"Right, guess I'll start looking around the place, starting with the armory. Last thing we need is an Autobot with guns here," Onslaught remarked as he quickly headed over to the armory, walking along the side of the prison complex. The walk gave him a good look down at the lava below. The mech had to make sure Perceptor wasn't hiding and from what he could see, there were no cracks for anyone to hide down below. He found it very unlikely that Perceptor was anywhere on the outside of the prison, so him hiding around the facility was the most likely truth. The question was where was he hiding and, most importantly, if he was armed or not.

He arrived at the building quickly, looking to have a simple square shape to it and two guards outside, which he quickly approached to talk about the case. "You two, how long have you been on duty here?" Onslaught questioned them immediately.

"There's always one at all times, but the minute the alarm went off, I came here to assist Backslash with watching over the armory," the first guard informed him.

"Y-yeah, when the alarm occurred, it really gave me a scare. I nearly jumped out of my seat," the other guard said. "I was… dozing off a bit until the alarm occur."

"You were asleep on the job?" Onslaught questioned him.

"Yeah, but the moment that alarm went off, I was awake and didn't see anybody but Divebomb over here," the green guard informed him. "There's no way the Autobot could've gotten in here."

"He's right. This is the only way in or out of the armory and we've been guarding it since the alarm went off. That means he can't have come in," Divebomb stated to him.

"And you are sure about this?"

"Positive."

Ammo Updated: Armory

Both guards testified that it was impossible for Perceptor to get in the armory.

"Did you see anything else before or after the murder?" Onslaught asked them.

"Not really, but it can be pretty hard to see anyone out here at times. Lights gave been shoddy in this section for a while," Divebomb informed the investigator.

"Yeah. It's not impossible to see people, but sometimes, you just miss them, you know?" Backslash stated as well. "But we're pretty sure we didn't miss anyone. Only person we saw was Vortex."

"You've seen my gestaltmate?" Onslaught asked them.

"Yeah, he actually did me a solid earlier and got me a cube of energon," Backslash stated to him. "That was surprisingly nice of him."

"I wouldn't drink anything he gave me," Divebomb remarked with a shiver. "We also saw him after the alarm went off and he wanted to make sure Perceptor didn't get in here."

"He did? And when was that?" Onslaught questioned him.

"About ten minutes after the alarm went off. He came over and made us check the armory to make sure nothing was missing," Divebomb stated.

"Yeah, only took a couple of minutes, but that's it. We were easily able to determined that nothing was missing," Backslash stated to him. "All the guns and explosives were in order."

"Yeah. The only thing that was missing was an axe," Divebomb stated to him. "Someone probably just forget to turn it in."

"You don't consider that a big deal?" the Combaticon questioned him.

"We have snipers, machine guns, grenade launchers, and bombs aplenty. I think we can tolerate a missing axe," Divebomb stated.

"Plus that thing's been missing since before Perceptor broke out. I doubt he has it," Backslash stated to Onslaught to appease him. "Someone probably just accidently dropped it in the lava and didn't want to risk reporting it missing and getting punished for it."

"So you say…" Onslaught murmured before looking back to Backslash. "You say Vortex got you some energon? Did you ask him?"

"No. He just did it out of the kindness of his spark," Backslash stated to him.

"Yeah, right. I wouldn't trust that psycho," Divebomb stated before turning to Onslaught. "No offense."

"None taken," Onslaught remarked with a hum. 'Still, it's odd for Vortex to get energon for someone else… and I do find the missing axe something to worry about.'

Ammo Added: Vortex at the Armory

Vortex was at the armory before and after the alarm went off.

Before the alarm, he delivered the lone guard a cube of energon.

After the alarm, he made the guards check the armory to make sure all the weapons were accounted for.

Ammo Added: Missing Axe

An axe from the armory went missing before the alarm went off.

"Right, thanks for the help," Onslaught said to them with a nod.

"No problem. We'll be here if you need anything else," Divebomb stated.

"Yeah, good luck catching the fugitive," Backslash echoed his fellow guard's feeling.

"I will, don't you worry…" Onslaught murmured as he walked off to head to the next section, the scrapyard. It didn't take long to find it, being a large open area that was only surrounded by a metal fence with barb wire on the top and only one way to enter up front, with nobody in sight. "Not a single guard… they must not find this place worthy to protect," he remarked to himself as he walked over to it. He prepared to get it in before noticing that to enter inside of it, a keycard was needed.

"Huh, well… at least they have that," he remarked with a huff. "Still… I wonder if there's an alternative way to get in." At that, Onslaught took a walk around the perimeter, looking around for any weaknesses with the fences. Sure enough, he found one as he walked around near the back to see that a part of the bottom of the fence could easily be pulled up to let someone inside. "Of course so… guess I'm not surprised about the lack of maintenance here, although I'll definitely report this to Megatron," he stated with a huff.

Ammo Added: Scrapyard Fence Opening

One section of the perimeter of the scrapyard had a opening at the bottom that oen could easily pass through.

"Well, might as well take advantage of this to sneak in," Onslaught decided as he crouched down to get ready to go in, taking a look at it. As he readied to snuck inside, he spot something. A ripped piece of black fabric clinging to the underside of the fence. "Now what's this?" he wondered as he picked it up to look at it. "Feels like… part of a trash bag?" That got him thinking. "Why would someone bother to sneak a trash bag in when they could just as easily throw it. The fence isn't that high. The only reason to do so… would be if it was too heavy and they had to drag it in somehow." The Combaticon scowled at that as he continued to think about it. "I need to figure out who has keycards for this scrapyard. Something about this isn't right."

Ammo Added: Piece of Black Fabric

A piece of black fabric clung to the broken fence opening. It appears to be part of a trash bag, implying the person dragged it through the opening.

With his examination finished, Onslaught took advantage of the opening to crawl his way inside of the scrapyard to take a look around. Inside of the scrapyard, as to be expected, was a lot of junk that no one wanted, filled with trash that was made in the prison. He thought they would get rid of this at a faster rate, but that was obviously not the case. "This would be a great place to get rid of any evidence… or maybe even hide out," the Combaticon murmured as he took his time to search through the area. He spent the next ten minutes looking through the scrapyard for any trace of Perceptor in the area, but he found nothing.

"He's not here… dammit," Onslaught cursed as he made his way to the center of the scrapyard. At the center was a smelter to make use of the junk metal to make something out of it. To his surprised, it seemed to have been used fairly recently. Heat still radiated from it and some of the smelted metal laid at the end to be used later for construction purposes. Near the smelter was a trash bag of a familiar color. He grabbed a hold of it and looked it over, finding the hole that he expected in it. "So, the person who snuck in here wanted to use the smelter. Why do that? Why sneak in to do it? And most importantly, what were they smelting…" he wondered about it.

Ammo Added: Trash Bag

A trash bag found by the smelter in the scrapyard with a hole in it.

Ammo Added: Smelter

Was used recently to smelt metal down.

With his surveying of the scene done and no trace of Perceptor around, he quickly exited the scrapyard to get back to the rest of his investigation, having scattered thoughts about it. 'Wherever Perceptor is, it's a good hiding spot. However, this evidence I'm finding concerns me. It doesn't feel like a typical prison break,' he thought to himself, getting slightly unnerved at what the evidence is saying to him as he headed into the storage area. As he entered the area, he could see Deadlock pacing around anxiously, walking around back and forth, with his forefinger still on the trigger for his gun. 'Something seems to be bothering him. I should question him… carefully,' he remarked in his mind before approaching the mech. "Deadlock, can I get your testimony?"

"Huh?" the mech jumped, almost turning his gun on the investigator, before relaxing. "Oh, it's you. Sorry… and sure. Not much I can tell you. When the alarm went off, I was over in the Barracks," the mech with the gun informed him.

"That's all?" Onslaught questioned him. "Can anybody verify that."

"I'm sure a couple of mechs could verify that. Just ask around. Someone should have saw me," Deadlock insisted to him with a huff. "It was my break around the time of the prison escape, so I had nothing better to do. I was just checking my guns and scrap like that."

"What about before the breakout?" the Combaticon questioned him.

"Now why do you want to know about that? It has nothing to do with the breakout, you know," the gun-wielding mech remarked to him with a scowl.

"A breakout isn't planned the second it's being committed. It's obviously planned before it occurs. So I just want to know what was going on today. Now tell me, did you guard the prisoners at all today?" Onslaught pressed him for information.

"Yeah, of course. I always do. The most recent time I was guarding the prisoner was an hour before the breakout occurred and Runamuck got whacked," Drift stated to him.

"Anything happened then?" the blue mech asked.

"Of course not! Would you lay off me?" Deadlock demanded, getting defensive, which was making Onslaught more curious.

'Something did happen and he's obviously trying to hide it… but what?' Onslaught wondered before speaking to him. "Did you speak to Perceptor at all during that time."

"The hell you think? I wouldn't be caught dead chatting with the enemy," Deadlock assured him.

"I never said it was a chat. You could've interrogated him too. Press him for information. It's what you're meant to do here," Onslaught pointed out.

"It's what Vortex and Shockwave are meant to do. Keep me out of it," Deadlock insisted to him with a scowl and crossed his arm at him. "They're the interrogators here, not me."

"And you're staying by that statement?" Onslaught questioned him.

"Damn right I am, now ask me about something that's actually important," the guard stated to him definitively.

'Well, it's official, he's hiding something, but I don't think it's something he's willing to discuss freely. I need to find some evidence to make him talk…' Onslaught decided in his mind.

Ammo Added: Deadlock's testimony

Deadlock testified that he was last one guarding the prisoner around an hour before the murder. After that, he left Runamuck alone with the prisoner.

During the time of the breakout, he claims he was at the barracks working on his guns.

"Well then, care to let me look in the storage rooms?" Onslaught questioned him curiously.

"Yeah, I can do that, although I'm not sure how it would help. I doubt Perceptor could ever get in them," Deadlock remarked to him with a huff.

"Do I need a master code?" Onslaught questioned him.

"No. About an hour after the breakout occurred, we opened the whole storage facility up to make sure Perceptor wasn't hidden inside somewhere, but we couldn't find him," Deadlock informed him.

"And who was heading the search here?" the Combaticon inquired.

"Vortex was the one leading everything, directing everyone on the search, and making me watch over everything," Deadlock explained to him with a huff. "We couldn't find any trace of him around here."

"Is that all that you do?" Onslaught pressed further.

"We checked a lot of rooms. Everyone had a partner with them," Deadlock stated to him.

"Except for you?"

"Well… sorta. Me and Vortex were technically partnered up, but I was more focused on keeping everyone else in line. Now's the perfect time to steal some stuff and I didn't want anyone pilfering someone else's property, especially my possessions," Deadlock insisted to him with a growl. "I left Vortex in charge of his own storage space and Shockwave's, since they're right next to each other. He said he didn't find anything, in case you're wondering."

"You didn't look in either of the rooms?"

"At glanced inside of them, but they were… well, both rooms definitely resemble their owners. I didn't want to stick around in either room," Deadlock stated with a sigh. "Our resident torture specialists have quite the eclectic collection."

"Vortex doesn't surprise me… but Shockwave too?" the Combaticon asked, surprised.

"Our resident cyclops is into some disturbing scrap. I rather not look back in there. Once was enough." This statement was punctuated with a shiver from the mech.

Ammo Added: Storage Area Search

A search of the storage area was carried out, with only Deadlock and Vortex by themselves, as Vortex searched his own and Shockwave's area by himself while Deadlock went around to storage area to supervise the various groups.

"I swear, I can't wait to transfer out of this hellhole next week," Deadlock remarked to the investigator.

"Transferring out? You want to leave?"

"Who doesn't? Only a few of the people who work here like this place, me most certainly not among them," the mech remarked to him. "I sure don't get a lot of respect around here. Why should I even stay here when I'm constantly under the thumb of Shockwave and Vortex. I came here for the warden, not them."

"Did you. I hear from the Warden is often not here, off working on a bunch of other stuff."

"Yeah, and I wish he would take with me with him instead of keeping me here. He says it's so I can keep an optic our for Shockwave, but I just think he hates this place as much as I do," Deadlock remarked.

"You think the warden would be someone who likes the place," the blue-colored mech remarked to him.

"Yeah, well, the previous warden took an upgrade from being a warden here to joining the DJD, so they were always going to be a disappointment compared to the previous one. He actually has a weak constitution when it comes to torture and interrogation, which is why he often just leaves Shockwave in charge. Shockwave was offered the position of warden, but he refused, so it's kind of complicated things here. For all intents and purposes, Shockwave is the warden here, but Vortex is the one actually watching over everything," Deadlock explained everything to him.

"And is everyone fine with that?"

"What do you thing? Hell no, everyone is not fine with it. Nobody likes getting orders from a bunch of psychos. The much prefer the warden, but he's too nice for his own good."

Ammo Added: Deadlock's Transfer

Deadlock is being transferred from the prison next week.

Ammo Added: Warden's Lack of Commitment

The Warden appears to lack the will for the job, so he's often missing, leaving Shockwave and Vortex in charge in his absence.

"So, anything else you like to say about them?" the detective questioned him.

"Well… if you want to know, it might be good to talk to Killshot when he returns from running Shockwave's errand. Shockwave has been relying on him to transfer a lot of stuff in and out of the prison recently, so he's the best to talk to about that," the guard informed him. "Aside from me, the only person Shockwave talks to is usually Bitstream and Flatline, although they all argue more than they actually talk."

"I get the feeling there was tension between them," Onslaught remarked.

"Those brainiacs can't stand each other. Flatline and Shockwave both think Bitstream is an arrogant piece of slag, Bitstream considers both of them creeps, and Flatline is not a fan of Shockwave's experiments with prisoners," Deadlock explained to him. "Those three will never get along. About the only thing they have in common is they're Decepticons and they're incredibly smart. Aside from that, they couldn't be more different from each other."

"It sounds like it… I've talked to Flatline and met Shockwave more than once at other places, but Bitstream is an enigma for me. What can you tell me about him?"

"Not much. As you may've heard, he's a seeker. He's the only member of his trine here, as he's working by himself. The first warden sought him out for his proficiency in electronics and repairing skills. He responsible for running the cameras everywhere, as well as for all the electronics in the area as well. All of that is his design," Deadlock informed him. "He's an arrogant piece of scrap, but he does a good job and very dedicated to it. You want access to cameras, your best bet is to talk to him."

"Very well, I shall do so. Now then, are all the storage rooms open?"

"No. After the initial search, we locked everything back up. Bitstream has the master code if you want to access the storage rooms, as well as a log of when they were all opened."

"So I'll have to make an appointment with him either way. Great…"

"Best of luck with that. I'll keep patrolling the area for Perceptor," the guard stated as he walked away, looking to be deep in thought again. Onslaught really wanted to press him for even more information, but he could tell he wasn't going to be talking any time soon without proper incentive.

So with that method of information closed, that left the next place and one that he dread: Shockwave's Lab.