Megamind didn't even need to open up any of the articles he was seeing on the screen of his laptop; the headlines were enough.
'Police Officer or "Superhero": Who's Lying?'
'Convicted Criminal at it Again?'
'Hero or Facade: Are We Really Safe?'
Megamind's typically whirring thoughts slowed to a halt. He scrolled and scrolled, hoping to find something positive - but his disappointed heart grew heavier with each appearing headline. What had he been doing wrong? His thoughts began to pick up speed again, mulling over everything he was taking in. He worked to keep them safe, to gain their trust truthfully, to correct the wrongs he'd committed before. He put his heart into everything he did, or, at least, he tried to. It had to shine through at least some, because Roxanne had commented on noticing it before. Did they not see it? Was she too biased to see what other people saw? Was this really what the rest of the city thought of him, despite everything? Would he ever be able to overcome such a powerful belief?
Enough. Megamind slammed the laptop shut and buried his head in his hands. Despite what most people seemed to think, Megamind's hyper-intelligent brain came with disadvantages, some of them rather severe. It was moments like these when he begged his mind to stop spinning, stop analyzing, just stop - but it rarely complied. It preferred to stop in its tracks during inopportune moments, particularly when Roxanne so much as met his gaze. But not right now. No, now it just worried and thought and spun and spun and -
"Sir?" Minion said nervously.
"Hm?" Megamind lifted his head wearily, looking at his friend in the rear view mirror.
"…We're here," Minion said with a glance out the window.
Megamind followed his gaze and was met with the mansion the Scotts had built for themselves years ago, complete with official city signs and security camera everywhere. "Right, right… I'm sorry, Minion, I…" Megamind looked back at the fish, who had worry written all over his face. He quickly changed his mind; Minion didn't need to hear about what was bothering him. Not right now, anyways.
"Code: check and make sure that those cameras aren't active," Megamind said brightly, with the most convincing smile he could muster.
Immediately Minion perked up. "Code: right away, Sir!"
Megamind's faked, wide smile melted into a soft, real one as Minion went to work at the computer in the dashboard of the car. Megamind opened up his laptop again, intending to pull up the live broadcast page from Roxanne's work, but was again met with the list of articles bashing his name. Before he could close the wretched page, however, it refreshed, and a new article popped up at the top of the screen. A new article by none other than Roxanne's office, Megamind was quick to notice. His smile grew as he read the title:
'Facts Don't Lie: Megamind's Impact as the Loyal Defender of Metro City'
He decided against closing the tab, hoping he would have time to read it later. Instead he opened a new page and pulled up KMCP's website, and muscle memory took him to the broadcast stream in seconds.
"It looks like the outdoor cameras are operational, Sir, but curiously enough, the interior ones are not," Minion announced, still studying the results of the scan on the screen in front of him.
"Is there a back door they don't keep an eye on?" Megamind asked, not looking up from his screen. The broadcast wasn't going yet, but the website was detailing where Roxanne would be reporting from and when she would be on air.
"Just one second… and… yes! Remember that old staff entrance to the kitchen we used to sneak in? That's only got one camera covering it," Minion answered. "Shall I disable it, Sir?"
"Go ahead," Megamind replied, having closed his laptop. He tucked it into his backpack and looked up, expecting to see Minion still operating the computer, but instead was met with him reaching for the door handle, forget-me-stick in hand.
"Minion!" Megamind cried.
Minion whirled around, visibly confused. "Yes, Sir?"
Megamind returned the sentiment. "What are you doing?"
"…Disabling the problematic camera…?" Minion said. "Isn't that what you wanted?"
Megamind clenched his eyes shut and rubbed his temples in disbelief. "Minion, we talked about this." Megamind opened his eyes, and sighed heavily when Minion's face showed no sign that he was catching Megamind's drift. "The computer will do that for you, remember? I've even refined it, so now you'll only have to tell it to kill the one camera,"
"Oh!" Minion exclaimed, finally releasing the door handle and putting the forget-me-stick back under the passenger seat. "You're completely right, Sir. I don't appear to be keeping up with the new functions you've been installing into the car very well," he said with a chuckle, and returned to typing away, instructing the system on which camera to target.
Megamind rolled his eyes and pulled the backpack on to his shoulder. He looked back out the window at the mansion before him, realizing a flaw in their plan. "Minion, drive us around to the back driveway," he instructed.
"May I ask why, Sir?"
"So we're not trudging through the snow and leaving footprints all over the place," Megamind stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Ah! Right away," Minion complied, taking them around to the back.
Once there, Megamind climbed out of the car cautiously, backpack slung over his shoulder. His strikingly green eyes roved back and forth, searching for the blind spot of the cameras, making sure he wasn't seen at any given moment. Minion followed him after gathering his own bag out of the car, having been on enough missions with his friend to know that now was the time to just be quiet and follow.
They followed the small path from the driveway around the corner to the door that Minion had described, inching their way over. Once there, Megamind stepped aside and allowed Minion to use one of his more recent suit upgrades to effortlessly pick the lock on the door.
The door swung open and revealed not the kitchen they were used to, but a dark and disheveled storage room. Megamind ventured in slowly while Minion checked to make sure no one was watching and entered as well, shutting the door behind them.
After kicking at least three undefinable objects that had been strewn on the floor and nearly falling over more times than he'd like to admit, Megamind's groping was rewarded as he finally found the string to turn on the light.
"You'd think they'd have kept this place up… better…"
As Megamind turned on the light, his words trailed off, and it became clear that the place was a mess not due to lack of upkeep, but someone rifling through it. Boxes were on their sides, the contents of them spilled everywhere, shelves had been pushed aside, and some of the things on the floor had been crushed.
Minion stared at Megamind, anxious for some kind of a reaction out of him. Megamind stared at the disaster around him in disbelief. He stooped to pick up a trampled, disfigured metal device next to his foot and tried to make out what it used to be. All he could really tell, however, was that it used to be his; the electric blue paint was actively chipping off in his hands.
"…Okay," Megamind started, setting down the device on the nearest shelf, "At least we have our work cut out for us, right?" he finished, looking over at Minion for reassurance.
Minion, however, still looked bewildered.
"Think of it like this…" Megamind said, trying to find something around the room to make Minion feel better. He quickly realized, however, that the room was completely unable to be sugar-coated. It was a complete mess. He turned back to Minion, who was treading water anxiously, awaiting the conclusion to Megamind's sentence. "…The rest of the place can't be any worse, right?" Megamind grimaced at his own words.
"…Right…" Minion hesitantly agreed, beginning to find a way to work his bulky frame through the clutter, catching up to where Megamind stood. Megamind took the hint and began to lead the two of them out of the room as best he could; the storage room was eerie after being rummaged through so badly, and both were ready to move on. Perhaps they'd come back later in search of clues, but at the moment a bigger room with some windows sounded lovely.
They spent a solid five minutes making their way to the door. Slowly, they came closer and closer to the door, and after pausing to let Minion's suit pick the lock again, they entered the main part of the museum in a minor hallway off of the main hall with the exhibits. To their right, there was a wide doorway with no door on it leading into the next in the line of exhibits to see, and ahead of them down the long, narrow hallway was dark wooden cases with old documents framed and on display.
"Go on ahead of me, Minion," Megamind instructed, already looking for an outlet behind the displays.
Minion disappeared around the corner into the main exhibit, leaving Megamind to his task. As he looked around more closely, he realized he was in the hallway between the two wings of exhibits. It was once the servants' hallway, running behind the central ballroom/grand foyer that was now the reception hall for guests. The east wing, the one farther away from the end of the house where Megamind and Minion were now, was the part of the exhibit that focused on battles that occurred pre-appearance of aliens in the city. Megamind and Roxanne agreed that it would be far more interesting and even education if they included political battles, gang fights, and issues that the police force faced. But, instead, they turned to grasping for 'facts' about 'historical' battles, and eventually the museum had to close.
Aha! Megamind thought, very much like he used to as a supervillain. Peering around a rather large display case he found the outlet he'd been looking for. He glanced behind him towards the doorway Minion had gone through, and even though he recognized immediately that the screen would not be visible in the next room, he settled for it. The sound would be loud enough for him to at least hear his fiancée, he knew, and it was the only electrical outlet he could find.
A few minutes later, after making use of his unusually thin arms and thus being able to reach the charger cord from the computer to the outlet, his laptop was settled on top of the wood and glass paneled case, on and waiting to stream Roxanne's broadcast in 10… 9… 8…
"Sir?" Minion called, a mild panic rising in his voice.
"Yes, Minion?" Megamind called back, slightly agitated. Was it too much to ask that he make sure Roxanne made it to the broadcast site okay?
"…I think you need to come here,"
Megamind sighed and stood up. "Just a moment, Minion." A few seconds later, Roxanne's chipper smile appeared on the screen, accompanied by her cheery "Good morning, Metro City!" Megamind smiled softly, made sure the volume was sufficiently turned up, and followed in Minion's footsteps into the next room.
As soon as Megamind rounded the corner and looked up, his jaw dropped. He had been so set on finding an outlet earlier that he failed to notice the shattered glass from the display cases that was everywhere. But more shocking was the red string that was running from case to case. His eyes swept over the wreck of a space, and eventually they found Minion on his right, standing awkwardly next to a case with his hand caught up in several of the strings. He gave Megamind an apologetic grimace, and Megamind came over to him at once to figure out what had happened.
"Several of the strings ended here; I just wanted to see what it was," Minion explained hurriedly. "I have scissors in my bag, if you'd like."
Megamind looked up at him from where he had been staring at the mess Minion's hand was caught in. "The whole place is like this?"
"As far as I saw, yes," Minion said hesitantly.
Megamind turned his attention back to the tangle of red around Minion's robotic hand, still shocked. After several minutes of Megamind working with the strings and arguing with Minion over how he was instructed to move his hand, they had him free, and once again Roxanne's voice delivering the morning report was the only sound to be heard.
Megamind began inching his way through the maze of strings, trying to see around the corner to the left of them. The exhibits continued over there, and so did most of the strings…
"It's an article about you, Sir," Minion announced.
Megamind turned back to face Minion, who was peering into the display case he'd been caught in, hands folded behind his back.
"As a matter of fact, it's about you and what you did just after Metro Man disappeared."
Megamind's brow furrowed. "Why would they include that? There was no fighting there." He scoffed. "No one contested me."
"A fair question, but perhaps better yet - why would the impostor think it so important? Whatever system there is to these threads, there are five - no, six - over here notating its importance," Minion rambled, treading water in his tank and eventually swimming around to look at Megamind.
"Good point, good point…," Megamind trailed off as his eyes wandered to the corner blocking his view again. There had to be at least twenty strings pulled taught between their origin points and the wall forming the corner. "But what really interests me is what all of those are leading to,"
"Shall I work in here, then, Sir, and you follow your lead?"
"You brought your camera, right?" Megamind said, craning his neck and trying not to bend too far as to fall over the strings.
"Of course! It's in my bag, which is… somewhere," Minion replied, looking around for his bag.
"Then yes, please, start documenting everything you can with it. Try not to disturb anything," Megamind directed before turning back to his friend. "And maybe hand me my notebook and pen from my bag?"
Minion hurried to Megamind's bag that had been left abandoned in the hall with his laptop and brought back the requested items as quickly as he could.
Notebook and accompanying stationary in hand, Megamind picked his way over and under and in between strings, finally making it into the relative openness of the corner, where he caught a breath - and the view he'd been hoping for. The strings that turned harshly with the wall converged at the same point, which was on the floor, surprisingly, along with several other threads beginning at displays past the turn.
Megamind flipped open to a new page in the notebook and began sketching an aerial map of the hall they were in. He labeled the display cases on his map with a numbering system as well as what was contained in them, with help from Minion in the form of him calling out what he could tell was in the cases near him. Then he drew the path that the strings followed from one case to another, as accurately as he could from his vantage point. His page was rather muddled with thick and thin lines and the occasional scribbling out of a mistake when he was done, but he would need it to tie the pictures together later.
Soon enough, Minion was done taking pictures of his side of the room, and slid the camera underneath the strings to Megamind (they agreed that after the incident with his hand, they weren't going to try to get him to walk through the maze). Minion started noting anomalies in the room, besides the obvious evidence of breaking and entering and the strings strung everywhere, of course, while Megamind worked his way through the strings even slower than before, photographing all the time.
He eventually made it about halfway down the hall, where the spot on the floor was that hosted the convergence of the strings was. It was in the most open part of the room, where cases had not been placed to make room for the wall to be used as a projector screen. Megamind stepped over and around the dozens of threads and knelt by what the strings had been pointing to - a mess of pictures on the floor. Some were framed, some were newspaper clippings, some from magazines, and others were printouts; but there Megamind stood, featured in every one of them.
Megamind's eyes roved over the countless pictures, trying to make sense of anything he'd seen since arriving at the museum. What was motivating whoever this was to do all of this? Impersonating him to frame him for crimes, breaking into museums, plotting something with a cryptic system - what was he supposed to make of it all?
After trudging along and finishing his task of taking pictures, he returned to the open space just before the turn. He picked up his notebook and made corrections and alterations to what he thought he'd seen, and was just beginning to re-do the map so it was cleaner when Minion interrupted his train of thought.
"Do you know shorthand?"
Megamind looked up from his work. "What?"
"Do you know shorthand?" Minion repeated. "It's the abbreviated form of English that Miss Ritchi uses for her notes."
"Yes, I know what it is," Megamind retorted, "But I can read very little. Haven't gotten around to learning it yet. Why?"
Minion gave him a questioning look. "Haven't you seen the notes on the display cases? They're all written in the same fashion," he replied, using his far-reaching arms to hand Megamind a note he'd found on one of the first display cases.
Megamind took it from Minion and saw for himself; it was, indeed, shorthand. The culprit was writing very quickly, with rather messy handwriting. Not that Megamind was one to talk - Roxanne got on him about his illegible experiment notes all the time. But it was bad enough that Megamind was impressed Minion had been able to ID it as shorthand.
Megamind looked over at the fish, who had pulled out his own laptop and was typing furiously with several more of the notes stuck up on the edges of his screen. Megamind froze for a moment, however, as he realized that he couldn't hear Roxanne. After a moment, Minion got to a break in his typing, and Megamind was able to faintly hear her introducing a new interviewee. He exhaled sharply, not realizing he had been holding his breath. Why did this have him so psyched out, he wondered? He was the target, not her. They won't touch her, right? Right?
Megamind shook his head to clear the thought from his mind, and started stepping and ducking around the strings back in Minion's direction. "Can you read shorthand, Minion?"
"I myself can't read or write it, but I've found a handy website that allows you to translate it rather easily," Minion chimed happily. His brow furrowed, however, and he turned to face Megamind. "Their messages are still cryptic, however, and not always the most… encouraging," he said apologetically.
"What do they say?" Megamind asked, wary now.
"There are several to choose from…" Minion said, looking over his screen and obviously stalling. "Well, some of the vaguer notes involve phrases like 'This could work' or 'Wonder if I could pull this off'," he continued.
"And the worse ones?" Megaming pressed, stepping out of the strings now and coming alongside Minion.
Minion, however, didn't read anymore. Instead, he stepped aside and let Megamind read for himself.
'Use this as bait: the media will turn'
'More proof - find what's needed in supply closet'
"Have you been marking down were these came from?" Megamind asked, continuing to read with a more and more concerned expression.
"Yes, Sir, it's written there on each note, along with the order that I put them into the computer."
Megamind, however, wasn't listening to the answer to his question. One of the last quotes from the scraps of paper had caught his eye.
'First a bomb, then maybe we'll go with a rogue robot. It's something he'd do'
"Robot? Minion, did you see this?" Megamind questioned, trying not to panic. "What do you think-"
Megamind never finished his last question, because in the middle of her closing remarks for the broadcast, Roxanne screamed.