flash

The Faz Cam's flash managed to stun all three endoskeletons that were arrayed in a semicircle blocking off the tunnel, and Gregory and Roxy both edged past them to continue on. The wolf looked down at him as they ran. "Hey, kiddo... does the fact that they freeze when you're looking at them creep you out as much as it does me?" she asked.

He nodded. "Probably more."

They paused at an intersection, and found Freddy standing further down the tunnels, waving at them. "Be careful!" he called out. "They are hiding in the side rooms!"

Gregory glanced over his shoulder, finding the trio of endos they'd passed had already recovered and had made it halfway to them already. "Crap!" he yelped. "We're gonna get surrounded at this rate!"

"Kid, gimme your camera," Roxy said. "You use the blaster."

He handed the Freddy-themed camera over. "Are you sure you don't want the blaster?"

"My programming won't let me use it. A countermeasure for cheaters in Fazer Blast."

"Ugh, this company..." he muttered, quickly turning his head between the three endos and the hallway they needed to get down. "Will the flash stun you too?"

"Shouldn't affect me too much if I'm on this end of it. But if it does, keep moving- don't worry about me."

"Okay." He brought the blaster up to the ready. "Freddy, we're coming! Keep your head down so we don't zap you!"

"I understand!" came the reply. With that, Roxy and Gregory went back-to-back, with the boy being sure to keep an eye on those three endoskeletons so that they couldn't get too close. He heard a door open behind him-

flash

-and turned to see a pair of endos slumped over, barely a foot away from him. "Agh, that hurt!" Roxy groaned. "C'mon, Gregory, keep up the pace!"

He did so, bringing his blaster up to stun another endo that had been creeping up on her. "Run for it!" he said, sprinting ahead and hearing her heavy footfalls just behind him, the two of them dashing towards the room Freddy and Chica were in. Inside they found a disturbing sight- Freddie pinned to the wall, two endoskeletons holding his arms up, while four more surrounded Chica, who had her back to a wall and a large bag clutched protectively to her chest. "What the heck are they doing?" he wondered, before remembering to check behind him- seeing now half a dozen more endos practically piled up in the hallway, blocking all escape.

"I do not know!" came Freddy's answer. "I have never seen them do this before!"

"Crap! I can't keep an eye on all of them at once!" Quickly, he worked out a possible solution. "Roxy, get ready!" he said, bringing his blaster up and placing a shot in the eyes of each endo keeping Freddy pinned. "Freddy, go! Chica, your turn!" Four more shots stunned the ones surrounding her, and she sprang to her feet, pushing past her captors. "Roxy, now! Hit the ones blocking us!"

flash "Ow! Okay, go!"

"Freddy, clear us a path!"

The bear set himself, then charged forward into the crowd of endos blocking the way out, shoulder-checking them into a pair of heaps on either side of the corridor. Immediately the others followed in his footsteps, Chica letting out a yelp as one suddenly reached out for her, pulling one of her shoulderpads off but fortunately unable to catch her. Gregory took Freddy's hand and turned his head, keeping all of the endoskeletons in view until they had rounded a corner. Roxy stayed behind one moment to point the camera around the corner and hit the endos with one more flash. "Ow! Oh, come on!" she grunted. "Next time we go by the gift shop, I'm getting some shades!"

Their escape, however, would not be so easy. Gregory skidded to a stop, falling on his rear, letting out a yelp as he spotted a pair of glowing red eyes at the far end of the corridor. "It's her! The rabbit-lady!"

Both Chica and Freddy looked around in confusion. "I guess I really can't see her," Chica said.

"I can, and she's got a knife." Roxy took one step forward, then stopped. "Agh! My systems identify her as a human! I can't attack her!"

Gregory could already feel his head starting to pound, his vision warping as the costumed woman skipped towards them. Freddy raised a hand. "Roxy! Get Gregory out of here! Chica and I will do what we can to delay her!"

"We will?!" came Chica's surprised response as Roxy grabbed Gregory's shoulder and led him down another corridor.

"This way, kid!" Roxy led him down a number of corridors, each seemingly more dark and dingy than the last. "Okay, this should be safe for a bit," she said, coming to a stop next to a row of forklifts, leaning against one. "Take a break, catch your breath."

He did so, hopping into the seat of the forklift. "How'd you know about this place?" he asked.

"I heard that some of the younger employees sneak back here to have..." Her voice trailed off, and she glanced down at him, then away. "Uh... lunch together. Anyway. It's outside the view of any cameras, and it's not even on the map-"

"Greeeeegoryyyyyy..."

"Are you kidding me?!" Roxy looked up. "Kid, let me drive!"

Gregory immediately vacated the driver's seat, and Roxy leaped in, flooring the pedal. The forklift didn't do anything interesting like spin its wheels, but it did get moving at a decent speed, and when the rabbit woman suddenly lunged from around the corner with her knife swinging towards Roxy's head, the blade instead smacked against the forklift's rear roof support beam, throwing sparks everywhere. "You know how to drive a forklift?!" Gregory yelped, hanging onto the front beam for dear life.

"If it's got wheels, I can drive it!" Roxy swerved around a stack of pallets. "Bunny girl can eat my dust!"

He took a glance behind them, and gasped. "She's got her own forklift!" he yelped, watching as the costumed woman cut a turn around the same obstacle Roxy had just evaded.

"Oh, she wants to race, huh? Bring it on!" Roxy leaned forward, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She was definitely the better driver, but Gregory could see that the other forklift was faster in the straightaway, probably because it wasn't bearing the weight of a large robot. As a result, Roxy just couldn't quite lose their pursuer. "Hang on, I see Chica up ahead!" she shouted. "I've got an idea! Hold on tight, kid- we're picking up a hitchhiker!"

And there she was past the next corner, the chicken having at some point lost the bundle she was carrying, running ahead of three endoskeletons that seemed to be chasing her. "Hold on, Chica, we're coming!" Gregory shouted.

Chica didn't look back, though with how close the endos were to her, she probably didn't dare. Skillfully, Roxy twisted the wheel left then right, bringing the forklift into a skid wide enough to smash all four endos out of the way, then straightened out just in time for her to reach out with her damaged arm and grab Chica's forearm; the chicken managed to pull herself up onto one of the forklift's skids. "How is that forklift running by itself?!"she shouted.

"Bunny girl is driving it!" Roxy answered, pulling Gregory's Faz Cam up from where it hung around her neck. "Take a picture for the newsletter!"

Chica managed to catch the tossed camera, then looked back behind them, her eyes going wide. "Gregory, look out!" she shouted, reaching out to push him into Roxy's side- just as a wide metal blade speared past where his head had been and into the casing of her upper arm, cracking a good portion of it. The blow took her off-balance, and the hand that had been holding onto the forklift's lift arm slipped; she let out a squawk of panic as she she began to fall- towards what promised to be a devastating impact with the costumed woman's forklift, now barely a couple feet away, its forks raised to strike at them.

Faster than he thought possible, Gregory moved, pressing his chest against the front beam and grabbing Chica's arm with both of his hands, pulling for all he was worth. The forklift groaned as Roxy twisted the steering wheel, forcing it up onto two wheels and helping arrest Chica's fall just long enough for Gregory to bring her back from the brink; the chicken practically slammed into the beam, bracing her feet on the side of the forklift and wrapping her arm around Gregory to steady herself as Roxy let the forklift drop back down onto all four wheels.

Somehow, Chica had kept her grip on the camera, and with a shout of "Smile for the birdie!", she brought it up and pushed the shutter button.

flash

The costumed woman let out a cry, immediately swerving into a stack of cardboard boxes and decorations, ending up rolling over onto its side. With their pursuer lost, Roxy dropped some speed, letting Gregory climb back into the cab while Chica hung onto the side. "Chica, are you okay?" Gregory asked.

"It hurts, but I didn't lose any function. But we have to find Freddy! He and I got separated by the endos!"

"Hang on, I'll call him." He tapped at his Fazwatch. "Freddy, where are you?"

"I have returned to Parts and Services. Have you seen Chica? She and I were separated."

"She's with us. We managed to lose the lady in the rabbit costume too. I don't think she's out of action, though."

"I see. You should all return here."

"Okay. Be careful, Freddy- bunny lady knows that you guys are helping me now, and since you and Chica still can't see her, there's no telling what she might try to do to you."

"That is... not entirely encouraging. I will do what I can."

The connection ended, and Gregory leaned forward, looking past Roxy to examine Chica. The chicken's right upper arm had taken a serious blow from the other forklift's blade; a chunk of the white plastic had been torn away, and the underlying endoskeleton had a deep gouge cut into it. "Chica, are you okay?" he asked.

"Huh?" He appeared to have broken her out of her thoughts, and she met his gaze. "I'm fine. Are you okay? That lady almost took your head off!"

"I'm okay." He gave her a smile. "You saved my life, Chica. Thanks."

"Hey, I think you saved mine too." She reached over to pat his head, then looked over to her fellow robot. "Roxy, what happened to your arm? What's been going on? Freddy only had time to tell me that we can't trust Monty."

Roxy gave her a quick rundown of what had happened as she navigated the forklift back towards Parts and Service. "So we downgraded him just like with you and me, but the instant he finished rebooting he attacked us. Almost took Gregory's face off."

"But... shouldn't that have cleared the corrupted code? He shouldn't be able to attack a human now!"

"He's running a later version of FazOS than any of us. I don't know if that's the difference, but it's weird at any rate."

"That's strange, yeah..." She went quiet as Roxy slowed the forklift to a stop not far from the main Parts and Service area.

"Everyone remember where we parked," the wolf snickered as she got out of her seat. Chica and Gregory followed her back to the protective chamber, next to which Freddy stood with Chica's bundle slung over one shoulder. At the sight of them, Freddy unslung the bundle and set it on a nearby toolchest.

"What is that?" Gregory asked.

Freddy reached into the bundle and withdrew a small piece of blue-colored hard plastic. "It is Bonnie's casing," he replied.

"Yeah, I'd just found it when the endos started coming after me," Chica said. "I think they were trying to stop me for some reason."

"Do you think the lady in the bunny costume made them do it?" Gregory asked.

"Could be. I think I saw a small purple rabbit head painted on the back of one of them."

"That complicates things," Freddy murmured. "We must exercise extreme caution, all of us. None of us are safe from her at this point. But in the meantime..." He turned towards Gregory. "Superstar, we need your help. We cannot reassemble Bonnie ourselves; a human must perform the procedure." He paused a moment as Roxy muttered something about "robot uprising". "It is somewhat more complicated than the upgrade you performed on me, but I know you can do it. Will you help us?"

Gregory nodded. "Of course I will."

Chica knelt down to hug him tightly. "Thank you!" she chirped. "I've missed Bonnie so much."

"Yeah, we all have." Roxy tousled Gregory's hair. "You're doing us a big favor here, winner. It really hurt all of us when Bonnie disappeared."

"He is the heart of our group," Freddy continued. "I am sure you will like him." He turned. "I have selected a new endoskeleton to use. I do not believe our opponent has compromised this one. We can begin when you are ready, Gregory."

The boy took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Let's do it."

"Prechecks complete. Personality version match between source and target; file transfer aborted."

"Okay, uh... what's that mean?" Gregory asked.

Outside the protective chamber, Freddy spoke up. "It means that his personality was not altered before he was decommissioned. You may remove the thumb drive."

"Oh, okay." The boy did so, then tapped a couple of the buttons on the repair machine, watching as it began attaching the dark-purple plastic shell pieces to the bare endoskeleton. He'd been reassured that, without the malicious code that had been injected into the programming of the others, Bonnie would be no threat if Gregory made a mistake during the repairs- but just to be on the safe side, he made sure to match the recommended procedure all along the way. The other three robots stood outside the chamber, watching intently as their companion in the chair slowly but surely was transformed from a creepy, generic robotic figure into a tall anthropomorphic rabbit.

Gregory wouldn't have said so out loud, but when he'd first proposed the idea of reconstructing Bonnie, the idea of getting more information out of him meant a lot more than just returning him to his friends- but seeing their expectant, worried expressions made him realize just how important Bonnie was to them, and with how much Gregory had come to care for them, he now wanted nothing more than to see them all reunited.

Finally, after the last piece of Bonnie's casing had been applied and welded on, the disembodied voice of the repair robot spoke up again. "Procedure complete. Battery charge at 25%. Initializing servos. Rebooting operating system."

There was a sharp electric-sounding snap, and the robot's form relaxed, sinking into the chair. After a moment, his eyes opened, blinking rapidly for a few seconds and looking around, his gaze settling on his friends outside the chamber. "Freddy...?" he murmured, his voice a fair bit more high-pitched than Freddy's with a mild Australian twang. "Roxy? Chica? Where... where am I?" He seemed to take stock of his surroundings, then glanced down at Gregory. "Well, hi there, boyo. What are you doing down here? This area's off-limits to guests; you could get hurt."

As he stood, Gregory got a better look at his design. The only "clothing" he was decorated with was what looked like an open leather vest design incorporated into his torso, along with black, elbow-length fingerless "gloves". The tips of his long ears draped forward, lending an easy-going, approachable look to him, complimented by the natural smile formed by the shape of his face.

Gregory turned as the chamber door opened, to see Chica immediately rush in to practically tackle Bonnie in a hug, with Roxy and Freddy close behind. "Bonnie!" Chica exclaimed. "You're back! You're back!"

"I'm back, Cheeks. But, how..." He shook his head. "Wait. Where's Monty?"

"That is, err... a complication," Freddy replied. "Bonnie, we have some things we need to ask you about what happened before you were decommissioned."

"Wait. 'Decommissioned'? Who told you I was decommissioned?"

"The company did, of course."

"Ugh. They would." Bonnie shook his head, leveling his gaze on Freddy. "You all need to keep away from Monty. He's dangerous."

Roxy bridled. "What happened?"

"The company didn't put me out of commission. He did."