Hi everybody! Hope you had a good Christmas. I spent mine being violently ill. It sucked. Hope yours was better.
Anyway, this chapter was a BLAST because I got to write Megamind as a smart-ass teen and it was TONS of fun. Quick, on to the snark!
Title : Fathers and Sons, Chapter 7
Author : Dani Kin
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13
Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. Here the warden experiences the trials and tribulations of having a teenager – particularly the challenges posed by an alien genius tip-toeing into a life of crime
Beta: Sharelle. Word.
Special Creative Consultant : Dal Niente
Author's Note: I suck at coming up with my own shadowy government agency, so I'm borrowing Joss Whdeon's
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The warden saw him out of the corner of his eye as soon he walked in. The blue teen was sitting in a holding cell within the precinct, far from all the other suspects in lock up, many of whom were staring at him.
Inside he gave little sigh of relief, but he was careful not to let it show. At least the boy hadn't been sent to central booking. That meant there was still a chance to take some control of this situation.
He did not stop or even let the boy know he was there, instead heading straight for Captain Roy Alber's office. In his hand he held an envelope full of papers that he was hoping not to need.
"Hello, Roy," the warden greeted the man behind the desk, interrupting some kind of business with a pair of plainclothes detectives. The captain nodded at them and they walked out, leaving the two men alone.
"Hello, Jim. How's life in prison management treating you?" the man asked coolly.
"Oh you know, the same old same old." The warden shrugged and tried to put out casual vibe though there was nothing casual about his reason for being here. The other man regarded him for a moment then got straight down to business.
"James, I called you as a courtesy. Word is you've taken responsibility for this…. particular charge. But he was arrested attempting to break into an aerospace engineering firm." The captain flipped through some papers on his desk. "Any idea why he would want to break into…. Laddistch International?" He crossed his arms and stared at the warden.
The warden had to admit, something about that name sounded vaguely familiar, but not familiar enough that he had a single clue what it was.
"Absolutely nothing, Roy." He sighed. "Any way we can talk this down from B&E to Criminal Trespassing?"
The captain shrugged. "I think the prosecutor's willing to cut a deal on a first-time juvenile offender, especially since he didn't actually take anything and didn't seem to make it farther than the lobby. That is, as long as his legal guardian is willing to assume court-mandated supervision and community service."
The warden nodded to himself. At least that was good news. The other man continued.
"DA's office will contact you with further details, but they'll need you both back in court in front of Judge Osborn on the 14th," Albers advised.
Osborn? Crap. He would need to help the boy prep a statement and lose that chip on his shoulder before court, or she would rip him a new one. But it was a good deal and he planned to make the boy take it.
"Thank you, Roy. I appreciate it." The warden turned to leave the office.
"So what's wrong with him?" the policeman asked before he made it to the door.
"What do you mean?" he replied, unsure what the other man was asking.
"Well, he clearly suffers from some kind of deformity," Albers scoffed.
The warden could feel his nostrils flare as he blinked. "Excuse me?"
"The detectives have a pool going. Odds are currently running two to one in favor of birth defect but we also have some takers for science experiment gone horribly wrong. Even got one man who swears up and down he's an alien," the other man said with a chuckle.
The warden clenched his hand into a fist and bit down on his anger. He let the other man's laughter fade into a tense silence.
"I need to take him home now," the warden replied frostily and strode out of the office before he said something he would regret.
Blue didn't see the warden approaching the cell, but the warden knew the look the teen was wearing well. It was a 'don't fuck with me look' that the boy must have learned from some of the more hardened prisoners. He was clearly using it to scare the others in the holding cell away from him, or even keep them from looking at him too long.
The warden gestured to a detective standing by the cell. "Open up." The force and authority in his voice made the woman move quickly towards her task.
That was when Blue looked up and saw him. The face he was making quickly shifted from angry defiance to 'oh shit'.
"Get up. We're leaving," he said, angry and harsh. The boy quickly obeyed and followed him down the hall and to the elevators in silence. Well, the two of them were silent.
The warden could hear the gasps and see the wide eyes from officers and civilians alike, gaping at the gawky blue-skinned teen. He walked angrily onto the elevator and pressed the button for the garage. Everyone in the elevator was staring at the boy and he wanted to slap them senseless.
It didn't help that the angry look was back on the boy's face.
They got off the elevator and the boy silently followed him to his car. The warden tucked the envelope safely into the door pocket as the boy went around to the passenger side. Once they were safely inside, the warden exploded.
"What the hell were you thinking? Breaking into a research lab?"
The boy looked at him defiantly but didn't say anything.
"Is this what you're going to do with your life? Burglary and corporate espionage?"
"I wasn't going to actually steal anything. I just wanted to send myself some files," the boy replied haughtily.
"Great. Hacking. If you would have actually gotten far enough to do that, then we would be dealing with the Feds. I can't just walk you out of a federal penitentiary!"
"Whatever." Blue rolled his eyes and looked out the window.
"Don't you 'whatever' me, young man! I just got called in to pick you up from a goddamn police station." The warden was yelling now and gesturing wildly as he yelled at the boy.
"You are damn lucky that I know people willing to cut you some slack on this. Do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to have to walk in there in front of all my colleagues and take you out of there?"
That caused the boy to snap his head around to face the warden.
"Yeah, it must have been hard for YOU. Everyone staring at YOU, wondering why you were with the deformed alien freak." He scowled at the warden.
"Blue, you have got to find a way to ignore-"
"No. No, don't," the boy crossed his arms and was off on a rant. "You're going to try another one of your delusionally cheery pep talks where you try to convince me this world is all hugs and puppies".
The boy threw his hand melodramatically over his sizable blue forehead. "If only I would give people a chance. It's like shool all over again. Your response to the world is to tell me everything will be fine. But it won't. You saw the way people see me. All anyone sees is trouble, bad news, a big, blue-headed alien freak. It's my destiny. And I didn't ask you to come get me," he added.
"Oh, you're so smart. So you would rather be sent to central booking?" the warden asked sarcastically.
"I may as well commit crimes; I'm stuck in prison anyway." The boy threw his hands out with his usual theatrics.
"Yeah, you've got it so rough," the warden thickened the sarcasm. "All the books and computer equipment you want, even though you keep going on about this ridiculous plan to be a 'supervillian'". He actually made air quotes around the word. "Not very 'super' of you to get caught committing your first crime."
The warden knew it was too far the second it was out of his mouth. Especially with the Scott boy running around in a cape and tights, saving kittens from trees and calling himself Metro Dude or something ridiculous like that.
"Well, I'll never make that mistake again," the surly teen hissed, actually sounding hurt.
The warden felt a bit of his anger recede into guilt. He turned on the car and started driving towards the prison.
After a long moment, he reached out for the boy's shoulder. It was immediately yanked away.
"Just... just leave me alone."
Ok, he did not want to be touched. Fine. But a part of the warden longed for the days when he could fix anything with nothing more than a well placed hug or snuggle. God, that had been years ago. It was like a switch in the boy had been flipped and now he almost never let anyone touch him. He barely tolerated it from Minion – now that the fish had those little robotic suits that allowed him to walk and grip things.
The silence between them seemed to stretch even farther than the miles between the jail and the city centre.
"So what happened?" the warden finally asked.
"What do you mean what happened?" the boy snapped back.
"Well, how do you get from walking home from tutoring to 'I should break into a random research lab' to being arrested?" the warden clarified.
The boy shrugged. He clearly wasn't interested in talking. What an unusual and unexpected development, the warden thought sarcastically. But after a moment the boy did find something to say.
"It wasn't random."
"So why there?" the warden replied. The boy went back to sullen silence as he stared out the window and said nothing. "Fine. So how the hell did you end up getting arrested?" he tried again.
"I must have triggered a silent alarm and the next thing I know there are cops all around me with guns. They screamed at me to take off my mask and I tried to tell them I wasn't wearing one. Then they tazed me, and the next thing I knew I was coming around in the back of a squad car. Is that what you want to know? You happy now?" Blue replied bitterly.
The warden exhaled slowly as he made a free right. He was about to say something but the boy plowed on.
"So they took me back to the station where everyone was staring at me like I'm a total freak. Then they asked me what my name was, and when I told them they all had a good laugh," he finished, crossing his arms across his chest defensively.
Shit. This name business again. He kept hoping that if he put it off, the boy would pick something less ridiculous sometime in the next three years.
"I'm not getting into this with you again. If you don't like your name then you are welcome to change it when you turn 18, just like everyone else who wishes they had a more exotic name," the warden monotoned with rehearsed exasperation. But the boy exploded back at him in a way that was certainly not rehearsed.
"You named me after the color of my skin! How would you like it if people called you White? Or maybe next time I see Leroy I should say, 'Hey Black'!"
"Dammit, Blue, tha-"
"Megamind! My name is Megamind! You know this!"
"I am not going to call you 'Megamind'. That is a stupid name and I know you're smarter than that," the warden retorted. Any guilt about his previous comments had fully receded as anger sparked yet again. "These supervillian theatrics were cute when you were little but you need to stop acting like a child".
"You know, don't pretend you understand me," the blue boy snapped back, matching his anger. "You don't know the first fucking thing about being me!"
"Don't you use that language with me, young man!"
"Fuck. You," the boy responded defiantly, clearly challenging him just to see what he would do.
"You are grounded as soon as we get home," the warden hissed. Although he was unsure how he would accomplish that feat, short of stationing himself outside the boy's cell day and night or drugging the stubborn genius teen senseless.
"Oh, that will be terrible for me. Stuck inside a prison cell all day. Oh wait." The boy's tone was nasty and still taunting him.
"If you want a punishment young man I'm sure I can come up with something suitable to fit the crime," the warden barked back.
"What are you gonna do, take Minion away from me?" The boy rolled his eyes.
"Don't fucking tempt me. If you're going to act like a goddamn child then I will treat you like one!"
"Oh, so you get to swear."
The warden almost screamed in frustration.
The boy was blessedly quiet for the rest of the drive, simply smirking out the window. Days like today, the warden found himself wondering what the hell he was thinking when he took that baby out of that pod.
~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~
The warden's brain worked overtime as he walked away from the cell blocks.
They had continued to fight as they approached the prison and while walking down the halls. The whole mess of a day had turned into a shouting match, with the warden yelling, "Look at your life! Look at your choices!" to which the boy shouted back, "I hate you and I HATE THIS PLANET!" Then he had turned and stormed off, stomping loudly all the way to his cell and pulling the door closed with a loud bang that sounded like it might have broken the hinges.
Damn kid. The warden had left the boy to sulk in his cell and stationed Leroy outside it. With any luck it would buy him some time to come up with a punishment that might sink in.
But he kept coming back to Laddistch International. Aerospace engineering. There was something familiar about it. Goddamn it. What was it?
When he walked back into the office, Beatrice looked like she was about to be sick.
"There is a man in your office," she said shakily, her voice more timid than usual. "He just burst in and said he's from some government agency. An Agent Carson?"
The warden rubbed his temples. He wanted nothing more than to tell this guy to buzz off, but he didn't need to court trouble with the feds. God only knew what this man had said to make Beatrice look that nervous. Fine. He would deal with whatever the feds wanted then he would deal with Blue.
He tucked his precious envelope under his arm, strode into his office, and found a very average looking man standing behind his desk. He was wearing a black suit that screamed 'Fed' and examining the only picture in the whole place. It was small and in a silver frame that usually sat on his desk.
"This your kid?" the man asked and instantly the warden's eyes narrowed. He didn't have the time or patience for this today.
"Why don't you put that down and we can discuss who the hell you are and what brings you to my facility today," the warden replied gruffly. He moved quickly across the room, protectively plucking the picture of himself and Blue on the kid's first day of school out of the man's hands and setting it back in its proper place.
The warden gestured for the man to shave a seat, but noticed the fed pointedly declined to sit in the uncomfortable plastic chairs in front of the desk. Instead he remained standing, pretending to look at the various certificates and boring office artwork on the walls.
"Agent Carson. S.W.O.R.D. You familiar with that acronym?" the man finally asked.
The warden shook his head.
"Sentient World Observation and Response Department."
That was a vague acronym if he ever heard one. "What is your business here, Agent Carson?" the warden asked, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of his tone.
"I'm here to talk about you, actually," the man replied. "James Woodridge. Youngest man to ever become warden of the Metro City Prison for the Criminally Gifted at age 35. An impressive achievement, especially considering that it cost you your marriage. I heard your ex has twins now."
Carson didn't speak aggressively; he merely listed off facts as though he was leading somewhere.
"Why the hell are you reading me my biography?" Now the warden was baffled as well as irritated.
"Just to let you know that we've been watching you for a long time. Watching him, too. Must have been a good day when Jacobs finalized that paperwork." Carson nodded towards the envelope that the warden was still holding in one hand.
The warden felt a sick sensation in the pit of his stomach and reflexively clutched the folder of papers.
"What do you want?" He enunciated every word slowly.
Carson picked up an old golf trophy from the shelf and pretended to examine it. "Mr. Woodridge, what I want is to tell you that we were under the impression you had this particular charge under control. If you don't, then we will be forced to step in. Now, we could take him off your hands this afternoon if that's what you want."
The warden felt there was a hot knife twisting in his gut. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. He scrambled for an idea of what to say. What would make this man go away? What kind of plan would work? He could barely breathe and the room seemed so small. Still, he hardened his face, trying to stare the other man down.
"You've got a lot of nerve walking into my house and making threats like that." His voice was low and threatening and portrayed a confidence that he honestly wasn't sure he could back up. They couldn't take him away. Not after all this time. Not now.
"Good," Agent Carson nodded. "If you don't want that, then neither do we. Contrary to popular myth, the US government doesn't enjoy ripping alien children away from their homes." Carson's eyes were trained on the warden, disarming his indignation with their friendliness.
Why was this man being so goddamn friendly?
Carson turned his entire body to fully face him, and finally sat down in the chair in front of his desk.
"Look, if the boy has a stable home here, then we don't need to get involved. We're not extraterrestrial Child Services. But these things... these kids…. have a tendency to go wrong at times. It's not always their fault." Carson looked him dead in the eye for the next part.
"But my job is to contain threats to the citizens of this country, and to consider the well-being of this planet. I don't relish locking up children, Mr. Woodridge, I really don't. As long as the threat is contained, than we have nothing more to discuss. But if he becomes one, then we will need to have a very different conversation."
"I understand." The warden nodded gravely. Yes. Yes, he understood. He would have to find a way, find some way, to make the boy understand.
"No one wants to throw away the key on him for a little youthful rebellion. Though, the CIA is up my ass, wanting to know how, exactly, that kid knew about that firm's involvement in that kind of secure robotics research." Carson actually chuckled.
The warden's eyes widened. Jesus. Now he felt like he couldn't breathe again. Carson noticed his response but didn't remark upon it. Instead he just leaned forward in his chair.
"We've already retrieved the stolen files from his server, so no harm no foul here. But my advice? He needs to get out more. It's good that you've got him working with private tutors, but he needs to learn to walk in this world a bit. Let people get used to him." Carson stood up and buttoned his suit coat.
"Send him to college, get him a passport, have him get out of Metro City and see the world. If he's as smart as the intel says, I can probably get him a job at S.W.O.R.D. with a lab the size of a football field and an unlimited expense account once this flirtation with being a bad boy subsides." Carson made the offer with what seemed like a genuine smile on his face.
The warden merely nodded, his face still pinched and unable to relax while this man was here, no matter how nice he seemed to behave.
Finally, Carson pulled a tiny white business card out of his suit coat pocket and placed it on the warden's desk.
"Please contact us if you have any further questions. But I sincerely hope this will be the last time I see you." He nodded at the warden and walked out the door.
The warden shrank into his chair, nauseated and almost dizzy from shock. He had no idea how to react after all this. But one thing was damn sure. He would do whatever it took. Ego didn't matter; pride didn't matter. They wouldn't take him. They couldn't have him.
His eyes ran over the familiar picture of himself and Blue. The boy looked nervous but he was smiling. And he looked so proud but tired. First day of school. Last day before disaster.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~M ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Listen, young man, you have a court date on the 14th. You will stand up in front of the judge and it will be all 'yes m'am' and 'no m'am'. You will answer any questions she asks truthfully, leaving out the part where you actually succeeded in your mission to send the files to yourself."
The boy looked at him in sudden surprise, then down at Minion.
"Yes, I know about that, but you'll find that the files are gone. Courtesy of some of my friends in the federal government. However, you will plead guilty to the trespassing and take however much community service the judge assigns you. Are we clear?" He enunciated every syllable of the last sentence.
Blue nodded.
"I'm taking your computers away for the time being. You can have them back when you finish doing your community service. I've got you all set up at the local library."
"What? No. Why can't I just do KP duty here?" the boy sputtered.
"You're supposed to be serving the community. This gets you out into the community. And don't even think about getting Minion to do it for you, he'll be staying right here. " The warden put on his resolve face.
"I don't want to shelve books all day!"
"You won't be shelving them. They pay people to do that. You'll be dusting them."
The boy's mouth opened to a little o in shock before fading into a scowl. Minion, ever watching his master's face, mimicked the same scowl.
"I hate you. You can't tell me what to do. You're not my real father." The boy crossed his arms and glared at the warden.
That. That actually stung, but the warden didn't let on. He just wanted this day over with.
"Well, right now I'm the only thing keeping you out of juvie. And if you think you'll fare better with the boys in there than with a bunch of librarians, go right ahead."
It was a calculated bluff but it paid off. The boy huffed "fine" at him.
"Damn straight you will, young man." And the warden walked briskly out of the boy's cell without so much as a good night. He needed a goddamn scotch. He couldn't wait until these teen years were over. He would rather go back in time and do the terrible twos again, diapers and all.
Then, out of nowhere, it came to him and he stopped dead in his tracks.
Laddistch International had been in the newspaper last week. They had just been bought out by Metro Corp with much fanfare, announcing new research on what they had vaguely called "the power of flight" and "unprecedented advances".
And Metro Corp was Lord Scott's company. Bullshit that was a coincidence.