November 13th, 1987 - 2 AM
"Are you guys alright?" asked Freddy.
Bonnie and Chica both turned to look at him, slowly.
"Fred?" said Bonnie. "Uh- Freddy?"
"I feel very, very strange," said Chica.
"Are we...alive?" asked Freddy.
November 13th, 1987 - 11:00 AM
9 hours later
It was a gloomy day in Hurricane, Utah. Freddy Fazbear's Pizza had been booked for a child's birthday party. The day before, five children had been reported missing, last seen inside the restaurant. As a result, police were brought in to investigate the establishment and interrogate the employees.
"What kind of monster would do something so horrible?" Mr. Fazz asked an officer, shaking his head. "And here of all places..."
"Well, sir, we were hoping you would know something about that," replied the officer. "We have security camera footage of a yellow rabbit character walking around the restaurant, and it seems like your camera system was manually shut off around 7:47 PM last night. What's interesting is that it says here that all of the characters here are listed as being robots, but the yellow character was clearly a human in a suit."
Mr. Fazz looked up at the officer, frowning. "Wait, did you say a yellow rabbit costume?"
The officer raised his eyebrows. "Do you have any information about this, sir?"
"N-no, no. I just-we don't have a yellow bunny suit, is all I'm saying," said Mr. Fazz. "Quite i-intriguing."
"So just to confirm, you know absolutely nothing about the existence of such a suit?" asked the officer. "We're only trying to help you here, Mr. Fazz."
Mr. Fazz mentally sighed. He couldn't tell anybody about the springlock suits. That would ruin him. "To my knowledge, no."
"Alright. I'm going to go interrogate your other employees," said the officer, standing up. "It's been a pleasure, Mr. Fazz." The officer extended his hand out to Fazz, who begrudgingly shook the officer's hand.
"Hey, uh, you're not going to shut us down, are you?" asked Mr. Fazz. "We've got a bunch of birthdays planned."
"We'll see," said the officer.
Mr. Fazz pondered what was going to happen to his restaurant as the officer stepped out of Fazz's office. Meanwhile, over in the dining area of the restaurant, the technicians had finished preparing Freddy Fazbear and the gang for a show.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Fazbear Entertainment would like you to put your hands together for the one, the only, Freddy Fazbear!" announced a robotic voice from the show stage speakers.
The stage curtains opened to reveal the band. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica were all just staring straight ahead at the wall, frozen in place. The children looked around uncomfortably. Nearly ten seconds passed by like this before a nearby employee stepped up on the stage, saying, "Just hold on a minute here, folks-"
Suddenly, Freddy's eyes lit up, causing the employee to nearly fall off the stage out of shock. The animatronic immediately leaned down to look at the children in the crowd with a huge, forced grin on his face. It looked as though something inside of him was trying to fight the movements. It wasn't normal in the slightest. "Hey kids! Are you all ready to have a fun time?"
"Yeah!" yelled the children.
"Great!" the bear's voice boomed. "Who's the...the…" his voice faltered and eyes began to darken.
"Folks, we seem to be experiencing major technical difficulties. Please sit tight, we'll figure something out-" the employee.
"Who's the birthday boy?" asked Bonnie loudly, finishing Freddy's sentence.
"I am!" yelled a small child from the crowd, raising his hand.
"Fantastic! W-what's your name?" chimed in Chica, who had not moved at all from her position on the stage.
"My name is Oswald," said the child. "I'm gonna be six years old!"
The animatronics all stared at the child, before the lights of the restaurant went out. The audience looked around.
The lights flickered back on again. The animatronics were all staring at the employees-only room to their right. "I wonder what's in there, guys?" asked Freddy, mouth not moving.
The kids all looked at the backstage door. The employee took notice of this and stepped in front of the door. "Hey, hey! Nobody's going in there!"
The animatronics stared at the door, then all moved their heads in sync to look straight ahead, over the crowd.
"Okay, something's wrong with them," whispered one employee to another. "Let's just get Foxy's show started-"
"Good idea! Foxy!" yelled Freddy. "F-Foxy, come out!"
"All the children want to see you, Foxy," said Bonnie.
Foxy stuck his hook hand out from behind the curtains. "Ne'er!"
"Aw, Foxy! Don't be shy!" said Chica.
"C'mon, Foxy!" said Bonnie.
All the children stared expectantly at the Pirate Cove, waiting for the curtains to slide aside and reveal the pirate fox.
Freddy forced a laugh. "Okay, Foxy, I'm coming down there!" He stepped off the show stage and slowly trudged over to the Pirate Cove. Before he arrived, however, the curtains shifted aside and Foxy was exposed.
"G'day, mates!" said Foxy. Welcome to the Pirate Cove! Ye best march right back down to yer stage there, Freddy!"
Freddy chuckled once more. "Okay, okay! Have fun, kids!" He tipped his top hat and headed back to the stage.
"Marvelous! Well, are ye kids excited fer today's story?" Foxy asked.
"Yeah!" piped up Oswald.
"Aye! And who-o might ye be?" asked the pirate.
Oswald looked up at Foxy in delight that he was being addressed by the animatronic. "My name's Oswald! I'm turning seven today!"
"Brilliant!" Foxy roared. "An' now, here's a warnin' fer all ye landlubbers in the audience! Turn back now," he said. None of the children in the audience stepped back, instead listening curiously to the fox.
"Now! How'd ye deck scrubbers like to hear a tale straight from the Seven Seas?" asked Foxy.
The children cheered. Foxy smiled down at them all, and began his story. Something was clearly wrong, though. The fox's eyes rolled in his head and his mouth was moving completely out of sync with what it was saying, like the machine wasn't even trying to perform correctly. In fact, it seemed to be actively trying to fight against its movements. The children didn't notice, however.
Oswald, being the birthday boy, wanted to get up close to the animatronic. Close enough to feel his fur, to give him a hug. Closer than he'd ever been before. The boy put his foot up on the stage. The fox's eyes rolled down to look at him.
"Honey, would you back away from that thing, please?" asked the boy's mother from the crowd, eyeing the robot's hook hand.
"Mommy, I love Foxy!" said the boy.
The employees and technicians were looming over the characters in the main band. None of them were paying attention to Foxy.
"Back away," whispered the fox into the child's ear, barely audible through the story he was telling.
"Foxy, what's wrong?" asked Oswald. The other children in the audience were just enjoying the show as usual, not paying any mind to Oswald.
"I want to break free," the fox suddenly said to the crowd.
"What?" said Oswald. "Foxy?"
The animatronic's limbs began to shake and its head slowly turned to look down at Oswald all the way. Its jaw opened.
"Oswald, get away from that thing!" yelled the boy's mother.
"I can't...stop…" Foxy whispered.
"Foxy-" Oswald began.
The lights in the building flickered off. There was a loud crunching sound that echoed throughout the building.
"What the hell was that?" said an employee. The worker reached into his toolbelt and turned on his flashlight, flicking it over the main band. They were all staring at the Pirate Cove.
The light was then shone over Foxy. The machine had something its mouth that appeared to be hairy and wet. The audience began screaming and backing away.
Mr. Fazz ran out into the dining area. "What the fuck?!" he yelled.
The light shone down from the fox's face, drenched in blood, to the limp body of Oswald below the animatronic. "Get the police in here! We need medics!" yelled the manager, pushing through the crowd. He flipped the boy's body over. His face had been completely mutilated. He felt the boy's neck. "He has a pulse!"
"Ozzy!" The boy's mother pushed Fazz aside and she began to cradle her child's body, sobbing.
Her eyes moved up and saw a tall, thin man hunched over in the darkness, watching the event unfold curiously.
"Shit, shit, shit! William!" yelled Fazz. "Get these people out of here! We need medics here immediately!"
The man nodded and began quietly directing the few people left in the crowd out of the restaurant, starting with Oswald's mother.
"You're fucking ruined, Fazz," said the policeman. "What the hell kinds of robots are these?"
"We must've been sabotaged," muttered Fazz. "They've never hurt anyone before."
"How about that yellow rabbit, huh? What the hell are you hiding?!" yelled the policeman.
"I'm not hiding anything! Something's wrong here!" the manager yelled back.
The policeman walked around and sighed. "Alright. You're going to get shut down. Now get that machine out of here," he said, pointing at the bloody fox. "Hope you get bit moving it."
Fazz groaned and called the terrified technicians over. They flicked a switch, locking the fox's joints in place, and lifted him up. Together, they took the machine over to the backstage room, where they laid him down on the metal worktable and began cleaning up the robot.
"What happened here today," began Mr. Fazz sadly, "cannot be shared with the public. How can we erase this?"
Just then, William walked in. "Leave now, boys," he said to the technicians.
"What?" said Fazz. "Why?"
"I'll handle the robot. I'm good with them," he said. "You boys...go home."
The technicians nodded and slowly filed out the door. William closed it behind them.
"Will?" said Fazz.
"Well, boss, it's certainly been an interesting day today, hasn't it?" said the man. He looked at the fox laid out on the metal table. "It's just crazy, isn't it? Yesterday, those kids went missing, and now this…"
"Yeah, that's the thing. We're fucked," said Fazz. "Our company's reputation has been destroyed in less than 24 hours."
William sighed. "I know."
There was silence in the room.
"The police are going to want to take in the robot for evidence, you know," said William. "Do you really want that?"
"No...but there's not much I can do to stop it," said Fazz.
"Do me a favor, Fazz. Lie to them. Let me handle the robot," said William.
"What? Why?" asked Fazz, confused.
"I helped build them, remember? I know them better than the police or the technicians ever will," William said. "I'll figure out what's wrong."
"Well, I appreciate that, but I can't just lie to the police," said Fazz. "What would I say to them, anyway?"
"Just tell them you already had it destroyed," said William. "I'll set him back in the pirate attraction. They'll never know. It's simple."
Fazz sat down and thought about it for a minute. He considered the events that had taken place that day and the night before. Fazz could easily go to jail for the murder of a child and suspected murder of five others, as the police knew he was in the building the night before. He couldn't give this robot in the hands of the police. William's option was the smartest.
"Well...alright, yes. I'll let you handle things," said Fazz. "But we're not going to bring him back as an attraction. We can't."
"That's fine," said William. "As long as I can study the robot, it's fine."
"Thank you…" said Fazz.
"Now, you have to protect the company's reputation," said William. "Pull the robots off their free-roaming mode when customers are here. Make sure they don't get too close to anybody."
"I'll make sure of it," said Fazz.
"Very good. We need to assure the parents and policemen that children are safe here at Freddy's," said William. "This was...an isolated incident. Tell them we'll be fixing the robots."
"I will," said the boss. "Really, Will, you're a life-saver if we can work this out. Thank you so much."
"Yeah...don't mention it," said William.
"Well, I'll let you handle Foxy," said Fazz, leaving the room. "Tell me if you need anything."
William forced a smile. "Go home, boss."
Fazz nodded and shut the door, leaving William and the fox alone in the darkness.
"Let's see what we have here…" said the man, buttoning on his night guard shirt. Foxy's eyes rolled to look at it. It was purple.
That night, the animatronics in the main band awoke at 12 AM, on the dot. They all woke up at the exact same time, in sync. It took them a minute before they began to remember what had happened.
"Oh my- Foxy!" said Chica, in horror. "What happened to us?"
"I couldn't move," said Freddy slowly and quietly. "I couldn't do anything."
"I'm gonna kill him," said Bonnie, who was shaking in his place on the stage. "I will. What's stopping me?"
They all felt a strange impulse. The want to cry. To shed tears. It felt very...unnaturally human. But they were robots. None of them spoke of it.
"What's happening to us?" said Freddy. "I've never lost control like that...not during a show. It felt like there was something inside of me.
"Me too," said Chica. "...I think we're broken."
"Foxy. That guy. What the hell was his deal?" said Bonnie.
"Maybe he couldn't control himself either," suggested Chica quietly.
"Yeah, but the rest of us just managed to not kill any children," snapped Freddy. "There's something wrong with that thing. They need to throw him out."
Foxy lay, alone in his cove, listening to the others talk about him. He'd never, not once, heard them talk about him that way. They all had been working together for many years. The pirate lay his head on his hook. Chica was right, he did lose control like the rest of them, but Freddy was right too in that they didn't hurt anybody. He...destroyed a child. Foxy had no idea if the kid was alive or not. Fazz said he had a pulse. Even if the child was still alive, he wouldn't be able to live a normal life.
It then occurred to him how strange all of this truly was. The emotions they were all feeling were...very complex. Maybe the others didn't realize it, but somehow, their intelligence had transformed into something much more complex in the last 24 hours. Only now, at night, they were able to truly control themselves, likely because they weren't performing any shows at this hour.
He wanted to reach out to the others, but knew he couldn't. They wouldn't listen. Not yet.
Maybe not ever.