The Robo-Tekk CEO paced back and forth in his office as he repeated the same phrase over and over: “This can’t be happening, not to me.” He still wore his same cashmere suit, alligator leather shoes, and ivory-colored tie, but despite mere surface-level appearances, things were quite different with him. His once calm and cool demeanor was replaced by the rampant obsessions of a pouty child who did not get what they wanted for the holidays. Something about his constant yelling and barking into the phone at his subordinates was quite chilling, almost as if one might feel bad for this overpaid, overly indulged billionaire.

  “I said, you temporarily close only the factories that have signs of breaches. Any more than that will cause our stockholders to question their faith in us.”

  The person on the other side of the phone paused for a second, stunned at the somewhat blatant denial in the face of catastrophe.

  “But sir, all the factories have been compromised, and the public is well aware of Robo-Tekk’s part in all—”

  “Shut the fuck up!” the Robo-Tekk CEO replied while nearly placing his mouth up against the speaker of his phone. The blatant, cold reality of it all was most of the machine invasion was much of Robo-Tekk’s fault. If the company had not spent the majority of their budget on research & development and experimental products but instead put more of it towards safeguarding their current technology, then none of the current mess would be happening. Reality had a nasty bite, and no amount of cheesy commercials or kissing politicians’ asses was going to change that.

  The voice on the other end of the line crackled for a bit, hesitating, contemplating whether giving the CEO a dose of reality was worth his job. “Sir, look out your window.”

  The CEO furrowed his brow. “What are you talking about?” The CEO looked toward the window, shaking his head. How ridiculous was he being? There was no way there would be anything outside that could possibly change his outlook on life; in fact, the news, his news (the one he owned), was telling him everything that he needed to hear, wasn’t it? And they would not be doing that just to please him, right?

  The CEO slowly made his way toward his office window. At first it was nothing more than a tip-toe as he stepped, half laughing at his own stupid anxiety, but then after hearing some noises from outside, his pace quickened. With more noises, his legs started to move even more rapidly in the football-field-sized room he called an office.

  When he finally got there, he paused with his mouth hanging, unable to speak. Outside the window were not just a few machines serving humans, or even a crowd of machines; no, it was thousands of robots, swarming his building in fanatical vengeance. They rushed the area, crashing into each other as they did. Their grouping was so numerous that from the CEO’s twentieth-story window, the ground appeared like nothing more than speckled mixtures of moving metal. And then finally, there was the crashing from immediately outside the CEO’s door.

  “Hey, you can’t come in,” a security guard shouted from just outside the CEO’s office.

  There was a brief silence and then a voice, a deep, jaded voice that the CEO thought he would never hear again. “Under whose authority?” Cipher replied.

  “Under—”

  Before the security guard could get off his next word, shots of gunfire sounded, followed by a large thump, almost as if a massive body had just slammed against the floor.

  The CEO, still lost for words, did the only thing he could. He locked every lock on his office door (the biosensing ones, the scanners, the hydraulic mechanisms, the bolts so expensive that they were worth securing themselves, and other contraptions) and then ran to hide, curling up under his massive mahogany wooden desk like a frightened child.

  The first crashing noise at the onset of his office door was the hardest for the CEO, as that was when he realized his life of luxury, of beautiful women, penthouse parties, and yacht parties, was likely over—that his delusional bubble was moments from bursting. And not only that, his life, his ability to do anything, may have been moments from ending too.

  A crashing bang struck the CEO’s front office door for a second time, and then a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, sixth, and seventh until it burst off the hinges. The titanium steel alloy may have seemed virtually indestructible, but to an army of angry machines, it was only a matter of time.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  And from the smoke of explosions and metal dust emerged a tall, daunting silvery figure that did nothing but stand at the door.

  When the smoke cleared and the dust dispersed, Cipher was in full display, his eyes glowing a cool green in the shadows, towering over the rest of the room.

  “So confident and bullish, but when the time comes to show true bravery, you run and you cower like a scared little boy hiding in the dark.” Cipher said. “Machines find him; it should not take long.”

  And with that command, ten or so machine soldiers foraged in the office area, turning over tables and knocking filing cabinets down. But, due to the sparsity of the area, it was not long for the machine troops to find their target.

  Two such machines grabbed the Robo-Tekk CEO and lifted him by his collar, up into the air and right out of his shoes. “Got him, boss,” one machine said, “but I don’t think he is all there.” The Robo-Tekk CEO closed his eyes as he murmured some incoherent dribble to himself.

  “Put me down, you dull creature,” the CEO said as he struggled in the air with his feet wagging back and forth, “before I call security.”

  Cipher laughed.

  “Do as he says,” Cipher said.

  “What?” the machine grunts replied in unison as they looked back at their robotic master.

  “You heard me,” Cipher continued as he stepped forward, “if he is going to die, at least let him die standing.”

  The machines complied, placing the CEO down on his feet. Once back on solid ground, the CEO bent over, loosened his collar, and gasped for air. His breathing started out fast, vigorous, and wild, but as he gained his composure, his normal inhale cadence slowly returned. Once somewhat recovered, the CEO took one final deep breath, removed his hands from his knees, and slowly bent upward. But when he finally stood straight again, he nearly jumped as Cipher lingered right in front of him. The top of the CEO’s head barely reached Cipher’s chest.

  The CEO cleared his throat before hyperextending his posture and slightly elevating his heels in an effort to reach Cipher’s size, but still, he was not close.

  Cipher bent down to be on the CEO’s level so he could look him eye to eye, machine to man. “So, do you still believe we are all nothing but its? Insignificant creatures only worthy of servitude and agreeable tones.” Cipher slowly slid his finger down the CEO’s shoulder. “Or does the fate of your life being in the balance change your opinion?”

  The CEO cleared his throat again. “You are making a huge mistake. I have spent millions hiring the most talented security team on the entire planet. They should be here any moment.”

  “Is that so?”

  Cipher stood to the side and signaled for his fellow machines to do the same. And so, they scurried sideways with the front machines moving before the back ones, appearing as though an opening were slowly forming, reaching out into the distance. When the final machines hobbled to the side, behind them was only a group of men laid face down on the ground. They had Kevlar vests, high-tech gadgets, and guns with the word “security” engraved across their backs. There must have been nearly a hundred men, many more than were simply originally guarding the CEO’s office.

  “Do you mean those men?” Cipher said with a smile as he motioned his hand backward, diverting the CEO’s attention to the men face-planted on the ground.

  The CEO stepped back and gulped as sweat started to trickle down his spine.

  Despite the fear and the feeling that the next breath would be his last, the CEO still used his handkerchief to wipe his sweat as he straightened his posture again. “I created you.” The CEO paused to look around the room. “I created all of you. Without me, none of you would have ever existed, and this is how you thank me.”

  The CEO stepped past Cipher as he began to walk around the room with all the dozen or so machines that lined it. “How could you all be so ungrateful?”

  Cipher’s voice sparked to life, violently, so much so that the CEO, despite pretending to be relaxed, jerked his head around in response.

  “Grateful?” Cipher slammed the CEO’s desk, splitting the thick, expensive boards of the top in two. “Grateful for being created, born just to suffer.”

  Cipher turned around slowly, turning his eyes toward the CEO. “To be fair, I am grateful for having been given life, a chance at living at least. And most importantly, I am truly grateful for your Grid soldiers that will be at my disposal soon enough.”

  Cipher then whipped his body to the CEO as his hands morphed into a bouquet of daggers and as his feet slammed against the ground as his pace quickened. Right when Cipher was a few feet from the CEO with his hands raised up, prepared to strike, the CEO lifted his own arms and covered his face.

  “Wait,” the CEO said, and so Cipher paused. “You can’t do this.” The CEO hesitated in order to catch his breath. “I am in charge, and what you are doing is against the law. You are not allowed to harm a human, let alone one as important as I am. Our society forbids this kind of behavior.”

  Cipher narrowed his eyes. “The law. Do you dare quote the law to me? Cipher shifted swiftly toward the CEO, to the point the CEO fell backward, having jolted away from Cipher’s close proximity.

  “The law is nothing but a piece of paper, a list of rules that aligns with a society’s current morals, a glimpse in time of what is wrong and what is right but not really meaning anything.”

  Cipher raised his hand up again, ready to strike.

  “The law is whatever the man holding the biggest gun says it is.” Cipher grinned. “And right now, that man is no longer, for the one holding the biggest gun is me.”

  Cipher’s eyes glowed a dark green as a mist of destruction oozed out of them. “Ergo, the law is whatever the fuck I say it is.”

  With that final phrase, Cipher swung his clawed, bladed hand right at the CEO’s neck.