“I hate you for making me do this.” Matt could hear the pissed off mutant before she even entered the court room, a smirk beginning to play on his face as he gave his client a reassuring nod. “No you don’t!” A cheerful voice replied, and the lawyer had to hold back a chuckle as he heard an annoyed grumble. Turning his focus back to the court room, Matt rolled his eyes as the opposing lawyer made some bullshit claim, lying so obviously he didn’t even need to hear the man’s heartbeat to know it.
“Your honour, the defendant does not even have a reliable witnesses-“ the prosecutor continued, tone as accusatory as ever as he stared at Matt and his client. His defendant, a man accused of murder, tapped his leg anxiously, heart beat speeding up with anxiety. He put a reassuring hand on the man’s shoulder, hopefully aiming a smile in the right direction as he heard his friends approach the door. Right as he stood up to argue with the other lawyer, there was a loud bang of the doors to the courtroom opening, and a smile split onto Matt’s face as he recognised the familiar heart beats and smells of the two women.
”Ms Rasputina, Mantis, right on time” He greeted smoothly, stepping aside as the women moved to stand next to him, Mantis already giving him a hug. The judge coughed, clearly confused, and the empath quickly apologised for her unprofessionalism. “Mr Murdock, what is happening here.?” The judge asked, a nervous aura radiating from him as he was most likely being stared down by Illyana.
“Your honour, I would like to announce that I do in fact have a witness.” Matt began, suppressing a smirk at the murmurs erupting from both the jury and the opposing side. Tapping his cane on the ground, he walked closer to the stand, allowing Mantis to whisper to him that he should make a slight turn to face the jury, before continuing. “They say dead men tell no tales, but I find issue with that statement, your honour.” He waved his hand in the direction of Illyana, the mutant thankfully understanding the signal, pulling her soulsword out of the ground.
A few shouts came from the benches, and the judge slammed down his hammer. “Mr Murdock, there are no weapons allowed in court-“ he began, but Matt quickly made a soothing hand motion, internally thanking the heavens for the god blessed gift that is Mantis and her ability to calm people down as the collective panic in the room lessened with ease. “Don’t worry, your honour, my friend’s sword can not harm us mortals. It is merely here to help us with this case.”
His client made a confused noise, tugging on his sleeve in a mild panic. “Listen man, I know you’re blind, but that chick there just summoned a giant sword and there’s a damn green alien standing next to her.” The man hissed, his nervousness evident in his voice as he looked around. Matt just hummed, waving him off as he stepped back to stand next to his friends, a smirk still playing on his face. “As I was saying, I disagree with that statement. You see your honour, as necromancers, my friends here would like to summon my first witness; the victim.” As he spoke the words, he let Illyana and Mantis take frontier stage, the empath putting a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder as the sword dug into the ground.
A whirlwind of sound and light overwhelmed his senses for a moment, but as soon as it came, it disappeared, a new presence in the court room ‘breathing’ anxiously. “What the hell-?” Someone whispered, right at the same moment someone on the jury’s stand promptly fainted. Matt raised an eyebrow in Illyana’s direction as the mutant girl suppressed a laugh, crossing his arms before returning his attention back to the judge.
“Now, let’s ask Mister Steven some questions about his untimely demise, shall we.?”
After everyone in the court room had calmed down, (and one of the jury’s was replaced by someone with a less weaker stomach), the case was easily won in his client’s favour, and the whole scenario resulted in the victim’s death being ruled as natural circumstances. Matt had thanked the spirit, giving the man his apologies for the disturbance before Illyana sent him back to his afterlife with the help of Mantis’ life energy. (Matt still didn’t understand the woman’s power and how it worked, but he can’t really talk about someone having freaky powers.)
They were now sitting at Josie’s, Foggy having insisted on it after he heard how the case went. Foggy hadn’t arrived yet, so Matt was just sitting at the bar with a drink whilst Mantis excitedly caught him up on all the avengers-level shit they hadn’t needed him for, (thank god, space would mess with his senses supremely), while Illyana held her hand and glared daggers at everyone daring to approach them.
“You know, I’m blind, and even I can feel the way you’re trying to explode everybody in this room with your mind.” He remarked, taking a sip of his drink as Mantis let out a laugh. “Just looking for threats.” The woman replied, heart beating a little bit faster as Mantis smiled. Matt hummed, leaning back in the barstool. “If there was someone dangerous here, besides you of course, I would’ve known already.” He could practically hear Illyana roll her eyes, but surprisingly enough, she did actually stop scanning the room like a robot.
It was a few minutes later when Foggy arrived, his friend’s loud and cheery laugh already alerting Matt to his presence before he even entered the bar. About to turn around to greet the man, Matt nearly got pushed of his chair from the force of Illyana standing up, shoving Foggy in the chest. “What do you think you’re doing.” The mutant hissed, clearly letting her Russian accent seep into her voice as to come across more intimidating. Matt quickly regained his senses as Foggy sputtered, about to pull his friend away from Illyana, when Mantis sighed and put a hand on the woman’s back.
”’Yana, it’s just Matthew’s boyfriend doing an earthly greeting” the empath giggled, allowing Foggy to sputter something whilst Matt realised that his friend had probably tried to hug Mantis, causing Illyana to obviously, logically, immediately jump to attempted murder. (To be honest, Matt couldn’t really blame her without being a hypocrite, but still.) The woman just huffed, sitting back down at the bar, (simultaneously pulling Mantis onto her lap), at the same time that Matt frowned. “Wait- foggy’s not my boyfriend-“
“Yeah- I’m his business partner, not- partner partner” Foggy added, the heat of his skin radiating as his heart beat faster than normal. Mantis made a confused noise, presumably tilting her head as she looked at them. “But both of you feel such strong love for each other? I did not even have to try and use my ability to sense it.” Illyana snorted as her girlfriend spoke, Matt feeling himself get just as hot as Foggy was at the moment. “Yeah, like, platonic love, just- dudes being dudes” his friend stammered, earning a chuckle from Illyana, who was currently buried in Mantis’ hair, obscuring the way that she mumbled ‘bullshit’.
Mantis hummed for a moment, before standing up, grabbing a now grumpily whining Illyana by the hand. “I think me and ‘Yana should leave, we have very important things to do!” The empath said cheerfully, strangely not even showing any symptoms of lying, despite obviously setting him up. The other woman just grumbled, but gave Matt a lighthearted shove towards foggy’s direction. “Yeah, me and Angel have shit to do, goodluck. Don’t call us if you ever need someone resurrected again.”