Here we go! The next insert into our book of shorts!
Meeting a Hero
The first time that Roxanne Ritchi met Wayne Scott had been the first time that she had ever visited Metro City. She had come to the city on business; having just been offered a job at the news station in the city. By all technicalities she already had the job, but for fairness sake had to come for an official interview as well as to sign some documents. The moment that she had stepped into the office the entire crew had become enamored. She was extremely grateful for Reena; a college friend who had, behind her back, submitted the few tapes of her college reports that had gotten her the job. One look at her tapes and her extremely impressive resume and they were sold. However; Roxanne found herself more grateful when Reena pulled her away from the crowd of drooling tech men and outside into the fresh air.
The two women walked along the sidewalks and were stopped when a large body appeared just in front of them. Roxanne took a moment to take in the man before her; he was tall with an unearthly broad chest and muscled arms to match; dark and perfectly coiffed hair, and a smile that Hollywood would kill for. For a moment, as she considered his muscles, she couldn't stop the words "steroids" as they passed around in her skull.
"Well hello there. I don't believe that we've met." He placed his hands on his hips and raised a singular eyebrow in what she assumed was supposed to be a debonair expression. "I'm Metro Man. And who might you be?"
"Roxanne Ritchi." She answered. Reena had told her that there was a hero in the city, but she hadn't actually believed that he would look like something out of a comic book.
"Roxie… I like it. And what's a pretty thing like you doing in Metro City?"
Already Roxanne found one thing to not like about him: he was cocky.
Arrogantly cocky.
As if he thought that he was a gift to the earth.
"I just got a job here actually…working for KMCP." She straightened her back and drew her face into a calm collected expression.
"Ah, I reporter? Well swell! Be sure to catch all my good stories, huh? Maybe I can take you out to dinner sometime? We can get to know each other better." He flashed another smile at her and she swore that the sun reflected off of his teeth.
"Maybe some other time; I need to get settled in first."
"Alright." He chuckled. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you again Roxie. Don't be a stranger now." And with a wink he took off into the air.
"It's Roxanne…" the reporter said under her breath. Reena nudged her in the side and laughed. Roxanne looked to her friend; the one and only person who was allowed to call her Roxie; part because they were such close friends and part because she knew that Reena would do it either way.
"Don't let him get to you Roxie, he's a block head. Although; you are probably the only person that he has ever asked their name."
The second time that Roxanne met Metro Man was but a few short days after their original encounter. She had been headed home from the city to gather her belongings and make the move. She only lived about a day's drive out of the city but her clunker of a car had decided to give up just miles out of the city. It was a cheap old car that she had bought to get her to and from college, and had done the job well enough, but now it seemed that it had met its end. She sat at the side of a road with a dead car and an estimated pick up time of 6 hours from the towing company. She dug through one of her bags and found a nutrition bar and sighed grimly.
Well… either I can wait it out here; or I can walk back to the city. It'd only be a few hours…
"Need a little help?" the voice came from behind her and she turned to see the same white-clad muscled man that she had met only days ago.
"My stupid car died." She replied; trying her best not to pout.
"Well then, it would seem like you're in the need of a lift."
"You mean you can fit in a car?" the comeback had flown from her lips before she'd even thought to stop it. He looked at her for a moment before he blinked and shook his head with a chuckle of amusement.
"Well… no; you're actually right about that one. But I don't really need a car; flying comes in handy that way."
Roxanne looked from him to her car and back as her brain clicked into place.
"Oh no…ohhhh no…no thank you." She remembered her manners.
"I promise I won't drop you. What kind of hero would I be if I did?" he laughed as if he had said the funniest thing in the world. "So you just get in and sit down, and you'll be home before you know it."
Roxanne looked to him again, sizing him up. She could do a lot worse she figured; and if he was going to kill her he would have done so already. Finally she sighed and accepted his offer; and with a few simple directions and a near heart attack from the shock of just how fast he was flying, Roxanne found herself home.
Nearly two weeks after Roxanne had moved to the city she had been given her very first live Metro Man report. As promised by Reena, there once again was action in Metro City. As Roxanne understood it, Megamind had invented some strange machine to try and defeat Metro Man with. The battle hadn't even lasted long enough for anyone to call in to the station; but the fight had nonetheless caused a bit of damage to a few local stores and the station wanted the story covered. And so Roxanne, along with her camera woman Christie, headed down to the scene.
Roxanne took in the damage as soon as she exited the news van; a strange looking robot had clearly been thrown into a small strip mall and had fallen through the front walls. She glanced from the damage to the smiling hero and approached him, waving him her way.
"Metro Man! Could we get a word for KMCP?"
He smiled brightly as he saw her.
"Anything for the prettiest reporter in the city!" he swept his hand through his perfect hair and aimed a smile at the camera as soon as Christie called the cue.
"This is Roxanne Ritchi reporting live from downtown Metro City where I'm told hero Metro Man has just defeated Megamind." She gave her own smile to the camera. "So Metro Man; care to share what happened today?"
"Sure thing, Roxie. See, Megamind there had built some sort of crazy contraption trying to take over the city; but I don't think he could control cause it kept crashing into everything; that's where all that destruction there came from." He gave a hearty chuckle. "So I flew in, and a few quick hits later down she went and he went back to jail."
"So…you took down the robot?" she asked, something in the back of her mind had perked up.
"I sure did. And without a single scratch on me!" he winked at the camera.
"So then…couldn't you be blamed partly for the destruction to the mall? You were the one that pushed the robot there." She raised an eyebrow. Sure she didn't know Megamind; sure it was probably stupid to blame the hero on live television; but there was something in her that just would not sit back and let someone who shared the blame lay it all on one person.
"Well sure I was; I had to take the thing down somehow. Although technically; Megamind was the one that fell into it. He just had, what I'll call, a helping hand in falling back to justice." He chuckled again.
"So then technically it's not all Megamind's fault."
Wayne stayed silent a moment and blinked at her before he let out a bark of a laugh.
"A comedian! You fellas at the station have picked the perfect gal for this report, I tell ya! No worries on the mall there Roxie, it'll be fixed in no time, and no one was hurt. And Megamind is back in jail where he belongs." Roxanne looked from Metro Man back to Christie who gave the slightest shake of her head. Roxanne sighed inwardly and aimed her glance at the camera once more.
"Well then… there you have it Metro City!" She wasn't going to keep this up on camera; and she'd be shocked if she even had a job left after this. "Metro Man has saved our city once more. This has been Roxanne Ritchi reporting live for KMCP 8."
The entire ride back Roxanne's stomach churned; she was fully expecting to walk in and be fired on the spot for insulting their hero. She had not expected for her boss Richard to shake her by the hand with a bright smile and tell her just how much their ratings had gone up in the single report. Already their inboxes had been flooded with emails asking just who this new girl was and stating just how much they loved the on-air chemistry the pair already had.
"Next time Metro Man's out there, we want you to report it Roxanne."
Next time for Roxanne came almost two weeks later.
Her day had started with what was supposed to have been a report on the newly rebuilt strip mall. She instead found herself kidnapped by the same blue "villain" that had landed on her balcony only weeks ago.
And so when Metro man rescued her from a pit of hungry alligators and flew her back home, only after dropping Megamind back in jail, and he asked her to dinner once again, Roxanne found that she just couldn't say no. After all, how does one say no to a hero who just saved your life and whom your boss has demanded you gain rapport?
And on that Friday Roxanne gritted her teeth and went on what turned out to be the most boring date of her entire life.
This ended up being a lot longer than I intended it to be. It could have been even longer actually, but I cut it here and there shall be a short on their date all by its onesie!
