Minion stood in front of the security monitors, fluttering his fins anxiously. In the older, smaller, slightly rusty body he was wearing, he probably could have fit in Megamind's chair, but that hadn't occurred to him yet. His eyes were flicking back and forth, trying to keep track of the more than 500 video feeds transmitted by the brainbot search parties. He'd cancelled their re-training after some time with no radio contact, knowing something must have gone wrong.

Minion's suspicions had been confirmed when the brainbots found the wreck of the latest battle suit. What was strange, and particularly concerning, was that Sir was nowhere to be found. The police were present at the scene, directing groups of angry-looking civilians away from the scene of the wreck, but they didn't have Sir in custody. He'd had the brainbots check every squad car, and in desperation even had them break into the police station. It was good that they'd sent most of their officers over to City Hall, otherwise 356 might have gotten seriously damaged after their very unsubtle entrance through a windowpane.

One of the feeds went black. Minion jolted as he noticed it, tripping over his too-small feet and catching himself on the desk. Words began to appear on the empty panel.

RECEIVING DATA FROM UNIT: 17

OBJECTIVE COMPLETED

SENDING COORDINATES IN 3 2 1

"17, you are such a good cyborg." Minion sighed in relief. He watched a streetmap appear on 17's feed. "Wait, isn't that where Ms. Ritchi lives?!"

Megamind held still as Ms. Ritchi gently adhered one last piece of gauze to his head with medical tape. He scooted away slightly when she was done, attempting to focus his blurry vision on her face but finding himself unable to do so. That was disturbing, and he felt his heart pounding harder in response. He remembered this happening a couple times before, but he couldn't focus long enough to remember why.

"That should do it for now," Ms. Ritchi said, her voice betraying no emotion. Not even annoyance. That was odd. Wasn't it? "Are you willing to tell me where the Lair is or shall I-"

The window shattered, dozens of brainbots swarming the two of them. Several grasped Ms. Ritchi in their claws, lifting her off the couch and gently depositing her on a stool in the kitchen- away from him.

"Make a run for it, Sir!" Minion's voice came from a small speaker on one of the brainbots near him.

His automatic response was to comply. Minion almost always knew what was best for him. But when he stood, the world tilted around him and he found himself back on the couch. "Minion, help me," he requested fervently.

The brainbots all froze in midair, including the ones that were keeping Miss Ritchi away from him, and then moved with wasplike purpose to form a protective sphere around him.

Minion's voice came through the speaker again. "What did she do to you, Sir?!"

Roxanne had been somewhat annoyed when the brainbots broke her window. She was definitely not getting the security deposit back. She had wanted to get him back to his Evil Lair, though, so she didn't resist as the brainbots moved her off the couch. She should mention that to him later; it wouldn't have been a very effective method of restraint for someone who actually fought back.

But when she heard Minion blaming her for the situation, she might have lost her temper just a little bit.

"What did I do? What did I do? I saved his goddamn life, Minion." Standing up and stalking towards the brainbot sphere, Roxanne grew increasingly impassioned as she kept ranting. "The plan failed like they always fail, and he got hurt, and I saved him." Her voice rose almost to a shriek. "They were going to kill him!"

As suddenly as she'd started, she stopped, the weight of her words falling on her. "They- they were going to kill him." Now that her adrenaline high was wearing off, this filled her with as much fear as it did anger. What would she have done if he died? If their routine stopped and she had to go back to a normal life? She couldn't imagine. Sitting down suddenly on the floor, she wrapped her arms around herself and tried to breathe slowly. But she couldn't see him through the wall of brainbots and the glare of their red eyes. She couldn't see if he was okay.

Roxanne's breathing quickened. She started to feel like she was choking, but pulling her collar away from her neck didn't help. She could feel her heartbeat racing in her fingers and chest. Megamind was still not visible through the cloud of brainbots.

How much time had passed? Roxanne looked at her wrist, but she wasn't wearing a watch. Breathing quickly and desperately through the choking feeling in her throat, she turned over her hand and looked carefully at both sides. It felt kind of numb- that was weird, she'd been wearing gloves outside and everything.

There were some words happening in the background, muffled a bit by the background noise of the brainbots 'barking' at each other. "out of the- no! no biting! Stay-"

They moved when he told them to, although they were clearly concerned about him. Still following whatever silent order Minion had sent them, they pressed closely around him as he stumbled towards Ms. Ritchi, who was staring at her hand as if she had never seen it before.

"Ms. Ritchi!" he called out to her, falling somewhat ungracefully to his knees. It was fine, he was already hurt and even if this made it worse it hardly mattered. "Ms. Ritchi, are you all right?" She took a moment, but she looked away from her hand and towards his face.

"Megamind," she responded, almost questioning. Then she put her hand on her chest, over her heart, breathing alarmingly quickly. "You're okay. You're okay, I saved you, you're okay," she repeated, somewhat to herself. She moved her hand forward off her chest, reaching out in his direction, and he realized how close together they were sitting. He tried to crush his disappointment when she pulled back her hand just before her fingers could touch his face.

"I'm sorry," she said, exhaling deeply. Her breathing became more regular, but he could tell she was forcing it from the way she gasped between breaths sometimes.

Minion's voice came from one of the brainbots again, still very worried. "Are you two okay? What happened, Sir? Did you try to kidnap her after all?"

"There were some setbacks with the plan, Minyon," Megamind informed him. "I may have, uh," he paused, trying and failing to think of the right word, "gotten hurt. Um. Just a bit."

Ms. Ritchi let out a loud, dry "HA!" and reached out to put her hand over his gloved forearm. "He has a concussion, Minion, he was assaulted by an entire mob."

From Minion's end of the microphone, they heard a staticky bubbling noise and a loud crack, followed by a crashing noise and the sound of glass breaking.

Megamind's reaction was instant alarm. "Minyon! My Minyon, are you hurt?" What if Metro Man had come back early and barged into the Lair?

His fear didn't last too long. Minion's voice came through the brainbot's speakers again, still full of stress. "Oh dear- don't worry Sir, we can replace the monitors- you have a CONCUSSION?"

Megamind considered this for a moment. "Yes, I suppose that would fit the symptoms, although the effect of such trauma on an alien system is by no means guaranteed to-" He stopped, mind blank. Had he been saying something?

As his brilliant mind got stuck on a loading screen (and once he thought that, he couldn't help envisioning it, and almost laughed) he realized Ms. Ritchi was touching his arm, practically his hand. If it weren't for his gloves, she'd be-

Minion was muttering something, then raised his voice to an audible level again. "Sir, you need to get back to the lair and receive medical attention."

He had to expend an abnormal amount of effort to process that. "How? Are you going to have the brainbots carry me?"

Dear Minion sighed exaggeratedly. His natural breathing didn't sound like that at all, but he had adopted the habit for the sake of better communication with terrestrial lifeforms. Oh, wait, he was saying something.

"…but under the circumstances, I think that's inadvisable, and since I can't come and get you we may have no choice but to – well –" There was a pause. "Code: Have Ms. Ritchi drive you home?"

Megamind seemed to remember that this was a bad idea, but he couldn't think of why. And all the other plans were dangerous to him, Minion, or both of them. So, slowly, he nodded his head.