Chapter 4

Jeremy was stunned. "The Replika's supercomputer… it's in Freddy's?!"

"It is?" asked Odd, equally nonplussed. "That'd explain a lot."

"A supercomputer?! What is Fazbear Entertainment doing with a supercomputer?" Mike asked Mr. Ferdinand.

"I… I can't say I know," he answered. "The company must've started to micromanage manufacturing of the animatronics. But I never would have guessed they were so defective…"

"Really!" Jeremy grumbled. "Because I could have told you that much when I was five!"

A beep from Jeremy's laptop caught his attention. "Oh no!" Jeremy moaned as he pulled up the Lyoko interface. "Yumi, can you hear me?"

"I read you, Jeremy," answered Yumi's voice.

"X.A.N.A.'s sending some nasty surprises your way," warned Jeremy. "Be on your toes!"

Yumi peered down the long straightaway directly in front of the tower. Sure enough, a trio of Tarantulas was advancing in her direction. But they weren't alone- flying high above them, perched upon a Manta, was her X.A.N.A.-possessed classmate.

"That's not all he's sent, Jeremy! William's here!" Yumi hissed. "I don't think I'll be able to protect the Skid on my own! Tell Ulrich and Aelita to hurry up!"

"Will do. I'm- ACK!" Jeremy began, before a sudden flash of white knocked him flat on his back. Once he got up off the ground he spied his earpiece, dangling from the ceiling by a pair of gnarled metal claws. Their owner stared Jeremy down with a pair of LED eyes and a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

"What in the world is that?!" Jeremy demanded.

"Oh dear, Mr. Dickens, I'm afraid even our new models are malfunctioning now!" Mr. Ferdinand wailed. "Not you too, Toy Foxy!"

"Oh great, it's him," Mike groaned. "We put him in Kid's Cove to keep the toddlers upbeat. Thing is… the toddlers ended up keeping him beat up. Ever since we gave up trying to reassemble him he's been nothing but a pile of parts. Me and my buddies in Security came up with our own nickname for him: the Mangle."

"The Mangle," repeated Odd. "Very fitting. Not creepy at all."

"Jeremy? Hello?" Yumi's voice could just be heard wafting from the ceiling.

"Yumi! I've lost my earpiece! Just give me a little more time!" Jeremy yelled desperately toward the ceiling, hoping against hope she could actually hear him.

"Jeremy! Are you there? Answer me!" Yumi yelled, before a laser blast from an approaching Tarantula diverted her attention back to the advancing William.

"Looks like I'm on my own," Yumi groaned, brandishing her Tessen Fans. "Alright William, you want a fight? You got one!"

…

In disbelief, Aelita and Ulrich took in the sight of the warehouse. The animatronics that had been designed to delight children were now outfitted for a much different purpose under X.A.N.A.'s control.

"It seems quiet," Aelita whispered. "The robots don't seem to be active at the moment."

"Yeah, well let's hope they stay that way," said Ulrich. "We still have a supercomputer to trash. Now, where could it be?"

A sudden surge of electricity near the factory ceiling caught Aelita's attention. "Ulrich," she answered, pointing, "…I think it's right over our heads!"

Ulrich looked up. High above them, jutting out of the factory wall, was a small cubicle surrounded by glass windows, with what could only have been the supercomputer inside. The only entrance to the room was through a large spiral staircase.

Inquisitively, Aelita took a single step up the stairs- and froze, horrified, as the room was suddenly illuminated from the electrical surges of a hundred animatronic robots. A hundred and counting.

For a moment, Aelita was rooted to the spot, paralyzed with fear, as she remembered her own horrific experience at the original Freddy's. Then Ulrich's shouts of "Come on, Aelita! Hurry!" brought her back to reality, and she scrambled up the staircase, followed closely by Ulrich- and an army of newly activated X.A.N.A.-fied robots.

Before they could reach the top, however, the ground beneath them began to shake. "What's happening?" Aelita cried.

Ulrich peered down and saw, to his horror, that the robots had begun tugging at the bottom of the staircase, prying it loose from the ground. "They're trying to uproot us!" he yelled. "We gotta move!"

In a panic, the pair of Lyoko Warriors hurried upwards. But before they could reach the top platform, the X.A.N.A.-tronics wrenched the staircase free, and it began to descend. Screaming, Ulrich and Aelita leapt from the stairs and crashed to the factory floor, where a horde of killer robots was waiting for them.

Slowly, Aelita got to her feet. "Are you alright, Ulrich?"

Ulrich stood up, dusting himself off. "I was just fine until I fell off a spiral staircase," he grumbled. "OK, Princess, we've got work to do."

Swords and Energy Fields in hand, the duo prepared for battle…