Meeting of the Minds
Summary: During the movie Thor, Loki discovers his origins and becomes king pro-tem while Odin falls into the Odinsleep. Heimdall makes an intriguing observation.
Disclaimer: I do not own Thor or Megamind.
Wearing the crown and a green, ermine-lined robe, Loki strode to the Bifröst, intending to check up on Thor in his exile to Midgard. Before he could verbalize his wish, Loki noted Heimdall chuckling at whomever he was observing.
"Fascinating…they accept him as a hero. And he doesn't even have the power of a Frost Giant."
Loki frowned. Odin – his father – told him he was small for a Frost Giant. But he wasn't Thor – Loki would not go off half-cocked without knowing at whom this comment was aimed. He cleared his throat.
Heimdall looked up and smiled. "Sire."
"Who doesn't have the power of a Frost Giant?"
The guardian stepped back thoughtfully, and then nodded knowingly. "On Midgard, there is…" How did one classify what Megamind was? "A foreign character who is exceedingly intelligent and overcame a villain – not by might, but by strategy, trickery, and…magic, or so it might seem."
Loki frowned again, as that description could have described himself. "Interesting. Where is this intriguing character?"
"On Midgard, in the United States, in Michigan, in Metro City."
"Hmm."
"Was there something else, Sire?"
"Not at this time, Heimdall."
Loki decided that Thor would keep. This mystery needed looking into.
Dressed in a black business suit, Loki looked at the statue of a person with an oversized head, but a slight, lithe body, wearing a cape, and holding up what appeared to be a globe. It was an obvious homage to a hero, but this looked nothing like Asgardian heroes, who – like Thor – had far more muscles than brains. Not so, this hero.
Loki walked into the museum behind the statue, curious to see about this hero that Heimdall found so fascinating.
There were pictures of the Thor lookalike, without a trace of red, and lots of white, entitled Metro Man. But the pictures and statues that took pride of place were…
Loki blinked. Twice. Said celebrated hero was BLUE, with clear green eyes, a mischievous smirk, and a rather large forehead. This was a picture of the fellow depicted in the statue outside.
"Heimdall has a droll sense of humor," Loki muttered.
"You look like you're new in town, and this is all news to you." Loki snapped his head to see a bespectacled curator.
"Indeed. I am from out of town. Where could I find this… Megamind? I would like to ask him a few questions."
The curator cocked his head. "Are you a reporter? The lady he is dating has a media exclusive with him."
Loki chuckled. "Hardly. If the fellow could spare the time, I just wanted to ask a few questions, work out a moral dilemma or two of my own. That kind of thing."
The curator manipulated something on his wristwatch, and shifted into the blue form of Megamind, complete with a black cape with spikes on the epaulets. "O-lo. Sounds interesting. Would you like a bite to eat? We can chat back up in my lair."
"Do all out-of-town guests get this special treatment?"
Megamind smirked. "Not at all. Most people want to do the whole 'celebrity thing.' And while I adore that, sometimes a person who just wants to know the real me…it's rare."
"I see. How much did you pay to commission the statue of yourself?"
The blue figure's eyebrows peaked in uncertainty. "I didn't. I was actually rather surprised to see what the people of fair Metrocity had done. Mere weeks before, I was a rather infamous supervillain. The adulation…was a very new and unfamiliar thing to me."
Loki was increasingly amused with Megamind. "Indeed. So…what is the difference between a villain and a supervillain?"
Megamind bowed his head with mock modesty. "Presentation."
"I think we shall get along."
"Minion! We have a guest!"
A metal body that looked like a muscle-bound body-builder, with fur on the shoulders, stepped out, wearing a pink apron that read "Kiss the cook!" The neck and head were replaced by a fishbowl, and a rather alien fish with tendrils on various controls.
"Sure thing, sir! I made the coffee just how you like it… guest who's not Roxanne."
"I'm sure I'll enjoy it as you've made it…Minion."
The fish narrowed his eyes. His very favorite supervillain might be a good guy now, but Minion wasn't too sure about this new guy.
Megamind sat behind a desk, enjoying one of the many doughnuts that Minion had brought. "So…What did you want to ask?"
Minion piped up, "Why don't you ask the guy if he wants to get comfortable, sir? There's something about the way he's looking at you that tells me that this very gentlemanly image isn't his natural guise."
Loki blinked and sat back. "Whatever would make you say such a thing?"
"Look, fella. Sir has no problem changing images to suit his needs. I've seen him when he was longing to not have to lie about how he looks. You had that same look. Kinda like… You were jealous, or something."
Megamind searched his guest with a look, and said, "Minion, that's a great idea. Loki, why don't you make yourself comfortable, then?"
Loki closed his eyes, thought for a moment, and took his Jötun form: blue skin, with swirls and patterns on his face and hands, red eyes, and black hair.
At the gasps of his hosts, Loki smiled. "I had said that I am not local. And apparently, neither are you."
"Okay," Minion quipped. "That was unexpected."
Megamind raised his eyebrows. "That…was impressive. But now, I have just as many questions as you do, I think."
"We can exchange them, as one intellectual to another."
Megamind narrowed his eyes and pounded his fists on the desk. "It's my home. I should make the rules!"
Loki put his hands up in surrender. "Fair enough."
Megamind nodded. "Why don't we exchange questions, as one intellectual to another?"
Loki smirked. "That's a fine idea. Who shall begin?"
Megamind grimaced. "Well…since I invited you to ask questions, it's only right that you get the first question."
The Asgardian tipped his head. "So gracious! So… Where are you from?"
"I'm from a planet in the Glaupunk Quadrant that no longer exists. When I was eight days old, my parents put me in a spacecraft, sending me here. My home planet was sucked into a blackhole, and by sending me here, my parents saved my life. I suppose I'm the only survivor of my planet of origin."
"I'm sorry for your loss," Loki murmured sincerely.
"Thank you."
After a respectful pause, Loki asked, "You claimed you were a former supervillain. What happened, if I may ask?"
"It's a rather long story, but Metrocity is apparently a magnet to alien lifeforms. At about the same instant as my parents jettisoned me and my trusted friend Minion off our planet to safety, another set of parents from a different planet in the Glaupunk Quadrant recognized the danger to their planet from the same blackhole, and they also sent their baby to this lovely planet."
Megamind crossed his hands on his desk, and Minion put a hand on his shoulder. "The boy who would become Metro Man landed in the home of a loving family. My craft landed me in a State Prison. I have no idea how none of the guards nor even the warden managed to figure out that a child didn't belong there, but such is life. Or, at least, my life. To their credit, they did up the walls of my cell with bright colors, and rainbows, and unicorns."
"Friendly of them," Loki murmured.
"Perhaps because I was blue, and I was far smarter than my classmates at s'hool, and that as everyone knew I came from…a place everyone knew was undesirable, I was always found wanting. And, of course Metro Man was always charming. He was handsome, he could fly, he was super strong, he had control of his powers long before I could get my experiments to work with desired results…"
Loki's eyes widened as Megamind talked. "I have no powers, as it were, beyond my incredible mind, and my ability to put my ideas into practice. I can invent things, amazing things. But in s'hool, I was just the one no one wanted to play with and everyone picked on. I couldn't do anything right. Until one day, I discovered that the one thing I was GOOD at was being BAD!"
Megamind took out a gun from his pocket, threw a doughnut in the air, and dehydrated it into a little blue cube, smaller than a joint on Loki's thumb.
"The rest of the story is rather long. But I discovered that Metro Man didn't WANT the adulation forced on him; society decided that he was a hero, but he didn't want to be. Society wanted me to be a criminal, but I chose to be a hero, eventually. And he made me see that destiny isn't the path given to us, but the path we choose for ourselves."
Loki frowned and stared at his coffee on the desk in silence. The silence grew.
At the two-minute mark, Minion quipped, "Unless you have heat beams in your eyes, glaring at your coffee won't make it any hotter."
Loki glared at him. Megamind pushed his buddy's arm. "Minion, shh! What's on your mind, Loki? Will you tell me where you are from?"
"I was born in Jötunheim. It's one of the Nine Realms. There's no time for a whole lesson on the location of the Realms. The pertinent fact is that when I was a babe, Asgard was at war with Jötunheim. Odin, the All-Father, King of Asgard and the Nine Realms, found me in a temple, abandoned by my parents, as I was a runt, 'small for a Frost Giant.' One of my many talents is illusions. And I desired to look something like my savior." Loki changed to his Asgardian appearance. He switched back to blue, out of deference to his host. "Magic is my specialty."
Loki looked up at a poster of Metro Man, and huffed with mirth. "I was raised to be the brother of the crown prince of Asgard, Thor. He looks much like a blond version of your Metro Man. He does indeed have the power to fly. He is incredibly strong, like many Asgardians. But his color scheme is more of reds and golds.
"I was never as strong as Thor, and I was always looked upon as a distant second in everything to Thor. I learned magic, and became very learned in many fields. I have always preferred the subtle and understated, when it comes to weaponry. When your opponent outclasses you in brawn, it makes sense to strategize using your wits, and weapons that fit your hands, that your opponent won't see coming."
Megamind smiled broadly. "I knew I liked you."
Loki smiled back. "I like you, too." He switched back to his Asgardian guise. "When I go home, I still have to contend with prejudicial idiots. But you have given me reason to pause. I am still angry at how I was betrayed and lied to." He closed his eyes. "But there is no reason for me to go on as the villain they think I am. Although I LIKE your style.
"I suppose…I don't have to choose the path that was chosen for me – to be a vicious villain. I could… I don't know what I'll do, yet. But if I act in concert with Thor's good, it will be MY choice.
"And, I suppose, that would create more mischief, as it would throw everyone a curveball that no one expected."
Megamind's eyes twinkled. "Have you settled your moral dilemma?"
"I do believe I have. Carry on with your good work, Megamind."
"And I wish you all the best, Loki."