SWD: Chapter 4

A few hours passed by after receiving the call from Mr. Wells about the death of Rita Bishop. Aiden and Wendy got into contact with everyone and their parents, telling them to meet up at the playground located at the entrance to the neighborhood. There were the Johnson's (Aiden, Wendy, Eddward, Serena, and Matthew), the Wendell's (Steven, Jessie, Ed, and Sarah), the McGee's (Luis, Daisy, and Eddy), the Glee's (Brett, Judith, and Jennifer), the Wheeler's (Kenneth, Tina, and Zoey), and the Peters' (Vincent, Sheryl, Felix, and Ashley), who had to drive for two hours from Oak Valley for this meeting. Marie Kanker was also there, but her mother was not present (like usual).

Despite the sudden meetup today, both Felix and Ashley were happy to see Double D and his friends again. The last time they met with Double D was on Thanksgiving, which was very special for them. Double D even got to meet and talk to his real father's parents; the grandparents he never knew he had. Both Aiden and Wendy's parents had already passed away, so Double D never had grandparents growing up. It was certainly a very overwhelming moment for everyone, and he plans to also visit them when it's closer to Christmas time, though today was an exception to that.

Ed and Serena were sitting on the bench close to the swing set, where Ed could see Sarah and Ashley both swinging back and forth on it. It was very rare for Sarah to actively play with other kids who were not Jimmy, but it seems like she and Ashley got along well. The two young girls were not interested in the meeting, so they stayed by the swing set. Serena was still feeling sleepy, but she finally had the energy to get out of bed to be here.

Zoey, in the meantime, was standing near Eddy, but tried to keep her distance; she seemed so jumpy lately, and he noticed it. Any time Eddy tried to reach his hand out to her, she would quickly brush him aside. Unknown to him, the reason Zoey was trying to avoid physical contact with him was that the last few times he grabbed her hand or touched her shoulder to get her attention, he would get shocked by a small bit of static electricity every time he did. Eddy did not think much about it each time it happened (being shocked by static electricity through warm clothes was a common thing at this time of year in December), but Zoey could instantly tell that the lightning powers from before were slowly returning to her. It terrified Zoey that she would end up hurting Eddy like last time… and it still hurts her to know she killed him by the powers forcefully given to her because she was being manipulated against her will. If it was not for Serena's quick thinking and healing powers, Eddy would still be dead…

Jennifer was standing next to Double D and Felix, holding onto her boyfriend's arm. She could see Double D was stressed out about something, the bags under his eyes spoke volumes to her. He was not getting enough sleep… She did ask him what was wrong, but he kept himself silent, telling her that he would explain it once the meeting started. Matthew was standing near Marie, who looked a little annoyed about being called out here so early in the morning. He could see that Marie was not feeling well like she had no energy to talk; he had a feeling it was because she was still lonely.

"So uh, does anyone know WHY we had to meet up like this?" Eddy asked his friends.

"I have no idea," Felix replied as he turned to look at his dad, who was standing around with the other adults, "Dad said something happened and that we needed to meet up here. He didn't say anything else though."

Ed felt Serena's head gently land on his upper arm near his shoulder; she started to doze off again. Ed knew that something weird was going on with Serena with how often she slept, and it seemed to be getting worse lately. It made him start to wonder if it had anything to do with the healing powers she used to have, like a weird side effect that never went away.

A few seconds passed by before the group could see a car driving towards them, parking at the curbside near the playground. That was when Phoenix and Miles stepped out of the car.

"Huh, I wonder who those guys are?" Zoey questioned.

Double D could feel Jennifer suddenly flinch in shock when she saw both men. He turned to her to see a mixture of shock and nervousness on her face, almost as if she knew who they were, "… Jennifer?"

Jennifer gasped a little when she heard her name, "Are you alright?" Double D asked with worry.

"I-I'm okay!" Jennifer replied to him, trying to hide her face from him; he noticed she started to blush, "I… I think I know those two."

"Wait, you do?" Double D asked with surprise.

Jennifer nodded her head nervously, "B-But I don't know how it's possible. They're both…" She began to trail off as she noticed the two men walking over to the group, but more so to the adults rather than the teens.

"You must be Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, correct?" Miles asked Aiden and Wendy.

"Yes," Aiden stated as he turned to their kids, gesturing for most of them to come over to them. They did as they were told, with Jennifer still being extremely nervous. Sarah and Ashley did not join the group of teens.

"My name is Miles Edgeworth, and this is Phoenix Wright," Miles began to say as he gestured to Phoenix beside him. He then flashed his prosecutor's badge to them, "My partner and I have a few questions to ask both you and your kids. It involves Vergil and Rita Bishop."

A lot of the teens there widened their eyes, with Serena and Matthew being the two who started to pay attention the most. Hearing their parents' names woke up Serena even more.

"W-What about them?" Matthew started to ask, despite not wanting to think about those two anymore, "I know their trial is soon, s-so we don't need to say much more about them, do we?"

"… About that," Miles started to say before narrowing his eyes, "I was assigned to be the prosecutor against them, but it seems that someone else had other plans with them. Rita is dead and Vergil is in critical condition at the hospital. They were both poisoned sometime last night."

The whole group stood there as the news was delivered to them, all of them horrified at what they heard.

"The police believe that the mafia family that hired them 15 years ago is responsible for this incident," Miles continued to explain, "We wanted all of you to be informed about what happened since you were all directly involved with them in different ways."

Phoenix looked at the group of teens, only for him to see Double D and Jennifer standing next to each other; he remembered Mr. Layton mentioning the two of them in detail when he contacted him for Edgeworth's help for the trial, even showing him a picture of them through a text message, "Those two are very special, along with the rest of their friends. Please keep them safe from harm in my stead, Mr. Wright."

Phoenix did notice that Jennifer kept looking at both him and Edgeworth nervously.

"Either way, we wanted to question some of you while we were here," Miles stated, "Though we do need permission from all your parents if you don't mind."

"Of course," Wendy replied as she and Aiden gestured to the adults in the group to step away, leaving the teens with Phoenix and Miles.

Before the two men could speak to them, the group of teens could see Jennifer quickly walk over to them like she knew who they were, much to her friends' surprise, "U-Umm… Excuse me, s-sir? Is your name F-Fenix Trite?" she nervously asked Phoenix.

Her friends looked at Jennifer in confusion while Miles stayed quiet, but Phoenix could only make a hearty laugh, finally realizing why she was acting nervous, "Oh! Have you played those video games Capcom made? That's neat to hear."

"… Video games?" her friends questioned.

Miles made a sigh, "And this is why I don't take requests outside of California anymore," Edgeworth grumbled, "Larry just had to pitch them those case ideas…"

"Ignore his grumblings there," Phoenix stated before making a small smile, "To answer your question: It's yes and no. Those games were made by a childhood friend of ours, and Capcom took our stories and made a bunch of those games. He used different names in the games instead of our real ones; for the most part."

Jennifer gasped at the revelation before making a big smile, "I-I had no idea all those cases were based on real ones!"

"ANYWAY!" Miles coughed loudly to get everyone's attention again, "I think we should start discussing the new case, please."

"Oh, s-sorry…" Jennifer stuttered as Double D went over to her side he noticed she was backing away a little when Miles raised his voice, "I didn't mean to interrupt you like that. I was only curious…"

"That's alright," Phoenix stated to her and Double D, "Your names are Jennifer and Eddward, right? Mr. Layton has told me a few of the details already, including who you are. But I can talk about that later before Miles starts shouting again."

Miles made another incoherent grumble before sighing, "As I was saying before, the victims in this new case were murdered before they could be tried for their crimes. Do you kids mind telling us more about the victims and what they did?"

The group of kids glanced at each other before they all began to talk to the two men about what happened back in August. The only teen who could not say much to them was Felix, who had no real involvement in what happened; that was more so his father than anyone else in his family. Felix did hear the full story about what happened through his dad; about how his past girlfriend/fiancé Erica (who was pregnant with Double D) was taken away 15 years ago by said scientists. This made Double D an older half-sibling to him and Ashley. Felix's dad did not know Double D was alive until he met up with him back in late October.

"I see, so there's nothing new that you kids would immediately know about," Miles stated with a sigh, "Back to square one…"

"… Umm, if I may speak up for a moment."

Everyone turned to Double D, "I'm unsure if this is truly connected to what happened to them in particular, but… Umm…"

Double D showed everyone the palm of his right hand, where they could then see a small chill being emitted from it, "I think the powers they forced upon me are coming back, but I can tell it's very weak right now."

"E-Eddward!" Jennifer gasped at him as she made a sad face, "You should have told us!"

"My apologies, but I only noticed this a few days ago," Double D explained, "I was still unsure about it until last night when I tried to make a bit of ice with it; to see if it was true or not…" he took a deep breath, "I'm just extremely grateful that this ice no longer effects my skin or anything I touch…"

"… That explains a lot," Zoey began to say nervously, "I was feeling that way too because I noticed I kept shocking things when they came into contact with me," she lowered her head, "Honestly, it kind of scared me when it started to happen. S-Sorry about that, Eddy…"

Eddy made a worried face to his girlfriend, "Wait, is that the reason you've been swatting me away this whole time?"

Zoey flinched at his words in sadness, not even giving him a reply.

"Oooh… Is this also the reason why Serena's been so sleepy lately too?" Ed asked as he turned to Serena, who started to feel drowsy again while she stood next to him; she had to keep herself latched onto his left arm to help her not collapse to the ground, "She told me that she always felt tired after using those weird powers after training, but I thought that had gone away…"

"… What about you, Matt?" Marie asked, noticing that he had not spoken up yet, "Are you feeling any different?"

"No, not at all…" Matt replied as he glanced down at his right hand. He tried to flex his hand and fingers to see if any embers would form, but nothing happened, "Maybe mine is different somehow? I did notice that I never had any of the bad side effects, unlike the others…"

"So, what you're saying is that your powers are coming back, but they are in a weakened state?"

"Y-Yes, Mr. Edgeworth…" Double D replied, "I suspect that they stay dormant in us all, coming and going in phases, but that's just a hunch and isn't based on any evidence."

Phoenix placed his right hand under his chin to think, "It could just be a weird coincidence, but having your powers return like this right as this murder happened… It is suspicious."

"We will be sure to tell Detective Wells about this after talking to your parents," Miles stated before he began to walk over to the group of adults, "Keep an eye on the kids for a moment, Phoenix."

"… Geez, that guy must be great at parties," Eddy stated sarcastically once Miles was out of hearing range.

"Miles has always been like that, don't let it get to you," Phoenix said with a shrug of his shoulders before turning to the kids, "Well, if any of you kids have any questions, feel free to ask them."

Jennifer raised her hand to get his attention, as if she were in a classroom, "Umm, I was wondering why Helios and Minerva aren't here with you."

"… Oh, you mean Apollo and Athena?" Phoenix questioned, "They're back home right now, taking care of the office while I'm away."

"I see…" Jennifer muttered, "Sorry if that was a weird question."

"No, not at all!" Phoenix replied with a smile, "It's only natural for you to be curious."

"I also have a question I wish to ask," Double D started to say to Phoenix, "How did you become acquainted with Mr. Layton?"

"Well, Mr. Layton and I met when I took a trip to London several years ago; I think it was in 2019," Phoenix explained, "But it's… sort of a long story. I can tell you kids about it some other time once things calm down."

"Fair enough," Zoey stated before turning to Jennifer, 'Jennifer approached those two because she recognized them from some video games… That's really funny,' she glanced back to the man in the red suit, blushing a very small bit of pink in her cheeks, 'Mr. Edgeworth is kind of…' she started to think before shaking it away, 'Oh god, stop that! Eddy is right there! Besides, he's older than you, freakin' weirdo!'

Zoey clutched onto the promise ring she had on the necklace she was wearing, which was immediately noticed by Eddy. He could see Zoey looking back at the group of adults, "… Zoey? Are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah…! I'm fine!" Zoey replied once she regained her normal composure, "Still a little shellshocked from what they told us earlier."

Eddy could tell she was lying, but decided to not question her about it, "Yeah…"

Meanwhile, at a further distance away from both groups, we could see a shady individual hiding from their sight, holding up his cell phone to take pictures of everyone in the group, including the adults. As the shady man was prepping to take his last picture, he noticed something about the blue-haired girl that got his immediate attention. She looked weirdly familiar to him but did not know why. The man snapped his last photo quickly before walking away, hoping that no one saw him.

Author's Note (August 5th, 2024): Oh hey! Another chapter is finally done! There's still plenty more to type, so stay tuned!