Seeking An S.O.S.: Behind The Scenes

19. The Aftermath

As a fortune teller, Xabiere believed that he was quite clever for even thinking about that type of assessment at the last minute.

He kissed the palm of his hand and put it straight in the air, a symbol to thank his amma for helping him figure his problems out. His antennea's centers lit up, releasing a set of chemicals that displayed how satisfied he was.

Xabiere had figured out how mind reading was much better than stealing a human's body. He wasn't fit to be a puppeteer or an alien acting as a robot. Xabiere wasn't a murderer either, which was the reason why it left a bad taste in his mouth when he told Murdock about their plans in taking over a human's soul. It was just a ploy that he heard from what another alien did. He didn't mean to actually stick with the plan. Xabiere knew it was wrong, but couldn't say anything else at the time, for he knew they were being heard from afar. He knew Fritz was on to them.

Somehow and in some way.

As long as Murdock was wearing that Medallion of Vertigo, their mission to the undiscovered orbit would be quite treacherous.

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Once the police sirens were heard, Xabiere observed what Murdock did with Roman's body and shook his head in disappointment. Xabiere blamed himself for not training his friend properly on what to expect when aliens deal with humans. On the other hand, he knew there wasn't enough time for them to do such a routine, for they had a mission to get to once their break was over.

Since aliens could move faster than the speed of light, the Plutonians' footprints couldn't be traced after they teleported themselves back to their hideout in the wooded area.

Pinching the tip of his friend's antenna like an old granny would, Xabiere scolded him.

"Why did you fail me Murdock! You had one simple job and that was to act like a wise human being."

Murdock winced as he asked Xabiere to release his hand from his head.

"Geez, Xab you didn't have to pinch my ear lobe! I wasn't that bad, Roman got to eat and I found out the name of his friend. It's Clyde! Aren't you proud of me?" Murdock grinned widely as if he just won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Xabiere shook his head in frustration, while Murdock frowned.

"That's not the point! I don't care what curly-haired man's name is. We came down to visit Earth because you wanted to know what it is like. Well, there you go, you got your 15 minutes of Earthling fame! But I didn't mean for you to trigger the bad guys or what humans call The Police! They practically raided the place!"

Xabiere made air quotes to suggest that the word 'Police' meant business.

Whimpering, Murdock cried. "I didn't know I would make such a scene, that other Earthling named Clyde didn't look friendly either. I was scared, but knew Roman was hungry. I heard his stomach rumble and saw the bag of chips he was holding. So I put two and two together and got the idea that if I opened the bag and put it in his mouth, I could make the noise go away. Easy as pie!"

Easy as Pie, my hiney!

Xabiere tried to control his anger. After a pause, he quietly counted to five and calmed down.

"That's not how it's done, Murdock. When you are in a store that sells goods, you are supposed to trade it with these green papers humans call 'money'."

Xabiere gave a crispy dollar bill to Murdock, that he had handy in his pockets, so he could feel its texture.

"You see Murdock, these Earthlings use these pieces of paper in order to 'buy' food, clothes and other items they might need."

Murdock nodded his head in despair, knowing that he might not get a second try in undoing his mistakes.

Thinking about how harsh he was, Xabiere gave him a pat on the back.

"Buck up! No hard feelings my friend. You know how I am, I just want you to do better. I'm sorry to be tough on you, but we got to be tough. Show Fritz and all of our fellow aliens whose boss! We need each other's help if we are going to survive. So are you a strong Plutonian or a mouse?"

Murdock stopped crying and wiped his tears with his hands.

"So, do you forgive me? I promise I'll be an attentive Plutonian from now on, Xabiere, like a toy soldier!"

Thinking out loud, Xabiere patted  his chin, before he shut the spaceship's door.

"And Murdock, I think we'll meet those same humans again. Don't know when, or how, but there must be a reason why we selected them as our "marionettes." He grinned  knowing that idea might come true for he wanted to apologize to these Earthlings for the trouble they had caused.

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No matter how the three women repeated their encounters with the stranger in the ski mask to the police, security cameras and traces of the alien's prints could not be found. In fact, the police did not take their interviews seriously, instead, they found it to be quite comical.

All three were told to sit down on the pavement.

"Listen Miss, we are here because the cashier of the liquor store called us. He reported a robbery going on and one of the suspects ate the evidence." Sergeant Williams replied as he looked at Martina sternly.

His partner patted him in the back.

"Sir, it's a bag of chips"

Sergeant Williams smirked back to what his partner mentioned.

"No need to emphasize that, Officer Samson, but thank you for that information. Now as I was saying ... Miss?"

Staring back at the gentlemen, with a sense of curiosity building up in her mind, Martina took his question as a form of asking her name.

"Oh sorry Sergeant, it's Martina Wade.

"Yes, Miss Wade, I'll be blunt. I find your story about a peculiar looking man absurd. There are no traces of such a person, no footprints, no camera footage or DNA. So, if you are all playing us as a fool, you are wasting our precious time. Now are you gonna tell us the real truth or not?"

The women remained silent.

Holding a clipboard, Sergeant Williams focused on Bonnie and Harley's statements on the situation, and found them to be similar to Martina's.

Grunting at his notes, the Sergeant and his men huddled in a corner to discuss what the next steps would be.

"Now if you three are indeed accomplices of the two men that we just handcuffed, we must ask you all to ride with us to the police station since we'd like to ask you a few more questions."

"If I may speak, Sir, it is not illegal to eat a bag of potato chips in the store," Martina retorted. "Thus, I don't understand why you had to handcuff Roman, that's what I heard."

"Ah, yes, that is correct. But you see Miss Wade, that is only half of the story. Mr. Steiner not only ate the evidence, but his partner in crime held out a gun and fired two rounds." The Officer replied.

That news shocked not only Martina, but Harley as well, who could not believe Clyde would do such a mischievous act.

That might explain why I dreamt that I was shot. There is no ambulance coming, so I don't think anyone got hurt. Clyde had an ulterior motive. And we're just the Good Samaritans here. Wrong place with the wrong people.

Thus, Martina gazed at Bonnie's innocent face.

She's not practically an angel either. She must know something. I just know it.