Alien Urges & Affection: When Misty Fell for Shell

Chapter 5 Movies and Dances and Teenage Romances

Friday's lunch was no better than any other day's, but the knowledge that the next day was Saturday often made the food somehow seem better. This Friday however was particularly good, as it heralded the start of a week's worth of vacation time between the school quarters. The prospect of the week off from classes and homework made anything, and usually everything, better. As Misty sat down to consume the lunchroom's rumoredly editable material, Sheldon bustled up with a tray of his own and situated himself down across from her.

As he sat, he exclaimed, "Misty, I've got great news. They're showing a double feature of Bruce Lee films this weekend at the drive-in!"

"Cool!" said Misty automatically, as she speared a hunk of food with a fork and shoved it into her mouth, then added, "But what's a 'drive-in'?"

He was unperturbed by her slightly unusual question, for he had grown used to these occasional queries by the pretty alien girl. She seemed to be less worried about asking him now after they had spent so much time together.

"It's a place where you can drive and park your car in a big lot, then watch the movie outside on a huge screen." Sheldon explained immediately.

"Why's it outside? I thought they already had indoor theaters?" asked Misty as she took a drink from her soda.

"They do. It's outside because a lot of couples like to go see movies in their cars, so they can... well, you know... make-out during the movie." said Sheldon.

"Oh, I guess the backseat is more conformable for kissing than two small and possibly sticky seats in a normal theater?" quipped Misty as she prodded the day's mystery meat.

"Yeah, probably." agreed Sheldon with a nod. "So, I was thinking, if you wanted to, we could go together tomorrow and catch the double feature. What do ya say? We can take my dad's car, and then go for pizza or something afterwards."

"Sure Sheldon, sounds like fun." answered Misty.

As she popped a bit of the rubbery meat into her mouth, she blinked as the pieces of the conversation suddenly clicked into place inside her mind. Chewing, she looked up at Sheldon, wondering if he fully comprehended what he had just said. As few seconds passed as the dark haired boy begin carving at his own meal, and he never looked up, nor did his face looked very different.

Her large purple eyes narrowed to slits as she half closed them, gazing slyly at him. So he had *not* noticed...

"Why Sheldon Lee, I do believe you just asked me out on date to a movie." said Misty with a broad smile curving across her lips as she stared at him through her half closed eyes.

Sheldon blinked, and then immediately said, with a startled choke in his voice, "What?! No, no, it's just that, well, you seem to like these kind of movies, and I do too so..."

"Hmm, pity." said Misty still with her grin on her lips, continuing looking straight at him. "A girl likes to be asked out on a date sometimes."

Sheldon gulped. A rapid succession of thought blazed through his head, "What does she mean? Does she saying that she wants me to ask her out? Is she joking? Is she serious? Can she be both?"

He looked at Misty who was still grinning at him with her eye slid half closed, looking almost alluring.

"Um, well. It can be, if you want it to..." Sheldon found himself adding.

Misty laughed a bit at his words, but simply said, "So, tomorrow. That's cool. I'd love to go. What time are you thinking of, and your place or mine?"

***

The next day, Sheldon found himself more nervous at the prospect of hanging out with Misty than he had been for many weeks. After Misty's remarks about a date and girls, he was not sure how dressed up he should be for the occasion. If Brad had been around, he could have asked him, for Sheldon felt sure he would know. As it was, Sheldon had neither friend nor family to consult with on the matter.

In the end, he poured through several volumes of comics until he found one that contained a similar situation. Thus, taking his advice from the illustrated world, he determined that since the date was not a romantic one but had possible romantic ramifications, it required nice clothes but nothing fancy nor romantic in contrivance. He settled on slacks and a good looking shirt that was not over-dressy.

Besides the issue of what to wear, Sheldon found himself struggling with the idea of the Silver Shell. His dad's car could handle the might metal creation. It was a truck after all, and the Shell in diamond shape form could be placed in the bed quite nicely. But he paused in wonder because he was not sure if it was appropriate to bring on this date. He had been helping Misty as the Silver Shell ever since that first night when she had gone to fight Letta and her gang at Mezmers.

Well, helped was a strong word. Every time Misty had to leave when they were hanging out together, if Sheldon could, he would follow her in the Silver Shell at a distance and watch the battles. He only joined in if she looked like she needed the assistance. He did not want her to make suspicious of the Shell's appearances.

He did not really know why he had done it that first night but he reasoned to himself later that Misty was not made of metal and circuitry like Jenny, which Sheldon knew could be replaced. No, Misty was flesh and blood, even if she was a lovely shade of lavender. There were villains and troubles that Jenny, the truck-juggling-teen-titan-girl-of-steel herself, had just barely survived, and Misty was certainly no girl of steel. He told himself, and it may have been true, that it was because he was worried about her that he followed her each time.

In the end, he bit the bullet, and loaded the Shell into the bed of the truck, covering him for concealment. He also activated the cloaking features, which made the Shell in his diamond shape flying form look more like an odd engine block instead of a robot super hero. With the type of material the Shell was constructed out of, the resemblance was not far off.

Misty arrived at Sheldon's place on time and they drove together to the theater. The parking lot was crowded but not full. Sheldon managed to found a nice spot to park near the center. Afterward, the boy then went to the snack bar and returned with popcorn, soda, and other such candies. They were teenagers after all and junk food was the staff of life.

Soon the film started and the view was better than Misty had imagined. The ultra-large wide screen pristine digitally remastered video of Bruce Lee delivering bone shattering blows in fantastic big-screen clarity was almost breath taking. Sheldon just hoped that Misty kept her cheering down to a minimum during the film.

As the first movie progressed Sheldon, who had seen this one before though never on the big screen, found himself wondering just what type of an outing this was supposed to be. Misty had dressed in her same look as always, but Sheldon did not even know if she any other sets of cloths besides her extremely functional regular outfit.

"Well, I did see her that one time time gym shorts and a t-shirt, but that hardly counts," Sheldon thought to himself as he looked at Misty from the corner of his eye. "Though she did look kind of good in those shorts come to think of it."

He spared a glance at himself, thinking, "At least I'm not overdressed, that would have made this awkward. But should I be trying to make a move on Misty?" He surreptitiously looked at Misty again. "She's not acting like she wants me to, but... what *did* she mean yesterday at lunch time?"

While wishing that these things were not so complicated, his thoughts momentary waxed introspective. "I'm not even sure I should like her. I mean, we're friends right? But are we more? When we began hanging out together, she didn't act like she wanted to start dating or anything.... But then she did all those things, with touching and massaging and being close. Was she flirting with me? ...Dropping hints?"

Sheldon knew that while he was a master of machinery and robotics, he was probably more abysmal at reading the subtleties of woman than he dared to estimate. If she was dropping hints, he could probably stumble over them and still not notice.

His thoughts continued, "Was she flirting with me or not? Aagh, I wish I knew, but that's not something you can just ask! And I don't think even Brad would know really if she was, well... I mean, okay, I know she gives me those massages because it helps me heal from training, but that first massage when she sat on my...."

Sheldon felt his face reddened a bit and he quickly put his hands in his lap to pressed down the beginnings of a burgeoning erection. Once again, he was surprised at how fast thoughts about Misty made him hard. Since their time together, she seemed to be gaining greater and greater arousal potency for him, at least when he thought about some of their more physical moments.

"It's got to have something to do with all the time we've been spending together. I mean, we've done nothing but hang out for almost two weeks. But do I like her? ...no, I'm still in love with Jenny. She's my one and only." thought Sheldon firmly to himself with a nod.

However, no matter how firm he said it, he could not silence that little nagging voice in the back of his mind.

"But what about Misty?" the small voice spoke in the quiet of his thoughts, "What if *she* likes you? Shouldn't you think about her feelings? And Jenny's said over and over again she just wants to be friends. What if Misty wants more than that? You like Jenny, but you might like Misty too..."

Sheldon shook his hand at the thought. This WAS confusing... and rather frustrating as well.

"Something wrong Shell?" asked Misty, interrupting his thoughts.

Sheldon gave a jerk, looking over at Misty. He had almost forgotten about her during his inner pondering.

"Uh, no." he said flatly. It was true, in a way anyway.

Misty smiled in response, and then to Sheldon's surprise, she scooted over slightly in the seat and leaned towards him a little.

"Now that has to be a hint of *some* kind." thought Sheldon to himself.

Hoping he was not making a mistake, Sheldon scooted a little towards her and leaned her way in reciprocation. Misty did not react, and since they were not actually touching, Sheldon felt it was not a clear sign yet of true intentions. Thankfully, the movie had gone past the story and character setup, and now was reaching some of the better fight scenes. Sheldon found himself being drawn into the movie despite having seen it before.

***

The first movie was just reaching to the final scenes, when suddenly a whirring noise began to descend from above. Within seconds it grew louder, disrupting the viewing. Suddenly someone nearby shrieked in terror.

"That sounds like work." said Misty as she poked her head out of the window to look upwards.

Two small cluster ships were descending on the theater. People screamed in terror and started to flee. Most of them got out of their cars and ran for it, while some others attempted to drive away without running over anyone. There was commotion everywhere.

Misty pulled her head back in and turned to Sheldon.

"Duty calls." she said sounding both annoyed at the interruption and subtly excited by the prospect of battle. "You go get somewhere safe. I'll be back soon." She flashed him a grin, showing her obvious anticipation of the fight.

"Okay, I'll be watching for you." said Sheldon, as he started the car and prepared to move.

Misty shifted to mist form and whisked out of the still open window. As Sheldon drove the car from the now mostly empty lot, Misty turned to face the cluster forces. The ships had opened and disgorged several standard small cluster drones. They were the ordinary orange and green cockroach shaped robot, each wielding some non-descript regular issue weapon.

Needing to keep the drones attention on herself and away from the people, especially Sheldon, Misty flew higher until she was well above the crowd and shifted to solid form. As her figure became visible against the night sky, the drones quickly turned toward her and fired. Beams of energy shot past Misty, who alternated between dodging them and shifting to Misty form, which allowed her to either bend around the incoming fire or let them pass harmless through her vaporous mass.

"Ha, these dweebs never learn." chuckled Misty as she deftly avoided their shots, which were never very accurate anyway.

Suddenly, it struck Misty just how odd the situation was. These robots *were* too weak to take her, even the cluster should know that. And also, this was not a very usual location for a staged attack. It was just a movie theater, nothing special. "Something strange is going on here." thought Misty. "Better find out what."

Turning, she spied the nearest cluster bot and shot towards it, her body a blur of purplish mist. The robot attempted to dart out of the way, but was not fast enough. Misty's vapor engulfed the head of the tiny machine while she scanned through its mind for any relevant information on the attack. She looked quickly, and found... nothing. Absolutely nothing, except an order to shoot any resistance on site, especially those that seemed super-human. She tried to look for more, which was rather difficult as the robot's mind seemed devoid of anything else, when suddenly the consciousness of machine blanked out from within. Misty's attention snapped back to the battle around and she felt the drone fall out from underneath her, shot through the abdomen by a fellow cluster bot.

Realizing that the drones probably did not know anything worthwhile, she concluded that it would be best to destroy them regardless. She shot to the next nearest drone, circling it only long enough to solidify a gloved fist and smash the creatures metal skull inward, before moving onto the next target. She repeated this process with some variation. In her mist form, virtually nothing could harm her and she was too quick when she assumed solid shape to be hit by the clumsy foot-soldiers. Within a few moments she had dispatched most of the initial cluster attack force, and was once again hit with the sense that it was too easy.

The last of the fighter drones had drawn close together and were visibly shaking in fear at the misty specter that was coming for them. Misty, not stopping to look around, barreled straight for them in vapor form. She zoomed right towards them, banking sharply upward and over them, making to clobber them from behind. Just then there was loud noise right next her, and suddenly she felt an inexplicable force draw her body backward with tremendous power.

Misty was so shocked that something could grip her in mist form that she almost stopped flying and half turned intending to look. However a second later the danger registered and simultaneously she recognized the sound of some horrific suction. She poured all her strength in flying away from the gripping vortex of whatever vacuum they were pointing at her. She did not even turn around to look properly at whatever was pulling so fiercely at the tendrils of her body.

It was too late though, and despite of the great effort she put into flying away, there was simply not enough ambient air to push against. In mere seconds, she was pulled back and back and back until she felt the bottom tip of her mist body touch something solid. She turned then to look and saw her mist body disappearing into the long shaft of a vacuum device.

She almost shifted to solid form, but a glance around showed all five of the remain drone with their weapons pointed at her, ready to shoot. Even this seconds glance cost her, as she was already losing air to the horrible machine. Her feet and legs disappeared up the tube in only a second. Then she felt the lip of the tube now somewhere around her middle.

Misty through all her strength into flying away, and heard herself screaming in frustrated rage. She reached out her mist mist arms and tried to grab at the air even in sudden desperation. She felt afraid suddenly. Through an act of supreme effort and the super human power her body possessed, she held her position, half in and half out of the suction tube for a few seconds.

The time was just long enough for Misty to look back at whatever being held the terrible device that was going to trap her. It was a large cluster robot, the type of which she had never seen before, and it looked quite strong. It was larger than Jenny, and was covered in tough looking armor plating. Its head was devoid of much details beyond a pair of optic sensors (eyes really) and a mouth portal of some time. Her strength reserves began to give out seconds later, and her body was pulled back. The last thing Misty saw was a wicked grin spreading across the dull gray face and a booming laugh from the droid as she was sucked powerfully backwards inside the tube.

Once inside the shaft, the trip lasted less than a second before she felt herself crammed inside some air tight containment chamber. After a good several seconds, there was a rumble, and the suction to the outside shut off. The booming laughter of the droid continued and Misty felt its form rocking with each laugh. If she had been less worried about her situation, she would have been angry at the machine's arrogance. A second suction began inside the chamber and Misty felt all the atmosphere around her sucked into another tube. She had no choice but to flow with it and she was idly wondering where her final destination would be, when suddenly she heard a muffled roar from somewhere outside the droid.

Immediately the suction stopped, and so did her misty body. The continuing laughter from her machine captor suddenly stopped for a split second, before Misty was jarred inside her air tight prison as the whole form of the droid gave a violent lurch.

"Something hit it." thought Misty as she recovered from the sensation. "But what? Jen's nowhere near Tremorton."

Then she heard the muffle roar again, very close and much clearer. She caught the word, "Misty!" and then she was bounced again inside her chamber as the droid's form gave an even more terrific jump.

Then the robot was moving, straighten up perhaps, as it felt like to Misty. There was some more muffled noise coming from outside. It sounded like riffle shots from the small cluster drones, and then suddenly the droid was rocked by an immense impact, following instantly be the crunching sound of metal on metal.

"Misty!" came the roar again, and this time she recognized the voice.

"The Silver Shell!" screamed Misty in her mind.

A series of resounding blows now quaked the droid's form as more and more crunching noises followed, getting louder and louder with each impact. Now Misty could hear words being roared by the Silver Shell at her captor. "Give her back!" SLAM! "Give her back!" CRUNCH! "Give her back!!!"

Even in her captive and shut away state, Misty could hear the fury of the Silver Shell's voice. It reverberated the metal of her prison around her, and as it continued to boom over her, she thought she heard a note of urgency in deep voice of the robot champion as he continued his assault.

The battle outside lasted for nearly half a minute. By the sound and feel of it, Misty was sure from the sound of it that the droid was being ripped physically apart by the onslaught of the Silver Shell. Now she could hear nothing but sound of thudding blows landing on the droid and the vibrating squeaks as metal bent and broke with each hit.

Suddenly the chamber around Misty shook, partially distinct from the movement of the druid. An instant latter half the chamber was crushed in behind her and the seal broken. Misty whisked through the aperture and was outside in the free air again.

"Shell!" she called out immediately when she was free, moving to hover over the silver hero.

The Silver Shell turned, and seeing her free, dropped the droid from his iron grip and called out "Oh Misty! Thank God you're safe!"

Before she could reply, there was a hail of energy blasts that hit the Shell squarely from behind. Misty turned to see the several drone bots firing at them. Misty ground her teeth and growled, "I've got them!" before flying at them shrieking in sudden rage like a banshee. The cluster drones only had the chance to squeak in terror before Misty was upon them, literally peeling them to ribbons in her vengeance. Behind her there came a few dull thumps as the Silver Shell resumed pummeling the now defunct vacuum droid.

After only a moment, in which Misty dispatched the remained drones, there came a mechanized "CLUNK" from somewhere close by. It was followed by a whirring, then suddenly a blast of energy hit Misty from behind. The cluster ship had fired on her. Neither she nor the Silver Shell had expected this turn of events. Luckily she had been in mist form, and mostly unharmed. It hurt like hell though, and the rampant energy forcibly dropped her back into a physical body.

"Aaaaaahhhh!!!" screamed Misty her body was lanced all over with shooting pain, as she reverted involuntarily to solid shape. She felt herself falling from the air. She tried concentrated past the pain and was beginning to slow her decent when suddenly a pair of strong manly arms caught her from her fall.

"Are you alright Misty?" came the concerned voice of the Silver Shell over her head, lacking its nature confidence.

She blinked and found herself cradled against the massive silver chest of the gilded metal hero. He clutched her against him firmly, but the grip was strangely tender. The big strong metal arms, though not warm or necessarily comforting, nonetheless felt sure and confident around her. There as a strong scent of a particular metal emanating from all around.

Without thinking, Misty took a deep breath and felt relaxed again, only then realizing that she had been afraid since the first appearance of the vacuum. The Shell had rescued her, and had even kept her from falling. "No wonder Jenny has the hots for him." thought Misty with a grin spreading across her face. "He's quite the hero."

"Nice catch." she purred at him.

"You seem to be falling for me miss." quipped the Silver Shell, his normal confidence returning as he saw that she was safe.

Misty opened her mouth to say something else, but she was cut off the sound of take-off jets blasting into life from one of the cluster ships. It rose up into the air and quickly flew out of site. The other did not move, and Misty guessed its crew was probably in pieces littering around the area. Neither she nor the Shell made a move to stop it.

Once it was gone, Misty turned her gaze back to the Silver Shell, who was still holding her in his arms, and said, "You can put me down now Shell. I'm okay."

He complied, setting her feet gently on the ground.

As Misty brushed herself off, remarked, "You didn't have to catch me, but thanks though. I'd have started to hover before I left the air."

"I got you just before you hit the ground." commented the Silver Shell dryly from behind her.

At this Misty jerked up straight. She turned to look at him with surprise on her face. He continued, "I didn't fly. You almost hit the dirt before I grabbed you."

There was a second pause of realization. "Oh." said Misty, blinking as his words, and then looked at the ground at his feet. "Um, thanks."

"No problem." he replied immediately.

There was the sound of movement behind both of them and the two of them swiveled on the spot to look in the direction of the noise. They saw the battered vacuum droid, seemingly in pieces yet still somehow moving, trying to rise. The Silver Shell gave a low growl and marched over to it. As he came to a stop in front of the follow robot, it made a serious of unintelligible computer sounds at him.

The Shell angrily shouted, "Stay down!" as he reached out to grab the end of a nearby parked car.

His metal grip crunched the plastic and steel exterior as he got handful of the automobile before tugging on it. In one swift fluid motion he lifted it from the ground, swung it over his head, and brought it crashing down on the fallen droid. The impact of the vehicle against the rapidly breaking robot gave a booming "Whump!" and the car alarm went off immediately a second later. The Shell repeated the move however, oblivious to the sound of the anti-theft system, smashing it over and over again down on top of the enemy robot. After four or five blows, the car's frame broke and it simple fell apart in large chunks on top of the now thoroughly destroyed droid.

Standing up, he patted his hands together, brushing off any errant metal shards clinging to him. Misty walked over and stood beside him, gazing down at the broken remnants of her defeated captor.

"Thanks a lot Shell." she said, still looking down. "I hadn't expected them to use a vacuum." said Misty.

"Are you sure you're alright?" rumbled the Silver Shell next to her, turning as he spoke to gaze down from his more than seven foot tall mass.

"Yeah, I'm fine." replied Misty absently, as she turned from the pile of scrap metal to look at the Shell.

"Hey!" she suddenly said as she really looked at him for the first time since her release, "You're smoking!"

The Silver Shell's face quirked, and he began to examine himself. "Your back." added Misty as he looked for the cause of her outburst.

The Silver Shell craned his head over his shoulder and gazed at his brawny back. It was indeed smoking slightly, covered with several burn marks.

"Oh, that's nothing," remarked the Shell after a moment. "I guess I was concentrating more on getting you out of that thing. But don't worry. I'm built like a tank. It takes far more than *that* to hurt me."

As the Silver Shell spoke so confidently and frankly to her, it suddenly occurred to Misty, now that the moment of trouble had passed and they were actually talking, this was a chance to ask him a few questions she had been wondering about. He did not show up that much and she did not know when the next opportunity would occur.

"Say, Shell." started Misty, sidling closer to the hulking male robot. "I've been wondering, do you like my friend Jen? She's got a real thing for you, but you're never around to say hello." Misty was direct as always it seemed.

"What?" gasped the Silver Shell, as his head jerked back to face her. "You mean XJ9?"

"Yeah," said Misty almost with a purr, trying to sound coaxing. "So, do you like her?"

"Uh... well, I..." stuttered the Silver Shell. The words sounded odd coming from the usually confident being. He looked down at the ground and finally answered, "I... don't know really..."

"Why not?" asked back Misty, cocking her head, and putting one hand on her hip. "You know she likes you. It's not fair to keep stringing her along like this."

"Oh no. It's not like that. It's just..." said the Silver Shell, pausing as his metal face assumed a conflicted expression. "It's just that, well... there's sort of this other girl I think I'm starting to like...." admitted the Shell at last, sounding slightly embarrassed.

"Oh?" asked Misty, interested. She took another step closer and extended an arm to touch the Silver Shell's side. "Who? Does she like you?"

The Silver Shell gave a jerk at her words and then he leaped back with a gasp when he realized she was touching him. "I, uh, have to go!" blurted the Shell abruptly, as his body began to transform into silver diamond flying shape.

"What!? Wait!" shouted Misty as the Shell lifted off.

There was no reply as the Silver Shell rapidly finished transforming and flew quickly away over the empty parking lot. Misty watched him go.

"He *is* hard to get a hold of." muttered Misty to herself as the robot finally disappeared in the distance.

She would have followed him, except that Sheldon would be back soon.

"I wonder why he acted so strangely?" thought Misty. "It's not like I'm Jen or anything.... Maybe he's just shy."

***

Sheldon returned eventually, as did several other people, including the authorities. They all began milling about the scene, and it quickly became obvious that the movie would not resume that night. Their evening having been thoroughly interrupted, Sheldon suggested they hit Mezmers for some food, to which Misty heartily agreed. Upon their arrival at the teen hangout, the purple heroine was greeted with a surprising amount of thumbs up and happy waves from several people.

The two teens quickly realized that some of the other people from the drive-in had got the same idea as Sheldon, adjourning to Mezmers for sustenance, and now they were congratulating Misty on a sound defeat of the enemy. Mr. Mezmer was his normal grouchy old self but he knew better than to mistreat the local town heroes, having learned from last time when the local populous had boycotted his place until he behaved himself. The repairs to the building had been completed recently and the dance floor was back.

"You were just awesome Misty. I loved the way you kept flying this way and that, and phasing to mist form whenever they shot at you." praised Sheldon as they sat at the bar enjoying some food and cold shakes, which Sheldon had already slopped from his over excited hand motions.

"Aah, that was nothing. Those guys were no problem until that big cluster bot showed up." she said between strong sips of vanilla shake. "Good thing the Silver Shell came around. He's got nice strong arms, I like that in a man."

She elbowed Sheldon once jokingly has she made the remark. Sheldon grinned, though he really did not know how to take the gesture or the remark. However he was saved the trouble of forming a response. Two boys, looking to be of moderate popularity, had come up behind the two conversing teens. One said "Excuse me Miss," to get Misty's attention.

She turned to listen to them. To the considerable surprise of both Sheldon and Misty, the boys each asked if she would dance with them. After a second's pause to comprehend the situation, Misty let out a small laugh, being very flattered, but then politely refused their request saying, "Thanks for asking boys, but I'm already with someone," as she gestured with her thumb towards Sheldon next to her.

The boys left, looking slightly disappointed. Misty watched over her shoulder as they went away.

"It's okay you know." came Sheldon's voice suddenly from behind her.

Misty turned to look at him. He was gazing down at his food, but she thought she saw Sheldon watching her out of the corner of his eye, like he sometimes did.

Perplexed at his comment, she asked, "Okay what?"

"It's okay to go dance with them for a bit. I'll wait if you want. It's not like we're on a real date or anything, and I mean, you're cool. You should go dancing with some cool guy. Dancing's supposed to be a lot of fun." replied Sheldon, looking toward Misty as he spoke but not meeting her eyes with his own.

"Oh really?" said Misty, her own eyes narrowing as she peered into Sheldon's face, though he still did not meet her gaze. "I don't think I know any earth dances."

"That's alright. There's a lot of dances out there, but most anything will do here. If you keep out of the center area, you get less attention and you can do free style easier if you like." said Sheldon, nodding his head toward the out rings of the dance floor.

"And dancing's supposed to be a lot of fun?" asked Misty as she stood up from her bar stool.

"Yeah." sighed Sheldon, with just a hint of disappointment in his voice, as he looked away from Misty.

"Okay." said Misty, and then she reached out and grabbed Sheldon's hand. "Let's go dancing."

"What?!" exclaimed Sheldon as she pulled him from his seat. "I thought you were going to dance with one of the cool guys?"

"I am." replied Misty with a sly smile, giving his arm a tug. Sheldon could be very cute when he was confused and embarrassed like this.

"But I can't dance." protested Sheldon rather weakly as he continued to look at Misty in disbelief.

"Neither can I. Come on!" she answered and pulled him onto the floor.

At first it was awkward affair for both of them. Thankfully, Mezmers was not crowded that night and there seemed to be only the loosest of themes for dances on the floor. Having no other idea what to do, Misty simply imitated the couples around them, which basically meant that she stood in front of Sheldon and began moving her arms, legs, hips and head in time with the beat. After a second, Sheldon followed her lead.

Misty cared little about what people thought of how she looked dancing, or how many eyes were watching them. She was just out there to have fun with Sheldon. Though in reality she didn't know that most of the crowded were glancing periodically at the local super hero cutting a rug with a boy.

Sheldon was sweating from the embarrassment of simply being in the spotlight, in addition to his less than expert moves. But as there were no insults throw or objects for that matter, he got over it in a few moments. Honestly, they did not look very different from the other couples, except their moves tended to repeat more.

After the music had cycled through two dances and into a third, they sat down again to continue eating their food. Neither of them talked very much. Sheldon was thoroughly surprised by Misty's words and actions, and Misty was equally surprised at her own. In between bites of his cold fries and burger, Sheldon could not help his eyes from seeming to stray back to stare at Misty over his meal. What was that all about? And Misty it seemed, was looking at him frequently, because their eyes met several times, at which point they would hastily look away.

After a while, the tracks on the jukebox seemed to cycle to a new theme, leaving behind the young hip dancing to move onto a slower pace. Misty watched as the couples drew in close to each other and embraced, now moving rhythmically in a slow fashion around the floor. Her eyes almost twinkled as she watched a particular couple practically snuggling on the floor as they danced.

"Ooh," she cooed, "I wanna try that."

She grabbed Sheldon again and once more they were out in the dance light. This time he did not protest, though he was a good deal more nervous at the prospect of this dance, not because of his poor dancing skills, but because of the girl he was going to partner with.

On the dance floor, Misty faced Sheldon, reached up to put her arms around his neck and pulled herself close to him.

"No," whispered Sheldon in her ear as she did so.

From next to Sheldon's face, so very close to her own now, she cocked her head and gave him a puzzled look. Sheldon shook his head ever so slightly and said, "Put your left arm on my waist, and your right arm on my shoulder or neck."

She complied, and Sheldon followed suit by doing the same with his hands. Misty felt the slightest of shivers run down her back as he put his palm against her side. "Now we just swing together." he said nervously, and so they did.

Similar to their dancing from before, it was not all that distinguishable from everyone else on the floor. After a moment of slow swinging movement around the place, Misty asked, "I thought you said you didn't dance?"

"I don't..." replied Sheldon looking her in the eyes. "But this sort of music is for slow dancing. These are just the basic positions for a slow dance. You see them in earth movies sometimes, and you pick it up after a bit."

"Oh," said Misty blinking at his answer.

She spared some glances at the other couples dancing, confirming these were more or less the basics, not that she had doubted Sheldon. She noted that some girls were holding their dates closer than others, and a few girls really were almost hanging off their boy's necks and shoulders. Close indeed.

Turning back to Sheldon, Misty moved towards him, closing the gap between them a little, then smiled as she put her head on his shoulder. Their chests were pressed lightly into each other. Sheldon blushed strongly at this, his heart rate climbing several notches. He felt sure that this could not be passed off like the last times as coincidence and it was unmistakable flirting on her part.

Misty sighed, feeling relaxed. What a night. She had been in a great fight, and now she was taking it easy like a normal teenager with a boy at a club. She had the best of both worlds.

With her cheek resting on her shoulder, she breathed deeply, inhaling Sheldon's scent as she did so. He had a pleasant smell, she realized. From early on during her training with him she had learned what the scent of his sweat and body odor was like. It did not bother her. She sometimes wondered why so many people tried to cover it up, but relegated the reason to being something only humans could understand. Sheldon's smell, when he was training anyway, almost struck her as what the local girls called 'A manly smell.' A very physical odor, very real and seeming strong.

They continued to move slowly around the floor. Sheldon's heart continued to beat fast, though not as much as initially. "You know Sheldon," purred Misty into his shoulder as she kept smiling, "You're allll-right."

Sheldon felt a happy sensation in his chest build, his pride swelling slightly at these words and he smiled broadly.

"You're pretty cute too." added Misty with a giggle. She meant it really. He was cute to her, in his own way.

Misty's remarked caused a deep shade of blush on Sheldon's face, and further strengthened the happy feeling building in his chest. Misty inhaled again, breathing in his scent once more. There was skin, and sweat, and cloth, and... metal? The latter smell slowly registered in Misty's mind, and she sniffed again. Yes, definitely metal, and... what was more,... she knew this metal somehow. But from where?

Misty raised her head slightly and started pressing her nose into his shoulder as she sniffed, moving inwards until she touched his neck with its tip. At the feeling of skin on skin contact, Sheldon stiffened. He thought she might be intending to kiss him on the neck or give him a hickey.

"Misty, stop, we can't do that here." he pleaded with her in a low whisper. It was not actually true. People certainly could kiss here, but he was not sure he could handle his first kiss in such a public place, for fear of messing up if for nothing else.

Misty jerked slightly, not really comprehending what he meant. But after a second she understood that he felt awkward at her attention for some reason.

"Oh well," she thought, "It's only a metal smell after all." Shrugging, she returned to resting her head on his shoulder. It really did feel nice.

They just kept swinging with slow rhythmic movements around the dance floor, clasped in each others arms. Sheldon's heart rate seemed to have dropped to almost normal levels. It seemed obvious that Misty was flirting with him, though whether she meant anything by it and just how much she meant by it, he could not say yet. He did not care much at the moment though. Misty was such a pleasant weight against his chest and shoulder. She was warm too. He could feel her breath on his neck.

As Sheldon looked down at Misty, he felt an odd sort of warmth rising to seep throughout his body, emanating from his chest. It was a strange kind of relaxation and contentment, that odd sort of buoyancy which permeated the center of one's being and seemed to make one's steps lighter. He vaguely realized it must be akin to the story book "gooey" sensation present in romantic moments. Idly Sheldon also realized that this feeling was similar to, though not the same as, what he had felt when he had first held Jenny's hand. He had never felt it since with anyone else but Jenny, though he relished the feeling now.

Misty, catching his gaze downwards at her, winked back at him. Sheldon found himself smiling in return. His thoughts continued to wonder about Misty and Jenny and himself and where it was going, but they were less troubled than before. Misty clearly felt at ease about the whole thing at any rate. They held onto each other and danced until Sheldon completely lost track of how long.

"You know Shell," Misty whispered to him, after they had been moving for a long time, "Keep this up, and a girl could get to like you."