Charlie Lawrence

Sebastian Donovan (former rival prosecutor)

Grant Power (former rival detective, murder victim; deceased)

Charlie Normal Lawrence is a major character and a primary antagonist in Acquittal: Induction.

## History

Lawrence spent his entire youth aspiring to become the most famous lawyer in the country. He dedicated his entire youth to studying, for which he was rewarded high praise from his teachers and passed all of his exams with top marks. When he had finally achieved his dream and passed the bar, he took client after client and secured an acquittal for every last one of them.

Although he never stooped to forgery and bribery, he did have a tendency to trick witnesses into inconvenient situations. This, along with his perfect win record, was enough for the media to destroy his reputation, labeling him a dishonest lawyer who used any underhanded means possible to secure an acquittal.

With this reputation, people were intimidated by Lawrence when all he desired was respect. This continued when he started teaching at the Femley School of Law, and only one student, Storm Sente, genuinely respected him. Lawrence would soon come to see Storm as not just his favorite student, but his successor. He began personally tutoring Storm to make him the best lawyer he could be and passed all of his ambitions onto him.

Lawrence, however, knew that there was a great risk that Storm would meet the same fate he would, so he conspired with some unknown accomplices to ensure Storm a successful career. He took advantage of his shady reputation to make his way to the black market and bought some powerful explosives. On the 14th of March, the night before the Femley Convention, he rigged the Femley School of Law with these explosives and timed them to go off early the next morning. He also broke into Storm's apartment and tampered with his alarm clock to ensure Storm would not be present.

The Femley Convention had a massive turnout, and so too was Lawrence's plan a catastrophic success. The explosion resulted in the deaths of several thousand lawyers, greatly reducing the competition Storm had to face. Not only that, but due to the sudden shortage of lawyers, Storm had been called to the bar prematurely to defend Richard Kingsley for murder charges. Lawrence observed Storm's performance and was overwhelmed with pride when he managed to win the case.

Over time, Lawrence had one of his accomplices assassinate the rest of the lawyers one at a time. He planned to have every defense attorney in the country eliminated except Storm, making his success as a lawyer a certainty. He would even assassinate himself should it benefit his student. His crimes had also affected the crime rate in the country exactly as he anticipated. Crimes would still occur, but they were much rarer, as criminals were beginning to fear they would not have any lawyer to defend them.

It wasn't until November 3rd when he realized the lead investigator of the FemCon incident was getting too close to the truth, and he feared Storm's reputation would plummet worse than his ever did if that truth came to light. Unable to contact his accomplices, he had only a day to form a plan to murder Grant Power and make off with the evidence he had gathered. He planned to kill the man outside his home, quickly drive to the police department, then disguise as his victim as he walked into his office. From there, he'd grab the evidence and leave through the window. He left the case files hidden in his car and brought the policeman's body into the office. He then shut the window and waited for Storm and Richard to arrive, pretending he was late.

Lawrence had intended the culprit to remain unknown, but this quickly fell apart when Richard arrived at the station far earlier than he expected. Because of this, along with a witness' testimony, Richard was accused of the murder. Storm, of course, immediately stepped forward to defend him, and Lawrence happily assisted him. Throughout the trial, he encouraged Storm to prove Richard's innocence while trying to steer him away from implicating him as the culprit. Storm eventually got a vital piece of testimony out of the witness, which cast doubt on Lawrence's testimony. Lawrence then took the stand and tried to deflect the accusation, but Storm swiftly figured out exactly how he pulled off the murder, as well as where he hid the victim's case files.

With his crime exposed, Lawrence confessed to everything, including his involvement in the FemCon incident. His confession deeply wounded Storm more than his betrayal alone did, causing him to hide away in his office without contacting anyone for several months.

## Personality

Charlie Lawrence is, on the surface, a fun-loving, mischievous man who tries to get along with his students, as difficult as that is given his reputation. On the inside, however, he's an incredibly self-centered and possessive villain who would sacrifice anything to achieve his goals, and when those goals became an impossibility, he passed them all onto the person in his life he considered himself closest to. He resorted to cause national chaos on an unimaginable scale to ensure his dreams would come to fruition through Storm.