Author's Note: Do not own Ace Attorney Franchise. I wish I did. But I don't. I technically own Lucky, though.
WHOOOP! Chapter story! It's gonna be long, if I remember to keep updating it. Already into the beginning of Chapter Three, and have a rough outline of the whole story. And Polly will be narrating for the majority of the story. Oh, also very Gumshoe/Maggey for the first bunch of chapters.
...I hate the title. But it was all I could think of.
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"GO POLLY, THE CLIENT'S FATE IS IN YOUR HANDS...!" Trucy screamed as she pushed me off the bus. That was really unnecessary, seeing that I was about to step off, however Trucy was about to go visit Mr. Wright in the hospital, and I'm guessing she needed to see me get hurt at least once today. Like I wasn't going to the hospital afterwards, and of course, Mr. Wright would be perfectly fine by then. The man is pretty much indestructible. He got sent flying 30 feet by a car, hit his head on a lamppost, and what'd he get? A sprained ankle. And, of course, other things have happened to him, some way worse. Honestly, after reading some of his old court files, he's taken worse beatings than the murder victims. How is this guy not dead yet?!
Get a grip on yourself, Justice. Stop with the run-on sentences and self-questions. I thought as I picked myself up off the sidewalk. That was when Trucy threw the Court Record (Which was currently her weirdly shaped bag,) at my head, and the bus-doors closed and sped off. I murmured a few things (mostly cursing the Wrights) under my breath. Why me? I just woke up, and Trucy started yelling gibberish about shooting and clients and court and a gummy shoe. When I begged her to slow down and let go of my hair, by which she was dragging me out the door by, she glared at me.
"DADDY'S BEEN SHOT! YOU GOTTA TAKE HIS PLACE IN COURT!" She screamed so close to my face, I swear she spat on me a little.
"MR. WRIGHT'S BEEN SHOT?!" I screamed back, equally loud and in-your-face to her. Mr. Wright had recently gotten his badge back, (mostly due to uncovering the whole Kristoph Gavin plot, including proving his innocence from the forgery, and the basic fact that Phoenix Wright was, undeniably, the greatest defence attorney back in the day. Somehow, though, I doubt that you can put that as an answer to the bar exam...) and immediately took a murder case, which he said involved some old friends. "IS HE OKAY?!"
Trucy nodded overly fast. "It was a drive by, but it was only two to the left shoulder." Why wasn't she more surprised by this? Actually... Why wasn't I? "He's in the hospital, and you gotta save our client!"
"Okay! Okay!" I said. And now here I am, in the Defendant's Lobby No. 2. After being there for two and a half minutes, a strange man came running at me.
"HEY PAL! WHERE'S MR. WRIGHT?!" He yelled, and started shaking me.
"RELAX!" I yelled. I think I've been yelling more today than I would have if I got to do my Chords of Steel practice like normal today. "DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, I WILL BE DEFENDING YOU TODAY!"
The man stared at me strangely, and stepped back. He was wearing an old detective's coat, a couple spikes in his dark brown hair going to his right, he had a small beard, a band-aid on his cheek and a pencil in his ear. Under the detective's coat seemed to be... Chef's clothes. And, on top of all that, there was a little boy, about...Five? Six maybe?- Sitting on his shoulders. He had lightish brown hair, but the exact same hairstyle as the man. The kid was holding onto the man's ears' for his life, it looked like. And he had on a Blue Badger shirt. Huh. That's getting pretty popular now, isn't it?
"What? I'm not the defendant. Maggey is, pal!" He exclaimed. A little of his spit landed on my forehead. Gross.
"Pops, is this the spikey-haired lawyer guy you an' Ma got for Ma?" The little boy asked. "The good one who saved Ma all those times? He don't look like a lawyer." As if my ego didn't suffer enough from living on Trucy and Mr. Wright's sofa after I couldn't afford my own apartment.
"As I said," I cleared my throat, "Mr Wright... Can't be here today... So I will be lawyering for you." Lawyering for you. Nice one, Justice. "What happened?"
The man looked at me in despair. "My Maggey's been accused of murder again. Mr. Wright promised he'd prove her innocent for the third time." He looked ready to cry. "This can't be good for her. Her fourth trial. She already went off the deep end a little bit when Lucky was born. Poor girl shouldn't have this much stress."
I had to ask. "What was the other reason? The other time she was in court?"
He looked at me strangely, shook his head, and said (as if any moron would understand), "Murder. The first time of the middle two trials, she was found guilty," The man seemed worked up, "Because the real murderer faked being Mr. Wright and tried to pin it on Maggey, Pal!"
Wow. This woman is unlucky. Wait- Maggey? Fake Mr. Wright? I think I read a case file about that... Or did he tell Trucy a bedtime story about it?
Mr. Wright versus 'Xin Eoph', as was written in some horrible hand writing onto the side (along with Steel Samurai doodles and a glowing green nine) of the case report. His impersonator. A man poisoned another man for a computer virus so he could pay back a Mob Boss for his grandkid's operation (which the Fake caused the accident in which she needed the operation for) and posed as Mr. Wright to ensure a waitress with Trumped-Up charges would get it. Then this man must be the old detective that popped up in every one of Mr. Wright's cases. The dumb one who couldn't even say he got paid in peanuts because peanuts would be worth more than that guy got.
"Er... Who are you again?" I asked, embarrassed. I pushed my hair back as I said it.
"Dick Gumshoe, Pal!" He stated proudly. "Father of Lucky Gumshoe, Husband of Maggey Gumshoe, and the chef at A la Shoe, the best restaurant in the town, pal!" Right after he said that, the kid fell off his shoulders. "LUCKY!"
Lucky's eyes seemed like swirls, and he managed to sway as he propped himself up on his elbows. "I see canaries, Pops. Make them go away. The yellow's to bright."
That's when the defendant, who had been being held by the bailiff, ran over. "LUCKY! Lucky?! ARE YOU OKAY SON?!" She screamed. The woman had brown hair, the same shade as the little kid. She had a french maid outfit with, of course, the Blue Badger on the front. "LUCKY! SPEAK TO ME!!" She had started shaking the little boy by the shoulders.
"MA! I'M! OKAY! I'M! OKAY!" The woman stopped shaking her son and pulled him into a hug.
"OHLUCKYILOVEYOUANDI'MSCAREDBUTSOAREYOUBUTMAMA'SGONNABEALRIGHTCAUSEMRWRIGHT-"
"-Isn't here." I finished. She looked up at me, letting go of her son (he had started turning purple from lack of oxygen from his mother's hug,) she started freaking out.
"OMIGAWD, IS HE DEAD?! DID MY BAD LUCK GET HIM KILLED, TOO? NO! NOT MR. WRIGHT!" She screamed and fell to her knees in hysterics. Her husband rubbed her back and was trying to console her, and blubbered random things that I couldn't catch. Meanwhile, her son had finally stopped seeing the little birds and could breath normally.
"Mr. Wright's fine!" I exclaimed. She looked up at me expectantly. "He's just... Hospitalized... Stop crying... It makes me uncomfortable..." I mumbled less and less audible with each word. I cleared my throat and made sure to speak up. "I'm Apollo Justice, his... Apprentice?" Was that the right word? Anyway, she looked up at me hopelessly.
"I'm going to jail, aren't I?" Before I could take offense, the doors to the hallway outside the defendant's lobby opened with an BANG!
"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?!" Screamed a female voice. Anyone who had not looked at the door before had now. There stood a woman a little shorter than me, and she was pissed. She had strange, long black hair with a top-knot, bangs, and a section in the front with beads at the bottom of her hair on either side of her head. She had on an off-white robe-like dress with a purple jacket and a giant pink ribbon tied into a bow around her waist. "THE TRIAL'S ABOUT TO START!" She stormed over to me and the Gumshoes'.
"Top-Knot...!" Mr. Gumshoe exclaimed. "You're here?!"
"Of course," she retorted. "Stop calling me Top-Knot. And where is he?" She glared at the detective. He shrunk back a bit, possibly fearing the wrath of the strange woman.
"You were nicer when you were a kid."
"Just tell me where the hell Nick is." She spat. She looked down and saw the defendant kneeling on the ground. "Maggey? Are you okay?" The woman kneeled beside her. "Are you sick or something? I'm sure Nick could postpone the trial if you're ill..."
"Mr.-Mr. Wright's..." Maggey sobbed. The woman looked from her, to Mr. Gumshoe, then to me.
"You," She pointed at me. Her face was almost as cold as her voice. She... Scared me a bit. "He's in the hospital again, isn't he?"
"Y-Y-Yes...?" I stammered. Who's this Nick guy? "You-You're talking about Mr. Wright, right?"
The woman rolled her eyes at me. "Of course I am. Nick is indestructible. Unlucky, accident-prone, but indestructable. He'll never die. Besides," there was an absent-minded smirk on her face. "Even if he did die, I wouldn't let him rest."
This woman is really creeping me out.
"So where's your assistant?" She questioned, getting up and pulling Maggey up.
"Huh?" I was positive there was a dumbfounded look on my face.
"You're Nick's replacement, right?" She asked. Her face was less angry now. She wasn't smiling, though. It was a strange smirk. "He wouldn't postpone a trial for himself. He got Mr. Edgeworth to travel half-way across the world to defend Iris after the bridge accident, he'd have no problem getting 'The Great Apollo Justice,'" She made air quotes for my name, "To substitute for him while he's hurt. So where's your assistant?"
"How do you know my name?" I asked. Who the hell IS this woman?
"Ah, aren't you supposed to be smart? Nick told me." My ego's been suffering a lot lately. "He keeps bragging about you as if you were his genius son or something. Then I counter with bragging about Pearly, then he pulls out Trucy to brag about, then I just make up a name and say they're the best pupil my school's ever seen." She nodded. "And then we argue over who cheated more in our bragging contest. Then we talk about burgers or the Steel Samurai or Mia or something." She smiled absentmindedly.
"Uh... Who are you...?" I asked. She smirked, opened her mouth to talk, and then-
"The trials about to begin." The Bailiff declared.
"Well, Kid." She said. "Get ready." She said, then turned to Mr. Gumshoe and Lucky. "Maggey'll be fine. Nick wouldn't send some shmuck to defend Maggey."
"What? How do you know?" The elder of the two asked.
"It's Nick we're talking about here. Has he ever not found the truth? Even when it took seven years and his job?" He looked thoughtful for a moment. Maggey was already in the defendant's seat as he looked at her.
"She didn't do it."
"And that fact alone will save her." the woman stated, nodding to Mr. Gumshoe. She turned to me. "Well, kid. Tell me about the trial?"
"What?"
"Trial." She said, looking at me like I was an idiot. "Who's the victim?" I rummaged around the court record until I found it.
"...A man named Jack Rabbit. He was shot in the heart twice. Estimated time of death is about seven thirty." I said, reading the autopsy report.
"And...?"
"And what?"
"Anything else?" She asked, irritated.
"Oh-" I looked at the Records again. "He apparently dine-and-dashed at the Gumshoe's restaurant, spat at another man in the restaurant, harassed the defendant, and smacked her kid." I said, reading off a piece of paper listing the things Jack Rabbit did at A la Shoe in near-impossible to read writing. Mr. Wright should consider becoming a doctor with his crappy handwriting.
"You ready, Kid?" She questioned, putting one hand on her hip.
"No."
"Too bad. The trials about to start." She smiled. "You'll do fine."
I had to ask. "Uh... Who are you, again?"
She looked at me strangely, then smiled mysteriously. "You'll find out." She stated and walked into the court. Wait... Why's she going in there?
This is going to be one hell of a trial.
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Authors note: Constructive Criticism appreciated. Please review.