DISCLAIMER: Phoenix Wright/Gyakuten Saiban is the property of Capcom. This is a non-profit tribute to the games we've come to love.
A/N: This chapter was such a pain to revise, in spite of its unlengthy length! I blame it on the further fleshing out I had to do for Ned Munny's character in this scene. He's the second ofonly two OCs in this novella/fic (the other being his wife), and he –I believe- represents that stylistic change I've been flirting with in this story.
There's really no "gimmick" about him, other than he's just some random guy with a heap of trouble in his lap, but I'm interested in what will happen to him once he develops a little more.
Also, Apollo curses some more this time, hopefully in a way that won't strike you good and trusty readers as tacky! The last thing I want is to make this story "darker" and mature by turning a character into a potty mouth just because.
Please review and enjoy. I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
This ain't no place for no hero,
This ain't no place for no better man.
This ain't no place for no hero
to call home.
No Place For A Hero
Chapter 7 – Everybody Loves (Ned) Munny
May 5th, 10:18 AM
Detention Center
Visitor's Room B
If you could summarize the life of a defense attorney working in the big city, you could choose the word "turnabout" and wind up with a pretty accurate description. However, there was no shame in admitting another key word would be "roundabout". An attorney himself would be the first to tell you that you're right; at least, that's the way one spiky-haired attorney felt when he thought of his constant trips across town.
He wasn't one to complain. In fact, he was grateful to be able to make a living like this, under the tutelage of the man he had come to admire for years, but that didn't erase the fact that he had come full circle in his trip in no less than an hour. Now he had come back at the detention center, ready to meet his client.
Phoenix had just left the detention center, or that's what Trucy had gathered after asking one of the more lenient, cooperative guards coming and going around the premises. When she came back to give her report, Apollo was no longer in the waiting hall. The magician hurried into the visitor's room, guessing her partner had already been admitted.
Her hunch was correct. Apollo was already speaking with the client, keeping his court record and a pen handy. An empty seat for Trucy waited besides his.
"-ooh! Welcome back." Apollo turned briefly towards his assistant. He introduced her to his client with a motion of his arm. "Mr. Munny, this is Trucy Wright. Don't let the looks fool you. She's my assistant, and she's pretty good at it."
Trucy did a short curtsy and tilted her silk hat by the brim.
Ned Munny himself wasn't much to write home about. He wore his brown hair short and his security uniform sharp and up to standard, but if you put him next to all the weird and kooky characters the attorney-magician duo had come across, he hardly stood out. He was no more a unique man than the guy living next door, a person who rather than failing to shine simply didn't care to. Still, the look of desperation and loneliness in his eyes matched those of every client the young attorney had represented up to that point. Fear was, after all, a universal code.
Ned answered the greeting with a bow of his own, although it became easy to tell from his frown that he had his reservations about Trucy.
"Uhm… yeah, sweet. I don't know, honey." he tried to point, but somehow didn't go through the full range of motion, as if he was struggling with himself not to be rude. "Is that getup necessary? This whole magician thing."
Trucy wasn't too happy about the comment, but she had heard worst. Thus she comically pretended to be offended, crossing her arms and huffing. She had learned how to roll with the punches better than anyone a long, long time ago.
"Pfft. Look at this guy, so totally out of the loop!" she smiled now. "I'm a magician, the one and only inheritor of Troupe Gramarye's legacy! Right now I only do local shows though, because of school. But that means you can come see me at the Wunder Bar when we get you declared innocent. Deal?"
Ned smirked, catching some of Trucy's enthusiasm. "Yeah. Deal."
Troupe Gramarye had been a touchy subject in Trucy's life for a very long time, due to the circumstances that led to the tragic end of its first generation. Only a short year ago, her adoptive father and her –still unbeknownst to her- big brother had done a magnificent job at purging the Troupe from the darkness that had consumed it so. Now the topic of her proud heritage couldn't bring anything but smiles to her, particularly since her biological father Zak Gramarye had relinquished the performance rights of Magnifi Gramarye's magic to her. It was his final gift to her before departing from this world to the next.
Apollo smiled and reminded Trucy of the seat next to him. "Sounds like a plan, but let's talk business first." he faced Ned. "I've come here on behalf of your wife. She asked me to take your case, and I'm very much willing to do that. I've got all the papers ready here to make my representation of you official. If you'd like to go over them I can just-"
"Hold on."
Apollo quirked an eyebrow. He was a freight train screeching to a halt.
"Yes?"
Ned placed a hand over his face and then ran it over his hair. He refused to make eye contact with Apollo at all when he said the following words:
"I appreciate you comin' all the way down here but… I think someone's already taken my case."
"Excuse me?" asked a startled Apollo. "No offense meant, but I believe you're wrong. I have your information in the court record right here, and the defense attorney field for your file is still blank."
This was strange, but the attorney acted in good faith and avoided making any assumptions just yet.
"Who was supposed to take your case that your wife apparently didn't know about?" he asked.
"Someone from my insurance company, from the agency…" Ned replied, showing evident signs of being nervous. "Look, I don't know for sure, alright?"
Trucy shot a suspicious glance at Apollo, a glance of which he took immediate notice. Was Ned Munny nervous? Was he scared? There was no way to know, but there wasn't any time to play twenty questions either. The two young defenders had come here to act.
"Are you waiting for the state to appoint you an attorney?" Apollo tried to look the elusive Ned in the eye. "It's part of your rights, but I wouldn't advise it. It's not because I want your money, so please don't think of this as a sales pitch, Mr. Munny." he scratched at the bridge of his nose and continued. "If you wait any longer, it's only hurting your chances of having a fair fight in court. That's because the longer you wait, the slimmer the chances will be for whoever's representing you to study the case and take in the facts properly. I'm sure you can piece it together from there, seeing that you're the one who has the most to lose in the trial."
Trucy leaned forward to whisper to Apollo.
"That's funny, tho. I remember hearing stories about Dad taking cases at the last possible second, and winning them!"
Apollo quickly jabbed his knee onto Trucy's thigh.
"Ow! What'd you do that for?"
Apollo looked at her with a panicked face. "I'm not your dad, Trucy!"
Ned meanwhile continued plunging into his own thoughts, considering Apollo's words and wearing a face that was like a mask made out of pure misery. He chewed on his lip, sighed and nodded with the resignation of a man who's consenting to have his hand cut off.
"Okay. Okay. Please represent me. Take the damn case."
Then the suspect pushed back his chair –or more like kicked it-, stood up and pressed both his palms against the window dividing the room. The sound of the metal legs of the chair scraping against the floor startled Apollo and Trucy, but looking at the expression on Ned's face was gut-wrenching. The impact of his words became more ample.
"BUT YOU'VE GOT TO GET ME OUTTA HERE! PLEASE!"
Trucy choked a little from the surprise. Apollo on the other hand attempted to calm his frightened client down; the only thing that kept his voice from breaking was the grip his partner had around his arm.
"Relax, Mr. Munny! You're not helping yourself at all this way!"
"NO! You don't understand!"
Out of the corner of his eye, the attorney saw the guard on the other side of the room as he turned to face them. If a suspect got out of hand or caused too much trouble, it was his job to take action, immobilize them and take them back to their cell, or even solitary depending on the circumstances.
Apollo realized he was working against the clock now, but Ned had started bawling at this point, beating on the window with clenched, solid fists.
The guard finally stirred from his statue-like composure and began approaching Ned.
"Alright. Visit's over." he bellowed as he approached.
"Ohcrap." Trucy winced and held her hands against her face.
"Shit." Apollo clenched his teeth and stood up as well. "Calm down, Mr. Munny! You've got to calm down for me! Please! If you don't get your act together and tell me your side of the story, there's no way I can defend you properly in court!"
It was then that the pendulum swung back. Ned Munny bared his teeth and pressed his face as close as he could to the glass, to the point Apollo's eyes began to water. Ned had every typical feature of a man that had gone berserk, expressing his fears in sheer, bottled-up fury.
"No one can defend me from them, anyway. Just give up." he snarled.
The guard struggled briefly with the suspect before finally putting his hands behind his back and cuffing him. He grabbed a handful of Ned's collar and pulled him back up like a man literally getting ready to take out the trash. Meanwhile, two more guards entered the room, one from the visitor's side and another from the suspect's side. The first assisted in the effort of controlling the man and returning him to his cell; the second calmly waited to lead Apollo and Trucy out to the hall.
They had no intentions to leave yet. All they could do is keep a blank stare on the now empty other side of the room.
Trucy giggled nervously, taking her hat off.
"T-that…" she took a deep breath. "That was pretty intense. Yup."
"And useless." Apollo added sardonically as he slumped back on his chair, arms hanging by his sides. "I couldn't get anything out of him! It's kind of hard to read someone when you're being a wreck, yourself."
He was right. The shock of the moment had sent his ability to perceive into overdrive, leaving him with a slight headache.
"At least you convinced him to let you take his case. Highlight the positives and hide the negatives!" Trucy put her hat back on and grinned. "That's the mark of a pro who's familiar with the big stage. You know, like moi."
Apollo smirked. "Then why haven't you gotten rid of that weird magic panties act?"
"What?" Trucy scoffed and crossed her arms in disapproval. "You're just jealous because you never get to see what's in my panties! But now that you mention my act, you should come see my show more often."
The attorney snorted and held his hands behind his head. "And you do have a show tonight, huh? I guess Mr. Wright and I might have dinner at the Wunder Bar. Remind me to call him about it."
"Super!" Trucy struck her best magician pose. "I'll do my best then!"
Apollo nodded again and smiled in encouragement. Then he reached out to the table set in front of him and began to pack all of his documents and things into a red leather satchel he carried.
"But onto other things," he said, stopping to skim over the pages of the case file he had requested downstairs, the victim's data in particular. "I guess the only way to go now is to visit the murder site and look for clues. Once we comb the place, we can come back and try talking to Mr. Munny, if he's calmed down by then. Ready?"
Trucy stood up and rolled her shoulders to take away any remaining tension from the episode they had just witnessed.
"Ready! Plus, it's not like I will be hitting the pedals."
"Why not?"
Trucy blew a raspberry at Apollo. "Because it's going to get my white boots dirty, silly."
Apollo groaned. "We're so getting a motorcycle. I don't care if Gavin already has one." he lamented as he looked over and memorized the crime scene address, the place where Ned Munny had allegedly murdered one Viola Cadaverini. It was her loan office, the notorious Tender Lender.
Them? Viola Cadaverini? What?
The plot thickens…
Next chapter: The secret meeting between Phoenix and Edgeworth!
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