Situation: SCJ Trial
“This man must be brought to the Supreme Justice of our nation!” After sweating a load down his temples, the captain pointed a finger at Fox's person and almost shouted. But he didn’t dare to after turning to look at the NG official, whose NG elements were just getting comfy around them. Similarly, the crowd felt an expressive sense of relief with the national guard’s arrival.
“What is going on here?” The NG official asked without taking his eyes off the captain. After a few seconds, a civilian hesitatingly moved to them, passing by the SPD police, who lowered their weapons and sulked away from the incoming NG elements.
“It’s like this, s- sir.” The civilian, a tall, slightly chubby man, elaborated. He had very short black hair, brown skin, and his sweat was just drying. “These people barged into the protected natural zone and aimed at everyone, even the governor!”
“!!” The captain threw deadly eyes at the civilian, forgetting he was under tight vigilance from the NG official. The latter nodded, not turning to face the civilian, “Uhuh? What else?”
“They came for political party National Front’s president. They wanted to persecute him politically!” The civilian felt the power as the captain retracted his intentions in the face pf the NG official. But when the captain heard those words, he frowned and pointed at the civilian, “That is not true! How can you listen to someone like that? Just look at him! He’s lying!”
“Back off!”
The captain had just lifted his arm and pointed a finger at the civilian when the NG official kicked him away and took a pistol out. Indeed, it was a small pistol. Fox’s eyes didn’t change as he watched this. The NG official aimed at the captain, who laid on the ground holding his left ribs, unable to stand up after being kicked once.
“What the-?!” - “Wait, wait, wait!” - “Aaaagh!” Startled and alarmed cries and exclamations sounded. Some SPD police lifted their small submachine guns or handguns to respond, but they lowered them immediately after, with the national guards already aiming at them and the rest of their comrades. The captain’s cries of pain were emitted shortly after, one after another.
With the number of NGs here, it was already a little above them, and they had armored trucks. Let alone the weaponry and training. One just had to look at the NG official and the state police captain to see the difference.
“I will only say this once,” the NG official articulated, his hold on the small pistol as he aimed at the captain stable. The sky above everyone slowly turned obscurer, nearing the late evening. “SPD has no jurisdiction to act without an official order, and even then, it is illegal to enter a protected natural zone. Both for the protection of nature and dangers of engaging in the forest and jungle areas. You have no training— nor capability.”
“…” The captain slowly stood up after looking up at the NG official like he faced an AO warlord. “H- he is still ordered to return to Proteros immediately, not leave the country, and not even the capital city.”
“… Very well, he will go there.” The NG official continued aiming at the captain before dropping his stance. The captain weakly pointed at Fox, he was at least able to lift his arm. “I will present him to you to send him off after ensuring he is safely-”
“He can go on his own.” Just as the NG official opened his lips and moved his chin, Nala Loba’s voice sounded. The phone cameras were still on…
Heads turning to her, she added, “But there is no public stipulation of your arrest order, or his order to return. As a matter of fact, you just came here without a notice even. Whether your words are true, the NF president is already on his way back to Proteros. The tour is over.”
“It’s over?” The captain had a worried expression. Fox looked sharply at the captain, turning his head a bit. “Yes, it is.”
“…” The captain only seemed to grow from bad to worse. He nodded a bit, but then lifted his head and stared at the NG official without rest. “That is fine, but there should be a notice soon. It must have been a network issue.”
“Hahaha.” The NG official laughed and stepped back. He turned his head left and right, looking at his NG elements who laughed with him, and some civilians, murmuring something about: ‘network issue? In the government? With the IWS?’ and kept laughing before the captain garnered enough courage to continue his words, selectively interrupted just now.
“My SPD is still worried that the news and the leaving party president might be implicated by his previous actions and occur the wrath of the civilians. We’ll escort them.” The captain said, looking at Nala Loba as well, feeling his face washed down by water, but there were only cold, sudden, strong bursts of wind.
“You can chase all you want, nobody is escorting the NF president. Okay,” the NG official finally left the police captain with a lackadaisical attitude and walked to Fox. He actually adopted a slightly subservient disposition, saluting with his closed fingers swinging back and forth on the right side of his head.
“NF president, may the national guard accompany you on your trip? You must be tired, Lymaospasó might suffer a few slides here and there on some rural roads. Why don’t we first bring you to your hotel so you can rest? We will go on our way to Reparta’s intestate highway tomorrow. I’d feel more at ease if we do it safely like this, sir.”
“No way! Official, Lymaospasó’s airport works just fine at night-” The NG official had barely finished his words before the police captain engaged again. The former turned around with a slow motion, lifting his eyebrows after his visor to similarly interrupt back, “But, captain! I worry the civilians might cause harm. And even if they don’t, what if they feel too threatened? It’s an airport, if something happens, that would leave Lýmoca as an unreliable country to travel to.”
“…” The captain was left there on the spot. The NG official looked at Fox, who nodded and extended his hand to Nala Loba. “Having some rest does sound good. We just spent 5 hours rallying in front of tens of thousands of people… in person.”
“Yes, sir. Your car should have been checked by now, we can leave anytime.” The NG official stared at the crowd of civs after that, “Everything has been cleared! You will be able to leave in a minute! As soon as these vehicles cualquiera(random) return to the road…”
Fox looked at the NG official’s back before walking past the police captain. Not a single speck of doubt, guard, or vigilance towards the man, with Nala Loba in tow, holding his arm and pulled onwards. He could tell the NG official didn’t fake his attitude just now, it wasn’t from Luis’s orders, or a mischievous desire to poke in the police forces’ ego.
Although it could have perfectly been so. Nevertheless, Fox didn’t dwell on it. If he were to think about everything that seemed suspicious, he’d have grown another brain and burst both of them by now, at the very least.
Fox walked to the car, where the undercover White Blood driver nodded at him and Nala Loba. After stepping into the car, they were escorted by the NG armored trucks. No such notice was published yet. Only after around 15 minutes did a piece of news strike all of Lýmoca.
Fox, Phesx Caolia, had been investigated by the Supreme Court Justice, and will now face a trial in its high tribune for inhumane crimes! Anyone knew what those two words meant for a country with the Humane Key. Furthermore, it was written that he was ordered by the Supreme Court Justice to return to Proteros immediately.
To follow that up, one would read that the SCJ listed the SPD of Lymaospasó’s state capital city as the Supreme Court Justice’s forces to enforce such a dictum. Moreover, he was not allowed to leave the country, Proteros state, or even the capital city upon his immediate return.
The swiftness at which he had to act was remarked time and again, but Fox now knew they couldn’t set a date. Otherwise, if their so-called ‘notice of order’ was ignored and the time ran out, what could the SCJ do but eat it up and do nothing about it?
Nevertheless, this also showed they weren’t precisely rash, and less so inexpert. Their meticulousness raised the standing in all sides about to defend against this movement. For whatever this investigation had happened, it surprised every civilian in Lýmoca.
Just as Fox was becoming a bit of an internet’s notorious figure, barely a discussion between all ages with an interest for the political drama, this occurred. It put Fox on the spot, easy to turn up into anyone’s feed, and even in the news while walking through the stress in the digital panels and screen ads. But that was just what the SCJ wanted.
Just the same, Fox couldn’t ignore this notice, not even Luis. The investigation under the judicial power was something to be concerned of, let alone one made by one of the Supreme Court Ministers, and furthermore under the direct assignation of the Supreme Justice Minister.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Just the investigation alone is enough to guarantee one cannot move to another country without it being reported to the nation’s security the subject is moving to. But that it was inhumane crimes, that a trial has been put forth to judge him, and that it concerned the safety of the country’s wellbeing, made it all worse. After all, the capabilities he demonstrated were out of the common knowledge even now. It was bad before, but imagination always ran free with possibilities, and the Lys were no exception.
Thus, Fox was driven to his hotel, embarking on a slow, silent trip he ordered the White Blood to take. He didn’t even bother with seniority, as he was just another firster, 1st Grade Red Blood special agent, and the driver was also a firster.
Nala Loba, however, didn’t pinpoint anything. From her previous interest shown in his image after ‘showing’ he was different unlike before, she had become sulky. She spent the trip back to the hotel supporting her hand here and there while leaning on the car or forward, all too silent.
Moreover, when the trial’s date was set, which could very well be the day it is announced, although it was illegal, since the SCJ has that power currently; Fox had to attend it. Not only as a person investigated by it and as a Ly, but as a special agent known throughout the world.
His face might be known, and that he comes from a war-ridden nonexistent nation state now, without any worth mentioning details. But it was the capabilities of being able to kill hundreds of people, and presumably other special agents, in one single night without even hours passing that elevated his global impotence, however little.
Basically, attend it or be chased by Lýmoca again, and then, who knows what other countries might want to do to him in the process.
… Arriving at the hotel, Fox sat on the couch and relaxed. Nala Loba didn’t take his clothes off and just went to his bedroom to rest, taking her clothes off as she walked out of his sight. He spent about an hour just sitting there doing nothing before taking his tie off, directly breaking it.
Just as he was unbuttoning his shirt’s collar with his jacket still on, he heard movement from his bedroom, before Nala Loba sneaked behind him and walked to his front. She pushed him against the couch and took his jacket off, folding it before beginning her usual ‘duties’.
Afterwards, with the dark of the night illuminating their room, she stared down at him before returning to his bedroom. Fox didn’t realize until she motioned to walk away, but she only had her panties on, with a full-coverage brassiere, all light violet.
The next day, he was driven to the interstate highway between Lymaospasó and Reparta. The police captain’s irksomeness didn’t come for nowhere, or from just having her goals thwarted. Reparta was the state connecting to Lymaospasó farthest from Proteros.
After a day of driving through the main road, Fox finally entered Reparta, with the driver and his ‘bodyguard’ all silent. On their way there, they visited luxurious restaurants, ordered tons of fast food joints’ biggest portions for the people in homeless services, and even visited museums.
Thorough the following days on their way to Proteros, they went through the rest of the Reparta, Jaewim, and Coalely states before he was brought to the Proteros state by car at last. The journey there was spent like the first day after the notice was emitted; frugal and enjoying food and history from around the world or Lýmoca through museums and landmarks.
Of course, he also spent every night in a luxurious hotel, petitioning for the priciest room and spending 10 hours there before continuing.
***
Proteros, a few minutes from the presidential precinct.
Luis Heartez, the one and only president of Lýmoca, was seen outside his large, enormous cave again. It had become a regular occurrence to see him in public. The first 10 days it happened was a bloody bath, where all time media thrashed and shat on him, his public image, and everything he stood for.
Anyone foreign to social media or Lýmoca’s politics, even with the globalized political awareness, albeit small, would believe he was the reincarnation of evil. That he was a tyrant who could only remain in power… because he was evil and liked killing babies in secret while starving and poisoning the rest of Lys to death through various means.
It was all ‘well’ thought out. But it didn’t seem to matter, as 2 weeks of relentless ‘people’ storming the Ly media with nonstop ‘revealing information’ didn’t stop the president from keeping on coming out.
He sat in a restaurant, one of luxury, but also of decent quality that went along with its looks. He was at a table near the balcony, giving them a sight of the early morning city with lights turning up and people coming out of their homes to commute.
And, of course, he wasn’t alone. Across him was Lesly Rivera, the one and only vice president. Even though she was beloved, she was Luis’s ‘servant’. In the past, the social media targeting she suffered was reduced to being his slave and being overworked. Now, however, she had become his partner in crime, corrupted by his hobby of baby-killing and whateverelsenot.
They were eating some light, honeyed, slimy pastry. With a small cup of tea at their sides, and the tea pot at the side. Luis smiled, thinking back to something as he responded to the conversation, “The moment she dropped the tray, ah. I remember well, almost hit your forehead.”
“You could have killed me with that thick forehead of yours, Presi.” Lesly grinned, making Luis widen his eyes. “I am your President! How dare you speak to me like that?!”
“Hahahahaha!” Lesly threw her head back and opened her mouth wide, hovering her hand with the yummy slimy pastry in the air. Luis smiled strongly, feeling just great upon seeing her like that. When she recuperated and ate the mouthful from the fork, she smiled at him. “Do you think she paired us since then?”
“Mm? Hu- what?” Luis was smirking and returning the napkin to his lap after cleaning himself, when he heard those words. His smiling, narrowed eyes focused on her again, seeing a wide-eyed beauty. Lesly trembled a bit, “I w- was just sayin’…”
“Oh, her big plans since before she departed? To have us govern the country and work together for its wellbeing? Maybe, she was the most amazing woman.” Luis said, dreamy eyed, shaking his head, and looking up. Lesly pressed her lips together after her eyes crazily darted everywhere. She then looked at him and nodded, “Indeed.”
“Ah, well, I mean…” Luis noticed her behavior. With his job as a president for 12 years, how could he not read people? Lesly looked at him, a bit more calm, and eating to not say any single extra word again. Luis smacked his lips open, waited a little bit, and said with his left index finger pointing at her. “You are now a most amazing woman, too.”
“…” Lesly’s face was first stunned, then slowly glad as she opened her mouth and lifted her eyebrows. Then, it became paralyzed again, before a blush emerged over her face. Once her face went from creamy white to crimson red, it regained life, and both looked at each other while holding their breath.
“Hahahaha…” - “Hahaha!” Both laughed it off, opening their mouths wide and narrowing their eyes so much they didn’t mind touching each other’s feet by accident under the table. When they were calming down and cleaning their faces and the mess they made around their plates, an old waiter came to them.
“Ma’am, sir. May I offer you anything else?” He added after bending a bit more beside Luis, “Don’t worry about cleanliness. It’s all on the house. May I also bother you with perhaps a 50% discount?”
“Agh, let me tell you, old man.” Luis groaned before looking at the waiter, whose white mustache was quite likeable and bushy. “Say something like that again and I will pay double, entiende(understand)?”
“Then…” The old man looked troubled, before widening his eyes a little. “Should I ask again?”
Luis and Lesly looked at the old man, grinning at his response. The old man took a few more orders for juice before leaving them both, murmuring something along the lines of ‘what two lovebirds’, and ‘How can they… no, how can he be so sweet?’.
After a little while, Luis exclaimed a whispered hum before taking his WID out. Lesly could only see blank white, heavenly transparent, so she asked him while drinking her orange juice. “What is it now?”
“He’s arrived to the city’s outskirts,” Luis’s face changed, turning serious. A rare sight, even now that it has started happening. She gulped strongly one last time before asking again, “Did you have time to get it ready?”
“Me? Ah, yes. I had enough time to prepare, I checked everything well.” Luis looked at Lesly, seemingly looking for somewhere to extract or at least gain the motivation to build up strength from. She looked at him, waiting.
“I brought him to this kind of path.” He narrowed his eyes. “It makes it sound so grim or… ‘predestined’. I just knew what I was getting him into… That sounds better.”
“And you are facing an enemy you didn’t want to before, right?” Lesly added, finishing her juice before grabbing Luis’s glass and drinking it down. Luis stared off at the floor, his head a bit down. He blinked and turned to her like he found a treasure in an impossible location and still couldn’t believe it, “In the end, yeah…”
“Hmf!” He blew from his nostrils with more strength than expected but in a good mood. “And for him, of all people. Isn’t that something?”
“Well, you had him accept something impossible, that was a beginning. But then again, he also worked his part well. Now that is where the difficult lies, but he accomplished it… you did, too…” Lesly looked at him, returning the stare, albeit with other notions. She softly conveyed encouragement at first, before changing them to upfrontly challenging him. “Luis, you have been President of a country for over a decade. Even the half a step into the coffin in the north hasn’t been able to, and he is still barely halfway through that ‘path’ himself.”
“Isn’t it time?” Lesly placed her hand on his backhand, of which he unknowingly extended across the table towards her just before. Luis’s thoughts went wild, but her words straightened them up. “Your time, these stupid, last 6 years, are what you have been working for. Be it unknowingly at first, and with intention after the District added you to their plans. Can’t you stop being a ‘learning president’ and… not wonder what others might do or think of you? I say it’s been enough. You are no small person, you are my President, the Lýmocan President… Bring us back our honor… remind us who we were— to be.”
“Show her she didn’t wait almost 12 years to see her husband appear timid and easygoing for his own sake, and his daughter. No bear momma gives birth to koala joey.” She gently stared into his sharp, gray-black eyes, rubbing her thumbs on his hand.
Luis blinked a few times, pausedly, and opened them fully each time. He said nothing, but she heard what he had to say. Standing up, Luis gestured Lesly to follow him. She followed, standing to her feet and walking to his side. He presented his right hand across his abdomen to grab hers, which she looked at before staring at the back of his head.
Quickening her steps a bit more, she hung her right hand forth and let him hold her fingers without pulling her hand. They walked to the balcony and stared as the first morning lights revealed the almighty, colorless gray sky with the sun soaring behind them.
“You were right… this would indeed make me believe I can understand the world a little. Maybe hold it for a few instances.” Lesly murmured before looking at him. He returned her gaze, both soft.
…