Fix You, Chapter 4
Author: Roki
Title: Fix You (Chapter 4 of 10)
Characters: Roxanne, Megamind, Metroman.
Summary: And so his whole world came crashing down around his ears...
Thanks again to Demishock, Valoscope, Seiaa, Mira, and Mae for keeping me company while I write/beta-ing for me/generally being awesome! :D
Chapter One: Not a day goes by that I don't know that I'm dying.
Chapter Two: I went to the desert, I was searching for the truth.
Chapter Three: I'll take you there.
Once the screaming, trying to escape, and throwing of various objects - Megamind had to admit himself very impressed at Roxanne's strength, she had hurled that teacher's chair like a champion - had ceased, it was time to pray to whatever deity might reign over Earth for a swift and painless death. Megamind, for his part, stepped in front of Roxanne and hoped she had the sense to leap through a window and run for the hills.
The mysterious clone approached and the blue alien swallowed, trying not to close his eyes as his demise approached. It was so uncool to look as terrified as you felt in front of the girl of your dreams.
He couldn't help it though and his eyes shut tight when the shadow fell over his face, blocking out the sun. Then a long moment passed in which he did not, in fact, die. He cracked an eye open experimentally to see the much scruffier looking carbon-copy staring at him with a marked sadness.
"Uh...hey," said the creation of science.
"Hhheyy?" Megamind hazarded. Maybe this mad experiment gone horribly wrong was not a threat, maybe it had no intelligence to speak of. That would be a blessing.
"You're alive?" Roxanne blurted behind him. He winced. So much for her leaping out the window.
"I'm alive," responded the creature, unenthusiastically.
Alright, so it could be led to responses. That was a positive sign, maybe they could get it to fight for them...
"But you're supposed to be dead! We saw your skeleton!" Roxanne sounded almost hysterical. He glanced at her, concerned, and noted her face held more shock and fury than shock and...well, shock. Medical shock.
"Yeah, about that..." the eldritch horror rubbed the back of its neck sheepishly. Megamind opted to switch his theory; it either had more intelligence than he had hoped or it was something much worse.
"You're alive?" he breathed. Impossible. "Are you a ghost?" He reached his shaking hand out and touched the being's face, forcing the lips to contract. "Speak, apparition, tell us what you want..."
Metroman sighed and pulled his hand away with a familiar restrained strength. He could sense that had the man contracted his fist a fraction more he may have had fractures to deal with. This was the real deal.
Metroman looked between Megamind and Roxanne, weighing his options before sighing. "Okay...Okay, okay, okay...You deserve an explanation. Come back inside, you might want a drink for this."
---
Drinks turned out to be something called 'Jack and Coke', and it burned when it went down. But it warmed his belly so strangely that he found himself halfway unable to really comprehend what was being spelled out to them by Metroman, and mostly unable to really care about the 'why's and 'how's behind Metroman's mysterious non-death. Megamind glared at his arch rival's playfully mussed hair, the way his face quirked in amusement when speaking of how he outsmarted Megamind - as if! -, and the way his hands curled around the guitar he had pulled into his lap like a security blanket. Even the rhinestone studded plush robe was not safe from his glower.
"-And Music Man was born! That way I could keep my logo."
"Causeofwha-?" Megamind had only heard parts of that whole thing.
"What?!" Roxanne was enraged.
"Listen to this! I have eyes, that can see, right through le-e-e-ead!" Metroman sang tunelessly, obviously overjoyed to have an audience.
Roxanne for her part hadn't take one sip of her drink and was yelling at him, making all those angry noises he had rarely heard up until recently. Megamind stared at her backside, since she had oh so conveniently placed herself in front of him to jab a finger into Metroman's chest. A smile he wasn't aware of quirked across his face until they both turned to look at him and Roxanne slapped a hand to her face.
"Ha," he managed, artfully. "What is this...beverage?" It came out considerably more slurred than he had imagined it in his head. What was wrong with him?
"Oh for the love of God!" she exclaimed.
"Oh," Metroman blinked. "You okay, little buddy?"
"Ohhhh, fantastic! But I must ask, when did you get a room that spins?"
"You have to be kidding me," Roxanne hissed under her breath, rubbing her temples. "You have got to be kidding me."
"I am not!" Megamind felt indignant. "Are you not seeing this? It's somewhat amazing really."
"Uh..." Metroman looked embarrassed. "Maybe I made them a little strong..."
"A little?! I don't think there was even any coke in that! I could smell it from across the room," Roxanne was flapping her hands at Metroman. It was hilarious, he couldn't help the giggle that left his throat. A manly giggle, of course.
"I'm sorry!" Metroman whined. Very unmanly.
"Sorry?! Sorry doesn't cut it! You left us. You left all of us with...with him!" she gestured wildly at Megamind. "No offense."
"Oh no, I'm totally with you," he swayed on the sofa.
"And now Titan is out there..." Roxanne trailed off, her face pinched with what looked like tears.
Megamind bolted to his feet, halfway fell back onto the sofa, and regained his balance to stride over between Metroman and Roxanne. "He's destroying our - er - your city!"
"You have to do something..." Roxanne's voice sounded wet. Megamind felt his heart do some kind of flip, but the bad kind of flip, the kind that made him feel sick to his stomach.
"Listen, I wish I could help you out but...I'm done," Metroman was rubbing the back of his neck again. He reached out and caught Megamind's shoulders just as he was about to tilt sideways and fall over.
"Listen, little buddy, if there's one thing I've learned...It's that if there's evil, good will rise up," he fondly twisted said shoulders. The room tilted ninety-degrees to the left for the alien, and stayed that way. "It took me a long time to find my calling, maybe it's about time you found yours," Metroman smiled.
Megamind grimaced and threw up all over Metroman's rhinestone studded house shoes.
---
Feeling significantly clearer in the head, Megamind followed Roxanne out into the sunlight. He found himself immensely grateful for what nanomachines must have been left in his body taking care of the toxins so quickly.
Roxanne had at least laughed a little at the horrified look on Metroman's face when he made his hasty retreat to the bathroom. Then she had helped Megamind clean up a little bit, using one of Metroman's other capes. They had left without saying goodbye to the previous hero.
"Well...Who needs him anyway!" Roxanne was a veritable well of confidence. Megamind envied her. Once, he would have been able to simply bounce back like that. Now, having seen the man he had always idealized as a paragon of good, a bastion which could never be broken, the wall of justice he could constantly throw himself against reduced to writing awful music, hiding in a basement, and generally being selfish...He was not quite as capable of her enthusiasm.
He was the bad guy. Bad guys lost, bad guys always lost. That had been one of two constants his entire life; he did something bad and good, in the form of Metroman, always made sure he was thwarted. Everything now felt completely meaningless, as though his entire life had been a joke.
And it was.
Oh, how it was. This entire time the city had not been quivering in terror, had not been impressed by his ingenuity, had never felt even a speck of even grudging respect for him. He had been the dunce, the butt of this whole cosmic joke all thirty-four years it took to get to the punch line. The annoying nuisance that in the end had not even been worthy of a truce from his arch rival, who had instead faked his death to get away from it all. It had taken just this one event for him to see that clearly.
He didn't like it at all.
"I say we go back to the lair, grab some ray guns, hold them sideways, and just go all gangstah on him!" Roxanne was saying. Did she realize how futile that was?
"We can't..." He sighed.
"That's what I'm talking abo- Wait, what? Why?" Roxanne looked surprised by his refusal. Was he really that predictable?
"Look at me," he gestured at himself, remembering he still had Metroman's cape draped over his shoulders. He struggled with it to take it off and ended up throwing it onto the ground.
"Yeah, I'm looking, so?" Roxanne frowned at the cape in the dirt.
"No just...Just look," he swung a hand at his bony frame. "I'm the bad guy. I don't save the day, I don't fly off into the sunset, and I don't get the girl." The last part made his stomach twist sickeningly again, in a way that had nothing to do with nanomachines or alcoholic beverages.
"But what happened to never giving up...?" Her voice trailed after him as he resolutely started to make his way down the road to the bus stop he knew they passed earlier.
"Sometimes giving up is less...humiliating. I'm going home."
He left her clutching Metroman's cape, feeling just as lost as he was. For both of them, constants had been broken.
The walk to the bus stop was long and tiring to his already weak legs, but he felt he had to punish himself for a lot of things. For being so naive, for being such a horror to the city during his rule, for creating a monster for his own selfish gain...for destroying nearly everything held near and dear to the woman he still loved. For crushing her optimism.
For being such an asshole.
He sat down on the little bench by the lonely bus stop sign and waited for an hour, studying his feet. The van had still not passed him by when the bus came, and the bus driver made no move to contradict him when he commanded they go to Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted. He just gave him a terrified glance and from that point on kept his eyes on the road. Other than the driver the bus was mercifully bereft of passengers.
He sighed and rested his forehead against the cool window, watching as the streets went by. Already there was a mass exodus out of the city, as though some strange occurrence had raised the dead and the citizens were making their escape with naught but their lives and the clothes on their backs.
He closed his eyes against the sight, knowing that, too, was his fault.
They stopped at the prison and he exited without a word, passed the guards at the gate without a word, and offered his wrists up to the warden with a similar disregard for auditory definition. In silence he was led to his cell, given his old prison uniform, changed his clothes, and was left to his own devices with nothing but the television on the wall to keep him company. He couldn't say he disliked the solitude. Not after today.
After today, he didn't deserve anyone in his life.
Next chapter: I'm so high that I could hear heaven, but heaven don't hear me.
Title: Fix You (Chapter 4 of 10)
Characters: Roxanne, Megamind, Metroman.
Summary: And so his whole world came crashing down around his ears...
Thanks again to Demishock, Valoscope, Seiaa, Mira, and Mae for keeping me company while I write/beta-ing for me/generally being awesome! :D
Chapter One: Not a day goes by that I don't know that I'm dying.
Chapter Two: I went to the desert, I was searching for the truth.
Chapter Three: I'll take you there.
Once the screaming, trying to escape, and throwing of various objects - Megamind had to admit himself very impressed at Roxanne's strength, she had hurled that teacher's chair like a champion - had ceased, it was time to pray to whatever deity might reign over Earth for a swift and painless death. Megamind, for his part, stepped in front of Roxanne and hoped she had the sense to leap through a window and run for the hills.
The mysterious clone approached and the blue alien swallowed, trying not to close his eyes as his demise approached. It was so uncool to look as terrified as you felt in front of the girl of your dreams.
He couldn't help it though and his eyes shut tight when the shadow fell over his face, blocking out the sun. Then a long moment passed in which he did not, in fact, die. He cracked an eye open experimentally to see the much scruffier looking carbon-copy staring at him with a marked sadness.
"Uh...hey," said the creation of science.
"Hhheyy?" Megamind hazarded. Maybe this mad experiment gone horribly wrong was not a threat, maybe it had no intelligence to speak of. That would be a blessing.
"You're alive?" Roxanne blurted behind him. He winced. So much for her leaping out the window.
"I'm alive," responded the creature, unenthusiastically.
Alright, so it could be led to responses. That was a positive sign, maybe they could get it to fight for them...
"But you're supposed to be dead! We saw your skeleton!" Roxanne sounded almost hysterical. He glanced at her, concerned, and noted her face held more shock and fury than shock and...well, shock. Medical shock.
"Yeah, about that..." the eldritch horror rubbed the back of its neck sheepishly. Megamind opted to switch his theory; it either had more intelligence than he had hoped or it was something much worse.
"You're alive?" he breathed. Impossible. "Are you a ghost?" He reached his shaking hand out and touched the being's face, forcing the lips to contract. "Speak, apparition, tell us what you want..."
Metroman sighed and pulled his hand away with a familiar restrained strength. He could sense that had the man contracted his fist a fraction more he may have had fractures to deal with. This was the real deal.
Metroman looked between Megamind and Roxanne, weighing his options before sighing. "Okay...Okay, okay, okay...You deserve an explanation. Come back inside, you might want a drink for this."
---
Drinks turned out to be something called 'Jack and Coke', and it burned when it went down. But it warmed his belly so strangely that he found himself halfway unable to really comprehend what was being spelled out to them by Metroman, and mostly unable to really care about the 'why's and 'how's behind Metroman's mysterious non-death. Megamind glared at his arch rival's playfully mussed hair, the way his face quirked in amusement when speaking of how he outsmarted Megamind - as if! -, and the way his hands curled around the guitar he had pulled into his lap like a security blanket. Even the rhinestone studded plush robe was not safe from his glower.
"-And Music Man was born! That way I could keep my logo."
"Causeofwha-?" Megamind had only heard parts of that whole thing.
"What?!" Roxanne was enraged.
"Listen to this! I have eyes, that can see, right through le-e-e-ead!" Metroman sang tunelessly, obviously overjoyed to have an audience.
Roxanne for her part hadn't take one sip of her drink and was yelling at him, making all those angry noises he had rarely heard up until recently. Megamind stared at her backside, since she had oh so conveniently placed herself in front of him to jab a finger into Metroman's chest. A smile he wasn't aware of quirked across his face until they both turned to look at him and Roxanne slapped a hand to her face.
"Ha," he managed, artfully. "What is this...beverage?" It came out considerably more slurred than he had imagined it in his head. What was wrong with him?
"Oh for the love of God!" she exclaimed.
"Oh," Metroman blinked. "You okay, little buddy?"
"Ohhhh, fantastic! But I must ask, when did you get a room that spins?"
"You have to be kidding me," Roxanne hissed under her breath, rubbing her temples. "You have got to be kidding me."
"I am not!" Megamind felt indignant. "Are you not seeing this? It's somewhat amazing really."
"Uh..." Metroman looked embarrassed. "Maybe I made them a little strong..."
"A little?! I don't think there was even any coke in that! I could smell it from across the room," Roxanne was flapping her hands at Metroman. It was hilarious, he couldn't help the giggle that left his throat. A manly giggle, of course.
"I'm sorry!" Metroman whined. Very unmanly.
"Sorry?! Sorry doesn't cut it! You left us. You left all of us with...with him!" she gestured wildly at Megamind. "No offense."
"Oh no, I'm totally with you," he swayed on the sofa.
"And now Titan is out there..." Roxanne trailed off, her face pinched with what looked like tears.
Megamind bolted to his feet, halfway fell back onto the sofa, and regained his balance to stride over between Metroman and Roxanne. "He's destroying our - er - your city!"
"You have to do something..." Roxanne's voice sounded wet. Megamind felt his heart do some kind of flip, but the bad kind of flip, the kind that made him feel sick to his stomach.
"Listen, I wish I could help you out but...I'm done," Metroman was rubbing the back of his neck again. He reached out and caught Megamind's shoulders just as he was about to tilt sideways and fall over.
"Listen, little buddy, if there's one thing I've learned...It's that if there's evil, good will rise up," he fondly twisted said shoulders. The room tilted ninety-degrees to the left for the alien, and stayed that way. "It took me a long time to find my calling, maybe it's about time you found yours," Metroman smiled.
Megamind grimaced and threw up all over Metroman's rhinestone studded house shoes.
---
Feeling significantly clearer in the head, Megamind followed Roxanne out into the sunlight. He found himself immensely grateful for what nanomachines must have been left in his body taking care of the toxins so quickly.
Roxanne had at least laughed a little at the horrified look on Metroman's face when he made his hasty retreat to the bathroom. Then she had helped Megamind clean up a little bit, using one of Metroman's other capes. They had left without saying goodbye to the previous hero.
"Well...Who needs him anyway!" Roxanne was a veritable well of confidence. Megamind envied her. Once, he would have been able to simply bounce back like that. Now, having seen the man he had always idealized as a paragon of good, a bastion which could never be broken, the wall of justice he could constantly throw himself against reduced to writing awful music, hiding in a basement, and generally being selfish...He was not quite as capable of her enthusiasm.
He was the bad guy. Bad guys lost, bad guys always lost. That had been one of two constants his entire life; he did something bad and good, in the form of Metroman, always made sure he was thwarted. Everything now felt completely meaningless, as though his entire life had been a joke.
And it was.
Oh, how it was. This entire time the city had not been quivering in terror, had not been impressed by his ingenuity, had never felt even a speck of even grudging respect for him. He had been the dunce, the butt of this whole cosmic joke all thirty-four years it took to get to the punch line. The annoying nuisance that in the end had not even been worthy of a truce from his arch rival, who had instead faked his death to get away from it all. It had taken just this one event for him to see that clearly.
He didn't like it at all.
"I say we go back to the lair, grab some ray guns, hold them sideways, and just go all gangstah on him!" Roxanne was saying. Did she realize how futile that was?
"We can't..." He sighed.
"That's what I'm talking abo- Wait, what? Why?" Roxanne looked surprised by his refusal. Was he really that predictable?
"Look at me," he gestured at himself, remembering he still had Metroman's cape draped over his shoulders. He struggled with it to take it off and ended up throwing it onto the ground.
"Yeah, I'm looking, so?" Roxanne frowned at the cape in the dirt.
"No just...Just look," he swung a hand at his bony frame. "I'm the bad guy. I don't save the day, I don't fly off into the sunset, and I don't get the girl." The last part made his stomach twist sickeningly again, in a way that had nothing to do with nanomachines or alcoholic beverages.
"But what happened to never giving up...?" Her voice trailed after him as he resolutely started to make his way down the road to the bus stop he knew they passed earlier.
"Sometimes giving up is less...humiliating. I'm going home."
He left her clutching Metroman's cape, feeling just as lost as he was. For both of them, constants had been broken.
The walk to the bus stop was long and tiring to his already weak legs, but he felt he had to punish himself for a lot of things. For being so naive, for being such a horror to the city during his rule, for creating a monster for his own selfish gain...for destroying nearly everything held near and dear to the woman he still loved. For crushing her optimism.
For being such an asshole.
He sat down on the little bench by the lonely bus stop sign and waited for an hour, studying his feet. The van had still not passed him by when the bus came, and the bus driver made no move to contradict him when he commanded they go to Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted. He just gave him a terrified glance and from that point on kept his eyes on the road. Other than the driver the bus was mercifully bereft of passengers.
He sighed and rested his forehead against the cool window, watching as the streets went by. Already there was a mass exodus out of the city, as though some strange occurrence had raised the dead and the citizens were making their escape with naught but their lives and the clothes on their backs.
He closed his eyes against the sight, knowing that, too, was his fault.
They stopped at the prison and he exited without a word, passed the guards at the gate without a word, and offered his wrists up to the warden with a similar disregard for auditory definition. In silence he was led to his cell, given his old prison uniform, changed his clothes, and was left to his own devices with nothing but the television on the wall to keep him company. He couldn't say he disliked the solitude. Not after today.
After today, he didn't deserve anyone in his life.
Next chapter: I'm so high that I could hear heaven, but heaven don't hear me.