Chapter 6: Night 5

On a whim, Rick flipped through the channels, watching his weeklong handiwork in effect. Fredbear and his gang were all well-adjusted members of after-dark, third shift society. Wearing plus-sized maid outfits, the animatronics went about dusting, washing, cleaning, and maintaining the pizzeria. The place was starting to look better then it did during the day. Rick leaned back in his swivel chair, soaking up the visual of his "adversaries" brought to heel.

Now, he could focus less of his energies on this BS job, and instead center his attention more around a much more pressing matter. Time Travel. Currently, Rick was making a few key adjustments to his portal gun. As he did, he pondered on how best to field test his new device. He couldn't use Morty again, not since last time, but now he had four brand new and expendable test subject to use and abuse at his leisure.

As he pondered whether or not he should send the toucan to Stalingrad, he finalized the settings on his portal gun, inputting a few commands into his quantum awareness scanner, trying to make sure that the obvious cursed vibes of this place wouldn't throw off his experiment. As he waited for it to finish, he got on the intercom. "Hey, pirate furry! I'm thirsty! Get me something to drink!" Putting it down, he looked back at the scanner. As expected, something got picked up. Rick once again brought up the machine to make the new calculations.

"…Huh, that's interesting," Rick muttered to himself as he watched the visuals go haywire. "Something here is a lot stronger then I gave it credit for. Still, nothing I c*belch*an't handle…" At least, that was what he thought until something caused the alarm on his scanner to start beeping incessantly. Rick looked from the scanner to the portal device, trying to assess what was going on. Something… something had picked up on the readings from the other side. As Rick tried to abort the experiment, the portal gun started to glow. "C'mon, shut it down, SHUT IT DOWN!" Rick screamed in a panicked voice. By then, the portal gun activated, throwing Rick into the quantum void.

Not five seconds later did Foxy; dressed in maid attire, enter the control room. "One long island iced tea for Master," Foxy recited as he bent his knees. After Rick failed to throw the drink in his face again, Foxy looked up to see the control room completely empty. In addition, that wretched portal gun of Rick's had been left behind. Confused, Foxy picked up the intercom. "Freddy, I think we have us an issue… arrgh…"

Roughly twenty years earlier

As Rick landed on the floor, his eyes adjusted to the dark. Pulling himself up, he took a moment to access his surroundings. It looked like another damn pizzeria, albeit a little bigger and fancier. Had all the hallmarks, too. Rigged arcade games, rule posters, music box, sanitation supplies all out in the open, large jack in the box, police tape… fine, maybe it wasn't totally conventional. Still, he needed to find out just where he was and just what he needed to do to get home. First order of business, build a return device, something that could home in on his portal gun back in the control room and send him back. First order of business, finding the proper casing. Luckily, that music box rattling on would be the perfect fit…

Present-day…ish.

Freddy and the others all huddled around the device, looking among themselves as they pondered what to do next.

"…Methinks we should flush it down the toilet," Foxy suggested.

"We aren't doing that again," Chica replied, bluntly.

"Well, don't ya gots any better ideas?" Bonnie asked.

"…Compacter?" Chica brought up.

"No, guys, you aren't understanding the situation we got here. This is an opportunity! We play our cards right, we never have to see Sanchez again, and all we have to do is figure out a way to make sure he never, ever comes back. You get what I'm saying, right, Boss?" Bonnie asked the bear.

Freddy, however, ignored him. He stared down at the still glowing portal gun. That gun was the only thing still linking Rick f'ing Sanchez to this plane of existence. All the humiliations, being stuffed in the closet, the mockery, the breaking of tradition… all of it finally reached a boiling point.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Freddy yelled as he leapt on the portal gun, bashing and smashing it with all his weight, beating his chest as he mauled the object. The other animatronics watched in silence as their leader continued to assault the device with everything he had.

Smashing the music box open, Rick tossed aside the useless parts as he continued going to work on the return device. As he put the device together, he looked around the cordoned off areas. This place was giving off some bad vibes, even moreso then the original pizzeria. Still, Rick needed to make this little incursion as quick as possible. Thankfully, nothing looked like it was going to go wrong.

…

All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel…

The carnage had been taken out to the stage area, where Freddy continued to pummel the portal gun with all his rage and might. The other three, never having witnessed their boss rage like this, stayed out of the calamity, occasionally tossing their boss a chair or pipe with which he could use to further attempt to crack the portal gun. At a few intervals, Freddy would stomp around his "prey" mumbling in some strange, possibly made up, dialect before getting right back to work on tearing it apart. Before too long, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy all agreed to make for the safety and refugee of the maintenance closet, while waiting for their boss to finally… hopefully… calm down.

"Sweet, one return device built, and in record time too!" Rick happily gloated to himself. It was a simple invention, for him at least. That still meant it was more advanced then anyone in this quadrant could possibly hope to achieve. Still, at least he could finally get back home now. He strapped the device to his belt, pressing the button that would take him back to his own timeline, and then…

Nothing.

Rick looked down at his belt, his confusion giving way to anger. Did he make a mistake? HELL NO, he thought to himself, I'M RICK SANCHEZ MOTHERF-

"Hello!"

Rick stopped his ego stroking for a moment to look at the diminutive animatronic little boy standing across from him. It looked real old-timey, what with the balloons and the early 20th century aesthetics. He stared down at the animatronic kid, who in turn looked up at him.

"Hi!"

Rick rolled up his sleeves. "Kid, make with the amscray before you make me take off my burp my belt."

The little kid just stood there, even as Rick got close and closer to it. Rick started to glare it in the eyes, when that was when he finally saw it. The little robo-twerp wasn't looking at him. It was looking behind him…

Freddy fell to the ground in exhaustion, the portal gun all but dented. As he struggled to catch his breath (Morty: Hey, grandpa Rick, if he's a robot- Rick: SHUT UP!) Freddy glared at the device lying on the ground. "…I just wanted to make kids happy, geezer." Freddy muttered to anyone listening, or maybe just himself. "I had a good thing going, too. My buddies and me had it all down pat, and then they had to get involved. You think I'm a monster, Sanchez? After '87, I did everything I could to make sure monsters like you couldn't hurt any more kids! I tried to keep them safe, you idiot! I tried to stop him! I tried to stop it! And you have to ruin everything!" Freddy growled as he continued to attack the device, fury renewed. They're all the same, Freddy growled. Wherever you are, Rick, I hope you're having fun!

Rick gasped as the wrap continued to constrict his stomach. His legs and arms were restricted to the sides of his body, and the pressure was just below bone crushing. The more he struggled, the more energy that he could not afford to expend got expended. Finally, he saw his attackers face.

That white, expressionless drama mask. Mouth gaping open like he was mocking him, though never saying a word. That puppet thing had caught him by surprise, overpowered him, and was now about to drain the life from him. Wrapping its impossibly long body around him, the Marionette then grabbed Rick's neck with its arm, further suffocating the elder scientist. Rick started to black out. Before he did, he felt the Marionette begin fishing around his pants. Oh, so that's what its into, Rick thought to himself before the blood was nearly completely cut off from his brain.

Suddenly, a high-pitched shriek filled the air. The Marionette was distracted for just one moment, and a heavy, brown fist struck it in the face. Immediately, it released its grip on Sanchez, only to be greeted with another swipe from a brown paw.

"I finally got you, you twisted son of a bitch!" Freddy growled as he threw another haymaker into the Marionette's face. Rick, after catching his breath, scampered away from the slugfest as the Marionette dove down the hallway, with the bear in hot pursuit.

Rick then took several long gasps of air before pulling himself to his feet. As he rested his hands on his knees, he came to a realization. Did Freddy just save my life?

"Hi!"

Rick looked down at the jamming device disguised as an animatronic, before walking behind it and snapping its neck.

Freddy, damn near out of rage, looked down at the still glowing portal gun. "Fine, Chica, you win. Compactor it is!" he called out. Before he picked it up, however, he gave it one last kick, just for old times sake. That kick split the device in two. Suddenly, a surge of energy erupted from the cracked carcass of the device, and Rick Sanchez, bloodied and bruised, stood back in the Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria.

Continuing to breath heavily, Rick looked around at the establishment, then to Freddy. "*pant-pant* Thanks man, that was… I needed that back there," he breathed, tapping his fist against Freddy's chassis. "I was… I'm not gonna lie, that thing almost had me there for a minute," he continued as he gradually got his legs moving. As he almost slunk away, he picked up the pieces of the portal gun. "Just as well, I guess. I don't want that… thing following me thro…" a look of horror dawned on his face. "No," he muttered as he fished around in his pocket. "No-no-no-no, this… this isn't happening," he muttered, eyes widening in horror. "I gotta… I gotta make some calls!" he cried as he bounded out of the building.

Freddy, who had been watching the whole show with a confused look on his face, simply stood by as Rick rushed through the doors, making no effort to impede his progress. "Boss, you alright?" Bonnie asked as he peeked his head out of the closet.

"…I think we're done for, guys. We're getting out of this building," Freddy stated. "Strike that, we're leaving the planet."

Present day

"That thing got its hands of my perpetual energy battery, as well as my spare chrono-emitters. In short, its bad news for the universe of that thing figures out how to use them. And so help us if he figures out how to jump into other time-lines," Rick explained after drawing an elaborate diagram on a chalkboard.

"Wow, Rick. You really- you really think this "Marionette" guy is smart enough to do that?" Morty asked.

"That thing was smart enough to pull me though time after I had just finished setting up the machine. I think it's safe to say that it's really smart, Morty. Almost as smart as me," Rick said as he checked his laser blaster again.

"Smart enough to get the jump on you, at least," Freddy spat, bitterly.

"Hey, zip it, amateur, you don't get to…" Rick stopped.

"Puppet got your tongue?" Freddy asked.

"…You know what that thing is, don't you?" Rick guessed.

"…It was a member of the revamp, a few years ago. Between him and the new guys, we didn't really get along. Then… then the disappearances started. Five kids, and I know for a fact that that thing was involved," Freddy explained.

"Oh, why would the killer robot bear care about a bunch of missing persons?" Rick sneered.

"Hey, Sanchez, that's just uncalled for! We would never hurt a child. Ever," Freddy said as he rustled Morty's hair. "Adults, in my experience, only go out of their way to hurt kids. Hence why we try to kill every adult we get our hands on."

"Hurt kids? Me? I'd-I'd… that's uncalled for, Fredbear! I'd never hurt a kid, right, Morty?" Rick asked. Morty just mumbled something about "Palicky" and "Cronenburg" and dug his foot into the floor.

"OK, aside from those few mistakes," Rick brushed off, dismissively, "I'm perfectly harmless-ish. So you don't need to try and kill me," Rick exclaimed. Freddy was about to retaliate when all of a sudden, Bird person perked up. "…Rick, that thing you wanted me to sense…"

"Yeah?"

"…It's coming…"

Slowly, the tune of "Pop goes the weasel" could be heard in a distance… followed by another… and another… and another…