~~*Organzation XIII goes to court*~~

Kairi was a bit distracted by the fact that her M&Ms were almost gone despite it being a mega-bag. It was as if there was a leak somewhere that she couldn't detect. Granted, she was getting slightly bored. But as long as Sora was by her side, she didn't really mind. Kairi wondered what was going on in all of the lawyer's heads at the moment.

Pika_Power seemed pretty sure of himself that Larxene would get all of the charges slammed down on her.

Harvey Birdman looked like he would do a facepalm due to his partner's enthusiasm.

Xelax was probably waiting to strike at his arch-rival's questions with more of his overly arrogant gestures. (And a few other moves that seemed to be pointed toward Larxene.)

And Janexna just seemed like she wanted to get it on with Axel.

Finally, there was also the Judge. He seemed to have a lot of wisdom in his young years. However, he still seemed a bit suspicious to Kairi. It was pretty convenient that this person popped out of nowhere when the first judge was critically injured. But he seemed fair and just. He definitely knew what he was doing.

In case things took a turn for the worse, though...Kairi silently hoped that the phone call was the right thing to do...

 

OOC: No... I was defeated because I presented a perfectly good scenario, which lacked evidence...

Xelax smirked... confidently... before yelling out...

at the top of his lungs...

"Please, Murder Xemnas, we haven't even discussed the trial. And "Take on" hardly equals murder. This is not a confesion... get it right Mr. Power."

"How could Larxene considering Namine fragile "prove" she manipulated her?"

"Also, you have no evidence claiming Namine's lonelyness was caused by Larxene, or even that was she was lonely at all." Xelax shook his head, "In fact, you made the point quite clear yourself that Namine being a nobody cannot be lonely."

"Larxene has not been charged with anything conserning the Riku Replica... I'm sure you would find what Vexen has to say on the matter of "Repliku" quite interesting."

"There is also no evidence that Larxene ever intended to kill Namine."

Xelax lowered his head...

"Mr. Power... are you really going to make all these acusations without evidence?" He pounded his fist on the table, "I demand you show me evidence..."

"Your Honor... I sugest we bring up the penalties for Mr. Power unless he can prove all the claims he made!"

!!!!!​

He looked over and winked at Larxene... although he doubted she could see it through the hood...

 

Naminé groaned. She knew this was going to happen. Mr. Xelax was going for revenge for being penalized before. She didn't know if Pika_Power had the evidence to back up his claims on this one. Maybe he should have consulted with Mr. Birdman first before firing off the accusations like that. She had some confidence in the Pokémon's abilities, but she had to face it. Both Mr. Power and Mr. Xelax had pretty much the same style of handling the case. Both were eager to jump on whoever was on the witness stand and accuse wildly without thinking of evidence. Naminé almost wondered what would've happened if Harvey or Janexna had done the Cross-Examinations. Would the opposite side have still raised an "OBJECTION!"? She knew that she had to have hope, but something told her that the prosecution had leapt before they looked...

 

Roxas, knowing nothing of Xelax's tactics and the way Namine was treated, turned to her and exclaimed "he's good. With him on our side, we're bound to win!"
He then noticed her worried face. "Hmm? What's wrong?" Roxas couldn't understand it. Larxane tormented Namine, and kept her prisoner. She manipulated her. Now she was getting her just deserts, but Namine just sat and frowned. If it were me, I would be elated. For some reason she isn't thrilled at seeing her captor being punished... he thought. Then Roxas had a brainwave. Namine was upset at the old memories resurfacing! He slowly put his arm around her and softly comforted "It's okay, you're free now, that's all in the past. Now you have found Kairi, and we will live on Destiny Islands!"

OoC: Roxas is clueless! XD


"The pokemon jumped in surprise at the objection before screaming out his own.

"I am aware that 'Take on' does not equal murder. Which is why I am asking. If she included it in her testimony, I can cross-examine it, correct?"

That was the easier one...

" Show me where I said 'Larxane thought Namine was fragile, this means she manipulated her.' What I said was that Larxane knew Namine was fragile, she aided this by taunting, then took advantage of her weak mind to force her to change Sora's memories."

Okay, the next one would be harder...

"Namine herself said she was lonely. The loneliness was caused by Larxane confining her in Castle Oblivion. Taunting and Teasing someone with emotional turmoil is likely to weaken the person's mind state more."

Pika_power took a deep breath.

"And Namine may not have had a heart, but as admitted by DiZ, the leading researcher in hearts, Namine and Roxas were special nobodies. This is quite possibly because their others were still alive. This leads to the possibility of them having a connection with their others' hearts, so they could experience emotion. Axel has said that he felt like he had a heart when near Roxas or Sora, meaning that nobodies can have emotions. Namine was not even considered a true nobody. So surely a side effect of being a half nobody could be experiencing emotion? Namine is very much a special case. She has acted in a way that suggests emotion."

The pokemon relished the chance to talk about Repliku.

"That is true, but inadvertently, she brought up a few points that I would like to pursue. Even if she is not charged with doing anything to Repliku, coercion is a matter of persuading someone to do something they would not normally do, by using force or threats. I do not think Namine had any reason to alter the memories of Repliku, especially as it would endanger Sora. As such, she must have been coerced into doing so."

He sighed. The next one would be difficult.

"There is no evidence of Larxane saying she would kill Namine. I was trying to wittily ask her what she would do in the case of Namine refusing to alter Sora's memories."

The pokemon then realized something.

"Also, this is only the cross examination. All I said I was asking for confirmation from Larxane. So unless Xelax has a point that he feels I should not be questioning Larxane about, I should be left in peace. The arguing and presenting of evidence comes after the cross examination, correct?

Oh, and I will supply evidence for everything I say..."


OoC: For the penalization, I think we should clear the slate after each member, as they are different trials, only being done together.

 

Naminé snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Roxas strangely. Then she burst out into a fit of giggles. "Roxas, you're such a goof!" She shook her head in amusement. "You really are Sora's other half." When Roxas continued to look blank, she sighed. "I'm not sad because of what happened in the past. I'm worried because that prosecutor down there is going to be penalized for using outright accusations instead of thinking things through before speaking!" She turned back to the center of the courtroom. "Unless Mr. Power can come up some evidence to back up his accusations, the prosecution's going to take a penalty..." Then an idea popped into her head. "Unless the judge decides that this matter isn't serious enough to wield a penalty. After all, the prosecution hasn't exactly..." Her voice trailed off as she began murmuring to herself. If there was a way out of this, she couldn't think of one...

 

Harvey sighed and wished the Pokemon had waited for him. He SAID he was ready for something but yet Pika Power bulldozed into it and massacred it.

"Look, I request that Pika Powers' questions be pulled so I can ask the ones I have prepared off the statements given because I want answers. Not statements from the Prosecution just yet. May I please have the right to pose these in a better light, your Honor? I can prove at least most of what Pika Power has said but in a much better light that doesn't harm the Defense so much or the Offense. I ask you to allow me to question her with her initial testimony answers to go off of first."

 

Kairi didn't know what to do. Mr. Birdman's attempt to pull the questions away might be thwarted by Larxene answering them. She could almost hear Xelax's cocky laugh...

She looked at Sora and Riku. "Isn't there anything that they could do to get out of this?"

 

OOC: God, how I wish it so....>.<

Larxene was calmly listening to the song, making this the third time hearing it, even memorizing some of the words. Nobody will ever know, so she was in safe haven that the music was for her ears only. She was awaiting to be tried next by the prosecution, so she had the volume low and looking around at particularly nothing, only to be hammered by somebody, and as she took her eyes to the direction, she found it was that yellow thing speaking to her. Knowing it was part of the prosecution, her eyebrows burrowed as she tried to concentrate on what he was saying, not aware that she didn't need to be warned from anyone that she was to be cross-examined now. Whatever the case, the more she listened, the more her distaste of the animal displeased her. Though then Xelax spoke up, and she didn't know whether or not to answer to them since it seems that it wasn't...witholding? This whole court was out of whack.

And again...was Xelax gazing at her? She began to wonder if the stretch was that big of a deal than she anticipated...

Janexna was rubbing her ear, wincing her eye as Xelax's "OBJECTION" blared through her eardrums. Trying to sooth back her hearing that was now numb, she gave her partner a sideways displeased stare, almost pouty. "Watch it. I'm right next to you, you know." Still, she went to frown at how Mr. Power was jumping on her defendant that way, and considering who Larxene was, this will no doubt rile her on to anger. It almost made her shout "OBJECTION" for the first time, but it seems she will leave that to Xelax. Mr. Power was definitely in for a run if she revealed what she had in store in her folder. However, clenching her fists, she gave a blaring nasty stare at him. She wasn't clear what went on in Naminé's case as she was dazed, but his attitude wasn't much better from what she could tell. Call it Larxene fangirlism, but she was getting bothered at the Pokémon. Hearing Birdman, though, she gave a nod, knowing he was more....reasonable. To give the defendant's agreement to the judge, she went to say, "I have no qualms about that..."

OOC: There's magic in pressing Preview from time to time on the Reply buttons to know if anyone else posted something that should be considered before putting up anything ^^.

 

OOC: Agreed. I do it when I can, but in my case, I can't afford to wait that long in case my computer forces me to log out of my account, especially when I have a big post ready. :sideways: That and you never know if someone might have the same idea of using the Preview Post button and waiting for you to post first...:sweat:

Naminé let out a sigh of relief. She was afraid that Larxene was going to answer Pika_Power's questions. But it seemed that Janexna had other plans and quickly agreed with Mr. Birdman's request. But would the judge allow it? Or was there a mutual agreement between the two parties before anything else got out of hand?

And by the way that Xelax was staring at Larxene, Naminé wondered if the defense attorney was stripping her with his eyes...

 

Pika_power stared at Harvey.

"Why?" he said meekly. "Those were questions... I was asking Larxane if she disagreed with them. Can't we both cross examine?"

Pika_power looked down sadly, thoughts running through his head.Great, just great. First case, already my partner is pulling my statements. Ah well. At least I can always go out and jump in front of kids so that I might live some kind of life.

 

OOC: I Know but I'm cooking some food and I wanted to put it up before people kept going without me. I wish Pika would have waited cuz I had a whole thing written out. lol. So I didn't want to chance missing it and then I realized that I could have been better with the explanation so put more. Sorry about that.

Harvey nodded to Janexna. She seemed to be the only other one making much sense on either side at the moment. Sometime he'd have to ask her to do a case with them both on the same side and he had this illusion in his head that they could just walk in, say a few words and walk out rich. Yeah...that'd be cool. Maybe they could have a Lawyer firm of their own. Janexna and Birdman...had a ring to it, no?

Back on track. He looked at her. "Thank you. If you would, your Honor, I would appreciate this chance since both sides agree in the matter."

He looked at Pika Power. "I'm sorry but the first thing you do is question. You need to question, then come out with the proof off those questions. You came in way too hard and we are trying to get a feel for things here. Hardball is only when you need to use it and done with a flair and some zazz."

 

"But it was questioning... Ah well. Okay, so should I requestion?"

OoC: So can someone explain how getting Larxane to answer my questions would be damaging to the case? Repliku could still ask his afterwards, right?

 

OOC: The reason is because of how he initiated the statements instead of asking questions at points. He's 'telling' her how it is and this is what also ICSP's lawyer was doing. In the initial inquiries of the prosecution, it just looks bad; especially after the stuff ICSP was having his lawyer character do. Also, Harvey asked if he could first pose the questions off her statements of testimony bulletin first. If Pika wants to debate it he can.

"I would rather that I ask the inquiries off the bulletin first and make some points. After that you could question. There are points in this case we have to hear before just charging in like a bull. She's the first Organization member up there and we need to understand them more. I don't know about you but I feel it necessary to comprehend how they think and also see if perhaps because they lack emotions but have memories of them that some things weren't lost to them that they just pathologically don't think about. If they can feel anything that way, then it shows any sign of progress. Do you understand? Also, it could get them to see their crimes too. It does help us in the end and gives them a fair trial because they are unique people. We could write them off as serial psychopaths but it is also the point that they are 'alien' in some ways of thought and I think we need to comprehend that and see just how different they are from Hearted people and what they can learn and do. Does this make sense to you?"

Harvey sighed a bit having trouble translating what he meant. "In the end, I want to know if they are absolutely not capable of remorse, benevolence and also empathy. They may lack other emotions but these are often deeper soul feelings that they may just not be comprehending they have but in a selfish manner of just wanting their hearts back. If truly there is nothing at all to them, then this case will easily be handed over to the prosecution anyway and they will likely be put away for existence or get the death penalty because they are ultimate harms to society. However, if they can show more than that serial killer empty mentality and connect to a soul they possess, it may mean at least a few won't have to die or be locked up eternally. It does not change the 'charges'. It merely changes the outcome and also our comprehension of Nobodies, because as there are Heartless still, there will probably be more Nobodies and what happens then?"

 

Naminé smiled at Mr. Birdman's explanation. She also felt slightly ashamed. The fact that she was a Nobody herself meant that she should've been sympathizing with them, right? After all, if they could really change their ways, wouldn't it be worth trying to save all of them?

However, that still didn't excuse the fact that Larxene did what she did and wasn't ashamed at all. That was the difference between the two blondes. Naminé could feel sorrow and loneliness. Larxene enjoyed taking pleasure in causing others discomfort. There was still a difference. Naminé was regaining her ability of feeling sympathy toward certain Org members. The only ones she could think of though, were Roxas, Axel and...Demyx? Everyone else deserved what they got.

Kairi was amazed at that a simple explanation managed to turn things around. Harvey Birdman was trying to understand the defendants so as to give them a chance to apologize and change their way of thinking. However, if it ended up that they were too stubborn to, then she could only hope that the Judge would be able to find a suitable punishment for them...

 

Pika_power nodded. "I understand your plight, but I have one problem with it; special nobodies. Roxas, Namine and to a degree, Axel all felt emotion at some point. Their case is rare, but enough so that they are allowed to have a fair trial. There may be more like them, meaning we will need to try each nobody the normal way. We cannot have a shortcut that says all nobodies must die regardless of whether they have done something wrong. Especially as nobodies can rejoin with their others to regain their hearts.. Even if their other is a heartless, we have been shown normal people can come back from the darkness.

Before we pass judgement, they need to do something wrong, to warrent them being punished. Even then, they can argue that they are innocent, so the circle comes around to then being tried.

The only option is to try them individually. So if your reason for erasing my cross examination was simply to discover if they could all be lumped together for capital punishment, I think you may be misguided."

 

OOC: I think what Repliku's trying to do is exactly what you're saying Pika_Power. The only difference is, Harvey wants to make sure to build a solid foundation of personality of each individual defendant. That way, it becomes harder for the defense to counter your arguments once an accurate picture of how the defendant's actions took place. Charging in recklessly and trying to force one's beliefs onto everyone else is what caused Xelax to get the penalty. In other words, Harvey's trying to prevent that from happening to you.

Or at least that's what I'm getting...

 

OoC: Hmm... I see. Chances are I will still attempt charging in recklessly. If I can provide evidence then I am still safe, right?

 

OOC: Harvey was saying what Destiny just said. Basically it's to try each individual Org member and give them their set of charges individually but also analyze them as individuals and not as a whole group. It is to see if any of them are 'redeemable' and can be fixed with rehabilitation and prison time or to just slam the book and call it life in prison or death penalty. Because of the circumstances being that they are a unique 'race' of their own it is a matter of showing this but to decide if it is harmful or capable of mingling in society. Either way, some charges are of course going to stick but it also lets you know what the prosecution and defense can -negotiate- on later and the Judge will back or not. If it is separated like this as well, it means certain Org members may get off easier than others and others are going to be charged much harsher based on not just their crimes but also their demeanors psychologically. Hope that makes it more clear. This also helps the witnesses as well to show their perceptions more clearly to the Judge because of the demeanors posed to them at the times of dealing with the Org.

Harvey shook his head. "I believe all of them are entitled to a fair trial and it is my and your job to present evidence to show they did these crimes, but it is also the point that we should understand the minds of the people who committed these acts and also to understand the witnesses' points of view too because of the defendants' actions that were so bad. That is the point here. If we go charging in like we are just out to toss charges on them with a loss of discretion, I think we will lose the battle and you will be slammed with being out of line as what happened to the Defense attorney. We can prove the charges. Just let me take care of the opening area here and show you what I mean. She's one part of the problem but in the end she was subservient to Marluxia and had obviously reasons for her decision to be so. My point is the Organization itself is NOT so organized and had problems within it and this is obvious with what all happened. This should be delved into."

He then nodded listening to more. "We have been shown people can come back from Darkness...but only a handful with strong wills. Meaning that we have Sora who was aided by Kairi, and Riku who survived -in- Darkness and was later aided by King Mickey. This is different and these people were very strong in spirit. Not everyone can pull back from such a threshold."

 

The pokemon's anger was fading swiftly. But he still wanted to know one thing. "About how I questioned, should I just repeat myself, or should I save those points for the evidence phase, and just try to gather proof now?"

 

Harvey shrugged. "I think I'd rather you let me do the opening questions and you put up some evidence to what is said so that you don't have a count against you already. I'm doing this also to help you. We have already seen one thing go well out of hand. If we let your questions stand and I do not offer up better ones, you will be objected till the cows come home. If you really want to do it though, go ahead and I guess I will go after and examine the answers. Just say you are rephrasing what you asked of her testimony." Harvey sipped some coffee and was now feeling jittery. This was going to be a long day.