Chapter 4
Chapter Four: Team-bonding? Overated. Just yell at each other.
*M*E*G*A*M*I*N*D*
The lab was strangely full to Tony. He rarely had two people in his lab, much less three. Megamind didn't really care. He had never had a designated lab. He just tinkered wherever he felt like. Usually the brainbots would fetch stuff out of the other rooms. Bruce still thought the room was huge though. It had been years since he'd had an actual lab that was bigger than a closet.
Bruce is standing in front of the scepter with a gamma detector in hand, running it over the length of it silently as Megamind watches over Tony's back in amazement as he solves equations and algorithms. Every now and then Megamind reaches over and solves one himself, Tony humming in appreciation and moving on.
"The gamma readings are definately consistant with Selvig's reports." Bruce says from across the screen as Tony finally shoos the alien away, Megamind snorting and going over to another holographic display. "But it's gonna take a few weeks to process."
"Not if we manage to pull some more of the processing speed." Megamind responds. He was fine with staying here for a while, but he didn't want to stay here for weeks on end just waiting for their only project to process.
Tony nods and hums once more. It was so good to be around people who could finally understand what he was saying. "If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred terraflops."
"All I packed was a toothbrush." Bruce mutters.
"Really? Wow. Maybe I OVER packed for this then." Megamind responds with a slightly ashamed look on his face.
"You know, you guys should come by to STARK towers sometime." Tony says with a wide smile, walking away from his screen idly. "Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's candy land."
"Thanks." Bruce responds nervously, setting down the scanner next to the scepter. "But the last time I was in New York I sort of broke...Harlem."
"How 'bout you Big Blue?" Tony asks and taps Megamind's shoulder, but doesn't stop wandering about. "You interested?"
"Uh...I dunno." Megamind says with a shrug. "I'd have to check with a few people. Call the chief of police, Roxanne, deactivate the brainbots, make arrangements for the crocigators. I guess I can try though. After all, who would give up a first class ticket to Candyland?"
"I know, right?" Tony says as he approaches Bruce, discreetly taking out a tiny electrical prod, Megamind grinning evily when he spies it. "Look, I promise you, it'll be a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises."
"Ow!" Bruce yells when Tony pokes him in the ribs with the stick, Megamind immediatly bursting into laughter, his large head hitting the table.
"Nothing?" Tony asks, watching Bruce closely and trying to keep from laughing when Megamind bursts into an evil cackle. Oh, he was definately still at least a little bit villain.
"Hey!" Steve yells, walking in just in time to find Tony shocking Bruce and Megamind laughing menacingly. "Are you nuts?" He snarls to Tony who does a good job of ignoring him, while Megamind looks up while wiping tears of mirth from his eyes.
"You really have got a lid on it haven't you?" Tony asks the doctor innocently. "What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Huge bag of weed?"
"Oh!" Megamind yells, twisting his moniter out of the way to raise his hand. "Do you blow up dummies of Tighten too?!"
"Is EVERYTHING a joke to you two?" Steve nearly roars at them. He had basically had enough of these two cocky inventors. His nerves were already frayed as it was.
"Funny things are." Tony says, entirely seriously.
"You are." Megamind says with a smirk. He was fully used to making people angry with him. To be honest, he had missed it.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship is NOT funny!" Steve growls out, then turns to Bruce with an apologetic look almost immediatly. "No offense doctor."
"No, it's alright." Bruce says with a wave of his hand. "I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things or...villainous aliens."
"FORMER villainous aliens." Megamind points to Bruce.
"You're tiptoeing big man." Tony says as he finishes getting out from behind Bruce's desk. "You need to strut." Megamind gives Bruce a thumbs up and a wide smile as a way of agreeing with Tony.
"YOU two need to focus on the problem at hand." Steve growls out and crosses his arms, Megamind rolling his eyes and returning to his computer where he was working on a few readings they had gotten before from the tesseract. He was still trying to learn more about it. The thing had come from space after all.
"You think i'm not?" Tony shoots back, Megamind and Bruce turning away from their work to watch the other two in the room again. "Why did Fury call us, and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equations unless I have all the variables."
Megamind was so tempted to remind his of the slope intercept form (y=m(x)+b). You can find X if you have Y, M, and B. "You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asks them, seeming almost shocked.
"Oh, come on." Megamind groan and lays his head on the table boredly. "He's in the government 'Merica Man. The government has so many secrets, you'd never believe it." He mutters, smirking when he sees the steel hard look coming across Steve's face. "None of 'em can be trusted. Since they can't trust us."
"Oh, come on Mommy, Daddy, please don't fight." Tony says sarcastically, succesfully getting him to redirect his glare from the defenseless alien. "Look, it's bugging him too, isn't it?" He asks and points over to Bruce.
"Um..." Bruce begins, unsure of what they really want him to say here. "I just want to finish my work and..."
"Doctor?" Steve asks when he trails off, looking down.
"A warm light for all mankind." Bruce articulates, looking back up at the three men in front of him. "Loki's jab to Fury about the cube."
"I heard." Steve says, as though he needed to remind them that he had been there.
"I didn't." Megamind mutters under his breath, for once wishing that he had payed more attention to what had happened before.
"Of course you didn't." Steve says coldly without even looking over at the alien.
"Ouch." Tony chuckles.
"If I may continue..."Bruce says, sounding slightly irritated, all of them immediatly silencing the three. "I think it was meant for you." He says and points at Tony. "Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news."
"Stark tower?" Steve asks with an annoyed look. "That big ugly..." He trails off when Tony shoots him a 'really?' look. "...building in New York?"
"It's powered by Stark reactors, self-sustaining power source." Bruce explains to the previously frozen man. "That building will run itself for what, a year?"
"Sounds like a good place to be in case of zombies." Megamind jokes half heartedly.
"You betcha." Tony chuckles and turns back to Bruce. "And to think that that's just a prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now." He says proudly, almost looking to the other two for some sort of admiration.
"Hey, I tried for a while." Megamind shoots back. "But you know, it's not really something a villain could really spend a lot of time on. Also Metro Man kept destroying them. Thought they were new weapons."
"So, why didn't they bring him in on the tesseract project?" Bruce asks to no one in particular as he motions to Tony and ignores Megamind. "I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"
"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELDS secure files." Tony says as he takes out a small bag of blueberries that he probably should have been refridgerating.
"Did you just say..." Steve trails off, watching Tony with confusion written plainly on his face.
"Aw, and here I thought I was the only one doing that." Megamind snickers, turning his screen for them to see trails of code spread over it. "Although I don't have a program for it. That's a good idea though."
"Hey, don't steal my ideas." Tony says, tossing a blueberry at him, snickering at the ironic matching of colors. Megamind scoffs, but still has a smile on his face. He had never had a friend before, and goddamn, does it feel great. "Anyway, Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge." Tony starts up again, once again wandering around aimlessly. "In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide. Blueberry?" He asks Bruce flippantly.
"Yet you're confused why they didn't want you guys around?" Steve asks them, getting very irritated by these guys who seem to be getting along so well.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence?" Tony asks him a bit sarcastically. "Historically, not possible."
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up." Steve reasons to them. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them."
"Last time I tried following orders, I nearly killed myself by attacking myself with a huge automated robot manned by former me." Megamind says with a bored wave of his hand. "I think we all agree that doesn't have to happen again."
Tony seems ready to question, then decides to just go with it. "Yeah, followings not really my style."
"You're all about style, aren't you?" Steve says coldly, a blank smile on his face.
"Okay, of the people in this room, who is A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?" Tony asks fiercly, apparently upset by Steve's comment.
"Um...me?" Megamind raises his hand, having not even bothered to get out of the Black Mamba.
"Wha-?" Tony asks and looks at Megamind who seems a bit crestfallen, thinking that his new friend had callen him useless. "No, not...ugh." Tony groans and puts his head in his hand, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I meant the Capsicle over there."
"Oooh, that's a much better nickname than 'Merica Man." Megamind says.
At that point, Steve just walks out coldly, only saying "Find the cube." to the scientists.
At some point during the night, Megamind saw that Bruce and Tony were talking about something or other, but for once decided to just leave them be, instead focusing on the screen that had the blueprints for the de-gun on it. He was working on switching up the parts so that he could add the new Deatomize option he had made. It seemed kind of pointless, even to him, but hey, he made it, might as well use it.