"-this is Roxanne Ritchi, reporting live from City Hall." Roxanne, hair now incredibly shorter than before, said as she signed off from the latest scandal on the news. Word was that the police had a means to contact the mysterious M and the mayor was doing everything in his power to cover up this fact. She sighed after making the 'cut' motion with her hand and allowing her shoulders to finally sag in exhaustion.
Another day, another sore on her feet.
"Another day another dollar, am I right Roxy?" Hal asked after switching off the camera.
"Hmmhmm." she agreed, not really hearing him. A few months ago things seemed like they were beginning to improve in Metro City. M had crooks running and people cheering, yet lately it felt like the tide was turning once more in the bad guys favor.
Despite the influx of new police on the force, crime gangs were rocketing. There were more people being hospitalized due to almost overdoses on drugs that nobody had ever seen before. Jewelry stores were being targeted by Hot Flash's gang, since that woman was always into pretty sparkly things. Meanwhile the Destruction Worker had turned his hand to something very close to terrorism, setting off explosions in buildings without any forewarning. It was all very different to what the trio was normally doing and it alarmed many.
Even M seemed to be having trouble stopping everyone.
After saying goodbye to Hal, Roxanne decided to head back towards her apartment which wasn't too far from where they were filming and if she walked at a brisk enough pace she'd be there in no time. Her heels clicked upon the pavement as she walked, one hand permanently holding onto a mace hidden in her shoulder bag. Though, if she paused to consider, it was a little too light out for anyone to attempt anything.
Now, Roxanne had been on the television working for KPMG 8 for three years now. She had covered any number of things, from small time crooks, to young hoons driving through the city streets at ridiculous speeds, feel good stories, and hard hitting political dramas that tended to grip the city every few years. But one story that had never truly left her were those of the doctors. All of them experts in their fields, the top of their games, yet each and every one of them had either gone missing or found dead in their homes.
Just how gifted, intelligent people could kill themselves was at a loss to her.
If only she knew the reason behind it all had been watching her over the past few months. If only she and the rest of the city knew of the impending doom and that it's centre of evil was the old abandoned observatory that nobody cared for anymore. If only they knew of the robots, and deadly devices, contained within the emptied out hillside the abandoned science research centre was perched on top of. If only Metro City knew of Megaminds existence…
Now, Megamind had never really liked people as a whole before. It was difficult to when your only contact with them was so they could do experiments on him, or conduct tests? Humans had brought on nothing but pain and suffering of the worse degree. He hated them, and wished they would all die long and horrible deaths... and yet, when he watched the way this young woman spoke on the news, voicing not only her views but those of a large number of people, he could not help but feel enraptured by her.
She had large, intelligent, sky blue eyes. The way her brown hair framed her face like a beautiful picture and the fact she had freckles was incredibly interesting. Megamind had believed freckles to be something in possession of 'gingers', people with odd skin pigmentations. Yet here was a perfectly healthy brunette with freckles and sparkling blue eyes.
Being unable to understand why he found her so fascinating to watch, after years of doing nothing but, he decided it time to take action. It would be easier to study the subject up close than through a screen.
Roxanne Ritchi was just beginning to cross the street when she heard the sound of a rumbling engine. Stopping, she turned her head from left to right, looking for the car. There was nothing there. But suddenly a fur covered arm appeared out of nowhere, holding what looked like an air freshener can. Before she could react it had gone off in her face, and the world went black. Her slim figure began to drop to the floor but the same hand grabbed her thin waist, before pulling her into the car.
"Be careful, be CAREFUL." Megamind demanded from the back seat as Minion handed the unconscious woman into the back seat. His master took hold of her as if she were made of China, and positioned her besides him in the car and strapped her in as the fish began to drive again.
She looked so... something. He couldn't even touch her, so he remained fixed in his seat on the far side of the car as Minion drove them through the city streets expertly, and soon drove towards the observatory. The gate swung open on command and the sloping drive ahead of them abruptly opened, and the car drove down into the ground as the road slammed shut behind them. The drive way was illuminated by lights hanging above and the car sped around until it came to a stop in an underground car park.
"Be careful with her." Megamind insisted as Minion lifted the unconscious woman from the car, and carried her carefully through the garage. They passed some Brain Bots who flew at the invisible car carrying car wax and little window cleaners with rags to clean the surface.
"Sir if I may be so bold as to ask, why did we do this again?" Minion asked as they rode the elevator up through to the 'entertainment' section of the underground base. It basically had more fish tanks on either side, multiple screens hanging from the ceiling, a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling as well as a long dining table. Megamind guided Minion to the cushy leather sofa and had him lay the woman onto it.
"Because it's no good examining a specimen from afar, you have to get in close to truly experience them." Megamind said as he knelt besides the sofa, hands gripping the cushion as he looked at her. "How much did you use?"
"Enough to keep her knocked out for an hour, Sir." Minion replied.
Megamind nodded. One hour would do just fine. He waved a hand at Minion, and the fish slowly turned and walked onto the elevator platform and sunk out of sight leaving his master and the woman alone. Once he knew he was alone Megamind continued to watch her with the kind of rapt attention a dog gave somebody who held a treat they wanted.
"What is it about you, Miss Ritchi?" he asked quietly as he sunk into a sitting position on the floor, his cape spreading out behind him as he did so. "Why is it I see you in my dreams, just out of my reach? I have never even spoken with you... nor you I... do not even know of my existence but... if you did..." Megamind trailed off before giving a snort of amusement at his sentimentality. "You're nothing too amazing. That thin mousy hair, those freckles... those... um. Hm." his eyes travelled down her body, pausing momentarily on her chest and then her hips.
The tight feeling in his stomach doubled its strength and he stared, it scared him terribly, so he turned his eyes back to her face. Humans weren't appealing to him at all, normally. He had seen Hot Flash, a woman more than twice his age, in skin tight spandex and fishnets... yet he had felt nothing like that at all. What he felt, when taking in the sight of Roxanne wearing a stylish black shirt with a red dress just made his hearts do funny things he didn't exactly want to understand.
Right? It did no good working out feelings. Feelings could be ultimately be betrayed, and he didn't want to experience that kind of emotional pain. He had already been hurt enough in his life, he should know better and yet... when he looked into this woman's face when she was on the news, when he saw the emotion in those bright blue eyes and how she spoke to eloquently... it almost was like she was the better side of humanity to him. He had only known anger, pain, and torment. She was like a part of it that he had never truly experienced, banned from his life.
So he had grown sick of simply watching on the screen. He wanted to be in her presence so badly he had done this. Gassed her, brought her to his lair and was now staring at her as if he expected her to do something.
Megamind blinked his green eyes slowly before finally lifting a hand. Slowly, apprehensively, acting like a wild animal, he reached forward to touch her face but his hand froze mere millimeters from her face. He withdrew his hand as if he had touched something to hold, and grasped at it. No. It wasn't right of him to touch her without her consent, and yet drugging and kidnapping her was perfectly fine in his mind. He settled against the couch, rested his chin on his arms, and simply watched her.
He practically drank in the sight of her, laying there upon his couch as if she had been invited. Megamind imagined that she had been over for a meal, they had eaten something fancy at his long dining table as the Brain Bots and Minion served up meals. He had made her laugh at something or another, she then had smiled at him in ways he could only dream of. Then, tired from it all, she had retired to his couch and fallen asleep. Being a proper gentleman he wouldn't take advantage of her, despite all she had drank.
It would be improper.
"What kind of spell have you put on me, Miss Ritchi?" he asked her after a good while watching her sleeping face, taking in how her eyelids gently shifted now and then to show she was dreaming. "What have you done that nobody else on this miserable planet could ever dream of doing...?" he slowly stood up, legs sore from having sat so awkwardly for so long. "I hope I find out one day. Minion!" he called suddenly.
The fish was there moments later, gears whirling. "Sir?"
"We're taking her home. If anything she may chalk this all up to some kind of dream." Megamind said as the fish nodded his body before scooping the woman up into his arms.
"Yes, Sir." Minion said and the two left the base, returned to the car and sped off into the night to deposit the woman before she would wake up and find herself in the presence of a blue headed alien and a ghost fish in a robot suit. Megamind didn't want to cause her any trauma, after all. It would be unfitting to see any haunted looks in those perfect eyes of hers.
They both found her loft to be very up to date and stylish in its simplicity. As Minion puts the lady onto her own couch, Megamind looks at the photographs on the wall. There are a fair few of her with some handsome looking man with jet black hair, but not too many. He sighs, wistful all of a sudden. What would it be like, to have photographs up in his room? Would it make it feel more... normal? But really, did he want to be normal? Never in his life had he ever considered the possibility of appearing normal to anyone, let alone just himself since NOBODY but himself and Minion ever entered his bedroom.
He arched his back to stretch before turning back around and walked over to the sofa, and leaned over the unconscious Roxanne.
"I'll be seeing you again." he whispered before hover patting her head before backing up, and opening up the glass doors and waited for Minion to join him before floating them back down quickly and climbing back into the invisible car. Once in the safety of his car he sighs, and puts his hand to his forehead.
"Are you all right, Sir?" Minion asked quietly from his place in the drivers seat.
"No, not really... just take me home, Minion. Just take me home."
"Yes sir." but before the fish could start the engine Megamind suddenly sat forward, grabbing the robotic shoulder.
"Wait! Look out there!" he said, pointing not to the street before them but above.
Something, somebody, was flying through the night sky. Megamind watched, quickly climbed his way into the front seat and pressed his hands to the glass. "It's him."
It was M. It had to be M. Megamind hadn't been informed of any new villains taking root in the city, and he knew only Hot Flash held the power of flight because of her boots yet that was definitely not Hot Flash up there. His torso was V shaped, muscles visible from all the way down here, and he had an impressive cape. Megamind watched as the figure vanished, ducking behind a building, before appearing again and going to the doors of the last person Megamind expected.
"What is he doing?" Megamind barked all but pushing Minion out of the drivers seat so he could see up at the apartment where the man was now hovering outside of. Fumbling with the glove compartment of the car Megamind pulled out some sleek looking binoculars and held them up. He watched closely as the shadowed man was peering in through the glass doors. "Why would he be..."
"Maybe he is an admirer of Ms. Ritchi too?" Minion asked cautiously.
"No!" Megamind snapped viciously, grinding his teeth against one another.
"Imagine what would have happened if he'd come home to find her not there!" Minion started, "He would have begun a search for her and he might have found our secret hide out!"
Megamind's neck almost snapped, that was how fast he turned his head to glare at the robotic body besides him. His green eyes were narrowed in a warning way, before they quickly softened. "He would come after her if she went missing?" he asked himself. "So if I kidnapped her and made it obvious... he would come right after her! I could spring a trap, and reveal who this M person really is! And then KILL HIM!"
"That wasn't what I was getting at Sir and you know-" Minion started.
"Silence!" Megamind snapped, taking one last look up at Roxanne's loft to find that M had moved on. "Oh ho ho ho... Yes, yes... it's all coming together swimmingly. All the pieces on the chess board... it's going to be beautiful. Absolutely brilliant!" Megamind tossed the binoculars at Minion, started the engine and the car left tire treads embedded in the road as it sped off into the night.
The robot besides him was incredibly still, the soft glow that emanated from the middle of its glass tank flickered a little before Minion spoke again. "So you're basically going to do what you did tonight, only this time bring attention to yourself, Sir?"
The blue alien glared at his counter part. "Very childish way of putting it, Minion, but yes. That's the plan."
"But expose ourselves before we're ready? What if you can't destroy M, what if he really has no weaknesses?" the fish asked.
"Are you trying to talk me out of my plan, Minion?" Megamind asked, eyes back on the road but now driving angrily, swerving in and out of traffic as normal but this time purposely clipping cars and causing small accidents in their wake.
"No Sir, I wouldn't dare." Minion replied sheepishly, "But you've worked so long and so hard on your plan to destroy the city...! Almost everything is in place; do you really want to expose our hide out to him?"
"Stupid fish." the car ran a red light and just missed being barreled into by an eighteen wheeler. "I won't reveal our main base of operations. Why do you think I have those abandoned warehouses under my control? We'll use one of those. Throw a few useless machines around in there, they'll think it's my base and if he DOES, though however unlikely, overpower us and destroys it all it won't mean anything to me. Do you understand now?"
"Yes, I see now Sir." Minion said quietly, putting the binoculars away in the glove compartment. "Sorry I questioned your genius, Sir."
"Oh it's nothing. People seem to do that all the time." Megamind said as the car drove up the drive way towards the observatory for a second time that night.
Minion watched his masters face as it was over shadowed when they entered the base, how those eyes were calculating and plotting something he himself couldn't possibly begin to understand. While he was thankful to see such a spark to Megamind's face, at the same time he felt it was happening for the wrong reasons. They had come such a long way from the white imprisonment all those years ago, but had it truly been for the right reasons?
All but one of the men who had made Megamind's life a living Hell was gone beyond their reach, wiped out as if they were annoying flies at a picnic table. Yet still he saw the yearning, longing, for more vengeance on his master's face. Was his hatred consuming him, bit by bit? He was the secret overlord of criminal activity throughout the city, the Doom Syndicate answered his calls and orders no matter what time of day or night, and his army of fish was growing every day.
The fish began to wonder, though, if the whole city deserved to pay for what had happened to them. Even though his life had been cut incredibly short, he himself an innocent murdered for scientific pursuits, he felt that other innocents didn't deserve to suffer.
He dare not speak this to his master though, who he watched rush across the garage and began to bark orders at the Brain Bots who flew around obeying without question. And now he was going to reveal himself, before everything was ready, so he could... what? Take on this M, who he believed to be the one who caused everything in the first place? What if, heaven forbid, his master was wrong? Or worse, right? Or right about one thing, but wrong about another?
Minion had seen news reports of the fetes achieved by M. Metal twisted in a way to hold prisoners in place, burn holes through material and steel. Brick walls toppled when he would fly through them... could his master, despite his great brain power, over come such a foe?
In a way he hoped so. But at the same time...
"So, we shall capture Roxanne Ritchi but at an integral part of one of those live reports she always does," Megamind was at his work floor, which had plans and notes along with maps and diagrams hanging from above on pieces of string. He grabbed one piece and tugged it closer to his face to look at it. "Then, when she's in the middle of doing her report I'll come in and grab her. Make it a real spectacle; this is after all my first true appearance to the world. I'll announce myself, Megamind! Incredibly handsome criminal genius and master of all Villainy! The puppet master of the Doom Syndicate, the one who holds this city in a death grip of panic and evil! Issue my challenge to Metro Man and away with her before he can arrive. Yes, yes..."
He had his hands pressed up against a map he had of Metro City before flipping over to the one that showed the underground, abandoned, train track sections that he had come across when emptying out the inside of the observatory hill. They had been abandoned after too many cave-ins, and they would help him out to become escape routes when escaping with Roxanne.
"I'll have to find the route which takes me directly to the docks, where all the abandoned warehouses ... have to pick one, a good big one where I can conceal my fighter droids. I also need a means in which to restrain her, rope? No, too cliché. Strapped to a metal operating table...? Oh yes I like that idea... totally at my mercy, that beautiful vixen."
"That what?" Minion asked, eyes widening.
"What? I didn't say anything." Megamind snapped back as he was looking over a list of buildings he could use.
"You just called Miss Ritchi a-"
"MINION." the blue alien turned his head, green eyes flashing. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of planning something big?"
The small glowing fish dimmed in his orb, and the robot sagged forward obediently.
"THANK you. Cha." Megamind rolled his eyes before turning back to his plan, slowly moving together before his eyes and he continued to work long into the night and early morning, getting no sleep at all.
So enwrapped he was in his plan the blue alien failed to notice that Minion's robot body had not moved from where he had fallen silent hours ago. Nor that the friendly, faithful, glow caused by his fish companion had long since gone out, something that normally only happened when Megamind was asleep.
Back in her apartment, Roxanne Ritchi suddenly awoke with a startled gasp, and shakily jumped to her feet with her hands raised in a self defense pose. As her head swam in lazy circles she slowly realized she was home, in her apartment. The tea kettle was whistling gently as the water boiled, and her slippers were upon her feet.
"Whoa... okay, I think you've been working too hard..." she said as she put a hand to her forehead and shut her eyes in hopes of the spinning feeling to stop. She couldn't remember getting home, putting on her kettle or falling asleep on her couch. She knew she had been putting in extra hours at the office but she would never had expected it to get so bad that she had lapses in her memory like this.
Opening her eyes she glanced around her loft, before walking towards the balcony and opened up the glass doors to allow the nice late night breeze drift through her apartment, airing out both it and her head. "That's better." she said to herself before heading into the kitchen to make herself some tea. "Maybe it's time to take some annual leave." she said to herself as she walked into her kitchen, pausing to check in on her pet fish which swam around in a rectangular fish tank. The three little fish peered out at her as the snails she owned slowly continued to clean their way along the pebbles at the base of the tank.
"What do you guys think, you think Mommy needs some time to herself?" she asked. The smallest black one opened its mouth and bobbed at the top of the water, and the other two fish soon followed suite. "I'll take that as a yes." Roxanne laughed before grabbing some fish food to appease the masses before getting back to her tea. "Oh but wait, damn. I have that big interview in a few days time... ugh. I might as well get that over and done with, then take some quiet time." she assured herself as she went to grab a mug to make her tea in before heading to bed for a good night's rest.