Something was very wrong. I wanted to spend half an hour with a board and photos and strings mapping out recent events, making connections, figuring it out. It was eating at me. I knew there was something I had missed.

What had Amanda meant to do with me? She couldn't stab me without blowing my cover. What was her plan? Did she think she could stealthily attack me? Was there a gas vent she was gonna help my face into? Was she gonna check me for magical gamer tattoos or something?

I had too many puzzle pieces, few corners, and not enough information to solve it. It was eating away at me. And that wasn't the only thing. Why was Obi not warming to me? With him and Xavier on my side we could probably take out Amanda, but he wasn't warming to me.

Pressure on gamer's mind increasing.

Ominous.

I did a health check up of doggo. Eyes. One was a bit swollen. A bit droopy. Tremours in my arms. It had been infected. I'd cleared that, but there were still some toxins. They were both responsive to light. I checked their ears. Some pus. They'd also been infected, but that had been cleared. No serious damage. Teeth felt fine. No rotting or damage. I checked their neck. No microchip. Weird vaccination location. Shouldn't be on the front of the neck. Heartbeat was steady, but fast, lungs sounded fine, if fast breathing. Had been a bit abnormal before in my disease check up, but I'd cleared that. Temperature was still elevated, but it would come down with time. Fleas were dead, eggs were dead. Still some lumps and bumps and scratches. Skin was flakey, and a bit tight. Some dehydration.

They'd vomited a few times. They were pretty unhappy

They clearly weren't in good health.

Wisdom check 20/25 failed.

Wait- Jigsaw puzzles. A failed wisdom check. I tugged at the dog's face. This couldn't be Jigsaw himself, hiding in a furry suit!

No, they were a dog. Good. I'd been scared for a second there.

"Found it!" Said Addison. She had been searching through a wardrobe for the key. She tossed it to me. I caught it. "Thanks. How did you get so good at finding things."

"In my profession, you learn to keep an open eye." She tapped her finger by her eye. I guess she probably had high ranks in some observe variant for sex workers. Yay her.

Xavier spoke. "That's not the only thing you keep open."

"At least I don't open other people's veins."

"Guys, guys, don't fight. Daddy loves you both." I finished unlocking the dog's chains, and went to the letter.

"So, guys. Want to bet out what creepy shit Jonas was up to, that got him a dog puzzle?" I asked, holding the tape.

"I bet fucking dogs." Said Addison.

"I bet he made those dogs into pizzas." Offered Xavier.

Daniel offered his contribution, lifting up his mask. "Hot dogs, hot dogs for all. Made with real love."

Jonas shook his head. "Haha, very funny. I'm a volunteer vet, in my spare time."

I gestured to the tape. "Whoever gets closest gets to decide what happens to the next cure. Any other bets?"

Gus offered one. "I bet he ran an illegal puppy farm." Jonas swore at him. "What do you guys think of me?"

I gestured at him. "The over eager man has his bet. Obi. You wanna get in on the action?"

"This is a dumb game." I nodded. "Yes it is. Amanda?"

She paused, and looked at Daniel. "He was a volunteer vet, as he said, but he neglected his advancement because of it." The dog growled in my arms, as she spoke, suddenly scared.

"A boring answer by Amanda. Let's find out."

I played the tape.

"Hello, Jonas. You're probably wondering why you're here. I'll tell you where you're not going. Anywhere in life. You go from job to job purposeless, pathetic, letting others control you. Your only focus is on helping animals, rather than your fellow man, and leading dogs to hurt others. I see someone apathetic and unwilling to contribute. Well now you have a chance to contribute. So are you going to die today, Jonas, or are you gonna do something about it?"

I ehhhed. "Honestly, he was just phoning it in there. None of that screams 'lock me in a nerve gas house'. Just because you don't have a traditional career, like vet care, or photography, doesn't mean you don't have meaning in your life. How were your dogs hurting others?"

Jonas sighed. "I trained several drug sniffer dogs." I gestured at him. "Ah, that makes sense. Jigsaw hates the popo. What did you sniff out with them?"

"I trained them to sniff out a lot of things. We've been focusing recently on prescription drug abuse. A lot of people sell on their medication."

I paused. "Did you ever… help the dogs, or see them help a man with blonde hair, brain cancer, thin looks-" He shook his head. "No- but I did see them arrest a doctor. Her husband looked like that and sounded crazy. I wasn't even involved, but he told me that my dogs were wrong."

I snapped my fingers. "Jill tuck?"

He nodded. "Yeah, her."

"Oh snap. Your dogs got Jigsaw's wife. This is personal. What was she up to?" Should I have said that?

"Selling methadone to patients."

"That cheater. I bet he didn't believe it."

"Nope. He said she'd been set up. By Eric Matthews."

Gus looked uncomfortable. "I knew Jill. She was kind. Was that why I was brought here? And I was arrested by Eric Matthews." A chorus of assents came. Crap. This is why you didn't listen to tapes.

"Hey kid. Did Eric lock you up?" Asked Xavier, to Daniel Matthews. Crap. I couldn't have the group collapse.

"No, he didn't. I'm-" He looked from side to side, at the angry people.

"What about you?" He asked me. I shook my head. "Nah, they got the wrong person. I'm pretty sure they meant to snatch Laura. I was driving her car. She did get arrested for shoplifting by him."

Addison stepped up. "Wait, I know you. You're Daniel Matthews. You were his son!" She held the knife up. "Your daddy locked me up on false evidence!" Jonas stepped in front of the boy, as did Amanda, and Xavier and Gus stepped towards Daniel, weapons raised. "It's not his fault!" Jonas said. "He was just a kid."

Doggo was getting pretty agitated, but I calmed them down with some honey.

"Woah." I said. "Everyone pause. This is getting out of control. Daniel, what's your opinion on your father?"

Daniel looked from side to side, like he was seeking permission, then spoke. "He's a cheat and a liar. My mom left him because he cheated on her with his partner. I hate him." He spoke.

I nodded. "And he hurt a lot of innocent people here. Will you help them get revenge on him?"

"I will. He deserves it all. He's why we're in here."

"Yeah." I said. "He is. And when we all get out alive, we can put him in a trap worse than any here. Anyone disagree?"

Xavier spoke. "I bet seeing his kid hurt would hurt him more than anything."

I gestured at him. "Maybe. We can use Daniel in videos. Make Eric think he needs to self harm to escape. We just need to get out first. You ok with that?" He calmed down, and swished his spiked club.

"Fine."

Leadership challenge passed! Leadership levels up. Leadership levels up!

I sighed in relief, and I handed the antidote syringe to Amanda. "You won the bet. You know the rules. Who do you want to get it?" She looked around, and handed it to Daniel. "For being honest." He took the syringe, and injected himself, and took off his mask. "Thanks." I saw suspicion in his eyes though.

Amanda was very good at guessing what was on tapes she hadn't heard.

I looked at relationship statuses.

Amanda. Kill on sight. 0/100

Daniel. Neutral. 80/100

Xavier. Close friend. 36/100

Gus. Disliked. 2/100

Addison. Obsessed. 12/100

Obi. Hated. 30/100

Jonas. Friend. 13/100

Obi had gone down. What had happened? I wasn't sure.

We went onto the next room, and just as we got in, I completed Megatron.

Computer levels up!

Megatron was an abomination. Several computer brains hacked together, lobotomized, wired together in a mad way. Using the racing car, and some metal to give it stability he could move on. But Megatron was not unarmed. Mounted on him was a camera with the lens ripped out, and a mount for a knife. Trailing wires ripped from the wall led out behind him.

A customizable, wire controlled abomination. My abomination. Not a lot of range, though we could extend it with more wire if necessary. Battery powered by the torch battery. Ready to fight.

And we needed him. The next room was a toilet, and in front of it, mounted in the wall was a spinning door. Glass. I could see wires mounted on it.

On the other side was a chair, with a mirror mounted in front of it. There was a glass box mounted in front of it. The chair's arms had clamps mounted to it, criss crossed, with wires leading off it. In front of it, hanging over, was another. There was a note, addressed to Addison on the wall.

"Want to do the honors?" I asked her. Still a bit tense, she snapped up the tape, and played it.

"Fine."

"Addison. You're a beautiful girl, who could have gone many places in the world. You chose to waste your life selling your looks, lacking the confidence to chose a better path. Now you have a chance to save yourself. Sit down, put your arms down, and relax. But are you willing to sacrifice your looks for your life?"

I looked at Addison. "I am deeply for him. Old people are often pretty regressive. I respect your choice to do sex work, and you have never shown any shortage of confidence. I'm proud to have you by my side. Ready to beat this trap?"

I honestly wasn't completely sure. Maybe one of us could go in with armor? But I wasn't sure what would stand up to it. There were enough tripwires to make things go wrong. I was pretty sure the idea was you squeezed in, triggered the door tripwires or pressure pads, a timer started, sat on the chair, put your arms in, and had to use your face to push open the thing to get the syringe.

I really wasn't sure how to solve it. I could maybe do something with the robot but… or maybe inside I could smash into the case. Looking at it with my survivor sense, I was pretty sure that the arm rests were pressure connected to the face mask. I couldn't see any other connections. You pressed down on them, they locked, and the face thing opened. The angles weren't good.

"Why are you making us do this? You're smart. You solve this." She stormed off. I sighed. "Xavier? How about you." He grinned. "We smash the glass and-" I shook my head. "Trip wires everywhere. If we smash our way through it'll probably smash the cure."

"Send the dog through to get it."

"They're not trained-" Waiiiiit. Wait wait wait.

I looked at the dog going with us.

Invite to party.

The dog accepted, somehow.

Food? Cuddles?

They could send me messages. Wow. This was weird. Maybe I could make it work.

And I could give it perks! I gave it the poison resistance perk. It instantly looked better. It's heart rate went down, it looked less sick.

What I needed to do was to trigger the arm rests, without locking myself in. The dog was light enough to not set off pressure pads, I was pretty sure- from my efforts poking them with a stick, they seemed to have a bit too much resistance.

"Jonas, help me." I ordered. He nodded, and took the other end of a rope.

I sent a command to the dog. "Step over the wire. Don't touch it."

They did.

I picked up a kettle. "Put it on my foot." I put it down.

I got a message. "Honey?" I took out the honey jar, and gestured at my foot again.

He picked up the kettle, and put it on my foot. Yeaaah! I gave the dog some honey.

You have gained a skill! Animal handling.

I looked at Xavier. "You are a genius." He grinned. "I am. So, the dog is gonna fetch it?"

Jonas spoke. "You're great with animals. I've never seen an animal obey someone that fast."

"I am. I surprise myself sometimes. And yeah. We need to weigh the two arms with something- a kettle would work for each I think. Maybe two. Then we need to open the metal gate in front of the case. I think we can do this."

Doggo, his provisional name, walked into the waffle trap room, eager for honey. In their mouth, they carried a kettle. They'd worked with their two new friends, the human who smelt of old meat and power, and the human who smelt of other dogs and kindness. They just had to put it on the thing their friend had pointed to, and they'd get honey. They stepped over a stick, and put the kettle down, and ran back for honey. Their friend told them to do it again, with another kettle. They did it, and got more honey. They did the same for the other stick on the thing their friend pointed at.

Then, their friend had a strange request. They had made a toy for him! Circles on each side, and mounted on the middle, a circular metal object, like those food came in. They often waited outside the human's homes, hoping for a circle of food. But there was no food in this circle. Above it was a sharp stick.

The woman who had brought him here was there, outside. He hoped his new friend would protect him. She'd been so cruel. She'd offered him meat, and then there was sudden pain. He'd felt really nervous and agitated after. Like he wanted to fight. But his new friend had come along with honey and he felt better.

He picked up the toy, scratching away the vine coming out from behind it, and went into the room, avoiding the thin sticks in the room. They hopped up on the chair, and held the toy up to the metal, just like they had been told.

It moved! The sharp stick on it pushed open the metal. He could feel the heat coming off, smell it. He didn't want to get close. He shuddered. The toy wiggled in his mouth. He better get a lot of honey for it. It moved the food circle below the thing inside- some plant, he could smell- and waved it's head with the sharp stick. The plant fell into the bowl, and he brought it back to his friend.

I blinked. Woah. That was a weird cutscene. I was inside the dog's head. Being a dog was weird. Strange game. But look! He had retrieved the syringe.

You have earned +1 dex (suspended) for having a party member retrieve the cure!

I held it out to Jonas. "You earned it. Thanks for the dog advice. You're a good trainer."

He started to inject himself then paused. "Do you think the dog-"

I looked down at Doggo. "They're poisoned, but they're not coughing up blood. Any idea what's up with them.

He inspected Doggo. "Maybe… cocaine? I've seen some of the local gangs inject it into dogs, to make them better guards. Doesn't tend to work that well. He looks like he's coming off it pretty well."

I blinked "Oh yeah. That was- I found a vaccination mark on their neck?"

He looked surprised. "Where?"

I knelt down and pointed. He gently took the dog's neck, as doggo ate honey. "You normally can't feel injection marks. On humans they're more visible, but dog pelts are less connected to the underlying tissue. That's why you can feel them moving around when you touch them. This injection mark- someone really dug the needle in." Amanda. "And was pretty brutal about it."

I looked at Amanda quickly and looked back, and spoke more quietly. "He seems real nervous around Amanda."

We checked out Laura's room. It was basically a T shaped set of pipes, with hydraulic presses above and below it. There was a second set of pipes, filled with glass beads above it. You had to crawl through the pipes, and there was a glass case in the middle- no thanks.

Xavier's needle trap had all the cures we needed.

Addison came to me after.

"Look…" she said.

I shook my head. "I shouldn't have tried to make you do your room."

She nodded. "I appreciate you trying to help us. And, I wouldn't have thought of using the dog. I don't like my identity getting out, you know?"

"I won't tell anyone. Do you like your job? Because I can get you a better one. Twice as much money, and super flexible."

"Twice as much money as you make."

"You don't know how much I make."

"Name a number."

"A million dollars a year."

I shrugged. "Done. Two million a year." I had a plan.

She looked at me strangely. "You're being honest. What would you have said if I said a billion?"

"That you must have one magic body."

She smiled. "I do. Will I have to use my body for the job?"

I shrugged. "We all have to make sacrifices."

We headed back to the needle room, using the robot knife as a mirror to look inside. That let us easily get in without tripping the tripwires and setting off the timer. After we got there, we played the tape.

"Hello, Xavier. I want to play a game. The game I want to play is very similar to the one that you've been playing as a drug dealer. The game of offering hope to the desperate, for a price. I think we can agree that your situation is desperate. So I offer you hope. The price that you pay is that you must crawl into the same pit of squalor you force your customers into. By entering this room, a timer has been started. When the timer expires, the door in front of you will be locked forever. Only in finding the key before the timer runs out can you unlock and retrieve the antidote inside. I will give you just one hint as to where that key is: it will be like finding a needle in a haystack. Let the game begin."

I uncovered the needle pit. Tens of thousands of dirty, disease covered needles, one of them with a hidden key inside.

Amanda spoke, dismissively. "You got another Macgyver plan for this."

I shook my head. "No, this one is pretty perfectly designed. I can't see any way whatsoever to bypass it. This is Jigsaw's masterpiece. And by the way. Thank you for volunteering!

Xavier and Jonas stepped forward. Xavier spoke slowly. "I'm looking forward to this." Jonas spoke, angry. "Fuck you."

I looked at Amanda. "Thank you. Taking one for the cause." I finger gunned her, as Jonas, and Xavier went towards her.

"No, not again!" She said, moving her burnt body away. "This is his trap! You can't-" Xavier and Jonas grabbed her, Jonas looking very angry.

Amanda went flying into the needle pit.

Never fuck with a man's dog.

Really, that's lesson one of handling people. Kill them, not their relatives. Also, anyone who manages to guess what the SI did not gets a special prize.

Poll up as well for the dog name. Dog shall be staying around for a while. Check my profile to see it.

Dragonbornthesam. Sadly, there are no easy fast stat growth routes to power. He already gets to respec every mission, he has enough firepower.

Thorison1080. I hope you mean micgyver not macgyver, because micgyver is added.

Hitgamer22. Name added. It would be funny if he was Nick.

Arkyong. Name added.

Dr Cookie Deleter. Name also added.

DG2. Soon. Soooooon. Vengeance must be had, for the cocaine injection.

Gatling2745. Name added, and thank you for the compliments. Reviews fuel my work.

Watermelonninja. Stalker would be fun. I'll add it to the world list.

Mistersnx, Recieve The wind, names added.

Zackman2k12. The first two names are added.

Guest. Nope, the plan is to do all the Saw movies, and maybe some of the comics and games.

See you next time. And we shall see if anyone guesses the surprise planned.