Gender: Female
Rank: Medium-in-training
Joined: Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:57 pm
Posts: 410
EDIT: I've neglected this for way too long.
Disclaimer: Detective Gumshoe, Franziska von Karma, and all other Phoenix Wright related stuff doesn't belong to me. However, Bob Heart does. Although I don't think anyone'd steal him, seeing as how he plays such a minor part...
A/N-The reason Gumshoe got to Germany from NY so quickly is he went on a supersonic plane. Also, if the times are off, I apologize-I've never been someone that can figure out the time so well between different time zones. Meaning that this is most likely all in Pacific time...urk.
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April 17th, 3:45 AM
LAX Airport
International Departures
Detective Gumshoe had been sitting in the waiting area for nearly 2 hours now, struggling to stay awake. His morning hadn’t been going so well, ever since he had woken up with a furious Franziska shouting in his ear through the phone to the drilling he was receiving from her at the moment.
“Detective!” A sharp whip lash woke him up from his reverie. “Recite the first part of the flight plan to me! Now!”
Even though he risked having yet another welt added to the fine collection he had on his arms and torso already, the detective couldn’t keep all the boredom out of his voice as he repeated the plans for the first flight he was taking to New York. After all, they had been going over this ever since he had passed through security. For some reason, Franziska seemed to only acknowledge his tone of voice with an icy glare. As his boss once again started reading off another part of her carefully written out plan, his eyes slid shut. Sleep, it seemed, enjoyed overcoming him in the worst moments…
“I suggest you pay attention, Detective!”
Franziska’s harsh voice caused him to wake with a start. He rubbed his eyes, stretched, and yawned before realizing he was being shot the most powerful death glare in his life.
“Ah…M-Ms. von Karma, sir...um.” His eyes darted back and forth between the blue eyes of death staring down at him and the gloved hand that was twitching right above the whip. A long and incoherent string of babble started to pour out of his mouth-he couldn’t even tell if it was excuses, apologies, or pleas to not whip him to death.
“Detective.” Instead of resorting to her whip, Franziska slapped the blathering man across his face with the back of her hand. “Be quiet and pay attention. I have no patience for your foolish drivel this morning.”
Gumshoe stopped speaking as soon as he felt the smooth leather meet his cheek, instead opting for a shocked, taken aback look. He had been beaten to a pulp by the wretched piece of leather that Franziska carried around-a few different times, in fact. But that was it. That was the only physical contact they had ever made. Needless to say, the slap he had just received unnerved him greatly. Luckily, before either of them could do anything, a tinny female voice came through the speaker on the ceiling.
“Flight 3657 to New York is now boarding. Would all the first-class passengers please come to the gate?”
He didn’t know whether he should be glad or fearful that his flight was being boarded. Getting up, the detective collected his bag and got in line with the rest of the first class passengers-something that normally wouldn’t have happened but did, due to the vicious weapon that his boss enjoyed carrying around. The line seemed to move amazingly slowly, causing a nervous sweat to develop on the detective’s forehead and palms. As he passed his ticket to the exhausted woman in a blue dress across from him and finally went through the gate, he stole one last glance at his boss. To his surprise, Franziska had a small, wicked grin on her face instead of the scowl that seemed to be on it most of the time.
“I wonder what she’s grinning about. She only grins like that when something bad happens to me…” Exhaustion prevented Gumshoe from pondering this point further. It seemed as if his body had it in for the poor man.
April 17th, 8:47 AM
John F. Kennedy Airport
International Departures
Detective Gumshoe buried his face in his hands for the twelfth time since he had left LAX. The man next to him, Bob Heart, ignored this and rattled on about his supposedly amazing camera, oblivious the fact that his audience had completely lost interest in the device about five and a half hours ago.
“…And ya see this here lens? It can get a picture through any tinted window. It’s been quite a handy little thing ‘round LA with all the famous people, lemme tell you! Put me way ahead of the other paparazzi in the biz-”
“Hey!” Gumshoe had finally reached his limit. Some things a man just couldn’t sit through for six hours. “Don’t…don’t you have somewhere to go, pal?”
The man stared at him blankly.
“Like…a ride, or something? Is someone picking you up?”
“That’s…a very good question…” Bob looked up at the clock hanging on the wall opposite from them. “I’m not sure if my sister’s here yet or not-”
“Perhaps you should go check, pal.”
“Take the hint, take the hint…”“Well…” Bob seemed reluctant to leave.
“Take it from me. Women don’t like to be kept waiting.” The detective was ready to shove the man out of the airport if need be.
“I guess I should check. Well…” Standing up, the man extended a hairy arm towards Gumshoe. After staring at the hand for a few seconds, the detective shook it. “It’s sure been nice talkin’ to ya, bub. I don’t know many people that can handle that much technical jargon, but you seemed to get through it pretty well.”
“I tried my best, pal.” This was the one of the truest statements he had made to Bob throughout their time together. As he walked off, Bob turned around and waved. Returning the wave, the detective sighed. Some things, he really could never understand. Such as how you can talk to someone for nearly six hours straight and not ask their name…
April 17th, 12:17 PM
Munich Airport
International Arrivals
The detective walked around the arrival area once again, clenching his teeth in frustration. He had been searching for Annabel and her mother since he had gotten off the plane 15 minutes ago, and hadn’t found a trace of them.
“This really can’t be this hard…” He thought to himself as he stopped in front of the arrivals and departures board and looked down at the picture of the small girl Franziska had given him. He twitched slightly in shock-even though he had looked at it more than a dozen times in the last 20 minutes, it still surprised him whenever he saw how much the little girl looked like his whip-yielding boss. Gumshoe could only hope that Annabel wouldn’t be as violent as her aunt…
“Oof!” He made a small noise when a lady ran into him from behind with surprising force. He fell to the ground, nearly crushing the picture in the process.
“I’m so sorry, sir!” A melodic female voice seemed to be directed at him. He groaned as he got up, the woman repeatedly apologizing. Rebuffing the slender hands that were offering to help him, he tried to turn and look at the person that the hands were connected to. However, as he was doing this, two small hands pushed him in his back. Normally, this wouldn’t have been a problem. But since Gumshoe was off-balance from the fall he had just taken, this caused him to fall down again on the carpeted floor.
“You moron!” A shrill voice yelled at him. Even though his thick trench coat and shirt, he could feel small, powerful hits on his lower back and the back of his thighs. “Stupidly running into Mama like that-”
“Annabel!” Still struggling to stop the incessant pounding on his lower body, the detective rolled over and attempted to get up. He was stopped, however, by a small girl that jumped on his chest.
“Annabel, stop it right now! You know that you shouldn’t hit strangers!” The melodic voice was now yelling at the small girl that kneeled on the detective’s chest, sending slap after slap to the helpless man’s face.
“Why am I just sitting here, letting this girl hit me like this-!” He struggled against her, with no success. He couldn’t very well throw her off him-child abuse in a foreign country was never a good charge to have against you. Suddenly, the slapping ceased and the weight disappeared off of him. Jumping up, he tensed himself for any other physical attacks that were possibly coming.
“Annabel, what have I told you about attacking people?” A stern tone had crept into the otherwise melodic voice.
“But Mama!” The shrill voice whined in reply. “That idiot ran into you! I had to do something-he couldn’t just walk off and get away with being so thoughtlessly rude!”
“He didn’t run into me, Annabel. I ran into him.”
“Had he not been standing there, gawking at like the foolhardy American he most likely is at some photograph, you wouldn’t have had the misfortune of touching him-”
The two continued to bicker. The detective stood and listened for a moment more (like many of the people that had gathered around the three) until something in his brain clicked.
“Wait…Annabel…” Hurriedly patting down his jacket for the picture to compare with the little girl in front of him, he realized it was still in his hand. After comparing the picture with her for a moment, a wide grin broke out on his face.
“Annabel!” The girl and her mother both looked at him.
“How do you know my name, dim-witted foreigner?” Annabel spat at him, contempt sparkling in her eyes. Her mother, however, just looked at him for a moment before a look of realization replaced the one of confusion.
“You are Detective…Gumtree, was it? The one here to pick up Annabel?”
“Ah, Gumshoe. Detective Dick Gumshoe of the Los Angeles Police Department. And yes, I am here to pick up your daughter.” He smiled at the woman.
“Pick me up? Wait.” Annabel’s voice commanded attention. “Mama, we came to the airport so that this brainless man could pick me up and take me somewhere?”
“Yes, Annabel. I’m terribly sorry about this, Detective. My daughter can be a bit…rough sometimes.”
“No problem at all, pal.”
“I suppose I should introduce myself, then. My name is Heidi. What a pleasure to meet you.” Extending her hand, Heidi smiled at Gumshoe. She was about 5’4’’, and was in every way the opposite of her sister. Instead of having blue hair and pale white skin, she had blond hair and was tanned; instead of professional, serious clothing, she had on a casual jacket and skirt; instead of cold, deadly eyes that seemed to criticize the world around her, there was a warmth and curiosity in them that the detective didn’t think possible of the von Karma family. He almost sighed in relief that at least one member of the family seemed human.
“It’s very nice to meet you to, Ms. von Karma.”
She smiled at him with a tenderness that seemed to put yet another barrier between her and her kin.
“Please, Detective. There’s no need for such formality...after all, it’s not as if this is my job.”
“Um…I’m sorry, pal. It’s just that’s what the other Ms. von Karma-my boss-told me to address you by…” Something that he made sure to do, after having it whipped into his brain about a dozen times. However, the mention of her sister seemed to make Heidi’s smile shrink very noticeably.
“Right. Franziska…yes. I haven’t seen her in years…how’s she doing?”
“Well…she works as a prosecutor most of the time. I can’t say much about her personal life, though. I don’t know much about it.”
“Yes. I suppose I should’ve expected that. Franziska’s never been very open with people, especially those who work for her…”
“Mama, I’m not going on a plane with that walking disaster. I’d rather jump off the plane itself.” Annabel’s commanding voice reminded the two that they were in an airport and had a very angry child standing there, being ignored. “Besides, Mama-you know Auntie Franziska. She obviously had a good reason to tell him to address you properly. Most likely because the ignoramus wouldn’t have remembered himself.”
“I don’t think they should let kids have access to thesauruses this easily…” Gumshoe thought to himself with a tinge of unhappiness. At least with Franziska he could keep track of how many ‘fools’ she used when insulting him. However, after his little beating, the detective wasn’t about to screw up again with the dangerous girl.
“You. Kneel. Now.” Annabel barked at him.
“Annabel, there’s no need to be so rude to Detective Gumshoe-”
“No, no. It’s fine.”
“I’m used to it from your sister.” Kneeling down, Gumshoe made sure to maintain eye contact. If he had learned one thing from his experience with the rest of the von Karma family (which Annabel seemed content to throw herself into), weakness was not tolerated at all.
“Detective. You had better make sure not to lose me. Or I’ll find you again and beat you down with a stick.” Annabel’s glare grew more intense.
“She doesn’t only look like Franziska, she sure acts like her, too. I hope that doesn’t turn out to be a bad thing…” He thought to himself.
“Ms. von Karma, I promise. I won’t lose you.” His mock salute didn’t do much to affect the look of hatred on the small girl’s face.
“You’d better know that I’m not joking.”
“I believe you, 100 percent.”
This, at least, seemed to lighten Annabel’s face a bit, for an evil grin replaced the sneer.
“It’s nice to see that you respond well to threats, dog. A good skill to learn when around a von Karma.” She aimed two sharp kicks at the detective’s unprotected shins. This girl-that seemed to happily take on the family values of dominance and cruelty-not violent against him? There wasn’t a chance of that in the world.
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A/N: Yes. I finally finished the chapter. Not much to say on it...other than I do hope you liked it. If you want, you can leave a review, and tell me if there's anything to patch up, if you liked/hated it, ect. The fourth chapter is in production, and the first one (much like the original second and third chapters) is being scrapped, so expect a new starter chapter. For any up to date news on the story (and some of my other works), please visit my profile (link in sig). The chapter's dedicated to Terrapin44, since I totally destroyed his/her other dedicated chapter. :( Also, as a side note, all major AN's will now be at the bottom.
Last edited by Super Muffin on Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:00 am, edited 1 time in total.