| abstract | - A fantasy sequence dissolves into a courtroom, where The Monarch is noisily objecting to Hank and Dean's ridiculously overblown and obviously false testimony. The court erupts into chaos. Outside, a stranger kills the security guards. The judge rails against the Monarch's idiotic self-defense. The villain, being prosecuted by a midget lawyer ("Tiny Attorney") conjoined to the abdomen of a large, dimwitted man, is on trial for the killing of a police officer. Dr. Venture complains to Brock that he would have called the police on The Monarch long ago if he knew he could have. Brock responds that the police do not interfere with Guild business and implies that the group of villains bear a grudge against The Monarch for some reason. Somewhere else, plans are declared to be 'ready'. When the court resumes, The Monarch begins testifying on his own behalf. He begins with the furor caused by the publication of Flight of The Monarch, a "tell-all" book filled with "lies and pictures of also-lies." He threatens to kill all his henchmen until the hench-author comes forward; though #24 admonishes #21 for his role in authoring the book, an unnamed henchmen is subdued and delivered to the Monarch as the ostensible author. The Monarch later explains that the details in the book led to a fight with his girlfriend, Dr. Girlfriend. He accuses her of being mad with grief; she explains she went to her ex-boyfriend, the Phantom Limb, for emotional comfort. When the details of the Limb's flirtations get too adult, Brock takes Dean and Hank out into the hall; they become excited over gum. In a flashback, the Monarch tries to get Dr. Girlfriend back and is rejected. At the court. Dr. Orpheus enters. Guild operatives, called Strangers, enter. Brock, familiar with their methods, feels Dr. Venture is in no danger. Another flashback, this by mind-reading, reveals that a drunken encounter with the missing cop led to a Stranger bribing the officer to simply move away. Strangers attack the Court, their target Tiny Attorney. Most in the court are frozen. Brock and the teens hide in the restroom. He orders memory wipes on the entire court. One Stranger asks for instructions regarding Orpheus, since necromancers are highly resistant to memory wipes; Phantom Limb replies that they are highly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Leaning close to the frozen Orpheus' ear, Phantom Limb whispers that The Monarch is a very bad man who wishes harm to the Ventures and is guilty of all charges. In return, the Guild will repay Orpheus with the archenemy he has so sorely wanted, and will give him three billion Euros. Dr. Girlfriend, still seems uneasy about setting up the Monarch, but Phantom Limb assures her that someone must be the patsy. Still distraught, she tells the immobilized Monarch that the Venture brothers, and not she, is responsible for all of this. As the group leaves the courtroom, one of the Strangers thanks Brock for not interfering and that they have twenty seconds until the freeze effects wear off. The boys and Brock take a seat next to Dr. Venture just as everyone awakens as if nothing had happened. As the Limb had predicted, Orpheus cries his fervent belief that The Monarch is guilty. The final scene after the credits shows The Monarch wearing an orange prison jumpsuit over his black bodysuit. He is in the visitor's area, separated by a sheet of glass from Dr. Girlfriend, with whom he is speaking via a telephone. The Monarch affirms that he forgives Girlfriend and that they will start over with each other when he is released in a few decades. A reverse angle shot shows that his visitor is actually Henchman 24 dressed like Dr. Girlfriend, who uneasily asks if he can leave now.
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