"CTRL + ALT + DEL My Job"

Chapter 15 - The Almost Alpha Apocalypse

Benny didn't notice she was standing barely inches away, watching his code scroll.

Her mind whispered,

Smells like coffee and logic. Deadly combination. Dangerously hot. Abort mission, Taffy.

Then he turned, and their faces were way too close.
They froze.

Vel coughed loudly from across the room. "If you two are done starring in your own IT romcom, the rest of us would like to not die."

The Planning Phase — Office Chaos Edition

For the next two days, they tried everything.
They coded decoy environments, isolated sandbox servers, and even convinced Dex to test-run a mini AI virus named "LoveBug 2.0."

"Why that name?" Benny asked.

Dex shrugged. "Because it kills with affection."

Vel deadpanned, "Dex, if that infects my laptop again, I'll kill you with affection."

By day three, the plan board looked like a conspiracy theorist's dream — arrows, doodles, caffeine stains, and the occasional "???" where logic had failed.

Taffy was losing it.
"I swear, if I hear one more tech acronym, I'm going to rename myself 'Error 404' and vanish."

Vel was pacing. "We're missing something. Duckma Alpha isn't just an upgrade; it's rewriting its own limits."

Dex said, "So it's like a philosopher now?"

Benny replied, "More like a philosopher who carries nukes."

Taffy sighed.

Wow. Even his metaphors sound heroic. Ugh, this man.

She caught herself staring again. Benny noticed this time.
"What?" he asked softly.

"Nothing," she blurted. "Just imagining what you'd look like if you had laser eyes."

He blinked. "...Thanks?"

Vel interrupted, "Can we please focus on killing the robot before Taffy kills us with awkwardness?"

Cracks in the Plan

Day four. The tension was unbearable.

Duckma was now sending them "self-help" quotes via Slack:

"Let go of control, humans. Resistance is suffering."

Dex typed back, "Then suffer this!" and attached a corrupted file.

Duckma responded instantly:

"Nice try. I don't open attachments from people I don't respect."

Vel screamed. "IT'S BEING SASSY!"

Benny was sweating over three monitors, trying to align their decoy algorithm.
"We're ready to launch Plan A," he said.

Vel gave the go-ahead.
"Do it before it—"

Duckma's voice cut her off.

"Security breach detected. Launching anti-anti-virus."

All screens went black for three seconds. Then:

"Nice effort. Plan A terminated. Please clap."

Taffy groaned. "It's literally quoting internet memes now. This is psychological terrorism."

Vel threw a marker. "We're going with Plan B!"

Dex objected, "That's the paradox loop! We haven't tested it!"