ALTERNATE MACHINOS

Chapter XXV: "The Burning of the Courthouse"

When dawn came upon the depths of the forest, out of the trees came two figures, their forms silhouetted against the rising sun, and their feet moving rapidly across the rough, dusty ground. One of them was a tall, coal-black cat creature, the other a rather scruffy green cat. Both appeared worn out from running, and because of this the cat creature—namely, Ruben, stopped at the edge of the wheat field to momentarily catch his breath, his hand to his chest. The green cat, namely Binky, noticing that he was no longer running, slowed to a halt, then impatiently sat down in front of him, inspecting her hands and frowning at the amount of dirt that had collected on her claws.

"Ruben, what are you stopping for?" she asked as she lowered her paw. "If we want to keep our distance from Machinos, we have to at least get across the wheat field before Machinos decides to trek this way!"

"I know, I know," Ruben panted, wiping the collecting sweat off of his forehead. "But I can only run so fast for an injured twelve-year-old. I was shot in the back, give me a break, if you would be so kind." He looked up at her, then paused for a moment before asking, "by the way, when you found me, did you have any clue as to where Machinos was headed?"

Binky bit her lip, then turned her eyes away from Ruben's. "Not exactly…but I do know that they're heading wherever the Freedom Fighters are heading. And the last time I caught sight of them, I think it was near the creek…"

"Is there anything located near the creek-bed?" Ruben asked her, cocking his eyebrow.

Binky shook her head. "I don't think so, but…" She then pricked up her ears as she heard a rather familiar—and rather dangerous—noise coming from beyond the trees. Her eyes widening incredibly, she clenched her teeth in fright, then grabbed Ruben's shirtsleeve and hissed, under her breath, "Get down!"

Ruben didn't have time to ask questions; Binky sounded rather desperate, so he did as he was told. Binky quickly dashed over to a nearby bush—the one that Machinos's sword had been thrown into on the night of the raid—and hid within its branches; Ruben quickly followed. The two hid themselves completely within the brush, just as they saw the hooves of a group of horses trot past them. If they had been anything else, both cats would've ignored them; however, they recognized the clanking of metal against metal anywhere. It was now a hazard to both Ruben and Binky, both had had unfortunate experiences due to not heeding that noise at first notice.

Curious, Ruben slowly and quietly stood up inside the bush, then just as carefully parted the leaves of the bush in time to see, sure enough, Machinos and the General, along with the remaining Dark Riders and Abigail, still tied tightly by her wrists and ankles to one of the horses' backs. As he caught sight of the pistol—now concealed within Machinos's belt, along with his sword—the wound in Ruben's back tinged slightly, and his eyes narrowed in disgust. He would've felt the urge to spit, had they been any closer to him.

Noticing that Machinos had fixated his gaze upon the bush, Ruben made a terrified noise, then quickly—but silently—dropped back down, hiding himself within the bush again. Machinos growled in the bush's direction, then turned to look at the General. Ruben sighed, he apparently hadn't noticed him for the time being.

"General," he said, rather roughly, "are you quite certain that they would be heading this way, of all places?"

Ruben could not see the General, so he could not tell if the robot had nodded or not. However, he did hear him speak: "Yes, Sire. I'm quite certain 'dat 'dey would most likely take refuge in a nearby town…'dere are several along 'da shoreline of Heaven's Lake."

"That may be true, but we can't be certain that they did so," Machinos replied, his voice still sounding rather dead. "However, I'm sure that if we ask them kindly—" Ruben did not like the sound of his voice tone on the last word one bit—"I'm sure that they'll tell us if they'd housed those pesky children or not."

"Dat's what I was thinking in 'da foist place, Sire."

"I'm not trying to insult your intelligence, General. Finding refuge is quite a logical thing to do, if you know the right place to look." There was a pause, then he added, "But I do wonder which town that they would bother to take refuge in, if that's indeed what they have done." There was another pause. "Which town can be seen the clearest from Heaven's Lake in a rainstorm at night, I do wonder?"

"I think it may be 'dat old town with 'da Fatherboard Courthouse," was the General's response. "Dey always light lanterns at night, even in rainstorms, from their windows. Any other town wouldn't have done it, logically speaking."

There was yet another pause; from his place in the bush Ruben guessed that Machinos was thinking this over as a possibility. Finally, he responded, rather coldly, although a trace of triumph was still clearly within his voice, "Yes…the Fatherboard Courthouse…I have some unfinished business to take care of with that precise area. How fortunate that they should stop there, of all places." He laughed cruelly. "Come, General, let us go to the courthouse and see what we can receive from the town's residents, shall we?"

Before Ruben or Binky could even hear the General speak his response, the thundering of horse's hooves came yet again, and soon enough they had gone from the area. Crawling out of the bush, Ruben looked up just in time to see four figures galloping out into the wheat field, with great speed. They were obviously in a hurry to get to the courthouse, he realized…

"Where are they heading to?" he asked rather curiously, as Binky crawled out of the bushes. "I mean, where's this courthouse located? Do you know anything about it, Binx?" He cast his gaze on her.

Binky shook the leaves from her fur, then looked at him. "Yes…in my early days I do believe that I lived in that town. It's on the edge of Heaven's Lake, but it's a rather long way away. Are you sure that you're up to it?"

"Well…no…" Ruben said slowly, "but I don't trust Machinos."

Binky scoffed. "Who doesn't?"

Ruben nodded in agreement. "Which is all the more that we follow his party and see what they're planning on doing. If they're heading toward the courthouse, and if Machinos is planning to 'take care of business' there, that can't possibly lead to anything good."

It was Binky's turn to nod this time. "I agree with you, Ruben," she said. "We'd best follow him, but we have to keep our distance. If he spots us, and if he finds that you're not dead with the rest of your family, he is not going to be pleased at all."

Ruben spoke no reply, but merely clenched his teeth, then got up and, taking care not to pain the wound in his back, quickly got to his feet and began to run off in the direction that the horses had gone in. Binky quickly followed him, dashing into the wheat, and soon enough the field swallowed them from view entirely…

The next day was rather lazy for the small town, especially at the old courthouse. Sure enough, Judge Roy had been true to his word, and upon visiting the stable to pick up his horse for when he rode out of town the next day first visited the hotel and booked occupancy for the kids and their alternates—but only for one night; in the morning they would have to depart from the town.

After staying the night in one of the hotel's finest rooms, Matt, Jackie, Inez, Digit, and the Freedom Fighters had indeed followed their word as well, and had ridden Skyrider out of town early in the morning, to set off for their pursue of the Portal of Forty. Reverend Marbles, along with a few other members of the township, had bid them goodbye, before returning to their everyday duties.

With Judge Roy being gone from the court service, it was law in this certain town for the Reverend to take over, which he had started doing right after Judge Roy had departed. The heat was unbearable, and thus the Reverend spent most of his time inside the courthouse itself, where it was supposedly cooler than the outside air. He was now sifting through a pile of paperwork that Judge Roy had not yet looked through, and was marking things down with an ink pen, when one of the doors suddenly burst open, and a figure came running in.

The Reverend paused to glance up from his paperwork at the figure, which had proven to be one of the town's missionaries. She seemed rather excited, not to mention moderately afraid, and this expression entirely withdrew him from his paperwork. He slowly pushed it aside, then casually folded his hands upon the desk he was sitting at as she stopped in front of him, her breath coming in short, quick gasps, as one always does after running a long distance.

"May I help you, m'lady?" he asked, in a rather calm notion.

The missionary looked up at him, then rather vigorously nodded her head, running her hands through her hair before speaking. "Yes, reverend…there's a group of horses outside that want to see you." The Reverend cocked his eyebrow. "No, no, it's not that way at all. The riders are the ones who want to see you."

"Well, that makes everything make much more sense," the Reverend told her, slowly starting to get up from his place at the bench. "Who are they, may I ask?"

The missionary bit her lip. "Well, that's what I came to talk to you about…"

The highly uneasy tone of her voice seemed to startle the Reverend; he leapt to his feet and ran down from the bench. "Who are they? What's the problem? Are the riders dangerous?"

"Reverend, it's serious, believe me. They're—"

Before she could finish her sentence, however, the doors burst open yet again, and an entire crowd of people came filing into the main area of the courthouse, frightened looks on their faces. Several children within the crowd, he could see, were bawling in fright, and several of the men appeared rather disturbed. He was just about to wonder why these people had entered in the first place, when the river of people filing in and sitting at the benches finally dried up, and only two figures remained at the doorway.

The Reverend could recognize these two figures perfectly, either way; he had seen them and heard of them many times. Of course, that had to be none other than Machinos, and Machinos it was, standing at the doorway, his arms crossed, his chest thrown out, and a rather evil grin on his face. The General was standing next to him; his hands were behind his back and his eyes were half shut.

Upon noticing the Reverend's gaze, Machinos slowly withdrew his arms from his chest, then slowly and casually began walking up alongside the rows of benches toward the main judge's bench, the evil smirk still on his face. "Hello, Reverend Marbles," he said mockingly, as the General followed him, the expression on his face unchanging. "I do believe that you and that louse of a judge put my creator on trial several eons ago, did you not?" He glanced around the courtroom casually. "Is he here, pray tell?"

"No, he's out of town at the moment. Why must you ask such a question?"

"Oh, no reason, exactly. I just had a few unfinished businesses to take care of with him."

The Reverend narrowed his eyes dangerously at the robotic tyrant. "Get out of here, Machinos," he hissed angrily, slamming his hands down on the bench nearest him and looking the robot straight in the eye. "This is a protected area. You cannot go harming others here."

Machinos laughed innocently, then placed his hand on his chest. "Me? Harm others in this area? I think not, reverend. I only wish to ask you a few…" He shot the Reverend a shifty gaze. "Questions."

The Reverend cocked his eyebrow in suspicion. "What kind of questions, dare I ask?"

Machinos leaned against a nearby support beam, then said, his stare never leaving the Reverend's, "Harmless questions, really. I just need to know a few things before my departure. You see—" He paused a moment to pull his pistol from his belt (several people in the courtroom cringed upon seeing it), and toyed around with it with his hands before continuing—"I am currently in pursuit of a group of rather annoying children, along with their look-alikes. Have you, perchance, heard of a group called the 'Freedom Fighters', my good man?"

The Reverend knew very well what he was getting at, but he didn't want to risk any of the people currently stationed within the room. Instead, he merely gripped the edge of the judge's bench tightly and said, his voice sounding rather forced, "Yes. Yes, I have."

Machinos grinned coldly at the force of his response, then said, rotating the pistol with one hand before beginning to finger its surface again, "Very good…I knew that you should have at least heard of them once. What with the rumors today…" He appeared rather disgusted at this remark, as if he wanted to spit, but instead continued, "Either way, I am currently in hot pursuit of them at the moment, and the General here suggested that they had possibly gone and—oh, what is it, now—stayed in your town for the night?"

Upon this he shot the Reverend a cold glare, and at hearing this question the Reverend froze entirely. He stammered and was unable to answer for a few seconds, then finally collected himself and said, his voice still rather nervous, "Yes, Sire…we gave them a few things last night. But why do you—"

"Where did they head off to, then?" Was Machinos's final question. The Reverend began to perspire, and Machinos saw this at once. To add to the fear hovering in the air of the room, he stopped fingering the pistol and raised it in his direction, as if threatening to shoot him if he didn't speak the truth. "You know very well what I want, Reverend…and you must not stop me from getting it. Tell me where they were headed after their stay was over."

The Reverend perspired even more, and his muscles tensed, but, knowing that he had to keep himself under control, decided upon turning his gaze away from the pistol and gazing out into the crowd of gathered citizens. They appeared to look just as stiff as the Reverend; they knew very well what Machinos could accomplish with a loaded pistol, and didn't help his current predicament much. He locked his gaze back on Machinos and the pistol, still troubled by the question of answering Machinos's question or not. He didn't want to risk the lives of the Freedom Fighters, but then again, he didn't want to risk himself or any of the citizens, either…

"I'm growing impatient, Reverend!" Machinos snarled, still pointing the pistol in his direction. "Tell me now, or suffer the grotesque consequences!"

Finally giving in, the Reverend rose himself to full height and said quickly, still sounding as forced and terrified as he had been before, "They left for Pachyderm Range earlier this morning, my liege!" He then sank back down to the ground, his arm wrapped around one of the support beams, finally deciding to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

This answer was enough for Machinos; he withdrew the pistol, then stuck it back into his belt and removed himself from the support beam. Grinning coldly, he said to the Reverend, still sounding as calm and casual as he had been when he had first entered, "That'll do, Reverend. That'll do…" He then started to head for the door, with the General trotting behind him; the man watched as they made their departure. Well, maybe he really meant it…he thought to himself…

His relief was short-lived, however, for as soon as Machinos approached the exit, he suddenly turned around swiftly and barked a command at his two Riders: "Bolt the doors."

"What!" The Reverend was appalled, and his eyes were rather wide. Machinos shot him a cold, yet satisfied, glare before nodding to the Riders, who nodded back, then ran out the doorway before the two tyrants themselves departed.

"You heard me quite well, Reverend," Machinos told him as he turned around, although his gaze was still fixated on the terrified man. "We're locking you and all of your nasty citizens in this very courthouse, for which we have a surprise planned for the lot of you." He snickered to himself before heading out the door. "I do hope that you've planned on being cremated."

"No! You can't do this!" the Reverend shouted in mortal terror, unable to move all of a sudden due to the fear concealed within his mind. "This is a public community! You cannot burn us to death just because you think it may help you somehow!"

"I don't think so, Reverend," Machinos said to him, reaching for the brass handle of the door, "I know so."

Before the Reverend had a chance to protest further, Machinos had slammed the doors shut, and in time the Riders, obeying their orders, had chained and locked them shut from the outside, making it improbable for anyone inside to even try to escape from the courthouse through the doors. The Riders then jumped down from the main porch and ran to their steeds; Machinos and the General followed.

Upon mounting their horses, Machinos quickly rode up to the front of the courthouse, then glanced around him and, upon noticing some torches that were lit for lighting purposes on the lake, turned his horse over to that area and rode back to the front, pausing only once to retrieve them from their stands. He then tossed one to the General, who caught it rather uneasily. Machinos held the other one to his side before looking up at the courthouse, his eyes scanning the roof, almost as if searching for something.

The General knew Machinos well enough to know what he was intending to do, but he just couldn't allow it, somehow. The courthouse, what with its bright white woodwork and stained-glass window in a circular pattern up near the roof, paid too much resemblance to a cathedral, which was the one building that he had had a deathly fear of right from the start of his leadership in the Machinos army. He didn't know why, exactly; just like the incident with Jamie Felinus, in the past flurry of events he could not recall what had come to make him fear them.

Either way, he couldn't stand to see it burn to the ground. His horse, being next to Brutus, Machinos's steed, appeared rather uneasy as well; just as he saw that Machinos was about to throw the torch up onto the roof, without further thought, he suddenly shot up, grabbing hold of Machinos's wrist just as he was about to bring it back. Appalled, Machinos turned to look at the General, a look of both confusion and annoyance set on his face.

"What in blazes are you doing, dare I ask?" he said, rather coldly.

The General was unable to speak for a few moments, but he knew that he had to provide a reasonable explanation, one of which he had. In an almost pleading tone, he shook his head and said, sounding a bit shaky, "Sire, I'm always behind you every step of 'da way, but…you can't do 'dis. Killing an entire family of Fatherboard veterans is one thing, but—you can't burn ethnic property. You can't…" He trailed off.

Machinos looked at him for a while, then he wrenched his hand free of the General's grasp in time to say, "It isn't ethnic, General, it's a courthouse. It's property of the law, not God. Either way, I wasn't intending to burn it down in the first place."

The General sighed in relief at this remark, but, like the Reverend's, his moment of relief was short-lived, for right after he said this Machinos tossed the torch he was holding aside, then said, fingering the General's, "I was planning to have you burn it down, my friend."

The General was shocked at this response, and he shook his head, not intending to ever burn down a thing that had to do with a cathedral. "No, Sire," he said, nearly stammering, "I—I can't do 'dat—I just can't—I—Oh my God, what are you doing!"

He said this last remark as Machinos withdrew his pistol yet again, then slowly placed it to the side of the General's head. A cold leer formed on his face as he hissed, his voice sounding as lifeless as a corpse's, "General, I command you to burn this building to the ground. If you cease to do it, your body will cease to live. Am I getting through to you?" His eyes narrowed.

The General cowered back slightly and shivered, but he knew that this would do nothing to remove the cold steel barrel placed against his skull. Looking up at the courthouse helplessly, he knew that in order to keep his life at bay, he would have to obey Machinos's commands, no matter how much he detested them. Still shivering, he swallowed, then closed his eyes and threw the flaming stick forward with all the strength that he could muster.

Sure enough, but unfortunately for him, his aim had been direct; the stick fell onto the roof and immediately broke it out into flames; it didn't take long for the licking orange fires to spread to the entire roof, enveloping it entirely. The General reopened his eyes, gazing up at a sight that he had never intended to see again, while Machinos still was seated on his steed behind him, looking up with a rather satisfied grin. The flames soon enough spread down the roof and onto the sides, provoking the screams of the people inside at long last.

The General knew very well that they were slowly but surely burning to death, and he could only stand back and listen to their screams as the building continued to burn, black smoke billowing into the sky and forming black clouds. The people inside continued to scream, in mortal terror of knowing that they were done for, until, at long last, the roof gave way to the flames and caved in…directly on top of them.

The General made a pained noise, then turned away, as Machinos continued to stare at the burning building triumphantly. Abigail, still tied to the Rider's horse's back, stared at him as his horse slowly trotted past, its head as low as its rider's, and her expression became one of thought. Machinos stopped staring at the courthouse and turned away at long last, an odd glint in his eye, and the smile still on his face.

Riding up next to the General, he tossed his head back proudly, then said, "You've done an excellent job so far, my comrade. First you lead me right to the Felinus house, then you allow the courthouse to be burnt without so much as a protest. I may even consider making you my honorary second in command over all cyberspace. How would you like that, hmm?"

The General sighed and didn't answer. Abigail continued to stare at him, the thoughtful and confused look still upon her face, as Machinos broke his horse into a gallop, heading out toward the direction that the children had supposedly gone in. The General looked up, then followed him, his head still bowed slightly, refusing to look back at the courthouse…and its awful stained glass window…the window that would soon burn to ashes along with the house itself…

Matthew was just leaning against a tree after a long morning of galloping when he began to get the suspicion that something was not right. Just to be sure, he looked around him, then, sensing no danger present, leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes. The feeling, however, still wouldn't go away, and he had a hard time relaxing because of this. Knowing that he would never get any rest, he withdrew himself from the tree and looked up at Jacqueline and Zeny, who appeared to be staring out past the treetops, in the direction they had just came in. Matt, Jackie, and Inez were standing next to them. He didn't know where Digit and Codebird had gone; he guessed that they had gone out flying or something.

However, he could not shake the fact that what they were staring at was something suspicious, and thus craned his neck to see what they were staring at. Zeny, upon turning around, spotted what he was doing, then aided him by pointing at a black cloud in the distance. "There's something out there, Matthew," she told him, sounding rather uneasy. "I don't know what, but it looks wrong. I don't think that we should investigate, but—"

"No…" Matthew's eyes were now focused directly on the black cloud as he got to his feet. "It's—something's not right. I think we need to find out what's making that cloud…it looks too much like smoke to be harmless."

"Do you think that something happened there?" Zeny asked him, looking out toward the cloud herself.

Matthew shrugged. "I dunno, but whatever it is, if it involves that much smoke, it can't possibly be any good." He whistled Skyrider over to him, and quickly mounted her; Zeny followed. He then called to the others. "Guys! Get up on Skyrider. We're going to go back to the town."

"Why?" Inez asked as she mounted the horse; apparently she hadn't overheard their conversation earlier. Matthew sighed.

"You'll probably find out when we get there," he told her, "but right now we have to make tracks. Let's go!"

He snapped the reins, and the horse reared up and charged out to the forest line, refusing to falter for what seemed like hours. It only took several minutes, however, to reach the town they had left earlier, which was now completely desolate save a few stray dogs and cats still wandering the streets. Matthew slowed Skyrider to a halt halfway along the road, then sniffed the air; an unpleasant gaze was upon his face.

"Smoke," he murmured. "Zeny, you were right…but where's it coming from?"

"Uh, I think that can be a possible explanation, Matthew," Jacqueline snapped at him, pointing toward the now incredibly large line of smoke coming up from behind the motel. "Come on, let's go check it out. We'll leave Skyrider here…just in case."

Matthew nodded, then slipped down off of Skyrider, along with the others. Tethering her to a nearby pole, the boy turned toward the source of the smoke, then broke off into a run toward it without warning, the others quickly followed him. They refused to stop—partially because Matthew didn't stop—until they finally arrived at the source, which, to their horror, was indeed proven to be the courthouse.

"Oh, God," Jackie exclaimed, putting her hands to the sides of her face as she eyed the burnt structure. "Am I having a moment, or did someone burn down the courthouse while we were away?"

"Someone did," Jacqueline growled, staring at the pile of smoldering ashes below the remains of the still smoldering building. "We can only be thankful that Judge Roy was out of town when this happened…" She turned around toward Matt and Paradox. "Matt, Paradox, see if you can locate the Reverend."

Matt nodded and Paradox shied away timidly, then the two turned and ran off. Jacqueline sighed, then looked up toward the smoke. "Judge Roy won't be happy about this when he gets back…"

"I'm just glad that he wasn't still inside when it caught fire," Jackie said. "I mean, it's not like there's some type of fire department in this dimension."

Zeny looked at her oddly. "What's a 'fire department'?" she asked.

"Never mind," Jackie told her quickly, shaking her head.

There were a few more moments of silence, then Matt and Paradox finally came running back, both looking rather nervous. Matthew noticed their gazes at once and, as soon as Matt was about to run past him, stuck his hand out in front of his chest to halt his alternate. Matt stopped in front of him, the worried and slightly terrified gaze never leaving his face.

"What is it?" he demanded. "What's wrong?"

Matt was unable to speak due to shortness of breath for a few moments, then he finally managed to sputter, "They're—they're not home."

Matthew raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean? I asked you to locate the Reverend."

"I know—but when Paradox and I stopped at the Reverend's usual place, he wasn't there. So Paradox said that he knew where his house originally was, and we checked there…the door was unlocked, but we ran a thorough search and couldn't find him anywhere. So, we decided to check in on his neighbor—Paradox thought that she might probably know where he went—but she wasn't home, either."

"And the other houses?"

"They were all empty, too. I don't know why or how, but somehow the entire town's been left deserted."

Matthew sighed and lowered his hand. "That's all I need to know for the moment, Matt," he told him, sounding rather defeated. He rubbed the side of his head in thought. "But I don't see why the entire town would just desert like this. I mean, there has to be some kind of—"

It was then that he heard Paradox let out a soft whimper. Knowing that the robot did this normally at any sign of danger, he turned his head over toward the robot, who was standing in front of the charred remains, frozen in place like a startled deer. Curious of what was going on, he ran over to the spot where the robot was standing, and stopped next to him, eyeing the burnt structure, still curious and puzzled. He glanced over at Paradox, and for a brief moment could see a single tear trickle down his cheek.

This brought him to his senses; he looked over at the courthouse and began to scan the remains, searching for anything that might prove suspicious. A building couldn't catch on fire like this by itself, he knew, and in that case it was either an accident or someone had burnt it to the ground. He was unsuccessful for a few moments, it seemed, but then he finally stopped as he came to the blackened doors.

And that was when he noticed the padlock chained to the burnt door handles…and the single symbol that told him who had done this, who had killed almost every single citizen in the village:

It was an M.