September 15th, 10:03 AM

Phoenix lounged on a beach chair on Emerald Coast, in wraparound sunglasses, khaki shorts, and a bright blue Hawaiian shirt. The summer sunshine shimmered on the white sand and the sparkling ocean waves. A light breeze tickled the leaves of the scattered palm trees. Further down the beach was Athena in her bright canary swimsuit, just re-emerging from the water.

This was the life. Day five of the vacation, and absolutely nothing bad had happened. He'd been worried, but for once he had gone somewhere to relax, and he was actually doing it. Absolutely no way, no where, no how, no when was this going to be ruined.

His phone went off in his pocket. He sucked in a breath, and warily looked at the caller ID.

Instead of a cruel irony, it was Trucy. He lit up and hurriedly flipped it open to answer.

"Hello," he said, "you've reached the cellphone of Phoenix Wright, dad extraordinaire?"

He was rewarded with laughter on the other end. "Hi, daddy! Nothing's happened, I just wanted to know how you were doing!"

And she wasn't calling because of a horrible tragedy! Today was magical. "I'm doing great." Phoenix said warmly to the phone. "How did yesterday's show go?

"Oh, it was fantastic! A packed house! When I sawed Larry in half, we had people standing in the aisles!"

"Good job, sweetie!" He was always happy to hear about Trucy's continued success. She was his little girl! That, and it meant that the agency wouldn't be in the red for the month. "I knew you'd do well. Everybody on the planet loves your magic tricks."

"Of course! Do you think aliens would? I don't know if they have magicians on other planets."

For a moment, Phoenix found himself seriously contemplating the existence of magic aliens. Maybe Max Galactica, that one time… "Huh… Maybe?"

"Anyways, I wish I could have come with you, but the show had to go on! Bring me back a souvenir, daddy?"

"Of course I will, sweetie."

"GET BACK DOWN HERE, YOU STUPID MONKEY!"

"What was that?"

Phoenix glanced up to see. "Oh," he said, less surprised than he maybe should have been, "Athena is yelling at a monkey."

Trucy took this in stride. "What did he do? Yoink her suit jacket? It's so yellow, it's like a banana."

"You're close. It's got Widget."

Athena was hopping mad, literally, scrabbling at a palm tree trying to get at the monkey leering at her from the top. Her necklace dangled as a taunt in its hand. "I WILL PUNCH YOU IN YOUR DUMB MONKEY FACE!" Her jumps punctuated her shouting. "ONCE! I! CAN! REACH!"

"She is so mad!" chirped Widget, its small roundness bobbing up and down in the monkey's grasp.

"YEAH I AM!"

Phoenix watched this scene play out. "I might need to go help her." He said casually. "I'll call you later, okay, Trucy?"

"Aww, okay. See you later! Don't forget my souvenir!"

"I won't! Bye bye, Trucy."

"Bye bye!"

Phoenix let her hang up before closing the phone. He tried to stand up…

...a little too fast. "Ow. Ow." He winced, doubling over. "My back. Ow."

"Oh, um, sir?" A young boy's voice spoke. "Do you need help?"

"Ow... Um, thanks, but I think the pain's going away now..."

Phoenix looked up for the good samaritan, naturally expecting to see a human being.

A bright yellow plush toy was staring back at him. It was pretty big for a toy, three feet tall and able to stand. It looked like some kind of fox, with two tails. Was this a cartoon character he didn't know about? It didn't look like someone from Steel Samurai…

The fox smiled. "Oh, that's good."

And it talks! Phoenix raised his kinked brows. That was a really complex mouth mechanism. Trucy had liked talking toys when she was little, though hers had been much simpler. Her favorite part had been making them disappear once she wanted them to shut up.

Was there a really small child making it move around? He leaned to the left, trying to peer behind it. He didn't see anyone...maybe some kid had left it here and run off?

The toy blinked, and frowned. "Hello? Sir?"

Phoenix reached and tugged on one of its ears. How soft! Must have been expensive-

"Ow!" It jerked away, and cupped its sore ear with one hand. "Watch it, mister!"

"WAUGH!" Phoenix flailed in his seat, scrambling backwards, his sunglasses falling off his face. "Y-YOU'RE ALIVE?!"

"Ah!" The fox jumped. "Um, yeah?" He regained his composure. "Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

Phoenix stared at him. A living, breathing cartoon animal. "Uh…" He managed a feeble reply. "R-Right, of course…"

"DAMN DIRTY APE!"

The fox turned around at the shout. He watched for a moment as Athena jumped and yelled at the palm tree. Then he turned back his head towards Phoenix, one brow raised. "What's going on with her? Do you know?"

"Oh, uh… Yeah." At least now he was being asked questions he knew the answers to. "That's one of my apprentices, Athena. A monkey stole her necklace."

"Ohhh." The fox nodded, as though jewelry theft via monkey was a perfectly normal problem to have. "I can help her out. You sit and rest your back, sir."

Sheesh, whatever this darn thing is, he's treating him like an old man. "Now hang on."

Whatever Phoenix was going to say after that completely stopped mattering when the fox spun his tails together and started flying.

He could only watch in gaping awe as the fox flew around the monkey fast enough to make it dizzy, took Widget, and returned it to a delighted Athena.

"Aww, thank you, little guy!" She said happily, putting Widget back around her neck.

"Aw, it was no biggie-"

Athena squeed. "Aren't you the cutest little thing?!"

"Wait WAIT PUT ME DOWN!"

Athena spun him around, the little fox flailing in her iron grip. "SO CUUUUTE!"

Oh, no, now instead of Athena he has to get up to help the fox. Phoenix managed to stand up without hurting himself. "Athena!" He called, going their way. "Stop! You're going to crush him!"

"Huh?" Athena stopped her spinning. "I'm not hurting him! Honest!"

The fox croaked. "Help…me…"

Phoenix used his best stern scolding dad voice. "Put him down, Athena."

She pouted. "Oh, fine." She did let him down, if reluctantly. Then he was able to breathe again and did so with gusto.

"Sorry about that," Phoenix said. He figured someone had to apologize. "Are you alright? Athena's...excitable."

Tails stood up straight, having caught his breath. "Oof...I'm okay."

"So cute…" Athena didn't seem to hear Phoenix speak. "What's your name, little guy?"

"Oh, you can call me Tails." He said politely. "Erm, who are you guys?"

Phoenix raised a brow. That's good that he was recovering from the hug of death, but who named this kid? Naming someone after a prominent feature...wasn't that usually bullying? Would they run into another animal named Legs?

"Hello, Tails! I'm Athena Cykes, and this is my boss, Phoenix Wright." She mashed her right fist into her palm, grinning broadly. "We're lawyers! Cool, huh?"

Tails looked at the teenage girl in a frilly yellow swimsuit who had been screaming at a monkey and tried to squeeze him to death, and then at the older man with a bad back and a Hawaiian shirt.

"Oh," he said, poorly restraining his scepticism. "Um… Really?"

Phoenix found himself wincing. This tiny fox could cut surprisingly deep. "I, uh, I know we don't really look the part right now, but we are. I promise. We're just on vacation."

"He's still so cute!" Athena's cooing did not even falter. "Even when he's judging us!"

"No judgement meant," said Tails quickly, "I was just surprised, is all!"

"Aw, we're not offended!" Athena said cheerfully.

Speak for yourself, thought Phoenix.

"Say, do you live here, or are you on vacation too?" She went on. "This city is great!"

"Oh, I don't live here, but I...visit a lot?" He seemed to have to think about this. "I guess sometimes it's like a vacation."

"Oh, right! That reminds me." Tails' ears perked up. "Have either of you seen Sonic? Er, that is," he remembered their shock at his existence, "a blue hedgehog a little taller than me, probably running really fast? We were supposed to meet up here a few days ago, but I haven't seen him anywhere."

"Ohhhh that's the Sonic that article was talking about!" Athena smacked her own head in realization. "I was up half the night yesterday trying to figure that out! I thought he was a football mascot."

What did that Sonic guy do to end up in the news? "What she means is no, kiddo, sorry," said Phoenix apologetically. "We haven't seen him. You're the first...talking animal? ...I've ever met."

The fox's ears drooped. "Right...that makes sense. Oh well, it was worth a shot."

Poor little guy. Wonder if they were friends, or maybe family? For all Phoenix knew, a talking hedgehog and a talking fox COULD be related somehow.

"Is that usual for him?" Athena asked, in as motherly a voice as she could manage. "Missing appointments like that?"

Tails shook his head. "No. He does wander a lot, but if he says he's gonna be somewhere, he usually means it. "

"Usually?"

"Well...okay," Tails admitted, "he has forgotten a few times." He finally smiled. "I'm probably just worrying too much. He's too tough to get into danger…"

He looked troubled again. "At least, to stay in danger. Usually. Most of the time."

Though he knew better than to say it out loud, Phoenix had a bad feeling. That was a heavily qualified statement.

"I'm sure he'll turn up!" Athena said. "If he doesn't, we could help!"

"Huh?" Tails looked up at her, confused and wide-eyed. "Er, not that I don't appreciate it, but… You're lawyers."

She once again punched into her palm. "We've investigated lots of crime scenes! We know a thing or two about tracking down witnesses!"

"That," Phoenix said, "and helping folks is why we became defense attorneys in the first place. You know your friend best, so I can't judge whether there's a crime here or not, but if it turns out there is, we can definitely help uncover the truth."

Tails smiled again. "I appreciate it. Though hopefully it won't come to that."

September 15th, 2:18 PM

Rouge was lounging upstairs in her plush bedroom. She finally had the day off from GUN work, and was making the most of it. The newly-dried purple robe she wore was fluffy and warm; she lay in it in bed on a truly extravagant amount of pillows. Her cell phone was in a drawer, out of sight. It was almost perfect.

She sighed, and set down her glass of coconut lime flavored sparkling water on her white nightstand. She hadn't seen Shadow in four days now. That didn't worry her; sometimes he was true to the brooding loner stereotype and went off on his own for awhile. Usually it was more annoying than anything else.

Unfortunately, her day off was marred by a single, nagging fact. Sonic had vanished at pretty much the same time.

Tails had called yesterday to ask if she had seen him; of course it was probably fine, he'd said, Sonic probably just forgot the appointment and wandered off or something, but he wanted to check anyway.

Tails was a smart kid. If something was up, he'd notice.

Rouge suddenly remembered that the two hedgehogs had also disappeared right before Eggman and Infinite's takeover. Omega too. Though as far as she knew, he was still around...

Ugh. Her ears lay back. Dammit. She is supposed to be relaxing.

This was capped off when her phone rang, making her jump. She begrudgingly sat up. "Oh, what now?" She muttered, rifled through her nightstand drawer for her phone.

She glanced at the screen, took a deep breath, and answered the unfamiliar number professionally. "Yes? Rouge the bat speaking."

Her wish that it turn out to be a robocall that she could ignore and hang up on went unfulfilled. Rouge listened with increasing alarm.

"I'm sorry," she said, "did you say Shadow was arrested? What for?!"

She stood up, pacing around the room. The voice on the other end explained the circumstances and the charges. All thoughts of relaxing were now shattered.

Rouge briefly held the phone away from her ear, seething with rage. "I'm going to kill him."

She brought it close again. "Sorry, what was that? ...Yes, I'll come to the station. And," she headed for her closet to get dressed, "as soon as I can, I'll get him a lawyer."