taking off in a flash, leaving nothing but a trail of dust behind him.
Megamind exhaled, staring after him, lowering his fist fractionally. I... I did it...? he thought to himself before slowly turning to float down to the street below. A crowd was slowly coming out from their hiding places to see him, but Roxanne was still kneeling by the broken fountain, staring blankly after the retreating forms of Brain Bots carrying away Minion, who was still in disguise.
He took a breath and hesitated just a moment before floating over to her. “...Roxanne--” he began before a swarm of people rushed in, cheering, surrounding them both. They were both blocked in and he was finding himself growing increasingly uncomfortable at the invasion of his personal space. He was also growing increasingly concerned because Roxanne didn’t seem to be reacting at all. She had to still be in shock from the whole thing. He knew that his sort of kidnappings never prepared her for this. When someone moving in too close accidentally jostled her, Megamind knew that he had had enough.
“--Citizens!” he began, fighting to keep the cool, amiable persona he needed to come across in character. “I’m sure that you all have a lot of questions and I’m very glad that you are all safe, but right now I think that I should be taking Mi--Roxanne home, now.”
He didn’t give them the option to refuse and stepped forward purposefully, the crowd parting for him. The disguised former villain carefully scooped Roxanne into his arms. For a moment she tensed, but then seemed to realize just who was carrying her and the reporter managed to relax, ever so slightly.
The flight to her apartment was completely silent and Megamind couldn’t help but be even more worried. The shock of everything really must have gotten to her or she’d be wanting to... celebrate with everyone else, right?
When he touched down on her balcony, she slid out of his arms wordlessly and he reluctantly let her go. A part of him told him to just tell her who he was and that everything was okay but-- he’d lost his chance, he’d hurt her, and he didn’t want to confuse or hurt her anymore. It was better this way. Better for her, better for the city...
“You’ll be alright?” he asked hesitantly as he took a step back towards the edge of the balcony.
All he received was a muted nod. She didn’t even turn to look at him. He supposed she was probably still pretty mad at Metro Man for abandoning them all.
Truth be told, Megamind understood where the man was coming from, mostly anyway. The hero had spent his whole life being what other people wanted him to be, and he was finally, finally doing something for himself, being selfish in a way, but in a way he needed to be, for his own sake. He himself had spent his whole life being what he thought he was destined to be, being... being selfish in horrible ways, and now he was finally doing something for others, something selfless. It was hard, but... for Roxanne, even for the city that he’d come to actually care about, he could do it.
“...Right, then. Well, if you need me, just... ...yeah.” he murmured, tripping over his words. He hated leaving her alone like this, but he had to go back to the Lair and make sure that Minion was all right. And they needed to pack up and move the Lair. He couldn’t have her or anyone else finding him out.
When she gave him another curt nod, her back still to him, he took that as a dismissal and hopped off the balcony, flying back towards the industrial district.
~~~
After Metro Man was gone, Roxanne stepped slowly into her apartment, still in shock. She stopped just inside, staring at the floor and at the dirty, pink house slippers she was wearing. Slowly, she raised her eyes to look at the rest of the room and her breath caught in her throat.
The clues, the pieces of paper, were still hanging from the ceiling. He had just been at her apartment that day, standing in her living room, looking out her window, looking at the notes.
His notes.
Roxanne stared at them for a long time and felt her eyes burning again, but nothing came out. Her fists clenched and she reached up, ripping a few of the pieces of paper down with an angry cry. She stared at the crumpled notes in her hands and let out a choked sound that would have been a sob if tears had been involved. Then, she started ripping them all down, angry at herself, angry at Hal, at Metro Man, at the situation, at the city, at the world.
The reporter screamed and yelled as she tore down every single scrap of paper she had duplicated from his lair. Every single clue that, when he had been disguised as Bernard, the two of them had poured over trying to “figure out” what Megamind was up to. It was a good thing that more than half of her apartment building was empty because of people leaving the city; a neighbor might have been very concerned at all the noise coming from her apartment, not that she would have cared at this point.
She ended up knocking over a lamp and an end table in the process. Pictures she loved came off the walls, decorations she had hand-picked for the furnishings ended up on the floor. She couldn’t look at any of it. Not when he had just been here. Just here, talking with her, asking her for help, and now…
When they were all torn down, she stood in the middle of her now trashed living room. Breathing hard, she stared at all the ruined little pieces of paper on her floor, shredded like fallen confetti. She took in a shuddering breath, her eyes burning again.
She couldn’t stay here.
~~~
Roxanne’s feet carried her mechanically through the shattered city. She ignored anyone who tried talking to her, but most people were too busy picking up the remnants of their own broken lives to try speaking with her anyway. She walked long enough that it began to grow dark, but she didn’t notice.
She didn’t even realize where she had ended up going until she walked, literally, into nothing. That knocked her out of the funk she had been in and she stopped, staring at the nothing in front of her.
“…What on earth...?” she began, reaching forward, touching… metal.
She pulled in a sharp breath and glanced around. This was the corner… the corner where she had dumped him. She’d walked into the invisible car.
Desperately, without really knowing why, she groped for the door handle of the car. She scraped her knuckles on a spike and knocked her other arm into the side mirror before she found it. Once she did, she pulled the door open quickly.
She stood there, staring at the empty interior and wondered just what she had been expecting. For him to be sitting in there or something? “Haha! I fooled you, didn’t I??” he would have crowed gleefully.
Staring at the now visible and very empty inside, Roxanne took a deep breath and got in, shutting the door behind her. She sat there on the leather seat and noticed that the keys were still in the ignition. He had leapt out so fast to stop her…
The reporter swallowed hard and shook her head a little, letting her nosy reporter instincts take over instead, looking around the interior. There were all manner of buttons, dials, and switches. There were three pedals on the floor and the seat itself was incredibly large, which made sense since Minion was usually the one driving. In the back was- was the de-fuser gun. She swallowed again and shifted, climbing into the back seat from the front. She couldn’t count the times she had been in this backseat, nine times out of ten unconscious.
She pulled the gun into her lap and stared down at it. If they’d had this from the start…
She shook her head and shoved it onto the floor of the car with a clatter, burying her face in her hands. It was done. Tighten was gone. Metro Man had run him off. It didn’t make any sense, he could just go and terrorize some other poor city. But then, the prison really wouldn’t have been able to hold the super powered villain, anyway...
She dragged her fingers down her face slowly until they only covered her mouth and then she blinked, feeling something soft against her bare heel as she shifted it.
She bent over and reached under the seat, slowly straightening back up holding what appeared to be one of Megamind’s spare capes. She stared at it for a long, long moment before a drop of water fell on it. She blinked in surprise and another two drops fell. It couldn’t be raining in the car- Oh.
Raising a hand slowly to her face she realized the tears had finally come. They were streaming down her face, making what little makeup she had put on that morning run down and stain her cheeks. Realizing she was finally crying caused a fresh wave of tears to well up in her eyes and she squeezed them shut, letting out a shaky sob.
She’d broken his heart in the worst of ways. She had been angry, she’d lashed out, saying the worst words she could in a way she knew would hurt him the most. She had also thought she could never have loved him. She’d loved Bernard, right? But no… it was Megamind that she had fallen in love with. It didn’t matter what face he was wearing, he was always him, she had just never seen it.
He had been a part of her life for so long, for so many years. Even though he was ‘evil’, through all the years of kidnappings she had become fond of him in a way. Then, without knowing it, she’d fallen in love with him, and when that scared her, she‘d rejected him fully and had broken his heart. Then, she selfishly called for him when she‘d needed him.
And he had answered her call. And he had risked his life for her.
And... and he had died saving her.
She flopped limply to the side, laying across the back seat, clutching the blue and black silky material to her chest. The whole car still smelled like that stupid cologne he had worn on their date.
She curled into the leather seat and cried her heart out for all the things she had lost, and for everything that she would never have.
~~~
CHAPTER TWO~~~~~~~>>>>