The next morning Roxanne found Megamind in a surprisingly solemn mood. She was already awake and dressed for practice— yoga pants and a RUSH t-shirt Megamind kept threatening to steal— so she expected him to be pleased. One look at his face, however, told her something was very wrong.

"Ares has jammed the tracker," he said in reply to her concerned inquiries. "The good news is that I developed a system that uses both GPS satellite signals and radio tracking. He's jammed it too quickly to have built something himself, which means he's using store-bought technology again. The fact he's bothering with jammers means he couldn't remove the tracker."

"I'm not sure I'm following you. Why is that good news exactly?"

"Because while there are mobile GPS jammers available to the public, using a purchased VHF/UHF tracking jammer without being able to access the actual device will require something more cumbersome. It will have to be plugged directly into a power source, and that means he's only untraceable as long as he stays in one place." He sighed. "The bad news is that as long as he does stay in one location, we're still blind to him. I sent brainbots to search his last known location— a cheap hotel near the shipyards— but, of course, he was already gone. Not surprising, really."

Roxanne's heart clenched. "Megamind, I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to feel sorry about."

"Yes, I do!" she turned away, unable to meet his eyes, and hugged herself tight. "If I… if I hadn't broken down, if I hadn't made you waste your time babysitting me, you would have already caught him! I was weak… I asked you to let me in, to let me help, and I ruined everything! It's my fault!"

"Waste my time?" he actually sounded almost angry. She heard soft clinks behind her, then felt warm fingers below her shirt's sleeves. Megamind had unbuckled and removed his gloves. "Roxanne, Sweetheart," he said firmly, gently running his hands up and down her bare arms. "Let me make something really clear: that was not a waste of my time. Drying your tears, making you smile, hearing you laugh… Those are some of the most important things I could possibly spend my time doing." She felt Megamind's lean, strong arms encircle her, felt his goatee tickle her skin as he kissed her cheek. "I love you, Roxanne Ritchi, and time spent with you is never wasted. Yes, this complicates matters, but we will figure it out, and I absolutely do not regret choosing to stay with you last night."

"That's sweet… You always are… But," she swallowed. "I really thought I could do it… Really thought I could be your partner in every way… But I can't… I'm not good enough… Here you are trying to teach me to be something other than useless when you have more important… You... you shouldn't have to babysit—"

"Stop using that term," He pulled her around to face him, and cupped her face with his slender hands, one thumb stroking over her cheek. "You are not useless. I was not babysitting anyone. I was comforting the woman I love," he leaned to press his lips to her forehead, his words warm against her skin. "Last I checked, sharing a bottle of wine with the kids you're babysitting was firmly situated in the No Category."

She laughed despite herself, hugged him close, leaned in to press her forehead against his. "Why are you so perfect?"

"I'm not."

"You are."

He chuckled. "I'm not having this argument." He closed his eyes, bumped his nose against hers. His breath caressed her skin. "You are far from useless. You do know that, right? Right now you're going through an adjustment period. You've had to deal with a lot in a short time, and you've dealt with it beautifully, all things considered. Sometimes I forget you're entirely new to all of this."

She buried her face in his neck and said the only thing she could say: "I love you."

"I love you too."

After a moment, Megamind spoke again, a slight hesitation in his voice. "You know, there is one other piece of good news from last night. After you went to bed, one of my contacts reached out with information about a girl matching Olivia Nelson's description. She approached a woman in the gas station bathroom and said she was in trouble, that a bad man was waiting for her outside."

"Smart girl."

"Indeed. Anyway, the woman told her to wait there and went out to speak to the nighttime manager. That would be my contact. He called me first, at about one o'clock this morning, and—"

A brainbot arrived, interrupting him with a loud mechanical barking noise. It plucked Roxanne's sleeve and held out a note clutched in a small metal claw.

"Urgent call for you, Miss Ritchi," it read in an untidy scrawl.

"That's Minion's writing," Megamind said. "He must be in the workroom. No training today. I think we're both too exhausted. Go take your call," he kissed her cheek. "Come find me when you're done so I can tell you what's happening."

"I will," she gave him a quick, chaste kiss, and went to find out what Andro— the only person who would be calling her on the supercomputer— needed to tell her.

Roxanne followed the little cyborg to the workroom and found Minion engaged in conversation with her friend on a large monitor.

"...Only way to do it, really," Minion was saying. "Cut tomatoes with a bread knife and they stay nice and firm. Then put them between slices of African Sweet Bread with Mozzarella, Mascarpone, just a sprinkle of black pepper, and some fresh basil. Grill it in a little clarified butter, and voila! The best tomato sandwich you've ever had! Oh, hello, Miss Ritchi!"

"Hey, Roxie!" Andro added. "So, when do I get invited to dinner?"

She smiled. "I'll ask Megamind. It might not be until this whole Ares ordeal is over." She nearly bit her tongue. Here she was, talking as if she assumed she'd still be living here.

Minion, at least, didn't seem to think it odd. "We could have a celebration dinner! That would be nice!"

"I may hold you to that," Andro warned. "Actually," he turned back to Roxanne. "Scary-Ares is what I'm calling about. We just got a hot scoop. The police roadblocks were a bust, but a search did turn up the abandoned truck. Turns out it was stolen."

"Big surprise," Roxanne nodded. "It's too bad they didn't catch him, though. But then, if they had, he might have hurt people."

"The word is that there were dirt bike tracks. It looks like Sir Shoots-a-Lot came prepared."

"He's probably changed his look again by now, too. Megamind said he was good at disappearing."

"Well, he wasn't wrong. Listen, I'm just on break, so I've got to get back to my desk. Everything okay, though?" He looked at her critically, and Roxanne tried her best to appear cheerful

"Everything's good," she smiled again. "We're all fine." She was astounded to realize it was true… Megamind's words had sunk into her heart. I am not useless. I can do this.

"Good. Try to keep it that way. I've got to go, Roxie. You'll pass the word on to Big M?"

"I'll tell him," she nodded. "Thank you for calling, Andro. Stay safe."

"You too."

The screen went blank.

She found Megamind in the lab, carefully refining some sort of liquid in a condenser over a burner, catching the drops in a vial.

"Goggles and apron," he reminded without looking up. He took lab safety seriously, even if she never touched anything. She obediently donned a pair of protective goggles and a black chemical-resistant lab apron before moving closer.

"What are you working on?"

"A new tranquilizer. I'm refining it from the same basic compounds as the Knock Out Spray. It should act instantly, but we can use it at long range."

"Planning to build a dart gun?"

"Oh, I have one. I built it decades ago, when I was sixteen, but I haven't used it in a long time. I'm sure it needs updating. I was thinking it might be more advisable to build a new setting into the De-Gun. I played around with quantum teleportation a few years back and managed to get it to work on small amounts of inanimate matter. It should be theoretically possible to send qubit information via a non-lethal blast and reform localized molecules into the molecular structure as the tranquilizer. Since the compound is effective even through the skin, that should work."

"Mmm," she nodded, surprised to realize she'd actually understood most of what he'd just said. Living with Megamind had exposed her to more information about things like mechanical engineering, molecular chemistry, and quantum physics than she'd ever thought possible.

It had also taught her not to let him get too involved with his explanations if she wanted to have a conversation any time soon.

"So, Andro just called," she interjected before he could really get on a roll.

"How is he?" Megamind asked, still focused on his work.

"He seems to be fine, but he had some news..."

"I expected no less from Ares," Megamind said when she'd finished relaying what her friend had learned. "He isn't a fool. I wonder when they'll find the boat."

"What boat?"

"That's why I told them to watch the river. He'll have taken a boat to escape downstream. Most obvious course of action," he glanced at her. "Well, what did you think, that he would walk all the way back?"

"I figured he'd just ride the bike back."

He shook his head. "Dirt bikes leave tracks and they're not so good on roads. They'll find it abandoned somewhere near the river, probably hidden." The blue hero sighed. "That's the problem with bureaucracy. I suppose I can't blame the police force. By the time they got approval and got boats out there, Ares was probably long gone."

"But you didn't go after him yourself."

"You were more important. Besides, I wanted Ares to think he'd slipped the net. I wanted him to let his guard down so that I might be able to capture him without any collateral loss of life. If he gets desperate, he'll become dangerous." He paused and she could almost see his thoughts leaping to a new subject. "Speaking of Ares, earlier I wanted to tell you—"

"Sir?" Minion's voice crackled over the holowatch. "Would it be possible for me to go out for crayons?" He paused. "And a My Little Pony coloring book?"

"Crayons?" Roxanne asked incredulously.

"Not now, Minion, I can't stop and watch–" Megamind broke off mid-sentence at the look on Roxanne's face. "Uh, I haven't… Actually explained yet…"

"Sir!"

"Where is she?" Asked Roxanne.

"Ah, yes…" Megamind stuttered. "I was— ah— trying to tell you… Got interrupted…"

Roxanne put her hands on her hips. "Megamind. Where. Is. She?" a thought struck her. "And do the authorities know she's here?"

His expression spoke volumes.

"Oh, my God," Roxanne sighed and pressed a hand against her forehead. "You've kidnapped an assassin's daughter."