War on Freddy's Chapter 3
Story by JasonVUK on SoFurry
Imported from SF2 with no description.
August 11th 2027
Things had been going as per usual on this typical non-weekend day, it wasn't that busy and it was slow, but there were enough kids to entertain, it was just time for lunch when the band concluded their song and their programming allowed them to roam.
To be fair Wolfie felt sorry for the others, her showing wasn't quite as long as theirs nor was their much or really any singing unless someone asked for it, all she had to do was impress the kids with stories of adventure while the others played tunes sang songs, and taught kids different things; morality, equality, safety, hygiene and even gave examples, such as hygiene and cleanliness in the kitchen. Sure she could have taught that, but it would clash with her pirate persona, she was the antagonist to their ideals, she was rude, dirty and dangerous, all the while being kid friendly. She was the embodiment of all that youthful energy all that inner chaos and rebellion, that was what she symbolised that was what she was to entertain and for the past eight years she had done so.
Wolfie currently was sat by Pirate's Cove and couldn't move, why? A child had fallen asleep on her lap, from what she could get from him, his name was Tim, he loved spaceships and waned to be an astronaut when he was older, well it certainly wasn't an impossibility but it would be hard to get into NASA. She had taken to stroking Tim's hair, much like she did when Josh was younger, or like the previous night just after coitus, the child snoozed quietly, exhaling softly against her arm. Wolfie turned her head towards the sound of approaching feet.
“Oh Timmy there you are." A woman said quietly as she came up close.
“He fell asleep, had too many sweets and crashed." Wolfie explained as she ceased her petting his head. The woman looked at Wolfie in an unsure manner it was blaring obvious the woman didn't trust a machine around her child, “Part of my programming is to monitor the health of a child." She explained, lying in part to cover up her sentience; that was a big secret in Freddy's.
Wolfie adjusted herself to allow the child's mother to pick him up and carry him allowing Wolfie to stand back up, the mother took a step back and tilted her head upwards to look Wolfie in the eye.
“I uh, thank you." The mother said before high tailing it away from the animatronic.
“You're welcome." Wolfie muttered before starting her rounds.
“Hello there gentlemen, welcome to Freddy's." she heard Freddy say from the exit, she turned around and two adult men walk past Freddy, one giving him a funny look, the taller of the two had a shaved head, a piercing in his right ear and what looked like a tattoo of some sort on the side of his neck that went down past his white t-shirt, and dark blue pants. The other had short dark hair and wore a simple brown t-shirt with a dark grey jacket on top and simple black jeans, no piercings no tattoos. Her facial recognition software lit up immediately. The current generation animatronics and the Toy series of the late 80s had one thing in common, a link to the police database, and plenty of information was already being brought up on these individuals;
_Adrian Calico
Caucasian
Age: 27
Height: 177.8cm / 5'10"
Known Crimes: Petty theft, drunken behaviour, disturbing the peace, indecent exposure._
_Matthew McAllister
Caucasian
Age: 31
Height: 175.26cm / 5'9"
Known Crimes: Drunken Behaviour, disturbing the peace, theft._
Known criminals but nothing major, the animatronics would need to keep a close eye on them, Wolfie resumed walking her rounds to greet guests and spread joy, all the while ensuring the two law breakers were within her peripheral vision.
Her sensors indicated that Bonnie and Chica had spotted them two and like Freddy and herself were ensuring they were always in their line of sight.
Several minutes past, the animatronics continued to greet guests, entertain the kids, have pictures taken play a few small games and keep their eyes on Adrian and Matthew whom hadn't done much, they'd looked around then simply sat at a table, Chica had moved in closer as they were being served.
“What can I get you?" Susie, one of the waitress', asked.
“Uh yeah," Adrian was the first to speak, his voice not too deep but had a smoker's rasp to it, he sounded like a man trying to do an impression of The Godfather, as he spoke his eyes moved from the menu in his hands to Susie and back and forth again, “I'd like uh, a Freddy's super meaty supreme, with maybe some extra bacon, an order of fries and a vanilla shake."
Susie took a moment to jot down his order on her interactive pad. “Uh huh, anything else sir?" she asked.
“Nah I'm good." Adrian replied.
Susie turned her attention to Matthew and waited for him to reply, his piercing brown eyes still browsing the menu. “I um … I'd like a," he dragged out the final word then paused, bit his bottom lip then tutted, “hmm," contemplated a bit longer. By comparison to Adrian, Matthew's voice simply sounded dull, plain, like a teacher who really didn't like their job. “um, I'll have a Chica's sizzler, and could I have a few extra peppers with that?" he asked.
“Of course," Susie, still smiling, jotted on her pad, “anything else sir?"
“Ummm," he paused again and looked to the menu, Adrian beside him rolled his eyes, “I'd like some Chica's scorching wings and uh a diet coke." Matthew added, Susie jotted it down and looked to him expectantly, “that'll be all." He concluded.
Susie walked off to get them their order, the men didn't say anything to each other, they pulled out their phones and seemed to start texting, it'd be impossible to find out what they were texting and to whom.
Chica made her way back round removing her eyes from the low ranking criminals, the others could still see them so she was safe, he cast a worried glance to Freddy who nodded his head slightly all the while taking a photograph with a grown man and his son and gave a bright beaming smile to the camera.
Wolfie's CPU was starting to war with itself. There was a potentially hostile threat to her home and her allies and the threat must be terminated, her CPU listed every muscle and bone in the human body then the optimal methods to damage or break several with the result being a clean and swift extermination. However, she couldn't create a scene not here not now, not with everyone watching not with all the people. Besides their crimes were tiny, petty at best, sure they had broken the law but it wasn't like they were murderers or rapists, and with all four of them watching and the day time guard with several wandering security staff, there's no way they'd be able to pull anything.
With force Wolfie suppressed the kill order, and once again wondered why she had that sort of information inside her head, she focussed her attention on the two criminals as they were served their meals, they were behaving at least, maybe they were reforming and simply here for a meal. If she told herself that enough times maybe the message “TERMINATE" would stop flashing in her field of view. She turned her gaze away from them then overrode the kill order once more trying to push it into the deeper depths of her cybernetic mindscape.
Sometime after they began their meal Matthew got up, whispering something to Adrian whom nodded in return, Matthew walked off, the animatronics glanced to one another with worried expressions, each silently asking the questions: “Do we follow?" “Who should follow?"
Bonnie's turn was up it seemed. The purple bunny turned in the direction Matthew went and followed him, all the while ensuring it didn't actually appear like her was following him which was actually harder than the bunny realised it would be.
Just a few minutes later Bonny returned, and not too long after so did Matthew.
“What happened?" Freddy asked as Bonny walked past him.
“Bathroom." Bonny quickly summarised.
The two men continued their meal and finished not too long later, Susie returned to their table and they paid before leaving, as soon as they were out of the establishment the animatronics released their hypothetical breath. The danger was over, if there was any danger. What did they want? Just pizza?
'I have a bad feeling about this.' Freddy thought to himself. He couldn't calculate why, but he had this feeling, a feeling of overwhelming dread in his CPU, he didn't know, but he didn't like it. 'Perhaps it'll pass soon.' He thought to himself.
“Well boys?" Rufus asked as Adrian and Matthew returned. Rufus was sat upon a dirty withered old couch, the large revolver resting upon his lap as he watched Adrian and Matthew step through the door.
“Places security sucks." Adrian replied first vaguely as he and Matthew moved closer.
“Few security cameras around the place, the main entrance has got a big shutter when it's locked up, but they got a backdoor which I overheard has a faulty lock." Matthew explained in more detail as they came to a stop in front of Rufus.
“And the robots?" Rufus asked, they were his main concern considering what happened decades ago.
“Don't know what's in their heads but one of them followed Matthew to the bathroom, they all seemed ta keep their eye on us." Adrian told him as he sat down on a beaten leather chair.
“Security programming." Rufus mumbled, “Cue ball said they'd tried that sorta stuff in the 80s, but it didn't work right." He explained as the others gave him a funny look.
“Seems ta really work now boss." Adrian stated, “think that'll be a problem?"
“Cue ball said the 'bots are programmed not to hurt people; worse they'll do is call the cops." Rufus replied and scratched his dirty unshaven neck, “worse we gotta worry 'bout is that security guard."
“Should we kill him boss?" Adrian asked.
“If they'll be a problem." Rufus replied, he picked up the revolver and looked it over, “Alright here's the plan we go inside through the back door, fuck the place up, break down the bots, deal with the guard and mess up the security footage, understand?" he paused looking to his boys whom nodded in understanding, “Alright."
“Ah right, so this is the place."
It was roughly three in the afternoon, the sun was slowly being hidden in the sky by the ever looming dark rain clouds and a crispy breeze was blowing through the city, the city had quietened from the earlier orgy of noise of cars and yelling of pedestrians and angered motorists replaced with more manageable dull roar.
Two warmly wrapped men were gazing up to a neon sign, currently turned off, before looking over the entirety of the single story building. The taller of the two, the one whom had just spoken turned his head to the other, shorter man.
“I was hoping you were pulling my leg Josh." Mike Schmidt said to his son.
“I was hoping I'd imagined it." His son replied.
“It's Rachel's and Candy's all over again." Mike mumbled out loud and shook his head. “Your aunt Mary ain't gunna be happy about this." he said grimly.
“She still hates these places." Joshua summarised simply, it was common knowledge amongst their family.
“More than me," Mike added quietly before looking back at the golden retriever cartoon character, “especially what happened to your cousin in 2007."
Joshua had heard about the incident, his cousin Marilyn, 17 at the time in 2007, had spent a few nights secretly in the old animatronics factory before it mysteriously burned down. Marilyn had survived but not without some scars, but just like the rest of the family, the scars weren't on the body, but in the mind. Joshua couldn't help but be thankful for his luck with his own encounters with animatronics, his father, his aunt and his cousin had each been terrorised on multiple occasions by psychotic killer robots in animal suits, events that had left them with nightmares, unspeakable fear of animatronics, even those terrible ones at Chuck E Cheese.
“You got the lucky draw Josh." Mike spoke up once again.
“I know I did dad. Freddy and the others are great, great friends." Josh replied then paused in thought, “if Katie's is successful, you know what that could mean?" he asked.
Mike already seemed to know, “We could be seeing a return of Candy's and Rachel's, I'm sure your aunt would so happy to see them return." He said sarcastically, “anyway come on, thought you said you're treating me to lunch." He said in a more uplifting tone.
“I am, I am! To be fair dad I'm actually shocked you actually want to go." Joshua said as the pair began to walk away from Katie's, “I'd have thought you'd never want to see a Freddy's after what happened last time."
“Let's not look too deep into it, I may yet still change my mind." Mike warned while throwing his son a small glare.
The pair arrive at Freddy's a few minutes later, Freddy and the band were up on the stage singing old classic children songs and the curtain to Pirate's Cove was open so Wolfie was entertaining kids. Mike wouldn't say it, but that calmed his nerves a little. His eyes focused on the band once more, and memories of 1993 went rushing through his mind, those seven nights he survived against the older Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy, those seven-foot-tall monsters made of steel.
These new ones looked slightly different by comparison, not as overly large as their predecessors, shorter, thinner, even Freddy and he was design to be round, designed to look fat, very little of their endoskeleton was actually exposed, custom built suit pieces covered up exposed joints and even a neck covering covered their neck hydraulics, their ability to mimic facial expression however was downright creepy in its accuracy, he put down the differences to advancements in technology. Then there was that god damn Foxy replacement; that damned Wolf.
He didn't know nor care where it came from, who built it or how, but that thing took the term “advanced robotics" and set it to a whole new level, while the others were in their own right advanced compared to their predecessors the wolf … well, it was something else entirely. If what he read about the new animatronics was right they had a suit made of leather with fake fur and a head carefully crafted for optimum facial expression, but that damned wolf looked real, truly real to the point of looking alive as if it were a creature of flesh and blood, the whole suit covered the endoskeleton flawlessly and even stretched like human skin, and its ability to show emotions and expression were simply flawless, at least from what he remembered of it anyway, it even had a tongue inside its mouth, a tongue of all things, why? How?
But what truly got him, were its eyes, eyes that looked so full of life not dead and empty like the plastic ones the other models had. It was these things combined that made the pirate wolf look more like a seven-foot-tall werewolf/furry thing rather than a robot in a suit. He sometimes wondered what the company were trying to achieve by making something like that, the next stage in animatronic evolution? The fucking thing must have cost a fortune to build.
“Dad, you're spacing out and staring." Josh nudged his father snapping Mike out of thoughts. “You okay?" Josh asked with concern.
“yeah I'm fine." Mike said with tiredly before rubbing his eyes. “Let's go sit down." As they moved he swear the animatronics followed their movements, 'Don't panic, don't panic.' Mike chanted mentally over and over again.
“Hey Josh." A young woman spoke up cheerfully, genuine cheer, as she approached their table.
Mike turned to look at the woman, she seemed to be in her early twenties, a little older than Josh maybe, and the way she smiled and looked at the young man beside him, perhaps she had a thing for him, or they were just really good friends.
“Hey Susie," Josh greeted nicely giving her a little wave, “things seem quiet." He noted.
“You know how it is, most kids are still at school and parents bring their little ones here for some peace for a little while." The girl, Susie, said with a shrug of her shoulders before turning to Mike, “Who's this?" she asked as she looked Mike over.
“Oh right, Susie this is my dad." Josh introduced them.
“How you doing?" Mike said nicely.
Susie smiled in return, “So, what can I get you guys?"
“Could you give us a minute or so to choose?" Josh asked.
“Sure," Susie shrugged then sat down, “hope you don't mind me sitting, my feet are aching."
“Sure." “No sweat." Came the replied before they started looking through the menu.
“I'd personally go for Wolfie's deluxe cheese burger." Susie said, offering her opinion.
Mike looked at it on the menu and nodded to himself, “I'll get that, no tomatoes, a side of fries and a white coffee, please."
“I'll get my usual," Joshua began “A regular Chica's Classic, medium fries and coke."
Susie jotted down the order then stood up, “kay guys, be right back with your meal."
As Susie left Mike turned his attention back to the machines on stage. Many thoughts began to whirl through his mind, the bite of 87 caused by that mangled Toy Foxy, he wasn't there, he hadn't seen it, but he had spoken to an eye witness, and who better than the survivor of said attack; Jeremy Fitzgerald. They'd only spoken briefly over the years, he wondered where the guy was now. His thought went onto his own experiences in '93 with the Fazbear band and Foxy, how they haunted his nightmares even years after the whole thing, the counselling he'd needed so he could try and live his life, to continue onwards.
He released a shuddering breath and slowly scanned the room they were in; even after nearly 10 years of use the place was still much fancier than the one he'd worked in, shinier, cleaner actually cared for. He didn't know how this Freddy's had done it, but they'd achieved success without any fatal incident. It seemed too good to be true.
His gaze eventually landed on his son who seemed to be staring forwards all the while lost in his own little world. Mike turned his head to where Josh was looking then gave a pause as realisation hit. Their seating was not an accident or on a whim, from here they had a perfect look inside Pirate's Cove and could see the grey furred wolf animatronic dressed fully in pirate garb, sat down on the edge of its boat prop while entertaining kids, its arms were raised above its head, the left hand covered with a hook, it jumped up onto the boat and began swinging its right hand around as if holding a sword, the kids cheered with excitement.
He looked back to Josh and saw an ever so subtle smile. A smile he hadn't seen on anyone's face for a long time.
'What's going on in that head of yours Josh?' Mike wondered before snapping his fingers in front of his son's face bringing him out of his thoughts. “Wake up Josh, your girlfriend may start to get jealous, way you're looking at that robot."
“Girlfriend?!" Joshua yelped and looked at his dad in shock.
Mike blinked, he'd only meant it as a joke, and judging by Josh's overreaction something was definitely going on here.
“Yeah, that Susie girl, you're gunna make her jealous you keep looking at that robot like that for so long." Mike explained
“Susie's not my girlfriend dad, and I wasn't looking at Wolfie, just kinda spaced out for a sec." Josh lied, hoping to god his father wouldn't call him out on it.
Mike stared at his son's face, looking to see anything to give him away, sadly Josh had picked up the “Schmidt lying poker face" and it was damned good. “Okay, chill I was just joking, you're not too old for that now are you big guy?" Mike jested and nudged Josh in the arm.
Finally, their meal arrived.
Mike wiped his mouth with a napkin removing smears of mustards and ketchup.
“So you wanna stay for a while after we finish? Talk to the band?" Joshua suddenly asked.
Mike gave a pause, “I don't think I'm ready yet." Mike admitted truthfully. “I don't mind you working here, as long as these machines don't start acting up, but…" Mike trailed off and looked away from Josh.
Josh placed a comforting hand on his dad's shoulder, “Hey dad, it's okay, thanks for at least coming."
Susie came back over once they were finished, asking them if they wanted anything else, they declined nicely and Josh gave her the money owed and a tip, transaction complete they rose up from their table, Joshua threw one more glance to Pirate's Cove and gave Wolfie a quick wave not knowing of caring if she saw or returned it. He followed his dad towards the exit and nodded to the band, Chica made eye contact without breaking out of her performance and subtly nodded to him, Joshua turned around and left.
“Everything is in place sir." Cue ball said to his employer.
The business man nodded slowly before taking a long drag of his fine hand rolled cigar, swirled the smoke around in his mouth and exhaled it skywards.
“Excellent, I expect nothing less than success with this, am I understood?" the man replied.
“Of course sir, Rufus and his boys have the tools you provided, they go tonight." Cue ball answered smugly.
“Perfect," he stood up from his chair and walked around his desk, “follow," he instructed without breaking stride and he walked out of his office and into the diner's main area, Cue ball followed quickly and quietly, the owner of the establishment walked further into the diner walked right up to the stage where, stood before him, were three animatronics; a golden retriever with a red and blue chequered shirt, a swan and a black cat. “Katie, can you hear me?" he asked.
The golden retriever's eyes opened up and focussed on the owner. “Good evening mister Carter." Katie answered in a non-accented, gentle and feminine voice.
“Has everything been successfully downloaded?" he asked.
“Affirmative; songs, games, adequate responses, have all been downloaded into my CPU." Katie replied.
The owner, Mr Carter noticed something amiss, it took only a moment to realise what it was. “Katie activate your personality systems." He instructed.
The animatronic was silent for a moment her eyes flashed white before she focussed back on Mr Carter, “Well golly Mister Carter, this sure feels much betta." Katie exclaimed now with a stereotypical southern country accent.
Carter looked to Cue ball and smirked, “Perfect." He told him.
The old man stepped through the back door, wincing from the sound of its rusty hinges. It was another cold night, thankfully though it was warmer than the few previous nights, but he still needed to get somewhere warm. Besides the person from the note had invited him back, closing the door behind him he ventured forward, he found the place was already warm, someone had turned on the heating before he entered, which was nice, he paused in his step and looked down on the floor, a plate of food and hot beverages was already waiting for him once more there was a small note.
“Take this into the bathrooms, sorry you have to stay there but it's for your own safety, the cameras see everywhere else, be quick the night guard arrives at twelve."
Once more signed “a friend", he didn't argue. Smiling he picked up the plate and quickly made his way around the cameras and into the men's bathroom, where strangely there was a blanket laying on the radiator, he smiled thankfully, he didn't know who this person was who was doing this for him, but they had a heart of gold. He settled on the floor near the radiator and began to tuck into his meal.
Joshua opened up the main door to the pizzeria then locked it up behind him, he checked his watch and frowned, it was mid-night, he usually liked to get in early and start early on reviewing the footage so he'd have more time with the others. With a groan of frustration, he made his way into the security room the others would be up and running soon, so he'd likely see them before long.
He sat down at his desk, and began to look through all the security footage while grumbling with annoyance, everything was going as per usual, until he heard a loud BANG coming from somewhere in the pizzeria.
“What the?" he turned his head towards the right door then stood up, something shifted in his peripheral vision, he turned seconds too late before something hard and metal impacted across the face then the whole world went black.
Then the sound of gunfire erupted all throughout the pizzeria.