It was 6:50pm the next day, and Phoenix could not have been stalling more than he already was in going inside Erin Chisholm's workout studio. First he said he forgot his water bottle (He didn't. He didn't even have one), then he complained that his outfit had holes in it (the athletic shorts came with those ventilation holes in them), and finally he was spending the last few minutes standing outside of the studio with Maya, pretending to fix his appearance by his reflection in the glass. Maya didn't want to go inside either, but even she was getting fed up with Phoenix's stalling tactics.

"The sooner we go in, the sooner this is over with." Maya huffed, "I don't even wanna know the punishment for being late. It's probably, like, a thousand push-ups! Do you want to do a thousand push-ups!"

"No!" Phoenix yelped, but he cleared his throat as that was a relatively pathetic outburst, "I mean, that would not be good, yes. Hold on just a second more, Maya. I'm almost done fixing everything up."

Maya gasped horrifically, "I see what games you're playing now! I saw you purposefully mess up your clothes so you have to fix them!"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Maya…" Phoenix glanced away. If he was a defendant, he would be declared guilty in that very moment.

Realizing that she would get nowhere in calling out Phoenix like that, Maya just sighed and crossed her arms, looking around idly, "...So, who did'ja even invite?"

Phoenix frowned for a moment, "Uh...Well. I don't have many friends that you don't know about. In fact, I think someone's coming who absolutely despises me."

"Then why invite them in the first place?"

"I needed another person, and one of their friends who's also one of my friends is going, so it'll work. Hopefully." Phoenix hung his head, "I don't even know anymore."

Maya patted Phoenix's shoulder, "Well… I guess we'll find out soon. Come on. Let's go in. It's 6:59. We might get that late penalty at this rate."

"Certainly don't want that!" Phoenix slicked his hair back and zipped right through the door into the studio with Maya right behind him. Looking inside, he noticed the nice laminate floors and the mirrors on all of the walls. This certainly was a dance studio.

Maya pursed her lips at the people gathered already. She should've expected to see who she saw, and it made her realize that she and Phoenix don't have a lot of friends. It was just Miles, Gumshoe, Adrian, and Franziska. The latter two were talking amongst themselves and probably gossiping, whereas Gumshoe was attempting warmup push-ups and Miles looked as if he was wondering what on earth he agreed to.

"Huh." Maya tilted her head, "I'm almost surprised Franziska didn't show up wearing a suit."

Franziska overheard that, and she simply sent a glare Maya's way.

Maya just sighed, "What gives? You and Adrian look like you just stepped off a runway. It's not fair!"

Franziska grinned slyly to herself, but Adrian just scratched her cheek bashfully, "Fabuletics. Can't work out if you don't look good." Adrian explained, flashing a smile.

"Oh, right." Maya huffed, "You rich people with your rich people workout clothes from Lordly Tailor. I can't even afford the air in there!"

Adrian shrugged sheepishly with a nervous smile, not quite sure what to say to that. Franziska simply still looked amused.

"97…98…99…100! Bam!" Gumshoe leaped up from off the ground, "100 push-ups, pal! Try and beat that!"

Miles had his eyes closed, and he just sighed and shook his head, "Detective... I heard you skip from 11 to 97. You're not fooling me."

Gumshoe deflated at that, scratching at the back of his neck in shame, "…Come on, pal. Don't snitch on me like that in front of everyone…"

At that moment, Erin came out of one of the doors to the offices in the studio, and she clapped her hands together, "Alright! Nice turnout! I hope you all are ready…because we're gonna crank things right up to a ten!" Her enthusiasm faltered for a moment, and she let out a bit of a nervous laugh, "…Right after some stretches, of course! Gotta loosen up first! Alright everyone! On the floor!"

Erin moved to the front of the room, facing the group as they all sat on the floor. When Erin joined them, she got into a straddle pose, which the rest of the group mimicked, "Remember, do what's comfortable for you. This isn't a contest to see who can do the splits."

Maya, who had sat down next to the girls, just looked over to see Adrian and Franziska doing perfect splits. Her shoulders visibly sagged, and her attention went to Phoenix instead, "Nick! I think they're mocking me..!"

"Come on, Maya.." Adrian tried to smile though it was pretty unconvincing, "We're not trying to mock you.."

"No, no.." Franziska averted her gaze away from Adrian guiltily, "...I was."

Maya turned away, crossing her arms in a pout, "...I thought we were friends, Franzy."

Erin clapped her hands, cutting off the meaningless chatter, "Lean to the right first. Stretch those back muscles out nicely… Then to the left... Aaand center... Hold it for a bit… Alright! On your feet!"

"I think I pulled something, sir…" Gumshoe grumbled faintly, slowly getting off the ground.

"You're fine, Detective." Miles sighed, "Don't overreact."

Pulling out a small remote, Erin pointed it at the speakers in the room and pressed a button, causing distinctly Latin music to start playing, probably to make for an exciting atmosphere, "Mirror my movements and you'll get the hang of it! Getting it right isn't important. Moving around and having fun is what matters!"

It started out easy enough, with a few hip sways to the beat, then some simple steps….but by the time the chorus hit, it could only really be described as a jumbled mess. The only one who knew what they were doing was Adrian, because she's actually taken this class before.

"You know…" Phoenix began, stumbling after trying to do a spin, "This has a lot more hip-shaking than I expected…"

Gumshoe essentially had given up at that point, not sweating the specifics but at least shuffling along with everyone else, "...I don't know if I like this, pal…"

Miles just grumbled something beneath his breath as he tried to follow along.

Maya was at least trying, which should have been commended. But every few seconds she'd look over at Franziska, who despite never taking a class before was keeping up with Erin and Adrian quite well, which made Maya angry, "Are you kidding me?!"

Franziska just lifted her chin, flashing a smirk. Miles glanced over for a moment and quirked a brow before going back to following along with the dance, "She took ballet when she was a child. This is nothing to her."

Maya let out an irritated huff, "Of course she did… What can't she do?!"

Miles smiled a bit at that, "Math. She has always been absolutely horrendous at math."

"S-Shut up, Miles!" Franziska snapped, "That was supposed to be just between us!"

Miles paid no heed to that- instead he looked back over at Maya, "Don't ask her to do basic addition. She has to do it all on her fingers."

Franziska grew flustered at that, and hurriedly she tried to dig up something on Miles as well, "W-Well… He… He did ballet too, you know! He quit because once he turned fifteen, he grew two left feet!"

Maya's jaw nearly hit the floor, "Franziska can't do math and Edgeworth did ballet?! This is too good…!"

"F-Franziska…!" Miles' eyes shot wide, "You said you would keep it a secret!"

"You said you'd keep the math thing a secret!" Franziska shot back, "I'm just making it even!"

Maya raised her hands in the air in a surrender, "I've made a ginormous mistake."

"Mayaaa!" Phoenix's shoulders slumped, "Look at what you've done! They're in a shouting match now!"

Because both Franziska and Miles stopped dancing to have their little fight, they got in the way of the remaining few who kept dancing (which were only Adrian and Gumshoe at that point), which, of course, only meant trouble. Gumshoe, with his complete lack of grace, stumbled after a move, crashing right into Miles. In a split-second panic as he fell, Miles reached out instinctively to try and grab onto something, something which happened to be Phoenix's shirt, which dragged Phoenix down to the ground as well. Maya stepped backwards, trying to avoid the commotion, but she ended up bumping into Franziska, and that wouldn't have been a bad thing if Adrian wasn't still trying to follow along with the dance, because Adrian ran right into Franziska and Maya at that moment. They all fell to the ground, and the entire group had been knocked down at that point.

Erin paused the music and looked back at the mess in front of her, hands on her hips and her eyebrows furrowed, "...Alright. How the hell did this happen?"

Maya, facedown on the floor, raised her hand into the air at that, "Marvelous question. I wish I knew the answer."

Gumshoe lifted his head off the ground and looked around, "...Hey. Where did Edgeworth go?" Suddenly he felt the ground beneath him shuffle, and Gumshoe looked below him to see that he had completely squashed Miles underneath him, "...S-Sorry, sir!" He hurriedly got up, freeing Miles.

"For someone whose diet is solely instant noodles…" Miles muttered as he pushed himself off the floor, "...you have a lot of heft to you still."

Meanwhile, Adrian pushed off the ground and sat back, brushing the hair out of her face. Franziska propped herself up on her elbows and looked at Adrian on top of her with an arched eyebrow, "Heh, well… This certainly is not how I imagined the end to my Friday night…"

Adrian just looked at Franziska strangely until she realized that she had been sitting on top of Franziska, then she hurriedly scrambled off of her, "I-I'm sorry! I didn't even notice! I didn't mean to…!"

Phoenix and Maya just looked around at what was happening, sighing collectively and shaking their heads.

"This was a disaster…" Phoenix mumbled, "Gumshoe crushed and probably broke Edgeworth…and I don't even wanna know what's happening between Franziska and Adrian at this point."

"You said it…" Maya said, exasperated.

That night at around 8, when Phoenix finally was able to go home after the disastrous workout class, he received a strange phone call. The second he answered, he could recognize the voice on the other line, and it did not spell good for Phoenix.

"Chris Archer…" Phoenix said cautiously, "What is it now? Our agreement was that you turned yourself in, so you can get a lighter sentence… What's holding you?"

"Before I do that, I just want to meet you one more time." Chris's voice sounded devious and conniving on the other line, "Can you make it to Gourd Lake Park in an hour?"

Phoenix was naturally suspicious, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. He knew Chris Archer was guilty, and he knew that he only had a few options when it came to ensuring Chris got the sentence he deserved… At this point, Phoenix had to play along to Chris's every whim if he had any hopes of Chris turning himself in, "…Fine. I'll be there."

"Nice. Nice." Chris sounded pleased, but that strange sly tone still remained, "I'll see you then. Come alone, though I think that goes without saying."

Clenching his jaw, Phoenix just tore the phone away from his ear and hung up. This situation with Chris has been a thorn in his side since his trial… and it seemed like Phoenix couldn't be rid of him just yet.

Phoenix left for Gourd Lake Park nearly immediately after receiving that phone call. He didn't want Chris to get there first and try and play some funny business on him. The sun was still up, and some kids were still out playing at the park. Phoenix smiled a bit at that, and around that time he felt something hit his foot. He looked down, seeing a baseball. A kid waved at him then pointed at the ball.

"Hey, mister!" The kid shouted, "Think you could throw that back?"

Phoenix bent down and picked down the ball before tossing it over. The kid caught it easily, and suddenly it looked like an idea popped into his tiny head.

"Say, mister! Do you know how to play?" The kid was beaming at this point, a huge smile on his face, "My dad can hit the ball really far! Can you do that too? I wanna see it!"

Phoenix stopped for a moment and gazed upward in thought, scratching the back of his neck, "I mean… I think I can? I haven't played in forever…"

The kid handed a bat over to Phoenix, "You can try!" He turned over towards his friends, "Run really far back! We gotta try and catch this thing!"

Not wanting to say no, Phoenix took the bat and got into a stance. The kid threw the ball towards him and Phoenix swung his bat, hitting the baseball far to the right. Another boy dove and tumbled to catch it, and then all the kids cheered.

The first kid was still smiling really wide, and he turned back to Phoenix with stars in his eyes, "Wow… You're really good! But not as good as my dad!"

Phoenix laughed, handing the bat back, "Hah, of course. I'm out of practice, after all."

"Alright, kiddos." A voice suddenly said, "Playtime's over. Run along now."

The kids froze, and the one threw down the bat and started running away. The other children followed along, running as fast as possible away. Phoenix turned to the source of the voice, spotting none other than Chris Archer a few feet away.

"Come on…" Phoenix sighed, shaking his head, "You didn't have to scare the kids like that."

Chris just shrugged nonchalantly, "Didn't want any witnesses. Can't even trust kids in this world. They're too prone to snitch."

"Why did you call me here?" Phoenix narrowed his eyes.

Chris walked around a bit, taking his sweet time in responding. He picked up the bat, glancing at the handiwork, "...Well, would you look at that. I think this is homemade." He grinned slightly, waving the bat at Phoenix, "I almost feel bad that I made them leave it behind."

Phoenix was still wary, and he stared Chris down, "You haven't answered the question."

"Ah, right…" Chris sighed, snapping to admonish himself, "My mistake. You see, there's been a change of plans…" He said as he walked closer.

Phoenix raised an eyebrow curiously.

"I'm not going to prison...and that's final." Chris reeled the bat back and struck it against Phoenix's head, knocking him down.

Phoenix felt weak at that point, like he was barely hanging on. He could hear the rustling of the leaves as Chris walked about, but it was hard to discern definitively, since Phoenix was fading in and out of consciousness. The last thing he heard was a voice, then someone going down the nearby slide and landing with a thud. After that, everything just went black.