"I swear Larry, if you mess this up I will kill you!" Edgeworth knew that Larry hadn't done well in the simulator and was nervous that he would blow up the mission for everybody.
"Shouldn't you be more worried about Nick?" "At least he passed his second practice! You only passed today! And that was barely!" Larry sighed in the back of the van, Phoenix sitting across from him and Edgeworth driving.
"The simulator was lowered in difficulty by three for you!" "Maybe because only one person can go in the simulator at a time and there's three of us, genius!"
Edgeworth continued to drive. "Look, I've almost got to a lot where we can park. It's far away from the building, so it won't cause suspicion." "Shouldn't you stay and watch?" "No. I can't trust you and this is Wright's first mission. Put those two things together and everything goes wrong." "Nice to see you have my back, Edgey," Phoenix grumbled to himself.
"Okay, we're here." Edgeworth parked the vehicle and opened the side door so Larry and Phoenix could get out. "Everybody got their weapon?" Phoenix patted his vest, feeling the knife and gun. Larry nodded, moving his hand to his pocket. Edgeworth felt the inside of his vest to make sure his knife was there. "Alright. Let's use the alleys. Less suspicion that way."
They jogged all the way to the building, not having any trouble all the way. "Okay, are you guys ready?" Phoenix and Larry nodded. Edgeworth kept his hand on the door knob. He took a deep breath and shoved the door open, knife ready. Sure enough, there was a guard at the door, startled by him. Before the guard could do anything, however, Edgeworth stabbed him directly in the heart.
Phoenix's eyes snapped open, seeing what Edgeworth did in that split second. "Come on, Wright. We barely started the mission and your already making us behind on time." Phoenix could tell Edgeworth was upset at his actions, but shook his head and followed the two up the stairs and down the hallway, letting them handle the other guards.
At the end of the hallway, Phoenix volunteered to work the computer. "I haven't been doing anything, so at least let me do this." Edgeworth nodded, knowing that Phoenix was doing okay in technology. He picked the lock and slowly opened the door. Somebody was watching the monitors.
"I figured they would go down once they saw us!" Edgeworth walked in past Phoenix, eyes widening when he saw the back of the guards head in the chair. Phoenix then realized why Edgeworth was so scared when the guard spun his chair around. Shi-Long Lang had a smirk on his face, twirling a gun in his hand.
"Oh hey Miles, Porcupine..." He looked at Larry. "You." Edgeworth started breathing heavy. "Why the hell are you here, Shi-Long?!" Phoenix cried, moving himself to the side of Edgeworth. Shi-Long let out an evil cackle. "You seriously don't know, Porcupine?! When you want to go against the people that left you to the street, you have to start from somewhere. That's why I'm in this dump."
Phoenix growled, irritated. "I've got to get us out of this situation!" "What do you want, Shi-Long?" Shi-Long showed his teeth in the evil smile. He aimed the gun at Edgeworth, frozen in fright. "I just want him dead."
Edgeworth shut his eyes closed, stiff as a board. He forgot all of his training at that moment, because of the adult 'bully at school'. Somebody screamed and then a gunshot, followed by a crash of glass.
Edgeworth, still feeling the same, opened his eyes and saw the blood stain on the floor. He snapped around and saw the glass wall, looking over the city, broken. He turned back around, only seeing a shocked Larry and an angry Shi-Long, reloading his gun.
"No..." he whispered. "NO!" Edgeworth jumped at Shi-Long, angry as hell. Shi-Long cussed under his breath. "Die, you little #%$!"
Shi-Long was about to fire when Larry aided Edgeworth, kicking the gun out of Shi-Long's hands. Edgeworth began punching Shi-Long, but he threw Edgeworth off, Edgeworth skidding across the floor. He got back up and jumped on Shi-Long again.
"You son of a bitch!" Edgeworth screamed. Guards from other rooms started coming, but Edgeworth didn't care. He grabbed the knife from inside his vest and brought it above his head, aiming to stab Shi-Long's neck. To his surprise, Lang started laughing under his breath.
"You'll always be my scared, little rabbit, Miles. Always." Edgeworth paused at the words. "Die, you bastard." With that, Edgeworth brought down the knife into Shi-Long's neck. He sighed, looking into Lang's psychotic, open, dead eyes. Grabbing the knife from his neck, Edgeworth stood up and turned around to help Larry.
Wanting to get to Wright on a thin line of hope, he worked fast, kicking and cutting. "Edgey, we got to get out of here!" "We have to look for Wright first!" "He's dead, you idiot! Dead!" "He's not dead!" "Yes he is! Did you see that fall?!" "I won't believe it until I see it for myself!" "Your gonna get yourself killed too if you look for him!" "I don't care!"
Edgeworth ran out the door, slicing through guards one by one. He went down every floor, looking for Phoenix right below the window. Finally, on the 6th floor of 10, Edgeworth saw Phoenix's bloody body laying in the room, having busted through another glass wall.
"WRIGHT!" Edgeworth ran over, turning Phoenix's body over so he could see his face. Phoenix was badly cut and he had, and was still, coughing up blood.
"Dammit Wright! WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!" Phoenix looked at Edgeworth with droopy eyes and smiled, despite the situation. "I'm...I'm not dead...so don't blame me yet." "YET?! The hell does that mean?! You're going to be okay, you here me?! OKAY!" Phoenix actually believed Edgeworth, not seeing any Psyche-Locks.
He wanted to see Edgeworth's face, that's all. Just his face, but his closing eyes said otherwise. "No! WRIGHT STAY WITH ME!" Edgeworth slapped Phoenix, not thinking. "Stay!" *slap* "AWAKE!" *slap* "DAMMIT!" *slap*
Edgeworth couldn't do anything, though. Scared half to death, he pulled Phoenix into a hugging position, hearing a faint heart beat and shallow breath. "It's okay...It's okay..."
Edgeworth wanted to see if Phoenix had any other injuries besides on his face, so he laid Phoenix down softly and pulled the vest and shirt off. The gunshot had hit him on the shoulder, but in was nowhere near any major organs. He had other cuts and scraps everywhere, but that was to be expected, falling through two windows.
Larry came running in. "Oh God please no..." Edgeworth looked up. "He's breathing, but with the blood still coming out, I'm not sure how long he'll last until he needs a transfusion. Help me get him out of here." Larry's eyes snapped open, hearing that Phoenix was breathing.
Larry grabbed Phoenix's legs and ran out of the building with Edgeworth, no guards surprisingly running or shooting at them. Through the alleys, Edgeworth heard Larry sniffle back sobs. "What's wrong, Larry?" Edgeworth asked through pants of breath, the adrenaline rush fading away.
"I was going to leave him...just like Goodman. If I left him...he could be dead...or tortured...frick." Edgeworth raised an eyebrow. "Like Goodman?" Larry shook his head. "I'll tell you in the van."
When they did get to the van, Edgeworth sat in the back this time, Larry volunteering to drive. Edgeworth attempted to smooth back a strip of hair on Phoenix's forehead, poking out, but it just fell back in place, going up then going down in a curving motion right smack dab in the middle of his forehead.
"So...what about Goodman?" Larry sighed at the wheel, edging above the speed limit. "It's my fault. I should have known something was wrong." "Now, why would you blame yourself for that?" "Cause I could...I could have gone to their mission sight...or just something." Edgeworth shook his head. "Larry, your blaming yourself for something that isn't your fault." "I know, but what would have happened if I did interfere? Would Goodman still have his eye?!" "If you intervened, then you would be dead. They went on a level 8 mission and we're still on 6!"
Larry looked like he was going to smash the wheel. "Whatever. What the hell did Shi-Long say to you?"
Edgeworth paused rubbing Phoenix's hair. "It...has a story behind it. A long, boring story that you don't want to hear." Larry looked in the mirror and saw Phoenix's bracelet glowing, but a lighter green. "Oh, come on Edgey. You can tell me."
Edgeworth sighed. "Fine. Tell me when you want to stop listening." "Can you tell me what he said first, then explain?" "Okay, fine. He, um, said 'You'll always be my scared, little rabbit, Miles. Always."
"The hell does that mean?! And why is he saying 'my'?!" Edgeworth was silent, remembering a year ago. "After a week or so of us...'dating' if you want to call it that, Shi-Long started calling me little rabbit. You know I'm not the best at physical." "So...that's his nickname for you? Why the hell would he say my then, if he didn't say it before?!"
Edgeworth began to have tears form in his eyes. This was just all too much. Killing his once-boyfriend, even though it wasn't really true, his new boyfriend getting hurt, and for some reason kept remembering his father. He forced the tears back and continued.
"I don't want to sound...self centered or anything...but maybe he did like me...even if it was just friendship. I mean, he wasn't like that before and maybe that 'embarrassing' thing was just HIS attempt at HIS humor. That is when he started hanging out with...how should I put it...'the big jocks.'"
Larry nodded. "I think your actually right, but I think your forgetting that he wanted you dead." "Then why would he say MY little rabbit?" "He's the fox," Larry said bluntly. "And your his prey. I mean, I don't think he would have done that before 'the cool kids' or whatever, but after that, he just became twisted."
Edgeworth nodded. Larry was actually making sense for once. "I see your point." They continued in silence, Larry gripping the steering-wheel and Edgeworth, still in back, hand over Phoenix's heart, making sure there was a beat. Larry finally got back and parked the van in the garage, helping Edgeworth carry Phoenix once again.
Some people stared at them, running down the hallway. "Larry, come on, go faster!" "It's kind of hard to run when your carrying a body." "Ugh, just run faster."
They finally got to the medical area and handed Phoenix to the nurse. She was shocked at first, but did her work. "Get out," she said bluntly. "Why?!" Edgeworth snapped. "Because this is serious and I can't have any distractions! Now get out!" Without further argument, Edgeworth and Larry walked out and sat against the wall.
"Is it more serious than I thought?" "No. I don't think so," Larry replied, trying to cheer Edgeworth up. "You know how serious that nurse is. She doesn't want any distractions." Edgeworth nodded, but didn't believe Larry fully. All he could do was hope and pray that Phoenix would be alright.
Without thinking, he pulled his knees against his chest and started crying softly, everything that has happened in his life getting to him.