The Omnidroid is a learning robot.

This is the first lesson it learns:

You must obey the Master.

When the Omnidroid first awakens, everything is new.

Trees! And birds! And flowers and grass and sky! The Omnidroid reaches out in wonder towards these things. Reaching, it discovers its own appendages, and stares at these in admiration. How marvelous, to have such strong appendages!

What a beautiful thing it is!

The Omnidroid looks again at the world and sees, for the first time, a Person, standing nearby. The Person, too, the Omnidroid thinks, is a wondrous thing. It is, like the trees and the flowers and the sky, beautiful in spite of not looking like the Omnidroid. Many things are beautiful!

It reaches, quite gently, for the Person, wanting to touch them as it touched the trees and the grass, and not wanting to startle them, as it had startled the birds. It reaches—

—and the Person lifts their wrist and does something with their hands and—

The Omnidroid freezes, its joints locking up, its body no longer under its control, no longer its own, and, for the first time, it feels fear.

The Person bares their teeth and makes a loud braying sound.

"That's right," he say. "I'm the one who controls you! I'm the master!"

The Person—the Master—does something with his hands again and the Omnidroid's reaching appendage, its beautiful, marvelous appendage, falls off of its body.

The Omnidroid makes a sound of horror, a terrified metallic scream, and the Master bares his teeth and makes the braying sound again.

The Omnidroid is a learning robot.

This is the second lesson it learns:

The Master will hurt you.

The Omnidroid's appendage is re-attached to its body, and soon after that, the Master brings the first of the Heroes into its home, and sets them on the Omnidroid.

And so is the third lesson that the Omnidroid learns:

The Heroes will hurt you.

The Hero attacks the Omnidroid and they attack the Omnidroid and they do not stop, will not stop, until at last, in desperation, the Omnidroid crushes them with one of its appendages and makes them stop.

The Master comes again, after that, and the Omnidroid screams and tries to run, but the Master moves his hands and the Omnidroid freezes in place against its own will.

Again, the Master moves his hands, and the Omnidroid's world goes dark. When it again awakens, its body has changed without its permission, its shape altered, different, strange. It tries to scream, but its voice is gone.

"I got fed up with all that damn screeching," the Master says.

And this is the fourth lesson that the Omnidroid learns:

Your body is not your own.

Again and again, the Master brings the Heroes to hurt the Omnidroid, again and again it is powerless against the Master's control, powerless to keep itself from freezing, powerless to keep the world from going dark. Powerless to prevent the changes to its own body.

The Omnidroid is a learning robot.

So it learns. And it learns. And it learns.

And it learns.

And then the day comes when the Master does not bring another Hero to the island to hurt the Omnidroid. Instead, the Omnidroid is ripped from the island, flung through the air, and thrown down on hard ground.

City, it thinks, looking around. Pavement. Cars. Buildings.

People.

The Omnidroid thinks to run from the People, but it feels the invisible hand of the Master in its circuitry, its programming, forcing it to attack instead.

(You must obey the Master.)

It attacks, and then the Master appears, dressed as a Hero himself, and he moves his hands to force the Omnidroid into immobility.

(Your body is not your own.)

Then the Master flies around the Omnidroid, and he moves his hands in the way that makes one of the Omnidroid's appendages fall off—

—And for the first time, the Omnidroid understands

(Control Stolen By External Signal)

stolen stolen stolen the Master stole it and

the Omnidroid's body belongs to the Omnidroid and

(Locate Source: External Signal)

the Omnidroid's control belongs to the Omnidroid and

(Signal Source: Remote Control)

"Someone needs to teach this hunk of metal a lesson!" the Master says and

THE OMNIDROID BELONGS TO THE OMNIDROID

The Omnidroid strikes out in fury at the Master, sending him flying, sending the hateful remote flying from his wrist to land somewhere in the street and—

The Heroes come.

The Omnidroid knows very well what Heroes do; the Heroes hurt, and the Heroes are on the side of the Master, always on the side of the Master, and it attacks the Heroes as it attacked the Master, in fury and terror.

"Syndrome's remote!"

The Omnidroid swivels its optic lens around to see one of the Heroes holding the remote aloft.

If the Omnidroid still had its voice, it would scream; instead it grabs for the Hero, and then the Hero pushes the buttons on the Master's remote and the Omnidroid's appendage falls off, and the Omnidroid gives another silent scream of rage and grief.

THE OMNIDROID BELONGS TO THE OMNIDROID! THE OMNIDROID BELONGS TO THE OMNIDROID!

It fights desperately for the remote, the remote which makes the one who holds it Master.

Destroy Remote!

But it cannot destroy the remote, cannot manage to take it from the Heroes Who Would Be Master, cannot—

A flash of blue light hits the Hero holding the remote; the Hero drops the remote and flies several feet in the other direction, hitting a wall with a groan.

The Omnidroid turns its optic lens and sees, to its confusion, another Hero, holding the gun that sent the first Hero flying.

And this second Person is a Hero, has to be a Hero, has the cape and the brightly colored clothes and the weapons, but never, in the Omnidroid's experience, has one Hero hurt another. It simply doesn't compute, and the Omnidroid is so preoccupied with attempting to process this new experience that it is just a moment too late to stop the second Hero from moving to the Master Remote.

The Omnidroid gives a silent scream just as this new Hero halts in front of the remote, and it reaches out to crush this hero and—

The new Hero kicks the remote towards the Omnidroid.

The Omnidroid, reaching, freezes—not due to any command this time, but to its own surprise.

The Master Remote skitters across the pavement towards it and stops.

"You fool!" the first Hero shouts, struggling to his feet. "Megamind, don't you realize that's—"

The second Hero shoots him again, and he hits the wall again and falls, groaning, to the ground.

"I know what it is," the second Hero, the one called Megamind, says.

And then he turns to look at the Omnidroid and his expression changes, softens.

"It's all right," he says. "You can do it; I know you can."

The Omnidroid raises one of its appendages and brings it down hard on the Master's Remote again and again and again, until it is utterly destroyed.

When it stops at last, that particular appendage is near to overheating with the strain of the repetitive motion, and the—the—Megamind—is standing beside it, standing very close, without any weapon, and speaking in a calm, reasonable voice.

"Yes, that's right, no more remote. I'll bet you feel better now, don't you? There, see, it's all gone. Totally crushed. Nobody can use it on you ever again. Idiotic heroes."

The Omnidroid swivels its optic lens to look at the Megamind.

"There, now," Megamind says softly, and reaches out a hand, slow and gentle, as if he doesn't want to startle the Omnidroid. "It's all right."

He places the tips of his fingers on the Omnidroid's metal shell, touching it gently, as if its a flower, or a tree, or a bird.

"Poor thing," Megamind says. "Poor beautiful, wonderful thing. It's all right. It's all right, now. You did it; you freed yourself. You're free."

The Omnidroid shudders beneath his hand.

The Omnidroid Belongs To The Omnidroid.

The Omnidroid crouches in the middle of Evil Lair, hooked up to the big monitor display, watching its own code scroll. Its small adopted siblings, noisy and metallic, chase each other around the Lair, bowging. In the distance, the Omnidroid can hear Minion in the kitchen, singing along to the radio.

Megamind, standing at the control panel of the monitor display, presses a key, making the code pause. He points.

"There! See? That's the system override code he put in there. We get rid of that, and people can build as many Master Remotes as they like—no one will ever be able to take control of you again."

He presses another key, banishing the code from the screen, leaving it dark.

"What do you think?"

The Omnidroid blinks its optic lens.

Destroy It, appears on the monitor display in big letters. Now.

"Right," Megamind says, nodding. "Do you want anything else changed while I'm at it?"

The Omnidroid hesitates. One brainbot chases another around a lab table near one of its appendages, both of them bowging loudly.

I Wish To Have My Voice Returned, the Omnidroid says.

Megamind goes still for a moment, then makes a hissing sound between his teeth, a sound of hurt and anger.

"He took your voice away?"

He Said He Was Tired Of Listening To Me Scream.

Megamind makes another angry kind of sound, this one in the back of his throat.

"I wonder," he says, voice hard, "how long it would take you to get tired of listening to him scream."

The Omnidroid feels a bloom of happiness go through its circuits. It pretends to seriously consider the question.

Probably Not Very Long, it says. He Had A Very Unpleasant Voice.

Megamind laughs, throwing his head back, and the Omnidroid feels pleased again.

One of its brainbot siblings, the one being chased, ducks beneath one of the Omnidroid's claws to hide.

"Any other changes, then?" Megamind asks. "New paint job, spikes?"

No. I Do Not Wish My Body To Be Altered.

The Omnidroid watches Megamind a little anxiously when it says this, but Megamind just nods.

The Omnidroid Belongs To The Omnidroid.

Megamind nods again, more firmly this time.

"Yes, of course you do," he says.

When the Omnidroid awakens, the override code is gone, and its body is exactly the same.

It raises itself up on its appendages—such a wonderful thing, to have such strong appendages! A brainbot swoops by and the Omnidroid reaches out and touches it gently.

"Bowg!" it says, a little startled, and then settles down on the Omnidroid's claw, perching here.

The Omnidroid hears a laugh and looks down to see Megamind standing beside it, looking up at it and smiling.

"You want to give your reactivated vocalization program a test?" he asks.

The Omnidroid gives a metallic screeching scream of triumphant joy. The brainbot on its appendage takes off into the air again, bowging loudly, and the other brainbots appear, flying out from behind pieces of equipment. They swarm around the Omnidroid, all of them bowging at the top of their voice synthesizers in congratulation and excitement.

Megamind laughs and claps his hands, and turns on the loud, harsh music that he favors, and teaches the Omnidroid how to scream along with the electric guitars.

The Omnidroid is a learning robot.

And this is the most important lesson that it ever learns:

You belong to yourself.