Chica watches workers transport crate after crate into Parts and Services, a total of three back-breaking objects against several struggling muscular men. She's capable of lifting several hundred pounds herself, and had been ready to lend her assistance. Then she recalls that Vanessa told her to remain hidden. She's out of sight from the public, how much hidden could she be? Chica figured that it had been protocol that neither of the animatronics do anything outside of their programming, to minimize liabilities and damages. A quick search through the company handbook stored in her memory, concludes this to be nonexistent. Why Vanessa didn't want her to come out, will remain unanswered. If Vanessa told her to stay hidden, she would remain hidden.
So she watched from a distance, how the workers disassembled and loaded up parts from the machine she had known for years. In a matter of hours, the area had turned into a modern century emporium, depicting society 100 years from now. The setup had been the same as before, except a modernized silver and white cylinder, accompanied by an enlarged control panel, is the centerpiece. She sees the monitor that Gregory had been babbling about, and laughs quietly, realizing why he'd said that it is the monitor of every pro gamers' dreams.
"Alright, that's about it." The main head worker surrenders to Vanessa a packing list along with the tech manual.
The blonde-hair woman grunts at the impact and weight of the manual. "Geez! What are you guys trying to accomplish with this thing, a Ph.D. in Robotics?" She eyes the numerous pages tucked inside one binder. She sets it down on the counter in which no time passes before Gregory takes the binder with immense interest. Forgetting the fact that the binder is probably his entire weight, he'd positioned himself in one of the chairs at the control panel and started skimming.
"Aren't you a little young to know how to handle animatronics?" The head worker asks with confusion.
"Uh-huh." More pages were flipped.
"He's not a normal child," Vanessa nonchalantly answers the worker's question, signing off on the final details and sending them on their way. "Alright Chica, they're gone. Come out."
"Finally!" Chica takes a few moments to align her limbs, she did not need another burden added to her to-do list. "Another minute and my bolts were going to rust."
"This program has everything! It can even tell you the remaining lifespan of a component before needing replacement." Gregory exclaimed.
"Then maybe you can see how long I have before I need new arms and legs. Hopefully not in the next day or two." Chica approached the machine with uncertainty. She'd hoped that Vanessa and Gregory would be able to find out what's running inside her and shut it down, permanently.
A ding is heard from the service elevations on the other side, welcoming Freddy and Sun into the area. Immediately her mood brightens, knowing Freddy had snuck away from wherever he had been. The PizzaPlex is still open, meaning there might not be as much activity going on in the main floor. The place had to be like after hours.
"Every step of the way." Freddy reminded her with a playful nudge. Sun's grinning at the interaction, or maybe it's his face in general. Either way, she's at ease having her friends here.
"Wait, wait, don't start!" Chica's smile diminishes seeing Tessa enter the room. The tiger's eyes widened at the state of art machine. "Whoa, this is beautiful! What is this?"
Chica's lower eyelid twitches. Why does she have to be here?
"Tessa, what brings you here?"
"Got a call from Gabe about something happening here, and I happened to be in the neighborhood, so we'd decided to stop by…" she looks behind her as her voice trails off. "Dang it! I could have sworn Monty and Roxy were behind me."
"We here, we here, hold yer horses." Monty is heard grumbling in the distance before he and Roxy appear. "What gives?"
"Yeah Tess, you said we were meeting with Freddy to discuss tomorrow's show. What is this thing?"
"New and improved machinery for your upgrades." Vanessa answers. "With Chica being the first to try out this tech."
"Seriously? You're still hinging on this? What, did we forget about our main priorities, such as caring for the customers who keep us in business?"
"Chill, Rox, this will be a brief visit." Tessa ensures. "Chica is a part of the band, did you forget already?"
"I'm trying too."
"If you do not have anything positive to say, then leave." Freddy spoke.
"I'm positive this ain't gonna work." Monty inputs.
"Freddy's right, stop it you two." Tessa enforced. "It isn't about us at this moment." Her words surprised Chica, even more so when the tiger gave her a supportive thumbs-up gesture. Now she's feeling bad about how rude she has been to Tessa.
Vanessa's cell rings and she looks at the caller ID with dismay. "It's Gabe." She answers. "Yes, Gabe?... Yes, they are all here… Uh-huh…yup, sure." She ended the call. "Asshole."
"What did he want?"
"You guys got to go." She gestures to every robot except Chica. "I guess things are picking back up."
"Thanks for coming, anyway." Chica solemnly addresses an equally disappointed Freddy and Sundrop.
"We'll keep you guys updated." Gregory says to the departing group.
"Not me, I would not care to know."
"Me either."
"Then leave already, stupid pricks!" Chica harshly spat at Monty and Roxy.
"You want to redact that statement farm cluck?" Monty approaches her with his claws out.
"Not at all, assbat!"
"THAT'S IT!" The others intervene from Monty and Chica pulling at the other.
"Monty, stop!"
"Get your girl, Freddy. She messing with the wrong one! Don't think I forgot about the other night!"
"Monty, just leave. Leave!" Tessa shouts and pushes him out of the area, throwing an apologetic glance.
"Freddy, let me go! Let me at that cock-head!"
"This isn't you Chica, don't let him get to your head." Sun adds calmly.
"Chica, enough of this! Snap out of it!" Vanessa snapped as she approached them. "You're not helping your case!" She stepped back when Chica's head had done a 180, glaring at her with red eyes.
"Fuck you, Vanessa!" She retorts back at a wide-eyed Vanessa. "Get out! All of you! I don't need you here!" She spat, raising a fist and cursing non stop. That is until Freddy had flicked the switch at the back of Chica's neck, rendering the chicken to the ground. Another point for Vanessa for teaching each animatronic how to reset another's system.
"It's okay, Freddy, she'll be okay." Gregory assured a guilt-stricken Freddy.
"Come on Fred." Sun gestures.
"We will be back as soon as the day is over." Freddy had answered. Then they leave.
Vanessa lets out a groan, applying two fingers to her temple. "This is a mess. This is a mess. I – Gregory! Don't touch her!"
"I'm not," He's inspecting the deactivated chicken. Vanessa notes the uncertainty as he nears Chica, seeing his hands shake. "They each have a unique port to access their system, usually in the neck area – here it is."
"I said to not touch her!"
"Her port is locked, I need to reactivate her – hey!" Vanessa grabbed his arm, enclosing the both of them inside a protective area attached to the machine. "Ness, I have to reactivate her to get in the machine."
"Better to have her tear apart the repair bots than us."
"She wouldn't do that."
"Not risking it." Vanessa keys in a few codes from her work device, summoning several bots to move about Chica.
Gregory remains quiet, looking at Chica glumly. "She didn't mean it, any of this. It's not her fault."
"Not like she's going to remember spazzing out on everyone."
Chica lets out a 'bawk', scrambling to her feet in confusion, her eyes setting on her two human friends. "Oh hey, what are you two doing? Aren't you supposed to be analyzing me?"
"We're getting to it." Vanessa motions for Chica to get inside the dome machine. She lays on the chair, staring at the bright lights above. A long cord connecting from the mainframe is positioned under the headrest. Vanessa takes the cord and opens Chica's head port, sticking the cord in its rightful place. Vanessa stepped outside the dome, the lights dimmed and the entrance closed.
Gregory pushed the start button, the system introducing itself and giving a brief overview. After the voice prompts its user to begin analysis. "Initiation safety protocol deactivation." Chica feels herself tingling, knowing the machine's at work to do whatever it needs to do. Here goes nothing. She thought before her vision darkened, and she slumped forward on the gurney.
While the technology is updated, the amount of data it had to download took forever. According to what Gregory had read, the analysis inspects every memory and updates Chica has had since she came to be. It hits a couple of errors along the way and would have to reset itself to bypass said errors.
4:36 PM: Vanessa resumed her duties within the PizzaPlex, checking her phone every other minute. Gregory had convinced her to leave him down there, by himself, though it would be the last thing she wanted to do.
5:32 PM: She stands alongside the security bots as the four main animatronics perform for another birthday party. She can see them giving their all into the performance, yet she notes subtle distracted moves Freddy had given.
8:30 PM: Vanessa breathes a sigh of relief, clocking out. She would proceed to sign a waiver, the standard release of liability should she get injured off the clock, and give it to the current guard on-duty. She makes her way to Parts and Services to find minimal progress. She would then proceed to annoy Gregory to either take a break and do his homework or eat.
12:15 AM: With closing time in place, Freddy and Sun returned to Parts and Services, again Vanessa noted the disappointment in the animatronic bear's face, but expressed some relief in knowing that the systems' working. Tessa would join them moments later. Monty and Roxy refused to come.
2:15 AM: Vanessa sends the three animatronics to turn in for the night. The last thing she wanted was to die in a fight against three animatronics God-forbid, their safety mode turned off due to loss of power. Gregory fell asleep with his head on her lap while she struggled to remain awake. Her inner critic curses her out for being here when she's part of the opening shift in less than four hours. Still fighting sleep, she reaches out to her coworkers, asking if anyone wants to trade places with her. She'd gotten someone to switch shifts and close her eyes, succumbing to the restlessness and desire for sleep.
"Analysis complete. Press continue to review results." The constant beeping rang hours later, alerting them out of their slumber. The first one fully awake, Gregory presses a button, the monitor displays a rather long list with error codes and other pressing information. His eyes widened. "Whoa."
"Hmm." Vanessa groans, still coming out of her sleep mode, she's not a morning person. "What'd you find?"
"A virus, but this isn't the standard corruption virus. This could explain her behavior. It's literally rewriting her codes."
"What?" She sat up, looking through the results, and attempted to ignite the anti-viral software. It would seem that the more she tried, the more the virus resisted. This newfound device they had for less than a day had been proven ineffective. This was not good, what are they supposed to do now? "Oh, no. Oh, no! This is not good."
"You're telling me. Whatever version of Chica we saw before, it's overtaking her program. We have to fix this fast." Gregory stresses. "We don't fix this; nothing will stop Chica if she becomes too dangerous."
Three days later:
"Chica-leeks!" Tessa spots her from the stage, her voice echoes through the emptied Atrium. A few hours before the concert calls for the PizzaPlex to remain closed for that duration, which is why Chica could roam freely. Tessa waves her over, grinning ear to ear. Chica approaches her, she takes in Tessa's guitar decked in spontaneous colors.
"Hey Tessa, what's up?"
"Practicing for tonight's concert. Want to rock a few chords with me?" Tessa motions towards Chica's long-forgotten guitar. She grasps her instrument, listening to Tessa rocking a few notes.
"Hey Tessa?"
"Uh-huh?"
"I wanted to apologize."
"Don't sweat it Chica-leeks, I totally get it. I would freak out too if some random robot was taking my place, but no worries, nothing but good vibes from this tiger. ."
"Still, it didn't make it right for me to be mean towards you, and for that I'm sorry. I'm not a mean robot, I can't remember the last time I'd been mean."
"Maybe when you were inches away from tussling with Monty the other day."
"What?"
"How do you not remember wanting to skin Monty alive? He's like twice your size, it took Sun and Freddy to hold you off."
Chica gulps, running her fingers through her feathers. That would explain why Monty seemed more pissed at her, and why Freddy and Vanessa told her to stay clear of the alligator.
"Gosh, whatever you have is messing with your memory. They need to get that fixed, ASAP. What did Vanessa say about your diagnostics?" Chica shrugs, not sure of an answer herself.
She had come out of shutdown mode to see an anxious-looking Vanessa – well, Vanessa is always anxious. Poor girl had been through hell and back, the majority of her stress is from this place alone. She's too young to be dealing with excess burnout – And Gregory, who is usually sassy or sarcastic, had this look of terror like he saw a ghost.
"They just said they were working on it. Can we talk about something else? How about I help you with a few pointers to wow the crowd. It's the least I can do."
"Okay, but could I ask you something?"
"Like what?"
The tiger mindlessly plays with her guitar giving a nervous grin. "I've only been here a few days, and I know Monty got this insane crush on me…"
No kidding.
"…it's adorable and I'm flattered, but I just don't like him like that. Honestly, I think he and Roxy would make a great egocentric couple –"
"Ew, gross! Don't make me puke." Chica gagged. The two of them giggled.
"Freddy, on the other hand, is such a gentle giant. How could he have gone this long without a leading lady?..." Anger rises through her system. Tessa had the audacity to try to make a move on Freddy?
"He used to tell me how he sometimes felt the pressure of being the main mascot. It's hard for him to hang out with anyone, let alone if he had someone."
"Oh? He talks about you so much, I would think you two have something on the DL?"
Not by a long shot. She likes Freddy, she has for some time. At the same time she values him so much as a friend. She got the feeling that Monty and Roxy were not thrilled to be around her, much less support her. She's just getting to know Tessa. With Moon and Sun, she is acquainted with them along with mutual friendliness. As for Freddy, the two of them had been through a lot, since the beginning. Times have changed, things have changed. With her going through this phase, she's appreciative of him being there for her. If she had been open with him, while he would be appreciative of her honesty, it would end years of friendship and the start of uncomfortable awkwardness. If it ever came to that, she may as well force Vanessa to decommission her.
"Not at all, we're just really good friends." She answers earnestly, despite the words flowing from her mouth like bitter garbage.
"Back off Gabe! They're not scheduled to perform for another ten minutes!" Vanessa yells in irritation, listening to him bossing everyone around, despite her assurance that everything is running smoothly. The moment shows how little respect anyone had for his authority. Even Freddy had become irritated with the man's presence.
"Wouldn't hurt to ensure backups for the backups, I don't want any of them to do a surprise attack on my guests." He retorts with a subtle glare towards Chica. She flipped him the middle finger when he wasn't looking, gaining silent laughter from Tessa and Gregory.
"Funny how they're your guests when you want to take credit for everything."
"I am the CEO!"
"Who's business wouldn't last a second if you had run it yourself with a fraction of your brain. So unless you are going to trade that Gucci suit and actually help, piss off and let me do my job!"
He frowns and rolls his eyes, he mumbled something before exiting the room.
"Vanessa, you need to take it easy. Your blood pressure is rising" Freddy consults with a hand on her shoulder. She mumbled her own incoherent words, although Chica can make out how some of her words were urges to sock Gabe into a tank of electricity.
Vanessa left the room. Chica wishes to console her friend further, had she not been tied to this machine for 'future investigation'. She knows that whatever they'd seen the other night, it can not be good. She knows that her human friends are not aware that she'd seen their expressions. She had to ask Vanessa or Gregory in subtle ways. She had to know the full details: Could it be fixed? Is she going to pull through? Will she end up being decommissioned?
"Oh Gosh, I'm so nervous!" Tessa twitches. She looks towards her bandmates for assurance. "This is my first time performing. What if I mess up? What if I cause an outrage because people may prefer Chica over me?"
"You're going to do fine Tessa," Chica spoke, a chance to abrupt the chances of unkind comments Monty or Roxy would be spewing. Tessa still appeared unsure, so she motions at Freddy for his help.
"It is going to be alright Tessa. The crowd is usually accepting of whoever is on stage." He assures. Tessa beams at him, soaking in his words. Chica had to restrain herself from wanting to combat the tiger, although she relishes in the anger Monty's spewing.
Gregory noticed and directed Tessa's attention to him. "And it is impossible to mess up considering you're lip-syncing and using pre-recorded music. The chances of actually playing an original song is slim to none." He adds with a shy shrug.
"This is stupid! Would you quit worrying? Nobody's going to think about that fried chicken." Monty says, smirking at the glares Freddy and Chica gave him. "Say something beaks, I dare you!"
Don't test me, Monty. She isn't completely restrained. There's nothing stopping her from barging out the cylinder and giving the gator a taste of his own medicine. Instead she keeps her mouth shut, not wanting to cause her friends any distress before Vanessa returns, sensing the tension. Do I even want to open that Pandora box?
"Okay Glamband, two minutes until launch."
"Knock 'em dead!" Chica cheers Tessa and Freddy as Vanessa ushers all of them out the room, to undergo one last tech check before they board the lift.
"How long do I have to be here?"
"You're about 45% done." Gregory answered, hearing the animatronic groaning.
"I feel like I'm going to die from boredom! Could I watch the concert?"
"Cheeks, you sure? I don't want you to get upset over the fact that you can't play."
"Ness, I'm going to be more upset from this intense boredom! I want to see the concert."
"Mm, okay." Vanessa types in a command.
A projector lowers into the cylinder, allowing Chica to view the main stage in time for the announcer to welcome her bandmates onto the stage. Her eyes remained glued to the screen, imagining herself playing the guitar and dancing alongside Freddy, humming the lyrics. She glees with excitement hearing the crowd roar over Tessa's remarkable dance skills. And she was worried that she wasn't going to make a good impression. Ha!
The crowd is cheering louder and she refocuses her attention to listen to the repeated chat. "Encore! Encore! Encore! Encore!"
The crowd's cheers faded, minute after minute, until she's hears nothing but garbarling and ringing.
The next time she blinked, she's back in her greenroom. Only, rather than the usual pink and green lighting, it's covered in dust, debris and sullen shades of gray. The large window which was supposed to be a viewing of her in Rockstar Row, was caked with grease stains behind an unbreakable prison bar.
The door to exit faintly lights up the room. She makes her way toward the door, noticing the room darkening again. She was steps away from the exit. Then something purple and glitching jumped at her.
Chica screams.
"Chica? Chica!" Gregory's shaking her, desperately trying to wake her. He knew something was wrong the moment he noticed unauthorized coding plaguing her systems. Then Chica screamed and became unconscious and shaking. "Chica!"
Chica's eyes bolted open, she grabbed him, pinning the child against the glass.
"Ah, Chica! Let go!" Her eyes were purple and red, not blue. This isn't her. "Chica!"
"Ajdjwnnwndokwnsnam!" She garbled in a different voice, tightening her grip. "Snanfhqiqkdnbwp!"
Gregory tried fighting her grip. He's the only one in the room, Vanessa had stepped out to assist with the concert. With only seconds until being dead, he pried his fingers around her port, desperately pushing on her reset button.
Chicas eyes go from red and purple, to gray as she's shut off, her limbs loosening Gregory falls to the floor gasping in pain. Holding his throat, he eases towards the exit, Chica is waking up.
"Ugh…" Chica opens her eyes, resting her sight on the child shaking and holding his neck. "Gregory! What are you doing in here! My safety protocols were turned off! You could have gotten yourself killed, what were you thinking?!"
"I was trying to help you. You were doing fine and then the next thing I knew, you were unconscious,"
"That thing was trying to take control of me, and you thought it would be a good idea to come in here? I could have killed you! You got some explaining to do! What the hell is going on with me?"
Gregory shyly twirled his thumbs. "You have a virus, one that's rewriting your systems."
"What?! You knew that you found a virus and you weren't going to tell me?" She barks. "Why?! Why would you do that!"
"It wasn't intentional! We tried the resistance software figure out "
"And?!" She pressed. He doesn't respond. "It didn't work, did it?"
"We just need some time to –"
"No! You knew for days that this was happening! You made me do all of these stupid tests while you kept a secret that could very well kill me? I'm your friend! Friends don't keep secrets from each other! For Pete's sake Gregory! How am I supposed to trust you?"
"Chica stop! You're hurting me, stop!"
She realized she had Gregory pinned against the glass, with him crying in pain. Her eyes widened, looking at her hands tighten as thoughts danced across her vision. No, I can't! I won't!
She pushed Gregory out of the cylinder and closed it, holding it shut with all her body weight. "I'm not safe to be around."
She ignored Gregory trying to talk to her, holding her legs and rocking herself to ease the shaking. She presses against the door, feeling a void surrounding her with an unfamiliar feeling of loneliness.