"You shouldn't call her that…" I grumble as I struggle to re-attach the animatronics arm.
"Why the hell not? It's a wreck and who ever said it's a 'she'?" Jake shoots back from across the room.
Toy Foxy, or Mangle as my coworkers called her, was in a bad way tonight; it looks like the kids somehow removed the endoskeletal head completely from the suit.
"Firstly it's a she because she's obviously wearing lipstick and makeup and secondly we should have never just forsaken her for the kids to tear apart! She's got some of the most advanced animatronics of all the characters not to mention advanced voice recognition." I wipe my brow as I finally get the arm reattached and stand to examine my work.
Even fully reassembled she's a mess, basically a jumble of limbs without any covering whatsoever. I think at last count she had 3 leg and 4 arms? A few weeks ago line one of the employees tossed her torso into the trash because one of the kids jammed pizza and cake into it, fortunately I dug it out of the dumpster before the trash truck came. I had it setting at my house and was nearly done cleaning it out and replacing the fried electronics. I'd even ordered some faux fur and silicone paneling so I could eventually reconstruct her exterior; in the meantime though I'd had to cobble together a rough body out of the scraps and spare parts lying around in storage.
Patting her on the head I slid her back into her corner as carefully as possible. "There ya go, that ought to keep you goin for a little while longer
"Why do you care for that thing? It can't even move anymore like the other bots so why don't you just leave it in a pile, the kids are just going to tear it apart again tomorrow." Jake asks as he walks towards the exit.
"Because I just don't think it's fair, anything at all goes wrong with the other characters and we drop everything to fix it. I don't know what the manager was thinking when she let the kids start tinkering with her. Hell I was the one who unboxed her and put her together!" I say pulling on my coat to leave.
Jake just didn't understand, when I took her out of the box and saw her sing and dance for the first time after taking nearly a week to fully construct and tweak all her pneumatics I grew rather attached.
"Hey Glenn did ya hear? They're closing the place! Tomorrow is our last day and then we're on 'temporary leave' whatever the hell that means." Jake tells me as I walk into the break room to start my shift.
"What? Why? I haven't heard anything." I ask taken aback.
"Something about one of the bots being stolen, the bots acting up, and business slipping. I don't know about you but I've had it with this place anyway."
"What're they going to do with the bots?" I hesitantly ask.
"They'll probably ship them to other Freddy's franchises to keep for scrap or replacement parts." Jake says donning his smock and Freddy's hat.
I get my Freddy's jumpsuit on and start doing my rounds and checking up on all the bots. The newer Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie are all in top shape, these newer animatronics aren't nearly as prone to malfunctions as the first generation of bots. As I'm finishing up our manager Judith catches me before I can make it to check up on Toy Foxy.
"Glenn I'm pretty sure you've heard by now but we're temporarily shutting our doors after work tomorrow. I'm not sure how long we'll be out of commission but I've already made a few calls and found another Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria in Raleigh that'd be willing to take you as their technician."
Raleigh was a bit of a drive but still knowing that I was going to have a job helped ease my mind.
"Thanks Judith I'll give them a call to see when they'd like me to start. Oh! I was going to ask, what are we going to do with all the bots?"
"They're going to be sending the Toy Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie to another store. The older bots are all going to be put in storage for spare parts or maybe a refit eventually." She says as she turns to walk away
"What about Toy Foxie? What are we going to do with her?" I ask, suddenly nervous.
"I'm just going to toss it, it's falling apart and would be more trouble than it's worth to repair. Why do you ask?"
"Well, would you mind if I have her? I mean if you're going to throw her out anyway."
"I don't see the harm in that, just pick her up at the end of your shift tomorrow and take her home"
The day goes by in a blur and before I know it I'm trying to reassemble Toy Foxy before I go home.
"Well," I grunt as I realign an elbow joint "Looks like you'll be coming home with me tomorrow. I'm almost done with your body so before you know it you'll be as good as new. Just one more day and then you'll be with someone who'll take proper are of you."
Standing to leave for the night I feel a tug on my leg, looking down I notice that somehow one of Foxy's hands locked around my pant leg. Kneeling down to free myself another of her arms rockets forward and grabs my calf.
"What the hell?" I stammer as I stumble backwards.
Foxy's hands relax almost instantly but her head jitters forward from her mass of limbs. A burst of static sounds from her slacked jaw but then I hear something, almost like a garbled radio transmission.
"T…nk…you…." The voice is distinctly feminine although metallic and badly garbled.
I'd never seen her do that before but in this state of disrepair I shouldn't be surprised. Ruffling the fur on her head and ears I walked away. "Just be good for one more day then you'll never have to deal with people mishandling you ever again." I say wistfully as I make my way towards the exit.
Walking out the rear entrance I heard something faint from where Foxy lie "L…..love…y…ou…."
When I get home I notice a package has arrived, a long box is leaned against my door. I bring it inside and open it on my table, it's the new fur for Foxy which I ordered. I microwave a few hot pockets then unroll the material and start cutting using the templates I'd made. It took a little while to cut the fur covering for the arms and legs but the torso was going to be the tricky part. The arms and legs were just animatronic endoskeleton which, originally, was covered in a metal latticework then fur; my newer design removed the latticework and replaced it with softer silicone panels which wouldn't damage the fur coating as easily and were more kid friendly. The torso for the covering was much the same, a fleshy feminine silicone covering for the inner mechanisms. Arranging the silicone over the torso was pretty tricky, stretch here, affix there. I had to grab one of the breasts to press a tab into place and got a little flustered. I hadn't had a girlfriend in quite a while so grabbing a breast, real or not, got me a little flustered. Once I was finished I a briefly admired my work then went off to bed.
The next day was absolute chaos. I tried to go in for work that afternoon only to find the doors locked with police tape over them. I went across the street to a gas station to ask what had happened and apparently the older Foxy had severely bitten one of the security guards during first shift. The older Foxy was always twitchy and had snapped at customers before so I wasn't that surprised. I walked around to the back of the restaurant to see if they had tossed any of the animatronics before the locked up. Sticking out of the dumpster was one of toy Foxy's arms; after a few minutes of pulling and digging I excised her from the trash. Maneuvering her over my shoulder I made my way back to my car, since work was canceled I had a whole afternoon to tinker and repair my new toy.
Once I was home I cleared the table and hauled Foxy's cobbled together form onto it. I quickly fetched my tool chest and started some dubstep playing on my computer.
"Now this might hurt a little but I'm going to have to disassemble you so I can fix you up" I say as I start loosening bolts and screws.
I look into her one good eye and it feels like she's staring back at me. I pet her head softly, "Trust me you'll be better than you ever were around those abusive kids."
Slowly and painstakingly I systematically dismantle the limbs from her conglomerated form, cleaning and neatly placing them aside before finally reaching her head; her rosy cheeks and lipstick a vivid pink against her stark white fur. I caress her face gently before disconnecting the power from the back of her neck. A faint blurt of static resonates from her as she powers down.
It takes a few hours but I get her head fully repaired. The endoskeletal head which had bobbed next to her vulpine features had been repaired and reinstalled properly along with an eye which I had salvaged from the originally Bonnie. I look up from my work and notice it is 1am; I've been working for nearly eight hours and really notice. I managed to get the head and one arm attached to the torso.
"Let's see how this does." I say as I reconnect her power.
Her eyes, the original yellow and the new vivid violet, jump open.
"Hey Foxy, how are you feeling?" I ask
Her head cocks to the side for a moment almost seeming puzzled. "Yaaargh! Foxy be feeling fit as a fiddle laddie." She answers in her lilting metallic voice.
"It's good to hear you actually talk again Foxy, it's been a long time since your vocalizer stopped working." I tell her cheerfully. "I'm going to put you in standby for tonight and I'll finish you tomorrow."
At this she immediately looks down at herself and notices that she's missing an arm and her legs. There's a pause and her head ticks to the side before she examines her functioning arm, moving and flexing it experimentally.
"I've modified you a bit," I tell her "I'll fine tune everything once you're back in one piece. See you in the morning Foxy." I lean forward and give her a little kiss on the top of her head.
She looks up at me slowly, "You were always my favorite buccaneer. You'll be Foxy's first mate from here on out!" She proclaims as she grins up at me.
I turn off the lights as I walk to my bedroom and flop into bed.
I hear something in my room and wake up with a start; it's dark and I can't see well but I make out a figure standing beside the bed.
"Who's there?!" I stammer.
"It's only me darling, no need to worry." I hear a familiar mechanical voice respond.
"F..Foxy? How? Wha…?" I manage before a velvety soft finger is pressed gently to my lips.
"You're the only person who's ever cared for me. Day after day you did your best to fix me up, you encouraged me and talked to me; you even saved me from that terrible place and made me more than I could have ever been." She says as she turns on the light.
There she is, fully assembled and looking better than ever; snow white fur covering her from head to toe. Her eyes sparkle magically as she looks down at me.
"How is this even possible? Are you alive?" I ask quickly becoming overwhelmed.
"I…I don't know." She replies "We've been alive for a while now. I'm not exactly sure how or why but we just are. All I know is that I love you, I've loved you since I saw your smiling face when you powered me on."
As I stand up I'm at a loss for words; my brain struggles to comprehend what's happening and why. The only thing I know as I look at her is that I'm happy.
"Oh Foxy," I cry as I embrace her "I love you too! I promise I'll take care of you and won't let anyone hurt your ever again!"
She wraps her arms around me, clutching me tight. "I wouldn't have it any other way" She coos in my ear before giving me a passionate kiss.
END…For now