Prompt: [WP] You're the lawyer for a new supervillain facing a laundry list of charges. After reviewing the footage and other evidence, you're pretty sure you've got a strong case that they were acting in self-defense.
Brainstorming
It would be funny if the supervillain really is a bad guy, but because of the circumstance, he has a legitimate case that it's self-defense.
If law enforcement are trying to arrest him, then it's not self-defense, so vigilantes would be suggestive. Maybe a heavily armed militia or something like that, which would force the villain to respond forcefully to save his life and therefore cause a lot of damage that leads to many charges against him.
Who is our lawyer character, what is he like. Do supervillains have established law firms, or they just use any firm that will work with them? Is our supervillain wealthy as a result of his activities, or more of an angry but lower SES figure?
How did the supervillain gain powers. Was it like Worm, where there is some horrible event in his backstory that caused him to gain powers. Was it technological (did he develop a supervillain suit or meha or something?)
Writing
"1 count of Supervillainy, 1 count of terrorist acts, 1 count of 1st degree murder, 2 counts of 2nd degree murder, 22 counts of assault and battery, 1 count of arson and 1 count of felony criminal mischief."
If anyone still used the fax, it was the prosecutor's office, Lewis decided. Reading the counts for the firm's new client was sobering.
The street fight in Lewiston had been national news for days. The political valences kept the story afloat. Republicans sympathized with the local milita group and despised the supervillain. Democrats despised the militia members. No one was on Minion Summoner's side, except now he was legally required to be.
The odd thing was, their client was a rather new supervillain, and he wasn't being charged for the prior bank robbery the week before. Lewis suspected there wasn't a lot of evidence in that case. The running battle that started in the post office was on security cameras and cell phones and every form of recording device known to man.
What was released to the public was only a segment of the combined footage available. Lewis went back to his desk, reviewing the notes he had already taken.
Minion Summoner was not known to be living in the area. By the Superhumans Act of 2029, all Superhumans are allowed to use an alias, which can only be changed by application to the Superhumans Bureau. They are not required to provide their real name, except in rare cases.
So there's no guarantee that Minion Summoner wasn't from around the area, but there was no match with recent school or DMV records. He had started abbreviating the client's alias to MS just for his own sanity.
Lewiston city police had called in County and State troopers, and it was state authorities that compiled the consolidated footage of the violence.
Lewis rewinded the footage to the start. Lisa had already joked that he must be from Lewiston. He grew up an hour west, but he was familiar with the downtown area (as much as a small rural town could be said to have a downtown).
It was fortunate for MS that he was in costume when picking up mail from his post office box. On the other hand, his mere presence in costume could be read as a threatening act. There was case law that should establish that the mere presence of a constumed superhuman cannot be considered assault and does not justify a terroristic act charge by itself.
Anyway, playing the footage, he watched as a local civillian came out of the main office and into the area with the mailboxes. After glancing at MS, the local ran out the door into the street.
MS carried one letter towards the door, throwing a pile of junk mail into the garbage bin.
The feed switched to outside. James Donaghy, the local which had ran outside, was a member of the Northmen Militia Network. He was outside yelling.
Lewis kept the feed on mute because it was full of profanity.
Pausing the video, Lewis reviewed what was already known. Donaghy had been planning to meet with two other miltia members at the nearby diner for breakfast. It was saturday morning.
Lewis followed the war in Ukraine, learning the phrase Open Source Intelligence or OSINT. There was an analogy in law enforcement. Social media posts were compiled about the situation, and so he knew that Donaghy had yelled to the boys in the dinner, asking them to come "take down" Minion Summoner. His words were obsenity-laden, so Lewis didn't linger on them.
He unpaused the feed. It wasn't just his two friends responding, but a half dozen more locals as well. Many of them were already pulling out concealed weapons but others were running to their vehicles off-screen to get other weapons.
The camera providing this part of the footage seemed to be across the street from the post office, and there's a clear shot of MS exiting.
Lewis reviewed the transcript of the events in question, as he played the feed on mute. Donaghy first threatens MS and demands he get on the ground, and then adds slurs against multiple minorities (despite MS's ethnicity being unknown).
MS doesn't respond. The transcripts mention it takes roughly 30 seconds for MS to summon his minions, with more time required for the later ones.
Toby Heisner, the first of Donaghy's militia buddies, arrives with his AR-15 and points it at MS.
There's a standoff for a few moments longer, Donaghy turns to walk back towards the diner.
MS's first summon appears in front of MS. In various discussions online he's found the first summon is often called Street Thug or Private. Most people think MS has some way to empower or increase his summons' abilities as well.
The situation seems to be de-escalating, when suddenly Heisner shoots the Private. The legal status of attacking Superhuman summons is extremely fuzzy, so that will be something Lewis needs to research.
Private seems stunned for a moment, meanwhile MS pulls his iconic shotgun out of hammerspace.
This is when the situation becomes extremely chaotic.
MS fired bean bag rounds at Heisner. Donaghy and multiple other individuals fire on MS and Private. Private begins to return fire.
MS and Private withdraw into the post office.
A patron in the post office tries to tackle MS, and Private defends MS, subduing the inside attacker.
One of MS's super-powers is to instantly change between different shotgun rounds. He changes to slugshot to defend the entry door of the post office.
He's also focusing on summoning Sergeant, his second summons. Private secures the rest of the post office.
Militia members and other combatants try to rush the post office, but there's a jam up as the post office door is heavy and the way in is narrow. MS takes down those entering, but stays inside.
Sergeant arrives. He is a skilled soldier that also can organize and lead the other summons. The militia can't get into the post office and MS either can't or doesn't want to go out yet.
The transcripts mentions Lewiston police requesting backup from county. According to the transcript, police didn't charge into the situation, instead trying to establish a wide cordon.
The camera switches to outside the post office where medical is being forced to stay back. Civillians are trying to carrying the wounded to the ambulances. There's not an effective police cordon yet as a car full of militia members enters the block.
The militia tries to setup 'tactical', which is two guys with sniper rifles and a third with a full-auto rifle. It's clear that these guys have never been trained in real small unit tactics.
MS, Private, Sergeant and Specialist break out into the street. Specialist has a variety of tech equipment and a small drone. The camera feed goes white as Specialist's drone drops a flashbang. MS's team moves as an organized unit, moving down the street.
Donaghy responds first, yelling at the snipers to fire. He and Heisner pursue, shooting at MS. Sergeant fires back. Heisner is hit.
Donaghy finds cover and MS continues to retreat. That's when Tough Justice crashed into MS. MS's fourth summon PsyOps arrived, and Specialist fired a flash bang in Tough Justice's face. It was enough for MS to slip behind the protection of Sergeant and Private.
MS drops his shotgun, taking a knife from his pocket. When prepared, he is actually able to resist blows from Tough Justice, and with the help of his crew, fight back.
Emboldened by Tough Justice's arrival, Donaghy reforms the locals and tries to help the superhero.
PsyOps seems almost like a supervillain herself. Possessing a fear aura (Lewis never would have imagined saying those words before), she terrifies the locals into stepping back, and Tough Justice is stunned long enough to take multiple shots from MS's summons. He goes down.
MS's team drops out of camera range shortly after, as they slip away.
The feed switches to Donaghy, whose arranged something more like a posse than a police response.
The transcript mentions that police forces on the local, county and state level were ordered to stand down until superhuman help could arrive. Unforunately, Lewiston is hours away from the nearest Superhuman Bureau office.
After Tough Justice is knocked out, there won't be a superhuman response for three more hours.
When self-defense becomes large scale like this, it becomes very fuzzy and tenous as a case. But it does seem like MS was acting in self-defense. The situation never was lead or organized by the police, so the State can't argue it was resisting arrest. They will argue that Donaghy and the others were themselves acting in self-defense, but they acted first.
Lewis thought there was a chance for not guilty because of self-defense. But he wanted to review the remaining footage.
The feed skips the next three hours, in which the police finally gain control of the scene around the post office, and Donaghy and the 'posse' leave. News helicopters arrive later, and with that the next footage.
Helicopter footage shows a group of armed men in faux body armor firing full auto weapons at a small house on the other side of the street.
The next camera is from a police dash cam as police apprehend Donaghy and the others for attacking the home they mistakenly thought was MS's.
The rest of the feed is sporadic. MS seemed to be camping out west of town. Multiple cases of individuals attacking MS and reciprocations by MS. Eventually MS keeps his summons active at all hours.
It's still unclear if he lived out there permantly, or had a house in town that he didn't want to show his face at.
The final documentation with Minion Summoner is the paperwork when he turned himself in at the Lansing Superhero Bureau offices.
At the very least, there's a good change of getting a Not Guilty on most of these charges. There's no evidence at all for first degree murder. That one can get thrown out immediately.
After all the shooting back and forth, two people died, both from close range shotgun fire at the post office, when the ambulances weren't allowed to come close.
There are legal issues at stake that were completely new to him, and they would need to hire another paralegal or two for this case, but Lewis thought they could win.
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