Yes, 'tis I with another story. I really hope you guys like this one too. Originally, I planned for this to be a one-shot, but now I plan on this having multiple chapters. And I know the title is kinda dorky, but it's the best I could come up with.
"Megamind" is owned by Dreamworks. I do not, in any way, shape, or form, profit from this story. I'm just messing around in Dreamwork's playground.
The minute he laid eyes on the lad, Jonathan Warden knew there was something special about that blue boy. The morning he had arrived had been Christmas, true, but it didn't feel any different from previous years. There hadn't been any change in the wind or eerie feel that signified something extraordinary was going to happen. There hadn't been any reports of falling stars or owls acting irregularly, as had happened in his eldest daughter's favorite books. In fact, it had been cloudy and grey, and as always, Jonathan had to work. Normally, one would be given at least a week of vacation to be with their families during this major holiday, but not for the prison warden. He had to be present that day, since the staff would be as minimalistic as it could. He had been able to spend Christmas morning with his wife and two daughters, but as soon as noon rolled around, he had to leave for work.
Now almost 5:00, he could practically smell that Christmas turkey waiting for him at home. He heard a loud crash outside in the yard. He didn't pay it any mind at first, as it was probably just another fight between inmates and could easily be handled without his intervention. So far, today was just another slow, uneventful day and so he stretched out, resting his feet upon his desk as he opened up the morning's paper, flipping to the obituaries. Tom Evans died last night during a drug bust. Jonathan felt a twinge of sympathy that he'd never admit to in the open. Tom had been a regular here, in and out constantly. But besides his obvious problem with his addictions, he had actually been a pleasure to talk to, certainly an interesting individual. Jonathan also knew that he'd been in and out of rehab for a few years and had actually been straight for 5 months. Such a shame that he had relapsed and even more of a shame that he'd died.
An officer came bursting into his office. This one, he thought, was named Smith. He was a fresh greenie, had only been working here for a week. And like all greenies, he tended to overreact, as if all hell was breaking loose if a couple of inmates threw a few punches.
"Please don't tell me that 450 and 672 are fighting again." He said in a bored manner.
"No, no sir." Smith gasped as he fought for breath. "It's something…else. I th-think you should see this."
Jonathan glanced at the officer over the top of his paper. He was very tempted to brush Smith off. Nothing ever really happened at this prison often. Occasionally you got a break-out, but the last successful one had happened 3 years ago, shortly before the last warden retired. All attempts since then had failed in epic proportions under Jonathan Warden's rule.
But this wasn't a break-out, obviously, or else the alarms would be blaring. And it wasn't just the typical scuffle, as far as he could tell from Smith's face. No, this was something different. Something out of the ordinary. Stifling a sigh, Jonathan folded the paper back up and got to his feet. "This had better be good." He muttered.
Nothing really could've prepared him for what he found awaiting him. The inmates were gathered all around in the middle of the yard whispering amongst themselves. Some of the more religious ones muttered something about "a sign from God" while others were whispering about UFO's and something along the lines of "do you think Elvis might come back now?" Jonathan rolled his eyes.
"Alright, clear a path," he said in a gruff voice he only used at work. "Get out of the way."
Hesitantly, the men backed off enough for Jonathan to see what all the fuss was about. He stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes widened in a rare moment of shock.
In the middle stood a prisoner named Ralph McGuff. He was a man who had been convicted almost a year ago for a crime that Jonathan was sure he hadn't committed. He wished that he could let a couple of these men go for that very reason, but the law was the law and these men were stuck here. But Ralph wasn't what shocked him. Rather, it was the infant he held in his arms.
A very blue skinned, brilliantly green-eyed infant, with the largest cranium he had ever seen on a baby. Jonathan stared at the child…and the child stared right back. It was looking at him intelligently. It was unnerving; he could somehow tell that the baby was rapidly calculating whether or not he was a friend or foe, good or mean. Suddenly, it smiled at him, and actually started to reach for him.
"Where did that come from?"
"We don't know, Warden." Ralph answered. "He came in this pod that just crashed out here. Along with this." In his other hand, Ralph held up a round tank of water that contained a rather unusual fish. It looked like a crossbreed between a piranha and an angler, with wide friendly eyes that contrasted the rather nasty looking teeth jutting out of its lower jaw. The child continued to reach for Jonathan, smiling and cooing.
"He seems to like you, sir." Another officer, Tony, said in awe. And who wouldn't be when an extraterrestrial child came seemingly out of nowhere? Hesitantly, Jonathan held out his arms and allowed Ralph to hand over the child. The infant squealed with joy and began reaching for Jonathan's mustache. There was no other sound apart from the child's obvious delight.
Finally, Officer Smith broke the silence. "What are we going to do, sir?"
Jonathan sighed as he walked up the steps of his home, holding the boy and the fish in his arms, the former bundled up tightly. The child giggled as the prison warden once again pulled his small hand away from his mustache. It seemed that the child regarded it as a game; after all, that mustache was so bristly and just begging to be pulled that the small blue hands couldn't resist its siren call.
Normally, antics like this would make Jonathan smile and play along, as he had with his daughters when they were this boy's age (if he was going by appearance, he would say that the boy was about 3 months old or so, but he really had no idea.) This time though, he was just downright worried.
Earlier in his office, he had shared a debate with Tony and Smith (whose first name he couldn't remember if his life depended on it) about where the baby should go. Smith's suggestion to hand the boy over to the government was soundly rejected, but neither could he be raised in the prison. That much, they all agreed on. But when the matter of an orphanage came up, Tony remained adamant that the baby shouldn't live in one. He argued that no matter where the child was, he would stick out like a sore thumb, but in an orphanage, it was extremely unlikely that he'd ever be adopted, possibly even accepted.
Jonathan could see his point, but it seemed to remain the only option. And all through the conversation, he couldn't stop looking at the boy. He had watched the alien child chase and bat at the fish's tank, rolling it around all over the warden's office floor. The young lad had been as happy as a clam, shrieking with delight. Most fish that Jonathan Warden had seen would've looked rather disturbed and terrified to be chased around by a hyper infant, but this one had seemed to enjoy it as much as the boy did. Every so often when the spherical tank was allowed to rest, the fish would come up as close as it could to the boy and snuggle up against the glass in affection. To say that it was the oddest thing he'd ever seen would be the understatement of the century.
And finally, he agreed to take the boy home with him this night and drop him off at the orphanage in the morning. It almost seemed cruel to him, but he would not allow a child to be raised in incarceration. His principles just stood against it. He had phoned his wife, telling her that he was coming home and that he had an unusual surprise. She hated it when he didn't give her specifics, but she would just have to wait. He just couldn't say anything else.
And so now, here he was standing outside his front door with a blue baby and an odd fish in his arms. He wondered if he should just ring the doorbell, since his hands were full, but that would bring the girls barreling into him and he didn't want to drop his load. Carefully holding the round tank in his hand, he searched his front pocket until he found the house key and unlocked the door.
"Daddy's home!" The cry rang out the moment the door was opened. Rachel, his eldest daughter at the age of six, led the way. She had fair skin and her mother's raven hair, but her father's wide icy-blue eyes. Even at her tender age, she was different from other girls. She detested the color pink, hated princess movies, and refused to play with Barbie dolls. Instead, she enjoyed movies such as Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and was now the proud owner of a Sally ragdoll, and she adored it.
She was closely followed by Brooke, who was at the age of four, and of course the exact opposite. She had inherited more of her father's features, but was gifted with her mother's willowy form. Already at her age, she had expressed an interest in modeling. It had been when his wife had watched the Miss United States pageant with the girls. Rachel had been just as bored as her father by it, but Brooke wanted every bit to be just like the women on the screen.
Jonathan braced himself for what he knew what was coming. Thankfully, he had a wall to back him up when both little girls barreled at full force into his legs, hugging tightly as if determined to never let go. Finally, his wife Kimberly came out from downstairs, wringing her hands. She was about to greet him when her eyes zeroed in on the bundle in his arms.
"What do you have there, Jon?"
"Did Daddy bring us another present?" Rachel squealed. "Is it a puppy?"
"I wanna see! I wanna see!" Brooke tugged on his pant leg as if trying to climb up.
Jonathan sighed, casting one more glance down at the infant. He was looking back up at him with a question present in his eyes. Who are these people? The little guy cuddled closer to him, obviously intrigued and frightened of his new environment at the same time. Jonathan pulled the blanket away from him to reveal the blue child to his family.
Kimberly gasped in awe. Whatever she had been expecting when Jonathan phoned her, it obviously hadn't been this.
"It's a baby!" Brooke exclaimed.
Rachel hugged her father closer. "Daddy got us a little brother!"
"Momma, why is he blue?"
"Why does he have a big head?"
"Can we keep him?"
"Can I play with him?"
"I wanna play with him!"
"I called him first!"
"GIRLS!" Kimberly managed to amplify her 'mom' voice over the commotion. "Why don't you go upstairs and play with your dolls for a little while? Daddy and I need to talk."
Rachel and Brooke's faces lit up as they remembered the dolls they had received that morning and all thoughts of the small boy were dashed as they raced upstairs. Kimberly stared after them for a few moments before she turned back to her husband and the baby he was holding.
"Where did he come from?"
Jonathan sighed again. "It's a very long story."
Jonathan and Kimberly talked as quietly as they could after dinner. They stood in the living room doorway as they watched their two daughters roll around and play with the baby and the fish. When he got over his fear, the boy had taken to the girls almost instantly. Especially Rachel. Jonathan could tell that the two of them were already becoming the best of friends.
"So that's just it?" Kimberly whispered, even though there was no need. The children were obviously too involved in their playtime to pay them any mind. "You bring him home just so you can dump him at an orphanage in the morning?"
"Where else does he have to go, Kim?" Jonathan whispered back. "He landed in the middle of the prison and he obviously doesn't have any parents. We can't raise him the in jail, for crying out loud."
"I know, honey, and I agree with you there." Kim bit at her fingernails, a habit he'd been trying to coax her out of for years now. "But I don't know if an orphanage is the best place for him."
"Why not?"
"If we sent him to an orphanage, I doubt he'd ever stand a chance. He's just too different."
"What else can we do, Kimberly?"
She didn't hesitate one bit. "Take care of him ourselves."
Jonathan blinked. "Adopt him?"
"Well, why not Jon? He doesn't have anyone else."
Funny how kids always seemed to listen in at the most inconvenient of times. "Really?" Rachel exclaimed. "We can keep him?"
"He's really gonna be our brother?"
Jonathan's plan of attack was to solidly forbid it. The officers hadn't argued much when he decided that the boy was going to the orphanage and that was that. But that didn't work on females, oh no. The little girls looked up at him so hopefully with those wide Bambi eyes and with a subtle hint from their mother, they simultaneously clasped their hands together and their bottom lips jutted out.
Jonathan finally caved and smiled for his girls. "Alright, alright. We'll keep him."
The newest addition to the family could understand that something important and wonderful had just happened when Rachel picked him up and hugged him close. The fish actually looked pleased and began swimming around as much as it could in its small tank as if celebrating.
"You realize what you just did." Jonathan hissed at his wife. "There's another mouth to feed, another tax deduction now." He glared only half-heartedly at her. She smiled back at him and kissed him on the cheek.
"Love you too, sweetie."
"What's his name?" Brooke's voice brought them all to the realization that the boy had absolutely no name. No title, no moniker. Just 'the boy'.
"I think you girls should name him." Kimberly said.
Rachel's face lit up. "Jack!"
"NO!" Brooke yelled. "You named your hamster after Jack! No more Nightmare a'fore Christmas names!"
"Oh yeah? Have you got something better?"
"Ken!"
Rachel groaned. "No, he's not your doll, Brooke."
"He's not your doll either!"
"I think," Jonathan raised his voice above theirs and they settled down, "his name should be special. Something that most people haven't heard before."
The girls seemed to be stumped. The both pondered for long minutes before Rachel spoke up again. "Ewan."
"Ewan?" her mother inquired. "Why Ewan?"
"Cause there's a boy in my class named that, and he's the only person I know with that name." Rachel explained. "It's special."
The family had soon afterward settled down for a Christmas story as per tradition (this year had been 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas') and sent the little ones off to bed. Jonathan had gone down into the basement to haul up and dust off Brooke's old playpen and set it up next to the Christmas tree. They would need to set up a crib in Brooke's room later on, but for now this would do. Through all the excitement that happened that day, the little boy had worn himself out and was now sleeping peacefully in Kimberly's arms, sucking on the glowing blue binky that had been found in his pod. She softly kissed his bald blue head, gently placed him in the playpen and covered him with a green downy blanket. As carefully as she could so as not to disturb him, she placed the fish's spherical tank next to him and he unconsciously wrapped his arms around it, hugging it close. The fish snuggled against the glass before settling down himself.
"Good night," Kimberly whispered. "And welcome to the family, Ewan Warden."
First off, just in case you were unsure, the name Ewan is pronounced YOO-an.
Secondly, this idea hit me in the head while reading Dragon Lover1's story "Bad To Be Good". It was actually kind of painful. Anyway, I borrowed the name Jonathan Warden from their story, simply because it was just too hard to come up with a different name for the Warden. That and I just love the irony. The names of his wife and two daughters, however, I came up with myself.
Coming up with a name for baby Megamind was tough. Really tough. I admit that in my story "The New Beginning" his real name was easier to come by; all I did was pop in 'Megamind' in a Star Wars name generator and it spat out 'Massalik.' Coming up with a human name though was harder. I wanted it to be something that isn't overused, so the first name that popped up in my mind was Malcolm. But then I realized that I didn't want to just use the same first letter over and over and over. Megamind, Massalik, Malcolm…no. It was time to try a different letter. Then it suddenly hit me that Megamind's appearance slightly resembles that of Ewan McGreggor. Just slightly, mind you. And so it was that I liked Ewan Warden much better than Malcolm Warden.
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