Minion regarded the structure in mild curiosity. For some reason the red betta Megamind had added to the tank had seen fit to make a large mass of foamy bubbles in one corner of it. It had spent the better part of two days working on it, and was now guarding it diligently against fish that ventured too near. When Minion approached, however, it hesitated; his status as the top fish in the tank had been established early on.

::What is it?:: Minion inquired, trying to look friendly. The more he tried to talk to the other fish in his tank, the easier it was coming to him. The Goldfish in particular was useful for this. It didn't matter if he said something wrong or something stupid. A few minutes later she had forgotten it already anyway.

::It's for girls::

::There are no other betas::

::There could be later.:: The betta circled him a little, getting a better sense of him through the signals in the water, ::What are you?::

::I'm Minion::

::Do you school?::

::No:: he replied, although Minion had no idea whether he was a schooling fish or not.

::Are there others?::

::No::

He felt the wave of relief from the betta before it bid him farewell and went back to working on its bubble-nest.

Megamind came downstairs in his PJs and flipped the light on the fishtank, illuminating the little underwater world. With a yawn, he sprinkled some flakes on the surface, and watched the little community of fish come swarming to the surface. At Minion's request, he had filled the tank with lots of different species of tropical fish, and it made for a very attractive display piece for the lair.

Still, as he watched them eat, Megamind frowned a bit. Where were those gouramis he bought yesterday? He could have sworn there were a lot more fish in there! Just then, his friend emerged from the castle decoration with a yawn, swimming to the surface to get his share. "Oh come on Minion, already? I just put those gouramis in last night."

Minion looked confused, "Sir? What are you talking about?"

"You need to slow down on eating your tankmates! They're there to supplement the flakes, not replace them entirely!"

"I haven't eaten anyone! ...Recently."

"Then where are those gouramis I bought yesterday? And about half the mollies are missing!"

"They were here earlier, sir!" Minion said, pausing to look around the tank. His eyes settled on the goldfish, and a look of relief crossed his features. He looked back up at Megamind, "Sir, I swear it wasn't me."

"Alright, Minion," Megamind replied, but he still had his doubts. He watched as the fish in the tank ate their breakfast. Most of them were keeping a good distance from Minion, but the goldfish was fearless. At times, she even jostled Minion out of the way to get at particularly "good" looking flakes first. As he watched, though, Megamind realized that one of the goldfish's fins had been ripped to ribbons.

"Um… sir?" Minion asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you know if… if there's any other fish like me out there?"

Oh, what a question. Why must Minion ask things he already knew the answer to? "I.. I don't know. I mean.. our planet... Perhaps there could be a similar earth species?"

Minion glanced at the goldfish, "…I don't know."

Minion awakened with a wide yawn, and blinked sleepily in the darkness. At first he was confused at what had awakened him, but then it came again. Frantic ripples near the surface pinging against his lateral line. Swimming out of his cave to sense it better, the frantic, sporadic pattern became easily recognizable-probably a fly unlucky enough to have fallen into the water. Wonderful! He could really go for a midnight snack. He swam up towards the ripples to take a bite-

WHACK

The next thing Minion knew, sharp claws were digging into his side and pulling him out of the water; a heartbeat later, he was hitting the planning room floor. He let out a dazed groan, then startled as something put a paw on his side.

"W-whatever you are, stay back!" he shouted, snapping at his assailant, "I've got teeth and I know how to use them!"

The response was a startled rush of words, "Wrong-fishy-it-was-a-accident-sorry!"

"Kitten!" he said, only to feel sharp teeth sinking into the base of his tail a moment later. He let out a pained shout. "OW! Let go of me!"

Fortunately, she was just scrambling back up the side of the tank to put him back. He hit the water, feeling very battered and bruised. The scratches were all superficial, but they still stung. The glowing eyes of the cat regarded him through the side of the tank, and he quickly darted down to the gravel bottom, fins flared aggressively, "Go away!"

She gave no sign of motion, just watched him. "It was an accident. Are you okay?"

"Go away!"

Laying her ears back, the flapcat slunk back into the shadows of the lab. No way was he going to get any sleep tonight. He sensed motion behind him and startled, but it was only the goldfish. She gave him a concerned look, probably sensing the stress radiating off of him. ::You okay?::

::No::¸ he replied, trying to remember the way the minnows said it when he chased them, ::A predator tried to eat me::

::Eat? Was there food?:: she looked vaguely excited, and started to swim towards the surface. Dammit, he must not have said what he thought he said.

With a quick burst of motion, he darted ahead of her, trying to force her back down towards the gravel. ::No! No food! Danger!:: She tried to dart around him, and he responded with a rather insistent nip. That got a fear response, and he chased her back into the castle.

He hated having to use force like that, but she wouldn't remember it in two minutes anyway, and he didn't want her swimming around free in case Kitten tried to fish again tonight. Tomorrow morning he would tell Megamind, but for now he would keep the goldfish where she was safe.

::Goodnight Minion,:: came the sleepy message from within the Castle.

That raised his spirits a bit; she was starting to recognize him now. He looked back in at the settling goldfish, ::Goodnight.::

::My fins hurt.::

::You're safe now.::

The kitten mewed pitifully, rubbing her ruined face against the bars of the cat-carrier. It was unfair. It was so completely, totally, infinitely unfair. Nobody told her she wasn't supposed to eat the fishies. Minion ate them all the time! And when she caught him on accident she put him right back! But now he was mad and Megamind was mad and bad things were going to happen to her. She just knew it.

Heavy footsteps coming towards the carrier. She flattened herself miserably against the back, shaking like a leaf. They'd probably decided what terrible, horrible thing to do and were coming to do it now. Instead, though, the door opened and Minion set a little cup of food inside.

"Minion?" she mewed, staying flat against the back, "I-I didn't mean to catch you. Honest. I just wanted the other fishies."

There was a moment of hesitation outside the carrier, "I know. I'm a little sorry for freaking out."

"If it helps, touching you made me real sick for a while."

"I know," Minion said, "I was the one who had to clean out Megamind's shoes. Why'd you do that?"

"I like his shoes."

Outside, she heard the fishy heave a sigh. …she didn't know that fishies could sigh. Maybe only Minion sighed. He was more a people than a fishy. "Maybe you should live with somebody else."

A sick jolt of fear went through her, and she felt her fur stand on end. She felt dizzy and horrible, "I don't want to go back please don't make me go back I can't-"

"No, not there!"

"Where?"

"Maybe with Miss Ritchi? …You've seen her on TV, she's Megamind's girlfriend. I believe she also has a friend with kids, if you'd rather be with them."

Ugh, fishies were so stupid. The grey tabby supposed it wasn't his fault, though. She would simply have to explain this to him in simple terms. "How am I supposed to get into the TV? I already tried. There's glass in the way."

"We'd take you to a non-TV place to meet her."

"Does she like ugly kitties?"

"You're not ugly," Minion reassured. Wait, what? Hadn't he seen what that metal monster did to her face?

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, tail twitching, "I didn't realize that fishies can't see so good."

She was late.

Wayne looked at his watch, fidgeting a bit. True, this was a little out-of-the-way place, but he still felt as if everyone in the room was looking at him. It was odd; he'd been 'dead' for months, and still that pervasive feeling of "all eyes on you" had never left him. It wasn't paranoia, exactly-he didn't have any delusions about the world being out to get him. But it always felt like the world was watching.

Just then, though, he saw the hostess directing a young woman over to his table. This must be the friend Roxie was talking about.

"Wayne, right?" she said as he stood up to pull her chair out, "I'm Layla."

He gave her his best winning smile, "Hey. It's nice to meet you."

"It's okay, I got it," she said, pulling out her chair before he could and sitting down.

Wayne was taken a bit off-guard by that, but he still smiled and sat across from her. "So, um, have you ever eaten here before?"

She nodded, "Yes, but not very often."

"I don't think I have. Is there anything on the menu you'd recommend?"

"There's a really good chicken pasta dish, if you like chicken or pasta. …Hey, you look familiar. Have we met?"

A brief moment of panic, "No! Um, I-I mean no, definitely not. I just moved here a little bit ago, so.."

"Really? Where from?"

Come on Wayne, think. Shit, you should have had this all figured out beforehand. "Um.. Kansas."

"Why'd you move?"

"Well, y'know, change of scenery."

She gave an amused smile, "That's a pretty big change."

He grinned back at her, "Well, gotta keep things interesting."

Layla laughed a bit, "Actually, I moved here because things were calmer than in Bayville."

"Bayville... I know I've heard of that place... gimme a sec.. ...that's where that one 'school for the gifted' is, right?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Being different like that has gotta be tough on a kid, y'know?"

You have no idea, he thought, but changed the subject. "Speaking of kids, how are yours adjusting to the move? Roxie said you guys moved here a little after Metro Man q- er, died." A brief look of relief flashed across her face. Probably glad that she doesn't have to have the 'by the way I have kids' discussion, he thought.

"Pretty well, I think," Layla answered, "Devi's doing okay in school, and Lance is still pretty little. We were actually here before the museum opening. They really liked watching Metro Man on TV."

Wayne couldn't help but smile at that, "A lot of people did. ...Still, Megamind isn't doing too bad a job of filling his shoes. Especially considering that he doesn't have any superpowers."

"Heh, it helps that he can make his own powers. ...And that there doesn't seem to be anyone here that's actually evil now that Titan's locked up."

"Well, there's probably a few..." God, time for a subject change, "So, how did you meet Roxie?"

"We were roommates in college. What about you? How do you know her?"

Ugh. Time for more thinking on his feet, "Er.. we used to work together, a while back."

"Really? What'd you do?"

"I was law enforcement, but I kinda burned out on it. Right now I'm still looking for a new direction. I've got enough savings that I can dabble." There. He hadn't technically lied. Too bad he didn't have his guitar handy; he had some stuff that was coming along really nicely that he could show her.

Dinner had gone quite well, he thought. He hadn't stuck his foot in his mouth or inadvertently used any of his powers, and she hadn't done anything particularly creepy or off-putting.

He paused on the way to his car, to call after her, "Would you maybe like to go see a movie someti-"

CRUNCH. He wasn't caught off guard so much by the sensation as by the sound. When you have super-hearing, everything is loud. He looked down to see that while he wasn't paying attention, a car had wrapped it's engine block around his legs like he was a telephone poll. Crap. He extracted himself from the mess, a bit startled.

Layla looked at Wayne, then the car, then back to him, the realization dawning on her, "Okay, Seriously?"

He glanced into the car; the driver had fainted, but otherwise looked unhurt. Glancing around to make sure there were no witnesses, Wayne quickly moved the car over to make it look like he HAD hit a telephone poll. There, problem solved.

"I take it you're Metro Man, and not some other guy with invulnerability that looks like him."

He turned to her with a sigh, "Look, I used to be, but I'm not now."

"Really. Having them open a museum for you wasn't enough?"

Wayne flinched.

"…Sorry, I'm not mad at y- ….No wait, I am. Would it have killed ya to help a little when super-powered Titan showed up! People died."

He held up his hands in a defensive sort of way, "Okay, okay, can we take this elsewhere? Or at least take the volume down a notch? Please?"

"Fine," she hissed, lowering her voice.

He sighed, leading the way over to his truck. Once they were in, he turned to her and said, "Look, I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm done."

"So you had to fake your death? You didn't even try to just quit."

"You can't just quit being a hero. You have no idea what the pressure is like, there."

"Yes you can, and I kinda do."

"Trust me, you don't. Besides, Megamind was being forced into the whole villain thing just by me being Metro Man. He's doing a good job at the heroics."

"Yeah, after almost getting killed a few times."

"Hey, he's a lot hardier than you're giving him credit for."

She just shook her head at him, ". . . Did you even see the fight with Titan? At all? He came pretty damn close to dying."

"Well, he came out of it fine. ...And he came out of facing the Tailor fine, even though I tried to get him to just leave that one alone."

Layla gave him a cold look, "How can he leave something alone if he's the only superhero in the city?"

"With the Tailor? You can manage it. She's not as, er, 'flashy' as Megamind always was." She stared at him in disbelief. Just one more person having their illusions shattered, he guessed. Shaking her head a little, she went to get out of the car, but he lightly grabbed her arm, stopping her. "Please keep it quiet that I'm still around."

Layla looked at him for a long moment, then nodded, "I won't tell."

"Thank you. ...And for what it's worth, it was nice meeting you."

She just shook her head, got out, and stalked back over to her own car.

So much for dating.