[COMPLETED] Arcee and her team of five western misfits take shelter in a walled town from a vicious sandstorm. Soon after their arrival, another group of desperate cowfolk arrive, but that night, one of their members, Ultra Magnus, is murdered. "t...
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The town hall's silence belied the tension within the audience, and Overlord and I were locked away in his office, trying to scrape up any kind of plan. Neither of us had had to solve a murder before, but I was attempting to hand most of the responsibility over to him. This town belongs to Overlord, doesn't it? My folks and I were just passing through.
"I have criminal records on each of the people that live here, but we aren't going to find anything there." Overlord pulled open an aged filing cabinet, and sand spilled from sliding mechanisms. "They are all laid back as far as I am concerned. Trailcutter and Megatron got into it once because they were both drunk, but no blood was spilled. Just a lot of verbal harassment."
He placed a slender tin file upon his glossy desk, and the room remained quiet, save for the spinning ceiling fan, as I read. Overlord was correct; these people were very lax. They all just carried out their jobs and went about their day.
"Are you sure this is it?" I asked.
"Um, heh." Overlord rubbed the back of his neck. "That may or may not be the abridged version."
"Abridged?"
"Hold on."
He pulled out seven more sleek files from the cabinet and handed them to me. Each of the townsfolks' names were engraved on the face of their designated folder, and I opened the one for the citizen called Airachnid.
"It's just like little stuff -"
"Little stuff?" I cleared my throat before reading a passage aloud:
April 4th, 2059 2:34 am
Airachnid holds Overlord hostage and threatens to murder him if he, in her words, "...doesn't stop being fucking annoying and clingy because he is insecure". It took Swerve almost three hours to diffuse the situation and allow Overlord to leave her house. We don't have a court system here so Overlord couldn't press charges.
Signed, Swerve
"Oh, yeah, that's real small stuff," I gripe. "So, Swerve handles filing when you are involved?"
"Yeah, yeah. He does. He's my deputy. All this is just like...uh...embarrassing stuff, so can we stop?"
"No, no, this is good info. I'm gonna read some more to you. Let's check out Starscream's file."
March 27th, 2043 12:01 pm
Starscream and Trailcutter set up a booby trap to catch Overlord because, in Starscream's words, "Short people rock and tall people suck". Overlord was promptly caught in a foot snare and suspended upside down for upwards of two hours. He almost died from all the energon rushing to his head. Like usual, no charges were pressed because there ain't no judge here.
Signed, Swerve
March 29th, 2043 8:43 am
Starscream and Trailcutter again set up a "tall person trap" and catch Megatron. Megatron quickly escaped the snare and strangled Starscream, almost killing him. A record of violence was also put in Megatron's file. No charges.
Signed, Overlord
"Oh, yeah, you all are just a bunch of flower pickin' peasants, aren't you?" I tucked the files underneath my arm and rose from my seat, staring into Overlord's quivering eyes. "I would just leave this up to you, but now I am invested. This is going to be exciting, isn't it?"
I slipped through the office's door, and Overlord followed suit. A wave passed through the resting crowd as I entered the main chamber of the town hall, and they all lifted their weary heads. Overlord beckoned Swerve forward with a tense finger, and Swerve practically rocketed up from his seat and waddled to the head of the room. A broad grin was on his face, and Overlord used his finger again to draw an invisible "n" on his own face, telling Swerve to stop smiling. Swerve's mouth dropped into a small frown.
Each group in the town stayed together in the crowd, so Overlord was easily able to pick out the newcomer group. "Which one of you is the leader now?"
Ratchet raised a weak hand.
"Ratchet, is it? Would you like to come up here?"
He looked around at his compatriots before slowly ambling up to us. Ratchet lets out a small huff as he turns to face the auditorium, and he fans his face a bit as a hot breeze comes through the open front door and rectangular windows.
"Okay!" Overlord clapped his hands once, and Swerve mimicked and did his own puny clap. "We are going to hold interviews with each one of you. You each will have two interviewers, and neither will be from your 'group'. This is to prevent bias. Each interviewee will also have the same questions. Anyone want to ask anything?"
No voices rose.
"Alright. We four are going to make some questions and then we'll get this started. All sessions are going to be recorded and written down later."
