Prologue

Citizens of Metro City, as you can see this dull black void in the universe is pulling us closer and we're completely defenceless against it. Megamind...my Megamind...this planet's last hope is gone. This black hole or vortex or whatever it's called has been slowly destroying everything it's come across for thirty-five years and now it's reached our little corner of the universe. Metro City...Metrosity...this is Roxanne Ritchie reporting for the last time on...on the...on the death of Megamind...and the end of the world. Back to you Chris.

Chapter 1

Roxanne glared at her boss, Carl, across his desk. He looked fairly unimpressed by her bad mood, sitting back in his chair with his bored expression clearly stating he had heard all of this before many times over the years.

"You can't be serious. You're giving the story to him?" She demanded. "This is a local story and we agreed that I cover local news! I bring in 90% of your ratings and you damn well know it. What the hell?" Chris held up his hand.

"Harry Newman is a perfectly capable reporter and..."

"Harry Newman is an incompetent ass, and that's exactly why you made him a foreign correspondent. To get him the hell out of Metro City. He's been reporting on the Himalayan Yak Festival for two years now not bothering anyone and now you've brought him in to do my job?" Carl stared at her flatly, quietly thinking that this woman would be adding to his collection of grey hairs during the span of her career.

"Are you finished?" he asked. Roxanne took a deep breath but couldn't think of anything else to say for the moment.

"Yes."

"Okay. If you want the truth then here it is: we've brought him in to take some of your workload."

"My workload is fine."

"Let me finish." He snapped, showing the first signs of irritation since she had started her rant. "We've brought him in to take over particular stories. Stories involving a certain former evil genius." Roxanne was speechless. "You're an amazing reporter Roxy. You're the best we've got and the viewers love you, but let's face it, half of your workload is reporting on what your boyfriend is up to. And considering that boyfriend spent the first half of his career trying to kill your ex boyfriend...well it makes the public a little uncomfortable."

"Metro Man and I were never together. And he's not dead. You know that." Roxanne protested.

"But they don't." Carl gestured out the window at the cityscape behind him. Roxanne sighed.

"How's this going to work then?" she asked.

"You both do local news. He does the stories about Megamind. You do some overseas pieces to pick up the slack."

"I want to pick which ones. I am not doing the Yak festival." She said.

"Deal. Actually there's one I wanted to send you for next week. Some boffins over in Switzerland are predicting the end of the universe."

"Again?" she asked. He shrugged.

"I guess. You're in a four-star hotel all expenses paid for the weekend. Maybe you could even take Megamind." It was a peace offering and they both knew it. Roxanne knew when to back down.

"All right. I'll go along with it. But Newman had better lift his game. He still thinks Megamind's name is MegaMan." She warned. Carl flinched and sighed.

"I know, I know. Send the new intern in on your way out. I need aspirin." He closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. Roxanne nodded and left without any more protests. More overseas trips and a weekend away? It wasn't a bad compromise for doing less work.

Sometimes it was good being Roxanne Ritchie.

"Hello? Hello Minion?" Megamind sat in front of his webcam and giant monitor while Skype set itself up. He insisted Minion check in every second day at 6pm to make sure he was all right and that the upgraded robot suit was functioning normally, but really he just wanted to see his friend. These days with Minion visiting his girlfriend in Japan every few weeks he missed the fish more than he cared to admit.

"Right here sir!" Minion's voice came through the speakers. Sure enough there the fish was wearing the robotic gorilla suit up there on the screen. Megamind couldn't keep the grin from his face.

"Minion! How's the trip?" he asked. Minion was smiling that dopey, toothy grin that had first appeared shortly after he and Shiyounin had began their long-distance relationship.

"It's great so far. Shiyounin's coming back with me this time, I hope that's okay. We'll be back in a week or so."

"It's fine Minion, really." When Shiyounin stayed over they spent most of their at-home-time outside in the newly installed pond, which was a bonus. Despite New Not Evil Lair being quite large Minion had developed an amazing knack for walking in on Roxanne and himself at exactly the wrong moment time and again. They had now agreed on designated intimacy-free zones and a knock twice before entry policy (Roxanne was not informed of these; she was under the impression that Minion's timing was simply getting better) Minion grinned.

"Thankyou sir. We'll have a surprise for you when we get there." Megamind grinned. He loved surprises.

{{Checking up on us, Megamind?}} a feminine voice came over the speakers speaking Japanese.

{{Always, Miss Shiyounin.}} he answered. Shiyounin giggled. After being a minion to her own evil overlord (one who was nowhere near as nice as Megamind was) she loved the way he spoke to her. {{How's the language barrier coming along?}}

"Not bad Mega Mind. I can understand if speak is slowly and talking is getting easier."

"That's great. How about you Minion?"

"It's getting there." He replied.

{{He declared war on Hungary at dinner last night.}} Shinyounin chimed in. Minion turned and glared at her.

"I told you not to tell him!" she giggled again. Megamind shook his head. Being an alien himself his tolerance for 'weird' was pretty high but lovers' quarrels between two fish was something new. They made small talk for a while longer and then he ended the call. He looked at the clock in the corner of his screen. It was seven o'clock. Roxanne should be home by now but there was no sign of her on his advanced-warning security system. After glancing at the monitors one more time just to make sure he was alone he walked over to his hidden safe (installed into one of his blinking beeping dial-covered machines bought from Romania) and opened it. There was a little black velvet box sitting inside. He took it in his hand and opened it up.

The ring was white gold and fairly simple in design. He had compressed the diamond himself in his lab (Roxanne had told him she preferred created over 'blood diamonds') and handed it over to a designer in the city to make something pretty out of it. It was attractive enough and from what Minion had told him before he left for Japan the 'rock' was more than impressive. It sparkled like a little star against the black velvet. He had been waiting a few weeks for the right time to surprise her with it (and the accompanying marriage proposal) but the timing had never seemed right. He tried when they went out to dinner but the waiter was always hanging around, or one or the other of them may have had too much wine and were giggling, or his nerves would simply get the better of him and he'd decide to postpone it, or they would wind up in a tangle of body parts in the back seat of the invisible car and then the timing would just be inappropriate. Once he had blurted out 'marry me!' while she had her head in his lap in the drivers' seat. He realised what he'd said and bit his lip but she had merely giggled and looked up at him.

"It's that good huh?" she teased, and went back to her activity (he wasn't complaining).

"Um...mmhmm." he'd clumsily answered. Neither had mentioned it since.

He hoped for a 'yes' next time rather than a giggle. He was fairly sure it would be a 'yes'. They were living together after all and the way she spoke of the future always included him.

If it was a 'no' he would probably throw himself off the cliff out the back of New Not Evil Lair. And just his damned luck the brainbots would save him...

Tonight Roxanne was coming home from work. The plan was to order Chinese and watch a DVD together. Megamind decided, tonight was the night. He would wait until they were cuddled up on the couch, catch her gaze and propose right there on the spot. It was simple, so simple nothing could go wrong.

On cue, Roxanne pulled up into the driveway in her car.