From: "Rob" <robfrompw@yahoo.com> Subject: [PW!] The Trial Date Is Set Date: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 6:25 PM "Ahhhh-choo!" sneezes Elsa, one of the many prisoner in Verdanturf Penitentiary who have gotten a cold in the past few days, "Damn unsanitary conditions." She's pacing back and forth in front of the cell's only window, contemplating how to get out of the filthy jail she was unfairly confined to. "Just be glad you're with me," Mariana, Elsa's pink-haired cell-mate, boasts from her place on the cell's only cot as she flips the pages of the month-old magazine that was placed in her cell this morning, "I have an excellent immune system, plus I'm not the kind of girl to make you sick 'down there', if you catch my drift." "Yeah, so much so that you won't even let me share the cot with you," Elsa shakes her head and rubs her back, which is aching from having slept on the floor of the cell three nights in a row, "Why can't I get the cot for ONE night? Just one night?" "I'm not one to pull rank," prefaces Mariana, "But here goes. I'm a Team Aqua Grunt, First Class. You, Wanda, are a mere Team Aqua Novitiate Grunt. As such, you have to sleep wherever the hell I tell you to sleep. When you become an Aqua Grunt, First Class, then we can discuss our sleeping arrangements. Until then, you're shit out of luck. Now, please shut your trap for a few minutes. I'm trying to read an article about the latest Spring fashions." Elsa grumbles to herself. Each day that's passed, she's become increasingly more annoyed that her Wanda personality joined the criminal organization known as Team Aqua while in control of her body, especially considering the company she's forced to keep. Elsa mutters, "Of all the hated organizations in Hoenn..." "I caaan still heeeear you," declares Mariana, "Keep your Magma bashing inside your head. I hate it as much as you do that we have to share a a prison with them and see them every day during lunch and dinner, but I'm TRYING to find out why trenchcoats have become passé." Elsa sits down on the cell's dirty floor, right under the cell's only window, and crosses her arms. She sits in near-silence for four minutes, only sniffing every once in a while due to her cold. She stares at the patch of sunlight cast before her, inwardly lamenting her predicament, until a prison guard walks past the cell, slipping an envelope through the bars. Not wanting to disturb Mariana, Elsa crawls over to the envelope, picks it up, tears it open, and withdraws the paper within it. Elsa reads the notice, mentally translating the legalese the letter is written in into plain English. Once she's deciphered the message, she says, "Mari..." Not looking away from her magazine, Mariana warns, "This had better be important." "We just got a notice that our trial's on Monday morning," Elsa informs Mariana, her thick brown eyebrows raised in an expression of worry, "If we're found guilty, they'll move us from this holding cell to the maximum security prison on the secluded little island south of Sootopolis for however many years the judge decides." "Oh shit..." Mariana drops her magazine and hops out of her bed. She bends down and snatches the letter away from Elsa, saying, "Let me see that notice." The pink-haired Aqua Grunt skims the letter, trying to make sense of it. After a few seconds, she crumples up the letter and throws it on the ground, "Do you have ANY idea what the charges against us are?" "Ahhh-chooo! Sorry, let me see..." Not able to remember the exact wording of the notice from memory, Elsa grabs the crumpled-up letter, un-crumples it, and reads, "The second party shall thusly be tried for the crime of intentionally cooperating in the unjust fabrication of a civil disturbance through participation in an altercation involving the first party within the confines of one Rusturf Tunnel, public property jointly belonging to two parties, the government of Rustboro City, thereafter referred to as the third party, and the government of Verdanturf Town, thereafter referred to as the fourth party..." Mariana, her eyelids now lowered half-way over her blue eyes, requests, "In plain English, please." "For fighting Team Magma in the Rusturf Tunnel." "That was self-defense! ARGH!" Mariana snatches the notice away from Elsa once again. This time, however, she tears it to shreds, dumps it in the sole unsanitary toilet in the cell, and kicks the flush valve in a fit of anger. Elsa, having watched many daytime court shows during the time she spent in Verdanturf Asylum, still has hope in Hoenn's legal system. From here place on the floor, she argues, "If it really was self-defense, we should be able to win the case." "I already TOLD you - it's NOT going to be a fair trial!" Still full of rage, Mariana kneels down next to the room's only cot and punches it a few times. Her upper body then collapses onto the cot in defeat and she laments, "Our only hope is being busted out of jail before the trial, and I'm not counting on that happening." After coughing twice, Elsa crawls over to the cot and pats Mariana on the back while asking, "Why not, Mari? It's not like all of Team Aqua was on this mission to Rustboro. There are other Aquas out there, and they're likely to come to our rescue..." "Fat chance! If Archie wasn't on vacation, I'd agree with you - he knew how to get the troops moving..." Mariana balls her hands into fists and slams them onto the cot, "But he IS on vacation, and the jerk he left in charge doesn't care enough about our organization to do anything about this injustice. I've heard rumors that he just sits in his office all day, sharpening pencils and asking his secretary to bring him Pikachu to kill." "Oh, come on, that can't be true." Elsa argues, not aware of who Mariana's talking about but figuring that no one could be that disturbed. She sniffs, then points out, "Besides, even if Team Aqua doesn't break us out in time, we could break out when Team Magma tries to save their imprisoned Grunts..." "Yeah right," Mariana scoffs, "Maxie's probably too busy doing his hair and nails to care about a few Magma Grunts who got captured on their way to the desert." "Who cares if we don't get busted out by Monday?" Elsa sniffs once before reiterating, "I still think we can win the case against us." "Don't be stupid, Wanda," Mariana narrows her eyes, "If we don't get busted out of here by Monday morning, you'll have a lot more to worry about than your cold. Speaking of which, get your germ-infested hands off my back." The pink-haired Aqua Grunt shoves Elsa away from her and climbs back onto the cot. Elsa scoots away from the cot, still disturbed by what Mariana said about Team Aqua's interim boss, "Honestly, who has a hobby of killing Pika... ahhh... ahhh-choooo!" -Elsa