Chapter Note: This is it for the pipeline material. We are now on a just in time inventory system and my restocking software is very buggy. It might take a week or so before the next chapter is ready. Sorry...

Thanks Note: Again, thanks goes out to Elrod for his most excellent MAU universe and all MAU mistakes/transgressions are totally my fault. I am trying to keep this story as close to the MAU rules as possible, but I am afraid I may end up bending a few. Thanks also go out Beyogi, Landing and Grover for their sometimes real-time feedback and suggestions. Last but not least, djkauf for his magical editing.

Hector wasn’t sure what to think or feel as he followed Michelle and Greg to the garage. Michelle in her Catwoman costume holding hands with Greg, who was now Sadie, in her Scarlett costume made it hard to know what to think and embarrassingly uncomfortable.  He knew it was his idea for Greg/Arcee/Sadie to do her Autobot disguise trick and pretend to be his motorcycle, but now he was worried about sitting on him. No, Arcee. He must think of Greg as Arcee, simply a robot motorcycle, nothing else.

As soon as the trio entered the garage, a beam of red laser light erupted from both of Arcee’s eyes and scanned his Gixxer.  Shortly after the scan stopped, he began to transform. Hector had to admit, it was damn cool to watch Gr-Arcee transform and he was impressed when a perfect copy of his bike stood in the floor.

“Okay, let’s get this over with and we treat this like Vegas, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, got it?” Arcee’s voice came from somewhere near his, no Arcee’s instrument cluster.  The only way he could tell it wasn’t his bike was by the Autobot symbol on the triple clamp instead of the Suzuki S emblem.

Hector and Michelle laughed. “Yep, got it Arcee.” Hector said; relieved to know Greg probably felt just as weirded out about being ridden by Hector as Hector felt about riding him.

Hector grabbed his helmet, jacket and gloves from his bike and gingerly sat on Arcee.  Michelle grabbed the matching helmet from Arcee’s tail section and sat behind him.  He heard Arcee’s motor start, but unlike his bike, there were no vibrations. It did sound exactly like his bike though.  Arcee activated the garage door and it took Hector by surprise when the bike he was supposed to be riding, started to pull out of the garage on its own.

“I liked you better as a red bike.” Michelle said, wistfully.

Hector sighed. “You mean, a Ducati?”

Michelle playfully punched Hector’s shoulder. “Yeah, one of those!”

“Well, not only is Hector heavy, but being his bike makes me feel fat. I mean, look at my rear tire now. It’s huge!” Arcee chuckled.

Hector didn’t know if he should laugh or scream in horror. While he always thought of a motorcycle as female, a man’s motorcycle is not supposed to complain about their rider’s weight or how fat they feel.  “Geez Arcee, if you ask me if your tail...section looks fat, I’m going to scream.” He chuckled to show he was joking.

“Hey, as long as you still respect me in the morning!” Arcee shot back before both she and Michelle started to laugh.  The fact that she could joke about it, made Hector feel better.  He decided to ignore the fact he thought of Greg as a “she” versus a “he” and just go with the flow. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.

As they slowly drove down their street, Arcee’s gauges flashed to get Hector’s attention. “You should try to partially activate your Snake Eyes costume so we can use the Bluetooth to communicate while we are riding.  Michelle and I are interfaced, but you might need to talk to us.”

“Okay, lemme see what I can do...” Hector concentrated on activating just the head part of his costume and wonder of all wonders, it worked.  Greg’s costume geekdom really was cool.

{“Testing...1...2...3...”} Hector heard in his ear.

“Yep, I hear you, can you hear me now?” Hector chuckled.

Michelle let loose a light cheer. {“Yeah, we can hear you just fine, Hector!”}

{“So, Hector, why did you call me Arcee?”} Arcee asked, hesitantly.

Hector was glad Arcee was doing the driving for him because if had been, he might have missed the turn at the end of their block. “Ummm, sorry bud, but it’s just easier to think of you as Arcee when you’re like this. Aside from ‘my’ bike driving itself and freaking me out, I am having a hard time thinking of you as Greg when you, well, look like this and sound like a woman.” Hector glanced down at Arcee’s gas tank.

{“Ahh, I see.”} Arcee said, softly. {“Sorry if I’m freaking you out. It’s kind of freaking me out too.”}

Michelle soothed Arcee. {“You know you can count on me, no matter what!”} Michelle paused and hugged Hector tightly. {“And thanks Hector, thanks for being Greg’s best friend.”}

Hector felt his throat tighten and his eyes begin to sting a little. “Hey, de nada. It’s what friends are for. We’ll get you back to normal, well normal for you.” He chuckled.

{“Thanks, you better take over for a few minutes while I work to stop my sudden, umm, coolant leak.”} Arcee half sniffed and half laughed as her gauges dimmed.

Hector smoothly took over as Arcee’s controls began to respond to his inputs.  He felt Michelle snuggle up against his back, and then relax.  He wasn’t sure what the two of them were saying or doing via their interface, but it felt nice having Michelle holding on to him and once again, that made him think about Natalie. He liked Michelle. She was pretty damn cool and it was damn spooky how close the pair had become, but it would be nicer if Natalie was riding with him.

As a conscientious rider intent on not gaining the extra attention of a law enforcement officer, Hector used his turn signal and turned onto the main road, heading west and toward Interstate 15 and Long Beach. A few miles later, Arcee’s gauges brightened and she took back the controls. {“Don’t look back, but we have a tail.”} Gone was the strain, Arcee’s voice was all business.

Agent L felt the warm glow of satisfaction when they spotted Mr. Vasquez and the new Miss Williamson ride past their location.  Either the pair had an idea where to find the MAU or they were counting on blind luck to find the white van spotted at their house. Fat chance of that happening, but with the odds of finding MAU in the first place, maybe they would get lucky twice.  Regardless, he would follow the pair and see what they turned up.

“Okay, there they go. Let’s see where they think they’re going...” Agent L eased the Yaris onto the main road, approximately 1/4 of a mile behind their target. They were heading west and toward Interstate 15. Trailing a target on an interstate was even easier because there were so few escape options and he could increase the following distance even further to help avoid detection.

The darkness would also help. While it was easy for the target to spot a vehicle behind them, the headlights made it very hard for the target to notice if same car has been following them; if they were even aware in the first place and their tail lights made it super easy to keep them in sight. Their target turned onto Interstate 15, heading north and towards Corona.

After about 10 miles of keeping the pair in sight and occasionally dropping back to swap places with another vehicle to confuse their target, Agent L glanced over at Agent P.  She was sleeping peacefully and he was forced to admit, she looked very beautiful. He was glad she was with him because she handled her first contact extremely well and was instrumental in helping to gain the target’s trust.

He looked back up and the target’s tail lights were no longer there. “Shit!” He was just passing an exit-ramp. They must have turned off. He rapidly weaved over and took the exit-ramp, but they weren’t there either.  “Fuck!”  His yell woke Agent P.

“What’s wrong?” She asked.

“We might have lost them. I glanced away for a second and they disappeared on me. I thought they took this ramp, but nope.” He fumed at his panic reaction as he waited for the traffic at the bottom of the exit so he could re-enter the highway.

“So you think they lost you on purpose?” Agent P sat up straighter and peered alertly ahead.

“I dunno, hard to say, but I wouldn’t put it past them.” Agent L floored the little Yaris’s accelerator in an attempt to pick up speed and re-enter the highway. That damn thing was so anemic it made him want to strangle the rental company, again.  “Shit, they are probably a mile or two ahead of us now...”

Agent P spun around and dug into her laptop bag.  She opened it and logged into the FBI site.

“What are you doing?” Agent L asked.

“Mr. Vasquez and Miss Williamson both have cell phones, correct?” Agent P said as she navigated through the system and pulled up the law enforcement interface to the cell phone companies.

“Ahh, good idea. I’m glad Agent K assigned you to this case with me.” Agent L grinned as he thanked his lucky stars that people these days couldn’t even leave their house without the need to call or text one of their friends at any time, day or night.

Once again, Greg thanked James Cameron for making Avatar. His interface and link with Michelle was the only thing keeping him sane right now. While physically, she was sitting on top of him and snuggled up against Hector, virtually, she was hugging him tightly and providing him with her love as tears of gratitude slowly fell down his face. In his core space, he found he could virtually project himself and make his avatar look like his old, male self.

It felt like Michelle was hugging him and whispering directly in his ear. “It’ll be okay, honey, we will get through this together. Thanks to Wheelie, we know where our, I mean your stuff is. We’ll simply ask the bad guys to give us back your stuff and everything will be back to normal in no time.”

Greg felt some of the darkness fading. “Do you think it will be that easy?” He chuckled.

“No, but you have Hector and me. I’m sure the thieves will see the value in being nice to us, right?” Michelle giggled.

Greg hugged Michelle. “Of course, but I’d rather you kept out of the fight.” He felt Michelle stiffen. “Not because I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m ‘more’ than confident in your newfound ability to kick ass, but because I don’t want the Agents to find out about you. I just hope they don’t try to check the airlines to see if you really flew somewhere this week. Since they didn’t even ask what your last name was, I’m hopeful that they won’t.”

Michelle relaxed again. “Yeah, I hope not either and you’re probably right about me staying out of it, but I don’t have to like it. We’re a pair now mister and if you think for one second I’m going to let you get all macho and protect me, you got another thing coming, got it?!”

Greg laughed, hugged her tightly to his chest and kissed the top of her forehead. “Oh yeah, got it, but I am sure Hector will think of something for you to do. You’re essentially a Super Catwoman now and I’m sure that having an expert thief on our side will help.”

Michelle’s presence helped him relax and once again, he turned his awareness back to his body. It felt kind of, no, very strange to have both Hector and Michelle sitting on what was essentially his back, yet have it feel comfortable for the pair to be there. Adding to the strangeness was how nice it felt to be ridden. It was almost like he was a motorcycle serving its intended purpose. The feel of the cool night air rushing over his body and the road beneath his tires served to increase his enjoyment.  He felt a sense of freedom and exhilaration as Hector made him accelerate around a slower moving car. Dang slow clunkers with their four wheels cluttering up the road and wasting all that gas!

He extended his awareness and used his mirrors to look behind himself. He easily spotted Hector and Michelle, but behind them and hiding behind another car; his night vision system spotted the Black Yaris with the cheerful face of Agent L behind the wheel and Agent P yawning in the passenger seat.  {“Don’t look back, but we have a tail.”} He sent to Hector’s Bluetooth link as he displayed a live feed for Hector on his speedometer.  He didn’t need to let Michelle know because, thanks to their link, she knew it as soon as he did.

{“What do you wanna do?”} Hector asked.

{“Well, I am pretty sure we can lose them anytime we want. They’re not a super fast motorcycle like I am, but if we just took off; they might get a little pissed.”} Greg felt uncommonly proud of his ability to go fast and found himself itching to prove it.

{“True...let’s just take the highway as planned. From there we can come up with a plan that makes it look like we ‘accidently’ lost them.”}  Hector chuckled.

They let the Agents follow behind for the first ten miles. Agent P fell asleep in the passenger seat almost as soon as they entered the highway.  As they were approaching an exit ramp, Agent L looked away and at Agent P sleeping next to him.  That is when they acted.

{“Hang on!”} Greg shut off his lights and dropped the motorcycle sound effect as he poured on the acceleration.  They went from a safely legal 70 mph to 150 mph in the blink of an eye.

{“Hollllyyy shiiittt!”} Hector yelled as Michelle pushed against his back to help keep him on the bike.

Greg slowed his acceleration once he passed 150 to allow Hector to regain his grip on the handlebars. They topped out at a steady and silent 200mph as he kept the rapidly shrinking Yaris in his sights.  His last visual of the agent’s car was when it suddenly swerved off the road and took the exit ramp.

{“They took the bait!”} Greg gleefully cried.

{“Fuck me, you’re fast...”} Hector struggled to get his breathing under control as they continued, lights out up the highway at a smooth 200 mph. {“Okay, umm, take the next exit and we will cut across to 5 on 74. It will add a few minutes, but should lose them for sure and it’s a fun road.”} He suddenly stiffened with shock. {“200?!?! Umm, Arcee, can you slow down now?”}

{“Oh, darn, but it was so much fun. I can go faster you know?”} Greg teased Hector.

{“I’m sure you can, now that you’re a Suzuki, but our exit is coming up in like, now.”} Hector calmly noted.

{“Oh shit!}” Greg hit his brakes, rapidly bringing them down from 200 to 100 as he exited the highway. He managed to bring them to a mostly smooth stop at the bottom of the ramp. They turned west onto 74 and after a bit of crawling through the town of Lake Elsinore, they hit the funnest road Greg had ever ridden on.

It took Hector a couple of miles to relax and trust him, but once he did, the ride was a blast as they carved the twisties, as Hector called them, with borderline reckless abandon.  Thankfully, at 11pm, the road was fairly deserted. They only had to pass a few cars and with Greg scanning all the police band frequencies and looking for radar and/or laser detectors, they easily spotted and avoided the one police officer that had a speed trap set up.

{“Ya know, I’m going to miss this part about being an Autobot when I change back...”} Greg hesitantly admitted to Hector and Michelle.

They almost reached Interstate 5 when he detected his and Hector’s phone attempt to respond to a ping request from the nearest cell towers.  He was able to prevent his built in phone from responding, but Hector’s sent their current latitude and longitude coordinates. {“Shit!”}

{“What?”} Hector asked.

Greg sighed with frustration. {“Our ‘friendly secret agents’ just got our location from your cell phone. They tried mine, but I was able to stop it. Now what?”}

{“Can we just shut it off?”} Michelle asked.

{“Yes, but then they would know that we know.”} Hector paused for a few seconds before he continued. {“Arcee, you stopped your cell phone, can you do something with mine to make it look like the batteries ran down after 20 to 30 minutes?”}

{“I don’t know?”} Greg thought about how he was able to connect to the co-ax cable at the house and access the internet, maybe he could do the same with Hector’s phone? However; in this form, he would need to disconnect from Michelle and use their interface cable. Michelle caught his hesitation and gave her assent. {“Okay, I have an idea. Can you hand your cell phone to Michelle and I’ll see what I can do?”}

Hector dug out his phone and placed it in Michelle’s hand. {“Okay, now, take over while I try something.”} 

As soon as Hector had the controls, Greg gave Michelle a mental hug before disconnecting their interface.  He snaked his cable over and mated it with Hector’s cell phone via the USB port.  The phone felt so primitive and simple to him. Its battery was at 50% and every 30 seconds it was sending out a GPS ping along with the towers the phone was connected to and its status, including the battery level. 

After a few minutes, he managed to reprogram Hector’s phone to do what he wanted and he felt amazed at how simple it seemed. He knew it wasn’t simple, but it felt like it was since he could analyze and instinctively read the base machine code behind the phone’s operating systems.

Satisfied with his ‘fixes’, he disconnected his interface cable and reconnected it to the back of Michelle’s helmet.

Michelle virtually assaulted him with hugs and kisses over their link. {“Phew! I missed you honey!”}

Her renewed presence warmed his core and caused his fusion plant to flutter for a fraction of a second. He knew her reaction was a little over the top, but she loved him and was mostly having fun. He felt that way about her too, so he couldn’t really complain.

{“What was that?!?”} Hector nervously asked as Greg’s instruments flickered.

{“Nothing...}” Greg and Michelle chorused as they laughed together.

Greg spoke directly to Michelle. {“That was nice and I could get used to that kind of greeting.”} He basked under the warm glow of her love for a second before he sighed. {“Okay, back to business. Can you hand Hector back his phone?”}

{“Here’s your phone. Since you’re driving, I’m just going to slide it back into your pocket, okay?”} Michelle didn’t wait for permission before she started doing just that.

Hector responded by twisting his hip to allow his phone to slide smoothly into his right front, pants pocket.  {“Thanks. What did you do?”} Hector asked.

{“I hacked it into sending progressively lower battery data and appearing to shut down after 25 minutes. I also added an extra feature to your airplane mode to allow you to select if you want to report your location to the cell towers.  That’s so you can receive calls because right now, you can only start calls.”}

{“Ahh, sounds good. We will be turning north onto 5 in a few minutes. I’m kind of having fun riding you, do you mind if I stay in charge for a while longer?”} Hector asked.

Even though it was still a little strange to hear his friend tell him he was having fun riding him, Greg found that he didn’t mind at all. He knew he was probably the fastest motorcycle on the planet and who wouldn’t want to ride, with him?  Besides, it also meant he could spend some more quality time with Michelle.

Greg displayed the map for Hector and then, he and Michelle simply sat back and enjoyed the ride together. “Yep, I’m going to miss this...” He said, feeling a surprising amount of regret as they both took in the scenery as it passed them by.

“You could stay.” Michelle said, softly as she hugged him.

Her statement surprised Greg and caused him to sit up to look directly at Michelle. “What?  How could we get married? In addition to that, I know for a fact that you’re not a lesbian.”

Michelle grinned. “No, I’m not, but I fell in love with you, who you are, not what you are.  When I look at you, I only see the person I love. Of course, I find it a little annoying that you're a little bit prettier than I am, but I guess sacrifices must be made.” She giggled.

“Don't hate me because I’m beautiful!” Greg and Michelle laughed together before he got back to the biggest reason for him to change back. “You want children, remember?  I can’t give you that if I’m a machine.”

Michelle nodded with agreement. “Yes, but we can adopt. There are lots of children out there who need a forever home.”

“No, I know you want to have a child of your own.” Greg was starting to get a little worried. Why was Michelle bringing this up? Did she not think we would find the machine? “We’ll find the damn machine and I’ll change back. It’s that simple.”

Michelle relaxed into his body and hugged him. “I know, but I just want you to always remember that I love you, no matter what. Okay?”

“Hey, none of that.” Greg gave her a quick squeeze and an affectionate bonk on her head. “You make it sound like you don’t think we will find it.”

“Ow...” Michelle pretended to be hurt and rubbed her head. “Oh, I know we will find it. After all, you two boys have me on your side. I just don’t want you to do something stupid if things don’t work out as planned.”

Greg’s heart melted at her concern. “We’ll find it but, if something goes wrong, I promise; I won’t do anything stupid. Okay?”

She grinned triumphantly and thumped him in his chest. “You better not!”

“Well, more stupid than normal...” Greg smirked mischievously.

“Why you!” Michelle jumped up and glared at him, hands on her hips.

{“Hey, Arcee? It looks like we are almost there.”} Hector’s voice came over the Bluetooth link.

“Ha! Saved by the bell!” Greg stood and gave Michelle a playful kiss on her lips.

Hector pulled Arcee next to a raised loading dock and between two big rig trailers parked at the warehouse on the other side of their target.  He made sure Arcee was blocked from sight so she could transform back into her human form.  “Do you see any cameras Michelle?”

Michelle took off her helmet and her Catwoman suit flowed the rest of the way to cover her face. She looked around. “Nope, looks all clear to me.”

Hector began his costume transformation and felt surprised to discover his helmet didn’t change, but his jacket and riding gloves merged with his Snake Eyes costume.  “Safety first...” He muttered as he pulled off his helmet and hid it under the loading dock.

Arcee began her transformation and twenty-something seconds later, Scarlett stood in her place. She looked the same, except she had light blonde hair with dark blue streaks that matched his Gixxer’s paint scheme.  “Too cool Arcee. Your hair changed to match my bike.”

“What?” She reached around and grabbed her ponytail. “Crap, that’s all I need.” She brushed her hair back with annoyance. “You can stop calling me Arcee now.”

“What should I call you then?” Hector asked, knowing what she would request.

“How about my name? You know, Greg?” She impatiently replied as Michelle reached for her.

Hector nodded, but he couldn’t see himself calling a woman who looked like she did using a guy’s name. “Umm, I dunno. I mean, I know it sucks, but you just don’t look or sound like a ‘Greg’ to me right now.”

She started to roll her eyes with frustration, but Michelle caught her attention and shook her head. “Fine...Sadie then. Arcee might be hard to explain if someone, like the Agents, overheard.”

“Sounds good to me, until we get the MAU back, Sadie it is.” Hector smiled. “Now, our target is on the other side of this warehouse. Thanks to Grreegg’s,” Hector accidentally used his name, but refused to correct himself now. “Kick ass costume designs, I figured we could spider over this one and infiltrate our target, by climbing in via a vent or something versus using the front door.”

Michelle and Sadie nodded with agreement. “Sounds good to me, but we need to keep Michelle from being spotted.” Sadie said with a glance at Michelle.

Hector glanced over to Michelle to make sure she was okay with that idea. She nodded her acceptance. “Yep, I don’t like it, but it makes sense. We don’t want the agents, or anyone else to know about me.  I can stay out of sight pretty easy and give you two a warning of something bad is about to happen.”

“Sounds good! Okay, let’s go.” Hector pointed up to the roof.  He jumped up and used his momentum with his spider gloves to climb on top of the semi-trailer next to him.  Michelle easily followed while Sadie simply jumped straight up and onto the top of the warehouse’s roof; landing gently and slowly, as if she could fly.

“Neat trick.” Hector whispered as he and Michelle joined her.

“Yeah, anti-grav.” Sadie smiled with satisfaction before she gestured down to the thin metal roof. “Watch your step.”

Hector kept low and cautiously crept over the warehouse’s roof, keeping his weight centered over the roof’s support beams as Michelle and Sadie spread out and followed behind him. Hector stopped at the crest of the roof and raised his left hand, forming a fist to signal a stop.  It wasn’t until after he performed that Army signal that he worried if his friends would understand.  He glanced back and felt pleased to see both of them alertly crouched down behind him.

As they watched, a semi-truck with a cargo container pulled out from loading dock 10 and as the large bay door lowered, Hector caught sight of a few men silhouetted by the light inside the warehouse. They were dressed like typical gang members with their baggy jeans around their asses, bandana do-rags on their heads and a mix of sports related team jerseys.  They would almost be comical if they weren’t armed with assault rifles.  “Oh, that’s not good...” Hector whispered

{“What?”} Sadie whispered via their Bluetooth link.

“They have assault rifles. This could get messy and I hope that trailer that just left didn’t have any of our stuff in it.” Hector whispered into his mask.

{“Ahh, well, I took a picture of it and Wheelie is still inside. Should I try to follow it while you and Michelle scout the warehouse? ”} Sadie asked.

Hector considered their options. He was reluctant to split his forces, but if the container had the MAU in it; they might not see it again. Sadie was right. She needed to follow it. He nodded. “Yeah, that would probably be a good idea.”

Sadie quickly dropped back behind the roof line and ran over to the side of the roof closest to the direction the truck was heading towards.  She disappeared over the edge of the roof as the truck pulled onto the main road.  20 seconds later, Arcee with her Sadie rider hologram raced in the direction the truck had disappeared.

Hector glanced back at Michelle. “You ready?”

She nodded once and after a quick scan to make sure they weren’t being watched; they scrambled over the roof and dropped slightly down on the other side.  They had a large gap between the two warehouses to cross, but the pair used a strategically placed parked semi-truck and its trailer to give them some concealment from direct observation.  Next, they climbed onto the target warehouse’s roof and crept silently to a roof vent.  Hector popped a single claw and used it to cut the bolts holding the vent to the roof. 

“Well, here’s hoping I don’t make any noise lifting this off...” Hector whispered as Michelle anxiously nodded.  Hector slowly applied pressure and with a mild metallic squeal of protest, the vent popped loose. “Phew.” He motioned for Michelle to go first.

She quickly flowed through the opening and disappeared from sight.  Now, he wished Sadie was still here to handle communications so he could ask Michelle what she saw. He didn’t hear anyone screaming or shooting their weapons, so with a shrug, he followed Michelle and pulled the vent back over as he entered.

He found himself in the support rafters high above a busy, well lit and mostly full warehouse. Fortunately, he was above the lights and thus in the shadows.  He tried and failed to spot Michelle. 

“Over here.” She whispered from somewhere to his right and just loud enough for him to hear. 

He glanced over his right shoulder and toward the sound of her voice, but failed to spot anything.  A faint ripple of her outline formed for a fraction of a second from the beam across from him before fading away again.  “Nice...can you find the lights and if you hear people start to scream, kill them for me?”  He realized his request sounded a little confusing. “I mean the lights.”

Michelle softly chuckled. “Sure, but I knew what ya meant.”

Hector watched as she began to move away from him and follow the conduits the lights used for power. Except for the slight ripple effect of her suit attempting to match her background as she moved, she was mostly invisible in the shadows cast by the lights below them.  He tried to will his suit to do the same thing, but nothing happened.

“Way to favor your girlfriend...” He shook his head as he softly muttered to himself over Greg’s obvious oversight with his Ninja costume.