"So how was your night?" Roxanne grinned at me. I rolled my eyes; "Just because you got a kiss out of last night doesn't mean I did too." Though my dreams tried to make up for that. She shrugged with an eye roll; "You two are getting close though." I frowned, where did she get that idea? I had shared some pretty personal information last night but would she have talked to him already today? "We barely know each other Roxanne. How could we be getting close?" She shook her head, "The way he talks about you. I thought you two were sharing old stories." Stories? A few on my part…but he didn't really talk about himself. He let me blather on and on and didn't bat an eye. It seemed to me he didn't like to talk too much, the opposite of Siler for sure, he would have talked back so much more.
"Nope. We're not." She frowned at me; "If you're not sharing stories, then how does he know some of them?" I shrugged, it wouldn't be hard to find out things about me, my life. "Michael, this is serious- You and he never talked about important things?" Like how important? "Like our favorite music or something?" She shook her head with a frown that made me wonder just what he knew and how did she know anyways? "He knows your MetroMan Michael...He didn't out right say it but it was heavily implied." I froze, he knew? How had he found that out? I mean seriously, I never mentioned it to him and he'd never seemed like he'd noticed it at all. "Wait, what exactly did he say to you?" She nodded; "He was telling me about something you had done as MetroMan, but he was talking about you." Great, just what I needed right now, dealing with my new found feelings and dealing with where the leak was to my other identity.
"I'll call him, we can get him to talk about it." I nodded and she dialed him. After a short conversation where he got her to laugh and she got him to agree to come to her apartment. I sat on her couch, of all the things that could come out though, that was the worst. If he knew who I was then he could hurt me or Roxanne with that knowledge…I couldn't let that happen. But, that just didn't sit right with the man I was getting to know.
"Hey, come on in," Roxanne said when he knocked on the door. He came in and sat next to me with a smile, that faded when I didn't return it. "What's going on? Why are you upset?" I bit my lip and Roxanne answered. "You mentioned to me that you knew Michael was MetroMan." He frowned, "Did I?" I flinched; "She told me that you told her a story about something I had done as MetroMan." He sighed; "Crap, I didn't mean to give that away." I clenched my jaw, so he did know… "How did you find out?" He clenched his hands together, a nervous gesture that I'd see him do before and Tuck had said he did all the time.
"It's not that hard to realize Michael…I mean I'm sure plenty of people know because it's fairly obvious…" Obvious? No one had ever attempted to extort me or anything. "Listen", He turned more towards me-meeting my eyes with those vivid verdant eyes. "I won't tell on you. I live a rather quiet lifestyle and if I told on you, my life would go to hell as much as yours or Roxanne's since she knows both sides of you." I could believe that I had been looking up the things he got into, but it was few and far in-between that was covered in the papers.
"I don't think that covers how you knew though Edward." Roxanne was looking at him in a very skeptical way. He sighed and then looked at both of us. "Alright, alright, I'll tell you how I knew if you promise me not to get angry at me." We both nodded, after all, we needed to know where or what the leak of my identity was. He took a deep breath, his hands clenched together, he seemed truly nervous about what he had to say. As if he wasn't sure how well we would take it.
"I use to work for Megamind." Roxanne's mouth dropped open, and my heart sped up, that was the last thing I expected to hear… "You? What about Tuck." He frowned at her, "If you have to judge me fine, But just don't judge Tuck because his older brother is a fuck-up." I flinched at the venom in his voice, but he really wasn't a mess, not like some families were, he looked after his brother, always kept him going by the way Tuck talked about him. "Tuck is a good man, something I'll never be able to say about myself Ritchi. He didn't work for Mega." Roxanne nodded, he was so adamant about it that it had to be true right? But, he had been lying to us all this time-or at least omitting things. "Where did Megamind get that money?" Edward blinked at Roxanne's sudden question Like he didn't even think that she would ask that at all. "Oh, here and there. Mostly by selling machinery that he made for different people…or fixing up cars in different places... He had a job after all. Not that his employer thought anything of his name…didn't connect the two. Megamind was reclusive but his boss loved his work, so he was alright with the odd hours Megamind took-basically when he knew no one else was there-and most days he took his work with him to the lair." So it was legitimate money…and here I thought it was illegal. Well, that was a surprise for sure, I mean I always wondered how he was able to build half the things he did-and makes them look as cool as he wanted. "He didn't do anything illegal for it?" Roxanne seemed just as surprised as I was on that. "Oh, lord no. He didn't want to get in any more trouble with the law than he already was."
That didn't sound like the Megamind I knew-just full of trouble and trouble making. Then again, how well had I actually known him? "So, you worked with him?" Edward shrugged; "Yeah, well more the connections side than anything else. I'd introduce people for Megamind to collaborate with." Alright so that wasn't so bad per say, but it was illegal to help on connecting people and watching them do illegal things, knowing that you had helped them achieve those wicked plans…"Is he still alive." Edwards' face fell, surprise in his eyes. "Why would you think he was alive?" Roxanne shared a look with me. If he was avoiding the question then there was a possibility that Megamind was alive. "Because the money is still moving." Edward shook his head.
"No, that would be me and others doing it. We're still moving the money, Megamind's dead…else he would have talked to us by now. Don't you think he'd have done something by now? I mean come on it's been over six months since anyone last saw him…before you two saw him, You were the last ones to see him and Minion alive after all." That was true, as far as we knew that was. "Have you asked any of the contacts you helped him forge?" Edward nodded; "That was the first thing I did when I started to get worried about him. I thought maybe he made it out…Now I know he didn't." And it was all my fault…I should have grabbed them before the building blew. I should have done something, Edward gave me a confused look. "Michael…is it true that you…you've been mourning?"
I took a deep breath, I might as well get it off my chest. "At first I wasn't…I guess I was in shock. But, yes…I have been." He nodded… "That story you told me. It was about him wasn't it." I looked up, guess I wasn't that vague about it. "Yes." Roxanne frowned. "What are you talking about?" We looked at her. "He was telling me something about Megamind, but he wasn't naming anyone." Not that she needed to know just what I had been talking about how his death made me look back at his life. About my own life, and how he affected it. If he had lived…I wouldn't have ever told him of course. I don't think I could have, or at least as long as he was the super villain with a capital V.