Oh, Penny was so sweet.
Hopefully she hadn't noticed that he wasn't the fittest at the moment.
Stupidly, she had hit exactly the spot where he had not reached with the oinment before.
The pain had shot through his whole body. Very unpleasant.
But that the two ladies, and especially the cruel Madea, had been agents of the headquarters, even he had not known. Now Madea's exceedingly good acting skills made sense, too.
Penny now looked at him belligerently and a broad grin crept onto his face.
At last he could fight with Penny again!
He was brave! Penny couldn't say otherwise. Because he was actually afraid of his entire life and still carried on as before.
No amount of humiliation or beatings from his uncle or Madea could overcome him, even if he sometimes wished he hadn't scratched his uncle out of the ice but had tried to join MAD on his own.
That way, he would definitely be more famous by now than he was at the moment.
Talon got ready to fight and ran his hand through his hair once more.
"Well, toots. Finally getting some time to fight?"
"You bet! I'll beat you into the ground!" countered Penny, charging at him.
Light-footed, he dodged her and ran down the hall.
"Catch me!" he shouted in the direction of his pursuer, and in the meantime loosened a hose, which he then aimed directly at Penny.
A gush of hot, sticky candy shot toward her and, screaming, she held her arms in front of her face for protection.
"Sweet as sugar, as always!" Talon stated with a laugh before dropping the hose, turning off the machine and running on.
Penny had trouble following him, he noted. Probably her feet were too stuck to the ground.
In one leap, he jumped onto the conveyor belt of another machine and grimaced in the girl's direction.
"Come on Penny! Are you going to give up because of a mini obstacle like that?"
But when he tried to jump down again on the other side of the belt, it didn't work.
What was going on?
With force he tried to lift his feet from the metal, but it didn't work. And slowly it dawned on him why.
The conveyor belt was magnetic. His shoes were metal.
Damn! Sometimes he was a fool, too.
"Penny!" he now yelled, for the girl was still not in sight, while he unsuccessfully tried to get out of his shoes. "Come here and turn off the machine!" With an anxious glance to the side, into the blackness of the machine, he realized how urgent his situation really was. "Hurry up!"
But Penny, to his horror, was not quick enough and he found himself inside the machine, being lifted up, pushed around and finally vacuum packed like the XXL Santas that now lay in the box next to him.
He didn't have much air to breathe and he couldn't move either.
Penny. Please return the favor for the thing with the Titanic! Otherwise their contest would be quite short and he could never tell her how much he liked her.
Ugh, it was sticky! Penny, instead of going after Talon, had first sought out a water facility to rid herself of the sticky sugar.
Some parts of her clothes and even her skin had been burned by the scorching hot stuff and burn blisters were forming on her fingers.
The water she now found was so nice and cool. It felt good.
And finally she was rid of the disgusting sticky stuff.
It tasted good as candy, but only then!
The girl sighed before she remembered that she had actually been chasing Talon and finished her purge as quickly as possible.
As fast as she could, she ran back to the place where she had last seen him. But he was nowhere to be seen.
Puzzled, Penny took another closer look and could see purple hair gel on the top of the lid of a machine.
Surely he hadn't fallen into the machine?!
No, not even Talon was that clumsy!
Penny smiled at the thought, but also worried.
She decided to take a look at the end of the machine to see if he might have been there somewhere and strolled around the facility.
When she saw two purple boots, wrapped in foil, sticking out of the box for finished products, however, she quickened her steps.
If he really had been vacuumed, he was indeed in danger!
Concerned, she bent over the plastic-wrapped Talon, who looked at her with wide eyes and muttered something.
"I'm sorry, Talon, I don't understand you like this," Penny replied and pulled out a small pocket knife before she began to slit open the plastic.
She had to pull herself together very hard not to whimper. Burnt hands were definitely not good for this job. With effort she managed to hold the knife firmly and not slip off.
A short time later, Talon stood in front of her, relieved. "Whew, thanks. I thought that was it... would have been a pretty pathetic and laughable exit."
The girl giggled. "That's right! Well, I'd say it's 1 to 1!"
Sullenly, Talon grumbled something in agreement and thanked her again.
Taking two big steps, he walked towards Penny until he was standing right in front of her, looking into her eyes. The girl stopped as if frozen. What was he up to?
And before she really realized how it had happened, she found herself in his arms.
Her face was pressed against his chest, he had buried his face in her hair and his arms were wrapped around her tightly.
It was only at that moment that Penny realized how much Talon had grown in the last two years, unlike her. He was now a good head taller and no longer the beanpole he had been at 15. Of course, Penny had changed too, but less strikingly than he had.
Now Penny stood there in his arms, as she had wanted to since she knew him, enjoying his closeness.
She heard his heartbeat quicken and he took a breath.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, my love!" he whispered before ending the embrace and looking at her with a tortured smile. There was so much pain in his gaze, so much sorrow, that her heart stopped for a moment.
"Talon...," began Penny, bright red from the situation before. She still couldn't interpret the sentence correctly. It would be just too good to be true if he actually loved her.
She actually wanted to say: I love you too. Or: Everything will be fine, but her uncle burst in once again.
"By the holy gadget!" Penny heard before he crashed into the machine and quickly got up again. Hectically, he looked around and spotted Penny, Talon and Brain, who had assumed his normal form and came running around the corner.
"Penny! Brain! Here you are! We have to get out fast, the gum machine seems to be broken!" he called out to them in a panic, ignoring the third person in the group.
Penny looked at the gum machine, while Brain and her uncle were already running for the exit.
The plant's cauldrons were shaking and expanding.
They were going to explode!
"Penny! Come on!" Talon held out his hand to her and without hesitation she grabbed it.
The young man pulled her to him. "Hold on tight!" he gave as his only warning before activating his rocket boots and flying her in a slalom around the machines to the exit.
They hadn't quite gotten there when a deafening explosion shook the walls and they were blasted out the door by the shock wave.
Talon had lost all control of his boots as a result, however, so he and Penny tumbled and finally fell. They rolled through the dirt for several feet before coming to rest.
"Pooh." Penny groaned. Now the burn blisters had been joined by abrasions and a headache. Oh great!
Talon was also holding his head.
"Are you okay?" he asked, looking in her direction.
"Well, I've been better," She answered realistically and slowly stood up.
Talon had also now risen from the dirt and was looking more closely at Penny, as she caught him do it out of the corner of her eye.
"Sorry about the burns, by the way," he said, embarrassed, and took her hand gently in his. It was a nice feeling, though she would probably enjoy it more without the pain in her fingers.
"Oh, that's all right. You're just doing your job," she waved it off and withdrew her hand from him again, her eyes fixed on her feet.
It wasn't right.
He was the enemy.
Her archenemy!
How could something so wrong feel so good?
"What's wrong, toots?" she heard his crooning voice now.
"I'm not your toots." Her certain and icy tone startled herself. But it didn't help. She really loved him, very much so, but it was not to be. It was like Romeo and Juliet. A love that would never be under a good star.
He was her enemy. She had to keep reminding herself of that.
If only he had really been an agent of the headquarters, back then.
Then surely many things would have been different and they would be a couple now.
She looked up into his eyes with a determined look and had to pull herself together not to become weak again.
"Surely you have some things to sort out when I see that pile of junk over there." She said and pointed to the burning factory with a nod of her head.
Talon slumped noticeably and hung his head.
"Oh yes, I do. If you only knew what's in store for me." He grumbled sorrowfully.
"By the way, it's two to one now, if I'm not mistaken." He added, in a rather disinterested tone, before turning and walking away.
With a big lump in her throat Penny looked after him and discovered dark discolored spots on his jacket. Surely this was not blood, or was it?
The girl decided to throw overboard the resolutions she had made earlier.
He simply meant too much to her.
Worried, she ran after him and caught up. "Talon!" She couldn't suppress the worry in her voice.
The person addressed looked at her in surprise. He probably hadn't expected her to follow him after what she had thrown at him.
"I'm worried about you!" it shot out of her mouth before she had considered whether she really wanted to say it. She quickly covered her mouth, but it had long since passed her lips. Damn. Now he knew he meant more to her than she wanted to admit after all.
"What's wrong, sweetie?" he asked now, gently stroking her hair.
Oh my god, that was beautiful. All at once, a blush shot up her face and her heartbeat tripled its pace.
"I...you...you have spots on your back that are pretty darkly discolored. I'm just worried that it's blood!" she stammered.
Talon's previously gentle smile froze and turned sour.
So she had hit the nail on the head. It was blood. After all, it could have been mere sweat...at least she had hoped so.
"That's another good observation you've made," murmured the boy, leaning down to her.
"But don't worry about me, Penny. I'm strong, you know that."
His hand had moved from her hair to her cheek and was now caressing it as the girl thought about what to answer.
She couldn't think clearly when he was so close, when she felt his warmth. Her thoughts kept drifting.
"Talon..." she began, once again trumpeting her feelings. "Of course I worry! I care about you, after all. I don't want you to suffer or get seriously hurt."
If the head wasn't working right, the mouth was probably working on its own, she realized.
"Oh, my toots." Talon added his second hand, holding her face in both hands now. "It may be that the punishments my uncle gives me have gotten harsher in recent years, but I can live with that. I'm more worried about you. Madea is not only evil and sneaky, but also brutal. Please be careful and stay away from her. Because I may not be able to watch you for a while after the mess that happened here."
"You mean you'll be grounded?" asked Penny now, and the boy nodded.
"Worse than that. I probably won't be allowed to do any more missions for now, and if there are any, Madea will fill in for me. So please, don't separate from your uncle in the next few weeks. No solo efforts! Promise me."
Real concern seemed to speak from his words and something akin to fear flashed in his eyes as well. Was he actually worried about her? Could it be that his feelings were real and not a ploy to distract her? The better she got to know him, the more unsure she became about her theory of his intentions. Was he perhaps not as evil as he always pretended?
Of course she would take his advice, it couldn't hurt to stick closer to her uncle again. After all, Brain couldn't handle everything on his own either.
"Yes, I promise you. I will stay with my uncle. However, I really hope to see you again as soon as possible. And please take care of yourself as well, you're only human after all and not indestructible." Carefully, she stroked his back and saw his facial muscles tense. She guessed it wasn't as harmless as he claimed.
Slowly, the smile returned to his face and he brushed a strand of hair out of her face that had come loose from its braid with his thumb.
"I'll do my best to stay out of trouble, but unfortunately I can't promise anything. You know how my uncle is. Don't forget about me, sweetie!"
His face came closer and Penny felt him give her a kiss on the forehead.
Even as he stood back up, threw her a kissing hand, and disappeared into the horizon with the help of his rocket boots, she could still feel the warmth of the kiss lingering on her skin.
"Aiiii!" The girl jumped on the spot excitedly as the situation finally got through to her brain. He had kissed her on the forehead! Did that even count as a kiss? Oh, never mind! She didn't want to worry about that. Her emotions were far too much in turmoil to think about it with a clear head.
A little bit of sadness and insecurity still resonated with the elation. She would probably not see Talon for some time.
And what was behind his concern that Madea was so dangerous?
But for the time being, Penny pushed aside the unpleasant feelings and kept her rose-colored glasses on while she went in search of her uncle and Brain.
Even the painful burns were forgotten in her happiness and she was in high spirits when she finally found the two people she was looking for standing behind a group of trees and flew back home with them.