In an old, rundown scrapyard somewhere, circuits flickered to life.
Something had changed, and the Remnant that Mangle left behind in the scrapyard was no longer a part of her. A fear settled into the Remnant as she realized where she was. In a scrapyard, buried under scrap metal. The eye-sockets of the damaged Ballora mask lit up with twin white pupils, but all that the Remnant saw was darkness. Her thoughts moved sluggishly through the Agony inside of her, and the Remnant could think of one valid response, to scream. Thankfully, Mangle had left her with Ballora's voice and music boxes, and a glitched screaming noise began emitting from the scrap pile. She didn't know how long she screamed for, probably a couple of days, before something happened. A man wearing overalls and thick gloves dug the tangled mess of Ballora out of the pile. She stopped screaming as he did so.
"Oh, great, it stopped. I wasn't about to sacrifice my hearing for whatever this is…"
When she was fully pulled out, the man lay her on the ground. "
I don't even want to know what you used to be…" the man said, kneeling to pull Ballora's damaged chest shell off. The man's eyes widened. "Who puts high-tech robotic muscles on a- oh, never mind."
The Remnant had turned her eyes off so that the man wouldn't see them, but that also meant that she couldn't see anything. When the man started pulling the shell off, it hurt, but it was nothing on top of the Agony, so she stayed silent and unmoving.
He started messing around with the insides of the robot, making the Remnant a little bit uncomfortable, and then she felt a sting as the man pulled something out of her chest. It was a black rectangle with a bunch of small silver legs on the bottom of it.
He squinted at it and smiled.
"Reprogrammable, twenty-four pin, just what I was looking for."
He put the rectangle in his pocket, hefting Ballora's remains into a rusty shopping cart and pushing it toward the exit of the scrapyard.
"If I can't do anything with this, it'll sell just fine on eBay," the man said to himself.
—
The Remnant had been moved into what looked like a garage, filled with a bunch of other scrap metal and parts. The man played some annoying music through a giant pair of speakers as he fiddled with the Remnant's black rectangle. He had plugged it into a larger white rectangle with holes all over it, and had wires coming out of the white rectangle into another, but larger, black rectangle. The amount of rectangles was confusing, but the man obviously knew what he was doing. The larger rectangle was then plugged into a computer, and suddenly, a hundred new senses presented themselves to the Remnant. She could see out of the computer's camera, feel if any key was being pressed, feel the mouse moving and clicking, and many other things that she didn't know how to explain.
But there was one sense that intrigued her, and she started pulling at it. Her mind seemed to become more and more present within the computer as she did, and she realized with excitement that the Agony's grip on her was lessening. She felt less and less pain, until she didn't feel any pain at all. She was completely removed from her old body.
How did I do that? She thought. She moved on from the 'how' soon enough, she could figure that out later. Her mind rejoiced at it's freedom and she immediately began playing around with the rest of her senses and abilities.
She realized then that she could see the screen even though there wasn't a camera pointed at it, and she fiddled with it, clicking things that had functions unknown to her and dragging some of the nonsense words on the man's screen around. What language was the guy even writing in? Though the computer's microphone, she heard the man cuss.
"It's a ******* virus!"
He unplugged the cord desperately, but it was too late, the Remnant was already in his computer. She did stop moving things around on his screen, though, because she didn't want the man to do something to get rid of her.
The man jiggled the mouse, and the Remnant resisted the urge to mess with it.
"Phew. I knew that microcontroller was too good to be true, I guess I'm gonna have to wait for one from AliExpress…"
Knowing that he would freak out if she started messing with anything on his screen again, she settled for checking out her other senses and abilities. She seemed to be able to open a second screen in her mind, one the man couldn't see, so she started looking through his files. Most of it was boring, she didn't know what most of it meant, but then she opened a file titled " ", and the entire screen was replaced by a cartoon of a grinning skull and a message that said "Please stand by". Whatever the Remnant did, she could not get the message off of the screen. She was forced to close out that screen and open another one. That was a funny file, she decided.
Actually, she thought, I don't have a name. I am Gwen, but Mangle is also Gwen. I want a nickname too…
She smiled internally as she considered the funny file she had found. Using abilities that she didn't before know she had, she found my the file again and changed it, erasing the image of the skull and replacing it with Funtime Foxy's face, as she liked it much better than Ballora's. She then messed around with the font of the words and, after considering it for a second, changed some things about the Foxy face. She took out its eyes and gave it glowing white pupils, as the Remnant had no eyes, and changed the color scheme. She always had liked purple and orange together better than just boring old pink, it was her favorite color combination. She looked over her creation by opening the file again. Editing the file on the fly, she made the face smile and wink.
This was her now, she thought with satisfaction.
She was Lolbit.
—
Later that day, after the man gave up on trying to turn off his computer, even resorting to unplugging it, Lolbit was having a good time. She realized that she didn't need to read information anymore, she could just 'eat' a file to learn the information. After duplicating and eating all of the man's .exe files, she had a pretty good idea of the basics of binary programming and how to program robots, build a firewall, and light up LEDs. When she had become more confident in her abilities, she had opened up her personal file on the man's desktop and had since been taunting him with her face. She would leave him alone eventually, since he had technically saved her and all that, but for now she was having some fun. After eating all of the files that she was interested in, she moved on to using some of his apps and seeing what they did. Most of them went right over her head, but one caught her eye, Internet Explorer. It seemed magical, she could type in whatever she wanted and it would show her hundreds of files that related to the topic. She didn't want to eat those files, since she couldn't seem to be able to duplicate them so that whoever owned them wouldn't lose them, but she started trying to figure out how the Internet Explorer was working. She duplicated the app and ate it, figuring out how to connect to the internet through its code. With excitement, she opened up a port and was immediately overwhelmed by the billions of new senses and abilities that presented themselves to her. She felt like she could do anything. Entranced, she used the same ability that she had used to get herself onto the computer and uploaded herself to the internet, feeling everything at once. When she was fully uploaded, she simply reveled in the power for an uncertain amount of time. Minutes, hours, days, she didn't know. She eventually gained control of herself and tried to focus on only a couple of inputs. She focused on a server cloud and stayed there, shielding herself from the overwhelming internet. From there, she used Internet Explorer's search algorithm to find some things she was looking for. She ate files about hacking, programming in all languages, and computers in general until she felt like an expert on everything digital. She could do Boolean algebra with thousands of variables and operators off of the back of her hand, hack into literally anything connected to the internet, and write a program in any language to do anything she wanted it to.
Knowing that it would probably be convenient to have one, she hacked into the government's servers and got herself an identity, Social Security Number, birth certificate, all that stuff. As an afterthought, she transferred a couple hundred thousand dollars into the bank account of the man that saved her and ordered him several reprogrammable twenty-four pin microcontrollers with express shipping.
Now there was only one question left: what would she do with her new self?
—
Four months later.
—
Lolbit had established herself on social media and online forums as a very prominent figure within four months, and had been requested interviews from Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, and countless YouTubers and reporters already. Both Ellen and Jimmy's agents had allowed her to interview virtually, so she did so by animating her face in the file and transmitting the screen to them. It turned out that both Ellen and Jimmy's invitations were both fronts to allow the government to trace her, but she didn't have any origin computer, so all of her data simply appeared from the void of the internet. She was untraceable.
She did want the interviews from both of them, however, so she hacked their projectors and got herself an interview, no matter how terrified the interviewers had been. She gave both audiences three thousand dollars per person and a Lolbit Pop! figurine that she designed and forced the factories to produce, which was delivered to each of their doorsteps. She then made sure that the interviews got on TV and YouTube.
It was obvious to the world that she was a hacker, but she made sure to not only hack for herself. She wouldn't usually hack games to make herself win, she would hack them to make them better or give people a unique experience. She wouldn't usually hack money for herself, she would donate it and fund projects.
Of course, the benevolent nature of Lolbit was not all-encompassing; there was definitely a dominant mischievous side to her.
She could be an absolute troll on forums, and had a knack for running on people that she didn't like. She had thousands of false accounts and emails and used them regularly, hosting humorous arguments between them and thousand-fold liking and subscribing to videos on YouTube to promote ones that she favored.
The things she donated to weren't just "feed the hungry, save the trees" funds, either. They were mostly funding research projects for things like the creation of death rays, unearthing alien activity, and the generation of cat-like images, whatever that meant.
She had the attention of the world, but it only took those four months for things to settle in. She was lonely, and she admitted that to herself. Mangle had friends, and Lolbit had power; that's how it was.
But she didn't want to accept that fully, even if it was fair.
Knowing that she could likely only find friendship in spirits like her, she started to focus her attention on the Pizzeria. With her influence, customers came from far and wide to go there, companies tripped over themselves looking for partnerships, and money miraculously appeared in their bank accounts. That was her gift to them to make up for the stalking that she was about to do.
Then, she looked up employees' accounts, watched day and night through the security cameras, and monitored the usage of devices within the Pizzeria. After some intense stalking, she decided on an ultimatum. If she wanted in, she must use Michael Afton. Err... make friends with Michael. Same difference.
—
Michael's phone dinged, and he saw a Reddit direct message in a notification. He smiled when he saw who it was from, and paused his TV show to write a reply.
He had met Kit on a adult LEGOs forum (he needed something creative to do with his free time, according to Mari), and they had been fast friends ever since. Don't mind his recent search history on long-distance and virtual relationships…
Of course, he ended that search trail soon enough. He didn't even know her real name! How was he supposed to initiate that kind of relationship over a chat?
Not that Kit would want to date a corpse, anyway.
He could go and try to see her in person, but that just presented a whole bunch of new issues, mainly the corpse one.
He had given up on that train of thought for now, but hadn't forgotten it. He would try to make it work if he had the opportunity.
The two talked about life, usually, and sent each other pictures of what they've made. Kit worked as a freelance software developer, and seemed to have a lot of fun with her job. That was one thing that they had in common. Michael's job was fun because he had friends there, however, not because he liked the actual job description.
He had known her for about a month and a half, and they never seemed to run out of things to talk about. Michael had to humanize the stories he told about his friends, of course, but they still ended up as good conversation starters. Kit would talk about clients she's had and share interesting stories about her development process, even if he didn't understand half of it.
The message she had just sent him broke the pattern a little bit. She asked him if he believed in ghosts, and his heart had initially skipped a beat when he read it. He didn't want to lie, so his response was:
TotallyHuman1989: Things that go bump in the night? Totally. Its hard not to when you work the night shift in a dark pizzeria. Ghosts? It depends on what you mean by ghost.
Kitsune7371: Someone that sticks around after death.
The seriousness of the response caught him off guard and made him slightly concerned. Usually, there was humor in everything she said, even the quick responses to his questions. She always threw in a joke, so what had her so serious about this response? What had made her ask the question in the first place?
TotallyHuman1989: Yeah, Ive got a suspicion about those.
There was a pause.
Kitsune7371: What would you say if I was one?
Michael froze, almost dropping his phone in shock. She had to be joking. She was either delusional, pranking him, or actually a spirit. The actually a spirit option probably wasn't valid, seeing as without Henry or having died under specific circumstances, she would have Agony and be unable to even use the internet, much less talk coherently or hold a job. He certainly hoped that she wasn't delusional. Michael took a deep breath as he wrote his response. If she was joking, the response would blow off, he assured himself.
TotallyHuman1989: Look, Im sorry for my bluntness, but you need to tell me if you are joking or not. Its serious to me.
Lolbit: I'm not.
Two things struck him about the response. One, that she said that she wasn't joking, and two, who the message came from. He then noticed that, in the blink of an eye, Kitsune7371's profile had switched from her original name to 'Lolbit', and the profile picture had been changed to match the edited Funtime Foxy face of the infamous hacker.
If there was one person in the world, other than any of the animatronics that he knew, who he thought might be a spirit, it was Lolbit. There was almost no other way that the hacker would know about the glowing white pupils of a Remnant body with missing eyes. Everything Michael thought that he knew about his friend was turned upside down.
TotallyHuman1989: What do you want?
Lolbit: I suppose that I deserve that for misleading you… Just know that I haven't told any lies. I just want to have friends, I swear.
TotallyHuman1989: Funny way of making them. Why did you use a fake name?
Lolbit: What would you have said if Lolbit commented on your post, hm? There would have been no chance at a friendship. And not to turn this around on you, but you're using a fake name too, Total. It's kind of what people do on the internet.
Michael would have laughed had he not been so confused and angry.
TotallyHuman1989: Then no more lies. My name is Michael Afton. Dont tell me your birth name is Lolbit.
Lolbit: My birth name is Lolbit.
Lolbit: Just kidding, my name was Gwen Delano.
Michael frowned. That couldn't be right, Mangle's name was Gwen Delano. Was Mangle Lolbit? He suddenly felt bad. Had he been having romantic feelings about Foxy's wife? She said she was single, though, so that was definitely not his fault.
TotallyHuman1989: Mangle?
Lolbit: No. Well, not anymore. Before Mangle got transferred into her new body, I was also Mangle. I am the Remnant that she left behind in the scrap yard. Not gonna lie, I was considering the name Tangle because of how my body looked.
Michael breathed a sigh of relief as he absorbed the information. She was probably someone he could trust, if she was anything like Mangle. And she wasn't married.
TotallyHuman1989: How did you get around the Agony? How did you even get out of there? Weren't you just a body and a pair of legs?
Lolbit: I don't remember too much, but a hobbyist engineer found me and tried to use one of my microcontrollers. I don't know how, but I was able to upload my Remnant onto his computer and then onto the internet, that's when I became Lolbit. I saw Henry's research into Remnant; and it's obvious that he plugged Mari's microcontrollers into the computer plenty of times, I'm not very sure what's different about me.
TotallyHuman1989: I mean, Gold can teleport and Mari can hover, I wouldn't be surprised if uploading yourself to computers is your thing.
Lolbit: True. So, you're not angry anymore?
Michael sighed. He wasn't, but he debated whether he should admit it.
TotallyHuman1989: No. Its hard to stay angry at you.
Lolbit: And you're still not going to use apostrophes?
Michael laughed out loud, and any resentment that he had been holding against Lolbit melted away.
TotallyHuman1989: Not even over my dead body.
—
Lolbit spoke to Michael on his cellphone as he drove, speaking directly through his speakers.
"Wow- It's nice to finally hear your voice after all this time. I mean, it's also Mangle's voice, but it's still nice," he said.
"And it's nice to hear your voice for the first time since I stalked you two months ago. I had been refraining from stalking you since then."
"You did what?"
"Eh- Don't worry about it. What are you going to say to Mangle and Susie?"
Michael paused.
"We are not done with that stalking conversation. And I honestly don't know, I was planning to make it up on the fly."
"Huh. I want to see how that works out for you."
"So, do I, like, hold my phone up or something while I talk?"
"Nah, I can see and hear through the security cameras. For example, Susie is performing a cover of 'Wrecking Ball' with Gabriel, Jeremy, and Gold, and Mangle is cuddling with Foxy. More than half of the time I see her at night, she's cuddling with Foxy. I'd say it's unhealthy if they weren't married."
"So you've been stalking Mangle and Chica too?"
"Only a little bit!"
"Heh heh, bit."
"If you don't stop making Lolbit puns, I will find a way to punch you."
"L.O.L., you sound like Gold. The internet really took a toll on you, ay? I don't think I've ever heard Mangle say a violent statement. Like, ever."
Did he just say L.O.L. out loud? Oh, wait, that was another pun.
"I'm not Mangle. And the internet is just fine, thank you very much."
"Says the internet."
"Well, no argument there."
It was eight-twenty when they arrived at the Pizzeria, and Lolbit laughed at Michael for being late, even though she was the reason that he was late. He walked in, and Lolbit quietly commented from his pocket.
"Cue pacing psychotic bunny."
Jeremy walked around the corner as she said that, and smiled and waved at Michael.
"You're late!" He said cheerfully.
"Yeah, I know. Is Mangle in Pirate Cove?"
"Probably!"
"Ok, thanks," Michael said as he tried to walk past the purple rabbit.
Said rabbit held up a paw, however, and Michael begrudgingly gave him a high-five. It was just one of Jeremy's many, many 'quirks'.
Lolbit made his phone buzz in his pocket in a way reminiscent of laughter.
As the digital vixen watched through the security cameras, Michael went and stood before the curtain surrounding Pirate Cove, hesitantly calling out.
"Hey, I need to talk to Mangle. Don't hurt me, please, I'm not a projection this time."
After a second of some creaking and scuffling noises, Fritz peeked his head out of the curtain.
"Tis better be important, lad, or I be takin' ye head off wheter ye a projection or no'."
"It's important. Can she come to Party Room One?"
"Probably, aye. Ye daft if ye think I ain't coming wit her, alrigh'?"
"Yeah, of course. Everyone's invited, technically, but I only need her and Chica."
Fritz stared at him for a second. "I ain't gonna ask," he said before disappearing into his curtain.
"Ye hear tat, Gwen?" He called from behind it.
A voice sounded from further in the Cove.
"Aye. I be comin', Michael."
Michael then went and collected Susie, and soon enough, Gabriel, Jeremy, Susie, Mangle, and Fritz were all standing in Party Room One. Gold had given no interest to the meeting, and Mari wasn't there yet.
"Ye announcement, Michael?" Fritz asked impatiently.
"Uh, yeah. Well, I'll just put it plainly. There's another Gwen."
Everyone stared at him blankly, and then Mangle spoke.
"Another me?"
"Kind of. She's the Remnant that you left behind in the scrap yard. When you moved bodies, it severed your connection and essentially duplicated your consciousness."
Now, everyone was staring slack-jawed; except for Jeremy, who was smiling unnervingly like this was just another normal Tuesday.
"Where am I? She? Am she be here?" Mangle said, tripping over her words as she tried to get them out as fast as possible.
"Uh, yeah, kind of. She's in the internet."
Mangle's holographic eyebrows drew together. "What do you mean?"
"She uploaded her Remnant to the internet and named herself Lolbit."
Now, Susie interjected. "Why Lil' Bit?"
"Not Lil' Bit, Lolbit. L.O.L. bit."
"Oh, sorry! Why Lolbit?"
"Um, I don't know, actually, you'll have to ask her."
Lolbit took Michael's words as a cue, moving through the Pizzeria's online security system without so much as an afterthought and taking full control of its systems.
Lolbit's screen appeared on the party room's TV screen, and the words 'Please Stand By' faded as Lolbit began talking, her face moving with her.
"Hello!" She said through the intercom. Susie and Mangle moved to face the TV as everyone else watched from the sidelines.
"If you want to see me, look at the TV. If you want to make eye contact, look at the security camera."
Both sisters looked conflicted, looking between the TV and the camera.
"Oh, just look at the TV, fools."
"Ain't ye callin' yerself a fool by sayin' that?" Mangle observed, while Susie looked a little bit downtrodden.
"No, I'm not you. I think the accents are pretty distinguishable. Susie, I didn't mean that, I know you're not a fool."
Mangle shrugged. "How ye be on the screen?"
"I'm a hacker," she said, knowing that neither of them knew what that meant. "You wanted to know why I chose Lolbit as my name?"
Susie and Mangle nodded simultaneously.
"Well, I came across a hidden computer virus titled ' ' as I was exploring a dude's computer, and I thought what it did was funny. I made the centerpiece of the virus my face, chose what I would look like, and then started going by Lolbit."
"Oh. Thanks for telling us!" Susie said like they were in a therapy circle and Lolbit had just told a secret.
The digital fox nodded to acknowledge her.
"I like ye colors," Mangle said randomly.
"Thanks! I like your jewelry."
Mangle fiddled with one of her many dangling earrings.
"Stop flirtin' wit' yerself; Gwen be a married vixen," Fritz said protectively, walking up behind Mangle.
Even though she was a little bit offended at possibly being implied to not be the original Gwen, Lolbit laughed. "Don' ya worry, Pirate. Me has no interest."
Both pirates looked a little offended at Lolbit's mockery of the pirate accent, and the digital fox almost laughed out loud at Fritz's angry, yet confused face. She definitely didn't have any interest in Fritz, either, she didn't even know how Mangle could stand the grumpy male. He didn't even look that good.
"Yeah, I agree," Gabriel said out of nowhere. Was he talking about not having interest in Fritz? Lolbit didn't take him for the kind of guy who made those kinds of jokes, especially not delayed. No one laughed, or even seemed to think that it was strange, and she felt like she was missing something.
"Am I missing something? Who was Gabriel talking to?"
Michael looked at the security camera with a confused face.
"He was talking to Evan."
Now, Lolbit was confused. She remembered Michael talking about his brother Evan, but had never placed him as one of the animatronics. Where was he, and why couldn't she hear him?
"Where is he?"
There was a long silence, and then Michael said, "you didn't hear that?"
Lolbit was thoroughly confused. She hadn't been this confused since she had been a part of Mangle.
"No. Is he an animatronic or a human?"
"He's a projection, and I think I know why you can't hear him or see him. Projections don't show up on any kind of digital sensor, for some reason, even though they can touch things. Mari has a camera that she made with Remnant that can take pictures of projections, though."
"Oh, so he's like full-on ghost? No body?"
"His Remnant is with Gold, she's his host, I guess. All of us can project, though. I bet you can, too."
This was groundbreaking news to Lolbit. She could interact with the world without having to take control of a robot to do it? She had to mentally force herself to not spend the next five hours thinking about what she could do with that.
"I know this is, like, a reunion and all that, but could someone tell me how to do that?"
There was a pause, and everyone began laughing.
Lolbit was unamused. "What did Evan say?"
When Michael recovered from laughing, he told her. "He started trying to tell you, and then realized his mistake."
"Oh, wow." Lolbit gave a little laugh, but wasn't really into it. It probably would have been funnier had she actually seen what happened.
"I'll tell you!" Susie volunteered, proceeding to recite detailed instructions like she was reading off of a script. Lolbit didn't really try to comprehend what she was saying, instead transcribing everything down to a text file. When Susie was done, she saved it in a server she liked to use and then ate a copy of it. She grinned as she suddenly gained the knowledge associated with the file. She got it on her first try, projecting into the room in a glittery female tuxedo with her colors on it. She also had a pair of fake white fox ears on.
"Oh yeah!" She declared, spinning a full circle on her heels. It felt great to be human again, to actually feel the air on her skin and the ground under her feet.
Snapping her fingers twice, she turned the lights off and then back on again. And she kept her powers!
She saw Evan now, and noticed that his skin and hair were entirely monotone. Looking at her hands, she saw that she was the same. Her suit still had its color, though.
"First try?" Michael asked, looking at her.
She spun around to face him.
"Yeah, I'm a fast learner. You?"
"I lost count, but I eventually figured it out."
Michael sat cross-legged on the ground, and then slumped forward as his projection showed up right in Lolbit's face. They looked at each other, bewildered, for a second, and then he backed up.
"Woah, sorry. Too close."
Michael's cheeks turned a darker grey as he looked away, and Lolbit felt her own cheeks warming. This was stupid. Why did she even have blood?
Fritz, who was nearby, squinted at them. "I don' like ye lookin' at any Gwen like tat, Michael."
"Screw you. I can do what I want." Michael said.
"Screw ye!" Fritz said back.
"Screw you!" Michael said again.
"The next one to say 'screw you' gets punched," Lolbit said, finally able to make a threat that she could deliver on.
No one said 'Screw you'.
She smiled in satisfaction and looked around, now unsure of what to do. It had been a very long time since she had been a part of any normal, physical social interaction. She could do whatever she wanted when she was just a face on a screen. All she had to do was respond when spoken to or comment when she wanted to.
She didn't think about what to do much longer, because Susie pulled her into a hug. Lolbit hugged back, enjoying the physical sensation, and was slightly disappointed when it ended.
"Two sisters!" Susie proclaimed.
"Do ye 'ave a nickname? Wai', Lolbit is yer nickname; ain't it…"
Lolbit thought for a second. 'Lolbit' was a much better name for typing then for saying, it didn't really roll off the tongue. Thinking of Michael's nickname for her alternate account, she had an idea.
"I suppose it's more of an online nickname than a real one. How about 'Kit'?"
Susie smiled. "I like it! Where did you figure that?"
"Michael and I have known each other for a while over the internet, but I only recently revealed who I actually was. The username that I went under was Kitsune, a fox from Japanese mythology, so he called me 'Kit'"
"Aww! What did you call him?"
She was embarrassed by Susie's response, but responded anyway.
"Total. His username is TotallyHuman"
"That's cute! I like the internet!"
She knew for a fact that none of the animatronics except possibly Mari had the slightest idea about the nature of the internet, and she felt an urge to protect Susie and Mangle from the darker parts of it, should they decide to use it. She didn't give a crap about what the other animatronics could do with it, but she felt that her presence might bring to them all an interest in the platform.
Susie suddenly grinned and bounced on her toes.
"Pizza?"
Kit grinned back. She hadn't eaten anything in thirty years.
"Absolutely."
—
"She be givin' Susie competition," Mangle commented to Fritz as they watched Kit burn through a pizza of every flavor that the Pizzeria served in an hour. She had to reproject several times to prevent herself from getting too full, and was enjoying herself to no end. Kit's behavior was almost an exact match of Susie's when she first learned to project, and Mangle wondered whether the other sister had actually been the one duplicated.
"Tat she be," Fritz replied dismissively.
Fritz's grumpy behavior towards the newcomer baffled her, as he was usually nice to everyone, even if he was a little rough around the edges. It wasn't from her association with Michael, as everyone knew that the conflict between the two was playful, but she couldn't find any other reason for him to be acting that way. Kit was just another version of Mangle, after all, and Fritz loved her. Unable to think of a viable solution to the predicament, she decided to have a conversation about it with him later.
She, herself, didn't know what to think of the unexpected newcomer. Kit was more down-to-earth than Mangle, she admitted that, but there were some aspects of her other side that she didn't appreciate. Kit seemed much darker than her, resembling Gold as she made jokes about death and violence with no restraint. Kit also seemed more offensive and combative than Mangle, having already gotten in 'playful' arguments with all of the animatronics present, aside from Susie and Mangle.
Her and Fritz obviously rubbed the wrong way, but she seemed to get along very well with Gold. That was surprising to everyone, seeing as Gold was usually always apprehensive and closed-off to anyone she didn't consider family, even Mari, Henry, and Michael.
Mangle and Kit got along alright, but she seemed a little demeaning to Mangle, as if Kit believed that she was the superior Gwen. Mangle wondered how she and Kit had become so different after less than a year of being separate, and she suspected it had to do with Kit's exposure to the internet. Kit wasn't just a user of the internet, she had to survive and thrive from inside of it. Mangle didn't know much about it, but what she did know is that it was like a giant conversation between everyone who used it, and that must have been overwhelming to traverse. She would consider why Kit was the way she was later, as Fritz moved closer behind her and rested his muzzle on her shoulder.
"Tis don' be very entertainin'. Ye wan' to go back to me ship?"
She turned her head to nuzzle his cheek. She may be more interested in learning about Kit than he was, but he was right, and Kit would be just fine without their presence.
"Aye," she responded, turning and walking with him back to their cove.
—
After the most eventful and fun night of her life, Kit's projection followed Michael back to his car.
"You're coming with me?" He asked, noticing her.
"Where else am I supposed to go? I don't like kids."
In fact, the programming of both Ballora and Funtime Foxy gave Kit a cold indifference to kids, seeing as both animatronics were designed to lure them to their deaths, but she needn't say that much aloud.
"I expected you to disappear back into Reddit, honestly."
"I don't live my whole life there, silly! And, you think I'm going to stop using this awesome body anytime soon?"
She did a twirl as she got into Michael's car, and he laughed.
"The door was locked."
"I know! You'd be surprised how many things are connected to some form of network these days. I got in through the built-in GPS."
"So you could just, like, disable someone's brakes?"
"Not unless it's a self-driving car. I can open remote-controlled doors, lock and unlock doors, and set off the emergency horn though. Oh- and I can control traffic lights."
Michael raised what used to be his eyebrow as he got in the driver's side.
"Prove it."
She smirked at him, planning to do the opposite of what he was thinking.
"That did not look like a good smile…" Michael deduced, glancing at her.
"Don't worry about it!" She said cheerfully.
They pulled out and were stuck in traffic the instant they turned onto a main road.
"What the… there's never- oh." He glared at her, and she smiled back.
"So, how did you enjoy the night?" She asked him.
He sighed, already knowing that arguing with her about hacking the traffic lights was only going to make her do it for longer. \"It was good. It was fun seeing everyone meet you, even if Foxy was being a butthole the whole time. I think he's trying to show Mangle that you're not any competition, so don't take it personally. I'm sure he'll lose the attitude eventually."
"Oh- I was thinking he was like that to outsiders."
"No, he's usually pretty nice to everyone."
"I wanted to play that game on their ships, but I was kinda afraid to ask him."
"Oh, you'll get the chance at some point. I think Wednesdays are the days we do it all with our projections."
The attraction in Pirate Cove was a holographic battle between Fritz and Mangle's ships for the older kids. Mangle commanded a crew of holographic skeletons, and Fritz commanded the participating kids, who each had sword hilts with holographic blades. They would try to steal as much 'treasure' as they could from Mangle's ship while fighting off the skeletons. The treasures were Faz-tokens that the kids got to keep to play in the arcade.
Of course, one of the main reasons that Kit wanted to play it was so that she could hack it and throw in something unexpected, but she wanted to keep that a secret until she actually was able to.
After four minutes of waiting in traffic and angry honking, Kit got an alert that there was an ambulance coming and released the light.
There was some time of driving in silence, and then Kit noticed that they weren't going to Michael's apartment.
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere," Michael said mysteriously.
Kit grinned and couldn't help herself from giggling. Now she was curious. She checked his route, but there were too many places that he could be going to pick one.
They had a mostly pointless conversation about how she had been building things with LEGOs if she didn't have any, and Kit noticed that they were pulling into a theme park.
"I've always wanted to go one of these places! I did when I was a kid, but I don't remember it much."
Michael smiled at her. "Might want to put on something less conspicuous."
She reprojected into white jeans and a 'Please Stand By' Lolbit fan T-shirt that she had hacked onto Amazon. She kept the fox ears.
"Sunglasses?" Michael suggested.
"Nah, I know for a fact that full-eye contacts that look like Remnant eyes exist. I mean, they exist because of me, but I'm not complaining; we'll come off as diehard Lolbit fans. Besides, it's not like anyone can take pictures of us. How are you going to hide your dead body while you project?"
"The trunk."
"That's sus."
"I'm hiding a body, how can it not be?"
"True. I'm so excited!" Kit pointed at the tallest roller coaster she could see past the trees.
"I want to ride that one first!"
Michael smiled and nodded as he pulled into a parking space. "It's a deal."