The Calm Before The Storm

Chapter Two

Boone and Sashi walked into the Odyssey, and took position on the zap platform. But then, they looked around and realized…

"Hey, where's Penn and Corona?" Boone tilted his head in confusion.

"They are on vacation."

"WHAT?!"

"How come THEY get a vacation and we don't?!" Sashi growled.

"They notify me 24 hour in advance." Phyllis replied "Do not worry. I have substitute hero."

And then she walked through the door.

She was a vision, with tan skin, platinum blonde hair, lavender eyes, and a smirk that said "I've been a hero at least a year longer than you have."

"M-Marnie…H-hi…" Sashi rubbed the back of her head, a blush on her cheeks.

Boone had a blank expression.

"Oh, hey Sash, what's up." Marnie got onto the hero spot on the zap platform.

"N-not much, I mean…Wait what about your team?"

"Oh, Jack can handle it for a week, he's been studying." Marnie shrugged.

The 3 of them zapped in.

~u~

Corona rested her head on Penn's shoulder during the flight, she was staring out the window with a dreamy smile on her face.

Penn held her hand, caressing it with his thumb, smiling at her. He kissed her head.

Soon enough, the plane landed. They took a cab to Corona's grandparents' home from the airport.

Corona's grandparents' home was a fairly nice house. It was pretty big, and had a beautiful garden out-front. It was an adobe style house.

An elderly couple walked out, and proceeded to hug Corona, and greet her in Spanish. She replied to them, and pointed to Penn, and couple proceeded to hug him as well. They led Penn and Corona inside, and Corona took a seat on a wicker couch that had probably the most soft cushions you could imagine. It was almost like sitting on a cloud. Penn sat down next to her.

Corona told her grandparents everything that had happened in the past year, at least that's what Penn assumed. He didn't know a whole lot of Spanish, but he recognized enough words to know that she must have been talking about the past few months. He sat there smiling at her.

She smiled back. She finished talking, and her grandparents got up, to go cook dinner.

Corona stood up. "Let's go unpack our suitcases in our room." She took his hand and led him to their shared room.

Of course, the moment they stepped through the door, Penn threw himself onto their bed. The quilt on the bed was incredibly soft, and smelled of fabric softener in a vanilla-like scent.

Corona giggled a bit.

Penn rolled over onto his back.

Corona threw herself onto him and placed her lips on his.

His hands found their way to her waist, and he wrapped his arms around her, and rolled over, so now he was on top. He kissed more, trailing down from her lips, to her neck.

She giggled, and blushed profusely.

"Penn!" she practically squeaked out his name as he nibbled her neck.

"I love you so much." He murmured in between kisses.

"I love you too" she giggled.

He pulled back, and smirked at her.

"I want you." He said in a breathy, desperate tone of voice.

"What?" Corona barely squeaked out, blushing. "Penn, what if my grandparents walk in?" she blushed even more.

"Well…I guess it can wait a few hours…" he looked to the side.

She blushed even more.

"U-unless you don't want too…" he didn't want to freak her out.

"I'm not saying no…I just….Did you bring protection?"

"…Yes…" He was a little scared that would make it sound like he just planned the whole trip around them having their first time.

"Oh, good."

Now he was blushing. Was that a yes? Did she just say yes?

"…Was that a yes?"

"Yes, but not right now…at least wait for them to go to bed…"

He blushed even more.

Soon, Corona's grandparents called them for dinner.

~u~

Corona was lying in a field, under the stars. Everything was calm.

Or at least it was calm.

The storm is coming.

Corona chose to ignore said warning the first time. Maybe she just misheard. I mean, the wind can sound awfully weird….

The storm is coming.

There was a stronger gust of wind, and Corona stood up.

Soon enough, the wind picked up. Corona's dress floated in the wind. She sighed.

The storm is coming.

Corona frowned. What? Was the storm some wind? Wind wasn't a problem.

The storm is coming, run.

"Why?"

Run! Run and those you love can survive!

Corona was doubtful. She wasn't going to run.

CORONA, RUN!

The voice….it had such an eerie quality to it…so familiar…wait…

"Penn?" Corona turned around.

A very beaten and battered Penn panted.

Corona squinted towards him, and walked towards him.

"RUN!"

"Penn? What's going on"

"RUN!" Penn dissolved.

Corona gasped, and shook awake.

~u~

The whole day, Corona tried to wrap her mind around that dream, as she ate breakfast. It wasn't as bad as past nightmares, but, this storm? What was it?

Her dreams often did have the ability to predict or warn her of things, after all, that's how she knew Penn was alive when she had thought he'd died, and this is why her dream concerned her…

Corona's anguish must have been visible to Penn, as he frowned towards her.

"Corona are you okay?"

"Hm? Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me Penn." Is all she said in reply. She stood up and walked away from the table, and out onto the patio.

Penn followed. "Corona, you know you can tell me anything"

"Okay, I killed a man."

"What?!"

"Not really, Penn." She sighed.

"Well, I certainly hope not."

"But, no nothing is bothering me."

He could tell this wasn't entirely true, but he felt there wasn't really any reason to pester her about it. He could tell it would be hard to get her to say anything.

Corona wrote about her dream in her notebook. She decided, maybe she could figure out what was happening if she paid attention to the patterns.

~u~

After about 2 or so missions with Marnie, Boone was actually starting to get a little sick of her. He rarely got sick of people, but Marnie was really testing him-and it wasn't that he hated her, per se, it's just…He wasn't too comfortable with her and Sashi's new-found "friendship".

They had just zapped back.

"Wow, Marnie, I really like how we took down that giant monster together…." Sashi smiled to Marnie, and giggled a little.

Marnie giggled back and rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, hey, more hands makes lighter work." Marnie smirked a little.

Boone rolled his eyes.

"Boone, are you okay?" Sashi raised an eyebrow.

Did Boone just roll his eyes? That was an unusual thing for him to do…

"I'm fine." Boone lied.

"So, Sash, wanna hang out at my place?" Marnie asked, smiling.

"I'd love to." Sashi giggled in the same way that she did about Blaze.

Boone frowned. None of Sashi's other crushes, if this could be compared, had bugged him this way.

After all, at the end of the day, Teddy wouldn't date Sashi because she had hit him in the face.

Blaze was in a completely different dimension, so there wasn't him to worry about either.

But Marnie was right there. Marnie wasn't going anywhere for the moment…And Sashi, for once, wasn't reacting to Marnie's existence with aggression. This was so unusual for Sashi, she was always so angry and aggressive, for the past 2 years he'd known her.

But suddenly, Marnie comes along and changes it? That almost seemed like a bad fanfiction trait! What next? Was Marnie going to be revealed to be hyperpowered? Boone would really be pissed in that case.

As he walked home, all he could think about was how Marnie bugged him. What he didn't realize was, this bubbling feeling inside of him was jealousy.

~u~

Corona had avoided Penn almost all day. She seemed to be in her own thoughts.

"Corona, talk to me!"

No response. She didn't seem to be responding to him at all.

"Corona."

Nothing.

"Cor!" Penn groaned a little. He was a little worried. Was he that bad in bed? She didn't ignore him like this before they'd done it….

"What?" Corona seemed to snap out of it a little bit.

"Corona, you've been ignoring me all day! Please tell me if something is wrong!"

"Nothing's wrong. I'm just….tired…." she lied to him.

He frowned, and leaned over to her, kissing her on the forehead.

"Corona, I can tell something's wrong, please, please, please don't keep quiet." He hugged her "I want you to be happy" he sighed

She sighed as well. Hearing that from him almost made her feel worse. Both about keeping this dream she had a secret, and just in general.

She felt like she didn't really…deserve his love. He wanted her to be happy so badly, but how could she be happy, with everything that was going on? It was an impossible feat…It would take something truly miraculous to solve the Jane situation, her crippling depression, and this new dream situation all at once. And although Penn was her hero, in many ways, he knew he couldn't fix these problems. There was no way he could do it. The overwhelming angst of it all would crush him. Crush him worse than it crushed her…

Penn was deeply concerned for Corona-Penn wasn't terribly metaphysical, but deep down, he knew he and Corona were something special-something destined. He could tell that Corona Destiny was his destiny. And that is why it burned deep down…it hurt him so to see her in any sort of pain or unhappiness. He knew this was true love, and he knew because he wanted her to be happy.

That was the definition of true love, wasn't it? Wanting someone else's happiness?

He wrapped his arms around her, and kissed her, gently moving his hands to her waist, and his lips to her neck.

Corona slightly moaned, and bit her lip. He kept kissing, and Corona blushed profusely.

"Penn!" she started giggling.

He pulled back, smirking. He got a giggle out of her. That was progress.

He kissed her again, wrapping his arms tighter around her, pulling her closer, as if to say "you're mine, and I will protect you", without actually saying such.

Corona grabbed onto him, it was her way of silently replying back "I need you".

He laid her down on the wicker couch on the patio, and continued to make out with her, his hands moving all around her body, but ultimately settling for her "lower back".

His lips started trailing down her neck, to the more intimate areas, until-

His MUHU rang. Penn groaned a little. He had been trying to call them earlier, and they didn't answer, and of course they called back when he and Corona were having an intimate moment.

He sat up, pulled Corona to sitting position, and answered.

"Hey, mom and dad." Penn knew his shirt was slightly disheveled, but he hoped they wouldn't notice.

"Hi sweetie! Hi Corona!" his mom said.

"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Zero." Corona greeted, with a smile.

Penn continued to talk to his parents.

After a while, Corona got up, and went up to the room they were sharing, and laid down.

~u~

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