It had come out of seemingly nowhere. After months of menacing Paris with his Akumatised victims, Hawk Moth had been located and captured. It had happened when an outside consultant from Berlin had pointed out that the Dark Owl had sent a drone to his location, and traced it through security footage of the day in question. The location had turned out to be the mansion of one Gabriel Agreste. Lieutenant Raincomprix had wasted no time in leading a strike team into the mansion with a warrant for the villains arrest. His staff had been incarcerated, as no-one knew for sure if they were involved or not (all that was known was that Hawk Moth had escaped from the Eiffel Tower on Heroes' Day with the help of an accomplice). His son, Adrien was placed in a state orphanage, as there were no known relatives to hand custody over to. They assumed his innocence due to being a frequent target of Akuma victims, and called off investigations. Finally, the man's wife, who was being preserved in a glass coffin like something out of the Grimm Brothers, was removed from the underground crypt and given a proper burial at the cemetery. No-one attended the funeral, as all parties were unavailable or untraceable. And the people of Paris breathed a collective sigh of relief, knowing that the monster tormenting their citizens would soon be locked up forever.
Or so they thought. As it turned out, it was near impossible to find anyone in Paris who wasn't biased against him. A judge was drafted from the World Court in Geneva to oversee the proceedings. The Jury had to be called in from the countryside, where the locals had never seen hide nor scale of a butterfly. Finding a prosecutor and a defence council was significantly easier. The defendant called in his lawyer and there were no shortage of attorneys who hated Gabriel Agreste's guts. And so with the legal requirements met, the trial could finally begin.
"May the Prosecution state the charges?", the judge began. He had a thick Portuguese accent, even though he had left there 20 years ago.
The Prosecutor, a physically revolting man with a thick, unwieldy beard. He was also slightly overweight. "Your honour, within these proceedings, I intend to adumbrate that the defendant is nothing more that a total and utterly depraved example of the human being, unworthy of anything more than life imprisonment."
"Objection!", Gabriel's defence counsel shouted. She was a more moderately attractive woman, with brown hair and glasses. She had an Italian drawl to her voice.
"Sustained."
"My client is nothing more than a victim of bias, directed at him from people who either have suffered from an Akuma attack, knows a victim of those attack, or was an instigator of these attacks.", the council raised her arm to emphasise her point. "It is therefore my intention to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that my client bares no direct responsibility for the actions of these "supervillains.""
"I see.", the Judge said, straightening his glasses. "Since you seem so keen to defend him, how about you present your case first?"
"I was planning on that, your honour." The woman replied. "My case does not require many witnesses. The Defence calls Chloé Bourgeois to the stand." The blonde girl came up from the front row and made her way nonchalantly to the witness box.
"Objection!", The Prosecutor cried out. "This witness is not dressed appropriately for these proceedings." He was right on that count. Chloé, despite making an attempt to dress formally for the proceedings, was still wearing the sunglasses that were basically her trademark outside of her Queen Bee persona.
"Sustained.", was the response the Judge gave. "Miss Bourgeois, please remove the offending article." She huffed, before tucking the glasses into her pocket. "Proceed with the questioning."
The defence council made sure that Chloé Sword the oath to tell the truth, before asking her first question. "Miss Bourgeois, is it true that on your last parents day, you misplaced your family's heirloom within your handbag?"
Chloé would normally have spent a long time prior to this thinking up a lie to make herself look completely guilt-free. However, as the Mayor's daughter, she was expected to tell the truth in court. So that's what she did. "I did."
"And did you demand that the Police Officer in the room arrest the girl you suspected, purely because she was your arch-enemy?"
Chloé sulked, knowing there was no way out of this one. "Yes, I did."
"And did your father fire said police officer, even though it violated his powers as Mayor of Paris?" No one questioned how Hawk Moth's lawyer knew these facts. He had presumably gleaned them from the minds of his Akumas.
"Yes he did.", Chloé replied, barely holding back tears at having to betray her father's confidentiality. Then, before the counsel could ask another question, Chloé began to yell. "Okay, if you want me to confess so badly, then I admit it. I caused a buttload of the Akumas that have appeared in this city. I broke my bond with my friend Sabrina over a silly disagreement. I bullied the boy that became Evillustrator for his silly crushes. I even insulted the girl who became Princess Fragrance's perfume and destroyed a letter she had asked me to give to Prince Ali of Achu."
The Counsel was stunned. "I was going to say that there are no further questions. But thank you for confessing regardless."
As Chloé stepped down, the Prosecutor stood up and raised his hand. "Your honour, if the Defendant is going to offer evidence from people as equally spiteful as himself, then I beg leave to open a private case against her for wasting court time."
"Denied!", The Judge yelled banging his gavel down. "But I do agree with his point, counsellor. Is this the only type of witness you are going to call? Past victims and tormentors to highlight how little an impact he had on their becoming supervillains?"
"Not at all, your Honour. In fact, I intend to gather information from those close to my client. His staff, his son and even the superheroes who my client assured me demonised him in the first place." She then called for her next witness. "I call Nathalie Sancoeur to the stand!"