The neighborhood was arranged like a giant grid, so the pairs began moving along the outermost roads first, Freddy and Chica searching windows and backyards, Mike questioning people who were up and about, without revealing too much. Bonnie did much the same as Freddy and Chica, but also kept an eye on Mike when the area became dark. After nearly 45 minutes of searching, Mike's radio squawked.
"Michael? This is Freddy, we may have run into a problem," Freddy reported. Mike tensed, and after a pause, replied,
"What kind of problem?"
"We ran into some customers. I had to do something." Freddy sounded guilty.
"What. Did. You. Do?" Mike asked, horrid thoughts crossing his mind.
"I think it might be best for you to come help us. It's… Interesting," Freddy replied.
"Freddy, don't be vague, please! Where are you?" Mike asked, "What do you see?"
"Houses, and a mailbox labeled 'The Taylors'" Freddy replied.
"Do you see any street signs?"
"Hang on. Chica, what does that sign say? Ok. We're on a street called 'Yellowbrook.' Is that close?"
"It'll do, we're on our way," Mike said, clicking off the radio and turning to Bonnie, "C'mon Bonnie, I'm worried what they had to do."
It ended being that "interesting" stood for "we had to knock people out and tie them up with rope from a tire swing." The unfortunate pair had been out for an extremely early jog, and ran into Freddy and Chica. Seeing the robots caused them to start screaming, and Chica, startled, whacked them with her metal wings. This knocked them out cold, not dead, as Freddy had feared, and now Mike had two terrified people laying at his feet.
"What do you want with us!?" one of them, a man, replied.
"Nothing, it was an accident. I'm, uh, security for…" Mike began looking around and stopping at Freddy's top hat, "Top Hat entertainment, we were testing our… new… costumes. We're filmmakers, shooting some screen tests for a… horror movie, you know, based on that Freddy Fazbear place? Cree-eepy, let me tell you!"
"But why are we tied up?" asked the other, a woman.
"We thought you were our extras," Mike replied, before suddenly turning around, "Hey! Joey! These aren't them, cut the cameras will ya?"
"Who's Joey?" asked Bonnie, when Chica elbowed her.
"Shut up!" she hissed.
"Now, this film project is super classified, okay? You can't tell anyone, or we'll sue you so hard… Yeah. Untie them Fred- Jack, then let's get back to the studio, we're done filming." Mike finished his lie, hoping the joggers were too frightened to question him. He noticed the pair kept staring really closely at Freddy, spying a few of his inner workings.
"Pretty cool costumes right? Almost think they were robots." Mike gulped, and as soon as they were untied, he addressed the 'bots, "Let's go!" and the group speed walked to the center of the neighborhood, finally stopping when they reached a park, using bushes for cover.
"So, do ya think they bought it?" Chica asked with a grin.
"That really was some smooth talking, Michael, I'm impressed!" Freddy congratulated.
"Well, I got good at it in college, you know?" Mike replied with a tired smile.
"Was it really okay to lie?" Bonnie asked, concerned. She didn't like it when people lied.
"We couldn't really say the truth, now could we?" Mike replied, "It was okay just this once."
"So what now?" Chica asked, "Seems to me we're no closer to finding Foxy than he is to finding us. "
"Well, we still have two hours until six, that's enough time to keep checking the neighborhood. I'm certain he's around here," Mike assured the group, including himself.
"But how are we going to find him? Foxy's always hiding," Bonnie worried, "And what if he locks up out here? How would he get back? What if he's hurt!?"
"Bonnie, I'm sure Foxy is fine. He's a pirate, he can take care of himself. As for finding him, I suppose we could-" Freddy began, but was cut off from the sound of a door slamming, and a voice calling out.
"I'm serious babe! The thing was, like, a hundred feet tall and had a hook for a hand!" the voice slurred his words slightly, and the group could overhear a woman's voice muffled yelling.
"Aw, c'mon, don't be like that! I wasn't drinking that much, and the others saw it too! We barely escaped with our lives!" the voice responded.
"Well. That's convenient." Chica commented, and Mike was already moving towards the teen.
"Hey you! Yeah you! C'mere, I need to ask you a few questions!" Mike called out.
At around this time, Foxy had finally managed to sneak upstairs with Caleb, and had just arrived in the kid's room. It was large, and the vaulted ceiling eliminated the cramped feeling Foxy felt from being inside. As he took in the décor, Foxy grinned to himself when he saw a few beach-themed trinkets.
The lad likes the sea. Perfect! He thought, happy to have a shared interest.
"Now, lad, hurry up and get in yer bed, it's much too late for a swashbuckler to be up n' about." Foxy told the boy in a low voice, "It's 'mportant to get yer shut-eye."
As the boy climbed between his sheets, Foxy looked for a place to sit and begin his tale. There was a chair, but it had been sized to Caleb, and Foxy wasn't about to try and squeeze his large frame into it. Deciding to just sit on the floor, Foxy lowered himself slowly, careful not to fall, until he managed to sit with his legs flopped out in front.
"Now then," Foxy said, "On to me tale! It was a calm morning, and me n' me first mate, Caleb, were studying an ol' treasure map. It ha' been said tha' it led to the biggest stash of gold a pirate ever laid eyes on!" Caleb lay still, enthralled by the fact Foxy had a first mate with the same name as him! The story continued, with the pair fighting off skeletons, snakes, and the dreaded Blackbeard himself! Though parts of the story were scary, Foxy and his mate always seemed to pull through, and as it continued, he noticed Foxy was becoming much more involved.
"And by the time ol' Blackbeard could get the bucket off o' his foot, Caleb had already swung back across to the Red Fox, key in hand! And let me tell ye, ol' Blackbeard was hoppin' mad, swinging his sword around, yellin' 'Get those bloomin' bilgerats!'" Foxy was really getting into it now, marching around, swinging around an imaginary sword. By this point, Foxy was practically shouting as Blackbeard, and his feet clanked loudly against the floor, but he didn't care. Because to Foxy, he wasn't in Caleb's room anymore. He was back in his Cove, happily entertaining dozens of children with his antics.
It wasn't until Caleb's mother stormed in, furious,
"For goodness sake, Caleb, it's five in the morning, can't you just keep it down!?" she yelled, fuming.
"I be sorry, miss, 'twas me story making all the racket," Foxy apologized, turning to face her.
A heavy silence hung in the air. Caleb's mother stared at Foxy, mouth slowly opening in horror as Foxy's glowing eyes stared back. Suddenly, she reached out and turned on the light, revealing Foxy's battered animatronic form. Foxy's jaw slowly opened as well, as he stared curiously back. Once his jaw finally hung fully open, and exposed all his teeth, did the women react. She screamed.
"Miss, please, I'm no' gonna hurt ya', I was just helpin' young Caleb here-," Foxy tried to explain, but the woman cut him off.
"Caleb, get away from that thing!" she ordered, and Caleb, confused and upset by the screaming, ran to her crying. As soon as Caleb's mother grabbed him in his arms, she took off like a shot, racing downstairs.
"Lass, wait, give me a chance 'ta explain!" Foxy replied, and ran after her. This only spurred on her panic even more, and before she realized it, she was cornered in the hallway. Upon seeing this, Foxy stopped, and another stare down commenced. Caleb's mother buried her son's face into her shoulder as they continued the standoff.
Slowly, Fox took a step forward, a loud clank resounding from the floor. Caleb's mother screamed again, calling to her husband. Foxy flattened his ears, when he picked up footsteps from behind him. Turning his head 180 degrees, Foxy was faced with Caleb's father, wielding a wooden baseball bat. As soon as Foxy looked at him, the man shouted, and swung his bat.
With reflexes only possible to a machine like Foxy, he whirled his torso around and caught it with his good hand. The man stared, and Foxy frowned, raising his eye patch.
"Tha' wasn't very nice," he said, annoyed the man tried to attack him. Caleb's father tried to pull the bat out of Foxy's grip, but Foxy solved the problem by snapping the bat in two. As splinters clattered to the ground, the man looked fearfully past him towards his wife and child, reminding Foxy to their existence. Turning back to once again try and explain he wasn't about to hurt them, he failed to notice the father jump on his back with a savage yell.
Foxy stiffened, and then mumbled out, "I hate bein' touched, lad." When the man didn't cease his now useless grapple, and began to hopelessly try and punch him, Foxy reached around behind and him hoisted him around by his shirt, holding him level with his face.
"I. Hate. Bein'. TOUCHED!" Foxy yelled, the last word fading into a loud "SKREEE!" and in response, Caleb, his mother, and his father, began screaming at the top of their lungs.
Foxy halted his screeching and dropped the father in front of him, who backed away to stand between Foxy and Caleb's mother. They continued to scream as Foxy once again took a step forward, trying to push themselves flatter and flatter into the wall.
Foxy had had enough. Too many people had pushed him today, and now, when he'd finally had a new crew member again, those two adults had to ruin it. He wasn't even able to explain himself! Foxy narrowed his eyes and took another menacing step, raising his hook, and the family went silent, except for Caleb, who started sobbing.
It was Caleb sobbing that stopped Foxy's advance. Having been blinded by rage and noise, he hadn't noticed Caleb was still there. Once the realization clicked, Foxy's eyes snapped open wide. He didn't want this, to see his newest matey scared, all because of him. For the first time in Foxy's existence, he had, intentionally, scared a child. Foxy broke the biggest taboo he knew of. The realization left him feeling sick, more so than in 1987, because this wasn't an accident. It was all. His. Fault.
Foxy slowly drooped his hook back down to his side, and lowered his eye patch, staring at the ground, ashamed. Ignoring the family, Foxy wandered back into Caleb's room, looking around. Sighing, he returned out into the hall, taking another sorrowful and guilty glance back at the petrified family, who recoiled back at his gaze, before drooping his head again and stomping downstairs, out through the open backdoor, through the fence, and out into the street.
A/N: Howdy. Two chapters in one day, not bad, right? This is the second to last chapter, as you could probably guess, and I'll have the last one up as soon as possible so we can conclude this little adventure. I have to admit, I probably enjoyed making Foxy scary a little bit too much. Ah, well. I also thought I would share a little nugget of advice to you fine people. I owe you that much for your reading this. So, to all you kids out there, (why are you reading this it's rated T. You rebels. I like you.): The next time a bully asks for your lunch money, tell him you left it on his mom's dresser. I'll tell you what that means when you're older. But trust me, it works.