Chapter 3: Rude Awakening

Tails' brain was aching as he slowly returned from the land of the living. All around him he could hear what sounded like hushed whispers. He opened one of his eyes just a fraction before shutting it tightly. There was a bright light shining down on his face, blinding him. Everything was a daze. He had no idea where he was.

Groaning, he touched his forehead.

His fur was drenched in sweat, as was most of his body. It was soaking through his uniform. He felt his torch and keys still in his belt, and that's when he remembered that he'd been at the restaurant, but what he couldn't understand was why he wasn't dead. Apart from feeling a little groggy, everything felt fine.

Had that just been a nightmare?

That must have been what happened. It had felt so real though. He slowly opened his eyes again and allowed them to adjusted to the light. His heart stopped again. The hushed whispers went silent as they stared at him. Three spiked heads were looking down at him with glowing eyes staring at him. Instead of all blue eyes, their iris had changed.

Now a pair of gold, brown and emerald eyes stared down at him

"Hey guys!" One of them suddenly shouted.

Heavy footsteps were coming their way. It sounded like they were running towards him. He vision was suddenly blocked by more heads with two pairs of blue eyes and a pair of gold ones.

"Guys, give him space!" A female voice called.

Just then the lights dimmed, allowing his to see them properly. The fox teen's high pitched scream must have shattered the glass of the arcade machines when he saw it was all the animatronics looking at him. He jumped off the table he was lying one and scrambled back and curled up in the corner as they watched him, the pink hedgehog carrying something behind her back.

"NO!" He screamed as he hid behind his arms. "Please don't! I'm so young! Don't hurt me!"

Seconds later, something damp and cool was placed against his exposed forehead and he stiffed at the contact. Whatever was holding it just stood there, not moving or saying a word.

"Now, how about you stand up so I can get a proper look at you?" The same female voice asked softly.

He stopped shaking. It didn't sound evil. It sounded friendly. Slowly, he lowered his arms and stared. All the animatronics were staring back at him with concern and slight amusement. Well, all but one. The Shadow robot was sending daggers at him.

"Nice to see you back in the land of the living." Manic laughed.

"We didn't mean to scare you buddy, but you were freaking us out!"

"Yeah, we didn't expect you to almost have a stroke!" Silver exclaimed.

"I scared you?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, a lot! We don't have much in so this will have to do." Sonia frowned.

Blaze then placed a kids meal and a cup full of fizzy soda on the floor in front of him and they all backed up to give him space. Tails was in shock. The robots continued to stare at him, wondering what he was going to do.

"Y-You're not gonna kill me?"

"Kill you?" Sonia gasped in horror.

"You s-s-stalked me!"

"No, that was you!" Blaze glared. "This is our home and we've never seen you before and we feared the worst."

"You attacked me!"

"Okay, maybe Shadow overdid it a bit-"

"'Maybe?!'"

"Look, we're sorry, so can we start again?" Sonic said.

Tails wanted to keep on yelling, to keep the argument going, but the way they looked at him now, their eyes shimmering like that, he just couldn't stay mad at them.

"Fine." He sighed.

"Well, how about we introduce ourselves properly then?" Sonia laughed nervously. "My name's Sonia and those two are my brothers, Sonic and Manic."

"Nice to meet you buddy." Sonic smiled. "The girls are Rouge and Blaze, the shy one's Silver and the grouch over there's Shadow." He laughed.

"H-Hey... m-my name's Tails!"

"'Tails'? Ya must of had some weird parents." Manic shrugged.

"Leave him alone." Rouge hissed before smiling at the fox. "Welcome to the Merry Mobian Diner, Tails, and your a very brave kid for not bolting out the door in the first five minutes."

"Yeah, once they find out we're alive, they're off into the night." Silver sighed.

"I wonder why." Shadow muttered.

Tails had to admit that if he'd known about their free roaming mode at night thing sooner, he'd have followed in his predecessor's footsteps. The only reason he hadn't left was because he'd fainted and they were surrounding. Still, so far, he was still alive and they didn't seem evil. At least he had someone to talk to now.

"H-How are you even alive?" He gulped.

"That's kind of hard to explain." Blaze said a bit sheepishly.

"Can we come back to that one another time?" Rouge quickly said

"Why didn't Nigel tell me about this?"

"He doesn't know, nobody does because they don't believe the other guys in your job when they try and tell them, ever since Shads came and they got rid of the night guards, they've kept the cameras off so there's no evidence." Sonic shrugged.

Tails wanted to ask more questions, but a suddenly grumble from his stomach made him freeze. He looked up and saw Manic and Sonic holding in laughs as the girls sent them both glares. Very slowly, he reached forward and pulled the kid's meal and drink towards him and began to eat.

"Better?" Silver asked when he was finished.

"Yeah." He replied glumly.

"We're not gonna do anything to hurt you, promise." Blaze added

"R-Really…?"

"Yeah." Manic grinned.

"So, how about I show you around?" Sonic offered as he extended his hand to help the fox up.

"Uh, sure." He agreed as the hedgehog pulled him up. "I mean, I've seen some stuff of it on the monitors."

"That's nothing." He grinned as he began to lead the fox away. The others watched them for a moment before heading off to do their own thing...

"Welcome again to the Merry Mobian Diner. Built in 1979, it was the dream of a man to entertain and delight young children and families from all over the world." Sonic smiled. "Then, in 1983, the original owner died and a guy called Nigel Acorn took charge of the restaurant, and with a... friend, and he's the one who made us; now, on your left we have the storage closet and there's the break room..."

Tails simply listened and followed Sonic around the restaurant. Even though he already knew the lay out of the building, he didn't want to say anything incase he offended the animatronics and then they'd do something to him. He saw Rouge and Shadow just hanging out by the prize counter and he could hear the sound of pots and pans clanging around behind the doors in the kitchen so he guest one or more of them were in there.

After the tour, they circled back to the security room.

"That's all you need to know about this place." He smiled. "Any other questions?"

"I think I'm alright." He smiled weakly before checking his watch. "6:45, huh, time sure does fly." He shrugged.

"Is that the time?!" Sonic cried. "The staff and the doors open soon! I gotta get ready!"

Within seconds, he was speeding down the halls and out of sight. Tails silently watched him go and heard the faint sounds of the others talking in low whispered before he left the restaurant. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. That was just night one, and he'd barely made it through without having a stroke.

Just what the hell did the rest of the week have in store for him?...