The one time Penny would have liked Sheldon to talk about superheroes in the car and he was stubbornly quiet, writing equations in the air. She still hadn't quite grasped what had just happened. Sheldon had cleaned up any sign that it had been him in the lab, including some hacking to the University security feed that she was sure was very illegal, and then suggested that they go home. Penny didn't want to talk about what happened around CalTech, who knew what one of the scientists would try to do if they found out she had just fell halfway through a solid floor?

Sheldon had grimaced when he had tried to open her car door and only barely managed to keep it from coming off in his hand, and for once didn't mention the check engine light.

"Penny?" Sheldon asked, breaking the silence and sounding surprisingly strained.

"Yeah, sweetie?" Penny would have expected him to sound thrilled, not as nervous as she felt.

"I find myself in a moral quandary." Sheldon admitted slowly. "The Roommate Agreement states that should either of us gain superpowers, we will allow the other to become our sidekick."

Penny gave him a sharp look. "Queen P isn't anyone's sidekick, Sheldor." She said defiantly, and much to her surprise, Sheldon agreed.

"Of course not." Sheldon said, dismissively. "But I had never considered the possibility that anyone but Leonard would be caught up in such an accident." Catching sight of her look, and seeing the way her fingers were starting to press into the steering wheel, as if it was a fruity gelatin dessert and not an important piece of a vehicle they were currently travelling over the speed limit in, he continued quickly. "According to the roommate agreement, I am to tell Leonard of such an eventuality...but given your past relationship and his irrational jealousy, I do not think it wise to disclose your new abilities, and if we are to discover what happened, I cannot keep your secret and tell him about me."

Penny took a second to consider that and nodded. "Yeah, I don't really want to know what kind of ideas he would come up with."

"Undoubtedly he would attempt to put you in some outfit designed for its' sex appeal' and not for utility." Sheldon admitted. "I also no longer believe he would be able to conceal the information, if he believed that he could achieve coitus through disclosing a secret identity." The physicist looked at his roommate's relationship with Joyce Kim very differently than he had before Alicia had moved in upstairs and Leonard had gone from mooning over Penny to ignoring her, despite his usual declarations.

Penny snorted slightly. "You got that right. It's just us, Sheldon. This is our secret." She pulled into her usual parking space, and sighed, not moving to get out of the car. "Sheldon, even if this lab accident did give us superpowers, even if it doesn't wear off...I don't know if I could be a superhero. I'm just a waitress." It was a truth she had been fighting for way too long. "You're the beautiful mind genius guy."

Sheldon turned and looked at her, as if he had never seen her before. "Penny, you are not just a waitress. I would not have kept you as a friend if that were true. You possess social knowledge I lack, as well as an unnatural affinity for firearms." Penny looked up at him, green eyes surprised, but he continued, undaunted. "Further, you have just recieved a part which may well lead to a much more lucrative career, one you desired since you came to California."

Penny blinked several times and then smiled at Sheldon. "Okay, even if that's true...superheroes? Us?"

Sheldon gave a great sigh. "Come Penny, I think it's time for a long afternoon of superhero education."