Chapter 1: Desperation
Cold sweat trickling down his neck and his hands shaking, Miles 'Tails' Prower waited in the upstairs office of the Merry Mobian Diner. Tails was an eighteen year old fox with a unique genetic mutation giving him two tails instead of one. He had mostly yellow-orange fur with white fur around his muzzle, front torso, and the tips of his tails and blue eyes.
The noise of cheering children echoed faintly from downstairs and the only other sound was the typing of the assistant at her desk.
The two-tailed fox anxiously glanced at the large clock over the boss' assistant's desk. He was five minutes early for his meeting with the manager of this restaurant, his dad's business partner. Just because this guy worked with his dad for more than ten years didn't mean he'd hire the teenager on the spot, so Tails wanted to make a good first impression.
The cold pit of worry in his stomach continued to churn and twist until he was certain it'd burst out of him in a bloody mess.
A few days ago, his father had encouraged him to apply for this job. He was tired of his eighteen year old son just lounging around the house, doing nothing, not bringing any money in whereas his parents were working their asses off to pay their bills. The kitsune was on his last 20 dollars, even his mother was getting a bit frustrated in him, he needed a miracle if he didn't want to be on the streets.
He really, really needed this job.
The job his dad was pitching to him was for a technician to maintain and repair the restaurants systems during the night after all the children and other staff members left, ready for the next day. Since he majored in his mechanics and science classes and graduated college at the amazing age fifteen, his father assumed it would be the perfect job for him.
He had to admitted, it sound alright, he might actually like this job.
Tails had just thrown on his smartest suit he had grabbed from the back in his rotting closet. The dusty suit hadn't been washed or worn in a long while and it slightly smelled funny. He'd given his bright orange fur a quick wash and brush but it didn't help. He was surprised that his parents even let him out of the house dress like that.
He'd be amazed if anyone in their right mind would even think to hire him looking as rough as this, whether he's his business partner's son or not.
The time was getting closer. Tails had all of his fingers and toes, even his twin tails, crossed in utter desperation. This had to work, it had to. The door to the office suddenly opened and the kitsune immediately shot to his shaking feet. An old squirrel emerged from the dark office in a wheelchair. He greeted the nervous teen with a firm, yet gentle, handshake and led him into his office.
This was his father's business partner, Nigel Acorn.
Nigel was a brown squirrel with light blue eyes. He had two tones of brown fur, and auburn hair and eyebrows, starting to turn grey. He had a skinny frame from his old age as he slumped in his squeaky wheel chair.
"Ah, Miles Prower, we meet at last." He smiled as he rolled up to his desk.
"I-It's a pleasure, sir." He stammered as politely as possible.
"Come on in lad. Please, take a seat." He chuckled and Tails slowly slumped into the seat, trying to wipe off a few beads of sweat without the old squirrel noticing. Things seemed to be going well so far. "So, Miles, you're applying for the technician job?"
"Y-Yes sir" He replied, trying to speak as confidently as he could. "I um, I could really use the job, s-sir."
"That's the kind of attitude we want, when can you start?" Nigel smiled and Tails' mouth almost fell open. Had he just been given the job barely a minute into the interview?
"R-really…?" He asked, hardly daring to believe it.
"Of course!" He laughed. "I think you're just what we're looking for, and I'm not just giving it to you because you're my partner's son."
The kitsune had a hard time fighting the grin off his face while Nigel gave him a contract. A small part of him argued that this was too easy, that he'd barely asked him any questions. But he really needed this job. All it would take now was to sign this contract In his mind, he pleaded that it wasn't some sick joke the universe.
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
With a flourish, he signed his name and handed the contract back. Clapping his hands together heartily, Nigel leaned over the table and shook the teen's hand again.
"Welcome aboard Miles!"
"Th-thank you, sir!" He smiled. "But please, you can call me Tails."
"Of course Tails, now, you go on and wait outside. I'll get your uniform and give you a little lay of the land." He said and Tails nodded quickly and left the office.
It was all he could do to avoid fist pumping the air in triumph. Nigel emerged from his office moments later. He carried a plastic washing bag with some freshly washed clothes. They consisted of a blue shirt with the restaurant's logo on the back, black pants, a belt with a torch, keys, and a taser attached and a black cap.
"This'll be your uniform." He said and lifted up a red tool box. "These will be your tools to carry out your job and you can find any spare parts in the backstage and props room."
"Th-Thank you, sir."
"Eager to get started, eh?" He laughed. "That's the way! Come on, I'll show you where you'll be working."
Still revelling in utter relief, Tails closely followed him back into the elevator and downstairs. The main restaurant had pale red walls with purple and white floor tiles. There were children drawings all over the walls and directions to the main area and the bathrooms.
"It's an easy enough job. This here's your security monitor." He explained. "Just make sure that all the systems and machines are in working order before we open up again by morning."
"Um, right."
"Don't worry, Tails. This restaurant's not had a problem in years. You should be fine, probably be a bored night."
"Y-Yes, sir."
"Exactly. Now, a bit of fair warning: you shouldn't try and examine the animatronics until the day staff start to arrive."
"W-What?"
"Let me show you who I'm talking about." The squirrel said and he led Tails towards the main body of the restaurant.
The curtains had been shut and the ceiling lights had been dimmed to provide darkness for the show and the scent of freshly cooked fast food was making the teen's stomach rumble in hunger. Collections of excited, cheering children and teens all directing their attention at the brightly lit stage illuminated in the dark.
Moving a bit jerkily on it were three animatronic Mobians.
They all were hedgehogs. The center one was a blue hedgehog with a red guitar and a brown neck scarf. It was almost the spitting image of a real Mobian, however, it was made of a form of metal that behaved like flesh and fur. By comparison, the robot's body and quills had recesses and bolts along the lines of it's framework.
It also had gray metal where it's chest was, black shoulder and leg joints, and completely glowing light blue eyes with only slightly brighter irises.
Like Tails, it wore gloves and shoes with cuffs, both of which were made from some type of flexible, light gray metal. To the blue hedgehog's left was a green hedgehog with some large drums in front of it. It's quills ware shaggier than the other two hedgehogs. It wore a red vest, black spiked wristbands and an orange fanny-pack.
Its left ear was pierced with two small gold loop earrings in a kind of 'punk' style.
To the right of the stage was a pink/purple hedgehog with a silver keyboard in front of it. It had fuschia pink fur, pink hair in a style of curly spikes and a full fringes. It wore a small dress with a short dark purple skirt, and a dark pink like red sleeveless top. The two sections were separated by a golden belt that formed a pointed shape at the front with a small green circle in the center of the belt.
It wore long purple gloves that went up to the elbows.
These robots were designed to entertain the children with children songs and a few new hits that had been downloaded into them regularly.
"Hey there kids!" Called the blue hedgehog in a cheery tone. "You all having fun?"
The kids all cheered in response. Their parents seemed rather unsettled by the performers.
"Sick little dudes!" The green hedgehog laughed in a laid back, slacker, surfer voice. "We wouldn't be doing our jobs right if ya didn't!"
"And are you all enjoying the food?" Asked the other hedgehog in a gentle, sisterly voice and another cheer was raised. "Well, I sure am glad to hear that, we wouldn't want you kids going hungry!"
Most of the kids laughed and some of teens giggled. The parents and older teens largely rolled their eyes and Tails almost found himself laughing at the robots. But he wanted to continue making a good impression on Nigel, so he resisted. He knew their names already; the blue one was Sonic, the pink one was Sonia and the green one was Manic.
As they launched into another catchy little number for their audience, Nigel led him into another area of the building.
This was a reserved area for children's birthday parties. There wasn't a party on today so the room was dark, empty and silent. Tails found it a bit unnerving as he'd only ever been in that room during a party, where it was full of lights, kids running around, presents, food, music. There were a few tables, some banners, confetti and colourful balloons around.
At the other end of the room was a smaller stage than the one in the main room.
On it were two robots, a female cat and a male hedgehog. The hedgehog was a very light gray, almost white, colour with white fur on it's chest surrounding its neck. It has two large spines at the back of it's head, while at the front of it's forehead there were five distinct spines flared up and back, the two final ones covering up most of its ears.
It wore black boots, gold bracelets and a dark blue shirt.
The cat animatronic was lavender-furred and the tip of it's tail dark purple. It's fur was longer on each side of it's head and it swiped slightly upwards. It had four plumes of 'hair' done up in a high ponytail with dark purple tips. It wore a long purple flared mantle-like coat of sorts with a gold collar and white tights; the cuffs were fuzzy and white.
It's outfit was generally accented in pinks and reds, including it's high heeled shoes, hairband, coat trim, and a small gem on its forehead.
These animatronics were called Silver and Blaze. After showing him around the empty private party room, Nigel took him to the large room next door where Tails could hear loud music playing. The second they stepped inside, Tails flinched when he was suddenly blasted with blaring music and flashing lights. This room was more of a disco designed for the older kids and teens with a large, flashing dance floor, disco ball and giant speakers.
On a stage, behind a fake DJ setup, was another animatronic.
It was an animatronic bat with snowy white fur and endowed female features. It had large pointy ears on top of its head, small fangs poking out of its mouth, a short tail and a pair of medium sized black wings on it's back. Only it's head appeared to have white fur on its body. It's short white hair flared out at the back and it looked like it was designed with light blue eyeshadow, as well as bright pink lipstick.
It wore black, leather shorts, tall black boots with went up to its knees with hot pink soles, and a sparkling black and blossom pink sequin tube top.
This animatronic was called Rouge. When the dance room was closed, Rouge was at the prize counter, there to make the children laugh as the staff handed they their gifts. Some of the stuck up mothers weren't too pleased with their young children being exposed to 'mature' content, but there wasn't much they could do about it.
After having a look around, they then moved to their finally destination, the main entrance.
There stood another animatronic who was the main form of security. It, unlike all the others, was programmed into a criminal database so it could detect a child predator a mile away and if anyone attempted to steal something, this robot would raise the alarm. It also had a facial recognition software that allowed it to identify who comes in with who and makes sure any child leaves with that person.
This animatronic's name was Shadow.
It was a tall black hedgehog with crimson red stripes on its quills, around the edges of its eyes and on its arms and legs. He had patch of white fur on its chest and six quills on its head, four of which curve upwards, and two that curve downwards, two spines on its back and a small tail. It wore white gloves with black cuffs and red tongues with matching large shoes.
On each of its wrists and its ankles, it wore a single shiny gold ring.
In fact, now that he thought about it, Tails noticed that for some reason they all had those rings on them. It also wore a black hat and jacket that reminded Tails of what a security guard would wear. Unlike the others, however, there was something about this robot that made him nervous.
"Quite something, aren't they?" Nigel suddenly said, causing the kitsune to jump slightly.
"Y-Yes, sir." He agreed.
"Yes, indeed. The kids and families might be the life and soul of this place, but these robots are the ones they mostly come to see, they're the heart of the restaurant." He remarked wistfully. "That's what I'm trusting you and the rest of the staff with here, Tails, the heart of this place."
"Y-You mean… them?"
"I do." He nodded. "While most of your job will be to maintain all the buildings systems, it'll be your responsibility to make sure nothing happens to these robots while the doors are closed. Keep an eye on 'em, make sure they don't go anywhere and that nothing happens to 'em, if something did happen to them I don't think this place would survive."
Tails wanted to say something about that.
He wanted to say that they were just machines that could be replaced if something happened to them and that taking care of them would be nothing challenging. But the tone in Nigel's voice told him they had some value. Whether it was nostalgia or something to do with people forming attachments to things, he didn't know.
Either way, he nodded.
"I'll do my best, sir." He promised.
"It means a great deal to me to hear that from you, Tails, you father was right about you." Nigel smiled as he patted his shoulder. "Right, I'll let you get on your way. Your shift starts at ten, so make sure you're here sharp."
"Understood, sir."
"Good." He smiled before heading back up to his office.
Tails watched him go and looked at his uniform again. He grinned once more that he had a job again, now he might finally earn some money to get his parents off his back and it was a nice to work in friendly little place like this. Even if the robots were kind of freaky, especially that security one. But things were starting to look up for him.
A shiver suddenly went up his spine.
Looking around, he saw nothing. Just the kids, the parents, and the characters playing on stage. His eyes stopped travelling around the room and lingered on the lit up stage. He held them, blinked a couple of times, but brushed it off with a shrug. It was probably nothing, he thought to himself. Just seeing things, probably still had some nerves for that morning.
Even so, he could have sworn that, for a brief moment there, one of them wasn't looking out at the crowd...
