Chapter Three: The Blame Game
"... At which point our staff members arrived at the scene and asked everyone to return to their rooms while the situation was looked into." Concluded the train conductor at the end of the dining cart, to the crowd of tired ARMS fighters gathered before him. His summary had been built on Min Min's report of the events from the moment BARQ came to her door to the moment she fell into Ribbon Girl's arms. "BYTE's body has been moved to the engine room, where our staff members are currently examining the damages. We'll keep you up to date as news develops and we'll be talking to each of you one-on-one throughout the next day."
"So if I'm understanding this right..." Master Mummy questioned, sat hunched over at one of the tables, wearing a thick dressing gown. "We've still got his body, and it's in relatively good condition. So BYTE's not gone for good, yeah? He can just be fixed up with new parts?"
The conductor looked puzzled, and gave a weak shrug. "I'm afraid I'm not that brushed up on robotics, so I'm not really the right person to ask."
As if in perfect synchronization, everyone in the carriage collectively turned to face Mechanica at once, who was sat by the window in a dining booth opposite Ribbon Girl and Min Min, with a cute yellow blanket draped around her cat-patterned pyjamas. Her eyes widened quickly as she realized she was suddenly the focus. "O-Oh, um…" She looked down for a moment, thinking back. "W-Well a new head could be created, but if I remember correctly his memory banks are stored in the head. It'd still be him, but he wouldn't have any of his memories. U-Unless he goes to store backups periodically? But he'd still lack any memories of the past few weeks, o-or months… Maybe even the past year?"
Ribbon Girl stared blankly into the distance. The last year was remarkably eventful - new fighters like Lola, Kid Cobra, and Twintelle all joined the league. Mechanica herself began appearing in headlines as the child genius building her way into ARMS-hood. And Ribbon Girl herself, of course, took the championship title only a few months ago, in the first time anyone had beaten Max Brass since he first took the championship himself many, many years before. BYTE would remember none of that. Not the people. Not the moments. Not even Min Min's silly dog biscuit joke. Would it even still be him?
She took a long, deep breath. "Then we'll have to find the original head." The room fell silent, as they now turned their focus to her. "It could be reconnected just fine, right? And we'd have the same old BYTE back?"
Mechanica quietly nodded her head in confirmation.
"Well, what I want to know," Ninjara chimed up loudly, with a clear anger in his voice, "Is who the hells responsible for this in the first place. We're surrounded by nothing but ocean for miles and miles, so it had to have been someone on this train." He stood up sharply and slammed his hands to the table. "Well? Anyone gonna come forward or not?"
"Oh please." Twintelle sighed from the side of the room, where she leant against the wall, draped in a silky red dressing gown. "Are we really all going to pretend we don't know who's behind all this? It's obviously the kid."
Mechanica sprung her eyes open wide in shock. "Wh-Wha?" Her heart began pounding in her chest harder than ever.
"Woahhhh, okay, let's slow down a second here!" Ribbon Girl said, putting her hands up.
"She's the only one of us who'd know how to disconnect the head from the body. I mean, you hear her yourselves - 'If I remember correctly, the head stores the blah blah blah'..." Twintelle crossed her arms. "She knows an awful lot about BYTE's robotics."
"N-No, I-I just read a lot!" Mechanica panicked. "It was in a hardware magazine! I-I would never-"
"Twintelle's probably right." Ninjara butt in, crossing his arms too. "The little twerp was probably jealous her bucket of bolts isn't anywhere close to BYTE's tech, so she stole the head and plans to use it for scrap."
"Shut up, Ninjara." Min Min said, with heavy bags under her eyes. She sat close beside Ribbon Girl, resting her head on her hand with her elbow to the table, still only dressed in what she had gone to bed in. She was absolutely exhausted from the shock of everything that had happened only a few hours before. "I am really not in the mood to deal with your crap right now."
"I'm just saying what everyone's thinking!" Ninjara retorted. "She's the only one with both a motive AND the know-how to have-"
"QUIT. YOUR CRAP." Min Min snapped back at him, lunging forward in her seat, her eyes bloodshot and her teeth chattering slightly. "I'm not humouring your little blame game."
"Min Min's right." Lola mumbled tiredly, resting her head on her palm, heavy bags under her eyes. "Blame game more like… Lame game. Haaaa."
"THAT WASN'T FUNNY." Min Min seethed through her teeth.
"Everyone's a critic." Lola lazily replied back, half asleep.
Min Min struck a finger out toward the conductor fiercely. "You! Is there any reason at all to suspect Mechy over of the rest of us yet?"
The conductor was taken aback for a moment, not expecting to be grilled so suddenly. "Uh, n-no, I don't think so. From what we could tell looking at the body, it seems his head was removed by some sort of wind-attack twisting it off. No sign of any tools being used."
Min Min threw her arms into the air dramatically. "Ohhhh, well there we have it then! It was Ninjara!"
"Excuse me?" He glared back at her.
"Oh? Sorry, I thought it was obvious!" She mocked. "I mean, you have been using Spring Man's Boomerang gloves a lot lately. Hell, I remember you saying how you were considering swapping your Buffs out for a pair!"
"I didn't bring any-"
"NO, BUT I BETCHA BOYFRIEND DID!" She shouted back. "Huh, Spring?" Springman dropped his jaw, frozen in surprise. "'Cause if ya boyfriend brought a pair of gusty gloves with him and was keepin' 'em in the same room as you, then ya might as well have brought 'em yourself!"
"Can we all please stop accusing each other?" Master Mummy pleaded.
Min Min fell back in her chair, shaking slightly. "I'm just sayin' that if you're gonna jump on Mechy so quick then maybe you should make sure you're not a valid suspect yourself." She crossed her arms and leant back, beyond frustrated. Ribbon Girl rubbed her shoulder supportingly.
"Ribbon Girl is known to use Poppers." Kid Cobra casually added. "So we should also consider that she could have-"
"Are you really…" Min Min glared down at the table in front of her with a seething rage, beginning to dig her nails into it. "Going to imply… That it was Ribs?" She turned her head slowly toward Kid Cobra, her eyes bloodshot. "Are you REALLY sure you want to suggest that?"
Kid Cobra sweat a bit, wobbling slowly as he slivered in place. "I-I just think we should consider the possibilities…"
"Then let's consider the possibility it was Kid Cobra." Twintelle suggested. "He's known for having wind-based Slamamanders and he'd be able to pull the crime off quite silently, right?"
"H-Hey, knock it off!" He slivered up to her. "I didn't do a thing to BYTE! And, might I add, you ALSO have wind gloves - those Parasol things!"
She rolled her eyes. "Very observant, snake boy. There are four of us known for having wind gloves. Six if you count the two sharing rooms with wind glove users."
"Well," Mummy butted in again, hoping to even out the blaming a bit. "If we're going to consider Min Min and Ninjara suspects just based on their associations with Ribbon Girl and Spring Man, surely you could argue any two of us could have formed a coalition. We shouldn't be ruling people out just because we believe they weren't in possession of wind gloves."
"Oh, I agree." Twintelle presented. "My money's still on the kid. She's the only one with a clear motive, after all."
"Thank you." Ninjara sighed. "And she could have taken Ribbon Girl's Poppers to unscrew the head."
Mechanica began to shake again, her eyes desperate.
"Look, we have everything under control at the moment." The conductor urged, noticing Min Min straightening in her seat from another accusation to both Mechanica and Ribbon Girl. "We have a list of all the ARMS gloves each passenger reported taking with them. We'll take that into account when we conduct our one-on-one questioning. Nobody is cleared of suspicion yet."
Many of the passengers glared around the room at each other. The culprit was in the room - there was no doubt about it. And evidence of a wind-based ARMS attack to BYTE meant they must have been an ARMS user too. It was one of the ten fighters. That much was evident.
"Until we're ready to begin our questioning, we ask that you all return to your own rooms. We'll tolerate no more fighting, alright? Everyone go catch up on your sleep."
"Finally." Min Min groaned, getting to her feet and heading back to her room without even waiting for Ribbon Girl.
Ribbon Girl held back a moment, leaning over to Mechanica, who was still a little in shock from the sudden accusation. "We'll sort everything out, Mechanica. I promise we won't let them gang up on you like that again."
She nodded silently, her eyes still wet and her lip quivering a bit. She quietly got up and began heading to her assigned room too, and Ribbon Girl did the same.
Ribbon Girl had expected to see Min Min in bed already when she got back to the room, but instead found her staring out the window to the sea, which was beginning to illuminate in the rising sunlight. "H-Hey, Min."
Min Min sighed, pressing her head to the glass of the window, her body still trembling slightly. "Sorry for causing a scene or whatever. I just knew they'd start pointing fingers the first chance they got."
Ribbon Girl walked up behind her and began gently rubbing her back. "I don't like this situation at all. A-And I can't imagine how it must have been to find BYTE like that…"
Another deep sigh. "I'm tired. I'm cold. I'm all shaken up, and my head won't stop aching about whether BYTE will be okay, or if anyone else is in danger, or - hell - if Ninjara really was the one who did it or…"
"Well we don't have all that much to go on just yet." Ribbon Girl comforted. "Anyone could have brought wind gloves. Anyone could have lied about their gloves on the report! And hey, even I brought some Poppers. That doesn't make me the prime suspect, right?" She winked to her, even though Min Min had her back turned.
She sighed. "Yeahhhhh… I guess it's pointless to get all hung up on it now. We really should catch up on sleep while we have the chance." She turned around and hugged Ribbon GIrl, before flopping herself back onto the bed. Ribbon Girl followed her, and a few short moments later they were both fast asleep.
It came to about noon, and the two had thankfully found themselves much better rested than they had been that morning. Breakfast was brought to their door, given the circumstances, and they were asked to stay where they were until everyone had been questioned.
The two tried to keep the conversation away from the current ordeal with BYTE as best they could, though occasionally it would slip through whenever they brought up the train itself. For a massive locomotive, it was certainly quiet. It wasn't bumpy or wobbly, and there was a pleasant pine smell throughout each cart - at least until you got to the dining cart around dinner time, or close enough to an open window to breathe in the salty seaside air.
"I expected mints on the pillow, honestly." Min Min shrugged while looking over the playing cards she held. She drew the 3 of Spades from her hand and placed it face-up on the discarding pile.
"I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that." Ribbon Girl glared at the 3 of Spades, then back at her cards again.
"Y'know, like how fancy hotels have the mints on the pillows? It's like a little treat to welcome you to your room or something."
"I brought a roll of mints with me, you could have just asked." Ribbon Girl decided against the 3 of Spades and went to take a new card.
"It's not the same!"
Ribbon Girl put the card she had just picked up into the discarding pile and sighed.
Min Min reached for a card but was interrupted by a knocking on the door. The two looked over to it, but not yet getting up for it. Min Min withdrew her mask from her pocket, intending to extend an ARM over to the doorknob, but Ribbon Girl jolted her wrist back angrily as a reminder that they weren't supposed to be having their masks on.
Ribbon Girl got up to get the door as Min Min reluctantly put her mask away again. She peeked the door open a bit and saw a staff member facing back at her.
Min Min slowly got up to her feet and stretched as Ribbon Girl spoke to the staff member.
"Ah, Min? It's your turn for the questioning." Ribbon Girl mumbled, still a little uneasy with the topic itself.
"A-And if you could bring your gloves too, that'd be great." The staff member smiled from the doorway.
Min Min stuck a hand under the bed and withdrew her glove case. She glanced at the top of it to be sure it was her own, and then headed for the door. "Back soon, hun." She said, kissing Ribbon Girl's cheek. "Don't look at my cards."
She shut the door behind her as she made her way through the train, accompanied by the staff member who had been sent for her. Ribbon Girl was now alone, and immediately went to check Min Min's cards.
After a short while of being bored, she decided to prepare for her own round of questioning, which was sure to follow Min Min's soon. As much as she could remember, the night before had been perfectly normal until she woke up hearing Min Min's scream. Nothing had seemed out of the ordinary and she hadn't heard anything from the neighbouring storage cart…
She continued to rack her mind as she knelt down to retrieve her glove case. This luxury room was generally given to Brass, who tends to be a loud and talkative guy… So maybe it had a good degree of soundproofing?
She put her case on the desk and sat down. The two of them hadn't gone to bed that late last night, so maybe they would have heard something had they still been awake? That's if they could hear anything at all if the room was soundproofed after all. But surely the sound of a- Wait.
Ribbon Girl's heart froze as her eyes locked unblinkingly onto the latch of her glove case. The locks had been broken, as if forcibly yanked up and out from where they'd been sealed. She put her hand to her mouth, feeling sick. She opened the case and found her mask and all three gloves exactly where she had left them - her electrical Sparkies, her fiery Slapamanders, and her wind-based Poppers.
A little while passed and eventually Min Min returned, shutting the door behind her and acting pretty unconcerned. "Pretty sure you're up soon, Ribs." She yawned, heading over to Ribbon Girl at the desk. "They're asking some pretty heavy questions so at least they're taking this seriously. I reckon they've got a good shot of finding who-" She stopped as she reached Ribbon Girl and noticed the distressed look on her face. "Ribs...?"
Ribbon Girl slid her glove case more toward where Min Min could see it. "Someone broke into my glove case." Her voice was dry and defeated. "They could have used my ARMS to do it. Doesn't matter what anyone else brought."
Min Min felt her heart in her throat. "W-Wait, but you kept that under the bed?"
"Yeah." Ribbon Girl stared at the desk.
"Th-They were in here? While we were sleeping?" She shuddered, her eyes sprung wide, feeling disgusted.
There was a knock at the door. It was time for Ribbon Girl's questioning. She quietly grabbed her case and begun to get up from where she sat.
About half an hour later everyone had been called back to the dining cart. They were better dressed, better rested, and ready to finally resolve this whole mess of a situation for good. Ribbon Girl and Min Min took their places opposite Mechanica again, though far more nervous for what was shortly to come than anyone else in the room seemed to be.
The train conductor, similarly nervous, once again took his place in front of the passengers. He cleared his throat and began his address. "T-To begin, I'd like to inform you all that, after further investigation on BYTE's body, we've identified signs of an electrical-based attack sustained right before he was hit with the wind-based attack that removed his head."
"Ah, so it was either Ribbon Girl or Twintelle. That was easy." Ninjara shrugged.
Ribbon Girl stayed silent, but Twintelle scoffed. "You're awfully quick to point the finger."
"Just telling it like it is." Ninjara rebutted. "It could only have been either of you, so-"
"A-Actually." The conductor gulped. "We've learnt that Ribbon Girl's glove case has had it's lock broken since it was brought aboard the train. W-We believe the culprit used one of her Sparkies and Poppers to perform the attack. So… None of you can yet be cleared of suspicion."
A loud sequence of moaning echoed throughout the cart as each fighter expressed their annoyance.
"This is just stupid." Ninjara groaned. "How'd we know she didn't just break the damn thing herself to keep the heat off of her?"
"Ribbon Girl was with me all night." Min Min urged, far more level headed than she had been the night before.
"Well hold on now, how exactly did the culprit get to the case while the door was locked?" Master Mummy questioned.
"Maybe the intruder went…. In-tru-der window?" Lola joked, to no laughs.
"I think it's worth noting that Twintelle played a spy in one of her last movies." Kid Cobra slivered. "She could have picked the lock."
"Oh pleaseeee." Twintelle groaned, rolling her eyes. "Do you believe everything you see on TV? And hey, while we're at it, they were obviously quiet enough not to wake the girls so that'd put all your silent slivering in the spotlight, would it not?"
"Did you hear anything in the night?" Spring Man directed to Ribbon Girl and Min Min,
"N-No… But we're both pretty heavy sleepers..." Min Min cringed awkwardly.
"Well, I have to say, shouldn't this at least clear me of suspicion?" Master Mummy presented, being much larger, heavier, and louder than the other fighters around him.
"Yeahhhhh, and my shoes squeak when I walk sooooo…" Lola stepped her foot on the floor repeatedly, giving off a little squeak each time.
Helix let out some strange blobby noises, likely because he didn't really understand all the back-and-forth but felt he needed to contribute anyway. Twintelle pat him on his gooey back in response, and then wiped her hand clean on the nearby wall.
"I think it's important, for now, to focus on finding a motive." Master Mummy presented again. "I still don't understand why any of us here would have done this, so if we find that reason… Maybe we'll figure out who's behind it all."
"BYTE was patrolling the cargo cart, right?" Spring Man reminded everyone. "Maybe something has been taken from there?"
"Uhhh…" The conductor scratched the back of his head. "We've done an inventory check and everything is accounted for. T-Though we can't be certain something wasn't tampered with. We really don't know enough about the cargo to tell."
"... Hm." Min Min recalled the strange chamber BYTE has been leaning against. "I suppose they took BYTE's head to stop him un-tampering stuff? It's not like BARQ has a body, after all." BARQ, who had been watching the room from a small distance away, rolled closer to her and whined. "Poor thing probably got hit by the Sparky before BYTE did."
"Could we put BARQ on BYTE's body?" Kid Cobra directed to Mechanica.
"Um, no, I don't think so…" She replied sadly. "He connects with BYTE's head when they do that rush move, so I don't think he can connect while BYTE's head is missing."
Ribbon Girl lost herself in thought, staring out the window at the bright blue sea splashing far down beyond the tracks. The culprit could have hid BYTE's head somewhere aboard the train to prevent him from checking all the cargo after he'd been attacked. That'd make sense, but… Wouldn't it have made more sense to dispose of his head entirely? That'd stop him from being put back together and undoing whatever the culprit did. Plus, if he'd seen the culprit before he was attacked, he'd know who to arrest once he was back together again. It would have been safer for the culprit to throw BYTE's head overboard… Down into the saltwater ocean… Which would have almost certainly destroyed it for good, not to mention render it lost forever. Ribbon Girl really didn't like that thought.
"Alright, that's enough." Ninjara groaned, getting to his feet after growing tired of the constant back-and-forth between the fighters. "This investigation is going nowhere, and we're gonna wind up arriving at our destination long before this is all sorted. And then the criminal has a chance to escape!" He folded his arms meanicingly. "I say we take over the investigation ourselves."
A number of fighters voiced their approval, making the various staff members begin to panic. "N-N-Now settle down!" The train conductor urged.
Master Mummy got to his feet and slowly approached the conductor, towering above him. "I don't think you're in a position to stop us." He reminded him in a deep tone.
The conductor, visibly shaken, shut his mouth.