The techno-organics

Chapter 12

"Before Megatron's undead army were able to go trough the spacebridge, Ratchet instructed the other Autobots how to make the whole thing to self destroy. And Optimus stayed behind to keep Megatron occupied." Miko told the story and all the techno-organics listened intensely with wonder in their eyes like a bunch of children listening to a fairy tale. Alabaster and Freedom stood by the door opening, not wanting to interfere but still listening. Alabaster watched with this gleeful look as she was feeling an immense pride over having Optimus as his original...no, father. Freedom on the other hand, despite being fascinated by the story were also feeling nauseous, horrified also. They heard heroics, she just heard how her original almost attacked earth with an undead army. She hoped that no one would ever know, if they knew then they might hate her and she would not be able to take it. In the middle of the story Miko's phone rang and everyone fell dead silent.

Miko answered knowing it was the Autobots that had figured her out.

"Miko, where are you?" It was Ratchet speaking on the other end.

"I'm fine, I'm with the techno-organics." Miko turned from the phone and faced Rachel. "It's your daddy." She revealed and pointed at the phone. Rachel made an excited squeak and buried her face in Widows fur coat. "I'm telling you guys, you are going to love them. They're so cute." Miko's voice got high pitched at the end. Soon it was Optimus that spoke instead.

"Have they come to an agreement regarding our offer?" Optimus asked.

"I don't know. Let's hear it from them instead." She turned to the whole group and held her phone in the air. All the Autobots heard on the other side was a group of different voices screaming, "YES", in a choir. It was a very clear answer. Freedom swallowed heavily knowing they would all finally meet the Autobots. She watched every one of them, watching their reactions, studying their smiles as she started to notice something were off. There were fewer of them then usual.

"Where are the twins?" She called out and they all started looking around, finally giving notice.

"They're probably just out on a pub again," Rock suggested. "Or maybe they are still looking for Alabaster." Without hesitating Canary projected a screen from the palm of her hand and used it to look for the twins. Miko watched her amazed and got a vague idea of who her original might be.

"What is happening there?" Ratchets voice was heard again. "Miko? Are you still there?" The girl put the phone against her ear again.

"Everything is fine, but it seems that there is someone missing." Shortly after, Canary turned of her screen and signed her results with an defeated look. Miko did not know sign language but judging by Freedom and Alabaster's reactions, it was not good news.

"The twins are gone." Freedom translated and everyone rose up from their sitting positions, ready to spring to action. Alabaster walked over to Miko and asked to borrow her phone.

"Hi, Optimus. The good news is that everyone has accepted your offer, the bad ones is that we may need your help with something."

The groundbridge opened again and in flew Alabaster in a blue light with Miko in her arms. She first flew to the platform and dropped her of on the couch before stopping in front of Optimus.

"Hi again." She greeted meekly and waved. Optimus did not look very pleased.

"Why would you bring Miko home to you?" He asked sternly and Alabaster's glow dimmed.

"Yeah, I didn't want to bring her in the beginning," She started, "But she is very convincing." Alabaster shrugged her shoulders and Optimus shock his head disappointed.

"B-but it was good that she came along." She defended and turned to the other as well. "She was able to convince everybody to accept your offer. She has been telling stories about you and your missions, and now everybody is eager to meet you all." The Autobots took a step backwards except Optimus who smiled warmly at the girl and petted her carefully on the head with a big finger. Alabaster was overjoyed, this was exactly the type of affection she had dreamed of. She gasped softly as her deep blue eyes sparkled.

"Tell your friends they can enter." He said and Alabaster reached into the swirling light with a growing makeshift tentacle.

"Just one thing you should know about us..." Before she could tell, two lights entered the base. A small glowing yellow one that flew around the base and a bigger blue one that showed to be a armored boy in cybertronian size. The Autobots jumped back and readied their blasters before Optimus ordered them to stand down. The three humans stared at the giant, not expecting any of the techno-organics to be cybertronian sized. Flash stood by with his arms in the air in a none threatening way before Alabaster explained the situation.

"That's what I tried to tell you guys." She began slowly. "We can all shift size and we all decided to shift into cybertronian size in order interact with you better." Optimus switched his focus to Alabaster.

"You can grow as well?"

"Yes, but I figured that it would be confusing for you if I suddenly became a giant." She explained as her blue light engulfed her like a cocoon and made her grow until she finally broke free from her blue light as a giant that reached all the way up to under Optimus's shoulder. The Autobot leader stared down at Alabaster with a confused expression before reaching out and patting her stiffly on the head. Like he was making sure that what he saw was real.

"Everyone, this is Flash." Alabaster presented with an outstretched arm as she reached into the vortex again with her hair.

"Can I let my hands down?" He complained before doing so and spotted the blue female. "Mama!" He gasped and ran towards her in hyper speed and gave her a big hug. She struggled and cursed in his hold before stopping mid punch to realize in horror that he had called her, mama. He lifted her up in the air and spun around as he laughed.

"I'm so glad to meet you. I have always wanted a mother. You are a lot smaller then I imagined, but I don't mind." He spoke rapidly as the rest of the techno-organics walked trough the vortex. Awing at the sight of the robots, similar to the Autobots who stared baffled at the human looking creatures. They had expected the hybrids to look deformed, like an unholy mix between organic and cybernetic. But they were wrong, they were quite beautiful. Especially the tallest one that surely caught the eyes of the human boys. Flash put Arcee down on the ground before standing in the other side of the room with all the others except Alabaster that still stood beside her original.

"Everyone, this is my family." She called everyone's attention before presenting. "You have already met Flash." He waved as Wasp flew in front of him before he grew and landed in the arms of the armored boy. "The little one he's holding is Wasp." The boy waved eagerly towards the yellow Autobot who waved back in a similar manner. "The one with the hammer in Valkyrie and the one beside her is Rock. Then there's Canary, Rachel, Toni and Widow." Alabaster walked over to Freedom and put an arm around her waist. "And this is Freedom, my best friend." The African woman made a silent two fingered greeting as she put an arm around Alabaster in a protective manner. The Autobots observed everyone of them, not quite believing that it was true.

"I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, and this is Ratchet, Bulkhead, Arcee and Bumblebee. As well as our human allies Jack, Miko and Raphael." He presented before stepping closer to their guests.

"Why do you all require our help?"

"Two of us are missing and we need your help to find them." Freedom answered matter of factly. She had her guard up since the moment she entered the base and waited for something bad to happen. After all if anyone would be able to link her to her original it would be them. Optimus saw how tense she was, how she didn't trust them and she had all right, but he still wanted to have a good relationship with someone so close to his daughter. Optimus was surprised to have used that term, but he was not wrong. He kind of liked it.

"I understand that you don't trust us, but I assure we'll do everything we can to find your comrades." He reassured before the sound of giggles was heard. Wasp flew towards Bumblebee and circled him playfully. The scout tried to keep track of where the little one went and spun around confused.

"It's nice to finally meet you. Can you fly too? You have those weird things on your back." He climbed on top Bumblebee and studied his wings with childish fascination, but Bumblebee grabbed him and held him in front of himself to study his offspring closer. The other techno-organics quickly prepared for the worst but was held back by Optimus that asked them to calm down. Just like when Alabaster and Optimus first met, it was like an electrical current went trough both of them and made them warm up to each other. Bumblebee smiled warmly at the little creature as the electric wave ebbed and he brought Wasp closer so he could press his forehead against the small boy in his arms.

"Adorable." Bumblebee cooed and rocked Wasp. A sigh of relief went trough the room as both side could settle with the fact that there would be no fighting.

"Now that that's settled," Freedom started before turning to Canary to see what she had to say. "Canary asks if she and Rachel can use your computer." She translated and the doctor stepped aside to present the computer. Canary helped Rachel forward and once they were there, they stopped for a moment to admire their technology. Ratchet saw their reactions and huffed.

"This is nothing," He began. "This is just human technology that I have modified."
"I know," Rachel said, not removing her impressed expression. "I can see that it's human but the fact that you have been able to modify it to such an extent is truly impressive." Rachel turned Canary to see if she agreed and the lavender haired girl made a thumbs up. "I mean, it's one thing to use and modify technology of your own but for you to use technology, that I presume is far less advanced then what you use on your own planet, and make it work is truly worth admiring." Ratchet smiled flattered and thanked for noticing his work.

"I'm hope I inherited your talent as well." She said and Ratchet went rigid. How could he forget after Alabaster told him? Rachel was his. Canary didn't mind them and went straight to work.

"Didn't you know?" Rachel asked and lifted a surprised eyebrow.

"Yes, yes, I knew." He said tensely. "It just somehow slipped my mind, that's all." He observed the girl closer and noted that they shared some facial features. Her squared jaw, her ginger hair whose shade greatly resembled his paint job and her unusually bright blue eyes. Canary poked Rachel on the shoulder and signed her to start working.

"Right," She sighed knowing she couldn't waste time on talking to her original and went to work. Ratchet also noted Canary as well, and he didn't need much time to figure out who she was made from. The fact that she didn't speak was a big giveaway by itself; and it gave Ratchet a bad feeling telling him to stay away from Canary.

While those three worked the rest of the Autobots made sure to make their guests at home.

"I must say that you don't look like what I imagined." Bulkhead said to Rock that leaned against the wall. Excited to meet his techno organic, Rock was a lot different from his siblings because of his looks. While the others could be mistaken for being fully human, Rock's left side was completely covered in metal. Like someone took a human and a cybertronian, cut them in half and put two halves together. Bulkhead figured it must be much harder for him to blend in among humans, too bad he can't transform.

"How did you imagine us then?" Rock smiled smugly and raised his metallic arm. Bulkhead stuttered awkwardly before answering.

"I was thinking most of you would be deformed."

"Some of us were actually that way," Toni explained. "The first ones to be made were heavily deformed and died shortly after birth. It was not until they perfected the CDNA-formula that they were able to make fully functional techno-organics." She explained and put her arms around Widow that sat in her lap. "But even when it was "perfected" some of us still was still born with different types of "genetic malfunctions", as we like to call it." Toni rolled up her sleeve to show her prosthetic arm. "I, for example, was born without a right arm or leg." She smiled at the Autobots expressions. For her it was not a big deal but she loved seeing other people reactions, they all looked so ridiculous and seemed to lose the ability to say anything. But their reactions was mostly rooted in the new piece of information. It hurt their sparks to hear about how many more had to suffer and moreover the freaks of natures that was made in their images. Freedom was tense and waited for the moment one of them would point out one of her friends as a Decepticon child. The thought actually made her sad since they seemed to have fun, especially Alabaster and Wasp.

"You two make a cute couple." Arcee commented as she watched Toni press Widow closer to her heart. They both looked into each others eyes and smiled proudly at their partners.

"Hell yes, we're cute." Widow said and messed up Toni's hair playfully, which made the tomboy threaten to ruin Widows braids as well.

"Can I ask you something?" Jack said from the platform. "How did you all end up in London?" Freedom rolled her eyes and answered the question.

"We just stopped there temporarily in the beginning, but the city brought us lots of fun so we decided that we would stay and try to be more human." She answered dryly and checked her nails. Soon she raised her gaze to spot the bigger human wave to get her attention.

"What?" She spoke with a gentle tone but Jack still felt like he was shrinking under her intense gaze.

"It's just something I have been wondering," He started as he compared her to the Autobots for a moment. His first guess was that she could be Bulkhead's but she didn't share any similarities. So he went over to Optimus who was more similar in size but Alabaster had presented her as her friend not sister, so Jack drew the conclusion that she may be made from a Decepticon.

"Well?" She waited for him to say something. Jack jerked as she had pulled him away from his thoughts.

"Sorry," He began before talking. "I have just been wondering, is the ones you are looking for The scarlet twins?"

Once everyone was settled Optimus brought Alabaster to a separate room so they could have a private conversation. Optimus looked down into her big eyes as he tried to collect his words, but looking at her only made it harder. And for the first time in a very long time he was at a loss of words. It was so much he wanted to talk with her about but suddenly he did not know how to even start.

"Is it something you want to talk about with me?" She asked without letting her sweet smile disappear. He cleared his throat before talking.

"I just want to know..." He rubbed his helmet not knowing how to phrase himself. "Do you really want me to be your father?" That sentence made Alabaster's eyes shine up as an immense happiness appeared and grew in his chest. Without realizing it, tears had started to spring free and roll down her cheeks. Optimus wiped them away before placing a hand on Alabaster cheek. They did not say anything as Alabaster pressed his metallic hand closer and simply enjoyed this small tender gesture: and for the first time feeling complete.

"But why?" She mustered and wiped away a few more tears and pressed his hand closer to the point where she was hugging it.

"I can't really explain it." He started and drew his other hand through her hair. "Ever since I saw you in the mines I have had this immense need to keep you close, to protect you and care for you." He placed a servo on his chest where his spark was and felt it hum. "I don't know how it's possible but I think I'm developing parental instincts."

"Can I call you daddy?" She looked up with hopeful eyes before Optimus leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers.

"You have permission."

Anastasia was strolling the dark halls of the spaceship as she took out a pack cigarettes and put one between her lips. Nikolai was busy with his projects and she had been bored for a long time but the guards wouldn't let her past them. What a joke, saying he want them as allies and then treats them as prisoners. Anastasia snapped her fingers and her metallic nails hit against each other, making them heat up. She pressed her nail against the but of the cigarette, making it light up. As she drew her first blow she started to hear faint mumbling voices again. She just sighed and shook her head trying to make it quite, she didn't care much if it did not work, after all she had been very used to it. She kept walking, thinking what she could find hiding on the ship. Another lab, a storage, maybe weapons.

"So that's what smells. I can't understand why human enjoy them so much." Arachnid commented as she made her presence known. Anastasia mused as she turned around and blew out a cloud as she studied the spider con that was no doubt Widows original.

"You're the first female I have seen on this ship. Are girls like a minority among your species?" She asked fascinated while also noticing that Widows "mommy" did not have extra arms the same way as she did.

"Yes, actually. Only one in thirteen of every cybertronian that was created was a femme."
"One in thirteen!" Anastasia gasped and gave Arachnid a cigarette. "How are you able to stay sane surrounded by all these dicks." Anastasia snapped her fingers and lighted the cigarette Arachnid was still holding.
"I will admit that I enjoy having another femme here, even if it is the company of a freak like you."

The insult did not bother Anastasia and she took another puff.

"If that's the case then I think you would like the company of the rest of our family. Since the majority of us is female, you see." She coed and smoke came out of her mouth.
Arachnid, on the other hand, stood and watched the white roll without knowing what to do with it.

"You put it between your lips like this, take a breath and then blow out the smoke." She demonstrated and Arachnid followed her lead. Technically cybertronians don't breath but they can still suck in air in a similar manner. Arachnid followed the hybrids lead, inhaling the smoke and then letting it out.

"Not as bad as I imagined, still kind of gross but it brings some feeling of relaxation." She said and drew another puff. Anastasia was impressed by how she didn't cough on her first try, but guessed that was simply the result of different biology.

"How did you even get past the guards?"

"The ventilation." Anastasia answered matter of factly. "No need to be wary about what you say to me, darling. I know any intelligent being would like to ask me tons of questions, knowing what we are?" She leaned against the wall with a knowing look.

"I was wondering how you and your brother could have such remarkable powers when your...What's the word humans use again?"
"Father."
"...When your father don't posses them?" She finished and drew herself closer to the hybrid.

"How do you know we didn't get them from our mother?" She joked and Arachnid gave an amused smile before Anastasia answered.

"The ones that created us made a series of experiments in order for us to develop powers and abilities our originals possessed, or in this case, didn't posses." She opened her hand to show of red lightning and Arachnid looked at the small light show with fascination.

"For me and Nikolai the experiments included having several syringes filled with chemicals penetrating our skulls, all the way to the brain and injecting us, all the while we were electrocuted." She spoke with fury in her voice that she tried to control and drew her nails against the metallic wall so four claw marks were left behind. Sadistic as Arachnid was, instead of feeling any sympathy for the girl she simply put what Anastasia had just described on her memory for her to try sometime on a prisoner.

"I still have these tiny holes in my skull." Anastasia said and placed a finger on the side of her head. She leaned down, took Arachnids hand and placed it over the same spot. Arachnid moved her finger around until she found the hole hiding under her healed skin and jerked back disgusted.

"My other question," Arachnid said and Anastasia stood upright again. "How old are you really? The Decepticons have only been on this planet for five years, yet you two look all grown up."
"Do you want my physical, mental or chronological age?" She half joked and drew a hand trough her scarlet hair.

"Your chronological age is enough." She answered dryly.

"I will soon be three years old." She answered nonchalantly and Arachnids eyes widened in surprise. She went for another blow but noticed the roll had burned to a stump.

"What do you do when you're done with it?"

"I really wish there was a garbage bin around, but we'll just settle with stomping on it." She threw the stub on the floor and crushed it under her high heel and Arachnid did the same

"How about we do it outside so we leave less traces?"

"Then it's a date." Anastasia said and Arachnid left with an amused smile.