SWD: Chapter 2

It was now later in the day here in Peach Creek with the sun already turning to dusk. A few hours passed by since the group's trip into town, with everyone arriving back home a short while ago. After saying their goodbyes, everyone went home for the evening. Double D, Serena, and Matthew could see that their parents were home as well; they could see them working around the house when they walked inside.

"Mom, Dad! We're back home now!" Serena called out to them as she began to take off her winter jacket near the front door.

"Welcome home, kids," Aiden greeted them with a smile. Wendy noticed the bags they were holding, "Did you all go Christmas shopping today?" she asked.

"Yes," Matthew replied with a nod, "It kinda felt overwhelming to me because it was so busy where we went…"

Serena chuckled to her twin brother, "D'aww, it's okay! You'll get used to the big crowd once we go out to town more!"

Aiden and Wendy looked at Double D, who was beginning to take off his winter coat. They noticed the bags he had sat down at his side; they were bags with the logo of the local arts and crafts store in town. They could see there were a lot of materials for sewing in the bag, as well as a lot of stuffing and a bag full of tiny plastic beans.

"I want to make Jennifer a plush of one of her favorite characters," he told his parents a few days ago, "I looked up a lot of references online and found that they do make dolls of them, but the dolls look more like ones you would sit on a display shelf. Not to mention they are too expensive for me to buy with my kind of allowance. So, I decided that I would try and make one myself; one that she could sit on her bed or hug for comfort if she needed to."

"It looks like you all had fun," Aiden stated with a chuckle, "But it's almost dinner time. We'll call for you three once the food is ready."

"Yes, sir!" all three teens replied as they walked away with their bags in hand, with the twins went down the hallway near them to their room, while Double D began to walk up the staircase next to him to go to his room.

Both Aiden and Wendy could only smile at their three kids, "I'm so glad that everything is peaceful again, along with the twins being free from that awful lab," Aiden stated.

"Indeed," Wendy stated before turning back to the kitchen, "We should start making dinner."

The two were about to walk into the kitchen before they heard Aiden's cell phone begin to ring. Aiden took out his phone to see who was calling before deciding to answer it, "Mr. Wells?"

"Hello, Mr. Johnson!" greeted the voice on the other line, "I'm sorry if you and your family were busy with anything, but I wanted to give you an update on the trial that's happening soon."

"Oh, right," Aiden sighed as he then put his cell phone on speaker, so his wife could hear what Mr. Wells had to say, "Has a date been decided for the trial yet?"

"Yes, it's going to be on the 21st of this month; that's only three days from now," Mr. Wells stated, "We wanted to make sure the four victims in this case are in town that day, just in case they need to be called for any statement against Vergil and Rita Bishop. This includes you and their friends as well."

The two adults were silent at his statement.

"We know that Vergil and Rita have already confessed to their crimes, and we would rather not have the kids there if we could help it," Mr. Wells continued to say, "Even so, we wish for the kids to meet up and talk to the prosecutor for the trial, so they can tell him any details that he needs to know. He is arriving from California by plane tonight, so I suggest trying to contact us tomorrow morning to talk to him."

"I see… His name is Miles Edgeworth, correct?"

"Yes, Mrs. Johnson," Mr. Wells replied, "He's made a big name for himself in a lot of famous and difficult cases. Apparently, Mr. Edgeworth is an acquaintance of Mr. Layton, though I'm not sure how Layton convinced him to take up this job when the trial has already been determined with a confession."

"Hmm, this is true…"

"I'm guessing he agreed to this because he sees that this is not just about Vergil and Rita. It's more so a safety net because we have been trying to find out which mafia family they were working for. We want to make sure everyone stays safe."

"Don't worry, we understand," Wendy replied, "We'll make sure to inform everyone to stay in town that day. Thank you for the update."

"It's no problem," Mr. Well stated, "I wish you and your family a happy holiday!"

"Goodbye, Mr. Wells," Aiden stated as he then hung up his cell phone.

Wendy sighed, "It seems like that 'peaceful time' I mentioned earlier is being cut short."

"Yes, but let's not try to worry about that at the moment," Aiden stated, "I'll text the others about this so they can tell their kids."

Meanwhile, at the Atlanta International Airport, we could see a lot of people coming from a plane that had just landed, the plane came from San Francisco, California. Thankfully, even though it was snowing in the area, it was not severe enough to cover where the plane needed to land.

We soon see two men walking within the big group of people that had gotten off the plane. The first man had black hair that was slick in the front, and spiky in the back and blue eyes. He wore a dark gray coat over a black business shirt, a pair of dark blue business pants, and black shoes. The other man with him had short dark gray hair and thin, silver-framed glasses over his dark blue eyes. He wore a beige coat over a white business shirt, a pair of fuchsia red business pants, and brown shoes. Each of them was carrying a briefcase and a suitcase in their hands. They both also had scarves around their necks; a red one for the black-haired man and a dark blue one for the gray-haired man. (Hehehehe)

"So, we're in Atlanta now," the gray-haired man stated before looking to the man walking beside him, "I do hope your co-workers and family were okay with you traveling here when it's almost Christmas time."

"Well, I couldn't ignore the request of an old acquaintance, Miles," the black-haired man stated before making a cheeky smile, "Besides if everything goes according to plan, we'll be back home before Christmas. Because 'almost Christmas' means it's not Christmas! Trust me on that!"

"… Do you always have to make that joke to me at this time of year?"

"Yep."

The man named Miles grumbled slightly at his partner's attitude, "Why did I agree to this again?"

Miles shook his head, "Either way, we need to rent a car and drive to the hotel that's in the town where the trial is."

"Ah, right. How far away is it from here again?"

"It's a small town called Peach Creek; it's about an hour away by car, so not that far away."

"Good to know," the black-haired man replied, "So, you're going to be the one driving, right?"

Miles nodded, "Yes, why? Do you want to drive in this city's traffic and weather, Phoenix?"

The man named Phoenix was silent for a split second, "Nope, I'll leave it to you!"

Miles made a sigh, "I figured as much."

The two men went over to the car rental place inside the airport, prepping to rent what they needed to get to where they needed to go. As Miles was busy doing that, Phoenix took out his phone to check his messages and emails. It did not look like he received any emails but did get a text message from one of his coworkers back home, telling him to stay safe on this trip. Phoenix smiled a little at the message.

It has been a few years since his last case as a defense attorney, which was a very big case that made international news at the time (SoJ). Afterward, he let his coworkers take most of the cases given to him at his law firm.

During then and now, a childhood friend of his, Larry, had sent in a script of some kind to a video game company called Capcom, pitching to them about making both a puzzle/mystery game series about Phoenix and the crazy cases he worked on. After reading it over, they agreed to make them! Of course, they had to change the names of the characters to not represent the real people and cases. And that's how the multimillion-dollar selling video game series, "Fenix Trite: Ace Attorney" was born!

Thankfully, Larry Butz (Or Barry Nutz, as he went by in the games) does give Phoenix most of the royalties despite his friend being the one who pitched the idea to Capcom in the first place. The money honestly helped a lot more than he thought it would, "Who knew Larry actually had good ideas in him sometimes?" Phoenix joked at the time.

"Alright, I got the rental car reserved," Miles stated as he walked back over to Phoenix, "They're bringing it to the entrance, so let's get going."

Phoenix nodded his head, "Right."

Meanwhile, back in Peach Creek, we could see Matthew in his room, lying down as he was looking at something on his phone. It was a few pictures he had taken a while back of him and his friends on Halloween. Serena was sitting on her bed as well, looking at a video on her phone.

The twins were currently sharing the bedroom with a room divider placed in between each others' beds for privacy reasons. Their parents said they were planning on making a basement to the house, so one of the twins could use it as their room instead of sharing this old guest bedroom. Though they have not decided on which twin should take the basement room once it is built… The construction of the room would start early next year, so they had to be patient until then.

"… Hey, Matt?"

Matthew perked his head a little to see Serena poking her head out from behind the room divider, "Mind if I can ask you something?"

Matthew arched an eyebrow at his sister, "Uh, sure. What's the question?"

She walked over to him, "It's about you and Marie. What's been going on with you two lately?" Serena asked, "She seems weirdly depressed, and I think you've noticed it too."

Matthew was silent at her question until he made a sad face, "Umm, well…" he took in a deep breath, "Marie said to not mention this to anyone, but her sisters are coming to visit her during the holidays. She seems really happy about their visit, but…"

"… But?"

"But I don't get why she wants to keep it private from everyone else; she's only told me, as far as I can tell," Matthew stated, "It kinda makes me worried."

"Hmm…" Serena hummed to think it over, "What's her sisters' names again?"

"Uh, I think she said their names were May and Lee; they all have the same last name," Matthew stated before staring at his sister with suspicion, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh… No reason! ~" Serena chuckled as she dashed off to exit their room, "Thanks for the info!"

Matthew could only sit there before making a sigh to himself; he had a feeling about what she was planning, "Serena, I swear to god…"

Author's Note (July 30th, 2024): Woo! I finally got this chapter done! And there's plenty more to go, stay tuned!