"I think that went really, really well," Megamind said as he parked the invisible car back in the garage and disengaged the stealth mode.
Two days had passed since Christmas, and he had taken Roxanne with him on another call– this one to apprehend two escaped convicts from another state who had had the bad luck to run out of funds in Metro City and the bad judgment to attempt armed robbery in Megamind's territory. On the brainbot video feed, the hipster managing The Chrononaut Tavern, a trendy steampunk bar the convicts had targeted, hadn't even sounded concerned as he handed over all the cash in the register.
"Okay, but you're really going to wish you hadn't when the blue guy shows up." he'd warned about five seconds before a swarm of barking cyborgs attacked.
That had been the last Roxanne had heard as she finished suiting up and jumped into the vehicle beside her lover. The Chrononaut was in one of the artistic boho neighborhoods that edged rougher parts of town and was close enough to the Lair that, even taking the invisible car rather than the hoverbikes, Megamind and Roxanne had arrived only ten minutes later. They found the brainbots still playing with their prey, much to the chagrin of the would-be robbers. One had disentangled himself enough to aim his pistol and had had the spectacularly stupid idea to target the hero's girlfriend. Megamind had immediately made good on the tavern owner's threats. The convicts, who were now on their way back to prison, certainly had some new regrets... not to mention a few new bruises.
The manager had at least remembered Megamind's actual name when thanking the hero, though that hadn't kept Roxanne from teasing her lover for the entire short trip home. She'd cheerfully regaled him with her own lyrics to the Ghostbusters theme: "who you gonna call? That blue guy!"
In return, he'd playfully threatened to make her walk home. So she'd waited to sing the final chorus until they reached the Lair.
"That was payback," Roxanne informed him as Megamind hopped out of the car. "I still can't believe you made me disguise myself as a man."
Megamind hurried around opened her door for her. That kind of thing had bothered her at first until she had learned that he performed such gentlemanly gestures as a sign of respect and affection, not because he thought she was a weak, delicate flower.
"Most people are shallow, Roxanne," he informed her, offering his hand. "They like to keep things tucked away in tidy little boxes inside their minds. You looked male, therefore you must have been male. They'll assume it was Minion with me. That way your editor-in-chief won't get his feelings hurt again."
"It was worth it to go with you," she admitted.
"I'm sure."
"And to see the look on that guy's face when you turned his gun into a little blue cube."
"That look never gets old."
"Sir, Sir!" Minion came hurrying to meet them. "Police Chief Simmons called– you really need to remember your cell phone– and there's been a development!"
"What's happened, Minion?"
"Do you remember that address that Ares targeted? Well, the daughter, Olivia, has been kidnapped!"
"WHAT?!"
"A man picked her up from dance class… He showed her birth certificate as proof— Sir, wait!"
Roxanne, hurrying to follow her lover, felt suddenly cold. "Dark brown hair, close-trimmed beard, and glasses?"
"No," Minion answered, mechanical feet thumping alongside her. "Sandy hair, no facial hair, no glasses."
"He was seen with a gun," Megamind called back to them, dashing toward the control room, cloak streaming behind him. "I shot at him. He'll have changed his appearance enough not to match the Wanted bulletins by now. We've got to move fast! With the child no longer in the way, there's nothing to keep Ares from acting! Minion! I want brainbots watching that house and the surrounding area!"
"What about the girl?" asked Roxanne, running to catch up with him. "I thought he doesn't hurt children."
"He doesn't! He didn't! I don't know!" Megamind admitted, frantically searching through scores of hanging notes. "I don't like this. He's breaking his usual routine. If he has no discernible pattern, he's a wild card. He could do anything."
Roxanne and Minion glanced at one another, then Roxanne spoke.
"Or maybe this is exactly what we need."
"What we need?" Megamind gave her an appraising look. "Are you reporter senses tingling, Miss Ritchi?"
"Well, he's kept the same code for years, right?"
"Yes, but..." Megamind paused, then jumped up, grabbed Roxanne's face between his hands, and kissed her. "You are a genius!" he said, dropping back into his seat. "Of course! People don't change their habits for no reason! I've studied every report and cold case bearing his signatures, talked to various contacts in the underworld, and usually, Ares would have just waited for the child to be away from home," he spun his chair to a different keyboard and began typing so quickly his fingers became a blue blur. "If he's changing his behaviors, there must be a reason! The girl is significant, but not the target, so what is she?"
He began pulling up public records and searching them. "It looks like Mr. Johnson and his wife married five years ago, but the daughter, Olivia, is seven, meaning Johnson isn't the…" he opened a new document and stopped dead.
"Oh my God," whispered Roxanne.
It was a birth certificate made out seven years before.
"Olivia Jane Nelson," Megamind slumped back in his chair, staring at the screen. "Ares has a child."
"And you're sure that this isn't all he's here for, to get his daughter back?" Police Chief Simmons asked. He was a dark-skinned man with graying hair at his temples and a build like an aging quarterback.
"After seven years?" Megamind stopped pacing long enough to eye the other man. "The mother used Ares' last name on the birth certificate and the legal name change to Olivia Johnson. I found both in only a few minutes. The same with her step-father's tax records–"
"Yeah, but aren't you some kind of super-genius?"
"So it might have taken him hours rather than minutes; it still wouldn't have taken him years! I'm convinced that Ares could have come after his daughter at any time." He shook his head and resumed walking back and forth. "No, Ares is killer. And he mentioned 'business' in his first letter to me. He's not just here to grab the girl and go." He stopped and rubbed his brow. "But why now? After such a long separation?" He looked from the police chief to Roxie. "Business," he said again, and then used a word that Roxanne had never heard cross his lips outside of the bedroom.
"Wow, Blue," Simmons looked amused. "I didn't know you even knew how to cuss."
"I was raised in a prison. Of course I know how to curse. I just don't. Usually," He grimaced, running a hand over his bald head. "It's ungentlemanly. Shows a distinct lack of vocabulary and imagination," he continued in a distracted tone, eyes fixed blindly on the carpet as he paced. "If Ares is here on business, it means he's getting paid. If he's after Johnson because of his daughter, it means that's not the job. He's got another target, and I need to learn who it is."
"Fuck," Simmons agreed. "It's too much to hope that he's getting paid to go after Johnson… Too big a coincidence… Fate just isn't that kind."
Megamind nodded. "Keep sending me anything on unusual accidents, and let me know if anyone in a powerful position calls dispatch. Ares is the best at what he does; his services don't come cheaply. Anyone he targets is going to be important enough to be worth spending a lot of money on having eliminated."
"Speaking of assassinations, do you think there's a chance Mrs. Johnson's death wasn't an accident?" Roxanne asked.
It was Chief Simmons who answered. "No, I had the records pulled. It was a case of drunk driving. The husband was at the wheel, and he had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit."
"Shamefully irresponsible," said Megamind. "And yet Ares didn't come for his daughter at that time. I keep thinking over everything he told me when I was young, and I can't think of anything that would make age seven significant. I can't recall anything from mythology either. So, why would a man content to let his child live as another man's daughter for years suddenly change his mind? If he wanted his daughter back to begin with, he would have come for her long ago. He didn't. If he had had some sort of life-altering experience, I doubt he would continue behaving like the old Ares. So why?" He stopped pacing and sighed. "Simmons, do you think you could use your connections to find information on Mr. Johnson? A city detective could also interview people close to him a lot more discreetly than I can."
"You smelling a rat, Blue?"
"I don't know. There's something else going on here, a missing piece to this puzzle. If Ares hasn't changed, and the mother is dead, that leaves the step-father as the most likely catalyst. I want anything and everything you can discover concerning Mr. Johnson's background and recent activities. I want to know what's different."
"That seems a little like blaming the victim, doesn't it?" the other man leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
Megamind shook his head again. "It won't necessarily be something negative. It could be– oh, I don't know– plans to move overseas for a new job. If Ares wants to keep his daughter somewhere accessible, so that he can occasionally look in, that might be enough to set him off. Remember, this man is a Sociopath with a strange code of honor; any infraction to his code or insult to his sense of importance gets blown far out of proportion."
"Isn't it also possible he kidnapped his daughter simply because he wanted to? Maybe Ares just decided he wants to be a father," Roxanne said.
"Possible, yes; probable, no. Regardless, we have to hope that isn't his only reason, because if it is we don't have any leads," Megamind answered, moving to the office's window, tapping one finger against the plate glass. "While Ares may not intentionally harm children, I can't imagine he'll ever be nominated for Parent of the Year. Living with an assassin, traveling from one run-down motel to the next, constantly at risk of being used as leverage against her father? That is no life for a child. But once Ares leaves Metrocity, he will become nearly impossible to locate, even for me," he heaved a deep breath. "The man is like a ghost. He's a master at disappearing in plain sight: always just a faceless part of the crowd," he turned back to look at them. "The sooner we find that little girl, the better."