It was a rather slow moving work day at the Wright Anything Agency. There were no trials being held, no cases to handle, no crime scenes to investigate, and no defendants to, well, defend. Ever since the dark age of the law era had passed, things just seemed to slow down after that. The excitement and adrenaline rush during the company's last few cases…just simply vanished, leaving three deadbeat defense attorneys (and their assistants) in the wake.
Now on this day, everybody had congregated in Phoenix Wright's office, all of whom were engaging in various yet proficient endeavors to at least keep their law office as lively and professional as they could. Phoenix was sitting in his former superior's desk, checking his email for anything that could possibly require him to put his attorney badge to good use. To his dismay, his inbox was empty. At that point, he wasn't sure what was worse: the darkest part of the history of the law, or this uneventful, peaceful time that threatened to drive everybody mad. Nobody wasn't even suing for malpractice anymore! Apollo Justice sat in a comfortable chair next to Phoenix's desk, reading up on an old case file that was nearly approaching its 16th anniversary. Apollo barely remembered it, being only 7 at the time of the trial, but he did know that the "not guilty" verdict the defendant received caused quite the uproar. It was sad to think that the victim, only a year younger than he, would be twenty-two today if she were still alive. Athena Cykes was playing secretary, lingering over the phone as if her life depended on it. In this moment though, her life really did depend on it. She was on the fine border between barely getting the rent paid on time and food stamps. This was not the kind of situation she'd expect to be in when she became an attorney. Now that she thought about it, she still had student loans to pay from when she attended law school. Things just couldn't get any better for her right now. As the defense attorneys tried to busy themselves as much as they could, Trucy Wright was sitting off to the side amusing herself with a magic kit that she had received from Apollo for her birthday. She was currently studying the instructional guide real hard so she could find a trick to cheer up her father and everyone else in the room. Meanwhile, Pearl Fey was sitting on the ground playing a board game with Maya Fey, who had decided to come visit for a few weeks. She realized almost immediately after she arrived that she couldn't have picked a more boring time to visit. She knew life here would become bland after hearing Phoenix complain to her over the phone about his lack of incoming cases. Not to mention, her two most favorite cartoons had ceased to broadcast after the company that produced them sadly went bankrupt. Now she had resorted to watching this horrid reality show of a bunch of people with weird names living together in one house, most of it centering around their one night stands and drunken parties.
Five minutes passed by; then fifteen; then thirty-five until finally, an entire hour of nothing happening passed. And it was only ten o'clock in the morning. Phoenix was about to just give everyone the day off and lock up the office when he heard giggling from a corner of the room. He glanced over and saw Maya staring amusedly at her phone while Pearl was putting the game away. When she turned around and noticed Phoenix looking at her with a curious expression on his face, she gave him a mischievous grin, as if she was planning something out in her mind. She knew just how to turn this absolute tedious day into a moment they would not soon forget.
The Prosecutors Office was as busy as ever. Even though the dark age had ended, the aftermath of it still needed to be dealt with, meaning that every prosecutor and detective alike had to be reinvestigated for forgery, evidence concealment, manipulating crime scenes, etc. Background checks were being conducted left and right. Cases, even the ones that have been closed and gathering dust, were even looked at thoroughly. Despite the circumstances, it sure beat the never-ending rut the Wright Anything Agency was currently experiencing. During this hectic time, prosecutors, detectives, and other random people were filling every inch of space at the Prosecutors' Office until they were nearly shoulder to shoulder with each other. However, as a certain prosecutor made her way down the corridors, everybody was sure to stop and get out of her path as quickly as possible. The harsh click of her footsteps warned passers-by not to get in her way, less they incur the wrath of her whip. Finally, she reached the office she had intended to go to, barged right in, and approached the man, whom she wanted to see, at his desk. The way she announced herself as she came in was enough to make even the most fearless person cower in terror, but fortunately for this man, he was used to these kinds of intrusions.
"Franziska von Karma." He acknowledged her without looking up from his folder. "What brings you here at this hour?"
"Miles Edgeworth." She stated in a stern voice, hoping to get his attention. When he looked up at her, she brandished a laptop she was carrying under her arm. "You NEED to see this."
Not bothering to wait for an answer, Franziska somewhat forcefully placed the laptop on top of Miles's desk, and opened it to reveal a video website. Miles rolled his eyes at her actions.
"Franziska, I swear. If this proves to be a waste of my time, I will…I…will…will…" He never finished his threat, too shocked to even say anything.
As soon as Franziska pressed the play button on the video, an obnoxious beat began to sound. Miles recognized the setting as Phoenix Wright's office, but he wasn't paying any attention to that. What he was paying attention to was Phoenix Wright in the middle of the room, doing all kinds of weird body movements that made him look like he had no bones. Nobody was paying attention to him though, instead just focusing their eyes on other things. Phoenix continued to dance as the music slowly began to increase in tempo. Suddenly, a deep voice commanding, "and do the Harlem Shake" was heard on the video, and in an instant, the entire office was in disarray. Athena Cykes had gotten up on the desk and was pretending to do the backstroke. Apollo Justice had taken all of his clothes off except his boxers and was dry-humping their plant mascot (poor Charley). Pearl Fey had channeled Mia into her body, sparing herself from this calamity while Trucy Wright was riding Mr. Hat like a horse, waving her magician's top hat as if it were a Stetson. Maya Fey donned Apollo's discarded clothes and was bumping behinds with her older sister, now dressed up as the Pink Princess (where did she get that costume from?!). And in the middle of it all was Phoenix Wright, now with his suit jacket on backwards and doing some odd dance that involved flailing his limp arms around like a dead person. This whole thing lasted for a good thirty two seconds before finally fading to black, leaving both prosecutors stunned into silence. After the video ended, the two didn't speak a word to each other. They stared at the laptop, then at each other, then back at the laptop. Finally, Franziska spoke up:
"I thought that foolishly foolish fad had long since died down."
"E-Evidently not." Miles was not sure what to do. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket and tried wiping the perspiration off his face. He still could not believe what he had just borne witness to. Yes, he had seen it before in college when it used to be big online, but that was over fourteen years ago! And to see his friend and the others acting so unprofessionally…he would never be fully able to look Apollo straight in the eye ever again. He knew what lunatics were like; the defense office had just taken that up to a whole new level. And it scarred him for life. He needed to get this out of his mind.
"Franziska…do me a favor."
"And that is?"
"Whip me."
"What…?"
"As hard as you possibly can."
"But…"
"I don't care where, just do it!"
Franziska, startled at her adopted brother's strange request and the forceful tone he used, was about to comply when another person came bursting into the room.
"HEY PAL! YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE WHAT I SAW THIS MORNING ON THE INTERNET!"
Caught off guard by the booming loud voice, Franziska missed her intended target and ended up striking…Detective Gumshoe. The unsuspecting man reeled back from the force of the whip, and nearly fell to the ground. He quickly grabbed the edge of Miles's desk to prevent himself from doing so, and once he was able to recover from the shock, he regained his footing.
"What was that for, pal!" He shouted at Franziska, who just looked back at him as if it was no big deal.
"Don't blame me. This thing has a mind of its own." She replied as-a-matter-of-factly.
Gumshoe scratched the back of his head, unsure of how to respond to that. Miles cleared his throat to get the detective's attention again.
"Detective Gumshoe, what were you saying earlier?" He said. Luckily, he was almost recovered from watching that horrifying video. Almost.
Gumshoe immediately remembered, and exclaimed in his excited, loud voice. "Oh yeah! You will never be able to guess what I saw this morning online! Phoenix Wright, he…" Gumshoe paused when he saw the bemused looks Miles and Franziska were giving him. "Uh…I'm guessing you already saw it."
"The video where everyone is acting as if they were on narcotics? Yes, we've seen it." Miles was barely able to suppress a shudder.
Franziska held her whip in a death grip, clearly disturbed and annoyed. "That foolishly foolish fool has lost his foolishly foolish mind! I ought to whip him a thousand times to punish him for his foolery!"
Gumshoe instinctively took one large step away from the fuming prosecutor. "Yeah…did you see the number of views the video has gotten?"
Miles shrugged. "Why? It was only uploaded this morning. There's no logical way it could have gotten…FOUR MILLION VIEWS?!"
Franziska shoved her "little brother" out of the way to see if what he was saying was true; she ignored the loud curse he let out when he crashed into the bookshelf. Sure enough, below the video was the number of total views it had received, which was exactly 4,792,356.
"H-How?! How can this video be so popular already? It's just a bunch of foolishly foolish fools dancing foolishly for thirty seconds!" Out of her frustration, Franziska whipped the nearest thing in her line of sight, which so happened to be Detective Gumshoe again.
"Ouch! You need to get that thing under control!" He hollered. At that moment, another disturbing thought crossed his mind. "Wait...four million views...do you know what this means?!"
Miles, having collected himself up off the floor, gave the detective a bewildered stare. "No…what does it mean?"
"It means that that punk Wright is gaining online fame as we speak. He's practically an Internet celebrity by now!"
Miles and Franziska gave him an indescribable stare, but they were most likely not impressed with Gumshoe's theory. Why should they care about such trifle matters?
"I fail to see why that is so important." Miles stated coolly.
"Don't you see, pal? The more times this video is viewed, the more popularity Mr. Wright and his business will gain! We've just come out of the dark age, but not many people are still trusting attorneys. But if Mr. Wright becomes popular with the public, think of how it will affect future trials! Everyone will be on his side!"
A moment of silence passed throughout the room as they all began to think on what Gumshoe had just said. Suddenly, Franziska "whipped" out her whip, and struck Gumshoe yet again. His shouts of pain was enough to startle Miles out of his thoughts.
"OUCH! What is wrong with you, pal?!" Gumshoe demanded.
"What a ridiculous theory!" Franziska shot back. "Only a fool as foolish as yourself could ever come up with something that foolish. Are you saying Phoenix Wright will start winning trials because of an Internet video that went viral?!"
Before the two could argue, Miles suddenly offered his two cents into the conversation.
"Gumshoe…may be right after all."
This got their attention. They immediately snapped around with a simultaneous, "What?"
"Though rather outlandish, Gumshoe made some valid points."
"Miles Edgeworth!" Franziska shouted. "I'd never believe you the type to be agreeing with a foolish…"
Miles held up a hand, signaling her to stop talking. "I'm not finished yet. While Gumshoe's theory is very overly exaggerated, there's no denying that Wright's popularity will greatly benefit him in court. With everyone rooting for him to win, there would be many negative emotions projected onto us if he loses."
"That's…exactly what I meant, pal!" Gumshoe gave Miles an appreciative smile, grateful that the prosecutor was able to make him not look like an idiot after all. For the first time, he knew what it felt like to do something right.
Franziska banged her fists on the desk, snapping Gumshoe out from his dream-like state. "Okay, so to recap: Phoenix Wright is popular with the crowd and will have the entire public backing him up. And obviously if he loses, then people will start talking slander about us prosecutors."
"As if there isn't enough already." Miles muttered.
"Well then," Although she was able to sum up everything perfectly, Franziska still seemed in the dark about this whole issue with popularity. "What are we supposed to do about it?"
"Simple." Miles responded. "We have to become just as popular with the crowd as Wright is, if not more."
"Hmph." Franziska crossed her arms, creasing her brow in thought. "How are we to go about this then?"
That was when Gumshoe let out a loud laugh, quickly getting Miles and Franziska to stare at him in curiosity. He in turn gave them a confident smirk as he held up a video camera.
"I know what to do." He chuckled. "We're going to fight video with video."
PX: For the curious ones:
The case Apollo was reading about is the Casey Anthony Trial
The show Maya had chosen to watch is Jersey Shore
The dance Phoenix was doing in the video was the "Bernie."