Editor's Note: After a few yes's for Starvix's original dialogue, I went back and edited in her original dialogue and I'll be adding them in from now on.
Disclaimer: I do not own Megamind or Justice League.
The Lair Formerly Known as Evil (name is a work in progress) was dark, a little on the cold side and had thousands of machine parts scattered around it which, a few scant months ago, used to be his irredeemably evil weapons. (Megamind, as a general rule, preferred to find a way to recycle his inventions for good, but even he couldn't think of one good use for a machine that made mechanical lawyers. He honestly didn't know what he was thinking when he made it, other than it sounded delightfully evil at the time.)
Besides this, it also had thousands of working weapons/similar devices that he had, indeed, decided would be of help to him as he fought the forces of evil. And behind a large red curtain, which was currently pushed to the side allowing one to look in, were designs and half-finished models of yet more inventions that Megamind had determined would be useful, beneficial, or just plain cool to have around.
"Ah, Minion," the blue alien said with a happy sigh, looking around. "There's no place like No Longer Evil Lair." He wrinkled his nose up. "We definitely won't be using that one. It doesn't quite have a big enough kick to it."
"Of course, Sir," Minion agreed wholeheartedly, and not just because minions were supposed to agree whole-heartedly.
Several of Megamind's brain bots appeared, flocking around him and bowing until he consented to throw a wrench for them to chase and chew; just as they always did when he came into his Currently Unnamed Lair.
Once his brain bots were gone, Megamind rubbed his hands together, his eyes lighting up with glee at the thought of all the inventions he was creating, and ideas for projects yet to come. "Minion, keep an eye on the monitors for me, would you? I have many, many new plots that require my immediate attention."
"Of course, Sir," Minion replied. "Oh, and I do believe they're supposed to be 'plans' now; plotting is an evil villain thing."
Megamind paused, his face clearly showing his confusion. "But it's still the exact same thing. How is calling 'plotting' something different change whether it's evil or not?"
"I really don't know," Minion admitted. "It just does."
Megamind sighed. "I will never understand how sieve-i'll-eyes-ed society works," he admitted with a rare show of humility. But it was gone in an instant, and he was back to his cheery, perky self. "Do remember to call me if something happens on the monitors, Minion, I need to be aware of potential dangers to the fair citizens of Metrocity." He never had been able to get out of the habit of making the words Metro City sound suspiciously similar to the word atrocity.
"It's 'civilized', Sir, and I will," Minion assured his friend, correcting the former word but not the latter; the fish knew by now that he needed to pick and choose his battles, and after mispronouncing Metro City for so many years, it was likely that Megamind would never remember to say it correctly.
"Civilized, got it," the genius said nonchalantly, already lost in his own little world filled with plans and inventions.
Minion left him to it and sat himself down in their large revolving chair, watching the many monitors the lair had to offer. After taking the mantle of Metro City's defender, Megamind had taken it upon himself to assign Brain Bots to high-activity areas of the city, such as City Hall, banks, the news station, and other similar places that were likely candidates for criminals to target. A couple of the monitors had roaming Brain Bots feeding them info, as they travelled a path that took them around several different routes for crimes that were targeted towards people, such as muggings, or other potentially dangerous hazards to public safety, such as burning buildings.
The two of them generally took turns watching the monitors, so unless they were already out stopping a crime one or the other was watching at all times during a twenty-four hour period. Roxanne Ritchi kept insisting that they couldn't possibly keep up such a schedule for long, but so far it was working and until problems arrived, Megamind couldn't see the merits in changing his methods of keeping an eye on the city at all times.
Roxanne Ritchi, by the way, was the star reporter of the local news network here in Metro City. She was fearless, smart, witty, talented, very pretty if he did say so himself, and he often did, and most amazingly, she had been Megamind's steady girlfriend for the past six months. It still stunned him whenever he thought of it; simply because he couldn't fathom how he had ever gotten so lucky that someone like Roxanne could tolerate, much less love, him. He never could make the facts add up as to why she would even like him—an ex-villain who was bald and had the complexion of a popular primary color, and who kidnapped her 658 times and threatened to feed her to his pet alligators. (Not to mention the other horrid means of demise he had threatened her with.)
Never mind the fact that he would never allow her to be harmed, and that she had known that since the 5th kidnapping. Nor the fact that she would often engage in mocking and/or witty banter with him while they awaited for Metro Man's timely arrival to save her from alligators that would only eat chicken, for reasons Megamind had never decided to find out. Not that it mattered anyway, because the platform he would have her standing or sitting on was surrounded by a thick, bulletproof glass so that she could see the alligators but they wouldn't be able to get to her, and she couldn't have accidentally fallen in.
All of Megamind's evil, diabolical demises for her, it seemed, had similar fail safe devices that ensured that no matter what happened, not so much as a hair on her head was harmed. But that didn't change the fact that he had repeatedly kidnapped her and disrupted her life, and the simple fact remained that she shouldn't think back to those days and tell him how sweet he was. It didn't add up.
Even though he was arguably the most intelligent being on the planet, he just didn't understand women. He had learned to accept that and move on.
Megamind sighed and returned to his work; thinking of Roxanne was normally pleasant, but he still had very low self-esteem which sometimes, such as now, made him feel very insecure about their relationship. It was simply best to avoid wondering such things until Roxanne was around; she always seemed to know when he was thinking along such lines and she was remarkably good at reassuring him of her heartfelt affections.
During the time it had taken to reflect and wonder about his relationship with Roxanne Ritchi, Megamind had finished several adjustments so that his death ray (it had cost a lot of time and money to get that in orbit; so he knew he had to be able to find some way to keep it from going to waste) would now be able to give everyone in the city free cable for life. He had also drawn a complex blueprint of a freeze ray, similar to the ones Mr. Freeze and Captain Cold used. Freeze rays were cool, and who said that bad guys had some sort of monopoly? Besides, he'd always wanted to have a freeze ray, but hadn't had the time to make a whole new gun as of yet. He'd thought of adding a freezing setting to his De Gun, but the only freezing thing he could think of with 'de' in the front was 'defrost' which was the exact opposite of what he wanted.
He was currently putting some artistic touches to his blueprints to make it that much neater and was already compiling a mental list of places where he could pick up materials to make it, when he heard Minion's voice calling uncertainly for him. "Uh, Boss? You might want to see this…"
Megamind looked up, his plans already forgotten as he rushed over to Minion's side. "What is it? A robber? A jaywalker? A jaywalking robber?" Even though they had just stopped a bank heist the night before, it had been nearly twelve hours since then and he was bored and quite eager for something to do.
"No, Sir, it's nothing like that," Minion replied quickly. "It's uh…actually, I think you'd better see for yourself."
Megamind frowned, a little annoyed over the secrecy but also extremely curious. He walked over to the monitors and took a long look. His eyes narrowed and his lips pursed together dangerously when he saw the man Minion was currently gawking at.
"What's he doing here?" The alien's tone was surprisingly bitter, which surprised Minion greatly. He'd only ever heard his boss use that tone when they were discussing Metro Man, before they had become the good guys, but the man they were currently watching was certainly not Metro Man.
Although, the fish reflectively, Superman was so similar to him it couldn't help but give one the creeps. The two watched the Man of Steel fly around Metro City, obviously searching for something, or someone.
"I think he's looking for you, Sir," Minion said finally.
Megamind rolled his eyes. "Well, I might as well let Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes-Mark-Two have his say and get him out of here," He sighed, and his shoulders seemed to slump. "I've been trying, Minion," he said, sounding less defiant and more defeated this time. "Why can't he just let me be a hero?"
Minion looked over to his best friend, worried at the tone of voice. "Are you sure that's what he's here for, Sir? To try to make you be the villain again?"
"Why else would he be here?" Megamind asked theoretically, his face hardening as he checked to make sure his de-gun was still on dehydrate. "But I'm done with letting glorified, muscle-bound morons try to tell me who to be. I'm not letting his opinions define who I am like I did with Metro Man."
Minion gave a small, mental sigh of relief. He'd been worried that if Superman, or any other hero for that matter, showed up and tried to convince Megamind he was still a villain, Megamind would believe them and go back to villainy. His self-esteem was, in fact, still so low that it would be a real problem. But at least the Boss was determined to prove his worth, instead of just agreeing with others' judgmental opinions of him.
Megamind struck a dramatic, heroic pose, (he had been practicing them) and stated in his best heroic voice, "Minion, code: Follow me to the invisible car!"
Minion sighed. "Sir, one of these days, we're really going to have to sit down and have a long talk about the point of having a code in the first place."
Megamind scowled at him. "Code: Just do as I ask, Minion," he snapped.
"Code: I'm on it, Sir," Minion replied, and Megamind gave him a big, happy, childish grin of delight. The fish sighed, decided to just let Megamind be happy with his current 'code', and followed the still super-happy blue genius to the invisible car for a rendezvous with Superman.
To be honest, Super Man didn't know exactly how to get in contact with Megamind; no one in the hero community did, he wasn't exactly social. After explaining his reasons for wanting to find Megamind to the Mayor of Metro City, he had been told to simply hang around City Hall and Megamind would likely get curious as to why he was there and come to him. Having no better ideas, except perhaps to wander aimlessly around the city hoping to run into him, the Man of Steel agreed.
He never saw the invisible car, for obvious reasons, but he certainly heard it when it ground to a halt in a nearby parking space, squealing tires leaving tire tracks that seemed to simply form themselves. So when Megamind suddenly appeared out of thin air after he exited the car, Super Man wasn't at all surprised to see him. He was a bit taken aback, however, by the look of anger and—hurt?—that the blue alien sported as he practically stomped up to him and jabbed a finger in his chest.
"What do I have to do to prove to you people that I'm not evil anymore? I'm doing the best I can here! Is it too much to ask for a little condensation?"
"I believe the word you're looking for is 'consideration', Sir," Minion called after him helpfully.
"Yes, that!" Megamind was obviously ranting, waving his arms in dramatic and slightly comical ways as he said his piece. "I'm so tired of everyone taking one look at me and deciding that I'm automatically evil and must be treated as such! I don't care what you think, I've done nothing wrong and if you think I'm going to let you just throw me in jail, you're obviously in for a very rude reality check!"
Super Man let Megamind say his piece, and, once the blue alien had finished and was trying to catch his breath after his display, quietly replied, "I'm not here to take you to jail, Megamind."
It was increasingly obvious that Megamind had little or no control over his emotions; his face displayed what he was feeling with the subtly of a lighted billboard. "I…what? But…but I thought…" The stunned and bewildered look he was currently sporting quickly faded into something resembling suspicion. "Well, then, just why are you here?"
"I'm here to offer you a membership to the Justice League," Super Man replied, handing Megamind a small ring with the letters JLA on it. "We're currently expanding our membership base, and we—I—would be pleased if you would become a part of it."
Megamind frowned, taking the membership ring and inspecting it skeptically. "I don't know if I want to leave Metrocity," he said simply.
"Metro City will always be your city," Superman assured him. "But joining the League will allow the heroes of the world to better manage their time and resources to do the most good for the most people." Seeing that Megamind suddenly looked unsure, Super Man sighed. "You don't have to answer right away. Just think about it, ok? Inside the ring is a two-way radio device that you can use to get in touch with us. Just put it in your ear and tell us if you accept, once you make your decision."
Megamind swallowed, and nodded. "I will," he said softly. Super Man gave him a reassuring smile before he took off, his speed allowing him to leave Metro City in a matter of seconds.
Minion was beside himself with excitement. He had hoped something similar to this would happen, although he hadn't been sure if it would happen. Joining the Justice League would go a long way towards cementing his friend's reputation as a Superhero. He looked over to Megamind proudly, eager to congratulate him on this unexpected turn of events, but the words died in his throat when he saw the furious look on his boss's face as he scowled at the ring Super Man had given him.
"Sir? Are you alright?" Minion asked worriedly.
Megamind looked up at him and nodded, his face relaxing slightly. "Yes, Minion, I'm fine," he said, tossing the ring on the ground. "Take me back to the Heroic Lair." He started towards the car, then paused. "I don't like that one either," he informed Minion quietly, before climbing into the passenger's side of the invisible car.
Minion paused, confused at Megamind's melancholy attitude, before turning to look at the discarded ring. After a moment's hesitation, he reached down and picked it up.
"Minion!" Megamind called impatiently, causing the fish to jump. Minion looked up, but to his relief, Megamind was staring straight ahead, and had not seen what he'd done.
"Coming Sir," Minion replied, putting the ring into his pocket for safe keeping before climbing into the car and heading back towards their lair.