"So, tell me again, who's idea was it to follow the two people we'd met 30 minutes ago?" Valkyrie drawled as she slouched against the cobbled prison cell wall, with her hands shackled in front of her.
The skeleton's shoulders sagged again, and he sighed. "How was I to know that their intention was to swarm us with guards?" Replied the Skeleton as he stood up, leaning against the wall.
"I wouldn't say 'swarm', there were four of them." She muttered in a reply as she clicked her fingers, summoning a small flame that flickered in the palm of her hand, like a firefly. She devoted her interest to it instead of the egoistic skeleton standing in the other corner.
"We were caught off guard." Argued Skulduggery, with his arms folded.
"They caught you off guard."
"Says the person who had her head slammed against a wall."
She snapped her palm shut, extinguishing the flame. A scowl painting across her features. "They still beat us." She sulked.
"To be fair it was 4 Vs 2." Protested Skulduggery, fiercely protecting his reputation from be tarnished by the incident.
"Yeah, And Fletcher kept on getting in my way." She agreed with a shrug, glancing over at the Teleporter who suddenly snapped out of his daydream and plastered an offended look on his face.
"I was escaping!" He insisted, sitting bolt upright in the bed in the centre of the room.
"Fletcher you were on the floor." She told him with a raised brow, and a sceptical look on her face.
"Yeah. Escaping." Sulked the embarrassed Teleporter.
"Wait, Skul, if we have our magic, why aren't we escaping now?" Valkyrie suddenly realised, and clambered to her feet.
"Ah!" Life flittered back into the skeleton, "Well, I'm trying to make a good first impression by not knocking out or hospitalising half of their much needed staff."
"Yeah, right." She scoffed, "You couldn't even take on four of them."
The skeleton said nothing, but tilted his skull at her. A moment passed.
"You didn't." She said with a small gasp.
"I did."
"You are more of an idiot than Fletcher."
"Yay!" Fletcher celebrated. Before receiving glares from Skulduggery and Valkyrie and shutting up completely.
"How do you know they'll even come back for us?" Asked Valkyrie with her arms folded.
"Then we'll initiate plan B, knock out and hospitalise most of there much needed staff."
"Oh my god." She face palmed. "I'm stuck in a cell with bloody idiots."
"Hmmm... Valkyrie, we all know that there's only one idiot in this prison cell." He silenced the two teenagers for a moment. "And that's Fletcher." He continued.
"Finally something we agree on." Muttered the teenage girl as she swept back her dark hair from her shoulders.
"I hate you both." Fletcher said and began to sulk.
Of course, he was ignored.
"So, skull, when did you come up with this plan?" Valkyrie asked, steering the conversation back to the main topic.
"About... 7 minutes ago? Yeah, 7 minutes ago..." He confessed. Brushing a speck of dust off of his well tailored suit.
"Oh my god."
Suddenly there was the sound of echoing footsteps, that got louder as the person stepped down the stairs. Skulduggery put a tattered gloved finger to his slightly crooked teeth and the teenager stiffly nodded her head once, slowly, she slid down the wall into a sitting postion. Fletcher of course didn't get the message and looked around, confused.
"Uh, Guys? What- What are you doing-" Fletcher asked but shut up when a figure stepped into view.
Valkyrie looked up. It was that Hange person, was that right? Valkyrie shrugged, she didn't really care. "Hi again, remember me?" Hange greeted with too much enthusiasm, "I'm here to tell you that it's finally your chance to get out of here! Sorry about the wait. I'm gonna have to shackle your hands behind your back though, is that okay?" Valkyrie rolled her eyes, and got to her feet as Hange dragged open the heavy doors.
She allowed the guards to re-shackle her hands and walked along beside them as Hange prattled on about the Scout Regimemt and how great they were. When she got to the point where she was about to smash Hange's face in, they stopped I front of two big wooden doors.
"Oh look, we're here, already. Seems I've been prattling on with the small talk." Hange gave an overexagerated sigh. "I think it's best if I don't tell you what's happening."
"Wha-" began Fletcher as they were shoved through the doors by two guards with unicorns on their backs carrying what looked like a musket.
Valkyrie stepped into a court lit by the bright light that shone through the windows. On one side, there were what looked like 'peasants' and merchants bustled together and on the other were Scouts who stood completely still, each had a passive look across their features.
They were led towards the centre of the room, where there was a platform slightly raised above the ground by a few inches. They were shoved to their knees. There was the screech of metal and Valkyrie realised that there was no way she could escape, since she was attached to the court room floor.
A few gasps and muffled whispers filled the room as each and every person laid eyes on Skulduggery, who, if he had his hands free, would've tipped his hat as a greeting. Finally the Judge smashed the hammer onto his desk and a silence wafted across the room.
"Your names are Valkyrie Cain, Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain, correct?" The Judge spoke. And a few moments passed before Valkyrie realised that one of them had to answer.
"Yup." She replied, popping the 'p' and receiving a few looks from the people who stood staring at her.
"According to this you have, shall we say, 'Abnormal' Powers?" The Judge continued, and Valkyrie couldn't tell wether it was a statement or a question.
"It's called magic." Corrected Skulduggery. Instantly drawing all the attention to himself.
"Right, 'magic'." The Judge repeated, "You were found today in Wall Maria on a Scout Expedition."
"Yes." Skulduggery answered, and Valkyrie decided that he should do all the talking from now on.
"How long did you say you were surviving for?" Asked the Judge.
"To total of three whole minutes." Skulduggery smugly replied.
"You also said when you were being interrogated that you were from, 'Another Dimension' so to speak of." The Judge said. And Valkyrie fidgeted, her legs aching from crouching in such an awkward position.
"I did." Nodded the skeleton almost to himself. Ignoring the gasps of disbelief that echoed around the room.
"And how did you get here?"
"That." Replied the skeleton, nodding his head towards Fletcher, a movement that caused his hat to tilt to a different angle. But somehow, he still managed to look as cool and collected as always.
"Mr Renn?"
"Yes, that."
The Judge continued after a second of disbelief. "And how did Mr Renn get you here?"
"Teleported."
This answer ushered loud murmurs and whispers amongst the occupants of the court room. The loud echoing sound if the hammer stopped all of this before it began though. "Order." Commanded the Judge, and then continued, "Yes, you said that Mr Renn could teleport. Something that could be proven useful to the scout regiment." Fletcher beamed with pride, causing Valkyrie to roll her eyes. "Miss Cain also said that she can use Necromancy, which is 'Death Magic'." Valkyrie' snood plummeted, her use of Necromancy was something that caught the eye of everyone in a bad way.
Suddenly someone clad in the unicorn logo shouted "If I may, I object to the use of this so called Death Magic inside the Walls." This caused an uproar in the court room. He looked over at the Judge. Who nodded and said.
"Continue." Only prompting on his argument, much to Valkyrie's dismay.
"I believe that the mere existence of someone who has the use of Death Magic or any other 'Abnormal' abilities at their command are a threat to society and the balance of the walls and should be disposed of immediately. We already have one problem, Jeager, and handling these people with Abnormal powers would prove too much for any Soldier, and we don't know anything about their abilities or the limits. That is all." The Unicorn person stepped back slightly and resumed his normal expressionless gaze.
"And now the Scout Regiments argument." The Judge prompted.
Erwin nodded. "I believe that along with Jeager, and these three at our command we can take back Wall Maria easily and cut down the number of casualties in the process of doing so. And If this fails, Renn has a symbol on his palm that allows him to Teleport back to his home dimension, if we study the symbol we could figure out how to fix it and send everyone to a safe dimension without Titans, although, it would take a longer time to out this plan into action." Erwin stepped back and the Judge nodded, finally ready to make the conclusion of the debate.
Valkyrie bit her lip and shut her eyes. Already fearing the conclusion...