"Someone's preparing for the worst," Perceptor noticed as he saw Ratchet cleaning surgical tools for use.
"Well, I figure that if there's a stabbing in the party, I can treat it before the victim dies, thus saving a life," Ratchet explained. "I really hope it doesn't come to that, but I'm preparing for anything."
"Alright, well, if you need me, I'll be in the fourth floor while Soundwave will be preoccupied with the fifth floor," Perceptor told him.
"Aren't you afraid someone will come up there and murder you?" Ratchet asked.
"Ratchet, the infirmary has a clear line of sight between it and the steps, so if they want to do that, they'll have to pass you and I think they would have to be really stupid to do that," Perceptor told him as he headed out the room.
"Alright, just watch your back. We need to make sure no one gets murder tonight," Ratchet told him.
"You got it," Perceptor said over his shoulders as he went up the stairs to the fourth floor.
"You guys are lucky I'm not playing," Smokescreen told the nine players at the table as he was shuffling the deck. "Any questions on the rules that people need clarification on?" he asked and was met with a cold silent.
"Just pass them out," Blurr murmured from the farthest chair on the right.
"Hey, Blurr, calm down, alright," Drift said from the center chair. "We're here to have fun, so quit fussing."
"En, he's right, Drift. Let's get started," he said, passing a card out to the person on his left, Rewind, than passing one to Chromedome, Mixmaster, Scavenger, Drift, Bumblebee, Blast Off, Vortex and Blurr, than repeating again to give everyone their second cards. Rewind and Chromedome is the small and big blind, respectively, which means Mixmaster decides first what to do," he said, nodding his head towards him. "You all have got a hundred thousand shanix in chips each, so please don't everyone waste it in 5 hands. I'll be sincerely disappointed," he told them.
"You ready to break, Brawl?" Onslaught asked his fellow Combaticon.
"Ready, boss," Brawl clamored, getting ready to shoot the first shot of the night. There was an 8-ball tournament going on at the pool table between eight people. Brawl and Onslaught went the first round, follow by Knock Out and Skywarp, Dead End and Jazz, and Hound and Wildrider.
"Alright, than crush it," he ordered, which Brawl did immediately, hitting the cue ball with full force, sending it into the center of the right side causing the balls to spread everywhere, resulting in a stripe to go in.
"Hah, one down!" Brawl cheered.
"Six more to go," Onslaught reminded him. "You're stripes."
"Then there was that other time where, due to my poor sense of direction, I accidently walked into a Wrecker squad," Nautilator recounted, nervously.
"Hmm, they aren't much of a challenged. They go in guns blazing without thinking of the trap that may await them," Bludgeon informed him.
"Um, you forget, I'm not you. I can't kill a squadron of wreckers by myself!" Nautilator told him.
"Then how did you survive them? Did they choose to capture you instead of killing you?"
"I wished, but nope. They shot first and I ran away, with them chasing me. I ran for Primus how long when one of their shots accidently caused a building to come down and block their path to me," Nautilator explained.
"Hmm, how lucky," Bludgeon muttered before widening his optics. "Just like those other stories you told."
"Yeah, well, I'm very unluckily lucky."
"Hmm?" Bludgeon wondered. "That was contradictory. Provide context," Bludgeon told him.
"Um, well, it means I stumble onto a lot of bad situations, but I am lucky enough to avoid being destroyed by it, somehow," he explained. "Doesn't help my social skills," he complained offhandedly.
"Yes, but your tales do prove that you have an unnatural lucky streak," Bludgeon muttered. "It is worth investigating if you've been blessed by an unnatural force. I have run into many beings that have an unnatural skill to them. You could be one, and it… interests me," Bludgeon said, intrigued by what he just said. "Strange I would be drawn to an individual like you."
"Coming from you, I'll put that in my top 10 compliments list," Nautilator said.
"You have one?"
"Yes, you just knock 'You are slightly more useful than scrap metal' off the list."
Nightbeat watched over everybody in the lounge, paying attention to every move everyone made. The energon was right next to him, so if anyone was going to poison it, they would have to get through him somehow, which was borderline impossible. Besides the people playing games, Beachcomber was cheering Onslaught on in his game of pool, Mirage was helping to over watch the poker game, and Counterpunch was…
Say, where was that guy?
"Where's Counterpunch?" he muttered to himself.
"Behind you," he said, causing Night beat to be momentarily shocked, before straightening himself and looked behind him at the solitary Decepticon.
"You don't talk much?" Nightbeat observed.
"Hmm, I see no point to. I do what I am told to do by Megatron and that's it. With his death, there really isn't much for me to do," Counterpunch told him."I'm lost without a purpose."
"Is that why you came here?" Nightbeat asked.
"No, I came here for answers."
"Answers?" Nightbeat asked confused, as Vortex celebrated winning the first hand of the night.
"There was something in my note that… frightens me. I wish to figure out exactly why it's so," Counterpunch told him. "As far as murder goes, you won't see me do anything until I get a straight answer from the headmaster himself."
"That is slightly comforting," Nightbeat muttered to himself.
"Good. I wished to show that I'm no one to watch over, so you can stop giving those suspicious glares at me during meals whenever I fail to contribute to the conversation."
"Ah, you noticed," Nightbeat stated.
"It's not that hard. Silent person who isolates himself from everyone? Bound to be a probable murderer in your book," Counterpunch accused.
"Well, to be fair, I'm suspicious of everyone," Nightbeat told him.
"Yes, of course. So, do you need help to make sure a murder doesn't occur?" he asked.
Nightbeat glared at the Decepticon, wondering what was his motive for doing this before shrugging it off and saying: "Just help me watch everybody. No one must murder at this party tonight."
"Understood," he agreed, standing next him and glaring at the partygoers.
"Onslaught, why do you have to show me off like this?" Brawl complained as Onslaught lined up the cue ball to knock the 8-ball in one of the corner pockets.
"Because, I need to show you why I'm the commanding officer and that corner pocket," he said, before hitting the cue ball and knocking the 8-ball right where he designated and leaving three stripes still on the table. "And that's game."
"Onslaught wins and knocks Brawl out of the tournament," Beachcomber announced. "Up next, Knock Out and Skywarp!"
"Oh, you're so going down, pretty mech," Skywarp taunted.
"I have a feeling you're going to be swallowing those words," Knock Out threaten as Beachcomber quickly prepared the balls for the second game.
"Let's see what you got, prima donna."
"I must admit that is quite a feat escaping the crashing spaceship without dying. Grabbing onto an escape pod as you were forced out in space and letting go to hit a powerful geyser to cushion your fall is quite lucky," Bludgeon complimented. "You are quite the escape artist."
"I know, right? I keep escaping from unsurvivable situations alive, if majorly injured, and no one compliments me," Nautilator complained.
"I don't blame them. As a warrior, you are undoubtedly weak-"
"Hey!"
"-but as a survivor, you excel over most beings I know of. Accident prone that you are, you know how to get through them."
"Yeah…," Nautilator agreed, going quiet. "Tell me, how did you get to be such a amazing warrior?" he asked.
"Simple: lots of training. You don't become a master of metallikato overnight," Bludgeon told the weakling. "It was a harsh and strict training regiment, meant to test the mind and soul. I, unlike most who study it, was a created natural for it and excel at everything that was needed of me to excel in."
"Wow, you're a badass," Nautilator said in awed.
"Naturally."
"How is that possible!" Skywarp screamed as Knock Out sinked the 8-ball into one of the side pockets that he called.
"Ah, flyers. Always so cocky until they get grounded to reality," Knock Out bragged, unable to resist the smug grin from coming onto his face. Skywarp glared at grounder before yelling a quick cursed and teleporting out of the room. "Oh, he's that much of a sore loser? I should've expected it," he bragged at the sight of the retreating seeker. "Who's next?" Knock Out asked.
"Dead End and Jazz," Beachcomber said.
"Oh, this shall be interesting," he said, before handing his cue to Jazz, who readily accepted it.
"Yo, Old Doom 'n Gloom. You want to break?" Jazz asked.
"Are you sure?" Dead End asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure," he replied as Beachcomber finished racking.
"Alright, first, a quick quote," Dead End mentioned as he set himself up. "I wished to quote a human."
"What is it?"
"Oppenheimer, who isn't a poet, but is suitable in this situation."
"Alright, what is the line?"
"'I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.'" Before Jazz could get what those words meant, Dead End hit the cue ball and knocked it into the balls and knocked three separate solids into pockets. "Not a bad line for a misquote of a poem." At that moment, Jazz realized it was a metaphor for how screwed he was.
"All in," Blurr said, as he pushed what remained of his stack into the pot. He had been betting in every hand so far and lost all of them. He would be bleeding soon for chips and had to act soon to save himself. Almost immediately, everyone folded. The only person who dared to go up against Blurr was Scavenger, who looked nervous, but put half of his stack in to match Blurr's.
"Alright, showdown. Reveal your hands," Smokescreen told them. Blurr did immediately, showing a pair of aces, a heart and a spade. Scavenger lazily flop hand his on the table, showing a king-queen combo, both diamonds. "Alright, first the flop," Smokescreen announced as he showed am ace of clubs, a jack of diamonds, and a seven of diamonds. Blurr grinned while Scavenger withered.
"Here's the turn." Smokescreen quickly showed the next a card, which turned up to be a ace of diamonds. Blurr's grinned went widened as he saw the ace, giving him a four-of-a-kind while Scavenger slumped further in his seat with his flush that was useless.
"And the river," Smokescreen announced as the next card came up and stunned everybody at the table.
A ten-of-diamonds came up, giving Scavenger a royal flush and the win.
"H-how is that possible," Blurr asked in disbelief.
"I have no idea," Scavenger admitted.
"There's a 649,740 to 1 chance of that happening. It's almost impossible," Smokescreen told them, equally as shocked as everyone else. "That's a bad bust for you, Blurr," Smokescreen told him as he shoved the pot to Scavenger, who wasn't quite registering what happen.
"Scrap," Blurr cursed, as he got up and went to where the energon was.
"Well, now, shall we continue on?" Smokescreen asked the table.
"Corner pocket," Dead End told the crowd and immediately after, knocked it in, ending the game with Jazz unable to make a turn.
"Damn," Jazz muttered. "No one told me you were a pool shark."
"Every Stunticon, except our boss, is one, which reminds me. Hound, you better count your blessings. Wildrider is going to destroy you," Dead End told him as he gave his cue to Wildrider. "Wildrider, I'll be going out for a couple of minutes. I'll be right back. Until then, sic 'em," Dead End told him as he headed out of the room.
"Roger," Wildrider yelled out as he glared at Hound. "You ready for your doom?" he asked with a psychotic smirked. Hound gazed at the Stunticon getting ready to wreck him before making a silent prayer to Primus to make his lost a swift one.
Hoist sat in his chair, reading a magazine that was in one of the shelves in his room. It was pretty boring, but was better than doing nothing. He had saw no one entered the hallway yet and it was currently 8:45. It was obvious that nothing was going to happen down there, but he was there anyway, for some reason.
Suddenly, heard one of the door opened and raised his head to see Skywarp coming out of his room, complaining about something. "I could've swore I saw you going to the party," Hoist said to the prankster, causing him to glare at him.
"Yeah, well, I got angry and teleported to my room the let go some of my anger. I feel a lot better now," he told him as he walked towards him. "What are you? Hall monitor?" he asked.
"Something like that," Hoist admitted. "So, heading back to the party?" he asked.
"Naw, I'm thinking of heading to the lunchroom and think to myself or head to the fourth floor lounge," Skywarp told him.
"Really?" he heard a voiced said from above and looked to see Dead End coming down the steps. "How predictable."
"Hey, screw you!" Skywarp told him.
"I sense a disturbance up here," they heard a voice below them and looked to see Bludgeon and Nautilator coming up together.
"What are you two hanging out together for?" Skywarp asked and turned to Dead End. "And what are you here for?" he asked him.
"I came to check on Shockwave, which I shall do now," Dead End told him as he walked past him towards his room.
"And you?" Skywarp asked the other two.
"We were engaging in a conversation downstairs," Bludgeon told him.
"Conversation? About what?" Skywarp asked.
"AH!" they heard Dead End screamed down the hallway and turned to see him holding his hand. "Shockwave's door is unnaturally hot. Why is that?" he asked himself. It didn't take long before Hoist figured it out.
"Scrap. Bludgeon, help me bust down the door," Hoist yelled as he got up and broke a leg off his chair. He quickly head over there with Bludgeon in tow. "Right, there should be weak spots right here," he said, pointing to the edge of the door on the left side and quickly rested the chair leg at the edge. "Bludgeon, grabbed this and help me open this," he ordered and he followed it quickly, grabbing hold of the chair and quickly pushing with Hoist, opening the door almost instantly-
-and into a raging fire.
"Scrap! Skywarp, extinguishers now!" he yelled at him and Skywarp comply instantly, teleporting back and forth with several extinguishers in hand. Everyone grabbed one and quickly sprayed the substance into the room. Within minutes the fire had been quelled and a disaster had been prevented.
That didn't stop the five of them from stumbling upon the burnt corpse of Shockwave. The only thing they could do was stared in silence at the body, still sizzling a bit from the flames
DING! DONG!
"A body has been found. A quick period of investigation will occur before a class trial!"
Chapter 1: Welcoming Party for Despair
Abnormal Days