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Roxanne dialed her boyfriend’s number as soon as she landed at Metro City’s airport, eager to hear his voice after a long week of spending her time in the desolate rural area of her hometown in Wisconsin.
But much to her dismay, Megamind didn’t answer.
She didn’t think much of it at first. Megamind was a newly instated hero who was still learning the ropes of how to protect an entire city. It was to be expected that he probably had his hands full with something—whether that was helping an elderly woman fetch her cat from a tree or assisting in evacuating a burning apartment complex before the fire department arrived.
But when the invisible car pulled in to pick her up without Megamind in it, Roxanne’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Megamind not coming to greet her after a week apart was certainly strange.
Minion opened the passenger door from the inside for her, offering her his signature reassuring smile as if there was nothing for her to be suspicious of.
Roxanne was not convinced.
“Do you need help with your bags, Miss Ritchi?” Minion offered politely as he watched her round the back of the car. She shook her head, which he caught sight of in the rearview mirror, and popped open the trunk for her, still smiling even when she came back around and sat in the passenger seat.
As soon as she shut her door, she was rounding on Minion with questions. “Okay, where is he?”
Minion’s smile faltered slightly, a nervous tint to it surfacing that she hadn’t noticed before. “Sir had some… um… clean up at the lair he needed to take care of—”
“What kind of cleanup?” Roxanne pressed, her eyes only narrowing further.
Minion’s fins fluttered at his sides, a nervous habit of his she’d learned over time, having spent so much of it in the once-bad-now-good evil lair—as Megamind had named it. She was accustomed to the type of messes Megamind tended to regularly make. He was an inventor, even after he’d quit villainy, and inventing certainly came with its mishaps. Minion was definitely withholding something, though, but pressing him for an explanation certainly wouldn’t give her the answers she wanted, especially if Megamind was trying to hide something from her.
Roxanne leaned back in her seat, folded her arms across her chest, and said, “Call him.”
Minion’s smile instantly dropped. “I don’t think—”
“Call him, Minion.”
Minion visibly swallowed as he hesitantly dialed Megamind’s number. The phone rang several times before it finally went to voicemail, Megamind’s upbeat, teasing voice from his prerecorded message filling the tense silence that had befallen. Minion actually exhaled in relief when Megamind didn’t pick up.
“Okay,” Roxanne folded one leg over the other. “Let’s go to the lair.”
Minion whirled around in his bowl, looking gobsmacked. “But—wouldn’t you like to go home first, Miss Ritchi—?”
Minion cut himself off when Roxanne turned to glare at him. Wordlessly, he nodded and pulled out of the airport’s drop-off and pick-up zone.
The drive back to the lair was quiet, filled with tension Roxanne couldn’t fathom even if she tried to. She opted to stare out the window rather than press Minion for answers, taking in the city she had been away from for a whole week and sighing contently at the fact that she was finally home.
But then… she started to notice some things. Destruction, to be precise.
Metal debris and stone alike had been—well, it looked like it had been flung from somewhere—into some of the buildings and into the streets, destroying businesses and roads that seemed to be completely cut off at the moment, considering Minion was taking a different road back rather than the main way. Brainbots could be seen moving and even rebuilding what had been destroyed, so clearly, Megamind was doing damage control. Roxanne turned to narrowly stare at Minion out of the corner of her eye, only to find that he was pointedly avoiding her gaze.
Something had happened while she’d been gone. Had a new villain emerged? Had Megamind been hurt? Why hadn’t she heard about any of this on the news?
When they finally arrived at the lair, Roxanne realized there was even more damage. Part of the top of the building was completely gone, and glass littered the pavement all around from the shattered windows up top. Across the short ravine of water, she could see the abandoned observatory ruins—except it was even more in ruins… if that was even possible from the first time Megamind had blown it up with his ray gun. But at least a portion of it had still been standing. That wasn’t the case anymore. It was completely gone. What remained was burnt, black pavement where the brute of the sun’s intensity had touched it, and pieces of wood, stone, and metal were scattered all across the abandoned yard that surrounded the lair.
“What happened?” Roxanne gasped in horror.
Minion ignored her question, as she expected he would. As Minion drove the invisible car inside through the cloaked entrance, Roxanne found that at least the inside of the lair remained looking mostly the same. There were a few differences she noticed immediately—like the fact that Megamind had attempted to re-design the main area of the lair into a poorly attempted living room, apparently. There was a couch, but the left side had the springs shooting up through the fabric, so obviously, no one could sit on that side. There was also clutter, garbage, really, all over the floor from different metal contraptions that had apparently gone wrong.
And then her worried gaze finally found Megamind amidst the mess. He was dressed in his usual black rather than the white she’d seen him in last before she left, and he was tinkering with a console that had been very obviously crushed by something.
Roxanne immediately opened her door the moment Minion stopped the car and stepped out, already making her way toward her boyfriend without even shutting the door behind her.
“Megamind?”
He looked up at the sound of her voice, and his expression shifted between relieved joy to see her again and worried embarrassment as he cracked a grin.
Roxanne ran towards him and threw herself at him without even thinking, wrapping her arms around him and burying her face against his neck. Megamind let out an audible pained wince, and she pulled back just as fast, even as he wove one arm around her middle to keep her close.
Wide eyes blinked up at him as Roxanne searched his face, and it didn’t take her long to find that one of his eyes was swollen and turning a deeper shade of blue than his normal skin tone color. His lip was also busted, and she raised a gentle thumb to run the pad of it over the wound that had already stopped bleeding. “Are you okay?”
Megamind’s half-shrug was answer enough. “I’ve had worse.”
“What happened?” She raised a hand to his cheek, fingers caressing his skin the moment she realized he had several bruises all along his face and over the top of his head, as well as deep gashes and minimal scratches that had all stopped bleeding but were still very visible.
He offered her a sheepish smile. “Please don’t be mad… but I may have destroyed some of the city while you were gone…”
Roxanne leaned away from him in absolute shock. “What? You—you said you were done being a villain!”
“I am!” He actually sounded offended that she would even think for one second that this was the result of him reverting back to his old ways, and she inwardly winced for assuming such. “This was purely accidental!”
She ran both hands over his shoulders, her touch rising to hold his face in place as she further searched his eyes for answers. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—clearly, this was an accident,” her expression seemed to radiate her apology enough when Megamind’s soft smile returned. “So, what happened? We haven’t talked since I left, and last I heard, you were planning to have a massive garage sale. Did it end badly?”
“Turns out selling all my evil inventions was not very genius,” Megamind replied, shrugging indifferently, “Thankfully, Minion and I managed to get everything back—but my fantastic bargains are not what caused this disaster. It was actually an invention I didn’t quite get a chance to sell.”
“The MEGA–MEGAmind.” Minion shuddered as he approached the duo.
“Yes.” Megamind actually shuddered against her as well. “Thank goodness it didn’t sell.”
“What was it?” Roxanne asked.
“An evil giant robot with my evil intelligence programmed to destroy Metro Man,” Megamind said, “And considering I was wearing white and held a resemblance to Metro Man as far as my wardrobe was concerned, it thought I was Metro Man. It was one of my coolest evil inventions if I do say so myself, but the way I created it, I–I developed it to where it would be activated by the press of a single button, and of course, I didn’t label the button, and so—”
“And so you forgot what the button was for and pressed it,” Roxanne finished monotonously, sighing against his chest. “Megamind…”
“I know, I know.” Resting his chin on top of her head, he sighed, “Thankfully, I was able to eradicate the Mega-bot and keep him from destroying most of the city. I’m sure you noticed on your way here that repairs are already being made to the outskirts of the city.”
“Yes, I did, though I have to admit… I was worried the whole ride here. Why didn’t either of you just tell me this from the beginning?”
“In Minion’s defense, I asked him not to tell you.” Megamind pulled back, only enough for her to see his playful grin. “I also wanted your return home to be pleasant. You might have noticed but I was attempting to do something normal for a change and redecorate.”
“I noticed.” Roxanne chuckled and gave him one more firm squeeze before she pulled back entirely, “You should start by getting rid of that couch.”
“What?” Megamind feigned his shock at her suggestion as he laughed, “But that couch has character!”
“That couch has seen its last days.”
“Fine, fine.” Megamind chuckled and held out his gloved hand, and Roxanne took it. He pulled her away from the console and all the mess surrounding it as he led her towards what was supposed to be the beginning of a real living room in the lair. “Then maybe you could help me pick out a new couch?”
Pulling his gloved hand up to her lips, Roxanne kissed his fingers and grinned, “I would love to help you pick out a new couch.”
Megamind’s delighted grin was a sight to behold. Minion cleared his throat from behind them, which didn’t quite ruin the moment but—well, he clearly wanted their attention. She and Megamind both turned simultaneously, finding his robotic arms folded over his gorilla body. “But I will be picking the area rug—no exceptions!” Minion exclaimed insistingly, and they all erupted in joyous laughter—even Minion, who had ceased his frowning and was grinning behind his glass tank.
“Only if I get to pick the television,” Megamind teased. “The last time I let you talk me into buying a television, I ended up purchasing an outdated one!”
“It was on sale, Sir!”
“Well, that makes perfect sense now!”
Chuckling, Roxanne leaned her head against Megamind’s shoulder as she listened to the two of them bicker back and forth. To say she had missed this would be an understatement. It was certainly good to be back.
It was certainly good to be home.