"Penny! Heh, heh, fancy meeting you here."
"Want to sign my petition?"
"Um um um, what for?"
"There's this great building nearby that the city is just going to demolish and turn into a parking lot. The Caring Hands group wants to get enough signatures to get it donated as a new homeless shelter." Billy kept "texting" as she spoke, one eye on her. Oh, that's right! She said something about that yesterday. Right right.
"Want to sign?"
"I'd love too!" Something in the back of Billy's head sighed. 'No fish metaphor.' Fish metaphor? What?! Didn't matter, Penny was so close to him now, so wonderfully close. He signed his name, watching her walk off with a bounce in her step. VAN! Ohmygod, the van! Turning around quickly he found the thing still there, waiting for him. A sigh of relief, and he grabbed his bag, ducking down a set of steps and slipping out of his jacket, into his smock, and pulling up his goggles. As he typed away at his phone-turned-remote he slipped his shoes and gloves on too. Dr. Horrible was in the house.
But not for long. Next thing he knew the van was out of control, and Captain Tool was bounding about being obnoxious. Strange set of circumstances really. Captain Hammer pulled off the magnetic receiver, tossing it away before jumping off the van. The same van was barreling down the alley right to Penny! He had no way of stopping it! Dropping the controller, Billy grabbed the railing above him, pulled himself up, and jumped over.
"Move!" His goggles slipped, falling into his eyes. His hands hit Penny, pushing her onto the sidewalk and trying to follow; his boots locked into each other and sent him crashing to the ground in front of the van. A big set of boots crunched next to him.
The van was stopped with a huge amount of force, Captain Hammer had saved him. Only to pick him up by the neck and hold him up.
"Doctor Horrible! I should've known you were behind this!"
"Gack!" He couldn't breathe; the idiot had so much force on his neck that he couldn't even try.
"It's curtains for you, Doctor Horrible. Lacy, gently wafting curtains."
"Let him go! He saved me!"
"Who are you?!"
"Doesn't matter, you're hurting him, and he saved me."
"No, lady, you have that backwards. He hurts people, and I save them." Stupid smirk, stupid big hands, stupid… something… he couldn't think very well, he was having trouble seeing…
"Let. Go." And just like that he could breathe! AIR! Glorious AIR! "Thank you."
Oh boy, that's Penny! She can't know of Dr. Horrible! She can't know who he was! Coughing and gasping, Billy grabbed at his neck and stumbled to his feet. He had to get out of here. Hammer and Penny were arguing. That was priceless and he wished he could watch it. Penny was scolding the tall impossibly strong Captain Hammer about going up and punching people before asking what was going on. She was standing up for him! And she didn't even know him! It was awesome. He saved his girlfriend, his girlfriend saved him, and he was currently stuffing both the Wonderflonium and Dr. Horrible into his dufflebag and slipping to the other side of the alley, pulling his jacket to hide the bruises that were forming.
"Oh my god! Penny! I saw the whole thing! Are you alright, that jerk, thank God Captain Hammer was here to keep that guy's hands off you. Come on, let's get you home."
"Billy?" Penny looked around. Where had he come from? Where did Dr. Horrible go? Captain Hammer hadn't done anything, why was Billy thanking him? But she let herself be pulled along, away from the strange strong man, and the van that came out of nowhere, and the disappearing villain…
Who had the sweetest voice. And was nice enough to put himself in her place so she didn't get hit. But there was just something so familiar…