Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ruby stepped outside of her new home, a smile on her face as she looked around, curiously, looking at the flock of birds that flew above, seemingly circling her neighbors home. Her eyes rested on the house in question; old wooden board covered the windows, a few nails were sticking out of the walls, as if there was a half-assed repair job, she spotted a few cameras, one of which was looking right at her, and if it wasn’t for the shine, she would’ve missed the bear traps hiding amongst the grass. Who was living there? Why were they living like this? They must be so lonely. She wanted to go and say hi, so, she approached the path way to the porch from the sidewalk, smiling at the house.

“Wait!” A voice called behind her before she stepped onto the path itself. She stepped back and looked around, spotting a top hat poking out of the bush behind her before a bear about her age poked his head out. “Over here!” He said before ducking back into the bush. She stared at the greenery for a moment before looking around, approaching it slowly. A few hands reached out and grabbed at some of hers before pulling her into the bush. She found herself surrounded by the bear, a yellow chicken, a blue rabbit, and a red fox.

“That’s Old man Wolfgang’s house!” The rabbit said nervously, poking his eyes out between the leaves to look at the house. “You don’t wanna go near that place, newbie!”’

“Yeah! He’s scary!” The chicken shivered, hugging herself for comfort.

“What? Why? What’s wrong?” Ruby asked, a little caught off guard by their reactions. What were they talking about?

“He’s the owner of that Alex Kidd restaurant.” The bear said. “That place is shrouded in mystery…kids go missing all the time, and we know he’s up to something!”

“How do you know?” Ruby asked, tilting her head a bit, just to see the fox gives her a pair of binoculars.

“Look into the living room window.” He said, pointing to the only window that didn’t have any boards on it. Ruby did as said, looking through the binoculars to focus on the living room. On the far side of the room was a door. It was covered in wooden boards, locks, and it had a keycard lock.

“He is hiding something in the basement! We don’t know what because there aren’t any windows on the lower part of the house where we could peek in.” The bear explained. “Kids go missing all the time at Alex Kidd’s, and for all we know, he’s got them trapped in the basement!”

“We want to try and save them!” The rabbit said. “The only problem is…we’re not really good at it.”

“Each time we find a new way in, he seals it up.” The chicken nods.

“...Hey, why don’t we bring the newbie to the safehouse?” The bear suggested. “That way she can see the full picture!”

“Hey, good thinkin’ Freddy!” The rabbit smiled, nodding his head in agreement. With that, the group bailed from their hiding spot, unaware that Mr. Wolfgang was watching them from his upstairs bedroom. He growled under his breath before pulling the curtains back. The group led Ruby across the street, and into the backyard of one of the houses.

“This is my house.” Freddy smiled before looking up at the big treehouse before him. “And this is Freddy and Friends HQ!”

“This is where we get together after school to hang out, or discuss plans to get into Mr. Wolfgang’s house.” The rabbit said, following Freddy up the ladder.

“I do think introductions are in order.” Freddy said, watching as everyone entered the treehouse. Ruby’s eyes widened at the sight of the place. Christmas lights were hung around the ceiling, there was a mini fridge with some snacks on a counter next to it, a lot of drawing and art tools, and a lot of drawings, specifically, a makeshift blueprint made with blue crayons done in the layout of Mr. Wolfgang’s house. There was also a tv with a VCR, and a game console plugged in through an extension cord coming in from the main house. There was even a custom made rug featuring the bear and his friends on it. “I’m Freddy! And these are my friends, Bonnie the Rabbit, Chica the Chicken, and Foxy the Fox!”

“Howdy!” Bonnie smiled.

“Nice to meet you!” Chica waved her hand.

“Hey there.” Foxy nodded his head.

“Nice to meet you guys, my name is Ruby.” The hybrid spider fox smiled, her tail wagging. She looked at the drawings on the wall, one of them specifically catching her eyes. It was a drawing of a purple hedgehog with black eyes, but glowing purples, and a creepy smile. “Who…who’s that?”

“We don’t know, but he’s hidden inside the walls at Alex Kidd’s. Someone spotted him wandering around in the restaurant after hours.” Freddy explained. “They say if you’re caught in the restaurant after midnight, he’ll come out to kill you.”

“Our working theory is that Mr. Wolfgang is wearing that suit.” Foxy added.

“But why would he do that? Wouldn’t that harm his own business?” Ruby asked, tilting her head as Chica hands her a cup with a freshly cold cup of fruit punch.

“We don’t know.” Bonnie shrugs, moving to the telescope that was aimed at Mr. Wolfgang’s house. “All kinds’ a strange things have been goin’ on at that place ever since Mr. Wolfgang’s two own kids went missin’! Like all those other kids that just vanished out of nowhere!”

“All of the animatronics have been giving off this weird foul smell!” Chica whined.

“One of them went nuts and bit somebody!” Foxy said.

“And the weirdest thing?” Freddy started. “People say if you look in the window after midnight, you can see them moving around. And if you’re one of the unlucky ones to become a nightguard, once you go in, you might not come back if you don’t make it till morning!” Ruby suddenly felt a tinge of worry crawl up her spine. Dad just picked up a job at that place from what she heard on the phone call. But, at the same time, she felt she shouldn’t have to worry too much. He was able to handle himself at the very least like he did at the Ancient Relics.

“It’s amazing the place even stays open!” Chica shutters.

“Uh, fellas? He’s on the move!” Bonnie said, pointing out the window.

“Let me see!” Freddy said, approaching the telescope before looking out to the street, spotting the wolf hobbling out of the house and into his car before grabbing a small compass from his shirt pocket. “Okay…he’s moving…west! He’s on his way to the school!”

“The school?” Ruby questioned.

“Yeah!” Bonnie nodded. “I once caught him sneakin’ into the basement of the school. I don’t know why he was doin’ it, or what he was after, all I know is that I try to avoid that one particular hallway as best as I can!”

“What do you say, Ruby? Wanna help us solve a mystery?” Freddy asked. The hybrid smiled, finishing her fruit punch in a few gulps.

“Yeah! Let’s do it!” Her tail wagged and she sat her cup down, following the quad down the ladder. “How far away is the place?”

“About a couple blocks!” Bonnie said as they emerge from the backyard, seeing Mr. Wolfgang drive off. “This guy always has a set schedule! School basement on Monday. Apartment store on Tuesday-”

“Department store, Bon.” Freddy Rolled his eyes.

“Right.” Bonnie nodded. “Department store on Tuesday. Library on Wednesday. Alex kidd’s on Thursday. Then he stays home on Friday. We’ve paid attention to this pattern for a while, but we can’t really find a way to get to him without potentially getting caught.”

“Hmm…Oh! I can probably help! I can climb on walls!” Ruby smiled warmly.

“I’d be surprised if a spider couldn’t do that.” Foxy comments. “But yeah, that could really help out! You could probably hide above the door he goes into, and once he comes back out, you could slide in without him noticing!”

“Sweet! We can finally get somewhere in this mystery!” Chica giggled. The five kids rushed through backyards, watching the main street and keeping an eye on Mr. WolfGang’s car. Thankfully with the shortcut, they were able to beat the old wolf to the school, and they quickly ducked into a bush. Freddy peered his eyes out, moving the leaves so he could watch the parking lot. He saw the old wolf pull up in the same spot he always did and got out of his car, stretching his arms. The others huddled together, watching him walk down the path to the school entrance. Freddy snuck out of the bush and hid against the wall, poking his head out to watch the old wolf open the door and step inside.

“Huh…the school is unlocked.” He commented, looking to his friends.

“Gee, that sure is safe.” Bonnie said, rolling his eyes.

“Alright…I’m going in!” Ruby looked to the others who nodded before she followed the older wolf into the school. Once inside, she climbed up the walls and latched herself onto the ceiling, moving slowly so Mr. Wolfgang wouldn’t hear her, avoiding the lights so she wouldn’t cast a shadow for him to see. The only sound that could be heard were the falling footsteps from the wolf. Once he reached the door Bonnie had discussed, he looked around to make sure he was alone before pulling out a small key, and unlocked the door. Ruby, seeing the small chance to sneak in, crawled in through the top of the door once it was all the way open, managing to get inside before the door was shut. There was a set of stairs that led down to a pretty big room, filing cabinets lining the walls. She slowly followed Mr. Wolfgang, watching as he went straight to the files that were labeled, T to Z. He tapped through each of the files before pulling out two files. She couldn’t see the look on his face, but he was looking at them for quite what felt like a few minutes. Once he finished, he placed the files away and began making his way up the stairs. Once she heard the door closed, Ruby dropped down, and begun digging through the files.

“Let’s see…huh?” She paused, finding the two files the old wolf was looking at. There were two files, both with the name Wolfgang on it. One with a boy wolf named Sammy, and the other was a girl wolf named Molly. Her twitched at the sound of the door opening up, and when she looked, she saw Freddy and the others coming downstairs.

“Why didn’t you tell us you know how to use your dad’s lockpick kit, Bon?” Freddy questioned, raising a brow at the rabbit.

“I dunno. I never really thought about it!” The rabbit chuckled nervously.

“We could’ve used that a lot sooner, pal…” Foxy sighed, shaking his head.

“Oh, look! Ruby got something!” Chica smiled.

“Yeah, I found him looking at these.” She said, showing the group the folders, to which Freddy accepted and started to look them over.

“Shoot…Sammy and Molly.” The bear sighed, shaking his head. “They were really cool to be around, especially when they were able to get us free all day passes to the arcade at Alex Kidd’s. Then one day, they just upped and vanished, and Mr. Wolfgang locked himself away in his own house.”

“...How long have you guys been at this again?” Ruby asked.

“For a month or so. Ever since that weird purple hedgehog started to show up, all of the weird things we told ya about started to happen.” Bonnie explained.

“Do you think Sammy and Molly are okay?” She questioned.

“I don’t know. But that’s why we’re trying to solve this mystery. To find them and the other kids!” Freddy said, placing the folders back. “Come on, we better get out of here before someone sees us.”

With that, the group started to work their way back upstairs. Ruby stopped and looked back at the folder for just a moment, curiosity filling her mind before following Freddy and the others.

Tails flinched a bit as his alarm went off. It was eleven at night. With a yawn, he slowly sat up, stretching his arms before standing up. As he got dressed, Kiera entered the room, smiling at him.

“There’s my handsome security guard.” She smiled softly, approaching him before embracing him in a hug. He smiled and looked to her, giving her a soft kiss on the cheek. “You nervous?”

“Nah, it can’t be that hard. It’s just sitting in a security room for six hours. No hellish monsters or serial killers…how bad can it be?”

“Knowing your luck, the animatronics are alive or something…” She chuckled a bit before letting him go, so she could get ready to take a shower and go to bed. “Dinner is on the table for you hon.”

“Thanks, sweetie. Love you.” He smiled at her.

“Love you too.” She smiled back before leaving the room, letting him finish getting ready. Before going downstairs, he stopped into Ruby’s room, smiling at his adoptive daughter as he saw her sleeping tightly. He kneeled down, planting a soft kiss on her cheek.

“Rest well, Ruby…Daddy will see you tomorrow…” He whispered to her, seeing the soft smile curl on her lips before he left the room, slowly closing the door to leave a little bit of light shine into her room. He went downstairs and ate the dinner that was on the table, which, funnily enough, was a few slices of pizza. After eating, he got in his car, and started his drive. After about half an hour, in a surprisingly dead quiet town, he pulled up to the restaurant. Alex Kidd’s Pizza Palace it said on the marquee, with a cartoon version of the mascot himself, Alex, a young boy with rather large ears. As he pulled in and parked, he noticed a motorcycle pulling in and parking next to him. He stepped out of the car and looked over to the driver as they took off their helmet…and the two stared at each other like deers in headlights. Her figure was different, she looked, for lack of a better word, chubby, but everything else was familiar. The orange and white leotard mixed with the black jeans and boots…that red fur with dark red hair, the long red tail, those blue eyes, and that yellow bowtie. A lot of memories came flooding back all at once. A few of them...not very pleasant.

“Fiona…?” He looked at her, surprised, while she gave a surprised chuckle, sitting her helmet down on the bike.

“Well, shit…if it isn’t the world’s famous player two.” She smirked, crossing her arms. “A lot of news has been going on about you, Prower. Honestly, I’m impressed with the body count you racked up back in the Ancient Relics.” Hearing that made him frown, and he drummed his fingers against the roof of his car.

“...What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I took up the night shift here, just like you. Guess I ended up getting lucky, I thought I was working with some schmuck named Marky Plier...hot damn, time treated you well.” She eyed Tails up and down. He was tall, physically built well, and he just looked tired, more than likely because of all of that Devil’s Chaos crap he was reportedly pumped full of.

“Don’t even try anything with me.” He warned. “For one, I’m married. And two, I haven’t forgotten all of the shit you’ve put me and the others through with Scourge.”

“Ballsy and standoff-ish…Green Hill and a murder spree really made you grow a pair, huh?”

“I don’t even remember why I went there…” He sighed at her bringing up Green Hill, rubbing a gloved hand down his face, thinking about his trip there. There were specific moments, but they all came to a blur. Out of all the people who would be joining him on this, it had to be her. “Let’s just get this over with.” Fiona paused, watching him approach the door.

“Wait…you don’t remember? But people only go to Green Hill if the town calls them. You really don’t remember?”

“No…I don’t.” He shook his head, looking back at her. If I had any memories of it, It’s long gone after this Devil’s Chaos put me in a coma.” He crossed his arms, his eyes shifting to the floor as he thought about the events that lead up to this point.

“A coma, huh?” She slowly approached, standing next to him.

“The most I remember was being in a patch of woods, a cabin, a…princess whose face is just a blank to me, and constantly getting into fights with her. And apparently, the fights were showing on my actual body.”

“That explains the scars.” She commented, seeing the few black marks on the top area of his chest, noting they were pulsating a bit, getting a better view of his face and noticing the bruises. It looked like even with a good night's rest, he was still tired with those bag and dark circles under his eyes.

“Whatever that princess was, she banged me up really bad…if it wasn’t for the Devil’s Chaos, I probably would’ve died in that hospital room.” He explained, running a hand over his chest before opening the door. Fiona still had a lot of questions, but figured they could wait once they were inside and on the shift. Once inside, they saw the standard family friendly location; purple carpeted floors,  white walls that were decorated with a the main line up of characters, a funhouse with a large ball pit, filled with multiple colored balls, a big arcade, and above one of the doorways was a sign that said, show room. Over by the prize counter was a young yellow hedgehog girl with blue eyes, wearing a dark blue suit, and sitting on the counter were two sets of security guard uniforms. When she saw the two foxes out of the corner of her eye, she looked up from her phone and smiled.

“Oh, great! You’re the new security guards, right? Mark and Fiona, right?” She asked, holding her hand out to shake theirs.

“That’s right.” Tails nodded with a smile, shaking her hand.

“Yep.” Fiona answered before shaking her hand as well, shocked by how strong her grip was.

“Nice to meet you both. I’m Mary Konito, I’m the day manager for Alex Kidd’s Pizza Palace. Why don’t you guys go ahead and get changed into your uniforms and I’ll show you around?” She reached behind her and held up both uniforms, giving the correct ones to each fox as indicated by the names on the badges. “Changing rooms are near the back by the office.”

“Thanks, Mary.” Tails nodded before walking for the changing rooms, with Fiona following suit to go change. They split up into the separate changing rooms, and Tails saw a few mascot uniforms hanging on the walls for the performers to wear when guests were in the building.

“So, that girl…she’s gotten under your skin pretty quickly.” Grimm noted.

“Yeah…that’s Fiona.” Tails sighed, taking off most of his clothes so he could switch into his uniform. “It’s a long story, but to make it short, she was imprisoned by Eggman back in the day, and Sonic left her behind. She grew resentment for us, even though we did what we could to patch things up. I even hate to admit it, but…I had a crush on her when I was younger. You can probably guess how that went, especially after she decided to be with an evil version of Sonic named Scourge. Some try hard who wants to look cool and do whatever he wants.”

“That does sound problematic.” A new voice spoke up, making Tails pause before looking around. It was just him in the room, because he didn’t see anyone else.

“Who…who is that?” He asked.

“Aw come on, don’t tell me you forgot the voice who helped you out while you were looping in that basement!” The voice chuckled softly before it finally clicked.

“Hero!” Tails smiled.

“My god, how did you get here? I thought you were just a part of the weird coma princess dream.” Grimm commented.

“I’m not entirely sure. I feel like I’ve just come into consciousness.”

“Are the others here too?” Tails asked, a little worried about what the answer could be.

“No, as far as I know, it’s just me. Of course, the others are probably dormant at the moment…and I’m assuming neither of you remember what the princess looks like, right?” He questioned, getting a sigh from Tails.

“No.” He answered. “Alright, now I’m gonna have to be real careful when it comes to talking with you guys…people might think I have schizophrenia.”

“As if your last few experiences hasn’t already pushed you there.” Grimm commented.

“Don’t worry, Tails. We’ll make sure to keep chattering to a minimum…I mean, to be fair, I can’t really do the things Grimm can to make himself known to people around us.”

“Hey now, give me credit, I at least act out whenever someone is threatening us.” Grimm argued with a huff. “Actually, I don’t know if I can interact with anyone unless I have full control.”

“We’ll figure that out someday, don’t worry…” Tails said, putting on the pants and dress shoes before buttoning up his suit, which was a dark purple color. “Actually, now that you’re here, Hero…would you like a new name?”

“A new name?” The voice of the hero questioned.

“Sure. I mean, getting referred to as just Hero would probably be old after a while, right?” He asked, placing his new hat on top of his head. “How about…Harold?”

“Harold…I like it!”

“Harold it is, then.” Grimm said proudly.

“Alright…” Tails smiled, looking at himself in the full body mirror, adjusting his tie. “Let’s do this.” He left the room, closing the door behind him. He’d have to pick up his clothes by the end of the shift. He looked to his side, seeing Fiona leaving her room as well, the uniform fitting her well enough.

“Looking good, guys!” Mary smiled at the two. “Now, all show you two around, and you can relax for a bit. Once the clock hits midnight, make sure to be in the office. The store owner will call you and let you know what needs to be done during your shift.” She motioned the two to follow her, and without saying a word, they stayed close. She showed them around the building, showing the kitchen, the prize counter, the arcade and the large playground. She also showed them the service tunnels that were used to carry in and out supplies and arcade games. Finally, at the end of it, she showed them the piece de resistance. She opened the doors to the showroom, which was as lit as the rest of the pizza place. There were several curtains in the room, one large curtain on the main stage, and two curtains on two smaller stages on the far wall.

“And here, we have the star attractions of the whole pizzeria!” Mary grinned, a little excited to show off the stars. Gripping the lever on the wall by the main stage, she pulled it down, and the curtains pulled back. Standing still on the stage were three animatronics.

The first one, taking center stage, was the face of the restaurant itself, Alex Kidd. He was pretty short compared to the others, even a little shorter than Fiona, standing at about four feet tall. He had big ears, brunette hair and blue eyes, and wore a red and yellow jumpsuit, a black bowtie and matching tophat, and in his right hand was a microphone. On his left was a short bald guy animatronic wearing a blue shirt, black pants and sunglasses, and was sitting at a drumset, sticks in his hands. To Kidd’s right was a taller bald guy wearing red, black pants and sunglasses, but holding a guitar.

“Meet Alex Kidd! The young, preppy leader of the band! To his sides are the Bonanza Bros., Mike and Spike!” She pointed to the red one, then the blue one to make sure there weren’t any mix ups. The two foxes stared at the animatronics while Mary worked on opening up the other curtains. They looked a little worn out, and…dear chaos, what was that smell?!

“And over here…” Mary paused as the first curtain is pulled back, revealing two other animatronics. One was a red creature with three legs, long stalky eyes and no mouth, wearing white gloves, a white hat, tennis shoes and a gold chain, and the other was a big chubby orange alien wearing sunglasses, only wearing sneakers and blue boxers with red dots on it. “We have Toejam and Earl, the hip hop duo from outer space!”

“You know, we’re adults, you don’t have to hype us up.” Fiona commented, making Mary flinch a little.

“Aw, come on, she’s just excited to show us newbies the characters, let her have some fun.” Tails crossed his arms at Fiona before smiling at Mary, gesturing to her to continue. The hedgehog’s tail wagged before she moved onto the final curtain, opening it up before them. The last stage was set up almost like a puppet show, and standing on the makeshift stage was a little yellow puppet-like character, who wore a red jumpsuit with a white bowtie. He was resting against the back wall, eyes closed as if he was sleeping.

“And this little guy is Dynamite Headdy! He doesn’t play much with the others, he just likes to do his own shows for everybody. And that’s about it!” She smiled before clapping her hands together. I’ll let you guys relax for a bit, get a lay out of the pizzeria, and once midnight comes around, head to the back for the security office. You two have a good night!” She smiled before leaving the showroom, grabbing her bag before exiting the pizzeria.

“...You know, it just dawned on me now, but what kind of pizza place needs security guards?” Fiona asked, raising a brow.

“You got me.” Tails shrugged, looking at the other fox. “Guess the pizza is just that good.”

“Bullshit, I’ve had a slice from one of these kinds of places before and they’re greasy as hell.” She said as they left the showroom. Looking to the clock that was displayed above the prize counter, it was eleven thirty, so they had about thirty minutes before their shift actually started. So, they sat down at one of the many empty tables. There was some awkward silence between the two for a moment, but, Tails, out of curiosity, decided to break the ice with his own questions.

“So…you and Scourge still a thing?” He asked, looking up at her, seeing she was on her phone. She stopped, shooting him a look.

“No. And I don’t really want to talk about it.” She said before going back to the phone.

“Bad fallout?”

“…Pretty much.” She shrugged. Tails awkwardly tapped his fingers against the table. This catching up thing wasn’t going as well as he thought it would, especially with her being so closed off.

“…So, you really don’t remember your time in Green Hill?” She questioned, surprising him that she was bringing it up again.

“No…not a single thing. The only thing I remember was having to kill a guy who was trying to kill me first, and meeting my wife Kiera for the first time there. Maybe I was trying to come to terms with murdering Eggman, but I don’t know. The most Sonic and the others told me was that it had something to do with this girl who’s been hanging around Cream lately.”

“A girl?” She asked, looking up from her phone.

“Yeah, hold on.” He stood up and went back to the changing room, quickly coming back with his phone. “The most I know is that her name is Cosmo, and…that’s it. Aside from that, I don’t know anything about her, other than the fact that the others think she’s a big deal or was a big deal in my life previously.” He sat down; pulling up the image of the picture he scanned into his computer, of him and all of his friends having a party on the Blue Typhoon, showing it to Fiona. The red Fox saw the Seedrian who stood next to him, smiling warmly at the camera. “Apparently, she died and came back to life while I was in my coma, but…I don’t remember meeting her. Maybe it was the Devil’s Chaos messing with my mind while I was out, but…no matter how much I try, I can’t remember anything…”

Tails brought his phone back, staring at the image intently, as if trying to look for something he missed. Fiona still found it hard to believe, but given the look on his face, she could tell this had been bugging him for a while now. After about half an hour, the two picked up the sound of a phone ringing in the security office. Realizing they had lost track of time, the two jumped up and rushed for the office before the phone hit the last dial, and Tails picked up the phone.

“Y’ello, Alex Kidd’s Pizza Palace.” He greeted, his right ear twitching.

“Hello. Is this Mr. Plier?”

“Yes sir, may I ask who’s calling?”

“This is the store owner. Could you put me on speaker, please?” He asked. Tails nodded, pressing a button on the phone so the owner’s voice could be played through the speaker. “Hello? Can you both hear me?”

“Yes, sir.” The two of them answered.

“Okay, good. My name is Wilfred Wolfgang. As I said, I am the owner of the store. Now, I need you two to do me a favor. Do you see the circuit breaker behind you?” He asked, getting the two to look at the back wall of the slightly cramped office. It was then that they had a good look at the office itself. There was a camera system on the desk before them, on their left and right were two doors, two buttons next to them each, a speaker next to the door on the left, and the breaker itself on the back wall.

“Yes, we’re looking at it right now.” Fiona answered.

“Okay. I need you to pull the lever. Most of the power in the place will go to your office, but it won’t plunge the building into complete darkness.”

“Really? Why would we need power for just the office?” Tails asked.

“Trust me…you will need it.” The two foxes looked at each other and shrugged before Fiona flipped the switch as told. They could hear a low hum as the power in the building fades. Tails looked into the halls, noticing how dim the whole building was now, saved for a few colorful lights coming from certain areas. “Alright. Even though it’s dim, you guys should be able to make your way around the place relatively easy. First things first, there is a few things I need you guys to do before the end of your shift every night. Firstly, the floors need to be mopped and the carpets need to be vacuumed. Tables, the counters and the bathrooms need to be cleaned too.”

“Woah, woah, woah, hold on…” Fiona spoke up. “I thought we were just supposed to be watching over the place.”

“I’m afraid I’ve had to let some staff go.  In fact,  this restaurant won’t last that long. I plan on closing this place down by the end of the week. I’ll warn you two now, the animatronics do tend to get a little…quirky at night. Now that the breaker has been switched, they might turn on in the middle of your shift. Basically it’s to help keep their servers locking up if they’re turned on for too long. If they do turn on, they will wander around a bit, but there is a catch to it. The real risk you two are going to run here, if they see you and recognize you’re here after hours, they probably won’t recognize you as staff members. They’ll recognize you as metal endoskeletons without their costumes on, and because that’s against the rules here, they’ll more than likely try to…force you inside one of the suits in the parts and service rooms near the service tunnels.”

“That…doesn’t sound so bad?” Tails questioned.

“It wouldn’t be, aside from the suits being filled with cross beams, wires and animatronic devices, especially around the facial areas…to be blunt, the only things that will see the light of day from you again if you get caught would be your eyes and teeth popping out of the mask. You shouldn’t have to worry too much, though, they do tend to be pretty relaxed on the first night for guards. If they do come around the office, just press the buttons next to the doors. One will turn on the lights to illuminate the blind spots in the cameras, and the other will close the doors.”

Curiously, Fiona looked at the buttons in question and pressed the big red button. A large metal door came crashing down, making her flinch at how loud it was. Pressing it again, the door went up.

“But yeah, first night should be a breeze, I’ll chat with you guys tomorrow. Remember to check the cameras and clean the place up, and make sure to close the doors only if necessary. We need to conserve power. You two have a good night.” With that, Mr. Wolfgang hung up the phone, leaving Tails to slowly put the phone back on the receiver.

“Well…that’s great. Killer animatronics.” Tails sighed, rubbing his face. He knew there had to be a bigger catch than working with Fiona, there just had to be one.

“Oh come on, it can’t be real.” Fiona rolled her eyes. “You know how rumors start. Unless these things start to actually move on their own, I’m not buying it for a damn second.” Hearing her ‘reassurance’, Tails sighed.

“Right. You’re right…we should probably get started on the list then. What do you want to take care of first?”

“How about I take care of the carpets in the main floor and showroom, and you start on the bathrooms?”

“Sounds fine to me.” He shrugged. Finding the supply closet right outside of their little office, the two got to work. Tails began scrubbing the toilets themselves first, while Fiona vacuumed the carpets at the arcade, a few cars shining their lights in the windows as they drove by. It was a pretty slow evening, as the hours slowly ticked by. Tails finished cleaning the bathrooms around three in the morning. He was ready to head back to the office and just relax for the night.

Then, the lights in the building began to flicker rapidly, humming loudly above him and were getting louder with each passing second. And they all suddenly stopped. Then, music began to play, the loudspeakers in the building humming to life.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!” Spoke a deep male voice. “The Alex Kidd Fun Times hour is about to begin in just a few moments! Gather your pizza and get ready to play with Alex and the gang!”

“…Tails, you heard that too, right?” Fiona’s voice crackled over the walkie talkie on his belt. He grabbed it and pushed the button down.

“Yeah…kinda hard not to hear that.” He answered, stepping out into the hall. Once he got to the main arcade room, he saw Fiona, staring at the door to the showroom. The two looked at each other and stepped inside, the spotlights were spinning around, and a drumroll could be heard.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please, put your hands together for the one, the only, Alex Kidd!” A recorded applause played as the animatronics woke up, looking around, waving and laughing or cheering themselves.

“Hey everybody! Welcome to Alex Kidd’s Pizza Palace! As always, I’m Alex, and I’m here with all my pals! We’re looking forward to have a great time with you!”

“I’m more looking forward to getting out of this dump!” Mike sighed, shaking his head.

“Aw come on, bro, it isn’t that bad! It sure beats the heck out of robbing places like we always do.” Spike chuckled. “Plus, we get free pizzas after every show!”

“Yo, don’t be inhalin’ all the pepperoni like you usually do, Spike.” ToeJam spoke up, looking to his companion, Earl, who chuckled.

“Yeah, you’re gonna get a wicked bad stomach ache from that, man.” The chubby orange alien laughed.

“Hey, would you guys keep it down?! I’m trying to get my beauty sleep before the show starts!” Dynamite Headdy huffed, looking between the two stages, focusing his eyes on Tails.

“But Headdy, the show’s already started!” Mike pointed out.

“I meant my show, numb nuts!”

“Don’t worry, Headdy, you’ll get your time to shine today, I promise!” Alex said. “Now, let’s get things starte-e-e-e-“

The animatronic glitched out and the lights began to flicker again before they all suddenly stopped. After a moment, their eyes began to glow, turning a deep red color as they lifted their heads, staring at the two foxes. Earl made the first move, lifting his left leg before stepping off the stage.

“Shit…” Tails, thinking on his feet, grabbed Fiona’s wrist and dragged her for the security office. As they ran, Fiona looked behind her, seeing the massive alien robot charging at them, getting faster, his feet stomping against the floor. Once Fiona was past the door, Tails slammed his palm against the red button and the blast door fell, blocking Earl from getting to them, making him pound his hands against the door in retaliation. After counting ten pounds, Tails noticed it stopped, and he heard the robot stomping away. Curiously, he opened the door, just to see he was gone.

“Fuck…fuck, okay…this…this is really happening.” He heard Fiona’s voice behind him, and when he turned to look at her, he could see she was starting to hyperventilate. She was sweating, trembling and looked to be on the verge of passing out. This was more than fear…she was close to having a panic attack. “W-What are we going to do?!”

“Fiona.” Tails spoke to get her attention.

“We’re stuck in this little shitting room and they can pinch us in here till the power goes out!”

“Fiona.” Tails repeated.

“Are we going to die?!”

“Fiona.” He spoke louder, but this time, while keeping a calm tone, he took her paws in his own, getting her to focus on him. “List of five things in this office you can see.”

“H…Huh?”

“Tell me five things in this office you can see…It doesn’t matter what, just name me five things.” He repeated. Her eyes started to dart around the room, trying to focus on anything in particular.

“Th…The clock. The door behind you…you…the desk…and the security system on the desk.”

“Good…now, tell me a few things you can smell…”

“S-Smell? Uh…the pizza…the cleaning products we’ve been using…you.”

“Me?” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “And what do I smell like?”

“…Mint. Just like you did back when we were younger.”

“Alright. Now, I want you to take a few deep breaths for me, in through the nose, and out through the mouth, while I check the cameras.” She quietly nodded and began to take deep breaths as he told her to do. He watched the cameras, seeing Earl had made his way back to the arcade floor and was looking around.

“Okay. Okay, we’re safe for now.” He said before looking at her, gently taking her hand again. “I need you to listen to me. We are going to make it out of this, but I need you to focus…I need you to be ready to close the doors if they try anything. I promise, if you do as I say, we will see the light of day in two and a half hours. Okay?”

“...O-Okay.” She nodded, taking one more deep breath, closing her eyes before looking to the door behind her.

“You take that door, and I’ll take this door.” He said, pointing his thumb to the door behind him. With a nod, he and Fiona sat down at the computer, watching the cameras intently. Hours passed and the only ones that were moving around were ToeJam and Earl, and they were relatively slow, compared to how fast Earl was moving earlier. The cameras would glitch every now and then, indicating that the characters were moving. Tails picked up that they had a certain movement pattern. Earl not only went down the right hallway that he chased them down, but he took the arcade and the parts and service room, while ToeJam wandered around the party room, the bathrooms, the service tunnels, then down the left hallway that Fiona had to guard. They seemed to have a pattern, after making trips to certain areas, they began down the halls, and when they showed up at the doors, the foxes would shut the doors. Soon, everything came to an end, the clock chiming loudly to let the two know that they had finally reached six A.M., and their shift was finally over. Peaking their heads into the hall, they saw that the animatronics were gone, and once they checked out the showroom, they saw the characters had returned.

“Good morning!” Mary called, opening the front door, seeing the two foxes turn to look at her. “So, how did it go?”

“How did it go?!” Fiona repeated, a little snippy. “We could’ve been killed by these things!”

“Yeah…sadly we’ve been losing security guards left and right because of that. But hey, you guys did great! The place looks spotless! I’m going to open up, I’ll see you guys later tonight!” She smiled, and with a hum, made her way back to the main office. Tails and Fiona share a glance at each other before returning to the dressing room to get back in their regular clothes before returning to the front door, making their way to their vehicles.

“So. Same time tomorrow?” Tails asked. Fiona looked at him and sighed.

“I do need the money, so…yeah…same time tomorrow.” She said, putting her helmet on before revving the engine and drove off. Tails watched her, crossing his arms before tapping his finger against his arm, the sun rising in the distance.

“What is it, Tails?” Harold asked.

“Something feels…different about her.” He said before getting in his car. “I’m not sure how to explain it, and…sure, it’s been years since I last saw her, but I don’t remember her ever freezing up or having a panic attack before.” As he started up the car, he looked back at the windows. He could see the show room, and Alex was staring at him from the window. He stared back at the animatronic, as if it was ready for round two tomorrow night. He took a deep breath, started his engine, and began the drive back home.

Chapter Text

Ruby sat up in her bed, yawning tiredly as she rubbed her eyes. It was early in the morning, about six thirty, and when she looked out the window, she saw her dad pulling into the driveway, so with a smile, she quickly got dressed and went downstairs to go greet him. She ran up to him, excitedly, not noticing the tired look on his face, but when she hugged his leg, it melted away, turning into a smile as he reached down and rubbed his head. He picked her up and carried her over to the couch before sitting down.

“How was work, dad?” She asked. “Is it true that the characters are alive?” He looked at her, a little surprised by her question. Seems word spreads around fast in this town.

“Oh, it’s true alright. Definitely gave me and my coworker a fright.” He chuckled a bit, just as Kiera stepped into the room.

“Wait, it’s real? I was joking!” She feigned annoyance, shaking her head. Ruby smiled before deciding to go to the kitchen to get herself some breakfast. The two watched her go, smiling before looking at each other, their smiles turned to concern. “Are you sure you should keep working there?” 

“I don’t want to, but I’ll at the very least work this week and get the paycheck, then find something else. After everything this last year, I’ll be damned if I go out because of some children entertaining robots.” That comment got a chuckle out of Kiera, and she reached down to grab his hand, rubbing her thumb against the ring on his ring finger.

“So will I. I’ll be mad at you if you die because of those things and not the city full of serial killers.”

“What, you have a tier list on what is or isn’t the best way to go out?” He smirked a little.

“You know it. I’ll have to add animatronics on it sometime…Definitely a C tier.” She chuckled a bit, patting his shoulder before going to cook some breakfast for them. Tails just smiled and sat back, relaxing on the couch while turning the tv on. After a bit, he saw Ruby walking into the room to put her shoes on.

“Heading out to play, sweetie?” He asked, watching her put her shoes on.

“Yep! Gonna see if my new friends are up!” She responded, smiling up at him.

“Alright, just be safe, okay? Stay with them so you don’t get lost if you decide to check out the town.”

“Okay, dad!” She nodded before going outside, closing the door behind her. Once she was outside, she scanned the area around her, spotting Bonnie and Foxy on the other side of the street, heading for Freddy’s house. Bonnie noticed her first and waved to her.

“Mornin’ Ruby!” He called to her, which got Foxy to look over and see her too.

“Hey, Ruby.” He greeted, watching her cross the street to join them.

“Hi guys!” She smiled at them as they continued on their way over to Freddy’s house. “So, are we watching Mr. WolfGang again?”

“Yeah!” Foxy nodded. “After yesterday, you managing to find those files was a big help, so now we’re a little more confident in pinning the mysterious disappearances on this guy!”

“We just gotta keep tailin’ him!” Bonnie added. “And I bet by the end of the week, we’ll have everything we need!” The trio made their way to Freddy’s house, seeing the bear already going up to the treehouse with Chica following behind him. He poked his head out the window once he was inside and saw the three approaching.

“Morning, soldiers!” He greeted them, watching them climb the ladder.

“Heya, Freddy!” Bonnie waved, entering the clubhouse first with Ruby and Foxy following close behind.

“So, what’s the plan today?” Ruby asked as everyone gathered around, sitting on their bean bag chairs as Freddy steps in front of the master plan wall, which he had come up with after he had got home from yesterday’s snooping.

“Easy!” He said, grabbing his laser pointer, pointing it at the part that said Tuesday. “We’re gonna keep following Mr. Wolfgang around! As long as we keep tagging close to him, seeing what he’s up to, and continue to gather evidence…” He paused, picking up an Alex Kidd themed camera. “We can report him and stop him from doing whatever it is he’s trying to do! We can find those missing kids and put him behind bars!”

“Yeah, without him catching us.” Chica commented. “Like all the other times he caught you trying to sneak into his house…”

“That explains the bear traps in his front yard.” Ruby said, looking out the window to Mr. WolfGang’s house.

“Yeah…I was so close to getting into the basement last time too, but that’s when he got that keycard system installed!”

“We know he hides the card somewhere upstairs, but trying to get in has been really problematic for us, especially with him boarding up the doors and windows.” Foxy explained.

“The only entrances for us he hasn’t blocked off are the windows upstairs and the back door, but that’s because he has a security camera by the back door, and we can’t even reach the top floor without something to climb on. And we can’t really ask our parents to let us borrow a ladder.” Chica shook her head.

“Not only that, but he always keeps the keys on him when he leaves the house so we can’t just go over there, bust in and break into the basement while he’s away.” Freddy said, looking back to his plan. “So, we’ll have to deal with that on Friday when he decides to stay home. It’ll be risky, but now that we know you can climb on walls, we have our in!”

“We still gotta be careful! He’s gotta have cameras and stuff everywhere!” Bonnie said, watching Chica go to the spyglass to watch Mr. WolfGang’s home.

“Then we’ll just have to be careful. For now, the plan is to follow and document him.” Freddy said, as the others nodded their heads.

“Oh! Freddy! He’s on the move!” Chica said, pointing out the window. Everyone rushed over to see the old wolf getting in his car again.

“Alright, everybody! To the department store!” Freddy said, climbing down the tree.

“But how are we supposed to keep up with him?” Ruby asked. “By the time we get there, he’ll probably be leaving!”

“It’s a small town.” Foxy pointed out. “A place where everybody knows everybody. We should be able to get there while he’s shopping and peek at what he’s actually buying!”

“Exactly! We’ll be in and out, really quick like, but I’ll buy us snacks so we don’t look suspicious and get ourselves kicked out.” Freddy explained while everyone followed close behind. It almost took them almost as long as it took to get to the school as it did to the department store. They stopped just outside of the department store, seeing Mr. WolfGang’s car was parked outside.

The five went inside, looking up at the tall interior. The place was like a miniature mall. Thankfully, Mr. Wolfgang wasn’t too hard to spot, as he was heading right for the hardware area. Freddy nodded to Foxy, who nodded back and followed the older wolf. He saw him buying the usual things; nails, boards, more bear traps. But there were a few things that were new being put into Mr. Wolfgang’s shopping cart. Wicks, empty bottles, matches and a fuel canister. He raised a brow, what exactly was the old wolf doing with this stuff? He noticed Wolfgang pause before turning his head to look behind him, and Freddy quickly hid behind the shelf, cupping a paw to his mouth to keep his breathing quiet. After a moment, he poked his head around the corner to see Wolfgang had continued to pick things out, like ropes and screws. Quietly, Freddy snuck away, stopping at the counter to get a few treats for him and his friends. A chocolate bar for him, a ring pop for Chica, some skittles for Bonnie and a bag of chips for Foxy, which happened to be his favorite flavor, barbeque. He also grabbed a second chocolate bar for Ruby before paying for it, and returned to the others who were hanging around in the food court. They were lucky to be leaving, because when he looked back, he saw Mr. Wolfgang exiting the store with a few bags filled with equipment, and he was staring at the young bear and his friends.

The group hurried their way back to their base, thankfully able to get to the treehouse before WolfGang pulled up to the street.

“So wait…” Bonnie panted, looking over his shoulder to make sure the old wolf didn’t see them. “He was buying bottles, wicks and a jerry can?”

“That’s essentially it.” Freddy said before he started to climb into the treehouse, with everyone else following behind.

“Now why on earth would he want that stuff?” Chica asked, watching the bear hand out the candy to everybody.

“Maybe he’s looking to burn some evidence.” Foxy suggested before opening his bag of chips. While munching on her chocolate bar, Ruby started looking at the art wall again, before her eyes rested on a table that had a stack of papers, pencils, crayons and staples. Laying on the center of the table was a cover for a comic book. The title read, ‘Tales Of the Pizza Palace!’, and it appeared to be the third issue. These guys must like making comics. The character on the front really drew her eyes, and the subtitle of the comic clued her in on who it was. ‘The Adventures of Earthworm Jim!’, the subtitle read, with blurbs on the side that said, ‘Action’, ‘Thrills’, and ‘Laffs!’. ‘GUH-ROOVY!’ The earthworm exclaimed, riding on what looked like a mini turbine ripped off of a jet airplane.

“Hey, who’s this guy?” She asked, picking the comic book up and showing it to the others.

“Oh, that’s Earthworm Jim!” Bonnie smiled, pointing at the comic. “He was one of the other characters that were shown at the pizza palace, but after all the weird stuff started to happen, him and a few others were deactivated because they went crazy!”

“I heard you can actually hear him sometimes if you’re near the service tunnels.” Foxy said, taking the comic out of Ruby’s hand, looking at the cover. “We really do need to get around to finishing this issue.”

“We’ve actually made a few comics based on characters that are out of order. My favorite will always be Vectorman!” Chica says, holding up one of the other comics that had a robot made entirely of green orbs, firing energy balls out of his hand.

“Oh! Guys! What if we finish the comic now? Ruby can help us out!” Freddy smiled, deciding to sit down at the table. Everyone seemed on board with the idea and gathered around, taking some paper and pens, talking about what bad guys should be in it, what should happen, what catchphrase Earthworm Jim should say, and as the hours passed, the pages were placed, and stapled together. After roughly three hours of work, the comic was done.

“Man, I can’t wait to get copies of this out to the playground!” Freddy smiled as everyone gathered around to read the comic, mostly chattering their favorite parts about it.

“We should’ve done an origin story a long time ago.” Foxy chuckled.

“Yeah! Like, first!” Bonnie grinned.  

“I wish they would figure out what’s going on with the characters so they can bring them back. I miss Jim!” Chica hummed.

“What was his part of the show like?” Ruby asked.

“Oh, it was really cool! Little spaceships would drop from the ceiling and he’d aim his blaster at them, shout, ‘Eat dirt, nefarious space invaders!’ and fire at them! It was so cool!” Bonnie said, his cotton tail wagging behind him.

“Tomorrow, depending on when we’re done keeping an eye on Mr. Wolfgang, we’re gonna start working on another one.” Freddy said. “The revenge of Polterguy!”

“Polterguy?” Ruby tilted her head.

“Oh, we gotta tell this girl about the characters.” Foxy grinned, going to check out some other comics they had made when the Pizza Palace was popular. There were comics based on characters like Polterguy, Earthworm Jim, Ristar, a boy who would sit on a giant egg named Billy, a reporter for Space Channel 5 named Ulala, who mostly appears on the screen and doesn’t have an animatronic, a music loving monkey named Samba that had what was called the ‘Samba’ hour, where everyone was allowed to get up and dance, and finally, a character that only showed up during the late hours, but vanished shortly after all of these strange occurrences began to occur, a strange creature named NIGHTS.

“Wow…that’s a lot of characters for one place!” Ruby shook her head in disbelief, unable to process it all at once.

“Yeah. The only one that’s still around is Ulala, but that’s because she only has to appear on the screens.” Freddy explained. “The others were too dangerous to keep active, at least, that’s what Mr. Wolfgang claims.” Hearing this, Ruby tapped a finger to her chin before looking out the window that faced Mr. Wolfgang’s house. What was really going on with this guy and his restaurant?

That night, around eleven thirty, Tails and Fiona were already sitting in the main arcade of the pizza palace. Mary had already gone home once they showed up, so they had the place to themselves until midnight came around. Fiona was on her phone, but Tails could see she was still a little on edge, especially after last night's scare. He figured it’d be best not to push buttons right now, because a rift between them would make their situation worse. Her tapping feet echoed in the empty building as she scrolled through her phone, leaving Tails to just blankly stare into space until it was either time to go to work, or if she decided to break the silence.

“Hey.” She spoke up, snapping him out of his trance to make him look over at her. “About last night, I just…ugh, I’m never good at these sorts of things but…thank you for helping me last night. If it was just me, I probably would’ve been killed by those things. I tend to struggle when it comes to having anxiety…”

“Oh, it’s…no problem.” He said with a shrug. “Honestly, I didn’t expect you to be the kind of person who actually suffers from that sort of thing. Did something happen to originally trigger it?”

“I appreciate the concern, but…I still don’t want to talk about it. I just want to get through this week, hopefully survive, and get that paycheck.”

“...Understandable.” Tails put his hand on the table, looking up at the clock. There was still a lot of time left, and the most he could think to do was just sit quietly and wait for the phone call. Once it was close to five till midnight, the two made their way back, waiting for the phone to ring. Once it did, Tails picked it up, and placed the caller on speaker.

“Good evening, you two.” Mr. Wolfgang’s voice spoke. “I’m just going to cut right to the chase, because Alex and his friends tend to get more aggressive as the week continues. Tonight’s task is relatively simple. There is a room in the service tunnels that hold the inventory. I sat a list of the things I need one of you to take count of for tomorrow, make sure nothing is missing, that sort of deal. In fact, it might be a good idea to peek at the cameras while I talk, just to make sure everybody’s in their proper area. I’m sure you’ve probably already had a run in with T.J. and Earl.”

“Yeah, no shit…” Fiona muttered under her breath, making Tails roll his eyes.

“Although, funny enough, Alex himself doesn’t tend to come off his stage very often. He becomes a lot more active in the dark, so hey, there’s another reason not to run out of power. It’ll be wiser, and safer if one of you stays in the security office while the other tends to inventory.” With that tidbit, Tails and Fiona checked their pockets before Tails pulled out a quarter, held up one finger for heads, two for tails, and Fiona held up two fingers. Tails flipped the coin a few times, and Fiona ended up winning two out of three. She stuck her tongue out at him, making him frown a little bit before he grabbed a flashlight and the clipboard from the drawer and stepped into the hall, looking around to make sure it was safe.

“Now, concerning your safety again…” Mr. Wolfgang continued. “I need to stress the importance of your door lights. There are blindspots in your camera views and they happen to be right outside your doors. So if you can’t find anybody on the cameras, check your doors. Also, make sure to keep an eye on Mike and Spike from time to time. They’re a little odd. Mike tends to get agitated whenever you don’t focus the camera on him long enough, and Spike will get agitated if you do focus on them for too long. If either of them leave the stage, Mike will go to the door on your right, and Spike will go to the door on the left. I think that’s it for the night…so, you two have a good night, and I’ll talk to you again tomorrow night if you choose to come back. Goodnight.” He said before hanging up. Fiona turned the camera feed on and checked on the show room. Earl was already on the move, already stepping out of the camera's view.

“Hopefully Tails finishes that inventory list fast…” She said to herself before turning the camera off to conserve some of the power for the office.

Tails shined his light down the curving maze of the service tunnels. It made him wonder how many kids must’ve stumbled back here by mistake and have gotten themselves lost in this ugly corridor of muted browns and beige. He stopped himself from walking past a door labeled ‘inventory’, and he walked in. He shined his light through the room, surprised to see how large it was, filled with shelves, items and animatronic parts. He shined a light on a few of the shelves, spotting a row of green orbs and a matching helmet resting on it. Judging by the helmet and two of the orbs were shaped like hands, this was a retired character. In one corner of the room, resting against the wall, was another character. It looked like a worm character inside a space suit. He shook his head and looked at the list. First up was party plates.

“Okay, simple enough…” He said, walking to the back wall of the massive room.

“Can we turn on the light? I feel the hunger setting in…” Grimm groaned.

“We can’t, we already flipped the power.” Harold said.

“So all we have to rely on is this crap flashlight…”

“Afraid so, ol’ chum. Just hold on, and we’ll be out of this room soon.”

As the two talked, Tails checked on the supplies, counting the paper plates and the party hats, napkins, the usual stuff. Just then, he heard what sounded like a pot hit the floor and he turned around, shining the light behind him. There was nothing there, but he saw a pot spinning before stopping. His eyes shift around, a touch of paranoia hitting him before he turns around to continue the inventory check. Cleaning supplies, pots, including the one that dropped on the floor which he picked up, pans, ingredients to make pizzas, then suddenly, something else dropped with a loud thump. Looking behind him, he saw a pizza box laying on the floor behind him. He shined the light around the room, but couldn’t see anything else.

“Just focus on the task, Tails. You’re not even halfway through the list.” Harold said.

“Hmm…” Tails furrowed his brow but went back to the shelves. More napkins, more party hats, toys, tickets, tokens…why would such a small place need so much stuff, especially if it’s going out of business? Coupon holders, repair kits for the arcade games, pizza cutters, bowls…there was one more crash right behind him. When he turned around, he saw one of the shelves were knocked over, right before two eyes began to illuminate, bathing him in a white light.

“F-Fuck!” He shouted, taking a stap back while shining his light over the towering Earthworm animatronic.

“Guh-gu-gu-gu-guh-ROOVY!” It shouted before grabbing it’s head and pulled it out of the suit. Tails watched it carefully, seeing it arch its arm back and tried to wack him with its own head like a whip. The fox yelped and ducked down before rushing to his left.

“EAT DIRT, NEFARIOUS EARTH INVADERS!” Jim cackled, continuing to whip in Tails’ direction, just barely missing him. The fox tried to get to the door, but one quick crack of Jim’s head whip caused a shelf to fall over and block his way out.

“Shit…okay…looks like we’re going to have to play dirty.” Tails growled, facing the animatronic while tossing the clipboard to the side. “Ready Grimm?”

“Ready…” Grimm snarled, his tendrils slithering their way out of Tails’ back to make themselves known to the animatronic. Jim laughed before cracking the whip again, but this time, one of the tendrils wrapped itself around Jim’s head and yanked him out of the suit’s grip before chucking it across the room. The animatronic rushed over to get it, giving Tails time to move the fallen shelf and get out of the room, grabbing the clipboard on the way out before running as fast as he could back to the security office. Suddenly, he lost his footing and tripped over something that wasn’t there before, and he fell to the floor. When he looked behind him, he saw Dynamite Headdy, snickering at him before flinging himself into the air vents. Once he was gone, the supply room door burst open, breaking off the hinges as if it were smashed by a battering ram. Jim stepped out of the supply room, looking around before spotting the fox on the floor.

“You-ou-ou got nowhere to run now, fox!” The animatronic laughed, grabbing his blaster while approaching Tails, his heavy footsteps echoing throughout the hall. Tails crawled backwards with his hands and feet, trying to get back to a stance so he could run, but he found himself tripping from losing his cool. The earthworm animatronic towered over him, aiming the blaster at the fox’s face, ready to fire. Tails held his arm up, ready to embrace himself, waiting for something to happen. When he realized he was fine, he lowered his arm, seeing a new character floating above him. They appeared to be a jester of sorts, dawning a uniform of whites, purples and reds, and they were holding a hand out to Jim, stopping the earthworm in his tracks. They looked at the fox, letting him see that they didn’t have a traditional jaw like the others did, just a smile drawn on his mask. They winked at him and pointed down the hall, as if to tell him to get back to the office before someone else shows up.

“Go on.” The animatronic said, making Tails tense up as he felt their voice echo in his head. “Your friend needs you.” Without any hesitation, he quickly got back up and ran down the hall.

“I wish I could go a few moments without a new voice in my damn head…” Tails groaned, rubbing his face out of exhaustion. By the time he got to the corner of the hall that had one of the doors to his office, he saw Spike standing at a closed door, banging on it. His eyes widened and he slowly snuck around the animatronic, knowing he’d have to work his way to the opposite side to even have a chance to get back in the office. Sneaking into the party room, Tails hugged against the wall and poked his head down the opposite side. I frowned, seeing ToeJam was camping the other door, more than likely draining the power from the office with Spike’s help. Tails had to think of something, and he looked around the floor.

At his feet was an empty soda can. He just had to lure the animatronic away from the door, and he could make a break for it. He gingerly picked the can up, aimed carefully at ToeJam, and threw the can, making it land by the red alien’s feet. He looked down at the floor, seeing the can by his foot, only to look up when he heard Tails’ whistle.

“Over here, T.J.!” He called, waving out to him before dashing into the arcade. Toejam lumbered his body to face the hall and began to walk down it, giving chase to the two tailed fox. Tails stayed behind a few arcade cabinets, knowing all he had to do was wait for ToeJam to get into the room, then make a break for the security office. He could hear both doors to the security room open, and judging by the sets of heavy footsteps, Spike was on his way too. He crouched down, looking at the door ToeJam entered the room from, watching him carefully. He counted down in his head. Three…two…one…suddenly, the sound of spotlights firing up, threw him off guard, and looking around, he saw a stage he didn’t remember being there before in a more open area of the arcade. It was covered in a dense staged fog, and once it started to dissipate, he saw another character standing in the center of the stage, the curtain closed behind him. A monkey with a sombrero and maracas in his hands. He had a big grin on his face, and he was spinning the maracas in his hand before using one of them to lift his hat up so he could make eye contact with Tails.

“Hola, amigos!” The monkey greeted, his eyes illuminating as he spoke. “Put on your best pair of dancing shoes, because the Samba Hour is about to begin!”

“He-hey, look at that! Samba’s back!” Alex Kidd called from the show room. Suddenly, the tv screens that were littered around the place began to turn on, revealing a woman with bright pink hair and what looked like a white space suit mixed with a cheerleader outfit.

“Samba! Sweetie, it’s good to see you again!” She greeted.

“Good to be back, Ulala, my beautiful space flower.” The monkey laughed before turning his attention to Tails, who was too distracted to notice ToeJam was right behind him. “As for you, I’m willing to cut you a deal!”

“A…deal?” Tails raised a brow, slowly standing up before the sound A sudden poke in the back of his head made him jump and turn around to face Toejam, taking a few steps back, ready to fight.

“Samba wants to see how good of a dancer you are, homie.” The red alien said, letting Tails take the maracas. “If you win, you and your gal back there can walk home free tonight. If you suck it up, well…you probably won’t get the chance.”

“D-Dance?!” He raised a brow. “But I can’t dance.” Hearing this, Samba could only chuckle.

“Well, I’ll make sure to make this quick then, amigo…” Samba tightened the grip on his maracas ready to throw one of them at the fox.

“Hold it!” Fiona pointed at the monkey, making Tails turn around to look at the vixen as she stopped and stood by his side. “If you’re going to throw a challenge at him, then you’ll have to give it to me, too!”

“Fiona…you sure?” Tails asked, looking surprised she was willing to stick up for him.

“Hey…you got a kid who needs you. I’m not letting you die because you have two left feet so she can grow up without a dad.” She said, smiling at him before turning her attention to Samba.

“You think you can do much better, eh, senorita? Hope you don’t run out of stamina!” He said, getting the other animatronics to laugh at the jab about her weight. “But hey, this should be fun for everybody! Why don’t we get this party started?!” The curtains open up, revealing a few more animatronic characters. One was a humanoid butterfly girl, a humanoid cat girl, a girl monkey and two cheetahs in suits, one playing guitar, and one on drums. Tails watched as Earthworm Jim, who had made his way from the back, made his way onto the stage, along with one more animatronic, who was riding on top of a giant egg and was wearing a funny looking chicken hat.

“Ready amigos?!” He called out, getting the characters to cheer, while Spike and Toejam returned to their posts. The band began to play, almost dancing to the music.

“Just follow the monkey’s lead…” Fiona said to Tails, nodding at him while watching the characters. As the music played, the arcade machines turned on and off to the rhythm of the music, the spotlights spun around, shining every inch of the darkened pizzeria, and Tails had to keep his eye on the monkey for most of the time, just so he didn’t flub anything up.

“Samba De Jeneiro!” Samba shouted, holding his maracas up, shaking them in beat to the song as he hopped around on stage. “Sempre assim! Em cima! Em cima, em cima, em cima! Sempre assim! Em baixo, em baixo, em baxio, em baxio! Sempre assim! Em cima! Em cima, em cima, em cima! Sempre assim! Em baixo, em baixo, em baxio, em baxio!”

“SAMBA!” Everyone shouted while the monkey lifted his maracas proudly in the air.

“Hoooooh, not bad amigos!” The monkey laughed, watching the two guards dancing along to the music. “You might just make it out of here! Let’s switch it up!”

“Heh! And here I thought you couldn’t dance!” Fiona smirked at the fox.

“I uh, I guess following the flow of the music is doing wonders for me!” Tails chuckled, taking a moment to rub the back of his head as the next song began to play through the speakers.

“Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena, que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena. Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena! Hey Macarena!” Samba sang as he continued to shake his maracas, watching the two guards follow his lead.

“AY!” Everyone shouted.

“Dale a tu cuerpo alegría Macarena, que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegría y cosa buena. Dale a tu cuerpo alegría, Macarena, hey Macarena!”

“AY!”

“Macarena tiene un novio que se llama, que se llama de apellido Vitorino. Y en la jura de bandera del muchacho. Se la dio con dos amigos!”

“AY!”

“Macarena tiene un novio que se llama! Que se llama de apellido Vitorino! Y en la jura de bandera del muchacho! Se la dio con dos amigos!”

“AY!”

Samba couldn’t help but laugh in excitement, watching as Fiona playfully hip bumped Tails, nearly knocking him into one of the arcade cabinets, and seeing the soft blush on the fox’s face had gotten a kick out of him.

“What, don’t tell me you like a girl with some meat on her.” Fiona smirked at Tails, who quickly regained his composure.

“Oh, shush, I wasn’t expecting you to hip check me like that.” Tails huffed, dusting himself off.

“Man! I haven’t had this much fun in months!” He laughed. “Okay, one more song, and you two can go Scott free tonight!” The two looked at each other, nodding as they were ready to finish this off. Samba shook his maracas three times before the next song began to play.

“She's into new sensations, new kicks in the candlelight. She's got a new addiction, for every day and night! She'll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain! She'll make you live her crazy life, but she'll take away your pain! Like a bullet to your brain!”

“Come on!” Everyone shouted. Fiona grabbed Tails arms, leading him in a tango like dance.

“Upside, inside out! She's livin' la vida loca! She'll push and pull you down, livin' la vida loca! Her lips are devil red, and her skin's the color mocha! She will wear you out, Livin' la vida loca! Come on! Livin' la vida loca! Come on! She's livin' la vida loca!” The music stopped and Tails, without realizing it, ended it by dipping Fiona, letting her rest her leg against his for leverage. The characters cheered for their performance, allowing them to bow and accept the applause.

“HAHA!” Samba cheered, shaking his maracas in ecstasy. “It’s been too long since I’ve seen a performance like that! Okay, you two are free to go back to your office and wait the rest of the night!”

“I say we’re letting them off too easily.” Mike shook his head.

“Maybe, but, come on, guys! How rare is it that not only one, but two night guards lasted this long to party with Samba and the others?” Alex argued, watching the two foxes run back to the office without any opposition. In just two hours, six o’ clock rolled around, indicating it was time for them to go home. They got dressed, and when they returned to the main floor, Samba, Jim, Ulala and the others had vanished. They didn’t even see them move around on the cameras. It was possible they would be back the next night, but they weren’t sure. Once Mary showed up to get the store ready for morning, they waved goodbye to her and stepped out to the parking lot, moving to their vehicles.

“Hey.” Tails spoke up, stopping Fiona from putting her helmet on. “Thanks again for helping me back there. I thought I was a goner there for sure.” She smiled softly at him, a chuckle escaping her.

“Consider it making us even for you saving me the other night. Anyways, I’ll see ya tomorrow night, fox boy.” She said before putting her helmet on, revved her motorcycle, and drove off. Tails couldn’t help but watch her, his namesakes wagging, a smile on his face while he unlocked his car.

“You’re developing feelings.” Harold spoke.

“W…what?” Tails blinked, as if snapping out of his train of thought.

“You’re falling for her!” Grimm backed up Harold’s quote.

“Wh…no. No way!” Tails said before getting into his car. “I’m a married man now. We went down the paths we chose, there’s no way we’re getting back together…no…no way.” He paused before looking down the road once more, seeing Fiona at the stop light. A feeling of confliction hit him as he sat the back of his head against the seat's headrest. Were old feelings starting to unearth themselves? He rubbed his hand against his face, thinking all of this over. He could either drop this job now and not risk finding out if this goes somewhere, but if he does that, he’s letting Fiona potentially die to animatronics.

“...Fuck.” He groaned under his breath before starting his car and drove out of the lot. Maybe some sleep will help him clear his mind.

Chapter Text

Ruby sat in the dining room, eating her morning cereal while reading the morning comics in the newspaper that Tails had brought inside when he had arrived home, while he and Kiera were working on breakfast for themselves. Once she finished, she got up and put her bowl next to the sink before going to get her shoes on.

“Playing with your friends again, sweetie?” Tails asked, looking into the living room.

“Yep! I’ll be back later!” She responded before sitting down on the couch to tie her shoes.

“Alright, have fun.” He smiled at her before going back to the kitchen. Her ear twitched as she picked up on their conversation while she tied her shoes.

“I’m glad she was able to find friends so quickly.” Kiera smiled softly.

“Me too.”  Tails replied. Just as Ruby was leaving the house, she picked something up that he said afterwards. “...Kiera, honey…have I ever told you about someone named Fiona Fox?” She closed the door, taking a few steps towards the sidewalk before stopping, looking back at the house, just barely seeing her father’s slight movements as he talked to her mother. It made her curious as to what they were talking about, and who Fiona Fox was. It had to be someone important if dad was willing to bring them up. Once she heard the front door to her neighbors door open and closed and she looked over to see the old wolf stepping off his porch. He stopped when he noticed her looking at her, and with a smile, tipped his hat to her, and once she waved back to him, he quietly got to his car and started it up. Once he drove off, Freddy and Chica rushed out from his backyard, quickly running up to join her.

“Hey! You okay?!” Freddy asked, a little panicked, having noticed the small interaction she had with the elder wolf.

“Yeah, I’m fine. He just waved hello to me before driving off.” She explained, watching the car carefully.

“In that case, we should probably start following! He always goes to the library early on Wednesday.“ Chica said, following Freddy down the street. Ruby looked back at her house one more time before following the others, catching up with Bonnie and Foxy who were already. Using a shortcut that took them between a few buildings, and after safely crossing the road once they were able to indicated by the walking white man, they had reached the library, just in time to see Mr. Wolfgang step inside.

“Okay, what are we looking out for today?” Ruby asked.

“When he goes into the library, he usually goes to the second floor, but vanishes right before we could see what he’s doing. I think there’s a secret passage!” Freddy explained, pointing to the window, spotting Mr. Wolfgang walking up the stairs.

“If we go in now, we might be able to catch him, but if not, we’ll be waiting a few hours for him to come back so we can snoop whatever it is he’s doing up there.” Foxy said.

“He goes in around eight in the morning and comes back out around twelve. So we gotta time this just right.” Bonnie explained.

“Leave it to me!” Ruby smiled, rubbing her hands together, ready to scale the walls once more. The group went inside, acting casual, making their way for the kids section. Freddy went to the comics, Bonnie started looking at the adventure novels, Chica started poking her beak around in the comedy books, Foxy stepped into the action section, and Ruby followed Mr. Wolfgang upstairs, scaling up an open wall and crawling right under him. Once she poked her head up between the rails, she spotted him, grabbing a book from the second shelf of the bookcase he was standing front of. He was flipping through the pages, and while she couldn’t see it, the book he was looking at had a small switch hiding inside of it. Once he pushed it, there was a small rumble that shook the building, making everyone think there was an earthquake, but Ruby could see the shelf Mr. Wolfgang was standing in front of slowly move to the side, revealing a hidden passage within the walls of the library. Her eyes widened, and when she saw the old wolf stepping inside, she quickly scurried inside, staying to the darkened ceiling before the entry was closed off. Before her was a spiral staircase that Wolfgang was walking down, and next to the door was a switch to open it again. Slowly, she crawled along the ceiling, her tongue sticking out while hiding in the shadows casted by the candles resting in small shelves along the walls of the staircase. After what felt like minutes on top of minutes, she finally reached the bottom of the staircase, reaching an archival room.

She watched as Mr. Wolfgang dug around the file cabinets, searching high and low before pulling out a large blueprint. He sat it on the table and began looking it over. Getting a better view, Ruby saw it was a layout of the pizza palace. She tilted her head, watching him pull out a pen from his pocket protector, and began drawing over certain spots. When she got a closer look, she saw that what he was drawing were plans to start a controlled fire that would destroy the pizza palace. Her eyes widened, and not wanting to stay longer than she needed to, quickly crawled back upstairs. Once she reached the top, she pressed the button to open the shelf, causing the building to shake again.

“Who’s there?!” Shouted Mr. Wolfgang, who was quickly running up the stairs. Ruby gasped, and once she saw a crack in the opening, began to press herself against the bookshelf, begging for it to open faster.

Mr. Wolfgang reached the top to see the passage was wide open and he stepped out into the library, looking around for whoever might’ve been spying on him, unaware that Ruby was clinging directly underneath the ceiling of the balcony he stood on. He squinted his eyes and went back down the stairs, closing the door behind him. Ruby, taking a few deep breaths, slowly crawled back down to the first floor, thankfully without anyone spotting her. She gathered up the rest of the troupe and they made their way out of the library, as she explained what she had just saw.

“Burn down the pizza palace?” Freddy looked at her in shock. “Are you sure?”

“I know what I saw, Freddy!” She said, looking back at the library to see the old wolf walking down the stairs by the window…and he was looking right at her. By the time he got outside, the kids were gone. He furrowed his brow, a soft growl escaping his throat before he got to his car.

“Oh geez, sounds like your dad might be in trouble!” Bonnie whimpered a bit, feeling a little anxious at what Ruby had filled them in on. In turn, that made Ruby feel anxious, staying close with the group till they finally reached their street. Instead of going to the tree house right away, they split up, and went to their homes. She poked her head out of the window, seeing Mr. Wolfgang’s car pull up in front of his home. He got out and slowly looked to her home, making her duck under the window. After a moment, she poked her head out to see he was gone, and she took a deep breath before going to the couch to watch some cartoons, relieved that she was at the very least safe for now. After a bit, her ear twitched to the sound of footsteps descending the stairs, and she looked over her shoulder to see her mother entering the room.

“Hey sweetie.” Kiera smiled, sitting down next to her. “Done playing with your friends already?”

“Yeah. Bonnie and his parents are going out of town for the day, so we decided to call it a day.” She said, not wanting to let her know what she was really up to. How were you supposed to explain that your dad’s boss is planning to burn down his own business anyways? And would dad be there when it happens? How much of a fuss would she need to kick up just to convince mom to get her to the pizza palace so they could stop Mr. Wolfgang if it does happen? Maybe it’d be best to get her mind off of that scary thought.

“...Mom? Who’s Fiona?” She asked, looking up at the lemur. Kiera was a little surprised by the question, looking down to her adoptive daughter.

“You heard me and your dad talking, huh?” She asked.

“Yeah. I heard him mention her when I was closing the door. Who is she?” Ruby questioned again.

“Well, sweetie…” Kiera reached over and gently sat Ruby down on her lap, thinking of the best way to explain what was happening. “Fiona is…not a good person. She caused a lot of trouble in the past, especially for your father when he was your age. She is, or…was, maybe, a criminal. She did a lot of bad things, worked with bad people. Not only that, but she treated your father really poorly, played with his heart from what he had told me. And now, she’s back, working the same position as your dad. I don’t know why or how, but that’s the situation he seems to be in now.”

“Is he in trouble?”

“I don’t know sweetie, but…apparently, he might be having feelings for her again.”

“Huh?” She gave the lemur a confused look, tilting her head to the side. “But…you two are together. Why would he have feelings for another person? Especially someone who hurt him?”

“Well…Time does tend to heal wounds, so, it could be dad has forgiven her, and maybe wants to get back in her life. Apparently, she isn’t with her boyfriend anymore, but she won’t tell him what’s going on.”

“Are you mad at him? For having a crush on this lady?”

“No…I mean, I think he might be a teeny tiny little bit dense for chasing after someone who broke his heart, but…it wants what it wants.” She shrugs.

“I’m still a little confused on why this is happening, though.”

“Okay, this might be a little weird to explain, but…I think your dad is what is known as poly. Poly means he has a lot more love in his heart than one person can handle, so, he finds himself crushing on someone else, even if he’s married to one person.”

“Did you explain that to him?”

“I sure did.” She nodded, smiling at the girl.

“What did he say?”

“He looked surprised, that’s for sure. He looked like the entire galaxy just opened up to him. I guess he’s never heard of the term before. Don’t know if I can blame him, he has been alone for a good chunk of his life.” She chuckled a bit, resting against the couch, looking at the screen of the tv. “Don’t worry too much about it…he’ll figure things out eventually.”

Ruby smiled softly at those words and relaxed against her mother, enjoying the moment, watching cartoons with her, letting her wrap her tail around her small body.

-

Tails’ eyes opened, and he found himself surrounded by palm trees, patches of green grass, and a waterfall on the other side of a large river. He recognized the place right away. Green Hill, back before it became the abandoned ghost town. He felt the gust of wind flow through his fur, and he listened to the rushing, yet faint, rapids of the waters below, mixed with the sounds of the flickies flying high above. He saw the little pigs, penguins, rabbits and chickens running around, having general fun, playing games like tag or hide and seek. Peaceful, serene…he smiled, sitting on the edge that overlooked the river. It was nice to see all of this again, even if he wasn’t sure as to what exactly brought him here. Even a little flicky landed on his head to enjoy the moment with him. He felt he didn’t have any reason to get up, until he heard what sounded like a struggle was going on nearby. He stood up and followed the sound. When he got there, he found an all too familiar scene.

A young two-tailed fox was struggling, trying to get out of the grasp of a monkey about his age, while his friends stood over a small device that the fox had made.

“Stop it! Please! Don’t break it!” The cub cried, pleading while the bear and the slightly older fox raised their clubs and began smashing the device to pieces. Tails winced, watching the bullies laugh as they let the younger fox go, mocking his cries.

“I remember this all too well…” Tails sighed, watching his younger self cry while picking up the pieces of his device. The young cub stared at the bits of scrap in his hands, walking away from the scene, allowing Tails to follow. “Three…two…one…” He counted down, On cue, a young Sonic ran by, looking around before continuing on the path he was on.

“...Cool!” The young fox said excitedly, getting a smile out of Tails, as he continued to follow his younger self through the dream, watching him mess around and paint the tornado from red to blue once he found it.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Sonic called out, getting the cub’s attention.

“S-Sorry!” The fox jumped, stepping away from the plane. “I was tooling around a bit so it could go faster! And I thought it could use a paint job…” He admitted with a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his head, a habit Tails kept throughout most of his life.

“I like it! Kinda wish I went with the blue color to begin with!” Sonic smiled.

“You think so?” Tails asked, looking back at the plane.

“Yeah! Also, I couldn’t help but notice you were tailing me all morning. Everything alright?”

“Well…not really. Everyone bullies me because of how I look, and they always destroy the things I work on. But then I saw you running and figured, maybe they’d leave me alone if I was as fast and cool as you!”

“Heh…what’s your name?” Sonic asked.

“Miles Prower, but everybody calls me Tails.”

“Tails, huh? A little on the nose, don’tcha think? Either way, I like it! I’m Sonic! Sonic the Hedgehog! If you want, I’ll let you have the tornado, Tails, you definitely know what you’re doing!”

“You don’t mind?”

“Not at all!” Sonic gave the fox a thumbs up, and before Tails’ eyes, the two, and the tornado vanished, appearing once more in the sky, fighting off Eggman’s air fleet. He smiled softly, sliding his hands in his pockets.

“Man…I don’t know how I ended up being lucky enough to have someone like Sonic to be my best friend, let alone my brother.” He sighed softly, shaking his head. “After Eggman’s death, I figured he’d want nothing to do with me…but he surprisingly came back around after a few years. That was the angriest I’ve ever seen him that day…and I was still frazzled after what happened.”

Suddenly, the scene around him started to change. Before him was Sonic, scolding him, and while he couldn’t see it because of the others that were blocking his view, He could see Eggman’s limp body on the ground next to his Egg mobile, and behind Tails, was the Tornado, the blades of the propeller caked in splattered blood. There was even some on the face of Tails’ younger self, who couldn’t look away from the dead body before him.

“What the hell were you thinking Tails?!” Sonic snapped. “I thought I taught you better than to do something like that! You could’ve killed me or gotten yourself hurt too!”

“Sonic, easy.” Knuckles said sternly, standing next to the fox’s side. “He saved your ass, big time.”

“He’s right.” Shadow nodded, crossing his arms. “If Tails had reacted a second slower, Eggman would have crushed you.”

“Guys, I’m always fine! He has never gotten me once during these fights, I would’ve been fine! Tails is the one who overreacted!”

“Overreacted?!” Amy snapped. “Are you being serious, right now?! If you had died, how would we be able to go against Eggman?!”

“Don’t start with the what if’s, Ames! It doesn’t matter how you try to paint it, I would’ve been fine!”

“Yeah, but for how much longer could that dumb luck of yours keep you alive!?” Rouge argued next. “One wrong move, and you’ll end up dead, Sonic!” Sonic, tired of the argument, ran off in a huff, leaving a stunned fox behind while the others stayed back to try and console him. The scene changed a few years later. Tails was in his workshop, alone, working on the Tornado X, repairing damages on the left wing. He stopped when he heard knocking on the door, and he lifted his mask up to see Sonic, standing there.

“Hey…you got a minute?” The hedgehog asked, rubbing his arm, awkwardly. Judging by the mark, Amy had smacked him with her hammer and made him come to the workshop to talk.

“...You’re still pissed about what happened with Eggman, aren’t you?” The younger Tails asked.

“Yeah…I mean, can you really blame me?”

“Sonic, I’m sorry. I know it was against your code, but if I didn’t act fast, he would have won. Mobius wouldn’t be what it is today.”

“I know, it’s just…I miss the excitement of saving the world, and getting into all the fights Eggman brought to the table. Anyways, I was…really hoping we could patch things up. It’s hard thinking of you as anything but my little bro, and I don’t want to lose you because you decided to save my life. Can we just…put it all behind us?”

“…Yeah. Yeah, I’d like that.” He could hear himself smiling at that. “By the way…any luck finding Cosmo?”

“Sorry, Tails. I double checked everywhere; I have no idea where her plant could have gone off to.” There was a moment of silence. “I’m sorry…you probably didn’t want to hear that.”

“It’s…it’s fine. I’m starting to give up hope of finding it anyways…I could have sworn it was in the same spot it’s always been.”

“I’m sure one day it’ll show up…hey, Amy and Cream are making those chili dogs we like! You hungry?”

“After working in the workshop for hours? Hell, you know I’m up for anything.” The two chuckled as they left the workshop. Tails smiled, resting against the wall of the workshop, watching as everything in it faded out, the workshop now empty and covered in dust and cobwebs, as Tails had stopped using it years ago. He turned around to leave, only to be greeted by a shadowy figure with glowing white eyes and a bright smile. A knife was in the figure’s hand, and before Tails could react, the figure slashed at his chest.

-

Tails shot up in his bed, taking deep breaths while looking around the bedroom, able to see he was still safely in his bedroom. He sighed, looking down at his chest, just to see a big red cut across his torso, which was already being healed by the Devil’s chaos.

“Fuck…not again…” He said, putting a hand over the wound, just as Kiera entered the room, seeing the cut over his chest.

“Oh no…I thought we were done with this.” She said, ears folding to their side as she watches the ink-like substance created by the devil’s chaos slowly stitch up his wound. “What happened in your dream?”

“I don’t know…I was looking back on my friendship with Sonic, then, next thing I know, something cut me with a knife. It was too fast for me to even see what or who it was that even attacked me.” Before they could continue the conversation, his alarm clock went off, indicating it was time to start the nightly ritual; get a shower, kiss Kiera goodnight, give Ruby a kiss on the forehead while she was asleep, then go downstairs and heat up dinner, which was pizza ordered surprisingly from a different location than the pizza palace. It was pretty decent for a mom and pop brand pizza place. Once he finished, he got to his car and drove to the pizza palace, where Fiona was already in the parking lot, watching him pull in, smiling at him as he got out of the car.

“You’re here early.” He commented, shutting the door before approaching the entrance where she was standing.

“I figured I’d give Mary some company before she heads home for the night.” She explained before they went inside. “You got here before I could go in, myself.” Speaking of the hedgehog, she was standing by the prize counter as per usual, humming to herself before noticing the two out of the corner of her eye.

“Hey, you two!” She greeted with a hum. “I’m gonna lock up early and head home now…got a bottle of vodka waiting for me at home.”

“What? Bad day?” Tails asked with a raised brow.

“Oh, like you wouldn’t believe. A few kid’s keep running into the service tunnels, and I’ve had to chase them out for most of the shift. It’s why I don’t plan on having kids until I can retire.”

“Hmm…lucky you.” Fiona rolled her eyes. Tails’ ear twitched at her comment, picking it up right away. What did she mean by that? It clicked pretty quick.

“Wait, you have a kid?” He asked, a little surprised. “How come you haven’t told me about that?”

“Because, it’s my business, foxy.” The vixen said, gently flicking him in the nose, making him scrunch his muzzle. “If I want you to know what’s going on, I will let you know.”

“...What’s their name?”

“Boy, you’re lucky I even dropped that nugget of info, don’t push it.”

“Okay, okay…” He waved a hand, showing he wasn’t going to press any further on the subject, at least for right now as his curiosity was now peaked. Still, he had to at least talk to her once the shift was over about how he was feeling. The most he could hope for was that she would be able to listen. With that, the two foxes went to their changing rooms, switched into their uniforms, and returned to the main floor, where they saw Mary had already left. They sat at their usual table, and wanting to start a conversation instead of sitting in silence again, and surprisingly, he managed to keep the conversation going for the entire hour they sat there.

“Hey, so…thanks for backing me up last night. I thought I was dead for sure when they put me on the spot like that.” He said, smiling at Fiona, who just chuckled back.

“Don’t worry about it…you have my back, I have yours. Felt like the right thing to do.”

“I didn’t know you could dance, if I’m being honest.”

“It’s a hobby I picked up a few years ago. Gotta stay active somehow, you know.” She smirked a little. “You know…I hate to say it, especially considering our history, but I missed you, kinda.”

“Heh, I missed you too, kinda. It’s a little strange for us to be meeting like this again after all this time.”

“Yeah, maybe we were destined to be around each other again.” She shook her head. “You’re a two tailed know-it-all with a kill count, and I’m an irresistible, beautiful vixen, and yet…in some strange way, we’re very much alike.” Tails tilted his head a little, wondering what she meant by that. “No matter what happens, or how long it’s been, we seem to just come back into each other's orbits. Flotsam and Jetsam…that’s what we are, Tails. Flotsam and Jetsam in the sea of life.”

“...Whatever happened to you since I last saw you, it’s definitely mellowed you out.” Tails smiled, approving the change he’s seen with her. He figured she would’ve let him die last night, then get her paycheck and be on her merry way with her life, but no, here they were, a team against an entire band of animatronics.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a little mad about being left behind by your best friend, but…I can’t really bring myself to be on that path anymore. Just nothing but heartache and dead ends.“ She shrugged her shoulders before grabbing her phone to check the time. The shift was going to start pretty soon. “You know…I actually want to tell you something. I’m sorry for how I’ve treated you when we were younger. If I could take anything back, it would be that. You still show me nothing but respect, even after I’ve hurt you so many times, and you didn’t give up on me until I…forced you away. And you’re able to look away from that…why? You run the chance of it all happening again, why would you trust me in this line of work.”

Hearing the question, Tails’ eyes shift to the floor as he thought about it. She did have a good point, she could stab him in the back at any time, and yet, here he was, willing to take that risk. After a moment, he cleared his throat.

“Time changes people, Fiona.” He answered, looking up at her. “And with the few clues you’ve dropped about what you’ve been up to all this time, I get the feeling you’ve changed too. I’m glad to see you’ve been doing well, and I’m hoping after all of this, we could be friends again.” Hearing his words, Fiona crossed her arms, taking a moment to think about what he said, and his offer for friendship again. She locked eyes with him, smiling softly.

“Yeah…yeah, I think I’d like that.” She simply stated before getting up to go to the back office, waiting for him to get up and join her. “…Rusty, by the way.”

“Hmm? Rusty?” He blinked, tilting his head.

“That’s my son’s name.” She answered, patting Tails on the shoulder before starting her walk back to the security office. Tails smiled softly at her before he followed after her. Once they got into the office, the phone began to ring, and he answered, putting it on speaker.

“Hello? Can you two hear me?” Mr. Wolfgang’s voice spoke through the speaker.

“Yes sir.” Tails nodded.

“Loud and clear.” Fiona answered.

“Good. You two are doing great so far, I must say. Most people don’t last this long…not because they, you know, died, or anything, I’m not implying that…I meant they usually move on to other things by this point.” As he cleared his throat, the two foxes glanced at each other with raised eyebrows. “Anyways, things are going to get real tonight. I just need one of you to go out and clean the arcade cabinets, make sure there aren’t any residue from soda cups or stains on any of the machines. Once you’re done, get back into the office immediately.”

“What? Are the characters more active tonight?” Tails questioned.

“Not exactly. A little bit, yes, they’re going to get more aggressive as the nights continue, but…there is a character that doesn’t appear unless the night guard, or guards in this case, come back for a third night. A very hostile bastard too…he can move around like a ghost, and you won’t notice him until you start seeing things being moved around… if you see things moving around. But anyways, the only thing I have for you guys to do is clean the cabinets. The next couple of nights, just stay in the office and focus on surviving. I will pay you two after Friday night, and if you want to stay, if you want to look for new jobs elsewhere, that’s entirely up to you. I’ll end the call now, I’m sure Alex and his friends are ready to move. Goodnight.” He said before the call ended, and Tails put the phone back on the reciever.

“Okay…who’s going to go out and clean the cabinets?” Tails questioned before turning his attention to Fiona.

“I could, but if I get caught, I could have trouble getting back.” The vixen crossed his arms.

“But, it would be fair, because I went out to count the inventory last night.” Tails pointed out. “And I almost got bodied by a robotic worm.”

“Yeah, but you’re slimmer and faster, you’ll be a harder target to hit if that ‘ghost’ animatronic wants to start throwing things around.” Fiona argued.

“Okay…there’s one way to settle this.” He said, grabbing his coin before flipping it in the air. “Call it.”

“Heads.” She said, before the coin landed in his hand. He opened his palm, showing it landed on heads. “Ha!”

“Damn it.” Tails sighed, leaving the security office. He opened the supply closet, grabbing a bottle of all purpose cleaner and a rag, and quickly made his way down to the arcade so he could start working. Once on the main floor, he looked around nervously, keeping his eyes open for any animatronics that could be roaming at this moment. If he just played it cool, maybe he could get it all done before any of them reach the arcade. Quietly, he wrapped his tails around his torso, pressing them against his chest just so they wouldn’t jut out of any corners. He placed a few squirts of the cleaner on the rag and began cleaning.

He wiped down the buttons. The joysticks, the screens, the matinees, and the sides of each cabinet if he could reach them. It didn’t take long before his ear would twitch at the sound of robotic footsteps from the showroom. He began to move slower, doing his best to not be heard, occasionally looking out to see who was leaving the showroom. After the third time, he saw ToeJam and Earl standing just outside the entrance of the showroom, scanning the main floor. He ducked down, trying not to be spotted. He just had five more cabinets to clean.

He could hear the heavy footsteps of the animatronics as they moved around the building, and as one of them got closer, he could hear what sounded to him like faint, almost choked, breathing. He steeled his nerves, doing what he could to focus on the remaining four.

The footsteps stop, making him stop once he saw one of ToeJam’s sneakers at the end of the cabinet row he was on. His eyes shift up, watching the alien animatronics eyes moving left to right, looking for him. Not having any luck, he turned around and proceeded to the hall. Tails took the opportunity to continue cleaning the remaining two cabinets, and once he finished the one he was on, he reached for the final cabinet.

Before he could touch it, it fell forward with a loud crash, making him yelp and fall back. ToeJam stopped, his eyes snapping in his direction, spotting the two tailed fox on the floor. Laughter emitted from the fallen cabinet, and when Tails turned around, he saw an apparition emerge from the game; a green ghost animatronic, wearing a white shirt, torn jeans and a biker jacket.

“As always, leave it to Polterguy to get the job done!” The spirit cackled before leaping backwards and phasing through a painting that suddenly flew off the wall and tried to smack Tails in the face, but he rolled out of the way just in time. Tails didn’t waste time getting back to his feet and trying to run off as the spirit emerged again, possessing more items around the pizzeria to try and take Tails out, while ToeJam, now joined with Mike and Spike, tried to corner the fox, but just by jumping on a table, Tails was able to dodge a knife flying at him, and get over ToeJam. With no time to lose, he booked it for the office and slammed the door shut once he turned around and saw Spike was right there.

“The hell was that noise?!” Fiona questioned, checking the cameras to see the animatronics standing around, noticing the arcade game that had fallen over.

“I had a run in with our mystery ghost, that’s what!” He retorted, waiting for the banging on the door to stop. Once he heard the heavy steps move away, he opened the door, sighing before poking his head out the door to see the animatronic walking away. His ear twitched to the static of the feed, followed by the snickering of Polterguy, who was flashing on the screen several times as the doors began to open and close wildly, the one Tails was standing next to almost took off one of his namesakes while the lights outside the office flickered sporadically.

“There’s no way you little freaks are getting out of here!” The spirit laughed. Once they were able to get control of the cameras, they could see everyone was making their way for the doors.

“Tails, what do we do?!” Fiona asked, looking to the fox who was trying to think of a strategy. Then it hit him.

“I’ll run out the door and lead them away from the office. Keep the doors locked until I’m in the service tunnels!”

*He said before running past her, stepping into the hall, just for the door to shut down once he was outside. He locked eyes with a few of the animatronics before sticking his tongue out and tugs his left eye lid down, even making eyes unfocused as if to taunt the killer robots while standing on one leg. Focusing on him, the robots began to hasten their march, giving chase to the fox who ran for the service tunnel. Fiona watched on the cameras, and once he was far away enough, she opened the door he left the room through. A sigh escapes her, knowing at the very least she’d be safe for just a little bit longer.

The feeling of safety quickly faded once the doors began to fly open and close again, and she could hear Polterguy’s laughter echoing in the hallways. Now the most she could hope for was that they could make it to six AM. Tails had run all the way to the loading dock of the restaurant. There was plenty of space for him to give the characters following him the runaround. Sure enough, when he turned around, he saw Spike, Earl and Jim approaching him.

“GU-GU-GU-GUHHHHROOVY!” Jim glitched with a cackle, gripping his head before snapping it like a whip.

“You ain’t goin’ nowhere this time, little man.” Earl chuckled, stepping towards the fox, while Spoke and Jim by his side to try and corner him.

“You sure about that?” Tails questioned, making the animatronics paused, watching him point towards a dock bay that was left open. “I’m out there.” He said, watching them all look out to the open field that was illuminated by the parking lot lights. He slipped by effortlessly and started to run back to the office.

“I can’t believe that dumb trick still works.” He smirked to himself. Once he got back to the office, he shut the door just to be safe.

“Alright, so far so good…we’re almost done!” Fiona smiled, looking at the clock. It was five fifty five in the morning.

“A little close for comfort, but at least we’re safe.” Tails smiled before pressing the button to open the door, except, the door didn’t open. Even after the fifth press.

“Good luck surviving this one!” Polterguy cackled, showing himself on the camera feed one more time before vanishing. Tails looked back at the button and spammed it ten times, but nothing was happening.

“Shit, he jammed the door!” He shouted, slamming his fist onto the button. Fiona looked at the power level. It was at twenty five percent, and within minutes, it dropped down to ten. When the clock reached 5:58, power to the security room, and the entire building shut down, leaving Tails and Fiona in absolute darkness. Tails grimaced, feeling Grimm growl in the back of his mind.

“Hungry….” Grimm snarled.

“Grimm, just hold on, we have a few more minutes.” Harold said.

“Tails? What do we do now?” Fiona asked.

“I-I don’t know Fiona…The best we can do is just sit here and hope for the best.” He said, moving close to the vixen. They could hear heavy footsteps echoing down the hall. The two stayed perfectly still, while Harold continued to keep Grimm from lashing out, the footsteps growing louder and louder, until the finally came to a stop.

Alex was standing at the doorway, his teeth and eyes emitting a bright light that bathed the two creatures, as a music box played classical music within his body. The lights seemed to flash with the music, and as he stared at the animatronic, Tails could feel Fiona clinging to him, whether she was doing it for safety, or getting ready to push him out of the way so she could take the hit, he couldn’t tell. Suddenly, the lights and the music stopped, and the entire building went silent. All Tails could hear was the sound of his heartbeat, slowly picking up its pace, and the breathing between him and Fiona.

The clock began to ring, indicating it was now six o clock. Power returned to the building, and once the security office illuminated, Alex was gone. Tails took a deep breath, closing eyes.

The two returned to their locker rooms and changed back into their regular clothes before clocking out for the day. They stepped out to the front floor, as Mary entered the building.

“Morning you too!” She smiled before looking around, seeing the knocked over arcade cabinet. “Ohh, shit…guess you had a run in with Polterguy, huh?”

“Yeah…” Tails frowned a bit, rubbing his face.

“Hey, look on the bright side! Just two more nights, and you guys get paid!” She smiled, making her way towards the back. “I’ll let you guys get going so you can get some sleep. See you tonight!” With that, she vanished into the back, letting the two go out to the parking lot.

“That was closer than I was hoping for…” Fiona sighed, shaking her head before getting on her bike.

“No kidding…” Tails stood at the driver door of his car, pausing before looking at Fiona. “Say, Fiona…?” He saw her look up at him before starting her bike. “This probably sounds, really stupid, but…after all these years, and…now that you’re single, would you…consider being with me, not just a one sided crush thing that was going on when we were younger?”

Hearing the question, Fiona could only chuckle softly.

“Aren’t you married?” She asked.

“Well, yes, but…I don’t know why, but these last few nights, I feel like old feelings for you are sparking again. She said something about polyamorous, and suggested I should take a shot.”

“...Listen, I can’t promise a definitive yes. I’ll tell you everything that’s been going on with me, but with you being married, and with my situation, don’t give your hopes up.” She paused before revving her bike. “But I’ll think about it!”

With that, she drove off, revving down the road and pulling another wheelie. As she drove away, Tails felt his namesakes wagging gently behind him.

“Well…it’s something at least.” He smiled before getting in his car, started it up, and made his way back home.

Chapter Text

Tails pulled into his driveway, yawning, stretching his arms into the air as he got out of the car and made his way inside, where he was greeted by the familiar sight of his daughter sitting on the couch, watching morning cartoons, and the smell of his wife making breakfast in the kitchen. Seeing him come in, Ruby smiled warmly at him.

“Hi dad!” She greeted. “How was work?”

“Pretty exhausting, kiddo.” He smiled, rubbing her head before walking past and going to the kitchen to see what Kiera was making. This morning, she was making omelets and toast. He smiled before approaching and kissing her cheek.

“Good morning, my dear.” He greeted her. With a smile, she turned around and kissed him back.

“Good morning to you too, Mr. Security guard.” She turned back to her cooking. “So, how’d it go with your Fiona friend?”

“Well, she said she’d think about it.” He answered. Before he could explain the rest of the night, there was a knock at the door. Curious, he went to answer. Opening the door, he was greeted by the older wolf from next door, a tray of freshly made cookies was in his hand. Some were shaped like bears, some like rabbits, others like chicks, and others like foxes.

“Hello, I’m Mr. Wolfgang, I’m the owner of Alex Kidd’s Pizza Palace.” He greeted, smiling at the fox. When Ruby heard his name, she gasped and quickly hopped off the couch, which Tails picked up on right away, making him look away for a moment before looking back at the old wolf. “I’d like to apologize for my behavior when you and your family first moved in. I had been dealing with troublesome thieves ever since all the strange things have been happening in the restaurant, and I’ve been very on edge lately. I hope these will make up for my poor behavior.”

“Oh. Guess that explains the bear traps.” Tails blinked, accepting the tray, looking at all the different shaped cookies while Ruby poked her head out from the side of the couch. “Well, uh…thank you, Mr. Wolfgang. It’s actually nice to meet the man who’s running the place I’m staying overnight at. Do you…want this back?” He asked, his eyes drifting to the tray itself.

“Oh no, by all means, you can have it. Think of it as a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ gift.” The old wolf smiled. Tails, smiling back at the wolf, took the cookies into the kitchen. Once he was gone, Mr. Wolfgang’s smile faded into a frown, and he locked eyes with Ruby.

“I know you and your friends have been spying on me…” He warned, his warm tone shifting into a deep growl. “If you know what’s good for you, I suggest you stop, right now…”

“Why are you planning to burn down the pizza place?” Ruby questioned, stepping out from behind the couch. “There’s so much I don’t understand.”

“I know…but believe me, child, there are some things you don’t want to understand about our world. Just know, once it’s gone, the world will be much, much better…” He said, before Tails entered the room again.

“Would you like to come in? We’re just about to start breakfast, and my wife doesn’t mind making an extra omelet.” He offered. Like a switch, Mr. Wolfgang’s tone shifted back to the friendly neighbor voice.

“Oh, no. I actually have to get going. Today, I’m supposed to manage the Pizza Palace.” He said, watching Tails approach him before extending his hand out. “Still, it’s nice to have someone like you aboard. Sorry about the characters, by the way, I know they can be a bit overwhelming.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble.” Tails smiled, shaking the wolf’s hand. “I’ve dealt with a lot worse, trust me.” Hearing this, the old wolf chuckled.

“I’ll have to take your word for it. Anyways, you have a good rest, you’ll need it for tonight.” With that, Mr. Wolfgang turned around, waving goodbye to the twin tailed fox as he headed home. Tails closed the door with a hum.

“Dad, I don’t trust that man…” Ruby said, looking out the window, watching the wolf keep his friendly demeanor until he got into his car.

“He’s on edge, sweetie. Given everything I’ve been hearing, it’s no mystery. Try not to bother him too much, and I’m sure he’ll start to relax.” Tails said, rubbing her head once more before going back to the kitchen to get his omelet. Ruby would join him and eat her breakfast, and once she was done, she stepped outside, seeing Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy getting in a car with an older female bear. Freddy took notice, and smiled at her.

“Hey, Ruby!” He greeted, waving at her as she crossed the street to see what was going on.

“Hey, Freddy! Where are you guys off to?” She asked.

“Mom’s taking us to work at the Pizza Palace!” He explained. “Because she works there, we get to go in for free, and we each get a bucket of coins to play the games! You wanna come with us?”

“Sure!” She smiled, seeing him turn to look at his mom.

“Mom, can our new friend come with us?” He asked.

“Of course! It might be a bit of a tight squeeze in the back, but I’m sure there’s enough room if Bonnie and Chica scoot over.” The mother bear smiled, watching the rabbit and chicken in question move over a little bit, so Ruby could get in the back with them. She wanted to talk to the gang about what happened, but figured it’d be best to wait until they got there. Being a small town, they reached it pretty quickly, and they didn’t have to worry about having to wait for traffic. Once there, the kids followed Freddy’s mom inside, and she took them to the prize counter, where they were each given a bucket filled with tokens for the arcade games.

“Okay, you kids have fun! Let me know later when you’re ready to go back, and I’ll take you home on my lunch break.” She smiled, kneeling down to give Freddy a kiss on the forehead.

“Thanks mom!” Freddy smiled before running off with the others. Once they were out of ear shot, he looked to Ruby and cleared his throat. “Okay…I saw Mr. Wolfgang at your house, what was he doing?”

“He…gave us cookies for some reason. Some of them were shaped like animals, mostly bears, chickens, bunnies and foxes.” She answered.

“So…us.” Foxy clarified.

“What else happened?” Bonnie asked.

“He said that we need to stop following him around, and that we’ll be glad if we do.” She answered as they lined up at the ski ball game.

“He really thinks we’re going to stop? We already got so far.” Chica said, rolling a ball down the ramp, landing it in the 200 point hole. Bonnie had looked around, noticing the wolf in question walking into the back with the gas canister.

“Oh! Speak of the devil!” He said, pointing at the hallway that led to the service tunnels.

“We gotta figure out if he’s really going to burn the place down!” Freddy said. “Foxy? You wanna follow him? You’re the fastest out of all of us!”

“I can try, sure.” The fox nodded, deciding to finish his game quickly, rolling the balls down as fast as he could, somehow landing in the 500 point holes each time before he ran off. “Keep a hold of my tickets!”

“Got it!” The others said, watching him run off before returning to their game.

Foxy managed to slip by several employees of the Pizza Palace, including Freddy’s mom, and had begun to travel around in the tunnels, what was pretty simple and straightforward for the employees working at the place, but for a small child like him, it quickly formed into a confusing mess of a maze. Corridors that looked like they were repeating, the same black and white square wallpaper, the doors, it was starting to make the little fox anxious. After what felt like an hour of searching, he paused, a strange smell was filling the air, one he picked up right away thanks to constant snack trips to the local gas station. Gasoline. He followed the scent, noting it got stronger the closer he got to the source, which led him to the docking bay of the restaurant. Looking around, he saw Mr. Wolfgang had placed down several gasoline cans off to the side, hiding them behind a few crates. So it was true, he was going to burn this place down. Suddenly, the little fox felt a twitch in his nose, joined with a strong urge to sneeze. He fidgeted a bit before a sneeze bursted its way out of his system. He froze when he saw Mr. Wolfgang snapped his head in his direction. Letting out a small gasp, because he was too scared to turn back and start running, they locked eye contact with each other. The second he saw the wolf start running towards him, Foxy scurried away, running as fast as he could down the halls. He could hear Wolfgang breathing to pace himself and keep up with the chase.

“Get back here!” He demanded with a growl, but Foxy didn’t stop, breaking into a full on sprint, and after several turns, he managed to get back to the main party floor, and vanished into the crowd of other kids. Mr. Wolfgang stopped by the prize counter, looking around, seeing all the excited kids playing games or watching the animatronics. Wherever that little fox went, he was gone now. With a growl in his throat, he turned around, marching back into the service tunnels. Foxy poked his head out from behind one of the arcade cabinets to see him walk away, and he sighed in relief.

“That was too close…” He told himself before going to find his friends, which wasn’t hard, as they were playing one of the racing games by the windows.

-

“So Ruby was right!” Bonnie’s jaw hung open, trying to process what Foxy had told them once they got back to the treehouse. “Mr. Wolfgang really is going to burn the place down!”

“I don’t believe it!” Chica shook a bit, a little scared about what this is all leading to. “What do we do? Who do we tell?! We didn’t get a picture of him at the library, or him hiding the gas cans!”

“I don’t know.” Ruby rubbed her arms anxiously. “Dad doesn’t think he's any threat, probably because of those cookies he brought to us this morning.”

“This is tricky…” Foxy rubbed his chin, looking over to Freddy who was staring out the window at Mr. Wolfgang’s house.

“There’s only one thing we can do.” He said before turning to his friends. “Tomorrow night, we need to get in his basement, and stop whatever plans he has!”

“I’m all for that, Freddy, but the place is a fortress!” Bonnie argued. “There’s no way in heck we’ll be able to get in anywhere!”

“Yeah, but we have a secret weapon on our side, and an entrance he hasn’t boarded up yet! He wouldn’t see any reason to!” He smiled. Everyone got up and approached the window, examining the house carefully. Then, Ruby’s eyes lit up.

“Oh! The chimney!” She pointed to the roof of the house. “It’s just big enough for any of us to climb into!”

“Exactly! And as you’re the only one who can climb on walls, you can get us in!” Freddy smiled brightly, patting her on the back.

“She can get in through the chimney, and unlock the door from the inside!” Chica smiled.

“Allowing us to go in and find the things we need to get into the basement!” Bonnie added.

“And as long as we take a camera, we can get all the evidence we need to bust this guy for good, and stop him from making anyone else vanish!” Foxy concluded, his tail wagging excitedly.

“Alright gang, here’s the plan.” Freddy says, bringing everyone in for a huddle. “I’m going to see if mom will let me have a sleepover with you guys tomorrow night. After dinner, we’ll meet up, hangout in the treehouse until eight! Then, when we’re ready, Ruby can sneak in through the chimney, looking out for any bear traps, of course, and let us get in! Mr. Wolfgang should be watching tv, so he won’t notice us coming in. We find a key card, the key for the regular lock, and a crowbar to remove the boards from the basement door. One of us can distract Mr. Wolfgang, and the rest can break into the basement!”

“I’ll distract him.” Foxy offered. “I’m the fastest runner, I can keep him busy in the yard for a good amount of time!”

“Good! Give him a good chase, tire him out, and meet us in the basement!” Freddy concluded. “Then, we get our proof, and get over to the police station! Everyone clear on the plan?” He asked, holding paw hand out.

“You betcha, pal!” Bonnie smiled, resting his paw on Freddy’s.

“You can count on me!” Chica smiled, adding her hand to the pile.

“I’m in!” Foxy nodded with a smile before putting his paw on the pile.

“Let’s do this!” Ruby smiled, placing one of her paws on the pile last.

“ALL FOR ONE, AND ONE FOR ALL!” The kids cheered. With that, they spent the rest of the evening until dinner time, working on more of their comics, playing games and generally having fun, while occasionally looking out at Mr. Wolfgang’s house to see if they could spot where he placed everything they needed to get into the basement.

-

Tails woke up to the sound of his alarm again and a slight pain in his right arm. When he looked to check, he saw the black substance from the Devil’s Chaos healing him. An annoyed sigh escapes him as he questions why this was happening to him again. At the very least he wasn’t in a coma again. He rubbed his face and started his process. Got a shower, got dressed, kissed Kiera and kissed Ruby on her cheek as she slept before going down to eat dinner, and once he finished, he left the house and went to work. While driving, he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as he thought about the weird dreams he’s been having the last few nights, and the fact that he was getting hurt again because of it. It was the same thing from last night too, so it couldn’t be a coincidence. Once he got there, he found Fiona, relaxing by herself, already in her uniform and on her phone.

“No Maria tonight?” He asked, getting her to look up.

“Nope. She went home early tonight.” Fiona shrugs, going back to her phone, letting Tails go and change into his uniform. He straightened his tie and stepped out to join the vixen at their usual table. They had some time before the shift really started.

“So…it’s probably going to be really difficult tonight.” He pointed out, sitting back down.

“Yeah…at least we don’t have to worry about any laboral tasks.” She said, putting her phone down. “So…you want to hear what I’ve been up to for all these years?” Tails’ ear twitched and he looked at her, seeing her smiling at him.

“S-Sure.” He stuttered, a little caught off guard before turning to face her. “I mean, if you’re cool with it.”

“Of course. I mean, there isn’t a whole lot to tell, so I’ll just condense everything down.” She nods before putting her phone in her pocket. “It started back when me and Scourge broke out of prison. We formed a group with a few other escapee’s and formed the Destructix. That part I’m sure you probably remember, we spent most of the time fighting zone cops and causing all kinds of trouble. Sure enough, everyone started having different ideas on how things should go, what we should do, how we should do them, and of course, knowing Scourge, he was stubborn to the point he didn't want to hear anyone else’s input. Everyone started to leave, but I stood by his side. Fast forward years later, about…five years ago to be aware. We uh…had a little fun if you know what I mean.” She smirks, using one finger and moved it back and forth between the index and thumb of her other hand, which got Tails to roll his eyes. “Alright, I’ll stop…but anyways, he thought he could pull out fast enough…he didn’t…next thing you know, I’m carrying a child in my stomach. I thought I could trust him to stick around, since it was his screw up, but you can probably guess what happened next…”

“He ditched you.” Tails said, frowning a little bit.

“Bingo.” She snapped her finger at him. “I carried him to term, the entire time trying to get a little place to just settle down, and be ready to raise him. All the while, trying to find jobs that I could keep so I could afford to take care of him and myself. Unfortunately, being a criminal has its cons…either nobody would hire me, and if they did, my mouth wouldn’t stay shut to keep it and they’d fire me. I was just getting enough cash to scrape by every month, but I did what I could to keep the little cub alive and happy. One day, after he just turned three, CPS came, said that I wasn’t fit enough to be a mother…until I could get my own life under control, he’s stuck with a foster family…so, I’ve been jumping around from job to job, got depressed, got fat, couple of years later, here I am, trying to keep evil animatronics at bay from killing me, and the kid who had a crush on me when I was 16 years old, hoping I can at least keep this job so I can get my son back. He just turned five years old this past month…and that’s my story.”

Hearing all of this, Tails’ eyes shifted down and he crossed his arms over each other on the table. What does one do with this kind of information?

“Damn…I’m sorry to hear that Fiona.” He said, his left ear folding slightly.

“Don’t be. It’s my fault for being in this situation to begin with. So, it’s up to me to get myself out of it.” She shrugs, taking a look at the clock before getting up from the table. “Either way, it’s showtime.”

Tails nodded, getting up from the table himself and followed Fiona. Once they reached the office, the phone began to ring, to which, Tails answered and put on speaker phone.

“Hello?” Mr. Wolfgang spoke.

“Hey, boss.” Tails and Fiona greeted.

“Wow, night four. You guys have been lasting a lot longer than most security guards. Hey, listen, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get a message to you two tomorrow night. I probably won’t be home when your shift starts, I’m going to be going out of town for a little…vacation. But, you two seem to have everything under control. Tomorrow night will be just like tonight, don’t worry about any tasks, just worry about surviving, because I promise, the second either of you step out into the hall, it’s not going to end well for anyone. If you’re around by next week, then hey, I’ll see you then. But I won’t take up too much time, I’m sure Alex and his buddies are already on their way. Good luck, both of you.” Mr. Wolfgang hung up right then and there, and in the silence, they could hear rapid stomping of animatronic feet approaching the office down both halls. The two foxes quickly shut both doors once the stomps were at their loudest, and began checking the cameras.

Time felt like it was going fast this night in particular, and soon, it was five in the morning. They were down to ten percent, but they knew if they held out just a little longer, they would be able to survive the night. Tails felt sweat running down his face, even with the tiny desk fan, the office was ungodly hot, and trying to focus on everything around him was adding a little extra stress. After checking the cameras, he felt it was safe to open his door, but when he did, he felt something wrap around his leg before a harsh yank forced him to the floor.

“S-SHIT!” He shouted as he was pulled out of the office. Fiona gasped and quickly dived to grab his hand to try and pull him back, seeing Dynamite Headdy was trying to fight back.

“Let go of him, you little bastard!” She growled, getting back to her feet, but Headdy was pulling just as hard as she was. Suddenly, someone snuck up behind her and wrapped their arms around her and pulled her back, forcing her to let go. When Tails woke up, he saw that ToeJam had grabbed her!

“Fiona!” He reached out to her as he was pulled into the maintenance tunnel.

“Tails!” She cried out to him, her voice echoing through the hall. He looked behind him, seeing Earthworm Jim entering the hall, laughing, ready to attack him. He growled aggressively. “Grimm.”

“Say no more, Tails…” Grimm let out a pleased snarl, tendrils growing out of Tails’ back before reaching down and piercing Headdy’s strings, forcing him to let go of Tails. Two of the tendrils grew a mouth with razor sharp teeth and glowing yellow eyes, screeching aggressively at the two animatronics, making them stop. Headdy slithered into the air vent and Jim, not wanting a repeat of last time, dashed into the supply closet. With them dealt with, Tails dashed down the hall, the tendrils pulled him along to give him a much needed boost. He could hear Fiona’s scream, mixed with the sound of loud mechanical whirring coming from the parts and service room, and without any hesitation, shoulder bashed into the door, nearly knocking it off its hinges, but opened it regardless. He saw Fiona was strapped down, and a machine was slowly lowering an old Alex head towards her, the mechanical bits inside spinning and whirring aggressively as it drew closer, threatening to latch itself onto Fiona’s head. Tails shot several tendrils, making them latch onto the machine and began to pull it away from the vixen, ignoring the animatronics standing in the room. The machine grew louder as it was forced against its programming, sparks began to fly and smoke began to fume out of the machine the closer Tails got to breaking it, until finally, the old Alex head was ripped off, forcing the machine to power down.

He looks to the animatronics, Alex, ToeJam, Mike and Spike, and pointed to the door with a snarl, his tendrils flickering out of annoyance. Recognizing the danger, they leave the room, allowing Tails to free Fiona. He unbuckled her wrists and ankles, helping her up to her feet, her entire body was shaking, and once she was standing, she quickly pulled him into a hug. As she took deep, shaky breaths, Tails hugged her back, only imagining what could be going through her head, and she was trying her damn best not to cry despite it. His tendrils slowly retracted as he rubbed her back, doing his best to comfort her, as the clock in the building began to chime, indicating it was now 6 in the morning.

Fiona slowly lets go of Tails, smiling tiredly at him as he did the same before taking slow steps out of the parts and service room. He was about to follow her, but something caught his eye. There, on one of the replacement bottom feet of the Earl animatronic, he could see just a little bit of the end of a logo of some sort. Curiously, he picked it up and turned the foot so he could see what it was. What he saw, made his blood run cold.

Fiona had reached the parking lot, and was getting ready to start her drive home. When she looked up, she saw Tails running to her, carrying the foot:

“Fiona! You might want to see this!” He told her, handing her the foot. With a raised brow, she took the foot and turned it over. Her eyes widened when she saw an all too familiar logo.

The insignia of the Eggman Empire.

“Dr. Eggman…?” She blinked as Tails took back the foot. “Those things were built with Eggman’s robots?!”

“It looks that way. Fiona, you go home and get some rest, I’ll see you tomorrow night.” He said, putting the foot in the passenger seat. “I’m going to have a chat with our boss…”

He quickly got in the driver's seat and drove off, not noticing he was getting out of the parking lot before her this time. He had some questions for Mr. Wolfgang, and come Hell or high water, he was going to get his answers.

Chapter Text

Tails had floored it most of the way back home, thankfully there was a strong lack of traffic in his way so he didn’t have to wait too long. Once he reached his street, he came to a screeching halt, and hopped out of the car with the Earl foot in his hand. He marched up to Mr. Wolfgang’s door and banged his fist on the door, twice. He tapped his foot, impatiently, and soon the door opened, revealing the old wolf.

“Ahh, Mr. Prower. A bit early for a visit, isn’t it?” He questioned.

“Afraid not, sir. I need you to explain this to me.” Tails held up the robot foot, showing Eggman’s insignia on it. “Your animatronics were built with leftover parts from Eggman’s robots! Were you aware of this?! Do you know how dangerous this is?!” The old wolf put his hands up defensively, taking a few steps back into his house.

“I have…” He admitted. “Shortly after his demise, the majority of his creations were taken from his base of operations and torn down, sold for spare parts. I, and others who have purchased those parts were told they would be harmless! I had no clue one day they would start hurting people around the restaurant!”

“You can’t expect me to believe that! You had to have known there was a risk, even if it’s turning them into something as simple as children’s entertainment!”

“Mr. Prower, I would be careful throwing around such baseless accusations…besides, you are causing a scene.” Tails blinked, looking around to see a few neighbors had gathered around, seeing what looked like the new guy in the neighborhood getting on the old man’s case. He looked back when the foot was snagged out of his hand by Mr. Wolfgang. “Some of these people might not know who you are, they’re not aware that you’re the same Tails Prower who survived the Ancient Relics ordeal…if they knew, this would look horrible for you. So, I suggest you relax, go home to your family, and get ready for tonight, son.”

With that, the old wolf slammed the door in his face, making him flinch anxiously. Tails turned around, seeing the neighbors looking directly at him, making him chuckle nervously.

“Heh, sorry. Just a bit of a disagreement!” He said, getting off of Mr. Wolfgang’s porch, quickly marching his way back to his home, all the while, Grimm and Harold were being bombarded with constant drops of swears in Tails mind. Tails stepped into his home, resting against the door with a sigh, rubbing his face.

“Honey? What was that about?” Kiera questioned, her and Ruby having seen the entire thing go down.

“The animatronics at the Pizza Palace are built from Eggman’s old robots!”

“What?!” Her eyes widened out of shock after hearing his explanation.

“Who’s Eggman?” Ruby questioned.

“Eggman was a bad, bad man, Ruby. Someone who has tried to take over the world many times when he was alive. Me and uncle Sonic did what we could to stop him every time, until he died…but now it seems like he’s taunting me from beyond the grave.”

“First the wrappers found at the store you were kidnapped from, and now this…” Kiera put a finger to her chin, trying to think of what could be happening.*

“Ruby, sweetie, you said you don’t trust Mr. Wolfgang yesterday.” Tails said, sitting down next to his daughter on the couch. “What do you know?”

“He’s going to burn down the Pizza Palace!” She answered, not missing a heart beat. “Me and my new friends, we’ve been spying on him, and we saw that he hid a tank of gasoline in the loading bay at the restaurant!”

Tails looked over at Kiera, who had a paw to her mouth. A small sigh escaped him before he looked back at her.

“Sweetie, thank you for letting me know. But now, I need you to do something for me, okay? I’ll let you hang out with your new friends, but the second they start doing anything involving Mr. Wolfgang.”

“B…But dad-!”

“No buts, young lady. If he has Eggman’s technology in his pizzeria, then he might have more on him at all times…he’ll probably have something even worse in his basement, and now, seeing him fortifying his house is making more sense.”

“Okay, daddy…” Ruby lowered her head a bit before her ears perk. “Oh! That reminds me, Freddy’s having a sleepover tonight, and I was wondering if I could be a part of it!”

“As long as you don’t go anywhere near Mr. Wolfgang.” Kiera warned.

“I won’t, mom.” Ruby shook her head. The lemur smiled, nodding her head in approval.

“Alright. After dinner you can pack up a change of clothes and head over to Freddy’s.”

“Thanks mom!” Ruby smiled, deciding to go upstairs to play. Tails grabbed his phone and made a quick phone call to the local police station to give them a tip with the information he learned from Ruby. However, the receptionist that answered him, told him that they already have a lot of reports about the Pizza Palace, and that they were already trying to investigate it. Whether or not they’d find anything about the hidden barrel of gasoline would be anyone’s guess. With a sigh, he thanked them and hung up the phone, rubbing his face tiredly before sitting the phone down. The most he could hope for, was that nothing else could go wrong.

That night, Tails' eyes shot wide open, and he sat right up in a cold sweat, right before his alarm went off. It was another strange nightmare, this time, he was a kid again, but trapped on a burning Angel Island. No matter how far or how fast he ran, it never seemed to end, and the flames grew stronger. The flora seemed to mutate and morph, the trees turning into skin and violently twitching eyes that peered into the world. And then, before he could even process the strange sensation of slowing down, he appeared.

A strange creature, posing as his best friend Sonic, Appeared before him and forced him to a complete stop by grabbing him by the neck, lifting him up in the air. His quills and fur were a pale purple color, his body had a more bulky build, a large X scar was across his chest, and his deep, sunken and empty eyes glared at him with those ghastly red pupils. Tails could only watch in horror as fingers slowly emerge from the creature's mouth, two pairs of hands gripping at his upper and lower jaw before pushing them away, causing his lower jaw to dislocate. One more hand shot out, and before it could touch Tails, he woke up. Surprisingly, he didn’t have any bruises, cuts or wound on his body.

“...The fuck was that…?” He asked himself, taking a few deep breaths before grabbing his phone, and shut the alarm off. He sat on the edge of the bed, looking out the window, thinking that tonight was the last night he had to worry about this restaurant, and afterwards, Wolfgang could do whatever he wanted…but tonight, those damn robots needed to be dismantled. He got dressed, kissed Kiera goodnight, ate dinner, and before going to his car, he went to his garage, grabbing a sledge hammer right next to his desk. He put it in the back of his car, and got in before driving off to work. Once his car turned the street, Ruby, Freddy, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy poked their heads out of the bushes in front of Freddy’s house.

“Okay…Dad’s going to work…it’s go time!” She said, nodding to her friends. Looking both ways, she emerged from the bush and ran to Mr. WolfGang’s home, the sounds of crickets chirping filled the air. She maneuvers carefully around the lawn, working her way towards the side of the house. Once there, she put her paws on the chimney stack and began climbing upwards. Reaching the top, she gave a thumbs up to the other kids. Foxy nodded and ran across the street next. He ran straight to the front porch and knocked the tune ‘shave and a haircut’ on the old man’s door before stepping onto the lawn. The door opened up, and the old wolf revealed himself, spotting the fox cub rather quickly.

“You.” Mr. Wolfgang growled, to which Foxy just blew a raspberry at him in response. That was enough to get the wolf to step off his porch and begin chasing him around the yard, giving Ruby the chance to slide down the chimney. Once she reached the bottom, she rolled into the living room, coughing smoke out of her mouth before dusting herself off. Rushing upstairs. Seemed she was lucky enough for him to have left the door wide open. Once she saw him and Foxy run across the front yard, she motioned Freddy, Bonnie and chica to hurry over. They were able to sneak in, just before Foxy and Mr. Wolfgang turned the corner.

“Okay…everybody, split up!” Freddy ordered. “Bonnie, you and I will look downstairs for something to pry the boards off the basement door. Chica, you and Ruby check upstairs for the keycard and the key for the padlock!”

“Right!” The three saluted before splitting up, with Bonnie and Freddy making their way into the kitchen, while Chica and Ruby ran upstairs. The keycard they were able to find was relatively easy, having seen Mr. Wolfgang place it on the table in one of the spare bedrooms plenty of times, but now, they had to tear through the rest of it just to try and find the key. With no luck in the bedrooms, the master bedroom, the hall closet or the bathroom, after an hour of searching, they ran downstairs, hearing some clatter coming from the garage. They saw Freddy and Bonnie coming in from the garage, a crowbar in Bonnie’s hand.

“Freddy! We found the cardkey!” Chica smiled, holding the item up in question.

“Yeah, but we’re still not sure where the regular key for the padlock is.” Ruby looked out the window, seeing Foxy was still giving Mr. Wolfgang ran around, but he was starting to slow down a little bit.

“Don’t worry, we already found it in the kitchen under his knife holder.” Freddy smirked, holding up the red key in question. Wasting no time, Bonnie used the crowbar to remove the wooden boards, Freddy unlocked the padlock, and Chica swiped the keycard, allowing the door to slowly open up. The group looked to each other before Freddy ran down the stairs before him, with the other three following behind him.

At the bottom of the steps, they found the plans and equipment they’ve spied Mr. Wolfgang collected over the week, along with a plane ticket to Central City. There was a shared confusion amongst the group, and a little disappointment that they didn’t find the purple hedgehog suit, or some kidnapped child that was on the list of disappearances, but no, they just found what they already knew, and that he was going to skip town soon after.

“Wait…this is it?” Freddy blinked, picking up the tickets. “I thought there was more to it all than just this!”

“Yeah!” Bonnie scratched his head out of confusion. “Where’s the purple hedgehog?”

“At the Pizza Palace.” An older voice spoke up. Everyone turned to see Mr. Wolfgang standing at the edge of the stairs, holding Foxy by the hand. The four took a few steps back, a sense of fear fogged the room. “I thought I was pretty clear with one of you, that you should’ve kept your nose out of where it shouldn’t be in.”

“Okay, what’s going on?” Freddy asked. “All the disappearances, the animatronic band going nuts,  the hedgehog, what do you know?!”

“I know that that girl's father is in a lot of trouble.” He said, letting Foxy go before approaching one of the tables, filling a few bottles with gasoline, stuffing them with paper before sliding a lighter into his shirt pocket. “That damn purple hedgehog will be there tonight once his shift starts, I don’t know where he came from, and if you think it’s me, then I hate to break it to you, but it isn’t. One day, it just showed up, somewhere inside the Pizza Palace, and its presence affected the characters. I don’t know what it is, but it’s like it has power over them…I’ve had to dismantle several of the characters because of how violent they became, but even then, a few of them managed to rebuild themselves…one day, he showed himself during the day, on my daughter’s birthday…” He went quiet,  his eyes shifting to the table before him as the kids looked to each other.

“What…what happened?” Ruby asked, stepping forward.

“The cameras showed her, and my son, following it deep into the pizza palace, into an unmarked room that didn’t have a camera installed into it…they never came back, and no one could find the bodies…” He explained, picking up the framed photo of his children, his ears flattening against his head. “Then, more and more disappearances occurred, and now, the animatronics are giving off weird smells…”

“I think I know where everyone went…” Foxy said with a grimace, as Chica felt a shutter up her spine.

“Yes. I don’t want to think about it, but…that monster put those missing children inside the animatronics…” Mr. Wolfgang said, grabbing a belt that was on the table he had made to hold his molotov cocktails before sliding them onto the belt itself. “And tonight…I’m going to make sure it burns. It always appears on a night guard's fifth night. If there was any time to strike, it’s now.”

“You’re not going to hurt my dad, are you?” Ruby questioned.

“Of course not. There is a way for him and his coworker to get out of the place safely, so long as they can outsmart the characters. But once that clock starts, they’ll need to act fast. Because I intend to spread that fire fast.” he turned to look at Ruby before kneeling down. “We are going to have to tell your mother what’s going on…the rest of you, you need to go home right now. It’s going to be way too dangerous for all of you to come with.”

“But sir-” Freddy spoke up, but Wolfgang cut him off.

“No buts, young man. This is serious…” He said before collecting a few more things.

“Okay…” Freddy sighed. “Well, good luck, Ruby. Hopefully you can save your dad!”

“Yeah!” The three kids said in unison before hugging the spider fox. Once they finished, the group ran back upstairs and out of the house, leaving Mr. Wolfgang and Ruby do what they need to do.

After exiting the basement, Ruby and Mr. Wolfgang carefully walked to the sidewalk to avoid bear traps, and stepped on her porch. Mr. Wolfgang cleared his throat and knocked on the door a few times, waiting for a few minutes before the door opened, revealing Kiera, who saw the old wolf behind Ruby. Quickly, Kiera was quick to get a little mad.

“Ruby, what did I tell you about leaving this man alone?” She questioned. But before she could say anything, Mr. Wolfgang spoke up, cutting Ruby off.

“No, no, there’s no trouble, ma’am.” He said. “However, there is going to be trouble for your husband…”

“Believe me, I’m well aware of the animatronic situation…”

“No, it’s worse than that. I need you and your daughter to come with me to the pizza palace and get him and his coworker out of there. It’s a dire situation, and  if we don’t act now, he’s going to be next on the list of vanished victims.” Hearing this, Kiera paused. She didn’t want to believe it, but somehow, she had a feeling the night, and this whole week, would end like this.

“…So are we taking your car, then?” She asked.

Tails and Fiona were already hard at work defending themselves from the animatronic onslaught, the characters doing everything they could to slip into that office to kill them, all the while, Tails had one of his tendrils to hold up the sledgehammer should any of them get the chance. They slammed the doors down and opened them in rapid intervals to avoid getting caught, even with polterguy’s interference, they were still able to keep the robotic monsters at bay.

“It’s only two, and these things are making us burn through the power!” Fiona let out a frustrated growl, keeping an eye on the main showroom camera every now and then.

“Just focus! We can’t afford any slip ups tonight!” Tails told her, shining a light into the hall to make sure it was safe. A few moments went by, and it felt as if the onslaught had calmed down. Tails looked left and right, his ears twitching, trying to pinpoint any sound of the animatronics moving around. Slight bangs from the air vents, the sound of metal scraping against the walls, and the fan spinning were all they could hear, until all they could hear was the fan. Suddenly, a loud ‘bam’ would be heard as something slammed against the left door. Tails tightened his grip on the sledgehammer, gritting his teeth while the slamming continued. Once he saw the door start to dent inward, he felt a drop of sweat running down his face. Another slam occurred, causing the door to get weaker.

“...Fuck this.” Fiona opened the other door, just as the breaking door caves inwards, revealing the entire group of animatronics, screeching at the two nightguards. Tails had a feeling he couldn’t take them all on at once, even with a sledgehammer, so once he felt Fiona pull on his arm, he started running to follow after her. “No money is worth this!”

“Agreed, we need to get out of here, now!” Tails nodded, running alongside her. When they turned the corner, they froze when they saw a new character, standing at the entrance. A purple hedgehog wearing white gloves and red tennis shoes, grinned at the two, ear to ear. The tendrils holding onto the sledgehammer tightened, and Tails could feel his fight or flight going haywire. The hedgehog laughed, moving his head backward as he rubbed his hand against the blade of the knife in his right hand.

“Ahh, Miles, “Tails” Prower…” He greeted, pointing the knife at the twin tailed fox. “I’ve been waiting years for the day we would meet again…and I’d be able to get my revenge!” He laughed more, and Tails relaxed his stance slightly, raising a brow at the hedgehog's statement.

“Do I…Do I know you?” He questioned, a bit perplexed by what he and Fiona just heard.

“You should. After all, no one else on Mobius has ever been able to match your intellect…” As the hedgehog spoke, he grabbed his head and slowly pulled upwards, showing that it was a mask for a character costume. Once it was off, the man dropped it, making it fall on the floor. Tails’ pupils dilated as he studied the man’s face…he was human, but his skin was a sickening green color, a massive stitched up scar ran from his forehead to his chin, his glasses were snapped in half and the lenses were cracked, and a large, bushy brown beard.

“BUT ME!” Eggman began to cackle maniacally. Tails froze at the sight of the zombie man, taking a hesitant step back.

“E-Eggman…!” He couldn’t take his eyes off of the man, praying that his mind was just playing tricks on me.

“No, that can’t be possible…you’re supposed to be dead!” Fiona said, pointing at the man in the purple hedgehog suit.

“Ahh, but I was! For nearly thirteen years, I have been rotting away in a grave, thanks to everyone’s favorite two tailed freak! And thanks to that same fox, I’m back…”

“B…But how?!” Tails demanded.

“My dear nephew, Snively, followed my instructions precisely…even if it cost him his life, it’s for the greater good, for the return of the Eggman Empire! For you see, the Devil’s Chaos is not only an agent that gives those injected with it incredible strength, resilience, and power to rival that of Sonic in his super form, it also bridges the gap between the recesses of your mind, and reality! Any nightmare, any dream you have, will make its way into the real world in one way or another, and that coma you were in was the perfect chance for me to escape while you were stuck in that basement with the ‘princess’! I’ve been working hard within the walls of this pizzeria, and nobody suspected a thing! I knew the animatronics were made from my old robots, and so, with a bit of elbow grease and vanishing children, I’ve been able to bring them back to their full potential!”

“So, now you’ve come back to kill me, is that it?” The fox clenched his fists.

“Ohh, hohohoho…no, not yet, my dear boy. There’s still a lot more work that needs to be done…” Eggman chuckled, and both Tails and Fiona’s ears twitched at the sound of the animatronics slowly surrounding them. “But, that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to be roughed up a little…” Earl slowly arched his way towards the two foxes, ready to grab them. Suddenly, an enraged scream caught Earl off guard, and one of the metal chairs in the restaurant was slammed into the back of his head, making him fall forward to the floor, revealing Kiera, holding the chair in question.

“Keep your hands off my man…” She growled.

“Kiera? Honey, what are you doing here?” Tails blinked. Eggman’s laugh stopped him from getting an answer, and when he turned around, he was gone.

“No time for that, honey. We need to get out of here!” She said, joining him and Fiona by their side. “Mr. Wolfgang is getting ready to burn the place down, so we need to get past these things, now!”

“...Do us the honors, big guy.” Fiona said, touching the sledgehammer. Tails, with a smirk, rushed at the animatronics before swinging it as hard as he could, bashing it into Spike and Mike, knocking them against a wall and shattering them into pieces with loud metal clanks. The other animatronics screech angrily and lunge at him, but Fiona and Kiera countered by swinging the metallic chairs at them, disorienting them and giving Tails the chance to follow up with another swing of the hammer.

One by one, the animatronics fell; Alex’s head was knocked off his head, Toejam’s upper body was caved in, Headdy was crushed, and Jim, who tried to whip the foxes and the lemur with his head, got his head knocked out of his hand by Fiona, allowing Tails to swing the sledgehammer down and snap it in half. His ears flickered at the sound of spotlights turning on, revealing Samba on his stage.

“Well, look at that…you took out most of my amigos.” Samba shook his head, tilting his sombrero up with a maraca to show red glowing eyes, as Polterguy emerged from the walls, chuckling to himself. “But you still have the double trouble to worry about.”

“Three against two, cabrón.” Fiona smirked.

“We don’t have to fight them.” Kiera said. “Once we smell the flames, we gotta book it.” The two foxes nodded, ready to fight for their lives. Polterguy jumped his way into an arcade machine, making it jump up and down aggressively before it leaped towards the trio, and they jumped out of the way. Samba jumped off the stage and made a Beeline for Kiera, but Tails, seeing this, quickly tackled him out of the way before jumping up, slamming the sledgehammer down, but missed as Samba rolled out of the way, and he swiftly kicked Tails in the hip, knocking him away and forcing him to let go of the weapon.

“Check it out!” Polterguy smirked, picking up the sledgehammer. “Dude’s given me a new toy!” Tails clenched his fists as he hopped back onto his feet, the smell of char filling the room, along with a dense fog of smoke.

“Time to go!” He said, jumping over an arcade machine, joining Fiona and Kiera as they ran for the back entrance, with Polterguy and Samba giving chase. The fire began to spread quickly, soon moving past the trio and making its way into the main floor. They saw Mr. Wolfgang at the end of the service tunnel and waved to them. Once they ran past him, Mr. Wolfgang lit a molotov and chucked it before going after them. He slammed a button that would force the bay doors closed, and once he saw the three made it outside, he rushed as fast as he could to make it outside, sliding like a baseball player before it shut.

Samba and Polterguy reached the door and began pounding on it vigorously to try and force it open, but it wasn’t working. The flames grew stronger, and stronger, and Samba could feel the suit of his body slowly melt and burn away, revealing his endoskeleton, his inner mechanisms began to melt in the intense heat, and he forced himself into powering down. All Polterguy could do was wait for everything to come to an end.

Outside, Fiona and Tails helped Mr. Wolfgang up to his feet. He groaned in pain, regretting having done that slide. Once he was up, they all went to the parking lot, watching the fire spread, causing the building to become weaker and slowly fall apart. Mr. Wolfgang reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, looking at the image of his children that he kept on him at all times.

“Sammy and Molly…I hope your souls are able to move on from all of this…” He sighed, closing his eyes before putting the wallet away. “Well…good luck to all of you. I’m moving out of town…” He nodded to Tails, Fiona and Kiera before giving Tails and Fiona their paychecks, before getting in his car, and drove off.

“So, what now?” Fiona asked.

“We have to warn Sonic and the others…they’re not going to believe Eggman’s back, but they have to know.” Tails said, reaching for his pocket, only to realize it was empty. He patted himself a few times, then looked to the burning pizzeria. His clothes and phone were still in the changing room. “...Shit. Honey, do you have Sonic on your contacts?” Kiera reached for her phone and started to check.

“No, we forgot to add each other…!” Her eyes widened.

“I don’t have him on speed dial.” Fiona shook his head.

“Okay…we’re going to have to go back then…” He looked to his car, seeing Ruby sleeping in the back seat. He was ready to get in, but then he got an idea. “...Fiona! Come with us!”

“What?” The vixen tilted her head.

“You can come with us, and help us stop whatever plan Eggman has in store!”

“Tails, I…I don’t know, man, I doubt your friends would be happy to see me.”

“True, but if you do this…I’ll put in a good word for you. You can get Rusty back in your custody!”

“Do you really think it’ll work?” She asked, crossing her arms, thinking it over.

“Positive…” He nodded, smiling at her.

“...Alright, if you think it’ll work, then let’s get going.” She smiled back. Tails and Kiera got in their car, and Fiona got on her back, following the family out of the parking lot, and driving for the exit of town before the fire department showed up. Time was of the essence, and they had to get to the others. Little did they know, they were going to come across a rather challenging roadblock on the way back.

Maria stood outside of the burned down pizzeria, staring at it in disbelief. A sigh escapes her and she tiredly rubs her face.

“I really should’ve looked for another job…” She moaned to herself.