Many, many thanks to joanello, Elf Kid2.0, and other fellow fans for their sympathy and moral support during a terrible writing drought, when it seemed like I would never, never, ever get my stuff together in order to ever post anything ever again...but I have, and I did, and I can't thank them enough. :)

Joanhello continues to be a brilliant treasure trove of information, and she gave me the idea for the sniffer-bots (brainbots are the ultimate multi-tools), and also the idea for Megamind to look up companies that owe goods to Metro City retailers, grocery stores, etc., not to mention fuel that was supposed to be delivered to the power plant! If they're already bought and paid for, and are still languishing in warehouses or trains outside the quarantine, he can just go get 'em.


Megamind's steps rang loud in the silence as he stepped over the threshold.

The crowd backed away, leaving the culprits frozen at the center of a widening ring, while brainbots floated closer to attend, waiting for his command.

He glanced down at his clothing. His boots and tunic were edged with new streaks, thanks to the recent hospital run. The dead didn't bleed, but they made a mess when destroyed. Brain fluid and the like. Avoiding it was impossible.

Megamind paced a few deliberate steps across the floor, then stopped and, clasping his hands behind his back, faced them all. "All right, who wants to start?"

Jessica announced, "I tripped!"

All eyes turned to her in surprise. Megamind arched an eyebrow. O-o-okay. Interesting. He wouldn't have expected the injured party to make such a statement.

He glanced at Noelle, presumably the assailant. She looked as surprised as everyone else.

Hank glanced at his wife Noelle, then back at Jessica. "But...she...you... tripped?"

Jessica gave him a hard look. "I tripped," she said through clenched teeth.

Bernard's eyes darted over to his friend Noelle, a warning look. "Yeah, that's right. Tripped."

Megamind pursed his lips. "That true, Noelle?"

Noelle tore her astonished gaze from Jessica to look at him. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She shut her mouth again and set her lips in a thin line.

He waited expectantly, but Noelle glared at the floor in stubborn silence.

"Oh, come now," Megamind said. "I think the next line would be obvious. 'Yes, Overlord, that's exactly what happened!' or words to that effect. Honestly, it's not rocket science." He smiled ee-villy, rocking up onto the balls of his feet.

Worried faces stared back at him.

He sighed heavily. Who could blame them?

"And everyone came running over to help. Splendid!" Megamind said.

He paused. There was a sullen, anxious air exuded by the watching crowd, as well as an odd, barely audible grumble. People were listening. No one particularly wanted to see a woman get dragged off to the alligators, and yet there was a sense that something had to happen.

I can't believe I miss Metro Man, that lousy bastard. The good old days when I would do something bad and he would come after me. Who's going to take me to task now?

There was no one to keep him in line anymore, not really. No one except himself.

Damn it. He was going to have to do the responsible thing. It just wouldn't be any fun, dragging some hapless soul off to the alligators.

He said, "I really hate to do this, but..."

"Oh, no!" Jessica cried. She held up her hands. "Don't do it! It was all my fault. Don't kill her! Noelle, I am so, so sorry. It'll never happen again, I mean it. I know you don't believe me, but we're through."

Hank's jaw dropped. "What? But. Jessica."

She shook her head. "It's over, Hank." She turned to walk away, hugging her arms.

"Not so fast," Megamind said. "I didn't give you permission to leave."

She froze, eyes wide and startled. All eyes swiveled back to him. Oh, there's more drama, let's see what happens next.

The public fizzling of Hank's illicit affair was juicy stuff, but he needed to make the announcement.

"I'm altering the death penalty," Megamind said. "It'll be as needed only, not an automatic death sentence, depending on the severity of the crime and what kind of mood I'm in. Hank, you've performed admirable work as a police officer under very trying circumstances, but you're going to have to find someplace else to live. Get out."

Hank blinked. This wasn't something he'd expected. "What? That's not fair. What did I do?"

"You really want to go there? It'd be less inflammatory all around if you found living quarters away from your..." Megamind made a circling motion with his hand. "...complicated social life. There are plenty of empty buildings in the safe zone, I'm sure you'll find another berth. Now get out before I have the brainbots drag you out."

Hank drew himself up as if he would argue more, then his shoulders slumped and he shuffled away.

Megamind had a quiet word with Noelle. "One moment." He stood at a ninety degree angle to defuse the situation and stared at a spot on the wall. "You perform a valuable service with photographing the dead, but I have to warn you. If Jessica has any more 'accidents,' I won't hesitate to throw you in a cell. It will be extremely boring."

Noelle made a feeble protest. "But I didn't..."

He turned his head to look her in the eye. "Understand?"

"Yes, sir," she muttered.

The pastor fell into step as Megamind stalked away. "Very glad to hear that, Overlord," he said, beaming. "But it's a shame. Hank surely must shoulder some of the responsibility."

"That's why I kicked him out. What else do you want me to do, padre?" Megamind said wearily. "Stone him for adultery?"

"Well, no, certainly not. Policing the morals of a community...well, it's hardly... it's uh, um..."

"Precisely 'uh um.' Have you gotten the task force ready, Minion?" Minion had approached while they were talking.

"Yes, Sir, I think I've found the likely candidates. Sneaky bastards, Sir, just like you wanted." Minion chewed his lip. "Sir, you really think this is a good idea?"

"Food is our biggest weak point, Minion. We have to establish a supply line. The army will provide, whether they like it or not. In addition, I plan to collect food already owed to food wholesalers. Bought and paid for, but never delivered. If they haven't been resold or shipped back, they'll still be at the distribution center in Chicago."

The military routinely misplaced millions of dollars' worth of equipment, weapons, and supplies every year, 'misplaced' being the common term for goods that some clever soldier or officer somewhere along the line had found a buyer for. Megamind planned on tapping into this enterprise.

He chewed the inside of his cheek. He hadn't gotten around to notifying Roxanne of his intentions. He ran his gaze around the refugees moving about the open floor of the Lair, but didn't see her. She must still be filming the reclaiming of the police station from the zombies. Well, he would tell her the next time he saw her and hope she didn't try to talk him out of it.

Minion wouldn't like what he had planned, either, but his mind was made up. It wasn't the mission so much as the fact that he was leaving Minion behind.

He'd almost lost both Minion and Roxanne in one day and the thought of taking Minion along on a potentially dangerous mission was making his stomach tie itself into knots. While Minion might well run into danger here within the city-the sniper was proof of that- Megamind also wanted him to look after the citizens. And look after Roxanne, though he was certain she would bristle at the notion that she needed looking after.

Once he got past the jamming towers he would hack into the internet and find out which companies owed goods to Metrocity's businesses, and then he would simply go collect them. Food. Pharmaceuticals. Definitely a MASH unit, and the army could just damn well order themselves another. Fuel for the power plant and its substations, to get the city's lights back on, though he planned to make Metrocity independent of outside fuel as soon as he could get the...

He closed his eyes briefly, the enormity of the tasks ahead of him flooding him with weariness.

Minion took his elbow. "Right this way, Sir."

Megamind allowed Minion to steer him toward his room.

"That's it, Sir, just a little further," Minion crooned. "A nice little rest."

"A temporary rest, before the midnight excursion," he corrected, giving Minion what he hoped was a sharp look.

There was a slight pause. "Yeah. Uh, right. Before the excursion."

Megamind huffed out a breath. "Do not let me sleep through the deadline."

"All right, all right."

"Because I wasn't kidding about eating rats within a week. With so many more refugees coming, it's even more crucial we get a pipeline established."

When they got to the room, Megamind looked at the bed, eyed his spattered uniform, and settled himself carefully on the chair. He watched dully as Minion knelt to take off his boots. Words of protest that he could do it himself were on the tip of his tongue but seemed unable to come out of his mouth, especially when the first boot came off. A groan of relief escaped from him despite his effort to hold it back. A good four hours of sleep. It wasn't enough but it would do for the time being. Once past the barricade, he and his task force could find a safe place to set up a hideout, and he could rest a little more until dawn.

Minion divested him of belt and gun holster, and swiftly stripped off his stinking outer layer to stuff it into a laundry bag, leaving him in his long-sleeved black undergarments. Megamind was settling back into the mattress when Rupert cautiously stuck his head inside the partially open door.

He nodded at Megamind. "Hey, Overlord, sir." Then he addressed Minion. "Almost got the guys ready, Minion."

"Thanks, Rupert."

Megamind blinked. "For what?"

Minion shut the closet. "Little excursion, Sir. Routine. Won't take long."

Megamind nodded and lay back, draping his arm over his eyes. "All right. Whatever it is, I'm sure you can handle it."

"That's right, Sir, you just rest now."

"Yeah, boss, we can handle it," Rupert piped up. "Besides, Destruction Worker's long gone."

Megamind's eyes snapped open and he sat up. "What?!"

Minion shot a furious, bare-toothed scowl at Rupert, who cringed, before the henchfish gave Megamind an abashed look. "Destruction Worker seems to have robbed a bank, Sir. Some new refugees reported it. There might've been some injuries. 'Cause people were living there..."

He huffed out an aggravated sigh as Megamind threw back the covers and sat up. "Sir, we can handle it, you don't...

"Prepare the hovercraft, Minion," he said, pushing past Minion to reach the closet.


Megamind studied the gaping hole where a wall used to be. The cops and henchmen had set up an energy fence around the bank to keep back any zombies that might wander in to complicate the situation, while Dr. Plant, Julie and other medics attended to the wounded.

A child wailed without ceasing. Megamind tried to shut out the sound. There wasn't much help he could offer, Dr. Plant had her own de-gun in any case, to dehydrate those they were unable to provide proper care for.

He ground his teeth. He no longer felt tired, exactly, but he walked within a fuzzy cloud that slowed time down, in which, when he spoke, there was a couple of seconds of lag time for words formed in his brain to reach his mouth, and again for words that others spoke to make sense.

But the anger was there, burning steady. Why now? What was Destruction Worker's game? With any luck the sorry son of a bitch would try to crash the barricade and the soldiers would kill him. Save Megamind the trouble.

Minion said, "Destruction Worker wasn't here too long ago. Two people inside were killed. A bunch of people were living in there. He and his thugs busted in through the lobby and blew open the safe. He wasn't too careful about keeping anyone a safe distance away."

Megamind stood aside as two firefighters carried a woman out on a stretcher. "So he stole the money and took off."

The newly-created sniffer brainbots returned with mournful bowgs. They'd been unable to pick up Destruction Worker's trail. Megamind wasn't surprised, as he'd never sent them on such a mission before and the tech was so new.

He eyed an exposed beam. The damaged wall groaned and a small shower of plaster fell, making him, Minion, and the henchman Rupert step back. "Let's get these people back to the safe zone," Megamind said. "Any more?"

"There's a lady upstairs." A cop pointed to the upper level. "Says she won't go."

Megamind clucked his tongue. "She can't stay here." He set his de-gun to dehydrate and headed for the stairs. "The structural integrity of the building's compromised. And zombies could waltz in through that hole in the wall easily."

He went to the closed office door, behind which voices were raised. One of the voices sounded like it was trying very hard to be reasonable, while the other voice was anything but.

The unreasonable voice became a shout. "I'm not going anywhere with him!"

Megamind stopped dead in his tracks.

He would have gladly confronted a thousand zombies with nothing but a wooden ruler at that moment rather than go into that room.

Just when I got rid of Doris Haggerty, he thought in defeat. The universe sees fit to deliver me another old woman who hates my guts.

He felt vaguely guilty for thinking it, as the mother of his beloved Roxanne was, he thought, only about fifty-five or so, and indeed had many justifiable reasons for hating Megamind. Couldn't blame her, he'd behaved quite evilly, now here were the consequences.

She was alive, that was the important thing, and Roxanne's father might be behind that door as well.

Rupert, who'd been practically stepping on Megamind's heels in his attempt to avoid Minion's wrath as long as possible, asked, "What's the matter, boss?"

Megamind rubbed his hands into his eyes. "This is...happy news. Very happy."

"You don't look happy, boss."

"I mean to say, it's a very happy circumstance for Miss Ritchi. I believe that's her missing mother."

"Oh, yeah?" Rupert's forehead wrinkled. "Oh." His eyes widened and his mouth fell open as the thought hit. "Ohhh!" His face contorted into a sympathetic grimace. "And you're worried 'cause of all them kidnappings. She might be kinda mad at you, boss. Especially now yer shacking up with her daughter."

"Thank you, Rupert," Megamind said. "That was a very succinct analysis."

Megamind debated with himself about dehydrating the woman anyway, then he blew out a breath through his lips. Might as well get it over with. He holstered the de-gun and trudged to the door, rapping on it with his knuckles.

A middle-aged woman, unknown to him, opened it and gasped.

Elaine Ritchi, Roxanne's mother, stood on the other side of a desk. Her nostrils flared, her jaw stuck out, and then she turned her back on him.

There was a portly balding man there as well, eyes big at the sight of the Overlord, but he wasn't Roxanne's father. Megamind last saw Roxanne's parents about...what was it, two years ago? When he swooped in and kidnapped Roxanne at a family get-together of some sort in the backyard of her parents' house.

"May I come in?" he asked.

The woman standing petrified shook herself, glanced at the man, then at Elaine Ritchi, then back at Megamind. She stepped back.

Megamind's boots were noiseless on the carpet. He tried out a couple of opening remarks in his head, but nothing seemed quite right, not against the formidable wall of Mrs. Ritchi's angry back.

There was only one thing he could say, really. "Mrs. Ritchi, Roxanne is alive."

Mrs. Ritchi's head snapped around to shoot him a shocked look, before the rest of her followed. For a second he thought she was going to throw the desk lamp at him. "How can you be so cruel?" she said, her voice breaking.

"Mrs. Ritchi, I have no reason to lie. Please, allow me to take you to her." He held his hand out toward the open door in a gesture of invitation, but as she continued to scowl, unbudged, he let his arm drop. Too exhausted to make any further effort, he left the room.

Out of the corner of his eye, Mrs. Ritchi came out to follow him.

As he made his way to the hovercraft with Mrs. Ritchi's eyes boring holes into the back of his head, he decided that now was not the time to inform her of her daughter's new relationship status.


Iron Eagle leaned toward the screen. "No one else knows of this?" Unable to visit Metro City in person, this videochat was the next best thing.

"No," Stratego said, shaking his head.

"But we have no idea where Megamind is holding them."

"As suspended-animation cubes, Megamind could hide them away in an almost infinite number of places."

"But he doesn't know their true identities, or their...role in the crisis." Iron Eagle heaved a sigh. "Thank God for small favors."

"I suggest we start negotiations for..."

"No!"

Stratego blinked and leaned back in his chair. "It's the simplest way. He's already offered to trade them for essential supplies."

"We can't bargain with a villain. No deals."

"But surely that's..."

"If he finds out who he has in his evil clutches, do you really think he'll let them go?"

Stratego huffed out a breath. "He's in dire straits, as much as anyone else trapped in the city. His resources are the most extensive, by far, but he can't hold out forever. Satellite photos show an increasing movement of citizens toward his territory, and with that many people flocking to him for help, he's going to need..."

"Oh, come off it, Stratego, we both know he's not really trapped. Getting past the military blockade would be a cakewalk for him. What's his game? Why is he staying? Clearly he values power above all else, to lord it over a desperate citizenry. He's surrounded himself with human shields to forestall any attempt to use military force against him." Iron Eagle snorted and shook his head. "Gotta give him credit."

Stratego, despite long years of cynicism and serving as a security consultant for various heroes, military groups, and governments, was momentarily speechless.

Iron Eagle snorted again at his expression. "I can't believe that never occurred to you, Stratego."

"It never occurred to me that attacking an American city was actually one of the options," Stratego said, voice growing sharp.

Iron Eagle had the grace to look uncomfortable. "I only meant to confine our main attack to his territory."

"Have you brought it up with the League?"

Iron Eagle flapped an impatient hand. "Are you kidding? We'd have to call an official meeting, and that means Metro Man. Besides, the League probably would spend the next fifty years arguing about whether to use the military anyway. I want to keep this on the down-low. You know?"

There was a brief silence. Iron Eagle narrowed his eyes. "You owe me, Stratego."

Stratego heaved a sigh. "All right, all right. No League. But Powerhouse and Silver Knight know."

Iron Eagle worked his jaw. "Silver Knight could be a problem. What about your sidekick?"

"Rook's always been a team player, don't worry about him."

"Send in a task force to scout his terrain and infiltrate the Lair if possible," Iron Eagle said.

"What about the virus?" It would be hard to find volunteers willing to risk infection. And besides that, Stratego wasn't too thrilled about the possibility of a task force carrying the virus out with them.

"Might very well be too late," Iron Eagle said. "This sleeper version..."

Stratego smacked his hand on the table, and Iron Eagle fell silent. Stratego took a few deep breaths. "So there is another type. How many are there?"

"Only the two."

"And you're sure about that? Really sure?" Stratego got up, almost knocking the chair over. "Darn it, Eagle, what the heck was your father thinking? It wasn't meant to be used this way!"

"Get a hold of yourself!" Iron Eagle was standing, too, his hands gripping the screen as if he wanted to take hold of Stratego and shake some sense into him.

Stratego paced back and forth. This situation threatened to turn into an outright debacle, with too many variables at play, and he wasn't sure how long they'd be able to hold on to the unraveling threads.

Iron Eagle's eyes pierced him. "Are you still a team player, Stratego? Are you?"

Stratego wiped his hand over his mouth and came to a halt in front of the monitor. "Yeah. Of course I am. I just..."

"Good. Then see about that task force." Iron Eagle signed off.


A reader on th fanfic site gave me the idea for naming the two strains of zombie virus: the Three-Day strain which kills outright and is currently adequately contained in a few pockets on the east coast of the United States, and the Sleeper strain which lies dormant until activated by the host dying from another cause. The Sleeper strain is the one currently causing havoc in the quarantined cities of Metro City, Louisville, and Bloomington, Indiana. (I'm currently trying to find their name in the comments so I can credit them properly!)