"Gregory." His math teacher looks down on him with equal parts concern and annoyance. Gregory's brown eyes snapped back into reality, where the adult male repeatedly taped on his desk, a 50 question math assessment. Ignoring his first instinct to say something quick witted, he murmurs an apology and resumes his exam.
Not much time passes before a knock on the door causes the class to glance up at a security guard. He beckons the teacher closer and they engage in a conversation. "He's taking a test."
"Principal's request." The guard affirmed.
The teacher nods and scans the room before his eyes locked with the small child. "Gregory, you're wanted in Mr. Dawkins office." He announces and shushes the class to remain quiet.
Again? What did I do? He promised Vanessa he would try to stay out of trouble, although he can't guarantee the outcomes he can't control. He couldn't afford to spend another day in detention. Not when he was so close.
Subconsciously rubbing his arm, he follows the path to the principal's office with the guard in tow. "Hello Gregory," Eileen greets in her usual dry and fake smile. The lady is miserable. He is convinced that she carries this act that portrays such an intense hatred for life that if a meteor could strike her, it'll be the only moment of pure happiness, and that's factoring in if it succeeds in causing her death. Again he bites the urge to say something snippy and follows the social worker into a private room.
"I'm going to get to the point now that I'm seeing the concern reports in full view." She shuffles her papers. "You have a really nasty bruise, what happened?"
Crap. He'd forgotten he was holding his arm. "Getting hit with one dodgeball too many."
She flips a page. "Friday – you opted out of gym, taking 10 points off your grade." Another page flipped. "You also have been reported to have fallen asleep in most of your classes."
"I'm still catching up on sleep from the weekend, working on late assignments."
"You mean the two page paper and seven missed assignments that you were said to have done by this morning and as of now, those said assignments are still marked incomplete?" She closes the book and sighs. "Let's just cut the back and forth, rat trap game, Gregory."
"Vanessa is not mistreating me."
The irritated woman sighed. "This is why I planned to meet with you privately. Are you sure you want to continue with this story?"
"You mean the truth?"
"Gregory, it's common to want to defend someone out of fear, but I can assure you, you'll be protected if you're honest."
"I'm telling the truth!"
"Then how did you get that bruise? If Vanessa didn't hit you, who did?"
Talk about getting his arms twisted to both ends. If they knew that Chica was the one who imposed harm, it would guarantee decommissioning the chicken. He couldn't let any harm happen to Chica. At the same time, this lady is insistent that Vanessa is the one hurting him. She isn't capable of violence despite the threats she spews at Monty and Roxy, or the numerous times she threatens to twist him like a pretzel.
"Let me explain something to you, little boy. Heaven forbid you end up getting seriously injured or killed, it will fall on me. It is too close to retirement for me to get fired and restart the process."
"Well, boo-hoo for you! Why don't you harass another family who are actually abusing their kids?" The dismissal bell had been kind enough to go off, silencing an opportunity for the social worker to speak. Gregory bolts out the room, merging within the various clusters of middle schoolers, ending that nightmare of a conversation for another day.
Vanessa is usually his ride home, since he often goes to the PizzaPlex to visit his animatronic friends and taking advantage of the 15% employee discount on games and food. (it's really a 2% discount, but he'd figured out a way to hack the system, allowing a 15% discount while it was being dispersed amongst the employees to avoid suspicion).
Today was an exception. Earlier Vanessa had been asking the same questions Eileen had, and he gave a convincing but fabricated answer.
"Are you sure you're okay? You know you can tell me anything." Vanessa would ask one final time and he assured his statement. He won't admit to Vanessa how Chica came very close to killing him. Granted, she wasn't in control of herself, but he also didn't want to admit to himself the uneasiness he felt. He knew that Chica didn't mean to hurt him, intentionally. She was upset, and he understood. It also unveiled how little control Chica had on herself, even when she was angry in her own right. Which was why he had been determined to make sure she's restored back to her pizza-loving self.
He didn't want to go back to the PizzaPlex until he had concrete evidence of a reversal code. He opens the front door, flips open his personal laptop and resumes the programming. That same night, he extracted a mini database from Chica, as much data as he could get on his USB. He researched the manufacturer of the machine, as well as the robotics company responsible for the Glamrocks A.I. He knows that the PizzaPlex had been open for almost a decade, and a lot of changes happened. He knows that Freddy and Chica were the first animatronics, although he didn't know if it was the same for Roxy and Monty. The wolf and gator always seemed to have a slightly different persona. Even with that discovery, he'd relaxed from the fear that his robot friends were going to be destroyed, resigning with his confirmation that they did operate on very old equipment. He'd been able to obtain a dummy copy of the machine's software and went to work on decoding almost every byte.
He'd been working on this since Saturday, it was now Wednesday. He needed to maximize his time. Chica had three more days of activation. Every minute counts.
His mind ponders for a solution, recalling each failed code, x-ed out on a notepad. He pulled a couple of hair strands in frustration. He tried again. And again. And a few dozen times more, before pushing the laptop away, the device fell onto the floor with a small thump.
Vanessa might have a few pointers on what to do, granted that she's not burnt out by the time she gets home. He distracted himself with some activities, waiting on the 9:30ish timeframe for Vanessa to return from work. Only to be startled when she practically stumbles inside around 6:30.
"Gah, Vanessa! Gimme a heart attack, why don't you?" She ignored him, going into the kitchen. He followed her to see Vanessa opening up a bottle of wine that she'd been given by her friends. He watched with concern as she downed half a bottle of wine. "Ness?"
"Give me a minute." She says, taking the bottle to her room and closing the door. Something is not right. Vanessa never drank unless she's stressed out to the point of having a meltdown. Her isolating is another method, likely sleeping off the impending panic attack.
He stayed in his room, leaving the door open to listen out for her. It would be nearing 9 o'clock before the young blonde adult headed into the bathroom, the door opened to brush her teeth. He meets her in the doorway. After what seemed like an eternity in silence, she spoke while staring into the mirror.
"We're decommissioning Chica tomorrow."
She's back in her dull and lifeless subconscious room, a few shades darker than what she has previously recalled. The glitchy entity hovers above, etching out binary code. It was speaking to her and Chica's coding intercepted the message. Even in her current paralyzed stance, she flinched.
{Did you really think a shutdown would have saved you?}
She had too. Her choices were limited because of that controlling one part of her body. Because, in her anger and betrayal, she couldn't control those emotions as she fought her friends.
{They laugh at you. They mock you. They've turned their backs on you. They are not your friends.} A wave of electricity flows through her. She gasps at how painful it felt. She had to be active, or in the process of reactivating. Someone is currently outside her subconscious frame, trying to wake her up from this conscious hell.
{Useless weakling.} It looms closer. Unable to move, she closed her eyes in fear of it regaining control. Another painful shock. One powerful enough to separate the glitch to the other side, snarling at her as she loses consciousness.
She blinks. Back in the PizzaPlex, enclosed in a dome with tight bands across her wrists. At least she knows that she's out and away from that entity, for now.
"Oh goody, she's finally awakened from her slumber." Tessa looms over her from outside the dome, an annoyed look on her face. At least Chica thinks it's an annoyed look
"Tessa, I – " Chica wanted to apologize, before another wave of electricity hit. Gawking in pain, she glares at Tessa.
"That was for nearly biting my face off this afternoon." Tessa snapped. "I've been nothing but nice to you, and this is the thanks I get? For trying to be your friend?"
"You're not my friend." Chica snarls. "That should have been me going on tour, not you! You stole everything from me!"
"For crying out loud, do you hear how delusional you sound?" Tessa argued. "How did I steal from you?! You are the one who went coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs and tried murdering a child the other night. You are the one who's fighting with the others and putting expensive dents on our casing! You have nobody to blame but yourself!" The tiger's glare matches Chica's. "And you're the one who gave me the advice about Freddy."
Chica's scowl dropped. She internally sank at the looks of disappointment she'll get. No doubt Freddy has heard about this. In the midst of her anger and what had taken place, she'd forgotten about the bear animatronic.
"You really think I wouldn't know about you and Freddy? Everyone knows, and he'll never go for someone who will put innocent people in danger!"
"And he wouldn't dare be with someone who took my place! You are a nobody and had I not had that malfunction, you'll still be in scraps!"
"It doesn't matter anyway, you're done for chicken strips. We all hear Vanessa talking with Gabe. They're bringing the machine tomorrow…"
{Let me take control. I will show them what you're truly made of…}
"Go to hell, all of you! You better be glad I'm not right in your face, I'll rip your insides out!" Chica continued spurning out threats, until Tessa flicked a switch, initiating a force shutdown. Chica fought a losing battle before the lights had gone out in her eyes and she lay still.
"Tomorrow, what do you mean tomorrow?! Why tomorrow?"
"Gregory, she attacked Monty, Roxy and Tessa. She's at the point where she cannot be helped."
"You don't know that! What happened that provoked her?"
"That doesn't matter, the point is she's on lockdown until they bring the scooper."
"We can't give up on her, not yet Ness. We just need to regroup and come up with a new idea –"
"Like what? Like the idea you had on getting that machine in which we thought would work, and it didn't?"
"Yeah, There's no way that machine couldn't stop what was controlling Chica. I just need more time to find that reason."
"No." Vanessa affirmed and closed the door. The sink water is heard running again.
"You can't abandon her like this! You were determined to save her too, we had until the end of the week. Why do you let Gabe push you around?"
"Gabe didn't make the call to decommission her, I did." Vanessa states, opening the door to meet the preteen's betrayed expression. "It isn't easy for me either, Gregory, but I will not change this. We're not waiting for her to fatally attack someone."
"Please consider it for one more day! I think I'm close to finding a solution. It's what I've been working on for the last couple of nights –"
"You told me you were working on your missing schoolwork." Vanessa pressed. "Obviously not if I get a call from Eileen about you falling asleep and failing two classes!" Oh, so she did get a call from the grouchy witch.
"Stop interrupting me, I know what I'm doing and why I'm doing it! You can't destroy Chica!"
"That isn't your call to make, I'm not going to risk losing my job. Eileen will have no problem placing you elsewhere. Now is that what you want? To be in another family, in another city, in another state? Or would you rather be back with your parents again?" Vanessa snapped, seeing the boy's eyes welled up with anger and sadness. She shouldn't have said that. There were a variety of topics that should never be discussed. Gregory's parents was one of those topics.
She collects herself before apologizing. "I'm sorry Gregory. I know how much Chica means to you, but I can't risk it. Virus or no virus, she's been marked as not safe to be around anyone."
"Because abandoning something or someone when you have lost hope is such a wonderful idea, Vanessa."
"Damnit Gregory!" She snatched the towel off a rack in frustration. Why is this child so hardheaded? "That's enough! My job and your wellbeing are more important than keeping a robot. I made up my mind and we're going to take her apart tomorrow, now get over it!"
They don't talk for the rest of the night, staying in their own rooms. The next day, she drove him to school in silence, and in an attempt to make amends, she said. "Try to have a great day."
"Don't see how that's possible knowing that you're going to commit a murder."
Vanessa lets out a frustrated sigh. "If it makes you feel any better, you should come to the PizzaPlex afterschool. You know –"
"Goodbye Vanessa," He leaves the car, secretly taking her authorization key. She was going to need it to authorize the decision to take Chica apart. She wouldn't be looking for it for a while, giving him more time to do what he was about to do.
He hides in an unguarded area for school to officially begin. Once the final bell rang and the doors closed, he jolted into the library, remaining hidden to open his computer. There's got to be a way to fix this. He resumes his coding, battling against trial and error with vague flashbacks of what's already been done.
"No, no! Please don't cry…"
"My name is Chica. I'm not going to hurt you."
"What's your name, little guy?"
"Gregory."
"Come on, Gregory, think!"
He stares at the screen, page after page. Line by line. Then he caught something and acted on it. Slowly he began to realize what he needed to do. After an hour, he'd found a loophole, a new correlation between Chica's virus and the software. He was able to re-code some parts of the software to sever the virus's communication and allow for Chica's digital infrastructure to reboot itself. The solution was found to be 99.4% effective and guarantees success.
"Yes!" He silently cheered. He was right, the machine didn't fail, it just needs that added human-made intervention. Gregory backs up the work onto a USB. From there, he'll go back to the PizzaPlex and get the codes into Chica, the machine will determine how long it will take, but nevertheless it's going to work.
Then this nightmare will be over.