Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing DA related, and if I did, I wouldn't be wasting my time here, would I?
Zack's Penny
By Be Boring
Chapter 5: Sound the Alarms
*~* Zane
As interesting as it was to watch Penny sleep, I knew we had to get out of there early. That's why right now we're on the interstate, doing about 80 mph, while she tries to nap while sitting in my rather uncomfortable car. This is the third day we've been driving, and it's really starting to get to me, not to mention what it's doing to her. She's still worn out from her ordeal, and I didn't give her nearly enough time to rest before we took off. I tried to explain to her about The Car, even though she kept saying she understood, but I still wish I didn't have to do this. I know how exhausting it is for her right now, plus I wanted to stay where I was in case Zack showed up. Then again, if he really wanted to find me, he would.
"Cop," Penny mumbled dully. She'd been keeping an eye out for police in between attempts at naps just so I didn't get pulled over for speeding. I appreciated the help, especially seeing as how she seemed able to detect them before I did. She also seems to be able to tell when a bout of apologizing was about to burst from me, then she just waves me off. I think she's gotten sick of it.
"Did he notice me?"
"I don't think so. He hasn't turned around in any case."
"Are you sure you don't want to lie down in the back seat? You'd probably be a lot more comfortable."
She just smiled slightly. "I'll be fine. Being a little tired never hurt anyone."
Well, she had a point. Still, I have no urge to upset her recovery. She seems to be doing really well so far. In fact, she really impresses me. I haven't seen too many people get hit by a car and walk away with just a few cracked ribs and a broken arm. I doubt even I could pull that off. She even seems to be holding up pretty well mentally, she hasn't complained at all. Then again, she might just be holding that in.
I looked up ahead on the road. WELCOME TO LUDLOW. Well, we weren't too far from LA. It was starting to get late, so I figured I had better get Penny into a real bed so she can get some actual sleep rather than an occasional doze. It looked like a tiny place, but I hoped they at least had a hotel.
"What are you doing?" Penny asked as I pulled off the interstate. "We haven't made it to LA yet."
"I know, we're staying the night here." I couldn't help but be surprised at the look she shot me. Penny's never been one to get angry as far as I could tell, but she sure as hell looked pissed now.
"Do you think I can't handle the trip? I have been through a lot worse than this, trust me! Nothing pisses me off more then having people assume I'm weak!"
I had no clue what to say. Her eyes flared as though they could literally light me on fire. I felt a chill go down my spine as she stared at me. If I wasn't an X5, that look would have completely terrified me. Jesus Christ that looks a lot like the look Zack gives us when we make him mad. She wasn't any less beautiful, but her beauty had definitely made her scary if anything else. It made me keep my mouth shut until we reached a decent-looking hotel.
*~* Penny
I know I shouldn't have overreacted like that, but I couldn't help it. I've been trying to keep it to myself, but ever since Jesse got me up this morning, my mood has been going through drastic changes. I've gone from feeling really happy to extremely pissed off, to sad to the point of nearly crying, to feeling like something really bad was coming. Jesse just happened to catch me while I was pissed off. I don't know why I feel something bad coming, but I keep getting the feeling I'm forgetting something important and that it's not going to turn out good if I don't remember soon.
That feeling came back full force when Jesse went to get us a room. The horrible thing is that I can't exactly put my finger on what it is. It's like when a word is on the tip of your tongue, but you just can't get it out no matter how hard you try. It's almost like what people would call a premonition, but I was just getting a feeling, no visions. Dammit, why couldn't I figure out what was going on?
I didn't feel much better when Jesse came to get me out of the car, although I could have laughed at how careful he was around me. It was like he was afraid I would blow up at him again, which didn't surprise me. I've gotten a lot of my personality from Zack, and he could put the fear of God in the devil if he was angry enough. I just felt a little stupid, I really had overreacted too much. I shouldn't have said what I did about hating people thinking I'm weak. That was just taking out old frustrations on him, and that was completely unfair to him.
"You don't have to tiptoe around me," I finally grumbled after a while. After we had come into the room, he'd done everything he could to avoid me and try to stay as silent as possible. I was never going to be able to go to sleep while he was acting this way.
"Sorry," he blushed. "I didn't mean to bother you."
Men, I thought irritably. They just don't get it. With that thought in mind, I let myself drift off to sleep.
*~* Zane
Ok, I don't know what the hell happened to Penny in the car, but I was sure as hell glad she had gone to sleep. I didn't want to see the she-demon rise again. Keeping an eye on her sleeping form, I grabbed the car keys and slid out the door. I didn't want her around when I went to deal with Old Jake. She could wind up getting hurt if I made Jake upset. He wasn't the most agreeable old guy in town.
I don't think I've seen a face happier than Randy's when I showed up at the door to the shop. If he didn't know how I felt about physical displays of emotion, I think he would have given me the biggest hug he could muster up.
"Oh thank God you came! I don't think I can do this alone!"
"Just let me see The Car and I'll see what I can do."
Oh hell no. How could Jake expect us to fix that? I couldn't believe my eyes. There is no way that anyone could fix that car. It was a complete wreck! Anyone looking at it would never be able to tell you that it had once been a car. Hell, they wouldn't be able to tell you it had been a vehicle of any kind. It looked like it had been stood up on its bumper and had a bulldozer dropped on it. Jake must have jumped out before that accident happened, otherwise he never would have made it. There's one thing I knew for sure though, there was no way for us to fix it. Now the only problem was how to approach the subject with Old Jake.
"How long have you had it?"
Randy started shifting his weight from one foot to another nervously. "About a week and a half."
"Have you worked on it at all?" I figured I knew the answer, but Randy surprised me.
"Yeah, and I've probably made it look twice as good as it did before it came here."
Twice as good? What did it look like before? "Is there anything that you think could still possibly be operable?" I asked tentatively. It was a stupid question to begin with.
"I doubt it. The best thing we could do is buy Jake a new car, but we're never going to find one like this. He had it specially built himself 'back in his day' as he says."
I gave a low whistle. "It must have cost him both arms and legs to get this made. Unfortunately, it was crushed as easily as a pop can. He didn't get even close to his money's worth."
"What are we going to do?" Now the real problem came out. I knew I could handle myself with Jake, but Randy certainly couldn't. His punch was about as powerful as shooting a feather out of a gun, and his aim with one of those wouldn't be too good either. He probably hadn't so much as touched a gun in all his life, so I doubt he even owned one. I just hoped he could run. Wait, maybe he wouldn't have to.
"Randy, I want you to go get your mother's car."
"What? You know I won't touch that car, it hasn't been touched since Mom's crash."
"Are you sure it's still in the same place? Right in the middle of that field?"
"Yeah, no one's ever had a use for that area so no one bothered to touch it. Why?"
"You once commented that The Car seemed to handle a lot like your mom's car. Your mom's car isn't so badly smashed up, maybe there's a chance that we can fool Jake into believing it's his."
"Are you sure he won't be able to figure it out?"
"Not if we do it right. With it in this condition, he must have given you a list of what was all in The Car, not to mention how many times we've seen it before. I think we just might be able to pull it off." Although I sounded confident, I was pretty much already accepting the fact that by this time next week I'd be scraping Randy's remains off the shop floor. If there was enough of him to scrape up, that is. I wasn't at all sure this was going to work, I just wanted to buy him some more time.
"Call the tow truck and let's get this baby started."
*~* Penny
"Are trying to say what I think you are? Are you finally going to see Max?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Zack had pretty much sworn off going to see Max face to face, despite the fact that he'd been keeping an eye on her from a distance for several years. Now, all of a sudden, he had changed his mind.
"I won't be letting her know it's me. I'll use an alias. She hasn't seen me in nine years, how could she possibly recognize me?"
"She's not exactly stupid. Your personality hasn't changed one bit since Manticore, after five minutes of being around you she'll have it figured out."
"That's where you're wrong. I just won't act like myself. I've been able to take on completely different personas before, what makes you think I can't fool Max?"
"You two were too close, she'll eventually see through you. Even if it takes her forever, something about you will set off something in her mind." The Max I remembered certainly would be able to pick Zack out of a crowd. I don't see how much she could have possibly changed in the past nine years, so she should still be able to manage. "Will you ever let her know who you are?"
"Not if I can help it. I've seen her with normal people. She's so emotional, she's made connections with others. She has even been trying to find us. As far as I know she has two sources, one of them being much less skilled than the other one. I already know who one is, but the other is too well hidden. I'm guessing there's a lot of money behind it."
"Well, good for her. I hope she's getting something good out of it in return." I hadn't meant anything sexual, but I saw Zack's eyes flash dangerously. He hadn't even spoken to Max in nine years, how could he care about her this much? This was more than just a brotherly love, I was pretty sure he was in love with her. Of course, he'd never admit that.
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"I told you."
"Shut up, I know. I guess I underestimated her."
"How did she react to seeing you?"
"How do you think? As any normal emotional person would do; she hugged me. Don't look at me like that."
I couldn't possibly hold back my smirk, I could just imagine how Zack felt to have Max's arms around him. No matter how much he might protest, I knew he had enjoyed it. "What are you going to do now that she's seen you?"
"I may as well keep going to check in on her. There's no point in hiding from her, she knows what my face looks like now. Just for your information though, she didn't recognize me. She found out my address and showed up, then realized who I was. That didn't impress me too much though, that one contact of hers seems to know what he's doing. The only thing that really impressed me was her fighting. She hasn't forgotten a thing, if anything she's improved."
"Do you think she'd be able to beat you?"
"I doubt it."
That was it. No reasons why, he just doubted it. That didn't surprise me, Zack tended to think a lot of his strength. It's true that so far none of the X5s have been able to beat him in a fight, but Max always had something special to her. Under normal circumstances, she was about the same as your average X5. If she had a motive, you'd better get your ass out of the way before it gets pounded into the ground. Personally, I felt that if Zack tried to take her away from some of the people he said she'd grown close to, she'd give him a fight to remember. I just wished I could be there to see the look on his face.
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"Zack? What's going on?" I had woken up in the middle of the night to the feel of a body pressed against mine. Somehow, though, it didn't bother me. In fact, I felt an electric tingle run down my spine. It took me several moments of Zack kissing my neck before I could snap out of my pleasure-filled daze and realize what was going on.
"Zack, get out before the pheromones get to be too strong!" I struggled to kick him off, but he wasn't himself at all. It seemed the pheromones had already done their work even though I wasn't fully in heat yet. It wouldn't be too long though before I was in the exact same state that Zack was. At the moment though, I couldn't have cared less. The feel of Zack's lips against my neck was heaven, and his hands were starting to grip the hem of my nightshirt. As soon as he had raised the shirt to hip level, something in me came to my senses. I still had some time left before I lost complete control, and I was going to take advantage of it. I let my hands slide up Zack's back, then I grabbed his hair and yanked as hard as I could. It may not have been at my full strength, but it was enough to make him yelp in surprise. As soon as he lifted his head up, I gathered every ounce of strength that my heated body allowed me to, and punched him as hard as I could. It was only a halfhearted punch because part of me wanted him, but it was enough to clear his eyes and get him to look at me clearly. It was obvious he was shocked for some time, then he leapt off the bed. I've never seen him move that fast, but he was out of the room before anything could be said.
I should have seen this coming. A person earlier today had snapped at me, saying that just because I had PMS didn't mean I had to go around insulting everyone. That's one of the things that happens to me when my heat cycle's approaching, I get extremely moody. Zack's explanation for it is that my hormones go insane right before my heat cycle in preparation for it, so that's what causes my moodiness. It didn't matter to me what the explanation was, I just wished I could take something to keep it from happening. Any pills for crazed hormones would be welcome. The only problem is that the X series is designed to ward off any medication. There's some that will get to us, but any hormone pills would probably be cleaned out by my body before they had a chance to work.
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"Jesse," a low moan escaped my throat. Similar to how Zack had done, he was kissing my neck and his hands were starting to play with my nightshirt. I clutched his shoulders as his lips pressed firmly against mine, then flipped him over onto his back so I was above him on the bed. I tore his shirt straight down the middle, feeling an almost predatory satisfaction in the way his chest was heaving. My fingers ran over his finely muscled stomach, sliding down until they reached his belt buckle. Just after I had removed his belt, he grabbed my hips and rolled us over so he was lying on top of me again.
"I'm in control now," he whispered, then my world exploded in a flash of pain.
*~* Zane
The more I look at Randy's mother's car, the more I think that this just might work. It had been years since I had seen that car, so I guess its similarities to The Car had completely escaped me. This wouldn't take so much work; in fact, there wasn't that much damage at all. It had flipped a few times, but it hadn't caved in or anything. It would need a new windshield, it need to be repainted, and some of its parts needed to be changed to match The Car's, but it just might work out.
Randy wandered over to the small TV set we had in the shop. "Do you mind if I turn this on? The radio got busted a couple of weeks ago, and it's getting too quiet in here for me."
"Go right on ahead," I replied tonelessly. I was used to this, Randy always needed some noise in order to work right. I could work better in the quiet, but the noise didn't bother me. Soon Randy and I were working on his mother's car comfortably. We both loved working like this, I couldn't believe I hadn't realized how much I missed it while I was gone.
I had finally crawled out from under the car to get a drink when I realized that there was no noise coming from the TV. Randy must have gotten so involved with his mother's car that he didn't notice the silence. I reached over and twiddled the buttons on it, but there was no change. Suddenly, a picture of eyes with colored bars running across the top and bottom of the screen reading "STREAMING FREEDOM VIDEO" filled the TV screen. I had heard of this guy. I hardly ever saw this guy's video's from LA, but I'd heard more than enough about him. He was usually called Eyes Only, but I've heard people call him a messenger of God. Supposedly he works against the police to expose covert operations to the eyes of the country. I couldn't help but be a little curious about what he had to say. I took a step back and practically let my soda flow straight down my throat without swallowing.
"Do not attempt to adjust your set. This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. This cable hack cannot be traced it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in this city. This is a message to those known as X5. You've been compromised. You're in danger. You know what to do."
I froze, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Was this guy for real? Oh God, Zack! Was it possible that Zack had compromised us? I couldn't see how that could be possible, but it would explain why he hadn't replied to me in so long. What was I doing? Why was I just standing still? I had to get moving!
"Hey, uh, Zane, hand me that 3/16th, will ya?" I heard Randy ask from the shop, but I was already gone. The sound of Eyes Only's voice followed me though.
"I repeat, you've been compromised. You know what to do. This message will repeat every hour on the hour until each of you has checked in."
I could still hear Randy calling my name, but I knew I had to leave him behind. I had to leave everything behind. Wait, no, I couldn't leave Penny. There was no way I could just leave her injured in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere. I had to go back to Ludlow and run off with her. I knew she wouldn't understand, but I didn't have many options left open to me.
*~* Penny
I was stunned when I realized I was sitting on the floor of a strange bedroom. It took me nearly a minute to remember that I was in a hotel room because Jesse had refused to take me all the way to LA tonight. Why is the room so hot? My dreams slowly came back to me, but it wasn't all connected. My dreams had more been along the lines of memories, except for the last one. Why had I been dreaming about sleeping with Jesse? If I hadn't fallen out of bed and hit my head on the bedside table, the dream would have taken me all the way. A strange but all too familiar burning shot through my thighs at the thought of Jesse. Oh shit. I'm in heat.
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A/N: Damn, this one took a while too. I did really good on my exams, but writer's block nearly had me crushed under it. Wouldn't ya know it? Just a warning: the whole story will be bumped up to an R rating when I post the next chapter.