Like Stars In The Sky

Wayne is in the middle of dinner with Roxie when he hears it; a gut-wrenchingly loud cry of 'Metro Man!'.

He drops his fork and is halfway across the city by the time it hits the table, civvies replaced by his uniform.

Metro Man easily follows the scream to the docks, mostly because it's echoing. Not off the buildings, that would just displace the sound and be confusing, but the voice itself is echoing and overlapping to make the scream last longer than it should.

Metro Man knows exactly who called for him. He knows exactly how bad of an idea it is to walk — or fly — straight into what is sure to be a trap. But Roxie hasn't been kidnapped, no announcement has been made, and there is too much panic and yet somehow spite in that oh-so-familiar voice. If it is a trap, it's a good one, one he can not risk ignoring.

It's less than a minute after the initial scream that he finds what he's looking for; Megamind laying on the ground in an alley, surrounded by a bunch of rather nasty-looking people, curled up to put his large head between them and his vital organs. Most people don't know just how tough that head of his really is.

Metro Man thinks he looks a bit like a snake, with how much he can bend his spine and his tail coiled around him. In a blink, Metro Man lands, damaging the ground beneath him. He straightens, turning his head slowly to look each of the thugs in the eye.

A beat of silence passes. Two. Then...

"Shit!"

"It's Metro Man!"

"Scram!"

"What the Hell?!"

With different shouts of utter panic, the gang disperse. Metro Man is tempted to go after them, but a whine reminds him that he has something more important to handle right now. He'll catch up to them later.

"You alright, little buddy?" Metro Man asks, x-raying Megamind. After years of knowing each other, he has a basic idea of what the other's insides are supposed to look like, and nothing looks too different from last time he had a reason to scan him. Well, except "Did you break your ankle?"

"...it's closer to a sprain." Megamind answers quietly, gingerly pushing himself into a half-sitting/half-laying position, still leaning on his arms. He has a black eye, along with other bruises, and a bit of white-and-green blood dribbling out of one corner of his mouth. He flexes his foot, then winces. "Okay, it might be a partial fracture."

"What happened?" Metro Man kneels down to move his hand over the other's body, trying to feel for anything he could've possibly missed with his vision. He wouldn't consider it necessary for anyone else, but Megamind has proven himself too good at shielding and holograms for him to not be a little worried. Megamind flinches away, glaring at him. They lock eyes for a tense moment, then Megamind sighs overdramatically, flopping down to lay on his arm, allowing the examination with all the passive stubbornness of a nap-deprived child.

"They jumped me, De-Gun mel-funek-shunned..." He waves the hand he wasn't laying on flippantly, half-shrugging one shoulder. "I'm sure you can figure out the rest."

"It's 'malfunctioned'." Metro Man corrects almost automatically, rolling his eyes at the other's annoyed huff. "And do you really expect me to believe that?"

"There were six of them." Megamind hisses, eyes narrowed.

"Oh no! Six whole idiot human runts!" Metro Man gasps, feeling very pleased with himself when the other laughs sharply in shock. There's no humans around, he doesn't have to pretend that they come anywhere close to comparing to he or Megamind.

"Come on, little buddy. No way they would've been able to do that," he gestures at the bruising along Megamind's face, "unless you already had something like this." He points at the ankle that he's hoping is only sprained.

Megamind smiles. It's small, barely not a frown, and Metro Man has only seen it a few times in their lives. It's the look Megamind gives him whenever he manages to not fall for something that Megamind was certain he would, using his mind instead of his powers. It's the closest to 'impressed' Megamind is ever going to give him.

"I was testing something that messes with electronics." Megamind says slowly, almost sounding bored. Uh-oh, that means he's really not going to like this. "Not as a feature, exactly, more as a side effect. Minyon and the Brainbots couldn't get near it, so I was alone. Malfunction, explosion, walking home with a very noticeable limp and a fried De-Gun through a not-great part of town; it's a bit more complex than 2 + 2, but I'm sure you can muddle through the math on this one."

Metro Man nods with a tight frown, because yeah, that sounds like something the little guy would just brush off. He's used to hearing explosions mostly because of the other alien, and he can remember hearing one earlier, something he ignored because there weren't any screams.

Because of course Megamind managed to hold his tongue while being blown backwards in an explosion.

He sighs, looking Megamind up and down one more time before asking "Can Minion take care of all this," he gestures to the various injuries, "or would you rather let the prison doctor handle it?"

"You're giving me a choice?" Megamind asks incredulously, eyebrow raised.

"Well, yeah, I mean" he shrugs "you were the victim this time. I can't just haul you off to jail, I'd feel like an ass."

"And what a new feeling that must be for you." Megamind chuckles, rolling his eyes. He looks to the side, thinking, before hesitantly answering "Doctor Dex is visiting his granddaughter. I would rather not see another doctor, so I suppose the Lair is preferable. Minyon has handled worse, I would be fine."

Metro Man can tell from his tone that he doesn't actually believe he'll be taken to the Lair. He ignores it, knowing that Megamind has plenty of valid reasons to have trust issues, especially with him. Instead he just smiles in agreement, holding out his arms.

Megamind sneers, but crawls into the embrace to be held in a fireman carry, tail wrapping around Metro Man's waist for extra support. He yawns, mouth stretching wider than a human's can, and pauses for only a second before leaning his head against the Hero's large chest.

Metro Man rises slowly into the air. He can't use Superspeed when carrying someone, not without killing them, but he can still go pretty fast. He continues to bob gently through the air, though, figuring his injured passenger will appreciate not being jostled too much and being able to actually see where they're going.

He rises until they're a little above most buildings, then heads towards a point somewhere between the Lair and the prison. He knows Megamind will be suspicious right up until he finally turns, and he's kinda hoping he'll get to catch the Supervillain off guard. It's fun, when he knows he surprised Megamind in some way.

The sun set a few minutes ago, night settling over the world like a blanket. On the horizon, the farmlands and fields and oceans are all pitch-black. The city itself, however...

"It sure is pretty from up here, isn't it?" Metro Man breathes, staring out at the thousands of lights piercing the darkness. Megamind doesn't respond, and that's fine, flying in comfortable-ish silence together is kinda nice.

"It's like a piece of the night sky," Megamind whispers after a while, when they're almost at the turning point, "cut out and set upon the ground."

"What?" Metro Man blinks down at him, confused.

"Metrocity." Megamind clarifies, smiling softly at the city. Their city. "It's hard to decide what is more beautiful; the thousands of possibilities that light the Heavens, or the pure innovation that lights this mortal world." He gestures to the stars in the sky, then to the city lights.

Metro Man smiles, looking between the two. He hasn't really thought about it like that before, but it fits. "Out of all the places in the universe, I'm glad we landed here."

"You would say that about any place you grew up in." Megamind scoffs, but a second later he hums. Not like a human hums, this is more musical than that. "But I... understand the sentahmahnt."

"Sentiment." Metro Man mutters absently, turning towards the Lair. He feels Megamind tense in his arms, hears the quiet beginning of an aborted questioning sound, and grins in victory.