Megamind and Roxanne were busy once more in the workroom the next morning, Roxanne further researching potential leads online while her lover sat cross-legged on the ubiquitous scaffold, making repairs to a brainbot that had been damaged in action. (The little construct had refused to come down, and had spent several minutes darting around from once piece of cover to another for all the world like a pet trying to avoid a trip to the vet's office.)

"There you go, 648," the blue hero crooned. "That's better, isn't it?" he patted the bot's glass dome. "Who's a good little cyborg? That's right! You are!"

"Sir?" Minion's voice came over the watch. "Shoot out on Delaney Street! Looks like the Dragons," he named one of the city's more infamous gangs.

Megamind jumped down from the scaffolding— Roxanne really wished he wouldn't do that— and kissed Roxanne's cheek. "I have to go. They've been pushing lately… It seems they think that my becoming a hero means they don't have to keep the Evil Mastermind's rules anymore."

"Go remind them who they're dealing with," she brushed her lips to his. "Be careful."

"I will. Minion," he spoke into the holowatch. "Ready the spee-ider bot! I think this calls for a little extra presentation."

"… Metro City streets are once again safer as our new Defender showed up on the scene of a shooting today in what appeared to be a giant robotic spider," a reporter was declaring over the radio.

Megamind made a sound in his throat. "Do we have to listen to this?"

They were lying naked in his bed, cuddled close and resting, exhausted by long and enthusiastic lovemaking. He hadn't objected when, after several minutes of languid caresses and conversation, Roxanne had asked if he minded her catching the eleven o'clock news on WKMP radio. Apparently, however, he had no intention of hearing his own exploits described.

"Hush, I want to listen to my hot boyfriend's thrilling exploits!"

He cuddled closer. "Don't really want to hear about work right now."

"Please?"

The reporter was continuing: "...have Tamara Barker on the line, who was present for the entire event. Tamara, what can you tell us?"

"It was like nothing you ever saw," a female voice, slightly distorted by a phone connection, explained. "I was on my way home from the corner store when a car came roaring by and I heard three loud pops, and somebody started screaming. I didn't even think; I just hit the ground! All of a sudden there was this music blaring and a lot of clanking, and this huge metal spider came jumping and crawling all over the buildings faster than you'd believe. It took it's front legs and ripped the top right off that car, and he– Mr. Megamind– jumped down. A couple of guys came scrambling out—out of the car, I mean— but there were flashes of blue light, and they weren't there anymore. Mr. Megamind ran down one of them big spider legs, and then he grabbed a man right out the roof. He said: 'You know the rules,' and then he slugged him. I mean hit him hard. Knocked him out cold."

"Sources tell us that the men who seemed to vanished were in fact temporarily dehydrated using one of the city Defender's inventions," the correspondent explained. "Both are unharmed and in police custody. One of the men extracted from the vehicle was Roswell Hinks, leader of a gang known as the Dragons. Several other arrests were made as well. Authorities report that one person was killed and another injured in the shooting, but a police spokesperson is quoted as saying that the shooting could have been more deadly."

The recording of a man's voice came on. "Without the Defender's quick action, the causalities might have been significantly higher. While our thoughts are with the families of the two victims, we remain grateful that this incident wasn't worse."

The reporter returned. "The identities of the victims have not been released, but WKMP News can confirm..."

"There. You've heard it. Now turn that off," murmured Megamind, nuzzling against Roxanne's neck.

"Nothing reported hints at Ares, anyway," she reached over and turned off the clock radio, then snuggled closer to him, running her hand down his spine. "Megamind? What's wrong?"

He had gone rigid. With a sigh, he shifted to look down at her. "I'm not entirely certain Ares wasn't involved. The Dragons started becoming more aggressive around the same time he would have arrived in Metrocity. And it would be his style to use subterfuge to weaken a target's alliances before he strikes."

"I thought we agreed you weren't the target?"

"Maybe not the target― the one he's being paid to eliminate― but I don't think there's any point in pretending that by opposing him I haven't made myself into a target nonetheless."

A shudder ran through Roxanne, and she wrapped her arms tightly around her lover, pressing her face into his neck. "I know. And I wish that you had the option of just lying low for a while. Please be careful, Megamind. Please, please be careful."

"Always, Sweetheart. As much as I can be," he promised gently, running reassuring hands through her short hair. "But now, if you don't mind, work is hardly what I would consider appropriate bedroom conversation, even when it does involve hearing myself publicly praised on air."

"Maybe," she leaned up to pepper little kisses across his lips. "But, you know, a girl does like to hear the man she loves being bragged about."

"Hmmm," he said against her mouth, leaning in to deepen the kiss between words. "You know… you could… always just… ask me… I'm pretty good… at bragging."

"So why don't you?" She laughed and kissed him back more firmly, opening her mouth in invitation, her hand tracing a path up his spine to stroke the base of his skull.

He made one of her favorite sounds— a purring inhuman moan deep in his throat, somewhere between a growl and a moan— and broke away. "Roxanne… you know what that does to me…"

"Uh-huh," she grinned wickedly and did it again. With another of those wonderfully alien noises, Megamind pressed closer, nipping and kissing her neck. "You didn't answer," Roxanne teased, her voice breathless and a little giggly. "Why don't you brag to me about your adventures?"

"Because there are better uses for my mouth," he rumbled, and began kissing his way down her body.