So, I randomly thought of this story while playing the downloadable mission in Dual Destinies. I've always wanted to go on a cruise, so instead I just threw all of the characters on a cruise because I've never been on one. Also, I couldn't think of a better title for this story, so we're going with "S.S. Turnabout."
The premise is that the bar association is having a retreat on a huge luxury cruise ship. The defense attorneys and the prosecutors get to invite a plus one and then hi-jinx ensues. There's going to be a lot of shippings in this one. Enjoy.
I also have to apologize to anyone hoping to see Nahyuta in this story. I've only played up to Dual Destinies and the first two missions of Spirit of Justice. I don't know him enough to put him in this story. Sorry.
Chapter One – The Retreat
City Docks August 1 – Noon
Phoenix Wright led the way down the docks towards the magnificent cruise ship. The ship was one of the biggest things Phoenix had ever seen, and under normal circumstances, he and his friends would have never been able to even afford touching it. Thankfully, not only would he and his friends get to stay on this glorious ship, but they wouldn't even have to pay for it.
The Bar Association randomly decided to have all the lawyers and prosecutors take a retreat to "strengthen the bond between prosecution and defense" or something like that. Nobody really questioned it, because any excuse to take a vacation on a luxury cruise ship was alright by everyone. The best part was that everyone was allowed a "plus one," so Trucy and Maya were able to come on the trip, along with Athena's friend, Juniper.
The ship itself was several stories high, and Wright could easily imagine himself getting lost quickly in its corridors. It was pure white with a long, blue stripe painted across the entire haul. They couldn't see the name of the ship from where they stood, and the entrances were already swarmed with people.
"It doesn't look like any of the prosecutors are here yet," Maya said, looking around.
"Well, the invite said to arrive around twelve-fifteen," Nick pointed out. "I think the ship is going to be leaving shore at around one."
"Then why are we so early?" Athena wondered.
"I didn't think the bus would get us here so fast," Nick muttered, looking down at his feet.
"I can't wait to get on board!" Trucy said, hopping excitedly and grabbing onto Maya's arm. "I wonder what sort of things we'll get to see and do! Do you think they'll let me make the entire ship disappear?"
"Whoa, don't even think about it, Trucy," Nick scolded. "I don't want you turning us into a Bermuda Triangle conspiracy!" Trucy stopped hopping and frowned at him.
"I would have brought it back," she grumbled under her breath.
"I just hope the air will be good for my health," Juniper mumbled, fidgeting with her bracelet and looking worriedly up at the ship.
"You'll be fine, Junie," Athena said, slapping her hard on the back and almost sending her friend to the ground. Juniper righted herself and gave her a shy smile.
"Thanks for inviting me, Thena," she told her.
Athena grinned at her, but before she could reply, Apollo slowly and angrily appeared next to them, out of breath and looking on the verge of passing out, dragging everyone's luggage behind him. He glared at his co-workers as he unceremoniously dropped everyone's stuff at their feet.
"Thanks for nothing, guys," he growled at them. "I could have really used some help back there carrying all that, but no, it was way more important to just ignore me and walk on ahead."
"Eh, it builds character," Phoenix said with a dismissive shrug. "Besides, you agreed to carry all of our stuff for us."
"I agreed to carry Trucy's stuff," Apollo snapped. "And even then, she just kind of pawned it off on me." Phoenix shrugged again and didn't reply as Apollo narrowed his eyes at him.
As everyone started collecting their stuff, a loud screech sounded behind them. Phoenix turned in time to see a bright red sports car come speeding through the gate and he smiled to himself. Looks like Edgeworth had just arrived.
The car nearly ran through a pile of crates before screeching to a halt nearby. Wright quickly hurried over to greet his friend, who was climbing calmly out of his car, and was surprised to see Simon Blackquill in the front seat. The prosecutor/newly-released-prisoner was firmly gripping the sides of his seat so hard that he seemed to be making dents in the passenger side door handle. His face was as calm and collected as ever, and only the single bead of sweat gave away how freaked out he was by Edgeworth's driving.
"Hi Miles," Phoenix greeted his friend with a big grin on his face.
"Wright," Edgeworth replied, greeting him with a slight nod of his head. "I'm surprised to see you already here. I was expecting you to be hurrying towards the ship as it was taking off."
"Well, jokes on you, Miles," Phoenix said proudly as Apollo narrowed his eyes at the prosecutor. "Because we totally got up early today just in case."
"We took the bus," Maya added. Wright gave her a sideways glare but didn't say anything.
Athena, meanwhile, was in the process of prying Blackquill's fingers out of his death grip on the seat, as he had not moved a muscle. Juniper came over to help her, but they weren't having much luck.
Phoenix tried not to smirk at the sight and instead was about to suggest to Apollo that maybe he should help the girls out, but he barely opened his mouth when he suddenly felt his hair being ruffled by a wind and heard the distinct sound of someone breathing loudly through their mouth. He let out a sigh.
"Hello, Detective Gumshoe," Phoenix said without turning around.
Gumshoe did a couple more breaths through the mouth before responding. "Hey, Pal," he greeted. He could tell that the detective was standing directly behind him, and when Phoenix turned around, his nose was barely an inch from Gumshoe's chest.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Wright asked, tilting his head to look at him and taking a step back in the process.
"Mr. Edgeworth invited me," Gumshoe explained. "He offered me a ride here and Prosecutor Blackquill made me sit in the back."
Phoenix was about to say something else, but a loud noise in the form of a mass of screaming fan girls once again interrupted him. He let out another sigh and turned towards the source. Looked like Klavier Gavin had just arrived.
Sure enough, the rock star prosecutor was speeding down the docks on his motorcycle. He was doing some rather impressive stunts on his bike, and it was making the crowd watching him go wild. Next to Phoenix, Apollo was folding his arms and rolling his eyes.
Klavier, after pulling off a particularly dangerous looking stunt, drove closer to the group of defense attorneys and prosecutors, spotted Apollo, and promptly crashed into a nearby pole. Phoenix flinched and Maya and Apollo were already rushing over to see if he was ok.
"Are you ok, Mr. Gavin?" Maya wondered, helping him to his feet while also trying to hold in a laugh.
"What was that? You were doing so well up until a couple of seconds ago," Apollo chastised.
"I got a little…distracted," Klavier muttered, brushing himself off. "I think I'll be fine. Thank you, Fraulein." He gave them both one of his winning smiles, and Apollo rolled his eyes again at him.
"Well, if you weren't so busy showing off," he muttered under his breath.
"Nice to see you too, Herr Forehead," Klavier said in response.
Athena and Juniper had finally managed to snap Blackquill back to reality, while Phoenix, Edgeworth and Trucy were standing not too far away, having an intimate conversation. Apollo led Klavier and Maya back over to them, just in time to see an old, beat-up, ugly green car slowly and jerkily driving towards them.
The car kept making annoyingly loud sounds, speeding forward a few inches before coming to an abrupt halt. The car slowly swerved around the large pile of crates and eventually came to a sudden stop near another line of cars.
A moment later, Winston and Gaspen Payne stepped out of the car, arguing with each other about Winston's driving.
"I told you, driving stick is the only way to drive a car," Winston was saying.
"Then maybe you should actually learn how to drive stick," Gaspen growled. Winston made a high-pitched whining noise in response.
"I'll bet the Payne's didn't use their plus ones," Athena sneered, watching them. "That would require them having friends outside of each other."
"Thena, don't be mean," Juniper muttered.
"Did you invite anyone, Simon?" Athena asked, ignoring her and turning to the prosecutor.
"Of course," he replied in a dead pan tone. "I invited Taka."
Athena and Juniper blinked in surprise at him. "Your bird?" Athena asked. "Why would you invite your bird?" Blackquill shrugged nonchalantly.
"It didn't say I had to invite a human," he replied. "And anyone I would trust to take care of him is going on this trip already."
Athena was about to ask him where Taka was anyway, but then suddenly noticed the hawk resting on Blackquill's shoulder. She was pretty sure the bird hadn't been there before.
"Where did he come from?" she wondered. Blackquill gave her a look.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, scratching the bird's head. "Taka's been here the whole time."
The group stood around chatting for a few more minutes before they were interrupted by a police car pulling up to them. The police man driving looked extremely annoyed about something as he stepped out of the car, and he went around and opened the back-seat door and pulled a man out. At the sight of him, Phoenix's eyes widened with surprise and Apollo stiffened.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Apollo hissed.
Before anyone could answer, the police man angrily led the man, who had his arms and legs shackled, over to Klavier and thrust the man into the prosecutor's arms.
"Here," the police man snarled. "You deal with him!"
Klavier smiled. "Hey bro," he greeted the man in his arms. Kristoph Gavin gave him a blank look in return. "What did you do this time, Kristoph?" Klavier wondered.
"Nothing," his brother replied in a deadpan tone.
"Then why is Herr Policeman mad at you?" Klavier asked, letting him go.
"I simply made the mere suggestion that his driving was akin to a small child trapped driving in an earthquake, and that I wondered what sort of example he might be leading for the innocent people," Kristoph explained. "I guess he took it the wrong way."
"This guy criticized every bit of my driving," the police officer snarled before Klavier could speak. "He criticized my turns, my stops, which route I took, one moment I would be driving too slow, the next moment I would be driving too fast! He's your problem now. I can't take it anymore!"
Then the police officer stormed back towards his car, ranting and cursing the entire way. Kristoph watched him go with an ambivalent look on his face.
"Well, that seemed kind of harsh," he commented to his brother. Klavier sighed and shook his head at him.
Before he could reply, however, Phoenix came over and clapped a hand on Kristoph's shoulder, nearly knocking him over in the process.
"Hey, Kristoph," he greeted cheerfully, completely unable to see the death glare that the former defense attorney was giving him. "Funny seeing you here!"
"What are you doing here?" Apollo asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice.
"Oh, trust me, I didn't want to come," Kristoph replied calmly. "But Klavier insisted. Besides, after being cooped up in a cell for so long, it will be nice to get some fresh air." Apollo's eyes widened and he turned to Klavier, horrified, as Kristoph inched closer to Phoenix.
"Why on earth would you invite your brother to be your plus one?!" he hissed at him.
Klavier gave him a gentle smile.
"Relax, Herr Forehead," he replied. "I had to invite him. He's the second most special person in my life."
Kristoph, who was raising his arms towards Phoenix, about to strangle him, suddenly whipped around to glare at his brother.
"Wait a minute," he growled. "You replaced me with-!"
"Besides," Klavier said quickly, interrupting him. "He's going to be shackled and a guard will be watching him the entire time. And I'll be here. You have nothing to worry about."
Apollo, however, did not feel very reassured by his words. It didn't help that Kristoph was giving him an evil grin at the moment. Even when he worked for him, Apollo always had the feeling that Kristoph could read minds.
Thankfully, Kristoph didn't get to smile evilly for long. Klavier's brother was going back to attempting to strangle Wright, but before he could raise his arms even a centimeter, he was being tackled by a police officer who seemed to appear out of nowhere. Apollo was pretty sure that this was the guard Klavier was talking about.
Phoenix, completely ignoring them, had turned back to Edgeworth who had been standing silently by his side. He was about to comment to Edgeworth how it was strange that his sister hadn't arrived yet, when he was interrupted by a loud and sudden screech, followed by what sounded like something crashing.
They turned in time to see a black, slick car speeding towards them, not slowing down as it plowed through the pile of crates, which practically exploded on impact. The car came to a sudden stop, but not before rear-ending the Payne's car in front of it. The car backed up, slammed into the front of a car parked behind it, then pulled forward and took off the rear bumper of the Payne's car, and the car behind it. The black car, finally stopping, didn't have a scratch on it.
"And here I thought Miles was the craziest driver," Phoenix muttered under his breath.
The car's door opened and Franziska von Karma calmly stepped out of the driver's seat. She ignored the two beat-up cars and the Paynes' looks of horror and strode over to the group with her luggage. As she got closer, Phoenix could see that she had a look of annoyance on her face, which he guessed was more from her almost being late than anything.
"It's about time you got here," Edgeworth said instead of greeting her. She glared at him.
"Quiet you," she hissed. "My alarm did not go off and I could not find my whip. Can you imagine what would have happened if I had not found it?"
"I can only dream," Phoenix said in a wishful voice. He was cut off with a sharp stab of pain as Franziska's whip made contact with him. "Ow! Don't you think it's going to be a little hard for you to get that thing on board?"
"Pah!" Franziska scoffed. "You underestimate me, Phoenix Wright. It will be super easy, barely an inconvenience."
"Goody," Phoenix muttered.
"I still can't believe we all get to go on a cruise!" Maya said, hopping up and down excitedly. "Too bad Pearly couldn't come, though. She promised to stay behind and look after the office. I'm going to buy her so many souvenirs!"
Phoenix was about to say something to her, but was once again interrupted by a familiar voice calling his name. He let out a sigh, turning towards the source. He had been hoping that Larry wouldn't find out about the cruise. But, here he was.
"Nick!" he growled, stomping over. "You're going on a cruise and you didn't think to invite me along with?"
"Sorry, Larry," Phoenix replied. "This is a bar association trip and we were all only allowed a single plus one. And I had to bring my daughter with me."
"What about you, Edgey?" Larry whined, turning to his other friend. "Why didn't you invite me?"
"Well, seeing as how Wright was already going, I decided to give my plus one to Detective Gumshoe instead," Edgeworth replied, calmly.
"Wait, what?" Phoenix asked.
"I'm guessing you already invited someone too?" Larry asked Franziska, turning to her. She gave him an unamused look.
"No," she replied. "I just don't like you."
Larry gave her a pouty look, but before he could say anything, a loud horn sounded and people started hurrying towards the ship. The group quickly gathered up their things and started towards the crew members who were checking tickets.
"Sorry, Larry," Phoenix said, picking up his suitcase. "Gotta go! We'll see you when we get back!"
Then he turned and sprinted after the others, not looking back when Larry called his name, already thinking of all the relaxing things they would get to do. For once, he wouldn't have to think about work and he could just relax. Absolutely nothing could go wrong. Could it?
I'm going to end this chapter now because otherwise I'd just end up rambling. So, yeah, this fan fiction is going to be more on the humorous side. I brought along Kristoph because I like him and I thought it would be funny if he was here. He's mostly going to be there for deadpan comic relief. Same with Blackquill. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter. It's going to be a long fan fiction, and of course, we all know stuff is going to go wrong. So, enjoy!