MAU: More Than Meets the Eye - Chapter 8

Printer-friendly version
MAU: More Than Meets the Eye

by Sleethr

~o~O~o~

Natalie does not like being punked. Greg and Michelle's relationship grows a little stronger. Agent L hates changing tires.

~o~O~o~

 

 

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents
are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Copyright  © 2013 by R. Nelson aka Sleethr
All rights reserved. This story or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the author
except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.


 

Chapter Note: Well, I posted it a little early. The previous chapter got a lot of views and comments. Yummy comments...thanks. :)

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

~o~O~o~

 

<* Chapter 8 *>

 

Hector didn’t know what to expect when the door vanished and the red light washed over the two of them.  The crazy machine could combine their bodies, put their heads on one body, do nothing at all or turn them both into a pile of goo, but when the door reappeared and Natalie groaned in his arms; he felt an immense feeling of relief wash over him.  Then the weight of her body surprised him because Natalie felt like a feather in his arms before.  He didn’t have time to worry about that right now though; he had to get them both out of the machine.

He stepped out, his high heels making a clicking sound on the garage floor and his skirt felt tighter, more restrictive around his legs.  Natalie was starting to come around and supporting her own weight more, but he still had to support her body.  Greg noticed him struggling a little with Natalie’s weight and gallantly stepped forward to lend him a hand. Together, well, more Greg, the two of them got Natalie into the house and made her comfortable on their couch.

“What happened? Where am I?” Hector anxiously watched as Natalie began to stretch and sleepily mutter as if she was waking up from a long and pleasant nap versus a near death experience.  Then, her eyes focused on Hector. She blinked with confusion a couple of times, but then, her eyes snapped open and jumped onto the couch, ready to launch herself over the back and out of the house. “Stay back! I don’t know who the hell you two are or what you’re trying to pull here, but I am not going to go down so easily!”

This was getting out of control. Hector took a step forward. “Natalie, calm down...”

“Stay back! However you are. I’ll scream!”

“Please, Natalie, I know it looks weird, but it’s me, Jenna. Please, we’re not going to hurt you.”

“Bitch, You. Are. Not. Jenna...” Natalie’s flared with shock and she gasped with surprise. “Holy shit! You’re me!  Okay, I don’t know what kind of sick game you’re playing here, but it’s over. Where’s the phone? I’m calling the cops!” Natalie looked desperately back and forth between Greg and Hector.

Hector motioned for Greg to step back. “Look, Natalie. I’m really Jenna. I can explain, if you will calm down and let me, please?”

Natalie relaxed a little, but she still looked ready to bolt. “Go ahead...”

“Umm, well, that’s actually going to be a little hard and well, it’s kind of a funny story, but you see, I found this alien device and I kind of sort of changed myself into a woman, but then I met you, well, you bumped into me.” Hector could tell Natalie wasn’t buying it and he couldn’t blame her because even he thought he sounded like an idiot. “Okay, look. We were at the party and that asshole, Jason, slipped something into your drink.  Gina found me, I kicked Jason’s ass, you starting having convulsions, so I started to take you to the hospital. You threw up and stopped breathing on me, but I managed to get you breathing again. I wasn’t sure if you would make it. So, I brought you here and fixed you up.”

Natalie's eyes grew wide and she gasped with shock. “Oh my god. Did Gina put you up to this?” Natalie looked around the room as if trying to spot hidden cameras. “Am I being punked? Who did your makeup because you look exactly like me...”

“Smatalie, please. It’s not that...” Hector did not like where this was going.

Greg stepped forward. “Whoa there, umm, Jenna. She figured it out. No reason to keep trying. I told you that the alien body snatcher gag wouldn’t work. You should go get out of your makeup now because the footage we have, it kinda sucks. Not even worth keeping...”

Natalie reached up and tugged on her hair. “Oh my god! What in the hell did you do to my hair?!? You bitch! You better not have super-glued my wig! They are custom made from real human hair!”  She tugged on her hair a few times more. “Ow, oh my god, you did! That’s it, this shit’s not even remotely funny.  Get me outta this place and I want my fucking Louboutin’s back you stupid, fake little bitch!” Natalie snarled at Hector.

Hector didn’t know what to say or do. He didn’t plan for any of this to happen. Her words hit him hard. Harder than he expected because he realized that he liked her, liked and cared about her a lot.  He was a fake and he had lied to her. Lied to her worse than humanly possible because she still thought he was a woman and there was no possible way he could explain things in any way that would make things any better. It could only make things even worse. He felt the amazing connection they once had disappearing faster than a sandcastle when the tide came in.

His only impossible hope was that eventually, Natalie would realize what happened, that he, well, Jenna had saved her life, and forgive him. Well, forgive Jenna because as soon as Natalie was gone, he was going to turn back to Hector and never look back.

Thank god for Greg’s little improvisation because it gave them both an out, but it was not how he wanted the night to end.  Hell, he didn’t even know how he wanted the night to end because from the moment Natalie bumped into him, nothing went according to plan.  It was supposed to be so simple.  Try being a woman for an hour or two, realize it sucked, come home and change back and then, laugh about it a few days later.

Instead, he found the most amazingly smart, funny, caring and beautiful woman he ever knew, and thanks to the machine; he had lost her as soon as he found her.  As Natalie glared at him, he muttered a quick, “Sorry...” and woodenly marched into the garage to get out of his ‘makeup’.  He made it all the way to the door before the tears started to fall, but he didn’t care.

He felt so dead inside and he briefly considered asking Greg to take Natalie home for him using the excuse that it would take too long for him to get out of his ‘makeup’, but no, he had to change back into Jenna; if only to give Natalie back her shoes.  Why did she care about those things so damn much?  The way she was acting, a person might think those shoes were made out of gold, diamonds or something.

Hector placed his hand on the machine’s paw print and brought up his Jenna image, complete with the skirt and top Natalie let him have and not but not least, the shoes. The Louboutin’s as she called them.  With his Jenna image locked in, he stepped into the machine and activated it. When he stepped out, he felt strong again, but not any better emotionally.

He needed to drive her home, but his truck was a mess with all the puke.  Hector walked back into the house and Greg met him at the door. “She’s gone.  She ran out the front door saying she would just walk and call a cab. Well, she didn’t say it like that, but that was the gist of it. I wasn’t sure if I should try to stop her...”

“Fuck me to tears...” Hector couldn’t let Natalie try to walk. First of all, it wasn’t safe and if that wasn’t enough of a reason to stop her, it was 20 miles to her condo and no way, not with the shoes she was wearing. “Can I borrow your car? My truck has puke all over it.”

Greg nodded and pointed to the hook where his keys were hanging.  He looked a little unsure about what to do next. Almost like he wanted to give Hector a hug. “Umm, sorry man...I’ll see if I can do something about your truck.”

“Thanks...” Hector whispered and turned back toward the garage as his eyes begin to mist over. Greg was such a good friend and with the way he felt right now, he wasn’t sure if he deserved it.

It didn’t take long for Hector to spot Natalie. She had only made it to the end of the block and was sitting on the curb. It looked like she was crying and that made Hector feel even worse. He stopped the car, got out and sat down next to Natalie. She inched herself away.

“I thought I knew you. I trusted you and this is what you do to me. Play some sick prank on me?!”  Her shoulders began heaving as she sobbed.

Hector wanted so badly to take her in his arms and hug her, but he knew she would not allow that. “I’m sorry. I never meant for this to happen.”

Natalie turned her head to look at Hector. Her tears poured from her eyes. “Did Gina put you up to this? Was she in on this, this thing?”

“No, Gina had nothing to do with it. It, umm, it was all my idea...” Hector couldn’t continue because his throat closed up as tears began to pour from his eyes.  This crying shit sucks.

“Oh, that’s great!” Natalie suddenly stood. “Well, ha ha, joke’s on you, Jenna! If that is even your real name. I’m not laughing. What did you do? How did you get me to, where ever this place is? Wait until my chemo meds kicked in and then, when I was too tired to care, pretended to take me home?”

“No...It was...” Hector wanted to tell her the truth, but he knew she would never believe him now and maybe not ever.  Natalie was pretty pissed right now and he doubted she would believe truth because even the truth was too crazy to believe.

“You know what? I don’t care. I really don’t. All I want is to go home, get my shoes back and get on with my life.” Natalie opened the passenger door to Greg’s car. “Now, bitch, are you going to drive me or do I have to steal this car?”

Hector sighed. “Yeah...”

The drive back to Natalie’s place was silent and tense. Hector wanted to say something, anything that might bridge the gap between them, but he had nothing. The only good thing about having nothing was that having nothing meant he felt too dead and hurt inside to even cry. Natalie never said a word as she kept to herself, pressed against the passenger door in an effort to keep as much distance between her and Hector as possible.

Once they arrived at Natalie’s condo complex, Hector stopped the car, took off Natalie’s Louboutin’s, and handed them to her. “Call Gina when you get in. I’m sure she’s worried about you and no, she had nothing to do with this.”

“Whatever...” Natalie said as she slammed the door of Greg’s car and stormed away, never once looking back.

Hector waited until she made it safely inside her complex before he drove away. With a heavy sigh, he drove away. He kept an eye on the rearview mirror, hoping Natalie would run out, like in the movies and try to stop him from leaving, but she didn’t. The tears started falling shortly after. He felt them dripping off his cheek and onto chest, eventually, making a cold trail between his breasts.

He had never felt so happy to get home. His truck was no longer in the driveway, but he found it in the garage when he hit Greg’s garage door opener.  As soon as he spotted his truck and the booth, he quickly pressed the button to close the door before anyone could spot the booth and wonder what it might be.  Not that he expected too many eyes at 3:30am, but it didn’t hurt to be careful with that thing, especially now.

With bare feet, he let himself into the house via the front door. Careful to not make a lot of noise, he slowly closed and locked the door behind him. When he turned, Greg was standing in the entryway, waiting for him.

“Ahh!” A surprised squeak escaped Hector’s mouth.

“Sorry, but is everything alright?” Greg asked, concern for his friend plain in his eyes.

Hector sighed with frustration. “Yes, no, maybe...she still thinks it was some kind of prank and hates my guts. So, I guess things could be worse. I mean, she could have believed us, hated my guts and called the police on us.”

“Yeah, that would be bad. So, umm, I cleaned your truck. Smells good as new and no evidence if she does call the police.”

“Oh, thanks, I think.” Hector felt a giggle try to escape because the situation would be downright comical if this was a movie.

Greg ran his hand nervously through his hair. “Yeah, anyway, it wasn’t a problem. I got the MAU to whip up little Decepticon ‘bot. I modified him for cleaning and called him Wheelie. He’s got a bit of a personality on him and funny. So, anyway, I dropped the little bugger inside, closed the door and after a few swear words, he went into action. It was amazing how clean he got your truck!”

It didn’t really register with Hector what Greg had just said because he kind of tuned him out once he heard him say, ‘MAU’. “Okay, well, I guess I should go change back now...” Hector trudged past Greg and entered the garage.

Changing back proved to be harder than he thought and it wasn’t due to the machine acting difficult or not working at all.  Getting the machine to display his image only took a few seconds, but after he removed his hand from the alien paw print, it took him over 15 minutes of staring blankly at the holographic display of himself before he felt like doing anything.

He simply didn’t know what to do about Jenna and Natalie until he walked over to his truck parked in the other stall and studied the ghostly reflection of the girl in the side window.  She looked so sad with her tear streaked face, but she had to go.  She had no place in this world, not without Natalie.

His holographic image shimmered once, but appeared unchanged before it continued with its slow rotation. Satisfied with his image, he removed his hand from the alien paw print, entered the machine and after the blink, he exited the machine with a sad smile on his face.

It felt good to be out of that ridiculous skirt, not have breasts to deal with, not have to sit down to pee and best of freaking all, not feel like he was going to erupt into tears at the sight of a kitten.  Oh yeah, The Hector was back and the ladies better watch out because he was back on the hunt.  With a smile on his face and a cocky spring to his step, Hector turned off the light in the garage, closed the door and sauntered into his room. He felt too drained to bother with brushing his teeth, but he did perform a brief inspection to confirm that “The Hector” truly was back. He was.

He grumbled a bit about his broken alarm clock, but after he set his alarm using his cell phone’s alarm feature, he rolled over and instantly fell asleep.

 

~o~O~o~

 

When Greg rolled out of bed and got started with his day, he was surprised to discover that Hector had already left for work.  He kind of expected Hector to call in sick after his wild night on the other side of the tracks.  After he finished his breakfast, he collapsed the machine and hid it with the dirty clothes before he left for the office.

It was a sunny day and he felt surprisingly full of energy and alert after having such a stressful night with Hector’s friend showing up at the house covered in her own vomit and half dead. Well, she wasn't breathing when Hector brought her into the house. So, maybe she was dead.  Yeah, it was a pretty crazy night, but the IM he received from Michelle certainly helped cheer him up.

>Morning!  How was the club? :)

>Oh, I decided not to go. Hector ran into an old buddy of his and they decided to do something else.  How was your night?

>Good. It was nice to hang w/ my mom...sorry I couldn’t go w/ u :(

>Oh, that’s ok. Lunch?

>Sure! 11:30 work?

>Yep! No sushi, plz :-p

>:)

Greg felt pretty damn happy with himself and it showed in his work. He knocked out a record amount of paperwork and cleared a full day’s worth of transactions before 11am.  For once, his boss even smiled at him when he came by to tell him he was doing a good job.  Greg felt so motivated, sorry, ‘engagedafter his boss’s little pep talk that he decided to waste a few minutes and call Hector to find out how he was doing.  A text just didn't seem to be personal enough after last night.  In addition to that, he also wanted to ask Hector about Michelle using the MAU for her costume tonight.

Hector answered after only a few rings. “Hey Greg, what’s up? Is everything okay?

Greg thought Hector sounded a little down when compared to his usual self. “Oh, nothing. Umm, sorry about last night. I should have gone with you. You know, watched your back like you would’ve done for me.”

Hector surprised Greg by chuckling at him. “Yeah, Thanks, but now I totally understand why you didn’t and I don’t blame you at all.Hector sighed. “It’s just that, well, I have had some time to think about it and I’m actually kinda glad you didn’t because then, Natalie would probably be dead right now.

“What? How is that possible? She only went because you were there, the old time traveler’s dilemma. I mean, if I had been with you, then you wouldn’t have met her and not gone to the party, right?”

Yeah, but she would have and she would still have been drugged by those jerks and she probably would have died, but maybe not, hard to say and nothing we can do will change it now.”

Greg thought Hector sounded a little more broken up about the chick than he expected. “I guess, so, I am going to guess that now is probably a bad time to ask, but about Michelle and you know....”

Fuck man, after how badly I screwed up? How can I say no to you?”  Hector laughed. “If we aren’t arrested and our house isn’t covered in some UFO protective dome like they did in ET, then sure, not a problem!

“Oh, that’s reassuring, thanks.” Greg replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

Hehe, de nada! Anything else?Hector asked over the beeping sounds of a construction vehicle backing up.

“Yeah, are ya still going to wanna go tonight? I mean, if not, I understand...”

Hmmm, I dunno, maybe?

“Okay, well, gotta get back to the grindstone. You know, all this paper is sooo heavy. Hasta la vista, punk!”  Greg cut the connection before Hector could respond, but Hector’s gasp at the very end told him he had achieved his desired goal.

Michelle surprised Greg by coming to his cubicle a few minutes before 11:30 to fetch him for their lunch date. “So, this is where you work?” She studied his cube decorations with a pleased smirk and a curious lift of her eyebrow. She pointed to Greg’s Optimus Prime action figure posed with a sharpened pencil to make it look like Optimus was using it like a sword.

“Oh, nice Transformers doll.” Michelle playfully poked fun at Greg.

Greg held clasped his hands to his chest as if stabbed in the heart. “Ouch, thy fair maiden’s arrow hath struckest a mortal blow upon her foe.”

Michelle’s smile lit up Greg’s little cubicle and caused him to stare at her with wonder, until the both seemed to realize that they were at one of those awkward pauses in the conversation.

“Yes, well...” Michelle was the first to recover when she pointed at Greg’s 2013 Avengers wall calendar. “Oh, I see you’re an Avengers fan...” She leaned over and Greg forced himself to ignore his spider sense warning as Michelle absently rested her hand on his shoulder and pointed to today’s date.

Greg noticed two things almost immediately. One, the general office noise died down a lot as the normal chatter stopped. He expected his nosey cube neighbors were listening to every word they could hear right now. Two, he didn’t care because he caught a whiff of Michelle’s subtle, yet delicate perfume and decided he enjoyed the scent, a lot. It was in no way overpowering like some of the other office ladies. It was so subtle that if she hadn’t leaned over him, he might not have ever noticed it.

“I see you have today’s date highlighted with the convention inked in. It looks a little old. I take it that you were planning on going without me?” Michelle coyly smiled down at him. Her hazel eyes sparkled with amusement.

“Umm, well, you see...” Greg felt twisted and tongue tied as he tried to figure out how to respond.  She was so beautiful and close that he didn’t know what to say.

Michelle giggled pleasantly. “Oh, it’s okay. Sorry, just messing with you. So, ready to go?”

“Yep!” Relieved, Greg stood and grabbed his car keys. “Umm, for the safety and wellbeing of our curbs, how about if I drive?”

“Oh, so it’s your turn to kidnap me this time?” Michelle pretended to be afraid as she purposely pitched her voice just loud enough for Greg’s neighbors to hear.

“So mean.” Greg mouthed to Michelle, much to her amusement.

Lunch turned out to be at a nice sit-down TGI-Apple-Chili clone restaurant with plenty of space between the walls and the parking lot. They both laughed over that important design decision since it would be exceptionally hard for a confused driver to smash their car through the walls at this place and it wasn’t something either of them would have noticed until yesterday.

“So, Catwoman? What’s your costume look like?”  Greg felt a little silly asking her that because he caught her smirk as he asked the question. “Well, besides like ‘Catwoman’, which one did you base your costume off of?”

Michelle drew out the suspense by taking a calculated sip from her drink before replying. “Oh, that’s good, because for a second there I thought you didn’t know what Catwoman looked like.”

“Ha! As if, because...” Greg stopped where he was going with that train of thought because he knew that telling Michelle, a woman he was very interested in getting to know better, that he thought another woman or in the case of the Catwoman character, women, was hot, he could wreck things before they got off the ground.

She grinned at him like the proverbial cat that swallowed the canary. “Go on? I’m simply fascinated by where you were going with that...”

“Well, since you have asked, I thought the costume, and strictly judging by artistic merit alone,  Julie Newmar’s Catwoman costume is the gold standard, Michelle Pfeiffer’s costume was twisted and edgy, but I have to admit that I really liked Anne Hathaway’s modern and high tech Catwoman costume.” Greg finished with a triumphant grin.

“Oh, you’re good, very good.” Michelle pouted. “Well, I wanted to do the new Catwoman costume, but it was kinda hard to find the material they used and once I did find it,  super hard to work with. So, I’m not super happy with it...”

“I might be able to help you with that, if you were willing to meet me at my house before heading to the convention.” Greg’s heart pounded in his chest. This was it. The big test of trust.

She smirked and slowly stirred her drink with her straw. “Not that I would suspect you of trying something, but what do you have? A loom or something?”

Greg chuckled. “No, nothing that high tech. It’s just a little gizmo my roommate found. It’s really good at costume design. See?” Greg willed the chest portion of his Spiderman suit to display as he sat up in his seat a little higher while pulling up his shirt for Michelle to inspect the visible portion of his costume.

“Wow, I don’t know which question to ask first. How big  a Spiderman fan does someone have to be before they decide to wear a costume under their work clothes or holy crap, this looks so perfect, how did you do that?” She paused as if trying to decide which way to go. “Yes, I think I will go with the, how did you do that?” Michelle asked as she leaned over the table and then, hesitated before Greg nodded for her to go ahead and try touching his costume.

Michelle ran her hands over Greg’s rock hard abs as she lightly pushed and pinched the fabric in an attempt to get a better feel. “Seriously, the texture and the colors on this are so good and your abs,” She quickly glanced up at Greg, surprised by her slip of the tongue. “I, I mean the fit, it’s incredible. How?”

“Thanks for noticing, I’ve been working out.” Greg smiled at her as she leaned back in her seat and blushed. “But, I told ya, we have a little gizmo and I even had to get special clearance from Hector just to let you in on the secret.” Greg tucked his shirt back into his pants.

“Wow, just wow...” Michelle whispered as she shook her head with wonder.

Greg couldn’t tell if she was wowing over the costume, his abs or maybe both, but her reaction felt pretty good. “So, ya coming over?”

“Hell ya! What’s your address and what time do you want me there?”

The end of the work day and the start of the weekend could not come soon enough for Greg. Time seemed to drag on forever, but he did find his coworker’s sudden interest in where he went to lunch very amusing.

 

~o~O~o~

 

As Agent L worked on jacking up their rental car, he swore up and down, left and right. He even invented a few new words. The cheap ass scissor jack sucked. The way Murphy was fucking with him right now, he knew they were on an active MAU event.  There was no other way to explain the seemingly random chain of bad luck that had seemed to dog them since last night.

First, it was their jet getting deadlined. Followed by having to fly commercial and as usual, their flight was delayed. Next, the fucking rental company lost their reservation and the only car available was a fricken tiny Toy’ Yaris. The damn thing might as well be a Yugo for all the space it had. It drove like a damn go kart and on the highway, it wasn’t only the semi’s that blew it off the road; it was also the full sized SUVs.  At least the damn thing was black.

Shortly after reaching the highway, it didn’t take long for the pair to get stuck in a monster traffic jam that further delayed them by two hours. Finally, with less than 100 miles to reach their suspect area, their fucking tire blew. Oh well, nothing they could do about it now except mount the spare.  Thankfully, it shouldn’t take too long and before they left the rental company’s lot, Agent L confirmed that the spare was inflated. He had a flat before and found the spare deflated and since then, he always checked the spare before embarking on any long road-trip. So, that was one less thing Murphy could mess with on this trip.

The lug nuts proved to be a bitch and a half, but the last one proved to be a total mega-bitch.  It took all his strength and righteous anger to get the bolt to spin, but when he did break it loose; he felt nothing but satisfaction at a job well done.  The bolt kept spinning and spinning and spinning. It spun far too easily.  Agent L pulled the lug wrench off and he was left with a nice and brilliantly shined, but thoroughly stripped bolt as tiny flakes of metal shavings dusted the wheel.

“Son of a @$@##!!!*@ &@^@%1!@^ @^@&&!^@)*& &@^# ^@^!#@**” Agent L screamed and kicked the stuck wheel with frustration.

~o~O~o~

up
158 users have voted.
If you liked this post, you can leave a comment and/or a kudos! Click the "Thumbs Up!" button above to leave a Kudos

Comments

Still a cliffhanger of a sorts here

So what happened to Natalie? I wonder what kind of enhancements she received from that machine? That should prove interesting.

Poor Hector, having to put on his old male bravado though I suspect that is only for show now. I doubt he could have left that experience unchanged.

Kim

Likely ... the easiest pattern for Jenna/Hector to think of

Jenna probably just thought of her "all better".
As Natalie did not need the wig anymore (if it was her natural color) she probably has her removed body parts restored as well as she now is completely healed from the cancer and doesn't need any of her current drug regime.
Any or all scars might be gone as well as any previous small imperfections .

Does your mother KNOW you speak like that?

For SHAME!

-- snicker --

Wanna bet they don't have AAA either?

So when will Natalie realize this was not some joke? I mean at some point either she will notice her energy level is WAAAAY too high, she will have a period and go running to the hospital thinking she is dying. OR Hector went too far and Natalie got the FULL female Wolverine package, claws and all and they WILL come out someday. Although Hector was temporarily weakened by becoming a clone of Natalie he did think she was much heavier than before. That implies the Wolverine upgrades.

Hector is acting odd. Did the MAU release his inner woman... Yeah a TG story trope but it could work well here. Or did it subtlety change his inner *soul*IE made him too comfortable as a woman and somehow in his sad state he didn't fully change back? Not fully understanding the differences between men and women has *trapped* other MAU users, that and the subconscious changes it makes to your mind/preferences in order to make your mental images on the display workable.

Just losing this wonderful woman and having her cuss him out might make him depressed too..

Hope the Catwoman thing is NOT a mistake. Sometimes she was a heroine, other times a master thief. Hum, shouldn't that read "mistress thief"? NOT a good career choice IMHO.

Um, haven't the MIB types considered phoning ahead? Or is their group so small they HAD to go in person?

Always thought the govt MAU *force* was small.

John in Wauwatosa

John in Wauwatosa

Okay....

I'll give some spoilers...sort of.

I really liked Hector/Jenna and Natalie. My beta-readers liked the pair too.

The Epilogue or Bonus Chapter at the end will provide some closure.

I am starting to write ch12, so not sure how many chapters this story will have since I seem to take a one sentence plot point and turn it into a few thousand words. I have a lot of one sentence plot points to go through.

And yes, he Agency is a very small Agency. Not a lot of field agents available who are cleared for the MAU secret.

-- Sleethr

well played

Natalie cured of cancer(?) Hector torn and wanting to be Jenna once more to make up with Nat, and how crazy can things go with Michelle and her costume

I am sure Mayhem shall ensue, Um Excelsior, never read many DC comics so d not know any of their nifty editors sayings( though I do not think they ever did Assistant Editors month at DC)

Goddess Bless you

Love Desiree

Finally...

the first of the Transformers references I've been expecting (from the title)! I love the story so far ;)

I am sure Mayhem shall ensue, Um Excelsior, never read many DC comics so d not know any of their nifty editors sayings( though I do not think they ever did Assistant Editors month at DC)

Off topic remark: Have you seen who is one of the featured guests at Denver Comic Con (5/31/13 to 6/2/13)?

Jorey
.

Gotta love that car lol!

Poor Hector! He's got it bad, really bad it seems. Somehow though I think it's all going to come together in a nice way for all four of them now.

Vivien

Natalie + Jenna/Hector

I think that Natalie will call Gina and find that what she was told of the evenings' events by Hector were true. She will then want to confront Jenna with questions about the "joke". When she finds Hector at the house, will he then show her the MAU and change into Jenna for her as proof? Will they then figure out that she may have been COMPLETELY healed by the MAU?

My question at that point depends on my interpretation of the last chapter. I seemed to get the feeling that Natalie is leaning toward the bi/lesbian side with the way she interacted with Jenna while changing. If this is true, would she want Jenna or Hector or both?

Lots of ways this story could continue. It's working just great, so far. Especially with the agents after them doing a "Keystone Kops" routine trying to get there. LOL

Hugs,
Erica

Why are the Agents having

rotten luck? Has The Collective somehow arranged for it? Can The Collective talk to the active Unit?

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

well one way or the other

Nat is going to notice something when her cycle restarts, and she has to fell a 1000 times better. so does she have enhanced bones and rapid healing?
looking forward to ch 9.
great job so far, thanks

Poor Agent L

I do believe he is cursed! Stripping a lug nut sucks. Worse, I'd had them snap which isn't any better. Still old cars had five and you could limp carefully to the nearest tire place to get a new one. Try that on just three? I don't know about that!

Hector I think for the first had a real connection with a woman, Natalie. Perhaps it's because taking sex off the table that he got a chance to see the real person. Maybe, they both got a chance to see each other since I swear I could nearly touch the tension there at times. Perhaps Hector was putting out the wrong vibes to find Ms. Right? Even Natalie said she put on an act at the club.

The bad is she feels betrayed by someone she trusted. That's not a good thing.

I don't think Michelle is bad, just a fan girl. Catwoman is after all a very popular cosplay character. Greg is obviously smitten with her, so we'll have to see how she handles the news.

Again wonderful stuff!
hugs
Grover

It’s going to be very interesting to see...

It’s going to be very interesting to see how you are going to play out plot over the rest of the stories chapters, Sleethr. I really liked how Hector/Jenna and Natalie were hitting it off there until the “you know what” hit the rotary air impeller after Natalie’s got all pissed off when she woke up after being restored by the MAU. Natalie is in for some surprises and very eye opening experiences once she calms down. She’s likely going to notice that a few things are different as soon as she undresses to get ready for bed. Right now she thinks that her wig was super glued on, but once she gets a closer look at her head and hair in a mirror she’ll quickly realize that its not a glued on wig, but rather real hair growing out of her head. Will she also discover that her pubic hair has also grown back and that its now red too? That the surgical scar is now gone? She’ll be very puzzled once she realizes that not only does she have real hair again, but that it’s changed from her natural hair blond hair color to red now. It probably, won’t be too long before Natalie gets a call from her actress friend, Gina checking to see if she’s all right after getting drugged at the party and nearly dying. It will be a very eye opening experience once Natalie comes to realize that Hector/Jenna really did save her life and everything that Jenna did dealing with the guy who drugged her and when she went into convulsions. How long will it take before Natalie discovers that not only has she been cured of cancer, but also that she has had all of her surgically removed bits are all back and that she no longer has any of the nasty side effects of chemo? Now that revelation is going to really blow Natalie’s mind and I kook forward to reading how you will play that out Sleethr.

I don’t think that Natalie got any of Hector’s/Jenna’s Wolverine enhancements as some of the comments seem to imply. When Hector/Jenna carried Natalie out of the MAU, she had become a carbon copy of Natalie as whole and healthy since that seems to be how Hector/Genna had programmed the MAU. That’s likely why Natalie felt heavier to Hector/Jenna, was because she didn’t have the Wolverine enhancements as the Natalie copy and why he/she felt stronger again after changing back into Hector/Jenna again.

Before Natalie got drugged, it seems that Hector/Jenna was making a very good impression on the party host and movie director, Hector Stevens with her/his ideas for making action movies that would appeal more to women by having a strong female hero lead in the films. I suspect that Hector/Jenna may have just unwittingly made her point after her heroic display coming to Natalie’s rescue That, coupled with the video of Jenna singing in the truck that Natalie showed Gina and Mr. Stevens, thus proving that Jenna is a woman with real talent, I’d venture a guess that Hector /Jenna may have just been “discovered.” I think that Mr. Stevens is going to want to be getting a hold of Hector/Jenna to try and get him/her to sign a movie contract and possibly with an offer for a music-recording contract with some people he likely knows in the music industry as well.

Hector’s/Jenna’s 15 minute long hesitation looking at Jenna’s reflection before finally stepping into the MAU to return back to being Hector is a bit telling. Other than the bad experience of Natalie nearly dying and her angry reaction due to her misunderstanding over what had just happened, Hector/Jenna was having the time of their life and really enjoying life from a female perspective. I’m sure that Jenna will be back very soon and that in the end Hector just may choose to remain Jenna. But of course, being that this is an MAU story, it’s more likely that he’ll find himself stuck as Jenna.

So far, we’ve not seen anything of the Collective, YET. Could they be responsible for the MIB’s series of bad luck with trying to get to the MAU while it’s still active? Will the Collective become more actively involved? That’s a good bet. Only Sleethr knows. I’m sure that all will be reviled in due time as the story continues to unfold.

I have one idea that comes to mind and as far as I know hasn’t been used in an MAU story yet, although there are several MAU stories I have yet to read. Anyhow, given that the MAU has the ability to create a very vast and nearly limitless verity of changes and to bestow some truly amazing powers on its users, why not have someone use an MAU to give themselves the ability to shape shift from their male form to their female form at will? Unless such a person thought this type of transformation out really well and made sure they had complete control of the female reproductive organs, they could still find themselves trapped in their female form if they were to become pregnant.

Oh well, that enough of my random speculating for now. I’m sure that Sleethr has planed enough plot twists that will keep me guessing how it will at turn out in the end.

Sleethr, Thank you for another very enjoyable story.

Hugs,
Tamara Jeanne

Impressive

That is the most or one of the most impressive comments I have ever received.

Thanks!

No comment. :)

-- Sleethr