Title: Busted!
Rating: PG
Synopsis: And so, the legal proceedings begin.
AN: Once again, I must apologize for the long delay. I took a bit of an unannounced break from fanfic in general when I felt I'd exhausted every decent idea I had ... but now I'm back and feeling refreshed, so here goes nothing.
I'm getting kind of tired of describing the legal proceedings, so I may skim over those unless I can think up some cool witness testimony. Ideas are greatly appreciated.
Oh, one more thing. About that question regarding whether this fic is AU since I've broken from the timeline. . . I wouldn't call it AU as much as a "What if?" sort of thing. "What if the Select Corps. DID catch Phantom before the WRC?"
And now, on with the fic!
When we last left Hikaru, he was being taken to his cell, after a meeting with his "fan club", during which he stated that he would allow them to visit him again.
Hikaru was taken to a cell, where he'd be staying until one of the following things occurred:
Firstly, someone could post the x-million yen bail (since he would obviously be seen as a flight risk) and allow him to live at home until the verdict was read. Not likely, since the only one Hikaru knew who could afford it was Dr. Aki, and he couldn't publicly associate himself with an infamous thief...
Secondly, he could stay where he was until he was convicted, and moved to another prison. It was the most likely scenario.
Thirdly, he could stay where he was until he was acquitted. Phantom Renegade, not guilty? HAH. Yeah, right. Not bloody likely.
But anyway... Hikaru and the prison guard stopped in front of a cell. Once he was safely locked inside, he turned to meet his cellmate.
"What!" said the man already in the cell, sitting on the bottom bunk. Of the two projections from one wall that formed a bunk-bed. "I have to live with YOU?" This was Hikaru's cue, of course, to look at him and flash him a mischievous, Phantom-esque smirk.
"Seaslug. How good to see you again." He replied, since that was who the other man was. Great. Whose bright idea was it to put Phantom Renegade in the same cell as a RubberRobo? Was this the only cell free? It couldn't be.... Crime in the city wasn't THAT bad, was it?
And so, Hikaru had a terrible night. On top of the uncomfortable bed and thin sheet, Seaslug had tried his darndest to pick a fight with him, questioning his skills and intelligence to let himself be captured the way he had; what kind of second-rate pickpocket was he?
"So, with all your resources and all your people, eight years after the Days of Darkness, you RubberRobos have yet to conquer a single city, let alone the entire world, and all because of one 'second-rate pickpocket' ?" Hikaru retorted. "Are you people criminals or clowns?" Seaslug didn't retort, but lay silently until he fell asleep.
Having successfully but pointlessly one-upped Seaslug, Hikaru, too, tried to sleep, but had a hard time doing so. It had been less than six hours since his arrest and he already missed Arcbeetle. Besides, Seaslug was snoring. Loudly.
The next morning featured Hikaru's first meeting with his lawyer, one Mr. Tanizaki. He had short brown hair which he slicked back, and was wearing a suit. He looked so put together that Hikaru felt like a total slob sitting across from him in his jeans and a T-shirt. Hikaru was seated across from Tanizaki at a table in a room in the jailhouse that featured the table, two chairs, and not much else.
"Before we start, I'm going to have to ask that you tell me everything." Said Tanizaki once he had introduced himself. "From the very beginning." Although Hikaru realized he'd have to be completely honest with Tanizaki if he was to put up a decent defense, but after being in hiding for the past eight years, he found it difficult to start telling everything to someone who wasn't Dr. Aki or Arcbeetle. Eventually, though, he found his voice and told Tanizaki everything, starting from the day he had met Dr. Aki and received his first medabot through 'the good ol' days' when he was just Japan's most promising young medafighter, traveling around with his two best friends, Joe from the US, and Patra from Egypt. That brought his tale to his first World Robattle Cup and the Ten Days of Darkness. Then came his first few years as a fugitive, becoming Phantom Renegade and Space Medafighter X, and everything he'd done under those names. When he'd finished, Hikaru sat silently and waited for Tanizaki to speak.
"You see, the thing is, Phantom Renegade isn't a thief." Tanizaki said, seemingly unable to break the subject gradually.
"He isn't?" Hikaru replied, caught by surprise.
"Dr. Aki knew that because you had to wear a costume and hide your identity that people would interpret things that way, so he began to gather evidence to the contrary. He can trace all those medals from the Medabot Corporation to the places you took them from." Tanizaki explained. This time yesterday Hikaru would never have imagined that his lawyer would have any other defense than 'better him than the Rubber Robos' . . . now it seemed that they actually had supporting evidence. A tiny spark of hope ignited within Hikaru's spirit.
"No way . . ." he mused quietly.
"Phantom Renegade isn't a thief. He's a retrieval specialist." Tanizaki concluded. "There isn't much else I can do today. I still have a lot of files from The Medabot Corporation to sort through. . . but I'd like to keep this out of the media as much as possible, so don't tell anybody anything, okay?"
Hikaru nodded. "Not a word."
Whoo, at long last another chapter. As previously stated any ideas for witnesses, testimony, meetings with the kids, or even life in general population are greatly appreciated.
Here's hoping next chapter won't take me this long.
Rating: PG
Synopsis: And so, the legal proceedings begin.
AN: Once again, I must apologize for the long delay. I took a bit of an unannounced break from fanfic in general when I felt I'd exhausted every decent idea I had ... but now I'm back and feeling refreshed, so here goes nothing.
I'm getting kind of tired of describing the legal proceedings, so I may skim over those unless I can think up some cool witness testimony. Ideas are greatly appreciated.
Oh, one more thing. About that question regarding whether this fic is AU since I've broken from the timeline. . . I wouldn't call it AU as much as a "What if?" sort of thing. "What if the Select Corps. DID catch Phantom before the WRC?"
And now, on with the fic!
When we last left Hikaru, he was being taken to his cell, after a meeting with his "fan club", during which he stated that he would allow them to visit him again.
Hikaru was taken to a cell, where he'd be staying until one of the following things occurred:
Firstly, someone could post the x-million yen bail (since he would obviously be seen as a flight risk) and allow him to live at home until the verdict was read. Not likely, since the only one Hikaru knew who could afford it was Dr. Aki, and he couldn't publicly associate himself with an infamous thief...
Secondly, he could stay where he was until he was convicted, and moved to another prison. It was the most likely scenario.
Thirdly, he could stay where he was until he was acquitted. Phantom Renegade, not guilty? HAH. Yeah, right. Not bloody likely.
But anyway... Hikaru and the prison guard stopped in front of a cell. Once he was safely locked inside, he turned to meet his cellmate.
"What!" said the man already in the cell, sitting on the bottom bunk. Of the two projections from one wall that formed a bunk-bed. "I have to live with YOU?" This was Hikaru's cue, of course, to look at him and flash him a mischievous, Phantom-esque smirk.
"Seaslug. How good to see you again." He replied, since that was who the other man was. Great. Whose bright idea was it to put Phantom Renegade in the same cell as a RubberRobo? Was this the only cell free? It couldn't be.... Crime in the city wasn't THAT bad, was it?
And so, Hikaru had a terrible night. On top of the uncomfortable bed and thin sheet, Seaslug had tried his darndest to pick a fight with him, questioning his skills and intelligence to let himself be captured the way he had; what kind of second-rate pickpocket was he?
"So, with all your resources and all your people, eight years after the Days of Darkness, you RubberRobos have yet to conquer a single city, let alone the entire world, and all because of one 'second-rate pickpocket' ?" Hikaru retorted. "Are you people criminals or clowns?" Seaslug didn't retort, but lay silently until he fell asleep.
Having successfully but pointlessly one-upped Seaslug, Hikaru, too, tried to sleep, but had a hard time doing so. It had been less than six hours since his arrest and he already missed Arcbeetle. Besides, Seaslug was snoring. Loudly.
The next morning featured Hikaru's first meeting with his lawyer, one Mr. Tanizaki. He had short brown hair which he slicked back, and was wearing a suit. He looked so put together that Hikaru felt like a total slob sitting across from him in his jeans and a T-shirt. Hikaru was seated across from Tanizaki at a table in a room in the jailhouse that featured the table, two chairs, and not much else.
"Before we start, I'm going to have to ask that you tell me everything." Said Tanizaki once he had introduced himself. "From the very beginning." Although Hikaru realized he'd have to be completely honest with Tanizaki if he was to put up a decent defense, but after being in hiding for the past eight years, he found it difficult to start telling everything to someone who wasn't Dr. Aki or Arcbeetle. Eventually, though, he found his voice and told Tanizaki everything, starting from the day he had met Dr. Aki and received his first medabot through 'the good ol' days' when he was just Japan's most promising young medafighter, traveling around with his two best friends, Joe from the US, and Patra from Egypt. That brought his tale to his first World Robattle Cup and the Ten Days of Darkness. Then came his first few years as a fugitive, becoming Phantom Renegade and Space Medafighter X, and everything he'd done under those names. When he'd finished, Hikaru sat silently and waited for Tanizaki to speak.
"You see, the thing is, Phantom Renegade isn't a thief." Tanizaki said, seemingly unable to break the subject gradually.
"He isn't?" Hikaru replied, caught by surprise.
"Dr. Aki knew that because you had to wear a costume and hide your identity that people would interpret things that way, so he began to gather evidence to the contrary. He can trace all those medals from the Medabot Corporation to the places you took them from." Tanizaki explained. This time yesterday Hikaru would never have imagined that his lawyer would have any other defense than 'better him than the Rubber Robos' . . . now it seemed that they actually had supporting evidence. A tiny spark of hope ignited within Hikaru's spirit.
"No way . . ." he mused quietly.
"Phantom Renegade isn't a thief. He's a retrieval specialist." Tanizaki concluded. "There isn't much else I can do today. I still have a lot of files from The Medabot Corporation to sort through. . . but I'd like to keep this out of the media as much as possible, so don't tell anybody anything, okay?"
Hikaru nodded. "Not a word."
Whoo, at long last another chapter. As previously stated any ideas for witnesses, testimony, meetings with the kids, or even life in general population are greatly appreciated.
Here's hoping next chapter won't take me this long.