Co-Author/Beta: joanhello (member from the megamind_movie Community on Livejournal) a BIG thank you, well this is it, the last chapter of Shattered Mind, I have already start work on writing out Master of Alchemy so look out for that.
Chapter 9
Flying fast over the city's streets, Wayne saw the large monster ahead. He slowed and landed on the street a little more heavily that he normally would. He spotted the fish crouched in the shadows of an alleyway. He took one look at Behemoth, then rushed over to the robotic suit.
The fish turned and grinned. "Mr. Wayne, is she safe?"
"Yes, Minion, she's safe back at my place."
"Good, Sir would be glad."
"Minion, I have to tell you something. I-"
He was interrupted as he noticed Minion's amber eyes watching something behind him. He turned to see a group of the brainbots that were flying around dealing with fires. It wasn't the cyborgs that got their attention. Out of the alleyway that was blocked by flames stepped a dark blue figure. The battle armour threw off the heat as if it was nothing. The vambrace glowed brightly. He walked up to them and stood a few metres away.
"SIR!" Minion yelled happily but it was short lived as he noticed the physical change in his friend. The fish looked sharply at Wayne, his eyes widened.
"As I was saying, I found Megamind." From where the three stood, well hidden from Behemoth, he looked around the corner then back at the fish. "There's something you need to know, though."
Minion's wide eyes watched the figure in front of them. It was clearly Megamind, but his appearance was so different. He closed his eyes and turned in his bowl away from those catlike eyes, afraid.
The blue figure spoke in a more familiar tone. "Minion, you don't need to fear."
Minion's eyes opened and he realized it was Megamind as he saw green eyes watching him. His voice dropped. "Sir, are you alright?"
Wayne frowned and looked back and forth between the two confused; he also noticed the change in eye colour. "Megamind, what's happening?"
Green eyes locked with his. "Long story. I'll tell you later." He then tilted his head down and smirked at Wayne. "Don't argue."
"Okay. Jeez," the ex-hero sighed.
Megamind chuckled lightly; then he closed his eyes and his face went blank as his eyes slowly reopened to reveal violet slit eyes stirring back.
"What do we do about Behemoth?" asked Minion. The fish looked at Wayne. "Everything we're thrown at it doesn't do a thing."
The unnamed figure raised his hand to his face started to stroke his goatee and slowly grinned. His eyes flashed and his right eye turned green, surprising both fish and ex-rival.
"We have a plan," spoke the double tone voice.
Both Wayne and Minion looked at each other then at Megamind again. "We?"
The blue alien grinned darkly; the flames flicking around it made Megamind look too predatory. The other two stepped back, which made the owner of the mismatched eyes turn to face them, those eyes closed and, within the great brain, a silent conversion took place.
Look, I don't mind letting you use my body, but let's set some ground rules first.
*Sure. Fire away.*
No killing, no hurting, no playing with Minion's mind, or anyone else's.
*I agree with all of them, but that doesn't answer the question of what we're going to do about that monster. You can see what it's doing to the city.*
Mm hmm.
*Look, I'm still learning what I can do out here.*
What do you mean?
*All I do know is that one minute I was within one of your computers, then the next think I know, there's this bolt of electric-*
You're a computer virus!
*Then I started to become aware of things. It's taken me a while to realized what happened. I tried to talk to you, but you kept fighting me every time.*
Err, sorry. I through I was going crazy. I didn't know I had another life form in my head.
*Well, we can talk about all this later. Right now we have to stop Behemoth.*
Okay. You need a name.
*Do you really think that now is a good time for that?*
Yes, Megamind demanded. HowaboutTrojan?
*As in the Trojan horse?*
Yeah.
*I was going to go more along the lines of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but that works.*
Megamind slowly reopened his eyes knowing that only a matter of seconds had passed. He turned to the others. "Wait here."
Wayne raised an eyebrow. "And what are you going to do?"
Green eyes flashed violet and they watched as Megamind rushed forward, facing the lava demon alone. Wayne and the fish watched with their mouths open in shock as the dark blue alien jumped up high and kicked the stone face, knocking it back a few feet. They continued to stare as Megamind landed hard back in the ground in front of them; then he was attacking again.
Minion went to move forwards but Wayne stopped him. The fish shot the ex-hero a look of death.
Wayne spoke as he turned back to the scene. "Minion, you can't," he sighed, then looked at the fish. "It's not really him." Minion took a step back with the brainbots close by.
Green flames were now flicking all around the street, melting anything made of metal. The road was soft to the touch, but none of that seemed to affect the dark blue blur.
The fire demon went to grab the lighting-fast figure but missed every time. Megamind let out a calm, controlled laugh. This was way too much fun. Then, to anyone looking, he completely vanished.
Wayne looked around wildly. "What! Where did he just go?"
Seconds past and he reappeared on the other side of the street, twisted fast in the air, jumped onto a edge of a building and stuck, climbing fast up 60 floors.
From far below, Minion and Wayne and the brainbots continued watched.
"Oh wow." Wayne looked at the fish, who was also surprised. "Did he just-"
Minion nodded, shocked, and the brainbot near him made a sound. Minion looked at the bot and furrowed his forehead. Then he turned to Wayne. "He's almost as fast as you." Both looked back up.
Once at the right level Megamind stopped and turned. While still holding onto the building, he looked down. He let out a loud, unearthly, predatory hiss this was followed by words in a low roar. "Metro-fool, do something useful and get Minion out of here."
Minion and Wayne looked at each other and then back up, Minion shouted, "NO, SIR!"
"NOW!"
"NO! I'm not leaving you again."
The fire monster raised itself up and threw a blast at the small shadowy figure hanging from the building, letting out another rage-filled roar. "Oh, hell with this." Within seconds, he launched himself off the edge.
"SIR!" Minion screamed at seeing Megamind jump off the building.
Trojan drove down fast and spun in midair so his legs came down hard on the monster's head, causing a few rocks to fall from the side of the stony face. Trojan jumped off and landed near the other two and growled out, "Don't get in my way."
It was in that moment that both Minion and Wayne noticed the blue alien's eyes, his right one was his normal toxin green but his left was a bright violet.
Minion's eyes widened. "Sir, are you all right?"
Panting heavily the fused alien nodded. "Yes, Minion. I wish you to leave now. Wayne, take him."
"Sir-"
Wayne placed his hand on the robotic arm. "He's right, Minion. You can see the effect this thing is having on metal."
"I'm NOT leaving"
For a minute Minion watched his life long friend look back over his shoulder at the raging fire beast. He sighed then slowly looked back at his friends eyes. "Please go, Minion."
The fish gave a weak smile. "All right, Sir."
Wayne looked at him. "Are you sure you can handle this thing, little buddy?"
Wayne had to step back as the dark muzzle grinned, then violet eyes flashed. "Oh, yeah, we'll be able to handle this."
The ex-hero looked around but seeing no one else around them had to question it. He raised an eyebrow. "We?"
"Yep. We." Tapping his large head.
Minion grinned understanding. "All right Sirs. We'll talk later."
Bowing slightly, Megamind took a step back from them. "Thank you, Minion." He turned his back.
A confused Wayne looked at both of them. Minion hit his arm. "Come on. We need to leave now, so Sir can deal with that." He pointed at Behemoth.
"Are you really sure, lit-"
Letting out a low, enraged growl at his nickname, he snarled, "Just take him to safety, you Metro-fool." He looked back over his left shoulder, his violet eyes blazing with a hidden power. Turning sharply back to face the fiery beast, he let out a deep, wild roar that sent chills through the other two and made the brainbots flee in all directions.
Still very much lost in what was happening, Wayne stepped closer to the robotic suit, took hold under its arms and slowly lifted up into the air. Both watched as Megamind became smaller and smaller.
Glancing up at them slowly vanishing in the sky, Megamind let out a sigh.
I'llletyoutakeovernow, Megamind spoke within his mind.
*Oh, don't run off just yet; this shouldn't take too long.*
He then tilted his head and ever so slow turned to Behemoth. The calm voice spoke. "Oh, goody. I have free reign now." He grinned darkly. Then he touched the screen built into the vambrace on his left wrist. He touched the icon for the phone function, then the one for the contacts list, then the most recent contact, the one he'd looked up just before arriving here: Jeremy Autumn's number, the one that rang the Android phone that had been in Jeremy's pocket when he'd first crossed the police line to approach the meteor. That phone was now in Behemoth's head, literally part of its brain and a very likely source of the agonizing pain the monster seemed to be suffering. He touched the number and the phone began to dial.
Megamind enquired, Ithoughtyoudidn'tneedtoactuallycallthephoneinhisheadtoenterit.
*I don't need his phone to be connected to this one in order to jump from this body into it,* responded Trojan. *I can jump to any electrical device so long as I'm close enough. Once I'm in it, though, and I've manipulated the energy currents so as to destroy it and thus destroy Behemoth, I will be at some risk of dying with it if I don't have a quick enough connection to get back here. So that's what you have to do: keep the connection open between the two phones so I can come back through the cell phone network if I have to. It should only take a few seconds.*
While Trojan explained this, his phone finished dialing and began to ring. Suddenly, Trojan was gone and Megamind was alone in his own head. It was rather like after Roxanne had dumped him in the rain, the moment when he'd entered the Lair to find that Minion had not come back and therefore he was alone in the great, echoing building, except that this was sudden and completely unexpected. Immediately, his body began the transformation from the Trojan form, his ears starting to shrink and his muzzle shortening, starting the return to his original face. He heard the phone call connect and had the momentary thought, Icouldberidofthisinvader.AllI'dhavetodoishangup. But as soon as the thought came, he knew he wouldn't. Trojan was bizarre and he had come uninvited, but once the blue alien had stopped resisting him, he'd turned out to be fascinating, and his powers were more than welcome. Megamind had always wanted to have powers that were inherent in his body, not in his inventions, and now, with the arrival of Trojan, he finally had them. No, he'd keep the way open for his internal ally, as he now thought of Trojan, to return.
No sooner had he made this decision than the monster stomped, roaring, making the blacktop streets all around it fly upward like long runners of carpet when the floor explodes under one end. They broke off at the point where they hadn't been heated enough to hold together instead of crumbling, but Megamind was on the soft part, too close, and the pavement rose under his feet, lifting him into the air. The end snapped like a whip and he was flung upward along the street, tumbling head over heels, five stories, eight, eleven and then he began to descend. A fall of eleven stories was more than enough to kill him.
"Brainbots!" he called out, and two pairs of mechanical graspers took hold of his right arm and left leg. As they lowered him to the shaking street, he felt Trojan return.
*Done,* reported the calm voice. *He's still got some galvanic response in him, but when he falls, he won't get up again.* The pavement under him continued to shake from the monster's death throes. Abruptly, Behemoth seemed to get shorter as the subway tunnel beneath the street collapsed from the pounding. The monster kept sinking, no, shrinking into the tunnel, its light and heat fading as its constant roar rose in pitch while declining in volumn until, by the time its head disappeared below the level of the street, it sounded like a rusty hinge. The sound ended in a dry rasp.
"Camera bot," the blue hero commanded. "Fly over that new hole in the street ahead of me, as low as you can without damage, and show me what you see in it." One of the little cyborgs obeyed, hovering over the hole and aiming its camera eye down. The image it saw appeared on the screen of the vambrace.
The body that lay in the hole had once been a man's, but no longer. Its skin was ashy grey and black, its flesh blurred as if it had been made of some plastic that had partly melted. Its jaw was open in a silent scream. Its eyes were empty sockets. On the side of its head, just above where its right ear would be if it still had one, the remains of an Android phone were visible.
"Scan for heartbeat."
The words {None Detected} appeared along the bottom of the screen, flashed three times and vanished.
"Scan for electrical activity."
{None Detected}
"Call Alan Greenfield." The image on the screen didn't change, but the sounds of a phone dialing were audible. The General answered.
"Hey, Afeeke. What's the situation?"
"It's dead at last, General. The street is still very hot. You might want to have the fire department hose it down before you send anyone else in. There's also a lot of structural damage, especially to the subway tunnel, so your men should use caution going in, but that's the only danger. And now, if you'll kindly make my excuses to everyone, I am sorely in need of some recovery time."
(Epilogue)
Only a handful of Metro City police were still in the city, so the very few members who were there the moment that Behemoth fell into the ground, never to get up, described it to the ones that weren't.
Order still needed to be restored to the city and the fastest way to show the citizens that was happening was to let the people see everyone out helping. Major General Alan Greenfield had stepped in to help while the hero was recovering. It was still a bit of a shock for the citizens to see military men and woman all working along side Megamind's brainbots.
As for the brainbots' maker, it was unclear what had happen to the blue hero, but what was very clear was that no one was allowed anywhere near the Lair. It was two days after the battle and not even Minion had been able to set foot in the building. Some kind of force field had been put in place and four new-looking brainbots, heavily armoured and with violet eyes, had been guarding the doorway.
A mixed group of six people stood not far away from the hidden entrance: Minion, Roxanne, Wayne, Alan, the Warden and the Mayor. They had been told by the silver brainbot, Roxy, to wait until given a signal from the other brainbots that it was safe to enter.
The violet-eyed brainbots hovered, watching them. Minion was watching these new brainbots' every movement. By doing this, he had all the others on edge and as far away from the Lair as they could get. Then, at a command from within the Lair that came on a radio frequency Minion monitored, two of the brainbots blinked their eyes and moved away.
Minion looked back at the others. "Wait here. I'll go first." All the others nodded and watched him vanish.
The alien fish in the robotic suit walked through the dark Lair. He could make out the red eyes of many brainbots watching him. He had never felt this nervous and worried inside the Lair. He turned to where he knew all the computers would be. As he got closer he could see a figure, both legs lying across the armrest of the black leather chair.
Minion made to step closer when the figure in the chair made it spin around to face him. Minion notes that his clothes had been combined. He mostly wore the amour, but over that he was also wearing the spiked shoulder guard and cape. Violet eyes stared back at him. The body was the normal Megamind height and all feline characteristics except the slit pupils were gone, but he was still a very dark blue. Then this new occupant of the familiar body spoke. His tone was calm, nothing like his friend. "Ah, Minion. It's nice to finally have time for a private talk."
Above them, a small number of brainbots circled, all with violet eyes. Minion nodded calmly but he was feeling very uneasy around this second person who inhabited and reshaped his boss' body. He nodded. "Er, yes it is," he said, knowing his voice shook.
The hybrid lazily relaxed in the chair. "I knew I couldn't fool you. When did you find the notes?"
Minion narrowed his eyes. "I want to speak to Sir."
"Oh, he's right here." He tapped his head lightly. "We have come to an understanding. Now, talk."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Oh, lots of things, Minion, but what you need to know is that we're both here." He looked up at the brainbots. "You can let the others in now." The brainbots made the 'confirmed' sound and flew off. He looked back at Minion and shifted in the chair so he was now sat the right way up, facing the fish, arms crossed.
Some moments later the brainbots had returned with the five people who had been waiting.
"Ah the gangs all here, the fun can start." His violet eyes watched each member with curiosity. Then he focused narrowed eyes on one figure. It was the Mayor. Slowly he smiled.
"Why's he looked at me like that?" asked Alex, the Mayor, looking at the others, clearly nervous.
Roxanne stepped a little closer to her changed boyfriend. He sniffed the air as she did. "Megamind, please stop that. You're making the Mayor nervous."
"Sorry. Can't help it. He smells of fear." The smile slowly changed to a grin.
He leaned back in the chair and smiled lazily at her, then made an annoyed sound and his right hand rubbed at his face. Roxanne looked over to Minion, who stood some distance from his friend, and mouthed, "What's up with him?" The fish gave a shrug of ignorance and looked back at the blue alien.
Megamind started to mumble something in a low tone, then he looked up at the Major General. His tone of voice had changed; he sounded a little more excited but it was what he said that told the others who was talking. "Uncle, I hope your men are okay working with the brainbots."
Alan looked at his brother who was standing to one side, calmly leaning against the still badly damaged spiderbot. Chris tuned his head to look at Megamind. "Yeah, there are a few citizens helping with the clean up, too."
The blue figure nodded then smiled.
Everyone was silent for a time until Minion spoke. He almost whispered, "Sir, we found the machine you were making. Something happened to change you." He looked over at the others first, then back at the blue hero, then away. "Whatever went wrong, maybe we could-" The fish was looking at everything but his friend.
A week ago Minion had looked at all the notes, plains and blueprints taken from the Eastern Lair. In a printout of computer code, Minion had found the remains of the Trojan virus that had been downloaded into the network from an unknown location. Whatever the case, his best friend would be changed forever.
Flashing back to the present, Minion watched his friend.
"I know where I come from," the violet eyed, dark blue skinned alien said. "I started life as what you organics call a computer virus."
Hearing footsteps Minion turned. He saw the Warden and smiled. The older man spoke. "Does Megamind know you're in control of his body?"
"We share this organic body," a combined voice said.
Next to speak was Alan. "Can you let us talk with him?"
Violet eyes locked with brown, narrowed, then slowly closed. After a moment, he let out a heavy sigh. "Oh fine. Here. You talk to him." Abruptly, he fell forward in the chair but caught himself. His skin and eyes told Minion that his friend was now back.
"Minion." He looked around at everyone. "Er, ollo."
"Sir." The fish smiled, relieved.
"Jeez, Trojan, give me some warning next time," Megamind complained.
Behind them the group smiled. Only Wayne looked completely confused. He voiced this, saying, "So you have some kind of insane side now."
"I wouldn't say that," Megamind said. "He's not insane, Wayne." In a flash his right eye flicked violet and the blue alien grinned darkly. "No, I wouldn't call me that."
Roxanne walked up and bent down on his left side to his eye level. "Look, whoever you are." She pointed her finger at him. "Er, what do we call you?"
The calm voice spoke. "I liked what you called me."
"What was that?" Roxanne asked confused.
He looked at her. "Not you, him. " He tapped his head.
Within his mind, unheard by the others, Megamind spoke. YoumeanTrojan.
*Yes, I really like that.* He spoke out loud. "My name's Trojan."
Roxanne screamed in annoyance. Megamind and the newly-named mind looked at her. "Right," she said. "We need to set some ground rules here." Her arms were now on her hips. "When you two are talking can you let us know by changing your appearance?"
A grin appeared on the blue face. "Oh, but of course, my dear-" Then seconds later, green eyes changed to violet and so did his whole appearance and the calmer voice spoke "-Roxanne." The eyes switched to green again.
She threw up her arms turned her back and her tone dropped. She'd had a very bad day and didn't want this. "Megamind, Trojan, please behave."
An excited yet calm tone spoke. "Yes, mother." She glared at him over her shoulder.
Megamind's skin tone darkened again and the calmer voice spoke telling them Trojan was in control. "Couldn't resist. This is very new for me."
Minion who was stood on his right looked at him. "Why is that, er." He looked away for a moment, then smiled and continued, "Mr. Trojan?"
Trojan raised his eyebrow at how Minion said his name; he then smiled. "I knew you would understand about all this."
"Of course I understand, Mr. Trojan." Minion smiled slightly, then rambled a little. "Do you know how confusing it's been the last few days?" Minion sighed but continued. "When I found out what that machine did to you, I became even more worried."
Trojan let Megamind have full control; he stood up and put both hands on either side of the bowl. "Minion, it's going to be okay." Minion watched the green eyed and excited smile appeared.
Minion watched as the blue alien turned and stalked over to the control panel. His eyes seemed to glow with mixed colours in the dark as he started to type commands into the computer.
Suddenly his voice filled the air. "Alan, Wayne would you two be kind enough to watch the city a few more days?" He looked over at them. "I have some unfinished business to take care of."
Both the Major General and the part-time hero looked at each other. "What if something big happens, like the reappearance of Doom Syndicate?"
Waving his hand in the air the hybrid spoke. "Oh, those guys are nothing; I can handle them in my sleep."
"Sir I wouldn't joke about that."
Raising a eyebrow violet eyes locked with amber, his face was confused. "I wasn't joking." Turning back to the computer, he asked Megamind, *What does joking mean?*.
Minion got hold of his fear. He hated having this feeling when he knew it was his friend. He breathed out a sigh for a moment as if pushing his feeling to the side and he came a little closer. "Mr Trojan, Sir would you mind telling me what you're doing?"
The typing stopped. He glanced back over his shoulder at the others, but he was mostly looking at the fish and grinning insanely. "Why, I'm going to helping that human, Barry." Minion let his eyes roll then suddenly Trojan corrected himself. "Sorry, Bernard." He turned back. "You know I'll not hurt you, right?" spoke the dark figure.
"I know." Minion stepped slowly closer. "I just don't really like cats."
Once he stood along side, the two looked at each other and smiled madly. The others in the background were forgotten as the two began to work.
End.