Blasting Balloons
Gregory set off across the party-themed carpet. He passed by a couple of planters, one of which held a faux tree, and a set of elevators on the right and two on the left leading to the lobby. A couple of S.T.A.F.F. made their rounds, but he avoided them. Neon lights glowed in the distance, breaking up the darkness. He took the stairs opposite the elevators down to the atrium floor. He needed to skirt around the food stalls to get to the big elevator down and to the power room. Now he could turn on "FAZER BLAST". As an afterthought, he turned on "MONTY GOLF" and "PARTS AND SERVICE". He turned back and quickly made his way back to the atrium.
As he crossed one of the dining areas, his flashlight dragged over a huge green and yellow banded planet with a ring around it. A neon Helpy in a space suit with a laser gun glowed beside "FAZER BLAST" written on the wall in neon letters. He ducked under the party shutters into an alien world of alien ships, planets of various sizes, and astronauts both in neon form and cardboard cut-outs armed with laser guns centered around a stylized rocket set up in the center of the front area on stilts.
Gregory presented his pass to the ticket bot, who trilled, tossed some confetti with a little dance, and rolled away. He gave it a passing glance before walking through the elevator to Fazer Blast. "I'm going to Fazer Blast. I'm in the elevator."
Beep! [Oh, good! I'll meet you there. But I'm not supposed to help you in the arena.]
Gregory about responded when Freddy's voice boomed above him. "Calling all recruits!" Gregory jumped and then cursed himself. "Fazer Blast is a high intensity space combat simulation! Suit up and save the universe as you blast everyone and everything with high-tech laser effects. Blast strangers! Blast your friends! Beat the Superstar Score and get a free Fazerblaster gun! Enlist now."
The elevator doors opened.
"He's… not that annoying in person."
Gregory stepped out into the room whose major light source, despite the few real lights being active, was the absurd amount of neon lights. Space and aliens scattered about the faintly lit room along with pictures of the glamrocks in space suits with laser guns. In a shop to the left behind a rocket, there was merchandise on shelves and clothes hung up and a few ATM machines sat against the wall.
To the right of the elevator stood a glass case with awards and a sign-up desk before it. Between the desk and a few rows of arcade cabinets was a blue futuristic door that slid up when Gregory approached. A bathroom sign with Freddy's and Chica's symbols stamped on it was above it.
From behind the desk, he caught sight of two doors on the opposite wall. One said "NO ENTRY" while the other had a security badge above it. Gregory ran around to the "NO ENTRY" door. There wasn't exactly a scanner, so it probably wasn't an employee door. Darn. A small "L" shaped hallway was behind the other door, with one door inside leading to a bathroom with a single toilet.
Further down the hall was a metal door with another Security Badge sign beside it.
The room went dark as soon as he entered.
Beep! [Security knows you're there. Grab the badge and leave very carefully.]
Gregory found the little security Freddy head and pressed its nose. As it slowly opened, he searched the small room. A duffle bag with a note talking about hiding Monty Mystery Mix in ice cream storage was there. Didn't need that. An empty pizza box stood out amongst the clutter with a cyan and lavender bowling ticket on it.
Beep! [Oooh! That's a free bowling pass for the rest of the year! There's an ice cream parlor there.]
Gregory grabbed the security badge and indeed got out. He walked to the last blue door, this one leading to the arena.
After a short "L" shaped hallway, dark with neon arches like a rib cage around him, he entered a room only slightly wider than the hallway. A whole big row of black seats lined the left wall. A S.T.A.F.F. bot with Fazerblast gear stood up on a stage on the other side. The lights turned on here.
The bot droned, "You must be the new Fazerblast recruits, and from the looks of you, the orange-slash-blue team hasn't got a chance. Soon you will be fighting for your lives. I am here to tell you how to play Fazerblast. There are two rules you must follow at all times. Rule One: No running. No jumping, hitting, kicking, pushing, shoving. No shooting Fazerblasters in, or close to, other players' eyes. Being flashed in the eyes may induce seizures, blindness, or semi-permanent paralysis. If you are flashed in the eyes, immediately flush your eyes with soap and water and then blink repeatedly until vision is restored. Rule Number Two: Have fun. Do you want to hear these rules again?"
Gregory started to run through the door before, it went on, "Warning: Fazer Blast is a high-energy space combat simulation. People with medical conditions are allowed to participate. My medical software makes me a qualified doctor and I approve this message." Gregory hesitated by the door and stared at the bot. He didn't remember having any medical conditions, but at the same time, he hadn't been to a doctor in months. So, he wasn't a hundred percent sure. "By listening to these instructions, you have waved all rights and ability to make any claims against Fazbear Entertainment. Any accidents or injuries are your sole responsibility or shared responsibility between you and any associated party involved in said incident. Now get in there and fight, fight, fight!"
[You've played this game before, remember? You'll be fine.]
Yeah, you're right. Gregory shook his head and ran through the next door through an "L" and into another small room, this one lined on either side with vests and two tables with helmets. One side was orange with helmets that had bear ears and top hats, the other was blue with helmets that had springs and balls on the ends like alien antennae. The robot stated, "Before you enter the arena, grab a helmet and Fazerblaster."
Gregory took off his knitted hat, set it in his coat pocket, fitted an orange helmet and vest with a lightning bolt on, and grabbed the lone laser gun beside all the other helmets. The helmet's visor went over his eyes. It was so clear and light that he could barely notice it being there at all. That was until the HUD appeared. "SCORE" "0/3" popped up in blue letters at the left edge of his vision. "HEALTH" with six short bars under it glowed green on his right.
Gregory had already played the game once, but he still let out a joyful squeak upon activating the technology always talked about but never in his grasp.
The doorless entryway led to an actual door flanked by two other doors a few feet away. Both other doors said, "NO ENTRY." So, he went in through the middle one.
He got to the end with three doors. The robotic voice stated, "You are on the orange team, soldier. Report to the orange hallway."
The left door, glowing with bands of orange lights, opened for him. At the end of the long "L" hallway stood an extravagantly designed elevator that glowed with futuristic lights and patterns both carved and made of light. He half wondered if there were alien props that would go around yelling "boo" or something.
The lights shut off.
Gregory jumped and looked around as a red light became his only aid in sight. The other door opened, leading him into a neon-and-blacklight maze of barriers and vibrant carpet. A few boxes reached up, stacked like rooms without ceilings accessed by stairs. He checked his glasses. Cameras showed the absurd maze, a few boxes he could climb into, and three separate flags–one of which was at the top of the room stack in the center of the arena. He tapped his glasses to minimize the CAMS tab, finding a single catwalk. He forged on to the first flag.
He shot down alien S.T.A.F.F. bots before they could shoot back.
Each time he shot, one of the six glowing blue bars on the right of his headset's screen would go dark. If he stopped shooting long enough, the bars would refill. Words like "NICE SHOT", "AMAZING", and "5 IN A ROW" appeared if he shot them in a certain way or shot a certain number of bots in a row well enough. He smirked to himself. Heck yeah, he was amazing.
The first flag was in a corner near the door. A ceiling was overhead on this section, weirdly enough. A button on a pedestal beside the flag glowed green. He ran up and pressed it.
Computer bot announced, "You have captured the flag!"
"00:28" appeared in purple letters at the top of his vision.
A S.T.A.F.F. bot nearby announced in a monotone voice, "Capture the flag!"
Gregory shot it.
Computer bot said, "Time to defend."
The "aliens" that tried to sneak up on him or flat-out charged missed and got shot by Gregory quickly after being spotted. Bots continued to say things such as "Die Earth scum", "Stand still so I can shoot you", and "Intruder alert" as they attacked. Once the timer ticked down to nothing, "AREA CAPTURED" appeared in green letters on his visor and the computer announced, "You have successfully defended the station! Move on to the next one, Space Cadet!" The "0/3" at the top-left of his screen went up one.
Heck yeah!
He found the next flag on the ground, deciding to leave the middle one for last. He nearly forgot he was in a life-or-death situation and the only reason he was even playing was to grab the Fazerblaster.
Gregory darted around the maze to take the other ground flag. On the wall, he spotted a plain elevator door. Being similar to the one he went through with little fanfare, he could assume this was the loser's elevator.
Gregory pressed the button beside the flag. Computer bot announced, "You have captured the flag!"
"00:28" appeared in purple letters at the top of his vision.
A S.T.A.F.F. bot nearby announced in a monotone voice, "Capture the flag!"
Gregory shot it.
Computer bot said, "Time to defend."
Gregory backed up and shot anything that dared get close. For a second, he could've sworn he saw something dark moving, but when he looked back, he only saw barriers.
The timer ran out. "AREA CAPTURED" appeared in green letters on his visor and the computer announced, "You have successfully defended the station! Move on to the next one, Space Cadet!" The "1/3" at the top-left of his screen went up one.
Now he approached the stairs. Hopefully, he could capture this flag up top with just as few problems!
As he climbed the stairs, the walls became scarce. There were a few walls on the landing and the top was ringed with them. Gregory captured the flag in the center and hid behind one of the walls. As the clock ticked down, S.T.A.F.F. bots rolled into his vision.
"YOU WIN" blazed across his visor in blocky, electric, green letters and yellow stripes with thin stripes missing above and below with green furls on either side.
The computer bot said, "You have defeated the alien army! Good job, Space Cadet! Proceed to the winner's elevator for your reward."
Gregory laughed and ran.
As he tried to find his way, he found a plain metal door in the wall, hidden in the maze. Curious, he attempted to open it.
Click.
…oh, well. Not his problem. He had other things to do outside of bothering with random creepy doors. He found the Winner's Elevator with a "Blaster Return" box next to it. Gregory dropped his Fazerblaster and immediately pressed the button to return to the upper level.
Beep! He tapped his glasses to look at his chat log. [Great job, Gregory! Since you won, you should be able to get your reward in the Superstar Lounge.]
The next door opened, showing a hallway lit with green lights that he ran through. The blue door at the end opened up to another couple of doors with an empty doorway on his right leading to a small lounge area. An empty pizza box and some unopened chip bags beside consumed coffee cups ringed the table.
A few small, red couches and benches ringed the small room overlooking the arena. A Freddie plush sat on a couch. He snatched the golden Fazerblaster and started to leave when he spotted the open vent.
The time was four-fifteen am.
Gregory stuck the Fazerblaster in his pocket–or tried to, the bulbous tip of it barely fit, but it did so well enough to free his hand–and took out the cupcake light. He clicked it on. An arrow on the wall pointed down to the vent. So… the room had something to do with the white rabbit. This had to be about the room. There was no way it wasn't.
He switched the cupcake keychain for his flashlight and crawled into the vent. Gregory climbed up the steeply sloped vent that stopped rather suddenly at a fan with a grate over it. It opened onto an uneven catwalk with a few boards laying haphazardly on the ground and barred off from the arena by gargantuan cutouts of the main cast of characters. A partially crumpled note lay on the ground.
"NEW HIRE SUMMARY – Head Security Guard. No prior qualifications. Internal reference (name withheld)."
Gregory dropped the note. Unfortunately, a wall stopped him from further movement. But the wall next to him had a vent he could use. This vent also continued up at an angle, taking two quick right turns and a left one and going up for what felt like an entire story before taking one right turn onto a grated catwalk.
Gregory stood up and looked down over the arena and the catwalk, and then the metal door to the room jutting out of the wall. The door itself was a metal security door with a window cut out of it. He peered through it, finding a messy bed, some pizza boxes, and a baby blue arcade machine covered in balloons with a smiling sun and a boy in a striped shirt and labeled "BALLOON WORLD".
"Hey, Chica, I found a room above the Fazer Blast arena. It has a bed, some old pizza boxes, and an arcade cabinet."
Beep! [A… room? With a bed and stuff in it? Oh. That doesn't sound safe.]
"I've seen it before," Gregory reassured her. "Last time. But I couldn't do anything about it." He switched his flashlight for his cupcake keychain and clicked it on. A rabbit head glowed on the door. Inside, beside the arcade cabinet spanning across the wall, was the word "VANNY". He blinked and raised his eyebrows. "Vanny? I-I think her name is 'Vanny'."
Beep! [Vanny? What a weird name. How do you know that?]
"The keychain you gave me," Gregory said. "It has a UV light on it, and she wrote her name in UV paint or something. At least, I think it's her name. Maybe it's a codeword?" Gregory looked over the security door. How do I open this door?
"Are you–Gregory! We have enough evidence! We know her name and where she lives. We need to leave! Now! We can't just stick around her lair!"
Her bed is literally the last place she'd think we'd be. Gregory shined his light over an arrow near the door pointing to the right, extending all the way to the corner. He reached around and patted the wall around the corner. His fingers must have touched some sort of pad as he didn't feel a button compress when the door shot open. He jumped and bolted to the vent. Gregory hesitated before he could climb in and looked back.
…nothing.
He stood up and crept into the room. A computer terminal stood against the wall with the security door with a second computer monitor and a small TV screen attached to it. A remote sat on it. A strange feeling overcame Gregory as he approached the cheerful arcade cabinet. A crumpled note lay on the ground beside it, almost under it against the wall. Gregory set Bonnie down on the arcade cabinet and picked it up.
"FIND THE GLITCHES."
Curious, he set the note down and backed up. The arcade cabinet lit up when he grabbed the joystick, no coins needed.
"Gregory, what are you doing playing an arcade game in a serial killer's bedroom?"
I don't know. I just… have a feeling about it.
A little boy in a striped shirt holding balloons floating over a circus appeared on screen. "BALLOON WORLD" with "HIGH SCORE: 0" were by the top with "START GAME" and "QUIT ARCADE" in tickets below them. A creepy stylized Sun grinned in the top corner. He pressed a button and the game beeped. The screen changed to the circus with BB holding a couple of balloons standing on a tall diving board. With no direction, Gregory had to test a few buttons before finding the right ones. The balloons got bigger with each press until finally BB was launched off the diving board and floated right.
The game began.
And… it was a game. He had balloons to grab–every three balloons granted him an extra balloon, or hit point–and each time he hit an object that wasn't a party favor, like the giant blocks on the ground, he lost a balloon. He once floated too high and lost a balloon that way. Gravity was also a thing, and he could reach terminal velocity, which didn't help. He also quickly discovered that Sun wasn't a problem. There was a day/night cycle and Moon was the problem, the wide grinning celestial body without a cap bringing with it a swarm of bats that were hard to dodge. He made it past the circus area to the grassland once before resetting three times. Frustrated, he reset a fourth time. "What glitches am I even looking for?"
"I don't know, you ask me. You're the one playing a game in a serial killer's bedroom."
Beep! [Glitches? What glitches?]
"Um… well, there's a Balloon World arcade cabinet inside the room and I found a way to open the room," Gregory explained, grimacing as he overcompensated getting away from a bat and nearly launched himself off the top of the screen. Sun came back, but now he had Moon's maniac grin. "And there was a note that said to find the glitches. So… I'm looking for the glitches. I guess I'm a play tester, now!"
Beep! [Gregory! Please leave! That's super dangerous. She could go back to her room any minute, now!]
"I'll leave at the first sign of danger. There's just something really weird about this game, and I gotta figure out what it is." Gregory grinned as he made it through the grassland and into the next area–a forest whose trees had already been chopped so the leaves were gone but the stumps were extremely tall. He had a high score of ten thousand something and counting. Did that mean anything?
Then, he spotted a purple pixelated speckle in the top of one of the shorter tree trunks. Purple, like the color of the animatronics' eyes. That and it was extremely out of place. He had to hit a tree and slow down dramatically to get to it. But when he hit the glitch, the entire game changed. The screen turned to shades of maroon, red, and black and became even more pixelated. The foreground trees vanished, leaving in their wake a trail of pixelated boxes of random sprites in a wavy pattern. In the background, Sun turned to Moon but with Sun's rays that now glowed and a second set of larger, darker rays and glowing yellow eyes and jagged teeth. The dark orange rays rotated behind the thing in the background as time went on. Gregory struggled hard to keep Balloon Boy in the wavy line. A few boxes spattered the screen. A couple of balloons scattered through the line that he could pick up. Not that he'd need them; he couldn't see his HUD anymore. Eventually, the screen started glitching so terribly he could barely see Balloon Boy. Eventually, the trail ended, and Balloon Boy went out into space. His character was suddenly jerked into the center of the screen. Gregory pressed a few buttons, but nothing worked. The weird Sun-and-Moon amalgamation popped up to the foreground so it filled the entire screen, turning Balloon Boy into an insignificant spec in comparison despite changing nothing about him, except for deflating his once huge balloons into tiny spheres of color barely a few pixels wide. The screen glitched worse and worse until the screen shut off. For half a second, Gregory barely saw the words "Good night" flash across the screen before everything went dark.
Gregory lifted his hands from the arcade cabinet. "You… saw that right?"
"Yeah. You found the glitch, alright."
That weird feeling Gregory had when looking at the arcade machine dissipated. It wasn't complete, but he had a feeling part of it was due to the fact that this entire situation was weird. Still, there was something about this machine. This was only the beginning. There was more.
Gregory said, "Okay, I'm coming back. I found the glitch and now the game's off."
Beep! [Oh, that's good. Hurry, please!]
He grabbed Bonnie and escaped back through the vent. He put away his supplies, trading out his helmet for his knitted hat.
Chica waited for them in the lobby. He held up the golden Fazerblaster with a wide grin. Chica clapped her hands. One eyelid blinked at a slight delay compared to the other. "Oh, well done! You're very good at this! Okay, let's go. Where do you think we should go next?"
"We need to get Parts and Services open," Gregory stated. "So, we'll need to turn on the lift. To do that, I need the backstage pass and stage controls. Though, the last time I tried to get the stage controls, you and Roxy tried breaking down the doors. You'd need to open the vent under the office. Could you reach that?"
Chica tipped her head. "Why don't we just use the elevator?"
Gregory blinked. "What?"
"Well, our rooms have elevators that take us down there," Chica explained. "I learned that after getting my beak. We could just take one of those down."
Gregory sighed and hung his head. "Of course we could. I'm an idiot! I found that out with Monty last night! Okay, so, your elevator is broken as is Monty's. So, we'll need to try Roxy or Freddy's. I think Roxy's worked."
"Roxy's first, then," Chica concluded. "As much as I love my friend, I don't want to accidentally run into him if he goes back to his greenroom."
Gregory hugged Bonnie a little tighter. "He isn't, like, immune to you or anything, right?"
She shook her head. "No, no one is. But I… I don't want to hurt him." Her head bowed. "I don't want to hurt anyone."
Gregory set his hand on her arm. "It's, um… it's not your fault they're aggressive, you know. You're a really good… chicken."
Chica laughed. "Aw, thanks, Gregory! That's so sweet of you! Come on. Let's get going."
Gregory smiled up at her and followed Chica to the elevator. Chica's once bouncy gait turned slightly uneven and heavy. He looked up at her. "Hey, Chica, are you okay?"
"Oh, I'm fine! I… I haven't gone this long without charging in a long time is all," Chica said. "But I'll be fine until the end of the hour. Like I said, my battery is the second best in the building!" They skirted the atrium floor, staying under the balcony as they approached the shutters leading to Rockstar Row.
"O…kay. As long as you're okay," Gregory conceded. After a moment, he asked, "What happened to Roxy?"
"What do you mean?" Chica asked.
"Is she… I mean, functional?"
Chica nodded. "Oh, yes! She was functioning perfectly well when I last saw her. Why? Did something happen in the arcade?"
Gregory nodded. "I flashed my flashlight in her eyes. She was super mad and then she just suddenly stopped and stood up. Her eyes stopped glowing and everything, like when Monty was deactivated and put in the cylinder in Parts and Service."
"Oh, yes. What you did… caused a system restart. She went to sleep and then woke back up again. She wasn't very happy when she woke back up, though." Chica chortled.
"So, like a power button? But with light?" Gregory asked.
"Sort of. We already have shut-off switches and system restart buttons. It's how we get transported to Parts and Service. Fast flashing lights shouldn't cause a system restart, but they do." Chica shrugged. "I guess it's just a funny little quirk! Like sleeping too long makes you even more sleepy. It doesn't make sense, but it happens."
"But your shell covers your whole body! How is there room for a shut-off switch?"
Chica chuckled. "That's a funny question! And a good one, I guess. The engineers were really smart and good at hiding all the technical things. But if you look, all of us have them." She stopped and knelt down so that she was eye level with Gregory and then tipped her head forward to expose the back of her neck. "See here? Where my endoskeleton's exposed? I think it's there."
Near where she pointed, on the back of her neck just below her head was a button labeled "STM RST"
"I see it! And everyone has it?"
Chica stood up and continued walking. "Yep! All bots, even S.T.A.F.F. bots, are required to have them in case we get broken. That way the staff are safe to help us."
Gregory recalled the time he and Monty had gotten to Parts and Service but were ambushed by Moon. When Moon's attempt to grab Gregory had been foiled, he jumped onto Monty's shoulders and took the gator down impossibly easily. "So, Moon must know how to do that? That's how he gets you guys to Parts and Service?"
Chica chuckled, though the noise was a little less real. "Yes, I guess so. We weren't always so scared of it, you know. Moon wasn't always so bad. But then I suppose they thought that getting one of the animatronics to take a broken animatronic to Parts and Service would be safer than a team of humans. Since no one wants to go to Parts and Service, and none of us really got to know them before, all we really knew about Moon was when it came out to deal with intruders or take one of us down. Looking back, it's really unfair how we treat them."
Gregory scoffed. "Yeah, I'd kinda not like someone for only taking me to the doctor." He gave her a sideways look. "Are you going to try to be friends with him?"
Chica nodded. "I'll try, after we get you out of here. I've been very mean to Moon. I have to make it up to it somehow. Neither of them can have cupcakes. Hmm… I'll figure something out."
Gregory ran his flashlight over the red sofas making islands in the center of the lounge-slash-ticket hall. A wave of exhaustion made his legs weak, but he bit his tongue. It was way too open here. If that rabbit lady decided to come back, he wouldn't be lucky enough to have a jealous Roxy to push her aside this time and he'd be out in the open. Or if Roxy came back, he'd be out for her to grab and Chica would have to squawk at her to stop her from doing that and then make up some excuse as to why she did that later while feeling awful about it.
An idea popped into his head. "Hey, Chica? Before we try Roxy's room… is it okay if we, uh… is anyone going to be checking your room?"
Chica looked down at him. "My room? Oh! We can go there! Are you tired? Heh! You must be. You've been doing an awful lot of running around! I'll need to find a way to hide you. Any wandering bots might get suspicious if I close my curtains."
Gregory's eyebrows furrowed. "Why is that?"
"Our curtains are supposed to be open so people can look inside." They stopped at the end of the hall and allowed the party shutters to open. Two sets of big glowing dots stared at them from Rockstar Row. The Wet Floor Bots turned and followed them as they walked, though they stayed in place. "The curtains are only closed if something's wrong with the room or with us."
"Okay. But… do you guys ever get time to yourselves?"
"Sure we do! Just because we never close our curtains doesn't mean we don't have time to ourselves!" Chica chirped. "There's no one else here, is there? Besides, there's always the attractions. I like going to the bakery. Though, it's kinda funny… I used to like spending time at the bakery." Her eyes narrowed and she put a finger to her beak. Chica stopped in front of her door, staring hard at the green star with her symbol on it. "Now it's just… not as interesting, anymore."
"Is killing pizza bots more your style, now?" Gregory chuckled, though he couldn't smother the nervous pitch in his tone.
"Yes," she admitted, her voice so quiet Gregory barely heard her. Her finger curled into her beak, and she bit down on it. "Now… now that I think about it… I hadn't–I mean, I hadn't thought about it. But now that you say it, yes. I do attack the pizza bots. Oh, I do attack the pizza bots."
"It's that virus," Gregory stated. "It made you eat a whole bunch of weird stuff and attack the bots."
Chica let go of her finger and opened her door. "I guess so. But I still hurt them. Oh, how do I make it right?"
Gregory, despite wanting nothing more than to just collapse on the couch and sleep until the end of time, stepped back. "Let's get you into Parts and Service. Then we can sit down."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't want to risk needing to run away."
Chica shut her door. "Okay, but after that, we're coming right back, alright?"
He smiled. "Sounds good to me!" Unless this triggers a time jump for some reason.