Gregory walked straight into a huge, dark room made into a winding hallway by huge shipping containers with Freddy's face on them. Smaller boxes, containers, forklifts, and port-o-potties forced him into walking in a zig-zag path. Gregory set down Bonnie, pulled off his coat, and tied it around his neck like a cape. He reached for Bonnie and hesitated upon seeing his still neatly wrapped and tied bandages, compared to the messier wrapping on his other arm. Gregory picked up Bonnie and continued moving. He finally got to the back wall with more equipment. He froze upon hearing Roxy's voice.
"Are you lost?" It was high and sounded genuine, but he knew better.
He snuck up to the metal door and set his ear to it. He could hear metal footsteps, but they were far away.
After a breath, he opened the door.
The occasional light from the wall or ceiling shed a pool of light upon the wall and ground. However, he could barely see the crates–some covered, some not, all of varying sizes–and pallets and the occasional forklift. He shut the door behind himself. Like the rest of the Mega Pizzaplex, he could barely see the ground beneath his shoes. Though the rest of the Mega Pizzaplex had neon lights that gave the illusion of help, this place did not.
Gregory looked at the flashlight in his hand.
…welp.
He flicked it on and then off again.
…
Roxy called, "I bet I'm your favorite?" Her footsteps didn't cease, but they also didn't change direction or speed.
Gregory flashed his flashlight again to get a look at where he was going. A corner blocked his view of the rest of the giant room close ahead. After another flash, he crept up to the corner. A few lights hung above an extremely long and tall stack of shelves filled with all sorts of random stuff. Roxy stalked past, looking over the territory with bright eyes and perked ears.
He shut off his flashlight. As if he was going to use that around her!
He tapped on the CAMS tab on his glasses and searched through the cameras. Thankfully, although the place was dark, the cameras picked up quite a bit more light and he could actually see what surrounded the cameras. He pressed another one of the boxes. It flickered another color and a triangle facing the direction opposite Gregory appeared on it.
Finally, he growled to himself, "Urg! There's nothing here. Must be in another camera."
A few cameras on opposite sides of a long, tall shelving unit took a second or so to become usable. A doorless entryway was carved into the wall far near the top. "Ha! There!"
He stayed on the camera for a little while longer to study her movements. She walked in a simple circle, her left flank facing the shelving unit at all times. She never stopped but swiveled her head back and forth like a security camera. With her far away enough, he turned on his flashlight so he could see where his feet were.
"I bet you don't even have friends," she goaded. Her voice came from outside as his glasses didn't pick up audio from the cams.
"I bet you don't have real friends," he grumbled to himself.
Gregory tapped his glasses and stalked around the corner, his side brushing the wall and then the covered crates pushed against the wall. He noted the thin space between the crates and wall he could probably worm his way into which Roxanne definitely could not.
She turned a corner around the shelves. He could still see her in the gaps in the shelving unit, her sunny yellow eyes glittering in the light as she swiveled her head back and forth.
Gregory crept over to the other side of the hallway made of crates leading up to the shelving unit. A thinner hallway with yellow lockers opened on the other side of the shelving unit, behind Roxanne. He took a moment to watch her move so he would not be caught in her peripheral vision and then crept as quickly as he could around the shelving units.
Then, he heard her yell, "I see you!"
She faced him, her lavender eyes shining.
She charged.
Gregory bolted into the hallway, weaving between the obstacles set up in his path and around a corner. She barreled through the small hallway, clipping boxes as she went. Gregory leaped into a laundry tub and flattened himself to the bottom of it.
Roxy rushed past, her head whipping around and ears flicking back and forth as she ran.
Gregory opened the CAMS tab again.
Roxy had run some distance before slowing to a stop, no doubt growling to herself. Her yellow eyes no longer glowed so brightly, but she kept searching and walking in the direction Gregory needed to go.
He hopped out of the laundry tub and snuck after her. There were enough fake walls, props, barriers, and boxes to cut out a direct line of sight. Still, he checked the cameras constantly.
He heard a door open and then close.
Roxanne left the door to one of the side rooms and then opened another, stuck her head inside, sniffed, and closed it again.
Well, he knew where he wasn't hiding. Can robots smell?
"Some. I couldn't."
Roxanne stopped at the end of the hallway, twitched her ears, and then turned around.
Gregory hopped into another laundry tub and crouched as flat and still as he could make himself.
Roxanne walked past him, growling to herself. "You will find him first."
Gregory waited until she got farther away before checking his watch. Once a few more props were between them, Gregory hopped out and walked as quickly but quietly as possible to the end. He could use his flashlight here, while her back was to him, and stuff was in the way.
He shut the metal doors at the end of the hall behind himself. "How does she keep finding me?"
"She's programmed to find children."
Gregory's eyebrows furrowed. "What… does that mean?
"We–the Glamrocks, at least–were programmed to seek the rooms with the most noise. That way we wouldn't accidentally get stuck in quiet rooms, and we would always be within reach of children and staff. I'm guessing that we–they were still never given a proper night mode. So, just stay quiet. If you do make any noise, find your way out fast."
There was a short pause.
"I miss some things from when I was alive. But my programming is not one of them."
Gregory walked further into the room. His flashlight fell over a prop of a sailor Freddy with a scimitar leaning on a wall. This one was brown instead of orange and blue. Interestingly, chairs–some folded, some not–were scattered around the place. A giant whiteboard discussing showtimes and rehearsals sat on the floor. Nearby a mic stand stood before a half-moon set of bleachers. What about the others?
"Freddy and Chica tended to like the certainty it provided. Monty sometimes got frustrated with his restrictions. Roxy loved figuring out ways around it and boasting about them. Then the staff would hear about it and crack down harder on all of us. She never could keep her muzzle shut when it came to achieving something. What she didn't know was the engineers were using her as their beta tester. She always bragged about how smart she was, but she never figured that out."
In the back corner of the room, he spotted a few… multicolored triangles on stands. Something sat on them. He hopped over the bleachers and climbed up onto the raised platforms. Did you figure out ways around your programming?
"A few, but most of them got shot down by Roxy. I tried telling Freddy, but he didn't want to hear it. Straight and narrow for him."
A backstage pass lay discarded on one of the bleachers in the back. He picked it up. "Got it! Now I should be able to find the lift controls."
The time was two-thirty am.
He squinted at another headache. So, what did you find out? What could you do?
"…"
Bonnie?
Gregory's eyes went wide. The door to the back area opened and two big red eyes appeared. Gregory launched himself off the bleachers. "How do you keep finding me?!" he yelled back at her.
The white rabbit skipped into the main rehearsal room. "I'm the best at hide-and-seek. I always win~!" she purred. "Do you want to play tag next? I'll be it~!"
He took out his camera and tried to snap a picture of her. The eyes on the swashbuckler Freddy prop glowed, but the white rabbit simply ignored the flash. Did the mask act like Monty's glasses? Of course, they did, you idiot! It's a mask!
Nearby was a set of foldable wall bars leading out. While one half was fully extended, the other was just shy, as if not properly shut and definitely not latched. He took it, hoping the white rabbit would be slowed down by the tight turns enough to allow him out. He shut the rolling shutters but didn't bother trying to figure out how to lock them. A huge cabinet, its back to him, made a wall that split the small room in half. He heard the metal of the barrier behind him creak as the automatic door before him opened. He blundered straight into a rack of colorful foldable chairs in the second room and flung himself out the door. Gregory crashed into the hard, clean floor, wincing at the screams of avalanching metal and plastic behind him. He looked up at Rockstar Row. More specifically, the end near Chica's room with all the old stuff in display cases and that one roped-off area with Halloween stuff.
Just across from him on a blue wall facing him was a door with a red sign stating "TO STAGE CONTROLS" "AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" beside it.
Gregory scrambled up and pushed through the door, scanning the pass first, and found himself before a set of metal stairs. He shut it quickly, but quietly, behind himself and then took off up the metal stairs. Around the stairs and below the floor, he found a dark and cluttered space. With the darkness so heavy, he needed his flashlight again. His headache subsided and he could use his senses well enough. Bonnie? Bonnie, can you hear me?
"Yes! Was that her? Why is she here again?!"
Yeah! I don't know how she keeps finding us, but she does! Maybe she has a tracker thing like the animatronics? He stepped onto a floor made of grate leading to two doors–one with a pink star guitar and the other with a green straight guitar. Those doors led into a thin room with two more similarly decorated doors. They both ended up in a fairly large room made smaller by wrap-around walls of electronics and a wall in the center holding screens and more computers. Quite a few of the screens showed different parts of the Mega Pizzaplex, while a few computer screens simply stayed off.
Who needed this many computers?
Gregory looked out the wide window above the panel on the right side of the room to see Rockstar Row. The neon lights glared off the windows, making seeing through the one-way glass almost impossible. He crawled onto the desk panel and pressed his face against the glass just in time to see the door to the rehearsal room open. The white rabbit stumbled out, kicking away a chair that attempted to ensnare one of her long feet as she went. She hesitated at the door, her head moving slowly back and forth. He wasn't sure what was worse; her creepy bouncy dancing or the sudden stillness she'd taken on, like a dog who was waiting for her quarry to lose its nerve.
Then, she relaxed and skipped down Rockstar Row, tipping her head back and forth in rhythm, throwing her head to the side to give the green rooms she passed a lazy glance. Eventually, she left his sight. He waited for another few long, silent moments for her to come running back through the door. But, she didn't come back. He swallowed and slowly slipped back down to the floor.
On the desk of computers and tech next to him was a little Freddy head with a security hat. He pressed its nose. Slowly, it opened enough for Gregory to take the higher-level security card. The thing snapped shut once its purpose was fulfilled. Next to it was a dusty case with a disk.
"Is this the control disk?" he asked himself, looking over the thing. "It looks… old."
Some of the computers flickered on and all the doors shut. Alarms screamed above him.
Oh no, not again!
Beep! Gregory tapped his glasses and went to his chat log. [Kid, looks like you triggered the security again and it activated a lockdown.] One of the screens on the wall turned on and showed Monty's broken face, part of it lost in an umber glare as the camera in his eye stared at a mirror. So, the other one wasn't functioning.
"A lockdown?" Gregory echoed, looking over at the doors. The left had a green symbol painted onto it while the right had a pink symbol. On the opposite side of the room were two more doors with two more symbols. The giant screens above both sets of doors hissed in static. After a few seconds, the static eased and showed two moving shapes–a gray and purple one stalking back and forth and a white, pink, and green one slowly lumbering back and forth. Roxy growled and they searched for the noise but did not yet approach the doors. What was stopping them? "Monty, I see Roxy and Chica on the cameras. They're both coming to the office!"
Beep! [Don't let them in. The doors have electrical deterrents. If you see them banging on the doors, hit the button next to them. The shock will stun them.]
Gregory flashed a nervous glance at the outer monitors, where Roxy and Chica paced but did not attack. "Okay, but how do I get out of here?"
Beep! [Do you see the big vent in the floor?]
Gregory looked down. Indeed, he stood on a metal grate more than big enough for him to jump into if the grate was missing.
Beep! [If I can get to the room under you, I can get it open and let you out.]
Half a second passed.
Beep! [All the doors are on lockdown. Look for me on the monitors. If you see me waving, push the button in front of the monitor to open the door.]
The screen fizzled and changed. A pair of bright red-orange eyes on a pale, fuzzy face stared at him. "There you are!" the white rabbit announced. "See you soon~!" Now the aggressive animatronics approached the doors.
Beep! [Hurry, Little guy! I can't stop her!]
The monitors flickered and changed to a video feed of cameras around the Pizzaplex.
Beep! [Can you see me?]
No?!
Gregory set Bonnie down and ran around, searching the monitors, until he could see Monty in front of a door. The animatronic held his forearm in his mouth and waved with his remaining arm. Gregory pressed the button, and the door opened.
Right beside him, he heard clanging and spotted Chica banging on a door with a microphone on it. Unfortunately, the camera was opposite the door so, though Chica banged on the right door in the camera, Gregory heard it on the left. He pressed a button near the power bar on the wall that her banging ate away. The banging stopped as she ba-gawked. On the monitors, she seized and then bowed her head and went limp on her feet.
On the other side of the room, Roxy pounded on the pink guitar door.
As Gregory darted to the door to stop her, he heard a beep. [Open the door!]
Gregory dissuaded Roxy from attacking before searching for Monty and opening the door. Chica, on the other monitor, seemed to have shaken off the shock and now walked to the other door.
The boy had to run back and forth, stopping on occasion to let Monty out or just to rest as he became breathless. Gregory was persistent, but his constant glancing at the ticking timer and dwindling power ate at him. Bonnie's encouragement helped, at least. Monty's continued progress gave him hope as well.
Then, Gregory heard thumping below him. He ran around to the grate. A light showed in the darkness, getting steadily brighter and shifting from side to side like someone running with a flashlight.
The light stopped. A set of black claws on green fingers poked through the grate and yanked it down. The metal shrieked as it was torn out, and a heavy thud followed. Gregory ran up to the hole left behind to see Monty standing on the floor, the vent grate and his forearm lying on the floor. Monty snarl-growled.
Beep! [Jump! I've got you!]
Gregory nodded and ran back to the desk. He snatched Bonnie, ran back to the vent, and then crawled down so he hung onto the lip of the vent before letting go. Monty grabbed him between his arm and chest, catching him with his palm and the remaining section of his arm and allowing him to fall back on his chest rather than be batted to the ground in another direction. Monty let him down and picked up his own arm. Gregory laughed. "Monty! You saved me!"
Beep! [Yep! There you go, safe and sound! Let's go to the atrium. That's a program disc for the show. If you use that, you can run a program that'll let you run the lift.]
Gregory nodded and followed Monty down the thin cement hall as he wound away from the Backstage control room. The cement corridors crossed with pipes on the walls and turning a corner on occasion thinned around them. Gregory's heart skipped. If the white rabbit or one of the other animatronics caught them here, they were done for. Gregory held Bonnie tighter and stayed close to Monty deeper into the fairly lit tunnel away from the wailing alarms. The alarms stopped.
After an eternity of walking, they came across a short set of stairs and to a blue metal door leading out into the atrium. To their left was a short set of stairs leading to the stage, while a set of stairs leading somewhere he didn't care about rose up to their right. Security barriers prevented them from entering the main dining hall.
Beep! [Guess I'll wait here. You run the disc and come back on stage. Hurry, it's almost the end of the hour!] Monty walked onto the middle of the stage beside a button on a very tall, thin pedestal.
Gregory nodded and speed-walked out onto the dark dining hall. Security bots were moved to the atrium floor. Security barriers cut him off from the east and west dining platforms as well as any hope of sneaking around a set of stairs. So, he had to just get through it.
He darted out behind a booth. The booths and a couple of kiddie rocket rides sat a good couple of feet from the half-wall to the areas beyond, giving him enough ability to slip by without getting spotted by the light.
"Monty said the booth is on the third floor." Gregory mumbled, clutching the borderline useless flashlight and squinting his eyes in the darkness, came up over the ridge to the second floor. The elevators to the exit nestled in the wall almost directly across from him. A set of security barriers blocked the stairs up. "Why are there so many security barriers now?"
Gregory eyed the barriers but kept moving to the right, his left being blocked close by as more security barriers had been erected. The semi-light given off by neon lights glittered off the metal. Gregory went around the booth cluster and up the next set of stairs. A good chunk of the third floor was taken up by circles of arcade cabinets. A child stroller corral and another few kiddie rocket rides and planters sat against the glass wall over the rest of the building.
The intricate, shiny sound booth sat at the top of the third floor, jutting out over open air. Thankfully, the security barriers were on the other side of the booth, giving him full access to the short set of stairs up to the shiny and unnecessarily complex Sound Booth. The memory of getting dragged past it by Officer Vanessa hours ago tasted vile.
Gregory took the disk out of its case and gently set it in.
The time was two-forty-five am.
Gregory started pressing buttons. Still, nothing happened.
"Monty, it's not working! I put the disk in, but it didn't do anything."
Beep! [I was afraid of that. At night, power is turned off to the Pizzaplex except for the neon lights. You'll need to turn on the power blocks for the Sound Booth, stage, and Parts and Service.]
Gregory grimaced. "Do you know how to do that?"
Beep! [Oh, yeah! There's a power station by the loadin' docks in the basement. Should be real quick an' easy gettin' to it and back.]
"Okay. I'll be right back." Gregory looked over the balcony. On stage, Monty stood, broken.
Gregory winced as the beginning of another headache came back, pushing against his senses in an attempt to disconnect them.
Then, he heard her humming.
Gregory walked around the booth to the stairs and peered around the wall separating most of the sound booth from the third floor. The white rabbit skipped across the floor on the other side of the barriers. Gregory bolted for the stairs. He had to move around the occasional security S.T.A.F.F. bot as they somehow rounded the corners around the arcade islands at the exact wrong time.
"Gregory!" the white rabbit called. "I'm just trying to help. Please, let me help you!"
You're going to kill me! Gregory wanted to say the words, but the longer he hesitated, the closer she got and the more muddled his thoughts became.
Finally, he made a break for the stairs.
"Slow down, you'll get hurt!" she called after him.
Gregory raced down the stairs. He tripped over himself at the bottom but managed to catch his balance.
"Gregory, your friends mi-iss you!"
His slowly clearing symptoms got worse again. He could see her ears bobbing down the stairs above him.
He ran.
"Gregory, get back here!" she snapped. There was a slight hesitation and then her voice calmed, "I'm so so-orry Gregory. I didn't mean to yell. But please, the other animatronics are here! I can protect you!"
Gregory got to the stairs leading to the atrium floor. He flashed a glance back fast enough to see her leave the stairs running. He bristled and bolted down the stairs, trying his hardest to keep his balance.
She yelled, "Monty, Roxy, Chica! Security alert, first floor! Now!"
Gregory's blood froze in his veins. Chica and Roxy's calls took up the dining hall. The white rabbit took the stairs behind him.
Gregory, huffing, stumbled as he hit the atrium floor. But the lights, the noise, the fear, the overwhelming headache and disconnect of his senses and inability to see was just too much!
He put a hand to his head and staggered into a table, shoving a chair forward as he did so.
Chica's head snapped back. She, who passed the tables and approached the booths, caught sight of the boy. Her lavender eyes glinted. "Lost boy over here!"
He turned and made a dead sprint for the vent.
"Your parents are looking for you!"
"You are not better than me!"
Gregory darted out of the stairs and main atrium, toward Salads and Sides. Trying his best to ignore both of the bots now hyper-focused on him, threw himself into the vent and crawled in as fast as he could.
Roxy's claws squealed against the vent lining and her teeth and claws flashed at the entrance.
Gregory rounded a corner and slowed to a stop.
Tiny metal feet clicked as they hit the vent behind him, and scratchy music sang.
The boy pushed himself to move again as quickly as he could.
After some crawling and a short stumble through a wide area with a grate, he slid down the rest of the vent tipped down at an angle. Gregory stumbled upon landing on solid ground and ran shoulder-first into a red tank.
Gregory, shivering hard enough to bring sharp attention back to his aching bruises and stinging cuts, shined his flashlight over the small room with the red tanks. He took long, deep breaths, but his eyes stung, and his throat tightened up regardless. Now that the adrenaline of his recent flight was over, the aches and pains of the night could come back. That and the fact he'd nearly gotten his head ripped off by that wolf again–at the behest of the rabbit lady. That rabbit lady! He thought she would have been in that security room. If she could get from that security room to the third story that fast… she could be anywhere.
"Just stay quiet. Maybe she's like the animatronics and has tech that is attracted to sound."
Gregory nodded and shut his eyes. He gave Bonnie one last hug, took a shaky breath, and started walking. He barely twitched his flashlight through the breakroom as he moved through it, the wire room, and the vat maze. Silence hung so thick and heavy that the only reassurance he had not gone deaf was through his own footsteps.
The metal door blocking him from the room he could not previously enter now opened itself.
Racks of technology filled the place, littering the walls and settling on shelving units. An inactive generator with a red light stood some distance from the door with a cable running across the ground to the kitchen. A gently growling generator with a glowing green light stood close to the door. A large cable ran out from it toward the wall opposite the kitchen. He found a panel of buttons, switches, and a wide monitor against the opposite wall to the kitchen. A plate labeling the grid's function as lights overshadowed the grid. A screen between the plate and grid stated, "POWER USAGE: 00/33" and "TIME UNTIL NEXT RESET: 0:10".
"BASEMENT 2:" stamped before the first row of four buttons: "PARTS AND SERVICE", "EDUCATION MAZE", "UTILITY TUNNELS", and "PARKING GARAGE". There was "BASEMENT 1", which included the kitchen and loading docks. "GROUND LEVEL" included the front area and "DAYCARE THEATER". Finally, on the last row, "BALCONY EAST", "BALCONY WEST", "EL CHIP'S", "EAST ARCADE", "WEST ARCADE", and "BONNIE BOWLING" showed. There were others scattered amongst the levels, but none of them drew his eye.
Gregory hummed to himself. Well, what would be the problem with turning them all on? He pressed every button in all the rows. They turned green and then flashed red and shut off. An error message popped up on the screen above them.
"ERROR: ONLY 5 GENERATORS ALLOWED ACTIVE DURING NIGHT HOURS"
Gregory frowned. That… was going to be a problem. The mandatory reset warning also didn't look too charming. He pressed the buttons under "BALCONY EAST" on Level Four, "ATRIUM FLOOR" on Level One, and "PARTS AND SERVICE" on Basement Two. They stayed green.
Beep! [The lift activated! Good job, Little guy! Now make your way back here and be careful.]
Gregory snickered to himself and, shoulders squared, and chest puffed out, waltzed out of the room and down through the locker rooms.
After quite the walk around, he made it back to the atrium.
He turned off his light and jolted upon looking at the stage.
Music blared. On the stage, four sputtering holographic versions of the glamrocks sang.
Freddy stood tall and proud with a mic stand in one hand and his mic in the other. He sang with his head held high. Sharp designs rounded his face and zig-zagged over his chest in a lightning bolt. Chica rocked out on a guitar, facing the crowd with round eyes and an open, clean beak. Earrings dangled from the side of her head and her own crazy colors and designs popped from her colored legs and shirt. Roxy stood up straight, her head up and a keytar in her hands. Spikes like an explosion dressed the front of her shirt. Monty stood beside her, knees bent, and eyes hidden behind shades and a bass guitar in both hands.
Beneath their feet, waiting and broken, was the real Monty.
Gregory climbed the stairs and ran to the tall, thin pedestal before the animatronic alligator.
Beep! [Great job, Little guy! Just press that button and the lift will take us down to Parts and Service.]
Gregory slammed his hand onto the button.
Roxy jolted as she skidded to a stop on the stairs. She glared after the boy and alligator as they descended. A growl like that of a chainsaw tore itself out from her voice box.
Then, her ears flattened, her snarl cut off, and she ran.
Gregory didn't have much time to contemplate her sudden retreat when he heard the slight tinkling of bells. Bells? Why were there bells? Behind him, the weirdest animatronic he'd ever seen popped up from under the lift. Its round, flat face was mostly painted white and part dark navy blue in a crescent moon with a permanently grinning face and pointy nose. Two red dots glowed in place of its pupils. As it cocked its head, a floppy blue night cap with yellow stars lined with white edging on its head flopped over and rang a bell on the tip. Its slender body fit between the lift and the metal wall. Five long, lithe white fingers tipped blue stamped on the lift. It raised one hand in a slow wave. As it raised its white and blue arm, he saw its frilly blue and gold trimmed collar and its thin body was split in the middle with the left being white and the right being navy blue. A red sash wrapped around its waist above its frills. Weren't the animatronics supposed to be, well, animals? The only humanish ones were the S.T.A.F.F. and that wasn't one of those.
Gregory stumbled back into Monty. "What the heck is that?!" he squawked. "There! On the wall!"
Monty looked at the animatronic. The new animatronic raised its arms and slipped under the lift. Beep! [That's the Daycare Attendant. Follow me to the recharge station!]
The lift stopped moving. Gregory followed Monty to the shutters and then the cement hall. Although this hall was unfamiliar, the double red doors at the end were familiar. They passed up a white brick hall with lime green trimming.
A raspy, deep voice warned, "It's past your bedtime…"
Gregory bristled and looked around. Red glinted in the corner of his vision. He turned his flashlight on the red pinpricks of light and barely lit up some of the white on its face and cap before it flitted away. The double red doors sat at a "T" with the recharge station at the end of the right side of the "T". Monty stopped and pushed Gregory back.
Beep! [Get in first, Little guy!]
Gregory hesitated. "What? Me?"
The moon-faced thing hopped and, as if made of feathers, landed a few feet away from them. Yellow cartoon stars spattered over its puffy blue pants just like its cap and it hopped from foot to foot on pointed, curly shoes tipped with bells. Now that it was closer, Gregory saw the red ribbons with bells on its wrists. That would explain the initial noise, but it had been quiet ever since! "Naughty boy…" it cooed. "You've been playing with time. That's against the rules. Bad children must be punished!" Its voice turned into a hiss. Then it jumped backward as Monty lunged, swiping his claws and belting out a bone-chilling roar. He chased the animatronic jester. Gregory stepped back and then bristled as it dodged Monty and landed hardly a foot away from Gregory. He took the opportunity to dive into the recharge station.
He hopped up and looked through the window. The jester spun around and jumped again to dodge Monty but didn't clear the room. Rather, it landed on Monty's shoulders. "You need to be repaired, Montgomery Gator," it rasped.
Monty thrashed under it, snapping and whipping his tail to keep his balance and gouging lines into the cement with his claws as he stumbled anyway in his desperate struggle. "You need a screwdriver in yer head!"
It grabbed him by the neck and then the wrist when the animatronic alligator tried lashing out at him.
Gregory gasped, "Leave him alone!"
Monty's eyes stopped glowing and he collapsed.
It looked up at Gregory, gave him a little wave, and then set Monty's arm on his back and dragged him by his ankles through the double red doors.
The time was three am.