Chapter Note: I am almost caught up with the pipeline material. Thus, the publishing of chapters will start to slow down a bit. I have started ch 14, but have not gotten very far with it yet. I also decided to write a bit of the next JS chapter, so depending on how that goes, this story might suffer an additional slow down, sorry. The end is near though. So, the slow down might not even be noticeable. Yeah, right. :) Additionally, I don't speak Klingon, just saying...

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. Can you believe he has not watched "The Transformers"?!?! :-P

Michelle loved riding Greg. Even the thought sounded naughty to her, but the sensations of riding without the protection of a car, the feel of a powerful machine between her legs, feeling what Greg felt as she rode him, again naughtily, and feeling her life mate’s mechanical body as the air flowed over both of their skins was extremely exhilarating. Michelle always wondered why motorcyclists looked like they were having so much fun, and now she knew, but she doubted they were having even half as much fun as she was right now. It took both of them working together to rein in their enthusiasm and not leave Hector behind when he signaled for them to pass him shortly after they turned off the main highway to take a small shortcut through a twisty canyon section.

The leaning and raw acceleration felt like she was flying through the corners instead of sitting passively in a car.  She rode Greg by what felt good to both of them. It came as a pleasant surprise and an intoxicating rush when she felt her knee touch down and skim the pavement once. It was such a light, fleeting touch. Her costume handled it without complaint. She decided it was time to sell her jeep and buy a motorcycle because riding was so much better, but she worried it wouldn’t be the same without Greg.  Maybe they could both buy motorcycles and ride together.

When they stopped at the intersection to re-enter the highway, Hector pulled up beside them and lifted his visor. “Damn you two!  That was fucking sweet! I almost ran myself off the road watching you two carve the corners.”

Michelle’s visor flipped up on its own. “Sorry Hector, but it’s just so amazing! You wouldn’t believe how it feels to be riding, umm, Arcee.” Michelle corrected herself.

Hector laughed as he blipped his bike’s throttle. “Ha! I bet, well I hope ‘Arcee’ doesn’t mind me telling you this, but you also look pretty damn hot in that outfit.  I mean, dee-amn, there is nothing hotter than watching a hot chick in tight leathers on an equally hot bike!”

Greg chuckled. “No, I don’t mind bud. It would probably blow your simple ‘ditch digger’ mind to see her from my perspective and did you just call me ‘hot’?”

Michelle giggled as Hector halted a reply as his eyes widened and he blushed. “Yeah, well, just another 10 minutes to the convention center. Time to dial it back a bit now.”

Even riding on the boring ‘slab’ of highway section felt fun. The traffic wasn’t bad, but there was one place they were able to save themselves a few minutes by splitting lanes. Eight minutes later, they pulled into the convention center parking garage and Michelle wished the ride had taken longer.  Hector parked his bike right up front with the other motorcycles, but they needed to find a spot for Greg to switch into scooter mode without anyone witnessing the transformation from motorcycle to his part robot, part motorcycle mode.

The two of them found an open parking spot between a van and a SUV and with visibility mostly blocked, Michelle took off her helmet, reattached it to Greg’s tail section and watched as he rapidly flowed between motorcycle mode into a two wheeled upright or scooter mode in just a second or two.

His right arm formed into big multi-barrel cannon with an even bigger single cannon sword thing in place of a hand while his left arm looked more normal and ended with a hand. He looked so amazingly cool in this mode. The “Ducati” decal on his left breast with “848” on his right was a humorous touch and even though he wasn’t human, it was obvious that he was a female robot.

“Well, what do you think? Does my rear tire make my butt look fat?” Greg asked as he looked down at himself.

“Nope!” Michelle giggled. “You’re looking awesome babe!” She gave him the thumbs up as she activated her face mask.

As Michelle got closer to the entrance, she spotted Hector in his Snake Eyes costume waiting for them at the entrance. While she couldn’t see his face, his body language told her he was as surprised as all the other fans were by the sight of a very professional and authentic Catwoman leading a very real looking Arcee.

“Well, what do ya think?” Michelle asked, her tail swished lazily back and forth as she gestured back to Greg.

“Honestly? I’m not sure what to think right this second because, well, I’m speechless...” Hector stammered to a halt.

“Yeah, me too, but right now I’m so overwhelmed with everything that nothing would surprise me. I think.” Michelle sighed. “Well, Snake Eyes, let’s see if we can get Arcee into the convention, shall we?”

Getting all of their very real weapons and Arcee into the convention proved to be easier than she expected.  The convention organizers knew that people dressed in costume and the costumes included fake weapons and sometimes not so fake weapons. It’s hard to fake a sword, but they simply asked Snake Eyes to secure his sword with a security sealed zip tie, while they ignored Catwoman’s bull whip.  For Arcee, they had no idea what to do, but they assumed her weapons were too impossible to be real and thus so obviously fake that no security seals were needed.  They did need to call over a supervisor though.

“How are you controlling it?” The security supervisor glanced back to Michelle before returning his gaze to Arcee with a mixture of wonder and nervousness.

Arcee turned to him with a bit of fake electrical motor whirring sounds added for effect. “Oh, she’s not. I’m controlling her, I mean me, via a wireless interface from inside.”

The supervisor jumped back, reflexively reaching for his taser. “Holy shit!”  After his initial surprise, he began to chuckle. “Damn!  That’s the most realistic Autobot I’ve ever seen and pretty damn cool, maybe even better than that Iron Man costume we had last year.” He waved the trio past security. “Okay, you all can go, just be careful about keeping your bot under control. If you run over someone, we’ll have to ask you to leave, okay?” He looked up at Arcee.

Michelle struggled to contain her laughter when Arcee saluted the security supervisor. “Yes sir! Autobots, roll out!” She motioned for them to move forward.

Once past security and on the main exhibit floor, Arcee had an easier time of navigation, but she was constantly mobbed to have her picture taken with people.  Michelle was actually beginning to feel a little jealous because no one was asking her about her costume.  Well, they would start to, but then their eyes would spot Arcee and who wanted to have their picture taken with Catwoman when there was a freaking Autobot?

She sighed with frustration when she realized she was feeling jealous of Greg. It was kind of her fault he was here as an Autobot to begin with.  They could have just driven over in her jeep and met Hector instead of going through with this crazy idea.  However; she still couldn’t get over how much fun it was to ride Arcee, or Greg. It was kind of hard to think of him as Greg when he looked like he did now.

Someone surprised her by grabbing her arm. Michelle turned and hissed at the person as she reflexively raised a suddenly clawed hand. It was the Joker.

“Whoa! Cat-baby.” The Joker took a half step back with surprise. “Sorry I surprised ya like that. I forgot how jumpy cats can be.”  He grinned unrepentantly with the Joker’s trademark evil clown smile.

Michelle felt herself blushing over her reaction.  She must have put a little too much Cat into her Catwoman, but Greg did some tweaks too, maybe he accidently added the cat-like reactions? It could also be left over from her Na’vi change.  She purred and coquettishly licked the back of her hand to get into the role. “Sorry, Joker honey, but you should know better than to rub a cat’s fur the wrong way.”

The Joker chuckled and pointed back over his shoulder at a man dressed in a Batman costume. Batman had his hands on his hips and appeared to be scowling at the two of them. “So, Cat-baby, what do you say we show that square who’s the boss of this joint?”

Michelle really admired this Joker guy. He made such a good Joker and he seemed so into his character, she couldn’t resist.  She glanced back at Arcee and felt warmed by Arcee’s thumbs up of encouragement.  “Welll, Joker baby.” She purred. “Since I’m your partner in this heist, what’s my take?”  She teased him by running a clawed handed lightly across the front of his suit and letting her tail wrap itself, then drag lightly around his legs as she sauntered past him.

“70, 30 babe...” The Joker chuckled.

Michelle pouted. “Ahh, how sweet, Joker baby. I like how you give me the biggest cut, but are you sure you can afford to live on only a 30 percent cut of the loot?”

The Joker laughed maniacally and bowed to her. “For you my feisty feline, the sky’s the limit!”

She was pleased to note that they now had an audience as she seductively made her way to a now nervous looking Batman. The extra attention helped her get into her role, but she maintained a tiny bit of awareness for both Snake Eyes and Arcee.  She also noticed that Snakes Eyes seemed to be keeping an eye out for both of them.  “So, Batman, are you here to arrest me?” She pouted and held out her arms for him to cuff her as The Joker tiptoed past them while grinning at the crowd and motioning for them to not say anything to alert Batman.

Batman stuttered for a second as he worked to regain his composure. “Have you committed a crime, Catwoman?”

Michelle dropped her arms and snuggled up to Batman’s side. “No, but I could if it would help...” She whispered in his ear as the cameras flashed and video recorders rolled.

Batman gulped as he tried to form a coherent reply.

“What’s the matter Batman, does the cat got your tongue? Ha ha ha!” The Joker joined Michelle at tormenting the now thoroughly confused Batman.  “Come along my frolicking feline fellow. We have more do-gooders to thwart! Ha ha ha ha!”

Michelle glanced back at Arcee. {“Go ahead love.”} Arcee’s voice sounded in her ear. She mouthed a silent “How?”

{“I built  a Bluetooth headset into the suits, I just didn’t think to try pairing with it until now, but go ahead. You did great there and it was fun to watch! I’ll trail along. Love ya babe.”}

Michelle turned back to The Joker, with a confident, predatory smile and grabbed his arm possessively. “Yes, my purrfect partner in crime, let’s go see what other shiny baubles we may acquire while the Bat is away...”

The Joker laughed maniacally as he and Catwoman walked away from the now thoroughly confused Batman impersonator.

Hector almost lost it when Michelle vamped the poor dude dressed up as Batman and he was forced to admit that the guy playing The Joker was kick ass.  When Michelle ran off, arm and arm with The Joker, he was a little surprised that Greg didn’t try to follow her, but the pair truly seemed to be in love and clearly only had eyes for each other.  It was kind of sickening, but at the same time, he couldn’t help feeling a little twinge of jealousy; Greg was so damn lucky.

The arrival of a woman dressed up in a Vulcan costume and flanked by two Klingon warriors drew his full attention. The woman’s costume was top notch. He couldn’t even see the seams for where she had to have glued on her ears, but the guys wearing the Klingon costumes impressed him the most.  They had to be NFL linebackers under their makeup and they looked so damn real that if he didn’t know better, he would think they were really Klingons.  Their makeup must have taken hours to put on and it had to be so hot for them.  It made him glad for Greg’s geekdom because the heating and cooling system built into his costume was keeping him nice and comfortable.

They, like everyone else, had their full attention on Greg. The Klingons looked amused as they spoke in hushed tones to each other and Hector could easily overhear what they were saying to each other, but he couldn’t understand a word. It sounded like they were speaking in Klingon.  The Vulcan lady responded in the same language, but with zero emotion. Holy crap, talk about going crazy over your favorite show.  He would never again give Greg shit for trying to learn some of the Klingon language.

Hector was glad he gave himself some space from Greg. It let him gain some attention for his costume while also allowing him to keep an eye on both Greg and Michelle.  He felt pretty satisfied with the few pictures he had posed with for fans, but he gained nowhere near the same amount of attention that Greg was getting as Arcee. It was kind of hard to compete with a full sized Autobot, even one that only saw a few seconds of screen time.

Greg had people standing on top of chairs and tables to get a look at him.  Near the area where Greg stood, surrounded by fans eager to get their pictures taken with him, there was the second level mezzanine level where people could look down and over the entire floor.  There were even people lined up and looking over the balcony to snap pictures of the Autobot.

A small boy was leaning over the safety rail and he started to fall forward. His parents were standing close by and they started to try and grab the kid, but he overbalanced and fell forward, over the rail.  The mom screamed and drew everyone’s attention. There was an entire row of people between Greg and where the boy was going to possibly slip and fall 20 to 30 feet to the hard floor below.  If the fall didn't kill the boy, it would certainly injure him.

Good or bad, Greg reacted.

Just as the little boy’s fingers slipped and he started to fall, screaming in fear as his parents desperately scrambled to grab their child; Time seemed to slow down for Hector. Greg smoothly and effortlessly performed a backward cartwheel over the row of fans behind him. The pointy end of his massive arm cannon slammed into the concrete floor, creating sparks and giving him some additional momentum as he reached for the falling kid with his left hand. The only thing missing from the action sequence unfolding in front of Hector was the movie’s slow motion sound effects.

Greg caught the kid and pulled the boy protectively toward his body as he continued his rotation, touching down with his wheels. He slid to a stop after 5-10 feet while used his right sword arm to balance himself using what looked like football player’s three point stance with the kid as the football clutched to his chest. In addition to the skid mark from his tires, he left a pretty good gouge on the floor with his cannon, but he managed to not hit anyone.

He set the kid down and was immediately mobbed with people.  Michelle showed up at Hector’s side. “That’s not good...” She calmly noted as her tail lashed back and forth with anxiety.

Hector glanced over at her. “No, no it’s not. What now?”

Michelle shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me, maybe no one noticed?”

Hector glanced back to the Star Trek trio. The were having a very animated discussion amongst themselves, but the Vulcan woman appeared to be in charge because she motioned for them to be quiet as Greg weaved his way to where he and Michelle were standing.

“Oh, hey you two, did you see me catch that kid?!?!” Greg mimed catching the kid as if he had just catch a touchdown pass.

“Yeah, we saw it Arcee, so did a LOT of other people!” Hector crossed his arms as Michelle looked over the crowd with a frown.

“Hey! I couldn’t just let the kid fall. He might have died.” Greg pleaded his case.

The Vulcan lady stepped away from her Klingon escorts and addressed Greg. “An admirable trait, lady robot. To not take action to save a life when it is in your power to do so, would be illogical.” Greg glanced to Hector as if to say, “see?” before the Vulcan continued. “Unless the attempted action would cause undue risk of harming the rescuer or others, but humans rarely make that assessment before they leap into such situations.”

Hector wasn’t sure if the woman was praising or chiding Greg for taking the risk.  She didn’t seem to notice the fact that it was impossible using current technology for Greg’s “robot” to be capable of such a rapid and highly controlled action. Well, unless the military had something in one of the labs they weren’t telling anyone about.  DARPA was known to be working on a robotic pack mule for the Army. So, maybe?

“Umm, yeah, that’s me, no looking before I leap...” Greg tried to nervously run his right hand through his hair before he realized he didn’t have a right hand or any hair. “Doh! Forgot about that. Hehe. I guess I will need to make some adjustments to the code.”

“Code?” The Vulcan woman raised an eyebrow perfectly mimicking Spock and Hector thought the woman was taking her costume way too seriously.

Greg leaned back down and spoke in hushed tones as if trying to keep something secret. “Yeah, don’t tell anyone, but I’m running this thing wirelessly via my laptop using an Open Source robotics program called Y.A.R.P., umm, Yet Another Robot Platform. I had to make a few tweaks to the code and I’m not ready to release my mods back to the community just yet. I don’t wanna get in trouble because C++ programmers and robotics engineering folks can be a surly bunch.”

Hector’s ear started to buzz. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it sounded like the same tones his BlueTooth headset made when he had a call. If it was a built-in headset, he wasn't sure how to answer it.  With that thought, the line opened. “Hector?” A woman’s voice asked. She sounded like Mrs. Hollingsworth from across the street.

“Yes, ma’am.” He held up his hand and stepped away from the current conversation with Vulcan lady. “Is that you Mrs. Hollingsworth?”

“Yes dear. I have a question for you. I saw you leaving on your motorbike this evening-”

Hector interrupted her. “I’m so sorry Mrs. Hollingsworth. I didn’t realize my friend was going to do that! I’ve already chewed, umm, her out and it won’t happen again!”

“No, not that. It’s fine. I understand how you kids are with your motorbikes. My husband used to ride ya know and oh my, the crazy things he used to do on that thing. He had one of those old Indians from, oh, I don’t know when...” Mrs. Hollingsworth paused to take a breath.

Hector knew from past experience that Mrs. Hollingsworth had a tendency to wander a bit before she got to the point. “Yes, I’ve heard of those bikes, very cool. Is there something else?”

Mrs. Hollingsworth coughed lightly a few times. “Oh, oh yes dear. Anyway, I was wondering if you two kids were moving out because there is a white van parked in the driveway. I can’t see much from here, but the young men, there are two of them and they are carrying stuff out of your house.”

“Oh my god! Sorry, but Mrs. Hollingsworth, we aren't moving. Can you call the police? I’m on my way!” Hector turned back to face Greg and Michelle and noticed that the Vulcan lady was walking away from them and Michelle was looking at a business card.

Michelle and Greg turned to him. “What’s going on Hector?” Michelle asked.

“It’s the house, someone is stealing our stuff!” Hector looked up at Greg with a sense of dread filling his heart.  If they stole the machine, Greg could be stuck as a robot.

“Oh crap!” Greg bent down to eye level. “I forgot and left it on my bed when I printed the tickets.” He whispered.

Hector could see the panic in Greg’s mechanical eyes.  For a robot, his face was very expressive. He lifted his Snake Eye goggles and looked Greg in his eyes. He had to keep Greg from panicking and direct eye contact was the best way to get someone to focus. “Greg, look.” He snapped his fingers in front of Greg’s face, causing his eyes to refocus on his face. “Greg! Look at me. I’m parked close. I can get out of here faster than you without making a scene. I’ll meet you at the house. _We_ will work it out, but we can’t afford to panic right now. Okay?”

“O,okay. I’ll try. Shit, this was a bad idea...” Greg straightened up, spun around to face the entrance and carefully began working his way off of the convention center floor.

Hector turned to Michelle. “Help get him out of here. He’ll need you more than ever now. Keep him calm.  We’ll take it one problem at a time, okay?”

Michelle nodded anxiously before Hector turned away from his friends and began weaving his way through the crowds of people and towards the exit.  He glanced back once and saw that Arcee’s movements were being hampered by the crowds of people clamoring to get their picture taken with an Autobot

The Vulcan lady worried him.  There was something about her and her Klingon friends that set off alarm bells inside his core. She knew something. Could she have been changed by a MAU too?  It seemed like of crazy idea, but everything about the device was crazy.  He hoped she bought his YARP robot story.  He felt a little worried about the phone call Hector received. He thought he heard him say it was Mrs. Hollingsworth, the little old lady from across the street. Maybe she was calling to complain about his burnout in the garage?

{“ghaH Qot!”} The Klingon on the right shook his head with disgust.

The Vulcan woman turned back to her friends, or where they her guards? Greg was beginning to get worried because Greg knew just enough Klingon to understand that he had just been called a liar.

{“qIt teH 'ach ghar  'oH ja' vaD naDev.”} She said with measured tones.

Greg only understood about half of what she said, but it was enough to know she agreed with them, but thought a better path might be called for.  ‘true’ and ‘called for here’ where the only words he understood. He pretended to not notice or understand what she said.

“Please pardon the interruption, my name is Darla, but I couldn’t help noticing the advances your robot displays as well as the details of your companions costumes. Much like my own costume and that of my friends. Be that as it may, if you have found and are using a device, I must caution you on its use. It is very dangerous.”

Michelle grabbed his arm with alarm as his interior lubricant levels dropped. Could this woman really be a Vulcan and could the Klingons be real Klingon warriors created by another machine? “I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you are talking about. I made this robot in my garage and my friends just know someone who designs costumes for the movies.”

{“qoH soH!”} The second Klingon spat contemptuously and crossed his arms.

“Hey! I am not!” Greg glared at the Klingon who called him a fool.  “This is just a robot I built on top of an old Segway scooter I found for cheap at a garage sale.”

Darla ignored the outburst. “I apologize for my associate.” She dug into her robe and took out a business card. “Your creation is truly impressive. However; if you should need assistance, feel free to contact me.” She began to hand her card to Greg, but after a second glance at Greg’s robot hand, she gave it to Michelle instead.

“Thanks...” Michelle looked at her card before showing it to Greg.

There were only a few lines, written in a font that Greg recognized as Vulcan and below those line were English words. It simply gave her name, a phone number and her email address. Nothing else. Not even a title, but maybe the Vulcan script had extra information.  He would have to  do some translating later.

The encounter with Darla the Vulcan made him feel so stupid. How could he have been so careless? If he hadn’t saved the kid, then he wouldn’t have drawn as much attention to himself, but then, the kid would be dead or seriously injured from the fall.  Tough call, but not one he would change under any circumstance.  He couldn’t ever see himself not helping if he could help. Oh well, the sooner he got home and changed back, the better.

“Oh my god! Sorry, but Mrs. Hollingsworth, we aren't moving. Can you call the police? I’m on my way!” Hector said, causing Greg’s fusion plant to falter. What if someone had taken the MAU?  The news that it looked like their house was being robbed worried him because he remembered he had left the MAU on his bed.

“Oh crap!” Greg leaned down to whisper to Hector and Michelle. “I forgot and left it on my bed when I printed the tickets.”  He couldn’t believe was so stupid and forgot to hide it. Now he was really scared. What if he was stuck like this?

Thank god Hector had been in the Army because he knew how handle an emergency situation.  His calm attitude and assurances that they would figure it out, helped calm his nerves. Or was it circuits now?  When he got back to being himself, he was going to have to give Mrs. Hollingsworth a box of chocolates or something.  The woman deserved it for caring enough to keep an eye out for them.  Besides, the police would probably get there in time to catch the crooks. Yeah, he had to keep thinking positive because that was the only thing keeping him from trying to turn into a jet, blowing a hole in the ceiling and flying home at Mach whatever.

Like Hector said, don’t take make a scene and everything will work out. Hector will get there in time. Phew, yeah, besides, why would a robber even look on someone’s bed for something valuable. There were plenty of computers and other obvious expensive electronics to take.  Who would steal a simple metal box that they couldn’t even open?

“O,okay. I’ll try. Shit, this was a bad idea...” Greg said, feeling a bit more hopeful as he spun around and began the difficult task of exiting the convention center with hordes of soft squishy people in between himself and the exit.

That lasted all of five feet because as soon as he was done talking to Hector, he got stuck dealing with hordes of people wanting to have their picture taken with him.  He wouldn’t have minded it, if he wasn’t in a hurry to leave.  Thank god for Michelle. She appeared at his side and helped clear a path for him without being rude or obnoxious about it.  She was also speeding things up by organizing his photo-ops by telling people Arcee will be available for photos at the next intersection to allow other con goers to make their way down the crowded paths.  He would reach an intersection, people would jump in and have their picture taken and he would be free, mostly, to move to the next intersection. Much faster than being stopped every two feet.

Still, it took them almost 15 minutes to reach the convention center’s exit doors.

Once outside the doors, it took even more self control to not instantly convert into a motorcycle and break a lot of traffic laws, but it wouldn’t be a good idea to get his transforming into a motorcycle on camera. He looked around and shifted his vision into the low light spectrum to try and spot cameras. He didn’t see any. “Do you see any camera’s here? I’ve checked, but it would be good to make sure.”

Michelle glanced around. “Wow, these goggles are cool, but nope, none that I can see either. Well, none pointing in our direction right now anyway.”

“Great!” Greg grabbed Michelle, accelerated and activated his transformation into motorcycle mode while timing everything to deposit Michelle on his seat. “Grab your helmet, honey, and hang on!”

In their wake, they left a few of the more observant convention attendees gasping and cheering at the rapidly disappearing Autobot and her rider.