A/N: Thank you everyone who read this, favorite'd and followed, and my few reviewers! ^-^ Love you guys!
"Normal Talking"
"Walkie-Talkie/Phone"
'Thoughts'
"Robots Talking"
Mechanical Hearts
A few months passed, and Harry fell into a steady routine. Get to the Pizzeria by eleven-thirty, check in with Tom, get uniform on. Patrol. Greet BB and help him out. Visit Marionette and help out. Band Area for an hour or two (get hugged, multiple times, by Wesley and maybe-Chi-Chi). Visit Pirates Cove. Patrol Off-Limits Areas and Private Party Rooms. Sit in Security Office for last hour on Camera Check. Change out of uniform, say goodbye to robots (Getting a cupcake or slice of Pizza from Chi-Chi, and a goodbye-hug from Wesley). Leave, go home, eat, shower, and relax.
Rinse and Repeat.
Honestly, Harry was getting a little antsy, and wondered if he could pull a few extra shifts…
Of course, speak of the Devil and he shall come.
"Damn it!" Slughorn muttered, scowling as he waddled into the Security Office as Harry was getting ready to leave. Tom arched one elegant brown and leaned back in his chair.
"What's happened now, Horace?" He asked; Slughorn huffed, scowling darkly.
"That idiot boy, Michael Corner," Slughorn complained, rolling his gooseberry eyes in irritation. "He just quit in the middle of his shift last night! Didn't even stay all night, just up and left and now he won't even answer his phone. Landlord said he never even went back to his apartment last night, either! And one of the suits is missing! And, to make things worse, someone spilled paint or something in the Storage Room, I had to listen to the Morning Shift fret about it when I came in today. I swear, Tom, the world's gone mad," he complained, shaking his head and wagging one sausage-link finger at Tom. "I swear it! This is the seventh time this has happened, Tom! The Seventh! Now I have to try and find another Night Watchman, as well as file another report about the missing suit." Slughorn huffed and slumped a little, looking tired and irritated, and Harry cleared his throat uncertainly, catching the attention of both older men as he shifted next to his open locker.
"Erm, this is actually good news for me, sir," he started sheepishly, "because I was actually going to ask if I could take on an extra shift every so often, so, you know, I'll happily take the Night Shift tonight, if you'd like…?" Slughorn's face lit up, and Tom's smile glinted sharply in the light.
"An excellent idea, my boy!" Slughorn declared, beaming brightly at Harry, before gesturing at Tom cheerfully. "You'll give him a brief rundown, correct?" He asked; Tom, still smiling, inclined his head easily.
"Oh, of course, Horace," he replied; Harry had gotten used to the creepiness that was Tom, so he just ignored the weirdly bright red glint the lighting gave his eyes as the older Guard focused on him. "I'll be sure to tell him all he needs to know to survive the night." Slughorn chortled and waved goodbye, waddling away as Harry turned his full attention on Tom, arching a brow curiously. After all, he figured the place would be easier to Guard at night, considering the lack of children and their picky parents running around.
How hard could it be?
"The most important thing about Night Watch, which is the midnight-to-six shift, is that the Animatronics are on a sort of Roaming Mode," Tom told him, and, yeah, Harry could understand why that would be important. "And their Facial Recognition Software is powered down, which means that they will not recognize you." Harry's brain stalled.
"What?" He asked; Tom nodded, and Harry blanched slightly. He'd become rather familiar with the programming of the robots in the last couple of months. Their AI was limited, leaving them able to converse to a degree, but not very good at Problem Solving. The FRS was the programming that enabled them to tell the difference between children, adults, and robots. If it was turned off, than they wouldn't be able to tell anything apart, and their programming would dictate that anything moving around was a robot.
"I see you understand," Tom mentioned, smiling at him. "Don't worry, though," he soothed, teeth sharp in his smile. "More often than not, the worse that happens is a little rough handling. Sometimes, they get confused, and will try to put you in a suit, but, since the upgrade, most of the suits in storage no longer have the metal gears and wires inside, so, if they catch you and put you in one of the suits, the worse thing you experience is discomfort until Morning Shift comes in."
"Right," Harry managed, eyes wide as he swallowed. That wasn't, actually, comforting, considering Tom had said most of the suits were metal free.
"Now, on the Night Shift, you're not allowed to leave the Security Office, because outside here the robots will change their patterns, and its best to keep them to their routines," Tom lectured easily. "You'll have a flashlight, fully-charged, and you'll need to watch the Vents. Bon-Bon likes to try and sneak in through there, since he's the smallest. Oh, and the older models, here?" Tom showed the screen of the Storage Room, pointing to the mangled remains of what Harry remembered as the First Generation of Freddy's Band. "They tend to wander a bit too, so watch out for that. Anyways, the Chicas like to rattle around in the kitchen, and they'll come from down the hallway, as will both Freddys, Wesley, and Bonnie. BB will come in but the only thing he does is laugh. Unfortunately, he has a child's laughter, which will attract the others. Marionette only leaves his box if his music stops, and Foxxy won't leave the Cove if the camera eyes him every few minutes. If you see him in the Hallway, just flash your light at him a couple of times and he'll run away." With that, Tom got up and opened a nearby file cabinet while Harry just tried to process what he'd said. Tom pulled a strange contraption with an extra Freddy mask attached to it, and stuck it on the back of the chair.
"This is your Mask," Tom told Harry easily. "If one of the robots does manage to get in, flip that on over your head and they'll leave you be. It works on all of them but Marionette, so it's the safest measure to take, really. Unfortunately, due to the position of the mask and the computer, when you're wearing it you won't be able to check screens or rewind the music box, so you won't be able to wear it the whole time. Do you have any questions?" Harry stared dazedly for a few moments, blinking hard, and slowly shook his head; Tom's grin widened. "Excellent! I'm sure you'll do just fine, Harry." Tom patted him on the shoulder, and gently nudged him towards the hallway. "Off you go! You'll need your rest for the night. See you tomorrow, Harry!" He called as, dazedly, Harry wandered away.
Harry was distracted as he accepted Chi-Chi's customary goodbye-cupcake, and Wesley's affectionate goodbye-hug. He'd been working with these animatronics for months, had gotten used to their incredibly individual, affectionate personalities. And tonight, they wouldn't know him, wouldn't see Harry, just a naked robot that needed to be put in a suit, which may-or-may-not kill him. There would be no Wesley hug, no Chi-Chi playfulness, and no Fred's maybe-threats in his heaviest mobster voice. No Bon-Bon getting easily embarrassed or Marionette trying to get him to dance. No laughter from BB.
They'd just be blank, programmed machines, haunting the restaurant and stalking noises at night, like his old janitor's creepy cat, Mrs. Norris.
If he survived the night, Harry wondered if he'd be able to look into their friendly, clueless faces the next day and not flinch.
"…Only one way to find out," he muttered, pushing his apartment door open and going inside. He needed to sleep before he had to go in.
He doubted it would be restful.
~(Line Break)~
The purple Night Watch uniform was a little tight in the shoulders, but Harry could deal with it. Letting himself into the Pizzeria, Harry made his way quickly to the Security Office, glancing on the clock to see that he was ten minutes early. Shrugging, he went ahead and clocked in, and dropped into the wheelie chair. Flicking through the cameras, he eyed the animatronics silently. At midnight, he knew, their Roaming Mode would Activate, allowing them to move about the restaurant.
Just before midnight, the phone rang, making Harry jump. With a huff, he reached over and hit the speaker button, wanting his hands free just in case.
"Hello? Harry, this is Tom," the older guard's voice greeted easily. "I recorded this message and set it on a timer earlier today. Listen, Horace hasn't been able to find anyone to take over Night Watch for the next work week, and he was hoping you'd take it. It's only five days, so it shouldn't be that hard."
"Of course not," Harry muttered, flicking through the cameras carefully.
"Hey, just think about that paycheck, right?" Tom teased, and Harry snorted, eying the band members on camera when he noticed Bon-Bon's ear twitch. "Alright, so I've managed to get you a couple of old Introductory Recordings for the Night Watch position, made by one of the first Night Guards, Ollivander. He disappeared years ago, but he was an excellent Guard… Anyways, I've preset them to play for you. See you at six o'clock!" The message beeped, and, immediately after, a new one started with a click.
"Hello? Hello, hello?" a new, older voice started, sounding weirdly airy and soft. "Well, I do hope you're hearing this. I wanted to record a message for you, to help you settle into your first night. I used to work in that office, you know!"
"Uh-huh," Harry muttered, flicking through the views for the vents, pausing to quickly rewind Marionettes box.
"I'm finishing up my last week at the moment, which is what gave me the idea to do this. Now, let's focus on getting you ready, shall we?" There was a sound of rustling pages, and Harry twitched as he noticed Bon-Bon had left the stage while he hadn't been looking. Flicking through the views, he quickly found him in one of the party rooms. His pounding heart had drowned out most of the legal statement Ollivander read, something about not being covered if he got horribly maimed or injured?
"…But don't worry, lad! I just know you're destined for great things here. After all, this old pizzeria is known for great things. Some terrible, yes, but still great."
"Come on, hurry up," Harry hissed, flicking through the screens again. Bon-Bon was the only one who had left so far and, from the looks of it, he was perfectly content with just staring at the camera in the Party Room, smiling.
"Now, the Animatronics do tend to wander about at night, when their Roaming Mode is activated, but they are fairly predictable. The only thing you should be concerned with is the fact that their Facial Recognition Software will be offline. So, they will think you are an endoskeleton, and will attempt to put you in a suit, as it is against the rules to be out of one… Considering most of our suits are filled with metal and wires, you can see why this is a bad thing, yes?"
"No bloody way," Harry muttered sarcastically, shoulders tensing uncomfortably as a quickly move through the screens showed that Chi-Chi was gone now, and that Bon-Bon was missing. Quickly, he leaned away from the screen and flashed his light down the hallway, and paled at the sight of a black-eyed Chi-Chi, her beak gone in order to show off a black, smiling hole, metal teeth gleaming. "Holy fuck," he breathed, flashing the light a few times until she wandered away. A flick of the vent lights showed nothing, but Harry found Bon-Bon on the vent cameras just before he had to wind the Marionettes box again. By now, he was sweating heavily, nervously twitching as his eyes darted over screens and Ollivander's unhelpful, breezy voice chatted on over the phone speaker.
"Monday night's are always easiest, because those are the lest busy time of the week," Ollivander continued. "So the only animatronics' that should be moving about are Chi-Chi and Bon-Bon. Their elder siblings, Chica and Bonnie, might move as well, but as they are, it will take them a few days to work up enough mobility to leave storage, so no worries, lad!" Harry flicked on a vent light, and yipped as he found Bon-Bon's grinning face staring out at him. Without a thought, he leaned back and snapped down the bear mask, watching with trepidation as, in the dim lighting, the blue bunny crawled out of the vent and walked closer. It stared at Harry for a moment, green eyes uncomprehending, before turning and running down a hallway when the faint noise of pots being banging in the kitchen was heard. Letting out a slow breath, Harry lifted the mask, flicked on all the lights for a minute, then went through the cameras.
"Anyways, I hope you enjoy your first night here at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza! I'll see you at six AM, alright? Goodnight!" There was a click as the message finally ended, and Harry let out a shaky breath as he eyed Freddy on stage.
It was going to be a long night…
A/N: Here you go, long awaited chapter, ta-da! And Harry's Five Nights at Freddy's begins!
Whoot!
