Saphira looked up at the traffic light above the starting line. The first one glowed red, she could see Roxy frowning with a confident grin, she was really into this even if it was a test run. The second light came on and Saphira took a glance at Freddy. He was watching from the balcony above and he waved to her, giving her a thumbs up with a big smile. She glanced back at the traffic light when the green light comes on and a high-pitched sound came through the speakers, signalling the start of the race. Saphira put her foot down and felt the kart lurching forward as the power of the motor kicks in and she speeds away with the others. Roxy laughed loudly as she pushed her kart along the track. Monty was already catching up to her and as was Chica.
"Look out wolfie!" Monty sneered sarcastically at Roxy. "I'm right behind you!"
"Oh, you will never been me Monty!" Roxy responded with a laugh, turning the wheel to drift around a bend. Monty and Chica copy her, but she speeds away from the turn more quickly. "I am the best!"
Saphira chuckled softly, she was taking care around the bend as she did not want to drift. She would not even know how to drift anyway, but she was having a lot of fun. Feeling the rush of air around her as the karts speeds along the track was more than enough for her. Cliff was ahead of her and she did not mind at all. She could hear the bots laughing loudly and taking jabs at each other, but Roxy was still ahead of all of them.
"Ah! I almost past you Roxy, he, he, he!" Chica laughed loudly. "But we can't damage the karts, so be careful my friend."
"I am always careful."
She wondered if she would ever get to that point of being good friends with them to have a lot of fun like this. It was something she often envied. She found herself slowing down a little as she felt sad, reminding herself that people like each other more than her. Even among the animatronics it would seem. Freddy was quick to notice Saphira had slowed down, he quickly was worried for her.
"Is everything okay super star?" Freddy asked through the Fazwatch. "You slowed down. Is the kart okay?"
"I know…I…was just thinking…" Saphira sighed and shakes her head before pressing her foot on the throttle some more. "I know I shouldn't, but I was. Don't worry, I am having fun."
"You did not look like it. Maybe you should pull over. Roxy will speed past you and she tends to get very close when she does that when she overlaps someone. She might scare you."
That was a good warning. Saphira could hear her kart behind her now. Although she was not directly behind her yet, but having Roxy do that sounded something she would do. So Saphira was not surprised, but she was glad Freddy warned her before it happened. And she didn't want that chance so she sped as fast as she was comfortable around the track. She felt herself smiling again, this was a lot of fun and she felt stupid for allowing old feelings creep up simply because the animatronics were having fun with each other. She was having fun too, and that was all that mattered. She did gasp though when she saw Roxy over her shoulder, the wolf glanced at her with a grin.
"Hey kid! Looks like you're a little slow!" Roxy teased, driving up to be beside her for a moment. "First time driving a kart hey? Not bad for a first time. But, you still lose! I win everytime!" She chuckled and zoomed ahead of Saphira, she saw the wheels of the karts nearly collide with each other. "Have fun eating my dust!"
"Mine too!" Monty yelled, causing Saphira to jump hearing his voice. She slowed down to go around a bend while she saw Monty drifting around her. "Ha, ha, ha! This is fun! I beat you punk! Time to beat the wolf!"
"Don't count on it!" Roxy responded loudly. "I am the best!"
Saphira grinned at them, she didn't know what to say as she was focused on driving the kart so she wouldn't have an accident as she knew karts were easy to tip. She heard Chica coming up behind her next, she glanced at the bot who was smiling at her and gave her a thumbs up.
"Ignore those idiots Saphira, they're always competing against each other. I hope you're having fun. You'll get better driving one of these the more we do this. Don't worry about winning, this is just a test run." Chica winked at her and Saphira chuckled, she already knew that. This was just a test run. "We go to Foxy's Pirate Adventures next. I look forward to it."
"Oh, didn't know you were going," Saphira said with a smile. "This is a lot of fun, even if I am just taking my time."
Chica chuckled softly. "Of course. I love that attraction! I think you'll love it more than the raceway."
Saphira would have to wait on that one before giving her opinion. She and Chica race around the track side-by-side, it was nice that her friend had decided to do that rather then to try and beat Roxy. Freddy was happy too, Chica was probably one of the first of the animatronics to put in a lot of effort to befriend Saphira. And it was paying off.
"Yes! I won! I won!" Roxy cheers loudly as she had completed three laps already, and she had beaten Monty. "I am the best! I beat all of you losers!"
"Oh, oh, I still almost beat you Roxy!" Monty responded cheerfully, standing up from the kart and playfully nudged her with his hip. "I will beat you one of these days!"
"More like, never one of these days." She chuckled and looked at Saphira when she, Chica and Cliff came to a stop. "We should do another race Cliff! I really want to keep racing!"
"No, no, it is a test run Roxy," Cliff responded as he stood up from the kart and walked away to pick up an ipad he had on the ground. "Everything went smoothly. There are a couple karts here that need maintenance, but I found them before we raised anyway, so that's no big deal. Anyway, Dave is at Foxy's Pirate Adventures waiting, so we should here there."
Saphira smiled as she stood up from her kart and stepped out of it to follow Cliff to the next attraction. Roxy herself was clearly upset she couldn't race anymore, but she would get to race again when the pizzaplex opens and fills with kids and young adults who want to take her on.
"Go on ahead losers. I'm going back to my room! I don't like either of those attractions anyway." Roxy shrugged and folded her arms, she watched Chica and Monty follow Cliff, though Saphira did not know if Monty would play. Freddy was waiting for Saphira and Roxy huffed. She stopped and turned when she heard Saphira gasping, and she saw that her foot was stuck. Or, rather the bot had grabbed her ankle and Saphira covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming. "Now that is a malfunction."
"Yeah it is…" Saphira responded nervously. "Could you do me a favor before I end up dragging the entire kart with me? Please." She points slightly at the hand around her ankle, desperately wanting Roxy to get it off.
Roxy walked closer, glaring at the bot for a moment before grabbing the bot's arm and yanking on it, it lets go but the rough movement made Saphira wince at the bot hands were not gentle by any means. "There. Hmmph! Next time I will rip the arm off it. It should never grab a guest like that, even if there is an accident."
Saphira rubbed her ankle a little and looked at Roxy. "Thanks…I really didn't want to scream and get Cliff's attention."
"He might be able to help. But…clowns are freaky…so are the staff bots. I can't blame you kid." Roxy placed a hand on Saphira's shoulder and pats it gently. "You want my opinion on all this?" Saphira didn't think she could stop Roxy from saying it anyway. "Trust your gut Saphira. I don't think the people we know are all as nice as they appear to be. Everything is strange right now."
So Roxy could see it too and she was worried about it as well. That was good. Saphira smiled at her and nodded. "Thanks Roxy. I guess I can count on you as well."
"Don't mention it kid, don't go all sweet on me now." Roxy glanced away with a slight frown while smirking slightly. "Now you better get out of here. Freddy there is waiting for you."
Saphira chuckled and walked around Roxy to approach Freddy. He had noticed something strange when he saw Roxy bending to reach into the kart, but Saphira seemed fine, so he opened his arms and she walked up to hug him.
"Well done super star, you might not have won, but I hope you had fun." She smiled as she felt him rub her back gently. "Time for the next attraction now right? Foxy's Pirate Adventures, I will be participating in this one."
"You will?" Saphira looked at him in surprise before jumping happily. "Yay! I look forward to it! We should catch up with them or they are going to asking some questions."
Freddy nodded and Saphira walked around him to catch him. He glanced back at Roxy who walked up to him and looked at him briefly. He widened his eyes as Roxy had sent him a private message about what had happened. Freddy glanced at the kart briefly before he walked away to catch up with Saphira so they could participate in the next attraction. Saphira felt the cool air of the atrium as she stepped out into it, she smiled breathing the air and turned as she heard Freddy behind her.
"I have to admit, it's not my thing honestly now that I've tried the racing," Saphira said with a smile.
"At least you were to try it out and see. But what made you so sad that you slowed down?" She sighed and glanced away from him at the question. "Please, be honest."
"I guess, hearing Monty, Roxy and Chica…I wonder if I will ever as close at that…I get envious when I see close friends. And it makes me think that everyone else prefers everyone but me…sorry…I know you are my friends now, but…the old feelings can't be helped." Saphira lifts her ankle to rub, it was stinging a little from the harsh grip of the bot.
"Saphira, we have been friends for many years here. I understand why you feel that way, but we are your friends. Just understand we have not had a proper human friend, so it is new for us in a way and most of us want to be as friendly with you as possible." He wrapped a hand around her to pull her in for a hug. Saphira stumbled a little as she was still rubbing her ankle and she was taken by surprise. "It is not because we prefer each other more, it is because we have known each other longer."
"I know, I know…it's just old feelings." Saphira sighed, turning her head to look across the atrium to the next attraction. She saw Foxy standing outside, he was dancing and he saw Saphira, so he stopped and waved for them to come down. "Uh oh, Foxy's getting impatient."
Freddy chuckled and Saphira slipped away from him to run to the group standing in front of the elevator to Foxy's Pirate Adventures. A large picture of Foxy with a parrot on his shoulder was seeing outside with a speech bubble 'Join me crew me hearties!'. She smiled upon seeing the sign.
"Argh! Ye finally made it lass!" Foxy said enthusiastically. "I hope ye have what it takes to get the highest score! Take down as many ships as you can to protect me ship!"
Saphira giggled at him. "Is that a recorded line of yours?"
He grinned at her. "Yes, yes it is. Very smart lass."
She giggled again and rubbed her hands together. "I think I will really enjoy this one." She looked around at the animatronics with a smile and noticed Cliff and Dave standing by the elevator talking. "Hey Cliff, can we go in?"
Cliff looked at Saphira with a smile and nodded. "Of course, since you finally made it. But due to weight limits, we can't all get into the elevator at once."
"Of course. I'll wait my turn with the others." She did not want to go with them alone, even if Cliff was innocent in all of this, Dave was still there.
"Very well. Who wants to come with us? We can take two animatronics." Cliff gazed at the animatronics, Foxy was the first to put his hand up and skipped into the elevator with Chica who was very excited as well. "That answers my question. We will see you, Freddy and Monty shortly."
Saphira watched as the two men stepped into the elevator with the animatronics, Cliff presses the button to head to the attraction. She sighed a little, it did worry her a little that they could hurt the animatronics if they wanted to when she was not watching. She shakes her head. What was she thinking? Cliff and Dave wouldn't hurt the animatronics. As far as she knew of course.
"Well punk, I guess we are going out to see," Monty said to her gruffly with a huff. She turned to look at him, he had his sunglasses covering his eyes as per usual. "I have to say, you looked like a wimp driving that kart tonight."
She rolled her eyes at him. "You reverted back to that huh?" Saphira turned away from him. "I've never driven a go-kart in my life Monty. I am not got to do something stupid that could cause an injury. Especially with everything that has been happening of course."
"Yeah, yeah…I know." Monty walked past Saphira to the elevator to check when they could use it. "It was at least fun to challenge the wolf. I'll do it again next week, I think. I will be beat her next time."
"Oh yeah, I am sure you have said that a lot Monty. But hey, it's just a race. No hard feelings when you don't win. It shouldn't be about winning, but the fun and thrill of racing those karts. Still…it's curious they're big enough to fit you, you're a bit bigger than Roxy." Monty glanced at her in surprise at the comment. "Er…I mean body wise, you might be the same height, but you're bulkier. Like Freddy and Bonnie."
"Yes we are, partly why I don't race. The first time I did, I nearly couldn't get back out." Saphira was shocked to hear that from Freddy. "It was extremely embarrassing. I thankfully did not need to walk to Parts and Service with it attached to me." That image alone made Saphira laugh, she could not imagine seeing Freddy like that. No wonder it would be embarrassing for him. "Oh, you think that is funny huh Saphira?"
She had some tears in her eyes as she laughed and wiped them away quickly. "Yes, the imagine of that is. I am surprised Monty could get out of them just fine. Or I simply wasn't paying attention to him."
"Eh…Freddy's not totally wrong." Monty reached to the button to press to get the elevator back down. "It's a tight squeeze. But I have done it a lot that I don't get stuck. Bonnie doesn't race either for that reason."
She giggled again, at least she knew the main reason why Freddy did not race those karts. It was funny to her, she did know this attraction also had seats while trying to get the most points in the game. She assumed because they had no armrests it would be fine. Plus, Freddy did say he would join, so it was going to be fun. When the doors open, Saphira let the animatronics step inside and followed them in and stood there patiently when Monty pressed the button. She hummed to the music of the elevator, the gator turned his head to her when she hummed it. He saw it made her happy and he smiled slightly, wondering if she would enjoy his performances in Monty Golf. He guessed she might.
When the doors opened, Saphira smiled at the attraction. It was a large space that mimicked the inside hull of a pirate ship. It had wood around with large seats in front of cannons pointing out of portholes, she could see a screen with ocean to make it seem like they were inside a ship. Plus, the ground was moving in a wave motion, so anyone with motion sickness would hate it here.
"Alright matey!" Foxy announced, standing by a chair with a grin. "Prepare to portside! Let's protect me ship!"
Saphira giggled, Dave and Cliff were already in a seat and she took an empty one away from them. She heard Freddy sit next to her, Monty sat on the other side. She was surprised, but Chica was also next to him and Foxy sat on the other side of Freddy. She smiled.
"Alright Saphira, I am activating the attraction now," Cliff announced loudly. "It can get a bit rough in here, so be prepared to feel rough waves. Have fun and keep watch for any issues."
Saphira nodded. It took a minute and a half before it felt like the room suddenly hit a huge wave. It rocked up and she tensed slightly as the feeling as unnerving. She blinked as she saw a pixel image of Foxy on the screen.
"Argh! Matey! Prepare yer cannon!" The voice came through the speakers and Saphira gripped the cannon in front of her, placing a finger on the button. "Rival ships are all around! I need to count on ya to destroy them! Shoot and protect me ship!"
A score marker louds on screen and Saphira saw the first ship. She pressed the button and gasped as she felt some recoil in the cannon. She giggled as she managed to hit the ship and quickly begin getting a score. She could also see the score list of everyone else. She had a grin on her face as she continued to shoot the ships on the screen, getting very reasonable scores. She gasped when the room shudders as though it had gone down and hit a wave. She felt Freddy's hand on her arm, and she glanced down in surprise before looking at him. He winked at her with a smile, he was reassuring her that it was okay. This attraction was so fun! Yes it mimicked real waves and can be distracting, but it was a lot of fun. However, as she the game progressed, a ship came into view with a small figure on it. She frowned slightly, it looked a bit like Bonnie. However, it was completely purple with glowing eyes and it began to dance on the ship that came into view. The way it danced looked creepy, waving it's arms back and forth, lifting its knees in a skipping motion. It was weird, but Saphira thought it was part of the game so she shot at it.
"Oh man, this game is so much fun!" Saphira exclaimed with a big grin on her face. She glanced at the scores and saw Monty was ahead of her. "Hell no! You're not beating me Monty!"
"Good luck punk!" He responded sarcastically. "You need better aim to beat me."
She chuckled at him, watching the ship with the dancing rabbit figure sink and another ship comes into view with the same figure. This time though, a clown figure was also with it and dancing along with the rabbit. "Ehh…fuck off clown!"
Freddy turned his head and looked at Saphira's screen, he studied it closely, he did not see the figures on the screen right away. But Monty did, he had looked at the screen too. He was confused and glanced at his own screen to look more closely at it for any sign of those figures. Freddy did eventually see the figures as when that ship went down and another came along with the same figures. It was not part of the game. Saphira herself was aiming directly for the clowns, not caring about the fact this might not be a part of the game. It felt good to kill clowns right now, and for the moment, nothing was happening that directly was harming Saphira so Freddy let it go for now. But he had a hard time focusing on his own game because of that.
"Finally! I've passed Monty's score!" Saphira exclaimed with a big grin.
"Oh damn, you did punk! Not for long!" Monty quickly focused on his game to pass Saphira's score. "I got distracted punk, don't cheat like that."
She giggled as she remained focus on the game. "I didn't cheat. You're the one who looked when I cursed those clowns on my screen."
"Clowns?" Cliff stopped and turned in his chair. He stood up and walked over, stumbling a little from the movement of the room and grabbed the back of Saphira's chair, looking at the screen. He saw the rabbit and clown figure. "What…that is not part of the game."
"It's not?" Saphira glanced at him in surprise, watching the ship going down after she destroyed it. "Oh…I didn't know…"
The next ship had no figures on it and Cliff frowned with confusion. "That was weird…" He rubbed his chin a little. "Guess we need to scan the game system for errors or viruses, this is not meant to be part of the game. No one else has reported this though. Anyone else got dancing rabbits and clowns on their screens?"
"No, that is insultin'!" Foxy responded, looking at Cliff curiously as he listened. "Chica?" She shakes her head with a confused expression. "I guess no one has but Saphira…weird, maybe it is just that one?"
"No, they're all connected Foxy. But we will scan it to ensure nothing is truly wrong. I'd say the testing was successful." Cliff stepped away with a sigh. "You won the score Saphira. I am going to restart the system and do a scan, you can head up to Bonnie bowling now. I'll take it from here. Game over."
Saphira did wonder why only her screen had these dancing figures on those ships. She shrugged, looking at the screen curiously. She felt the rocking stop as Cliff turned off the wave motion and she stood up. Just as she did, she looked as Game Over blinked on screen. Nothing unusual. She was about to turn away when the words change suddenly.
Are you having fun yet?
She widened her eyes and turned her head away, only to see Freddy looking at the screen. He had seen it! He looked at her eyes, they both knew this was not good. Whoever was communicating with Saphira earlier, was reaching out to her again through Foxy's Pirate Adventures. This did not seem like an ordinary person. She glanced over to Dave who was with Cliff, they were preparing to reboot the system. She shrugged a little and took a deep breath, at the very least, Cliff could be ruled out of being a possible suspect.
"Argh! Good job lass." Foxy smiled at Saphira as he walked past her and Freddy. "I had no idea somethin' would be wrong with me attraction. I hope it gets fixed soon. Well done lass."
"Hopefully it won't need to be shut down for maintenance. It would be a real shame, but at least you have Kid's Cove Foxy. They love you, and you spend most of your time there anyway." Chica giggled at him and twirled towards the elevator and pressed the button. "Are you coming to the bowling alley Foxy?"
"With my hook? Nah, ye know I don't bowl because of that. Until I get me new arm, no." Foxy smiled at the animatronic. "But don't worry, I will play when I get me new arm sorted. Right Cliffton?"
"Of course. We will probably install it in a week or two, which coincides with you all getting your new scent receptors. That will be a fun week. And you get to help with that too Saphira." He smiled at her as he spoke to them. "It will be your first time helping to upgrade them."
"Yeah, I look forward to it," Saphira responded, and glanced at the elevator as Foxy and Chica step in. "I'll wait here until you guys are off the elevator."
"Of course. I'll see you at the bowling alley Saphira!" Chica waved to her excitedly as the doors close.
Saphira sighed and shifted to leaned against Freddy, feeling his warm body against hers was very soothing. Freddy placed his hand over her shoulder, he had not spoken much about what had just happened as he did not want to say anything in front of Cliff and Dave. He now had seen it. He did not know who or what was toying with Saphira. At least the bowling should have zero issues. At least he hoped for that. Tonight was probably Saphira's worst night with all the scares she's had, being threatened and that this threat appeared to be following her right now. Monty himself was thinking whoever it was didn't care if they themselves see it. It probably could be unintentional that Monty and Freddy both saw what was on the screen, but it also may not be.
