Angie's eyes shot open. She rubs them as her brain was struggling to process what just happened. When her vision finally cleared, she saw that her companions were just starting to wake up too.
"God, what just happened?" Hilda wondered, rubbing her head.
"I forgot that would happen." Angie said out loud.
"Forgot what would happen?" David asked.
"More importantly, where's Poppy?" Boy inquired.
They others looked and saw that he was right. The little porcelain doll had disappeared.
"Poppy?" Raph called out. "Poppy, where'd you go?"
"You better not be trying to pull a Chucky on us!" Girl warned.
As the scoured the room for any sign of Poppy, David's eyes landed on a door they hadn't noticed before. He walked over to it, grabbed the knob and twisted it, allowing him to crack it open.
"Guys, over here!" He called.
The others went over and, sure enough, they found a hallway that was much more in line with the the factory's industrial aesthetic. They walked down the corridor until they came a across a fork in the path. However, in the middle, they saw a red wooden door. Above it was a name plate indicating who this room was for: Elliot Ludwig. Raphael twisted the doorknob only to find it locked.
Boy jogged over to the left path and found it blocked off my a metal gate. The right path, as Mouse would discover was another corridor, but it had a large pit in the middle of it with a bar above it. He was about to turn back and report what he found when...
"Keep going." He heard Poppy's voice urge from out of nowhere.
"Poppy?" Mouse called.
"Is she here?" Hilda asked as she ran up to him and the rest caught up.
"No." Mouse replied. "But she did tell me to keep going. Maybe there's something down there she wants us to get."
"And how are we non vampires/werewolves supposed to cross it?" Girl asked.
Raph turned his attention to his grab pack and immediately remembered that tutorial he watched when he and Angie first got here.
"I think I have an idea." He piped up.
Everyone watched as he fired one of his grab pack hands at the bar. After bracing himself for a couple seconds, he swung himself across the gap.
"Okay, that thing is seriously cool." Girl commented, clearly impressed.
"I know right?" Angie agreed.
"Cool? Yes. A toy? Not at all." Raph called from the other side.
After finding the entrance blocked by boards and another metal gate, a disappointed Raph was about to make his way back when he noticed another door hidden behinds some barrels. After pushing the barrels out of the way and making his way inside the closet, he found a key hanging on the wall. He immediately snatched it and hurried back to the group.
"Found something?" Boy asked.
"Yep." He replied, showing the key and its label.
This key allowed him to unlock the red door before letting himself and everyone else inside. From his carpeting, various bookshelves and the large wooden desk with a name plate bearing Elliot Ludwig's name sitting on it, it became clear that this was its office.
"Man, this guy must've really like his job and kids." Boy commented.
Raph, Mouse and Angie didn't say anything.
"So what now?" David asked, leaning against one of the bookshelves.
That proved to be a mistake when his suddenly came crashing down. However, in doing so he revealed a secret passage.
"Whoops." David squeaked. "At least we found a way."
One by one, they all began climbing inside. They trudged their way through the dusty vent until the came across a room with two transformers.
"Aw, man! Another one of these things!" Angie griped.
"Why? What's wrong?" Hilda asked.
"Ever since we came here, we had to do these stupid puzzles." Raph grumbled.
Before their complaining could go any further, the entire group has their attention grabbed by a falling vent grill. They turned and saw Poppy standing there.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you." Poppy apologized. "I was just trying to get the power back on. Here you go."
Sighing, Raph shot his hand at the outlet, wrapped his grab pack wire around the transformers before connecting with another outlet.
"This cannot be safe." Boy commented with a shake of his head.
"I wanted to thank you for letting me out of that case." Poppy explained. "I was stuck in there for so long."
"Don't mention it, Poppy." Hilda said.
Just then, Poppy noticed Mouse standing on Boy's head.
"Frankensqueak? Is that you?" She gasped.
"Hey, Poppy." Muse nervously greeted.
The name got a chuckle out of Girl, Boy, Frida, and David.
"Frankensqueak?" Girl chuckled.
"And you know each other?" Frida added.
"We have a history with each other." Mouse said.
"Well, regardless, I wanna pay you guys back." Poppy said. "There's a train station nearby. It needs a code and I have it. And we're gonna get you guys out of here. As long as you can get up here!"
She directed them towards another vent.
Being a werewolf, Hilda was able to easily clear the jump inside. Same with David. Angie held onto Raph as he pulled them both up with his grab pack.
"Hey! What about us?" Girl complained.
"I got this." Frida said, pulling out her wand. "Hopefully."
With a bit of concentration and a careful flick of her wand, Frida was able to float herself, Boy, Mouse and Girl into the vent.
"You can do that?" Poppy asked, amazed.
"Yeah. When you're police officers specializing in the paranormal, you'll encounter weirder." Frida said.
"By the way, I didn't exactly get you names."
They took turns telling her their names. With introductions out of the way, the party walked through the tunnel until they came across another hallway, particularly, a gate with red and blue hand pads on either side.
"I'll be able to follow you guys through the vents. You see that gate? Go through there." Poppy explained.
Raph didn't need to be told twice and scanned both grab pack hands simultaneously. Making it through, they came across and even bigger and deeper chasm than before. As before, Raphael swung across that with Frida and Angelica holding on. Mouse held on tightly to Boy's hair as he and Girl were piggybacked by Hilda and David, who leapt over the pit in a single bound.
After reaching the end of the corridor, they found Poppy standing in the next room containing an even bigger and darker hole than before.
"Good Lord, what's happened to this place." Hilda remarked.
"Listen, I'm going to need you to trust me-"
Suddenly, a pink hand emerged from the hole and snatched the the doll before dragging her down, her screams echoing in the dark.
"POPPY!" The party cried.
"What now?!" David exclaimed.
Not knowing what else to do, Angie had a very desperate idea.
"DON'T WORRY! WE'RE COMING!" She shouted before jumping down the hole.
"ANGIE!" Raph cried as he followed her.
Shaking their heads, Hilda, David and Frida jumped in themselves. This only left Boy, Mouse and Girl left.
"Maybe we shouldn't-"
Boy wasn't able to finish his sentence as Girl grabbed him by his vest and dragged him down with her. They all screamed as they fell to what felt like certain doom, or at the very least a world of pain. However, it turned out their were inside a giant slide which spat them all out at the bottom.
"Is everyone OK?" Hilda asked.
"I think so." Frida answered.
"Angie! Don't you ever do that again!" Raphael scolded.
"I'm sorry! I was just so worried about Poppy I couldn't think straight." Angelica replied.
"Look, just promise me you won't do anything like that again." He sighed as he got a nod in response.
Once the group had gotten their bearing together. Their eyes landed on yet another electrical puzzle. After solving that one, it opened shutter that led to another shutter with a red hand pad on top.
"Don't worry, Poppy." Raph said as he fired the red hand...
... only for it to be caught by a pink one and ripped off.
"I knew playmate!" A feminine voice gasped giddily. "It's been soooooo long."
Down from the shadowy ceiling a giant pink stretchy doll similar to the one Hilda had descended like a spider. Mommy Long Legs had come to play and everyone could only stare in absolute terror.
"Isn't this exciting, Poppy?" Mommy rhetorically asked as she produced Poppy bound and gagged with what looked like webs before voicing her like an actual mother would with her child's favorite toy. "Very excited, Mommy!"
Girl tried to retaliate by drawing her gun, only for Mommy to shoot sticky silk from her mouth, gumming both the gun and her hand to the wall. Hilda tried to jump up to get her, only to be webbed up herself and stuck to the floor.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Mommy heard Ms. Poppy was just going to give you the train code to escape." She mocked. "Now how is that fun? Instead, why don't we make a game out of it?"
Her eyes then locked on Angelica, who hid behind Raphael.
"Hmm, you look familiar." Mommy commented before going back to her sickeningly chipper demeanor. "Oh well! The Game Station is still working, it'll be just like old times! And if you win all three games, I'll give you the train code! Mommy loves that idea, Poppy!"
"Lady, you're scaring us!" Boy blurted.
"Ooh, you're going to have so much fun!" The pink spider toy squealed, paying him no mind. "Head down to Musical Memory and Mommy will get things started."
"Hey! Quick question!" David called. "Can we have help? Since there's only three games and all?"
Mommy thought about it for a second before smiling.
"Fine. Each game can have two players." She relented.
The group shared a collective sigh of slight relief. That was until she loomed over all of them and, while keeping her cheery smile, gave them a dire warning.
"Obey the rule. Or I'll tear all of you apart and eat your insides... while you're still alive."
With that, she disappeared into the darkness, her unhinged giggling make it abundantly clear that she meant business.
"Little help here?" Girl requested, tugging at her web-covered hand.
Raph reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket knife, which he used to carefully cut away at the webbing. Meanwhile, Frida and David were occupied with freeing Hilda, with the latter using a claw to cut through the web. Once they were both free, the shutter opened up. Whatever few choices they did have, they had absolutely none, now that Mommy had a hostage. When they went through the entrance, the lights came on to reveal The Game Station. and past all the jungle gyms, slides and monkey bars that adorned the place, their eyes landed on the train.
They walked to the control panel and inspected it, looking for anything useful. Angie's gaze wandered until it landed on the locomotive itself. On the side of its' cab was a green hand pad.
"Hey, we don't have a green hand, do we?" She asked.
"No." Raph replied. "Guess, we're gonna have to make one."
"And where do we do that?" David asked.
Raphael thought for a bit, rubbing his chin as he did. Then his eyes widened slightly as an idea came to him.
"If I remember correct,..." He said as he gazed over to the game that Mommy was talking about, Musical Memory. "Follow me."
With that the group followed the scientist down the pathway. Shining the way with their flashlights, the followed Raph. They hesitated a bit when they saw him squeezing himself through a hole in the ground, but they had no time to ask any questions and followed through. At the other side of the tunnel, Raphael turned on the lights. If the sign reading 'Molding Room' above them and the machines decorated with hands were any indication they were in the right room.
"Now all I have to do is this." Raph said, pressing the first button on the console.
With a buzz, the first tank filled with what looked like white, plastic balls. When Mouse jumped down from Boy's shoulder and landed in the seconds button, the balls instead shot out of the disconnected pipe.
"Whoops." He said
"I got it." Boy said as he ran up and reconnected the pipe.
Giving a thumbs up, Mouse jumped on the button again. This time the material flowed through correctly and into the molding machine. However, they presented another problem.
"What now?" Girl grumbled, looking at the blinking red light on the console. Noticing something in the corner of her eye, Frida saw and saw the last machine with a blinking red sign that read "No paint in machine".
"Where are we supposed to get paint?" Frida wondered.
"Maybe there's a spare can up in the catwalks." Angie suggested as she rushed over to the stairs leading up to it.
"Be careful!" Raph warned.
Shining her flashlight, Angelica looked around until she noticed something on the conveyor belt next to the catwalk. She ran up to it and saw that it was a green paint can. Picking it up, she could tell that it was full due to the weight. Returning to the machine, she popped it inside. Just then, in her peripheral vision, she saw something and was delighted to find that it was another Grab Pack.
"Sweet." She chuckled as she put it on.
As she returned back down to the ground, she saw a batch of newly made green hands.
"Where'd you get that?" Boy asked.
"I found it up there." She replied as she grabbed a hand and popped it onto her vacant grab pack cannon.
"I think this tape should answer that." Hilda said.
Popping it into the VCR, the party gathered around the TV to see how it worked. It turned out the green hand could store electricity for up to 10 seconds from designated outlets and allow them to temporarily power objects.
"That just screams OSHA violations." Boy said.
"No lie there." Raph replied.
With that in mind, Angie looked towards a glowing green power outlet as seen in the video. She shot her green hand at it and, sure enough, it glowed and sparked with electricity. She then turned to another outlet and shot her hand at that, opening the mettle shutter next to it.
"Well, no time to lose." She said.
With that, the group climbed inside the conveyor tunnel. After a short walk, they made it through to the other side. There, they saw that they were at the entrance of Musical Memory.
"Right." Hilda began. "Which two would like to play this game?"
"Count me out." Raph chimed in. "I suck at memory games."
"Boy, you always beat us at memory games every game night." Girl urged.
"Are you sure about this?" Boy squeaked.
"Just take the freaking grab pack." Angie sighed shoving the device onto Boy's back.
Sighing, he reluctantly put it on.
"And Frida, you're great at these types of games." David pointed out.
"Alright." Frida gulped as Raph took off his grab pack and helped her put it on.
After a quick brush up on how to use them, Boy and Frida gave each other a quick nod as they stepped inside and onto the platform... right as the door slammed shut behind them.
"What did we just sign up for?" Boy shuddered.
The four screens surrounding them began playing a video of how the game worked; how the patterns would get more complex, the instructions would go faster, Bunzo Bunny lowering down on them.
Wait what was that last part?
They looked up and saw a yellow rabbit dangling above them in green overalls and party hat, holding cymbals and displaying a open-mouth grin that showed both buck teeth and needle like fangs.
"Cruddlesticks." Frida swore.
"Isn't this amazing?" They heard Mommy's voice echoing.
They looked around and saw her clinging to the glass window of the observation deck.
"Mommy hasn't seen this place up and running in years! Mommy can only imagine how excited Bunzo must be."
The yellow bunny clashed his cymbals together for emphasis.
"It's been such a long time since he's been able to play. To cheer. To eat."
Boy and Frida swallowed hard as Bunzo clapped his cymbals once more.
"Oh! That's the dinner bell! Good luck." Mommy said before four buttons were raised in front of them and the screens lit up once again.
The game had finally begun.
Yellow.
Frida did so by pressing the button with her grab pack.
Yellow, green.
Boy repeated.
Yellow, green, red
This time, they had to split it
Yellow, green, red, red, blue.
They split that too. And Bunzo was banging his cymbals the whole time.
"Round 2." The speakers droned.
Green.
There.
Green, red.
Not too bad
Green, red, red.
Sure
Green, red, red, yellow.
Manageable
Green, red, red, yellow, blue.
They had to split that. This was getting tedious.
Green, red, red, yellow, blue, violet.
"Hang on, what?!" Frida cried.
They quickly looked around and found the button. Boy quickly pushed it.
"Round 3."
Orange.
They looked around and, sure enough, there were two new buttons: Orange and white. Oh joy.
Boy pressed the orange button.
Orange, yellow.
Repeat. The cymbals were getting annoying now.
Orange, yellow, green.
Repeat.
Orange, yellow, green, white.
Again.
Orange, yellow, green, white, white.
Repeat.
Orange, yellow, green, white, white, violet.
Repeat.
Another round done. How many more?!
"Round 4" He guessed he would find out soon.
Blue. Despite the text, the screens were yellow, and the voice spoke fast. This was getting dangerously tricky. Failure to stay on their toes would end them.
Frida pushed the button.
Blue, pi.
"Pi?!"
She looked around. There were five more buttons. J, pi, a question mark, a heart, and a smiley face.
On the bright side, they weren't colors.
Frida and Boy repeated the sequence.
Blue, pi, question mark.
Repeat.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow.
Again.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow, violet.
Repeat.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow, violet, orange.
Frida fumbled the pattern, causing Bunzo to descend
"AW COME ON!" They both screamed, rushing to get the pattern right.
Thankfully, they managed to do it right that time.
Blue, pi, question mark, yellow, violet, orange, red.
"When does this end?!" Boy cried.
As if just to spite them, 12 more buttons appeared from the ceiling and the bottom of the platform, with different colors and symbols.
"SERIOUSLY?!" Boy griped.
"You and your big mouth!" Frida sneered
Theta, violet, red, blue, yellow, orange, massacre, pi, lambda, white-
This was overwhelming! They couldn't possibly remember everything going this fast! All the while, Bunzo was still lowering himself more and more, clashing his cymbals faster and faster as the gap between him and his prey narrowed. Suddenly, a saving grace came in the form of button with an exclamation point on it.
An emergency shutdown.
Without thinking twice, they both fired at it, ensuring their has pressed it. This caused every light and sound to immediately cease. A few tense seconds passed before they dared to look above them. Bunzo was just a few inches above their heads, looking like horrified and with what looked like tears in his eyes. Something didn't add up. They expected the toy to be frustrated, but horrified?
Thought they didn't have too much time to dwell on it.
"Oh. It broke. That's no fun..." Mommy said from the observation window as Bunzo raised back up.
From her tone of voice she sounded... disappointed. This was concerning to say the least. Then she went back to her usual cheery demeanor
"For doing such a splendid job, Mommy has decided to give you part of the code for the train." She said. "Look up."
A pink hand descended from the tube where Bunzo was, holding a piece of paper.
"Take it."
Frida did just that and looked at. The torn paper consisted of four toys. How was that a code? They honestly couldn't care right now; this factory was already insane enough as it was. So Frida just stuffed it into her pocket
"Mommy was hoping the game could last a little longer... It's okay though. Mommy knows other ways to play with you."
With that, the spider left.
But just before they could take a single step, they heard what sounded like thrashing and whimpering coming from above them. Looking up, they Bunzo thrashing violently, trying his hardest to snap the was downright terrified of what awaited him.
Most people would be smug or outright gloat that they got a taste of their own medicine. But Boy, the self-admitted softie that he was, felt his heart ache for him. Even Frida couldn't help but feel for the poor bunny.
"Uh, Bunzo?" Frida called, prompting the rabbit to stop and look at her. "You need help getting down?"
Bunzo didn't reply, instead going back to trying to free himself once again.
"Dude, listen to us!" Boy asserted. "Does this have something to do with Mommy and you failing to kill us?"
Hearing that caused Bunzo to pull at his string even harder and more frantically. They could even hear him trying to hold terrified sobs. The sight and sound was something that was hard to not pity.
Suddenly door behind them opened, thanks to Hilda and David lifting it up and allowing everyone else to rush inside.
"Thank God you're OK." Girl panted.
"Come on! We gotta get to the next game." David urged.
"Well, what about him?" Boy asked, pointing to the struggling Bunny.
"Didn't he just try to kill you?" Raph asked.
"Yeah, but I don't think he has a choice here!" Boy answered.
"You cant be serious." Mouse sighed.
"Can you guys at least get him down?" Frida requested.
"Yeah! We helped Huggy! Why not him?" Angie added.
"Alright, I'll do it." David groaned.
With that, he floated up to Bunzo, who by that point calmed down, mesmerized by the sight of him floating. Grabbing hold of the string, David bit it off before lowering himself and the toy bunny to the floor.
"Th-thank y-you..." He said shakily.
"Wait, you can talk?!" Boy exclaimed.
"Of course I can." Bunzo said before his eyes landed on Mouse. "Frankensqueak? Is that you? I haven't seen you in forever"
"I just go by Mouse now." Mouse replied. "I'm sorry. It's just... this place just brings back a lot of memories."
"Just how many of these toys do you know?" Girl asked.
"Well, when you spend years trying to escape, you're gonna make some connections." Mouse explained.
As the groups left the room and made their way out a long, painfully awkward silence fell over them. After several, awkward seconds, Bunzo finally spoke up.
"Why?" He asked.
"Why what?" Frida replied
"Why did you get me down?"
"I'll have to admit, I'm a bit of a softie." Boy explained.
"Besides, we're cops." Hilda told him. "It's our job to make sure you get out of here safe."
"And Angie may have rubbed off on thanks to her insistence on saving Huggy Wuggy earlier." Frida added.
"Huggy's alive?" He gasped.
"Yeah, last we saw him, we bandaged him him and he insisted we move along without him." Angie said.
Before they entered a vent to leave, Boy rummaged around his one of the pouches on his utility belt before pulling out a bag of his famous cookies.
"Anyone else hungry?" He offered, taking a cookie himself and eating it.
"Yes, please!" Hilda said.
"Save some for me." Girl growled.
"I've already eaten today." Bunzo said.
"Really? What?" Frida asked, wiping crumbs from her mouth.
"Meat." He replied immediately.
"Meat? From where?" Boy asked, not liking where this was going
"From where else? The smaller toys, of course! It's eat or be eaten around these parts."
"UGH! Don't remind me!" Mouse wretched, tugging at his ears as horrible memories threatened to rear their ugly heads.
"OKAY! That's a lot to unpack there." Hilda interjected, desperately trying to change the subject.
As they proceeded to make their way through the vent, they head something that made their blood run ice cold.
"WHERE DID THAT STUPID RABBIT GO?!" Mommy's furious voice echoed.
Nobody dared move a muscle or say a single peep.
"HE HAD ONE TASK, AND HE FAILED! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THAT FAILURE, HE WILL REGRET IT!"
A loud crash was heard after that, causing everyone to flinch. Bunzo barely managed to hold his tears back and looked like he was on the verge of a panic attack. Thinking quickly, Mouse rushed over and wrapped his small arms around his old friend. Bunzo accepted the embrace, taking deep breaths in order to calm down. The tantrum lasted for several more seconds as crashing and smashing reverberated through the vents. It was then eerie silence once a gain fell.
With a silent agreement from everyone, they moved as quickly and as quietly as they could through the vents.
