(AN: Trying to get back into the school mindset is a bit difficult when you've been out of it since October, but hey, i gotta get this out at some time! Anyway, welcome back to Despair Hill Zone. With last part's discovery, what could this mean? Could the Kiling Zone Life be finally over?

And can I be consistent with putting out chapters?

Time to find out!)

"What the?..."

"N-No! I thought we said… no more… no more murders!"

"I said that and now I'm gonna lose it for real!"

"If this person is truly dead… I just have one question… who is it?"

DEADLY LIFE

As I stared at the corpse, I needed a quick refresher.

This same masked person, the one who had appeared at my bedside last night with a knife…

And now, they're dead in front of me. I didn't know where to begin. The large bloodstain which bled through their white lab coat, the knife stabbed through their chest, or most pressing of all, I had NO idea who this person was.

"See? See? Told ya there was a body here!" Rosie said. "But… it looks so lonely like that… Why in the heck would you just kill and leave a body like there to rot? It's the most boring way to kill someone. At least display them like they would in the movies!"

"But I thought… I thought this was over… Egg Robo being destroyed and… and…" Tikal couldn't even finish before silently sobbing into her hands.

"All of you need to look NOW," Wave sternly added. "I warn you though… I have a bad feeling about this."

I gulped as I buzzed forward, examining the body. The mask and the coat made it hard to tell who this was from here, so I know I needed to remove it. But… I stopped myself before I could even do it. Wave was right, how could I be certain there was something safe about this? Was this body always here? And most important, was this a trap?

All I could infer was that this person was the same person that attacked me last night. But how did they wind up here? Have they spent this long dead?

Wave walked up next to me, placing her hand on the victim's chest, then checking their pulse through the mask.

"Hm… well, I don't feel a heartbeat, and breathing has definitely stopped," she said. "Yup, all signs of life have vanished. I imagine the knife was the weapon used, but it looks like the bleeding ended. It's still wet though, so try not to stain yourself."

"How can we be sure? I mean, we still dunno who did it?" Silver asked.

Tikal, amid her crying, looked up. "I think…" she sniffed. "I think it's a boy…"

"A boy?"

"Yeah I mean… l-look at him. It's very flat chested, a lot more built than a girl is."

N-No! I had a fear that it was him but, could it be?!-

"Okay then! I heard BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY!" said Rosie. "Time to clean that mask off that cute face and see what kinda boy that is so I can curse the person who killed them because I shouldda been the one who killed them!"

Wave hissed. "Rosie, no!"

Rosie reached out to the mask as the swallow looked at me. "Bee, get back!"

She tackled me to the ground as I watched Rosie take off the mask. Before I could respond, Wave held me tight in her arms as…

There was a loud explosion.

We heard a scream as the explosion made our ears ring and we felt debris hit us. The bright light caused me to be temporarily blind as the aftermath caused audible coughing. I tried to cover my mouth and tried my best not to breathe in, but I soon started to cough violently as I shut my eyes as tight as I could. I could feel Wave loosen her grip on me and soon got up from the floor as she kicked my back.

"Bee, get up NOW!" she said. "It's safe to open your eyes now but get up!"

I opened my eyes and rolled over, only to see the swallow carrying a pail.

"Put out the fire with me, come on, let's go!"

I lifted myself up from the floor as I looked to see the masked person's body on fire. Feeling chills up my spine, I quickly grabbed the pail and rushed over, almost dropping it due to how heavy it was. A quarter of the water had already fallen to the ground by the time I reached the body but once I did, I took dead aim at the fire as Wave and I put it out. I took a deep breath as I got on my knees, sighing.

"That… that was… unbelievable…" I said. The smell of smoke filled the air as I looked behind me to see Tikal and Silver unharmed.

"Is it… over?" the echidna asked.

"What the hell man?!" Silver exclaimed.

"I knew I had a bad feeling but… I wasn't expecting it to explode!" Wave said. "And now the body is completely burnt…"

"It's like a steak you boiled in lava!"

"Silver, don't compare it to that!" Tikal said. "Great, I might not even wanna eat meat again…"

"Guys… we still don't know who that is though," I said. Everyone turned to face me as Wave looked at the body.

"Who isn't here?"

"Huh?"

"Five of us were present at the time of the explosion. Myself, you, Rosie, Tikal, and Silver. Who isn't here?"

I gasped.

"VECTOR!" I yelled, running up to the body.

"But, how can that be Vector?" Silver asked. "That guy doesn't have a crocodile snout…"

I stopped. I never… considered that…

"But who else could it be?"

"…the mastermind," Wave said. All of us were flabbergasted.

"What the hell do you mean the mastermind?!" Silver said.

"And how could he?" Tikal added.

"Yeah! The mastermind wouldn't get charbroiled like this! What, someone just stabbed a knife in them and they just keeled over?!"

"It's hard to think it's likely, sure, but consider this reason why," Wave said. "Earlier, we had found Egg Robo completely destroyed. Without a mastermind, there's no way someone can control him. And even then, how could that explain his destruction? Sure, you could argue that Egg Robo told us himself that there were multiple of himself throughout the zone, but if the mastermind is dead, a new Egg Robo can't just pop up in front of us, can he?"

Now that she mentioned it, she had a point…

"But that doesn't explain what Ditz said!" Silver objected. "Remember? It said that the headmaster is someone who's in their 30s, someone who looks too small to be the mastermind if that's the case! What, is the mastermind NOT the headmaster?"

It was exactly that when it clicked for me. I stared at the corpse, and remembered what Vector told me.

"Infinite the Jackal, the 18th student. I had mah suspicions that there was another one of us here, but now I know the truth. They're hidden in the zone walls, the one they call the Ultimate Despair. I have just one word of advice fer ya: Watch out fer him."

"Is that who Vector was talking about?" I muttered to myself, a little bit TOO loud apparently.

"I'm sorry, what?" Silver questioned. I looked up, realizing what I had said. Well, guess there's no way I'm getting out of this hole, am I?

"Is that person… Infinite the Jackal?"

"Infinite the who?!" Wave questioned. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Vector told me a few days ago that there's an eighteenth student in this zone."

I saw Wave's face turned from shock to anger as she stepped in front of me. "Bee, tell us everything, now."

"W-Well, Vector didn't tell me MUCH, all he told me was that Infinite the Jackal was the eighteenth student and that they were… Ultimate Despair. Even Vector was certain the headmaster wasn't the mastermind either, so… it's not impossible to think that the charred body is actually Infinite."

"Another student and it's a boy too?" Wave turned to look at the body. "Come to think of it, the body looks as tall as one of us."

"And besides, Ultimate Despair sounds like what a mastermind would be called, no?" Tikal asked.

"Wait wait wait, stop," Silver said, shaking his head. "So, let me get this straight: the entire time we've been here, the mastermind, Infinite the Jackal, has been hiding out somewhere. This mastermind, also a student here like us, who hid in this zone like they were the lost city of Mobodoon or something… is now suddenly burnt to a crisp. Man, this is so confusing!"

"Quickly, we need to take a look at the body," Wave said, but before she could, Tikal grabbed her hand. "What is it, pacifist girl?"

"Aren't we forgetting someone?" she asked. My eyes widened.

"Oh no, where's Amy?!"

"She got blown up, didn't she?" Silver said.

"No!" Tikal yelled. "That can't be! Surely the bomb didn't kill her?"

It was then we heard a groaning noise behind us, and as we turned to look, we saw Amy holding her head and looking like she was in immense pain.

"Ugh… Gaia, I haven't felt this awful since I drank that bottle of my dad's gin…" she said..

"Amy, you're okay!" Tikal ran up to the hedgehog, hugging her.

"W-wha… what… what in the heck? Where am I? And… oww… why does my body hurt?" complained Amy.

"I'll catch her up on everything," Silver said. "In the meantime, you three try to find clues!"

I nodded as Tikal, Wave and I approached the now charred body of Infinite. I crouched down, and through the completely tattered and black clothing, I could make out a black furred hand with some kind of symbol on it, and… a blue object. Picking it up, I stared at it as Tikal and Wave approached me.

"What the heck is this?" I asked. It looked a bit like a key, but it wasn't the one that Vector had taken from Egg Robo. No, it was like it went somewhere else.

"Any idea where this goes?" I asked the girls. Both shook their heads. That was, until Wave smirked.

"Actually, I think I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"I think that key opens a place we haven't been to yet because it's locked. Tell me, Charmy: can you think of any place that you might be able to open now with this just by how this looks?"

"Not really…"

"Okay, let me give you some starters. Of the only doors we haven't been able to access, it's been the headmaster's officer, the data center, the bio lab, and the second-floor dorms. The choice is yours."

Looking at the key again, I flipped it around a few times, trying to figure out what kind of door this key would open. Flipping it around, I noticed that there were what seemed to be circuitry lines designed onto the key.

"I have an idea as to what it might be," I said. "Gimme one moment."

"Charmy, wait!" Tikal said. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"I mean, sure, I don't mind."

"Okay, let's go."

Tikal followed me out of the garden as we made our way to data center a few feet away.

"I'm scared…" she said. "What if this is a trap?"

"Why would Infinite have a key that leads to a trap?" I asked.

"Because he's probably the one who set it up!"

"Nonsense, besides, the data center seems like an important place. What would he do, blow it up with bombs?"

"You never know!"

"Well, here goes."

With my trembling hand, I placed the key into the keyhole and turned it. After hearing that satisfying, 'click', my eyes widened.

"It… it worked!" I asked.

"Let me go get the others quickly!" Tikal said, running off for the others. I looked around the hallway, hoping that no one was coming after me or I was leaving myself open for someone to attack me. Thankfully, no such thing happened as Tikal returned with the other three.

"I'm back!" she said. Wave stepped forward.

"So, it was the data center we unlocked," she added.

"Well, c'mon! Let's go inside!" Silver said.

"Wait, before we go, I need you all to think about something. Why in the world would Infinite have that key on him?"

We stood around for a few seconds, not able to answer Wave's question.

"No answer? Figures. Oh well, let's just go inside."

The swallow opened the door as we all followed inside. I heard Silver murmur, "Whoa…" as we looked around the room. Screens filled the walls as the light bounced onto our bodies. A thick blue glue reflected onto everyone as the buzz of electricity flowing was heard throughout the room. I didn't know where to start, there was so much to begin with.

But all I knew was that this room was… strange. Not the strange like… well, this entire zone was, but the strange as in: This place was not normal at all.

"Hey, is that?" Tikal said, pointing at the screens near the wall. We all walked to where the echidna pointed and I almost felt my throat drop into my stomach.

The multiple monitors placed on the wall showed… a different screen. And on each screen was EVERY room in Green Hills.

"This is the direct feed!" Wave said, putting her hands on the monitors. "Every surveillance camera placed in the zone, they all feed back to here! It seems the data center exists for us to be monitored."

"T-Then they've seen… everything?!" Tikal put her hands over her mouth.

"Even the stuff I'm sure you didn't want others to see, pacifist girl."

"But why was it locked?" Amy asked.

"Simple: this is the mastermind's private room. Why do you think it was locked? Besides, wouldn't it explain THAT door?"

Wave pointed to a door to the left side of the room, a lone door with Egg Robo's face on it. Frankly, I didn't even WANT to go in there.

"Regardless, I think this settles everything."

"Settles what?"

"The body in the garden. If they had this key, this means that our mastermind really is Infinite the Jackal, and now he's dead."

"So the mastermind is dead? Like, REALLY dead?!"

"This ain't a joke, right?" Silver asked. "Can I actually use my powers now?"

The silver hedgehog held out his hand to try and use his ESP but found he couldn't open the Egg Robo door.

"Augh, damn. Maybe not."

As everyone talked excitedly about the death of the mastermind, I thought back to something: The way Infinite died wasn't exactly NORMAL. In this case, would that mean that someone killed him? And if so, who?

The others, however, weren't concerned like I was.

"If that means the mastermind is dead, then we can get outta here! C'mon, let's go find the exit!" Silver continued.

"We can't," Wave retorted. "We need to check everything."

"What do you mean check? What else is there to check?!"

"I want to get out of here as much as you do, dorkfest, but right now, we need to find out WHY the mastermind created this game of life or death. Surely they weren't on any kind of drugs when they made it, and had so much of this be premeditated beyond belief."

"Why does that matter? It's not like we have a trial or anything!"

"Because maybe you haven't realized it, Silver, but it's beyond clear that the mastermind has been murdered."

"M-Murdered? By who?!"

"That's what we need to find out."

"You thought so too? That Infinite was murdered?" I asked.

"Naturally. It's the state of the corpse, bee. There should leave no room for doubt."

"If so, then who?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. For now, we need to find out who could have done it."

I started to think about why the mastermind could have done it. Was it pure boredom? Was there a reason? And would the data center even have all the clues I'd need?

I knew I had to get started on investigating. Buzzing up to the monitors, I stared long and hard at all the feeds in front of us.

"Does that mean the mastermind watched Knuckles and Shadow's bro-off? ...whatever THAT was," I said to myself. Staring into the feeds, I watched close as some monitors tuned to static as it switched to different parts of a room or a hallway. But I knew I couldn't watch feeds forever. After turning my attention from the monitors, I turned to look at one of the computers sitting in the middle of the room. Unlike the laptop that had Ditz on it, this computer looked like it was state of the art.

"Do you think this computer can run the world's most intense game of solitaire?" Silver asked.

"Why would the mastermind be playing solitaire while we're all in here?" I replied.

"You never know! That's like, a mastermind thing to do! Just do ordinary tasks while watching your little guinea pigs! Like stroke a chao or eat some cookies, that kinda thing!"

"That's just in the movies. Be real."

"I'm telling you!"

"No use in playing computer games on this thing," Wave pointed at the monitor. "It seems that not only was this on sleep mode, but it's asking us for a password, and I'm a mechanic, not a hacker."

"Do you think this is what the mastermind used to monitor the network? Like, this is how he figured out that Ditz was on the network?" Tikal asked.

"That's not a bad theory, pacifist girl."

I turned from the computer to see… a TV.

"Huh?" I buzzed to it as the others followed behind me. While it was completely off…

"Hey, look!" Silver rushed forward and grabbed something that was on the TV stand. "TV antennae's! It's like the one my parents had until we got that HDTV a year ago!"

"You were on analog television that long?"

"My parents only recently gave in to getting cable…"

"Of course…"

"But still, if we hook this up, we can watch TV!"

"We can?!" Amy held her hands together. "Oh man, I probably missed SOOOOO many episodes of Mobius' Next Top Model and Apatos Bachelor!"

"Forget about that!" Tikal said. "We can watch the news to see what's going on!"

"I'd love to put this up but… I dunno how to," Silver added. Wave walked up and grabbed the TV antennae from the hedgehog's hands. "Hey, what gives?!"

"TV's are a LITTLE out of my field of expertise, but let the mechanic take care of this," she said. "Let's hope this thing has a coaxial cable and an RF port…"

As Wave got behind the TV, with Silver and Amy watching, Tikal tapped my shoulder.

"Hey Charmy… what do you think is in the room with Egg Robo's face on it?"

"Frankly, I wouldn't be able to tell you," I replied. "But it looks spooky to the point where I don't even WANNA know."

"I'm glad I'm not the only one. Something about the room unsettles me. Still though… don't you think we should give it a shot? Everyone is here after all, so if something happened…"

"…the others could save us, right?"

"Correct!"

"Alright, let's give this a shot. But for Gaia's sake, I hope this isn't a bomb."

I put my hand on the doorknob and turned it, only to find…

…it didn't open.

"Huh?"

I tried again, nothing.

"Is it locked?

"Try the key you got! If it worked here, maybe it'll work for this door too!"

Doing what she said, I got out the key to the data center, but unlike the lock to the dock, the lock to the Egg Robo door wouldn't take the key to the data center.

"Nothing too. Damn, guess we're not going there."

As we turned around, we watched as Silver plugged in the TV. A light on the TV began to shine red, signifying that it had power.

"Whoo, it works!" Silver said.

"Don't get your knickers up too high, we need to make sure this works," Wave replied.

"I know! Man, stupid mastermind, telling us we 'HAD TO GET RID OF THE OUTSIDE WOOOOORLD'!" Silver said this in a mocking tone, moving his hips as to exaggerate Egg Robo. "And here they were probably watching Chao Planet! Who makes an entire TV channel dedicated to Chao?!"

"Quiet you, we still need to make sure this works. Now, for these connections requiring RF connections, they'll be on the numbered channels. Normally, they should default to Channel 3, so Amy? Can you switch the channel to 3?"

"No problem!" The pink hedgehog replied, doing so via a remote that I hadn't realized they had found. Amy switched to channel 3 as the screen went black. When the picture finally cleared up, the picture was scrambled.

"Oh no, do we need a super expensive decoder box?" Silver asked.

"Where in the hell are we going to find one of those? And besides, unless you have Pay TV, you don't NEED a decoder box unless you're watching movies or, let's face it knowing you, porn."

"I never watched that! I was a good little boy!"

"Yeah, and Jet called himself the same thing too. Guess what he not only ended up doing but guess what kind of person he was?"

This shut Silver up as Wave fiddled with the rabbit ears. "Damn things, no wonder we all moved to satellites… Which begs the question: why ISN'T this a satellite connection? Why analog?"

We learned the answer to that question when Wave finally got the connection to work. The picture was no longer descrambled and displayed a clear as day picture quality. It was only what that picture CONTAINED that concerned us, because what we saw in front of us on the screen was…

Us, staring at the TV staring at ourselves.

"What," Silver said flatly.

"This isn't my shows…" Amy said.

"Wait a minute, isn't this the feed from the surveillance camera?" Tikal asked. I turned to face it.

"Yeah, she's right!"

I turned around to see Wave trying to stop Silver from reaching the antennae.

"What are you doing?!" she questioned.

"We have to mess with this somehow! The picture isn't normal! It shouldn't be displaying us!" he replied. "C'mon, let's change the channel at least!" he then proceeded to nab the remote from Amy's hand. Channel 4?"

Upon switching to the channel, it was the same image.

"No, Channel 7?"

Same thing.

"…channel 69?"

"Real mature of you, dorkfest," Wave replied. But upon changing to the channel, it was the same image. Silver dropped the remote in fear.

"It's… it's not broken, is it?"

"Of course it isn't!" Tikal said.

"Give it a good slap!" Amy added.

"You're right, Amy! Give it a good slap!"

"Yeah, what Charmy said!"

I froze. "I… I never said that."

"Huh?" Amy looked at me with a look on her face. "What do you mean you-"

She stopped as she suddenly looked at someone behind Tikal and I. Thinking back to that voice…. No, oh no! Oh no NO!

It wasn't…

I turned around with fear and my eyes wide as they ever could be. When I did, I saw…

Him.

"WHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?!" Silver screamed.

"HO HO HOOOOOOOOO! How's my favorite little shits been? Good? Did you enjoy having your freedom? Did you enjoy making as many chili dogs as you wanted without me? Be real, you had a lot, didn't you?!" Egg Robo said.

"Y-You!" I spat out.

"What is this?! You should be dead!" Amy screamed, bouncing up and down in anger.

"Me, dead?!" the robot replied. "How can a beautiful shell like mine just die? Nope, never can happen!"

"B-But… you were damaged!" Silver held his hands to his head.

"I'm a new Egg Robo! A chicken laid my egg yesterday and I finally grew up into a fine young man! At least, I still kept my egg on as my body but who cares?"

"B-But… the body… your body… in the gym…" Tikal whispered.

"Oh yeah, THAAAAT'S the face I wanna see. The face you all are making right now once the hope in front of you turns into despair…"

"You pretended to be dead…" Wave walked forward towards the robot in anger. "JUST for this moment?!"

"Why would an egg pretend to be dead? If it's not fertilized, then it's basically good as dead! It's almost so funny, I want to laugh! And yeah, I want you guys to laugh! No, not you, YOU! Yes, YOU!"

We all looked at each other in confusion.

"Eh, not like I expected you guys to be Einstein or anything. That's beside the point though! The point is that we need to let despair continue! And by doing so, we have to continue your killing zone life!"

"N-No… we have to… we have to continue?" Tikal bemoaned.

"PLEASE! GET ME OUTTA HERE! I'M DONNEE!" Silver begged.

"Not on my watch, you're not!" said the robot. "Besides, I told you there's no getting out here! I mean, you all spent SO long here, wouldn't you all miss the good stuff like all the food and shelter you have?"

"I don't care about that! I care about getting out!" Amy ruffled her hair as Egg Robo laughed.

"Jeez, you're acting like you're poor! Oh wait, you are! All the money can't save you from here, toots! But hey, we have a zone store to feed your spending habits, Amy! That sound appealing, right?"

"I think that's enough out of you," I said.

"Eh, guess you're right. Besides, it wasn't long before I knew you were gonna become a buzzkill. Might as well explain why I'm here! So, you did find the TV after all! And no, you all aren't gonna watch the crappy news or Mobius' Next Top Model, but… I will say: this TV has been very important!"

"It was holding a secret…" Wave said. "Well? Tell us! What is it?!"

"Yeah, like why is it showing us a feed?" Silver added. Egg Robo put his arms on his side and looked at us.

"I'm gonna let you all in on a secret. You listenin'?" he asked. "The TV is, without a doubt, displaying the signal coming in on the antenna."

We all looked a little confused, sans for Wave. "Wait a minute," she said. "You don't mean?"

"Jeez, at least YOU get it, Wave! But it looks like your dumb friends don't! Do you all need EVERYTHING explained to you?"

"Just explain it."

"Fine! This killing game… this ENTIRE zone life… is being broadcasted to the entire world!"

You know how in the movies, when someone realizes something, it's like they just witness or hear glass being shattered? This was my moment. He could say it twice and I wouldn't believe it. I didn't even move, didn't even react.

Does he literally mean…. EVERYTHING?

The others reacted just as badly as I thought. I could hear Silver screaming as Tikal began to hyperventilate.

"No! No no no! T-This…" she began to take deep breaths as she played with her hair. "This can't be really!"

"It's a lie! No one can… no can see! They can't, they can't, they CAN'T!" exclaimed Amy.

"How? I don't understand… how could you possibly take over the airwaves?! Ever since TV switched from digital and satellite usage, it's much harder to hijack television signals!"

"Wh-what do you mean?" I asked.

"Have you heard of the Dreamcaster hijacking?"

"No?..."

"Ugh, figures. Anyway, thirty years ago, someone hijacked MBTV with a homemade broadcast containing some disturbing imagery. The culprits were never found, but it's the most well-known case of broadcast signal intrusion on Mobius."

"What does this have to do with us?"

"Notice how I said thirty years ago. That was when TV stations used microwave frequencies for transmissions, not satellites. Encryption and the like were far weaker in those days, but something like this… Egg Robo, you said this was being broadcast to the entire world, correct?"

"Sure did!"

"To make a broadcast that could override not just one satellite, but ALL of them… How… how did you manage that?!"

"Not like I'd tell you my secrets! It's for the benefit of the audience naturally! All the hints I gave you, all the mystery, it's for my loving audience of people! Do you all watch mystery or drama knowing everything? No! You gotta let the story unfold and let the mystery reveal itself! If you didn't have that, then you'd have no viewers. And when you have no viewers, you have no show!"

"But with all the murders…"

"Also broadcasted!"

"You mean to tell me the entire world is watching some kind of snuff TV show, and there's nothing no one can do?!"

"Y-Yeah!" Tikal said in the middle of her panic attack. "If this was on TV, then EVERY law enforcement officer, no, every GOVERNMENT would probably want an answer for this!"

"They'd have to have come for us!" Amy added.

"What if they didn't and they… failed?" Egg Robo asked.

"NOW WHAT?!" Silver yelled in the middle of his screaming.

"It's none of their business really. If anything, watching this show is like watching any old reality show. You yell at it when people are annoying, but it's not like you can enter the TV and fight them! We're not a murder solving RPG after all!"

"What did you use?" asked Wave.

"Huh?"

"What did you use? Answer the question."

"I think I'm in no position to answer that question, Ms. Wave! Instead, I want you all to pay attention to the massive television screen, which isn't gonna play for you a rap, but instead, is gonna play you…" Egg Robo held up a remote and pressed a button on it. "…this!"

The monitor near the Egg Robo door sprang to life as another Egg Robo appeared on the screen. What he said next only made my heart sink lower.

"A body has been discovered!" he said. "Now then... after a certain amount of time, which you may use however you like, the class trial will begin!"

"Y-You don't mean?!" I said, before I heard a sudden thud. I turned to see Tikal on the floor, one hand on the floor and the other over her mouth.

"No… no no no!" she cried. "Please… not anything…! Not another trial!"

Egg Robo grinned. "Ho ho ho… Ho ho ho! HO HO HO HO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! YOU BET! And now it's time for your favorite part! No more crying! No more begging! Here comes EggPad #6! And prepare yourself carefully, because this trial is gonna be insane! I can't waaaaaaaaaaaaait!"

Egg Robo vanished as I could hear Tikal's audible sobs. I could even see Amy putting her hands over her face as she put her elbows on the closest table. She might not have been crying hard, but I could tell she was crying. What semblance of hope we had died in the last few minutes. We all believed that Egg Robo was destroyed, the mastermind was dead, and we were finally going to get out. But despair almost always has a funny way of working…

Even I felt woozy at the idea of another trial. I felt sick to my stomach, but I couldn't throw up. All I could do was sit there and accept that this wasn't going to change anything, that we were still playing Egg Robo's game, that all this was being broadcasted to the world.

"Guys… what should we do?" Silver asked. "You heard him. The world is watching us."

"P-Please… no… no-no-no more…" Tikal started. "I can't take another trial… how much blood does he want shed?"

"And I wanted to finally get out of here!" Amy cried. "Why another trial?!"

"ENOUGH!" yelled Wave. "You two," she pointed at Tikal and Amy. "Stop with the crying. Look, I get that it sucks that we have to go through another one. I'm not too pleased about this either, but all we have to do is find out who killed Vector."

My blood ran cold at this. "W-What?! What do you mean?!"

"What do you mean, 'What do I mean'? Egg Robo is clearly still alive! That means so is the mastermind, Infinite the Jackal! The body can't belong to him, I know it!"

But how? How could Vector be murdered?! Who could do it, and why? Why would they leave me alone with nobody left to trust with my life? I lost Espio, please... please, not Vector! Not Vector, not Vector, NOT VECTOR!

"I can see the look on your face, bee. Whether or not you want to admit it, you have to face the truth. It's why it's called the truth! If you don't believe it, then I suggest you find the real truth and prove us wrong. Now, I think we should get started."

Amy wiped her nose. "Wait a minute… if Vector is dead then one of us must have-"

"That's right," Wave interrupted her. "One of us participating in this game killed Vector."

We all took a step back. Silver put his hands over his head.

"Yo, what do you mean?! One of US killed Vector?!" he said.

"I didn't specifically say that."

"Then what did you-"

"Look, I don't have time to explain," she started to walk off. "I need to do my own personal research. I suggest you all do your own investigations. If we can, well, I think we can string a plausible argument from this," As she was about to leave, she turned around to face us. "By the by, I should mention this right now: If you value your lives, I suggest you give this investigation your all."

Wave walked off, leaving the rest of us behind with our EggPAD's in our hands.

INVESTIGATION

BEGIN!