The Perils of Penelope (Part 1) by Wasamon

Sunday, November 14th, 2016

Penelope Stein isn't normal but can fake it in public, I can relate. What is her morning routine like that it would freak other people out? All that exercise and martial arts in the morning, good grief. Oh, this is Erica's cousin who visited for Parents Day at Whateley, that would explain it, the whole family is that intense.

A few hours in that mad house made her appreciate the value of appearances all the more. Some of Erica's friends couldn't look normal if they tried. Others could, but didn't bother. It was kind of a refreshing change from the usual high school experience.

I hope Penny can visit Whateley again sometime in the future. All those classes and she takes Hebrew class because she enjoys it, yup, even if she isn't biologically related to Erica you can tell they are related.

She got a custom-made stealth suit, a handbag bigger on the inside than the outside, and various holdouts. With those who think these so are essential, I would keep them on hand, Penelope. Senior year of high school, so close to freedom, and yet it feels like it crawls along until it finally ends.

Monday, November 15th, 2016

Same morning routine, but in the suit this time.

Then there was the full breakfast of protein pancakes with blueberries and a plate of smoked salmon in lieu of bacon, finishing with an extra cup of her grandmother's special blend of kibbutznik coffee.

Jewish grandmothers are like all grandmothers, thinking their grandkids are too skinny and trying to get them to eat a lot.

Muncie, Indiana, is an out-of-the-way place. Muncie South-West High and the main building is that young, dang. Main security checkpoint, just how many threats has a school in Indiana gotten? Hehe, wish I had a bag like that in school to replace my backpack.

Girasol Dupree was the only friend she'd made among the senior class in the two and a half months since she'd officially transferred to South-West High, and the teen's insistence on hanging out at any opportunity smelled faintly of desperation.

Aww, she might just want a friend.

Crazy hyper morning people, oof. Never skip breakfast when you have to go to school, I learned that the hard way. Marion Serri bashing GiGi for eating when she probably starves herself at times, can't stand that kind of girl. Calls breakfast bars garbage, hey!

"It's good for when you need it," said Penelope. "And good morning, Marion. Priscilla. Millicent. Antonia. Salutation. Evelyn. Melissa."

Ooo, calling them by their names instead of nicknames, Penelope doesn't care for dealing with the 'popular' kids how they like to be dealt with.

The youngest of her group, Melissa aka Missy, followed orders at the snap of Marion's finger. *eyes turn red with rage* Calling mutants freak-0s and not finding out why the homecoming was canceled the last two times, I don't like Marion at all.

"GiGi, she's conspiracy-nutting. No way some secret mutant cabal is interfering with homecoming."

Oh, she is a conspiracy nut. A flood, with where the school is situated I'm surprised it doesn't happen at least 3-4 times a year.

"A school this size, about fifteen hundred kids? Statistically there can't be more than three or four mutants, total, for all grades—and that's if they don't actively self-select themselves to a school without an open H1 fanclub on campus. Marion's just looking for peeps to blame. But while she's doing that, I am passing the statistical part of science class and learning from history."

Marion better not target some baseline kid who she thinks is a mutant to scapegoat, like say, Penelope. Whoa, Penelope got through all that including deliberate attempts to kick her in the knee without being touched once. Grandma's training is beyond impressive. Low-level danger sense and training is something else. Says hi to Rick and Jewel as she makes it to class, Marion is upset as I knew some of those attacks were deliberate.

No one has asked out Penelope or GiGi to the dance, either there are a lot fewer boys than girls or Marion sent out a message to anyone who dares to think of asking them to the dance. No one asks the new girl in town, you would be surprised. Oh, Marion might pull a Carrie-level stunt to mess with Penelope, and have one of her guy friends ask Penelope out to set her up.

What, why isn't GiGi welcome anywhere the football team is?

"Yeah..." Her friend took the out. "Yanno, Penny? I wish I were more interested in girls. It'd make things easier."

Is GiGi bi, but more interested in guys than girls? Marion doesn't like them because of that, good grief, she needs to rein her ego in and learn just because someone is a lesbian or bi doesn't mean they are automatically attracted to you. Pink, white, and blue ribbons, is GiGi trans? What was on the yellow paper tapped to the back of GiGi's locker? Whatever it is hurt GiGi and now Penelope is out to hurt whoever is behind it back.

later that evening

Oh, good grief, Marion is a conspiracy-theorist nut who is targeting a minority to blame for incidents that were just nature and the second was a nutty criminal and his minions, Blaster Master and his hard rock felines.

No one seemed to notice the thin glove she was wearing. The gadget was one of the suite of devices she'd gotten for her birthday over the weekend, and it blended with her skin tone, texture, and body temperature as its first trick. With its second trick, it lifted fingerprints from anyone she shook hands with, and by the end of the meeting, she had identified three different members of the football team as having had their hands on the paper from Girasol's locker.

I can't wait to see what Penelope does to the creeps.

The school's security and surveillance system, she'd hacked in the first week. It'd been a special homework assignment from her grandfather's regular IT wizard, LAN Ulster in Wichita, and she was thankful for it that evening.

I would have paid more attention in school if I could learn things like that. Break in with no evidence, stuff the lockers of the three creeps with raunchy gay porn so they could hardly shut, and leave. Brad, Josh, and Marlowe are going to regret ever messing with GiGi.

Tuesday, November 16th, 2016

All those classes and Marion Serris still has time for drama, good grief. Stuck in 3 classes a day with Marion, ouch. Marion is convinced Penelope is a mutant, with no proof at all, that girl is vindictive. All because Penelope never gets bumped in the hallways and Penelope knows about the hit jobs Marion sends after her. Sneeze glitter and fart rainbows, no, you would have Tink show up as an adult to bug you, she is drawn to such things. Hehe, so those star football players got busted for the gay porn in their lockers, good. Bwahaha, I love that Shakespeare quote. Normal is overrated.

later that evening

Fires a handgun six times at a paper target on the shooting range and takes out the center completely, she is one scary girl for not being at Whateley.

rom Adolf Stein, retired Nazi hunter and first-generation super-soldier, two words did the work of two thousand.

Praise from him, she is advancing her skills quickly. Potential internship, hhm.

"Yes. Considering you are now eighteen, properly equipped, and undertaking nighttime infiltrations of your high school..." The old man's chuckle was one of approval. "...we figured it best to get you some real-life experience before you sought it out for yourself. If you still wish to do so?"

I forgot how much older than Erica she was when she was adopted into the family.

Maybe start in a day or two, minor jobs are always good to start with.

"A bothersome young bitch," said her grandfather. "Too much effort to eliminate, too little reward for doing so."

"Aside from personal satisfaction," Penelope agreed. "And that's not enough. I don't know how far she'll take things, but I do have plans, just in case."

Adolf sure has Marion pegged. Ice cream after shooting practice, what flavor is best after gunpowder smell?

Wednesday, November 17th, 2016

Ack! She has to take civics again, stupid state law. Mr. Griswold is the teacher. The vice principal is there and with...an MCO agent! They took Marion's rumor seriously. A moxxing, he can't be serious.

"With all due respect, Mr. Peterson, but no. I am not going anywhere alone with a fucking MCO agent." She could stand, however, and she did. "I had to do a report on this kind of thing at my last school. In civics class, no less. You know how much responsibility these guys are liable for?"

"Ms. Stein—"

"Zero! Nil! Zilch! Bupkis! They aren't government agents and most confidentiality laws do not apply. Nor most constitutional amendments," she added. "Illegal search and seizure? Ha!"

Mr. Peterson better know if anything happens to Penelope because of this it is his butt on the line.

What! They can just get an MCO check 'on reasonable suspicion' and do this shit, no wonder it is called a moxxing, it is like doxxing and using the police to target someone you don't like. Waive confidentiality and no HIPAA for MCO, school policy is BS if it endangers your students for a non-govenmental agency's agenda. And she isn't a mutant, that is why she isn't at Whateley, I forgot that detail.

A blood sample to determine if you are a mutant, yes or no answer, it seems like there could be false positives and false negatives with this method to me. A bandage over her fingertip, no regen. 5 minutes to analyze the sample, which is fast for a field unit. Negative and Penelope is polite to the agent about it. Discuss ways to deal with moxxing along the way back to his van, the vice principal needs to hear this. Well, there is a whole class wasted all because of Marion and her moxxing Penelope.

GiGi is upset someone did that to Penny, and yes, making Marion and her groupies uncomfortable would be worth it. Penny called herself in!

"Well, I know it'd occur to someone eventually, so I wanted it to make it convenient for me." Penelope chuckled through the next bite of her sandwich. "Wasn't expecting Agent Newmond there to have such perfect timing. No complaints, though. Except for my finger. Yee-ouch."

If it is worse than those auto-needles used for taking blood to check blood sugar levels I can imagine. GiGi, you have no idea of what Penny is like at home.

later that evening

No modest brown sedan for driving around town today.

For the occasion, they'd pulled a standard switcharoo tactic in the local mall parking garage, leaving in a different vehicle than the one they'd gone in with: a standard black van with no side windows and a tinted windshield.

Nice and standard, with the MCO around you see so many of those it won't be suspicious. Okay, I want to know what the dashboard of the main cabin is like. No names are given for Penny nor Adolf to the person they are doing the job for, good idea so it doesn't come back to bite them later. Good advice for Penny in their line of work.

The stealth suit can give near-invisibility but also change colors, that is some gift. SilverStar for her codename, Penny has chosen a good one. Chameleon circuits and gecko pads, telemetry and gear suites, that suit is tricked out. Her bag can morph and change size as well, I don't want to guess how much all her gifts cost now. A potential mentor, let's hope it works out.

7' tall without shoes on, muscular, and in costume, dang. Rats, she heard Penny and she was upwind to her. Tawny, Adolf got her in contact with Tawny!

Two hours by highway, in fact. Cincinatti was south Indiana while Muncie was more on the north end.

Just how fast is Tawny? Leonine lady, that explains the mane-like hair.

"Because I'm already on at least one major villain's shit-list, and I wasn't even trying," said SilverStar. "So if she's going to come after me eventually, I might as well try harder."

Now there was a laugh. "Fair enough. What is it with the silver code names..."

I like her. Principal member and often leader of SPECTRUM, Adolf sure does have some strong contacts.

Oof, technocrat groups are rough to deal with without stealth and high-level information gathering. So Tawny distracts them from the fact she has an ally spying on their operations and digging up the dirt she needs to shut them down and prove which local governments are in their pockets.

"Stealth suit," she confirmed. "A selection of tools and holdouts. Ongoing martial arts and small arms training. Moderate physical enhancement and danger sense, rated EX-2 ESP-2 equivalent."

It has been so long since I read the previous stories with her in them that I forgot Penny's ratings.

Old offices, factories, and warehouses, there is a reason criminals and supervillains use them so much. Bwahaha, reading her seminar notes too much, Tawny, you need a vacation sometime soon.

An exercise in patience, most jobs that require your type of skills and gear are. 4:47 Am for pickup, she did this on a school night and stayed up that late. I hope her EX-2 equivalent lets her get fully rested off of less sleep. A day of school on nothing but naps and concentrated infusions of caffeine, oh boy.

Thursday, November 18th, 2016

Long night is an understatement. Melissa was hiding in the potted bush to spy on them, Marion is desperate, she probably has convinced herself that Penelope cheated the MCO's test and really is a mutant. Yikes, Missy needs to get some real friends and away from Marion and her other groupies.

"I, um, I was a year and a half into, yanno," said the girl. "Finally liking how I looked and all. Actually had a guy ask me to junior prom. I was living the dream, yanno?" A nervous giggle ended in a sob. "Then, the night off, he dumps me. Like, in front of the entire school, so he could take Sally instead. He, he only asked me because they put him up to it as, as a joke."

Okay, where can I purchase every bad luck item in existence, I want to put them under Marion's bed. GiGi, you don't call yourself fake, you are a real girl no matter what anyone else says or does.

A crowd approaches, Millicent, Evelyn, and Salutation hang in the wings, a few of the football players encouraging a boy who isn't on the team, oh brother, did Marion think this trick would actually work? Morton Becker.

He and his family went to the same synagogue as her grandparents. He was in her Hebrew class every weekend and her Calculus class during the week. He also had the social acumen of a mud clam, which she figured as the reason why he hadn't tried to ask her to homecoming.

Oh no, is he serious and the others are just using him?

Those creeps want Penny to hurt Morton by rejecting him, making her into the bad guy, I can't stand football players who pull this shit. Hehe, using the Hebrew she learned to work with Morton, get him to calm down, and explain to him how to ask her out properly and she will say yes.

"Not as mean as they wanted me to be," Penelope replied. "And if he follows through? Even better. Morton's a smartie, fast-tracked for MIT, I heard. My dear Jewish grandmother will be thrilled to have the chance to gush over my relationship prospects." She chuckled. "We shall just have to see what the future holds."

Shoot, go for the smart guy now, treat them right and you will have someone who knows they can trust you and you can trust them.

Morton out in an old sedan his maiden aunt had left him, calls up his Uncle Shane for an offer he made him, he says he really needs the help. I hope he cleans up nicely and is as nice as Penny believes he is.

later that evening

SilverStar was out on surveillance and brought her school reading, so much inactivity she finishes reading ahead of the class schedule. A dozen vehicles, no signs of labs or other workshops above ground, either these people know they are being spied on or something is up.

There didn't seem to be anything below ground, either, or at least she didn't see any of the visual signs that the installation might extend deep under the earth. This wasn't like the facility in Wichita.

Just what is this group doing out here so late at night?

"A coordination center," was his suggestion as they had coffee at home. "Distant from the main activity—safely so—but where the legal aspects of the organization can interact with the extralegal ones. Very businesslike."

Arrgh, that is bad news, how to find the location where the organization is doing the extralegal stuff. Mere conjecture, but it sure sounds on the right track. Ms Tawny needs to give Penny more information about this organization if she is to be of any help at all.

Heh, I like Mr. Vance, rules for his class but if you keep doing all three he doesn't mind the occasional nap in class.

The man would, however, record any loud snoring on his smartphone and add it to his sound garden for posterity. Penelope only hoped to remain off that year's highlights reel.

Might want to tell those students to see doctors, loud snoring at their age could be several different health issues.

Morton didn't come to school today, I wonder why. And Margit, your food is making me hungry with each description. A note written in Hebrew, oh, Morton is doing a big asking her out to the homecoming dance. Darn it, Marion and her top three groupies are there with their boyfriends while poor Melissa is all alone.

A white limousine, Morton cleaned up very well, and dressed to the nines. Penny of course says yes, then gives Morton a kiss on the cheek.

"Now hurry back to that limo and get away before the football team realizes you made them look cheap."

Boy, the football players' dates are going to be complaining about why didn't they get asked out that way. GiGi and the girls including Melissa come in to congratulate Penny, Melissa admires the dozen roses before Salutation gets the poor girl to leave. Penny doesn't have a dress for the homecoming dance!

later that evening

3rd night of surveillance and activiity picks up big time. Just what is going on now? Great, someone knows she is there and doesn't have a good lock, but uses grenades. Tek Knight, great, please say he won't be trouble. Tells him the basics of her job, her codename, and who made her stealth suit.

"Code names only?" SilverStar nodded, then continued. "Retrofit, Electradyne, Power Stunt, and... Tek Witch. She did the work on the chameleon circuit and a lot of the style design."

The man's chuckle bore a hint of pride. "Of course she did. As well as lifting ideas from my own stealth tech. You met her?"

Oh god, it is Tek Witch's father, she lifted ideas from her dad's own stealth tech.

Aww, he is a good dad, so concerned about how his daughter is doing at Whateley, and he was busy on this job so couldn't come to Parents Day. 3 meters behind him and he wants to see more of his daughter's handiwork in action. Social camouflage on the control menu, can do holographic disguises as well, this suit keeps getting better and better. Proprietary material made by Electradyne, that girl needs to patent that stuff if she can.

"This face I am wearing," he informed her along the way, belongs to a mid-level director of this organization, a man named Bilosevic. Remember that name; you are his personal assistant..."

"Marion." If she had to play a bitch, she could use the help staying in character. "Marion Greenwood."

Good cover name, but I wouldn't use it too often. I know the bag is bigger on the inside, but how much bigger on the inside? Throckwood, Tek Knight sure knows how to make an office worker nervous. Ack, a building interior so boring it causes your brain to start shutting down, how insidious.

Dang, good thing for danger sense and even a one-use PFP that takes time to recharge is a lifesaver in the right situation. Dang, Penny's martial arts training comes in handy for a quick takedown. One-use items that need time to recharge, but from Whateley freshman, those must be some potent items. The corridor changed colors so quickly, the main lights overhead going out and strobe lights and a high-pitched alarm, ouch.

Oh crud, this triggered the office workers into some kind of programmed combat mode. 10 at a time on Tek Knight, he is pinned down.

Helpful holdout #1, courtesy of Retrofit. It looked like a miniature air horn. It rumbled like a miniature jet engine at close range.

Things like this are why you don't tick off the gadgeteers and devisors at Whateley. The mob is on the floor in pain, Tek Knight fights free and cuts a new door through the wall for them to escape through.

"An experiment in groupthink optimization. The extralegal branch of the company hired me to procure some tech from a Eurojank group called Les Fils de Reseau, which in hindsight I should have passed on. More trouble than it was worth for the job."

So basically an artificially triggered type of hivemind state, that is scary. Electradyne needs to market those grenades for non-lethal crowd control.

"Is your entire loadout non-lethal?" Tek Knight inquired as they passed the struggling mass of people.

"Whateley puts certain restrictions on official class projects," she reminded him. "Plus, anything's lethal if you try hard enough."

She is right, it is scary what you can do when you get really creative with some things.

Safta Margit's training needs to be taught at Whateley as a course to take after BMA. Recruit more people for the groupthink project, I'm with Tek Knight, destroy it so nothing is less. George, such a normal name for someone who is nuts.

"What, improving efficiency? Increasing cooperation? Removing conflict? These things make a company stronger, more profitable. Shares are going nowhere but up." The man's laughter was canned like an old sitcom.

Yup, total nutter, I'm surprised squirrels for miles around aren't attracted to him, though I think they know not to mess with a bad nut.

"Setting me up to take the blame for the Ithaca incident." Tek Knight sounded like he might spit if it weren't for the helmet. "Dirty business, dirty dealing, and you made me miss Parents Day at my daughter's school." The sword came up, its laser edge aglow. "As it turns out, there is something I take more personally than a broken covenant."

Oh boy, you made him miss being there for Tek Witch on Parents Day, I would rather take on an angry Razorback than do that.

George, you speak of a hivemind, but one with you at the top and everyone else subservient to you, that is a horrible idea. Cleansweep, MusMaximus, and Provoker, he went after retired superheroes and villains, forcing them to join his groupthink, that is beyond sick. Cleansweep is a speedster, dealt with by Tek Knight, but his PFP shield is fractured as MusMaximus hits him. Provoker is fighting SilverStar and without using his holdouts he isn't much of a threat.

Red-gunk grenade, so glad her danger sense works so well. Power-Stunt made a one-shot taser ring, not that should have some kick to it. Ouch, down for the count, but alive. Ask for help, but George is hiding behind a force field screen. Tek Knight is a skilled fighter, he has taken down Cleansweep, hobbled by a tripwire, but the MusMaximus is still up.

"M-more coming," stammered the Provoker. "C-can feel the e-echoes. T-telling me... b-but I'm t-too fried. Th-thanks."

Crap, just how many more has he enslaved? Cancellator, boy, Provoker makes some good tech, took out the field protecting George like that. Muscle-man coming for SilverStar and she uses the gift from Adolf, a SIG Sauer P290RS pistol with 9mm ammunition, to end George. But all of them are crying, was being broken free from the groupthink so suddenly and possibly feeling George's death traumatic or is it something else?

Time to flee the building and let the heroes clean up the mess, I hope they can help everyone George forced into his groupthink. Tawny and her team are coming since that is who SilverStar called earlier, Tek Knight is taking Provoker and leaving.

"Oh, and if you should make a performance report to your suit's designers, then..." She didn't imagine the sigh. "Tell Tek Witch that her daddy is proud of her, and that he hopes to see her again soon."

You don't have to wait for Parents Day to visit her, just call Whateley first to arrange it.

Henny-Penny Diner, at least SilverStar has a place to relax after an intense mission. Tawny has a magical necklace to disguise herself, cool. Tawny's phone has an app to do that, I want it! The social camouflage setting was a nice surprise, so useful in the line of work SilverStar is getting into. Pretty sure SilverStar knowing his daughter is what made Tek Knight reasonable with SilverStar. Waffles, fruit, and fried chicken, now that is my kind of breakfast.

MusMaximus is someone Tawny knew and she knew he had gotten mixed up in this mess. Aww, he is an ex-boyfriend of hers.

"We were imbued around the same time, me with the ferocity of the lioness and him with the power of a kung-fu rat master or something like that. So naturally life kept forcing us together, fighting the good fight or the bad or whatever. And, well..." The heroine sighed again. "Look, off record and everything?"

Imbued, huh, we have met power stone users and some other types, but I don't recall any imbued before now. Oh boy, so that is why she was with MusMaximus, most guys can't survive a night with her. Sava Adolf on route to pick her up, I hope we see Tawny again in the future for another job.

Saturday, November 20th, 2016

If she were a good and proper young Jewish lass, she wouldn't have worked at all from sunset of the night before, but as Safta Margit said, finding reasons and loopholes to avoid the rules was almost as Jewish as following them all.

I like Safta Margit, we need more of her around. Homecoming this evening and still no dress, ack. A makeover by Margit, she is right that some styles are timeless. Dang, Twitch went all out on her part of the suit. Boy, Twitch is going to be bouncing off the walls with excitement after such praise and words from her daddy.

Six hours to get ready and Safta Margit only needed two, she could go pro with those skills. She could open a makeover shop and it would be packed all the time. She and Winnie pranking the boys with those skills, hehe. Whoa, no wonder Eletradyne doesn't want the details of that material leaking out, that is some groundbreaking stuff. Twitch included an entire category of high school prom and homecoming dresses, she knew what Penny would need.

Morton might just faint when he sees Penny all glammed up. Hehehe, the deepest red possible to tick off Marion who seems to think she can call dibs on a dress color. Safety kit, pepper spray is considered a firearm for legal purposes, I didn't know that. Normal taser, condoms, Grandma! Oh boy, Penny doesn't want to hear this right now, lalala. Best to be prepared, why does adrenaline have to work like that, why? Cuckoo Channel's Knock-Out #9, just in case of big trouble.

Morton shows up in the white limo to pick up Penny at 6 PM, so this was the favor from his uncle. Barely flinched when faced with Adolf at the front door, braver than most boys his age. Didn't faint at seeing Penny in her red dress, I underestimated Morton. Morton is handsome all cleaned up and decked out. Oh boy, I hope Penny can restrain herself. Doting Jewish grandmother, that is no act for Safta Margit.

Eep, grandmother's speech to Morton has him more out of sorts than any threat Adolf could have given. Morton is gracious, interesting, and knows how to keep his hands to himself, boy, he sounds perfect to me. Aww, GiGi showed up to take pictures of Penny and wants to see Marion's face when Penny comes in wearing her red dress.

Marion, just now understanding that she'd lost a contest she hadn't even known she was in.

The queen bee's face went a bright red to perfectly match her dress. Flash, the camera caught it for perfect posterity.

After all Marion has done this is the least she deserves. Aww, Morton had lessons in dance, but didn't do well, that is more than most guys at high school dances. Marion tries to show up Penny and Morton by dancing with her date Brad.

Marion trying to knock them over like that, she is a petty, vindictive b. Penny leads and uses her danger sense to avoid deliberate attacks on her and Morton, but not accidental ones that happen at every school dance.

Soon after, Marion was forced to retire after she and Brad nearly clotheslined Salutation and her date. Friendly fire ended in unfriendly argument as the two cheerleaders took it outside.

Marion, you blew it.

An hour of more dancing, breathers for punch, and GiGi taking pictures of them. Oh boy, Penny might just go too far with her date and end up regretting it. Penny and Morton go with GiGi to stand guard so the football players won't mess with her as she goes to the bathroom. Oh god, Penny using that reference to the Spice Girls song and the refrain to tell Morton what she wants.

Ah, she wanted to make sure Morton was cool with GiGi before things went any further. GiGi interrupts with a picture and ruins the moment, oh well, something for 2nd date. Danger sense triggered, billowing wall of flames bars all entrances to the auditorium. In shifting colors, what the heck? The floor isn't burning, but it still hurts so a psionic projection. A back-and-forth yelling match between Marion and Gwynnifer Easley according to GiGi who recognizes the voice.

"You wouldn't know her," said Morton. "She and Marion were thick for years, up until they were named cheer squad lieutenants last year."

"Then claws out," Girasol continued. "There could be only one captain, and all that. But then Gwinny left in the middle of spring semester and no one knows why."

The girl manifested, left, and has come back to pull a Carrie and have her revenge, crap. A kiss with Morton establishes an alibi for Penny using the camera. A complete crash of the school security system, Penny, what are you going to do? Oh, going into her SilverStar costume mode and guise so she can act as a superhero.

Hoping that Gwynnifer doesn't know about the drama club access to the backstage area of the auditorium, Penny is up the nearest rope to the catwalks in seconds. The psionic barrier only goes up two meters, which is a big limitation when dealing with others with powers. Marion is burned like a bad sunburn, and Gwynnifer's costume is ridiculous. Ravenge, good grief, says Marion ruined her life. Marion calls her a freak-o mutant and she is the one who turned her in to the MCO, Gwynnifer is right, Marion was no real friend to betray her like that.

"We had to flee for our lives!" screamed Ravenge. "They came for me and my parents and we barely made it out alive! We had to relocate. Did you know there's an entire underground railroad for people who get displaced like that? I didn't! And then my parents kick me out as soon as I turn 18? Fuck that! Fuck them! And fuck you, Marsi!"

What the hell, it sounds more like Marion told the local Humanity First branch about her and where she lived.

Sometimes doing the right thing means you have to help hateful bigots like Marion, Penny. You don't have to like it though. Retrofit made a dropline right out of Mission: Impossible, the stuff the kids at Whateley can build is so fun to see in action. Grandma was right about the Cuckoo Channel being needed. Penny makes a quick exit after securing Ravenge, then back to the bathroom and into her prom dress with everything looking as if she never left her friends' side.

GiGi on 911 and good lie with Penny having been there the whole time was well, help is on the way. They saw pretty much everything and inferred the rest, GiGi and Morton know it was her who came to the rescue. Stick to a script and Penny is going to have to tell them both everything, oh boy.

Police arrived first, Tawny next to ensure Ravenge didn't have any 'accidents' or mishandling while unconscious. In the limo we find out how Morton got to use it, his Uncle Shane got drunk off of wine at the feast of Tu b'Av and told Morton if he ever wants to impress a girl he can hook him up.

"I'm working at his men's wear store three evenings a week until graduation."

At least you are a senior.

Oh boy, that is some kiss to make GiGi go that wide-eyed. Drop them off at Penny's place, she is going to have to tell her grandparents the secret is out. A call from Tawny and Penny can't pick up right now, can things get any more complicated? Good response, Penny. Time to come inside and chat.

Penny sent a mail to Tawny while Safta Margit played host for GiGi and Morton. Good story to cover for SilverStar being at the homecoming dance and taking out Ravenge. Tales of the Fourth Reich graphic novel and Safta Margit commenting on the embellishments and mistaken details of what actually happened, priceless. Only went that shade of scarlet for one mission, but it is the image they got her reference photo from, good grief.

Morton couldn't stop glancing from the page to the reality and back again. "I actually own a copy of this book," he admitted. "Must've read it a dozen times, and I never realized I go to sabbath services with..."

"The years have not been that kind to me," Safta Margit teased.

And yet I would choose to face a younger agent any day over you and your husband even now. Ooo, time for Penny's friends to learn her backstory and how she has her abilities and came to be adopted into this family.

"—and oh, long story short, Penny dear helped us blow their secret base wide open, guns blazing and fists punching. We just had to keep her after that."

There are some students at Whateley if they heard that story would ask if you could adopt them, you are that badass and yet so kind.

Penny is Jewish, she is even learning the language because she loves it and sticks to the rules outside the home even though she doesn't have to.

Her grandfather grunted. "She half-rescued herself with a dart-stunner."

"Right. She was made for this family, truly, and we welcome her as our own."

Aww, you got Penny crying tears of joy. Bat mitzvah is in his June, shoot, Whateley will still be in session at that time and Erica will miss it, won't she? What are we doing for our second date, poor Morton has gotten himself a girl who knows what she wants, he better be ready.