Ding. "We have now arrived at Easter Island. Please enjoy your stay."
"...Well done, Larry. Look where you've gotten us."
"Hey, man. That's totally unfair. It's not my fault the plane's whacked."
The hatch door swings open on its own, revealing the bright sunlight outside and vast grassy fields. Normally, it would be a welcoming sight to behold after an exhausting hour-and-half trip, but Edgeworth is not having any of this.
"Well then, perhaps you could finally make yourself useful and find that pilot's manual you so carelessly tossed aside?"
"What? Why?"
"You know the answer to that."
Larry groans and grumbles, unlatching himself from this seat, and slips into the pilot's cabin once again.
Edgeworth frees himself from his own to do a little investigation himself. This isn't simply a personal jet; it's a jetliner. Why would those people send him off in one of these? There's plenty of room aboard for several more passengers, but that's not so interesting. There also appears to be more compartment rooms in the back. They can't all just be more seating areas.
He quietly slips into the next room over, taking a few precautions in mind, and stops short upon finding what sort of room it was.
In fact, calling it a "room" wouldn't be quite right... more like a stable. For horses.
And there's a freakin' horse staring back at him. It's a beautiful white thoroughbred, but most curiously, the front tip of its brown mane is shaped in a V. It's also dressed in a red jacket with a blue tie for some odd reason that almost makes it seem cartoony.
How puzzling. Edgeworth feels like he's seen this horse before... No, wait, that's not it; more like he's seen someone who this horse looks like. The similarities are uncanny: red jacket, blue tie, and even V-shaped hair. It looks so cartoonish, it's laughable; only if the very situation he finds himself in wasn't so precarious.
In any case, he's gathered nothing to help him; nothing to explain why there is a horse on this plane. It's not even a snake. At least with the snake, it could be a practical joke those people set up. They would dare.
The horse snorts. It certainly doesn't look happy being here either.
The confusion isn't doing his head any favors, so Edgeworth decides to leave it at that and head back.
Never failing to disappoint him, Larry still has not found the pilot's manual.
"Dude, Edgey! This is horrible! Just horrible! The absolute worst!"
"Indeed."
"What do we do now!? What if we're stranded here for eternity!? What if there are evil bloodthirsty bunnies that attack us and eat us up like we're delicious!?"
"Larry, get a hold of yourself. We've only been here for 5 minutes."
"I-I'm not that delicious, am I!? Th-they won't go for someone as flimsy as this, right!?"
"Larry!"
That seemed to have snapped him out. "Huh?"
"Where was the last you saw of that manual?"
"Um..." He scratches his head, probing it for the answer. "I think it was back at the airport... Aaaah!"
"What? What's wrong?"
"Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no..." He's grasping his head in both hands and pacing around frantically. "Edgey, I remember now! When I tossed it, I tossed it outside the cockpit! We must've left it back at the airport somewhere!"
"You what!?"
"I'm so sorryyyyy!" he breaks into tears, "I-I didn't know things would end up like this! Waaaaah!"
Edgeworth smacks himself on the head, hoping the pain would snap him out of his quickly numbing state. It seems to work, but that headache isn't going away.
"Stop crying! There's a way out of this!"
"H-huh? Th-there is?"
"Easter Island isn't uninhabited; it's gathered a small population of citizens, largely thanks to the tourism it gets. We may be able to find a pilot in town somewhere and ask them to help us."
"...Oh, yeah." Larry snaps back to his usual self again. "Man, why didn't I think of that? It was so obvious."
Edgeworth finally takes a step off the plane and takes a look around. It's not just any grassy field they've landed in, there are the infamous stone heads nearby, within a walking distance of around 15 minutes away. That suggests the road leading to the closest city shouldn't be too far off either.
And now Larry hops off for a peek. As soon as he does, though, the plane's announcer provides them a very enlightening hint:
"On this island, your objective is simple: Locate and release a monkey spirit trapped under one of these great stone heads. Once he has been freed and comes aboard, we will be ready to take off for the next destination."
Edgeworth swings back around to stare at the plane. "...You have got to be kidding me."
Larry tilts his head. "What the? It was that easy? All we need to do is find some monkey?"
"No, it clearly spoke of a 'monkey spirit'."
"...You mean it's dead? An ex-monkey?"
"No, that is not what I meant. It might not be a monkey at all."
"It's not a monkey? Then what is it? Better not be some weird lemur-thing. I always confuse it with raccoons..."
"I would suspect it refers to a person. If this person is somewhere within the crowd by those stone heads, we should be able to solve this riddle."
"Wait, we're gonna look for someone? In that crowd? Come on, Edgey, be reasonable."
"You're one to talk. You have a better plan?"
"Uh... no. But how are we supposed to find this guy? Or girl? I really hope it's a cute girl. Then this trip wouldn't be a total waste..."
Edgeworth starts walking without him, prompting him to hurry after.
"H-hey, Edgey! Where're we going?"
"To investigate that crowd, of course. It looks like they're surrounding one head in particular. I wonder what the fuss is all about..."
The crowd in question is buzzing with noise of multiple languages and the sounds of pictures being taken. At the center of the group is a woman, probably the tour guide, who's crouched down and speaking with someone else.
"Excuse me, sir. Are you alright? How did you get here?"
"I... I don't know. And I can't feel my legs..."
"That's understandable. You look like you're being crushed underneath. Are you in pain?"
"N-no... not really."
"Not really? Even though you're being crushed here?"
"Yeah, it's odd... I feel more like I've been lying here asleep for a while..."
"...That's a strange place to sleep. I've never seen any animal crawl underneath one of these stone heads, needless to say, a person."
"Yeah, like I said, I don't know how I got here..."
As this unfortunate fellow is further questioned, Edgeworth and Larry slip through and into view. They gasp upon finding just who it is at the center of this commotion.
"Wright!?"
"Dude, Nick! What are you doing here!?"
"Edgeworth! Larry? And that's what I want to know! What are you guys doing here!?"
The tour guide passes looks between them. "You three know each other?"
"We're good friends, actually!" Larry answers, zipping to her side in an instant. "By the way, miss, I didn't catch your name..."
Edgeworth pays them no heed as he approaches the guy under a rock. "How on earth did you end up like this?"
"Ask those people who said they worked for Capcom. One moment, I'm in my office talking on the phone with them, and the next, I'm knocked out somehow. Then, I wake up to find myself here. I'm not sure how I'm still alive like this..."
Unbelievable... in every sense. Still, Wright wouldn't lie in this situation. He'd have no reason to. In any case, there's still one big problem.
"...Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to move you from out of there. At the very least, we'll need to hire an excavation team, but it's questionable if they could dig you out of there without disturbing the stone's position..."
"Actually, there's a better way... or so those people told me."
"Hm?"
"'When you hear someone in particular say the words, "Monkey King", you will be able to escape this prison.' Can you believe it? They acknowledge that it's a prison."
Edgeworth takes a moment to ponder over it. "...'Monkey King'? Just what does that have to do with anything?"
At that moment, Phoenix experiences a strange change. The weight of the stone suddenly feels a lot lighter, as if he could easily shrug it off now. Before he tries, though, it might be a bit dangerous if he moves now. There are too many people nearby.
"...Hey, Edgeworth."
"What?"
"Could you tell these people to move back? I'm gonna try shoving this rock off me."
"W-what are you talking about, Wright? This isn't the time for jokes."
"No, really! Just trust me on this!"
"...Have you gone mad? How are you going to move it? These heads each weigh more than 13 tons!"
"I know it sounds ridiculous, okay? I just... I feel like I can move it now."
Edgeworth has just about had it with this nonsense. "And why is that? Because I said some magical incantation? Stop fantasizing, Wright! You're only making yourself look insane!"
"Look, Edgeworth, I know you won't believe me, but can you please just tell everyone to step back? Even if I'm totally wrong, someone has to go call for help, right? No one's going to help by standing around here!"
He sighs, in a mix of exasperation and a bit of relief. So he hasn't completely snapped, but he still isn't making any sense. "Fine."
Edgeworth drags Larry apart from the woman and tells everyone to step back. There's a round of confused looks and questions from some, but the curiosity of the whole wins the day. Everyone steps a few feet back.
"That's not enough! Move farther!" Phoenix calls.
They inch back several more feet. When Phoenix beckons them more, they follow suit until they're back on the side of the road.
Finally. Phoenix takes a deep breath, and pushes himself off the ground. In any amazing feat unbeknownst to man since long ago (or something like that) he manages to lift the stone from its place, a couple feet off the ground. Within seconds, he rises to his feet, still tilting the giant stone back. When he finds it's pushed it up enough, he makes a lunge for freedom, landing into a roll. The stone falls back in place with a loud, echoing thump.
Never mind the shocked looks on everyone else at the feat; Phoenix himself can't believe what just happened. He feels so... powerful, like those moments in court when he's managed to make a huge turnabout in the tides. It's so refreshing.
And then, some kid in the crowd points at him and says, "Look! He's got a tail!"
He glances down behind him and that refreshing feeling vanishes without a trace. He really does have a tail covered in black fur, with an oddly spiky tail end, like a human-sized monkey. He's a freakin' monkey.
And then Phoenix does the one thing that he thought he'd never do: run away screaming like a yellow-bellied chicken. Or, in this case, screeching like an angry ape.
Edgeworth and Larry watch him run off, and then remember that they need to get the guy back on the plane. Edgeworth thanks everyone for their cooperation, and the two of them hurry after the poor sap.
The three exhausted travelers finally make it back to the plane safely and collapse into the seats. It took those guys the next hour or two to find Phoenix and drag him out of hiding, and when they did, he was a sobbing mess. After an exchange of words about how it's not that bad and only TEMPORARY, they managed to convince him to join them on their journey.
Now that all three have returned, the plane seals the exit behind them and "happily" announces that it will be taking off once more. And so it does, without further complaints from its passengers.
