"What… the… fuck!" Smokescreen shouted, the announcement confirming that Nightbeat was dead. "Seriously, what the fuck just happened."
"He opened the door and that… lever?" Swindle turned to Hoist for confirmation, who gave a nod. "Right, that lever must've been arranged ahead of time to kill anybody who opens the door, although it must've required a lot of force. We'll have to investigate the area to see how they did it."
"W-we should tell everybody about this. Unlike Mirage, anyone could've set this up," Hoist told them.
"Yeah… except us. It takes three innocents to activate it and we did it together," the merchant pointed out.
"Yeah, that's right, just… shit. Who and how did they do this?" Smokescreen wondered.
"Let's go back to the others. They're probably freaking out," Hoist told them.
"Alright…." The three quickly turned around and quickly made their way back to the mall courtyard, where the ones they left behind were standing up and causing a fracas with each other, paranoia being more prevalent than before. To go along with that, the ones in the fourth building were back, wondering who was dead. Bludgeon, who was trying his best to keep everyone calm, glanced at them. Suddenly, he started yelling.
"SILENCE!" he shouted, causing everybody to quiet down. As they went quiet, Bludgeon turned to the three of them and asked, "Where's Nightbeat?"
"Dead," Swindle announced, causing them to start mumbling between each other. "You know what the worst thing about it is? Anyone could've done it as he was killed by a pre-made trap. No one can be declared innocent except for the three of us, as we triggered the announcement."
"Shit, that means that the only ones who are innocent for both murders is Smokescreen and Hoist," Blurr realized.
"Mirage's best friend and the gambler. Just perfect," Nautilator muttered. "I haven't even talked to these guys one-on-one."
"Well, how are we going to do this?" Perceptor asked. "We need to stay in groups no matter what to watch each other and find information."
"Well, I guess me and Knock Out should move on to Nightbeat," Ratchet murmured, with Knock Out shaking his head in agreement.
"Did you find out anything else with Mirage?" Hoist asked him nervously.
"Well, it was difficult, but we looked into Mirage memory banks considering energy. He started losing energy at around 1:30, so we're guessing that's when he was pushed against the behemoth's spike," Ratchet told him.
Ammo Gained: Time of impalement
According to energy memory, Mirage was impaled at 1:30.
"Okay, so we got that. Anything else?" Bumblebee asked.
"We didn't find anything else on him," Knock Out briskly replied. "Now, where is he?"
"The entrance to the basement," Smokescreen replied.
"Alright." The two medics quickly departed from the room and head out.
"We'll head back to our area we're looking after," Bumblebee ordered. With that, him, Wildrider, Drift, Blurr, and Scavenger headed back to the fourth building.
"Alright, so the rest of us will search around the other buildings? The one who planted the trap that killed had to at least walk around the mall," Nautilator recommended.
"It makes the most sense. Alright, let's look for a killer, but don't be by yourself," Perceptor announced, causing the group to break up and get in small groups to look around, leaving Hoist, Smokescreen, Swindle, Mixmaster, and Skywarp behind.
"Right, well, this is going to be difficult. We might have to look for two different killer and we're not having a good time finding clues." Smokescreen complained.
"Well, we made some progress on that safe," Mixmaster told them.
"Safe?" Swindle asked.
"Yeah, we found this safe in the backroom of a casino. The door is welded shut, so only I can get to it. Five number combination using 0-9," Skywarp informed him.
"Anyway, we tracked the damn associate of Monobear down and asked him about it. Apparently, one can get one independently, which he did. However he did leave a hint to the code in case he forget, but…," Mixmaster trailed off, rubbing the back of his neck.
"It makes no fragging sense," Skywarp told them.
"What is it?" Hoist asked.
"'Alphabetical digital root," Mixmaster replied.
Ammo Gained: Hint to Safe password
A hint was present for the safe that said 'alphabetical digital root.'
"…What?" Smokescreen bluntly asked, surprised. "What the hell does that mean?"
"We have no idea," the seeker replied. "It's plain gibberish to me. The clue is very esoteric."
"Holy shit, your vocabulary is getting better," he noticed.
"Hey, you learn a lot from… what the frag are you doing?" he went off track, looking at Swindle, who wasn't paying attention to them and seemed to be silently counting to himself.
"I'm counting, now shut up for a second," he told him, shutting the seeker up as he kept count quietly before he replied back. "Tried 92955."
"What the… what makes you think that?" Hoist asked, startled.
"Just trust me on this," Swindle told them.
"Alright… we'll give it a try," Mixmaster agreed. "We got nothing else."
"Eh, worth a try," Skywarp agreed. "Let's go." Mixmaster and Skywarp left the group, heading back to the casino.
"Okay, what to do now?" Hoist asked.
"Let's go see Knock Out and Ratchet and see if they could find anything on the body and examine the trap," Hoist recommended.
"Alright," Swindle agreed and the three of them quickly made their way there, arriving not long after to see Knock Out and Ratchet examining the corpse and a loud hissing noise from the basement.
"Hello, there. We would like to remind you that we just started this spontaneous autopsy and haven't figured anything out, so please try again later," Knock Out rebuked them.
Ammo Gained: Monokuma File #4 (2)
Victim: Nightbeat
Location: Basement
Cause of Death: Impaled, causing near instantaneous death.
Time of Death: 2:20 P.M.
"Well, that figures, but we're here to investigate the trap," Smokescreen told him.
"Well, have fun. I'll go ahead and tell you that he was killed by this lever impaling him," he informed them.
"Yeah, we know. We saw it happen," Swindle reminded him.
"Just to set the record straight."
Ammo Updated: Missing Lever
A lever at a slot machine was removed cleanly with tools, but found later being rigged to kill whoever opened the basement door, being Nightbeat in this case.
Unlike Knock Out, Ratchet was peering into the room, looking at the trap. "Clever," he muttered.
"You see something?" Hoist asked coming next to him and peering into the room.
"This string," he pointed out, connected to a door knob on the other side of the door, "was used to string up the student that was executed like a puppet. You can even still see splotches of energon on it." The trio examined the wire that was used to set up the trap and could see plenty of dried energon on it. A further look around the room allowed them to see the body that used to be the body, but the strings were taken off, leaving just a dismembered corpse on the ground.
"How pragmatic," Smokescreen murmured, slightly disgusted.
Ammo Gained: Wire
Wire used to set up the trap was from one of the dead bodies.
"Now, how did this wire worked?" Hoist wondered, following it to its end point, which was a tap that clearly didn't belong to the pipe due to its yellow coloring not matching the murky, gray pipe. "What is this?" he asked, looking at it. The wired was wrapped around the valve and he saw that the wire was directly over a button on the side of it, pushing it in. Hoist, his suspicion raised, moved the wired away from the button to release it, and the hissing stop. "So that's how they did it. They used the air in the pipes to expel the lever at a high velocity using this tap."
"Wow… exactly how do you get this to work?" Smokescreen asked.
"Anyone with a basic amount of engineering skill could theoretically do it," Hoist told them. "I could do this in my sleep with one arm tied behind my back."
"Bragging, aren't we?" Smokescreen chuckled.
"Well… I am that good," he repeated, looking at the tap. "Huh, there's even an adjuster for the amount of force. As well as," he moved the opening around a little bit, adjusting its direction, "being flexible."
"Well, this, along with the lever, is our murder weapon."
"Definitely."
Ammo Gained: Tap in the Pipe
A tap connected to the wall that expels air from the pipe. Can control the flow and force of air and can be shifted to different directions.
"Hey, you guys, look at this," Swindle told them, looking at the back of a door.
"What is it?" Smokescreen asked, the two of them walking over to Swindle to examine it.
"Look at these dents," he told them and indeed they did. At the back of the door, dents in a variety of sizes littered the back of the door.
"Huh, looked like someone vented their frustration out on this thing. Don't blame them," Smokescreen remarked. "I would probably be unloading my frustration on anything nearby."
"Yeah… but best take note of it all the same," Swindle advised.
Ammo Gained: Dents in the door.
Dents in a variety of sizes were on the basement door, room-side.
"Right, you medics found anything?" Smokescreen asked the duo who were inspecting Nightbeat's body.
"Well, considering that the killer did it in a way that isolated himself from dealing the killing blow, not really. But, he did have a note in his subspace. Here, have a look," Ratchet told them, standing up and giving it to them. Hoist grabbed it and te trio looked at what the note said.
Onslaught Insane?
Onslaught has been talking to himself when he thinks he thinks he far enough away that no one will hear him, always talking about plans. My audio receptors are much better than the average person, so it's useless. He's been doing this since we got done with the mall today. I think that the loss of Vortex and Brawl is finally getting to him and keeps having conversation with them to cope with their death. That, or he somehow communicating with someone to coop a murder. I like to be optimistic for once and say he's just going insane (how sad that is the better option).
-Nightbeat-
"What the… I didn't know he was suffering this much," Swindle muttered sadly.
"We should talk to him, see if he's alright," Hoist told them.
"And make sure he didn't do anything rash," Smokescreen reminded him. "He has no alibi and this note makes him more suspicious than normal."
"He wouldn't do it… not after what happen to Brawl and Vortex," Swindle rebuked him.
"So you say… so you say."
Ammo Gained: Nightbeat's Note
Onslaught Insane?
Onslaught has been talking to himself when he thinks he thinks he far enough away that no one will hear him, always talking about plans. My audio receptors are much better than the average person, so it's useless. He's been doing this since we got done with the mall today. I think that the loss of Vortex and Brawl is finally getting to him and keeps having conversation with them to cope with their death. That, or he somehow communicating with someone to coop a murder. I like to be optimistic for once and say he's just going insane (how sad that is the better option).
-Nightbeat-
"Right, if that's all you got for now, we're going to head back up," Smokescreen told the medics.
"We'll inform you if we find anything else," Knock Out told them and the three head back up and walked through the maintenance hall to the mall. From the fourth building's direction, Skywarp and Mixmaster walked toward them, something in hand.
"I have no idea how you knew, but the code was correct," Skywarp told them, showing off what was in his hand… which was a very familiar object.
"Are you serious?" Smokescreen questioned, walking over to him and grabbing it out of his hand and looking at it. He pulled something out of subspace and compared the two objects. "Yeah, this is the other communications device," Smokescreen told them.
"So, that was in the safe?" Hoist asked Skywarp.
"Yeah," Skywarp confirmed.
Ammo Gained: Communications Device (2)
A second communications device found in the safe.
"That and this," he handed to him an odd spherical device. "No idea what this is, but Mixmaster knows."
"It's a spark detector," he said, grabbing it and pressing a button, showing a 3-D holographic area of the building. They could see orbs at different areas around the mall, paired up. "It detects pulsing sparks in the area. Someone probably used it to detect when someone entered the area."
"So the person talked with someone with the comm device and tracked any person entering a building," Smokescreen murmured.
"Exactly."
Ammo Gained: Spark Detector
Found in the safe. Used to detect people entering a building.
"So, they used this to set up a crime, but when did they used this?"
"And what murder did they used it for?"
"Excuse me," they turned to see Dead End looking over them, his datapad that he was still reading in hand, "may I ask what type of trap it was that killed Nightbeat?"
"Uh, yeah, sre," Hoist agreed and explained to him what it was.
"Well now, that's very telling," Dead End muttered.
"How so?"
"This datapad," he showed it off, "is from the repair bay in a drawer. I though it was pointless, but it was bookmarked at a specific place for easy reference." He gave the datapad to Hoist who looked at it.
"This is… the trap that killed Nightbeat," Hoist realized.
"It's called 'Building Objects and Traps for Dummies.' It's meant to teach people how to make objects and to make traps for animals to hunt and home defense. It guarantees that anybody, even the complete dummies, could build these things," he told him.
"And you found this in the repair bay?" Hoist confirmed.
"Yes."
"So the trapper worked on it in the repair bay, the same place that Mirage was skewered," Smokescreen pondered. "If these aren't connected somehow, I'd lose all my money."
Ammo Gained: 'Building Objects and Traps for Dummies' Datapad
Datapad found in the repair bay that teaches people how to make traps. The trap that killed Nightbeat was bookmarked.
"Okay, me ad Skywarp will go check out the library," Mixmaster told them.
"I'll come along," Dead End told them. "I've got nothing better to do." With that, the three of them left the group to the library, leaving the other three behind.
"Great, so what to do now?" Swindle muttered.
"We got to find Onslaught and talk to him," Smokescreen said.
"Also, there's still the matter of the missing scalpel," Hoist reminded them. "That's still missing."
"Oh, yeah, I've forgotten about that," Smokescreen agreed.
"Missing scalpel? How is that relevant?" Swindle asked them. "Mirage was pushed against the Behemoth jagged piece and Nightbeat was skewered by a lever."
"We're not sure, but someone stole it for some reason. Obviously, it's not for a good reason," Hoist told him.
"Well, let's go find Onslaught," Swindle told them. "I want to know about that note Nightbeat wrote."
"Right," Smokescreen agreed and the two began looking around until they met Onslaught on the third floor with Blast Off, who were emerging from a store.
"Onslaught, what's wrong with you!" Swindle shouted, marching over to his leader.
"Swindle, what did I do wrong? I know me being out this late is not a good sign, but-"
"Nightbeat had been keeping notes about you, talking about how you keep talking to yourself. That's why I'm here. You're not acting very sane. Did me and Blast Off being away from you cause your mind to rust up?" Swindle badgered him. Onslaught looked confused before answering.
"I wasn't talking to myself," he immediately defended himself. "I would tell you, but that would be bad for us."
"Oh, yeah, you don't think you're talking to yourself. I forgot," Swindle scoffed.
"Calm down, Swindle," Blast Off stepped in, mediating between the two. "Now is not the time to fight. There are two murders that we need to solve and fighting won't get us anywhere."
"Blast Off, I don't think you remember, but you and Onslaught are prime suspect #1 and #2," he reminded him. "You two were the ones out tonight with the two dead people!"
"Swindle, it's nothing. We didn't plot their deaths," he told him.
"After what happen earlier, I need more than just your word. I need evidence," Swindle told them, causing the two to flinch. Vortex and Brawl would always remain fresh wounds.
"There is no need to suspect us," Blast Off told them. "Trust us."
"Hmph," Swindle scoffed. "I guess we'll find out later." He walked away from them and rejoined the two and walked off with them.
"Things are obviously not going well between you three," Smokescreen murmured.
"Don't remind me," he growled.
"Uh, there's Jazz and Beachcomber! Quick, let's go talk to them," Hoist mentioned, pointing out Beachcomber and Jazz emerging from the upgrades store. The two made their way over to the two and greeted each other.
"Alright, any info?" he asked them.
"Well, I can tell you what happen during the announcement when Nightbeat told us of the Mirage's death. We left the room with Beachcomber falling a little behind due to the exertion being up extra late and not getting enough sleep," Jazz began.
"Yeah, I was really tired. Jazz is used to this stuff and I'm an insomniac. I followed along after I got out. I was slow, but I was the one to notice the barricade and got rid of it, allowing the others in the purple room to escape."
"That's about it," Jazz finished.
"Alright, thanks for that," Hoist thanked them.
"You're welcome."
Ammo Gained: Jazz and Beachcomber's Testimony
Jazz lead the red group out while Beachcomber fell behind and release the purple team from their room.
"Well, that wasn't very useful," Smokescreen muttered at a distant.
"Tell me about it," Swindle agreed.
"Yeah, and- wait, is Bludgeon coming over here?" Smokescreen asked, cautious.
"Uh. Yeah. Him and the 'lucky' one," Swindle noticed the two walking over with something in Bludgeon's hand.
"We found this in our room's bathroom," he told them showing off a scalpel with energon covering the blade.
"Red room?" Hoist asked for certainty.
"Yes, in the trash can. If we went to trial without finding this, it would've been gotten rid of."
"How did that get there?" Hoist wondered.
"We don't know!" Nautilator told them "We went back to the room to relax and clear our head before the trial starts and I went to the bathroom to clean the cracks in my armor when I noticed the scalpel there."
"Great, that's just wonderful," Smokescreen complained, clutching his head. "How the frag did that get there and who used it!"
Ammo Updated: Energon-Stained Scalpel
Found in red room's trashcan in the bathroom.
"Okay, we got that, now what?" Hoist wondered.
"Hey!" the group looked down to the first floor where Perceptor was looking down at them. "We've made a discovery in the storage room. Get down here." Perceptor disappeared after giving his order. The five looked at each other.
"Well, want to go see what they saw together?" Hoist offered the duo.
"Fine with me," Bludgeon agreed with a nod from his partner. The five of them went down the stairs to the storage hall on the ground floor. The five entered it and found a side room where Perceptor was with Rewind and Hound. Inside was something very curious. A blue tarp laid out with a combat knife on top of it.
"That's… ominous," Smokescreen murmured.
"It looks like someone was planning to murder someone in here and use the tarp to move him somewhere else," Perceptor told them.
"So… how close were we to having third person dead?" Rewind asked.
"It looked like we barely avoided it," Hound muttered. "I can't believe the amount of people willing to kill right now."
"Still, it looks like this is unrelated," Swindle muttered.
"Best take note of it all the same," Perceptor told them.
"Fine," Swindle muttered.
Ammo Gained: Tarp and Knife
Found in the storage room intended to be used. To transport a body somewhere.
*Ding Dong*
"Alright, teachers! The investigation is over and it's time for you to head on over to the cargo elevator so we can get this trial on the way!"
"Already! Dammit!" Hoist cursed. "You guys go on ahead. I'll get there as soon as I can," Hoist told them before quickly running out of the room to their bewildered stare. He made his way quickly out of the mall to the repair bay. He entered it and rushed on over to a tool box. He opened it up to see a more than enough tools to fix the recorder he found. Confident with his tools, he closed it and took one last look around the room. They searched everywhere in the room and found nothing. Everywhere…
…
Except for the behemoth itself. Hoist put his tools down and quickly climbed up and looked around the machine. Nothing on the chair so he looked in the glove box. In it, he found exactly what he was looking for. He pulled out a datapad and looked at it.
My Gift to Hoist
I worked very hard at this and I hope you appreciate it. I learned this from a datapad and I built it for you. I hope you like this and hope we can continue our friendship with this and that we can build many things together.
-Mirage-
Hoist could a low groan and pressed the object against his chest, the feeling of despair feeling him. He couldn't help it. He had always been lonely and he had always been on the periphery, trying to at least talk to people, even if it wasn't as friends. Mirage was the first person he spent a lot of his time with and he was killed by someone just as they decided to be friends.
Whoever did this was going to suffer.
He reached inside the glove box and pulled out a cradle of some sort with metal balls hanging from wires. Hoist knew enough that this was a Newton's Cradle on earth. He grabbed one of the ball, pulled it back, and released. The ball hit the closest and the one at the end went up and came back down to knock the previous one up. Hoist couldn't help but smile. Mirage built it correctly by himself. He would've been a damn good builder if he could've stayed alive longer.
"Hoist! Where the hell are you! We got a trial to start!" Monobear shouted through the intercoms. Hoist jumped, startled, before grabbing the cradle, the datapad and the toolbox. He quickly inputted into his electroID what he found.
Ammo Gained: Mirage's Note
My Gift to Hoist
I worked very hard at this and I hope you appreciate it. I learned this from a datapad and I built it for you. I hope you like this and hope we can continue our friendship with this and that we can build many things together.
-Mirage-
Ammo Gained: Hoist's Present
Mirage built a Newton's Cradle for Hoist.
Hoist arrived at the cargo elevator, where everybody was waiting for him to arrive. "Sorry," he told them, coming on over to them.
"Is that Mirage's gift?" Smokescreen asked, coming over to him.
"Yeah, it is."
"Alright, just one more thing I want you to take note of that I just added. I added what we did after we left the room."
"Okay."
Ammo Gained: Smokescreen and Hoist's Testimony
Exited room at two to head to the Repair Bat, where they met Onslaught and Blast Off on the first floor of the mall and Nightbeat emerging from the Med-Bay.
"Well, guess it's time to quit holding it off and get this thing going. It's time to sacrifice someone," Bludgeon told the group.
"Guess so," Jazz muttered sadly. "Wish it didn't have to be this way."
Blurr pressed the button and the elevator opened up for everyone in. The group slowly entered it and Blurr pressed the button to take them down. The roaring noise of the engine going down roared throughout the elevator. The 22 of them noted darkly that there was quite a bit more room in the elevator compared to how it was with 29. They hated people dying, but at least the elevator was a little more comfortable.
The elevator stop dead and the 22 of them exited the elevator to reach their usual pedestal. The empty ones were filled with their usual pictures plus three new ones. Mirage and Nightbeat were replaced with headshots of them crossed out with a blue X. Chromedome's spot also had a headshot, but his X were a pair of mnemosuregeon needles. The walls of the trial area was a celestial blue with red, orange, and yellow trimmings, reflecting the two dead teachers colors.
"Well, you guys have been busy," Monobear happily noted from his throne. "A double murder always pleases me and I trust you know the rules. Find the killer or killers in this case, and only they will be executed. Guess wrong on either of them, and you will be executed. Now, let the trial begin!"