"And there you have it, Metro City! Although last year's champion, Maximilian Ascot Valerius III took the lead early on in the proceedings, competition was rough at the Annual Metro City Dog Show, and in the end, the unlikely challenger Hubert Heffernan Gorman fetched the most votes and won the golden collar. Congratulations to Hubert and to Mr. Robert Gorman, the owner of this top dog. This is Roxanne Ritchi, signing off!"
On the television screen, Miss Ritchi smiles at the camera. Then the picture changes, flipping back to the rerun of the late-night news report in the KCMP studio.
Ensconced in his custom built and specially reinforced armchair beside the couch, Minion clears his throat. Megamind looks over at him inquiringly as he raises the remote and turns the television off—he's already seen this segment; he watched it earlier when he was waiting for Miss Ritchi's report to come on.
"Sir," Minion says, "why are you so worried about this Roxanne Ritchi?"
"I am not worried, Minion," Megamind says, "I am researching!"
He gingerly shifts into a slightly more comfortable position on the couch, taking care not to disturb the brainbot sleeping on his right arm. In spite of all his care, though, the shutter of Zero's eyepiece cracks open and she turns her eyestalk to give him an indignant look. Megamind stops trying to change position, makes a soothing noise, and reaches up to stroke his free hand over her braincase.
"Yes," Minion says, "but—why are we researching her, Sir? Shouldn't we be concentrating on Metro Man? The new evil plot—"
"—is brilliant and almost guaranteed to succeed!" Megamind says, still petting Zero, who makes a pleased sound and settles her eyestalk down again, wriggling even more firmly onto his—by now very numb—right arm.
"But don't you think including Miss Ritchi makes the whole thing much more complicated than it needs to be, Sir?" Minion asks.
"Unnecessary complication," Megamind says, with a dramatic gesture, "is one of the most important aspects of supervillainy!" Zero makes another annoyed noise, and Megamind obediently resumes stroking her braincase. "Besides," he continues, "she said I wasn't scary! On television! Twice! I can't let her get away with that; it could be disastrous!"
"She's just one person, Sir. How much damage to your evil image can one person do?"
"One reporter, Minion," Megamind says. "She's a reporter; you can't forget that."
"Sir," Minion says, sounding unimpressed, "she's an intern. Who they send to run errands and give reports on dog shows that air at three in the morning."
"And look at how interesting she managed to make that seem!"
Megamind pets the glass of Zero's braincase, the electricity inside arcing responsively to the touch. Zero makes a blissful mechanical vibrating noise, the bot equivalent of a purr, and Megamind leans back against the couch cushions.
"Miss Ritchi is a dangerous opponent, Minion," he says, "we can't afford to underestimate her."
Minion rolls his eyes so hard it makes his body waver in a tiny circle in his suit's headpiece, and mutters something that sounds like "paranoia", which Megamind chooses to magnanimously ignore.
Miss Ritchi is in the middle of another one of her errand runs, picking up someone's dry cleaning, when Megamind springs out at her this time, and it's really a much smoother kidnapping all around.
True, he does fumble the can of knockout spray, get kicked in the shins, and take a garment bag to the face—but garment bags prove to be much less effective weapons than scalding hot coffee; the kick on the shin, while admittedly painful, isn't debilitating by any means; and he manages to spray her properly on the third try.
Miss Ritchi breathes in the spray with a gasp, and then her eyes close and her knees buckle, the garment bag dropping from her suddenly limp grasp. For half a moment she sways in place, and then gravity takes over and she starts to fall.
Megamind, who honestly was not expecting to succeed this quickly, makes an alarmed noise, drops the can of knockout spray, scrambles forward—
And catches her perfectly, Miss Ritchi's body falling gracefully into his grasp, in the approved black and white movie heroine manner.
"Yes!" Megamind says, then looks around quickly to make sure no one is watching—good; he was fast enough this time that the street is still deserted.
He is just racking up the points today! He shifts Miss Ritchi's weight to one arm and discreetly fist pumps, then stops the can of knockout spray from rolling away with his foot.
Victory!
Getting the can of knockout spray picked up off the ground without dropping Miss Ritchi proves to be awkward, true, and it's also true that he does have to—briefly—search for the invisible car once again. But since Miss Ritchi is unconscious for this portion of the proceedings, his struggles are nowhere near as embarrassing this time.
Megamind, finished securing the still unconscious Miss Ritchi to the pole on the small, circular, central platform of today's deathtrap, lays her head carefully on the ground, then, still kneeling, turns away to the edge of the platform. He peels off a glove and leans forward and down towards the tank surrounding Miss Ritchi's platform, trails his fingertips in the water, testing the temperature.
Pleasantly warm; that's good. Drowning is threat enough; no need to throw potential burns or hypothermia into the mix. He puts his glove back on and stands, glancing down at the sleeping Miss Ritchi.
She looks much less dangerous like this. More like a garden-variety damsel in distress, rather than the woman who was smacking him vigorously with a clothes hanger not twenty minutes ago.
Miss Ritchi stirs, beginning to wake, and Megamind hops nimbly over the tank around her platform to the larger, O-shaped platform that surrounds it. He moves to the control panel and strikes a suitably sinister pose, half turned away from her, so that the curve of his collar obscures most of his face and casts the rest of it in shadow. From the corners of his eyes, he watches her wake up, and sit up.
"Ah, Miss Ritchi," he says, without turning, "I'm pleased you've once again joined the land of the living—for now, at least."
"Megamind," she says, and her voice doesn't shake at all, not even that slight tremble it had last time.
She stands, the chains on her wrists clinking, and Megamind turns towards her, a slow turn, with a dramatic sweep of his cape.
"New deathtrap," she says, looking around at it. "You've been busy, I see."
"I designed this one myself, too!" Megamind says, quite without meaning to, and then bites his tongue to keep from adding, ridiculously, do you like it.
(it's a deathtrap! that she's in! she's not supposed to like it!)
Miss Ritchi looks at him, a smile playing around the edges of her lips.
"Oh, that's good," she says, "I'd hate to think you were outsourcing my mortal peril."
"Ah-ha! So you recognize, then, that your doom is at hand!" Megamind says.
"Well, it looks like it," Miss Ritchi says, her tone skeptical.
Megamind gives a frustrated growl.
"Very soon," he says, "you will regret your flippancy at my expense, Miss Ritchi."
He begins to pace around the platform. Miss Ritchi, her chains clinking, turns with him as he moves, continuing to face him.
"I," he says, "am a reasonable villain. After your lucky escape from the Swinging Blades of Death, I might have been willing to consider you sufficiently chastised for your original disparaging comments. I might even have been willing to let you go free and unharmed! But then! You had the audacity to mock me once more! So I'm afraid there will be no escape for you this time, Miss Ritchi."
"The Swinging Blades of Death?" Miss Ritchi says, "Is that what you called that Edgar Allen Poe knockoff?"
"It was not a knockoff!" Megamind says, stopping pacing and stamping his foot.
Miss Ritchi grins at him like a crocodile.
"Kiiinda was."
"Taking inspiration from classic sources is not the same thing as just copying them!"
"Mm," Miss Ritchi says in an infuriatingly unconvinced tone, "so which classic source are you 'taking inspiration from' today?"
"I'll have you know," Megamind says, "that the instrument of terror in which you are about to meet your unfortunate end is entirely a product of my own evil genius!"
"Oh? So how does this work, then? You pull the lever and the platform gets lowered into the tank of water? Slowly, I'm guessing."
"Close, Miss Ritchi," Megamind says, "but not exactly. When I pull the lever, the tank will, in fact, rise up, gradually bringing you nearer and nearer to your watery doom!"
"Slowly?"
"Yes, slowly!" Megamind says, frustrated with her evident lack of terror, "Of course slowly! Very, very slowly! Cruelly, mercilessly so! By the time the end at last arrives, you will be out of your mind with the anticipation! Begging for release! You will scream for me, Miss Ritchi, I promise you."
Miss Ritchi, whose eyes have gotten steadily rounder during his evil monologue, makes a choking noise. Megamind looks at her closely, wondering if this is the beginning of a sob—but no, she doesn't look near tears; her lips are slightly parted and her face is flushed.
"Um," she says, then clears her throat, "wow. That's—uh. Don't you think you should at least buy me dinner, first?"
Megamind frowns, confused at the non-sequitur.
"Dinner?" he says. "Like—what, like a last meal?"
Miss Ritchi gives him a strange look, as if he's the one who's not making sense, here.
"Uh," she says, "I—I mean…" She looks away from him, breaking eye contact with a little shake of her head and an even deeper flush on her cheeks. "So—ah—you seem to really have a thing for slow—deaths."
She looks at him again, smiling slightly, and raises her eyebrows, but Megamind can tell that she's not as at ease as she's trying to seem. He doesn't know what's got her so off balance and flustered, but he's willing to take whatever advantage he can get.
Megamind smiles at her, a slow, wicked smile, and, to his delight, her eyes go wide again.
"Revenge, Miss Ritchi," he says, in his darkest and most sinister manner, "is a sweet dish meant to be savored."
She swallows visibly, then licks her lips.
"I—I don't know, seems kind of…unnecessarily complicated to me, Megamind."
"Thank you!" Minion's voice crackling through the console speakers makes them both jump. Miss Ritchi makes a startled noise; Megamind barely bites back a yelp of his own. "I told you, Sir; it's so much more complicated than it needs to be!"
"Minion!" Megamind hisses, face going hot. "You are embarrassing me in front of the hostage!"
"You actually call him Minion?" Miss Ritchi says, sounding amused. "Really? Don't you think you're taking this whole comic book villain schtick a little far?"
"His name is Minion," Megamind says. "And! And it is not a schtick!"
"Your name is really Minion?" Miss Ritchi says, looking at the speaker, ignoring Megamind's last comment.
"Yep!" Minion says cheerfully. "It's nice to meet you, Miss Ritchi!"
Megamind growls beneath his breath.
"Uh—yeah," Miss Ritchi says, grinning and shaking her head. "You, too, Minion. You're Megamind's sidekick, right? With the cybernetic gorilla body? Maybe we can meet next time in person."
"Oh!" Minion says, sounding surprised and pleased. "I—"
"The next time which there is not going to be!" Megamind says loudly. "Since Miss Ritchi will shortly be meeting her terrible fate! Thank you, Minion, yes! Now that we've concluded the ples-an-trees, can we please get back to the evil plot? Is everything in place?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Excellent!" Megamind says. "Radio silence, then."
"You got it, Sir."
"Bye, Minion," Miss Ritchi says, and then smirks when Megamind gives her a dirty look.
"Well!" he says, turning away toward the console with a haughty air, "I think it's time we called Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes and the mindless drones, don't you?"
He doesn't wait for an answer, but straightens his spine and reaches for the broadcast switches—audio first.
Megamind gives an evil laugh, starting off low, and then getting louder. The sound of that, coming from seemingly nowhere, should give his audience a scare. At the climax of his evil laugh, he flips the switch for video broadcast.
"Citizens of Metrocity!" he says, "I have once again captured the foolishly brazen reporter, Roxanne Ritchi! If Metro Man values her life, he will show himself at the Metrocity courthouse and face me!"
He flips the audio broadcast switch again, so that all of Metrocity will be able to see them, but not hear them.
Separating the audio and video broadcast feeds, Megamind thinks with satisfaction, was definitely the right choice. He has much more control this way.
"I think that should do the trick, don't you think?" he says to Miss Ritchi.
(hmm; if he's going to be doing this on a regular basis; he should figure out a better way to broadcast everything—maybe he can install the projection screens permanently around the city— speakers, too. Ooh, and figure out how to take control of all of the television signals within the city limits—)
"He's right, you know," Miss Ritchi says.
"Hmm?" Megamind says, half-lost in thought, planning how best to install the projection screens and speakers. "Who's right about what?"
"Minion is right," Miss Ritchi says. "You do make things unnecessarily complicated."
"I think you mean diabolically intricate!" Megamind says with a dramatic gesture. "Wickedly complex! Heinously—"
"I mean, why would you make the whole water tank come up?" Miss Ritchi asks. "It'd be much easier to just lower me down."
"Oh, but this way is so much more visually dramatic!" Megamind says, waving a hand illustratively at her, "The water slowly creeping upwards, the glass allowing Metro Man and the citizens of Metrocity to clearly see and fully appreciate the dire-ness of your situation!"
(also, this way he and Miss Ritchi will be at eye level with each other the entire time, which seems much more…polite? satisfying? he didn't bring a chair for himself, either, as Miss Ritchi will most likely be standing for the duration of this evil plot, and sitting down himself when she can't also seems…wrong.)
Megamind pushes that thought away—he doesn't need to rationalize the details of his evil plots! He's a supervillain; he's allowed to have strange and inexplicable whims!
"Megamind!"
"Ah, Metro Man," Megamind says, turning and flipping the audio broadcast switch again. "So nice of you to join us! I'm sure Miss Ritchi is especially relieved."
Behind him, Miss Ritchi snorts. An expression of annoyance passes over Metro Man's face and Megamind hides a smile.
"My demands are very simple, Metro Man," he says. "You will leave Metrocity. Or else—" he pulls the lever that makes the tank begin to rise, then gestures at Miss Ritchi, letting Metro Man see what's happening. "—or else I'm afraid this is the end for poor Miss Ritchi. What will it be, Metro Man?"
Metro Man's chest swells as he strikes an even more heroic pose. He opens his mouth to answer, but—
"I like option C," Miss Ritchi says brightly.
Another look of annoyance passes over Metro Man's face; Megamind turns his head to look at her over his shoulder. There's water washing over her shoes, but she's unfazed and smiling.
"Which is Metro Man finds you," she says, "and turns off the deathtrap. Or possibly even option D—you turn off the deathtrap yourself and we just call it a day."
"Oh-ho-ho, my dear Miss Ritchi," Megamind says, "that's very optimistic of you! But I'm afraid there is no option C or D."
"A hero makes his own option C!" Metro Man declares.
Megamind glances back at him.
"Well," he says, "you can certainly try. But are you really sure you should risk Miss Ritchi's safety like that?"
"Don't worry, Miss," Metro Man says, and flashes his most heroic smile, "I'll have you out of there in no time!"
He takes off into the air, disappearing, and Megamind laughs—this is working perfectly! Actually working! Grinning, he turns to face Miss Ritchi.
"I don't know what you're so happy about," she says, arching an eyebrow. "You remember how long it took him to find you last time? Like six seconds. Maybe you should start running."
"I really don't think," Megamind says, "that you're in any position to give people advice on when they should start running, Miss Ritchi. You wouldn't be in this predicament if you had just run when you were supposed to."
"I'm not worried," she says.
"No?" Megamind says. "Still think you're going to be rescued? Taking a bit long this time, isn't it? How long did you say it would take? Six seconds, wasn't it?"
Miss Ritchi tilts her head, frowning. Megamind begins to circle her slowly, walking with deliberate steps around the platform. She turns in a slow circle, following him.
"Let's count, shall we?" he says. "One…two…three…four…five…six."
He stops moving and makes a show of looking around, then turns to face Miss Ritchi again, spreading his hands in mock surprise.
"Well, would you look at that!" he says. "No Metro Man."
Miss Ritchi's eyes glance around, too. Megamind watches her face. She looks back at him, meeting his eyes again, her expression a little disconcerted.
"You really shouldn't provoke supervillains, Miss Ritchi," Megamind says softly, holding her gaze. He pauses, then lets his gaze flick down briefly at the water which is now around Miss Ritchi's ankles. "You find yourself in over your head before you know it."
"You figured out a way to confuse him somehow," Miss Ritchi says.
Megamind smirks.
"Yes, I did," he says.
"What did you do?" she asks.
Megamind allows himself an evil laugh, then clasps his hands behind his back and resumes moving slowly around Miss Ritchi again.
"Do you know how Metro Man found our location during our last interaction, Miss Ritchi?" he asks.
"—super hearing, I'd guess," she says, leaning back against the pole and turning her head to watch him.
"Yes, that's my theory as well," Megamind says. "And it seems that I was correct—even as we speak, Miss Ritchi, Metro Man will be hearing our voices coming from a dozen different directions at once…but only one of these is the correct location; the others, I'm afraid, are empty save for a few fun surprises I've left for our heroic friend to deal with. Which one is the correct one? What do you think the odds of you getting out of this are now, Miss Ritchi?"
He stops in front of her and Miss Ritchi looks at him, her brow wrinkling.
"I mean, it's like an 8% chance he'll pick the right one on the first try," she says, "but the probability of him picking right is gonna rise every time after that, so it really just depends on how long it takes him to go through your traps, and how many times he picks wrong and—no."
Megamind tips his head.
"No?" he says. "No…you admit that Metro Man will be unable to get you out of your current peril?"
She shakes her head, her eyebrows drawing together, not looking away from his face.
"No," she says again, "no; I don't believe you really set it up that way—making twelve different traps for Metro Man and not knowing if he'll even get to all of them; that wouldn't just be overly complicated, it would be—sloppy."
Megamind blinks at her and she makes a sound of understanding, a soft exhalation of breath, almost a laugh, a smile beginning to curve her mouth.
"Stage magic," she says. "This is a shell game, isn't it? No, no, wait, not a shell game—" she grins, wide and gleeful, "—Find the Lady!"
Megamind realizes, a little distantly, that his mouth has fallen open. How—how did she—
Miss Ritchi's smile widens, sharp and oh-so-delighted with herself.
"Which of the three cards on the table is the Queen of Hearts?" she says, "Only of course none of them are, because the dealer's slipped her up his sleeve. None of those places Metro Man hears our voices coming from are right; all twelve are wrong; we're somewhere else entirely!"
Megamind, frozen in place, stares at her, unable to formulate a response, a denial, a—anything, really—
"I'm right, aren't I?" she says, then clicks her tongue mockingly. "And you said you hadn't taken inspiration from anywhere!"
Megamind—Megamind doesn't—how is he supposed to—
"It's too bad you're broadcasting this," Miss Ritchi says sweetly, "because now Metro Man knows your plan."
Megamind flushes hot, his head spinning—god, he'd known she was going to be a formidable opponent, had known she was brilliant, but he still didn't expect—
He pulls himself together, clutching the edge of his cape for reassurance as he draws himself up to his full height.
"Regardless of—regardless!" he says, proud of the fact that there's only a slightly shrill edge to his voice. "Metro Man will still have to go through all thirteen traps before even his super hearing will be able to discern the location of this place! I've soundproofed it to the highest degree possible!"
"So I was right," Miss Ritchi says, looking even more satisfied with herself, a thing Megamind had not previously believed possible, and oh fuck him; she wasn't actually sure before, was she; he could have at least tried to play it off, but instead he just confirmed it for her, for everyone—
Megamind flushes again, swallows convulsively, and tries to snatch at the last sheds of his dignity and self-possession and evil confidence. He realizes how tightly he's holding the edge of his cape, and turns sharply, using his grip on the fabric to make it swirl around his heels. He moves to the console and draws the fingertips of one hand over the edge of the control panel, trying to calm himself.
"It is—such a shame Metro Man didn't think you were worth sacrificing himself for, Miss Ritchi," he says, forcing his voice steady, forcing his tone smooth. "You're really quite clever."
He takes a deep breath and turns to face her, self-confident supervillain smirk firmly in place, the smile of a villain so sure of himself that he can afford to be cordial.
Miss Ritchi is still leaning back against the pole, water around her ankles, looking like a cat that's gotten the canary and framed the dog for the crime.
Megamind mirrors her, leaning back against the console and smiling in his best attempt at villainous insouciance.
"And you had so much to look forward to!" he says, figuring that at this point he might as well continue with his 'I am a sophisticated villain who can afford to be complimentary and who is in no way internally panicking' facade. "Such a promising career ahead of you! Your report on the Metrocity dog show was quite impressive; I would have loved to have seen what you could do with a real story."
Miss Ritchi's expression—changes quite abruptly at that, going suddenly blank.
And then she smiles again, but it's nothing like her smile before; this one's cold and hard, and doesn't reach her eyes.
"You know, Megamind," Miss Ritchi says, eyes glittering, "meeting you really has been such a disappointment."
Megamind recoils as if from a slap.
"You act like you're so brilliant, so original," she says, contempt dripping from the words. "So unique and individual, not like other people at all. You call them all 'mindless drones' like you're something special, like you're different, but really you're just like everybody else."
Megamind stares at her, lost for words. She stares back at him, looking as if the chains on her wrists are the only things preventing her from tearing his throat out with her teeth, and what in god's name is she so angry about?
(just like everybody else?)
Megamind has been insulted countless times, by many people, but no one has ever accused him of that.
"I—I beg your pardon?" he manages to say.
Miss Ritchi glares at him, and then her lips twist into a cruel smile.
"I do hope Metro Man finishes with your pointless traps soon," she says. "This is getting boring."
Megamind takes a sharp breath.
"Boring?" he repeats in a low, dangerous tone, beginning to get angry himself, now. "Well, I'd hate for you to be bored, Miss Ritchi. Perhaps we should cease conversing entirely—I could even turn off the broadcast altogether! Of course, Metro Man won't have any clues to your location, then…but I'm sure he'll find your drowned body eventually."
"Oh, by all means," Miss Ritchi says with needle-sharp politeness, "turn off the broadcast! It'll only make it easier for Metro Man to find us if you do."
She moves towards him, as far as the chain will allow, wading through the water until she's at the edge of her platform.
"Because, you see," she says, "I'm going to keep talking—and once the broadcast is off, there will be nothing to interfere with Metro Man's super hearing but your soundproofing, and I'm confident he'll be able to deal with that. Easily. Just like he deals with everything you try."
"My patience," Megamind snarls, moving towards her with deliberate menace, "is not endless, Miss Ritchi. You should watch your tongue."
He stops at the edge of his own platform, stands there with his fists clenched, waiting for her to back down.
She takes one last step forward, the chain pulling taut, not breaking eye contact with him, the intensity of her gaze cold and burning at the same time.
"You should have gagged me," she says, "if you intended me to die quietly, Megamind."
The tank is between them, the edge of it hip-high. Megamind places his hands on it and leans forward.
"I intend," he says, "for you to die screaming, Miss Ritchi."
Miss Ritchi leans forward, too.
"Then make me," she says.
Megamind's breath hisses through his teeth and Miss Ritchi smiles at him, small and cold.
"Well, barring that happening," she says scathingly, after a moment in which he's too furious to formulate a response, "I suppose we'll have to think of something else to talk about, won't we?" She flashes another of those cold little smiles at him. "What do you say to an interview, Megamind? Seeing as how you admire my reporting skills so much."
She makes the last statement with such sarcastic venom that Megamind leans back, blinking in confusion.
(seeing as how you admire my reporting skills so much)
Why would she say that like—
A memory twists in his mind, one memory out of a hundred others that are almost entirely the same: school, standing by himself at the edge of the playground, and the group of other children who walked towards him I like your sweater one of them said, and then when Megamind said thank you, they all looked at each other and burst into laughter, and Megamind shrank in on himself, shoulders curling inward, fingers curling around the edges of his sleeves and
I don't think I'm any too popular with anyone Miss Ritchi had said, and they were always sending her out for coffee for their dry cleaning for their lunch, and the way that reporter with the perfect hair talked to her on air and
the utter triviality of that dog show assignment they gave her, the fact that they aired it at such an inconvenient time and
Megamind doesn't know why he's so shocked; he knows all too well what happens to people who dare to go against perfect, wonderful Metro Man; knows exactly what it feels like to be set up to fail and then laughed at for it and
just like everyone else, she'd said and—
"Yes," he says.
Miss Ritchi blinks at him, looking caught off guard.
"—yes?" she says.
"Yes," Megamind says, "you may interview me, Miss Ritchi."
Miss Ritchi looks at him, her eyes searching his face, her expression somewhere between lost and wary. Silence stretches between the two of them for a long moment.
"…I thought you didn't give interviews," she says uncertainly.
Her shoulders curl in a little after she says it, like she's expecting him to laugh.
"Oh, I think I can make an exception for you, Miss Ritchi," he says, as airily as he can. "Seeing as how you're about to die. Last request, and all that."
He pauses, giving her a chance to reply, but she's still just staring at him like she's waiting for the punchline, and he can't reassure her; he can't; he's the villain; it isn't allowed, and—
okay; something—something else, then…
Megamind leans forward, his hands on the edge of the glass that separates them.
"I did say I'd like to see what you could do with a real story, Miss Ritchi," he says, then bites his lip and smirks at her, trying for something between provoking and inviting. "Why don't you show me?"
Miss Ritchi takes a sharp breath, color flying to her face, her eyes going wide. Her gaze flicks down to his mouth and then back up to his eyes, like she's trying to read the expression.
She swallows visibly, then lifts her chin.
"All right," she says.
...to be continued.
Notes: Someone asked me how old Megamind and Roxanne are in this—they're pretty young at this point, around nineteen or twenty.
The two dogs mentioned are meant to be echoes of Metro Man and Megamind. Valerius means 'to be strong' and 'Ascot' bears a similarity to Metro Man's civilian surname. Hubert means 'bright mind/heart', Heffernan means 'little demon', and Gorman means 'little blue one'. (I got such a kick out of coming up with those names!)
Also, in regards to the last chapter—did you guys recognize Megamind's first-ever deathtrap for Roxanne from anywhere besides The Pit and the Pendulum? Because…
…it's actually the first of the pretend deathtraps that Syx makes up for Roxanne in All In the Golden Afternoon!
(Another thing I greatly enjoyed including in this!)
Thank you all so much for the get-well wishes for me and the cat! We are both working on getting better—she assisted me in the writing and editing of this chapter by keeping me company, lying on my arm and making me type one-handed, and purring.
(Her name is technically Snooks, but I call her Bunny, Her Majesty, or The Cat.)
And thank you all so much for the reviews on the last chapter; I hope you enjoyed this one, too!