They all entered the building, went through the necessary checks and searches and once that was all done, moved towards their destination. Owing to having been there on multiple occasions, Visuveus knew exactly where to go. He was actually walking quicker than he usually did, something that was evidenced by Steve struggling to match his pace. They reached a door with a plaque on it, and Visuveus just walked through the door and immediately looked up to the Judge's chair, only to find that it was empty. He let out a bit of a relieved breath before sitting down and rolling his left sleeve up. An officer of the court approached Visuveus, who stood up again, and unholstered some type of scanner.
"Visuveus Vincent." He said with a somewhat smug sounding voice. "Boy, am I happy to see you. When Judge Nisha mentioned that you were going to be coming in, I was really happy. There's something of a bet going between us officers, to see how long it is before you ask for an extension on your time limit. If you ask for the extension today, then I actually win, so…"
Visuveus remained completely quiet as his wrist band was scanned. The screen on the scanner flashed deep red a few times, before Visuveus' picture and information appeared on said screen.
"It's crazy how somebody who is supposedly as despicable as you are – as evil as you are – was only arrested for robbery and assault. As if you clearly didn't do more than just that."
Visuveus remained silent and just stared at the wall behind him. The guard then starting searching Visuveus, as if he hadn't already been searched thoroughly. He was unable to find anything on his person that the ex-con wasn't supposed to have, and after the unnecessary search finally came to an end, the officer stepped back and looked at Steve and Sonny.
"So what? You have a new member of the legal team?"
"Do I look like a lawyer, fatso?" Sonny sneered as he sat down on the bench behind the small podium that the Judge was addressed from.
"What was that?!" The guard bellowed.
"Just look at how I'm dressed you idiot." Sonny grumbled while waving his hand dismissively.
Visuveus looked at the officer who appeared to be done with his check, and then joined Sonny on the bench, before Steve did the same. He then pulled the letter Sonny wrote out from his pocket and handed it to Steve, who himself had handed Sonny a few forms to fill out. The court officer was completely ignored by the trio, which was especially irksome due to the fact that he had been insulted and called a fatso by a fat guy.
After concluding their little meeting, they all sat quietly and waited for the judge to finally arrive. These smaller Villain court hearings were open to the public, so while they were waiting for the judge, a small group of people entered the court room and sat in the gallery. After a little over half an hour of waiting, the bailiff – who had been standing quietly in the corner and hadn't even made his presence known to the others in the court room – announced Nisha's arrival, prompting the few people in the room to stand. The surprisingly young looking Judge entered, with an equally surprising sour expression on her face. It was surprising only because of just how clear her dislike for Visuveus was, and she glared at him the entire time. To his credit, Visuveus once again did not react, he just waited for Nisha to tell them all to be seated – which she eventually did. The bailiff then went on to announce the purpose of the seating, and Judge Nisha looked at Visuveus, who sat down with one leg crossed over the other and his hands by his sides. Steve – who was standing at the podium – was the one addressing her however, and it seemed like his attempts to get her attention were falling on deaf ears. She did look at him however, and let out an annoyed sigh.
"Mr. Pickering, I believe you summoned me here so late in the day because you claimed Mr. Vincent had met another condition of his parole?"
"Yes, Your Honour." Steve said with a nod, before shuffling through a whole host of papers. After an uncomfortable amount of time had passed, he found the letter and pulled it out.
"What is that, Mr. Pickering?"
"It is a letter of commitment written and signed by my client's future employer, as well as a form he filled out confirming that he was not coerced into writing said letter, or hiring Mr. Vincent."
Nisha signaled to the bailiff to bring the papers over to her so she could read them, and he did just that. She looked at the form first, and after going through it, she opened the letter and read it. She went through the letter rather quickly, with her facial expression changing multiple times while doing so, which prompted Visuveus to look at Sonny with a combination of concern and suspicion. Nisha looked at the bench again, before looking back at the letter.
"…my company, Dawn Logistics, will hire Visuveus Vincent. He has not held a gun to our heads, he hasn't threatened us with death and he hasn't even tried to kidnap and eat our children, despite his rating on the Alignment index. That's really hard to believe, isn't it? Like whoa, what's going on here?"
Nisha read the entire excerpt with a particularly dry, deadpan voice and when she stopped, she looked directly at the bench again, only to find Visuveus glaring at Sonny while the pot-bellied man did his best not to throw his head back and laugh hysterically. She then placed the letter back into the envelope and set it down.
"Mr. Liston, may I address you directly?" Nisha asked.
"Sure, why not, Your Honour?"
The bailiff then instructed Sonny and Steve to swap places at the podium, which they did. Judge Nisha gave Sonny a once over before speaking.
"Despite the tone of this letter, none of these things actually happened, right?"
"Not a single one, Your Honour."
"You are completely aware of that man's past crimes?"
"More or less, Judge. In fact, he answered every single question I asked him truthfully, so I have no reservations about hiring him."
"Then why may I ask have you only committed to hiring him, and have not actually hired him yet?"
"Well, because I may not have reservations, but I ain't stupid either, Your Honour. Vincent there is an ex-con and a former Villain – I need to include some clauses and such in his contract that will protect myself and my employees."
"I see." Nisha said before looking at Visuveus. "You cut it awfully fine, didn't you Mr. Vincent? Considering how close the employment deadline actually was. This letter states the contract will be ready and signed by tomorrow, and that in itself is still within allotted time limit, so I guess that is that then. So, Mr. Pickering, I will require you to send my office a Certified copy of the signed contract, just so we can have it all on record. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Your Honour!" Steve squeaked out as he stood up abruptly.
"Well then, if there is nothing else—"
"Just a moment, Judge Nisha!" Steve blurted out as he approached the podium. "There is still the matter of KK."
"The matter of KK?" Nisha asked as she looked at Steve with mild confusion. "Oh yes, the case of Kukhanya Vincent."
'Kukhanya Vincent?' Sonny thought to himself, before looking at Visuveus.
"That's right, Your Honour. My client feels that due to his record since his release, as well as him having met all of the conditions for the first phase of his parole, that maybe something could be worked out regarding her."
Judge Nisha looked at both Steve and Visuveus, before a visible smirk adorned her face and she leaned back in her chair. Her body language suddenly changed, and she took a deep breath before speaking.
"Mr. Vincent, so you wish for something to be worked out, do you?"
"Yes, Your Honour, my client—"
"With all due respect Mr. Pickering, I was addressing your client directly, and if you all would like for anything to be worked out, I would advise that he answer me."
There was a brief and uncomfortable silence in the court, before Visuveus stood up and approached the podium. Steve looked at his client who just nodded, before stepping down and taking a seat on the bench.
"Judge." Visuveus said as a greeting of sorts.
"Visuveus Vincent." Nisha practically spat out.