Chapter 1: Welcoming Party for Despair
(Ab)normal Days
Day 2
"This is an announcement. It is now 7 am. Have a wonderful day."
Ratchet gave a low groan as he onlined his optics. Looks like what happen last night wasn't a dream, he thought to himself as he got out of the berth and out of the room. Blurr was already out, no surprise there. "Hey, Ratch," Blurr said, walking towards his direction. The stairs down were in his direction, of course. "Looks like what happen yesterday wasn't a dream."
"Unfortunately," Ratchet agreed, heading towards the stairs. Blurr quickly caught up and walked at an equal pace with him down the steps.
"Any ideas on who brought us here?" Blurr asked, trying to start a conversation.
"As of yet, no. The only definitive thing we know about them is that they are insanely rich and that's it," Ratchet informed him as they made it to the first floor.
"Not to mention the fact that they are sadists," Blurr interrupted.
"Of course, but that goes without saying. Anybody who subjects people to this is incurably sadistic."
The two kept going in silence until they reached the cafeteria and entered it, revealing no one else in it. The two quickly got a cube of energon and drank it at their place on their table, waiting for more to come. It didn't take long before other early risers entered.
"The early merchant gets the first customer," Swindle answered to his question of why he was up early.
"And my training," Onslaught remind him as he grabbed a cube and sat down. "The others will probably be late with nothing to do."
"Hey, everybody," Drift cheerfully said as he entered.
Counterpunch and Soundwave entered silently and took their seat.
"Woo!" Wildrider yelled as he jumped in. "Another beautiful day in Suck Academy."
"Why did I let you sleep with me last night?" Dead End complained as he went and got his cube.
"Because we're the best of friends," Wildrider answered him. "Thanks for stealing that low-grade out of the lounge. I went out like a protoform." Dead End ignored him and took his seat, Wildrider following. No one else was coming in for awhile so they just talk to each other.
"So, where does everybody live right now," Onslaught asked the table. "Me and Swindle both live in Iacon right now."
"As do I," Ratchet answered.
"Same," Drift answered.
"Wildrider and I live in Ibex," Dead End answered. "Reconstruction is coming along nicely."
"I go from place to place with no permanent residence, although I do spend a lot of my time in Ibex as well," Blurr answered.
"Kaon," Soundwave answered. Counterpunch gave a nod in agreement.
"Hmph, looks like we're all connected with someone," Onslaught murmured.
"I bet the numbers will go as more people get in here," Blurr said.
"What will go up?" The group turned to see Perceptor, Mixmaster and Shockwave entered the room.
"We're talking about where we live and all that stuff," Swindle answered.
"Hmm, well, I live in Iacon and Shockwave lives in Kaon," Perceptor replied to the question.
"I live wherever the Constructicons are needed. We move a lot," Mixmaster answered.
"What I figured," Onslaught said as the three scientist sat down.
"So, what are you three doing today?" Dead End asked them.
"We're testing an acid we cooked up in the science lab today. We hope it will be enough to open the vault of a door," Mixmaster answered.
"It is extremely durable," Shockwave mentioned.
The conversation floated to different mundane topics, letting in some of the more regular teachers.
"We was just wondering around the school a little bit," Hound said, including Mirage and Hoist.
"Nursing a hangover," Smokescreen answered, holding his head.
"I was lazy," Vortex answered.
"I didn't to admit that we were still stuck in this sinkhole," Brawl said.
Blast Off said nothing. Just got his cube and sat with others.
"I slept in just a little late," Jazz answered.
"Me and Rewind were exploring the A/V room a bit before we came here," Chromedome answered as they took a seat.
"I would've been here earlier, but I tripped on the stair on the way here and had to make a quick fix in the infirmary," Nautilator answered.
"I was, uh, doing nothing," Skywarp answered as he came in.
"SKYWARP!" they heard reverberating throughout the building from Bumblebee.
"Like I said, nothing," Skywarp answered taking a seat.
Scavenger entered, looking nervous. "Oh, boy. He looks mad," he muttered as he entered, getting his cube and taking his spot.
At that moment, Bumblebee came in, covered in pink paint. "Skywarp," he growled, marching towards him.
"Hey, Bumblebee, calm down!" Beachcomber called out from behind him, entering.
"It appears Skywarp started his pranking," Nightbeat muttered, striding in behind Beachcomber and stealing a cube.
"Yeah… see you later," Skywarp said before warping out. Bumblebee glared at where he was before stomping out.
"Taking a shower," he said before exiting the cafeteria and passing Bludgeon. He glanced at the pink scout for a second before shaking it off and getting his energon and place.
"What happen to the scout?" he asked the table.
"Skywarp poured some paint on him," Onslaught offered.
"Ah. Well, if the foolish one value's his life, he will stay away from me," Bludgeon threaten.
"Oh, wow! What happen to Bee," Knock Out asked as he entered, looking immaculate.
"Skywarp," Jazz said.
"Oh, suck to be him," Knock Out chuckled before taking a seat at the table. "SO, what's on the agenda today?" he asked them.
"Well, first we got to test out Mixmaster's acid and see if it can take care of the front door," Ratchet started, getting everybody's attention.
"Which I should go check on. Be right back," Mixmaster said, getting up and heading out of the cafeteria to the science department.
"After that, well, if it works we get out."
"And if it doesn't, we're stuck here," Blast Off coolly said, his first words since entering the room.
"Well, what else can we do besides finding a way out? Any entertainment?" Blurr asked.
"Well, I found some low-grade. Not too bad," Smokescreen told him.
"You could always paint and do some digital artwork on the third floor," Chromedome told him.
"I think the lounge area got some instruments up there. We could mess around with them," Swindle mentioned.
"A/V room got some discs. Might have something we can use," Nightbeat told him.
"You could check out the gift shop," Jazz offered.
"Right, so, not much to do," Blurr sighed.
"You want to know how you can get more to do?" Monobear asked as he appeared out of nowhere, taking Skywarp's seat right next to Blurr.
"Uh, that would be nice," Blurr awkwardly said.
"Alright, it's simple. Get somebody to kill someone!" the bear advised.
"Uh, besides that," Blurr rejected.
"Ugh, you guys are no fun. I mean, you're train killers. At least one of you should be dead by now!" the bear chastised.
"Maybe because we all hate you more than each other," Mirage offered.
"Why do you got to insult me like that?" the bear asked.
"I don't know. Maybe it's because you want us to kill each other," Mirage sarcastically said.
"Well, there's no need for you to be rude about it?" the bear huffed.
"We got a problem!" Mixmaster yelled out, entering the room.
"What?" Onslaught asked, standing up.
"The acid is missing!"
"Oh, that? I took it," the bear mentioned with a shrugged.
"You?"
"Yes. After all, can't have you attempting to escape, can I? Anyway, the acid wouldn't in the first place," the bear informed him.
"Why you little…," Mixmaster growl out, heading over to crush the evil bear.
"Woah, calm down Mixmaster," Jazz said, as him and Onslaught hold him back. "No need to get yourself killed over this," Jazz soothed. Mixmaster silently glared at the bear before relenting taking a seat back at the table as he glared at the bear.
"You know, because I'm such a nice headmaster, I'll give you your acid back with the original amount it had in it when I stole it," the bear offered. "Just don't use it to try and escape or else I will punish you for it," the bear threaten before disappearing. The group silently looked at each other before Jazz announced:
"Alright. Breakfast is over."
"I'm telling you, it's nothing," Nautilator complained as Ratchet looked at his arm. Nautilator had covered it with a bit of malleable plastic, but opening it revealed that his statement was a complete lie. A piece of metal was sticking out of the wound, greatly exposing it to Ratchet.
"Dammit, Nautilator. This is a far cry from nothing. The strut is sticking out of your arm," Ratchet reprimanded. "You should've come to me immediately about this."
"And have another person think I'm nothing but a giant screw-up? Fat chance," Nautilator shot back.
"Right, do you know this can become infected with technopathogens? If you had just told me about this in worse conditions, I would've had to chop it off," Ratchet told him as he moved in his arm in position. "Now, at the count of five, I'm going to push this strut back into position and reattach it, got it?" he asked him.
"Yeah…" Nautilator said nervously.
"Alright, on your go."
"Okay. One… Tw-AGH!" Nautilator screamed out as Ratchet move the strut back in place. "I thought you said on five!"
"If I did, you would've back out earlier," Ratchet told him before he started reattaching the strut.
"Oh, come on. You think this is the first time this has happened to me?" he asked.
"I imagine not," Ratchet said, not really paying attention as he was fixing his arm.
"I think this like the… twenty-seventh time my arm has been like this. A few times they had to chop it off, but we can always build new one."
"I know. I've got your medical records," Ratchet mentioned off-handily. "I've met a few accident prone people, but never to the extent that you are."
"How do you have my medical records?" the seacon asked, shocked.
"I found them here on the first day. Someone really did there research on us, as they are all accurate," Ratchet told him.
"What? How did they get them?" Nautilator asked.
"Probably bribed a few people. Considering how rich the guy probably is, it isn't too much of a stretch," Ratchet said as he finished reattaching the strut to the joint and was closing the wound.
"That… is impressive, in a really disturbing way," he murmured.
"No kidding. I even found one on me, for Primus's sake." He paused in his work. "I don't remember a file on me," he mused before he continued repairing it and finished. "There. Done. Now," Ratchet said, placing plastic on the closed wound, "keep that on it and your auto-repair systems should finished the rest."
"Thanks," Nautilator said, getting off the bed and heading out of the infirmary.
"Right. Let me check on it every day after until it's completely healed," Ratchet ordered him.
"Alright," Nautilator said with a wave of his hand, leaving Ratchet by himself. Ratchet gave a grumble about an accident prone Seacon before putting his tools in the right place.
"Someone drinking early," Ratchet remarked as he took a seat next to Smokescreen in the lounge on the fourth floor. Smokescreen was currently downing a cube of low-grade. Across from them on the other side were Blurr, Jazz and Hoist. Jazz was telling Blurr about how to play a bass while Hoist was just an observer.
"Yeah, well, there's nothing here to interest me so I'll just drink out in the open where everybody can see me," Smokescreen said.
"Worry someone's going to put a knife through your back?" Ratchet asked.
"You could say that," Smokescreen muttered. "I doubt anyone on our side is going to kill anyone, so I'm just making sure no Decepticons get too close to me."
"No Decepticons?"
"Well, I speak to Swindle sometime, but I make sure it's in public and I'm sober. Just because I consider him my friend doesn't mean I trust him," Smokescreen informed him.
"Personally, if you're paranoid of everybody, just go in your room and lock the door so no one can get in," Ratchet advised him.
"Come on, Ratchet. I got to talk to some people otherwise I'll go insane."
"Point taken."
"Look, we just rest here for a few days until the nerds figure a way out of here and kick the guy running this right in his aft," Smokescreen told him. "Once that's done, I think I'll take everyone here to the bar and buy them a cube of high-grade. Especially you as you need to loosen up a bit."
"How charitable of you," Ratchet complimented with a bit of gruff in his voice.
"What I'm here for."
Lunch came and the others got there cube and, instead of all eating together, head to separate areas of the building. Ratchet headed upstairs to see how the scientists were on how they can use the acid without facing any punishments from the headmaster.
"I'm telling you, someone took some of the acid," Mixmaster was saying. Ratchet entered the room to see Perceptor, Mixmaster, and Shockwave looking over the vial of acid. "The vial was almost full when we put it back for the night and a small amount is missing now."
"It does look like there is a little bit less…." Perceptor looked to see Ratchet entered the room. "Hello Ratchet. We may have a problem," Perceptor informed him.
"Problem?"
"We think some of the acid was stolen," Perceptor informed him.
"It is a disturbing thought," Shockwave chimed in.
Ratchet felt his spark sink. Could someone already be planning murder?
"Could Monobear had taken it?" Ratchet asked.
"I doubt it. For all the sadism he has in him, he seems like a stickler for the rules and probably did nothing to the amount of it."
"Which leaves us with just about anybody could've taken it. Anyone could've been up at night and stole it.
"Judging from my estimates, about enough to kill two people are missing from this. We should be more careful around everybody with this knowledge," he advised the group. "We should put a couple guards overwatching the energon."
"And the drinks in the lounges," Ratchet told him.
"Yes, those too," Mixmaster agreed. "We'll alert everybody when dinner comes around. Makes sure everyone is in attendance," he told the room. "We have to make sure everyone is alert about the threat."
"Can we rule anyone out as stealing it? Anyone, even one of us, could've stolen it," Perceptor asked the room.
"Probably Wildrider. This morning, he told us that he drank a lot of low-grade last night and was knocked out pretty early. Probably was in recharge mode before the evening announcement. Dead End can confirm it," Ratchet answered.
"Great. One down, twenty-nine more to go," Mixmaster sardonically replied. "Besides, even if we had no proof he stole it, I would count him out. He's more of a stab-and-shoot kind."
"By that logic, we could eliminate Drift and Bludgeon from the suspect pool. Neither uses anything other than melee weapons and would probably not want the poison."
"Brawl probably didn't take it either. Same reason," Mixmaster hypothesized.
"Alright, so we struck four off the list of possible suspects. We should keep a close eye on every one," Ratchet warned everybody.
"Alright, until dinner, relax and keep your optics on. We don't want anyone dying today," Mixmaster told the room.
An hour before dinner came, Ratchet was walking down first floor, seeing if anybody was doing anything, and stumbled upon the scientists and Jazz working on a door next to the cargo elevator. "Oh, hey Ratchet. We're trying o get this door opened," Jazz responded to him as Mixmaster successfully melt the internal locking mechanism and opened the door.
"Didn't Monobear said something about this?" Ratchet asked the group.
"Nope!" Monobear said, appearing out of nowhere next to Ratchet. Ratchet gave a silent grumble, already used to the bear sudden appearances.
"Which rule permitted them to get in?"
"Rule four, of course. Well the door was locked, but I was just going to open it after the first murder. It serves no purpose right now," Monobear added.
"What serves no purpose right now?" Ratchet asked.
"Why don't you come and see!" Mixmaster yelled out to him. Ratchet ignored the bear and looked in the door to see a shock.
A working groundbridge.
"A groundbridge?"
"Yep! A working groundbridge, but don't think you can use it to escape. I've specially modified it to only transport students to other active groundbridges inside the school. It's practically useless until you open up more areas of the school," Monobear told them.
"Huh, well, I guess it's better than nothing," Jazz muttered to himself.
"Any-who, bye-bye," the bear said, before disappearing again.
"We really need to put a bear on that damn bear," Ratchet said to them.
"Maybe, but for now, we to get Soundwave," Shockwave told the room.
"He is the most experience when it comes to groundbridges. Perhaps he could manipulate a way out of the building using the groundbridge," Perceptor agreed.
"Right, we'll get him to look at it after dinner. Until then, I guess there's nothing more we can do with it," Jazz said, walking out of the room. The rest followed suit, leaving Ratchet to observe the groundbridge by himself. Ratchet couldn't get rid of the ominous feeling the groundbridge was giving him, but why? Ratchet pushed that thought away and exited the room. It was best to wait until later, when they had learned more about their predicament.
Dinner came, and Jazz and the scientists made sure everyone stayed to discuss the events of today. The group came in pretty quickly, looking okay. The only one who looked to have problems with each other was Bumblebee and Skywarp, who were glaring at each other. Obviously, Bumblebee hasn't got over the paint incidence yet. Other than that, everybody was friendly enough. At the very least, they all tolerated each other. Still, Ratchet couldn't get rid of the thought that one of them was already planning murder.
Shortly after it started, Mixmaster announced to everyone the missing amount of acid missing when Monobear returned it to him, indicating someone stole some that night. Everyone reacted with varying amounts of surprise and some of the more paranoid ones were already glaring at everybody. Perceptor told the group that they would have to start watching the energon and low-grade in pairs. Onslaught and Beachcomber agreed to watch the energon in the cafeteria, while Swindle and Smokescreen agreed to the third floor lounge and Hoist and Dead End agreed to the fourth floor lounge.
"With that done," Mixmaster said to the group, "we also found a groundbridge in a locked room down by the cargo elevator. We are currently usable to use it to transport us somewhere outside the school, but we figure with Soundwave's help, we can hack it to get us outside the school."
"I will see what I can do," Soundwave answered.
"Good. Now then, was there anything else to mention?" he asked his fellow scientist.
"None at the moment," Shockwave said. Perceptor similarly nodded.
"Alright," Jazz said, "Everybody who has guard duty, let's get to it. Not anything more to say."
"Thank Primus," Skywarp said before warping out of the room. Everyone shared similar sentiments and walked out to do something else or head to their posts.
"I'm worried," Ratchet heard Blurr said to Smokescreen as he waited around in the third floor lounge. "We've been here for almost two whole days now and I've not heard a single thing outside."
"I know," Smokescreen replied, the low-grade making his emotions come out a bit more. "At the very least, we should've heard Optimus tried to talk in that way too loud voice of his to let us out, but… nothing. Not a peep."
"You think something is going on outside?"
"What do you think?
Ratchet tried to block this conversation out as he settled into his chair. He always trusted Optimus, but there was nothing from the outside world. What could've happen out there?
"Hey," he heard a familiar smooth voice said. He turned his head over to Swindle, who was sitting right next to him. "Are you alright?" he asked, a cocky grin planted right in his face.
"Well, let's see," Ratchet replied quickly, "we're stuck in this Primus-forsaken building with no way out right now, a bear trying to get us to kill each other, and I'm looking into your smug face. Tell me, do you think I'm alright?" Ratchet asked him.
"No, probably not," Swindle replied, looking thoughtful for a second before looking back at Ratchet. "Tell me, what do you think got the big OP and Screamer so occupied that they can't rescue us from this hellhole?" he asked him slyly. Ratchet sighed in anger. He blocked out Blurr and Smokescreen for just this reason and now Swindle was forcing this on him.
"I don't know, maybe they erected defenses," Ratchet said.
"Ratchet, let me tell you, if they did that, we would've been all over this place earlier. It's unthinkable they could smuggle that many weapons under our noses. Trust me on this," Swindle told him.
"So, maybe Megatron is alive again and Optimus is too busy stopping him to help us," Ratchet said quickly.
"If that happen, he would instantly assume that this was all a part of his plan and got us out quickly," Swindle countered.
"Than… than… I don't know. A situation like this has never happen before," Ratchet confessed.
"Exactly, nobody knows. We lack information, which is very odd don't you think?" Swindle asked him. Ratchet looked at him oddly.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, just two days ago, we were all outside, getting ready to visit this school. No prophecy or signals from somewhere to indicate something is wrong. So, why the sudden lack of information. The lack of anything outside happening. Why is that happening?" Swindle questioned, his smile fading.
"Because… we're missing something," Ratchet said.
"Exactly, the question is what? What are we missing?" Swindle asked him. "Nothing was going on and then it just seemed like the world just went and died again overnight. Why is that?" Swindle finished before speaking again. "You should probably go rest. It's almost time for the evening announcement," Swindle told him.
"It is?" Ratchet asked, looking at the clocks. It was 9:30 PM.
"Getting late. Me and Smokescreen will stay until midnight. After that, we'll head off to recharge."
"Wait, a question of my own," ratchet told him. Swindle smiled again.
"I'm all ears."
"What do you think happen outside?" Swindle's smile deaden.
"I don't know," he answered, heading to where Blurr and Smokescreen were. "If you want to talk to somebody else who's really interested, talk to Dead End. He's been speaking metaphorically a lot about it. Could know something," he said over his shoulder, leaving Ratchet by himself. Ratchet contemplated the surprisingly thoughtful conversation with Swindle before heading out of the room, looking to find Dead End.
"This is an announcement. It is now 10 PM. Please rest peacefully."
Ratchet opened the door to his room as some of the lights turned off in the hallway. He couldn't find Dead End anywhere in the available area, so he assumed that he went to his room. He was about to knock and see if he would let him in until he remember that Wildrider was probably still in the room and Ratchet would not tolerate maniacs. He headed to his room and got in his bed, ready to recharge. Ratchet didn't quite know what tomorrow had in stored for him, but he knew he was getting Dead End y himself to talk with. Any new information with what going on outside would be invaluable in this situation. As Ratchet headed off to sleep, he could think of only one thing.
What could Dead End know?