Chapter Text
After the unexpected malfunction on stage, Glamrock Freddy had been safely returned to his green room, as per usual for such occurrences. It was quickly apparent he wasn’t the only one, though.
Safe Mode...
As he emerged from the familiar quiet of the recharge cycle, he realized something was wrong. "Showtime already?" The battery meter below his line of sight glowed dimly, blinking at him.
There is a strange sound from within his chest, and a sudden loss of balance startles him, causing him to catch his footing.
"Hey! Will you shut up?" Not only was his battery only partially charged, but there was also a quiet, tinny voice in his head.
How rude! Wait- "Who said that?" He responds, searching the room through the mirror in front of him. There didn't appear to be anyone else in the dressing room, and yet, he could hear gentle breathing echoing from somewhere very close to him. Again, his balance is disrupted as a weight settles in his upper torso, a place where there should definitely not be anything loose or moving around.
"I did! I'm down here!" The voice seems to travel through his casing, and he is startled by two light knocks that sound off of his plastic shell. Not from the outside, but from the inside, right around his chest cavity. He suddenly has an idea of what he had awoken to, and it caused his eyes to widen in surprise.
He brings his hands up, waving them in a placating motion, more for himself than the intruder. “That place is reserved for oversized birthday cakes and pinatas! That is not a safe play area!” Nothing happens for a tense moment, and he is just standing by himself in the green room. “Please come out immediately to avoid the potential of physical harm or danger," he prompts, shifting his stance to make space for the mysterious voice and its owner to vacate his casing. He opens his chest hatch and waits for a tense moment until a messy, knotted clump of chestnut hair appears just below his own head. It is followed by four chubby limbs and a short torso. Once the intruder made themselves known, it was difficult to believe he had ever missed them there in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, they were indeed a child- a child who seemed a little more than annoyed at being removed from their hiding space. The incandescent glow from his own eyes reflected off of the child’s dirty cheeks and nose, illuminating a plain t-shirt and a scrutinizing glare that somehow dampened the already sour mood rolling off of the child in waves.
"Oh! Hello there, you!" He says with an entirely natural air of surprise and cheer. A child! A child where there should absolutely never, ever be a child, in fact! He had protocols and guides for events just like this. Normally, a quick scan of the digital guestbook database would reveal the child’s name and the potential whereabouts of their guardians. Then, all that was required of him was to take the child to any security guard for assistance, simple and easy. A little too enthusiastically, he reaches towards the child and lifts them a few inches off the ground with inhuman strength. When he scans the child with his eyes, they flinch, affixing their gaze to their fazbear themed shoes.
“No Matching Results”
The red banner across the search window supplies unexpected results. His ears twitch when he glances down at the child again and runs a match for any guest within the last week.
“No Matching Results”
A sniffle. The child wipes their nose on their short sleeve, eyes taking in the room around them with the additional light source that his eyes provided. While the child is distracted, he searches deeper. Perhaps within the last month? The last year? The whirring of his optical lenses shifting and spinning and the child’s own soft breathing were the only sounds that accompanied the visual of the guestbook attempting to find even one match with the child's facial features.
The screen shows a blank result once again.
“No Matching Results”
A synthetic sigh rattles his endoskeleton. Never mind unlikely, it shouldn't even be possible! He carefully returns the child to the floor and brings a giant paw up to adjust his hat. Maybe they snuck in unsupervised? How would they have gotten past the S.T.A.F.F. Bots? He puts on his best approximation of assurance, drawing from years of cheering up scared children. “How odd- I cannot seem to find you in any of our guest records. Do you think you could tell me your name?” His voice seems so much louder than normal. Maybe it was the time of night or the emptiness of the room, but he could swear he saw the child flinch again. He quietly chooses to adjust his master volume.
The kid glances between the robot and the room itself. When the child finally speaks again, their voice is clear and sharp.
“My name is…Gregory.” He almost sounds like he doesn’t believe himself, but if that is the name he chooses then that is what Freddy will call him.
“It is nice to meet you, Gregory! I hope I did not frighten you. I am aware that I can be quite over-bear-ing.” The rumble of his own voice, though quieter now, is reassuring and punctuated by a chuckle. “But you should not be here, Gregory. It is well past operating hours! I will attempt to contact the security staff to have you escorted to the lobby so that you may be reunited with your parents-”
“No!” They send a withering glare up at the bear, an incredible feat for someone who had to lean their whole body back to look into his eyes. “I don’t trust her. Something’s not right, you can’t leave me with her.”
“But…the security here is quite capable!” He tries to reason; the kid shifts from foot to foot nervously in response. Maybe it would help to understand how they found themselves in this situation, instead. “Could you perhaps tell me how you found yourself in my, er.. chest?”
The child, Gregory, can’t seem to stand still, wandering back and forth by the viewing window. He stops every time he passes the sliver of glass visible through the drawn curtains, eyebrows scrunched in thought.
“I was watching the stage performance earlier, and there was an accident- something went wrong in the audience, and it caused something to go wrong on stage. I saw it happen.“ some of his hair falls in front of his eyes as he gestures with his hands, “I could see it from where I was watching. During the chaos of people leaving, I wasn’t paying attention and got... separated from my parents, I think. And then the security guard started chasing me through the halls and I was afraid of being caught, so I found a vent and,” for a moment, frustration engulfs Gregory’s body language and multiple care advice pop-up windows directing Freddy on responsive emotional aid flood his vision. He ignores them.
The child stops pacing and turns to face the animatronic again. He points a tiny hand towards the arcade cabinet in the corner. “I was hiding behind the arcade cabinet when a couple of technicians brought you back here, and you didn't seem to be awake, so when they left I…found a better hiding place.”
That certainly was one way to explain it. Thinking about someone tampering with his equipment while he is inoperable was disconcerting. “What you did was quite dangerous! There’s a good reason people aren’t allowed to operate advanced machinery like mine from within the casing anymore.” Not that he is going to tell the details of such a decision to a small child like Gregory. Nightmares of the past should stay in the past, as a warning for future animatronic operators to read in training manuals.
“Regardless, I cannot let you stay here. This is a very dangerous place for a young child to be after operating hours. Considering there is no legal guardian present to care for you at this time, I will accept you as my responsibility until one is found." He casts his eyes to meet Gregory's again, to which the child seems torn between keeping his gaze and looking anywhere else. "If there is a way to get you out of here, I will find it. I promise.” At the word promise, Gregory scrunches his nose.
He clenches his fists, kicking at a colorful balloon that seems to have partially deflated and joined the floor decor, sending it twirling into a dark corner of the room. “I’m not asking for help. I just want to go home.” His words are hollow, and far too heavily spoken for such a small child. The frown that found permanent residence on his face seemed to deepen. As a secondary objective to taking care of Gregory's temporary wellbeing, Freddy makes a note to make him smile at least once. Maybe more than once! The thought has his mind wander, but the distraction would only, well, distract him from their goal.
“I understand, Gregory. Perhaps I can be of partial assistance- I am very familiar with the layout of the facility,” if you could call having an advanced map of all floors and rooms in your memory a familiarity, “And I know a maintenance tunnel near here that will take you directly to the lobby." Accessing the map in his visual display, he gives it a quick look to make sure he's correct. "First, you will need to release me from my room so that I can safely escort you through the more dangerous parts of the building.” He raises a giant clawed hand and gestures to the back door. “I have chosen to trust you with basic clearance to open some service doors, including my own. This modified watch should assist in letting you out through the vents I cannot access.”
When he offers the child a digital display watch, Gregory is apprehensive about taking it, only taking a few steps forward with hesitation. Freddy closes the distance, using one paw to cup the child's tiny hand, and the other to place the watch in it. Shuffling backward to give him some space, he watches as Gregory inspects the device. Once the device is in his possession, the boy is transfixed by the miniature touch screen, taking a moment to tap through the menus before putting it on his wrist. A mumbled thank you could be heard, imperceptible to human ears. His own ears wiggled happily at the somewhat positive response, tail swinging with anticipation and anxiety alike.
Giving Gregory the novelty watch with…extended capabilities may be dangerous long-term, but it would allow him to navigate the lowest level of internal security necessary to get around the dressing rooms and the adjacent museum-like hall. It should be fine. Probably.
“See you on the other side, superstar!” He enthusiastically cheered, waving as Gregory retreated into the darkness of the maintenance hallway. A small part of him was afraid that the kid would run off with what little freedom he had been granted and get into far more trouble than Freddy could save him from...but he’s sure that a kid smart enough to find his way into such a situation as he was currently in would also know that Freddy was his best chance of getting out of it.
He stood at the maintenance door, gazing into the darkness beyond and straining his ears to hear the rattles and bumps of the child navigating the vents overhead. It was impossible not to think through all the possibilities and outcomes for Gregory's escape, all of the dangers he could encounter without supervision. His programming was extensive, going as far as to cover what to do if a child is separated from their parents, or even abandoned in the complex after public operating hours. Yet, none of his scripted actions cover something quite like this- all of his programming tells him to take the child directly to security upon apprehension.
And yet, here he is, assisting a child in a grand adventure through the off-limits maintenance halls of the pizzaplex. It was as exciting as it was worrying.
Going off of his programmed directory wasn't like him.