Author's Note: Here's another of the stories that have been distracting me. I got the first three chapters done before I figured out how I wanted it to end. So, I thought I'd start posting it. Thanks go out to Elrod for creating the MAU Universe. I'll try not to break it. Thanks to all my beta-readers for their feedback and support. Djkauf for his magical editing.

Sadie’s fifth job interview in two months was over, and like the four previous; she doubted she would be offered the job. Five interviews out of twenty applications were actually pretty good, but she felt fairly certain that she only got the call due to her new gender.  Michelle confirmed it for her by explaining how companies are audited on their hiring to ensure they followed the Equal Opportunity laws.

It took a significant amount of willpower to stop from activating her main cannon and blowing away the front doors of the headquarters building of Rogers Technology, Inc.  Only two things stopped her from following through with the impulse. One, it would blow her cover and two; it would ruin her brand new interview suit Michelle insisted that she buy and wear.  Michelle claimed that the clothes made the woman and real clothes would help Sadie feel more human.  

“Dress for success!”, was Michelle’s mantra, ignoring the fact that Sadie could make her own clothes simply by scanning them into her system. Sadie was sure Michelle took a little twisted pleasure in watching her life mate get dressed and fumble with female clothing design. She was getting better, but still didn’t understand why women’s clothing design insisted on putting the buttons on the wrong side.  It’s been almost a century since it was common practice for women to have maids to help them get dressed.

On the career side, Sadie felt very frustrated with how things were going because no one wanted to hire a fresh out of college accountant when there were so many experienced accountants flooding the market.  As Greg, she had over five years of experience, but as Sadie, she had zero due to her new identity.  Adding salt to the wound was the fact that Hector, as Jenna, was away on some tropical island filming a movie and living the movie star life. All Jenna had to do was go to some party, kick a dude’s ass, get noticed by some big shot Hollywood producer and bam! hired.

Okay, maybe not, because ‘Jenna’ was putting in 12 to 16 hour days filming and doing stunts for the movie. Natalie wasn’t with her either, because she was in school, but Hector was going to be a movie star while Sadie was stuck trying to find a low-paying, entry level accountant job, and failing. Life, or what passed for life as a robot woman, seemed so unfair at times.

Sadie sighed with frustration, but she was able to take some consolation by the fact that she surprised and impressed the hiring manager and the HR representative. They both said they considered her a top pick, but the experience requirements put her behind the other two candidates they were looking at.  At least they were honest about her chances and didn’t try to blow sunshine up her butt.

Thank god Michelle had a good paying job and it didn’t hurt that they still had some of the cash they ‘found’ at the warehouse, but Sadie hated feeling like she was mooching off of Michelle.  The feeling became even stronger when Michelle was officially diagnosed as being two months pregnant with their child last month.  Despite how simple and cheap nature makes getting a woman pregnant, artificial insemination was not a cheap process.

Even without their link, Michelle could tell how depressed Sadie was feeling and she tried tell her not to worry about it, but Sadie’s last bit of male pride wouldn’t allow her to relax.  She had a family to support and raising a kid was expensive.

“Miss Williamson…”

Sadie heard her name being called from behind her.  She turned and felt a slight flutter of hope tingle through her circuits as the manager she interviewed with motioned for her to come back into the building.  “Yes?”

“I’m sorry, but I thought you were an awesome candidate. I only wish you had more experience.”  Mr. Kramer looked genuinely sorry. “I’ve got a friend at another company who might have an open position. Would you mind waiting in the lobby while I run back to my desk and give him a call to find out?”

“Umm, sure?” Sadie realized she sounded a little too indecisive. “I mean, yes sir, I’d be very grateful for the lead.”

“Great! It should only take five to ten minutes, tops. Do you mind if I forward him your resume?”

“No, not at all, thank you very much!” Sadie smiled gratefully at him as she felt her eyes starting to lubricate from the pent up emotion.

“Good, I’ll be right back!” Mr. Kramer grinned as he hurried back toward the elevators.

Sadie turned back to find a seat in the lobby, accidently bumping into someone who was attempting to walk past her.  The impact felt light to her, but the man, wearing an expensive looking business suit, was knocked onto his butt. The impact caused him to drop his slim metal attaché case. It clattered against the marble tiled floor and come to a slowly spinning stop a few feet behind him.

“Oh, my god!” Embarrassed to her core, Sadie crouched down to help the man to his feet. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t see you there. Are you okay?” She scrambled to retrieve the man’s case while he bemusedly brushed off his suit. She felt grateful by the fact he wasn’t yelling at her, but it wasn’t until she handed the man back his attaché case that she got a good scan of his face.

“Not again!” Sadie gasped when his face matched up with the man she had bumped into at the hotel so many months ago. “I think you’re cursed sir…”

Initially, the man looked more amused with a touch of embarrassment, but now he studied her with confusion. “Do I know you?”

Sadie felt her blush routine starting and scrambled to cancel it before her face turned completely red from embarrassment. “Sort of?” She hesitantly smiled. “I accidently ran into you at the hotel in Long Beach a few months ago and you paid for my coffee. Umm, by the way, thanks…”  Sadie glanced around and prayed that the manager would return so she could leave before things could get more uncomfortable for her.

The man’s eyes flared with shock and recognition. “That was you?! Wow, what are the odds?”

“Apparently,” Sadie grimaced. “Rather good, or bad, depending on how much you enjoy getting run over by strange women.”

The man chuckled and extended his hand to shake. “I didn’t get your name last time, but I’m Kurt, pleased to bump into you again.”

“Sadie, ummm, Sadie Williamson.” She shook his hand, careful to apply just enough force to give a firm, yet gentle handshake without breaking Kurt’s hand in the process.

“What brings you to Rog-Tech?” Kurt gestured toward the lobby chairs after a quick glance back toward the anxious looking receptionist.

Sadie took his hint and not wanting to look rude after knocking him down; she preceded him into the lobby. He motioned for her to take a seat while he sat down opposite of her chair.  Hoping that the manager would return and save her from further embarrassment, she anxiously glanced back toward the elevators before tentatively sitting down at the end of a chair, automatically smoothing her skirt underneath her legs and brushing a stray lock of red hair behind her ear.  “Well, I applied for an accountant position here and was waiting for Mr. Kramer to return. He said he might have a job lead for me.”

Kurt pursed his lips with thought. “Oh, so does that mean you didn’t get the job?”

“Well, I doubt it. It would be nice, but they are looking for someone with more experience.” Sadie sighed. “And, I don’t really have any, but I think I impressed the folks here, so maybe?” She shrugged hopefully.  “What brings you here? Do you have a meeting with the CEO or someone important?”

“Everyone’s important at Rog-Tech!” Kurt grinned with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “But, yes, I do have a meeting with the CEO.”

Sadie mentally reviewed some of the data she had on the CEO. “Ahh, well, good luck. I hear he’s pretty darn savvy and brilliant at spotting a good idea to develop, which is kinda surprising since he’s supposedly also a bit of a technophobe. So, I hope you’re not trying to sell him some high tech gizmo.” She grinned at his surprised expression.

Kurt leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. “Actually, I do have a proposal I’m hoping he’ll think is worth pursuing. Would you be willing to take a look at it while I wait for my appointment, maybe you’ll spot something I missed before I go in front of the SOB?”

Sadie smirked at Kurt’s ‘friendly’ euphemism for the company’s CEO.

“I’m not sure if I can spot anything…” Sadie hesitantly accepted a glossy, slick looking prospectus from him. “But a second pair of eyes never hurt, right?”

Sadie reluctantly accepted the offered folder and glanced back at the elevators again, silently praying for the manager to return and rescue her before she made herself look stupid. No luck, but to humor Kurt, she quickly scanned each page of the 20 page document.

Surprisingly, it proved to be more interesting than she expected.  After scanning it into memory, she returned to the fifth page and pointed to one of the estimates. “This was calculated incorrectly, it’s off by 20%, which throws off the other estimates, but even worse…” She felt a little surprised when Kurt sat down next to her, his leg pressed against her hip as he focused all his attention on the part of the document she was pointing to.  The contact seemed innocent and he didn’t seem to be doing it on purpose, but it was hard for her to say since she hadn’t had a ton of experience dealing with men as an attractive member of the opposite sex.

“Well, umm…” She turned back to the technical diagram as her own system modeled and tested the part in real time. Her internal simulation of the part caused it to blow up, and blow up spectacularly, when it overloaded the proposed voltage regulator. “The voltage input seems a little too high for this part here. I’m guessing it would fry it unless they added additional cooling, lots of additional cooling...” She glanced back over at the Kurt and realized she probably shouldn’t have said as much as she did. She was an accountant, not an engineer.

“Hmmm, that’s surprising...” Kurt’s eyes widened with surprise as he studied the diagram.

She berated herself for getting fancy and tried to backpedal because how could someone applying for an accountant position know anything about this kind of stuff? “Umm, I think, but I’m not an engineer…”

Embarrassed and ashamed, Sadie quickly handed his prospectus back to him and stood. “Well, I guess I’ve done enough damage to you for this year, umm, I should probably leave before I accidently step on your foot or something worse.” She anxiously clutched her laptop case in front of her body.

Instead of calling her questioning her assessment or looking angry for pointing out the possible problems with his prospectus, Kurt glanced over at the receptionist. “Sheila, have Nancy and Frank meet me in my office in five minutes. I want Frank to review this-” He held up the prospectus. “Actually, scratch that, send this to him, have his team review it and give me his assessment, in…” He checked his watch. “30 minutes or less.”

“Yes, Mr. Rogers!” Sheila jumped up and shot me a faintly apologetic look as she took the prospectus from Kurt before she hustled to out of sight.

“Kurt, Kurtis Rogers? Oh shit…” Sadie wanted to run. “I’m so sorry sir. I didn’t know, I mean, I didn’t...Oh god, I’m such an idiot!” She felt her blush routine turning her face a bright red to match her hair. Embarrassed beyond measure, she turned to leave before she made herself look even more stupid in front of the billionaire founder and CEO of the company.  Now she knew 100% that she wasn’t going to get the job here.

“Miss Williamson, Sadie, wait!” Mr. Rogers called out as she beat a hasty retreat for the exit doors.

Sadie halted, her hand ready to push open the large glass exit door and turned back. “I’m very sorry sir…” She pushed open the door.

“Do you still need a job?” Mr. Rogers asked, with a mischievous, satisfied grin.

“What?” Sadie paused, turning back with hope, but afraid she misheard the man and that he was now messing with her.

“I need an Executive Assistant and I think you would be perfect for the position.” Mr. Rogers smiled and motioned for her to come back.

While Sadie didn’t have a picture of the CEO, her research into the company and CEO had shown that he was hard on his assistants. He has had five different assistants within the last three years alone. “Umm, I don’t have the training or experience for that job and, well…”

“What? I’m a bastard to work for?” Mr. Rogers chuckled.

Sadie grinned in spite of herself.  Whatever his faults, the man was honest. “I couldn’t say sir, but you have gone through a lot of assistants over the last few years…”

Mr. Rogers nodded with agreement and sighed. “Yes, I do seem to be a tad hard on my assistants, but I’ve got a good feeling about your chances.”

“Hmm…” Sadie thought it over. While the possible job wasn’t in her chosen field, it was still a job and maybe she could work out a deal. “I guess I could do one more interview today.”

“I got a job!” Sadie couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice when Michelle picked up her phone.

Michelle giggled. “See, I knew you would, babe!”

“Well, maybe…” Sadie hedged as tried to figure out how to break the rest of the news to her.

“Maybe?”

Sadie debated on how to explain it to Michelle. “Yes, well, you remember that dude I ran into at the hotel and who paid for my coffee?”

“Yeees?”

Sadie could hear the curiosity and suspicion in her voice. “Well, turns out he is the CEO of Rogers Tech and I kinda knocked him down again in the lobby of his own building.”

“Oh my...do tell!” Michelle pretended to be surprised as she dug for the scandalous details.

“Well, after I helped him up from the floor, he sorta offered me a job as his Executive Assistant, but after the last few assistant disasters, his wife also needs to interview me. ‘We’ have been invited over for dinner tonight. Is that okay?”

“We? Does he know?” Michelle asked the $100 question.

“Umm, probably not, but he said I could bring my fiancé, if I wanted.” Sadie cringed a little as she considered the possible bad reaction scenario occurring at her possible boss’s front door.

Michelle giggled softly. “Oh, so, I’m ‘just’ your fiancé now, huh?”

“Pah-lease, you know better, but since the stay of effect was just removed on gay marriage, all the places are booked solid, thus, officially, you are my fiancé, right?”

Michelle’s warm and infectious laugh filled Sadie’s core with love. “Of course babe, I was just messing with you, but you didn’t tell him I’m a woman?”

“Umm, no?” Sadie found herself pouting a little from Michelle’s gentle admonishment.

“This could be fun!” Michelle cackled with glee.

Sadie knew she shouldn’t ask, but she had to anyway. “So, you’ll go?”

“Of course! I wouldn’t miss it for the world, plus he’s a bazillionaire and I’m sure his house is loaded with goodies!”

“Michelle…”

“I won’t ‘borrow’ anything, honest, but a girl can dream, right?” Michelle acted wounded by Sadie’s admonishment.

Sadie cringed at the idea of taking Michelle to what could essentially be a mansion. “I think I made a mistake with the Catwoman and Black Widow blend.”

“Au contraire, mon amant. I think you did a purrfect job!”

Sadie groaned at Michelle’s Catwoman pun. “You’re hopeless, but I guess that’s why I love you.”

“Ahh, you’re so sweet...” Michelle’s saccharine filled voice made Sadie’s teeth ache and her power core fluctuate with affection. “So, what time is dinner?”

“6:30...” Sadie felt a little worried about what to wear and that made her worry about feeling worried because it wasn’t something she was used to worrying about. She wanted to scream with frustration because a few months ago, the only question would have been which clean shirt to wear with which clean pants.  Now, she had to worry about shoes, hair, makeup, dress, maybe slacks and a blouse, but if a dress, then how long or short. Oh yeah, accessories too.  Thank Cybertron, she could simply make all those as part of her Pretender bot function, unless Michelle insisted she wear real clothes so she could tease her in the bedroom later.

“Cool, umm,” Michelle paused, hinting that her next topic was going to be tricky. “Could you do something with Wheelie?”

Sadie cringed at dealing with the little guy. He had their apartment spotless and was getting bored. She would take him over to Hector’s house, but without him home; there wasn’t much for Wheelie to do there either. “Sure, I guess I will take him over to Mama Vasquez’s house, or maybe my parent’s house this afternoon.”

“Thanks, the poor guy’s going a little stir crazy.” Michelle softly giggled before abruptly stopping.  “Oh! Boss alert. Gotta go, love ya! Chow!”

Sadie squirmed a little in her chair as she readjusted her panties. Wearing real women’s clothing could be such a pain in the butt, literally, but tonight could be the start of a new job for her and way to help provide for her soon-to-be family.  With that in mind, she picked at her salad as she surreptitiously watched Michelle dig in with gusto. It had smoked salmon in it. So, of course, Michelle would love it.

She was sure it tasted wonderful, but except for the very trace amounts minerals in the food, she received no enjoyment from eating it. Dessert was probably going to be something chocolate and awesome looking, which would only make her feel like crying. She would have to link up with Michelle tonight and get a taste from her memories.

Mrs. Rogers, or Nancy as she preferred, proved to be a very nice woman, after she got over the initial shock of discovering their relationship.  If anything, Sadie thought she detected a hint of jealousy from Nancy.  Mr. Rogers looked more than a little flummoxed by the fact that the pair was a couple, but Sadie could tell that the wheels inside his head were furiously spinning.  She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

“So, Michelle, how long have you known Sadie?” Nancy delicately asked after taking a sip of wine.

“Oh, I’ve known her for almost a year, but it wasn’t until the last three months that we started dating and now I can’t imagine not having her in my life.” Michelle possessively clutched Sadie’s hand under the table.

Nancy paused as she struggled with her reply. “Pardon me if I sound rude, but it must have been difficult for you growing up as a lesbian; you both look so happy together and, at the risk of sounding like a liberal...” She grimaced slightly before continuing. “Well, I’m glad you both found each other. Seeing the pair of you sitting together almost reminds me what is was like when Kurt and I started dating.”

“Oh, I’m not a lesbian. Well, I guess I am now, sorta, but Sadie is the only woman I find attractive.”

“What?” Mr. Rogers looked confused.

“I like men. Always have and probably always will.” Michelle giggled as Nancy and Kurt glanced at each other with confusion. “It’s kinda strange, but until I meet Sadie, I never once considered another woman sexually attractive. I was never one of those sexually confused teens who felt like they had to hide their feelings because I never once questioned my sexual orientation. I don’t know how, but I, no, we, have this bond that runs deeper than anything I’ve ever experienced before in my life and now, I just can’t imagine living without her.”

Sadie nodded with agreement. “Ditto, except I’ve always liked women.  I hope this doesn’t mean you don’t want me to be your assistant anymore, but I refuse to hide our relationship with each other and I would rather you learn about it now versus later.”

Nancy rushed over to Sadie and Michelle, hugging them both. “Oh, no! I’m delighted and I’m sure Kurt is too.” She glanced over to her husband. “Right, dear?”

Mr. Rogers looked like a deer in the headlights for a second before he coughed and regained his composure. “Oh, yes. Perfectly fine.”

Nancy giggled at her husband’s reaction. “See, now, I won’t have to worry about some money-grubbing tart claiming Kurt tried to cheat on me and based on the fact you’ve knocked him on his butt twice now, I’m pretty sure that if he tried anything, it would not end well for him.” She turned back and faux whispered into Sadie’s ear, loud enough for everyone to hear. “You have my permission to hurt him if he tries.”

The main course proved to be heartbreakingly stunning for Sadie. Their chef, yes, chef, served them lobster. Each lobster had to weigh at least five pounds and they looked so good.  Michelle practically had a food-gasm over the seafood, but she expected nothing less from Michelle.  She wondered if Jenna/Hector still considered this kind of food a luxury now that she was on her way to being a big time movie star.

She sighed with frustration. Once they got home, she planned on treating herself to a bite or two of high grade steel dipped in motor oil with a shot of Helium-3 from her ‘generator’ for dessert. The stuff ‘tasted’ like heaven to her and gave her fusion power core a nice boost.

“What’s the matter dear? Is there something wrong with your lobster?”

“Oh!” Sadie glanced down at her barely half eaten lobster and compared it to Michelle’s clean plate. “It’s wonderful, but I’m just not used to eating so much.” She patted her stomach as if she felt full as she snuck another peek at Michelle’s plate. “Umm, would it be crass if I offered the rest of mine to Michelle?”

After Michelle polished off Sadie’s lobster and ate an extra share of the chocolate mousse, they all retired to the large living room. Nancy proved to be a very perceptive woman. “So, Michelle, when are you due?”

“What?” Michelle jumped.

Nancy laughed. “Oh, please tell me I’m not wrong, but your food cravings coupled with the fact that Sadie here is acting very protective of you, leads me to believe that you might be pregnant. Am I right?”

Michelle and Sadie both blushed as they reached for each other’s hand. “Yes, I’m about two months along now.”

Nancy turned to Mr. Rogers. “Sadie will get a minimum of one month’s maternity leave when the baby is born, correct?”

Mr. Rogers sighed with defeat. “Of course, dear.”

“So, Sadie, what about you? Are you planning on having a child?”

“No, I can’t. I had a problem when I was born and it’s impossible.” Sadie stretched the truth a bit.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, dear. I didn’t know.” Nancy rushed over and hugged Sadie.

“It’s okay. I’ve always kinda known I could never be a mom, but now I’ll be able to live vicariously through Michelle.”

“I don’t know about that because I’m sure you will make an excellent mom, you both will, and I’m very glad Kurt bumped into you because I also think you will make an excellent assistant for him. Lord knows the curmudgeon needs someone to work a computer for him!”

Sadie glanced hopefully between the pair. “So, does this mean I got the job?”

Nancy laughed as she returned to her husband’s side. She held his hand. “Well, what do you think dear? It’s your decision...”  She grinned mischievously up at him as she implied he had a choice in the matter.

Mr. Rogers cleared his throat. “Yes, well, Sadie, when can you start?”

Monday morning and her first day on the job came way too fast for Sadie.  Her weekend was spent in a whirlwind of clothes shopping, and not just any clothes, but professional women’s clothing.  It pained her how much money was spent on providing her a wardrobe when she didn’t need to actually buy anything, but Mrs. Rogers, err, Nancy insisted on taking her shopping and paying for everything.  Nancy didn’t shop at regular department stores either. Oh no, she took Sadie and a very bemused Michelle to the stores where all the salespeople styled themselves as ‘fashion consultants’ or ‘image specialists’ and the clothes were priced accordingly.  Like, low earth orbit.

Nancy spent 4k on shoes alone. $4,000 for five pairs and she got a discount.  Crazy, but Michelle was beside herself with envy and Sadie could see the wheels spinning inside her head as she worked on excuses to borrow Sadie’s new shoes.  Nancy insisted that Sadie have, at a minimum, five different outfits to start with, complete with matching accessories and that no pants or slacks were allowed. Women should wear skirts at the office and that was that.  The skirts were all knee length and called Pencil skirts.  Sadie thought they looked very sexy and was surprised Nancy would want her to wear them while working with her husband.  She expected Nancy to make her wear a nun’s habit or something frumpier.

“Mrs. Rogers, I mean, umm, Nancy...not that I’m ungrateful, but I’m kind of surprised about your choices.” Sadie asked, glancing down at the very expensive, very professional, but in her opinion as an ex-male, also very sexy outfit Nancy insisted she wear to their next appointment.

“Oh, you mean why put you in something so tastefully sexy and feminine because I’m supposed to be worried about what others may think about what my husband is or isn’t doing behind my back?”  Mrs. Rogers smirked.

“Umm, yes?” Sadie glanced over at Michelle to see if she had any input, but found her smiling conspiratorially with Nancy.

“It’s like this dear. I trust you and I trust Kurt, but your job isn’t only to manage his schedule and,” Mrs. Rogers sighed with exasperation. “Print his emails for him.  No, your job is also to distract, or in football terms, run interference for him at times.”

“I’m not sure I understand…” Sadie anxiously glanced between the two smirking women.

“It’s simple dear. As much as it pains me to admit, it’s a man’s world and men are pigs. Even the most well behaved man, and even most women will be distracted by the presence of a beautiful woman.  Kurt deals with a lot of very influential people and there will be meetings where your role will be to not only take notes for Kurt, but also to help give Kurt a break, time to think and put his opponent off their game by offering to fetch the men some coffee or something as simple as crossing your legs and adjusting your skirt.” Nancy sighed while considering how sexist she sounded. “You will also need to be able to blend into the background and not be noticed. As a ‘lowly’ assistant, people will underestimate and dismiss you. “The Help” as some people call the rank and file worker will also tend to be more open and honest with you about their boss and the company they work for.”

“Oh, so I’m kind of a spy?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes.  It’s a difficult role, but I’m sure you will do fine.  Just be yourself and if you have any questions, feel free to call me.” Mrs. Rogers giggled. “After all, until we got married, I used to have your job.”

Hair and makeup was next and as the wife of a billionaire, Nancy and her ‘friends’ got the star treatment from the moment they entered the expensive-looking salon.  Even Michelle was pampered and treated like a rock star by the staff.  Sadie’s stylist or ‘hair artist’ as he liked to be called, trimmed over two inches from the back and admonished her for washing her hair in mineral rich water and using a too hot  a hair dryer because he thought her hair felt brittle and metallic to him. Fortunately, only Sadie and Michelle noticed her hair clippings disintegrate after a few minutes of lying on the floor.

Sadie entered the Rogers Technology office building dressed to the nines and feeling extra nervous for her first day on the job.  Her treatment by Sheila, the receptionist, was very much in stark contrast to her first visit.  Sheila’s eyes almost popped out of her head as she looked up at Sadie. “Oh my god! You’re Sadie, Mr. Rogers’ new assistant, right?”

“Yes, you’re Sheila, right?” Sadie didn’t know how to respond to the woman’s excited greeting. So, she offered her hand to shake.

“Wow, you look, well, amazing. I’m so jealous, but you could probably make a burlap sack look good.” Sheila briefly giggled before glancing down at her own body with a slight frown of disappointment.

Sadie thought Sheila had a very nice body and as a guy, she would have found her highly attractive and as a result, felt too shy to even try talking to her. She still found her highly attractive, but Michelle took top billing in her silicon and metallic alloy ‘heart’. “You have nothing to be ashamed of and I’m sure you have all the men here wrapped around your finger, right?”

Sheila laughed, using her hand to cover her outburst. “Maybe...a little, but Pete in sales is mine. So, hands off!” She mock growled.

Sadie held her hands up in surrender. “Whoa, hey…” She pointed to the engagement ring Michelle got for her and decided to go all out. “I’m engaged and I only have eyes for her.”

Sadie didn’t expect to get the reaction she got from Sheila. As a guy, if he had told another guy that he was going to marry another man, the results would most likely be negative at best and maybe result in physical violence at worst.  Instead of cringing in horror, Sheila squealed with delight and ran around her desk to give Sadie a quick hug and congratulate her.  “I’m so excited for you! When’s the wedding and who’s the lucky girl?  One of my best friends just got married to her partner. You two should get together sometime!”

New employee orientation consisted of meeting Celeste, the HR person, filling out some forms and accepting receipt of the employee handbook. After the paperwork, Celeste gave her the tour of the building, introduced her to almost everyone with the final stop ending at her new desk.  As a desk, it certainly ranked up there for expensive.  It looked like it was made from real mahogany or some other expensive wood instead of plastic. It was directly outside of Mr. Rogers’ office and was arranged to be an unobtrusive barrier to his office.  The desk was empty of everything except for a LCD monitor, keyboard and a mouse.

“Someone from the IT Department will be up in 30 to 60 minutes to help you setup your PC.” Celeste waved dismissively at the computer when Sadie sat down and gave it a once over.

Once Celeste departed, Sadie inspected Mr. Rogers’ office to learn where everything was. She found a well stocked bar and felt a bit of surprise finding alcohol in the office with the current standards, but Mr. Rogers was kind of old fashioned and who was she to judge?  The coffee maker and supplies were outside his office, next to her desk.  Per Mrs. Rogers’ instructions, she gave her a call to ask her if Mr. Rogers liked coffee and if so, how he liked it prepared.

Sadie got the coffee going and without anything else to do while she waited on the IT person, she decided to play with her PC.  Of course, it was password locked to prevent unauthorized users from logging into it. Bored and frustrated, her interface cable snaked down from behind her back, under her desk and connected itself to the USB port. Unseen by anyone, tiny white filaments wormed their way into the PC and she quickly took it over, accessing everything on the PC from the hardware level.

It took her less than five minutes to discover that her ‘new’ PC was an unmitigated disaster.  Its anti-virus software was compromised and the system full of malware.  It looked like someone had visited every bad social networking site on the planet and clicked ‘Yes’ on every install question. There were two different keystroke loggers, a remote access terminal hidden in the boot sector and the email client was set up to automatically send copies of every email to two different email addresses. The first address appeared to be for a Chinese domain, but the second was an internal Rogers Technology address.

While she could probably disinfect the PC, she didn’t trust it and she certainly didn’t trust Mr. Rogers’ personal and company information with the PC.  Her biggest problem was that she wasn’t sure what to do with the knowledge. It was her first day on the job and he didn’t hire her to be a computer security expert. If she reported it, it would look suspicious because how could she have known?

She needed a new PC. Scratch that, she needed a new laptop and preferably a very small and modern laptop because she didn’t want to lug around any extra baggage when it was time to travel with Mr. Rogers.  Since, she could do everything she needed to do using her own  brain, she didn’t actually need to use a primitive laptop or a PC, but she did need to make it look like she did.

“Oh darn, it looks like this PC’s power supply is bad…” Sadie muttered as she fed a few thousand extra volts of electricity into the hard drive, causing the disk to instantly stop spinning as it welded itself together. She followed that up by frying the motherboard and making it look like the damage originated from the power supply.

Fifteen minutes later, John, the ‘helpful’ IT guy, finally made his appearance and Sadie acted surprised when the PC wouldn’t boot up or turn on. In addition to her PC ‘problem’, she didn’t like the little weasel at all. First of all, he was too nice and shamelessly flirted with her.  Second, he insulted her by treating her like she was a computer illiterate bimbo whose only job was to look pretty and serve her boss coffee.  Well, maybe not a ‘bimbo’, but he pissed her off and she didn’t feel the need to give him any slack.

She was pretty sure that if she was still a guy, the dude would’ve treated her much better. Thanks to Michelle’s warnings, she kind of expected it and she wasn’t really surprised. However, it was the realization that his name matched the email address the old system was forwarding emails to that really got her curious about exactly what was going on with her ‘friendly’ IT guy.   Was all the crap on the PC due to active sabotage or simply an accident?

“Can you fix it?” She asked, anxiously peering over his shoulder.

“It’s probably just a bad power supply. It’s pretty common for them to go bad.” John smiled at Sadie as if he just told her something she couldn’t have known. “I’ll just take it down to my shop and have it back to you in an hour or two, okay?”  He asked as he unplugged the PC and extracted it from under the desk.

“Umm, well, I could actually use a new laptop instead. Preferably one of those new, slim, touch screen things since I will be traveling with Mr. Rogers and I don’t want to lug around anything heavy…” Sadie smiled hopefully at him before glancing at the worthless hunk of metal he had in his hands.

Sadie could tell that he was about to tell her that a new laptop was impossible, but Sheila had arranged to signal her when Mr. Rogers entered the building to give her time to prepare herself for him.  The single ring from the front desk on her complicated phone system was the signal and it had come in almost a minute ago.

As she predicted, John shook his head in denial and pretended to give her request consideration, but Sadie could easily tell he was going to tell her that it was impossible. “Miss Williamson, I’m sorry, while an older laptop might be available, our department has just began evaluating the newer touch screen models and they haven’t been approved-”

Mr. Rogers timed his entrance perfectly.

Sadie stood and greeted him with a smile. “Good morning sir! Your coffee is ready and I can bring you a cup as soon as this nice gentleman from the IT department is done.” She gestured to the now anxious-looking IT guy. “John here was helping me with my PC, but it looks like this one is fried and I might need a new one. Unfortunately, it sounds like the laptop  I want is too new for the company.” She sighed with regret as if she accepted the IT guy’s official pronouncement.

Mr. Rogers glanced over at John. “Get her what she wants. Got it?”

John gulped and nodded. “Yes sir.”

Mr. Rogers dismissed John with a glance, while Sadie moved to the coffee station.  She could sense his studying her every move as she calmly prepared his cup exactly as Mrs. Rogers had suggested.  She wasn’t sure if she should feel demeaned by serving a man coffee when she should be working as an accountant or that serving her boss coffee was simply being a good hostess. She was at work, but maybe it wouldn’t feel so wrong if she thought of it like serving a guest coffee or beer when they visit your house.

Sadie followed Mr. Rogers into his office and anxiously handed him his cup once he was settled into his chair.  He raised an inquisitive eyebrow as he glanced briefly at his cup before taking the first sip. She was rewarded by his sigh of gratitude as he leaned back in his chair and contentedly smiled up at Sadie. “This is the first cup of coffee in two years that was perfect and you did it on the first day.”

Sadie felt unexpectedly pleased by his honest praise, but she covered her traitorous emotion by reviewing his schedule. “Sir, before the old PC died, I noticed you had an appointment this afternoon with the CEO of GenTech. Is that still valid or was the calendar on that PC out of date?”

“Hmm, who is their CEO again?” Mr. Rogers steepled his fingers as he studied her reaction.

“Kent Johansson and the meeting is at someplace called ‘The Pembroke Club’ at 12:30.” Sadie promptly answered, keeping her tone all business as she reviewed the data she extracted from the PC. “I don’t have email yet, but I could call his assistant to confirm the appointment or cancel it for you.”

“No, that won’t be necessary Sadie. Kent and I touched base earlier this week and it’s still a go.”  Mr. Rogers glanced down at his desk, reached into a drawer, pulled out folder and handed it to her. “Please review this before our meeting.”

Sadie glanced curiously at the folder before she tucked it under her arm. “Yes, sir.” She wanted to ask him what she should look for, but figured it was another test.

It was her first day on the job. Mr. Rogers didn’t expect her to join him at what looked like it might be an important meeting with a client, did he?

Author's Note: Since I crave attention, here's the second chapter to this meddlesome story. Well, meddlesome if you're a Whisper fan. :) I have made some progress on that story today, but no promises. Thanks go out to Elrod for creating the MAU Universe. I'm trying to not break it, but I will probably need to pester him soon. Thanks to all my beta-readers for their feedback and support. Djkauf for his magical editing.

Sadie sat at her desk and pretended to do her work on her new laptop. Her fingers moved over the keyboard, the screen changed and to anyone watching, it looked like she was using the laptop. In reality, she performed all of her work using a sandboxed, virtualized copy of it, sans the crap, inside her core.  The expensive laptop was only a prop.

She could have used it and saved herself the minor effort of virtualizing it, but her new laptop came with a few additional ‘features’. Features like the same keystroke logger, remote control boot sector virus and the email client setup to copy emails to the IT guy’s inbox that was on her original workstation, minus the extra email to a foreign country and she highly doubted her little laptop came with those ‘features’ from the manufacturer.   Her dilemma was with how to report the additions to her laptop without people asking difficult questions as to how she discovered them.

The additions were buried very deep and hidden from their corporate detection tools. Since, expert computer security specialist was not part of her Accountant resume and it was certainly not part of a ‘simple’ Executive Assistant’s job description either, she couldn’t exactly report her discovery to Mr. Rogers.  The additional problem with reporting it was the fact that there were no tools she, as a simple assistant, could get and install on her locked down corporate controlled laptop that would detect the additions to her laptop’s operating system.

Sadie had a pretty good idea who was responsible for the additions and she wasn’t making it easy on John, the helpful IT guy, to spy on her and Mr. Rogers. Nothing went out from her system unless it was spam and the keystroke logger somehow missed a lot of characters, especially when it came to passwords.  Now, after three weeks on the job, it looked like her friend in IT was getting a little frustrated by the lack of juicy data coming from her laptop because he was attempting to remote in and find out why his spy programs were failing.

“What to do, what to do?” Sadie indecisively muttered to herself.

Turning him in herself would probably cause too many questions to be asked about how she knew and no one was more surprised than herself how much she enjoyed working for Mr. Rogers.  Sure, fetching coffee and enduring the lustful and sometimes condescending stares from men could feel a little demeaning at times, but unlike her previous jobs, she only had one boss and no one else in the company could tell her what to do. He might be a little behind the times technology wise and he was a little old school when it came to how women should present themselves in the office, but he did ask for her opinions and he listened to her.  He didn’t always agree with her, but he did listen.

She watched as John opened Mr. Rogers’ inbox and began rifling through it looking for sensitive data.  He wasn’t going to find any and she needed a way to hold his interest, if only for a few minutes.

“Fuck it, this asshole is going down…” Sadie muttered, determined to end the espionage now.

To keep John occupied, she simulated typing an email by initiating a slow transfer of a two week old, trade secrets rich email.  The bait was on the hook and the fish was nibbling at the line, but landing him would depend on a little more luck.  She needed an expert to catch John in the act and set the hook. Someone who should recognize that the botnet hacking tool he was using to remote into her laptop wasn’t the standard remote desktop support tool.

Over the past few weeks, Sadie had done as much research and investigation as she could without attracting attention herself. She made it a point to visit Kelly, the CFO’s Administrative Assistant and Gretchen, the CIO’s Administrative Assistant.  The three of them, plus Sheila from the front desk had even gone to lunch a couple of times.  She used those visits to inspect their workstations.  The only clean workstation was Sheila’s, but she didn’t handle any sensitive data.  She assumed that the CIO and the CFO’s laptops were probably infected, but she couldn’t confirm her theory without raising suspicions.

She also managed to test a few rank and file worker desktops and they were all clean.  The infection appeared to be targeted to the people who would have the most critical and sensitive business data.

She had tried to gain access to John’s laptop. At most, she only needed a minute or two but, she never was able to get the time because except for when he went to the restroom, he kept the bleeping thing with him at all times.  That fact alone told her the dude was guilty and hiding something.

She needed a third party to catch John in the act and Jim Nibanon, their resident network and systems security officer, fit the bill perfectly. Jim had only been working for Rogers Tech for a year and his last performance review was excellent.  His workstation was one she had tested for infection and it came up clean, but she learned a lot about him by simply viewing his bookmarks and browser history. He subscribed to all of the top geek and hacking related sites and, in addition to computer security geek stuff, he liked comic books and MMORPG gaming. Due to that, she felt he was the best shot she had at taking John down without looking like she had anything to do with it.

Plan of action in place, Sadie pressed the away button on her phone system, notifying Mr. Rogers of her status.  He would probably assume she was simply on a bathroom break. Which was something she needed to remind herself to take on a regular basis since not using the bathroom, at all, would probably make people a little suspicious of her.

As she rode the elevator down to the seventh floor, she maintained a remote connection to her laptop and continued doling out words on the extra-long email to keep John interested.  Fortunately, Jim’s cubicle was on the way and on the other side of the building from where John sat; hopefully increasing the odds he wouldn’t realize what was going on until she was standing next to him in his cubicle with the expert at her side.

“Hey, umm, Jim?” Sadie politely knocked on his cube wall as if it was a door.

“Miss Williamson!” Jim abruptly stopped working, rolled back in his chair and turned to face her. “How can I help you?”

Sadie felt a little surprised and flattered that he knew her name, but then again, a few months ago, her old male self would have most certainly known the name of the new, hot female in the office.  She glanced over at his screen. He had a network monitor running on one screen and a multiple server performance monitors displaying on the other with a terminal window open and overlaying a few other network performance monitors.  Time to play her expected role. “Oh, pretty, umm, sorry to interrupt you, but I’ve been having some problems with my laptop and I was hoping you wouldn’t mind translating all that computer stuff for me when I ask John, over in desktop support, for his help. ”

Jim grimaced. “Yeah, those desktop support folks can be a little difficult, but not a problem, I’d be happy to help.” He said, chuckling as he rapidly secured his workstation with a quick key combination and stood.

“Are you sure?” Sadie felt a little guilty for playing the damsel in distress.

“Of course, not a problem.” He magnanimously motioned for her to precede him. “Lead the way ma’ lady.”

Sadie couldn’t help liking the guy. He already sounded like someone she would have liked to be friends with before her change. “I feel happy, I feel happy.” She faked a British accent as she quoted from Monty Python.

Jim chuckled and she only led a few paces before he caught up and joined her. “I’m the Black Knight. I’m invincible!” He returned.

She giggled and muttered out of the side of her mouth. “Yer a loon!”

Now Sadie really felt guilty about using Jim because she knew from personal experience the effect a beautiful woman can have on a man, especially a woman who could quote Monty Python. However, if playing the damsel in distress card with Jim worked and helped the company, then it was worth it. She found the concept a little humorous since if she was still a man, she would have never asked nor expected another dude to help her with a computer problem and even if she had, there would have been no way that she, or the other guy would’ve been as cheerful and borderline flirty with each other. Nope, definitely zero flirting, not even if they were best friends.

She purposely took a route that would bring them to John’s cubicle from behind and hopefully, increase the odds of Jim spotting the evidence on his screen before he could try to hide it.

“Shhhh...let’s surprise him!” Sadie pulled Jim closer to her and excitedly whispered as they made their approach.  He seemed a little dazed by her close proximity and if this worked, she was going to have to do something nice for him, like take him to lunch or buy him a box of chocolates.  Computer folks loved chocolate, right?

John was deeply engaged with trying to further hack her laptop and over his shoulder; she caught sight of her desktop in the remote desktop tool John was using. It certainly didn’t look like the standard tool used by the company. “Oh, hey, that looks like the email I was writing…”

The next few days were interesting, to say the least.  Caught, red-handed, John first tried to bluff his way out of it by claiming the tool he was using to remote into her laptop was a new, beta copy of their remote desktop tool.  When that didn’t work, he tried to claim he was late for a meeting and make a run for it.  He snatched up his laptop and headed for the elevators.  Jim was concerned, but he didn’t think John was a spy.  He thought John was just an IT guy playing around with hacking tools.

In an attempt to ask John some additional questions, he walked with him into the elevator, but his initial assumption was proved wrong when John sucker punched him and pushed him out of the elevator before the doors closed. Sadie had already called security and they managed to tackle him before he made it out of the front doors.

Mr. Rogers was pissed with a capital ‘P’ when he learned about the spy working in his company.  Yes, her plan worked, but a little too well.  The CIO was trying to do a little CYA of his own and Jim’s job was on the line because he should’ve known sooner.  Sadie needed to figure out a way to save Jim, but coming up with a plan to override the CIO was going to be a little tricky.

The FBI and CIA became involved in the investigation and John, their friendly little hacker, went directly to jail. Somehow, the twerp managed to call in a very expensive team of lawyers. They managed to con the judge into thinking their client was just as much a victim as Rogers Technology International and get his bail set ridiculously low.  Mission complete, he promptly posted bail and disappeared.

Jim and the FBI, rightly assumed that John had been stealing company secrets from Rogers Tech for a long time, but they couldn’t prove anything because his laptop was heavily encrypted and not with the company’s encryption tools. The FBI offered to send it to their Computer Forensics lab for analysis and before the FBI took it, Jim managed to make an image of the laptop’s hard-drive.

Sadie managed to talk Jim into giving her a copy of the encrypted image under the pretext of having a computer science friend from college who worked for a three letter agency known for having good computers.  She hoped her ‘friend’ could crack it before the FBI.  Jim knew he wasn’t supposed to give her a copy of the evidence, but he also knew his job was on the line and he was a little desperate to keep it.  Why he trusted her, she didn’t know, but if it she could crack the encryption; she might be able to save his job.

The encrypted disk image resided in a little, protected section of her memory and now that she and Michelle were relaxing in their bed, she decided to try cracking it.  Breaking into a system at the hardware level was a trivial operation for her, but taking gigs of encrypted raw data and breaking the encryption looked like it was going to be a challenge.  The FBI told Mr. Rogers that they ‘might’, stressing ‘might’, be able to crack it in a month or two.  If, John had used a weak password and she didn’t think he used a weak password.

Minus some general housekeeping utilities, Sadie put all of her resources into breaking the encryption. The relatively simple dictionary attack failed, but she expected it would.  She switched to a brute force method, but after ten minutes and trillions upon trillions of calculations later, she stopped and decided to attack it from a different angle. Since she could see all of the encrypted data on a mathematical level versus an obscure black box like a human would, she decided to unravel it and attack it from all sides.

“Love, are you sick?” Michelle asked, concerned as she snuggled up against Sadie’s body in bed.

Even though Sadie didn’t need to sleep, she still loved snuggling and linking with Michelle when they went to bed at night.  Michelle looked so sexy and at three months pregnant her stomach betrayed only a slight bulge, but she could still wear a bikini and no one would guess.  Not that Sadie cared what other people thought because she actually looked forward to their pregnancy progressing along its natural course.

While it was impossible for her to have children herself, thanks to their link, she could share in the experience. Michelle found it almost comical how much Sadie enjoyed experiencing her morning sickness with her, but she understood that it made her feel closer to their child and more like a real human.

Sadie turned and looked over at her concerned fiancé’s face. “No, why?”

Michelle propped herself up and felt Sadie’s forehead like she was a sick child. “We haven’t linked yet, you’re burning up and you’ve been acting a little distracted ever since we came to bed.”

“Oh, I’m attempting to crack the encryption on that hacker’s hard drive and it’s taking some-” Sadie’s eyes widened with surprise and she bolted upright in bed. “Bingo!”

“You got it?” Michelle sat up.

“Yep!” Sadie whistled with surprise as she performed a quick, initial audit of the data. “Fucking A’ . That asshole has a lot of data on his hard drive and now I need to see if I can figure out who the bastard was working for.”

Michelle frowned and patted her stomach. “Tsk, language, we have a set of young ears growing here.” She giggled at Sadie’s contrite expression. “Hehe, link up with me and we can go over it together because the sooner we do that, the sooner we can do ‘other’ things.”

Michelle gently pushed Sadie back down onto the bed with a kiss. Leaning over her body, she brought her legs over and straddled Sadie’s body. She broke the kiss when she sat up and reached behind her neck to loosen her link tendril. She smiled with satisfaction when she rested her head between Sadie’s breasts as they linked up.

“I say we do those ‘other’ things first…” Sadie whispered in Michelle’s ear as the pair’s link dissolved the barriers between their minds.

It took Jim and the IT department almost two weeks to completely disinfect all of the company’s computers.  Jim worked many sixteen-hour days and it broke Sadie’s core to know that he was probably going to be fired today. In her hands, she held Mr. Rogers coffee mug and three manila folders. One of those folders contained a printed email from Jack Cranstedt, the CIO, requesting Jim’s termination along with all of the paperwork needed to immediately terminate his employment with Rogers Technology.

Michelle warned her it would probably happen and with her HR knowledge, the pair had come up with a plan to save Jim’s job.  After all, it was all her fault his butt was on the chopping block.

“Sir, I have your coffee and an email from Mr. Cranstedt.” Mr. Rogers smiled with appreciation as she set his cup down on his desk, but she held onto the manila folder containing the CIO’s email. He leaned back in his chair and look up at her with consternation. “You don’t agree?”

Sadie nodded slowly. “No, sir, but now that our little spy has flown the coop, someone has to be held accountable.”

“Okay, so let me read Jack’s recommendation and I’ll see what I can do about easing the pain for Mr. Nibanon.” Mr. Rogers leaned forward as Sadie placed in front of him a thicker folder than he expected.

He opened it, glanced at the first page and looked up at her with confusion.

Sadie momentarily smirked with satisfaction at his reaction. “I don’t think the FBI’s Lab will break the encryption, but last week, I took the liberty of giving a hacker friend of mine from the University a copy of the encrypted hard drive from Mr. Hargrove’s laptop. He applied a few tricks of his and had a lucky break yesterday morning. I spent last night doing some analysis of the data.”  Mr. Rogers gaped with surprise at her pronouncement until Sadie pointed back to the folder.  “The first page is the Executive summary. The rest is the supporting documentation. I think you will find the information both alarming and enlightening.”

“I see…” Mr. Rogers glared at Sadie for a moment, expecting her to wither under his stern gaze.  “Hmm, I know that Nancy thinks you’re the best, but what makes you think I won’t fire you for going behind my back?”

Sadie calmly placed a second folder on his desk. “Nothing and if you don’t agree with the results, sign the document inside this folder.”  She placed a third folder on his desk. “And, here is Mr. Cranstedt’s email, along with the termination forms for Mr. Nimano.”  She took a step back. “Is there anything else you need right now sir?”

Instead of replying, he started to read her report and after a minute, he became so engrossed with his reading, he forgot about her. She silently let herself out of his office and resisted the urge to call Michelle and Nancy to ask for advice.  She liked her job and would hate to need to find another so soon.  

Sadie was planning on flying Natalie out to Hawaii for a conjugal visit with Hector/Jenna. Not having a job would make the planning even easier. Hmm, maybe Michelle could get some time off?  A little natural vitamin D and swimming in the ocean was good for the babies, right?

She sighed with frustration and distracted herself by going over Mr. Rogers’ emails and schedule. She printed a few of them and confirmed a few of his meeting appointments with external clients. If he didn’t fire her, Mr. Rogers would expect her to be with him for the early dinner meeting with the CEO and CFO of Smith Electronics.

Mr. Rogers was trying to land a fat government contract and Smith Electronics produced a key part.  If they could secure the part at a lower price than his competitors, the company would have a better chance of winning the contract.  

The first few client meetings with Mr. Rogers were a little strange for her because she wasn’t used to being on the receiving end of sometimes subtle and sometimes downright blatant sexual innuendo.  She was sure that Michelle wouldn’t have batted an eye at it, but it annoyed her to no end until she realized how much her presence turned the men’s brains to mush and helped Mr. Rogers with his negotiations.

He surprised her by summoning her back into his office by exiting his office instead of using the intercom system. “Sadie, would you please join me?”

He didn’t address her as “Miss Williamson” and he said “please”. It was a good sign. “Yes, sir.” Sadie grabbed a fourth folder from her desk and meekly followed him back into his office.

Mr. Rogers returned to his seat. “Over the last few years, our little hacker cost my company 1.5 billion?”

“On the medium end of the scale, yes sir.  Minimum damage is 500 million with the max estimated to be 3.7 billion in lost contract revenue plus cost overruns.”  Sadie calmly recited the results of her research into the contracts Rogers Technologies lost to competitors or paid excessive amounts defending cost overruns to the Government Accounting Office when they bid too low.

“I see, and you would resign if we fired Mr. Nimona?” He pointed to the folder containing her resignation letter.

“Yes, sir. It’s kind of my fault he found the hack. If I hadn’t asked him to help me talk to Mr. Hargrove, he wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Hmmm, possibly, but I couldn’t help noticing your analysis missed our most recent contract. Both of the suspect companies were involved and they bid much higher than I expected. Why is that?”  He asked, his eyes pierced directly to her core.

He knew, or at least, suspected. Sadie feigned confusion by shrugging her shoulders. “I’m not sure, but since my laptop was acting up, I’m guessing the last few, critical emails I sent for you never reached him.”

“I see…” Mr. Rogers leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers, lightly tapping his nose as he appeared to mull over her statement. “And, the email that brought him down was two weeks old.  You surprised him with information that was already out of date and no longer important.”

Sadie managed to keep her fear from showing up on her face.  “Crap, this is it. I’m fired.” She thought as Mr. Rogers appeared to make his decision as he abruptly leaned forward

“Very well, what do you recommend I do with Mr. Nimano?” He asked, surprising her.

“What!?” Sadie gasped, her calm exterior momentarily pierced before she regained control. “I mean, umm, sorry sir, but…” She stumbled to a halt.

“You’re wondering why I’m not firing you right now?” He asked, bemused by her uncharacteristic display of emotion.

“Well, yes?” Sadie asked, confused by the turn of events.

Mr. Rogers pointed to the folder containing her analysis of the hacker’s data. “It’s simple, while it appears you have some hidden talents and possibly shady contacts, you’re the best assistant I’ve ever had. Probably even better than my wife; don’t tell her I told you that.” He smirked at her as she gasped with surprise.  “I also like to consider myself a good judge of character and thus far, you’ve done nothing but impress me, and Nancy.  And, trust me, she’s not easy to impress.  So, what do you recommend I do with Mr. Nimano?”

“Well, he knows his stuff and according to my friend,” Sadie stuck to her story because as accepting as Mr. Rogers might be right now, there was no way he would accept the fact that she had the ability to crack the encryption on the hard drive faster than the FBI. “Our network is very secure. Mr. Nimano has been very proactive with keeping up on the security patches and he’s even plugged the lesser known exploits. It’s not his fault and there was little chance he could have detected the virus since it was limited to machines he wouldn’t have access to.”

Mr. Rogers nodded with acceptance and motioned for her to continue. “Okay, and...”

Sadie sighed with resignation. Might as well go all the way. “As a result, I think he deserves a raise and a small bonus…”

“A raise and a bonus? How much of a raise and bonus?” Mr. Rogers smiled.

“5-10%, his pay rate is a little below market and 10-20k for the bonus.”

Mr. Rogers looked up, briefly surprised. “That much?  Hmm, okay, 7% and 15k, how’s that sound?”

“Excellent, sir!” Sadie opened her folder and extracted two sheets of paper.

“Just get HR to fill out the proper forms and I’ll sign-” He stopped when she set the raise and bonus approval forms already filled out in front of him. “How?” He shook his head. “Forget it, I’m not even going to ask.” He quickly signed his name.

Mr. Rogers returned the forms to her. “When’s my next appointment?”

“5:30 sir, we need to leave no later than 4:35 to make it in time due to traffic.” Sadie briskly replied as she returned the signed forms to her folder.

“Take these,” He pointed to the folders containing her resignation letter and the email requesting Jim’s termination. “And shred them please.”

“Yes, sir. Anything else?”

“Not at the moment.” Mr. Rogers glanced back down to the folder containing the data from the hard drive. “Thanks, and tell your friend thanks, too.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll let him know and not a problem.”  Sadie waited until she had left his office and closed his door before she let her emotions show.  She momentarily leaned against the door to his office and breathed a huge sigh of relief before making her way down to the HR department to drop off Jim’s raise and bonus forms.

The next couple of weeks seemed to pass by pretty fast for Sadie.  The babies had a growth spurt, causing Michelle to break out the maternity clothing because of the baby bump. Compounding the issue, the loose fitting and ‘frumpy’, as she termed it, clothing made her feel fat.  Sadie thought Michelle looked even more beautiful and she didn’t hesitate to tell her every chance she got. After Sadie retrieved Michelle a fresh jar of pickles from the store and endured a slightly mollified complaint, she leaned over and kissed her. “Babe, you know I would carry them for you in a heartbeat if I could.”

Michelle took a bite from her pickle and sighed. “I know.” She reached down and laid her hand possessively on her stomach. “It’s just because the weight has started to mess with my balance a little. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it before, you know.” She shrugged her shoulders and grinned mischievously. “I bet I’m going to be a real bitch to live with when I start to feel like a whale over the next few more months and it’s bothering me more than I expected it to.”

“Well, I’m flying Natalie to the Hawaii tomorrow. I could come back and get you. We could both use a few days of vacation.”

Michelle looked tempted, but she sighed and shook her head. “No, I would need to give the office a bigger notice and your schedule is pretty full too. Aren’t you going to Japan and Taiwan with your boss in two weeks?”

Sadie grimaced. “Yeah, and I’m not looking forward to it either.  Japan can be pretty rude when it comes to how they treat women, but I guess it could be worse; we could be going to the Middle East.”

“Well, on the plus side, think of all the cool Japanese only video games and electronics you’ll be able to pick up and you should be able to find some killer deals on clothes in Taiwan, right?” Michelle giggled as she watched Sadie’s eyes gleam with anticipation for the geek toys before she groaned with defeat when she realized she would probably need to bring her biggest suitcase. Sadie knew Michelle would want and expect her to buy a few things for her.

The next morning, Sadie met Natalie at a small, private airport where she rented a small single plane hangar. Since her wings could fold, her hangar was actually the size of a one car garage instead of what someone might expect. As a result, the fee wasn’t incredibly expensive and it was paid in advance for three years using her share of the theft ring’s money. She had rented it on a whim because of her newly discovered love of flying and she didn’t expect to get as much use out of the hangar as she had, but it sure came in handy as a place to transform into her flight mode without prying eyes.  

Prior to landing her job, she and Michelle took a few extended weekend trips to other parts of the country.  They managed to find a few strategically placed airports with handy private hangars they could rent for a few days at a time for the purpose of giving Sadie a place to transform into Pretender mode if there was a car rental available or motorcycle mode if not.  They visited Yellowstone one weekend, flew over the Grand Canyon and went skiing in Aspen the next weekend.

“Are ya ready to see your girlfriend and hubby to be?” Sadie asked as Natalie fastened her seatbelts in preparation for takeoff.

“Yep! And, thanks again for doing this for us.  I hope you realize that you don’t have to.” Michelle worked to control her breathing as Sadie’s takeoff acceleration pushed her into the seat.

Sadie waited to reply until they had leveled off at their cruising altitude of 44,000 feet and 625 MPH a few minutes later.  Her take off was a little aggressive, but well within the limits of what a jet of her class was theoretically capable of achieving.  Of course, not many single passenger jets had the range she had or a fully pressurized, space capable cabin, but no one else needed to know that last little detail, did they?  “Okay, ETA at Honolulu is four hours. I hope you went to the bathroom before the flight and it’s not a problem; I love to fly and you’re family, got it?”

“Thanks, Sadie. I know we don’t spend as much time together as we should, but you and Michelle have been great.  I feel very blessed to have you two in my life with JenEctor.” Natalie sniffled and giggled at her mashup of Jenna and Hector’s names.

“Yeah, well, I can honestly say I NEVER expected life to turn out the way it has. I mean, who would’ve thought someone could take Hector off the market?” Sadie chuckled as Natalie gasped with mock surprise.

“Hehe, yeah, and I never saw a man look so good wearing a mini-skirt and my own shoes!” Natalie and Sadie laughed a lot during the relatively short flight.  Fortunately, Natalie didn’t need to utilize Sadie’s waste processing capabilities like she had on her long flight home from Jenna’s island.  Neither of them liked using that feature, but it beat the alternatives when stuck at 40k feet and three hours from the nearest bathroom.

Lacking a private hangar, Sadie simply pulled into an empty parking spot and let Natalie out. Her plan was to hang around until the tower shift changed, and then fly home.  She distracted herself during the wait by watching a movie.

She felt a person’s hand lightly pat the skin of her right fuselage. “Holy shit Craig! Is this a BD-5?”

A young man wearing mechanic coveralls dared to touch her. Sadie debated shocking the shit out of the kid, but doing so would only cause problems.

The man’s older coworker glanced over and slowly nodded with a perplexed and thoughtful expression. “Hmm, I dunno son. She mostly looks like one, but it’s like she was crossed with an F-22, or something. Honeycomb composite skin and, hmmm, looks like vectored thrust. Yep, she’s a looker alright and bet she goes faster than the smell of stink, but ya shouldn’t be touching her with yer greasy mitts.”

The kid rapidly removed his hand, leaving a tiny grease stain on Sadie’s skin. “Ah crap! You’re right. Hand me some spray, I need to clean this spot.”  He sprayed a little cleaner on the spot and gently rubbed it with a soft towel. “I’m sorry baby; I didn’t mean to get ya dirty.” He paused and rubbed it dry. “There! All better.”

While feeling slightly annoyed with the guy, Sadie was forced to admit it felt kind of nice having him clean her, but now she had a spot on her back that itched.  Grrrr.

“Oh, damn, now she has a clean spot.” The kid turned back to his partner. “Hey, isn’t there an open spot in hangar C?  I could grab the tug, pull her in and clean her up.  It’s almost a crime making her stay out in the hot sun, isn’t it?”

“No, kid, no it’s not. I’m fine. Craig, tell him it’s not okay...” Sadie muttered to herself.

“Hmm,” Craig rubbed his chin in contemplation. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to put her in there, but let the tower know you moved her so they can notify the pilot because I bet she cost a pretty penny to build. Also, if you clean her, ya gotta do it on your own time. We got work to do, got it!?”

“Damn it!” Sadie debated powering up and taking off right then and there, but now she had witnesses who would know there wasn’t anyone piloting her.

The kid, or Matt according to his nametag, pulled her into a nice private hangar and parked her between two Gulfstream executive jets.  Sadie was impressed with the place. Unlike her private hangar, the floor was epoxy-coated and looked clean enough to eat off of. Unfortunately, there were also security cameras everywhere.

Matt chocked her front wheels and affectionately patted her nose cone with his hand, careful to not leave any grease stains.  Just in case, he wiped the spot down with a rag.  “There ya go girl. Now, you hang out in here while I finish my shift. If you’re still here when I’m done, I’ll stop by and give you a good detail job, okay?” He paused as if he could hear her reply.

“No Matt, it’s not okay. Just drag me back outside and I’ll be outta here.” Sadie tried to telepathically tell the guy.

Matt nodded as if he heard her. “Okay, well, I’ll be right back. I need to place another chock on your rear landing gear.” He chuckled. “Can’t have ya accidently rolling into another plane in here. The boss would skin me alive and you’re far too pretty to be getting all banged up.”

As nice as the guy was, Sadie still wanted to strangle to him. She had to get home, but doing so would definitely break her cover and freak the guy out in the process.  She dialed Michelle’s number. {“Hey, Michelle. It looks like I might be a few hours late getting home tonight.”}

{“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”} Michelle asked, alarmed.

{“Hehe, yeah, I’m fine, but a worker here at the airport took a shine to me. He decided to be a nice guy and pull me into a hangar, and now, he wants to give me a bath.”}

{“Oh, that’s kinda funny!”} Michelle giggled.

{“Yeah, not.  I’ll give you a call with my ETA as soon as I’m wheels up, okay?”}

{“Sure babe, not a problem and hey?”}

{“Yes?”}

{“Is he cute?”}

{“Grrrr…Love ya, bye!”}

Michelle laughed. {“I’ll take that as a yes and I love you too!”} She finished the call with exaggerated kissy noises.

Matt returned and crawled under her left wing and placed a chock around her wheels. “Whoa! Fucking awesome...” He gasped with surprise before gesturing for his coworker. “Hey, Craig! Come here and look at this. She’s got an Autobot symbol on her wings!”

Damn it! Now what?

Author's Note: I'm glad I had this chapter in reserve and I'm sorry for the delay. I'd like to say my muse kicked in on Whisper, this story and/or Reality Storm, but it didn't. Instead, it kicked in on a 5th story. :( Again, a "my bad" goes out to my remaining 10 readers. A VERY special thanks to all my beta-readers for putting up with me. Djkauf for his magical editing.

Sadie decided to wait for Matt and Craig to leave the hangar. Since they were probably paid by the hour, they would have to get back to work sooner or later.  The place was loaded with multi-million dollar private jets and security cameras to protect them.  The cameras would present a problem for her, but she figured they would be easy to defeat with her holographic projector. Once they left her alone, she could simply use her projector to make it look like her owner/pilot walked into the hanger, moved the chocks and pulled her plane out of the hanger.

She noticed one tiny problem with her idea. Hangars were the place mechanics worked on planes. Why would they leave?  She felt a bit of optimism when they both exited to go work on some aircraft in a second hangar, but her plan went all to hell when Matt closed and locked the hangar’s door as he left. “Damn it…” She muttered with frustration.

With the security cams, it would be more than a little tricky to open the doors herself without transforming and giving everything away, impossible really.  She had a couple of hours to stew over her problem and she came up with a go-to-hell plan. Worst case, she would zap all the cameras with a low powered laser to blind them and once done, she would make her escape, but her plan A was a little less risky.

Plan A was for her to wait for Matt to return and use her holographic projector to fool him into thinking her owner/pilot had returned and ask him to pull her plane out of the hanger for her.  Holographic-Sadie would then enter her cockpit and she would take off, easy peasy.

Matt promptly returned at 5pm, cleaning supplies and polish in hand. “Oh, good, you’re still here.” He glanced appreciatively at her. “I was worried your owner would come back before I got a chance to clean you.”

Sadie decided to hold off on leaving for a few more minutes. It might be nice to have a good wash job. She didn’t think she really needed one, but having someone pamper her sounded a lot like day at the spa.  Michelle and Natalie raved about how nice it felt to have someone give you a nice massage and facial, so maybe getting a free wash and polish from Matt would be the same.  Besides, her skin did have a few bugs stuck to it and they could hurt her aerodynamics, right?

It sounded like a good reason to her and besides, once Matt started cleaning her and she got used to the fact a strange man was touching her in places no man had gone before, she discovered it felt pretty damn good.  In fact, it felt so relaxing having Matt work his magic on her back and wings, she almost went into sleep mode a couple times.

Her ‘skin’ cleaned itself everytime she transformed. She didn’t ‘need’ to have someone wash and wax her, but it sure felt nice. Sadie decided that once Michelle had the babies, she would have to ask for a wash and wax every once and awhile when she was in motorcycle or airplane mode.  After all the foot and back massages she gave Michelle, it was only fair.

“Well, Arcee, that’s it.” Matt stood back and admired his handy work. “I must say, you’re looking mighty fine.”

Sadie felt ready to melt into the floor and his compliment slipped past her filters. “Thanks, Matt.”

“What?!? Did you just talk?” Matt jumped back with alarm as Sadie realized what she had done.

She projected her Holographic-Sadie by hangar’s entry door. “I said, thanks for taking care of my plane, Matt.” She smiled as he anxiously glanced between her hologram and her real body.

Confused and looking a little embarrassed for thinking that the plane spoke to him, Matt blushed and stammered. “Umm, it’s...umm, no problem, ma’am?”  He clutched the microfiber polishing cloth in his hand as he scratched his neck with confusion.

“Sadie. Ma’am makes me sound old.” She chuckled as she walked over to her real body. “And I’m sure ‘Arcee’-” She smirked at Matt causing the poor man to blush even harder. “-appreciates your work and I’d love to stay and chat with you about what you think of her, but I need to fly.”

He looked crestfallen. “Oh…”

Sadie hated making him feel bad. “Sorry, you did a very good job on her, but would you be kind enough to pull her out for me?”

Once Matt had her sitting on the tarmac, Sadie popped the canopy and jumped into her cockpit. She wanted to show him some appreciation for his work, but was at a loss for how she could do so without giving herself away. “Hmmm…”

She made a show of slowly starting up her engine as she wrapped her hologram around the flight stick, including it in her holographic disguise.  With it hidden, she transformed the flight-stick into a gripper tentacle and pulled two $20 bills from storage.  With her tentacle hidden inside her holographic body, she snaked it up to her left arm and offered him the cash. “Here, thanks for the extra work and care you put into my plane.”

Matt looked surprised by her offer, but he waved her offer away. “I can’t take this ma’am.” He hesitated and smiled apologetically at her. “I was just doing my job.”

“Sadie and nonsense, you didn’t have to pull me-, my plane into the hanger and you most certainly didn’t have to wash and wax her!” Sadie pushed the $40 toward him.

“Honestly, ma’-, umm Sadie, it was my pleasure…” Matt took another step back and smiled at her.

She was getting a little frustrated. Why did he have to be such a nice guy? “I’ll drop it if you don’t take it.” She threatened and with the wind, the bills would probably be lost.

Her threat broke through the impasse, causing him to accept the offered bills. “Umm, thanks Sadie.” Matt rubbed his fingertips where they had brushed up against her hidden tentacle.

“Sorry about my nails!” Sadie quickly lowered the canopy to avoid any further chances of discovery.

It took her almost fifteen minutes to get clearance to take off and it wasn’t until she was airborne before she breathed a huge, virtual sigh of relief.

{“Phew! In the air. ETA some time after midnight. Sorry.”} She sent a quick text to Michelle.

As much as she wanted to be home --right now-- Sadie decided it would not be wise to break the sound barrier and draw unwanted attention. As a result, she impatiently kept it down to reasonable private jet speeds while hoping no one watching the scopes would wonder how a small jet was able to reach six hundred plus miles per hour and have the range to fly non-stop from Hawaii to California.

I was 1 AM when Sadie finally made it home. She knew it was impossible to not wake Michelle, but she tried anyway.

“Sadie Prime! Sadie Prime!”  Wheelie’s enthusiastic greeting stopped any chance of her not interrupting Michelle’s sleep.

Sadie desperately motioned for him to be quiet. It didn’t work exactly the way she expected. In an attempt to sound cool, his voice dropped a few octaves. “I mean, yo, hot mamácita. Whatcha doing?”

“Wheelie!  Shhhhh, Michelle’s trying to sleep” Sadie’s eyes flared with surprise at her sometimes annoying and sometimes funny little Decepticon cleaner bot’s appearance. “What tha’ hell?”

He no longer looked like a modern, mini-monster truck with oversized tires. Instead, he looked like an 1950’s low-rider pickup, complete with white wall tires, chrome hubcaps and custom blue with yellow flame paintjob.

“Pretty bitchin, don’t ya think boss?”  Wheelie jumped up to show  Sadie both sides before he began to slowly roll down the hallway to the tune of “Low Rider” as he activated his shocks to raise and lower his body in time to the music.

{“WHEELIE! Stop making noise!  Michelle is trying to sleep, remember?”} Sadie sent to him via radio.

{“Aye, caramba! Sorry boss…”} Wheelie’s music halted mid-note and his chassis sank to the floor with shame.

From the way he was shaking, Sadie almost expected the little guy to leak some coolant like a chastised puppy. {“Wheelie...stop that.”} She sighed with resignation because dealing with Wheelie was going to take some time. {“Now, tell me why you look like a low rider pickup and why you’re trying to speak with a Spanish accent.”}

{“Oh, sí. I mean sure.”} Wheelie lifted himself off the floor. {“It’s like this, boss. Mama Vasquez sent me to work with Papa Vasquez and I kinda, sorta helped him out in the body shop at night. Ya know, when no one was around.”} He transformed into his bot mode and chuckled. {“Well, it was good work and I did a pretty damn good job fixing up those dumb human vehicles, but…”} He deflated a little. {“The workers started to think the place was haunted. So, *sniff* Papa Vasquez had to let me go.”}

Wheelie’s emotional outburst surprised Sadie. She didn’t realize the little guy had it him. She crouched down and hugged him. “There, there, little buddy. I’m sure we’ll think of a way to fix it, but I’m surprised it bothers you so much.”

“Yeah, well, me too, but fixing up those dumb vehicles felt good and there were always more.” Wheelie began to cry with lubricant leaking out of his eyes.

“Okay, well, it’s been a few weeks since you were home and there are probably a few things for you to do here. Let’s give Papa Vasquez a few days and I’ll go talk to him. Maybe we can work something out.”

Wheelie’s eyes flared open with shock. “You’d do that for me!?!?”

“Of course Wheelie, we’re family and that’s what family does.” Sadie hugged him tight and patted him on his back before releasing him. “Now, I’m going to bed. You be good.” She smiled and kissed him on the top of one of his eyes, causing him emit some beeps and melt bonelessly to the floor.

She knew it was probably pointless now, but she took the time to make her way up the stairs and to their bedroom as silently as possible. It was a lost cause because with her Catwoman/Black Widow blend, she was impossible to sneak up on.

Michelle waited until Sadie dropped her clothing facade and prepared to lie down beside her before she opened her eyes and purred. “Meow, I like it when you prance around naked and try to sneak up on me.”

“I was not prancing!” Sadie whispered fiercely while simultaneously wondering why she was whispering since Michelle was awake.

Michelle chuckled. “Whatever,  turn up your body temp, kiss me like you mean it and ‘maybe’ I’ll forgive you.”

The next morning, Sadie exited hibernation mode at exactly 6AM to get ready to be at work by 8AM.  With traffic, her commute was only 45 minutes; short by Californian standards and it never took her more than 30 seconds to be ready to leave.  The hardest part about dressing herself was picking which outfit to simulate.  She used the extra time she gained from not having to spend an hour showering, dressing and putting on makeup to make sure Michelle had a good breakfast.

With Wheelie home, the kitchen was clean, but not as clean as she expected. “Wheelie?” She looked around for him in his usual haunts before she used her radio. {“Wheelie? Where are you?”}

{“Oh! Sadie Prime, ¡buenos días!  I’m in the garage...”} His voice trailed off.

Sadie thought he sounded a little guilty or something. {“Oookay, I’ll be right there.”}

She entered the garage and gasped with surprise. Overnight, Wheelie had somehow given Michelle’s jeep a custom paint job. Gone was the hunter green metallic paint job. In its place, her Jeep was now painted flat black with a subtle, organic, flat red flame job around the wheel wells and hood that faded to pink as the flames rose. Wheelie had even re-finished the wheels, painting them black with pink highlights.  Sadie thought it looked kind of cool, but it wasn’t her car.

“Micheeellle!” She turned and yelled back into the house.

Wrapped in a towel and fresh from the shower, Michelle poked her head into the garage. “What’s wro...ng?” She stammered when she noticed her jeep.

“I’m sorry Michelle Prime…” Wheelie hung his head down with shame as he looked up to her, pleading with his eyes for her forgiveness.

Sadie wasn’t sure which way Michelle would go. While Michelle was surprised, she felt fairly sure she wouldn’t hate it and might even like the new paint job. “You can take my car to work.”

Michelle slowly shook her head. “No, that won’t be necessary.” She crouched down and looked intently into Wheelie’s eyes. “Wheelie, you know you should’ve asked first, right?” She asked, gently with a friendly smile.

“Yes, I’m sorry. I’ll change it back.” A spray can morphed into existence in his hand as he turned back to her jeep.

“No!” Michelle grabbed him and surprised him even more by picking him up and hugging him. “I love it!  Don’t change a thing.”

“You do?!?” Once again he melted into the floor with a few stray electronic beeps when Michelle set him back down.

“Yes, but please ask next time.” Michelle giggled excitedly as she turned back to enter the house. “Oh, I can’t wait for the folks at work to see my new ride!”

Sadie glanced down to a deliriously happy Wheelie. “Don’t change anything with my car…” She paused as reconsidered. “Well, I do have a few dings and scratches. If you have a chance.”

Wheelie shot up to attention and saluted her. “Ma’am, yes ma’am! I’m on it!”

Sadie shook her head with amusement as she returned to the kitchen to cook Michelle and their unborn babies a healthy breakfast.  She added an appointment in her calendar to visit Papa Vasquez during lunch the following day.  Wheelie had some talent and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.  She sent Wheelie a ping to let him know what she planned.

After seeing Michelle off, Sadie left for work and she was impressed by Wheelie’s work on her car. The little dude only had a little over an hour, but her car looked showroom new on the outside.  Compared to enjoying the road as a motorcycle, driving a car frustrated her a little, but she didn’t have anywhere at work she could transform back into Pretender mode from her motorcycle mode.  She no longer felt as uncomfortable in Pretender mode, but she eagerly looked forward flying back to Hawaii to pick up Natalie later in the week.  She had discovered a genuine love of flying and it would be great to stretch her wings a little.

Work was just work. Mr. Rogers didn’t have any high-powered client meetings and nothing blew up. That evening, Michelle happily raved about her cool new paint job, which made Wheelie even more insufferable.  He begged and pleaded with Sadie to let him customize her ‘boring’ car, but she didn’t want to have a car that attracted attention. Her car was just a 2007 Camry. A custom paintjob would look out of place on it.

Sadie decided that the trick for tomorrow’s lunch with Papa was to make him want Wheelie back. “Okay, for tomorrow, I think I need to borrow your jeep so Papa can see Wheelie’s work.”  She mulled it over while Michelle nodded with agreement as she happily dug into a wild caught salmon filet.  “And, I think I need to bring Wheelie with. What do you think?”

“Hmmm…” Michelle finished chewing her bite of fish. “Good plan.”

Wheelie anxiously glanced back and forth between the two of them and Sadie could tell how much he wanted this to work based on the fact that he was staying  uncharacteristically silent. She tilted her head a little to the side and pursed her lips as she considered how to answer. “And, I’m thinking the only way it will work is if it is a night job and where Wheelie works with an employee we can trust to keep it a secret.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, still a little risky though...” Michelle grimaced with distaste as she stabbed a broccoli spear with her fork. “Are you sure I need to eat this?”

Sadie sighed and affectionately smirked at Michelle’s cat-like avoidance of healthy vegetables. It was the same mock argument they had every night. “Yes, veggies are good for the babies.” She saw her reply coming and held up her hand to stop her. “And, yes, I’ll take you out for an all-you-can-eat sushi dinner as soon as the babies are born.”

Michelle giggled. “You better believe it!”

When Sadie pulled into the Papa Vasquez’s parking lot in Michelle’s jeep, Wheelie’s custom paint job attracted a few glances, but her exit attracted even more admirers.  The tapping sound of her heels as she walked into the shop coupled with her expensive and subtly sexy business suit caused a stir.

“Aye caramba!” One of the workers made his opinion known just before he walked into an equally distracted coworker, causing them both to trip and fall to the floor.

Sadie struggled not to laugh as she stepped delicately around some of the dirtier sections of the shop.

From behind, she heard a low whistle of appreciation followed by a crude remark by a man who didn’t expect a gringo woman to understand Spanish. [“Wow, I’d tap that ass!”]

There were a few response options that ran through her central processor before she settled on the least deadly. Pretending she didn’t understand and ignoring his crude request to ‘tap her ass’ wasn’t good enough for her. She glanced over her shoulder at the man with a satisfied smirk, noticing ‘Jesus’ was the name embroidered on his shirt. It was time to show off her Spanish. [“Jesús, Do you kiss your momma with that mouth?”]

Jesús immediately flushed dark red with embarrassment as his coworkers laughed and patted their friend on his back, commiserating his bad luck and approval for her reply.

[“Hey, what’s going on here?!”] Papa Vasquez emerged from his office, none too happy with his crew.

Sadie turned back to face him and handed him a paper bag containing a freshly cooked, home-made lunch for him courtesy of Mama Vasquez. She figured it might help butter him up and Mama was more than happy to help. [“Nada Papá. I brought you some homemade lunch from Mama Vasquez.”]  

Papa Vasquez glanced down at the bag, clearly surprised by Sadie’s Spanish fluency and her gesture. He opened the bag and took a deep breath, appreciating what his nose reported. His smile of satisfaction was instantly wiped off his face as he glanced back up and spotted all his workers enjoying the show. [“Stop clowning around and get back to work!”]

He opened the door to the small office area and motioned for Sadie to enter as his workers scrambled to get back to their jobs and look busy.  She quickly spotted Isabella, his front office worker, sitting behind her desk speaking on the phone with a customer.  Isabella smiled and waved at her as Papa escorted her into his office. She could see Wheelie’s touch on the room because it was much cleaner that the last time she had been here. Wheelie had only been gone for a few days, but the desk was already starting to lose the battle over car parts and clutter.

“So, what brings you to my humble shop Sadie?” Papa asked, switching to English as he sat down behind his desk and glanced longingly at his bag of lunch.

“Wheelie, but go ahead and eat first. I can get some work done while I wait. No rush.” Sadie smiled and gestured to his lunch bag.

He wanted to protest, but Sadie insisted it was okay.  She had a few emails to compose and send for Mr. Rogers and a couple appointments to work into his schedule. Once he finished his lunch, Papa leaned back into his chair with a satisfied smile.  “Ahh, that was great, but I can’t take Wheelie back.  The guys were getting spooked because of how clean the place was getting without ever seeing anyone come in and clean.”

“I understand, but perhaps I can show you something first?” Sadie stood and gestured for him to follow her.

Curious, Papa followed her out and into the parking lot. His eyes flared with surprise as he recognized Michelle’s jeep. “Aye caramba! When did Senorita Michelle get her jeep painted and why didn’t you bring it to me?”  He sounded a little professionally insulted, but he crouched down and inspected the detailed flames. A low whistle of admiration escaped from his lips before he glanced back up, over his shoulder at Sadie.  “I wish I could afford to hire who ever did this.”

Sadie grinned. “But, you can.  Wheelie painted everything in less than six hours the other night.”

{“How’s it going boss? Does he like it?!?”} Wheelie anxiously transmitted from the back seat.

{“Shhh, I’m still working on him…”} Sadie lightly admonished him.

{“Doh! Okay, sorry!”}

The little guy must really like painting cars because he never acted so politely.  Her conversation with Wheelie only took a few nano-seconds, allowing her to turn her full attention back to Papa without missing a beat.

He gasped with shock and abruptly stood, glancing to Sadie with disbelief. “No way!”

“Yep.” Sadie proudly grinned as Papa walked around Michelle’s jeep, professionally inspecting the entire paint job.

“This is good. I wish I could hire him.” Papa scratched his chin with consternation.

“You can. Does minimum wage sound good?” Sadie struggled to contain a giggle at his shocked expression. “But, we would need to come up with a way to keep it a secret or limited to employees you can trust to keep a secret.”

With the boss in the parking lot inspecting a custom jeep with a hot chick, a few of his employees had gathered a polite distance away.  Papa turned to face them. “Manuel, grab Jesús and send him out here, please. The rest of you, get back to work!” He impatiently waved them away.

Jesús looked a little nervous at the sight of Sadie. “You needed me, Senor Vasquez?”

“Si, look at this job and tell me what you think.” Papa gestured to the jeep.

From ten feet away, Jesús stole a quick glance. “The base is good, but vinyl flame kits are pretty common.”

Papa chuckled. “Look closer.” He motioned Jesús forward.

“Aye caramba! This isn’t vinyl!” Jesús glanced back over his shoulder at Papa with astonishment. “Who did this work?”

“Let’s go to my office and talk about this idea of yours.” Papa Vasquez smiled at Sadie and gestured for Jesús to join him.

Sadie grabbed Wheelie, in low rider truck disguise, from the back seat and walked with Papa back into his office. Once inside, he closed the door and turned to Jesus.  “You’ve been working for me for four...” He performed a quick mental calculation. “No, five years and you do great work.”

Jesús anxiously nodded with agreement and stole a quick glance over to Sadie, clearly worried about the direction this was going due to his recent sexual harassment of a woman his boss was obviously on friendly terms with. “Si, I try, but I’m very sorry about what I said Senorita.” He turned back to Papa Vasquez with a pleading expression. “Please don’t fire me!”

“Fire you?” Papa shook his head with amusement. “Sadie, what do you think?”

Sadie studied Jesus for a second before turning back to Papa. “Do you trust him?”

{“Now?”} Wheelie began to vibrate with excitement.

{“Not yet…”} Sadie cautioned as his movement caught Jesús’ attention.

Papa nodded with agreement and glanced to Sadie for her to start. “The paint was done by a little robot I built, it’s all mucho top secret.” She was heartened by how wide the man’s eyes grew. He looked suitably impressed. “He needs some training. So, how would you feel about working with him a few nights a week?” She glanced to Papa and received a slight nod of confirmation on the schedule.

“A robot did that?!?” Jesús gestured vaguely in the direction of the parking lot.

“Yes, but not just any robot. A highly intelligent and adaptive robot, named Wheelie.”  Sadie pointed to the now trembling low rider truck. It was probably bad to be boosting his ego so much, but it seemed to impress Jesús.

Wheelie couldn’t take it any longer. He transformed into his robot mode and crawled across the top of the desk on his knees with his hands clasped in front of him. “Please, please, please Senor Jesús. Say you’ll work with me!”

“¡Mierda!” Jesús jumped back with shock at both the sound of Wheelie’s quick transformation and his sudden animation.  He made the sign of the cross as he worked to regain his composure. Due to the lack of reaction by Papa Vasquez and Sadie, he quickly composed himself and took a deep breath as he stared at the pleading robot.

His expression turned to wonder and he took a hesitant step forward. “He’s like one of those movie robots...” He whispered, awestricken.

Sadie nodded. “Exactly! That’s where I got the idea from.”  She only half-lied to the man. He didn’t really need to know Wheelie was actually created in Hector’s garage using an alien machine.

Papa chuckled. “And, he’s the ‘ghost’ who was cleaning up the place at night.” He grinned at Wheelie’s pained expression.

The rest of the negotiations went well for Wheelie. Jesús seemed fascinated by the little guy and agreed to work with him for a few hours during the night to help keep his existence a secret.  In a shop as large as Papa’s, Sadie figured the secret would be out in less than a month, but maybe not because Jesús also liked the raise he was promised.

The deal was for Papa to pay Wheelie minimum wage, using Sadie’s ID to make it legal with immigration since no one would believe a toy truck could be a robot or that a robot could be advanced enough to paint outside of an auto factory.  With Wheelie getting the low wage, Papa could pay Jesús an extra bonus based on the additional vehicles the two of them could crank out of the paint shop. To help with the illusion and appease a possible immigration investigation, Sadie offered to come into the shop a few times to help sell the story and provide evidence that it was her doing the work.  She would also use the time to pretend to gather test data from Wheelie to make it look like she actually designed and built him.

The rest of the week went smoothly with Papa Vasquez calling to tell Sadie how well Wheelie was working with Jesús.  The two were thick as thieves and he warned Sadie that Wheelie might gain a few bad habits. Her flight back to Hawaii to pick up Natalie was trouble free with only a little turbulence during the descent to the airport.

Due to her friendly mechanic, Sadie tried to time her arrival with Hector and Natalie to give her the least amount of time on the ground. She hoped it would be enough to keep the man from trying to be nice and pull her into the hanger again, but she wouldn’t mind another wash job.  It didn’t work because less than five minutes after she reached her assigned parking spot, Matt walked over with a greasy rag in hand as he worked to wipe his hands.

She activated her hologram, popped the canopy and waved to him. “Hey Matt, how’s it going?”

He looked a little surprised. “Oh, umm, hi ma’am. I was just checking to make sure you were okay.”

“Thanks, but everything’s fine. I’m just waiting for my ride.”  Sadie glanced behind Matt and toward the parking lot. “They should be here soon.”

Matt pointed to the hanger. “You can wait in the air conditioned hangar there if you want.”

Sadie smiled with gratitude as she gestured to her multiple and complex looking LED cockpit displays. “Thanks, but I have a few things to tune here and the cockpit is pretty comfy.”

Matt self-consciously rubbed the back of his head and glanced bashfully down to his feet. “Okay, but if you change your mind…” He glanced meaningfully back to the hangar before waving goodbye and heading back to his job.

Sadie anxiously waited another fifteen minutes and it looked like Matt was about to make another attempt to be nice to her when she spotted Hector and Natalie’s rental car. She jumped out of the cockpit and waited for the pair.

Hector carried Natalie’s luggage and waved to her as he approached. “Hey, Sadie. What’s up?”

“Thank god you’re here!” Sadie turned and waved to Matt, signaling him that everything was okay and he could stop worrying about her. “Matt’s a nice guy, but I think he’s a little too smart for his own good. He spotted me land, but when no one got out; he came over to make sure the pilot was okay. I told him I was waiting for my ride.”

As Natalie faked hugging Sadie’s hologram, Hector glanced over to the mechanic before turning back to Sadie with a grin. “I think the poor man has a crush on you, but how are we going to do this?”

“Well…” Sadie gestured to an older couple loading their plane from their car parked next to it. “How about if you bring the car over and I’ll make it look like I’m your passenger while Natalie takes off?”

Hector nodded with agreement. “Okaay, I didn’t realize we could drive the car in here, but I guess it will work. How far can you project your hologram?”

“Not sure, maybe fifty meters, but it should be good enough to fool him.” Sadie hesitantly bit her lip. “I hope.”

Once he brought the car over, it took Hector a few extra seconds to say goodbye to Natalie. Sadie’s hologram waited for him to open the passenger door and she projected herself into the car. Their plan seemed to work, but Sadie was only able to keep the hologram solid looking for thirty meters due to the car windows. It flickered out completely after forty meters, but it seemed to be good enough to fool Matt.

Sadie felt all her worries melt away as she went nose up at the end of the runway and punched her engines up to a whooping 20% thrust to get her up to her cruising altitude as fast as possible for a human jet.

“Holy crap Sadie! In a rush?” Natalie gasped as she was pushed back into her seat.

“Oops!” Sadie dialed back on her thrust, dropping it down from a blistering 4G to a more sedate 2G while increasing the inertial dampeners to help Natalie. “Sorry, I was feeling a little stressed out due my friendly mechanic.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem. It was actually kind of fun. You just caught me by surprise.” Natalie forgave her with a laugh. “Hey, do you think you can do a few loops and barrel rolls?”

Author's Note: This is a little long and I probably could've broke it into two chapters, but I decided to stick with a one mega-chapter release. Sorry for the delays in all my other stories. Thanks to my beta/proof readers and djkauf for his magical edits.

Sadie was in the middle of preparing Michelle’s breakfast when she detected an incoming phone signal. It was Jenna’s satellite phone, but she wasn’t expecting to hear anything from her friend for a few more days at the earliest. According to her schedule, Jenna should be on the yacht and a day or two away from the island. With the time difference, it was one or two AM wherever she was at; she smirked when she considered how likely it would be that Jenna was calling to vent about her co-star’s advances.

{“Hey Jenna, what’s up?} Sadie asked, happy to hear from her friend as she put Michelle’s bacon wrapped salmon filet in the oven and set a timer for twenty-five minutes. She thought a salmon filet for breakfast was a little weird, but she only had herself to blame for Michelle’s condition. Her pregnancy and Catwoman template only made some of her cravings positively strange, but fish was a good brain food and good for the babies.

{“Ummm…”} Jenna stalled, never a good sign.

{“What did he do?”} Sadie worried that Mr. Powers tried to put the move on Jenna and she had been forced to pointedly tell him no.

Jenna sighed heavily. {“Nothing, but I sorta ran into a little trouble tonight and I wanted to see if you could give Agent L a heads up for me.”}

{“Oh, that’s not good.”} Sadie debated whether or not she should go warn Michelle that she might need to go get Jenna. {“What happened?”}

It took Jenna a little over five minutes to give her the details of the pirate attack on the yacht. Jenna had to switch the conversation a few times from a report of her actions, to a distressed sounding recount of what she heard happened due to potential eavesdroppers. A normal friend would’ve been stunned and tried to accuse Jenna of trying to play a joke on her, but not Sadie. Even though repelling pirates on the high seas sounded like the making of a good movie plot and she knew Jenna/Hector liked a good joke, she wouldn’t joke about killing four men and cutting off the hand of the pirate captain.

{“How long ago did this happen?”}

{“An hour or so. I’ve been helping with the cleanup and I’ve tried to tell them it wasn’t me, but I can tell they don’t believe me and I expect things to change once we meet up with the U.S. Navy ship that has been dispatched to meet us.”}

Sadie wasn’t sure if having the U.S. Navy meet them was good or bad. {“What’s the ETA?”}

{“Somewhere between six and eight hours.”}

{“Well, I think you did the right thing; you couldn’t let the pirates kill everyone, but you’re right, your alibi is paper thin.”} Sadie traced the phone signal back to the source and using the embedded GPS signal, calculated her flight time to her friend’s current coordinates. She was currently located a little southeast of the Marshal Islands or about 4,800 miles away. If she went suborbital, she could make it to Jenna in thirty to forty-five minutes, give or take.

Of course, doing so would light up a ton of military radars and draw a shit load of attention to the area. {“I just grabbed your location and calculated the flight time. If you need me, I can be there in forty-five minutes.”}

{“Seriously?! Holy crap dude, that’s cool, but that probably wouldn’t help and I’m guessing a lot of three letter agencies wouldn’t be happy with you either.”} Jenna chuckled before letting out a defeated sigh. {“No, I’m just going to have to face the music and take my lumps.”}

{“Okay, I’ll call Natalie and give her a heads up. Then, I’ll give the Agency a ring. Maybe Agent L will have some ideas.”} Sadie quickly checked her schedule for the day. {“Today looks pretty light for meetings. I might try to bug out extra early and fly over to provide you with some air support. I’ll check back with you in two hours and if I don’t hear from you in four hours, I’ll assume you need help and come in hot and heavy.”}

{“Thanks-”} Jenna’s voice caught, forcing her to pause and gather her composure. {“I really appreciate the offer and I don’t know what I’d do without you and Michelle. It’s nice to know you’ve got my back.”}

{“Hey, de nada. I know you’d do the same for me.”} Sadie fondly smiled.

{“Okay, I need to go now.”} Jenna sighed. {“Mike and the Captain are coming this way and I think it’s ‘that’ time.”}

{“Good luck and remember, I got yer back, bud.”} Sadie sighed after Jenna disconnected her call. Michelle’s salmon was half done and she had a few calls to make.

First, she went upstairs and briefed Michelle and then, after she took the salmon out of the oven, she called Natalie to let her know what was going on. Based on Michelle’s initial, fight or flight reaction to her opening, “Jenna just called…”, she elected to start the Natalie call with: “Jenna’s okay…” The approach seemed to help, but understandably, Natalie was a little concerned and distraught over the news and she wanted Sadie to immediately fly her to Jenna.

A lot of people claimed they could multi-task, but Sadie felt pretty confident in her ability to outperform any normal human. Her alien designed CPU allowed her to simultaneously call Agent L and explain what happened to Jenna, start Michelle’s eggs with her left arm while her right arm plated Michelle’s salmon and her tail tentacle popped two slices of whole wheat bread into the toaster. She debated using her tongue tentacle to take the glasses down from the cabinet, but Michelle got the heebie-jeebies anytime she saw her use it and Sadie couldn’t blame her.

All of the components of Michelle’s breakfast came together perfectly as Michelle sat down at the kitchen’s attached breakfast nook. With the cooking completed and Michelle enjoying her breakfast, Sadie routed the call audio to her mouth so Michelle could listen to the call.

{“Thanks for the warning, but I advise you to not use the suborbital rescue option at this time. I can’t tell you why, but the Air Force is on high alert right now.”}

Sadie quickly did the math and after performing a quick scan of the popular UFO blogs and realized why Agent L warned her. Someone reported seeing a pair F-16’s fighter jets chasing an object that looked like an Iron Man suit over Florida yesterday. {“There’s another active MAU…”}

{“I didn’t say that.”} Agent L’s denial confirmed Sadie’s theory

She immediately calculated a variety of flight plans for reaching Florida from California in the least amount of time. If she could find the machine, she could make herself human again and even become Greg again, but was that something she really wanted now? She wasn’t sure anymore. {“I can be in Florida in less than thirty minutes.”}

{“No!”} Agent L’s forceful rejection caused Sadie to flinch and Michelle to glance up.

{“Sorry, Sadie.”} Agent L’s voice softened. {“I understand your frustration, but we have two of our best agents dealing with the incident right now and having you show up would only make a bad situation more complicated.”}

{“Ookay…”} Sadie hesitantly agreed.

Agent L sighed. {“Look, if this incident wasn’t as visible as it is right now, I’d be happy to meet you and work out a deal if we found a working MAU, but this is not a good time.”}

Sadie wasn’t happy about it, but Agent L was right. The UFO blogs were in a tizzy, the U.S. military was on high alert, Jenna was in a pickle and it would tear her apart if something happened to her friend and she wasn’t there to help her. {“Yeah, you’re right. Sorry and I know things could be worse, but…”}. Her eyes began to leak lubricant. {“I just want to be a normal human again. Hell, I’d even be happy to stay a woman if it meant being able to-”}

Michelle pressed her body against hers and hugged her tight. “It’s okay Sadie; you’re going to be a great Mom-Dad for our children. No matter what you look like on the outside, I will always love you.”

Her absolute conviction boosted Sadie’s core output. She fondly hugged Michelle and re-absorbed her AWOL lubricant.

“Thanks” She privately whispered into Michelle’s ear before returning to the call with Agent L. {“Thanks, Agent L.”}

Agent L softly chuckled {“Hey, no problem you two, but I’ve got some calls to make and as soon as I know more about Jenna’s current situation; I’ll let you know and do not rocket off to the Pacific or Florida.”}

With the situation out of her hands for now, Sadie decided to get started cleaning the kitchen. She was in the process of putting away the frying pan with her tail while washing the baking pan when Michelle finished her breakfast and brought over her dirty dishes.

“Meow, the fish was delicious, honey, but I need to leave for work now.”

“Thanks, I’m glad you liked it, but I still think it’s a little strange to eat fish for breakfast.” Sadie leaned over and gave Michelle a goodbye kiss.

The baking pan was forgotten when Michelle surprised her by turning a normal goodbye kiss into a tight embrace and something a lot more passionate and steamy. In response, Sadie’s tail gently wrapped itself around Michelle’s leg, reached under her skirt and began to softly tease her inner thigh. Michelle upped the ante by activating her symbiote Catwoman tail and using it to return the favor.

Thirty minutes later, Sadie sighed languidly from the middle of their living room floor as Michelle scrambled to put herself back together for work. She loved watching her get ready in the morning. At four months, the twins were visible and the sight of Michelle’s little baby bump filled her with more joy and love than her core could safely contain.

She knew the babies were starting to slow Michelle down, but Michelle never complained. It probably helped that she only suffered a very brief bout of morning sickness early on and could share her discomfort with Sadie. In that aspect, Sadie was a better partner than she would’ve been as plain old human Greg.

Technically, a father’s job was done with conception, but with their link, Michelle was able to share what it felt like to be pregnant. She wasn’t too uncomfortable yet, but the doctors warned her that twins can be difficult to carry, especially in the final month or two. Sadie promised to help her get through it and she looked forward to feeling their baby's first kicks, but knew it probably wouldn’t happen for another month or so.

The human body was a miraculous machine and in some ways, she felt it was far more powerful than her robotic body. She sighed as Michelle pulled up and adjusted her stretchy maternity skirt and she found herself feeling a twinge of jealousy, but quickly suppressed the emotion. She was a female robot now. How could a robot have a maternal instinct?

Michelle smiled at Sadie as she slipped into her shoes. “I’m going to be soooo late and it’s all your fault, you tin plated hussy!”

“Hey, I said I was sorry for ripping your panties off and I don’t recall you complaining!” Still naked and unashamed, Sadie rolled on to her stomach, elbows out in front with her hands propping her head up and feet up in the air, idly bouncing up and down.

Michelle playfully hissed, exposing her canines before giggling and sticking her tongue out. “Meanie!”

Sadie snickered unrepentantly as she stood up and activated her office clothes. “I’ll help you to your car ma’am.” She gestured toward the garage.

Michelle glanced down at Sadie’s clothes and sniffed. “Cheater…”

“Hey, not my fault. I don’t have time to use real clothes because you distracted me with your sexy tail.” Sadie shrugged and glanced expectantly at Michelle’s butt.

Michelle just shook her head with amusement and teased Sadie with a shake of her butt as she led the way into their garage.

Sadie managed to make it to work on time, but was fairly certain that Michelle was late. Her guess was correct when she punished her with a very distracting text in the middle of her lunch break.

>”Thanks for cooking breakfast this morning. XOXOXO”

>”BTW, Was 30 minutes late. I blame you and expect you to purrsonally make it up to me tonight. :-D”

Jenna called just before the end of the day, thanked her for getting Agent L involved and told her everything was taken care of. Her explanation was far too brief, but she promised to give her the full details the next time she saw her.

It had been three months since Jenna’s little pirate adventure and despite another near death experience with a cave in, the filming was complete. Well, mostly done. She said she still had a few minor scenes and retakes to do, but those could be done at the studio. Sadie would’ve liked to hold their welcome home party sooner, but it took Jenna almost another month before she could break away for an extended period of time and revert back to being Hector.

Hector only had a few days because the studio was anxious to release a full trailer and once that happened, Jenna would be needed to help promote the upcoming film. This weekend was the currently the longest consecutive stretch of “Hector Time” Sadie’s friend had been able to take for himself.

Sadie did the cooking while Michelle nursed the twins as Natalie chatted with her and watched with rapt attention. Hector saw the look of longing in Natalie’s eyes and concerned about the babies being contagious, he retreated to the kitchen.

“Too much for you?” Sadie asked with a smirk as she dumped the cheesy potato skins onto a serving plate and artfully arranged the seared Ahi Tuna on a large, Japanese style serving plate.

“Yeah, a little, but at the same time, no because I know Natalie wants to have children. Especially now that it’s possible for her.” Hector grabbed a fresh bottle of beer from the fridge and poured a glass of wine for Natalie.

“So, how are things going with you, Jenna and Natalie?” Sadie asked, worried about her friend’s relationship since he had been gone for so long.

Hector chuckled as twisted off the top of a beer and took a quick swig before setting it down with an appreciative sigh. “Going well for me, but it’s kinda weird when I’m Jenna because Natalie has kind of cooled down around her.  Jenna and her are in the friend zone.”

Sadie paused as she tried to come to terms with her friend’s dual nature. “Oh, that’s a little difficult to process.”

Hector snorted. “Yeah, tell me about it! I’m Jenna, but I’m not and it seems like the more time I spend as Jenna the more real she becomes. It’s like I have a split personality. Hell, I even think Jenna is starting to like and feel attracted to Mike and that’s totally not right!”

“That sounds a little complicated, but what does Natalie think?”

“It’s the damndest thing,” Hector shook his head with confusion, “I think she wants Jenna to date the jerk, but at the same time, she says she loves me more than ever and can’t wait until we’re married. How in the hell could that work?!?! I mean, wouldn’t I be cheating on her if Jenna was dating Mike?”

“Wow, and I thought I had it rough being a robot.” Sadie wanted to help her friend, man to man or robot, but she heard Michelle and Natalie returning and the current topic probably wasn’t something he wanted to bring up in front of the girls. “We should go grab a beer or something this week.” She said, just as she and Michelle walked into the kitchen.

Natalie hugged Hector and gave him a quick, affectionate kiss. “Yeah, you two should go out this week,” she glanced over to Michelle, “and Michelle and I can spend some girl time together. Besides, I wanna spoil my god children!”

Sadie shrugged and glanced over to Michelle for approval. “My schedule is pretty open this week. Meet at ‘The Hangout’ for happy hour?”

“Sounds good,” Hector nodded, “other than catching up with my fiance,” he grinned and gave Natalie a quick squeeze, “I don’t have any plans and Jenna doesn’t have any appearances to make until next weekend.”

While everyone munched on the appetizers and complemented Sadie on her cooking, she put the stuffed salmon into the oven and double checked the rice cooker. Michelle and Hector had a brief fight over the last tuna slice with Michelle taking the victory by giving Hector her poor starving kitty expression.

With the main course baking, the two couples moved into the living room to watch Jenna’s interview. Michelle snuggled against Sadie while Natalie happily sought shelter in Hector’s arms.

Sadie thought Jenna did a great job with the interview. She was relaxed, modest, funny, drop dead gorgeous and the host appeared smitten with her.  The audience enjoyed the teaser trailer for her movie and gasped with astonishment when she told them she did all her own stunts. The pirate attack was briefly brought up and Jenna stuck to the official story, giving Mike most of the credit.

The cave-in was brought up and again, Jenna gave all the credit to Mike. “I was buried under some rocks and was having trouble breathing. He risked his life to dig me out before I died.  We thought we were stuck in there for a few days, but the Navy rescue team found a backdoor into the cave.”

“Wow, that sounds scary!” The host said, fearfully glancing over to the studio audience as if he really was worried about being trapped in a cave.

Jenna giggled. “Yeah,  it was kind of scary, but I had Mike, I mean Mr. Powers there. He really is the hero he plays in his movies.”

The host chuckled before jumping in for the kill. “So, we’ve all seen the teaser trailer now and the public appearances with you and Mike. I think it’s safe to say that everyone can see there’s something going on between the two of you. Are the rumors that you two are dating true?”

Jenna laughed. “Sorry, but totally not true. Mike is a professional and we both know that having a relationship could be bad for the movie. Especially if the relationship went south during the filming.”

The host was clearly looking for some juicy gossip. He looked a little disappointed with Jenna’s denial, but he recovered quickly. “True, there have been a few movies where the actor’s romantic entanglements have caused problems,” he grinned and winked at Jenna, “but I think it’s safe to say that all the women are rooting for the two of you. I think it’s because they are getting tired of cleaning up their man’s drool everytime you’re on screen!”

The audience found his joke funny and Jenna’s head to toe blush endearing. Once the laughter died down, the host turned to the audience. “There ya have it guys, the lovely, talented and single, Jenna V! Her debut movie is scheduled to be in theaters this fall and it looks like it’s going to be a blockbuster.”

Sadie paused the show. “Wow, they really want you and Mr. Powers to date, but what’s with the Jenna V?”

Hector shrugged. “Beats me. It’s something the paparazzi started last week. I guess it’s better than the alternatives.”

“Yeah, I guess. So, what really happened in the cave?”

Natalie twisted around and glanced up to Hector. “Yeah, what happened?”

“Well, Jenna, I mean, I got trapped under a ton or two of rock and dirt. I couldn’t breathe and it took Mike about twenty minutes to dig me out.  He really did risk his life to get me out of there.  Anyway, he’s pretty smart and knew that I should’ve died. Since he thought I was a CIA agent, I sort of made up a story about how I got my regen, metal skeleton and ninja suit.”

Sadie giggled with disbelief. “Made up a story because the truth would be too hard for someone to believe?”

“Well, yeah. Kim believed me, but I didn’t trust Mike and still not sure I do. So, I told him that Jenna was in the Army when the vehicle she was riding in got hit by an IED in Iraq. The Army pumped her full of an experimental super soldier serum-”

Sadie scoffed. “Captain America, seriously?”

Hector grimaced and nodded. “Yep and I explained that once it was a success, they infused my bones with some super strong metal. The brass thought they had hit the jackpot, but then, they discovered the serum only works on women. Something about the XX chromosomes being needed. The Army wanted super soldier men, not women. So, they canceled the program and gave her a medical discharge, but the CIA swooped in. That’s how she became a secret agent and got the ninja suit.”

Michelle glanced back to Sadie with disbelief before turning to Hector. “And he believed that!?!”

“Well, yeah?  I mean everyone knows the government has secret programs and it’s probably more believable than the truth, right?” Hector shrugged.

Sadie found it hard to disagree with his logic and after the girls complained about eating too much food, the rest of the evening primarily revolved around the four friends catching up with each other’s lives. Of course, Hector’s life was more interesting, but Natalie and Hector’s pending wedding and the twins captured some attention.

Natalie asked Sadie and Michelle to be bridesmaids. Michelle jumped at the chance, but Sadie was a little more reserved. She apologetically glanced over to Hector. “Sorry bud, I was kind of expecting to be a groomsman or maybe, your best man when you finally settled down, but,” she glanced down at her body, “you know?”

Natalie reached out and held Sadie’s hand. “I’m so sorry.” She glanced back to Hector. “Maybe you could have a Best Woman, or Second Best,” she grimaced at her own idea, “yeah, that just doesn’t work…”

Sadie giggled at Hector’s reaction to Natalie’s idea. “No, it’s okay. I’d be happy to be a bridesmaid for you. I’m sure Hector has an old Army buddy or high school friend he can ask, right?” She inquisitively glanced to Hector.

Hector nodded after a few seconds of thought. “Yeah, I’ll have to make some calls, but I think I’ve got it covered.”

The evening ended when the twins cried in unison to be fed, causing Michelle to pout as she leaked some milk into her nursing pads.  Sadie saw Hector and Natalie out before joining Michelle with the twins.  “Do you want me to take over for you in the morning so you can get a little extra sleep?”

Michelle smiled with gratitude. “Could you, please?”

About an hour before the twins were due to wake, Sadie snuggled up to Michelle and deployed her milking tubes. Michelle smiled in her sleep and softly sighed with relief as her milk was gently transferred to Sadie’s breasts for sterile storage and kept at optimum temperature. While she couldn’t produce milk, it was fairly trivial for her to modify her non-functional breasts to store milk for the babies.

Of course, Michelle used a breast pump to build up a reserve for daycare and Sadie could’ve just used some of the stored milk with a bottle, but she wanted to have as much contact as possible with her children.  Somehow, she always felt a happy warmth creep into her core every time her children latched on and feed from her as if she was a real human mother.

The warmth helped drive out the cold that would sometimes creep in when she thought about how much she and Pinocchio had in common. If it wasn’t for her link with Michelle and the babies, she wasn’t sure if she could handle the occasional feelings of isolation from the human race.

Sadie felt a brief flutter of alarm when she pulled her car into the Hangout’s parking lot. It was only 5pm, still a little early, but the popular construction worker grill and bar was already starting to get busy. She hadn’t been to this place since the MAU changed everything. As Greg, she had no problems meeting Hector for a beer or two after work, but now, things were a little different.

The clientele wasn’t exactly urban professional and she decided that going in wearing her Executive Assistant clothes would be a bad idea.  Before she exited the car, she activated her jeans and t-shirt outfit in an attempt to blend in with the crowd. Following current fashion, the jeans were skin tight and the top left part of her midriff exposed. Her hair, she let fall down against her back. The tight french braid she had didn’t go with the casual look she was aiming for with the jeans.  

She knew she was an attractive woman, but stepping into a testosterone filled bar environment was a new experience for her.  The slight lull in conversation made her feel like she was an old time gun slinger stepping into a bar full of outlaws. Instead of cowboys reaching for their six shooters, it was burly construction workers giving her appreciative stairs and a few loud wolf whistles.

Despite her previous life as a man, Sadie couldn’t keep the pleased smirk off her lips at she worked her way toward Hector’s usual table.  She had to bat away more than a few hands as she squeezed through the crowd, but based upon all the exclamations of pain, she doubted they would make the same mistake again.  As she reached the end of the bar, she felt a polite touch on her arm.

“Pardon me ma’am, can I get you a drink?” The bass rumble of a man’s voice drew her attention.

She caught sight of Hector as she turned to face the voice. The man behind the voice was a giant! Even sitting on the bar stool, he was taller than her and she wasn’t used to that. He looked like he belonged on a football field. The entire bar was now silent and she realized everyone was waiting to see what would happen. She smiled politely and gestured toward Hector. “Thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I’m just here to meet my friend Hector.”

The giant turned and scowled at Hector.  “Damnit Hector! It’s been six months since we saw your ugly face and you’re already back to your old tricks!”

Hector chuckled, leaned back in his chair and blew on his fingers as if they were burning. “Hey, what can I say? When you’re hot, you’re hot.”

The bar erupted with laughter as the giant chuckled and stood up. Sadie was impressed.  Scanning the man, he measured in at six foot nine and based on his mass, had to weigh at least three hundred pounds, none of it fat. Thanks to Michelle’s brother getting them NFL game passes, she had stood next to some pretty big guys and this man could easily fit right in with that group. “Holy crap!” She muttered softly as the man smirked at her reaction.

“Make a hole for the lady!” He bellowed as he forced his way toward Hector’s table, pulling Sadie along in his wake.

“Okay, spill,” the giant glowered suspiciously at Hector.

Unperturbed, Hector chuckled and turned to Sadie. “Sadie, meet Ratchet. Ratchet, Sadie.  Ratchet the Pious,” Hector gestured to his friend with a smirk, “is my best bud from the Army and,” Hector glanced back to Ratchet, “Sadie is here to help me plan for the wedding. Sorry bud, but she’s already married and I think I should’ve picked a better location.”

Sadie almost choked at his name. Put him in a metal suit and he could probably pass for an Autobot. “Nice to meet you, umm, Ratchet.” She faced him and politely shook his hand. He hand disappeared inside of his, but he was very gentle. Not that she was worried about him crushing her hand. “You’re a Transformers fan?”

“Ha!” Ratchet’s face broke into a big grin. “My real name’s Tom, but my friends call me Ratchet. Not many people get the name, but yeah, I fix the big machines that this,” He gestured to Hector, “knucklehead likes to break and the nickname kinda stuck.”

Hector sighed and shook his head. “Can I help it if the previous operator ran over something and weakened the track?”

“Right buddy, sure.” Ratchet chuckled. “If that helps you sleep soundly  while yours truly is stuck fixing the busted track, in the pouring rain and mud.”

Hector leaned back in his chair and took a sip from his beer. “And who was there helping you?”

“Ahh, I know. Just giving ya shit bro.” Ratchet pulled away a chair and politely motioned for Sadie to sit before he took a second chair, reversed it and sat down on it backwards.  “So, you said you needed to talk to me about something. Is now a good time?”

Hector glanced guiltily over to Sadie for a brief moment. “Yeah, I guess so. We’ve know each other for, well, a while and we served together. So, how would you like to be my best man?”

Sadie wasn’t expecting to learn who the best man was going to be so soon and so suddenly. She still felt a little twinge of regret that Greg was never coming back and she was going to be stuck as a bridesmaid at her best friend’s wedding.  Ratchet accepted the honor with the call for a round of tequila for the three of them.  She downed it like a pro, but she kind of had an advantage since it tasted much different to her as a robot.

After a few more rounds of shots, mixed with a healthy dose of humorous and slightly embarrassing Army stories between Ratchet and Hector over who pulled the craziest stunts while in Iraq; a slightly inebriated Ratchet left the pair to get some grub for himself and let Sadie and Hector talk.  

Sadie’s misplaced indignation over Ratchet being asked to be Hector’s best man had long since faded and she found herself liking the man. He seemed like a pretty solid character. To show Hector that she approved his choice, she stood and gave him a friendly, goodbye hug before he left the table.  “He’s pretty nice. I’m glad he was available for you.”

Hector sighed. “Yeah, me too and sorry.”
 

“Hey, de nada. Shit happens.” Sadie smirked mischievously. “I’m just glad I’m going to be able to witness the taming of El Gran Lobo.”

“Ha!” Hector dreamily smiled. “Yeah, Natalie’s the One, ya know?”

Sadie smiled and nodded with agreement. “Yep, I know how you feel.” She sat forward. “So, how’s things going with you being,” She furtively glance around the bar, “Umm, away?”

“It’s been, no is, very weird.” Hector sighed with frustration. “She’s taking over my life. I was only supposed to be her for one night, just to see what it was like, ya know?”

“Oh yeah, I totally know…” Sadie nodded with understanding.

“Yeah, but then I met Natalie and everything changed. Then, it was the chance to be in a movie and now, all hell is breaking loose because when I’m Jenna, it’s like I really am Jenna. She’s starting to like Mike and that totally creeps me out.” Hector shuddered with revulsion. “I feel like I have a split personality or something.”

“Hmmm, I’m not sure if I can help you because I’m not exactly a normal woman,” she sighed, regretting her inability to have any contribution to the genetic makeup of her children. If it hadn’t been for Greg’s need to buy books in college, she and Michelle would’ve had to use some anonymous donor.

Sadie had done a little research recently. Even though she wasn’t a biological woman or anything, she want to try and understand why and how a robot could be having urges that seemed to mimic a biological human. She didn’t find any answers, but she did learn a lot about real human females. “But I’m guessing that when you’re Jenna, your body’s female chemistry impact how you think and feel.” Sadie watched as Hector nodded his head with silent agreement. “Estrogen and Testosterone are pretty powerful and as Jenna, the balance of hormones are a bit different from what you’re used to.  Combine that with the amount of time you spent being subconsciously socialized as a woman, and well, I think you get the idea. You, as Hector are a hetersexual male, which means that Jenna is probably a hetersexual female, or maybe bi.”

Hector nodded with agreement. “Maybe you’re on to something there, but it’s not easy for me to adjust to the idea. I kind of hope the movie is a flop and everyone will forget about Jenna.”

She was pretty sure that wasn’t going to happy. The buzz surrounding Jenna’s debut performance was getting to be pretty loud. “I dunno if you can count on that bud. The movie is looking to be one of the most anticipated new releases for this year and the trailers look awesome.”

“Merde, I know. Hell, even I’m looking forward to watching the damn thing.” Hector sighed, finished off his beer and ordered another, plus a burger while Sadie simply ordered a water. The two sat in companionable silence until Hector’s drink arrived.

“So,” Hector leaned forward, “I have a question for you.”

He looked serious and Sadie gave him her full attention. “Yeah?”

“Mr. Powers heard about the wedding from Jill, Jenna’s makeup artist who is doing the makeup for the wedding, and he wants to come to the wedding, with Jenna and I know you’re not too jazzed about being a bridesmaid, right?”

“Yeah…” Sadie hesitantly agreed.  Hector’s revelation about Mr. Powers was a surprise.

“I know this is a crazy idea and I don’t even know if it’s possible, but can you be Jenna at my wedding?”

Sadie was shocked by his request, but at the same time, intrigued. “I’m not sure...”

She zoned out a little as she checked her internal systems and found the same Pretender bot scanning and disguise system her Autobot form had.  It made sense to her because Greg knew that a Pretender bot was designed to infiltrate enemy installations.

Focusing her attention back to her friend, Sadie slowly nodded. “I think I can, but I’d need to get a good scan of Jenna and to help pull it off, I’d also need to spend some time with her to copy her mannerisms, but,”  she crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair, “There’s just one problem, Natalie. Okay, two, Michelle and the babies.”

“Michelle I get, but why Natalie?”

“Simple, she will want to have Jenna, her BFF, as a bridesmaid.”

“Oh yeah...She would.” Hector sighed.

“On the plus side, I think Michelle would find the idea hilarious and Grandma has already offered to watch the twins. So, I’d be willing to try. Besides, it could be fun to be a movie star for a day, right?” Sadie smirked as timed her response with Hector taking a swig of his beer, causing him to cough.

“Yeah, only a day…” Hector chuckled and smiled at Sadie. “Thanks, but there is one more problem. Wheelie.”

“Wheelie, what about him?”

“Mi Padre told me that he wants to be in the wedding and not just wants to be, but as part of the family, demands to be there.”

“Ouch.” Sadie winced as she struggled to come up with a good plan. “Well, he’s a pickup truck...maybe a ring bearer? Could have his buddy Jesús there with an RC controller to make it look like Wheelie was just a simple RC toy.” She sighed as she considered how hard it was going to be to pull it off and not make Natalie’s wedding day a farce.  How many women would want to have a toy truck take part of their special day?  Yeah, not many.

“Have you told Natalie yet?”

Hector shook his head. “Not yet, but she might actually be okay with your idea. I had no clue how to include him in the wedding beyond sitting him on a pew next to mi padre and even that seemed a little, umm, weird.”

Sadie giggled“Yeah, well, she should know by now that the new normal is decidedly weird. I mean, she has to be a little weird herself since she wants to marry you!”

Author's Note: It's been awhile for this story, but Grover's MAU story kinda kicked my muse. Whisper made it into Whateley canon, so there will probably be a delay before anything new comes out there. I need to make a few revisions to the first book and probably start over with the second. Not sure yet... Thanks to my beta/proof readers and djkauf for his magical edits.

The two months leading up to the Hector and Natalie’s big day were extremely busy for Sadie.  In order to learn Jenna’s body language, she took a day off of work and followed Jenna around for a day pretending to be her personal assistant, which became her second job once Jenna realized how good her friend was at managing schedules and handling calls.   Being a robot was an advantage since she didn’t need to sleep and could easily multitask because working a full day at the office managing Mr. Roberts’ busy schedule along with Jenna’s chaotic schedule was a lot of work.

Truth told, Sadie didn’t mind because it gave her the chance to help her friend and occasionally meet a movie star or two. It did take a little work to juggle her physical appearances between Jenna and her real job, but Jenna’s chaotic schedule actually helped make it work.  Mr. Roger’s was pretty predictable a nine to five schedule, while Jenna’s tended to be a late afternoon and late evening affair.

Of course, once Natalie found out that Sadie was going to pretend to be Jenna at the wedding, Jenna was drafted to be a bridesmaid.  Which, meant that Sadie had to be Jenna for more than just one day.  Hector was right, Jenna had a way of taking over, but Sadie didn’t mind. It was actually kind of fun fooling everyone. She really felt like she was living up to the Transformers, “Robots in disguise!” catch phrase.

While Hector was having his bachelor party, Sadie, as “Jenna”, took part in Natalie’s bachelorette party. Missing out on Hector’s bachelor party was another blow to what was left of her male ego, but Natalie’s party was a lot of fun. Hot women running from bar to bar earned the bridesmaids group a lot of attention and free drinks, but being recognized as a movie star raised the crazy factor to another level.

Thankfully, Natalie’s healing factor kept her out of trouble and Jenna, the Decepticon,  also suffered no ill effects, but the other bridesmaids and friends, not so lucky. It was very fortunate that Natalie scheduled the bachlorette party to be two days before the wedding, else none of the other bridesmaids would’ve made it.  The only thing Sadie felt was guilt for having to flush down the toilet all the free booze as it passed right through her fake digestive system.  Her human mind considered it to be alcohol abuse.

Now it was the big day for her two friends and it was time to be Jenna for one more day.  She, the bridesmaids and Natalie were all scheduled at a local beauty salon to have their hair and makeup done before the wedding.  It was going to take hours and she wistfully longed to be a man again. The groomsmen only had to put on their damn rented tuxedos and they would be good to go, but the women had to spend hours getting ready.

Yes, she could’ve simply activated her Jenna template complete with makeup, hair, dress and everything else, but doing so would’ve made everyone ask questions. Instead, she found herself at Hector and Natalie’s house at 7AM to get ready for a 1PM wedding. She was at Hector’s house because Jenna’s cover story was that she was renting Greg’s old room.

The sight of her old room brought back some pretty fond memories of how good her life as Greg was, but overall, she decided that her life was better now. She was married to the woman she loved, had two wonderful twin babies, a boy and a girl, a job she loved, friends she cared about and aside from the downsides of being a robot, really cool super powers.  

“Sadie, are you ready to go?” Natalie poked her head into the room.

“Umm, almost. Sorry, was just thinking about my old room and it reminded me how much everything has changed.” Sadie found her optics starting to lubricate.

Natalie gave Sadie a hug and sighed heavily. “I know. It’s changed a lot for me, but I can’t imagine how difficult it’s been for you and I just want to thank you for being such a good friend to me and especially to Hector.” She smiled and peered into Sadie’s eyes, her own eyes glistening with emotion.  “He might not say it, but I know he looks up to you.”

“Humphh…” Sadie dismissively snorted. Hector slash Jenna was the one who was living the dream.

“It’s true!” Natalie exclaimed. “You’re the one he goes to for help because he knows you will have an answer.”

“If you say so, but umm, shouldn’t we get going?” Sadie felt a little uncomfortable over the undeserved praise.

Natalie smirked and nodded. “Yep, but aren’t you forgetting something, Jenna?”

“Oh yeah…” Sadie activated her Jenna template. The entire process took less than a second as the room filled with a soft, yet distinctive Transformers sound effect as her skin fragmented into millions of tiny two centimeter hexagons. Initially, her body took only Jenna’s basic shape and skin tone. Her eyes flashed red and for a fraction of a second, she looked every inch the intimidating Decepticon robot before the two centimeter hexagons split into six smaller parts with each of those splitting as her skin became more and more refined until a perfect duplication of Jenna remained standing in Sadie’s place.

A naked Jenna.

Natalie gasped. “Wow, that’s simply incredible to watch…”

Sadie smiled over her shoulder at Natalie as she pulled Jenna’s dress off the hanger. “Yeah, I have to admit it is pretty cool.”

With a start, Natalie blushed and stopped herself from staring at Sadie/Jenna. “Well, umm, I need to finish getting ready myself. Meet you in the living room?”

“Yep, will just take me a few minutes here.” Sadie walked over to the bed and grabbed Jenna’s panties. She was a little miffed at having to wear real clothes and another woman’s underwear, but Jenna spent a fair amount of money on the dress and Sadie didn’t think it would be right to let it go to waste.

Dressed and standing in front of the mirror, Sadie marveled at her Jenna reflection. Hector had exceptionally good taste in women and Jenna’s beauty was proof.  Sadie was a looker herself, but there was just something about Jenna’s hispanic heritage that raised the bar from being a perfect ten to an eleven.  

Natalie and Jenna arrived at the salon first.

“Jenna?” Jill looked surprised to see Jenna. “But, I thought…”

Sadie thought about lying to Jill and pretending to be Jenna, but Jill knew Jenna’s secret and the situation would only get more risky as the day went on and she saw Hector and Jenna together. “Nope, I’m just a friend of Hector’s who is pretending to be Jenna for the wedding.”

“What tha-what?!” Jill stepped back in shock for a second before her professional curiosity took over and she stepped forward and inspected ‘Jenna’.

Sadie stood still as Jill looked for any imperfection with her disguise. Finally, after almost a minute, Jill took a step back. “I don’t see any traces of makeup or prosthetics, how did you do it? Jenna doesn’t have a twin does she?”  

“No, it’s from the machine Jenna told you about.” Sadie paused as she debated what to tell Jenna’s friend.

“But, she said the machine was gone.”

Sadie nodded with agreement. “It is, but I was his roommate. We both played with the machine.”

“Oh, so you wanted to be a shapeshifter?” Jill relaxed and cocked her head sideways with curiosity.

“No, not exactly, but now I can look like any woman I want.” Sadie ended with a note of frustration since her life would’ve been so much easier if she could’ve made herself look like Greg.

Jill was silent for a few seconds as she looked back and forth between Natalie and the woman who looked like Jenna. “Is this the truth?” She asked, looking at Natalie.

“Yep.” Natalie nodded solemnly.

Jill’s eyes lit up with excitement. “This is so cool! How does it work and who are you really?”

Just in case someone walked in on them, Sadie pulled Jill to a secluded part of the salon. Once she was sure there were no cameras or hidden watchers, she re-activated her Sadie template. “I’m Sadie and unlike Hector, I wanted to be a Transformer.”

Looking in the mirror, Sadie had to admit that Jill was an amazing makeup artist. She grumbled a little bit about Sadie’s fake skin not matching real human skin and how it made things difficult, but she made it work.  Now, she was worried that Jenna might out show the bride.

“You look amazing!” Natalie gushed from behind.

Sadie turned to her best friend’s bride and her fake breath caught in her throat at the sight of Natalie in her wedding gown. She felt a bit of lubricant form in her optics. Her concern was made moot. “Wow, you’re beyond stunning Natalie!  My cousin is a lucky man and I’m so glad the two of you met, even if it was under, umm, strange circumstances.”

Natalie gave Sadie an affectionate hug and stepped back with a solemn look in her eyes. “Yes, I’m very glad his best friend Sadie was there to help me when I needed it and I’m sad she couldn’t be here today, but I’m sure she’s here in spirit.”

Sadie giggled. “Yep, poor Sadie, she’s the best Personal Assistant I’ve ever had, heck she’s the only, but now, the poor dear is stuck working for her real boss on such an important day in her friend’s life. Oh well…”

Sadie knew Natalie wasn’t fooled for a second, but the rest of the bridesmaids had no clue.

“Yes, poor Sadie.” One of the other girls nodded with agreement.

The limo ride from the beauty salon to the church was filled with laughter was the women recounted their bachelorette party stories. A few of them swore off all alcohol for the rest of the year.

As the group exited the limo, Sadie felt a touch of nerves at the sight of Jenna’s co-star, the one and only, Mr. Mike Powers. He wore an expensive looking, custom fitted tuxedo and was surrounded by wedding guests asking him for his autograph or to have their picture taken with them.

Sadie paused and turned to Natalie. “I’ll meet you inside. It looks like I need to have a talk with ‘my’ co-star.”

Sadie shifted into full Jenna mimic mode as she approached him. “¡Ay, Dios mío!, it doesn’t matter where you go, you always have to be the center of attention!”

Mike raised his arms in surrender. “Hey babe, looking good,” he whistled with appreciation, “and it’s not my fault, I was only being nice.” He smiled and nodded apologetically to the guests as they made themselves scarce under Jenna’s glare.

“Did Jill do your makeup?” Mike asked, seemingly immune to Jenna’s gaze.

Sadie forced herself to maintain her glare, but inside she was laughing at his attempt to redirect her. “Don’t try changing the subject mister! You agreed to try and blend in. This is Natalie’s wedding, not a publicity opportunity.”

“But Jenna, babe, I did try. It’s not my fault I’m so awesome.” Mike smirked and expectantly offered her his arm.

Sadie could see why Jenna found the man so frustrating, but she had to admit, he was handsome and he genuinely seemed to like his fans. If only his public, action star persona wasn’t such a male chauvinist.

“Don’t ‘babe’ me, buster!” Jenna smiled, growling through her teeth as took the offered arm. “Turn off the act. We’re at a church for heaven’s sake.”

“You’re right. Sorry Jenna, but you really do look nice.” Mike leaned over and softly spoke into her ear just in time for multiple camera flashes from the hidden paparazzi to catch the ‘couple’ engaging in a tender moment. The picture would’ve been fine if it was the person Natalie hired to capture their wedding, but the bottom feeding scumbag paparazzi knew no limits.

Sadie forgot about how much Jenna said she hated the annoying paparazzi, but invading Natalie’s wedding was a new low.  Instead of getting mad, she decided to get even. It was fairly trivial to add a flash detection to her sensors and synchronize her holographic emitters to create an out of focus effect over her body and cover anyone standing next to her.   She made a mental note to only activate the effect for unauthorized pictures. After all, Natalie would want some pictures for her wedding album.

Just before the pair entered the doors of the church, Jenna paused, purposely leaned over and affectionately kissed Mr. Powers on the cheek just to bait the paparazzi. She wasn’t disappointed. Nor was she disappointed to hear a few of the scumbags complain about the photos being out focus as Mike lead her into the church and safely away from the pests.

“What was that for?” Mike glanced over and whispered.

Jenna giggled. “Oh, just messing with the paparazzi.”

Gabriel, the young teenage usher was clearly a fan of Mr. Powers. The poor boy gulped at the sight of Mike and had no idea how to handle the double wattage Jenna added to the mix. He had seen Jenna during the wedding rehearsal, but she had been casually dressed and decidedly low key. It probably didn’t help that Jenna was supposed to be in the wedding party in the back of the church.

“Umm…” Gabriel helplessly glanced between the two of them as he tried to figure out how to handle the situation.

She shifted over to Spanish. “It’s okay Gabriel. He’s on the groom’s side, probably close to mama and papa Vasquez.”

The polite reminder jolted the teen into action. “Si, This way sir.” He turned to led Mike toward the pews in front of the church.

Mike momentarily paused when Jenna didn’t follow him, causing her to smirk with amusement. “Don’t even think it. There’s no way I’m going to be seen walking down the aisle with you.”

Mike mimed being shot in the heart before allowing himself to be lead away.

Pleased with fooling Mr. Powers, Sadie took the long way around to reach the rear of the church so she could continue helping Natalie get ready. She spotted Michelle looking exceptionally ravishing in a form fitting shimmery, metallic black dress. With her Black Widow and Catwoman genetic rebuild, it only took Michelle a couple of days to bounce back and regain her trim figure after giving birth to the twins. In an effort to avoid pissing off the women at her office, she purposely hid her figure for a few months and the wedding was the first time since the birth that she allowed herself to be seen in something a little more daring. It took all of Sadie’s willpower to not rush over and give her wife a kiss, but doing so would’ve been out of character for Jenna.  

Sadie, as Jenna, was fourth in line to walk down the aisle at the start of the ceremony. At her arm was Hector’s younger brother, Julio. She could see the resemblance to Hector and judging by the looks he was getting from the younger ladies in the crowd, he probably had the same luck with the ladies as Hector.  He seemed particularly proud to have Jenna on his arm, but he remained the perfect gentleman. It was probably because Mike was present and everyone thought the two were dating.

Behind her was Julie, Natalie’s best friend from school as the Maid of Honor. She was matched with the Best Man, Ratchet. Sadie wasn’t sure, but she thought she detected some sparks between the pair. Ratchet was a super nice guy and she hoped things worked out between the pair since she also thought Julie was cool.  She had to admit that Ratchet cleaned up well and she was surprised he was able to find a tuxedo that fit. The man looked like he was capable of going Hulk and bursting out of his clothes any second.

Behind Julie and Ratchet came two of the most adorable flower girls Sadie had ever seen, but behind the pair was the cause of most of her stress and concern, Wheelie. He rolled behind the flower girls decked out with a surprisingly tasteful, formal black paint scheme. A pillow with the ring was nestled securely in the truck bed and even better, he seemed to be taking his responsibility seriously.

{“Sadie Prime! Sadie Prime! How am I doing? Am I going too slow or too fast?”} Wheelie sounded uncharastically anxious over their communications link.

{“Doing great Wheelie. I like the new paint job on you and thanks for doing this for us.  The wedding wouldn’t have been the same without you!”} Sadie heaped the praise on a little thick, but she wanted to make sure he stayed positively encouraged.

She decided to ignore the strange looks Wheelie was getting as he rolled down the aisle in his original mini-monster truck body.  A toy R/C truck as part of the wedding ceremony was not normal, but the little guy pulled it off, she was proud of him and even better, it kept him occupied and out of trouble.

Sadie watched with nervous anticipation when the wedding march sounded and Natalie entered the church. She looked positively radiant on her father’s arm and the ceremony brought lubricant to Sadie’s optics. It was the picture perfect, storybook wedding she imagined, but she couldn’t help stealing glances out to the audience to see how Michelle was doing. This was the kind of wedding she wished she could’ve given to her wife, but since gay marriage was still a little ‘non-traditional’ the pair had to make do with a small ceremony with only a few guests in attendance.  Michelle caught Sadie’s gaze and slyly winked before returning her attention to Natalie.

Even though Natalie didn’t think to ask, Sadie made sure to record everything. She instructed Wheelie to do the same because when the pair combined their feeds, she felt confident in her ability to provide a 360 degree holographic replay of the entire ceremony. While Natalie had a video being shot of the ceremony, she was pretty confident Natalie would be blown away with what she could do to help her recapture the moment, plus it was just damn cool.  Her holographic emitters put R2D2’s puny, “Help me Obi Wan Kenobi!” message to shame.

At the reception, she made sure Julie caught the bouquet. As Sadie, a married woman, she probably would’ve been allowed to pass on the traditional bouquet toss, but as Jenna, a single woman, she was expected to enthusiastically participate. It was trivial for her to plot the bouquet’s trajectory and pull Julie back and to the right just enough to allow her to catch it while at the same time making it look like she had been going for the flowers of prophecy herself.   

The reception was the stressful part for Sadie. Since it was expected of her, she stayed at Mr. Powers side most of the time.  The funniest part of the evening was when ‘Jenna’ introduced Mr. Powers to Hector, Natalie and Michelle.  Of course, Hector knew Mike very well as Jenna, but he had to act like this was the first time meeting him. He had been a huge fan of Mr. Powers, but spending six months filming a movie with the man, being a woman and being on the receiving end of Mr. Powers ego; His regard had cooled.

Sadie smirked as her friend enthusiastically grinned and shook Mike’s hand. “Oh man, Mr. Powers, thank you so much for coming to our wedding. I’m a huge fan and when Jenna told me you wanted to come, what could I say?”

Sadie giggled at his remark because she knew exactly how irritated he was with himself for not saying no.  Hector’s acting skills were definitely good now.

“Mike, just call me Mike. This is your day, not mine.” Mike glanced over to Jenna and grinned. “I’m just glad Jenna invited me because it’s not every day that I get to witness two people, who clearly love each other, being joined together and if there’s anything I’ve learned over the last ten years in the movie business; It’s that finding your soulmate isn’t easy.”  He pulled Jenna to him and gave her a slightly possessive hug as if to say he might have found the one. “Your cousin is a very lucky man, don’t you agree Jenna?”

About twenty different possible responses rapidly appeared for Sadie to choose from. Michelle’s sparkling eyes betrayed her amusement with the situation and a simple Yes or No didn’t seem to fit Jenna’s personality, especially since Mr. Powers seemed to be trying to imply that he was interested in Jenna. “Yes, Natalie’s a very lucky woman because my cousin Hector is an honorable and hard working man,” she quirked an eyebrow at Mike, “unlike some men I know.”

“Ouch…” Hector grinned, clearly amused before he coughed to get his emotions under control.  “Mr., umm, Mike, sorry about my cousin. She can be a little headstrong at times. Something mi tía complained about all the time.”

Sadie huffed, pretending to be annoyed by her cousin bringing up her past while Natalie and Michelle’s eyes danced with barely contained laughter.

Mike chuckled and affectionately pulled Jenna even closer to him. “Oh, I know! She’s a spitfire for sure, but that’s why we all love her and why her fans are going to love her even more once they see her in action.” He paused for a second. “You know what? I’ll have to see about getting you some advance screening passes so you can be one of the first to see your cousin on the big screen.”

Hector looked surprised. “Really!? That would be-”

Sadie interrupted Hector. “No, no it wouldn’t.” She checked Jenna’s schedule. “The showing is in two months and at the same time you’re,” she pointed at Hector, “going to be out of town working on expanding the I-5  up near Sacramento, remember?”

There was no way that Sadie wanted to be Jenna for another night. She had already been her for twice as many days as she was supposed to be. Hector was right. Jenna was a menace.

“Oh yeah, sorry forgot about that project. It’s kind of a big one…” Hector apologetically grinned at Mike.

“No problem man. Since Jenna’s sometimes a little hard to reach, I’ll make sure her PA, Sadie, gets a few passes. You know, just in case.” Mike smiled and shook Hector’s hand before turning his attention to Natalie and Michelle.  “It’s been a pleasure meeting both of you,” one at a time, he gallantly kissed the back of their hands, “Jenna spoke about the two of you all the time when we were filming, but her descriptions didn’t do either of you ladies justice.”  He slyly glanced back at Jenna and smirked at the fire dancing in her eyes.

Sadie found his antics very amusing and Michelle’s lazy, mischievous grin told her how much she was enjoying the complex interplay, but she caught Hector’s almost imperceptible flash of irritation before he got his emotions under control. Sadie used his momentary tell to decide how Jenna was going to react.

Sadie laughed at Mike’s attempt to make Jenna jealous. “Hector, Natalie, Michelle, I’m soooo glad,” her voice dripped with sarcasm, “I was able to introduce you all to my ‘lovable’ co-star, but he ‘really’ needs to be going now. It’s getting late,” she turned to Mike, “and Mr. Powers has a big party up in L.A. that he simply can’t miss, right dear?”

Mike chuckled. “Oh that, yeah, but it’s not starting for another few hours.”

She pulled Mike away and growled softly, her voice pitched for only him to hear. “Don’t you even think about it cabrón!”

“What?! I was only being nice to her.” Mike halfheartedly tried to defend himself, but his self-satisfied smirk gave him away.

“You’re impossible!” Jenna huffed and turned her face away from the man before her eyes could betray her amusement.

“Thank you,” Mike chuckled, “but I have to say, your friends are all like you, a little dangerous.”

Stunned, Jenna stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, it’s just something a real martial artist like myself can see.” Mike gestured nonchalantly back towards her friends. “Hector, Sadie and Michelle, they all have this calm assurance about them and the way they move, they’ve all had some training. Are they all spies like you?” He grinned, like he had just discovered a secret.

“What!?!” Sadie was relieved by how far away from the truth his guess was, but at the same time, surprised he noticed anything about them considering the short amount of time he had in their presence. “No, they are not spies ‘like me’. Geez, they’re just friends who have had some training. Hector was in the Army, Sadie, I’m not sure, Natalie is almost a doctor and Michelle was a gymnast and cheerleader in college.” She giggled. “See, not spies!”

“Okay, but what about the big dude over there? You can’t tell me he’s not here to provide security for you.”  He gestured with his eyes toward where Ratchet was talking with Julie.

“Ratchet?!?!” Jenna laughed. “No, he’s a heavy machinery mechanic. He works with Hector, but he was in the Army too.”

“Hmmpphh,” Mike skeptically rubbed his jaw in thought, “I don’t know if I can believe you, but now I know who to talk to about finding extras for our next movie.”

Sadie was feeling a little overwhelmed, but at the same time flattered. Mr. Powers thought she and Michelle could be in a movie. Now she knew how Hector felt; The movie industry was the devil, but before she could say anything Mike interrupted her train of thought.

“Oh hey, you’re right. It is getting late and it’s almost a three hour drive. I need to jet.” Mike briefly hugged Jenna and turned to depart. “It was nice meeting your friends and,” he glanced back over his shoulder, “Oh yeah, the two of us have a late night show gig next week. Must attend and all that. I know better than to try calling you. So, I’ll call Sadie with the details. Be there.”

Sadie’s jaw dropped as Mike walked away. “What?”

She was only supposed to be Jenna for one day, but Hector was going to be in Hawaii all next week. She could always fly out, pick him up and fly him back, but that would interrupt his honeymoon. “The bastard is so going to owe me…”

Author's Note: For this chapter, I blame Elrod. It's completely new and goes in --what I hope is-- an unexpected direction as the Trekkies get involved. Extra special thanks goes out to Elrod for letting me use his Star Trek characters, especially Danni. We were talking about story ideas and he sent me what he had for a possible MAU Star Trekkie sequel. His idea matched what I was already writing. So, with his permission I adapted and for Danni's scene, copy and pasted what Elrod had already written. It was probably a rough draft by Elrod's standards, but it seemed darn good to me! hehe.

The Director of Intelligence for the People’s Liberation Army of China nearly spat out the first sip of tea.  As usual, he grumbled, it was too cool, so cool in fact, that the steamy aroma he found almost sensual was completely missing.  He pressed the button on his phone.  

"Get in here!" He snapped harshly to his weak willed aide.  

He let off the button, sitting back in his chair and carefully arranging his face into his most menacing frown.  Just one of the tools to encourage underlings to work harder, he mused.  And he waited.  The frown deepened as time passed, until it was no longer a theatrical device to intimidate; his aide should have been in his office within seconds of his call.  He stabbed the button again.  

"Get in here!" His voice conveying genuine irritation.

As he started to sit back, he heard noise in the outer office, some type of commotion.  Instinctively, his hand reached into a desk drawer, fingering his People’s Liberation Army QSZ-92 pistol – just in case.  He leaned forward slightly, his shoulders tensing as if his entire body were coiling to strike.  He hadn't gotten to where he was, especially in the intelligence section, by being slow – or careless.

The arguing in the outer office grew in intensity, and suddenly, the door burst open.  The hapless aide, still arguing, was trying desperately to interpose himself between the intruder and the door.  It was a losing battle; despite extensive training, he was outmatched by the sheer determination of the intruder.

"Director Liú," the young, well dressed intruder’s shark like grin lacked the instinctual fear most visitors to his office displayed.  His voice carried an eagerness that seemed strangely out of place with what should have been a confrontational, even violent, situation.

The director, his pistol half drawn, recognized the voice and face of his visitor. It was Gang Zhào, his sleeper agent who was currently filling the role as the decadent, but useful CEO of Tomachi Heavy Industries. In his opinion, the man was filling the role far too well and probably needed to have his loyalties reevaluated. The man looked a healthier and younger than he remembered. He relaxed – a bit.  "Let him in," he barked to his aide.

Startled but obedient, the aide stood to one side.  "Yes, sir," he replied hesitantly as he slid from the doorway and snapped to attention.

Director Liú frowned as Zhào strode confidently into his office, stopping directly across the desk.  His grin nearly split his face.

"Zhào-běnguān,” Director Liú purposefully used the suffix to remind his uninvited guest of his lower status, “This is highly irregular," he chided, his eyes narrow.  He was still on guard; it was not unheard of for a disgruntled agent to resort to violence.  Rare, but not impossible.

Zhào glanced meaningfully over his shoulder at the aide, then back at Director Liú.  "I figured it out. It’s working again," he beamed.

The director's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.  "Are you sure?" he stammered.

The other nodded.  "I’m positive..."

Director Liú snapped his jaw shut, his gaze unconsciously dropping to Zhào’s groin.  He felt his enhanced penis began to harden as he fondly recalled testing the strange alien machine on the man standing in front of him. He reasoned it wasn’t gay sex if his partner was technically a woman. Judging by the man’s bulge, he had either resorted to stuffing socks down his pants or he had fixed himself and with that realization, he turned his gaze on his aide.  "This is a private meeting," he snapped suddenly.

The aide's eyes widened, then he nodded his assent.  "Yes, Director," he replied.  He obediently spun toward the door while inside, he seethed with resentment.  He was a loyal aide, a trusted assistant to the director of intelligence, yet he was being dismissed like a new office girl.

"And," the director added, stopping the aide, "you will deactivate the phone tap and the recordings.  Measure 2.  Understood?"

The aide nodded.  "Yes, sir."  He stepped stiffly out of the office, closing the door behind him.

The director waited a moment, giving his aide time to secure the office.  "You are positive?"

Zhào’s predatory, shark like grin returned as he glanced to a spot next to Director Liú’s desk. Director Liú turned his head to look and noticed the air ripple for a for a fraction of a second as the figure of a second person appeared in his private office. The person wore a strange, high tech suit with a full face mask.  The person removed the face mask, revealing a man whose face matched his own.

“What’s the meaning of this?!” Director Liú reached for his pistol as he turned angrily back to his smug visitor.

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with Liú,” Zhào’s smile grew larger as realization began to form in the eyes of his former boss.

Director Liú raised his pistol to fire, but never made it. The man wearing his face fired a strange pistol shaped device. The device made a slight, low pitched humming sound as a bright red beam shot out, enveloping his body with a bright glow. His eyes widened with pain and horror as a strangled scream fought to escape his lips. Before he could utter a sound, his entire body turned to ash. His pistol clattered onto the desk as the late Director Liú’s clothes deflated and pooled in his overstuffed chair.

“Worth every year it took to get the damn thing working again.” Zhào chuckled as he waved away the small cloud of ash that was quickly settling to the floor and lightly coating the top of the desk. He turned to the man wearing the late Director Liú’s face. “Get dressed. We have a lot to do before the conference and we have to time things perfectly because we won’t have another chance to make as many replacements until next year.”

“Yes sir.” The man said as he quickly stripped off his strange suit and after a moment’s pause to shake the former Director of Intelligence clothes in an effort to remove as much of what was left of the man from his clothing. He was only partially successful, but reasoned he could always leave the office early and take a shower at his new home.  Taking his place behind the desk, he calmly looked up at his smiling boss.

“Okay ‘Director Liú’, the device should reset in a week and the conference is less than a month away. It’s time to activate our plans.” Zhào smiled at his subordinate.

As far as meetings go, Janice decided the current one was fairly boring and that wasn’t something she could often say.  Her job was to take the meeting’s minutes and so far, she didn’t have much to write about. Dave Hummel, her boss and the National Security Advisor, usually had a little more ‘actionable intelligence’ or juicy details and this one was proving to be a real snooze-fest.  

The current discussion was over a supposedly, reliable intelligence asset who sent a warning that the Chinese government was getting ready to initiate an operation to replace key government officials, bankers and CEO’s with clones of some kind.

It took all of her self control to not laugh out loud and her reaction to the science fiction plot.

George Welch, the Director of the CIA was less diplomatic. “This is a load of shit. Who in the hell vetted this joke of an intelligence report?!?!” Mr. Welch scoffed, slamming the report down on the conference room table before leaning back in his chair.  “A machine that can instantly turn a person into anything they want and make high tech gadgets?  Seriously, what the fuck?!?!”

“George, it was one of your guys who sent us the report.” Craig Newborn, the Director of the NSA patiently and with barely disguised satisfaction reminded his sometimes ally and sometimes enemy, depending on the subject matter.

“I just have one word for you, Snowden.” Mr. Welch taunted his colleague using a low blow, betraying how pissed he was.

Janice thought the two men were going to start duking it out, but their little tiff was interrupted by the unexpected arrival of the President of the United States.  Everyone in the room instantly stood.  “Mr. President, I didn’t expect to see you here. I thought you had a meeting with the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs?”

“I did and still do. Jack’s right behind me.” The President pointed to the report that the CIA and NSA Directors almost got into a fight over. “We’re here because of that.”

Her boss’s face paled. “Sir, I apologize. We just received it and we’re going over it. We had no idea it was so poorly vetted.  I take full responsibility and will personally work with George to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

The President chuckled, surprising her boss. “Dave, it’s okay. You couldn’t have known and I was just briefed on the report. It’s a real threat, but first, let me introduce you to our subject matter experts. Hell, I didn’t even know we had experts on this topic until,” he glanced at his watch, “thirty minutes ago.”

The President motioned for two dark suited gentlemen to enter the rapidly shrinking conference room. Janice decided that if anyone could pull of the Men in Black look from the movies, these two men would be it. One of the identically dressed men carried a large, old fashioned plain black briefcase that was handcuffed to his wrist. Briefcase man stepped forward and placed his briefcase on the table. It made a solid thunk sound as he set it down, indicating it must contain a large amount of paperwork. Despite the presence of the heavy hitters in the room, the man appeared completely relaxed.

“Hello, my name is Agent C. My associate here is Agent D. Yes, those are our names and no, none of you, except the President, has the clearance to know our real names.” Agent C’s statement stunned and surprised everyone in the room. All heads turned to the President for confirmation. He acknowledged them with a tight smile and a nod of his head.

Without saying a word, Agent C pressed his thumb against a built in scanner. The case began slowly beeping. To Janice, it sounded like a countdown and her fears were confirmed when Mr. Welch hastily pushed himself away from the table in an attempt to put some distance between himself and the beeping case. Agent D raised his eyebrow at the Director as he calmly pressed his thumb against the same scanner. It beeped again and the case clicked, signaling it was unlocked.

“Gentlemen,” Agent C turned to face Janice, “and ladies. What I am about to tell you does not leave this room. This is classified Ultra-Violet-Omega-One and any leaks will traced and the guilty charged with Treason and fully prosecuted under the Espionage Act.”

Janice never thought any of the men in the room feared being prosecuted for a leak because people who reach their level don’t get charged, for anything. Hell, the Director of the NSA lied to Congress, under oath and nothing happened to him. If it had been her, she’d be sitting in a jail somewhere, but the looks on their faces told her they feared what they were about to learn. She decided the meeting just became a lot less boring.  

Satisfied that he had everyone’s attention, Agent C opened the case. It made a hissing sound, telling Janice that the contents had been vacuum sealed. Agent D, reached forward and helped the handcuffed Agent C extract a square, gray metal object and set it in the middle of the table.

“What have here is known Morphic Adaptation Unit or MAU for short. This one has been deactivated and is considered safe. It is an Extraterrestrial Device that is capable of making gross changes to the human body. I know it doesn’t look like much, but here are some photos of the device in its open configuration.” Agent C extracted a folder from his briefcase and handed out a set of four photos showing a device that to Janice, looked like a small phone booth. “When activated, this small box will transform to look like the device shown in the pictures. Our scientists and researchers have been analyzing this device for over a decade and we still we have no idea how it can do that. The best guess is that it uses some form of nanotechnology to rapidly reassemble itself. The metal is an unknown element and is impervious to all known methods of analyses. We haven’t been able to even put a scratch on it and trust me, we’ve tried everything, including a nuclear device.”

“Your report states that the Chinese are planning on cloning or duplicating people and this,” he pointed to the alien box again, “is how they will do that.  When in its activated form, the user of the device only has to place their hand on the small, three digit claw print shown on this picture here,” he handed out a second set of pictures showing a fuzzy, cell phone picture of the mentioned item, “and imagine how they want to look, along with any high tech gear or equipment they can imagine. If the user knows enough about the item in question, the MAU will create it for them and it will work.”

Agent C pulled out a round cylinder that looks exactly like a toy, Star Wars lightsaber. “Yes gentleman, we have confiscated working lightsaber.” He pressed a stud on the side and the toy came to life, complete with the trademarked sound effect and glowing beam of bright light. Agent C carefully swing it back and forth a few times, but it looked like the jaded sceptics in the room were having trouble believing him.

Noticing and expecting the disbelief, Agent C pulled out a small steel bar that was approximately two feet long and an inch in diameter. “This is a solid steel bar. Would anyone like to examine it?”  

No one accepted his offer.  Smiling, he handed the bar to Agent D and as Agent D carefully held the bar at both ends and well away from his body, Agent C slowly brought the humming lightsaber down, against the bar, as close to the center and away from his companion's body as possible. The lightsaber effortlessly passed through the bar, cutting it cleanly in half. Pressing the stud on the side, the lightsaber deactivated and Agent C carefully placed it back in his briefcase.

“That is a sample of the kind of devices this machine is capable of recreating and no, we have not been able to reverse engineer a working lightsaber.” Agent C sighed with frustration. “Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your perspective, this,” he pointed to the MAU, “is not the only device on this planet. This particular MAU was discovered in a farmer’s field last year and since the Agency was activated by President Truman, we have captured a number of these devices. The exact number is classified. The fact that so many have been found tells us that there is a large probability that there are more that haven’t been found and activated. We also haven’t been able to capture a working MAU either. Until activated for the first time, they are dormant. Once activated, the expand for use and will work for approximately four days. At the end of the time limit, they shut down and will not reactivated and no one has been able to discover how to reactivate a previously active device.”

Once again, Agent C reached into his briefcase of wonders and pulled out another folder. From the folder, he pulled out a stack of ten to fifteen, high quality color pictures depicting an even mix of fantasy alien creatures as well as, a few, easily recognizable movie stars. Two of whom were now dead. “All of the subjects pictured here were human and a currently alive and well.  The female centaur subject was a male who raised horses in New York. He found and played with the device. Our agents found her and a deactivated MAU a week later.  The various aliens you see were also human until they found a device and the four day window ran out, trapping them in their current forms. Many of these people now work for us, trying to find a way to reactivate the machine so they can return to being a normal human being.  Miss Monroe here was a male school teacher and film buff who got a little too curious about his favorite movie star and like the aliens and fantasy creatures, got stuck after the four day window expired and yes, she is a fully functional female now. The changes the device can make are very comprehensive.”

“Evidence suggests that the devices entered Earth’s atmosphere somewhere between fifty to sixty years ago, but due to the reports of mythological creatures going back all the way to the Greek and Roman era, a few may have been found and used as long as a few thousand years ago. If the Chinese have found one, or more of these devices and are using them, the threat in your report is 100% credible.”

Janice found the idea of transforming herself into Princess Leia or Cleopatra rather exciting, but she noticed how uncomfortable the idea made the men in the room look. “Umm, sorry, but I know you said that it can make them look like someone else, like a famous movie star, but what about fingerprints or other genetic markers?”

Agent C grinned. “Excellent question Miss Moer!”

Janice wondered how the man knew her last name.

“They don’t, but evidence suggests that if the users of a device had a sample of genetic material from their target or physical access to the target, the machine could make a perfect copy.”

Mr. Welch cleared his throat and leaned forward, his gaze fixed on the alien box. “Is there anyway to identify someone who has used the device?”

Agent C glanced over to his silent companion.  "Unless the changes were ... unusual?  No."

"Damn," her boss swore.  He closed his eyes, sighing heavily.  When he opened them, he glanced around the room, returning his gaze to the President.  "Sir, we have a problem, a very big problem."

The swirling energy pattern stopped abruptly when Danni lifted her head.  For a brief moment, she felt disoriented, but she regained her composure and began methodically scanning with her enhanced senses to determine what had interrupted her regeneration cycle.  As she sat up, she almost instinctively smoothed the front of her suit.  Even after nearly two years, she flinched as her hands pressed the wrinkles out of the fabric, momentarily brushing across her breasts.

The door crashed open - Danni expected no less, given her location – and a Klingon woman stepped in.  Klingons, she thought with a smile, were never ones for tact or subtlety.  "What is it, Kleng?" she asked directly.  Of the Klingon women, Kleng was the most easily recognizable, mostly because she had the largest bust by far.

"The gate alarm is sounding," Kleng answered.  Simple, direct answers.  

"And?"  Danni was curious as to why she would have been bothered with such a triviality.  The force field would easily keep out intruders – and keep in the rather unusual and fierce beasts the Klingons used for sport hunting.

"Martok thought you would be interested in the 'guest'," Kleng answered.  "His behavior is quite unusual."

Now curious, Danni followed Kleng through the hall to the control room.  Martok and two other Klingons sat at the display, staring at the monitor; they paid no attention to Danni's entrance.

Danni looked at the monitor which displayed the compound's front gate.  To the outside world, the gate looked like a normal ranch gate in a heavy timber fence, the gate astride a normal dirt road through a sparse pine forest.  In this case, looks were deceiving.  The gate and fence were purely for show.  A stout force-field protected the Klingon compound against all intruders.

Danni watched the gate.  The man stood at the gate, patiently watching the camera.  After a few moments, he went what appeared to be a security keypad by the gate and pressed a single button.  Then he stood and stared into the camera again.

"Well?" Martok asked simply.

Danni frowned.  "Curious."

Martok roared with laughter.  "You spend too much time with the Vulcans!  You're starting to sound like them!"  He glanced at the monitor.  "Do you recognize him?"

Danni nodded.  "Our friend from the agency," she answered.

"That's what we thought.  Shall I have him brought in?"

Danni thought for a moment.  This was highly unusual.  The man was acting as if he knew what Danni would do.  "No," she said after a moment.  "I'm going out to meet him."

Martok frowned.  "Is that wise?  It could be a trap."

Danni smiled gently.  "I think I can take care of myself."

One of the Klingons reflexively rubbed his jaw at her words.  "That's an understatement," he said softly, not meaning to be heard.  However, in the quiet of the control room, it was audible to all.  Danni and Martok roared with laughter.

Danni strode easily down the path toward the gate.  Beyond the gate, the man stood in a precise military parade rest.  Danni reached out and touched the inner control pad, and the gate opened.  Still the man stood, watching her.  She felt the tingling of the force field; any other person would have been knocked on their backside, but her Borg implants and systems easily shunted the energy aside and let her pass.

"You would be?" Danni asked easily as she stood facing the man.

The man straightened, then stood in a more casual stance.  Even then, his posture had a distinctively military appearance.  "Let's try this a bit differently," the man suggested.  "You would be Danni.  With an 'i'.  But you used to go by Dan or Danny – with a 'y'.  You discovered a unique attache case at a WorldCon two years and three months ago.  Being a curious and intelligent graduate student, you quickly discovered that the attache case was really some type of alien device that had the capability to change a user's form.  In your case, your knowledge of nanotechnology and Star Trek led you to change – inadvertently – into the form of Seven of Nine, a cybernetic being from the show, and unfortunately, you also discovered that you could no longer change back into your normal male body.  Since that time, you have helped not fewer than seventy-four Star Trek and Star Wars fans to permanently alter their physical forms to suit their ... desires."  He watched Danni's mouth drop open.  "How am I doing so far?"

Danni's head spun.  This guy knew way too much.  "Who are you?"

"Maybe we should go to a more secure location to finish this discussion?" the man suggested.

Sadie’s circuits overloaded with pleasure as she and Michelle enjoyed the night together in each other’s arms.  As much as she might try to complain about being a female Transformer robot, it did have some perks and linked sex with her vivacious wife was one thing she would never grew tired of. The only downside to having sex was the need to restrain their voices a little. Waking the babies was bad, but she was thankful that the little munchkins weren’t mobile yet.   

“I love you…” Sadie whispered into Michelle’s ear as her wife worked to control her breathing.

“That. Was. Incredible.” Michelle gasped. “Can we do that again?”

Sadie smirked. “It’s 1AM love and we both have to get up early this morning. I know your body is capable of it, but you’re still human and need at least a little sleep.”

Michelle pouted and sighed with frustration. “I know, but you’re going to be gone for a whole week!”

At promptly 5AM, Sadie’s optics opened and she reluctantly left the shared bed. Opting for comfort and ease of use, she elected to use her own camouflage to produce her clothes versus spending the time to dress herself in real clothes. Heading to the garage, she topped off her tank with a shot of Helium-3 from her generator and then, she brewed a small pot of coffee for Michelle and after waiting for the pot to finish, she delivered the fresh cup of caffeine goodness to Michelle.  

Waking her with a kiss, Sadie softly spoke into Michelle’s ear. “Rise and shine my love!”

“Mmmmphhh, just one more hour…” Michelle pleaded softly.

“Sorry love, but I did warn you and you didn’t seem to complain when we went a second round.” Sadie snickered as she gazed down at her disheveled wife, finding her even more beautiful.

Michelle huffed with annoyance and sat up. “Fine, I’m up!” She growled.

Sadie rewarded her with a long, passionate kiss before skipping out of the room with a smile on her lips. Her last stop before leaving was at her children’s room.  She quietly kissed baby Jessica and baby Greg goodbye.  “Bye you two. Mommy will be back as soon as possible. You be good for Mommy while I’m gone.”

The parental nouns confused her, but what else could she use? While the adorable pair were less than six months old and couldn’t understand her, she found speaking to them to be a calming experience.  She found herself smiling as little Greg sleepily grabbed her finger and tried to suck on it.  

Her smile faded as she stepped into the garage. She was not looking forward to spending a week in Hong Kong and away from her wife and children, but the conference was a big deal for Rogers International.  Every major corporation with business in Asia were going to be there for an international business conference and since Mr. Rogers was expected to be there, so was his executive assistant.  

As a woman, she wasn’t too pleased with the Asian business culture and was not looking forward to being viewed as a merely an ornament by the male dominated culture.  American business men were bad, but the stories she heard about foreign business leaders made her thank her lucky stars she was American.

While in Hong Kong, she had a few surprises planned for Mr. Rogers.  The first surprise was Jenna. Her movie was opening in Asia and she was scheduled to be in Hong Kong while they were there.  Jenna had already promised them tickets to the big, star studded premiere event and Sadie was pretty sure Mr. Rogers would find it interesting since the big Hollywood style movie openers always drew a veritable who’s who of the local business leaders.

For her second surprise, she had installed Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Korean language programs. The programs were good, but to help with the spoken language, she had also spent the last couple of weeks listening to native language broadcasts to become more proficient with those languages.  She was looking forward to seeing the expression on her boss’s face when he found out she could speak the language.

She drove her economical five year old and paid off Toyota to Mr. Roger’s house, where she parked it next to cars worth more than ten times her own and walked over to his chauffeur driven Mercedes limo.  As she approached, Liam, the chauffeur got out of the driver’s seat and stowed her small, rolling carry-on bag that contained her laptop prop and a bare minimum of fresh clothes for the week.  If she had been a real woman, the clothes wouldn’t have been enough for more than two days, but she didn’t really need them and not having any luggage would’ve been unusual to say the least.  

“How is your morning Missus Williamson?” Liam, the chauffeur politely asked from the front seat as they both now waited on Mr. Rogers.

Sadie sighed, with sadness and frustration. “Oh, it was okay, but not looking forward to leaving Michelle and the twins for a week and how many times have I asked you to just call me Sadie?”

Kurt chuckled. “Lost count ma’am.”

“Grrr…” Sadie found herself smiling despite her frustration with the man. It was like a game to him to always be ultra polite and use her formal name. The two chit chatted for five minutes until she spotted Mr. Rogers walking out the front door with a giant rolling suitcase in tow. She could fit three or maybe even four of her bags into Mr. Rogers suitcase.  Nancy followed behind with his briefcase and handed it to him with a kiss as Liam held the car door open for him.

“Morning Sadie. You take good care of Kurt. Don’t let him get into any trouble.” Nancy leaned over and smiled at Sadie as Mr. Rogers sighed with resignation.

“Will do ma’am-” Now Sadie was doing what Liam did to her after Mrs. Rogers specifically asked her not to. “I mean Nancy.”

“Thank you dear and I’ll be checking in on Michelle and the twins for you. Don’t you worry!” She grinned, wagging her finger at Sadie.

Going through security was a little stressful for her. Sadie was worried that the metal detector was going to have a meltdown when she passed through it. She had an Agency supplied fake doctor’s note to use just in case, but her ECM easily defeated the system, preventing the scanner from uttering a peep. The flight was long, but flying first class on an international flight wasn’t that hard of an ordeal compared to flying coach.  Sadie might have enjoyed it more if the offer of complimentary champagne wasn’t a nagging reminder that she wasn’t human. After all the time and parties she had been too, Sadie thought that she would be over feeling sorry for herself, but no, it appeared that the little reminders liked to occasionally surprise her.

The fourteen hour flight drove Sadie a little crazy. Not only was it boring, it was so frustrating to be relegated to a snail's pace when she could’ve flown herself in less than three hours. Thank Cybertron she had full access to the communications satellites to surf the web, but after eight solid hours of reading online fiction stories, visiting news sites, watching movies, catching up on office work --less than five minutes--, and reviewing the profiles of all the major corporations with Mr. Rogers she sighed with resignation. “I’m sorry Mr. Rogers, but I’m feeling a little tired. Do you mind if I take a nap?”

Mr. Rogers chuckled. “Not at all Sadie. Go ahead. I was thinking about doing the same. I’ll wake you before we land.”

Sadie leaned back in her seat, closed her optical sensors and entered standby mode.  She wasn’t asleep. She had all sensors running except for visual, but to any human observer, it looked like she was sleeping. She would’ve gone into hibernation mode to help make the flight feel faster, but she didn’t want to risk being completely dead to the world, relying on her internal alarm to wake her. Instead, she called Michelle to see how her day went and how the kids were doing.

She spent an hour on the phone with Michelle and even though it had only been less than a day, Sadie already missed her and their children a lot.  Greg had never been an overly clingy man, but as Sadie, she was already feeling homesick.  It surprised her a lot and made her realize how much loved Michelle. As she was saying her goodbyes and I love yous, she surprised herself by how much her voice cracked with emotion.

“I’m sorry Michelle. I can’t believe I’m almost crying here. I feel like such a wuss.” Sadie felt her optics beginning to lubricate, but she quickly halted the process and initiated the cleanup cycle. It wouldn’t be good to be seen crying why she was supposedly taking a nap.

“It’s okay babe. I feel the same. I miss you and the babies are missing you too, but hey, we’re a team and we will get through this together. It’s only a week.” Michelle giggled unrepentantly. “Think of all the sleep you’ll be able to get caught up on without me or the babies waking you up in the middle of the night!”

“Michelle! You know I don’t really sleep and that’s not why I’m almost crying.”

“Oh, I know, but seriously. We’re fine. Nancy has already called and insists on stopping by tomorrow night. She’s bringing me dinner. Plus, your mom and even my mom is stepping up to lend a hand.”

News that Michelle’s mother was offering to help was surprising. She didn’t take the news that her daughter was marrying another woman well and Michelle getting pregnant almost right away almost caused the poor woman to have a stroke. Her mother refused to speak to her daughter for almost six months and it took the combined efforts of her brother and father to get the poor woman to see how much she was hurting her daughter.

“Your mom, seriously?” Sadie asked, skeptically.

“Yep,” Michelle sighed, “but I’m not sure if she’s honestly getting over it or if she sees this as a way to drive a wedge in between us while you’re away.”

“She’s your mom…”

“I know, but we’ll see. I do miss her, but I just wish she wasn’t so set in her ways because I’d love to be able to tell her the truth like we were able to do with your family.”

Sadie chuckled. “Yeah, well, my family is a little more out there than yours. Instead of football games and church every sunday, we went to sci-fi conventions and played video games together, but your brother did surprise me.”

“Nathan surprised you?”

“Yeah, I expected him to be the one against his little sister coming out as a lesbian, but he was the most cool with it all.  Jocks aren’t known for their tolerance, ya know?”

“Yeah, well Nathan and I have always been close and he’s not as close minded as you would expect.”

“I guess not and it is kind of cool getting to go to his football games for free.” Sadie laughed as she thought about how nice it was to sit in the team’s section during a game.

After the call, she ‘woke’ herself and checked on Mr. Rogers. He was lightly snoring away in his seat. She spent the remaining hours of the flight catching up with her reading via the old fashioned way with a real book and reading it word by word versus simply scanning it into her memory.  She found the exercise surprisingly relaxing and enjoyable.  

As they were exiting the plane, Mr. Rogers glanced back at Sadie and sighed. “I don’t know how you do it Sadie, but even after spending fourteen hours on a plane, you look like you just stepped out of the salon.”

“Oh, well,” Sadie nervously giggled, feeling a little guilty and pleased at the same time, “it’s not easy and why do you think women spend so much time in the bathroom?”  She prayed Mr. Rogers would simply chalk it up to another mystery of the female species.  He seemed to accept it with a sceptical grunt.

Hong Kong was amazing. The airport was nothing like she was expecting.  It was very clean and new-looking while the security and customs people were friendly. Not at all like the airports back home.  As a six foot tall, redhead with green eyes wearing three inch heels, she received even more attention than she did in the States and it wasn’t just the men checking her out, the women did also. She overheard more than whispered comment about her being a movie star or a supermodel, but she kept herself from displaying any hint that she understood their language. She didn’t want to embarrass them or let Mr. Rogers know what she was capable of just yet.  

She was worried they were going to have to take a cab, but a young man holding a sign with the Roger’s International company logo was waiting for them outside of baggage claim.  He seemed friendly enough, spoke English and escorted them to a late model Mercedes sedan. Once their luggage was stowed in the trunk and the pair were seated, the driver turned back to face them. “I will take you to your hotel now. First time to Hong Kong?”

“Yes.” Sadie nodded enthusiastically as she started to get a little excited to be seeing a new place.

“No.” Mr. Rogers replied with a grin for his assistant’s enthusiasm.

“You will like. Lots have changed. Hotel is very nice!” The driver grinned, turning back and starting the car.  He spoke into his radio in Cantonese, “~I have Rogers xiānshēng and his xiaomi. She is very pretty. Leaving airport now.~”

Sadie almost chewed the man out, but she decided to maintain her composure and not expose her knowledge. She was pissed that the driver called her a xiaomi. Slang for a female secretary hired more for looks than skill, implying that she was Mr. Rogers’ mistress.

“What’s wrong?” Mr. Rogers asked, noticing her slight tensing.

Sadie sighed with resignation. Less than an hour in Hong Kong and she was already having to deal with gender stereotypes. “Oh, nothing. I just remembered that I forgot to call Michelle when we landed…”

The hotel was very nice. She and Mr. Roger’s shared a massive two bedroom suite with a commanding view of the city. She shuddered to think how much it cost per night.  After the xiaomi remark, she wasn’t so sure that sharing a suite with her boss was a good idea, but the damage was done because while the hotel staff were polite, she understood verbal inflections they used when they addressed her as Williamson Xiǎojiě. Officially, the honorific after her name denoted Miss, but the way the staff said it, they might as well have called her a slut.

Under the guise of settling into her room, Sadie performed a scan for listening devices and cameras. She didn’t expect to find anything. So, when her sensors pinged from multiple hits, she almost called for Mr. Rogers. She detected not just one, but three audio bugs spaced around the room and one micro video camera centered over her bed.  Annoyed by the camera, she quickly burned it out with a focused laser burst in its optical sensor, but she decided to leave the audio bugs alone for now.  Cameras burn out all the time and she didn’t want to tip off her opponents --whoever they were-- just yet.

Under the guise of familiarizing herself with their shared living space, she scanned the rest of the suite for bugs and found plenty to be concerned about. Ten audio bugs and three video bugs were hidden in the main living area. She left all of the bugs alone and decided to join Mr. Rogers outside on the balcony.

Sadie found him appreciatively sipping from a glass of scotch and looking out over the city. She joined him at his side, sighing as she took in the beauty this strange and exotic city had to offer.  

Mr. Rogers casually took a sip from his drink and turned to her with a smirk. “So, you going to tell me why her acting even more like an Ice Queen to the staff here?”

“What?” Sadie gasped, surprised that he would refer to her by her old office title. “I’m not!”

Sadie sighed and anxiously glanced back toward the interior of their suite. “Well, okay, but lemme check a few things first.”  She scanned the balcony area and was pleasantly surprised to find only one audio bug. She disabled it with a quick burst of microwave energy and closed the balcony door to block any of the bugs from inside.  

She noted her boss’s bemusement at her cloak and dagger behavior, but she was feeling a little peeved about the bugs, the sexism and being away from home didn’t help. “We’re bugged. Don’t ask me how or why I know, but there are three audio bugs and one video bug in my room. I disabled the video bug. There are also ten audio and three video bugs in the living room area and I have no idea what’s in your room. There was a bug out here, but I disabled it. So, besides the bugs, what is pissing me off is how the driver and the staff are addressing me-”

Mr. Rogers choked on his drink and held up his hand for her stop.  After he got his coughing under control, he motioned for her to come closer. “What?” He whispered into her ear.

“The staff are calling me your mistress!” Sadie huffed, crossing her arms with annoyance as she ignored the question her boss was probably more worried about, the bugs and how she knew about them.

“No, not that, bugs?” Mr. Rogers anxiously asked, keeping his voice low.

“Yeah, we’re bugged out the yazoo here, but you don’t need to whisper. I disabled the one that was out here. I guess they just didn’t expect us to use the balcony.”

“Oh,” Mr. Rogers straightened and glanced down at his drink, “how did you know?”

“Umm,” Now it was time for Sadie to come up with something suitably plausible and technical enough to fool her boss. She pulled out her smartphone. “I have an app that uses the camera’s photo sensor to scan for other cameras and an app that uses the phone’s built in radio to scan for other radio devices. Isn’t it amazing what these new fangled phones are capable of these days.” She giggled as he seemed to be accepting her story. “Not at all like those old fashioned rotary things you grew up with, huh?”

“Your phone can do all that?!?!” Mr. Rogers gasped as he reflexively reached for the alien --to him-- device.  
 

Knowing that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between her phone and something like Boeing’s new Black Phone, a phone that might actually do what she claimed her phone could do,  Sadie let him look at it.  He turned it over in his hands a few times before reverently handing it back to her. “I never knew. I might have to get one of those now.”

Sadie laughed. “Yeah, but then you wouldn’t need me and people would be calling you all the time!”

Mr. Rogers grimaced. “Good point.” He tipped his glass to her. “Maybe I’m just too old to try something like that. So, what do you think we should do about the bugs?”

Sadie shrugged her shoulders. “Beats me. Is it normal for you to have your rooms bugged?”

“No.” He shook his head with disgust.

“Okay, then I will disable them all. Maybe they are just left over from the previous guests and not really active.  If new ones show up, then we will know that someone is out to get you.”  Sadie turned back to enter the suite.

“Sounds good, can I watch?” Mr. Rogers asked, following her inside.

It took Sadie a little less than five minutes to disable all the bugs. It would’ve gone faster, but she had to pretend to use her phone to find and remove the bugs. With their privacy secured, Mr. Rogers freshened his glass of scotch and gave her a glass, insisting that she join him.

“Now, why are you upset by how the staff is addressing you?” Mr. Rogers returned to the topic Sadie was hoping he would forget about.

“Well,” She delayed her reply by taking a sip of the scotch. It was very old and expensive stuff and she pretended to savor it. “For this trip, I decided to learn a few of the languages we might need during any negotiation and I overheard what the driver and the staff think of me.”

“You did what?!?” Mr. Rogers almost dropped his drink.

“I learned Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Japanese, but I haven’t had a lot of practice speaking any of them…” Sadie tried to minimize her feat.

“Okaaay,” His expression mirrored both astonishment and skepticism, but he didn’t challenge her statement, “and what did you hear them say about you? I heard the staff use the “miss” honorific with your name, but was there something else?”

It took her a couple of minutes to explain what the driver called her and how the staff purposefully misused the honorific to imply she was a slut at best and his hired escort at worst.  

Mr. Rogers sighed heavily and shook his head with disappointment. “I’m so sorry Sadie. I normally come to these things alone because of the sexism. Nancy came with me once and it was not good. I was hoping they had advanced a little in the last ten years.”

“It’s not your fault sir and I can handle it. It just came as a surprise to find out that it’s as bad as everyone said.” Sadie grinned with predatory anticipation. “Besides, I think it will be fun to take advantage of their misconceptions during your negotiations, don’t you agree?”

Mr. Rogers face lit up with glee. “Oh yes, very much so and I know just how to take advantage of the distraction I am sure you will cause!”

The first day of meetings went pretty much how she expected them to go. The older generation of CEO’s treated her with disdain, like she was beneath their notice while the younger generation openingly leered at her. Mr. Rogers liked dealing with the younger CEO’s, the ones who viewed Sadie as eye candy, because they made the most mistakes during negotiations. Over the first three days, they met with the CEO’s and executives from over fifteen large corporations. While most spoke English during the negotiations, they often switched to their native tongue when conversing among themselves, assuming that neither Mr. Rogers or his pretty secretary would understand their words. The secrets she learned proved to be invaluable to Mr. Rogers and costly to his suppliers and competitors.

For Jenna’s premiere event, Mr. Rogers wore a tuxedo and Sadie activated a little green dress that complemented her eyes and hair.  She kept her heels down to three inches, she didn’t want to tower over her boss. She still drew a lot of attention to herself and Mr. Rogers, but since it was a movie premier, most of the comments she overheard were complementary in nature.

During the after party, Mr. Rogers made a few new contacts within the Hong Kong government and much to Sadie’s surprise, he even seemed to enjoy the movie and commented on it during the ride back to their hotel. “Thank you very much Sadie. Your friend Jenna is a beautiful and talented woman. Did she really do all of her own stunts and can she really fight?”  

“Yes and yes. She’s the real deal.” Sadie said, feeling proud for her friend’s accomplishments.

The night would’ve been near perfect if not for what Sadie found when they returned to their suite.  The bugs were back, meaning someone had planted them sometime during the day.  The new bugs were also more sophisticated. They were voice activated and after she extracted one, she discovered it was programmed to store the audio for up to an hour before activating their transmitters to send the take to who ever was listening, making them harder to detect.

In addition to the physical listening devices, she also discovered that a laser microphone was aimed at their window from the building across the street from their room. In order to get the best sound pickup, the beam was focused on the large picture frame in the living room.  She limited its effectiveness by closing the blinds and turning on the suite’s excellent music system.

Mr. Rogers was not happy with the news, but with only two more days left in the conference and with how little time they spent in the rooms discussing sensitive business information; he was willing to put up with it.  

The next afternoon, Mr. Rogers was scheduled to attend an uncharacteristically open tour of Tomachi Heavy Industries main factory complex. The tour group included five other CEOs who ran similar businesses. Her boss didn’t trust the CEO of Tomachi at all. He didn’t trust his competitors as a rule, but Gang Zhào he trusted far less than any other. The man was ruthless in his quest to lead the world in electronics manufacturing. Sadie didn’t like him because when she met the guy, he proved himself to be the most sexist out of all previous CEOs. During the meeting with the man, he assumed neither Mr. Rogers or she could understand his Mandarin Chinese when he laughingly made crude comments to his second in command about why old man Rogers hired her and how good in bed she had to be.

Besides herself, there was only one other female on the trip. A pretty, Japanese executive assistant and translator for one of the Japanese CEOs. Sadie thought the woman carried herself with a certain grace that reminded Sadie of Jenna, but she refused to follow the stereotypical mindset that meant the woman was a ninja. The group was at the halfway point in the tour and taking a small break for refreshments when the woman approached her.

"I am Yoshida," the woman bowed politely and continued after rising from the bow, "it is a honor to meet a fellow assistant to men of high position."

Sadie returned the bow, "It is a honor to meet you, I am Sadie Williamson, and may I say it's a pleasure to meet a fellow aide?"

The woman smiled, politely nodding, implying she agreed with Sadie. “Yes,” Yoshida glanced around the room, her gaze lingering on the window opening to a large factory floor, “I feel very lost here amongst all this confusing machinery.”

Sadie thought she detected a hint of sarcasm in her reply and there was something about the woman’s eyes that told her she was far more than another pretty face. “Yes, I agree. It’s a good thing we have all these men here to explain things to us, right?” Sadie mimicked the woman’s tone and body language.

Yoshida smiled with bemusement as she caught Sadie’s meaning. She looked like she was about to reply when Mr. Gang Zhào himself entered the room accompanied by two large and armed security guards. “Greetings my esteemed colleagues!” He smiled magnanimously. “This is the fourth and final day that I can offer this unique, one of a kind, special tour, but,” he sighed with regret, “for trade secrets purposes, I must ask you to leave your assistants behind.”

Mr. Rogers and the other CEO’s didn’t look very comfortable with the idea, but neither did Sadie.  She glanced over to her new friend and noticed a fleeting look of concern cross her face also.

Mr. Zhào noticed the discontent in the room. “Don’t worry, they will be well taken care of and provided refreshments until your tour is complete. If you do not wish to be separated, I will have to regretfully deny your unique chance to get in on the ground floor with a technology so advanced, it will change the world!”

Only one of the CEO’s declined their host’s invitation. Regretfully, Mr. Rogers was not the one. Sadie didn’t know why and couldn’t imagine what might go wrong, but she had a bad feeling deep in her spark about Mr. Zhào groundbreaking technology.

Author's Note: Totally new stuff here...

Kurt glanced back to Sadie. She stood next to an attractive Japanese woman who was the aide to Mr. Takahashi, the founder and CEO of Takahashi Electronics. Neither woman looked happy with Mr. Zhào’s offer and neither was he, but he could understand the man’s desire to limit exposure to possible trade secrets.  Of course, if Mr. Zhào was worried about trade secrets getting out, he would’ve have invited all the CEO’s to visit the factory in the first place.

Following Mr. Zhào out of the break room, Kurt and the remaining four CEOs were led into a section of the factory they hadn’t seen yet. It was filled with very complex looking robots assembling tiny electronic parts. The robots alone told him that his competitor had made some amazing advances in the robotic technology field.

The group was taken to another small lounge area, where each CEO was taken, one at a time into a secure clean room. Jake Spurgeon, a fellow American CEO, went first and he returned a few minutes later looking very impressed and thanking Mr. Zhào for showing him the device.  

Curiosity in overdrive, Kurt approached his fellow American. “So, Jake, what was it?”

“Oh, Rogers xiānshēng, it was amazing. A real game changer and I’m looking forward to licensing the technology for my corporation!” Jake enthusiastically espoused, his face and body language much more animated than Kurt had ever seen from the normally grumpy man.  He wasn’t sure what to make of Jake’s enthusiasm, but he became even more curious when Mr. Takahashi returned with a large smile on his normally dour face.  

“Rogers xiānshēng, are you ready to see the future!?” Mr. Zhào enthusiastically slapped Kurt on his back, unpleasantly reminding him of a used car salesman.

“Sure, show me what ya got Zhào xiānshēng!” Kurt faked his enthusiasm.

Zhào chuckled and acted hurt. “Please Kurt, I think at this stage we are beyond formal titles. Please, call me Bang.”

Kurt was led into a small hallway where a second set of armored, locked doors waited. Zhào pressed his hand into a glossy black palm reader. The doors automatically opened with a hiss that reminded Kurt of a sci-fi spaceship’s airlock.  Beyond the doors was a plain, extremely well lit, white room, about twenty by twenty meters square.

Entering, he was struck by the size of the room.  It was like entering an aircraft hanger crossed with a computer cleanroom.  The floor and walls were painted gleaming white and the ceiling rose all the way up to the roof of the factory, twenty or so meters tall with bright, halogen lights beaming light into the space from every angle, eliminating shadows.

Two exits were on the far side of the room. Another armored personal sized door like the one they entered through and a large, armored garage door sized exit that looked big enough to drive a semi-truck through with room left over.

Otherwise, the room was bare except for a rectangular box in the middle of the floor. The box was about the same size as an old pay phone booth, something he missed seeing due to all the damn cell phones taking over.  He was not impressed, but he held his tongue because his new ‘friend’ Bang seemed overly proud of the thing.

“Confused Kurt?”

Kurt noncommittally shrugged his shoulders. “A little. What is it?”

“That my friend is the future!” Mr.  Zhào stepped up to the device, motioning Kurt to follow. Reaching the booth, he placed his hand on a red, three fingered claw like touch pad and instantly, a realistic hologram of someone who looked like Kurt appeared.

“You’ve developed holographic projectors?” Despite himself, he was impressed by the display.

Mr. Zhào turned back to him with a predatory grin. “Oh, it’s more than that my friend, watch.”

Without making any visible adjustments to the unit, the image of Kurt morphed into a pretty, young teenage girl with large, anime style eyes, long, bright red hair, huge breasts, fox ears and a fluffy red fox tail. The poor child wore a dog collar around her neck and nothing else. The image made Kurt feel uncomfortable and a little irritated with his host because it seemed rather juvenile to think he would be impressed with holographic and borderline pedofile images.

Keeping his poker face intact, Kurt gestured to the machine. “Impressive, but your holographic projector seems a little too large to bring to market and the image size too small. Can either factors be scaled?”

Mr. Zhào shark like grin unsettled Kurt more than he was willing to show. “That is not all this machine can do.” He touched a small purple crystal on the side, causing a door appear, revealing an empty interior with another glowing purple crystal.

Kurt expected more electronic components. Seeing the device empty of anything resembling circuit boards, cooling fans and projector technology left him feeling a little disappointed, but at the same time intrigued. He took a step forward and peered inside the empty booth. The lack of equipment inside, meant that the holographic projector didn’t have to be phone booth sized. If only Sadie was here, she would know what to make of this dog and pony show. “Okay, so I guess the projector doesn’t have to be this big?”

Mr. Zhào laughed. “Oh no, the ‘projector’ is just a small taste of what this device can do.” He motioned for Kurt to step inside. “Go ahead, look inside and touch the purple crystal. I think you’ll be surprised by what you learn.”

Despite his concerns, he stepped inside the device. If this is what Mr. Zhào showed the other CEO’s then had little to worry about since he saw the first two exit the demo looking pretty happy.  Glancing over his shoulder at Mr. Zhào, Kurt touched the crystal. The doorway instantly vanished and before he had time to think about what was happening, he was bathed in a bright red light that caused him to blink his eyes.  A blink was all it took.

The red light vanished and the doorway instantly reappeared.

He stumbled out into the now too bright room, blinking his eyes against the painful glare and wincing as his suddenly bare feet touched the cold, concrete floor. His chest bounced as he stumbled, his body and sense of balance completely different. He wondered if the bright flash in the booth somehow interfered with his equilibrium. If so, there could be military applications for this technology.  His mind ever on business, he was unprepared to feel a hand catch his arm and prevent him from tripping over his own two feet.

Kurt looked across, and seeing only a man’s midsection, his gaze traveled up to reveal  Mr. Zhào with a triumphant grin on his face.  “What do you think now, ‘Kurt’!?” He sneered down at Kurt.

“Wha-” Kurt gasped as a painful shock traveled through his body, preventing him from completing his question and if it wasn’t for Mr. Zhào’s grasp on his arm, he would’ve fallen to his knees.

“Ahh, I’m sorry,” Mr. Zhào said, now sounding at all apologetic, “I forgot to warn you about the hush collar. It’s very sensitive. Any speech louder than a whisper will cause it to activate. The louder you try to speak, the greater the shock. I’m afraid a scream might kill you.”

“Wha-” Another shock coursed through Kurt’s body, painfully reminding him of the bastard’s warning. He tried again as Mr. Zhào smugly looked down at him. “What did you do to me?” He whispered, feeling a slight warning tingle from his collar.

“Much better. And they claim American’s can’t be trained.  You learned far faster than your previous two colleagues.” Mr. Zhào released his arm and took a step back, gesturing toward a full size mirror.

Standing next to Mr. Zhào, Kurt saw the same young, pint size fox girl with the oversized breasts that had been displayed on the holographic projector looking back at him. Based on where the girl came up to on Mr. Zhào, he estimated she stood maybe four foot six, if that. She looked every bit as innocent and shocked to see him as he was to see her. He forgot about the shock collar when he realized he was the girl on the mirror.

“Wh-” He started to yell but the collar caused him to fall to the floor, writhing in agony.

Eventually, the pain subsided, leaving him softly whimpering on the floor and feeling ashamed for displaying weakness in front of the smug bastard. He wanted nothing less than to rip the man’s cold heart out of his chest just to see if he had one.  Kurt stilled his breathing and fixed his patented cold glare on the man. His glare was renowned to put the fear in anyone foolish enough to try double crossing him.

Mr. Zhào crouched down and softly tisked with mock disappointment. “I guess you still have some habits that need work, but we still have a demo to finish.” Ignoring any threat Kurt might present, he stood, turned his back on Kurt, walked back over to the impossible device and placed his hand on the red, three claw sensor.

Kurt didn’t know how the machine did it, but since it somehow turned him into a teenage fox girl, it had to be able to turn him back. He felt a glimmer of hope form when he saw Mr. Zhào bring up a naked image of his male self, but it didn’t exactly match.

Mr. Zhào turned back to Kurt and pointed to the image. “Yes, my friend, we can turn you back, but for that, you need to do it. Simply touch the red pad and think of your own body.”

Unsure if this was a trick, Kurt raised himself off the floor. His balance felt off and he didn’t like how Mr. Zhào was looking at him. He self-consciously covered his ample, gravity defying breasts with his hands before realizing what it looked like. He decided to cross his arms over his chest instead. He felt his fluffy fox tail unconsciously curl between the airy gap between legs, partially hiding the part of his new body he refused to acknowledge as real.

“There you go girl, just touch it…” Mr. Zhào chuckled as he used the patronizing tone of voice people used to encourage their pets.

Desperate to end his humiliation, Kurt touched the device and thought of his own body in all it’s solid, male glory.  He may have imagined his tackle a little larger, but no man wants to admit they feel a little lacking in that department.  Ashamed to see himself naked, he quickly imagined himself wearing his clothes and was relieved to see the image of himself exactly as he looked before he entered the damn machine appear.

He realized that he wasn’t paying close enough attention to his megalomaniac host when he heard and felt a solid click on his collar, followed by a sharp tug that choked him as he was pulled away from the machine. “Now, now, now. Can’t have you accidently touching the wrong button, can we?” Mr. Zhào mocked Kurt as he easily pulled him away from the machine.

“No!” Kurt managed to yell before his world turned white with pain, causing him to collapse to the floor and lose control of his muscles.

As his senses started to return, the first thing he felt was the rapidly cooling liquid running down his legs, pooling beneath his body. His sense of smell seemed sharper, but it only led to further shame and embarrassment when he identified the liquid as his own urine. He had wet himself.

“You bastard…” Kurt whispered as he looked up at the smug and gloating bastard, Mr. Zhào. “You won’t get away with this. Sadie will miss me and call the police.”

Mr. Zhào laughed, holding his sides to contain his amusement. “Will she?” He moved to the side and gestured back toward the machine as an Asian man touched the purple crystal, stepped inside and a few seconds later stepped out looking exactly like Kurt.

“What do you think Zhào-xiānshēng?” The fake Kurt asked, sounding exactly like himself.

Kurt’s fox ears drooped with disappointment as he felt his hopes fade. He didn’t have the energy to resist as his leash was handed to a leering security guard and he was roughly pulled to his feet. He struggled not to cry out as the collar choked him. He was led out the rear door, down a hall lined with cages.  

Each cage contained between five and six anamorphic girls with no two exactly the same. There were a large number of cat girls, but mixed in were girls with dog, bird , squirrel, mouse, cow, horse, raccoon and panda features. He estimated there were approximately thirty other people stuck in the same position he was.  Who were these people before they were changed by Zhào? Were they all like him, business leaders or were there some government officials in the group?  It sounded crazy to consider, but was the man planning on taking over the world by turning all his competitors into sexy animal girls while a clone controlled by him ran the company?

Over two thirds of the animal girls looked like they were in shock. They simply laid on the floor, curled into a fetal position or sitting on their butt, rocking back and forth staring at something only they could see.  The rest of the girls cowered, cringing as he was led past their cage by the man holding her leash.  There were only two or three who looked like they were mad enough to try standing up for themselves.

What in the hell was the bastard planning on doing and why would he transform men into young animal girls?  Kurt could only think of one thing and his mind refused to focus on the obvious; it was too barbaric to consider.  His thoughts of the future were put on hold when he was forced to stop in front of a cage containing two anthropomorphic, anime girls.

One was a sexy cat girl with medium length, bubblegum pink hair, black cat ears, black cat tail and breasts equal to his own. The other girl was a big breasted bunny girl, complete with a fluffy, cotton ball tail and large white bunny ears poking out of her long platinum blond hair. They both looked as lost and beaten as he felt himself starting to feel, but he had a good idea who they were.

The guard cruelly laughed as he unhooked his leash and easily shoved his diminutive girl body into the cage with the other, former male CEO’s. His collar beeped twice as he passed through the cage door. He stumbled a little, his breasts uncomfortably jiggling, as the door slammed closed behind him, but refused to submit to the hopeless feeling that threatened to overwhelm his sense of self. He was Kurtis Rogers, CEO of Rogers International. A company he built with his own two hands and he was damned if he was going to let the bastard, Zhào, get away with this.

If it was the last thing he did, he would bring the man down. He didn’t know how the machine did it, but he was still alive and where there was life, there was hope. He was going to break out of this cage and get his body back.

He stood tall and ignoring the unsettling bobble from his chest, he placed his hands on his hips and whispered, “Which one of you is Jake?”

Mr. Rogers and the other CEOs had been gone for five minutes and instead of decreasing, the alarm bells inside her head only grew louder.  She glanced over to the calm and serene Ms. Yoshida with envy. How could the woman remain so calm? Her example only made her feel like she was being irrational and as a result, it made her cranky. She was a Auto/Decepti-bot and Transformers aren’t supposed to be emotional and irrational. Something stunk about this scenario and now she worried that her ‘feelings’ was some hidden low level program from her deceitful Decepticon side.

Another long and agonizing five minutes passed with no sign of her boss. She couldn’t take it anymore. Sadie turned to Ms. Yoshida.  She started to speak, but Ms. Yoshida’s calm mask of serenity made her pause.  She turned away from the woman and paced the room. She thought about trying to talk to one of the male aides, but they all looked bored and not at all worried.  Two of the men were even calmly smoking cigarettes, something that would never happen in the U.S.

After fifteen minutes, she returned to her spot closer to Ms. Yoshida and was surprised when the woman turned and addressed her with a slight, respectful bow. “Pardon me for intruding, Williamson-san, you seem agitated. Is something wrong?”

Surprisingly, the woman’s calm, measured and polite question helped calm Sadie down. She bowed in response. “I’m sorry Yoshida-san, I hope I used the term correctly, but I’m just worried about my boss and I don’t know why.”

“Surely Rogers-sama is safe.” Yoshida glanced around the room, her gaze momentarily stopping at the security guards. “Zhào-san would not be so foolish as to risk the safety of his honored guests.”

Sadie noticed that Yoshida didn’t use the inferior to superior suffix for Mr. Zhào. Was it intentional and her way of showing her own distrust for the man?  Sadie nodded and decided to try speaking Japanese with the woman. She somehow felt like she could trust her and that she might even like the woman if they weren’t in such a formal setting.

“~Thank you for your wise words. I agree. Zhào-san would be very foolish to harm our superiors.~” She noticed the surprise in Yoshida’s eyes and took a bit of pleasure for that, but she also remembered that her Japanese might be very bad and maybe it wasn’t surprise she saw in the woman’s eyes. “~Sorry if I am butchering your language. I’m still a student.~”

“~No, you did very well and I apologize for my failure to mask my surprise. It was rude of me to assume you lacked any skill with my language.~” Yoshida reached into her small purse, pulled out an ornate business card case and presented Sadie with her card. “~Please accept this as my apology for my behavior so that we may converse in the future.~”

“Arigatō” Sadie gave Yoshida a quick bow before taking the offered card with both hands.

She carefully held the card by the top two corners and respectfully examined it as she scanned the data into her memory. Now she felt bad. She didn’t have a business card of her own to give to Yoshida-san. All she had were Mr. Rogers’ cards, but since she handled all his calls, it was really her number on his card.

Very carefully, she placed the card in her purse and pulled out one if Mr. Rogers’ cards. “~I’m sorry that I cannot return the favor. I do not have a card of my own. Would you be willing to accept Rogers-sama card instead? His number is really my number.~” She apologetically smiled.  “~If so, would it be acceptable if I wrote my name and private number on the back?~”

Yoshida’s mask briefly broke as a mischievously grinned escaped. “Un!” She bowed and graciously accepted Sadie’s modified business card.

The distraction was good for one thing, it briefly kept her from worrying about her boss. Sadie was about to try asking Yoshida some more questions when the door banged open and Mr. Zhào strode confidently through with the other CEOs and her boss in tow.

Sadie felt relieved at the sight of her smiling boss and the other CEO’s. They all seemed very friendly with Mr. Zhào, openingly laughing and joking with him, causing her a little concern.  She knew Mr. Rogers didn’t like Mr. Zhào, at all. So, his demeanor was a little out of character for him, but she knew Mr. Rogers was a good actor and would use every advantage at his disposal to get ahead in a business negotiation.

During the limo ride back to their hotel, Mr. Rogers patted the seat next to him, motioned for her to sit beside him. It was a minor change to his normal behavior because he liked to look into her eyes when he spoke to her. With all the bugs, maybe he wanted to whisper something in her ear.  She cautiously sat beside him, causing him to smile appreciatively at her as she adjusted her skirt to cover her legs.  “Sadie, have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”

His eyes moved up from her legs to her breasts, stopping there. Sadie had no idea where Mr. Rogers was going with his unusual observation. “Umm, yes, but I know you well enough to know that you don’t need to tell me that. ”

Mr. Rogers seemed to realize he was making her feel uncomfortable. “Yes, of course, of course. This is neither the time or place.” He coughed and shifted a little in his seat.

The rest of the ride was in silence, Sadie was brimming with curiosity about the tour, but was reluctant to bring it up. His behavior seemed a little off, but maybe he was distracted by analyzing Mr. Zhào’s secret business gadget. She was confident that when Mr. Rogers was ready, he would tell her about what he saw and ask her opinion, just like he always did.

The pair was alone when they entered their hotel’s elevator. After Mr. Rogers failed to press the button to their floor, Sadie stepped forward and pressed it. Using the reflection of the polished stainless steel elevator doors, she noticed him staring at her butt with a anticipatory leer on his face.  Maybe Mr. Zhào gave him some Scotch laced with a roofie or something during the private part of the tour.  

“Sir, is something wrong?” Sadie asked, stepping back to his side as the elevator began its rapid ascent.

“What? Not a thing. I was just enjoying the view babe.” Mr. Rogers smirked unrepentantly.

Sadie glanced over her shoulder and studied him for a second. His eyes looked normal. His pupils were not dilated and her olfactory sensors did not detect any noticeable levels of alcoholic chemicals in his breath. “Umm, okaaay sir. Did Mr. Zhào give you anything to drink or eat during the private part the tour?”

Mr. Rogers shook his head. “No Sadie,” his eyes narrowed with suspicion, “why do you ask?”

Sadie pondered his response for a few nanoseconds. Something was wrong with her boss because Mr. Rogers had never called her a ‘babe’ before and he never would have. The word wasn’t in his vocabulary. She was spared from answering by the elevator stopping on their floor and the doors opening with a faint chime sound. At the door to their suite, the mystery deepened when Mr. Rogers waited expectantly for Sadie to open the door for him instead of him taking the lead.  She covered her confusion, whipped out her card key and opened the door for her boss. “Sorry sir, it took me a few seconds to find the key in my purse.”

Mr. Rogers chuckled. “Not a problem Sadie. Your organizational skills aren’t why I hired you anyway.”

Sadie was stunned. She never expected to hear her boss say something so suggestive and demeaning to her.  He had to be under the influence of something and when she found out what it was that Mr. Zhào slipped him, he was going to pay. She absently noted the door closing and locking behind her as Mr. Rogers flipped the door bar in place.

“There we go babe.” Mr. Rogers loosened his tie and he leered suggestively at her. “I like how you teased me in the car and I’ve been waiting to get you alone since we left Zhào-géxià’s factory.”

Sadie’s core was in overdrive mode as she struggled to understand what was wrong with her boss.  Aside from his horn-dog behavior, he addressed Mr. Zhào using the Mandarin Chinese suffix denoting that he saw Mr. Zhào as being far above himself. Again, Mr. Rogers hated the man and for him to use that suffix was almost as out of character as was his current behavior.  

Mr. Rogers pulled her body close to his and began kissing her neck as his hands reached behind and squeezed her butt. “Oh yeah, you know how I like it…”

Sadie let him push her body toward the couch while she maximized her anti-gravity compensators to prevent her boss from realizing she was actually six to seven hundred pounds heavier than he was. She normally ran them at a level to simulate a normal human woman’s weight, but with Mr. Rogers acting weird on her, she lowered her apparent weight a little extra to keep him from hurting himself. After all, the man was in his upper fifties.

“~You’re such a sexy bitch, I can’t believe my good fortune!~” Mr. Rogers spoke in perfect Mandarin Chinese, panting with desire while kissing her neck with one arm holding himself up as his other hand roamed its way up her inner thigh.

When did the Mr. Rogers learn Chinese?  

Whatever was wrong with her boss, she was pretty sure he wouldn’t want the unknown listeners to know about it and she had had enough of his groping of her. She heard a few tiny electronic wheezes when she shot out a signal that overloaded the listening devices in the room. With the bugs disabled, she  pushed him off of her, forcing him to fall back and onto his butt as she stood. “Mr Rogers, what’s wrong with you?!?”

He leered unrepentantly up at her as he smoothly rose to his feet. The leer turned a little more malicious as he  surprised her with backhanded slap to her face. “Know your place biǎo zi!”

Sadie dropped back down, sitting on the couch, more from shock than anything else. Mr. Rogers had hit her with a significant amount of force. If she had been human, the slap would’ve stunned and possibly knocked her out. She held her hand over her cheek to hide the lack of any mark. “Mr. Rogers?” She looked up at him, thinking the situation was far worse than a simple spiked drink.

Mr. Rogers unbuckled his pants and stepped closer to him, placing his crotch close to her face. “Sadie, I’m sorry,” his eyes glinted malevolently, “but I will have to fire you unless you perform your duty.” He glanced suggestively to the large bulge in his pants.

Despite how impossible it seemed to be, the evidence in front of her eyes told her differently. In less than half an hour, Mr. Rogers had somehow been taught Chinese and brainwashed into thinking she was his slutty mistress. It wasn’t possible, was it?

Sadie began to stand, but was momentarily stopped by his hands on her shoulders. She looked up and into his eyes and saw nothing of the man she knew. If anything, she saw Mr. Zhào and his sexists attitudes being reflected back at her.  She stood, surprising him and forcing Mr. Rogers back a step.

“What did that bastard do to you?” Sadie growled, barely keeping her human facade in place, very close to dropping into her Alice Decepticon mode.

Mr. Rogers laughed, seemingly unconcerned. “Zhào-géxià gave me a gift. The gift of power and you’re just a perk of that power. Now, get undressed before I lose my patience with you.”

When Sadie failed to immediately respond to his demands, Mr. Rogers surprised her by moving far faster than she expected. He grabbed her hand and quickly spun her back towards the couch, twisting her arm behind her body into a painful armbar. As she minimally struggled to free herself, like a normal woman would, he spoke softly and with measured tones into her ear.  “Having a woman as beautiful as you in my bedroom was a perk I looked forward to enjoying, but it appears we will have to replace you.”

The man applied some additional torque to her arm. For a normal woman, the force would have been very painful and possibly even dislocated her shoulder, but for Sadie, it was nothing. She pretended to be in pain as the man counted on her pain to free his other hand and reach into his suit coat for a pen.

“~Say goodnight bitch~” The man pushed the pen against the side of her throat.  It hissed as it attempted to inject something into her body.

Sadie stiffened with shock before feigning unconsciousness and relaxing in the man’s arms. She hoped that was what he was expecting from her. It seemed to be the right choice when the man casually reached down and picked her up like she was a small child.  The man definitely had enhanced strength because there was no way the real Mr. Rogers could’ve done it as easily, if at all.

He carried her into Mr. Rogers’ room, dropped her unceremoniously on the bed and sighed with regret. “~Such a shame, but I’m sure your replacement will be much more willing.~”

The man pulled a device that looked like a cell phone and after a few seconds delay spoke into it. “~Hello? Yes, I’m in, but there was a problem.~”

Sadie could only hear his side of the conversation,  a concern for her since she there hadn’t been a cell phone she couldn’t immediately hack into.  

“~Yes, Williamson-xiăojiě was not as dumb as I expected. We need to replace her.~”

“~20 minutes? Yes, I’ll wait.~”

Sadie heard the fake Mr. Rogers close his cell phone device and leave the room, muttering in Chinese filled with a liberal dose of obscenities about how disappointed he was about not being able to have sex with a real red headed American woman.

In this case, two plus two equals five. The math suddenly added up. As impossible as it sounded, the only possible answer was that Mr. Zhào had a MAU and had used it on her boss.  Sadie recalled Mr. Zhào’s seemingly innocent statement back at the factory about today being the fourth and final day, adding more evidence to support her hypothesis.

The man currently pretending to be Mr. Rogers had to be a MAU enhanced human --how enhanced she didn’t know-- and the real Mr. Rogers was probably being held prisoner back at the factory.  If he had been altered by the machine, she had to find the real Mr. Rogers and get him to the MAU before the timer ran out!  

Sadie’s biggest question now was how to handle the current situation.  She could take the fake down and probably fairly easily. The fake was obviously stronger than Mr. Rogers and probably even had some training, but Mr. Zhào didn’t seem like he kind of man who would trust his underlings to have more power than himself.

If she knocked out or killed the fake, would that alert Mr. Zhào?  The fake asked about something taking 20 minutes. Is Mr. Zhào sending a duplicate of her over and their ETA is 20 minutes? If so, what were they planning on doing with her?

She could do a lot in 20 minutes. She could take out the fake Mr. Rogers and fly to the factory in less than time than that. Maybe even make it back with the real Mr. Rogers. Of course, that would completely blow her cover and expose her secret to her boss, but at this point, he probably was very aware of what a MAU was.  

Sadie wanted some backup. Thankfully, Jenna was still in town, but due to fly back to the states in a few hours.  It could be tricky reaching her friend sometimes, but she decided to try.

“Hey Sadie! Qué pasa?” Jenna cheerfully answered after only a couple of rings.

Sadie heard the sounds of other people loudly talking. Jenna appeared to be in a crowd someplace, but that was also normal.

Jenna’s voice became distant, like she turned her face away from the receiver. “Mike! Shhhh,” she giggled, “ it’s Sadie. I’m trying to talk.”

After a few seconds, the background noise became a little more tolerable. “Sorry, We’re doing some last minute promo stuff before we head back to L.A. What’s going on with you?”

Just to see how her friend would react, Sadie decided to take the casual approach to a possible messy death. “Oh, nothing much. I’m just pretending to be knocked out and laying on my boss’s bed bed after finding out that somehow, someone switched out the real Mr. Rogers with a fake. I suspect a MAU. I might have less than 20 minutes to live or make a decision about what to do about it, but other than that, nada.”

“WHAT!?!? Hijo de puta! You better not be joking...” Jenna’s tone grew deadly serious.

“Sorry, not at all. I’m just beyond pissed right now because I don’t know what happened to my boss and the asshole who is pretending to be him tried to make me to give him a blow job like I was some kind of cheap whore or something. Other than that, I’m just peachy!” The more Sadie thought about it, the madder she became.

“Jenna? Is something wrong?” Mike’s voice could be heard.

Sadie’s sensors detected the fake Mr. Rogers come back to the side of the bed. “~Such a fine piece of ass. I’ve got twenty minutes. No sense in letting the time go to waste.~”  He placed his hand on her leg and began to slide it under her skirt.

“Whoa there chica. I-”

Sadie interrupted her friend. “Sorry Jenna, but it’s looking like the bastard is going to try raping me and that’s not going to happen.”

“I’m on my way!” Jenna yelled and disconnected the call.

Sadie would’ve told her not to bother, but Jenna wasn’t known for waiting around before taking action.  She felt the man’s hand pull her skirt up and over her hips as his breathing grew ragged with desire.

“~oohhh, yeah~”  The man hoarsely whispered as he pulled a hand away and began to fumble with his pants.

Author's Note: Sorry for the HUGE delay. :( In an attempt to put a positive spin on my delay, this is actually the 3rd totally new chapter in this very delayed story. Go back to Chapter 6 if you're confident in your ability to recall the story prior to now. I've completely revised it starting with Chapter 1 by removing Jenna/Hector's POVs and breaking her stuff off into a second story. I've tentatively titled it "MAU: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing". I probably should've had someone edit this but, I've re-read it more times than I can count. I hope you all like it.

Sadie opened her optics, grabbed the man’s right hand and sat up. “~If you don’t want me to rip your arm off and feed it to you, I’d tell me where the real Mr. Rogers is being held!~” She spoke in Mandarin, matching his language.

The man’s eyes flared with shock as he tried to pull himself from her grasp. Failing to free himself, he responded by performing a lightning fast round house punch to her left temple.  The punch had enough force to rock her head to the side, but it caused no physical damage to her armored head.  While his punch didn’t physically damage her, it did cause a temporary  fist sized disruption of her camouflage, exposing her outer armor and blood red left optical sensor in a spiderweb pattern radiating from the point of impact.  

The man had hit her with enough force to seriously injure and possibly kill a normal human woman. He paused with shock as she shrugged off his punch. “~What in the hell?!?!~”

“Now you’ve really pissed me off!” Sadie stood and pressed down using her full strength to his right forearm.

“Ahhhh!” The man screamed as his bones snapped with a loud crack, driving him to his knees.

Letting go of his now useless arm, Sadie stepped back to give herself some room to maneuver.  She had to give the creep some credit, he pushed through the pain and rose, attempting to drive an uppercut into her stomach.  She caught his fist and stopped it in mid-flight.  “Okay asshole, where is Mr. Rogers!?!” She growled, her voice shifted into pure digital mode as the rest of her camouflage dropped to enable maximum combat effectiveness.

He tried to pull away, but Sadie held his fist firmly within her grasp, not allowing his hand to move an inch.  The man attempted to kick her, but she blocked it using her tail tentacle.  Realizing that he would probably try to kick her again, she wrapped her tentacle around both his legs, hogtying him with her firm grasp on his fist the only thing keeping him from falling on his butt. “~Maybe you didn’t understand my question. Where is the real Kurtis Rogers?!?!~”

She stressed her question by squeezing his hand, causing him to grimace with pain, but she didn’t break it.  “~Bitch! I don’t know what you are, but you don’t know who you’re messing with! Zhào-géxià will find you!~”

“~That wasn’t what I asked you...~” Sadie’s eyes flashed red as her voice digitized even further, creating a menacing reverb effect. She began to slowly apply force to his hand.

“AHhhhhh!” The imposter cried as the bones in his hand began to fracture.

Sadie stopped. “~Where is Kurtis Rogers?~”  

“~In the factory! In the factor, bitch!~” The imposter chuckled as took a breath around the pain. “~but he won’t be pleasing you anytime soon! Last time I saw her, she was a sexy little fox girl!”

She ignored his implication. The imposter simply couldn’t understand the working relationship she had with Mr. Rogers. “~What did that asshole Zhào do to him?~” Sadie applied pressure, causing a few more of the imposter’s fingers to fracture.

“Ahhhhh!” He slumped with defeat. “~I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you! Just stop, please!~”

Sadie released his hand, letting him topple backwards and onto the carpeted floor.  She kept his legs bound.

It took a few seconds before the imposter’s breathing got under control and he was able to speak again. “~ Zhào-géxià turned him and his capitalist dogs into sexy animal girls.” He chuckled in spite of the pain. “~Your master is a sexy little fox and I’m sure she’ll be very popular with the man she’s sold to once she goes into heat!~”

“You asshole!” Sadie pulled the man toward her with her tail tentacle, reached down grabbing the front of his shirt and bodily lifted him up. “~Where. Is. The. MAU?~”

“~The what?~” The imposter seemed genuinely confused.

“~The alien device you used to become Kurtis Rogers!~”

“~The device-~” The imposter’s eyes flared with pain as he gasped with pain, halting his words.  His entire body began to spasm and his eyes rolled back in his head.

Unsure about what was happening, Sadie dropped the man and took a step back.  He began to violently convulse and a few seconds later, the imposter’s back arched with enough force to fracture his spine in multiple places.  He slumped back and exhaled his last breath.

“Damn, that’s not good…” Sadie surprised herself by how little alarm she felt over watching a man die a painful death at her feet.  Somehow Zhào had managed to include an automatic suicide switch in the imposter’s body; Zhào was one sick bastard.

“I need to get to the factory!”  She headed out to the main living room area of the suite. Mindful of the bugs, she sent another powerful burst causing the remaining bugs to give off a faint, yet satisfying pop and hiss sound as they burnt out.

She was about to initiate her shift into Jet mode when there was a polite, yet firm knock on her door.  “Ahh crap, it’s probably Jenna…”

It could be more of the imposter’s friends. He did call for someone to come get her, but they said it would take twenty minutes and that was only eight minutes ago. Just in case it wasn’t Jenna, she reactivated her camouflage.

“I’ll be right there!” She yelled to stall whoever was on the other side of the door. She berated herself for using her own voice. If it was the imposter’s friends, she should’ve used Mr. Roger’s voice to throw them off since they weren’t expecting her to be conscious.

A few seconds later, her camouflage was repaired and she looked like her normal self.  Peering through the door’s peephole, she was able to make out the distorted shapes of a woman standing in front of a large man and statuesque woman with a third man standing off to the side wearing a black business suit.  

Sadie had no idea who they might be, but she guessed that they probably weren’t in Mr. Zhào’s employ. If they were, she didn’t have time to waste interrogating them either. She had to rescue Mr. Rogers, but she couldn’t exactly pretend to not be there either.  Prepared to give them a quick brush off, Sadie opened the door a crack, keeping the door security chain in place with her foot wedged tightly at the bottom of the door to prevent anyone from forcing it open.

She figured that with all of her weight holding the door back, the men outside would be very surprised if they tried to force the door.  “Hi, I’m kinda busy now. Can you come back later?” Sadie smiled desperately at the woman as she turned to face Sadie’s partially obscured face.

The woman surprised her because her facial features strongly resembled a Star Trek Vulcan or Romulan.  Her skin had a slight greenish tint, barely noticeable, but it was the woman’s hair style and sharply angled eyebrows that really brought out the resemblance. She even wore a simple dress cut in the plain, vaguely oriental style favored by Star Trek’s costume designers. Sadie couldn’t see the woman’s ears through her hair style, but she almost expected her to be wearing prosthetic ears.

Standing behind her and clearly acting as guards for the woman was a very large six and half foot man and almost as tall female bodyguard. Off to the side and out of the line of fire to the guards, stood a rather plain looking man in the black suit.

She automatically ran all of their faces through her data banks, looking for a match.  A fraction of a second later, a match came back. The Vulcan woman was Darla, the Star Trek fan who was wearing life-like Vulcan makeup and costume at the Comic Con, but the odds of her being at her door right now were astronomically high.  She found it strange that the woman would also choose to wear her Vulcan makeup.

“Darla?” She gasped with shock, momentary stepping away from the door.

The two bodyguards glanced nervously to each other before their gaze settled back to Sadie with a greater sense of readiness. Ignoring the tension behind her, Darla smiled politely, inquisitively canting her head to the side. “Yes, pleased to meet your acquaintance Sadie Williamson. Have we meet?”

Extreme Star Trek fan or not, this Darla woman knew her name and she also didn’t seem surprised to see her answer the door like she would’ve been if she was working for Mr. Zhào.  Why a Vulcan impersonator would need bodyguards was beyond her.  However; it was the man wearing the non-descript, plain black suit stuck out the most.  “Umm, once, very briefly at a comic convention last year, but I don’t really have time to talk right now. Could you all come back later?”

“I’m sorry, but we have reason to believe that Kurtis Rogers and you are in imminent danger.” Darla glanced behind her, towards the elevators. “But, the hallway is not the logical place to speak of such matters. May we come in?”

Sadie couldn’t keep the astonishment off her face. Where were these people six or so hours ago, before the tour?  Whoever they were, they clearly knew something and even though precious minutes were ticking away, she decided that finding out what they knew about the MAU and Mr. Zhào might help her rescue Mr. Rogers.

“Umm, okay. Lemme open the door…” Sadie closed the door, released the chain and reopened the door, gesturing for her unexpected guests to enter the suite.

Before closing the door behind her guests, she poked her head out the door to check the hallway. All clear, no surprise ninjas or other hotel guests hanging out.  The two bodyguards confirmed their function and immediately began scanning the suite for potential threats and visually making note of the entrances and exits.  Darla patiently stood next to the large sectional sofa while the black suited mystery man stood off to the side in a loose parade rest position.  

“Can I get you all anything to drink?” Sadie asked as an excuse to walk past and close the door to Mr. Rogers’ room before her guests had a chance to peek inside and spot the body of the imposter.  She didn’t actually want them to accept her offer.

“No thanks.” Darla said as her bodyguards simply shook their heads, no.

“I’ll take a Whisky or Scotch if you have any.” The mystery man spoke for the first time.

Sadie clamped down on her anxiety.  She didn’t have time to deal with drinks, but she got the door closed without raising suspicions. So, she decided play along and hopefully the man would just down the drink without delay.  “You’re in luck! Mr. Rogers loves his scotch. Some eighteen year old stuff called Glenmorangie. Will that be acceptable?” Sadie asked as she grabbed a glass and pulled out the bottle.

The mystery man’s face broke into a happy grin. “Very much so, thanks.”

“Ice?” Sadie glanced over her shoulder as she set the glass on the counter and prepared to pour.

“No thanks. A scotch of that caliber would be ruined with ice.” The mystery man smirked.

Sadie found herself warming to the man. Any man would could appreciate a good scotch couldn’t be all bad. It was probably expensive, but she didn’t have to pay for it. So, she poured him a good three fingers worth and handed it to him.  Task complete, she turned back to Darla. “So, who are you and what’s this ‘threat’ you mentioned?”

“I am Darla and,” she gestured to the large male bodyguard, “this is Mike and his wife, Sandy.  We represent the company known as The Collective.” Darla turned to the mystery man, inviting him to introduce himself.

“Hi, you can call me Callahan.” The man ambiguously gave a name.

Sadie glanced over to him, studying him with all of her electronic senses. Thermographic indicated that the man carried a firearm in a shoulder holster as well as a holdout pistol around his left ankle. Everything about the man screamed Secret Agent, but she had bigger fish to fry.

“We…” Darla glanced over to Callahan for approval or permission, and receiving a slight nod, she continued, “have reason to believe that someone intends to try impersonating the leaders of the largest and most powerful multinational companies and your superior ranks fairly high on the list of potential targets.”

Sadie optics may have dilated with surprise for a nano-second, but her face remained passive. How did these people know and why didn’t they get here sooner? “I find that a little hard to believe and while your Vulcan makeup is pretty darn good, there’s no way some actor with a little makeup would be able to fool me into thinking they were Mr. Rogers.”

“There is an advanced technology that could allow for a very accurate costume,” Darla stumbled a little over the costume word, “to be created. This costume would allow the wearer to perfectly mimic the target’s body and voice.”

They were pretty close, but Sadie knew the man pretending to be Mr. Rogers wasn’t wearing some high tech costume. “Sorry, but even with a high tech costume, I can guarantee you that some imposter would not fool me.  Thank you for the warning, but,” Sadie impatiently glanced to the door, “I really need to be leaving. Mr. Rogers is expecting me at a meeting and I’m running late.”

Darla’s eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch, somehow conveying a mixture of curiosity and concern. “I see. If you are confident in your ability, it would be illogical for us to intrude upon you any longer.”  She reached into the cuff of her top and extracted a business card. “If you happen across-”

Wham!!! The door jam splintered and slammed open with Jenna rushing in, ready for a fight.

“Sadie!” Jenna yelled as Mr. Power’s followed her into the now crowded suite.

Darla’s two body guards instantly reacted to the threat. The female bodyguard grabbed Darla, protectively placing her behind her while the big male bodyguard spun, facing the two highly trained action stars on his own.

“Finally, a worthy foe!” The male bodyguard roared, ignoring the fact that he was currently out numbered.  He further surprised Sadie when he turned to his partner and spoke in Klingon. “~Stay out of this woman. These two are mine!~”

“~Bah! I refuse to let you steal all the glory!  I’ll take the female!~” Sandy adjusted her stance to move toward Jenna.

“rIgh bIH!” Darla barked, ordering Mike and Sandy to stop.  Amazingly, the pair paused long enough to listen to her words. “~They are not our enemies! If that is proven otherwise, you may challenge them later. Agreed?~”

“Grrrr!” Mike growled with barely contained aggression. He was clearly looking forward to a fight and his wife didn’t appear any less eager to contain her violence. “~Agreed~” He turned back to Darla and slammed his right fist into his chest, perfectly mimicking a Klingon salute.

“~Stand down woman!~” Mike growled to his wife.

The atmosphere in the room was pretty tense. “Sadie, what in the hell is going on and who are these Star Trek wannabees?” Jenna picked the perfect way to re-escalate the tension.

“You dare?!?!” Mike reached up to his neck and after a brief second, a black skin tight mask with silvery wires materialized over his entire head. Sadie recognized the wires as miniature holo emitters. He pulled the mask off, revealing a Klingon face with its distinctive brow ridges and hair.  “I am General K’tach of the Collective and I hereby challenge you to personal combat!”

Jenna ignored his challenge and turned to Sadie. “What tha fuck?”

Sadie was almost as confused and lost as her friend, but the MAU making someone look like Mr. Rogers plus Darla showing up as a Vulcan and now what appeared to be a real Klingon warrior in her room made a lot of things suddenly make sense.  “Holy shit!” Sadie muttered and turned to Darla. “You’re really a Vulcan, that’s not a costume and he’s,” she pointed to Mike of the Collective as he glared menacingly at Jenna, “is really a freaking Klingon warrior and so is his wife...”

“Son of a bitch!” Sadie spun back around to face Mr. Calahan. “You’re from the Agency and you all are here because there’s a damn MAU being used!”

All eyes turned to Sadie, even Mike, the Klingon stole a surprised glance back to her before warily turning his attention back to Jenna and Mr. Powers.

Jenna took half a step back and glanced over to Sadie while Mr. Powers looked lost, but ready to back up and defend Jenna.  Sadie gave a slight, barely perceptible nod to Jenna, signaling for her to relax.

“Interesting…” Darla gathered her thoughts and calmly turned to face Sadie. “How is it that you are aware of the device?”

The cat was officially out of the bag now and Mr. Powers was now the only person in the room who didn’t know what a MAU was. Now, more than ever all she wanted to do was rocket off and rescue her boss. “We,” Sadie gestured to Jenna, “found one of those things last year, but that’s not important right now. Excuse me,” she made her way past everyone and opened the door to Mr. Rogers’ room.  On the floor was the very rapidly decomposing body of the imposter.

“Fuck me…” Sadie muttered and motioned for everyone to look while they could.  There was very little left of the body, just the clothes, skeleton and even the skeleton was starting to break apart.  Other than the visual evidence, there was no other indication that there was a dead body in the room, no smell at all.  How the body was decaying so cleanly was a MAU sized mystery.

“What the f-” Jenna gasped, cutting herself off as she glanced to Sadie for an explanation.

“That was the imposter of Mr. Rogers. He died less than ten minutes ago. I was questioning him about the MAU and my guess is Mr. Zhào put a suicide fail safe inside his agents, but that’s not important right now.  What’s important is that Zhào has an active MAU sitting at his factory and that MAU could deactivate any minute now.  I’ve got to find the real Mr. Rogers and get him changed back before the timer expires.”

Sadie turned to the Star Trek group. “Now, are you all here to help or get in the way?”

Author's Note: Umm, no excuses. I found some Worm fanfics and got hooked. Sorry. Thanks to Beyogi and Mouse for the feedback and proof-reading.

Mike threw his head back and laughed heartily. “A human woman with a warrior’s heart!” He turned to Sandy, “She would make a fine Klingon warrior!”

Sandy turned and punched him in the chest hard enough to rock him back a step. “~Don’t forget who you’re married to!~” She growled in Klingon.

“~Aye woman, how could I forget?~” Mike chuckled, seemingly impervious from pain and  immune from her glare, as he tapped a Star Trek logo pin on his chest, causing it to beep. “~Send the transport to my location! We head for battle!~”

“~At once, General K'tach! For the Empire!~” Came the guttural Klingon reply almost immediately.

Sadie had no problems translating, but it appeared that Jenna, Mr. Powers and the Agent were out of the loop.  “Empire?” She canted her head to the side, even more curious about the man, or Klingon, because as far as she knew, Star Trek was fiction.  She also wanted to know this Mike dude got to be a General in the fictional Klingon Empire.

Switching back to English, Mike shrugged and chuckled. “Not yet, but we have openings…” he glanced meaningfully at Sadie and Jenna, ignoring the growl from his wife. He turned back to her, completely unfazed by her murderous glare. “Come woman, we head to battle!”

Sadie didn’t know what to expect. His partner, or wife, Sandy seemed to have the Klingon temper with a hair trigger. She looked ready to attack either Sadie or her husband. Instead, Sandy merely growled and nodded, subtly communicating to him that his transgressions wouldn’t go unpunished and fell in beside him as he strode purposefully from the suite.

Still wary, Jenna and Mr. Powers stepped to the side, keeping clear line of attack open on the Klingon warrior.

Ignoring the pair of action stars, Mike glanced back over his shoulder and bellowed. “To the roof, all who intend to join the Klingon Empire in glorious battle!”

Sadie glanced to Jenna, who glanced to Mr. Powers. He shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, “the hell if I know.” Making a snap decision, Sadie decided to follow the crazy Klingon. Worst case, they would be on the roof and she could easily transform and fly to the factory herself. She wasn’t terribly surprised when Jenna joined her.

“I got yer back bud.” Jenna softly assured her.

Maybe Jenna wasn’t surprised, but Sadie was when Mr. Powers joined the pair trailing the Star Trek folks.  Jenna glanced over her shoulder at her co-star. “This might get a little crazy. You might want to stay here. Plausible deniability and all that…”

“Hell no babe! Someone’s got to keep an eye on your perfect backside.” Mr. Powers chuckled and smirked suggestively.

Sadie knew he was a sexist pig, but his remark still surprised her. She expected Jenna to blow up, but instead, she simply sighed, shook her head and cursed softly in Spanish, “~The shit I have to put up with…~”

Unsure what she would see when she reached the roof, Sadie felt a little let down by the arrival of a common, everyday C-130.  The large, military transport plane didn’t simply fly over their position. Instead, it somehow stopped, rotated, silently hovered like it was a helicopter and then, slowly lowered itself, tail first  onto the hotel’s helicopter landing pad with the front half of the large cargo plane hovering over the edge of the building..

“What the?” She turned to Jenna, hoping her friend had an answer because as far as she knew, a C-130 needed a runway to land and most certainly couldn’t hover.

“Anti-grav?” Jenna shrugged helplessly, expressing her high tolerance for the impossible. “It is Star Trek and I’m more surprised we didn’t get beamed up or find the USS Enterprise waiting for us.”  She glanced over to the Klingon warrior, “well, a Klingon Bird of Prey…”

Mike chuckled, “We had to start somewhere.”

The plane’s rear cargo ramp lowered and Mike strode confidently into the hovering plane, Sandy at his side.  Darla and the agent followed with Sadie, Jenna and after a moment’s pause, Mr. Powers bringing up the rear muttering to himself, “The shit I do for her…”

As soon as Mr. Powers cleared the ramp, the rear cargo ramp began to rise as the C-130 smoothly and silently gained altitude with its four turboprop engines at an idle.  It wasn’t until the plane had risen five hundred feet that the pilot throttled up the engines, causing the plane to smoothly surge forward.

The list of surprises grew exponentially with every step. From the outside and except for the hovering trick, the C-130 looked like any other C-130, but the inside was a different story. It looked like the interior of a star ship. Smooth panels with built in lighting and other Star Trek themed design elements abounded.  On the left side of the plane, two squads of fully armored Klingon warriors stood at the ready and saluted Mike by enthusiastically slamming their fists into their chest with a grunt as he strode past. The right side of the plane’s cargo hold contained ten Borg drones, plugged into compact Borg recharging units.  The sight of the Borg drones caused her some concern, but she figured that if the Klingons were okay with having Borg drones, then she could ignore them.

Striding forward, a door placed near the middle of the plane’s cargo bay slid open with a hiss, revealing a small room resembling a compact star ship’s bridge.  A group of Star Trek style consoles and even an elevated captain’s chair was in the middle of the space and facing the right wall was a large, floor to ceiling display screen, currently showing the view of the plane from the front.  Past the Captain’s chair and toward the front of the plane, was another Star Trek style door label, “Engineering”.

A female Vulcan wearing a quilted, militaristic uniform jumped up from the Captain’s chair and rendered the fist to chest salute. “General K’tach, welcome back.”

“Lieutenant!” Mike barked. “Get our target from this human,” he pointed at Sadie, “while I ready myself for battle.”

The Vulcan saluted Mike with the same fist to her heart gesture. “Yes sir!”

Mike, or General K’tach, along with Sandy proceed past the bridge area, causing the Engineering labeled doors to slide open, revealing an area that looked like a small engine room, complete with a miniature warp core.  Sadie surmised that it was the power source for the anti-grav since the plane’s normal engines looked and sounded like they ran on conventional fuel.  The doors sealed shut as soon as the pair safely passed through them, blocking any further examination of the plane’s non-standard interior.

Unlike Darla, the Vulcan lieutenant looked excited, causing Sadie to wonder if she was really a Vulcan or just a normal human wearing Vulcan ears and a Star Trek themed uniform.  Looking at her closer, Sadie decided that the woman’s uniform resembled a Romulan’s uniform due to the quilted effect of the cloth.  It had been awhile since she had boned up on her Star Trek lore, but she remembered enough to know that Romulans were more emotional than Vulcans.

“Hello and welcome aboard the Collective transport ship, the Defiant. I am Lieutenant Khellian.” She glanced expectantly to Sadie and with a non-Vulcan smile, gestured for her to step closer. “I understand that you may know the location of the MAU?”

Sadie nodded, suddenly feeling a little unsure how to address the woman. She had never been in the Army and ranks confused her. “Yes, umm, Lieutenant? It’s in the Tomachi Heavy Industries factory, I hope.”

“Great!” Lieutenant Khellian grinned and turning back to the table, a satellite map of the Hong Kong area sprang into existence on its smooth surface. With a tap, the map zoomed in on the factory and after another tap, the entire complex sprang to life as a 3D hologram standing on top of the display table.

“Computer, display floor plan.” Lieutenant Khellian spoke and the holographic factory walls faded away to reveal the factory’s floor plan.

Sadie brought up her internal plan of the factory and superimposed it against Lieutenant Khellian’s floor plan. It was close, but here were a few key areas that were different.  The room she waited for her boss matched, but she knew the doorway on north side of the room opened into a hallway, not open floor space.  She pointed to projected floor plan. “This room is where I was forced to wait for Mr. Rogers and this door, opened into a hallway, not an open floor like it looks on the plans.  My guess is that the MAU is somewhere in this area.”

Lieutenant Khellian tapped the communicator badge on her chest. “Pilot, set course for the Tomachi Heavy Industries Factory. The coordinates should be on your display.”

“Yes, ma’am. Course set.” The plane banked and accelerated in what Sadie hoped was the direction of the factory.   She knew that she could’ve been there by now, but it probably didn’t hurt to have some backup and with the Trekkies help, she might not have to break cover.

Once Mike, aka General K’tach and Sandy returned, dressed in Klingon battle armor and sporting authentic looking Klingon weaponry, Lieutenant Khellian briefed everyone with Sadie adding details where she could. The plan was to land on the side of the factory closest to the MAUs expected location, break through the doors and secure the MAU.  It sounded simple and the blood thirsty Klingons approved of the straight forward battle plan while the Borg drones gave no indication one way or the other.

“Today is a good day to die!” General K’tach eagerly grinned as his fellow Klingons chuckled. “Who is willing to join us in battle?”

Sadie wanted to be there already, but she realized that with their help, she may not need to expose her secret to these strange, yet likable people.  “Sorry, but this is all a little too overwhelming for me…” She took a step back.

“Of course we will.” Mr. Powers stepped forward, speaking for Jenna and assuming that she was willing to jump into battle. He wasn’t wrong, but his presumption earned him a glare from his co-star.

Jenna sighed and turned to face Mr. Powers. “What’s this ‘we’ thing?!?  Mr. Big Time Movie Star, you’re staying here, on the plane. I can regen.” She held up her right hand, activated her claws and retracted them with a grimace, “You can’t, remember?”  

General K’tach chuckled at the display. “Wolverine?”

Jenna turned back to face him, “Yeah, but it still hurts like a son of a bitch.” She gestured back to Mr. Powers, “He’s staying here, right?”

“Hell no! If you’re going, I’m going!” Mr. Powers stepped forward, showing how determined he was to risk his life with Jenna.

General K’tach laughed heartily at the display. “Yes, these two would make fine additions to the ranks!” He gestured for the pair to follow him as he turned around and walked a few steps to a weapons locker. Opening it, he pulled out two bat’leths, the famous, large, double bladed curved Klingon swords and handed them to Mike and Jenna. “Now, you’re both ready for battle, armed like a true Klingon warrior!”

After presenting the two of them with the wicked looking swords, General K’tach reached for a third bat’leth and presented it to Sadie. “Human!” He gruffly barked, surprising her. “Will you join us in battle?”

Sadie was tempted to accept, but the less attention she drew to herself, the better. “Umm, thanks. You honor me with your offer, but no thanks, I’d probably just cut myself with that thing.”

General K’tach shrugged, as if to say, “oh well, I tried”, and put the bat’leth back in the arms locker.

The rear cargo door was already most of the way down as the modified C-130 touched down about 50 meters from the side of the factory closest to the possible MAU location. General K'tach, in full Klingon warrior armor, complete with a bat'leth and disruptor pistol led the way.

“Q'aplaH!” He roared as he raised his bat'leth and charged the large garage door blocking their entry into the factory.

Behind the Klingons, plodded the kinda creepy Borg drones. Behind the drones followed Jenna and Mr. Powers with; Darla, Lieutenant Khellian and the mysterious Mr. Callahan. Sadie purposefully lagging behind, bringing up the rear.  Sadie wasn’t sure why Mr. Powers didn’t stay on the plane because he was probably the only “normal” human and the one most likely to get injured or killed. She hoped he didn’t get hurt, but she guessed that he thought that he had a macho, He-Man, bad-ass, martial artist reputation to maintain and being surrounded by real Klingon warriors eager for a fight probably didn’t help his judgment any.

The lead group quickly secured the door, but it was locked and wouldn’t open. Sadie noticed the electronic cipher lock and felt a twinge of concern because the Klingons looked frustrated that it wouldn’t open for them. She was about to step forward, offer to hack it and thus, break cover when a Borg drone stepped forward, shot a nano-probe into the lock from his wrist and within a second, the large door activated and began to slide upwards.   

Everything was going smoothly and Sadie was just beginning to think that the assault might go off without a hitch when the distinctive pew-pew sound of a stereotypical sci-fi blaster heralded the arrival of a resistance force. Worse, the leading Klingon warrior was blown off his feet and onto his back with smoke rising from his chest.  Surprisingly, the Klingon seemed to be alive and all doubt was removed when he screamed in anger and struggled to rise to his feet.  More bright red colored blaster bolts started to impact around the advance group, causing them to take cover and fall back.  

Undeterred, the Borg drones stepped forward, firing their energy weapons without concern for the deadly beams of particle charged light flashing through their ranks. One drone was hit, causing it to shudder and fall on its face.  The remaining drones continued without pause. A second blaster bolt struck a drone, except this time the bolt was harmlessly dissipated by an energy shield of some kind, just like on the show.  Sadie really began to wonder where the Star Trek guys came from. It had to have been a MAU, but how could so many people have used one and why would someone want to be a Borg drone?

The enemy’s blaster fire briefly intensified before dropping as the drone’s implacable fire neutralized enemy shooters.  The Klingons took advantage of the lull in enemy fire to surge forward and physically secure the inner doors. Even the Klingon with a large, blacked hole in his chest armor took part in the assault, but it was clear that the man was suffering some serious pain. Sadie was surprised by how effective the Klingon armor was against blaster bolts because she thought the armor was more for show.  She was glad that Jenna and Mr. Powers had elected to stay more to the rear and thus out of the direct line of enemy fire.  She was fairly certain Jenna would survive a direct hit, but Mr. Powers was a different story.

Working in teams of two with a pair of Borg drones backing them up, the Klingons quickly secured the areas surrounding the suspected location of the alien device.  It wasn’t until a team breached the reinforced door to the MAU’s chamber that they took their first Klingon and Borg casualties. As the two Klingon warriors charged through the breached doorway, they were struck by a bright purple beam.  

The pair were halted in their tracks and they briefly screamed in pain as their bodies were surrounded by a bright glow. Their armor and weapons clattered to the floor as their bodies disintegrated. The Borg drone was the next victim of the disintegration ray, reducing its body to a pile of circuits and weapons.  The second drone stepped forward, but like the last time they encountered a new weapon, the second Borg’s shields adapted and harmlessly absorbed the deadly beam.

The drone returned fire with its weapon and two more drones stepped into the room.

“I won’t let you have it!” A man screamed from inside the room.

Sadie’s voice recognition system quickly identified the man as Mr. Zhào. She didn’t see how the man could stop them now. He was surrounded and while he could use the MAU to change into a superhero and possibly escape, there was no way he could destroy the MAU or get out of the building with the MAU.

The shooting suddenly stopped and she heard a Klingon warrior yell out, “Huv!”  The Klingon word for ‘clear’.

Anxious to find out what happened to Mr. Zhào and her boss, Sadie stepped forward and entered the room ahead of Jenna and Mr. Powers.  There were a few of Mr. Zhào’s hired goons lying on the floor, dead or alive she couldn’t tell. Maybe the Borg’s weapons were set on stun, but she forgot to ask and didn’t care because Mr. Zhào was not present.  Glancing to the MAU, she noticed that the doorway was closed and the device was visibly vibrating and making a non-typical humming sound.  

More alarming were the metallic pinging sounds coming from the warehouse.  It reminded Sadie of walking on ice and hearing the cracking sounds echoing beneath her feet as she walked, expecting to be dumped into the water any second.  Was the MAU causing the sounds or was something else going on?

The metal hair on the back of her neck stood on end, causing her to zoom in and focus on the control panel. What she saw chilled her spark to the core. There was the image of what appeared to be a heavily armed and armored robotic fighting suit.  She matched the image to a cartoon series she watched a couple of times in High School.  If her pattern matching algorithm was correct, the suit was a piloted, robotic fighting suit known as a “Gundam”.

She knew that the inside of the MAU could warp space, sort of like a D&D bag of holding, but she had no idea how it could hold a giant, 40+ foot tall robotic suit. Hell, she knew the machine could make some incredible things, but she had zero idea how it possibly create a giant fighting robot. If it could fit inside, where would all the metal come from? Maybe it was making a human sized suit of armor that just happened to resemble a Mobile Gundam suit.

Lieutenant Khellian, the Romulan woman, ran forward and inspected the control panel. “Shit! It looks like the idiot told it to build him a Gundam suit. Specifically, the RX-87-2 from the original series. Is that even possible!?!?” She asked, stunned by what she saw.

Sadie wanted to know how the Romulan Lieutenant knew the specific model number of the Gundam.  She didn’t realize Romulans watched anime, but the other question was probably more important.

The Borg drones in the room paused for a few seconds, before turning to the Romulan and responding to her query in perfect, creepy harmony, “The Collective’s analysis indicates that the creation of a Gundam sized exo-armored suit is within a MAU capabilities. Insufficient data exists to extrapolate the method.”

General T’Kath pulled out his disruptor pistol, mentally weighing it against a giant robot. “Somehow, I don’t think this will cut it.”  He sighed and glanced over to Darla. “It pains my Klingon honor to admit it, but I think we need to make a strategic withdrawal before that thing is finished spitting out that Gundam.”

Darla coolly nodded. “I concur.”

“No!” Sadie stepped forward, surprising General T’Kath and Darla.  “We have to find my boss and get him fixed before that damn thing shuts down!”

Mr. Callahan, who had been practically invisible during the assault, surprised Sadie by stepping forward and backing her up, sort of.  “Yes, we need to secure the unit. It’s imperative that we prevent any further threats to National Security and based upon how it’s been used thus far, World Security.”

The Klingons were clearly ready and spoiling for a fight, but Darla addressed each point with cold hard, Vulcan logic. “Sadie, finding your boss and the victims of this unit is underway and will not impact our withdrawal. Callahan, based upon Lieutenant Khellian’s and the Collective’s analysis of the Gundam threat, we lack sufficient force to secure this unit. Logic dictates that we retreat.”

Callahan did not look happy with her assessment. He glanced anxiously at the MAU before returning his gaze to Darla. He sighed and reluctantly nodded with agreement.  “It’s a working MAU and I hate to think what we’re losing, but you’re right.”

Darla responded with a slight nod. “Of course, any other option would be illogical.”

Sadie gulped, gathering her will to expose her secret to everyone. “I might be able to stop him, but it’s more import that we find my boss and all the other executives the bastard changed. We can’t leave them here.”

“What can you do?” General T’Kath turned to Sadie, clearly perplexed by her statement.

“It will take a couple minutes for me to change, but my main cannon is designed to take out Decepticons and it might be enough to damage the Gundam, if I’m lucky.” Sadie cringed at the thought that she might be throwing away her secret for nothing.

“Cannon, Decepticons, you?” General T’Kath studied her for a second before giving up. “I don’t see it.”

Sadie was about to begin her Arcee transformation sequence and show him when a Klingon warrior entered the room and called out. “Sir!  We found these girls,” he turned and gestured to a group of half-naked young girls with animal features filing out of the door behind him, “locked up in the back. Sorry it took so long for me to report, but we had to remove their collars before we could move them and some of them were a little hesitant to follow us.”

“Sadie?” A young girl’s voice called out to her.

Sadie turned and spotted a busty girl with fox ears and a bushy fox tail leading a group of animal girls looking at her with hope filled eyes. “Mr. Rogers?” She asked, knowing that the innocent looking, over-sexed young girl was her boss, but afraid to hear confirmation because she didn’t want her boss to be stuck in that form or know her own secret.

With her confirmation, Mr. Rogers seemed to grow an inch in height and gain extra confidence as she strode purposefully to her side. Ignoring everyone around her, she faced Sadie and with her hands on her hips, she looked up at Sadie and glared at her with a stern expression. “Yes and while I am delighted to see you, I have to ask why you are here, risking your life young lady!?”

Getting chewed out by a four foot tall teenage fox girl who just happens to be her Boss and a 50 something year old man was a bit hard to handle.  The hardest part for Sadie was not laughing because her boss looked and sounded so darn cute. She glanced away, back to the MAU and the impending  60 foot tall, giant fighting robot with lots of guns. “Ummm, sorry sir, but we really need to get you out of here before Mr. Zhào comes out of that thing with guns blazing.”  Sadie glanced back to General T’Kath. “Sir, can you get them all to safety while I see if I can stop whatever comes out of the MAU?”

General T’Kath nodded, “Everyone, back to the transport, move it!” He yelled, gesturing with his arm in the general direction of the plane.

“Sadie? What’s going on? Why are you staying?” Mr. Rogers refused to follow the group being herded toward the converted C-130.

“Sorry sir, but I have to change now, before it’s too late.” Sadie anxiously glanced back to the MAU and initiated her Arcee transformation sequence, causing her human facade to fall away.  She glanced over her shoulder at a shocked Mr. Rogers. “I’ll tender my resignation as soon as we get you back to your body, but youuu nnneeeedddd tttooo gggooo, now!” Her voice digitized at the end, causing Mr. Rogers to jump back in fright.

“Mike, take her.” Jenna ordered Mr. Powers and pointed to the diminutive Mr. Rogers with a glance.

“What about you?” Mr. Powers asked, even as he surprised Mr. Rogers by picking her up and placing her tiny, feminized body over his shoulder like a sack of peas, ignoring Mr. Rogers’ demands to be put down.

“I’m staying.” Jenna glanced over to her rapidly changing Transformer friend. “If it’s finished before she’s ready, someone has to distract it.” She held up her claws. “And who knows, Wolverine took on some pretty damn big robots in the comics, maybe I can do some serious damage myself.”

Mr. Powers paused for about half a second, almost like he was going to demand to stay behind himself, before simply nodding with agreement. “Okay, but don’t think we aren’t going to have a serious chat about all this when we get back.”

Jenna sighed, “You got it, now get outta here!” She followed up with a hug and a quick kiss on his lips, surprising Sadie and judging from his expression, Mr. Powers too.

As Mr. Powers retreated, General T’Kath returned with Sandy right behind him. They were arguing with each other in Klingon, but they stopped short at the sight of Sadie transforming into Arcee.

Sadie was stuck midway between her Decepticon form and Arcee form and hated the feeling of helplessness. If she had known that she was going to need to change from her compressed Decepticon form into her Autobot form in a combat situation, she would’ve tried to make the sequence faster.  Then again, if she had know she was going to get stuck as a female robot, she wouldn’t have played with the damn MAU in the first place.  Okay, maybe not, but she would have been much more careful.

The time it took sucked because the Mr. Zhao and his damned Gundam could come out of the MAU any second now and there would be Jack shit that she could do about it; if her cannon could damage it in the first place.  She was glad Jenna was sticking with her and she was worried about her, but she was more worried about the Klingons. They probably didn’t have her super healing factor.

“You all should go.” Sadie’s highly digitized voice sounded a little creepy even to her.

“Hah! And miss the fight?!?!” General T’Kath laughed and glanced over his shoulder, “Not a chance. Hell, if my disobedient wife,” [Whack] He ignored his wife’s forceful slap, half punch against his shoulder, “is any indicator, I fully expect to be joined by over half my warriors here soon.”  

With less than thirty seconds to go before her mode transformation was complete, the air in the room stilled as the MAU suddenly stopped making noises. Everyone tensed as the doorway re-appeared.  Almost immediately, a giant metal hand reached through the door, causing the space around the tiny opening to distort, as if someone was holding huge magnifying glass in front of the opening. From the distortion emerged what everyone feared, a giant, sixty foot tall, well armed and armored, fighting robot.  With its head brushing against the ceiling and tank sized guns, the monster looked impossible to stop.

[Snickt!][Snickt!] Jenna’s claws came out and for once, she didn’t flinch from the pain of her claws erupting from beneath her skin. Without pausing, she yelled and charged the giant robot which simply stood in place.  The thing had to be complicated and Sadie prayed they could somehow disable it before Zhao figured out how to pilot the thing.  

General K’Tach and Sandy fired their disruptor pistols, aiming for the head, but either the range was too far or the armor was impervious to their weapons because they didn’t appear to be doing any damage.  Their fire did cause the giant to raise its hands, covering the sensors. So, maybe their fire wasn’t completely useless.  

Expecting the same from Jenna’s claws, Sadie was pleasantly surprised as Jenna’s claws effortlessly cut deeply into the thick armor covering the giant’s shin.  In no time, Jenna-rine had a large opening into the robot’s right shin, exposing complex mechanics and electronics. Sparks and smoke from leaking hydraulics systems began to billow from the opening as she continued to rip her way through the lower half of the Gundam’s leg.

Ten more, agonizingly long seconds to go before Sadie’s transformation sequence would complete.  “Come on, Jenna, you can do it…”  Sadie whispered encouragement to her friend.

The pilot of the Gundam finally seemed to notice the damage she was causing and ignoring the Klingon disruptor fire, he reached down and swatted at Jenna, as if she was a pesky insect.  Jenna spotted the giant hand descending toward her and while unable to dodge it, she did manage to roll with the blow. Her body was sent flying through the air directly toward the far wall, but instead of slamming into the wall like a helpless ragdoll, she somehow controlled her flight, impacting the wall feet first and instantly springing back to attack the Gundam.  This time, she aimed higher up on the Gundam’s body and latched onto its hip.  

Sadie prayed that her friend wouldn’t get hurt as her transformation timer finally reached zero. Wasting no time, she stood and instantly began transferring power, charging her main cannon to full power.  

[HUMmmm…] The barely audible sound of her cannon charging started out as a low hum, but quickly hit frequencies only a dog could hear just before it hit full charge.

Sadie hesitated firing her cannon. While the Gundam was a ginormous target, she decided to hold her fire and see what Jenna tried first.  She didn’t want to take a chance and accidently shoot her best friend.

Climbing higher and leaving deep scratches in the Gundam’s thick armor, Jenna reached the chest and cockpit area.  Unlike the leg, she couldn’t bring both claws to bear on the thick chest armor protecting the pilot, but the three claws on her one hand still managed to leave deep gouges in the armor.

Aiming for the chest was probably bad.  The armor looked pretty thick and she didn’t want to accidently hit Jenna.  Sadie lowered her aim, looking for less protected areas.

This time, the pilot raised his hand to slap his chest in an attempt to crush her like a pesky mosquito.  Jenna saw the blow coming and abandoned her efforts to cut through the chest armor. Instead, she pulled herself up, allowing the Gundam’s hand to hit its chest where she had been. Using its own hand against it, she used it as a springboard to jump higher up, going for the neck.

Her claws dug deep grooves into the neck as she swung around, toward the Gundam’s back.  The gatling guns mounted on the side of the Gundam’s head began firing at the Klingons as they redirected their fire into the opening Jenna had made in the armor protecting it leg.  Without the armor, their disruptor pistols began to have a noticeable effect against the relatively fragile internals.

“Ahhh, you damn pests!  Nothing can stop me!” The loudspeakers built into the Gundam screamed.

The Gundam took a step forward, its damaged leg and foot buckled, but Zhao managed to correct for the damage. The sudden movement jostled Jenna and almost caused her to lose her grip.  Undeterred, Jenna swiped upward with her claws, eviscerating and causing the bank of gatling guns on the left side of the Gundam’s head to explode.  Some of the blast caught Jenna, causing her to cry out in pain as shrapnel lacerated her upper body.

Enough spectating, it was now or never, Sadie aimed for the Jenna sized opening in the already damaged leg armor.

[Whooompphhh!!]

The full power shot drove her arm back as an intense beam of light and whatever else made up Arcee’s Autobot weaponry slammed into the opening, effortlessly cutting through the exposed internals of the lower leg and punching a one meter hole through the rear of the Gundam’s leg, partially severing its right foot.  Smoke, sparks and fluid poured from the heavily damaged limb.

A wisp of smoke exited from her cannon’s barrel and she resisted the urge to blow on it like a wild west gunslinger.

“Yes!” Sadie yelled as she initiated a second full power charge of her main gun, causing it to emit a high pitched whine as it powered up again. “Take that you two bit hunk of scrap metal!”

That got the Gundam’s attention. The pilot of the Gundam twisted its torso toward Sadie. She watched, poised to dodge as the large, tank sized weapon built into its right arm started to point in her direction. The Gundam’s weight shifted to its damaged leg and foot and with a loud groan, followed by a sharp snapping sound, the Gundam’s partially severed foot twisted and snapped, pitching it forward and ruining its aim.  Perhaps by reflex, the pilot fired his Gundam’s main cannon, but the lurch caused the beam of destruction to miss Sadie, and everyone else, by a mile.  

Hanging onto its head, the sudden motion caused by the Gundam’s foot collapsing caught Jenna by surprise. She was in the process of lining up to take a swipe at the right side bank of gatling guns when the Gundam’s body began to fall forward, kicking her back and partially dislodging her.  Her left hand claws dug into the head, but she was powerless to stop herself from falling off when the Gundam’s head suddenly stopped moving downward as the pilot caught itself by using its right arm.  The whiplash effect flung her off, her claws leaving deep gouges in the right side of the Gundam’s head, almost taking out the second bank of gatling guns in the process.

Sadie watched helplessly as her friend was flung from the head of the Gundam. Unlike last time, there was little Jenna could do to adjust her trajectory toward the hard, concrete floor below.  She whispered a quick prayer for Jenna’s healing factor, but her firing options opened considerably without her friend anywhere near her line of fire.  

The giant, space ship killing arm cannon of the Gundam had to go.  She aimed for the right shoulder and fired.  Her aim was true, but the heavily armored shoulder  absorbed most of the blast.  While her shot failed to punch through the armor and disable the arm, it did manage to leave a considerable dent.  Sadie’s damage assessment calculated that one more shot in the same spot should make it through the buckled plate protecting the shoulder joint.

Perhaps realizing that it might be able to be defeated, the pilot of the Gundam dropped to it’s left knee and brought its left arm with its large, heavy shield to bear.  Sadie fired a third shot, but the heavy shield intercepted the shot, leaving a black scorch mark. Her beam failed to do more than superficial damage to the Gundam’s shield.

“Damn it…” Sadie muttered over the hum of her main cannon recharging.  The three full power shots had already chewed through 15% of her power reserves. “Holy crap, I’ve burned through more power in three shots than I normally use in a month! I’ll run out of juice if I have to keep this up.”

Sadie realized that she needed to move and take advantage of her mobility instead of trying to act like a wild west gunfighter who stayed in one place, attempting to gun her opponent down with steely determination.  

“You can’t have it!” The pilot screamed as he rotated his Gundam’s right arm back and grasped the phone booth size MAU in its right hand.  

With the Gundam rotating to the right, Sadie countered his movement and ran to the left as the huge shield began to rotate away from her, inadvertently exposing its back to her gun. With a clear shot open to the back of the Gundam’s head, Sadie fired her cannon for a fourth time.

Her aim was flawless, but the angle of the shot did more to limit the damage she caused than the relatively light armor of the head.  Her shot grazed the back, taking out a good sized portion of the back of the Gundam’s head, but because the angle was from the floor, her shot missed the camera systems located closer to the front of the Gundam’s face.  On the plus side, she managed to take out its remaining gatling gun bank.

“You bitch!” The Gundam rotated back around, once again placing its heavy shield between her and another clean shot.  The MAU was clutched in the Gundam’s right hand and the only good thing Sadie could see about that situation was that it meant that the bastard couldn’t fire his main cannon without the use of his hand.  Why they designed the gun to be aimed and fired like a normal weapon with an external trigger was beyond her, but it was a robot based on an anime cartoon.

Sadie chuckled at that thought since she herself was based on a Japanese cartoon robot.  With its hands full and unable to shoot back, she realized it was all over for Mr. Zhao and his stinking giant fighting robot suit.  He just didn’t know it yet.  Feeling a little like David versus Goliath, Sadie transformed her lower half into her wheeled mode to gain additional movement speed and mobility.  

Instead of wasting the time to charge her main cannon for another full power shot, she ripped off a burst of rapid fire shots using her smaller twin cannons, aiming a burst of fire toward the Gundam’s vulnerable head while her tires scrambled for traction on the concrete floor.  Jenna was up and being helped by General T’Kath and Sandy.  Although very bloody, it appeared like her fall onto the floor did little to slow her down.  She was already turning back toward the battle and it looked like she was aiming to have a go at the Gundam’s left leg.

Six more Klingon warriors joined the fight and it looked like the combined fire of eight Klingon disruptor pistols were starting to have a noticeable effect against the armor.  Sadie spotted an opening and decided to power up her cannon for another shot. She needed the Gundam to drop the damn MAU and the only way she could see that happening is if she destroyed the hand and arm holding it.  

Aiming for the hand was out because she wasn’t sure if her cannon could somehow damage the MAU and she didn’t want to take a chance.  Figuring that her best chance would be to aim for the less armored elbow joint, she skidded to a stop and took the time to carefully line up shot.

Her cannon was 90% charged when the damn Gundam surprised her and probably everyone in the room by suddenly standing and blasting itself straight up, through the flimsy ceiling and into the night sky.  

“Damn it!” Sadie yelled with frustration and fired a shot at the rapidly ascending Gundam, wasting her shot because her beam only scratched the Gundam’s thick chest armor instead of blowing off the arm like she had originally intended.  “Damn it, damn it, damn it!  Why in the hell did they have to make those things fly?!?”

“~Shit!~” General T’Kath swore in Klingon before tapping the Star Trek communicator on his chest. “T’Kath to Khellian, please tell me you are tracking the Gundam?”

As the Klingon general spoke, Sadie initiated a change into flight mode.  The distinctive sounds of Transformer reconfiguring echoed in the empty and now roofless room.  

“~Wow~” One of the Klingon warriors pointed to Sadie’s rapidly changing form.

“Yes sir, but there is little we can do about it. Analysis-” General K’Tach interrupted her.

“Nevermind Lieutenant, it looks like our _simple_ secretary has another trick up her sleeve.”

It took Sadie only five seconds to make the change from robot mode to air mode. Five seconds that gave the bastard Zhào more time to escape with the only thing that could give her boss his body back.  She didn’t let the time go to waste.  She locked locked onto the Klingons’ communications frequency. “I’m going after it.  Please send me its current coordinates and heading.”

“It’s already entered Chinese airspace.”  Lieutenant Khellian reported.

“I don’t care. I have to get that MAU back!” Sadie couldn’t afford to give up and unlike the Star Trek people, she didn’t have to.

“Sir?”

General K'Tach sighed. “Just give her the data. At this phase, I think she’s our only chance.”

“Yes sir, but how can she chase it down?  The thing is already up to mach 3 and still accelerating.”

“Hah! Just Mach3?!?!  I’ll catch him, don’t worry your pointy little ears Lieutenant. Just feed me his coordinates and I’ll take care of the rest” Sadie chuckled and lifted off the ground the second her systems reported ready for flight.

“Sending…” Lieutenant Khellian replied, her tone expressing doubts even as the tracking data flowed into her systems.

Sadie wasted no time. She pointed her nose up and for the first time, engaged full thrust, shooting out of the warehouse and hitting a bone crushing 30 gravities of acceleration.  She broke Mach1 less than 2000 feet off the ground. A human pilot would’ve been crushed flatter than a pancake by the acceleration, but thankfully, Sadie didn’t need to worry about organic limitations. She made a note to test her inertial dampeners before she tried this trick with a passenger.

“Son of a!” Sadie heard over her comm channel, causing her to chuckle.

“Told ya Mach3 was slow!” She laughed as she hit Mach5 at twenty thousand feet and forced herself to level off before she accidently reached orbit. Still accelerating, she estimated intercept in less than fifteen seconds.  If she wasn’t careful, she would overshoot her target.  She decided to rollback on her throttles and maintain an easy Mach6.  Zhào didn’t appear to notice her approach, his course remained steady.

“Sadie, the Chinese are scrambling fighters. You have two minutes until things get crowded up there.” Lieutenant Khellian warned her.

“Affirmative and thanks for the heads up.  Intercept in t-minus 5 seconds.”

Since Zhào still seemed to be clueless about her closing in on him, Sadie decided to swing a little wide and come in from his right side. She hoped to line up a shot on his right arm again and get him to drop the MAU.  With twenty thousand feet to work with, it should be easy for her to track and retrieve the MAU without needing to fight him for it.  Worst case, she figured it wouldn’t hurt to disable his main canon.

The Gundam didn’t react to her presence until she got into visual range her target. She didn’t understand why the thing didn’t seem to detect her sooner, but maybe its systems were designed to detect and fight other giant robots instead of tiny robot planes.  Instead of taking evasive actions, Zhào jinked a little to the left, seeming more from surprise than with any effort to avoid her. Maybe he thought she was just a human missile and was not a threat to him?  

Sadie used that his lack of alarm to her advantage.  She carefully lined up her shot and fired another, energy draining shot from her main cannon.  

[Whooomphh!]  

Her aim was true, but she failed to damage to the Gundam’s elbow joint as much as she hoped.  Her shot appeared to cause significant damage to its main cannon as it punched through the cannon and damaging the elbow joint, it just didn’t penetrate as deeply into the joint as she had hoped.  He didn’t drop the MAU and worse, he transferred the MAU to his left hand.

“~Damn you~” Zhào cursed her in Chinese. “~I won’t let you, or anyone have it!~”

The Gundam abruptly changed course, turning straight up as Zhào maxed out its thrusters.

“~Where in the hell are you going?!?~” Sadie transmitted.

“~Where no one can get me. Ha ha ha ha!~” Zhào laughed maniacally as he slowly --by Sadie’s standards-- accelerated up and away from Earth.  

“~Look asshole, I could blow you away right now and you’ve got nothing left to stop me from doing just that.  Drop the MAU and I’ll be more than happy to let you go.~” Sadie tried to reason with Zhào. She realized her tack was probably a little lacking, but she didn’t care.  Her power was down to 60% and she hoped he believed her threat because she didn’t want to waste more power attempting to damage him enough to stop him.

He ignored her threat and continued his assent. Sadie charged up her main gun again and fired.  Zhào reacted faster than she expected and blocked her shot with his shield. “~Haha, you got nothing left bitch and soon, I’ll be out of your puny jet engine range~”  He taunted her as he passed sixty thousand feet and continued to accelerate under the constant thrust generated by his engines.

Thankfully, Zhào failed to notice that she had no trouble keeping up with his assent.  A normal jet aircraft would’ve struggled to reach fifty thousand feet, yet here she was easily passing seventy thousand and she was thankful to Zhào for one thing.  The curve of the Earth looked extremely beautiful from this height.

She decided to change tactics and aim for his propulsion systems.  With his right foot mostly gone, he was down one thruster.  She charged her main cannon and fired straight up, hitting his left foot thruster dead center and blasting apart his entire left leg, up to the robot’s hip.  His assent dramatically slowed, but did not stop.  The two thrusters in his back would be her next target.

“~You bitch!~” Zhào screamed at Sadie as he impotently raged.  A squadron of Chinese Air Force FC-1 Xiaolong fighter jets had arrived, but stopped gaining altitude a little under sixty thousand feet and struggled to maintain that altitude.

“~Unidentified aircraft. You are ordered to lower your altitude and land at Changde Air Base or we will be forced to destroy you.~”

Now at eighty thousand feet, Sadie wasn’t worried about their threats and it appeared that neither was Zhào. He laughed. “~Haha, you fools, your puny missiles can’t hurt me!~”

Predictably, they fired and all of their missiles tracked right for the Gundam, completely ignoring the tiny Arcee and as Zhào predicted, the missiles had zero effect on him. All the explosions did help distract and momentarily blind his sensors.  Sadie used the distraction to her advantage and closed in on the Gundam from behind, landing between his shoulders and above the back thrusters.

“~Thanks for removing the pest for me fools!~” Zhào didn’t seem to realize Sadie was now on his back and while she transformed back into robot mode, she did nothing to bring attention to that fact.  

To do what she planned, she needed her hands and a more flexible way to aim her main cannon.  Lining up a shot as a jet and from thousands of feet away wouldn’t give her the results she wanted.  What she wanted to do use as little power as possible and force the Gundam to shut down or make Zhào eject, if he could.  She planned on using the opening in the back of the Gundam’s head and blast and/or rip out everything between the head and wherever Zhào was hiding inside the torso.

It didn’t take much damage for Zhào to realize that something was not going to plan. His damaged right arm was unable to reach behind his head and he was unwilling to let go of the MAU in his undamaged left hand. She fired her twin energy cannons down, toward where she guessed the cockpit must be. Her blast penetrated deep into the neck of the Gundam, but it looked like it would take more effort on her part.

“~Get it off! Get it off of me!~” Zhào screamed with panic as the Gundam began to gyrate uncontrollably as he attempted to dislodge her from deep inside his Gundam’s head.   

Sadie felt the Gundam shudder as all power to the head was cut. Explosions sounded from deep inside the Gundam’s chest area and she was almost knocked from her perch as the entire back of the Gundam separated and rocketed away from the main body.

The empty Gundam shell slowed, but continued to climb on inertia alone.  Sadie waited for a few seconds, watching the escape pod and wondering when it would pop some parachutes or maybe use its built in engines to control its descent.  Once again, the Gundam surprised her when wings popped out and the escape pod turned into something resembling a fighter jet.  

“Oh, come on!  You’ve got to be kidding me!” Sadie exclaimed as she watched Zhào attempt to gain control his aircraft.  It was clear to her that the man was not a pilot, or at least, not an experienced pilot.  

Ignoring the out of control escape pod slash aircraft, Sadie focused on her goal, the MAU. She climbed down the Gundam’s arm and reaching the hand locked around the booth sized MAU, she reached out and touched the control panel with the tip of her finger.  She willed it to collapse into storage mode and for a change, everything worked exactly as she expected it to work. The MAU instantly turned into a suitcase sized object and fell between the Gundam’s fingers with Sadie right behind it.  She grabbed it and using the meager propulsion provided by her own anti-grav, pushed herself away from the Gundam’s body. Clear from the hulking, almost suborbital wreck, she initiated her transformation back into a jet, placing the MAU securely in her cockpit near the end of the five second process.

As she locked the MAU down with her automatic seatbelts, Sadie glanced back at the Gundam. “I wonder where that thing is going to land?”  A quick simulation using data from her targeting systems plotted it a possible impact somewhere over northern Mongolia or Russia.  She didn’t have enough data or time to narrow it down to anything smaller than a 100 mile radius, but it appeared like the odds were against it hitting a populated area.

She debated giving it a nudge to make sure it landed somewhere safe, but had to give up on the idea when her threat alarms began sounding. Someone had a missile lock on her.  “Son of a bitch!” Sadie made a few quick jinks to try and break the lock while simultaneously looking for the idiot trying to shoot her down.

She quickly spotted Zhào and two missiles heading her way.  Against a normal plane, the missiles may have been a threat and they would hurt if they hit her. Sadie watched as the missiles approached and at less than 100 meters, she shot straight up, looping back around and turning inside the missile’s track as they tried to follow her. With her now behind them, they lost their lock on her and entered seek mode in an attempt to reacquire her.  Not wanting to worry about them somehow coming after her again, Sadie shot the missiles out of the sky.

Zhào proved to be stubborn and decided to press his attack on Sadie.  She easily avoided his cannon fire as he attempted to take her out the old fashioned way, via a dog fight.  “Seriously dude?!?!  You really should give up now.” She teased him, half hoping he would give up, but wanting to at least give the man a chance now that she had what she wanted.

“~Bitch, you’ve ruined everything!~” Zhào ranted as he fired another burst of 25mm cannon fire in her direction.

Sadie watched with contempt mixed with amusement as his wings wobbled with every course correction, betraying his lack of piloting skills.  The man could barely keep his plane in the air and he was still trying to kill her.  The man was seriously crazy.  “One last chance Zhào. Break off now and I won’t shoot you down. I just wanna help the people whose lives you attempted to steal from them.”

“~Never! Die!~” Zhào opened fire, holding his trigger down and spraying rounds everywhere and even launched a second pair of missiles at her.  Without a lock, the missiles sailed harmlessly past, missing her by almost a real mile.  

It was time to stop playing with the man and put him out of her misery.  Sadie jinked up and then, back down, performing an impossible, for a human pilot, negative 30 G loop.

“~What the!?!? Where in the-~” Was all Zhao was able to get out before Sadie’s twin cannons punched into the belly of his plane. The rear of his craft burst into flames and he tumbled out of control.  Not trusting the man not to have another trick up his sleeve, she followed him down, toward a second squadron of Chinese FC-1 Xiaolong fighter jets. The first squadron must have gone bingo on their fuel attempting to keep watch on the Gundam and her maneuvering at seventy thousand feet.  

Half of the squadron peeled off, changing course to follow Zhào and with an escort being so graciously provided by the Chinese Air Force, Sadie decided that it was time for her to bail. Especially since the other half of the squadron decided to take an interest in her.

“~Unidentified enemy aircraft!  You are in the People's Republic of China airspace illegally and have engaged in hostile actions with another aircraft. You are ordered to land or we will be forced to shoot you down.~”  Came the voice of the Chinese pilot leading the group heading in her direction as all eight fighter jets trying to close in on her six sought a missile lock on her.

“~Sorry guys. I’d love to stay and chat, maybe have some tea or General Tso's chicken with ya, but I have places to be.~” Sadie mocked the man attempting to make her heave to.  He did not appreciate her attempt at humor and immediately ordered his men to fire on her.  Only two managed to achieve missile lock and Sadie decided she had overstayed her welcome and didn’t want to embarrass the Chinese government even more by shooting down their expensive fighter jets.  She pushed her throttles to their stops and went from a relatively slow Mach 2.6 to a blistering Mach 10, easily outrunning the missiles attempting to chase her down.

“~Okay, maybe next time?~” Sadie leveled one last taunt as she climbed to sixty thousand feet and put on a little more speed in the process.  She maintained a comfortable, missile immune Mach 12 as she headed back toward Hong Kong.  

Anxious to know where to go and pretty sure that the Chinese were putting everything they had into tracking her, she switched back to the Klingons’ encrypted frequency. “Hello, T’Kath? This is Sadie. I have the package. Where are you?”