Disclaimer: I don't own The Big Bang Theory.

Author's note: This was written for a prompt given to me for Christmas fics. For the Harry Potter prompts, please go to the story entitled All the stockings, hung with care.

Read on, oh faithful ones...

...

For SpaceAnJL

Fandom: The Big Bang Theory

Ship: Penny/Sheldon

Rating: M as a precaution

Request: Penny could have any number of powers herself, but I might go for a Black Canary style sonic scream, based on her horrible singing, or something along the lines of WW's lasso, with the junior rodeo thing. Everyone just thinks she's a bimbo in tights, a trophy sidekick, because she's always found that guys are intimidated by a girl who can bench-press a truck. Sheldon is a brainiac, but push him, and I think you'd get a whole Carrie/Scanners blow your head up, chuck the furniture around freakout. He's afraid of his powers, because they are emotional, and he'd rather be a logical brain. Incidentally, if you want this as an Xmas prompt, have at it. :)

(I really wanted this as a prompt!)

...

After the Great Toxic Spill of 1980, superpowers began appearing throughout the world. It happened more in children than adults - a report came out a few years later, with details of molecular structure and hormones, but no one really cared nor paid attention; all they knew was that the superheroes and supervillains shown on Saturday morning television became a thing of reality.

Sheldon had the capacity to be a great hero or an even greater villain, but he refused to use his power. Leonard, his roommate, just can't understand it - he had seen Sheldon's power for himself and it's a terrifying thing to behold - but he will never complain. While Sheldon keeps himself cooped up in their apartment, Leonard's the one that gets called on to save the city. (Okay, his hero Zackman does. Leonard's just a sidekick, but one day he knows that he'll get lowered into a vat of toxic waste and his crummy little mimicking power will transform, and he'll be the one that saves the city and get the girl.)

Speaking of girls, Zackman's newest girlfriend is Penny Blossom. She's new to the superhero world, which is probably why she has such a cute name despite her power is the ability to sonic scream. It's so horrifying that it makes men fall to their knees and try to gouge their ears out in pain. However, Penny Blossom is also beautiful, so no one cares about her name or power, so much as they care about her extremely short skirt, skin-tight tights, and mini bra-top-thing. Leonard finds himself tripping over his own tongue whenever she's around, but at least he's not as bad as Raj who turns mute if she's in a two-block radius. (Raj's power involves the stars and universe in a way that no one really understands, and Raj can't hope to explain if there's a woman nearby - apparently it's a side affect of knowing the stars, but Leonard thinks he's just fatally shy.)

They're all hanging out together when Zackman and Leotard (he didn't get to choose his name - or outfit - unfortunately) are called by the Mayor to defeat the latest villain. Howard (he oozes sleaze, but Penny Blossom's friend Bendetta doesn't seem to mind) left soon after them with Bendetta, and Raj realised that Howard was his ride and hurried out after them, leaving Sheldon alone with Penny Blossom.

Penny glanced over at the man that looks more like a praying mantis than a human, and after a few minutes of silence, she asked him about his power. He stilled at the question and turned to look at her (actually in the eyes, which is a nice change from always seeing the top of guys' heads as they blatantly stare at her breasts).

"I have no desire to discuss my powers with you, Pennon," he said, fixing her with a stare that challenged her to deny her second alter-ego, albeit her villainess one.

Penny couldn't hope to deny it, her jaw dropping as she stared at him. "How did you know?"

"A blonde wig such as that one will only fool people who aren't looking at the wig. You have all the same body measurements as Pennon, and your arms have all the indications of someone who uses a whip regularly," he said, immediately turning back to his laptop.

When it seemed like Sheldon wasn't going to haul her off to the authorities, Penny removed the blonde wig with a sigh of relief. The damn thing itched like crazy, and her real hair was suffering for it. She took it out of the hair net, letting the curls of black hair fall back over the edge of the sofa so her head could breathe. This was going to result in some serious hair maintenance.

"Since you know all about me, what about you? What's your power, really? Zackman doesn't have a clue, and Leotard keeps telling me how great and fantastic his stupid power is, but won't say a thing about yours. No one seems to know exactly what it is that you can do, Sheldon," Penny pointed out, looking over at him with a smirk.

"I already told you that I don't want to discuss my powers with you," Sheldon replied tersely.

Penny can see the tense set of his shoulders and knew she could get the answer out of him eventually. It's too bad that she didn't have her whip handy; she could've made him spill his secrets in seconds. Pain made people respond almost as easily as the promise of sex did (Zackman had told her where his secret lair was located in under three minutes, and that was just because she'd loosened a button on her top). Looked like she'd have to do this the old-fashioned way and talk it out of him.

"See, you saying that makes me think you don't have any powers. You're just here for the ride, because you know someone with superpowers. You keep their secrets, they keep you in this gilded cage with free Wi-Fi, is that it?" she sneered.

"No, it's not. Stop asking," he said harshly.

The emotion in his voice surprised her. Penny had started to wonder if he was an emotionless robot, one that had been built by the Rajah or Leotard (but she supposed Leotard would've already boasted about it if he had built Sheldon), but it looked like he was human after all.

"Why? It's not like it'll do any harm," she said, grinning now.

A bowl came flying towards her suddenly, and she flipped over the back of the sofa to avoid being struck by the impromptu weapon. After hearing the thump against the cushions, she stood up and was surprised to see various things around the apartment floating, including the kitchen stools - one was upside down. Sheldon realised that there was a reason for her sudden silence (apparently wishes don't come true) and saw what he'd done. He let out a noise somewhere between frustration and fear, and ran straight to his room, all of the things crashing to the floor in a cascade of noise (Leonard refused to buy glass objects again - even their cups were plastic now). Penny made her way through the maze of mess and followed Sheldon to his room. The door was locked with a deadlock, but that wouldn't stop her if she really wanted to get inside. Instead, she simply knocked on the door and called his name. She had to repeat this process twice before Sheldon answered.

"Leave me alone!"

"I'm meant to wait here until Zackman gets back; are you going to throw a poor innocent woman out on the streets?" she asked, trying to sound innocent at least.

Sheldon scoffed. "By my estimates of the various heists you've done over the years, you are neither poor nor innocent."

Well, she couldn't refute that.

"Why are you here?" Sheldon asked eventually. "I cannot determine why you are still posing as a superhero, especially after Zackman's admitted that he told you where his secret lair is. Why haven't you robbed him, left your calling card, and disappeared already?"

(Her calling card was actually a black daisy - she'd been surprised when no one seemed to get the reference to Pennon's calling card when she announced that her name was Penny Blossom, but then, no one was really listening to her when her breasts were on display like they were.)

She sighed at Sheldon's question and slid down to the floor, her back against the door. "It probably sounds stupid to you, but it's really hard to get a date when you're a supervillain, not to mention one that can kill a guy with her voice and bench press a truck. I wanted to know what it was like to be in an actual real relationship with someone, even if that someone is Zackman. He's not the smartest tool in the shed," Penny admitted.

"He's a stupid as his name," Sheldon replied, a breathy laugh accompanying his words.

"Well... Yeah. But it's a bonus because he won't figure out who I am," she added.

Sheldon stayed silent for a long moment, and Penny briefly wondered if he'd fallen asleep.

"You were right; that does like a stupid reason. Emotions and relationships only get you into trouble," Sheldon added, his jaw clenched as he saw his alarm clock floating off his bedside table.

"Uh-huh. So why aren't you fighting, with a power like that? You could tip the balance of whichever side you choose, y'know."

Sheldon licked his lips briefly - the same thought had crossed his mind hundreds of times when he was younger, joining the side of good and being a hero - but shook his head, even though Penny couldn't see.

"I... I can't control it," he admitted, loathing the fact that he was burdened with a power that he couldn't even master.

Despite his many and varied efforts over the years, Sheldon was not the master of his own mind and body, his erratic power ensured that. (As if to prove it, his alarm clock flew right out of the open window and crashed somewhere on the street below. A car alarm was set off, and Sheldon sighed as he stood up to replace the alarm clock yet again. He left the window open - it was much more cumbersome to replace than a simple clock.)

Penny wanted to reply, to tell him that control wasn't always the best way of getting a power to cooperate, but then she heard the front door open. She paled on realising that her wig was still sitting out in the lounge room and she had no way of getting out there before they came inside the apartment. Even her minuscule outfit would have a hard time hiding the fact that her hair was now black and down past her shoulders.

"Sheldon, you have to let me in. They're back and I don't have my wig on. Please," she begged, tapping on the door.

If he didn't answer, she'd just have to break the door down. Even though the noise would bring them running... Penny was about to do exactly that when the door opened. She gave a sigh of relief and bolted inside. She stopped short on seeing the amount of comic books lining one wall and the various Batman posters. Sheldon didn't let her linger for long, ushering her over to the fire escape, muttering that he couldn't have a supervillain in his room.

Penny rolled her eyes but made her way down the rickety fire escape anyway. It wasn't the first time she'd made an escape in this fashion, but it was the first time she was wearing ridiculous heels (her boots had a heel too, but they were made for a villain, and her beloved boots would have no problem with this), so Penny didn't make it down to the ground for another three minutes. Her heels were ruined, and that meant one thing: shoe shopping. (It was very weird actually paying for shoes that she'd normally steal, but she'd get the money back eventually.)

After reiterating their spectacular fight with Burny, Leonard and Zackman questioned Sheldon for a few minutes until they finally believed that Penny Blossom had left and he really had no idea where she'd gone. Zackman left soon after, calling goodbye to the nerds over his shoulder. Leonard had been so caught up in his story and then muttering about being called a nerd that he didn't notice Sheldon throw the wig away.

...

Penny returned to her cramped apartment armed with several bags of shoes (some things were worth sacrificing for - namely, her space for new shoes). Bernadette, a.k.a. Bendetta, a.k.a. Burny, just glared over at her and crossed her arms over her chest. Penny winced at the sight of her sidekick, knowing that bad things happened when that look was directed at her.

"My favourite shirt was ruined with slime, you had better have at least two pairs in there for me," she said, brandishing the shirt at her.

"Uh, one?" Penny offered. She inspected the shirt with a frown. "The slime's on the inside of your shirt, Bernadette."

She flushed brightly, but continued to open the boxes of shoes to find a pair she liked. She found a pair of blue heels and tried them on before answering. "You're not the only one who finds it hard to get a date, y'know."

"It'd be so much easier if all the guy villains weren't so fixated on having bad guy personas," Penny said with a sigh.

"It'd be so much easier if most of them had personality transplants," Bernadette said, rolling her eyes as she stood in her new heels and admired them in the mirror.

"Speaking of, why did you go for H'ooze? I thought the plan was the Rajah?"

"It's hard to get information from someone that can't talk to you, Penny," she pointed out. "Besides, those tight pants are something else... Anyway, what took you so long to get back? I could only keep Zackman and Leotard preoccupied for so long. Shoe shopping didn't take up all of your time if your wig's missing. Did you discover what Sheldon's power is?"

Sometimes Penny hated that Bernadette was so perceptive, even though it was usually a handy feature to have in a sidekick. She sighed and gave a brief nod. "He's telekinetic."

"That's great! So what's the plan to get him on our side? The villains haven't had a kinetic in a long time."

"There isn't a plan, Bernie. He can't control it, and would probably hurt one of us instead of the good guys."

Bernadette was quiet for a moment. "You always say that control isn't always about control, it's fluidity, right? Why don't you teach him? Penny Blossom's new to the field of superheroes and she'll need someone to practice with."

"He made me, Bernie. He's never looked at me before today, but he still knew who I am."

"Huh. Did he tell the others? Did you have to escape from prison?"

"Uh, no. Not even I'm stupid enough to go shoe shopping after escaping from prison."

"You've done it before when there was a sale," Bernadette quipped, grinning.

"Not stupid enough to repeat my mistakes, then," Penny muttered.

"Anyway, he hasn't betrayed you by now, so he probably won't if you go back. Try it in a few days and sees what happens. I'll come with you and we'll make our escape if it looks like it's a trap," she offered.

Penny agreed, but wondered if Bernadette was just going to see Howard again.

...

Sheldon heard someone in his room before he really processed the fact that he'd woken up, and he sat up with a shout of 'Danger! Danger! Danger!' on his lips. The intruder clamped a hand over his mouth and glared down at him. He didn't relax on realising that it was Penny Blossom (or rather, Pennon), but seemed to get even more agitated at her presence (the floating DNA molecular structure was a dead giveaway). She put her free hand to her lips and when he nodded, she took her hand away from his mouth. Sheldon immediately ran out to the bathroom to wash his face, and Penny sat on the end of his bed to wait for his return. Thankfully, Leonard slept through the noise, and Sheldon returned in a few minutes.

"You can't be in my room; I can't have people in my room," Sheldon hissed.

"Well, it looks like you can, because I'm still here," she replied, grinning.

"Leave, now. It's bad enough that you've ruined my circadian rhythm for the night, but now I'll have to clean everything all over again," he muttered, shooing her off his bed and tidying up the creases she'd created.

"Don't you even want to know why I'm here?" Penny asked.

"Not if it disturbs my sleep."

"Your sleep's already been disturbed, sweetie, so you might as well listen to what I have to say," she pointed out with a grin.

Sheldon shook his head and returned to his bed, covering his ears stubbornly and refusing to move them. Penny grinned a little more and dropped a black daisy on his pillow before going out to the fire escape and heading up to the roof. He was curious - she knew he had to be - and he'd be joining her in under five minutes.

Okay, he'd be joining her in under ten minutes then... Penny glanced at the telescope sitting in the middle of the roof and looked through the scope, amazed at the stars she could see in such detail. She heard a door open, and she turned to see Sheldon coming out of the building's roof entrance, black daisy clenched in his hand.

"This is it, then? You're going to kill me because I know who you are?"

She couldn't stop from laughing. "Oh, sweetie, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead already," Penny said, grinning now that her laughter had subsided.

Sheldon seemed to take offence to that, and broken petals from her black daisy drifted down to the ground slowly. Penny didn't stop grinning as she made her way over to Sheldon, the petals crushed beneath her brand new boots.

"What I want is to teach you how to use your gift."

"I can't control it; I've tried since I was a child," Sheldon muttered.

There were times he wished he had his twin sister's power of empathy - at least Missy could control it.

"I didn't say control, I said use," Penny replied.

"That makes no sense. How can I use something I can't control?"

"Please, people do it all the time. You can use something that's part of you, you can't control it anymore than you can control your skeleton, you can simply use it to stand or walk."

Sheldon took a moment to try and understand her words - it was so different than what he knew as a scientist, but then his power was something that he couldn't control as a scientist, so perhaps she was right. Pennon had been terrorising the city for years with her whip and ear-shattering whistle, and Penny Blossom had been saving people with her sonic scream (an evolved version of the whistle, obviously) for months. Perhaps she would be the best teacher he could possibly ask for, even though he hadn't actually asked for her.

Penny held her hand out to shake when she saw acceptance (however reluctant that may be) light up in Sheldon's eyes, and with a firmer grip than she'd expected, he shook her hand, the last of the black daisy crumbling apart between their hands.

...

It's weeks before Sheldon can actually use his power without things shattering to pieces around him. Penny discovered that his telekinetic power is emotion-based and had slowly been drawing his emotions out until he can actually recognise the subtle differences between like and love, or hate and loathing.

Sheldon had been introduced to Bernadette properly in this time and trained with her when Penny had to leave on her dates with Zackman. The two women staggered their dates (somehow Bernie was still dating Howard, but neither Sheldon nor Penny wanted to know anything more than that), so that Sheldon's free time was always spent training with one of them. Bernie grew a variety of mushrooms for him to move (there was less physical damage that way, and she made a delicious risotto from the failed attempts).

Sheldon found that he was angry-jealous-annoyed when Penny left for her dates, dressed up (or down, really) in one of Penny Blossom's various revealing outfits, and after the most recent time (twenty minutes ago), he moved a whole wall to pieces when he was just trying to get one of Bernie's mushrooms to move. He left immediately afterwards, ignoring all of Bernie's attempts to call him back. She pulled her phone out and called Howard to pick her up since Sheldon took the invisible motorbike. (He found that he was better at riding the bike than driving - easier to control and predict than a large and bulky car.)

Penny's distracted on her date with Zack (he finally told her his real name, and she had to act as though she was impressed), but he doesn't seem to notice, a stupid grin on his face as his eyes are glued to the cinema screen and explosions that are being shown in the middle of a car chase.

Instead of the movie, her thoughts are on Sheldon and the latest fighting technique they'd been working on together. Sheldon was the first person she had to teach about this sort of control, and while he picked it up sooner than she expected, Penny knew he still had the capacity to lose all semblance of control. His sort of power could destroy entire cities. The very thought of it sent a delighted shiver up her spine, and she wished he would choose a side already. The war between good and bad wouldn't last forever, and with Sheldon on the villains' side, it would be over sooner rather than later.

She's pulled out of her thoughts abruptly as Zack starts kissing her neck, his hand touching her shoulder and arm before not-so-subtly grabbing her breast. Penny's pissed off at his presumption that he'll get lucky - while the entire cinema's been hired out, there are still cameras around, and she does not like to be pawed at! She wrenched his arm back away from her, and he moves back, glaring at her in a mix of anger and confusion. Physically, he's not hurt - not with his muscle-bound power making him almost indestructible - but Zack's emotionally hurt, and for him, that's worse.

"What's wrong, Penny? This is our third month anniversary. I thought things were meant to happen by now," he said, frowning.

Penny has two immediate responses: 1) crap, she'd forgotten about their anniversary, and 2) oh shit, it'd only been three months?

She's saved from responding when the cinema door opens and an usher comes in. Zack glares at the tall guy that's making his way up the stairs, and starts to kiss and touch her again, and now she's really and absolutely pissed off at this. Penny pushed him off again, itching for her whip to hog-tie the bastard. Zack grinned, as if this was all a game to him, and kissed her yet again. Penny pushed him back, using her sonic scream to throw him further down the row of seats so she can escape.

"Hey, stop her!" Zack called out to the usher.

Penny's grabbed abruptly, but the arms wrap around her as if she's something precious (and she hasn't felt like that since she was very, very young), and she looked up to see Sheldon.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed, realising that he was wearing all of his black clothing in the same style as her Pennon outfit.

Sheldon just smirked and pulled her wig off carefully (she almost sighed in relief at the free feeling that accompanied his gesture), then took out her whip from inside of his long jacket and offered it to her. Penny's eyes widened when she realised that he'd finally chosen a side, and it wasn't good or bad, it was her. He would be on her side, and thank all of the shoes in her closet, because she thinks she might actually like him. She grinned at him and took her whip, and then both of them turned to face Zack. Sheldon floated him into the air easily and Penny whipped Zack's wrist to throw him across the cinema. Before she could do that, she noticed that his arm shuddered. Sheldon stilled behind her, and she knew that he'd seen it too. Curious, Penny flung Zack down to the ground a few steps up from them, and they both hurried over in time to see Zack shifting and condensing down into...

"Leonard?" Sheldon queried in confusion.

Leonard swore in response, cradling his broken arm as he tried not to let his tears spill over.

"How were you Zack? I thought your mimicking power was limited to voices only?" Penny asked, feeling sickened at the thought she'd actually kissed the beady-eyed man before her.

Leonard was too focused on his arm to reply and Sheldon's jaw clenched. Leonard's arm crunched under the force of Sheldon's power and he let out a scream of pain.

"The lady asked you a question," Sheldon said tersely.

"I... I f-f-fell into a vat of t-toxic w-waste," Leonard sobbed. "Please, I need to go to the hospital... Is that blood?" he asked weakly before fainting outright.

Penny and Sheldon both looked down at him impassively before turning and leaving the cinema without a word. The cinema had cameras in all of their theatres, and the movie was finishing in fifteen minutes or so anyway; he'd be found eventually.

"What would you like to do now?" Sheldon asked, offering her a helmet from the not-currently-invisible motorbike.

Penny took a moment to look over her poor bike to ensure that Sheldon hadn't damaged it before replying. "Well, the fight between good and bad's still ongoing; I'd really like to finish that by the end of the month and be on the winning side."

"Of course... You do realise that it's the 24th of December, Penny? That's leaves us only one week before your self-imposed deadline," Sheldon pointed out.

"I know. Up for the challenge?" she asked with a grin.

Howard and Bernadette arrived on Howard's motorbike and sidecar, Bernie waving to Penny frantically. "We've got to get out of here; the Tech Professors are on their way!"

"Ugh, bunch of goody-two-shoes. Oh, speaking of shoes, I'll need at least five new pairs of boots if we do win this war in a week."

"Four; two for you and Bernie. You can't spend money so frivolously now that there's five people in our little group."

"Five?" Penny echoed in confusion.

"The Rajah goes where H'ooze goes; I believe he'll be joining us shortly," Sheldon said.

As if on cue, Raj showed up on his moped, thick goggles fixed over his eyes as he waved at Bernie and Penny shyly.

"Oh, all right, but he'd better be giving up the secrets of the stars sooner rather than later," Penny muttered.

"Of course; now, where to?" Sheldon asked, straddling the bike and waiting.

Penny shooed him back - she would be driving her own bike, thank you very much! - and settled down on her seat before an answer came to mind. She grinned, a little wickedly, but she was a villainess, what else was expected?

"If Leotard's still in the cinema, that means he's probably got Zack knocked out somewhere so he couldn't interrupt us. I know how to get into Zack's secret lair. Did you know he has boots made out of gold?"

"Of course; he commissioned them to be made and then couldn't walk in them, so he claimed it was a trophy of some sort," Sheldon scoffed.

"Well, I think you deserve a gaudy golden trophy, don't you?" Penny asked with a laugh as she revved her bike to life; Sheldon's answer was lost in the wind.

...

A few days later, Zack returned from his post-Penny-breakup Hawaiian holiday (it was cruel of her to do it over the phone and from Leotard's apartment, no less) to find that his secret lair had been completely ransacked. They'd taken everything - even his bed, which had taken three large guys and Zack's own insurmountable strength to move a single inch. All that was left behind was a black daisy and a black triangle thing that made Zack's head hurt just from looking at it. Something Escher would've drawn, he thought to himself, and what do you know, he's actually learnt something from little Leotard!

Speaking of Leotard, he's in the hospital - he said that he fell down some stairs, which Zack thinks is a lie, but he doesn't bother to press it when he's only got the clothes on his back right now - and his sidekick can't join Zackman in the fight between good and bad. The fight has been going crazy since Zack went on holiday, and some people are even saying that the fight's almost over, that a new villain is going to have everything under control by the new year. Zack always hated this sort of talk - he'd be out of a job if it really happened - and he went to one of his spare apartments that not even Leotard knew about to get changed into his Crime Fighting Outfit (it deserved capitals; he's wearing his underwear outside of his outfit, for goodness sakes).

The fight was easy to find - the sound of explosions, the feel of intense heat, and the burning smell of smoke was pretty hard to miss - and Zackman joined in the fray until he came face to face with the villains who seemed to be in charge. He started monologuing (it was a fault, he knew it was, but it was his only one, okay?), telling them how he'd beat them, they should surrender now, and the fight was already won now that he'd arrived (he even did his pose just to show them how serious he was, come on, what more did they want?). Pennon and... uh, the tall guy standing next to her laughed. Zack had never seen him at one of these fights before, but he looked kinda familiar. He introduced himself as Penrose, and Zack had a vague feeling that the weird triangle made sense now. He didn't have time to think about it any more because then Zack was flying. No, not flying, he was being thrown into the air and his body was being squeezed by a whip and he couldn't breathe, and then his ears, oh for the love of all that was good, his ears, they were bleeding and his brain was melting, and why couldn't he rip his ears off?! He screamed, struggling to move his arms to do exactly that, but he couldn't move. Soon, there was no use in trying, he was dying, the sound frequency that was shattering his ear drums was really doing something gross to his brain, and he soon stopped struggling completely. Zack's lifeless body was dropped to the ground along with the others, and Sheldon grinned at Penny wildly.

"You enjoyed that one more than the others, didn't you, sweetie?" she asked with a wild grin of her own.

"Of course. If we win before the end of the month, what do I get?" Sheldon queried as they went down to where Bernie and H'ooze were fighting with the Rajah against a guy with a hammer emblem on his shirt.

"Whatever you want, sweetie," Penny said suggestively.

"Good. There's a new Batman comic out this Friday," Sheldon said with a happy smile, and there was a heavy thud as a length of steel crushed the hammer-wearing hero.

Penny laughed to herself. Of course Sheldon would want that. When they were finished here, she would have to just take a more direct approach to show him that he wanted her too.

...

The end.

Thank you for reading, I hope you liked it!

Thanks to SpaceAnjl for the prompt!

...

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone!