It All Comes Together
The Puppet bolted upright. Streams of electrical energy sparked up his arm and all across his body. His recorded laughter started to glitch, alternating between those and cries of distress. The synths he controlled reacted in the same manner, letting go of their captives as their bodies seized up and their hands flew to their heads.
"What's going on, what's happening?!" Sid pointed at Jeremy and Mike. "Kill them! She was warned, kill them!"
The bots didn't seem to be affected by what was happening and moved to obey. Their hands only got as far as brushing against the night guard's necks before a red blur tackled one and the other was blinded by a heavy blow. Seconds later and Foxy had his pinned to the ground, kicking and cursing. Freddy tore the arms off his and used them to knock its head off.
Meanwhile, the Puppet stopped jolting and dancing, swaying on the spot. He was still connected to Goldie. Then he seized up again, his body juddering while his eyes alternated between their usual white to a vibrant gold. His arms jerked like he was trying to pull away, but couldn't.
"Oh now, don't go." Goldie's eyes were glowing the same colour of her namesake. "Since I've already had you over inside my head, I'd say it's high time you returned the favour."
The Puppet let out another shriek and threw his head back, eyes flashing violently between white and gold. The synths he was controlling collapsed to the floor in a heap, mirroring their master's pained writhing. If they could, they would be screaming as well.
"No!" Sid looked enraged on the monitor. "Stop this! Stop this, right now!"
"I think not," replied Freddy smugly. "Alright everybody, you know the plan from here. We stay here and guard Goldie until her efforts are complete. Chica, keep the Puppet held down. Foxy and I will keep watch. Jeremy and Mike, get back up top. Tell our other friends that it's time for their role to begin. Bonnie, go with them in case they run into trouble on the way."
"On it." Jeremy led the way as the two men sprinted out of the testing area. Bonnie gave a salute and bounded after them.
Meanwhile, Foxy and Freddy took up defensive positions. Chica pushed the Puppet to the ground whilst keeping him connected to Goldie's head, not even bothering to apologise. She seemed surprised at how easily his limbs could be twisted around to be held in place, but that didn't stop him from trussing him up like a turkey. Foxy broke off guarding for a moment to rip up some cables which she used to tie him up. He didn't even try to struggle, still twitching from the shock he'd received.
"You cannot do this," Sid hissed, his image flickering. "You won't succeed. You won't be able to get to me."
"Lucky for you," said Goldie, "I like a challenge."
As soon as they were back on the main factory floor and his phone had a signal, Jeremy sent a message on the number Goldie had given him. It had only two words: wakey, wakey.
The unmistakable sound of doors crashing off their hinges echoed from the front of the factory. Moments later, the factory floor doors burst open and the new synths streamed in. Bots were moving to intercept them, but Vevina got to them first. She tackled into the nearest one and tore out its chest with a roar. Hermana zoomed past her and slammed into another, knocking it flat. It sprang back to its feet, now in red alert state and engaged her in battle. Theodore and Clyde ran to assist while their smallest member hurried to the two humans. Phil was following closely next to him.
"You did it!" cheered Billy when he reached them. "Goldie's plan worked!"
"Looks like it." Jeremy frowned at Vevina. "Hey, no fancy new Doc Ock harness?"
"Inconsiderate bastards, didn't even bring it with them," she answered. "Just one more reason for me to tear them apart."
"That's what I like to hear. Where is he?" he asked Phil.
"Upstairs, in his office," replied Phil. "Last I checked, he was still in there. A-And I fitted that signal suppressor to Spring's AI core downstairs already so we don't have to deal with him."
"Great." Jeremy shouted over the din. "Alright, you all know what to do! Sid's upstairs in his office! Phil will tell you how to get there! Go get him!"
"Yes sir!" Billy blew a whistle through his fingers and got their attention. "Okay guys, it's our turn now! Teddy, watch the main door in case he tries to get out. Hermy, you stick down here on the ground floor and zip about so you're on the move. Vevvy and Clyde head up top, one goes left and one goes right. I'll go watch the back door so he doesn't try to be sneaky. Bonnie, you stay here and look after Mike, Phil and Jeremy, make sure they don't get hurt."
"Already on it, little man." She ruffled his hair and smirked. "Nobody's laying a finger on these two."
"Alright, then we're ready to go! Balloon Buddies, move out!"
With a chorus of cheers and groan from Theodore, they set out to carry out their orders. Jeremy, Mike and Bonnie exchanged a look at the odd name, but decided not to question it.
"Okay guys, let's hang back here," said Bonnie, bringing them back towards the maintenance access doorway. "Just in case the others need help down there."
"Sounds good." Jeremy clapped his hands and laughed. "Can you believe this, Mike? This is it! We're finally ending this!"
"It's hard to believe." He looked around anxiously. "I hope Lidiya got out in time."
"If she didn't, I'm sure these guys will round her up too," said Bonnie. She bounced from foot to foot, flexing her fingers. "We've got this guys."
"You'll excuse me if I go quiet," said Goldie. "Need to focus my efforts. Even weakened, our boy here is putting up a fair bit of resistance."
"How long do you need?" asked Chica.
"Give me fifteen minutes." The Puppet jerked violently again. "Maybe sixteen."
"That shouldn't be too bad." Foxy paused to take down another bot. "These lubbers are easy enough ta dispatch."
"They're in basic programming without the Puppet's control and I've cut off the security protocols so more of them won't be joining those already active. Trust me when I say that if he, or any other AI, was directing them, they wouldn't be going down as quickly. Same for those synths. But once I break through his defences, they won't be a problem anymore."
"Best of luck to ye then. What about the man himself?" Foxy jerked his head to the monitor.
"Oh, don't worry too much about him. I've ensured he's not going anywhere."
Sid had stepped briefly out of the view of the monitor. They could hear frustrated complaining and a harsh, metallic buzzing that only brought further complaints from the man.
"Mr Hawthorne, I suggest that you come back and make yourself comfortable," said Freddy. "I would hazard a guess that our dear Goldie has managed to initiate a security lockdown in your current location. After all, we wouldn't want any harm to come to you durin' this, shall we say, hostile takeover?"
"What did you do?!" he snarled when he returned to the frame. "This isn't possible!"
"Under normal circumstances, I would agree," said Freddy. "However, given that your pet Puppet has just had several thousand volts run through him, courtesy of the tasers those good gentlemen rigged near Goldie's core, I'd say she has a fairly good chance. After all, she's already infiltrated some of the building's systems within a few seconds. I find myself quite impressed."
Sid's eyes narrowed. "You knew?"
"Oh aye, we knew." Foxy adopted a leering grin. "Phil was never yers, Sid. There's only so far that fear'll get ya 'fore it gives out."
"This is a minor setback," he muttered. "You'll still have to contend with the security bots."
Foxy barked a laugh. "Ha, those metal lugs? Lil' more'n a way ta get the blood pumpin'! Oh and don't think ye can be relyin' on Spring either. He's sleepin' and we're not plannin' on lettin' ye wake him up."
The sound of something repeatedly striking metal came through the speakers. Sid whirled around on the monitor, looking startled.
"It's over, Hawthorne." Chica's gaze could have struck anyone dead. "You're not escaping us."
He glanced at her. "We'll see."
The monitor suddenly flickered off and went dead. At about the same time, the lights suddenly started to flicker and wane. But Freddy focused back on the main concern.
"Sister, I believe they've reached the office upstairs. If you could deactivate the security doors, they can-"
"In a moment," she shot back. "Just… focusing on this one barrier, sorry."
"I thought you'd managed to wrest some control of the building from him."
"I did, but he is really putting up a fight to keep me out!" She yelped. "Oh, you cheeky devil! I'm going as quickly as I can, just give me a few minutes."
"What's happening with the lights?" At Chica's question, the whole place was suddenly plunged into darkness before they came back on. "Is that you doing that?"
"Partly, but there's something else. It's draining a lot of power, but..." She trailed off for a moment. "Never mind. We have more pressing matters. Security bots are closing in on your position."
The sound of metal feet reached their ears and the bots burst into the room, up to a dozen of them. Freddy prepared himself as the first ones approached, almost being able to forget the growing anxiety of this new development.
Almost.
At first, Lidiya had been relieved. A security bot had arrived and gotten her untied. It told her it had orders to escort her to the exit and that the situation was being handled. She was quite happy that the whole affair was now someone else's problem and had happily let it take her back to the factory floor.
Then all hell had broken loose. Alarms started blaring. The lights flickered. The bot told her that there was an emergency situation and to make her way to the nearest exit before hurrying off in red alert mode. She hadn't even left the testing area and had no idea what was going on.
When she'd heard quick footsteps coming down the hall, she'd ducked into a side room. They didn't see her as they ran past, but she got a good look at them. It was the purple rabbit synth of the original four, followed by two men. Jeremy and Mike. So they were involved in this! But what had happened? Everything had been under control, hadn't it?
A loud crash sounded somewhere above her. That didn't sound good at all. She had to get out of here and fast. She supposed there was the Purge programme. She felt it attached to her ring of keys. Since recovering them at the Palace, she was sure to never let them out of her sight again. But that meant going back to the hub area where they were no doubt all gathered and there was no way she was going to put herself at risk like that. She was an engineer, not a soldier.
She tried to think. If the synths were loose in the building, there weren't many places to go. She expected the exits would be covered. Maybe there was somewhere she could hunker down and wait for this to blow over while being able to keep an eye on things?
A thought occurred to her. The security office! If something had happened to Phil, maybe she could get to him and they could work out an escape together. The security office wasn't very far and at least she could take advantage of the cameras there. It was long shot, but it was better than doing nothing.
She took a moment to steel herself, then peered out of the door. No sign of anything bad. A few security bots looked to be making their way towards the room where they kept the Monitor. That was likely a bad place to be, so stay away from there. Staying low and quiet, she hurried along the corridor and back up the stairs.
Peeking around the corner, she was greeted with something out of an action movie. The purple rabbit synth was engaging a number of security bots in combat. It was a fairly even matchup between her between her strength and speed against their tenacity and numbers. Mike and Jeremy were hidden nearby. But Phil was there too. He didn't look like he'd been captured, more like he was with them.
She was really starting to panic now. She didn't know why Phil had sided with them, but that didn't matter. There were no other humans in the building she could count on. Nobody but Mr Hawthorne and they'd be coming for him. But maybe they hadn't found him yet or he'd prepared for this in some way. He knew what these things were capable of. Maybe there was something in his office. Again, another long shot but better than going toe-to-toe with them at the exits.
Creeping close to the walls, she hurried towards one of the side doors off the main factory floor. Luckily, all these rooms were interconnected. She just had to reach the front of the factory near a service ladder that would take her upstairs.
She froze. What was that sound? It was close. Roller skates? She ducked behind a stack of boxed up parts and peeked over the top. She recognised Hermana, gliding effortlessly over the ground. She paused in the middle of the room.
"Huh. Thought I saw somethin'."
Lidiya ducked behind the stack, clamping a hand over her mouth. She strained her ears, hoping and praying that Hermana wouldn't look too thoroughly. If they found her…
She didn't know how long she waited. Probably only about a minute. It felt like an hour. Her heart was beating so loud, she felt like it would give her away. She took the most shallow and quickest of breaths, but would Hermana still hear it?
"Hmm, oh well. Back to it. Weeeee!"
Like nothing had happened, she zipped off again through the next set of doors. Lidiya let herself have a moment of sweet, sweet relief before remembering the situation she was in. She waited to see if she might cycle back around before following through the doors she just went through.
Nothing in the next room. There was the ladder. She hurried up to the next floor. Okay, from here she just needed to make her way back and along towards Mr Hawthorne's office. Just stay off the walkways overlooking the factory, stick to the offices.
She slipped through the door into the office wing. The cubicles were a holdover from when the place actually needed staff before the automation kicked in. Some of the computers and phones were still plugged in. She could see where she needed to go and hurried, as quietly as she could. She paused when she heard a metal banging beyond.
Opening the door open just a crack showed her Vevina, pummelling on the security door to Mr Hawthorne's office. She had to stifle a groan. How was she going to get past her?
A mechanical hiss sounded. The door had opened. She heard Vevina yell in triumph as she rushed inside. What were they going to do to him? What were they going to do to her?! She strained her ears to listen.
Were those voices? Yes, raised voices. They were coming towards her. She ducked into a cubicle space just as the door slammed open.
"… the hell can he not be in there?" That was Clyde. "Where could he have gone?!"
"I don't fucking know, do I?!" snapped back Vevina. "Just stay here and guard it in case he's hidden somewhere. I'll let them know."
She dashed off while Clyde groaned in annoyance and went back through the door. Well, that was some good news. If Mr Hawthorne was gone, maybe he had some kind of panic room they hadn't found? If so, great. But that still meant getting past Clyde.
Lidiya thought for a moment. If she could get inside, she could reactivate the security doors, isolate them from the rest of the system so that AI couldn't open them again. She just needed a few seconds of his attention being diverted to get inside. But what could she do? Even just trying to get the doors open would be something he'd notice. She racked her brains desperately. There had to be something.
Her hand went to her pocket and she felt a familiar shape inside. Her phone! She took it out. Signal, yes! Once she was inside, provided that rogue AI hadn't done anything to prevent it, she could call the cops once she had the lockdown for the office. And maybe it offered her a way inside. If the cubicle phones were still connected…
She crept back down and found the internal number for the furthest phone. She went back to the one she'd been hiding in and dialled it. Her heart leaped when she heard the phone ring. She glanced at the door. No sign of movement. Would even hear it?
It opened. Once again, she stifled a gasp.
"Ugh, like I don't have enough annoying crap to deal with," she heard him complain.
Yes, he was going over to answer it! Now was her chance. She waited a moment, then hurried through the door. She heard the ringing stop, the phone being taken off its hook. But it was fine. She'd made it! She turned to enter the panel on the door for the access lockdown. Now if she could just remember the code…
Her ears picked up the sound of something breaking. Clyde had smashed the phone. He was on his way back. What was it? Four-nine or four-seven? It was one or the other. Footsteps getting closer. Had to try something. She entered the first one she could think of.
The door to the office opened. She looked. Clyde and her made eye contact for a brief moment before the security door slammed shut again.
"YES!" she cheered. She ran over and did the same for the other door. She heard him punching and yelling outside, but wasn't concerneed. "Okay, won't be getting in here. Now…"
The room as sparsely decorated as she remembered. Mr Hawthorne's desk was empty. No sign of him anywhere. But she knew he was here, he'd been working late the same as her and Phil. They had to know he was here somewhere, or they wouldn't have been so determined to get in.
It was then she noticed a sliver of purple light from coming from under the shelving unit on the wall. Like it was coming through a crack of a hidden room. This had to be it! There were a few items on the shelf itself. Photographs of Sid outside the factory, framed diplomas. But the most obvious was an old animatronic head. One of the restaurant ones with the bulging cartoon eyes and little ears on the head. One of them was tilted slightly lower than the other.
Beaming, Lidiya pushed it up. There was a click and the shelving unit rumbled, sliding off to the side. But what she was going to say died on her lips when she saw what was inside.
She recognised the equipment. The purple glow was coming from a synthetic incubation tube. It was emitted by the improved chemical formula they used in the new synthetic creation process. There was one inside, floating and twitching like corpse being reanimated in water. It looked familiar. But it couldn't be… no, it was him.
A perfect, synthetic replica of Sid Hawthorne was floating in the tank. He looked much younger though. She saw the older version of him, bathed in its light, lying down on medical bed with something clamped to his head. A series of cables ran into the tube. Another series was connected to a machine with five, brightly coloured diodes attached to it. They flashed and blared in time with Sid's twitches and jerking.
Something else was connected to it. An AI core, glowing with a dirty-yellow light. Another one? But if the Monitor was downstairs in its own body… which was this one?
She stared at the synthetic form in the tank, terror and confusion gripping her. What was all this? What was going on? And… were the synthetic's eyes opening?
"Well hey there!" A monitor flashed, showing a pale-faced man with a lanky figure, frizzled hair and sickly-yellow rabbit ears. He wore a grin that didn't make her feel safe in any way. "You're just in time for us to start the show!"
Lidiya did the only thing she could think to do. She ran.
Yellowscar1: Thank you! Don't worry about it, I still appreciate it.
Vyrhys: Oh Goldie always has a plan. Just this time around, so does someone else.
Arc of Carona: You'll just have to wait and see.