Co-Written By HatterChaos.
March 15th, 2056
Hurricane, Utah
Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex.
It was a silent day for the Pizzaplex, the only souls left being the Security Detail, when a black car drove up to its doors. Its own doors opened wide, letting a man dressed in dirty blue jeans and a dusty, dark purple button up step out, carefully affixing a black medical mask and hat to his head. The man gave the building a glance, single eye sharpening into a glare that softened as an employee stepped out to greet him.
She was a scrawny thing, hardly 5'4, with messy red hair and green eyes peeking from behind a pair of black shades. "Howdy! You, uh…" She looked down at a sticky note held in her hand. "Nixus G. Willison?"
The man gave a firm nod. "That I am."
The woman gave a bright and wide smile, spreading her arms out wide. "Well then, welcome to the Fazbear Family! Normally, there'd be an Employee Check, see if you're good to employ, but we're kinda short right now, so we kinda have to… skip a couple things." She explained, turning back and opening the doors wide.
'Fazbear's seems to have that issue a lot, huh?' Nixus's mind mumbled.
"Now, you're one of 2 Security Guards we got. You got the Day Shift and Night shift with Vanessa. She's a blonde, tall, skinny gal, a bit of an odd lady if you ask me." The manager mentioned as they walked through the AC-Blasting doors. The man almost tripped over his own feet at the sights before him.
"Bloody Hell, this place is big…" He muttered, eliciting a chuckle from the manager.
"Yep. It's a little over a full mile, front to back, with 5 floors, if you don't count the two basements. Oh yeah, those will be your stomping grounds." She turned back and shoved a flashlight and badge into his hands. "Vanessa usually covers em', but they're way too big. So you'll be doing the Basements, while Vanessa does the upper floors. You'll both patrol the Main Floor and Atrium, though." She droned on.
Nixus gave the badge a look of… apprehension, one could call it, pinning it to his right shirt pocket, while he stuffed the flashlight into a belt loop. Eventually, they reached the Atrium, a massive, seizure inducing, noise blaring set piece. The two passed by crowds of kids and exhausted adults, the young ones screaming out in excitement as the performers rose to the stage.
Nixus couldn't help but whistle under his breath. "Man, they didn't skip on the 'Bots, huh."
The manager preened. "That we didn't. They're set up with the highest quality tech Fazbear Entertainment LLC. could afford! Facial Recognition, Hydraulic Joints, and the shells can tank a full Glock mag, point blank!" She mumbled out, watching with enjoyment as the animatronics began their performance. Nixus winced a bit as the new Fox, no, Wolf animatronic began slamming on the Keytar.
"Who's the Wolf an' Scales?" Nixus mumbled. The manager just smiled.
"That's Roxy the Wolf, and Montgomery Gator."
"Where's Bonnie, or Foxy for that matter? It ain't the band without 'em."
The manager winced. "Ah… Let's just say that Monty had some… Issues when we first employed him." She mimed a branch being broken with her hands, causing Nixus to furrowed his brows.
"You sure he's safe to be performing, then? And why didn't you repair him?"
The manager just waved her hand. "It doesn't matter. Let's keep going, we'll have to set your account up on the Security Network in one of the Security Offices. But first, let's meet your co-workers."
The two did just that, walking to a nearby set of stairs, up and up, vanishing behind a set of doors that had yellow tape across them. Inside was… a bowling alley? It was all Bonnie themed, and a set of people dressed in employee suits, 4 in total.
"Guys, this is Wilison, he's our new hire. He'll be running the Security Detail with Vannessa." The manager announced, waving a hand at a pale skinned blonde. "That's Vannessa, by the way."
Nixus gave a polite nod. "Pleasure to meet y'all."
One of them, a young overweight man with greasy brown hair, sighed. "Only one guy? You gotta be fucking with us, Jannet." This got him a glare from the manager.
"Language, Jerry. And he's the only one to answer the ads." She huffed, crossing her arms. She turned back to Nixus. "That's Jerry, he's IT. If you have a tech issue, you go to him."
"Unless it's a mechanical issue, then you're shit outta luck. I only do work with digital stuff, phones and crap." He grumbled, returning to a video on his phone. Jannet rolled her eyes.
"Tall boy over there is Lewis. He's maintenance for the STAFF Bots, and the small things like heating and whatnot."
The man in question was a tall and lanky man with darker skin and dyed dark blue hair. "Sup, dude."
"If you ever need anything technical, Lewis is the guy for it." Jannet said. "Anyways, here we got Maria. She's mute, but she's in charge of programming and planning Shows."
Maria was a short woman wearing a black trilby with a light tan, nibbling at a bag of chips. They nodded at one another.
"Now, I'll leave you Jerry and Lewis, get you set up in the system. After that, I want Vanessa to show you around.." Jannet explained, before leaving without another word.
"That would be me." Vannessa stood up, straightening her tie. "Like she said, I'm Vannessa. You won't really be seeing much of me during the day, thanks to me mostly being on Night Shift."
"So am I. '' Nixus said, which made Vannessa's eye twitch ever so slightly. It would not have been noticeable to the average eye, but Nixus had experience looking for oddities in people's faces.
"... Great." She grumbled. "The one time in the day I can deal with not having people around, ruined."
"C'mon, don't be like that Vann." Lewis spoke up. "This place is so damn huge, you two will probably only run into each other like, once per night. And that's probably just coming into the place!"
His fellow nightguard hummed, before shrugging. "Damn, can't argue with that. See you at 12, Spooky." She waved, and left the office, completely ignoring how she was supposed to show him around in a bit. Lewis shook his head.
"Don't mind her much, she'll warm on up to ya' in due time. How's say me and Jerry get you set up with a Fazwatch and the System, huh?"
The trio walked farther into the pizzaplex, Lewis and Nixus carefully dodging children while Jerry shoved past, occasionally shoving kids out of the way, still munching on chips. "So, the Faz-Watches are your go-to tool for doors, cameras, all that kinda shit. They have two way communicators, Emergency Beacons, they even have a USB-C plug in for if you need to charge your phone. You'll get yours tomorrow morning, on the dot, at 6." Jerry said, lazily tossing his now-empty bag of chips off into a nearby bin.
It did not land, but Nixus grabbed it and shoved it into the can.
"Another thing you'll need is a Security Badge. The Faz-Watch can pop open normal, Level One doors, which is like 90% of the doors in here, but anything above you'll need an advancing Sec Badge. Annoyingly, you gotta do some puzzle bullshit to get anything above Level 4, Upper Management says we need to 'Earn' them." He scoffed. "All It does is make this place one giant fucking fire hazard."
"That does seem… irresponsible." Nixus muttered. Lewis nodded.
"Just don' bring it up with Management, you'll get fired so fast you thought lightning struck." He advised.
Finally, reaching a security office, Nixus had to reminisce about how familiar it looked. Two doors, camera systems, and a Freddy head with a nose that made sound. Jerry booped it and pulled the head open, revealing a Security Badge, which he lazily tossed into the hands of the pale man.
"Don't lose it." He grumbled, before falling into the chair and propping his legs up. "I'm taking my break, so fuck off."
He shut the doors on the two as they left. "Well, that's rather rude." Nixus muttered. Lewis scoffed.
"Yeah, Jerry is an asshole, but he's the only IT guy we have, so we gotta deal with his bullshit." Lewis gave the taller man a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, let's just get up and on with the tour. Trust me, the Food Hall on Floor Two is to die for, man."
Turns out, the food hall wasn't much of anything interesting to the newly made Security Guard. Mostly because all the good food cost more than a Mortgage.
"With that out of the way, I think it's time you get acquainted with our Stars, man. They should be on break for the night now." Lewis kept talking as he led Nixus past hundreds upon Hundreds of customers, all heading the opposite direction. Closing time was near, after all.
"I think we'll start strong and get you met up with Monty, first. He's the troublemaker of the group, really aggressive, but if you catch him at the right time, he's chill as all get out."
Lewis winced. "The right time basically being… never."
They finally approached Rockstar Row, and stopped before the Actually Green green room. Lewis knocked on the door before flashing his Sec. Badge, letting the door slide open. They weren't even through the door when a Monty Plush was thrown at them.
"Piss off Lewis, I'm busy." The gator of the hour growled, quite literally, finicking with his bass's tuning pins. The giant robot plucked a string, and growled when it sang back off tune.
"Chill the language, Mont. We got a new hire, introducing him to the place." Lewis, who had caught the plushie, tossed it back over.
"Tell him to bugger off, I'm still busy."
"You Could tell me that yourself, if you turned around at all. Also, Red Pin, twist it a few seconds right." Nixus spoke up. He hadn't played a guitar in a good few years, but Faz. Co. made their guitars impossibly easy to test, and even easier to hear when it was messed up.
"Alright, Go Away-" Monty turned, but simply stared at the man. "... No one looks good in that much purple, just saying."
"Dunno, I think I make it look good."
"Tch." Monty huffed and turned back to his bass, slowly tuning the red pin to the right.
"Well, uh, I think that's all we're gonna get from Monty today. Let's just head to Chica's next."
Chica's room, just a door away, was bright as hell. That and the overwhelming smell of baked treats and food in general instantly summoned forth a headache of the Gods. "Hm? Oh, hey Lewwy! Hey, who's the new guy?" The peppy white hen immediately popped up to them, dropping what looked like a puzzle of a pizza onto one of the seats.
"Hey Chica. This is Nixus, he's the new Security Guard." Lewis looked a bit apprehensive stepping into Chica's room, eyes darting around.
Chica bwaked, rushing up to Nixus and grasping his hand in a firm shake. Ok, calling it Firm was a bit of an Understatement, Nixus would admit, seeing as she damn near pulled his arm from its socket.
"Howdy, Howdy! It's always nice to have new workers who Aren't lifeless, faceless, brainless segways!"
Lewis coughed into his hand at that remark, while Nixus returned the handshake with a little less enthusiasm as the hen had.
"Well, I hope I can stand to your expectations Silently. Not much of a talker." He admitted, rubbing the back of his head. Chica's head tilted to the side, but the vague sense of happiness wasn't lost.
"That's all right! Anything is better than the STAFF Bots, or Grumpy Miss Ness." She huffed, crossing her arms. "She never wants to do anything interesting…"
"Alright, onto Roxy. See you, Chica." Lewis jumped in, dragging Nixus out like a lump of coal. "I don't like Chica, she's too damn creepy…" Lewis grumbled.
Nixus didn't see what he meant. Then again, he grew up with Animatronic Engineering. By the time he was 14 bare endoskeletons simply drove his mind into overdrive rather than give a sense of discontent or unease.
The next room was as bright as Chica's, but thanks to the purple walls, was much less straining. Much like Monty, this new animatronic was at her desk, peering at her image in the mirror, slowly stringing a brush through the artificial mane stuck to her suit.
"Heyyyy, Rox!" Lewis seemed a lot more relaxed than with the prior two animatronics, actually putting a hand on the taller automotaun's shoulder. "We got a new Security Guard, introducing him to the band."
The wolf grumbled and shrugged Lewis's hand off. "Tch, better not be as annoying as Vanessa, or I swear Lewis, I'm going to-"
Roxy turned, glimpsing Nixus's eyes for just a second, before recoiling. "GOOD FUCK! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE?!"
Well, that was certainly not expected. Especially since he was still wearing his mask.
"Roxy, what the hell? Why'dja scream like a bat outta hell?!" Lewis shouted on a lower level, rubbing at his ears to ease the ringing.
"His face- It looks like some kind of Put Together And Take Apart Again attraction!" She growled, pointing at Nixus. He had to suppress a chuckle at the apt description.
"Well, that's one way to put it." Nixus hummed, readjusting his mask and hat. "Though, I'm curious as to how you saw through my mask."
Lewis readjusted his tie. "Uh, Roxy's got AR Stimulant Eyes. Lets her see into the security network we got set up, which I guess includes image mapping your ID Picture to your Face…" He leaned over to the worried(?) animatronic. "How bad are we talking here, Rox?"
Nixus chuckled, and simply lowered his mask, and Smiled.
Four minutes later, Lewis was bent over a trash can, with Roxy rubbing at his back. Nixus scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "It's not… that bad, is it?"
Roxy gave him a bland look. "You look like a car crash in slow motion."
That got Nixus to wince a little. "Uh, sorry."
Roxy shook her head, giving Lewis a sympathetic pat on the back again. "No, no, I shouldn't have reacted like that. It was rude, and I'm sorry."
Nixus waved her off. "C'mon, I'm the one with the face made of LEGO, I shoulda warned Lewis at the very least."
"A little late, dude…"
At that moment, Lewis's Fazwatch beeped, dragging him up from the bin. "Aw, sunnova… Nix, look, I gotta go. Jerry done screwed something up again and I gotta fix a few dozen STAFF Bots. Go introduce yourself to Freddy, and I guess I'll see you tomorrow?"
Lewis didn't wait for a response, speed walking out of Roxy's greenroom and away to Parts and Services, leaving the two in an awkward silence.
"... Well, see you tomorrow morning, I guess." Nixus mumbled, waving back at Roxy. Roxy returned the wave and sat back down at her desk as he left.
Freddy's room was, frankly, the least offensive to the eyes, and was actually pretty neat and tidy. Freddy himself, the big star, was simply thumbing through a small book, one that Nixus guessed contained Maria's show ideas, based on her name being emblazoned on the front.
"Howdy, I'm Nixus, the new Security Guard." He introduced himself, grabbing Freddy's attention. "Lewis was leading me around, but got called down to Parts and Services, so I'm finishing up the tour myself."
"Ah, a pleasure to meet you!" The mechanical teddy bear said, standing and briskly walking over to the purple-clad man. The two shook hands, and unlike Chica's handshake, this was far more controlled and professional. "I hope the Mega Pizzaplex has been up to your expectations!"
"Quite. The size is a bit intimidating, however." Nixus chuckled, not noticing Freddy's eyes light up and scanning him in full.
"I must agree. Some days I worry I'll run out of battery just running from Party to Party!" Freddy laughed. Nixus's brain had half a mind to flinch, but the other half held it back. His laugh was Far more friendly and comforting than the old laugh of Freddy's Past.
"Unfortunately, as you lack a Security Badge and Fazwatch, the Exit System might recognize you as a intruder once we close properly, so I recommend heading to the exit, Mr. Willison." Freddy advised, the polite tone never wavering. Nixus peered at his watch, seeing the time was just about at closing, and nodded.
"I think you're right, Freddy. See you in the morning, I guess."
The two shared a polite nod, and Nixus left. He followed the crowds like a carp in a stream, carefully sliding out the doors between the crowds. He unlocked his car door and sat down, sighing softly.
Throwing his cap and mask to the side, he gave his reflection a piercing gaze. Artificial golden irises returned the look, and he slumped back.
"Into the thick of it, once again? Damnit Nix, can't ever get a break, huh…"
With that, his car rumbled to life, and he drove away.
Tomorrow Is Another Day.