Authors Note
Oh boy, I had to take a bit of a break after pumping out the last 3 chapters back-to-back but here I am again. Just as a heads up for the future, not everything in my fic will be the same as ParticularlyLargeRats, so if you see some differences, just think of it as me throwing my own spin on the same universe.
There are some important notes at the end better detailing something that happens in the chapter.
The surprise I talked about in the last chapter is still in progress so thanks for your patience. Without further ado, back into the madness.
Digging Graves
Evan and Chara, who were still in each other's warm embrace, stared at Roxanne who had been slowly, but surely, working herself into a panic over Mike's unconscious body. The wolf shook the night guard with her hands on both of his shoulders, attempting to wake him up.
"Mike?!" She cried out to him, looking like she'd burst into tears at any given moment. "Mike!" She looked back towards Evan and Chara, who had been the only obvious suspects. She placed Michael back on the floor and aggressively moved towards the pair. "What did you do to him?! Who is that? Why is there a freaking clown here?!" Chara moved out in front of Evan, giving off a bit of static and hissing at the wolf, which shocked her back briefly before she kept moving towards Chara.
If I let this continue, they're going to try and rip each other's endoskeletons apart. Evan thought as he slid himself between the two. "Stop, stop this." Both Chara and Roxanne stopped what they were doing, their attention on the man. "Michael is fine, he's not dead. Chara, my puppet friend behind me, overreacted a bit due to some past… 'quarrels' with your night guard. Let's all just… calm down for a moment and talk it out." For a moment, this seems to work as you could almost hear the gears turning in Roxy's head, but then she opens her mouth.
"No, what?" She said, looking not only confused, but slightly disgusted. "What could possibly be a good enough reason for you to assault my night guard? It's not like Mike tried to hurt you." Roxy gets on her watch, one that looks like what Freddy had been working on earlier that day, and realized she was calling for help. Evan's mind stops, unable to think of a proper enough lie to get them out of this situation. His mind runs through all the knowledge he has and weighs the possible choices until he finds a solution. As Roxanne keeps swiping on her watch, probably to contact help, Evan jumps towards her suddenly.
"Wait!" He cried to her, abruptly getting her attention and scaring her at the same time. The wolf's eyes were big and alert, watching the movements of Evan closely for hostility. "He… he did hurt someone we hold dearly. Another animatronic." Roxanne stared at Evan and he stared back, no one moving. While Evan wasn't exactly fond of anyone knowing there had been other animatronics around, especially his brother and his friends, it wasn't exactly a secret now that Chara had shown herself. Time had basically been at a standstill as no one in the group moved an inch and simply stared at each other. Roxanne was the first one to move as she took a step back and crossed her arms with an unconvinced look on her face.
"How… How can I believe you? Mike might be a smelly loser, but I don't believe he's someone who would harm anyone on purpose. I trust him."
"I… I don't think he meant to harm anyone. He had been technically saving peoples lives, but the end result was that all the animatronics like Chara here and our dear friend were discarded and eventually destroyed because of Mike's decisions." Roxanne kept her eyes on Evan before sighing and putting her hand on her head.
"I can't believe this… Just, if you really mean no harm, help me get him back to my room." Evan nodded and moved forward but was blocked by Roxanne, who had been looking down at the technician. "I'm watching you. Both of you. Especially that thing." She points at Chara who just flips the bird towards Roxanne.
"She won't hurt anyone again, I promise." Evan reassured Roxy while grabbing Chara's hand and pulling her behind him, which made her blush. "She's a sweet animatronic. I'd put my life on it." Roxanne said nothing but moved towards Michael and picked him up. Chara flipped her hood on her head.
"I changed my mind, I'll grab him. You're too busy flirting with your puppet anyways." Roxanne said which brought a slight jingle from Chara who had enjoyed the attention she was receiving. "You two are just as gross as those two lovebirds, Chica and that curly haired guy." They started moving towards what Evan can assume is Rockstar Row not too far from here. At the mention of Trudge, his curiosity got him.
"I thought Trudge and Chica were dating. I saw them holding hands in the hallway a while ago." Roxanne scoffed at the mention.
"They're always being so lovey dovey everywhere they go. Rarely can you find one without the other. I had walked into Chicas room one day to see them kissing." Roxanne made a puking noise.
"Maybe you should try it sometime." Said Chara from behind Evan, her hand still latched to his. Roxanne looked back a bit.
"With who? I couldn't think of a single-" She was cut off by Chara who laughed at her comment.
"You can't fool anyone. I was in here long enough to see how you look at that night guard of yours." The puppet said, smirking at the wolf. Roxanne said nothing for a moment and both Chara and Evan thought that she might've been angry for a moment.
"... Maybe…" Is all Roxanne said for the pairing to know she was embarrassed and obviously thinking about kissing Mike. Evan looked back at a smug Chara, who changed to a soft smile to her human counterpart.
They quietly made their way back to Rockstar Row and into Roxanne's room. Her room, like her and her suit, had been purple and silver. A coffee table sat in front of the couch backed up towards the large glass pane in her room and a bed adjacent from it. In the left corner as soon as they made it into the door, there was a bar stool and desk with a large mirror, obviously for makeup. Do they use makeup? Evan thought to himself, thinking it was weird that animatronics would wear makeup at all regardless of how life-like they were. Roxanne laid Michael on the bed and sat next to him.
"Take your seats. Once Mike wakes up, we can talk about this." Roxanne said, looking towards the unconscious night guard. Evan and Chara took their seat on the couch before loud, muffled thumps could be heard, appearing in the shape of Freddy through the door, who looked a bit panicked.
"Is Michael okay?" He looked back from Roxanne to the new face on the couch next to Evan. "Who is this? We're closed, we can't have any visitors here, Roxanne."
"Freddy, shut up for a second." Snapped Roxanne, who seemed annoyed the moment the bear walked through the door. "Just come in and sit down. I'll let the technician explain since it was his fault." Freddy, looking around confused, came in and sat at the bar stool near the makeup desk. His eyes were on Evan, who he had remembered meeting earlier. Evan pulled Chara's hood back, revealing her porcelain face.
"Freddy, this is Chara, the marionette." He gestured to Chara who had smiled and slightly bowed her head towards the bear. "You could even call her a puppet if you wanted. She's an old friend of mine and-" Evan explained the situation to Freddy, who had been listening intently, only making 'hmm's and 'mhm's the entire time.
As they were listening to Evan, Michael had woken up unbeknownst to anyone else in the room. His mind was racing while his body was still, recalling his past memories. From where he laid, he could see Chara sitting on the couch closely to Evan, who had seemed to be used to it and talking about the situation. He remembered now, he had been attacked by the puppet and Evan, who somehow seems to know it, had stopped her from strangling him to death. The thought hit him like a truck. Does he know? Mike thought to himself. Does he know about the children and the ghosts and my fa- His thoughts cut out as his eyes started turning purple a bit and he tried to calm himself down. Roxanne, who was sitting in front of Michael when she heard his breathing getting heavier and saw that he was sitting up a bit, looking the way he normally does while freaking out. She turned to him and grabbed him, pulling him all the way up into a sitting pose.
"Are you freaking out?" She said, with a bit of worry in her voice. She normally would make fun of him for this, but seeing what he had gone through today had her realizing this was no time to crack jokes. "Cmon, Mike." She pulled Mike's head against her chest and his vision cleared up.
"R-Rox…" Mike said weakly against her chest. The wolf looked down at him, seeing him calm down and smiled a bit.
"Yeah?"
"We're in front of like… at least 3 other people" With that, Roxanne was pulled back into reality, realizing there were indeed 3 other people in the room with them and she pushed him off a bit.
"Well, if you're okay now then it seems like I did my job properly, freak." She said, blushing. Her eyes wandered over to Chara who had a very smug look on her face. Freddy got up and looked towards Mike.
"Michael, how do you feel?" The bear said.
"Well, I realized today that I can fight a Wolf, but not a Puppet." He said, weakly, looking over at the bear with a smile. Freddy rolled his eyes, gaining a smile after realizing that Mike had been okay after all. Freddy sat back down on the stoll and cleared his throat.
"Well, I'd like to hear your side of things, Michael, along with what you'd like to do with our intruder." He motioned towards Chara who was relaxed on Evans shoulder. "She seemed to have done a number on you." The night guard looked away, mind full of thoughts before opening his mouth hesitantly.
"...Would you two mind giving me, Evan and the puppet a few moments alone?" Freddy looked at him curiously while Roxanne looked outraged and opened her mouth, just to get interrupted.
"Roxy, look, I'll tell you what happened later. I promise I will but for now, I need to talk to them." She looked at him a bit hurt and angry.
"Just more secrets to keep from me." Roxy said, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation. Mike put a hand on her shoulder.
"I promise I'll tell you afterwards, okay?" She looked at the night guard before sighing and getting up.
"You better keep your promise, Mike, or I swear that bite mark I gave you will look like a silly little memory in comparison." He gulped as she moved out of her room and Freddy walked up to him.
"We'll be right outside, Michael. If something happens, just call for us." Mike nodded and the bear moved out of the room, leaving the three alone. If looks could kill, Chara's stare would've run daggers through the night guard a long time ago. Michael cleared his throat before saying anything.
"Puppe-"
"Chara." She said with venom in her voice, cutting him off. "My name is Chara." Mike blinked a bit before continuing.
"Chara… I apologize for whatever I did to you in the past. I was only trying to-"
"Only trying to what?" Chara spat at him, clearly fed up with the night guard already. "You are a monster that shouldn't be alive anymore! If I had my choice you'd be-" Chara was also cut off, being pulled back down to the couch as she was trying to rise up and move towards Michael.
"Whoa whoa, Chara. Remember what we talked about?" Evan looked at her with stern eyes and she looked at him with a frustrated look and crossing her arms. "I'm sorry about that. While I think she has every right to be angry at you, I don't believe violence is the correct answer here." Michael also looked at Evan, making Evan's body freeze up some.
"So, how much do you know?" Mike said to Evan with a low tone. Evan untensed a bit.
"Well, I was probably the only child to ever escape from your father." Evan said, only partially lying as the story needs to be somewhat believable. "I heard a lot about you from William and Chara, the first who wanted you dead badly because you sabotaged several ideas of his and the former wanting you dead because of your tampering with her robotic family. I can't exactly say I agree with them, but I don't know them like they know you. So, what did you do?"
"I-" Mike stopped himself, looking away from them in thought. "I… They had been killing night guards. Grabbing them from their office and stuffing them alive in suits, shoving crossbeams and springs and wires inside their body, killing almost every person pushed into one. I had to stop them somehow. While it was my fathers fault for making them the way they are, the animatronics kept killing. I knew they were lost and confused and I simply wanted to offer them relief in a way they could move on and no longer hurt anyone else." He finished and looked at Chara in particular. "I'm sorry. It wasn't my intention to take away those who were close to you." Chara looked at Michael with a default, static face.
"First of all, you failed to give them rest." Chara said, no emotion in her words. "They simply sat in the warehouse, rotting away while parts of themselves were being used by other animatronics until William came for them. They could be anywhere, still suffering." Mike opened his mouth, but was shut up by the next words. "Secondly, you should've died with Springtrap. You two were fighting in the last moments of that pizzeria as the entire thing lit up like a large oven, baking and burning the souls out of every animatronic in the vicinity. Yet, here you are, still alive and well. If you survived, if I survived, then what's to say that the rest of those monsters, including William, aren't still alive somewhere?" This shocked the night guard into silence who had to recollect his thoughts before saying anything.
"I… No, he can't be alive. I…" Michael visually struggled to get the words out of his mouth, as if the pain from saying whatever was on his mind would be enough to kill him. He slapped both sides of his face and tried again. "I held him down in the fire, watching his soul burn out of the body until it was crisp. In fact, I thought I'd die there, too. I was content on dying there. My whole life has been chasing around my father and stopping his vicious deeds, as you may know, which is why it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. Being able to die in that fire and freeing myself of this burden was the only thing on my mind over these years." He sighed and looked away for a moment. Mike was unsure how much he should say. While he was certain that they both knew a lot more than they revealed, he didn't want to be the one to speak the secrets he swore to take to the grave. Mike looked back at the two.
"I know my father is dead. I made sure of it this time. How I'm alive is a miracle all on its own and preferably that's all I want to disclose about that situation." Mike said firmly. "Chara, I apologize for hurting those close to you but I want to let you know what I've done I cannot change nor will I regret. My father is no longer hurting people because of my decisions and that's all I can ask for."
Chara stared at Mike before looking up at Evan, who had been holding onto her. He looked down at her and nodded, understanding her intentions, as he let her go. The puppet got up slowly and moved over to the night guard, who had resigned himself to whatever punishment he could receive from her, eyes closed, before feeling a slight patting of a thin hand on his shoulder. To his surprise, Chara had been comforting the man a bit.
"You'll have to apologize to Mangle yourself if you ever want me to forgive you for that." Chara said, looking down on Michael. "Don't misunderstand, Michael. I do not like you. You could die tomorrow and it would probably make me feel a lot better… but I have to admit, you did finish what you sought out to do and I can't thank you more for ending Williams' story." Mike smiled up at the puppet before understanding who she mentioned.
"Wait, the Mangle is alive?!" Michael said in a bit of horror, remembering exactly how terrifying the pink amalgamation of parts really was when it climbed through the vents in a previous location he worked at. Chara smiled at his reaction.
"Oh yeah and she's well put back together thanks to Evan." She said, pushing the issue a bit further. "I'm sure she remembers you. We all do." Chara's smile widened as Mike's terrified expression grew.
"Okay, okay. That's enough terrifying the poor night guard, Chara." Evan said, getting up and moving next to her and she turned to him, with a sweet and innocent face.
"Awwh, cmon, Evan! You're no fun." She pouted a bit as Evan patted her head. Mike remembered something that had been said and looked at Evan.
"You said my father held you captive, right?" Mike said to Evan, who suddenly looked back to the night guard. He nodded his head.
"He had me in one of the rooms of that house area in ARI. Chara ended up finding me there and saving me. If she didn't come by, I don't know how long I would've been done there." He patted Chara's back who perked up at the mention.
"He saved me and Mangle more than anything. We'd been in utter disrepair from the neglect during and after being in the pizzeria. When we helped him out, he quickly got to work and fixed us up in more than working order." They both looked at each other with a smile briefly before Mike interjected.
"Look, as happy as I am that you two have so much affection for each other, I deal with that enough with Chica and Trudge so if we could continue on, I'd be very happy." Chara blushed and Evan chuckled. "Also, please keep anything dealing with my father, any past animatronics or pizzerias to yourselves. The last thing we need is a copycat killer or worse." The pair agreed, horrified by the possibility of someone trying to recreate what William did. Hopefully, they were the last people to know about any of this info. Evan ended up splitting from the group and heading towards the door.
"I'll call the other two inside real quick." Evan said as he moved out the door. Chara looked back at Michael, who she was left alone with.
"I meant it when I said I don't trust you. The moment you hurt Evan again, I'll make sure you won't return this time." While this sorta terrified Michael, he couldn't help but wonder what she meant about hurting Evan 'again'.
Not that he wanted to find out the hard way.
As Evan stepped outside, there had been more people outside than there had originally been. Next to Freddy and Roxanne, Monty had been pitching up a conversation with Freddy, who seemed to be getting slightly riled up about something having to do with a lighter, and Trudge, which Chica in tow, had been sitting nearby, filling out a coloring book. Evan moved next to the Wolf, who was simply leaning up against the wall next to the door. She looked up at him.
"Are you guys finally done with your little sappy scene?" Roxanne said, looking bored out of her mind. Evan nodded to the wolf.
"Yeah." Says Evan, unfazed by her taunting. "I'm already ready to go to bed after this entire fiasco, but there's still plenty of work to do." Roxanne huffs in response.
"It's eating into my movie time with Mike."
"You'll be fine. Imagine, half a day from now you'll be performing for kids who look up to you with your newly fixed stage lighting." Evan splayed out his hands with dramatics to entice Roxanne with his mental images. They seemed to work as she smiled with a bit of a tail wag. Evan stopped for a moment, in thought. "You know, the place I've had to fix the most stuff was Monty's room. Does he just… smash everything in his room or something?" She shook her head.
"He falls quite often being the klutz he is and, with his weight alone, I doubt that me, Chica and Freddy together could possibly get his fat ass off the ground." Freddy turned around the moment he heard a cuss word leave Roxanne's mouth.
"Language!" Freddy said sternly, turning back to his heated conversation with Monty, who seemed to be winning. Roxanne simply rolled her eyes. Evan chuckled at the wolf's angsty reactions. At this point, the door to Roxanne's room opened again, releasing a happy Chara and a slightly paranoid looking Michael. The chattering and activity nearby stopped at the presence of a new animatronic. Monty had made his way over to the night guard with arms open, pulling him into a bear hug.
"Mike-a-like!" Monty yelled in joy, twisting and turning with Mike in his arms. He placed him down and looked him over. "I hear ya got yourself hurt. Ya ok?" Monty looked him around and saw his neck, which had still been red but not nearly as defined as it was a while back. Mike nodded.
"Yeah just…" Mike hesitated, unsure if he wanted to tell him the truth or not. He remembered how poorly his last lie with Monty had ended. "I ran into someone new and we got tangled up. No big deal." The gator looked at him seriously for a moment, getting quiet. Mike felt the situation getting worse and he grabbed Monty and made the gator look at him. "Hey, it's okay. It was just a mistake." Monty stared directly at Mike until he quickly caught a smile.
"Yea, of course, Mike-a-like!" He patted the night guard on the back. "As long as itsa mistake. Things happen, y'know?" He looked over at Chara, who was looking at him weirdly from next to Evan. "Who is she, a new cast member?" Evan moved himself and Chara over towards him.
"Monty, this is Chara the puppet. Chara, this is Monty Gator." Chara stuck out her hand, understanding the assignment. "She is Evan's companion and friend. She's from an older Freddy's establishment." Monty smiled and took her hand, putting her into a somewhat rough handshake, jingling her bells with every shake.
"Nice ta meetcha. I never thought I'd meet someone who came before all of us!" Chica moved over towards Chara, with her hand extended.
"I'm Chica! I didn't think there were other animatronics like us." Chara grabbed her hand and shook it, now in a 3 way handshake as Monty was still aggressively shaking her hand.
"Yeah, nice to meet you!" Chara says, getting jostled around by Monty which made her jingle the entire time. "My sister loves your fashion! She wears a pink bow on her head now because really looks up to you." Finally Freddy grabs Monty, scolding him for antagonizing the new animatronic, setting Chara free. Chica lights up in response to the puppet.
"Really?!" Chica cried, looking happy as can be. She turned around and grabbed Trudge, who had been mysteriously eating a banana he pulled from out of thin air. "Trudge, did you hear her? Her sister loves my fashion!" Trudge smiled, mouthful of banana and attempted to respond, only letting out a muffled noise, but apparently Chica could understand him. "Awwh, oh you~ but I don't know, let me ask her." The chicken turned back around to Chara. "Is your sister a puppet like you?" The puppet shook her head.
"No, she's actually a pink fox animatronic. She also loves your exercise and eating trends. She loves to eat very much, but is always afraid of getting fat." As the conversation continued, Mike moved to Evan.
"Hey, why don't we get all this business finished quickly?" Michael asked, looking a bit worn out. Evan nodded, understanding the night guards position. Evan shook Chara's arm to get her attention.
"Hey, Chara. Mike and I are going to continue working. Did you want to stay here and continue chatting?" Chara was going to tell them to continue without her, but she hesitated, still not too trusting of Michael.
"No, I'll come with you." She said before turning back to Chica. "It was wonderful meeting you, Chica. Perhaps next time we can bring my sister along to come see you." Chica smiled as both Mike and Evan were curious about when this 'next time' would happen. Evan wouldn't kill her joy and decided to say nothing as Chara floated back over to her human. Monty extended his hand towards Chara.
"It was nice ta meetcha." Monty said with the biggest grin on his face. Chara was hesitant to take his hand and, instead, patted the gator's shoulder.
"Right back at ya!" She said almost awkwardly, which Monty didn't mind. He took her response in stride as he made way for Freddy who also wanted to give his goodbyes.
"I'll be working in my greenroom if either of you two need me." Said Freddy to Mike and Evan, who simply nodded. The bear turned towards Chara and smiled a bit. "Feel free to come back anytime. Preferably after hours." Chara nodded with a smile. Evan, Mike, Chara and Roxanne made their way off from the group to finish the remaining job for the night.
"Finally, we're on our way." Whined Roxanne. "I thought the sap fest wouldn't ever end!" Conversation was scarce as they made their way over to a special part of the pizzeria. Evan knew that there had been animatronics he had never met before. He briefly met DJ Music Man earlier that day while moving through his side of the building. There had been a light panel that was out of order, which had been a simple fix. The place they were heading to held a particular animatronic that the technician had only seen before in the commercial briefly advertised as the daycare attendant. From what he had heard when they passed by there earlier, he was quite tame when the lights were on. Only when the lights were on? Thought Evan, who thought the particular wording had been a bit… He could only hope that what was waiting for them was an easy time. As they got closer to the daycare, a very obvious note could be taken.
The lights in the daycare were off. I suppose things couldn't get worse than a room with hardly any vision and a lurking animatronic, could it?
Above the group, there was a pair of ruby red eyes and a shiny white smile, one that'd be mistaken for the Cheshire Cat. A bit of hushed, deep chuckling could be heard as the Moon faced animatronic peered down at the group of four.
"Oh my…" The deep, growling voice said, piercing through the silence in the rafters above the Daycare. He crawled around from support beam to support beam, attempting to get a better look. "Visitors at a time like this? Oh, this just won't do. I suppose I'll have to make my way down and start the show." The animatronic chuckled deeply again and, just like a Cheshire Cat, disappeared, but not before finishing his thought.
"I sure do love a good chase."
Michael couldn't help but sigh as he saw how dark it was in the Daycare. One thing he had been told about was how… 'moody' Moon got when the lights were off. He looked at the group in dismay.
"Well, I've got bad news." Mike said, looking towards Evan in particular.
"Only bad news?" Evan inquired.
"Yup. That light should not be off and it is."
"So?" Said Chara, not quite understanding what the panic was all about. "Let's just go in there and turn them on."
"Nononono no no… no." Mike stopped Chara shortly after her trying to move into the dark daycare. "You see, the animatronic in here is Sun and Moon. When the lights are on, Sun is out. He's a really fun guy, sometimes he waves at me when I patrol but when the lights are off, Moon is out. He happens to be quite the opposite of Sun in about every imaginable way including the fun part."
"Unless your version of fun is getting chased around by a neatfreak psycho with control issues." Remarked Roxanne, who also didn't seem very excited by the idea of this situation either. Evan had caught on quickly and, with another sudden realization, he opened his mouth.
"The last problem of the day was to fix the lights. From what the note suggests, a generator happens to have some issues, which makes the lights shut off by themselves."
"Well, luckily for us, the usual strategy for dealing with Moon is simply making a mess." Said Mike nonchalantly. "There are piles of foam building blocks that are stacked up in neat piles. Can't miss them. So, while Evan goes in there, finds the generator and fixes it, me and Roxanne will-" Roxanne cuts in abruptly.
"When did I say I'd be helping you, shitface?" She said looking at Michael. In response, Michael looked back at her.
"Rox, I really could use your help."
"Then beg."
"What?"
"Beg, loser."
"No, you'll help me anyways." Roxanne moved a bit closer to Mike.
"Why do you think I'd do that?" She says, feeling her power over him and ready to watch him plead for her help.
"Because if we don't finish soon, forget watching movies, I don't think I'll have any energy left to watch your shows tomorrow." This really took the fight out of her, for she was the one who forced (begged) Michael to come watch her shows for the special event. She sighed heavily and turned away from him.
"I… Let's just get this over with." Mike nodded. As much as he'd love to mess with the Wolf right now, the task at hand has always given him a bit of anxiety as Moon wasn't exactly the friendliest animatronic to be around. Mike unlocked the doors with his pass and pushed them open, leading them into a nearly pitch black room with stars glowing above them en masse and a singular spotlight lighting up a small patch of floor. The group entered in carefully, with Chara clinging to Evan.
"I'll come with you." Chara whispered to Evan. "I can see everything pretty well despite it being so dark." Evan nodded to her and allowed her to lead the way.
"The generator is somewhere inside the jungle gym, so we'll have to crawl inside to find it." Evan said, recalling what the note said. Chara nodded, taking Evans hand in hers and leading them towards the nearest entrance of the labyrinth of metal. While they headed inside, both Mike and Roxy were outside, kicking down towers of stylized foam bricks. Except, something didn't feel right. Normally, Moon had lurked around a little bit before trying to scare them, but had a large OCD issue coded inside of him so when he saw these neat towers he created get knocked over, he'd scream his clean up mantra before rushing in to clean up the mess. The issue is, Moon was nowhere to be seen or heard.
"Mike?" Said Roxanne nearby. "Where is that creep? Shouldn't he be here already?" She whined, but Mike could understand. While Sun was a bit creepy, he at least made up for it in his kid-like charms and funny jokes. Moon, however, really has a sinister feeling to him and along with aggressive way of 'playing', it really gives cause for caution when around him. Mike could only hope that the Moon stayed gone tonight.
As Evan and Chara crawled through the jungle gym, they realized how much of a maze it was once inside. They made twists and turns, sometimes ending back in the same spot they started off or sometimes hitting dead ends. It wasn't until minutes later they happened upon the light problem. In the corner of the maze, there was a large cord hanging down that looked like it was used to bring power to something. Except there was a lack of a generator nearby, but the imprints of something being underneath the large cord had been evident. Well, that's definitely the issue. Thought Evan as he looked nearby for a possible generator, shining his pocket flashlight around. Chara crawled to his side, eyeing the spot where the generator should lie.
"Well, that's great. At least nothing needs to be fixed." Chara said, trying to be positive about this situation. Evan chuckled next to her.
"Well, yeah. Hard to fix something that doesn't exist. Perhaps it's somewhere nearby?" As they were about to start moving again, the screech from something like an intercom came on. There was a low, growling voice clearing their throat before speaking into the mic.
"Welcome, night intruders." Said the low, rumbling voice filled with satire from everywhere. "Normally I'd like to get you all into bed since it's lights out, but you all tend to pick on me when I'm awake. 'Oh poor Moonie. He never gets to play with the grown ups'." The voice made their pitch a bit higher, mocking a voice of sympathy before growling in anger. "But that ends tonight. Instead… let's play a little game." The voice crackled in its low chuckle. While this was freaky enough for Evan and Chara, the next thing it did bumped it up a level. "The generator needed to power the lights panel has been hidden somewhere around. Goodluck finding it and beware of the clown!" The voice wheezed as he finished his rhyme, seeming to be fond of his own jokes. "Let's get this shit started already." And with that, the intercom had been turned off and the daycare thrown back into silence.
The pairing looked at eachother, unsure what to do next. That entire experience was not just creepy, but heavily jarring. Evan sighed as he laid down on the plush floor of the jungle gym.
"Well, getting chased after by another unfriendly animatronic." Evan said, confirming their situation. "Let's just hope this one doesn't bite." Chara nodded to that. She looked down to see her human laying down on the floor, looking absolutely exhausted. She smiled at him and rubbed his chest a bit.
"Let's get this done and go home, okay?" She said while looking down at her tired human. He nodded, getting back up on all fours and made their way out.
As they got closer towards the exit, they started to hear chaotic amounts of noise. In the spotlight, the only real source of light left in this room, they had seen the moon-faced animatronic over Roxanne's body with Michael busy getting himself off the ground, looking quite battered.
What the hell happened here? Thought Evan as he pulled himself up with a grunt, making Moon look at him. He smiled widely, his wicked grin shining brightly in the light.
Suddenly, Evan wished he'd have stayed in the jungle gym.
A few minutes prior, when Moon had made his crazy announcement for the entire daycare to hear, Mike and Roxanne had been in a predicament. It wasn't hard to find the moon-faced animatronic seeing as the intercom system had been placed at the counter where the lighting controls were located, but it had seemed that they were the ones who were found first.
As they came closer to the desk, Roxanne saw a stack of the foam bricks neatly fixed in the area of the spotlight, unlike the ones around it. Roxanne had been quite annoyed already having to share Mike today and missing out on her time to watch movies with him, but now she was forced to come along and hunt down this psycho moon guy? She wasn't the happiest camper around. She made her way over towards the stack and reared her leg up to kick it down.
Suddenly, two arms bursted through the pile and grabbed onto the leg she was standing on, yanking on it hard enough that Roxy lost balance. The wolf hit the ground hard and was suddenly being attacked by the Moon, who wore a large, white smile on his face as he got on top of the wolf animatronic. Mike, who had been nearby, was running over to her and saw the Moon's face suddenly turn to him with his creepy smile, daring the man to get closer. Michael took a risk and grabbed a piece of foam for protection and started to move forward.
"Oh, Mikey~" Said Moon, his sights on the night guard as he inched closer to him. "I've heard oh so much about you from my lighter counterpart. You're always so nice and sweet to ol' Sunny boy…" He stepped forward, making Mike step back. "But let's see how nice you really can be when you're getting torn apart." They both broke out into a sprint, with Mike leading and Moon chasing close behind. Mike threw the foam block in his hands towards his pursuer but it did little to nothing to dissuade him. As he made it back around the daycare towards where Roxanne was trying to get up, he felt a hand grab his shirt collar, yanking him down on the ground.
"Now, Mikey, I can't have you running off on me before we even start with the main course!" Said Moon, who had jumped on Michael as he tried to fight him off. Roxanne had recovered nearby, seeing the night guard getting attacked and jumping after Moon, taking him down to the ground with a tackle. They slammed into the counter nearby, knocking things off as Roxanne recovered and swung at Moon. Roxanne hit the animatronic, who was pinned under her weight, over and over again.
"Don't. Ever. Touch. Me. Again. Freak." She said, emphasizing her words with every strike of her fists. Moon was taking every blow, reaching farther for a book that fell off the desk. Once he grabbed it, he swung the book with all his might hitting the wolf in the face and knocking her off of him, holding her face in pain. Mike came soon after and ran at moon-faced animatronic just to get flipped off his feet and over the desk. The night guard landed on his back hard, writhing in pain, but saw something there that shouldn't have been there. A generator? Mike thought, wondering how this got here. Moon must have done something and he had a feeling they'd need it to turn the lights back on. He rolled over and grabbed onto the small generator, picking it up as he raised back to his feet but Moon was not done with him. The animatronic jumped at him over the desk, barely missing as Mike hobbled over to the side, getting back over to Roxanne. He shook her shoulder.
"Roxy, get up. We have to find the others and-" He was shortly cut off as the Moon had kicked him back down, towering over Roxanne.
"Awwh, poor night guard wants his wolfie?" Moon taunted as Mike was recoiling on the ground, feeling a bit of pain from his side and mostly shock. Mike was struggling to get up when he heard noise from the nearby entrance of the jungle gym. As he looked over, he saw Evan and the hooded figure of Chara coming out, looking puzzled as to what was going on. Moon smiled widely, shining brightly in the spotlight and he looked at the pairing.
"The main course came here all on its own!" Moon said with glee as he stared down Evan. "I don't know who that poor soul is next to you, but thank that man for pulling you into your own personal hell. I'm sure you're confused as to who I am, but I'm…" As Evan listened to the animatronic monologue, he saw Mike getting up slowly, holding the generator they needed. The night guard raised the generator up a bit before slamming it down on Moon, who was knocked down on the ground with a cry. He held his head and looked at his assaulter in horror.
"OWH, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?" Moon shrieked as he felt his head spinning. "You're not supposed to attack when the villain is monologuing!" Evan and Chara came over quickly, with Chara unleashing her strings and wrapping up the moon-faced animatronic. "Hey hey hey, let me go! I'll kill you, I swear I will when I get free I'll-" As he thrashes in his efforts to escape Chara, he ends up clipping her hoodie and revealing her face, to which Moon takes in. He stares at the puppet, speechless and stuttering.
"You… you…" He croaked out, looking at her.
"What?" Said Chara, sorta peeved at the way he was looking at her. "Never seen a marionette before?"
"You're… absolutely beautiful!" He cried, pushing his arms out towards her with a smile on his face. "I've never met such a perfect creature in my life!" Chara's face turns from annoyed to absolutely disgusted as she moves him a bit farther away from her. "I can't tell you how long I've been waiting for you, darling. I just didn't know I needed you in my life until I saw you and at first sight, I fell in love! Perhaps maybe we should go…" Moon ranted on and on to Chara, professing his love in many ways as she put her hands on her 'ears'. Evan moved over to help up Roxanne and check on Mike, who looked a bit worse for wear.
"You look like you got hit by a bus." Commented Evan as he helped Roxanne back on her feet. Mike chuckled tiredly.
"I feel like it, too." He said, looking Roxanne over. "Rox, how are you feeling?" The wolf looked at Mike, tiredly.
"I want to go to bed." She said, sounding even more tired than Mike. Normally he'd take this time to tease her seeing as they've fought before and not once had she been this tired or defeated looking, but it seemed that the few blows from Moon really got to her pride more than anything. "I'm sorry I couldn't protect you." Mike frowned at the mention of this, grabbing her face lightly.
"Look, it's not your fault. All of us walked into this place with no idea of what would happen. You did protect me, too. If Moon had me on the floor like he did and you weren't there, who knows what he could've done to me." He grabbed her hand and looked her in her eyes with a smile. "Thank you, Rox." These words really touched the wolf, making her regain her confidence a bit and giving her a smile on her face.
"Of course, I have to protect what's mine." She said, giving her ego a boost. "You couldn't protect yourself from a baby if it had intent to fight you." Mike scoffed at the statement.
"First off, even if a baby wanted to fight me, I feel like there isn't much one could do. Secondly, the last fight we had told me otherwise, seeing as you could barely catch me." Mike smugly looked at the wolf who was staring at him, pushing up closer to him.
"Wanna find out the hard way again, corpse?" She said, challenging him. As the night guard went to open his mouth, he heard Chara cry.
"Please, I understand you two want to flirt but please get him away from me." She begged them, still holding Moon who was still professing his love to her. Mike chuckled and left to help Chara out.
"Later, Faye." Said Mike to Roxanne, accepting her challenge, which she smiled about. Evan wasn't sure what they were talking about, but he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
Shortly afterwards, Moon was duct taped to a plastic chair, begging to see Chara again. Roxanne, who was there with Mike to watch Moon, made the executive decision to duct tape his mouth closed as well, effectively shutting the blabbermouth up. While they watched the animatronic, Evan and Chara had crawled back into the jungle gym to reattach the generator and turn it back on along with the lights.
As the lights turned on, Moon spasmed in the chair a bit with his eyes rolling around in his head before his color changed along with his demeanor, bringing Sun back to control the body. As they all convened next to the sun-faced animatronic, Mike carefully removed the duct tape off of his face, showing a kind and much less freaky smile unlike the one given by Moon.
"Thank you, oh thank you!" Cried Sun as his mouth was freed. "I kept trying to tell Moon that this was a horrible idea to begin with, but he wouldn't listen to me." Mike stopped Sun, trying to catch up with him.
"Whoa whoa… What exactly was a bad idea?" Mike asked, curious how this entire fiasco started to begin with.
"Well, we heard that there was a new person coming to fix the generator tonight and Moon got excited. I'm not exactly sure how he did it, but he's been watching some movies and pretending to be the antagonist so he wanted to play with the technician when he got here."
"Well, that explains where he learned 'let's play a game' from." Said Evan, who realized the movie quote from his binge watch of scary movies with Chara from time to time. "And so, he thought it was okay to vandalize the daycare and attack someone, specifically the one who doesn't even work here?"
"Well… I can't say that Moon's ideas are exactly the best, but we just get lonely. While we see children everyday who are plenty of fun to interact with, we want to be able to interact with older humans as well." Said Sun, who looked a little embarrassed. "Oh, also Moon wants to know if that puppet will come back next time." Chara recoiled at the mention of Moon, holding dearly onto Evan.
"Tell him that I'm taken and that I want nothing to do with him." Said Chara, grabbing Evans hand. The man said nothing, understanding the situation but he didn't want any of the onlookers to get the wrong idea. Mike looked over at Evan.
"Uh… congrats?" Mike said, with Evan facepalming.
"So are we done here?" Says Roxanne, who was impatiently tapping her foot on the ground. "I'd like to get to bed soon." Evan nodded.
"Other than removing the tape from Sun, I believe so. Everything has been completed on the list plus some and I'll make sure to send my regards to your manager in the morning." Mike nodded, thanking Evan.
"Well, it was thanks to you that we finished in time. I also want to get some sleep before the day officially starts." Mike looks down at his watch, realizing how late it was and how miserable he was going to bed by the end of the day. Roxy started to push Michael towards the door.
"Cmon corpse, get a move on!" Now that everything was done at the daycare, they made their way out. Evan had given Mike a paper with his personal number on it in case he needed to contact him, which the night guard accepted gratefully and gave out his own number. They all walked towards the entrance of the building and Evan shook Mike's hand.
"Well, thanks for giving me a tour that I'd never forget." Said Evan with a firm grasp on Mike. Mike shook back with a tired smile on his face.
"Well, that's the daily life of a night guard so I'm glad you could enjoy the experience." He waved at Chara, who wasn't all too eager to respond but did so to be nice. Evan waved at Roxanne, who was looking tired still.
"Get some sleep, Roxy." He said and she nodded her head, walking off towards Rockstar Row. Evan and Chara walked out the doors and heard them lock behind them before getting into the car.
As they drove down the road, leaving the sight of the pizzaplex, Chara opened her mouth.
"I had a lot of fun today and… I'm sorry for attacking your brother." She said, looking down in guilt.
"Maybe you should tell him that." Teased Evan before getting serious. "I understand why you did it but promise me that no matter what you won't kill another human, okay?" Chara nodded without thinking, agreeing to this matter.
"Of course. I wouldn't want to kill in the first place…" She was reminded of the times back in the old pizzeria with her and Mangle where they hunted night guard after night guard and felt her guilt seep into her mood until Evan grabbed her hand and squeezed.
"It's okay, no need to think about the past." He said, knowing that she thought the same memories every time she thought about her old pizzeria. "Let's just get home and get to bed, okay?" She smiled and squeezed his hand back, enjoying her human's warmth. She smiled, knowing everything would be okay. Something bothered the human, but he thought that if he couldn't remember it, it wasn't important…
Sun had been sitting in his plastic chair, enjoying life and thinking nothing could be better. Well, maybe if he wasn't duct taped to the chair, it would be perfect.
"Uh, hello?" Said Sun to the empty daycare. "Guys?"
Sun wouldn't get unbound from the chair until he was found the following morning.
Authors Notes
There were a lot of interactions in this chapter. I realized that in my last few chapters, there wasn't much actual conversation so I made sure there was some in this chapter.
I want to help envision what Sun and Moon sound like so that you all know. If you hate League of Legends feel free to provide other examples in the comments, otherwise please listen as I thought about this for a while.
Sun probably sounds something similar to a high pitched jester so I associated original Shaco's voice to Sun while with Moon, it has a dark, regal yet two toned voice so I imagine it something in between Surprise Fiddlesticks voice and original Tahm Kench voice. Again, feel free to suggest alternatives in the comments.
With that being said, I hope y'all enjoyed the chapter and I'll cya all in the next one!