Chapter 3

WEEEET...
WEEEET...
WEEEET...
WEEEET...
WEEEET...

I slapped the alarm as I rolled over.

I hate mornings with a passion. Even in College I tried to schedule classes in the afternoons unless there was no other options. I rolled over and looked at the alarm clock ... Seven am.

One of the things good about being TB though was I didn't need a lot of sleep anymore. 3 or 4 hrs and I was good to go. I sat up, climbed into my wheelchair and rolled into the bathroom, transferred onto the shower chair from my wheelchair and took a quick shower, but since I was going to be spending at least the next week or so as TB I got back in my chair willed the change. The razor I use has a tiny micro laser that could cut through the tough titanium laced hair on my face. An almost identical laser was used by my barber when I went in for hair cuts.

I headed for the shower "Arthur, some jazz and the overnight news please"

The voice of my Digital Assistant system filled the room <One moment Sir>

Duke Ellington came on as Arthur gave me the overnight news and stock reports. Arthur was a Digital Assistant system that I had installed and modified to act as a security system and personal assistant. He had control of the house security system as well as the van.

I looked into the mirror as I finished shaving "Arthur, is the module for the bike ready?"

<Yes Sir, all you need to do is plug it into the slot under the seat as designed.> <Once I have established contact I will be on board. I took the liberty of> <downloading and studying the rules of the road for motorcycles and will have> <them on call for the ride home.>

I chuckled "Good deal, once I get you installed in the bike you'll have autonomous control"

When I first got here it took a little getting used to the leap in technology in this universe. Artificial Intelligence was common place once some of the more brilliant minds here developed biological computer circuitry. Basically it's vat grown neural circuits suspended in a nutrient tank. The material has a storage capacity of 2 Exabytes or about 2^30th gigabytes.

Yeah I know, it took me a while to get my head around that number. One of the other changes that seemed to come with my switch to this universe was an increased Intelligence. I know for a fact that before I got here I could never have created some of the thing I have. On the other hand some of the truly brilliant minds here make me look sad. Before I came here I was has a slightly above average intelligence and it seems I stayed at about the same point of above average, it's just that the average was a lot higher here than in my home universe. The other thing was the increased IQ seemed to effect me out of TB form.

I ended up expanding Arthur's abilities to allow him to connect remotely to the bike. Technically I could give him control of the bike, but it's a little hard to explain why Mark Andersons van is driving around without a driver. On the other hand Titanium Blue's bike will be just another cool hero gadget.

I jumped back into the shower, scrubbed my hide and got dressed on both side of the coin. Sweats, t-shirt and for Mark, polo shirt, slacks and dress shoes for TB.

"Arthur, dial Denise please"

<One moment Sir>

After a few seconds it rang "Hey handsome, you're up early"

"Handsome huh..." I chuckled "I hope you've had your eyes checked before we drive back." "I'm just about to get on the road, I wanted to get there early." "I thought I'd call and let you know Bob and his wife are coming out to the airport. I was telling Bob and his wife Jane about the trip and she wanted to meet you..."

"Who's Bob?"

"You met him the other night, Sgt. Murphy from Charlie's Tap Room."

"Ok, I didn't get his first name. "So you know Bob pretty well?"

"Yeah, we met about 8 years ago"

Denise giggled "and I bet they want to check me out ... Are they worried the big strong hero is biting off more than he can chew"

I laughed "I told Bob about Jeet-Kune-Do, he was impressed." "Hey I was going to stop and get coffee and bagels with cream cheese for all of us, any preference?"

"There's a place on Milwaukee Avenue called Dave's Doughnuts, grab some of their salmon and chives cream cheese and a couple everything bagels"

"No problem, a woman after my own heart. Ok, I'll see you at Palwaukee, I should be there in an hour or so."

"ok handsome, see you then ... maybe I can interrogate Bob and Jane for more dirt on you."

I grabbed my suitcase and headed down to the garage level below, tossed my bags in the back, switched forms, got behind the wheel and pulled out of my private garage.

After a stop at Dave's Doughnuts for bagels, cream cheese and coffee I was back on the road.

Once I got to the airport I pulled into a corner of the lot, switched to TB, grabbed my bags and headed into the waiting area. I was sitting in the general aviation waiting area when I saw Bob and Jane pull up. I waved out the window and motioned them in.

"Hey guys, I picked up some coffee and bagels on the way. Denise should be here soon, I called her before I left the house."

Bob grabbed a coffee and sat down "So are you ready for the license test?"

"Yeah I'm all set ... plus I have Arthur to back me up"

Jane looked confused for a second "Arthur?"

I took a sip of coffee "Oh that's the name of my household computer system, though at this point he's a lot more than that." "Hey I was thinking, once I get back you two will have to come over for dinner, I make a mean stir fry."

from behind Bob and Jane I heard Denise "Wait a second ... and you cook too?"

I grinned "Yup, Stir Fry, meatloaf with oven roasted potatoes and steamed veggies, lasagna, chili or home made pot stickers, take your pick"

Denise slide into the chair next to me "Hi Sgt. Murphy and this must be yo ... Jane? Jane Ostrowski?!"

Jane laughed "Actually Jane Murphy. Denny as I live and breathe."

Jane and Denise hugged and started giggling like school girls and chatting like long lost friends.

"So what's with still using McCandles?"

Denise blushed and looked at me "Sorry, I was gonna tell you."

I chuckled "When Jane said she knew you but as Arnson I figured it was wanting to make your own way and not on your fathers name, it's ok"

Denise sat next to me "Actually it was my fathers idea, He wanted to protect me. He was always worried that the wrong people would find out I was his daughter and try to use me against him, I just never changed it back. When I was in grade school my dad got worried someone would try and get at him through me so he had me change my name."

I looked at Jane "How did you find out?"

"Back in College Denny and I went to Colorado with her parents skiing one year for New Years over Christmas vacation."

Denise chuckled "you wouldn't believe the checking my Dad did to make sure it was ok to tell you who I was before we went."

Bob nodded "I can, I went thru something like that years ago when I applied to work for the Feds. They poke everywhere."

Jane looked at Bob "When was this?"

"Just before I left the Marines, but I decided I wanted to work in local law enforcement. It worked out pretty good though. I met you and you were crazy enough to date me."

I laughed "Yeah, but didn't you have to get shot for that to happen?"

Bob looked at Jane " ... and I'd do it again."

That got an awww from Denise and a kiss from Jane.

Jane kissed his nose and looked at Denise "He knows how to keep me happy. And the occasional lil white lie helps"

I laughed "and he knows you're very good with a scalpel."

Bob laughed "Damn straight skippy."

Jane laughed "That's why I married you, you're a smart man"

We sat around for about 45 minutes talked while we waited for the plane to get ready. Sometime around quarter to eleven the airport manager came over and let Denise know the plane was ready to board.

"So when you get back we should all do some riding."

I looked at Denise "Yeah I mentioned we should do some short trips and maybe Sturgis in August"

Denises eyes lit up "Sturgis... ? I'm in ... I've never been and Dad would never have let me go"

Jane laughed "Well now we'll have a Cop and a Superhero to protect us"

Bob chimed in "Hell, from what I hear it's Denise that's more dangerous"

Denise got a shocked look on her face "Me? I'm sweet as sugar and innocent" then grinned like the Cheshire cat.

Jane struggled to keep a straight face and then burst out laughing "tell that to Jimmy Reardon. He got his ass kicked for roaming hands freshman year of college."

I looked at Bob "I think we might need to separate these two"

Bob looked at me "you're the Superhero, have at it big guy."

we joked around a bit more, Jane and Denise exchanged numbers and said our goodbyes.

"Ok, so the cargo plane is ready?"

Denise grinned "This is a little better than a cargo plane. Let's grab our stuff and head to hanger 5"

I grabbed Denises suitcase and the small trunk I had "Lead on lovely lady"

"Charmer"

We rounded the corner into the hanger and headed for the plane, I let out a low whistle.

"Nice little puddle jumper you have here"

Denise grinned "Sometimes it's good to be the boss"

"What is it?"

"It's a Bombardier Global 5000."

I put our bags inside and climbed in, the cabin attendant wheeled my trunk and Denise's bag to the back and stowed them.

I found one of the large couches and sat "Ok ... I think I could learn to like this"

Denise smiled "It makes it much nicer to fly to a business meeting and you don't have to deal with the lines"

The captain came out of the cockpit "I'll be starting the engines in a minute and we'll taxi for takeoff"

"How long will we be in the air?"

"We'll be in the air about three and a half hours, we should get to Long Beach about 12:30 local time Ms. McCandles"

"Thank you Joseph"

In about 5 minutes the engines started and we taxied out to the runway for take off. The cabin attendant came back and asked if we wanted anything after we were in the air.

Denise sat down with me "I'll take a cappuccino Andrew"

"Of course ma'am, and you Sir?"

"That sounds good, I'll take a cappuccino as well."

The overhead sound system came on and the pilots voice came through the speakers "Bombardier Robert Nancy David Juliet 1-5-4-9 IFR to Long Beach, ready to copy"

"Bombardier Robert Nancy David Juliet 1-5-4-9, is cleared to Long Beach airport as filed, Fly runway heading, climb and maintain 10,000. Departure frequency is 120.55, squawk 1145"

The pilot repeated "Bombardier Robert Nancy David Juliet 1-5-4-9, is cleared to Long Beach airport as filed, Fly runway heading, climb and maintain 10,000. Departure frequency is 120.55, squawk 1145"

"Bombardier Robert Nancy David Juliet 1-5-4-9, read back correct. Contact ground on 121.7"

We started rolling and were in the air. Soon the wheels came up and we were turning west.

I grinned "Now all I need is a gorgeous redhead traveling companion and it would be perfect ... Oh wait ... I do have a gorgeous redhead traveling companion"

Denise giggled and smacked my arm "Charmer"

"OW!"

"Hey hey hey ... no beating up on the blue guy, I'm fragile."

Denise rolled her eyes "yeah I'm sure that guy at the bar thought you were just so fragile after his hand connected. Just how tough are you anyway?"

I shrugged "I'm not sure actually. I've been shot at a few times and the bullets just pancake against me. Part of me wants to know and part of me doesn't wanna push it. I can tell you having bullets bounce off you can be a bit intoxicating."

Denise nodded "I can relate to that in a way, when I'm sparring and take down a bigger opponent it's a rush"

"I know what ya mean, when I met Bob I was stopping a bank robbery at the Bank of Chicago and it was a rush. Actually except for being very strong and at least small arms fire proof I don't know if I can do anything else. The one thing I'm hesitant about is can I fly, I'm a bit afraid of heights."

"You're kidding right?"

"Nope, as a kid I was scared of tall buildings like the Sears Tower, I couldn't get near the windows on the observation deck. Heck, bunk beds gave me nose bleeds."

Denise laughed "you're not serious are you?"

I nodded "Serious as a heart attack, well except for the nose bleeds part." "I wasn't always 8'3", bullet proof and heart throb handsome" I chuckled.

Denise giggled "Well I can see humility isn't a strong suit either. Though, you are pretty damned handsome."

"So what do you usually do when you fly out of town when you're in the air?"

Denise shrugged "Usually I'm flying to a conference or a business meeting, so I'm going over notes or a presentation. I don't take a lot of time off so I'm not sure what to do. I went ahead and cleared my calendar for 14 days so I don't have much to do."

"What about you when you fly?"

I chuckled "Well usually I put on my IPOD and read."

Just then the pilot popped his head out of the cockpit "Ms. McCandles, we've reached our 35,000 foot cruising altitude and should be in Long Beach in about 3 hours."

Denise turned back to me "So what do you read?"

"Mostly Science Fiction and Historical stuff, but I like a good military/political thriller now and again as well. Otherwise, technical journals and computer stuff."

Denise smiled "Computer stuff? I wouldn't have never taken you for a techie..."

I nodded "Yeah I'm very interested in Artificial Intelligence and autonomous systems, vehicle auto piloting and things."

I think I surprised Denise "I know there are some interesting things going on there, Arnson is working on a few things in that area."

I chuckled "I know, I've read everything I can get my hands on"

Denise gave me a sly smile "So it seems the big superhero is more than meets the eye."

The rest of the flight was fun, we ended up grabbing a deck of card the cabin steward had and played some cards, talked about computers and general tech. I tried not to steer things into specifics because I knew she has security clearances and had way too much she can't discuss. Between breaks of Denise beating me in Rummy I used the inflight phone about halfway out and got some transportation set up. It didn't seem like almost 3 hours, but the pilot came out and let us know they were getting ready to descend into Long Beach. We landed about 20 minutes later and once we taxied to the terminal I grabbed our bags and headed over to the Hummer.

I made a quick call and walked back to Denise in the terminal "M'Lady, your chariot awaits"

"Ok, we have about 3 hours before we can check in so how does some lunch sound?"

Denise climbed into the hummer "yes, I'm famished. What did you have in mind?"

I grinned "I know a really good taco place we can stop at and a cool place we can eat at."

"Ok, where are we headed?"

I chuckled "Just trust me, you'll like this."

A few minutes later we pulled up in front of a place called Taco Loco "Ok here we are, we can grab something and head out"

A cute hispanic girl was taking orders, I waved and walked up "Hey Consuella, I need to order to go."

she smiled "Hi TB, what ya need?"

"Lets see ... hmmmm ... give me 6 lengua and 6 Churizo and did you get the order that was called in?"

"Si, they called it in about 20 minutes ago, it's almost done."

"Ok cool"

I turned to Denise "Ok what would you like?"

Denise turned to Consuella "I'll take 3 Lengua and 3 tripas."

I handed Consuella my bank card "Just throw it all on my bill."

she smiled "Ok that's 105.63"

Denise looked at me "How many taco's are you getting, are you feeding an army?"

I shrugged "Sort of ... you'll see."

It didn't take long and Denise and I grabbed the bags. We loaded up the food into the back of the hummer and headed out. It was only about 2 minutes to get to the shop and Denise squealed as we pulled around the corner in front of West Coast Choppers.

"I didn't think we'd get here til Monday."

"I called Jesse a few days ago and the crew from the show was going to be here in the afternoon so we set up the reveal and all for today. I called after we landed and told Jesse I'd grab lunch for the gang."

As we stopped out front Jesse walked out "Hey man good timing. How was the flight out?"

"Well I had a much better trip than last time. Jesse this is Denise McCandles, Denise This is..."

"Jesse James, I have wanted to meet you since I saw you on Motorcycle Mania 9 years ago."

Jesse held out his hand "It's nice to meet you. So how did you get hooked up with TB?"

"How about we get the crew fed and we can sit and she can tell you. I know the guys get pissy when lunch is late."

The three of us grabbed the boxes the food was in and went inside "Lunch is here."

The guys came out and we got the order sorted out.

I grabbed our bags "Ok where to?"

Jesse started walking into the shop "Let's go up to my office, we can talk up there"

"Ok so how did you meet this guy?" Jesse sat down and started opening tacos.

Denise plopped down on the couch, I sat on the floor "Well I was having a discussion with a couple of drunken morons outside a sports bar when TB came and rescued them."

Jesse looked confused at her "wait a min ... rescued them?"

I laughed "Seems these three morons had no idea what they had gotten themselves into. Denise is a Jeet-Kune-Do Instructor."

Jesse looked at Denise and whistled "Next thing you'll tell me you ride too."

Denise smiled "yup, and do my own maintenance."

"What do you ride?"

Denise grinned "I hand rebuilt a '51 Indian Chief."

Jesse looked at me "This one is a keeper."

Denise explained how she got into motorcycles and was an engineer, then she told the real story of how we met.

"So for your first date he dragged you out here to ride back... ?"

Denise laughed "Well that and getting the chance to meet you"

Jesse grinned "and they say romance is dead."

Denise looked at him then me "So ... are you trying to romance me?"

I'm pretty sure I turned a bit red, not that anyone can tell from my blue skin "What can I say, I have a weakness for gorgeous, brilliant redheads."

We finished up lunch and just hung out and talked for a while. Denise and Jesse started talking about riding and restoring old bikes. I jumped into the conversation when I could, but a lot of the time I was more confused. Give me a computer or a piece of electronics and I'm right there with the conversation, but engines are not my forte.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing the bike."

Jesse stood up "Well the film crew should be here in about 30 minutes. Once they get set up we can wheel it out."

"Hey I'll be back in a minute I need to get something out of the back of the hummer, is there a room I can use to change clothes?"

"Yeah just come back up here, then I can show you around the shop."

I ran out to the hummer and grabbed a large leather duffel I brought with me and dropped it off in Jesse's office.

Denise turned to Jesse "Jesse, is there a place in town you'd recommend I can get a bike in the next few days? Mine's still in Chicago."

Jesse thought for a moment "Actually yeah I do, and it's a one of a kind bike. Since you're an older bike fan you're someone who can appreciate it. Hang on a sec, let me make a call. Why don't you two go down stairs, I'll be down in a few."

We headed downstairs and wandered around the shop a little.

About 15 minutes later Jesse joined us "Ok I think you'll like this. This guy I know has a bike he's willing to sell. He should be here in about 45 minutes with the bike. He's been in town all week for a show here."

About that time the crew from Discovery showed up. Jesse pulled the producer aside for a few minutes and they were talking. I could see them off to the side and the producer looked a bit excited. Jesse pulled out a cell phone and passed it to him and he talked for a few minutes.

Jesse came back a few minutes later "Ok you ready to start?"

I nodded "Yeah, but what was all that about?"

Jesse grinned "you're gonna make brownie points from this ... you're gonna owe me."

We got things set up and Denise and I got back in the hummer and went around the block. They wanted to have us pull in so they could get set up shots and all. We walked in and did the greeting thing and all that to make it look good. Then Jesse and the guys rolled out my bike. I was stunned ... I hadn't seen the bike except a few initial drawings, The gas and oil tanks were angular and a light powder coated blue. I asked for the bigger handle bars, but not quite the old school ape hanger bars. I got on the bike and eased down on the seat.