All right! I think we're back on track. Going to try the chapter-a-day thing starting now, see how that works out.
Thank you all once again for your awesomeness. ^^ And, once again, I own nothing, please don't sue me.
Chapter 9
Megamind comes to with a splitting headache and his hands tied above his head. He does not groan, although he sort of wants to.
He lifts his head a little and blinks, trying to ignore the pain that comes with moving. Up close, he can see that the casing around the reactor core is made at least partially of what looks like triple-thick glass. Oh that's not good.
He leans against the restraints, keeping his knees loose and turning slowly on his toes. There's a little bit of slack, enough that he can work with, and he risks a glance upward. Manacles with a good length of chain between them, threaded through a large iron ring hanging from the ceiling. Excellent. Megamind is handy with a lockpick, and he always carries one or two up his sleeves out of habit. It's a comfort thing.
Low voices nearby catch his attention and he quickly lowers his head.
"This was not part of the deal," Voice 1 mutters. It's a deep voice and gravelly, the kind that tends to belong to either the slightly congested or the hideously musclebound. "You said nobody would come snooping in this part of town. An' you said we'd go public last week. You said we'd be on easy street by now."
"I know, I know." Anderson sounds irritated. "There were a few problems with the machine. I had to be sure – I mean, it's a touchy process! There's a lot that can go wrong, I told you. But we're up and running now, right? So tomorrow we call a press conference, bring them down here."
"Fine." Voice 1 is reluctant, sullen. Two steps away from being surly. "But what d'we do about him?"
There's a pause, followed by a sigh. Megamind concentrates very hard on looking unconscious. "I don't know. I just don't know. He wasn't supposed to come in until the end. You know, verify my research…I wish he'd fallen off the balcony when you hit him."
This is followed by another, longer pause.
Voice 1 breaks it. "We could just shoot him."
"We could." Anderson sounds like he's actually considering it. Wistful, almost. "Might be easiest. Throw the body in the harbor. No, no," and now he sounds exasperated, "people would miss him. They'd look for him. Start asking questions. And the last thing I want is that reporter nosing around. You know she would."
Megamind holds very still, but starts flexing one of his wrists, trying to move the length of wire tucked against his forearm up to his hand. With any luck, he'll look like he's just coming around and uncomfortable.
"Looks like our guest is awake."
Well, no use pretending anymore. Megamind opens his eyes and fixes Anderson with what he hopes is an arrogant stare. "Your village called," he says. "They want their idiot back. What is that, glass? Why did you make the containment field out of glass?"
Anderson looks at him as if he's gone simple. "So that I could see it."
"You don't have to see it," Megamind cries. "You should have computers monitoring it! The internal pressure, the external oxidation!"
"Glass doesn't oxidize."
"But palladium does." Megamind nearly sobs at him. He cannot abide such blatant stupidity. "Surmayye a'raasac. There are not enough words in the English language to tell you how foolish this is. I give that thing four hours, tops, before it explodes. How long has it been orange like that?"
"A while."
"Oh for crying out loud," Megamind mutters, and rolls his eyes. Aha, he's got the wire in his hand now. Excellent. He sets to work on the lock.
Anderson starts pacing again. His associate, who is twice as wide and half again as tall as the professor – talk about stereotypical henchmen, Megamind thinks – cracks his knuckles. "Look," Anderson says. "I know I've got it right. Maybe it's different from what you've envisioned, but there's more than one way to skin a cat, eh?"
Megamind shrugs, trying not to wince when it pulls on his shoulders. "Sure," he replies. "Sure there's a chance you've figured out another way to do it, but it's infinitely small and exists only because there's always a chance."
Anderson steps forward and grabs him by the chin. Shocked, Megamind freezes, and prays Anderson hasn't heard the soft click. "If chance isn't in my favor, then stick to the facts," the professor hisses, and Megamind was wrong, because Anderson's eyes are blazing with a fire that is more than half insane. "You are my prisoner. And you are at my mercy. And you should not antagonize me, because there is also more than one way to skin an alien and I swear to god I will find out what they are. Those," he snarls, and his fingers tighten enough to bruise a human, enough to make Megamind flinch, "are facts."
"Not exactly," Megamind says, and swings his hands down – only one of his wrists is free; the other is still connected to a chain with a rather heavy weight on the end, and he tries to swing so that he'll hit Anderson with the clanking manacle.
But Anderson is surprisingly quick, and he dances away and then while Megamind is still off-balance lunges forward, managing to land a pretty sharp punch in Megamind's solar plexus. As the alien doubles over, wheezing, Anderson's hand flicks inside his suit jacket and pulls out something horribly businesslike.
There's a sharp noise that makes their ears ring, but it isn't from Anderson's weapon. Anderson leaps back, and Megamind drops to his knees and rolls away, then to his feet.
The gun speaks again, and the cement near Anderson's feet splinters and kicks up in fragments. "Careful," Megamind yells. His mind is racing. Minion? Can't be, Minion will still be sick and he can actually shoot straight. "Don't hit the reactor!"
"Here's a fact for you, Doctor Anderson," a voice calls back, and there's a sound from the catwalk high above the stage. "Your credentials are fake."
Anderson snarls.
"Oh, very articulate," the voice purrs, and Megamind's heart leaps, then sinks. Roxanne. Anderson might not be who he says he is, but his gun is very real indeed, and he looks like he knows how to use it.
Roxanne fires and misses a third time, followed by a quiet, masculine, "Give me that, you have no idea what you're doing," that makes Megamind pause.
Anderson's hench-creature knows what he's doing, though, and he dives for Megamind, who dodges – right into Anderson's waiting arms.
The dark pistol's muzzle is cold under Megamind's chin.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Roxanne swears under her breath as the professor turns in a slow, tight circle, Megamind clutched close against him, the matte black of the gun shining darkly against blue skin. "Akos, can you shoot that thing?" she whispers.
The cabbie is pale. "It's been years," he whispers back, "but I think I can get him."
Roxanne shakes her head. "If you're not sure, don't try it. We can't afford to miss. This is a man who will kill his hostage."
Akos nods, looking slightly ill.
"Show yourself," Anderson snarls. "Whoever's in here – I want you to come out with your hands up!"
Roxanne grabs a flat grey box from the bag she and Akos carried in and unfolds it. It opens into a narrow sheet of metal, less than four feet long and rounded at both ends, with two slots in the middle. Roxanne slips her feet into the slots and then digs in the bag for the black strip of cloth she'd brought. She'd had to cut up one of Megamind's capes, but it was an old one and in Minion's sewing box for repairs anyway. She wraps the cloth around her head like a balaclava; there's no sense in blowing her cover if she doesn't have to.
Feet still firmly attached to the metal strip, she jumps off the catwalk and lands in midair. There's enough metal in the room that the strip can pick up on the natural magnetic fields – something about the compound keeps it from having a positive side, so it isn't attractive to other magnets. It works like a flying snowboard, but it's completely silent.
Below her, Anderson and his henchman are still looking wildly around. Megamind, for some reason, seems completely calm.
"Up here," Roxanne says, and Anderson looks up. Roxanne looks down and grins, forgetting for a moment that he can't see her mouth. "Hi."
"Who the hell are you?" he exclaims, surprise taking over. The gun moves a little, and Megamind's eyes narrow and he plants his feet. "Silver surfer wannabe?"
Roxanne cringes. "Tell me, do you research any of your references?" she demands. "Please. A flying metal snowboard does not a silver surfer make." She looks at Megamind. "Can you believe this guy?"
He doesn't reply. One arm is twisted behind his back, but he brings the other one up lizard-quick, stabbing backwards. At the same time, he tilts his head all the way back and turns it sideways, butting backwards into Anderson's shoulder. It makes his head pound and stars gather at the edges of his vision, but it also makes the human take a step back just as the gun goes off.
It's a near miss, but Megamind springs away without further injury as Anderson lets out a high-pitched scream and staggers back, clutching his face with both hands. His gun goes flying into the first few rows of seats. Roxanne catches sight of some bright piece of metal protruding from between the man's fingers just before she angles her airboard downwards.
Megamind raises his elbow, and Roxanne catches it and pulls him aboard, but it throws the board off balance and he has to jump off before they reach the catwalk. Anderson's henchman moves as if to catch him, but Akos fires twice and the henchman swears and scrambles backwards.
The revolver Akos is using is a .357 S&W, the only normal-looking weapon Roxanne could find in Megamind's arsenal, and there's one shot left.
"You shut down the reactor," Roxanne says brusquely. "I'll take care of Anderson and the muscle."
Megamind nods. "Be ready to get out of here in a hurry if you have to," he warns. "If I say go, go. Don't wait for me."
"Don't be ridiculous," Roxanne snaps, and twits her torso around in a mid-air rendition of a helicopter kick in time to catch the henchman in the mouth with her airboard. He dents the stage when he lands.
Megamind grins and runs for the controls. The switchboard is almost insultingly small.
Bang. The henchman howls and clutches his foot. Roxanne surfs upward, black-and-blue dressing gown fanning out around her. As far as costumes go, she could have done a lot worse. "Give me the gun!" she cries.
"No good," Akos calls back. "That was six shots! Sorry!"
"Give me the gun," Roxanne repeats, and Akos shrugs and tosses it to her. Below, Megamind is typing frantically at the controls, pulling levers and flicking switches and apparently completely unaware that Anderson is sneaking up behind him, blood streaming from one eye socket, face twisted with hate and fury.
Holding the revolver by the barrel, Roxanne angles the airboard at Anderson and buzzes around him on a cushion of magnetic field as she swings the .357 around in a neat arc to connect smartly with his left temple.
He drops like a stone. Unfortunately, the shock of the collision causes Roxanne to overbalance and go tumbling head over heels up one of the aisles. The airboard folds back up as soon as it's jarred loose from her feet, and clatters to a stop some feet away.
Anderson's henchman makes a sound like an enraged bull and charges, but Roxanne knows Megamind, and suspects that he would have no reason to own a 'normal' gun. If she's wrong, she can only hope that Akos will pull through. She lifts herself on one elbow, takes careful aim, and squeezes the trigger.
Bang.
The henchman goes down with a roar of pain, bleeding from his upper thigh. Roxanne springs to her feet and runs to him, kicks a knife out of his belt. Then she has to jump away when he makes a grab for her ankle – and she trips, and falls over the edge of a theater seat with a strangled curse. The henchman sits up and lunges, and he gets her ankle this time, and Roxanne kicks at his head as he drags her towards him. And then, without warning –
FOOM!
The flash of blue light is bright enough to leave Roxanne blinking, half-blinded for a second. The hand around her ankle has gone slack, the big man fallen face down on the faded green carpet. When Roxanne finishes blinking the sunspots from her vision, she sees that there's a large hole with smoking edges in the back of his shirt, and a neat ring of burned, blackened skin underneath.
He's very still, but Roxanne smacks him on the side of the head with the butt of the revolver, just to make sure.
"Nicely done," Megamind says shortly when Roxanne appears at his shoulder.
"You think I need you to protect me?" But her tone is half-joking, and Megamind laughs in spite of himself.
"Yeah, yeah. What should we do about those two?" he asks, jerking his chin in Anderson's direction.
"Could just shoot them," Roxanne says quietly. "Throw their bodies in the harbor."
Megamind glances at her. "You heard all that?"
"Don't you ever scare me like that again."
There's a brief silence while Megamind enters a few codes. "Hah," he says. "Okay, I'm in. This shouldn't take long."
Roxanne looks over at Anderson. She's shaky from the adrenaline, but other than that she feels pretty okay about what just happened. It's not the first time she's faced down a villain, but still, she's a little surprised that she isn't…well, upset. At all. "We could use the lasers and the spikes."
"No, not the lasers and the spikes," Megamind murmurs, grinning. "Look, can you just tie them up or something? I'm kind of busy, here."
"I found rope!" Akos calls, poking his head over the edge of the catwalk. "Lots of rope."
"Throw it down," Roxanne shouts back, and by the time the reactor fizzes dark, she has Anderson and his companion tied. Sirens are wailing outside, coming closer.
Roxanne blinks. "Who called the police?"
"I did," Akos admits, emerging from behind one of the curtains. He is struggling to get his arm out of a silver-and-black bullet-shaped invention, also from Megamind's pile of rejects. The buckles strapping it to his arm seem to have gotten stuck. "And an ambulance."
"That's not how the game is played," Megamind remarks, but he doesn't sound at all upset about it. "Thanks. Here, let me – that one's touchy, you have to pull it like this –" He grasps one of the straps firmly just behind the buckle and pulls hard. The buckle comes off in his hand, and the arm-gun crashes to the floor. "Well," he says after a moment of shocked silence. "Well, that's why I don't use this anymore."
Akos laughs weakly and rubs his arm, and then the doors fly open and he freezes. Megamind turns and raises his voice theatrically. "You're just in time, my good mmm…people!"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Akos moves back into the shadows behind a ragged, dusty curtain, and nearly trips over something. He looks down, picks it up and brushes it off. It's an old mask, a full-face comedy mask, wooden and intricately carved, its tragic partner probably long gone.
But the ribbons are still attached to either side, and Akos quickly fastens them behind his head. The mask is heavy, but it will keep him from being recognized, and that's all he really wants. He didn't ask to get dragged into this; Roxanne had needed someone to drive her because Megamind had taken the invisible car.
When he steps back out from behind the curtain in a cloud of dust and dead moths, Megamind has found a screwdriver somewhere and is busily taking apart the reactor's containment field, explaining to the chief of police what the machine had been intended to do and what it would actually have done. Anderson, still unconscious, is being handcuffed to a gurney. His henchman has already been carried out.
"Wait, so he's not technically a villain," the chief of police says slowly. "Just a severely misguided individual who wanted to help the city?"
"That's my understanding. Ow!" Megamind jumps a little and sticks his fingers in his mouth. "This bit'th thtill hot," he mumbles. He's crouching on top of the glass sphere, screwdriver in one hand and what looks like an oven mitt in the other.
"He's a severely misguided individual with forged credentials and illegal funding." The police chief turns to be confronted by a woman in a black…is it a robe? lined with pale blue. Her head, nose, and mouth are wrapped tightly in black cloth so that only her eyes are visible. She hands him a flash drive and a manila folder. "Here's everything I've managed to uncover about him. There's more, I'm not sure how much, but I can tell you with relative certainty that he has connections to the Chicago mob through his father. His last name isn't Anderson, it's Dreyson. Robert Dreyson, Junior."
The police chief blinks. "This is Sonny Dreyson's kid?"
"I believe so."
He looks down at the envelope, then back up at the masked woman. "Who're you?"
She smiles – he can tell. Her blue eyes wrinkle a bit at the corners and the cloth on her face moves. "Telling you that would rather defeat the purpose of the mask, wouldn't you say?" She looks over at Megamind as he clambers down from the sphere, dusting his hands together.
He turns around and waves both hands towards the ceiling like a ground controller at the airport. "Heave away," he cries, and the small army of brainbots that apparently followed Akos' taxi lifts the glass shells away from the rapidly-cooling reactor core.
Roxanne grins and turns back to the chief of police. "Let's just say I'm a strong proponent of truth."
He laughs and nods, sticks out his hand, and the woman shakes it. She has a firm handshake. He'll remember that.
Then he watches as she turns away and goes over to stand by Megamind. And takes his hand, weaves their fingers together. The ex-supervillain looks down, startled, then back up at her face and says something in an undertone. The woman shrugs, but doesn't look at him.
Interesting.
Shaking his head, he turns around and then nearly leaps out of his skin before he realizes that he's looking at a carved wooden mask. There's a dusty tee shirt underneath it, and khakis. "Hello," he says. "Are you with them?"
The mask nods.
"And I'm from the paper," says a breathless voice. It belongs to a similarly breathless man with a round, shining face and uneven teeth. "Hi, Peter Valdez, Metro Times, glad to meet you, glad to meet you. Did you get the young lady's name?"
The police chief shrugs. "Said she was a 'strong proponent of truth.'"
"Truth, excellent, excellent. And you are?" He rounds on the wooden mask, grabs the wearer's hand and pumps it with enough vigor that the masked man has to use his other hand to hold his disguise in place.
"Uh."
"Come on, man, this is for the paper," Peter-Valdez-Metro-Times stresses. "You gotta give me something to work with! Are you a new hero, too? Were you just in the right place at the right time? Where'd you get that mask?"
The masked man is blinking very rapidly. "Uhm," he says again. His voice is muffled. "I guess I'm a…strong proponent of…of justice?"
"Justice, justice, excellent!"
And before anyone really knows what's happening, Peter has the man in the wooden mask on Megamind's other side and all three heroes turned around with the shell of the reactor in the background, and is snapping photos like mad.
"Thanks, thank you, thank you all so much!" It's like a mantra. Peter-Valdez-Metro-Times scurries away still chanting it.
"What's he going to do?" Megamind sounds worried, and Roxanne grimaces.
"I'll take care of it," she says, and flips open the silver airboard. "Peter's overzealous but basically harmless. I'll talk to him. If you want to make your escape I won't blame you – I can try to get them to look at me, and Akos can show you the back way out." She glances up at him, then quickly away. "Kinda makes you wish you could still use smoke bombs, huh? Oh, speaking of, there's a holowatch chip for you in my camera bag. Swing by the office later to pick it up."
Megamind nods dumbly, and Roxanne jumps into the air. "Nibs!" she shouts, and everyone looks up as the brainbot zooms over. Roxanne circles a bit higher, shoulders squared and head up. "Nice work today! Now stick with me, huh?" She looks down at the crowd, and Megamind can tell that she's meeting people's eyes. "Gotta make sure the news man gets his facts straight," she says loudly, and winks, and there's a laugh.
Presentation. Roxanne is doing it right. And as she soars away over the heads of the people gathered below to scattered applause, Megamind slips around behind the reactor and follows Akos into the shadows.
