Mina slammed her hands down on the podium. "So what, Ashley? My client can't testify now just because he impersonated a robot?"

"Well…" Divine said with a sad look on her face. "If he's going to tom-robot around, it clearly indicates he is not taking this case seriously."

"Beep boop," Mantron answered sadly. "Apology mode activated!"

He pressed a button on his helmet and his visor slid down revealing his sorrowful French face.

"Please don't make me sit down, Madame! I can behave! Being a robot eez simply a defense mechanism I…"

"Doesn't matter," Ashley remarked and lifted a jet black tape from the table. "You've already made yourself the robutt of the joke here. And I have hard-line evidence here that you and the murder victim were NOT good friends!"

"Wat eez zat?!" Todd demanded. "Did you just steal our DeFunkt master tapes?"

Ashley Ryan fluffed up her mane of hair. "No. This incriminating tape makes all your master tapes look like apprentice tapes in comparison! This is a recording of the last words you said to Christian DeChamps before you performed the epilogue of your career…and his life!"

"That's…sacre…" Todd said, trembling.

"Bull!" Mina cried pointing her finger at Ashley.

"How exactly did you get that?"

"A witness donated it to the humble prosecution of this trial!" Ashley smirked. "Now please your honor, let us roll this tape!"

"Er…" the judge mumbled. "Sadly we don't have a VCR. It's 2024. But back in my day…we used to watch all incriminating scenes in black and white theatrical reenactments!"

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"Geez Louise," Mina exclaimed. "How long ago was it? The 1600s?!"

"No, darling," Divine answered. "I'm talking about ust drama club!"

Not missing a beat, Ashley raised her E-Phone. "Luckily, the tape was just a metaphor! Everything was recorded on digital. Now let it roll!"

The overhead screen came down allowing everyone to see Todd and Christian's last reinactment. They were in Todd's room, dressed in their silver and gold robot outfits. Christian with his long hair, short stature and boxy face practically glared scarlet laser beams from his eyes. Todd seemed a bit more defensive.

"I am sorree, Christian," Todd answered his friend's defiant state. "Eet eez over! I cannot do DeFunkt anymore. Not with our clashes!"

"Non," Christian answered in a gutteral, deep French accent. "You 'ave always decided what we do, you slimy snail. Eef you wanted to dress up like tin cans, we did so. If you wanted to be zee star and make me zee sidekick, you did zat as well! Now you say we aren't robots anymore, just because you are afraid of Chit Chat Bots!"

Christian exclaimed, "You don't get eet. Chit Chat Bots are evil!"

"Non," Christian said, shaking his brunette lots. "Een my point of view, you are evil! You cost us our careers because you couldn't handle the existence of an actual robot! They don't even write good songs like us! Eet eez tres novelty!"

Todd patted the bulky jetpack on Christians back. "I hope you have a nice career, Christian. Perhaps you can get AI to automate it too! All I know, eez after zis, we are over and so eez your fame!"

The video went black, leaving the audience in stunned silence. Ashley Ryan crossed her arms and mimicked Todd in a perfect French accent. "'We are over and so eez your fame'! Sounds pretty ominous to me. And my expert 200/200 vision picked up something else interesting!"

Ashley pointed to Todd who had encased himself in his robot shell to avoid witnessing his deeds. "Mr. Matinee also laid his fingers on the very jet pack that sent Ladbot straight to an early epilogue!"

There were rumbles in the crowd. A young boy muttered loudly. "I can't believe Mantron broke up with Ladbot over an AI bot! That thing can't even do my homework properly!"

His mom glared at him before she added, "And it doesn't even make a good father either!"

The judge raised her glasses. "We've tried virtual judges before, but they can't match my wit, sass and unimpeachable fabulosity!! There's just some things a robot can't do!"

Ashley's eyes glinted slyly at Mina. "What's wrong, rookie? You look like you want a robot to write your response for you!"

Mina slunk lower and lower in her seat. She knew Todd had a good green aura, but no one else did. After all, they all knew why Defunkt went defunct!