Final Trial.

[legionofmods]

[Eventually, after enough searching, a door seemingly appears from nowhere - leading out to a large circular room. There’s a handful of chairs, but not enough for all of you, meaning some of you might have to walk around for a bit. Which is more than fine - this place seems to be filled up to the brim with knick-knacks. Most specifically the clone pods adorning the wall here as well, as well as some fairly innocent lab equipment and scrap metal. Someone used to work here.

Once you’ve all gathered, a voice calls out to you. From within the area.]

DISCUSS WHAT YOU HAVE FOUND. ONCE YOU BEGIN TO GAIN A SEMBLANCE OF WHY YOU ARE HERE, WE WILL DISCUSS YOUR FUTURE.

Comments

[conditionally]

[ He does, as best as he can. Pretend the link to the investigation is here. ]

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

That's definitely what brought us all here. I was working on something very similar before we all arrived, but this sounds incredibly condensed.

[Her collider was basically the size of a football stadium.]

[umslay]

[ALES WANTS TO PARTNER WITH THIS MASTERMIND SO BADLY.]

So he found the teleporter, I found the robots. You found the power source. Eggman is missing. There's a lot we're missing here, like why were we brought here alive in the first place?

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

We know the recruitment excuse was fake. The entire point was to force us into- not necessarily killing, but showing our capabilities? The mastermind called an end to things after the last execution. He was- what was it, "impressed"?

[umslay]

Reasonable. However, what would become of us that did not showcase our capabilities? Were we to be killed, to be used as robots dedicated to social interaction with future victims? The plot thickens.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

And why only build copies of the dead?

[Hmmm.]

Vaati destroyed one of the Eggman clones. Could that have been what the mastermind is looking for, power capable of defeating the League? But according to Bowser they may have already done so.

[conditionally]

Something to do with their ghosts, maybe?

[ He shifts his glasses a little uncomfortably. ]

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

Robotic bodies for their ghosts to pilot?

[If we're taking "magic" as a possibility, anyway.]

[masterbreaker]

We're dealing with more ghosts again? This whole ordeal just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

[conditionally]

It's possible. Obviously they're able to communicate with the living, so it's not out of the realm of possibility

[madmadam]

Maybe we're already robots. Maybe we've been robots the entire time!

[umslay]

The tall girl who tried to eat explosive pizza looked like she was made of flesh.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

If we were robots, could we be programmed to not notice or hallucinate otherwise?

[A genuine question, AI isn't her specialty.]

[umslay]

...No clue. That feels like a waste of effort.

[neednoaccuser]

Oh, I found Eggman.

[Erik has spent like ten minutes dragging a robot corpse to a seat. Where he us now sat, with a decapitated Eggman corpse. Don't worry about it.]

Fucker goes "kill me" and I'm like "seems like a trap" but also what do I care so I jump him and he's a robot.

[umslay]

...Well there goes my theory.

Who did this to him?

[neednoaccuser]

Do I look like I know? He's all "I'm not him" and then I ripped his head off because he was creeping me out.

[He does pull out a piece of paper from a pocket though.]

I also got names of whoever was here before us.

[umslay]

Well, why didn't you say so! Give us the names!

[neednoaccuser]

[He just reads off the names he copied down. I'm not putting them all down again.]

Mods

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

[Probably a dumb question, but do those names match the profiles she found?]

[umslay]

Aaand I recognize none of those names. That's quite a list of people to be potential masterminds, if the mastermind is someone on that list.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

Sounds like a roll call of the actual -or possibly former- Legion of Eclipse.

[She shows the folder of profiles she found.]

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

"Not him". Not the genuine Eggman, you think?

[neednoaccuser]

Well it was in response to me asking if it was gonna make the big man in charge angry so could be that, could be just him tryna tell me he's not in charge.

[liv_nye_the_science_pi]

So it's very likely Eggman was never actually in charge of this exercise. We've been dealing with our disembodied voice and its puppets.