CHAPTER 1: How it Began
Another Mini Critter, KickinChicken to be precise, had jumped up and landed right next to her. She fired a flare directly at it from her Grab-Pack 2.0's flare gun, and it immediately retreated. Koa Philips, ex-employee of Playtime Co., was walking cautiously through the Playhouse as the Mini Critters snarled and giggled all around her, her anxiety increasing by the second. How I wish I had my gun, she thought for the hundredth, maybe thousandth time since she dropped it when Huggy Wuggy ambushed her in that dark hallway in the factory's 'Build-a-Friend' room. Even though she preferred archery, she had been grateful her father had given her a Smith and Wesson pistol when she was 17, several months after surviving a vicious mauling from a large male grizzly while hunting alone, and the factory had shut down. The attack left permanent nerve and muscle damage in the small of her back and in her right forearm. She was also grateful for all the training, both military from her father and survival from her mother, as those skills had been keeping her alive. So far.
About ten years ago, 16-year-old Koa got her first part-time job in the factory as a cashier for the factory's toy shop, hoping to make some extra money for her family alongside the money they received from hunting wild game and her father being in the military. One day, in early August, she was savagely mauled by a bear while out hunting alone for the first time, and was hospitalized for a few weeks as a result. Then, on August 10th, 1995, the news on the hospital's TV had broadcasted that EVERY employee of the factory had vanished two days prior. Even the few police officers and detectives who went to the factory to investigate had disappeared, so Playtime Co. became a restricted area, and the investigation was abandoned.
Now, ten years later in 2005, about two days before arriving at the factory, out of the blue, Koa had received a package in the mail containing a VHS tape and a letter claiming the employees were still alive and in the factory. Koa decided to investigate herself, taking a hunting knife and her hunting pistol, hoping to find the truth and bring closure to the families of her fellow employees. The worst she thought she'd encounter was a few druggies or homeless folks who now call the factory home. However, it turned out to be a lot worse.
When she arrived, she felt like she was being stalked. By something instead of someone. As she was about to enter a dark hallway, Huggy Wuggy, one of the Playtime Co.'s mascots, had unexpectedly come out of the shadows. Just as she drew her pistol, Huggy took a swipe at her, catching her on the right side of her face and knocking her down. When she got to her feet, she immediately retreated into the conveyor belt vents, with Huggy giving chase. By some luck, she managed to outrun the monster, and she managed to pull a large crate on it's head with her Grab-Pack, which broke the conveyor belt they were on and dropped them to a lower platform. Koa managed to land squarely on the platform, but Huggy wasn't so lucky. He landed right on the rail, most of his body hanging off the rail, causing him to slide off, and Koa watched as he disappeared in the depths of the factory, noticing blood splatter when Huggy smacked off a few pipes as he fell.
Once it was over, Koa had to stop for a while to process what had happened. She was NOT expecting a living, large TOY to attack her like that. What was going on? What was happening? What was that? THAT'S NOT A MACHINE! It BLED! Machines don't bleed! Those thoughts repeated over and over in her head. After she managed to calm down, she checked over the injuries she received from Huggy. The entire right side of her face was covered in blood, having received three large scratches from him swiping at her face, as well as a large bruise that was starting to swell slightly. Fortunately, the creature had missed her eye entirely, but it was slightly swollen shut from the bruise and to keep blood from getting in her eye. Unfortunately, she had realized that the attack had caused her to drop her gun and forget about it until then, and she was unable to go back to retrieve it. After finding the 'Flower' that the letter told her to find, a large graffiti poppy flower on the wall, she found an office in the back of the factory, areas of the factory she had never explored, and in the middle of the room, was the Poppy Playtime Doll, advertised on the VHS tape she had received, in a glass case. Instincts told her to open the case, and once she did, the lights blew out.
After the lights came back on, the doll had disappeared. She had found Poppy, alive and breathing just like Huggy, trying to turn the power on in a back room behind the office of the late Elliott Ludwig, the founder of the factory. Once she got the power back on, Poppy offered her a way to escape via the factory's train with a provided activation code. But once they were out of the offices, Poppy was suddenly abducted and Koa gave chase. Just as she reached the Game Station of the factory, another toy Koa recognized as Mommy Long-Legs, challenged Koa to win the three games the station provided in exchange for Poppy and the train code, threatening to kill her if she broke the rules.
Koa managed to beat two of the three games, but was forced to make her own exit during the third game by breaking through the observation window upon realizing Mommy had blocked the original exit. After getting lost in the lower levels of the factory, Mommy ambushed her and accused her of cheating. When Koa called her out on her hypocrisy and called her the real cheater, it only infuriated Mommy further and sent her into a fit of blind rage, and Mommy chased her back to the upper levels of the factory.
When Koa managed to briefly lose Mommy, she remembered one of her father's teachings: "The top three things that lead to one's downfall are arrogance, pride, and blind rage, Koa. Never be prideful or arrogant! And always control your anger." That lesson came in handy, as after Mommy caught up with her, in her frenzy, she got herself stuck in a grinder, which Koa exploited. She pulled the switch and activated the grinder, which crushed Mommy Long-Legs to death. But her last words still ran through her head: "HE'LL MAKE ME PART OF HIM!!" Before Koa could even question what she meant, a huge, needle-fingered hand collected what was left of her body.
It was after finding a VHS tape in the factory among the many others scattered in the factory, that the hand belonged to an entity called Experiment 1006, The Prototype, who the tape explained was highly intelligent but extremely violent. After freeing Poppy and retrieving the code, Koa was finally ready to escape this place. That is, until Poppy went back on her word and rerouted the train to take her deeper into the factory. Soon though, after losing touch with Poppy while she tried to explain her motives, the train ran out of control and derailed after Koa pulled the breaks. The impact caused her to slam into the control panel of the train, which knocked her out, but not before she saw a sign that read 'Playcare.'
She woke up to a giant purple cat creature, who she recognized as a recalled toy called CatNap, dumping her down a trash compactor. She managed to escape before being crushed to death, and found that the crash had reopened one of the wounds received from Huggy, and she had received a new cut to the forehead, and a deep bruise to the chest and forehead. Luckily, her body brace for her back protected her body enough to spare her ribs. While trying to find a way out, a phone began ringing, and the voice of a small boy could be heard upon finding and answering it, who introduced himself as Ollie, and guided her to Playcare, Playtime Co.'s on site orphanage. He guided her to a hidden room in the orphanage called The Gas Production Zone, explaining that the gas, named The Red Smoke, was produced there, and was a very powerful sedative and hallucinogenic, and CatNap could produce the smoke as well. While trying to reroute the gas in the machine per Ollie's instructions, the power was suddenly cut, and Ollie gave her the objective to turn on the backup generators in the buildings and reroute the power to a room hidden under the orphanage's center statue.
While turning on the generator in Home-Sweet-Home, the building that housed the orphans, she found a tape that confirmed the horrific theories that she had been developing ever since finding scattered notes and tapes throughout the factory: these people were EXPERIMENTING on the orphans! These scientists were transferring the souls of these children into the body's of toys and treating them like slaves! Worse than animals!
After finding Poppy and a friendly female version of Huggy Wuggy: Kissy Missy, Poppy explained that she diverted the train because she wanted her help to kill the Prototype, the mastermind of the disappearances of Koa's co-workers, and warned Koa that if she wanted to leave the factory the Prototype had to die first, or else he'll kill her if she tries to escape. However, to get to the Prototype, she had to defeat CatNap, who Poppy claimed was the final obstacle between them and the Prototype.
She doesn't actually expect me to kill the Prototype, does she?! I've only seen his hand but I can tell that it's HUGE! And it immediately collected Mommy's remains after I killed her. If something THAT BIG could get THAT CLOSE to me UNDETECTED AND UNNOTICED, how can I kill it?! These thoughts ran through Koa's head as she continued to fend off the Mini Critters with her flare gun. Ollie sent her to the Playcare's school to turn on that generator as it was the best bet. But immediately after turning it on, the school's sole surviving hostile toy teacher, Miss Delight, had destroyed it with her handmade mace, and started chasing her with it through the school. Koa managed to escape and kill the teacher by crushing her to death with a grated door. Unable to go back the way she came, she traveled deeper into the school, ending up in underground caverns. There, she witnessed CatNap worshipping a shrine. It terrified her, but she didn't lose focus. After finding another door, she found it led to the Playhouse, the very place Ollie warned her not to go, but she had no choice. That's where she was now, as she had no other way to go. All throughout the Playhouse, she was being stalked by Mini Smiling Critters. After getting to high ground and losing them, she found the backrooms of the Playhouse, which reeked of decaying blood and was full of lit candles and prison cells. As Koa wandered in the rooms, she didn't even want to think of what these cells were holding, when all of a sudden…
"You….You're Poppy's angel."
Please bear with me, everyone. This is my first story and my first time using Fanfic. I hope you all enjoy!