Megamind was mildly surprised to find that the mayor's office door was already unlocked—the man must be even more careless than Megamind had previously assumed.
The handle turned easily in his hand; Megamind opened the door, stepped inside, and closed the door quietly behind himself. Then he quickly turned off the disguise watch.
Megamind really did need to do some work on this prototype; by the time he'd made it to the mayor's office, the watch had gone worryingly hot on his wrist. He'd have to the let the mechanism cool before turning it on again; he was afraid the holographic projection might overheat and fail without warning if he didn't.
Shaking his wrist lightly to cool it, Megamind began to move to the desk at the far end of the room.
And then he stopped.
The room was empty; the light coming through the big windows behind the mayor's desk gave him more than enough illumination to see that.
And yet—
There was something—some kind of—feeling in the air that gave him the sense that someone had either been in this room recently, or—was still in the room.
He slipped his hand in his pocket for the butterfly knife, pulled it out, and gave a quick, fluid twist of his wrist—flick flick flick—opening the knife, flipping the blade out.
Possibly he was simply being paranoid, but he'd much rather be paranoid with a knife in his hand.
If someone was here, they were beneath the desk; it was the only hiding place. With even, apparently casual steps, Megamind approached the desk.
No sound or movement from beneath the desk. He drew nearer to it, near enough to touch the edge of it.
Nothing—and yet he was more sure than ever that someone was here.
He paused before the desk.
Interesting that they didn't attack. But then, they couldn't see through the desk; they couldn't be certain it was him…
They'd be expecting him to walk around the desk. Megamind's lips curved into a sharp smile. Well, he'd just have to surprise them, then.
In one quick motion, planted his free hand on the desktop and vaulted over the desk entirely to land in a crouch on the other side, knife at the ready—
It had been unwise, Roxanne knew, to listen to the recording while still in the mayor's office. But she'd needed to make sure that it was the right one, and then it had just been so fascinating that she'd rather lost track of how long she'd been listening to it.
Proof on all of you, the mayor had said, and he when he said all, he really meant all. Recordings of half the city council, Judge Sludd, the chief of police, and a good number of Metro City's leading citizens—Wayne's father among them; Roxanne had never liked that man—they were all on this little recording. The evidence was absolutely damning—bribery, embezzlement, corruption of all kinds.
"I'm afraid," the mayor's voice had sounded nervous, "I'm afraid that the, ah, the charity hospital won't—er—be able to open quite on schedule."
"Really."
Roxanne had actually jumped. Megamind's voice was instantly recognizable, although she'd never heard him sound quite so—dangerous, before. The way that single word had been spoken was honestly more chilling than any evil monologue he'd ever given.
"Well! You—you know! Unexpected costs—difficulty with the plans—problems with the contractors—may have to postpone indefinitely—"
"Exactly how much of the money," Megamind's voice sounded even more dangerous, now, "have you and the rest of the planning committee stolen?"
She'd had the volume on the lowest setting, her ear pressed to the speaker, so it had almost been as if Megamind was whispering in her ear as he went on.
"Half of it?" he asked. "All of it?"
"N-not—not stolen," the mayor had said feebly. "Unexpected costs—"
"Don't try to lie to me any more," Megamind had said. "It's a terrible waste of my time."
"—half. Half of it."
"I see. Well, I do hope you and your friends had fun with it, because you're not going to be having any more fun for quite some time. I will cover the missing money, the charity hospital will go ahead as planned, on schedule, and with no more 'unexpected costs', and you and your friends will all owe me, along with the money, several extremely large favors. I expect—"
The sound of footsteps in the hallway. Roxanne jerked upright, yanking the flash drive from the computer and quickly switching off the monitor—shit shit shit—
Maybe they were just walking past; maybe whoever it was wouldn't—
The footsteps came to a stop.
In front of the door.
Roxanne had just enough time to fumble with her clutch, hide the flash drive, and duck beneath the desk; as soon as she was hidden, she heard the door open—
—and close again.
Okay. Okay, it might just be security, doing a check; surely they wouldn't search the entire room…
A series of three soft, unidentifiable metallic noises—snick snick snick—and then—
Footsteps approaching the desk.
Oh, she was fucked; she was so fucked—
No! Roxanne's mind raced. Megamind! This could all be Megamind's fault! Poor, helpless Miss Ritchi, who had been captured by Megamind and knocked unconscious and hidden beneath this desk, yes, and then Megamind had disappeared and—
It was at this point that the person on the other side of the desk vaulted over it like a fucking madman and landed in a crouch in front of her, a knife in their hand.
Roxanne gave a stifled exclamation of shock and jerked backwards against the wall of the desk and—
A number of things happened in very quick succession.
one, she realized that the person crouching in front of her with a knife was actually goddamn Megamind, what the fuck
two, she saw an expression of almost comical bewilderment flash across Megamind's face as he recognized her as well, and
three, there was another burst of sound from the hall outside the door, voices and laughter, which very promptly resulted in
four, Roxanne panicking and
five, Roxanne reaching out, grabbing Megamind, and dragging him beneath the desk with her.
...to be continued.
notes:
Happy Day 12 of my Birthday Fic Month! since today is my ACTUAL BIRTHDAY, I posted two things; the established relationship ficlet Always and this update to Lipstick! I hope you enjoyed!
AAAAAHHHH IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! :DD I'M SO EXCITED!