I am Howler the Wolf. That was the first thing that ran through his mind when he woke up. He looked around, examining his surroundings. He was in a cold, dark, cement-floored room. It was quite small. There were shelves on the walls, and on them sat complex-looking mechanisms that he knew nothing about. Next to him was a pile of what looked like furry costumes that had fallen over.

Howler whimpered. He didn't know where he was, and he didn't know anything about himself other than the fact that his name was Howler the Wolf. His fear was a primal fear.

Then he heard voices, and realized he was not alone. He heard people(?) conversing beyond the walls of the room. He didn't understand most of what they were saying-the voices were muffled by the dense walls-but he could tell from the inflections that they were having a heated argument, whoever they were.

Howler didn't know whether to feel relieved or more terrified. He felt like he should take some kind of action. He was sitting, so he stood up. It wouldn't seem like much to anyone else, but to Howler it felt like he was lifting a two-ton weight. He had overwhelming thoughts of giving up right then and there. He didn't want to move anywhere, he wanted to curl up into a ball and cry, but he wasn't a baby. He didn't necessarily know what he actually was, but it wasn't a baby.

Howler trembled involuntarily as he moved forward. He noticed that with each step, metallic clinking noises came from within him. Another question he hoped he would soon answer.

He stopped at the old wooden door at the other end of the room. It had faded blue paint chipping off of it. He reached his hand out towards the doorknob, but froze. His hand was covered in grey fur. And it wasn't really a hand. It looked more like a paw.

What on Earth is this?! Howler thought frantically. He then remembered his name. Howler the Wolf. Of course he would have paws and fur, all wolves did, right? So why did this revelation come as such a shock to him? It was as though he wasn't supposed to be a wolf. Then what am I supposed to be? He didn't know, of course. He only knew his name.

#

"Gah! Give it back, you stupid rabbit!" Freddy yelled, grabbing at Bonnie. Bonnie smiled and tossed the top hat like a frisbee. It sailed through the air until Foxy jumped up and caught it with his hook. He landed on the floor and immediately broke into a mocking dance, spinning Freddy's hat around on his hook.

"Matey, ye won't be seein' much er this hat anytime soon," Foxy teased in his odd Pirate accent.

Freddy ran after Foxy, embarrassed. Before he reached Foxy, though, the pirate tossed it into the air again. This time Chica plucked it out of the air with her beak. She landed with her hands on her hips and her head cocked to the side. She grabbed the hat out of her mouth and looked at it curiously.

"Boy, this smells a lot like pizza!" She mocked. She slowly began to lift it to her beak again.

Freddy charged after her. "Don't you dare!" Again, before he reached Chica, it flew into the air. This time, though, a human hand grabbed it. It was Wanda, the night shift mechanic, instantly recognizable by her almost neon purple hair highlights.

"You guys need to stop messing around like this," She said assertively with the angry glare of a parent who found their five-year-old coloring on the wall.

Foxy's ears drooped and he looked down. Bonnie scratched the back of his head and looked away. Chica stepped forward with a smile on her face. "Aw, come on. We were giving him some excersise. Look at him, he needs it!" She joked.

Freddy's face turned red. "Hey!" He shouted. He stomped over to Wanda. She held out his hat, and he snatched it away. He stormed off, grumbling.

Wanda sighed. "You four are so immature."

"Oh, what do you expect? Can't we have fun? We're kids!" Chica retorted.

"That was years ago. You need to grow up, animatronics or not." She paused, then seemed to remember something, adding on, "And you need to leave the night guards alone. How many times have I had to tell you-"

Chica interrupted her. "How can we?! The night guard is the one who ki-..." Chica stopped. Foxy and Bonnie turned their heads and stared at her. "... Who caused this."

There were a few seconds of silence. "No, he's not. That guy left a long time ago. He doesn't work here anymore."

"Well... How do you know he won't come back?"

"Why, simply to risk getting arrested? Unlikely."

Chica huffed and stormed off in the opposite direction as Freddy.

Wanda looked hopelessly at the two remaining animatronics. Bonnie and Foxy looked back at Wanda with the same expression. Then they wandered off in opposite directions. Wanda sighed, and shuffled back to her office, conveniently located near the three spare parts rooms.

As Wanda rubbed her forehead and sipped a paper cup of coffee, Howler opened the door to the room he was in.

Howler was trembling with anxiety as he slowly pushed the door open. He looked down the hall on either end. On the other side of the hall from the door there was a pane of glass. Behind it sat a young woman with purple highlights in her brunette hair sipping coffee in a swivel seat.

Wanda looked up from her drink out the window, and almost choked on her coffee. Outside was another animatronic, poking his head out of one of the spare parts rooms. One she had never seen before. She coughed a few times and slammed her cup on the table. She shot up from her seat and almost tripped as she ran to the door, coffee dribbling down her chin.

She burst out of the door and stopped, closely examining the new character. He was clearly very shy, having all but gone back inside and locked the door when she ran outside. He had those tell-tale lines from two costume pieces touching on various parts of his body, so that confirmed this was not a real anthropomorphic white wolf. That was usually a good sign.

"Hello?" Wanda asked in her best calm voice.

"Hhhhhhh..." Howler tried to speak, but his voice box was barely functional. He was stuck on the letter H, and even that quickly dissolved into inaudible static.

He snapped his head forward and that seemed to unjam it somewhat. He managed to say hello, but it was buggy and still had very wavering quality. "Hhhh-h-hello."

Wanda felt pity for the wolf animatronic. It was scared, shy, and seemingly quite buggy.

"Who are you?" She asked calmly.

"Hh-howl-Howler." He replied.

"Okay. Why don't you follow me, Howler? You seem glitchy. I'll fix you." Wanda steeped forward, and Howler flinched. She stopped and held out her hand. Howler looked at the offered hand hesitantly.

"W-wh-whwhwhooo are yyou?" Howler asked.

"Oh, I'm Wanda. I'm the mechanic here. I can fix you." She replied peacefully.

"F-ffix?" Howler wasn't sure how a mechanic could help a wolf, but he didn't have any other option, so he shuffled out of the room and closed the door.

He stepped forward, but Howler found that his legs were very shaky. He couldn't make it stop. He took another step, and something in his leg let out an audible snapping sound. Howler collapsed and cried out in pain.

Wanda rushed over to him immediately. She kneeled next to him. "Hey, you'll be alright. Come on, I'll help you." She grabbed him under his arms like a doll and helped him to stand up again. Howler's left leg had gone totally limp.

"It's alright. Lean on me, my office is right there anyways," Wanda offered.

Howler nodded, but only leaned against Wanda's side as little as he could manage. Wanda could've told him he didn't have to, but she saw he was trying to be as nice as he could. It was kind of cute.

She could tell just from the small amount of weight he leaned against her with that this animatronic was unusually light. And that was only one of her questions.