A/N: Based on my third fanfic, "The Literal Turnabout", and the ending of 1:4. Story takes place right after the fifth case of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (Rise from the Ashes). I know that Edgeworth left after that case to discover more about himself and such (*cough* I mean, he committed suicide, just like what that note said), but ignore that. I just realized that flaw and I'm already half-way through the chapter, so just pretend that never happened, okay? Oh yeah, and if you're going to complain about how Edgeworth would get his REAL first shot at being a defense attorney in PW:T&T, I'm sorry I'm such a failure. Ignore that too, deal with it, and move on! I just wanted to write a story with Edgeworth facing Phoenix in a random trial! =P
Summary: Phoenix decides to take Edgeworth up on his deal and the two of them switch roles of defense attorney and prosecutor. What will become of it all?
Phoenix Wright and the quotes used below don't belong to me (duh) but to Capcom, so don't try and arrest me. But if you do, I'm just warning you, I know a good defense attorney (too bad he's fictional).
And don't kill me for making this! If you want updates on "Trust", you'll get it! I just got really bored and so I decided to procrastinate and make this little fanfic. Only problem is that before making this, I actually ended up reading about ten poorly written fanfics with terrible grammar so in the same way living in France for a year destroys your English, hours of reading terrible grammar WILL have some effect on the way I make this fanfic... not too many details, really redundant, and poor grammar/dialogue. So, don't complain, I'm already admitting that the following is going to be terrible in descriptions and such, so don't shoot meee!
Alright, here's yet another silly little fanfic!
Give it up for Switch!
"You should have told me!" Phoenix cried out in Edgeworth's face. Edgeworth made a noise resembling a sound of amusement. A smirk was growing on his face and it was getting harder and harder to hold it back.
"Now, now Nick. It was fifteen years ago!" Maya exclaimed, talking to Phoenix like a three year old. Phoenix pouted. "Don't you think the statute of limitations has run out, Mr. Edgeworth?"
"I'd say so, yes." Edgeworth replied with a full blown sardonic grin on his face. Phoenix forced himself to not kick his old friend in the shins (because a kick in the balls is a bit too much).
"There you have it!" Larry announced, breaking the odd silence that had formed. Phoenix growled at him in return.
"Where does that leave me?" Phoenix outburst. "I became a defense attorney because of what you two did"
"Well, I'd call you a goody-two-shoes to the extreme." Edgeworth replied, not even taken aback by Phoenix's outburst.
"Yeah! And you get worked up too easily too!" Larry continued. Phoenix frowned at them with displeasure.
"D-death!" Phoenix declared loudly. He pointed up at the ceiling dramatically, then brought it down in front of Edgeworth and Larry. The bailiff by the door started to stare at Phoenix in confusion. "The death sentence for both of you! Man, if I only had known, I would've become a prosecutor!"
"The same goes for me, only the other way around..." Edgeworth replied softly. "For the longest time, I thought I had killed my own father. I thought I might be a criminal. I became a prosecutor in part to punish myself."
Phoenix's gaze on the demon prosecutor softened. Edgeworth continued. "If I had known the truth, I might have become a defense attorney after all."
"Edgeworth..." Phoenix whispered.
Edgeworth glanced back at his rival with a small smile. "Want to switch, Wright?"
Phoenix found himself walking into the Prosecutor's office one day. Maya wasn't with him because she was back at her hometown, Kurain Village, in order to update her spirit medium powers. He didn't have a case going on right now, considering that he still had to "recover" from what he found out about Edgeworth and the SL-9 Incident.
This made it the perfect time.
After being directed by the secretary of the building, Phoenix rode the elevator to the twelfth floor and knocked on a certain high prosecutor's door.
"Come in." a voice called out from inside the room.
Phoenix opened the door.
And saw, at his desk, Miles Edgeworth, busy doing paperwork. Edgeworth looked up, only to see his rival in blue standing by the door. "What do you want, Wright?" he sighed.
Phoenix was still offset his thoughts from the sight of the prosecutor in his vest (without his "magenta" suit) and reading glasses. For some reason, his thoughts of Edgeworth were true! He does dress up like that when he's working! He looks so... "sophisticated"!
Wait.
Why did he have thoughts of Edgeworth?
Phoenix quickly dismissed the thought at the sound of Edgeworth speaking. "Umm... I was thinking a while back..." Phoenix started.
"Wow, isn't that a surprise? You were thinking!" Edgeworth hooted sarcastically. Phoenix frowned at him and continued.
"Do you remember what you said after I got you acquitted from being the murderer of your father?"
"A bit. What about it?"
"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to that now..."
"Do what?"
"Switch jobs!" It was getting harder and harder to respond to Edgeworth's constant pressing into the matter. Phoenix caught himself yelling and blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry for yelling, Edgeworth."
"It's quite alright." Edgeworth smirked. He placed his pen and reading glasses onto his desk and turned off his reading lamp. He then got up off his chair and left.
"Hey Edgeworth! Where are you going?" Phoenix called out. He started walking in the direction Edgeworth left, but Edgeworth walked back into the office with his Prosecutor's badge in his hand.
"Here. Take it." Edgeworth tossed it over to Phoenix and the spiky-haired lawyer fumbled around with it until he had it firmly in grasp.
"You're actually going to go with it?" Phoenix asked in a surprised tone as he removed his defense attorney's badge and tossed it over to Edgeworth. Edgeworth caught it with no hassle.
"Of course. Like I've said, if I had known the truth from the start, I would have become a defense attorney to follow in my dad's footsteps like I've been planning to." Edgeworth pinned Phoenix's badge on his lapel. Phoenix stuffed the Prosecutor's badge in his pocket. "I guess we better start getting used to each other's lives now Wright." Edgeworth sighed. "You can start by finishing up the remainder of my paperwork. What do you do at this time of day?"
Phoenix sighed. Paperwork already? The whole reason of coming over to the Prosecutor's Office and wasting time trying this ridiculous experiment was to avoid his own paperwork.
But if Edgeworth was okay with making Phoenix do his paperwork, then Phoenix made sure that Edgeworth would do the paperwork he has to do in return.
"Well, at this time of day, I too should be doing my own paperwork." Phoenix replied. "And writing up records for the case files."
"At least the last case was one where both of us were involved." Edgeworth replied. "That way, we both know what was going on." Phoenix nodded in agreement.
"How long should we keep this up?" Phoenix asked.
"Let's go for a week." Edgeworth replied. "We should try and get a case in too."
The two men shook hands to signify that the deal was on. Edgeworth walked over to the door and Phoenix took his place besides Edgeworth's desk. "Oh yeah, Wright. My suits are in the closet in the other room." Edgeworth smirked and walked off. Phoenix sighed and pulled out his own pair of reading glasses from his pocket. He dipped Edgeworth's pen into what was apparently Babahlese ink (wow, aren't we fancy?) and started writing.
Edgeworth soon finally arrived to Phoenix's workplace, the Wright and Co. Law Offices. The door wasn't locked, so he stepped in and found that no one was there.
"Where's Maya?" Edgeworth asked himself. He then made his way over to Phoenix's desk and found a short letter that wasn't in the attorney's writing. He read it over and realized that Maya was over at Kurain honing her powers (using Logic).
The prosecutor took his place behind the desk, giving a good hard look at Charley (don't worry, he doesn't know the name of the plant yet), then spotting a spray can on a side table nearby. He picked it up and gave Charley a little spray.
After feeling a bit more satisfied with the little deed, Edgeworth then glanced down at the paperwork.
Half of it was case stuff.
The other half was a scattered pile of bills.
Though it was rude, Edgeworth already figured that doing something like this meant that the two of them were willing to let the other look through their personal belongings intentionally or unintentionally, and as seeing that the papers were just lying there, it couldn't hurt to take a peek.
"Now let's see what we have here..." Edgeworth muttered to himself as he rummaged through Phoenix's papers. In the end, he ended up carefully organizing the papers into separate piles which resulted in the ability to actually see the desk. Along the way, Edgeworth, though he DID try to avoid doing so, ended up looking at the form of bills Phoenix had.
What Edgeworth found out was that his little defense attorney "friend" was in a tough bind from an array of different forms of debt (mainly caused by generosity) and a couple of threats to being evicted.
And to think that on top of all this and case work, his friend is still able to keep a light head with those around him.
Ignoring the stack of bills and such, Edgeworth picked up a ballpoint pen (probably from the dollar store... what a big difference compared to the fountain pen he was fond of using) and was about to start filling out Phoenix's paperwork when...
... at the same time, both men encountered the EXACT same problem.
They both had different writing styles.
Edgeworth perfectly neat writing wouldn't be able to cope with Phoenix's messy, though legible writing and vice versa.
Phoenix immediately called his office as soon as he came to the realization of this problem (A/N: And by his office, I mean the Wright and Co. Law Offices). Edgeworth was surprised as the phone in his hand started to ring and according to the Caller ID, it was from his own office. Edgeworth was about to call Phoenix himself after encountering the problem.
"Hey Edgeworth." Phoenix told Edgeworth through the phone. "I've got a little problem here."
"And by the sound of things, I believe that you have spilled ink all over yourself, especially considering that the shift between a cheap ballpoint pen and a exquisite fountain pen is quite difficult."
"Don't mock my writing tools! And besides, I'm used to writing with fountain pens from back in university. You even taught me how to use these things back in the fourth grade!"
"Oh yeah." Edgeworth thought. "Well then what is the problem, Wright? Your writing isn't compatible with mine?"
"Actually, yeah, exactly that."
"You know what, just skip the paperwork... I'll just finish that off a week from now."
"Are you sure? I mean, my writing isn't THAT messy."
"Yeah, but Lana checks on my work every week, so if she sees the change in quality... well, I hope she'll understand." At the time, Edgeworth completely forgot about Lana's "situation".
"Alright, if you say so, Edgeworth."
And the two hung up, now completely free of paperwork.
Later that day...
"Mr. Edgeworth!" Gumshoe screamed down the hallway of the Prosecutor's Office. "Mr. Edgeworth! We've got another case!"
Gumshoe barged through the door, only to see Phoenix Wright sitting behind the Demon Prosecutor's desk with his feet up on the desk enjoying some of Angel Starr's "the Wright Way Lunch" that she happened to drop off a few minutes ago. He was still trying to finish the top layer, oddly enjoying the bitter layer in anticipation of the following layer that is said to have the "sweet taste of victory".
"Hey! You're not Mr. Edgeworth!" Gumshoe exclaimed loudly. Phoenix was surprised by the detective and jumped out of his seat, but making sure to carefully place his lunch on the desk so he could eat some more of it later.
"Of course I'm not, Detective!" Phoenix hissed back, putting his finger over his mouth to tell the detective to keep it down. He signalled Gumshoe to come closer and in a hushed tone briefly described the deal he and Edgeworth were in right now.
"Make sure not to tell anyone, alright?" Phoenix whispered into the scruffy detective's ear. Gumshoe nodded rather enthusiastically and mock saluted.
"Sure thing... Mr. Edgeworth!" Gumshoe winked at Phoenix. Phoenix just sighed and gave himself a facepalm. "You know pal, you should probably dress up the part. We have a new case involving a foreign district, so no one will know your real identity there." Gumshoe explained. "It's actually in Chief Skye's district, but considering that she's in jail right now..." A short pause, then Gumshoe continued. "...well, Mr. Edgeworth, or in this case, you, are covering for her, considering that she knows you're able to do something like cover two districts."
Phoenix nodded. "Alright Detective. I'm just glad to know that you're on my side for this."
"Not problem pal!" Gumshoe replied with a satisfied smile on his face. "If Mr. Edgeworth is okay with this, then I guess I should be too, right?"
"Alright, so where do we begin?"
"Well, you can start by, like I said, dressing up the part!"
"You mean I have to wear that pink suit and a cravat?"
Gumshoe nodded, causing dark displeasure to form across Phoenix's face.
"I just hope that those cravats aren't too itchy..." Phoenix mentally retorted.
A few minutes of struggling and clothes ruffling later...
"EDGEWORTH!" Phoenix screamed through the phone with a strained voice as though someone was strangling him right now. He had called Edgeworth as soon as he got his outfit (almost) straightened out in order to inform his rival of the new case.
"What is it Wright? I'm busy." Edgeworth whined through the phone.
"Wait, what can you be busy with when you don't have to do any of my paperwork like we agreed on?"
"That's none of your business. Now, what is it that you could possibly want right now?"
"Well, I, er... rather Gumshoe, got us a new case."
"You have a case already? Then again, you ARE in charge of two districts as of now considering that Lana will be unable to fulfill her duties at the moment."
"Well yeah, whatever you say." Phoenix groaned. He really wished that he could take off this stupid cravat. It was seriously choking him. Either that or he put it on wrong for the umpteenth time. At least he tried... "Edgeworth, I need you to defend if you want to continue this deal. Oh yeah, and I hope you don't mind, but I've informed Gumshoe of the details as well."
"Alright, I will." Edgeworth replied. "Meet me at the detention center and we'll meet the client together. I'll fill you in on what you have to do there. I'm capable of figuring out what YOU have to do... I've seen my dad do it enough."
"Okay." Phoenix sighed. Edgeworth really did seem to be enjoying that fact that he seemed to be in charge and on top of everything occurring right now while Phoenix was still being left out in the dark. "Just make sure to go to the detention center in Ms. Skye's district and not ours. I'll see you there."
The two hung up simultaneously.
Edgeworth hung up the phone and sighed. He finally had the opportunity to do his somewhat life-long dream that had been warped long ago by lies. He looked around and, after realizing that it would be informal to meet his first client in his untidy vest and polo, he roamed the office in search of something to throw on top.
The only thing he could find was one of Phoenix's blue suits, matching blue dress pants, and a nice salmon tie.
"Well, there's nothing else to wear I guess..." Edgeworth sighed in defeat as he threw it on. He was remarkably surprised by how easily it slid on. He never really took note that he and Phoenix basically had the same size clothing. He expected it to be a bit tighter, considering that his low self-esteem has led him to believe that he is fat (even amongst all of the work-outs he has to put up with three times a week).
Edgeworth looked at himself in the mirror and noticed just how alienated he felt. Though it wasn't true, he really did feel like he had switched lives with Phoenix. He looked just like the spiky haired lawyer, minus the spiky hair and the fact that he was with his own face.
"Alright dad, it's about time I got to see what it's like being a defense attorney." Edgeworth mumbled as he slipped into his own loafers. He grabbed for the ledge out of habit in order to "lock" the door, but then he remembered that Phoenix had left the door unlocked to his office when he left to the Prosecutor's Office to visit Edgeworth and such, so Edgeworth found it okay to leave the door unlocked himself.
He closed the door behind him and pulled the keys to his rented car (his own red car, which was NEW by the way, was still in need of repair/replacement after that last case). He started the slick four-wheeled mode of transportation that would be capable of carrying him to the other side of the city in order to get to the detention center there (also known as his rented orange Sunfire) up, backed out of the parking, and drove off west in the direction of the detention center.
Phoenix, on the other hand, didn't exactly HAVE a slick four-wheeled mode of transportation that would be capable to carrying him to the other side of city in order to get to the detention center there (heck, the guy doesn't even have his driver's licence).
"Aw, dammit!" Phoenix groaned as he stepped out into the parking lot expecting Edgeworth's car to be available for his use. Gumshoe was with him, all giddy about the idea of riding in Edgeworth's red convertible, but was disappointed by their find.
When they arrived in the parking lot, they encountered four problems with that idea.
One: They didn't have the keys to the car (A/N: Oh, I wonder why THE Phoenix Wright didn't figure out a problem like that while they were still upstairs... oh yeah - this is MY story! =P).
Two: Even if they had to guts to jump over the doors into the car like in all of those action flicks, neither of them had a clue how to use the wiring to start up the car (Gumshoe probably did, but it would take him hours of struggling to remember and shocking himself with live wires that the two would have probably gotten there faster and more "in style" if they had walked the 60 kilometres).
Three: Because of the last case that had taken place, the car was still in "crime scene" mode, meaning that there was still a bit of damage and a bit of blood in it, as well as how there were still a few police personnel around it examining the car in order to make final touch-up reports on the case (just go with the flow...).
Four: Neither of them knew how to drive in the first place.
"Thanks for the BRIGHT idea, Detective!" Phoenix groaned and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Gumshoe scratched the back of his head innocently.
"I'm sorry sir, but I guess I was blinded by the joy the thought of riding in Mr. Edgeworth's car would bring to me!" Gumshoe replied. "And don't blame it ALL on me! I mean, you knew as well as I do that we both don't even know how to drive in the first place. Don't tell me that you weren't looking forward to riding in Mr. Edgeworth's convertible so much that you have overlooked certain important facts as well!"
Phoenix blushed a bit in embarrassment. "No matter." the man imitating a prosecutor sighed. "Now how the hell are we supposed to get to the detention center 60 kilometres away in-" Phoenix glanced down at his watch. "-less than 45 minutes?"
...
And next thing the spiky-haired lawyer and the scruffy detective knew, they were riding motorbikes.
"Are you sure this is okay?" Phoenix warily asked the detective (who was clearly enjoying his joyride on a motorcycle) beside him.
"Of course!" Gumshoe screamed back, almost unable to do so through his uncontrollable bemused laughter.
Phoenix, along with him struggling to keep control of the motorcycle (A/N: If he can't drive the car, how is he supposed to drive a motorbike?), he was unable to cope with the idea of what he and the detective had just done a few minutes ago...
*Flashback*
Phoenix and Gumshoe see two teens on seemingly brand new motorbikes. The one on the left with the blue bandana, red vest, and black army pants had a nice red bike covered in flames. The other one on the right with the all-black attire (and surprisingly green sunglasses) had a purposely scratched-up green bike. Both were about to ride off if it hadn't been for Phoenix and Gumshoe stopping them.
"Hey you two! Stop right there!" Gumshoe screamed at the top of his lungs, running towards them with his police badge in front of him. Phoenix sighed at what the detective was doing and had no choice but to follow him.
"I'm sorry officer, but are we doing anything wrong?" the teen in the blue bandana and red vest asked innocently.
"No sir." Gumshoe replied. "We just need to borrow your bikes for a second."
"Why don't you use your fancy police cars then?" the other teen on the right exclaimed angrily. It was clear he wasn't comfortable with the idea of lending his new motorbike to the likes of Phoenix and Gumshoe.
Phoenix wasn't so comfortable with the idea as well.
"Umm... we can't." Phoenix quickly replied. "We...err... ran out of police cars! Yeah! There have been many, err, mischievous things going on and too many of our personnel have been called out to duty... so they had to take the police cars, leaving us empty-handed and in need of fast transportation."
The two teens eyed the lonely unused police car behind the four of them in the parking lot.
Suddenly, Phoenix's cravat felt even tighter than usual.
"Uhh... that one is up for maintenance?" Phoenix said off the top of his head. The two teens sighed and simultaneously gave up.
Phoenix hopped onto the red one with flames.
Gumshoe hopped onto the scratched-up green bike.
The two swiped the helmets from the two very confused teens.
"Don't worry, we promise to return these bikes to you in the condition they are in!" Gumshoe yelled over the roar of him revving up the bike. The teen on the right winced at the sound of him ALREADY grinding the engine. "And if not, you can always identify me at the precinct and remind me! This is police woooork-!"
And just before Gumshoe finished his sentence, he had accidentally accelerated and zoomed off. Phoenix waved meekly at the boys and rode off after him, performing a wheelie while doing so.
"Ohh snap...!" Phoenix cried out.
As soon as the two zipped off along the 80km/hour road at a blazing 130km/hour, the teen in the blue bandana looked to his friend in the yellow sunglasses.
"That is one cool frilly guy!"
His friend in the yellow sunglasses gave himself a facepalm.
*End Flashback*
Phoenix glanced back at Gumshoe as the two merged onto the highway at 110km/hour (that's ten kilometres above speed limit, but it won't get them arrested). After nervously changing lanes, the two were finally beside each other cruising the not-so-busy highway at the same speed. They were finally able to talk to each (or rather, they were finally able to communicate in screaming voices).
"Gumshoe, don't you think this is a little over-the-top?" Phoenix screamed at his now subordinate beside him.
"What? You think I'm wearing a little top?" Gumshoe screamed back.
"No! Isn't this a bit too outrageous, overblown, RIDICULOUSLY excessive?"
"Of course I do!" Gumshoe replied, though Phoenix wasn't sure if the detective heard him right anyways. He let it go and focused on the highway.
And when he did that, he realized he was just about to crash into a eighteen-wheeler, but he swerved out of the way just in time.
As soon as Phoenix regained his balance, he sighed in an attempt to relax himself. "C'mon Phoenix. This is just like riding a bike. The only difference is that this is a really FAST stolen bike going at a hundred and ten kilometres per hour on a highway that could probably be the cause of my death. No hassle, right Wright?"
This guy REALLY needs to take lessons in motivational speeches.
Soon, they came across an orange Sunfire and Gumshoe started screaming at Phoenix. "It's Edgeworth!" he shouted. "I recognise the rented car plate number!"
Gumshoe and Phoenix then went on either side of the car (not illegally... they just took their respective places on the lanes to the left and to the right of the lane Edgeworth's car was in).
Edgeworth was driving calmly when he caught two hooligans on either side of his car. In fear of them just randomly colliding with him, he sped up, but the two of them too sped up in unison. Edgeworth then rolled down his side's window, only to find the biker beside him was none other than Gumshoe.
"Detective, what the hell are you doing here?" Edgeworth screamed at him. He then glanced down and stared at the bike. "And since when did you own a motorcycle? And since when did you know how to drive one?"
"Well sir, in order, I'm here because both Mr. Wright and I were headed towards the detention center and we saw your car and we wanted to say hi!"
"O-OBJECTION!" Edgeworth screamed angrily. "Do you REALLY think that the best place to say hi would be while we're all on a highway driving at a hundred kilometres an hour?"
"Oh... I guess I never really thought about it..." Gumshoe looked depressed. "Anyways, for the remainder of the questions, my answer would be 'just now'."
Now Edgeworth was full-on scared that someone was going to die today.
"Wait Gumshoe. You said Wright was here... where is he-?"
"I'M OVER HERE!" a voice wailed from the other side of Edgeworth's car. Edgeworth glanced and realized that on the other side of the car on the red flame motorcycle was Phoenix Wright, not-so-perfect frilly prosecutor himself. "THE EXIT IS - RIGHT!" he screamed.
"What?"
"THE EXIT IS TWO - RIGHT!"
"Whaa?" Edgeworth whined. He rolled down the other window.
"THE EXIT NOW WAS TO THE RIGHT! ACTUALLY, WE HAVE TO TURN NOW!" Phoenix screamed through the window.
And surely enough, the exit was getting closer and closer to them.
The exit was on the far right.
And all three of them were on the far left.
Next thing anyone knew, the three men had cut through three lanes, causing cars to swerve and a lot of people to start cussing, and sure enough, the three at least had made it to the exit.
It was fortunate for them that a police officer had seen them or they would have been SCREWED...
"Alright, we're almost there." Phoenix sighed as they slowed down. Adrenaline was still pumping through him and he was pretty jittery, but the three managed to get to the detention center as calmly as people who had just had the form experience could without getting into anymore trouble.
Well, at least until they found out that the detention center had just closed as soon as they arrived.
A/N: I apologize for the length of what was supposed to be the prologue, but I guess I got a bit carried away, so this now officially "Chapter One"... this story HAS no prologue! Oh-kay, it does, but it's pretty small, so deal with it. Anyways, the length was because I had planned this to be a one-shot, but the story started to unwind in my head and I had to keep writing. I forced myself to stop here because it was getting too long for my liking (the first chapter, in my opinion, is supposed to be the shortest... *sigh*).
If I didn't mention it before, I'll mention it now, but this is all just a fanfic created to satisfy my procrastinating habit. So yeah, this is an improvised plot, so I'll work on it when I get bored (but fortunately for people, that happens more than when I want to work on fanfics I want to dedicate myself to, so for some reason, the second update to this WILL come sooner than "Trust" or any other fanfics I need to dedicate myself to).
Oh yeah... I have a little surprise in store for certain people coming up as well (which is one of those "dedication" projects unfortunately) and it has something to do with this fanfic, so stay tuned! XD