Forensics Lab

September 5 2:10 p.m.

The prosecutor walked towards the slide doors. They opened as his presence hithered closer. The labs smelled like a typical hospital, disinfectant and constant filtered air. The look on his face stoic on the call he had gotten on his recent investigations, but had to be interrupted by a sudden incident.

Yet again, another attack. The file in hand, as he walked down the hall of the white tiled floors. Pictures with gruesome scenes of red. "Another one. The same fashion."

Forensics reported that there were no clues at the scene. No prints, no evidence, nothing. Just a crimson bath of what remained. He closed the folder and continued down the hall. He pushed open doors to a corridor of glassed rooms. A person in a lab coat and another with a beige trench coat were standing idle on the left hand room. The magenta suited man finally opened the door and was greeted with a startle.

"Mr. Edgeworth!" The man in the trench coat said with a lumpy voice. He scratched his head and looked in all directions before speaking again. "Nothing else from the scene… Sorry, sir."

Edgeworth sighed, holding the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb. "Is there really nothing left after this travesty again?

"Sorry, nothing sir. The team looked everywhere. I even had detective Skye here investigate the other disappearance." The scruffy man arched forward and his head hanging.

"Two attacks far apart from one another. There is definitely more than one culprit behind this then," the prosecutor asserted his claim.

"It seems that way, Edgeworth. This is ridiculous! I don't know how these guys managed to carry out to clean the scene of evidence… well, besides the blood that is." Ema Skye was writing hastily in her notes trying to figure out some clues by dotting them on paper.

The legendary prosecutor didn't want to admit it, but he was quite aggravated that not a single clue was at either scenes. Many of these attacks happened where it cannot be viewed by security footages or by witness' eyes unless they were the ones to be confronted by the culprits and later eviscerated. All except for one person.

Edgeworth looked over the second file in his hand. He skimmed through it to see the victim in the uncompleted report, "Phoenix Wright."

"Mr. Wright, sir?" The man scratched his head.

"He is the only one to have been attacked in a similar fashion to the reports, but yet, he is still alive and so far the only survivor of such an attack." Edgeworth's finger fiddled with the sheet before turning to the next page.

"He is one tough cookie." Ema stifled.

Edgeworth looked back at the report in his hand. "He called off the investigation in his office. I should've ignored his request. But, his situation was the only one where at least one piece of evidence was left." Edgeworth neatly packed the files back into the file and placed it under his arm.

Edgeworth was managing to keep his posture as he remembered something earlier. "Detective Skye." His arms crossed and fingers tapping his arm, "what was the results of the test I wanted you to conduct?"

"Oh!" Ema jumped. "I had some of the geeks look into it and…" her words slurred to a halt.

"And?" The prosecutor looked at her, still waiting for answer.

She gave an uncomfortable look. "Some of Wright's DNA was found in the substance due to his loss of blood that became contaminated. However, the substance retrieved from some article of his clothing was tested. The results came back quite intriguing. More tests are being conducted as we speak. The substance you found doesn't seem to be of natural origins."

Edgeworth raised a brow, "Natural origins? Elaborate, Detective Skye."

"You know, natural, something that is biological. It couldn't have been formed by the human body. But…" she paused again.

"Detective." Edgeworth slammed his hand on the morgue table. "I must know about the substance in order for me to grasp onto any leads! Now tell me."

She slumped back almost knocking down forensic tools from a small stool, "Sorry, Mr. Edgeworth… I can't!"

Gumshoes tilted his head in confusion. Edgeworth gave her a mean look before starting again, "what do you mean you can't?"

Ema Skye had her head tucked very close to her shoulder, her arms were bent inward to her chest. "Please, Edgeworth. I can't tell you."

Edgeworth was slowly losing patience with the woman, "Detective Ema Skye! Why can you not tell me?

"H-H-e said…" her words were breaking as they left her mouth. "he w-w-would h-hurt me if I said any-thing…" The detective started to shake.

Edgeworth began to feel there was something bigger at work here than he had anticipated. He lifted his hand from the table. His cravat felt tighter for some reason. He never got nervous before. He looked at the cowering detective that descended onto the floor on her knees. Her purse slouched onto the floor. Her hands supported her weight as she leaned forward. Gumshoes knelt down and grabbed her arms, lifting her from the floor. She trembled in his hands.

'Who would threaten Detective Ema Skye?'

Edgeworth calmed his voice to comfort the woman who was shaking in Gumshoe's grip. "Who threatened you?"

A sudden gush of wind passed behind the prosecutor and blew his grey bangs along with his magenta blazer forward. Ema shot her head up to the direction and started to violently back up against the wall, dragging Gumshoe with her. She raised a frantic hand slowly pointing behind Edgeworth. "H-H-HE DID!"

Edgeworth followed the direction of her trembling finger. He rotated and saw a dark man with a flat top hat on his head and a pointed plague doctor mask. His presence reeked of creepy and darkness. The dark eyes of the mask were digging straight at Ema's defenses. She collapsed. The detective managed to catch her limp body as her hair and arms dangled like her purse in his arms.

For the first of a long time, Edgeworth felt a discomfort even though his visage lied, hiding the growing fear within him as the birdman stared at him. Edgeworth darted a quick glance at the man's gloved fingers, holding the same vial he handed to Ema for testing, along with a file in his other hand. There was a grueling silence between the stoic glares of the mask and the visage of Edgeworth. Finally, the silence broken when the birdman finally spoke in a dark and husky tone.

"It was me…"