Driving Megamind back to the lair so Minion could make sure he was alright. That was the plan Roxanne had come up with, too, but she had expected an argument. After all, what was the bag even for if they were willing to trust her with the location of the Lair?

Well, maybe saving Megamind had convinced them she was on their side. …On their side? No, they were still supervillains. She wasn't on their side, not like that, she only saved him because unlike some people, she had a sense of common decency. Yeah.

Her fingers tightened around Megamind's forearm slightly, and she realized she had touched him without asking. She quickly let go and pulled her hand away, avoiding eye contact.

Now that she thought of it, why couldn't Minion come and get him? Megamind obviously couldn't walk back, it would be unsafe to have the brainbots carry him while he was injured, but…

"Minion, did something happen to the invisible car? Can't you pick him up?"

There was an extended, staticky silence before Minion's voice sounded from the broadcasting brainbot. "…My feet don't reach the pedals."

That was confusing, too, and on a normal day she would have continued questioning him. Today, however, it might be important to move quickly so Minion could find out – what was it Megamind had said? 'The effect of head trauma on an alien'? Her throat started to clench again. What if his biology didn't react to concussion like a human's would? What if he never recovered- or got worse?

Roxanne took several deep, intentional breaths. She couldn't afford to have another panic attack right now. She needed to be calm enough to drive. Megamind needed her.

Well, for now at least. After this was over he'd probably go right back to the same old routine, and she'd go back to literally sitting on the sidelines of every battle.

She stood up, Megamind rising with her and meeting her gaze with slightly unfocused green eyes. "Well, I guess we're going for a drive."

He nodded again. "I- thank you, Ms. Ritchi."

Roxanne exhaled through her nose. "I'm going to get you one of my spare coats, and then we'll take the elevator down to the parking garage." She looked at the brainbot that had been speaking for Minion. "Can you send the other brainbots away discreetly? I don't want to attract too much attention…" She glanced at her shattered window, and sighed. Maybe it was too late for that, but if she was lucky anyone who saw it would assume it had just been a kidnapping and not ask any awkward questions.

Minion's speaking brainbot flew over to Megamind, who rubbed its head and cooed to it. "That's a good bot, 17. Who's a brilliant creation of science? You are!"

The brainbot bowged, and at the same time started to project Minion's voice again. The beginning of the transmission was garbled because of that. Hm – it was interesting but somehow not surprising that Megamind valued his creations' free will above the optimization of their functions.

Minion's message finished "…will be more obvious if they leave all at once, but I'll orchestrate some other acts of mayhem so their presence here seems less suspicious."

Roxanne looked over at Megamind, who was now idly resting his fingers on the brainbot's – on 17's dome and looking slightly confused.

"All right," she said after a second. She turned and walked a few paces to the hall closet and began sorting through it. "Megamind, do you mind wearing one of my coats? You'll need it, the car will be cold."

He tilted his head to the side. "Why would I mind?"

She waved a hand at him. "You know, women's clothes…" She pulled out a dark cobalt overcoat that she had almost forgotten she owned.

Megamind's mouth formed an o and he made grabby hands. Roxanne laughed before she knew what she was doing.

She laughed. A real laugh, like she was happy. She was happy? But before Megamind could even try to process that, she was throwing the jacket towards him and he flailed his arms around in a desperate attempt to catch it. He failed. Roxanne was still smiling, bright like her face was the sun and springtime had come early.

Megamind felt his face and ears heat up, and quickly bent over to pick up the coat so she wouldn't see how flustered he was to see her happy. He had done so much to compromise her happiness, it seemed almost inconceivable that she was even capable of feeling happy in his presence. Then again, hadn't she said something earlier about enjoying kidnappings? Maybe this whole thing was actually a hallucination induced by the head trauma. That would explain a lot.

He hesitated for a moment, still avoiding eye contact because he honestly had no idea how to respond to what had just happened. Then he unclasped his collar and shed the tattered remains of his cape, replacing it as quickly as possible with the coat.

He didn't think he'd ever seen her wear this one. It was dark blue, with double buttons and a flare at the waist that was honestly reassuring in its resemblance to a cape. Uncomfortable leaving his neck bare, he flipped up the collar. Not ideal, but passable.

He glanced up to see Ms. Ritchi still looking at him with a strange expression. It was – soft, but confused somehow. Well, confusion wasn't the worst emotion he tended to inspire in people. And he'd be leaving her alone soon enough.

"Shall we go, Ms. Ritchi?" he asked. If his voice trembled at all – well, he was probably still cold.

Roxanne, Megamind, and 17 successfully made it to the elevator, the parking garage, and into her car without being seen. She had Megamind and 17 sit in the back seat so the tinted windows would mostly block them from view. Minion began giving her directions through 17, but even once she was out on the roads she couldn't quite get past how Megamind's enthusiasm about her coat had made her feel.

She couldn't even bring herself to be triumphant about finally finding out where the Lair was. I mean, the industrial district was full of 'abandoned' warehouses perfect for any aspiring supervillain. Megamind was way too dramatic to resist such a classic trope. Meaning that if she'd ever really put her mind to it, she probably could have found it in, like, a day.

Absently following Minion's instructions, she helped Megamind out of the car in front of a plain brick wall. Well, not plain, it had graffiti on it, it just didn't have any visible doors or windows. Her gaze passed a lot of tags and-

Wait.

"Go away, nobody lives here?" Roxanne read aloud.

Minion's voice crackled through 17's speakers. "Oh yeah, there it is! You can enter through the wall, it's a hologram."

"You can do holograms?" She looked at Megamind, his arm slung around her shoulder, his head bandaged, and his normally so intense green eyes slightly unfocused. Her adrenalin spiked, and she quickly tore her eyes away and focused on getting him to the door- wall- thing. "It looks very convincing."

Minion's voice came from the wall this time, and a figure much smaller than she was used to emerged from the wall, blue light sparking around him as the hologram was disrupted. "Please don't tell anyone, Ms. Ritchi. It's really useful, and we hardly ever use it for plots."

That honestly raised a lot of questions, but the most confusing thing was that Minion's chassis was child-sized and much more cylindrical than usual. He reminded her of some cartoon robot, she couldn't recall where from. Well, at least this explained the comment about not being able to drive. "Why are you wearing that?"

"Oh, uh, I'd rather not talk about that," Minion said, fluttering his fins nervously and smiling without meeting her eyes. He held out a hand, and Megamind took a few steps forward to lean on him. Now, with Megamind's hand on his tank as if he was a sapient cane, Minion somehow looked even stranger than before. "Thank you so much for bringing him back safe, Ms. Ritchi, I was so worried."

"Oh, uh, you're welcome?" Roxanne said, feeling awkward and trying not to panic again about how close Megamind had been to – not getting away safely.

Minion smiled, reaching up to take hold of Megamind's arm and guiding him backwards, the two disappearing into the wall in a flash of blue.

Roxanne stared at the graffitied wall for another minute or two, trying to discern what exactly had just happened. When she started getting cold and still didn't have a clue, she got back in her car and drove home.

She knew where his home was, now. What she didn't know was what she was supposed to do with that information. They had trusted her with that. They hadn't even explicitly told her to keep it a secret. Well, Wayne already knew where it was, she was sure. With all his superpowers, and all the years Megamind had spent battling him, he must have found it by now. So maybe they hadn't trusted her, so much as figured she couldn't do any harm with the information. Though in that case, seriously, why the bag? Why?

So maybe it would be best if she didn't tell Wayne the whole story after all. It would definitely be on the news, but her bosses didn't have her personal number so she had until work tomorrow to come up with a plausible excuse for saving a notorious supervillain.

She arrived back in the parking garage and frowned the whole way back to her apartment.

Maybe she should see what the news was saying about today's plot. It would be hard to excuse her involvement in his rescue, but not impossible. She wouldn't be a very good reporter if she couldn't think on her feet. She certainly wouldn't be able to bluff her way into as many places as she did, at least.

Roxanne pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened the Cape Alert Metro City blog. It had, as expected, a warning to avoid the City Hall area with a two out of ten skull threat level rating. No wonder people hadn't bothered to avoid the area. An edit to the post marked that the incident was over but there was still debris and machinery on site, downgrading the threat level to one skull. A summary of the incident said that Megamind had showed up at City Hall and started threatening the Mayor, then there was an explosion and the giant robot collapsed. Megamind's escape was almost thwarted by "citizens' arrest" – Roxanne scoffed – when an unknown accomplice showed up and caused enough confusion for the two of them to get away.

What?

She turned on the news. In her absence, surely they would have – yes, there it was.

A reporter stood in front of the wreck at City Hall. "-what is being called an attempted citizens' arrest. The identity of the person who aided Megamind's escape from justice is not yet know. Reports say it was definitely not his henchman – fish – but is believed to be human, although some witnesses claim their skin was unnaturally pale." The television played a short video clip showing a blurry figure in a red jacket, hood pulled up and black scarf covering their face. "Megamind and his fish have not been seen since. Roxanne Ritchi's whereabouts are unknown, but commotion was reported near her apartment and it is presumed she has been kidnapped. Attempts to contact Metro Man have failed…"

They didn't know it was her. Bundled up for the cold weather like she was, and with a jacket she didn't wear on camera, they couldn't tell it was her.

Looking back at her home phone, she saw several missed calls from the station. Darn it, no wonder they thought she'd been kidnapped. Well, it was a good alibi, though she'd have to say the kidnapping had failed to explain how she 'got away' so soon.

A notification buzzed on her cell. A text.

Hal: it says on tv u helped megmind?

dont worry I wont tell anyone. but we should talk

like, over coffee

see you tomorrow 😊