A/N: Hey all, just popping in to say I've made some changes to the events between Bonnie and Monty, and some changes to Bonnie's appearance based on more accurate depictions and theories that were very recently released. It's given me a lot more plot ideas! I think I forgot to announce this when I first released this chapter, so I'm very sorry for any confusion this caused!
CAUTIONARY REBOOT... STARTING
STARTUP CHECKS INITIATED...
CHARGE LEVEL: 74%
EMERGENCY POWER RESERVES: 100%
CORE SYSTEMS AND FUNCTIONS: ONLINE 93%;
- MINOR DAMAGE SUSTAINED TO CONTROL SERVO A2, LOCATION: ENDO TORSO...
- VOICEBOX DISCONNECTED; THREE WIRES UNPLUGGED FROM THROAT PIPE...
- COMMUNICATOR MODULE DAMAGED... SIGNAL BOOSTER DISCONNECTED...
NERVE, SYNAPTIC AND NEURAL CONNECTIONS: ONLINE 100%
AUXILIARY SYSTEMS: OFFLINE
BALANCING SENSORS: ONLINE 78%; DAMAGE TO PROPRIETARY SENSOR CPU; MAINTENANCE REQUIRED...
CHEST CAVITY HYDRAULICS: ONLINE 100%
VENTILATION: OPEN; IMMEDIATE CLEARANCE REQUIRED...
OPTICS: ONLINE 100%
AUDIO AND OTHER SENSORY RECEPTORS: ONLINE 100%
EXTERIOR CONDITION: OKAY; DAMAGE TO RIGHT ARM, LEGS, HEAD, LEFT EAR... MAINTENANCE REQUIRED...
RUNNING SCAN AND BACK-UP OF MEMORY...
DONE... MEMORIES SUCCESSFULLY BACKED UP...
OVERALL SYSTEM CONDITIONS: GOOD 74%; MAINTENANCE REQUIRED...
BOOTING...
Bonnie slowly opened his eyes to be faced with dark plastic. The light from the sewer roof was seeping through the cracks, and his entire body felt hot. Quickly he shoved whatever was on top of him, off, straining under the weight. He was unsure how long he'd been in rest mode, but it seemed that more trash had been dumped down the chute since he'd fell, and had covered him.
That was why his ventilation warning had said 'Immediate Clearance Required'. He gasped for air once he'd finally gotten all the trash bags off his body, and pulled himself up. His entire body felt stiff and aching. He had a mild feeling of dizziness, and his upper body felt heavy and hard to move.
His entire case was covered in dirt and scratches. His left ear had been crushed under the weight of the trash, the case heavily cracked with large chunks taken out of the case. Luckily, from what his reboot cycle had told him, this damage was all fixable. All he had to do, was figure out where he was.
Letting his eyes focus, Bonnie looked around the large chamber he was in. large metal pipes snaked across the walls into the ceiling. Two very old looking security doors sat at the front side of the chamber, with the right one piled up and covered by countless bin bags and scrapped staff bots. It was eerie down here, with very little light.
Activating his eye-lights, Bonnie pulled up what would have been his mini-map of the Pizzaplex up across his field of view. However, nothing was showing up. He could still see the time, the date, and other minor pieces of information, but the mini-map was completely blank.
He dismissed it, letting out a sigh, wincing in pain a little as he stepped forward. His leg still hurt quite badly, sending shocks of pain through his body, but eventually he knew it would subside, so he pressed on, limping towards the one security door that wasn't covered.
"Hel-lo-o?" Bonnie asked out. Of course, his voice box wasn't plugged in properly anymore. His voice sounded like he was talking through a really old walkie-talkie. It echoed through the chamber, but no response came.
The old security door screeched and creaked as it lifted itself open for the large animatronic, and once it stopped, about three-quarters of the way up, he crouched under it, bring himself into a new much longer hallway, with another security door at the other end. Trash was in here too, pilled up against the walls. It looked like it accumulated here over time much longer than the Pizzaplex had been open.
Taking his time to make sure he didn't trip with his Proprietary Sensor CPU being offline, Bonnie strolled through the hall, his eyes illuminating every dark and festering corner. Staff Bot hands and heads stuck out of the trash and rubble like suffering souls from the pits of hell, and the smell was awful. Years of rotting food and who knows what else, mixed with a damp, musty smell.
The place was huge, as most of the places in the Pizzaplex were, although this seemed overkill. His heavy, limping footsteps echoed around the empty hall. The silence was churning his insides. Something felt off down here.
He passed through the other door, and came to a metal catwalk, mounted to the wall on the side of another large room. This one was filled with dark, stagnant water, almost like the pipes has sprung some sort of a leak, and had filled the room. The smell was only getting worse the further in he got.
The catwalk creaked under his weight as he carefully made his way along the metal walkway, towards a tall yellow gate, closed with what looked to be some sort of voice recognition lock.
This dark room was lit with very dim yellow-ish lights, and there were enormous vats hanging from the ceiling. He could hear the building settling, unseen steel creaking and groaning as it settled. He had no idea just how far down he was. When he fell, it felt like he was falling forever, so who knew just how long it'd take for him to get back up.
"W-Woaah!" Bonnie exclaimed. The section of the walkway below him buckled and fell away, and he'd barely managed to get himself onto the more stable part before it splashed into the disgusting water below. It wasn't like normal water though. It had the viscosity of a thick soup, and it bubbled as the platform piece sunk into it.
Bonnie clutched his chest, looking off the edge whilst trying to calm his breathing. This place must have been left to fester for years before now. He swallowed nervously before picking himself up, ignoring the pain in his legs as he did. Using the handrail for support, Bonnie trod carefully around the rest of the catwalk, before finally making it to the safety of the concrete where the gate was.
He took a moment to look over the gate, taking in all its details. Voice recognition might've worked before, but with his busted voice box, he had no chance now. So, taking a step back, Bonnie shoulder barged into the gate, smashing the lock and almost knocking the gate out of the weak wall mounts that housed it.
It clattered to the floor and let out ear-ripping scraping sounds as Bonnie trod over it, walking into the next hall, another long, round tunnel. This walkway looked a lot more stable than the one he'd just faced, and even if he fell, the drop was only about a foot, down into dirt and rubble.
It was much quieter in this area, but the faint humming of an air-con unit filled the emptiness. There were wires sticking and hanging from the walls, some sparking, some covered in mould, clearly having been there for much longer than others. The old brick walls the surrounding tunnel was made of had fallen away in some places, laying haphazardly across the walkway.
With a sigh, Bonnie pulled up the rehearsal tab within the 'Practice Mode Menu' and selected the 'Play Freddy Fazbears Mega Pizzaplex Theme'. In turn, the main theme of the establishment began quietly playing through a little speaker just below where his voicebox was.
The little tune instantly boosted his mood, and he felt the dismay inside him slowly begin falling away. Humming with his broken voice, Bonnie navigated the tunnels, heading deeper and deeper into the disgusting facility.
Freddy sat on his sofa, leaning his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands. He'd played it cool at the time, for Monty's sake, but he too was concerned as to why Monty had his glasses. Perhaps Bonnie had dropped them, and Monty found them when heading back to Rockstar Row, but in his condition, Freddy doubted that was all there was to the situation.
The brown bear let out a sigh and dragged his hand down his face. Monty had been taken to Parts and Service about an hour ago for repairs, which left Freddy, Chica and Roxanne to only assume what had happened to him.
It was then that movement out in the main hall of Rockstar Row caught Freddy's attention. He glanced up through his open curtains, but after processing what he'd seen he stared out at the S.T.A.F.F Bot, unlocking one of the glass display cases with Bonnie's guitar in its hands. Quickly he jumped up from his sofa and hurried out of his room.
"Stop!" He called, hopping over the queue ropes outside his room and over to the bot, snatching Bonnie's guitar from its absent clutches and holding it close.
"Where did you get this?" He asked, stepping away from the bot and looking down at the guitar. It wasn't in the same condition Bonnie's glasses were. It was spotless excluding the tiny amount of wear around the edges.
"I was ordered by Management to put Bonnie's guitar here, in this display case, until further notice." It responded in the usual lazy text-to-speech voice. Freddy frowned thoughtfully at the floor.
"Why? This is Bonnie's... He needs this to perform does he not?" Freddy asked, looming over the S.T.A.F.F Bot with unintentional anger.
"Bonnie is no longer performing." The bot responded, before turning its desolate eyes away from Freddy and towards the pinkish-red and white guitar, reaching for it. Freddy recoiled, stepping away from the S.T.A.F.F Bot again
"Please return the guitar." It requested carelessly, looking back up to Freddy and pulling its arm back in a stiff and mechanical fashion.
"No. I am keeping this in my room. If there is a problem with that, Management can come and request it directly from me." Freddy ordered. Unlike the others, as the main face of the entire legendary franchise, he had higher authority than his friends and was able to order the S.T.A.F.F Bots around, to a certain degree.
The bot said nothing, turning from Freddy and wheeling away, its motors quietly humming as it did. He stared after it before looking down at the guitar in his hands, letting out a heavy sigh.
Bonnie is no longer performing... Monty was damaged and holding his glasses... His communicator is shut off... Something is not right here, something must have happened to him. Freddy thought to himself. His nerves only grew the more time passed. What could he do? What if his friend was in danger right now and he was just standing here doing nothing!
Even if he wanted to do something, he couldn't. Tomorrow they had another few birthdays booked before the place closed for the bank holiday, so they had to take today to charge, and prepare for the work ahead. After that, Freddy wanted to go looking for Bonnie, and he wanted the others to help too. Together, they could split up, and do a complete sweep of the location in one night.
For now, he had to keep this hidden from Roxanne and Chica. If they saw this, and they knew what the S.T.A.F.F Bot had told him, they would never be able to focus on the show tomorrow. As for Monty, Freddy has a suspicious feeling about him. He was damaged, and had Bonnie's glasses in his possession, and he didn't remember anything about what had happened to him, and how he'd got them. It didn't add up.
Firing a glance over his shoulder, Freddy quickly rushed back to his room, holding the guitar close to his chest as he went. Maybe he could ask Monty when he got back from his repairs.
"Are the repairs completed yet, Zac?" Joshua asked, not looking at the Parts and Service worker manning the computer. His eyes were instead fixed on the man and woman inside the Protective cylinder, finishing the final internal repairs on Monty.
"Yeah... External repairs were finished a while ago, but the main CPU was almost hit when Bonnie punched him... He'd almost broken through the back of Monty's head, so we would've been down thousands if he'd hit any harder." Zac explained.
"That doesn't matter, what matters is that the retrieval team find Bonnie's remains, and get that chip back, that's the main thing we need. If we can't get that back, we'll still lose thousands by having to create a new one." Joshua explained, his face stern, and his tone unforgiving.
"I understand Sir." He replied. A thumbs up from the woman inside the Protective Cylinder signalled that the repairs had been completed, so, Zac clicked the 'Repairs Complete' button on the screen, and the Protective Cylinder door slowly slid open.
As the two workers left the Cylinder, Monty's body shook a little, before his eyelids opened. He looked around for a moment, before sitting up with a groan, swinging his legs off the seat and pushing himself to his feet.
"I did what you asked," Monty stated, looking over to Joshua as he walked out of the Protective Cylinder. "You gonna keep to your part of the deal?" Monty grumbled, frowning down at Joshua.
"That depends... Do the others know what you did?" He asked, folding his arms across his chest.
"No, they don't have a clue... I acted like nothin' happened." Monty stated, straightening his posture, standing almost two feet above Joshua.
"Good." Joshua smirked. "Marketing has already started replacing Bonnie with you on our posters and signs." He smiled, before turning away and walking towards the exit to Parts and Service.
"What about the Golf Course? You said it'd be turned into the main attraction if I pulled this off." Monty added sternly.
"It is, Bonnie Bowl is already closed off and the signs are being taken down already. You'll be even more popular than Bonnie after this, don't you worry." Joshua scoffed.
"However, we still don't have Bonnie's Personality Chip, which was part of our side of the deal. So, if you really want your place as the main performer solidified, you'll find him, and bring the chip to me. "He added, smiling over his shoulder at Monty before continuing out the door.
Monty stared after him, before looking down at the trolley beside the computer. Bonnie's glasses were there. Finally, his name would be appreciated. He wasn't just gonna stay some side character under Bonnie's shadow. He deserved the spotlight, and now he'd been rewarded for his skills.
He could see it already. His name in lights not only in Rockstar Row, but all over the Pizzaplex! Families would be flocking to his attraction, and his Green Room, asking for autographs and photos. Eventually Bonnie would be nothing, and Montgomery Gator would have his fair share of fame.
Reaching down to the table, Monty grasped the glasses in his hands, unfolding them and sliding them carefully onto his snout.
"Rock' n' roll." He chanted. It sounded much better when he said it. Now though, he'd gotten what he was promised, and he could move on from this ideal. All he had to do was keep up the confused act a little longer, and the others would forget anything had ever happened.
It was all too easy, and all he had to do was terminate a worn out rabbit. Walking back towards his Service Elevator, Monty hummed to himself, cracking his knuckles as he headed up the stairs and entered the lift. There was no Freddy and the others suspected anything, but if they did, he'd be able to put that unease to rest with minimal effort. They had no evidence anyway.
The catchy elevator jingle played out, but Monty's mind was too full of himself. He drummed his hands on his legs to the beat of his golf course theme song, humming along to the beat he was making as the lift carried him back up to his green room. The quiet whirr of the lift eventually grew silent, and the doors slid open to reveal his Green Room Storage Area. However, he wasn't the only one there now. Chica was standing there, her hands on her hips and a stern expression on her face.
Monty froze, startled by the sight of his fellow performer, but he quickly shook himself and smiled.
"Hey Chica." He smiled, raising his new glasses and winking at her.
"Are they... Bonnie's glasses...?" Chica muttered, her face falling as her hands did to her sides.
"What?" He asked, frowning at her with fake confusion before looking down his nose. "Oh these!" He exclaimed, grabbing them and removing them from his snout.
"Yeah... Joshua gave 'em to me when my repairs were done." He explained, brandishing the glasses before sliding them back onto his face. She stared at him, baffled, glancing at the floor thoughtfully, before looking back at him.
"W... Why?" She asked again. Monty shrugged.
"I'm not sure... I said I'd take them back to Bonnie, but they said was giving 'em to me..." Monty muttered, clapping his hands together and sighing.
"You don't know what happened to Bonnie... Do you? I haven't heard from him in a while..." Monty added, using the glasses to hide the nerves in his eyes.
Sure, he wasn't the dimmest light in the building, but he also definitely wasn't the brightest, and something else Joshua had told him was that these would be perfect for hiding his eyes from the others since that's how they all mainly tell how the others are feeling.
However, he knew it wouldn't work against Roxanne. She'd had an ocular upgrade to help her with winning races, but it also, for whatever reason, allowed her to see through some objects. Things like curtains and mirrored glass windows.
"No... Well, I've not seen him since yesterday... His communicator is down so none of us can get in touch with him... It's not like him at all..." Chica muttered, looking down at the floor, full of sadness. Monty felt his insides twitch, and his facade begin to crumble away. It felt wrong lying to Freddy and the others, but if they knew what he'd done, it'd only ruin his chances of having his face in the spotlight with them.
"Maybe he'd been retired..." Monty suggested, trying to drop a little hint to his friend about what'd happened, whilst missing any details involving him.
"W-What! You think he's been decommissioned? Why would you even think that?" Chica asked, now looking even more hurt than before. Monty panicked, reaching out to her and putting his arm around her.
"No, no! I don't mean anythin' bad by it, just... Be realistic... He's doing the same amount of work, costing the company the same amount of money, yet he's not really gettin' 'em much of a profit, not with us being the main ones on the stage." He explained.
"Y'know how Management is... Maybe you should try conciderin' the option... It's not an impossible scenario." The gator said softly, rubbing her shoulder as he walked past her and into his Green Room.
"I-I... That can't be true, there's no way they'd do that to Bonnie... He's apparently been a main face of the franchise for decades! They couldn't just..." She stuttered, waving her hands passionately as she spoke.
"Chica! Chica, calm down will ya? Look, that's just what I think happened. I'm almost never right 'bout this stuff tho, am I? I mean, I can't even remember my own name half the time." Monty joked, smacking the back of his head. Chica sighed and giggled, shaking her head.
"I guess so... It just... I don't like thinking about it..." She muttered.
"Well... Then don't?" Monty responded with a chortle.
"Look, if you wanna be askin' anyone about Bonnie, Vanessa's ya gal." He stated, turning away from her and slumping down in his coach with a heavy sigh, grabbing his bass as he did and lifting it into his lap to tune it.
He watched Chica closely over the top of his new star-shaped shades. She had one arm across her chest and the other rested against her chin. Her brow was furrowed thoughtfully and she tapped her foot as she stared at the floor.
"Okay..." She muttered. "Thanks Monty... I'll see you later on! Gotta be bushy-tailed for work tomorrow!" She exclaimed, her concerned face crumbling into a beaming smile as she almost skipped out of his room.
He smiled after her, but as soon as the door had closed, the smile he was putting on, disappeared. It hurt him, seeing Chica so upset, and he knew it would bother him seeing Freddy and Monty in a similar state, but the change was good, and eventually, they'd be grateful to him for shedding old weight. Hopefully...
Bonnie had been walking for what felt like forever. Thankfully, with most secondary functions disabled, he'd saved quite a bit of power, but getting to the place he was right now had still used up a good ten percent.
The room he was in now was another huge one. It looked like the rehearsal room in the main building, but larger, and older. There were ice cream carts scattered here and there, mould-covered and scratched. Small piles of rubble lay in front of little holes in the surrounding walls, and more wires protruded from the spaces.
There was trash, even this deep in the facility he was in, as well as S.T.A.F.F Bots that didn't even look like they'd been broken down for that long. This place didn't feel as abandoned as it had at first, and it gave Bonnie the feeling of being watched, even though the bots were well and truly dead.
He'd had the stage song on repeat and had heard it play over about five times at this point, and it was beginning to wear on his audio receptors. So, stopping the music, he allowed himself too, to stop, and rest.
His shoulders twitched as he set himself down on the floor, leaning against one of the ice cream carts as carefully as he could. His damaged servos had been giving him grief the entire trip here, occasionally sending his upper body and torso into small fits of subtle twitching because of him still moving around whilst it was damaged, but luckily it wouldn't worsen the condition of the already broken servo.
His chassis groaned as he let himself lean back into the cart, its old wheels squeaking and bending slightly after being moved for the first time in years. With a sigh, Bonnie opened his eyes again and looked around the place with heavy eyelids. It felt like he'd gone forwards in time, to a universe where the entire Pizzaplex had been abandoned for centuries. That's what this entire basement felt like.
The ambient hum of nearby air-con units made him feel even more lonely. He didn't have his guitar, and he didn't have his communicator to keep in touch with his friends. He was completely alone and isolated, two things that he hated more than anything.
The one thing that he couldn't shake from his mind, besides the fact that he might not see his friends ever again, was that it was Monty who'd done this to him.
He always thought he and Monty were good friends. The two of them worked with the company's music team to make the music for Monty's golf course, and Bonnie used to teach him all his little tips and tricks to playing bass, so why! Why would Monty do this to him after all they'd been through, and after all Bonnie had done for him. It made no sense...
He just wanted to go back to how things were before, even if it meant he had to stay in Bonnie Bowl, and wouldn't be able to perform on the main stage, he didn't care. All he wanted was to be back with his friends. He missed them so much already, and he really missed Roxanne.
He was worried about her. He had been ever since he'd rebooted. As usual, she was the first thing on his mind, and he wanted to know if she was okay. If only he could get his Signal Booster back online, he might be able to reach one of his friends for help.
It was then, on looking about the place again, Bonnie noticed the broken down S.T.A.F.F Bots. One of them had to have been an old Maintenance Bot. If he could find one of them, he would be able to get himself open and reconnect the Signal Booster. However, there was a reason animatronics weren't allowed to do self-maintenance.
He was heavy-handed, for one, and his claws would also be lethal if they caught another wire somewhere in his chest. He had to try though. With secondary functions offline, his power would last a few days if he didn't move too much. That would give him plenty of time to get his booster online again, and get hold of one of his friends to rescue him and get him to a charging station.
For now, though, he needed to rest again. His entire body felt like it was aching, no doubt thanks to the damaged control servo. Even minor damage could hinder movement by quite a bit, and that was exactly what was happening to him.
It would be okay though, it always was. He was stronger than this, and a little wear and tear wasn't going to put him in the scrap heap. He just needed a little rest, so he could tackle the challenges ahead.