In a brief ceremony on the steps of City Hall, Megamind, standing inside an invisible force field to protect the audience, flung his spiked desk sign in the air, drew his ray gun and blew his Evil Overlord title to bits. Then it took about a month for him and Minion to return or replace all the stolen goods they still had or had used up or destroyed, along with payment to the rightful owners equivalent to what it would have cost to rent the returned items for the length of time they'd had them or to buy them if they could not be returned, plus generous interest. City Hall was the last thing they returned because of the time it took to undo the modifications they'd made, except for the added security features, which they left in place. The new doors to the mayoral office were blastproof.

The move back to the no-longer-evil lair was not popular with fans who had enjoyed seeing him and Minion in City Hall, but those fans mostly stayed with him in spite of their disappointment. A larger contingent of his fan base fell away because of his renunciation of evil. There was a spate of angry I-am-no-longer-your-fan mail, but traffic on the website actually increased as new fans flowed in and took the place of the old.

In the first few days after the renunciation, a number of criminals left Metro City, guessing that the period of license they'd enjoyed under the Evil Overlord was coming to an end. This turned out to be true. While he made special arrangements for all his prison uncles to remain free, the rest received cards saying "The party's over, [name]. Time to turn yourself in." These cards were personally delivered by brainbots, and the implied threat, that if they didn't turn themselves in, the brainbots would lead the police to them, was generally understood, so very few criminals simply ignored them. The prisons gradually filled back up.

A judge in Los Angeles released Natalie Brandt's assets. She flew to Metro City and was reunited with Mohenjo Daro. The tiger had no more excuse to be on the Overlord's payroll, but he had developed a liking for the city, and he was still on retainer with the League of Heroes, who didn't entirely trust Megamind, so he and Natalie went shopping for real estate. The only place they saw that really met their needs was Scott Mansion, so they ended up leasing the grounds and the guest house. (The mansion was still full of Scott family personal effects.) A few members of the staff quit at that point, but not as many as expected, and they were quickly replaced by applicants who were fans of the feline movie star. Natalie kept the ranch in California as their winter place. He stayed active in the sentient animals' community as a way of keeping in contact with Minion.

The hunt resumed without him, rescheduled to begin at three a.m., when the streets were empty, for reasons of public safety. Megamind was unwilling to actually wrestle his volunteer quarry; it was too potentially erotic. Instead, with volunteers unwilling to be TASEd, he used a net. The pool of volunteers spread beyond the masochists' community to include local athletes who were in it for the challenge. The hunt began to be imitated in other cities; it was to become an organized sport, known as Metro City hunting, city hunting or parkour hunting, practiced in the quiet hours in cities around the world.

Catamount took Big Sky's advice. He came to Metro City as a tourist. There he had a real problem with the popular attitude toward the Battle of City Hall. The citizens were proud of Megamind's victory and of the humiliation dealt out to Catamount and his fellow heroes. In his five days there, he got into fourteen shouting matches and punched two men. Then he got a call from Reno. Cowboy Joe, defender of that city, was still locked up, and its defender-in-training, a twenty-one-year-old known as Red Tail, was in over his head, partly as a result of an influx of criminals from Metro City who had noticed that Reno was now under-defended. With a sigh of relief, Catamount left Metro City, never to return.

Megamind was disappointed. He'd been looking forward to an electoral battle. Then Roxanne reminded him that the city's constitution still needed to be amended to allow him a role in the city, and the amendment would need to be ratified by popular vote, so there would still be a political campaign to look forward to. What followed was a lot of discussion. Minion consulted Delia Athelstein, who provided him with a list of the powers that be in the city whose support would be valuable: the Mayor and other government officials, particularly long-serving ones who predated the current administration and had power bases of their own; local political party leaders; the Chamber of Commerce and relevant trade associations such as the Tourism Council; heads of the largest businesses individually; labor union leaders; influential media people such as Frank Bonnin and a handful of miscellaneous distinguished citizens. Most of these people would have nothing substantial to contribute, she explained, but it was important to consult them so as to gain their support or at least forestall opposition. Minion also consulted a few private individuals whose input he and Megamind valued, Uncle Omar being at the top of that list.

Then the two aliens, Roxanne, and two young lawyers, one from each of the major political parties, sat down to hammer out a proposal. They recognized that what they wanted was a change in the constitution that would allow Megamind to do what he was already doing, but in fact most of what he was doing was legal. Only his arbitrary, Overlordly way of imposing his will was in violation of the law, and that would have to change anyway, now that he was good. If he wanted to use his own money to fancy up the exteriors of public buildings, or even donate completely new buildings (such as the new East Metro branch library he had already designed and sited), a mechanism for getting permission to do that was already in place. There was also the consideration that Megamind would not be around forever and that there should be limits to what his successors could get away with. What they came up with was a new government position, to be occupied by a nonhuman citizen who would have the power to grant citizenship to nonhumans with human-level language abilities and the responsibility to look out for the interests of nonhuman citizens and provide a nonhuman perspective on all aspects of governance. It would differ from other advocacy positions such as the Disabilities Commission in that it would have veto power over certain executive branch actions and it would be directly elected, although the mayor would appoint someone temporarily any time the position was vacant between elections. There were also a modest budget, a few ceremonial duties and the best title they could come up with: First Creature.

The same City Council session that named Megamind defender of the city also decreed a special election in five weeks' time, for the purpose of ratifying the amendment creating the position of First Creature. The blue alien campaigned enthusiastically, making speeches in person, television and radio appearances. It wasn't really necessary, given that opposition was limited to a few human exceptionalists and small-government extremists, but it fed his publicity-hound side and gave him experience dealing with the public. Between his days spent learning the new skills of politics and his nights in bed with Roxanne, he was as close to perfectly happy as he had ever been.

The amendment passed easily and he was immediately named to the position. For the celebration that night, the new First Creature had a barge full of fireworks towed out into the lake. A the climax of his speech, surrounded by crowds cheering for him, he pressed a remote and the Death Ray, for the first time in months, went dark. The crowd went quiet with shock, and in that moment of quiet he called out "Roxanne Ritchi, will you marry me?"

"Yes!" she answered, as planned, and a single burst from the Death Ray struck the barge, setting off all the fireworks at once in a spectacular display. The cheering resumed and, as the sound of "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple filled the air, went over into dancing. There was another cheer as the beam of raw power reappeared in its normal place.

###

"You don't have to do it, Roxie."

"Hal-"

"No, seriously. He's good now. That means if you, like, dump him, he'll just have to suck it up, like a regular guy."

"Hal!" She used a warning tone, which shut him up. "Listen. When a woman makes a man fall in love with her, to get him to do what she wants, unless she's a total heartless bitch, there's going to be... rebound."

"Rebound? What do you mean?"

"I love him."

Hal's mouth fell open. His eyes went so wide, they were almost bigger top-to-bottom than they were side-to-side. He looked at her with horror and sorrow and something else. It took a moment to figure out what that look was because it was so unexpected. Pity. Hal pitied her.

"I'm so sorry, Roxie." He looked at the floor, then back at her, and then he turned away. "See you tomorrow."

He's a human exceptionalist, she realized. He thinks I've lost my human purity. He won't ever look at me with the same stupid, greedy, frustrated adoration again.

Good.

###

Lucille found the Cayman Islands disappointing in one particular respect: most of the available men were her father's age or older, except for the gigolos, and she was still young enough that her ego wouldn't let her pay for male company. Then after one disappointing evening in a bar, a tall, tanned, blond man with the familiar accent of the American upper Midwest approached her. His voice sounded so familiar, in fact, that if she hadn't been drinking, she might have remembered where she'd heard it before and fled. But she was tipsy, bored and lonely and he seemed to be just what she needed. It seemed a little odd that he insisted on getting out of the public eye before he would even kiss her, but she was willing to co-operate. Then instead of a smooch, she got sprayed in the face with something that put her right to sleep. Because she didn't have Roxanne's built-up tolerance for the spray, she slept all night and half the next day. She came to in police custody in Metro City.

###

The five imprisoned heroes were quickly convicted on all counts, but the behind-the-scenes disputes over their sentencing dragged on for months because of the diplomatic issues involved. The five cities that had lent them to SAMCORP's efforts wanted their defenders back. Metro City authorities insisted that letting them off for time already served would undermine the city's authority and cast doubt on its commitment to equality under the law. The Swiss were threatening to take the matter to the International Court of Justice while at the same time offering a large monetary settlement in order to bring their three young heroes home quickly. Reno, backed by SAMCORP, was also waving money around, just to get the whole thing over with and out of the news, while Sioux Falls, home of the Gulon and a much less prosperous polity, was arguing for community service. Megamind (who was known by all concerned to be the real ultimate power in Metro City as long as the Death Ray lit up the sky) was willing to accept all these offers. He only had one additional request: he wanted Argentée's help with the entertainment for his wedding.

###

The Gulon was led from his cell (an ordinary one, since his power was no help in escaping from it) to the small interrogation room where, he was told, the terms of his community service would be explained to him. He waited calmly, even with some hope of things not being too bad, until the door opened and three people came in: two humans and the the person he least wanted to see in the world: Siligili-Reii. One of the humans introduced herself as his parole officer, and the other as Siligili-Reii's translator. After a brief greeting, all human eyes turned to the alien. Instead of speaking, she touched her lower front abdomen, between the shoulders of her forelegs, with the fingertips of both brown hands. An opening appeared there, even darker than her skin. It took him a moment to realize what it was: a pocket universe just like his.

Well, not exactly like. The translator explained that hers was installed, not inborn, and could only open to a width of about two feet because her flesh didn't have the flexibility of his. Among her people, the Colna, it has been a common body modification for field scientists and prospectors such as herself as well as members of several other professions, from emergency medical responders to spies. Naturally as soon as they became common, individuals began to use them in fights, so a device broadcasting the peculiar type of radiant energy that would reduce them to their smallest possible size had become a part of the standard self-defense body modification package that every Colna adult got. This was what had frustrated his attempts to capture her; she still had that device installed and could use it to shut his pocket universe as well as her own.

Humans were capable of producing these pocket universes in the great particle accelerators, and Megamind had figured out how to duplicate the broadcasting devices and the surgical techniques for installing both, suitably modified for the human body. Any humans getting one of these modifications would have to be trained in its use, but Siligili-Reii couldn't do that. It wasn't just that she had no English; her body was too different. His body, however, was not.

That was to be his community service: to meet people who not only didn't despise his mutation, they envied it and wanted to be like him, and to help them as they became like him, to help them do it well.

Just as victory can be the biggest mistake in a person's life, so defeat can be the best thing that ever happened.

###

For a while, in the weeks leading up to the wedding, Megamind was really thinking of using the opportunity to expose Wayne. He had an elaborate plot worked out in which Roxanne would invite Music Man to perform at the reception. At the right moment, Minion as best fish would order the lights lowered, supposedly for some sort of entertainment; Argentée would make them even lower for Wayne than for everybody else, to the point of creating a blind spot for him where the bride and groom stood; and Roxanne would exercise her wonderful throwing arm by lobbing a champagne bottle at the ex-hero's head. So long as everyone saw it hit, shatter and do no harm, it wouldn't matter if he was gone a moment later. They all would have seen and his survival, which was already rumored, would be publicly confirmed.

Roxanne talked him out of it. She understood that he wanted to clear his name and she certainly felt that Wayne deserved the exposure, but she didn't want their wedding reception to be about Wayne. She wanted it to be about herself and her good blue man and their love for each other. Once Megamind understood that executing his plan would mean making Wayne, not Roxanne and himself, the center of attention and the thing people remembered about that reception, he saw things her way. And keeping Wayne's secret would result in the furtherance of his goals in a way that neither of them could foresee at the time.

###

Siligili-Reii's starship was never recovered, but another one eventually was. When Wayne Scott's estate was finally settled, four years after he was pronounced dead, the mansion was finally emptied out. A thing that looked like a cradle with its exterior shaped to resemble a toy rocket was found in the attic. The auctioneer's assistant, who was the first to examine it closely, opened its nose cone and found incomprehensible machinery. She assumed that it was something built by Megamind in his villainous days, confiscated by Metro Man and kept as a souvenir, or to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. Now that Megamind was good, the auction house saw no reason not to return it to him. The city's First Creature and Defender had not, in fact, built it, but when he saw it, his face lit with recognition anyway. He had last seen this tiny starship when it knocked his off course on the day he, Minion and the boy who was to become Metro Man came to Earth. For the next six months, he pushed aside most of his other duties and obsessively studied the workings of the little ship. Then he returned to normal life for another two years before he announced that he had tested the first faster-than-light spacecraft ever known to have left Earth. It was a robot probe, programmed to fly a light-year away, photograph its surroundings, then return. An atomic clock was aboard to show how time had passed. So was a pair of mice, one male and one female. At the time of his announcement, the probe had just returned. The clock showed that less than a day had passed, ship time. The photo showed exactly what astronomers predicted would be visible one light year from Earth. The mice were still in good health. They were bred and produced healthy, fertile offspring, both with each other and with mates that had never left Earth. The time had come to begin planning for a manned flight.

###

Roxanne was surrounded by children: her seven-year-old daughter, who looked exactly like her; her five-year-old son, who was blue and bald, two little brown-eyed fishes in globes of something that looked like glass but wasn't, and a little tigress whose birth at the Metro City Zoo five months before had doubled the number of talking tigers in the world. All of them waited on the reviewing stand, watching as Siligili-Reii shook hands with virtually everyone of importance in Metro City as well as several visiting dignitaries. Then the six-limbed alien climbed a long staircase into a steel globe supported on a specially-built scaffolding. As The Metros, a rock band whose lead guitarist was known only as Music Man, struck up a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", the globe rose like a brainbot coming out of dormancy, then kept rising until it disappeared into the summer sky.