Chapter Text
Caine's voice was booming across the room.
"THIS IS A PRERECORDED MESSAGE THAT WILL ONLY PLAY ONCE! SO LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE GLORIOUS LORE AND WORLDBUILDING I HAVE WORKED SO HARD ON FOR THIS ADVENTURE."
Jax absently stared at the wall. Pomni wondered how he could possibly be so calm about this whole thing.
"C&A ENTERTAINMENT IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR DAMAGE TO PROPERTY OR PERSON. UPON DISCOVERING THAT DAMAGE OR DEATH HAS OCCURRED, A MISSING PERSON REPORT WILL BE FILED WITHIN 57 DAYS, OR AS SOON PROPERTY AND PREMISES HAVE BEEN THOROUGHLY CLEANED AND BLEACHED, AND THE CARPETS HAVE BEEN REPLACED!"
Pomni did not like the sound of that.
"THE ANIMATRONIC CHARACTERS WILL GET A BIT QUIRKY TONIGHT!"
Pomni really did not like the sound of that.
"AND NO GOOD GAME IS WITHOUT STAKES! AS NIGHT WATCHMEN THESE ANIMATRONICS WILL SEE YOU AS A METAL ENDOSKELETONS WITHOUT THEIR COSTUME ON AND WILL TRY TO FORCEFULLY STUFF YOU INSIDE ONE OF THE SUITS WHICH ARE FILLED WITH CROSSBEAMS, WIRES, AND ANIMATRONIC DEVICES, ESPECIALLY AROUND THE FACIAL AREA. SO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET CAUGHT AM I RIGHT?"
Pomni's heart dropped. God, she was getting flashbacks to the Mildenhall Manor but at least there she had Kinger.
Now she was trapped here with Jax of all people.
"CHECK THOSE CAMERAS, AND REMEMBER TO CLOSE THE DOORS ONLY IF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. GOTTA CONSERVE POWER. STAY SHARP MY COMICAL CUCUMBER CARDBOARD CUTOUTS!"
Jax blinked, "Wait what'd he say? I wasn't paying attention."
Pomni didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She settled for staring blankly at the floor counting the tiles.
Jax lifted up the tablet and smacked it which miraculously made it spur to life. He glanced at the screen and almost recoiled at the sight of the three animal animatronics just sitting there creepily.
He groaned setting down the tablet, "Ughh I'm bored. Can't we just kill these guys?"
One, two, three, four, fiv-
Pomni flinched at the sudden movement interrupting her view of the checkered floor.
She looked up and shrieked, "What are you doing?!"
Jax was poking his head out of the left door.
He waved his hand lazily, "C'mon it'll be fine just live a lit-"
THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD. THUD.
Jax stumbled backwards as Pomni practically came crashing into the wall trying to press both buttons. The door slammed down just as this horrific mechanical (was that a pirate?) fox came into view.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Pomni scrambled backwards from the shaking door praying that it would hold.
She glanced at their power level which had dropped from 100% to 93% in a matter of seconds.
"Oh my god turn off the light!" She cried, rushing back forward and pushing that stupid glowing white button so hard she was surprised it didn't shatter.
"Wha- Why?"
"We need to conserve power!"
When did breathing get so difficult?
She slid downwards against the wall and hugged her knees. Her face started turning blue; normally vibrant and expressive eyes reduced to scribbles.
The white noise from that black fan was suffocating.
"Jeez, calm down. You're taking this waaay too seriously!"
Pomni turned her head slowly, eyes reverting back to pinwheels and clenching her hands. If looks could kill Jax would be 6 feet under.
"We are literally being hunted down by killer robots right now." she seethed.
"C'mon what's the worst that could happen?"
"Did you not listen to a single thing Caine said!?"
"Nope!" he grinned, pupils wide, "But it doesn't matter! These things can't actually hurt us. It's just a stupid adventure, remember?"
Pomni buried her head in her knees.
She knew that Jax was technically right. That in the worst case scenario she'd be patched up by Caine in a matter of seconds.
But...
"It still feels real though..." she mumbled.
...seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen-
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Jax was not having a good day.
Of course it was Caine and his stupid in-house adventures.
Nothing here could ever be outside of the ringermaster's control. It was true that out of everyone in the circus Jax was the most enthusiastic about the adventures but that didn't mean that he wanted to go on three in one day! His hands itched to destroy something.
Ugh if only Gangle was her-
Wait, was he seriously missing Crybaby right now? Jeez this place was really getting to him.
On top of that he was stuck here with supposedly 'killer robots' (he really should've paid attention to the denture's spiel) with an annoying bundle of nerves which he was growing frustratingly fond of made this whole thing even more annoying than it already was.
If he was on his own he'd be able to just bite the big one and get it over with fast. However he'd never hear the end of it from this frog (wait what?) jester who was too empathetic and caring for her own good.
He glanced at the clock.
12:49 am
He groaned dragging a hand down his face, "Ughhhhhhhhh this is going to take forever."
Pomni gave no reaction which was rather irritating. He hated being ignored.
Whatever. She was just freaking out over nothing as usual. Maybe she's just the anxious one.
There had to be a weapon somewhere here right? There's no way those looney dentures would've sent them here without anything fun. Heck, in the last adventure he'd gotten a rifle for his poaching adventure! He could really use that gun now...
Jax settled for playing around with the camera again.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap-
"Can you stop?" Pomni cut in, snapping out of her stupor.
Finally. All this waiting around had started to become mind-numbing.
A grin spread over his face, "Stop what?"
tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap-
"The tapping! You're going to break it!"
"Relaax it's not like you were using it anywa-"
He was abruptly cut off by Pomni who had now snatched the tablet out of his hands.
"Hey!" Jax whined, "What happened to manners?"
Pomni didn't bother shifting her gaze up from the screen, "You were going to kill us both wasting that much energy."
She tapped to switch views and almost let out a yelp seeing the creepy looking bear and hideous yellow chicken.
Wait a second...
Jax looked over her hat and frowned, "Hey, what happened to the purple one?"
Pomni froze, "W-what are you talking about?"
He shrugged, "I dunno there was like a third one when I first checked but now it's gone."
"S__t!" Pomni swore, panic lacing her tone.
Greattttt she was going back to the panicking thing.
She tapped on the screen like a madman.
"Wow who's wasting energy now?"
"That thing is moving closer to our office!" Pomni exclaimed, "Look!"
Pomni shoved the screen in front of his face. He recoiled.
Of course one of the animatronics was a purple rabbit. Caine has a twisted sense of humor that was for sure.
She pointed at the map in the bottom corner of the screen, "The three animatronics were standing on the stage which is here," she pointed to the top of the map labeled 'stage', "we are here," she gestured to the bottom of the map labeled 'office', "and the missing animatronic is now here," she pointed to the second highest room.
He tilted his head, "So what does that mean?"
"Jax, we are so f__cked."
The clock struck 1 am.