"You mean they arrested you?"

"Yeah…"

"WITHOUT EVEN INVESTIGATING THE CRIME SCENE?"

"Yeah…"

"Well that's the Royal Knights for you." I said. Hornet rubbed the back of her head.

"Well to be fair Indianapolis, at the time they were the only ones to have the power to be judge and jury when it came to criminal investigations. That is until ALIBI and the courtroom was set up." Myoukou, long since abandoning her shogi game, was leaning across the desk with her head in her hand, staring at Hornet with intrigue as to how the story would progress.

"So, what happened next?"

Enterprise was escorted by Prince of Wales, who for some reason was sporting a black eye, towards one of the cells, before Wales opened the large, barred door with a set of heavy keys and opened it allowing Enterprise to walk in. Inside standing to the side was Valiant who turned towards Enterprise slowly and gave a passing nod, in the middle of the room was a plain grey metal table, and handcuffed to the table on the other side, was Hornet. "SIS! You'vegottohelpmeIdidn'tdoitIminnoc-"

"SIT. Down!" Valiant yelled walking over to Hornet and forcibly pushing her back into her seat. Enterprise walked over to the table and sat down on the chair opposite Hornet.

"What took you so long sis? Didn't you get my message?" Enterprise cocked her eyebrows.

"Well…about that, you do realise who you gave the message to right?" Hornet's eyes grew large.

"Oh no, she didn't?"

Laffey was lying on the floor, hugging her pillow when something knocked into her. "hhhuuuhh…?"

"Uhhhh~ Sorry~" At that moment the door to her room opened and Yorktown peered around the door.

"Is everyone alright in here?"

"Y-Yorktown…~" the little destroyer sniffed as she ran towards the aircraft carrier.

"Oh dear Spence, are you frightened?" Spence gave a teary nod. "Okay then, why don't we-" At that moment Laffey remembered something important that she had to tell Yorktown.

"Hey, Yorktown?"

"Yes Laffey?"

"Queen said she got the culprit."

"…Sorry, what was that Laffey?"

"ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ…"

"Wait a minute Laffey, don't just fall asleep after telling me something like that!"

Hornet looked rather annoyed, but she looked confused after a moment "Wait, if Yorktown got a vague message like that…why are you the one that turned up Enterprise?"

"Well, she has an appointment with Vestal this morning, so she sent me here in her place, they said they were expecting me though."

"You do know what your sister is charged with, right?" Valiant asked.

"Possibly, I mean, she has done it before, so I didn't think she'd get in too much trouble." Everyone stood aghast.

"You mean she does this sort of thing all of the time?" Wales said.

"And you're okay with it?" Valiant continued.

"Well, I mean a small one every now and again isn't too bad, but if she tried to drink Prinz Eugene under the table and got alcohol poisoning then I wouldn't recommend it."

…

"Huh?" Everyone went.

"You do realise what your sister is charged with right?" Valiant asked?

"Umm…excess drinking in a public space?"

"No!" the Royal Knights went.

"She is charged with kidnapping your bird!" Enterprise looked confused.

"Hornet…?"

"Yes!"

"As in…Hornet…?" Enterprise asked again pointing to the shipgirl in question.

"YES!" Enterprise turned towards Hornet in disbelief.

"You know Hornet…If you wanted to take care of them last night, you should have just said."

"WHY DO YOU THINK I'M GUILTY?" Hornet shouted, reaching over as far as the handcuffs would let her, but still being able to grab Enterprise's coat collar, and shaking her rather vigorously. "I KEEP TELLING YOU I'M INNOCENT, ENTERPRISE, I'M-" Valiant once again pushed Hornet back into her seat before saying.

"WOULD YOU BE QUIET? I don't want to add another charge to this list of felonies that you have committed!"

"Wait," Enterprise said turning back towards Valiant "There's more than one?"

"Well," Valiant replied "There is, in chronological order: Breaking and entering, wanton destruction, bird napping, fleeing the scene of a crime, resisting arrest, assaulting an officer of the Royal Knights, disturbing the peace, and slander." Enterprise looked back towards her sister.

"Damn, did you really rack up all of those charges? I'm impressed!"

"This is not something to be impressed about!" Hornet and Wales both yelled.

"Don't worry Hornet, Yorktown said that she'll write you a good character reference!"

"WHY DOES SHE THINK I'M GUILTY?"

"Well, I'm sure that this is all just a misunderstanding, If I can pay her bail and have all charges dropped, that would be good." Valiant shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but kidnapping a pet gets you sentenced to 2 months jail, and with the rest of the charges it'll be a good few years before she'll ever see the sun again."

"Really?"

"Help me sis!"

"Time's up mam."

"Thank you Wales, could you please escort Miss Enterprise out if you would."

"Yes Mam."

"What are you going to do to her?" Enterprise asked with concern, turning back to look at her sister as she stood up from the table.

"We're just going to interrogate her to find out where she's hidden your eagle."

"WHERE DO YOU THINK I'M HIDING THEM? DOWN MY BRA?"

"Don't be so vulgar!" Valiant snapped back. Hornet gave a cheeky smirk.

"Actually, maybe it would be better if you'd hidden them down your bra, at least then you'd have a chest of sorts!" And it was at that point that Enterprise had to escort herself out as Wales was busy holding back an irate and livid Valiant from strangling the prisoner.

Enterprise was walking away from the Jail when she ran into Essex. "Oh, Hey Enterprise, is what they say true? That Hornet kidnapped Nine?" It was at that moment that Enterprise realised how annoyed Hornet would have been with that sentence.

"Well, I mean…she has been arrested on those charges, but she hasn't been charged yet." Enterprise said trying to make it sound better than it was for her sister.

"Why would she do it though?"

"The thing is…I don't think she is guilty. I mean, why would she steal our birds? Sure she can be a bit of a loudmouth but she isn't a practical joker, and besides, we'd be able to find them pretty easily if Hornet had stolen and hidden them."

"Well…you do have a point Hornet…Maybe we can put her on bail?"

"That's not an option here, they're insistent that they have their culprit."

"Couldn't we write a really nice letter, saying that she is a nice person at heart."

"Nope." Essex looked concerned.

"Then what are we going to do?" the two of them stood looking at the ground for a moment with their hands on their chins, before Enterprise gave a smile and pointed to the sky.

"There is only one course of action left, if the queen won't change her mind, then we'll have to force her."

"We're not going to threaten her, are we?"

"…No…? We shall have to get her to overrule these charges, by taking our case to the highest power in the land!"

"…God?"

"Umm…no…, the commander…" Enterprise grabbed Essex by her arm and the two of them ran off towards the command building.

"I understand where you're coming from Enterprise, I really do, but I don't think I'll be of much help to you." The commander was leaning back in his chair, trying to avoid the harsh stare from Enterprise, who was currently leaning over his desk rather precariously.

"But WHY? You can overrule the Royal Knights, right? Can't you give Hornet a pardon?"

"But Enterprise, wouldn't that mean that Hornet was guilty of the crime she was accused of?" Essex asked, standing a few paces behind her senpai.

"Technically, yes." The commander interrupted, answering Enterprise's question "But I can't just give out pardons left, right and centre." He rolled his chair back to avoid the close proximity between his and Enterprise's face. "Especially for something as small as this." He held up his hand before the two aircraft carriers could give a retort. "Yes, I know your eagles are rather special to you, but it would be like if Formidable was arrested for potentially stealing Unicorn's plushie, and Illustrious coming over and asking for a pardon. Pretty soon, every shipgirl will be asking for a pardon for their sisters and/or friends and the limit of what will constitute as a mistermener will gradually increase."

"But Hornet is innocent, surely there is something that you can do for us?" Enterprise asked, by now already kneeling on the desk, the commander thought for a moment before standing from his seat and walking towards his supply cupboard.

"I might have an idea, just let me get a few things."

"Your Majesty, we have a message from the commander that we have to give to you." The queen, who was sitting in her throne on her podium and looking down at the two Eagle Union aircraft carriers just sat there and stared at them.

"Why are you dressed like Herlock Sholmes?" Standing below her were Enterprise and Essex, both of whom were wearing deerstalker hats, with inverness capes replacing their coats with each of them wearing a pair of brown boots, whereas Essex's boots replaced her black boots, Enterprise's black thigh high boots were swapped with brown boots that were calf high in height with a pair of white stockings held by a pair of black suspenders covering her thighs.

"That's what I said~" Essex groaned.

"Oh, don't you know? The commander said that these were thinking caps." Enterprise explained pointing to her deerstalker. "And he also said that we've got to wear the rest of the uniform too, if we were to look right." The queen gave a barely audible snort that she hid behind the back of her hand, turning away from her guests so she wouldn't act inappropriately in front of them on an official visit she muttered.

"(I don't think that's the reason he wanted you to wear it.)"

"Sorry, what was that?" Enterprise asked.

"Oh, nothing~!" The queen replied turning back around to face them "(Bloody pervert!)" The queen extended her hand out towards the aircraft carriers. "Well come on then, give us the message." Enterprise took the sealed envelope from the pocket of her inverness cape and walked up the stairs to the throne where she handed the envelope to the queen before walking back down backwards. The queen casually opened the back of the envelope with an ornate silver letter opener, she plucked the contents from inside and went about reading it, a few seconds later her face scrunched up and she looked back and forth across the piece of paper, as if to make sure that she had read it properly, then with an annoyed squint looked up from over the piece of paper at the two cosplayers. "It says here that you have special permission to investigate the crime scene, correct?"

"That is correct." Replied Enterprise. The piece of paper in Queen Elizabeth's hand started to get scrunched up at the sides, a low growl emanating from the petite queen. "You have 24 hours huh?…Very well, I'll grant you this period of time."

"From tomorrow?" Essex asked.

"FROM NOW!" the Queen shouted throwing the piece of paper at their feet. Enterprise bent down to pick the piece of paper up and stuffed it in her pocket.

"Thank you for being understanding your majesty."

"Just get out!" Queen Elizabeth gritted. The two aircraft carriers did so, almost running into Valiant as she entered the room.

"What was all that about?" she asked.

"That bloody pervert has decided to give those two a free rein at the crime scene. I hope you got that confession out of her?"

"Not yet."

"Then you'd better do it quickly, the sooner we have her confession, the sooner Enterprise will stop trying to prove that her criminal sister is 'innocent' and let us get on with our jobs in a smooth and efficient manner."

"Of course sister." Valiant knelt before the queen bowed her head before standing back up again, but she didn't leave. "…Um…sister…" Elizabeth gave a sigh and slowly dropped her head in her hands. "…why-"

"Don't ask valiant" The queen muttered into her hands, shaking her head "just don't ask."