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Brian sat silently throughout the processions, just listening to what his teammates were saying. Of course, he could understand where they were coming from; the questions that were being asked were tantamount to torture, especially when he saw Doc Owl and the kids escorted into the room. Well, SWIPE and Cruxias were really pulling at straws with that one. Surely they didn't think that people would honestly believe that Snagem would willingly put children in harm's way? It seemed a few of the jurors were sympathetic to their cause, if the looks he could see were anything to go by. Hearing Cruxias ask Deo if he had really struck a deal with SWIPE caught his attention, and he found himself seething inside momentarily, at least until Deo revealed that his grandmother had been threatened.

Apparently SWIPE wasn't above using their own families against them if push came to shove. Brian wondered just what he would have done in Deo's situation, if it were his parents that were threatened. Would he have taken the deal? Would he have called SWIPE out? Arceus only knew what his reaction would have been. No one could really say how they would have reacted in any given situation had they not been part of it. In the past, he would have said with absolute certainty that he would have taken the deal, just to protect his family; now, however, looking back on what he and the other Snagems had been through, he could no longer say with certainty what he would have done.

"...While I appreciate you producing the radio to prove my point, me marquant comme ayant raison," Cruxias says smoothly, idly twirling his ivory cane as he continues to keep his eyes on the much larger hybrid crouched behind the stand. "You should know we would have had to present that as evidence prior to the trial, which we obviously could not do. So hold onto that radio, I doubt the judge wants to fingerprint what could potentially become a piece of evidence." A light chuckle emits from the lawyer's throat, he was quite pleased that his current witness was being so forthcoming. As Deo comes to the point about SWIPE threatening his grandmother, Cruxias raises his hand with a white glove and interjects. "I would like to raise an objection your honor, Deo is testifying contrary to evidence I have already supplied the court. If you would indulge me for just a moment?" Jenny thinks for a moment, and then mildly nods.

"Mister Deo, please refrain from your testimony a moment to allow Cruxias to present this evidence." She commands, turning back to look as Cruxias rummages through a large box of electronics next to his briefcase, pausing a moment before emerging with a thumb drive.

"This," He announces in a triumphant sort of way, not smug but very self-assured all the same. "Is bodycam footage from the interrogations conducted by SWIPE personnel - this was taken from Essentia, also known as Emma. Let's take a look and see what it shows off." He presents the device to Surge, who hooks it into a miniature projector. After a few moments the lights dim and a lower-resolution video projects onto a blank space of the erected courtroom, showing Deo frozen in place in Sub's office back in headquarters before the video begins to play.



"It looks like to me, your honor and other people of the jury," Cruxias announces, pausing the video with a small remote. "That while the SWIPE interrogations were intense and indeed strayed into uncomfortable at times it was filled with very human emotions like this. The officers are people, they are human, but you can see here the exact opposite of what this Snagem on the stand is proporting. They offered to protect this Luxray hybrid's grandmother, offered him empathy and succor in a time of enormous stress for everyone involved, and yet he stands here and demonstrably lies to the court. Un menteur to the end. I implore you to consider why." The prosecutor thrusts a hand forwards, pointing it at the Snagem on the witness stand again. "Why are you standing here and lying to the court? Could it be you had doubts about the purity and 'forgiveness' as you say? Why did you take the radio in the first place? Answer that not only for me but for the whole court to hear." He lets the accusation hang in the air, waiting for Deo's answer.



"Well I don't keep a lot of coins on me, I don't think I have..." As Darts rifles through his jacket, Ogerpon onlooking, he pulls an ancient coin out of one of his inside pockets, recognition flickering into his ruby eyes for a brief moment before it 'plinks' out of his hands, him pantomiming trying to catch it as it bounces from claw to claw and then lands on the warp panel. There's enough delay with the old technology for Gimmighoul's form to be recognized, bursting free of its ball as usual with no regard for Darts' orders as it chases down its favorite piece of currency, landing in the middle of the warp panel with a confused,

"Gimmi?" barely escaping its lips before vanishing out of sight with a corkscrew-spin.

The jacketed Snagem is horrified standing there for a brief but incredibly incredibly long moment before there's another woosh of sound as Gimmighoul returns, triumphantly hoisting the coin above its head.

"Gimmi!" It shouts, clearly unbothered by the seriousness of the situation it had just stumbled into.

"D-Did anyone see you?!" Darts practically shouts, trying to do his best to not bodily lift and shake the little coin gremlin as he kneels down near the tiny returned Pokemon.

"Gim... ghoul." The Ghost-type has to think for a second, but shakes its head after a moment. The Giratina hybrid breathes a sigh of relief as it explains and he turns to the rest of the group.

"It sounds like, according to Gimmighoul here, the other side of this warp panel is inside of a dark closet of some kind - maybe to hold jackets or gym equipment or something. In its own words 'it had better things to be doing than looking around too much' but nobody saw it."

'Faust's' blue eyes cloud over, filled with something that looks less like joy at his case going well and more like akin to pity. He lets the accusations and jabs wash over him, as Jenny begins banging her gavel to try and interrupt him.

"Order, order! I will have order in my court. Bailiff Surge, if you-"

Cruxias holds up a nonchalant hand, interrupting the judge lightly as well as causing the Electric gym leader to pause for a moment as Deo finishes. "As you can see, it is my belief that the court should consider this key question. Why would someone engage in un pacte avec le diable unless there was some reason for it? They said themselves, they did it for their own selfish reasons, a motif that has shown up a few times so far in witness testimony. That they were doing what they believed was right. But who gave them that confidence? Who made it so they felt as though they had the mandat de Arceus to do whatever they wanted carte blanche?"

He pauses, moving himself back towards the table where the box of various electronic devices were still perched. "I have here, all of the camera recordings taken on that first day of questioning when Snagem was taken into custody. You will find no missing moments or strange absences. Just pure evidence. Think on the questions I have brought forward, and it will show you the truth of this case." His eyes lock with the Snagem leader's over the heads of everyone, belying again his indication of just who he thought was at fault here. With that, clearly ceding the rest of his time, he re-seats himself at the desk, adjusting his striped tie back to straightness with a jingle as his prosecutor's badge moves on his lapel.

"Now then, Mister Sub," Jenny seemed to be calming down, despite the manic disruption in her court room a moment ago. "Normally you have been allowing the witness to speak on their behalf," She indicates Deo with a nod as she looks down at him through her spectacles. "However, this witness should count himself lucky not to be found in contempt of court or disrupting proceedings and facing another trial." A sigh escapes the judge's lips as her veneer of official courtroom arbiter drops, considering the Luxray hybrid with more than a little bit of care and concern. "It is fine to be angry, young man, but how best to channel and use that energy should be just as considered as your own anger." Her eyes raise to consider Reno, Sol, and Sub as they cluster around the Defense table, the rest of the team just behind them in the gallery. "Do you have any closing statements? Otherwise I will have the prosecutor call his next witness."

As I sat there, I listened to Deo and couldn’t help but to grimace a little bit. For someone who was part of law enforcement, he apparently was ready to spill out all manner of stuff immediately. He was with Sandgem PD for several years? Didn’t know that from what I talked to him. Did he stay a slick-sleeve the entire time? Because geez, that was rough intro to the court. And it got me to wonder our chances of what Odd and I had set up being maintained. Though, maybe this was all of Cruxias’ plan. Carefully picked out someone when things started to look too good for us. Odd and I kind of left ripples in the courtroom, making some question a few things that were addressed.

Unfortunately, as the two talked, I come to realize it was far worse than that. The radio, the interrogation back at the headquarters, Deo had threw us under the bus and for what…his grandmother? Am I understanding it right? I quickly thought back to the past few weeks, trying to think back to where everyone was, what Deo did in the meantime. Did he end up calling SWIPE at Ein’s tower? Who was he with? It wasn’t with my group. The situation got even more grim the more I thought. He had this thing ever since those blasted interrogations. Meaning he stayed with us during our escape from the Devon Co building. Mr. Devon was confident that no transmissions was going to get out, so if that held true, then Devon wouldn’t know anything about what we saw from SWIPE’s files. But he could have stayed relatively in touch since then. Like the location of where we have been hiding out at. But then why didn’t they come after us knowing where we were? This court trial started to look like a nastier trap than initially perceived. It wasn’t just to trap the ones they sought to bring in, like Sub and Sol…no, they probably figured some were going to separate off for whatever reason. To better their odds in apprehending all of us altogether. I started to feel more justified leaving Tristen behind to help the likes of Doc Stoja, Laverne, and hopefully GRAY to escape. But then again, those back-up plans started to look pretty bad now. Even if we did escape from this courtroom, from Trainer Hill, and wherever the rest of the team were at in the Viridian Forest, where would we go then? The whole, meticulous, hastily cobbled-together, work-in-progress means of trying to get our innocence proven was upended by the most inconspicuous person in the team, ironic that person being a seven-foot tall, musclebound Luxray hybrid.

I looked back towards Odd for just a brief second, seeing our hastily built defense made under the assumption we could win this start to crumble to Cruxias’ examination and Deo’s apparent temper. I looked at the back of Sol’s, Sub’s, and Reno’s head, trying to see if I couldn’t get a read out of them from their body language. Sol came off looking nervous at the very least by what I could tell. I could feel my agitation flare up and if not for my training over these years, my pressure would have went up along with it, ready to just unleash all manner of hell with Deo first on the hit list, knowing he would stand no chance against me. The implications were honestly was worse than Cruxias coming after me, by a grand margin. I was trying all I could to stay calm, remain seated and while I was successful, it was dicey that if I was going to stay that way.

-----

Freth thought back and unfortunately, she had nothing small on her. Bruisers as big as Mamoswine, and nothing really any smaller than her Absol or the Grovile standing right next to her. She would give a shake of the head ‘no’ as confirmation, but as soon as she did, she looked over towards Darts, eyes going wide when the Pokémon vanished; not really sure what went through but worried for the worst. Relief came back when the Gimmighoul came back, and really, that relief turned into bemusement when she realized you couldn’t really ask for anything smaller. Unfortunately, it didn’t really tell her what was on the other end of the warp tile. A closet or perhaps an occupied room for the duration of the court proceedings.

“So, we found a room.” Freth said to everyone. “Great, clears it right up. Someone is going to need to go over and find out what we’re dealing with. Since there doesn’t seem to be anyone on the other end of the tile, getting in should be fine, but it’s the matter of scouting it and I don’t think all of us needs to go.” Freth suggested. “Not until we know what’s truly over there, anyways.”

"That's true," Rachel said, nodding in agreement with Amaranth's words about getting in and out. "Would it be possible to use the crowd to our advantage?" It wasn't going to be easy to get anywhere with this amount of people she could see crowding the entrance. She looked to Amaranth as she asked to check around the back. "Sure, give me a few minutes to see what I can find," she said, slipping away from the crowd and toward the side of the gym. Her goal was to scout the building from all angles, hoping to find some kind of entrance or opening that they could exploit.

He could hear it all. The maelstrom of thoughts and confusion from everyone as Deo's deal that he had cut with SWIPE was brought to light. Not that Reno was excluded from the small sensation of betrayal that Deo had made such a move, but that was always going to be the feeling no matter when this came up. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and it wasn't likely to be the last, but he couldn't take it that personally. They kept their doors open to avoid restricting themselves on who could join and that meant that sometimes you ended up with people who had a background or issues that made it so they might do things for their interest instead of operating purely for the team's interest. But with how close knit their mild isolation made them, it made any time this happened hit harder. Made it hard to not subconsciously blame yourself for letting this happen and then directing the anger towards the offending person if all that person mostly dealt with was you and the others in the group. But now wasn't the time for the team to stew on this. Not with an audience of their peers watching their reactions and judging them based off of it. They needed a lightning rod to draw attention away before their discord got focused on and interpreted as something bad.

He didn't even know he was moving his arm until the sound of metal impacting wood echoed through the room.

Of course he was going to be the thing to draw attention.

Pushing himself to a standing position, Reno would draw his arms back behind his back before speaking. "Sorry. New arm. Haven't quite gotten its quirks figured out. But since I have your attention, I would like to ask: is this truly the strongest evidence the prosecution has to offer?" Reno said, taking a few steps around the defense table to better present himself to the jury and the audience. And also to draw eyes away from the rest of the Snagems for a moment. "Because all I have seen offered in our prosecution for the crime of Snagem allegedly operating in cooperation with Cipher has all been tertiarily related at best. We have an attempt to be provocative with the situation surrounding Dull and the actions that had to be taken. Actions that would be seen as an act of self-defense by most juries, but are being cast as some pre-meditated judge, jury, and executioner bit on an innocent."

Taking a few more paces, Reno would continue with his statement. "Then we have criticisms of a man's efforts to parent in a unique situation that, to be blunt, have not generated results any different than the Pokemon League's own rules have resulted in in a myriad of regions. After all, we have many different trainers starting their journeys at the age of 10, many different Gym Leaders barely into their teens and becoming load-bearing members of a region's trainer infrastructure, and a 9 year old in Paldea as an Elite Four member. I doubt she just immaculately manifested herself into such a position, but we aren't prosecuting her parents or guardians for their efforts." Turning to face towards where Cruxias was currently perched at his table, Reno would give a small sweeping gesture with his right hand towards the prosecutor. "And even Mon-sir Cruxias' Kalos has trainers in their legendary Battle Maison at the grand old age of....four, was it?"

Taking a breath, he would take one single step towards the jury box. He would pass his gaze over the gathered Gym Leaders as he kept the train rolling. "And then we have the last bit of work here. Intentionally needling and penning in a man, prodding away at him until you could trigger an emotional outburst and force him to take what would seem the easiest option just to simply get something resembling relief." Taking a breath as he let the statement hang, he would turn once again to look Cruxias in the eye as a more colder sensation crept its way into Reno's gaze. "How did it feel? Making him feel the same pressure and panic to find relief that he saw what SWIPE told him as much more ominous, as an implied threat that taking this deal would give him the relief that at least his one family member would be safe in those incredibly uncertain times."

Pivoting back towards the general audience, he would sweep his arms open as he said. "All I have left to ask is when will this trial actually focus on the alleged crimes that instigated such a strong response that Deo being reminded of it resulted in a trauma response. Because so far, all I've seen is efforts to construe actions taken that were entirely unrelated to the charges against us in their worst light. Perhaps the prosecution wishes to call me next. Attempt to convince the jury that my mobility aids are made out of dissected Beldums and that I use them to crush Pidgeys in my spare time." He would stride back to the defense table as he finished, every step with his left leg deliberately letting out a loud metallic thunk as the prosthetic leg kept his pace regular. Returning to his seat, Reno did his best to keep a straight back and firm posture, even as internally he began to berate himself for biting and deciding that he had to speak up at this point.

Back with the rest of the Snagems, Aria would bite her tongue as she heard the needling and pushback against Deo. As much as she wanted to berate and take him to task over this sort of a deal, it seemed unwarranted to kick the poor guy while he was down right now. No, that could wait for later, once she could properly take a chunk out of his hide without it feeling like abuse. Or never, if they went to prison. There was no way in hell she was going to end up in the same prison as any of the hybrids.

-----

Listening to Freth speak about sending someone inconspicuous through to try and scout things out, Leslie found her gaze drifting over to the one human in the room. Staring towards Aile, the small hybrid girl would clap a hand on Aile's back and attempt to get her moving towards the warp panel. "As the only human-looking one, you're up Lefty." Leslie called out, taking a step back in case Aile was still here and not in the Gym now. No need to get whacked immediately for trying to influence who went where.

The cold click-clack of heels fell on a courtroom whose occupants were still, to some measure, trying to gather themselves from the roller coaster experience that was Deo.

Every tap on the floor echoed like she walked on cold concrete, somewhere in the bowels of Flower City. She was used to walks like this, stares from an entire room, her body more exposed than it was on this occasion. Except those rooms usually weren't this brightly lit, there weren't television cameras pumping sixty frames a second of her saunter to the greatest audience in history, and there weren't this many men around—especially one escorting her. Surge's scowl teetered between disdainful and lecherous.

For a moment, as she sat in the chair that was pulled out, she thought of the people she'd met who weren't here, watching on myriad devices. The patrons of Shadow House. A tablet in ChiChi's dance studio in Mesagoza. Employees on their work break at the Virbank Complex. Somewhere, Krasha was probably on tour, too.

She fixed her gaze on Cruxias, his white getup bearing all the symbolic dinginess of King Faba's royal garb, adjusted the microphone down from where Deo had to put it, and exhaled.

"My name is Monique Kaʻanaʻana, former sheriff, former showgirl, and member of Snagem since 2021. And because you have questions, I'm not exactly from here. My world fell apart before I was born and then was killed off at the hands of Ultra Beasts. I've spent my time in this world trying to ensure we avoid the smoggy fate that choked mine." She looked up for the slightest instant, imagining the Dome covering them instead of a normal roof, before turning back to Cruxias. How will he fare talking of a world that isn't his own? she thought.

I watched Deo make his way back down to his seat, trying to do all I could from not jumping up and taking him out now on principal. It wouldn’t have done any good, sure, but at least it would have been a temporary relief to what I was feeling right now. Sub would then get up, making his minor speech, as did Reno following up, as if this all was planned by them…a joint effort to salvage Deo’s outburst and further discredit all of Cruxias’s accusations, calling out hypocrisy in Reno’s case. Cruxias seemed to take it as if he saw and dealt with this all before. This was nothing new. And I wasn’t sure how Sub’s and Reno’s went over with the court at large, never mind the judge and jury. Every word spoken felt as if an eternity had passed; each excruciating moment of trying to hold myself together and not fly off the handle was testing the limits of my patience.

Cruxias wasn’t done, however. He went on, hardly phased, if any, from that whole speech from Reno and Sub. He goes on to call Monique forward. Okay, I understood now why Deo…but now Monique? What, did she also have a radio of some kind on her too? Christ, I’m not sure how much more I can take of this…