Mable: Hey there! So Creeper4414 got the game; it was a reference to Super Mario Bros 2. XD I just felt weird dropping the title in the chapter itself, but then was extremely lazy in being vague. Anyway, anyway, here is the next chapter! I hope you enjoy!

Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Fourteen

As far as Mike was concerned, he didn't need to be here. The warehouse was untouched as he entered in and turned on the lights. He looked over the office with a hum, turning on the monitor before stepping out into the main room. The high lights alit the entire warehouse in a sharp glow which left it less than creepy. He wandered down the stretch of the aisle with a soft whistle on his lips. He directed himself back to the animatronic holding room and flicked on the light inside. Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica had still not moved and he left to find Foxy.

He was in the curtained area that had been created for him. Mike cautiously pushed the curtain open and looked inside. The Pirate was standing there watching him, twitching lightly, but didn't make any attempt to move towards or away. "Hey Foxy," Mike greeted with a smile. "Let's check that arm. Look, we match," he raised his arm. He hoped that talking in a calm voice and reassuring him would keep the animatronic passive. Foxy's ears raised and lowered, making squeaking noises as they did. He twitched again as Mike continued to close in, reaching out to touch his arm.

Mike angled it to move forwards and out, listening for any popping noises or watching for any strange movements. It seemed like Fritz had done a good enough job with it. "Everything's looking good here, Captain," the former security guard reassured and gave an amused chuckle. "I'm glad to see it after what happened the other day. You know, you used to be my favorite back when-." Foxy suddenly yanked his arm away and started to walk out of the curtain in a quick walk, leaving Mike watching after him. "Uh… Foxy?" The animatronic was out of sight in an instance.

He pushed through the curtains and could see a glimpse of red fabric through the nearby shelves. Mike followed behind, wondering what had spurned on the animatronic. The animatronic seemed to have vanished so Mike returned to the office to check the cameras. Eventually he spotted Foxy near the back wall, half obscured by another shelf. He seemed to know about the cameras as he was clearly standing in a blind spot. Deciding to let it go, Mike reclined in the office chair and attempted to kill time without worrying about what Foxy was doing.

If this was what Fritz was worried about then Mike was sorely disappointed. Foxy was acting strange, but there wasn't any sort of immediate threat in its motions. It was sort of like Marionette's motions in a way. Maybe he was trying to also return to a routine. "Or maybe I'm spending too much time with Mari," he considered. For a little while it seemed like nothing was going to happen. Then there was a banging noise from inside of the warehouse that alerted him. He jumped, heart racing, and checked the monitor to see where the noise came from.

A cardboard box holding old animatronic parts was laying on the floor on its side. From the position it seemed to have fallen off of the shelf, but with Foxy completely absent he couldn't understand if it was him or not. Regardless, Mike headed to the box and looked over the scene. No broken shelf, no Foxy, no visible way that it could have fallen. He was confused but unconcerned and bent down to put the tools in the box. Once he was finished he nudged it to the side instead of putting it back on the shelf. Then he turned to head back at the office.

Except now there was a trail of paper sprawled on the floor behind him. He hadn't even heard anything and stared at it blankly. "…That wasn't Foxy." It couldn't have been him, he would've heard him. He took a step forwards only to hear a 'thunk' and suddenly see more papers plummeting down from above. He was able to step out of the way and looked closer, unable to see where they came from. "Foxy, if you're up there or something-!" His voice cut off as something rolled off of a lower shelf and fell onto the floor, rolling to a stop in front of him.

It looked like an animatronic head, though made of hard material and sphere shaped. All of the inside parts were removed, leaving gaping eyes and a mouth staring back at him. He felt his blood pressure raise as his hands clenched into fists and he took a step back, watching the head carefully. The second he stepped out of the isle he turned on his heel and headed towards the curtained area. Even though it was opposite from the door, which was beyond more unsettling isles, he felt the panicked urge to be around Foxy. After all, Foxy had protected him before.

There was a louder bang as something fell from a closer shelf. It sounded louder as it hit the floor and Mike broke into a sort of jog. He then burst into the curtained area where Foxy stood, looking to him. As though it couldn't get any more confusing, Foxy did something that Mike had yet to see or hear; he spoke.

"Yar, welcome to Pirate's Cove! Climb aboard and we'll be shippin' off fer adventures on the mighty blue!" Foxy suddenly announced and raised his hook. "But be warned, there be rough waves on the deep. This ain't an adventure fer Landlubbers!" Mike stared with his mouth agape, "Did his programming just kick in now?" It didn't even sound like it made sense. Foxy, who was just shuffling around acting strange, had suddenly began to speak. Or at least, began playing the voice clips he once played for children. "Okay… Anything that keeps me from going out there again."

Foxy apparently recognized this as a confirmation and let out a hearty laugh, one that was crackling like a fire. He then turned around and wandered around the curtained area. Finally, he found a placemat that had been brought in and scooped it into his grasp. "The map shall lead the way to the buried treasure!" From what Mike could see, it was one of those placemats with a maze drawn on it so that kids could scribble on it while waiting for food. Not really any sort of usable map, it didn't even look like one, and yet Foxy fully followed it out.

At first the Security Guard followed at a distance, not trusting this sudden change in behavior from the animatronic. Though the second that he got what he considered was a safe distance he could feel something like breath on his neck. There was nothing there behind him, but gusts of musty, hot air was on the back of his neck. It smelled like mold with a tinge of copper. Mike quickened his pace and noticed that the closer he got to Foxy, the more the smell and feeling backed down behind him. It didn't seem like Foxy could notice whatever was happening.

So Mike loyally followed Foxy around the aisles as he continued to babble out various voice recordings and search for non-existent treasure. Mike would've enjoyed this more if he didn't feel so threatened by the force that was clearly trailing him through the warehouse. To his luck, Foxy eventually staggered past the hall to the office and Mike started inside. "Sorry, Foxy, but I'm going to have to abandon the search. I'm needed elsewhere." It was about time to get home and as far away from this warehouse as he could possibly get.

"Leavin' so soon, Matey? Come back soon, or Captain Foxy will have you scrubbing the deck!" He then laughed, the voice sounded perfectly fine. Though the body movements were drastically different. He started to follow Mike down towards the office with an obvious hurriedness in his gait. Right as Mike was shutting everything down, checking the monitor a last time, Foxy spoke again. "Come back- To Pirate's Cove, where we shall be setting off for adventure!" This was a clash of recordings from the change in tone and Mike stared.

"I've… Got to leave, Foxy. The others are waiting for me." Yet Foxy clashed recordings yet again. "Come back- or Captain Foxy will have- walking the plank! Come back- to search for treasure!" It was the closest thing that Mike got to verbal confirmation that Foxy wanted him to stay in the warehouse. It baffled him, but also intrigued him. Could it be that Foxy was just as sentient as Marionette was, but was having difficulty expressing it? As unnerved as he was, Mike found himself too curious to leave. Not now that Foxy was speaking to him. "…Alright, twenty more minutes."

The sound of cars pulling into the driveway went ignored as the sound of tapping buttons was muted by static. Then it was all ended by the same scene that had flickered on many times before; the game over screen. The tune of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' broke out and Marionette launched forward, preparing to snatch the cartridge out of the game system and deal with it. Yet right as his black fingers were about to touch it there was a knock on the door. He stopped in place, still glaring at the forsaken cartridge, slowly looking over towards the window.

He drew himself off of the floor and over to peer out of the shades, not hiding his clear glare and instead trying to wipe away the tears of frustration that were shed of sheer anger. He recognized the Freddy van and a car that he didn't see before. Looking to the side, he could see Sam and Jeremy standing the door. Marionette wasn't even enthused, letting the slate closed and inwardly lamenting his choice to be civil to these people. Regardless of what Mike said, Mike wasn't here on time anyway, Marionette unlocked the door from a distance.

He forced his normal smile back and watched as the door slowly opened. "Mike?" Sam called in and entered into the house. Jeremy followed him in and the second he did, Marionette felt his body revert to his default stance. This was a hard habit to break, especially around those who were more strangers than others, which Jeremy certainly was. Sam noticed the Puppet standing there almost immediately and paused from entering the house. "Hey, uh, Mari… Did Mike get back yet?" he was clearly still testing his ground, even after what happened in the van.

Marionette actually preferred it like this. He didn't want Sam getting too comfortable too quickly, nor Jeremy, nor any other possible friend of Mike. The only exception was Mike himself who Marionette was already comfortable keeping at arm's length. He tried to answer Sam's question, but his voice would not come out while the third male stood there. He forced his head to turn in a shake. "I was wondering why his car wasn't in the driveway. You don't mind us sticking around until he gets here, right?" He was answered with another stiff shake of the head.

"I can wait in the car," Jeremy offered, but the technician wrangled him in. "It's fine, Jere, just sit down and stay away from the coffee." Sam headed past the animatronic into the living room. "I never really took Mike for the gamer type… Is something wrong? You look a little stiff." Marionette begrudgingly shook his head again and watched Jeremy out of the corner of his eye. The second he turned away to get some tap water, the Puppet dropped to the floor in front of the couch. Which startled and confused Sam, but Marionette cared less about what he thought.

It was either act strange or be stuck in the habit of staying still, so he chose the former. Sam shrugged it off and glanced at the game system, then looked back towards Jeremy. "You want to play a game or something to kill time?" Jeremy shuffled anxiously in the kitchen, "Ah… I guess not…" The technician shrugged it off and looked to Marionette, "How about you?" Funny, Marionette wasn't sure if he would count them to be on casual terms yet, but he decided to respond. He gave a motion like a shrug, but he sort of slumped against the couch.

Sam began to look through the cartridges. "Doesn't like there's really any two player games anyway… I don't even know what half of these are. Either I'm getting old or Mike's got a weird taste in games." He looked at the cartridge in the system and then glanced at the television which showed the game still playing and shrugged, taking the controller to start. "You don't mind?" Marionette shook his head. No, he didn't mind, if the inward amusement was any sign. The technician had no idea what he was about to get himself into.

Helping Foxy or not, Mike was starting to get bored out of his mind. Hours of the same repeated activity was starting to drive him insane. It didn't help that at some point Foxy ran out of new lines and started to sing. Or it was sort of singing; Mike recognized it from back at the pizzeria from one or two different nights. It was basically just Foxy going, "Dum da dum diddly dum." Though in a horrible twist of fate he never stopped. For at least an hour, though the human could've thought it lasted that long, he just sang endlessly whether they were walking or in the curtains.

Once it got dark outside the other activity only increased as well. Lights started flickering, random music from a music player lost somewhere would play and halt, and things were being rearranged when he wasn't watching them. He witnessed a box be on a shelf, then not on the shelf, then on a different shelf, then in the aisle, and the loudly falling to the ground outside the curtain when they were back in the Cove area. Mike checked his watch, "It's that late already? I'm going to have to get out of here soon… Or I'm going to lose it." He tapped his foot and considered calling Sam again.

He had called about an hour beforehand and the technician didn't answer. He assumed that he and Jeremy had already gone home by now, but was sure he could explain the situation later. He had suffered enough in his own opinion. Gathering his nerve, Mike stood and started to the curtain, "Alright, Captain, this time I really do have to leave." He stepped through and stepped over the endoskeleton arm laying on the floor. As expected, Foxy began to follow him at a distance, though Mike preferred this. "Leaving so soon, Matey? Come back- To Pirate's Cove. Come back- To Pirate's Cove."

Foxy had become only blunter over the hours and was not trying to hide what he wanted Mike to do. It had once been comical, but now it was pretty unsettling, especially when Foxy occasionally said things that sounded like threats. "Sorry, Foxy. I've overstayed my welcome. I have to go." He knew there was going to be a fight so he brought out his keys, deciding just to leave the office how it was and merely pass through to go to the door. "There's lots of treasure out on the- Pirate's Cove. Come back- Or you'll walk the plank!"

Suddenly Foxy broke into a sprint and Mike started to run as well. "Flattery's not getting you anywhere!" he called back as he dashed down the hall and to the door. He was out the door and trying to close it when Foxy caught it with his hook. His voice was a jumbled mess as he tried to yank it open. His strength was intense, but Mike fought back with his hands tightly on the knob. A few moments of struggling commenced before the human blurted out. "Damn it, Foxy, I stayed with you all night! If I don't get home I'm going to have Marionette wringing-!"

The hook slipped back and Foxy released the door, allowing Mike to suddenly slam it and stare at the result. "…My neck." He took it as a blessing and rushed to the car. Once he was driving home it occurred to him that maybe Foxy's behavior was less than innocent. "He could've been trying to stall me until Midnight. That's when they'd set off before, maybe he knows that or maybe it has something to do with whatever was going on… 'Hey, Fritz, just got back in. Foxy didn't try killing me, but he nearly bored me to death. By the way, watch your head. Stuff keeps flying off of the shelves'."

He mockingly voiced with a huff of weariness as he continued towards the house. He needed to get away from the warehouse. Unlike the Pizzeria, there was a slim chance he would be coming back here a second night. Like the Pizzeria, though, he had a feeling that he probably didn't have a choice in the matter.

"Why did I pick up this thing?! It doesn't even kill anything!" Jeremy's grip on the controller was shaking as he glared at the television. In the last while he had made the horrible mistake of moving into the living room to try the game, right when Sam had giving up. The technician was watching over his shoulder, eating a cupcake, "Watch out for the flying imps. The fire's probably not going to kill them." Thus Sam had efficiently started doing the same thing Mike had done before he had left. Marionette was now on the loveseat watching the scene.

Then the game over screen returned with a vengeance. Jeremy dropped the controller and stood, "That's it. I'm leaving." The other two watched him storm over to the door. "Mike just isn't coming back and I need some air. See you later." With those flat statements he stormed out the front door. "…That was sudden," Sam casually remarked. Marionette eased and slid to the floor, "Oh, I saw it coming. Let's just put this where it belongs…" He switched off the game and took out the cartridge, disposing it into the box carelessly.

"I've known Jeremy for years, in a way, and that's the first time he's flipped like that…" He finished the cupcake. "I guess I'm going too. If you could, tell Mike that I'll call him back… Or I'll see him if he's still stuck over in the warehouse." Marionette lost interest in the game system and looked back towards the technician who stood. Now that Jeremy was out of the way he wasn't afraid of talking freely. "What exactly was it that you needed to tell Mike so urgently? I'm just curious." He turned to face him and Sam considered it.

"Well… Earlier I called Mike about the Pizzeria's condition." The Puppet chimed in, "I know. I heard you then." "Good, then I don't have to repeat myself," Sam pointed out as he mentally noted that he needed to start watching his phone calls a bit more carefully. "I found another place that's perfect. It's not quite the size of the Pizzeria, but it's a closed restaurant that has a working kitchen and is in good condition. Most of everything we would have to do is really appearance based, except maybe put in a stage." He almost sounded excited before he faltered.

"But this means that we'll need to actually buy the place and as it's looking, we don't have the means." He apparently took Marionette's listening as a sign to vent. "Even with fundraising options, I don't know if it's going to be enough. Even if I get two jobs, if we all get two jobs, it might not be enough. We could get a loan, but that- Eh." He waved it off, "Don't worry about that. Just, when Mike gets back, tell him that we found a possible location and that if he has any ideas on this fundraising thing then we need to start getting things together."

He shuffled around before heading towards the door, "And, uh, thanks for the cupcake." That certainly made Marionette's mood rise, but once Fritz was gone, he was left with his thoughts again. Thankfully, he found a semi-solution rather quickly.

Mike pulled into the driveway and noticed right away that there were no other cars besides his own. He wasn't surprised that the others already left, just disappointed that he couldn't get back in time. The entire Foxy event was still heavy in his mind as he headed to the front door and let himself in. "I'm home!" he called and glanced around. Most of the lights were off, except for the glow of the TV from the living room. There weren't any games being played and he glanced over the back at the couch onto the floor. Nobody was there.

"Mari?" There was no response and at first he thought that maybe Marionette just wound the music box and went to bed. He stopped to wash his face off and then headed towards the master bedroom to change, but stopped in the doorway. A soft thump echoed down from the ceiling. Mike suspected it was from the attic, and considering that the closet doors were ajar this would make sense. He moved over to it, climbing onto the file cabinet and raising his head into the attic. It was impossible to see anything and he fumbled down for his flashlight.

When he raised his head and flickered on the flashlight he was suddenly hit with the sight of Marionette kneeling in front of him. He jumped back but clutched his flashlight, already uneasy from the warehouse. "Could you have warned me? You're practically on top of me!" The Puppet seemed merely amused by the comment as the attic flickered to light, Mike seeing the light switch on the wall. "…That would've helped me the last time I was here." He started to drag himself into the attic. "You weren't hiding any bodies in here, I hope."

To answer him, Marionette coaxed him back to what was clearly a safe off to the side. It had been covered by a sheet so Mike hadn't seen it when he was here before. He moved in for a better look as Marionette spoke. "The combination is zero, seven, two, one." Mike glanced to him, seemingly getting the go ahead, and unlocked the safe to find some things inside. A thick orange envelope caught his attention as he pulled it out and looked inside through it. His eyes widened, "Why was Fredrick hiding a stash of money up here?" He then looked to the animatronic.

"This isn't like Fredrick's 'flee the country' money, right?" The fact that Fredrick would have money in case of such was incredibly suspicious. Marionette chimed in a chuckle, "If he did then he probably has it hidden in some sort of nook in the Pizzeria. For now, this is mine, and I want you to have it." Mike's brows furrowed as Marionette reached out to nudge the safe closed. "You have hundreds of dollars just sitting in the attic… Oh, you really were stealing from the Pizzeria! I'm impressed, I'm guessing you weren't caught," he was only partially joking.

"It doesn't really matter to me. I don't have anything I need to buy," he shrugged it off. "This is what was left of my life insurance policy after the burial. My father put it in here after I came back to him and gave me the combination. I didn't understand why at the time, but I'm assuming that the reason would have to involve you." He pushed on the envelope to push it closer to Mike. "And now I'm giving it to you. Your friend found a building that would work better than the Pizzeria. This has to help at least a little."

"It's going to do more than that..." Mike's face broke into a smile and he looked to the Puppet. For a few seconds he tried to figure out what motion he was planning on making, but the reached out to link an arm around the Puppet. He knew the risks, and as expected Marionette eagerly latched onto him. Once he released the human he moved back towards the hatch out of the attic, eager Mike lingered by the safe. "Is there anything else in this safe worth looking at…?" he asked with a hesitant undertone. Marionette took a few seconds to answer.

"Not exactly, but you are free to look if you want." Mike responded by reopening the safe and sorting through the papers. Marionette silently exited the attic, suddenly feeling uncomfortable being in the room while Mike read whatever things his father had sealed behind. Soon he came back down and asked no questions about whatever he read. Marionette considered this a blessing and finally the evening returned to its normal routine.

Almost.

Mable: That was 'almost' a happy ending. Something is wrong, and sometimes what you see with your eyes is really something entirely different… Or we shall see in the next chapter! I hope everyone enjoyed!