Chapter 4

Back to the present

Minion spoke from the back seat of the car. "Oh my god, sir." Minion looked to Metro Man, who was seated next to him, staring at the back of Megamind's head sadly. His rival had lost everything, then had risked everything to get it all back. He turned to Minion. When the fish looked at him, the two realized that things would never be the same again.

Up front, Megamind watched them in the mirror. He shrugged with no emotion. "Hey, its okay. I got you all back in the end." He finally let a smile spend a cross his face. "So Wayne." The mention of his real name made Metro Man look up to meet green eyes. The ex-villain continued. "Do you think we could hide out at your place until we come up with a plan?"

"Err, yeah, sure, Megamind."

Roxanne looked at Megamind, surprised. What had happened the night before came rushing back to her mind. and she angrily said "All this might never have happened if you hadn't given Hal those powers," she said angrily, leaning back in her seat, crossing her arms and turning away from him.

He smiled at her pouting, then chuckled lightly. "Well, if my memory is still as good as it was when I found the way out of the Lair, then I believe you gave me the idea of making a new hero, and it was your fault for not letting go of the defuser gun."

She turned to him, ready to yell, but stopped as she saw him looking at her smiling, "What?"

Still smiling, he turns back to the road. He had fallen in love with the other Roxanne from the alchemist timeline. Her alchemist name had been 'The Dark Queen'. He had told her the truth about his world and she had told him, if he ever got home, to tell this other Roxanne that he loved her. His smiled changed to a grin.

"My dear dark queen," he whispered.

Taking another couple of turns without looking at her or the others, he spoke softly. "I'm sorry, you know."

Not looking at him, Roxanne smiled and replied, "It's all right. I'm glad all your hard work paid off."

He intended to continue his story, but then he looked down at his automail hand and his eyes suddenly became unfocused.

"I wonder if this is all a dream," he murmured, and his own voice sounded distant in his ears. Without his noticing, the car drifted across the centre line. He looked up at another car coming toward them head-on.

"Megamind!" Roxanne screamed.

"SIR!"

Their yells snapped him back; he swiftly moved the car back to the right side of the road, just missing the other car. He shook his head hard. "Sorry, sorry".

It was only than Roxanne noticed the darker stain on his coat. She touched the dark green material. She felt something wet and brought her hand back into the light. On her fingers she saw a dark blue. Her eyes widened as she realized what it was. Her head snapped around to look at him and she noticed that he was showing a lot more pain than a moment ago. "Are you crazy, driving in your state?"

Wayne and Minion moved forward in the back seat. "Sir!" "Little buddy!"

"It's okay, Minion. I've had worse happen to me over the years." He smiled weakly. "I hadn't fully recovered from my last fight. Damn gate could have healed me but no, it had to drop me off like I was." He rolled his eyes at the look she was giving him; he waved his automail hand at her. "I'll be fine."

"Last fight with -" she started to ask but was cut off by Megamind's sudden hiss of pain. He winced and moved his hand to his side.

"Oh, jeez, she really did hit me good." He gripped the wheel with his flesh hand so hard the knuckles stood out almost white.

Wayne raised an eyebrow. "You were beaten by a woman?" he asked with a hint of teasing to try and lighten the mood.

"Hey, that thing," he looked up at him in the mirror, his eyes dark, "was no woman; it was a demon with an angel's face".

"You can tells us about that later, sir. Right now we need to get you some medical attention." The fish looked at him for a moment, then past him and upward in dismay. The other three followed his gaze.

It was Hal flying above the city; he stopped in the air and just seemed to hover there, scrutinizing the streets below him.

Megamind sighed heavily. "The bastard's scanning for us. Roxanne, could you hold the wheel for a moment?"

She nodded, leaned over and held the wheel. She watched as he clapped his hands together and used his alchemical power to change the look of the car, from the familiar finned and spiked black Hudson to an elderly blue Dodge Dart. Then he switched the invisible mode off and took the wheel from Roxanne, who sat back in her seat but still looked at him.

"I'm not sure if I can drive all the way to your parent's house, Wayne." He turned off the main road. "We'll have to go somewhere a lot closer."

Both Wayne and Roxanne looked out at the passing buildings and recognized where they were headed. Wayne spoke. "Hey, hey, how do you know where my -"

Megamind smirked as best he could. "From the future, remember?"

"Actually, sir," Minion said with a hint of a smile, "you're from another timeline now." The blue man smiled and nodded.

~ M ~ M ~ M ~

The disguised invisible car came to a skidding stop outside the Lil' Gifted School "for lil' gifted kids". Two other cars were parked out front. One was a white Rolls Royce Silver Shadow, the other a government-issue black Ford Focus. Wayne and Roxanne looked at each other, confused.

"What's my dad's car doing here? They're both supposed to be in Europe." Roxanne's colleagues who reported on the doings of local high society often kept better track of Wayne's parents than Wayne did.

"Not sure," she said looking back at the two cars.

Minion turned to look at the licence plate of the black car, his eyes widened. "Why's the Warden's car here?"

Megamind slumped on the wheel weakly. He turned his head and saw the car and he gasped out in shock, "Jonathan's alive!" His eyes closed in pain; he slid off the wheel and fell against Roxanne's shoulder.

"Sir!" Minion rushed to get out the car and open the driver's door; he carefully lifted his friend as the other two got out.

As he stood back up, he turned to look at the city. Some parts of it were starting to smoke; in others, fires were already raging. He heard Wayne say "Hal Stewart needs to be stopped".

The reporter nodded as she stood next to him. "Later. Right now let's help Megamind".

The small group entered the old school building. They followed Wayne into the hidden passageway to the underground tunnel and down the stairs to the large door at the end; Wayne pushed opened the door. Right behind him was Roxanne.

The two were greeted by the sight of Wayne's mother Lady Dora Scott and his father Lord Harry Scott, standing on the far side of the room, and Warden Jonathan Hughes sitting on the single chair in the centre.

"Son!" the couple cried out, almost together.

"I'm back," Wayne called in a small voice, suddenly very much aware that he was wearing a filthy bathrobe.

Roxanne stepped into the room. "Lord and Lady Scott, what are you doing here? Wayne told me that you were off in Italy."

Harry smiled at her. "We heard what happened." He looked at Wayne. "You could have spoken to us, son." His wife came up and stood at his side.

"Sorry. I thought it was a good idea at the time."

"What, faking your death? If you hadn't called that night telling us what you had done, well!" His mother could make that last word into a statement of indignation all on its own.

Roxanne looked to them. "How did you get here with Hal flying around?"

The Warden spoke. "I found them trying to get into the city. They asked if there was any place we could try and wait it out, so the three us came here." At that moment the door pushed farther open and Minion came in, holding a very noticeably injured Megamind. Roxanne closed the door. The Warden stood in a rush. "Megamind," he called as he came forward. Stopping in front of the robotic suit, he looked up at Minion's face. "What happened to him?"

Harry Scott moved back. "What's he doing here?" His wife placed a hand on his shoulder and took a step forwards to her son.

"He just help us escape. He saved us, dad." The two parents looked at their son, a little taken aback by this news, then at Megamind.

Not caring about the others in the room, Minion said to the man who had been the closest thing to a father they had both had on Earth, "We had a fight and I didn't know where Sir had gone, I-"

Jonathan placed a hand on the robotic arm. "Minion, calm down. It'll be okay. How bad is he?"

Minion took that moment to look around the gold and white room. "I'm not sure, sir, we had a fight last night and then today Hal starts blasting the city apart and then Miss Ritchi show up at the Lair. Still not sure why she was there." As he spoke, he moved over to the large white sofa in the middle of the room and lowered Megamind on to it.

Nether Wayne or Roxanne had seen a personal moment like this between the three. Suddenly the underground home felt way too small, so Wayne moved his parents and Roxanne into the kitchen.

"A little under an hour ago," the fish continued, "Hal or, as he started calling himself, Tighten also showed up at the Lair, saying something about teaming up with Sir. When I told him Sir wasn't around, he got mad. Then when he saw Miss Ritchi he got really mad and tried to kill both of us." He remained next to Megamind. "Then Metro Man came flying down and saved us. That was a real shock, seeing him come back from the dead."

"Minion, let me look at him, okay?" The fish nodded in his dome, rose and stood aside to let the older man look at Megamind. Jonathan was no doctor but in the years of growing up with the two aliens he had gotten to know something about the alien who was legally his son. Jonathan gasped at seeing the metal arm emerging from one sleeve of the dark green coat; he looked to the fish in confusion.

"It's okay. Sir's told us what happen to him. I'm sure when he wakes he'll tell you."

The Warden opened the coat and slowly lifted up the black shirt and saw the deep wound on his left side. "Wayne," he called to the 'dead' hero, his voice filled with emotion at seeing Megamind this badly hurt but not about to let it show.

"Yes, Jonathan." Wayne and the Warden were on a first-name basis after years of co-operation in dealing with the city's criminals.

"Get me your first aid kit." Moments later he was being handed a small box. "And we need to use your bed."