Author's Note:

More henchniece or Talpen or whatever this ship is! Alright, let's cover our bases here. I know I'm updating rather quickly but I swear guys, I'm usually not this fast! Eventually I'm going to hit a bump, run out of inspiration, or get distracted. I'll try to keep my active streak for as long as possible but I'm not too efficient at the whole staying on task for long periods of time thing. I blame the American government but hey, that's just me. Anyway, I love that you guys love this but please don't get too high of expectations for me- I'm terrified I'll fail to meet them.

shouldercookie: I get what you're saying about Talon being OOC, but it is hard to write him properly and canonically due to the cartoon's unstable format. The Inspector Gadget cartoon is messy and lacks continuity, doing things like randomly giving Penny claustrophobia for only a single episode. The cartoon barely fleshes out their characters, leaving a lot of blank space for interpretation. I like to kind of force more depth into the characters, for example by identifying Talon's need to show off and always be in the spotlight as a result of his emotionally abusive upbringing. The cartoon treated personalities like an a la carte menu, picking and choosing traits per episode depending on what would be most convenient for the plot. Real people don't act the way canonical Talon does, if they did they'd be diagnosed with multiple personality disorders and put through rigorous therapy. I tried to find an actual, as in psychologically possible, consistent personality in the constantly shifting form to use in these fanfictions. Naturally some bias slipped into the mix because I'm a fan of the misunderstood bad boy. Thus this noncanonical version of Talon was born! But I still understand your concerns and I definitely pumped up Talon a little too much in the previous shot. I dunno, he is always losing so I felt like he should get a chance to win one. Or many. So fair warning, I'll aim for a slightly more canonical Talon in the future, but beware for this one shot is another little treat for the boy's self-esteem. He needs it. Do you think I should include an obligatory TalonOOC in the summaries of shots where it is more applicable?

Man, I just keep bearing you guys down with these author's notes at the beginning. Sheesh me, learn to shut up.

Title: Chemistry

Word Count: 3094

Genre: slight-Romance / Drama (I guess) / I don't know

Summary: AU - non-secret-agent - Penny was terrified of failing at the mathlete championship, that was until she received a pep talk on the roof from a handsome stranger.

Rating: T

"Welcome Mathletes from all around the nation!" proclaimed the large man in a pressed suit on the stage, "I hope you're prepared because by mid-day tomorrow we will have our new national champion!" As excited cheers sounded from the high schoolers and teachers down below the announcer smiled. "And to the first prize winner goes a college scholarship the size of which'll make your dreams come true!" Whoops and hollers from the uncharacteristically loud crowd filled the air. In the center of the crowd stood a blonde teen.

Penny Brown felt her heart fluttering at the speed of a hummingbird's. She was entirely prepared to go into cardiac arrest at this point. The overwhelming pressure of succeeding here was too much to bear for an average high school girl. Granted the blonde didn't feel like a typical high schooler. Her peers spent hours choosing outfits and make-up and hairstyles; they expended so much effort in looking good that it showed. Her classmates were gorgeous, primped and primed to perfection. However the studious Penny had no skill nor time to develop said skill of transformation. Instead the mathlete was plain. Never wearing anything more than chapstick and only ever bothering to brush her hair and put it in pigtails, the girl was as plain as she could be. Even in the crowd of people that should've been in a similar state of general averageness, the blonde still felt nonexistent.

A gasping wheeze and sound of an inhaler beside her snapped her out of her little self-pity party. The girl didn't have the luxury to cross examine her own social standing at the time. She needed to study.

"Penny!" called out a nasal voice from behind her. Turning around the mathlete found a fellow participant from her school, HQ Academy for the Gifted. "Let's go back to our hotel room to do last minute drills before the tourney tomorrow morning!" Nodding, the blonde followed after her classmate. Her insecurity could wait- she had a duty to study.

"No, I swear my patronus is a deer- just like Harry!" defended an HQ student loudly in the room. Penny growled as she covered her ears and tried to focus on her work.

"Dude, stop being such a Gary Stu. Your fanfictions are bad enough- I don't need you likening yourself to the one that lived." The snarky reply of another wasn't helping.

"Oh shut up! You wanna talk chuunbiyo syndrome? Every online personality quiz you take, you always conveniently end up as either the main or most liked character!"

"How could-"

The blonde abruptly stood up from her desk in frustration. Her roommates briefly paused their conversation before continuing.

"I am not biased in my personality quiz results. I'm just a natural-born leader-like Kirk-, a wandering loner drifting from place to place -like Dean Winchester-, a brilliant and misunderstood badass -like-" Penny was out of the room and going anywhere else just to prevent her possibly murdering someone.

The stressed mathlete needed peace, fresh air, silence, anything to calm her down. Spying a door with signs claiming rooftop access, the girl decided to take a risk. She hoped the statistically high rates of asthma amongst her competitors might deter them from appearing in this new domain. It was the height of pollen season and many were trying to avoid going outdoors at any cost. Penny had genetics to thank for her ability to stand outside.

The stairway leading up to the roof was eery. Everything was concrete and the lighting was sparse. Sounds echoed powerfully within the vertical corridor. Questionable stains littered the floor. Despite all this the mathlete felt no apprehension; she felt no need to dwell on her surroundings because they were quiet and peaceful. Instead she calmly travelled up the stairs till she was confronted by a large metal door. RESTRICTED ACCESS was painted across it in large red letters. If she went beyond this door, would she be locked out? What were the moral implications of her trespassing so as to attain peace of mind? Yet even as she realized she could become trapped atop the hotel, the blonde found she simply didn't have the capacity to care. All of her focus had already been claimed by the math competition.

A brilliantly brisk blast of air hit her head on when she defiantly swung open the door. For a moment Penny found peace. Then her eyes landed on the sole figure occupying the roof.

He was quiet- which was a relief as the mathlete would travel no further for sanctuary- but everything about him was a part of a different world than the blonde inhabited. To begin with his purpose for coming to the roof was apparently to do push-ups. This teen was obviously physically fit but not in an obnoxiously bulky way. It was easy to tell he was healthy, which was attractive. His face, quite reasonably, was well structured. A smooth jawline, dark eyes, thick yet shapely eyebrows, an angular yet not overwhelming nose, prominent cheek bones, not to mention the overall symmetry- this boy was severely attractive. Naturally tan skin- he appeared to be Hispanic- and carefully styled coal black hair were the cherries on top. All in all this guy was entirely too attractive to be anywhere near this gathering of nerds.

He was probably bored out of his mind at this math geek festival. If she had to guess, the girl would likely pin him as a contestant's older -cooler- brother. On the bright side, this most likely meant his standards far above Penny and so he would leave her alone.

The blonde walked in a wide berth around him, intent on finding herself a nice spot without alerting him to her presence. Were it another time, a less stressed time, Penny would usually be more friendly. However the girl had no excess capacity for kindness currently. Settling down quietly on the concrete roof, the mathlete tried to keep to herself.

Yet somehow fated intervened. The entirely too attractive brother groaned as he ceased his push-ups and stood to loosen his muscles and stretch. While in the midst of some ridiculous looking stretching motion, his dark amber eyes fell on her.

"Oh sorry," he said, nonchalantly waltzing over, 'I hadn't realized anyone else was up here." Penny hummed in acknowledgement, hoping her reluctance to engage in a conversation was obvious. Why was he even talking to her? "So," he continued in spite of her coldness, "what brings you up here?"

Irritability took over as she shot him a glare. "I wouldn't expect you, as the brother of a contestant, to understand."

His perfectly sculpted eyebrows shot up before he began laughing. "Really? How could you tell?"

The blonde scoffed, more willing to engage in the conversation when it was about her intellectual abilities. "Seriously? Look at you."

"What's your point?" Somehow he couldn't comprehend the role stereotypes had to play in her deduction.

"You're-" suddenly it was embarrassing to admit straight to his face that she found the teen attractive. Blushing, Penny continued. "You're really attractive and athletic. Statistically people like you don't compete in events like these."

Her conversation partner raised an eyebrow curiously. "Sure, but look at you. You're beautiful and seem quite fit."

His comment brought energy back to her. The blonde once again had the capacity to feel beyond anxiety for tomorrow, as was evident by the morphing of her face into a fire truck. "I ONLY RUN TRACK BECAUSE IT LOOKS GOOD ON COLLEGE APPS! NO WAIT! That isn't the point! I-" she simply couldn't comprehend the words, "I'm beautiful? You're kidding right?"

The teen's eyebrows furrowed- the blonde really needed to stop fixating on his eyebrows. "Why would I be kidding?" His expression was entirely serious. "You're absolutely beautiful."

How? What? This made no sense. He was clearly top-tier on the social ladder. He'd only date or be attracted to or hit on the best- the most beautiful. Penny had no make-up, her hair was pulled into two pigtails, her clothes weren't flattering, she didn't even have big boobs. The stress of the conversation was counterproductive to her coming to the roof in the first place. The blonde was most certainly not at peace.

"I-I NEED TO GO!" She shouted as she stood abruptly to race back downstairs.

"Good luck tomorrow!" Her companion called out as she ran away.

Back in the safety of her hotel room, Penny locked herself in the bathroom only to stare at herself in the mirror. Running her hands over her face, the blonde tried to understand how she could be interpreted as beautiful. Where was the appeal? Her eyes weren't surrounded by smokey black that made her dark lashes seem to intensify. There was no concealer to hide the lone, small pimple balancing to the side of the tip of her nose, her lips weren't painted the color of a valentine's day card… she was normal.

"Approach the problem analytically," the mathlete murmured to herself, "we already know what I don't have. So what do I have?" she began listing qualities of herself. The minute pimple on her nose was alone, so decently good skin. Her lip's natural color, a soft, rosy pink, was evident due to the lack of other pigmentation- that certainly seemed like a positive trait. Admittedly she had a petite and up turned nose which many people had plastic surgery to obtain. Finally her eyes settled on their reflection, large, blue, and clear framed by dark lashes that- Oh My Darwin. She actually was an acceptable standard of beauty. Penny was beautiful.

The blonde traced a finger around her heart shaped jaw line, eyes still trained on her reflection. If she was attractive - which admittedly she was- was she socially qualified to date an attractive boy- perhaps, for example, the one she'd met on the roof? In that instant, blood rushed to her cheeks as her heart rate picked up speed. A whirlwind of thoughts danced in her mind and all she could do to cease the chaos was slap herself.

Penny needed to focus. Tomorrow was the competition. Stealing one last glance at herself in the mirror, he mathlete smiled.

She was beautiful.

The next morning marked the beginning of the competition. The blonde was bursting with confidence. No longer was she plain Penny; she was pretty Penny. She knew such a large portion of her self-esteem shouldn't be derived from what the other sex thought of her and yet she had to admit it felt nice to be acknowledged.

The first portion of the competition was a written test without an audience in order to easily weed out the lesser majority. Penny breezed through it flawlessly, learning that only one student finished before her. It was no surprise when she qualified for the second round.

Much more interesting, the second portion was held between ten students at a time on a stage in front of an audience. A proctor would read a question and whichever student could work out the answer first would hit a buzzer, state the answer, and, if correct, receive a point. The first to five points would advance. This would continue until only two contestants were left.

While the second phase was easy, Penny found herself on edge the entire time. Why? Every now and then the boy from the roof would appear in the audience while she was onstage. Feeling like an eleven year old kid trying to impress his crush, the blonde would excel substantially. She continued winning until she made it to the finals.

The third stage, the finals, was a speed test like the second round but between only the two finalists and there would only be one question. In all honesty the female mathlete was proud of herself for just making it this far. Yet she still wanted to win- to prove her greatness in front of the teen from the roof.

"Our first finalist," the announcer jovially called out, "Penny Brown!" Cheers and applause greeted the blonde as she emerged onto the stage. Taking residence behind her podium equipped with three mechanical pencils, a full pad of paper, and a buzzer, Penny could feel the confidence flooding her veins. Whoever she was about to face, she would crush thoroughly if not simply because of the scholarship but also to impress the boy. Glancing into the crowd, the finalist frowned. She couldn't see the teen in the crowd- but where else could he be? This was the only thing going on right now. "And our second finalist," the man in the pressed suit turned to face the opposite side of the stage. Penny put on her game face as she prepared to face her opponent.. "Talon Claw!"

What a funny name, the blonde thought, as the curtain on the other end parted. It was her last coherent thought. Emerging from the curtain with playful waves and sarcastically blowing kisses to the audience was the boy from the roof - Talon, Talon was his name- and he had one hell of a shit eating grin on his face.

'Weren't you a brother?!' she mouthed angrily at him.

'I never said 'yes',' he mouthed back smugly, 'great job getting to the finals.' The worst part was that he seemed sincere in congratulating her. How could she have been so foolish to believe in some guy just because he called her beautiful?! So what?! She knew she was beautiful before he verified it- it was just a subconscious fact.

"Now for our championship question!" The Hispanic teen waggled his eyebrows at his opponent. Those eyebrows would be the death of her. "The topic is calculus," dammit, Penny scowled at her paper, she hadn't brushed up on calculus before the tourney at all. "Can you integrate the following?"

Even as the key to her future was on the line, the blonde couldn't help her mind slipping around thoughts of the boy across the stage from her. Shooting a glance at her rival, Penny noticed Talon working on his pad of paper, one eyebrow raised inquisitively while the other was scrunched down. Her eyes got caught on the sight. Penny was actually going to fail because of those goddamn eyebrows.

Forcing herself to work, the blonde started scribbling on her paper pad. Integration… the opposite of finding a derivative… increase the power of the variable and divide by the found number; keep in mind the chain rule and- a cough drew her focus back out. Talon was resting his chin on his palm while wearing a smirk as the fingers of his other hand danced over his buzzer. Was he actually teasing her right now? Scowling, the female mathlete narrowed her eyes. Was this a game to him? How arrogant was he? His perfectly shaped eyebrows- how could that be natural? - were raised high in amusement.

His grin widened as he flattened his hand and pressed down on the button.

As Talon stood on the stage, accepting his reward, Penny stood in the audience down below. She'd been played- there was no other way to interpret what'd happened. He quite simply couldn't be what he seemed at face value. He couldn't be an attractive, athletic, and astoundingly smart, yet somewhat arrogant and mischievous boy that she conveniently met on the roof who called her beautiful simply because he thought so which caused her to not study properly which was convenient as he would go on to face her in the finals. Surely, somehow he knew, he planned it, somehow, someway this was his fault. Surely she'd been sabotaged.

Sighing, Penny shook her head. The blonde knew it was all just coincidence- that he was what he'd seemed to be at face value- but it was easier to shift the blame for her loss onto him. Admittedly the girl was pleased to have met him and hoping to get to know him better. She smiled up at the champion on stage; his dark eyes fell on her and he smiled right back.

"You did well, Penny," proclaimed a lanky man suddenly appearing next to her. The mathlete jumped slightly in shock before calming down.

"Oh thanks, Uncle Gadget," she said.

"Yes," agreed a short blonde man standing next to her uncle, "you've made HQ Academy proud. We'd expect nothing less from the niece of our finest instructor."

"Thank you, Principal Chief," the blonde blushed, playing with the hem of her shirt.

"Shame you lost to the Claw kid though," the principal continued, looking up on the stage. The teen in question was no longer up there.

"What?" Penny asked.

"Hey Penny!" cried out a voice that made her heart skip a beat, "good job! You were a great opponent!" The Hispanic champion skidded to a stop beside the girl.

"Oh, oh, hi Talon," her face was fire engine red, "you did a great job too. Congratulations on winning."

"Talon!" called out a gruff voice from in the crowd. The boy stiffened and then grimaced. Turning around with her new friend, Penny watched a tall man in a dark, stiff suit shove his way past people to make it to the two teens. "Talon! What do you think you were doing?! Messing around at the end- what if that had cost us your victory?!"

"Well, Uncle Claw," Talon began, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, "you see-"

"If it isn't Dr. Claw!" proclaimed Penny's principal, suddenly in front of the two teens, "principal and chairman of the private and exclusive MAD institution."

The blonde gasped. MAD was HQ's biggest rival school and their chairman was Talon's uncle.

"Oh ho ho," laughed the tall, dark man, "well, well Mr. Chief, come to admit defeat to my superior school?"

"Never!" exclaimed the short, blonde man.

"So," Penny said as she watched the grown men shout at each other like teenage girls, "you're the nephew of MAD's chairman, huh?"

"Yup," the Hispanic teen nodded, watching the fight in amusement, "and I suppose you're a student of HQ Academy then?"

"Yeah," the blonde said. Deciding to have a little fun, she spun around and held her head high. "Welp, that's the last we'll ever be seeing of each other. I can't go fraternizing with some MAD student." Walking off, she smirked at the sound of him stumbling after her.

"What?! Hey, wait! But we've got such good chemistry!" He protested.

"This is a math competition!" Penny called out without looking back.

"There is a ton of math in chemistry and you know it!"