Johnny, now Mei, adventures continue with a challenge more daunting than any suicide mission, getting married!

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. None of the characters, places, or anything else is meant to be represented by anything in reality. Duh! Fiction, get it? I the author reserve the rights, so please don't go posting this anyplace else without my permission. A very special thanks goes out to Cathy for making this story readable. Another round of thanks goes out to all the others out there in BCTS land who have encouraged and inspired me to write and keep writing. Any remaining mistakes are all mine.

Where to begin?

I did get a chance to say good bye to my friend that I'd been sending the smiles to. It was simple really. All I had to do was ask.

Oh the look on her face as I gently hand delivered my last smiles to her. Her own treatment had advanced as well and she was scooting about in a walker. In the past few days I hadn't seen her father be any more supportive than he was in the beginning. However that had made me more even more determined to see her smile.

“You're so beautiful” was her first words to me.

I kept smiling, hiding my own feelings about my appearance. I no more looked liked a real woman from any kind of racial background at all than any those overly Photo-shopped models from any one of dozens of magazines. Okay, just maybe I do finally get what all the complaints about Barbie Dolls were all about now. Being an living Chinese example of one certainly changes one's prospective.

However, my young friend didn't need to hear any of my griping about unrealistic expectations of men about how women look.

“I'm Mei.” My gift to her was hidden behind my back. It was rather surprising to me that my request was granted even if I wasn't allowed access to the internet yet. I had no idea as to why. That damn thing in my head had me locked down tight. Still my description and why I picked it was simple enough.

“I'm Bao,” She politely replied, but with a bright smile that was usually missing.

“I see you got my messages.” Shifting, I kept her from peeking at what I hid.

Her face showed her confusion for just a moment before she translated my paper aircraft into messages. “The airplanes!”

Nodding I pointed to my smile. “You were so sad sitting down here among the flowers that I sent you one of mine. Understand, I think a few may still be in the garden somewhere, but that is the nature of smiles. Sometimes they go places and cause things you never expect.”

I fluttered my free hand like a rather silly flying bird, causing both of us to laugh.

“However, like I can see, you're getting better... so am I.” Distractingly, I found myself making the appropriate feminine body language gestures. They no longer appeared robotic or exaggerated since I'd worked hard on making them habit, but that didn't mean I was comfortable with them. It was a little like surrendering to what had been done to me, but like one of my Air Force Academy buddies used to say, you had to race the car you brought to the track. At least now my gestures attracted a little less attention since I could moderate them within some limits. It wasn't as if how I appeared now didn't make me stand out no matter how I felt about it.

For whatever good it did me, they were my gestures now and not the computers or the programmers who ran it.

“I'm being released soon, but I couldn't leave without any explanation. Being able to bring my smiles to you distracted me from my own treatment while here.” Somehow I kept the bitterness from my voice. There had been no healing for me here, only a deliberate crippling and maiming of what made me who I was.

But I was still alive.

Taking into account the People's Republic of China's record on the importance of life that was not a minor consideration. Things hadn't gotten any better with the current regime or their actions either. The losses of life because of their decisions were in the millions and the War they had precipitated wasn't over yet.

However that was something else Bao didn't need to hear, although I feared she would learn of it the hard way. If her father was as high in the party hierarchy as rumored then when the crap from this War began rolling down hill she might very well be caught in it.

Which was another reason why I wanted to leave on a bright note instead of leave more sadness for this little girl who was having to learn how to walk again all over again.

Her 'Oh' and downcast eyes said it all.

“That's why I have this for you.” I said revealing her present.

Like any kid, her eyes lit up as I gestured to the garden benches for us to sit down. With her walker, Bao needed both hands to get around so it was much safer to give her the present after she was no longer vertical, although I don't doubt that she would've tried. Kids are that way after all.

Her enthusiasm as she shuffled to sit down was a marked difference from the trudge of before. That contrasted with the intense concentration as she carefully unwrapped my gift without the fury of most kids her age.

I let out a breath as I silently thanked the Colonel for his choice of wrapping since she showed all the signs of keeping it. He had accommodated my request for Western style wrapping paper. He'd even found the Chinese kite themed stuff I'd suggested knowing of Bao's father. I didn't want her to be a victim of his possible nationalistic fever. Since the very first recorded human flight was by Yuan Huangtou by way of a kite in the year 559, I couldn't think of a reason why he would object unless it was because she was a girl and girls didn't do such things.

Of course her recently barely surviving breaking her neck on the playground might play a part in his thinking as well.

Bao looked up at me as she discovered the 'Kid's Book of Paper Airplanes.'

“Since you've gotten so many that I've made, I thought it time you learn to make your own.”

Her walker, her culture, and the class divide between us made her hugging me impractical, but I saw the intense happiness in her eyes just the same.

Placing my hand on hers, I asked, “Why don't we fly some airplanes?”

In the days that followed, I thought about that afternoon a lot. While the Colonel’s mother wasn't a tyrant or shew, she didn't take any non-sense. In a lot of ways his parents were true believers in the Cultural Revolution. That was tempered with a bit of common sense that politicians are much the same no matter where you found them.

I did get the feeling they found his being distrusted by the ruling elite very frustrating and something they didn't really grasp. Their son was raised to be a loyal party member. Yes, he did learn what the imperialistic Americans knew about police and detective work, but how else were you to know your enemy?

On the practical side, they understood that their traditional Chinese retirement plan, their son's career, depended on his marrying me. At least from their view point I was an orphan who didn't come with my own parents that needed supporting, even if I bought very little to the marriage except assuring that promotion.

After getting to know him if only from his visits, I thought I knew why the distrust. He took to life in the States just a little too enthusiastically. As much as he was a product of his upbringing, he was also intensely intelligent. I think it was that intellectual freedom to discuss nearly anything without fear of consequences that a word misheard by unintended listeners might have dire consequences.

There was more than a little truth in saying he was too smart for his own good. He had a vast number of interests and I really had to wonder just how he'd ended up where he did. The criminology thing explained much since it touched on a lot of different subjects. It was a field he did well in. I'll admit he wasn't exactly a Charlie Chan, or a Chinese Sherlock Holmes, but he did come close.

I even learned, finally, just what gave me away.

Bad Breath.

Or in this case the lack of it. That made him do some checking and the discovery that, while I'd didn't have teeth or a tongue, I also didn't have the mouth of an old woman. Damn that forensics degree he'd earned!

Which bought up yet another matter.

I'd found my body becoming aroused in his presence. No lie, that I was well aware I was being conditioned. Hell, I could even say I liked my Colonel when I had ample reason to hate his guts. Yeah, I was being played like a cheap piano and although I knew, I couldn't do a single thing about it.

Perhaps the only good thing about any of this was, if they'd truly wanted to they could've broken me, leaving nothing of the person I'd once been. For instance they left the vital parts of me alone such as my love of aviation and stuff about my Hawaiian heritage.

All they had to do was apply that old Don't-Think-Of-This technique and use that damn computer to burn out or alter how I felt about them. As it was, I was very careful not show any overt interest in those things, excepting of course my paper airplanes with Bao.

First, they didn't need to break me since they were slowly molding me anyways, and this is a guess, they didn't want to damage any additional information I still have concerning the Shadow Flyers.

Okay, that wasn't the only good, but the other was unwanted. I'm talking about that arousal thing, sex. I had no idea of how it was really like for women. They didn't have their gray matter being manipulated by a bunch of perverted Chinese mad scientists.

I didn't want to like it, but damn!

After they ran me on auto-pilot a few times, forcing me to masturbate, I couldn't help myself. Again, I knew what they were doing, but was once again helpless to prevent it. Connecting the dots wasn't hard. First they get me hooked with the female orgasm thing and then connect my arousal to the Colonel.

Evil isn't it?

Now you see part of why puppeting was so controversial.

In one of the very seldom times Dr. Wu explained any thing, he crowed that, with my DNA reformatting, my brain had taken on certain female characteristics. This conditioning was simply to accustom me to female patterns. Yeah right, if you believe that do I have the deal for you.

I must admit that I was rather surprised at the wedding preparations. Officially China is atheist, but it does recognize some religions particularly the traditional Chinese faiths. Instead of the red Cheongsam my Grandmother was wearing in her wedding pictures this one was much like a western styled white wedding dress, but had the Chinese dragons and phoenixes embroidered upon it.

That compromise with the official Party line, but with a nod to the traditional set the tone for this ordeal. They, we, even went to a Fung Suey 'consultant,' not a fortune teller thank you, to find our auspicious day. The date was set for mid-December. What a Christmas present, not! The date was set for mid-December. What a Christmas present, not! He of course was in his formal military uniform which made sense because, he was still walking the line with his bosses. See I'm a good little Special Police Colonel.

Like I said, his Mom, Cai, jumped into this thing like a one of the Academy's Training Instructors, MTIs. I absolutely was not Bridezilla, but just maybe she was the Mother-of-the-Groom-Zilla. The fittings for the dress and the other activities were run like military training exercises. You do it over and over again until you're dreaming about it and can do it in your sleep. It wasn't as if that damn computer in my head would let me make a mistake anyways, but Cai wasn't leaving anything to chance.

Her one and only child, as mandated by the Communist Party of China, was getting married and it was going to be perfect!

Even I had to admit that I looked striking in the dress with my ridiculous Chinese Barbie Doll proportions. For damn certain, my emotions were being played with via those implants in my head, since I wasn't freaking out again. Like most guys I never thought very much about getting married except to say that if I met the right girl, maybe. After I'd spent some time at the Academy, and went to a military wedding, I'll be honest and say the whole walking under the arch of swords had its appeal.

ME, being the one in the dress and heels was the furthest thing from my thoughts.

Walking down the aisle in white, in front of the relatively small group of his family, friends, and official presences was harder than flying final guiding my Shadow Flyer on my last flight.

At least I managed to keep from defaulting into auto-pilot with that damn computer running me. However, I think it was closer than I would like. The feeling of being completely helpless as your body moves without your say or input is something no horror movie or story can ever convey.

It's bad.

Again with at least publicly keeping inline with the atheist thing, instead of a church wedding, it was more like their version of the Justice of the Peace ceremony. Although I was in the middle of this, this …, farce, the lack of spirituality was striking. Shock and awe were great as military tactics, but just maybe it's not for weddings. Perhaps it was my Hawaiian upbringing that made this so apparent since for at least my father's family, such things were very spiritual.

It wasn't as if any of this was legal in the international sense except perhaps in a very convoluted twisted fashion. Capturing me and not notifying anyone about it was strike one. I was in disguise, but had my uniform on underneath it was well as my dog-tags.

Strike two was the cruel and unusual punishment of not only maiming me mentally with the puppet implants, but their rape of my DNA. My legal status with that stuff in my head which could override my own will, generally was considered incompetent to look after my own affairs since anyone who had the access codes could make me do just about anything.

This marriage was case in point.

Strike three was, well, I was getting married! If I had a chance I would've said, 'Hell no, I do not!,' but I was being forced to go though with this anyways. While the Colonel had been pretty nice to me since my involuntary transformation, I hadn't forgotten he was responsible for Strike Two. He had recommended the procedure that had maimed me for life.

With that in mind, part of me was apprehensive as hell about this. Sure he'd been reasonably nice, but what would happen after this? I would be under his complete control and I already knew he had the codes to make me do any damn thing he wanted.

Inwardly sighing, I knew there was no point in worrying about it. For now, I was under their control and that was that. There was no point in trying to object or show defiance at this point, as we stood before the presiding official.

It was really nothing more than a public acknowledgment that the marriage was officially registered.

Then things really got crazy with the wedding banquet. One of the things I'd never gotten used to was the prevalence of smokers in China. It seemed like everyone smoked and wasn't shy about lighting up just about anywhere, although there were bans in certain places like government buildings and such. In the rented reception hall there was a cloud of tobacco smoke. Just to make things worse I was badly aroused and getting, err, hotter with every minute.

I almost wanted to slap my new husband when he tried to be a gentleman.

“I'm aware that the doctors may have used your implant to motivate you to become affectionate tonight.” He said softly during one of the rare moments we had together before reaching the banquet. “Please know I won't force you to do anything you don't want to do. We'll take this at your own pace for what you feel comfortable with.”

Those very same implants he was talking about wouldn't let me gape at him in disbelief. Instead my face had this coy, shy expression which didn't show the outright lust those 'doctors' had been sowing in me for weeks.

In very crude terms, I had an itch and he was the one I wanted to scratch it.

Or more accurately he was the one I'd been conditioned to want to ease my, hmmm, discomfort.

Of course they didn't want me to tell him this for any number of reasons, from stroking his ego, to make him buy into the illusion I was truly okay with this. They didn't know him very well if they expected that, but I decided to help his understanding along.

“What make you think I need additional motivation?” I huskily replied, doing everything, but humping his leg. A weakness I'd discovered, a programmers blind spot, it didn't keep me from going too far in the other direction. They assumed that I wouldn't, although there were some limits.

Holding me, I felt his own arousal, but his anger too. After chasing me half-way across China and my 'questioning,' this man knew me. However much I was barely hanging onto proper behavior, I knew his simply using his 'codes' wasn't that easy.

This was a specialized program designed to condition me into being his wife in all respects. His codes were like a TV remote meant to take direct control like, freezing me in place, causing instant sleep or other simple commands. He could even make me follow him, and keep silent for example since he was commanding the computer and not really me.

Tell it to interrupt a complicated and complex program where it was manipulating my hormones and brain chemistry, not so much.

“How bad is it?” He asked, gently. Wang Feng was a skilled detective well versed in reading body language.

“I'll do my best not to embarrass you.” I answered, scared I'd gone too far already. My self-control was not so good. “Please remember my past.” I asked, hoping that he wouldn't get too crazy having his own sex toy.

“I shall.” He led me into the hall.