In the Sanctum of Hell

**"In the Sanctum of Hell"**is the eleventh episode of *Justice* and the 29th episode overall.

It was published on September 2, 2018.

In the episode, as the trial gets underway in Lawbot Headquarters, the Toon Resistance launch their first attack against the Cashbot Chief Financial Officer.

## The Episode

===Cashbot Headquarters===

=Present Day=

Piggy Pie looked around at her fellow Toons in Cashbot suits. All of them were Short Changes except for Mata Hairy, who was a sturdy Robber Baron. Level 12.

The team assembled to attack the Chief Financial Officer for the first time was comprised of Piggy Pie, Horace Calves, Tori Dorrance, Dr. Byte, Dr. Sensitive, Susan Fletcher, Mata Hairy, and Vidalia VaVoom.

After Clarabelle’s arrest and exposure of her treachery, Vidalia had come under fire from a good number of Toons who viewed her as too close a friend to not be an accomplice. Vidalia wanted to prove herself. Eileen had been skeptical to let her on the mission, since Vidalia had never even fought in a Mint or the Factory before. This was her first major battle, and it was uncharted territory for everyone. Even Mata.

In general, Toon Resistance rangers were out of practice when it came to huge boss battles. The Sellbot VP was their only knowledge of what powers the biggest Cogs possessed, and that was the lowest level of the four. The CFO would be much harder. And his domain was different from that of the VP’s. And the VP had been inaccessible for a month after the collapse of the Oak Street tunnel. A tunnel that was nearing reconstruction.

The lobby of the Cashbot Vault was, as it always was with the Cogs, a spacious atrium. The floors were made of green marble. Emerald walls were punctured with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the metropolis of Cashbot Headquarters. A single elevator was against the back wall, big enough for eight. The direct line to the Chief Financial Officer’s territory. This was his Vault. And he was restrictive on access. Mata had been clear: this wasn’t a place for Cogs about to be promoted. Lesser Cashbots oversaw that process. They would have to surprise the CFO in his own chamber.

Mata had spent the night in Cashbot Headquarters to learn where the CFO planned to spend his morning. He had a meeting in the Bullion Mint and was expected to return at noon. The Toons would be in his chamber when he returned, and then the ambush would begin.

“Let’s go,” Piggy Pie said. She thought of Eileen, Constance, Aleck, and Atticus beginning the trial in Lawbot Headquarters today. Eileen and Constance had been critical members of the original VP battle. It was weird not having them here.

“File in,” Horace grunted and the group of eight entered the elevator. Mata used a stolen passcode to gain access to the controls. She hit the button for the CFO’s apartments. Silently, the doors closed.

“Stick to the plan,” Piggy Pie said to the others. “Dr. Byte needs to have full laff at the end to hack the terminus.”

Tori placed a reassuring hand on Vidalia’s metal shoulder. Vidalia was trembling.

“It’ll be okay,” Hyla said to her. “We have the element of surprise on our side.”

The doors split open.

And the Chief Financial Officer glowered down at them. He swiped his hand, and the metal suits flung from their bodies.

“Pesky Toons,” he howled. “Think I didn’t see you entering from my window? How dare you infiltrate my dominion?”

Piggy Pie just stared, mouth agape. This was already going awry.

“ATTACK!”

Both doors of the CFO’s massive undercarriage fell open with a clang and the group broke in two to begin the battles. Piggy Pie ended up with Mata, Horace, and Vidalia.

The CFO was mammoth, larger than the VP. He was wearing a Cashbot green suit, checkered with Cogbucks signs. His hands were a pale green as well. He was gripping the fat gear on which he rested with both hands, staring down at Piggy Pie’s group. He was not two-faced like the VP, and he had to swivel his cash-register-shaped head to keep tabs on both battles.

“Time to pay,” he scowled, sending wave after wave of Robber Barons, Loan Sharks, and Money Bags. Unlike the VP, every Cog was a high-level and more difficult to defeat. Vidalia had the most underdeveloped gags of the entire party and Piggy Pie, Mata, and Horace had to compensate for it. But Vidalia had high levels of toonup, which she used frequently to keep everyone alive.

“Why are you here?” the CFO bellowed. He was more chatty than the VP too. “You have no business in Cashbot Headquarters. I will inform the Chairman of this treachery.”

“To hell with the Chairman,” Mata said blatantly. Vidalia let out a squeak. The CFO rounded on her. And fired a gear mid-battle. Mata, completely caught off guard, took the gear to the face. Piggy Pie narrowly dodged the edge of the gear herself. Toons were not used to having outside forces bother Cog battles. No one had been ready for that.

The CFO threw another gear.

“Hurry,” Horace said.

“How *dare* you!” the CFO screamed.

“SHUT UP!” Mata shrieked. She lobbed a pie at the CFO’s chest. It landed on his Cashbot sigil. He closed his mouth, but was otherwise unfazed. He flicked the pie off his chest, sending it flying across the room.

Mata then demolished a rack of four Robber Barons with a wedding cake. She locked eyes with the CFO.

“Oh…no…” Piggy Pie murmured.

The CFO let out an ear-shattering yell. With his hands, he swiped at the Cogs in front of him. They were smacked away, destroyed in one blow. Piggy Pie leapt backward, horrified. What was he doing? He was killing his own Cogs! The CFO then swiveled his entire body and blasted away the other set of Cogs in the second battle. The undercarriage doors closed. The CFO turned, his treaded wheels spinning away. He moved with a faster speed than Piggy Pie anticipated toward a closed door. As he approached, it slid open, rolling upward into the ceiling. A cavernous chamber was just beyond it. Even Mata looked shocked.

“Where is he going?” Horace asked, hurrying after him. The other seven followed. Mata just shook her head.

“I think that’s the Vault.”

The inside of the room was probably ten times the size of the atrium downstairs. The CFO looked like an ant within. The walls were black, obsidian. The floors were black marble with soft white streaks. And all around the room, filling it, were enormous safes. Each safe was half the size of the CFO. And there were hundreds of them. The room was shaped like an octagon, and there was a door on each wall, except the furthest wall, where the CFO was rolling.

“He’s trying to escape!” Vidalia hollered, pointing toward the other side of the Vault. There was a crevasse in the floor, and the CFO was heading right for it. Was he going to fall into it…?

But then the train arrived, from a tunnel running parallel to the far wall. It blasted a horn to signal to the CFO it was coming to the rescue.

“NO!” Mata screamed. She surged forward and sprinted after the CFO, even though she’d never make it in time. Then, she veered left and approached a device near a cluster of safes. Piggy Pie stared at the little podium with a joystick atop it. Mata snatched the joystick and began maneuvering it, looking up. Piggy Pie followed her gaze.

It was a fat magnet, flat and black. Mata put it over one of the safes and the huge metal box flew up to hit the magnet. Mata shrieked and directed the joystick toward the CFO. The safe released and hit the CFO square on the back, knocking him off course. He rolled backward and hit one of the cars of the train, denting it. The CFO’s back wheel was cut off by the safe.

“Fine,” the CFO said, his voice echoing throughout the chamber. “Let’s play.”

It reminded Piggy Pie of the Chairman. When he referred to the war as a game.

The CFO strolled back into the chamber and waved his hand. The train peeled away. The message was clear: he didn’t need an escape route. He was going to win.

He snapped both fingers and the door through which the Toons entered slammed shut with such speed that Piggy Pie was thankful that everyone had gotten inside, as they would have surely been sliced open if caught underneath that door.

The CFO was rolling toward Mata. The orange monkey was jumping up and down, waving her arms over her head, and pointing toward the three other magnet controls in the room. Horace, Tori, and Susan ran toward them. Horace arrived first and activated his magnet. A safe was picked up easily.

But the CFO was not going down easily. He lifted his hands, and they themselves were magnetized. Two safes flew toward him. He caught the edges and threw them. Piggy Pie watched in absolute, paralytic horror as the objects the size of houses soared overhead, toward Dr. Byte and Hyla. Dr. Byte shoved Hyla out of the way, and the safe clattered *inches* form Dr. Byte’s face. He cried out as his laff plummeted.

The doors of the CFO’s undercarriage opened again, but instead of Cogs, something else spilled out.

They were robotic beetle-looking creatures. They wore red hard hats on their heads, an eye-like light gleaming on the front. They walked on two legs. A beam like a lighthouse shone before them. When they looked at Susan, catching her in their light, she screamed like a banshee. They kept looking at her, and in seconds, Susan had gone sad. She fell forward, over her own body, touching her toes, and disappeared into her transport hole.

And then there were seven.

A safe grazed the side of Vidalia and one of the beetles directed its light toward her. She too went sad.

“I’m sorry!” she cried as she vanished.

Six.

Piggy Pie ran to replace Susan at the controls of the magnet.

“HYLA! KILO!” Mata was calling. “Jump! On! The! Goons!”

“THE WHAT?” Hyla yelled, running to hide behind a safe. A safe that the CFO pulled out from in front of her. He smacked it over the controls of Horace’s magnet, disabling one of the four.

Piggy Pie felt her own laff dropping like gravity. She was petrified. She felt out of her depth. The CFO was a million times worse than the VP. He could be the worst Cog in Toontown. Not even the Chairman was this scary.

And there didn’t seem to be any way to defeat him. They were throwing safes at him, but he was dodging them too easily. And if they hit him, he would just push it away and retaliate. What could they do?

“JUMP! ON! THE! GOONS!” Mata yelled and demonstrated, leaping on top of the beetle creatures. They collapsed when she hit their helmet.

Kilo and Hyla rushed to do the same, to level the playing field. Horace joined Piggy Pie at the magnet.

“You jump,” he said, “I can do the magnet.”

“Thank you,” Piggy Pie said, grateful. She didn’t feel comfortable operating the magnet. What if she dropped a safe on one of her Toons? Those safes would kill them.

Mata successfully dropped a safe on top of the CFO, causing his neck to crack with a horrible sound. He cried out in pain and jammed his head upright. Keys from the cash register clattered to the floor. He sent two safes toward Mata, who dove underneath one of the safes to take cover, narrowly avoiding death.

“WE NEED TO GO!” Piggy Pie screamed. “WE CAN’T WIN THIS!”

“KILO!”

Piggy Pie whirled her head toward the sound of Hyla’s voice. She was running toward Kilo, who was caught in the light of a goon. Hyla leapt on top of the goon and disabled it.

“His laff!” Hyla cried. “He’s going to go sad!”

Piggy Pie felt in her pocket for her transport hole. They had to go. They already lost Susan and Vidalia. Horace and Mata were at work on the magnets. Tori was running away from a goon, trying to fend them off with throw gags. She bumped into the CFO’s wheel. He reached down and hit her, hard. She went flying across the room, straight toward the obsidian walls. If she hit them, she’d break every bone in her body.

Piggy Pie acted instantly, throwing her transport hole at Tori, swallowing her in the darkness. Back to the Playground.

Five.

Piggy slumped to the ground behind one of the safe and caught her breath. She thought of her brothers and of Doctor, of Toontown before the Cogs. Of her mother. Her father. She tried to keep her laff from teetering on sadness. She saw Hyla drag Kilo, also on the brink, behind a safe and cower with him. Leaving Mata and Horace to fight alone.

“All by yourselves?” the CFO taunted. “Two Toons against me? The battle is lost.”

“HORACE, COME ON!”

Piggy Pie dropped to her stomach to look at the battle. She pulled herself under the safe so the goons wouldn’t be able to hit her with their killer light.

Horace and Mata were at the two magnets furthest from the CFO. He was still throwing safes around the room like a toddler holding a tantrum. The number of goons had decreased. The CFO looked incredibly satisfied with himself. Mata ran from her controls to Horace’s and began shouting in his ear. He looked at her in shock. She had a plan. Piggy Pie scurried out from under the safe so she could help. She was no use to anyone underneath a safe.

A goon looked directly at her. Piggy Pie slapped a cream pie in the goon’s eye, causing it to turn off. She jammed her elbow on his head, knocking him out. Piggy Pie hurried to help Horace and Mata, but Mata was gone. Horace was looking up, operating the magnet controls. When Piggy looked toward the ceiling, she gasped.

Mata was holding on to the leg of one of the safes, which was attached to the magnet. She was high above them all, and glaring down the CFO.

“NOW!” she screamed. Horace deactivated the magnet and the safe began to fall. Mata pushed off it with her legs and flew toward the CFO’s head. She hit him square between the eyes. She jammed her hand into the drawer of the CFO’s face and ripped out what looked like a Cogbuck.

The CFO reached up with his hands to swat at Mata, but she had already slid down the back of his body and hit the ground. She was now running toward the train tracks. Piggy Pie had no idea what to do but watch. Horace was still picking up safes and throwing them at the CFO.

Mata was holding the Cogbuck to her face and yelling at it? What was she doing? The CFO rolled toward her with astonishing speed.

“GIVE ME THAT!” he roared.

Horace launched another safe. It hit the CFO on the back, propelling him forward. Mata leapt out of the way and the CFO fell onto the train tracks. As Piggy Pie opened her mouth, the train came.

The CFO was smashed to smithereens as the train slammed into him like a rocket. Mata dove under a safe to avoid the shrapnel. All the goons fell over and turned off at once. Horace stepped back from the controls and swayed. Piggy Pie caught him by the arm so he wouldn’t collapse. She looked around hurriedly to see if Kilo and Hyla had survived.

They were still behind the safe, Hyla applying toonup to Kilo.

Mata walked back over to them, breathing heavily. The room was deafeningly silent. It was suffocating.

“Tori?” Mata asked.

“Safe,” Piggy gasped.

“Did you get it?” Horace asked Mata. The orange monkey held up the Cogbuck, which Piggy Pie could now see was actually a circuit board. She had ripped it out of the CFO’s wiring.

“The key,” Kilo muttered from behind. He reached out for it, and Mata handed it over.

“It’s his center control,” Hyla said. “His motherboard. You called the train.”

Mata nodded.

“He couldn’t win,” she said surlily.

“He almost did,” Piggy said. “That was really close.”

The five looked at each other, trying to recover mentally from the atrocities of their experience. Vidalia, Susan, and Tori would be sick with worry.

“Okay,” Kilo said, “where’s this terminus?”

Mata pointed nonchalantly toward the door through which they came. “Through there. We need to take the elevator down.”

“Great,” Hyla said. “Lead the way.”

Using the circuit, they reopened the door and got back inside the elevator. Hyla picked up the pieces of their Cog suits and they redressed on the ride down. They bypassed the atrium and kept going down, deep underneath the train tracks.

“Here we are,” Mata said.

When the doors opened, they were in a surprisingly tight space. It was tall enough for the CFO but that was it. A long, slender keyboard lined the room’s back wall.

“This is it,” she said. “The main computer of the Cogs.”

“Can we shut them down permanently?” Piggy Pie asked.

“Of course not,” Mata said. “It’s not like that. It’s more like…a database. Every Cog and their entire life’s data is stored here.”

Kilo took over and found the port where he could hack. He used the CFO’s password to gain access. He then stuck a thumb drive containing all the Toon census data into the computer. The census was old and included Toons who had since died, but it was all they had.

“Okay,” Kilo said, scrolling through the data. “I’m adding the Toon population to the Cog population for jury selection only.”

They waited as the data uploaded.

“Holy…” Kilo muttered.

“What is it?” Piggy asked, squinting at the numbers.

“We have 10,000 Toons, but the Cogs have well over 500,000. The chances of us being selected for jury are slim to none.”

Kilo thought for a moment.

“But what if only Lawbots can be selected? There aren’t that many Lawbots…and they wouldn’t mind having only Lawbots available…one second…”

The data repopulated.

“It worked!” he exclaimed. “The field has been narrowed drastically. There’s only about 10,000 Lawbots.”

“Seriously?” Horace said. “10,000 Lawbots but 500,000 Cogs? What happened?”

“When Cogs are promoted from Cashbot status,” Mata jumped in, “they can choose to pursue a career in law or management. Almost all choose management.”

“If there are 10,000 Toons and 10,000 Lawbots,” Hyla said, “then there’s a 50% chance of a Toon getting on the jury.”

“You’re right,” Kilo said. He frowned at the data again.

“I can’t narrow it down further. They’d notice if I limited it to only certain Cog levels.”

“They’re going to notice regardless since *Toons* are going to be eligible,” Horace grumbled. “Make it so only Ambulance Chasers or something can be on the jury.”

“Okay, okay,” Kilo said, beginning to type. But the whole system shut him out.

“Crap,” he said. “Let me log back in.”

An error noise beeped. He tried again.

“The password changed again,” Kilo swore. “The Chairman knows the CFO is dead.”

“Then let’s get out of here. 50% chance is better than 0%,” Piggy Pie said. “But we gotta go before we have to do that all over again.”

The five dropped their transport holes and fled Cashbot Headquarters, the second stage of their plan to convict Clarabelle complete.

===Bossbot Headquarters===

The Chairman did not say anything when he was informed that the Toons had discovered Bossbot Headquarters. And that the CFO had been destroyed. The crash on the train tracks had caused a severe backup too, slowing the day’s trade. The Toons had not reemerged from the Cashbot Vault. But they were nowhere to be found inside either.

Doctor watched his master with tired eyes. The Chairman was tapping his thumbs together. He rubbed a hand along his cracked face, thinking.

“Appoint the Bullion Mint Supervisor to CFO.”

“Sir.”

“Close the golf courses before the Toons land on this island. They can lose themselves there chasing after Cogs that aren’t there. How’s the trial?”

“Jury selection begins tomorrow,” the Chief Justice said. “Clarabelle Cow plead not guilty today. The Toons have secured permission to appear as prosecution.”

The Chairman stared. “How did they manage that?”

“I’m not sure,” the Chief Justice said. “They had a permit signed from the Clerk’s office.”

“Then your Clerk is a moron,” the Chairman growled. “Have him fired.”

“He’s already been promoted, sir,” the Chief Justice. “He’s the one who wrote Article 59 of the Constitution. He’s an integral member of the Clarabelle Cow defense team. We want him on the jury.”

“Are you going to stack the jury?”

“Of course.”

The Chairman sighed. “Good. We can’t have the Toons winning this trifle. If Clarabelle Cow is acquitted, it’ll demoralize the Toons. The Lawbot laws will be known as superior to all. The Creator’s vision will be a step closer to completion.”

“Is cohabitation the final goal?” the Chief Executive Officer inquired. Doctor looked at the brain atop the CEO’s head bubbling and bobbing inside it’s glass tank. Rumors were that it was Molecule’s brain but the real Doctor knew that wasn’t true. Tog Doctor believed it. Tog Doctor loved Molecule. Tog Doctor loved the Chairman.

Real Doctor was sick of this.

“No,” the Chairman said. “The end goal is to eliminate the Toons, but we cannot do that just yet. We need something more…we need a new plan. Togs is no longer the solution.”

Doctor fought his conversion again. He pounded away at the windows of his eyes and shouted, though no sound came out of Tog Doctor’s mouth. He tried to move his finger, his pinky, his knuckle, to twitch his eyelid, anything.

He thought of Piggy Pie. The Cog part of him killed the thoughts, murdered the happiness. But Doctor’s kept thinking. He thought of his friend and the bond they shared. He thought of the feeling of elation he had when he held his first gag, when he was reunited with Violet and Piggy Pie after Exodus. Of his family. His happiest ever memories. The Cog part was trying to suppress them, but Doctor was not letting the Cog Doctor win. He kept thinking. He felt something tipping.

He took a deep breath.

And he was back.

He was Doctor, sitting in the chamber of the Cogs. He looked around, by himself. The Chairman was still talking. Doctor stared at the beast who had enslaved him. He could get up, shock him, hurt him? With what?

The other Togs were sitting at the table too, silent. They were still trapped.

Doctor smiled. He was free.

And then he was yanked backward violently. He closed his eyes, expecting to hit the floor, but when he opened them, he was back behind his own eyes. The Cog part of him had taken over again. No one had noticed that Doctor had just broken free.

“Take the Togs back to their cells,” the Chairman ordered. “They’re no use to us today.”

Doctor followed his Tog compatriots back to their cells. He didn’t even fight himself. He was thrilled that he had temporarily regained control of his body.

The VP was leading them down a separate hallway lined with cells. Doctor was so excited he didn’t even realize until much much later that he had seen Ash Ingalls that day.

## Production

### Continuity and Story Arcs

The CFO is first attacked in this episode. Though elements of the Toontown Online battle were used (the magnets, the safes, and the CFO getting hit by a train), it is vastly different in the written story.

Dr. Byte successfully hacks the electrical terminus to allow Toons to be entered for jury selection.

In Bossbot Headquarters, Doctor temporarily regains control of his body. He was so elated at the experience that he didn't realize that he had seen Ash Ingalls in Bossbot Headquarters.

## Trivia

* The title of this episode refers to the depths of hell within Cashbot Headquarters and the horrors the Toons faced there. The style of the title came from a book called *In the Garden of Beasts* by Erik Larsen. The book itself is about the American Ambassador to Nazi Germany in the years leading up to World War II and references a garden in Berlin, Germany.