Jeez, it's gotten hot again. And it's humid as well, so I'm doubly hammered.
Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"How does that feel?" the woman asked her.
"Better than the last one." Penny told her, feeling the mask on her face. "Though it still pushes against my other cheek."
"Let me see." the woman said and took the mask off again. "Where exactly?"
"Here." Penny touched her cheekbone on the healthy side of her face. "Don't you have a half mask? Like the character wears in the Phantom of the Opera?"
"No, because it wouldn't be feasible." the woman shook her head. "You would have a rubber band around your face, cutting into the skin of your cheek and under your nose to hold it in place."
"Okay." Penny accepted.
"Give me a minute." the woman said and walked behind the counter and into the backroom.
As the sounds of a grinder came from the back, Penny looked around the store. The shelves were full of medical equipment, small and larger, even some folded wheelchairs and walkers. Five minutes later, the woman came back, mask in hand.
"Alright, I sanded off the bump you have felt, lets try it again." the woman told her and handed Penny the mask to try on.
"Okay, that's better." Penny nodded. "I'll take this, then."
"You need anything else?"
"No, I'm good." Penny shook her head and headed out.
She didn't put the mask on yet, since she didn't feel she needed it, given that she was just walking. She also wouldn't wear it at home but would have to put it on at night, having felt the pain in her cheek this morning after waking up because her body had turned to the right which had applied pressure to the injury.
"Oh my god, you're back! I missed you so much!" a male voice shouted but she didn't react since she didn't think it was directed at her until a man ran up to her from the side. "Wait up!"
"Are you talking to me?" Penny turned around and with a shock, recognized the man as one of her regular clients from her prostitute years.
"Of course." the man smiled widely, his eyes not even going to her face but rather roaming her body. "Oh, you have become even more beautiful. Are you free?"
"What?" she played for time, trying to find out a way out of it and cursing that she had chosen a crop top and short jeans to wear due to the high temperature.
"I'll pay you extra." the man said eagerly. "There's a hotel nearby."
"I'm sorry, I think you're mistaking me for someone else." she said forcefully, making him finally look at her face and rocking back slightly when seeing her bruise.
"Oh my god, who did this to you?" he asked shocked. "I don't care though, I want to enjoy your body again."
"I still have no idea who you are and what you want from me." Penny said and started moving again. "Have a nice day though."
"Wait!" the man said and grabbed her arm, making her snap and use her abilities to snap his arm up and push his body down, making him squeal in pain.
"Listen up, asshole." she yelled. "I don't know you and you clearly mistake me for someone."
"But..." he tried but she just grabbed the FBI ID she had kept in her pocket and showed him the badge.
"If you don't leave me alone, you will see trouble, is that clear?"
"Yes." he confirmed, having gone a lot quieter when seeing her badge.
"Now fuck off!." she cursed at him and pushed him away before turning around again but as the man ran away, a short siren sound announced the arrival of a patrol car, a female cop on the passenger seat leaning out of the window.
"Are you alright, mam?" the cop asked.
"Yeah, just a case of mistaken identity." Penny nodded. "He mistook me for a hooker he used to frequent."
"If you want to press charges for assault and battery, we can go after him." the woman suggested. "He seemed to have done a number on your face."
"No, too much hassle." Penny waved them off and pointed to her cheek. "Also, this is from an accident I had on vacation."
"What happened?" the cop asked and Penny could see that it was actually a form of interrogation masked as conversation, probably because the cop wanted to find out if something had been done to her, but she decided to play along.
"Have you ever ridden a tandem bicycle?" Penny asked, moving closer and leaning down to the car, involuntarily giving the male cop behind the wheel a good look at her cleavage.
"Can't say that I have." the female cop shook her head.
"Me neither, so we decided to rent one." Penny chuckled, getting into the lie. "Turns out that it's harder than you think and when you mistake left and right and lean into the wrong direction, you tend to fall down."
"You and your boyfriend went?"
"I got lucky." Penny said. "He dislocated his shoulder."
"Ouch, I can relate." the male spoke up. "That hurts like a bitch."
"Well, don't let me keep you, I need to get home." Penny stood back up. "Thanks for the assistance."
"No problem." the female cop said, even though they all knew they hadn't really assisted.
As she walked away, Penny felt proud to have been able to effortlessly spin this kind of tale, though she felt insulted how the cops, or at least the female one, thought that her injury must have come from domestic violence. Luckily, Penny didn't have to show any ID since she didn't want to make the attacks on FBI story even more widespread.
She went to the bakery she had frequented a couple of times and bought some pastries for her and Leonard for later before continuing her walk to get their lunch. She saw a restaurant that offered meals to go and went inside, waiting for the guy to notice her so she could order. When he did notice her, his eyes went wide at her revealing attire but he almost physically leaned back and quickly went back to professionalism when he saw her bruised face.
"Good morning, how can I help you?"
"Do you have something that can be eaten with one hand?" she asked.
"I'm sorry?" the man was clearly confused.
"Sorry." she chuckled. "My boyfriend has a dislocated shoulder, so it's hard for him to eat anything that requires two hands."
"Well, if you are willing to cut the food into small enough pieces, he can eat anything we have to offer."
"True." she realized. "I'll take the third steak meal and fish meal number two to go."
"Coming up." the man nodded and called the order into the kitchen.
She perused her phone, stopping herself from logging into the organization account via the fake mobile game to prevent anyone from possibly seeing it, so she simply opened the news, searching for more reports on the fallout from her job. She sighed inwardly when she saw a new report that gave a detailed number of those who had committed suicide and became saddened over the unnecessary loss of over two thousand lives, several dozen children among them who, according to the report, had apparently been forced to drink the poison against their will.
"Here's your order." the man snapped her out of her thoughts.
"Thanks." Penny smiled and paid for the food before heading out.
The way home was uneventful, though she couldn't shake the thoughts about the consequences of her job. She vowed to increase her research for any future job similar to this so this might not happen again, though if she ever had another job to take out a cult leader, she couldn't see a way to stop this from happening again. Abbate had been right, it's the nature of religious cults that these things can happen.
"Honey, I'm home." she called out when she entered the apartment, finding Leonard sitting at his desk, typing with one hand.
"What did you buy?" he pointed to the bags.
"Lunch for us and some pastries for later." she told him and waved him to the kitchen island. "I'll cut it into small pieces for you so you can eat with one hand."
"Thanks." he smiled. "After lunch, we are going to go to the hotel to create your holding account."
"Cool." she grinned. "Then I'll get my money?"
"Yep, though you can't use it yet until Howard builds you the cover to pay you." he limited her enthusiasm.
"How long will that take?"
"Until we know what you can do." Leonard told her. "He's currently building the training course for you to see if you can be a security consultant."
"When will it be ready?"
"No idea, he'll tell us." Leonard shrugged and walked to the kitchen island to unpack the food. "So, what did you get me?"
"I got you a steak meal." she smiled and opened the box. "And fish for me. I'll cut your food into small pieces so you can eat it with one hand."
"Thank you, mommy." he said in a high-pitched voice.
"Okay, one, not funny." she pointed her finger at him. "Two, if you ever call me mommy in bed, I'll leave you."
"The last thing I'll do is call you mommy in bed." he shuddered.
"Good." she nodded.
"What's going on?" he asked, having picked up on her discomfort.
"I met a... former regular client today when I left the medical supply store." she told him. "He recognized me and wanted to, uh, hire me for the hour. I had to dissuade him by showing him my FBI ID."
"Well, given that we're here, you know it would have happened at some point." he said.
"True, but when you called me mommy, that added more memories of former clients."
"Wait, you had clients that called you mommy?" he asked confused.
"Several." she nodded. "They had either some fetishes about their mothers or actually wanted to have sex with them."
"That's... weird." he shuddered. "Though it's certainly better for them to go to a hooker instead of actually having sex with their mothers."
"I actually felt sorry for one of them." she said.
"Why?"
"He came to me, hired me and when we got into the hotel room, he was a nervous wreck but asked me to call him son while he would call me mom. When he saw my expression, he explained to me why he wanted it." she recounted.
"And?" Leonard was interested.
"He showed me a picture of a young woman, maybe thirty years old, in a bikini. Kinda like me now, just with a little more body fat in her lower parts." she said. "Told me that was his mom."
"Wait, did she have him when she was twelve?" he was confused now.
"No, it was his stepmom. His dad had remarried a much younger woman than he was." she chuckled. "Then he told me that his bikini outfit was what she wore at home. Or less than that. And she gave him massages without asking him."
"Wow, that's either completely mean, ignorant or she actually wanted to have sex with him." Leonard commented.
"No idea but it was clear that he wanted it too, but he was probably afraid of his dad." she continued.
"Well, who wouldn't be." Leonard interjected. "Imagine being the dad and finding out that your new wife has cheated on you with your own son."
"Yeah, so therefore he came to me to live out the fantasy." she shrugged. "I did as he asked."
"I'd love to know if that was enough or if he now has had sex with his step mom." Leonard chuckled. "But to reiterate, I harbor no such fantasies."
"Thanks." she smiled seductively. "Daddy."
"No." he shook his head. "No such fantasy there either."
"I was joking." she grinned and ate her food.
Once they were done, they took the dogs on their afternoon walk, letting them run at the dog park to shed their energy. Sometimes, Penny still had trouble to reconcile the fact that these two animals could be the most perfect, friendliest pets in one moment but become savage fighters the next with just a whistled command. She waved to a few known faces and both made conversation to some of them, most asking about their injuries, which she explained with the bike accident she had used on the cops. Two hours later, they were back home and Leonard led her downstairs so she could drive them to the hotel.
"Will this take long?" she asked as she parked the car.
"It shouldn't, I called ahead so everything should be ready, it just needs the data you will use to log in to that account." he shook his head.
"But shouldn't I have the cover story ready for the transfer information?" she wondered.
"You can add that later." he told her. "It's more important for now that you get the money to your name."
"Okay." she nodded and followed him into the hotel.
"They are waiting downstairs." the receptionist asked before they could even utter a word.
"Alright." Leonard nodded and led her down the stairs, the door to the bar area opening before he could throw a coin into the slot.
"Wow." Penny could only grin and blush when she was greeted with more applause than when she was made an assassin.
"There she is!" Antoine shouted over the din. "The newcomer who managed to fulfill a contract that over a dozen of us have failed to achieve."
"Antoine?" Leonard looked at the man.
"You think we would just let her come here as if nothing momentous has happened?" Antoine grinned. "Young lady, you seem to have a knack for this. Never before has one of us been promoted to tier five after a single mission."
"Thanks." Penny blushed. "Wait, tier five?"
"Of course." Antoine nodded. "You fulfilled one of the most difficult contracts we ever had without anyone even knowing that there was foul play involved."
"Well, that's not quite true." Leonard interjected. "Enrico Fabian certainly suspected, he even attacked us."
"Is he dead?" Antoine asked.
"Yes." Leonard nodded.
"Then nobody knows." Antoine pointed out. "And we can finally put his name to bed."
"Congratulations." an appearing Lillian smiled at Penny and hugged her. "And using poison? I'm so proud of you."
"Thanks." Penny hugged her back. "But how do you know what I used?"
"His exact cause of death might still be unknown but when law enforcement says it seems natural, I know." Lillian smiled.
"Well, you can thank Bernadette for that poison, she made it." Penny grinned. "She's a big fan of you, you know?"
"Really?" Lillian raised her eyebrows. "Perhaps you could introduce us, maybe I can show her a few more tricks of the trade."
"I'll tell her." Penny nodded.
"Congratulations." two more came forward, Lillian stepping aside.
"Aaron, Ricardo." Leonard said their names. "You're still here?"
"Yeah." Aaron nodded.
"He still bangs my sister, I need to keep an eye on them." Ricardo pointed to his friend.
"Ew!" Penny made a face.
"He's not in the room when we're doing it!" Aaron quickly clarified. "Also, I don't see you clamoring to leave, especially when you have sex with your sister's roommate."
"Shut up!" Ricardo moped.
"Thanks guys." Penny stopped their argument.
"Thanks for killing Robert, by the way." Ricardo nodded to her. "It's nice to be able to walk the streets again without having to fear that a knife ends up in my back."
"If you say that I shouldn't be with your sister in front of her again, you might still get that." Aaron winked at him.
"Ugh." Ricardo huffed. "Congratulations, again."
"Thanks." Penny chuckled at these two as they left.
"Antoine, is her account ready?" Leonard asked while more of the people present congratulated Penny.
"Yes, she just needs to sign for it and the money will be transferred." Antoine nodded. "Does she have an account ready to transfer it into?"
"We're working on that." Leonard said. "We're going a similar solution that I have."
"Good idea." Antoine was impressed. "I thought she would go with tax haven, like so many of us do."
"Nah, I'd rather not get into trouble with the IRS." Penny interjected, having overheard that.
"Come with me." Antoine turned around and led them to the same door they had walked through when they had exchanged her money for coins.
The procedure was similar, an armed guard inside who nodded to Antoine who led them through the door behind the guard but then took a left instead of continuing forward towards the vault. Three more doors later, during which Penny got a look at an old switchboard and two women plugging cables into sockets, they entered a room that wouldn't look out of place in a software development company, a desk with several monitors, large swathes of server banks at the wall, a humming sound denoting the presence of a liquid cooling system and a young looking, but seriously large-chested woman sitting at said desk.
"She's the one?" the woman pointed her.
"She's the one." Antoine nodded.
"Nice!" the woman roamed Penny's body. "Any interest in having a little carnal fun tonight?"
"Eh... what?" Penny felt run over.
"Don't pay attention to Sam." Antoine waved her off.
"Ah, come on, I'm cooped up in here all day." Sam argued.
"Sorry, but I prefer his dick in my pussy." Penny pointed to Leonard, for some reason feeling brazen enough to say that, causing Sam to laugh.
"Oh, I like her." Sam grinned. "Leonard, you lucky duck. And here I thought you were gay because you kept rebuffing my advances."
"No Sam, I just never thought I could handle you." Leonard chuckled and Penny could see that this was friendly banter, though she had no doubt that Sam meant every word as the woman turned to her again and extending her hand.
"As he already said, I'm Sam." she introduced herself.
"Penny." she shook the offered hand, feeling comfortable giving her real name since Sam knew Leonard's as well.
"You may like his dick in you, but you would be surprised at what my tongue can do." Sam winked at her, squeezing her hand.
"Sam, that's enough." Leonard said.
"His tongue is just fine." Penny added.
"Oh, I really like her." Sam laughed heartily but got serious. "Here's your account data. You need to log in with the provided password and then create a new one."
"The name is a number?"
"It's your account number, we don't use names for these." Sam explained. "The password needs to contain letters, numbers and special characters and be at least eight letters long."
"I already have one in mind." Penny nodded. "Do I need to do it here or can I do it from home."
"If you promise to bend down while typing, you can do it at my computer." Sam offered and pushed her chair back.
"Sam." Leonard rolled his eyes.
"Hey, you can't blame me for wanting to get a look, she's stunning." Sam argued. "It's not as if it's a daily occurrence that we get a hot girl into the organization."
"What about Yumi?" Leonard winked.
"She's back in South Korea." Sam waved him off. "And was kind of uptight when we got naked."
"Goodbye Sam." Leonard laughed and headed around the desk to press a kiss on Sam's cheek. "It was good to see you again."
"You too." Sam smiled at him. "And if things won't work out with her, I can rock your world."
"Thanks, but I have no intention of screwing things up with her." Sam chuckled and came back around, turning to leave with Antoine again leading the way and Penny at the back. "Penny, can you do me a favor though and bend down?"
"Wanna see what you won't get?" Penny grinned but did bend down, feeling comfortable enough to do it.
"Oh yeah, I like her." Sam laughed again.
"It's possible that she will try to pursue you." Leonard said when they were out of earshot.
"Don't worry, I have no intention of leaving you." Penny winked at him.
"For Sam, you wouldn't have to leave him, she would have no problem joining you." Antoine threw in with a chuckle.
"How about it Leonard, up for a threesome?" Penny suggested with a grin.
"Don't toy with me, woman." Leonard smirked.
"Relax, I'm joking." Penny giggled. "She's straightforward though."
"Oh yeah, she is." Leonard nodded. "When I created my account with her, she gave me two pages. One contained my account data, the other was her phone number, measurements and a naked picture."
"Where you tempted?"
"Of course but as I said, I felt at the time that I wouldn't be able to handle her and also, I was still not over Jenny, so I couldn't." Leonard said.
"I wish you good luck in your future career." Antoine said to Penny when they exited the back area.
"Thank you." Penny shook his hand. "Should I mingle more or can we leave?"
"We can leave." Leonard said. "Nobody expects us to mingle."
"Okay, lets go home." Penny said and took his hand.
The document in her pocket, Penny and Leonard exited the hotel and went back to the car, Penny getting behind the wheel again. She drove home and parked the vehicle, both exiting and going through the security door. When they reached the stairs leading to the third flood, Howard came downstairs, holding a bag.
"There you are." Howard said to Penny. "I finished the training course for you."
"So, we're going to do that tomorrow?" she asked.
"Why not now, it's not late." Howard was confused.
"How long is the university open?"
"Oh." Howard realized. "No, it's not a physical course."
"What?" Leonard wondered as they went up the stairs and into their apartment.
"I built a virtual one." Howard said and produced the VR headset that Albert had used to build the building that they met Yorinobu in. "Easier to change something if needed."
"Cool." Penny grinned. "How does it work?"
"Put it on and I'll show you." he said.
Howard helped her fix the headset to her head before turning it on. At first she only saw a loading screen, followed by being in a nondescript room. After a minute of her just looking around, a second figure appeared.
"Is that you, Howard?" Penny asked.
"Yep." the figure nodded. "Now, in order to move around, you have to click the button on the inside of the right controller. It makes a dot disappear and where you put it, you will essentially be beamed towards."
"What if I walk around?" Penny wanted to know. "I mean, out here."
"If you do that, you will pull the laptop off of the table at some point or bump into the back of the couch." Howard explained. "I may have an idea about that but I can't lift it alone."
"Need help?" Penny asked him.
"We can try." Howard said and his avatar disappeared, with her surroundings going dark a few seconds later. "Take off the headset and come with me."
She followed him downstairs, into his apartment, which was empty, denoting that Bernadette was still at work. He pointed to what looked like a square treadmill without arm handles and she bent down to pick it up, surprised by its weight. While she grunted in effort towards the elevator, where she put parts of the treadmill onto the metal bar inside the cabin, Howard joined her, four poles about three feet and another about seven feet in length.
They rode the elevator up one floor and Howard led the way into the apartment where Penny put the treadmill down at a spot that Howard showed her. He followed that by attaching the four short poles to the four sides of the treadmill and placing the long one behind it.
"Alright, step on." he said and Penny did.
"Now what?" she wondered.
"Now you put on that belt and we can attach you to the four poles." Howard told her.
"Isn't that from a movie?" Leonard interjected.
"Yep, I got the idea from it." Howard nodded. "The treadmill is multi directional, so you can actually walk and turn corners."
"That's cool." she was impressed. "How does it work at all? I've never seen a treadmill that can do this."
"Normal treadmills have the rubber band run on cylinders, this one uses hundreds of small balls." Howard explained. "However, you can't run on it. The balls are too fragile to have your entire weight slam on them at a single point."
"Okay, that feels weird." she commented when she took her first steps.
"Yeah, you need shoes with thick soles." Howard nodded.
"Or you can go barefoot and use it for a foot massage." Leonard suggested.
"Now, the cable will go above you, which means you can turn around as you want." Howard said after attaching the cable.
"I'm going in." Penny nodded gravely.
"So dramatic." Howard chuckled and put the other headset on.
"I can see you." Penny said when Howard had logged in.
"Alright, look right in front of you and you will see a button. Put your imaginary hand over it and then press the thumb button, that makes you interact with things in front of you." Howard told her.
"Got it." she nodded and did as he told, a side door opening which she walked through, ending up in front of a virtual warehouse with a desk in front of and two folders on it. "What are these?"
"One is the instructions on how to use the VR stuff and the other is the work rules for this warehouse." Howard said. "Read it and then go inside and find the mistakes."
"How many are there?"
"Why would I tell you?" Howard said and she could hear the smile in his voice. "In this were a real warehouse, nobody would tell you that there are x amount of issues. You have to find as many as you can and hope there aren't too many more."
"What are the things I should look out for?" she asked.
"I'd look at camera angles, if doors are open, how the people inside, if there are any..."
"There are." Howard threw in.
"How they act in regards to worker safety." Leonard continue. "That's why you should definitely read the manual."
"Okay." Penny nodded and got to work.
End of chapter here. I know they are in calmer times but action will come again, don't worry.
Review please :)