The Autobot protagonist, Ratchet, reflects on what has happened for the last 75 years. With the several million-year war finally ended with Megatron’s true death, both the Autobots and Decepticons have made a rough truce along with the neutrals in the war, despite the three of them hating each other. And so, the three factions agreed to a reconstruction of their planet, Cybertron, and it has been running smoothly so far.
However, one day, a letter is delivered to Ratchet containing an invitational message as he is selected to be a teacher of Hope’s Peak Academy under the title of Ultimate Medic. And not just Ratchet, apparently some Autobots and Decepticons received the same letter. As Ratchet arrive at the academy along with Beachcomber and takes the first step, he suddenly passes out.
Ratchet wakes up in an empty classroom where all the windows are sealed with solid steel plates. As he explores and meets the other 13 Autobots that are trapped inside the academy as he is, a voice from the announcement speakers call all of them to head to the auditorium. They find out that 16 Decepticons are also there, prompting the voice forcing both factions to mingle with each other. After there is some peace between them, the voice reveal themselves in front of the 30 Cybertronians in the form of Monobear, a robotic black and white teddy bear who introduces the killing game, where one must murder another and get away with it during a class trial in order to escape.
The group decides to explore the school as far as they can before gathering in the cafeteria and reintroduces themselves one by one since the war was so huge that it’s unlikely they all know each other. After some discussions, such as how long it will take for them to get out and about Monobear, most of the teachers leave to rest in their respective dorm rooms, with no one having the thought of killing each other, at least not yet anyway.
The next day everyone gathers at the cafeteria. Most of the conversation between each other are around where they live and how the construction of the planet progresses so far. Suddenly, Mixmaster breaks the news about an acid created by him, Perceptor and Shockwave yesterday have gone missing. Monobear reveals himself to be responsible, much to Mixmaster’s anger, but he says that he has returned all of it and warns to not use it to escape or he will get punished.
Later that afternoon, it was revealed that someone had stolen some of the acid. The scientists ruled out Monobear and suspected that one of the other teachers had stolen it. After that, they used the acid to access a locked room and found a working groundbridge inside of it. Hoist and Soundwave agreed to work on it to try and get it working again to attempt to escape that way.
The following day, all of the teachers were asked to go to the A/V room that afternoon by Monobear. In there, he gave all of them a datadisc and requested them to watch the discs. On the discs were scenes of a place or people that the teachers were attached to before it switches to another scene of the same thing, only the place is destroyed or the people were implied to be injured or dead.
The next day, with the teachers’ nerves on high and morale going down, a party was planned that night headed up by Swindle and Smokescreen. The teachers agreed to the plan and soon enough, the party was underway, although with several teachers not attending it for one reason or another. The partygoers had their fun shooting pool or playing poker, but the fun came to an end when a fire occured in Shockwave’s room. After the fire was put out, the teachers found the body of Shockwave inside of there, burnt to a crisp.
Monobear gave them the rules of the discovery of a dead body and an investigation was underway. Nightbeat, as the Ultimate Detective, was the one to head it and everyone followed his lead, quick to split up and look for any evidence that could be found. A wide-assortment of evidence was found, but the biggest revelation came from Dead End when he explained to Nightbeat that he had witnessed Shockwave steal the dose of acid from the lab. At the end of the investigation, the group was led to a cargo elevator and descended down in it to the trial room where the debate between them would take place.
After initial debating, suspicion was quick to fall on Skywarp due to having left the party at around the time Shockwave was killed and supposedly being the only one that could get past Hoist, who was watching the teacher’s rooms on the second floor. Skywarp denied all claims of being there, but after Nightbeat was able to link him being in that room, Skywarp caved in and admitted to being in Shockwave’s room during the party, but that Shockwave was already dead at the time. The group didn’t believe him and was ready to convict him before Nightbeat interfered and point out several inconsistencies if Skywarp was the killer. The biggest issue was the cause of death, which Nightbeat argued was not the stab sounds that Shockwave had, as a test Ratchet did revealed that the energon splatter at the scene was not bodily energon, but low-grade. After learning this shocking claim, Nightbeat pointed out a couple of clues that indicated that Skywarp was set up by the actual murderer to take the fall for this crime. This paired with info that Skywarp was able to give about the fireproof box being in a different place than before, allowed Nightbeat to have enough evidence to name the culprit: Soundwave.
Soundwave was quick to deny the acquisitions and the other teachers were doubtful of his claims, since Soundwave had an apparent alibi, being on the fifth floor the entire time. However, Nightbeat had already figured out how he falsified his alibi. He sent Laserbeak into the vents of the school to the groundbridge room and used it to let him traverse freely around the school. The proof of this was the fresh nail that was in the vent of the groundbridge room, evidence that Laserbeak broke the original nail when getting in and it had to be replaced. When asked how he could possibly killed Shockwave, Nightbeat explained that it was through the energon injector Shockwave used. Soundwave had laced it with acid and gave it to him, where Shockwave unwittingly killed himself by injecting it into himself. Once he was dead, Soundwave came in to create a false crime scene, stabbing Shockwave’s corpse to make it look like the cause of death and setting the room on fire to destroy any evidence. Further incriminating Soundwave was his inability to remember certain details of the party, which he claimed to be watching through the surveillance cameras. When asked about how he got the acid, Nightbeat explained he got it that very morning when him and Hoist did a test run with the groundbridge. He had set it to go the Shockwave’s room and entered it without anyone knowing, stealing the acid that Shockwave had stolen before returning without anyone the wiser. The final piece of evidence to the fact the acid was used was the fact the injector was empty due to the acid making the energon dissipate inside the injector.
With all the facts laid out for him, Soundwave admitted to being the culprit behind Shockwave’s murder. When asked why he did it, he kept quiet about it, but Monobear revealed it anyway against his wishes. The truth was that his motive video showed his other minicons in distress outside of the school and his need to care for them, leading him to devise the murder plan to get out and find them. With the truth revealed, his execution was next, but before it could be done, two things happened. First, as an apology to Skywarp for framing him, he gave him Laserbeak and told the seeker to watch over his minicon, which he agreed to. Second, Soundwave informed everyone that what they saw in the videos were all real and not to be disregarded by everyone. At that final shocking statement, he was executed inside the trial room itself by being suspended in the air by chains and getting caught halfway into a portal before closing, cutting him vertically in half, sending his blood down to the innocents below him.
With the teachers freaking out at being drenched in the blood, the group beat a hasty retreat to the elevator to call it a night and turn in for the day. But after washing up, Nightbeat heard a group of teachers gather upstairs at the A/V room and went up their to see what it was all about. When he asked them, Hound responded by playing his video for them all the see. On it, they could see that the destruction that was befalling Cybertron in their videos was also occurring on Earth, showing that the problem is far bigger than they realized.
