Today would be his first day interning for Central City's ADA, and frankly? Tyler could feel his hands shaking as he rode up the elevator to Ms. Lance's office. He knew he was capable. He had the phone interview, and the second in-person interview, and he knew, logically, that he had been chosen for a reason. Ms. Lance had seen potential in him.
(Plus, his social work was a rare choice in this day and age - whether the kids were metas or wolves, Tyler wanted them to succeed too. The world wasn't built to handle them just yet.)
Yet he forces himself to take a deep breath as he steps inside, and he even pumps his fist before he knocks on her door.
"Ms. Lance?" He's all professionalism - or at least, he tries to be. "Just wanted to let you know I'm in."
And ready for whatever case you've got my way, though his eager attitude had probably given it away.
There's a smile as she looks up from her desk, and then gets up to go with him, grabbing her cup of coffee as she goes. Moving to Central City after Tommy's death had been an interesting choice to say the least - in more ways than one - but now that she was settling in as part of Team Flash and her responsibilities as an ADA, she was finding quite the balance, one way or another.
"Good. We have a lot of work to do." And with that she will breeze right past him to head down the hall to his desk. "The unfortunate downside of being an ADA is that we don't get to pick and choose our cases the way private attorneys do. We have to take all of them, so that means we almost always have a full plate."
"I figured as much." At least work would never be boring. Tyler's already got a list of deliverable outcomes from Central City's law school, but he suspects they might be running around all day - talking to clients; asking the CSI and detectives details about additional evidence; piecing together the facts; etc.
He had zero idea what sort of cases he'd be involved in, let alone what sorts of witnesses they'd interview or what pre-trial motions he'd write for her, but anything to ease her load (and give him enough experience to decide whether he'd work in criminal law upon graduation).
Keeping a steady pace with her, he pulls out his laptop from his black leather backpack, "Just means we've gotta work twice as hard as the private ones, right?"
"Pretty much." She makes her way into the bullpen of desks, before coming up on an empty one and tapping the edge, meaning he was free to sit. There was already a stack of files on his desk, ready to go through for whenever he was ready to start. "It also means we might not always get victims we like. But that's where we're going to have to count on your discretion in the case."
There are a lot of ways to learn how to do law, but learning objectivity is the hardest part, which is why, today at least, they're going to start there.
"Here's a list of charges that are waiting to be filed by end of day. I want you to go through them, take note of the severity of the crime, the state of the perpetrator and the state of the victim. Make note on if there's any reasons that we should give leniency, whether the charges are worth pursuing and why. Basically, I want you to put together how you would present this case to the Grand Jury and if it needs to go at all. You convince me one way or the other, and I'll follow your discretion, so make sure you really know what you're talking about."
She's already reviewed each of the files herself and knows which way she's leaning, but she wants to see what he thinks too. "I'm going to need your assessment by two, which should give you plenty of time to make your presentation and then head down to file charges where needed. You don't get to them by today, they walk either way, but everything you need to decide is in these files - evidence, crime scene photos, et cetera. If you have any questions, just come knock on my door and I'll be happy to answer them."
Woof. Tyler takes a seat, pulling up his chair and staring down the files as if they're the latest supernatural terror to hit town. (Thankfully, Central doesn't see as many of those as Mystic Falls ever had. A blessing in disguise?)
"Okay." He doesn't have much else to add, given that time is of the essence and he sure doesn't want the guilty to walk free. He also doesn't want to take up Ms. Lance's precious time. "I'll do my best."
Once he's left to his own devices, he skims the case files, noting that a good fourth of them had been apprehended either by the Flash, Vibe, or Kid Flash (or worse, all three). Metahuman crime was on the rise, no doubt. Some cases were murders, some were grand larcenies, some were arson... and more baffingly, one witness included a talking parrot.
He condenses the cases as best possible, taking care to note which ones should go before a jury and which ones would be best settled out-of-court and which ones should probably be dismissed. But more pressingly, before he begins his presentation, he drops by her office.
"Hey, Ms. Lance?" He pauses, shifting uncomfortably. "Before I present, I've got a question. How long has metahuman crime been a thing here?"
"Ever since the particle accelerator exploded about four years ago."
That night holds a lot of significance for many of the people he'll be working with, Laurel included. If she hadn't been visiting her mother in Central City for Christmas, she probably wouldn't have wound up affected at all. But given that Barry went through a similar thing, they've managed to work on getting a handle on things together.
"It was the inciting incident for a lot of metas."
Not too long, then. Tyler makes a mental note to later look up the details and the major players involved. Unlike supernatural crime, which was usually compelled away or tucked under a rug, metas were out and in the open.
"I see." He takes a moment to find his next words, "Must've sucked for a lot of them, waking up to powers they couldn't control."
He didn't want to particularly prove that someone had powers in a hearing, let alone that they might've used those powers for nefarious purposes - but then again, he doesn't think he would've used his powers to rob a bank.
"Yeah, I'm sure it did." She speaks a little bit from experience on that one, but she tries to keep that part of her life under wraps when she can. "But not all of them turned into thieves and killers, so we don't give them a pass in that respect."
"I figured." He sighs, glancing briefly down to the stack of case files in his hand. "So I've got my assessment. Which charges are worth it, which ones aren't, what state the victims're in, what the perpetrators are like..."
And this is where he grows uneasy.
"I noticed the Flash apprehended a lot of them. But he didn't testify?" His law classes didn't prepare him for this. Most law classes were ill-equipped to deal with metas. "Is that because he - I'm assuming he's a he - doesn't have the authority to arrest them?"
It isn't that Laurel didn't think that they wouldn't come after her for pursuing this case. She's been the target of thugs before, and she has no doubt that she would be again. There's a reason her father made her take self defense classes.
(And there's a reason she had Nyssa train her when she decided to become the Black Canary.)
Still, while she expects retaliation, she doesn't expect them to be so brazen that they corner her as she's leaving the back door of the DA's office. She comes to a stop, eyeing each of the three men who are moving as though they have something to prove, and she steadies her stance and doesn't hesitate to look them all in the eye.
"You're going to regret this."
They're not as convinced. For a while the fight is pretty evenly matched, Laurel's assassin-esque training holding up against them throwing their weight around against a smaller woman. But they manage to get a bit of an upper hand, gets their arms around her torso and pins her arms, and one of the goons grins.
"Whadaya say now, bitch?"
She smirks. "You're still going to regret this."
And with that, she opens her mouth to scream, unleashing the canary cry across the alleyway.
Tyler hadn't exactly been expecting peace and quiet - Central City had more than its fair share of criminals interrupting his daily life - but he sure hadn't been expecting a cry loud enough that he rushes out the door of the DA's office. If he hurries, he could probably give them a beatdown.
His eyes flash yellow as he surveys the scene: a bunch of fallen thugs, some debris, and - Laurel? Was that where that loud screeching had come from?
Tyler adjusts his messenger bag across his shoulder, taking one tentative step forward.
"Wow." He whistles softly, glancing over at her. "So uh... how long have you been a Siren?"
She spins on her heels, eyes wide at the sound of another voice, part of her still on the defensive with her baton in her hand. But when she sees who it is, she relaxes, taking a moment to brush her hair out of her face and try to gather her thoughts.
"Sorry?" Because yes, that's a good and not at all suspicious response. "How long have I been a what?"
"A siren," Tyler says more slowly, raising both hands in defense as he pieces together what he had heard and seen.
A cry like that only came from sirens, or so he'd thought. Laurel and Barry had mentioned metahumans - people with superpowers - but they were so far out of his world view that Tyler didn't jump to them. The Flash was probably a friendly vampire; Vibe was probably a technowitch; and Killer Frost was just crazy. (Sorry, pretty lady.)
"You know, the mythological creatures who can lure guys to their doom with their voice...?"
"I know what they are, yeah." Her head tips to the side for a moment, confused that that is the connection Tyler is making. "I'm trying to figure out why you think I am one."
Because Tyler hadn't actually seen her scream, so she's still planning to pass this off on the Black Canary, but the world is conspiring against her on that front. Or not the world, exactly, just Barry Allen.
There's a swirl of red and gold lightning as the bad guys get collected into one place and zip tied and the Scarlet Speedster in his full Flash gear speeds to a stop next to Laurel. He's seen Tyler so he's going to keep his face blurred, just to be on the safe side, and in his terrible Flash voice:
Tyler can't believe he's here, putting two and two together right as a gust of wind swirls around them and - and that sure is the Flash staring him in the face. Tyler squints, as if he could make anything in that undecipherable mess, but ultimately gives up.
His werewolf senses weren't meant to embark on that kind of rollercoaster ride.
"I think she can handle herself, Flash." Tyler snorts, regarding his boss with newfound awe. "You just missed her kicking their asses."
"Well, ADA Lance has always been scary. That doesn't surprise me."
Laurel gives him a look at that, before shaking her head. She knows she can keep denying things and see how far that gets her, but at the same time, there's only so long those secrets are going to be able to hold. She glances back over her shoulder to make sure the alley's clear, then looks back to Barry again.
"Maybe we should take this somewhere more private."
"Are you sure?"
"Might as well. So long as it's okay with you."
The Flash glances back to Tyler again, and with that, there's a flash of red and gold lightning and the three of them are suddenly standing n the middle of the STAR Labs' cortex.
That familiarity - the mere tone that she used with the Flash - couldn't be good. Tyler knew that heroes worked with the law, but certainly not this intimately. It was like she knew him. Personally knew him.
Then a gust of wind and light swirls around him, and he's in some strange, sterile lab with a ton of computers and people bickering in the next room over.
Tyler rubs his temples, trying to make sense of it all.
It's been a few weeks since the beginning of Tyler's internship. Most of their cases have been fairly straight-forward. Homicides, robberies, the occasional divorce law when it gets particularly violent... and so far, today's pending case seemed to follow that direct pattern. The owner of Central City's prized aquarium had tragically drowned, and evidence of foul play had been uncovered. Who better to prosecute them than the state?
After his last class ends for the day, Tyler drives over to the Central City Aquarium and stares up at the building's exterior - a giant pirate ship. Hard to believe that such a cheery, vibrant place could be the site of a terrible murder.
Most prosecutors don't personally visit crime sites prior to the trial, but Laurel was particularly meticulous... and okay, part of Tyler secretly believed that it wasn't every day their job took them to the aquarium.
"Hey boss," Tyler says, holding out a cup of coffee for her. He doesn't need to bring a drink, but he finds it helps. Especially when they're dealing with murders. "How's the investigation going?"
Laurel is looking flustered, to say the least. She had thought when ARGUS escorted King Shark off to one of their secret bases, she wouldn't have to deal with him anymore - as a superhero or as an ADA. But the case landed on her desk, so now she has to prosecute this. Some would probably say it's the easiest case she's ever taken.
She doesn't necessarily see it that way, though.
She glances over at Tyler when he arrives, before passing the file back to him. "Meet King Shark."
He exchanges the coffee for the file, skimming through it for key details.
"Who the hell..." He doesn't get it. He really doesn't get it, and he thought he had finally understood metahumans. Then he sees a mugshot of some sentient animal that wouldn't have been out of place in a Disney movie, and it feels like the rug had been pulled out from under him.
He has to hold up the file and ask, just in case he's dreaming, "Is the defendant an actual shark?"
It's a really kind of disturbing thing, but this is what the world has come to. Sometimes there are shark people.
"We think. Before he became a meta, he was a shark specalist at the Central City Zoo. He was at work the night the particle accelerator exploded and the shark cells merged with his DNA?"
Well, that's one question answered. Some people got super-speed, some people got sound manipulation, and one guy turned into a shark. At least he can take solace in knowing that the local defense attorney's going to have a harder time with this guy.
"Okay, and he's the main suspect in a murder trial..." He skims the file. King Shark was the defendant, the owner Captain Shipley was the victim, and the primary witnesses were the whale trainers. Also, apparently, one of the killer whales. (Hoo boy.) "I heard about the owner's passing on the news, but I didn't realize it was being ruled as a homicide."
Or rather: his journalist girlfriend had told him about said owner's passing, but it's not entirely relevant to the matter at hand.
"It wasn't, at first. But then we found a few more victims and boats with big chunks taken out of them - very Jaws - and the Flash rounded him up and dropped him on our doorstep."
Laurel sighs as she leans back in her seat, rubbing her eyes a bit. "It's hard to deny it when it's right there in front of you."
Without further investigating the crime scene, the case seemed pretty open-and-shut. Normally, lawyers didn't step foot, leaving the main investigation to the CSI's, but this felt necessary.
He sighs, closing the file and holding onto it tighter. "Well, have you gotten a chance to see the crime scene, or are we both heading into the deep end for the first time?"
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sheridan2017-10-14 10:59 pm
you set it right there
(Plus, his social work was a rare choice in this day and age - whether the kids were metas or wolves, Tyler wanted them to succeed too. The world wasn't built to handle them just yet.)
Yet he forces himself to take a deep breath as he steps inside, and he even pumps his fist before he knocks on her door.
"Ms. Lance?" He's all professionalism - or at least, he tries to be. "Just wanted to let you know I'm in."
And ready for whatever case you've got my way, though his eager attitude had probably given it away.
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"Good. We have a lot of work to do." And with that she will breeze right past him to head down the hall to his desk. "The unfortunate downside of being an ADA is that we don't get to pick and choose our cases the way private attorneys do. We have to take all of them, so that means we almost always have a full plate."
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He had zero idea what sort of cases he'd be involved in, let alone what sorts of witnesses they'd interview or what pre-trial motions he'd write for her, but anything to ease her load (and give him enough experience to decide whether he'd work in criminal law upon graduation).
Keeping a steady pace with her, he pulls out his laptop from his black leather backpack, "Just means we've gotta work twice as hard as the private ones, right?"
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There are a lot of ways to learn how to do law, but learning objectivity is the hardest part, which is why, today at least, they're going to start there.
"Here's a list of charges that are waiting to be filed by end of day. I want you to go through them, take note of the severity of the crime, the state of the perpetrator and the state of the victim. Make note on if there's any reasons that we should give leniency, whether the charges are worth pursuing and why. Basically, I want you to put together how you would present this case to the Grand Jury and if it needs to go at all. You convince me one way or the other, and I'll follow your discretion, so make sure you really know what you're talking about."
She's already reviewed each of the files herself and knows which way she's leaning, but she wants to see what he thinks too. "I'm going to need your assessment by two, which should give you plenty of time to make your presentation and then head down to file charges where needed. You don't get to them by today, they walk either way, but everything you need to decide is in these files - evidence, crime scene photos, et cetera. If you have any questions, just come knock on my door and I'll be happy to answer them."
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"Okay." He doesn't have much else to add, given that time is of the essence and he sure doesn't want the guilty to walk free. He also doesn't want to take up Ms. Lance's precious time. "I'll do my best."
Once he's left to his own devices, he skims the case files, noting that a good fourth of them had been apprehended either by the Flash, Vibe, or Kid Flash (or worse, all three). Metahuman crime was on the rise, no doubt. Some cases were murders, some were grand larcenies, some were arson... and more baffingly, one witness included a talking parrot.
He condenses the cases as best possible, taking care to note which ones should go before a jury and which ones would be best settled out-of-court and which ones should probably be dismissed. But more pressingly, before he begins his presentation, he drops by her office.
"Hey, Ms. Lance?" He pauses, shifting uncomfortably. "Before I present, I've got a question. How long has metahuman crime been a thing here?"
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That night holds a lot of significance for many of the people he'll be working with, Laurel included. If she hadn't been visiting her mother in Central City for Christmas, she probably wouldn't have wound up affected at all. But given that Barry went through a similar thing, they've managed to work on getting a handle on things together.
"It was the inciting incident for a lot of metas."
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"I see." He takes a moment to find his next words, "Must've sucked for a lot of them, waking up to powers they couldn't control."
He didn't want to particularly prove that someone had powers in a hearing, let alone that they might've used those powers for nefarious purposes - but then again, he doesn't think he would've used his powers to rob a bank.
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And this is where he grows uneasy.
"I noticed the Flash apprehended a lot of them. But he didn't testify?" His law classes didn't prepare him for this. Most law classes were ill-equipped to deal with metas. "Is that because he - I'm assuming he's a he - doesn't have the authority to arrest them?"
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/and scene?
don't it make you want to scream
(And there's a reason she had Nyssa train her when she decided to become the Black Canary.)
Still, while she expects retaliation, she doesn't expect them to be so brazen that they corner her as she's leaving the back door of the DA's office. She comes to a stop, eyeing each of the three men who are moving as though they have something to prove, and she steadies her stance and doesn't hesitate to look them all in the eye.
"You're going to regret this."
They're not as convinced. For a while the fight is pretty evenly matched, Laurel's assassin-esque training holding up against them throwing their weight around against a smaller woman. But they manage to get a bit of an upper hand, gets their arms around her torso and pins her arms, and one of the goons grins.
"Whadaya say now, bitch?"
She smirks. "You're still going to regret this."
And with that, she opens her mouth to scream, unleashing the canary cry across the alleyway.
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Tyler hadn't exactly been expecting peace and quiet - Central City had more than its fair share of criminals interrupting his daily life - but he sure hadn't been expecting a cry loud enough that he rushes out the door of the DA's office. If he hurries, he could probably give them a beatdown.
His eyes flash yellow as he surveys the scene: a bunch of fallen thugs, some debris, and - Laurel? Was that where that loud screeching had come from?
Tyler adjusts his messenger bag across his shoulder, taking one tentative step forward.
"Wow." He whistles softly, glancing over at her. "So uh... how long have you been a Siren?"
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"Sorry?" Because yes, that's a good and not at all suspicious response. "How long have I been a what?"
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A cry like that only came from sirens, or so he'd thought. Laurel and Barry had mentioned metahumans - people with superpowers - but they were so far out of his world view that Tyler didn't jump to them. The Flash was probably a friendly vampire; Vibe was probably a technowitch; and Killer Frost was just crazy. (Sorry, pretty lady.)
"You know, the mythological creatures who can lure guys to their doom with their voice...?"
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Because Tyler hadn't actually seen her scream, so she's still planning to pass this off on the Black Canary, but the world is conspiring against her on that front. Or not the world, exactly, just Barry Allen.
There's a swirl of red and gold lightning as the bad guys get collected into one place and zip tied and the Scarlet Speedster in his full Flash gear speeds to a stop next to Laurel. He's seen Tyler so he's going to keep his face blurred, just to be on the safe side, and in his terrible Flash voice:
"You okay, Counselor?"
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Tyler can't believe he's here, putting two and two together right as a gust of wind swirls around them and - and that sure is the Flash staring him in the face. Tyler squints, as if he could make anything in that undecipherable mess, but ultimately gives up.
His werewolf senses weren't meant to embark on that kind of rollercoaster ride.
"I think she can handle herself, Flash." Tyler snorts, regarding his boss with newfound awe. "You just missed her kicking their asses."
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Laurel gives him a look at that, before shaking her head. She knows she can keep denying things and see how far that gets her, but at the same time, there's only so long those secrets are going to be able to hold. She glances back over her shoulder to make sure the alley's clear, then looks back to Barry again.
"Maybe we should take this somewhere more private."
"Are you sure?"
"Might as well. So long as it's okay with you."
The Flash glances back to Tyler again, and with that, there's a flash of red and gold lightning and the three of them are suddenly standing n the middle of the STAR Labs' cortex.
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Then a gust of wind and light swirls around him, and he's in some strange, sterile lab with a ton of computers and people bickering in the next room over.
Tyler rubs his temples, trying to make sense of it all.
"Uh..." Eloquent, Lockwood. "Where are we?"
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who's ever heard of a trial for a killer whale
After his last class ends for the day, Tyler drives over to the Central City Aquarium and stares up at the building's exterior - a giant pirate ship. Hard to believe that such a cheery, vibrant place could be the site of a terrible murder.
Most prosecutors don't personally visit crime sites prior to the trial, but Laurel was particularly meticulous... and okay, part of Tyler secretly believed that it wasn't every day their job took them to the aquarium.
"Hey boss," Tyler says, holding out a cup of coffee for her. He doesn't need to bring a drink, but he finds it helps. Especially when they're dealing with murders. "How's the investigation going?"
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She doesn't necessarily see it that way, though.
She glances over at Tyler when he arrives, before passing the file back to him. "Meet King Shark."
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"Who the hell..." He doesn't get it. He really doesn't get it, and he thought he had finally understood metahumans. Then he sees a mugshot of some sentient animal that wouldn't have been out of place in a Disney movie, and it feels like the rug had been pulled out from under him.
He has to hold up the file and ask, just in case he's dreaming, "Is the defendant an actual shark?"
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It's a really kind of disturbing thing, but this is what the world has come to. Sometimes there are shark people.
"We think. Before he became a meta, he was a shark specalist at the Central City Zoo. He was at work the night the particle accelerator exploded and the shark cells merged with his DNA?"
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"Okay, and he's the main suspect in a murder trial..." He skims the file. King Shark was the defendant, the owner Captain Shipley was the victim, and the primary witnesses were the whale trainers. Also, apparently, one of the killer whales. (Hoo boy.) "I heard about the owner's passing on the news, but I didn't realize it was being ruled as a homicide."
Or rather: his journalist girlfriend had told him about said owner's passing, but it's not entirely relevant to the matter at hand.
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Laurel sighs as she leans back in her seat, rubbing her eyes a bit. "It's hard to deny it when it's right there in front of you."
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Without further investigating the crime scene, the case seemed pretty open-and-shut. Normally, lawyers didn't step foot, leaving the main investigation to the CSI's, but this felt necessary.
He sighs, closing the file and holding onto it tighter. "Well, have you gotten a chance to see the crime scene, or are we both heading into the deep end for the first time?"
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If only because that's how she knows it's real.
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