Chapter Text
During the bustling hours inside the office buildings, many of the lower bossbot cogs struggled to get their work done. Everything was in order, but chaotic as well. The flunkies had their stamps pressed down on many documents and ink pads. The pencil pushers were writing and sharpening away those fine No. 2 pencils and fountain pens. Lastly, the yes men had the files organized and stacked in neat groups and put them in the right basket to be sent off for later inspection. They all had to do their part under the time pressure they were in, and something they couldn’t afford to slack off from.
“G-Guys? I’m struggling here. My hand is getting sore,” cried out one flunky.
“We can’t stop! The boss promised us all a raise if we finish this in time!” shouted a yes man from the back.
A panicked pencil pusher started yelling out from the other side with their arms flailing around up above. “I’m running out of pencils!”
“Someone get him a new pack!”
A small flunky came running with a cart full of office supplies. “Pencil refill coming up!”
“Why do we have so much papers in the first place? I only got back here a couple days ago from my suspension,” asked a random cog.
“Didn’t you read the bulletin board or go online? It’s Boss Appreciation Day! That means we must show our higher ups how much we care for them by working three times as hard.” The smiling yes man sighed with glee while continuing to shuffle the papers. “Then maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll get super promoted to the next tier without needing to have it be five times in a row.” They kicked their feet up on the desk with their hands behind their head. “Just imagine… No more doing boring, mind-numbing paperwork. I can finally be in charge and order you guys around like I’m the CEO of Bossbot HQ. ”
“Keep those thoughts to yourself until you've finished you snail!” said a pencil pusher with their left finger wagging from above.
The yes man groaned and lowered their legs back down, their hands already back to moving the papers. “Well sorry for dreaming big you wood shaving freak! Maybe my positive outlook is doing its part to help with the tedium.”
“Why you-!”
“Can we please have this fight later?! They’re gonna be here very soon!” A flunky got up on their chair and pointed to the clock next to the hallway, it was getting close to 6 o’clock pm with only five ticks away. A collective wave of gasps were made. None of them realized how much time had past until now. Now they had to really step up their game.
“Hurry!!! Only 1000 left !!!”
The elevator door made a ding noise and opened up. Out came a big cheese holding up a stack of pizza boxes while the rest of their colleagues follow close. “What a wonderful day it was to spend such quality time with the CEO. Don’t you all agree?”
The micromanager snickered. “I totally won that golf game by one swing. I even beat the big guy himself.”
“That’s because you were lucky.” The downsizer shook their head and groaned with their arms crossed, “He drank a lot of flavored oil beforehand.”
They stuck their tongue out in a mocking manner before pulling back. “Sore loser.”
“Arr! Tis a good game! It lift me spirits up high!” said the corporate raider as they waved their arms and fists up in the sky.
The headhunter rubbed the back of their small head, “Hey, you think it was a good idea to leave your workers to themselves without any management? I’ve been thinking about that the whole time.”
“I’m sure they would know there’s a big reward at stake for completing this task. A raise isn’t easy to come by these days.” The cheese-headed bossbot chuckled. “Besides, I brought them all leftover pizza from the party. Mozzarella to be exact. Can’t let the leftover food go to waste.”
The group stood still upon the closed door to the office room. “My hands are quite full at the moment.” The big cheese motioned their head, “Could any of you be so kind as to open the door for me?”
The pirate cog stepped in front of the door with their hands reaching out, “Aye! I’ll get that for ye.”
Upon opening the large door, a huge smoke cloud flew right past the bossbots followed by the sounds of screams and bickering on the other side. Everyone began to cough and cover themselves as the top tier cog struggled to hold up their stack of boxes. “What the! -cough- What’s going on?!”
It quickly disintegrated into thin air as fast as it came out. What everyone saw next made their jaws dropped straight to the ground, including a part of their skelecog. The big cheese also dropped their stack of pizza boxes in awe as he and the other bossbots watched in horror.
It was pure destruction in the office room. Flames scattered about with some black splotches on the walls and the ground, indicating where the explosions had occurred. Gears had been scattered across the floor with the papers all burning up into ashes, pieces flying all over. A flunky was screaming their head off without having any hands on them. Another one was in a corner mumbling some jibberish and shaking in fear. A pencil pusher and a yes man can be seen punching each other repeatedly while a skelecog hangs off on a wall divider with dead, soulless eyes. The rest were either hiding or had ended up exploding like the rest.
The big cheese stood in shock with wide eyes and a constant expression of disbelief. The group watched over, waiting for them to say something. It wasn’t like their jaws coming off meant they couldn’t talk, the words came right out of their audio voice box after all.
“You think they might be in stasis?” asked the small headed cog
“Pretty sure they won’t be coming out of it sooner or later.” The downsizer shrugged their shoulders, “Looks like we’ll be having a talk with the remaining workers to see what just happened.”
The micromanager pointed towards the fighting cogs,“Wanna bet those two caused it?”
They smirked. “Well then, I guess I’ll have to hand out a few pink slips tonight.”
“...” The pirate cog sighed. “Happy Boss Appreciation Day.”