"I'm getting second thoughts about this, Ratchet."
"Oh you're such a baby, Clank..." Ratchet flashed a flashlight in the empty room.
Clank stood behind him and stared down the long, dark, endless hallway. "Why are we here anyways, Ratchet? My sensors detect danger ahead."
"Because Qwark said we couldn't do it..." Ratchet whispered. "And why would you detect danger? It's just an empty pizzeria..."
Clank raised an invisible eyebrow. "With deadly robots..."
"Nah..." Ratchet flashed his flashlight down the hallway. "We've fought really deadly robots before, Clank. Remember Nefarious? And besides, there is nothing here."
"What is that?" Clank pointed at a shadow that appeared like a fox of somesort. It was withered, and looked very angry. Ratchet shined the flashlight at it.
"I don't know, Clank."
The fox eventually disappeared down the endless hallway. "Maybe he's shy..." Clank suggested.
"You wanna see if you can talk to it?"
"My sensors detect that isn't just a robot..." Clank looked around the room. "Something really isn't right..."
"Quit worrying, Clank. We'll be fine..." A phone next to a tablet began to ring. Ratchet and clank both looked at each other, and then the phone. "You wanna answer it?"
Clank shook his head no. Ratchet swallowed in fear. "F-fine, I'll answer it..." He nervously said. He picked up the ruby red old school phone and heard a voice talk to him.
"Hello? Hello hello? Hello and welcome to your new summer job at the new and improved, Freddy Fazbear's pizza."
"Thanks mysterious voice." Ratchet mocked.
"Uh, I'm here to talk you through some of the things you can expect to see during your first week here and to help you get started down this new and exciting career path."
"So exiced..." Ratchet sarcastically said.
The voice continued. "Uh, now, I want you to forget anything you may have heard about the old location, you know. Uh, some people still have a somewhat negative impression of the company. Uh... that old restaurant was kind of left to rot for quite a while, but I want to reassure you, Fazbear Entertainment is committed to family fun and above all, safety."
Ratchet's eyes widened when he heard this. Negative impression? Left to rot? What the heck was this dude talking about? And why does he sound so calm?
"They've spent a small fortune on these new animatronics, uh, facial recognition, advanced mobility, they even let them walk around during the day. Isn't that neat?"
"Yeah...real neat..." Ratchet replied nervously. Clank tugged on his arm.
"My sensors detect danger ahead."
"Just sit tight, bud." Ratchet responded. "Let me just let this guy finish..."
"But most importantly, they're all tied into some kind of criminal database, so they can detect a predator a mile away. Heck, we should be paying them to guard you."
Ratchet certainly heard this correct. "Hey, Clank." He whispered.
"Yes?"
"The robots...their animatronics..."
Clank was a little confused. "What are animatronics?"
"I don't know." Ratchet raised his voice a little above a whisper. "But they have a tie in to a criminal database, this guy is making it sound like this place had some incidents in the past."
Clank scanned the room again. "I detect...robots..."
"Hang on, he isn't finished talking." Ratchet leaned closer to hear the guy talk again.
"Uh, now that being said, no new system's without its... kinks. Uh... you're only the second guard to work at that location. Uh, the first guy finished his week, but complained about... conditions. Uh, we switched him over to the day shift, so hey, lucky you, right? "
"What the-" Ratchet was very confused now. What in the name of the Lord was this dude going on about? Kinks? What does that even mean?
"Uh mainly he expressed concern that certain characters seemed to move around at night, and even attempted to get into his office."
Ratchet slammed the phone on the table. "I'm not taking this dare, Clank." He said.
Clank scanned the room. "We can't leave, Ratchet, it is too dangerous..."
"I don't care." Ratchet almost yelled. "We need to leave NOW. This 'phone guy' said that the characters come to LIFE and the last guy who was here complained they tried to get in his office."
Clank hid behind Ratchet. "We can't leave..."
Ratchet groaned, there was no use in continuing the argument. He picked up the phone again, sure enough, this guy wasn't finished talking.
"Now, from what we know, that should be impossible. Uh, that restaurant should be the safest place on earth. So while our engineers don't really have an explanation for this, the working theory is that... the robots were never given a proper "night mode". So when it gets quiet, they think they're in the wrong room, so then they go try to find where the people are, and in this case, that's your office."
"Oh that's lovely." Ratchet once again said sarcastically.
"So our temporary solution is this: there's a music box over by the Prize Counter, and it's rigged to be wound up remotely. So just, every once in a while, switch over to the Prize Counter video feed and wind it up for a few seconds. It doesn't seem to affect all of the animatronics, but it does affect... one of
them."
Ratchet raised an eyebrow and saw a tablet sitting on the table. He picked it up and turned it on, and sure enough, just like the phone guy said, there was a music box rigged remotely in Prize Corner. Ratchet had no idea what animatronic he was talking about that was affected, but he didn't care. If he just kept the music box wound he should be okay for now.
"Uh, and as for the rest of them, we have an even easier solution. You see, there may be a minor glitch in the system, something about robots seeing you as an endoskeleton without his costume on, and wanting to stuff you in a suit, so hey, we've given you an empty Freddy Fazbear head, problem solved! You can put it on anytime, and leave it on for as long as you want. Eventually anything that wandered in, will wander back out."
Ratchet saw the Freddy mask the guy was talking about. He put it on his head and looked at Clank. "I'm ready for tonight,
Clank." He joked.
Clank laughed in response.
"Uh, something else worth mentioning is kind of the modern design of the building. You may have noticed there are no doors for you to close, heh. But hey, you have a light! And even though your flashlight can run out of power, the building cannot. So, don't worry about the place going dark. Well, I think that's it. Uh, you should be golden. Uh, check the lights, put on the Freddy head if you need to, uh, keep the music box wound up, piece of cake. Have a good night, and I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Ratchet hung up the phone. "Clank..."
"Yes Ratchet?"
"We're going to die...'"
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Ratchet soon got the hang of it. No animatronics came through the office yet, but he was still on his toes. Clank helped a bunch, he controlled the flashlight and turned on the vent lights. Every once in a while Ratchet checked prize corner to wind the music box.
The clock stroked 6 AM and children cheered. "Are we done?" Ratchet asked.
"I think so..." Clank opened his box and pulled out the AD for the job. "Let's see...midnight to 6 AM...yep, we're done."
Ratchet gave Clank a high five. "Qwark is such a lier." He boasted. "We're so getting that free space ship."
Night 2
Ratchet and Clank strolled back in the pizzeria confidently. Ratchet spun his keys around his finger while Clank skipped over to the office. "We got this, Clank." Ratchet propped his feet up on the table.
"I know..." Clank laughed. "We're the to the toughest heros in the galaxy."
Once again, just like last nigh, the phone rang again. Ratchet groaned. "Uh again?" He picked up the phone and held it to his ear.
"Ah...hello, hello! Uh, see, I told you your first night wouldn't be a problem. You're a natural!"
Ratchet laughed. "Too easy phone guy."
"Uh, by now I'm sure you've noticed the older models sitting in the back room."
Ratchet raised an eyebrow. He opened the tablet and noticed there were more rooms he could check, and he could use a flashlight! He found an old closet and shined the flashlight and saw old, withered animatronics. He jumped out of reaction.
"Uh, those are from the previous location. We just use them for parts now. The idea at first was to repair them...uh, they even started retrofitting them with some of the newer technology, but they were just so ugly, you know? The smell...uh, so the company decided to go in a whole new direction and make them super kid-friendly. Uh, those older ones shouldn't be able to walk around, but if they do, the whole Freddy head trick should work on them too, so, whatever."
Ratchet widened his eyes. He wasn't expecting withered robots visiting tonight!
"Uh...heh...I love those old characters. Did you ever see Foxy the pirate? Oh wait, hold on...oh yeah, Foxy. Uh, hey listen, that one was always a bit twitchy, uh...I'm not sure the Freddy head trick will work on Foxy, uh. If for some reason he activates during the night and you see him standing at the far end of the hall, just flash your light at him from time to time. Those older models would always get disoriented with bright lights. It would cause a system restart, or something. Uh, come to think of it, you might want to try that on any room where something undesirable might be. It might hold them in place for a few seconds. (That glitch?) might be in some of the newer models too."
"Clank!" Ratchet yelled.
Clank jumped out from under the desk. "Huh?"
"Shine the flashlight down the hallway!"
Clank obeyed and shined the light. Luckily, nothing was there. Ratchet sighed in relief.
"Is there something wrong?" Clank asked.
"This guy said that the Fox doesn't fall for the Freddy head, and we have to shine the light in his face to get him to go away."
Clank shined the light again, still nothing.
"One more thing - don't forget the music box. I'll be honest, I never liked that puppet thing. It was always...thinking, and it can go anywhere...I don't think a Freddy mask will fool it, so just don't forget the music box."
Ratchet gasped and checked the music box. Sure enough, he forgot to wind it. In fear, he hit the button to wind it as hard as he could.
"Anyway, I'm sure it won't be a problem. Uh, have a good night, and talk to you tomorrow."
Ratchet hung up the phone, taking deep breaths as he did so. He slouched in the chair and took a good look at the office he was sitting in. It was covered in children's drawings and had an old fan. Ratchet head some foot steps coming from the hallway.
"Do you hear that, Clank?"
Clank shined the flashlight down the hallway. Foxy wasn't there, instead there was a chicken with a bib that said "Let's party." It held a cupcake in its right hand.
"What...the...heck..." Ratchet rubbed his eyes to make sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. Clank saw it too. The poor little robot shook in fear. Ratchet threw on the Freddy mask and signaled for Clank to get under the table. He crossed his fingers and said to himself "please go away" over and over again.
The chicken eventually wandered off into the darkness. Ratchet removed the Freddy mask so he could wind the music box.
"This is not a fun game." Clank winned.
"I would agree. This is SO not worth a free space ship. I-I honestly could just b-build
one..." Ratchet nervously stated.
Clank spammed the flashlight a little more to make sure nobody was in the hallway. Luckily, nobody was there.
Ratchet heard an echo through the vents. "Hello" it said.
"What was that?" Ratchet panted.
"It sounds like a little boy." Clank suggested "It's coming from the vents." He ran over to the vents and punched the vent light. He was greeted with a human-like animatronic, which looked like a small boy. He wore a rainbow striped shirt with a matching helicopter hat. In one hand he held a "balloons" sign and in the other, balloons. Clank turned off the light very fast.
"Put the head on!" He yelled.
Ratchet threw on the head and Clank hid underneath the table. The animatronic eventually left, so Ratchet removed the mask.
"That was a close one." Ratchet breathed very hard.
Clank heard a pop goes the weasel tune coming from the hallway. "Uh Ratchet?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you by any chance wind the music box recently?"
Ratchet pulled out the tablet only to find the animatronic in the box wasn't there, and the box was wide open. Ratchet screamed.
"We're so DEAD, Clank." Ratchet screamed and hugged the tiny robot. "We are so going to DIE!"
As they were cowering, the clock stroked 6 AM, just in luck.
"We...made it." Clank said, clearly in disbelief.
"I...I guess we did." Ratchet smiled.
"So we coming back tomorrow?" Clank walked down to the exit of the building.
"Heck no!" Ratchet said as he followed Clank. "A new ship ain't worth it. We could just build one, there isn't a way I would EVER step foot in this haunted pizzeria AGAIN."
"Agreed." Clank high-fived Ratchet. "We make a pretty good team."
Ratchet laughed. "You know I wouldn't put my best pal out here and in danger. Let's just go get some food, I know a place."
Clank chuckled as they exited the pizzeria. As soon as they left the animatronics came back into the office to only find the fan left. They have been abandoned again...