The Hateful Moon

The whole thing started the last day we spent in jail for the hologram heist. The front door woke us up; I yawned and stretched, but Myles grumbled and rolled over.

Deputy Barney greeted us, then got us our breakfast. The food there is usually pretty good; it's definitely better than Myles' cooking. He doesn't think so, though; Myles liked to say you wouldn't feed it to a dog. And of course, since the town's only fireman got bitten by a dog on call, he'd taken to saying you wouldn't feed it to Kade. I didn't mind the food, except the egg and cheese sandwiches. I was just about to scrape the tangy cheese off mine when I heard the front door again. I froze in my tracks, and Myles stopped chewing. He had heard it, too. We both knew who it was.

"Morning, Chief!"

"Morning, Barney."

There was only one person who ever came to the jail aside from Barney, and that was Chief Charlie Burns. You'd think the Chief of Police would be at the jail more, but he was usually too busy off doing rescues with his one-robot police force, his son's one-robot fire department, his other son's one-robot engineering corps, and his daughter's one-robot search and rescue team. Just add in his ancestor Horace Burns' one-jerk town-founding mission and you've got a whole dynasty full of self-righteous nepotists.

The old town boy was usually too busy mugging for Huxley Prescott's camera robot to come in and actually manage his jail, so I was surprised to hear him. Barney apparently had the same thought, becuase he asked, "What brings you here?" 

"I wanted to make sure these two were sitting tight," the chief grumbled, "And remind myself I'm not the only man on the force." 

I rolled my eyes, and so did Myles. Usually Burns brags about being the only man on the force, to the exclusion of Barney. Granted, I wouldn't want to take credit for Barney either, but he's a nice guy, just incredibly dumb. Maybe not as dumb as we thought, becuase he asked, "Oh, is something wrong in the field?"

I leaned forward, putting my forehead on the bars, and closed my eyes, listening.

"City council won't approve extra paid guards for the warehouse on Burton and LaMarche. My family's doing volunteer shifts to cover it."

"Isn't the security system enough?" I had to roll my eyes at that. Even I realized how wrong Barney was.

"No, because that's where we moved everything we think Morocco might have modified." Burns sighed, although it was more like a soft growl. "He got in and out Doc Greene's lab without being noticed, hacked the town mainframe, and used his nanofuel to control my bots. We can't trust technology to guard anything he created." 

I shuddered. As much as Myles and I hate the Burnses, at least they draw a line at putting people in danger. The Morocco dynasty had been inventing for the town, and ousting anyone who might replace them, since before my parents' time. It was the current Doctor Morocco who pushed to consolidate the town's research corps to one lead scientist, and put my mom out of a job. That's reason enough to hate the smarmy old guy. Nevermind that he nearly destroyed the whole town trying to outdo Chief's Robots, and apparently sabotaged all of Greene's work to get him fired. People almost died becuase of Morocco. No one ever got more than a swirlie or an unfair parking ticket from a Burns.

"Gee, do you need some help over there? I could pick up a shift on Sunday..."

"That'd be great. I was hoping you could pick up Friday, though. I need the rest of the team to patrol for Devil's Night fires."

"Devil's night? I thought they only set fires somewhere... Minnesota...?"

Barney really was an idiot. 

"Mostly Michigan. But we have three new families from the Metro Detroit area this year." I grinned. Four. Burns forgot the Sumdacs down the road from Myles and me. Sari was the one who told us about Devil's Night in the first place.

"You could always have Kade patrol past the warehouse when he's looking for fires, too?" The deputy suggested.

"I hate wasting manpower like that, especially with how badly Kade's taken to the rabies shots from that dog bite." He paused, then added, "You know, I hate wasting manpower on Morocco's tech at all. That stuff shouldn't exist in the first place."

They devolved into small talk from there, though we picked out a few more details of the Devil's Night plans. As soon as we got out, Myles had already decided what we were going to do. I knew it was trouble when he told me my part, but I couldn't say anything. I don't speak. 

Friday night, I found myself standing at the corner of Burton and LaMarche. In one hand, I had a card key. In the other, I had a block of wood. A backpack with a torch and my accelerant was strapped behind me. I hoped there would be something better to work with inside. Morocco had to have used a high-tech propellant when he set up the rescue competition, to prove his Morbot was so much more efficient than the Burns' robots. His contest against the Burnses was just as rigged as the Homecoming vote when a Burns was at the High School. Or maybe not. I'm sure Kade and Dani honestly thought they were popular.

I made my way toward the door, giving myself only a moment's glance up at the yellow moon. It reminded me of the fire robot's eyes the time we'd robbed the Hall of Inspiration, a feat my brother was trying again using me as a distraction. They looked so human every time they caught us. Sometimes they seemed more human than the others in town. Sometimes I wondered if we were the heartless machines. 

I paused as Sari Sumdac came into view, walking her rusty brown dog. It wouldn't do to have witnesses, so I made a point of stopping and fiddling with my backpack until she turned the corner. Then I sped over to the door and tried to swipe the key. Miles programmed it correctly; I got in first try. When I spotted the canisters marked flammable right by the door, I smiled. It wasn't every day I agreed with Charlie Burns about something, and somehow knowing how easy it would be made me agree more. I just hoped my brother's luck over at the Hall was as good as mine. I just had to set a fire. 

I propped the door with the block of wood and made my way over to the canisters. 

I wasn't sure how they worked, so I found a valve and opened them. I still can't tell you what they smelled like; I only know that all of Morocco's tech smelled the same. I wasn't sure quite how they worked, but I'd set enough fires in the backyard to know I didn't trust them to just burn the building down sitting there. I hoisted one up and started sloshing it on the floor, careful not to step in my handiwork.

The warehouse was huge, full of weapons and robots. If I weren't so afraid of Morocco, I might have pilfered some of it. Even I had to concede to that jerk's technological superiority. I had no way of trusting anything I'd take out of there couldn't be used against me later, or against the Burnses and the Greenes. Still, a glint of something like silver made me temporarily reconsider. Some small, superstitious  part of my mind remembered Chief Burns mentioning his bully oldest son being bitten by a dog. Silver.

I walked over to the thing I'd seen glinting, taking it up in my hands. It was a small canister bearing Morocco's brand, the red symbol that was on all the tech Morocco planted in the lab. I remembered seeing Huxley Prescott talk about it on the news, showing it, along with the documents the Burns and Greene kid had stolen to prove Morocco was behind all the accidents. Still, it looked more like a thermos of soup than a doomsday weapon. What could possibly be that dangerous in a container? I thought. I stuck it in my hoodie pocket.

I figure it must have taken me a half hour to get through the warehouse, spreading propellant everywhere. I estimated the fire would go pretty quickly, and the wind direction would keep it from spreading. Or so I thought. I hadn't tried to burn a building down before.

I struck a match and threw it down into the puddle. The fires spread faster than I expected... and started to creep out of the area I'd covered with the foul-smelling fluid. I let out a terrified cry and ran for the door, but a finger of flames ran out ahead of me, and I found myself jumping back where I came.

I turned on my heels and ran for the next door, but I found flames had overtaken it, too. That was when I heard the sirens, and knew I had been set up. Burns had mentioned the warehouse in front of us to trick us into coming here, trick us into commiting arson so he could put us back in jail. I heard the front door, but then I heard screaming, no, howling. Two voices cried out, but I couldn't run to them. He must have been sitting right outside.

I spotted a tiny window away from the flames and ran over to it, opening it up. Then I got low, hoping to suck up the good air near the ground while it lasted. I was relieved when I heard the crashing of doors, the thudding of footsteps. I knew it must be one of the Burns robots, come to save me. 

When I heard him shout, "Hello? Is anyone there?" I felt concern rise up in me. That didn't sound like Kade. But I screamed anyway, wishing I could put words together just this once.

When I heard "I'm coming," I knew it wasn't Kade, and I wondered what it could be. 

Then I saw it... the robot, a sillhouette cloaked in red hot flames, unrecognizable save for gold-glowing eyes that could easily have been part of the fire. It roared, "You!" and I knew at that moment it couldn't be a Burns Rescue Bot. Rescue Bots didn't talk that way. Morbots, maybe. Aliens, maybe. Chief Burns' Rescue Bots, never.

I screamed and climbed to my feet, running away as fast as I could. I don't remember choosing to do it, but at some point I grabbed the can, waving it around like it would protect me somehow. I heard the monster shouting behind me, but I paid it no heed. Whatever that was, it wouldn't rescue me. It was here to kill me. Maybe it was a rescue bot, sent in by Burns to finish me off so I couldn't tell what he'd done. Maybe it was the Morbot, here to kill me for tresspassing. Whatever it was, I kept screaming, my cries dissolving into coughs as the smoke filed my lungs. 

Luckily my panic took me down a clear path, as if my instincts knew better how to deal with fire than I did. I saw a door, a wooden door, and hope soared in my heart. The heat lessened as I headed that way. I was just about to make it out the door when there was a horrible howl and a crunching sound against the it; I thought I could see splinters of wood fly off. It sounded like a wolf. Hadn't Chief Burns said...

Another crunch snapped me out of my panic; I turned and ran as quickly as I could, realizing almost too late that I was running back into the fire. It was feeling the can I'd grabbed heat up in my hands that made me realized I'd made the wrong move. I spun around, but the monster was closing in on me. His hand was moving down toward me, but I realized I my small size was an advantage. I ducked under him, between his legs, the canister in my hand clanging against him as I passed.

Out from underneath, I thought I was home free. If I could just make it to that door I'd run away from, I could escape. It doubted whatever was on the other side was guarding the entrance... and if it was, then the worst I would see would be another stint in jail. I looked toward the door, and saw moonlight filter in where it had stood, splintered door laying on the ground. Long slashes ran down it, making me shudder as I ran.

As I heard the robot starting to turn behind me, that was when I heard something else.

Someone was coughing, groaning near the door.. .in the faint moonlight I could see the figure, hunched over, something long near its face. It was wearing yellow fireman's gear, Kade Burns' gear... but as the mask fell away from its face I saw more red than I should have, mouth covered with hair. He looked up at me, eyes glinting in the firelight, and I screamed and turned again. I slammed right into the Morbot's hands.

It grabbed me, gentler than I expected. I couldn't let myself be taken by it, not then. I remembered the canister in my hand. I started bashing it against the creature's fingers, desperate... and after a few strikes, I heard and felt a pop. Something emerged from the canister, shining in the fire, almost like a swarm of metal locusts in the dark. It worked its way up the monster's arms, into its vents, its face. And the Morbot... screamed.

It wasn't Morbot at all. It was Kade Burns' fire Rescue Bot. Morbots didn't scream in terror or writhe in pain as something assaulted their face. I remembered reading in the press release the Burns had put out after the green one went rogue about how they were programmed to scream when damaged to deter vandalism. It almost sounded alive as it roared in pain, free hand clawing toward its face as the swarm disappeared into it. Then, writhing, it fell... I wasn't sure what to feel as we hit the floor. I was afraid, and I felt foolish, but I almost felt pity for the thing. I knew what it was like to not be able to do what you wanted to. 

But then the fingers around my waist released, and I saw my chance. I promised myself I'd remember and leaped away from it, running toward the door as fast as my shaky legs would carry me. I emerged out into the moonlight, only to be tackled by something. I gasped, but then as I felt handcuffs slip onto my wrists, I realized it was a body pressing into mine. A man's body, not a wolf's.

"What did you do my robot, Evan?" Kade Burns growled in my ear, picky stubble scratching at me, knee in my back.

"He probably cracked Nanofuel," came a female voice. Dani, Kade's sister. Charlie's daughter.

"What do we do with him?"

"Treat the two of you for smoke inhalation. Hope Chase and dad can handle Heatwave. And shave that scraggly beard, wolfman."

I tried to tune out the Burns siblings. After all, they were talking like I wasn't there, and I couldn't respond anyway. I had no doubt the middle brother was at the Hall of Inspiration, capturing Myles. I turned my attention up to the hill, to the power plant, where they'd corralled the green robot after his rampage. 

Sari Sumdac's dog was standing on the hill.

"I'm going to try and beat Heatwave up to the Power Plant," Kade chuckled. "Get that loser over to dad. And by the way, Evan: Myles says hello."

Kade dashed off, coughing. Dani pulled me to my feet and dragged me to Charlie.

I was there to see my Morbot--really the Burns' Heatwave, emerge from the flames as the police bot, whom I would later learn is named Chase, rushed in. I was there to see him suddenly dart toward the power plant after the Sumdac's dog, chasing it, blasting it with water. Then the dog disappeared over the hill, and the robot disappeared into the building.

The rest of it was kind of a blurr. There was comm chatter. Dani gave me a medical examination. The chief read my rights. Then he removed my handcuffs, talking about silencing me as if I could sign. It was only when I was escorted into the back of Chase, now a car, that clarity returned to me.

I tapped on the barrier between the chief and me.

"Well, Evan. I'm just glad you're ok."

I raised my hands into view and gestured emphatically.

"You know, no one actually saw it was you and Myles; Sari didn't recognize you when she reported someone skulking around the warehouse," he noted. "Heatwave is just fine; Morocco's nanofuel is designed to leave no traces. And that warehouse... it was an accident waiting to happen." It was only then I realized he was pulling into my neighborhood. The back door popped open. I stared at him.

"I know you aren't terribly fond of me, and I can't say I'm too impressed with you and Myles. Your mom didn't like me very much either. But you know what she told me when we got Morocco fired last time?"

I nodded. I knew exactly what she'd said.

"'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'" He smiled. "You've made this town safer for everyone. For your family, for my family, for the Sumdacs, even for my robots, which are part of my family. I think that calls for some compassion, don't you?" He glanced down at his car for a second, then nodded. "Nothing to see here. Happy Halloween."

I climbed out of the car and watched him drive off. I could see Myles waiting for me in the window of our house. I ran inside, and locked the door, as if that would protect us. As if it could. And for just a moment, I wished that robot, Heatwave, were there with me. Maybe it wasn't alive, but if it was? With friends like Charlie Burns...