"Well, here I am...ugh, this is just great. I'm burned out, and I don't even want to be in this place to begin with, but do I have a choice? No!"
Foxy awoke with a start inside his cove, the curtains still shut. An unfamiliar voice was making complaints nearby, and the noise had roused Foxy from his nap. Confused and curious as to what was going on, he quietly pushed his curtains apart and peeked outside.
From there, he could through the doorway and into the main room. A man was standing in the room by himself, loudly sighing about something. He was facing away from the doorway to Foxy's room, so he didn't notice Foxy peeking out at him.
"This is just horrible. Why did they have to hire me this month, of all times?" The man went on. "That company really needs to make a better schedule. What kind of company hires people to come work during the holidays? I don't have time for this. I have Amy and the kids to get back to...oh well, at least they're paying me. Better be a good amount of cash, or else I won't be working here anymore."
Foxy looked at the man, frowning. Another human? What was one doing at the restaurant now?
The man looked over at the nearby stand near the closet, where the bowl of candy was. "Oh, hey. Some candy canes. I suppose the company won't mind if I take a couple to bring with me."
Foxy snuck out of his cove and hid around the doorway, continuing to look towards the man. He could get a better look at the man now: he looked to be an adult, with a white skin tone and black hair with a beard to match. He was wearing a white shirt with orange overalls, as well as black shoes. He had a toolbelt around his waist with a wrench, hammer, and other tools attached to it.
Who is this guy? Foxy wondered. Could he be another security guard? Maybe, but I can't really jump to conclusions yet. He doesn't have the security uniform on, so he might not be a security guard.
"Ah, that was good. A nice snack to have with me." The man muttered. "Alright, alright, no more slacking off. I really need to get this over with, and find those animatronics and other things so I can make the repairs they told me to do." He shook his head. "Honestly, I couldn't care less if these animatronics and machines are fixed or broken. All that matters is that I do my job and get back home."
Rude. We're not that bad.
"Now, what did that manager guy say? Tch, can't even remember. The way that guy acted...he should've been fired a long time ago. Well, anyway...as I recall, he told me to go fix the plumbing first. Better get this over with."
Foxy couldn't help but smirk. He probably will need to fix that, actually. With all the security guards Freddy shoved down there, I wouldn't be surprised if it's been broken for a while. Heh.
"Wait a minute." The man said, and he turned and saw Foxy standing there. Foxy, alert at once, quickly went still and acted as if he was in standby mode. "Oh, there's one of the animatronics now!" The man walked over to Foxy and inspected him up close. Foxy could see the man's brown eyes flicking back and forth as he surveyed Foxy. "These things must have names, actually. What would this one be called? Eh, not that I care. My job is to fix these things and get my job done, nothing else. And what's this room behind him?" He walked around Foxy and out of Foxy's field of vision. Foxy could not see the man anymore, but he could hear the man talking still. "Is this the room that this animatronic is meant to go into? The stage is alright, but besides that, it's so barren. Would it kill the company to add some tables and chairs in here?"
You and me both, pal. Foxy thought.
"Doesn't look like there's anything here to fix, so I'm not staying here." The man continued, and Foxy saw him walk back around Foxy. The man glanced at him. "Hmm...don't know about this thing, but I should leave it alone. It must not be in any state of disrepair if it can activate and stand up like that." He walked away from Foxy and went over to the center of the room, where the Christmas tree and presents were. "Wait, this entire place has been decorated for Christmas? Odd, I thought this place was closed. Who's bothering to put up all this? And there's even presents here." He nodded. "Reminds me...I hope the presents I got for the kids this year are good. It makes me happy to see them happy."
He continued to walk around. He looked towards the plushies on the stage. "Hmm, lots of plushies here. I don't know why, but they're giving me the creeps. Something feels off about them."
So it's not just me and Puppet that thinks something's off about those plushies? Good to know they're not imaginary.
"Now, to find the plumbing. Where are the bathrooms located? The company didn't give me any instructions on this." The man muttered. He looked around the room, checking Freddy's closet as well, but found nothing. "Looks like it's not here." He looked around at the walls. "This place feels so off, and I just can't figure out why the atmosphere feels so weird. I've heard the stories about this place, of course, and the rumors too. All the things people are saying about people coming here and never coming back, and that the animatronics are alive...and here I thought that all those rumors were cock-and-bull. But the way this place feels...nevermind, I'm getting off track."
Everyone's probably heard the stories by now. Disappearances must be the night guards, and the animatronics coming to life is a thing too. Well, it's not entirely false- they've got some of the facts right, at least.
The man kept looking around the room. He went by the bouncy house and looked at it for a moment. "Oh, a bounce house. The kids would've loved this. Eh, I'm way too burnt out tonight, though, and I'm not wasting my time in there. The sooner I get my job done, the sooner I can leave." He glanced at the tree again. "Not to mention the way the tree looks. Seems pretty intricately decorated. There's even a...golden top hat for a tree topper? Interesting. Doesn't hold a candle to the tree I have at home, though. Amy sure did a good job picking it out."
Hey, our tree's pretty good. I bet it'd do well if we had it in a competition or something- Foxy thought. He began to approach the guy from behind to try and get a better look, but the guy turned around, forcing Foxy to go still again.
The guy looked a little off-put, but didn't scream or exclaim when he saw Foxy. "Wait, when'd this fox animatronic come over here? Did it move?" He stared at Foxy for a moment. "The way it's staring at me...what, is it trying to hold a staring contest? Two can play at that game- wait, what am I saying? It's a robot. It doesn't need to blink. Still, how'd it get over here? I thought it was on standby, but is it on free-roam mode instead? Hmm. Well, it's probably just some kind of night programming or something odd like that. Nothing to get concerned about."
He headed away from Foxy, going in the direction of the big hallway. Foxy followed silently behind so he could keep a closer distance without detection.
"Alright, the bathrooms must be down this way if they're not in the front area." The man said, going down the small hallway. Foxy followed him as the man glanced at the four doors in the hallway with confused looks. "Four rooms, under construction? Is the company bringing workers here besides me? I certainly don't remember being hired to do anything for these rooms. So am I the only one, or...well, I'm probably the only one coming in the work for the holidays, that's for sure! All the other staff's probably getting to relax with their families right now, while I have to go through this closed-off pizzeria and fix a bunch of stuff. Stupid manager..."
Foxy silently stalked the man as he entered the big hallway. The man looked up and down the hall. "Bathrooms, bathrooms...ah, there they are." He spied the bathrooms over at the right end of the hallway and went over to them. "Now, let's see the plumbing. I should check both bathrooms, just to be safe. Which to start with?" He looked at either bathroom, the boys' to his left and the girls' to his right. "Hmm...I'll do the girls' first, since it'll probably be in better condition." He went into the girls' restroom.
Foxy, meanwhile, shuffled over and tried to look through the doorway to see where the man was. However, right then came a voice to his left:
"Hey Foxy, what's u-?"
The pink-white fox whipped around to see Puppet approaching him, waving as he started to speak. Foxy quickly grabbed Puppet's arm and pulled him around the corner of the hall, making a 'shh' gesture with his finger. Puppet looked surprised and confused, and he started to speak out loud again, but Foxy cut in and whispered:
"Be quiet. Someone else is here." He whispered.
Puppet looked suspicious. "Who?" The marionette whispered back.
"I don't know. It's some human. Looks like a maintenance worker to me. He went into the girls' bathroom to fix some stuff."
"The girls' bathroom? Nice try, Foxy. I can already see you're trying to prank me and trick me into going in there."
Foxy shook his head. "No, that's not what this is. I'm serious this time: there's a human here."
"Just as I thought, the plumbing here's not so bad. Still has some problems though..." The man said from inside the bathroom. Puppet froze and looked at the girls' bathroom entrance.
"There really is a guy here." He muttered. "What do we do?"
"Well, he doesn't think us animatronics are alive, so that means he doesn't entirely believe the stories. We can use that fact to help us get him out of here. Should've seen him earlier; he thought I was some mindless robot on roaming mode."
"Aren't we technically robots ourselves, though?"
"Yeah, I know, but that's besides the point. The main thing to do here is to bide our time until we can either drive this guy our of here...or take him out."
"All done." They heard the man say, and he came out of the girls' restroom. "That bathroom looked alright. Was really clean, too, thank goodness. Now, let's check on the boys' restroom." He walked into the boys' restroom, where they heard him yell out. "Holy cow! That smell...and what's with this mess?! Yeesh, this is going to be one rough mess to clean up."
"Does it really smell that bad in there? Wow." Foxy mumbled. "I knew our bathroom wasn't clean, but I don't remember it stinking in there. What happened, Puppet?"
"It was enchilada night yesterday. And no, I didn't go to the bathroom. We can't." Puppet replied. "There was actually a party over enchiladas yesterday night. Ballora and I processed a whole bunch of them through our systems until we were too bored to continue, and then we took the mess and tried to flush it down the toilet. It...didn't work."
"Wait, why? Couldn't you have just thrown it away?"
"Yeah, we could've, but we were high on energy at the time. We weren't thinking straight."
"Makes sense. Also, why didn't you invite me? I would've loved to have had some enchiladas with you guys."
"Forgot to invite you. Sorry."
"It's alright, just let me in on it next time. I like being included."
They kept quiet as they heard the maintenance guy getting to work. There were a whole lot of noises in there, and a few grunts from the guy at the same time. It continued for two minutes more.
"What is this? Why is there a security guard uniform in here?" They heard him yell. "Who's been stuffing this stuff into here?"
Dang it, Freddy. You had to go and stuff another one down there when we keep telling you not to... Foxy thought.
"And...a solid bar of soap? Talk about a junky toilet. Hmm...looks like I can't remove it unless I have a plunger, though. I'll have to leave until I can find one somewhere around here." He came out of the bathroom and walked into the auditorium. Foxy and Puppet moved over to the doorway of the boys' restroom as they watched the man look around the room. "Where are all the plungers at?" He walked by Foxy's water ride and glanced at it. "Hmm? Oh, this looks like it'd be a fun ride. Too bad I don't have time to play on it."
I knew everyone liked my rides. Even this guy seems to like mine.
"Anything over this way?" He walked over to the stage and looked around, then noticed the vent cover. "Huh? I hear something over here. Is there someone in there? I swear I'm seeing someone sitting down in that vent. And is that a tv screen?" He paused, then rubbed his eyes. "No, I'm seeing things. An abandoned place like this wouldn't have a random tv sitting in the vents."
He left the auditorium, and Foxy hid around the doorway with Puppet as they watched the man pass by, failing to notice them as he went down the big hallway in the other direction. "There's got to a supply room with plungers somewhere around here. It's a necessity in these kinds of places." He went down it, peering through the windows of the party rooms he passed by. "These look like party rooms, but there's nothing that can help me in there." He kept going until he arrived at the doors to Ballora's room. "What's with this room?" He opened the doors and went inside.
"Oh boy, he went into Ballora's room. If she catches him, she'll get her chance to act before we get ours." Foxy whispered to Puppet.
"Why is this random guy even here, again?" Puppet asked.
"I think he's some kind of maintenance worker that's here to fix stuff, including the bathrooms...and us animatronics too, I guess. He saw me earlier, but I pretended to be on some kind of roaming mode so he wouldn't be any the wiser."
"Hmm."
They went down the hallway themselves, hiding around the doorway to Ballora's room and looking around it so they could see what was going on.
The man was inspecting the room as he walked through it, giving everything a very perplexed look.
"What a weird room." He said. "It feels like it's meant to be happy, but there's...skeletons everywhere. Odd. Probably just props, but still- odd." He looked towards the stage and perked up. "Oh, hey! Another one of those animatronics!"
Ballora was onstage, but she wasn't doing much except staring straight ahead, unmoving. Reggie wasn't in his usual spot, making Foxy guess that he was hiding somewhere out-of-sight.
"This one doesn't seem to be moving very much. Must be offline." The man voiced.
"What's going on? I thought Ballora would be ready to do something, but she's just standing there." Foxy muttered to Puppet. "She isn't asleep, is she?"
"Based on what I can see, yes and no." Puppet whispered back. "Looks like she's on standby mode, so she's somewhat online, but she won't do anything except stand there. On the inside, she's still asleep. Probably having another dream."
"Anyways, I was told to fix her, so I'd better get to that." The man continued, and he reached towards Ballora.
"Oi, mate! Get away from her! She's not to be touched!" Reggie's voice came from out of nowhere. It wasn't clear where his voice was coming from, but he seemed to be somewhere inside the room.
The man jumped. "Huh?! Who said that just now?"
"Dang, Reggie shouldn't be talking. He'll blow everyone's cover if he's found." Puppet murmured.
"You're right. He needs to quit talking before he's found." Foxy said.
"You heard me, mate!" Reggie continued from somewhere in the room. "Don't lay a finger on her, I'm warning you!"
"Hello? Who's talking to me? Is there someone else here?" The man stammered, looking all around the room for the source of Reggie's voice. "What was that? Another person? An audio recording? Perhaps...perhaps that was a security recording. Maybe I'm not supposed to mess with them while they're in sleep mode. Understandable, I suppose. Funny how British that voice sounds, though...eh, probably just a pre-set voice. Nothing to worry about."
He walked away from Ballora and looked around at other areas of the room. "Now, where are the rest of those machines supposed to be? If I remember correctly, there were supposed to be at least four or five animatronics total in the building, but I've only found two so far. Did the company miscount the number of animatronics here?" He looked a bit aggravated. "I don't have time for this! I'm already supposed to spend the night fixing these things, and yet this is taking longer then I planned!" He glanced at Ballora. "Screw this. The company can fix this one on their own. I'm not bothering with more than I need to. Now, I'm getting out of here and finding the other-"
He came to a stop as he began to exit the room, because he had noticed Foxy standing there. Foxy quickly went back to pretending that he was in 'roaming' mode, trying to keep up the façade for as long as possible while he figured out what to do with the maintenance guy.
"Wait, since when did you get here? I could've sworn you were back in that front area several minutes ago." The man uttered, frowning. "I've you moved again, and now you're over here...something might be wrong here. Maybe I should double-check this one, just to make sure nothing's wrong." He took his wrench from his toolbelt and moved towards Foxy.
A split-second passed like ages as Foxy decided to try something. He knew that he and Puppet would need to do something about this guy, and they had to be smart about it. Knowing that, he decided that since the man believed that he was just in 'roaming' mode, he would need to push his luck. The man seems unaware of the fact that they were alive thus far, and the only way to see how far that unawareness could go was with a test.
So as the man approached Foxy, Foxy became a bit more...lively.
"Woah, woah, woah!" Foxy yelled, springing to life as if he had been activated at that very moment. "No touching my mechanisms!"
"Ah!" The man yelped, moving back a little. "Wait, it's talking to me now? Interesting. If this is one of the programmed voice lines it's meant to say, then I've got to admit, it sounds realistic. The engineers who made this guy must've done a pretty good job."
"Yeah, a really good voice. Top-notch." Foxy looked over as Puppet snuck up behind the guard, raising a finger to prod the guard's shoulder. "Puppet, what are you doing now?"
"Puppet? Who's-" The man asked, and he turned and jumped back again. "Gah! Oh, there's another one of them here. What's with this one?"
"My smell sensors just got to test you. I smell...a bit too much cologne. " Puppet said, narrowing his eyes.
"I agree. Too much." Foxy added, nodding. His smell sensors could easily pick up the man's smell, and he sure did smell like too much cologne. It seemed as if the man had put on an overly large amount of some type of cologne before coming there, causing him to smell a bit funkier than normal.
"Very interesting indeed. Kind of outlandish, even." The man said, mostly to himself as he looked back and forth at Foxy and Puppet. "They even knew that I had cologne on? Their voice programming must be pretty advanced if they can tell." He gazed at Puppet and made a curious face. "Something's not right about this marionette-looking thing. I remember that this fox guy over here is Foxy, and that ballerina animatronic was 'Ballora' or something along this lines...but I don't remember being told about this one. Let me check the register and see if you're on it."
From his toolbelt, he pulled a clipboard with some paper attached to it and stared at it. "Let's see here...there's Foxy...Ballora...Freddy...Circus Baby...some kind of hand-puppet named Bon-Bon...huh, well, what do you know. I've looked down this entire list, but even with the pictures of the animatronics' faces that I was provided, I still can't find this marionette thing anywhere on the registry." He looked back at Puppet. "Why isn't this one's face showing up?"
"I'm not a fan of having my face put on lists. That might be why." Puppet uttered, a little mechanically at that. "I've never liked letting people just look at my face. Too weird."
"But why not? There's nothing wrong with that." Foxy replied. He turned to the maintenance guy. "Sorry, he's a little weird. Try not to question him too much."
The maintenance guy looked even more confused than ever before. "How in the..." He muttered. "You two are responding to me so coherently and normally, so...wait. If that's the case...then this isn't voice programming, is it?"
"Conversation time has run out. Please put money into hand to continue talks." Puppet said in a robotic voice, trying to play a trick on the man by extending his arm out.
"Puppet, don't ask for this guy's money. I told you, we don't steal from them unless it's right to do so." Foxy replied.
"He's...asking for money?" The man stuttered. "Huh, seems a bit weird, but...maybe I actually have to do that."
"Please hurry. This conversation will be terminated in five, four..." Puppet began counting robotically.
"Oh, uh...here!" The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of quarters, which he hurriedly placed into Puppet's outstretched hand.
"Thank you for your payment." Puppet put the quarters away (where he put them, Foxy couldn't see) and snickered softly. "Heh, sucker. Free money for me." He whispered.
"Hmm, this seems to be a feature that these animatronics have. You insert quarters to hold realistic conversations with them. Cool."
"Actually, no, it's not. He literally tricked you and stole money from you." Foxy explained, a bit unimpressed.
The man looked at Foxy, and Foxy noticed the man's mouth twitch for a moment. "Um...well, this one must have longer voice programming than the other one. Yeah, that's probably it, nothing unusual..."
"More money may be inserted if you wish to buy bonus content and extra DLC for your greatest talking needs-" Puppet began.
"Alright, alright, stop it." Foxy sighed, going over and getting in front of Puppet. "Sorry, he's still trying to take more of your money. I recommend that you don't listen to him."
The man blinked. "Wait...if he's not being serious, and you're being honest...then that means that you're both answering normally, as if you were human people..." The man looked at the floor and back up at them over and over.
"Yep, I think you've finally realized what's going on here. Done with denial already?" Foxy asked. His primal instincts were rising again, and he could feel its influence floating over his mindscape. "Now, we have a question. Are you a security guard?"
"Um, no, I don't think so. I'm a maintenance worker." The man responded, but while he sounded calm, his eyes were wide. "I've heard stories, though, of guards coming here and...never returning. I'm not a security guard, though, not me."
Foxy stared at the man and said: "Then, consider yourself one the lucky ones out of those we've met. We don't normally do our thing with anyone other than security guards. As for what we shall do instead...Puppet, do you know what we're meant to do with non-security guards? They always seem to disappear, so I'm afraid I have a hard time remembering."
"I dunno, myself." Puppet responded.
"Wait...disappear?!" The man mumbled. "What do you mean, disappear?! I can't just disappear!"
"Oh, it's nothing for you to get concerned with. All that matters is that we settle things." Foxy chuckled darkly.
"No! I'm not going to just disappear! I have a wife and kids to get back to! I can't go now!" The man backed up several paces.
"Good. We love kids especially much...human." Foxy could feel himself changing. The primal instincts were now at the center of his mind. All that mattered was that a living human was standing in front of him, and that this human needed to have his life torn away as soon as possible...
"I...I knew this job wasn't worth it! And now I'm even more sure of that! Both of you animatronics, stay away!"
And then, as Foxy and Puppet started to approach the man that was backing away, all else momentarily disappeared as a familiar voice rang inside Foxy's mind:
"Good, you know what to do. It is time we carry out yet another deed. Kill this man however you wish...and let us take his lifeless body once he is completely dead. With it, our goals will be further in sight than ever before. Take his body, and together, we shall soon find the end of all this."
"..."
"KILL HIM."
"Foxy?" Puppet stuttered from behind him, but his voice sounded fainter now. "That look on your face...I suppose it's time again, isn't it? Well, let's make this quick. Do what you have to."
"You...must...die." Foxy said, and then he steadily started towards the man.
"What?!" The man exclaimed. "Hell no! I'm not letting you touch me!" The man took out his wrench and held it defensively.
"It is okay. When we are finished with you, you will not think of escape. In fact...you won't think of anything else, either." Foxy continued.
"I'm not dying here! I'm going to return to my family, and get that paycheck, and go back to my normal life!" The man started to back up faster, causing Foxy to head towards him faster as well. They kept moving, going across the entire big hallway and into the auditorium.
"Your wishes mean nothing. Death is imminent for you." Foxy muttered. "I suggest you put down that wrench. Resistance is futile. Besides, neither of us want things to get...ugly."
"Screw that! I'm defending myself! Get any closer, and I'll have to unscrew every bolt and nut that comprises you! I'll bash you anywhere I need to, too!"
"Is that all you can do? Useless threats? Simply unimpressive."
The man continued to back up. "Hmph, it doesn't matter. Stay back!"
"Where do you think you're going? Quit fleeing and come here."
"Tch!" The man grunted. "I'm tired of all this! I never wanted to come here to begin with! I'm getting out of here, whether I lose my chance of getting hired here again or not!" He looked behind himself and spotted Puppet's box. "Wait, what's that?" He ran over to it and climbed up onto it. "There's a hole here, and a ladder! My only means of escape!" He quickly went down into the hole.
"Hey, what are you doing? Don't go down there!" Puppet exclaimed. "That's my place, not yours!"
"Let's get him, Puppet." Foxy said, grinning.
Puppet looked back at Foxy again. "Is this how you have to get every time we- no, every time YOU hunt a human? Well, I suppose if you feel that it's fitting. Let's hurry after that guy."
Foxy just nodded. Puppet seemed to have accepted how Foxy acted whenever he was in hunting mode.
He had no idea what was going on inside.
"What is all this?!" They heard the man yell as Foxy got to the bottom of the ladder into Puppet's room. "Why is this down here?!"
"None of your concern. It's time you came back here." Foxy yelled as he chased the man into the center of the area. "I'm such a unique hunter, you know that? I enjoy playing with my food before I eat it!"
"Wait a minute...this is the boss's room! I remember now!" The man exclaimed.
Foxy raised an eyebrow, and for that moment, the primal instincts disappeared and were replaced by normality. "Boss's room?"
"It's on the schematics! This was where the top guy on staff was supposed to have his office, as I've heard. Of course, that was only on the planning stages of the building being built and everything. Apparently, the company thought it was a good idea. No customers would ever find the hole, or think to look inside of it if they did."
Foxy had a massive headache, but he managed to continue speaking. "Puppet, I thought this was your room. You said you bought this area yourself, didn't you?" Foxy asked curiously.
"Yes, of course. In fact, I'm practically the boss here." Puppet replied as he entered the room himself, grinning a little. "You could think of me as the big boss of this place."
"Don't give me those lies. The registry doesn't list you, so there's no way you're the boss of this place." The man replied, scowling and shaking his head. "There is no boss of this place...at least, not by that name, anyway..."
"You must be mistaken. See that refrigerator over there? See it?" Puppet pointed at the nearby fridge in the kitchen area. "That's mine, and it's very professional. It's also proof that I'm the boss here."
"Excuse me? No, you're not." Foxy claimed. "If anything, I'm probably the one that's in charge at this place."
"No way!" Puppet scoffed. "If anything, it'd be Freddy. Wasn't it his name that was on this place?"
"You must be thinking of the older location. Circus Baby actually has her name on this place, remember?"
Puppet paused. "Oh, that's right. Forget that the central mascot's different here."
Foxy looked over at the man and noticed that the man had backed up several feet again. The man was looking around the room, seemingly trying to find an exit, when he noticed a nearby plunger sitting on the table right next to Puppet's goldfish.
"Oh! A plunger! It was here this whole time." The man said, and he took the plunger and examined it. "Pretty good condition." He turned back to the animatronics and gave them a half-afraid, half-interested look. "You, uh...you don't mind if I borrow this, right? I need it for, uh, repairs."
Foxy shrugged. "Go right ahead. Puppet has plenty of them, so he can easily get it replaced."
"Hey, I didn't agree to this!" Puppet shouted out. "Also, why didn't you bring your own plunger, maintenance man? You're supposed to come prepared with your own tools!"
"Yeah, I'm actually curious about that myself."
"Well, uh...I assumed that this place would supply me a plunger. It's a pretty common tool around this area, you know." The man murmured.
"Funnily enough, we did have a room with a lot of plungers to use at one point. Unfortunately, the room went under construction, so we don't have access to all those plungers anymore."
"And you didn't even bring your own." Puppet said again. "How'd you get your job if you can't even remember to bring something as simple as a plunger?"
The maintenance guy sighed. "I was more qualified for this than any other job, okay? And I don't want to go through the trouble of getting a different one, so I'm sticking with this one."
"But how could you be ready if you can't remember to bring the right tools? Bringing every tool you need for the job is basic knowledge when it comes to repairing things."
The maintenance guy stared at Puppet, then turned to Foxy and asked: "What's this guy's name, again? He's not on the registry, so I wouldn't know who he is."
"He's the Puppet, or the Marionette, but we just call him Puppet for short." Foxy replied.
"Don't forget that I'm the boss!" Puppet spoke up.
"The Puppet? Sounds vaguely familiar, but he isn't on the registry at all..." The man muttered.
"Might want to check the registry for any other locations besides Circus Baby's Pizza World." Foxy recommended. "He might show up in another one."
"Really?" The man flipped through the papers on his clipboard. "Oh, I see now! He's on the registry for a Freddy Fazbear's Pizza location. That makes sense- hey, wait! You guys were trying to kill me earlier! I'm not falling for this!" He put away the clipboard and took his wrench back out, waving it in defense once again.
And, as suddenly as this happened, Foxy changed once again. The primal urges snapped back into place, and he was back to being different.
"Think we would let you off so easily, eh?" He laughed. "You had us distracted for a moment there- but now, let's get back to business. Why conversate with you when we can just KILL you instead?! Come here!"
"Uh...well, you're still in my room!" Puppet added, after gazing at Foxy for a moment. "Get out of here!"
Foxy stepped forward again, and he backed the man down the area. The man, panicking, ran into the bathroom. Foxy ran after him and saw the man going into the shower, where he was cornered.
"I've got you now! Give it up!" Foxy yelled.
"How about THIS?!" The man exclaimed, turning the shower handle and causing water to gush out of the shower head. Foxy felt himself get drenched, but the water had no effect on him: he was waterproof and would only succumb to the water if he was in it for too long.
"Think you could electrocute me? Think again, human!"
"Damn it!" The man cursed, and he sprang back into defense. Foxy leapt at him, claws at the ready, but the man quickly ducked under his arms and ran out of the shower, skirting around Puppet and going out the doorway. Foxy and Puppet ran after him. "Take this! Get back!" He threw the plunger at them, which they both dodged. Then he threw the clipboard, which Puppet caught quickly.
"Thank you very much for the information! Now, let's get to the fun part where we extinguish your life!" Foxy called after him. Foxy ran after the man as they went into the TV room, where the man got to the ladder and hurriedly climbed up it. "Where do you think you're going, human?! The fun's only just begun! We're not finished with you!"
"Then try this!" The man yelled as he climbed up, and the pipe wrench dropped in from the hole and clunked onto the floor loudly, missing the animatronics completely. Foxy ignored it and grabbed the ladder, climbing up it himself. After some seconds, he reached the top and got into the auditorium, climbing out of the box.
But as he came in, he saw that the man was nowhere in sight.
"What?! Where'd he go?" Foxy yelled, looking around the room.
"Well, good job, looks like you managed to lose him." Puppet said a little disappointedly as he came out of the box himself.
"How, though? He has nowhere to run, and he could not have gotten far! We must find him!" Foxy commanded, but the primal instincts began to fade...and then Foxy gasped as if resurfacing from water. "Woah, I...I..."
"Foxy? What's up?" Puppet asked.
"Nothing. It's fine." Foxy reassured him, although he felt a little wonky now; he had a minor headache coming in, but he was otherwise okay. "Let's go find that guy. Where do we check?"
"Maybe the bathrooms. I'll check the boys', and you check the girls'." Puppet said.
"Ha ha, very funny. I'm not going in there."
"Fine, fine. I'll check the boys' real quick, then." Puppet went into the big hallway and looked in the boys' restroom. Foxy followed and waited by the doorway, and after Puppet came out, he remarked: "He's not in there, but the boys' restroom is all clean, actually. Toilet is still slightly bad, but everything else is a lot better. He actually did a pretty good job."
"Nice. Now, where could this guy be?"
"Want to ask Ballora if she's seen him? We could wake her up and-"
"No, no, definitely not. Ballora doesn't like being woken up if she's on standby mode; we'd just make her angry at us if we woke her up now."
"Fair enough. Let's get looking, then."
They fanned out and searched the place, but by the time they got to the front entrance of the building, both of them had to conclude that the man was nowhere to be found, and that the only likely answer left was that he had left the building entirely.
"He may have gotten away, but what's the worst that could happen?" Puppet wondered once they concluded that.
"Not sure, but we can be sure that he won't tell anyone." Foxy replied. "Not because nobody in town would believe him, but because he thinks they wouldn't believe him and decides not to tell. That's what I'm guessing he'll do, anyway. And even if he does tell, only the pranksters and superstitious people in town will believe him. Everyone else won't take him seriously. We should be safe."
"If you say so. What now?"
"I say we go check on Dinah real quick; make sure he's not slacking off or anything."
They agreed on this and walked over to the nearby kitchen, opening the door and letting themselves inside. Dinah was at the kitchen setup as usual, busying himself at the stoves and ovens.
"Hey, Dinah. We're just here to check up on you." Foxy explained, nodding. "How's the pizza coming along? Make any good progress this time?"
"Oh, hello! I am doing good, I suppose." Dinah greeted, smiling briefly before going into a concentrated frown. "But your advice to use carrot juice has not served me well. I attempted to make some to put on the pizza, but I ended up with something akin to carrot paste instead. Very disappointing results."
"You holding up through it all?" Puppet asked in a friendly manner. "You look pretty strained right now."
Dinah nodded. "Yes, very much. It is much more difficult than I previously thought to do this entire process."
"It's only one order, though. Is it really that hard?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Well, then you'd better keep trying. Soon enough, you'll figure things out." Foxy responded. "By the way, did you see anybody else come in here since our last visit here?"
"No, nothing of the sort. There has been nobody else here but me, my unfinished pizzas, and that man named 'Garbage' down in that hole in this kitchen."
"Not a single other person?"
"Of course not, unless you might count this one imaginary friend I have. Yet, I will admit it, and I am not ashamed to say this: I have an imaginary friend." Dinah pointed at a gingerbread house on the counter, where a small gingerbread man was resting against it. "I have named him Gingy! He is my friend in the gingerbread house. I have promised myself that I will attempt to make gingerbread men someday, but until then, this pre-made one will have to do. I do talk to him sometimes, too."
"Hmm. Whatever floats your boat, I guess." Puppet accepted. "But why's he all alone? Wouldn't you make him a friend?"
"I cannot, as you heard. But I will suffice as his friend. It may seem ridiculous to have an imaginary friend, and yes, it very much is- but he still helps me get by here. Looking at him and pretending to talk to him soothes my mind."
"You do that. I'm heading back to my room." Foxy blurted out. Suddenly, he felt like going back to sleep, and he headed towards the door. "See you later."
"Wait! Don't leave me here all alone!"
"Sorry, but I really do have to go. See you another time."
"Oh, alright. Goodbye, then..."
Foxy left the kitchen and headed for the doorway to his room. He saw Puppet pass by and waved at the marionette as they went. "Night, Puppet. See you tomorrow."
"Have a good one." Puppet replied, waving back to Foxy before he turned and left the room.
Foxy then went into his room, opened his curtains, and went into his cove. Now he was all alone, free to think to himself and not be bothered.
That was a weird encounter. He thought. A maintenance guy? First time I've ever seen one come here. Makes me wonder who else is going to come here for whatever reason.
"What does it matter? That was a failed attempt. You could have given me his body, but you let him escape. I am not impressed."
Foxy sighed. He had forgotten that the voice was still there. I tried my hardest, voice, and I wasn't doing that to help you out. He paused. Wait...was I? Nevermind, that's not the point. Besides, what would we have done if we had been able to snag his body? Throw you inside it?
"Precisely. We could've had you remove me from your head and transport me into the man's body. I would've taken care of the rest."
Are you sure that would've work? Do you even know if we could've done that?
"It is impossible to be sure, Foxy, but we would not know unless we tried. Not that it matters, since we have no body to work with at the time. Now that this night is over, I'm returning to my own devices. I will see you another time.
The voice went quiet. Foxy shook his head in annoyance, but simply continued on as if nothing was wrong: he closed his curtains and shut his eyes, prepared to get another round of sleep and contemplate other things...
Andrew breathed a sigh of relief as he arrived at home. He had completed his job at Circus Baby's Pizza World and was about to enter his house and meet with his family.
As he went up to the door and prepared to unlock it, he paused and contemplated on what had happened that night. He had been chased around by two animatronics, who were alive, and murderous as well. So the stories and rumors he had heard around town were true after all, it seemed...
Despite that, he was still shocked about what he had seen and had already vowed never to work at the place ever again. It was clearly a death trap, and it was a good thing that it was closed. Who knew how many people would be in danger if those machines would've been able to kill in a fully opened pizzeria?
Thank goodness it wasn't. Now he could quit working there, get different assignments in his maintenance job, and never have to think about it again. Still, he was unsure whether to tell anyone else what he had seen. Would anyone believe him?
...
No, of course not. While there were rumors, most in town were dead set on not believing them. Chances were, if he told anyone else what he saw, he would be called a liar or crazy. He didn't want to look like a lunatic, so maybe it was better to keep quiet. He said this in his mind as he unlocked the door and went inside his home, preparing himself to talk to his wife, Amy, and to check on the kids, who were likely still asleep.
Yes, it would be better not to tell. It would be better to lie and say that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, and that he had simply done his job and never wanted to work there again.
As long as he never went back there, nothing would happen. He would be safe. His family would be safe.
That was for the best.
At least, that was what he hoped.