FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As Angela is busy coming the fur she gets a proximity alert. She peeks out the window and sees a full squad of cops all armed in full swat gear heading towards her building. She rolls eye eyes and picks up her phone, getting everything that she feels she's going to need in the immediate future. He sends a message to one of the handlers that's she's in the process of getting arrested and that they should have Alex sent to the police station with her tablet and for someone else to come tidy up her house later just in case the police are less than courteous. Once all this is done she dons her jacket and opens the door, putting her phone into her purse. She stands like that in front of her open door with her hands raised and her purse by her side.

When they arrive in front of her she makes a very deliberate show of slowly lowering herself down to her knees. There will be absolutely no accusation of her having resisted arrest. The one highest in the pecking order marches right up to her, spits on her face and then knees her in the stomach slightly before grabbing her hands and handcuffing her. Someone else goes and grabs her purse and puts it in an evidence bag while a few others go into her apartment. They escort her, jeering at her and half cheering, though the ones that have seen them arrested in the past know full well just how little this show actually means. If she wanted she could probably get out on a technicality, but for their cause she has something completely different in mind. So she behaves and lets them take her in. When she gets outside she can see a few people looking on, somewhat uncertain as to what they want to do. To placate them and not make things worse she uses her fingers to quickly snap out a simple code, asking for the people to take no action. She can also see one of their scouts already hiding in the background, waiting until they can get in and likely fix up her apartment. Hopefully that doesn't end up being too expensive to repair.

She's brought to the station and most of the staff have gotten so jaded about everything that quite a few don't even seem to care at all that she's there, treating her more as if she were just here to answer some questions rather than having been arrested for assault. They don't even go through the process of trying to take her picture again for the record. She can't even tell if they are truly writing out a formal report or if they're just writing in that she's been brought in one some sort of automated form just for their group. She's brought, not into a jail cell, but an interrogation room and then secured by handcuffs to a chair by the table. The standard setup for times like these. Theoretically she could stall them out if she felt like being troublesome and request a lawyer. Though she is their group's lawyer and she probably knows the law far better than anyone else they'd be bringing in, the fact remains that she would have the right to ask for someone else to represent her. But she reminds herself that it's much better in the grand scheme of things to get things moving as quickly as possible.

A couple of cops come in and begin questioning her. They show pictures of the injuries she inflicted on the two humans, some of which are far more exaggerated than reality but not much she can do about that. They go about the routine of asking her questions without her making any sort of committal response. She actually starts wondering at their tactic. It's not so much that it's ineffective or bad, just that it is so very much by the book and routine that she almost has to wonder if they're using it as a training exercise than an actual interrogation. She supposes it makes a bit of sense. They don't expect to be able to really get much and instead anticipate them going about trying to weasel her way out of the situation. So what better person to send the rookies to practice against. As understandable as it may be, it is also somewhat disrespectful of the fact they grabbed her with as many as they did if they expect her to walk away soon. But in this particular case she actually wants there to be a trial. It's something she had been discussing with Michael recently and he agreed, though didn't like how risky it'd be for her to be the one to do it. She sits back in her chair as much as she can, fluffs out her tail for a moment and then coughs slightly into her hand.

"If I may, gentlemen. I would like to propose an arrangement that would appease everyone on both sides. You bring in the two humans that were involved in the fight and put them before the court. Try them in the same courtroom at the same time. Could even have the pre-trial done alongside each other. You do this and I'll just sit here like a happy little squirrel until the court date and you that will be that."

"And why should we be so inclined to listen to your request."

"Because as per the requirements of the law, if one person is in a fight, it necessitates that the other side also be tried accordingly. If they are pressing charges of assault then I have equal right to demand them of the same thing. On top of that, I will do you a favor. If you were to go and have them tried for assault against me, then I'll simply plead guilty of assaulting them. This way you won't even have to worry about us tampering with evidence or trying anything funny. And if you think I might be lying, just bring the two of them with you for a pre-trial meeting with the judge. One of my associates will be arriving with all the evidence that I will be using against them. If you have reason to doubt the authenticity of the evidence, or you decide it's not worth going into a trial, then that's all you. But if your group is not on the level, then well, you know what the end result will likely be. In the meantime, if you agree to my terms then I'll be out of commission for the duration of my sentence. You all know that I am the main legal counsel for our organization. Which means that while I am behind bars there will be no one available to pose as legal defense should any of the rest of our organization be found guilty of a crime."

The two officers look very uncertain at the prospect. Clearly neither were under any authority to make such an arrangement. But a moment later there's a knock on the door, and they step out. Angela does her best to sit there with a sweet little smile as things are currently going exactly as she had hoped. But there are still a number of ways that things could go wrong. The worst among them is the fact that they are bringing Alex into the station. If they were to grab the fox it would definitely not be good, especially after the girl's recent injury and trauma from being grabbed by cops already. She wouldn't be surprised if they had Devon come by instead. He could do the job as well, but Angela had felt it was better if Alex did it as she'd be able to troubleshoot any problems they may encounter along the way. Eventually a couple of other officers step into the room, these with a lot more of an air of authority about them, though they don't look like any of the people actually working for the station.

"Very well," one of them says, "under two conditions. First, that your associate must pass a very thorough scan, as thorough as we feel like. If we feel like there are any tricks we may arrest her. Second, after we entertain your farce of evidence, you sign a document that you will plead guilty of the assault of the two humans."

"That's fine," Angela shrugs, it doesn't really make much difference considering the evidence, "but I should warn you, the associate that is coming in has recently just recovered from having been abducted and may be end up freaking out if you are too aggressive."

"I'm sure we'll manage," the officer says.

Alex walks up to the station, extremely nervous about the situation since she'd be going into a location she wouldn't be able to simply run away and she's already feeling very vulnerable. She walks up the stairs of the courtroom and then finds some cops waiting expectantly for her. They're waving her over and looking somewhat impatient. They're saying something or other but she can't really understand anything they're saying. She reluctantly walks over to them and they ask her to put the tablet into a basket as they pass it through an electronics scanner. They then ask her to step through a metal detector, which unfortunately for her, goes off. There is a predatory grin on most of them, though the one that had scanned the tablet is looking a bit annoyed. Probably expected to be able to clone their drive or permissions, but their encryptions were too advanced for that level of scan.

They start making much more noise and getting a lot closer to her, feeling all the parts of her body while trying to find the metal in her body, though she could have just pointed at her fingers as a lot of people have finger implants. But with them poking and prodding her everywhere except where there is actual metal on her she's getting closer and closer to having a full-on panic attack. This is made worse in that it is clear they are getting a lot of enjoyment out of torturing her in this matter. She's on the verge of just bolting out the door anyway when a new cop shows up from nearby and smacks one of the others in the back of the head and begins yelling something at the other. Eventually, they ease away from her, showing some sort of reverence or concern, she can't exactly tell which. The thing that's the most important to her, though, is they are no longer crowding her and poking her with potentially needles for all she could tell. Just in case she quickly does a pat down of her own body to make sure that she wasn't injected with anything. But she thankfully finds nothing wrong except for some of her fur being shifted out of place and clumped up. She pats it down as best as she can before hobbling over to where the tablet is stored and then grabs it from the officer. She's then lead by this new person into the courtroom, where all of the eyes briefly turn to her. She sees Angela waiting to see the judge. She moves down and sits down in an open seat right next to the squirrel morph.

'You doing okay?' Angela asks in sign language.

'They kept touching me. I didn't like it.'

'Sorry for having to put you through all of this. But if we can pull this off it will be a big step forward in our plans.'

Alex half laughs, though she isn't exactly feeling all that consoled by the words. After another ten minutes of waiting the judge makes a motion for the two morphs as well as a couple of bandaged up humans and their lawyer are asked to step forward. Angela pokes at Alex's arm to let her know this. Alex quickly stands up and follows Angela to their table, putting the tablet onto the table in front of her and putting her hands into the input position.

"Okay, let's get this over with," the judge says. Since Alex can't understand him she looks around and seeing the nearby monitor she begins go about establishing a connection between the tablet and the monitor, doing it as discretely as she is able. "The lot of you are currently being charged with assault. How do you all plea?"

"My clients plea guilty by reason of the No Blood Defense," their lawyer says for the two humans.

"And you, miss?"

"Per an arrangement with the police I have agreed to plea guilty as charged on the condition that I be allowed to submit one piece of evidence for use in the trial."

"Very well, though I'll decide if I'll allow your evidence or not."

Angela sits and gestures at Alex, holding up two fingers. Alex touches the input area of Angela's computer and with a few motions of her fingers has pulled up a video display and with a single touch transfers the video to the main monitor of the courtroom. Immediately it shows the footage of the four camera drones showing Angela. Alex splits the images up so that all four are on the monitor are shown at the same time.

"This is video footage taken from using four KN34's. Each and every one is time stamped and for greater quality, in the one in the upper right you can actually see a clock in the distance. The moment that it was clear they might have attempted something I went about and dropped them so that they could set up a video feed since I was well aware that I was outside of the vision of any CCTV."

Alex can see something trying to use the connection she made with the monitor to try and tap into the tablet. Her head tilts to the side for a moment as she considers how best to proceed. Ordinarily she'd just release a virus into their computer to fry all of their hardware. But given the location that might not be in her best interest. For the time being she decides to just set it so that that particular computer will run into their firewall and be blocked from getting in. Ideally they won't think that she found them so easily.

"The main thing I wanted to show is right here," she says as the video shows the part where she was cutting her hand. "This proves that they saw my blood going into the fight and still chose to engage, meaning they cannot claim the No Blood Defense."

"Objection! The fact that she had these set up beforehand would mean this would be an example of extortion!"

"It doesn't change the fact that they still chose to attack me after seeing my blood. Besides, by submitting this video as evidence, the only thing I'm doing is denying them access to the No Blood Defense while also providing evidence against myself."

The judge holds up his hand for a moment, considering the footage being shown. The videos continue to show the fight as it gets and once it starts getting to the part where it's clearly going in one way Alex goes ahead and pauses the video, fairly certain that nothing is really served by showing the entirety of the fight at this time. "I'm going to allow the evidence. If we go to trial I'm going to want an expert to critique the evidence of the video, to make sure that there has been no tampering with the information. As for the accusation of it being extortion that would only hold weight if she were to then try and goad them into attacking. From the evidence she has shown I cannot in any regard conclude that she has taken any action to encourage them to break the law. If that is what the jury then feels then so be it."

The prosecutor spends a moment talking with the two humans and their lawyers. After the deliberations, the prosecutor walks over to the bench and talks with the judge in hushed tones, completely forgetting the fact that Angela could actually hear them perfectly. Technically Alex probably hears them better than she can, but Angela wouldn't count that as Alex would never understand what they were talking about anyway. In fact, since this may end up being a while Angela taps Alex's arm. Alex looks over at her and Angela signs to her.

'Might be a while. You don't need to keep sitting. Take the tablet with you, I'll text you if I need you to come back up here.'

Alex nods before scooting herself out of the chair and slipping away. None of the people currently paying any attention to the case seem to even really notice the fox morph leaving the table and wandering off. But then again Alex was not under arrest, she was and it really didn't matter what Alex went to do. She knew better than to do anything that would get them in trouble in this particular situation, especially since it would primarily be bad for her in general. Alex was a good kid, just had a few issues, like most Morphs usually did. If anything, there were really only two possibilities that would be a concern for her regarding the fox Morph. For starters, there is always the issue of her getting grabbed. But with the implication of needing to stay close she shouldn't leave the station, especially since that'd mean another pat down in getting back in. And there would be hell to pay if the police allowed someone to be snatched inside of a courtroom. The other risk is Alex using the table to do something she really shouldn't. There is a very valid reason she's not allowed on their system. But that doesn't really matter where she is, just that she has access to the tablet. And giving the girl the opportunity to just wander would decrease the chance of her getting bored enough to do something foolish. Eventually, the discussion stops and the lawyers return to their client.

"We've come to the conclusion that the state will not be seeking jail time for this particular incident. As you have evidence disproving the No Blood Defense it will not be used. Instead what the state is proposing is a simple ten thousand dollar fine to all involved parties," the prosecutor says.

Angela shrugs, "if that's the penalty they get as well I guess I'm okay with it. I want equal justice to be served and if equal justice in this case is simply ten grand, then so be it. But I will be needing to look over the paperwork you'd need me to sign to agree to this first to make sure there's nothing else being done to deceive me and I will be insisting that those two sign the document first."

The prosecutor looks over to the two humans who, after looking at their lawyer for a moment, nod. "Very well," he says.

Angela wasn't entire sure how she felt about the situation. Yes it meant being able to avoid any jail time whatsoever but ten grand is not something that she was so willing to part, especially since it means that that amount is not something that they would have flinched at. If they were being paid to assault her, then they would have simply just given up part of their payment to avoid jail time in exchange for costing her a decent sum. Not enough to really affect the group long-term, but it does add up. But it will still serve their purpose. If anything it helps since it gives them a clue they can follow to potentially get a better lead and manipulate things to their advantage. But she waits as the lawyers write a quick little paper showing the verdict which the two humans sign and then she signs as well. With the deal effectively done the judge bangs his gavel once and the officers nearby grumble but remove her handcuffs, letting her go free legally. She rubs her arms slightly and stands up, giving a gentle nod to the humans and their lawyer, getting a sneer in response.

Alex had been wandering around, reading the various documents along the wall. As such, she's caught completely off guard when Detective Matthews touches her on the shoulder. She sees him and her ears flip back, briefly flashing to when they had grabbed her. She quickly takes a step back, half wondering how she might be able to get away from the situation but also knows that she has to stay nearby in case Angela calls for her again. She's startled when she sees him pick up a clip board and starts writing on it. After a moment he turns it over and shows it to her.

'Why did you run away?'

She just stares at the paper, dumbfounded for a moment, trying to wrap her mind around the current situation. Finally, she makes the sign for black before realizing that if he wrote his question he likely can't speak sign language. She then lifts up Angela's tablet and types in her response instead, making sure the font was nice and big so that the human could read it without having to get any closer.

'Didn't want Black. Saw needle. Ran away.'

"Through a fourth story window?" Detective Matthews asks out loud and waiting for a response before he remembers that she can't understand him. He goes back to his page and writes underneath it. 'You jumped out a window to avoid getting a shot?'

Alex shrugs before typing her response. 'Was safer. Too risky to go by door.'

Detective Matthews nods as if trying to come to terms with that sort of strange statement. 'Afraid of needles?' he asks, wondering if he's dealing with a phobia of some sort.

'Afraid of Black.'

'What is Black?

Alex pauses and actually looks over Detective Matthews' shoulder at Angela. Finally, she goes to the table and writes something on it.

'Black is Black. I am Red. She is Orange. Black make all Black," she shows to him and taps briefly on her arm before quickly erasing the message. 'Can't say more. Not safe.'

There is a beeping sound on her device and she looks at it before stepping away from him, giving him a wide-berth as she does so. When he turns around he sees Angela being uncuffed and heading towards the exit, Alex moving to meet up with her. He watches them leave, completely confused as to what just transpired and what all she meant.