Mable: Well, time to go back underground! Here we go! I hope you Enjoy! ^-^

Can't Go Home Again

Chapter Twenty-Nine

It didn't take Mike too long to realize that he could still faintly hear nearby movement. This turned his focus to the vent that was leading into the Funtime Auditorium. He didn't know what was waiting there, but he did know that whatever took Marionette was probably not friendly. He could only hope that he could get to the animatronic before anything happened. A sort of anger welled up in Mike; something currently had ahold of him and could do whatever it wanted. It had stolen Marionette from him.

He knelt and shined his light into the vent. There wasn't anything he could see and he was determined to follow. This was immediately interrupted by a scurrying noise from behind and he glanced back out of reflex. Climbing out of the other vent were the Minireenas, all four of them. One of them sprung forwards and landed on Mike's leg, trying to climb him. The others followed suit and Mike struggled to kick them off. He didn't have time for this and could only stare as they looked upwards at him. Their eyes turned yellow and their smiles looked evil.

Finally, Mike decided to react more forcefully. With one swipe of his arm, he swung the crowbar down and knocked the first one off. It came back quickly, but in the meantime, he struck at the others. One hit the ground heavily and stopped moving. The other three only seemed to become quicker after their fourth sister fell. The frantic security guard knew that Marionette and his attacker were only getting further away, so in a further act of desperation he brought out the taser and turned it on. The second it sparked to life he saw a reaction.

The Minireenas all pulled back away from Mike. The glow in their eyes went dead, they flinched back as though actually disturbed, and then they scurried back into the vent once again. Their fourth was abandoned on the floor. For a split-second Mike felt a sort of power coursing through him. He had the answer to warding off at least some of the animatronics; they feared the electricity coursing through the taser. They would fear him as well, which he wanted; if he was to get Marionette back then he needed this advantage.

He took into the vent of the Funtime 'Gallery' and quickly came out in a darkened room. There was a single lone light midway across the room. It seemed to be a stage light hanging from the roof that had just gotten bent in the wrong direction, but its light partially illuminated a door on the other side of the room. "The parts and service room…" Mike reminded himself. The door looked slightly ajar from this lighting and his suspicion raised. This immediately followed by panic; he knew what could happen to an animatronic in the parts and service room.

He crouched down as he had done in the Ballora Gallery and began to crawl across the room. Mike wasn't more than a few feet in when he was interrupted by a voice. "H-Hey Bon Bon, I think that's- that's- that's the birthday boy over there! Let's-." The rest of the line was completely overtaken by static and the unsettling voice fell silent. For a moment Mike came to a stop, listening as a few footsteps moved by the distant wall. These footsteps had not come from the source of the voice. "There's two of them. You've got to be kidding me…"

And from the footsteps and fully functional voice, Mike highly doubted that one of them was small like the Minireenas had been. These seemed to be two, large, completely threatening animatronics. Or as threatening as one could be being named 'Bon Bon'. Once he was certain that suspicion had to die down, Mike began to shuffle forwards again. He had only gotten a few more feet when the voice broke out again. "I know you're over there somewhere!" The voice almost seemed giddy in delight at its revelation.

The footsteps got closer. Now both animatronics were wandering around the room. Mike moved a few steps closer towards the door, not wanting to get caught by a wandering animatronic. He then stopped, waited, and listened as a heavy, clanking body came to a stop in front of him. It blocked the light entirely, which was already too dim to see the full form in. Mike tried to stay as silent as possible as the animatronic belted out. "I know you're over there some-ome-where!" Apparently he didn't, as from his voice he was facing a different direction entirely.

A second animatronic shuffled by behind him, moving much faster than Ballora or this one did. This spurred Mike to move to the side and start trying to finish the walk to the room. This didn't go as well as he hoped. While he could hear one of the animatronics near the stage, the second one, which had been talking, was shuffling closer behind him. Mike had been forced to stop yet again. He tightened his hold on the crowbar and listened in, hoping it would wander off. Instead, the voice spoke once more, as close as it could be to the back of his head.

"We-ell, hello again!" Mike reacted before he could even think. In a sudden flash of adrenaline, he stood, spun around, and swung out. The crowbar struck something hard and he could hear whatever it was fall to the floor with a loud bang. The closest thing he could compare the noise to was the crack of a baseball bat against a ball. Though if both the ball and bat were made of metal. The second after he registered the noise, and the possibility that he had injured the animatronic, Mike reacted by bringing out his flashlight.

The light revealed more than he expected. There, standing before him, was a white and purple version of Freddy Fazbear. Its body was styled in the same way as Ballora's had been. It was even damaged like Ballora's had been, with wires poking out of areas between the plates of its body. The most obvious thing was its opened chest which revealed a gaping cavity with only some of the metal cords contained inside. He looked to the face, to the cavity, to its arm which ended abruptly and lacked a hand. His eyes flickered over for just a moment to the floor.

There laid a mangled heap of metal wires, blue exterior, and a couple of twitching ears. It looked to be a small Bonnie and Mike could only assume it was 'Bon Bon'. All of this felt like it was in slow motion, especially as Mike looked back to the Freddy's face. In reality it had only been a few seconds at most. Funtime Freddy stared at the empty space on his arm. Then he slowly looked back to Mike, quietly staring him down with equally blue eyes. With a shriek of metal, his face plates opened and revealed his endoskeleton beneath.

Mike swung forwards with his crowbar as Freddy started to stagger forwards. He didn't shut the flashlight off yet; it wasn't as though there was much of a reason to. Freddy made it abundantly clear that he could find him without the lights guiding him. Though Mike noticed out of the corner of his eye that the other animatronic had noticed too and was twitching off to the side. This one was some sort of Foxy character except it was white and pink, possibly the alleged 'pink Foxy' Jeremy mentioned. It didn't move in right away; it instead watched as Funtime Freddy started to trudge in closer.

The security guard took a swing in an attempt to ward him off. It didn't work. With the items he was juggling in his hands, he couldn't immediately grab the taser. He didn't want to shut the flashlight off just yet and he certainly didn't want to put down his only weapon. Freddy moved a little faster, lashing out with his good arm and trying to grab ahold of Mike. Mike responded by striking his hand back. "Back the hell off, Freddy!" Mike called out in a warning. "And what the hell did you do to my puppet?!"

He didn't expect a response. Freddy didn't disappoint. Now Freddy decided to keep quiet and instead continued to move in, reaching out for him as he staggered in a heavy wobble. Mike struck it on the chest, but Freddy moved in quick. It put its arm around him like it was intending to hug him. Mike couldn't tell if it wanted to move his face closer or move him closer to its gaping belly. Either way he could only imagine all the metal clamping down on his flesh and grew frantic. The crowbar was dropped and the taser was yanked out.

Funtime Freddy leaned in only to suddenly get a jolt into the exposed wires along its middle. It let out a deep groan, one that contrasted with the voice from earlier. As the arms went somewhat limp, Mike shoved his way past, scrambling to gather the crowbar under his arm with the flashlight, and began to back towards the door. Funtime Foxy sprinted about five steps before coming to an abrupt halt at the sight of the taser in his hand. Mike turned it back on, letting the electricity course along the front to ward the animatronic off.

Like the Minireenas, these animatronics clearly feared the sight of the taser alone. Unlike the Minireenas, Funtime Freddy and Funtime Foxy were not driven out of the room. They kept a small amount of distance, but continued to follow and were clearly waiting for Mike to slip up. He flicked the light between both and backed towards the door. "Both of you stay back or I'm going to jolt you straight through the middle!" Mike threatened. In response, there suddenly came the sound of machinery turning on.

However, the Funtime characters were innocent of this. The noise was clearly coming from the room that Mike was trying to get to, the parts and service room. Knowing that the noise couldn't be anything good, Mike broke into a sprint. Foxy and Freddy immediately took pursuit, the former much faster than the latter. It was only by luck that Mike was close enough to slip inside and shut the door behind him. He locked the bolt lock on the handle before focusing on what was happening in the room. Everything was extremely quick; frantic.

That didn't change in the parts and service room. Mike located Marionette almost immediately and found him in a situation that he did not expect. The noise he had heard was a conveyer belt starting up. Marionette was on the conveyor, struggling with what looked at first like a mass of wires laying on him. One of his arms was reaching out and trying to grab onto the edge of the conveyor belt, while the other arm was shielding his mask as the wires tried to struggle past. It was only now that Mike realized that the wires were actively moving.

"Get off him!" Mike sprung forward and scrambled to get the wires off Marionette before they would both disappear into the opening in the wall. It was then that he noticed a single eye connected to the top of the mass, staring directly at him. Instantly, Mike brought the crowbar onto it and smashed it. The wires made no noise in response, but seemed to loosen their tight hold as Marionette slid out a bit more. It tried to tighten down; its wires poking into the black fabric as though wanting to burrow inside.

He wedged the crowbar between the Marionette and the wires, then tried to pry them apart. "Come on…" The tangled parts had to be sentient as they were incredibly reluctant to let the puppet go. In a last shove, a last push of strength, the being was shoved off onto the conveyor. Marionette was able to easily slid out in the last second, but Mike didn't relax until the mat of wires disappeared out of sight. "Yeah, that's not going to give me nightmares or anything…" Mike muttered and then looked to Marionette. "Are you okay?"

Marionette was hovering beside him and looking very uncomfortable. He was rubbing over his arms and occasionally shivered; his face look mostly blank, but his eyes were more widened than usual. Mike had never seen Marionette look this unsteady. "It didn't do anything to you, did it?" he asked in growing concern. Marionette shook his head and finally looked over to his companion. "No, it didn't… But it wanted to." He shivered again, "It wanted under my fabric, but it didn't want what was there. So, it went for my mask instead."

Mike didn't completely understand what this meant, but he had seen it try and go for Marionette's mask. There were so many questions that Mike wanted to ask, hoping to get some answers, but it was clear that the event bothered Marionette. "I couldn't teleport away. I couldn't fade from its grip…" the puppet cut off after this. Mike was briefly distracted by shuffling and banging outside of the door. He hadn't notice the animatronics at the door earlier, which wasn't too surprising considering what he came in on.

"Purple Freddy and Pink Foxy were hounding me on the way here. That's probably still them stumbling around out there," Mike pointed out. He then looked to Marionette and gave an exhale, reaching out to put a friendly arm around him. "Hey," he began, rubbing his shoulder. "You got jumped. I wasn't going to let anything keep you; that's what I'm here for." This seemed to work as Marionette's smile returned once again and he eased into Mike's grasp. "It seems I don't deal with surprises well… But it won't happen again."

The white lights reappeared in his eyes as they had been earlier. "I won't let it happen again." As unsettling as this would be, Mike instead took it as a good sign. "Good, because I'm going to need your help." He retrieved the taser and checked the conveyer once more to make sure that the thing wasn't crawling back in. "Freddy and Foxy know I'm in here. The second we leave this room, they'll be on me, and they've got a high pain tolerance. We need to get out of here… And probably need to leave the facility."

"…I agree," Marionette answered. Mike was a little surprised, "I… Thought you'd put up a bigger fight… Unless that was the person we were looking for?" The puppet shook his head, "No. I don't know where he is… But it is very possible that I was had. That this was nothing but a ruse, made to lure us down here." There were too many questions to count. So instead, Marionette abruptly changed the focus. "I can overtake Freddy and Foxy like I did to Ballora, if you know what you plan on doing." Mike agreed with this plan and approached the door.

After a few seconds to brace themselves, the door was unlocked and Marionette slipped through. It was by sheer luck that Freddy and Foxy had wandered off away from the door. Mike turned off the flashlight before he entered the room. It would be more difficult to not see while trying to fight off two animatronics, but the cover of darkness was his best chance. It didn't take long before he suddenly heard the ringing sound of 'Pop Goes the Weasel' followed by heavy, thumping footsteps. Marionette had gotten Freddy.

Mike moved in to where the fight was occurring. Using the audio as his guide, he got to Freddy's side and pounced. He swung his crowbar until it collided with Freddy's head. He heard the sound of his face opening again, but the bear was too tangled in the puppet's strings to fight back. Even when he started to get his arm raised, Mike lashed out with a jolt of the taser. He immediately regretted it, thinking it would shock Marionette, but this didn't seem to be the case. The puppet didn't even flinch.

Another strike of the crowbar and part of Freddy's open plates came off. The only reason Mike knew was because he could hear them when they hit the ground. It was now when another set of footsteps could be heard. "Foxy," Mike simply stated in a warning and ducked out of the way. He crouched on the floor off to the side, hearing Foxy run to Freddy. For a few moments, it circled Freddy and Marionette's music grew more distant as he released Freddy and tried to lure Foxy off. Foxy took the bait, as could be heard from the fast footsteps.

Mike was about ready to follow when a heavy arm landed on his back. "Well, hello again~!" All the air was instantly knocked out of his lungs and he fell forwards into a stagger. Freddy's arm had been heavier than he could ever expect. The security guard twisted around and swung out with the crowbar. This time Freddy was expecting him and the purple bear grabbed ahold of the crowbar. For a split-second Mike just stared; unsure what to do since using the taser would shock him too unless he released the crowbar, which he didn't want to do.

That was, until something slammed into Funtime Freddy and caused him to release the crowbar. From the sudden blaring of music right in front of him, Mike knew it had been Marionette who sprung onto Freddy and that now they were warring. He had to take the risk and turned the flashlight back on just in time to see Marionette get knocked to the floor. Mike immediately became defensive, not realizing that the puppet dropped to the floor to both dodge Freddy and target his legs. Funtime Freddy awkwardly swung with his handless arm.

This was when Mike literally stepped in. Now basically standing over Marionette, Mike caught the arm with his crowbar. This time he expected the weight, but found that it was much heavier than he had expected. Mike kept a hold on it regardless as Marionette slipped backwards, through Mike's legs, and then circled Funtime Freddy. Now he also tried a new tactic and decided to try and tip him over with a different variety of physical means. Again, he focused on wrapping his strings around Freddy's legs, then proceeded to work with his telekinesis to shove Freddy back.

Funtime Freddy collapsed onto his back. His body didn't react well and he shed a few plates, but he seemed to still be functioning fine. The only thing wrong with him being that he couldn't get off of his back easily. Mike now focused his attention to his next problem; the rapidly approaching Foxy. Funtime Foxy was in near perfect shape and it stalked the human feverishly. Its body twitched, its teeth were bared, and Mike knew it was only the taser that kept it back. He wasn't stupid and had no intention to fight Foxy without Marionette.

He backed away from the approaching animatronic and lifted the taser threateningly. It moved in slowly, he continued to back away, and he expected at any moment for it to attack. What he didn't expect was what came out of nowhere right after this. Mike had no idea that his biggest threat was located onto a few steps behind him. He flashed the flashlight at Funtime Foxy and watched it shield back slightly. "Guess it's like Foxy; it doesn't like flickering lights." He made this revelation, he noticed Marionette turning his attention to Foxy, and he took another step back.

Mike didn't know how a tile covered floor managed to be so soft. The spot held his weight for only a second before his foot went through. He tried to catch himself, but by time Mike fell back on the decaying floor, hidden by the shadows of the Funtime Auditorium, there was no stopping it. In a blur of scrambling he plummeted to the floor beneath and landed heavily on the matter that fell with him, and whatever was already laying below. Everything was remarkably calm for a few moments. Mike didn't feel much, but was still alert.

It was by luck alone that a room with such a high ceiling as the auditorium had a room beneath it that was much smaller in height. It was filled with machinery, probably machinery that worked the floor above it, but Mike could barely see and didn't exactly care in his position. "Don't move. Something could be broken, you could break something, don't move," Mike begged himself as he stared into the room above. The flashlight was still in the Auditorium and shined clearly enough that he could see when Funtime Foxy appeared at the hole.

He also saw when strings yanked it back. There was a scuffle, a barrage of sharp static and radio gargle as Marionette drove Foxy back, and only then did the puppet appear. "Mike!" He peered inside before lowering down beside the human, looking him over. Mike stiffly raised a hand, "I'm okay. Just… Ugh… Keep Foxy back. I need a minute." Everything hurt, especially his back, and Mike slowly raised his head and other arm. Everything was moving fine and there wasn't any numbness. He could move his legs fine as well.

There was a sharp pain in his lower back, far off to the right. He hissed at the sensation. "I think I fell on something… And that something was probable the taser. Damn…" Marionette knelt down beside him and looked him over. "Just as long as you're okay. That was quite a fall!" There was amusement in his voice along with relief. "Goodness, I barely even saw it! One moment you were there and just suddenly through the floor." Mike scoffed a little, or it may have been a choke as he struggled to sit upwards.

The pain was only intensifying when he did, "I'm glad to amuse you so much. Maybe next time I'll swan dive." He made sure to sound as cynical as possible to show how much he appreciated the laughter at his expense. "Now you don't have to be like that. Let's get you back-." Marionette fell silent mid-way through. Mike's first reaction was that the puppet had saw something approaching in the room. Worst case scenario, he supposed, would be the sentient wires who somehow managed to hunt him down before.

"What is it? Did that thing come back?" Mike asked, trying to turn his head enough to see back behind him. "Mike… You're bleeding," Marionette gasped out. Mike cringed and tensed, which only made his back hurt worse. "What did you expect? I just fell through the floor, of course I'm-…" It was only then that he cut off. It was from a mix of pain from the motion of reaching back and feeling the bothering area, and actually feeling the bothersome area itself. Hot, sticky fluid immediately met his fingers, along with the feeling of metal.

He thought it was only against his skin, but all it took was a slight shift to realize that it was in deep. This wasn't just a slice from a random piece of rubbish, Mike knew it pierced deeper than that. If the fact that he couldn't move off it was any indication. Shock clutched his body as he realized what this meant. Not only was he in this abandoned factory with a group of animatronics, but he had just gotten injured, and he had no way to call for help. Pulling his hand back he could see the blood that Marionette had pointed out on his fingers.

There was more blood than he could've expected. Mike could only stare at the stark red in the dim light. Marionette face was contorted in horror and he continued to stay knelt there, seemingly frozen in place. Before Mike could even stop himself, words slipped out, "I'm dead."

Mable: There's this feeling- I don't know how to explain it- that you get when you realize you're actually in trouble. Whether it be right before an accident, whether it be suddenly realizing you're injured, or encountering a wild animal; it's just this feeling. I don't know how to describe that feeling when you're suddenly dragged back to mortality and reminded that, yes, you can very well die. Not sure off the word, but I can reassure you that this is exactly what Mike's thinking… And he doesn't even know what's coming.