Author's Note: A big thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, and favorited the start of this story. I really have no idea how long it's going to take to write it all, but I'm hoping that my Muse will be kind and let me produce at least one chapter a week. I do so enjoy creating new worlds and cultures and languages (big surprise, if one considers that my favorite authors are Tolkien, McCaffrey, Kurtz, and Dickson!), but it does take more work getting all those details straight. I have no illusions about Dreamworks ever wanting to use this kind of backstory for Megamind as some have suggested (Vivid Imaginest, you aren't alone, though you're the only one to have mentioned it in a review here); this is probably a lot more complex and "grown up" than they'd likely want to go. But I appreciate the compliment! Now, to continue with the tale...

Chapter Two

A Fish Tale

"So, you chose our son's name without me? I'm wounded, tsia'le, right to the heart! How could you make such an important decision without at least sending me the tiniest alert? Agh, this cuts so deep, I may never recover...!"

Her husband's typical dramatics — ended with a feigned fatal blow to the heart — brought a smile to Kyrel's face at the same time it prompted her to give him a light and playful swat that didn't actually make contact with his cheek. She and Eliaan were in the small garden park not far from their house along the river in their home city of Veskora, a pleasant place where they often met at the end of those days when their work took them apart from one another. Kyrel was a neurotechnician and microbiologist, Eliaan a xenologist and design engineer, so it was not uncommon for them to work together on a variety of projects. Today, however, Eliaan's presence had been needed to help analyze data brought back from one of their automated interstellar probes, while Kyrel had been in the middle of a project that would improve the implanted communications interfaces for their ichthyoid planet-mates, the Potrell. The news from her mother had come late that morning, while Eliaan was deep into his work for the day and couldn't get away, and though she had initially wanted to wait to hear the results of the gene scan, he had insisted she go.

She reminded him of that with a haughty air that was plainly exaggerated. "Because, tsi'aan, if you recall, it was you who suggested I go to hear the news from my mother alone, so that I could have the pleasure of finding out first and telling you second. Since that news wasn't what either of us had expected to hear, I expected you would forgive my spur of the moment decision and spare me these histrionics!"

Eliaan did indeed cease his dramatics, his long face and amber-brown eyes suddenly and sincerely apologetic. "I know, and I do understand," he said meekly. "There were no mistakes, I presume." It was not a question. "Mykaal is Natoshi'ana — and yet, no tears?"

"No tears," she confirmed, weaving the slender fingers of one hand between the longer, broader ones of his. "I was distraught — but only for a few moments. I knew exactly what this meant, how it could end so soon in losing him, but something in me simply will not believe it! I know what science and logic tells us, but this is beyond that. From the first, we knew that our son is different. All the physicians we know have told us how strange it was that I could feel his presence only a few days after he was conceived."

One corner of Eliaan's mouth quirked into a wry smile at the memory, pulling his neat partial beard into a lopsided circle. "Yes, and every female we know who has ever given birth has said the same, that it should've taken at least several weeks before he developed enough for you to feel him within you. I've never doubted you, my heart, you know that."

She smiled back, softly. "I do, you've always trusted my judgment, more than perhaps you should. And I'm asking you to trust me now. It may be no more than wishful thinking, but I believe our son will live, and I intend to do all I can to help ensure it."

Her determination gave her spouse a momentary pang of concern. "The Council forbids any extraordinary measures, Kyrel..."

She nodded once, briskly. "Yes, any measures that attempt to alter the fetus of his genotype. But it isn't alteration or repair he needs, it's support, help in receiving the things he requires to survive, and a beneficial environment in which to grow and develop. Every woman who has borne a potential Great One has been told of her child's condition so early, how can the babe not develop in incredibly stressful and thus very harmful surroundings? That alone could rob him of much more than vital nutrients; it could poison the world in which he must live within me, turn it from a nurturing environment to an actively hostile one. I will not allow that to happen! I do believe Mykaal is meant to survive, and I will hold fast to that belief until the Universe itself proves me wrong!"

She spoke with such fierce conviction, her husband took her by the shoulders and leaned forward to lay a soft, soothing kiss on her smooth brow. "Peace, tsia'le, I am convinced! If by will alone our son can be helped to live, you'll make it so. And in the matter of a mother helping to create a beneficial environment for her unborn child against great odds, I know exactly who can help..."

"A Great One, you say? Yes, I've heard of them, but I've never met one..."

Eliaan laughed, amber brown eyes twinkling mischievously. "Nor has anyone still living, Toomia. The last one, Sejillaas, died about eight hundred years ago. They're uncommon, to say the least."

"And a terrible burden to their mother, it would seem, from what you've just told me. Is that why you came to me, then, to ask a fish how she managed to give birth to many healthy younglings without making a dried-up shell of herself?"

Kyrel nodded as she smiled at their old friend. Toomia, one of the piscine Potrell who had chosen a life working above the waters with the blue-skinned humans, was housed in an elegant cybernetic body that could easily move among and work with the land dwelling Ayalthans, an accommodation that had first been achieved many generations ago, when the two peoples came to know each other and wanted to work together for the benefit of both their peoples, and the whole world. The android bodies controlled by the minds of the piscines via an implanted neural interface not only opened to them whole new worlds of skills and interests they could not have pursued without them, but the interface also allowed them to to speak audibly while out of the water. The implant magnified the vibrations of the ichthyoids' small vocal mechanisms and gave them a natural voice clearly audible in open air. To use it correctly required some training — mostly living with the humans to learn to imitate the sounds of their language — and not all of the Potrell wished for such a life. But for those whose natural gifts could be better explored and expressed outside the waters, they believed these things that made it possible to be a gift of the Unseen One.

Both Toomia and her mate, Notarr, were Potrell who found a life working alongside the land-dwelling humans to be most rewarding, just as there were humans who found donning the devices so that they could work with the Potrell beneath the waters to be most fulfilling. Their particular skills — Notarr was a microbiologist, and Toomia had a true gift for the kinds of engineering skills that could take the drafts of others and turn them into reality — had led them to this life on the land, and to their work at the same nanotechnology labs where Kyrel and Eliaan most often labored. The four of them had complementary skills and personalities, and had become friends both in and outside their workplace.

Toomia's quip about having many young ones was direct and quite true. Only two months before, she had given birth to four younglings — an unusual number, even among her kind. Unlike the common, unintelligent, gill-breathing fishes of the salty oceans, the fresh-water, lung-breathing Potrell did not breed in massive numbers. That was a safeguard of lesser species, against the predators and elements which killed most of their young while still in the egg or as tiny newborn fry without the protection of parents.

The civilized, intelligent Potrell had powerful natural protective instincts toward their young, their world, their kin and friends — hence the name they had adopted for themselves from the language of the humans, the minya'aunen, the protectors. As the majority of their people still lived within the abundant fresh waters of Ayalthis' many deep lakes and broad rivers, it was most common for all Potrell to be known as the protectors of the waters, which was not entirely untrue, since even those who worked and walked upon the land had a keen interest in making certain their native environment was kept safe and pristine.

Whatever the case, it was normal for the Potrell to have only one child at a time, on rare occasion two. Only a month or so before, Toomia had borne four, three daughters and a son, and it had been a difficult time for her, from conception to birth. Yet small though she was, she had carried the younglings with a stern determination to ensure that all would be born alive and healthy. And they had been, despite the insistence of physicians that they would be crippled or sickly because their mother's body could not have properly sustained them in the womb. Toomia had heard all that nonsense early on, and had made every effort to prove it wrong. She now had four strong and healthy younglings, who were alive and well and living proof that though reason said one thing should happen, persistence and determined care could create a far different conclusion.

Now, Kyrel smiled at her old friend. "Not how to give birth to many young," she corrected. "Only one, who will need all the care and support my body can give him to balance the difficulties he will face because of what he will become. I know it wasn't your stubbornness alone that helped you bring your little ones safely into this world, Toomia. You used other means to help, techniques of exercise, of supplementing your diet with certain things at certain times, of meditation and rest."

Toomia blew a small stream of bubbles within the clear dome "head" of her humanoid habitat. The glass-like material of the dome was selectively permeable, allowing primarily gasses to pass in and out so that the inhabitant would always have fresh air to breathe while being constantly surrounded by a clean bath of the moisture their tissues required to remain healthy. A much smaller area could be penetrated by solid objects or liquids when steady direct pressure was applied, to make eating meals a neat and simple process. "And you think that what worked for a fish will work for you?"

Eliaan snorted and rolled his eyes. "Oh, yes, she's planning to spend the rest of her term in the river, with a breather pack and a fin suit. After all, you and Notarr spend most of your time here on the land, so she felt an extended return visit was completely in order..."

The piscine squirted a thin stream of water right through the eating area of her dome and straight into Eliaan's face. "Only if you come with her," she said primly. "You males have no idea how many difficulties bearing children can present, and if you want my help, I expect you to be helping right alongside me, for whatever your wife needs and for as long as she needs it."

Kyrel half-smothered her chuckles at Toomia's stern attitude. She knew the fish was nowhere near as domineering as she sometimes seemed, but Eliaan's joking and dramatic nature just brought out that side of her, in an affectionately teasing manner. "He'll be there, Toomia," she assured their friend. "Even if he hadn't already promised as much, I knew I could count on you to make sure of it."

"Of course I will!" Eliaan sputtered, wiping the water from his eyes with an extravagant gesture. "I — great stars above, have you grown a spare set of eyes...?"

His question was aimed at the cyber-bodied ichthyoid. Inside her dome, in the softly lighted space below her, a second, smaller pair of bright amber eyes appeared, peeking out from under her broad translucent lateral fins and amid the tangle of her long ventral tendrils, blinking curiously at the two blue-skinned humans.

Toomia laughed. "Certainly, Eliaan, I've always wanted to carry extra eyes, just in case some foolish bird manages to break through my habitat and peck out the ones I have." Her tendrils moved gently, caressing the much smaller fish below her who had just wakened, soothing away any nervousness or disorientation he might be feeling. "This is my son, Ootori. He was supposed to be spending the day with his sisters in the care of my kin in the river-city, but when he was curious about my surface body last night, I let him inside to see what it's like and we couldn't persuade him to come out again until I promised to bring him with me today."

Her tone softened as she made a sound somewhat like a burbling trill. "Tori, these are our friends, Kyrel and Eliaan of the Thejhan. They are expecting a youngling of their own at the end of the year, but Kyrel will need our help to make sure he is able to come to us strong and healthy, like you and your sisters. Would you like to help me help Kyrel and her little boy?"

At his very young age, Ootori didn't understand the words his mother spoke, but he could sense the feelings she and the two humans projected very clearly. The startled blue man had eyes the color of his mother's and his own, bright and curious and laughing, and the blue woman's face was gentle and kind, her eyes a pretty bright green. She smiled at him, and though the youngling's tiny fins flittered quickly, as if to flee, he felt something warm and pleasant from her, and smiled back, shyly. The Potrell — an originally predatory race that now were less savage in their eating habits but still used their formidable jaws as well as their mildly electric tentacles and crests in their protection of their underwater settlements — were all born with teeth, usually tiny little teeth in perfectly neat rows. Ootori had some of those, but also two large and slightly crooked center teeth on his lower jaw. It gave him a distinctly boyish look that charmed the land-dwellers.

"I can see he's going to grow up to be a fearsome minya'aun, Toomia," Eliaan said with a broad grin for the tiny piscine. "No doubt he will be the chief defender of all the Dusiomi River, from headwater to estuary."

The female ichthyoid hummed with pleasure at the compliment. "Oh, I think he'll be formidable in whatever work he chooses, but I suspect he'll not be content in the river, not as his sisters seem to be. They have yet to show any interest at all in these bodies we use to walk the land, while Tori has been intrigued by them from the first. He may grow to be a protector, but not in the waters, I think. There are minya'aun daavi as well, and he may find his calling as a protector of the land. A good future, since both the lands and the waters are a vital part of all our lives."

She sighed. "In any case, he will need many more years of growing and learning before he must choose his lifestream. For now, he may truly be able to help us give your youngling the chance he needs to live. In spite of his age, Tori is very perceptive of the feelings of all about him; he knows when others are happy, and when they are feeling stresses even they don't quite recognize. He may not be able to speak quite yet, even in our underwater tongue, but he has his ways of letting me know when he senses something distressing in someone he likes."

Kyrel looked at the little piscine, who had bravely come out a little farther from the protection of his mother's body. "And do you like us well enough to want to help our unborn son, Tori?"

Tori really had no idea what the blue lady was saying, but her friendly manner and warmth reminded him of his own mother, which made him happy. He smiled a bit more widely, showing off his two crooked teeth in a way that made Eliaan laugh.

"I think that's his way of saying yes, tsia'le," he said, settling one long arm across his wife's shoulders. "And I believe you're right, Toomia, he won't be one for spending all his life beneath the surface."

Toomia hummed her agreement. "Your little one has a great destiny before him, if he can find the path to it, and I think the same holds true for my little Tori. With guidance, he found his way to a healthy life in spite of all, so perhaps while I help you to do what you can to support and sustain your youngling while he is within you, Tori can be an emotional beacon for your son to follow to this world without. Their feelings are strong, these very young ones, and it was the love of others as much anything which helped me to carry my four safely. For all that he is but a babe himself, Tori has much to give."

While they spoke of him, the tiny piscine moved out from below his mother to the very edge of the habitat, his little flat face pushed against the dome's glass to see as much as he could of the people and world beyond, eyes wide and bright with curiosity. He may have been only a baby of his kind, but Tori already knew that the world above the waters was a fascinating place, and he wanted to see more of it, and of these blue people his mother called friends.

Inside his somewhat less sophisticated cybersuit on Earth of the present day, those same eyes were blinking rapidly as the lower lip of the rather more toothy mouth trembled. "I met your parents when I was only two months old? And they wanted me to help make sure you didn't die, sir?" If it had been possible for him to literally weep while totally immersed in water, there would have been huge crocodile tears in Minion's amber eyes.

Megamind nodded, his own smile nostalgically sappy. "I don't remember it personally, of course, but I saw it in the Teacher's records last night. You have your mother's eyes, you know — just like I do."

Minion's flat face squinched up as he struggled to summon any shred of a memory that might verify this. Prior to their departure from their doomed homeworld, most of his memories were very hazy and disjointed. He knew that it was common for his kind — the Potrell, yes, that name felt very right to him — to grow and mature much more quickly than Megamind's people or even Earth humans. It was a trait from their pre-civilized past, when a long and slow maturation in the underwater environs was an almost sure recipe for quick extinction. He couldn't recall the incident with Megamind's parents, but he did remember the strong feelings that would have accompanied it. He remembered having a strange sort of protective attitude about something or someone not in his family during his earliest time of life, but until now, he hadn't realized it was toward an unborn friend who was struggling to find his way to a strong and healthy life, just as he had done.

And as that thought occurred to him, he remembered his mother being with him during something that scared him, soothing him with her voice and her touch, her large amber eyes holding his and somehow communicating a feeling of safety, that all would soon be well. He had no idea what had been happening at the time, but he remembered her calming presence and her gentle eyes more than anything else.

He smiled. "Yes, I remember that much, she had eyes like mine, you're right." He sighed hugely. "I wish I had a memory as good as yours, sir, or at least had something like that sleep teacher to show me what I can't remember!"

"Oh, that's not a problem!" Megamind assured him with an extravagant wave of one hand. "The message my father left me, telling me where to find it and how to use it said that others could use it, too, to see this part of our history if they wanted. It took about four hours for the session to complete for me, and he said it would be a little longer for you, up to nine hours for an Earth human. So anytime you want, you can see it all for yourself — or when you have six hours or so to spare."

Roxanne looked truly surprised. "And it would work for me, too? How can it? I don't even know your language!"

Her husband laughed, a happy rather than mocking sound. "Neither did I, really, until last night. The Teacher wouldn't give you instruction on the language like it did with me, but even without it, it wouldn't matter. The history is transmitted as a combination visual and emotional record stream, a kind of visceral data rather than static names and dates and so on. Sending it directly to your brain, it can compensate for any variations of language by detecting cerebral and emotional responses to the input and making appropriate necessary adjustments a nanosecond before sending the actual input. We all become essentially hardwired in ways to the languages we're exposed to in our earliest stages of life, you know, which explains both why the Teacher would need a longer time to work with non-Ayalthan brains and why I have certain persistent issues with pronunciation and phrasing. English, both standard and idiomatic, isn't entirely compatible with my earliest formative linguistic patterns, which began to be shaped by my exposure to the emotions and speech of my parents while I was still in the womb."

He rattled it off as nonchalantly as someone commenting on the nice weather. Both Minion and Roxanne stared at him, flabbergasted by what they'd just heard. His wife managed to find her voice first. "Did you just hear yourself?" she asked. "How do you know all that? You're talking about the way a device you'd never seen until last night works as if you were the one who invented it!"

The green eyes blinked as their owner considered what she'd just said. "I — don't know how I know it," he finally admitted. "But I do. I can see it in my head, plain as day. This is how the Teacher was designed to work, it's how it was able to easily augment and complete my knowledge of my native language, how it transmitted all the information about my parents and events leading to the destruction of my homeworld, and how it gave me detailed explanations of the device itself and how it works. It wouldn't work in quite the same way for you and Minion, but it would work to teach you the pertinent historical aspects."

He paused, reflecting on everything that had just come out of his mouth. He cleared his throat. "That was a little weird, wasn't it? Maybe I shouldn't've just rushed into this without thinking it over for a little while... like a few months..."

But Roxanne shook her head. "I didn't say you shouldn't've done it. A sleep teaching device isn't really a scary thing, and if I knew nothing about where I'd come from but the fact that it was destroyed and I lost everything when I was only about a week old, I would've been just as eager to start getting answers to my questions as soon as I could. Heck, this isn't even about me, and if I'd found that thing first, I wouldn't've waited before hooking myself up to it! Ever since I first realized that you existed, I've wanted to know the whole story behind you and where you came from. But..." She paused, wanting to find just the right way to say what she was thinking.

Minion didn't have her problem. "But it's kinda freaky, sir, hearing you talk like an expert about things you knew absolutely nothing about just last night! I know you can be a fast learner, but this is way different!"

Roxanne agreed. "That's it. Is there any way for you to know exactly how much that thing put into your head while you were asleep?"

The blue genius swallowed thickly. "I don't know. There's a limit to the amount of information each data gem can hold and how fast it can output that information, but the amount can be limited by other factors, such as encryption and omnilinguistic translation ability, and the speed of assimilation is in direct proportion to the physical capacity of the subject/student's brain and their rate and efficiency of synaptic activity, generally on an exponential basis — and... I'm doing it again, aren't I?" he added, his tone both startled and sheepish, the lavender across his cheeks and ears deepening. "I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm not doing this intentionally, I swear!"

His dismay was genuine, and from the glances they exchanged, both his wife and his best friend were thinking the same thing. Minion gestured for Roxanne to speak first, since she had a way with words that he lacked, especially when it came to more complex personal issues. "It's okay, sweetie," she told Megamind with a soft smile, taking his hand and squeezing it gently in reassurance. "We know you aren't doing it on purpose, it's kinda obvious. I can't be sure about this, since I'm certainly no scientist, but I do know that it's been almost a year since we saw the recording of your mother telling you that you've reached an age when you should be mature enough to make better use of your natural abilities."

She gave him a few moments to digest this, and when he had, some of the chagrin faded from his face. "That's true, it has been that long. But the only difference it seemed to make was that I calmed down a little, stopped acting quite so much like a whiny brat showing off just to get attention. I didn't start doing things like this on purpose! I don't even know what I'm saying — well, that's not quite true, I do understand it, I have no problem comprehending the concepts, theories, and realities of, for instance, the functioning of the sleep teaching device, I could draw you a detailed schematic of exactly how it effects the transfer of data from the storage crystal via the picometric neural inter—gaaahhhh!"

The ex-villain dragged both hands over his face, trying to physically interrupt the flow of words and thoughts that kept spilling from him. He was used to bragging about his inventions and his own perceived superiority; he'd done it for years as a villain in an attempt to assuage the pains of being rejected by the world and somehow failing in almost everything he attempted.

This was seriously different. This wasn't monologuing or extolling the imagined virtues of dastardly devices and wild schemes that couldn't possibly succeed because his enemy was invulnerable and the devices designed to hurt things but not people. This was like having another person inside him, one who could look at something, analyze it and understand it so quickly, he knew exactly how to describe anything and everything about it, from its basic design to the most complex scientific principles of its functions, and he suddenly knew just how to verbalize that information with correct and concise precision.

What had happened to him?

He trembled from head to toe, and just as he was about to jump to his feet, a reflex attempt to flee his suddenly skyrocketing anxiety, Roxanne caught the hand he'd pulled from hers, not only trying to keep him from bolting but also to help him calm down. She was shocked by the stricken look on his long face, spilling from his wide eyes like tears.

To her relief, Minion came up behind him, settling his broad robotic hands on Megamind's slender shoulders, not to pin him to his chair but to offer a gesture of comfort. "Sir," he said, doing his best to avoid any condescension. "Ever since you were able to talk, you've been saying how your father told you that you were destined for something before we were sent away. You've known for a while that he and your mother believed you were destined for greatness, not villainy, and now you know why. I'll admit, it's an awful lot to take in so quickly, but it's nothing to be afraid of. You're still you, no matter what you learned from that sleep teaching thing and how you're reacting to it. It hasn't been very long, after all, so you might just be repeating some of the new stuff that's bouncing around in your brain."

The blue hero hardly thought so, but Roxanne took his other hand even as she agreed with his partner in crime-fighting. "That's right. You just had a lot of new information poured into your head, hon, and with all the extra real estate you've got up there, you probably need to give yourself more than a few hours to let it find the right places to settle in."

She could tell from his expression that Megamind didn't exactly believe that, but that he was also desperately looking for an explanation he could latch onto to explain this strange new behavior. She lightly rubbed the backs of his hands with her thumbs as she debated whether or not to say the other thing that had occurred to her.

She quickly decided that avoiding it wouldn't help and forged on. "It's also possible that this is part of what your mother was talking about when she said you'd be able to use your abilities better, once you'd matured enough in the right ways. Using that sleep teacher may have been what you needed to sort of throw the switch, to get things working the way they're supposed to. I know," she amended hastily as he began to protest. "That isn't the best way of putting it, it makes you sound like some kind of a machine, and I know you're not. But you did say something about people like you needing special training and guidance to properly develop their gifts. Maybe that's what this was, the kind of help you need."

The blue lips puckered with thought, then quirked into a wry expression of skepticism. "I rather doubt that one four hour long crash course on my planet's history, family events, and language is all I would need, Roxanne. Or if it is, then I'm not what they expected me to be. Maybe doing what was needed to help me survive messed up whatever potential I was supposed to have. My mother did know that tampering with unborn children with my genetic mutation could seriously cripple their capacity for cognitive development."

Minion laughed as he resumed his seat at the table, certain that his partner was no longer thinking of running away. "Yeah, right, and if you have crippled cognitive development, I'm a six-legged horse. Look, sir, why don't we table this for now and just try to get through a little more of the story you were telling us about what happened to our planet, why we were sent off to Earth. I may not have enough time for all of it before I have to leave for the parade, but I'd at least like to hear a little more."

Megamind considered that suggestion briefly before giving his agreement. "I guess that'd be best, deal with one thing at a time." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to focus and let go of the feelings of strangeness that had clawed at him when he'd caught himself rattling on in such an unexpected way. It was possible that Minion was right about him parroting things he'd learned via the Teacher — Endal'shia'rem, something in his mind whispered, that was its proper name, a Master of Instruction; Teacher was an adequate English equivalent — and he held onto that explanation for now, even though he knew in his heart that it wasn't exactly true. For the moment, it was enough to pull his abruptly skewed world back to a feeling of normalcy.

He let go of the breath he'd been holding in a long sigh, glad to feel much of his tension go with it. "Okay, back to the story," he told them, and himself. "I hope you understand now, Minion, that you certainly weren't just a fish in a ball that my parents picked up for me as an afterthought! Our parents were on very friendly terms, and I think they'd always had it in mind that we should be friends, too, since we were close in age. But at that time, they were expecting a very different kind of future for us — a normal one."

"So they didn't know that your planet was in danger then, when your parents talked to Minion's mother?" Roxanne asked, still trying to sort these tales into some kind of sensible timeline even as she was grateful to them for providing a needed distraction for her husband.

"It wasn't in danger, then," Megamind clarified, relaxing as he got back into answering their questions about the tale of his past, which he still found exciting. "The accident that led to the destruction of the entire system didn't happen until several months later, about the time my mother was halfway through her term."

"Was it scientists from your planet who caused it?" It seemed a perfectly reasonable question, given how often Megamind had tried grandiose plans and inventions, only to meet with utter failure.

Unoffended, he waggled one hand. "Yes and no. The theories and designs that made it possible began with Ayalthan scientists — my Uncle Varaan and his associates, to be exact. But they weren't the ones who tried to implement the effect on a large scale outside of a highly controlled laboratory environment. That honor belonged to someone else entirely."

"Who?"

"Not anyone from Ayalthis. Our planet wasn't the only inhabited one in our system, you see. There were three others, each with its own dominant species. Cobin and Batuu were smaller worlds closer to the sun, quite habitable, but not very scientifically advanced. Cobin, was the smaller and more primitive; their culture and technology was similar to that of Europe around the time of the Industrial Revolution. Physically, they were about the same as Earth humans, but with less racial variation. My people observed them for a long time before making contact, and though they were quite friendly, we didn't want to interfere with their development, so our dealings with them tended to be infrequent and rather superficial — like making social calls to your neighbors. The other planet, Batuu, had a much more scientifically developed civilization, though they were still quite far behind Ayalthis, about on the order of present day Earth. They had an extremely fragmented political structure, also like Earth, with a lot of different nations always competing for superiority. They were a sort of avian/reptilian species, like they'd reached full sapience when they were halfway between the evolution from dinosaur to bird."

He suddenly laughed, a sound both his wife and his friend were glad to hear. "That could explain why I was so fascinated by turkeys, and thought they looked like velociraptors from a distance. I might have had some racial memories of the Batuu. They looked like partially-feathered velociraptors that had adapted into a more upright, human-like form. Anyway, some of their nations were extremely xenophobic, so the contact had to be limited to the countries where bald, big-headed blue aliens could be accepted and not killed on sight."

"Thank goodness Earth wasn't that bad!" Minion opined with a relieved chuckle. "Some people may have wanted to do that, but there were others who cared enough to stop them — even in a prison."

Roxanne ran one finger around the rim of her empty coffee cup, causing a slight bowging squabble between Pinky and Madeleine as to who should have the honor of refilling her cup. Madeleine relented quickly after a lifted brow from Mommy warned the two female brainbots against carrying on; instead, while Pinky refilled the cup, Madeleine whisked away the empty plates and flatware.

Brainbot crisis averted, the reporter returned her attention to the much more important discussion. "That couldn't have been the world Wayne came from, then" she deduced. If the Batuu had been more human-like, she wouldn't have been surprised to find it was so, considering how Wayne had apparently had a less than sterling attitude toward Megamind from their very first encounter as babies.

But the ex-villain shook his head, able to see her train of thought. "No, there really wasn't any antagonism between his homeworld, Glaupek, and mine."

Minion's eyes widened in surprise. "Glaupek?" he repeated. "I always thought you said it was Glaupunk."

Megamind coughed, rather uncomfortably. "Well, ah... yeah, I know, I did, but that was sort of... deliberate." His entire face flushed bright fuchsia at the admission. "For some reason, the name of his planet stuck with me. When I was a kid, I was annoyed that I knew it but not the name of my own world, and I was mad at him for being such a bratty punk toward me. So I changed it on purpose to try to get back at him. It didn't really matter, he didn't even remember that he was an alien, so he could just ignore whatever I called his planet. After a while, it just became habit, and I didn't even think about it until I woke up this morning."

Neither Minion nor Roxanne could bring themselves to scold him for it, especially since Megamind had confessed to it without being forced or even cajoled. For herself, Roxanne was more interested in other things. "Okay, so your system had four inhabited worlds — I guess that explains why you called it the Glaupunk — Glaupek," she corrected herself, "quadrant. Four distinctly different inhabited worlds in the same system, four quadrants. Makes perfect sense. Was Glaupek closer to your sun, too?"

"No," her husband said as he doctored his coffee with sugar and cream after Pinky had refilled his cup. "Our sun was a KV type star, slightly smaller and cooler than Earth's sun, but much longer-lived, in stellar terms. There were actually seventeen planets in our system, some very large, some very small, even some in mutual orbits. Cobin and Batuu were smaller worlds, about the size of Mars, in the third and fourth orbital paths, Ayalthis was in the fifth, a little smaller than Earth, and Glaupek was the sixth, and was slightly bigger than Earth." He paused, considered what he'd just said, and decided it didn't sound too crazily outside his usual behavior when he was talking about a subject he enjoyed. He gave a small sigh of contented relief as he took a sip of his properly prepared coffee.

Roxanne tried to picture this in her head, like one of those animated things PBS made for science specials. When she had that image satisfactorily fixed in her mind's eye, she went back to her original question. "So if it wasn't someone from your planet who caused the accident and the people from those first two didn't have the technology to do it, then it had to have been someone from Glaupek. Were they trying to start a war?"

But Megamind shook his head. "Like I said, there was no antagonism between us; really, no one in the system was warlike — not by that time, at least. My people never were, the Batuu only fought to the death among themselves, the Cobini occasionally squabbled but didn't have the resources to mount actual wars, and the Glaupek had gone through their worldwide mass-destruction phase a few thousand years earlier, before we made contact with them. But still, some individuals were more ambitious than others and more impatient. That was where the end started, with a merchant prince on Glaupek who just happened to be Wayne's father..."

To be continued...