Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.-Chapter 430: The mini defense attorney.

Sunshine returned to the living room, on temporary leave that was assigned by Vortan.

"Welcome back." Hades said.

She spun around and saw him sitting on the new red rug, patting the head of the dog that said she did not like being patted on the head! For now, she chose to ignore that and share her troubles.

"You are never going to believe what happened to me." She said in a rush. She held out her hand; a bottle of wine appeared. In her other hand, she got two glasses and joined Hades on the rug.

He pinched his nose. "You stink honey. What were you repairing, a sewer?"

She winced.

"Your eyes are kind of red." He said in a worried voice. "What happened to you over there?" Hades stretched a hand and took a chip from her hair.

A White bear cub dashed into the living room and launched itself into her arms. The wine bottle and two glasses that were half full were toppled. The humans and dog stood up. White clung to Sunshine, wrapping his paws around her neck and whimpering.

"Again!" She exclaimed, scowling at the wet stain on the rug. "I am beginning to think that rugs in this house are cursed." She patted White’s fur slowly. "And why is this one in such a mood?"

"He saw the dog and started acting like that." Hades shared. "Hunter has already introduced herself to me and the boys." He bent down, picked up the almost empty wine bottle and the wine glasses.

They moved to the dining table. Sunshine took another bottle of wine and glasses from her space. It did not skip her gaze that Hunter made herself comfortable on one of the chairs around the table, like she had always been part of the family.

White pointed to Hunter and whimpered. His big round purple eyes trembled as he looked at Sunshine. Then they welled up with tears. The message was clear, "Mommy, it bullied me or perhaps it was mommy, I don’t like this dog."

Sunshine was lost. She got a bottle of milk and stuffed the nipple into White’s mouth. "Drink and sleep." Then she raised her eyes to meet Hades’ curious ones. "Where was I?"

"About to tell me about your day." He pushed a glass of wine towards her. "The fact that you are drinking tells me that it was not a good one."

She grabbed the glass and downed all of its contents in one gulp. As she placed it down, she said with a tiny snarl, "I got in a fight. That damn bug attacked me as soon as I arrived. It sprayed poison in my eyes!"

"WHAT?" Hades barked.

White and Hunter were startled. The bear whimpered while the dog frowned.

"And now, I might be going to prison." She added.

Hades froze, glass midair. "Prison? For what?"

"The fight." she replied, "Keep up sweetie. I told you about the insectoid alien named Nine that just kept poking me at every turn. Well, the last time I went to work on the ship, I was wearing our bug cream because of Fever wasps. Nine fainted. Since then, he has been holding a grudge..."

From out of the kitchen came a small voice. "Bug cream?"

Ariel padded in with that focused look in his eyes which made him resemble a professor. His hair was tied with two small ribbons, his eyes sharp behind a pair of oversized glasses that both adults knew he did not need.

"I have so many questions." Sunshine laughed. "Ribbons! What is going on Ariel?"

"Leah and Ala." Hades shared quickly. "He spent some time at the Steward house with the girl this afternoon. Apparently, if Ariel wants to speak to her, he must allow her to play as she wishes and today, she wanted to learn how to braid hair with ribbons."

Ariel held up his hand like a commander, ordering his father to stop talking. "You are going to prison for applying bug cream? He asked, incredulous. "That’s insane. Absurd. Ridiculous. What jurisdiction in the universe even covers insectoid fainting?"

Sunshine groaned. "Ariel, sweetie, this is complicated. I will handle it."

"No mom." Ariel said firmly, crossing his arms. "Complicated is the Chaos theory. This is stupid. I need to know all the rules so that I can come up with a solution."

Sunshine arched her brows at Hades.

He shrugged. Ariel was unstoppable when he got like this.

She sighed and took three books on the code of repairmen and other laws. He stormed off into his bedroom with the books. Hunter followed him.

Sunshine shook her head. "That ought to keep him busy for the rest of the night. Now I can tell you all about the fight and how prison comes in." She took another sip of wine.

Five minutes later, before she could even finish the story, Ariel returned with a stack of law books taller than himself. He dumped them on the table with a dramatic thunk.

Hunter sat down where she had been, looking around like an observer.

"What in the world....." Sunshine whispered.

"We are lucky that I had borrowed some books from Ala and five of them are on galactic laws." He shared. "She is just like you mom; she can take things out of space. I think we should have kept her."

Sunshine blinked. This was new information.

"I have been reading galactic laws for fun, but I have barely read ten pages of the first book. But with Hunter’s help, I have found the relevant material. I think that I can build you a defense."

Hades frowned. "For fun!" Who reads galactic laws for fun? Why did Ala even have such books in her space and why does she have a space?

"Yes, to the fun question and shrugs to the rest." Ariel said, flipping pages furiously. "Hunter says that this is a repairman issue, so we are focusing on repairman laws and code of conduct only. Did you know that Section P10 of the repairman code of conduct states that ’chemical deterrents used for personal safety shall not be construed as assault unless deployed offensively? Mom, you sprayed yourself, not him. That’s defensive."

Sunshine blinked. "You memorized that in five minutes?"

"I highlighted it." Ariel answered, smugly.

Sunshine sighed. The kid never ceased to amaze her. Even though she was planning to use a similar defense, she did not plan to refer to any laws. Her reason for using the anti-bug cream was legal and reasonable.

Ariel started pacing like a defense attorney in a courtroom. "Let’s reconstruct the incident. You wore anti bug cream. He fainted. That’s not assault--its biology."

"He sprayed poison in your mother’s eyes." Hades shared.

Ariel paused and his demeanor softened. He blinked, looking at Sunshine with open worry and a bit of fear. "Are you okay mom?"

Gone was the lawyer, replaced with the caring, loving son.

Sunshine nodded. "I can’t be poisoned. It stung for a few seconds, and I retaliated by hitting him with a hammer."

Ariel smiled. "Good for you." He switched back to attorney mode. "What he did is assault. Your retaliation was self-defense."

"She destroyed property." Hades pitched in.

Ariel raised his eyebrows. "There was a fight, destruction of something was inevitable considering her weapon of choice. But we will pay for all the damages. Now, Hunter and I have found some cases of precedent on poisoning that can be referenced." 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Sunshine stared at her son; half horrified half astonished. Five minutes was all the time he had taken. And in those five minutes, he was proving to be a lawyer worth every penny she had paid him. Which was zero!