This is my final warning about reading Free before this one. Things later will seriously not make sense if you haven't. Also, surprisingly (or not) there will be some romance stuff later in this story between certain characters, including gay shit. Leave now if you don't like either of those. Either way, romance is not the main focus of this story, so only certain ones are dwelled on while others are just mentioned. Friendship/family and comfort is the main focus. And no, I will NOT be shipping any children with any of the animatronics. That's fucking gross. If you don't care about that kind of stuff, then great. I hope you enjoy the story itself.
When the next night came around, Lea left her home, this time in her van. She did not want to walk the streets alone at night. She had offered to pick up Abby along the way, but Abby would rather ride her skateboard. "It's fine," she had told Lea. "I have pepper spray."
The van Lea owned used to belong to Ms. Westin and was very old now. Being a mechanic though, Lea was able to keep the vehicle running in perfect condition. It was large, white, and only had windows in the front, making it look like something one would smuggle things in. Ms. Westin claimed she used to deliver packages with it, but Lea found out later that the woman used to be in a band and that very van was their mode of transportation. Ms. Westin liked secrets.
Lea parked her van near the loading area around the back and walked down a deep dip in the ground leading to the underground passageways. From there, she entered an elevator and made her way up into the Pizzaplex. It was currently 7:00 p.m. The Pizzaplex would begin to usher everyone out around 11:00, and it officially closed and locked down at midnight. There were still many guests going around, even on a weekday. According to her new boss, Lea was now mostly left to her own devices. She just had to run checkups each shift and repairs when necessary. He would inform her if ever there was a more pressing matter she would need to tend to.
Since the others were still busy entertaining guests and even had two more shows to do that night, Lea decided she would head to the Daycare to check on the animatronic there. She already knew that the Daycare officially closed at 6:00 p.m., which meant that no children were there and the animatronic had already gotten a full hour to clean up the place. Therefore, he should not be busy. Of course, she was fully prepared for a repeat of the previous day. Along the way, she encountered Abby and Vanessa, both in their security guard uniforms.
"Lea!" Abby greeted her with a smile.
"Hey Abby. Hey Vanessa."
"Hey Leanne," Vanessa said. "Tonight's the official first night."
Lea nodded. "Yeah."
Lea had met Abby about six years prior to this, and the two became instant best friends. Abby had gotten a job at the Pizzaplex as a security guard, where she met Vanessa and introduced her to Lea. The three of them became good friends, and Vanessa began to confide in them the real reason she had gotten a job at the Pizzaplex in the first place.
She and a friend had been looking into the sketchy happenings of Fazbear Entertainment for a while and managed to infiltrate it by posing as new hires. Unfortunately, during their snooping, Vanessa's companion had begun to act strangely and one day vanished. There were still no signs of him to this day. Lea, having had some personal experience related to this, decided to start looking into things as well. She and Abby had become Vanessa's new partners in investigating Fazbear Entertainment and the Pizzaplex. Though Lea had yet to tell either of them about the ghost-possessed animatronics she and her sister helped years ago.
Vanessa had somehow managed to make sure that she and Abby would be the only night guards of the whole location. She had also helped Lea to ensure an overnight shift as the head mechanic. This would make it easier for them to snoop around without much interference. Still, they had to do their jobs while investigating or risk being fired and no longer having access to the location. Not that Lea minded. She quite liked working with the animatronics. After catching up with Abby and Vanessa, Lea excused herself and continued to the Daycare.
Inside, the lights had been shut off, leaving the Daycare impressively dark. Lea made her way down and looked around. The ceiling was lit up with tiny twinkling lights made to mimic the night sky. She could even make out some well-known constellations: Little Dipper, Big Dipper, Ursa Major and Minor, etc. Distracted by the artificial stars, she had not noticed the movement in the darkness to her right. Hearing a strange soft clackety sound, she tore her gaze away from the ceiling to look around. Now that her eyes had adjusted, she could somewhat make out the neatly stacked foam blocks, slides, jungle gyms, and other things. But what had made that noise?
She heard it again and reached in her pocket to pull out her phone and turn on the flashlight. At another clicking sound, she spun around to shine the light and spotted something duck behind the cover of a play area.
"No liiight…" something growled from the darkness.
"Huh?" The voice had somewhat resembled that of Sun's, but more menacing and growly. A thought struck her; she had been told that Sun was only one half of a whole. In the dark, he was… "Moon?" she called into the darkness.
The response was a menacing chuckle from somewhere to her left. "Pretty, pretty Leanne… Lost in the dark…"
"I'm not lost," she said calmly. "Where are you?"
He chuckled again, closer this time, and suddenly something snatched her phone from her hand, startling her.
"Ah! Hey!" The flashlight had been turned off. "Give back my phone!" She tried to look around in the dark but to no avail. It was not until he let himself be seen that she saw him.
From atop an overhanging part of one of the play pens, too high up for her to reach, she spotted a pair of red glowing eyes peering at her through the dark. She could just make out the appearance of the humanoid animatronic. It was exceptionally similar to Sun, yet noticeably very different. The red and orange colors of his body and clothes had changed to blues and white with stars on his pants where stripes used to be. His face was dark, while the crescent shape on his right was white and prominent, like the moon covered in shadows. The pointed rays around his head were no longer present, and instead he wore a nightcap to match his pants. This other version of the jester was intriguing but also creepy and unnerving.
"So," Lea said, placing her hands on her hips, "You're Moon."
He was perched on his feet and one hand on the edge of the overhang; in his other hand was her phone. His head tipped to the side heavily, nearly turning upside-down as he watched her. "Heheheh… Helloooo..."
"Hello," she said. "I'd like my phone back now, thanks."
"No light."
"No light? Oh, the flashlight. All right. No light." That would make it exceedingly harder to check him for any needed maintenance, but she was positive that he had no intention of letting her do that anyway. She held out her hand. "No light. I promise."
He studied her for a long moment before reaching out and dropping her phone. She caught it, and when she looked back up he had disappeared, but only for a moment, as she spotted him peering at her from the mouth of a large plastic tube at the bottom of the play pen. He was quick. He ducked inside when she went over and crouched down to look inside. He was sitting at the back of the tube, out of her reach, and looking ready to escape her via the adjacent tube's entrance if she were to get too close.
"Hello," she said again. "Can I have a closer look at you?"
"No," he said quickly in an almost snappy way. "Stay away!"
"All right, all right." She sat down and crossed her legs. "That's fine. How was your day?"
He did not respond, only stared at her.
"Okay. How was Sun's day?"
"Fine."
"How do you guys feel right now?"
"We're fine!" he snapped.
"Well, you are physically…" she muttered. "Otherwise, you're a bit on edge, aren't you?"
He growled lowly.
"It's okay. I know you don't like me because I'm a mechanic. You don't trust me. But why is that?"
"The last one proved that we can't trust any of you."
"Because of one guy, you don't trust any mechanics?"
"Mechanics, workers, adults… No!"
She flinched a little at his sudden shout. "Not every adult human is the same, Moon."
He shook his head slowly. "You don't care about us… Don't play pretend."
"I do care. Can you tell me what your last mechanic did to make you so upset?"
"I won't," he told her. His voice was lower now. "No…"
She sighed a little. "Okay. That's fine. You don't have to. But I have no intention of causing any of you guys harm in any way."
"Go away," he said quietly.
"All right. I'll leave you alone." She stood up and left the area. As she reached the upper level, she looked down to see him crawl out from the tube and look up to watch her leave. This one would give her more trouble than she thought.
…
There was much to see in the Pizzaplex and even more to see when no guests or workers were around to stop you. After checking on each of the other animatronics, who were given free reign even at night, Lea began to explore the back and side areas of the Pizzaplex. The hidden dark stairwells, areas under renovation, and so on. She had found her way into the theater where she saw some S.T.A.F.F. bots cleaning up the messes left behind by people. The smell of popcorn was strong in the air. Really, most of the mall was filled with the scents of tasty treats. Popcorn, cotton candy, cakes, and more. Abby had told her that the Pizzaplex had hidden machines pumping out those smells in hopes of gaining more sales. Lea found that she did really want popcorn now…
The first night was nothing exciting. Lea mainly poked around in areas that Vanessa had shown her and found nothing noteworthy in them. While she looked around, Lea encountered Freddy once or twice, who greeted her in a very friendly manner each time. Once, she encountered Monty, who had been walking at the other end of the east arcade. He did not notice her at first, and she was unsure if she should say anything to get his attention. As she side-stepped a passing mop bot, he turned and spotted her. Seemingly surprised, he stopped and stared at her. "Uh, hi."
"Hi," Lea responded. "What are you doing?"
"Uh… nothin'."
She smirked a little. He was acting like a child who had been caught out of bed at night.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing," she replied.
"Oh." He shuffled his feet a bit and looked at the floor.
Lea began to realize that the two of them were very awkward around each other. It was probably because of his first impression on her. He had frightened her. Perhaps he felt bad about it now? Either way, she was determined to end the tension, so she worked up her nerves and walked across the room to approach him. Surprisingly, he took a small step back when she got close, so she stopped about five feet away and stared up at him. "Each of you has an arcade machine in your rooms. Do you ever play the games in here?"
"Sometimes," he told her. "…I like that one." He pointed.
Lea followed his finger to a game with a pair of brightly-colored and simple-looking plastic guns attached via black cords. The machine was black with the images of zombies on it. "A zombie shooter?" She found this amusing. "What other games do you like?"
He seemed less tense now. "Uh, well…" He looked around and pointed. "That one's fun. Oh, and that one. The air hockey's cool."
"I like air hockey," Lea said.
"Oh, uh… Do you want to play?"
"Sure."
He seemed surprised. "Really?"
"I don't have any coins though."
"Oh that." He walked over to the machine and pointed a claw at something. "I just unscrew this part."
"What?" She walked over to look. He stuck the tip of his claw into the screws and twisted them free. When the cover fell open, numerous tokens poured out with clinking sounds onto the floor. She watched them, and when the last coin fell on top of the pile, she looked up at him.
He looked at her. "…Ta-dah!"
Lea snickered. "Won't you get in trouble for that?"
He shrugged. "Nah. I do it all the time." He bent down to grab a handful of the shiny coins and offered them to her.
Lea took them and placed them in her pocket, taking one to insert back into the air hockey machine. It whirred to life and she heard the plastic puck clink as it fell into one of the return slots. "Neat! Let's play!"
He seemed to grin at her. "Okay."
Air hockey was a favorite of hers. She used to play it with her father when she was little. Even now, she would make her sister play with her if ever they came across one while out somewhere. Lea was also very good at air hockey. So good, that even a robot had quite the time of it trying to beat her. Just before the endgame buzzer sounded, she scored the last goal by hitting the puck so that it clanked itself off the side in a diagonal line, flying directly into the goal.
"Ha! Score! Er…" She recomposed herself and chuckled with embarrassment. "Eheh. That was fun."
"Heh. Yeah, it was. Thanks." He had thought Lea to be a more serious individual, so seeing her get so excited was funny. "Actually, it was kind of relieving."
"What do you mean?"
"Er, well… I mean, it was just nice to get to know you a little more."
She smiled. "Yeah. You too."
…
After two weeks of working at the Pizzaplex nearly every night, Lea had become quite close with most of the animatronics. All except for the Daycare attendant. Each time she went to check on him, the lights were off and he was in his Moon form. He would not even allow her within arm's reach of him, no matter what she said to him. She began to go check on him at six in the morning, when the Daycare lights would turn on and he was Sun. Though Sun was friendlier, he still would not allow her too close either. Instead, she would end up sitting across from him and chatting about nothing in particular until 7:00 when it was time for her to go.
During their chats, she had learned that none of them had ever been outside of the Pizzaplex, as she suspected. Sun in particular seemed to wish to see the real sky. Sometimes, instead of talking, they would just draw on blank paper. He had been amazed by how well she could draw. Lea found that he liked to draw fantasy and fairytale things, in keeping the theme of the Daycare she supposed. But he also often drew pictures of flowers and animals. Lea had been impressed by the level of details considering he claimed to have never seen any of them before.
One night on the third week, Abby had messaged Lea to ask where she was. Lea had responded by telling her that she was by the Daycare, so Abby went to find her. However, Abby had come from the opposite end of the Daycare from where Lea was, so she entered it and began to make her way through it to the other side. Abby could see the lights on above the security desk, so she did not bother to use her flashlight. While she was making her way through the dark, she heard something giggle and stopped to glance around.
"What the…? Hello?"
"Helloooo…" the voice said with another chuckle.
Abby tensed and made a face.
"Naughty, naughty…"
"Oh hell no." She turned and ran to the light. "Leannnnne!"
Lea pushed through the large double doors designed to look like the entrance to a castle. "Abby? What's wrong?"
She ran over to her. "There's something chuckling at me in the dark!"
"Oh, that's just Moon."
"Moon?! You mean I just got spooked by a glorified clown!?"
"He's a jester," Lea said.
"What's the difference!? They're both fools!" Abby was annoyed that she had been scared.
Lea shook her head disapprovingly. "Careful what you say, Abby. He might make a fool of you if you're not careful."
"Hmph! Can't believe I got scared by a stupid clown…"
Lea shook her head again. "Stop saying that. Anyways, since you're here, go turn on the fourth generator for me. It's over in that play pen." She pointed.
"In the – What? Why is it in the play area?"
Lea shrugged. "They all are."
"That doesn't even make sense."
She shrugged again. "Just go flip the switch for me. That one's for the lobby upstairs and I need it on." She walked over to the security desk.
Abby grumbled and muttered to herself as she took out her flashlight and entered the dark again. She swept the light around to see if anything was there before climbing into the play pen and following the thick cord throughout it. "Why do they have these where kids can mess with them?" She reached for the switch when she found it nestled in a corner. Suddenly, something grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward, screeching at her and causing her to scream. She struggled to pull her arm free and screamed for Lea to help her.
Lea ran over and looked up, spotting them through the mesh wall. "Moon! Let her go!"
His head snapped to look at Lea. He thought over it for a moment before deciding to let her go. When he did, Abby scrambled away from him and back out of the play pen to where Lea was standing.
"What the fuck!?" Abby breathed, furious and terrified all at once.
"Are you hurt?" Lea asked her.
"I… No." She looked at her wrist and began to calm down.
"I told you not to talk shit, didn't I? Honestly, I'm surprised he let you go when I said to. He never listens to be." She looked up at Moon; he was watching them while stalking through the upper level of the play pen.
"How do you deal with that crap?!"
"Hm? Oh, he's never done that to me."
"What?! Why not?!"
"Well, probably because I don't call him names…" Lea muttered. "Also, I think he's afraid of me because I'm a mechanic."
"I'm not afraid!" Moon snapped.
Lea looked back up at him. "Oh? Prove it."
He flinched.
"If you're not afraid, then come down where we are."
Abby gave Lea a look.
Moon studied her for a moment as a growl rose in his voice. "Rrrr fine!" He disappeared in the play pen and they could hear him crawling around through it quickly. When he reached the mouth of a tunnel on the floor, he halted.
"What's the matter?" Lea asked. "Did you change your mind?"
"No!" he hissed. He hesitated a bit, studying to make sure that she had no tools on her at the moment. After determining that she did not, he crawled out of the tunnel and stood up, causing Abby to take a step behind Lea; she had forgotten how tall he was.
Lea placed her hands on her hips. "Well? Are you going to stay all the way over there?"
"Why do you want me so close to you?"
"Well, you said you're not afraid of me."
With another growl, he suddenly lunged forward, causing Abby to yelp and jump back. Lea, however, remained still, even when he was mere inches from her face.
She studied his face for a moment. "…Huh. Guess you're not that afraid."
"I'm not afraid at all!"
She reached up and touched his face and he immediately let out a startled yelp as he flew up and away from her via a hook that had come down from the ceiling. "That's what I thought," Lea said with a sigh.
Abby was amazed. "He is afraid of you… Teach me your ways."
"Oh, Moony," Lea said.
"Don't call me that!"
"Are you really going to stay up there now? Come down."
"No!" he hissed.
She was genuinely disappointed and sighed. "Okay. I'm sorry for startling you. I shouldn't have touched you without permission." She turned to Abby. "I have to go check up on the others. Can you look for something in the lobby for me?"
"Uh, sure."
Moon watched them leave. He was surprised that Lea apologized to him. "We may have overreacted…" Sun's voice echoed in his head.
"I don't trust her," Moon told him.
"But she seems nice."
"Bah! She's only pretending, like the last one! She doesn't really care. No adult does. They're all the same!" Moon went up to the balcony leading to their room and climbed up to push aside a ceiling tile and crawl in.
"Where are we going?"
"We'll follow her. We'll see how nice she really is…"
…
Lea's first stop was Freddy. She had gotten a message from Mr. Stanley about the bear's stomach hatch making noises that day. "Hey Freddy."
"Oh, hello Leanne! Are you here about my stomach hatch?"
"I am. Mr. Stanley said it was squeaking all day when you used it."
"Oh yes. It almost got stuck when I was delivering a cake. Since then, it has been making an awful noise when I open or close it." He opened to demonstrate and the hinges squealed.
Lea approached to take a look and reached in to touch the hinges. "Ah, Freddy. Stay still."
"Heheh, that tickles." He was shuffling his feet and moving.
"Tickles? Freddy!" Mild annoyance quickly turned to humor and she began to laugh at his behavior. "Stop it," she said through a chuckle. "Oh!" She spotted something paper thin and bright red poking out from one of the hinges and pinched it with her thumb and forefinger to pull it out.
Freddy shivered at the strange feeling then looked down to see her holding a long piece of balloon ribbon. "Oh! Was that all it was?"
"Seems like it. Let me double-check." She took out her flashlight to shine it around inside.
"I knew I should not have placed so many balloons in there at once…"
Lea chuckled. "Yeah? Well, next time get some help if it's too much. Silly Fazbear."
His ears twitched and he seemed a little embarrassed. "Eheh. Yes, I will do that next time. Thank you."
Lea closed him up and patted his stomach. Suddenly, she recalled something from a long time ago. "Hey, Freddy. Come down here."
"Hm? What is it?" He bent forward and was mildly surprised when she poked his nose and caused it to honk. "Oh!"
Lea giggled. "They kept that? Haha, cute!"
"Hehe." He smiled at her.
Moon watched them from the vent near the ceiling, still skeptical. When she left Freddy's room, he turned and scurried around to another vent where from he could peer down into Roxanne's room where Lea had just entered.
"Oh you're finally here!" Roxy said in exasperated relief.
"Is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong!? My hair is a mess, my paint is scuffed, and my nails are chipped!"
"Is that all?"
"Is that all!?"
"Roxy," Lea said as she walked over and placed her bag down. "You're repeating everything I'm saying."
"Sorry." She sat down to watch her take out brushes and paint. "It's just that I need to be perfect."
"But Roxy. No one's even here right now. Besides, there's no such thing as perfect."
"For me there is!" She sounded distressed. "You just don't understand!"
"Well," Lea dipped a brush into bright green paint and began to fix the claws on Roxy's hands, "I might if you tell me about it."
"There's just so much pressure to be perfect. Especially when performing. Especially on me! I have to look my best. I have to perform my best. Every time!"
"Everyone makes mistakes, Roxy."
"Not me!" Her ears turned back when Lea looked up at her. "Sorry… It's just… We're machines. As performers, the audience expects perfection. As machines, the people in charge expect even more! One little slip up, one slight malfunction, and we could be replaced or decommissioned or, or –"
"Wow." Lea had finished fixing her nails and paint and moved on to her hair. "Mr. Stanley was right. You guys are revolutionary."
"What?"
"Nothing. Just, you guys really do have real feelings and opinions. You're even stressed about putting on a good show because you're afraid of failure. But Roxy, I don't think you have to worry nearly as much as you are. Besides, humans relate more to characters with flaws than they do to those who are perfect."
"Still…"
"Okay Roxy. I'll make sure you look perfect. Don't worry about it."
When Lea had finished, Roxy got up and went to examine herself in the vanity mirror. "Perfect. Oh, Lea. Thank you!" She turned as Lea approached and hugged her tightly.
"Ahah, Roxy! Careful."
"Sorry!" She let go. "I'm just… Thanks."
"Anytime Roxy."
"See?" Sun said in Moon's head. "Leanne is nice."
He growled. "Maybe to certain favorites… We'll see with the others."
…
When Lea entered Chica's room, she found her standing in the corner holding her hands on her face and…crying? "Chica?"
She spun around. "Lea! You've got to help me!" She was filthy and walking oddly. "Something's wrong with me! I couldn't help myself! I ate the garbage!"
"What? Why?"
"I don't know!" she sobbed.
"Uh, okay, okay! It's all right. I'll clean you up."
Chica sniffed. "You will? What about what's wrong with me?"
"Of course I will. And as for that… I don't work on software, Chica."
"But you have to do something! No one else cares!"
"I… Hm. My friend Todd might be able to take a look… Uh, here. Lean down." Lea opened part of the face and stuck something into her head. "This little device will make a copy of your chip, including any errors or other issues. I'll have Todd look it over later. Okay, done. Let's get you cleaned up."
Though Lea was not sure how it worked, she knew that the animatronics were designed to be able to eat. Inside of them was a bag, not unlike a trash bag, that held whatever they consumed. Usually it was only Chica who ate food. When Lea opened her up to look, she found that the bag had been punctured by something sharp, leading to trash filling the other parts of the body and restricting the endoskeleton. After cleaning everything out and replacing the bag, Lea had to tighten and oil a few of the inner workings before closing her up.
"Okay," Lea said with a huff. "I think that's everything. Try walking now." She studied Chica's movements as she walked around the room.
"I feel so much better!"
"Good," Lea said with a nod. "Now come back here so I can clean up the outside."
"I'm so hungry…"
"Seriously?" Along with the paints, Lea pulled out a bag of gummy worms. "Well, I got this for you anyway."
Chica gasped. "It's like you know me so well already!"
She chuckled. "Well, you're not unlike Toy Chica."
"Oh? You knew her? It's a shame that old place had to shut down after what happened to those kids."
Lea was surprised. "You know about that?"
"Mm-hm." She opened the bag of gummy worms and ate one. "Kids went missing there. They declared them dead but never found the bodies."
"How do you know that?"
"We have some limited access to the internet. Oh, but I found a way to bypass the firewalls."
Lea made a face. "O…kay?" When she began to clean her leg, Chica suddenly gasped, startling Lea. "What?!"
"Oh. Nothing. I just remembered the birthday tomorrow at noon."
"Ah, Chica… Don't scare me like that. I thought you were hurt or something."
"Sorryyyy," she sang.
Moon watched them in silence from the vent, laying on his belly with his head resting on his arms. Freddy, Roxy, and Chica all seemed to enjoy when Lea helped them. Especially the simple paint touch-ups. Lea was also very attentive to what they said and even kept up conversations with them. She had been afraid that Chica might have gotten hurt.
"She's so nice…" Sun told him.
"Hmph. We'll see. Montgomery will be the biggest test of that."
…
As she approached Monty's room, Lea could already hear the loud sounds of him rampaging inside. She hesitated for a long time before working up her nerves and entering, flicking on the lights as she did. She spotted Monty, frozen and holding a large ceramic plant pot over his head as if he was about to throw it. He stared at her in surprise. She stared back, equally surprised. Slowly, he lowered the pot to the floor and placed it down.
"Uh, hi…" He suddenly looked bashful and began to twiddle his claws together.
"Hi," she said. It had been a while since she needed to enter his room. "I'm here to give you a checkup."
"Uh, right." He shifted his feet, looked over at the sofa, then ultimately decided to sit on the floor where he was already standing.
Lea inhaled slowly and deeply before approaching him and getting on her knees. "Does anything hurt? Is anything bothering you?"
"Um, well…" He was not looking at her directly. "There's something stuck in the back of my teeth that keeps jabbing me. And my tail hurts."
"In your teeth?" She pursed her lips, debating if she really wanted to check in his jaws. "Okay. Open your mouth and I'll take a look. But don't bite me."
When he opened, she shined her flashlight inside of his mouth. The sharp teeth needed a bit of a paint touch-up. In the last couple of teeth at the bottom in the back, she noticed something glinting in the light. Carefully, she reached her other hand in to grab it. Touching it, she could tell that it was a piece of metal. It was also sharp and jagged after seemingly having been torn off of something. She figured he must have bitten it off. But from what? She grabbed the metal piece with her fingers and tugged on it. The other side of it was stuck, punctured into his mouth, and when she moved it, Monty made a strange noise and jerked back a little.
"Does that hurt?"
"Yeah." He did not need to have his mouth free to speak properly since their voices came from boxes in the base of their necks and the wires were not being crushed.
"Try to keep still, okay? It's stuck pretty good." She pulled her arm out and retrieved a pair of pliers from her bag, which she used to get a better grip on the metal piece. Praying that he would not bite her, she tried to wiggle it free and felt his synthetic breath huff on her hand. When asked, Freddy had explained to her that they were given their synthetic breathing to make them more lifelike and to assist small children with blowing out candles. Even knowing this, it was still a bit unnerving. She literally had her entire right hand in the jaws of a mechanical alligator that probably had a biteforce stronger than a biological one. "Should've used my left hand," she thought. She finally managed to yank the piece out and quickly removed her hand.
"Ouch!" Monty held the side of his mouth.
Lea examined the metal piece, turning it over. "What is this from?" She noticed him glance at the newest mangled S.T.A.F.F. bot in the corner. There was a large chunk missing from its head. "…So, you said your tail hurts?" She got up to walk around him and found the end of his tail bent at an angle that it was not supposed to bend. "Oh, I see." After studying it for a minute, she sat on the thick end of his tail and pulled the bent end up.
"Hm? Hey, what are you doin'?" He leaned back to try and see.
"I should just be able to snap this back into place. It might hurt a little." With a quick motion, she snapped the last joint of his tail back into place with a cracking sound accompanied by a yelp from Monty. Quickly, she jumped to her feet and looked at him.
He sat there looking surprised for a while before he began to wiggle his tail. "Hey… That hurt at first, but now it feels great! Thanks!"
"No problem," she told him. "Looks like it's just some paint that you need fixed up now. But hey, why do you keep attacking the cleaning robots and trashing your room?"
"Huh? Oh, that… I don't actually know… I've just been getting so angry lately for no reason. It scares me…"
"Monty… Oh! If you want, I can download a copy of your chip like I did for Chica earlier. I have a friend who works with programming and software that I'm going to have take a look at it. Do you want to do that?"
"Sure."
After doing just that, she began to look over his exterior and make mental notes of spots she needed to fix with paint. Monty was one that she did not usually get the chance to work up-close with. Really, she was pretty sure that he had been avoiding her a little, as he always acted oddly around her, but he did not seem to be afraid or wary of her like the Daycare attendant was. While looking him over, she found herself admiring the exterior design of his body and bright colors. Besides mechanic work, she also liked art. Curious, she ran her fingers through the bright red mohawk on his head. The synthetic hair was different from Roxy's. It was not as silky but it was very soft.
"Do checkups normally come with a petting portion?" he asked.
Lea was suddenly embarrassed. "Uh, sorry." She pulled her hand back. "I just really like your design. And alligators happen to be one of my favorite animals."
"Really? I like you too."
"Heh." She felt embarrassed and sat down to collect the paints she needed. The first things she started with were his teeth, which were frighteningly sharp, but they took very little time to paint. She then moved on to the purple and green on his hands which she supposed was designed to look like he was wearing fingerless gloves. All the while, he watched her, but when she would look up at him, he would quickly direct his gaze onto something else. Lea was curious about this but decided not to mention it.
Although she had touched up some of his paint a few times already in the past few weeks, she had never taken the time to closely study him. There was a black, studded band on each of his forearms that appeared to be a part of his physical design rather than removable accessories. The others had similar bands. She touched one and found that it appeared to be thick leather. Curious, she tapped at the matching belt around his waist; it was the same material. Slipping a finger behind it over the top, she gave the belt a little tug and found that it was also attached and the buckle in the center was purely decorative.
Monty seemed a little surprised when she tugged at his belt. "Um, what are you doing?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I was just seeing if it was the same as the ones on your arms."
"Oh…"
She went back to painting, touching-up the dark green scale patterns on his legs. It seemed that, though he did not actually wear clothes, he was designed to look as though he was wearing pants and a belt, which was a bit funny to her since Freddy was not. She noticed that he was watching her again, but she decided that this time she would ignore it and keep working. She had to focus on the smaller details. The last thing she had to paint were the bottoms of his feet. It was then that she learned he was a tad ticklish, as he kept twitching or jerking his feet when she ran the brush too lightly on him. "That's cute," she thought, smiling to herself.
Finally, when she was done, she straightened up and let out a breath. "There you go big guy. Nice and handsome."
He tilted his head. "Hm? Well, you're not so bad yourself, sweetheart."
She flinched, surprised.
"Oh! Uh…" He looked away and scratched at his snout. "I mean… Sorry."
Lea huffed in amusement. "It… It's okay. It just surprised me."
"Heh, uh, yeah… Um, thanks, by the way."
"Oh, it's no problem, Monty. I like working with you guys."
"Yeah? I'm…glad you do."
"What an interesting interaction," Moon mused.
"She might be the nicest grown up we've ever seen," Sun said. "Perhaps we misjudged?"
"…"
…
After leaving Monty's room, Lea made her way into a nearby break room and laid down on the sofa located inside. She still had three hours left before it was time to leave and no more maintenance to run. Of course, there was the Daycare attendant, but she would have to wait until six to see if Sun would decide to cooperate today. Technically, she should be snooping around and investigating, but she was so tired that she ended up dozing off while deciding and woke up two hours later when Abby found her.
"Hey," Abby said as she prodded Lea's arm. "If I can't sleep, then you can't either!"
Lea groaned and opened her eyes. "Abby… Mm. What time is it?"
"Six o'clock – on the dot!"
Lea sat up, grumbled, rubbed her eyes, then got to her feet and picked up her bag. "Guess I should go check on the Daycare attendant…"
"Okay. I'll meet you outside after seven."
The Daycare lights were on, as expected, but Lea found no signs of the attendant anywhere. That is, until she passed by the ball pit and he jumped out with a "Ho ho!" She shouted in surprise. "Sun!" She sighed. "You scared me."
"Whoops." He climbed out of the ball pit and gave her a dramatic bow. "How do you do this morning, princess?"
"Princess?" She rubbed her right eye. "Sleepy."
"Oh, that just won't do."
"I'll be fine. Are you going to let me give you a checkup today?"
"Well…" He thought about it for a minute, which was already surprising. "…Okay."
"You… You will? Oh, uh, great." She turned to lightly kick a ball back into the pit. "I also have to check your charger in your room if that's okay."
"Oh! That's…I guess that's…okay."
Before she could question his hesitation, he grabbed her by the midsection and swiftly brought her up with him on the hook to the balcony leading to his room. Lea had let out a surprised shout, and when he put her down on the balcony, she immediately pressed her back against the wall as much as physically possible, breathing heavily. "Oh my god."
"Hm? Oh. Are you afraid of heights? I'm sorry!"
"I… It's…fine." After an incident when she was a kid where a giant crane had caused her to stumble over the edge of a high-up metal walkway, she absolutely despised being high up in the air. She sidestepped into the room and far away from the balcony before relaxing and taking the time to look around.
His room was not as big as the others' rooms. In fact, it was quite small. It was also surprisingly messy. Lea had quickly discovered that the Daycare attendant was a serious neat freak, however, it appeared that it did not apply to his own room. Sun watched her, tapping his fingers together nervously as she looked around.
There was a big crate blocking the short ladder down from the balcony to the floor, and below were several stacked boxes and large foam shapes. Lea had to climb over the railing and let herself drop down on her feet. Up in the corner near the ceiling was a thick cobweb heavy with dust; she wondered if the spider that had made it was even still around. There was a broom laying on the floor, and everything looked as though it had been thrown or pushed against the walls. In one corner was a filthy old children's playhouse with a small plastic table and tiny chairs in front. Sitting in the chairs were plush figures of Montgomery and Chica. In different places were plushies of Sun and Moon on the floor. The room was filled with a random assortment of boxes, crates, torn curtains, children's toys, crumpled tarps, papers, crayons, and… mangled and heavily damaged S.T.A.F.F. bots and their body parts. Lea even noticed some endoskeleton parts strewn about. For a moment, she wondered if Monty had been in there, but the damage was different than what she had seen as a result of his teeth and claws. This looked like a room of someone under serious mental stress, and it both frightened and concerned her.
"I would have cleaned up," Sun said timidly, "if I had known we'd be having company." He let out a nervous chuckle. "No one… No one ever comes in here."
"Yeah." She looked at the playhouse and table again. "Sun… Are you perhaps…lonely?"
"Hm? Lonely? Oh, no! Heh, I… I see lots of people every day!"
"What about when they all leave?"
He did not answer and only continued to watch her with his permanently fixed smile, tapping his fingers and tilting his head ever so slightly.
Lea turned and spotted a small tube in the wall that led to an even smaller room. "Huh? What's in there? Is that an arcade machine?"
"Oh! That! That room's just a bunch of old broken junk. Eheh. No need to – and she's crawling through the tube…" He shifted his feet a few times before following her.
Lea almost had to hunch down in the second room. It certainly was filled with a bunch of random junk. There were more destroyed S.T.A.F.F. bot parts, and the floor was completely hidden by the trash covering it. Lea took a moment to examine the drawings pinned to one of the walls. They were innocent enough and looked to be done by children. She accidentally hit her foot on something and looked down to find a box filled with crayons, pencils, rusty nails, a wrapped wire, and nailfiles. Nearby was a piece of paper with words written on it.
"'It's drawn to sound,'" she read aloud after picking it up. "What? What does this note mean? Ah!"
Sun had snatched the paper from her hand so quickly that it nearly cut her. Just as quickly, he tore it into tiny pieces and let them fall to the floor as he held his hands out in a shrug. "What note?" he said innocently then laughed.
Lea was startled and took a small step away from him. "N-No note, I guess."
"Right! No note!"
"So, um, this arcade game. Balloon World?"
"Oh that! It's a fun little game with a simple concept. Oh, but it's broken."
"How so?"
"Ah, well, there's a little glitch sometimes…"
"Ah, okay." She looked at him. He was standing in the way of the tube, which was the only way in or out. "Um."
"…Hm? Oh! Did you want out?" He quickly stepped aside. "After you!"
"Nnnn You can go first."
"Right!" He crawled through the tube, Moon telling him in the back of his mind how she did not trust him.
Lea joined shortly after and finally found the charge pad on the floor in the playhouse. After giving it a quick look over, she stood up. "Right then. The charger is fine. Let's go back down."
Sun was relieved. He could not care less about the charger. He just wanted her out of his room. His room was shameful and he hated it. "Great!" he said a little too loudly. "I'll meet you down there!"
"Yeah." Lea turned and opened the door, finding that it led to a long hallway.
Sun noticed her staring into it for a long time. "It leads to the theater," he told her. "Just go through the other side and you'll end up right in front of the big double doors to the Daycare. Promise."
"Okay." When she returned to the Daycare, she found Sun waiting for her near the security desk. He seemed significantly more relaxed now. "Have a seat."
He sat down cross-legged on the floor and watched her closely as she placed her bag down and sat in front of him. Lea held out her hand. He stared at it for a while before lightly placing his hand on top and allowing her to touch and examine him.
"Have you been having any issues?" she asked while she looked him over.
"Physically, no. But Moon's behavior is not normal, and it keeps getting worse. The children used to love him, but now they're afraid."
"Good," Moon growled in his head.
"He even enjoys frightening them."
"Is that so?" Lea thought for a moment. "Hm. Well, if you're okay with it, I can take a copy of your chip to my friend Todd. He's a wiz with software and the like. I already have a copy of Chica and Monty's."
"You think he will be able to fix it?"
"I don't know. But I do know that he will be able to figure out what's causing it."
Much to Moon's displeasure, Sun agreed to let her take a scanned copy of their chip. Lea furrowed her brow after removing the scanner and looking at the screen. It was glitching. Hopefully it would survive to allow Todd to look at it.
"That's weird…" she mumbled.
"What?"
"Uh, hey. Everything looks fine on the outside. It's time to open up so I can check the inner workings."
"Oh, um… Well, all right…" When she reached her hand over to touch his chest, he quickly grabbed her wrist in a tight hold, causing her to let out a sharp sound of pain. "S-Sorry! Moon is…" He forced himself to let her go and started to grab at his head. "Ergg… No… Stop it!"
"Sun?" Lea massaged her wrist while watching him, then reached out again. This time, however, she lightly touched her fingers to his face, surprising him, and began to gently caress his face while speaking in a soothing voice. "It's okay. You don't need to fight. It's fine if one of you doesn't want me to do anything."
"But… We know you won't hurt us. He's just being so stubborn!"
"Well… He's afraid. Even if he doesn't want to admit it. You both are. And that's okay." She scooted a little closer but only continued to stroke his face and nothing more. "Sunny… Was your last mechanic abusive?"
He winced. "That's uh, a strong word… Well, he didn't really see us as anything but machines. Didn't believe that we really felt any of it… He just did what he needed to get paid. Mostly…"
"Hm. Well, I'm not here for money."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
She smiled a little and held a finger to her lips. "It's a secret. Bad things have been happening lately, and I came here with my friends to figure out what. Maybe we can put a stop to it."
"You… mean the missing children?"
She nodded. After Chica, Lea was not surprised to discover that Sun was also aware of the incidents. She noticed that he seemed to relax now and was no longer grabbing at his head. "Feeling better now?"
He nodded. "…I think Moon will let you check on us now."
Lea blinked then reached to open the front of his chest, receiving no resistance this time. After looking over the inside wires and parts, she determined that he was in great physical condition and closed him up. "Looks like you don't need any maintenance. Even your paint is perfect. That's good."
Lea picked up her flashlight while Sun jumped to his feet and stretched his arms up. "Oh boy! That wasn't so bad."
"Heh, silly." She hefted her backpack onto her shoulder. "It's almost time for me to go."
Sun stepped towards her then stopped. "Leanne? Why are you afraid of heights?"
"Oh that." She was surprised he was curious about it. "It's a trauma thing. A bad experience."
"Trauma? What happened?"
"Ah, well, it's kind of a long story. The only people I've ever talked to about it are Ms. Westin, Todd, and my sister. Of course, she was there."
"You have a sister?!" He got excited. "Tell me about her!"
Lea chuckled. "Aw she's no fun. My older sister, Alex, is always fussing at me for being reckless."
"Are you reckless?"
"I'm here, aren't I?"
"Good point. Do you live together?"
"No. She lives across town with her fiancé and their little dog. I live alone in our childhood home."
"Alone?"
"Our parents passed away when we were little, and the old lady next door looked after us."
"Oh… I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I don't remember my mom, but I only have good memories of my dad."
"Do you like living alone?"
She was again surprised by his curiosity. "Well… I don't hate it. But I guess I would rather some company. Then again, Abby always comes over anyway." She checked her watch. "Ah, I should go. Sorry."
"Oh, no! I'm sorry for keeping you so long!"
"By the way," Lea said, smiling. "You both did very well today. Good job."
He became bashful. "Ah, well… Thanks."
She chuckled. "See you later, Sunny. You too, Moony."
"Bye, Leanne."
To be continued…
Can you tell that Monty and the Daycare attendant are my favorites? Lol.