"I don't like this Moony…" Sun whispered from were he laid more dormant within their shared body, watching distantly as Moon dodged around another Nightmare shadow. "With everyone separated like this, that glitch could be attacking any of the others and we would have no idea until it was too late."
"I don't like it either Sunny," Moon agreed in frustration, rolling under a shadow lunging for him. He nimbly popped back up on his feet and twisted around the next corner. "But unfortunately we don't have any choice but to run through this maze and hope we find the others before it's too late."
When the wall had burst up between him and Monty, Moon had immediately tried to climb the wall to reunite with the alligator. But while there wasn't any ceiling on the maze, Moon hadn't been able to reach the top of the wall. Instead, once he climbed high enough he somehow ended up climbing down the wall instead. His programming couldn't make any sense of it, but Moon just took that route as a lost cause. So Moon just started running through the repetitive hallways, trying to find one of the others.
Suddenly Moon's more advanced nighttime sensors picked up a figure emerging from the shadows, prompting Moon to come to a halt as he glared at the virus controlling Mike. William smirked at the animatronic and said, "Well if it isn't one of my favorite little helpers…"
"Like I would have ever willing helped you!" Moon snarled, crouching low in a defensive stance. "You infected me with your evil corrupting virus! You are a vile murder!"
"And I wouldn't have gotten my latest victims without you," William replied, his grin widening at the way Moon flinched at the reminder."Perhaps I should make you my helper again."
"Never!" Moon shouted, lunging at the possessed Mike. William sidestepped Moon's attack cackling with the animatronic tried to turn around only to find he couldn't as his feet were starting to sink into the floor. Moon tried to yank his legs free, but it was useless.
"Have fun with your new playmate," William smirked as the moon themed animatronic tried desperately to claw its way out of the floor sucking him in. "It's certainly going to have fun with you."
Moon didn't even have time to snap back an insult before he found himself I caused in darkness. It passed quickly though and he soon found himself on a padded mat. Looking around quickly to attacked in his new environment, Moon found himself in an endless play structure, various contracting tubes and padded pathways twisting and turning as far as the eye could see in every direction in an impossible labyrinth.
"What do you think he meant by a new playmate?" Sun asked in worry.
"Naughty Moondrop," answered a sinister voice before the real Moon could reply. Looking toward the source, Moon found a nightmarish shadow version of himself staring down at him from a higher platform, eyes burning in excitement and a manic grin stretched impossibly wide on the other's face displaying many sharp teeth. It's clawed hands dug into the railing as it hoisted itself up onto it and said, "Bad animatronics must be punished!"
The shadow leaped at Moon, its claws and mouth opened wide in eager anticipation of being able to tear Moon apart. Moon didn't need Sun's fearful shouts to run echoing in his head to immediately flee from the thing hunting him, crawling up through a tube and taking all sorts of twists and turns down various paths in an attempt to shake the creature coming after him.
"We need to find a way out of here," Sun said.
"Agreed," Moon replied.
Though both were thinking it, neither wanted to voice their belief that there probably wasn't a way out.
"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE ALREADY!" Monty roared as he punched another nightmare shadow that was lunging at him, making it dissipate into black wispy smoke. Monty was so frustrated with this situation and he didn't know what to do.
While he wasn't just the muscle bound meat head that the Company tried to portray him as a lot, he was used to relying on his strength to get out of tough situations. He has rarely felt trapped, especially once he was upgraded with sharp claws to go along which his already impressive strength. But now he was stuck in a maze surrounded by walls he couldn't bust through and even smashing the shadows had long lost any sense of accomplishment or satisfaction as they just kept reforming and attacking again.
Monty's friends- no his family- were in danger and he couldn't find them! What was the point of being so strong if he couldn't protect the people he cared about!
"Still relying on your brawn rather than your brain," William remarked from behind Monty, making the alligator whirl around. "Not that I'm complaining as it was that exact attitude that made you such a useful puppet."
"You don't control me anymore!" Monty snarled, snapping his jaw as a threat. "And I won't let you hurt anyone!"
Despite the confidence in his voice, the words felt hollow to Monty as he had no way to back it up. Not only did Monty's programming and care for Mike prevented him from being able do any harm to William's current vessel, but he couldn't bring himself to even attempt to simply restrain the Virus's current host. Anytime Monty even so much as thought as taking a step toward 'Mike' to grab him, he was immediately reminded of the fight he had been forced to have with the cyborg, especially Mike's pained cries as the virus made him attempt to rip off Mike's animatronic arm.
What was worse was that William seemed to be able to sense Monty's hesitation, his malicious grin becoming even wider as he took a step forward and Monty instinctively took a step back. Chuckling, William said, "That's a bold promise for someone that can't even be close to me. But don't worry I'll provide you an opponent that you can at least attempt to stop with your strength."
Monty was about to ask what the virus was talking about when he noticed he was beginning to sink into the ground. The alligator was strong enough to manage a few steps forward in an attempt to escape, but even as he moved he kept sinking deeper and deeper and soon he could barely move at all.
"And just so you know how much of a failure you already are… I've already trapped all the other Glamrocks in their own personalized prisons," William said as he crouched down to better talk to the gator and enjoy his look of despair. "And if you last long enough for me to release all of you, that little brat is going to be long dead."
Monty snarled and tried to lunge forward, though he wasn't even sure what he'd do, but it was useless as he was pulled completely under and into complete darkness.
The darkness only lasted a moment though and Monty soon found himself in a twisted menacing version of his minigolf course area, with looming trees and the rustle and growls stalking through the underbrush, most likely indicating some sort of monsters William created to attack him. An even bigger rustle drew his attention and Monty warily turned to face it as something began to emerge. It was a towering nightmare shadow version of himself, with jaws big enough to bite the real Monty in half.
"There you are weakling," the nightmare grinned viscously, it's burning gaze looking at Monty with crazed hunger. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you apart."
Monty froze for a moment in fear before bolting through the trees when the shadow version lunged for him.
"Get back here you coward!" the shadow roared after him, his footsteps making the ground tremble a little bit.
Monty ignored the taunt and focused on getting some distance between him and the monstrous copy. He knew a direct confrontation would only get him turned into scrape and if that happened he wouldn't be able to help the others. No he would have to get the upper hand somehow though he had no idea what yet. So Monty just kept running, looking for anything that would give him a much needed edge.
"Bullseye!" Gregory cheered as another nightmare shadow dissipated from a shot of his Fazer Blaster. He turned to Freddy who was walking next to him and said, " I think that leaves the score at 23 for me and only 6 for you! You need to pick up your game if you want to at least give me a challenge."
"As long as you remain safe I do not care who 'wins'," Freddy said in concern. "It's imperative we find the other and out of this maze, but there is very little distinguishing these hallways from each other and makes it hard to tell if we're making any progress."
"We'll find them!" Gregory said with confidence that only sounded slightly forced. "The others are pretty tough and they've got the charm things to keep them from being mind controlled again. We'll find them and team up to force that stupid ghost virus out of Mike."
"Bold words from a little brat that's about to be dead soon," William's voice came from behind the pair, prompting them to whip around.
"You will not harm him!" Freddy growled as he stood protectively in front of Gregory. Gregory himself looked both scared and angry as he glared at the possessed Mike, holding both Helpy and his Fazer Blaster tightly.
"No… I won't," William said, stretching Mike's face into a wide sinister grin. "Because you will!"
Before Freddy could even process what William was implying, William was already moving. Between one blink and the next, William went from being a few feet away to right in Freddy's face, the animatronic hand wrapped around the protective arm and two of his wires wrapped around Freddy to hold the animatronic bear in place. The charm reacted immediately to the evil touch surrounding it, glowing brightly and making arcs of electrified magical energy appear as it tried to drive William away. William couldn't help the grimace of pain appearing on his face, but he ignored it as he began squeezing his hand, making glowing cracks appear on the charm as it started to break under the pressure.
"Hey! Let go of him!" Gregory shouted in anger and worried, yanking on the animatronic arm with all his strength in an attempt to make William release Freddy. William barely spared the boy a glance as he used another wire to grab Gregory and fling him into the far wall. Gregory smacked painfully into the wall and crumpled on the ground slightly dazed as Helpy checked him over in worry.
"Patience… you'll be dealt with soon enough…" William said as he focused back on the destroying the charm.
More cracks appeared before the charm shattering completely, its magic dissipating uselessly into the surrounding air. Once the animatronic was no longer protected, William dug his hand a bit into Freddy's chest and began pouring his energy into the bear, making Freddy spasm as William infected his systems and began taking them over. Once William was satisfied, he released his hold on Freddy and took a step back, watching with satisfaction as the animatronic fell to his hands and knees as it slowly lost the fight for control.
"F-Freddy?" Gregory called in fear and worry, holding Helpy close as he rose to his feet.
"S-Superstar… R-run!" Freddy said, his voice box stuttering as he slowly lost control of his body. He looked at Gregory in terror as the magenta slowly began consuming the blue.
Gregory knew he should run… That he wouldn't have long before his friend was going to be forced to start hunting and attempting to kill him… but he found himself frozen in place, feeling scared and helpless as the two caring people that had been doing all they could to protect him all night were reduced to puppets for the evil haunting this place. Even as Helpy urged him to move, Gregory could only stand and watch as more and more of Freddy's blue eyes were taken over by glowing magenta of the twisted virus.
Suddenly William jerked and spasmed, an angry snarl on his face as he hunched over slightly. His image flicked before finally the illusion of the more professional cloths and hair dispersed completely, leaving just the familiar t-shirt and messy hair as it should be. And as he looked up, Gregory felt himself relaxing as he saw the warm comforting purple rather than the sinister magenta.
Mike was back!