Make an Accusation!
Jazz
Brawl
Mirage
Dead End
Bumblebee
Mixmaster
Blurr
Skywarp
Counterpunch
Bludgeon
Drift
Nautilator
Hoist
Blast Off
Rewind
Wildrider
Chromedome
Onslaught
Beachcomber
Swindle
Smokescreen
Knock Out
Ratchet
Scavenger
Perceptor
Shockwave
Hound
Vortex
Nightbeat
Soundwave
"The one who set the trap is Mirage!" Smokescreen shouted to everyone.
"What?!" he heard someone roar and turned to Hoist, who was glaring at him. "Are you delusional?!"
"Dammit… I'm going to have to work for this," Smokescreen muttered.
"What was that?!"
"Urk!" Smokescreen grunted. He was really going to have to tread carefully with Hoist. "Hoist, I…" Hoist glared even harder at him. "Um…"
"Mirage set the trap and killed Nightbeat," Dead End interrupted, helping Smokescreen.
"Do you have any proof to your claim!?" Hoist yelled, turning his attention to him.
"Well, it's in Smokescreen's hand right now," Dead End informed him. "Smokescreen, I know he's your friend, but if you don't tell him, I will. It's probably best if you do it."
"Well, what is it?" Hoist growled, turning back to him and Smokescreen flinched at that.
"Well, the datapad the killer used to help construct the trap also had instructions on how to build… something else," Smokescreen told him.
"What is that?"
"It's, um, well… a Newton's Cradle," Smokescreen told him and Hoist flinched at that.
"What… does that have to do with anything?" Hoist asked, turning back to the recorder and worked on it with shakier hands.
"Well, the person who set the trap used the datapad to help build it, so sense the Newton's Cradle was built by Mirage and was in that list of things to make objects and trap, it makes sense to say that Mirage built the trap as he built the cradle," Smokescreen explained to him.
"Well, is that all you got?" Hoist asked. "Mirage, I believe from how much I talked and worked with him, was skilled enough to do this without any help from a datapad."
"I'm not so sure. I mean, I know you could and I don't think you would need that. Mirage on the other hand-"
"Was very skilled," Hoist told him.
"Yes, but I doubt he was up to your level," Smokescreen rebuked him. "He could do it, but he needed instructions to pull it off."
"…It can't be."
"It is."
"No, it isn't. Will you stop it?!"
"No. We could vote without you right now and get out alive, but I want to get it through your head that Mirage is a killer," Smokescreen growled to him.
"But where's the proof?" Hoist asked. "You can't just blame him for it, especially when he isn't here."
"But this datapad-"
"Is circumstantial! Anyone could've use it. It had the Newton's Cradle in it? So what? Have you check everything else in there? I'm sure there's something for everyone there," Hoist began rebutting him.
"Hey, what gives you the impression?" he asked. "The Newton's Cradle is the only one we know."
"That and the trap, which we agree that anyone could make with this datapad. So, you got an argument?" he asked.
"What the… just give me a second," Smokescreen muttered.
"Hmph, we'll see…."
Cross Swords Battle!
Swords Available:
HOIST: You claim that Mirage had to be the one to own it.
HOIST: You're claim is the Newton's Cradle being in there.
HOIST: That is not sufficient reason to blame him.
HOIST: You're taking this sentimental gift that Mirage gave me…
HOIST: …and using it to try and blame it on him!
…
DEVELOPMENT
…
SMOKESCREEN: Mirage, I'm really sorry…
SMOKESCREEN: …but I can't believe this is a coincidence.
HOIST: But some things are a coincidence.
HOIST: We've prove that in this trial alone.
HOIST: Yet, this coincidence is the straw that broke the camel's back.
HOIST: Are you kidding me?!
HOIST: I can't believe you would do something like that, Smoke.
…
DEVELOPMENT
…
SMOKESCREEN: I'm not kidding you!
SMOKESCREEN: Mirage has to be the killer.
HOIST: Yet, you cannot definitely prove anything.
HOIST: There's no traces of Mirage on that datapads.
HOIST: That means nothing is there to prove Mirage touched.
HOIST: And I definitely know he never mentioned it.
HOIST: Now, I shall continue fixing this recorder.
SMOKESCREEN: That's wrong.
Sword Used: Mirage's note.
"Hoist, remember that note Mirage gave you with the Newton's Cradle?" Smokescreen asked him.
"Yeah. I still got it," Hoist said, smiling at that.
"Read the second sentence," Smokescreen ordered.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Hoist asked, withdrawing it to look at it.
"You'll see," he said and Hoist read it. Immediately, he gave a gasp.
"No… that can't be…," he whispered.
"For those of you who don't know, the second note says he got the information to build the Newton's Cradle from a datapad," Smokescreen told everybody.
"Like the one to build the trap," Jazz muttered, all of it coming into place.
"Well, that settles it, right?" Knock Out asked everyone. "Nightbeat killed Mirage and vice versa.
"That sounds unbelievable, but it's the answer that makes the most sense," Drift agreed.
"But… that can't be," Hoist muttered as he started putting the final touches on the recorder to get it working again.
"Hoist, now is probably the time to stop. It's no use defending someone who's clearly guilty. I know this," Rewind told him.
"But, what about motive?" Hoist asked. "I haven't heard anything about that. How does the motive affect him?"
"Huh? What does that mean? We all have to get out of here. This motive just gave Mirage the bonus of a wish to fulfill," Skywarp answered him.
"What was the wish!?" Hoist shouted at him. "I want a clear-cut reason for him to do it!"
"Hoist, are you sure about this? The answer is clear as day!" Ratchet grumbled.
"I want answers!" Hoist shouted.
"I… might know," Smokescreen answered. "It's similar to another person's motive for attempted murder."
"You don't know it! Mirage has no reason to do so!"
Panic Talk Battle!
SHIELD X6
HOIST: Your thinking is broken!
SHIELD X5
HOIST: There is no motive for Mirage.
SHIELD X4
HOIST: The logic is out of order!
SHIELD X3
HOIST: I should stick a wrench through your neck!
SHIELD X2
HOIST: Stop trying!
SHIELD X1
HOIST: Mirage is innocent!
SHIELD DESTROYED!
HOIST: He had no reason to commit a murder!
DECIPHER BULLET!
GET OUT TO YOU
TO GET YOU OUT
SMOKESCREEN: This is the reason!
"Huh, Mirage and Blast Off have a lot more in common than I thought," Smokescreen muttered.
"What does that mean?" Hoist asked.
"Yes, I'm intrigued," Blast Off agreed with him.
"Well, just like Blast Off planned Onslaught murder to get Swindle out, Mirage use the trap to get you out, Hoist," Smokescreen informed him, causing a loud gasp from Hoist.
"You're saying, he did it… to get me out?" Hoist asked. "He wouldn't, would he?"
"Blast Off and Onslaught planned it. Why couldn't Mirage?" Smokescreen asked him and Hoist flinched at that. "Exactly, he could and you know it."
"But… but… I fixed it," Hoist said.
"Huh?"
"The recorder. I got it fixed. You want to hear it?" he asked them.
"Uh, sure. Is that… alright with everyone else," Smokescreen asked everyone awkwardly and everyone likewise awkwardly agreed. "Yeah, we got a consensus. Play it."
"Alright, playing it," Hoist told them, and pressed play. Immediately, a sound of a fight escaped from the recorder as the clacking of the recorder hit the ground. They all listened in as the struggle kept going, oscillating between loudness as the two moved around in the fight, until a loud sclesh came out and a gasp came out. They could hear raspy noises, more than likely from Mirage being impaled.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this," the identifiable voice of Nightbeat said, shaken from what's been done, highlighted by the sound of him pacing back and forth, although he did sound a bit weak.
"Gah… and yet it did," Mirage struggled to say, the sound of hacking coming from him. "Guess this is your fault."
"I found your trap you try to send me to! You brought this on yourself!" the detective accused him, much to the shock of everyone. Nightbeat knew about the trap? Then why was he killed by it?
"Yeah, well, you decided to confront me yourself instead of getting the others," he accused followed by more hacking from him.
"That's right, I did…." Nightbeat agreed, the sound of him walking stopping. "When you bleed out, I'll be a killer and everyone will have to figure out that I'm the one who betrayed their trust. I'll have to lie to their face."
"Going to be hard with the wound I gave you," Mirage mentioned.
"Yeah, you're a better fighter than I gave you credit for," he complimented him through grunts of pain.
"Thanks… you bastard," Mirage said before coughing loudly.
"You know… I don't think I could handle their faces when it's revealed I'm the culprit, whether I succeed or not. That look of betrayal on their faces would be too much and having to watch them die if I win would just be unbearable."
"And they'll have to figure it out while you're trying to deceive them. Considering our past performance, they probably won't succeed," Mirage labored to say.
"Yeah, I guess they won't" Nightbeat consented, leaving a few people insulted by that remark. "Why did you plant that trap?"
"I've planted that a while after we investigated it. It was pretty touch and go, as Ratchet was up at the mall at the time. He heard me walking, but didn't take the time to investigate, instead leaving the area in a hurry," Mirage explained to Nightbeat. "I knew that a motive would be coming soon, so I prepped for that. Then Monobear revealed we get a wish."
"Is that why you try to get me to trigger the trap?" Nightbeat asked.
"Yeah… I wanted to take Hoist with me out of here. Monobear said I could. I knew that, with how restrictive things were, it was going to be difficult to get anybody to trip it."
"That's why you told me to go to the basement tonight at the lunchroom," Nightbeat realized. This surprised everyone with that admission.
"Yeah… and I had an alibi arranged for it as well, but you've ruined it. I'll probably bleed out before I can talk to Hoist," he bemoaned.
"Yes… you probably will," Nightbeat agreed and he started pacing again. "I know what I'm doing."
"What's that?" Mirage asked.
"I… don't want to live for this mistake," Nightbeat admitted.
"What, you're just going to give up?" he asked.
"No… you're trap is going off."
"Suicide," Mirage muttered.
"No. It's murder. You planted it. I tripped it. The intention for it hasn't changed. You'll be the killer when that trips," Nightbeat told him.
"What… what are you planning?"
"Two killers. I want to see if they deserve to live without me, so this will be a test run for them," Nightbeat coldly explained.
"What the… you're psychotic!" Mirage yelled at him.
"I won't be the last killer. Might as well prepare them for future killers and take that trap of yours out of the equation. It's the only thing that I can-" He paused, his footsteps stopping close to the recorder. "The recorder's on," he said. Not long after he said that, there was a crunch and the recording ended. Everyone flinched as that happened except for Hoist, who just stared blankly down at his recording.
"Well," he said, his voice breaking, "I think that's enough proof. Mirage killed Nightbeat. Nightbeat killed Mirage." He stood silent as that happened.
"Right," Dead End muttered, "you want to explain this from the top, Smokescreen?"
"Yeah, I can," Smokescreen agreed, getting ready to do his summation. "Here's what happened."
Climax Logic!
Chapter 1
This all started several nights ago, a couple of days before the motive, one of the killers, who we will called the trapper, gather supplies from the store and a lever in the casino and made his way to the basement, almost alerting Ratchet. Once there, he began to set up the trap.
Chapter 2
He connected a tap to a pipe in the back and placed the lever in the pipe, planning on using the air from it to propel it forward. After a few test fires to get it right, he wrapped the wire around the button lightly to not set it off and connected it to the door so that when anyone opened the door, the lever would propel forward and impale the person.
Chapter 3
On the day of the murders in the lunchroom, with the limited time of the motive, he decided to convince someone to meet him at the basement so that the person could set the trap. Unfortunately, the person was the other killer and he had sharp optics.
Chapter 4
That night, the trapper went to the Repair Bay to establish an alibi with me and Hoist at 2 while the killer went to the basement. The killer noticed something amiss and figured out that the door was rigged to kill him. Angered by this, the killer left to confront the trapper.
Chapter 5
The killer met and fought with the trapper with his knife, accidently turning the recorder on. The struggle turn violent, leading to the trapper to stab the killer with his own knife nonfatally, but that wasn't enough to stop him. The killer ended the fight by tossing him onto a spike from the behemoth, mortally wounding him.
Chapter 6
Leaving the dying trapper behind, the killer began cleaning up after himself. He went to the Med-Bay using the interconnecting halls to avoid Blast Off and Onslaught, who had planned their own murder. He went in and weld his stab wound before he smeared medical energon on his entire chest to cover the scar.
Chapter 7
Once that was done, he went back to the Repair Bay and began cleaning up there. He grabbed everything that was messed up from the fight and transferring it to the casino in a garbage can there, placing the recorder at the bottom to keep it hidden. After that, he went back to the Repair Bay cleaned up there, using a rag in there.
Chapter 8
After that, the killer went back to the Med-Bay and tossed the rag in there. With his work done, he exited the room to encounter me, Hoist, Onslaught, and Blast Off. The five of us enter the Med-Bay, where we found the almost dead trapper, who gave his last words to Hoist before passing away.
Chapter 9
After that, the killer engaged in his last act, heading back to the mall with a bunch of suspects. When he got the chance, he asked Swindle to let him go to the basement. Swindle let him, going off on his own over there. He quickly made his way down there, with me, Hoist, and Swindle following behind him, where he purposefully opened the door to let himself get skewered.
The trapper was Mirage and the killer was Nightbeat!
The room was silent at the explanation, everyone giving silent agreement, with the only one who spoke was Hoist.
"Yeah, those are the two who betray us. They're both murderers."