Over the following months Roxanne's eyes stayed peeled to the newspapers, seeking out any further information regarding the mugger who had showed up in town. It seemed the muggings had finally stopped, and was no longer in the headlines but instead something far worse had taken its place. At first it was fairly small things, scrap yards were being raided, in the middle of the night despite there being guard dogs on patrol whole mountains of wrecked machinery was vanishing.
At first the mayor tried putting a positive spin on things, claiming that as long as somebody wants the city's garbage than by all means let them have it.
But soon robberies were on the rise. Many kinds of stores were broken into and all but wiped clean and every single time this happened the video security cameras had no footage of the assailant. They would, seemingly, have power cut to them despite their power boxes being well guarded within the depths of the buildings hit. Electrical goods, fabrics and even leather good stores were being raided.
"Do you think it's the same guy or just different gangs?" Roxanne asked her father over breakfast one morning. The newspapers had progressively gotten worse over the past couple of months, and gave most cause for worry even more so then just a mugger jumping people.
"Well look at how big these heists are," her father said as he leaned over to look down at the photograph in the paper. It showed a leather goods store which specialized in clothing. "One night its electric goods, the other its music stores, now its leather. It's too diverse, and how would just one guy be able to get this much done in such little time? No, it can't be the same man." he leaned back in his chair. "I suspect it's just a crime spree."
"Yeah but how can all the cameras just not work?" Roxanne asked, "How can they explain that?"
"Power cuts?" her father shrugged. "There are faults with electricity every day, honey."
"But how can they know when they're about to happen? The closest anyone's gotten to seeing the face of this guy was that raid on the science museum last month and they only managed to get his shadow before the camera powered down!" Roxanne slapped the newspaper in irritation. She was certain that this was the acts of one man, but a man with considerable time and help on his side. Was he running a gang? There had been no news on gang related violence or activity lately, and they used to highlight the newspapers every other week!
She wondered if there was a man moving up in the ranks of the criminal underworld. Who would challenge a man who could empty out stores in a night without being seen by anyone? Or emptying scrap yards as if they were picking up their washing from a Laundromat? It was amazing, she wished harder than ever that she was out there on the field investigating and following leads, but she was only sixteen. She was still being reviewed for an internship at the local news channel, KMPG 8, and they still hadn't gotten back to her despite sending in an investigative report on homelessness in the city and interviewing numerous homeless people of all ages.
She growled in frustration and put the newspaper down.
"Don't worry your head none, honey bun." her father said, reaching out and ruffled her long brown hair in that affectionate way fathers did despite their children hating it, "This isn't yours to worry about. Leave it to the police; I'm sure they've got it all under control."
"We have no leads." announced a constable to the commissioner of the Metro City Police Force. The commissioner was an intimidating looking dark skinned man, with short cropped black hair who looked rightly impressive wearing his deep blue jacket that covered a three piece suit. "There are no fingerprints, no footprints, no DNA, nothing! It's like... it's like the guy doesn't even exist."
"But we know he does." the commissioner said as he looked over the photos of the crime scenes, and especially that one still of a long, thin, distorted shadow falling over a soon to be smashed in window. He couldn't get the image out of his mind, how incredibly thin it appeared, and how the head seemed larger then possible. No doubt a trick of the light, though. If this was their guy he'd stick out like a sore thumb.
"Henry, c'mon." the constable said, "We can't do anything without any leads."
"Stan?" Henry asked, lifting his gaze to the policeman across from him. "We can NOT afford to sit by and continue to let this guy attack our city. Now he's collecting things, he has to be. But what would he want with scrap metal, leather, electrical goods, and... fish?" he paused and stared blankly at the latest report that had been laid on his desk just that morning.
"You're kidding. He stole the only pair of angler fish from the aquarium? And... and some piranhas?" he stared at the photographs that had accompanied the report. The aquarium of Metro City had recently gotten two angler fish, an incredibly rare fish that had never been on display to humans before in the history of aquariums. It involved maintaining a very expensive water tank, which was highly pressurized like an airplane to mimic the depths in which the fish normally lived. "Now he's stealing FISH! I want this sicko, Stan!" Henry got to his feet, and slammed his hand down onto the desk, making the contents shake. "He's making a mockery of ALL of us!"
"Look at you, yes look at you. You're adorable, aren't you? Yes you are, yes you are! You want some goldfish? Yes you do!" Six was simpering to the two angler fish that were now in his possession. The two, large, hideously ugly fish stared blindly in the darkness of their tank, the only light being that coming off the little orbs hanging in front of their faces. The blue alien smiled, and grabbed a bag full of goldfish and tipped three into the water. Naturally attracted by the light the little fish swam towards the lights, and seconds later were snapped up quicker then Six could blink. "I love that." he grinned.
"So let me just... repeat myself, Sir." Minion said as he watched the last goldfish was quickly snatched up. "Using these animals DNA, mixed with the piranhas, and my own body, you're planning on...?"
"Creating an army of robotic fish." Six replied in a matter of fact before turning and grinning at his fishy companion. They were in the lobby of the observatory only now one wouldn't recognize it. Machinery lay around, robot bodies half completed hung from the ceiling, and a new creation from the genius hovered around observing everything. "I need muscle, Minion, and as helpful as my Brain Bots are I need more. What better then sentient fish willing to do my bidding?" he asked as a brain bot hovered close. The alien turned his attention to it, and petted its glowing head.
"You aren't trying to replace me, are you Sir?" the fish asked quietly, voice tiny and nervous. It was a fear, obviously, of being replaced by a whole army of alien fish spliced with Earthling fish.
"What? No!" Six gaped and turned his attention to his fish. "No clone could ever replace you in my heart, Minion! You're my number one, my alpha, my omega, my everything! Nothing in this world could repalce you. So put any of those silly thoughts out of your mind. In fact I am creating you a very special suit, with more abilities than the rest. You'll be able to control it, and nobody else. Not even me."
The little fish gave a happy noise in response, happy at what he had heard.
"And anyway, I want to have some fun with those police s'more. They'll be delighted to find footprints at a crime scene! Shame it'll be made of metal and unlike anything they've seen before!" Six laughed, and the little brain bot barked in reaction happily.
Minion looked back at the angler fish, and then slowly scanned the room. Six had advanced so quickly out here, having cleaned up everything himself, and even gone so far as to sound-proof the whole observatory. A good thing, since he was working with heavy machinery most nights and the noise alone would attract attention. He had already created at least thirty brain bots, all of which acted like excitable puppies and went with Six on his raids of the city. He had seen the specs of the robot suits, gorilla-like in appearance but with hidden weaponry that could be operated either by the fish inside, or by Six himself. The alien was gearing himself up for something, something very, very bad. The city which he had lived beneath, hidden from sight and knowledge, was going to pay for what had happened to him.
But only after an important part of his plan.
The woman hurried across the street, and cursed her new job at the library for keeping her such late hours. She glanced over her shoulders as she walked from the train station towards her apartment building. Ever since her loss at the facility which had been destroyed by Six, she had to get a new job, a job which paid much less then the last one. She had lost her apartment near Metro Tower, her car, many of her possessions sold in order to make payments on new debts and bills she had easily dealt with before.
She hated it.
But she knew she wasn't the only one. Many doctors and scientists hadn't been in the facility the night Six escaped, and they had gone into hiding just as instructed. They took on new identities, already prepared for them by the government. Families were put under protective services, and livelihoods promised. Just... not delivered. She returned to her one room apartment, grumbling to herself and turned to switch on the lights. They weren't working.
"Oh come ON!" she groaned, "I paid the electricity bill...!" Estella stumbled in the darkness, feeling for her way through to the kitchen where she knew she had a flashlight in case of such emergencies. She hoped the power hadn't been out too long; otherwise all the food in her fridge would be worthless. "Great, just great... another list of things to add to why my life sucks..." she muttered, her English accent somehow making her complaining seem very classy.
"Oh you poor thing."
Estella screamed as she heard the voice and spun around as a light suddenly exploded in the darkness, and landed on her. The light was a yellow red color, and bathed her in light. She couldn't see what it was coming from, but she could see the outline of somebody sitting on her recliner in the corner. The person was thin, with crossed legs, and folded hands in their lap.
"Who are you, what do you want?" she cried, pressing herself against the wall and wished she had some mace or something to throw at the person.
"Why Estella. You don't know me?" the voice asked and the person got to their feet and began to walk towards her. "I'm almost hurt... Lens."
Estella's eyes widened when she saw who it finally was. The light washed over him and it was no denying it. It was Six, all right. Only instead of the white she had always seen him wear now he was clad in black. The material must have been latex for it was tight and figure hugging against his slim frame. Upon his feet lay boots that were buckled, and the heels huge to make him seem taller than usual. There were gloves that travelled all the way up his arms, held in place by more buckles just under his arms.
"Six..." she whispered shakily.
"Ah, there we go." Six smiled pleasantly, putting his hands together as the brain bot hovered closer to the woman so she could see the bear trap of a mouth it possessed. "Funny how one word can just bring everything rushing back isn't it? The psychological profiling after a busy day of testing and experiments... how you thought flashing Rorschach ink blot tests at me would help identify my mindset more. It's all rather pathetic now that you think about it, isn't it?"
Estella knew why he was here, she didn't have to ask. He wanted vengeance. She swallowed quickly. "B-but wait how... how did you find me?" she asked.
"I've known your name since I was fourteen years old you stupid woman." Six snapped, "I knew everything about you by the time I was fifteen! You think I would let you or any of those pathetic little men who tried to keep a leash on me know any of this? You would have only given more tests, and I've HAD ENOUGH OF TESTS!" he suddenly screamed, startling the brain bot. He panted heavily before holding his hand sup in a calming motion. "Sorry. Sorry. I just get so damn angry when I think about my childhood..."
"It wasn't my fault!" Estella cried, voice shaking as tears began to run down her face. "I, I didn't put you in there!"
"No but you took such delight in talking to me, in studying my actions didn't you? Nobody else had psyche tested an alien before! What an honor! What does he know? What could he learn? Well he learned a whole damn lot. Yet I've never learned how to let go of the past. How to forgive. How to forget." Six took another few steps towards her, reached up, and grabbed her chin in his hands and lifted it as he inspected her face. "...you're much older then I remember. Who wants to live forever, am I right?"
"P-please... please..." she sobbed, feeling her knees buckling as her heart raced within her chest.
"Begging for mercy? How quaint. I'm sorry, Lens. That isn't going to work."
Three days later police came to Estella Longhorn's apartment after reports of her not showing up to work, or answering her phone. What they found her body in the bathroom. Her wrists here slit, and the words 'I'm sorry' was written in her blood on the bathroom wall. There was no suicide note, but honestly... was there any reason to look for one? Her financial records showed how she was drowning in debt, and she was known to have no friends or family here in the country. A death was mentioned on page fifteen of the Metro City Newspaper and she was buried in the cemetery.
Only one person attended the ceremony, besides the priest. It was a young man with a black goatee, and black hair done in a neat little style. He wore all black, as was customary, and had sat towards the back of the empty rows of seats. The man did not cry. When asked how he knew Estella he had replied with something along the lines of knowing her from long ago. Then he was gone, and the priest didn't even recall seeing him leave the grounds at all.
Six climbed into his invisible car, and slumped back against the upholstery. Lifting a hand he twisted the face of the wrist watch he wore, the human being projected vanished and was replaced by the blue skinned, large headed alien. His hands then gripped the wheels but he made no attempt to drive away just yet.
He was glad she was dead. He was glad he had witnessed the life leaking out of her in that bathroom, illuminated only by his first brain bots light. Six heard her whimpering pleas and begs for forgiveness slip into silence and only once her heart had stopped had he forgiven her. Searching in his glove compartment he pulled out a list and looked at the names as he grabbed a pen. He scratched out the name Estella Longhorn and quickly scanned over the remaining names. Many of them names belonging to the doctors who had taken such delight in extracting fluids from his body, exposing his growing skin to chemicals and vials, the skin graphs... the time they broke his leg just to see how long it would take to heal properly.
He took a shuddering breath, the paper in his hand crinkling.
"They deserve it, Sir." Minion's voice made his eyes fall open. "All your life they tested and studied and never let you go. You never knew a jungle gym, or sleeping in, or anything children should experience... they all earned this, Sir. Ever since the day they took you in."
"I know." Six replied quietly as he put the car in neutral and began to quietly drive through the cemetery. "And Minion?"
"Yes Sir?" the fish asked.
"I'm not Six anymore." he said as he exited the cemetery, and sped up as to avoid the traffic that drove around him, totally oblivious to the high standard piece of machinery driving between them. It had taken him weeks to learn how to maneuver an invisible car, but now he wondered just how he had managed beforehand without it. "That was their name for me. I refuse to answer to that name."
"What shall they call you, Sir? When you run havoc through the streets, when people beg you for their forgiveness?" the fish asked.
"Megamind." the alien breathed, turning his head to look at his fish and smiled. "I figured it was a pretty good name... the kind of name that could be screamed, gasped, whispered, all with equal effectiveness. Plus it describes me pretty well, wouldn't you say?" he asked.
"Yes, Sir."
"They'll all answer to Megamind eventually. All of them." Megamind growled as he drove further into the heart of the city in which he would rein, who he would teach the harshest lessons to. How he loathed them all, the people around him. How happy their lives had been, growing up in stable, normal environments. They dare complain about their hand outs in life with him in the world? They knew nothing of true suffering, nothing of thinking your whole world was just a white room where everyone came to you. Unable to witness a sunrise until he was fourteen years old...! Just what kind of sick, twisted race would do that to a child?
He was just arriving home, the sun already beginning to set, when something caught the corner of his eye. Was that a mugging happening? In his area? Parking the car, Megamind looked out the window as he watched what was going down.
A man, at least it looked like a man, was standing over a woman. He was wearing purple gloves, and his outfit could only be compared to that of a pimp with little to no taste. Zebra striped trim to the jacket and wrists, the material was a harsh purple color. A wide brimmed hat with a feather sat atop his head, face hidden. But, it seemed, instead of using a gun he was using something else. A mist? The woman was handing over her purse, and from the looks on her face she was delirious. Laughing, the man took her money and as he turned his back she fled, tripping a food few times.
Megamind was out of the car seconds later, approaching the man, not even activating his disguise.
"What are you doing?" he barked the order, to which the taller man turned his head to look at him.
His skin was incredibly tight against his face, one would swear they were looking at a skeleton. But his face wasn't a peachy pink fleshy color Megamind had learned to see on most people. It was purple. On his nose sat large sunglasses, and in his other hand was a walking stick though Megamind doubted he needed it. The criminal looked surprised, and startled, naturally when you saw a thin, blue headed alien wearing black skin tight leather. "Whoa brother!" he declared, stepping back. "What kinda trip did you fall out of?"
"I am no trip and I did no falling." Megamind replied snappily, and when he saw that the criminal was actually beginning to fade he held up his hand, and grabbed him but not with his hand.
"Hey man let up!" the man tried to free himself of a grip he didn't see, but found himself incapable of doing so.
"What is your name?" Megamind asked, stalking forward.
"Psycho. Psycho Delic." he replied, attempting to keep a cool persona but Megamind could see and all but smell the fear wafting off the man.
"Psycho Delic. I am Megamind and this is my area." the alien hissed quietly. "I find you loitering around my place again, and I'll crush your brain so fast you won't know what happened." he threatened, "Last thing I need is somebody like you drawing attention to me! If I ever see you around here again..."
Now, Psycho Delic's abilities had been gifted to him in a freak accident back when he was working at the chemical plant. The young hipster had fallen into a vat of chemicals being mass produced for a new drug, and when he had finally been pulled out of it his skin had turned a ghastly purple color. Not only that, but he had been gifted with the ability to not only become smoke himself, but to disperse a smoke which brought on hallucinations in those people around him. This had introduced him to a life of crime, naturally, and taking on the name of Psycho Delic.
He had never been challenged before, and it angered him. But at the same time, this blue dude with the big head, had him in his grip somehow. With a head that big, he must have all types of powers that Psycho Delic lacked. And he believed him that he could crush his brain, since if he could hold onto smoke so easily brain crushing would be nothing to him.
"All right blue dude all right," Psycho Delic replied finally. "I'll keep offa yer turf but answer a question?" he asked.
"Ugh. What." Megamind groaned.
"Why's your head so big?"
Next thing Psycho Delic knew he was flying through the air at speeds he thought unimaginable. Luckily, seconds before he landed (which no doubt would have broken his legs, spine, arms, and cracked his head open) he turned into a gas and rearranged himself on his feet. Adjusting his jacket and hat, he snorted. "Touchy." he said, before walking off into the darkness of the night which continued to spread around them.
"Of all the insolent, drug addled... RAGH. Who ASKS things like that?" Megamind growled angrily as he entered the observatory, grabbing a wrench and hurled it across the room in anger. Naturally, the Brain Bots raced after it and fought over who would get to return it to daddy.
"Sir, please calm down. It's nothing to get upset over!" Minion soothed, swimming around his masters head. "He's just a drugged idiot who knows little to nothing else!"
Megamind snarled and sank into his chair and rubbed his massive forehead. If that was the type of criminal that Metro City had been facing, they deserved a grander breed of villain. No longer would men with purple skin and smoke powers be the worst they could run into in the middle of the night. Everyone would know, and fear, hisname...
"Minion, take note." Megamind said as he spun in his chair and overlooked his domain, the brain bots who weren't obsessed with the wrench were working on the large robot suits. Behind him, angler and piranhas, were nibbling on the remains of dead fish. Far above him the telescope continued to scan the skies, seeking for anomalies in the universe, seeking black holes. Still he hoped on finding his quadrant, to at least lay his eyes on where he had originated from. "We need to put up security cameras around our hide out and in the blocks surrounding it. I want to see if anyone else dare cause trouble on my 'turf'."
"Yes, Sir!" Minion replied cheerily.
"Plus have a brain bot steal a newspaper from now on, every morning. I want to see just what is making headlines. Besides myself." Megamind smiled to himself as he sat back in his chair, and allowed himself a moment of rest and relaxation. It had been a busy day, after all, and he still had so much to do to those people on the list, and the city in general.
"Won't know what hit them." he whispered to himself, before allowing his eyes to slip shut. "Not at all."
To be continued