Once again, it was out of the frying pan and into the fracking fire! But she wasn't about to let that stop her. Very slowly, Mirabelle reached for the badge. Keeping her gaze firmly locked on the army of skeletal-like bots, she stepped to the side, waving her outstretched hand until she was able to get a sense of the desk next to her.
Glancing down for the briefest of moments, she was able to locate exactly where the badge was, so that she could wrap her fingers around the lanyard and gently slide it away and into her pocket. She jumped at the sudden sound of movement, but when her eyes shot back up, it didn't appear as though anything had changed.
Mirabelle frowned in confusion, but decided not to read too much into it. Instead, directing her focus on backing away towards the exit. She had what she came for, after all.
"Sorry for disrupting your work, so – I think I'll be going now," she informed her currently captive audience, before turning and bolting back down the hall she originally used to get here.
Panic was beginning to set in as she could hear the distinctive sound of heavy footfalls slapping against the concrete behind her. You think by now she would have learned to keep her mouth shut!
Unable to stop herself, Mirabelle made the fatal error of turning her head to see how close they were to catching her. Not seeing where she was going, her foot suddenly caught on the edge of a large waste bin. Her upper body bucking forward, she let out a yelp before crashing to the ground.
Flipping around to see that they were practically right on top of her, Mirabelle was about to let out a terrified scream! Until she realized – that they had all stopped moving?
She warily shifted her gaze around the room before pushing herself back to her feet, noting that they were all in different versions of chase poses. It was like someone had called a 'time out', and now they were all stuck in suspended animation. But, why? This once again felt suspiciously like some kind of cheap game mechanic.
Wanting to test her theory, she carefully began to creep backwards, watching for any signs of movement. There was none. Once she felt she was a safe distance away, Mirabelle turned away from them, only to quickly glance back.
Sure enough, while they weren't currently advancing, she could tell that they were closer than before, and in slightly different positions. She glared at them, crossing her arms with indignation.
"Oh, hell no!" she announced in a lecturing tone. "You see this?" Mirabelle waved a hand across the floor in front of her. "This, is where I draw the line! I did not sign up for Containment Breach, and I refuse to play this game. Especially when you've got a whole hoard of 173s! That's not fair!" she snapped, the onlookers not appearing to respond at all to her words. She continued, nevertheless.
"Besides, I think it's my turn to pick the game, and I'd prefer the one where I rip off all your limbs so you can't keep following me! So, I'm gonna give you guys a choice. Either you back off and leave me alone – or – I go total Isaac Clarke on all your asses!" she threatened in true gamer fashion.
Still not getting any kind of reaction, Mirabelle realized that the only way to know for sure if her message was getting through, was to try and leave. She about faced and marched several steps away, but was disappointed to hear the sound of the stomping mob behind her. Guess she was going to have to get her point across the hard way!
Whirling back around, she took hold of the nearest endo, flipping it so that it was facing away from her. It began to struggle at this point, but Mirabelle was unmoved. Lifting a foot, she planted it right in the middle of it's back, keeping hold of both of it's arms, one in each hand. Grunting with exertion, she pulled hard, until the arms finally gave way – ripping from their sockets and clean off the torso! It landed in a heap in front of her, the empty sockets sparking where arms had once been.
"Anyone else wanna give me a, hand," she joked darkly, waving the severed limbs around in the air. "Or am I gonna have to take the legs too?" she threatened.
The armless endo began writhing around on the ground. Unable to rise or get away. Finally dropping the creepy, staring act, the others all glanced down at her handy work, or lack thereof, as it were. They apparently had some form of understanding when it came to their own self preservation. Because now deciding they wanted nothing to do with whatever Mirabelle was, they all turned to nervously shuffle away, presumably back to their assembly line.
Well, that was one less problem at least. Mirabelle was about to toss the extra limbs aside when she noticed the maimed endo still flopping around on the ground. It appeared to be attempting to brace itself up against something that it could use to get back on it's feet.
Now that it was basically harmless, Mirabelle couldn't help but feel bad for the poor thing. After all, it was hard to forget that this is what Freddy and the others started out as, before getting a casing and personality program, anyway.
Sticking the severed arms up under her own, she bent down and pulled it back upright. It glanced around in confusion at first, before fixing her with a wary look. It slowly edged away, before finally tucking tail and sprinting off after the others.
"Wait! You forgot your. . ." Mirabelle trailed off as it disappeared around the corner, lowering the appendages she'd been holding up to try and offer back to it. Oh well. She shrugged and set them down on a nearby box before making her way back to Parts and Service. It was possible that it would come back for them later.
. . .
". . . I found her earlier and tried locking her up in Lost and Found."
As Mirabelle approached the double doors, she began to pick up on the distinctive voice of 'security guard lady' coming from the service room. She peeked inside the window to try and see who she was talking to. Although, she already had a pretty good guess.
"That is – good. That means you should be able to return her to her family," Freddy answered, although he wasn't sounding particularly excited by the prospect.
"It's not going to be that easy. Turns out, there's no record of her. She also seems to have misplaced her phone, so I couldn't get her family's contact information," guard lady argued.
"How unfortunate," Freddy replied slowly. Mirabelle had to grin at his shift in tone. He now seemed pleased by the 'unfortunate' news. "If you re-attach my head, I will go look for her now," he tried to helpfully suggest.
Mirabelle flinched at that and cringed at the idea of him stuck in that chair, headless. It left her wondering, why such a thing would be necessary.
"Her name is Mira. . . You know how I know that? She somehow has a Fazwatch, and I kept hearing it repeating it, in your voice! 'Mira? Are you there? Mira?'," she mimicked in a bad impression of Freddy.
"Vanessa, all the Fazwatches sound like me. It is the default voice option," he reasoned, with a hint of cheekiness.
Guard lady growled in frustration, and Mirabelle had to slap a hand over her mouth to keep from bursting out laughing! Sounded like he had her there!
"I swear, if you're part of this, you're scrap! Monty will run the shows until Parts and Service can slap your casing on a new endo! Hang out here for a while. I gotta find that kid," guard lady ordered snarkily, as though the beheaded animatronic had any choice.
"Vanessa! Do not leave me like this!" he desperately tried to call out to her, but she just callously turned and stalked away.
Mirabelle felt her hackles rise at her cruelty, in spite of herself. It kind of surprised her at how upset she became at the idea of Freddy being scrapped, or even being left helpless and alone like that! At least she'd be able to rectify the situation shortly.
Once she heard the security guard exit the room, Mirabelle deployed her newest pass to gain access, casually strolling over to where Freddy was seated, more or less. He instantly brightened once he managed to spot her as she stepped up next to him.
"Mirabelle! I am so glad you are here, and that you are alright!" he exclaimed with a big smile. It was kind of creepy to witness his severed head speaking to her like that. She tried not to think about it too hard.
"Not that it was easy, but sure. Too bad I can't say the same for you! Looks like you've seen better days," she pointed out snidely, gesturing towards the space between his head and neck attachment. "What'd they do to you?" she couldn't help wondering, her irritation slightly coming through in her tone.
"Routine maintenance!" he explained cheerily. "I am functioning much more better – now. . ." he paused, humming at the incorrect diction. "Grammar function error," he realized. "Perhaps I am still not at peak performance," he confessed.
"That's putting it lightly," Mirabelle muttered back as she gave him a full once over.
"Could you, please, uh – reattach my head?" he requested sheepishly.
"What? No. . . I was just gonna leave you here like this and take my chances with the complex full of killer robots all alone," she replied with clear exaggeration.
There was a momentary pause.
"You are – being sarcastic," Freddy finally determined.
"Hey! You're learning! Color me impressed," she told him, stepping around to get a better look at his neck area.
"Wait, was that – also sarcasm?" he wondered.
Mirabelle huffed out a weary laugh.
"No, I was actually being sincere that time," she confessed, studying the wires and connection ports. "Although, I can see how it could have been taken that way," she added. She hummed after another long minute.
"Do you think you can do it?" he inquired hopefully.
"This is a lot more complicated than I was expecting. Lucky for you, I've taken a class that covered this sort of thing," she stated, before surprising him by proceeding to climb completely on top of his torso!
She smirked down in amusement at his suddenly very awkward expression, letting her legs straddle his lap.
"Mirabelle! What are you. . . you – y-your current position is n-not entirely, uh, appropriate," he very clumsily stuttered out. In fact, if she had to hazard a guess, she realized that he'd probably be blushing right about now – that is, if he had the ability to do so.
"Welp, I hate to break it to you, honey-bear, but this seems to be the best vantage point so that I can actually tell what I'm doing. Besides, I don't really see how you have much choice in the matter," she pointed out to him. "It's not all that fun, is it?" she questioned in a lecturing tone.
Freddy hesitated for a long moment before answering. He frowned as he seemed to be trying to fully comprehend what exactly was happening here. Until eventually, his gaze shifted back to her as he voiced his conclusion.
"Mira, are you – mad at me?" he finally guessed.
"Yes, I'm mad at you! I can't believe you would pull a stunt like that!" she barked back haughtily. "I mean, what were you thinking?! You let yourself completely shut down! What if your personality data had corrupted, or that moon thing had ripped you to shreds?! You're lucky to be in only two pieces instead of a hundred! And then that lady. . ." she trailed off at the heavy smile he'd begun fixing her with.
"Thank you, Mira," he told her with an inflection that caused her insides to swim uncomfortably.
"For what?" she questioned hesitantly.
"Your concern for my well-being is, touching," he offered.
Mirabelle hissed and shook herself, trying to get rid of, whatever this sudden awkward sensation was.
"Yeah, well, try not to let it go to your, head," she joked, attempting to deflect with humor. He simply smirked back at her.
"So, how did you get here, anyway?" she wondered, as she began to run the wires through her fingers, testing how they connected. "Mr. Moon Man didn't exactly seem like he had your best interests in mind when he dragged you off earlier," she added.
"I can't really say for sure, as I was, not conscious," he seemed reluctant to admit.
"You said that you were receiving routine maintenance though. So, who was doing the maintenance?" she asked.
"An endo. That is, until Officer Vanessa found me and sent it away. They perform much of the. . ." he trailed off when he realized that Mirabelle had stopped working and was now glancing around anxiously.
"Mira? Are you alright?" he asked.
"I didn't know there were endos in here too," she mentioned, her gaze now fixed on one standing in the corner. It didn't look like it was active, but still. She found herself subconsciously hunching down and scooting closer to Freddy, if that was even possible.
"You saw others before?" he inquired.
"Yeah, a whole hoard of them came after me while I was trying to find a way in here," she told him.
"Huh, that is very unusual behavior. I have never seen them act at all aggressive. Normally they just focus on their work," he said nonchalantly.
"You know, you keep saying things like that, acting surprised whenever doors are locked or other animatronics come after me. I think it might be time we consider the possibility that, for some reason, all of this is intentional," she pointed out.
"What do you mean?" he hummed, contemplating the idea.
"I mean, there's too much that has gone wrong for all of this to be mere coincidence! It feels like someone, or something is specifically trying to toy with me. Like, I'm being kept here on purpose as some kind of sick joke. Otherwise, how do you explain why everything's been going buggy around me? Animatronics getting super aggressive, display props loose in the vents, emergency exits locked down when they shouldn't be?" she explained, as she resumed her work on him.
"Of course, my money is on that security guard. But the weird thing is, when she finally caught me, she just kept insisting that all this was my own fault. Why not try and do something to me when she had the chance? Why did she bother putting the costume back on before just coming back to hunt me again. It's not like there are any witnesses this time, or anything. It's all so bizarre. What's the point of the charade?"
She was questioning all this as she reconnected wires back into their corresponding ports, occasionally feeling Freddy twitch underneath her in response. There was a long moment of silence as they were both lost in their own thoughts. Until eventually, he felt like he couldn't keep quiet any longer.
"I don't mean to scare you, but – I am afraid you may be right. I feel that there is more going on here than my friend's and Officer Vanessa's strange behavior," he mentioned. Mirabelle cast a questioning glance at him.
"Back on the stage, before you stopped her from dismantling me, Roxy told me something that – has me worried. It would seem that, earlier this evening during the concert, I managed to fight off a virus that attempted to invade my systems. The others were, not so lucky. However, I do not believe that Vanessa is the source of the virus, as Roxy kept mentioning a 'he' that was giving her orders," Freddy informed her.
"He? Who is 'he'?" Mirabelle wondered.
"She would not tell me. Only that, he is apparently interested in you," he seemed reluctant to admit.
Mirabelle plugged in the last wire before sliding his head piece back onto his frame. She leaned back to survey her handy work as he sat up.
"How does that feel?" she asked.
He tested the movement in his arms and hands, turning to give her a big grin.
"I have never felt better," he told her.
Mirabelle knew he was exaggerating, but that didn't stop the warm feeling from spreading through her stomach.
"So, it sounds like you're saying we need to figure out who's really behind all this, and put a stop to him before I have any chance of getting out of here," she mused with a heavy sigh.
Freddy looked to be in a similar mood, wearily dropping his gaze.
"Yes, I fear that you are correct," he confirmed.
"Okay, it's just, I have no idea where to even start!" Mirabelle moaned in exasperation.
"Perhaps we could try tracking down Vanessa? If she is not actually behind the virus, then it is possible she might be able to help us?" Freddy suggested, attempting to make at an encouraging tone.
"No. I still really don't trust her. I mean, she was just talking about scrapping you earlier! That's not a very good sign," Mirabelle reminded him. "Plus I feel like every time I run into her, that rabbit who kidnapped me isn't far behind. I wouldn't count out her involvement just yet," she reasoned.
"Roxy seemed to know more about what was going on, but like I said, she was not exactly willing to tell me anything. That probably means the others know too, but I have my doubts that they will be any more reasonable," he told her.
"Either way, I still feel like we're going to have to go through them in order to get to this mysterious 'him'," she postulated, a slight edge to her tone. "It's clear that they aren't going to stop hunting me anytime soon."
"Mira," Freddy suddenly took her hands in his, fixing her with a look of concern. "Please tell me that you are not planning on hurting them in any way. I don't think what's happened to them is actually their fault," he reasoned.
Now feeling rather uncomfortable at their proximity, Mirabelle realized that her earlier stunt was now starting to backfire. She decided that this would be a good time to hop off his lap. Pulling her hands out of his grasp, she dropped to the floor and took a step back. He followed her to his feet.
"Are you kidding? All they've done all night is try and hurt me! Regardless of whose fault it is, they're still a serious threat! "Isn't there –" she hesitated for a moment, thinking. "Isn't there any way to at least, slow them down?" she asked hopefully.
"Well, bright lights in the eyes cause us to briefly malfunction. I suppose a Fazerblaster or a Faz Cam could work," he offered pensively.
"Great! Where do I get one?" she asked.
"You can win a Fazerblaster in Fazer Blast, and Faz Cams are often confiscated in Monty Golf. You will need a Party Pass in order to open an attraction though," he mulled over the implications. "Chica is usually in charge of handing them out for birthdays. We should check her green room. We'll probably find one in there," he offered brightly, before taking her hand and pulling her along to the back of the room.
They were met with four doors, each sporting images of very recognizable decal.
"What's this?" she asked.
"These are service elevators that lead up to our green rooms in Rockstar Row," he explained casually.
Mirabelle hesitated, before turning to stare up at him with a deadly glare.
"What?! You've had access to Parts and Service from your green room this entire time?!" she barked angerly. "I thought you said the only way you knew how to get here was from the main stage!?"
"It – was the only way I knew of that we could access. You have to have special clearance to get into Parts and Service, and the only place I knew that kept the badges for it was, Parts and Service," he reasoned, but noticed that this didn't seem to ease Mirabelle's mood any. "Did I not, make that clear?" he questioned hesitantly.
"No, ya didn't!" she snapped.
"Oh – oops," he quipped, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. Mirabelle responded with a very dubious look.
"I'm getting the sense that we may need to work on our, communication," she pointed out, and Freddy grinned.
Communication is important, kids! ;) Anyway, until the next time, Bye Bye!