Author's Note: A huge and much-appreciated thank you to all my lovely, patient readers and reviewers! Dark chocolate eggs all around! It's been a bit of a depressing week for me, as my arm suffered a bit of a relapse, but things are once again on the mend, the reviews have been most encouraging, and I am finally heading into the home stretch of this long, long tale. There will be a deliberate delay to the next chapter, for two reasons: it needs to be as near to perfect as I can get it, and I very much want to post it on Friday, April 29th, to coincide with the Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. What can I say, beneath this crusty, curmudgeonly old exterior is a closet romantic (no doubt hiding in that same closet with Minion). Until then, enjoy!
XXI
The Last Details
By the end of the day on Sunday, Minion had been introduced to many of the intriguing activities and places on the Green Bay side of the peninsula, beginning with the watersports in and around Eagle Harbor and the beauty of the 150 foot high bluffs of Peninsula State Park, overlooking the western edge of the harbor. Megamind's boast that Minion wouldn't really care about his proficiency as a windsurfer was accurate; they had been discussing the idea of someday giving the sport a try, the fish would've been delighted even if his boss hadn't been able to do more than stand up on the board for two minutes before flopping into the water. When he demonstrated his ability to do much more than stay upright, Minion couldn't wait to get out of his robotic suit and into the water.
Roxanne was still a little weirded out when helping him make the transfer from habitat to the open lake; she'd given him a hand a few times before, and while she didn't mind touching Minion, it was the sight of the "dead" robot suit that gave her the creeps. But it went quickly this time, and she'd decided to bring her swimming suit and at least join them on the water, using a small catamaran she'd borrowed from Jason. She still hadn't quite mastered the art of sailing on her own — though Jason had shown both of them the ropes after two of the blue hero's surfing lessons — but it was enough for her to be out there on the lake with the two aliens happily darting about her in their gleeful play. They were kind enough to occasionally slow enough so that she could keep up, and even stopped a few times to join her, Megamind perching on one edge of the little craft while Minion floated and paddled in the water about them.
By mid-afternoon, the two non-piscines were feeling sufficiently waterlogged for the day, so they headed in, bringing the borrowed boat and the windsurfing gear to Jason's pier, where Minion's cybersuit awaited his return. The instructor had left open the door to his boathouse, where there were shower and changing facilities for the two humanoids. While Roxanne cleaned up, Minion, back in his robot body, helped Megamind load the windsurfing gear into and atop the SUV, and when they were done, they headed on to their next destination.
When Minion had let them know that he would be coming to join them on Sunday, they'd called Sunny at the leather shop in Fish Creek to inform her of the fishy tailor's day of arrival. She'd been excited to hear the news, as Toby was also going to be in town on the same day, delivering some commissioned items for the shop. Minion had already heard the tale of Megamind's ex-con, leather-crafting fan, and he was as interested in meeting the fellow as Toby was keen to meet them. As it was still high season, the store was open into the evening despite it being a Sunday, and they had agreed to drop by the shop later in the afternoon.
Toby turned out to be a big man, even taller than Minion in his current cybersuit, broad-shouldered, black-haired, and dark-eyed, with weathered tanned skin and an unexpectedly bright, cheerful smile. He dressed like a fairly typical biker because he was one, but his clothes were neat, and it was clear that he wanted to make a positive impression on those he was going to meet. Megamind was a little overwhelmed by the man's size and his energy, the former of which was more like Wayne, and the latter of which was more like his own. But Toby was so thrilled to meet the small alien he'd looked to as a role model, the ex-villain suspected he could've had two heads, purple hide, a tail, forked tongue, feathers, and horns and the guy still would have welcomed him with open arms.
They hadn't been in the shop for more than ten minutes before Sunny noticed Roxanne's ring, which then set off a flurry of congratulations and excitement and eventually a deep discussion between Toby and Minion concerning such things as wedding clothes, with which Minion had no experience but Toby had a surprisingly fair amount. Minion was reluctant to go into all the details of what he'd been planning with both the bride and groom present, so they absented themselves for a while by visiting the jeweler's shop across the small parking lot.
Max Andersen, the owner and goldsmith, had been thinking of closing for the day just before they arrived, but he was delighted to remain open for as long as the celebrated couple wished. He was very glad to hear that Roxanne was more than happy with her fiancé's selection. He did indeed have a number of remarkably beautiful things, from very simple to elaborate and utterly unique, but it didn't take them very long to decide on what they wanted among the rings. There was already a wedding band intended to match and be worn with the engagement ring, and when Roxanne spotted one particular ring among the men's selections, she knew which one she wanted.
"Do you know your ring size?" she asked Megamind after her ring had been chosen, while he was peering at an intricate wire-wrapped pendant in a tall glass showcase, trying to determine just how it had been made.
"No," was his blunt, somewhat distracted answer. "Why, did you see something you like?"
"Yes. Can you measure him, Mr. Andersen?"
The jeweler nodded, and while he was went to a back room to fetch his sizing implements, the former villain turned away from the pendant to see what had caught his lady's eye. "Which one?" he asked, curious.
Her smile was secretive. "Uh-uh, you got to surprise me with my engagement ring, so I want a chance to surprise you with this."
Megamind's nose went reliably out of joint. "You mean I don't get to see it now? I thought we were going to decide this together! What if I hate it? Will I be stuck having to wear something I don't like because of some ridiculous rule like not seeing a dress too soon or—"
She rolled her eyes, faintly exasperated. "Don't whine, sweetie, it's unbecoming for a superhero. And relax, if you hate it, you don't have to wear it, but I don't think you will. I know, I did say we'd decide together, but when I saw this, I changed my mind. Woman's prerogative."
Now, he was definitely pouting. "That doesn't seem fair..."
"It isn't," she had to admit. "But I really think this would be nicer as a surprise. C'mon," she cajoled, using all the wiles she needed to wrap him around her little finger — which wasn't much, merely a doe-eyed look, a bat of the eyelashes, and a come-hither little smile. "Let me have this one, I promise I won't ask for any other little surprises or secrets. I just want to have a chance to see your beautiful green eyes light up the way I'm sure mine did."
As predicted, Megamind maintained his sulk for perhaps two seconds, then surrendered. "Oh, all right, if it'll make you happy, I guess it's only fair. Am I going to need to pull out the Black Card again?"
"I'm not sure." She hadn't looked at the price, and though she had plenty of money of her own, she didn't know how close she was to her less generous credit card's limit, at the moment. "Will it matter if you do?"
He made an extravagant show of thinking about it, as if he planned to say yes, of course it did, why should he pay for both their rings, but he couldn't maintain the sham for long. "No, it won't. I owe you so much, Roxanne, all the money I have would never be enough to repay you. You gave me the best reason in the universe to turn my life around. Anything you want, it's yours."
She sighed softly, feeling another of those knee-melting moments washing over her. She shook her head in wonder even as she favored him with a wry smile. "It's sweet of you to say that, but I don't think you owe me quite that much. How the heck did you manage to hide this side of you for almost thirty years?"
His answering smile was somehow both impish and shy. "With a lot of very hard work. Just ask Minion, he'll give you all the details you want. I guess I just wasn't cut out to be the bad guy, after all."
"That's just as well, there aren't enough genuinely nice guys in the world, anyway. If you really want to see the ring I like now, I'll show you."
But he shook his head, this time completely in earnest. "No, it's okay, I'll wait. I have to admit, you've gotten me a little intrigued, but in a good way. And it's not like I'll have to wait that long anyway, right?"
"Right." She kissed his cheek as the jeweler finally returned with his measuring implements; it was fairly obvious that he'd withdrawn for as long as he had to give the couple time to discuss the matter with greater privacy. "Thanks for being so understanding, Mykaal, I promise you won't regret it."
Megamind cocked one dubious eyebrow at her, partly for show, partly at her casual use of his name in front of a virtual stranger. Not that it mattered, he knew, since Andersen had already known it, having seen it on the hero's credit card and having had it literally spelled out to him to be used in the engravings inside the bands.
When the proper measurement had been taken — more than a simple use of standardized sizing rings, as Mr. Andersen insisted on a perfect custom fit; he'd expected that Roxanne's engagement ring would need some adjustment, as many "pop the question" surprise rings did, but Megamind's surreptitiously made calculations had been astonishingly precise — payment was made, and a date for pick-up was given. The couple then returned to the leather shop, to find the place much busier than they'd left it.
Apparently, word of Minion's presence had gotten around the neighborhood, and the interest in a talking, intelligent fish in a robot body was quite powerful. He was chatting with a group of curious youngsters when they returned, and they didn't have the heart to interrupt him. The ichthyoid had a soft spot for kids of any age, not surprising, since he'd been chosen even as a young fish to be the protector and ersatz nanny to the infant Mykaal. How they'd known he would display such qualities as he matured, neither Minion nor Megamind had a clue; the best they could suppose was that they were common traits of his species, and he had merely followed true to his inborn nature. Toby was standing nearby, keeping a protective watch over the garrulous fish, so they left Minion in his clearly capable hands.
Sunny had latched onto Roxanne as soon as she saw that they'd returned, bringing with her one of the friendly young ladies who had waited on the reporter during her visit to the bath shop, wanting her to see the engagement ring. The younger woman made the expected oohs and ahhs of delight (to which Megamind listened with both exasperation over the silliness of females on this subject, and smug pride to hear additional confirmation that he'd chosen well).
"So the two of you are really tying the knot?" the clerk said, near-giggling, and now causing the blue hero to start a bit at her choice of words. He'd heard the phrase before, but until that moment, it hadn't struck him that in their case, it might be looked upon as weirdly appropriate — or horrifically inappropriate, depending on whether or not you were willing to let bygones be bygones. "Is it going to be a big wedding? Those can take over a year to put together..."
But Roxanne shook her head, smiling pleasantly at the clerk's enthusiastic approval. "No, we want to keep it very small. We haven't settled on a date, yet, but it'll probably be soon, before fall. With our work schedules being so unpredictable, anything more elaborate would be nearly impossible." Which was true, if somewhat deliberately evasive as to just how soon they had in mind, and where.
"That soon? Wow, I'd be a nervous wreck if the big day was coming in a month — but then, that can be so romantic, a whirlwind wedding, sweeping you off your feet...!" She was obviously one of the sort enamored of fairy tale type weddings, even if the tale was very brief.
One of the women hanging back from the edge of the group of youngsters surrounding Minion made a disgruntled noise. "It's disgraceful, if you ask me. They need to be more particular, letting decent women get involved with someone who isn't even human."
The sounds of other voices suddenly diminished as a number of people stopped talking to instead stare at the woman who had spoken. She looked to be about Roxanne's age, well-off from her style of dress and impeccable salon-type grooming, every strand of her light brown gold-frosted hair glued into place to create a too-artful 'casually tousled' look. Roxanne was about to make a crack about how this perfect stranger could make the presumption that she was decent, and both Toby and Sunny looked ready to literally kick her off the premises when Megamind spoke up, his tone deceptively neutral.
"Oh, then I suppose that my friend here isn't human, either." He wasn't indicating Minion, but rather Toby.
The woman frowned. "Of course he's human!" she said, trying not to sound flustered.
"How do you know?"
She was taken aback by the question for a moment. When Sunny was about to do something about the offensive woman, Roxanne stopped her, indicating that Megamind not only could take care of himself, but that he had to.
"Well, that's perfectly obvious!" the woman finally said.
Megamind remained unconvinced. "It is? Why? He doesn't look the same as you. He's much bigger, his nose and jaw are quite different, and his skin isn't the same color as yours. How do you know for sure that he's human?"
"I just do!" she snapped, and now, a red-haired man who was her match in his well-heeled appearance, very likely her husband, stepped up to support her.
"She's not a racist, if that's what you're implying," he said in tones that were as smooth as a politician's. "She's just saying that in the eyes of God, there's good reason to find a marriage between a human and... someone who's not human indecent, a cause for concern."
"Well, seeing that neither of you are God, how did you decide that I'm not human?"
The man made a condescending look "Well," he laughed, "that should be obvious..."
Megamind smiled back, a predatory edge to the expression. "Oh, but it isn't obvious. All you're seeing is the fact that my skin is blue and my head is bigger than what you call average. Can you examine my blood, my genes, my DNA with just your eyes?"
"I don't need to," was the haughty reply. "You weren't born on this planet, so you can't be human."
"Really." The reformed villain now adopted a casually confrontational stance, weight shifted to one leg, hands on hips. "How do you know that?"
His opponent was unimpressed, crossing his arms across his chest in a definite pose of defiance. "I just do! I don't need to be a genius to figure that out!"
Megamind's snort was carefully shy of rude. "Well, maybe not a genius, but perhaps someone who opens the book to actually read the contents before deciding what it's about. It's easier, of course, looking only at the cover before passing judgment, so I suppose it wouldn't interest you to know that a number of very highly qualified people have looked inside this particular cover—" He tapped his chest. "—studied the contents down to the smallest detail, and have determined that what's on my insides are as human as yours. Same genetic structure, same DNA, same cellular growth patterns, same internal organs, same general bodily functions. Racially, that's another story, I most definitely am of a different racial type than you, just like Toby here and some of the others I can see."
His sweepingly dramatic gestures indicated an elderly Oriental couple, a young black family, and a group of Hispanic children, but his green-eyed gaze never left the red-haired man. "You said something about 'in the eyes of God,' but I think perhaps you're presuming too much on His behalf. If in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, then I would take that to mean He created everything. Now, if that's so, then He created my world as well as yours — and if an all-powerful Creator had intended for us to be completely different, wholly alien to one another, don't you think He would have made us that way? Not merely different in appearance and shape, but truly, definitively unalike, in the very nature of our beings? Why would He have made my people with all the same needs and requirements for and functions of what we both call life if He planned for us to be totally alien to each other when we finally met? Why don't I look like a talking insect who can't live under Earth's conditions instead of a short man with blue skin and a big bald head who can? Why would a God who has the power to create an entire universe do that if He didn't intend for me to be — yes, human?"
In the silence that hung in the air following that final question — which left Megamind trembling ever so slightly from the force of the conviction that had driven his impromptu speech — Roxanne wanted to applaud. She knew that she couldn't, she knew she had to stay out of it — and in the end, she didn't need to lift a finger. The elderly Asian woman applauded for her, the steady beat of her hands picked up by others, beginning with her husband, to swiftly spread among the others.
When the contentious couple began to back away, wanting to escape the clear humiliation of being put down and outnumbered, the ex-villain held out one hand in a non-threatening gesture to stop them. "I didn't mean to embarrass you," he said more graciously than they deserved. "And I'm not trying to belittle your beliefs. But the universe is so much bigger than just one world, and I honestly believe that the power that created it all isn't so small and petty that the design was ever meant to apply to only one single planet. If there is a God, He has to be bigger than that."
The woman who had started it all now looked troubled. "But the Bible..."
Megamind nodded. "Is a book that was written thousands of years ago, by people who didn't really have the proper words to explain things beyond the scope of their understanding." He glanced about himself and picked up a fist-sized decorative stone globe from a nearby table. "If I show this to you, how do you explain what it is?"
Both she and her husband blinked. "It's a rock," he said. "A brown rock with stripes."
The alien shook his head. "No, it's cryptocrystalline silicon dioxide, composed of trigonal silicon dioxide in a continuous framework of silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, in fine intergrowth with monoclinic moganite of the same chemical composition but with a different crystal structure, also combined with trace deposits of iron oxide, giving the brown coloration."
When the couple stared at him, totally at a loss, one corner of his mouth quirked into a small smile. "Or, more simply put, it's a piece of chalcedony, a type also known as agate — a rock. Six thousand years ago, 'a rock' is all anyone would have known to call it. Does understanding the details of its composition and structure change what it is? Is it wrong that people can now say more about it than 'it's a rock?' Does the ability to understand things like anatomy and genetics change the fact that a person is a person? Just because I was born somewhere else and have skin of a different color and a larger than typical brain and head, does it mean that I must be inhuman — any more than the racists who once thought that those with differently-colored skin and non-Caucasian facial features were less than human?"
A number of people in the shop watched the couple, very interested in hearing their answer. Roxanne was more than half-expecting the pair to react like the woman in the bath shop who had called Megamind an inhuman monster before storming out of the place. Now, she held her breath, waiting to see what happened next.
A very long minute passed while the two tried to digest all the ex-villain had just said; the way they fidgeted and the manner in which their eyes kept flicking about — especially toward the floor — spoke volumes about their discomfort. "I — I never looked at things that way," the woman was first to say. "It's... difficult, when you've been taught to think otherwise your whole life."
"But how were we supposed to think anything else?" the man said, more defensively but not exactly belligerently. "It's not like aliens come to Earth every day! Nobody ever had to think about or deal with something like this before."
"That's how I wound up almost ruining my life," Megamind said quietly. "Because no one ever thought about it, myself included. It's time we did, because it is a big universe, and there are more things in it than any of us have ever dreamt of. If you believe in a God, you can't keep Him confined to one world, one people, one way of thinking. Anyone capable of inventing or even imaging something as infinitely complex as life itself — or even just this rock — is too big to be limited and defined by any of us."
Another handful of heartbeats passed before the woman nodded. She looked at Roxanne. "I'm sorry for what I said," she apologized, her eyes returning to the blue person standing before her. "It was very rude, and... wrong. I never thought of myself as prejudiced, but I guess I just learned something about myself that I don't like very much. Please accept my apologies, both of you. You've... given me a lot to think about."
The answering smile on the blue face was genuine. "I'm just glad that you're willing to think about it at all," he admitted. "I'm afraid I've met an awful lot of people who won't. Looking the way I do, coming from another planet... It tends to push people out of their comfort zones, in ways they don't like."
She managed a more timid smile in response. "I guess I can understand that. It's easier to want things to always stay the way they are. But they don't."
Her husband finally nodded, having needed more time before he was willing to relax his stubborn stance at all. "Sorry if I came on a little strong," he said, scratching the back of his head. "It's Sunday, and I guess we just had a booster shot of fire and brimstone this morning. The minister, he's not exactly comfortable with the way the world seems to be changing faster and faster every year. His ideas about slowing down, appreciating the old traditional ways sounded appealing."
"I'm sure they do," Megamind agreed with a lopsided grin. "Even the routine of being a supervillain was comfortable in a way — predictable," he added with a wink for Roxanne. "I always knew what to expect. But sometimes, change is for the better, even if it isn't easy."
"You said it, man," Toby agreed, nodding vigorously. "Bad habits are easy to fall back on. Moving forward is hard, very hard. But it's worth it."
There were murmured agreements from a number of those watching. The redhead hesitated a few moments more, then offered his hand to Megamind in a gesture of apology. When the alien accepted it, the man's eyes widened. "You're warm," he blurted out, coloring a bit at the weird looks people gave him. "I mean, I'd heard that you were cold-blooded or something, that's why your skin is blue."
Now, Roxanne found her opening. "Oh, no," she assured him. "Don't believe those things you read in gossip rags or hear on tabloid TV. They're all about ratings and sales, not the truth. Cold-blooded is definitely one thing Megamind is not."
Her fiancé flushed an unusual shade of purple right up to the tips of his ears, and though he groaned in embarrassment, the woman who had called him inhuman gasped softly. "I didn't know you could do that," she said, blushing herself from the odd looks she was given. "I don't remember who said it, but when I was little, I heard a story about how creatures without a soul or a conscience can't blush or cry. I don't know why, but it was supposed to be a way to tell monsters from humans. I guess somewhere deep down, I've always remembered that, and figured it would be a way to tell, a way to keep myself safe. It's silly, it's like the old tales about witches floating in water or vampires and garlic. I just... didn't expect this."
"There are so many old wive's tales and legends and myths, sometimes it can be hard to separate fact from fiction when we're faced with something completely new," Roxanne consoled the woman, actually relieved to hear that she held to such an odd belief. "But I think I can understand why some people still believe this one. I've done reports on serial killers, mass murderers, the kinds of sociopaths or hardened criminals who can commit truly monstrous acts and feel absolutely no remorse for it. A person with no conscience, no sense of shame or simple human decency probably wouldn't blush, because they have no feelings of regret or compassion for those they hurt."
She smiled at her still faintly purple-cheeked beau. "That's part of how I always knew you never meant to hurt me or anyone, sweetie. You blush so easily, it's obvious you have all the feelings a normal, sane, decent person would have. And you've never been able to hide it."
That made the color in his cheeks intensify again, but it also brought a smile to his lips. "Well, I did try," he admitted sheepishly. "I just never could do anything about it — and believe me, I tried every trick in the book!"
That brought out a round of chuckles and good-natured laughter around the shop, and the tension finally broke. People started talking normally again, Minion and Megamind were both besieged by questions from the youngsters and several of the adults, and when Sunny and Charley not-so-subtly suggested that folks give their celebrated guests some breathing room, people cheerfully complied. When some of the throng had dispersed and the place was less crowded, Megamind disappeared among the leather coats and jackets and furs and racks thick with hanging clothes from floor to ceiling at one end of the shop. Seeing him go, Minion and Roxanne exchanged glances.
Both Sunny and Toby saw it. "Go ahead," she told them. "Toby'll see to it that you're not disturbed." When he nodded confirmation, they thanked him and headed after the hiding hero.
He was standing near the door to a storage room, leaning against the soft comfort of several long fur coats hanging on a wall display. His arms were wrapped around his slender torso, and he was visibly shaking. He looked up with a start when he heard their footfalls, green eyes wide, then visibly sagged, somewhat relieved when he identified them. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but nothing came out but a thin sigh.
Minion spoke first. "Sir, I don't think I've ever felt more proud of you than I do right now," the piscine said, his voice quiet but filled with fond admiration. "I could never have answered them the way you did, not without losing my temper or giving in to them."
"He's right," Roxanne agreed, no less proud or fond of him and what he'd just managed to do. "I used to think that you were full of nothing but boasting and bragging and pointless banter and hot air, but somewhere during the last two years, you've figured out that the best way to get through to people isn't by browbeating them or yelling at them or putting them down, but just speaking from the heart, telling them what you think, what you believe, and why."
Megamind's laugh was shaky. "Yeah, I guess that's what I just did — but why does it feel like I've just been through another month-long battle with the Terror Trio? I'm shaking like... like an I don't know what!"
"That's normal, sir," Minion assured him, pulling the folds of the dark fur jacket his ward was leaning against over his slim shoulders. "It was a battle, just one with words, not weapons or superpowers. And this is shock, that's all."
Roxanne nodded, moving to stand closer to offer him a physical warmth Minion couldn't. "You really were magnificent out there, Mykaal. If you'd asked me to write you a script for everything you said and did, I don't think I could've done even half so well. Because when all's said and done, I don't know what it feels like to be in your position. People can insult me and call me a traitor against humankind and other crap like that, but it's just not the same as being the only one of your race on the whole planet."
She cupped the curve of his cheek and jaw with one hand, her eyes shining with pride. "You certainly are one of a kind, and if anyone ever dares to tell you you're not a real superhero, just have them talk to me. What you did just now took more strength and courage than a dozen Metro Men."
"What she said, sir," Minion added, settling one hand on his friend's shoulder. "Double."
The hero in question closed his eyes, reveling in the love of his two dearest friends, and managed a smile that was less tentative. "I'll do that," he promised. When he opened his eyes again, he glanced past them to where Toby was keeping anyone from disturbing them, then looked back to his guardian and his lady. "Could I have a few minutes alone?" he asked, trying very hard not to sound dismissive. "I just want to make sure I've gotten over the shakes before I go back out there, and it's not fair to the owners, keeping their customers out of half their store. I can duck into the store room, it's quiet in there, and if Toby still wants to stand guard, he can just stay outside the door."
Roxanne considered his request, and decided very quickly that he wasn't running away, just regrouping after an unexpectedly difficult and emotionally draining encounter. "Sure, sweetie, take as long as you need. Charley had some things he's been holding for me that I wanted to look over, anyway. And maybe Minion can find a few things here for his own wardrobe."
The ichthyoid grinned brightly. "Oh, that's a great idea, Ms Roxanne! I've always thought that leather jackets were very cool, but they never worked well with a gorilla robot body. Do you mind, sir? I know that leather's your signature look, and I don't want you to think I'm just copying..."
Megamind gave his old friend a playful push. "You're the one who gave me the look, Minion, so why would I complain? Go on, see if they have anything that comes up to your high standards."
As his sidekick happily ambled off, Roxanne lingered long enough to give her beau a brief but warm hug and kiss. "You know, I understand why you're reacting like this, and why you didn't want to say anything to Minion."
When the green eyes narrowed slightly but one brow lifted, puzzled, she explained. "You weren't just giving those people a piece of your mind; you were begging, to be understood, to be accepted as just another one of God's children. You shouldn't have to do that in a perfect world, but sad to say, this world is far from perfect. And Minion, he's your protector, but he can't protect you from that — and if he found out that he didn't catch the subtext of what was really happening, he'd feel bad about that, too."
Megamind began to insist that she was mistaken, but he knew it for the lie it was. "I didn't realize it myself until it was over and my knees started to give out. Don't tell Minion, please. I don't want to upset him over something like this. I haven't given him many good reasons to feel proud of me, over the years."
Something soft and warm crept into the reporter's blue eyes. "If he knew what you've just said, he'd have another good reason to be proud — like I do. You're turning into one very exceptional superhero, Mykaal, even without all your clever gizmos and gadgets. Sometimes, the hardest battles to be won aren't against supervillains or weapons of mass destruction, but in obscure places against small minds that worm their ways into people's hearts and minds and crush them. Wayne could lift entire buildings in one hand and give inspiring speeches about justice, but he could never have won a fight like this one, not in a million years. I won't tell Minion, I promise."
He sighed, relieved. "Thank you. I'm glad you understand, but I guess when it comes to this sort of prejudice, I want to be the one protecting him, for a change."
She chuckled lightly. "Of course you do, that's why you're the hero, not the sidekick." For good measure, she rewarded said hero with a kiss. "Are you sure you'll be all right now?"
He nodded, savoring the sweetness of his reward. "I'm better already, I just need a few more minutes to make sure my knees have stopped knocking. I won't be long."
"You'd better not be," she teased, "or we might just need that special credit card of yours and another SUV to carry everything home." When he chuckled and blew her a raspberry, she knew he'd be fine and left him to finish collecting his rattled nerves on his own.
True to his word, it took only a few minutes before Megamind returned to join them, much more his usual enthusiastic and happy self. He laughed at some of the more outrageous things they modeled for him, declaring that the panache needed to carry off truly flamboyant clothing was a gift neither of them apparently possessed.
He was, however, willing to allow that Minion's current habitat seemed excellently suited to some classic biker styles that he simply couldn't imagine on Wayne without it looking absurd. And he had to scrape his jaw off the floor in order to let Roxanne know that he highly approved of one of the leather and suede outfits she'd put together, though he wasn't sure how well his self-restraint would hold up under the heat. Sunny and Toby and even Charley put in their opinions as well, and offered a few changes and other suggestions that were well received, so by the end of their visit, they had enough purchases to more than make up for any business that might've been lost during the tense confrontation.
It was almost suppertime before they were done, so for dinner, they headed back to Sister Bay and took Minion to the little cafe they'd visited on their first night in town, and several times since. The staff was delighted to meet him, especially the students from overseas who would be heading off to their respective colleges the following week. Minion was thrilled to find that Marco was pursuing studies in oceanography and ichthyology. It was his expert opinion that people on Earth needed to learn more about the oceans that covered so much of the world and the life within them, not just as resources but as the treasure troves of an untapped greater knowledge of the universe that they could be. "And," he added puckishly, "I'll never know if there's a fish in that ocean for me if no one ever looks close enough to find her!"
They ended the first day of Minion's vacation back at the summer house, all three watching another beautiful sunset over the wide waters from the vantage of a terrace on the hillside above the private pier, talking of trivial things, enjoying the company of one another. Even though they all shared a feeling that the days until the wedding were rushing by, for a little while, time slowed to a crawl as the colors of the sunset lingered in the skies and only slowly faded to the first deep blues of the coming night. And when the stars finally began to open in blossoms of silver light above them, Roxanne and Megamind looked at one another, spoke without words, and reached a decision.
"Saturday," they told Judge Crenshaw when they met him for lunch in Egg Harbor the following day. The restaurant that had been chosen was a peculiarly colorful little place, bedecked with some of the oddest yet most fanciful arts and crafts made available by local artisans, turning the place into a quaint little combination café/art studio. But the food was good, the atmosphere pleasant, and their corner on the screened-in porch sufficiently private for their needs.
The judge had already informed them that the clerk would have their finalized license ready late on Wednesday. They in turn informed him of the place and day they wished to hold the ceremony — which would give Minion and his brainbot helpers plenty of time to implement his plans without over-rushing him — and they also admitted to their trepidations concerning the actual time to have it. Crenshaw had been reliably honest with them.
"I could call in a few favors to get the park closed to the public for an hour or so at a decent time of day." He said this with a wink and a smile, indicating his personal feelings about getting up before the crack of dawn, which even the younger couple admitted was a charming idea, but not really practical. "But let's be frank about it: what are you trying to hide? I can understand you not wanting to advertise the wedding beforehand and draw a gaggle of media and celebrity watchers and crackpots, but you're not planning to keep the marriage itself a secret, right?"
"Not at all!" Megamind said first, appalled by the very idea. "I mean, I suppose that might make Roxanne a little less of a target for bigots, but she's already had to deal with that, and my enemies. Keeping it secret might seem like a good idea, but to be honest, I think of being open about it as making a very clear statement that I will protect her, and that I have every right to protect her!" He spoke with such ferocity, one could fairly see the steam coming from his nostrils.
Roxanne squeezed his hand to cool him off. "That's a little stronger than I might've put it, but it's the same general idea. I don't want to hide the fact that we've chosen one another, forever. But I also don't want the ceremony spoiled by curiosity seekers and paparazzi. Not to mention a certain stalker who's currently stuck in southern Illinois, waiting for his car to be fixed."
Crenshaw nodded. "Legitimate concerns, I grant you. But so long as you don't talk too publicly about the when and where, there shouldn't be any problems. I can ask my friends with the county park service and the Sevastopol police to make sure you have clear access to the area you want for as long as you need. You're not planning anything big or long, so at worst, it'll only inconvenience the park visitors for a little while. But is there something wrong with letting simple, ordinary people who happen to be in the right place at the right time be there to see a very important moment in your lives?"
The couple exchanged glances and shrugs and quirked eyebrows as they considered this. "I guess not," Megamind admitted readily enough. "Especially if there'll be a few police around, just in case one of the innocent bystanders turns out to be some anti-alien lunatic or religious nutcase."
"Just so," the judge said, approving of his attitude. "I don't want this to be about the moral and political statement aspects, but we can't deny that they're a part of it, they would be no matter what. Being open and allowing others to see that you're not afraid of what they might think sends a good message of its own: we love each other, we take pride in each other, and we have nothing to hide. So pick whatever time you really want, not just a time where you can do this in secret. It's been my experience that marriages wind up the way they begin, either in openness and honesty or in secrets and lies."
It was a very wise observation, and the couple took it to heart. By the time their lunch was finished and they parted ways with the judge, the matter was settled. That coming Saturday at three in the afternoon on the promontory at Cave Point, weather permitting (and a quick consultation with several Internet weather services said it should be), they would be married. With any luck, they would have a week or three afterward in which to relax from the rush of preparations, enjoy the rest of their vacation with Minion, and celebrate the beginning of this newest phase of their lives together.
And hopefully, they would also have a chance to get their strength and their wits into top shape before returning to Metro City and the media barrage that was certain to come once the news was out that their city's defender and its top reporter had tied a knot of an entirely different kind than the ones they used to share.
It was Thursday afternoon before the repair shop in Grayville was finally able to get all the necessary parts to repair the broken transmission of Stewart Mitchell's traitorous Mercedes. He was on I-64, heading as fast as he could for St. Louis, determined to reach it before the big two-day rally there was over and the bikers headed out on Friday morning, when he received a most disconcerting phone call from Leo Zaleski.
"They're where?" he demanded, not wanting to believe his ears.
The hacker was perfectly calm about the whole thing. "Door County, Wisconsin. Popped up in someone's blog on LiveJournal, heard from a friend of a friend of a friend kind of thing. The two of 'em and the fish were drawing a crowd in a place called Fish Creek — and this wasn't one of those celebrity lookalike gimmicks, the fish was spotted in the robot body he's been using since his usual gorilla suit got trashed in a big fight last month."
"It could still be a trick," Mitchell growled, annoyed by the mere idea that he might have been fed a tissue of lies as a diversion, and had fallen for it. "They've got those disguise things they use, you know."
Zaleski was unperturbed. "Yeah, I know, but there was a tiny detail to this that might interest you: seems that your would-be lady's got a sparkly not-so-little rock on her finger that the blog's source says came from the little blue guy you love to hate."
"WHAT?"
The volume of Mitchell's bellow came perilously close to blowing the audio receptors on his two stealthbot companions, as well the eardrums of every person in every vehicle within a mile-wide radius.
Zaleski, who had had the foresight to pull the headset away from his ears before he finished dropping that little bomb, still heard it quite loud and clear, though not so painfully. He waited until the echoes of the scream and his own laughter died away before answering.
"Hey, I didn't write the blog, I'm just repeating it. This past Sunday at a certain corner store in Fish Creek, Wisconsin, one Roxanne Ritchi and her alien 'friends' were seen shopping, chatting up their fans, and showing off a sweet two-carat diamond ring a certain blue superhero gave her when he popped the question during their recent vacation in the Door. Rumor says that wedding bells will be ringing for the celebrity couple before the beginning of fall. Will the Metro City bridal industry be ready for what's sure to be the city's Wedding of the Century? That's how the blog reads. Now, you can take the rumors any way you want, but you've got as much to go on here about them being in Wisconsin as you do about them being on that cycle tour."
Mitchell's blood pressure had taken several upward spikes during his cohort's commentary, heaping horror upon horror. When his constricted throat finally loosened enough to let him speak again, he had to force out the words between clenched teeth. "I can't believe she'd be foolish enough to actually let things get that far! Is there anything you have to verify this, or do you think it's just another plant?"
He could hear the hacker shrug. "Well, it's a fangirl type of blog, so it could be nothing but a lot of wishful thinking, or even someone they got to plant the rumor because she liked doing a favor for her heroes. There's no photo or video to go with it, and I haven't seen any mention of an engagement in any society pages — and you know this is just the kind of thing they'd be salivating over if there was even any vague proof. I tried hacking into the banking and credit card systems to see if I could find any records for recent jewelry purchases by either Ritchi or Megamind, but I came up with zip, over the last year. Either he does everything with cash, or if he has a card, it's under some other name. So if it's solid proof you're looking for, I can't give it to you."
The producer didn't find that news reassuring. "Still, it could be real," he grumbled. "It's just the sort of thing that underhanded, unethical blue criminal would try, using poor Roxanne's Stockholm Syndrome against her."
Zaleski snorted. "You know, the shrinks say she's clean, that way," he pointed out, mostly for the fun of being an irritant.
Mitchell didn't disappoint. "Yes, I know, but I don't believe them! It's like schizos, they can be so totally into their sickness, no one can diagnose them properly. You're a gambling man, Leo. If you had to place a bet on where they are, where would you put your money?"
The hacker didn't take long to think about it. "In Wisconsin. After they left Milwaukee, the only live footage we've seen of either of them came from the boat rescue in Ephraim. Still pictures are easy to fake, videos not so much. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but I'd consider that the more credible information."
The self-centered sleazoid gave this due consideration even as Snooper started relaying this conversation to Daddy and Minion on a top-priority signal. "I have a sinking feeling you may be right. All right, Leo, get to work finding out where they're staying up there. Unless they change their plans and head back home early, they'll still be up there another ten days. That's plenty of time for me to drive up there, track down Roxanne, and talk to her before she makes the biggest mistake of her life."
Leo replied with a cooperative, "Will do," and left Mitchell to consult his car's GPS as to the best route he might take to cover the more than 500 miles between his current location and the thumb of Wisconsin.
Unbeknown to him, in the back of his car, an invisible brainbot, having finished its relay of this villainous conversation to its maker, was having its own little silent conversation with its invisible partner perched on the Mercedes' roof. Sneaker and Snooper had specific jobs to fulfill, but they were not entirely without minds of their own. So in total silence, determined to be of the most help they could be, they discussed which part of Mitchell's car they could subtly sabotage next, to delay his mad dash north and prevent him from harassing Daddy and their soon-to-be Mommy until it was too late.
Meanwhile, up in Sister Bay, Minion had called his boss and Ms Roxanne to listen to Snooper's relay of Mitchell's discussion with his hacker. When it was over, all three were quiet for a moment, exchanging glances. "So, what are we going to do?" Minion finally asked.
Megamind's and Roxanne's eyes locked for the better part of a minute, their communication silent, but as informative as the data pulses between the two stealthbots. She nodded first, and he agreed. "Nothing," the blue hero said, his voice as serious and more deadly than it had ever been before. "Sneaker and Snooper only need to delay him for another day or so. After that..." His smile and the glint in his green eyes was positively evil, in a splendidly good way. "After that, if he can find us, let him. We'll be ready — and we'll give him the surprise of his life."
To be continued in Chapter XXII: The Last Party