MAU: Robot in Disguise - Chapter 3

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MAU: Robot in Disguise

by Sleethr

~o~O~o~

Wheelie gets a job.

~o~O~o~

 


 

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.

~o~O~o~

 

Chapter Three

 

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.

~o~O~o~

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?”

~o~O~o~

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Comments

OOpsie

Podracer's picture

Sadie's bit of vanity - hehe.

"Reach for the sun."

can Sadie

stretch to a two seater version?
great chapter, thanks

Perhaps,

Perhaps it is possible.

Once the kids are born, I've considered her being able to transform into a small car, like a Smart or Fiat Abarth?

I know this is all sci-fi and totally not real, but would the small powers expansion/progression hurt the already thin suspension of disbelief?

-- Sleethr

Fiat Abarth

Please!

hugs
Fran

Hugs, Fran

Shutdown

It is possible normally, but following the rules of some of the older series, she would need to shutdown for a little while for a major reconfiguration. In the movies on the other hand they don't do this which goes against my common sense, but then again, what is believable when giant robots are involved?

Method...

I've been going off the movie method of transformation. Specifically, the scene were Bumblebee scans the new Camaro and reconfigures into it almost instantly.

Modern sportbikes are very similar in construction. It would take very minor tweaks to change cycle forms.

Jets are a tad harder me thinks...

-- Sleethr

Depends on what she's trying to do...

Page of Wands's picture

Tandem two-seater/trainer variants of single-seat fighter jets (which it sounds like her jet form is similar to) are extremely common.

Converting usually only requires a stretched cockpit/fuselage, maybe with a few minor adjustments elsewhere to accommodate the shift in the center of gravity. With some aircraft (The F/A-18C and F/A-18D, for example) it's just a matter of taking out some extra equipment behind the pilot's seat to make room for the second one, with no changes to the fuselage itself required.

So, yeah, depending on what goes into making a new form for her, it shouldn't be too hard for her to stretch the cockpit to fit a back seat. Now, if she wanted to add a second seat in a side-by-side arrangement, that would require a lot more work, since it would need a wider fuselage...

Her jet form...

Her jet form is the BD5 ( see link in one of the posts below ).

It was the only jet I could think of that fit the size and weight restrictions. A modern sportbike tips the scales at around 400lbs. Some less, some more, depends on how many expensive, weight reducing bits have been added and replaced.

The BD5 is 350'ish pounds without fuel.

I just did a JFG search for BD5 like craft that could carry 2 people.

The closest match I could find was a ViperJet and it looks pretty small, but it tips the scales at 3000lbs, dry.

If she had to, she might be able to stretch herself and create a second seat, but she probably won't enjoy the "stretched" feeling.

-- Sleethr

Cuuute!

When it was first mentioned that Sadie transforms into a jet, I was a bit skeptical about her stretching to that size. But the BD5 is not that far from a motorcycle.
By the way, someone has already built a BD5 2-seater. So it would not even be too conspicious, as a BD5 2-seater existed before :-)

Well, given the specs in the

Brooke Erickson's picture

Well, given the specs in the wiki article it'd have to be a BD-5J. The rest are prop planes.

Slight problem in that the speed and range are nowhere near what you have. Thje J variant only gets up to 300 or so knots. And the range isn't listed but the regular BD-5 has a range of 1251 miles. I suspect the jet is rather higher fuel consumption.

So while she can outperform a real BD-5, it might look just a *bit* odd if it filed a flight plan involving speeds or ranges that the real thing can't handle.

BTW, the size is a bit bigger, but she could probably pull off a Me-163 Komet. Powered flight time on the real thing is ludicrously short, but otherwise the performance is good. :-)

I've often wondered if a replica could be built using a modern rocket engine (one that *doesn't* use the nasty fuels the original did). That'd be a hit at airshows.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Hmmm

It sounds like I may need to edit chapter 3 to include a bit more description for Sadie's jet form.

Something along the lines of Matt saying she looks like a BD5, but not. Her lines a little more sharp and her exhaust nozzle looks capable of thrust vectoring.

I'll have to do some thinking on it.

-- Sleethr

Please, NOT the Fiat

At least not the Fiat 500 series. I've never liked the look of them, and I saw one a couple of months back painted a really unfortunate shade of brown ... ever since, all I can think of when I see one is a coiled turd. I'm sure there are many out there who like them, and I have absolutely no data on their functionality, but as far as I'm concerned, the Lada Riva would be a better choice.

What about something like the Campagna T-REX?

Hmmm

The Lady Riva is too old looking. It would draw attention and the Fiat 500/Abarth is becoming a pretty common sight now.

The T-REX is cool, but they need seats for the babies.

-- Sleethr

Please no Italian toasters! and the smart one is too small

I propose the I-MIEV be considered. It is Mitsubishi's electric car. Heck, the electric models should be best for Sadie (no engine noise simulation needed). Technical specs on electric cars are not yet common knowledge thus giving Sadie room to play. How about a motorcycle with a sidecar?

Doubtful,

While not a die hard Transformers expert, I cannot recall ever seeing a small single passenger jet. Autobot or Decepticon. Jets/Flight were reserved to the Decepticons and they preferred full size fighter jets or helicopters.

While doing my research into the Arcee character, there was an entry in her background story about her having a flyer mode. It was way back on Cybertron during the war. I don't really understand why the Autobots limit themselves to cars. So, I kinda took her background as a speedster and gave her a flight mode in my story.

-- Sleethr

I beleive.

Hypatia Littlewings's picture

She also has an early car mode before the motorcycle mode. Also the references I can find have Sadie just as a hologram, pretenders are Decepticons.
Transformers seem to have various version like other cartoon comic things. but since she is a MAU product from her on view of things that can be whatever she/he envisioned.

keep in mind, I have seen and read some Transformer stuff but was never a follower if it as such, so I only have some knowledge on it.

Household

The rational in the 80's cartoon was that autobots evolved from common household robots hence take the form of mainly household vehicles. Decepticons came from military bots and favor macho/military vehicles. In those cartoons, deceptions could always fly, also in robot mode, while autobots in general don't have that capability so they favor ground transportation. Autobots were aware of this disadvantage and even build new jet autobots. Love your story BTW :)

I now have the image of a

I now have the image of a purring jet plane in my mind......

OOpsie

now what is sadie going to do?

Well We will find out next time I am sure.

Thank you So very much Sleethr for such wonderful entertainment

Goddess Bless you

Love Desiree

silly question

Brooke Erickson's picture

I'm enjoying this, but something just occured to me.

What's she using for a registration number? She *has* to have one for the flight plans she files. She also has to have a licensed pilot *filing* said flight plans.

ATC *will* have records of the "plane" and its travels except when she's flying VFR. Even then the flight plans will have to be submitted and closed out at the end of the flight.

So there's a hell of a paper trail she's had to fake. At least she can electronically submit the flight plans most places these days.

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Sadie

Sadie received a pilot's license from the Agency as part of her new identity. I'm pretty sure I had that detail in the epilogue, but I doubt I had the tail numbers detail.

However; I expect her to have valid, FAA or ATC issued documentation and as part of her cover, she follows as many of the rules as possible.

-- Sleethr

Tail numbers can be fun. So

Brooke Erickson's picture

Tail numbers can be fun. So can the bit where you have to identify aircraft type as part of contacting ATC.

For a *fun* example of using and abusing the ATC system, try to track down a copy of "Star Driver" by Lee Correy. It was published in the 1980s, and there's one great bit where the ATC folks are more than a bit boggled at a single engine *prop* Cessna requests clearance for Flight level 350 (35,000 feet).

Even more boggled when an airliner at the same flight level that overtakes the Cessna reports that the prop is stopped.

Upon inquiry the Cessna reports that everything is just fine (note that it's doing about 200 knots at the time).

If I recall correctly, anything above flight level 600 (60,000 feet) is uncontrolled airspace. So if she can get up there, she can (mostly) ignore ATC until she descends back into controlled airspace. Except that ATC and NORAD will have more than a few questions. :-)

Brooke brooke at shadowgard dot com
http://brooke.shadowgard.com/
Girls will be boys, and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world
"Lola", the Kinks

Autobot Symbol?

I thought she was a decepticon originally, did you (she) change allegiance? From earlier comments, I noticed that there was some concerns over flight plans. Unless there have been changes in the FAA's regulations, private plans are not required to file a flight plan, only strongly recommended. As for a single passenger jets are concerned, there is a small experimental plane called the BD5. There are also some Russian MiG's that are privately owned.

Huggles,

Winnie
Winnie_small.jpg

It...

It was the BD5 I based her jet form from. It was the only motorcycle sized jet I knew about due to the James Bond, "Octopussy" movie.

I may have to have her hunt down a more modern and advanced single and/or dual seater jet to copy.

-- Sleethr

Does that also mean?

Hypatia Littlewings's picture

That she could manage one of those new ultra-mini economy single or two seater cars?

I'm

I'm leaning toward, yes.

Probably a Fiat Abarth, but doing so will make her feel fat and bloated. She'll have to do a lot of stretching and creative use of her advanced materials to make herself look like the car, but for her family; she'll suffer through it.

"But, Michelle, I feel so bloated with you and the twins inside me," Sadie whined as her rear sets formed child safety seats around the twins; practically coccooning them inside of her.

Michelle snorted with amusement, "Ha! Now you know what I felt like carrying those two around for nine months."

-- Sleethr

yes captured

that feeling so very well

Goddess Bless you

Love Desiree

Shouldn't Sadie be feeling the exact opposite then, given:

"“This..feels...” His voice sounded female, but more digitized than human, but as he devoted a few spare CPU cycles to the problem, his voice smoothed out to sound more normal. “well, weird. I feel,” He patted his new female form a few times. Except for the armor plates built into his armor, he thought he felt like a real woman. “I feel, for lack of a better word, full. Kind of like I just ate a few plates too many during Thanksgiving.”"

So morphing into a car would make her feel stretched out... empty. Sort of like:

“I feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.”

Instead. ;P

For two seater sporting rides

Podracer's picture

I wonder if Sadie has seen a CARVER
Quite quick and sporting, I have seen a live one but didn't get the chance for a ride. Rare as rocking horse poo.

"Reach for the sun."

As a rider...

I was very interested in Mercedes prototype. I wish they had produced it and sold it in the US.

-- Sleethr

Minor Edit...

For those who have read this chapter, made a few tweaks. See below:

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 aBD-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 anF-22, or something. Honeycomb composite skin and, hmmm, looks like vectored thrust. Yep, she’s a looker all right 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.”

-- Sleethr

EXCELLENT story

Read, re-read, read the comments, pored over critical passages, mentally edited and visualised various scenes ... NEED MOAR CHAPTERS.
(twitch, twitch)

Soon, plz&thanku?

Is this story finished

It doesn't feel like it but there hasn't been a chapter in an eon.

Dayna.

Sorry

The holidays have been very distracting.

-- Sleethr

Just reread it :)

Was a great read. Rereading it also gave me a better idea of the size and changes to Sadie. Being the general size and weight of a Ducati 848 or that DB-5 jet would mean that Sadie weighs around 170 kg (373 pounds) (that's roughly the dry weight of the 848 and DB-5). That would give her an average density similar to Aluminum when in Pretender mode. If I'm to believe this picture, she'll be about 210 cm (7 feet) tall in Arcee scooter mode, which seems reasonable. One thing I get from these figures is that Sadie shouldn't be all that uncomfortable in Pretender mode. She's not that squished down. She's still quite a bit less dense than diamond and a lot less dense than titanium for example and I imagine that the MAU can make materials that we could only dream of. Think of things like this: http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/02/new-laser-printed-mat...

Anyway. This story is a great read and I can't wait to read more of Sadie's adventures, with a sprinkling of Hector/Jenna here and there. Keep up the good work, as always. I enjoy every single one of your stories, but this is probably my favorite. Well, it's probably a tossup with "I'm NOT Mystique".

P.S. Pretty much counting pixels here, but if I do that, Acree in scooter mode comes in at 207,5 cm according to my calculations. That's measured from where her tire hits the ground up to that little peak that at the top of her left shoulder (so not the top of her head, which is a little lower). That would actually come in at roughly 6'10" in height.
As for her weight and density. If she's 170 kg and assuming that someone of around 178 cm tall (5'10", which is how tall Rachel Nichols, who plays Scarlett, is), probably weighs around 63 kg, that would put Sadie's density at 2,7 times the density of the human body. The human body had a density similar to water, otherwise you wouldn't be able to float, which makes Sadie's density similar to Aluminum at 2,7 g/cm³. For reference, Diamond is 3,5 g/cm³ and Titanium is 4,5 g/cm³. And as I referenced in that ArsTechnica article, we're already capable of making materials that are less dense than water, but as tough as steel, albeit in very small quantities. Given what that MAU is capable of though, Sadie is probably made of a material that we can only dream about for now. What I'm trying to get at, is that Sadie isn't actually all too impossible in real life. Maybe in a 100 years we'll be able to make her.
Another thing, I thought that most nuclear fusion projects where aiming to use Deuterium. Something that can be found in huge quantities in the world. All Sadie would have to do to get it, is drink water.
One last thing. This is regarding her anti-gravity generator. When Sadie uses her antigrav generator to make her weigh the same as someone her size, around 63 kg in other words, she will float just the same as real person would. She would still have the inertia of someone weighing 170 kg, which explains her running over Kurt every time they bump into each other, but she'd float just the same as a normal human being. Buoyancy is dependant on the weight of the object that's being immersed, not its mass. Check wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buoyancy It could be that you already understood this though, but that I just misread what you wrote on Sadie being able to swim.
P.P.S. That P.S. became a lot longer than I intended it to be. Sorry about that. I'm just really intrigued by what you did here with the MAU, so I took a closer look into how realistic Sadie might be. Just for the heck of it. I still very much know this is fiction of course.

Let's see...

First off, thanks!

I think that I originally wrote her as being about 1000 lbs and using the anti-grav to offset the weight, but now I'm leaning toward her tipping the scales closer to 370-500 lbs. She stands close to 12' in Autobot Humanoid mode and is a mixture between the movies and Arcee from Transformers Prime series. The movies had a lot of influence, but Arcee only got a few seconds of screen time. So, it's hard to get a feel for her character from the movie. What she is made out of, I dunno. How does, high density nano carbon titanium composite sound? Judging by how the Transformers modify and transform themselves, I'd have to say they HAVE to have some pretty good nano-tech going on.

I primarily gave her the "full" feeling while in Pretender mode to provide her some angst and a desire to be in her "natural" Autobot form. I suppose there would be no logical reason for her to have an uncomfortable feeling one way or the other, but I think it "adds character". :)

Swimming/Water, yeah, that's a tough one to show. In Pretender mode, she wouldn't really swim. Instead, she would "fly" through the water and attempt to make it look like she was swimming if there were witnesses.

Fusion power...there's still a lot of research going on and maybe the info I got is a few years out of date, but I recall people saying the moon had tons of Helium3 and it was the leading candidate for fusion power. That info was probably made up by the folks who want us to goto the moon again, so it could be biased. :)

If she had been smart, she would've made her power plant a zero-point energy source instead of old fashioned fusion.

-- Sleethr

Swimming

I meant to say that Sadie in Pretender mode wouldn't have any trouble swimming as long as she kept her weight at a level that's normal for someone her size. If she did that, swimming would be pretty much the same as for everyone else. She'd have a bit more inertia as she can't alter her mass, but she'd still float just as easily as anyone else. Buoyancy is determined by the difference in weight between the immersed object and the displaced weight of the fluid that the object is being immersed in. Do you weigh more than the displaced fluid, you'll sink. Do you weigh less than the fluid that would be displaced, you'll float. If you know a ship weighs 200 000 tonnes, you'll know it will displace 200 000 tonnes of water.

In other words, Sadie could swim just fine. Provided she kept her weight at roughly ~135 pounds. She would have a slightly harder time getting herself to move, since she has the inertia of someone weighing 350+ pounds, but she will hardly even notice that given her much greater strength. Just remember the difference between weight and mass.

Thanks for the reply and I hope to read more MAU soon.

Cheers,
Angarato

P.S. I'm still assuming she's roughly similar in size and shape as Rachel Nickols, the actress that plays the G.I. Joe Scarlett character. She's 5'10" tall and weighs around 130-135 pounds.

Hologram

Tas's picture

That hologram of hers is coming in really handy, especially with that she's able to do with it.

-Tas