"Oh, holy crap," Penny whispered.

Sheldon's eyes widened. The source of the booming voice was not human. He gulped over a lump in his throat as his vast mind assimilated the scene in front of him. He couldn't help but give a sideways glance to Penny to ground himself in reality for a short moment.

In the white room in front of them sat a version of Penny. It was identical to the one who stood next to Sheldon, aside from one thing. The Penny in the room had a panel lifted up on the side of her head to reveal electronics. Into that plugged a cable that led into a panel on the floor of the room.

"Freaky, right," Penny whispered, eyes wide and panic etched into her features.

"Indeed," Sheldon whispered softly.

Without fully knowing what compelled him to do it, Sheldon reached over and gripped Penny's hand firmly in his. He felt instantly reassured at the contact though, so he didn't question it too far. Had her hand been metallic or cold, he couldn't help but think that he would have screamed and run at top speed.

Penny squeezed his hand, seemingly understanding the reason that he had made such an uncharacteristic move without discourse. Penny was so much better at non verbal cues than Sheldon that he wasn't particularly surprised, but he did find it gave him even further reassurance for reasons that he still didn't quite understand.

To say Penny was surprised that Sheldon took her hand was an understatement. He was usually lousy at knowing what another person needed emotionally, so picking up on her feeling that she needed to be physically grounded was quite something. Once the initial shock wore off, she realised that he probably needed it as much as she did. Spending two days away from his routines had actually done him good in an odd way. The fact that he couldn't get more germ-infested than he was seemed to bring the 'normal' back into him.

Once the distraction of the warm presence woven around her hand had worn off, Penny looked at her double again. It didn't move entirely like her, but it was close. That must have been what was sent in to try to kiss Sheldon. That meant that the Sheldon who kissed her was probably a robot version.

Or more of a robot than the flesh and blood version, she sniggered to herself in her head.

She looked over at Sheldon, whose eyes flickered between real Penny and robot Penny. She knew he had reached the same conclusion as her, but his eyes still blazed intensely so she surmised that he was probably factoring in other things that were way beyond Penny.

Their heads whirled around to look at the room in unison when they heard a bubbling sound. The robot's skin was undulating as it morphed into someone who wasn't Penny. It was fascinating in a disgusting way. Finally, Penny's features had disappeared and were replaced by those of a slightly stern looking older woman.

The robot stretched her neck from side to side, looking as though she was realigning herself. She shook her head more violently and the pair heard a click. Suddenly, her hair turned a dark shade of brown. She tapped a few commands on an invisible keyboard and her casual 'Penny' outfit was replaced with a sharply tailored grey suit.

Seconds later, she disappeared.

"Holy crap," Penny breathed.

"You already said that," Sheldon murmured distractedly. "Though I cannot help but agree with the expletive statement."

"If they can turn into anyone," Penny whispered raggedly, "how do we know they haven't replaced us?"

"We do not know," Sheldon said simply. "All that we do know is that they did not do a good enough job of emulating us to fool us. That would lend me to believe that we have not yet been replaced."

"Not entirely reassuring," Penny said, chewing her lip nervously. "So what do we do now?"

"They are currently looking for us as we have escaped our cell," Sheldon told her, his eyes a little far-away as he worked out a plan. "If we investigate this room and the monitors that show the layout of this facility, we may gain a tactical advantage."

Penny nodded in agreement. Sheldon squeezed her hand before he let it go and her heart fluttered wildly in her chest. She had some serious considering to do when she got out of here, she realised.

XxxxX

Leonard, Howard and Raj had been collected from the roof of Leonard's apartment building as promised. They had been taken on a short helicopter ride, which left Howard and Leonard a little green around the gills.

When they disembarked, they were led through a fire escape on top of a large, nondescript concrete building by the helicopter pilot. He put them in the elevator, turned a key to enable the button for a restricted floor and then darted back out towards his helicopter.

The elevator ride took quite some time and the three scientists stood in nervous silence. They all noticed that there were no floor numbers on the panel, which only served to increase their nerves.

When the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened, they were greeted by a stern looking woman with dark hair pulled into a severe bun. She wore a grey suit which looked, at least to Raj's more educated eyes, as though it was a designer label, tailored sharply to fit her.

"Gentlemen," she greeted with a curt nod. "Thank you for coming."

"Where are we exactly?" Leonard asked.

"That's classified," she replied smoothly. "What I can tell you is that it's a top secret research facility. Due to your insight, we decided that the three of you should come here and assist us in our efforts."

The three boys preened at her words of praise.

"What will we be doing?" Howard asked.

"Follow me and all will become clear," the woman said in a reassuring voice.

They walked down the corridors of the most generic, colourless office. There were twists and turns that took them through more identical office space until finally they arrived at an office with a closed door. The woman opened the door and ushered the boys in, slamming the door and locking it after them.

The three boys looked at each other with eyes wide with fear. The lights flickered and one of the walls went see through, revealing a room that spanned as far as they could see. In the room, there was white square after white square, each holding two people.

"I have a bad feeling about this, dudes," Raj whispered.

Leonard and Howard nodded mutely.

"You have been provided with data on three computers," a voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere. "You will analyse the data as per the instructions on screen. Reports will be expected in 8 hours starting now."

"What if we don't?" Leonard shouted back with rather more boldness than he was feeling. "What if we want to know more before we do anything?"

"Then you will no longer be useful to us," the booming voice replied simply.

"So we can go home?" Howard asked hopefully.

"When you have outlasted your usefulness you will be terminated," the voice boomed dispassionately.

The three boys paled visibly. As one, they went to the computers and began familiarising themselves with the acres of data that they had been given before beginning to follow the instructions that glowed on their screens.