Mable: Enjoy!

Going Home in a Box

Chapter Twenty-Four

There was a moment of black void before the words "SAFE MODE" suddenly appeared in the center of his vision. His mind was slow to piece together what that meant as he roused into a state of alertness. A familiar tone and sliding sound tipped him off to where he was and his eyes snapped open to reveal the inside of the recharge station behind his green room, the door sitting open.

"Showtime already?" Freddy asked. His voice sounded a little out of tune. Not only that but he couldn't remember how on earth he had gotten back into his recharge station. He had recharged earlier, hadn't he? Before the show?

Suddenly the previously missing memories of the show all raced back in so quickly that he could've gotten whiplash. He jerked as a very vivid image of that last memory, him collapsing onto the stage, suddenly resurfaced. He knew exactly what must've happened and now he knew why he was in here, leaning against the back wall of the recharge station, stuck on some sort of unknown "safe mode".

Maybe he could make it back to stage. It only felt like a little while ago, so maybe the show was still going. He could get back up on stage and finish off with his band, make up for his long absence.

Yet when Freddy pushed off the wall and stepped out of the station, he realized he was far from showtime ready. His legs were wobbly, his body heavy, his energy sapped; indeed, his battery was registering at half charge even though he had just gone through a charge cycle. Maybe that had something to do with the safe mode, but it made him feel terribly off.

"I am experiencing a malfunction… The recharge cycle cannot be complete," he said. He stepped back into the station and tried to see if the process would start again, but it refused- the typical response when he was at full battery.

There was no point staying in here then. He managed to straighten out enough to walk but he wasn't sure if he was going to make it back on stage.

It wasn't until he got out into the green room and heard the quietness outside that he realized it was later than he thought. His internal clock was off, and it took a few moments of checking before he could recalibrate it and guessed that it was probably around ten or eleven o'clock at night. Long past closing, much closer to evening lockdown than any type of showtime.

If he had a heart, he might've heard it drop into the bottom of his stomach and shatter into hundreds of pieces. The memories replayed in his head like he was watching them on a television set. The show had been going so well, everything had been so wonderful, and then something happened, and he collapsed. He had ruined the show, the first show the Pizzaplex had ever had, and on the first song.

Freddy sighed and walked over to his vanity. He rested his hands on it and leaned against it, looking at himself in the mirror.

"I suppose…" he began somberly, looking deeply into his reflection's own sad eyes. "That the show is over… and that I am the reason for that."

He had been so afraid that something was going to go wrong and then in the end it was him who set that into motion. It might've been less traumatic if he had fallen off stage. At least then he could've gotten back up and finished the show. Now he had embarrassed everyone, his friends, himself. He wasn't sure what caused it, but he couldn't help but feel solely responsible for it.

At least Foxy hadn't seen it, he lamented. He sighed and shuffled back, body still heavy and off balance, and dropped back onto his chair with his head falling in his hand.

"Augh! Watch it!"

Freddy's eyes popped open at the thump and voice and shot back up to his feet in an instant. He turned around to see what had happened, but there was nothing there. It was just his chair.

"Is- Is someone there?" he asked in confusion. It didn't look like it, but he definitely heard that voice come from around the chair itself. "I am afraid I cannot see you. Where are you?"

"I'm down in here!"

"Down where?" The voice almost sounded like it was echoing through him, but he still leaned down and peeked under the vanity. He froze up when he felt something slide inside of him.

"Stop! I'm in here!" Freddy was taken aback by a thump on the inside of his chest. "Now will you please shut up!? Somebody's going to hear you!"

Freddy brought a hand to his chest in surprise. Sure enough, if he clearly feel something moving around inside of him, and their additional weight. He just hadn't noticed it earlier because of how off he felt from the supposed safe mode. He had assumed that the weighted feeling went along with the soreness in his legs.

"M-M-My stomach hatch? How- How on earth did you get in there?!" he asked, border panic in his tone. The voice inside huffed a little.

"Okay listen, you were sleeping, and I had to hide, so I opened your hatch and climbed in. But then some guys put you in that… tube thing and then I couldn't get back out- and they could still be out there somewhere, so keep quiet!"

This was reasonable enough, but the idea of a person- a child by the sound of the voice- holed up inside of his chest was terrifying.

"But- It- It is not safe for you to be in there! That space is reserved for oversized birthday cakes and pinatas- there are no seatbelts OR adequate padding! I am sorry but you will have to come out." To punctuate this, Freddy spun to face his room and popped his hatch open. He leaned down enough for the person inside to climb down safely and waited patiently.

There was a pause before the weight shifted inside and the child dropped down to the floor before turning around to face him. He was a rather small child with scruffy brown hair and amber-brown eyes, wearing a striped, blue shirt, cargo shorts, and a pair of admittedly ratty off-white sneakers. Freddy sighed as he knelt down in front of him.

"There you are!" he said in relief. He reached out to take the boy by the shoulder. He flinched back.

"Hey, what are you-?"

He was answered by Freddy scanning him with his eyes. He tensed in the blue light before relaxing when he realized he couldn't feel it at all.

"Scanning complete… How odd. I cannot find your guest profile on record… Hmm…" Freddy's eyes narrowed as he focused on something.

"What?" the boy asked uneasily.

"You have a cut on your cheek. Do not worry, there are plenty of first aid stations across the Pizzaplex. It is an easy fix!" Freddy pulled his hand back from the boy's shoulder to rest on his knee. "What is your name?"

"I-I'm… Gregory," the boy said.

He couldn't help but be a little nervous. While he had been inside the animatronic, seeing it awake and moving around this closely was a whole different story. The bot towered over him in both height and sheer size, and while him kneeling helped it didn't exactly change the fact that he could just stand up.

"Gregory. That is a very nice name," Freddy complimented. Gregory tightened his lips a little, feeling like he was being talked down to. The bear didn't notice. "I will notify the main office. Sit tight."

He closed his eyes, as he didn't want to spook Gregory with seeing them flicker and tried to contact the main office. It was a peculiar process, almost feeling like 'thinking' very hard and following the same format as when one may call for security- though the signal was different. Which was good, as alerting an emergency situation was probably unnecessary. Especially after the scene he made earlier and with how shy Gregory seemed.

He was rewarded with an error tone. At first Freddy thought it had been him, as he hadn't needed to call the main office before except during testing, but it became clear quickly that he was doing the right thing, it just wasn't working.

"Huh, connection error. I cannot connect to the main office… Perhaps because the Pizzaplex is closed, or because I am in safe mode. I had a bit of trouble on stage."

"Yeah, I saw that," Gregory admitted. "You went down."

"Yes, I did," Freddy guiltily admitted. "…But that is alright! Even if I cannot reach the office, that does not mean there is no hope. I could perhaps flag down the security guard through the window when she does her rounds." Gregory's eyes widened significantly. "She would be-."

"No!" the boy cried. Freddy leaned back a bit in surprise at the outburst. "I'm hiding from her. You can't tell her I'm here!"

"But that's the security officer, Officer Vanessa. She would be the one who could help you. You are not in trouble; she is just the only one who I could think of who would still be here."

"That's what she said, but then she chased me back here," Gregory grumbled suspiciously. Freddy tilted his head, and the boy gave an exasperated little noise. "Can't you just help me yourself, please?"

"Well… I suppose I could escort you to the main lobby. There we can call your parents to come and get you." Yet just as he realized this, Freddy realized something else too, and straightened up. "But we would have to hurry. Nighttime procedures begin at midnight. The main doors will be sealed, and you will be stuck until morning."

"What?!"

"But we still have time! There is still plenty of time to escort you to the front doors and to make that call," Freddy reassured him. He then looked around, rubbing his chin with his claw. "But the first step is to get us out of this room."

"You can't just open the door?" Gregory asked incredulously.

"Unfortunately, no. I lack a photo pass. Which makes sense, as I cannot take pictures with myself," Freddy explained. The boy gave him that look again. "And if you said that there were people in here… they were likely the animatronic technicians, which means that they may still be down in Parts and Service. I would rather not face them right now… Wait! Here, come with me."

Freddy stood and hustled into the back room. He was still wobbly and limping a little, but he now had a drive that pushed him onward. He went around the corner at the back and looked up at a vent on the wall. The only reason he even remembered the vent was because he had once considered it as an escape route if Foxy ever got cornered. He had pulled it loose, which nobody had seemed to notice, and even stacked boxes up under it.

"This vent travels down the air duct behind the green room and comes out on the other side of Rockstar Row," Freddy explained. He turned around to face Gregory. "Do you think you could climb through to the other side?"

"Well, yeah…" Gregory seemed a little hesitant. "But what if it's blocked off or there's a big fan in it?"

"There should not be, but if there is please come back and we can find another way," Freddy offered. While Gregory seemed a little wary of this plan, he nodded and walked around the bear.

But as he started to climb the precarious boxes, Freddy was starting to feel wary himself. This was an unattended child who he was sending through a vent shaft alone. Such a breach of protocols, so dangerous. What if he got stuck? What if he got lost? These thoughts became so overpowering that he would've willingly crawled in the vent after him if he could've. He really was helplessly stuck in this room without even a phone or a radio.

Once again, Freddy's addled mind caught up with him. "Wait! Do not go just yet," he said. Gregory looked back with confusion but just caught sight of the back of Freddy as he ran off around the corner and back into his green room.

He opened the VIP compartment drawer on his vanity and plucked out one of the novelty watches inside. These were complimentary gifts he was supposed to hand out to children who were fortunate enough to have the "Superstar" VIP birthday package, but he supposed that he could lend out one to Gregory. They were just sitting in a drawer anyways.

He turned it on, pulling out the plastic tag that kept it from activating, and then went into the settings. Eventually he was able to find where he could input security frequencies and put in his own, FZ901, before returning to the back room.

Gregory was sitting at the top of the box pile and Freddy gestured for him to hold out his arm. The boy seemed unsure and, noticing the watch, held out his hand to take it. Freddy handed it over and Gregory fit it onto his left wrist.

"What's this for?" he mumbled.

"That is a Faz-watch! Fazbear Entertainment licensed watches- though to call them 'watches' is quite an understatement. They can keep the time, play games, there is a built-in ticket goal counter, and you can even communicate between them. If you have the right server frequency," Freddy explained.

Gregory was about to question why he needed this when Freddy raised a finger for him to pause and closed his eyes. A few seconds passed, then there was a chime from the watch. Opening his eyes again, and starting the edge of a smile, Freddy gestured for him to tap on the watch. Which he did with his face still scrunched up in confusion.

"Hello, Gregory! It is me, Freddy, sending you a specially encoded message! Now we can stay in touch even when we are not together."

"Whoa. That's kind of cool," Gregory admitted with surprise.

"It is very cool!" Freddy agreed. He rested his hands on his hips. "And it goes both ways. All you have to do is press that button. The one your finger is currently on."

Gregory pressed the button and gave a, "Got it." He looked up to Freddy, who got the message internally at the same time. He gave a nod of confirmation and then Gregory turned to start climbing into the vent. "Alright. I'm going in."

Though he now had the safety net of the watch, Freddy felt a pang of worry at letting him go. He could only watch helplessly as he crawled into the unknown vents.

The vents weren't great. The metal was cold, and his knees bumped on it as he crawled along. The air smelled kind of runny, like wet playground equipment. Like an old swing set that sat out in the rain for years until it rusted. At least there wasn't any rust that he could see of and risk scraping his skin on.

Eventually he reached a vent cover that led into another green room like Freddy's, though this one mostly purple in color. He continued further down, passing more covered vents and more rooms until he came to the end of the shaft. It too stopped with a dead end, a covered-up vent. He frowned and reached out to shove at it, to verify it was closed. He didn't expect the loose cover to pop right off and fall to the floor with a loud clatter.

Gregory lurched back into the vent and waited, and waited, and about five minutes passed and nobody came. He didn't hear anything at all in fact and he peeked out to get a look around. Rockstar Row was completely empty.

The vent was a little high off the ground, so Gregory tried to lower himself. His hands didn't hold his weight when he dropped though, and he fell to the floor but landed safely on his feet with only a slight stagger. He looked around, still seeing nobody coming, and started to creep towards Freddy's room while hiding behind the glass display cases.

Though he soon realized he didn't need to do this when he looked into Chica's room and then Roxanne's. The other animatronics were missing. Monty might've been in his, but his curtain was drawn closed. Maybe they were friendly like Freddy anyways, but they weren't here so it didn't really matter, and he hustled the rest of the way to outside Freddy's room. He found the bear waving at him through the curtains.

"Good job! Now all you have to do is use your photo pass to open the door," he encouraged.

"I don't-," Gregory started before stopping and pressing the button to record a message and have Freddy actually hear him. "I don't have a photo pass."

"Oh! I just assumed… but that is an easy fix! See the door right over there?" Freddy pointed to the security door further down the hall. "Just through there is a check-in desk. There should be photo passes just behind it."

Gregory was unsure about continuing on but decided to just go and get it over with. Which turned out to be a fine decision, as there was nobody in the next hall and he managed to find the passes stacked up in an unlocked cabinet behind the desk. He grabbed a handful of them and returned back to Rockstar Row. As he was walking around the line dividers outside of Freddy's room, he found himself momentarily hesitating.

He didn't trust Freddy. Not in the sense that he thought the bear was going to hurt him, but he had a suspicion he was going to turn him in to the security guard once they got up to the lobby. Freddy definitely struck him as the type to pull the whole 'for your own good' card and drop him into the arms of the nearest authorities. Gregory had met people like that before and wasn't particularly fond of them.

His problem was getting out of Freddy and out of his room, he could just walk away now and make his way to the lobby himself… Though it wasn't going to be easy. He didn't know what doors were going to suddenly be locked up like Freddy's was, and he didn't know what he was going to do if he got cornered. At least with Freddy he could make a run for it and maybe the bear would stall for a few seconds. He at least seemed nice enough to do that.

After a long moment of thinking about it- with Freddy being silent even though Gregory could hear him pacing around on the other side of the door- the boy made the decision to go ahead and accept the help. He could always ditch him if he turned out to be deadweight. He slipped the photo pass through the reader of the door, and it popped open with a clatter so quickly that it almost startled him.

Freddy was standing on the other side with a bright smile- or bright smile-ish eyes and his mouth partially open.

"Way to go, Superstar! I knew you could do it," he praised. He held out his hand for a high five.

Gregory stared at his hand for a long moment and once it became apparent he wasn't going to lower his hand, slowly reached forward and gave him one.

"Now then, we must hurry. The front doors will not be open for much longer," Freddy warned. As he was coming out of the room, he tried to put a hand on Gregory's opposite shoulder, but the boy noticed at the last moment and slipped out of his reach before he could. Freddy didn't protest, simply following behind the child to the security door.

Though then he hesitated as he noticed the set of staff only doors

"What are you waiting for?" Gregory asked impatiently. "Let's go!"

"I just had a thought…"

"First time?" the boy grumbled.

"If there are still technicians here- or even my friends if they see me out of my room after collapsing earlier- they will make me return to my room. Perhaps it would be safer to take the utility tunnels underneath the Pizzaplex. They will lead to the same place and will save us an elevator ride- and a walk past the Lost and Found. That is where Vanessa usually stays," Freddy offered.

That didn't sound like too bad of an idea actually. "Alright. But you know where you're going, right?"

"Of course! We are required to learn all of the possible exits in case of an emergency situation." Freddy started over to the doors with Gregory close behind, the security door automatically closing again as he walked away from it.

Freddy opened the double doors and Gregory immediately wrinkled his nose at the smell of dank and the weird gush of surprisingly warm and pungent air behind held back by the door. It smelled like the back of a truck stop, and it didn't help that it was nearly as dark as one too.

"You want to go… down there?" he asked.

"I know it is not as glamorous as the Pizzaplex… and there is somewhat of a smell, but I believe this is the safest and quickest option!" Freddy assured. He noticed Gregory's grimace. "I could carry you if you are… uncomfortable." He didn't want to offend Gregory by suggesting he was scared.

"In your stomach hatch?" the boy asked.

"…Sure! If that is what you prefer." Freddy would normally never suggest this after the near accident earlier, but he was aware of the many flights of stairs between them and the lobby and deemed them more dangerous than himself.

"Okay, but you better be careful not to trip or anything. I don't want to get crushed and twisted into a meat pretzel," Gregory said. He stepped forward expectantly and waited for the hatch to open. It didn't. "Are you going to open up?"

"I am starting to have second thoughts…"

Gregory started to reach up for him, so Freddy finally decided to go ahead and open his hatch. He leaned forward just enough that Gregory was able to climb inside. Soon the hatch was closed and clicked into place. It wasn't terribly comfortable, being filled with wires and metal bits- one of these being what left the cut on his cheek- but it wasn't that bad either. At least he felt a little more hidden, and the motion wasn't bothersome for him.

"And we are off! This is Captain Freddy: I have retrieved the cargo and am now returning to base. I will be travelling through deepest, darkest sector of space. Danger awaits around every corner!" Freddy playfully narrated. He stepped in and shut the doors behind him, then started down the first flight of steps. "Here we go! Down into a black hole. Will we be able to escape?"

"You don't have to treat me like a little kid," Gregory remarked, crossing his arms on his legs, and resting his chin on them.

"Oh! I was not trying to. My apologies." There was an awkward silence, punctuated by the thumps of the bear's footsteps.

"…Okay, whatever. You can keep going. It's weird when you're just quiet," Gregory muttered. A strange consideration since earlier he had just wanted Freddy to be quiet.

"Very well! We have just entered into a vortex," Freddy picked up right where he left off, smiling to himself. He continued to thump down the stairs. "Some minor turbulence, but we are making excellent progress! We are circling an asteroid-."

Right as Freddy came around the corner of a landing, he heard a creaking noise. He froze up on the spot and listened. A moment of silence passed, then he heard something. A slimy noise along with scraping, scuttling, and clattering as something ran off. Freddy cautiously made his way to the next ledge and peered down into the utility tunnel, but by now he couldn't hear or see what it had been. All he knew was it hadn't been a Staff Bot.

"What was that?" Gregory asked. Apparently, it was loud enough that he heard it too.

"I am not sure… On second thought, perhaps it would be best if we stayed quiet. Just as long as we are down here," Freddy murmured. Gregory could hear the unease rumbling through his chest before the footsteps resumed.

The utility tunnels weren't the friendliest place in the Pizzaplex. While unbelievably helpful for moving supplies, props, and more underneath the facility, it lacked any of its charm. It was dark, moist, a hollow shaft stretching out and around underneath the building. Freddy did not like coming down here alone and yet having a child with him somehow made him feel even more aware of his surroundings.

That being said, they were making excellent progress as they passed through another security door. It was pretty much a straight walk down to the lobby turn-off, so Freddy was sure they had more than enough time to make it.

That was what fueled his decision to make a pitstop. That and noticing sign signaling a first aid station was nearby. Accidents could happen very easily down here so he knew it would be stocked and ready.

Freddy opened his hatch and Gregory peeked out in confusion. "Where are we?"

"We are at a first aid station-."

"Freddy! I told you it was fine! It's just a little cut!"

"But a little cut could become a big problem if not properly cleaned and covered! It will only take a few minutes. Better to be safe than sorry," Freddy insisted. His tone had changed though. Now it was less 'I am worried' and more 'I am worried, and that's final'.

Gregory groaned out a, "Fine," and willingly climbed down.

Freddy pulled back the curtain into the first aid station. There were a couple of bottles of antiseptic inside, some folded towels, a couple of boxes with some supplies in them- Freddy hummed with slight disappointment. It wasn't nearly as stocked as he had hoped, he would have to report this to the appropriate sources. Gregory scrounged into one of the boxes and found a box of band-aids and a half empty tube of antibiotic.

He worked quickly, smearing the gel along the cut, and then slapping the band-aid over it. Freddy would've done it for him- Freddy intended to do it for him- but he had it taken care of before he could even offer.

Gregory turned to face him and, seeing the cut was 'mostly' covered, Freddy gave him a smile. "Great job! And thank you. I feel much better knowing that you are taken care of. Climb back inside and we can keep-."

"Is somebody down there?!"

They recognized the voice calling from somewhere surprisingly close and shared looks of alarm before Gregory yanked the curtain closed to hide. Freddy quickly closed his hatch as he heard the footsteps close in. They were coming from a set of stairs in the corner of the room, one restricted behind a chained gate.

"Freddy, is that you?" Natalie called. The light from her flashlight making it down the steps before she did and for a moment Freddy wondered why he hadn't hidden too. He couldn't now, instead standing his ground as the security guard came down to the gate, only to find it securely locked. "Are you kidding me right now?" she muttered to herself. She sighed before looking over at Freddy. "Freddy, what are you doing down here?"

"I, uh… Good evening, Officer Vanessa. I was just… It is the strangest thing, but I do not know! I just woke up here," Freddy said.

Natalie gave him a look very similar to one Gregory had given him earlier.

"…I was trying to find a way out of my room, and I thought perhaps I would stop by Parts and Service," he amended. A more reasonable excuse and not technically a lie as he would've probably headed there after saying goodbye to Gregory.

"Well, I'm glad to see you up and about, but you shouldn't be wandering around in the dark when you had that fall earlier. If you got lost down here, we'd never find you. It's like a maze," Natalie scolded. Her features softened a little to ask, "That aside, how are you feeling?"

"I feel… strange. My battery does not feel fully charged and I have been put into some kind of… Safe Mode… I have never needed to be put in this mode before." Freddy's face fell with returning guilt and embarrassment. "What happened after I went down on stage?"

"Not much. They decided to shut down and got everybody out of there pretty quickly," Natalie explained. She noticed the look settling on Freddy's face. "Don't beat yourself up about it. You couldn't control what happened. We're just lucky that it wasn't a lot more serious than it was. Just a little hiccup."

"A hiccup on stage. A hiccup that ruined the show for everyone," Freddy lamented.

"That's not your fault. There's a lot of things that went wrong today, your accident was… just the one that everyone saw. Besides, the show was good! Up until your fall you were rocking it."

"I know what you are saying is true, that I could not have controlled whatever malfunction I had, but I still feel awful about it," Freddy confessed.

"That's okay. Just try to feel awful because it happened, not because you think it's your fault. Easier said than done I know, but try to keep that in mind," Natalie encouraged. She sighed again, "But back to business. Have you seen a kid sneaking around anywhere?"

"A child?" Freddy asked. The nervousness returned with a vengeance, but he managed to hide it. "I have not."

"Well, if you do, notify me immediately. I've already told the others and they're looking for him too. He's not in trouble, but if we don't get him out of here in the next ten minutes or so, we're going to be babysitting him all night."

Gregory was listening from inside of the first aid station and felt a spike of fear at the mention.

"Hmm, I see. That is very concerning. I will look for him as well."

"No. I don't want you taxing your battery looking for him when I've got the rest of the band and a small army of Security Bots searching the place. You need to worry about you and head back upstairs."

"Back to my room?" Freddy asked cautiously. Natalie's face softened a second time.

"I'm not saying that. You can go wherever you want as long as it's not down here or anywhere else equally dangerous. Not when you're on reserved power."

"I will take the next stairwell I see out of the tunnels… Well, not the first one I see. That would be the one I am looking at behind you and I do not foresee myself strongarming that fence."

"Good. Glad it's not just me," Natalie said with a small smile. "Guess I'm heading back up this way. If you see that kid, don't chase after him. Just tell someone where he is."

"I will do that, and I will leave the tunnels shortly," Freddy agreed. She turned to start up the stairs and Gregory took a deep breath finally. "…Officer Vanessa, wait." Gregory sucked that air right back in, eyes wide and heart racing. He could hear Freddy walk over to the gate and turned his head to listen closer as the bear leaned against the fence.

"I heard strange noises in the tunnels earlier. I know they were not of a child or Staff Bot… Please be careful while you are down here. The Pizzaplex is safe, but these tunnels… They are not well guarded. I am not sure what could be down here," Freddy cryptically warned. Natalie's eyes widened at the statement.

"Oh… Yeah, I'll be careful. You too," she said, then made a speedy ascent up the stairs. Freddy watched even after she disappeared, listening for her sounds to fade away, and then turned around only when he heard Gregory coming out.

"I told you she's after me," Gregory said. He then looked at Freddy with a slightly suspicious look. The bear's eyes widened, and he fumbled.

"I said nothing! I will keep you safe… From a possible reprimand that is," he assured. He opened his hatch and leaned forward to let him in. Gregory, now sporting a bandage on his cheek, climbed back into his chest cavity.

"Can we go now?"

"Aye, aye, captain."

With that, he closed up his hatch and headed back out into the utility tunnel. There was another truth he told the security guard- he would be heading up the first flight of stairs he arrived at. He just wasn't turning around to do so.

Which was probably a good thing. He hadn't gotten much further down the hall when he heard something behind him. He thought they were footsteps and stopped to look back the first time, looked back while walking the second, and neither time spotted anything else in the tunnel. He wasn't afraid- not only was the Pizzaplex safe but he was an animatronic capable of defending himself against an armed intruder- beyond afraid of getting caught by an employee.

Finally, he made it to the stairs that led up to the lobby. Which was fortunate as there was a group of Staff Bots cleaning up something further down the tunnel and he didn't want to risk walking through whatever it was that spilled. He approached the stairwell before hesitating.

"Hmm…"

"What now?" Gregory asked with slight dread.

"I detect high levels of turbulence. You may have to hold on tight. This is going to be a bumpy one," Freddy said with gentle playfulness. The boy gave a little, incredulous snort, but he could detect the slightest amusement in it.

Then he began up the stairs, careful not to trip as he strode up the first two flights. They were very close to the lobby now and with only a few minutes to spare they could probably call Gregory's parents and get him outside before-.

The world swayed just like it had on stage. No music or colors, but a sudden weakness that caused Freddy to hesitate and lean forward on a knee midway up the next flight of steps. He had managed to catch himself, with his hand tight on the railing, and tried to figure out what had just happened. It didn't take him long to realize exactly what it was.

He had noticed a lingering weariness ever since he awoke in his charging station. Of course he had; his battery had been limited by some kind of safe mode that made him quite literally weak in the knees. The stairs might've exasperated it, or it could've just been the timing, but he was just about out of charge. Unlike normally, he could almost feel the energy trickling out of him. Everything felt sluggish and foggy.

"Freddy? What happened? What's going on?" Gregory asked. He had felt the motion and even now was fighting gravity in the awkward angle of the hatch.

"I am beginning to run low on power," Freddy confessed. He pushed himself back up to his feet only to have a 'low power' warning suddenly flash across his screen. "I am terribly sorry, but I will need to find a recharge station."

"Should I get out?" Gregory asked uneasily. "You're not gonna just fall down, are you?"

"No. No, I should make it a little further," the animatronic said with a slight chuckle. He didn't want Gregory to be anymore frightened than he already was.

"Well, if you do fall then fall backwards, okay?" the boy asked with nothing but seriousness.

Though he didn't understand the direness of the situation. Freddy was just on the verge of staggering at the top of the stairs and shuffled onward with an almost pained gait.

Though just when he was considering letting Gregory out, salvation came around the corner with the reveal of a charging station. He would still need to let Gregory out, but now at least he wouldn't collapse unresponsive, frightening the boy and leaving someone- likely his bandmates- to haul him back to his room. He opened his stomach hatch and leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees.

"The typical recharge cycle takes fifteen minutes at the very least. You will have to go on without me, cadet," Freddy said.

"You want me to go alone?" Gregory asked. "Can't you… Can't you just walk a little slower?"

"I am sorry, but my cycle, the safe mode- if I do not charge now, I will not make it much further, and if you wait here you will lose your chance to make it to the front doors. I will not be able to accompany you, but I will still be with you." He pointed to Gregory's watch to clarify what he meant. Then he straightened to wobble towards the recharge station, leaning on the now opened doorway with one hand. "It will not be much further."

"Okay. If you say so…" Gregory agreed. He couldn't say he was surprised; he knew that likely he would eventually lose Freddy along the way, but he didn't think it would be this soon. "Have fun… recharging."

"Thank you. I will try," Freddy said with no sarcasm before climbing inside. The door sealed behind him, and he felt static on the bottom of his feet as the charging began. He waved to Gregory through the window before the boy turned to leave.

After hesitating momentarily at the next set of double doors, he pushed through and walked into the unknown beyond them.

Turned out that while they got out of the tunnels they hadn't necessarily gotten out of the cramped, less than appealing basement section of the Pizzaplex. He walked past a half-finished bathroom and squeezed around an amount of clutter, then through a small storage room and some additional halls. He felt like he was going in circles, but there was no way he could be. He didn't want to ask Freddy for help either, not this soon after he left him.

He walked down a pink and green painted hallway with crackling lights and found himself staring into an intimidating open door waiting at the end. It looked like it led into another security tunnel, but that wasn't possible. Just some kind of metal filled hallway with a weird orange-red hue to it. He inched towards it a little slower, not liking how significantly darker it was compared to the hallway he was currently in.

He slowly stepped out into it and was engulfed by thick air and heat. Maybe it was coming off of all the pipes in the room, like the weird humming that seemed to settle directly in his ears. He stepped out onto the grating and slowly into the passageway, looking both ways. The left was gated off so he would have to go to right, further down the passage and into the darkness. He took a few tentative steps.

Then he heard the ones coming up behind him. Quick, heavy steps banging against the same metal flooring and him knowing that it wasn't Freddy. He turned around right as a hulking form smashed against the fencing.

It was Monty. Montgomery Gator, the cool and chill member of the band, whose clawed fingers were currently grabbing the metal mesh so tightly that it was bending in his grip.

Gregory stared back wide-eyed with shock as Monty stared through his dark sunglasses, his eyes blacked out by his lenses but the boy knowing they were locked on him. The croc's body went rigid, still, too still after how fast he came in.

Gregory's fear of the animatronics were that they were going to rat him out. That they were not the lively and friendly creatures that was implied and were instead big dumb robots who followed orders and who would turn him in to the proper authorities. Freddy had been the exception, but his trust of them in general was still borderline. At any time, they could suddenly decide that it was for his own good to be given to the proper authorities.

He wasn't afraid of the animatronics; he wasn't a baby. He was afraid of how they could get him in trouble.

But when he saw how Monty was staring at him- with a look much less like a person or a machine, but a wild animal…

He was afraid.

"Monty?" he asked timidly. There was a fleeting hope that maybe Monty was just like Freddy, and this was just some sort of stare of confusion now that he realized he wasn't someone breaking in or anything.

Monty slowly released the fence and took a few steps back. His motions were stiff and his stare unflinching. Maybe he was going to leave. Maybe he was going to look for another way through.

He strode forward two steps and violently kicked open the fence with a loud grunt.

Maybe it was time to start running. Gregory turned on his heel and broke into a wild sprint down the corridor. Monty didn't miss a beat and broke into a run after him, hunched forward and claws reached out in front of him, only held back by his weight. Though he was not far behind, with Gregory able to sense his presence so close that he could almost actually feel him. The gator panting and heaving down his neck.

The disorienting flashes of light in the darkness made it difficult for him to figure out where he was going. He was running blind, running until he saw a flight of stairs and started to climb them, only barely pulling his feet up before Monty leapt forward and slammed into the steps beneath him. Gregory was around the corner and up the next flight, stealing a glance back to see Monty heaving and crawling up the steps, clawing up the steps, clamoring to his feet.

It wasn't long before Monty was full-fledged running up the steps behind him. He was having more trouble than Gregory, getting ahead of himself so much that he kept stumbling, each time with an enraged roar as he leapt back to his feet. He wasn't like a person at all, he really was like a rabid animal hunting him down.

Gregory's heart was pounding, and his lungs started to ache as he raced up the steps. Despite the fear he felt, he was starting to slow down, unable to keep up with the pace of the chase. Just when he thought he was going to get caught, he was at the top of the steps and bounded down a short hall and into an open doorway. Monty came off the steps hard, so he had an extra second to look back in time to see a button beside the door.

He slapped his hand over the button and the door slammed shut just before Monty slammed into it. Gregory staggered back as he listened to the animatronic beat its fists against the metal. There was a window beside it, but he didn't dare get close enough to look through. He instead pushed the button on his watch.

"Freddy?! Freddy, can you hear me?!"

"Gregory? What's wrong?!" The relief that the message had gotten through was short lived as it was almost drowned out by the gruff bellows through the door.

"I-It's Monty! He chased me into some kind of office- he's trying to break down the door!" Gregory cried.

"What? He must be trying to catch you to take you to Vanessa."

"No, Freddy, he's not-! He's trying to get me!" Realizing he wasn't being taken seriously, he held his watch out. "Just listen to him! He's going crazy!"

"Gregory, it is going to be okay. I know Monty might be a bit intimidating, but I can assure you that he is…" Freddy trailed off as he heard his bandmate raving and banging on the door. He was silent for a long moment, in shock.

"See?! What do I do?! He's going to break down the door!"

"Where are you? Look around and tell me what you see," Freddy instructed. Now he sounded serious, and Gregory looked at the office surrounding him.

"There's, uh, there's a desk with a really big screen and two little ones, and there's two doors…"

"That is a security office! Good, that is very, very good. Security offices are the safest place in the building. Those doors are heavily fortified and will stay closed as long as they have power. Nothing can break through them! Not even Monty!"

While Gregory wanted to believe this, he too quickly noticed some sort of bar mounted beside the door. It looked to be a monitor showing the power level, and it only had the smallest amount of blue light signaling the power left.

"Freddy, I think the power's running out!" he exclaimed. With each thump the bar crept further. "He's banging on the door and it's eating up the power!"

"Do not panic. There is a way to redistribute power into the office by activating security protocols. We could perhaps use your watch to do it. There should be a button to turn on the monitor on the desk."

At some point during this explanation Gregory stopped listening because Monty had briefly stopped banging on the door. He watched as the animatronic slowly leaned into view and peered through the window at him. He wondered if the gator could somehow hear him and Freddy's conversation through the doorway. He could've believed it. He could've believed that Monty was capable of anything.

But what Monty decided to do was slam his fist onto the window. Cracks splintered through the thick glass and Gregory could practically feel the vibrations in his chest. He could only imagine what would happen if he was in the same position as that window, and then his eyes darted back to the ever-lowering power on the door.

That was the tipping point. That was the moment Gregory knew he had to run, and he did. He turned on his heel and ran straight out the other door and out into a hallway. His body was barely rested from the brief respite- if you could call it that- in the office. It must've been the fear that had him running so easily after all those flights of stairs.

"Gregory? Gregory, what is happening?"

"What do you think?!" Gregory started only to clamp his mouth shut when he heard something ahead. Something strange. Something crunching mixed in with the rustling of plastic. He took a step back, staring ahead at where the hall abruptly ended and led off in two directions.

"Did you leave the office?"

The boy hustled back a few steps and cupped his hand around the watch before shushing the bear. Freddy got the jest and went quiet.

With the banging still behind him and his time still slowly running out, Gregory took a deep breath and crept further along, taking a right and going to the next hall corner, and peeking around it to see the source of the noise.

It was Chica. Her back was to him, and he was hunched over digging through something and making noises that sounded like feverish eating. He furrowed his brows before a piece of her meal dropped to the side, revealing what she was feasting on. Chica was savagely devouring trash, tearing apart a mound of garbage bags. Candy wrappers, food containers, half-finished food was some of it, but there was also used napkins, gross looking Styrofoam, and other nasty stuff.

Gregory's face twisted up in disgust and he pulled back around the corner. He would have to go the other way and he would have to move quick because he knew once Monty got through, he was going to be between a rock and a hard place.

Except that he already was. As he was trying to come around the other way, he realized that it went around identical corners. Sure enough, when he peeked around the last one, he got a better look at Chica shoving garbage into her mouth. There was a door between them, his only way out, but he knew she would see him if he made a run for it, and he didn't trust his legs to be able to make that run again.

He looked around where he was and spotted a couple of paint cans, including a spray paint can which he picked up. He toted it back to the passage connecting behind them and after a pause threw it back towards her side of the hall. It clattered to the floor. Chica made a startled noise, her mouth clamping down on the mushy mass she had been masticating in her beak and stood up on wobbly legs.

Gregory got a chance to peek around just in time to see Chica shuffle back in the direction of the sound, giving only a curious hum as a response to the noise. As soon as she was out of sight, he made a run for it through the doors, and through more doors, and out into the lobby.

He took only a second to get his bearings and looked to the front doors only to see a shutter already coming down. His heart lurched as he broke into a sprint.

"No, no! I'm still here! Wait!" he cried. The automated systems were unsympathetic, and the shutters hit the floor before he hit the shutters, hands flat on them. He banged on them with the same desperation that Monty had earlier.

But there was nothing he could do. The shutters, decorated with Freddy's winking and almost mocking face, sealed closed against the door and his way out was suddenly cut off. Gregory stood there for a long moment processing it.

"I'm trapped…" he said meekly. One second earlier and he would've gotten out, but he hadn't, and now he was stuck here.

Stuck with a bunch of psycho animatronics- save Freddy, who was practically incapacitated- and some crazy security lady who was out to get him in trouble. Though that seemed like a slap on the wrist compared to what Monty wanted to do, even if it would result in a whole lot of problems if he was handed over to authorities. Now he was stuck here, and it was much worse than he could've ever imagined.

All the while a mocking voice in the back of his mind reminded him that this was exactly what he had wanted.

Mable: It'll only feel like an eternity. ;)