"I see... You must forgive me for taking up so much of your time with this. I didn't mean for us to talk for this long. My apologies."

"It's alright. I don't mind at all that we were able to discuss all of this. I must apologize for not being able to help you more. I can't imagine how disappointed you must be to realize that I don't know enough to aid you in your search."

"It's okay. We can determine more about this in the future with some research. I look forward to hopefully seeing you again, assuming that you aren't uncomfortable with speaking to me again. I wouldn't want to force you into anything."

"You aren't forcing me into this at all. I'm happy to help you here. I hope that you can find the answers that you're looking for, whatever they are."

"I'll do what I can... If there are any updates, I'll be sure to let you know because of what you did for us. I truly do appreciate it."

"Thank you. Until we meet again."

"You aren't going to get away from all this. There's no way that you can escape."

"I don't understand... I-"

"Hey! Let me out of here! I don't know what I did, but-"

"And with that, we have tied everything together... Do forgive me for what I had to do today, but... A job is a job, and I will do what I must in order to draw out my target. You will not escape me this time... That is something I simply will not allow."

April 12

Morix Law Offices

9:45 AM

Lily Shield

I woke up and headed to the office with a smile on my face. Today was supposed to be a pretty special day as far as I could tell. Mr. Morix and Chrysalis said that they had a surprise prepared for us, but they didn't tell us anything about what that entailed. I found myself incredibly excited to figure out what it was they had up their sleeves, so I dashed to the office with hopes of finding out before everyone else.

They said for us to be there at ten, but I realized that I hadn't gotten there early enough to be the first one to learn the story. Yuri and Victoria had already beaten me there. I was rather surprised to see Yuri there so soon given how she was not the type to show up anywhere on time. She was late nearly everywhere that people needed her, but she had decided to arrive on time this one time. Just my luck.

"I'm surprised that you came here early to see what we had in store for you," Mr. Morix commented, his eyes wide. His expression soon relaxed into a smile. "Deirdre isn't here, but I think I want to go on and tell you about the surprise. I doubt that you'll want to wait much longer anyways." He paused to clear his throat before speaking again. "Well... Let's just say that things are changing a bit around here. We've invited a few new faces to join the agency."

I let out a gasp, my hands flying to my mouth. I had been sure that we weren't going to be welcoming new members to the agency after what happened the year before. The betrayal of Cormous Arme, or, to be more accurate, Marcus Moore, rattled the agency to its core. We weren't sure of what was going to come next when we moved towards the future for the agency, but it was widely assumed that we weren't going to be seeing anyone new join the group.

"Are you serious? I didn't think that anybody new would be coming into our group after what happened with Cormous," Yuri remarked, taking the words right out of my mouth. "You do know what you're doing with this, right? We aren't going to be randomly betrayed by somebody who we thought was reputable but turned out to be a twisted assassin who went missing over a decade ago?"

"We know how to make good decisions, Yuri," Chrysalis commented dryly with a shake of her head. "We said that we weren't going to bring on anybody that we didn't know and trust. We know the people in question, and that's the only reason that they were allowed to come on as part of our team. In fact, some of you are familiar with who we are referring to as well."

Mr. Morix crossed his arms. "If you recall, last year we took on a case that involved a local nature preserve. The defendant and witness were twin lawyers working for another nearby law agency. They have since shifted over to work elsewhere, and we are welcoming them in as part of our team," he replied.

The door opened from behind me, and I turned to see two familiar faces appear in the doorway. A wide grin appeared on my face. "Hey!" I exclaimed.

Felicity and Sky Amaya appeared in the entryway to the room, both of them looking rather excited. Felicity had shameless glee in her eyes while Sky had a nervous glaze over his irises, and he waved nervously when we looked to him.

"Welcome to the group," Mr. Morix said simply, gesturing to the two newcomers. "I know that this probably isn't how you expected to be introduced to everyone, but... I hope that it works well enough for you."

"Hey, everyone!" Felicity exclaimed, a wide smile on her face. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Felicity Amaya. It's a pleasure to finally get to talk to all of you after hearing so many stories about all the exploits the members of this agency have been involved with."

"You've heard about us?" Victoria questioned, her fingers raising to her hair to play with the edges of it. "I didn't realize that we were popular or famous enough to have rumors about us... I don't know if popular or famous would be the words to say either, but... Oh, I'm going to stop talking now. I think you know what I mean."

"Of course!" Felicity exclaimed. "Think about it. You've been involved with a bunch of cases that the legendary Oracle has been wrapped up in. That has to get a lot of people interested, you know?"

"You could certainly say that it's interesting..." Chrysalis whispered, looking away from them with pink in her cheeks. "A lot of people have mentioned that they're curious about this stuff, but... You two are some of the only people that we would actually allow inside. After all, this has caused us problems int he past, and we need to know people involved before we say that it's alright for them to join the agency."

"You mean what happened last year, right?" Sky asked, a small frown on his face. "I remember hearing that a member of your agency turned out to be a dangerous criminal on the run from the authorities... I'm not saying that I blame you or anything. After all, you couldn't have known, and people like that are always good at hiding the truth from the people around them."

"Yeah. We weren't planning on allowing anybody else to join our group, but... Blocker Law fell apart after Ms. Fence died, and since you two were working there and we happened to know you already... We decided that it wouldn't be a terrible idea to allow you to join our ranks. I hope that you enjoy your time here," Mr. Morix said. "Now, we should probably get to official introductions. You do need to know everybody here if you're going to be joining the group."

"My name is Lily Shield, though... I'm sure that you guys already knew that. After all, we met whenever the cast at the nature preserve took place last year. I remember thinking that you guys were both neat, so I'm glad that we'll be able to get to know each other better while working together. It's nice to welcome new faces to the agency. You've got a family in us now, and you had better not forget it!" I explained, shooting them both a thumbs-up and a wide, optimistic grin.

"I remember you now! You're the one that Sky thought was cute!" Felicity chirped.

Sky's face went bright red at those words, and his face seemed to blend in with his hair all of a sudden. "I... I didn't say anything like that! You merely misinterpreted my silence when you asked me what I thought about her!" Sky exclaimed, looking away. He buried his face in his hands a few seconds later, a sigh forcing its way through his lips.

Felicity shook her head, though the grin on her face was still as wide as the horizon itself. "Alright, if you say so... I guess we should leave all that talk for later when we've been properly introduced to everyone already," she said with a shrug. "I don't want embarrassing you to be our shared first impression."

"I'm Yuri! I might look small, but you had best not underestimate me. I have all the chaos in the universe on my side, and I will not hesitate to unleash it on anyone who dares to push me too far," Yuri grinned. She clapped her hands together when Sky stared at her in confusion. "Oh, I'm just joking. I promise I'm not a world-eating monster trapped in the body of a teenager... And even if I was, I wouldn't tell you. That seems like a second year of work kind of secret."

"This is... Certainly going to be an interesting place to work," Sky smiled, a laugh finding its way from his lips. "I don't know what I expected to find here, but it most certainly wasn't this."

"My name is Victoria. It's nice to meet you both," Victoria said, a light smile on her face. She didn't say anything more than that, likely because she was afraid she would find a way to make it awkward. I couldn't blame her in the slightest for being concerned given her tendency to ramble on when she got onto some subjects of conversation.

"Of course, you already know me and Chrysalis," Mr. Morix remarked, placing a gentle hand on his sister's shoulder. That showed how distinct the height difference was between them, and if I wasn't used to it, I knew for sure that it would have shocked me.

"Yeah. You kind of had to know us in order to get this job," Chrysalis remarked, a light smile on her face. I could tell that she was faking it as she did for all new people. It took some time for Chrysalis to show her genuine self to the rest of the world. In fact, it wasn't until recently that she stopped holding back around Victoria, and she had been working with Chrysalis at the agency for over a year.

Felicity laughed. "Yeah, I guess so. I saw you both during the interview process, and then there was that time you defended me from murder charges a while back... Thanks again for that, by the way. I know I wouldn't be here to work at this agency if not for that favor you did me, so thanks," she said brightly.

"No problem," Mr. Morix replied, giving her a light ghost of a a smile.

Yuri pulled her phone from her pocket and pressed a button on it to see what time it was. "You know... It's kind of weird," she commented. "Deirdre still isn't here yet. That's so odd for her. She's normally early for everything, and given that even I got here before I was supposed to, it's weird that she hasn't come yet. I doubt she randomly decided that today would be the perfect day to be on time for something, but... If she didn't make this decision consciously, then what happened?"

"I'm sure she's fine," I smiled. "She wouldn't find herself wrapped up in trouble. You know Deirdre. She might be the most lawful person under this sun when it comes to following the rules. She's definitely the least chaotic member of this agency... No offense, Mr. Morix."

Mr. Morix opened his mouth to respond, but he was cut off when the phone suddenly rang. The sound echoed throughout the room, and a perplexed expression appeared on Felicity and Sky's faces. Chrysalis walked over to where the phone was situated on the counter. "I got it," she declared, picking it up and pressing the device to her ear.

The room fell silent as we waited to figure out what Chrysalis was hearing. A frown was on her face at first, though this quickly disappeared to form an expression of horror. I felt my stomach do backflips within my torso. She couldn't be hearing something too awful, right? This was meant to be a happy time! Please don't rain on our parade, universe!

Chrysalis murmured something into the phone, and she placed the device back in its spot. "Alright... It looks like this little introductory session is going to have to end early. I just got a call from Deirdre, and... Something's happened," she told us, her voice deadly serious and quiet.

"What happened?" Yuri questioned quickly, clearly just as anxious as the rest of us were.

"She's been arrested as a suspect of murder," Chrysalis replied, a frown forming on her features once again. "She's down at the detention center now."

I let out a gasp. "You can't be serous!" I cried. "We have to go and defend her! I don't know what happened, but I'm positive that she didn't do it!"

"Maybe this would be the perfect chance for Felicity and Sky to show us what they're made of," Mr. Morix remarked, though I could tell he was rattled despite how well he outwardly seemed to be keeping his cool. "Lily, you seem really enthusiastic about doing something for Deirdre, so why don't you take them to the detention center? They can meet Deirdre, and then you can head to the crime scene to look for the evidence you'll need in order to defend her when the case goes to court. I assume that will be happening tomorrow."

I looked to the other two, and they didn't show any objections openly. I nodded when they didn't oppose the suggestion. "Alright. Let's go on and do it then!" I exclaimed. I headed for the door, and the other two trailed after me.

I pressed the button for the elevator and waited for it to come up. I didn't know what had happened behind this case, but I was sure that there was an explanation. There was no way Deirdre would kill someone. I was positive of that fact. I just had to figure out who framed her and prove that she was innocent. Hopefully, Felicity and Sky would be able to help me out on that front. This was going to be true test to see how talented they were as defenders of the innocent.

April 12

Detention Center

10:30 AM

Lily Shield

When I walked into the detention center alongside Felicity and Sky, I glanced around to see if I could find any traces of Deirdre. Soon enough, my gaze settled on the other side of the glass, and I realized that she was there waiting for us. A frown appeared on my face as I pulled up a table from against the nearby wall and sat down in it, giving Felicity and Sky the other chairs.

"Hey, Deirdre," I remarked, unsure of what else I was supposed to say. She was clearly upset, though she was trying to hide it behind a light smile. Deirdre had always been pretty good at hiding her emotions, and getting arrested clearly hadn't changed that fact. I just hoped she wasn't going to try and bottle this up to an unhealthy degree. That wouldn't help anyone.

Deirdre looked to Sky and Felicity, her smile fading away until it had been replaced by a frown. "Who are these two?" she asked.

"Remember how Mr. Morix said that he had a surprise for us? Well, the surprise was that we were getting two new coworkers, probably the last ones for a while. Meet Felicity and Sky Amaya. They're going to be joining me on this case, and they'll be part of the agency for here on out. I know it's not ideal, but... You three can introduce yourselves now," I explained.

"I'm Felicity. It's nice to meet you," Felicity said next, placing one hand over her chest as she introduced herself. "I'm sorry that we had to meet under these circumstances, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to get to know each other better after you get out of here. We're going to make sure that you're freed from these false charges as soon as we get the chance to help you out."

"Um... My name is Sky. It's good to meet you," Sky told her a few seconds later. I could tell that he was nervous, and he seemed unable to sit still, constantly shifting in his seat. In a funny way, he reminded me of Victoria. She was always rather anxious when it came to meeting new people, or just talking to others in general. It was part of her charm, and perhaps it was part of his as well.

"Good morning, you two," Deirdre began, a sad smile on her face as she bowed her head. "My name is Deirdre Brigit. I work at Morix Law Offices, as I'm sure you know... Though I'm afraid that I can't exactly do much to work at the moment. I'm a bit preoccupied with another situation, in case you haven't already noticed."

"You were arrested as a suspect for murder, huh?" I asked, leaning forward to place my elbows on the shelf of the detention center visiting window. "What happened? We need all the details."

"I was invited to go and visit a local prosecutor's house last night. Her name is Callie Umber. She said that she had a few questions for me regarding the cases that our agency has been involved with in the past, and I decided to feed her curiosity," Deirdre began to explain. "I was on my way out of the house when I was pushed into a closet, and a chair was pushed up against the handle to keep me from opening. It wasn't until I used brute force to break the chair that I was able to get out, and I smelled blood afterwards. I followed my nose until I realized where it led... Callie Umber had been stabbed to death, and her body was on the ground of the room we met in."

My eyes went wide. "Wow... That's pretty intense," I murmured, unsure of what else to say. The imagery was already quite firm and gory, and I wasn't entirely sure of how I was meant to respond to that.

"What did you two talk about?" Felicity questioned, a frown on her face. "I bet that it was something important if she thought it was a good idea to invite you into her home to discuss it."

"Our agency has been involved with a few cases that had to do with the Oracle of the Law. These are coincidences, to put it simply, but not everybody thinks that it's mere chance that has us wrapped up in these cases. She was wondering if I learned anything about a given subject because of this," Deirdre replied.

"What was this given subject? Don't tell me that she was asking about Oracle again. Mr. Morix and Chrysalis said that they already had somebody ask them about that during the most recent case our agency took on," I remarked, a groan leaving my lips at the mere thought.

"No, it was involved very little with Oracle actually... It was more focused on a person who went missing a while ago," Deirdre answered. "She asked me about Oracle, the fall of Occisor, and the cases we got involved with that had to do with the Emsthorpe crime ring assassins. I didn't have much to say about any of them though."

"Yeah... Occisor fell a few years ago, and the Emsthorpe ring is still a mystery, even if we've uncovered two of its members in the past," I murmured. "I suppose Oracle would be the thing that you know the most about out of those three, but it's still not all that much when you look at the bigger picture."

"She questioned me on if I had come across any information about a given person in my research, but I told her that I didn't know what she was talking about. She wanted to know more about Cade Green," Deirdre said next.

I gasped. "Isn't that the same person that Prosecutor Burke was questioning about during the case that took place a few weeks ago?" I asked.

"As a matter of fact, yes. I don't know why Prosecutor Umber was so curious as to what happened with Cade Green, but she seemed to really want to know the truth. Maybe you could ask some of the people at the crime scene. I'm sure that they've tried to look into something like that already," Deirdre remarked.

"What happened for you to wind up as the suspect of this murder?" Felicity asked. "Lil-Bil seems pretty sure that you didn't commit the crime, but we still want to hear your side of the story from what happened when you were arrested."

"Lil-Bil?" I echoed, feeling my cheeks go pink at the mention of the nickname.

"Felicity nicknames literally everybody. You get used to it after a while," Sky explained. "It's just a matter of time until everybody at the agency winds up with a nickname. We can talk about that more later though. For now, let's move to the subject of the arrest."

"I agree," Deirdre nodded. "I followed the scent of blood to the scene of the crime last night, and that was when I found the body. I was shocked by the sight and went to grab my phone from my pocket, but I was cut off when another person entered the room. I would later learn that this was the victim's daughter."

"You were spotted at the crime scene by the daughter of the victim?" I asked, a frown on my face. "That's certainly not how you want to start explaining the case."

"I would agree completely... The victim's daughter works as a detective, and she arrested me on the spot. Perhaps it was paranoia that led her to such a conclusion, which I can't blame her for... She called the police, and when they arrived, they conducted their investigation and decided that she was right to take me in as the primary suspect. That's how I wound up here. They all decided that I was the most likely culprit behind the case, and there wasn't much that I could say to fight back against their accusations," Deirdre replied.

"It's going to be tough to worm you out of that one, but... Did they see the broken chair from when you were locked in the closet?" Sky questioned. "Surely that would make it seem like you were telling the truth when you said that you didn't commit the crime... It's not like you would break a chair like that on purpose."

"The closet was in a somewhat isolated part of the building. Prosecutor Umber's home is less of a house and more of a manor, to be honest. It's huge, and it wouldn't surprise me if the police missed something when looking the area over," Deirdre replied. "If I had to guess, they didn't believe me, and they didn't bother to follow up on it since they assumed from the start that it would be false. I didn't see any familiar faces when I was brought here, so I don't know for sure if you'll be able to collaborate with the detectives on this case."

"A murder in a manor, huh..." Sky murmured, placing one hand on his chin. "I wonder what this could mean when we get closer to figuring out the truth. Since the area is so big, maybe the culprit used that to their advantage and was able to hide elsewhere to ensure that they weren't caught when the police arrived."

"Whatever they did, they must have left behind some evidence of what happened. There's always proof, and it's our job to figure out what that evidence is," I declared. "Is there anything else that you want us to know about the case, Deirdre? We should probably go and investigate the case to ensure we're ready for the trial."

"I think that might be a good idea too, especially since the trial sounds like it will be taking place tomorrow, as much as I hate to say it," Deidre told us, frowning to herself. "As for anything else that I want you to know... I'm not sure if there's anything particularly notable that you would want to be aware of, but... It would certainly be worth asking the people involved with the case about Cade Green. I'm sure that if you bring up the fact that the victim was interested in learning something about him, the prosecution will want to figure out more about him as well."

"In that case, it seems like we'll have to add that to our to-do list for once we arrive," Felicity remarked with a smile. "We can totally do that. I just wonder what it could mean... But who in the world is this guy in the first place? You two seem to know something about him that I'm not aware of, and I need to be as informed as possible if I'm going to help out on this case."

"Cade Green was a previous head of Interpol. He went missing after he was exposed. Interpol never reveals the identities of its agents, but his true name was revealed to the world, and he went missing soon afterwards," Deirdre began. "Last month, there was a case where some members of our agency were involved with someone who was attacked while trying to learn more about him."

"Nobody knows what happened to him. It's a real mystery... But I don't know why the victim would be so curious about what he was up to all these years. The rest of us are clueless, so why would she think that you of all people might have the answers she was looking for?" I questioned, shaking my head. "I guess that's something else we'll have to look into while we're at it, assuming it's even possible to find the answer in the first place."

"There's no harm in asking about it at the very least. Even if we turn out to be unsuccessful in figuring out the answer, we might as well do some digging to see what we can learn," Sky pointed out. "It wouldn't hurt our case in the slightest."

"It sounds like this case is certainly going to be something interesting," Felicity commented, shaking her head. "We won't know what it contains until we go down to the crime scene to investigate for ourselves though, so perhaps we should get a jump on doing that sooner rather than later."

"I hate to leave you when everything is moving so fast, but I think that Felicity has a point," I remarked with a frown, looking to Deirdre in worry. "I know that you guys have all just met, but... We're going to make sure that this works out well. That much is a promise."

"I trust you," Deirdre assured me with a small yet firm nod. A smile was on her face, but I could tell that she was faking it. "I know that you're short on time as it is, so you don't need to come back here after the investigation is finished. You can tell me all that I might need to know before the trial tomorrow. Until we meet again, I pray that you have good luck in finding out more information."

"We won't let you down!" I chirped, rising to my feet with a grin on my face. "We aren't going to let you be put in jail permanently for a crime that you didn't commit. We'll find a way to figure out who committed this crime, and once we do, we'll make sure that they pay for what they did. That much is a promise!"

"Thank you for all this," Deirdre said gently. "Now, don't stay here. You have a lot to take care of, and I don't want to be the one to distract you from what else you have to take care of."

I waved goodbye to Deirdre as I pushed my chair over against the wall again. When I left, Sky and Felicity trailed after me. I led them outside and let out a sigh. "It looks like your first day of work is going to be rather eventful," I commented, shaking my head. "This always seems to happen at our agency, but... I suppose that it could be worse. Mr. Morix trusts that you guys know what you're doing when it comes to the courtroom, and I believe in him, so... This will turn out well. I trust that you have some idea of what we should be doing next."

"The crime scene needs to be investigated! It's as simple as that," Felicity declared firmly, placing her hands on her hips. "I don't think that fact can be debated in the slightest."

"You act like we would want to debate you on something that important," Sky murmured with a shake of his head. "You've been working at the agency longer, so you know how it works around here. Lead the way. We'll do what you tell us to."

"In that case, let's get right down to business!" I announced. I wasn't going to let this case get me down. After all, I had to be a good role model for my new coworkers, and I refused to fail on such a simple front!

I'm on summer break now fellas aaa

-Digital