The FRA Betrayal Game

[Badnik96]

Dylan put the finishing touches on WhipCoil and went over to scout out the competition. He saw some old foes and some new ones, including a brightly colored flipper that looked to be Kody's robot and a low to the ground pneumatic flipper named Air. There was also a boxy scoop robot he didn't know the name of, but definitely looked like a fierce competitor. For familiar robots, he saw Revolver Ocelot, Wedge Devolution and Parasite, among others. The crates containing Marti's and Joey's robots remained unopened, and Dylan didn't know what would become of them.

Ever since Joey and Marti's untimely deaths, the tension was so thick that, to reuse an already overused cliche in robotic combat, you could cut it with a knife, or more appropriately a circular saw. No one knew who would be next, and the ever-real danger that perhaps their robot could go out of control and kill them was making everyone nervous. Dylan restrained from plugging the battery in on his robot until the last second just in case.

He went over to talk to Alex, who was also working on his robot Dreadnought. Perhaps it would relieve the tension a bit...

"Hey, dude."

[majinb]

Rastarefbot:"In case I forgot to mention man, the arena is a triangular version of the UK Robot Wars one."

[steven_mcg]

Um. Guys. Two of us just sort of, you know, died. Like, within minutes of each other. With a exploding letter threatening to get the rest of us. Maybe we should, I don't know, put the silly robot fight off for just a little bit? I mean, until the psychopathic serial killer is caught?

Possibly?

Oh, come on! Am I the only one who's a touch disconcerted by this whole mess? I know I've not seen Joey in Skype much recently, but he hardly seemed ready for suicide by swirly last time I saw him! For God's sake, Martijn is in so many bits that Refbot's digging out his vacuum cleaner! Not even Inspector Gadget's post-it notes do that much damage! These are our friends, guys!

Aren't they?

Sigh.

Fine. If playing with our robots is more important to you guys and our hosts, go ahead without me for now. I'm going to grab someone in the staff and check the crime scenes for clues. There must be something around Joey and Marti's, er, remains that'll help narrow down who the culprit is. It's a good thing I got Wedge Devo all set up nice and early. Today's lesson, guys: plan ahead. Also, don't get murdered by loonies. Close second.

And if that Refbot insists that I have to fight, then I'll try and get rid of the spinners early on - Good For It, Revolver Ocelot, Parasite - you know, invert their blades to be less effective, feed them to other bots and play passive to save my body parts. Then I'll try my hand at flipping the axebots into the hazards and focus on the flippers last when they're nice and low on weapon power.

Catch you later.

Finally. All those years of Poirot stories are finally going to pay off.

[Badnik96]

"What do you mean by triangular? There are 3 CPZs? Can we maybe get a top-down drawing"?

Dylan hears Steve's rambling but he's still too rattled to really put much effort into hunting the killer down. He wants to ease his nerves with a quick robot fight first.

However, when he goes to the bathroom, he sees something sticking out under the stall Joey was killed in. A plunger of some sort, which must have been used to plunge Joey down! He calls in everyone to investigate.

"If this killer has planned this out as much as I thought he has, then he wouldn't be dumb enough to leave fingerprints on the plunger. Let's check anyway, and see if there are any that match anyone here. I haven't touched it, so there wouldn't be mine on there."

Refbot goes to fetch some tools for an impromptu dusting kit, while the roboteers look around in awe, or perhaps in search of clues...

or scouting their next victim, says a small, nagging voice in the back of Dylan's head. He doesn't want to realize this yet but he has a chance of not leaving Bermuda alive. He goes back to his pit area and sends an e-mail to his brother, telling him to get the word out, though he doubt anyone will come rescue considering it's April Fool's Day. As long as his parents know, he could at least die somewhat less disconcerted than before.

OOC: lol rastarefbot

[GF93]

He went over to talk to Alex, who was also working on his robot Dreadnought. Perhaps it would relieve the tension a bit...

"Hey, dude."

"Hello." Alex replied, looking up from his handiwork. He had since finished reassembling Dreadnought since getting it through the customs at London Heathrow, and was now in the process of polishing it- paying particular attention to the UK flags that adorned the sleek wedge's sides.
"Just finishing off old Dreadnought here. Done pretty much all the technical bits, so just giving it a bit of a polish to make it look good once it's in there. Are you OK?"

[NWOWWE]

"Steve? Where are you going Steve? You can't be thinking of going to look for clues on your own? Don't you pay attention to these kind of stories? Going off alone is a very bad idea! More likely than you finding anything is me finding you in about 5 minutes with a knife sticking out of your back. I always regret doing this, but I'll go with you. Mostly cause the talk is getting a bit too technical for me to keep up with."

Josh hurried after Steve.

[kodster]

*watches Josh run after Steve*

"I've got a bad feeling about this..."

[Badnik96]

"Hello." Alex replied, looking up from his handiwork. He had since finished reassembling Dreadnought since getting it through the customs at London Heathrow, and was now in the process of polishing it- paying particular attention to the UK flags that adorned the sleek wedge's sides.
"Just finishing off old Dreadnought here. Done pretty much all the technical bits, so just giving it a bit of a polish to make it look good once it's in there. Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk, lower some tension from this situation. I've gotten WhipCoil finished up and raring to go, just wondering what you're thinking about this whole thing. Someone's after us and we have no idea who it could be. Do you think we'll be OK?"

[steven_mcg]

"Steve? Where are you going Steve? You can't be thinking of going to look for clues on your own? Don't you pay attention to these kind of stories? Going off alone is a very bad idea! More likely than you finding anything is me finding you in about 5 minutes with a knife sticking out of your back. I always regret doing this, but I'll go with you. Mostly cause the talk is getting a bit too technical for me to keep up with."

Josh hurried after Steve.

Well, OK. Let me just grab something first.

[grabs unusually large wrench from workstation]

What? Killer on the loose. Safety first, yeah?

[GF93]

"Yeah, I just wanted to talk, lower some tension from this situation. I've gotten WhipCoil finished up and raring to go, just wondering what you're thinking about this whole thing. Someone's after us and we have no idea who it could be. Do you think we'll be OK?"

"That's the thing." Alex replied, switching off his polisher. "Dreadnought's pretty much prepped for combat as well- normally at this point I'd be feeling alright, but I can't help but feel worried sick about this whole situation. I'm not sure who or what was responsible for what happened to Martijn either, but whatever is, it needs to be flushed out before it gets someone else."
A thought then suddenly occurred to him.
"Come to think of it, has anyone even called the Police yet?"