Shattered Mind Prologue

Prologue

A small blue car pulled up to the gates of Glenfield Hospital. The car park attendant looked at the man in the car for a moment but let him in. Once he found a space, he parked and then headed into the large building. The Hospital is about three miles north east of Metro City centre and has around 520 beds and over 2000 staff providing a range of in-patient, day case and out-patient services.

The lightly tanned man with dark hair and green eyes arrived at Reception and leaned on the desk. "Ollo. I'm here to meet Bernard Harrison's mother Mrs. Jane Harrison. I believe she's a patient here." He smiled warmly.

The young receptionist looked up at him, looked at her superior, then back. "I'm sorry. We can't give out patient information."

The man sighed only slightly annoyed. He the dug into his dark suit, brought out an ID card and handed it to her. "My name is Doctor Afeeke Natale."

The receptionist's superior came over. She was a tall woman with brown eyes and long dark copper hair. She looked at the card, then looked at the man. She spoke softly but firmly. "I'm a close friend of Mrs Harrison and her son. You're lucky I was here. He told me earlier that you would be coming." She looked at the younger girl. "Don't worry, Jo. I'll take him." She turned to the dark haired man and the two started to walked down the corridor. She looked at him, lowering her voice as they walked. "Hello, Megamind."

A wide grinned appeared on the disguised Megamind as he entered the lift. No one was in the large space and the two looked at each other. "How did you know?"

The red hair woman grinned back. "Bernard's my older brother. He told me last night that you would be here to help our mother. He said you would be disguised so look for anyone with toxic green eyes."

"I didn't know Bernard had any siblings." Megamind smiled back at her. "Do you two talk a lot?"

"Yeah, we're close." Her expression changed slightly, not mad but somewhere close. "You know, you made our mother worry about him. None of us could contact him for ages, then all the mess with Tighten happened and she got worse. The doctors didn't want to move her, fearing she would-"

He cut her off. "I'm truly sorry. I didn't know." He stepped closer. "Miss Harrison, I'm sure once I've spoken to her doctor, I will be able to help you all." He tilted his head.

She looked at him, then suddenly she started laughing. Then she said "Oh, please, call me Lauren and drop the Miss." She shook her head. "My mother is a lot tougher than she looks and she's a big fan of yours."

The disguised blue aliens green eye lit up, surprised. "Really?"

She grinned at him. "Yeah, it was the only thing Mom and Bear would talk about around the house." She gave a short laugh. "After he told me what you did, he seemed changed." She looked up at the numbers, slowly changing. "He's okay. Don't worried about him. His family is here to look after him."

"I would still like to apologise to you and your mother in person."

"Accepted. I feel very proud of my brother." Her voice was firm again. He looked at her, but she didn't look at him. Her eyes closed. "I like to think that it wasn't just Roxanne Ritchi who help change you. In a small way my brother Bernard helped, too. He had a part in you becoming a hero and helping us, so-" She turned to him and bent down and kissed him on the cheek as the doors opened "-thank you."

She walked out and he followed quickly after her as the lift was filling up. He had a shocked look on his face for a moment.

A short walk down the hallway and she stopped. "Well, we're here." He opened the door. Megamind could see Bernard in a chair near the bed. Next to him stood an older-looking man. A few seconds passed and all three in the room looked at him.

Bernard stood up and walked over to him. "Megamind." He grinned.

The older woman lying in the bed spoke next. "Please, you don't need to have that disguise on here."

Feeling nervous, he reached for the controls on the watch and in a blue flash, he stood wearing a new suit. He looked at her, smiled and lowed his voice. "Ah, Mrs. Harrison, we finally meet." He stalked closer to the bed until he was stood next to it and the she started laughing.

After her laughter had died, he said, "I never knew I had a fan while I was a villain."

"Oh you have tons, sweetie." She looked to the older man. "This is my husband, Doctor Russell Harrison" He nodded to Megamind.

"Is he your doctor?"

"No," she said.

"I'll go get Selby," Russell said, and left.

Not long after he had left the room, he was back in with a dark-skinned man. He took one look at Megamind, shut the door and turned to Russell, his voice raised but not yelling. "Why didn't you tell me you had asked him to come help?"

Megamind looked confused at both men, who seemed to be in a conversation that only they knew about. Jane tapped him on the shoulder he turned his head.

"Best not to worry about them." She watched her husband and his friend. "They're both fans of your past."

Megamind shook his head, still not understanding. He looked at Bernard, who still sat in the chair. "You could have warned me about your family."

The Harrison family stood or sat in the private room, while both Megamind and Jane's doctor showed him the medical file.

After almost 2 hours talking with Jane about her case, Megamind found out she had a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Five years ago, she had suffered a traumatic experience; she had witnessed her twin brother's whole family killed in front of her eyes. She had been the only one to survive the attack that night. Two men had broken into the house and violently assaulted all members of the family, ending with deaths of her twin brother, his wife and their three children. The two men had been found by the police a day later. They were only two in a large gang that was still free and knew about her and her family. The police had been doing a great job at keeping her safe. The two men had been sentenced to death sixteen months later.

Half way into this meeting, Selby had been called to another patient Also, both Lauren and Russell had vanished, leaving only mother and son in the room with Megamind.

The blue hero sat at the small table looking over the large file from a number of other doctors. He was half way though the second half of the file when Bernard stood up and asked "Hey, Megamind. Would you like something to drink?"

It took the blue alien a moment to realize Bernard was talking to him. He looked up, a little surprised. "Oh sorry. Yes, please, coffee. I know it's only a hospital but could you try and make it strong and very sweet?" He grinned. As Bernard turned to leave the room, he nodded while also smirking.

In the corner of his eye, he could see Jane watching him; he pushed away from the desk but didn't move. He turned his head to look at her. "He's gone now; you can be truthful."

She sighed heavily. "I'm surprised you're willing to take my case."

"Yeah, well, I have years of experience from the other side of things, so I can help you."

"Well, I will thank you for helping me like you're doing." She sat up in the bed and her eyes widen angrily at him but he still didn't move. Her voice rose. "But, please, help me to understand why you had to take over my son's life. He doesn't talk about it to me." The cold look in her eyes faded and her head dropped down but she still continued. "He's always been able to talk to me about any of his problems before."

Megamind looked down at the file in front of him on the desk. "How much has he said?"

"Only that you shot him with your dehydration gun. I want to hear your reason why you kept him hidden from us."

He looked her in the eyes. He knew he couldn't lie or come up with something, so he told her the truth. He told her that he hadn't expected Roxanne to appear at his Lair that day Tighten was first created. She sat there on the bed and listened to him talk to her in detail about what had happened and that he did plan to change Bernard back but Roxanne had appeared and everything changed so fast.

After what seemed like days but was really only a few hours, both ex-criminal genius and mother had come to a understanding of some kind. He told her that he would help her and he would make sure that her whole family would be protected. He told her, if any criminals from that gang came back, to call him.

Megamind reached for a piece of paper and wrote down something. He then stood up and walked calmly over to her and handed it to her. As he spoke, he pointed to the different numbers. "That first one is my personal number and the second is to call a small number of my brainbot to aid you until I can arrive."

She looked up at him, shocked. "Thank you."

"You don't need to thank me."

She smiled at him and then nodded in his understanding. "So how will you help with me?"

"Oh I have a few ideas up here." He tapped his head lightly and grinned. "I should go; it's getting late and you, Mrs Harrison, need rest." He turned picked up all the files. They were all copies that Selby was letting him keep.

Once he had them all in hand he turned his disguise back on, walked over to the door, opened it, but turned at the last minute. "Oh, and I will be in contact with your son once I have a plan." He then left the room.

The disguised Megamind walked over to the small blue car and got in, putting the files in the seat next to him. He started the car up and left the car park. Within seconds of leaving, the whole car simply vanished.

After leaving the hospital he had a lot on his mind, ideas about how this new machine would work and how to make it, and he didn't feel like returning to the Lair any time soon. He needed some space to think.

So he started randomly driving around the city in the invisible car. An hour passed and the streets seemed less interesting to him than when he left hospital. He stopped the car at the side of the road and just looked out at the busy street, he watched as people went about there normal lives, as he watched time past him by.

A light on his watch started blinking, getting his attention. He looked down with a raised an eyebrow. He started the car up and drove until he came to Glenfield housing project.

The not-so-invisible car pulled into a driveway. The car stopped and he got out then made his way over to the door. He pressed a hidden button on his watch and the door opened.

He was met by an odd looking brainbot. It didn't have any spikes or fins like the others back at the Lair. This small robot had 4 arms, was mostly white and had a silver dome and unlike its other brothers this brainbot was special because it has two blue eyes.

"What's he done now?" Megamind asked the white brainbot.

An annoyed voice like Roxanne's came from the small bot. "He's been tearing at the sofa again."

Megamind sighed "Oh!" He reached up with one hand to his face the looked at the brainbot. "You dragged me all the way over here to tell me he's been tearing at the sofa? Of course he's going to that."

Megamind walked over to the sofa, bent down and looked at the corner of it. He let out a sigh. "Not too much damage." He stood up again. The white brainbot hovered next to him . "Roxy, would you mind getting me a drink?"

"Of course, love."

With orders from her master, the female bot flow off. He smiled; he had created this special brainbot for a reason. He had taken a lot of time, making her perfect. He had made her a year before he turned good; he wondered what Minion and Roxanne would think to this special little bot.

Suddenly from behind the sofa came a short-haired silver tabby cat. It jumped up on the edge of the sofa and looked up at him.

Megamind point his finger at the cat. "You've been a bad kitty."

The young cat tilled it's head one way and then miaowed at him.

Megamind sat down on the other end. He lifted his leg up and sat cross-legged with his back on the armrest of the large old sofa, and the young short-haired silver tabby cat came and sat on his lap.

He looked out one of the windows. His mind flashed to his life long friend and he started thinking of how worried Minion would be. Maybe he should call. The cat moved a little and he looked down and smiled.

When he was still a villain and the fights became too much or he need time to lay low, he would just vanish for a day or so, hide out in one of the many lairs in the city and just relax. Sometimes he hid alone, without Minion. He had always told Minion that he would be gone for a while; both liked the short time apart. Megamind had always loved coming to the east lair the most. He didn't know how his fishy friend would react to the pet cat so he never told Minion about it.

A year ago, when he was still a villain, Megamind found out from some of the neighbours that the cat had been abandon by its last owner. He had tracked down the owner, turned him into a small blue cube, taken him to an animal rights group and told them what the man had done. Shortly after adopting the small cat he went to a pet shop while disguised and got everything he would need to look after a cat. He had also named the cat Newton.

Since becoming the new hero of the city, he hadn't had time alone. Both he and Minion had been slightly stressed out with the change in life and all the meeting with city's high ranking officials. He didn't want to burn out like Wayne Scott, aka Metro Man, had, so this time alone would be great.

The special brainbot named Roxy came flying back into the large open room with a hot drink and placed it on the table; she then asked, "Will you be staying tonight, Master?"

He leaned forwards to pick up the mug of coffee from the table. Newton's head raised up and he miaowed at the blue alien's movement. He leaned back with the mug in his hands, taking a long gulp of the liquid.

"Yeah, I will. I have a lot of work to start."

"Very well, Master." She then flew over to a work table. "Would you like me to set up for you?"

"Yes." He gave her a list of items he was going to use. After a while he looked down and with his free hand he started stroked the cat's head; moments later, a happy purring sound was heard.

"What do you think, Newton? Should I call Minion?" The cat just purred. "I think helping Bernard's mother will be very good idea. I'll have to arrange a time to meet him later tomorrow."

Newton sat up on Megamind's legs and looked at him with lime green eyes then jumped off, Megamind smiled and followed it into the kitchen.

Sometime later, he come out again and walked over to his work desk. He looked down at all the blank blueprint paper, then sat and started working on the plans for the machine he would be building. After drawing out a rough idea, he grabbed another sheet, laid it over the first and redrew it, all the time correcting any errors. All worry for his friend knowing he was ok vanished from his mind. He worked well into the day.