The techno-organics

Chapter 4

Jack and Miko leaned over Raphael when he tried to show something on his computer. It was a news article about a violent murder in an alley in London. It said that three gang members had been brutally murdered the night before and their wounds had baffled the police. For it looked like not only had they been killed with an untraceable chainsaw, but their bodies was also covered in burns, like they had been electrocuted several times.

"I understand that this is a interesting murder but why are you so eager in showing us?" Jack, the oldest boy asked as he read the article.

"After what the Autobots told us before I have been trying to find leads of any more alien. This one caught my eye because it says, here, that an eyewitness described the murderers as a boy and a girl with extremely white skin and glowing eyes." Jack and Miko read the part that Raph was pointing at.

"And read this," Jack said as he pointed at a line, "Apparently the girl held something glowing in her hands. Don't this sound like what the bots told us? What if it was not something she held that glowed, but herself."

"What should ewe even do with this? We don't know if this really is the alien girl and a friend or just a gang war." Miko pointed out to the boys and did not look very pleased. "But if we go down there and see for ourselves then maybe we can find out for sure." She suggested and started to look excited which unsettled the boys.

"Miko," Jack said annoyed at Mikos lack of understanding the danger." Did you not see what happened to those thugs? They had guns and knifes and experience with fighting, and looked what happened to them." Miko just rolled her eyes despite what Jack tried to explain to her. Raph started to get uncomfortable and in order to stop another fight between them, he suggested a safer option.

"What if we let the bots look at it and let them decide?" The teens looked at the boy and after a moment of thinking they nodded and agreed to his suggestion.

"What do you think?" Raph asked and the robots turned his attention to him.

"We can't know for sure based on the article alone, but I'll make sure to contact agent Fowler and ask him to investigate." Optimus spoke but it did not please Bulkhead who was quick to protest.

"Optimus, I don't think that we should let Fowler know about this." Optimus turned around and asked the wrecker for an explanation. The big green bot stuttered slightly before he started to talk again.

"I mean, look at what happened to those humans. They probably just messed with the wrong people and they got dismantled. What do you think will happen if the girl, and whatever else she's apparently hiding with, finds out that they are hunted by the US government?"
"For not being the sharpest in the team, you're really making a good point." Arcee complemented before she shared her opinion. "Besides, I don't think Fowler will be pleased knowing we encountered another potential alien lifeform and didn't immediately report." Optimus noted their opinions and thought about the girl again. She seemed so scared and childlike when he saw her, so it was hard for him to believe that she would do such a gruesome thing.

"And," Now it was the medics turn to speak. "It wouldn't be wise to make such a big fuss out of such a insignificant event, and we have limited resources that we can't waste on a goose chase." In that moment, Miko, saw her opportunity.

"But if you let us do the search." Jack tried to silence her but she ignored him and kept talking. "You don't have to contact Fowler or risk wasting your time if this turns out to be a false lead." Jack tried again to tell her to be quiet but she refused to listen. "We will go there and take a look and if anything happens then, Ratch, can just bridge us away." Jack hoped that they would not consider it, but by the look on their faces, it didn't seem that way.

"I'll be the first to admit that Miko is not the one to make rational decision." Ratchet said and Miko crossed her arms over her chest as she pouted. "But it's not her worst idea." He finally said and her face lighted up while Jack face-palmed.

"It is a solution and our human friends have proved themselves capable before. This might work, as long as all of you agree to it." Miko didn't hesitate but Jack and Raphael took a moment before they agreed.

Widow watched as Wasp played on the playground. He was running around, climbing and performed acrobatics that awed the other kids. She loved seeing him so happy and because he was too young to remember their old lives, he could live without ever looking back and be plagued by horrible memories, unlike the rest of them. Even now when Widow saw the other children play with their parents, she could not help feeling jealous over how lucky they were. They were not made to be someone else's weapon, they were not trained to kill or torture, and they did not get cut open, or dismembered and put together.

"Which one is yours?" A mother holding a baby joined her on the bench. Widow was caught off guard a had to take a moment to calm her nerves before she could speak.

"I'm not a mother." She started. "I just here making my little brother company." She pointed awkwardly towards Wasp who was playing with sticks with another boy. The women looked at the little Chinese boy and back at the older Brazilian girl. They looked nothing alike, but why did she mistake Widow for a mother. She had the physical appearance of an older teenager. Could it be her clothing? She did like to show skin and wear lots of makeup, it maybe made her look older. But she still didn't like to be mistaken for a mother. Widow told the most common lie she used in these situations. "He's adopted." The women accepted that lie and Widow could sigh in relief.

"I'm sorry if I'm being dodgy, love, but their was recently a murder just a few blocks away. It have spooked the whole neighborhood and every one is being extra careful." Widow turned her attention to Wasp before she proceeded to talk with the women.

"A murder?" She asked and the women pulled out a newspaper out of her bag.

"I am going to show it to my friends as soon I have the opportunity. They don't know whats going on yet." Widow scanned the text and as soon as she saw the description of the murder method she knew instantly that the twins was to blame. Widow gave the newspaper back and excused herself, "I'm sorry, but I have to tell my family," she said as she held her jacket tighter around her body and told Wasp they needed to go.

Jack, Miko and Raphael walked out of the vortex and into an alley in London. Jack took a moment to question his choice while the other two seemed rather excited. Jack sighed and thought it was necessary to remind them why they are here.

"We are not here for sightseeing. The bots send us here to investigate, not so we could play tourists." Miko rolled her eyes at him before talking back.

"We know, but on the bright side, if this turns out to be nothing we can go on a real sightseeing." Raph chuckled but Jack started to get a headache.

"Seriously, though," The youngest of the three spoke, "We should start with investigating the crime scene and perhaps see if there's anymore witnesses." As the three walked Miko took several stops to take photos and selfies which annoyed the boys greatly. On the way Raph had insisted on taking out cash from a money dispenser, and despite Miko and Jack asking, he simply stated, "just in case". Luckily, Ratchet had groundbridged them close to the crime scene, that still was surrounded by cops and police tape.

"Well, I had hoped that they had moved on by now. What are we doing now?" Jack asked and that gave Raph his opportunity to shine. He locked at the homeless and the prostitutes and took out the cash he had taken out from his wallet.

"What are you doing?" Miko asked when she saw what the twelve year old was doing. He looked at the girl with a smug smile and said, "I'm going to ask the locals." The other teenagers immediately understood what he meant and followed him.

"Why do you think they have anything to say?" Jack asked and pointed with an open hand and Raph reacted by giving him a judging look before he explained.

"Let me tell you something Jack, that my father told me," He began. "The people on the streets are people too, but other people, like you, ignore them and don't think they can do anything other then what's told." Jack twitched, not only for Raphs accusation, but moreover his change of attitude. "I promise, guys. Just like a housewife knows all the gossip in her neighborhood, these ladies will know everything in theirs." Miko, as well, stared at Raph with dilated eyes, not knowing what to do other than follow his lead. Raph ran to a group of prostitutes who was also staring at the crime scene from afar.

"There's a lot of commotion going on." They didn't answer him. "Do any of you ladies know something about this that the police don't?" He asked and showed them some money. The women looked at him without saying a word before one talked.

"Are you not too young to be walking around here alone?"

"No, he's actually with us." Jack presented himself and Miko, and Raph could relax, knowing they could back him up. "Look, we're sorry to bother you, but we are looking for someone that might be involved." Jack tried to look harmless and sound trustworthy. But the women still did not want to talk.

"I've got some info that will interest you." One women said as she raised her hand to be seen. The other women suddenly got tense and tried to talk to convince them not to tell, but she just ignored them and led the youths to another place to talk.

"Well, what is it that's so important that your friends got all defensive?" Miko asked suspiciously .

"Okay, here's the deal." She said as she lighted a cigarette. "About a year ago some kids moved into our neighborhood, really weird kids by the way."
"Weird how?" Jack asked.

"I don't know how to describe them. But you know in some alien films where the alien is trying to figure out human costumes and shit. Like that kind of weird." Okay, now it sounded really good. "They were scared of everything and didn't know some bloody common knowledge. I saw one of my colleagues give one of them a chocolate bar one time, and their face lit up like a child meeting Santa, and I swear I saw them cry. I just figured because most of them looked really foreign and I thought they must be from some third war country or something, I don't know."
"Can you please go back to the topic?" Jack tried to ask as polite as possible without showing how irritated he started to get.

"Fine," She sighed and breathed out a smoke cloud. "Anyway, one of these kids is this fucking cross-dressing lesbian." She mockingly said which irritated Miko. "She reached out to some of the girls on this street and offered to be their new pimp. She made a really attractive offer, she only took ten percent and she promised to treat them much nicer then their former pimps. Which is why those bitches did not want to snitch on their savior." She started to see that the teens where getting bored. "Just a few more minutes, I promise, I'm getting their." She breathed out another cloud. "Because, the ones who murdered those gang members are friends with their pimp, we call them, the scarlet twins." The teenagers listened now closer. "They are the most insane people you have ever encountered. They say they hear voices, they always insist that they somehow are just three years old and they are always going around and acting in the most nonchalant and over the top manner. And the bloody brother is always carrying around a gigantic bloody chainsaw under his coat. Though I must insist that he is hot." The children knew the chainsaw had to be the murder weapon they read about. Who else walked around London carrying a chainsaw.

"You said, the brother, do you mean that there's a twin sister." Raph asked and handed her some more money to keep her talking. She put it in her bra before she started to talk again.

"Yes, the sister is just like her brother, but she must be carrying around some turbocharged taser or some shit. 'Cuz, sometimes when she gets into fights it comes red sparkles out of her hands." They knew these where the murderers now, but they did not know if she could be the girl the Autobots saw.

"How does she look like?" Miko started to get excited.

"They are a pair of ginger Russians, how does that matter?" The teens sighed loudly, thinking they have reached a dead end, before Jack decided to ask a last question.

"Is one of those kids you mentioned a girl with extremely white skin and hair, and have really big blue eyes?" The woman's eyes shoot up, knowing exactly who they talked about.

"Yes, the albino. Oh my god, she is the weirdest of them all. Just her looks are weird, she is really skinny and tall, and those eyes. We talked about them the first time we saw her, they were bloody inhuman." The teenagers faces lit up knowing they were on to something.

"Thank you, very much." Raph said before he gave her the rest of the money. "And can you, please, keep this secret?" He asked before they all left.