This story, for what it is, will not be dealing that much with the suspicion that would be there should I have started it before the battle, as it is, it's a very small part of this story, but it will still be mentioned. I may expand upon the battle later, but for now, here's the next update. To Fred and Elisabeth, my anonymous reviewers, thank you, I hope the rest of this story is to your liking.
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"Oh, you know, we'd like to know the basics, why you think you can suddenly start to play the hero when up until little less than a year ago you have been one of the single most active villains in the world would probably be a good place to start. There's also the ever popular, did you get off totally scot-free from killing Metro Man, or you could just go for your whole origin. We have a while, start talking."

Megamind looked from face to face with green eyes that were full of a type of fearful terror that was usually reserved to deer stuck in the headlights. He finally took a breath, looking at the ground and began to talk.

"I was eight days old when my mother and father stuck me in a pod, gave me Minion, and my binky, and sent me off the planet. I was eight days old when my entire planet, my entire species, was sucked into a black hole, myself being the only survivor. Another planet suffered the same fate, the home of Mark Scott, of Metro Man. We were both sent to Earth, his pod crashing into mine at several intervals, oftentimes on purpose. It was not until his sent mine careening into a prison for the gifted that it made a huge impact on my life."

"Now wait a moment…"

"You were eight days old and you can remember all that?"

"You landed in a prison?"

"Didn't anyone do something about that?"

The questions were silenced when Megamind raised a gloved hand, one of the casings for his fingers torn off. "My people are highly intelligent and self-aware when we are two, we do not come equipped with such large heads without reason after all. To answer the other question, yes I landed in a prison, and it was my home for sixteen years. The inmates grew attached to me, you see, and I… I was so different, so alien, if you will pardon the term, from anyone else that no one would have wanted me should I have been placed in an orphanage. Not to mention, I would not have been kept as secret as I was…

"I reencountered Mark at the Shool for the Gifted."

"Don't you mean 'School'?"

"You shall have to forgive me; I have…difficulty with your language at times. I did not get a lot of contact growing up, nor as an adult. I…apologize for any words that I may scramble, Roxanne is helping me, but I still have trouble at times." He took a breath, rubbing his hands together gently. "Mark was everything that I was not. Charismatic, bold, familiar with the people and the culture, and he also looked normal. I think that was why he fit in so much more than I ever had, he was someone who looked human and had lived in an environment that, neglectful as his father was, was genuinely pleasant, an upper middle-class home life, access to everything he could want…the life I would have gotten had his pod not have knocked mine off course. But my biggest problem with Mark was simply this: he was a bully.

"He picked on me constantly, always made sure to get me in trouble, every attempt I made to be liked, to be normal, went wrong. I failed constantly and was sent to the corner more times than I care to remember, only succeeding in, well…alienating myself further… I did not like sh-school, and it eventually made me realize, if I could not be good…then I could be bad, I was very, very good at that." He grinned, a menacing grin, a grin that sang of all the other evil smiles they had seen, but with something else in it, something that seemed like irony. "So, our glorious rivalry began."

"He would win every time, but I would always get close. What I did not know was the fact that Metro Man eventually got tired of it, he felt that he did not have a choice. Saving the day time after time when you have been basically stuffed into the job…he felt trapped, he wanted to get out. So, he faked his death at my hands, leaving his career as a superhero to become, well…have you heard of Music Man? That's him." The sudden change in tone and revelation made them stare for a moment, barely processing what they were hearing.

"Wait…what?"

"Yep, he quit being a superhero to become a musician. A poor one. Don't believe me?" Megamind asked, his look that of a person teasing them for all they were worth, his eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together in a pout. "Well, he was afraid that would happen. He sent me this to give to you." He pulled another cube out of his belt, from a different spot than where he had placed his mech. "Do you have some water?"

Helen's hand reached out, stretching across the length of the room and into the kitchen, Megamind leaning over the arm of his chair so he could watch with wide eyes. There was the sound of glasses clinking, followed by running water, the water being shut off, and then her arm was retracted, a glass held in her hand. She handed it to him and he gave her a smile, before letting a single drop fall onto the cube. Next moment it grew and shifted into something that the Incredibles immediately recognized, a look of confusion sliding across Megamind's face as he examined it.

"Well…I'll be damned…"

"What is it?" Megamind asked, examining it curiously.

"That's the first villain we ever fought together."

"You mean this thing was alive?" He jerked, throwing the chunk of sprockets and metal mixed with flesh away from him.

"No. It was never alive. It was created, a monster. It was also something that the press never heard about."

"Why?"

"Because…well…" Bob cleared his throat. "This happened back when supers weren't supposed to be active."

"You know, now that you mention it, I do recall him going missing for quite a while that one summer. Did he help you fight it then?"

"Yep. By the way, how did you two manage to get out of that law?"

"Oh? That was easy; you will notice that I never killed anyone during that little reign of terror? We found a loophole to exploit. I had not wished to kill anyone, anyway, so I was perfectly game. They never had a chance. Neither of us are human after all, and we had no secret identities to fall back on. Besides, when it's doing wonders for your economy and publicity, why knock it?"

Bob sighed, looking at the remains of that creature and finally at the…well, the hero in front of him. He was slumping slightly into his seat he saw, the tattered remains of his suit burnt in some places, torn in others. He looked exhausted he suddenly realized and cast his mind back to see if he could ever recall him sleeping. Bob realized with a kind of suspended shock that he had never seen him sleep. Not once in a week. He had always been working on something. He glanced at his wife, her expression stating quite clearly that she had reached the same conclusion he had.

"Look…you need rest. You can look for that warehouse in the morning, for now I think you should sleep. You can stay here if you want."

Megamind blinked, looking up at the family in front of him, a timid smile slowly curling up the corners of his mouth. "Do you mean it?"

"Sure, you can sleep on the couch."

"He's staying here?" The shout wasn't what Megamind originally expected, instead of the shock and horror that he had been afraid of hearing, there was a kind of excitement in Dash's shout.

"But...but why?"

"Well, let's go down the list, you were willing to sacrifice yourself to save our son, you fought, which is definitely saying a lot considering what that villain was, and were also willing to sacrifice your own well-being in order to help give us that extra push in order to win. Well, that and we were actually paid a visit by Mark. We just wanted to talk to you and actually make sure."

"Really?"

"Yep, he is, and I don't want you disturbing him, let him rest." The look that Bob gave Megamind told him quite easily and simply that the matter was closed, and the alien perked right up, a wide smile on his face as he hastened to reassure him.

"Oh, that won't be much trouble, if I've been up for a long time, well…I finally go to sleep and it's near impossible to wake me up again until I do on my own. Usually sometime after midday…" He stretched as he stood, cracking his back, the ridiculously tattered state of his high collared cape shaken out. He sighed as he looked down at himself, plucking at it. "Well, there goes another Black Mamba…

He slowly began to shuck it from himself, peeling it off laboriously. It fell to the ground behind him heavily, leaving him in scarred and burnt leather.

"Do you have a change of clothes? We can get you something if you don't."

"There's a bathroom down the hall to your left, you can get cleaned up in there, the towels are in the cupboard under the sink."

"Make yourself at home."

"Really?" The amazement in the question made them pause.

"Well…yeah, you didn't kill anyone, you've saved all our butts at least once, and you've made a favorable impression on the kids. I'd say you can stay. We'd like you to stay. Just for the night and if it takes you a long time to find that warehouse, well…you can stay longer. I'm making pancakes in the morning, but if you sleep as good as you say you do, we're having BLT's for lunch." Helen smiled at him, her hands on her hips as she stood in front of the bedraggled hero, his expression shocked, and a smile pulling at his mouth involuntarily.

"Th-thank you…very much."

"It's no trouble. We understand what you have to be going through. It's a big transition, we'd like to help." Bob shrugged.

"But, the interrogation?"

"We had already decided you were alright, we just wanted a bit more time to decide if you were able to stay with us or not."

He blinked, then shrugged, looking down at his cape. "Thank you anyway, all of you."

"Hey, it's cool; besides, you sacrificed your giant robot for me. That's pretty cool." Jack-Jack punched him lightly on the arm as he passed, obviously a tic of Dash's that he had picked up.

"Does this mean he can help us with homework?" Dash asked, their immediate response a vehement:

'NO!'

"Just asking…"

"Well, I don't know, it depends, what do you need help on?"

"Really?"

"Not tonight, Dash. It's time for all young heroes, and older ones to go to bed."

"Awwww!"

"No, bed."

To Bob's and Helen's surprise the kids trooped down the hall to their rooms. Dash shared with Jack-Jack, and each room had their own bathroom. A few moments later there was the sound of water running before Dash zipped past them carrying pajamas and his toothbrush calling over his shoulder: "Using-your-bathroom,thanks-bye!"

"Dash!"

"Ah, leave it."

"There's no reason for you not to go get clean, I'll see if I can find something for you." Helen disappeared into her room. She came back out carrying a spare t-shirt and some sweatpants. "Here you go. It'll be a bit loose, but it should do nicely."

"We know someone who will be able to repair your suit and make it good as new so we'll get that done tomorrow."

"You…you really don't have to do all this."

"No, we insist. Go on, get clean."

He smiled at them and walked to the spare bathroom to do just that.

Five minutes later he exited the steaming room, the sweatpants tied tight around his waist and the t-shirt dangling over one shoulder. He shrugged slightly, knowing how comical he looked but too tired to care, and walked over to the couch, surprised at the pillow and the blankets that covered it. True to his word he had only barely laid his head down on the pillow before he fell into a deep sleep and did not wake until noon.

When he did wake it was to the smell of bacon and the feeling of someone poking his head. A voice shouted out: "I think he's dead!" He couldn't help but remain still, waiting for the hand to get braver and actually rest there for a moment before he snapped his hand up and grabbed it. Dash let out a shriek and jerked his hand out of Megamind's hold before he had a chance to close it fully.

The alien sat upright slightly groggily, feeling well-rested and refreshed for the first time in days. He stretched, cracking his back and yawned. "Nope, I'm not dead, just waking up." He grinned at the young boy, realizing with a feeling of slight surprise that he did not know how old he was. "How old are you? My records claim somewhere between eleven and thirteen, but I don't really know…"

"Oh, I'm thirteen; I just turned two weeks ago!" Dash answered, grinning hugely.

"Really? That's very nice. I remember being thirteen…it wasn't very pleasant…" He cleared his throat then, grinning at him in return. "But I'm sure you will be fine."

"Boys, lunch's ready, you going to remain sitting their talking, or are you going to come over and eat before it all gets cold?"

"Sorry, Mrs. Parr!" Megamind called, standing up, the blankets tucked to one side neatly as Dash zipped to the table.

"Please, call me Helen."

"Oh, alright then, Helen it is." He shuffled forward, the pants too long on him as well as being too baggy. All in all he looked a bit like a child clad in oversized hand-me-downs. If it wasn't for the goatee the look would have been perfect.

"You know, I don't think I ever asked, do you have a name, something aside from Megamind?"

The blue alien paused in the midst of reaching for the sandwich Helen was offering him before taking it carefully. "I…I don't really have a 'name' as such. My parents, well…they didn't name me. When you name things, you get attached; you see…they couldn't afford to do so. They loved me, they loved me so much they placed me on an escape pod when they themselves would die, but they never named me. On Earth, I was never given a name, I landed in a prison, you see. They don't have names, merely numbers. I was 00000006. So, they merely called me Six, only somewhere along the lines this was changed to 'Syx' with a 'y'. So, I suppose you may call me Syx."

"Syx, huh…well, I like it. It's not exactly normal in terms of regular names, but it's better than others."

"Yeah, you could have been called 'Blueberry'," Dash squeaked out, bursting out laughing.

"Oh, but I was. Often by other children that wished to insult me," Megamind sneered, looking down at the boy as he froze mid-laugh, clearing his throat and straightening. Violet laughed.

"Smooth, real smooth," she said softly.

"So, Syx, you gonna eat that or let it get cold?" Bob asked with a grin

Syx looked down at the sandwich in his hands and cleared his throat. "Actually, I've never had one before, what is it?"

The sudden question made them all pause, stare at him incredulously and finally hesitantly question: "You've never had a BLT before?"

"Well…no…"

"Come on then, take a bite, come on!"

"Well…"

"Come ooonnnn!"

"Alright, alright…" He hesitated for a moment before plunging his teeth into the sandwich almost harshly. He tore the bite off rather difficultly, finally beginning to chew, slightly wary at the fact that all their eyes were on him. Then he blinked, chewed slower and then finally began to speed up, nearly choking himself in his haste to swallow and tell them how great it was. They laughed, crooning: "We told you!" as he happily took another bite.

"You want another one after that one?"

Megamind hesitated, looking down at the sandwich, then down at himself and finally back up at her with his mouth full, finally shaking his head no. He swallowed forcibly and looked at her with a weak smile, "As much as I would wish to, I do not run well on an overfull stomach. One shall be plenty, thank you."

"Alright."

They finished their lunch calmly; Megamind listening as they held what he realized was a common moment of communication between a family. Dash teased Jack-Jack quietly, even though it was obvious to Syx how much the younger boy looked up to the older. He even had a similar style of haircut, both spiked to the front. Jack-Jack obviously preferred green to Dash's choice of the brighter colors, obviously a hint towards his powers; yellow t-shirt with an orange slice on the chest and jeans compared to camouflage shorts and a green shirt.

Violet wasn't wearing red that day, making Syx narrow his eyes slightly. He finished his sandwich and walked over to her. "I didn't put you off wearing your favorite color, did I?" he asked quietly.

"What? Oh, no, I just thought, why not? I haven't worn this shirt in a while, so…"

"It looks nice!"

"Thank you. So, is it true, you're going out with the reporter? Roxanne Ritchi?"

Megamind blinked, taken aback by the sudden question, finally clearing his throat. "Well, it is a possibility."

"You are?"

"Yes…yes I am. She's…fantastic."

Violet couldn't help but grin at his slightly love-sick expression. He was almost adorable looking like that. For a blue bulbous-headed alien that is…