A great silence fell upon the room as they realized what was showing up in the image. The iconic leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime… dead? Everyone looked shocked by it, even Wildrider looked genuinely surprised and saddened by the news. They digested it slowly, staying in silence until someone spoke up.
"What the fuck?" Blurr finally spoke up, saying what was on everyone's mind. "That's… that's bullshit!"
"Soundwave said they were real…." Beachcomber murmured blankly, looking away from the image on the screen.
"Fuck Soundwave!" Blurr rejected. "No way could that've possibly happened! It doesn't matter how long we've been knocked out, that doesn't happen! Optimus doesn't just die and we know nothing about."
"But if that is true… what about everyone else?" Skywarp muttered, thinking it through. "Starscream and Thundercracker might be in trouble. Everyone we care about might be in trouble!"
"Is there any full-proof way we can confirm this?" Perceptor asked, his voice a bit shaky.
"If Soundwave was still alive, he could've explain this to us, but he's dead," Blast Off murmured.
"Laserbeak could possibly know," Nightbeat said, glancing at the pet on Skywarp's shoulders.
*Beeps* the pet answered.
"Uh, I think it said that it might be able too if it could reconnect to Soundwave's memory databanks, but we don't have a body for it," Skywarp murmured nervously.
"And each other body disappears after we're done with it," Dead End told them. "He probably has them stored somewhere else in the school and will transport them to the basement after this game is over."
"Well then, that's a dead end, no pun intended," Hound said.
"Is there anything else we can do?" Scavenger asked, distraught over the image.
"I don't think so," Jazz replied. "All we have is Soundwave's word that they are true."
"Is that enough?" Onslaught asked. "Those sure didn't look fake."
"…Could I have a look at it?" Rewind asked.
"Huh?" Jazz asked.
"I do a lot of filming as you now. I might be able to see if it's real or not," Rewind told him.
"Well, why didn't you mention that earlier?!" Blurr questioned him, agitated.
"Hey, I didn't say I can do it. I only said I could," Rewind told him.
"Well, I guess I might be able to help too," Swindle mentioned, rubbing his head. "I often deal with products like this. I could be able to see if it's legit or not."
"Hmm… very well," Jazz agreed. "It would help us to figure out if it's real or not to make our next plan."
"Our next plan?" Bludgeon asked, intrigued.
"Yes. If Optimus is… unavailable to help, we have no choice but to find our own way out of here," he told them. "We can't wait around and do nothing when we don't know anything about what's going on outside and Optimus… taken care of."
"So… we have no choice but to bust out way out, don't we," Nautilator asked, afraid. "No one is going to save us."
"It would appear that way," Mirage agreed.
"Ugh… Could this get any worse?" Hound asked them.
"I could do it if you want?!" Monobear shouted, appearing out of nowhere.
"Shit!" Hound yelled, glaring at him. "What are you doing here?"
"Yeah. What the frag?" Skywarp asked him.
"Hound wanted to know if it could be worse and I said I could," Monobear told them.
"How?" Perceptor asked.
"Simple, I could give you your next incentive!" the Monobear told them.
"What? But we haven't had enough time to relax, dude?" Beachcomber said, agitated.
"Well, considering the way this day is going, I figure I might as well go ahead and do to," Monobear told them with a shrug.
"Is that it? Just because it's thematically pleasing to you?" Dead End asked him, annoyed.
"Hey. My game. My rules. You get no say in it," Monobear reminded him. "And since you're all here, let's get it going!"
"Great, so what is it?" Smokescreen asked annoyed.
"It's very simple. Kill someone and I'll... fulfill a wish!" Monobear announced to them.
"A… wish?" Drift asked, confused.
"Yep. Ask for anything and I'll fulfill it (barring teensy-weeny things such as necromancy)!"
"We could ask for anything and it would be fulfill?" Onslaught asked.
"Yes, barring a few things, as I said," Monobear told him.
"Hey, why are you asking him to specify?" Blurr asked, suspicious.
"No reason," the tactician said, brushing him off.
"Hmph, whatever. What I want is impossible to fulfill anyway," the racer said, looking away. "This is a useless motive to me."
"Nobody has a desire that's worth killing everybody else for, right?" Beachcomber asked the room. "We've already gone through so much. There's no need for another killing!"
"He's right," Perceptor told the room. "Another killing is unnecessary. It would just cause more unwanted harm"
"Would you quit talking like that?" Dead End asked them.
"Huh?" Perceptor asked.
"I mean, do you think no one will be willing to murder someone for their deepest desire?" Dead End asked him. "If so, you are dumber than you appear."
"Hey, don't say that!" Bumblebee yelled at him. "We've gone through enough already. There's no need for anymore killings."
"Humph, how pathetic," Dead End murmured before turning to the bear. "How long is this incentive in played?"
"Oh, 72 hours," the bear told him.
"Well, dear killer, there's your deadline. Three days before your wish can never come true," the poet told the room
"Seriously, stop!" Rewind told him. "We don't need your insanity affecting everyone."
"Insanity?" Dead End queried, leaning down to stare him in his optics. "Rewind, you widower," he emphasized, causing him to flinch, "I thought that you of all people would realize that I am very sane. Certainly saner than everyone else here. So please, do the right thing and look after yourself," he told him, rising back up, leaving Rewind shaking. "Chromedome died trying to help someone. You should learn from-"
Crack!
Dead End didn't finished that sentence as Hound marched up and punched him, sending him down to the floor. "Would you shut up, you bastard?!" Hound threaten the downed poet before heading to Rewind and holding on to him. "Hey, calm down, Rewind," he tried to soothe the archivist. Dead End got up into a sitting position and glared at them.
"Tch, I wonder how long until you two are at each other's throat," he muttered to himself as he got back on his legs. "Are we done here?" he asked Monobear.
"Yes, of course Dead End," Monobear told him before adding something else. "May I say that I admire your work and your attitude? Such despair! It's so beautiful."
"My works are for the sane," Dead End told him. "Makes me wonder why you would have any interest in them."
"Oh, buuuuuuurn." Wildrider chuckled, looking happier, which caused Monobear to look frustrated before walking out.
"Humph, I should've guessed. Meeting you heroes is always a drag," Monobear murmured as he went off.
"Huh, such a pathetic being wielding so much power over us," Dead End muttered. "It's quite disappointing."
"Well, we got an incentive, right?" Bumblebee told everyone. "I would like to think that no one is willing to murder anyone, but I don't think we can depend on each other to not kill someone. Dead End is right in that we can't just blindly trust each other not to kill someone."
"Nice to see you're starting to see things my way," Dead End said with approval.
"Shut it! I'm not some fatalist. I'm just being… cautious is all," Bumblebee chastised him.
"Same thing, different name," Dead End brushed his claims off.
"So… what should we do?" Nautilator asked the room. "We can't just go wherever we want. The place is bigger and with that, we got more ways to kill each other and more ways to do it without any witnesses."
"Well, how about we stay in groups?" Jazz recommend.
"In groups?"
"Yeah. There's 24 of us, so why don't we stay in groups of six all throughout the days?" Jazz recommended to them.
"Huh, that could work. The killer can only kill two people, so the other five can keep any of them in line," Blurr agreed.
"How do we decide who goes with who?" Hoist asked, glaring at Mirage and Blast Off, the former looking away from his glare.
"Oh, can I do that?" Wildrider asked them. "I know an unbiased way of doing it!"
"You do?" Rewind asked nervously.
"Yeah. Just let me go to the general store in the mall and I can get it done A.S.A.P.!" he told them.
"Uh, right… can someone responsible go with him?" Jazz asked the room.
"I might as well," Perceptor murmured. "I can evaluate whether or not his suggestion holds any water when we're at the store."
"Okay, you two go out and get it done," Jazz ordered and the two headed out of the room. "Alright, Swindle and Rewind?" he requested them.
"What?" Swindle asked for the both of them.
"Can you two get started examining the footage?" Jazz asked them
"Uh, sure," Rewind agreed and the two got to work on the recording.
"So, we just wait here until Perceptor and Wildrider get back?" Mirage asked.
"Well, yeah," Jazz told them, and that was that. Everybody went and sat down in a seat… except for Ratchet. He was still looking at the scene where Optimus's dismembered body was. It was at that point that Jazz realized that Ratchet hadn't said a single word throughout the whole event. Jazz went up to him, saying "Ratchet? Are you alright?" he asked, which immediately made him want to slap himself. Of course Ratchet wasn't okay! If Jazz and Optimus were best buds, Ratchet and Optimus were the closest friends could ever be. Jazz has been processing this for almost two weeks while Ratchet was just having this bombshell dropped on him. He should've known better. "Hey, Ratch. I'm sorry… for not telling you about this sooner," Jazz mumbled guiltily, putting an arm around Ratchet's shoulders in a one-arm hug.
"This… can't be happening," Ratchet mumbled, staring at the scene. "We've thought Optimus died multiple times before, but this… looks so real. It looks so certain." Ratchet went quiet again as he continued to absorb the scene in front of him and Jazz continued to hold on to him, giving him the support he needs.
"Alright, alright, alright, the general store. I'm sure I saw a couple of things to help us out," Wildrider told Perceptor as the two entered the place, looking around. The cashier looked at the two of them and gave a small shake of his head to the two of them, but to Perceptor in particular. Wildrider didn't noticed the small detail as he leapt to one of the aisle and dived right in there. Perceptor a low groan in disappointment before heading over to the cashier.
"Uh, hello customer. Having a despairing day?" the cashier asked. "Monobear is really bringing out the big guns out on you isn't he?"
"Yes, he is," Perceptor agreed, staring down the cashier. He couldn't help but noticed that he seemed tense at seeing him. "Is there any problems that we should be aware about?"
"Uh, no. Nothing at all," the cash replied with false bravado. "I'm just here to make sure you get your thing and clear out, hopefully to murder someone." Perceptor didn't like that answer.
"Is something the matter? You're avoiding my questions," Perceptor questioned the AI.
"Do I have to repeat myself? No! Now will you be purchasing something or not?" That confirmed it for Perceptor. He was holding something back and he had to find out.
"Hmm, how about you-"
"Got it!" Wildrider announced appearing with a plain plastic box.
"A… box?" Perceptor asked.
"Yes! With sticks!" he told him, showing it off. "Thirty in a box," he told him before laying it on the counter. "All right, run it! How much?" Wildrider asked.
"Huh, two monocoins," the cashier answered, surprised that he bought this.
"Excellent," Wildrider said, getting two out and dropping it on the counter. "Thanks!" he told him before grabbing Perceptor's arm and dragging him out of the place.
"Hey, what the!" Perceptor said as he was dragged out. "What are you doing?" he asked him.
"Heading to the art department. Duh," Wildrider belittled him as he kept going.
"Will you stop?" Perceptor asked, pulling hard against him, causing him to stop.
"Huh? What?" Wildrider asked.
"What's your plan?" Perceptor asked him.
"Well, I'm going to go to the art department and paint the bottom of the sticks in one of four different colors and then we'll make people draw sticks to pick which group they're in," Wildrider told him." Perceptor paused at that and thought it through.
"That… actually sounds like a good idea," Perceptor agreed, surprised. "Unbiased, not subjected to anything but blind luck… you do have your uses."
"Hey, none of us would've last this long if we weren't a little smart. Besides, all the smart people are a little crazy, he told him, proceeding to drag Perceptor to the art department. Perceptor was much less resistant, although he still made note that he was dealing with a body defiler.
"Okay… how to determine if this is real or not?" Rewind asked himself, sounding a bit unsure of himself.
"Well, we have to examine it carefully, for starters," Swindle murmured. "Kind of obvious, but it's best to establish that first."
"Okay… so how do we do that?" he asked.
"Well, you've been in that room, right? Does it look like Autobot HQ?" the merchant asked him.
"Well… yeah. It does, if it was bombed by multiple K-classes," Rewind murmured. "It's been wrecked, but it does look like it. I recognize the placement of the Autobots symbols and the parameter of the building looks identical."
"Can we confirm it?" Swindle asked him.
"Well… let me do something," Rewind murmured, going into subspace and retrieving a black cord of some sort. "I mostly project my footage onto a wall of some sort, but I can plug myself into a computer," he mentioned, plugging the cord into a port for the computer and connecting it to the camera to the side of his head. Immediately, Rewind brought up his footage of Autobots HQ quickly. In the footage, it looked to be a meeting of some sort between Optimus and several important figures, including Jazz and Ratchet, as well as Metalhawk and Starscream. "Sometimes, they want me to record a meeting for posterity," Rewind mentioned before a bunch of algorithms came up for both of the recordings.
"What are you doing?" Swindle asked him, looking at all the formulas on screen.
"I'm comparing the two bases to see if they are exactly alike," Rewind told him. "They could've build a fake, but the exact dimensions of the building are unknown to the public, so if they match, then it's legitimate," he explained, doing the calculations for the cases before giving a sigh. "It matches," Rewind muttered bleakly.
"So, either that's real or they got the exact schematics for the base somehow and build one," Swindle murmured, looking at the footage.
"Yes, but the exact schematics are known to so little that I only found it out now. The only ones I know that could build a replica exactly like it are maybe some of the buildings and maybe Red Alert," the archivist said. "I doubt any of the builders knew the exact ones completely and Red Alert is too paranoid of anyone to let that slip to anyone."
"So, it's likely that it's the real one," Swindle murmured, concentrating on Optimus's body.
"Yeah… what are you looking at?" Rewind asked him.
"Something very hard to notice," Swindle murmured. "Can you focus in on Optimus's head and neck?"
"Uh, yeah," Rewind agreed, blowing up the specific spot Swindle wanted. "What are you looking at?"
"Is it me, or does it look like his neck was ripped open?" Swindle asked. Rewind looked confused before looking closely at it.
"Yeah… it does," Rewind agreed.
"Focus in on that wound," Swindle told him and Rewind did so, concentrating on the spot. The two of them could see the wound clearly now and it looked like the throat was boned out, leaving on the spinal strut of the neck behind.
"Why… is his neck empty?" Rewind asked, confused.
"Is… his voice box missing?" Swindle asked, looking into it.
"It looks like it," Rewind agreed. "Now why did they do that?"
"Well… let's assume that Monobear and his group of terrorists did this. He wants despair so…," at that, the answer clicked in his head. "Rewind, who would you say was the symbol of hope for the future?" Swindle asked him.
"Uh. well… Optimus was," Rewind realized.
"Annoying idealistic, constantly wishing to see the best in everyone, he fits," Swindle confirmed.
"So they did this just to cause despair?" Rewind asked.
"I think that was their secondary goal," Swindle murmured, looking at the picture.
"Secondary? Than what was the main reason?" Rewind asked.
"I think that they wanted to rob the world of the voice of hope."
"They… wanted to do that?" Rewind asked, confused.
"It's all about symbolism," Swindle murmured. "A message. Hope is silent…." Swindle left off, looking glum. I… never really cared much about Orion. He's always been more of a pain in my aft than anything else, but… he didn't deserve this," he said, sounding depressed. Rewind was also feeling the same, but he was confused on something Swindle just said
"Orion?" Rewind asked, looking at him.
"That's Optimus's name before he took up the Prime title," Swindle told him.
"I know. I just wondering why you know," Rewind specified. Swindle looked nervous as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Well, we knew each other back then. We weren't friends, but we got along. Of course, he didn't knew about all the weapons I was selling under everybody's nose to unsavory people, including Megatron, but he was alright to hang out with and he didn't mind all the things that he knew about me, although he was always suspicious of some of things about me. Before he could get any evidence of my dealings, Megatron happened and, well… you know the rest of that bloody mess," Swindle murmured. "I'm probably one of the few people who was actually in contact with both Megatron and Optimus before the whole war."
"Wow… I didn't know that," Rewind murmured.
"Good. I didn't want anyone to know," Swindle told him. "If the Decepticons found out that I was ever in contact with the leader of the fragging Autobots, then suspicions would be leveled on me and I couldn't allow that when I had deals to make with them," he told him. "Lots of my cash flow came from Decepticons looking for upgrades and better weapons. I couldn't risk losing all that."
"Huh, I didn't think you would ever know Optimus before the whole war," Rewind murmured.
"Yeah, well, I'm just full of surprises," Swindle told him with a shrug. "That's about as far as I knew him before the whole, but after the whole war, he himself went to ask me for help obtaining supplies from places outside of Cybertron. He knew what kind of person I am, but he knew I was the best at obtaining supplies and didn't let his bias affect his decision."
"He must've thought highly of you," Rewind said, looking a bit miffed. "All that I'm good for is recording things. I am pretty useless in the grand scheme of all the things going on here," he muttered.
"Hey, don't talk like that. You just help figure out the legitimacy of the footage here," Swindle told him.
"Yeah, but that's a pretty small thing that I did and Chromedome was always so much useful. He helped so much more than I did…," Rewind muttered, looking at the screen. "This is the first good thing I did here. Before that, all I did was get Chromedome killed."
"Uh…," Swindle murmured, looking nervous, "guess I sympathize. I mean, I was the primary factor for Vortex and Brawl getting killed as well. I had hurt Vortex and he was dazed enough that Brawl accidently finished him off. You can always say that I was completely okay due to the motive but…," he left off before getting back to Rewind. "Anyway, people we care about die. It's bound to happen. All we can do is make sure that they don't die in vain and make sre we get as many people out alive as we can," he told him. Rewind took in what he said, looking a little relieved to have someone else comfort him.
"Hound… tries so much to help me, but he hasn't and anyone he cares about die yet. He's good, but he can't completely help me. It's nice to talk to someone who knows what I'm going through," Rewind said, relieved.
"Well, we're all in this together, aren't we?" Swindle asked him. "If we don't, most of us will be killed. If we don't stand together, most of us will fall."
"And only one shall stand," Rewind murmured.
"Alright everybody! Ready to group up?" Came a voice from the doorway and the two of them turned to see Wildrider and Perceptor arriving from the doorway, the latter holding four cans of paint.
"We have a decent way of setting up the groups," Perceptor told them as he motioned for Wildrider to show off the way. Wildrider brought his hands up, showing off twenty-four sticks in his cupped in his hands.
"Alright everybody. Each stick has a bit of paint on the bottom that I'm hiding right now. Pick one and group up with the ones who got your color," the manic explained to them, showing it off. "When you get your color, use one of the paint cans that Perceptor brough to paint a streak on you with your group's color. Now, who's first?"
A few minutes later, everyone had grouped up with the colors they got from the sticks. Red group had Jazz, Onslaught, Beachcomber, Nightbeat, Bludgeon, and Nautilator together in an awkward formation. Yellow group was Bumblebee, Wildrider, Ratchet, Drift, Scavenger, and Skywarp. Blue group was Perceptor, Rewind, Swindle, Hound, Mirage, and Blast Off. Purple group was Mixmaster, Hoist, Smokescreen, Knock Out, Dead End, and Blurr. Each group had decided to put a streak around one of their forearms.
"Right, looks like we're all grouped up," Jazz said, looking around.
"So, we stay with this group until the motive's gone?" Skywarp asked, rubbing Laserbeak softly.
"It would be the best thing," Perceptor said. "I also recommend that we sleep together in someone's room so that someone doesn't slip out in the night and do something."
"It seems like a foolproof way to prevent a murder," Onslaught said, approving of it.
"Alright, let's show this bear that we won't fall for his schemes. There isn't going to be another murder," Bumblebee ordered them. "Let's roll out!" he dramatically told them.
"I fly, you moron," Skywarp chastised.
"I have an animal form," Nautilator told him.
"Ah! Whatever," Bumblebee muttered. "Way to ruin the moment."