Eagle of Zeus

When Sean answered the questions the way he wanted them to be answered he simply nodded his head, giving a quick glance to the jury to see if any of them were paying more attention than the rest of them. Sadly none were doing so, though a couple of them were sitting on the edge of their seat, metaphorically speaking of course, because of the person who was sitting in the witness ‘box’. He needed to get Mr. Collin out of there much quicker than he had originally planned on doing because of this but he still had one last question he needed to ask the man before he stepped back to let Clement cross-examine his first witness, if the man did so of course.

Leaning against the prosecutor’s table he looked back towards Sean, he truly wondered if he should ask the question, part of him didn’t want to but in the end he decided on doing so. “Now, Mr. Collin on the night of the Gala, you did admit to helping Mr. Clement steal the device, this is correct? You yourself did not touch the machine, Mr. Clement was the one who ‘carried’ it out, correct?” He knew it was and the jury knew it was but he had to have this statement on record, he needed the jury to hear one of his witnesses at least saying that yes Clement was the one who stole the artifact. It wasn’t the most important question and probably not the best one he could have asked in this situation be he figured it needed to be asked and with it out there on the record now there was no taking it back.

When Mr. Collin answered the question he nodded his head and sat back in his seat. The judge of course asked if he had any further questions for Mr. Collin to which he of course replied that he did not. “No your Honor, I have no more questions for Mr. Collin at this moment.” Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for whatever questions Clement was going to ask Sean. They had to be based somewhat around the questions Rey himself asked and he couldn’t go off onto any subjects Rey hadn’t already opened up on the table. Rey knew the questions about his daughter were going to open up a multitude of questions but he had a feeling in his re-examination he could patch up any holes if need be.

Ignatius paused, collecting his thoughts as the prosecutor returned from the open floor of the Court. It was in his opinion that perhaps the choice of Witness wasn't the best; Sean obviously had very little interest in being within the court or even recalling the events as they occurred. In fact Clement supposed it was a miracle Mr Miller hadn't pressed him harder and forced the young man into making a recollection that was either false or simply coloured negatively by the proceedings. In Clement's mind he was graphing out approval ratings from the jury, trying to map their thoughts and feelings like an equation that he could simply solve. After all even if he was in fact informing them and the general public of the near truth of his criminal career, it was how he would present it and how much the believed that mattered. Clement stood.

"Mr Collins," He began softly as he approached the witness stand. He stopped at some 10 feet, keeping his body at a shallow diagonal so that the Jury and the Witness faced him at the same time. When he began again, he was slightly louder, having made sure everyone was attentive. "I want you to focus on the night of the robbery. Would it be of your opinion that I acted in a overly hostile, violent manner?" He moved slightly, pacing just a bit from side to side. "Would my behaviour have suggested that I was, perhaps, uncontrolled and violent? Or would I have been better described as methodical in my attempt that no one was hurt?" At this point, Clement returned back to his desk and lifted a folder, photocopies of legal documents. "Police reports of other witnesses state that I only fired once, with the property damage sustained by another vigilante, a man named BlackOut."

The Doctor turned back towards the stand and gave an honest if quizzical examination. "I fell into a rather cliché way of communication when we first met, monologuing an origin story. There are transcripts of that also, but did you at any point doubt the sincerity of my actions, or words?" Clement might have been tipping his hand a bit too early; focus on discredit the lawyer attempting to depict him as a lying megalomaniac, paint himself as a victim of circumstance and a humanist simply ensnared by the red tape of the twenty first century. Personally he was hoping that Sean would indeed inform the court that while he had taken preventive actions to stop people from escaping and setting off alarms, he had done so only to retrieve a vital piece of machinery.

Ignatius didn't smile as Sean gave his curt short replies. Smiling would imply that he was at ease and showing the court disrespect with what he was slowly building. Inside however he was very pleased the questions were answered in an easier and much more positive way then the prosecution lawyer. The Jury would probably have Sean's testimony in mind when they came back to analysing the information from this part of the proceedings. "Thank you, Mr Collin." He turned to the judge and informed her easily that he had no further questions. She dismissed him with a wave of her fingers and he turned in the empty space, walking back to his seat. The brief period where he face the gathered audience was actually rather intimidating. Very few of the faces seemed pleased and the few that were smiling had the air of hungry vultures about them. A young man seemed particularly displeased with the whole circus act but Clement noticed most of it directed behind him, towards the witness.

He sat comfortably and adjusted his tie followed with his cuff links. Judge Zysk took a moment to organise more notes as she guided the proceedings, before looking up at to Clement's opponent. With a stern voice she asked, "Does the Prosecution have any further questions?" When informed that Mr Miller lacked any more for the witness, Clement imagined simply because Sean had reacted in a slightly hostile stubborn manner, she focused on the young man in the witness stand. "You may step down." There was yet another one of those uncomfortable, formal pauses as Sean Michael Collins vacated the scene with another. As they left a gentleman in a black suit and sunglasses, off to Clements left, mumbled something imperceivable to his wrist. Ignatius frowned slightly as he noticed it in his peripheral vision. An arranged tail perhaps? It seemed the anti-metahuman sentiment was becoming more officially regulated by the state.

"Mr Millers, you may call another witness."

As he sat down Rey looked at the notes that had been taken by the rest of the Prosecution team and sighed softly flipping through them quickly. That had not gone at all as they had planned, and although it was expected that Sean wouldn’t agree with everything they said, he had truly hoped the man had a brain down somewhere in that body along with a heart. But, it was to be expected from the son of Elena Marie Collin, a witch Ranger was very well acquainted with. They had their next witness planned out, heck they had two of them planned out but a certain Ryan Blake was apparently off the grid after his group the Sentinels fell down and got destroyed. So, instead they were left with one true witness left a surprise witness, who quite honestly after this would be no surprise at all.

It of course wasn’t long before Cosmos finished his simple questions with Sean and the man left the court house with one other man. Looking to the judge when she spoke Rey nodded his head and stood up, “of course,” he looked to Cosmos wanting to see the expression on the man’s face when he told the courtroom, and mainly him, who their next witness was going to be. “The State calls Ashley Ferrier to the stand.” She was an acquaintance of Bliss Fokukama and also there on the night of the Gala incident with Dr. Clement, as well as others if he had his information correct. She was the key to this entire thing; she was his trump card so to speak. Most cases used evidence and the such but the State, being Washington D.C. this time wanted the trial over quickly so not much time was given to prepare.

On an increasingly cold day Ashley opened the door to her haven from the coldness of Buffalo. The destruction and consequent danger of New York pushed her to the outer cities of the state, driving up property prices and causing a minor recession to sweep through the middle incomes of the state. No work. No where to live, but it was safe.

This day brought more than just the unsuspected arrival of her one time coworker, Siddhartha, whom would retire to spend the remainder of his stay upon Ashley's couch much to his chagrin, it also brought a formal subpoena delivered by a pair of very serious men. "Served. One week." Any reading into Ashley's file would show she more than knew what happened.

"What does that mean." Sid lacked the finer things.

"It's a subpoena."

"For Bliss?"

"For Doctor Cosmos."

A nervous shrill shouted out from Sid at the mention of Cosmos. "Oh my God, do you think he remembers me?"

"No, he's on trial; he has bigger fish to fry."

"How are you getting into this trial of Cosmos; you're not a genius."

"You just lost the couch--" Knowing the warm air of inside did no good against the frigid chill of the cold New York winters, Ashley closed the door and stepped back into the entryway. "I'm to testify over the events that took place during a gala in which a molecule something or other was stolen."

"You stole something?"

"No--" Ashley trailed off. "Well, kind of. But, I don't know what I'll say."

"Why did you steal it."

"Focus. It says I need to be in DC in a week. They will provide accommodations should I require them." Finishing the last clause of the type, Ashley set the paper upon an end table before the door she used for stacks of mail.

"After you guys stole that thing, did you know--"

"No. You just lost the floor."

"Oh, you totally did. Head canon. This is head canon." Mimicking a reeling of film around his forehead begot the image of Sid inscribing the knowledge into his dirty mind. "I'll be your plus one."

"Do you ever come out of the world of shouting the 'n' word at 12 year olds for long enough to understand how reality works?"

"So, I have the house to myself for a week?"

"I'm not leaving today. I don't have to be there for a week-- and you have yet to explain why you are here."

"Bliss told me to show up here."

"Why here?"

"She said she didn't want me to know where she lives. Maybe she knew this was coming and wanted me to--"

"If Bliss is clairvoyant she would've done things a little different on the night with the stolen machine."

"Bliss helped too?"

"Not in the way you would think help would come."

"So she Blissed it up?"

"This is actually where the phrase comes from."

"The first Bliss-up in recorded history. What happened?"

"Bliss tried to blow up the lab, so I hit her in the head with a wrench."

"How'd that turn out?"

"Bliss got back up and blew up the lab."

"Predictable, but still a better ending than Mass Effect."

"I don't know what you're talking about, because I'm a grown up. And given the crude things I've seen you scribble down in that journal you don't think anyone knows about, I'll call into question your understanding of how something ends properly."

"Oh, shit. Those are just jokes."

"Sure."

"No, seriously, no one else needs to see those--um, jokes."

"Just like you don't need to go to DC."

"Exactly like that."

On the day of the trial, Ashley found herself escorted through the throngs of people by a team of guards. For a moment Ashley thought it felt almost like stepping into the shoes of some kind of celebrity, but she couldn't feel any form of adoration. Press leaked all kinds of stories relating to her in the past few days, and none of it came across as flattering. Several pieces brought up the death of her father and mother repeatedly-- and those were the more flattering ones. The majority of the reports linked her from being a flousie to being a mastermind behind a criminal syndicate.

The lights faded behind the large metal doors reinforcing the newly redone justice building. Two oak doors laid before her and whatever this entire escapade would turn out to be. One guard took a door by the handle and pulled to allow Ashley the comfort of holding her hands together as she walked down the aisle towards the gate to the witness stand. A bead of sweat ran down her forehead. The lights from every corner of the room brought an unearthly heat to the frozen season.

Her heart beat as she stepped into the witness stand, almost forgetting what to say when she was first sworn in. Every time she watched someone stumble over the simple oath "I do" she would chuckle at the ridiculousness of the such a simple sleight. Never again. Everything about this seemed ridiculous, but nothing deserved a chuckle.

His eyes betrayed him first, a tightening at the corners and a lowering of his brow. A near 500 terrawatts of dislike was focused on Mr Millers as he heard the doors behind him open. Ignatius didn't care about himself of course, but the idea that Ashley was going to have to take the stand? He considered she wouldn't be the worst witness for his own defence but then they never really talked about that night again, or what they could have seen. The elder man shifted in his seat but refused to look back into the sea of faces behind him. The press were as likely waiting to catch his expression as much as the prosecutor.

No, he waited until she was passed his desk and on the way to the witness stand to lay eyes on her once again. How long had it been? It felt like months. It might have been months. As she sat and fumbled through the swearing he looked down to his desk, focusing on the written words there. Reports from other people, reports from people who didn't make him feel more guilty for the things he did. None of these thoughts played across his features, he was quick to put that neutral-slightly-interested expression of scientists detached from bias. But he felt unsettled by the presence of Ashley for another reason; Where was Bliss?

Quickly trying to adjust his approach to the trial to new stimulus, he awaited the Prosecutors questioning.

Short, sweet, and to the point; that is how Rey Adrian Miller wanted this court case to go. He wanted the attention and press away from it and out of the hair of the world, more so than that he wanted Doctor Clement Ignatius locked up behind bars for the rest of his very long life. This was one of the two witnesses that was going to help accomplish his legal goal of making this world a better place, if he didn’t screw it up. He looked over some papers as he watched Ashley walk down through the isle to the front of the courtroom he went through everything in his mind. He was trying to put the rumored world’s smartest man behind bars and to do this he would have to use witnesses from an event he had never heard of before picking up this case.

As she was sworn in she sat down and Rey gave her a light smile to let her know everything was going to be fine as he stood up. “Mrs. Ferrier, do you know who the man sitting over there is?” He asked casually pointing over at the defendant’s table before looking back at her to see what her reaction to the question was. When she answered it, and when or if she said yes as he assumed she would he would continue on with his next question. This just happened to be a fairly simple question, “Now, Mrs. Ferrier I’d like you to tell the jury your story of that fateful night of the Gala if you would.” He said with a slight smile on his face. It was a fairly simple question but it required a long explanation from her, unless of course she too decided to go short and not very to the point like Mr. Collin did. When presenting a case there were always good witnesses and bad witnesses, he hoped she would not be a bad witness. Because as far as Dr. Clement knew this case was riding on her shoulders.

Thinking back to one of the oddest nights of her night overwhelmed the woman with all kinds of intersecting thoughts of how to say what she needed to do without telling the truth. "Well the night Dr Clement stole the device..." She was off to a great start; with enough work Ashley could probably get Cosmos' sentence commuted from community service to the death penalty. "I mean..." She laughed and tried to smile it off while fanning her hand over her face. "The night the, uh, machine was stolen, or taken, there was a lot of confusion on all of the details. All I know was a number of superpeople made a grab for this machine, and for any number of reasons the device disappeared." Her hands accompanied the testimony in what lawyers like to call "fabrication". "Just because a machine leaves doesn't mean it was stolen." It typically does. "Some guy with crazy lightning stuff was there and who wants technology more than people who use electricity?" Mostly inter-dimensional doctors with dead families they want to bring back, but no, keep going Ashley; you're truly doing great here, and this surely won't ramble on for ten minutes.

Bliss connected two fiber optics cables into the usb ports alongside her laptop to wire in her quantum computer from the mobile command position she fashioned out of a refurbished ice cream truck. "How's she doing?"

After an uncomfortable silence begged to end, Sid came through on the other end of Bliss' computer. "Bad."

"How bad?"

"We're at eight minutes and she's saying the Pledge of Allegiance."

"In response to what question?" Bliss brought her head up with such a ferocious jolt the headset adjoined to her ears almost fell off.

"Oh, they haven't asked a question in a good five minutes."

"Well, when this is all said and done we can make up a story about how this was planned and she is actually a political mastermind."

"You would do that for a friend?"

"What can I say; I like challenges."

Clement winced inwardly at the first lie, his face unchanging as he silently pleaded for her to not try to protect him this time. It was enough to nearly undermine the very idea he cared about what happened here; He was, officially by US record, a hundred and sixty four years old. He had lived through the total extinction of his own universe and two world wars of this one. It was very strange for him and perhaps even pride wounding in some regards. The Greatest Mind on Earth did not need to be lied for, it could handle it's own discretions. Or maybe, rather then all the grandiose bluster, he felt truly guilty for compromising the young woman. She was perhaps the closest thing he had to a living weakness now that Cassidy Rose... Well, he couldn't dwell on that. He shouldn't dwell on it.

But as the minute of chatting turned into minutes The Cosmic Man grew concerned. Judge Zysk grew impatient, her tired eyes wrinkling. Someone in the the "audience" tittered quietly but was cut off quickly, most likely from a sharp look from the others. When the testimony had been firmly derailed, the wreckage burning spectacularly, she lifted her hammer and smashed it down in three hard strokes; from the sound and enthusiasm in the practised movement Judge Zysk took the most enjoyment in the simple violent movement. "Miss Ferrier, the court would like to remind you that continuing to waste time can lead to a sentence ranging from six months to four years. And that's being lenient." She gave the young woman a critical glare.

"Judge Zysk, if I may," Began Clement, attempting to rise from his seat. The gavel was jabbed in his direction, aimed nearly threateningly.

"No you may not, Mr Clement. The Prosecution still must continue with it's inquiries, if it has any." Now it was Mr Millers turn to gain the ire of the ornery Judge. "Do you have further questions?"

((sorry its a crappy short post))
Nothing was going right; Rey hadn’t gotten a good question in sense his first one about ten minutes ago. His ‘team’ or more correctly Clement Technology had given him perhaps the worst witness in the world. They wanted the case over, they wanted Clement in jail, and so they rushed things. They didn’t give him a chance to meet with any of the witnesses, didn’t give him a chance to see what they knew and how they’d react, didn’t even allow him to read up much on them beforehand. So, of course everything they had hoped for and worked up to had just been completely torn apart by this ‘witness’ and made himself look like a complete and utter idiot. He wanted to call her out on lying on the stand but of course it would make him look even worse to call it out on his own witness. So, he’d just have to work with what he had…which was certainly not much at all.

When the judge finally stepped in to stop Miss Ferrier, it was like a light shining down from heaven and everything going right. Finally someone had done what he himself had not been able to, and silence the lying voice that did not seem to stop. “Thank you Your Honor...as to if I have anymore questions, I certainly do but am unwilling to ask them if Miss Ferrier continues to lie about them. So, no… The Prosecution rests with this witness.” He said turning to Dr. Clement he shook his head before sitting down. ‘I would not think that the ‘world’s smartest man’ would have a witness stall and lie for him.’He thought to himself “Dr. Clement can ask her whatever questions he wishes before we call our final witness…”

"That makes your ass look big."

"I know-- I'm thinking of keeping this as a regular outfit." A cross stitching of mesh fibers and an undercoating of a rubber substance wrapped against Bliss' skin. A rubbery column ran the course of her upper vertebrae down to her lower lumbar, collecting the frozen core of her body for a more precise focus. "How are we doing."

Sid looked over to the monitors he set up in Ashley's house before relaying his account to Bliss. "Making a mockery of the legal system."

"People mad?" Bliss buttoned a blouse over her suit.

"Apparently she is in violation of obstruction of justice, misleading a criminal preceding, and using a court to make a mockery of the legal system."

"That last one is a charge? I thought it was more of a founding principle."

"Either way, no one's laughing."

"She pulled a McCollough hat trick; it may not be proper procedure, but it's goddamn impressive."

"People don't like being mocked."

"W. E." With a little more subtle of a business suit, Bliss stepped out of her mobile command center. The cotton fibers flushed against the woven stitching when Bliss tugged against the lapel to brush out the vent of her jacket. All in all it did a fine job of masking the underneath suit from the public eye, with a light, blue ascot covering the upper collar of the suit her blouse failed to cover. "Make sure you record this hearing if it's as bad as you say it is."

"I've got the DVR set on 'Which is Cuter.'"

"Way to demean women. Try not to get Ashley's couch pregnant."

"No, it's a show where you compare which animals are cuter."

"Oh my God, we'll just find footage of the hearing on CNN; keep recording that." Some court preceding called Bliss to make her way to a more suitable vehicle to make her trek across town.

"Don't forget to take your HUD down when you get to the courthouse."

"You don't think they would buy it's the latest fashion trend?"

"You couldn't sell racism to the south."

Before making her turn to get to the courthouse, Bliss failed to estimate how close 'Next Right' really was. "I'm a little hurt by--" Butting into her conversation came Bliss' old nemesis-- GPS. "I know I missed the turn! Stop telling me to turn around when there is clearly no off ramp! It's not my fault DC doesn't know how to formulate a grid!"

"Aren't you supposed to have a police escort to a court house."

"Supposed to. Yes. Do I. No."

"Are they going to get mad?"

"We're a little past that right now."

When Bliss pulled up and showed her identification they were a little mad. But they got over it, because Bliss opens her back door, grabs her jacket, and puts it on one arm at a time just a little better than everyone else. Now she could make her way inside past the slew of reporters and get this thing over. She just needed to decide if her opening statement should be incriminating or judgmental. They both felt good. Maybe a combo of the two.

Ignatius felt the slight respect and admiration of the lawyer vanish in the instant he accused Ashley of lying. Of course, she had and would still be lying if they had waited much longer, possibly insisting the sky was pink instead of blue or that time was simply a predestined creation when viewed from the outside of it's envelope. Perhaps she would have declared the earth flat and then praised the good doctor for accepting it upon his shoulders, though that might have had a grain of truth. He brushed the other man off with a sour tightening of his eyes about the corners before he stepped from around his desk, having refused to sit. When given the chance he walked quickly, with purpose, into the small stage between witness stand, judge, jury and the audience. "While Mr Millers' insinuation was unneeded, perhaps it was for a better word... True." Judge Zysk hovered the gavel over her desk, waiting to apply the small circular hole she had carved through many years of dealing with the stupid.

"As-Miss Ferrier, there is enough evidence of the night of the Gala to suggest that I did indeed steal the Genetic Resequencer, moved it into an abandoned section of the subway I had commandeer from the city of New York then vandalised after it... failed to bring Cassidy Rose out of her cyrogenic slumber." It was here he made a point of pausing, hoping that Ashley indeed took the hint about the single thing he was lying about; Cassidy Rose Clement had been brought to life. Dr Cosmos had allowed an otherworldly parasite to inhabit her brain and new mechanically arcane body. But here in front of the court, he was attempting to keep the tampering of organic structure under tight wraps so that he could somehow undo the monstrous things he had done. "My innocence is not in question, I am guilty of stealing that machine. What I simply want to know from you, before you may step down from the witness stand, is whether or not you believed my actions on the night of question could suggest a possibly legally exempting reason for these crimes."

He had paced slightly as he talked, occasionally using one of his hands to emphasize points with swings of his hands like he was lecturing or speaking before a hall of students. Any attachment to Ashley was pushed back in a scholarly manner for the last part of the question; it was better to sound and appear as unbiased as possible when he asked for her to lie, slightly, for him.

After listening to what Cosmos had to say through his questioning the Judge asked Rey if he had any more questions, or his re-examination if one wanted to be technical. He of course did not have anymore questions to ask at this time and place so of course declined the offer. That ‘witness’ if you will might look as if she had killed any sort of case he had, if one had only see the tail end. But, if they had been watching the entire case they would surely know that she had only helped him by stalling and lying on the stand. Doctor Ignatius Clement was not going to get out of this case a free man, but as the clock stricked ten thirty so too did the Judge’s hammer.

It was a Friday night and as a mother of two teenage boys she had to be up in the morning to run them to their soccer games and do other soccer mom things. So, seeing as it was a good time to halt the case and allow everyone to go home for the night she called a break. Or recession if you will, they would pick the case back up the next Monday. This of course was fine by Rey as it would give him more time to actually look into everything that happned, publicly, in Doctor Clement’s life and what type of person he is. Perhaps even talk to some people that knew him or had relatives that knew the man. Anything and everything he could find out about ‘The Good Docor’ would help him. For the next three days he would be doing nothing but research, this was in fact the biggest case of his life. Hero work could wait, and Darkboy as well as the other vigilanties were enough to handle Atlanta and Chicago while he was away fro three days.

Standing up he shook hands with the rest of his prosecution team, supplied to him by Doctor Clement’s late buisness, he put up his papers in his suitcase. Removing his suit coat from the back of his chair he turned and exited the court room, making sure as to not talk to any of the press upon doing so. After a short three minutes of shuffiling through the sea of cameras and questions to get to his car he closed the door and reved the engine. His Firari Enzo roared to life making any reporter still around quickly back off as he backed out of the parking space and took off back to his hotel room where he was staying during the course of this trial. Tonight was not over for him, his work had nearly just begon and he was going to find out what he needed to know. This man was not going to leave a free man, not on his watch.
((exit Ranger))