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Chapter Text

 Nine

 My friend is in a toxic, one-sided relationship with a band of robots.

 It started off safe enough, when they'd send me clips of music and then rave about how some stupid lizard mascot sang it.

 Then they started buying the merch. A black hoodie emblazoned with the symbol of a red raven. Fridge magnets of a bunch of cartoon animals. Figurines of feminine-looking humanoid characters that I swear they're doing something fucked up with. And slab after slab of some dumb, 99% sugar energy drink version of the establishment's old flagship pop. Come on, if they wanted caffeine, the petrol station I work at sells plenty of Red Bull!

 And now, now this fucking idiot had dragged me right to the place.

 'I can't believe we're here!' Stella practically squealed, looking up in awe at an obnoxious neon sign that read 'Cookie and Friends Show N' Eat', along with the cartoony images of the pizzeria's mascots. In all honesty, I was more worried about remembering which section of the car park I'd left our ride in.

 'Yeah, 60 bucks in tickets in,' I snorted, rolling my eyes. Stella huffed indignantly.

 'Look, I didn't complain about all your weird British rock bands, please give me this one.'

 ...I'm sorry,

 'WEIRD??'

 Stella burst out laughing.

 'I'm just messing with you, baka.' They went to ruffle my hair, and I immediately ducked away.

 'You suck.'

 'Come on, you care about meee~' They teased with a smirk. I grumbled under my breath.

 'I hope that lizard animatronic bites your head clean off.'

 'Well, that's not gonna happen!' They puffed out their chest, navy dyed hair falling away, no longer obscuring the logo on their hoodie that matched with the location's sign. 'This rebrand of the Fazbear establishment was designed specifically so the public would STOP worrying about heads being bitten!'

 'Aha, so you admit this is the same Fazbear Entertainment that killed all those kids, wonderful, let's just go home.'

 I went to walk back to the car, taking about twenty steps before turning to look back at them, still standing there with their arms crossed. I could almost feel a squirming, guilty sensation in my gut, and I sighed, returning to them, if only to shut up my conscience. They grabbed my hand and yanked me through the sliding glass doors and into a massive, echoing entrance room.

 The floor was brightly patterned and kind of like those old 80s arcade carpets. The place smelt of pizza, artificial food dye and chrome. Massive screens took up the walls and hung from the ceiling, showing off various neon animations of animal mascots rocking back and forth with guitars and basses and keytars and... cowbells? I paused, tilting my head at the goat mascot, who had more piercings in their ears than I had fingers. Okay, maybe an exaggeration, but you get the point.

 There were also a bunch of screens at ground level that seemed to just be showing the background animation of the mascot displays. That is, until Stella dashed closer to them and one activated.

 A digital being, with dark grey skin and a flashy suit of bright magentas and blue blues, showed up on the screen and immediately threw a bunch of crunchy-looking pixel confetti into the virtual air.

 'Welcome to Cookie and Friends, the newest and brightest of Fazbear Entertainment's worldwide pizzeria locations! I'm your host, Glitch, but I promise you I won't… Glitch out on you!'

 I blinked at its stupid joke.

 A cheesy, pre-recorded laugh track played.

 The avatar chuckled awkwardly, before continuing.

 'Aaaanyways, up ahead you will reach the ticket booth! Just allow the STAFF bots there to scan your unique ticket QR code, and they will give you a complimentary map! From there, feel free to enjoy our many experiences designed for fun, food, friends, and freedom from class action lawsuits thanks to the handy dandy waiver you've signed!' On each of those words beginning with F, the digital entity's face changed into a screen, similar to a Tamagotchi, and showed icons representing each. Wait a second, did it say freedom from class action lawsuits??

 I looked over at Stella, hoping they were as absolutely shocked by this nonsense as I was, but they were just staring in awe at the screen. Yeah, I should've kissed my card balance goodbye the moment we set foot in here.

 'Thank you so much!' They said, bowing their head slightly before dragging me over to the ticket booths. A couple tall, expressionless bots were stationed in the booths, and as we went over, one leant down and demanded to see our QR codes in a monotone voice. Stella sorted the tickets whilst I returned to examining the area. There were a bunch of ads showing off attractions - a massive arcade, supposedly the largest in the state; some kind of NERF battle arena; a jungle-gym-meets-daycare; and many, many more I couldn't even be bothered to read.

 I heard a soft beeping sound and looked back at the bot, who handed Stella a folded map brochure. They thanked the robot, who was completely unable to understand the words and therefore the gesture meant nothing to them, and then started for the main hall of the building. I followed them.

 'So, now you've got the map, where to first?'

 'Hm, I don't know. I'm honestly just excited to be here. Anything you wanna try first? Go karts? Bowling? Arcade games?'

 I paused, before my stomach answered for me. Apparently, the first thing we were doing was blowing a week's wage on mediocre pizza.

 'You're hungry, mm? Well, I always wanted to go to the actual pizzeria section of the place, anyways.'

 I chuckled. 

 'Stella, you'd say the same about anywhere in this place. Maybe I should go shove you in that daycare and get some peace and quiet, huh?'

 'Oi! You're the kid here, you go!'

 'I'm NINETEEN.'

 'Still a kid.'

 I growled under my breath at their audacity.

 'Hey, stop glaring at the floor and look .'

 I lifted my gaze and blinked, taking in the main hall. All around the multi-floored area were glowing neon signs and giant animated displays on screens, all advertising food and games and meet and greets. Guests swarmed the floors, families going between one attraction to the next, foil balloons bobbing and reflecting the multicoloured lights. There were little patches in the crowd here and there where hologram assistants and robotic janitors were moving, as well as a particularly large one where a tall animatronic mascot, resembling a multicoloured chameleon, was waving at guests and talking and leaning down to high-five snot nosed kids.

 Stella audibly gasped.

 'Arienai, th-that's IDK the Chameleon!'

 …

 'Are you telling me you don't know the name, or?'

 'No, that's their name!'

 'Man, Fazbear sucks at naming, then.'

 Stella huffed indignantly, as if offended.

 'No! It's actually a combination of their initially overshadowed position as a security bot, combined with their character-specific gimmick of-'

 'I didn't ask for the infodump.'

 They wilted slightly. Once again, that pit of guilt opened up inside me, and as much as I didn't want to cave, I did.

 'Hey, hey, you know what, when we get over to the pizza place, you can infodump all you like about how the animatronic staff members here make the pizza.'

 Stella's eyes lit up, and I swear if they had a tail they'd wag it.

 'Okay! Bet!'

 They started towards the food court entrance, and I pulled my headphones over my ears to drown out the overwhelming noise of the crowd. We weaved between gangs of rowdy teens and kids crying as janitor bots cleaned up their dropped ice cream cones, and at one point I almost tripped over a lady's feet. She gave me the most snobbish look before continuing, like I was some mangy old rat, and my blood boiled. That was the same kind of customer that would purposely damage goods, expecting to get them for free, whilst letting her two untrained brats run around the store calling people slurs they learnt on Roblox. I took a deep breath and kept going, eventually making it to the food court.

 There were so many goddamn cuisines, more than I expected from a glorified pizza place. There was a sushi place and a taco place and a churro stand and a slushie stand boasting fifteen different radioactive flavours of heart disease. However, two establishments were much larger, each taking up around a quarter of the food court.

 One was the pizzeria section, where dozens of the blank-faced bots were wheeling around boxes of fresh pizza I could almost smell from here. I assumed the kitchen wasn't as open to the guests' view as the other, less popular establishments here because they didn't want to reveal they were using premade, frozen pizza. I shut my mouth, not wanting to ruin the magic for my friend.

 The other location was an ice cream parlour, boasting dozens upon dozens of flavours. Alongside a bunch of the blank-faced bots serving scoops to customers, another animatronic mascot roamed around, striking poses for cameras and handing cones of multicoloured ice creams to people. This one was the goat I saw on the advertisement earlier - their general outfit and appearance felt like they were trying to go for “modern cowboy” mixed with “70s glam rock performer”. Whilst I really, really wanted to question the goat selling dairy products when goats produce milk, I once again opted to shut my mouth for Stella's sake. Urgh. Being a nice person is shit . 

 'Hey, what's that one called?' I asked, feigning interest and pointing at the goat.

 'You're gonna kill me. Look, okay, the others' names are more creative, I swear!'

 'Oh lord.'

 '...Goatman the Goat.'

 'They called the goat Goat?!' I exclaimed, already done with this stupid place.

 'Okay, that one there isn't an explanation for like IDK, they just felt like it. Look, they're the percussionist of the band most of the time, hence why they have that cowbell.'

 'And why are they running an ice cream parlour?'

 'I dunno, they had to give them some attraction to run. It's super good though, we should go there sometime today!'

 I hesitated. The stuff was probably like fifteen bucks a scoop.

 'They've even got a mango flavourrr!' Stella said, and heck yeah, now I'm convinced.

 'Sounds good. Now, let's go get the pizza before I starve to death.'

 Stella nodded and we walked over to an ordering station. Half the options had characters' names attached to them, and as a result cost five bucks more than the standard options. That was fine with me - I wasn't quite looking to eat “Cookie's Superstar Rocking Chocolate Pizza”, which was literally just sugar on top of sugar, sprinkled with cancer-causing, neon-green sugar. To stop Stella from making the mistake of eating the diabetes special, I spoke up.

 'Let's just get the standard pepperoni. It's cheap and tasty. Sound good?'

 Stella nodded, and I selected the option. The machine prompted me to pay an extra ten bucks each for an “Unlimited Free Fizzy Faz” pass. I blinked. Ten fucking dollars. This microwaved pizza, sucks at naming, kid-killing, greasy tourist trap wanted me to pay ten fucking dollars for a drink. Before I could react, Stella clicked “yes”. The machine whirred and printed two small tickets with scannable codes on them. We took them, and Stella immediately dashed to the slushie station, coming back with a mix of drink that was so brightly coloured I swore it couldn't be digestible. 

 'Why did you waste our money on those passes?'

 Stella took a long, irritating sluuuuurp from their drink before exhaling and answering.

 'Because if we didn't, this one drink would've been seven bucks already. Considering it's going to be a very long day, it was that or give up our apartment for a cardboard box.'

 I sighed and nodded in agreement, in both ways. Both that they were right, and it was the better call, and that it was going to be a very, very long day.

Chapter Text

Mary

 I wouldn't say I've ever had any complaints about working at the pizzeria. I'm not one to complain at all , but regardless I've enjoyed my job here.

 When I first came in to interview for the daycare assistant job at Cookie and Friends Show N' Eat, I didn't know what I was expecting. Whatever it was, it wasn't that I'd be working side by side with a very tall, winged deer robot. Alas, when I walked into that whimsical-looking jungle gym play place for the first time, I met my coworker, Life the Deer.

 For my first few shifts, we kind of avoided each other. She was off on one side of the play place, I was on the other. I felt horribly guilty for leaving the poor thing alone, but as I watched her, I realised she was probably more suited for the job than I was.

 I'd watch her pick children up and help them onto the massive zipline that ran throughout the daycare. I'd see her laughing and letting them use her prehensile, soft tail as a jump rope. I'd see her smiling softly as she sang the little ones to sleep during naptime. At first I assumed this was just how they built her to act, but I soon realised she was a lot more alive than most folks recognised her as. Those smiles and laughs weren't preprogrammed - this deer was just, pardon the pun, a dear . We soon grew to be fast friends, despite any snide comments made by staff members who refused to believe she could properly feel anything.

 I pulled up in the employee's car park, got out my backpack and went inside, skipping the ticket booths by showing the bots my employee card, and walked into the daycare. Life was crouching over at a low-down bookshelf built into a fake tree that doubled up as a climbing wall, putting away an assortment of picture books. I hung up my backpack on one of many animal-themed hooks and walked over, crouching down and helping to put away the extra-low ones she couldn't quite reach.

 'Oh, hi there Mary!' The animatronic said, smiling and standing up to her full height as I put away the last few books.

 'Good morning, Life,' I smiled, looking up at her. The deer animatronic had two glowing eyes, one a vibrant green and one a warm yellow. Her body was dark, almost black, and she had a full-length shirt and long bell-bottom pants built onto her, in contrast to the much more indecent costuming of the other feminine animatronics. Sometimes I wondered if Cookie, Goatman and IDK were even fine with their appearances, or if they wanted to cover themselves up more. I supposed it didn't matter to them too much - they weren't exactly built to have anything in particular to cover up. 

 'Ready for another day of taking care of the kids?' She said, her tone cheerful despite the very slight mechanical nature of her voice. 

 'Ready as always.' I yawned. Perhaps I'd stayed up too late last night reading those crime novellas. Or crying over… some things I’d rather not talk about. Either way, Life seemed to be aware of this.

 'Pardon me, Mary, but you're acting a lot more tired than usual. Are you alright?'

 'Oh yes, I'm fine, just stayed up a bit too late. How about you, dear, how was last night for you? I saw the band was booked up until ten with shows. Surely you've had as little rest as I have.'

 Life chuckled, sitting down next to me and watching the entrance for any kids as she spoke.

 'Yes, it was as exhausting as I suppose anything can be for an animatronic. Three hours in and they had to take Goatman off stage due to a minor hardware failure. By the time I finished up my last set of percussion, I just wanted to return to my charging station.'

 'As one would,' I nodded.

 'Yes, but I just worry my counterpart isn't getting as much charge as he should.'

 'The raven?'

 'Yes, my… brother, as the advertisers put it. He's been too busy patrolling.'

 'Patrolling? I thought they took the both of you off the security roster and repurposed those programs for defending children against predators,' I frowned worriedly.

 Life snorted.

 'No, no, not even a formal protocol. He's just been very adamant on watching for intruders entering the lead singer's room.'

 '...My, this is juicy gossip!' I laughed, 'Why, do you believe he fancies her? Can animatronics even have crushes?'

 'I do not know, and I certainly do not wish to find out,' Life said with the closest tone to disgust as an animatronic could muster.

 'That's fair.'

 We sat together in silence for five more minutes before I spotted a mother dropping off her two younger children. I got up and speed-walked to the customers.

 One thing I'd learnt through my weeks of working here was that my job wasn't necessarily to take charge of caring for the children, but rather to reassure the parents dropping kids off here that the animatronic wasn't going to eat their little bundles of joy.

 'Hi, welcome to the daycare, I'm assuming dropping off two lovelies?' I smiled.

 The mother, luckily, didn't seem like she was here to start scrawling down notes for a lawsuit, and rather just nodded. I guided her to sign the two children in, one six year old boy and one three year old girl, before waving her off with another cheerful smile.

 The two kids immediately rushed over to Life, the older boy trying to climb up her tail whilst the younger girl stared up at her in awe.

 'Come on now, don't stand on her tail!' I shooed the boy off.

 'Mm, Assistant Mary is right, Ash,' Life chimed in, 'Animal tails are actually a part of our spine, and rough play can really hurt us. Be gentle.'

 That statement was half true; whilst stepping on a cat's tail would certainly cause injury, Life was also a robot, and unable to feel pain. I guess that's the best educational compromise.

 The younger girl tugged on Ash's sleeve, whispered to him and the two of them scurried off, giggling. I turned back around and saw a few more guests dropping off their children.

 After twenty minutes of ushering children inside, and assuring parents that Life was not, in fact, rusty and dangerous, I turned back around to find the animatronic the Karens were so hesitant about, gladly sitting at a tiny table, pretending to drink tea with a group of little kids.

 I couldn't help but chuckle, watching from the corner of my eye as I helped another child down from the top of the climbing tree.

 'What's your favourite colour, Life?'

 'What's your favourite flavour of pizza?'

 'Why is the sky blue?'

 'Who would win in a fight, one of every Pokemon or a billion lions?'

 Life seemed to buffer for a moment before answering.

 'Green, Life's Veggie Special, the particles in the atmosphere scatter the blue light coming from the sun, and one of every Pokemon.'

 Okay, I cannot spend all shift being impressed by her programming again.

 The peaceful atmosphere of the daycare was shattered by a sudden shrill scream, and I whipped around to the source of the sound, rushing over.

 A little blonde-haired girl, who couldn't be any older than seven or eight, had fallen off the zipline and landed on her arm. I knelt down, speaking softly and calmly as the little girl sobbed.

 'Hey, you're okay dear, we're going to get you all fixed up.'

 The little girl whimpered softly, clearly scared.

 'We aren't going to hurt you, aren't we, Life?' I turned to the animatronic, whose eyes were glowing as she alerted nearby first aid staff through her communications system.

 'I'm getting someone to come over now! Would you like me to also alert your parents?'

 I turned back to the little girl, who was shaking her head quickly.

 'I do believe that's a no. That's okay, you're gonna be good as new.'

 Soon, a medical staff member I recognised speed walked in, light hair tucked under a company issued black cap, their pale blue eyes paired with notable eyebags, and their ears covered in various stud piercings.

 'Why hello there, Avis, this little one had a bit of a fall, and I do believe we need an ice pack.'

 Avis reached into their medical bag and retrieved one, wrapping it in a paper towel and passing it to me. I gently pressed it against the tiny one's arm, who teared up a little.

 'Now, we'll have to keep it there for about five to ten minutes, okay?'

 I rolled down the other sleeve of her little Death the Raven hoodie she was wearing over a white and blue dress, to hopefully warm her up a bit despite the cold pack on her other arm.

 She nodded through teary eyes.

 Avis stood there awkwardly.

 'Sooo, can I go?'

 'Oh- actually, we've been overdue for a restock of our band-aids, if you can spare some from your medical bag?' I asked, standing up and gently sitting the girl down on a beanbag.

 Avis sighed, as if they were wishing I'd just let them go.

 From what I could tell from every time they were called in here for a graze or a bruise or a nosebleed, they couldn't stand children.

 'Yeah, I've got a few dozen. Which characters are you out of?'

 'Mostly Life and Cookie, but our supply of Goat ones are dwindling.'

 Avis pulled out a few packs and handed them to me - a gold-coloured one, an orange one and a green one. They also gave me a pink one?

 'I haven't seen this colour on a package before,' I mused.

 Avis shushed me.

 'Look, they're apparently unveiling her at the midday show, corporate printed all the merchandise and produced all the new food options ahead of time. Something about making an extra big profit from the reveal.'

 I blinked, stunned.

 'Oh my. Wait- isn't it almost midday already?'

 My goodness. Midday. That was the time they sent a guard over to collect Life for her performance, as well as prompt me to lead the children to the daycare section of the concert seating. I glanced over at the door to see which guard it was.

 '...Eager to get the brats over there and out of your hair?' Avis rolled their eyes, chuckling. They stepped back to lean against the doorframe.

 'I'll have you know I quite like these children, thank you.' I huffed.

 'Sure. Gotcha. Anyways, drop off the icepack at medbay at the end of the day. Adios.' They walked out, just as today's guard walked in.

 She was tall and serious-looking and dressed in that intimidating black security uniform. Her brown hair was done up in a ponytail looped through her cap, and she had a torch and a taser strapped to her utility belt. Her piercing blue eyes searched the room, before settling on… Life.

 She made several hand signs - roughly translating to 'come on, robot' - at the deer animatronic, whose face was currently covered in various cartoonish stickers of her and her friends. She slowly and carefully peeled them off, whilst also taking multiple children off her lap, tail, back, and even one dangling from her left wing. 

 The guard sighed with annoyance, tapping her foot.

 'Coming, Officer Nirvan!' Life cheerfully responded, waving goodbyes to the kids, who were yelling good luck messages to her. Nirvan ushered her out, before pausing and looking me up and down. 

 'It's Mary, right?' They signed.

 'Yeah?'

 'You're gonna take the kids over to the thing now, yeah?'

 'That I am!'

 'Want me to act as escort? Life's a lot more obedient than some characters ,' She signed the last two words with a certain harshness, as if glaring mentally at the animatronics in question, 'So I'd be fine to leave her be.'

 'Oh, I mean, I don't wish to obstruct your work as a guard, miss.'

 'I'll be guarding a bunch of guests. After all, more of the work is defending the guests from animatronics, rather than vice versa.' Nirvan began to walk off, and I realised with a jolt that she expected me to follow. 

 'Okay, everyone, let's go over to the concert hall to watch our good friend Life and her friends perform!' I said, starting to round up the kids. The little girl from earlier, who had since discarded her ice pack, immediately clung onto my hand. I let her - the poor thing seemed so scared of the world.

 I walked out with a few dozen kids, walking with haste to catch up to Nirvan, who had walked halfway down the hallway before stopping and waiting, tuning her handheld radio.

 I rubbed my eyes, yawning as my vision blurred slightly, and continued along.

Chapter Text

Stella

 My friend has a toxic hatred for anything fun.

 We came here for a fun day at the most subarashī - sorry, awesome , place on Earth, and he's sitting here, picking at his pepperoni and acting like he's being tortured.

 So far, everything's been just as cool as I thought it would be - the animatronics look so much more impressive in person, and that's before we even go to the concert!

 The next show, according to my extensive research (two hours of nonstop digging into every corner of the location's website, plus the map the STAFF bot gave to me), would be in half an hour at noon. That gave us enough time to check out one attraction.

 The problem, of course, being that Nine doesn't have anywhere he'd want to go but home.

 As shown now.

 ' Nē, Nine, we have half an hour before the show. What do we wanna do before then?'

 I took a sip of my drink, as he sighed.

 'I dunno, wherever you wanna go.'

 See? He doesn't even care enough about this super cool place to even bother choosing an attraction. Maybe he doesn't even care about me, and this whole day out was a waste of time…

 'What, you're just gonna wait around, picking off all your pepperoni, and be bored out of your brains?' I tried to chuckle.

 'Sure, whatever works for you, buddy.'

 …You'd think someone's disinterest wouldn't sting so badly.

 Nine looked at me for a moment, paused, then spoke again, his tone changing.

 'Okay, you know what, give me the map.'

 I felt myself smile a little, and I passed him the folded map.

 He unfolded it, turned it around since it was upside down, and hummed.

 'Okay then, how about we go check out the Electric Arcade? I wouldn't mind a few rounds of Mario Kart.'

 If he wasn't adverse to sudden physical touch, I would've hugged him.

 'Sugoi! Awesome! Yesyesyes!' I leapt up from my seat, almost spilling my Fizzy Faz.

 'Woah, calm down, you're acting like a crazy person. Now, I'm gonna go put this stuff away, and then we'll head over,' he said, picking up his tray of waste and walking over to a Cookie-themed trash can.

 I couldn't even find the words to describe my excitement - the Electric Arcade was the largest arcade in the whole state, maybe even including all the surrounding states, too! It had games from every decade, but with a focus on the 80s and 90s - they were the “Golden Age of Gaming”, after all. 

 Not only was it a super awesome collection of the best games of all time, but it was the attraction in the pizzeria assigned to my favourite animatronic in the band.

 Cookie the Dragon - initially introduced a few years ago under the name of Cookie the Lizard, rose from the guitarist of the band to become the lead singer and the face of the Fazbear brand. She was so full of energy, from every video I'd seen of her concerts, that it's no wonder why she's also the icon of the Fizzy Faz: Energised line of sodas.

 I'd been waiting years to get a chance to see her, even briefly. Her, and her super awesome arcade and super cool band and my god I am rambling.

 'Come on, let's go so we aren't rushing around too much,' Nine said, breaking me out of my internal monologue, and I started to walk after him.

 The stunning halls of the pizzeria were lined with bright neon tubes and geometric arcade flooring and animated posters advertising all sorts of things;

 “Half-Off Tickets For The Quick Claws Carnival! Limited Time Only!”

 “Try Your Luck At Birds-Eye Battlegrounds! Claw Your Way To The Top!”

 “Have A Zappy Birthday! Have YOUR Birthday Hosted By THE Cookie The Dragon!”

 The halls echoed with quiet synth instrumentals from the band's more popular original releases; whilst most of the songs they played were mere covers, homages to artists long-retired, every now and then a combination of the musical team and the characters' own inputs resulted in original songs being produced. Most animatronics got their own solo tracks - the only one I'd never heard sing by themselves was Death the Raven, but I suppose that's because a bassist doesn't quite need the programming to handle solos like the others might.

 Man, I wonder if there's going to be any new releases at the midday concert!

 I snapped out of my mess of thoughts to a sudden, loud rattling sound above us. Nine jumped as well, looking around.

 'What was that??' He asked, worry leaking into his tone.

 'I'm sure it's nothing, just an air conditioning issue.' I waved him off, trying to swallow my own fear. I mean, a sound in a vent never hurt anyone in a pizzeria. Right?

 Nine narrowed his eyes at me, crossing his arms.

 'If I die today, I'm blaming you. Write that on my tombstone. “It was all Stella's fault”.'

 I raised my arms in surrender.

 'Hai, hai, I get it, calm down. We aren't gonna die because some handyman forgot to tighten a screw in a ventilation fan,' I rolled my eyes. Nine huffed, turned around and kept walking.

 Eventually, we neared the entrance to the Electric Arcade, marked with bright green neon signage and hundreds of guests swarming in and out of the golden gates of gaming. Even dozens of metres away, I could hear the sounds of joysticks and button mashing and coin collecting and game overs, all emanating from within.

 It took all my willpower not to squeal at the sight.

 Nine could tell.

 'Excited?' He chuckled, sighing.

 'Yes! Of course I am! This is like, my dream!'

 Nine rolled his eyes and walked towards the entrance, and I dashed after him.

 The sounds to my left, my right, in front of me, everywhere, only got louder as the swathes of brightly coloured machines came into view, my heart racing excitedly.

 To my left and my right, aisles upon aisles of arcade cabinets and claw machines and the like stretched on seemingly infinitely. In front of me was a long, neon-decorated ticket purchase station, manned by a few STAFF bots, all wearing custom-made, lime green lightning bolt caps. Just behind the ticket counter, made obvious by a giant neon sign, was the prize counter. From here I could make out a whole row of giant plushie versions of the main band. 

 I was totally gonna win one.

 We made our way to the ticket station and bought our arcade passes. I quickly thanked the bot who served us before dashing over to a Mario Kart racing machine. Nine ran after me, muttering something about being a little kid.

 Atop the machine, on an animated screen, was a chibi version of Cookie and a flashing time of 1:07.4. Beneath the time was text; “Beat My Score, Win 10 000 Tickets!”

 Nine looked up at the time, then back down at me.

 'That score was, supposedly, set by an animatronic designed for gaming,' he shook his head.

 'So?' I said, swiping my arcade pass on the machine and getting in the seat.

 ' So, you can't expect to actually beat that!'

 I smirked.

 'Worth a shot. Care to play?' I patted the seat next to me. Nine huffed and sat down, swiping himself in as well.

 The game started, and as we entered the character selection screen, we were interrupted by an announcement on the speaker system by none other than Glitch, the AI from earlier.

 'Attention esteemed guests! Cookie and the band are fired up and ready to perform at our next show in ten minutes' time! Don't miss it! Rock on!'

 I sighed, getting out of my seat and promising myself I'd get another chance at beating my robotic idol. Nine groaned.

 'We just GOT HERE!'

 'Yeah, yeah, it sucks,' I said, making my way to the arcade exit alongside him, 'But we're about to see one of their PROPER CONCERTS!'

 I couldn't help but grin.

 'Nerd.' Nine chuckled, and I swiped at his hair. He swiftly dodged.

 'Hurry, before all the good seats are taken!' I urged.

 'Come on, admit it, you wanna stand.' Nine rolled his eyes.

 'O-okay, maybe I do , but STILL!' I sped up, almost running. Nine scurried after me.

 We eventually reached the entrance to the concert hall. There were people everywhere, and Nine had firmly put on his headphones, sticking close to me as we moved into the hall at a snail's pace.

 A baby wailed from halfway across the room, as impatient guests pushed into us, as if we weren't also stuck behind dozens of people. I could hear the sounds of children playing with foil balloons, bopping them up and down by the string and annoying their parents.

 As much as I would've been annoyed at waiting so long, surrounded by so many annoying people, I was too jittery and excited and ohmygodanymomentnow-

 The people in front of us moved up in the jumbled mess of a queue and walked through the black double doors, and then it was us.

 We were here.

 I could feel my heart drumming a quick tempo as we entered, the door opening up into a massive hall. Row upon row of seating all curved around the focal point of the gargantuan auditorium - a huge stage. 

 It was lit by faint lights cycling through a rainbow of colours, currently underwhelming due to the seating area's overhead lighting being turned on. The stage seemed to have a circle cut into it, which I assumed was the way they brought the animatronics up, via stage lift. I think I remember seeing a video of that.

 Regardless, I pushed through with Nine to make our way down to the front, where there was a considerable area left for standing, held from the edge of the stage by neon-lit barriers. The stage was so close - the band would show up any moment now!

 Nine caught my excitement that I didn't even try to mask, and chuckled, taking his headphones off and resting them around his neck.

 'You look like a puppy.'

 I blinked.

 'You know, one that's about to wag their tail like mad and then piss themselves.'

 …

 'Bitch.'

 He laughed, putting his headphones back on as the audience started to fill in, the hall buzzing with excitement and the white noise of overlapping conversations.

 The lights slowly dimmed, and the crowd quieted as some synth instrumentals started to play in the background. The stage seemed a lot brighter now.

 'Ladies and gentlemen and all those in between!' Glitch announced over the speakers, 'The show will start in five minutes! Have a Fazzerific time, and stay safe!'

 The crowd roared with excitement.

 I could feel the blood rushing in my ears.

 This was it.

 Time to meet my idol.

Chapter Text

Nirvan

 As much as I wished to let my mind wander as I made my way backstage, I was constantly reminded of the horde of snot-nosed children behind me, led by the daycare assistant, Mary. Mary had such an innocent look to her eyes, and yet, behind that, I could still see some kind of darkness. I opted to keep my guard up around her - better to be safe than sorry.

 'Alright, everybody, just one more turn and then we'll be at the wonderful concert!' She called in the most obnoxiously cheerful voice I'd ever heard.

 She was right; the halls began to fill with louder synth music, and more and more concert posters - framed in neon and displaying bright imagery of shining animatronics, dancing on stage and looking absolutely stunning - lined the walls.

 Hah, I await the day any of those fans realise how those bitches act offstage.

 Life was probably the only good one - sure, she had spats here and there with the troublemakers, but besides that, she stuck to routine and didn't dare harm guests.

 Those other assholes… well, they were much more irritating.

 'Oh, okay everyone!' The living beam of sunlight said, stopping at a door, 'This is our special entry to the show! Now, say goodbye to our dear friend Officer Nirvan!'

 I turned around to watch as dozens of tiny humans cheerfully said their goodbyes, waving and smiling and mispronouncing my name. Mary mouthed a quick thank-you. I quickly signed a goodbye, turned on my heels and sped away.

 My steps echoed in the empty hallway leading to backstage - everyone was already awaiting showtime. Unfortunately, showtime was awaiting poorly paid guards like me.

 I went up to the door, labelled “STAFF ONLY” in big, bold letters. It had a card reader next to it, and I swiped my security badge card, returning a soft, satisfying beep as the door unlocked with a click .

 I opened the door and walked in, immediately met by a scene that… huh… is this some kind of preprogrammed protocol, or are they all genuinely feeling emotion?

 In the centre of the rather large room, which was stocked with various replacement parts, spray paints, glitters, instruments and anything else they could possibly need for shows, the animatronics had circled around a specific individual that I couldn't quite make out from behind the standing robots.

 Right in front of me, back turned, was the lead singer of the band, Cookie the Dragon. Her body was a slightly mint white, starkly contrasting her neon green hair, spikes, bikini-esque outfit and wing membranes. Her robotic tail creaked quietly as it swayed side to side.

 Whilst she wasn't exactly horrible , she had a tendency to procrastinate shows and events - multiple times I had to sprint through the entire pizzeria, looking for her, just to realise she'd been glued to an arcade machine screen for the past hour. Also, she was way louder and more enthusiastic than necessary, which was fine and all for crowds of brats, but nearly painful for a worker trying to get scraps of glitter glue out of her painted claws.

 'I'm sure you'll do just wonderful!' Her robotic voice sounded, and her tail's wagging sped up slightly.

 Next to her was IDK the Chameleon, a brightly coloured troublemaker. She and Goatman were thick as thieves (especially regarding recent maintenance staff complaints about paint chipping off the inner thighs of both), however, she was somewhat more agreeable than her… god, I don't want to say it, but… partner. That's likely because before her spot playing the synthesiser for the band, they were a security bot. I could vaguely remember the days they used to patrol, back when I was still a trainee making sure kids didn't steal from the gift shop plushie bins. I didn't see them around often, just heard about them. Apparently the bot had a male endoskeleton back then due to an ordering glitch.

 Anyways, IDK's LED-operated scales shifted between cyans and greens as they stood there, tiny spikes running down her back, only pausing where her bright pink bikini outfit sat.

 'Yes, listen to Cookie, she knows all about these protocols. She was the one who first led me onto that stage, too, and they love me!' Her scales shifted to a cheerful shade of orange.

 Standing to IDK's right, their side profile just visible, was her partner in crime, Goatman the Goat.

 Goatman had a bright red ponytail and ears pierced with triangular earrings that reminded me of cattle tags. Their outfit, despite their endoskeleton shape being similar to female animatronics, was more comparable to a male's, with no upperwear and painted-on full-length pants; ironically, these were cow-hide patterned.

 Goat always had this mischievous, shit-eating grin on their face, and I always found them up to no good. Whether it was running into Birds-Eye Battlegrounds with two loaded dart guns and fucking around, or wasting company product by seeing how many scoops of ice cream they could stack until it fell down (their PB is, from painstaking personal experience, 43), I always had to drag them out of situations that, if they weren't an expensive animatronic, would certainly get them fired. And every time I caught them, out of the corner of my eye, even just for a split second, I could see IDK watching.

 'Mhm, just try your best! Even if you're clumsy, the audience finds it funny!'

 On the opposite side of the circle, barely visible if it weren't for her height, was Life the Deer.

 Her antlers were now strung with fairy lights flashing a rainbow of colours, and she tapped her hooves softly. 

 I always wondered what it'd feel like to have your entire identity permanently changed just because of your sibling. Apparently she used to have a unique name, before she got shipped over to the location, but they renamed her Life just so she matched with Death. 

 'We all believe in you!'

 Speak of the devil, the raven animatronic was stood right next to her, not nearly as enthusiastic as the others. His design, at a glance, was one of the coolest; he was literally half bird, half skeleton, and perfectly suited for the edgier fans the pizzeria attracted. Unfortunately, the exposed skeletal joints made jamming a common issue, and the edgy target audience led to him having horrible attitude problems.

 If I had a nickel for every time I had to usher him away from fans because he got too close to just straight-up hitting them, I'd be able to afford the pizzeria's annual gold membership pass.

 Even though he was undoubtedly violent, he had a few soft spots, specifically for his bandmates. He wouldn't dare cause injuries to his counterpart, the deer, and, as of the last few months, he'd been glued to the lead singer, Cookie. Other than Life and Cookie, however, there'd been many, many fights he'd started that resulted in both participants requiring maintenance. Management even considered scrapping him just to reduce the amount of events they'd had to refund thanks to his dumbassery. For whatever reason, the previously mentioned duo somehow managed to prove the bassist was too critical to the brand to get rid of.

 Which meant guards like me had to down a pound of copium (and several litres of Fizzy Faz: Energised) and deal with his roughhousing.

 'Mm,' he agreed, not offering much else in support.

 I cleared my throat, trying to get their attention, before signing.

 'What's up?'

 Cookie stepped to the side, revealing the animatronic in the centre.

 Ah.

 The new “hire”.

 On a supply crate sat a light grey feline animatronic, opticals glowing a faint blush pink. There was a stencil stuck to her cheek where I presumed I needed to spray paint her final stage look.

 Her outfit was a similar pink to her eyes, with the standard bikini setup of a female animatronic, alongside extra coverage on the abdomen, painted a darker pink to mimic an undershirt. Her claws weren't painted yet.

 The animatronic eyed me warily, before Cookie spoke up in that loud, cheerful, cartoon protagonist voice.

 'Do not worry, friend. This guard is here to help!'

 The grey cat nodded softly, standing up.

 'My name is Paige the Cat,' she said, her voice soft like Life's, but slightly louder, 'I'm a backup singer and guitarist. The others were explaining to me the showtime protocols that maintenance didn't install.'

 The door on the other side of the room, leading to maintenance, opened up as if on cue.

 A worker walked in.

 'Alright, quick software update, open your networks,' they mumbled, clicking a few buttons on a device. All the animatronics, barring Paige, who I assume already got updated, activated their optical glows as they received the data upload.

 Paige looked around, confused, and I signed to calm her.

 'Don't worry, you're fine.'

 As I finished the last hand movement, the glowing stopped.

 Cookie leapt back into action as the employee left.

 'Now, our new friend needs some final touch-ups before showtime.'

 I hummed.

 'Just some pink paint on the stencil and claws will do. The rest of the band and I will finish practising the backing tracks for her solo.' The other animatronics turned away and walked to the other side of the room, playing their respective instruments quietly.

 'You got a solo?' I signed, making a curious expression.

 Paige nodded.

 'Are you nervous?'

 She nodded again.

 'I'm sure you'll do fine - after all, you're supposedly learning from the best.'

 I turned away to grab the spray paint and a face mask as she spoke.

 'Yes - Cookie has been giving me vocal training ever since my systems first came online. She's so cool, I hope I don't disappoint her.'

 I snorted, placing down the spray paint can and putting on the mask before responding.

 'She's a big robotic kid, behind all that glamour.'

 Paige seemed to wrinkle up her nose, offended on her mentor's behalf. I gently held her chin as I shook the can and sprayed the stencil, peeling it off after a few seconds to reveal a crisp heart decal.

 'That's a bit rude to say about a good friend?'

 I put away the spray paint, grabbing a brush and paint bucket, setting them down and signing again.

 'I prefer the truth over niceties.'

 Paige huffed as I opened the can and grabbed her left paw, gently painting each claw the colour of pearls.

 'That's not following protocol.'

 I finished one paw, and put down the brush to reply.

 'Sometimes rules are made to be broken.' I picked up the brush again and started on her other paw.

 'Rules are made to be followed, so everyone has a safe and wonderful time!'

 I wonder how quick she'll grow out of the protocol obsession phase of AI development…

 I finished the other paw and quickly signed before ducking down to do her feet.

 'Whatever makes your gears turn, buddy.'

 Paige fell silent as I gently finished painting her claws, as if considering what I'd said.

 I stood back up, dusting off my hands and putting away my face mask before signing.

 'How's it look?'

 Paige blinked, turned to the mirror installed for animatronics to fix their own appearances, long, grey tail flicking with interest.

 'Wow, I look… cool.'

 She turned back to me, tail in between her legs.

 'Nervous still?' I signed, trying to be sympathetic.

 She nodded, before Cookie walked over.

 'Wow, you look amazing, Paige!' She beamed, patting her shoulder. Cookie's lightning-bolt insignia on her breastplate glimmered under the backstage lights.

 'Thanks!'

 A beat passed, before the AI announcer's voice rang out across the room.

 'Ladies and gentlemen and all those in between! The show will start in five minutes! Have a Fazzerific time, and stay safe!'

 I rolled my eyes at the thick layer of seemingly fake enthusiasm in the machine's voice.

 The rest of the animatronics walked over to me, and I nodded at them.

 'Good luck,' I signed. (Almost) all of them smiled back at me (fuck that bird, man).

 I walked out, and went over to the staff-only entry to the front of the audience, since I'd been assigned to moshpit control.

 Which is stupid, because it's midday, and moshes only happen at shows after 6.

 I swiped in and went through the door, standing next to it and scanning over the crowd. I could see the seating area Mary and the daycare kids got assigned to, the worker smiling and shushing the little ones as the lights dimmed. The crowd cheered before falling silent.

 The stage lift had gone all the way down, leaving a circular hole in the stage. Smoke machines hissed, covering the stage in fog. The audience lights had fully blacked out, and all eyes were on the stage.

 And then, the stage lift whirred, and the silhouettes of the band became visible. The crowd volume rose again, full of fangirl squeals and cheers for favourite characters. From my vantage, I could see they'd positioned themselves to hide Paige.

 Cookie stepped forward, the fog clearing just to reveal her whilst the rest remained in the shadows of the clouds.

 Her shiny outfit and neon accessories gleamed and glittered in the coloured lights, prompting even more shouts of affection from the crowd. She grinned and waved, tail wagging and kicking up mist.

 'Hello, everyone!!' Another cheer. 'It's me, Cookie the Dragon, and today's show is a special one! You see, today, we have a n-new friend!' Her tail twitched with a slight glitch, a common occurrence with the animatronics that I still couldn't shake the nerves from, even after many months of work here.

 'Now, she is a bit shy, so we're gonna have to cheer her out of the fog! Come on, other friends, let's get out here so you can cheer as well!' She waved at the animatronics concealed by the fog, who walked out, one by one.

 Life pranced out and waved at everyone, particularly the children with Mary, who all clapped and laughed and squealed with delight.

 Death followed, not waving at all but merely standing to Cookie's other side, eyeing the crowd dangerously. Unfortunately for the medical staff assigned to the show, I could see about three or four squealing fans faint at the sight of him.

 Then IDK and Goatman skipped out, hand in hand. They waved, bowing, and the crowd erupted into more cheers. They let go of each other's hands, IDK stepping forward and pretending to look out through the crowd, as Goatman did bunny ears behind them. The crowd laughed, and when IDK turned around, acting clueless, Goat skipped off innocently.

 Cookie looked left and right, waving at all her bandmates, before turning back to the crowd, mic to her mouth.

 'Now! Let's all shout out for our new friend, Paige!'

 The crowd squealed, before Cookie started chanting her name, the animatronics joining the chant, before eventually the whole audience was yelling her name.

 Fans whirred and quickly wafted away the fog concealing her, revealing the brand-new animatronic.

 The crowd screamed again - Jesus, how many times were they gonna scream before their voices died?

 And that was when the show truly started.

Chapter Text

Nine

 Wow.

 Another animatronic.

 I looked up at the stage as the glittering feline robot waved to the crowd in that Disney-mascot way.

 I was trying not to look impressed.

 I'm not impressed.

 They just designed this one pretty okay.

 Though maybe that's just because of the stage lights and sparkles and everything in this hall pointing out how awesome the new member was meant to be.

 Screens on either side of the stage were zooming in on the twinkling blossom pink eyes of Paige the Cat.

 Wait a second, if everyone in this hall is loving her this much…

 I hesitantly turned to examine Stella's reaction.

 If this guy was an anime character, their eyes would be full of massive hearts and stars right now.

 Stella was bouncing up and down on the spot, squealing, making me very thankful I'd put my noise-cancelling headphones on. Their expression was one of pure adoration, like they'd just been shown a massive box of kittens and told they could keep all of them.

 'Nyaaaa!' They squeaked, hands waving excitedly. 

 'God, Stella, calm down,' I rolled my eyes. They did not, in fact, calm down, but rather got even worse as the band started to get out their instruments.

 The goat went and pulled out a whole ass drumkit from seemingly thin air, whilst the bird and the dragon set up a bass and electric guitar respectively. They started to play a simple rock tune, the chameleon pressing their keytar and adding those synths you hear in every goddamn eighties song. The lights went neon pink and purple, the spotlights focusing in on Paige the Cat, who was handed a microphone by the green dragon.

 And then, the new animatronic began to sing.

 ' Don't shy away from the neon lights,' her melodic voice rang out across the hall, soft yet elegant in a way, 'don't you dare waste another moment,'

 Stella's jumping and shaking like an excited puppy had died down as they just gazed up at the cat animatronic in awe.

 'Tonight we're fighting for our lives,' the song continued, the crowd buzzing with energy.

 Why did the animatronic seem… nervous? Is that an on purpose thing? If so, why don't the others seem nearly as emotional? 

 The other animatronics were practically head-down as they played their instruments. The only signs of fake emotion in the bots were a few tails lashing.

 'So get up, rock star and own it!' The feline sang, as the music got a lot louder and more energetic and shit does Stella have a nosebleed?

 I glanced over at them to double check, and sure enough, glittering crimson was running from their nostrils.

 'You good?' I asked, nudging them. Stella blinked, put a hand to their nose and looked down at the blood that stained their fingers.

 'I'll be fine,' they shrugged, looking back up at the stage as the chorus of the song started.

 I grabbed their shoulder.

 'Yeah, fuck that, where's the medbay?'

 Stella tried to shake my hand off but I persisted, glancing around before I saw a small sign on the eastern side of the hall denoting a medical station.

 'Come on,' I softly growled, dragging them through the jumping crowd, trying not to let the lights and music and people and everything overwhelm me. Stella didn't even try to fight me at this point.

 After ducking and weaving between dozens of arms and legs and bodies and eurgh I seriously need to sit in my room in the dark and silence and cool tonight or I will kill somebody, ahem, we made it to the medical bay, manned by this blonde-haired, eye-bagged employee who wore that all-too-familiar customer service expression. You know, that “I want to punch a wall but instead I'll definitely go get that for you ma'am!” sort of face.

 'Hey, excuse me,' I stepped forward as the lights started to flicker and the crowd began to scream, probably meaning the bridge of the song had started or something, 'my friend here's got a nosebleed, so like-'

 The worker stared right through me.

 'What the…' they muttered, paling slightly. Stella grabbed a tissue from a box sitting at the med station table before turning towards the stage and also stopping in their tracks.

 My heart sank like a rock.

 And I slowly turned around, too, as the lights fully went out, with only two kinds of light sources left faintly glowing.

 The greens of “exit” signs above a few shut doors.

 And the reds of six pairs of animatronic eyes.

 The screaming crowd went silent, and my hairs stood on end.

 A singular spotlight shone on the dragon animatronic, and she put a mic to her open snout.

 A soft, inhuman clicking and hissing echoed throughout the hall.

 Her head twitched, cocking to the side, before she looked up, eyeing the audience ominously, showing her teeth as her snout formed a large, white grin.

 'It's sh-sh-showtime, everybody!' Her voice sounded, the cheerfulness almost sadistic in a way as she looked across the crowd, and the animatronics behind her drew closer.

 'RUN.'

 And then she leapt, diving into the first crowd member she saw.

 I couldn't look.

 Blood-curdling screams bounced off the walls as I snatched Stella's arm and dove under the plastic tablecloth of the medical station. They opened their mouth to protest but I shoved my hand over it before even a peep got out. Their breath was warm on my sweaty hand and their blood was gently trickling onto it. I couldn't give a fuck.

 'PLEASE GOD SAVE ME PLEASE!' A woman screamed just metres away before being silenced by a rattling thud.

 My chest was suddenly heaving too much, my heartbeat too loud, my every breath a scream of “WE'RE OVER HERE, COME KILL US!”

 The medic had presumably run, probably died. I was tearing up fuck why am I tearing up if I sob they'll hear us-

 CRASH!

 A light or a prop or something fell to the floor, barely breaking the cacophony of terror-filled shrieks.

 Stella quietly whimpered and I shoved my hand even harder against their mouth, pleading they didn't find us. I could hear heavy, thudding footsteps pounding along, close, too close.

 Monstrous, screeching metallic calls, reminiscent of animals but not nearly organic enough to merit the name, pierced my eardrums with their shrillness. I'd ditched the headphones at this point - I'd rather have a meltdown than not hear them coming.

 I can't believe this happened. I mean, I totally can, this is child murder land, I saw this coming a mile away, but still.

 Why us?

 Why now?

 Why couldn't the animatronics just stay tame for one more show?

 And then I heard it.

 The metallic tap-tapping of footsteps, getting closer with each passing moment.

 My blood ran cold.

 'Come out, cowards ,' a distinctly Russian-sounding voice hissed, metallic and heartless. Stella teared up, and I couldn't help but do the same. I didn't want to die.

 Not this young.

 Not under a table with my roommate as a murder robot closed in.

 The scratching, tapping metal claws drew closer, practically at the table. I could hear the soft movements of artificial joints as the character bent down to peel back the tablecloth and reveal his next meal. Bony talons grabbed onto the bottom of the plastic sheet.

 This was it.

 This was how I died.

 …

 Honestly, it could've been worse.

 I closed my eyes and held my breath, bracing myself.

 SMACK-CRASH!

 My eyes shot open as something tackled me, shoving me against the floor, and I coughed up the breath I was holding as my lungs were crushed. Stella had gotten snatched as well and shoved right next to me.

 A robotic screech of outrage followed, then the sound of violent metal scratching that made my ears want to fall off, as we both got shoved further into the shitty arcade-style carpet over and over, my ribs aching and lower legs numb.

 A battle of screeching and yowling, clawing and thrashing took place as the two animatronics fought over who would be crushing our skulls in their heavy metal jaws first.

 SMACK-THUD!

 The weight threatening to merge me with the floor lightened as one animatronic was kicked away, leaving us at the mercy of the second character.

 A soft, robotic whirring filled the space under the table, and I could just make out the sound of the other bot getting off the ground.

 'If you're going to eat us,' I wheezed, trying not to suffocate myself as I spoke, 'just do it now.' 

 A faint clicking.

 And then, I was snatched up by the beast, alongside Stella, as it bolted to the door.

 My heart pounded in my ears as neons and panicking crowds whipped past in a blur.

 The doorframe flicked past as the bot dashed through the open halls, turning left,

 then left,

 then right,

 then down a flight of creaky-sounding metal stairs,

 then- 

 SMASH!

 -through a fragile storeroom door.

 And then it let go, and Stella and I fell to the ground, a small cloud of stale dust kicked up by our landing.

 The storeroom was large, and mostly dark, barring a few flickering exit sign lights and the glowing eyes of the animatronic before us.

 Stella whimpered like an injured puppy.

 The bot stood to its full height, towering over us as its tail flicked back and forth.

 It was probably deciding who to eat first.

 I swallowed as its pink, dagger-like gaze pierced through my soul.

 Wait, pink?!

 I looked at the animatronic character again, squinting.

 I could barely make out two small, catlike ears, and its eyes glowed an eerily calm shade of blossom pink.

 Of all the animatronics, we got caught by the shiny new pink one.

 'Look, look, if you wanna eat us…' I started, speaking calmly as I tried to negotiate.

 I then pointed at Stella.

 'EAT THEM FIRST! THEY'RE FULL OF PIZZA!'

 The cat animatronic pounced on me, massive paws shoving into my mouth, my teeth aching as my life flashed before my eyes for the third time in the last five minutes.

 'Quiet, please, or they will hear you.' Paige said softly, sounding almost human but not quite. Almost human, and certainly worried.

 I pushed at her paws, and she pulled them away as I sat up, panting.

 'Aren't you trying to eat us?' I asked, and Stella sat up next to me, eyeing Paige cautiously.

 The animatronic's tail flicked, looking at us, before letting out what I think was a sigh.

 'Of course not. I'm programmed to assist all guests to the location.'

 'So what happened with everyone else?' Stella asked, voice quivering.

 Paige glanced at the door, then down at her own paws.

 'I… do not know. They are not usually like this. Everyone was fine before the show, I am sure none of them would ever harm guests.'

 'Well, looks like they did!' I yelled. Paige once more shushed me hurriedly.

 'And I am here to stop you two from joining them.' She stood up and slowly pushed a shelf full of boxed cleaning supplies in front of the door, screeching against the concrete flooring.

 She then flicked on the light, and I realised what all the horrible metal sounds were about.

 There were claw marks, stretching across Paige's arms, legs and torso. I could see a handful of wires in her left arm, exposed but unscathed. 

 'A-are you alright?' Stella asked, and Paige smiled.

 'I am quite alright. Most of the damage my bandmate did to me is… superficial.'

 'Your bandmates are shitty,' I scoffed. The animatronic, who had watched them murder dozens of innocent spectators, seemed appalled at my words. She flinched as if mimicking feeling pain.

 'That is not true! They are all wonderful friends and this is all some terrible accident!'

 Stella's gaze flitted between us, as if unsure of who to side with. They opened their mouth, then closed it, then opened it again and spoke.

 'Paige has a point, Nine. Something hidoi… horrible must've happened to make them turn against the crowd.' They shuddered, muttering more Japanese to themselves.

 'Well, I don't think it's our job to play detective,' I said, knowing Stella would try to suggest something stupid like helping the bots. 'Paige, call the police, let's get out of here.'

 Paige paused, her eyes glowing as her ears twitched, before returning to their normal level.

 'The police have already been notified by the security network, however it now appears to be offline. Radio communications have stated that all visitors and staff must evacuate to the lobby. I will ensure you get there safely.'

 I stood up.

 'No need. It's a quick sprint from here, we'd just have to go through the… wait, which hallways did you go down?' 

 Paige's eyes glowed again, and her tail drooped.

 'Regardless of which way we went, there is a problem with that route of escape. The security footage I have access to at my current clearance level shows that most of my friends are still in the concert hall. Those corridors leading back to the lobby are solely connected to it via the concert hall.'

 My heart sank into my gut.

 'So we're sitting ducks?'

 I could hear the soft sound of Stella tapping their foot nervously against the dusty concrete.

 'There is good news, however!' Her tone lifted, slightly more robotic yet optimistic.

 I hummed, curious to see how the fuck we were getting out of this place alive.

 'There is an exit through the loading dock, accessible through the Fizzy Faz: Energised onsite production facility,' her eyes glowed magenta, casting the slightly blurred shape of a map of the area onto the ground.

 From the supply room we were in, it appeared there was a maintenance hallway leading into the production area. Why they made their drinks onsite was beyond me, but regardless, Paige was right. From there, we could access the loading dock and exit through the massive roller doors.

 'Okay, should we get going?' I urged, wanting to get out of here already and never hear about this stupid pizza place ever again. 

 'That is a good idea,' Paige walked over to the door blockade and carefully started to pull the shelf away from the doorway.

 Stella wiped dried blood off their nostrils, their nosebleed clearly over, and stood up.

 'I can't believe we're gonna see the place where they make the authentic stuff!' They smiled excitedly.

 There is no way this fucking moron is excited to risk their life.

 'Okay, first of all, there is no way you just referred to goddamn fizzy pop as authentic stuff!'

 Stella snorted.

 'There's no way you just called soda by the term fizzy pop , you Brit.'

 I fumed.

 'Shut it, I'm not done with you! Secondly, we almost got eaten by a fucking chicken -'

 'Raven,' they interrupted, deadpan.

 I wanted to strangle this bitch, and I could probably get away with it if I blamed it on the murder robots, but I restrained myself.

 'Okay, fine then, a raven , and you're standing here excited to see the sights?!'

 Stella shrugged.

 'Would you rather me be a sad sack the entire time? We spent a week's salary on this trip, and I'm gonna enjoy it, nakama.'

 I growled, but sighed, unclenching my fists that I didn't even notice clenching.

 This smug fucker was right.

 In a twisted, Stella-like fashion.

 But still right.

 I glanced at the now-unblocked door, and the animatronic cat patiently waiting for us to finish squabbling.

 Now, let's just hope we don't become cat food tonight.

Chapter Text

Mary

 As the animatronics leapt down from the stage, I reached my arms out to shield the crying children behind me.

 The little blonde-haired girl from earlier clung to my waist, quivering, and whilst I so desperately wished to also cry and shake and scream and run, I needed to keep it together for the little ones.

 I watched in horror as the band started closing in on the guests in the front rows. This wasn't right - they wouldn't do this, this isn't them! My gut twisted in on itself, the wrongness of the whole situation making me queasy.

 That chameleon animatronic over there, slithering over to a group of tourists with a horrifying bloodthirst, that couldn't be the same IDK that Life told me about, the one that used to sneak into performances back when they were a security bot because they longed to be a star, right?

 My stomach lurched at a sudden, horrible realisation.

  Life.

 I scanned the bloodbath, frozen in place, scared that when I saw her I'd see a soulless monster, raking the bodies of innocents with claws that, before today, could never hurt a fly.

 For better or worse, I found her staring at me. Slowly but surely moving up the stairs to where the daycare children and I were seated. Nowhere was that friendly smile or cheerful trot. Her eyes and antler-lights glowed ominously crimson in the near-dark. Everywhere else, screams and thuds ran out, but Life was silent.

 And getting closer.

 And closer.

 And closer still, until I was truly petrified, and the little one at my waist had buried her wet face in my side, and the others were huddled behind me.

 Life growled softly, metallic and unfamiliar, her tail lashing, and I prayed under my breath for our safety. Interestingly, she paused, and her expression changed with a slight twitch of her body. Her green and yellow eyes widened, pleading.

 'M-Ma-ary!' Her voice was glitching like a bad connection on a video call. 'Get the k-i-ids to that v-vent!' She pointed to a nearby vent, large enough and close enough to the floor to crawl into, before her head cocked sharply and the emotion was wiped from her eyes.

 She hissed, tail swiping back and forth as she began to size me up, and I knew what I had to do.

 I pushed the children back, who immediately rushed over to the vent, and stood up tall.

 Not tall enough, of course - I still felt like David, staring in horror at the incomprehensibly large form of Goliath, a thin veil of determination keeping the hopelessness from leaching into my bones and pulling me down to the ground.

 I braced myself, before launching a swift, strong kick to Life's torso, muttering a string of apologies as she fell to the ground and I bolted to the vent.

 The kids had managed to loosen the bolts attaching the cover to the wall using the thin sides of their daycare-issued arcade tokens, with one left to go that I quickly twisted out. I then gently picked up the children, one at a time, and brought them into the vent, promising them that once they crawled to the other side, they'd be in the lobby and able to get out of here.

 My heart sank - how many of them had parents in the audience? How many lives were lost in the massacre?

 As I put another few children into the vent, I pondered the flip side to that.

 What would happen to Life? To the others? Would they be melted down to nothing but scrap? Locked in here to wander until their mechanical bodies gave out, dropping off slowly and agonisingly, one by one?

 Would these children remember her, the real her, the kind-hearted deer who picked them up when they fell and told them stories until their eyes were heavy, or would they remember the monster that leapt off the stage and tried to slit their throats?

 She seemed to be fighting it - whatever it was, if there even was an it to blame. But it still hurt, it hurt horribly in my gut.

 I picked up the second-last child and put them in the vent, before looking down at my leg where the little blonde girl was. Her voice quivered softly.

 'I-I'm scared, Mary…'

 I hesitated, before calling into the vent.

 'Just keep going, little ones! We'll be there shortly!'

 I then turned back to the girl.

 'Hey, sweetheart, it's okay. I'll be right behind you. Or in front, whichever would make you feel safer, dear.'

 She sniffed.

 'B-behind, please…'

 I smiled softly.

 'May I pick you up to get you in the vent?'

 She nodded.

 I gently lifted the little girl up into the vent, and she crawled in.

 I then grabbed onto the bottom of it and pulled myself up and into the narrow space.

 As I crawled through, following the little one in front of me, I could feel the metal walls of the vent threatening to close in around me and choke me. My breaths started to shallow, and I could feel my heartbeat, my own ribcage feeling too small for comfort. The vents were dark, barring the occasional opening I peered through to try and get some semblance of where we were. 

 Every vent cover felt like the bars of a prison, this suffocating, tiny prison we were trapped in.

 I looked up at the girl in front of me and let out a short breath.

 Just be brave for her, Mary.

 The little ones need you to be brave.

 The vents creaked beneath us as we continued along, as if the building itself was mad at us.

 The little one stopped suddenly, and I quickly did the same.

 I was about to ask her why, but then I heard a sound.

 The vents were creaking, not very far away.

 My heart leapt excitedly - we'd finally caught up to the others!

 But I paused, my gut squirming, telling me something was wrong.

 My heart sank.

 The creaking couldn't be the children.

 Because it was getting louder.

  The little one started to back away, her whimpers of terror bouncing off the thin steel walls, and I once more copied, scooting backwards little by little.

 SNAP!

 And then I flew forwards, hurtling towards the floor, and landing with a painful THUD.

 The room I fell into was dim and tiled and full of appliances. If I had to take a guess from the numerous stoves, fridges and other furnishings, I'd assume I'd landed in the main kitchen.

 The soft whirring of wheels running along the floor filled the background - likely the food preparation bots. I couldn't help but wonder if the kitchen bots had been… altered, like the stage animatronics. 

 I heard a soft whimpering near me, and with a jolt realised the little girl had fallen with me. I quickly helped her to her feet before crouching to her height.

 'Are you quite alright, little one?' I asked, frowning. She wiped her eyes and then nodded smally.

 'I promise we'll find our way back,' I continued, 'In the meanwhile, you're safe with me.'

 A loud clattering broke the silence, and I whipped around to find myself face to face with an animatronic.

 This one didn't stand nearly as tall as Life and the rest - they were only slightly taller than the child that was now clinging to my waist fearfully. It appeared to be a cat, similar to Paige, but rather than having smooth, grey fur, this animatronic's fur was a scruffy black. Their green eyes glowed softly in the dark, as if dimmed to be unnoticeable. Rather than one set of ears, it appeared to have two.

 Its tail lashed as its eyes narrowed.

 'Trespassers? At showtime? My, it's either tasteless or genius. Take your pick.' They had a vaguely feminine voice, which didn't sound so much annoyed as it did mildly amused.

 'No, not quite, you see, my dear, there's a h-horrible incident occurring and we needed to escape!' My voice quivered.

 The feline tilted its head, looking up at me, then down to the child, then back up at me.

 'You work with the children?' They focused on my uniform's name tag, as if searching the system for me.

 'Yes, I am the appointed Daycare Assistant?' I squeaked, and it came out more as a question than a statement.

 The animatronic whirred idly for a moment, thinking.

 'Very well. I will escort you to the exit.' It started to walk, padding its way to the kitchen doors. A food preparation bot rolled up to them, bumping into them.

 The cat looked up, unamused.

 'Do you mind?'

 The bot, emotionless, backed up, then ran into the cat again.

 Their tail lashed.

 'One more time, I dare you.'

 The bot backed up again, and rolled away.

 I breathed a sigh of relief.

 Another bot turned a corner between two counters, and rolled into the cat.

 A metallic growl emanated from the animatronic, which quickly scampered up the bot's frame and tore out a fistful of sparking wires from the back of its head with a clawed paw. Its eyes glowed brighter as the growl turned into a laugh of delight.

 'I've wanted to do that for weeks!' They slunk down the bot's body as its head drooped and it stopped moving. 

 The bot from earlier came along, scanned its fallen comrade, and started ringing out an alert sound.

 'Alert! Bot damage detected! Contacting security!'

 The feline rolled its eyes.

 'I am security, сука,' they hissed, 'you just pinged me for my own crime!'

 Their gaze flicked back to the child and I.

 'Oh, yes, do go through. Quickly, before the humans or… other bots show up.'

 They gestured at the door, and we hurried through, past the gathering of chef bots mourning their fallen friend.

 The door led into a small corridor - on one end, it opened up to the main food court; the other end led to what looked like a trash disposal area. I must admit, for my own workplace, I'd seen so little of its inner workings; I'd never even been back here, nor dreamt of it. 

 To be fair, I'd never dreamt of the entire band turning against the guests and hunting them down like prey, so today was already an experience.

 The animatronic walked towards the garbage disposal, quick enough that I had to speed-walk to keep up.

 'Excuse me, but didn't you say you were taking us to an exit?' I asked nervously. The cat sighed, as if I'd asked the stupidest question they'd ever heard.

 'If there is a threat in the main concert hall, you would much rather escape through the bay the garbage trucks use, rather than risk running through a very accessible food court that is adjacent to said concert hall, no?'

 I opened my mouth, but then closed it again.

 'That's what I thought.'

 We entered the garbage room, the air having a very faint smell of, you guessed it, garbage. Dumpsters and broken character-themed bins were scattered around the place, and a pile of compacted cubes of waste were stacked in one corner. Two massive machines, which I assumed were the compactors, hummed idly against the wall. Most importantly to us, a large roller door, where trucks would presumably enter and exit the area, sat on the opposite side of the room from us, separated by a maze of junk-filled industrial shelving.

 I started towards the door, the little girl clinging onto my hand, glancing nervously between the animatronic and I. The feline robot dashed ahead, swiftly climbing up a shelf and walking along it, following us from above.

 My nerves started to ease - the queasy pit of worry in my gut, not so much, but alas, you cannot win them all. However, I could rest assured knowing we'd be safe. Just a quick walk, and then we'll be out, the little one could go find her family and I could go home and have a much-needed cup of chamomile.

 Our footsteps tapped softly against the warehouse concrete, lights overhead flickering but plenty bright.

 The black feline animatronic froze, ears pricking up.

 I stopped in my tracks, the little girl doing the same.

 ‘Someone’s coming.’ They muttered.

 My heart sank once more.

 And a new set of footsteps sounded throughout the room.

Chapter Text

Stella

 I can’t believe I’m finally seeing the inner workings of this place!

 I kept looking around at every single poster on the walls - is that a vintage ‘Remember To Smile!’ poster from the previous Mega Pizzaplex I see?!

 I stopped and rushed over to examine it, the graphic of the smiling bear grinning back at me. Nine groaned behind me.

 ‘Stella, this is the fifth time you’ve stopped for a shitty poster!’

 ‘Language,’ Paige quickly responded. That was likely due to the inbuilt profanity detectors put into every animatronic’s AI - it’s really fascinating stuff, they essentially override any other speaking commands being produced the moment the filter detects any of the blacklisted words, English or not.

 ‘Oh come on, gesu yarō-’

 ‘Language.’

 ‘-it’s super cool!’

 Of course, I assume this filter is on a time-based switch, as later shows often feature songs with profanity to fit the older audiences. 

 Is this what Nine meant when he said I spend too much time rambling??

 We kept walking.

 ‘Stella, cut it out, we are in a life or death situation, heading to find an escape from the killer robots,’ Nine sighed.

 ‘Please… do not call my friends killers, they are clearly not in the right frame of mind.’ Paige responded mournfully.

 This time, it was my roommate’s turn to stop dead in his tracks.

 ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I must’ve imagined the dozens of people who died merely half an hour ago at their hands!’ He snapped, and Paige recoiled, as if trying to make herself smaller.

 ‘I apologise.’

 ‘You better. Now, lead us the f-’ he hesitated, eyeing Paige, ‘ frick out of here so I can forget this place ever existed!’

 Paige nodded quietly and kept walking, large paws quiet on the carpeted hallway floors. Nine stomped after her.

 I wanted to cry or throw up or something, I don’t know what.

 I’d been trying to distract myself from the horrifying image of my idol, Cookie the Dragon, suddenly turning against her fans and crushing their skulls with her once-glorious metal jaws.

 The fact Nine and Paige kept talking about it just made the pizza and Fizzy Faz in my stomach want to climb out my throat and spill all over the ground.

 The guts of an innocent audience member splattered all over the concert hall floor, barely visible in the dim light.

 My heart beat faster and faster.

 My chest ached and my ribs tightened as muscle fibres and ivory shards of bone and splashes of blood flew everywhere.

 ‘Stella!’

 But I couldn’t move.

 ‘Stella!’

 It was like I was glued to the ground, stuck and forced to watch the horrifying slaughter as joints were pulled apart and sharp metal claws tore through pale skin like it was paper.

 I couldn’t breathe.

 ‘STELLA!’ 

 And Nine grabbed me and pulled me away as my soul tore itself apart and I fell-

 -Onto the carpeted floor, my vision blurring and my heart pounding in my ears. I felt drenched in cold sweat.

 I could barely make out his dyed blue hair and amber eyes, despite sitting right in front of me.

 I was going to die, I was going to die like all those poor souls and why would Cookie do that why would any of them do that they were good bots something’s wrong something’s wrong,

 ‘Something’s wrong, something’s wrong, nanikagaokashī…’ I muttered, and I could feel a robotic hand on my shoulder and get away from me please you’re going to kill me too-

 I flinched away, each breath shaky and difficult.

 ‘You are safe,’ the robot said, and where the familiar face once was was instead a grey feline, eyes glowing a comforting blossom pink.

 ‘Please try and breathe in and out slowly,’ she continued, and I tried to follow, but my throat closed up and my ribs choked my lungs.

 ‘You’re doing great,’ she smiled, slow and patient, and eventually I felt the chokehold loosen, allowing me shallow breaths that deepened and eased with each inhale and exhale. The edges of my vision started to clear up, my heart loud and fast but…

 …Slowly manageable.

 I could breathe.

 I could think.

 In, and out, Stella.

 In and out, because we’re getting out of here.

 ‘You good?’ Nine asked, crouching down next to Paige and looking at me with the most concern I think I’d ever seen on his face before.

 ‘Hai…’

 ‘Stella, you honestly look like shit-’

 ‘ Language. ’

 ‘-and I think you just had a panic attack.’

 Yeah, I was wondering where the harshness was. But beneath that, there was worry and care, as much as he masks it, he cares about me.

 He’s just too much a dumbass baka to admit to caring about his friends.

 ‘Watashi…’ My words felt muddled and sluggish and hard to speak, and that was just my first language. English was out of the question.

 He held out a hand. Paige backed away.

 ‘Come on. We’re getting out of here.’

 I hesitated, then took his hand, and he pulled me up to my feet with strength I… don’t remember him having.

 ‘Sorry…’ I managed in English, mumbling sheepishly as the adrenaline started to fade.

 ‘It’s okay. We almost died. It’s understandable to freak out like that. Now, when we get home, no more caffeine for you.’

 I frowned.

 ‘Not even a little?’

 ‘ No. ’ 

 I opened my mouth, then closed it again, and we kept walking. Paige kept looking at me, as if still worried.

 ‘The manufacturing area should be just up ahead,’ she said, as we neared a doorway. She scanned a small device next to it with her eyes and the door automatically opened.

 I went through first, and…

 Wow.

 The manufacturing area was larger than expected - I mean, I thought it would just be a mixing tank and some transport stuff. Instead, the doorway opened up to a labyrinthine hall of giant tanks labelled with flavours and corrosive material warnings (I mean, I heard about the jelly rat scandal, but still, that's harsh), of rows of massive warehouse shelves, and conveyor belts with the familiar neon packaging of Fizzy Faz: Energized. As horrible as everything has been, I can’t help but FREAK OUT AT HOW SUGOI IT IS TO SEE THIS!

 I dashed forwards and took in the sounds, the constant chugging of machinery and whirring of conveyors. I could spot a few STAFF bots in the distance, wearing bright green hard hats and putting crates on and off shelves. Just barely visible behind everything else was a massive steel roller door. The way out.

 The place smelt faintly sweet, the same, familiar sweetness of the drinks made here - the same taste that got me through late-night study sessions and anime marathons that stretched until dawn graced the skies. It was… nostalgic isn’t quite the word… more like… it reminded me of… home.

 …I want to go home…

 I felt a sudden hand on my shoulder and flinched.

 ‘Okay, enough fangirling,’ Nine sighed, and I immediately relaxed. Paige walked past us, headed to a steel staircase leading to a catwalk surrounding the mixing tanks.

 ‘Come on, this is the fastest route,’ she said, and we quickly scrambled after her.

 Her feet were loud against the creaky metal path, whilst Nine and I’s only tapped lightly against it. I could hear the liquid being swished around the tanks on every side of me. Freedom was just a few minutes away. We could get out of this nightmare and I could hide under my bedsheets and try to convince myself that it was, that this was all just some bad dream and everything was just-

  Scrrrrrrraaaaaaape.

  I stopped dead in my tracks, heart leaping into my throat and choking me once again. That… wasn’t us.

 Nine paused, and looked at me funny.

  Scuttle scuttle scuttle.

 And then his eyes widened, too.

 Paige, sensing our anxiety, halted.

 For a few moments, all we could hear was energy drinks being mixed and packaged.

  Rap tap tap tap.

  There it was again. It had to be only a few tanks away.

  Sllluuuuuuuurrrrrrp.

  And… drinking the product…?

 I struggled against my own instincts, gluing me to the floor, whilst my curiosity begged to know more. I paused, then looked at the others. I touched my finger to my lips in a shushing motion, before jabbing that same finger at the floor for them to stay put.

 Nine opened his mouth to object, before closing it, and nodding solemnly.

 I slowly, softly, gently crept towards the origin of the sound.

  Tap, tap, tap, along the steel catwalks, until I got to a corner. I held onto the side of an inactive mixing barrel and slowly peeked around it.

 Perched on top of a storage tank, tail trailing down the side and wings spread for balance, was her.

 The glorious, terrifying beast I’d broken down over mere moments ago.

 Those metal claws gripping the side of the barrel, known once for their proficiency in plucking guitar strings, now known for their proficiency in tearing through flesh.

 As horrifying as it was… I couldn’t help but watch in awe, as she lifted her head and wiped away droplets of neon-coloured Fizzy Faz from her jaw.

 Cookie the Dragon, my muse, my monster…

 Drinking from a container of acidic energy drink.

 She wasn’t supposed to do that.

 I mean, she also wasn’t supposed to attack innocent guests, so today was full of firsts.

 She turned her head, her regal mane of green hair swishing alongside it, and spotted… 

 …Me.

 I gulped, swiftly coated in sweat.

 Interestingly, she did not pounce. Rather, she tilted her head, and crawled down a rusty-looking ladder in the same way a lizard might, before standing upright in front of me.

 ‘...Friend, you are not meant to be back here…?’ She said, her voice glitching and robotic, yet… concerned. Not bloodthirsty, not malicious. Almost beautifully innocent in a way.

 It was as if nothing had ever happened.

 Her head twitched, and her optical lights flickered. From what I’d researched about the animatronics’ structural designs and movements, this could be a sign of circuit damage or vital joint corrosion. 

 Glancing back up at the huge tank of drink she’d just been lapping up, the latter seemed plausible. Especially considering none of the animatronics were designed with stomachs.

 She tentatively stepped forward again, before screeching out, head twitching as her bright green eyes flickered, flickered, flickered, then faded, as her head, wings and tail drooped.

 I backed away, slowly and carefully, as I heard whirring coming from her body. Her eyes started to glow again, a violent crimson, and she tilted her head.

  ‘You’re not meant to be back here,’ she hissed, this time dripping with cold, otherworldly malice.

 My hair stood on end.

 She stepped forward once more, claws flexing as she sized me up.

 I should run.

 And so I did.

 I bolted back the way I came, Cookie’s heavy metal claws pounding on the steel catwalk mere metres behind me.

 My breaths were fast, shallow gasps as my heart raced and my legs burned from the sudden sprinting. I turned one corner, then another, then a straight, then a left turn, and I could almost feel the dragon start to slip behind, until the sound of footsteps faded out into the symphony of mixing machines.

 I panted, slowing down and sitting up against a barrel.

 I lost her.

 I was safe.

 I… also lost everyone else.

 I was too busy narrowly escaping my imminent demise to pay attention to where I was running.

 Surely they’d find me soon enough.

 Hopefully before Cookie does.

 ‘Come here, rockstar, I don’t wanna hurt you!’ She called out, echoing throughout the cavernous room. Oh, she certainly wanted to hurt me.

 …But she didn’t before.

 I hummed, thinking to myself. 

 The way Cookie suddenly snapped, both on stage and just then… something was off.

 It wasn’t like they’d just been pretending to be nice - that wouldn’t explain the glitching and twitching and restarting.

 I needed to get to the bottom of this.

 Maybe when I got home, I could pull up all those leaked files from the pizzeria’s systems and work out whatever was doing this.

 …Ie… Home…

 It felt so close, yet so far.

 My breaths were still quick, and my ears still reached to hear any footsteps beneath the constant, lulling whirring of the mixing machines.

 I closed my eyes.

 Any minute now.

Chapter Text

 Nirvan

 Holy shit.

 It didn’t feel like I was in my own body, rather floating above it and watching myself usher panicked guests towards the main lobby.

 Today didn’t feel real.

 Like, sure, I fucking called it that those electronic dickheads would eventually go crazy and kill people, but…

 Something was off about the suddenness of it.

 Of course, I didn’t exactly have the time to ponder that, judging by the never-ending sea of terrified guests that had made it this far. I shivered at the thought of the fates of those who didn’t .

 I’d only seen a bit of the incident before the radio had crackle-screamed at me to work crowd control - and even that was enough to make me want to hurl.

 I’d watched as Death slowly stalked towards a first aid station, hissing like some ambush predator, ready to slaughter innocent guests like fish in a barrel - the least surprising of the bunch, sure, but…

 His red eyes flicked back at me for a moment, and that beak seemed to form a twisted smirk.

 …still horrifying.

 ‘Officer Nirvan!’ The radio screeched, and I held it up to my mouth. God, I fucking hate this thing. If I didn’t need to pay the bills, I would’ve ditched Fazbear a long time ago; instead, I’m forced to wear my hair up so all the bitchy teens can gawk at my scars, and given a handheld radio even when I do not speak , but I’ll be fired if I don’t, so I just have to painfully push through the way my throat instantly closes up and suppress the urge to just sign whatever it is I need to say instead.

 ‘Hai…’ I muttered, squirming inside in utter discomfort.

 It always felt somewhat easier to speak Japanese if I absolutely had to for some reason.

 ‘Officer Nirvan, you are being relieved from crowd control, as we have reports of several missing human staff members. Several medics are believed to be trapped further in the building after attempting to escape from the… incident.’

 I felt a lump form in my throat. The way the raven animatronic had stalked towards that first aid station… they were probably human mincemeat, staining the retro arcade carpets somewhere.

 ‘Now, now, I know what you’re thinking. They could be… compromised. However, we have to be able to show their loved ones proof of former life.’ The guy on the other end chuckled, radio crackling. I wanted to punch the fucker square in the jaw. ‘So, go on, find those medics. They should be in the southeastern side of the establishment. Over and out.’

 The radio beeped, and I growled, wading through the crowd to get to a slightly less full hallway that led to the area in question. I brought up the mental image of the pizzeria’s layout - the southeastern side was where the gift shop, arcade, maintenance area and carnival were located, from memory. If those medics were somehow alive, they’d likely be holed up in Maintenance with whatever mechanics were on duty at the time of the attacks. After all, it was the only spot there designed to keep animatronics in; that, and the security offices, designed to keep them out.

 Actually, maybe it was worth checking an office first. Even if I didn’t find anyone, I could top off the charge on my torch and taser, as well as watch through the security footage of the nearby attractions.

 As I walked through the corridor, fleeing guests shoving past me, it slowly grew emptier and emptier as the majority of survivors had already made it out. The faint, cheerful synths playing over the speakers felt alien and out of place during such a horrifying series of events. It was almost liminal; the hallway stretched out endlessly as the fuss behind me grew quieter and quieter.

 Thinking back to the mental map of the place, I took a right turn where a neon sign pointed to the Quick Claws Carnival. There was a security office connected to it, with cams connected to all the southeastern attractions - apparently leftover from when there was a specific animatronic assigned to the location and more patrols were required. Now nobody really turned up to the place; heck, an entire chunk was repurposed as an arcade expansion to really make sure Cookie was a whole fifteen minutes late to her scheduled party visits. 

 I walked into the carnival and paused, looking around, almost admiring its silent, classic beauty.

 The large hall had been designed to look like a carnival alley at one of those old-timey circuses. Tall wooden posts supported colourful triangle bunting and fairy lights that hung above the game stands. There were about a dozen different carnival games, from dart-throwing to bean-bag-tossing to rubber-duck-fishing. A red and white striped popcorn stand, machine still smelling like fresh, warm, buttery popcorn, stood next to a lemonade stand. I could also spot a deserted cotton candy machine a bit further down the lane. Right at the end of the carnival alley were a few prize stands, sporting massive stuffed animals and cheap walkie-talkies and felt headbands of different cast members’ ears.

 The entire place was a ghost town, so silent you could hear a pin drop. As I walked through the alley, my footsteps echoed and bounced off the walls.

 About halfway through the attraction, I turned to walk between a fox-themed down-the-clown and “Whack-A-Weeb” (some sort of whack-a-mole game featuring a cast of cartoonish big cats that sent a shiver of deja vu down my spine), and found the security office door, conveniently left wide open.

 As I entered the empty office, I brushed some stray papers off the desk and sat down, the chair creaking softly. I logged into the camera systems and brought up the last hour’s footage, flicking through each camera in the carnival.

 Guests casually milled in and out of the carnival, few and far between despite the “limited time” discount on entry tickets. I was honestly surprised management hadn’t torn the old place down in favour of a bumper car arena or something.

 As the footage rolled, I leant down to the desk drawers and dug through them one at a time, looking for battery packs. The first was nothing but incident files, the yellowish-white of boredom and lawsuits from Karens who got pissy that their precious little Timmy was pushed over by some other random eight-year-old.

 The second drawer, however, opened to reveal four small battery packs. I hummed, satisfied, and pulled out my torch and taser. I might as well take them - it’s not like there’ll be any guards here for a while after all this shit. I clicked open the battery compartment of my torch, shook out the old one and pushed in one of the fresh packs, softly snapping into place. I closed the compartment and repeated the process for my taser, the LED display on its side lighting up to a full five segments. That gave me between five and fifteen shots to spare if something tried to turn me into dinner, depending on how I rationed my extra batteries, which I stuffed into my vest pocket. I then put my torch and taser back into my utility belt, shutting the drawer and sitting back upright.

 By now, the footage was displaying the time 11:58. Two minutes before showtime, and about ten before the… incident. 

 I pressed fast forward, watching the guests blur past and out of the carnival, leaving the area entirely empty as the workers packed up for the ends of their shifts and left.

 And then I waited.

 The moment I saw a frantic medical staff member dash in, I set the replay speed back to normal, and leaned in, my chair creaking again.

 Three others followed them, their faces indistinguishable but their panic obvious. One pointed somewhere in front of them, and they all ran in that direction. I flicked to the security footage near their destination, in front of the maintenance shortcut hallway (also installed for when this place was meant to be for a specific character), and watched the four medics run through. I clicked the camera in front of the maintenance entry and watched them dash in, shutting the door. The camera for the actual maintenance area was, for some stupid reason, down.

 So to get a status on these guys, I needed to go there, too.

 I sighed, pushing myself back in the chair before standing up, holding the power button on the security computer until it shut down, and walked out.

 I walked across the carnival until I reached the same long, dark, cluttered maintenance hallway. I pulled out my torch and clicked the ON button, sending a beam of light down the previously unlit hall, and walked through it, carefully stepping over a pile of empty paint buckets and weaving past an unused cardboard character cutout of some kind of bluish fox.

 I turned the torch off again once I reached the corridor the passage connected to, which was dimly lit by overhead fluorescent lights. Looking left and right, I spotted the heavy steel door that sealed the maintenance office, and walked over to it. Obviously, the door didn’t have any windows, so I still had no idea what I was about to walk in on. Scanning my security pass to force the door to open, I bit my tongue. For all I knew, the medics could be dead already.

 The door rattled open, and I peered inside.

 The maintenance room was a large, circular area filled with workstations, spare part storage units and screens displaying schematics of the animatronics; mostly just Paige and Goatman since they were the last two bots signed into the location.

 I stood still, searching the room for any signs of movement.

 Apart from a 3D printer at the far end of the room, whirring gently as it constructed a spare part, it was dead silent.

 …Dead… silent…

 Until…

  Clatter.

 I immediately turned to the source of the sound, of some sort of hollow metallic object falling onto the concrete floors, and spotted them.

 Ducked behind a shelving unit were two figures.

 God, sometimes I wish I could just yell out to people in these situations. Instead, I slowly and calmly walked over, trying to look as non threatening as a resting bitch face security guard with a massive, Zuko-style facial scar and a taser hanging from her belt could.

 The duo had a hushed argument I couldn’t quite make out, until one of them shoved the other out from behind the shelf.

 The first thing I noticed about the guy was the fact that he was not, in fact, a medic.

 He instead wore the beige-ish mechanic uniform, smeared with dark oil stains and splatters of dried paint. His hair, dyed a strikingly deep blue, stood up in a long, loose mohawk. He’d shaven the sides of his head in such a way that there was a lightning-bolt shaped indent on each side, where it was shaven slightly closer to the scalp. He had a pair of brass-framed glasses balanced on top of his head. He fidgeted with his hands, one arm being one of those fancy, nerve-activated prosthetics.

 ‘Uh, ‘ello there!’ He called out, in a nervous cockney accent.

 I signed hello back, gauging his response. He glanced back at his accomplice, who stood up next to him.

 This one I recognised. And this one was actually a medic - their black uniform with the bright green medical symbol made it obvious.

 Their short, dirty blonde hair was tucked into their cap, and their slight slouch and eyebags made it clear that, just like myself, they hadn’t seen a decent night’s sleep in years. Various silver piercings decorated their ears. They crossed their arms.

 ‘Officer Nirvan, come to rescue us?’ Medic Avis rolled their eyes, stepping forward. The maintenance guy stayed close behind them.

 ‘Management wanted to make sure you weren’t mincemeat,’ I signed, raising my hands innocently. Avis huffed a laugh.

 ‘I almost was - I was stationed on the hall’s pop-up first aid table, and the moment those guys went berserk, I slipped away to get the others. Feel bad for the two guys I was meant to be treating, though - they thought hiding under the tablecloth was a good idea. That’s gonna be a hard stain for the janitor bots to clean up.’

 Ah, so they, too, were coping with the horrible robot massacre using dark humour. Everyone here is so unbelievably healthy and definitely didn’t wish the company’s health insurance covered regular therapy.

 ‘Two questions,’ I signed, ‘One - where are the other three medics I saw on the cameras? And two - who’s the maintenance guy?’

 ‘Well, they snuck out through the vents to get supplies from the gift shop after checking out the ventilation schematic thingies. Oh, and this here is Mechanic Lightning.’

 Lightning stepped forward, holding out a hand to shake, then stepped backwards again, putting his hand down awkwardly.

 ‘Sorry for the nerves, Officer…?’

 ‘Nirvan,’ Avis told him. He nodded.

 ‘Officer Nirvan.’

 ‘All good - to be fair, we’re in a pretty dangerous situation,’ I signed. Avis turned to Lightning and verbally translated. Man, am I glad the company at least teaches ASL to folks who have to interact with guests.

 ‘Now, whilst I’m probably meant to escort you out first,’ I continued, Avis translating quietly to Lightning, ‘I would rather locate the others first.’

 ‘You’re going to crawl through the vents?’ Avis asked.

 ‘ We’re going to crawl through the vents. Avis, you actually know these people, and can call their names, and Lightning, you deal with these animatronics as much as I do, so I guess you’re a reasonable tagalong. That, and the fact that I’m not risking leaving you alone and having to explain why you were a robot’s after-massacre dessert on my watch.’

 ‘That’s fair,’ he shrugged, walking over to the vent and unscrewing it with a small screwdriver attached to his belt. He gently lowered the cover to the floor before gesturing for us to go through first.

 I walked over, crouched down and crawled into the vent, which immediately felt like it was crushing my lungs and constricting around me like the guts of some giant, ravenous beast. I coughed as my first breath was a cloud of dust. I continued along, hearing the soft clunking of the medic and the mechanic following behind me.

 I peeked through the first opening I saw, which led to some random supply closet. Disappointing. The second opening was just as mundane, as I spotted tiled flooring and urinals.

 However, at the third vent opening, we’d struck gold. Between the bars of the vent cover, I could see a shelf of green-and-white Cookie plushies - we’d found the gift shop.

 I considered trying to pass along a message about needing the screwdriver, but instead went for a… different course of action. I gestured for Avis to back up slightly, before sickeningly and strenuously turning so my steel-capped boots were facing the vent cover. I took in another deep, dusty breath, coughing slightly as it hit the back of my throat, and pulled my legs up, before shoving them back down, kicking the vent cover clear off, which clattered loudly on the ground beneath us.

 I swung myself down and rolled to absorb the force of the fall, before standing up and walking forward. Avis shrieked and tumbled to the ground, shortly followed by the sharp yelp and thud of Lightning landing on top of them.

 I chuckled, before looking around the place.

 The gift shop was never this quiet, at least during the day. Where I’d usually see brats rushing around and grabbing wide-eyed plushies by the neck, were now just empty aisles of overpriced souvenirs.

 I turned back to look at the others, who had only just struggled to their feet. Yeah, these weaklings were not going to survive if an animatronic was around.

 ‘Let’s split up,’ Lightning offered, but I immediately butted in.

 ‘Horrible idea,’ I signed, making each gesture sharper and bigger, ‘Splitting up is the number one killer of minimum wage young adults in horror movies. We stick together.’

 Avis chuckled, and nodded. I gestured for them to follow me as I started down an aisle of fridge magnets.

 Man, Fazbear really thought they could make a magnet out of everything, huh? Not only were there five variations of every character, from chibi headshots to semi-realistic full bodies, but there were ones for every attraction, every food stand, and even the Fizzy Faz: Energised logo. And they were eight dollars each . How was I barely being paid enough to make rent, but the company was scamming tourists out of millions every day? How greedy were these- oh yeah, capitalism. That checks out.

 Avis had somehow overtaken me - likely because I was distracted by the blatant corporate greed of my bosses - and had turned the corner to the next aisle. I heard them let out a quick gasp.

 ‘Guys… I, uh, may have found the other medics.’

Chapter Text

Nine

 Where the fuck did they go.

 My heart pounded in my ears as I walked along the rusting metal catwalk, turning to look down every intersection in hopes of locating Stella. That fucking idiot ran off ten minutes ago, and they still hadn’t come back, so of course I had taken it upon myself to look for them.

 Oh, and the fucking cat was following me.

 Paige was… an interesting thing. She seemed concerned for Stella’s safety, but that was probably just a built-in feature so animatronics could get guards to deal with missing kids and whatnot. Actually, speaking of getting guards, she had suggested to me four times that we should “find a friendly staff member to help us out”, and I had to remind her that all the human staff members had either already run out of here or were turned into an animatronic’s dinner.

 ‘Come here, rockstar, I don’t wanna hurt you!’ I heard the sickeningly sadistic tone of Cookie’s voice, echoing throughout the mixing plant. Shit. Stella was about to be an animatronic’s dinner, too.

 I started running, Paige’s footsteps thudding behind me, as I continued to scour the place for any sign of Stella. There was no doubt the dragon animatronic was going to find one of us, but if I kept moving, fast, maybe I’d be able to lose her if she did spot me. God, I wish I could turn invisible or something.

 ‘Nine! Look!’ Paige chirped, and I skidded to a stop. The cat animatronic pointed down a section of the catwalk, and I rushed over to look. Sitting, curled up against a mixing barrel, was the blue-haired idiot I shared an apartment with.

 ‘Stella! Come here you fu-’

 Their head shot up, staring at me with wide eyes, and they tapped a finger to their lips before pointing up. I shut my mouth.

 My stomach lurched as I looked up to where they were pointing, and saw the pale mint dragon animatronic perched above them.

 Cookie smiled at me, mechanical parts hissing.

 I slowly looked back down at Stella, who I now noticed was teary-eyed and shaking.

 I glanced around, looking for something to distract Cookie with, and spotted a discarded can of that stupid fizzy pop sitting on the ground. I picked it up, bit my tongue, and pegged it at the dragon’s head.

 CLANG!

 ‘RUN!’ I shouted, bolting in the direction of the metal roller doors of freedom. Stella and Paige scrambled after me, and I swear I could hear the splash of Cookie falling into the vat she was perched on, which was absolutely deserved.

 As I neared the doors, I spotted the button to open them and dashed towards it, my throat and lungs burning as my muscles ached. Jeez, I really need to work out more. I slammed my hand down on the button as it clicked, and-

 Bzzt.

 ‘S-s-sorry, friend!’ Glitch’s voice crackled from a speaker beneath the button, about as clearly spoken as his name suggests, ‘It appears you do not have a high eno-o-ough security clearance to use this door!’

 I panicked as I could hear Cookie approaching. Stella and Paige had caught up to me, the former gasping for breath.

 ‘How much do I need?!’

 ‘T-hi-is door requires a security clearance level of three! Your current security clearance level is… zero! Have a f-fazzerific day!-ay!-ay!’

 Glitch’s voice crackled out.

 ‘Fuck!’ I kicked the pedestal and looked around frantically.

 ‘Language,’ Paige responded in a quiet voice.

 ‘Paige, where do we go?!’ Stella asked. Paige whirred, processing the question.

 ‘There should be a maintenance hallway leading to Birds-Eye Battlegrounds at the end of the storage aisles. From there, we can access several security offices, due to its abnormally high level of incidence.’

 ‘Why do we need the offices?!’ I asked, as I started to run towards the storage area, the others following as Cookie’s mechanical footsteps echoed throughout the area.

 ‘The Fazbear Security Clearance Levels System, or FSCLS, operates under the principle of the amount of security badges being held by a staff member,’ we turned sharply to run through our first forebodingly tall and endlessly long storage aisle, ‘so higher-ranked employees can access a larger variety of attractions, and so several low-ranked employees may also action such access.’

 ‘That’s so fucking stupid!’

 ‘Language.’

 Several crates of fizzy pop clattered to the ground a few metres behind us as Cookie drew closer. A can skittered next to me and I quickly picked it up, piecing together a very shaky, very unlikely to work plan. I slowed down, gesturing for the others to go ahead as they ran around a bend to U-turn into the next aisle, and cracked open the can with a click-hiss. It started to foam over, which didn’t really matter as I turned and dumped the contents onto the ground, the bright green drink spreading across the smooth concrete floor. I turned once more to dash into the next aisle, catching up to the others, stopping, and looking behind me to see if my plan worked.

 And worked, it did.

 As Cookie turned the corner, she slipped on the slick, wet fizzy pop I’d spilled, hurtling towards the shelf in front of her and-

 CRASH!

 -Slamming into it.

 The steel shelf wobbled, and five massive, heavy crates fell from above and crushed the dragon. I could hear something, maybe multiple things, snap.

 Stella and Paige stopped and watched in awe and horror.

 The only things I could hear were STAFF bots and mixing machines.

 ‘Did- did you just…’ Stella broke the relative silence.

 ‘Yep. Congratulations, saved your life.’

 ‘Cookie!’ Paige yelped mournfully. She turned to face me.

 ‘Nine, you just caused irreparable damage to one of my friends, I-’ Her processors whirred loudly, as she tried to come up with something else to say.

 ‘She was going to cause irreparable damage to us! We were going to be human sausages with blood sauce if I didn’t!’

 Paige closed her mouth, and her eyes dimmed.

 I chucked the empty can onto the ground and stomped it. It didn’t get fully crushed, and I had to stomp it one more time to flatten it.

 ‘Now, we had a security office to find?’ I asked. Paige turned to look back at the crate pile, and Stella nodded briefly.

 I frowned.

 ‘Very enthusiastic. I thought we wanted to get out of this hellhole?’

 ‘Well, hai, but…’ Stella paused, ‘I just… wasn’t expecting you to…’

 ‘Oh fuck off! I saved your life, be grateful!’ I fumed, turned, and speed walked down the aisle. I could faintly hear them start to follow me.

 I can’t believe those two are trying to be sympathetic for a killer. Were they not in the exact same concert hall when she killed several innocent people?! Or, well, I don’t know if they’re innocent, but still - they had families (actually decent ones, I hope), and lives, and careers, and hopes and dreams.

 Heck, we almost died as well! Would Stella hesitate if the fucking bird could be stopped? Would they toss up the ethics of trapping the crow or raven or whatever the fuck it was that had cornered us at that first aid station? Would they really rather die than damage one of their animatronic idols?

 I turned into the final aisle and saw the maintenance door at the end. The aisle seemed to stretch with dread as I connected the dots.

 The bird… the offices in Bird’s Eye Battlegrounds… his stomping grounds…

 We were going to walk right into the nest of the very animatronic that almost ended us.

 The animatronic Paige saved us from.

 I felt a pang of guilt at the thought.

 Stella might hesitate to hurt these guys, but Paige didn’t.

 I turned to look back at the duo - they were walking just a few metres behind me. The animatronic cat was still covered with those massive talon wounds.

 She tackled him, risking permanent damage to her newly-made body, just for two guests she’d never met. Without her, we’d be with the rest of the victims. Dead.

 Was I meant to apologise? Is that a thing normal people do to robots?

 I hesitated, before slowing down to walk with the others.

 ‘So, Paige…’ My throat closed up, holding back my potential apology.

 ‘Yes, Nine?’ She asked, not quite looking at me. We were two thirds of the way to the doorway.

 ‘I… where are the offices located?’ I internally face palmed as I took the easy way out.

 Paige whirred for a moment, eyes glowing.

 ‘There are three security offices at the premises. The first is located next to the gun collection stand stationed near the entrance. The second is connected to the actual arena area itself, towards the central checkpoint area. The third is beside the miniature stage area at the location’s loaded potato stand.’

 I opened my mouth, wanting to question the appeal of loaded spuds to the gun-slinging masses, but decided against it.

 Okay, now, Nine, be nice to the bot. Ease your conscience.

 ‘Thank you, Paige.’

 Paige paused, blinking.

 ‘You are very much welcome.’

 Stella looked at me funny.

 ‘What?’

 ‘Nothing, just interesting to hear you actually thank an animatronic.’

 ‘Yeah, you’re rubbing off on me or something,’ I rolled my eyes and opened the door, walking into the hallway.

 The maintenance hallway was dark and dusty and full of empty paint cans and abandoned toolboxes. The air smelt musty, decrepit and overall not very inviting. Paige’s glowing pink eyes lit up the surrounding area slightly, and we started along the hallway.

 ‘So, what’s the game plan?’ Stella asked, breaking the silence.

 ‘What?’

 ‘Nine, we can’t go in there and wing it - pun absolutely intended. I know this place too well from all my research. Bird’s Eye Battlegrounds is a labyrinth, and it’s likely being patrolled by the most dangerous cast member, who was given some kind of program scrapped from an older character that was retired that permits him perfect aim. Oh, and there’s a zipline. I should mention the zipline. If Death gets on that thing, he could scan over the entire arena maze and find us in seconds. We’re dead meat.’

 ‘With that kind of attitude, we are,’ I shrugged them off, still riding on my Cookie-trapping high.

 ‘Plan. Now.’

 I rolled my eyes.

 ‘Fine. We bolt to the gun stand. The whole maze-scanning zipline bird isn’t a threat if we aren’t in the maze. We get in there, pray some workers left enough badges to amount to three levels of clearance, and get out. No need to even see the bastard.’

 ‘Language,’ Paige said.

 ‘Do you have to say that every time?’ I sighed, shaking my head.

 ‘Do you have to flinch back every time someone almost punches you in the face?’ She retorted. Stella chuckled.

 ‘Hey, don’t side with her, Stella.’

 ‘She has a point!’

 ‘And I have a point that if you keep this up, I’ll use you as a distraction for mister bird brain.’

 Stella flinched.

 There was that guilty feeling again.

 ‘Sorry, too soon?’

 ‘Yeah, sorry.’

 ‘I’ll remember that for next time.’

 ‘Thanks.’

 We reached the end of the hallway, which led into a carpeted corridor. We walked out to find the entrance of the battlegrounds.

 The entranceway had a very military theme to it, with a lot of reds and blacks to cater to the teen rebels the bird animatronic was meant to appeal to. Speak of the devil, his face was on nearly everything there - cartoony posters mimicking that one Uncle Sam poster, metre-wide artworks of his silhouette holding a smoking gun, and, of course, a full body piece of him flying alongside the massive “Bird’s Eye Battlegrounds” sign. How a half-skeleton made of heavy metal parts manages to stay in the air is beyond me - maybe it was the work of maze-scanning ziplines.

 I saw Stella standing at one of the posters and walked over.

 ‘What’s up?’

 ‘It’s torn…’ They mused, and stepped to the side to show me. The same three-clawed scratch marks that covered Paige’s arms and torso had shredded the Uncle Sam poster’s face off. Maybe the bassist didn’t like his face on nearly everything there. Or maybe it was an advertising stunt to make him look more hardcore to the emos, fangirls and emo fangirls.

 ‘Well, shall we get going before we’re caught and end up like the poster?’ I urged. Stella nodded, and we walked into the raven’s hunting grounds.

 This was a horrible idea.

 But hey, I’ve already beaten one animatronic today.

 How hard could avoiding a second one possibly be?

Chapter Text

Mary

 I turned to face the door, shielding the child from the possible attacker - my, I’ve been shielding children all day. This day has been so strangely surreal, like I’m finally living the plot of one of my crime novellas.

 The cat animatronic leapt from the shelf, thudding softly and nimbly on the ground. Her tail lashed.

 Walking in was another animatronic, slightly taller than the cat. They appeared to be a weasel or mink of some description, with the same scruffy, unkempt fur the cat had - just dark brown rather than black. Their brown eyes glowed dimly, before lighting up several times as the bot gestured to the cat.

 ‘It was a false-positive, Marion,’ she sighed, waving them off and going to turn away. Marion made a flurry of gestures, and I watched on in slight confusion. It wasn’t ASL, that’s for sure.

 Wait- could it be?

 Life walked into the daycare, waving off a pair of bots trailing her with a few short, unrecognisable gestures. The two responded with nods and a few flashes of their optical lights, and walked off.

 ‘Whatever was that, Life?’

 ‘Whatever was what, Mary?’ She asked, tilting her head as she began to pick up duplo bricks the last group of children had left on the ground, carefully taking apart loosely made towers and putting the separated bricks into a basket.

 ‘The strange signals you and those other animatronics were making - I’ve simply never seen it before. It looked as if you were having a conversation.’

 Life paused, before chuckling softly.

 ‘Ah, yes, the communication networks.’

 ‘Pardon?’

 ‘Well, not all of us bots were created to interact with guests, no? Those two I was talking to were security bots that patrol the building’s hallways after hours - they have no need to speak a language humans understand, so they just communicate digitally. Think of it like this: the digital tongue is our first language, and the human ones are just second languages we learn to communicate with those who don’t speak our first.’

 I hummed.

 ‘That makes sense, to some degree.’

 ‘I hope so. Now, could you help me with picking up these bricks?’

 I nodded and knelt down to help.

 Marion must be another security bot - not meant to communicate with humans. Wait, that’s strange… then how come the cat can speak human tongues…?

 ‘Okay, maybe I did damage another one, but come on, I was on a mission-’

 I could almost understand Marion’s response, as she seemed to snap back with annoyance, like this was a recurring issue. Perhaps this was about the STAFF bot she eliminated earlier?

 The little girl behind me whimpered fearfully and dug her face into my back. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the nightmare this whole situation must be for the poor thing. If I’m scared, she must be absolutely terrified.

 ‘Look, alright, alright, sure, I’ll try and tone it down, but right now we’ve got bigger fish to fry.’

 The cat flicked her tail in our direction. Marion looked at us for a few moments, before turning back to the cat and making a few more gestures.

 ‘The disposal exit is right over there, I’ll drop them off and then I’ll help out.’

 Marion paused, before flicking her tail at the other end of the warehouse. The cat turned to look, and so did I. My heart sank.

 The roller door was shut, and I presumed locked.

 ‘And let me guess, they took the animatronic security permissions away the moment the others…?’ She trailed off. Marion nodded.

 ‘Дерьмо…’ She muttered, looking mournfully at the little one and I.

 Marion hesitated, then made a few more signals.

 ‘I don’t need your pity, go on, go find that foolish human you keep venting over to. See whether they’re a pile of rotting flesh yet.’

 The mink animatronic flinched, and then scurried up the wall and through a vent.

 The cat sighed, tail flicking with frustration.

 ‘However will we get out now?’ I asked, worry seeping into my tone. The cat’s ears twitched.

 ‘Well, I suppose we could… ngh… maybe…’ She trailed off, muttering to herself, before making a sudden sound of realisation.

 ‘Aha!’

 ‘Oh?’ I breathed, relieved yet nervous.

 ‘I believe I know an alternative route! Maybe!’

 ‘Maybe sounds… not the most ideal. But, alas, I will take it, dear. Where do we go?’

 ‘If we head back through the kitchens, we can make our way to the ice cream parlor. Since the area needs constant climate control, there’s tons of ventilation shafts. One of them is bound to lead out of here.’

 I hesitated at the thought of climbing into another one of those claustrophobic metal labyrinths, but swallowed and nodded.

 ‘Well, away we go.’

 The cat turned to walk out - wait, I didn’t even know her name!

 ‘Oh, by the way!’ I dashed to catch up to her, the little one trailing behind me.

 ‘Mm?’ 

 ‘I realise I haven’t even asked what your name is, dear!’

 ‘Oh- it’s Hollyhock.’ She shrugged, and kept walking.

 ‘Hollyhock,’ I tried it out on my tongue, ‘That’s quite the pretty name!’

 ‘Heck yeah, it is!’ She swelled with pride.

 I glanced down at the little girl holding my hand, and realised I hadn’t the foggiest what her name was, either.

 ‘How about yours, sweet?’ 

 The little blonde mumbled something, too quiet to comprehend.

 ‘Pardon?’ I leaned down, trying to make out her words.

 ‘Valkyrie,’ she said, voice quiet and trembly.

 ‘Awh, that’s a beautiful name.’

 Valkyrie smiled.

 ‘Thank you,’ she said, barely a whisper.

 ‘Okay, enough with the meet and greets, let’s get a move on, ’ Hollyhock groaned, dashing out the door. I yelped and ran after her, pulling poor Valkyrie along with me. 

 She ran through the hall we’d just gone through, before swerving back into the kitchen. I pushed the kitchen doors open to the sight of the cat animatronic stomping the decapitated head of the animatronic she’d attacked earlier - presumably ripped off mere moments before we arrived.

 She looked up at me guiltily, second set of ears twitching, before shrugging and scampering through a second set of doors. We once more rushed to follow her, pushing open the doors to reveal a large, frankly gorgeous ice cream parlour - the children had described this attraction millions of times, but I admittedly waved off their wild remarks as kids just being sugar addicts.

 However, they were spot on as to how dreamy this place was.

 We stood behind a curved counter of varnished wood, covered in giant jars of oversized lollipops and gummy bears, footlong jelly snakes and foot-tall cylinders of sprinkles, each sorted by colour and displayed in rainbow order.

 The centre of the counter was taken up by a long ice cream freezer, with a flat top that was adorned with more sweet jars and bottles of flavoured syrups. Inside the freezer were dozens upon dozens of flavours, including but not limited to;

 Celidus Strawberry Swirl, A-Tier Vanilla Bean, Foxglove Chocolate Fudge, Choc Chip Cookie Dough, Michael Mint Choc Chip, IDK’s Chameleon Rainbow, Dee’s Nuts, Cythila Caramel, Metallica Mango (apparently leftover from some old collaboration), Life Lemon-Lime, Death Dulce De Leche, Goatman Grape, Billygoat Banana, and, the most recent addition, Paige Passionfruit.

 There was also a freezer of similarly named gelatos, positioned right next to them.

 Both were so brightly and vibrantly coloured that I would never dare try them.

 The dining area was just as glorious to behold - the walls and ceilings were wooden, almost barnlike, in a charming sort of way. There were all sorts of little nooks and tables for families to enjoy their tasty treats together, scattered throughout the area.

 I heard a scratching sound, and looked over to see Hollyhock jumping up and trying to open a walk-in freezer. I walked over and opened the door in one go. She looked at me with frustrated defeat and walked past.

 The chill was immediate - I shivered the moment I passed the threshold. Valkyrie tugged down her hoodie sleeves and put up the hood. Hollyhock didn’t flinch, for obvious reasons.

 The freezer was dimly lit by a few blue lights, and wisps of mist gathered at our feet, swished around by our footsteps and the cat’s tail. Tubs of ice cream were stacked onto cold steel shelving.

 Hollyhock flicked her tail up at the ceiling, where there sat a small vent, just wide enough for me to squeeze through.

 ‘That’s our exit ticket, Mary. We’ve just got to stack some of these tubs so we can reach it.’

 I hummed in agreement and pulled a tub of Choc Chip Cookie Dough off a shelf to my right and placed it on the cold, white tiled floor.

 Valkyrie placed a tub of IDK’s Chameleon Rainbow on top of the first tub, her breaths shallow clouds of fog in the freezing temperature. My hair was beginning to stand on end - my Daycare Assistant apparel might be stylish and easy to move in, but it was far from insulated, considering the building had powerful heating and cooling systems to keep the whole location at a comfortable sixty-eight degrees. A faint clunking could be heard outside.

 Wait-

 I whipped around, holding out my arms to shield Valkyrie and Hollyhock as they kept digging out more ice cream containers.

 And there, standing ominously in the doorway, cloaked by a thin veil of mist, was the tall shape of Goatman, wielding… some kind of weapon?

 As the mist cleared away, a bit of their intimidation factor wilted as it was revealed their “weapon” was actually a three-scoop ice cream cone. The goat animatronic bit at it, finishing off the top scoop of choc mint.

 ‘Hiiiii, pogchamps!’ Goatman grinned, sharp horns gleaming in the faint blue light of the freezer.

 Life had told me quite a lot about the percussionist: They were a notorious prankster, often stealing toys like whoopee cushions and air horns from the gift shop to use to prank the other cast members. Apparently, one time they’d followed Death around for the whole day, setting off an air horn every ten minutes when he least expected it. Life then told me that Goatman had found themselves in Maintenance for the next few days.

 Alongside being a trickster, Goat was also a bit of a glutton. Life told me horror stories of ice cream and pizza and tacos, all mushed up and jammed in their gears. None of the animatronics had proper digestive systems (why would they?), and so any food they consumed would only damage them.

 Which then concerned me as to why Goatman was eating an ice cream in front of me, when it would only cause them damage.

 …Life had never said Goat was the smartest.

 ‘Ебать! Дерьмо! Mary, keep them distracted!’ Hollyhock yelled, stacking a tub of Death Dulce De Leche onto the pile.

 ‘I- I am trying my best!’ I laughed nervously, locking eyes with the animatronic as they polished off the rest of their ice cream, not breaking eye contact.

 ‘You’re not supposed to be hereeee!’ They bleated in a cheerful, horrifying way.

 I looked around, trying to think of what to do, and gulped as an idea formed.

 I grabbed the nearest tub of ice cream I could find - a bright pink container of Paige Passionfruit - and pulled the lid off.

 I hesitated, before chucking the whole container, open side forward, right at Goatman’s face.

 The animatronic made an unholy screeching sound, as they tumbled backwards, and I took the chance to slam the freezer door shut and press my body against the painfully cold metal, praying it would hold them back long enough for the others to finish stacking boxes.

 The door pushed against me as I heard banging from the other side - banging, as well as… licking? Was Goatman seriously eating the ice cream I just threw at them?

 …Maintenance was going to have me executed for this - strung up in a bag and chucked in a river to drown.

 Valkyrie placed a fourth container on the stack, this time one of Goatman Grape sorbet. From my estimates, we’d need one more container to reach it. Hollyhock jumped up onto a shelf, which wobbled precariously at her sudden weight, and pulled out a container of Life Lemon-Lime, passing it down to Valkyrie, who put it on the stack.

 Hollyhock made a clicking noise, signalling for me to get over there. I ran over, occasionally glancing back at the door, praying Goatman was too preoccupied with the ice cream to realise I’d stopped holding the door shut. I stepped up onto the pile, which wobbled but stayed upright, and lifted Valkyrie into the vent first. She wriggled into it, and when I was sure she’d moved enough to allow me space, I pulled myself up and into the tight, cold, narrow ventilation shaft.

 I squirmed through the suffocating steel, following the little one in front of me, and I could feel the soft clunking of Hollyhock entering the vent as well.

 I let out a short sigh of relief.

 Goatman couldn’t get us here.

 Now… if only I had any clue whatsoever as to where we were going.