章 9: Day 4x2 - Hairspray and Déjà Vu
"I think I'll stay. I kinda like it here."
Being carried by Roxanne you couldn't help but look at her. She wasn't wearing a shawl anymore and was dressed how she appeared in the pictures you'd seen around.
She had a distinctive wolf design with a snout and a large mane of hair (fur?) flowing behind her. She had on similar shoulder pads to Bonnie but smaller. The pads were attached to a red and black chest plate she had on. The chest plate was a red and black crop top with some kind of design on it. They matched her shoulder pads. There was a swish of green fur (hair? you weren't sure) that was on the top of her forehead. On her arms and legs were arm and leg warmers. Very in tune with the 80s, you thought.
This was the keyboardist for the band.
Looking was about all you felt like doing at the moment. You were exhausted from the chase. You need a few minutes to recover.
"I can take you to the infirmary if you want." Roxanne offers.
"I just...Give me a minute." Your stomach was hurting, head spinning and heart racing. You were coming off an adrenaline-fuelled high. "Just take me to parts and services." You decide you'll take a break there and think things over.
Think about Monty, the new job, Bonnie and the others.
"Very well." You just allow Roxanne to carry you. "Oh, wait. My bag." You say as she descends a flight of stairs to the main entrance. You try to get up but she doesn't allow you, holding you tight. "I'll have Vanessa bring it to you later. You need to rest." "A-alright. Thanks."
"Don't feel bad about Monty. He's just a hard head. He and Bonnie always had their differences."
You figure either she overheard or Freddy went and blabbed about Bonnie to everyone who would listen. You guess the latter, damnit you shouldn't have said anything.
"Uh-huh."
"Despite all his bad-boy charms he's really soft. He just gets like that when he's angry."
Though, you were still in a lot of pain, it did occur that Monty could've been more violent. If he wanted, of course. Maybe he was holding back? You weren't sure if that was your honest thoughts or some form of Stockholm syndrome sympathizing with him. He could have easily thrown you off the platform or worse if he really wanted to kill you.
"What we're he and Bonnie like?" With nothing you could do right now you figure the best option is to find more information.
"They always played golf after hours together. Bonnie would sometimes let Monty play bass. They also got into arguments a few times but it was never anything serious. Bonnie and I never spoke much but he was nice." She paused.
"But after Bonnie disappeared Monty didn't want to talk about him. He seemed different. Acted like they were never friends. He was lying, of course. I know he went to Bonnie's area a many times after Bonnie vanished. He can't hide from me."
"Bonnie used to be the band's bassist. But when he disappeared, management made Monty the new player."
It all pieced together so well. Maybe there was some dispute? Maybe Monty was jealous of Bonnie's stardom? There were many motives you could deduce.
Still though. If they were friends why the sudden change. The new perspective was good at least. Helped give you a bigger picture.
"I see."
"Then, one day he just vanished. Freddy took it the hardest. They never did tell him what happened. I was the only one they told."
"Wait, why?"
"Well, because I found him."
The rep did say he was found in the race course. It was only natural that Roxanne discovered the body first. You still weren't sure if that completely admonished her though.
"So you knew he was destroyed?"
"Yes. But I couldn't tell Freddy, it would have broken him."
"Do you remember anything else about Bonnie's disappearance?"
"Hmm, well Monty said he got some kind of upgrade the night before. Said he felt different. I didn't get any upgrades that time, neither did the others. When they upgrade us it's usually all together. He was acting strange that whole day."
More unanswered questions.
"After I found Bonnie, security took him to parts to get fixed but then his body up and disappeared. We all never saw him after that."
That matched up with what the rep said earlier. You were sure she was telling the truth.
You start to notice the smell of hairspray lingering around. It must have been Roxanne's.
"Your hair smells nice."
"Thank you! You're so sweet." Roxanne smiled at you.
Roxanne walked slowly with you so as not to hurt you any further. It seemed like she deliberately took a longer route for parts but as you two talked you started to feel better.
You learned a bit more about the plex, Bonnie and Monty. Mostly Roxanne just talked about herself but you didn't mind. It helped you clear your mind about Monty's chase.
She was supposedly the 'best' animatronic, capable of so much more than the others. You felt as if she was embellishing some details but were just happy that she was helping you out.
She answered every question you had about Bonnie, Monty and the whole plex, filling you in on a lot. In the end she was happy you decided to take the job.
Eventually the two of you make it to parts and services, standing in front of your workshop. You had Roxanne set you down. You were able to walk fine now, just a little saddened the ride ended.
"Do you mind if I came in?" Roxanne asked.
"If you promise not to attack me when you see him, sure." You joke. The door unlocks with ease.
Roxanne just shoots you a smile and the both of you enter. With a flick of the light the room brightens.
"Well, this is it." You say. The first thing you notice is the presence of additional boxes.
Presumably the parts you requested.
You take a seat next to the "operating table". Roxanne said nothing as she looked up Bonnie. She just seemed to be taking it all in.
"Wow." She said quietly.
You just let her look herself.
In silence she examined Bonnie all over taking extra care to not do anything to him. You weren't about to object anyways. You were still shaking slightly from the chase.
"When I first found him I didn't really look at what happened to him. I called security immediately. But now..." Roxanne trailed off.
Eventually Roxanne stops and just nods at him. "Some of this was definitely Monty." She says finally.
"But not all of it."
"Huh?"
"Well, Monty wouldn't have taken off Bonnie's eye. And some of these Monty can't even do. He couldn't have done it alone." She declared.
"Maybe one of the other technicians was messing with him?" That was your only explanation. An accomplice? You hadn't guessed that.
"When I found him he was missing his eye. The technician would not have done that. Someone must have taken it." She shook her head.
"Hm." Bonnie was a big guy, maybe it took two animatronics to take him down? You weren't sure, maybe Monty was just a better fighter.
Maybe someone took stuff from Bonnie post-mortem then? His voicebox was missing too.
"Have you thought about turning him on and asking what happened?" Roxanne asked.
"I, uh, was going to try and find out first."
"Well, if anyone has the answers, it'll be Ol' big ears here." She flicked Bonnie's remaining ear, it moved up and down. The mechanism was a little rusted in it.
Roxanne turned to you. "Well, I need to fix up my hair for tomorrow. You okay to be left alone?"
"I'm good. Thanks Roxanne."
"Let me know if you need anything, hun. And, good luck with Bonnie." Roxanne winked and left you with Bonnie and your thoughts. She closed the door on her way out.
You took one look at Bonnie and looked away. You were still far too shaken up to begin working. You look at your hands, shaking ever so slightly under the room's fluorescent light. There was far too much on your mind to begin now.
The whole chase scene and nearly dying should have been more than enough reason to just leave and never come back. However, that wasn't Bonnie's fault. You didn't want to let Freddy down. And if Monty was the killer, what's stopping him from going after the others?
No. You were going to stay. The whole senior technician job was also not worth losing. This place was full of mystery and you weren't just going to chicken out. As of tonight you were in charge of the animatronics.
You let your mind wander as you begin to meditate and relax. You recline back in operating chair.
The tazer did work on Monty, you just needed a more direct hit. But if you had actually boosted the thing it would have been more than enough to paralyze him for a good hour. Maybe even discharge his battery. It was a good call. It just needed a little more 'umph'.
You think back to what Roxanne said. Bonnie and Monty were friends. Monty was acting weird on the day of the incident. Maybe he just snapped?
You could just ask Bonnie. That was on your plan tonight, to try and turn him on. At the back of your mind you worried that the first thing Bonnie would do is start a fight with Monty.
You understood if Bonnie wanted his revenge but there had to be another option. You also didn't know Monty's motive. Argh, there was just too much to figure out!
The animatronics were stronger than you thought.
There was also the mystery person that messed with Bonnie. Or Monty's 'accomplice'. With that in mind you decide to take another look over at the 'wounds' and see if you can determine an order to them. Maybe Roxanne was right? Monty would have just smashed the eye, not carefully taken it out. Seems inconsistent. Maybe it was just that other security guard the rep mentioned earlier.
You tap your chin idly.
So who could the 'accomplice' be? There was still the matter of Sun, Moon, DJ Music Man. Freddy and Roxanne you were sure had nothing to do with it. Roxanne could've just killed you and destroyed Bonnie there. Chica was still somewhat mysterious though.
That is, assuming Monty was working with someone. Though, in the end there were not human. Maybe something just went awry with Monty's programming that day.
Four days into this job and while it had gotten you a full-time gig you still didn't have many answers. You sat up.
Your thoughts are broken by a knock at the door. You nearly jump out of the chair, scared it's Monty.
"(Y/N)? You still here? I have your bag." It was Vanessa.
"Y-yeah. Come in." Though a little startled you had mostly calmed down from the chase. The shaking had stopped and your heart rate had normalized. You were still a bit sore though.
Vanessa opened the door. "You decided to st-" She stopped immediately upon seeing Bonnie. A look of horror flashed across her face. She dropped both her flashlight and your bag then almost fell herself. She grabbed onto a shelf by the door to stabilize herself.
You sprang up. "Are you okay?" You say concerned. It looked as if she was about to throw up.
"I, I-" Vanessa quickly left the room.
You immediately got up after her. Nevermind your injuries, you move anyways.
She let out a deep breath.
"Y-you alright?" You ask again.
"Y-yeah. Just had a feeling of d-déjà vu. That's all. I just need some f-f-fresh air." Vanessa let out a sharp exhale. "So that's Bonnie, huh?" She says taking quick breaths.
"Yeah. A-are you going to be alright?" Vanessa looked like she had seen a ghost, face turned all white.
She started to regain her composure. "I'll be fine. Just got spooked." She glanced in and quickly looked away. "It's like I've seen him before-wait...Nevermind me! Are you okay?" She says quickly, completely changing the subject.
"Uh, yeah. I am okay. A little sore but i'll be fine in a bit."
"You're going to stay? I don't blame you if you want to walk off."
"That's good to hear. Monty's on lockdown for the night. If you want to leave, I won't stop you." She admitted, a hint of shame in her voice.
You shake your head. "No. I think I'll stay. I kinda like it here."
Vanessa smiled back. "That's the spirit. Monty's not a bad guy, just a little hot-headed." You hear some relief in Vanessa's voice after you tell you you're going to stay.
Now that you had Vanessa here you had some questions.
"Was Monty always like that?"
"Well, he has a temper, but I've never seen him that angry. I think he just doesn't like technicians. Nobody has been able to do a proper look at him long as I can remember. Just basic diagnostics." Vanessa cleared her throat, still trying to hide her nervousness.
"What did he say to you anyways?"
You shrug. "He just wanted me to stop working on Bonnie."
Vanessa gave a look of understanding. "Well, between you and me, Monty is the most insecure of the group, even more so than Roxanne. Whenever he screws up or loses he spends the night raging at everything that moves. He has a bit of temper."
"He mentioned something about replacing him."
"Hmm, Bonnie was apparently the original bassist. Monty took over after he died. I can't really blame him for being worried about being scrapped himself."
You notice some janitor bots bringing bags of garbage along.
"I would never though. Why can't they just have two bassists? Or even, he could just play something else."
Vanessa chuckles a bit at that. "Hehe, well it's not me you should be telling."
"I-well-hhum." You consider what she said. "Would it be safe to go to Monty's room? From the outside, of course."
Vanessa nods. "Yeah why not? The glass is practically bulletproof after Monty broke out awhile time ago. Worst case he'll hurt himself smashing it." Vanessa paused. "I'd let him calm down a bit if I were you though."
"I'll keep that in mind, sure." If it was supposedly safe, you guess maybe you can talk some sense into him.
"There was something else." Vanessa said, taking something out her pocket. "I wanted to give this to you." She handed you a small loot bag of assorted candies and sweets all themed around the plex. "As a thanks for sticking around."
"Thanks, Vanessa."
"Don't mention it."
Vanessa's watch rings a reminder to keep patrolling. "Well, duty calls. Anything else?"
"Uh, yeah actually one more thing. I'm pretty sure it was Monty that decommissioned Bonnie but Roxanne said he was working with someone. Any ideas? She said they would have taken parts."
You see Vanessa's expression change briefly. You do a double take just to make sure. It looked like for a split second she was going to say something else.
"That whole thing was before I started working here. I really don't know." She said, unsure.
"Oh, no problem." You pause.
"Well I should get back to work." You say, ending the conversation.
"Sure." Vanessa picked up her flashlight, still staring away from Bonnie. You saw her walk away.
Just as you were about to go back to Bonnie, Vanessa calls you on the watch. You answer.
"So, (Y/N), you're going to stick around then?" She asked. You'd already said yes but she must have still been unsure. Maybe she thought you were just saying that.
"I said yes. Even after everything I still like it here."
Vanessa smiled and nodded. "Welcome aboard then." Promptly she hung up and off on her night guard way.
Once again, it was just you, Bonnie and even more questions. Questions such as why did Vanessa react that way to Bonnie and did she somehow know him? Between the sudden action of seeing Bonnie and he insecurity when asking those questions she had to know something.
Ultimately all these questions led to one thing in particular. The busted up animatronic lying on the table in front of you. With that in mind you take a deep breath and get to work.
The interior had mostly been finished, with various parts needing to be replaced like the eye and voicebox. Now it was the matter of removing all the damaged parts and fixing them. You knew that due to the battery explosion that there would be more acid and rust revealed. It would also uncover parts of the interiors you missed.
The rep had left you a note again reminding you that if you wanted to do full upgrades and stuff that it would be best to use the system they had. You ignore it, deciding the best way to fix him would be manually. You had little confidence in the machine accurately doing its job. After all, you'd made an entire career out of fixing broken machines.
Not to mention you were terrible at Simon says.
Now that the interior was fine you could actually look at Bonnie for what he was. You hadn't really looked at his design much.
He had two big ears which judging by the complexity of the creases could easily flop down like real furry ears. One was torn off but the other one was okay. Just needed some polishing. There seemed to be some black holes in the ear indicating it also doubled as a speaker. Maybe a receiver too.
Around the eye that had been removed was a star with the eye socket in the centre. It definitely helped give me the whole glamrock aesthetic.
You took a closer look at it as well, it seemed the eye had been carefully removed. Roxanne was right, Monty could not and would not have done such a thing. Maybe one of the other repairmen did it? What was the reason?
He had two purple shoulder pads that made it look almost like he was wearing a jacket. You decide to start working on the torso up and then do the bottom half later.
With a screwdriver, the rest of your tools and some elbow grease you got to repair the various parts of Bonnie.
Getting into the flow of work was hard as every little bump outside or unusual sound caused your heart to jump. You even flinched because your stomach growled slightly. Monty was still lurking at the back of your mind.
The rep had delivered replacements for the parts you requested. You screwed in the new ear, eye, and replaced the face plate (removing the scratches) and more. As you worked your paranoia became to subsist and you found yourself enjoying your work once again.
Just as you predicted there were parts of the interior you missed. No matter, they would all be fixed.
You look at the new voicebox. It was purple in colour compared to the yellow-ish one that you found the scraps of. One of the bigger scraps read 424F4E4E4945, probably Bonnie's internal versioning number or something.
The code was identical to the new voicebox. However, you noticed a difference. On the original voicebox was a small dark grey chip. There was no writing or any note of what it was.
There also seemed to be a piece of the old voicebox missing. Based on the antenna and wires present on the new one you presumed that the voice modulator had been removed. You didn't know a lot about speech synthesization so it was just a guess. Must have been removed when the other parts were removed.
So someone at some point took pieces of the old voicebox, just like they did his eye. Strange.
There wasn't any chip on the new one. You knew enough about circuitry that it was a signal modulator. Probably just an oversight on the parts maker. Using pliers you extract the chip from the old voicebox and attach it to the new one. Maybe that chip is what gave Bonnie his voice?
Satisfied, you continue working. You continue for an unknown amount of time only stopping after a ruckus outside your workshop.
A map bot somehow tripped and fell in front of your door. You nearly jumped out of your seat. You know it was a map bot because it kept repeating the same few lines about maps as it picked itself up.
It was getting hard to focus. Your mind kept dancing around images of Monty chasing and stomping you. Those two red glowing eyes filled your mind. A few times it was like you could have sworn you saw it out of the corner of your eyes. Unable to focus you instead take a look at Bonnie's model.
You find something peculiar you hadn't noticed before. It looked like there were sensors just under Bonnie's chin and on the side of his face. The exact kinds of places you would put them if you wanted to feel getting petted. You wondered if Freddy and the others had the same kind of sensors.
That distraction only kept your mind at bay for a few seconds before returning to Monty anger at you.
Despite it being quiet tonight every little movement reminded you of the earlier chase.
Parts and Services was a remote area.
Nobody would hear your scream.
You stare in horror at the door as that thought exits your head. The animatronic rooms had two entrances. Sure the looking gallery glass was bulletproof and the door was on lockdown but what of the repair entrance. Did Vanessa lock that too? Could she even lock it? Freddy opened his no problem yesterday.
You shake your head. You needed to sort this out with Monty and do it now. Otherwise it would bother you for the rest of the night. It was gnawing on your mind.
You need to talk to Monty.
The chapter will be titled The Hunt.
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