A Turnabout Virus - 1

July 23rd, 12:37 am
Caduceus USA
Operating room

“Blood pressure and vitals are dropping fast! This… this is impossible! We’re going to lose him!”

“No. Not today or ever!”

With a flick of his wrist, Derek Stiles drew out a star like shape in the air. Time seemed to have slowed and Derek’s concentration went solely on his patient. Working meticulously, he took up his scalpel and made an incision. A creature squirmed out of the incision and immediately oozed its way across the damaged organ. It was, without a doubt, a specimen of GUILT.

Without any hesitation, Derek quickly dabbed the area with a potent medication.  In the blink of an eye, he took up a laser and carefully aimed it at the GUILT. With the tap of a button, the laser activated and the creature was incinerated. Although he worked quickly, the damage done by the GUILT was astonishing. The liver had been completely torn to pieces. It was time to stitch up the tears. His ‘healing touch’ had worn off by the time he reached for the suturing needle.

Derek took up the needle and began stitching the patient’s organ back to its original state. Now GUILT free, the patient would be able to make a full recovery.

“Great work, Doctor Stiles,” spoke Derek’s nurse, Angie Thompson. She smiled slightly, but frowned afterwards. Derek appeared to be struggling with a simple suturing procedure. She carefully siphoned out some of the blood within the operating area, watching Derek’s actions. Derek successfully sutured the patient’s liver, then proceeded to close up the opening in the abdomen. He did so flawlessly, but seeming drained of energy.

“Alright. Almost all done, Doctor,” Angie said. Derek nodded in response and spread a cleaning medicine over the stitches, then applied a bandage.

“Th-There…” Derek stammered, his hands shaking a bit. “F-Finish things up, Angie…”

“Yes, sir, Doctor Stiles,” Angie answered and had begun to clear the area of the surgical tools. “This was a rather difficult procedure, Doctor Stiles… It was a miracle he survived.” All at once, there was a crash from behind her. Angie jumped, surprised by the sound and quickly turned round to see Derek, collapsed on the ground. “Doctor Stiles!” Angie shouted. Hastily, she ran to an intercom and held down the button with enough force to jam it in place.

“Doctor Stiles fainted! Get someone in here to help me, now!”


July 23rd, 1: 52 am
Caduceus USA
On Call Room

Angie sat patiently beside a bed in the on call room. Over an hour had passed since Derek collapsed, and she had never left his side. Finally, he shifted slightly and let out a pained groan. Angie leaned forward and placed a gentle hand on Derek’s shoulder and whispered, “Doctor Stiles?” Receiving only a grunt as a reply, she immediately sprang up ran to the door, flinging it open. She glared at the nearest person; which, unfortunately happened to be a new intern. The intern stared at Angie, a completely dumbfounded.

“Don’t just stand around like that! Get some water!” she bellowed at him. The intern quickly bolted from the room to fetch what the concerned nurse wanted.


July 24th, 5:23 am
Phoenix Wright’s bedroom

Being so early, the well known lawyer, Phoenix Wright, was sound asleep in his bed, enjoying a pleasant dream. Suddenly, a gay little chime from a cell phone started going off on his bedside table. Having been wrenched from his sleep by the inconspicuous tune, Phoenix fumbled for his phone. “H-Hello?” he murmured upon answering it.

“Nick! Nick!” came a familiar girl’s voice. “Get up and turn on your TV!”

“Wuh? M-Maya?” he said, surprised. Looking to his clock, he noted the time. “It’s nearly five thirty… What in the world are you doing up this early?”

“Who cares about that now?! Turn on your TV!” she demanded. Phoenix moved the receiver away from his ear and snatched up his universal remote. After fiddling with the confusing remote for a few moments, he finally figured out how to turn on his television. Then, he began flipping through the channels, yawning.

“Maya… What exactly am I supposed to be looking for?” he asked, but trailed off. He had turned to a news channel and watched for a bit while Maya explained. “It’s on the news! Something about a doctor being murdered!”

Although Maya’s words were indeed interesting, Phoenix was paying more attention to the news reporter on the television. “We’re here at Caduceus USA where we have been informed is a scene of a most heinous murder,” announced the reporter.

“Murder,” whispered Phoenix, under his breath.

“The victim is none other than the renowned new surgeon Derek Stiles. It appears that a suspect has already been apprehended and taken away for questioning…” Phoenix had turned away from the television and clambered out of his bed to get clothes on. Maya was still on the phone. “Man… that poor doctor… he was new on the job too… just like you, Nick…” Phoenix could tell by her voice that Maya was pretty down about the situation.

“Yeah… I know…” mumbled Phoenix as he pulled on a pair of pants.

“Are you going over there now? I’m going with. Come pick me up,” she said eagerly.

“Okay. See you then.” With that, Phoenix hung up, then walked to his television set and turned it off. With a sigh, he shook his head, then took up his trademark blue coat and left his bedroom.


July 24th, 6:00 am
Detention Center

Maya and Phoenix had arrived at the detention center rather early, so waited for the suspect of the murder to be brought forth. While waiting, they chatted back and forth about the murder. Touching a hand to her chin, Maya mumbled, “Man… I just can’t believe it… of all people to be murdered… a doctor…”

“Yeah, I know,” replied Phoenix. “I mean… who would go off and kill a person who is just trying to help someone?”

“Apparently, me…” came a voice. Maya and Phoenix both shrieked and quickly looked to the man presented to them on the opposite side of a thick sheet of glass. It was a man with dark hair that seemed sloppily taken care of. Not to mention he had some dark circles around his eyes. Clearly, he had not gotten much sleep. “Who do you think you’re supposed to be?” the man grumbled with his arms crossed.

“Hey, Nick…” Maya whispered, “He’s still wearing his doctor uniform… they must have taken him right from the hospital and straight here.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Phoenix whispered back.

“If we’re done here, I’m leaving now,” scoffed the on edge medical professional as he stood from his chair.

“No! Wait!” shouted Phoenix, “We’re here to talk about what happened.” The suspect took a glance over his shoulder then sat back in the chair. “Phew…” noised Phoenix, then straightened up; it was an attempt to look more professional. “My name is Phoenix Wright. I’m a Defense Attorney,” he stated, flashing his gold badge. The man on the other side of the glass kept an annoyed expression, simply staring at Phoenix. The gaze sent a chill up the attorney’s spine.

“And I’m Maya Fey, a spirit medium,” chimed in Maya, seeing that Phoenix was struggling.

Growing impatient, the man grumbled, “So what’s your point?”

Phoenix swallowed a lump in his throat nervously, but remained confident with his words. “We would… we would like to know what happened, and why you were arrested as a suspect!”

“Um… Nick?”
“Huh? What is it Maya?”
“Don’t you think you should ask him his name first before you go asking him those kinds of questions?”
“Ack! Oh yeah, you’re right…”

“Let’s just speed things along. My name’s Victor Niguel. I’m a pathologist at that hospital. And as for what happened…” murmured Victor. Phoenix and Maya’s attention immediately went to Victor as he spoke. Victor took a breath then closed his eyes and stated, clear as day, “… one of our surgeons got murdered. It’s as simple as that.”

Phoenix slouched and coughed, “Ahem… yeah… I kind of already knew that much… I mean… they said that much on the television… Come on… there has to be a reason why you were taken into custody and are being held here.”

“Of course…” said Victor, “I’m a suspect. They think I did it. If you didn’t figure that, you’re a pretty pathetic excuse of a lawyer.”

“Erk! But… Did you do it?”

Rolling is eyes, Victor laughed arrogantly, “Why would I waste man power doing something like that and risk getting caught? You must be some kind of moron to think that a genius like me would be stupid enough to commit something like murder.”

“Whoa! Jeez… Sorry…” mumbled Phoenix. “So… if you didn’t do it, then what were you doing while the murder was happening?” At the question, a noticeable bead of sweat crept down Victor’s face and his eyes closed slightly; it almost looked as though he was getting sick.

“I was kneeling beside the bed… watching Derek,” Victor said.

“Whoa!” cried out Maya. Such a declaration even blew Phoenix away. “Y-You were there, with the victim, as he died!? Th… That’s not a very good sounding situation…” Phoenix muttered, scratching the back of his head, giving Victor a nervous smile. “It’s no wonder why they think you killed him.”

Victor nodded, recovering, and mumbled, “As soon as I told that to Detective Dick he made me come here… I guess the idiot doesn’t realize what he’s doing, keeping me detained here like this.”

Phoenix didn’t quite follow, and neither did Maya. “Umm… Mister Niguel… What’s the detective doing wrong by bringing you here?”

“Well,” stated Victor, crossing his arms and raising his chin a bit, “Other than bringing in the wrong person, he’s keeping me from my work, and that’s going to be a big problem in a few days if I’m not let out of here. I’m head of the pathological division in that hospital. With me gone, people are going to die.”

”Whoa…” thought Phoenix, ”This guy sure makes himself sound important. I wonder how much of that is true… He certainly looks young to be in such a high ranking position. And man… he really is suspicious to begin with…” Victor noticed the face Phoenix was giving him and narrowed his eyes into an annoyed glare, “What? You think I did it?”

“No way!” shouted Maya, standing excited and fierce. Victor just watched from behind the glass sheet. “We believe you all the way! If you didn’t kill him, then someone else must have! Right, Nick?” she asked, turning back to look at Phoenix.

“Uh! Er… Yeah!” he shouted enthusiastically, but really felt like he was walking into his grave.

Victor smirked a bit and shut his eyes, lowering his chin to his chest. “Heh… I’m going to entrust my life to a person like you? This aught to be rich…”

“H-Hey! I’m a good lawyer!” Phoenix protested. “Yeah! He’s rarely ever lost!” Maya added. ”Ack! Don’t tell him something like that!” thought the nervous attorney.

The smirk never left Victor’s face as he lifted his head and stared at the very confident girl before him. “Rarely? What a track record. Sounds just like Derek. Okay, Phoenix Wright. Be my attorney.” With that he shrugged and chuckled, “Just know… if you lose… so will that hospital… and many other people around the world too.”

“I…I won’t lose!” shouted Phoenix. “If you’re innocent, then there’s no way that I could possibly lose! All I need right now is to know exactly what happened that day and what all you were doing at the time of the murder.”

Pausing a moment, Victor thought things through and sighed, “Alright… I’ll tell you what I know at least… last night… there was an emergency case. The patient was rushed in and needed surgery pronto. Derek was the first doctor to respond to the alert sent out. He took care of it then collapsed after the procedure was down with… He over exerted himself with that… healing touch thing he does. That was some time around midnight, or a bit past then.”

“Hold on… What’s … ‘healing touch’?”

Victor hesitated a moment then rolled his eyes. “It’s what Doctor Stiles is well known for… It’s more nonsense in my opinion. Some kind of magical ability… I don’t buy into it too much… but everyone claims he has it. But yeah… I hadn’t really heard about it until after 2 in the morning.”

Maya gasped, “Wow! You work really late!”

“And that’s because, little girl, I’m a pathologist, and a damned good one. I don’t like to leave the lab until what I’ve been working on gets finished. Sometimes that means pulling a few all-nighters in a row.”

“What kind of lab work were you doing last night?” Phoenix asked.

With all the coolness of a summer breeze, Victor answered, “Vaccination research. I was analyzing data surrounding a virus.”

“And you finished up around two?” asked Phoenix.

“That’s right, but I still had more paperwork and research to do. I needed some sleep, so I went to the on call room. Derek was there and a nurse.”

“A nurse?” questioned Phoenix, growing curious about this new person.

Victor nodded and glanced over his shoulder at the camera behind him for a moment. After looking back he explained, “I don’t talk with the surgeon buffs or the nurses much, so I don’t really know which nurse it was. We have a fair amount of them, you know.”

“Damn… and here I thought we had a lead,” thought Phoenix. “Okay…I understand… What happened after you got there?”

Victor sighed and leaned back in his chair while running a hand through his black hair. “The nurse was surprised and then left once I went in. There’s no way I’d sleep in the presence of that scalpel happy surgeon, so I just sat on a bed across from him and watched him for a while. Of course, I mocked him while he slept… but then… he started sweating and grabbing at his chest, so I got closer and tried to check him out, but he went berserk and thrashed around...”

“Whoa… that sounds freaky…” muttered Maya.

Victor leaned forward and knocked on the glass with the back of his knuckles. “Don’t interrupt me.”

“Eeek! Sorry,” Maya apologized right away.

Victor sat back in his chair and relaxed, frowning as he continued. “He was really ripping himself to shreds. He clawed at his chest and then his neck… he was wheezing and choking… like he couldn’t breathe…”

“And what did you do?” asked Phoenix.

“What else would a person do? I tried to stop him from hurting himself. He was really going at his neck, so I grabbed his wrists to restrain him. There wasn’t much else I could do.”

“But… if you tried to stop him from doing that… how did he die?” Maya spoke softly.

“I did stop him… but he died anyway. Something was wrong with him. Derek may be a dimwitted surgeon… but he’s not dumb enough to kill himself like that. I think something killed him from the inside out…”

“S-Something… like what?”

“Something like poison… or a virus,” Victor grumbled.

“H-Hey… Nick…” whispered Maya. Phoenix shook his head and turned to his young assistant. “Huh? Yeah, Maya?”

“Umm… Can we… please go? All this talk about viruses and things… it’s kind of… scary…” she muttered, fidgeting where she stood.

“Huh? O-Oh! Oh, yeah… Sure Maya…” Phoenix said then turned back to Victor. “Hey, Victor, don’t worry! We believe you! We’re going to get down to the bottom of this and figure out everything we can!”

“Whatever, Mister Wright. Good luck,” said Victor, standing from his chair and giving a slight wave farewell.

“Hang in there…” added in Maya as she and Phoenix left the detention center.

Both were quiet as they made their way to the hospital.