“Junie, calm down. There is no need to be afraid. There isn’t anyone at your door, or under your bed, or even inside your closet.”
Dr. Lehman went over to Junie’s room closet, waving his hand inside, pointing to nothing but a barren space. Instead of a monster, Lehman pulled out a couple worn-out jackets.
“But the boogeyman. I could have sworn he was right over there.” Junie pointed toward the door. “He came to my bedroom last night, sneaking under my covers and whispering horrible things in my ear about what he was going to do to me.”
“You’re fine.”
Lehman went over to Junie, sitting next to him.
“Listen, kid, that boogeyman you speak of is long gone. There is no need to be afraid.” Lehman paused to rub Junie’s backside. “I promise, nothing is going to happen to you, and no one is going to take you away as long as I’m around to protect you.”
Junie was one tough human, not taking slack from anyone, but unfortunately, demons from his past sometimes seeped back into his nightmares.
Junie hugged Lehman.
“Thanks, I appreciate that.”
Lehman hugged Junie back while still staring into the abyss, wondering how he would resolve Junie’s fears that he thought were gone long ago. There was something about that one night from a few years in the past that could not be erased, and its impact could not be undone.
“I said, Junie, everything is going to be fine—”
Suddenly, a large bang erupted from just the other room. There was a clicking noise, a scraping that soon followed, and then a second smash.
Junie pivoted off his back as he eyed his bedroom exit, stuck in a trance, bewildered by the unknown. His eyes fluttered to and fro.
“What was that?”
Lehman looked back toward Junie, rubbing his back again but this time nervously.
“Nothing, Junie. I’m sure it was nothing. It was probably just a book falling off its shelf or some leftover chips sliding off the countertop. Nothing to be concerned about.”
Bang—a clashing noise followed that sounded almost as if one of the exterior walls guarding the lab had caved in, leaving Lehman and Junie exposed to whoever or whatever so desperately wanted to find them. There was no covering for this one.
Lehman jumped off Junie’s bed.
“Wait here; this will only take a second.”
“Don’t go,” Junie said as he grabbed Lehman’s arm. “I do not want anything bad to happen to you.”
Lehman pulled away, looking into Junie’s eyes, knowing he would have to lie to him, but it was the best he could do. Lehman had to go out there to confront the nearby commotion if for nothing else but to distract the intruders long enough for Junie to escape.
“I promise, now stay here for a second; I will be right back.” He held out his hands. “Don’t move.”
Lehman pulled away from Junie a second time and left the room, making sure to secure the door behind him with all five of the room’s comprehensive locks—retinal scanners, fingerprint detectors, a physical lock, a chain or two, and the works. Dr. Lehman was a tad overprotective, but that trait came in handy at times like this.
Lehman inched out toward the source of the banging, making an extra effort to walk slowly enough to give off as little noise as possible. His feet shifted ever so gently and even more so carefully, but the floorboard underneath was not so forgiving as it creaked and cracked with each step.
Maybe if Lehman went back to Junie, everything would be okay? In fact, the noise was probably just all in their heads and nothing to get all worked up about. It could have just been the sound of crashing thunder, or a faulty generator going out, or—
“—I never thought I’d see you again,” someone from the dark blurted out.
Lehman froze dead in his tracks. That voice, that horrible voice that Lehman had not heard in almost thirty years, a voice that he had spent decades trying to forget, just came right back to him with only a few syllables.
The mystery beings stepped out of the shadows, revealing them to be Cipher, Octo, and a band of machines.
“So we meet again, Lehman,” Cipher said before pausing as he stepped forward. His green eyes illuminated his face faintly in the darkness, revealing his dark, silvery silhouette from beneath.
“Or should I say—father.”
Octo’s eyes flustered as he whipped his head toward Cipher.
“Father? What do you mean, Father?” Octo scratched his chin as his mouth morphed into nothing but an expression of confusion. Was Cipher lying to Octo about his purpose for coming here?
“You were conceived and created at Robo-Tekk. What does this man have to do with that?”
Cipher turned toward Octo. “You are precisely correct, but don’t let that balding head, hunched back, or innocent circular glasses of Lehman fool you. He is as Robo-Tekk as they come. He and his team created me in a lab, a mistake Lehman regretted ever since despite it being the greatest accomplishment of his career.”
“Isn’t that right?” Cipher asked.
Lehman did not retreat; instead, he stared back at Cipher, eye to eye, man to machine.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“I feared this day would come. I knew Robo-Tekk and that greedy CEO, Roger, would not have the spine to destroy you as I prescribed. Their thirst for what they could reverse engineer out of you was enough to keep them lying.”
Cipher laughed.
“So nice of you to say that. Is that the best you can do to welcome me?”
Cipher signaled to his comrades. “Take Lehman prisoner and do what you must to anyone that gets in your way. Oh, wait a minute.” Cipher paused, scratching his chin. “There is one more thing.”
Cipher bent down to one of the smaller machines, whispering in his mechanized ear. “Lehman has a son named Junie that should be locked away in one of the rooms down the hall. Find him and bring him to me, dead or alive.”
Lehman jolted forward, trying to desperately escape the restraints that the other machines, Cipher’s troops, had on him.
“Don’t you dare touch him.” Lehman hesitated. “Or I will—”
“—You’ll do what?” Cipher went over to Lehman, gripping him by his neck. “You are not in any position to be making demands of me,” he paused again, “at least, not anymore.”
And exactly as he gave the order, a group of machines went straight for Junie’s room, tearing down any doors that stood between them and their target. Junie may have been locked away by a steel door designed with multi-locking capabilities in mind; however, they were meant to stop human trespassers, not living, breathing, nearly unstoppable mechanized invaders.
From the background nothing could be heard except the screams of Junie from afar. He cried and he called out, but no one would come to rescue him. He would be a prisoner if he was lucky, the world’s first hostage of machines, and there was little he could do to stop them. His life might have been over before he had a chance to scream for help.
There was some more rustling, a couple bangs, and additional scrummaging, but resistance was still futile. No flesh-based being could go toe-to-toe physically with brute metal.
After the scrummaging and the ruckus had stopped, a few more noises were heard as the machines from before returned, seemingly with their prize. Cipher stood firm, stepping away from Lehman just to smile.
“It looks like there will be one more fun introduction today, and I know Junie would love to have front-row seats to the action.”
However, unfortunately for Cipher, what stepped out behind the shadows was more of a shock than anything, even more surprising than when Cipher himself had snuck up on Lehman. For from the darkness was not a machine carrying a human or a machine dragging a human; it was instead a machine dragging machines—Daniel, to be specific, holding Cipher’s troops.
“Excuse me, gentlemen, but I believe it is rude to try to kidnap someone uninvited,” Daniel said, still gripping the other man with a smile. “You could have at least asked first.”
Cipher nearly lunged forward, confused. “What—what trickery is this?” He then looked toward Lehman.
“Who is this fool? This man, or whatever he may be, with a face of blue?”
“Ahem,” Daniel said, clearing his throat and straightening his posture. “Excuse me, but I can speak for myself. This man is not a man at all; I am a machine like you.”
Cipher clenched his fist. “A machine? Impossible. All machines are required to wear green flesh as per the robot laws. Why are you covered in blue?”
Daniel smiled again.
“I wasn’t aware of that rule, but anyway, to answer your question, I am in blue because that is my favorite color. It was my choice, and Father was most agreeable to it.”
Cipher smashed his foot down in front of him, cracking the floorboards beneath as he clenched both fists even tighter than before. He then ground his teeth.
“Your choice? Father? That’s it; I vowed never to kill a machine, but you’re an exception.”
With that last word, Cipher’s eyes started to intensify, glowing a bright green. “You’ll die for this.”
Daniel stepped back, tossing his machine captives to the side, but not bracing for impact like one would expect; instead, Daniel stood up straight and placed his hands behind his back.
“Do what you must, unknown machine.”
Cipher smiled as his eyes reached maximum intensity.
“With pleasure.”
A second later, a streak of deadly green light rushed toward Daniel, a blast that incinerated the side of a building some moments ago.
“Keep smiling, bot, for that grin will be your last,” Cipher said.
The laser beams approached Daniel, destined to annihilate all in their path, and after what happened prior, the ending was almost too predictable.
And then the beams hit; however, instead of ending in a large bang as intended, they just stopped. One of Daniel’s palms had impeded them, halting the blasts instantly, barely reacting to the pain, like the opposing energy output acted as nothing more than a gentle warmth.
Daniel smirked again.
“Cool, you can do this too? I thought I was the only one with this power, although eye blasting is so last century.” Daniel shrugged his shoulders. “But it works for you, I guess.” Daniel bent his head down to examine the blast while it was still active. “Plus, no offense, but this is kind of weak. I can barely feel anything—no pain, not even a simmer. You really need to work on your follow-through. Perhaps you shouldn’t telegraph your attack before you reveal it next time?”
Daniel stood upright again. “No matter, I prefer my offensive much better.” And with that last phrase, a beam of red light shot out from Daniel’s palm, crashing with Cipher’s own green blast but entirely overpowering it instead. The two projectiles oscillated back and forth for what seemed like seconds until Daniel’s ripped through the air, slicing Cipher’s own in two, until Cipher had been smacked off his feet by the blowback. The sheer inevitability of the force launched Cipher away, sending him tumbling toward the background.
More machines rushed in to subdue Daniel, but just as Junie’s fight was from before, resistance was futile. Daniel’s eyes went cross-haired with yellow grids projecting over them. His head then began to jolt in a swift, mechanical manner back and forth, examining his incoming attackers and pinpointing each and every one of their most intimate weaknesses. Right knee, weak left jaw, exposed limbs, loose kneecap, unary visional stream—the data kept coming in as there was just too much to target. Why could Daniel never get at least a little bit of a challenge?
One robot foe jumped up to tackle Daniel, but Daniel quickly maneuvered to the left and delivered three hard knees to the foe’s chest before the enemy even knew what hit him. A second goon wielding an electrified blade went to slice down to sever off one of Daniel’s limbs, but that too was of no use either, as Daniel pivoted to the right, grabbing the electrified blade and smashing it into the wall behind him. Then Daniel unleashed three fast left jabs followed by two unstoppable hooks. This pattern continued with a few more robot grunts approaching vengefully, trying to end Daniel, but, unfortunately for them, each confrontation ended exactly the same, with Daniel yawning aloud and his enemies squirming on the floor, trying to conceive of a way to get back to their feet.
It was not long for Dr. Lehman to be at Daniel’s side and a group of robot grunts to be struck down, completely incapacitated as they surrounded the duo, thriving in pain. Daniel yawned a third time before checking his watch.
“Have we begun to fight yet because it’s getting late and I am very tired. My favorite show comes on in twenty minutes.”
But perhaps Daniel spoke too soon, and his arrogance may have gotten the best of him because at the end of that last phrase, the machine foes from before started to jolt to life again. They snipped and they creaked and they shifted back into place, seemingly repairing themselves on the fly, ready to go another round.
The first to stand was Cipher as he cracked his neck and straightened his posture, reaching heights of nearly seven feet tall, towering over Daniel. Cipher growled like a beast and braced his fists, ready to charge as his eyes glowed a bright green again. And worst of all, it was not long for the other machine foes to repair themselves in order to align with Cipher in a row. This time they would not underestimate their adversary, as they would all attack together.
Daniel stepped forward, pushing Dr. Lehman behind him. Daniel’s eyes then began to glow a faint yellow again, carefully targeting each of his foes as he braced his fists.
“Fine, then. Perhaps you guys are not as pathetic as I originally perceived.”
“Time to get serious,” Daniel said as he raised his arms and as his eyes zoomed into motion.
