**EDIT 2/13/18. BIG HUGE THANKS TO Electricboa for having saved this story and for sending me the chapter my hour of need! Seriously, thank you! Thank you to all my friends also who came up with the idea to see if someone had saved it, and who offered their support when I was looking down a long road of a re-write. I am seriously in the best mood ever now! :)
Hope you all like this chapter!
Chapter 3
Roxanne awoke to a loud shrill ringing sound and fumbled from her blankets for the telephone. She nearly dropped it and fumbled with it for a moment before bringing it to her ear.
"-ollo?" she said as her face was split wide with a yawn.
"Good morning Miss Ritchi! We hope you slept well. Your breakfast will be up to your room in just a few minutes. Today's weather promises to be a cloudy 38 degrees, that's in Fahrenheit, so be sure to bundle up! Have a wonderful day!" the cheery girl on the other end hung up, leaving Roxanne to wonder just two things; how much coffee had that girl had, and what breakfast?
Fifteen minutes later Roxanne was just getting out of the shower when she heard a knock on her room door. A crisply dressed man pushing a wheeled cart walked in when she opened the door and asked her where she would like her breakfast. Breakfast, as it turned out, was a fresh steaming omelet, toast with jam, orange juice, coffee and a bowl of fresh fruit. Roxanne smirked and made a mental note to call home later to thank a certain blue hero for his thoughtfulness.
After breakfast, which while good left something to be desired after she had been so spoiled from Minion's omelets, Roxanne turned to her closet; the brain bots had unpacked her suitcase for her and everything hung neatly in garment bags. She finally chose a purple sweater dress and paired it with a pair of tights and her tall black boots. Roxanne was just fixing her belt and calling for Pinky to gather the other brain bots when yet another knock sounded at her door. Only after checking through the peep-hole did she open the door.
"Charles? H-" Roxanne remembered her manners just in time to stop from asking just how he had found her room and fixed a practiced smile to her lips. "Good morning. What brings you here?"
"Well I was just passing through and thought I might come up and see if you might want to grab a coffee with me before the day begins? We've got nearly half an hour before we have to be at Mr. Winston's for the exhibition." He flashed a kind smile towards her and Roxanne idly debated between veneers or an excellent dentist.
"S-sure Charles, coffee sounds nice. Give me just a second okay?" she turned, leaving him at the open door so that she could grab her coat and bag and usher the brain bots from the room.
"Fascinating creatures." Charles observed as they made their way down the hallway. "When I got the e-mail that you'd be bringing along highly advanced robots to help with everything I certainly wasn't expecting this." He chuckled and waved his hand in gesture to the group of brain bots floating around them.
"Yes, we figured that it would make everything easier as far as luggage and cameras go. Fang and Pinky help in filming all of my news reports back home." She said, gesturing to the two bots she had mentioned.
"And I believe they were all invented by your fascinating fiancé."
"Yes…" there was something about his tone of voice that made Roxanne bristle. "We have hundreds more back home. Though I take all the credit for this one." She patted Pinky's dome. "She was badly damaged protecting me, so I fixed her up and redesigned her entire body."
"Clearly your intellect matches your exceptional beauty." He smiled again. Roxanne had to bite her tongue at what had been meant to be a compliment; it came off far too creepy to be kind. She sighed and looked to her cell phone for the time; it was far too early back home for anyone to really be awake. All the same, she knew her fiancé's odd sleeping habits and knew that even if he were actually sleeping for once that he would eventually answer. And so as Charles turned for a moment to press the elevator button Roxanne snapped a quick picture and sent it. She hadn't anticipated the quick reply that she got.
"That is our fearless leader…Mr. Innappropriate himself."
"Anything I should be worried about?" even through a text she could hear his teasing tone of voice.
"Nothing a little de-gun action can't handle." She smirked when she hit the send button and her fingers flew across the phone before she sent off a second message. "What are you doing up so early? Not any trouble I hope?"
"None at all, my dear, I had an idea while on patrol."
"Roxanne, are you even listening at all?" Charles' voice broke through and caught her attention.
"Hm? Oh sorry…what?" She gave him a polite smile. She had hardly even realized that by now they were outside on the sidewalk and she had simply just been following along.
"I was simply stating how different London must be from such a drab city such as Metro City."
"Well then you've never been to Metro City." Came her sharp retort. If she were completely honest, while it was nice to get away to someplace different, she found London dreary and grey compared to the gleaming city of home. She felt satisfied at the way Charles' lips turned into a downward grimace and she looked back to her phone.
"Well I won't keep you. I'm about to meet Stuart."
"I expect a picture of Gregward as well Miss Ritchi ;)."
"Of course. I love you."
"I love you more." He replied. She smiled, knowing that if she tried to contest that he would constantly fight it until she gave in.
An hour later Roxanne stood in a large room filled with various white boards and computers. The anticipated Stuart Gregward Winston stood before the small group of reporters explaining his newest idea that, in his opinion, could revolutionize the world. Stuart was, in every sense of the word, a nerd. He was short and thin and he continuously played with the thick framed glasses that sat on his nose. His hair was a mop of unruly curls of dark brown and he gave off the look of someone who continuously ran his hands through his hair. If anything could be said of Stuart Winston it was that he was as boring as he was young, with a disgustingly pompous attitude to match. As she had promised she sent a picture of the young man to her genius back home; she hadn't received a reply, but fully expected that he and Minion had fallen to the floor in laughter. Stuart spent their first hour together informing the small group of reporters of his life accomplishments; of how he graduated at a young age and went on to university, of his high gpa and of his discoveries and inventions. As she looked around though, Roxanne wondered for a moment if he hadn't simply been watching Megamind for years and had used his inventions for inspiration.
Fang had been recording every moment of their time together for the station to edit into a showpiece when they got back home and Pinky floated close by, observing everything with curiosity. As they were led to Stuart's centerpiece of the day Roxanne's own curiosity peaked; for on top of a pillar rested a glass box inside of which was a strange glowing ring. Roxanne could hear the murmurs and sounds of amazement from the other reporters but could not find herself impressed. Something just seemed odd.
"Pinky…run a scan for me." Roxanne whispered as she nodded towards the small structure. The pink bot bowged in response and hovered as close as she dared to the glowing box.
"And this is my pride and glory right here; the element that promises to run a full city for years to come." He never saw as Pinky made her way back to Roxanne and the reporter ignored whatever else he was saying to read on the small screen she had installed into Pinky's new body.
"Now you say you invented this element all on your own?" a short plucky man questioned, his pen hovering above his notepad. Roxanne couldn't stop the snort that escaped from the back of her throat.
"You can't create an element…" she muttered. She felt all the eyes in the room turn to her. Roxanne cleared her throat and kept her eyes locked on the young man. She'd already abandoned her manners, might as well keep on with the tough-reporter attitude; she reserved it only for special occasions and she figured this one called for it. "Forgive me, but it's impossible to create a new element…if anything you've rediscovered an element that's been lost."
He smirked at her then, and an overly-confident chuckle sounded from him.
"Miss Ritchi is in fact, for all points and purposes, correct. While I did not invent a new element, per se, I did find a way to make separate elements work together to form an energy source. By using a simple combination of palladium and gamma rays, I have built a power source which will run using no electricity and emit its own form of energy. It will never die and is extremely cost effective." His eyes floated over to Roxanne who was looking at him with her brow furrowed.
"Couldn't that combination be potentially dangerous?" she challenged. Stuart chuckled again, keeping that same smirk pasted on his lips.
"You seem to know more than you let on, Miss Ritchi."
"Well I'm only saying that, potentially, this could be a very fatal combination. With energy like that coursing through it, if it were to be struck or overcharged it could explode, couldn't it?"
"Those are very extreme and very rare examples."
"Rare, yes, but they are still potential situations that need to be considered. For all the power coursing out of that thing, if anything were to happen it could blow this entire place sky high. And you want to actually make one big enough to power the whole city?" She kept her eyes on him while the other reporters looked from one another and then back to Roxanne and Stuart. She watched as the corner of one of his eyes twitched.
"I've read a great deal about your famous fiancé's intellect… I wonder if this is all stemming from his own fear of competition, or if you're really so intelligent as to know of what you speak." he challenged.
"Oh I know a great deal Stuart; enough to know that your little experiment over there is a ticking time bomb." She wasn't aware of when she had advanced on the man but now she was only a few feet away from him. "You don't have to have graduated early to know how dangerous it is to be playing around with a particle accelerator without the proper technology, knowledge or a fail safe." A thin eyebrow raised as a corner of her lips turned up. "Plus it really doesn't help to see replicas of my fiancé's inventions sitting around your lab."
She turned from him and saw Charles looking her way.
"I think I've got all I need. Thank you for your time." She slung her coat back over her shoulders and made her way out without a second glance back. She could hear Charles running to catch up with her but she did not stop until she was outside.
"Do you mind explaining just what that was all about? You're here to do a report on the man, not tear him apart, accuse him and question his intelligence!"
"I'm a reporter Charles; finding the truth and bringing it to light is what I do. If that means I have to actually tell the truth and not cover for somebody's lies, then so be it." She turned and continued down the sidewalk, desperate to get away from him. He caught up with her quickly and she slowed her pace. Charles cleared his throat then.
"My apologies; it would seem that you do things a bit differently than we do at the station here." He gave her what seemed like a legitimate apologetic look and Roxanne sighed.
"Then I'm sorry as well. It's just the thought of somebody trying to pass off something so dangerous! Not to mention claiming certain inventions are all of his own design when the same ones are sitting at home in my garage." She huffed and shook her head in aggravation before she let out one final long breath and calmed down. "Well… it's certainly been an exciting day." she let out a weak chuckle.
"Indeed it has. How about this; to make up for a waste of a report, let me take you out to dinner." He flashed another bright smile at her.
"Oh..uhm.. I kind of wanted to explore the city a bit. Get some shopping in, you know?" she had experience enough with turning down dinner offers from Hal to know how to talk her way out of something, but there was just something about Charles that told her he wouldn't give up. He chuckled and shook his head.
"Perfectly fine, you are in London after all. How about tomorrow night instead? There's a fantastic restaurant just down the street from the hotel."
"Charles…I-" she sighed.
"As colleagues, of course." He let out a polite laugh, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "Really, I'm sure you've got plenty of wild stories from reporting back home. And while we may not have had any supers fighting in our city, I've got a few interesting stories to share. What do you say? Two colleagues sharing stories over dinner and wine?"
Roxanne sighed and nodded her head as she smiled politely to him. There was clearly no way she was going to get out of this without coming off as completely rude; and as little as she wanted to go she was still technically there for business and turning down a colleague might not be in her best interest.
"Sure, dinner tomorrow night then. Say seven?"
"I'll have a cab waiting for you right outside your hotel." He nodded to her before turning to walk the opposite way down the sidewalk. Roxanne did not miss the way that his eyes flashed over her body again and she turned, gritting her teeth as she crossed the street.
"And I'll have a de-gun hiding in my bag in case you try any funny business."
It's so fun that Roxanne is such a hot-head, because I can totally make her snap on people when the time calls for it :) It's fun because she is generally cool and collected and that's how she wins most of her battles, but when she snaps; watch out!