Chica let out a loud shriek and lunged, beak first, at Harriet before she could warn the others. Hurriedly, Harriette moved away, without thinking, stumbling into Mike as a result. The man and her tumbled to the ground landing side by side. The bulky animatronic stomped towards them, hands poised to attack, her eyes vacant and dark, jaw hung slack. Lightning flashed, illuminating the skull-like endoskeleton teeth inside. Choked death rattles wafted from her. Something black leaked the corners of beak and eye sockets.

More movement alerted the two that the bandmates had become active as well. The guitarist was looking back at them, all the way over his shoulders, head twitching erratically. Unceremoniously he dropped the red guitar, while Freddy began to play his music box. The light lit up the edges of his face. Slowly, Freddy shifted his body to face the adults that'd intruded on their stage. The lights flashed behind Freddy's eyes, in time with the music, faintly revealing the hollowness of his plastic eyes.

"I thought you said they wouldn't be active until twelve." Harriette said between gritted teeth. She wanted to yell but something told her to keep her voice down. As if she were afraid of setting the possessed machines off further.

"That's how it's been..." Mike sounded astonished. Harriette looked at the night guard and his eyes were wide. This really hadn't happened before.

"Wait!" The trio of animatronics turned their head to the outcry. It'd come from Isaac. He held his hands up in a signal that he meant no harm. The fire ax had been dropped to the ground beside him. While this alarmed Mike, he knew why he'd done it. Still, he felt on edge. Isaac himself had said this could backfire.

"It's me, Isaac, remember me?" The animatronic's eyed him, their plastic gaze giving nothing away. The air remained charged with tension. Isaac's aggressive demeanor had been pulled away and what replaced it was potently pleading. He was distraught. Seeing the children reduced to this, again, wasn't what he'd wanted for them. The animatronics, however, weren't moved. They continued to twitch erratically; their emotions unable to be contained. Isaac did his best to keep his voice even, calm, hoping it'd help sway them, "We're here to help you, so you can rest. Like I did before."

A moment passed.

It didn't work.

With movement its large frame shouldn't be capable of, Freddy screamed, grabbed Isaac by the wrist and flung him off the stage. There was an explosion of noise: furniture, plates, and various other items on the tables that'd been sent crashing onto the linoleum floor. The crumpled form of Isaac was seen amongst the remains of a table. It looked to have been broken in by his impact. The man groaned, too dazed to get up.

A metallic rumble came from Freddy, head jerking from side to side. It looked barely able to control its movements, only through focused anger. The lead singer tromped his way to the edge of the stage, heading to finish what it'd started. Chica and Bonnie took this as a signal for them to focus on the other adults. Mike and Harriette immediately began to back up towards the backstage, eyes kept on the encroaching animatronics. Mike nudged Harriette forward. The lady shot a look back at him and he nodded towards Leroy. They were going to make a run for it.

"Make a run for the staff lounge." he muttered; eyes kept on animatronics. "I'll distract them."

"How?" Harriette tensely questioned.

"Don't worry about it." Was all Mike responded with before hissing, "Go!"

On impulse, Harriette listened. She bolted towards Leroy, grabbing the man by his sleeve and yelled, "Come'on!"

Leroy didn't struggle and allowed himself to be pulled along. The two jumped over the few stairs that led down to the sides of the stage and hooked a turn into the back hall. Mike quickly turned his flashlight onto the closest animatronic, Chica. The robot was left stunned, staring obliviously ahead. Bonnie screeched, lunging at Mike with his arms stretched outward. It wanted to get to him before the guard could stun it as well. Its long arms missed as Mike dove towards the fire ax, much as he hated the thought, they may need to use it on the kids. Most of all though, he wasn't about to leave a dangerous weapon lying for it to be grabbed up by its original owner. Unfortunately, the arm that grabbed it was the one with a stab wound. Mike swallowed a pained grunt as his shoulder protested. He had to keep moving.

Mike only managed to take a step as a blow struck his back. The stagger to pick up the ax was enough for Bonnie to catch up. Mike fell to the ground, losing grip of his flashlight in the process. With a groan Mike rolled onto his back. Strong vibrations that shook the floor snapped his attention to the large form trudging its way towards him. Frantically he groped the floor around him. His flashlight had rolled underneath the show curtain, but the ax was too heavy to have gone out of reach. A flicker of hope wavered in his chest as his hand gripped a smooth wooden handle.

A strong animatronic arm grabbed at the guard, hoisting him up by his shirt. Mike gasped as the heavy weapon pulled down on his arm. His shoulder was aflare with the strain. He just knew the wound was going to reopen. One eye squeezed shut, watering at the pain, he weakly grabbed at the handle with his other hand. Seeing Bonnie's jaws jitter in anticipation, Mike reacted. He plunged the ax head into the side of the robot's side, too weak to swing it full force. The blow was enough to startle Bonnie into letting go of the guard. Both stumbled back, Bonnie caught itself after a couple steps back. While Mike fell to his knees, heaving at the exertion. He looked up as the rabbit easily pulled the ax from its side. He dreaded the fact he'd, essentially, given the robot another method to murder him with.

However, Bonnie looked at the weapon in a contemplative manner. Then it shuddered even more violently. Mike stilled, did it- recognize it? Karen had said it'd been...his.

"Oh no..." He said to himself.

Bonnie unleashed a shriek of rage, tossing the weapon aside. The fire ax flew somewhere off into the dark, landing with a harsh crash. In full fury, Bonnie charged at Mike. The guard just managed to get out of the way as the robot's fist crashed into the stage. In a stroke of luck, the rabbit got its hand stuck as a result, but Mike knew this reprieve would be short lived. Hand gripping his shoulder, breaths heavy, he looked around frantically for his flashlight. A shrill, choppy, shriek caused him to look behind himself.

It'd come from Bonnie, apparently the animatronic had called for help. Chica was now assisting the rabbit to pull his arm free.

Now feeling more secure, Mike scrambled over to his flashlight. Snatching it up as he ran off the stage in the opposite direction of Leroy and Harriette. He needed to help Isaac before Freddy stuffed him into a suit or lobotomized him.

He rounded the front of the stage and was alarmed to see both Freddy and Isaac were gone from the main party room. Mike swore to himself, how could the damn bear move so fast? The sound of wood splintering caused him to look back to the stage. Bonnie had pulled its hand free with Chica's help. Their eyes snapped to him, and Mike readied to book it. His mind and heart racing he tried to figure out a way to salvage this plan of his. Leroy and Harriette were in the staff lounge while Isaac was being hauled to be stuffed in a suit. Then there was the killer, still safely hiding away in the control room.

Dammit, did the bastard know this would happen? Mike thought to himself, eyes darting from one possible escape route to the next. He stiffened, down the hall in front of him a shape jumped out from behind curtains. Scathing yellow eyes glared at him.

"Oh hell." Not hesitating any longer, Mike turned and booked it down the hall.

Foxy let loose a sharp, metallic, attack cry and ran after him, heavy animatronic feet pounding against the linoleum floor. In no time at all, the fox covered half the distance between them. Poised in the air, the hook was ready to finish what it'd started.

Mike ducked into the animatronic maintenance room and slammed the door shut behind him. He knew he'd shut himself into the room with Freddy, but he'd rather the bear over the fox. Quickly he locked the door with a turn of latch. He stepped back as Foxy raged, banging its hand and scraping its hook on the other side. Furious metallic snarls tore through the air before a loud bang shook the door. The fox had quit its hissy fit and now was trying to knock the door down by slamming its whole body into it. Mike took another step back, eyes wide, willing the door to hold. For the moment it did.

Swallowing the lump of fear in his throat, Mike forced himself to turn away from the door. It took a measure of effort to do so. His mind told him soon as he did, the door would come crashing down. Instead, as he turned around, he had to duck underneath Freddy's large arm. His entrance, of course, hadn't gone unnoticed. The guard was forced to scramble along the ground as the bear steadily marched towards him. Before Freddy could snatch him, Mike managed to dive underneath the worktable to the other side of the room.

Standing back up, Mike wildly scanned his surroundings for Isaac. He spotted him sitting atop the work bench with Freddy suit pieces piled next to him. The bear had been amid setting up for the man's execution. Mike couldn't help but feel relief, he was still alive. Now he just needed to get him out of here. He darted his attention back to Freddy, the bear seemed to be struggling to get itself righted. The space was too cramped for its wide frame. Good, gave him a bit more time.

Mike moved over to Isaac, eyes glancing back at Freddy, and hurriedly nudged him on the shoulder. The rough motion quickly pulled the man back into consciousness. Isaac groaned shaking the murkiness from his mind. He blinked; eyes quickly went wide at the sight of where he was and the hulking form on the other side of the table. Before Mike could explain what was going on, there was a scrape of metal. Freddy had shoved the metal worktable aside, apparently having enough trying to fight it.

"Shit!" Mike swore, jumping out of the way. The table had nearly pinned him between it and the wall.

The shadow of Freddy pulled itself back up to its towering height. White orbs peering down at the two men, choked wheezes raising their heartrates. It sounded so painful, so strained. Faintly they could hear something dripping onto the floor, but it was too dark to see what or from where.

Outside the room, Foxy was still trying to break down the door. The banging and rattling of the door caught Freddy's attention. The distraction was just enough to remind Mike that he still had his flashlight in hand. He looked from it to Freddy. He didn't know if the ghost knew how to unlock the door, but he wasn't about to risk it. Without looking at what he was grabbing he picked up a tool from the workbench and chucked it at Freddy.

The hammer sailed through the air and knocked into the side of the bear's head. With a twitch Freddy slowly turned its head to Mike. The man could feel the anger waft off the possessed robot. Mike didn't dwell on it and locked the beam of his flashlight onto Freddy's eyes. In an instant, the animatronic froze in place.

"Quick! Help me push him into the storage room!" Mike yelled to Isaac as he rounded the table.

Isaac sat stunned on the work bench. "How'd you do that?"

"Not the time!" Mike yelled back.

Shaken from his stupor, Isaac hurried over to and pushed the brown bear robot towards the storage room. Briefly Isaac had to go back and open before they continued. The two heaved with all their combined might. With Mike's injuries they weren't at their full strength, but the room was thankfully not too large. Foxy being intent to break down the door proved to be potent incentive to work quickly. With a big shove they managed to topple the animatronic into the storage room, the bear winding up half crumpled up against a wall. Isaac pushed Freddy's legs into the room with his foot. Mike slammed the door shut before the two blocked it off with the worktable and piled on several boxes of parts to further weigh it down. Next Mike pulled over a filing cabinet (likely full of specs for the animatronics) and put it at an angle to the door. If Freddy could push the table, which was very likely, then this would wedge it stuck.

"Okay." Mike breathed. From what Isaac could see he was going over a plan in his mind, reminding himself what was the next step. Or he was coming up with the next step on the fly. He turned around and faced the door, Foxy still banging on it with unending fever. He motioned for him to follow. Isaac went with him and stood to the side of the door.

"On three?" Isaac guessed.

Mike nodded tensely. "I open the door, then we run for it." He waited a moment, then motioned with one, two- in a snap, Mike unlocked the door. The timing was right on. Foxy crashed into the door right after. Not expecting it to be unlocked, the fox animatronic when sailing forward. It crashed into the piled-up stuff with an ear-splitting shriek and crash of robot on metal.

Immediately, the two men ran through the door shutting it behind them. Mike swallowed some air, hastily saying, "Hopefully, Foxy'll take some time to free Freddy." He motioned down the hall. "Leroy and Harriette should be in the lounge down that way."

"Wait." Isaac grabbed his shoulder. "Where's the ax?"

Mike stopped. He looked torn between going to the others and finding the weapon. He knew Isaac would go alone. He'd only just met the man, but he could see it on his face. Mike gritted his teeth then ran to the stage, Isaac following just behind. "I, Bonnie dropped it on the stage."

Isaac didn't bother questioning why the rabbit had gotten ahold of it. It just wasn't the time for it. All he could do was roll with what he'd told him. The two got onto the stage, hiding behind the curtain. None of the band members were there, but they could hear them moving around the building, looking for them. Mike cupped part of his hand around the lens of the flashlight, blocking some of the light out to avoid it being too noticeable. He looked around, body tense, "It should be around here..." He grew more anxious when all he saw was the stage's floorboards, "Where is it?"

"Did it get tossed off stage?" Isaac questioned.

"No." Mike's rebuttal was immediate. He motioned towards the decorated cartoony wall, "It was tossed in this direction."

"Do you think one of the kids took it?" Isaac muttered as he stood beside Mike.

Cautiously the older man peeked out from behind the corner. He could see Chica heading down a hall, and Bonnie's heading down the other. "Doesn't look like it." The rage Bonnie had displayed upon looking at the weapon came to mind, "And Bonnie didn't seem so happy to see it."

"Makes sense." Isaac muttered. "What then?"

Mike edged towards the back wall, covered in layered rolling hills, clouds and a rainbow. Isaac seemed confused and followed, eyes darting back to make sure they weren't noticed. Mike felt around the area where Leroy had thought the door was. He pressed it forward, trying to feel where the wall had some give and to his surprise, he felt a click. When he released the pressure, a door silently drew back. Mike looked at Isaac before the two went inside, side by side. Isaac was ready to fight, but they met with an empty room.

"Where is he?" Isaac voice was tense. He looked to Mike, the man was frozen solid, "You're sure he was in here, right? Right?"

The sound of the frustration and near accusation caused irritation to bristle in Mike's gut. He rounded to him to defend his guess, "He has to-" The possible impending argument was cut off when Mike's flashlight suddenly began to flicker. The bulb inside uttered a faint buzz. Confused, Mike batted his hand on its head, "The hell? I put fresh batteries in this."

Isaac groaned and rolled his eyes. Great another mishap. He stalled when a child-like voice caught their attention, right behind them. There in the crack of the doorway, they could see the round form of Balloon Boy. The balloon dispenser itself wasn't threatening, but the loud laughter it was bubbling was alarming. It was calling its friends over, alerting them that it'd found two of the trespassers. In the background, they could hear animatronic footsteps inbound. Balloon Boy's eye peeked in gleefully, chiming, "Bye-bye."