A/N: I tried to get this chapter up as quick as possible, hope it's not too rushed, and that you enjoy!
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Megamind made quite the comical figure. He was wearing a teal skivvy similar to the one he had the night before, as well as a pair of snug black cargo pants and black and turquoise patterned Converse. But what made him look ridiculous was that over the top of the casual attire, he had fastened his 'thinking cape'- a high-collared, sweeping black affair. Even worse, his tongue protruded slightly as he worked, making him seem younger and giving him the overall appearance of a child playing at superheroes.
Minion chose that moment to walk into the lab, and he bit back a snigger. "Um, sir?" he asked tentatively. "Maybe, considering your current attire, you shouldn't be wearing such a, um, powerful-looking cape?"
The blue hero looked up, hastily retracting his tongue. "What do you mean?"
He rubbed the back of his tank. "Well, when you're wearing such a majestic cape-" He struggled not to put any emphasis on the word 'majestic' "-without your hero outfit, it just seems a little… overbearing."
Putting down his pen, Megamind steepled his fingers, smiling slightly. "I understand what you mean, Minion. Don't worry, your not insulting me." His smile grew as the fish relaxed visibly. "I'm aware that, difficult as it may be to believe, I do look just a bit… bizarre like this."
Emboldened, Minion interjected with, "Maybe a bit more than just a bit."
Megamind glowered at him briefly. "Anyway," he continued, slightly louder to discourage further interruptions, "Though at first I only started wearing these more casual clothes because I wondered what Roxanne would think of them, I soon realised that they're far more comfortable that what I usually wear."
You don't say, Minion thought.
"But," Megamind held up a finger, "It felt strange not wearing a cape, like I was missing something. And you know I can't work well without my thinking cape."
Minion nodded sagely, somehow repressing the grin he could feel tugging at his lips.
To Megamind and his superior powers of intelligence and observation, it was altogether too obvious that Minion was trying his best not to laugh. "Oh, go on," he sighed dramatically. "Go ahead and laugh at your oldest and dearest friend."
The fish needed no more encouragement than that. His robotic body fell to the ground as he was racked with a paroxysm of laughter, his fist clanging dully on the metal floor of the lab. Megamind glared at him icily. "If you're done," he prompted.
Minion got to his feet, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry, sir." A few stray chuckles escaped him.
"Well, at least one of us finds it amusing," Megamind muttered, half to himself.
Slightly shamefaced, Minion made his way to his desk without another sound. He glanced down at the work that Megamind had been forced to give him and his expression became stern. "Sir, when I said I would take on some of your workload, I didn't mean that I'd work something that'd take either of us five minutes to complete." He indicated the single slip of paper that Megamind had left there. "I know you want to do all your own work yourself, but for the sake of your health, sir, you need to let me take on more." His tone left no room for argument, but Megamind promptly ignored that, and adopted an innocent look.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I would have thought that would take an hour, at least."
"You've got me doing a routine check-up on the Brainbots' camera connection to the main screen, sir. You and I both know that it only takes a few minutes of simple calibrations to do that." His tone became gentler. "Sir… please don't insult my intelligence. I may not be as smart as you, but I'm smart enough." So saying, he clomped over to the Megamind's desk and picked a selection of the myriad papers waiting there, ignoring the blue alien's protests.
He moved purposefully back to his own desk, setting down his stack and started doggedly working his way through them. Megamind sighed and shook his head, but otherwise turned quietly to the rest of the papers sitting in front of him.
Even though Minion had taken a chunk out of what he had to do there was still a full day's work ahead of him. He secretly he was glad that the fish was going out of his way to aid him, but there was still an underlying current of internally directed inadequacy. He felt that he should be able to do the work himself, stubbornly ignoring the fact that it wasn't a one-person workload. Sighing again, he picked up a pen and determinedly set himself to his own work.
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They both glanced periodically at the clock display that they had set up on one of the computer screens, doing so more often as the day wore on. The lab had no windows, so this was the only way they could tell what time of day it was.
With a contented exhalation of air, Megamind set down his pen. He'd finally finished that day's work – a little faster than usual because of the extra Minion had taken on. Said alien fish wasn't that far behind him.
Megamind stood and stretched, his arms reaching as far as they could above his head. "You almost done, Minion?" he asked, eyelids drooping a little as he smothered a yawn.
"Almost, sir." He smiled softly. "Don't wait up for me to finish, sir. You should get some sleep. The new Metro Mall is opening tomorrow, remember?"
The blue hero nodded, lip curled scornfully at the name. "You'd think they'd be a little more original," he remarked.
Minion shrugged. "You know how people are."
"Humans are a generally lazy species," he acquiesced.
"Exactly. Now go to bed. Don't forget, Miss Ritchie will be there," he added teasingly. Megamind brightened and obligingly padded across the lab to his room.
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Megamind tossed in his bed, finding it impossible to get to sleep. He glanced at the clock and groaned. It was far too late for him to still be up – or too early? – when he had to make a public appearance later that day. He realised that if he didn't get to sleep soon, he'd most likely not wake in time, and miss out on seeing Roxanne. The thought made him panic for a second, then, as his brain processed the logic, he slowly drifted into the realm of unconsciousness.
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He'd woken a little more tired than he would have liked, but it was passable. He dressed quickly, having Minion drive him to the new mall. In fact, he got there a little early, but he accepted that philosophically.
A temporary white-painted brick wall had been set up, presumably for him to blast through with one of his ray guns. One of the organisers hurried over to him, rapidly rattling off a list of what Megamind was expected to do that day. It was a fairly standard setup and Megamind nodded a few times as the man spoke, easily understanding where he needed to be and when. When that was finished, he was mostly left alone.
Situated a little bit back from the wall of white brick was a row of chairs and tables, presumably for people of importance attending the event. He sank gratefully into the chair that had been designated to him, and, deciding a small nap wouldn't hurt, was soon dozing in the early morning sunshine.
One of the organisers woke him about an hour later, apologetically explaining that the proceedings were almost underway. He nodded hastily and took his place behind the brick wall.
With a start of panic, he actually felt another bout of amnesia setting in. Slowly, his memories of earlier in the day began to blur. He realised that, though his nap in the sun had only been brief, his unconscious state left his brain weaker than when it was in use, leaving it vulnerable to the onset of memory loss. He hadn't been asleep long enough for him to forget anything completely, though it was starting to get foggy. Spotting Roxanne waving discreetly from where she was standing, he returned the flutter of fingers, concealing his nervousness. Setting himself firmly, he turned back to face the wall.
He knew it was a race now. To see which would happen first – the event's completion, or his loss of memory. With a sinking feeling, he realised that the scales were quickly tipping to the latter.
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Blue sparks of electricity crackled over the pristine white of the brick wall, and suddenly a person-sized hole appeared, crumbling bricks spewing everywhere. Megamind cocked his ray gun. "Put your hands in the air!" he declared, eliciting wild screams from his fans, some waving Megamind masks around crazily in their jubilance. "Now hand over your wallets!"
The assembled crowd laughed; it had pretty much become his catch-phrase whenever he made a public appearance. The laughter died as the blue alien continued to flick the aim of the gun from person to random person, eyes glazed and an unmistakably evil grin on his face.
Roxanne watched him, confused. What on earth was he doing? Then it hit her, with a devastating clarity.
It was the amnesia again.
She didn't know why it was acting up when he'd already been awake. After all, he'd only had two episodes of it so far. Maybe it had just been coincidence that both the previous occasions, it had been in affect as he woke. Whatever the case, the problem lay in the fact that it was happening, right now, in public. She signalled to the cameraman and rushed over to the blue alien.
"Megamind, are you alright?" She knew he wasn't, but it seemed the only logical thing to say. His eyes cleared and he lowered the blaster, turning towards her voice. He looked at the gun in his hand and dropped it in horror, realising what he'd been about to do.
"Roxanne?" he asked, confused. "What was I...?"
She tentatively reached out to him, lowering her voice so no one else could hear. "Megamind? I think it's happening again."
There was a flare of panic in his eyes. "Roxanne..." This time, her name was sigh. Now extremely concerned, she noticed a thin trail of blood running from the corner of his mouth. It only mildly surprised her that his blood was as red as a human's - she was far more worried about the fact that he was bleeding in the first place.
Her panic only increased when he whispered her name again, and, without warning, fell unconscious into her arms.
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A/N: Stupid spell-check, steepled is a word! *glares at computer*
Where was I? Oh yeah, cliff-hanger, right. Dun dun duuun! Megamind's amnesia strikes again, but now he's bleeding, probably internally, and unconscious? Could this get any more like a soap opera! Answer: Yes, yes it could. But the REAL question is, will it? *ominous backlighting*
-pixie.