A/N: Yo, my dudes and dudettes! how's it going?
First, I'd like to appologize for the ling wait between the last chapter and this one. Life has a funny way of revealing what truly matters only when you've lost it.
But you're not here to listen to me ramble, you're here to read the next chapter, arent you? Simply allow me to acknowledge the one review From last chapter, and you'll get to do just that.
the ded poikachu: Thx for that; good to know that I'm not the only one who is enjoying this story.
Now then, shall we get on with it?
~~~~THREE HOURS AGO, FANGLE FLOOR~~~~
"Alright Foxy, your F.E.A.R. form is ready for its test-run. Go ahead and lie in your bed, close your eyes, and say the phrase 'Fear grants us power, and through it, victory.' Your consciousness will be transferred over to your new form down in the training floor about seventy feet beneath us," Marion said.
Foxy nodded his head, headed for his room, closed the door behind him, and proceeded to lie in his bed. He then spoke aloud "Fear grants us power, and through it-."
His voice cut off before he could speak the last word, his consciousness slipping before it all went black.
A split-second later, and he felt himself regain consciousness. As soon as his senses returned, he spoke a single word in a voice much deeper, harsher, and more powerful than he ever heard before.
"-Victory."
~~~~TWO HOURS AGO, PRIVATE TRAINING ROOM 12~~~~
Marion and Foxy, now in his F.E.A.R. form, were standing in the elevator when it stopped moving, it's doors opening to reveal a 300-square-foot room with different sections for different sized opponents, ranging from three-feet tall to ten-feet tall. Along one of the wall was a rack of weights ranging from 75 pounds to an eye-bulging ten tons.
"Alright, Foxy. While your new body has enhanced capabilities well beyond what you're used to, you're only going to be doing what you know you can do until we get you accustomed to your new strength, speed, and perception. Once you get used to that, we can start with the more advanced techniques. Today, work on what you know you can do, and then increase slightly. Start with the weights, do one repetition, and then increase the pounds slightly. Go to the dummies, and get into a combat stance four feet in front of them to activate them; they're animatronics with basic functions so as to pose a challenge, and will adapt to your style in order to both test and push you. I'll be back in two hours to see your progress."
~~~~PRESENT~~~~
Foxy swung his arm one final time, the metallic dummies flying off to the side in two pieces, it's middle section ripped in half with smaller pieces scattering in their direction.
Foxy started breathing heavily, his workout routine just finished as he completely eviscerated the last of the training dummies.
'They really need to update the equipment in here…"
He went to sit down on the nearby bench, an open canteen of coolant sitting on the floor nearby. Sitting down, he grabbed the canteen and looked up, opening his mouth a bit to provide a waterfall of coolant down his throat, immediately cooling his systems as his breathing went back to his normal pace.
Looking back down to the room, he saw what his workout routine was doing to the room; a total of seventeen destroyed dummies of various size with differentiating weapons, all of which were broken, bent, or impaled in the walls and ceiling.
"Thank goodness for the thirty feet of dirt and steel between each floor," Foxy thought.
Just then, the elevator doors opened, and Foxy turned his attention towards the opening doors to reveal Marion standing there.
Marion looked around the training room, and saw the leftover mess from Foxy's training before looking at Foxy and asked "How's the new body working out for you?"
Foxy's voice was ancient, deep, and metallic as he replied with "Still working a few kinks out, but it's working much easier than I thought it would. What's next?"
"Now, we let Vixey have her turn. You need to give this body time to adapt to. Every day, we'll add another hour to your workout routine, where you push yourself harder and harder. Five days before the tournament starts, you'll be off the hardcore routine and you'll create your own to keep your mind sharp and your muscles strong."
"Sounds good to me. Shall we?" Foxy asked, motioning with his clawed hand towards the elevator.
Marion simply nodded, and Foxy got up and walked with him towards the elevator doors. Foxy looked up towards a blinking red light, and asked "Hey, these rooms are private, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Then why are there cameras in here?"
"Oh, that's just a security precaution. The ones in the private training rooms go to the selected team's crafter and the recent Blade so he can see his competition in action."
"That's not very fair to the rest of us."
"That may be so, but it's all a part of The Forge."
As he finished his last line, Marion pressed the button to their floor, and the elevator doors began to close
As the elevator doors were closing, Foxy saw a couple extra doors that he didn't know existed open up in the room to reveal a couple 4-foot-tall rabbit animatronics with janitor gear move out of them and start to clean the floor.
At the last possible second, he saw black collars around one of the bunnies who glanced at foxy with pleading eyes before the doors cut their connection.
"Marion, I have a question for you."
"Save it for our floor; we're being watched, and some questions' aren't meant for every ear."
Foxy looked up and stared at the camera in the corner of the elevator, and gave it a menacing look.
~~PRESENT TIME, SECURITY ROOM~~
The jackal on the shift that day stared at Foxy's new body, knowing who he should place his bets on, and thinking about how ravaging he would be in the coming battles when suddenly, the screen flickered, and nobody was in the elevator.
He looks away to get a swig of the coolant on hand, not noticing that the screen flickered before it's inhabitants disappeared.
~~PRESENT TIME, ELEVATOR 12~~
The elevator stopped moving, shutting off the lights and returning the small space to darkness.
Foxy started his ignition engine, and gave off a small amount of flames to keep the room lit as he looked back down at Marion.
"You were saying?"
"How did you manage to do that?"
"This upgrade came with nanomites, which I infected in a couple of the weapons that hit the walls, and commanded them to infect the system. I've gained control of the surrounding six floor's electrical systems and the security room cameras. They're now playing a loop of what the elevator was like when it had no one in it. Now, care to explain the collars?"
Marion looked at him, and gave a quick smirk for the swiftness of discovering all the body's new features. Turning back into a serious face, he says "Foxy, this establishment is built on gladiator fights to the death. As vast as this system is, and as intricate we have made it to seem like this gladiatorial ring is a mountain to the outside world, this mountain is an illusion from the law as well. This establishment is built on the foundations on which the current Blade has set forth. Unfortunately, this latest Blade, who has retained his title for the past ten years, has built his foundation upon slaves. The black collars dampen the wearer's voice boxes so that they can't speak, and give massive electrical shocks to those who disobey all orders from their superiors. I can tell you more, but we need to be on our floor in order to do so. This elevator may be secure, but they'll get suspicious if we stay in here."
Foxy was breathing heavily, anger surging through his systems as the power came back to the elevator. He withheld the camera from showing them all the way up to the floor. Once they exited, the doors closing behind them, he returned it back to a live feed.
His nanites began to surge through the electrical system, gaining access to everything on this floor. Eventually, he found the cameras, and flared into them with a burning anger in his eyes before the feed from their floor was cut completely.
CONTROL OF ALL ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS ON SUB-LEVELS 9-32 COMPLETE.
TAKING CONTROL OF SUB-LEVEL 8...
SUB-LEVEL 8 SUCCESSFULLY TAKEN OVER.
TAKEOVER PROTOCOL SUSPENDED.
"...Alright, Marion… all cameras and microphones in this room have been taken down. We can talk privately."
Hephaestus came out of the workshop, and said "Foxy, your new civilian form is ready."
"That can wait until I get some answers, Hephae."
He was about to retort when Foxy's words registered to him, and he looked to Marion and asked "What did he see?"
"The rabbits with the collars," Marion replied quickly.
The lizard sighed, and said "As much as I despise slavery, the Forge has been running a bit more smoothly than it has before the idea was brought up. It's rather effective, and it keeps this place clean enough to be considered an establishment instead of a hidden junk heap. But then again, I can't be complaining about it."
He turned his back and took off a small section of his neck, revealing a microchip connected to a sensor. "I, nor any of the other team's blacksmiths, can leave their floors. A couple can't even leave their stations on their floors. Only one blacksmith can roam this entire mountain freely, and that's the Master Blacksmith, the only one who is allowed to work on the Blade's systems."
Setting the scales back down, he faced Foxy and Marion and said "The gladiators, the subjugated animatronics, the coaches, the blacksmiths, the janitors… everyone who takes part in this, no matter how small the part, can never leave the mountain except for the Blade, the only exception being the coaches when it's time for the Forge to create a new Blade or sharpen the old one."
Through the entire explanation, Marion was observing Foxy in order to catch any glimpse of what he was feeling. This form he was in was made specifically for fighting, which is why they made it so that he was more prone to getting angry, along with it's more focused forms of hatred and bloodthirsty, than any other emotion. However, while he was looking at him, he saw that he wasn't showing any emotion at all. Almost as if he was thinking of something…
A few seconds of silence later, Foxy simply said "Well, I guess the only way to change that is to become the next Blade."
Marion simply smiled, and said "Before we discuss those details, I'd rather we get Vixey into her new civilian form. In order to do that, we need you to inhabit your new civilian form, and take it out of the shop. So, shall we?"
Foxy nodded, and walked into his room. Pressing the button and revealing the hidden room, he sat his monstrous form back down, and closed his eyes.
His consciousness began to exit the being he was inhabiting, and started being collected into a smaller, stronger form.
Suddenly, his consciousness was met with a security wall that locked him out of taking over the body, which required him to speak a seven-letter password.
If his consciousness could smirk, you can bet he was doing so now.
Victory.
His consciousness was then propelled into the new suit, and as soon as he was completely inside, he immersed himself in the new hardware.
With his control now secured, he opened his eyes, finding himself analyzing anything and everything that came in sight much faster than he was used to, yet all the information came at a pace that he could adjust to, albeit a faster one than ever before.
All manner of weapon prototypes were strewn across the floor, made from all different types of material. An actual forge was sitting in the corner, several blacksmithing gloves and aprons, along with a couple welder masks, were hanging next to the Forge.
Hephaestus walked in on the room that Foxy found himself in and said "Foxy, glad the transition was smooth as can be. Now, your new body has more upgrades than just the visual looks, and it'll take some time to adjust. Once the straps are undone, take it slowly, k?"
Foxy blinked, and Hephaestus undid the straps on his ankles, legs, wrists, chest, and forehead.
Once the last strap was undone, Hephaestus said "The rules of the Forge state that nobody can be completely indestructible. If they were, then it wouldn't be a fair fight; it would be an assured victory, and those are never fun. So, I built this sensory module that scans anything you want to. Pair that with the increased memory bank that houses the information on any type of material that's made as of two hours ago. Anything newer than that, you'll have to figure it out yourself."
Foxy looked around, and saw that he was right; as he looked at everything in the room with him, his software scanned it all, and displayed a series of information regarding everything that was scanned;
A mace laying in the corner made completely of titanium with a mechanism on the inside that suggests that the spikes on the end shoot out of the sphere after it's first hit, becoming a devastating one-off weapon.
A sword that's made of stainless steel that, when dunked in oil, causes the weapon to be surrounded with a blue fire, which spreads to whatever the sword makes contact with.
Lined up on the wall were five different hooks of varying sizes and material, the smallest being a simple hardened plastic to the largest being made of titanium.
Looking down at his own body, he analyzed his own being as Hephaestus spoke, looking over every part that Hephaestus was talking about and seeing the improvements as he talked.
"So, to start with, we basically built you from scratch. The endoskeleton itself was a marvelous piece of machinery… 30 years ago. Nowadays, everything can be done with better material in smaller pieces of machinery. Changing it out from steel to titanium, it can take a few more hits than you previously could to even make a dent in it. Combined with new shock absorbers and hydraulic pistons, you should be able to move faster and hit harder as well as take a bigger beating before needing repairs. Replacing the joints all over your body with updated ball and hinge joints, you should have a similar movement pattern as to a normal human. There's also a highly-advanced lithium-ion battery with a gel capacitor around it instead of a liquid, meaning that you'll only need to replace the batteries once every decade instead of once or twice a year.
"Now, moving on to the next layer of your body; I've given you flexible steel wires in the shape and place of an actual human body-builder, allowing you to lift things several times your weight. Complete with a synthetic skin-like material laced with a titanium fiber mesh, along with synthetic fox fur, you'll look and feel a lot more real instead of being just a plastic robot. Your teeth are sharpened titanium with diamond cores, allowing you to literally take a bite out of almost anything short of diamonds itself. I doubt that anyone else on this mountain could make something that would be able to withstand that massive bite of yours."
Foxy then took a step forward, flexing almost every single muscle that he had in order to get a feeling for things. Once he was comfortable, he looked over to the lizard and said "Thank ye for yer assistance with me new body, lad."
He smiled when he heard that he was able to keep his old speech pattern, albeit with a slightly deeper tone that made him sound more serious.
Walking over to the mirror, he was finally able to see that he looked more… natural. Like this was an actual human evolution instead of a monstrosity created in a robotics lab.
Walking out of the room, he saw that Marion was in the room with the glass walls, watching the monitors that revealed Vixey's gladiator form on a different level than the one he was on.
Her form was similar to his own, yet completely different. Nothing that started a fire, no hook on her arm, no glowing white eyes…
If anything, he found her form even more unnerving than his own. The mainly-white body had several places with hot pink, but the colors on her were the last thing that people were going to notice.
"Absolutely marvelous, ain't she?" Marion asked, knowing that Foxy was there even though he made no sound to give away his presence.
Foxy simply nodded, marveling at the viceousness that she simply oozed from her combat form.
For the next hour and a half, Foxy became entranced by her combat style, not even bothering to analyze it in order to see if he could learn anything from it. Then, Marion turned off the monitor, and said "Alright, Foxy; time for you to get some sleep. You can see her in the morning, when your real training begins."
Foxy gulped, and asked "How 'real' be ye trainin'?"
Marion walked into the elevator, turned to look at Foxy, and gave him a sadistic grin as the elevator doors closed.
Foxy quickly looked over to Hephaestus, who was smiling at the anthro fox, and said "Welcome to The Forge; the closest thing this earth has to purgatory."
OK, so if you've made it this far and haven't read this part yet, then bear with me for a moment as I explain a few things.
First of all, between the first time I released this chapter and the release of the fourth chapter, there were a few inconsistencies that were head-butting other things with the chapters that weren't making sense. Like when Marion first introduced himself as the current Blade in chapter 2 while I made it look like it was Springtrap in chapter 3. It was meant to be Springtrap, and that has been fixed. At least, I think I fixed it. If someone else could go back and read it, then drop a review for everyone to see if it has been or not, along with where I need to change it if something needs to be changed, then it would be much appreciated.
Second, I changed up the times a bit in the first and second chapters to more closely correlate the process of events in this story. Best thing about having a fanfic is that I can bend the universe to my will as long as it makes sense for the story. I'm not trying to stick to the original lore made by Scott Cawthon. I'm appreciating the fact that he made these characters, and I'm not claiming these creations of my own, but I am claiming this story and it's progression as my own. All the characters in this story, minus their FEAR forms, go to Scott Cawthon. Their FEAR forms are something I made in my own consciousness from thinking 'How can I make the Nightmare versions of Foxy and Mangle even scarier?'
Shoutout to Tea Blade Writer for allowing me to adopt and re-create his story, Mistress Lexi for her continued support (who doesn't have an account on this site last time I checked), and to the few of you who followed and favorited this story. The support you give is very much appreciated.
~Count Kleiffen