"Well, this is unfortunate," Blast Off muttered, crossing his arms angrily. "Who's going to get the others?"
"I'll go," Nightbeat replied sadly. "I will inform them of Mirage's death and bring them here." Just like that, Nightbeat rushed out of the room, leaving the others behind.
"Why… why did you have to die? Why did you have to make such a stupid decision to come here?" Hoist questioned, still clinging to the corpse.
"Hoist… please let go. You're contaminating the evidence," Onslaught murmured sadly.
"He's not evidence! He's my friend!" Hoist turned to yell at him, stomping over to him. "Why do you have to be so removed?"
"Look," he said, grabbing him by the shoulders, "I know what you're going through. I went through this with Vortex and it hurts, but you have to calm down and not mess with the evidence."
"Speaking of, doesn't anybody find this room too clean for a murder?" Smokescreen asked, looking around. Indeed, aside from Mirage and the protrusion sticking out from his chest, nothing in the room had energon on it and the place seemed to have been cleaned up. "It's like the killer cleaned up before departing from the place."
"Without finishing off Mirage?" Blast Off asked. "That's quite strange of the killer. Naturally, if you're going to kill someone, you would actually finish them off before cleaning the area."
"Maybe they wanted him to suffer?" Onslaught guessed.
"Why would they want him to suffer? Would that imply that… they had a grudge?" Hoist asked, glaring at Blast Off, who noticed it.
"Don't give me that look," he warned him. "I have nothing to do with this."
"I don't know anyone else who had a grudge against him," he pointed out.
"That doesn't mean someone doesn't have a secret grudge against him," Blast Off reminded him. "We don't know everything about everyone here."
"You're still the one with the most reasons to kill him," the repairer pointed out.
"Does one need a reason to kill here?" Blast Off asked him. "Last I check, anyone could can do it."
"What happen!" the panic voiced of Bumblebee asked as rest of the teachers entered led by Nightbeat.
"It's as I told you, someone killed Mirage," Nightbeat said as they led them to behind the behemoth where Mirage was, resting against it with the spike protruding from his chest.
"Shit!" Blurr immediately reacted. "Who the hell did this?"
"That's for you to investigate and find out!" Monobear cheered, coming out of hiding. "My, it looks like Mirage is a bit 'stuck.' Pupupupupupup!" Monobear joked.
"Would you shut up, you bastard!?" Hoist shouted at him. "He's dead because of you. You cause this!"
"Uh, no I didn't. Seriously, I saw the footage. It wasn't me!" Monobear exclaimed, shock by the accusation.
"Listen here, you-"
"Hey, calm down!" Nightbeat yelled, getting in front of him. "Monobear set this up, but one of us pushed him on that spike and we have to find them."
Hoist glared into Nightbeat's optics, obviously angry, bur relented, backing off. "Well, where do we start?" he asked.
"Well, you can start with the Monobear File I gave you," Monobear told him with a shrug.
"Oh, that," Hoist mutter, getting his electroID and looking it up.
Ammo Gained: Monobear File #3
Victim: Mirage
Location: Repair Bay
Cause of Death: Pushed against a spike, leading him to bleed out.
Time of Death: 2:00 A.M.
Additional notes: Time of death is when he died, not when he was pushed against the spike. Victim had no traces of anything in his system.
"Very straightforward," Ratchet murmured. "I wonder if me and Knockout even have to do an autopsy."
"If you can figure out when he was impaled, that would be very helpful," Perceptor mentioned.
"Well, I'm not going to tell you, so bye-bye!" Monobear shouted as he departed.
"Well, nice to see he's still an annoyance," Perceptor sarcastically said. "Now, can we figure out the time?"
"Figuring out when someone was impaled is a lot harder than figuring out when someone died," Knock Out responded.
"So, who will be the one leading the charge for the next killer?" Dead End asked.
"Well, me and Hoist can account for each other," Smokescreen told them.
"Hey, were you the ones who barricaded the door?" Blurr asked, glaring at the two of them.
"Uh, yeah," Smokescreen confirmed, a little nervous. "Also, since we barricaded the door, everyone in our group has a good alibi."
"Hey, are we sure we can trust them?" Skywarp asked, glaring at them. "They could be working together."
"Please, I would throw Hoist under the bus as fast as I can if he was the killer and I can confirmed I was with him the whole time," Smokescreen told them. "I care about my life more than his."
"As do I," Hoist agreed. "I wouldn't lie for Smokescreen."
"Alright, so Purple Group will lead the investigation?" Perceptor asked.
"Seems the most reasonable," Bludgeon agreed.
"Hey, our group is good too. Me and Ratchet stayed in our room the whole time," Drift told them.
"So Yellow Group as well?" Knock Out asked.
"Seems like it," Hound agreed.
"The rest of you can look around, but stay with your groups," Blurr told the rest.
"Well, best get started," Hoist said, looking at Red Group and Blue Group. One of the eleven had to be the one to kill Mirage and they had to figure it out.
Investigation Start!
Detectives: Yellow Group (Bumblebee, Wildrider, Ratchet, Drift, Scavenger, Skywarp) and Purple Group (Mixmaster, Hoist, Smokescreen, Knock Out, Dead End, Blurr)
"Okay, where to start?" Hoist asked out loud to himself.
"Well… obviously we need to look around the area," Nightbeat said, standing next to Onslaught. "That and start establishing people's alibies, such as where were you when I went to the bathroom momentarily to wash up?" he said, glaring at Onslaught next to him.
"Well, I wanted to go out for a little bit," Onslaught told him.
"Why is that?" he asked, glaring at him.
"It has nothing to do with Mirage's murder," Onslaught told him, turning away from him.
"Uh, exactly what are you two going on about?" Hoist questioned the two of them.
"At around 1:15, Onslaught spilled some energon on me. When I got out of there at 1:20, he was gone," Nightbeat said, glaring at him. "I left the room to go fine him."
"And I implore you to believe me when I say that it has nothing to do with Mirage's murder," Onslaught rebuked.
"Well, you won't tell us, I imagine, but at least it gives us something to work with," Smokescreen murmured.
"And what's that?"
"If the two of you were both not in the room, then the other people could exit without anybody knowing, correct?"
"Yes," Nightbeat flinched. "I thought I could find Onslaught quickly and get right back, but he is elusive. I'll add the lack of alibi for our group."
Ammo Gained: Red Group's Lack of Alibi
After 1:20, both Nightbeat and Onslaught were not in the room, giving no one a definitive alibi after 1:20.
"Now, why were you gone, Onslaught?" Hoist asked.
"It's a secret," Onslaught told him.
"And I'm guessing it's between you, Blast Off, and Swindle," Smokescreen asked.
"No, I have no idea what's going on with them," Swindle said, walking up to talk to Onslaught. "What the frag were you and Blast Off out of your room for!"
"Me and Blast Off had to do something together," Onslaught told him.
"And what was it?" Swindle asked, crossing his arms and glaring up at him.
"Nothing that concerns you," Onslaught told him, shrugging him off.
"Ons, what secrets are you keeping from me?" he growled at his commander.
"You'll find it out if you need to, now get back to the investigation." Onslaught turned away, indicating that the conversation between him and Swindle was over.
"You muffled slagger," he growled, walking off while inputting something in his electroID. "Whatever's going on between you and Blast Off will come out at tribal today."
Ammo Gained: Onslaught and Blast Off's Secret Rendezvous
The two met last night around the time of the murder for unknown reasons.
"Hmph, no idea why you're doing this, unless you were busy-"
"No, Smokescreen, I wasn't busy impaling Mirage, now go away," he rebuked. "Now quit wasting your time with me."
"He's right. We got a lot more to do," Hoist told Smokescreen.
"Yeah, you're right, like how clean this damn room is," Smokescreen told him, walking away from Onslaught.
"Yeah…." Every single area was cleaned, leaving no evidence that a struggle had occurred in the area. A close look can see that pretty much everything was clean. The behemoth, the floor, the tables… it was all clean.
"The killer left nothing behind for us to use," Smokescreen muttered, scratching his chin. "That's going to make things hard to find things out."
"Unfortunately."
Ammo Gained: State of Repair Bay
Aside from the body and the spike, nothing in the room looked like a struggle happen, having look like it's been cleaned up.
"Hey, medics, how's the autopsy going?" Smokescreen asked, not noticing the flinch that Hoist gave at that.
"Besides the obvious?" Knock Out chuckled as him and Ratchet looked into the corpse. "He was impaled. Not much else. The killer kept it nice and clean."
"I hate siding with him, but he's right. Come back later and we might find something of interest," Ratchet told him.
"Well, that's great," Smokescreen muttered as the two walked away. "Well, what now?" The two looked around. Everyone that had a full-proof alibi was looking through the room and was having a rough time. Red group was hanging around the tables in the back, checking for any clues and coming up short. The innocent groups were busy looking over the rest of the area, minus Swindle, who was not in the room as well as the blue group.
"The killer is making this really hard," Hoist complained.
"Yeah, we're finding between nothing and nada," Wildrider complained, exasperated.
"Well, we'll have to spread our search then," Perceptor said, heading for the door. "Since the killer has clean the crime scene, we're going to have to hope he didn't have time to clean the other areas, if he's been there." Everyone looked at each other before heading out, leaving Smokescreen and Hoist behind with the medics.
"We've got a lot of work to do if we want to find this killer," Hoist muttered. "A room this clean means the killer know what they're doing."
"Yeah, we've got a tough trial on our hands," Smokescreen muttered.
"Speaking of hands," Knock Out said as he pried Mirage's right hand open, "it looks like Mirage has something in his hand." He held it out for the four others to see. The item appeared to a handle with a button. Knock Out pressed it, revealing a blade with energon on it.
"Well, that's revealing," Ratchet muttered, looking at it. "I didn't noticed anyone with a wound on them."
"But we weren't looking for wounds before," Knock Out muttered.
"Before the trial starts, we should check everybody for knife marks," Ratchet ordered.
"Sounds like a good idea," Smokescreen said with a smile as he stretch his arm out to take the knife. "We'll take it to the weapons to see if we get any info out of it."
"Sure," Knock Out agreed, handing it to him. "have fun."
Ammo Gained: Energon-Stained Knife
A knife found in Mirage's right hand, stained with energon.
"Alright, let's explore the other area and see if we can find anything else," Smokescreen told Hoist and the two went off to the rom intersecting the three rooms and the hallway to the mall. Inside, they saw Dead End loitering around the area, sitting against the wall with a datapad.
"Dead End, what are you doing?" Smokescreen questioned him.
"Reading."
"Why aren't you investigating?"
"Because I think you can do fine without me. Several people went to the casino and the medical bay to look for clues. The two group of suspects went to the mall with Swindle watching over them," Dead End informed them.
"Alright, thanks for nothing," Smokescreen growled before heading to the casino with Hoist trailing him.
"Was it really necessary to insult him?" Hoist asked.
"When everybody's life is on the line and you're doing nothing, yes," Smokescreen told him, the two entering the bright, glitzy area. Right in front of them, Scavenger, Mixmaster, Skywarp, and Blurr were in various places in the room. The two of them went to the nearest one, Scavenger, looking through a garbage can.
"Hey, Scavenger, what's going on?" Smokescreen asked him, getting next to him.
"Sifting through the trash," he mutter depressingly, "as usual." The two Autobots glanced at each other before Hoist asked a question.
"Found anything?" he asked.
"Maybe… hold on," he reached in deep before pulling himself from the garbage, revealing a broken device of some sort. "Uh, what is this?"
"Let me see," Hoist said, grabbing it and looking at it. "It a recording device. Someone was using to record something."
"But, is this even relevant? You were digging really deep to get it," Smokescreen pointed out to them.
"Well, the only reason I digged very deep is that it looked very unnatural," Scavenger told him.
"Wait, what does that mean?" Smokescreen questioned, confused and kind of disgusted.
"Well, Monobear takes the garbage from the area and transport it at night when no one else is around. We haven't been here all day and it was full, which made no sense. You agree with me, right?" he asked desperately.
"That… makes a lot of sense," Smokescreen agreed, smiling in approval.
"Yes!" Scavenger shouted in glee.
"You can fix this, right?" he asked Hoist.
"Yeah, I just need some time, but I rather investigate everything else first before we get to it," Hoist told him, storing it. "Let's go see how everyone else is."
"Alright. Thanks for the help, Scavenger," Smokescreen thanked him. "Input this evidence."
"Alright and you're welcome," Scavenger said as the two walked off.
Ammo Gained: Broken Recorder
Broken recorder found in the trash bin of the casino.
"Blurr, what are you doing?" Smokescreen asked, watching him mess around with a slot machine.
"You don't see it?" Blurr questioned him. "You're the one that's here all the time blowing your money."
"Okay, first, I always win and two, I hate slots. Relies too much on luck," Smokescreen told him, insulted.
"Well, sorry, for being so judgmental about you're gambling addiction-"
"Mock it and I'll skewer you're alcoholism," he shot back.
"It's not that bad," Blurr scoffed before getting to the point, "now compare this slot machine to the others and you'll see what's wrong." Smokescreen and Hoist glanced at each other before they started comparing the slots and noticing something wrong.
"Hey, the lever on this one is gone," Hoist noticed, looking at the right side where the lever would be.
"Yeah. I looked closely at it and it appears to have been removed with some tools rather than broken off," Blurr told them.
"So it wasn't a spur of the moment thing, but planned out," Hoist realized.
"Yeah. Best make note of it. I have no idea how this is related to the case, but someone had a purpose for this."
Ammo Gained: Missing Lever
A lever at a slot machine is missing, having been completely removed by tools.
"Why the person do this, I have no idea," Smokescreen muttered, scratching his head. "Best check on the others." The two walked off to Mixmaster and Skywarp, who were both examing the back of the room, trying to get in a door. "Hey, what are you two doing?"
"This… door…won't… budge!" Skywarp yelled as the two of them kept trying to break it down.
"Maybe it's not meant to be opened," Hoist recommended.
"No, because I was in it earlier. It's a backroom filled with safes," Mixmaster told him as he gave one last push, before giving up. "Okay, since we can't push it, you're going to have to go in by yourself Skywarp."
"You got it," Skywarp answer before warping off, leaving the three behind. With him gone, Mixmaster took a closer look and examine the door closely. "It appears that someone took the time to weld the door shut."
"Let me take a look," Hoist said, pushing past Smokescreen to look at the door with Mixmaster. "You're right, someone used a welder or something like it to close it from us."
"Best make note of it."
Ammo Gained: Welded doors of the Casino Backroom
The doors to the backroom with safes are welded shut, unable to be opened.
Before the two could come to anymore conclusions, Skywarp warped back. "Alright, I check the room out and there is something suspicious," he told them.
"What?"
"Well, there's quite a bit of dust in the room and the safes, so it makes no sense for one of the safes to be free of dust," Skywarp told them. "If we could find the combination for it, I could check it out."
"Well, that's going to be difficult," Smokescreen muttered. "How are we supposed to find a combo for a safe?"
"Question is, how did they get a combo for a safe in the first place?" Mixmaster asked him.
"Oh yeah, that too," Smokescreen murmured.
"Well, the safe is inputted with a key pad and needs five numbers," Skywarp told them. "Want me and Mixmaster to look around for any answers about that safe?"
"Do whatever you have to do to find the code. Someone is keeping us from the safe and we need to find out what's in it," Hoist ordered.
"Understood. Come on Skywarp, let's see if we can find any info on it," Mixmaster told the warper and the two walked off to find any info.
Ammo Gained: Locked Safe
A suspicious safe that is locked behind the welded door.
"So, need to search anything else in here?" Smokescreen asked.
"No. It's best to go check the medical bay," Hoist told them.
"Alright. You two!" he shouted to Scavenger and Blurr, who turned towards the duo. "Watch this area and make sure no one interferes with anything here!"
"Yeah, you got it," Blurr said with a thumbs-up and a nod from Scavenger. The two quickly departed from the room, passed a still reading Dead End, and enter the Medical Bay. There he could see Bumble watching Wildrider looking through a garbage bin and Drift looking around at the medical tools that could cut things open.
"Found anything?" Hoist asked the trio.
"Well, I'm letting Wildrider look around in the garbage. I'm getting some enjoyment out of this," Bumblebee told them smugly. "I doubt he's going to find-"
"Found something!" Wildrider shouted, standing up and showing off a cloth with energon-stained on it that looked like the shade of bodily energon.
"Woah, looks like someone bled into it," Hoist shouted.
"Or to clean up energon," Smokescreen pointed out.
"The killer has probably been in here then," Bumblebee muttered.
Ammo Gained: Energon-Stained cloth
Cloth stained with energon. Found in the Med-Bay
"Well, we saw Nightbeat in here, so we should ask him about it," Smokescreen recommended. "I doubt he did it, but since he was here, that makes him suspicious."
"Didn't he save all of our lives back in the first and third trial?" Bumblebee asked.
"That was then and this is now. It's a clean slate and we have to treat him with suspicion now," Smokescreen told him.
"Ugh… fine," Bumblebee muttered.
"Aw, so sad another one of you might be a killer?" Wildrider sent a barbed at him.
"Will you shut up?"
"Hey, Drift, have you found anything?" Hoist asked him, ignoring the other two.
Drift paused before replying, "Well, there's a scalpel missing," he told them.
"A scalpel?" Hoist asked?
"Yeah. Better look somewhere else for it, because it's not here."
Ammo Gained: Missing Scalpel
A Scalpel in the Med-Bay is missing.
Also, there is something that should be noted about the rooms," Drift added.
"What is that?" he asked.
"The Med-Bay is on the left door, the Repair Bay is in the middle, and the Casino is on the right. You may not know it, but each room is interconnected," he pointed out a door that said "REPAIR BAY" on it. "It's easy to move between the three rooms if you have too."
"Alright, good thing to take note of," Hoist agreed. "Thanks."
Ammo Gained: Interconnecting Rooms
The Med-Bay, Repair Bay, and Casino are interconnected.
"Alright, let's go check up on Nightbeat," Smokescreen told Hoist.
"Okay," Hoist agreed, leaving the squabbling duo and Drift behind. The two exited the room into the atrium to the three area where Dead End was crouched, examining something in his hand.
"Hey, Dead Beat, found anything?" Smokescreen insulted him.
"First off, nice insult. I've definitely haven't heard that before," he sarcastically replied. "Second, I found this small communications device." He showed off a small device in-between his fingers. "Looks like two people were communicating with each other."
"Where there's one device, there's another," Smokescreen muttered.
"Yes, so you should check around the other areas, probably in the mall since I'm guessing you haven't found the other one, as you haven't remarked on finding one in the rooms in this building," he noticed.
"Sharp," Smokescreen nodded.
"Here," he said, tossing it to Smokescreen, who caught it easily. "For cross-referencing."
"Thanks."
Ammo Gained: Communication Device
Found in the atrium of the fourth building.
"Alright, let's get going," the gambler told the repairer.
"Alright," he agreed, and the two quickly transverse the interconnecting hallway to the mall. The two entered it to see most of the group there sitting at the table at the plaza under the overwatch of Swindle. However, there was one noticeable exception.
"Hey, Swindle, where's Nightbeat?" Hoist asked.
"He said he had to go to the basement. Said something about going to the basement," Swindle told them.
"Alright, thanks," Hoist told them, the two walking off.
"Hey, wait," Swindle ordered them and the two pause and waited to see what he had to say. Swindle turned to Bludgeon and gave him an order. "Bludgeon, I'm going to join them. If anybody decides to leave the area, break their limbs."
"That sounds satisfying," Bludgeon agreed, standing up and taking overwatch, glaring at all of his fellow suspects. Swindle nodded and walked up to the two of them.
"Alright, let's head out," Swindle told the two, walking for the maintenance hall door.
"Can we trust Bludgeon?" Hoist asked, the three walking quickly.
"Yeah, I think so," Swindle said with a nod. "He may be brutal, but he's got his hand on straight. I'd rather trust him than any of the others."
"Even your own gestaltmates?" Smokescreen wondered.
"They were both out. That makes them suspicious," he told them.
"You don't have much faith in them?"
"They've been keeping me in the dark and that's never good. We value trust over anything else, and keeping secrets from each other is never good," Swindle told them, opening the door and entering the halls.
"Yeah," Hoist agreed.
"Also, I noticed in the evidence that Mirage had a knife in his right hand?" Swindle asked him.
"Correct? Relevant to you?" Hoist asked.
"Blast Off talked about Mirage before and according to him, Mirage is left-handed," he told them.
"He is?" Hoist asked. "I didn't noticed."
"Yeah. I figured that be relevant to you," Swindle told them.
Ammo Gained: Mirage's Preferred Hand
Mirage is left-handed.
As the two neared the Nightbeat, Swindle started shouting, "Hey Nightbeat, you there?"
"I'm at the entrance!" Nightbeat yelled to them. The three quicken to see Nightbeat at the bottom of the stairs, about to enter the room. "Yes?" he asked them
"We have questions for you," Hoist told him, the three walking down the stairs.
"Well, we can talk while I'm investigating the room," he told them, pushing the door wide open. As he opened the door, a large clang rang out and a large pop. Before anybody could react, an object quickly skewered Nightbeat through the center of his chest and through his spark. Nightbeat gasped as he grasped the object sticking out of his before collapsing backward, unmoving. The three had their mouths wide open and their optics brighten at the sight of the grisly scene. Suddenly, Hoist spoke really dully.
"That's… the lever," he pointed out what was sticking out of Nightbeat's chest. Before the others could respond, they heard a familiar sound.
*DING DONG*
"A body has been discovered, and I'm happy at who it is! HAHAHAHAHA! You guys get an extended investigation time now," Monobear announced to everybody with glee.