Penelope sometimes made friends with questionable kids. She knew that she shouldn’t, that something was off, but the majority of the time she was far too nice to really say anything bad to or about them. So she tended to go along with their ideas, so long as A ) no one got hurt, and B ) she wasn’t the butt of anyone’s jokes. That is just the way it is and so far it seemed to work out okay for her. Sure occasionally she got pulled into the principal’s office or a teacher wanted to talk to her after class, but a majority of the time it was an okay arrangement for her life.

But today she was just not sure if what they were doing was right. Alma, her friend from school and the ringleader of this little endeavor convinced her parents that she wanted to see the new movie “Happy Elf Shoes”. Of course this was a movie that Penelope REALLY did want to see but she didn’t let on to that fact; Alma didn’t want to see that movie. No, Alma wanted to see “Space Mutants 5: The Malignant Mutated Monstrosities Return 2,” a scary movie that Penelope was not all that keen to watching. It was scary and Penelope didn’t care for scary things. She knew what happened when she did.

…

Unfortunately Alma had a knack for putting on the pressure. As much as Penelope didn’t want to watch it, the constant nagging from Alma and her other two friends from her middle school were enough to sway Penelope’s vote. She would go along and hope that everything would be okay.

Under the guise of wanting to see the kid’s movie, the three girls managed to get into the theater after being separated from Alma’s big sister. She had sent them off to see the kid’s movie while she went to see some sapping romance that was next door. The girls were only in their seats for a few moments before Alma ushered them all out and Penelope reluctantly followed. She really wanted to see the happy elves dancing!

But, grumbling under her breath, she followed Alma and the others to different room down the way. She could hear the sounds of loud music and screaming inside. It was apparent that the movie had already begun and it was already making good on its promise to be “The most terrifyingiest movie of the Christmas season!” and the thought of it made Penelope uneasy. She hovered outside the doors as Alma and her two friends snuck in, leaving the young girl to bite her smaller lip in indecision. Maybe she could just go back to the happy elves movie?

Before she could make her getaway, though, a blonde head peeked out from the theater doors. Alma was quickly waving her hand over.

“Come on, Penny! Don’t be chicken butt!” she whispered.

“I’m not a chicken butt!” she frowned. Looking from left to right, she sighed as she walk into the theater with Alma and quickly went to find their seats.

She hoped she wouldn’t regret this.

A real date. Vicente was actually just a tad bit…nervous. Yes, he flirted with a lot of the girls at the mansion and at work, and yes he had certain…experiences with more persistent girls, but this was surprisingly different. After working out one day, Vicente was surprised when he was approached by another young woman, a mutant with cute, bushy, squirrel tail. She seemed nervous, almost as if this were something she were not used to. He was curious as to what she wanted…until she suddenly blurted out that he was hot and if he wanted to go on a date.

Vicente shrugged and said “sure”. The high-pitched squeal of joy from the squirrel girl was enough to partially deafen him, but he still grinned a little at her reaction. It was cute.

So now, here the two of them were, sitting in a dark movie theater and watching the credits roll on a supposedly scary movie. From what he had seen of the trailers, Vicente was not all that impressed but he figured why not? Cheryl was the one that wanted to see it so he wasn’t going to argue with her.

Speaking off...

“Cheryl,” he started to say as he lifted up the bag of popcorn to offer her some. But upon turning, he paused when he caught her staring at him. “Um…popco—what’re you doing?”

Cheryl, suddenly flushed with embarrassment, turned back to the movie screen. Her squirrel tail bristled up and swayed a she tried to keep it contained to her movie seat.

“S-Sorry,” she stammered as she blushed and went back to drinking her soda. Her eyes were plastered to the movie screen as the opening credits finally finished.

She was only a year younger than him, he guessed, but Vicente was still a little surprised by how childish Cheryl was. It didn’t really bother him but he did wish that she would stop staring at him. Brushing some popcorn off of his nice, black, button up shirt, the young chimera tried to smile to young woman and offered her some popcorn again.

“It’s okay,” he said with a smile and offered her to bag. “Want some?”

Cheryl, still blushing, turned her embarrassed look into a smile as she reached over and took a handful of the snack. Visibly she began to relax a bit more, and so did Vicente. Turning back to the screen he sighed. He hoped that she could reign in herself in before they went to dinner after this movie…

Space Mutants 5! Akshay could not have been more excited about this movie. The Space Mutant franchise was supposed to have died after the horrendous fourth movie when there was leather suits and psychedelic colors abound in the 90s! But it seemed that a new director and creative visionary had decided to take the whole franchise into a different direction and still do justice to the films that had appeared before!

Squeeee! Akshay was indeed excited.

Sitting in his seat, the young wordsmith practically bounced around as he ate his popcorn and stared at opening credits. This was exactly what he needed after the long few weeks that he had been having. So much had occurred, so much of it painful, that Akshay was just looking forward into delving into his own routines again. Sure, maybe that was just a way of avoiding everything that had had gone through lately, but right now he just didn’t care. He had gone through enough and for one day he needed to just live his life as he normally would. And to be honest he had been looking forward to this movie for months. He was not about to give that up.

So, that was why he was now here, relaxing in his most comfortable jeans and t-shirt, watching as names crawled across the screen while unknown screams occurred from somewhere off camera. He had to grin at that. It was a nice touch.

“So…awesome,” Akshay smirked as he shoved another handful of popcorn in his mouth. This was good. Getting out and just being himself again, it was good.

The most important thing, though, was that Akshay was simply looking forward to two hours no disturbances.

Penelope already didn’t like this situation. She snuck into a movie she didn’t pay for, the movie was scary, and she was already beginning to feel nervous. None of this was going to bode well for her but she simply didn’t have it in her to say no to Alma. The girl was supposed to be her friend and yet Penelope was beginning to feel just a tad bit…pushed around. But she couldn’t say anything, could she? Even if she felt uncomfortable with all this, it was so rare for Penelope to feel like she was making friends that she didn’t want to lose any.

She had a feeling that arguing with Alma was going to lead to a loose of friendship. And Penelope couldn’t afford to do that, could she?

“See? It isn’t so bad.” Alma muttered as she led the way to some back corner of the theater that could not be easily seen.

Penelope only meekly nodded as she followed her friend. The other people in the theater had apparently not spotted them but that didn’t mean what they were doing was not wrong. Still, Penelope was not going to say anything. Instead she just followed along until Alma finally reached the seats that she had picked out with her other two friends. All of them were dwarfed when they sat down in the big chairs, looking up at the massive screen in front of them. They would not easily be seen.

”AHHHHHH!!!!”

RRRRRAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!!!!

Alma giggled.

“This is so cool.”

Penelope gripped the arms of her char tightly, biting her lip and trying to keep herself calm. The first scream in the movie and instantly started to make her heartbeat a little faster. But she had to control this, she just had to. Otherwise…

Heheheheahahahaheheehahaeheaheh

She shuttered at the sound in her head. Closed her eyes, and tried to stay calm. The movie couldn’t be THAT[/b] long, could it?

An hour into the movie and Vicente was smirking. This was probably one of the bloodiest movies he had ever seen (recently), filled with gore, guts, and sudden scenes which were made for the sole purpose of making people jump. Vicente didn’t jump. But Cheryl sure did, and it seemed that every time, she clung onto his arm just a tad bit tighter. At this part of the film, where the Space Mutants were running amok and tearing people’s faces off in the science lab, his date was so tightly fastened to his arm that the young chimera feared he would lose circulation.

But he didn’t bother to remove her. Instead, he just grinned as he opened his hand and gently squeezed her elbow. It was a calming gesture, just enough to show that he didn’t mind her grip and that she was safe.

Cheryl responded with a little smile before she buried her face into his shoulder. Another soldier had been eaten.

Awesome.

He had to admit that this was definitely a change of pace. His experience with women so far, except for Gina and Andrea, had been an experience that always so quickly led to intimacy. Not that that was all Vicente was good for, but he pretty much was all he knew up until right now. This was actually pretty sweet. He even kind of liked it. This may even be something he could partake in more often than just whenever he was asked. He could ask a girl out. How hard could it be?

”AHHHHHHHHH!!!!”

“Oh no!!”

Cheryl clung tighter and Vicente just smiled as he watched the movie. It was a pretty good flick.

This…was…SUCH a disappointment. Akshay grumbled as he pressed his elbow into the arm of his chair and leaned his face against his open palm. For how much hype this movie was getting, for the visionary director it got, it just seemed as if they still pandered to ever cheap movie cliché that he had ever seen! The buckets of gore, the cheesy effects, the sub-par acting (wasn’t the lead that chick from all the angsty vampire movies?[/i}), all of it was just a cry for help. Akshay was pretty let down and that just sucked.

Shaking his head he sighed as he decided to wait for the movie to end before he left. Though it was stupid, he did pay for an entire ticket so there was no point in him just leaving before it was over. He may as well watch it in its entirety.

Still, this was so torturous. It was to the point where Akshay was not even paying attention to the movie anymore and found better amusement just glancing around the movie theater.

Boy, the class he people he saw were so varied: in front of them was a pair of guys that were just laughing at every horrible thing on screen, in the section over he saw a young women clinging onto a some latino guy that looked more like he was a brick building than a human being, and beyond them he just saw a multitude of people of all shapes, faces, and creeds. But the most interesting he spied was off in the dark corner of the theater faaaaaar to the other side. It took him a second of watch them before he finally realized that they were just kids.

This was soooo not a kids movie. But either their parents dropped them off just to be rid of them for the evening, or they had snuck in on their own. Seriously, though, why would young girls sneak into a movie like that? He guessed that kids were just changing all around the world.

Still…maybe he should tell an usher…

“Penelope!” Alma whispered harshly. “Quite being such a scaredy cat and open your eyes!”

Penelope shook her head in response. She couldn’t. She couldn’t do it. She was already so scared by this movie that she was gripping onto the very arms of the chair. It felt almost like she was going to break her fingers as she tried to keep from opening her eyes. But it was the only distraction that she had. She couldn’t look at that screen anymore, she couldn’t see all those people die thanks to those horrible monsters on the screen. Even though she knew it was just a movie…it was too real.

Alma was getting annoyed with her and kept nudging her to open her eyes or getting her friend to jeer her that she was being a weenie. But Penelope didn’t care. She had to keep her eyes closed, she had to keep from getting anymore scared. It already felt like her heart wanted to beat out of her chest and that was a horrible feeling. Not only because of her health, but because whenever that has happened in the past, it was always followed up by someone far more worse than Penelope ever liked to think about. Jezebel.

“I…I got to go,” Penelope tried to plea. She started to move but Alma was fast enough to keep her grip on her arm. Penelope opened her eyes to look at her. “What are you doing?”

“Watch the movie!”

“NO!”

“If you don’t I’m telling everyone!”

“I don’t care! Let me go!” Penelope started to struggle, but it quickly proved to be in vain. As she tried to get up, Alma was holding onto her too tightly, and soon was of the other girls was hopping up to take Penelope’s other arm. She didn’t know what caused them to do this but it was quickly making the young girl panic. She didn’t care for this treatment at all. Who were they to hold her down? Who did they think they were?

”AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!”

Penelope opened her eyes as she looked at the screen without realizing what she was doing. Then…all she saw was red…

Vicente smirked and chuckled lightly when he watched, in the movie, as a pair of men tried to convince one of the space mutants to let them live. He didn’t know why he found them begging for their lives funny. Maybe it was just the absurdity of the situation. It just seemed that whenever someone was pressed into a corner that they knew they couldn’t get out of, and tried to beg for life, it never seemed to work out. It was just silly to think that the space mutants were going to suddenly grow a conscience and let them live.

But, he guessed that anything was indeed possible. He just shrugged his shoulders there and smiled at the terrified Cheryl, and let her cling onto him.

He turned his gaze back to the movie when he heard struggling nearby. At first he thought it was some background noise in the movie and didn’t bother to seek out the source, but he was quickly learning that it was actually someone inside the theater. Nearly out of his seat, Vicente turned from left to right, finding no one in particular that was making the sound. He strained his eyes to look in the dimly lit room but there was absolutely nothing.

What was going on?

>> “I don’t care! Let me go!”

That sounded almost like a little girl or something screaming. Vicente was half standing out of his chair, trying to figure out what was going on when he called out into the dark.

“Hey! Knock it off!” he shouted, trying in vain to see where the perpetrators were.

“Vicente, don’t,” Cheryl started to say.

But the young chimera was already out of his seat. Moving down the length of the aisle, he started to move towards the back, looking to see where he heard the struggling. He searched and searched until finally he came closer to the back row and suddenly paused. There, kneeling down, was a very large woman covered from head to toe in red skin and remains of clothing that looked far too small for her. This couldn’t be good. Especially since she was gripping a little girl by the neck and choking the life out of her.

“Hey! Stop!!” Vicente suddenly said and moved towards her.

Akshay couldn’t believe his eyes. He had seen the whole thing. Sitting in his seat, he had been watching the foursome of young girls closely, debating whether or not to tell management when he say three of them turn on the young, dark skinned girl. At first he thought they were just joking around or something but as her struggling grew more desperate, Akshay knew that this was not normal. They weren’t just joking around, they were trying to force her to do something she didn’t want to do.

He was already up and out of his seat, though, moving towards them when he saw it happen. At first glance he thought it was just sweat that was cover the girl’s face but it quickly no longer became that. It was such a startling transformation that he had to stop dead in his tracks.

What…the…F--?

He could scarcely believe it. The young girl was being covered in…something. It was not from the other girl’s either, it was coming from her very skin. A red ooze bubbled up from her pores and began to cover her from head-to-toe, seeping in and out of clothes until she was completely covered. But it didn’t end there. The bubbling ooze started to pile upon itself, expanding and growing until finally it grew a more defined, humanoid shape of muscles. He just couldn’t wrap his head around what he had seen. This girl, she innocent looking girl who was being held down was suddenly now…something he could scarcely identify.

The closely he could think of was some kind of Amazon, a muscle-ridden woman with long, flowing black hair and molten yellow eyes. Worst of all, yet it got worse, was the grin on her full, black lips. It was filled with such sadism that Akshay actually felt his heart partially shrivel up as she stood, turned on the first girl who had been holding her down and immediately seized her by the neck.

Akshay lost sight as the red woman knelt on the ground, gripping the struggling girl tightly and giggling to herself. This was insane.

>> “Hey! Stop!!”

“Aw, no,” Akshay mumbled as he tried to rush over to warn the man.

Oh this was just SO much fun. She was actually angry that Penelope tried to keep this outing a secret from her. The whole time during the movie, Jezebel had been shoving and pushing to get out but damn that little girl and the willpower she was developing. She didn’t care for Penelope getting so willful against her. But she found a way out. She always did. Well, more like those little brats that brought Penelope to the movies in the first place did.

All it took was a bit of bullying. Penelope couldn’t stand bullying and Jezebel knew it would only be a matter of time before she managed to break down that barrier and hop out. She was eager for some fun, especially after watching such an awesome movie! How could she not be inspired to do some mayhem!?

But first…a human touched her. HER! That little brat Alma. She would make sure to teach her to ever do that again. But just as she started—

>> “Hey! Stop!!”[/i]

“Heehahahehaha,”[/b] Jezebel chuckled as she started to straighten up. She loosened her grip on Alma just enough to let the girl fall to the ground, gasping and crying and rubbing her neck as she coughed fitfully. Tilting her gaze down, she stared at the muscley looking man and just grinned wide. She loved it when it was time to make new playmates, but she hated it when they forced her toys to run off crying.

She sighed. She never gets to keep nice things anymore.

“Hey sweetie,”[/b] she beamed as she placed a thick hand on her hip and looked down at him. “You look like a big one.”[/b] She cackled as she watched another, more wiry man jog up towards them. Shaking her head she sighed. “Another one? Please,”[/b] she muttered as she turned to grip one of the movie chairs. With a grunt she ripped it out of its bolted spot. Idly she tossed it aside and grinned at all the terrified humans that were turning in their direction. “Why do you have to ruin my fun?”[/b] she cackled and leaned down to grab another of the terrified girls that had snuck into the movie with her.

>> “Hey sweetie…You look like a big one.”[/b][/i]

Vicente narrowed his eyes as he glared at the tall and busty mutant. Even though he knew how powerful and terrifying this creature could be, he marveled at her sheer height and stature. She rivaled himself absolutely! Her height, her muscles, he doubted that he would ever be able to work out enough to match her! That thought alone was scary. But he couldn’t back down. She was attacking kids! KIDS! He couldn’t let that rest.

He clenched his fists and made ready do what he needed to do to stop the woman.

>> “Another one? Please…Why do you have to ruin my fun?”[/b][/i]

Confusion. She obviously was not referring to him but who else could she be referring to? It seemed as if everyone screaming or running out of the theatre now. What damn fool was going to try and play hero?

He turned and eyed the very thin, twenty-something man as he ran up towards him. Vicente opened his mouth to send him away; there was no use of some guy getting hurt because he was trying to play hero. Of course the same could be said about Vicente but he felt he was just slightly more built and have enough power to handle the situation.

That was his first mistake.

His back turned to the threat, he attempted to shout to the man, to tell him to run, when a diabolical laughter filled his ears. Then there was only pain.

Akshay watched it all play out in horror. He had only run over to help warn the man that the red behemoth was just a little girl when it seemed that his intrusion only made matters worse. He distracted the man who was staring down the woman which offered her the opportunity to lash out with a hardened fist. The sound that followed sickened Akshay but he didn’t faint. Instead he watched as the scene carried out.

The bald man went flying across the aisles of theater seats and the woman straightened up from her position and looked extremely satisfied with her work so far. Damn, she was strong.

“Oh, god…” He kept an eye on the woman’s grin as he tried to slip past her reach and dash off to check on the bald man. It was because of him that he had gotten distracted so it was only fair that he make sure that he was okay.

Hearing the woman’s cackling laugh, Akshay was emboldened to keep running until he was at the aisle of seats he found the man in. He slipped down the row and knelt down to make sure that the man was breathed. He had to cringe though, the man’s face was already beginning to bruise. God, how was he even still alive after that. ‘

“Yo? Hey, man!! Are you okay?” Akshay turned a gaze back to the red woman and saw her hovering over the terrified form of another little girl. He was no hero, he knew that, but he had to distract her. At least until the police got there.

Finally…a desperate thought came to mind. He shook his head. It was stupid, crazy, and could get him killed, but he knew it was probably his best chance and drawing the woman’s attention. Saying a soft prayer to himself, Akshay ran out into the open aisle and quickly waved his arms at the woman, trying to keep the distance between himself, her, and the fallen bald man.

“Hey! HEY! Over here!!” he screamed. “Look here you B****!!!” Instantly the word “B****” formed in the air in front of him. He snagged it and waved it around like a flag. That should get her attention.

Jezebel just didn’t care for the look that the bald man was giving her. That was the only reason why she had lashed out the way she did. Though she didn’t fear his reprisal, she waited until he was distracted, just to prove that she was not a safe creature to be around.

Thankfully her moment came when the bald one was distracted that the thin, Indian man that had run up to share in the fun. She rolled her eyes and was about to ignore him too when he had managed to grab baldie’s attention. She grinned, wide, and watched as he turned his back to her (probably in some misguided attempt to warn him) and pounced on her opportunity.

CRACK!![/b]

It was such a satisfying sound, to hear her fist collide with the man’s head. On top of that, it made a wonderful scene to see him soaring across the aisles of seats and crash off in the distance. She was pleased.

She cackled and turned back to one of the little girls that had snuck her (or rather, Penelope) into the movie. The young girl was cowering, trying to sneak away from the red behemoth but the angry Amazon wasn’t going to allow that. She stomped down one of her perfectly shaped, fine legs in front of the girl’s path and kept her wrangled until her attention could be turned back to her.

Now that she could turn her attention back, she was more than happy to continue her torture. But as she leaned down, opening her palm to seize the young thing--

>> “Hey! HEY! Over here!! Look here, you B****!!!”

SNAP. No one…NO ONE calls her that. Especially not a disgusting rat of a human! Straightening up, she snapped her attention back to the wiry man and raised a brow. Where did he get that sign so fast? Whatever. He wanted his attention, so he was going to get it.

“You rang, you bastard?” she snarled and stormed towards him…

Wow. That hurt. Vicente had heard the something strike his head but it felt like a sledgehammer or a car rather than an actual fist. In the second that it took for the pain to shoot out over his entire body, Vicente had only briefly felt his feet leave the ground before he was suddenly encompassed in a black out. And that was probably for the best.

As his body had flown, he definitely should not have been conscious for the eventual landing on the theater seats. They struck in bad places, places that would have made him black out even further had he not already passed the threshold into unconsciousness.

Seconds felt like hours and for a moment Vicente actually thought that maybe he should just stay here in this realm of darkness. It was comforting and he didn’t have to feel any of the pain in the outside world. Here it didn’t matter what his past was, nor if he even had a real name. All he cared about here was the nestling warmth that came with being taken out of the flow of the world.

It was nice, for once.

>> “Yo? Hey, man!! Are you okay?”

A voice tore through the blackness and he recoiled. He didn’t want to acknowledge it. It led back to the real world and that only meant pain. But the voice echoed with urgency and, before long, Vicente felt himself clawing back to the waking world. He felt every bruise and cut and scrap he had suffered, including a mind numbing pain in the back of his skull. But despite all that, he continued to feel himself being pulled back.

>> “Hey! HEY! Over here!! Look here, you B****!!!”

Oh, that’s not good, he finally managed to think. With a groan Vicente felt himself return to his body with a gasp and groan. Rolling into a sitting position, Vicente found himself sitting atop several seats, his entire back a road map of pain. But that wasn’t the worst of it. As he sat, he watched the towering red woman storm towards the little guy. Definitely not good. He needed to do something…

>> “You rang, you bastard?”

Yeah…this was a stupid plan. Akshay held the word up defensively as he watched the overly strong looking woman storm towards him, melting eyes locked solidly on his form. The last time he got a look like that was when he was caught staring at some chick at Comic-Con switching between costumes. He stared for a second too long and the look she gave him would have melted a certain part of his body off had he not ran out of there.

Unfortunately he didn’t have that liberty now. Akshay found himself staring into the angry eyes of a red behemoth and he was all too certain that she had every intent to carry out the exact same task as the chick at Comic-Con. Only this time, he was stuck in his spot. He watched her draw closer and kept finding himself having to look up to meet her gaze. God she was tall.

A brief glance to the side though proved that her former victims had finally managed to all leave. The little girls had run off, scared and probably traumatized for the rest of their lives, but at least they were alive.

Not such a bad way to die, right?

She was even closer now and Akshay found himself holding the inappropriate word up again. Would she even feel it if he hit her with it?

“Uh..b-back off! The police will be here soon! I already called them!” Akshay bluffed. But even if he didn’t he was certain that someone must have, right?