Chapter Text
August, 2005-Playtime Co Factory
In the dead of night, a bright light lit up the woods surrounding a toy factory, which has been abandoned for a decade. Shortly after the light faded away, a pair of headlights lit up the empty road leading to the abandoned factory. The owner of the headlights, an RV that used to belong to everyone's uncle and grandpa, parked in front of a bolted gate. A moment later, the driver and passenger exited the vehicle, stretching as they did so.
These two are known as Aeon and Mumbly, the heads, and founders, of CMA. What is CMA, you may asked. Why, it's short for Chronos Mysteries Agency, a agency dedicated to solving mysteries and helping people, no matter where, or when, they are. And they're about to be in for a long night.
"Mumbles, can you remind me why we're doing this in the middle of the night? We barely got any sleep thanks to Prof. Coldheart," Aeon said.
Mumbly held up a sign. 'Well, you could've gotten some sleep on the way here, but you wanted to review the content of the tape instead,' the sign read.
Before Mumbly could pull out another sign to bring up Aeon's insomnia, the latter held up his hand. "I know, I know," Aeon said with an eye-roll. "I wanted to make sure that we know what we're getting into, not that the video helped much.
"Still, stupid Coldheart and letting Auntie Freeze hang us over the cauldron of coldness at 4 in the morning. We would've gotten some sleep and been here during the day if we had known about the stuff that was sent to us before the cauldron thing," Aeon muttered.
He let out a sigh before pulling out a white note with the Playtime logo on the back. "What I want to know, though, is how this and that VHS tape was sent to us, 20 years from this part of history," Aeon said.
Flashback-CMA HQ-2025
The door was kicked open as Aeon and Mumbly, shivering from the cold produced by Auntie Freeze's cauldron, entered the room.
"G-Guess we won't sleep for a while, right Mumbly?" Aeon asked, as he used fire magic to try and warm himself and Mumbly up.
Mumbly held up a sign. Said sign just showed the zoomed in face of Captain K'nuckles. In the background, you can hear someone groaning in despair.
Aeon, on the other hand, started flexing his fingers. "Finally, I can feel them again. Now, time for a warm shower, and then we ca-What's that on the table?" Aeon asked, bringing Mumbly's attention to the table.
On the table was a white note and a VHS tape. Aeon picked up the note and unfolded it. On the note was the Playtime logo.
The note read, 'Everyone doesn't know what happens to the children. They think they're dead or missing. They're still here. FIND THE FLOWER. ALL WILL BE REVEALED THEN.' Under the words was a drawing of a poppy flower.
Aeon handed the note to Mumbly, who read the contents, and then gave it a sniff, hoping to find something that might identify who left it. After a moment, Mumbly shook his head, confirming that he couldn't pick up any traces.
"Hmm, weird," Aeon said as he looked at the VHS tape and noticed the year on it: 2005. "A note and VHS tape from 2005. ...Guess we have to delay that sleep, Mumbles." Aeon said.
Mumbly held up a sign. 'As my dad once said, "Mysteries comes first, sleep comes second." So, we can sleep after we solve this.'
"...Yep, you are your father's son." Aeon said.
'Damn right, I am.' Mumbly's sign said as Mumbly had a smug smile on his face.
Outside Playtime Co-2005
Aeon put the note back in his pocket. "Well, finding out what exactly going on with kids will be worth the lack of sleep. Because if anything happens to those kids," Aeon's eyes, one silver and the other purple, flashed ominously for a moment, "there will be hell to pay." Aeon states.
'Down, boy. Wait until we're inside first.' Mumbly's sign read as Mumbly put a hand on Aeon's back, managing to get him to calm down.
"Yeah, you're right. Anyways, wanna do the honors?" Aeon asked, pointing at the bolted gate.
Mumbly's smile grew as he pull out the bolt cutters. 'As civilians, we should be respecting the laws. But, as detectives, we're gonna disregards those laws to break and enter buildings to solve a mystery!' Mumbly's sign said as he cut the bolts.
"You watch too many YTPs on the way here, didn't you?" Aeon asked as he pushed the gate open.
'And you watch too less,' Mumbly's sign countered as Mumbly smirked.
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll do my daily quota after this," Aeon said, playfully rolling his eyes as he and Mumbly made their way inside the factory.
The two would not know the chain of events they would be kickstarting by entering...or the roles they have in the fates of those that resides within the factory.