Disclaimer: Despicable Me and Megamind belong to their respective creators. I'm not getting any money for making this.

Chapter four: Name

For four minutes Megamind was stuck inside the ice block, it was enough time to take a decision about what to do with Gru, his so called old friend. Then Minion appeared by the corner of the hall, followed by two brainbots.

"Oh my! What has happened sir?" The robots immediately melted the ice with their eye lasers, releasing their 'daddy.' "We have to get you a blanket sir. It's dangerous for you to stay here in this condition..."

"I found the culprit, Minion." Still shivering, Megamind asked the brainbots to follow him towards another hall of the museum, the place where the thief had left. The gorilla bodied fish watched with concern as his boss walked away to the other side of the hall. Even when Megamind's health was his responsibility, he knew his boss had such a passion for his job that there was no way to stop him. Minion sighed, and then something caught his attention.

"Wait a minute. Did he say it was only one culprit?" A bunch of red and blue lights coming from the closest window illuminated the interior of the building, and the steps of the police force echoed thought the hall. For a few seconds Minion hesitated, torn between to follow his boss or to go meet the police. Then he turned around towards the museum entrance, looking back to the place where Megamind had left.

In that place, crawling from shadow to shadow, Gru was pondering how to get out of there. He indeed had a map, and his goggles helped him to see perfectly in the dark. The alarms were still off, however most of the rooms in the museum where filled with those bizarre tesla coil dome robots. The villain was pretty sure by now that they were Syx's. Their design revealed it. Although he didn't know what those robots could do if they caught him, he didn't want to find it out. On top of that, it baffled him why it was so important for the blue guy to get the paintings back. As though the museum wasn't filled with other valuable and 'stealable' pieces of art!

He crawled some meters until he was next to a statue of a sleeping man, where a robot almost noticed him. He waited motionless in there for several minutes, after which, another robot arrived to the room with a rope in his jaws. Both robots started to play tug war. Syx sure was smart at creating machines, Gru thought, but he had made his artificial intelligence so advanced that they had forgotten their task, like untrained animals often do. Then the noise emitted by what he called 'metallic floating junk' sounded softer.

Once the only light illuminating the room was that of the moon through the big windows, Gru felt at ease.

"I can't believe you actually made the freeze ray." The old man looked up to find a curious golden gun pointing directly at his nose. A mad, completely soaked, and still trembling Megamind was holding it. Gru gasped in silence, but then he stood up keeping his composure.

"Yees yes, even so dhere were some modifications to be made. Following your prints literally that ray gun had to warm up. Can you imagine a freeze ray warming up?" Gru gesticulated with the hands, looking for the moment to snatch the de-gun, but Megamind was starting to press the trigger. "Ess dhat dhe problem? I can give it back to you." Megamind frown disappeared as Gru took the freeze ray from his suit and offered it to him by the grip. The creator of the weapon viewed the gun with a feeling of nostalgia, but he didn't take it.

"Gru listen. It's a little cum-plikeided..."

"Eet's complicated."

"Yes, that." Megamind turned to the window looking at the moon, doubtful. Gru thought that was the perfect moment for knock him down and run away. Instead the villain just stood in there curious about what his old friend was about to say. "I'm the protector of Metrosity."

The phrase sounded more like a whisper, in a proud tone but with a low volume. It was a mixture of shame and happiness that didn't take Gru by surprise. It was pretty obvious his old friend was going to choose the path of good since the day they met. Megamind always has been an awful villain.

Fifteen years ago, in on a hot summer day, the police had brought Gru to the prison for the criminally gifted in Metro City. Back then he had just been awarded in New York with the title of Villain of the Year. Even so, he had failed in the attempt to steal the city's founder statue, defeated by this tidy teen with super powers whose name was Wayne Scott.

This boy didn't have a heroic name yet, and was still learning. That's why as an unexpected twist, in an attempt to retrieve it, the statue had fallen from a considerable height and broke into pieces. It had been the first time that the boy was unable to 'save', even if it was just stone. It had been like letting the founder of the city die. And just because of that tiny victory, Gru was greeted by the prisoners with cheers. Not that he cared much.

Once inside his prison cell, wearing an orange jumpsuit, Gru was already planning a way to escape. He looked around the place where the guards had locked him with no cellmate. The room was nothing extraordinary or different than all the other cells he had been in. It had a wall replaced with solid metal bars, a sink, a no-privacy toilet, and a bed with a blue boy sitting on it...wait, what?

Gru turned around and stared at the boy who was smiling at him. He wondered if the guards had committed a mistake, because this was a maximum security prison and it had no place for under aged children. He didn't care at all that the boy's skin was blue. Considering it could be simple makeup.

"Are you the Gru all the prisoners are talking about?" The boy began to talk, playing cool. Gru ignored him while weighing the idea of to claim for a cell change or at least ask for another bed. "I heard you kicked Wayne's butt. You have to tell me everything about it, and be as detailed as possible." The thin boy jumped in the cell bed, like a child eager to hear his nightly story. Younger Gru glared at him. Turning his back to him, he crouched for plotting an escape route with chalk on the floor. The boy stood up and leaned over Gru's shoulder. The man could almost feel the boy's breath on his ear, which made him want to strangle the unwanted visitor. But nobody said a word, since Gru was just focusing on what he had seen when led to the cell. He had to make a map for deciding which weak point in the prison security was safe to use.

Then the youngling burst.

"Geez! That map sucks. You don't even know how the prison is designed. Using that route, the guards will bring you in no time here again." Gru threw the chalk to the floor making as much noise as possible. The heat wasn't helping to his temper either.

"Listen kiddo. Eet es not dhe first time I break from prison. And besides, shouldn't you go to your home now? Dhis ees no place for little boyz."

"This is my home. I've been living here all my life," Responded the preteen with annoyance, like as if it was a fact that everybody should already know, and added almost in a murmur. "I can't believe you're the same guy who defeated my archenemy."

The comment caught Gru's attention.

"And who might be dhis archenemy of yours?" Noticing the boy's appearance for the first time, Gru realized he was probably not wearing make up. And even for a villain with experience in genetic experiments like him, it wasn't a common thing seeing someone with a head that big. He noticed also that the boy was wearing the orange uniform, which meant he wasn't lying when he said he lived in there. Even so, he couldn't be older than twelve or thirteen years old.

He wondered if that boy with acid green eyes and bubble gum blue skin had a kind of super power, and that could be the reason he was in that specific prison in such a young age. The big head and witty chat were obviously a hint of super intelligence, but it was always a good idea to leave the question open for something else, just in case.

"You don't know who you are talking with!"

Gru lifted an eyebrow in response.

"I'm Wayne Scott's long life rival! The one who brings havoc to Metrosity! My name echoes in every corner and street and makes shiver whoever pronounces it!" He made a dramatic pause expecting his listener to get it, but it prolonged for more time than the needed. Gru lowered both eyebrows in a frown. In fact, the preteen didn't have a special name yet, even if he was already well known as Metro City's main villain. "I'm... still thinking in an astounding name that could describe my villainy."

Gru had turned again, back to the plan traced in chalk on the floor. He knew that a villain who needs a name to impress people wouldn't get far. They didn't say anything else for the next few seconds, until a guard on duty caught the boy's blue skin in the corner of his eye.

"Syx! What are you doing here? Let's go back to your cell, this man is dangerous." Both inmates stared at the policeman, a big old guy with a five o'clock beard who opened the door, entered, and pulled the preteen out by an arm. After covering the map by sitting on it, Gru giggled and repeated the boy's name in a murmur. The blue boy's face blushed with a light fuchsia tone.

"It's my prisoner number! I swear it!" The boy explained to his senior inmate, twisting his arm to give some resistance.

"Oh, don't be ashamed," The guard corrected with a laugh while closing Gru's cell again "we've been calling you Syx since when we changed your diapers." As the boy went away held by the guard with an embarrassed expression and watery eyes, Gru was thankful he had finally time by himself to think of a good escape route. He didn't know it wasn't going to be the last time he saw Syx.

Back in the present time, seeing how Syx had decided to use a false name to impress the masses, and was wearing a leather suit with the image of a bolt on his chest, and a cape, Gru assumed the boy changed his path because he had not taken the villain job seriously.

This all meant the villain had been caught by a hero. It was a normal situation that in any other time in Gru's life could have been taken as the rule of the strongest, but things were different this time. He had three little girls waiting for him in the hotel room, no way of taking the paintings back, and no time for going to prison. Let's not talk about a trial! Feeling desperate, he tried once again to use the freeze ray. The gun spun with his index finger inside the trigger, but Megamind was not going to fall for the same trick twice. Before even being able to aim, the freeze ray had disappeared from Gru's hand, leaving a shiny blue cube. Taken by surprise he let it fell on the floor with a yelp. The thing was hot.

"I can't believe you wanted to freeze me again!" The action had hurt Megamind's feelings, considering Gru had been like a mentor when he wanted to start a career as villain, but their new positions had made them a sort of natural enemies.

"I'm sorry... but I can't be taken to jail." This was unexpected, Megamind thought, since his friend was not the kind of person that apologizes. Something along the years had changed him too.

"Why? I'm sure you'll get another way to get out of there." The hero didn't want to arrest him, but it was impossible to come up with something clever about the stolen paintings. Gru lifted his goggles to make their eyes meet, showing he was about to say nothing more than the truth. "I have three girls. They're waiting for me in dhe hotel room... We were in on a vacation trip."

Megamind was stunned. He was about to ask when had Gru married but the museum lights turned on. Then a bunch of special forces burst in the room surrounding both villain and hero with several guns pointed at the former. Even so it seemed the local hero had saved the situation just in time, reaching the scoundrel before he could escape.

Minion pushed his way through the crowd so he could see better, but his fish jaw went totally dropped when he realized who had stolen the paintings. With no place to run, Gru had to put both hands up. Feeling deceived, he sent Megamind the angriest glare he had ever made.

Author note: First of all let's give a huge clap to Dr. Who Nut, the amazing beta tester behind this chapter (I wasn't aware of how may mistakes I was committing). And thanks also for all the readers and reviewers, every opinion is important. And remember, grammar is our friend~ 3