It had been a long day for the vulpine as he trekked through the cold outdoors of the town after work at his favorite place, Andy's bar. Granted, he worked there as a bouncer for the old bird, yet he still enjoyed it considering he had several good memories in the bar even if it didn't seem like it at times. A 'second home' is what Mangle had called it when they'd been resting after a long day there. Speaking of the vixen; she had enjoyed when he'd taken her out one night earlier that week towards the northern end of the island under the guise that they deserved a day to relax, which wasn't wrong in either of their eyes. But, he didn't get to relax, especially since he was searching for Johnathon after he'd called that gang to attack Andy early one morning. The two weeks following that had Foxy training with some of Andy's leftover firearms until he was somewhat decent with shooting, something that he actually got the hang of pretty quickly to the shock of Jason who was pleasantly surprised. Now, it was the same daily grind for the two foxes as they tried to stay afloat with the bar not having Andy at the moment.
They'd get up early in the morning, walk down the hill towards the bar, and proceed to work until late that night before going back up the hill to go home.
That doesn't mean they never got to enjoy time together or with friends, however, as they both had days off with Mangle spending it with her friends while Foxy took a more gritty day, fighting in alleyways in his search for the whereabouts of Johnathon. No one had anything to say on the rat, no matter how many K.O.'s he'd dish out. It wasn't like they didn't want to speak or were afraid, but more like they simply didn't know him at all.
He quickly lost his train of thought as he neared a reception desk to the building, it wasn't like it was a huge, five-star resort, but it was there for check-ins and such; perfect for his task tonight. He told Mangle that Andy had asked him to look around in the northern district for new houses for the two of them when in reality he was searching for the aforementioned rat. He'd overheard someone mentioning an odd building that had groups of people entering it commonly near the center of the northern district that was made of concrete like a bunker, except was extremely worn down. The building he was currently in was a hotel, one that overlooked said odd building.
"Hello, are you here for a room?" A short, female rabbit with a brown fur coat was at the desk sliding papers around as he walked forward and looked at her.
"Yeah, it's getting cold outside and I'd rather not get caught up in it if I can, I'll only need the room for tonight," He replies as he proceeds to pull out some money.
"A room is twenty-five coins," She replied before running down a list of things he had to do before he could finally get the room number. The process which seemed like it should've only taken a minute had taken ten and he finally managed to go to his room. Thankfully, it was up on one of the higher floors, somewhat overlooking the building he wanted to scout out. He walked inside the room with a medium-sized luggage bag, placing it on a bed that was in the center of the room.
'One night, better make it count.'
He opened the bag and pulled out a rifle, gripping the bolt and pulling it back before unloading the mag and setting both the magazine and rifle to the side. The vulpine quickly pulled out a small box of about twenty-five rounds, setting that to the side as well before grabbing a thin, elongated cylinder with holes through both ends. It only took him a few seconds to grab the barrel of the rifle and mount the cylinder on it before grabbing the magazine and loading it with five rounds, soon pulling out a scope with an Allen-wrench. In the following minutes, he had mounted the scope, grabbed a chair, and moved towards the window, soon taking a seat and aiming through the scope of the unloaded rifle towards the top of the concrete building.
It was odd to see it in the mix with several other wooden buildings like it didn't belong. On top, there were several metal structures in the shape of discs with several cords and wires running along the roof. Other structures made of metal beams reached upwards towards the sky with cables holding it steady from different points around it with some wires also connecting across to other buildings. Crates and boxes were scattered across the rooftop as well, with about a dozen or so animatronics walking around and messing with the equipment as a technician would. Some of them were armed with handguns and stun batons, giving him a solid idea of how they'd react to him if he showed up unannounced.
Then he realized he'd struck gold, near the street he saw a familiar rat walking towards what seemed like the entrance to the building. Two wolves came out, armed with what seemed like shotguns, and proceeded to let him in before shutting and securing the door again. A glare struck him in the eye as he proceeded to realize that he didn't notice a rifle-wielding tech on the roof, soon slamming himself to the floor as a bullet whizzed past where he was and struck the roof above him, the wood chipping and falling onto him. He quickly rolled to the other side of the room and prepared to look through the other window, except he saw the Allen-wrench on the floor a foot or two away from him.
'The scopes have a glare when aiming towards the light.'
He quickly went into motion, dismounting the sight and throwing it onto the bed behind him before getting up and preparing to aim again. He aims through the window and quickly finds himself searching for the sniper once again. The other animatronics that were on the roof were seemingly unaware of the silent exchange between the two; meaning the lone sniper was most likely trying to avoid detection from them, or else he could've simply told them he was screwing around…
At least, that's what he believed until he heard the sound of gunfire ripping through the air as he felt dust kick up from the wood wall beside him. He pressed himself to the floor quickly as he felt splinters of wood raining down on him, dim light shining through several holes all around him. He processed the situation quickly, realizing he needed to reposition himself away from the room he was currently in and the floor he was on. In a minute, he'd already grabbed the magazine and box of ammunition from the bed and crawled through the room towards the hallway where he stood up and sprinted towards the stairwell, soon using his speed to climb the steps two floors up before running down the hallway and turning towards a room that would face the building.
He tried the door, feeling the knob was locked as a grin crept up his face, remembering back at the pizzeria.
"It won't lock anymore," He mumbled to himself as he stepped back and kicked the door by the knob, feeling the wall give way as the right side of the frame fell to the floor, followed by the sounds of a feminine scream from the darkness of the room. Ignoring whoever it was, he quickly ran and slid towards the window, pressing himself against the wall as the sounds of gunfire continued. He saw two felines in the bed staring at him, a female who was holding the sheets up to her chest while a man stared wearily at the rifle in his hands before he smirked and raised a single finger to his lips, shushing them. Just a few moments later, he tossed them a pile of clothes down by where he was and ushered them out before they got hit by a stray round.
The vulpine quickly aimed across the street towards the building before seeing the glare of a scope on one of the taller structures, which thankfully missed him due to the darkness of the room. He loaded the magazine in the rifle and bolted it, soon putting his sights over the target and firing towards his chest. One thing he was thankful for was that it wasn't a sure way to kill them, it would simply incapacitate them for the time being, though, if they didn't get help in about three hours they were certainly dead. The reason it worked as it did was there was a small box in their chests, about the size of a pair of fists, which would pump the synthetic blood through them. They could survive for about three hours without it pumping, but after that, they're dead from the lack of flow. Once it's damaged, it instantly paralyzes the target.
The sniper went limp in a second, before falling to the concrete roof below. Due to him using a suppressor, they didn't see the flash, and they didn't know he'd shot towards them until the sniper hit the ground, so they had zero information on his whereabouts except that he was in that building. He saw them hauling several heavier looking firearms towards the edge of the building, soon mounting them up as he shot down several men.
It was too late when Foxy realized that they were heavy machine guns.
Bullets let loose from the other building as he could hear them go through several walls, screaming coming from the rooms below, above, and beside him. He quickly sighted himself in on one of the gunners before taking them down, but another one would take his place. Mere seconds after they started firing he could hear the sounds of wood creaking, quickly realizing that the damage done was enough to make the building unstable, he had to take out those MGs even faster.
Instead of aiming at the gunners, he aimed at the firearms themselves, shooting each as he could see them gain curiosity as to why the guns had stopped working until they saw the damage. His victory was short-lived as he realized he was down to his final magazine, he had spent twenty rounds already and now he had only five.
Foxy quickly measured his options, either he could press on while they're somewhat disoriented, or he could get out of here and try again later, the only thing is that they would be better defended at that point, most likely. To him, it wasn't a question at that point, if they had what they had now they were already well defended, but if he left they'd have even more, so he had to press them even if it meant getting closer.
He thankfully thought ahead, unfastening the belt to his coat around his waist and pulling out his Aero Survival Rifle that he'd brought with him; if he had to get messy tonight, he'd have to get messy. He quickly moved out of the room and descended the stairwell. After a few floors down, he noticed the damage, better yet, it was impossible to not notice it. He had to climb down the stairs, quite literally at that. At about the fourth floor, the stairs were destroyed, so he had to search down the hallway before he found a room where the floor was collapsed in on the one below it.
With no time to contemplate the scale of what had happened, he hopped down and quickly continued his descent of the building until he hit ground level, entering a room full of people who looked exhausted and fearful. Some of them were laid out on the floor which was seemingly flooded with synthetic blood, in the midst of the chaos, they didn't even bat an eye at him as he walked through, armed with the ASR and covered in dust. Disgust filled his gut as he realized how little they cared for the other people around them, but he had to bury it for the time being so he could finish the job. It took no time for him to maneuver through the crowd and make it to the street which was covered in splinters of wood, glass, debris, and to his gut-wrenching dismay; dead bodies. But he couldn't be concerned with that now, he had to get inside the building to see what was happening. No matter what, he wasn't leaving without information on Johnathon, or better yet, Johnathon not making it out of that building alive.
What felt like pure adrenaline surged through him as he felt his feet slam against the pavement, thrusting him into the air for a split second as he sprinted towards the building. The door from earlier that Johnathon had gone through was metal, but he was sure he could bring it down with enough force, and if not, he could simply make his own entrance. As he neared the door, he threw technique out the window as he proceeded to ram into it with his shoulder, producing a solid thump out of the door as he heard it rattle in the frame. He slammed into it several times before noticing that there were obvious points where locks were. Foxy stepped back and took aim, firing into the points he noticed as the door seemingly gained slack, enough he could step back and repeat his famous kick from before and send the door flying open.
On the floor were the two wolves from earlier, they had been hit by the rounds he'd shot through the locks and were currently bleeding out on the floor. Something took over him as he continued through the compound, which instead of being dark and gray was bright and sterile. Lights shined all around him as he could hear an alarm going off.
Walking through the hallways gave him an eerie feeling as he saw everything, like there wasn't something right about it, but it never struck him what. He continued for a while through the corridors, noticing the only sound present was the sounds of the alarm.
Not letting it bother him, he took stock of the situation as he kept his sights aimed ahead of him towards the end of the hall, but he realized that he hadn't seen a single person so far aside from the first two. Then he saw a door with 'surveillance' written over it in bold.
'I don't recall any cameras…'
He quickly moved toward the door and opened it up to see a room filled with odd machines with monitors covering the walls, various sounds could be heard coming from the machines as he watched tons of information get processed in front of him in mere seconds, but the oddest part was the video feed showed the rest of the island, spanning from the northern side to the southern side where Marionette's place was. Foxy slowly stepped through the room, noticing the several cameras, before he came across a desk that had an open computer on it.
He quickly leaned over the desk and manned the station, scrolling through the continuous information in front of him which showed several videos and recordings of the streets, even sometimes inside peoples' houses.
Then, something caught his eye.
There were a few specific tabs open. He quickly searched through the tab, finding several videos from inside of Marionette's house, specifically from the table looking towards the kitchen doorway. Several clips were cut from the live feed and inside a folder, showing several events that had happened, including when he had to make pancakes for the vixen.
He couldn't verbalize anything as he started scrolling through the events, eventually finding the first recording, showing a familiar rat placing it on the underside of the camera before turning around and stepping to the side a bit, showing himself in front of the doorway as he spoke with him. A reddish hue glazed over his vision as he continued watching, realizing that they had been spying on himself and his friends nearly since he'd gotten here. His face was contorted into a fierce snarl, audibly growling as he closed out the video player, instead looking through a file which documented stuff on himself and the vixen.
"The vulpine couple appeared out of nowhere with a model resembling a marionette, a yellow Freddy model, an unknown coyote model, and another vulpine pair. The two of them are from the 'Fazbear' line of androids which were designed to entertain children, while also showing experimental modifications in their strength. Intelligence shows that the male tends to guard the female with extreme prejudice, nearly killing four other androids while seemingly half-cognitive. Attempts at conversation with them have been kept extremely brief and further attempts at capture have proven less than worth the time and effort, in the face of self-preservation."
- Uploaded 08-15-20, by IAA-4
- Edited 10-24-20, by IAA-4
"What the fuck," He muttered under his heavy breath as he scrolled further down, finding more describing incidents that involved him and Mangle.
"08-15-20, IAA-4, Log 01: The vulpines helped settle a dispute at the bar on the western side of the island. They're highly efficient at working together and seem to go hand-in-hand during combat, even managing to accomplish stunts that some professionals possibly couldn't, seeming more like a well-choreographed machine than two separate androids. The male seemed more efficient at hand-to-hand combat, however, so I approached him in their current residence for the weapon's job to confiscate the bartender's contraband and weaponry to reduce the threat towards the experiment. He declined the offer and became aggressive, requesting that I leave the premises.
Caution is advised when nearing them for any reason, and direct contact is highly unadvised."
Scrolling further just listed out other events like the alleyway the night he did 'unofficial bouncer duty.' Others linked him to the incident from the alley with the four cats and in the street with the hog.
"10-24-20, IAA-4, Log 11: At the bar, the male fox prevented a group we hired from attacking the bartender for his contraband at the bar itself (under the guise of collecting an owed debt), he suffered a puncture wound from a wolf from the group, but he also managed to fire a bladed projectile into the wolf's hip by use of some equipment in his arm; unlike that of the usual Fazbear 'Foxy' android line. Later that night, the group rushed him on the deck of his current residence, however, he managed to fight them off, killing two of the five by ailments caused by the brawl. Why they hunted him down is unknown, but this furthers the point of direct contact being forbidden unless absolutely necessary. If anyone comes into contact with him – or the female – directly, or indirectly, and is actively engaged, assistance is unavailable- no exceptions."
He continued searching until he saw something strange, there was a link that said "urgent" which led him to another window, documenting information he couldn't really understand. What he could gather was coordinates and a ping that sounded out from a specific location. The map provided showed a woodland area, just above a somewhat steep hill/cliff which led down to more woods until it opened up to a beach, on the opposite side of the map was a town, the layout seeming eerily similar to him. He found another file that opened up to a message.
"Warning: Experiment VAIICF-X7 (Vulpine Advanced Intelligence for Improved Cognitive Function – Prototype 7), or VAI-X7 for short, from the AIICF-X7 line of prototype androids, has been located after approximately eleven months of searching. The locator inside said android had been activated on the island, indicating that an immediate recall is necessary. The main prohibitive issue is that the subject has grown attached to what we assume was one of the other androids from its original location, which had gone missing as well. Said android is considered extremely hostile, it's history including the murder of a child during a performance, and reports from the island show he's had a kill count of at least three so far, with several more moderately to severely injured. The duo were formerly registered as to not be approached under any circumstances, however, as of now the recovery of VAI-X7 is the primary directive to re-secure the experimental product."
He saw the last two words were a link to another page, which he promptly clicked, leading to more information regarding the experiment. In the meanwhile, his head hurt and burned from the information he was receiving, he had unknowingly killed at least three people while here and that number had to have grown by now, and not only that, they were being actively searched for-
His train of thought was broken as he saw what loaded. On the screen in front of him was a picture of the whole gang, T. Freddy, T. Bonnie, T. Chica, and finally Mangle, who was labeled as Vixey on the photo. All of them were deactivated as they stood on a platform with several lights shining on them, most likely just after their manufacture date. Going further down, he could see more information regarding it.
"AI-7X (Advanced Intelligence, Revision 7 Prototype) is the latest iteration in an ongoing project to discern why robots originally created solely to act on external stimuli continue to develop emotion and cognitive function, as well as how this technology can be harnessed to create more efficient designs. Each version of the line is classified by a prefix, which makes up the first letter of the Genus of animal that each robot, in particular, is designed to replicate. (Example: Freddy, U-AI-7X).
This generation was made shortly after the previous, which showed that the androids could harness full control of their emotions and learn at an exponential rate. They were deemed too unsafe, however, so they weren't registered a total success. Instead, the 7th generation was developed using the default base of the 6th to build up safety features which solved the previous generation's issues. However, the lack of testing hasn't proven full safety, and deadlines have forced them to test them in the public. If it is a success, they could use it to develop incredibly advanced intelligence for use in military and law enforcement fields to cut down the need for real people on front lines. In the event of a successful testing phase, copies of the AI should be transferred to Afton Armaments in preparation for the development of armed androids."
Foxy simply stared at the screen as it went deeper, everything still made barely any sense to him. Though, that was short-lived as his senses took over for a second, spinning him around to see the rodent he'd been looking for hooked up to a machine by some cords. He didn't understand how he didn't notice him, but as he looked he could understand by the indentation of the machine in the wall. However, he was derailed when he noticed Johnathon's eyes were open, but instead of the eyes of a maniac who looked ready to jump him, or the fear of a man about to lose everything, he seemed... expressionless.
His eyes followed Foxy as he moved, eerily, but he never made a move.
"I knew you'd do something like this."
The words could've been meant in any way to Foxy with the way they were said, no emotion or empathy, but he knew what he meant.
"When you arrived here, I was trying to get rid of that bird's stash of weapons to prevent the possibility of them entering the circuit of contraband already here, an attempt to avoid the experiment being found out. When I saw you enter that bar and beat down several men like you did, I knew that you wouldn't need a weapon to get in here. I guess I was wrong about that, seeing the gun in your hands, but I still feel a little pride in knowing you'd find us out."
"Well, I guess my question is irrelevant, then," Foxy mumbled as he stared at the rat who chuckled a bit, the only emotion he seemed to manage.
"Yeah, I guess you also ended up as a hired gun anyways?" Foxy fumed a bit at that last remark, but he didn't let it show as he knew he was right considering he did what Andy asked him with no remorse or care. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much signed up for hell, now. I failed to stop you from finding us out, but I honestly wanted it to end."
The last bit made Foxy raise an eyebrow as he looked at the rat who slowly gained an unsettling grin.
"This thing blew, the company made us keep all of the island on lockdown, essentially. They wanted to know how the robots would act if they were able to live by themselves without outside intervention, and it was going somewhat well, but they were cruel. If we didn't do as said we would be broken down until all that was left was our memory and CPU which would be manipulated into an AI which would run one of these damn machines." He motioned towards the machines around the room which seemed like servers, some with hookups like Johnathon was currently mounted to. "These are all robots that were picked up off the street, went rogue while working, or simply scrapped. They would place their AIs or whatever in them, forcing them to slave away, scanning each recording that happens across the island. Real helluva job, I might add," He chuckled lightly as his face went blank again while staring at the floor.
"I hate this," He said simply while continuing to stare at the floor, the lack of emotion in his voice betraying what he said. "They made me to specifically lack the ability to show empathy towards others, or be able to express sadness, to seem more charismatic. At the end of the day, I just suffer." Instead of sadness in his voice, it was an upbeat tone, a direct opposite to what he should be expressing which left the vulpine in shock. There was even a chuckle at the end of his statement. "I've watched them bring in so many to execute or dismantle for use in a machine, and I would have the same happen if I expressed empathy towards them, even while I lack the ability to…"
Foxy could tell there was an underlying message that the rat simply couldn't word, while it may have seemed simple in his mind it was like accomplishing rocket science without a calculator or pen-and-paper. He raised the rifle's barrel towards the rat's head, who simply smiled at the vulpine before he pulled the trigger, sending synthetic blood across the machine behind him and lathering the vulpine's face twice over. He didn't feel anything as he pulled the trigger, he didn't feel anything as the blood coated his face, but he did feel his chest tighten at what most likely was how he regarded the rat in the beginning, only to find out he was a pawn in a bigger game.
On the machine behind the dead rat, he could see the letter's 'IAA-4' stamped on the machine in silver, causing him to smirk a bit before another thing caught his eye, which he promptly went to. On the table across the room, just past his dead target was a binder, full of documents and folders. Whatever it was inside the thing, he figured it was important, as he grabbed it and stuffed it into his jacket pocket, soon stepping towards the door as he began to feel something that he couldn't quite pinpoint the source of; something that began gnawing at him, eating away at his consciousness as he moved to grasp the metallic handle.