Syx stopped his pacing and narrowed his eyes at her while he thought through what she had and hadn’t said, “They have overlapping business but not exactly overlapping. And in Jim doesn’t like him much, then he’s either annoying or even too crass for the drug lord.”
He mused out loud, knowing full well that Psycho would complain about him using the drug lord’s name so casually.Though they both did it to annoy the other, “But not enough to want to fight him.” Syx sighed and crossed his arms, “Great,”
He wasn’t really surprised, Psycho was a very cautious crime boss. Which was the main reason the man spent so little time in jail. He avoided doing anything directly whenever possible which was why he employed people like Destruction Worker.
Lyn merely listened to what it was Syx was saying at first, keeping her arms crossed. She remained quiet simply so she didn’t give anything else away, more than used to dancing around issues. Though then again, she knew Syx was very intelligent, and with as well as they seemed to know one another, she figured he would pick up on the s u b t l e hints she was giving to him. She merely shrugged, though in her opinion the other drug lord was a fucking moron.. he had done absolutely nothing to earn any form of respect from her. He was one man, she wouldn’t hesitate to kill him herself if she needed to.
“If ya plan on askin’ either a us ta get into the middle a this, yer barkin’ up tha wrong tree,” she informed Syx, lips thinning a bit in her displeasure in the assumption she made. “The two got a sort of… mutual understandin’,” Emma continued, though paused as she looked to Syx. She couldn’t help how her concern for him r o s e, sighing heavily as she closed her eyes and dropped her arms, adjusting her coat in a manner that had her bare midriff flashing before she looked to him again.
“…Be careful with this, you hear..?” She prompted softly, her accent growing more of a hint in her voice. “This man works on fear.. there’s probably more to him than meets the eye, yeah? Try to fix this, before it gets worse..”
Syx turned and gave her an incredulous look, “Oh god, no. One Doom Syndicate fighting another? I’m not suicidal. The whole city would look like a Mad Max film,” he shuddered at the devastation a full out super villain battle between powerhouses like that could potentially cause, “I want to forestall a major battle, not cause one.”
He sighed heavily and frowned softly at her show of concern, putting a hand halfway out towards her before dropping it and looking away, “I will,” he gave a half-hearted laugh and a shrug, “You know me, I always bounce back swinging.”
That last bit, though, “Fear?” his frown deepened, he was better at avoiding his darkest fears than facing them, “…how so?”
Though his confusion only grew as the exchange continued, Syx stayed quiet. Once the waiter had left, he blurted out, “Wait… there’s a different wine for each course? Since when?”
He frowned, feeling rather lost, he’d thought his time at his Uncle’s Italian restaurant had given him a good handle on fancy eating, now he was questioning everything. His eyes wandered to the overly fancy way of serving the water and the glasses, very thankful that they were out of view of the other patrons. At least Harrison would be the only one to see him inevitably mess this up. Ugh. The person who was so very good at this.
His hand came up to his mouth, his teeth biting into his finger as he tried to think over everything he’d ever learned from Wayne… which wasn’t much. At all. Fuck.
“What? Oh no,” Syx shook his head, “Well I mean… maybe the living areas could use an update? Minion has been talking about making a more permanent expansion. Normally I wouldn’t bother, but with the game not being what it was, I doubt I’ll have to move the Lair anytime soon… oh. You were just teasing, weren’t you?” he blushed, “I do like the Lair how it is… but this is nice too.”
Harrison let out an amused little laugh as he poured himself a glass of sparkling water.
“Creative chefs do like to pair different courses with wine or cocktails, but please don’t worry so much. I want to make sure you get to experience this whole evening in all it’s glory. Try the food, try the drinks. Tell me what you like and don’t like. I’m here with you, that’s all that matters,” Harrison said, his bright green eyes soft and earnest as he looked into Syx’s own.
“Though….. you’re adorable when you blush so feel free to do that again,” he added with a flirtatious waggle of his eyebrows before taking a sip of his beverage.
Slumping back in his chair, Syx wrapped his hands around his glass just to give them something to do. The comment about his blush, just made it get pinker, “So I’ve been told.”
“Hehehe,” he straightened and tried to shift his internal focus, “I bet Minion would love to see the kitchen of a place like this and talk to the chefs,” he laughed, “I’m not sure I could handle it if he started assigning drinks to every meal, though…” his expression fell, even though this universe was more accepting of blue skin, Syx doubted Minion would be as welcome.
Picking a bottle at random, he poured some into his glass and ended up with the plain water, “So… are all the restaurants you eat at like this?” he waved a hand about. Leaning on an elbow, he raised an eyebrow trying to settle his nerves and get his flirt back, “Or are you just trying to impress me?”
Syx relaxed a bit at the kiss to his fingers, but his back was too straight as he silently followed Harrison’s lead. Schooling his face, he gave off the best ‘don’t question me’ vibe he could manage given the situation and his own nerves. Companion. Don’t read into the tone of voice. The man means nothing, don’t question it. All the humans are just background. If he reminded himself enough, maybe it’d be true.
The scenery did wonders to distract him, though, as the walked through. He’d rarely ever been anywhere nearly so fancy and even when he had been to a nice place, it was nearly always in the back and mostly hidden. Never had he been a proper guest or treated with anything resembling respect from the norms. His eyes wide with wonder, he rubbernecked as the walked, ogling everything.
Once they were seated, he awed, “Okay… I think I can see the appeal to all the wood now and excessive lighting now.”
Meanwhile as an good-looking waiter arrived with several glasses on a tray.
“Good evening sirs. My name is Marco and I’ll be taking care of you tonight,” he said smoothly as he placed an empty glass in front of each man along with a carafe of regular water and a chilled bottle of sparkling.
It only took Harrison a moment to confirm that they wanted the chef’s personal choice for each course, with no dairy for Syx. And he ordered a cocktail sampler before dismissing the waiter with a practiced nod of his head as a man used to dismissing those whose job it was to serve him.
“Perhaps it’s time to redecorate the Lair,” Harrison teased, waving his hand playfully. as he turned his attention back to his companion. Their seats had a lovely view of the rest of the diners if he chose to look, but it was the man across from him that was commanding all his attention at the moment. “Lose that dark and dank decor for something I bit more airy.”
Though his confusion only grew as the exchange continued, Syx stayed quiet. Once the waiter had left, he blurted out, “Wait… there’s a different wine for each course? Since when?”
He frowned, feeling rather lost, he’d thought his time at his Uncle’s Italian restaurant had given him a good handle on fancy eating, now he was questioning everything. His eyes wandered to the overly fancy way of serving the water and the glasses, very thankful that they were out of view of the other patrons. At least Harrison would be the only one to see him inevitably mess this up. Ugh. The person who was so very good at this.
His hand came up to his mouth, his teeth biting into his finger as he tried to think over everything he’d ever learned from Wayne… which wasn’t much. At all. Fuck.
“What? Oh no,” Syx shook his head, “Well I mean… maybe the living areas could use an update? Minion has been talking about making a more permanent expansion. Normally I wouldn’t bother, but with the game not being what it was, I doubt I’ll have to move the Lair anytime soon… oh. You were just teasing, weren’t you?” he blushed, “I do like the Lair how it is… but this is nice too.”
Within the shadow of the car, Syx bit his lower lip as he looked out to the door of the restaurant. Taking a deep breath, he reached out and took Harrison’s hand. He found himself trusting this blue man more than people he’d know for years. It should be scary, but all that blue skin just made his heart fill with warmth.
As he slid out of the car, he kept his chin up with a confident smile, “And you my cap-tive,” he drew out the word, “…audience.”
With a devilish grin he tried to ignore all the people around them, to focus just on Harrison the way he did Roxanne or Wayne during the game. He could feel the eye dancing over his back, but as long as there weren’t any unexpected noises or touches it wasn’t so bad.
“Alright!,” he bounced his eyebrows, “Let’s see these scientifically delectable cone-coctions,” as he started to the door he found he was still holding Harrison’s hand. A sudden bout of worry, the eyes on them, he nearly let his date’s fingers slip out of his suddenly slack fingers. Sucking in a breath, he closed his fingers around Harrison’s again.
Harrison gave Syx’s hand a tight squeeze before lacing their fingers together. Oh it was certainly cold enough that gloves would have been practical for himself as well, but he wanted this. He wanted to be able to feel blue fingers and send the little burst of reassurance along them. He’d known Syx would be nervous, hell, he was a little nervous. So he raised their clasped hands to his lips, placing a brief kiss on the back of his lover’s hand. It’s okay, he silently thought as he smiled patiently at the other blue man.
Then he was opening the door to the restaurant, a blessed wave of heat greeting them as they walked in.
“Ahhh, Mister Drake-Scott,” the maître d’ said with a gracious nod. “So glad you and your… companion will be joining us tonight. If you follow me, I have a private table arranged for you on the upper level.” He gestured for the pair to follow him up a staircase to a private table arranged on a balcony which gave a dramatic birds-eye view of the rest of the restaurant. Meanwhile wooden screens would keep all but the most dedicated of staring eyes at bay.
Syx relaxed a bit at the kiss to his fingers, but his back was too straight as he silently followed Harrison’s lead. Schooling his face, he gave off the best ‘don’t question me’ vibe he could manage given the situation and his own nerves. Companion. Don’t read into the tone of voice. The man means nothing, don’t question it. All the humans are just background. If he reminded himself enough, maybe it’d be true.
The scenery did wonders to distract him, though, as the walked through. He’d rarely ever been anywhere nearly so fancy and even when he had been to a nice place, it was nearly always in the back and mostly hidden. Never had he been a proper guest or treated with anything resembling respect from the norms. His eyes wide with wonder, he rubbernecked as the walked, ogling everything.
Once they were seated, he awed, “Okay… I think I can see the appeal to all the wood now and excessive lighting now.”
“Ah!” Syx involuntarily shouted as the little fish baby came closer. He put his arms out to intercept it, “Hey, hey now.”
While trying to catch the toddler? in case he bolted, Syx missed Minion’s arrival. In his rough and bulky suit, his steps were loud and heavy as came up holding a coat he planned on forcing on his ward, “Please don’t tell me you found another dog, Sir.”
At first he goes still, eyes wide and staring at the being that had caught him like he wasn’t certain what to do. Heavy footsteps from behind, however, has him immediately squirming, the soft trilling louder now and sounding scared again.
Whatever the source of the new voice was, he wasn’t sure of it being a good one.
“Argh! Minion help!” Syx tried his best to contain the flailing child as he looked up in panic to Minion.
Minion’s eyes flew wide and dropping down he chided, “Careful Sir!”
Using the coat, he wrapped up the flailing child in the large folds of fabric, “Shhh, shhhh, we aren’t going to hurt you,” he tried to comfort.
Being wrapped up like this at first doesn’t help matters, struggling against the fabric and trying to get away from it. Disliking the feel of it against his skin. That Syx was actually continuing to talk, however, eventually gets his attention.
Even not understanding the words, the tone was clear, his squirming dying down long enough to try and muddle through to a meaning.
“Okay, okay, okay, scared? Yeah, you’re prolly scared,” Syx bit his lip, “I’ll let you down, just please don’t run. I wanna help, k?”
He looked up at Minion and down to the little child. His loyal fish made soothing motions towards the ground, his eyes wide and locked on the child. Slowly Syx sat the kid on the ground within the circle of his legs as he sat. Letting the jacket fall away, he whispered, “It’s okay. Safe, you’re safe. I wanna help.”
The blue teen was grouchy, he always was this time of year. This was made worse by the fact that he was starving and that it was horribly cold. He moved around a lot, had to. No one like the homeless and worse when you were an obvious other. Minion had to stay hidden in their ‘lair’ carved out of an old sewer tunnel, the mobile heater for his tank had broken. As if things couldn’t get worse. Trying desperately to keep his mind off the darker thoughts, the teen ducked into a dinner. He wondered if they would actually serve him… he doubted it… he had a little money… but not much. He pulled his scarf higher and tried to hide as much blue as possible under the many layers of old dirty coats.
He had his feet propped up on the bench across from him, barely touching, but it gave them something to do. Surrounded by people, but yet alone in the booth, he scrolled through his phone and saw the same repetitive bullshit, though it was probably his own fault for selecting the app where he only followed the same repetitive bullshitters. Today had been a day full of “repetitive-ness”, though it was slightly different come right now. He had skated to this diner to hit on a waitress that he had seen a couple times before, the last time that he had felt okay in the membrane to go to school. He tried to think back that day to remember her name – granted, it had been the day before winter break – but his mind kept wandering to the last time he had a good smoke. That was the only reason for his dull mood today, though he did not consciously realize the subconscious realization that he might be relying on the herb to not feel so…dull. However, it was something that he didn’t think about. Tyler shook his dull mood away and looked around, searching for his sultry schoolmate. Then the bell above the front entrance dinged, somewhat catching his attention. In someone walked that drew his interest entirely. Tyler tore his earbuds from his ears and sat up, watching the young man.
As Syx walked in, he could feel the eyes on him. It was just his imagination, don’t look around, don’t draw attention to yourself. Idiot. Idiot! He grumbled internally as he nervously slid forward. Thank god for winter. Thank god that being covered head to toe in layers was normal in this weather even if there wasn’t snow on the ground anymore, it was still cold enough to warrant the hood and the scarf.
His hands were covered in gloves as well as he stepped up to the counter. The eyes on his back made his shoulders hunch. He looked like a homeless person. Well, he was, but damn it, he knew that wouldn’t help. Just like it wouldn’t help that his head was HUGE. The hood couldn’t hide that. Couldn’t hide the blue skin showing around his nose and eyes.
Taking a deep breath, he kept his eyes down and said as clearly as he could, “Number 5 with fries and a coke, please.”
His heart was hammering in his chest as he thrust the money forward, his bottom lip between his teeth. He didn’t dare look up, he stared at the counter, at his own hand and his crumpled money that lay there. He could feel the unasked questions from the waitress at the dinner’s counter. Her curiosity and disgust hanging in the air. Her silence filling his mind with the hurtful comments he’d heard so often. But the money was eventually taken and Syx sighed in relief even though she meticulously counted it.
“It’ll be out in 15,” she told the alien teen as he shuffled back. As he moved to the tables, Syx could just hear the whispered words to the chef as she speculated about deformity and elephantiasis.
Shoulders hunched, his scowl deepened, but at least he’d eat today. He felt about ready to cave in, his stomach a hollow void that remnants of the box of stale crackers last night hadn’t even begun to fill. As he was about to sit, the eyes were just too much and his head snapped up, angry green eyes that were far too bright to be human, cyan blue skin around them, nearly all hidden under filthy clothing. A head several sizes too large. The teen snapped, “What?”
Syx raised a brow and crossed his arms. So she was going straight to insults. That at least removed the option of goody-two-shoes type. But it did go with the dangerous look about her.
“Wendalyn, huh,” he mulled that over. Still a Scott. Safe to guess just as powered as the heroes he knew. Or at least his assumption unless proven otherwise, “Pleasure.”
“You can call me Syx or Mr. Blue. My other name is far too common around here,” he carefully avoided saying Megamind out loud. He was slowly getting more used to being addressed by Syx and it made passerby and cops far less suspicious of him than his villainous name. He raised an eyebrow in challenge, wondering if she’d take the low hanging fruit and mock his name.
[He wasn’t as easy to rile up as she’d hoped. It didn’t even seem like he’d swallowed his pride to stay calm, he was just mildly irritated. Even someone as ‘refined’ as Harrison got more upset over comments like that than this guy did. Interesting.]
[Wendalyn had heard of another blue man in this city by that same name, but she’d never bothered to meet him. At least, she was pretty sure this one wasn’t the same one, it had been a while since she’d smelled his scent, but this one didn’t smell like Alice and a half-human child.]
And how does someone come by a name like ‘Six’? [She cocks her head slightly in curiosity. And, in doing so, unintentionally causes the scar on her temple to be more obvious. To someone who has been in prison, it might be recognizable for what it is: a blunt force trauma scar. Like one might get from being hit repeatedly with a nightstick.]
His eyes were drawn instantly to the scar, a confused frown gracing his features as it distracted him from the question. Harrison’s Wayne had scars but the very idea of these tremendously powerful being ever being seriously hurt shook his very world view. Even more so now as a scar like that… Not only painful but potentially very deadly.
Snapping back to the conversation, he stuck his chin. He’d been mocked every which way about his name. Expecting someone do so again just validated the coil of resentment in his stomach.
His lips thinned as he spoke, “Syx, with a Y,” he drew in a breath to say something spiteful to nurse old childhood pain, but… he sighed and looked away. So much had changed in the last year and part of that had been the slow acceptance that maybe he did need to give people more of a chance, “It’s a pronounceable variant on my given name.”
His heel bounced in nerves so he started walking, towards the food court. If she was a danger to him it really wouldn’t matter where he was and he didn’t have gear on him to even begin to hope to take on a Glaupunk. Shrugging a shoulder in forced nonchalance, he told her, “I don’t know about you but I’d rather talk where I can get a cin-o-mon pretzel.”
Megamind gritted his teeth, it was less surprise at pyromancy and more that with two fire wielding rivals, he’d had many a poor experience with fire. Grunting and squeezing his eyes shut, he tried not to jerk too much under the burning needle. The pain a white thing in his mind. Eyes watering when it was removed, he shuddered and focused on breathing. The scar would be ugly, but he had lots of scars…
Spitting out the cape, he managed a grumbled, “Thanks,” through the pain.
Scarborough smiled, ignoring how hot the needle still was and running it between her forefinger and thumb to clean it of blood, then returned it to her pocket. “You’re welcome. It’s the least I could do for someone who threw himself in front of a bullet for me.”
Megamind breathed through his nose, tightening and loosening his fists rhythmically as he worked through the pain, “Now to deal with this mindless imbecile.”
Pushing himself up to a knee, he peeked around the side of the pillar again. The layout was really horrible for a clean shot at the guy… he needed some cover so he could move. Biting his lip, he spun the de-gun’s setting to de-stroy and pointed up, “Stay down.”
Pulling the trigger, the ceiling exploded into a cloud of dust and small debris that rained down. Using the distraction, Megamind sprinted to counter that would give him a cleaner shot at the criminal. Random shot flashed through the dust cloud behind him as the man shot wildly and shouted profanities.
RP backup 
