บท 22: Day 5Bx3 - Operation Showtime
"It's all clear."
Like the rest of the plex, Rockstar Row was in lockdown mode.
Normally the walls would be lit with the neon signs of notes and symbols of different colours. In this lockdown mode however, they all shone the same colour, bright red. The signs about each of the animatronic rooms were changed as well, displaying the same shade of red with hints of grey on the sides. When Gregory had first arrived here a year ago he found the place at night to be strange and unusual. Under this lockdown, he felt downright frightened at its appearance.
If the lights were not red they displayed a glowing grey. If it wasn't for Moon's presence and the easy ability to contact you Gregory would be terrified. Likewise, Moon was also worried. In all the time he had been within the plex he had never seen it lit up like this. He already had so much on his mind between his actions breaking rules, dealing with Roxanne, protecting Gregory and if this would even fix the plex. Roxanne had been more than a handful, he was scared should the two have to face off against any other animatronics such as Monty or Heaven's forbid, the DJ. He couldn't see any possibility in which he and Gregory would win.
He knew he had to be strong for Sun and Gregory's sake. He said nothing. He just hugged his scarf closer to him as the two traversed.
Moon motioned for Gregory to be still as he looked down the Row.
With the ability to see in the dark perfectly Moon surveilled the scene. Near the end of the row were a few bots idling about. Even those mop bots were active, looking around for movement. Freddy's room had curtains drawn, impossible to see in. Roxanne and Chica's rooms were open and lit. Based on the angle Moon was looking from they looked to be empty. Monty's room was pitch black inside with no sign of the gator anywhere. Determining the area safe for now, Moon returned to Gregory, skipping along the way.
If any of the band members were lurking about, Moon could not detect them.
Gregory was hiding behind a wall, just at the entrance of the Row. "It's all clear." Moon whispered.
"No sign of Freddy or Monty?" Gregory asked. He wanted to be sure.
"Null."
"Let's go to Freddy's room and get to parts from there. All the rooms have access to it." Gregory said, starting to make his way to the red door.
"Wait." Moon said, grabbing the boys shoulder. "We don't know if he's there. We should go to Roxanne's room instead."
Gregory shook his head. "No. I need to make sure Freddy is okay. There's something I need to get too." He knocked Moon's hand off him and continued. Moon relented. He knew Gregory and Freddy were close. He didn't want to get in the way but at the same time he had no guarantee Freddy wasn't affected. He had no idea if Freddy was even there.
Gregory was determined and unlistening to whatever Moon was going to say. He was going to see Freddy and that was final. Unable to think of a solution Moon followed closely, hoping that Freddy was fine.
The futuristic red door opened to Gregory's presence. Moon found that particularly interesting as the boy had no key cards on him or anything. It must have been specially programmed to do.
They looked into Freddy's room. It was empty.
Both attendant and boy were surprised at the sight. The lights in the room were unaffected and lit the room normally. Nay, it was the state of the room that shocked them. The arcade machine had been knocked down, the makeup desk on the floor in pieces and the stuffies and cameras strewn about the room.
For Moon it appeared as if someone had thrown a tantrum. He'd seen kids do this kind of damage to the daycare before. For Gregory, it looked like a struggle. His heart sank as his mind played back possible scenarios of what happened here.
When "Vanessa" had figured out what Freddy was doing it was too late to stop him. Gregory figured the worst had happened. At the best, it looked as if Freddy had put up a fight.
"Oh no." He said quietly.
"It looks like he's not here." Moon said. He stepped a bit into the room, surveying the damage. The path to parts and services was open, the door jammed, looking like it had been forced open.
"Someone took him." Gregory's heart sank. "Hmm?" Moon said, curious at Gregory's choice of words. "What do you mean?"
"Someone must have taken Freddy. That's the only explanation." Gregory said looking over the damage. Sadness was present in his voice as he tried to hold back fear. There were a few people he could have imagined behind this. There were still animatronics and people unaccounted for. He shuddered, memories of last year flooding back. But there had been developments since last year. Things were much different now.
Moon bent down looking at something crumpled on the ground. He picked it up. Unfurling it he saw it was a crude drawing of Freddy and Bonnie standing together. A smashed picture frame was on the floor near it. It led Moon to a far different conclusion than Gregory.
"Gregory. I don't think anyone took Freddy. I think he may be corrupted like Rox-"
"No! He had to have been taken. I-I'm sure of it." Gregory interrupted, angry. Moon was still sceptical but decided not to raise the issue further. He knew they would know the truth soon. "Shall we go?" Moon asked.
"Not yet. There's something I want to get." Gregory ran over to the toppled arcade machine. He carefully removed the back panel and fidgeted around inside. Moon watched, curious as to what Gregory was doing. "It's still here. Yes." Gregory whispered, relieved.
He pulled out a dusty black microphone. It looked out of place in the plex and very old. It looked nothing like the microphone he'd seen Freddy use.
"A microphone?" Moon cocked his head, it was not what he was expecting.
"After the incident, Freddy and I come up with something called Operation Showtime. It was to be used in case of another incident." Gregory looked over the microphone.
"Operation....Showtime?"
"This is it." Gregory held up the microphone.
"It's a microphone."
"Freddy told me it was his first ever mic, from before this plex. It does special stuff to the other bots."
"Interesting. What does it do?"
"I want to test it first." Gregory said, getting ready to leave Freddy's room.
Moon followed, unsure what Gregory had planned.
"We need to find Monty."
Stepping outside back into the Row, Gregory looked around. He started walking down it, towards the other member's rooms.
"Are you sure that's a good idea? I-I'm not sure we can take him." Moon said worried. The idea of them trying to fight Monty seemed impossible to him.
"If we can find Monty then I can use this on him." Gregory said, referring to 'Operation Showtime'.
"But what does it do?" Moon asked.
"You'll see." The two passed by Monty's room, looking in. Gregory found it unusual the lack of glass in front but didn't think much of it. Shining a flashlight in and Moon's eyes they found the room to be empty. It was in a far better state than Freddy's.
"He's not here." Gregory sighed. For once he hoped to have been attacked by Monty. Annoyed he said.
"Fine. Let's go back to Freddy's room. I'll show it later."
"Alright."
Gregory checked his watch again, verifying the path they needed to walk. "Reach parts and services from Freddy's room. Then we can go to the override system and we can fix the power." Gregory said aloud.
Moon nodded. They looked towards the jammed service door.
"If Freddy is...y'know...like Roxan-"
"Don't say that. They took him. I know it."
Moon shook his head. "But if...we're gonna have to fight him."
"We won't." Gregory snapped, now looking directly at Moon, annoyed. "He's fine."
Moon sighed. Part of him hoped he was wrong and Gregory was right. It was a big plex; Moon hoped that they wouldn't run into him.
"Are you ready?" Moon asked.
"Yes. Let's go. I'll show you." Now equipped with the microphone the two ventured into the service tunnel.
Despite the plex being on lockdown the elevator to parts and services was still functional. Moon found it confusing as he would have expected it not to work in 'lockdown'. Then again, these were typical circumstances.
Gregory didn't want to think about Moon's suggestion. They took Freddy. They had to have. He wanted to get his mind off Freddy. He decided to ask something about Moon he'd been curious about for some time now.
"Do you remember anything before the plex?" Gregory asked.
"Very little. I've always been with Sun though. We didn't always used to be one. I...remember seeing him standing beside me once. It...it's all so blurry." Moon paused to think. "I remember seeing Freddy too once but he didn't look like that. It's all a blur." Moon shook his head. "I can't remember."
"Freddy's told me a bit about his past. He told me there were other plexes and that this one is the biggest. He even said there were other band members. Bonnie was one of them." Gregory said. It was his way of trying to re-assure himself that Freddy was okay.
"I used to play with Bonnie back in the day. He was really good at hide and seek. I was better though." Moon chuckled.
The elevator reached the bottom of the shaft and opened. Waiting for the unusual duo were a bunch of security bots. They were wielding various objects found in Parts and Services.
They carried dismembered parts of other bots, wrenches, oiling cans and more.
While it had been coincidence that they were by the elevator, the sound of opening doors alerted them all to Gregory and Moon's presence.
While Moon drew his scarf, Gregory drew the microphone. He was eager to give "Operation Showtime" a go. The bots began to draw close. Gregory worried that Moon wouldn't be affected by it. He switched the microphone on.
It emitted a loud pitched tone which stopped all the bots in their tracks. Moon was initially caught off guard by it but otherwise unaffected by it.
Gregory held the microphone like the sword-in-the-stone. "Stay away!" He shouted. The bots complied, dropping their tools and scattering.
While it hadn't swapped them from the corrupted state they weren't trying to harm Gregory or Moon for the moment.
Gregory quickly shut it off. He had no idea how long the battery would last. Moon just looked at him. "So that's Operation Showtime?"
Gregory nodded, happy with the results. "Yep! It can control the worker bots somehow. Freddy said back in his day he'd use it to order around the workers and bots."
"Fascinating." Moon had a thought. "Couldn't we have used that with (Y/N) and Bonnie then? To reset them all?" Gregory looked back with a look of 'oh-that-could-have-worked-too'. "W-well, Freddy and I couldn't get it to work on all band members...and it's only temporary." Gregory admitted. He realized now too that it could have worked better than splitting up.
"I only remembered when we were back upstairs."
The two stepped out of the elevator. The remaining bots in the area were still on cooldown and didn't acknowledge the two.
"Where to now, kid?" Moon asked. He looked around with wonder. While Gregory knew this place inside out, Moon hadn't ventured much outside the daycare. A lot of this was new territory for him.
"The reboot panel is at the other end of Parts. Don't you know that?"
Moon shook his head. "Null. I haven't been here."
"Really? But what about repairs?"
"They would always fix me in the daycare. All of this...is new to me." Moon said sombrely.
"We just need to go down there and we can fix it." Gregory said encouragingly.
He looked at Moon. He was walking normally, not much bounce in his step. The plex was probably getting to him as well. He wanted to help him.
"Last incident it was Sun trying to help me and you trying to get me."
Moon turned his head to the side, having been caught off guard by Gregory's sudden change of subject. "Yes?"
"Well this night it's the opposite. You're trying to help me and Sun isn't."
"Y-you're right." Moon said quietly. He dawned on the idea. He was helping Gregory. It's like the roles were reversed. He's had to do this whole adventure without Sun. When he was chasing Gregory back then Sun was pleading with him not to attack the boy. And he didn't listen.
This has to be a test, Moon thought. Yes! Maybe Sun was there, just testing him. He wasn't sure but he found new purpose in Gregory's words.
"Yeah! I am. I'll show Sun that I can do this!" Moon said, excitedly.
Having now become much more familiar with Gregory, Moon found himself amused at the boy's resourcefulness and planning. Since he'd shown up he had skill with a knife, laser blaster and now a microphone. Not to mention somehow breaking into the locked down plex. He'd seen kids like that before in the daycare. They'd make a tool out of anything. They were also usually the most mischievous ones. He was always fascinated by the lengths they would go to.
He decided that after this was over he'd forgive the boy and spend some time with him. To protect the plex of course. Someone with that kind of power couldn't be good for the rules of the plex.
The lockdown acted much different in parts than the rest of the plex. The lights here remained normal, offering fluorescent white light. The only light that had changed was the one that shone atop the upgrade cylinder. It was a glowing red, the colour fading in-and-out faintly.
To reach the panel the duo had to pass by the upgrade cylinder. Despite his familiarity with Parts and Services Gregory didn't like the area too much. It was the whole sterile look that bothered him.
Gregory thought that it should have gotten some makeover to make it match with the rest of the plex. He asked the rep once about it but he just declined saying that Gregory will understand one day why it's all plain.
For Moon, this was all new territory. He found it morbid seeing carts of bot parts and machinery bits lying about. It was all strange to him.
As the two continued on Gregory noticed the lights were off in the cylinder. Moon's attention was focused on the bots nearby.
Gregory had said the mic was temporary. Moon was watching them closely, getting ready for a fight the moment they try something. The two stayed close to the wall, ready to jump in a bin should anything happen.
Several metres away their attention was turned to the hull as the doors parted. It whooshed, dust kicking up as it opened.
It was pitch black inside, the hull providing a shelter from the light. Moon looked but didn't need to look long when he realized what was there.
Two white eyes lit up within the cylinder, blinking as they did. The light reflected off the markings of the face, brown and neon blue coloured.
As they stared a little music box jingle played. One that neither Gregory nor Moon heard before. It was a song from a previous era, echoing from a long forgotten pizzeria.
Now Playing...
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhKlCp5Sh9I
Slowly, the figure stepped out of the cylinder and into the light. It was Freddy.
Neither Gregory nor Moon ran up to him. His twitching, solid face and hunched over posture indicated that whoever was standing in front of him was not the same Freddy.
This was not the singer of the Fazbear 4.
This was someone else.
The next chapter will be called Grizzly / My Superstar.
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