(Legal note: The "Ace Attorney" series and all intellectual property within belong to Capcom and Shu Takumi. "Wild Kratts" and its intellectual property belongs to Kratt Brothers Company, Studio 9 Productions, and PBS and all member stations. I will not profit off of this work in any way, and claim ownership over nothing but the words on the page.)


Philosophy podcasts and legal talk-shows have been my go-to driving soundtrack ever since I joined UCLA Law School and the thirty-minute journey to the crime scene, following behind my client's yellow VW Beetle, was no different. Putting on a study of Plato's Republic, I let myself sink into deep thought, allowing the time to pass by without so much as a fleeting glimpse of concentration on just how monotonous this ride really was. There was nothing of note to see besides the forest, which didn't really excite me at all; I always have been a bigger fan of the city than of the "great outdoors."

As the speaker began his discourse on Book III, the drive was finally complete. We were deep inside the vast land of King's Canyon National Park, so of course, I wasn't expecting my gaze to lock onto a giant metal turtle as I exited my vehicle. This ship was MASSIVE, standing well above forty feet tall and a good hundred yards wide; readily enough space to comfortably fit an entire zoo, if ever that daunting of a task would be made necessary by the interests of the situation. The hull appeared to be ingrained with solar panel technology, allowing a floating full research center and dormitory to run entirely on emissions-free alternative energy. This was, without a doubt, some of the greatest technology I had ever laid eyes on.

Aviva walked up beside me and turned to look upon her home. Even she seemed impressed by it, and she lived there. "Amazing, isn't it? I still consider it my greatest creation; a flying research fortress, capable of sustaining the entire Fellowship and its cargo, that is entirely free of carbon emissions. It runs on tellurium crystals super-heated by plasmic water under high pressure, and the entire system is powered by generators powered by sunlight, creating a powerful electric circuit running solely on alternative energy sources."

At this point, I was completely stumped; there was a definite reason I was not a science major. "Outstanding. It's incredible, and it looks like a work of art. I just can't believe that you designed this. To be honest, I would have thought NASA was behind something of this technology and scale," I said, entirely shocked to my core that this massive technological advancement was created and designed by a single person.

"I mean, I wasn't entirely alone," she admitted near-solemnly. "I had the engineering school help me with the dirty work of wiring the over five thousand miles of circuitry throughout the entire ship. But in terms of blueprinting and designing the Tortuga, the credit all goes to moi," she proclaimed, pointing her thumb to herself.

All I could say to this statement was "Wow." For the first time in a long while, I was truly made speechless by one's personal accomplishments as we began our walk into the research airship. As we trekked towards the laboratory, three more people revealed themselves in the gaping entrance: a black woman with a large afro, wearing a red T-shirt and yellow pants; a tall red-head with a baseball cap atop his flowing hair, a Space Invaders t-shirt, and jeans; and a brown-haired man in a green, military-style jacket and khaki shorts.

This last man had a face of stoic anguish, the air of a man who has seen the very depths of hell and beyond. He carried himself with a pained sense of authority, his body appearing to stand almost unwillingly erect. I realized he wanted nothing to do with being in any sort of public eye at the moment, as Aviva introduced me to the rest of her team.

"Phoenix, this is Koki, our communications expert, Jimmy, our pilot, and Chris, our second-in-command and head of biology research." As I called their names and occupations, they raised their hands. Chris, however, stood firm as I called his name, not acknowledging the situation for several seconds. Finally, he nodded in acknowledgment. "Chris is actually Martin's younger brother, and he isn't exactly the sharpest of the bunch; his brain's so shaken up he can barely think straight," Aviva clarified.

I nodded in understanding and looked at them. "Okay, everyone. As you probably know, my name is Phoenix Wright. I will be Martin's defense attorney for his upcoming murder trial. Now, to understand the entire situation, I'm going to have to interview you guys, one at a time. Once I'm done with one, I'll bring in the next, until everyone is done, and I go to the crime scene to examine its situation." They replied to me with nods of agreement. "So, if I may, I need a private spot inside to talk to everyone."

Aviva then looked to me. "I'll take you to the communications room. Follow me." I did as I was told, and everyone walked inside behind me after I walked up the ramp. As soon as I was inside the room, I pulled in my first witness: Chris.

PREVIEWING STATEMENT: CHRIS

Chris sat down, shaking lightly with a weak, yet noticeable thousand-yard-stare. "Martin was with me the entire day. We were out looking for an invasive termite species that is allegedly damaging the sequoia trees in this area; when we found them, we were to formulate a plan to relocate them to another location. However, it turned out there were no termites, so we decided to just go hiking and exploring the beautiful scenery, and camp out for the night under the trees. It was during the night that I heard several gunshots ring out."

Immediately I pressed him on this information. "How could you tell they were gunshots from that distance away?"

Chris seemed zoned out, but came back after a few seconds. "Sir, I was range-certified on pistol and rifle in the United States Army and did a tour in Afghanistan. I know what gunshots sound like."

"Understandable. Continue with your statement."

"Okay. Of course, hearing gunshots, I bolted awake and turned to find my brother still sleeping in his bag. I woke him up and told him what I heard, and we both found another sleeping spot. In the morning, we got up and headed back to the Tortuga, and as soon as we walked in, they put Martin in cuffs. It makes no sense whatsoever."

I nodded, thanked him, and let him go, before bringing in Aviva for her statement.

PREVIEWING STATEMENT: AVIVA

Aviva walked in with a strong sense of confidence, almost as if she knew what she would say already. "The incident occurred two nights ago, in Zach's private jet. I was busy performing nightly repairs and writing some updated code for the suits when I suddenly hear five loud cracks and see a figure run off into the woods. I couldn't tell who they were, and I didn't know what was going on, so I locked down the Tortuga for the night, before continuing with my work. The next morning, I unlock the ship, and suddenly sirens are blaring and cops are walking in, asking for Martin. Well, what do ya know, he shows up and they cuff him up, throw him into the car, and haul him off. It was ridiculous."

"So you saw a figure in the distance? Could you give me ANY physical description of them?" I questioned, slightly suspicious.

"I wish I could give you something, Phoenix, but it was too dark. All I could notice was the motion, really." I could feel something off with this statement, but I obviously would not get her to tell me what she was hiding at this moment. "Besides, the moonlight barely gets to the ground here, with the density of the trees."

"Okay, well that makes some good sense…" I said, not wanting to make it known that I was onto her. She seemed unaware of my deductions, so I was in the clear. There was a pregnant silence after those words, broken by me. "Is that the end of your statement?"

"Yes, it is. I told you everything I could remember."

And with that, she walked out, and the statements continued. Jimmy's statement was very unclear, and it was obvious that he knew nothing I didn't already know about. There were no signs of him hiding anything, and it seemed as though he genuinely had no clue what happened due to him being asleep at the time of the incident. Koki, on the other hand, revealed some interesting information to me regarding what she saw that night.

PREVIEWING STATEMENT: KOKI

"I was up all night checking emails and making sure nothing fishy was happening on any of our radars. Everything was going smoothly until around 2 AM, when I heard what I first thought was somebody hitting something with a hammer really hard. I didn't take much notice until I saw a figure walk out of Zach's jet and into the forest. The figure looked kinda big, but I assumed they were just wearing a heavy coat because of the temperature being so chilly around here. Aviva puts us on lockdown and I keep working for another hour and a half, then go to sleep. Next morning, I'm waking up to police sirens and Martin's getting cuffed up; next thing I know they're driving off with him in the back seat."

Now everything was starting to come together for me. "So about the figure you saw. You were able to notice a description?"

She nodded. "Looked about six feet tall, bigger build, but that could have just been a coat. He was wearing a hood so that hid some stuff, and he had a bag on his side, like a duffle bag."

I nodded as I wrote down the description she gave me. "Okay. Well that's great information to know, and I'm glad you were able to catch that. Thank you for telling me. Anything else?"

"Yeah, actually…" She looked at me. "Zach's jet's been quiet for the last couple days. Usually he's out wreaking havoc in some way but I haven't even heard a sound since two nights ago."

I blinked, slightly dumbfounded. Did she really not know what happened? Swallowing back a sigh, I told her the unfortunate truth. "Well, Koki, that's why I'm here. That sound you heard were most likely gunshots. Zach was murdered two nights ago, and I'm trying to get Martin off the hook for it."

"So that's why they booked him up. Damn, I never would have thought Zach would have ticked someone off to the point of getting whacked for his stupidity. Typically he's just an idiot, not a real-deal douchebag."

"So, what exactly would he do?" I inquired, wanting to get to the bottom of his situation.

"Eh, nothing too crazy. Just try to turn animals into robot power sources, and run around being a bumbling idiot. Nothing murder-worthy at all. Kid was only 22 anyway, and already a multi-million dollar robotics and engineering researcher. He also made bank selling a security and encryption program called Lokitup to the government. Guy was an absolute genius, but a total social outcast."

I vigorously wrote down everything Koki told me. She was the jackpot I was needing this entire time, and she paid out every piece of background info I'd ever need for this case. And plus, I now had a lead, and a description of the culprit, albeit a vague one. Now all that was left for me to do was to investigate the scene of the crime: the matte black jet.

The inside of Zach's private plane was about as lively as a mausoleum in an emo kid's bedroom. The environment was dark and gloomy, and not just due to the murder that had taken place inside of it. The black paint job was not limited to the outside; the walls were black as well, with red carpeting on the floors of the private-converted Boeing 777 jumbo jet. The technology, however, was state-of-the-art: damn near everything on this plane was automated in one way or another, with sensors and computers all over the place, automatic doors in every room, and a voice-activated information center that seemed to combine everything good about the Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana, and Siri into one device, while eliminating all of the bad.

Then, I walked into the office. The crimson blood still stained the sleek vinyl flooring, three bullet holes in the wall and two casings on the floor. The most confusing piece of the puzzle however, was the state of the room: nothing appeared to be tampered with. Nothing looked stolen or damaged. It was as if the killer did some housework before he killed Zach, but accidentally left two of the casings on the ground.

I heard footsteps coming up behind me, and I quickly turned to see Detective Gumshoe. He was wearing gloves and carrying a camera around his neck. "Hey, Nick. You finally showed up, huh?"

"Yep, finally got my BAR back and now I gotta tackle this total brain buster of a case. So help me out here. Two casings, three bullet holes?"

"You got me on that one, boss; I noticed that bit too and had to rethink my entire life. The gun is nowhere to be found either. Makes no sense at all." He scratched his neck, appearing slightly embarrassed to not have the answers to my questions.

"The whole place just looks too...clean, you know? Like, nothing was stolen or even disheveled. The papers on the desk aren't even roughened. It's just too perfect." I kept looking around, possibly hoping that something about the situation of the room would change and make it easier to understand, but being disappointed every time. After this short conversation with Detective Gumshoe, I put on some gloves and began to collect my evidence.

The two bullet casings were placed into an evidence bag, and into my case. Then, I took a glance at the desk where there sat a briefcase. Flicking the two locks up, I cracked open the briefcase to reveal several stacks of unmarked $100 bills. Now I was officially confused: what is this briefcase for, why is it here, and how is it still here after the murder? I began to theorize ab;out the situation of the briefcase. Perhaps it was placed there after the fact, or maybe that's why he was killed. But if that was why he was killed, why is the briefcase still there? Wouldn't the killer just take the case? My head was spinning with thoughts racing at a million miles a minute, as every question I tried to answer just raised more questions.

As soon as all of my evidence was secured, I exited the jet and began the short walk to my car. Soon, I was on the way to the detention center where they were holding my defendant. It was finally time to interview the culprit of the situation. It was time to talk to Martin.


(A/N: This was a long one, I know. Don't expect them to be this long in the future. Well, as always, review with your ideas and evidence, and tell me what you think went down. Hope to see you in the next chapter!)