February 23, 1999
Montréal, Canada
4:03 AM

"Frankie, you see them?" I whispered into my microphone.

"NAH...I THING THEY'RE ALL SLEEPIN'!"

"Frankie...shhhh!!!" I held my ears for a few moments. "Christ Frankie. If you have not realized yet, I can hear fine with my huge ears. You do not need to yell." I hissed.

"Oops, sorry Penelope. I forgot...about the whole mouse ear thing." I shook my head. No matter how many times I told him that the microphones I designed worked by the vibrations of someone's jaw, and you only need to whisper to be hear loud and clear, he would still constantly yelled into it. And my poor ears just could not take much more.

"It's okay, just be quiet. They might wake." I looked out the window, and it was really snowing hard. I smiled. A perfect escape. Once we made it outside onto one of the snowmobiles, we would be home free. "Ok, you across from Gate B yet?"

"Yea...just got here."

"Good. Keep out of sight until I say 'Go.' Remember, just run. I can take care of myself."

"I got it, Boss." I typed a few more things on the computer I was working on to completely turn of the security. Hopefully, I did right so no alarm would go off. I rechecked my work, and pushed my glasses farther up my nose. I took a deep breath and gulped. It was now or never.

"Go!" I ran out of the office on the second story through the door and jumped off the balcony, landing on my feet, and started to sprint for the door with my duffle-bag in my hand. It would have been easier to sneak out a window, but the whole place didn't have a single one so we were stuck always trying to get out the huge garage doors called "Gates" which made a lot of noise when opened. Frankie had already opened the gate on my command and dashed into the snow storm. So far, no alarms had gone off when he opened them, so my security breach was a success. It was a blizzard out here, snow flying everywhere. It was hard to see, but I quickly caught up, gabbing Frankie's bag to make sure he wouldn't slow down and grabbing his arm so he would not get lost. The snow was extremely deep, but we made quick work of it, but making both of us slightly out of breath. We were only 50 yards from the snowmobiles when spotlights came on. They blinded me for a second, before I got my bearings.

"Shit! Penelope, they found us!" I turned around, seeing the problem. With the spotlights on, I could easily see the ten guys were running towards us. Two tigers carried broad swords, a vulture carried bronze knuckles, and a few others just charged at us, determining to fight us hand-to-hand. Even one bull dog charged at us with the first thing he found: a broomstick.

"Go, I got this." I yelled at Frankie, while throwing the sloth his bag. I took out two light-weight swords out off my duffle, and threw it to the ground. Frankie made quick work to the snowmobiles, as the guys charged us. With the spotlight, I saw them easily in the early morning. The only problem I would face was the foot and a half mound of snow covering the ground. I stood in my stance, waiting for them to come to me. They were good, but I was better. I was not that defenseless girl that needed saving. I could protect myself, and Frankie. My sword clashed with the tiger's, and I used the handles of my swords to deliver jabs into the guts of the others. The slowest, the bull dog, finally reached me as the last man went down. He yelled, swinging the broomstick at me. I chopped the wood into tiny pieces in the blink of an eye. He stared at the broken pieces of wood. In his mind, he thought of what to do. This girl had just beat up my friends, and she deserved retribution. And he did what any reasonable man would do in his position.

He held up to hands, before falling to the ground and playing dead. Hey, I still had two swords, took down the rest of his comrades without killing them, and just destroyed his only weapon.

I took a deep breath, looking around for others. And out of the 43 men that lived in the frozen abyss, the only one that could beat me easily charged right at me: Ted.

I picked up my bag, getting ready to run. The snow had picked up, making zero viability outside of the spotlight. He was only 40 yards from me, and I knew he would be able to out run me. The 300-pound bear did not look it, but he could outrun, as well as outfight, anyone. He had outsmarted us again.

Or so I though...

Miraculously, Frankie got to the snowmobile, remembered how the snowmobile worked, and found his way to pick me up. With Ted only yards away, I hopped on, clinging to the middle of Frankie as we speed off into nowhere, leaving Ted in the dust. We had finally made it out of that prison. Four long months of being in lock-down, not being able to leave unless if we escaped. We heard more snowmobiles fire up, but using my ingenious map of the area, we easily lost the pursuers.

When we were safe, Frankie pulled over, hopped off, and started to do a little jig. He kept singing "We did it! We did it!" over and over. I smiled, remembering why we were put on lock down. It was our second day at their garage, when I woke up in Frankie's arms. It kinda scared me, waking up with him holding me, drooling on my fur. Then I remembered what happen and that I was to weak to do anything. During breakfast, I couldn't stop staying how I was sorry to cause so much trouble and that he should just give me whatever he wanted fixed so we wouldn't cause any more problems. Ted only laughed, saying I would worry about the machines later. Today, I was going to learn how to protect myself. And until either me or Frankie learned, we weren't going anywhere. Me and Frankie looked at each other, not knowing what to expect.

Back in the Hampton's, I would work out, mostly on a treadmill and small free weights to keep a good figure. But Ted taught me how to fight, and to protect myself. The first day, both me and Frankie were paranoid. Ted started showing us all sorts of forms, informing us it was amazing we were still alive for being on our own for months up here in Canada. "If you did not know how to fight, you were as good as dead up in these parts." was his award winning speech to get us to train. Frankie pretty much failed at everything physical, but me and the other guys learned pretty fast he was a great cook.

But for me, I spent four months being taught by Ted. My reward was when I could escape from the hanger, I was free to go. Until then, I was to stay here, fix the bikes and such, and train. First he showed me kick boxing. I was small and skinny, but I focused on increasing my speed. That was a complete fail, since I had always been one of the slowest runners in my class, but I had good stamina to make up for it. It amazed the guys how long I would last in a fight.

We also did weight training, so I would have "a bit-o-meat on my puny arms." Along with kick boxing, he showed me fisticuffs, which focused more power to go through the arms and fists. I was so weak compared to the other guys when I did it. They would make fun of me for being weaker, and would always kick my ass when I spared with one of the guys. Slowly, my entire body was turning into one big bruise.

But while they were laughing, I was improving. About a month ago, I finally figured out how to beat all of them, with the exception of Ted. The entire time, I thought of fighting as the guy being the strongest, is the winner. Ted was the biggest, thus the strongest. But, fighting is really just strategy, and doing the right moves at the right time and knowing your opponent. I focused on speeding up my thinking, and finally managed to be one of the toughest guys on the base camp.

Then a month ago, he showed me why he put me through the torturer. He said it made me faster and able to take a punch. He took out these two long, light weight swords. Using them, I could beat everyone at the camp at the same time. The only one that could still beat me was Ted, only because he already knew my weak spots since he was the one that had mainly taught me. Even when I improved my weak spots, he started to fight sneaky. Once I almost had him beat, then he grabbed my tail, making me fall. Jerk.

Through out the entire time, I also worked on motorcycles, cars, snowmobiles, RC stuff, and even bi-planes. That was all that they seemed to do. None of them seem to work. Every once and awhile, a few of them would disappear for a weekend and return with loads money. Me and Frankie soon realized they were thieves.

Two months ago, we overheard one of their conversations, saying that they were indeed thieves. They caught us spying, when Frankie sneezed due to the non-existing dust in the air vent. We kept saying over and over "please don't kill us" and "we won't tell anyone". The men only laughed. We had been there only a couple of months, but they were already really liking us.

They told us that the group was made to join the ACES Competition in Holland. It was for pilots, like themselves, who wanted to show who was the best of the best by fighting in dogfights. It was held on April 1st every year for the past 25 years. Ted had started "Team Canada" about ten years ago, and had won almost every year. I said it sounded really cool, and the next thing I knew, I was flying high in the sky with Ted, with Frankie watching at a safe distance on the ground.

After all that, we were finally free. We could do whatever we want. I was strong enough to defeat anyone in our way, and Frankie....well, he can cook us food we steal. I smiled, looking at the falling snow. "Ready to go back?"

"Hell ya!"

I took the wheel as we headed back. As we drove back into the camp, I though of all the times we tried to escape, but something always got in the way. Usually, it was Frankie with a sword to his throat. As we pulled up to base camp, we got a round of applause from every guy on the base. They had been waiting for us, seeing if we would return or not. Technically, we were free to go. Me and Frankie owed nothing to them, and they had not been able to capture us meaning we were free.

But us returning, meant we could actually be apart of Team Canada. And both of us were more then happy to sigh our soul over to them, and become big time thieves.

...........................

After breakfast, cooked by the lovely Frankie, Ted took me out back to show me the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It was a run-down bi-plane, and that I was to fix it up to fly in the upcoming competition.

"Why?" I asked as a tear came down my cheek.

"You're a good flyer. We will change it so your fake license says your 20 so you are old enough to fly and..." He started, avoiding my obvious question.

"Not what I meant, Ted." I looked up at him. This man offered free food and board to two teens he saw at a market, taught them to fight, and locked them up, never to be able to escape unless if they had a plan. I was grateful for it all, but why had he done this? He could have easily ignored the sloth and mouse eating apples, as they walked blindly into an approaching snowstorm.

"Hmmm...I figured you would ask eventually. I saw you two that day in the market, him stealing those apples and you saving him, and your RC copter caught my eye, kid. I saw you, and you looked just like my little Annie. I just had to have you stay the night. Just to pretend that my daughter was there, helping with my bike again." he said, sobbing uncontrollably. He fell to the ground, crying. I was not a hundred percent sure what to do, so I just sat down next to him on his left, placing my head next on his side. Peter would always hold me when I was upset, but due to the size difference, I did not think I would be able to do it with Ted. He looked down at me while I looked up. He smiled, using his left hand to ruffle my hear, before putting it around me.

"Well...I married about 28 years ago to, the girl of my dreams, Louis. A year later, she had died giving birth to my Annie. I cared for her, trying to do a father's job as well as a mother's." He stopped, chuckling at a distant memory. "I always was there to protect her, no matter what. She was this tiny little thing, a bear cub, but a polar bear like her mum. We lived in NYC, a pretty tough town, and I never let her out of my sights. One day about 10 years ago, she was mugged and shot 3 times in the chest." he stopped again to collect his thoughts. "She had died instantly. And I felt horrible. I taught her to stick up for herself, but never to fight.

"I saw you, and it was just something she would have done. Protect someone, even if that would have gotten her hurt. I thought, maybe for a day or two, I could just have some closure by working with you. When I saw what Evan did to you that night, I wasn't going to let you leave until I knew you could take care of yourself and your idiot friend. I couldn't let history repeat. So I locked you up, and threw away the key, until, of course, when you could forge your own key and beat up Matt and his broomstick of doom." he smiled, and started laughing. I started smiling, knowing he was feeling better. He sighed. "Now I told you my story of why I kept you here again your will. Now you need to tell me your story, Miss. Penelope Partone."

I looked at him in shock. It had been ages since anyone had called me that. "How...how did you..." I started to stutter.

"I was a newspaper editor in New York City, and everyone loved Miss. Penelope "OMG I'm So Pretty" Partone." He started laughing again, and I could not help but laugh. Your picture was in almost all of my papers. I didn't know it when I first saw you, kid. But I slowly started to realize over a few days. When I saw Partone was MIA, I put two and two together. Now, care to explain?"

"A story for another time." I stuck my tongue at him and the arm around me quickly turned into a headlock. I eventually got free, and got around the back of his neck, giving him a small kiss on the check. "You know, all me and my father ever did together was drink coffee, and it was the tastiest tasting stuff ever. I like hanging out with you a lot more, dad." I let go, leaving him completely stunned. I started looking over my own bi-plane, making notes on innovations for it. Ted just stood there, a huge grin on his face.

"Oh Christ. Another teenaged girl to raise." He said under his breath, before leaving.