Chapter 7
Wayne had been dealing with a very large problem for about 4 hours now.
The vehicle that had been holding Behemoth had crashed and overturned in the street when it had broken out. The monster had spent an hour smashing vehicles and walls, then had vanished, leaving the police to deal with the many injured and the people in danger from the possible collapse of the damaged buildings they were in. An hour later, after being called by the local police department, army vehicles had appeared. Seven army jeeps and two police cars were parked nearby; further down the road, more vehicles blocked it off. The men who were visible were all running. The now part-time hero was standing looking at a giant hole in the side of the lorry that had been transporting Behemoth.
He turned his back to it and sighed. He had planned to stay at the old schoolhouse and play his guitar. Just as he had gone to make something to eat, he had gotten a call from Roxanne telling him to fly over to the site and help. He didn't have time to ask why Megamind couldn't go as the reporter had hung up on him.
He looked back at the group he was with. He had been helping the more mobile casualties over to an ambulance. Then he would rush off and see to any of the more injured people. A few random citizens that were out in the street were helping, too. Then about two hours ago, the whole area had been completely blacked out by some unknown powerful electrical surge. Both street lamps and the lights in buildings had flared and then gone out. Car headlamps and other battery-powered lamps were the only lights now.
Time had seemed to drag. It was now close to midnight. He heard a familiar sound. He turned, looking up into the darkness, and saw the rebuild hoverbike descending; not too far behind was a flight of 20 brainbots following. The bike landed some distance from him.
He wasn't surprised to only see Minion. Roxanne had told the ex-hero over the phone that Minion would be coming alone; Megamind still needed to rest and he would need time until he was ready.
"Any news? Where is he?" The fish asked one of the closest army officers, while jumping off the bike and coming over.
"None yet, Minion," replied the military man.
Wayne walked over to a small group of soldiers and saw the look of surprise on some of their faces at seeing Minion taking action without his blue friend.
Minion looked around. The street were still dark, but he could make out the location very well.
He turned back to the brainbots. "Half of you scan for any DNA fitting Behemoth's genetic code." The group of little robots made a sound of agreement and split into two packs. One flew into action.
Something about this moment hit Wayne. He had never seen the fish in action. It felt weird to him not having Megamind close by. He turned slightly and watched Minion talking to one of the other men and he sighed. He had underestimated the fish greatly.
A soldier called over, "Err, Metro Man, I mean, Wayne." The part-time-hero turned to him. "Could you help with moving these cars?" Wayne smiled and nodded.
Less than 10 minutes later, the larger group of brainbots came flying back, making a distressed sound and then hiding behind Minion.
Minion raised any eyebrow and turned in his bowl and looked at them. "Have you found Behemoth?" The brainbots then flew behind or under parked cars around them.
One of the soldiers who sat on the ground watching this asked, "Hey, Minion, what's with the little guys?" He called over.
"I'm not sure." He stepped closer to a cluster of the little cyborgs and they backed farther under the car. "What's gotten into you?"
Wayne and a few random soldiers stepped forward, also confused at the brainbots' behavior.
A lone soldier noticed something down the street. He called out, "You're not authorised to be here, citizen. I think you should move behind the marked zone." The faint light didn't help with much visibility.
Wayne's super hearing zeroed in on this soldier as he called out. Finding it odd, he came over.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
The soldier turned his head and saw the part-time hero. "This guy doesn't seem to under what I'm asking him to do." He pointed to the tall shadowy figure down the dark street.
The two men watched as he stood in the street. Wayne was reminded of a member of the Doom Syndicate: the criminal known as Psycho Delic, who hadn't been seen in a while.
Megamind had once been the leader of this group of villains. That was until Psycho Delic came to Metro City four years ago. The two villains had different notions of how things needed to be run. There had been a big fight. In the end, Wayne had to come and break it up. Psycho Delic had to been taken to Metro City General Hospital, while Megamind had slipped away and returned to his Lair. Shortly after that, Megamind took on the solo task of taking out Metro Man by himself, but ever since then, he had always kept an eye on the Doom Syndicate movements, tracking them, knowing that Psycho Delic was a very unstable character.
The part-time hero took a few steps forward. Thinking it was the purple 70's dressed man, he called his name. "Psycho Delic, are you looking for a fight?" his voice rose.
The shadow didn't reply, it just remained standing starring at them, full of curiosity.
Wayne just stood and watched the figure's movements as it silently walked closer. The part-time hero could somehow tell from the very eerily feeling in the air that was something very off; all around them light and sound in the street died.
"Mr. Scott, I don't think that's Psycho Delic." Minion spoke. Wayne looked back over at the fish for a moment then back.
The shadowy figure leaned forward and crouched down on all fours, giving off a more predatory appearance. Wayne took a step back from the scene. He watched as the shadow lifted its head up slightly and sniffed the air like a wild animal hurting it's prey. Narrowing blazing violet catlike eyes locked with his. It stood back up to its full height. Wayne could clearly tell that the figure was male and guessed he was about seven feet tall. The shadow started coming slowly closer to them. Each step was slow and animal-like. Minion came up and stood next to Wayne. Both watched as the dark being tiled its head to one side. Then it opened it's mouth slightly. Even this far away the fish could make out two sharp teeth coming down from the upper jaw. The figure stopped walking.
A soldier with the rank of second lieutenant rushed back to stand near Minion, "I don't know who that is, but he's not one of my men and I don't think it's that Behemoth monster."
Wayne took a step forward in front of them, all ready for a fight; looking over his shoulder, he spoke "Minion, get everyone out of here."
The fish looked at Wayne, then around them. "There's too many." Suddenly the street lights flickered to life, then died.
"Whoa, who's doing that? Is he making the lights do that?" asked the panicked second lieutenant. Everyone else ignored him.
The dark figure remained fixed on the spot, eyes narrowed as it smelled fear coming from someone in the group. It gave a toothy grin, then continued to just stand still in the centre of the road.
The still-unnoticed panicked second lieutenant drew his side-arm.
Minion also noticed that the shadowy figure was exceptionally tall, so that ruled out a few people. He couldn't see well enough to identity the figure; what kept him staring were its catlike eyes and their colour, blazing violet. Minion was trapped within those catlike eyes; he let his fear of the feline kind take hold within his mind.
The street lights flickered again. The second lieutenant raised the weapon with shaky hands at the shadowy figure, who turned it's head to look right at him and just hissed.
Sudden the sound of a gun being fired broke the silence; chaos filled the air.
A ranking police officer yelled out "WHO FIRED?".
The panicked second lieutenant watched as the unknown figure let out a pained sound that was somewhere between a lizard's hissing and something unearthly. It grabbed at its right arm and in a flash turned and ran into the shadows and vanished.
"Oh hell, I missed!" called out the second lieutenant, who still held the gun.
The ranking police officer yelled, "Someone take that gun off him."
Minion turned sharply only to see that Wayne had already moved and grabbed the gun away from the man.
The part-time hero looked down at the weak man who had fallen to the ground at the sudden moment, his eyes held something closer to angry. "You shot at whoever that was." Minion came closer. "What did you think you were doing?"
The second lieutenant looked up. "It was going to attack us."
"How do you know that?"
Minion slowly stepped closer to him; he lay his large robotic hand on the other alien's arm. "Wayne, it'll be okay".
"But this shot a gun" he sighed then looked down the street "I need to find who that was just now"
Looking down the street Minion nodded. "Take some brainbots with you. They can pick up on things you can't."
"Is that ok" Wayne asked, Minion smiled and nodded.
When the hoverbike came back into the Lair, the city had ready started to wake up it was still early, he noticed Roxanne coming over to him.
"Have you had a good time" she called over, still a few meters away.
"Yes we did" Minion answered "something happened in the street last night and Mr Scott has been looking for ages, we've only just stopped searching he's gone back home" he looked up at the door that lead to Megamind's bedroom "has Sir woken up yet?"
"I don't think so." She looked up, too.
"Sorry, Minion, I had a call late last night from Carl telling me to get over to work. I only just got back to pick up some things and I'm heading back out." She smiled and stopped near him with a slice of toast in hand.
"All right, Miss Ritchi." He watched her rush over to the news van that was parked in the Lair and drive off.
He turned, making his way deeper into the Lair. Standing near the wall of monitors, he notice a small blinking blue light on one of the screens. He looked at that typed the key it was telling him.
Computer code filled the screen and Minion's eyes widened. This was a brainbots distress call, but he didn't remember sending any out to the eastern side of the city. He looked back up at his friend's bedroom door. He wouldn't be gone long.
Minion left the Lair; he took a small group of brainbots. In all the rush none of them go up to Megamind's bedroom to find him gone.