Had some time this week, so I was able to finish this one sooner than usual.

Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" Leonard asked, sipping his tea.

"Well, I'll walk the dogs, of course, and then study what Sheldon gave me for today." she told him. "After lunch, I'll look for a gym to do some weight lifting and do some martial arts training."

"That's good." he nodded. "Watch out for creeps."

"Why do you assume that I'll be creeped on?" she wondered.

"If you go dressed like that, you will." he winked.

"Very funny." she rolled her eyes. "As if I will go to the gym wearing pajamas."

"That would certainly be something new, especially when you keep the top open like that." Leonard laughed and brought his cup to the sink, both dogs jumping up and joining him because of his laughter. "And what do you two want?"

"What every dog wants." Penny giggled.

"Yeah." Leonard nodded and got the bag of treats, holding two of them up and looking expectantly at both animals.

They sat down and looked, waiting patiently until Leonard handed them the treats, both taking theirs and lying down to eat it. While they were at it, Leonard filled two bowls with dry food, placing both at their respective spots so the dogs could eat them later after he had gone. Even though he was sure that they wouldn't fight over it, Penny's presence would prevent it anyway.

"Hey Leonard, I have some... sweet mother." Howard exclaimed when he came into the apartment after two short knocks without waiting for Leonard's call and seeing Penny in her attire, her breasts almost fully visible through the open top.

"Seriously, Howard?" Penny shouted, quickly pulling the sides close to hide her chest.

"Howard, never do that again." Leonard warned. "Otherwise, I will have to tell your fiance."

"Noted." Howard swallowed, seeing Leonard's serious expression.

"So, what was so important that you had to barge in here?"

"I finished work on another piece of tech and I want you to test it." Howard proudly showed him the small box, one as big as the top of his index finger and square shaped.

"What is it?"

"It's a visual scrambler." Howard grinned. "You put it around your neck like a necklace and it scrambles your face for every camera that might be filming you."

"Really?" Leonard couldn't help but being impressed. "Lets try."

"I'll film." Penny said and grabbed her phone after making sure, the buttons on her shirt were properly closed.

"Do I have to turn it on?" Leonard asked after putting the scrambler strap around his neck.

"Yes, it's turned off to save battery power." Howard nodded. "There are small buttons on the sides. Press the right button once to turn it on, and when you want to turn it off, you need to press and hold both buttons for five seconds."

"Why five seconds?" Penny wondered.

"To avoid it happening by accident, hence also the use of both buttons." Howard explained.

"Alright, it's on." Leonard said.

"Holy crap!" Penny exclaimed. "You look like those pixelation images on TV when they want to hide someone."

"Take a picture, please." Leonard said and Penny did so, showing him the image. "Nice."

"You could use it when you conduct your job." Howard suggested. "I have hacked the warehouse complex surveillance but there's no information if there's some closed system."

"Anything special?" Leonard asked while taking off the scrambler.

"Well, you told me that Lillian told you that this guy and his gang have their headquarters in a shack between two of the warehouses, right?"

"Right." Leonard confirmed.

"That doesn't seem to be true, at least anymore." Howard told him. "The surveillance information show them staying in their warehouse."

"Warehouses usually have offices on their upper floors." Penny pointed out, having been in some during her prostitute years.

"These ones have too." Howard nodded.

"That'll make the mission easier." Leonard pointed out. "According to their blueprints, the three warehouses don't have an interconnected airflow system, instead each warehouse has its own ventilation."

"Then you can inject the poison gas directly into their system?" Penny asked.

"Exactly." Leonard nodded. "Howard, has your investigation revealed something else?"

"Nothing that would explain your gut feeling." Howard shook his head.

"Well, I'll put your scrambler to good use." Leonard nodded. "How long does the battery last?"

"Only two hours." Howard sighed. "I'm still working on making it last longer but its small size makes it difficult."

"Two hours will hopefully be enough." Leonard nodded. "I have a engineering challenge for you."

"What?" Howard almost salivated.

"Can you modify our dark vision glasses to detect surveillance cameras?" Leonard asked.

"They already can if you take those that have heat detection, since surveillance cameras emit heat." Howard told him.

"No, I mean, can you make them detect the view cones, or whatever you want to call them, in case the camera can't be seen or his to small to easily detect." Leonard clarified.

"No, this isn't a video game." Howard shook his head. "I could build a system that can detect active scans but cameras only watch passively."

"Why would you want something like that when you now have a way to obstruct a camera?" Penny wanted to know.

"Because in case a mission takes longer and because in our era of hyper surveillance, someone could find me by tracing back my movements." Leonard explained.

"How?" Penny was unsure.

"Lets say you wear completely black and move towards a target area. You switch on the scrambler, go in, fulfill your mission and leave. Outside you deactivate the scrambler again." Leonard described. "But if someone with hacking skills wants to find you, they only have to hack the public surveillance cameras and see where the person with the all black attire is that has the same body type as the one that killed the target."

"I see." Penny nodded. "Howard, would it be possible to extend the range of the scrambler to encompass the entire body?"

"It would, but since the extension goes into every direction, you'd cause the area around you to be scrambled as well and it would drain the battery in minutes." Howard explained.

"Well, how about adding a few more scramblers to the outfit then?" she suggested. "You know, put one on each knee, one on the stomach, one on the chest, maybe even the arms."

"Penny, you're a genius." Leonard laughed and pressed a kiss on her lips.

"I admit it's a nice idea but what would it help in preventing someone from following your steps?" Howard wondered.

"Howard, if I go into a place and my entire body is scrambled like my face is, how could anyone follow my steps?" Leonard clarified for him. "They'd have nothing to go on."

"Huh, that's true." Howard got it. "Alright, I'll build a few more of these. When are you planning on doing it?"

"Three days from now." Leonard said. "From the surveillance I installed I have learned that the entire gang meets once a week, so we can kill sixteen birds with one stone, so to speak."

"But if the gang is larger?" Penny wondered.

"Then taking out the leadership will also most surely cripple it." Leonard said. "And on the risk of sounding callous, the contract calls for the death of the leader and nobody else. In attempting to kill the entire gang, I'm giving the priest, and the city, a free bonus."

"But you have destroyed drug cartels, right?"

"Yes, but the contract also called for that." Leonard pointed out.

"Leonard, we have to leave." Howard got his attention.

"Right." Leonard sighed. "Boy, I'll be glad to be back home again, where I can make my own hours."

"Drive safely." Penny giggled and gave Leonard a playful slap on his ass.

Still impressed with Howard's engineering prowess, she went into the bedroom to get dressed properly. Despite the feeling of unease that being in the city caused in her due to her past, she did miss the warm weather in winter. She put on light pants and a sweater and grabbed the leashes, putting them around the necks of both the dogs before leading them outside and towards the park.

This time, she went to a nearby dog park, releasing the dogs in the compound and letting them run among the handful of other dogs already there, their owners standing around and talking. It took a few minutes for Tyson and Major to acquaint themselves with the other dogs but soon enough, they were running around and playfully fighting, one of the other dogs, a husky, growling as he or she played.

"Are these yours?" a young woman approached her, pointing to the two Malignois.

"Yeah." Penny nodded. "Well, they're my boyfriend's, actually, but they have accepted me too. The husky yours?"

"Yes." the woman smiled. "I'm Katie."

"Penny." she greeted back. "Do I have to be worried about his growling?"

"No, that's how Huskies play." Katie shook her head. "They play rough and they're usually very vocal about it."

"I see." Penny nodded. "What happens if a dog misbehaves? How do you separate them?"

"We rarely have to." Katie said. "The other dogs often control the misbehaving ones. If one were here, you'd see the other dogs chasing him around until he calms down."

"That's... impressive, really."

"Yours are pretty behaved, I must say." Katie noted. "New dogs are often the ones misbehaving but yours fit right in."

"Leonard trained them well." Penny smiled.

"Who?"

"My boyfriend." Penny clarified. "He had them trained and he enforces strict discipline with these two. He can do a whistle and they do what he wants them to do."

"That's neat." Katie grinned. "My dog is often a a drama queen. I give her an order, she lies down and whines."

"By the look on your face, I'd guess that you wouldn't want it any other way."

"No way." Katie laughed.

Penny spend over two hours at the park, letting the dogs play with the other canines before leading them away. The owners she talked to were all nice people, none of whom tried to hit on her and she made the plan to return here, giving the dogs more opportunities to expend their energy. After feeding the animals, she did some reading of the materials she got from Sheldon and ate a light lunch.

After doing some online searches, she found a gym in her vicinity and changed into some sports underwear, cotton panties and a sports bra, before packing yoga pants and a wide shirt into her bag along with a change of clothes, toiletries and workout gloves. A short car ride later, she arrived at the gym and paid for the daily admission, telling the guy behind the counter that she wouldn't want a pitch meeting yet, only to sample the place.

A quick clothes change later, she headed to the training floor, going onto a treadmill for some endurance training, listening to music as she did so. Despite appearing as not looking anywhere, she did let her eyes roam, noticing the other people and how they acted. She clearly noticed the guys who tried to impress her, given that she was a new girl and unknown to them.

One tried to bench press a weight clearly too much for him and failed spectacularly, necessitating one of the trainers to run to him and help him lift the weight up. Another kept walking by in front of her, choosing training equipment that was always on the other side of the area so he could move in front of her, as if he expected her to notice him. She wondered if any would approach her with some lame attempt at hitting on her.

For the hour of her run, nobody did though. She kept her headphones on and went to the weights, doing some reps with several of them, slowly increasing their weight. Everything she did was only for warming up though and once she felt her muscles being warm, she went into the separated room where courses were trained.

To start with, she stretched before going through some of the motions, her arms moving slowly at first. She gradually increased the speed until her arms and hands flowed as fast as pistons in a car, throwing up to thirty punches into the air in front of her in ten seconds. The combat training taxed her more than the treadmill did and soon enough, she was sweating profusely, her shirt drenched.

She took it off to avoid entanglements and grabbed a long wooden bar, which was probably used for yoga exercises. She closed her eyes and moved the bar, getting a feel for it and then started going through the motions again. As Penny kept working out, twirling the bar like a quarterstaff, she noticed the gathering of men on the other side of the glass doors. Given that her current attire consisted only of a sports bra and yoga pants, socks and her training shoes, she wasn't surprised. Her stomach was ripped, the six-pack quite pronounced and her entire physique was the lean fighting machine that Alfred had turned her into.

She wondered which one would make the move. She could see it in every pair of eyes she could make out, the telltale sign of carnal lust she had seen plenty of times in the eyes of her customers when she was in this city the last time. It took only five more minutes before the door opened and a guy she would probably have found attractive in high school came in.

"Baby, you're a nine out of ten and I'm just the one you need." the guy said, smiling proudly at his line.

"Really?" Penny couldn't help but stop her exercise to look at the guy. "Of all the lame pickup lines, you pick the lamest?"

"What?" the guy clearly didn't expect her to say that.

"What were your other choices? 'Do you believe in love at first sight or should I come back'? Or what about 'Hey, I lost my phone number, can I have yours'? Some other lame attempt at sounding cool?"

"What's your problem?" the guy asked.

"My problem is that I want to do my training without someone thinking that the only place for me is in their bed." Penny rolled her eyes. "Now scram."

"Come on baby, I can show you a good time... argh!" he tried again, trying to touch her shoulder this time and his attempted come-on ended in a yell of pain when Penny grabbed and twisted his arm and slammed him to the floor, her foot on his shoulder while his arm was straightened out directly behind him, his wrist bent in a very painful manner.

"Listen, asshole." Penny said threateningly, accentuating her words with small pushes against his wrist, eliciting more painful sounds from him. "I have no interest in you or what you can or can't do in bed. I have a boyfriend and he could wipe the floor with you in three seconds and that's only if I don't beat you to a pulp before that. I say this once. Leave me the fuck alone! ARE WE CLEAR?"

"YES, DAMMIT!" the guy screamed and Penny let him go.

He scrambled to his feet and fled the room, leaving Penny to take the bar again and continue her routine. She heard more than saw the group of men disperse, a lot of them snickering at how the other one ran away from the comparatively petite woman. Suddenly, an older but also pretty large man with a barrel chest entered the room, watching her as she finished her routine.

"Very nice." he nodded impressed. "Care for a little sparring?"

"Excuse me?" she turned around, seeing that he must have been somewhere around fifty years old.

"I'm Ronny, I teach self defense here in this gym." he introduced himself and offered her his hand.

"Penny." she smiled and held out her hand, feeling him tense as soon as he closed his fingers around her and she knew what was coming.

Suddenly, he ripped her towards him but Penny had expected the move, countering by swinging her legs up and flying a semi-circle around him, twisting her body to the right so he would have to let go to avoid his wrist snapping.

"Very impressive." Ronny nodded. "Who taught you that?"

"My boyfriend's father." she chuckled and threw the bar to the side, the metal end of rod landing on the hardwood floor with a thud and got into her fighting stance, one arm forward, the other bent at the elbow and the hand over the other elbow.

"Please don't throw these bars on the floor like that, it could damage the hardwood when the end points hit it." Ronny said.

"Sorry." Penny apologized, having realized her mistake.

She watched Ronny go into his fighting stance, seeing his arms move around and realized that he was using Aikido, the same martial art she had seen Steven Seagal use in the two Under Siege movies she had seen with her family during her stay with them. She knew from Leonard that it was mostly a defensive martial art, with its specialty of using the opponents momentum against them.

She kept her distance, using the Wing Chun technique to prepare for any attack he could throw at her. Suddenly, he sprang forward, trying to tackle Penny like in American football and she sidestepped the attack, using the flying hands of the martial art to punch Ronny in his side six times as he passed her, the punches not that strong due to his movement.

She could hear him chuckle as he turned back around to face her once more and he looked like someone who had genuine fun with someone who could fight on his level. He lifted a finger to show that he was pausing the fight and turned around again, grabbing two sticks, throwing one to Penny.

She smiled to herself while he twirled his stick around, wondering if he realized that he just gave her the weapon for her second-favorite style of fighting, the only thing she liked more was doing it with two weapons. She didn't bother twirling the stick around, satisfied with rolling her shoulders to loosen them and waited for his attack.

She didn't have to wait long, Ronny suddenly springing forward and attacking her. She defended vigorously, her stick meeting his and stopping it from coming close to her. She had no doubt that Ronny was a good martial artist but compared to Alfred and especially Leonard, he seemed slow to her. During his second attack, she took a small step to her right, somewhat out of reach of his stick and smacked hers against his left arm three times, making him jump back quickly.

In the corner of her eye, she noticed another crowd gathering, watching the sparring match through the glass door and windows. Even the employees were in the crowd, watching the fight unfold as Penny went on the attack, smashing through his defense to poke at his chest a few times and driving him back against the wall in the process.

That almost proved to be her downfall when he used the wall to push himself forward, Penny just barely evading the attack. Ronny overextended and a quick kick against one of his legs made him stumble, a flick with the stick against his back making him fall down, the sound like a large sack of concrete hitting the floor, where Ronny ended up laughing, albeit being drenched in sweat a lot worse than she was.

"I yield." he laughed. "That was the most fun I had in years. Finally an opponent that could kick my ass."

"I take it you don't get a lot of those." she returned, holding out her hand to help him up.

"No, most of my students don't even come in regularly and you can't really teach self defense when you can't even get past the basics." he sighed. "If you ever want to do this again, just look for me, I'm here almost every day."

"I might do that." she nodded. "I'll be in town for a few months."

"Enjoy your stay." Ronny nodded and left her alone.

She put the stick next to where Ronny had placed his and picked up the bar to put it back into its place before ending the session with stretching. It felt good to do some real fighting, much better then just going through the motions without being able to check if it would work. Thinking back, she had to admit that Ronny, while a lot slower than Leonard or Alfred, had moved quite quickly for a man of his size and age, given that he had a few inches and at least a hundred and fifty pounds over her.

Finishing her stretching, she went upstairs to the dressing room and grabbed her shower kit, stripping off her clothes and going into the showers. Two other women were there, one an older one and the other a chubby thirty-something year old who looked at Penny's body with a gaze that said 'I want my body to look like that'. She ignored the stare and showered, finishing it quickly like she had learned at Alfred's, where every minute after training had been a precious commodity and not to be wasted by standing under a spray of water.

She got dressed in her regular pants and shirt and left the studio, throwing her gear into the backseat but before she could get into the car, she noticed several guys approaching her, her wannabe lover leading them. She tensed, sensing what was to come and she wondered when the world had become so violent that guys would threaten women when their advances were rebuffed.

"Didn't you learn your lesson yet?" she asked as the turned around, the group of five men stopping when she looked at them.

"I think you will find my pickup lines more convincing this time." the guy said, producing a knife, his buddies doing the same. "How about, either you come with us willingly, or we will make you."

"Pass." Penny rolled her eyes, inwardly relieved that none of them was carrying a gun, at least she couldn't see one.

"What are you going to do, huh, bitch?" the guy asked. "We got knives and you got nothing."

"If I need a knife, I'll take one of yours." she shrugged and tensed her muscles, ready for an attack.

"Dude, she's not even afraid, this doesn't look good." one of the guy's friends said and Penny could clearly see his nervousness, holding his knife with two fingers instead with his full hand.

"Get her." the lead guy ordered one of his friends who came forward cautiously, his knife held with an outstretched arm.

'Wrong move.' Penny thought and disarmed him as soon as he was in range, a quick jab against his arm while her other hand blocked the other side making him lose his grip.

Penny caught the knife and turned it around, snapping three quick hits against the guy's arm with the grip of it, the guy yelling in pain and surprise before he quickly fled. Her display of skill made the nervous kid lose his cool completely and he dropped his knife before running away, the other guy she had just disarmed hot on his heels.

"Anyone else?" she asked, affecting her voice with boredom even though she was still tense.

"Fuck!" the one in the green shirt cursed and put away his knife. "You're on your own."

"Fucking cowards." the leader snarled, turning around to look at his last remaining buddy while holding his knife out towards her, the fifth guy also looking away.

'Really wrong move.' Penny smiled to herself and took five quick steps, ending up right in front of the leader and slapping his knife out his hand before smacking the grip of the knife in her hand into his nose when he turned back around.

"OW!" he howled in pain and dropped, blood squirting out of his now broken nose.

That was too much for the fifth guy who also turned tail and ran. She switched the knife around and threw it as hard as she could at the guy on the floor, who squealed when the blade impacted into the ground, an inch away from his private parts. Before she could do anything else, a siren interrupted her, a police car stopping right beside her.

"Are you alright, mam?" the officer in the passenger seat asked while he got out of the car, the driver also getting out.

"I am." Penny nodded.

"Officer, arrest her!" the guy on the ground shouted while holding his bleeding nose. "Do you see what she did to me?"

"Yes, and we also saw what you and your friends did." the first officer said. "Mam, you want to press charges?"

"Nah, I think he learned his lesson." Penny waved them off. "One moment though."

"What are you doing?" the second officer asked when Penny took a picture of the guy.

"Listen buddy, I have some very skilled friends who can make your life a living hell if you ever try something like this again." Penny told the guy. "And if you truly behave in the future, I promise that I won't tell my boyfriend about you because he would not be so nice to you. Are we clear?"

The guy just nodded but said nothing, Penny thanking the police for their intervention and leaving them to sort everything out. She got into her car and drove back, keeping herself tense until she parked the car behind the apartment block. Only then did she let go of the tension, her body shaking from the adrenaline and the memories it brought back of some of her customers who used violence in their purchased time with her, making her almost feel the slaps in the face she had received from some of them.

She didn't know what she would have done if these guys had been more serious and truly attacked her. Would she have killed them or just hurt them? As Leonard had said in Omaha, someone who is willing to do that to someone else either did it before or had no qualms of doing it again. And given that the police had been close enough to witness at least the last part of it, otherwise they would have interfered sooner, killing one or more of them outright might have caused a lot of legal trouble she probably wouldn't have gotten out of any time soon.

After composing herself and calming down, she went to the apartment and was greeted by two big balls of energy, both canines happy that she was back home. When she sat down on the couch, Tyson tilted his head and put his chin on her knee as if sensing that she was in some form of distress and she smiled at him and scratched his head, trying to project calm.

"Come on, boys." she said and got back up, grabbing their leashes and leading them downstairs.

This time she didn't go to the dog park, only doing a regular walk to let them do their business. She decided to keep the incident from earlier from Leonard, because she was sure that he would in fact hunt those guys down and punish them harshly. And given that these men had probably wanted to sexually abuse her, Bernadette would most likely be even harder to stop from making them pay.

Forty minutes later, she was back home, releasing the two dogs from their leashes and both dogs quickly made themselves comfortable on their mats. She began reading the materials again, going over the various symbols in her head to memorize them, again marveled at the reach of the organization and how they have affiliated stores practically everywhere.

"Honey, I'm home." Leonard's voice suddenly startled her.

"Hey." she smiled, putting down the files. "How was your day?"

"Well, I work in a job I enjoy when I don't have to beg for money to do it." he shrugged. "Still, I miss my home especially since I'm getting soft."

"I can believe that." she nodded, leaning her head back to receive his kiss.

"Did you walk the dogs?"

"Of course, twice." she confirmed. "I took them to the dog park this morning too and let them play for two hours, give or take."

"Great." he smiled. "We ordered dinner, it'll be here soon."

"Why are you always eating something delivered?" she wondered. "You can cook."

"I can but you know, Sheldon." he shrugged.

"What about him?"

"Imagine him complaining incessantly for not eating to the schedule." he pointed out.

"Say no more." she shuddered. "Wait, what did you mean when you said you were going soft?"

"I have been getting up at five in the past week instead of four." he said.

"Oh wow, you sleep five hours instead of four, call the police." she scoffed but had to laugh. "Seriously, one hour more sleep won't kill you."

"I know." he sighed. "But it will be a long way to train myself back to four hours once we're back in Vermont."

"Here's a suggestion, don't go back, enjoy the longer sleep." she giggled.

"We'll see." he shrugged and waved at the dogs to join them as they walked down the stairs.

End of chapter here.

Review please :)