(Refer to profile page for next few uploads in December, otherwise I feel guilty not telling you when I am going to do so, much appreciated.)

Chapter 47- Anxiety

Far, far in the ring, where the daylight was slowly creeping up to remind them of today's event, many contestants had awoken, mostly with either fear or pride, knowing that they will fight in front of thousands that will be watching under the rule of the ring leader, which they were all eager and excited to see, as they were all anxious of the unknown identity. One of those teams were still coming around, and of that single team, only one member was currently waking up as he felt his sensors coming online, as well as his thoughts coming in through his head, which was starting to hurt as he felt the irritating sunlight play along his eyes. The light didn't shy away however, and still stayed there until the animatronic was forced awake, causing him to be highly annoyed at the sunlight shining through his furred eye coverings, blinking lazily as the first thought entered his CPU.

Urrrgggghhh … so TIRED. Geez, what is today anyway?

Cranking his head and turning it so that he could feel it move smoothly with no cracks or creaks, Freddy shook his head as he stood up from the floor, which was what he was sleeping on, taking a small look around to make sure that he wasn't dreaming, which, unfortunately, he wasn't. His other friends were taking naps, scattered throughout the room, with Bonnie sleeping, BonBon resting her head in his lap as the purple rabbit had slept sitting up, his once-velvety ears draping over his head as the couple slept on the other side of the room that the brown bear was on, and to their left was Fred, Chic, and Chica sleeping separately, yet the dark brown bear sighed with sadness as he saw Chic's beak once again unattached. Finally, when he looked to his own left, a small sight made him crack a smile and a grin. Mangle was sleeping with BB in her arms, and Goldie had dozed off near her, probably to make sure that she was ok, and maybe to make a move on her, but failed when sleep overtook him, making him chuckle, until he noticed some in the center, their gear was there. Blinking away the sleepiness from his eyes, he trundled to the pile, and picked out his weapons and his coverings, snorting when he saw that the small shield that he carried with his left arm had a splinter that went into his fur, so he pulled it out, but almost yelled out in rage when he saw that it tore a small hole in his arm, but he didn't want to face the anger by his sleepy friends, who would usually be cranky, so he was quiet and finished putting on his gear.

When he was done, he placed his large heavy sword to lean against the wall as he then sat down, once again pondering how in the world they got here, especially with the ill omens that started to form around his mind as he remembered the events. He looked to the sleeping forms of his friends as if he was seeking an answer from them, but he only received snores and some more sleeping as they kept dozing on. What did they do to deserve such a fate, to be driven out of their home, their place, their dignity, to be kidnapped by that mysterious wolf, Mikhail the Red, who gave them to this ring business, where they would have to fight soon? This made him place his head in his hands as he groaned at the event, but then his head came back up alarmed when he realized that he had lost track of the day of the competition, and started to count his fingers.

When he finished calculating the day of it, he slowly dropped a greatly shaking hand as he realized that it was today, making him scared and frightened at the possibility of fighting, but then decided to wake up his friends to remind them of it, so they might be able to at least practice for a little more, yet he still gulped and prayed to himself that they wouldn't be too angry at him for disturbing them.

Taking his sword off of the wall, he inched closer and closer to his brother Goldie, using the handle of it the blade to prod the sleeping bear awake, where he would hopefully be safe from harm if he awoke being cranky. To take another step of precaution, he tried to whisper as loudly as he could, hoping that he would be able to wake him up in a good mood.

"Pssst- Goldie, wake up!"

When the golden bear didn't stir, Freddy took another risk, and prodded harder with the handle, as well as increasing his volume.

"Pssst- Goldie, come on, wake up! This is important!"

He only received some muffled grumbling, before Goldie shifted away from the quivering handle, which Freddy was starting to lose his grip on, since it was pretty heavy, but thankfully pulled it backed to put on the floor as he regained back some strength. Sure, a heavy wooden handle could wake just about anything, including animatronics like Goldie, but the brown bear preferred to wake him up using the I-Plan-To-Still-Be-Alive technique, instead of the I'm-Signing-My-Death-Warrant technique.

Grunting, he hefted up the sword by the blade once more, but as he was carefully getting the handle closer and closer to Goldie's hand, the metal slipped from his hands, yet he did not know it until he started to speak in a louder voice as he saw it accidentally hit the eye.

"Goldie, come on! Wake-"

Thunk.

Goldie's eyes immediately snap open to look at Freddy, who started to trail off as he was finishing his sentence.

"Up …"

"Oh, you are in SO much trouble, Freddy."

Backing away from the slowly rising bear, so as to not wake up the sleeping vixen with the boy animatronic near him, Freddy silently held out his hands, waving them to show that he had a good reason, whispering quickly yet harshly.

"Wait, wait! I just came to wake you up to tell you about the competition!"

Goldie snorted and crossed his arms, yet he still wasn't convinced that what Freddy had just done to his eye wasn't an accident, not that it wasn't damaged in anyway, it was just stinging slightly.

"Yeah, what about it? You better have a good reason to wake me up then."

"The fight is today."

Silence.

"WHAT?!"

"Don't you remember? Today is the day!"

"But, I thought that it was … oh, damn it, you're right!"

Groaning, Bonnie was slightly awoken by the chatter, so he carefully moved BonBon off of him before he went to the two standing bears.

"What is it with that goddamn racket?"

The rabbit was surprised when Goldie hauled him up, slight panic in his voice as he spoke.

"Quickly, wake up the others, we must train before the event starts, it's today!"

When he was only answered with an open-mouthed and obviously shocked face, Goldie grabbed the rabbit and shook him - hard - until Bonnie snapped out of the trance and helped Freddy to wake up the others. The first ones to be woken up were Chica and Chic, who weren't exactly the spring chickens that were eager to wake up.

"Hey! Watch it, pal! I got to sleep, and don't think you can boss me around like that newt … Zzzzz …"

"Ugh, what is it- MY BEAK! MY F-CKING BEAK! YOU BASTARD! You're going to pay for what you did to it!"

Both Freddy and Bonnie had to raise their hands to protect themselves against the angry female, which conveniently woke up the other members as they heard the commotion, and it was quite a brutal one too.

"OUCH! Wait, Chic, calm down for a moment, it wasn't us!"

"Seriously Chic, it just fell off!"

"Fine, but don't think I'll let it go this easily next time!"

Groaning at the marks that she had dealt them, both Bonnie and Freddy sat down as Fred took over when Goldie filled him in, making his voice serious as he addressed them about the situation.

"Alright, listen everyone, today is the competition."

After he patiently waited for the shouts and remarks of shock to subside, he then continued his, and his brothers' speech.

"Since it is today, it looks like now is the last time we can practice, so let's start."

"How? We're barely good at weaponry anyway, and we haven't been doing much of it as well!"

"Relax, Mangle, we'll all be fine, we're the most deadly with weaponry out of all of the other contestants, mark my words!"

Chuckling, Goldie wrapped an arm around the vixen, who only rolled her eyes but let it stay there as he spoke soothingly.

"Don't worry, my sweetheart, with me, nothing can harm us, especially for BB!"

"Alright, but Fred is right, we're the strongest team!"

"Yeah!"

"Definitely!"

"Let's go beat up some weaklings!"

"Like Foxy was?"

"Hell yeah, you bet!"

Riled up by their own encouragement, the nine team members placed their hands together in the middle, including BB's own tiny one, before they all counted to three, and raised them all up as a sign of strength as they called out their team name, as well as their own little chant.

"The Fazbear Gang! The best team and the strongest of them all!"

When they parted their hands, they immediately set up their gear to prepare for the upcoming fight, with Chic hefting her light spear while strapping on her small shield to her left arm, while Chica was brave enough to put on the wearable seat of claws, gripping it tightly as she imagined herself slashing through waves and waves of enemies, filling her with confidence, while BonBon was testing out her flail to see if it still worked by swinging it around, causing a small whistle to be heard as the spiked comet orbited around the wooden shaft. Mangle tested her own cutlass by pulling it out, watching how the light curved around the smooth edge of the blade, where it dipped noticeable in the notch near the tip, which was razor sharp, yet she still sighed, knowing that she only chose the curved sword because it reminded her deeply of Foxy, before she ruefully sheathed it.

How she wished that she could stand beside the dark red fox once more, with both of them laughing with pure enjoyment, like the days before, which were probably years old, according to her memory, and perhaps Foxy would have been a good father for BB, as he was always playful and fun to be around, not strict or demanding loyalty like Goldie. Shaking her head to clear herself of those distracting thoughts, she concentrated more on her adopted son, who was waving the dagger around dangerously, making sure that he knew that he was only supposed to use it if he absolutely had to, as she didn't want him to become traumatized by the highly possible deaths that would come up.

Meanwhile, Goldie was trying his best to polish up the blade he took as best as he could, using sand to rub out any dried dirt, while trying to make himself look presentable, occasionally changing the position of his hat to make sure that it stayed on, which was the same thing his brothers were doing, and they had a good joke about it whenever one of them had their hat drop on the floor. However, he was also confident that they would overall win, as he and his brothers were the strongest that he knew, and no one could defeat them, no one, making him smirk as he finished, and held it in his right hand, causing him to frown as he felt the grit of the worn-out leather, wishing that they could get something nicer.

Like the golden bear, Freddy and Bonnie finished their preparation in a similar manner, also wishing that they could get something that looked better, while Fred was trying to make the hammer as smooth as possible, trying to make it look good, and since it was double-headed, that only gave him twice the work, making him grunt as he rubbed it into the sand. When he was done with it, he hefted it to make sure that it was still heavy enough to smash anyone's skull, and was satisfied; trying out different positions in ways that he thought would look the best whenever he was finishing someone.

Just when they were about to start practicing the use of their own weapons, they heard the door open, and The Fazbear Gang turned around to see the same newt that trained them leaning by the doorway, giving them a cold glare of disdain at their poor attempt to ready themselves, before he coughed out yet another blob of slime that formed in his throat, saying,

"Your team, and everyone else's, are to report to the western tunnel, now. Don't be late."

With that, he slunk away, where he nodded to his own team that waited for him, yet when he saw the nine animatronics hesitating, he decided to use a little edge.

"Oh, and if you don't, the ring master won't be happy about it."

"So, it's starting?"

"Yes, now move it!"

That brought all of them marching with the newt's team as they all anxiously gripped their weapons as they walked down the tunnel, their feet shifting the sand as it was kicked forward, slowly progressing to the far entrance that led to the center of the ring, raising some of the team's curiosity.

Focusing their hearing, they could start to hear some signs of a crowd, which included loud yelling, screaming, and cheering that echoed throughout the entire area, especially in the tunnels, and all of the animatronics had to face the sounds that barreled towards them, only adding to their nervousness. Each of them gripped their weapon tighter as they started to sweat off coolant, which rushed to cool down the overheating parts that were caused by panic and worry as they heard the noises become louder, and louder, and still louder as they were forced to walk forward by themselves.

WOOOOO! Bring on the FIGHTERS!

I want to see BLOOD AND OIL SPILLED!

BETS! PLACE YOUR BETS HERE! Bet who will win, bet who will die, place your bets here! Cash only, beat it you credit and plastic people!

Some of the teams that were next to Freddy's varied in their reactions, from cheering, to shouting in glee, to sobbing, or praying for survival, to those even confused, still not knowing what was happening, even though many of them did on the contrary as they went further, and further, and closer, and closer the to mouth of the tunnel, as if the beast was regurgitating its contents to the outside, where the vultures would swoop in on them, which were the spectators cries as they started to see the hints of the first team, which wasn't too far, in fact, it was a team right in front of The Fazbear Gang. Mangle hugged BB tightly as the roar increased, Chica and Chic held each other's hand tightly, BonBon nervously fidgeted beside Bonnie, who was trying to control the shaking of his sword hand, and the Freddys prepared their weapons ready, yet all of them had the same idea in their mind.

What had they just gotten forced into?

Hissss …

"Ahhh … thank ye very much, now, we all know what we are te do once this starts?"

Patting the armor suit that Foxy wore to make sure that it was tight and secure, Mikhail nodded as he helped to finish setting up his friend, yet to do detailed work while wearing an elaborate outfit such as his, which he already put on, proved to not be that easy, compared to the simpler design of the fox's gear. While touching up on his own gear, he asked Lana for some assistance, which she did, by making sure that the elephant tusk that jutted out of his right shoulder stayed there, since it occasionally slipped, but he did wince as she tightened the straps that held it a bit too tight, yet he still nodded to show his thanks, which she returned, before she went back to her help friends Scarlet and Diamond with their own gear.

Slipping on the chain mail over herself carefully, the black and white vixen made sure not to get her tail caught in it, and with some help from Diamond, they moved it so that it stuck out from a specially made hole on her backside so that it showed, complete with its signature white tip against the black fur, which was the only light-colored part on her body. She also prepared to hone her dirks, and she carried about six of them at all times, two in her hands hidden in her sleeves, two strapped across her chest in a small belt, and two more wrapped around her legs, just about the right length where her arms could simply reach downward, making it a position comfortable enough to draw them out quickly. However, she didn't like how she felt in the mail, so she then slipped on her golden-colored chest plate, which she polished herself, and grinned proudly at the shiny surface, and was comfortable when she felt it press and accent more to her shape, yet her chest down was still covered by the chain mail, giving her a more secure feeling.

Just in case if it was rusted or corroded, she moved around in a bit, checking to see if any links were stiff or if any were broken, yet they still lasted, making her smile, and kept walking around in it until Diamond called out, speaking her own opinion about her friend's walking around, just as the vixen had paused for a moment, and was almost done putting on her leg coverings.

"Hey, Lana, this isn't a fashion show in here, you'll get to do it when you walk with me and Scarlet into the arena to greet and introduce ourselves to the new teams!"

"Yes, yes, I'm just checking to see if everything is in order."

"Is it?"

"It is well, yes, how about you?"

"Let me check."

Shuffling around some of her gear to look for the right parts to start with first, the cheetah decided to start with her main, biggest piece, which was her chest plate, so she slipped it on, like Lana, checking to see if it showed her shoulders and upper arms, which it did, before she started on her next pieces, picking up her leather sleeves, pulling it over tightly like a second skin over her spotted arms. Finally, she equipped her leg coverings, careful to make sure that the backwards-curved blades won't damage her, and strapped one pike onto her left arm while she simply carried the other one in her right hand, feeling the sand sift underneath her, which was quite a nice feeling.

"Yeah, I'm good, better than ever like always, and still hot!"

Rolling her eyes at her friend's self-compliment, Lana helped Diamond with Scarlet's gear, who had requested help, her voice definitely saying that she did.

"Hey, girls, can anyone give me a little assistance over here? I can't do this by myself; it's a little difficult when you're tying a corset with yourself facing the wrong side."

Tapping her chin, the cheetah fingered the laces that tied together the metal shell that covered the top half of Scarlet's chest, weaving the strings through the holes, using them as guides, until she was finally able to finish it all off with a neat little bow in the middle of the web of cords, which was covered by the crimson vixen's cape, draping over it. Both Lana and Diamond made sure that Scarlet looked it tip-top shape, so they both criticized her as they viewed her.

"Nah, doesn't look like perfect, still needs something."

"She didn't even finish putting on all of her gear. Give her time, Diamond."

"Alright, alright, let's see her with gear first then."

Rolling her eyes while giving a small huff of amusement, Scarlet attached her leg coverings, making sure that they were facing the right way, showing her thin calves, and finished putting on the tops for her feet, also making sure that the tips of her toes were showing through the empty slots, before she then decided to have a little joke with her friends. Standing up now so that the other females could see her fully ready, she said,

"You know what one thing we have in common is?"

"What?"

"We don't have the bottoms of our feet covered!"

"Course we don't, why would we have covered feet in hot sand?"

"Bleh, oh come on, that was just a joke, Diamond."

"Oh! Good one then, Scarlet."

"Thank you Lana, see? She has good taste."

This caused the trio of girls to share a laugh, and both Diamond and Lana were convinced that Scarlet looked simply amazing in her gear, just like themselves, before all three of them turned around when they heard a very familiar voice call them over.

"Hey, girls, 'ow do I look with me gear? Like a regular ol' swashbuckler, I'd say, what d'ye think, me lassies?"

As soon as they took a look, or rather, a very long stare at him, they couldn't help by being both impressed and frozen at whom, or what was in front of them. All three of the Angel's Devils could feel their heads heating up as they realized that they were examining Foxy too long, but then again, nothing couldn't really stop them, as they couldn't help to further see how the vulpine looked, now that he was finished putting on his gear. Even though it was the same gear and same stuff he used all of those years ago, it still made quite a great impression on those who first meet him wearing it.

Foxy had a fine set of strong, lean arms that were seemingly almost chiseled by the rims of muscle that were in it, though thankfully it wasn't too much, yet just enough to make the clear sign that he was muscular and possessed great strength, leading to his chest, sturdy and proportional, leading to his trimmed, flat stomach. His legs were of similar build to his arms, except they looked slightly thicker in the upper half, complete with his eye patch, shining from a recent polishing, as well as his fabled sword that he held in his right hand, while he was using his left hand to currently wave in front of the female's faces.

"'Ey, hello there my mates? Ahoy there, Foxy in front of ye? Ye remember yer positions when we start the competition? AHOY!"

Shaking their heads, the three girls rolled their eyes and chided themselves for looking too long at the fox, which they apologized for, yet he waved his hand absentmindedly to show that he didn't mind it.

"Don't ye worry, with ye three as me best friends, with one of them-"

He gently picked up Scarlet's hand towards him, which he kissed on her wrist, to which she blushed and smiled at.

"- as me partner, and if you and Mikhail did something that a fan might do, it's no trouble with anything, because yer all so dear to me, not to mention that you all and I know what it's like, so I know that you wouldn't do it on purpose."

However, he wasn't able to say anything else to the trio as he then realized that it was almost time to start, which he saw on the clock that was attached to the right wall of the tunnel, and quickly instructed Mikhail on his job, which the red and black wolf nodded vigorously as he could feel himself become more and more nervous with each detail the fox told him.

"Go up te the podium, greet and wave te the crowd fer effect, and get ready te roll down the banner that I put next to ye, when I signal ye. When that is done, ye must stick around to see if anyone is doing or going to do any foul play te prevent thee event from going bad, do you understand me? Good, ye must also be sure that no one gets inside the room that ye are in, otherwise, if there are some scum who do, armed, there will be a retractable blast shell on your right side, all you have to do is pull it, or just fight them and subdue them if you can until after today."

"Got it."

"Good, now hurry, it's almost starting, go!"

"Da ser. Yes sir."

Sliding in his hatchet and ax into their respectful positions, Mikhail quickly went through the doors that led inside the lounge room where Foxy, Lana, Scarlet, and Diamond usually met when they woke up in the morning, remembering the hallway path to Foxy's and Scarlet's room, and when he got there, he immediately went towards the podium that stretched out to the rim of the arena, and he could see his friends in the eastern tunnel on his right, while seeing the agitated new teams of the competition on his left in the western tunnel. When he took a moment to focus to see who was first, he could see a newt, a pair of wolves, and a pair of exact copies of bulls, sneering at the thought of them attacking his friends, but then saw them calm and relaxed, so that made him conclude that they were also an old team, as were the rest in the tunnel, so they had experience, making him nod with approval at them, which they obviously didn't catch.

When he paid attention to the real world however, once he got out of his trance, he realized that the noises were now much quieter, except some whispers that blew in and out of spectator's mouths as some were even pointing towards him in the podium, and he was able to catch quite a few of those remarks.

"Is that the ring master? Dang! He certainly looks cut out for it; look at what he's wearing!"

"What is that thing protruding from his right shoulder? Oh, damn, is that an elephant's trunk?! Sick!"

"He doesn't look that tough, doubt that he could hold the position much longer."

The red and black wolf that heard this chuckled darkly, knowing that all of those statements were false, well, minus the second one he heard, as he knew who the ring master was, and he was strong enough to hold his position, probably forever, given the time. He knew that he himself wasn't the ring master, but they didn't know however, and that only made things much more excitable. However, his eyes then started to slant with anger as he started to see some faces in the crowd, and they were not faces of metal, instead, they were the faces of flesh, of humans.

Apparently, news of the business in the ring had gone out by some rich animatronics going to there, becoming impressed by what was going on, and most likely alerted their friends or contacts to come and see the large potential that the arena had to bring. All of the humans that came were ranging from the curious or astonished scientist-slash-engineer that wanted more than just a look at the fighting animatronics, from politicians that could benefit from the use of them to make leverage for themselves to get further gain, to the military men and officials that were examining the fighters with obvious interest, making Mikhail scowl. He knew from personal experience that men like those did not care for the sake of the animatronics, only for themselves, as they believed that they were the only good people that existed on Earth, and that they were allowed to simply control anything that they chose, such as the animatronics, and he could feel more coolant flowing in his veins as he started to heat up in self-anger, remembering one such argument between a pompous military official and one of his few good friends, Leonid, when they returned from the rescue from the blizzard that made the two meet each other for the first time.

Sir, Mikhail the Red is a real comrade and a partner, and personally, a friend. He's almost like a real human being!

A real human, Leonid? Really, I expected better from you, programmable animatronics like him are only used for blood and war, who needs more like him? As soon as he is killed or decommissioned we will just simply replace him.

Sergeant, the General himself promotes the use of any type of animatronic that still serves a purpose that he sees fit, and Mikhail's is to fight and rescue!

I make the rules around here, you subordinate, not you! I suppose that I will have to teach you a lesson, Leonid, to make sure that you still know your place. You are hereby suspended of duties until I say so.

But that is absolutely-!

THAT WILL BE ALL, DISMISSED.

"Napyshchennyy svin'ya. Pompous pig."

For some reason, the wolf always translated himself whenever he spoke something in Russian, but he guessed that it was an unconscious thought to make sure that he still knew the language, even though the entire language of the Soviets were directly downloaded into his memory banks, so he guessed that he did it just for fun. He then bared his teeth when he saw an animatronic that was sitting close to them, wearing flashy clothes and finery, counting a stack of money that was passed to him by one of the military men, a private, perhaps, yet still carrying the same intent. A guide. That was how they were able to get here.

So, even animatronics like us would sell us out for their own benefit.

Snorting, he was partially relieved when the group of humans wasn't too many, and there were about only twenty in the huge, immense crowd of around 95,000 plus spectators that were animatronics by his guess, so there would probably be no trouble, and then waited patiently for the fox's signal that would tell him to start the event.

Finally, after a few minutes, he could see that in the eastern tunnel, Foxy had changed his right hand into his hook, which he waved the curved object at him, showing only his arm through the entrance, taking it as the sign to start, before it sharply retreated back in, but fortunately it wasn't seen by the crowd, as they were all looking at the wolf to start it. Standing up, Mikhail caused an immense shush to silence the crowd by simply raising his right hand, surprised that it would work so easily, until he took another moment to make sure that he was in control, but before he started his speech, which he memorized when Foxy fed him the words to say, he unfortunately he forgot some right off the bat, causing him to freeze.

Der'mo. Sh-t. Now what do I do? I guess I'll have to make up some up for myself, hopefully the crowd will still think it will sound respectable.

Clearing his throat, he proceeded again as he started his speech.