Chapter 3

Jeremy gulped. "It's that creepy fox again!"

Foxy the Pirate, remodeled yet somehow just as terrifying as the original, began to shuffle down the hall to greet them. Even from at the end of the hall, the mark of X.A.N.A. could be seen in its eyes.

"Uh, guys?" Odd whimpered. "Now would be a really good time to close the door…"

"There's no doors for us to close, Odd!" exclaimed Mike. "We're trapped in here!"

"What on Earth is going on? What's all this fuss about now?" demanded Mr. Ferdinand.

"The robots are malfunctioning, Mr. F! I told you something was wrong with them!" yelled Mike.

"Nonsense!" Mr. Ferdinand chuckled. "There's no way something could be wrong with them! Their facial recognition features are far too state-of-the art! Each animatronic's internal servers are tied in to an extensive criminal database, so they know better than to attack an employee. In fact, we should be paying them to guard us!"

"Hate to break it to you, sir, but your new night guards are on their way to kill us!" snapped Jeremy.

"Oh come now, you kids and your wild imaginations. There's nothing wrong! Here, I'll prove it!" And with that, Mr. Ferdinand strode right past Jeremie and Mike and into the hall.

"Mr. F, no!" yelled Mike, but the restaurant's technician didn't acknowledge him as he walked right up to Foxy.

"Ahoy there, Foxy!" Mr. Ferdinand greeted him in a mock pirate voice. "Ye be out lookin' for buried treasure tonight?"

Foxy's response was to hold a hand out to his face. As X.A.N.A.'s mark reappeared in his eyes, a surge of electricity ran through his animatronic hand.

"Uh… F-Foxy?" stammered Mr. Ferdinand.

In one swift motion Foxy seized him by the scruff of the neck and began to choke him as electricity erupted from his body. For a moment he hung in midair, gasping for breath, before he collapsed to the ground along with Foxy, thanks to a swift kick from Odd.

"Working with animal robots all the time must be shocking, huh, Mr. F?" remarked Odd.

Mr. Ferdinand didn't answer, but picked himself up and hurriedly retreated to the office, followed by Odd, as Foxy resumed his pursuit.

"Th-this is imp-p-possible," he stammered. "Th-this can't be happening!"

"Guys!" warned Mike. "He's getting closer!"

"We're doomed!" Mr. Ferdinand wailed.

"There's gotta be something we can do!" Jeremy insisted.

"What are we supposed to do against F- that- that thing?" cried Mr. Ferdinand, afraid to even utter Foxy's name.

"You know the robots from the inside out!" Jeremy snapped. "Isn't there any kind of glitch we can exploit to stop them?"

"A-Absolutely not!" Mr. Ferdinand snapped. "Those robots were designed to be state of the art, technically-perfect-"

"Will you just admit that they're broken?" yelled Mike. "They wouldn't be trying to kill us if you would've just swallowed your pride and fixed them in the first place!"

Mr. Ferdinand froze, taken aback by Mike's response. "Okay, okay, I'll tell you!" he cried hastily. "The sensors in the animatronics' cameras are faulty! If you were to, say, shine bright lights at them, you could maybe disorient them long enough to subdue them!"

"Well, where are we going to find a light?" asked Jeremy.

Mr. Ferdinand began frantically rummaging through his desk, before withdrawing a flashlight. "Here, use this!" he exclaimed.

Jeremy aimed the light at Foxy and began frantically hammering the button. Foxy's entire body began to surge with electricity, ripping off parts of his animatronic costume and exposing the endoskeleton within. After enough flashes to his face, Foxy's LED eyes shattered, and his body collapsed to the ground.

"Yes!" cheered Odd. "Looks like it's animatronic season!"

"Don't celebrate yet, Odd," Jeremy reminded him. "We have to warn the others! X.A.N.A.'s activated a tower somewhere! Now, where did I leave my computer?"

Jeremy's question was soon answered for him- he spotted it in the back room down the hall. And it wasn't the only machine in there…

"Wait up, Einstein!" called Odd as Jeremy took off down the hall, swiping it out of Bonnie's reach.

The animatronic rabbit, still missing its face, lunged at Jeremie, but another kick from Odd sent him crashing to the ground, severing what remained of its head unit.

"You and your robot animals don't scare me anymore, X.A.N.A.!" Odd taunted.

"Odd, keep it down!" hissed Jeremy. "This place is probably crawling with them. If they hear you, they're all gonna come after us!"

Once they were back in the office, Jeremy opened his laptop, and an activated tower flashed on-screen.

"Whoop de doo, another tower to deactivate," sighed Odd. "We just can't catch a break!"

"This isn't any ordinary tower, Odd…" Jeremy gasped. "It's a Replika! But the signal is unusually strong… That means the supercomputer that powers it must be somewhat close by!"

"Oh, what a relief," grumbled Odd. "I'm so glad I know that now that X.A.N.A.'s right about to kill us!"

"What is this X.A.N.A. you two keep talking about, anyway?" demanded Mr. Ferdinand.

"It's a sentient computer virus that takes control of robots," Jeremy answered. "Odd, my friends and I have fought it a bunch of times in the past."

"Jeremy! We're not supposed to tell anyone our secret!" "Relax, Odd," Jeremy answered, winking at him. "He won't remember a thing when this is all over."

"I-I won't?" stammered Mr. Ferdinand. "…Are you kids affiliated with the government or something?"

"Long story," said Jeremy as he plunged his hand in his pocket and pulled out his phone, hastily dialing Aelita's number.

"Aelita! Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Jeremy?" answered Aelita. "What's going on? You and Odd have been gone a long time! The others are getting worried about you!"

"Oh good, you're all there!" Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief. "Listen, somewhere in the digital sea, there's a Replika with an activated tower! Get to the Skid and destroy it, fast! I'll get to the factory as soon as I can, but Odd and I are surrounded by X.A.N.A.-fied animatronics again! It might take a while!"

"Oh great, more killer robots," groaned Ulrich.

"Sounds like we better get moving," said Yumi. "Let's go!"

…

Fifteen minutes later, Jeremy's phone rang. "Jeremy? It's Aelita. We've made it to the hangar; we're waiting for energization."

"Really? That was fast!" said Jeremy. "Okay, Energize!" With a flash of white, Aelita, Ulrich and Yumi were teleported into the Skidbladnir, Aelita at its helm.

"I'm sending you the coordinates of the Replika," Jeremy told her. "Find it, get inside and destroy it!"

"Got it!" she replied.

"Jeremy!" warned Odd, as the vent behind him began to rattle.

Jeremy turned around in horror, as Bonnie- in his new-and-improved form- ripped the cover off of the office's right vent and lunged for him. Reacting quickly, he withdrew his flashlight and aimed it square at Bonnie's eyes, hammering the button. Bonnie's LED eyes cracked, and his body twitched and flickered before falling to the floor, just as Foxy's had done.

"Nice reflexes, Einstein! You're not just quick with technology, you're quick on the draw, too!" complimented Odd.

"Yeah… that was a close one," he answered, before he turned and spotted Mike and Mr. Ferdinand's dumbstruck faces.

"Like I said, you won't remember a thing," said Jeremy.

"Jeremy? You there?" came Aelita's voice from Jeremy's phone.

"What is it, Aelita?" he asked.

"We've found the Replika, but it's sealed off! Can you enter the passcode from your laptop?"

"I don't know," said Jeremy, scratching his head. "I've never done it before, but I guess I'll have to try!"

Jeremy pulled out his laptop and began frantically typing. "I got it!" he announced at last.

Within the digital sea, the gate to the Replika retracted, allowing the Skidbladnir to enter.

"What kind of Replika d'you think we've found this time?" Ulrich asked Yumi. "The Forest Sector again?"

"Probably the Ice Sector. We haven't seen that one yet," Yumi answered.

But as the Skid surfaced, their question was answered for them: it was a Replika of the Mountain Sector.

"There's a tower not far from your current location," Jeremy announced. "I'll activate it for you. Once you dock, Yumi will stay behind to protect the Skid. Aelita, Ulrich, you two destroy the supercomputer. You got it?"

"Roger!" all three Lyoko warriors answered.

Sure enough, there was a tower not far from the entrance to the Replika, and it flashed green as it came into Aelita's line of sight, allowing her to dock there. Within moments, the Skid was secured.

"Ulrich, are you ready for materialization?" asked Aelita.

"Ready when you are," answered Ulrich.

Jeremy entered a command on his laptop, and Aelita and Ulrich materialized at the source of the Replika. The Skid had transported them to a dark room with the look of a large warehouse.

"We're here, Jeremy!" Aelita announced as she summoned an Energy Field, illuminating the room. "But there doesn't seem to be any sign of X.A.N.A., or anybody for that matter…"

"Aelita… I don't think we're alone in here…" said Ulrich.

It was only then that the two warriors noticed the vast array of deactivated robots that lined the walls of the warehouse, as well as the logo of the company it belonged to.

"Hey Jeremy!" Ulrich called. "You'll never guess where we are!"

"I'm checking your location on the computer. Hang on!" Jeremy told them as he searched for their global position on his laptop's GPS. He read the name of their location, and gasped as the words Fazbear Entertainment World Headquarters left his lips…