Chapter 11- The rest of the night (Part 2)
"I won...I FINALLY WON!"
"So close to victory..."
"Dang it! Well, at least we beat Funtime Foxy, right Bon Bon?"
"Almost had ya if it weren't for those curse'd red shells that last lap!"
Well...this is certainly a first.
An hour earlier, Emmet would have never thought that he come in dead last to a bunch of robots who were incapable of driving in a straight line and somehow managed to drive in the wrong direction.
Yet here he was in dead last, with two of the robots who originally drove in the wrong direction soundly beating him.
He was a little upset about his defeat, yet it was mostly drowned out by amazement. He couldn't help but admire whoever made the robots. Cause whoever did, put one heck of an AI into these things. It took Emmet a good week of racing with his college friends before he could be at the level that he was tonight, yet the robots had managed to match and surpass his level in a short hour.
Their programming is incredible... He thought, watching Baby walk and occasionally skip over to the other robots. He then saw Ballora, whom was a little upset by losing to Baby in less than a second, quickly change a faintly sour expression to one of beaming joy along with the circus child.
They all act so...human.
He then saw Funtime Foxy, who had come in fourth place, be congratulated by Baby. She originally looked upset after losing to Freddy, but almost instantly, her facial expression changed from upset to enthusiastic in a matter of microseconds like Ballora before her.
Really human...Maybe TOO human for it to be an AI...
As far as Emmet knew, there was no robot in existence capable of going through that many emotions in the span of a few seconds.
Unless, of course, he counted the supposedly "haunted" Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria, which he knew from firsthand experience what they were like after hours...
Naw, it has to be AI. He retorted to himself It has to. I mean, what kind of maniac would be crazy enough to try to replicate the robots at Freddy Fazbear's?
He sat in the leather chair in the control module and pondered that thought for a little bit.
Then again, I'm crazy enough to work here at night for minimum wage...
"I won Big Bro! I finally won!" Baby cheered, interrupting his thoughts.
He re-focused on Baby, who was still overjoyed with her first win.
"Congrats," He said patting on her shoulder. "Way to win,"
He guessed he didn't say it in the happiest tone, because she looked up at him, her face changing in microseconds from joy to a face of regret.
"Brother...I'm sorry you came in last..." She said "I got kind of caught up in the race...I guess I didn't really notice how far behind you were..."
"It's okay," He said "I've lost before and I'll lose again. The only thing that matters right now is that you've won your first race,"
He never really considered himself a good sibling after his thirteenth birthday, and he higly doubted that he could be a.
In all honesty, he thought what he said was more of a cop-out rather than an actual reason. But whatever the case, Baby's mood naturally changed from regretful to happy.
"Really?" She asked "Are you happy when I'm happy?"
"Yes," he admitted. "Your joy makes me has happy as much as it makes you happy,"
Once again, he thought his response was more of a cop-out.
Baby just stood there for a few seconds. Her eyes unblinking and unmoving.
Oh no... Did I break a processor or a microchip or-
She made a full smile and gave him another spine-popping hug.
Never mind...she just wants to hug...
"Thanks brother," She said "Those technicians were right; you being squishy does feel good!"
"They thought you'd like that," he choked out of Baby's hydraulic press of a hug.
She then closed her eyes as she kept hugging him. He treasured this hug for a moment before he suddenly started seeing sparks and random colors in his vision from the lack of oxygen.
"...Baby, not that I don't like your hugs, but you're starting to crush my circuitry…"
"Oh...sorry,"
He felt her hug loosen, and Emmet thought he would never be so relieved to breathe again.
Thank God...
"So...anybody up for another round?" Her purposed after regaining his breath.
Usually when he asked that the question, the robots were pretty enthusiastic and would agree to keep racing. However, this time, they looked at the Circus Baby.
"You know Big Brother, I kind of want to end the night on a high note," She said
"Don't worry, I understand." He said.
Baby gave him the controller, the other robots standing by.
"What about you guys?" He asked
"You know, I'm gonna have to side with Baby on this one," Freddy said.
"Me too lad,"
"I concur with my friends," Ballora added.
Seconds later, they too handed him their controllers.
"Okay then...I guess we're done for tonight,"
He powered the Wii off, and then put it way into his backpack along with the other games and consoles he had and some notebooks that looking back, he probably should have read to prepare for the upcoming exams.
They stood in the control module.
He suddenly felt like he was at the end of some sort of comedy movie, where the only thing missing was one of the characters saying "Now what?" or making some kind of fourth wall joke.
Now that I think about it, He thought what would I say right now if this WAS a story or movie?
He pondered that thought for a few moments.
You should go outside, he imagined talking to a nonexistent audience You know, get some fresh air. You've been sitting for a while now. Yeah, that sounds about right at this time….
He glanced at his watch.
5:37...
"We still got thirty minutes to kill," he purposed "Anybody got any ideas?"
It defiantly wasn't the best icebreaker, but he figured it was enough to at least get a conversation going.
But once again, the robots looked at each other, and remained silent.
Now that I think about it...can they talk mentally?
He never considered that idea, but considering that they had managed to learn how to beat him in Mariokart in less than an hour while It took him a good week before he could start beating his college friends, it wasn't a totally stupid idea. On the contrary, it was terrifying since Bon Bon could spill all of his secrets and the near-death incident without him even realizing it.
Not to self: find a design book or blueprints. I need to know what these things can do before I do something stupid without even realizing it...
His thoughts were interrupted when Freddy raised his right arm while Bon Bon also raised his much smaller blue right hand.
"I have an idea!" Bon Bon said, raising his tiny hand as well.
"What's that?" He asked as normally as he could.
"Can you fix my face please?" he asked, pointing to the large and really hard to miss dent underneath his right eye.
Wow... He thought can't believe I forgot about that...
"Sure thing." He said "Just...um...how do I get your face off, without, you know, tearing your head off?"
He saw Bon Bon take what he could only guess was a sigh of pity before he pressed on his tiny red bowtie. A hiss came from him, and his face separated into five major pieces like it had gone through and manual apple slicer.
He saw Bon Bon pick at his right cheek plate (At least, what Emmet assumed was a cheek plate) and plucked the dented plate off, revealing a mess of rough endoskeleton coils underneath the smooth and friendly-looking plastic plates.
"Here you go," He said, handing him the dented piece.
He found himself, standing there, processing what just happened. He couldn't describe how he felt, but he felt that it was a weird mix of amazement of the process, confusion as to why they would need it, and slight terror at the endoskeleton, since the actual endoskeleton was a mess of muscle-like cords of steel rather than the old blocky design that he used to know.
"Well...are you going to fix it?" Bon Bon asked
"Oh, right...sorry," he said taking his eyes off of the endoskeleton "Just kind of distracted. That's all,"
He walked over to the table for the control module and tried to search for a hammer, paperweight, or anything that looked heavy and strong enough to pound out a dent. The only thing he could really find that came close to that was a mug that read World's best guard and had a superglued handle on it.
He looked around for anything that could be a bit more useful than the mug and his eyes looked down at his boots. He bent over, untied one shoe, and gripped the toe part, making a solid, rubbery and wide mallet head out of the heel.
"Um...Brother?" Baby asked "Are you sure you're doing this right?"
"Don't worry," he said holding the plate down on the table and raising up his shoe "This is exactly how employees here fix dents."
He then hammered the heel of his shoe into the dent. Surprisingly, the sole of his shoe made a wonderful rubber mallet. About ten or fifteen hits later, the dent had successfully been un-dented. Although the plate looked a little lumpy and slightly misshaped from the hammering, he doubted that anybody would notice unless they were less than one foot away from Bon Bon.
"There you go!" he said handing the fixed face plate back to the robot.
Bon Bon took the face plate, looked over it a few times, placed it back on top of the exposed endoskeleton part of his face, and pressed his bright red tie again, which retracted the face plates back to his normal looking face.
"Thanks," Bon Bon said "Feels wonderful now that that annoying dent is out of the way,"
"Anytime," he said putting his shoe back on and relaxed in the chair.
Seconds later, a heavy silence filled the room.
"Like I said, anybody got anything else?" he asked
Funtime Foxy and Freddy looked at each other, Baby too joining the exchange of glances. Ballora however, stepped away from them.
"No thank you," Ballora said "I do not have any other ideas on what to do for the remainder of the night,"
"You sure?" he asked
She nodded. "I thank you for the fun you have brought here tonight, and I look forward to more nights in your company,"
"You were a blast to be around with too," He complemented. "Hope to see you tomorrow,"
She smiled, curtsied, opened the vent to her room, and then crawled into it. A minute later, he could hear the first few chimes of Shattered dreams echo through the room with a haunting yet calming vibe.
"Anything else?" Emmet asked again.
His question was met with Funtime Foxy and Freddy saying something between them that was either too fast or too low for him to hear, but nonetheless, it ended with Freddy giving Funtime Foxy a gentle shove forward toward him. She let a low growl, but nonetheless, stepped up to talk with him.
"Yes?" he asked
"So...um...look lad, me and Funtime Freddy were a'talking and we'd...we'd agreed that our act'ed be much cooler if we'd be a'addin' some new stuff. And we'd be a'hoping that management would let us do that,"
While he absolutely loved Funtime Foxy's accent and thought it was just fun to listen to, it was a bit problematic when explaining information. Luckily, it took him some time to figure out what she was asking him to do.
"Alright then," He said "Do you have a list or something that I can give to management?"
"Don't worry, we already made one!" Freddy said.
"You did?"
"Yep!" he said, handing him a wadded up napkin in his left hand "Everything's on here, at least, what we have at the moment,"
He took the napkin from Freddy's grubby hand.
"Don't worry Freddy," he said, pocketing the note "I'll try to give management."
"Do you think they'll like it?" He asked.
He chuckled.
"Hey, I'm here, so I think they're looking for something new to entertain the kids,"
His logic made sense, which made Freddy appear all the more optimistic.
"Thanks," he said, turning around and opening the vent to his and Funtime Foxy's room "See you later!
"See you tomorrow! or tonight. You know, I really don't know what sort of thing to say at this time..."
"Neither have I lad," Funtime Foxy related "But ye get the idea, right lad?"
"Yep,"
She made and toothy smile, waved, and then crawled in after Freddy. After the thumps of their traveling, all was once again quiet. Leaving him all alone with Circus Baby.
He remained sitting in his chair, she continued to stand, yet she looked...bothered.
"Sis, is there something on your mind?"
She looked at him.
"Kind of..."
"Well, what is it?"
He saw her finger twirl around one of her bright red pigtails and her green eyes looking at her feet and then back at him.
"Um...I hope I'm not annoying you, but do you know when you'll perform? You know, full time with us?"
Suddenly, the calm and relaxed evening came to a grinding halt.
Shit.
He bit the inside of his lip, he never thought of a good lie to answer a question like that, but luckily, it wasn't too hard to think of an excuse.
"To be fair Baby, I'm not entirely sure,"
Her hair drooped like it a sad dog or cartoon character.
"Oh...okay..." She said, her eyes lowering to the floor "I just wanted to know that's all..."
"I'm sorry," he apologized "But like I said: I have no idea if these tests will be done. I mean, they could be done in ten hours or ten months, but..."
"But what?" She asked
He pretended to look around to make sure that nobody was around.
"Can you keep a secret?"
Suddenly, her lax and droopy expression perked back up with interest.
"Secret?" She whispered back.
He did an unnecessary double check before turning to her.
"I overheard management, and they said that I might be able to perform with everybody a few days in March..."
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and a great big grin grew on her face.
"YOU'LL PERFORM WITH US!?" She shouted perhaps in the most non-secretive way
"Yes," he answered, surprised by how loud she was "But can you quite down so that-"
She suddenly picked him up as if he were a small dog, cat, or stuffed animal and began to spin around while holding him.
"YES! YES WOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Apparently, the whole stay-quiet thing didn't reach her.
"Baby..." he gagged from her hug and his dizziness "Crushing..."
"Oh...sorry,"
She then stopped spinning, set him down, and then let him go.
"Sorry...I'm just...YES!" She said pumping her arms. "I get to perform again! And this time, with my big brother!"
"Yeah…" he said "It'll be good when we perofrm- wait, again?"
Suddenly, he saw Baby made an oops face, like she had remembered a forgotten homework assignment or chore.
"Whaaa?" She asked "Did I say again? What I meant to say was….um…."
"No offense Baby, but you're a terrible liar." He said "Now…What did you mean by again?"
He saw her eyes dart around, clearly looking for something to start up a new conversation.
"Um...he he...yeah funny story..."
"Baby..." He scolded "What happened?"
Suddenly, she looked like some kid who was about to admit that they had scratched their parent's car, got a detention, or accidently broke their neighbor's window with a baseball.
"Well….to be honest...I have no idea why I only performed once,"
"You've only performed once?!"
She nodded unwillingly.
"Well, what happened?" he asked
She shrugged "To be honest, I have no idea."
He scratched his chin.
"Do you think that an overly-critical child didn't like your performance?"
"I don't think so," She said "I did what I was programmed to do that day. I sang, I made balloons, I kept count of the children at all times, I gave a child who was alone some ice-cream, and I don't really know-"
"Wait a minute...You can make Ice cream?!"
She nodded.
He grinned.
Hey, if I'm gonna spend six hours risking my ass, minus well get some ice cream along with my money.
"You wouldn't mind showing me where the ice cream maker is...right?"
"Of course not!" She said
"Good!" he said "Now...can you lead to it?"
"Sure! It's right here!"
She then pointed to her stomach. He didn't know why, but he started to have dark thoughts.
Is….is this like an innuendo or adult joke or something?
"Um...why are you pointing at your stomach?"
"Don't you know? I can make ice cream!"
Her stomach then opened up with two double doors to reveal a hollow cavity. On the back wall of the space, a picture of a regular double-dipped vanilla ice cream was seen.
Huh, he thought. No wonder she weighs so much. She's literally a walking refrigerator...
"So….you can make ice cream."
"Yes!"
"Can…. you make me some ice cream?" He asked
She made a sad sigh and then closed up the doors to her easy-bake oven/ice cream maker/stomach.
"Sorry...I can't." She said "I don't know why, but I just can't seem to make ice-cream anymore,"
He let a bit of a sad sigh out.
SO much for getting a Sunday at six am...
"I wish I could perform again," She said sadly, twirling one of her red pieces of 'hair' "It was so much fun…."
"Hey, they'll have to let you perform again," he said
"Why?"
"Cause you're too dang cute not to let you perform."
Admittedly, Emmet thought she was probably cute when her faceplates went unnoticed and it was daylight, but that didn't seem to matter, all he needed to do was keep her happy. And his words seemed to fill that purpose.
She walked forward, and gave him another hug.
"Thanks brother," She said
"You're welcome." He said, hugging her back.
"Am I crushing you?" She asked
"No." he answered "Not at all. In fact, this is perfect,"
He stayed that way until he heard a BEEP BEEP BEEP! From his watch. He looked over at his wrist and saw 6:00 AM
Shift's up.
"Sorry…I have to go back up,"
"Okay..." She said unwillingly.
They broke their hug. He put his backpack back on his back and stepped into the open elevator.
"Bye Brother!" She said "See you tomorrow!"
"Yeah, see you tomorrow!" He answered.
He waved at her, and she at him.
The elevator doors then closed, followed the jerk of the elevator as it began to ascend from the underground circus.
He sat in the elevator, and started rethinking the events of the night. Smiling and occasionally laughing until he remembered Baby's reason why she performed once…..
What logic is that? Let a new robot perform for only one performance, and then never let it perform again? Just….why?
Emmet never heard of something like that. The only reason he could think why that happened was because the manager had a blip of stupidity or was high on something when he said that. But he doubted both, since he actually met the man in his interview, and that man was appeared and acted like the kind of person who wouldn't do either.
Something's not right...
He thought about it some more. He figured that performing robots like Baby could probably be taken down for occasional maintenance or debugging, but permanent removal?
He tried to think of times that robots got removed.
Well...there's 1983 and 1987, but even then, that doesn't make any sense! In 1983, some kid's head got crushed by an old spring-lock costume and in 1987, Foxy had torn off a freaking FRONTAL LOBE!
This makes no sense! He thought kicking the door How was she removed when she hadn't done anything like that?
He pondered the dilemma some more.
No….the only other reason would unless the robot was hated, which I doubt she was, which still makes no sense!
But looking back at the two incidents. In both, a child was either killed or seriously injured.
Unless...Baby did something that hurt a child. He thought but even then, she didn't say that she did but….
He pondered the idea. Given the cases, the only real and logical way that this all would make sense would be…
What if she's lying?
And for a few moments, he considered this terrible possibility.
If Baby is lying, and I don't know why she would lie, she must have done something as bad as Foxy or that old Fredbear suit. But even then, if she did hurt a child, it would be all over the news like the incidents at Freddy's.
Unless, somebody didn't report it or was threatened not to...
He found himself gripping the bar.
And if that happened it would be just like-
He stopped himself there.
No. No no! he thought I will NOT think about it! I've already gone through the hell of Freddy Fazbear's way too many times in my life thank you very much!
he leaned back and gripped the bar.
I need to think of something else, perhaps, like that list I need to read.
He unfolded the napkin, and for a moment, he thought he was looking at a piece of modern art with its irregular zigzags and cris-crosses.
It took him a good ten seconds of hard focusing to realize that the napkin was actually the list that Funtime Foxy and Freddy had made. And that the "Artwork" was incredibly bad handwriting written in freaking crayon, making it even harder to decipher.
He spent another twelve seconds trying to find the first item on the list, but he was only able to get as far as T-R-A
On second thought, I might not be able to do this now...
He pocketed the note and continued to recline on the elevator handle until he felt a brief moment of weightless as the elevator stopped at the ground floor.
Finally...getting out of the dungeon.
The double doors opened. And what he saw standing in the doorway almost made him jump out of his skin.
From what he knew, the building was deserted at this time save for a lone janitor or technician who needed to check up on the robots. Normally, the manager/founder/owner didn't show up until nine AM in the morning.
Yet here he was. Standing outside the opening of the elevator at six AM in the morning.
Mr. Afton was dressed in a dark blue-almost purple-long-sleeved dress shirt and a pair Iron-black shoes, pants, and tie. There were bags underneath his eyes and his charcoal-black hair slightly messed up from what Emmet could only hope was sleep deprivation.
Even in his bedraggled state, he still thought he was more terrifying than anything that he had encountered in the past two nights here. (Even more than the odd voice who was way too interested in his life). He found himself amazed that he hadn't wet his pants or curl up into a ball of terror already.
His tombstone-grey eyes glanced at Emmet, then back to his bills, and then back to him again.
"Emmet," Mr. Afton asked "Why is your face painted?"
End of Chapter.
Sorry for being gone for over one month. I just don't really know what happened. I guess it just slipped from my grip or something...But that doesn't matter now does it?
As for my wattpad account, I did finally manage to get up it and running. I put ALL of my stories one there very quickly.
For my name it's "A wandering hobo," at the moment apparently Mr. Magical was taken, so I just settled for the next best thing. If I do change it, It'll probably say in it a chapter or put it on my profile page.
Anyway, thanks for your patience m8s, hope to see you in a week or two like how it used to be!