It had taken all the encouragement in Megamind's arsenal to finally get Minion to push off from the bike (with training wheels attached) that he had borrowed from the bike lender's stall in the park. Minion had strapped a helmet awkwardly to his head (his antenna made it a little difficult), gotten on the bike, and had stared ahead at him blankly for a good minute before Megamind began to push him along the path. The two aliens got a lot of strange looks, even a few people filming them, but Megamind hadn't the mind to tell them to push off.
Becoming a hero of a city meant people liked you, or at least recognized you, and he had experienced how far the looming shutter of the paparazzi stretched. His pajamas had been front page news one day, and he had been alarmed by it. Minion had insisted it only showed people wanted to know whose clothes he wore; namely, his. But then people became adamant they wanted pajamas like that, and Minion had been offered so much money to allow a brand to make them. He had only accepted because it meant much-needed funds for him and his boss.
He still didn't like how people would follow them with cameras, though… especially now that he was a human-alien hybrid. Minion breathed hard as Megamind continued to push him along the path.
"You're doing great, Minion!"
"I don't think I am," Minion replied as he swayed slightly on the bike.
"Focus your balance! You can do it!"
"I can't, I haven't got my swim bladder anymore!"
"Then use your liver ladder or whatever it is!" Megamind demanded.
Just when Minion was beginning to gain some momentum, and confidence, the duo unfortunately met a sudden incline in the path. Megamind lost his grip on Minion, and he watched as the fish rode the bike down the hill and crashed into the fence surrounding the lake, and went flying into it.
He stood there, momentarily shocked at just how quickly all of it had happened, before racing down the path. "MINION!" he called frantically, nimbly jumping over the fence to land in the murky, yucky water near where the bike stuck halfway out of the water.
His hands pushed through the water trying to find the fish-man. Had he struck his head? Was he drowning? Where was he? "Minion! Minion! Come out of that water right now, I mean it! I—" he was suddenly splashed by water. Megamind spun around, eyes wide with shock and some anger, and spotted Minion just vanishing back into the water.
"MINION! YOU!" Megamind pushed the water after him, but the fish-man was already gone ."Get up here! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Another splash, this time from another direction. Megamind's anger was quickly extinguished by the water and the laughter of Minion, who seemed to find great enjoyment from suddenly being in the water.
He began splashing back at the fish-man whenever he surfaced. The two aliens were soon splashing water back and forth at one another like little kids in a kiddie pool, laughing and spluttering when the water hit them. Megamind didn't even seem to care about being drenched to the bone, which was something, since he normally hated getting wet… especially in his leather.
But Minion was more important than leather, wasn't he?
It wasn't long until the two pulled themselves and the bike from the lake and were lying out on the grass trying to dry off.
"Bike riding may be a little too hard for me, Sir," Minion admitted as his black hair clung to his face.
"You may be right, Minion. After all, you can't be as gifted as I am," Megamind replied smugly.
"Of course not, Sir," grinned the fish-man, as he turned his head to look at the blue alien. "Then I wouldn't be the minion anymore, would I?"
"You'll always be my minion, Minion," smiled the alien. "Nobody else's."
Minion simply beamed.
"Are you two all right?" The voice, coming from above the two, startled Minion. He looked up and tilted his head back to see a woman standing over them, looking a little worried. Minion rolled, slowly, onto his side to get a better look at her. She had thick, curly blonde hair that was tied back with a red ribbon, yet either way the hair came down to the middle of her back. She was wearing blue jeans, and a white t-shirt with had a design that reminded him of bubbles.
"Yes, yes we're quite fine," Megamind answered on Minion's behalf, not bothering to look up at the woman.
"Took a bit of a spill into the pond, huh?" she asked, smiling softly.
"Uhh," Minion said smartly.
"I saw your bike." She pointed to the soaking wet bike that was lying on the grass just on the other side of Megamind. "I've fallen in here too."
"That sounds fascinating," Megamind said as he sat up and turned to look at the woman. He was a little put off by how she was staring just at Minion. Didn't she realize the hero of the city was laying here as well?
"I'm Mary," the woman finally introduced herself, smiling at Minion. "What's your name?"
"Minion," he answered right away.
"Minion?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes."
Mary looked at Megamind, as if suddenly realizing he was lying here too. She looked back to Minion, then back at Megamind. "But…but aren't you… normally a fish…?" she asked.
"Somebody doesn't keep up to date with recent events," Megamind said loudly, making both Mary and Minion turn and look at him. "There was an explosion in my lab today, and Minion here took the full force of the DNA-extraction machine. He ended up like this."
"Oh!" She blinked in surprise before tilting her head and giving Minion a good looking-at. "…well. I must say you make a pretty good-looking guy, Minion."
Minion's face began to turn a deeper shade of emerald, and if he wasn't sitting in the sunlight they might have noticed the freckles on his forehead began to actually give off a very, very faint glow. Seemed some of his bioluminescence had been retained. At least he had that. "T-thank… thank you…" he mumbled.
Megamind narrowed his eyes at Mary, not liking what was going on here, though he couldn't for the life of him understand why. Minion had been spoken to by women before; reporters, fans, mothers, little girls and teenagers, who had all at some point declared their love for him because he was such a positive, and supportive, fish. He had been called adorable, sweet, and cute so often he should never have let the negative slurs affect him, and yet now… Megamind didn't like this. Was it only because he was now human-shaped that women were taking a certain kind of interest in him? If, indeed, this was what was happening?
"Well, I got to get back to work. It was great meeting you, Minion, Megamind." Mary smiled before turning and hurrying off, and Minion watched as she left. He tilted his head to the side slightly as his eyes began to slowly trail downwards.
"Minion."
Megamind's tone, and voice, snapped Minion out of the slight haze of thoughts and images in his mind. He turned his head to look at his boss. "Yes, Sir?"
"Let's go home."
"Already?" Minion sounded disappointed.
"…All right. But let's not hang around this park anymore. I've had enough of grass and puppies and people." Megamind got to his feet and shook himself, the last bits of water coming off finally.
"Right away, Sir." The fish-man got to his feet and stretched his arms up above his head, yawning as he did. Once he was done, he looked off in the direction in which Mary had gone, but she was already no longer in sight. He sighed. She seemed nice, if a little forward about telling him he was now good-looking. That was nice of her, but he didn't really agree with her.
"Come along, Minion. Let's return this bicycle to the stall and get out of here."
"Where shall we go now, Sir?"
In the end he had taken Minion to the shopping mall. A shopping spree seemed to really perk the fish up; he ran into the first fabric store he could find and spent up to an hour touching absolutely everything. He rubbed his cheek against the silk, wrapped himself in cotton, looped lace around his fingers, and more or less made a nuisance out of himself by wanting to feel every kind of fabric they had in stock. While he had indeed spent a lot of his spare time working with materials and sewing, being able to actually touch and feel them was just as amazing as feeling grass between his toes.
His sense of smell served him well when they approached the food courts. Normally, Minion could pick up only trace amounts of smells in his suit, which filtered some air through into his water, enabling him to smell smoke, for example, which was handy if he was cooking. But to actually smell absolutely everything, the mouth-watering food of so many kinds… he had another sensory overload and had to sit down a moment.
Then they had gone to a book store, and Minion touched a book for the first time in his life. The weight, the smell, the feel of the pages fluttering as he turned a book over in his hands… it all felt so amazing. He was running out of words to describe what it all felt like, to see the world no longer distorted in water, to smell, touch, feel, taste… all thanks to a horrific accident that could have been the end of his life.
The only downside to the whole excursion, in Megamind's opinion, was the fact there were so many people here. So many young women had approached Minion, complimenting him on his new body. A few had even been bold enough to call him sexy, to say that his buns were amazing (what did that mean?) and the like. Even some men had grinned at Minion in ways nobody had ever done. Megamind, put off by all this, soon ended up pushing Minion out of the mall once they had bought a few things for the fish (namely new materials, slippers, and something to wear to bed).
"Well, they seemed nice!" Minion said brightly as they walked towards the invisible car.
Megamind said nothing at first, before smiling for his companion. "Yes. Nice."
"Is, is something wrong, Sir? You've been awfully quiet, and that's unlike you," Minion mumbled as he moved a little closer to the shorter alien man. "Did something those people said upset you?"
"Upset? Me? Hah! Hah I say, and hah again!" Megamind scoffed. He put his hands on his hips and snorted an amused laugh. "Come come now, Minion. Do you really think I'd let some overly leery people who were clearly checking out my minion's body out affect me?"
"There were a fair few looking at you, Sir."
"Really?" Megamind asked, eyebrows raised.
"Oh yes!"
"Well. I can hardly blame them," Megamind smiled, ego stroked by the knowing words of his friend. "I mean, I am quite a looker aren't I?"
"Most definitely, Sir," Minion replied, tone dropping a little as he said it. "Your presence lights up any room lucky enough to have you step into it."
Megamind, and Minion, stopped short after that small admission. They both stared at each other a moment, Megamind's face purpling while Minion's turned green.
A car alarm in the distance broke the awkward silence, and Megamind stood to his full height. "Yes, well! All right then, let's, let's get going then!"
"Yes Sir," Minion said immediately.
They had just been getting into the car when a sudden scream echoed through the car park. The two spun around, listening for where it came from. In the distance, a woman was struggling with somebody. A burglar? A carjacking? The two aliens exchanged one look before Megamind pulled his De-Gun out of its holster and Minion raced ahead, the awkwardness already forgotten. As upstanding heroes of the city, they challenged injustice no matter when they ran into it, and the poor criminal who was acting out against the woman was going to answer for it.
"N-no please," the woman with sandy brown hair begged. A man wearing a black ski mask over his face had her up against the car with a knife pinned against her neck. "T-take anything, take everything…!"
"I plan on it," growled the man, but before he could act on this announcement, a fist came in contact with his face. The force knocked him backwards, and the blade he was holding fell to the ground without causing any serious damage to the woman who screamed, pulling away from the whole scene.
Minion stood there, fist still outstretched from when he punched the man, before he stood to his new full height and shook his hand.
Wow, punching people hurt.
"What the—" the man, gathering himself, spluttered as he got to his feet again, to see the man dressed in tight black material standing there. "Who the Hell-"
"YOU THERE!" Megamind stepped out from behind Minion, De-Gun primed and pointed at the criminal. "Hands in the air! I mean it! Don't make me cube you, boy!"
The man stared down the barrel of the steampunk-styled gun, and then up at the taller man beside the hero Megamind. His jaw was already aching terribly from the punch, and he felt enraged he had been insulted in such a way. If he was quick enough, he just might reach the pistol hiding underneath his shirt against his back and cause a big enough distraction to getaway.
Who could he shoot? The woman was already out of range, and he needed Megamind to be distracted rather than bleeding. Mind made up he moved quickly, and it took less than a blink for Minion and Megamind to know what was going on.
They had been raised around criminals. While those who had been closest to the two aliens were good souls, despite ending up in prison, there had been other crooks they had outright avoided. The ones who had killed, murdered, raped, abused, burned, and stole just for the joy of it all. Growing up around such men, Megamind knew how to read their actions quickly. But as the man went for a concealed weapon, it seemed as though Minion had a rare lapse of 'do as your master tells you', because the next thing Megamind knew Minion was upon the man, yelling.
"HE TOLD YOU HANDS UP!" Minion screamed, grabbing at the wrist that now held the revolver. The two struggled against one another in the darkened corner of the car park, and Megamind couldn't do anything for a few seconds. Minion was in the way. If he shot the De-Gun and struck Minion he'd be cubed, leaving an armed man unrestrained and capable of doing who knew what. But if he managed to hit the man, Minion would be safe. "Minion! Minion!" he hissed angrily as he kept moving his De-Gun, trying to keep a trail on the man.
The gun went off. Megamind heard Minion shout.
He pulled the trigger.
The revolver hit the ground harmlessly at the same time as a blue cube.
"MINION!" Megamind raced toward his friend, who had almost fallen over since the man he had been holding onto had suddenly vanished. "Minion, did he hit you? Where are you hit, are you all right?" he asked frantically, pressing his hands against Minion's back first before moving around his side to his front, praying he wouldn't pull away to find blood slicked over his gloves.
"I-I'm… I'm fine… I'm good, I'm good Sir…"Minion said shakily, heart racing within his chest. He hadn't been hit, thankfully, but the sound of the gun going off had scared him. Why? Because, at the last moment, Minion had forgotten he was no longer in his robot gorilla body. He had forgotten he was flesh and blood, and that bullets could now do great damage to his poor body. Thankfully the bullet had missed him by mere inches before burying itself into the wall next to them.
"Oh thank God. Thank God!" Megamind's arms were suddenly around Minion's neck, burying his face against the fish-man's shoulder. "I thought-I thought…!"
Minion didn't know what to say, or do at first. His boss was hugging him. Had this ever happened before? While he had indeed held his glass ball tightly to him twenty-four seven when they were growing up together, and had touched his robot bod,y he had never… really touched him before. Even when he had dealt with his fish body he had always had those leather gloves on. Minion suddenly realized that he had never felt the warmth of his boss's, his friend's, skin against his own before. Even now, just that little patch of skin that Megamind's cheek and temple were pressing against, it felt… amazing.
The fish-man tried to laugh it off, but it came out as a weak little noise. His arms lifted and very lightly wrapped around Megamind's small frame. He's so thin. He's always been so thin, but he's never been weak…
Megamind shuddered as the fish-man's arms wrapped around him. Not many people had embraced Megamind in his life. Roxanne was one of them. The Warden was another. And now Minion. He felt his face growing hot and he pulled himself away from the man, face tinted purple, as he suddenly remembered there had been a woman here. Where was she, was she all right? He tried to focus on her as he got to his feet, grasping Minion's shoulder to keep himself steady. Twice in one day now he thought he had lost Minion and each time he felt as though his world had been about to crumble to dust. Why had he suddenly become so emotional like this? Was it the human appearance of Minion's new body, or the fact just how close Minion had come to dying?
He didn't know, and he did not like not knowing things so instead of focusing on it he focused on the woman as best as he could.
Turned out the woman was indeed fine, and had done the right thing and had called for the police. She was just getting off the phone, tears streaming down her face, when Megamind approached her to ask if she was all right. Next thing he knew she was the one embracing him, shuddering whispery thanks to him for saving not only her life, but her baby boy who she had just put into his baby seat in the back of her car. The woman rushed from him to Minion, giving him the same kinds of signs of gratitude even if she wasn't all too sure who he was. If she had her mind about her, she would probably assume he was Megamind's sidekick thanks to that large 'M' on his back, but she could be forgiven for not noticing these things.
Thanks to the security cameras in the mall the security guards were soon rushing up to the scene, and it wasn't at all long until the area was taped off to the public. The police were soon there, taking photographs of the scene; the bullet lodged in the wall, the dropped gun, a glowing blue cube, and the knife, which had dropped and almost fallen under the car. The woman, named Sharon, was standing to the side now, holding her seven-month-old baby, who had magically slept through the whole thing. Megamind and Minion were, naturally, praised by everyone for being there and taking quick action.
Minion, totally unused to this kind of praise, turned emerald-green and looked down at his feet whilst Megamind basked in the praise like a professional. Cameras were already there, photographs were being snapped, and all the while Minion stood behind his boss feeling awkward and out of place.
In front of cameras, that wasn't who he was. Even when Megamind had been a villain, he was the guy working in the background, the one to put the machines together, who painted giant X's on things, and made sure that things were in place. In fact, up until his strutting up Metro City's Main Street to City Hall with Megamind, not many in Metro City had ever laid eyes on him. That's the way he had always liked it.
To suddenly find himself thrust into the limelight was almost as jarring as becoming a human-alien hybrid.
"Megamind?" a familiar voice made its way through the crowd, causing both alien men to lift their gaze to stare at Roxanne, standing there with microphone in hand and accompanied by her new cameraman. "What… Minion? Is that… is this your new… new body?" she asked, staring at the tall, slightly muscular frame that Minion was suddenly in possession of. "Oh, oh wow…! You look. Erm. Impressive!" she complimented.
"Thank you Miss Ritchi," Minion mumbled, embarrassed.
Megamind looked at Roxanne from behind Minion for a moment, before walking around in front of him, setting his hands on his hips. "Ah, Miss Ritchi. Come for an all-out exclusive interview about the daring rescue, I presume?" he asked, arching an eyebrow at her.
Roxanne smiled, amused. "Well, I don't carry a microphone and have a camera with me when I go shoe shopping now, do I?" she asked.
"You don't?" Megamind asked.
"No, no I don't."
"Ah. Right. Of course, I knew that."
"I wouldn't say no to a show like that," Minion piped up. "Shopping with Roxanne Ritchi: Tips and Tricks to Look your Best While on the Spot." He held his hands up in front of his face as if seeing a billboard in the city.
Roxanne giggled, and paused to brush a hair behind one of her ears. "That's sweet of you," she said.
"Just being honest," he replied.
"All right, all right, enough about fashion and shoes and television shows that will never see the light of day." Megamind got between them once again, holding up his hands as if he were a traffic instructor. "We've got work to do!"
"Right away, Sir."
"Right, sure. Yeah let's…" she said as she eyed Minion before turning away to face the camera man, and motioned to him to begin filming.
To be continued