CHAPTER 30

Miles Edgeworth find himself at the prosecution's bench with Franziska as his co-council once more, with Maya and Wright across from him. He had called Mick Vick to testify once again, and he obliged this time. He needed to attack this situation from all angles; if not, two undeserving people were to die. There was no sugarcoating it, either.

The judge made his way up to the stand. "This court is now in session for the trial of er, John Doe slash Shelly de Killer." He audibly said slash, and Franziska let out a sigh.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, well...is the prosecution ready?"

"Yes, your honor."

The judge then turned his attention to Phoenix Wright. "Is the defense ready?"

He was sweating; "Y-Yes, your honor."

The judge didn't notice his lack of confidence and had Edgeworth call Mick Vick to the witness stand.

As Vick made his way up to the stand, Edgeworth began looking around the courtroom to see if Pearl was seated in the gallery for the day's proceedings, but he couldn't find her. Vick spoke up; "I testified yesterday. Do I have to repeat my name and occupation?" His voice had a whiny tone to it, like that of a small child. It was so disturbingly whiny that Miles assumed it was a sarcasm.

The judge had been caught off guard by this question. "Err...um...I suppose not?"

Vick brightened up; "Okay then! I'll just be mosying along with my testimony now." He flashed his rings with a sickening sense of pride.

"This man is John Doe. How do I know? He's worked at my studios longer than I have. That's all. I provided the court with his documentation yesterday, so there's no way he could be this Shelly de Killer everyone keeps babbling about."

OBJECTION!

Miles pointed out what he knew Phoenix couldn't; "Yesterday, we provided the court with these photos: photos of the defendant handing something to Matt Engarde, who was found guilty of hiring an assassin last year. This is strongly suggesting that this man is Shelly de Killer."

OBJECTION!

"C-Can you prove it? Or are you just going to play circumstances?" Edgeworth had been anticipating an objection from Wright, but not such a weak one. He was clearly grasping.

"No, I can't, but the odds of this man being accused of being an assassin twice and the circumstancial evidence we have backing that up is a bit too strange to be a coincidence, wouldn't you agree?" The gallery started rabbling;

"Yeah! That's too strange!"

"What a scumbag that lawyer is, trying to get a cold-blooded killer off the hook!"

Edgeworth thought that Phoenix deserved credit; he was playing off the gallery's attacks very well, and staying strong. BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Order! Order! I can't think with all this noise!" Edgeworth heard Franziska mumbling beside him; "I doubt you can think at all, whether it's loud like this or completely silent..."

The judge was, to Edgeworth's surprise, taking this very seriously. "Mr. Wright! Mr. Vick! Explain this to the courtroom, immediately!"

"Well your honor..." Phoenix was clearly about to draw a blank, when Vick interrupted him. "Oh my...well, I am under oath, and I know the reason why he was there..."

Edgeworth spoke up; "Why, Mr. Vick, why was he!?" He knew that Mick Vick wasn't about to tell the truth, but he didn't expect him to say anything at all.

Vick began playing around with his rings, "Mr. Engarde was Global Studio's biggest star in his days, was he not? Global Studios and Worldwide Studios are...rival studios, you know, Mr. Judge? Anywho, I made a...business move with Mr. Doe over there. I sent him to the hotel to spy on Mr. Engarde...you know, dig up some dirt on him? Fortunately for me, he ended up doing that to himself." He shrugged with a smile. "I guess a should have expected that from such a...second rate studio." He added emphasis on the words second rate.

The gallery went off again. "Oh, well...I guess this man wasn't de Killer after all."

"That defense attorney isn't so bad, it's that dirty prosecutor!"

Edgeworth was too shocked to pay attention to the gallery; Liar! I can't believe that man! Franziska was vehemently tugging her whip to his side.

BANG BANG BANG! "Order! Order, I say!" Vick seemed to be still happy with himself; "I apologize, Mr. Judge. I'm willing to take any charges pressed against me. I'm a changed man now." The gallery went off again.

"What a noble man!"

"I like Worldwide studios better than Global Studios now!"

"Mommy? I don't want Steel Samurai toys anymore. I like the Jammin' Ninja now!"

Miles sighed out "You have got to be kidding me." Franziska just replied with "I wish."

Out of desparation and impulse, Miles yelled out "Your honor! The prosecution would like to request a 15 minute recess to look over evidence."

The judge nodded. "Does the defense have any objections?" Phoenix shook his head. "No, your honor."

The old man nodded. "Very well, permission granted. Court is adjourned for a 15 minute recess."

10 minutes later.

Edgeworth and Franziska were looking over the evidence together in a now empty courtroom; Gumshoe had laid it all out for them to inspect, but they were failing to find any thing that contradicted Vick's testimony. CRACK! "OWWW!"

"Scruffy! Why did you do such a foolishly lackluster job only a fool could only foolishly do by providing us with such foolish evidence!"

Gumshoe was actually starting to stand up for himself; "Hey, sir! It's not my fa-" Edgeworth stopped him. "Detective, I believe it's in your best interest not to finish that sentence."

Gumshoe was flaring at the nostrils like a bull seeing red; "No! I'm tired of getting hit with that whip because she's not doing her job right!"

Franziska turned red with anger; "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Edgeworth sighed; "I warned you, detective..." CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!...

Before he turned back to the evidence table, he calmly, yet jokingly asked with a half grin-half sorry-for-Gumshoe smile "Franziska, just please don't kill him, ok?" she didn't even respond; She probably didn't hear him over the crack of her whip and Gumshoe's yells of "OUCH! O-OW!"

Edgeworth was still having no luck with anything, however; he checked his watch and let out a sigh; It's been 12 minutes, and I have found...nothing.

Gumshoe hit the floor with a thud, disguising the sound of the courtroom doors being opened.

Franziska was still breathing heavily in frustration as she returned to Miles' side at the evidence table. They both jumped at a whispering voice behind them; "Franzy and Mr. Edgeworth, pssssssst."

They turned around to see Maya holding the cup of coffee from the previous case; "Nick told me to give this to you, tell you to get Gumshoe to check it for fingerprints, and get back to him..." She looked at the detective, passed out on the floor. "Did you kill him, Franzy?" Franziska looked over towards the detective. "No, I highly doubt it. I should wake him up, though, shouldn't I?"

Maya grinned. "Yeah, and I need to be going. Good luck!" She quickly hopped along, way too upbeat to be aware of everything in the situation. Franziska woke up Gumshoe by shaking him by the shoulder. He sat up with a groan; "Ughh...ACK!" He rolled to his side and covered his face with his arms; "D-don't hurt me anymore! You're the best prosecutor ever! I'm sorry!" She blew out a "Hmph." And shoved to cardboard coffee cup into his face. "You can make it up to me by getting this checked for prints, immediately." He grabbed the cup and stood up with a salute; "Right away, sir! Bye, Mr. Edgeworth!" He ran out of the doors, stumbling over himself at the start of his sprint. "Why does he like you so much, Miles?"

He shrugged her an "I don't know..." and the courtroom began filling back up.

Franziska and Miles stood behind the prosecution's bench while Phoenix and Maya stood behind the defense's bench. The judge made his way out of his chambers and up to his chair.

It was completely silent as he very slowly made his way up the stair leading to his chair. Franziska and Edgeworth both heard Maya quietly ask Phoenix "...is he climbing some stairs or Mount Everest?"

After he finally made his way up to his chair, he was sweating. "H...ha-has...has the prosecutions found any evidence disproving the witnesses claim?" He was tired, and his breath smelled strong enough like cigarette smoke to where Franziska and Miles could smell it.

"No, your honor." Miles thought to himself, Gumshoe, you better get back here with that coffee cup, immediately, or else...

The judge nodded. "Very well, then I see no reason to further- COUGH COUGH- prolong this case...I swear, those youngsters outside the Stop-n'-Shop talked me into trying a cigarette, told me it would be cool, but I just feel sick! I'm never smoking again..." CRACK!

"Yes, yes...this courtroom finds the defendant, John Doe slash Shelly de Killer..."

The sound of two doors bursting open echoed throughout the courtroom.

"HOLD IT, PAL!"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I left it on a cliffhanger :P anyways, I'm sorry I couldn't post this last night, dudes. I like, went to bed early because I had to halfway across Texas for the funeral, which was at 10 this morning, so I had to wake up a couple hours earlier than I usually do. I'll probably post the rest of the chapters in daily installments. Thanks for reading, and review.

-ghostfacekiller39