Warning: Swear words, not many but they're here.
"He'll be fine Gregory, I know it. He's fast, he's smart, he's strong, Monty and Chica don't stand a chance." The words were slightly reassuring to Gregory, though he still felt that deep down his only father figure was in trouble.
The distraught boy stood unnaturally still, his arms close to his sides, in the corner of the moving elevator. A frown just barely visible on his face. Despite being a solid tune, the elevator music increased tensions of the whole situation twofold.
Cooper looked at the boy, who was slightly trembling. He went in for a hug, attempting to deescalate things. Gregory fought it, and pushed him back, to which Cooper reluctantly backed off. He felt embarrassed after the failed attempt, and stuck to his unofficial side of the elevator.
The ride had ended and the doors opened to let them leave. A whole new game of hide and seek was about to unravel in an arena that was almost made for it. The two walked out of the elevator, and heard it immediately begin to travel back upwards.
In Cooper's mind, there was no way it was Freddy. The two evil bots would never have allowed him to follow them down. It was either Monty or Chica, worst case scenario both.
The two scurried into fazerblast ignoring the instructor bot, and practically kicking the door down in urgency to enter the armory. The two each grabbed a fazerblaster and ran into the arena they left the vests and helmets stationary.
Chica wandered around the fazerblast lobby, checking everything thoroughly before moving on. From both the toilets to the security office that bird was making sure no stone was left unturned.
Cooper and Gregory waited in the battle field nervously. They exited through the same elevator and both began making their way to one of the elevated platforms.
Chica eventually realised her prey was nowhere to be found in and around the lobby, and moved on.
Wait... what are we still doing here? we can just leave right...? Cooper thought to himself. Nothing was actually keeping them there. He walked down from the platform he stood atop, making his way to the ground floor. He attempted to leave through the door.
A voice came on over the loudspeaker. "A match is currently in progress, leaving is prohibited."
"What? Not even an emergency exit?" Cooper cursed under his breath. Behind him, he heard the faint sounds of an elevator opening. He cursed again, but for an entirely different reason.
He bolted back up to Gregory, he felt safer as a duo rather than a solo. whether that was selfish thinking or not, he didn't know. What he did know however was that they were currently being hunted, and needed to stay a step ahead.
"Gregoryyyyyyyy..." The voice echoed through the cover of the arena and arrived at the duo's ears more distort and twisted than it already was. Cooper crouched down next to Gregory and motioned for him to move along the ramp they were positioned on. Gregory looked at the timer. 3:14 it read.
A hustling chase, ceased with the same fate Chica had succumbed to. An elevator closing on her. Monty stood at the Monty golf entryway and roared. It seemed even whilst being infected with whatever this thing was, he still felt miserable, frustrated with himself.
Freddy breathed a sigh of relief upon entering the safe haven that was the elevator. Although he knew that the alligator would catch up to him eventually. He always did. He always came back. That little statement sounded familiar to Freddy but he couldn't put a pin in it.
His pace was high as he made his way through the unintentional maze that was Monty golf. Given that the only times the bear was usually there was to talk to Monty, he hadn't familiarised himself with the lay of the land.
He didn't know where he was going, he figured he could lose the gator in the jungle and loop back around to the elevator. Only problem was that Monty knew the lay of the land like the back of his hand. Freddy was sure to run into a dead end and be forced to do something he'd regret. Or maybe Monty would be forced to do something he'd savor.
Freddy looked around for somewhere to run to, and found a pretty clear path ongoing of him to the left. Vines hung down that obstructed his view slightly, and outlined neon footsteps paved the way into and around staff only doors, technically Freddy was staff. Periodically nuisance alligators would jump out of the water to add to the ambience, but they were costly, and the only reason they were kept is so employees could have a good laugh at the victims of the scares. Freddy followed the course up to hole 10 before he heard a set of elevator doors opening then closing above him, and the familiar heavy footsteps of an approaching animatronic.
He picked up the pace a bit before seeing a staff only door, and through not his average but his sub-average moment of intelligence, decided to enter it. Hindsight is a beautiful thing. Monty saw him enter, and mindlessly chased the bear.
Freddy was confronted with a hallway that lead into and around a security office. He decided to enter to try and hide away from Monty, hopes as high as ever.
The timer slowly whittled down. Though no 'ticking' sound was actually being played, Cooper and Gregory's brain filled that unnecessary role for themselves. Slowly in the back of their minds... Tick, tick, tick, tick... It drove them insane.
Chica made her way up top the second floor after loosely scouting the first to no avail. Threatening speech came out of her voice box that was supposedly top-notch. Cooper and Gregory could each recall several times her voice had cracked individually. "Your family is looking for you."
Chica walked up towards the two threateningly slowly. One heavy footstep after another. The build up to seeing the glamrock was scarier than actually seeing her. Gregory and Cooper found themselves at the back of a doughnut shaped circular platform, a flag with a button in the middle of it. How odd.
The two stuck to the very end of the structure and listened closely for footsteps and speaking. Suddenly the noise from the bird ceased. Gregory looked left, Cooper looked right.
Gregory's side was clear of hostile animatronics, Cooper's side not so much. Gregory looked over to see the bird charge the night guard that was barely a meter or two away from her. Chica's acceleration was blisteringly fast, and was sure to cause mild, if not serious heart attacks.
Cooper looked at Chica and cowered somehow further into the corner than he already was, pushing and moving Gregory whilst doing so. He aimed high without thinking and shot her in the retinas almost out of instinct with the fazerblaster he was keeping handy. Gun Threatened = Shoot. Made sense to his ancestors' primitive minds, and also his.
The animatronic recoiled due to the bright light, and begin to succumb to what looked like a seizure whilst standing up. Her limbs began to pulsate and spasm, her voice box too, creating some of the most horrific grinding sounds known to man.
Cooper and Greg took the time to retreat and hide from their attacker. To the first floor they ventured. Hopes were bot high after accidentally discovering their foe's weakness. Best part was, it didn't actually damage her. Greg looked up at the timer counting down their relative freedom. 2:19 it read. 2:18. 2:17. It appeared the game would have to go on for a bit longer.
Freddy looked around the dusty office and found a present on the security guard's chair. He opened it and found a fazcam. He picked it up, confused for a moment before realising that flash photography was prohibited in Monty golf. His mind began to wander why. He came to the conclusion that he himself and his not so friendly at the moment coworkers and S.T.A.F.F. bots probably had some sort of vulnerability to the camera. It was just a hunch however, a oddly accurate one, before he heard the booming footsteps of Monty.
Freddy looked to the long hallway just outside the security office and saw Monty dangerously close to him, making ground. Freddy immediately retreated into the office and shut the door closest to Monty. He heard footsteps to his left, before they ceased and came back to his right where he had expected him to come from.
Monty began banging on the door ferociously, as he had done similarly to before in the same night. Freddy opened the door opposite to the one Monty was banging on, and attempted to leave into the large hallway to escape. One problem. The door was locked. Shit. Freddy probably shouldn't have been able to think of curse words, with him being a children's entertainer and all, but did anyways.
The door that was keeping Monty out had ejected upwards into the roof due to the lack of power, and left Freddy prime for the pickings. He did however, still have a way out. That was until Monty did something kind of smart. He walked through the office almost meeting face to face with Freddy, before he shut the door on his face. Freddy was confused until he realised he only had one route he could now take, one that Monty was approaching from.
Freddy looked towards him to find the glamrock gator closing in. Monty should have trademarked the 'walking slowly towards your prey' cliché, because he certainly loved it. Hands out, teeth beared, he even got so cocky as to lower his shades to look Freddy in the eye before ominously saying rock and roll to him. His tremendous ego was inevitably his downfall, after Freddy took advantage of his brief moments of vulnerability, to flash the blinding fazcam into his eyes.
Monty recoiled in a similar fashion to Chica and held his hands to his eyes after kneeling down and having his glasses fall off entirely. He roared in what seemed to be pain. Freddy took the opportunity and made a mad dash past him to the elevator of Monty golf, before leaving the attraction for good.
The game of cat and mouse, or rather chicken and human was coming to an end. The timer on the wall read that only 15 seconds of their torment remained. They encountered Chica around 5 times and as a result had blasted her 5 times.
The timer continued to whittle down as Chica groaned her last quip. "Gregory..."
As the timer reached 0, an alarm sounded and a voice came on over the loudspeaker "Attention teams, the match was a tie. Neither one of you came out on top. Please report back to the lobby for debrief."
Cooper's initial response was that none of the kids who came here during the day would know what 'debrief' meant. That wasn't important though. What was important was getting out of fazerblast alive. The doors where open, but Cooper and Gregory still had to make it to them.
the duo were currently situated on the ground floor, with their enemy currently blocking their exit. Cooper and Gregory approached quietly and stealthily, before reaching around their cover to blast the chicken in the eyes.
They entered the elevator with no dramas and began their ascension to relative safety. Relative being the keyword.
Now both on the first floor of the atrium, they scanned the area and saw nothing. But Freddy. The three ran and reunited in the center of the atrium. All of them breathing a collective sigh of relief. They wasted no time talking and attempted their first plan a second time, this time with everyone reaching the safety of Freddy's room.
Chica and Monty emerged from the respected attractions but it was too late. They had no line of sight on the three, and the to the brainless, out of sight was in fact out of mind.
Freddy, Cooper, Gregory, now all regrouped began recuperating. Conversation about each other's experience followed and occasional glances at watches and clocks. It was 5:49 before Cooper brought up how Freddy was not effected.
"I don't know... I don't know how my friends are infected, or if they're infected... But there is certainly something wrong with them."
"I have to go soon, Gregory, are you comfortable staying here with Freddy? Actually, I'll rephrase that... Do you trust him to keep you safe?" Concern was written all over Cooper's tone.
"Yes. Of course." He replied. Utmost confidence.
Cooper gave a nod that wasn't exactly approving, more or less just acknowledging his decision.
"I don't want to sound weird here, but if you don't want to stay, Coming home with me is an option. Your safety is above all else right now." He was keeping the door open.
"No thanks, I'll stay with Freddy."
"If you insist bud. be safe." Cooper told him with all his heart. Gregory looked at him, seeming to be offering a hug. The two took to each other for a couple seconds before Cooper said goodbye to Freddy, and walked out his green room into the no man's land that was the mega pizza Plex.
He left and safely got to his car, drama free. None of the animatronics even spotted him.