Hello again friends! thank you so much for your great support and reviews! I'm so glad that everyone liked my little journey down the father/son road! Now here's another fun blippit that I thought would be fun to play with; Hal Stewart.

Meet Your New Cameraman

Roxanne didn't know much about Hal Stewart. He'd recently started on an intern program, mainly getting donuts and coffee and setting up the cameras in the station before their broadcasts. He'd tried talking to her only a few times before and he'd come across as nerdy, a little awkward, but good intentioned.

That was why, on one particularly chilly day, when Hal offered to drive her home, she accepted. Roxanne hadn't thought anything of it other than Hal attempting to be a gentleman as he knew that she did not own a car and would normally walk or take a cab home.

"So ya know…if you're cold you can totally like move closer. I wouldn't mind! Got pleeenntyy of body heat to spare." Hal attempted, sending Roxanne a rather goofy smirk.

"I'm fine, Hal." Roxanne said politely.

"Okay. I'm just sayin'!" his eyes roved up her body and she gasped as he almost hit a light pole. He quickly jerked the news van back onto the road, shouting his apologies as he did so. Roxanne wrapped her coat a little more tightly around her as she leaned more towards her own door.

Out of nowhere came a loud roar and Roxanne looked out the windshield in time to see a strange metal contraption fly over, followed by Metro Man. Hal stomped on the breaks and they watched as Megamind, in some strange flying robot, turned around to look at his white clad nemeses. They could see their mouths moving and with a punch Megamind was thrown backwards before the chase began again.

"Come on! We should get this on camera!" Roxanne leapt from the van and tightened her scarf around her neck.

"What? Roxaroo! Get back in here! Do you wanna get smushed?" Hal hurried and stepped in front of her, stopping her from going any further.

"Please." Roxanne snorted. "I have yet to get crushed by either of those two."

"But you don't even have a camera man!"

"Well, you take the camera, Hal." Roxanne said expectantly. She opened the back of the van and gestured towards the news camera. Hesitantly Hal lifted it and looked at it as if it would break.

"I dunno if I'm supposed to do this.."

"Oh come on Hal; do you want to be stuck doing donut runs all your life?" she smiled lightly to him.

"But I could get in major trouble! I need this job Rox! You've been doing this for what, two years? I'm new! They'd totally fry me!"

"Well, if they did get mad, which they won't, I'll just tell them it was an unexpected news opportunity that I couldn't pass up! Now come on! We're missing all the action!"

As they ran after the pair of supers Roxanne put in a call to the station and told them to be ready. After a quick fix of her hair she stepped in front of the camera and Hal gave a rather nervous cue that they were live.

"This is Roxanne Ritchi, in downtown Metro City where I'm live on the scene of yet another battle between Metro Man and Megamind!"

Anyone watching would see the camera zoom in on the scene behind Roxanne. Megamind was in a very strange looking robot suit that was suspended by rockets on either side. Metro Man shot his laser vision at the robot and one of the rockets went spiraling off, which sent Megamind down to the ground. Roxanne took it as a cue and waved to the white clad hero.

"Metro Man!" she called out. He turned and flashed a bright smile to her as he flew over. "Would you mind giving us a quick word on what notorious villain Megamind has done this time?"

"Anything for my favorite reporter, Roxie! See old Megamind there was trying to rob the Metro City bank. Lucky for us, I got there in time." There was a clattering as Megamind regained the robot's feet. "Oops! Hold that thought. I'd better bring this one in to jail again." He went to turn but stopped and looked back to Roxanne. "What say we do dinner sometime? Say tonight?"

"Sure thing Metro Man." Roxanne smirked; glad that she was turned away from the camera so that they would not see her eyes roll. Of course he would ask for dinner on camera; nothing like keeping up appearances. It wasn't as if they didn't already have plans for that night. It was Friday night, and Friday night meant pizza and beer and whatever awful movie they had managed to rent that week. She composed herself and turned back to the camera. From behind her Metro Man could be seen busting open the glass dome and hauling Megamind out and then off into the distance.

"Well you've seen it here first Metro City! Metro Man has saved the day once more. This has been Roxanne Ritchi reporting live for KMCP news 8." She gave her signature signal for the cut and Hal nearly dropped the camera.

"That was so awesome! That was the coolest thing I've ever done! You looked great Roxie, totally hot."

"…Thanks Hal."

"We probably just caught some of the coolest action ever!" Hal exclaimed as they made their way back to the van. Roxanne was not about to crush his high spirits by telling him that she'd been in the middle of far more exciting battles. She realized then that Hal was still talking and tuned back in.

"We should totally team up! We'd be the best news team in the city! Roxie and Hal; number one dynamic duo! Getting in on all the action!"

Roxanne gave him a rather weary look and he balked, backtracking his own words. When she saw the footage later however, Roxanne had to admit that Hal was pretty good with the camera. She had not expected for her boss to suggest that Hal become her new official camera person as, for the last few months Roxanne had been going through the many camera operators who could not handle the stress of her kidnappings.

Over the few months whenever there was a story to be told, Roxanne and Hal were on the scene. More often than not Roxanne would be kidnapped from those scenes, and as time went on she actually found herself grateful to get away from Hal's leering eyes, even if that meant being dangled above a pit of gators.

Try as she might to be nice, Roxanne was growing tired of Hal's constant hints for dates or how attractive he found her. She had even tried multiple times to remind him that she was "dating" Metro Man; but it was as if it fell on deaf ears. She'd even tried having Metro Man take her directly home after a cut or at the end of the work day and would come to work the next morning to find that it had had no effect on Hal whatsoever.

"I'm honestly surprised that he hasn't been scared off yet! I would have thought that with you being you he'd back off! And I thought for sure when Megamind nearly stepped on him that last time that he'd quit." Roxanne sighed. She had wondered vaguely if Megamind's near misstep had been due to her unexpectedly complaining about Hal during one of her kidnappings. The villain had only merely made a comment about the chubby red haired man and Roxanne had scoffed in annoyance and muttered that being kidnapped was better than being a part of some pervert's fantasies.

She struggled again to get the beer bottle in her hands opened.

"He's such a cretin!" she held out the bottle to Wayne he easily popped it open with his thumb before handing it back to her.

"Want me to talk to him?" Wayne said in a poorly imitated version of a gangster. It at least made Roxanne chuckle.

"Yea, sure thing God Father." She plopped down on the couch next to him. "And thanks but, I think it will be fine. Hal's harmless really; just a little strange."

Little did Roxanne know how wrong her words would be three years later.