The courtroom was filling up.
It was the second day of the trial of Troy Green Versus The United States and it was growing into the most televised trial in US History The state was on their third witness, a human FBI agent named Carolynn Ortiz.
Among the oddities that would become a historic trial, there was a witness box full of animals. Next to that box, sitting in his own seat, was a DHS agent and veteran detective who had proven to be a powerful psychic. Not only had he blown the covers off of “One of the most egregious human rights violations of all time”, he’d also revealed the presence of magic-hard evidence.
Troy was an unassuming young Caucasian man in his mid-twenties. A little nerdy looking, but certainly not someone one would have expected to be prosecuted for such heinous crimes. The list of which currently amounted to: 42 counts of kidnapping, 4 counts of murder (several of the ‘transformed persons’ as the Federal government was calling them, had been killed and ground into meat at factory farms), 32 counts of human trafficking (he’d sold most of his victims off to private buyers under the guise of having pedigree animals sans pedigree). And those were just the big ones.
If the young man was stressed out by this, he certainly didn’t show it. At various points he had been seen laughing or shaking his head, and right now, most of those watching were in agreement with him. It seemed like an elaborate prank - that Troy Green was being scapegoated by a law office that hadn’t made any big busts for a long time. But…it was on a legal docket.
Troy’s lawyer, Christian Saviour (yes, that was really his name), was currently questioning the prosecution’s witness.
“So you just stated under oath that no one at the FBI has been able to get this supposed reality altering book to work?” Christian said.
“Correct.”
“And have you ever personally seen my client using this book to alter reality?”
“No.”
“No further questions, Your Honor.”
Troy hides a laugh. The Feds were only aware that he had the Book of Beast. In fact, he had obtained both Beast and Transmutation. The ‘Book’ the Feds had was a powerless fake. The real Book was an inconspicuous tattoo of a Book on his butt.
The next witness was called to the stand. A zookeeper led a skunk on a leash up to the witness stand. The Prosecutor asked for their special interpreter, Mind to assist them. Mind was the man who caught him. He had both the Book of Mind and Arcane. From what Troy understood, apparently the Federal Investigator (whose real name was Caleb Barker) had been given the Book of Arcane and captured and successfully prosecuted Mind.
The original Mind had, apparently, been a very naughty boy.
Mind stood, a stern, husky, middle aged detective, and cast Mass Telepathy so the skunk could speak to the court. He made sure to show off his Book as he did. Troy winced. This whole trial was a dumb idea. For some reason, the idiot thought publicly bringing Book users to justice was a smart thing. There were at least 8 more of them left, and right here in this courtroom were 4 Books, ripe for the taking.
But the stubborn idiot had been persistent, so here they were. And for such a smart guy, he really did seem like an idiot. Any time he tried to Mind Scan Troy for information, he’d fill his thoughts with gibberish. But this Mind had successfully prosecuted the original owner of Mind AND managed to convince the Feds to let him keep the Book…
“Hello?” The skunk chitters. “Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Mr. Stilson.” The Prosecutor said.
“It’s nice to be able to talk to people, even if it is only for a short time.” The skunk chittered.
“I’m sure.” The Prosecutor said, then turned to the jury. “Mr. Stilson, can you describe the incident that led to this…form?”
There was some light back and forth from Troy’s lawyer, quibbling over semantics. The judge finally allowed the skunk to talk, clearly interested in what he had to say. It was their first animal witness, after all.
Troy sighed, the memories returning as the skunk described the Taco Bell Catastrophe.