Hours Remaining: 80
"Woah, hold on. What?" Jazz asked, getting up and heading to the door.
"I-I'm not feeling so good…," Scavenger murmured as he started to tilt a little bit. Immediately, Ratchet grabbed onto Scavenger and supported him.
"The blow to the head probably did some serious damage. I'll take him to the infirmary and treat him," Ratchet informed Jazz as he started guiding Scavenger to the infirmary.
"Alright. I'll head to his room and secure it," Jazz told him as he closed his door behind him and headed to Scavenger's room right across from him when the door next to Scavenger opened up.
"Woah… What happened?" Bumblebee asked the trio.
"Somebody attacked Scavenger in his room," Ratchet answered quickly for the scout, still limping Scavenger to the infirmary. "Help Jazz search the area."
"You got it," Bumblebee agreed, turning to the spy. "Man, crazy stuff just keep happening."
"You're telling me," Jazz agreed, opening the cracked door opened completely, allowing him to survey the room. Inside, the room was a mess. The table was turned over; drawers, shelves, and cabinets were all pulled opened; and stuff from them littered the floor. A small pool of energon was near the entrance to the room with a barely noticeable trail heading out of the room.
"Why didn't they kill him?" Bumblebee asked Jazz as he looked around the room.
"My guess? He's willing to hide his secret, but willing to wait it out to see if anybody else commits a killing first," Jazz told him.
"The secret," Bumblebee murmured. "So, somebody knew Scavenger had their secret and stole the datapad to keep him and anybody else from knowing it was him. The twenty hour rule no longer applies and no one can figure it out it's him with a decreasing list."
"Exactly," Jazz agreed as he looked around the room. "At least he's cautious enough to not kill Scavenger. We don't have to figure out who attacked him."
"Although it would benefit as greatly if we did," Bumblebee said as he finished his examination of the room. "This guy didn't leave much behind. It's a mess, but it's nothing we can use."
"Maybe Scavenger can tell us more after he recovers, although I doubt it. He was probably hit from behind," Jazz muttered depressingly as he continued his search. "I don't see a weapon here, so the attacker probably took it out of the room after finishing he was done rifling through the room."
"Makes sense," Bumblebee agreed as he entered the bathroom to do a quick look in it. "Looks like some dried energon in the sink. They probably cleaned their weapon before leaving the room."
"Which means they are more careful then I thought," Jazz said as he finished his search of the room. "We need to round up the six people the secret mentioned and question them."
"Who are they?" Bumblebee asked as he came out of the room.
"Bludgeon, Nightbeat, Drift, Smokescreen, Swindle, and Blast Off. Can you inform everyone about these and get the six to the lunchroom?" Jazz requested.
"You got it," he agreed, heading out of the room.
Hours Remaining: 79.3
The six suspects sat together at the lunchroom table together as they were asked to. They wondered exactly why they were asked there, but didn't ask any questions.
"So, how's everybody doing?" Swindle asked the other five there.
"Paranoid," Smokescreen said as he looked around at everyone. "Why exactly have they group the six of us together?"
"Well, there's six of here and that's the number on the datapads with the secrets. Probably something to do with that," Nightbeat replied.
"I agree. Obviously, someone has a very dark secret and wanted to isolate us," Blast Off answered.
"It can't be that bad… can it?" Drift asked.
"Never underestimate the depths of cruelty. This prison should've made it clear to you by now," Bludgeon reminded the swordsman.
"Is there something wrong with being optimistic?" Drift asked him.
"Considering what happen in the previous two trials, yes," Nightbeat told him, noticing the two Combaticons flinching at the remark. "We need to be suspicious of everyone around us."
"We don't have to be suspicious of one another," Drift argued, gesturing himself, Nightbeat, and Smokescreen. "We're Autobots. We're the good guys. None of us has killed each other yet."
"May I remind you that you used to be one of us?" Blast Off chided him. "I'm sure the Autobots you killed would disagree with your statement."
"I'm not one of you now!" Drift yelled at the aristocrat. "That man is long dead."
"A failure to accept your past self destines you to failure," Bludgeon remarked.
"Oh, really, you-"
"Guys!" Smokescreen shouted at them, causing them to go quiet. "We need to remain calm, or else I'm use one of us is going to kill the other, regardless of them of being an Autobot or a Decepticon."
"Yeah, he's right," Swindle agreed, softly rubbing his bandaged hand. "We just need to calm down and think about this. Obviously, someone here did a really bad thing, but we all need to ignore that and try to keep each other safe."
"Don't worry. I won't turn my back on you," Drift said to the merchant.
"Hey that wasn't my fault, you-"
At that point, the door opened to showed Jazz entering by himself. He walked briskly over to the sextant and addressed them quickly. "Not too long ago, someone attacked Scavenger in his room and took his datapad with the secret on it. You six were the people on the datapad whose secret it could belong too, which means you are the most likely suspects for assaulting him."
"Assault? Not kill?" Smokescreen asked, surprised.
"Yes. Ratchet is treating him right now, so he should be fine. It doesn't change the fact that one of you guys is willing to attack someone to keep you secret silent and is also likely to murder someone later when the clock runs down. We can't trust any of you at this moment," Jazz told them.
"Oh, come on, you can trust us," Drift told him, indicating the Autobots in the room.
"I would like to believe that, but we're not taking any chances."
"It's probably Swindle failing at killing someone again," Drift told him, glaring at the 'Con.
"And I bet you're blaming me to hide the fact that you did it," Swindle rebuked, equally glaring at him.
"Guys, calm down," Smokescreen asked the two. The two continued to glare at each other as Jazz went on.
"We're going to interrogate you one at a time to recount where you've been so Drift, you want to start us out?" Jazz asked him, really wanting to get him and Swindle away from each other.
"Fine," Drift agreed with a huff as he got up and followed Jazz out of the room and into the room across from it. Inside was a regular classroom, although the desks have been moved to the wall and a makeshift interrogation area was made with the teacher's desk and two chairs. Jazz quickly took a seat behind the desk while Drift sat in front of it.
"Alright, let's start with after the search through the archives. Where did you go after that?" Jazz asked him.
"Well, I talked to Ratchet a little bit after that and set up an appointment to meet up later for a meditation session. After that, I just hung around the library for a little while by myself to see if I could find any datapads on enhancing my skills with a sword and a meditation datapad for Ratchet to read about to help him along. A couple hours ago, I met Ratchet in my room and it didn't go well. It mostly consisted of Ratchet complaining to me that this was stupid. After that, I hung out in the bar with Beachcomber until you guys came to get me," Drift finished
"Did you leave anything out?" Jazz asked him.
"No, I didn't," he replied simply.
"You do realize that means you only have a partial alibi, correct?" Jazz asked him.
"It's better to tell the truth than to lie when you didn't commit a crime. I'm sure you'll find evidence to figure out which of those 'Cons did it," Drift reaffirmed.
"Right…," Jazz muttered, not happy with the answers provided. "Go back to the lunchroom and send Swindle in. I will need to get statements from everyone else."
Hours Remaining: 79
Jazz gave a low groan to himself as Bludgeon left the room. After hearing all of the statements from them, all of them had a frame of time in which they were by themselves after Jazz left Scavenger in the lunchroom and could attack Scavenger. If he wanted to lower the list of possible attackers down, he had to figure out exactly when Scavenger was attacked. He got up and headed out of the classroom to the to the second-floor infirmary where Ratchet was treating an unconscious Scavenger, who was bandaged pretty in the back of the head. Sitting in a chair next to Scavenger was Mixmaster, watching over him like a hawk.
"How is he?" Jazz asked Ratchet, getting right next to him.
"Well, he'll live, I can tell you that much, but the strike was a good one. Some pieces of metal from his head pushed inward and almost pierced through the brain module, but only dented it. Still, it was a good blow and he needs to rest for a good while before he's fully okay. I'm not even sure when he'll wake up," he told him.
"Can't you do anything better?" Mixmaster asked, not taking his optics off Scavenger.
"I'm a medic. I make sure my patients live, not make them come out of a coma. Still, his wounds have been patched up and he should wake up in a couple of days, probably," he told them.
"Dammit. I was really hoping I could get answers from him now," Jazz muttered in disappointment. "We got a possible future murderer on our hands and we need to take care of the problem now."
"Well, this is the best I can do for now," Ratchet told him. "We should probably transfer him to his room so that he can be in a secure place and put a couple of watchers on him."
"Right, sounds fine with me, but I need to figure out what to do with my six suspects," Jazz wondered.
"My advice? Quarantine them in one of the room together with some energon and bar it up like we did with Knock Out earlier," Ratchet said, turning to him.
"Yeah, probably best. Makes the most sense," Jazz agreed, turning to make his way out. "Tell me when you move him to a safe place."
"Understand," Ratchet agreed, looking at a datapad. Jazz opened the door and paused. He turned his head back to Mixmaster.
"Hey, Mixmaster." Mixmaster flinch before looking at him.
"What?" he asked.
"We'll figure out who did this," he told him. The chemist glared at him before shaking his head.
"Good," he said simply, looking back to Scavenger. "You can use my room to hold them. I'll stay by Scavenger until he gets better," he told him. Jazz gave a brief nod and lingered briefly before getting out of the room.
Hours Remaining: 78
"Why are we all entering Mixmaster's room?" Swindle asked as his small group entered the room that was already opened for them.
"Quarantine," Jazz answered simply, guiding them in. "We place a lot of energon cubes in here, so you don't have to get out for any of that."
"Wait, you mean we all have to stay in this room together and are not allow to leave?" Smokescreen asked him, stunned.
"Unfortunately, yes. You are too much of a risk for everybody's well-being and the six of you together will dissuade you from killing each other," Jazz told them.
"Are you sure you can't just put the Autobots in one room and the killers in another," Drift asked him, glaring at the other three 'Cons.
"I think all of you need to get along. In an environment that's hard to get away with killing anyone unseen, I figured you guys can learn not to be jerks to each other. Last I check, Monobear is the true enemy, not each other," Jazz reminded them.
"Hey, I take offense to that!" Monobear shouted, appearing from out of nowhere, per protocol.
"The insidious beast with the squeaky voice has return," Bludgeon remarked, glaring at their prison warden.
"Ah, that's a wonderful compliment, but last I check, one of you six went and bashed poor Scavenger's head in, which is plain disgusting. I mean, he was the perfect kill and you didn't kill him. What kind of soldiers are you?"
"The ones who hates you ever so slightly more than each other," Blast Off said, glaring at the bear.
"Oh, that cute, upupupu," the bear chuckled.
"What… was that?" Nightbeat asked, weirded out.
"What?" Monobear asked, confused.
"That chuckled," he specified.
"Oh, what? My upupupup? That's my signature laugh and I'veeeeeee realized I haven't used that once throughout your entire stay here. Time to make up for it! Upupupupu," the bear chuckled, much to the annoyance of everyone around.
"Please, do the universe a favor and kill yourself. You continued existence by itself devalues Cybertron," Blast Off ordered of the bear.
"Hmm, let me think about- fat chance!" the bear yelled at the sniper. "I'll let you know I work very hard to ensure the despair of you bastards and I won't let you ruin yet! Not yet, at least," Monobear ended his tirade dreamily.
"Uh, can you leave us alone now?" Smokescreen asked, feeling awkward around it.
"Huh? Oh, fine, just remember! One of you did this," the bear taunted them one more time before scurrying out of the room.
"Oh, I can't wait to get my hands on him," Swindle muttered under his breath.
"Do you mind if I assist you?" Drift asked. "As much as I dislike you and your fellow 'Cons, I have to admit I hate that thing so much more."
"My pleasure," Swindle replied with a smile.
"Right… anyway, I'm going to leave and block this door up. Try to get along," Jazz asked of them. After that, Jazz left the room and closed it behind him. The six stood in silence as the sound of Jazz jamming the door close reached their sensors before ending and leaving the six of them alone.
"So…" Swindle murmured, preparing to ask a question, "who gets the berth?"
Hours Remaining: 77
"Geez, this is getting crazy," Skywarp told Laserbeak as he was walking through the hallways. "Not that it wasn't already crazy, but still, why didn't the guy just kill Scavenger? Save us a whole lot of trouble. I'm used to the trials, not this BS."
"You should be a little more glad someone isn't dead again," a voiced told him from behind. Skywarp turned to see the familiar form of Counterpunch, in the midst of injecting himself with something. "It would be a shame if we started killing in a faster and faster rate."
"Hey, you think I give a damn about them?" Skywarp asked him.
"You sure seem like you appreciated Nightbeat's help in clearing you innocent," Counterpunch pointed out.
"And now he's a primary suspect in attacking Scavenger. Look, I know this game and in the end, probably just one person is getting out alive. Everyone realizes that, and even the nicest one around here will be willing to let us die to get out of here if given enough time with no way out," Skywarp told him. "I'm holding off until we confirm that there is no other way of getting out of here from the inside and confirm that Optimus and that damn incompetent trinemate of mine can get us out."
"You don't seem to think very highly of Starscream," Counterpunch noticed, tossing the syringe aside in a trash can.
"Hmph, he may be my trinemate, but that doesn't mean I respect him. Megatron, now that was someone to respect," he told him with glee. "Powerful, cunning, charismatic, and a damn good speech-giver."
"Ah, I agree," Counterpunch approved with a malicious grin. "Really, it's all a matter of waiting for someone else to kill him."
"Huh, you're not too bad," Skywarp complimented, matching his smile before quickly removing it. "That doesn't mean I trust you."
"I don't blame you and I rather not completely trust you either," Counterpunch agreed, turning stoneface. "This is, after all, a game of life and death. We can't afford to completely trust anyone here."
"Exactly, which is why I gotta say later," he ended the conversation suddenly, teleporting out of the hallway. Counterpunch paused and glared at the spot where the seeker was before shrugging it off and heading for his room.
Hours Remaining: 76.3
"This is an announcement. It is now 10 p.m. Please rest peacefully," Monobear voiced rang out to everyone as the day started to end. Mixmaster hardly reacted to the voice as he sat by Scavenger in his room, having helped Ratchet move him there earlier. Just out of his view, he heard a scoff, undoubtedly coming from Knock Out. The remaining people draw starws to help determine who would help watch over Scavenger and Knock Out ended up being the loser. "It's almost like he's mocking us," the vain medic complained. Mixmaster barely turned his head to see Knock Out slumped lazily in his seat.
"You don't seem happy," Mixmaster noticed, deciding to try and make small talk with the unfortunate circumstances.
"Nobody is," he told him, turning his head sluggishly to look at him. "Frankly, the ability to be happy in this situation would probably be nothing more than a clear sign of a psychopath, as evident by Wildrider's continued annoyment."
"Yes, that much is true," Mixmaster agreed.
"Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't end up on that serial killer list. I thought for sure he end up as a suspect on that," Knock Out noted, thinking it over before speaking again. "Then again, being a serial killer is something he would more than likely be proud of and would take pride in that rather than be ashamed of it. Okay, I recant my previous statement," Knock Out said with a wave of his hand. "he's more than likely a serial, but unlike a lot of people, he wouldn't be ashamed of it and would try to hide it."
"You're basically saying that we have two serial killers," Mixmaster pointed out.
"Bingo," Knock Out confirmed with a wry smile. "Wildrider is your friendly, homicidal manic while someone is the dark, secretive serial killer who will do many things to ensure it doesn't come out." Mixmaster glared at the medic as he finished his perceptive view of the events with that same smile on his face. "Oh, that's just wonderful. The school sent two serial killers to instruct the students of the future. They must've not been hoping for a bright one," he finished, giving a small chuckle at that.
"You have a funny sense of humor," Mixmaster said through gritted teeth.
"Just something I noticed and it's darkly hilarious. You would think they have better background checks than that," he pointed out.
"They didn't exactly have high standards," Mixmaster told him. "Really, the only thing required from someone is that they are the best at something. In hindsight, they probably should've had higher standards."
"Well, some people are just in such a rush and hurried to do the right thing that they end up making a horrible mistake in the progress. It happens more often than you think," Knock Out told him.
"That ever happened to you?" Mixmaster, glaring at the medic. Surprisingly, the medic didn't answered immediately, only looking at him oddly before thinking it through.
"Yes," he answered simply with a shrugged. "In hindsight, it was perhaps the dumbest thing I could've done, but whatever," he replied in a bored tone, looking away from him, but Mixmaster still noticed the hint of sadness in his voice.
"Is that your secret?" Mixmaster asked bluntly, wanting to know. Knock Out flicked his head over to him and glared malevolently at him. Mixmaster took that as his cue to shut up and retuned his look to Scavenger. He heard Knock Out mumble to himself, but couldn't quite tell what before he heard the medic twisting in his seat and begin recharging. Mixmaster ignored the medic and continued to look at his gestaltmate, hoping this nightmare here will end soon.