Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

P.W. had made the journey as he did every day, out of the city and into the forests to the north. His job was with the famous toy company, Playtime Co., which had existed for decades. Originally founded and led by the elusive Elliot Ludwig, they had created many famous toys – including the little rabbit girl doll, Poppy Playtime, as well as the famous friendly blue creature Huggy Wuggy. Innovation was always at the heart of the products they made, and other companies could only wonder how Playtime Co. had created some of their best-known toys. Eventually, Playtime Co. branched out and opened Playcare, an orphanage built deep under the factory.

When he was first called about a job there, P.W. was astounded. He was a biologist. Why would a toy company be asking a biologist to work for them? Intrigued, he agreed to an interview so he could find out, and Leith Pierre had cryptically told him: “We make the most unique toys in the world, and we also make the most unique work force in the world. You would fit right in here, especially working on some of our more… special projects.”

It wasn’t typical for a wolf like P.W. to be a biologist. His species were known more for jobs like police, or security. Occasionally search and rescue. But P.W. was good at what he did. And so, P.W. had been hired, and found himself working under Pierre in the Innovation wing. He soon found out just what Pierre had meant by his words.

That day, though, things would change. P.W. pulled up in his car, turning into the lane that ended with the massive parking lot in front of Playtime Co.’s factory. However, unlike what would normally be waiting for him there – the many vehicles of his coworkers – instead he found a police checkpoint. And a ZPD officer, a lion, stood there, holding up his paw in indication for P.W. to stop.

He knew this day might come – somebody might talk about what was really going on in there, and the police might storm the factory.

P.W. rolled the window down, and with the best faux smile he could manage, he looked to the officer and said: “What seems to be the problem, officer?”

“I’m sorry, sir, but you’re going to have to turn back,” the lion said.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“We’re investigating a mass disappearance event,” the lion replied.

“Mass… disappearance?”

“That’s right… it’s the weirdest thing ever, but we got a tip that security feeds went down here yesterday. When they came back up… no sign of any employees. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“N-no…” P.W. stammered. “I wasn’t here yesterday… I called in sick.”

The lion eyed him suspiciously.

“I had nothing to do with… whatever’s gone on in there,” P.W. protested. “Can I at least get in to see for myself?”

“I’m sorry, sir, but nobody’s going in there. Active crime scene.”

“This is being treated as a crime?”

“Traces of blood have been found in the main lobby, so yes. I suggest you turn right round and go home. Your bosses have provided files to the ZPD on all the employees – we’ll know where to find you if we have any more questions.”

What had worried him most about the whole mess was that the police would find out exactly what was going on in the factory. That they made more than just toys… and just what involvement P.W. had in that.

But nothing ever happened. Any investigation was geared purely towards discovering what had happened to the employees, but the ZPD had hit a total dead end and they had begun to decrease their presence monitoring over the factory, eventually leaving only one officer there to watch over it.

Over the next few years, rumours of people deliberately trespassing had reached P.W. Each one ended the same way – with the ZPD officer going in after them to investigate, only to find that the trespasser was nowhere to be found. Perhaps they had run off.

Or perhaps they had gotten hold of them.

Of course, the usual band of conspiracy theorists had come up with their own theories, from it being a front for a secret weapons lab, to some sort of centre for mind control.

One of them, a honey badger who had somehow gotten hold of P.W.’s phone number, opined that it was all down to the sheep, that they had begun their crusade against predators – starting with those in Playtime Co.

It was so absurd, P.W. might have found it funny if he actually knew what was going on. P.W. couldn’t get answers from the higher-ups, and eventually, he had cut his losses and moved on.

******

That was ten years ago. P.W. wondered if Playtime Co. had paid the ZPD off to stop them from investigating further – he wouldn’t have put it past Pierre to organise that. And for the next ten years the fear of a knock at the door lessened. P.W. had joined a laboratory in Zootopia, working on more… conventional projects. The thoughts of repercussions for his involvement in what had gone on in that factory disappeared.

Until that day, when a large padded envelope dropped on his doormat. It bore the Playtime Co. postmark, and the address had been scrawled in what looked like felt tip.

P.W. should have ignored it. Thrown it in the trash, shredded it, burned it. He did not want to be involved any more.

And yet… his curiosity got the better of him, and he opened it up. Inside was a single folded sheet of paper and a VHS tape. For a moment, he stared at the contents of the package. He deposited them on a nearby table and went into his spare room, which he used to store a lot of his old things. He dug through the many boxes and found an old VHS player. He had been meaning to throw it out but was now glad he hadn’t.

Taking the VHS player from the spare room, P.W. hooked it up to his television. He switched it on and slid the tape into it.

The screen flickered to life. The video was in black and white, with a really old logo. It appeared to be a commercial.

A figure walked forward from the darkness on the screen, a hare with large ears and a wrinkled face – one very familiar to anyone who knew Playtime Co.’s history.

It was Elliot Ludwig.

“You are about to see the most incredible doll ever invented,” Ludwig said. P.W. knew this sales pitch like the back of his paw – this was one of the very first videos every employee saw upon their induction, as part of the ‘official history of the company’. P.W. scoffed at the thought – the ‘official’ history differed from reality.

“… Is there anything else you’d like to say, Poppy?” a female narrator said.

“I’m a real girl, just like you,” Poppy replied. Her mouth didn’t move. Nobody would have expected it to… unless you had seen just how Poppy was made… what she really was.

“What’s the time?” the female narrator asked.

“Playtime!” came the chorus of children in reply.

The logo vanished, replaced by the image of the factory. It was a commercial about factory tours. P.W. knew that these were surface-level, that nobody would ever see just how things were made in the factory.

But as the commercial continued, the image cut out, replaced by one of a wall at the end of a catwalk. The wall had a giant poppy flower painted onto it.

The tape ended. P.W. stared at the screen for a good moment, before he opened the letter that came with it.

EVERYONE THINKS THE STAFF DISSAPPEARED TEN YEARS AGO. WER’E STILL HERE. FIND THE FLOWER.

P.W. didn’t know what to make of this. The letter was scrawled in felt tip pen, and the spelling mistakes suggested a child had written it. But there was no way… if there were any orphans left, they would have been adults by now. If, indeed, they had not ‘disappeared’ like his former coworkers.

No, this had to be some sort of trick, or trap to lure him into the factory.

******

All P.W. could think to do was to report this. He made a copy of both the VHS tape and the letter, and headed into Precinct Six, in the Meadowlands district, the next day. The Precinct was shabby, especially when compared to the illustrious Precinct One in the city centre. The desk mammal, a goat, looked totally uninterested in anything as he read a newspaper.

“Uh… hi,” P.W. approached them. The goat looked up from his paper. “I need to speak to somebody.”

“What’s the nature of your visit today?” the goat asked.

“I got this in the mail,” P.W. showed the goat the copy of the note he had made. The goat took the note and examined it. His eyes caught the letter head. He reached for the phone and dialled through.

“Yes, Chief? We got a code 88 down here… yes, sir. Looks legit… yes, sir.”

The goat put the phone down and stood up, facing P.W.

“Very well, come with me, sir,” he said. P.W. followed him down a corridor and into a room. The room was plain, with a table and four chairs, two on each side. A mirror, assumedly one-way, lined one wall. A camera hung from the ceiling in one corner.

P.W. knew this was an interrogation room.

“Please wait here, sir, an officer will be with you shortly,” the goat said, closing the door. P.W. stared for a moment, before taking a seat. His eyes darted to the camera in the corner.

Those fears, that he would be found out for his role in what happened at Playtime Co., the ones that had been silent for years, had started to whisper in P.W.’s ear again.

Several minutes passed by, and then the door opened and a boar officer stepped inside the interrogation room. He shut the door after him and sat in the chair opposite P.W.

“Am I under arrest for something?” P.W. asked.

“No, you aren’t being charged with anything,” the boar replied. “But we are going to have a little chat.”

“Look, all I want is for you to figure this out,” P.W. said. “Why did I get this letter? Why did I get that tape?”

“Probably kids pulling a prank.”

“With an officially letterheaded piece of paper?” P.W. shook his head in disbelief. “Somebody’s trying to get me to the factory.”

“Then don’t go,” the boar replied matter-of-factly, letting out a sound that was something between a snort and an oink. “Isn’t that simple?”

“I…” P.W. stuttered. “I want to know who sent it,” he opened his paws. He was beginning to feel the nerves rising in his voice. “Who wants me to go back there?”

“You gonna press this? Because I got my orders from the Commissioner. You gotta let this drop.”

P.W. stared dumbfounded at the boar.

“Look, I really want to help you, but there’s nothing for me to do here. The factory has been abandoned. Empty for ten years. We never found anybody alive there, nor any evidence indicating that anybody could have survived. There’s nothing to investigate. It’s a hoax. Just some kids pulling a prank. That’s all it is. And if I were you… that’s where I’d leave it.”

******

A hoax.

That was the explanation the ZPD had left him with. But P.W. knew it was more. And now he knew there was no resolution coming… if he didn’t look for it himself.

He knew that going alone into the factory, without any sort of backup or insurance policy, would surely be suicide. But what could he do? The ZPD had refused to help…

Or… at least, Precinct Six had. He honestly doubted any other Precinct would listen to him either.

There was one way to get it taken seriously. P.W. picked up his phone and dialled a number he had acquired a few years before.

“Who is this? I told you, stop calling me!”

The voice belonged to a very paranoid honey badger – the same one who had contacted him ten years prior about a sheep conspiracy in the factory.

“You contacted me years ago about what went on in Playtime Co.”

“Oh! Ah, yes… ready to confess it was the sheep?”

“It was nothing like that, but there is something people don’t know… I received a letter claiming that my coworkers are still there. I’m going back.”

“Sounds like a trap to me.”

“No doubt… but nobody else wants to know. The ZPD doesn’t want to know. What other choice do I have, except do nothing? If there is a chance that some of them are still alive… I owe it to them to get them out, especially with them running around the place.”

“So… what do you want from me?”

“You must know some people who would look into it. If you don’t hear back from me by morning… can you reach out?”

There was a moment of silence as the honey badger considered the request.

“Okay, I might know a fox… and a bunny… but if I let them know… I get to hear exactly what’s going on in there. Deal?”

“Deal. I’ll mail you my door key.”

******

Across town, the next morning…

Morning came, and with it the usual routine for Judy Hopps. Get up, eat breakfast, quickly get dressed, and rush out. Normally, she would be headed straight to Precinct One, but today was her day off. She had agreed to meet up with Nick for coffee at a nearby Snarlbucks. They would then go for a walk around the city centre – such was their routine for days off.

Judy reached the Snarlbucks fairly quickly. She expected to find herself there first, but to her surprise, Nick was already waiting for her.

“Who are you, and what have you done with Nicholas Wilde?” Judy asked in jest.

“Har-har,” Nick returned the jibe.

“So, what brings you here before me?”

“Maybe I just wanted to see the look on your face when I beat you here for once.”

“Hah! A likely story.”

“Okay, I just wanted to see your cute face.”

“… you’re lucky you have a ‘cute pass’. Come on… I know when you’re dancing around something.”

Nick smiled, shaking his head and throwing his paws up.

“Okay, I’ll concede… we’ve been asked to look into something.”

“Nick… as much as I enjoy working, today’s our day off.”

“Well, look at you. I have rubbed off on you.”

“Shut up,” Judy returned with a small giggle and a playful punch to Nick’s arm.

“It’s not from the Chief,” Nick rubbed his arm. Judy’s playful punches were much softer than they were at first, but he liked to exaggerate for effect.

“Ah… one of your ‘contacts’?”

“Yep.”

“Nick, we’re police officers, not private investigators. If it’s that important, they should report it through the tipline.”

“That’s what’s weird about this one, Carrots. They’re telling me the mammal this is all about did report it… but got blown off.”

“Okay… so, what are we supposed to do?”

“Well, she dropped this into my mailbox this morning,” Nick fished out an envelope, opened it up and pulled out a card with an address on it. He tipped the envelope upside-down, and a key fell out. Judy picked it up off the floor.

“And… why are we investigating?” Judy held the key up.

“Because this guy’s a former Playtime Co. employee, and he’s gone back to the factory by himself.” 

******

And that was how they found themselves outside an apartment complex in the Meadowlands.

“Well, here we are,” Nick said as the pair stopped in front of a door marked 1012.

“Moment of truth,” Judy nodded as she put the key in and turned it.

The door creaked open and Judy poked her head inside.

“Hello?” she called out. “Anybody home?”

There was no response, so Judy pushed the door open and stepped inside. Nick followed her in. He glanced around at the plain walls, which lacked any decoration. The living room ahead had a table, an armchair and a television with a VHS player and DVD player attached to it.

“Guy’s a fan of the drab,” Nick observed.

“Your contact say anything about what we’re looking for? Or why he’d go back to the factory?” Judy asked.

“No, but I assume the guy who gave her the key left something here for us to find.”

“And why can’t we just go straight there?”

“Because the key indicates there’s something he wants us to see before we do.”

“Huh…” Judy considered it for a moment, before deciding to change topic slightly. “So… ever had any of Playtime Co.’s toys when you were a kit?”

“Sure,” Nick replied. “I remember owning a Candy Cat, but that was thrown away years ago. You?”

“I had a Hoppy Hopscotch plush. My brothers and sisters had most of the other Smiling Critters, some had Huggy Wuggys and Kissy Missys.”

“Ah yes, with a big family comes a lot of toy purchases.”

“Har-har.”

The pair headed further into the apartment. In the small living room, they spotted a table with a VHS tape and a note. Judy picked up the note and read it.

“‘Everyone thinks the staff disappeared ten years ago. We’re still here. Find the flower.’” Judy read. “I wonder what that means?”

“Looks like a child wrote that,” Nick peered over Judy’s head.

“Would a child know what one of these is? Most don’t even know what a CD is any more.” Judy picked the VHS tape up from the table.

“Touché,” Nick took the tape from Judy. He read the writing on the label. “‘Vintage Poppy Commercial’, huh?”

He moved to the television and switched it on. Sliding the VHS into the player, Nick stepped back and watched as the screen flickered to life.

A hare stepped forward from the darkness.

“You are about to witness the most incredible doll ever made…”

“Yep. Vintage indeed,” Nick quipped. “This must be the guy who founded the company.”

“… She is the first doll actually able to have a conversation with a child,” the hare continued. “Hard to believe? Just watch.”

The image changed to a rabbit doll with red hair and an ornate, old-fashioned dress.

“Poppy Playtime!” came the chanting of children.

“She looks kinda… creepy…” Nick remarked.

“She was made decades ago,” Judy pointed out. “Porcelain dolls were all the rage back then, and they all look kinda creepy.”

“And, if you've ever wanted to see how all of the nation's favourite toys were created,” the announcer said. The picture on screen changed to a photograph of the Playtime Co. factory. “Playtime Co. is now offering factory tours at just $2.99 a person. An entire hour in the most magical toy factory on Earth. What are you waiting for? Come visit the factory! We can't-”

At that moment, the screen flickered and the picture changed to a giant room filled with catwalks, and on one wall was a giant painting of a poppy flower. The tape then ended, and the screen was blank.

“Well, I guess we know what to look for when the note said ‘find the flower’,” Nick said.

******

The drive to the Playtime Co. factory was in silence. Just beyond the mountain roads to the north of the city was a forest. It obscured the factory from the view of the main road. A side road led them down towards the factory. A parking lot was in front, overgrown with weeds and bushes that had taken root years ago, with nobody left to deal with them. A single car sat near the main entrance.

“That must be our guy’s,” Nick pointed. He parked behind it. They got out and approached the car to examine it. Judy placed a paw on the bonnet.

“Cold,” she shook her head, dusting off her paws. “He’s been here since last night, and he’s not come back out yet.”

“I knew the place was big, but I didn’t think it’d be this big,” Nick looked up at the factory. “It’ll take us ages to find this guy, assuming he’s looking for the flower… wherever that might be.”

“We should get started,” Judy moved away from the car and towards the main entrance.

“I have a really bad feeling about this…” Nick grumbled as he followed Judy.

Chapter Text

The door creaked open, and Judy and Nick stepped inside. The main entrance was, as expected, deserted. Directly ahead was the receptionist’s desk. On the wall behind was a faded mural depicting Huggy Wuggy.

“We just walked into a horror movie,” Nick quipped as he glanced around. “Glad I decided to bring this along,” he added, pulling out a tranq pistol from a pocket and checking it. Placing it back into his pocket, he headed over to a VHS stand in one corner and pressed play. A screen above the unit flared to life.

“Hi, my name is Leith Pierre and I'm the head of innovation here at the Playtime Co. Toy Factory,” a voice emerged from the screen. “If you're seeing this, then you're trespassing! Yeah, we play this little tape on loop whenever we close the factory for the day. So, trespasser, just to make you aware: while we pride ourselves primarily on our high-quality toys and excellent childcare, we also pride ourselves on our security.”

“Well, maybe not so much these days,” Nick snarked, looking around.

“For example, this facility is full of hidden motion triggers which, once set off, will turn on the factory's emergency alarms and directly contact the authorities!” Leith Pierre’s voice continued. “And that's one of the more… ‘tame’ aspects of our security system. No spoilers… So, you've got my warning. It's not too late to turn around. I just hope you're certain whatever you're doing is worth it.”

The tape cut out. Nick stared at the screen for a second before turning his attention back to the rest of the entrance. He walked through the turnstile on one side of the front desk, and found himself face-to-face with a closed door. Above it was a panel with a single hand print, which was glowing blue.

“Okay, so… what now?” he asked.

“We need to find a way to open this door,” Judy said. They padded back into the main entrance. “We should look around. You go that way,” Judy indicated down one corridor, “and I’ll go this way,” she thumbed behind her, towards the corridor heading in the opposite direction.

“‘Gift shop’? You really think we’ll find a clue in there?”

“It’s still worth checking.”

Judy headed towards the other end. Nick shrugged and walked down towards the gift shop.

It was a mess inside. Shelves had been knocked over, boxes littered the floor, broken toys were scattered everywhere. Posters lined the walls, advertising several different toys, such as ‘CatBee’ and ‘Boogie Bot’. The lights that had illuminated the gift shop had long since died, and there was no power to the cash register. But there was one thing that was still functioning.

Nick’s ears pricked at the sound of a high-pitched whirring from above, and he looked up. There was a model railway dangling from the ceiling, and there was a train made up of the main engine and four carriages. And somehow, it was still running!

“Hey, Nick!” Judy’s voice came from directly behind him, causing him to jump a little.

“Jeez, Carrots, warn me a little, would you?” Nick said, clutching his chest.

“Sorry,” Judy grinned sheepishly.

“Anything back there?” Nick asked, dusting himself off and straightening his tie.

“There’s a waiting area and a security office, but the door is locked, and the keypad… they used colours instead of numbers. Who does that?”

“A toy company founded by an eccentric, no doubt.”

“What about you?”

“Nah, you can see there’s nothing in here except a bunch of empty boxes and wrecked toys… except that,” Nick pointed up at the train. Judy looked towards where Nick was pointing.

“Huh,” she said, her head tilting to the side slightly. “The carriages are all different colours.”

“Yeah?” Nick’s gaze returned to the train. “Oh… so they are. So?”

“So… maybe they’re the combination for the security office?”

“Carrots, that’s crazy. Who would set up a train set and make it so the colours reveal the code to a secure area?”

“A toy company founded by an eccentric?”

“You got me there.”

“Got any better ideas?”

“Well… no.”

“Okay, so… the engine is green, and then we have pink… yellow… and red,” Judy said, pointing to each with one paw as she spoke and counting them off with the other. “Right! Let’s try it!”

The pair rushed out of the Gift Shop and headed in the opposite direction, towards the security office. Once they reached the door, Judy tapped the buttons in sequence.

The door opened.

“Well, look at that,” Nick said. “I guess you were right.”

“It’s been known to happen,” Judy replied, smirking.

They stepped inside the security office and looked around. To the left was a desk with an old computer workstation sat on it. Dust had collected on the top of the boxy monitor. To the right was a rack of old CRT screens, which were obviously the CCTV feed for the factory. The wall directly opposite had a small alcove with something inside it. Nick and Judy approached the CRT rack.

“Maybe we can see if the cameras picked up our wolf,” Judy said. She gazed at the control panel, apparently unclear as to what she was supposed to do with it.

“It is an old setup,” Nick pointed out. “Here, I’ll give it a try…”

Judy stepped aside and Nick stepped in front of the panel. He started pressing buttons and some of the monitors flared to life, showing an image of a separate area of the factory.

“Fixed cameras… not ideal…” Nick said, his gaze flicking between each working screen. After a minute of checking, Nick sighed and stepped away from the monitors.

“Nope… no sign of him,” he said. “Maybe he was recorded?”

“If he was, the recording’s not going to be here,” Judy replied. “There’s no VCR units.” She indicated around the stack of monitors – there was indeed no unit for recording the footage.

“So, we’ve got no choice but to try and go in deeper?” Nick said.

“Looks like it,” Judy agreed. She looked around again, her attention turning to the alcove in the wall. A strange item was inside – it looked like some sort of backpack, with a pair of cylinders attached to it. Attached to one of the cylinders was what appeared to be a hand.

“What’s this thing?” Nick wondered.

“I think it must be a GrabPack,” Judy replied, picking up a VHS tape from underneath the television stand next to the alcove and examining it. The label read ‘GrabPack Training’.

“Pop it in and see what it says,” Nick said. Judy slid the VHS into the player and turned the television screen on. Strange, tinny music played from the speakers as an image of the GrabPack appeared on screen.

“Welcome to GrabPack Training,” a voice spoke from the video. “You are one of the lucky employees who have been selected to use one in your day-to-day duties. This training video will guide you through proper usage, and safety precautions you will need to adhere to in order to get the most out of your GrabPack.”

The image of the GrabPack faded from the screen, replaced by a featureless yellow mannequin wearing it.

“First, you’ll need to make sure your GrabPack is secured. Make sure that, when you put it on, you tighten the straps. We don’t want it falling off during use – it could cause injury to yourself, and more importantly: these GrabPacks are not cheap.”

“Nice to know where their priorities lie,” Nick scoffed.

“Make sure you hold both cannons, with your index fingers over the triggers. Pull the trigger to fire the hand. The GrabPack’s hands can grip many different surfaces. Hold the trigger if you need to pull something towards you. If you are finished pulling the object towards you, release the trigger, and then pull it again to make the hand retract.”

“Sounds useful,” Judy said.

“The GrabPack’s hands also serve as keys to certain parts of the factory. For instance: the door to the main lobby requires a blue GrabPack hand to open it. Each hand pad is colour-coded to indicate which GrabPack hand needs to be used to open it. Some doors require both hands to open.”

“Safety is important with the GrabPack, so only fire it at small objects and handles, unless you have been directed by a supervisor otherwise. Do NOT fire it at coworkers,” The image on-screen changed to the GrabPack grabbing hold of another mannequin’s head and pulling it off. “Firing it at your coworkers can cause injury.”

“You don’t say,” Nick tilted his head.

“The wire in the GrabPack is also conductive, so you can use it to rewire circuits. But please remember that electricity is dangerous. Do not touch the GrabPack wire while it is being used for dealing with electrical tasks. And definitely DO NOT fire it at coworkers while dealing with electrical tasks.”

“You think they’ve had lawsuits dealing with these kinds of things?” Nick wondered.

“Keep these in mind, and you will become a Playtime GrabPack pro in no time. With that, this training has concluded. Please remember to use your GrabPack responsibly.”

The image once again changed, this time to display the company’s logo and slogan: What’s the time? Playtime!

The tape ended. Nick and Judy looked at each other, and then at the GrabPack.

“Coin toss to decide who gets to wear it?” Nick suggested, pulling out a coin.

“I bet that’s your double-headed coin,” Judy said. “Nope, I say rock-paper-scissors.”

“Okay,” Nick nodded, putting the coin away. They both assumed a ready position.

“One, two, three: GO!” they both chanted, releasing their paws. Nick chose scissors, hoping Judy would go for paper. Instead, she chose rock.

“Best of three?” Nick asked.

“Nope, I won that fair-and-square,” Judy stuck her tongue out.

“Alright…” Nick sighed, his ears tilted back and tail dragging in defeat.

“You were just gonna fire it at random things anyway.”

“Moi? Madam, I would never do anything as irresponsible as firing it at anything and everything just to see if it can be gripped.”

Judy giggled at Nick’s words as she pulled the GrabPack out of the alcove and pulled it onto her back, making sure the straps were done up tight. She gripped the handles firmly and stepped forward.

“How is it?” Nick asked.

“It’s not as heavy as I thought it would be,” Judy replied.

“That’s good. Well, lead the way, Handy.”

“Please don’t ever call me that again.”

They headed out of the security office, into the main entrance and through the turnstiles to the shutter blocking their way into the main lobby. Judy looked up, spotting the hand print pad above the door. Aiming the GrabPack towards it, she pulled the trigger. The right hand shot out from the cannon and attached itself to the pad. A bar above it started to fill from left-to-right. After a few seconds, the hand retracted back into the cannon and the shutter raised slowly. Once it was high enough, Nick and Judy ducked under it and made their way down the short corridor into the main lobby – a giant octagonal room with a door on each wall. In the centre was a large plinth, and atop that plinth, frozen with one arm raised in a wave, a permanent smile and vacant-looking eyes staring ahead, was a gigantic Huggy Wuggy statue. Large wooden blocks scattered around the statue spelled out ‘HUGGY’, and at the front of the plinth was a stand with a button, explaining the history behind the character.

Nick pressed the button. A song came from the speaker attached to the stand.

“His name is Huggy! Huggy Wuggy! When he hugs you, he’ll never stop! Your friend, Huggy! Huggy Wuggy! He’ll squeeze you until you pop!”

“Yeah, that’s not creepy coming from something right next to that,” Nick pointed at the giant Huggy.

“Wonder where we’re supposed to go from here?” Judy asked. They looked around the lobby, noting where each door was supposed to lead to.

“Well, discount that one,” Nick pointed to the shutter with two hand pads above it. He looked towards the shutter directly across from the entrance. It was marked ‘Innovation’, but there were no hand pads around it to open it.

“Guess not that way either.”

“We could try Make-A-Friend,” Nick pointed to the left. The shutter had a single, blue hand pad above it.

“Yeah, seems to be the best option,” Judy agreed. She fired the hand at the pad, and it connected.

A spark blew from a cable attached to the pad, and the pad’s light died out.

“Well, that’s not good,” Nick facepalmed.

“What do we do now?” Judy asked.

“Maybe try and get the power back on?” Nick thumbed towards the doorway marked ‘POWER’. They walked over, and Nick tried the door.

“It’s locked,” Nick said, shrugging.

As if answering their combined wish to get the doors open, the sound of tinkling reached their ears, and they turned towards the source.

Hanging from Huggy’s raised hand was a key, swaying gently.

“You get the feeling we’re being watched?” Nick asked, his ears lowering. “Because I know we weren’t paying attention to what’s up there, but I would have thought we’d have noticed a key.”

“Ugh… yeah, I know what you mean…” Judy replied.

Nick stared up at the key hanging from Huggy’s hand.

“Well… I can’t reach that,” Nick said.

“Oh! Right!” Judy stepped forward and fired the GrabPack’s hand at the key, and then retracted it. Nick removed the key and headed straight for the POWER door. He jammed the key into the lock and turned it. The door opened with a click, and Nick and Judy stepped inside.

A giant machine lined with screens and breakers was ahead. Along the walls were boxes marked ‘high voltage’. A pole rose from the floor, and a hexagonal panel jutted out from the machine next to it. There was a poster on one of the walls, featuring a list of ‘dos and don’ts’ alongside a drawing of Kissy Missy, the female counterpart to Huggy Wuggy.

“‘Do: NOT hide behind the doors to scare Leith Pierre’,” Nick read out. He chuckled. “How many employees did that before that rule was put into place? Hey, Carrots? What do you think would happen if I did that to Bogo?”

“You’d end up smooshed against the wall, and that’d be deterrent enough,” Judy replied.

“Yep, I’d probably think twice about it knowing he would do that,” Nick shrugged it off.

Following the room around, Nick and Judy found another pole, as well as a closed cabinet marked with different-coloured hand prints.

Judy shot the GrabPack’s hand at the cabinet. The door flew off as the hand retracted.

“Whoops…” Judy grinned sheepishly.

“That’s coming out of your pay check if they ever find out about it,” Nick joked. He looked at the panel that was previously hidden. It was glowing, and the node jutting out from its centre sparked with electricity.

“Right, so… I think this is what the training video was talking about when it comes to ‘completing a circuit’,” he noted.

“You’d better stand right back, Nick,” Judy warned. Nick did as she asked, and Judy fired the hand at the panel. The wire instantly lit up with electrical energy.

“Right… so… I’ve got to get it round to the other panel,” Judy said. “And I’m guessing I need to make it touch those poles as well…”

Judy stepped backwards, away from the panel the hand was attached to. She made sure that the cable touched the first pole. The light at the top flared to life. Judy carried on back around the corner towards the first pole near the entrance. She touched the cable to it.

The sound of machinery sputtering to life reached her ears, and the hand detached from the node, reeling back into the cannon.

“Okay, ready to try that door again?” Nick asked. Judy nodded, and the pair stepped back into the lobby.

A lobby that was missing its key feature.

The Huggy Wuggy statue was gone, its podium vacant apart from the blocks spelling out his name.

“What the…?” Judy started forward. Everything else on the podium was still exactly where it should have been.

“Oh, I’ve seen how this movie ends,” Nick groaned. “What say we just put the GrabPack down and head right out the way we came?”

“We’re here because of one of your contacts. Besides, there’s a mammal in possible danger. It’s our duty to get them out, and to find out what’s going on here.”

“I thought you might say that.”

“Besides, this isn’t a movie. There’s probably a perfectly logical explanation. Maybe there are still mammals here, and they moved the statue while we weren’t looking.”

“Do you believe that?”

Judy didn’t answer. She turned back towards the shutter hiding the Make-A-Friend section and fired the hand at the pad above it. This time, the pad responded without blowing the power, and after a couple of seconds, the shutter raised.

“Let’s go,” Judy said, marching towards the now-revealed corridor. Nick followed. Heading further down the corridor, they passed by closed doors on both sides, and then found themselves blocked by another shutter.

“They should rename this place ‘Shutters ‘R’ Us,” Nick quipped.

The sound of something slithering against a wall reached their ears, and they turned towards the door on the left side of the corridor, which was now ajar. Despite that, there was nothing there.

Judy spotted a plate attached to the wall next to a closed door on the opposite side of the corridor. The plate read ‘Stairway’, but below the plate, scrawled on the wall in colourful pen, were the words ‘TO HELL’.

“Isn’t that reassuring?” Nick jibed. “Where do we go now? I don’t like the idea of chancing this route…” he thumbed towards the stairwell door.

“We can try the door opposite,” Judy indicated to the ajar door opposite. “Come on.”

They headed through the door. Behind it was a long corridor with another door at the end. As they started forward, steam hissed from a pipe near to them, causing them to jump slightly.

“And there’s horror trope ninety-five: the steaming pipe,” Nick said. “I’m telling you, Carrots: we’re in a horror flick.”

Despite the faux scare, Nick and Judy continued down the corridor. Once they reached the end, Nick reached forward and opened the door.

Stepping inside, they found themselves in a large storage room. A large metal door to their right was closed, and a metal staircase rose up towards a platform above. Ascending that staircase led the two of them to a control panel that overlooked a conveyor belt and several tall shelving units, some of which had been knocked over. Toys scattered the floor. Above them was a rail, and at the opposite end of the rail was a claw, as well as a glass box. And inside the box was what appeared to be a red hand.

“We can use that to repair your GrabPack,” Nick pointed out. “But how do we get that thing over here…?”

Judy tried firing the blue hand at the box, but it couldn’t reach far enough, and retracted back into the cannon.

“Figures it wouldn’t be that easy,” Judy sighed. “Well, I guess we’ll have to try and use this to work the crane… but…”

Judy indicated to the panel. There were four differently-coloured slots – red, blue, yellow, and green – and all of them were empty. A single, blue fuse was on the platform next to the control panel. Nick picked it up and examined it, before slotting it into the appropriate slot. It slid in with a clicking sound that echoed throughout the room.

“Now, how do we get down there to try and find the rest of these fuses?” Nick wondered.

“Those boxes?” Judy pointed to a break in the railings on the platform. Below it was a stack of cardboard boxes. Nick leaped down carefully, noticing the boxes seemed solid. He reached the floor below and looked around, taking notice of the large door that obscured the way they had entered the storage room. A handle was attached to the door. Nick walked over and gave it a tug – the door was far too heavy for him to open alone.

“Gonna need your GrabPack down here,” Nick called up. Judy leaped down from the upper platform, using the boxes as stepping stones to reach the bottom, where she joined Nick by the door. She aimed for the handle and fired the hand at it. She held the trigger and the hand pulled the door open. Once it was open enough, Judy retracted the hand.

“Let’s split up and find the remaining fuses,” Judy suggested.

With that, they split up their search. Nick climbed underneath a shelving unit that had fallen over and was now leaning up against the wall. He found the green fuse amongst the debris under it.

Judy found the red fuse by the door at the end of the conveyor belt that ran through the room. She took note of the two hand pads, one either side of it. Her eyes darted around, searching for the final fuse. A yellow glow caught her eye from above, and she looked up – on a high shelf was the final fuse. She was about to climb up when she remembered she had the GrabPack, and she fired the hand at it. It gripped the fuse, and Judy pulled the trigger again, retracting the hand back into its cannon. She took the fuse.

“Nick, I found two!” she called. Nick reappeared from underneath a collapsed shelf.

“I got one,” he held up the green fuse. “Let’s get them back upstairs and put them back in that control panel.”

The pair rushed back through the large doorway, up the stairs and towards the control panel.

Nick stopped dead before he got there. His eyes flicked to an upper conveyor door.

There was something in there. The light was glinting off two shiny round surfaces. But before Nick could get a better look, the door slammed shut. Judy jumped slightly as she placed the fuses in the appropriate slots.

“What was that?” Judy turned towards the source of the noise.

“Carrots…?” Nick said. “There was something in there, watching us.”

“Did you see what it was?”

“No, but I could swear I saw its eyes.”

“Maybe it’s our missing wolf?”

Nick didn’t voice his objection to the idea. Those eyes were much bigger than a wolf’s, but he had no way of convincing Judy.

“Let’s just get this red hand and go back,” Nick said. He placed the final fuse in its slot and the claw came to life. It grabbed the box containing the red hand and hauled it over towards them. But, perhaps due to the lack of maintenance over the years, the claw failed and dropped the box. It landed on the conveyor belt, the glass smashing.

“I got it,” Judy said, firing the blue hand at it. It gripped the red hand, and Judy pulled it towards her. Once she had hold of it, she attached the red hand to the right cannon. She fired it to test it out – the red hand shot forward and then retracted.

“Now that’s done, let’s go back and get into that other door,” Nick said. They made their way back out of the storage room, down the long passage connecting it to the Make-A-Friend corridor, and back into said corridor.

The shutter back to the main lobby had been closed.

“That’s that, I guess…” Nick shrugged. “What now? I haven’t changed my mind about taking the route labelled ‘stairway to Hell’.”

“Me neither,” Judy shook her head. “We can probably get back out through the conveyor network.”

“You think so?”

“I think it’s our best shot. A factory this size, the conveyor network is bound to be huge, and we should be able to find our way back once we get out of it.”

The pair traipsed their way back through the connecting passageway to the storage bay, and made their way over to the door that would take them into the conveyor network. Judy aimed the blue hand at the blue pad and fired it, and then did the same with the red pad and red hand.

After a few seconds, the door opened up. They stepped onto the conveyor belt and went inside.

As expected, the conveyor tunnels were narrow, so Nick and Judy had little choice but to go single file.

The tunnel split up. Directly ahead was another closed door. To their left was a power node, to their right was a roller slope leading to a power pole.

“Either the person who invented this power system is a genius or a certified loon,” Nick remarked. “Whatever happened to the days of a simple switch? And why hide such a switch inside the conveyor system?”

“Wait here, I’ll get it running…” Judy turned and headed around the corner. Nick waited at the door, his ears catching the sounds of Judy’s GrabPack firing as she created a circuit. She slid down the roller slope and fired her spare hand at the node.

The conveyor belt started up, jerking Nick and Judy forward. They were back in narrow tunnels. There was almost no light, which made Nick thankful he had natural night vision.

An alarm sounded above, and from an alcove on the left, toy parts were propelled onto the conveyor. It happened a second time, this time from the right. And once more, from the left.

And then the conveyor belt dipped, and Nick and Judy found themselves slipping into a large cylinder inside a massive room, landing on their backsides.

“Where are we now?” Nick got up, dusting himself off. On the left were three giant machines, with what looked like eyes protruding from the top of each. In front of the machine was a large panel with a single button. Conveyor belts connected the machines to each other, as well as to a door on the wall directly opposite to them. There was a shutter to the right, and a receptacle. On the shutter itself was a poster with a drawing of Huggy, proclaiming: NOBODY LEAVES WITHOUT A TOY!

Judy jumped down from the cylinder, Nick following her. She examined the machine, and then turned her attention to the receptacle.

“Any ideas?” Nick asked.

“There’s no switch for the door,” Judy said. “So maybe you have to make a toy and place it in that receptacle to open it?”

“Sounds complicated,” Nick shook his head. He hit the button.

The machine flared to life, the eyes opened up. But there were no parts for the machine to make a toy with.

“Didn’t we just get dumped in here with a bunch of spare toy parts?” Nick asked.

“Oh yeah! That’s right!” Judy hopped in place. She turned back towards the cylindrical device the conveyor system had dumped them into. There were three of them, each with a trapdoor underneath that would deposit toy parts onto the conveyor belt feeding the toy machine. Each had a lever which would open these trapdoors.

Judy fired the GrabPack’s hands at each of the levers and pulled. Toy parts spilled onto the conveyor, which carried them into the machine.

Satisfied, Judy made her way across the room… but something wasn’t right. She felt eyes on her. And she was sure they weren’t Nick’s. She searched around, looking for the source of that discomforting feeling. Her eyes met with the eyes of the middle machine…

It was looking right at her.

No, Judy rationalised. She had to be imagining things. Maybe the machine was just designed to ‘look’ that way.

So she moved towards the opposite end of the room… and the machine’s eyes followed her! She checked the other two machines, but their eyes were fixed forward, staring into oblivion.

“Hey, Nick?” Judy said. “We’re being watched.”

“Huh?” Nick spun around. His gaze followed Judy’s and he saw the machine’s eyes fixed on her.

“Well, you’re being watched, anyway,” Nick pointed out.

The machine whirred as it built the toy. After a minute, it came out of the other end of the conveyor belt and rolled down towards the closed vent door. Nick collected it, and examined it: it was shaped like a feral cat, but it had insect-like wings and antennae.

“Let’s get this in there and get back to finding our wolf,” Judy remarked. Nick took the toy over to the receptacle and placed it in. A light shone on it, scanning it.

The shutter rumbled open. They ducked under it and found themselves back in the corridor leading to the main lobby… but the lights were out beyond the next archway.

“They need to hire a better electrician,” Nick said.

As the pair stepped forward, something large stepped out of the darkness ahead. It had blue fur, yellow hands and feet and large eyes. Its mouth was open, and filled to the brim with long, sharp teeth.

It was Huggy Wuggy, but it was like a nightmare brought to life, and it was staring right at them as it padded forward on its felted feet.

Chapter Text

PLAYTIME CO. INCIDENT REPORT

SUBJECT: EXPERIMENT 1170 ESCAPE

On the evening of June 18, Experiment 1170 escaped from the factory via the ventilation shafts. Two employees witnessed this happening at 10:27pm and immediately alerted the security team, who mobilised the Resource Recovery team at 10:30pm.

It would have been a disaster had 1170 made his way towards Zootopia itself. Thankfully, his route took him in the opposite direction, but his speed meant he had already travelled half a mile by the time the Recovery team first caught up to him. 1170 rammed into the vehicle of one of the team’s members, after which that member tried to subdue 1170 with tranquiliser darts.

This was not successful, and 1170 retreated into the forest. At 10:48pm, 1170 was located at a railroad crossing. Tranquiliser darts were fired at 1170 once again, but 1170 remained conscious and once again escaped into the forest.

The Retrieval team pursued, finding the remains of a deer that 1170 had fed upon. At 11:34pm, a lone member of the team located 1170. Unfortunately, they were killed, as confirmed when other members of the team found his remains and retrieved his camera.

The Retrieval team expanded the search radius after midnight to cover four square miles around their original search grid. A camera caught sight of 1170 loitering outside a house at 3:38am. We are not able to explain why he chose that house and why he did not act with further aggression at this point, but we can confirm that 1170 was subdued and brought back to the factory.

Unfortunately, this escape and search has cost the lives of five members of the Retrieval team, with a further six still not accounted for.

I would suggest that our tranquiliser darts are examined and adjusted accordingly – they clearly are not strong enough to bring down an escaped experiment without utilising a large number of them. It was also pure luck that 1170 was spotted escaping into the ventilation system by employees – 1170 should have been kept under observation by the security team to prevent exactly this kind of event from happening.

I will be personally overseeing the investigation into this incident. We are, frankly, lucky that this lapse in basic security did not result in a massacre in Zootopia, with the eyes of both the public and law enforcement firmly upon us. As it is, this incident has cost us the lives of several members of the Retrieval team and forced us to set up a cover up for a deceased civilian. I intend to impress upon all responsible individuals the seriousness of this incident – this will never happen again.

The Innovation Department is not happy.

I am not happy.

Signed: Leith Pierre, Playtime Co., Head of Innovation.

******

“I hate to say ‘I told you so’, Carrots,” Nick said as he stepped back, away from the giant blue monster bearing down on him and Judy.

“Not the time, Nick,” she replied.

The monster stepped forwards towards them. They backed up into the Make-A-Friend room. The sound of a klaxon blared throughout the room, and the shutter slammed closed behind Huggy.

They were trapped there.

The giant turned towards Judy, saliva dripping from its gaping maw.

“Back off!” Nick drew his tranq gun and fired, striking Huggy in the shoulder. The giant stopped in his tracks, looked down at the dart protruding from him, and then, with a single swipe of his hand, pushed it out of him.

“That’s not good…” Nick’s tail drooped and his ears lowered behind his head. “Carrots! Run!”

“Run where?” Judy said. “There’s nowhere to go!”

As if hearing their pleas for escape, the door linking the Make-A-Friend machine to the conveyor network opened.

With nowhere else to go, and a large, murderous toy pacing towards them, Nick and Judy turned tail and fled into the conveyor shaft.

Before Huggy could join them, the door slammed shut behind them. Nick fished out his phone and activated its torch. The light shone on the walls of the shaft. Along its walls were many different messages, scrawled in different colours. All of them were disturbing:

THIS ISN’T MY BODY

STARVING!

DANGER

TURN BACK

THE PROTOTYPE HAS SAVED US

SHE CAN’T BE TRUSTED

STAY AWAY FROM HER

YOU WILL DIE

“That’s reassuring…” Nick said.

“Come on, let’s get moving,” Judy stepped forward. “Sooner we’re out of here, sooner we can find P.W. And hopefully that monster can’t follow us.”

“Carrots, I hate to tell you this… but I think I saw that thing in the vents above the storage room… I think he can get in here.”

Judy swallowed nervously. As if to confirm Nick’s suggestion, faint thumping noises reached her ears, reverberating throughout the shaft.

“Let’s just carry on,” she said, stepping forward.

The conveyor sharply dropped, and Judy slid downwards into the dark. She hit the bottom, got up and dusted herself off. Nick followed her down, landing more gracefully than she did. Judy’s ears pricked up as the noise of repetitive thumping reached them. Nick held his phone up, the light shining into a grate ahead of them.

The sounds of thumping that Judy had been hearing grew louder, as if the thing causing the noises was coming closer.

And then, from the darkness behind the grate, Huggy Wuggy appeared. His body was squashed into the vent, crawling towards them. The monster couldn’t reach them, however, thanks to the metal separating them, so he rounded a corner on his side of the shaft and disappeared from view not long after.

“Don’t say it,” Judy turned to Nick, who mimed zipping his mouth shut in response.

With nowhere to go but forward, Nick and Judy carried on through the narrow shaft. There was an opening to the right. The conveyor ahead sloped downward once again.

“So, if we go straight ahead…” Judy said, stepping forward.

As she did so, the thumping noise returned, and from the slope ahead, Huggy emerged. And he was moving fast towards them.

“On second thought, going right sounds like a good idea,” Judy said, making for the opening. Nick followed her in, ducking underneath the head of the access hatch. Huggy followed them in, slowing so he could squeeze himself through, before picking up the pace again.

Neither of them dared to look back. The sounds of Huggy’s hands thumping against the walls of the shaft was plenty of incentive to carry on.

Suddenly, the conveyor belt dipped again, and Nick and Judy slid downward and through a hole at the bottom.

Clambering to her feet, Judy pressed forward, with Nick behind her. Huggy was no longer behind them – it seemed like he had decided that the hole was too small for him to squeeze into.

But both Nick and Judy knew better than to assume that meant Huggy had backed off from them – he was probably looking for another way to get to them.

As they carried on down the conveyor, a door slammed shut in front of them.

“Not that way, then,” Nick said. They turned towards an alcove to their right, but as they stepped inside, Huggy reappeared in front of them, crawling fast towards them.

“We’re trapped!” Judy said. “We can’t go back!”

The door opened, and the pair ran through it, and once more down a steep drop. This time, the drop landed them into a massive room, with many conveyor belts and catwalks stretching between its walls. A stack of boxes blocked their path forward. Behind them, a door closed, locking Huggy in, the noise causing them to turn back towards the direction they had come from. Above them was a wide conveyor belt with a large wooden box hanging slightly over its edge.

“Where do we go now?” Judy asked.

“We’re safe for the moment,” Nick replied. “Let’s just get our bearings first, and then we…”

THUMP!

Huggy had started to pound against the door that had trapped him. A dent appeared where the giant had struck it from the opposite side.

“I take that back,” Nick gulped.

Judy looked up towards the box hanging off the belt above. An idea formed in her head.

“Nick, do you trust me?” Judy asked.

“Do you have to ask?” Nick replied.

As Judy stepped forward, aiming the GrabPack at the box above, one final THUMP echoed through the massive room as the door flew off its rails and Huggy came bounding towards them.

Judy fired both hands at the box, and then pulled it down towards them. Just before Huggy could reach them, the box landed, breaking the conveyor belt. All three of them plummeted down below. Huggy had been knocked slightly sideways, so he struck a railing on the catwalk Judy had landed on, sliding off and into the darkness below. On the way down, he hit several pipes, leaving blood splattered against them before he vanished.

Unfortunately, Huggy was not the only one to have fallen from the catwalk. Nick had slipped, and fallen onto a platform below. Thankfully, unlike Huggy, that was as far as he had fallen.

“Nick!” Judy shouted down. “Are you okay?”

“Ugh…” Nick held his head as he got up. “Yeah, I think so. Gonna have one heck of a headache tomorrow, though… Carrots, can you give me a hand up?”

Judy aimed the GrabPack at the platform below and fired the blue hand… but the hand couldn’t reach far enough for Nick to grab hold. She tried again, this time with the red hand, but the result was the same.

She couldn’t reach him.

“I’m coming down, Nick,” Judy made to climb the rail so she could jump down.

“Don’t,” Nick replied. “I’m fine. I’ll find my way back up. Just keep going, and I’ll find you.”

“What if there’s more of them?”

“Well, then I’ll just hustle my way out, so long as I don’t have to do it through another conveyor shaft. Seriously, though, Carrots: I’ll be fine. There’s a door down here. Looks like it might lead to a stairwell.”

“Okay… see you soon, Slick.”

Judy made to press on, but the moment she faced forward, realisation hit her of just where she was.

She was in a giant room. And on the wall she was facing was a large, painted poppy.

Find the flower.

This was the place she had seen in the VHS tape.

“So this is what it meant…” Judy whispered to herself, as she started forward towards it. She saw there was a door in its centre, but as she drew closer, she found there were also warnings scrawled around it.

STOP

GO BACK

DANGER

TURN AROUND

As if to impress upon any visitors the seriousness of these warnings, attached to a rafter above and dangling around the door were several dismembered, bloody toys of different types. CatBees, and Brons, and Boogie Bots. Some missing their limbs, others missing eyes, or wings.

For one moment, Judy actually considered heeding the message and turning back, but she reminded herself of why she was here. And besides, there was no other way back. This catwalk had no stairs, and the only way she could get down to another level and find another door would be to jump. So she decided to press on.

As she reached the door, she considered what had happened so far, what she had seen… the giant Huggy Wuggy that might have even been some sort of living being judging by the blood it had lost when falling. The messages scrawled both next to this door and in the conveyor shafts. The various dismembered, bloody toys scattered around the factory.

For one moment, Judy wondered if she wanted to know what it was they were trying to stop her from finding. Whether it would doom them all.

Only one thing remained clear to her: there was only one way out. This way.

So, she opened the door.

Behind it was quite unlike anything else in the factory. There was a long corridor adorned with old-fashioned wallpaper. It could have been inspired by Pigtorian-period interior decoration. Judy had seen pictures like it in history books.

She stepped inside, closing the door to the giant room behind her. Making her way further in, she came into a room that looked like an old playroom, with dolls’ houses and letter blocks scattered around the floor. A bookcase stood to one side, and an old dresser and chair sat on the wall opposite.

Straight ahead was another door. Judy approached cautiously, remembering the warnings outside. She pushed it open and entered.

This room was decorated the exact same as the other room, but it was bathed in red light. A bed was pushed against one wall, but directly opposite Judy was a tall case.

And inside that case was a Poppy Playtime doll. The young rabbit girl was standing upright, her eyes shut. She was apparently unaware she had a visitor.

Judy nearly dismissed the idea of her having any sort of sentience, but she recalled Huggy, and reminded herself not to take anything in this factory at face value. And with that, she also considered everything she had seen and experienced before finding this room. Was this what the warnings were about? Why would they be trying to stop her finding an old doll? And just who was ‘they’, anyway?

Once more, Judy considered heeding the warnings and leaving. She dispelled the thought, reached forwards and pulled the case’s door open.

A puff of red smoke blew out from the case and into Judy’s face.

“Wh… what the…?” she coughed. She looked back up at the case. The lights flickered. And as her vision grew dark, she could swear she saw the doll open its eyes.

A voice echoed in her ears.

“You opened my case…”

That was the last thing Judy heard, before she fell into darkness.

Chapter Text

Judy was lying in a familiar pit. She didn’t know why she was there… she was sure a moment ago she was… somewhere else.

“Think of the headlines!” that familiar voice echoed. Judy could see Dawn Bellwether gloating on the edge above. “Hero cop killed by savage toy…”

‘Wait… this isn’t how it unfolded…’ Judy thought to herself.

“Wait… don’t you mean ‘savage fox’?”

“Oh, no, Judy,” Bellwether laughed. “He’s already dead…”

Judy gasped as her head snapped forward. Lying metres in front of her, his eyes wide open and a large bite taken out of him, was Nick.

“I told you that you’d face the security system…” came a male voice from above. A tall shadowy figure in a suit stood where Bellwether was moments ago. Judy couldn’t make out his species.

Suddenly, as she turned around, she was no longer in that pit, but in a giant metal room with a sliding door ahead of her. Nick was nowhere to be found.

THUMP! The door dented. Something was trying to get out.

“Wake up…” a voice Judy didn’t recognise echoed. She couldn’t locate the source of that voice.

THUMP! The sliding door was knocked further out.

“Wake up…” the voice repeated. Judy instinctually looked up: right above her was a Poppy Playtime doll, looking down at her.

CRASH! The sliding door flew off its hinges, and a giant blue monster flew out at her. It caught her, let out a deafening, high-pitched screech, and bit down.

“… wake up!” the voice spoke one last time.

******

Judy bolted upright with a gasp. She was on a hard wooden floor, in front of a case which was now open and empty. The red light that had previously bathed the room had now gone. The only light now came from the doorway.

Did she imagine all that? The Poppy doll waking up and speaking… it wasn’t hard for Judy to believe that it had been part of the dream she just had.

However, the memory of the giant living Huggy Wuggy that had chased them through the conveyor belt system came back to her, and she realised that she should not discount the possibility that what she saw before the dream was real.

For now, though, her first concern was getting out of here and reuniting with Nick. So, she got back to her feet and left the small room.

The first thing she noticed when she stepped into the other room was that the corridor that led right back out to the storage bay was blocked off by a stack of furniture. The bookcase that had stood against the wall had been moved, revealing a door behind it. She pushed it open, revealing a short corridor behind it in the familiar Playtime Co. decoration of white walls with Huggy arms painted on them, and white, red, yellow and blue floor tiles. The corridor was broken up by doors in its middle. The one on Judy’s left was labelled ‘Stairway’ and the one on her right was labelled ‘Bay 09’. She tried them both – they were locked. Beyond those doors, the corridor proceeded for twenty metres before diverging into three paths.

To the left was a gate with two hand pads above, but the lights were not glowing, which indicated they weren’t working. A lone Boogie Bot was in front of the gate, sitting in a pool of dried blood. To the right was another corridor. And in the middle was a red door. Above it was a placard that read ‘Elliot Ludwig’. Judy assumed it was his office. She tried the door, but it was locked.

“This way…” a voice whispered from the right-hand route. Stepping back, she glanced down the right-hand corridor, almost expecting to find something waiting for her. She moved down the passage. Part of the floor had sunk a metre down, and given she was carrying a GrabPack, she figured she couldn’t just go to the end of the collapsed section and jump up.

Luckily, there was a bar protruding from the ceiling. Giving herself a run-up, Judy ran forward, and at the fourth step, she leaped up, aimed the GrabPack at the bar, and fired. The hand gripped it, and Judy swung across to the other side. She retracted the hand as she landed. Thankfully, she wouldn’t need to repeat the feat, as she saw there was a makeshift ramp composed of rubble at the opposite end of the collapse.

“Keep going…” the voice from before echoed. It was louder than it was the first time, so Judy could now tell that it belonged to a female. Judy looked around for the source. Perhaps there was a speaker, or a vent. But she could find neither, and so decided to proceed down the corridor with caution. At its end, there was another colourful archway, and a square room beyond, but she found herself once again stopped by a gate. There was a large cutout standing next to it, depicting Huggy Wuggy in cartoon form. He had an open-mouthed smile – which, unlike his real-life monstrous form, lacked any teeth – and he was holding a GrabPack of his own. A speech bubble emerged from the cutout, with a button that said ‘PRESS HERE’.

Curiosity got the better of Judy, and she pushed the button.

“Give me a biiiiiiig squeeze!” the cutout said in what could be described as a friendly, inoffensive, almost dopey voice. But, as if to impress upon any listener a creepy factor, the cutout added: “I promise I won’t bite…”

“Yeah, sure…” Judy laughed nervously to herself, remembering the events that had led her there. The Huggy cutout didn’t respond.

She looked around in an attempt to get her bearings. There was a closed door on the right-hand wall as well as another on the smaller wall next to the corridor she had just come here from. She opened that door, but behind it was nothing more than a maintenance closet with shelves full of cleaning supplies and parts.

Closing that door, she tried the other one. It opened out into a room similar to the security office in the main entrance, with monitors lining the walls. A single television with a VHS player sat to the right, and on the desk next to it was a stack of VHS tapes, each with different labels: Mommy Long Legs Commercial, CatNap Recall, Playtime Co. Employee Safety Rules, Log 08502…

Judy picked up and examined the tape at the top of the stack for a moment. The label read ‘Final Log: 1006’. Curiosity got the better of her and she slipped it into the player. The screen flickered to life. An image of what appeared to be a claw faded in, only it was unlike any claw she had ever seen. The fingers were unnaturally long and thin.

“Final log, in relation: 1006. The Prototype,” the voice on the tape spoke. “It has become apparent given the events now transpiring within the factory that co-ordination and co-operation are within his skillset, and the skillset of all the other experiments. The Prototype has been missing for some time, but I have no doubt that the activity of the other experiments is the result of his interference. The intelligence and will he possesses that have resulted in both his absence and the events of today are clearly a flaw in the scientific process used to create him, and the fact he appears able to have hijacked the obedience of the other experiments also demonstrates flaws in their own processes too. That’s why I’m making this log: these mistakes need to be noted down so they’re not made again.”

The sound of heavy pounding emitted from the speakers, followed by a high-pitched, unnatural screaming sound that sent shivers down Judy’s back.

“Any future experiments need to be contained in and disposed of at a secure location, away from the factory.”

Another heavy hit punctuated the recording.

“I'm not worried about myself. One breakthrough, and I'll be back. We must forge onwards in the name of science. Whether those who are beneath us understand it or not. End of-”

A final heavy pounding sound, followed by a high-pitched screaming, and the sound of wet crunching, and the tape ended.

Judy’s gaze moved away from the screen. She scanned the room, looking for something she could use to progress further in. It didn’t take long to spot a key hanging from a hook in the wall, with a poppy for its bow. She reached for it, sliding it off the hook.

With the key in hand, Judy exited the security office, briefly glancing towards the Huggy cutout outside, before making her way back up the corridor, across the sunken portion of the corridor, and to Ludwig’s office. She stuck the key into the door’s lock and turned. It clicked open, and she stepped inside.

Much like the room Judy had found behind the poppy flower painting, the décor of Ludwig’s office could most accurately be described as ‘Pigtorian vintage’, in stark contrast to the colourful walls of the corridors outside it.

Pinned to the walls were many different drawings made by children, of the various characters Playtime Co. had created. At the other end was an old wooden desk and chair. And behind those were two massive vents, one on either side. The cover of the vent on the left side was hanging off, and there were hand-like markings on it to suggest that a GrabPack could be used to pull the cover away, so Judy used hers to grip it and pull it away.

That voice from before echoed from inside the vent.

“This way…”

For a moment, she considered whether she wanted to. But she knew: if she could take on rhinos, rogue sheep and giant blue monster toys, she could do this. So, she stepped up into the vent and followed it. The path wasn’t long – soon the vent gave way to a room that was vastly different to the one she had just left – it was large, with concrete walls, boxes and shelves, as well as a power pole and outlet.

Judy carefully leaped down from the vent. She approached the power pole, and looked around for a node to connect to so she could get the power back on.

A box fell from an upper shelf, causing her to jump back in surprise.

“Oh!” came the voice from before. Judy looked up to see its source.

It was the rabbit girl doll she had seen in the case before she had passed out. And it was moving.

It was alive.

“Uh, sorry…” the doll apologised. “I didn't mean to scare you. I was just… trying to get the power back on!”

“What… who are you?” Judy asked.

“Oh, right… we’ve only just met. I’m Poppy. I live here… I’ve lived here a long time…”

“I’m Judy.”

“Nice to meet you, Judy! Uh… I’m sorry if I scared you when you opened my case… I guess you weren’t expecting me to actually talk…”

“Honestly, I’m kind of getting used to toys doing things they shouldn’t, at this point…”

“Oh… um… anyway… we need to get the power back on, so: here.”

Poppy stepped aside, revealing another node on the wall behind her. Judy stepped back and fired a hand at it. The cable lit up as it connected to the power supply. She then wrapped the cable around the power pole, the light above it bursting to life. To complete the circuit, she fired her free hand at the node on her level.

The circuit completed, and a rumbling sound echoed throughout the room. Poppy began clapping, apparently pleased with what Judy had done.

“Oh! Um… I wanted to thank you for freeing me,” she said to Judy. “I was stuck in that case for so long…”

Judy thought back to the warnings scrawled along the conveyor passages, and on the wall outside Poppy’s room, warning people who saw them not to trust her, to stay away, to turn back and leave while they still could. They seemed at odds with the apparently harmless doll in front of her.

“I’d like to pay you back,” Poppy continued, breaking Judy from her thoughts. “There’s a train station nearby. The train needs a code to run, and I know it. We’re going to get out of here.”

“I can’t go yet,” Judy interjected.

“Why?” Poppy tilted her head.

“We came here looking for somebody. We got split up just before I found you… he fell down to a lower catwalk.”

“Oh! Well, if he’s on a lower level, then he’s probably headed for the Game Station! Which totally works, because that’s where the train is. So, we can get there and meet up with him! And then we’ll all get out of here!”

“What about the wolf we came here to find?”

“Ah… well… if he’s been missing this long… I hate to tell you this, but you were the first to beat Huggy…”

“… How do you know about that?”

“Because he wasn’t the one who opened my case. You were… and that means you got past Huggy. He was there to stop you from finding me… I don’t think you can save him… but I can save you.”

Poppy stepped into the small vent behind her and disappeared. A moment later, she reappeared just above the large vent Judy had entered through.

“As soon as you get on up here,” Poppy called. Judy fired the hand, using it to grapple up into the large space. She followed it back through to Ludwig’s office and dropped back down.

“Hey, I’m up here!” Poppy called as she reappeared in a vent above a bookcase next to the door. “I see you…” she giggled. Judy found it a little creepy.

“Where do we go next?” Judy asked her.

“Well, you’re the one with the GrabPack,” Poppy replied. “With the power back on here, you should be able to open the gate in the next corridor over. I can follow your path through the vents. I’ll wait for you outside the gate that will take us to the Game Station.”

Poppy disappeared back into the vent, leaving Judy alone in the room. She exited and turned right, down the corridor she had yet to explore. The hand pads above the closed gate were now lit up. She fired both hands at the pads, and after a few seconds, the gate rose up. She started forward. There were doors lining the corridor, all of them locked.

The sound of humming echoed down the corridor; it was a tune Judy was completely unfamiliar with. Somehow, it was soothing, like something a mother would sing to help their child get to sleep.

The corridor terminated in a small square room, with an open vent to the right of the entrance, and several large cube shapes stacked up against the wall beneath it. The door ahead was slightly ajar. Judy opened it up and found herself in a large room with many different branching corridors, each with a sign stating what they were for: Research, Production, the Game Station, Innovation, and Playplace. There was a huge hole in the floor in the centre of the room, and standing in front of it, looking down into its depths, was Poppy.

“The Game Station gate is closed, and there’s no power to open it,” Poppy observed. “I didn’t realise just how badly this place has started to fall apart, but… you see this hole?”

“… what about it?” Judy replied cautiously.

“It’s another way to get to the Game Station,” Poppy explained. “A long time ago, there was a trapdoor here, but it’s gone now… This tunnel goes quite far down, but there’s an exit to the other entrance. I’m going to need you to trust me-”

As Poppy spoke, a pink hand reached up out of the hole and quickly snatched her, dragging her down into the depths as she screamed.

“Poppy!” Judy stepped forward. There was little choice now – she needed Poppy, she needed that code, and she had to find Nick and get out of this place. So she did the only thing she could think of: she stepped off the lip of the hole and fell down into the darkness.

She could feel her backside sliding against something smooth, which was at odds with the dug-out nature of the hole she had just leaped into. It took a moment for her to realise this was not a natural excavation – it was a slide. She was riding it down into the bowels of the factory. This was what Poppy had meant when she said it was a tunnel.

Judy slid out into a new room. Picking herself up and dusting herself off, she observed that it was very similar to the room she had just come from – a gate stood ahead with a sign indicating that the Game Station was in that direction, but it was closed.

At least, it was, until Judy moved toward it. The gate raised slowly. Behind it was another long corridor with a gate and a red hand panel above it.

Judy fired the red hand, but before it could make contact with the pad above the gate, a pink hand descended from the ceiling and grabbed it.

“Oh, my! A new playmate!” the voice was sickeningly sweet. Judy tried to retract the red hand, but as she did so, something moved above her, drawing her attention to it.

The figure above was largely pink, had long, stringy limbs, one of which ended in the hand currently gripping the GrabPack’s red, a round head with spaghetti-like ‘hair’, and large green eyes, as well as the creepiest smile on its face. It wasn’t based on any sort of species Judy recognised.

With one yank of her arm, the figure snapped off the red hand and threw it away as she climbed down the walls like a spider.

“Oh, dear… did you want that? Never mind…” the giant figure taunted. “Though Mommy assumes this is something you want back?” Mommy’s other arm stretched, and Judy spotted her holding Poppy, whose mouth had been gagged by something that looked alarmingly like a spider’s web.

“Finding you two down here was surprising,” Mommy continued. “He always tells Mommy when guests are on their way down. He didn't this time. He always tells Mommy. But never mind that… Mommy loves to play games! Do you like to play games? How about you play some games with Mommy. Oh, you don't have to. Mommy can just keep Little Miss Poppy if you don't want her, but Mommy already knows you'd love to play. Some have lost their way and never found it again… that one wolf who used to work here… or your fox friend…”

Judy’s ears drooped at the mention of Nick.

“… what have you done with him?” she demanded.

“Mommy found your fox friend wandering around the lower levels… he had no idea where he was! Mommy just made sure he couldn’t get lost! Mommy made sure he was safe before she came to meet you… Mommy won't let you get lost. Mommy always knows where you are. Let’s make a deal… Mommy heard that little miss Poppy here was going to just give you the train code… that’s no fun, now, is it? So why don’t we make a game out of it? Mommy just loves to play games! Mommy hasn’t played in so long… so if you play all three games, Mommy will give you the train code! Isn’t that more fun than just giving you the code? The Game Station is still working, after all… and because Mommy’s nice, she’ll even tell you where your fox friend is if you win the first game. Doesn’t that sound nice, Poppy? ‘Oh, yes, Mommy!’” Mommy put on a high-pitched voice. “Oh, I knew you’d love the idea! Head to Musical Memory, and Mommy will get things started!”

Mommy stopped speaking, and she leaned toward Judy, thrusting her head forward.

“Obey the rules,” Mommy’s voice lost the faux sweetness it held previously, “or I’ll tear you apart and eat your insides while you’re still alive. And that fox will make for a wonderful dessert.”

She allowed those words to sink in with Judy, and then she laughed maniacally as she retreated back into the darkness above.

The gate ahead opened. Judy had no choice: she had to proceed.

Chapter Text

A short time ago…

Nick had fallen from the upper catwalks and conveyors after Judy had caused a box to fall on them. The good news was that the giant, monstrous Huggy was now gone, leaving the path forward clear for them both.

The bad news was that Nick and Judy were now separated. Judy had carried on above, on her own path. Nick had found himself in the lower levels of the factory, back in corridors of disarming white with multicoloured tiling and archways. As he traipsed down the corridor, he kept his eyes out for anything resembling a door to a stairwell that could take him up to the level Judy was on.

Eventually, he found himself at the end of the corridor where there was a single door. The sign above it said ‘Bay 09’.

“Well, no other doors on this floor,” Nick shrugged, reaching for the door. He opened it and stepped inside, finding himself inside a room with metal stairs that went both up and down. There were rusty pipes and frayed wires.

He went to the stairs that led upwards.

Something gripped his leg and he fell down. He spun around on the ground to see what it was that had tripped him up. There was a pink hand holding his ankle in place.

“Why, hello!” came a sickeningly-sweet voice. Nick froze in fear as the hand’s owner crawled down the wall from above him.

It was a giant pink figure with a bulbous abdomen. Two large, green eyes were fixed firmly on him as the creature smiled widely, the corners of her mouth reaching the faux-blushes on her cheeks. She gave off a very spiderlike vibe.

“My, oh, my!” she spoke. “I didn’t expect to find anybody wandering around down here! Not even the little toys come and visit any more… if you’re here, then that means Blue watching over the front door didn’t get you… now, don’t you worry, sweetie… Mommy will take care of you…”

“No, thank you…” Nick tried to move away.

“Oh dear… you’re not being very good… Mommy is going to have to put you in time out…”

With that, her head darted forward and she spat something right into Nick’s face, blinding him. He tried to reach whatever it was that had obscured his vision and pull it off, but he could feel her hands gripping his wrists hard. He could feel himself lifted up by the creature as she skittered away.

Wherever she was taking him, it was not a quick journey.

“Where are you taking me?” Nick demanded.

“You should count yourself lucky…” the creature said. “Mommy’s only going to put you in a temporary time out… those who’ve disobeyed Mommy in the past were given much more serious punishments…”

The skittering eventually stopped and Nick felt himself thrown unceremoniously to the ground. Before he could even get his paws up to his face to try and remove the obstruction covering his eyes, he felt something sticky covering his body and binding him to something that was behind him.

“There… now be a good little boy and wait there for Mommy… Mommy hears we have other visitors…” the creature told him. Before she left, Nick could hear her speaking to something else in the room.

“Bron, dear… look after our guest for Mommy, would you?” she said in that nauseating voice. Nick could hear her skitter off.

And then Nick felt the floor underneath him shake slightly as something large stepped forward.

******

Judy stepped into the space behind the gate. It was almost completely dark, except for sunshine filtering in through windows somewhere above, which gave Judy an impression of just how large the space was. As she walked on, the lights flickered to life, illuminating the whole area.

Judy’s first impression was accurate: the Game Station was massive. To the back of it, and stretching out along the rear, left and right walls, was a train track. In the middle of the track at the back wall was the train Judy needed to escape. On her left and right were climbing frames, trampolines and other playground items. As Judy continued on, she spotted a cutout of Mommy Long Legs on a handcar with Boogie Bot holding on to the other end. Judy felt no temptation to press the button to hear what she had to say, so she carried on. Further in were three large red trapdoors, each with a huge sign above them. The left-side said WACK-A-WUGGY, with artwork of several Huggy Wuggys of different colours.

The right said MUSICAL MEMORY, with a Bunzo Bunny above it.

And the one directly ahead read STATUES, with a PJ Pug-A-Pillar’s eyes peering over the top of the name.

A beeping sound reached Judy’s ears. It was coming from the platform above the Statues door, by the train. She headed towards it, taking in the expanse of the space. To her left and right, there were many different things she would have expected to find in playgrounds: climbing frames, merry-go-rounds, see-saws, slides and monkey bars. There were cobwebs over some of them, and the paint on many of them appeared to be peeling away, indicating how long it had been since they had been used.

Judy glanced upwards towards the rafters. She almost stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that not only were there cobwebs up there – a great mass of them – but there appeared to be toys webbed up into the rafters. Judy knew now that at least some of the toys were alive in the factory – had they been eaten by some giant, spider-like thing?

The image of Mommy Long Legs crawling up and down the walls outside the Game Station floated to the top of Judy’s mind, and the words of warning Mommy had left her with echoed in her mind.

Obey the rules, or I’ll tear you apart and eat your insides while you’re still alive.

She suppressed a shiver of dread. Her steps became more cautious, her ears swivelling towards any sound echoing throughout the vast area.

She reached the steps leading up to the train and climbed them. The beeping was coming from a panel in front of the train. The panel had three levers, each with a light above them. The left-most light was blinking. Judy pulled the switch, and a speaker underneath played a short jingle, before a voice spoke.

“Hi kids! Welcome to the Game Station!” a female voice with a slight accent said. “I'm Stella, and we've got three super-duper-fun games to play! These little tests show us just how crazy-strong, and smart you are! Follow Mommy Long Legs down the stairs and we'll start by playing Musical Memory! See you in a bit!”

Judy looked around the Game Station, expecting to find Mommy waiting for her, but she was nowhere to be found. However, the huge door beneath the Musical Memory sign slid open slowly. She made her way over, still expecting the giant pink figurine to ambush her. Nothing happened. Judy didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed – especially since she had no idea if those feelings were premature or not.

Once the door had finished sliding open, it revealed a set of stairs down into a corridor below. Judy descended into the corridor underneath – it was decorated in that familiar Playtime Co. manner, with white walls and multi-coloured floor tiles. However, directly ahead was a closed gate, stopping Judy in her tracks.

“Great…” Judy sighed. “What do I do now?”

She was about to turn back, when she noticed a door to the right of the closed gate. Above it, a sign said ‘Molding Room’. With nowhere else to go, Judy went through the door and followed the corridor around and down into a large room that reminded her of the Make-A-Friend room – the machines clearly had a different purpose to the machines in that other room, but they all had eyes just like those ones. In front of the machines was panel with four buttons. A single television on a stand was to its right. There were two VHS tapes atop the VCR on the stand underneath the screen: one was marked ‘Green Hand Molding and Operation’ and the other had the label ‘Orphan Molding Tutorial’.

“Well, okay, let’s see what this is about…” Judy picked the tape labelled ‘Green Hand Molding and Operation’ up and slid it into the VCR under the television. The screen lit up and the Playtime Co. logo appeared.

“Welcome to Playtime Co.’s GrabPack Hand Molding Room,” a male voice said. “This tape will be divided into two parts: operation of the molding machine in order to create green hands for the GrabPack, and how to use the green hand. A separate instructional tape is available for showing orphans who are brought to the Molding Room how to make their own green hand for broken GrabPacks.”

Judy crossed her arms and started tapping her foot impatiently.

“To operate the molding machine, you will be required to fill the vat with Playtime Co.’s patented polymer. The first button on the console will begin that process. Please be aware that only polymer balls are to be fed into the machine. Do not melt it beforehand – the molding machine will do that for you. Trying to skip this process can damage the feeding pipes.”

Judy looked over to the panel. The left-most button was blinking. She pressed it and looked over to the giant vat attached to the molding machine. However, the vat didn’t fill – Judy saw a pipe that was supposed to attach to it was bent slightly out of place, and as a result, the polymer that was supposed to go in was now spilling onto the floor.

“If the feeding pipe is loose, it can easily be bent back into place even with a single GrabPack hand.”

Judy took the hint and fired her remaining hand at the pipe, holding the trigger to pull the feeding pipe into position. She then tried the button again. This time, the polymer poured into the vat as it was supposed to.

“The next stage is to transfer that polymer to the molding machine, where it will be poured into the molds.”

The next button on the panel lit up. Judy pressed it – the vat emptied, sending the polymer balls into a heater unit above the molding machine. It was then melted, and a hose sprayed its contents into the machine. The molds inside spun around as they were bathed in the polymer. The machine then sprayed the hands with a cold gas to set the polymer, before it transferred the hands onto the conveyor belt.

“Congratulations! You now have a fully-functional GrabPack hand! As you are undoubtedly already aware, Playtime Co.’s patented polymer is able to allow for conducting electricity. These particular hands are not your average GrabPack hands – as well as functioning exactly the same as other GrabPack hands, they are also able to hold an electrical charge for a short amount of time – perfect for transferring power between two outlets! Now, before you go grabbing that hand and attaching it to your GrabPack, there is one last thing to do: paint it. After all, we don’t want naked GrabPack hands! All our GrabPacks must look appropriate. We also like to know what hand is for what purpose, and colouring them aids in doing that. So, press the third button, and the spray-painter machine will spray green paint on your new hands.”

Judy pressed the button. The nozzle above the hands sputtered, spewing a miniscule amount of green paint – not nearly enough to cover a single hand.

“If the spray painter is jammed, or there’s not enough paint, then the line will not proceed. Don’t worry! You can go up to the top floor. A can of paint will be sent to you along the conveyor belt up there. You can then load it into the spray painter. Then come back down and try again.”

Judy sighed. As she made her way towards the stairs that would take her up to the top floor, she asked herself whether all this was worth it. She reminded herself that both Nick and Poppy needed her, and so pushed the grumblings away.

As she got to the top floor, a can of green paint trundled along the conveyor belt. Judy fired the blue hand to grab it, and then carefully loaded it into the round slot above the spray painter’s nozzle. Dusting her paws off, she made her way back down to the panel and pressed the third button again. This time, green paint was sprayed onto each hand as the conveyor moved each one forward.

“Well done! Now, you just need to press the last button to send those hands down the line, where you will be able to collect one and attach it to your GrabPack!”

Judy did as the video said, watching as the hands made their way down to where she could take one. When they stopped, she went over and picked one up, carefully attaching it to the right cannon. She gave it a test fire to make sure it was attached properly.

“Now we’ll demonstrate how to use this hand’s unique ability,” the video carried on. Judy turned around and headed back to the screen.

“The Green Hand has the ability to hold an electrical charge for a short amount of time. This is useful for transferring power between outlets. First, you will need to find an outlet – there is one in this very room for testing purposes. Fire the Green Hand at it, and once it makes contact, it will draw the charge into itself. The charge can be held for a maximum of ten seconds, after which it will dissipate and you will have to obtain the charge again. Once you have charged the Green Hand, locate a nearby receiver and fire the Green Hand at it. When it makes contact with the receiver, the charge will be transferred. Be warned, though: the charge is only temporary, even once it is transferred into a receiver. So make sure you go through any doors opened quickly, before the charge is lost and you’re crushed.”

The image on the screen changed to a doorway which had closed, with a yellow figure squashed by the door.

“Thank you for watching this training tape on the green GrabPack hand. And remember: please use your GrabPack responsibly.”

The image changed one last time, now displaying company’s logo and slogan: What’s the time? Playtime! The screen then went dark.

“Well, let’s give it a try…” Judy said. As said in the video, there was an outlet by the conveyor, and a receiver located by a door at the end of it. She fired the green hand, and it crackled with electricity as she drew it back. Next, she aimed for the receiver and fired the hand a second time. The charge left the hand, and the door opened up.

Judy moved as quickly as she could into the conveyor tunnels. The door shut behind her as the charge ran out, locking her into the tunnels and setting her path forward. There was a closed door ahead, blocking Judy’s progress. She guessed that it would eventually lead out into the conveyor network she had escaped Huggy in. There was a passage to her right, which she took. It didn’t take long for her to emerge into a brick corridor, which then ended with a hole torn into the wall, leading to the other side of the closed gate.

Before the door that led into the Musical Memory room was a Bunzo Bunny cutout, with a joyful expression on his face. Bunzo was quite unlike any bunny Judy had ever seen before – his fur was coloured in yellow, he had markings around his beady eyes, and rosy cheeks. He wore a little green party hat as well as green overalls with suspenders that stretched over his shoulders. Judy pressed the button.

“I know when your birthday is!” Bunzo’s voice came from the speaker. “June 28!”

“Not even close,” Judy shook her head. The big gimmick of Bunzo, as Judy remembered it, was that it could remember up to eight different birthdays, but this cutout clearly was not based upon that technology. Perhaps it needed to be set each time by a Playtime Co. worker, and June 28 was the last birthday entered before whatever had happened here.

She left the cutout and proceeded into the room. There was a bridge that connected the door to a circular platform. Clusters of screens were embedded in three walls. A large window above and to the left overlooked the room.

As Judy stepped onto the circular platform, the screens turned on and the Playtime Co. logo appeared. The door behind her closed and the bridge lowered, trapping her in the room. Old-fashioned music reverberated through the space.

“Welcome to Musical Memory,” a male voice spoke. “This advanced memory and cognitive recognition test is designed to stimulate several segments of the brain, allowing us to see how quickly and efficiently your brain works.”

The image on the screen changed to show a featureless yellow figure with a GrabPack standing in front of four buttons and a large screen.

“You will be shown a sequence of colours. Using the buttons around you, you will need to recreate the sequence.”

The image pulled back to reveal an image of Bunzo above the yellow figure, descending towards them.

“Bunzo Bunny will slowly lower towards you. If you get the colour pattern correct, Bunzo will be raised.” The image of Bunzo slid upwards to illustrate. “But if you get it wrong, Bunzo will lower towards you faster. If Bunzo reaches you, your test will end. The test will become more difficult as you clear more rounds, with longer patterns and more possibilities. There are four rounds for you to complete in total. Good luck.”

The screens went dark, and a light from the observation room turned on. Mommy’s form thumped against the glass.

“Oh, isn’t this wonderful?” she said. “We haven’t had visitors to the Game Station in years! Mommy can only imagine how excited Bunzo must be!”

Judy looked upwards into the conical vent above her. Bunzo had begun to lower towards her. As he drew nearer, Judy could see that Bunzo’s mouth was lined with sharp teeth.

“It’s been so long since he’s had somebody to play with!” Mommy continued in that sickeningly-sweet voice. “To cheer for… to eat…”

To emphasise the point, Bunzo clashed his cymbals three times.

“Oh! That’s the dinner bell!” Mommy interjected. “Good luck…”

With that, the lights flicked on and Bunzo was lifted back up. The screens flared to life again as four large buttons were raised to eye-level in front of Judy. They lit up in four colours: green, red, yellow, and blue.

“ROUND ONE,” a monotonal electronic voice called.

“BLUE.” The screens changed to the colour to emphasise which button should be pressed. Judy fired the GrabPack at the blue pad. She could hear Bunzo starting his descent, clashing his cymbals every couple of seconds.

“BLUE, RED.”

Judy followed the sequence as directed, pressing each button.

“BLUE, RED, YELLOW.”

“BLUE, RED, YELLOW, RED.”

“BLUE, RED, YELLOW, RED, GREEN.”

Once Judy completed the sequence, a chime rang, signalling that the round had ended. Judy looked up: Bunzo was retreating back into his hold.

“ROUND 2.”

As the round began, a fifth button rose to Judy’s left, its light a shining violet.

“GREEN.”

She pressed the button.

“GREEN, RED.”

“GREEN, RED, VIOLET.”

“GREEN, RED, VIOLET, VIOLET.”

“GREEN, RED, VIOLET, VIOLET, BLUE.”

“GREEN, RED, VIOLET, VIOLET, BLUE, BLUE.”

The jingle to signal the round’s end sounded again, and Bunzo once again retreated.

“ROUND THREE.”

This time, another two buttons popped up. One shone with white light, and the other was orange.

“VIOLET.”

“VIOLET, WHITE.”

“VIOLET, WHITE, ORANGE.”

“VIOLET, WHITE, ORANGE, GREEN.”

Judy tried to repeat the sequence, but accidentally hit the red button with the green hand. A low beep sound echoed through the room, indicating she had got it wrong, and she could hear Bunzo’s cymbals clashing ahead. Judy looked up: Bunzo was indeed descending faster. She knew she had to get this right.

“VIOLET, WHITE, ORANGE, GREEN,” The voice repeated. This time, Judy got it right.

“VIOLET, WHITE, ORANGE, GREEN, RED.”

“VIOLET, WHITE, ORANGE, GREEN, RED, BLUE.”

“VIOLET, WHITE, ORANGE, GREEN, RED, BLUE, VIOLET.”

Once again, the jingle to end the round sounded, and Bunzo returned to his original place.

“ROUND FOUR.”

Five new buttons emerged, but this time, they were not of colours. They were all black, each with a different letter or symbol on them. One had the letter ‘J’ printed on it. One had pi π on it. One had a sideways smiley face :) on it. Another had a heart on it. And the final one had a question mark on it. The additions confounded Judy and she wondered how she was going to complete the next sequence.

“GREEN.”

Thankfully, the sequence had started out easily enough, and Judy pressed the green button.

“GREEN, π.”

“GREEN, π, RED.”

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE.”

The next one was to prove tricky.

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE, BLUE.”

However, upon ‘BLUE’, the screen instead changed to green, tricking Judy into hit the green button instead. The low blip sounded to signify Judy had gotten it wrong, and the sequence repeated.

“Right… listen to the colours, don’t look at the screen…” she said to herself.

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE, BLUE.”

Judy got the sequence correct this time, despite ‘RED’ flashing yellow.

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE, BLUE, J.”

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE, BLUE, J, VIOLET.”

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE, BLUE, J, VIOLET, HEART.”

Judy accidentally struck the question mark, and the low blip sounded again. The sound of cymbal clashing sped up. Judy glanced upward towards it. Bunzo was almost on her. She had to move fast.

“GREEN, π, RED, ORANGE, BLUE, J, VIOLET, HEART.”

The end-of-round jingle sounded just before Bunzo reached Judy, and he was pulled back up to his original position. Judy breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.

Or so she thought.

“ROUND FIVE.”

“Wait… what?” Judy frowned, recalling that there had only been four rounds advertised on the introduction video. Buttons filled the spaces surrounding Judy, several dropping from the cone Bunzo was hanging from.

“OMEGA, TURQUOISE, G, GAMMA, BLUE, WHITE, RED, TANGERINE, RAVENOUS, MASSACRE, LAMBDA…”

This was impossible, and Judy knew it. But she caught sight of a button floating around the platform – it was a triangle with an exclamation mark inside it. She fired the hands at it. They missed. Bunzo’s cymbals clashed. Judy tried again, and missed again, this time hitting one of the other buttons. Bunzo’s cymbals sped up as he dropped faster towards her. She tried one last time.

The blue hand connected with the button. A mighty ‘boom’ sounded, the platform shook, all the buttons sparked and blew out, and the screens went dark. Bunzo had been so close this time. Judy could practically feel the air whooshing against her fur on that last cymbal clash, but he was pulled back up into his cone.

“Oh…” came a disappointed voice. “It broke. That’s no fun…”

Judy looked up at the observation room. Mommy had returned to the window.

“Well, you did win the four rounds, after all,” Mommy crawled along the glass. “So, for doing such a splendid job, Mommy has decided to give you… part of the train code… and as promised… Look up…”

Judy looked up at the cone Bunzo had occupied. He was gone, but Mommy’s arm was reaching down with two scraps of paper. Judy used the GrabPack’s hands to take them, and watched as Mommy’s hand retreated back up. Judy examined both pieces of paper – one had a sequence of four pictures depicting different toys. The other simply read ‘Rejected’.

“Aww… Mommy was hoping this game would last a little longer… but it’s okay… Mommy knows other ways to play with you…”

With that, she retreated as the light in the observation room went out, leaving Judy alone with a chill that ran down her spine. The bridge rose to connect the platform back to the entrance. She started back, thinking that Mommy was just messing with her. What did ‘Rejected’ even mean? Was it a place in the factory? Or was she telling Judy that she wasn’t going to tell her where Nick was? One thing was for sure: she absolutely did not trust Mommy to keep her word.

As she crossed the bridge, it suddenly jolted and collapsed, sending Judy plummeting to the floor below the platform. She got up, shook herself off and looked back up.

“Sweet cheese and crackers…” she cursed. “Now how do I get out of here?”

Judy glanced around, looking for anything she could use to climb out of the pit and back into the hallway that would take her to the Game Station. Unfortunately, she could not see anything. No useful stacks of crates. The buttons that had been used for the game looked too unbalanced to be able to use as stepping stones.

Before she let herself give in to hopelessness, she saw a vent.

“Perfect!” Judy hopped a bit in place. “I can get out this way and find my way back to the Game Station!”

With that, she crawled into the vent and started along.

Part-way in, she heard a strange noise. It sounded like screaming, and it was coming from Musical Memory.

Was Mommy taking out her frustrations on Bunzo? Judy shuddered to think, and she definitely did not want to go back and find out, lest she find herself on the end of Mommy’s wrath as well. So she carried on through the vent. Eventually, it opened up into a large room, with stacked shelving. Checking her surroundings, Judy leapt down into the room. The shelves were dusty and webbed. Attached to each shelving rack was a sign that read ‘Rejected’.

Judy realised that this had to be what Mommy’s paper was referring to. So she began walking down the aisles, hoping to find Nick.

There was a cutout of a cartoon brontosaurus nearby, with the label ‘Bron’ underneath it. Judy nearly walked past it… but then an idea struck her. She had no idea if she was alone in this room. Surely a bit of noise might reveal whether or not she was.

So, she pressed the button on the cutout.

“Wanna hear a dino joke? Click once for the question, click again for the answer!” Bron said in a silly voice. Judy obliged.

“What do you call a dinosaur with one eye?” *click* “A ‘Do-You-Think-He-Saurus!’ Hahaha!”

Judy couldn’t help but stifle a giggle – it was the type of joke Nick would tell her in the squad car when they were waiting for a callout. She pressed the button again.

“What do you call a dinosaur who’s a noisy sleeper?” *click* “A ‘Tyranno-snore-us’! Hahaha!”

“Pfft!” Judy had to clutch her mouth. She pressed the button one last time.

“What do you call the scariest dinosaur?” *click* “Me.”

That one was not funny. The smile vanished from Judy’s mouth and she stared around nervously.

“Hey, is somebody there?” a voice shouted. Judy’s ears pricked up. She knew that voice! She started running towards it, through the shelves filled with rejected toys. Rounding a corner, she found a stack of boxes, covered in large webs like the ones Judy had seen in the rafters of the Game Station.

And at the bottom, stuck against the stack of boxes, was Nick, a smaller web covering his eyes.

“Nick!” Judy rushed forward.

“C… Carrots? Is that you?” Nick said. “Oh, thank goodness… I was on my way to try and get upstairs to find you when I was ambushed by this giant pink… I don’t know what she was! She brought me here and… I don’t know where here is, because, as you can see, I can’t see!”

Judy reached up to Nick’s eyes and tore the web away.

“Ouch!” Nick winced. He opened his eyes, and then a sigh of relief escaped his lips.

“I’ve already met her,” Judy told Nick. “She’s playing games with us… literally.”

“Do I get to say ‘I told you so’ yet?” Nick asked.

“Still not the time.”

“We’ve got to get out of here, Carrots…”

“We need the train to get out, and she stole Poppy…” Judy tore at the webbing holding Nick in place. He stumbled forward.

“Poppy?”

“I found her behind the flower, just like the letter said.”

“Ah… so, she’s alive too?”

“Uh-huh.”

Nick looked around, as if checking for something.

“There’s one more thing…” he whispered. “There’s something big in here… I heard it stomping around. It didn’t seem to care while I was tied up… but now you’ve got me free…”

As Nick finished speaking, the sound of a loud bang reached their ears. It was like something heavy hitting the floor. They turned around… and lumbering out from behind one of the shelf racks was a giant version of Bron, its beady eyes fixed on Nick and Judy.

Chapter Text

EXPERIMENT 1210 PROGRESS REPORT

This is our second attempt at creating a Bigger Bodies iteration of the Bron toy. The first version, Experiment 1199, was Thomas Clarke, a former Playtime Co. employee who had developed terminal lung cancer. He was not a typical participant in the Bigger Bodies Initiative, and the other Experiments understood that, which was why he was mauled by Experiment 1160. As reported previously, we isolated 1199. As a result, we examined where we went wrong with that particular version of Bron and came to the conclusion that the mistake we made was deviating from the Bigger Bodies Initiative. There is a reason we use the subjects we do.

To that end, we have worked on the next iteration of Bron. His purpose will be to serve as a guard of sorts for the lower levels of the factory. Unlike the previous Bron, we have decided to make this iteration much larger and of tougher materials to avoid having the same kinds of injuries inflicted as what befell 1199. We have chosen [REDACTED] as the subject to transfer into Bron. As with all subjects accepted into the Initiative, they have displayed significant mental and physical aptitude as per the Game Station tests , and we will move to execute this particular experiment as soon as possible.

******

The massive Bron glared down at Nick and Judy. A strange, synthetic low rumbling came from Bron, almost like growling.

“I think this is the part where we run,” Nick exclaimed.

“Yeah, I agree,” Judy stepped back from the giant.

The two bolted back through the store room. Bron let them get so far ahead before he stomped after them. At first, he was slow enough that Nick and Judy could easily make distance, but then he picked up speed.

Bron knocked aside stacks of boxes and rejected toys as he chased them down the aisle. Nick and Judy rounded the corner at the end and sprinted down the next aisle towards where they had originally come from. Bron had to slow to make the corner without knocking the shelves over, but once he had gotten around, he charged again towards his quarry.

“There!” Judy pointed ahead. There was a set of stairs that led to a platform with an elevator at the top. A second, much smaller Bron was stood next to it, with no indication that it was aware of anything going on around it or that its bigger brother was currently chasing anybody. Nick and Judy sped up, and as they climbed the stairs, with Bron now running straight for them, Judy spotted a button next to the elevator and fired the green hand at it. It began to rise. Bron slowed to a halt and let out a loud and frustrated roar as his quarry rose up out of reach.

Once the elevator reached its destination, Nick and Judy stepped off and breathed a sigh of relief. They turned to each other.

“Thanks, Carrots,” Nick said. “I thought I was a goner, for sure.”

“Well, that’s what we do at the ZPD,” Judy half-grinned, eliciting a small chuckle from Nick. “By the way… I take it there’s no sign of…”

“None,” Nick shook his head. “I’m starting to think…”

“Poppy said the same thing. She said if we were the ones who made it past Huggy, then he probably didn’t.”

“Do you trust her?”

“Not… quite… but she knows the way out. We’re stuck here playing these… games just to get the code to leave.”

“If this ‘Mommy’ even gives it to you and doesn’t just… eat you before you finish the games.”

“Yeah… I trust her even less, but I don’t really have an alternative right now…”

The pair proceeded down the stone corridor. Steam burst from a pipe as they passed it.

“That trope only works once,” Nick remarked. “Seriously… you’d think a toy factory of all places would have better plumbing.”

They carried on in silence until they found themselves at the end of the corridor. A hole had been dug into the floor. Judy peered down it and saw that familiar floor tiling pattern below.

“Okay,” she said. “This takes us back down into the Game Station, from the looks of things.”

“Well, here goes nothing…” Judy leaped down the hole, landing on the floor below. She looked around to get her bearings, before calling up to Nick: “It’s okay! You can come down!”

Nick jumped down after Judy, landing right beside her, though he stumbled a bit.

“So, where are we?” Nick asked.

“Right outside the first game, Musical Memory,” Judy replied. She indicated up the stairs. “That’s the way back to the Game Station.”

They climbed the stairs back into the massive space that was the main Game Station room. On an impulse, she glanced up at the rafters.

Her blood ran cold. She could see, hanging from the webs above, the lifeless body of Bunzo Bunny. It appeared Mommy had taken her anger out on him.

Nick followed Judy’s gaze and his ears and tail dropped in fear.

“Can’t we just make a dash for the front door and get out of here?” Nick asked. “I don’t fancy finding out how much like a spider this Mommy really is.”

“Nick, we can’t,” Judy replied. “Even if I don’t fully trust her, Poppy needs us. I’ll not leave her to die here just because everything else in this factory wants to kill us.”

“I thought you might say that…”

A beeping sound broke her from her thoughts. She turned towards the control platform to her left.

“Guess we’d better find out what we’re supposed to do next,” Judy sighed.

As they stepped back out onto the main floor, the door to Musical Memory trundled shut behind them. They made their way up. The centre light was blinking, indicating the next test was ready. Judy pulled the lever, and that familiar jingle rang out.

“Whoa! You did fantastic!” the voice of Stella spoke. “Who gave you permission to be this smart? Mommy is super proud of you!”

“I’m sure she is,” Nick interjected.

“But I'm sure she's already told you that herself. Our next game is Wack-a-Wuggy! Head downstairs and have fun!”

The door underneath the sign for Wack-A-Wuggy juddered before it slid open slowly. Nick and Judy headed down and into the corridor underneath the now-opened doorway. The corridor was decorated in that familiar Playtime Co. aesthetic, with paintings of Huggy Wuggys in many different colours.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” Judy sighed. As the pair made their way down, Nick noticed a door on the left marked ‘GrabPack Storage’.

“Wait a moment, Carrots…” Nick placed a paw on Judy’s shoulder, indicating to the room.

“But we have one,” Judy replied, indicating to her GrabPack.

“You know what they say: ‘Two GrabPacks are better than one’.”

“Nick, nobody ever said that.”

“I bet the folks who worked here said something like that. Besides, the quicker we finish these ‘games’, the quicker we can hightail it out of this giant horror movie we’ve decided to star in.”

Nick opened the door and stepped inside, where there was a cage, behind which was a wall with slots for nine GrabPacks, and luckily for Nick, there were seven still there. The gate to the cage was locked, but Nick was never unprepared. He pulled a multitool from his pocket, extended a small screwdriver, and jammed it into the padlock. Within seconds, it clicked loose and dropped to the floor, and Nick opened the gate up.

“How many times have you done that?” Judy raised an eyebrow.

“Honestly, I’ve only ever seen it done on TV shows,” Nick grinned. “Never thought it’d actually work.”

Stepping inside, he lifted a GrabPack off the shelf, aimed it at the wall and test-fired the hands – they seemed to be working, so he strapped the pack to his back and stepped back out of the cage to rejoin Judy.

“Right… let’s go whack some Wuggies,” Nick said. They left the GrabPack Storage room and turned left towards the main area.

The room was tall, hexagonal, with a window at the top on one side – this was clearly the observation room window. Four of the walls had multiple large pipes of different colours protruding from them. The walls themselves were painted with cartoonish construction images. The floor was sandy and the corner walls had strip lights attached. There was a maintenance hatch in the bottom of the wall to the left of the observation window. A television screen hung from one of the corners, and it flickered to life as Nick and Judy stepped into the centre of the room and the gate lowered behind them, trapping them in there.

That old-timey music began as it had for the tutorial for Musical Memory, and a voice began relaying instructions.

“Welcome to Wack-A-Wuggy!” the same male voice introduced the game. “This advanced test is designed to assess the extent of your reactionary abilities.”

“This place was made for kids?” Nick frowned, whispering to Judy over the instructions. “Did they ever… talk to one? Did the kids even understand all this?”

“Around you are eighteen sizeable holes. An adorable Huggy Wuggy toy could appear out of any one of these holes.”

“Not so adorable if you’ve already met one,” Nick interjected again.

“If one comes out, hit it with your GrabPack. That is all. Good luck!”

“‘That is all’?” Nick repeated. “They seriously didn’t know what they were doing here, did they?”

A thumping noise from above made Nick and Judy jump. They stared up at the observation room window, where Mommy was waiting for them.

“Ah, you found your fox friend! How… surprising…” she said. “Well, never mind! The more, the merrier! The video didn’t tell you what would happen if you lost, did it? Well… you got past the big one, so you know what they’re like. They’re hungry little toys… These toys used to have strings to pull them back if they got too close to the kids… and just in case they thought to chew their way loose, they had their teeth removed… hmm… have fun…”

The observation room went dark, and the strip lights flickered on, bathing the Wack-A-Wuggy room in an eerie low light.

Bumping and thumping noises filled their ears from multiple directions. They spun around so they were back-to-back. Their eyes darted between the pipes.

“I see one!” Nick remarked. Inside the pipe, crawling slowly towards its lip, was a small, yellow-coloured Huggy Wuggy. A strange, high-pitched growling echoed through the pipe.

Nick did as the video had instructed, firing his GrabPack at the Huggy. The hand smacked it right in the face, forcing it to retreat back into the pipe. Judy found one coming from a lower pipe and did the same. Nick spotted a pink one coming from a middle pipe on the wall to his left and he fired at it. A red one tried to get the drop on Judy from the top pipe to her right.

They carried on like this for a while. Miniature Huggys tried to come out of the pipes, and Nick and Judy hit them with their GrabPack hands to force them to retreat.

The ‘end of game’ jingle rang and the Mini Huggys stopped emerging. The sound of gates closing echoed from the pipes. The observation window light turned back on and Mommy reappeared at the window.

“Oh…” she said, with no sign of her faux-sweetness. “You did it…” There was a brief pause before she put that voice back on. “Hooray! Mommy is so… proud of you! Here… Mommy has another hint for you…”

Mommy’s arm reached up into the ceiling of the observation room, and emerged from the maintenance hatch. As he was nearer, Nick took the paper from her outstretched hand, which slid back behind the hatch.

“Only one game left to play…” Mommy put on a faux-upset voice. “Hmm… that makes Mommy sad… Mommy was hoping you’d stay here forever.”

“Yeah, no thanks,” Nick replied.

“It’s never too late to change your mind…” Mommy responded, before chuckling darkly, sending shivers down both the spines of Nick and Judy. The observation room light went out, but the door back to the Game Station did not open – instead, it was the maintenance hatch that rose.

“I guess we’re going out this way,” Judy started forward. Nick followed her in. The hatch slammed closed behind them. Wherever this route took them, they were now committed.

The corridor was a plain, boring one filled with machines and pipes, though thankfully for Nick’s habit of calling out cliché, not one of them sprayed steam in their faces.

The corridor terminated with a spiral staircase that went up, but several steps had fallen out and were piled on the floor, which stopped them from ascending to the top.

“I don’t suppose there’s some sort of ‘Jump Hand’ on these things, is there?” Nick asked. Judy looked around, hoping to spot some sort of foothold they could use, but she couldn’t find one. By chance, her head leaned back and she spotted something on the high ceiling above them.

“Hey, Nick?” Judy asked. She pointed up. “What does that look like to you?”

Nick stepped next to her and looked up to where Judy was pointing.

“Looks like a bar of some description, attached to the ceiling,” he replied. “Why?”

Judy’s response was to aim her GrabPack at it and fire the green hand, which caught hold of it. She held the trigger and was slowly hauled up towards the ceiling through the centre of the spiral staircase. Once she reached the top, she let go and landed on the floor.

Taking Judy’s lead, Nick fired his red hand at the bar and hauled himself up, joining her at the top. Dusting himself off, he spotted a cutout of a large blue quadrupedal cat with a long tongue.

He pressed the button.

“Press the button to feed me candy!” came the voice.

“Nick, we don’t have time to play around,” Judy said. “We need to go.”

Nick pressed the button again, in apparent defiance.

“Om, nom, nom! Feed me more!”

Nick pressed it again.

“Om, nom, nom! More! More candy!”

“Are you thirty-four or four?” Judy raised an eyebrow. Nick responded by pressing the button again.

“Om, nom, nom! Okay, no more candy. My tummy’s full!”

“Okay, you’ve had your fun, can we-”

“Om, nom, nom! I said no more!”

Judy shook her head. Nick was now intrigued by the cutout.

“Om, nom, nom! Stooooooop!”

Nick pressed the button one last time.

“Om, nom, nom!”

The cutout let out a distorted groan, as if the cat had suddenly died. Nick raised an eyebrow, turning back to Judy.

“Are you satisfied now, you big kit?” she asked.

“Who even programs these things into cutouts that children are supposed to press?” Nick replied. The pair left the cutout behind and headed down the next corridor, which brought them to a passage constructed of yellow bricks. There was a gate directly ahead, and the switch for it was on the other side.

“Well, that’s just poor planning,” Nick said.

Suddenly, a familiar alarm sounded. Nick and Judy jumped to alertness as another gate, further behind, rose to reveal the silhouette of a startlingly-familiar figure, one they had last seen tumbling into the darkness above a network of catwalks and conveyor belts.

“No way…” Nick remarked. The figure stepped forward, towards them, and Nick and Judy readied themselves to either fight or run. The figure emerged into the light.

It was not Huggy Wuggy.

It was shaped like him, but this one had pink fur instead of blue, it had three eyelashes above each eye, and its mouth was closed.

This was clearly Kissy Missy, Huggy’s female counterpart.

She stopped at the gate separating the two of them and gave them a curious stare, before her eyes looked at the lever next to her. Her arm waved upward and her hand caught the knob of the lever, but slipped off. She tried again, and with a brief struggle, she managed to pull it.

The gate began to rise. Nick and Judy remained at the ready, but Kissy showed no signs of aggression, simply looking at them for a moment before turning around and walking back the way she came. She disappeared back into the darkness, leaving Nick and Judy totally stunned as their path forward opened up.

After a moment of total silence, Nick shook himself loose.

“So… I guess not all the monsters in this factory want to eat our faces,” Nick quipped. breaking Judy from her thoughts.

“Guess not,” Judy replied.

They continued down the corridor with caution.

“What are we even doing here, Carrots?” Nick said. “All we were supposed to be doing was finding that wolf. Now we’re in the middle of Toy Story But Evil, and I’m starting to think we’re the playthings.”

Judy didn’t answer. She wasn’t entirely sure either – all she knew was what she had already told Nick – they needed to save Poppy so they could leave.

Rounding a corner, they found themselves at what appeared to be a rail track for a mine cart. Nick looked to the right – there was one such cart parked not too far away. It was decorated in the Playtime Co. fashion, with giant googly eyes attached to its rim, and the name ‘Barry’ attached to its front. Behind him, the rail ascended sharply – they knew they were not leaving in that direction. So they headed to the left, where there was a ramp downwards. However, their way was blocked by a wooden barricade, clearly hastily hammered into place to stop something big from either getting in or out. Behind it, they could see the ramp descended into the darkness.

“I don’t suppose you’ve got any ideas?” Nick asked. Judy crossed her arms and tapped her foot as she thought about it. And then an idea came to her.

“We can use the cart back there to break it,” she said. They headed back up the track to where the Barry cart was parked.

“I sure hope this one’s not alive,” Nick snarked.

“Nick, be serious, not everything in this place is alive. Help me out with this.”

They went behind the Barry cart and pushed it down the track, round the corner and to the top of the ramp.

“Sorry, buddy,” Nick said as he and Judy pushed the Barry Cart down the ramp and let go. The cart trundled down the ramp at speed, smashed through the wooden planks blocking the way, and disappeared into the darkness. After a few seconds, the sound of metal crashing echoed up through the shaft.

With the way now cleared, Nick and Judy headed down the ramp. As they descended, they saw the track had collapsed ahead, with a huge gaping chasm beneath it. To their right was a hole that led into a small, dimly-lit concrete room with many pipes, and a chain-link fence with machines behind it. With nowhere else to go, they stepped inside. There was a gate in the middle of the fence. Nick once again retrieved his multitool and picked the lock – the gate sprang open. They stepped inside and headed towards a door at the end of the room. Opening it, they found themselves inside a corridor with a familiar theme, although it wasn’t the one that led to Wack-A-Wuggy, as there were no paintings of the various Mini Huggys on the walls.

“Where to from here?” Nick asked.

“Hmm…” Judy thought a moment. Given this was clearly a themed corridor, it had to lead back to the Game Station somehow. She turned to the right and pointed ahead.

“Well, it’s as good a choice as any,” Nick conceded. He followed her down the hall. It ended with two doors – one directly ahead with a sign above it that read ‘Wack-A-Wuggy Observation’, and a second door to the left which had a placard on it indicating that it was a stairwell down to the entrance.

Nick opened the door and stepped inside. The stairwell headed downward, with a door at the bottom. Nick and Judy descended down the stairs, and once they reached the bottom, they opened the door out into the Wack-A-Wuggy entrance corridor. The door to Wack-A-Wuggy was to their left, and the GrabPack Storage was straight ahead.

“You gonna put that back?” Judy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“And let you have all the fun?” Nick replied. “This thing’s pretty useful… dare I say, handy.”

They laughed at Nick’s bad pun as they ascended the stairs back to the Game Station. As they reached the top step, Judy looked up on instinct.

As with Bunzo, the Mini Huggys were hanging from the webs in the rafters. An icy feeling ran down Judy’s back. There was no sign of Poppy up there, however. There was a chance she was still alive.

Judy and Nick traipsed back up the platform steps to the control panel. The final light was blinking.

“Do the honours?” Judy stepped back, indicating to the lever. Nick stepped up to it and pulled. The jingle played once more, and Stella’s voice spoke.

“Geez! Have you played these before? You're so good!” she said.

“The last one was just scary bop-a-bunny,” Nick interjected.

“Excuse me?” Judy replied, crossing her arms.

“Old pred game from the dark times,” Nick raised his paws defensively.

“Seems like you're ready for the final game... Statues! Follow Mommy down the stairs one last time! I hope you had a fun day in the Game Station! See you next time!”

“I think this company seriously needs to reassess what it thinks of as ‘fun’,” Nick scoffed. “And: no thanks. No next time.”

The door to Statues, situated just below the platform they stood on, shuddered, but failed to open.

“Oh dear, we can’t play,” Nick said. “Well, pack it up, we’ll just take the long way outta here.”

“Wait, Nick…” Judy stopped him. She pointed to a handle that had sprung up from the door, with a light blinking next to it.

“Of course… well, let’s get this over with.”

They descended the stairs. The door was large and heavy. There was no way one of them could open it, even with their GrabPacks.

They both fired at the handle, their GrabPack hands gripping hold of it. They pulled the triggers in concert, and as their GrabPacks retracted, they hauled the door open slowly. After a small amount of time, the door was open enough for them to get down the corridor to Statues, so they both pulled their hands back into their cannons and walked down the steps, descending into the corridor that would take them into the final game.

Chapter Text

Nick and Judy reached the bottom of the stairs for the Statues room. Much like the other corridors that led to their respective games, this one was decorated in those familiar white, blue, red, yellow and green colours. The gate ahead was closed, but there was a notice affixed to it.

“’If this gate is not open while the Game Station is open, then the power will need to be restarted’,” Judy read out. “‘The generator can be found in the room to the right of this gate.’”

“I take it we can’t just pretend it’s not working?” Nick asked.

Judy’s answer was to go to the aforementioned door and open it. There was a dimly-lit, bare brick corridor behind it, with boxes and wooden pallets stacked to the sides. They made their way down it quietly. At the end was a room with two power poles, two sockets, and a PJ Pug-A-Pillar cutout.

This time, neither Nick nor Judy felt any temptation, morbid or otherwise, to press the cutout’s button to see what it said. Instead, they focused on the task at hand. Judy inspected the notice above the sockets. It indicated to them that a grapple bar above them would activate dependant on which socket was active, and that the power nodes needed to start the generator for the Statues game were up above. Power would need to be transferred from the left-hand socket to the right, with the GrabPack’s cable making contact with the power poles on the ground level.

“Nick, you’re going to have to get up there and make the connection,” Judy said.

“Huh? Why me?” Nick blinked.

“Because to transfer power, you need the green hand, and my GrabPack is the only one of ours that has one.”

“Ah… yeah, I get it. Just let me know when you’re ready.”

Nick glanced upwards towards the unlit grapple bar. Judy turned around, fired the green hand at the active power socket to pick up the charge, spun back around to the other socket and transferred the charge into it. The lights above switched over.

Nick shot one of his GrabPack’s hands up at the bar and ascended towards the platform above. He fired his free hand at the node. The GrabPack’s wire lit up as it conducted electricity. He let go of the grapple bar, and as he plummeted back to the ground, Judy once again transferred power between sockets. Nick ran his GrabPack’s cable around the two poles and then grappled up to the other platform, firing his free hand at the node to complete the circuit.

Sparks flared from a nearby power box, indicating that power was restored. Judy’s ears twitched as she heard the gate rising in the distance. Nick dropped back down and rejoined her. They headed back to the corridor and stood in front of the archway that would take them into the Statues room.

“Well, here we go…” Judy said. They stepped in.

The Statues room was clearly the largest room in the Game Station, stretching deep into the darkness. To their right was a large television screen. Underneath it was a pile of debris. The screen flickered to life, playing that familiar old-timey tune.

“Welcome to Statues! This advanced obstacle course is designed to test your physical endurance and strength.”

“And that isn’t what we’ve been doing up until now?” Nick questioned.

“The rules are simple: the lights will turn off and music will play. While the lights are off and the music plays, you can move. When the lights turn on and the music stops, you also have to stop. You are allowed to turn in place, but you cannot take a step. You may move once the lights turn off and the music starts again.”

“… so it’s ‘red light, green light’,” Nick observed. “Who’s going to be watching us?”

“The lovable PJ Pug-A-Pillar will follow you across the obstacle course. If he catches you, your test is over. If you move while the lights are on, PJ will move fast to catch you. That’s all. Good luck!”

The Playtime Co. logo appeared on the screen before it went dark. The lights in an observation room above lit up, once again illuminating Mommy Long Legs.

“This was the kids’ last game before they went home, or they were picked…” Mommy said. “It was always sad to see them go… they called me “Mommy” because they didn’t have one, and I was the closest thing they had… but they just came for the games and then left and never came back… they all left Mommy to die alone… Mommy didn’t deserve that! But you?”

Judy’s attention was totally on Mommy, but something else had caught Nick’s eye, and he tugged at Judy’s arm. She turned towards him, and he pointed to their right.

Descending from the hole in the ceiling and climbing down the pile of debris was a giant PJ Pug-A-Pillar. His face was vaguely canine but his body was very long, broken into sections alternating between blue and purple, each section with a pair of thin legs that ended with purple feet. His tongue was hanging out of the front of his mouth, saliva dripping from it, and his eyes were dilated as they focused on Nick and Judy. His teeth weren’t sharp-looking, but nevertheless their size made it clear that PJ was more than capable of taking a bite out of them.

“Trespassers in our home… setting Poppy free…” Mommy continued on, “looking for those who made us suffer… if anybody deserves to die alone… it’s you. It’s been nice, but… this is where Mommy says bye-bye.”

With that, the light in the observation room went out, as did the lights throughout the statues room. A faster, higher-pitched version of the tutorial music started playing.

“That’s our cue,” Nick said. Both he and Judy headed into the obstacle course as PJ climbed off the pile of rubble and after them. The first section was a simple maze with a castle motif. They rounded each corner as quickly as they could.

The lights came back on, and the music stopped. Nick and Judy froze in place, but PJ did not. He creeped through the course, starting to close the gap.

The lights went out and the music began again. Nick and Judy sprinted forward towards the first foam pit. Above them was a rail with a series of rings hanging from it.

“I bet the foam pit will just slow us down,” Judy said. “Let’s swing from those rings.”

With that, Judy fired her GrabPack at the rings and jumped up, drawing herself towards the rail. Nick repeated her action, just before the lights came back on and the music stopped again.

Nick glanced over his shoulder – PJ was now beginning to climb a pole connecting the floor to the rail.

Lights off, music on. They swung from ring to ring towards a slide at the other end of the foam pit, reaching it just as the lights came back on. PJ was now on top of the rail, crawling along it carefully, his large eyes fixed squarely on his quarry. The lights switched off, and Nick and Judy swung themselves down into the slide, slipping to the bottom of the next section. In front of them were three large tubes, each with a notice above them. The one on the left was the ‘Easy’ route, the middle the ‘Medium’ route, and the right-hand one was the ‘Hard’ route.

The lights came back on, and Nick and Judy froze in place.

“I say we take the easy one,” Nick suggested.

“Yeah, I don’t wanna be trapped in a maze with that thing on our tails,” Judy agreed.

The lights went out and they both rushed to the Easy tube. They clambered inside and crawled along it. The insides had lights bolted to the sides. They crawled about a third of the way along the tunnel and began ascending when the lights switched on. This time, they were in no position to see how far PJ was behind them, but they could hear his many footsteps grow ever closer.

The lights came back on and they shimmied forward as fast as they could. They reached the exit of the tunnel just before the lights came back on. The sound of PJ’s footsteps grew closer and less echoey – he was surely in the tunnel right behind them.

Lights off. Nick and Judy got out of the tunnel and ran as fast as they could towards the next foam pit – the final leg of the course. There were no rings above this time, but instead large plastic blocks that could be used as stepping stones.

They leaped to the first. The lights came back on. Judy chanced a glance behind her, seeing PJ’s head emerging from the Easy tunnel. Drool was dripping from his tongue in anticipation of catching his prey.

Lights off. Nick and Judy jumped from block to block. With no rail above, PJ had to enter the foam pit and climb each block individually, which gave them a bit of time to widen the gap.

Lights on. They stopped moving, giving PJ a chance to begin closing the gap again. Lights off, they carried on leaping from block to block. They reached the other side, relief flooding them. The game was over.

That relief soon vanished, to be replaced by horror at the sight before them.  The exit was collapsed, the finish line buried underneath the massive pile of rubble.

The game was over. They had lost, and it became obvious to Nick and Judy that it had been rigged from the start.

“She knew this was here,” Judy said. “What do we do now?”

Nick looked around. There was a bar above the nearest observation room window.

“There!” he pointed. The lights went out, and Nick grappled over to the window, the momentum of his swing breaking it. Judy followed suit. They landed in the room, turned around and watched as PJ stopped cold in his tracks, glaring up at them.

Mommy’s voice reverberated through the Statues room.

“Where did you go?” she called. “The game is over! You won! Come back and Mommy will give you the last piece of the code! Pinky promise!”

“Yeah, I’m not buying that at all,” Nick said, stepping back from the edge. Judy followed him as they searched for a way out. There was a door, but it was locked. Judy spotted a hole in the floor nearby – it looked like it had been dug out by somebody.

“Look,” she pointed out. “If we go down there, we can avoid her completely.”

“Bunnies and their burrows,” Nick quipped, earning a look of reproach from Judy. Without further comment, she stepped off the lip of the hole and slid down into the darkness.

“Well, here goes nothing,” Nick said to himself before following Judy down the hole. At the bottom, he met back up with her. There was a giant chasm in front of them, with a single grapple bar in the ceiling.

“Where are we?” Nick wondered.

“We have to be underneath the factory,” Judy replied. “I’m guessing that some of these tunnels were made by those monsters.”

“Yeah… in which case, I think we should get going before they realise we found them.”

“… yeah…”

Nick and Judy grappled across the chasm. At the other end there was a short corridor with pipes and cables. However, as they progressed, they realised it had caved in, and there was a large hole in the ceiling. A light shone at the top, indicating there was another room or corridor at the top of the tunnel.

“Yep, seems like something either dug its way through to get out, or get in,” Judy speculated.

Judy grappled up the hole. As Judy figured, there was another corridor above. Nick followed her up, and they ventured further in.

“Mommy knows the game is really hard, but Mommy just decided you won!” Mommy’s voice echoed throughout the tunnels. She let out a shrill giggle that might have meant to sound girlish, but instead sounded ghoulish. “Come back!”

“No thanks,” Nick replied, but not loud enough for it to carry. As they continued on, they found another corridor collapse. There was no hole in the ceiling this time, but there was an open vent. They crawled inside, creeping forward through the claustrophobic space.

When they dropped out of the vents, they found themselves in a large room with two sets of stairs leading upwards, and a series of pipes in between them. At the very top, there was a sign that read ‘Water Treatment.

“This looks promising,” Nick straightened his tie as he got to his feet. He and Judy ascended the staircase. At the back of the room was a giant cylindrical tank in the ground, with two separate bridge sections, one red and rotated to the top right corner, and the other rotated so it faced straight ahead. To the left was a door with a sign above saying ‘Assembly Runthrough’. Straight ahead was a doorway back to the Game Station, and to the right was a door marked ‘Operations’.

Directly in front of Nick Judy was a control panel with two buttons – one to rotate the red bridge segment and the other to rotate the blue segment. A note was taped to the panel. Nick picked it up and examined it.

“‘Please note that the instruction to not press the buttons repeatedly has been ignored’,” he read out. “‘As a result, the upper platform will move forty-five degrees when the button for the blue platform is pressed, and as a consequence it’s no longer possible to cross over from the entryway to the Game Station. Until the panel is repaired, you will need to exit Water Treatment via the stairwell in the Operations corridor. The door is locked. You will need to acquire a toy from the Assembly Runthrough (connect the bridge between C1 and C2) to open it. Under no circumstances are any members of staff to proceed deeper into Operations beyond the stairwell. If you are lost, please call your section supervisor’.”

He looked back up to Judy.

“Well, at least they were kind enough to tell us how to get out of here,” Nick shrugged. They looked out at the water treatment tank.

Nick pressed the button for the lower platform. It moved from the Game Station door to the Assembly Runthrough. As stated on the note, the upper platform also moved – it was now connected to the Game Station door. Nick then pressed the button to move it so it was in line with them.

“Let’s go,” Judy stepped back and headed off the platform, down towards the tank. She hopped onto the bridge and over to the Assembly Runthrough door. Nick followed her over and they stepped inside. From top to bottom were a series of conveyor belts, all carrying Bunzo Bunny toys. However, there was a problem: it seemed like the conveyor belts were running incorrectly, because when they made it to the top, the Bunzo Bunny toys were unceremoniously dropped into the darkness below. There was a control panel ahead, with a small elevator platform, as well as a CatBee cutout. The panel had several buttons, each for a separate section of the conveyor system, and it appeared to Nick as he approached it that they controlled the direction in which a particular section would go.

However, instead of the panel or the conveyor system, Judy’s attention was drawn to a nearby wall.

“Uh… Nick?” Judy tugged at his shirt. Nick turned to face the direction she was pointing.

There was blood on the walls leading up to one of the conveyor belt tunnels. Up to that point, the occasional spray or pool of blood had been ignored by the both of them as they proceeded through the factory – they had gotten used to it to the point they could tune it out. But it wasn’t the blood that caught Judy’s attention.

It was the clumps of blue fur stuck to it.

“Is that…?” Nick stepped forward towards the railing to get a better look.

“Sure looks like it,” Judy said. “This must be where Huggy fell down to.”

“Don’t tell me that means he’s still alive,” Nick groaned.

“He might not be… that looks like it’s going up, not down… like something was dragging him up.”

They stared for a moment longer, before turning away, their focus now on the control panel.

“From what the note said, we need one of these Bunzo toys to open the door to Operations,” Judy said.

“So, let’s grab one and get out of here,” Nick replied.

“I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Judy was right: most of the conveyor belts were shielded from using GrabPacks to obtain their cargo. The only point that was not was the section above that was depositing Bunzos into the void below. Nick stared up, and in a moment, he came up with a plan.

“Obviously, the control panel controls the belts,” he said. “And I think that section of belt up at the top,” he indicated upwards, “ends right over this platform. So… if we can figure out how to send the Bunzos up to there and then flip the direction the belt is going in, then we can make it drop one right on top of us. We then grab it, go back and put the bridge over to Operations, and then go in from there.”

Judy nodded in affirmation at Nick’s words. She pressed a button to redirect the conveyor belts – it sent the Bunzo line up to the next section, but now they were falling off from there. Nick pressed the next button, diverting the next section. Three Bunzo toys were sent up, while the remainder that were on their way were now sent into a conveyor tunnel. As they reached the next belt, the first plummeted off the edge into the chasm below. Judy hit the next button, redirecting that belt so it sent the remaining two further up the system, towards the top. Once they hit the last section, they headed for the conveyor vents. Nick hit the last button, and it sent the last Bunzo in the opposite direction. It was sent tumbling from the top right down onto their platform. Judy grabbed it.

“Let’s go,” she said. They headed back into the Water Treatment room, making their way back across the bridge and back up to the control panel. Judy pressed the button to move the lower bridge so it faced the Operations room. The upper bridge also rotated, and was now facing the Game Station door, so Nick hit the button for it to rotate it back towards them.

With the bridge now in place, they moved quickly across it to the door to Operations on the right. Judy placed the Bunzo toy on the scanner next to the door. A green light shone on it, and then after a moment, the door clicked open, and they stepped inside. The corridor was short, and there was a stairwell door to their left. Judy tried it, and it wouldn’t open. She tried ramming it with her body, but it wouldn’t budge. Even a kick to it didn’t work.

“Something’s blocking the door from the other side,” she suggested.

“What do we do now?” Nick asked.

“The only thing I can think of is going deeper in and hoping there’s a staircase or an elevator to take us back up.”

With that in mind, they carried on down the corridor. But as they made their way down it, Mommy chose that moment to interrupt.

“How dare you disobey me!” she shouted. “I will find you! I will find you, and when I do…” she let out an insane giggle. “Where are you? WHERE ARE YOU?!”

They reached the end of the corridor, where there was a gate which was partially raised straight ahead. The light beyond was dim, so Judy switched on the flashlight on her phone and pointed it into the room.

To call the room a mess would have been understating it. It was a wreck. There were objects thrown all around the room. At first, Judy couldn’t comprehend what she was looking at. And then she spotted several items that were out of place given the toy factory setting: medical monitors, a wheelchair that had been knocked onto its side, a gurney, and tables that were bloodied and with medical equipment scattered on top of them. The realisation hit her like a truck.

“It’s… an operating theatre…” Judy breathed.

Judy didn’t want to find out any more than that, but she couldn’t stop herself from crouching underneath the gate and into the room.

“Carrots?” Nick whispered. “Why are you going in there?”

“I’m just taking a look,” she replied. Nick glanced around, looking for any sign of their pursuer, before shaking himself off and ducking underneath the gate to join her in the room.

They walked around soberly, gazing upon the instruments and wreckage. Above them were operating lights, cementing the conclusion Judy had made. She spotted a file on the desk. Picking it up, she opened it and read its contents.

EXPERIMENT 1222 – OPERATION

Subject: Marie Payne, Age 8

Overseer: Dr. H. Sawyer

Subject has successfully been transferred into the giant toy, but upon waking she exhibited extremely violent reactions to her new existence. Much like the other experiments before her, she displays almost no awareness of her previous life, but unlike the others, she has shown to be much more intelligent and aware than we anticipated. The process does require these newer, post-1170 experiments to be so, however we will need to adjust our processes in the future, lest we wind up with another experiment on our hands that exhibits the same intelligence, will and malevolence as 1006.

We will monitor the situation, and with coaching, we may be able to reduce those violent tendencies, or otherwise redirect them. What is clear is that she displays an incredibly strong will, so procedures to tailor her personality to obedience, such as those used with Experiments 1160, 1166 and 1170 are unlikely to be effective at this stage. I would suggest placing her within the Prison until we can either lower her violent tendencies or find a use for her. In the meantime, I believe we should proceed with Experiment 1223, with an orphan selected from Playcare as planned.

There was a blueprint that clearly showed Mommy Long Legs, indicating that this document was about her. Judy lowered the file, horror etched onto her face.

“Carrots?” Nick’s tone was concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Children, Nick…” Judy whispered. “They used children…”

She dropped the file back onto the table, allowing Nick to read it. His face fell as the same feeling flooded him once he finished it.

“This is where she was made,” Judy continued. “And… the others… this means they’re all…”

Nick breathed deeply.

“They’re not those children anymore,” Nick pointed out, although the tone of his voice indicated that he wasn’t too sure of his own assertion. However, there was one thing he could be certain of: “They are still trying to kill us. If Mommy gets her hands on us, we’re dead. The best we can hope for is we manage to give her the slip.”

Judy gripped her arm defensively.

“We can’t stay here,” Nick broke her out of her thoughts. “We need to go.”

As they went to leave, the floor underneath them caved in and deposited them into a corridor deep underneath the theatre. They landed in a heap on the floor, Judy on top of Nick. She shook herself as she got off him.

“Ouch… that hurt…” Nick said as he got up, rubbing at his lower back. They looked around at their new surroundings, and then back up at the hole they had just fallen from. There was nothing above to grapple onto to get them back up. In the corridor they were in, there was a heavy metal gate behind them that looked like it was operated electronically, which meant Nick could not pick the lock.

“Nick, I think there’s another hole in the ceiling,” Judy pointed forward. They headed in the direction Judy indicated. The corridor ended there, but as Judy had suggested, there was a hole that led upwards, and something above to grapple on to.

As they prepared to fire their GrabPack hands to grapple back up, a pink streak fell down right in front of them.

It was Mommy, and she looked furious. She was covered in dirt and grime, which suggested that she had been digging while trying to find them. Her mouth was no longer in that fake smile.

“I asked you to play fair, and you cheated!” Mommy shouted at them. “I HATE CHEATERS!”

“You promised to give us the train code if we won all three games,” Judy pointed out. “You weren’t ever going to let us go, were you?”

“There was no way to win that last game,” Nick added. “I know a hustle when I see one. You knew we couldn’t win… doesn’t that mean you were the one lying to us and cheating?”

“SILENCE!” Mommy screamed. Nick and Judy backed away at the ferocity she displayed. Nick’s tail was rigid, and Judy’s nose had begun twitching in fear. “I told you to obey the rules, and the rules were so simple! You die, and Mommy gets to watch!”

“That’s not a fair game,” Nick said, in defiance.

“You want to play a fair game?” Mommy scowled. “Then we’ll play one! Last! GAME! It’s called… hide… and… SEEK! And when I catch you…” She giggled maniacally to punctuate her point.

On that last note, she thrusted herself forward, but stopped short of Nick and Judy. Her hands, now stretched to uncanny lengths, gripped both sides of the corridor. Her eyes were now dilated, the spaghetti-like strands that were supposed to resemble hair were now wild. Her mouth was back to that smile again, but with the rest of her appearance, she looked more threatening than she did before. She reached forward slightly and pressed a button, which opened the gate behind them.

“Ten… nine… eight…” Mommy began counting. Nick and Judy took that as their cue to run.

Chapter Text

Nick and Judy ran, hoping to put enough distance between them and the murderous giant toy that had given them a head start before she hunted them down and killed them. They had long since moved far enough away that they could no longer hear Mommy Long Legs counting down.

From the corridor that Mommy had ambushed them in, they had descended a staircase, finding themselves in a dark room filled with pipes, with corrugated metal walls and a set of stairs that led up to a catwalk. Chairs, boxes and various equipment was scattered across the floor. Judy switched on the flashlight on her phone so they could see better. However, Nick did not, drawing Judy’s curiosity.

“What about your torch?” Judy asked Nick.

“Us foxes were originally nocturnal, remember?” Nick indicated to his eyes. “I can see in this just fine… and I might see any danger before you do. Just don’t shine your torch in my eyes and I’ll be fine.”

They climbed up the stairs to the top of the catwalk and ran across to the other end. There was a boarded-up doorway, but right next to it was a hole in the wall with a dirt tunnel behind it. They crawled inside and followed it through to the other side. There was another dark room beyond it, this time filled with pipes. They made their way across it and found another burrowing tunnel to duck into. Silently, they made their way through it, hoping to keep the noise down just in case Mommy could hear them. The tunnel ended with a vent that dropped straight down into another corridor. They landed below and continued on.

At the end of the corridor was a room stacked up with boxes, with a conveyor belt at its end. There was a lever on the wall, Judy fired her GrabPack hands to pull it, and a door on one end of the conveyor belt opened.

“This feels familiar,” Nick quipped. “Chased by a monster into a conveyor belt…”

However, this time there were no monsters giving chase, meaning they could take their time going through. They were roughly thirty metres inside when the shaft went straight down. They slid themselves carefully down it and landed in a corridor underneath. There was a door behind them, but it was locked, and there was no keyhole for Nick to pick in order to open it, so they turned around and carefully walked in the opposite direction, ears raised to pick up any indication that they were being followed. Each side of the passageway had a floor-level red pipe. After about twenty metres, the brick walls gave way to more corrugated metal, and the passage ended with an old-fashioned wooden door.

They might have expected to find something like Poppy’s room, or Ludwig’s office, behind such a door, but there was instead another dark brick room. There was a rectangular gap in the ceiling with a bar they could grapple onto above. The gate ahead was open, with a machine beside it whirring, the space behind it fading into darkness.

Nick and Judy headed down it, their lights illuminating the way. They rounded a corner and carried on. This corridor had a single large red pipe running at head height for Nick along the right hand wall.

The sound of a distorted groaning reached their ears. And from ahead, the figure of Mommy Long Legs was running right for them.

Nick and Judy turned tail and fled back the way they came. But when they got back into the previous room, the doorway they had originally entered through was webbed up.

“We’re trapped!” Judy gasped. Nick looked around. His gaze found the hole in the ceiling they had noted previously.

“Go up!” Nick suggested. He fired his GrabPack and grappled upward. Judy followed his lead and they squeezed into the tight space. Looking down, they saw Mommy run right below them, searching for them. They both hoped that she wouldn’t look up, and thankfully she didn’t.

After a tense moment where they could see her skittering about below, looking for them, she vanished, and her groaning noises ceased. They let themselves down from the hole and landed back on the ground.

“That was close,” Nick shuddered. “There can’t be many hiding spots in here. Come on… we’ll find our way out of here.”

Their previous route blocked off, they instead headed back down the corridor Mommy had emerged from. This time, there was no sign of her, so they continued on. There was a locked door on the right as they carried on. Just after it, they found themselves inside a room with a large furnace to their right. The doors were open, and it was not switched on. There was a depowered socket next to the open gates of the furnace, and a charged socket on a nearby wall – Judy took note that it meant the furnace would probably fire for a cycle if power was transferred to the socket next to it. To their left was another large mesh gate. There was a machine behind it with a lever. Nick pulled it and the gate opened up.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They headed through. Behind was a metal bridge with railings, and a deep drop underneath. At the end was another room coated in darkness.

As they stepped forward, that strange groaning sound echoed from the room ahead and Mommy appeared from the shadows.

“Go back!” Judy shouted. They headed back inside the furnace room. As they made their way across the room, Judy had an idea. She fired her green hand at the active socket.

“Nick, follow me,” she said.

“Not gonna argue or ask what you’re doing,” he replied as they picked up the pace. Judy fired the green hand at the socket next to the furnace and they leapt inside. At its end was a platform the flamethrowers inside would not reach, and they ran for it. Spinning around, they fired their GrabPacks at the doors of the furnace to pull it shut as the furnace roared to life. Mommy’s low, insane laughing reached them, but frustratingly for her, she could not. Even if she could open the doors of the furnace, the fire was too hot.

Again, after what seemed like forever, the laughing and groaning stopped, the sounds of feet stomping receded. The flames inside the furnace also died down, allowing Nick and Judy to cross back out into the furnace room unharmed.

“Dare we even go back that way?” Nick asked, indicating to the gateway Mommy had just come from. “I mean, she seems to be waiting for us ahead of anywhere we go… like a spider hoping a fly will just walk into its web.”

“I don’t see what other choice we have,” Judy said. “There’s no way to get back.”

“Okay… if you’re sure…”

Without further comment, they headed back into the room with the metal bridge and crossed it. This time, Mommy didn’t appear to be waiting for them, so they carried on. Beyond the bridge was a large room with pipes and large wheels on either side. There were seemingly endless pits on both sides. Webs covered the walls and the space in between pillars, as well as blocking the route directly ahead of them.

“We’ll have to find another route,” Nick remarked. They turned to go back, when they heard the sound of maniacal giggling again. Looking back, they saw the figure of Mommy ascending from a pit nearby.

“Found you…” she said.

“Run!” Judy shouted. Nick didn’t need telling twice – they bolted back across the bridge, where they saw Mommy’s hands reaching over from underneath the bridge, and back into the furnace room. Only, this time, the furnace was covered in webs. They had no choice but to backtrack down the corridor they first came into the room from, but another hand reached out from a vent and pulled on the pipes in the ceiling, collapsing the corridor in front of them. The shock caused the door they had spotted just outside the furnace room to jolt open, and they took it. They ran along the concrete corridor. The floor ahead had collapsed, and below them was a sewer. With no other option, they jumped down into the water below and rushed into the sewer pipes. That disturbing laughing echoed behind them. Ahead, at an intersection, a creepy pink hand reached out, forcing them to turn right. As they ran, another hand appeared in front of them, forcing them to take a left. They found themselves at a dead end.

“We’re dead,” Nick said.

“No,” Judy looked upward. “Not yet.”

She pointed to a bar high up above them. Without saying anything more, they grappled up just as Mommy reached them. She chuntered in frustration and then climbed up the hole to try and catch up to her quarry, but by the time she reached the top, they had put enough distance between themselves and her thanks to a pit with a grapple bar to swing from. They dropped down a hole and found themselves in a storage bay with a large metal door.

“Phew…” Nick sighed. “We lost her… for now at least.”

Judy pulled the lever next to the door to open it. It rolled upwards, revealing a long corridor decorated in that familiar Playtime Co. aesthetic.

“Never thought I’d be glad to see so many primary colours,” Nick remarked.

“Aren’t you colourblind?” Judy asked.

“Foxes haven’t been colourblind by default for millennia, Carrots,” Nick replied. He stepped forward into the corridor warily, expecting Mommy Long Legs to drop in from above.

“You know, I first met Mommy in a corridor just like this,” Judy remarked.

They glanced at each other nervously and then proceeded carefully down the corridor, looking in every direction they thought Mommy might appear from. They passed through a cross in the hallway, with a closed archway on each side. At the end of the second half, there was a closed gate with a depiction of Mommy Long Legs above it, her lengthy arms stretching out onto the connecting walls and towards them. A blue hand panel was above the gate, and Judy fired her blue hand at it. The bar above it started to fill.

A noise at the far end of the corridor drew their attention.

It was Mommy, and she was running right for them.

“Of all the…” Nick began.

“Nick, if you spout one more movie cliché, I’m going to hit you with my free hand,” Judy growled.

The progress bar on the panel above the door filled slowly.

“Come on, come on, come on, open…” Judy pleaded.

Mommy drew closer. They could now make out her eyes and the creepy smile she had on her face.

The gate opened. Nick and Judy ducked under it and ran in. They were in a much smaller room. There was a gate to their left which was only marginally open, with several wooden boards nailed across it, and the mesh gate to the right was shut completely. A giant grinding machine was in front of them.

This was it. There was no escape.

Mommy bounded into the room. Nick and Judy leaped backwards as she lunged for them. Her hand wedged into the teeth of the grinder. Nick slipped backwards, and as he did, he threw his arms up to try and catch something to break his fall. He grabbed hold of a long pole jutting upwards from the machine. His weight pulled it down and he slipped, landing on the floor.

The machine juddered to life as Mommy lunged forward at her quarry. She stopped mid-way, realising just what had happened. The teeth of the grinder turned, crushing the hand she had jammed in there. Her once-manic smile vanished instantly, to be replaced with a look of total horror.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” She screamed. Her attention turned to the machine pulling her in. Nick and Judy watched on in horror. Judy started forward, perhaps intending to help, but something stopped her from proceeding.

Mommy braced one of her legs against the bottom of the grinder, trying to use it as a counter so she could pull her hand free. However, her foot slipped, following her trapped hand into the teeth of the machine. “HE’LL MAKE ME A PART OF HIM! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME!”

She let out one final scream as the machine drew her abdomen in and crushed it. Her voice became distorted, and blood spattered against the teeth of the grinder and the floor.

And then, silence. What remained of her dropped to the floor. Her face had reset to her default smile, but there was no life in her eyes. What looked like a single tear rolled down her face.

It was over. Mommy was dead.

Nick and Judy cautiously started forward, but they stopped when they saw movement from near the slightly-ajar gate. At first, they jumped back in fear when they saw something spindly coming out from under it. But then they realised… it was some sort of claw or hand, mechanical in nature, with unnaturally-long fingers. It raised up and then lowered over Mommy’s remains, dragging her underneath the gate.

An eternity seemed to pass before either of them could shake themselves loose from what they had just seen.

“What was that?” Judy asked.

Nick knelt down beside the gate and peered under. All he could see was darkness. There wasn’t any sign of whatever it was that took Mommy’s corpse, but Nick could see pools and smears of blood.

The mechanism next to the mesh gate opposite whirred to life, and that gate raised.

“Let’s get out of here,” Judy said.

“Yep…” Nick nodded in agreement. They headed through the open gate and found themselves at the bottom of a dual stairway, with a sign above it that read ‘Bay 09’. Above was a stairwell that rose up high.

“Huh…” Nick stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Judy asked.

“Well… this is where I came to try and find you from those lower catwalks… and it’s where Mommy ambushed me.”

Judy reached out and placed a paw on Nick’s arm. Nick shook his head, a small huff escaping through his nose.

“We should go,” he said finally. Judy nodded, letting go. They ascended the staircase wordlessly, trying every door along the way. They were all locked.

“No point trying that one,” Nick indicated to one mid-way up. “That just leads back to the giant room.”

Eventually, they made their way up to the top of the stairwell. There was a short corridor with a door that was slightly ajar. Judy started forward and pushed it open. Light from a nearby window blinded them for a moment. Blinking it out, they took in where they were.

They were above the Game Station, on a walkway from which they could see the entire space below. All the doors to the various games were shut. They were just below the rafters covered in all those webs, where they could see the remains of all the toys Mommy had killed in her rage.

Ahead was a control room. Nick and Judy headed inside. Above them, webbed to the wall, and just above a shelf with two vent openings, one on either side, was Poppy.

“So, this is the talking doll, huh?” Nick raised an eyebrow. “You know how this story usually ends, right?”

“Nick, we are not in a movie,” Judy shook her head. She climbed up onto the control panel and then onto the shelf just below Poppy. She tore the webbing off Poppy, who dropped onto the shelf, breathing heavily.

“Thanks…” she said.

“Don’t mention it,” Judy replied.

Poppy looked up at Judy, and then down to Nick.

“Looks like you found your friend,” she indicated. “And since Mommy’s not here… did you kill her?”

The memory of Mommy’s body crushed was still fresh in her mind, as was the claw that crept under the door and dragged her remains away.

“She’s gone,” Judy confirmed. She wondered how Poppy might feel about that.

“Good…” she deadpanned, turning away from Judy and faced one of the open vents. It looked like she was thinking about something. “I’ll board the train and wait for you there. We need to leave.”

“But what about…?” Judy began, intending to ask about what she had learned.

“I’ll explain everything, I promise. But right now, we have to go.”

With that, Poppy vanished into the vent, leaving Nick and Judy alone in the control room. Judy jumped off the shelf and rejoined Nick.

“Did something about that seem… off to you?” Nick asked. “I mean… I know this is the first time I’ve met her, but you’re the one who found her.”

“Yeah…” Judy replied. “I know she’s been kidnapped and webbed to a wall, but… Still, we need her for the train code to get out of here. If I’ve learned anything here it’s that if we try and find the way out ourselves, we’ll just get lost, and we’ll probably run into more of those things running loose.”

“… yeah, that sounds about right.”

“So, right now, we have no real choice but to follow her.”

They made their way out of the control room and back onto the walkway, where they turned to the left and carried on until they reached the other side. There was a single, blue slide at the end. Directly below them was the train platform.

“Better than trying to jump,” Nick shrugged. “I’ll go first, make sure there’s nothing waiting for us at the other end.”

With that, he jumped into the slide and vanished. Judy peered over the walkway’s railing and watched as a door underneath opened and Nick stepped out.

“All good!” he shouted up. Judy jumped onto the slide herself and slipped down the dark passageway. After a moment, light appeared at the end of the tunnel and the slide deposited Judy out into a short corridor with an open door at the end. She stepped outside where Nick was waiting for her.

“Let’s get going,” he said. The pair climbed up onto the platform and opened the train door. Poppy was inside at the control panel.

“You two took your time,” she remarked, attempting the same tone she had when she first met Judy. But, as they had noted previously, something was still off.

They boarded the train, closing the door behind them. Poppy put the code in and the train shuddered to life, a loud whistle of steam emanating from the top. It started moving along the tracks towards a tunnel ahead of them. A sign above lit up and said ‘To Exit’.

“What now?” Judy asked. “We leave and we pretend nothing’s happened? And what about…?”

“You found the secret the factory’s been hiding all this time, didn’t you?” Poppy replied.

“That these giant toys are really just tortured kids?” Nick added in. “Yeah, we stumbled across that little nugget while we were being chased by Mommy.”

Poppy sighed.

“And yet you beat her, against all odds,” she said. “It’s true: we were all made from children who used to live here. But… we stopped being those people the moment they did this to us… and I was the first. Terrible things have happened here… and it’s because I exist. Being able to live as a doll… has brought so much hurt to everyone. If I didn’t exist, then none of this would have happened. He wouldn’t have happened… you’ve proved yourself capable… you two have an amazing potential… you are perfect. Too perfect to lose.”

“… Poppy?” Judy stepped forward.

“I’m sorry… I really am… but I can’t let you leave yet,” Poppy pressed a button on the train. The sign above changed to ‘To Playcare’.

“I hate to say I told you so,” Nick began.

“It’s not that,” Poppy shook her head. “So much is unknown to you… where do I even begin? You came here looking for the wolf who used to work here… and he came here, looking for his coworkers… he’s probably already met the same fate as them… they’re gone. They’ve been gone a long time. But there are others you can save… I know you two can fix everything. I see it… and the others do too. You’re dangerous to them, which means you’re perfect for this…”

“Where are you taking us?” Judy demanded.

“I’m taking you to Playcare, the orphanage. It’s where we can truly begin our work. Together, we can…”

An alarm sounded. Poppy flipped back round to the console. Lights were flashing. The train’s accelerometer warned of a dangerous speed.

Nick tried to pull the brake, but it was not working. The train’s speed increased and it began to tilt to the side.

“Oh, no, no, no…” Nick groaned. “I didn’t think this would happen to us twice…”

Finally, the train tipped completely, sparks flying as it skidded to a halt. Nick, Judy and Poppy were flung into the air. Nick hit his head against the panel, Judy hit the back of the cabin and Poppy disappeared out of view completely.

As Nick’s vision grew dark, he could see something. In the tunnel outside was a sign that said ‘Playcare’.

And with that, everything went dark.

Chapter Text

Fifteen years ago, Hopps Home…

“Alright, kids, not too much longer in front of the television!” Bonnie Hopps, the matriarch of the family called into the circular room filled with bunnies of different ages. They had been watching a cartoon.

“Yes, Mom,” came the chorus in reply. Bonnie watched as her children’s attention remained on the screen. She crossed her arms, tapped her foot impatiently, and then stepped into the room, picking up the remote from a nearby stand. Pointing it at the screen, she pressed a button.

The television screen changed to a news broadcast.

“Aww!” came the disappointed chant.

“Come on, brush your teeth and off to bed!” Bonnie said. The kits filed out, muttering and mumbling amongst themselves. Once the last one had filed out, she sat down in one of the vacant armchairs.

“… and now we bring you to our last story,” the voice of Peter Moosebridge, the moose news anchor, spoke. “Everyone knows Huggy Wuggy and Poppy Playtime, but are your children safe from Playtime Co.’s latest toy? The Smiling Critters line, a series of eight distinct toys styled after fantastical cartoon animals, have created a new headache for the renowned toy company, and it’s all thanks to a single member.”

The camera panned out slightly, revealing a purple cat toy with a wide, open-mouthed grin and button eyes on the desk next to the news anchor.

“This is CatNap. Just like the rest of the toys in his line, you pull his little tail, and…” Moosebridge picked the CatNap plush up, grabbed the tail, pointed it away from him and pulled gently. A light mist sprayed from the toy’s mouth into the air.

“Seems harmless enough. The toys in the Smiling Critters line all have this feature, each with a unique scent designed to help calm a child. However, parents across the country have reported that their children have begun experiencing strange, often violent nightmares, and occasional waking hallucinations. And right beside them? Their little grinning CatNap doll. With controversy growing, and investigations into their practices being threatened, Playtime Co. has issued a recall of all CatNap toys. And as a result, his image has also been removed from all branding for the Smiling Critters.”

An image appeared on the television showing a before-and-after of the Smiling Critters toy line, with CatNap present in the top image and absent in the bottom.

“But is this going to be enough? The damage has already been done, to both the Smiling Critters line and to Playtime Co.’s previously-pristine reputation. Will pulling CatNap from the line be enough to mitigate the damage? Only time will tell. The exact cause of these ‘incidents’ is currently still unknown. However, one thing is glaringly certain.”

“Your children are not safe with CatNap.”

Bonnie felt a chill run down her spine at those words.

Unknown to Bonnie, another, smaller violet pair of eyes had been watching from around the doorframe.

******

Present Day…

Nick came to with the sensation that he was being dragged along the floor. His limbs felt heavy, so he couldn’t fight whatever it was that had taken him. He couldn’t even muster the strength to turn his head. He could barely keep his eyes open.

Whatever had him carried him over to what appeared to be a giant hatch. A huge purple paw reached out and opened it.

The next thing Nick knew was that he was falling. He twisted in the air as he fell, and he could see what it was that had sent him plummeting down this chute. It looked feline, with a permanent, open-mouthed smile. Small white eyes sat in the back of huge sockets. There was a glint of something gold beneath its head – perhaps a charm or pendant attached to a collar.

Whatever it was, it soon vanished from sight as Nick hit the ground. The impact jolted him to his senses and he got to his feet.

An alarm sounded. Nick got his bearings and observed that he appeared to be in some sort of garbage disposal room, as there was a lot of debris and several ruined blocks stacked up against the walls.

And then they began to move, and Nick realised exactly where this was: it was a trash compactor.

Thinking quickly, he realised that the blocks on the right side were enough to climb up onto and fit through a gap in the walls. He rushed as fast as he could on top of them and slipped through. On the other side, he found himself between giant pistons that pushed the walls of the compactor. He crawled up to a ladder that rose up towards an access hatch and climbed. Once he reached the top, he found himself above the compactor, with a catwalk that extended over it. He watched for a moment as the compactor crushed the contents below, and thanked his luck that he was not in there.

Nick explored the upper room. There was a room that appeared to have been a control room once. The computers in the room were smashed, a suspicious red liquid poured from a hole in the ceiling, pooling on the floor, and a small debris pile in the corner had what looked like several spikes jutting from it. Impaled upon them was a small Bunzo Bunny toy.

Nick left the room behind and returned to the space above the compactor. There was another door that was open. He crossed the room and entered a short, narrow corridor. At the exit, there was a huge room with a pit filled with a strange, red smoke. A catwalk stretched from where Nick stood to the other side. Giant cylinders raised and lowered on either side. He crossed the room, and at the other end there was a locked door. To his right there was another pit, but no catwalk.

Movement caught Nick’s eye and he looked up at a vent above. There was a pair of purple legs and a tail dangling from it.

Nick realised that it was clearly the strange, cat-like monster that had dumped him in the trash compactor.

The legs and tail disappeared into the vent, leaving Nick alone. He looked across and found a platform near another vent access hatch that was across the pit.

Nick fired the GrabPack at it, dragging it over. He let it go as he prepared to jump onto it, hoping it would carry him over to the vent so he could climb through and find a way out himself, but the platform swung back over to the other side.

“Of course it does,” Nick scoffed. He fired the GrabPack again and dragged it back over, but this time, instead of letting go, he jumped onto it first. The platform swung itself back over to the vent opening, and Nick ducked inside, crawling through the tight space.

“Come out to the toy factory, we’ll rescue a wolf, have a few laughs,” Nick grumbled as he moved on. Eventually, he found himself in front of a vent cover that opened out into a medium room with shelves, a television, a couch, and a mini kitchen. There was a giant chute lid in one corner, and upon laying eyes upon it, Nick realised he was back in the room where the strange cat monster had dropped him down the chute to the trash compactor.

Nick approached the television. There was a VCR player and a tape above it labelled ‘Claire Harper Debrief’. He inserted it into the player, and the screen flickered to life, showing what appeared to be a discussion between a bobcat scientist and a wolf.

“Alright, Ms. Harper,” the bobcat scientist spoke, “please explain the situation. Don’t leave out any details.”

“Well, like any night, the children were sent to sleep,” the wolf, the titular Claire Harper, spoke with a slight southern accent. “It was nice… quiet… CatNap had the red smoke in the room… then, suddenly, there’s this scream… I’ve never heard anything like it. I’m not an idiot, I read the reports, I know nightmares can happen with the red smoke, but this… pupils dilated? Eyes wide open and darting around the room? Lips quivering? And, I swear, her paw in mine, I could feel the blood boiling underneath her skin… she saw something horrible too… I’m sorry… I just…”

“That’s okay, Ms. Harper,” the bobcat reassured her. “We’ll provide Marie the very best care we can offer. You have my word. But this is important. Can you tell me what she saw?”

“She said it was a… colourless monster. Faces poking out of its skin… a massive open mouth… gosh, I could feel her poor heart pounding… for her, it was right there! And she was kicking and flailing… I never seen her move so wild… if I didn’t know any better, I’d have said she went savage…”

“Hmm…”

“C… can I see her? Please? I need to know how she’s doing. I… I just really need to hear her voice right now.”

“I’m afraid that wouldn’t be advised, Ms. Harper. We need to address a few concerns we have before we let anybody see her. The doctors are monitoring her at the moment, and they’ve assured me that she’s stable. She’ll be okay.”

This news was clearly not good news for Claire.

“NOOOOOO!” she howled. “Well, pardon me if I’m not comforted by that!” She collapsed into sobs. “Just bring my little girl back to me… please…”

The tape ended, the screen changing to static noise. Nick pondered it for a moment. Was this ‘CatNap’ the one that had found him? And he knew he had heard that name, ‘Marie’, before.

A deranged pink stretching doll came to the surface of his memory, and he realised the tape was about the girl Mommy had been made from.

A shiver running down Nick’s spine all the way to the tip of his tail, Nick looked for a way out of the room. There was a doorway that led out into a corridor with what appeared to be a cutout of a blue elephant at the end. Nick approached it and pressed the button.

“I’m Bubba Bubbaphant!” the cutout said. “Hey! I remember you!”

“That’s a stupid name,” Nick remarked. He pressed the button again.

“An elephant always remembers!”

“These guys have never met Nangi,” Nick chuckled. He pressed the button again.

“Want to know what I remember about you?”

“This ought to be good. Maybe it’s how dumb I think your name is.”

Nick pressed the button one more time, but instead of speaking, the cutout started screaming in pain, startling Nick. His tail went rigid, fur stood on end, ears went back.

The scream faded.

“Okay… no more of that…” Nick said, turning away from the cutout and heading down the next corridor. It led to a T junction. To the left was an elevator, and to the right was a staircase.

The sound of a phone ringing reached his ears. It was coming from beyond the staircase to his right. He headed up and found a heavy metal door. As he approached, he noticed a socket to his right, which clearly powered the door’s opening. Unfortunately for him, he did not have a GrabPack with a green hand, and so he was stuck.

“Wish you were here, Carrots,” Nick whispered.

As if by magic, the door slid open. Not daring to question his luck, he quickly stepped inside, after which the door shut behind him.

The room he had entered looked like some sort of store room, with a shelving rack stacked with boxes against one wall, empty buckets scattered around, and pipes rising from floor to ceiling. A large, transparent tube ran from one wall across the ceiling, before curving downward and terminating. Nick had no idea what it was for. There was a closed door to the left, with a battery receptacle next to it. The ringing sound he had heard was coming from a phone on one of the walls. He approached it and picked it up from its cradle, raising it to his ear.

“Hello?” he said.

“Hey! Hey!” a childish voice replied. “Can you hear me?”

“I can hear you,” Nick confirmed. “Who am I talking to?”

“Think of me as… just a wayward plaything, left here without a goal… but I’ve got one now. I don’t want you to die, so… I’m gonna help you.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“I’m in a place where I can do lots of things. See that tube thing on the back wall?”

Nick looked up at the transparent tube.

“Ready? Buh-BOOM!”

The moment the unknown person finished talking, a battery dropped from the tube and onto a table just below. Nick picked it up with the Grab Pack.

“You can use that battery to open the door!”

Nick cautiously placed the battery in the receptacle and the door next to it clicked open. He pushed it slightly before moving forward through it. Behind it was a large tunnel, with walkways on both sides, one of which Nick stepped out on to. It took a moment for Nick to realise that he was in a railway tunnel. And to Nick’s left was the wreck of the train.

“Wow… did you guys do that?”

“Not exactly… the train went out of control and we tried to stop it…” Nick stopped himself, thinking about what had just been said.

“Can you see us?” Nick asked.

“Yes. I’m watching you through the cameras.”

Nick thought about a few weird occurrences that had happened since setting foot in the factory – such as doors opening to let them through, or to block off passages for things that were following them.

“That’s not all you can do, is it?”

“You got me,” the voice replied with a cheeky tone. “I’ve been following you ever since you set foot in the factory. But right now… I can only see you. I only have one pair of eyes.”

“So… you don’t know if my partner made it out?”

“She’s not on the train, and since Poppy got out too, we can assume that she might either be with Poppy, or is safe at the moment.”

“Right… Poppy…”

Nick started moving down the walkway, away from the train.

“I know you’re probably mad at Poppy for not letting you leave.”

“She lied to us, bud. Told us she was going to get us out, and instead she brought us… wherever we are now.”

“She needs you. We need you. You are our mission. Together, we can save a lot of people, including you and your partner.”

“Listen… I just wanna find Carrots… the rabbit… and get the heck out of here. I’m not interested in… whatever it is you’ve got going here. Almost being killed several times has wiped out my interest, thanks.”

“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have come in the first place. You do care. Both of you. And if I asked your friend… what would she say?”

Nick could have invented a lie, told whoever he was talking to that she’d want to get as far as they could from the factory. Maybe even suggest the military launch an airstrike on the place.

But, when it came to Judy, Nick knew he couldn’t lie. She had just risked herself playing Mommy’s games in the Game Station just to rescue both Poppy and Nick.

He just wished Poppy had been more upfront about it.

“Playcare is just ahead,” the voice continued, taking Nick’s silence as agreement. “It’s the home of CatNap, the last of the Smiling Critters. He’s the one who found you. There used to be… eight, I think? Now, it’s just him. He’s turned Playcare into his church… his hunting ground…”

“Sounds like a really cool cat,” Nick quipped glibly.

“You’d better get moving before CatNap comes back. We’ll keep in touch, and Poppy will find you soon. Oh… and by the way, my name’s Ollie! Nice to meet you!”

With that, the call ended. Nick pocketed the phone. He reached the station for Playcare. He climbed down from the walkway, across the tracks and up onto the platform. Right in front of him was a pair of turnstiles with stairs leading upwards behind them. A sign above read ‘Elliot’s Express’. Nick tried to push his way through them, but they wouldn’t budge. He looked at the mechanism’s base and noticed there was a power indicator light that was not on.

He looked for a place to try and restore the power. There was a security room to the left of the turnstiles and a locked door to the right. Nick tried the door to the security room. It was unlocked, so he went in. Inside was a bank of monitors with a control console. A door to a short corridor connecting the security room to the locked room to the right of the turnstiles was next to it.

Nick went up to the monitors and tried the console to see if he could find what had happened to Judy. However, there was no power to them either, so he chose to leave the room for the connecting corridor and the other room. Inside it was a single pole as well as two power outlets, but this pole was not like the ones he had seen previously. There was no light at the top to indicate a connection was being made. Instead, there was a ring with handles on it at every quarter, and below it was two flaps – one with a hand print on it and the other with a hole at a ninety-degree angle from the first. To Nick’s right was a locked door leading back out onto the platform.

Nick cocked his head curiously, trying to figure out what to do. He fired one of the GrabPack’s hands at the flap with the hand. The flap spun around and sent the hand through the one with the hole.

He considered the ring with handles above the flaps, and then came to a realisation.

“I think I get it…” Nick said. He fired at the ring and used the GrabPack to rotate the flap with a hole towards the receiver socket. Letting go, he then fired one hand at the active socket, and the other hand at the flap with the hand print. It spun around and sent the hand through the flap with the hole, which then connected with the receiver.

The sound of sparks reached Nick’s ears, the lights flicked on and the door unlocked with a click. The hands retracted into the cannons, and he headed back out to the platform that led up to Elliot’s Express. The turnstiles were now powered, so Nick could pass through easily. He headed up the stairs. When he reached the top, he found a platform for a cable car. The car’s door was open. Nick looked around for any other way forward, but there were no doors. It looked like this was the only route into Playcare.

“Hope I don’t regret this…” Nick huffed before he stepped on board. The door of the car shut behind him and it shuddered as it started forward. A television screen flickered to life in one of the corners above Nick.

“Hello! My name is Elliot Ludwig,” a voice spoke. “When you look around at the world today, what one thing do you think it needs more of? I asked around once. ‘Money: I never have enough’.”

“Yep, I can relate to that.”

“‘Understanding: I can never get any. Faith: the common mammal has lost it.’ Each answer was different, and I could perhaps see a little truth in all of them. But I think each answer was missing something. Something simple. You see, not one of them could muster a smile.”

“Sure, pal. Smiles make the world work better. And I’m a polar bear.”

“A smile is hope. A smile is love. A smile is understanding.”

As Ludwig spoke, the cable car dived into a rocky tunnel, which opened up into a huge subterranean cavern, with massive stalactites and stalagmites.

“This is promising.”

“Nothing is more gratifying to my soul than being the reason for a child’s smile. To be that spark that ignites their hopes and dreams. For it is only hopes and dreams that we may create a better world. One where our children need not be afraid, one where they are loved and protected. After all, this company was built for that reason, and it is nothing without them. These children deserve to smile, they deserve to love and be loved, and most of all: they deserve a home.”

In front of the cable car, Nick could now see a massive dome. The cable car’s rail was heading right for it. It entered a tunnel, and darkness fell over the cable car.

“That is why it is with enormous pleasure that I announce… Playcare! Our very own on-site orphanage!”

The cable car left the tunnel, travelling inside the dome itself. The space was huge. From where the cable car was, Nick could see everything. There was an ornate building resembling an old-fashioned government building, there was a schoolhouse, a large, two-storey home, a circus tent-looking building, and in the centre was a tall concrete structure with statues looking out over the entire space.

The cable car circled the space before descending towards the ground. Ludwig began speaking again.

“Playcare is not just an orphanage. It’s a school. It’s a playhouse. It’s a place to belong. Our very own ecosystem beneath the surface, dedicated in every way to ensuring a child’s smile.”

“I question the sanity of anybody who thinks it’s a good idea to build an orphanage this deep underground,” Nick remarked.

“May Playcare bring joy, inspiration, and smiles to all who enter its doors. For what gives life its meaning, if not a child’s smile?”

With that, the cable car came to a stop and the door opened. Nick stepped outside and took in the view. He was at the top of a staircase that led down to the base of the statues in the centre of Playcare. A path circled around the base, and offshoots led up to the various buildings within.

As Nick started down the stairs, his ears caught the sound of movement below him. His tail went rigid and he raised his GrabPack’s cannons, ready to fire at whoever was there.

Out from behind a nearby fake bush stepped Judy. Her fur was ruffled, her clothes torn at the edges.

“Carrots?” Nick said. “You’re here?”

“Nick!” Judy ran forward and jumped at him, hugging him tightly. “Nick, you’re alive! Thank goodness!”

“What happened?” Nick asked.

“I remember the crash, but… I passed out. When I woke up, I was just… here. I looked for a way out, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. No elevators… I didn’t even know that cable car you came on was there. What about you?”

“I came to, and I was being dragged away by CatNap.”

“CatNap?” Judy frowned. “They made a big version of him too?”

“They made big versions of all the Smiling Critters, from what I heard, but CatNap’s the only one left… and given he dropped me into a trash compactor, and he apparently runs this place, I don’t think we’ll be welcome.”

Judy considered what Nick had said. As she thought about it, the cable car rose back up along the rail it had entered from.

“Well, I guess we’re stuck here,” Nick said.

Chapter Text

“We’re not getting out of here that way,” Nick remarked as the pair watched the cable car rise back up into the dome.

“How’d you find this place anyway?” Judy asked, turning back to Nick.

“I only found this place… found you, because I had some help… some kid, if he’s even a kid, phoned me.”

Nick took the phone from his pocket and showed it to Judy.

“He says he’s with Poppy,” Nick explained. “Says they need us to set things right.”

“After what’s happened, I don’t trust them at all,” Judy replied, crossing her arms. “We saved her, and she drove us deeper into the dragon’s den.”

“She’s definitely up to something.”

“But… we’re probably not going to have the choice, are we?”

“Doesn’t seem like it. By the way… where is she? If she wasn’t on the train, I would have thought she would have been with you.”

“I don’t know. She wasn’t here when I woke up.”

The phone rang, drawing their attention.

“Psst… it’s me again. Ollie. I see you’ve made it to Playcare and found your friend! Poppy must have arranged for her to be brought down here. It’s a pretty cool place, right? The children used to live here. Now look at it…”

“Looks like a dump to me,” Nick interjected.

“Yeah… it used to look nicer. But now you’re here, and you’ve found your friend, we can get what we need to do faster than if there was just one of you.”

“What exactly is it you want us to do?” Judy asked, paws on hips, her foot tapping impatiently.

“Well, with your help, we can still save a lot of people. But to do that, we’ve got a few things we need to do. Do you see the building in the middle, with the statues on top? There’s a really cool room in there that powers literally all of Playcare! I can give you a key to the first place we need to go in there.”

The call ended. Nick and Judy headed for the structure in the centre of the room. Around the edge were placards for each of the Smiling Critters, with a button and speaker. There was a door at its base. They opened it and proceeded down the staircase into a control room. There was a computer with power outlets to the left, and a cage with another pipe like the one Ollie had sent the battery down for Nick to access the railway tunnel, with a rail running through its centre. Something slid down the rail.

It was a key.

A thought came to Nick in that moment, back to when they had first entered the factory.

“Hey… just how long have you been watching us?” Nick questioned. “Because I remember we magically found a key to get into the power room in the entrance. That key wasn’t there before…”

“I’m watching through one screen, but I also have access to the factory’s sending system,” Ollie explained. “Yes, I sent you that key to get the power on. I’ve been trying to keep track of you since you set foot in this place, but it’s not been easy. I lost sight of you around the Game Station. It looks like Mommy took out all the cameras there. Like I said: you are our mission.”

“Right…” Nick seemed to accept the answer, though Judy was less certain.

“Why, though?” she asked.

“We’ve been trying to resist the Prototype’s control for so long, but without anybody to help us, and with Poppy locked away, it’s been difficult. He promised the toys freedom, and then kept them here to suffer and starve, with his enforcers like CatNap keeping watch over them. I don’t know what goes on outside this place, but I think you want to do the right thing, even if Poppy had to mislead you to get you here.”

Judy couldn’t argue with that – after all, she had once misled Nick in order to get his help. Still, something didn’t sit right with her. She just couldn’t put her paw on it. Until she could be certain, she knew she had little option but to carry on.

“So… where do we use this key?” She asked.

“It’s the key for a room with a machine we need to operate. Head back out, and you should find a door just to the left of the cable car you took to get here.”

With that, they headed back up into the main Playcare dome. To the left of the stairs that led up to the cable car station was a series of smaller stairs set to a faux grass hill. They climbed up, and at the top, there was a door. Judy slid the key into the lock and opened it up. Behind it was a dimly-lit corridor.

“Well, at least they’ve stopped with the primary colour décor,” Nick remarked as they stepped inside. “Can’t say ‘drab beige’ is any better though.”

They carried on down the corridor, finding themselves in a huge, dark room. In the centre of the room was a large machine with three vats, and a computer in front of it. The vat on the right was filled with a red smoke. Judy recognised it – it was what came out of Poppy’s case when she opened it, and she recalled that, when it blew into her face, she fell asleep. To the left was a doorway and an elevator. Tinny, old-fashioned music rang throughout the space from speakers set high and to the rear of the room. To the right was a closed door, with a receptacle for a battery beside it, and a power room. On the other side of the door was a much larger receptacle.

The phone rang, and Nick answered it.

“Welcome to the Gas Production Zone, the beating heart of the whole evil Playcare system,” Ollie introduced. “All the gas you see coming from the machine is made right here in the factory. It’s called the Red Smoke, and it’s like a sleeping gas. Right now, it’s headed to the right. We need to make it go to the left.”

“I’ll bite… why, exactly?” Nick asked.

“Down below is where you’ll find Him,” Ollie answered, “but it’s also where they kept the ones that they couldn’t use. The ones who were too damaged or dangerous to introduce to the factory… they’re not going to be friendly, so we need to make them sleep before you go down there. We also need the gas for… another reason. The machine will probably have a few dumb safeguards to get past, but I think you’ll be able to do it. I’ll call you when you’re finished.”

Ollie hung up, leaving Nick and Judy alone in front of the machine.

“Well, you heard him,” Nick shrugged. “Let’s switch this thing on and get going.”

Nick wandered around, looking for a way to get into the room needed to power the machine. He went through the doorway to the left of the machine, finding another large room with a massive lid at its centre. There was a cutout of CatNap next to a control panel, but Nick wasn’t interested. He instead searched for anything he could use.

There was a battery leaning out of a pod sitting atop a pile of debris. Nick used the GrabPack to take it, and brought it back into the main room.

“Look what I found,” he said to Judy. They headed over to the door on the other side and Nick placed the battery inside. The door opened up. They stepped in. Unlike the vast room opposite, this one was much smaller. Inside there was a single TV with a VCR player and a VHS tape atop it labelled ‘GrabPack 2.0’. There was another pod with what looked like a GrabPack inside it. 

Judy picked up the tape and inserted it into the player. The screen flickered to life.

“Please be advised that this new iteration of the GrabPack, which we are calling the GrabPack 2.0, is a prototype, and thus certain features we will explain are currently still in the testing and refinement stages.”

“Good to know,” Nick said.

“The GrabPack 2.0 is a refinement of the existing GrabPack design. For the first time, you will be able to instantly switch between multiple Hands without having to stow one away. This iteration of the GrabPack 2.0 comes equipped with two Hands – the first is the Green Hand, for transferring charges between sockets. This was a Hand that was carried over from the first GrabPack, but we have improved upon it and now it can hold a charge for a longer period.”

“Next, we will explain the new features of this improved GrabPack. You are presented with a static Blue Hand, and the interchangeable Green Hand. Changing Hands is easy – you simply press a button on the cannon to change to the desired Hand. And, speaking of Hands, the GrabPack 2.0 has a new hand. Introducing the Purple hand, which will give you a boost when fired at the ground. Please remember to use this responsibly – we’d hate for you to jump into a place where you would cause yourself serious harm.”

The image on the screen changed to show a yellow figure firing the Purple Hand at the floor, only to be boosted into a spike pit.

“Gruesome,” Nick quipped.

“Lastly, the GrabPack 2.0 comes with jet boosters. Now, you can’t fly with these, but you can slow your descent. Now you can jump from a height without worrying about injury upon landing.”

“Remember, this is a prototype, so some features may not work as intended, or may be subject to further iteration and improvement. Please remember to use this responsibly. Thank you.”

The screen went blank, and Nick and Judy looked at the GrabPack 2.0.

“Same as the first time?” Judy suggested.

“Oh, I am so going to win this one,” Nick replied, reading his paws.

“One, two, three…” they chanted together. Nick threw scissors, and Judy threw rock.

“YES!” Judy jumped up in celebration. Nick’s ears fell back and his tail drooped. “I can’t believe you’d go for that twice!”

“I thought for sure you wouldn’t reuse rock just in case I had paper this time,” Nick huffed.

“I knew you’d think that,” Judy grinned. She unstrapped her GrabPack, picked up the GrabPack 2.0 and strapped it on, test-firing the hands. Nick, meanwhile, took the opportunity to take the Red Hand off his own GrabPack, and salvage Judy’s old Green Hand for his.

Once they were equipped with what they needed, they stepped back out into the Gas Production Zone. Directly above the door was a metal catwalk with a doorway that led straight into the power room on their left.

“Wait here,” Judy said. She switched the right hand to the Purple Hand and fired it at the ground, propelling her into the air and onto the platform. She dropped down into the room. There were two poles, two receivers and a single power socket. A console sat against a window that offered a view of the main Gas Production room, with two indicator lights on it. A closed door was to its right.

A knock at the window startled Judy. She turned round and saw Nick indicating to them.

“You gotta fire your Hands through those flaps to connect them,” he explained. “Make sure they create a line from the socket to the receiver.”

Judy took his advice, rotated the poles with her GrabPack’s hands, fired a hand at the socket to draw power through her cable, and then fired the remaining hand at the first flap. It was redirected to the second, and then towards the receiver.

The first light on the power console lit up.

Judy repeated the action, first rotating the two poles so that they lined up with the second receiver. She once again fired a hand at the socket to draw power and fired the other one through the flaps towards the second receiver.

A jingle rang from a nearby speaker, and the second light on the console lit up. The door next to it opened and Judy exited back to the main room. The large computer at its centre beeped, awaiting input.

“Let’s get this thing started and get out of here,” Judy said, rushing over. Raising a paw, she hit the large power button at the centre of the computer’s console. It beeped to life. They looked up at the giant vats, watching as the red smoke drained from the right-most into the centre

Suddenly, the lights went out, and the computer screen turned dark.

Judy had no choice but to activate the torch on her cellphone.

“What do we do now?” she asked.

The toy-like phone Nick was carrying rang. He took it from his pocket and answered it.

“Oh, no! Someone killed the power!” Ollie spoke.

“Thanks for that, Captain Obvious,” Nick scoffed. “How do we get it back on?”

“We’ll need to activate the backup generators,” Ollie explained. “There’s six of them, one for each of Playcare’s buildings, plus one for the dome itself. I think I can get one or two online without having to send you in, but I’ll need you to reactivate the ones that I can’t… I think that may be… four of them? Where to start… It’s very lucky that there are two of you here, because it means we can get this done twice as fast.”

“You want us to split up?" Nick's eyebrows shot up. "That’s not a good idea! We should stick together, make it harder for CatNap to pick us off.”

“I think you’re both capable of looking after yourselves,” Ollie replied. “I get why you’re uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t ask it of you if I didn’t think you could keep safe.”

Nick thought about it for a moment.

“Nick… I know it’s dangerous,” Judy placed a paw on Nick’s arm in reassurance, “but the faster we get this done, the faster we can get out of here.”

“Ugh, fine!” Nick relented. “But let it be on record that I think this is a bad idea!”

“Thank you,” Ollie said. “I’ll send you two keys under the statue. You can use those to get into the Toy Store and Home Sweet Home. Once you get in there, find the backup generators and get them online, and we can reroute their power back to the Gas Production Zone. Good luck.”

Ollie hung up, leaving Nick and Judy alone.

“Why do we always get the icky jobs?” Nick sighed.

“No use complaining about it,” Judy replied. “Let’s just get it done so we can get out of here.”

The pair made their way back through the corridors and into the Playcare dome, which was now steeped in darkness, the faint veneer of cheerfulness now totally gone. They returned to the structure in its centre and headed back down the stairs underneath it to the control room, and to the cage with the delivery pipe. As Ollie had promised, there were two keys. Judy took the first – labelled ‘Toy Store – and Nick took the second – labelled ‘Home Sweet Home’.

“I guess we know where we’re going,” Nick said.

“The question is: who’s going where?” Judy replied.

“Nuh uh,” Nick raised his paws and shook his head. “No way am I going ‘rock, paper, scissors’ with you again.”

“Afraid I’ll make it a hat-trick?” Judy smugly retorted.

“I reserve the right to remain silent,” Nick huffed as he took the two keys and passed one to Judy. He examined the one he was holding. It was the key for Home Sweet Home.

They climbed the stairs back out into the main Playcare dome. Directly opposite them was a board with a map indicating what each building was. Home Sweet Home and the Toy Store were next to each other, accessed by steps that ascended from the north of the path circling the statue. They climbed the steps together, stopping once they reached the top. Right in front of them was a second set of steps that headed up to Home Sweet Home. To their left was the Toy Store, and to the right was the School.

“Let’s go get these generators back online, then meet back under the statue,” Judy suggested.

“Be careful in there, Carrots,” Nick placed a paw on Judy’s shoulder. She patted it gently.

“You too, Slick.”

With that, they split up and headed towards their assigned buildings. Nick headed upwards, which Judy headed to the left and towards the Toy Store. The two-storey building, made to resemble a small castle, looked decrepit, with its windows smashed in. Toys and giant letter blocks were strewn around the entrance.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Judy stepped inside. The Toy Store was laid out similarly to the Gift Shop in the entrance to the factory. The floor was the same mix of primary colours and white tiles. There were shelves loaded with unopened toys, and at the opposite end, a counter with a cash register on top. There was a door behind it, labelled ‘Keep Out – Playtime Co. Employees Only’. Next to the counter was a cutout of a chicken character striking what Judy could only describe as what was supposed to be a cool pose. There was a button marked ‘Press Here’.

Judy pressed the button.

“I’m KickinChicken!” the cutout announced. “Wanna go outside and hang out? It’s lookin’ pretty rad outside!”

Judy refrained from pressing the button a second time, instead turning her attention to the rest of the store. There was no sight of anyone else there. No creeping shadows or moving boxes. Yet… Judy felt like she was being watched by something… someone. She couldn’t tell what. Surely it wasn’t CatNap, as there was no place for him to hide. She remembered the Mimi Huggies from the game Station. There were Huggy Wuggy toys in here, but these ones were frozen, the smiles and blank stares indicating they were not alive as the ones she had seen earlier. There were Mommy Long Legs toys in boxes. Judy suppressed a shudder at the memory of the larger version of her chasing them down.

As far as she could see, there was still nothing moving. She decided to move cautiously behind the counter. She opened the door behind it and stepped inside. The storeroom behind it was cramped, shelves rising high to the ceiling and stacked with more toys. At the end of the room, there were two doorways – the first led to a staircase leading up to the second floor. The second was closed, with a notice that read ‘DANGER – ELECTRICAL GENERATOR’.

Judy headed straight for it and opened it up. The generator room was small. The generator itself sat against the wall, wires trailing down into the ground.

At the back of the room, set into a wall, was a battery socket with a cable trailing to the generator. Judy realised the battery needed to be placed in there for the generator to work. Glancing around her, Judy saw that there was no battery in the room to power it, which meant she needed to find one. She stepped back into the storeroom and began searching the shelves, hoping to find what she was looking for there. What she found were a lot of boxes of toys, but no sign of any battery.

Which meant she had to go upstairs to the second floor. She ascended the stairs. They creaked with every third step she took. The first time, she stopped and glanced backwards, expecting to see something coming up after her. When she saw nothing, she carried on upward onto the landing above. There were no lights on, and without the dome’s light filtering in from the windows, Judy was left in darkness, so she turned her torch on. The space was open, and packed with many more storage boxes. She rifled through them, eventually finding the green battery she needed. With it in hand, she headed back down the stairs and to the generator to slip it into the receptacle.

The generator flared to life, sparks shooting from it. The lights flickered.

Satisfied her task was complete, Judy turned to leave, making her way back through the storeroom and back into the main shop.

As she made for the exit, something stopped her in her tracks. Her attention turned to a shelf to her left. On top of it was a lone Hoppy Hopscotch plush, its head tilted to the side slightly, one of its ears bent forward, wearing creepily-wide smile. Judy was sure it wasn’t there when she first entered the shop.

The memories of the Mini Huggies stopped her from proceeding further, yet the Hoppy plush did not move. She discarded the idea that it was alive, and wondered if CatNap had placed it there, perhaps as a warning for her.

Or, perhaps it had been there the entire time and she just hadn’t noticed it. Judy didn’t know what to believe. But she knew she was done in the store. She turned and headed back out into the main Playcare dome, the door shutting behind her.

The Hoppy plush twitched, its head moving towards the door. It got up, stared at where Judy had been for a moment longer, and then climbed the shelves and dove out of an open window.

Once she was outside the store, Judy checked around for any sign of CatNap. There was none, but there was also no sign of Nick either – clearly, he was not yet finished with Home Sweet Home.

“Hi,” came a voice that startled Judy. She jumped, spinning around towards its source, the GrabPack ready to bear upon whoever had just spoken. But there was no danger, because the voice belonged to Poppy.

“You…” Judy gritted her teeth, managing to keep down her anger at seeing the little bunny doll.

“I know you’re angry…” Poppy held up her paws. “I can’t say I blame you. I promised to help you find your friend and get you out… and I sent you here instead.”

“Why should I trust anything you have to say?”

“Because I still need your help. I’m sorry I tricked you… I really did intend on helping you guys get out of here, but… when you killed Mommy… I knew you had it in you to do what needs to be done.”

“I didn’t want to kill her,” Judy protested, “especially after I learned who she really was! She was one of the kids from here, wasn’t she?”

Poppy looked down glumly.

“Yes, Mommy was made using a girl the staff selected from here,” Poppy conceded, “as were the others… but you have to understand! Those children died when they were put through that… whoever comes out the other side is not what went in. And… after all this time, they stopped being any kind of children either. Some forget who they were completely, some do remember… but they can’t go back, and they all want to kill you. I said to you before: being a doll has brought so much misery… it’s because I exist, that the others do… I was… well, ‘born’… long before the others. But if I wasn’t, then the means to create the other bigger toys wouldn’t have been discovered.”

Poppy stepped forward, a pleading look on her face.

“You’re here now. I know I can’t make you stay, but I also know you want to do the right thing… I need your help. Please.”

Judy studied her for a moment longer. She got the feeling there was something she was still missing, something Poppy was still withholding from her, but she couldn’t deny that Poppy was right: she could just walk right out of here – if she knew where the exit was. But she also knew that, given she was now aware of just what was going on in here, it would not sit well with her to leave now.

“Okay,” Judy finally spoke. “But let’s get one thing clear here: I know you’re not telling me the whole story. I’ll help you, but if it turns out you’re in on this, then I won’t think twice about changing my mind.”

Poppy breathed deeply.

“Okay,” she nodded. “Now, let’s find your friend and finish what we need to do here.”

Chapter Text

As Judy was heading for the Toy Store, Nick had ascended the stairs into the large house that was home to the orphans.

“‘Home Sweet Home’, indeed,” he grunted. He reached for the door handle and pushed it open. Behind was what could only be described as old-fashioned, Pigtorian décor, with wooden floors, the walls lined with panels across the bottom and decorated with faded pea-green wallpaper above. Old-style wall lamps glowed with a warm light, in contrast to the rather cold feel of the entire factory. Behind the door was a short corridor that ended with a spiralling staircase that led downwards.

“Here’s hoping this doesn’t lead into Hell,” Nick whispered to himself as he started forward, down the spiralling stairway. At the bottom, there was a single door. Checking behind him just to be sure he wasn’t being followed, he reached out and opened it and stepped through.

Right into a massive cloud of red smoke that was waiting on the other side.

The red smoke cleared almost as quickly as Nick had stepped into it, but something seemed wrong, somehow. His head felt heavy, his eyelids struggling to remain open.

As his vision swam in and out of focus, Nick noted the room he was in was like a reception hall, with fireplaces on either side, as well as small, round tables. A Huggy Wuggy plush was on the floor in front of him, its eyes gouged out and blood coating its fur. Ahead was a doorway, with a descending staircase.

Nick figured that he could use a moment to gather himself, clear his head, if he went back outside to the dome. So, he turned back towards the door.

Except there was no door. What greeted Nick was a solid wall. And, as he turned back around, he noticed he no longer had the GrabPack. Had he dropped it somewhere? He tried to look for it in the room, but there was nothing. Nothing but that butchered little Huggy doll.

With little choice, he turned back towards the other end of the room. He moved forward, his footsteps seeming heavy. The stairway at the other end descended deeply.

It felt like he was in some sort of dream. A really twisted dream. As he reached the bottom of the stairs, he found himself in a long corridor lined with many doors. Against the walls were various dresser cabinets.

He turned back around. The stairs were gone, replaced by a corridor. Nick tried to run down it.

The noise of crying reached Nick’s ears. His eyes caught sight of a photo frame atop a dresser he passed. It was of a young fox kit who looked deeply unhappy to be in the photo.

A feeling of foreboding washed over him, and he carried on. As he did, the sound of crying stopped. But he picked up a new sound – the sound of a phone ringing. He headed for it, turning around a corner.

He skidded to a halt – at the end of the corridor, he could see a large quadrupedal shape moving. A primal fear rose in Nick momentarily as the shape vanished, leaving him alone in the corridor, the sound of the ringing phone his only company.

After a moment, he moved on, heading towards that sound. As he passed a door, something started banging repeatedly against it, causing him to jump in surprise and face it. The door bucked with each bang, but stayed shut. A few seconds passed, and the banging ceased.

Clutching his chest, Nick turned back towards the sound of the phone and turned another corner. Just down the corridor, there was an open door with light pouring out from the doorway. He headed for it and stepped inside the room. There was a table at the end, with an old-fashioned phone atop it. Nick approached cautiously, his paw outstretched, his heart pounding in his ears, his tail rigid as a stick. He picked the phone up and held it to his ear.

“Can you hear me?” a familiar childish voice answered, though Nick, for some reason, couldn’t put a name to it right now, as his mind was foggy. “You need to run!”

The line cut out, and Nick replaced the handset back on the phone. He turned back towards the door.

A pair of eyes was staring right at him from the other side of the doorway, a creepily-large smile on its huge head. A golden moon charm dangled from its neck.

Nick recognised it as CatNap, the giant purple cat that had dumped him into the trash compactor. Rather than attack, CatNap retreated, leaving Nick alone. After a moment staring at the now-empty doorway, Nick moved towards where CatNap had been, finding himself in a damp corridor, where the wallpaper was peeling, exposing the wooden planks underneath. The carpet underfoot squelched with every step.

He saw a slightly-ajar door to the right. And from inside the darkness, two glowing eyes stared out at him.

Once again, he froze in place, waiting for an attack, but nothing came and the door slammed shut. Nick exhaled in relief, before carrying on down the corridor, which ended with a door to an office. Nick opened it and stepped inside. The room was sparse, with several filing cabinets against one wall, and a desk at the rear. On the back wall, behind the desk, was something Nick didn’t expect to see: words scratched into the paint that read ‘HAPPY AND FUN, WHY WAS IT DONE’. 

“That’s not creepy at all,” Nick shook his head. He continued looking around the room, but there really was nothing much else there beyond the desk, which he had not yet examined. On the top of it was a radio, and Nick switched it on.

“Shocking news this morning, as ZPD has confirmed the remains of a young fox boy were found on the estate of the late Elliot Ludwig, founder of the famous toy company Playtime Co.,” a news announcer spoke. “Speaking to ZNN earlier today, Officer Bogo was unable to confirm the identity of the boy or the cause of death, but confirmed in a statement that his remains had been disturbed, with several organs and key bones of his skeletal structure having been removed. In a statement, Playtime Co. had this to say: ‘It’s sickening. Elliot Ludwig was a great mammal, and those who knew him knew that he wasn’t capable of violence, much less against a child. Everything he has ever done has been for children like this one, which makes the actions of the mammal who planted that body all the more sickening. We look forward to clearing Elliot’s name in both the court of law and in the eyes of the public.’ We’ll have more on this story as it develops.”

The radio went silent. Nick stared at it for a moment, before heading back out into the corridor. To the left was another branch, stretching into the distance. He followed it. As he did, he heard crying coming from behind the many doors to his left and right. Another radio sat above a dresser, but this one was spouting gibberish.

“.eid ro ,ecalp siht evaeL .tuo teG .ereh eb ot thgir on evah uoY .won enim si ereh ni desahc evah uoy flow ehT .ytrap eht dehsarc-etag evah uoy ,tneve eht ta eb ot nosaer on dah uoy ,gniteem eht ot detivni t’nerew uoY .sruoy t’nsi taht ssenisub ni srepolretnI .deyortsed dna degallip evah uoY .deredrum dna dellik evah uoy ,ni emoc evah uoY .ereh emoclew ton era dneirf ynnub ruoy dna uoY .evisurtni ereh ecneserp ruoy dnif I”

The fur on Nick’s tail stood up on end as he listened, unable to decipher what he was hearing. He lowered himself and creeped further along the corridor and round the corner, and then round the next, and round the next, and round the next…

Nick realised he was going round in circles, with no clear exit. But on his next round, he stumbled onto a radio on the floor. A voice, which Nick was pretty sure was the news reporter from before, repeated a single phrase.

“Get up.”

But Nick was up… wasn’t he? For a brief moment, he considered again whether he was in some sort of twisted dream. But, try as he might, he couldn’t will himself to wake back up. So maybe this wasn’t… maybe this was reality. Maybe what came before was the dream…

No sooner had he contemplated that than he found himself at one end of another long corridor. He checked behind him, only to find the way he had come was now blocked off by a wall. With no choice, he carried onwards.

At the end of the hallway was a single room. Nick stepped inside. It was an odd room, with beds and privacy curtains to the right, and circular lights above. The beds were old and dirty. Against one wall was a workbench, stained with red, and with an assortment of surgical-looking tools scattered across it. On the wall behind the bench were the words ‘HAPPY AND FUN WHY WAS IT DONE’ scratched into it, as they had been in the office Nick had found earlier. There was a television in the corner, with a VCR underneath it. On one of the beds was a VHS tape. Nick picked it up and examined it, but for some reason, he couldn’t exactly make out what the label said. He walked over to the television and slipped the tape into the player.

A creaking sound came from behind Nick, and he spun around. The door slammed shut, trapping Nick in the room. His focus returned to the television as the screen flickered to life.

“Are you ready for Playtime Co.’s latest new toy?” a voice spoke. A series of drum hits followed, and a picture of a blue-furred toy with round eyes and a thick-lipped smile appeared on-screen.

“His name is Huggy! Huggy Wuggy!” a voice sang. “When he hugs you, he’ll never stop! Your friend Huggy, Huggy Wuggy! He’ll squeeze you until you pop!”

“That’s right, Playtime Co. is proud to present the newest must-have toy, Huggy Wuggy! He comes with Velcro pads on his hands and feet, so he’ll never let you go! Huggy gives the perfect hug!”

To demonstrate, an arm appeared on-screen with Huggy’s arms and legs wrapped round it. The cheerful music carried on, but Huggy’s head twisted to face the screen.

“And that’s not all!” the voice continued on. “Huggy Wuggy is the perfect friend! But he’s also the perfect guard, watching over anybody who comes into your space!”

As the words left the screen, Huggy’s mouth slowly opened, revealing razor sharp teeth. Nick could have sworn that the fur on the corners of Huggy’s head were also lengthening, as if growing into furry horns. His irises expanded to fill the entirety of his eyes.

“The guard was Huggy! Huggy Wuggy!” the singing voice returned, but the words sounded slightly unhinged. “He chased you through the vent! Watchdog Huggy! Huggy Wuggy, he’ll find out where you went!”

Nick stepped back from the screen, but he couldn’t look away. The camera zoomed in on Huggy’s face as it became more distorted.

“And for the cheap price of twenty dollars, you too can own Huggy for yourself! Welcome him into your life… the way he will welcome you into this world filled with incomprehensible horrors, his smiling mouth filled with teeth, and meat, and plastic, waiting to welcome you home…”

“This monster Huggy! Huggy Wuggy!” the sing-song voice now sounded completely malevolent, the cheerful tune carrying on behind them in lunatic fashion, playing slightly off-key. “He chased you and you fled! Nightmare Huggy! Huggy Wuggy! He’ll catch you, and then you’re dead!”

An alarm sounded and light flashed around the screen. A giant, yellow hand emerged from it, followed by the face of the twisted Huggy as it crawled out, filling the space of the room. The door behind Nick swung open. He ran toward it and out into the corridor he had emerged from. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, but it really didn’t seem that fast at all… if anything, he could have sworn he wasn’t going any faster than if he walked. At the other end was one of the colourful doorway arches that lined the corridors of the factory above, and beyond that arch was nothing but shadow. Nick barely registered how out-of-place it was.

Nick glanced over his shoulder. Behind him, the monster Huggy was pushing himself through the open doorway. He ran as fast as he could, but his feet felt heavy. He could hear the slapping of Huggy’s giant hands behind him as he gave chase, squeezing himself down the corridor towards his prey.

As Nick reached the arch, its gate slammed closed, blocking the path forward. He was trapped!

Suddenly, before he could even begin to find a different way out, he felt a huge, blue furry appendage wrap around him. He was forced to face the giant monster, which screeched loudly as it wrapped its arms tightly around him, opened its mouth wide and bit down on his head.

******

Darkness was all Nick saw. But he also felt something hard against his side. His eyes opened slowly, and he realised he was back in the reception room. There was no sign of the monster that had just bitten down on him. He sat upright. His mouth was dry.

He picked up the item that had been pressing into his side. It was the phone. He was about to put it back in his pocket when it rang. Nick answered it.

“Thank goodness, you’re awake!” came the voice of Ollie.

“What… the heck… just happened…?” Nick asked.

“You walked right into the Red Smoke,” Ollie explained. “I tried to wake you up, but you must have taken a deep breath of it, because nothing worked. But now you’re awake, you can carry on through Home Sweet Home and get the generator back online! Be careful, though… CatNap likes to patrol through here.”

“Noted…” Nick said. “And since I’ve just experienced what that Red Smoke does for myself, I really don’t want another taste of it.”

“Most of what’s left should have been blown out by now, but you’ll find something nearby that will help with any left behind. Good luck.”

With that, the line went dead, and Nick pocketed the phone. He checked his GrabPack for issues, test-fired the hands, and gave himself one last look-over to make sure he wasn’t injured. Satisfied, he faced the corridor ahead. Unlike the nightmare, it headed straight on for a short while, before opening up into a large hall.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” he sighed as he started forward.

Chapter Text

The first thing Nick noted was how unlike the nightmare he just experienced the real Home Sweet Home was. Where he had descended in the dream, the corridor headed straight out into a large hall, where he could see balconies for two additional floors above. Directly opposite was the generator room, but the door was locked. There were cardboard cutouts, one of which was Mommy Long Legs. Nick suppressed a shudder, recalling his encounters with the bigger version. The other cutouts were of figures he was unfamiliar with, but were clearly of the same family: a blue, male version with a big, toothy smile, moustache and hat, and a yellow baby with a single tooth in its mouth.

In the centre of the floor was a giant hole. The wooden floor planks around it looked like they had been ripped out. Nick leaned over the hole, expecting to find something waiting to pounce at him, but instead there was nothing… except for an item dangling from one of the wooden planks. He kneeled down and reached for it. He couldn’t quite reach, and was about to give up, when he remembered the GrabPack which had been absent in the nightmare. So, he aimed a hand at the object, fired the cannon, and pulled it back to him, examining it carefully.

It was a gas mask, painted in red, with a blue ventilator at the front. It was big enough for a canine’s head. Nick strapped it over his own face to try it out and it covered it perfectly. Nick removed it and stowed it on one of the arms of his GrabPack.

“Okay… now what?” he looked around. There were three doors – the one directly ahead which led into the backup generator; and two into the dormitories, one either side of the hall. And all of them were locked. There appeared to be power cables running along the walls, connecting to each door. There was no stairway to the upper level.

That meant the only direction Nick could go was down. So, he braced himself and jumped down the hole. He landed on the concrete below and dusted himself off. Ahead was a set of steps with a door at the top, but it was blocked off by debris, so Nick turned around. In front of him was what looked like a giant toy formula one racing car with a ring pull. And further down was a corridor filled with Red Smoke. Nick could make out a stack of boxes blocking the way just inside the cloud.

“Let’s see if this still works,” Nick put the gas mask on. Once it was securely in place, he turned his attention back to the race car, used the GrabPack to grab hold of its ring pull and tugged as hard as he could. The car’s wheels spun in place. Nick let it go, and it flew down the corridor, speeding right into the red cloud and smashing into the crates hidden in there. He followed it down, noticing there was a hole above. In the room above, there was an exposed pipe in the ceiling, and Nick recognised it as something he could use to hoist himself up. He fired one of the hands up at it and pulled himself up through the hole, swinging so he could land on the wooden flooring.

Once his feet were back on solid ground, he took the chance to look around. His vision was no longer fogged by red, which meant it was safe for him to remove the gas mask. He saw washing machines lined up against one wall, laundry baskets and loose clothes scattered across the floor. One of the walls had been torn open. Nick chose to step through the hole in the wall into what looked like an old office space. There was a long, rectangular window along one wall that looked into what was clearly a bedroom. A wide desk sat beneath the window, with papers strewn across it.

“That creates some serious ethical concerns,” Nick remarked as he gazed into the room. Inside was a bed, a night stand and a lamp. The door on the far wall was closed. Concerningly, there was dried blood on the floor.

Nick spotted a piece of paper on the desk. He examined it. It appeared to be a report:

SUBJECT 1222

Name: Marie Payne

Overseer: Dr. H. Sawyer

Date: March 8

Comments: As previously reported, the subject has shown an extreme reaction to usage of the Red Smoke, with the result of hallucinations and convulsions. Following treatment, we have managed to stabilise her, and have begun a course of medication to mitigate the effects of further exposure. We have placed her into the observation bedroom for the time being and are currently monitoring her.

With regards to her scores in the Game Station, there is a concern that this incident will have impacted her suitability for the procedure, however I will see to it personally that it goes ahead as planned.

Nick dropped the paper in horror. This was far from the first time he had come into contact with that name, and it still sent a chill down his spine to think of a little girl who had been taken away, mutilated and transformed into a giant, pink monster. But who was the real monster? Her, and the other toys? Or the ones who did this to them?

He thought about it as he moved on through the office, where there was another hole in the wall into a ruined bedroom, the bed smashed to pieces. There was a nightstand near the door, with a photograph of a giraffe kid atop it. Nick passed by, opened the door, and stepped out into a corridor. There was a door which led into a room with two battery slots. A cable snaked out through a window. Luckily for Nick, one of the batteries he needed was lying on its side on the floor in front of him. He picked it up and placed it into one of the slots.

“Right… so… gotta find myself some batteries… in an orphanage meant to hold kids… Real safe…”

Deciding he didn’t need to see any more here, he left the room and headed right, down the hallway. At the end, there was a closed door. He opened it up, finding himself in a bedroom with a wall of boxes in front of him, preventing him from proceeding in.

To his left, he saw something that made him freeze in his tracks. On one of the beds sat a large, fuzzy, pink figure with yellow felt hands with which it held a picture frame. Its large, lidless eyes gazed upon it with what Nick thought might be sadness.

Nick recognised it as Kissy Missy, the female version of Huggy Wuggy that had helped them before by opening a gate.

The fact Kissy had a visitor apparently escaped her notice, and Nick was not keen to find out if she was going to become hostile if she found out he was there. So, he slowly backed out of the room and headed right back down the way he came, making sure to quietly close the door behind him.

Making his way back up the corridor, he found himself at a crossroads. To his left was the locked door that led back out into the main hall. To his right was a similarly-locked door. Behind that door was a staircase that headed upward to the second floor. Straight ahead was a dead end with a door that had been blocked off with chains. A pile of debris sat several metres in front of it.

“What were they trying to stop from getting out?” Nick wondered. He glanced around, looking for an unlocked door. He looked upward, realising there was a hole above the chained door. The ceiling above had also been torn slightly, and Nick could see an exposed pipe. He grappled it with the GrabPack and pulled himself up to the next floor. Unlike the floor below, which was a series of corridors leading to individual bedrooms, this floor was a large dormitory with bunk beds. Several of them had been smashed up, and in the debris was the remains of a large Bobby BearHug statue. Perhaps it had once stood in the centre of the room, before the hole had been torn into the floor. In amongst the debris surrounding the statue was a battery. Nick took it and headed back towards the hole, taking a leap down to the floor below. He rushed back to the battery room and placed the battery into the spare slot. A jingle sounded and a small screen flared to life, indicating that power had been restored to the circuit. Nick’s ears caught the sound of trundling, and he stepped back out into the corridor. The door back out into the main hall had opened to his left, and to his right the stairway had also opened.

He ascended the staircase to the upper floor, finding himself in another dormitory filled with bunk beds.

“I guess they needed plenty of kids to turn into giant toys,” Nick’s eyes panned the room. “But why…?”

Whatever the answer, the dormitory was unlikely to provide it, so he crossed into another room. A large doorway led out onto the landing overlooking the main hall, but the door was closed. There was another of the large racing cars in the room.

Nick came up with a plan to break down the door. He pulled the car around so it faced the door, aimed one of his GrabPack hands at its ring-pull, and fired. The car spun its wheels until Nick let go, and it sped straight towards the door, smashing through it and lodging itself into the railings on the landing behind.

He followed the car out onto the landing. Directly opposite was another doorway, but it was closed. There was a solid wall to his left, but to his right there was an open alcove that led into what looked like a large living room-like area. With the only other door closed, he headed inside. As expected from the mess he had found in the other rooms, the living room space was no better. Cushions bearing CatNap’s face were strewn across the floor, the sofas had giant claw marks on them not unlike those Nick had seen back when he had seen the savage mammals in the Cliffside Asylum. There were televisions, but the screens were cracked.

To the left was a door with a socket above it. Nick realised he would have to find a power outlet to transfer power from in order to get that door open. Luckily, there was one above a cabinet on the other side of the room. Nick fired his Green Hand at it to draw a charge, and then spun around to face the inactive socket and used the Green Hand to transfer the charge into it.

The door ahead rose, and Nick rushed inside before it closed. Once again, he was in a dormitory filled with bunk beds, though several of these ones had been demolished. To his left was the room that was hidden behind the door on the landing.

His ears twitched. He could hear something that sounded alarmingly like the laughter of children, distorted through tinny speakers. He became alert, his vision darting around to try and find the source. But he couldn’t see anything that could be making that sound. On some of the beds were damaged Smiling Critters plushies, but they weren’t moving as far as Nick could tell. The sound of breaking glass reached him and he turned towards the direction it came from, but again there was nothing.

When he turned back around, the Smiling Critters plushies that had been on the beds were gone. Nick’s blood ran cold upon the realisation that he was definitely not alone in here. However, the Critters did not resurface, and so, after a moment to collect himself, Nick decided to press onward.

He moved to the next room and caught sight of something at the far end. A pair of rear legs and an unnaturally-long tail moving into another room.

As Ollie had warned him, it was CatNap.

He froze in place, ready to flee if the monster caught sight of him, but after a tense moment of silence, Nick released the breath he was holding. He proceeded on into the next room, where he found himself face-to-face with a Bobby BearHug statue like the one in the rubble in the dormitory on the other side of the floor. However, this one was upright, and it was facing Nick. He moved to the left, and the statue followed him. He ducked to the right; the statue faced him.

Nick deduced that if this side also required two batteries to open the door to the main hall, and to complete the circuit for the generator room, he needed the battery that the Bobby statue had. It looked like it had motion sensors behind its huge button eyes, which meant that it would only move if something moved into its field of vision. So, he quickly observed the room. There was nowhere for Nick to go inside the room itself where he wouldn’t trip the motion sensors that made Bobby follow him. There was a corridor to the right, and another dormitory straight ahead. Nick ducked into the corridor, the Bobby statue following him until he rounded the corner and headed towards the other dormitory. He crouched low as he entered it, and peered out of the doorway. The Bobby statue was staring at the doorway Nick had originally left through, and Nick could now see the battery handle protruding from its back. He slinked back into the room, kept low and crawled behind the statue. Standing upright, he took hold of the battery and pulled it out. The Bobby statue powered down with a descending whirr.

“Please don’t leave me alone in the dark…” the Bobby statue said in a tone that slowed as it lost power. Nick stared at it for a moment, wondering what kind of people made a statue that begged not to be left in darkness when the battery was pulled out.

One thing was for sure: this was one messed-up toy company.

“Sorry, but I need this,” Nick said to the statue. With the battery now in his paws, he needed a way to get downstairs. So, he headed back out into the corridor. There was a closed door with a stairway that led down, but no way to open it. He headed back down the corridor. To the right of the dormitory he used for cover, there was a kitchen. Inside, Nick spotted a vent cover. He crouched low and opened it up, crawling inside. Ahead was more Red Smoke, so he donned the gas mask and carried on, sliding down the shaft. There was a vent cover on the lower levels, and Nick once again stopped when he saw two glowing circles glaring through it. The circles lowered, and Nick carried on round the corner. The vent terminated into an office. He jumped out. There was no Red Smoke here, so he once again removed the gas mask and continued into the outside corridor. Right ahead there was another power room, just like the one in the other set of rooms across the hall. And just like that one, there was a battery sat on the floor in front of the two receptacles.

Nick made to step into the room, and something dropped in front of him, making him jump backwards in surprise, his tail stiff, his legs bent in a crouch.

It was a single, worn CatNap plush, dangling from the door lintel by its tail. It swung harmlessly as it spun slightly. Nick clutched his chest, shooed the plush out of his way and headed inside, placing the two batteries in their receptacles.

A jingle sounded, and the sound of doors opening reached Nick’s ears. He headed back out into the corridor, towards the newly-opened hallway and back into the main hall. The door to the generator room, now on Nick’s left, was now open. He headed inside. There was a switch marked ‘emergency start’. He pulled it, and the generator flared to life, lights blinking to indicate it was up and running.

Not wanting to stay in the haunted orphanage longer than he needed to, Nick made haste back towards the entrance corridor, through the room he had been gassed in, through the door, up the stairs and back into the dome. He stood on the porch of Home Sweet Home, overlooking the statue ahead.

Hoping that Judy had finished with whatever she needed to do, Nick started forward down the stairs. Before he reached the bottom, he felt something shove him hard into the ground. He flipped round to face whatever it was that had hit him, expecting to find himself face-to-face with CatNap.

The monster that had ambushed him was not CatNap, though its shape was familiar to Nick. He couldn’t make their face out completely in the dark, but there was no mistaking that tufted head, those long arms, the felted, glove-like hands, the huge mouth that was opening to reveal rows of teeth.

Nick was certain he was about to be killed by Huggy Wuggy – and for real this time.

Chapter Text

Nick closed his eyes. He was done for, there was nothing he could do to escape the wrath of the creature bearing down upon him, its maw opening to bite his head off, its hands holding him down so he couldn’t even struggle.

“No, no!” came a familiar female voice. “Let him go! He didn’t do anything wrong!”

A torch shone into the face of the creature. The teeth vanished, and Nick realised that this was not Huggy Wuggy at all. It was Kissy Missy.

And the one shining a torch into her face was Poppy. Nick arched his head around. Kissy’s eyes flitted between Nick and Poppy, and she lifted herself off Nick. He stood back up and dusted himself off.

“We’re here to help,” another voice added. Nick spun around to find Judy joining them.

“So, you found Poppy, then,” Nick said.

“Yeah… she was waiting for me under the statue after I got the generator back on in the Toy Store,” Judy explained.

“I’m sorry about all this…” Poppy placed her paws together. “But being back in this place makes her tense… she’s like all of us… one of the orphans who used to live here before we were made into… this…”

Kissy’s eyes met Judy’s, but after a moment, she averted her gaze, gripping her arm nervously.

“It was actually Kissy that pulled me and you from the train wreck,” Poppy turned to Judy. She turned back to Nick. “I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you, but by the time Kissy brought us down here, CatNap had already found you. I’m just glad that Ollie helped you get this far. He's the reason we found you at all.”

Poppy’s gaze flitted between Nick and Judy, as if examining them for injuries, and it was then that they noticed that the right side of Poppy’s face was cracked.

“Looks like the train crash hurt all of us…” she said solemnly. “You’ve both been through so much to get here… you deserve an explanation.”

“Like why we’re even here?” Nick questioned. “I agree: I think we’re owed that much.”

“Nick…” Judy placed a paw on his arm.

“You’re right…” Poppy conceded. “Come with us, and I’ll explain everything.”

Poppy wandered over to Kissy, who picked her up and placed her on her shoulder. They turned around and headed towards the back of the dome. Nick and Judy followed them. They reached a wall with a small power box. Kissy bent down and extended her arm so Poppy could walk across it and open the box up. Inside was a switch that Poppy flipped. The floor ahead opened up and an elevator platform rose. Kissy and Poppy boarded it, and Nick and Judy followed. The platform shuddered to life and headed upwards, towards the top of the dome.

“Listen…” Poppy spoke. “I’m not your enemy. But I can’t just let you leave!”

“And why is that?” Nick pressed. “You said it yourself: the wolf we’ve followed in here is probably already dead, so there’s not much more we can do, is there?”

“Because what’s been happening here is bigger than all of us!” Poppy replied desperately. “Bigger than your missing wolf… like I said back on the train, if it wasn’t for me, then none of this would have happened… we have to make this right! But I’m just one doll… I can’t do much by myself, even if I have some pretty big friends… I need you! Together, we can get revenge on those… monsters that tortured you! Tortured us!”

“We don’t deal in revenge,” Judy replied. “We’re cops… we’re supposed to uphold justice.”

“Then help me bring those responsible to justice!” Poppy pleaded. “Because they didn’t act alone… they’ve never acted by themselves… they’re disciples of the first of these larger experiments… the Prototype…”

“The Prototype?” Judy blinked.

“Yes… he’s the one who took Mommy’s remains. Until now, nobody’s actually seen him for a really long time, but… he has to know we’re coming by now. If you try to leave, he’ll kill you both before you ever reach that front door… that’s why I diverted the train… like I said… I see your potential… but he sees it too.”

“Ah, the classic choice of ‘if we stay, we die; if we run, we also die’,” Nick quipped.

“You have no idea what he’s done, what he’s capable of!” Poppy continued. “It’s because of him that I was trapped in that… God-awful case for so long! He has control over so many toys in the factory… he has to be stopped, so all those he’s hurt can be set free. Let me help you do it! We’ve all seen how capable you are! You killed Huggy. You killed Mommy… you are perfect to end the Prototype’s reign.”

“We didn’t come here to kill anybody!” Judy protested.

“I know you didn’t, but… it’s him or you. I don’t want you to die… I’m sorry… I didn’t want it to come to this, but I think it was set in stone the moment you found and opened my case.”

The elevator stopped at a high platform with a view of the entirety of Playcare.

“Do the honours?” Poppy asked Judy. There was a button marked ‘Dome Lights’. Judy pressed the button and the dome lit back up. Judy stepped back onto the elevator as it began to descend back down to ground level.

“The Prototype has set one last obstacle in our way,” Poppy continued. “CatNap… We can’t stay here. If CatNap finds us, he’ll kill you and I’ll be put back in that case for sure.”

The platform reached the ground. Nick and Judy stepped off. It began to rise again.

“Keep yourselves safe. Ollie will be in touch. And… good luck.”

The platform rose back up to the level high above them.

“What do you think?” Judy turned to Nick.

“I think we’ve just heard a lot of promises to answer questions, and all we’ve been left with is more questions,” Nick replied. “I mean… who is this ‘Prototype’? What is he? I get that he’s responsible for a lot of suffering here… but if we’re going up against some unknown, we need specifics.”

“Yeah…” Judy agreed.

The phone rang, and Nick picked it up.

“Hey, hey, it’s me again!” Ollie spoke. “It looks like Poppy’s explained everything to you now. And she turned on the Dome’s backup power! Now, the plan from here’s pretty simple – we need to restore power to the Gas Production Zone.”

“Yeah, piece of cake,” Nick snarked, earning a light elbow and a look of reproach from Judy.

“First, Nick, you’ll need to go back to the Home Sweet Home building you were in.”

“Do I have to?”

“You don’t need to go back in, but we do need the power cord from under the porch so we can reroute the backup power from there to the Gas Production Zone,” Ollie explained. “And Judy, you’ll need the one from the Toy Store.”

Nick climbed the stairs back up to Home Sweet Home. There was a power box like the one Poppy had used to restore the dome’s power. He opened it up and found a power cable reeled inside.

“Now take that cable and plug it into one of the outlets under the statue.”

Nick shrugged and yanked the cable out. He pulled it down the stairs of Home Sweet Home, round the giant cylindrical structure and down the stairs into the control room. Next to the computer terminal was a power terminal with multiple outlets. Nick plugged the cable into one and the terminal beeped, indicating a successful connection. One moment later, Judy appeared in the room with her own power cable, plugging it into another outlet.

“Awesome, look at that!” Ollie said. The terminal display stated that power to the Gas Production Zone was now at 50%. “We’re already half-way there! Now comes the hard part. Remember the generator you turned back on in Home Sweet Home and in the Toy Store? Well, those backup generators just for those buildings! All of the buildings in Playcare have them… though I’m not getting a reading on one of them… but that’s okay! We should only need one or two more! So… that means I’m gonna have to ask you two to split up again. But… where to send you…? Everywhere is pretty dangerous around here… especially that Playhouse! Yuck! So… your best bet is the School and the Counsellor’s Office! The school should be straightforward, because CatNap likes to leave that place alone. He sometimes goes into the Counsellor’s Office, but as long as you do what you did in Home Sweet Home, you should be fine. I’m sending the keys for both of them now.”

They turned to the delivery pipe next to the terminal as two keys slid down it with a jingling sound. Neither of them was in the mood for discussing who should get which key, so Nick took them both out and passed one over to Judy. He examined his key: it was for the Counsellor’s Office.

“One more thing,” Ollie interjected. “Where you’re going, I can’t reach you, but I’ll be able to follow along on the cameras. Just be careful… whoever’s going into the school, you won’t be alone.”

“I thought you said CatNap didn’t like going in there,” Judy frowned.

“He doesn’t, but there is somebody else in there, and they are not your friend.”

“Is anything in this place our friend?” Nick asked.

“I’m not going to lie, everything that still lives in Playcare probably wants to kill you.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring!”

“The school used to have a whole team of teachers, but now there’s only the one, and she’s gone a little… crazy. She should be easy enough to avoid, though. You should have no trouble getting the generator back online before she can stop you. Good luck.”

The line went dead, and Nick pocketed the phone.

“Let’s get this over with,” Nick sighed.

“Keep yourself safe, Nick,” Judy replied. “I want my partner to walk out of this mess with me.”

“Back at you, Carrots,” Nick nodded. The pair ascended the steps back into the dome before splitting up, Nick going to the right, and Judy to the left.

Judy went around the statue, back towards the steps that headed upward towards Home Sweet Home. She climbed the first set of steps but unlike before, where she turned left to head towards the Toy Store, she turned right and she soon found herself at the front door of the school.

Meanwhile, Nick’s path was shorter, as the Counsellor’s Office was just up the steps to the right of the statue. He climbed the small set of steps up to the door of the building. It was styled like a huge, marble Romane building, with a triangular tympanum carved with the Smiling Critters. Columns lined the portico-porch, and large statues of Huggy Wuggy stood beside the staircase.

“Isn’t this quaint?” he said as he reached the plinth at the top of the staircase. He headed for the door and opened it.

“Appearances can be deceiving.”

Despite its exterior, the corridor behind the door was much more modern. It reminded Nick of the building the Zootopian Bank inhabited in the City Centre – it too was inspired by Romane architecture, but was thoroughly modern on the inside.

“Well, here goes nothing.”

Nick stepped inside the Counsellor’s Office, ready to face whatever was lying in wait in there.

Chapter Text

Judy stepped into the school after unlocking the door. There was a short corridor that ended in a stairwell spiralling downward. There were no doors to other rooms on this floor which meant, as Judy realised, that the school was below the surface only and the building was just for show.

The fact the school went deeper underground was not of huge comfort to Judy. Coupled with the knowledge that there was another hostile toy lurking somewhere, Judy was positively on edge. Nevertheless, she knew she had to complete her objective here.

“Find the generator, restore the power, get out of here,” she reminded herself. She descended the steps down into the school’s main floor. The walls were lined with cylindrical lockers of different primary colours. The floor was littered with bags, papers, stationary, and there was dried blood on the floor. The sight of it sent a creeping sensation down Judy’s spine to her tail.

Pulling herself together, Judy checked her surroundings. To the left was the open door for a classroom while to the right was a closed door. Judy tried it – it was locked. She looked inside the other classroom.

It was frozen in time, desks and chairs shoved haphazardly around, bags strewn across the floor, pencils and books scattered across the desks.

There was nothing Judy could use in the room so she exited, but the moment she stepped back out into the corridor, the PA system sputtered to life.

“This is Miss Delight speaking,” a female voice spoke. “Students are to remain in their seats until the bell has rung! Your teachers will dismiss you themselves. And no going into the halls without a hall pass!”

The faux-cheerfulness in the voice made Judy’s skin crawl and her fur stand up on end. She carried on deeper into the school, opening doors and checking classrooms.

She found a door that she couldn’t open. Peering through the glass, she saw the generator she needed to activate on the other side. Her eyes darted around, looking for another way into the room.  She spotted another door at the far end on the left.

“Then that way I go,” Judy whispered to herself. She set off, looking for the room which had a door for her to go through. She found herself in a lounge, with another closed door at the other end. She moved towards it but stopped dead at the sound of footsteps.

A shape passed the door’s window, a large, stumbling figure, each step it took making a loud clicking sound. Judy couldn’t make out just what the figure was supposed to be, but it was clear that this was Miss Delight.

Once she was sure the coast was clear, Judy headed to the door and opened it. She stuck her head through the frame and checked both ways. There was no sign of the teacher.

Sneaking through the corridors reminded Judy of her school days. She was never a hall-skipper herself, but she had helped catch plenty of them in her early days of wanting to make the world a better place – usually, it was either Gideon or Travis she caught, which certainly didn’t endear her to them – not that there was anything she could to that effect at the time, as Gideon and Travis routinely bullied Judy and her friends. Judy had to admit she felt a self-righteous glee whenever she caught them. She was no Randall Weasel – she often gave them the chance to get back to class when she caught them. It wasn’t her fault that Gideon tried to intimidate his way out. By this time, Gideon had already left her with the scar on her cheek. He might have not been the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he knew better than to try and hurt Judy on school grounds, and since the day he had scarred her, there was no way to get to her when she was dropped off at school and picked up.

That was all so long ago, though. And now she had some idea of what it felt like to be on the receiving end.

As she paced through the corridors, searching for the door that would lead her into the generator room, the PA system crackled again.

“Wait… who are you?” Miss Delight’s voice echoed around the hallway. “I don’t know you, so you can’t be somebody who used to work here… were you one of the orphans that got away? Or… are you an outsider? Yes… that must be it… you must be an intruder! Why are you here? Hm? Barb?” There was a brief pause, as if Miss Delight were consulting with somebody. But, as far as Judy had been told, there was nobody else here.

Perhaps Miss Delight had been driven so mad that she was imagining a companion of some sort.

“Oh…” Miss Delight deadpanned. “Barb says you’re looking for someone who did work here… you won’t find them here… because if they had been here…” Miss Delight’s voice took on a manic edge. “Never mind that… if CatNap finds out you’re here, he won’t be happy. You should leave…” her voice turned low, “… for your own safety.”

The PA went dead, leaving Judy standing alone in silence. She shook her head. She wanted to take the warning, but she had work to do here, and she couldn’t leave until she had that generator up and running again. And so, she carried on searching for a way into the generator.

One of the doors led into a staff room, with a television set and a VHS player, on top of which was a yellow VHS tape. Judy approached, picked up the tape, and slid it in. The screen flickered to life, but the tape was clearly worn – Judy couldn’t make out the figure on screen.

“Where are the kids?” Miss Delight’s voice came from the speakers. “Please… tell me… where are the children? Are they… in the same place as the employees?”

“No…” Miss Delight answered her own question, but in a lower, whispery voice.

“Are they safe?”

“Yes.”

Miss Delight sighed in relief.

“Can I see them?”

“No.”

“And that was all CatNap would tell me…” Miss Delight lamented to herself. She had clearly been retelling an event that had happened before this tape’s recording.

But then she started giggling. At first, it sounded like she was trying to keep it in, but then it grew louder. She stopped it by drawing a deep breath before speaking again.

“Probably because he knew I’d kill them all!” she finished, her voice manic. And then, unable to contain herself, she burst into insane laughter.

The tape ended and the screen turned to snow. Judy stepped away from it, her ears drooping and her nose twitching in fear. Her eyes  This teacher had gone insane.

Judy left the staff room and returned to the corridor. She headed left, deeper into the school. After a short walk, She found a room marked ‘COMPUTER CLASS’. It was bigger than the others. Rows upon rows of computers lined the middle of the room, with a single blackboard against one wall. There was a cardboard cutout against the wall with the image of a lynx. She had wavy blonde mane-like hair, an uncanny grin on her face and she was wearing a red skirt with polka dots, a yellow shirt and blue overalls with an apple on the chest. She had a red bow on her head as well.

The PA crackled again, and Miss Delight’s voice rang through the room.

“Heh… not a good listener, are you?” she mocked Judy. “You’re very much like those mammals that worked here in that way… they didn’t listen either… until it was too late… I remember their screams… loud… high… delicious… I wonder if yours sound like theirs too?!” Miss Delight laughed darkly. “I can’t wait to find out! So, let this be your last warning! Get out, because I will find you, and when I do…” Miss Delight began giggling lunatically, as she had on the tape, “me and Barb will give you a detention you’ll never leave from…”

The tape was fresh in her mind and, for a moment, Judy considered the merits of leaving the school, finding Nick and dragging themselves out of here. She shook the thought from her mind – there was no way she could leave when there were people counting on her. So, she decided to ignore the warning. She walked through the room and approached the door at the other end. Gripping the handle, she pushed it open.

Behind it was the generator room. Judy breathed a sigh of relief – she was nearly done. As well as the generator, there was a single power pole and two sockets, one sparking with electricity.

Judy aimed her Blue Hand at the active socket, fired it, and then wound the cord around the power pole, which lit up as the cord connected. She then aimed the Green Hand at the other socket and fired, completing the circuit. The generator roared to life.

As it did, the door Judy couldn’t get through earlier burst open and a single figure staggered inside. Judy backed off in fear, but the figure was currently occupied by the generator. It raised a huge mace, cobbled together from a ball of string, a ruler, and punctured by many pencils, and then brought it down on the generator. Sparks flew as the generator died. The lights flickered on and off haphazardly. Its mission complete, it turned towards its quarry, but froze in place. Judy recognised it – distorted though it was, the figure was almost identical to that of the drawing on the cutout in the previous room, except her fur was wilder, one of the straps of her overalls was loose, her clothes were torn and frayed, and her mouth was missing, exposing a rather nasty set of teeth.

The figure was Miss Delight.

******

While Judy was exploring the school and about to encounter one murderous teacher, Nick had entered the Counsellor’s Office.

“Great, another building filled with corridors and offices,” Nick sighed. “Had to pick the boring place… well, better get this over with.”

He moved through the corridors, trying locked doors. Behind one was a short corridor filled with Red Smoke.

Thankfully, he still had the gas mask, but right now it was useless since he couldn’t even get into the corridor. So, he carried on, occasionally trying a door.

He found himself at the end of the corridor with two routes. To the left was a closed door with a battery slot next to it, and to the right was a corridor that ended with another door, but there was a hole in the wall next to it, and Red Smoke billowing behind it.

“What kind of office needs batteries to open doors?” Nick frowned. He headed down the corridor opposite. The door was also locked, but he could see a battery on the floor through the smoke.

That wasn’t the only thing inside the smoke, though. He could see a small Bunzo Bunny toy, walking forward through it and clashing its tiny cymbals together. It staggered forward a few steps before falling on its face, evidently affected by the smoke.

“I know how you feel, little fella,” Nick whispered. He was about to turn away when something happened to make him freeze in place. A huge quadrupedal figure lunged from the left, scooped up the Bunzo, and darted away.

It was CatNap, and he had just killed one of the smaller toys.

For a minute, Nick remained frozen in place, perhaps fearing that CatNap would appear at the hole and drag him through, but nothing happened. Nick was left alone.

Letting the breath he had been holding out, Nick aimed the Blue Hand at the battery and fired it through the hole before reeling it into him. He turned around, headed back up the corridor and slid the battery into the receptacle.

The door clicked open and Nick stepped inside. This corridor ended with a large cubicle room which had five doors – one for each head of the more important buildings in Playcare – the School, the Playhouse, and Home Sweet Home, and one for Playcare itself. The remaining door had no window and was marked as ‘high voltage – authorised personnel beyond this point only’. Nick guessed that this was the door to the generator room.

The door behind Nick slammed shut after he stepped into the cubicle room. He rushed back and tried to open it but it was locked. With little choice, Nick turned back towards the cubicles and began exploring the room.

As Nick expected, all four offices were not locked and were devoid of signs of life. He opened the door to the Head of Playcare’s office. Inside, there was a desk, a filing cabinet and a single television in the corner. On a hook hung a key. Nick approached it, picked it up and examined it. The label read ‘backup generator key’, which was just what he needed, so he pocketed it.

There was an assortment of items on the desk, including a VHS tape and a file. Nick picked up the file, opened it, and began reading.

REPORT: THEODORE GRAMBELL, 1006, REQUEST FOR ACQUISITION

STRICTLY FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE HEAD OF PLAYCARE AND THE HEAD OF INNOVATION ONLY

This report concerns the aftermath of the escape attempt by Theodore Grambell last year. The investigation by Lockehart has since concluded and this report will delve into the finer details that Lockehart did not include in his report (given his order to only investigate up to a point) as well as my suggestions concerning our Bigger Bodies Initiative and how both Theodore and 1006 can fit into those plans.

As it currently stands, Theodore has recovered physically to the point where he is able to be tested again as per our eventual goals in line with the Bigger Bodies Initiative. It is undeniable that he is resourceful and smart – a dangerous combination when paired with 1006’s own intelligence for sure. I now believe that, once he has been properly assessed, he would be the perfect candidate. Submit him to testing in the Game Station to ascertain whether the incident has affected him – we will be able to assess both his physical aptitude and his mental fitness for a future procedure.

Regarding how he was able to make the attempt to escape Playcare, it is now obvious that Theodore was assisted in the attempt to escape Playcare by Experiment 1006. Somehow, he has been able to evade security in the Labs in order to escape into Playcare repeatedly, and has been conspiring with Theodore. It should have been expected that 1006 would try again following the incident where he attempted to escape by deceiving the security staff into opening his cell. We should have anticipated that he would seek others to aid him in this. What is clear is that this means co-operation and co-ordination are in his skill set, which makes him very dangerous, especially given his clearly-persuasive nature. I would like to request that he is kept down in the Labs under strict observation.

I might suggest another measure to prevent his attempted escape attempts as well. At present, he maintains the same issues present in our current line of experiments pertaining to the eventual culmination of the Bigger Bodies Initiative – he is restricted to the size and morphology of the mammal used in his creation. My suggestion would be to facilitate the creation of a mechanical harness which would have the effect of making him large enough to spot and heavy enough to hear. He would not be able to launch another escape attempt again. I will defer this to the Innovation department, since the construction of such a harness is not within my purview. We can then examine and experiment with 1006.

I would also request acquisition of Poppy for this very reason – I expect the answers we need for constructing Experiment 1160 – the first we have attempted to create without being restricted to the size and morphology of our test subjects – lie in those two. I understand Poppy is all that remains of this company’s founding past, but if we are to progress in our goals, we must explore every avenue available to us, and that includes Poppy herself.

Dr. H. Sawyer

Head of Special Projects

Nick stared at it, horror once again setting in at what he was reading. Now he understood what Poppy meant when she said that she too had been tortured.

His attention turned to the VHS tape, and he wondered if he should even watch it. His curiosity got the better of him. He picked it up, slipped it into the VHS player underneath the television, and stepped back.

An alert tone sounded, and text appeared on the screen:

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM

EFFECTIVE 8/8/2006 11:00AM ZST

Playtime Company

Issues a

WORK FORCE DANGER ALERT

The screen changed to a red colour, and a voice emerged, speaking as new text appeared.

“The following message is for all Playtime Co. employees,” it said. “At 11:01 AM, Zootopian Standard Time, an unknown hostile force was declared present within the Playtime Co. facility. Personnel are to begin enacting emergency evacuation protocols immediately. Leave all personal belongings, and do not interact with any hostile individuals. If there is no immediate exit available to you, seek shelter, use blankets or pillows to cover yourself, and remain silent. Do not look through any windows. Do not open any doors, regardless of whether there are individuals looking to enter the space. Do not make eye contact with…”

A static noise burst from the speakers as new text appeared on-screen:

 

OPEN THE DOORS NOW.

THE HOUR OF JOY HAS ARRIVED.

The message held for a few seconds before the screen turned to snow. Nick felt an ice-cold sliver of dread creeping up his spine.

“… the Hour of Joy?” Nick whispered. There was no indication as to the nature of whatever that was, but Nick had a pretty good idea what the ultimate outcome was – since the date on the emergency broadcast was the date that the Playtime Co. employees had mysteriously vanished. It was now a little clearer that some sort of incident had occurred, that an evacuation had been mandated… but that last message… something had tried to interfere with the evacuation.

Could it have been the Prototype? Poppy had warned them that they had no idea what he was truly capable of. He felt that the mystery’s answer was close, but crucial information was still missing… like what exactly happened to the employees and what caused them to all just disappear.

Whatever the answer, Nick knew he was not going to find it here, so he left the office and re-entered the cubicle room. Now with the key in hand, he headed for the generator room door. Slotting the key into the lock, he opened it up and stepped inside.

To the left was the generator and to the right was a stack of boxes underneath an open vent. A switch protruded from the wall next to the generator. Nick approached and pulled the switch and the generator sputtered to life.

Nick returned to the cubicle room, headed for the door back to the corridor system and tried it. It was still locked – perhaps it wasn’t connected to the generator. He thought for a moment about how he was going to get out of here. There were no other doors leading to the labyrinth of corridors making up the Counsellor’s Office.

He recalled the vent in the generator room. It’d be tight, but he could squeeze his way through and see if he could come out closer to the entrance. And, bonus point: he would minimise the chances he had of running into CatNap if he was in the vents.

He headed back to the generator room, climbed up the boxes next to the open vent and crawled inside.

For what seemed like an age, Nick crawled through the vents, looking for a way that would take him back towards the entrance. Eventually, he found it when the narrow shaft went straight downwards, the grate below exiting into a small office. Nick kicked it open and slid down onto the floor. Dusting himself off, he took stock of his surroundings. There was a small desk to the right and a filing cabinet to the left as well as a closed door with a glass window straight ahead. Unfortunately, Nick could see the red cloud in the corridor beyond. He equipped the gas mask and gently pushed the door open. In the corridor to the left was a door that led out into the reception area, but it required a battery to open. To the right, the corridor continued a short distance before it terminated in a dead end.

The battery he needed had to be in that other office, he rationalised. So, with that in mind, he moved towards it. The door was not locked and on the desk inside was the battery he needed. He stepped inside, picked up the battery and stepped back outside into the corridor…

“GUWAAAAAAH!”

Nick didn’t have time to register the large purple cat creature filling the corridor before it shoved him back into the room and closed the door, red smoke billowing from its mouth. He fell hard against the desk and collapsed to the floor, the impact driving the breath from his body. For a moment, he didn’t comprehend what had happened.

And then it hit him…

CatNap had ambushed him and stripped him of his gas mask.

“No…” Nick whispered as his eyes became heavy, and his vision faded to black.

Chapter Text

Nick could feel himself floating. He opened his eyes (or did he?) and found himself floating through a tunnel of red fog. A strange ringing noise reverberated through his ears (if he actually had ears).

“Find the flower…” a voice whispered. Nick tried to move toward it, but he found he didn’t have legs…

“Find the flower…” the voice whispered again. “This isn’t a place you come back from…”

The red mist began to fade, and Nick found himself standing in the parking lot, in front of the factory. The sky was red. He tried to look around, but found himself unable to move. The vision faded back into crimson smoke, and the floating sensation returned.

“Do you have any idea why you’re here?” a voice that sounded a lot like Poppy’s echoed lowly through the mist.

The vision changed again. This time, Nick was in the main entrance. It was much darker than when he came in. There were bipedal shapes frozen in position, darted all around the place. He tried to move again, but once more, he could not. The entrance vanished, and he found himself flying once more through that red tunnel.

“Do you know what’s happened in this place?” the voice said again. The mist gave way to reveal a familiar corridor – one of the many in Home Sweet Home, except this time there were several small figures running between the open doors. The sound of laughter echoed through Nick’s skull. He could turn in place, but he wasn’t able to move forward. Behind him was a bedroom with an open door. The silhouette of a kid sat on the bed, looking out into the hall.

The laughter morphed into cries and screaming as the scene shifted back to the crimson tunnel. He floated for a while, a disembodied thought on an ocean of chaos. And then the mist parted once again. He was now standing in a classroom, facing the front. Small silhouettes sat at desks while a taller figure stood at the front, indicating to the blackboard behind them.

“You know who we once were…” the voice spoke, “and what they did to us…”

The classroom vanished as the other rooms had. Nick once again floated through what he had come to think of as a tunnel of visions, unable to change course or resist its pull. He was going to see each vision whether he wanted to or not.

The smoke vanished again, leaving Nick inside something that looked like a play tunnel, filled with the shady figures of children crawling around inside it. Nick noticed they were not alone: there were plushies inside, following them around. He could make out a CatNap plush, crawling after one of the children in the tunnel to his right.

“Do you see why we have to end this?” the voice asked.

Once again, he found himself flying through that crimson vortex. When it faded, he was back in the Counsellor’s Office, in the cubicle maze. The lights were out. Figures were frozen in running poses.

“Do you even know what’s real and what isn’t?”

The scene faded out once more, and he floated, pulled forward through the tunnel. It finally gave way one last time, to a vast, empty void with one distinguishing feature: Huggy Wuggy, standing in the exact same pose as when Nick first saw him in the main lobby. His mouth was opened into that twisted smile, teeth revealed.

“No… you don’t.”

Huggy faded into the dark. An alarm blared. The sounds of screaming and panicking echoed throughout the space, as well as the occasional distant monstrous roar, as the void brightened into a red mist and shapes took form. Through that crimson blanket, Nick found himself standing in the lobby in front of the Huggy plinth. Huggy was gone. Corpses lay scattered around it, blood spattered over the tiled floor. A ringing, like that of a phone, pierced through the soundscape.

“But you’ll find out…” Poppy’s voice began.

“Very soon…” a completely different voice finished the sentence. It sounded… distorted, somehow, and like the two words had originally been spoken by different people.

He felt a compulsion to look up, towards the dome above. One of the windows was open… and a clawed hand reached downwards towards him, thin, unnaturally-long, spindly fingers outstretched.

******

Nick’s eyes jolted open. He groggily got to his feet; the vision still fresh in his mind. The ringing noise reverberated through his ears and it took him a moment to realise that it wasn’t part of the dream – it was coming from the phone in his pocket.

Maybe Ollie had seen Nick needed waking up again, like in Home Sweet Home. So he picked up the phone.

It was not Ollie on the other end, however.

“I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE HERE FOR,” came a whispery, low voice. “SO I WILL MAKE THIS OFFER TO YOU ONCE: LEAVE PLAYCARE, OR I’M COMING FOR YOU.”

The line went dead. Nick stared at the phone, totally dumbfounded.

Was that CatNap calling him? Why make the threat? For that matter, if CatNap knew what they were there for… why even let Nick live at all?

Was CatNap, and by extension, the Prototype, showing mercy? It didn’t make sense, especially given what Poppy had told them.

“If you try to leave, he’ll kill you both before you ever reach that front door.”

Why would CatNap give them the chance to leave? Was he just playing a game? Did he mean to corral them towards the exit and have them finished by the Prototype?

Whatever CatNap was up to, Nick knew he had to press on, but it was another thing to add to the ever-growing list of questions he had for Poppy and Ollie when he found them. For now, he had to get out of the Counsellor’s Office.

Getting to his feet, he searched around for the gas mask. He found it atop the desk.

CatNap had made sure that it would never be useful again. He had flattened it.

“Great…” Nick sighed.

Thankfully, CatNap had not broken the battery he needed to open the door. But the question remained as to how he was going to get across the red smoke to leave. He opened the door cautiously and glanced outside.

The red smoke was gone. The way to the exit door was clear.

He returned to the office he had just left, picked up the battery, had one last look at the crushed gas mask, and left for the exit. The battery slid into the slot and the door unlocked. Nick threw it open – he was back in the first corridor he had entered the building from. Turning right, he headed back out to the Playcare dome, his task now complete.

He just hoped Judy had made it out okay, given the warning Ollie had given.

******

Back at the school, Judy stared at the form of the teacher in front of her. Her ruinous state and the absence of her mouth made Judy tremble in fear.

 “I told you, you should leave,” Miss Delight said. “Like a naughty little child, you didn’t listen… So, now, I’m going to have to discipline you.”

Judy turned tail and fled back into the computer room. She could hear clacking sounds following her, along with the occasional distorted, maniacal chuckle.

For a moment, she considered going back to the entrance – Miss Delight might not follow her out into the Dome.

“Are you thinking of running out the door?” she called. “The doors are locked during the school day! Students should be seated until the bell rings!”

Despite the contradiction in her words, they immediately put paid to Judy’s initial idea. Even if Miss Delight was lying, she expected Judy to go that way. If she was telling the truth, she would have her cornered with no way out. She had to find an alternative route of escape.

She suspected that there had to be service tunnels throughout Playcare that would take her between the different buildings. If she could find one of those, she could take an alternative route out.

That meant she had no choice but to go deeper in.

As she turned around to check how far Miss Delight was behind her, she noticed that her pursuer had frozen in her tracks.

She turned around and ran. The sound of heavy plastic footsteps followed her. She turned around, the monstrous toy had stopped, keeping the gap between them.

Judy decided to test something out. Facing her pursuer, she backed off slowly. Miss Delight remained in place. She rounded the corner, and the clacking sound resumed. Backing away towards the shutter further down, she observed her pursuer rounding the corner, and then stopping in her tracks the moment her eyes locked with Judy’s.

That was it, Judy realised. This teacher would only move if she wasn’t being watched. It made some sense: Miss Delight was clearly modelled off a lynx, a member of the cat family, and they liked to sneak up on their prey. She had seen enough videos online of members of the cat family who stalked a target only to stop dead in their tracks when their prey turned around towards them. Often, they were just harmless fun – kids looking to pounce on their parents, or dads hoping to prank their unsuspecting families.

This was neither fun nor harmless. Miss Delight intended to kill her. So why was she playing around like this? Judy was a lot smaller, and with the GrabPack strapped to her, she was also a lot slower than she would normally be.

Perhaps she had developed this instinct as a survival mechanism to whatever had gone on here.

Maybe it was one Judy could exploit.

She walked backwards, her eyes fixed on Miss Delight, who remained frozen in place. She hit a button on the wall next to her to open the shutter behind her, making sure to keep the grotesque figure in front of her. Unfortunately, the corridor bent at a ninety degree angle, which meant Judy had to take her eyes off her pursuer. She turned tail and ran as fast as she could towards the other end, where there was a door into a staff area with a vertical, rectangular window. She made sure to turn back around once she reached her destination.

As expected, Miss Delight came around the corner and froze dead in her tracks when she saw Judy watching her. Judy reached behind her back and carefully opened the door. She crept inside and slammed it shut. Spotting a low bookcase next to the doorway, she fired her GrabPack hand at it and pulled it across the door, hoping that would slow her pursuer down for a moment. She looked around to gather her bearings. This was indeed a staff area, as there were offices to the left and right. And, more importantly, a closed shutter straight ahead.

That had to be the way out. But how could Judy open it?

Taking a moment to examine the room again, she noticed that there were cables trailing from the top of the shutter and into the offices on either side.

A loud bang broke her from her contemplation. She spun around to find Miss Delight standing in the now-open doorway, the door kicked open, the bookcase Judy had barricaded it with lying face-down on the floor, its contents scattered everywhere. Miss Delight giggled insanely, her eyes fixed squarely on Judy, but as expected, she did not move.

Judy stepped backwards, towards the door that led into the left-hand office. She pushed it open with a nudge of her pelvis and stepped inside. Once the door was shut, she immediately dragged a desk across the door with the GrabPack. She now knew it wouldn’t stop Miss Delight, but it would serve to slow her down a bit. So, she took a quick look around the room. A large power box with a lever protruding from its face was attached to the far wall. She headed right over and pulled it quickly, before ducking behind a nearby cubicle.

As expected, the door burst open, and Miss Delight stepped into the room, her lunatic chuckling reverberating around the space. Judy waited for her to move far enough away from the door before she stood.

Once again, Miss Delight froze in place upon seeing Judy had spotted her. Judy took the opportunity to slip past her, back out into the staff foyer. She rushed straight for the door opposite and, once inside, barricaded it behind her. As with the other room, there was a switch on the far wall.

“This could only be more complicated if they made you shuffle batteries around…” Judy grumbled to herself. She rushed over and flipped the switch, just as Miss Delight broke the barricade into the room. Once again, Judy hid to draw her pursuer further into the room, this time behind a pillar. Once Miss Delight was far enough away from the door, Judy stepped back out from behind the pillar and ran for the door, back into the foyer.

The shutter, now on Judy’s left, was open. Judy ran for it. Behind the shutter was a service corridor with pipes lining the walls. There was another open doorway at the opposite end. Judy started towards it.

“Leaving during school hours will result in severe punishment…” came Miss Delight’s voice from behind her. Judy turned around, hoping to make her predator stop in her tracks.

However, it appeared Miss Delight had decided to drop all pretence now that her quarry was on the verge of escaping. She was running right for Judy!

All Judy could think to do was run for that open doorway. As she reached it, she spotted a lever which would lower the shutter. She skidded to a halt, spun around, fired her GrabPack’s Green Hand, and yanked the lever down.

Miss Delight sped up, sprinting for the door before it could shut.

She wasn’t fast enough. As she reached the doorway, the shutter slammed down… right on top of her head. She slammed face-first into the floor, her head crushed underneath the large sheet of metal. Blood leaked from her shattered features as her eyelid twitched one last time before the light left her eyes.

Judy could only stare in complete bewilderment at the sight before her. Then the smell of blood hit her nostrils and she had to fight the urge to gag. She turned away and headed down the corridor, towards the exit, which had a large sign above it stating ‘this way to the Caves, Playhouse and Maintenance’.

A stray GrabPack lay on the floor, but its right hand was one Judy hadn’t seen before. She pried it off and examined it – it was orange, and looked to be in the pose of a finger-gun, with a counter window at the base of the thumb near the wrist, which read ‘5’.

Was this some sort of weapon hand? Judy couldn’t imagine something like that having any use in an orphanage of all places.

Judy attached the Hand to her right cannon’s spare slot and switched to it. She aimed down the corridor and fired.

A flare burst from the top pointed finger with a low popping sound, bouncing across the floor.

“Ah, now I get what this is for…” she said to herself. This was not a weapon, but something she could use to light the way ahead. Happy enough with her new acquisition, she turned around and headed through the exit.

Chapter Text

The cave system which housed Playcare was massive. Platforms stretched between the exit and entry points into the various buildings within the facility. Unfortunately, some of the walkways were damaged and broken, leaving Judy only one path, and according to the signage, it was the path to the Playhouse.

Giving Judy a sense of trepidation about taking that route was a notice affixed to the sign.

It read: ‘DO NOT ENTER’.

Nevertheless, she couldn’t go back through the School, even with Miss Delight no longer a threat. It meant she had to press on and face whatever waited for her.

As she carried on down the walkway, something to her left caught her eye, and she stopped.

There was a rocky shelf below, with a giant… figure of some sort on it. It was comprised of a frame, upon which hung many toys of different types. At the very top was a PJ Pug-A-Pillar toy, with its mouth open, and the skeleton of a hare hanging out of it.

She spotted movement from below the strange structure, and watched as CatNap climbed up onto the shelf. She crouched low, hoping that by keeping down, she would minimize her chances of being spotted. She had yet to meet CatNap herself, but there was no mistaking him – this was exactly what Nick had described.

“What’s he doing here?” Judy wondered quietly. CatNap seemed completely unaware he was being observed. He stood on his hind legs and stretched out his front in a T-pose.

Was he worshipping this thing? Was this… a shrine?

If it was, there was only one thing that it could possibly represent.

Experiment 1006. The Prototype.

If this shrine was any indication, he was quite the chimaera. It certainly explained why he took Mommy Long Legs’ body, and why she was so afraid of being made ‘part of him’.

Speaking of which, Judy could see two Mommy Long Legs toys intertwined with the shrine around what she supposed were its arms.

Keeping low, Judy decided to carry on towards the Playhouse. When she checked back towards the shrine, CatNap was gone.

Her ears pricked up. She immediately started scanning for him, but he was nowhere to be found.

Letting the tension drain from her, she got back up and started again towards the Playhouse. Once she reached the doorway, she checked behind her for the last time, before heading inside.

The room Judy found herself in was some sort of storage bay. To her left was another generator, but it was smashed, which meant that there was no power coming from here. She wondered if Ollie knew this was the case, which was why he didn’t suggest the Playhouse to her. There was a television with a VCR in one corner. Judy switched it on, and the screen flickered to life, showing what looked like an interrogation room. Sat in there was CatNap, staring straight at the camera, those beady white eyes shining a glare at whoever was watching him.

What could a toy company possibly have need of one of those for?

“Okay, this is… CatNap… uh… Experiment 1188,” came a voice that Judy recognised as belonging to Leith Pierre, the head of Innovation that had left the ‘intruder’ tape in the main entrance. He was not in the same room, so Judy guessed he was conducting this interview from within an observation room instead. That was probably a wise choice.

“What’s his real name, again?” There was a pause.

“Theodore Grambell, sir,” came another, quieter voice.

“Ah! Thanks,” Leith responded. His attention then turned to CatNap: “Hey, Theo! How ya doing, bud? Normally, I’d have Doctor Sawyer do this, but he’s… uh… out, shall we say? So, you got me until they find his replacement. First off: congrats! This is officially your fourth year in your new body, and you’ve made some real progress, pal. I was told that when they introduced you with the rest of the Smiling Critters – you know, DogDay, yadda, yadda, yadda… when you were added into Playcare, that you weren’t really getting along with the kids like the others were. But look at you now! They love ya! And that red smoke! I mean, that’s fantastic, isn’t it?”

No reply came from the feline abomination on the tape. He kept staring on.

“Uh… is his voice thingy still broken, or…?”

“THE PROTOTYPE WILL SAVE US,” CatNap finally spoke in a whispery voice, standing up.

“Theo, buddy… I’m gonna level with you here. Nobody’s gonna save you. This prison is where you belong. It’s your home, whether you like it or not. We’ll let you out to go into Playcare to see the other kids, but this is it for you. You’re gonna have to deal with it. And as for the Prototype, his home is down in the labs, away from you and secure so he can’t make another escape attempt. I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, Theo, but… this is your life now. Get used to it.”

CatNap’s hateful glare kept on the camera for a short while longer before the tape cut out, leaving Judy to contemplate what she had just witnessed. They were imprisoning the kids here against their will, after performing procedures that turned them into these giant toys.

No wonder they were all so screwed up.

A strange, childlike giggle broke Judy from her thoughts, and she spun around on the spot, Flare Hand raised. Her eyes caught the sight of something crawling towards her on the floor.

It took her a moment to realise that it was a Bobby BearHug plush, but unlike the ones she knew of, this one was torn open in several places, its stuffing hanging out. Its skin was dirty. The large plastic discs that were supposed to be its eyes were hanging by threads from sockets, and from within those shone beady little eyes that were very similar to CatNap.

The ruined Bobby stopped in front of Judy, looking at her carefully.

And then, it lunged at her. Judy panicked and fired a flare reflexively at it, scoring a direct hit onto its nose. It cried out and ran away, right into a hole that had been dug into the wall.

She took a moment to make sure that the little monster didn’t come back, before releasing the breath she had been holding.

“That was weird…” Judy whispered. The encounter reminded her of the Mini Huggies of the Game Station. There were many of those, so it was likely that this was not a solitary creature, that there were more of them hiding within the bowels of the Playhouse. For a moment, she remembered the Hoppy Hopscotch plush that had appeared out of nowhere when she was in the Toy Store. Perhaps that was a spy for the others, observing her and Nick until they were drawn into their lair.

She knew she had no choice – this was the only way for her to get back to the main dome. Steeling herself, she started forward, into the corridor that would take her deeper into the Playhouse.

The walls changed as she made her way in. No longer was she surrounded by concrete but now by padded blocks of various, faded colours. Giant cylinders and cubes were scattered around the room. Large pipes, assumedly for children to crawl through, jutted from the walls.

The sound of childish giggling, distorted through tinny speakers, once again reached Judy’s ears. She turned towards a nearby pipe, from which emerged a ruined DogDay.

This time, she didn’t hesitate. She aimed the Flare Hand and fired. The Critter shrieked and darted backwards into the pipe. As soon as the DogDay had retreated, a CatNap emerged from a hole in the wall on the other side of the room. She gave it the same treatment, and it too fled back from where it had come from.

Her suspicions were confirmed: there were more of the little monsters. She knew she couldn’t hold and defend her position forever, so with little choice, Judy pressed on, deeper into the Playhouse. She moved from this room into one with ball pits on either side, behind rope mesh. Glancing behind her, she found a CraftyCorn and another Bobby BearHug crawling after her. A well-placed flare between the two sent them packing.

The next room had a bridge, but it was collapsed. Above it was a handle that could be used to swing across, and below was a foam pit.

As she thought about it, four Critters clambered out of the pit. Judy fired two flares, and they scattered, only to be replaced by a solo Hoppy Hopscotch. Judy fire again.

Click

The display on the Flare Hand read ‘0’, with a dial appearing underneath it. Apparently, it needed to recharge.

The Hoppy jumped at her face.

Had it been any other mammal, they might have considered themselves defenceless. But Judy was not that mammal. She swung her leg up and caught the Hoppy with it mid-jump, kicking it hard back into the foam pit.

Just as the Hoppy disappeared beneath, a cacophony of baby-like laughter came from behind her. She turned around.

There were many Critters crawling up the corridor, making their way to her.

The Flare Gun clicked again – there was now a flare charged up. But one flare was definitely nowhere near enough to , Judy turned her attention to the handhold above. She fired the Blue Hand at it, and used it to swing across to the other side.

Straight ahead was a door. She opened it and stepped inside, closing it behind her to cut off the small monsters. Now she was in a pool area. The aforementioned pool was drained of water, with large duck paddle-boats sat at its bottom. Another set of doors lay at the opposite end.

There was no sign of the ruined Critters anywhere in the room. Nevertheless, Judy proceeded with caution, her ears raised to catch the slightest of sounds, her eyes darting around, looking for possible ambush points, her finger ready on the trigger of the Flare Hand. When she reached the other end, she carefully opened the door and stepped inside. As it closed behind her with no sign of her pursuers, she let out a sigh of relief. For the moment, at least, she had time to breathe before she carried on.

Or, so she thought, because the moment she looked up, she realised she was no longer in anything even vaguely resembling a play area. It was true that the walls were still decorated in that tiled foam, with those same faded colours she had found in the previous areas.

But what was different were the barred gates ahead of her, and to her right was what was unmistakably a cell.

This wasn’t a play room. It was a prison. But why would a prison be needed here, inside a children’s playhouse?

The gates ahead were open. With little choice, she carried on forward through them, which led into a short hallway with small cells on both sides. There were no occupants to the ones nearest to her, but there was a light coming from the furthest cell on the right.

Judy made sure the Flare Hand had a charge before approaching. It was open, the door thrown against the floor, possibly torn from its hinges by something large and very strong.

When she reached the cell, she was shocked at what she saw.

Hanging by what looked like giant belts strapped to his arms was a giant-sized DogDay. Another belt was wrapped around his waist, and it took Judy a moment to realise that his hips and legs had been torn off, with dried blood clinging to the fabric of DogDay’s ‘skin’ around the wound. His eye sockets were empty, unlike those of the ruined Critters Judy had escaped from, but Judy got the distinct impression he could still see.

DogDay stirred. He looked straight at Judy.

“You… you’re one of Poppy’s angels… you’ve come to save us…” DogDay said, in a voice that was distinctly grown-up, deeper than Judy has expected it to be – a far cry from the young boy’s voice that should have been associated with him. “I’m sorry, angel… there’s nothing left to save. Not here…”

Judy was stunned into silence. She got the feeling that, even if he were whole and unbound, he would not harm her. He was a friend.

“You shouldn’t be here…” DogDay continued. “It’s too dangerous… you’re in CatNap’s home now, angel… their home. A million pairs of eyes are on you now. Watching… waiting… hungry… they want nothing more than to crawl underneath your skin… eat away at you bit by little bit… hoping that they can fill what feels empty inside themselves.”

“What… happened to you?”

“A long time ago, I feigned loyalty to the Prototype… played along… made myself look like a ‘good, loyal lap dog’. I wanted to get as close as I could, learn what I could, so that I could put a stop to him… but he was just too strong… We tried to fight his control. Me, and the other Critters… except for CatNap. The Prototype is his God, and this… this is what he does to heretics…”

Judy’s paws rose to her face in horror.

“I’m… the last of the Smiling Critters,” DogDay continued. “One by one, CatNap and the Prototype took them out… CatNap left me here… just to suffer, to beg to join the others, but to never be allowed to…”

DogDay’s head fell to his chest.

“Those little ones… the ones you had to go through to find me… they follow CatNap now to avoid the same fate… and in return for their loyalty, they are fed…”

DogDay’s head rose back up, his voice taking on a desperate tone.

“Listen to me!” he said. “You need to get out of here… you need to live! You and Poppy can fix this, end this madness… the torment… it’s too late for me, but it’s not for…”

DogDay stopped mid-sentence, his head flicking from side to side. Judy’s ears pricked up – she could hear skittering, and… of insane, child-like laughter.

And it was coming from the walls.

“Oh, no… No!” DogDay gasped. From holes in the walls either side of him emerged the ruined Critters, all crawling their way towards him. And then they started crawling into him, wherever they could fit themselves.

“Leave me! Please!” DogDay pleaded, his voice laced with pain. “Just go! RUN!”

As he finished his sentence, a Critter crawled its way into his mouth, and he started choking. His flailing freed him from his bonds. Judy backed out of the cell as DogDay clawed himself forward, his belly dragging along the floor. He looked up – his sockets now shone with the same light that the smaller Critters did.

He let out a bellow and started for Judy. She turned tail and fled, but the floor gave way underneath her. She landed at the entrance to a play tunnel. Without looking back, she ran forward into it. It twisted and turned. She could hear the heavy thuds of DogDay’s paws as he chased after her, letting loose those awful, strangled, choking groans as he tried to catch up to her.

As she found herself heading for a junction, from the sides came several of the smaller Critters, obviously hoping to cut her off. She still had the Flare Hand equipped, so she shot flares at them, forcing them to back off.

The tunnel opened out into a new room with a foam pit in its centre and ramps leading up to a higher level. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Glancing behind her, she saw DogDay was catching up.

Once she reached the upper room, she saw that there were three slides at the opposite end. She hoped she could use one to lose DogDay, but she had to choose quickly. Picking the right-hand slide, she darted forward onto her belly and slipped downward into the dark. The sounds of DogDay’s tortured gagging faded as she landed at the bottom. Getting up and dusting herself off, she quickly checked her GrabPack for any damage, before carrying on. She was now in some sort of lower room with a climbing frame against one wall and a stack of blocks against another. Straight ahead was a doorway that led out in a large hall. She headed there and took a moment to look around. To the left was a pad with a glowing, purple hand print on it. There was a hole in the floor just past it, and beyond that was an elevator. To the right were more slide exits.

Thumping sounds reached her ears, and DogDay emerged from one of them, gunning straight for her. She ran for the elevator, equipping the Jump Hand and firing it as she reached the pad. She sprung forward and landed squarely in the centre.

DogDay stopped and screamed as a door lowered, cutting him off at last from his quarry. Judy sighed a breath of relief, collapsing onto her backside as the elevator rose higher up. Once it reached its destination, Judy clambered back onto her feet and found herself in a small room with another slide. A sign above it read ‘exit’. A DogDay cutout with a button leaned against the wall. There were no holes for any more Critters to emerge from.

Judy pressed the button on the cutout.

“DogDay says… fetch!” came the voice of a boy, much younger than the voice she had heard from his Bigger Bodies equivalent. She pressed it again.

“Go! Go! As far as you can!” DogDay sounded enthusiastic. She pressed the button once again.

“… why are you… just standing there?” DogDay’s voice was no longer jovial, instead carrying with it a touch of concern. Trepidation filled Judy, compelling her to press the button once more.

“You can’t be here. You can’t stay,” DogDay sounded sad. Who was he talking to? Judy pressed the button one last time, hoping to find out.

Instead, she was met with a painfully-loud, prolonged scream. In amongst it, she could swear she heard flesh tearing, and a wet splat followed as DogDay’s agonized shrieking ceased.

When it stopped, Judy cautiously stepped away. She was sure she had just heard the event which had ended with DogDay’s legs being torn off… but why would that be in a cutout that children should have been able to interact with?

Just what sickness ran through the minds of the mammals who had made these things?

Wanting to get as far away from the Playhouse as possible, Judy took the exit slide out.

******

DogDay’s scream, a combination of his pain and the frustration of the Critters piloting his body like a macabre meat puppet, had echoed throughout the Playhouse.

He had lost the Angel… he was thankful. He didn’t want to kill her, not when she was their only hope at salvation. She and that fox friend of hers. The small Critters just wanted an easy meal.

Too bad, DogDay thought through the fog of pain. You’ll have to go hungry this time… there certainly wasn’t enough of him to satiate their constant hunger. Perhaps they knew that, which was why they hadn’t eaten him.

A padding sound reached his ears, followed by that familiar, whispery voice. He hadn’t heard it in so long, and the words spoken surprised him.

“RELEASE HIM.”

DogDay felt all the small monsters writhing within him, now clawing their way back out of him. It hurt like hell. But after a while, he could feel his limbs again… move them… he was just too exhausted to do anything more than lay there, feebly staring up at his ‘saviour’.

He turned to face the source of the voice. Standing above him was CatNap, who was looking down at him with that unreadable expression.

“Haven’t you tortured me enough…?” DogDay coughed. “Just… kill me…”

“NO,” CatNap replied. He bent down and picked DogDay up, dragging him back through the Playhouse.

“Are you going to put me back in my prison? You know they’ll just try again…”

“NO… I HAVE SOMEWHERE ELSE IN MIND… AFTER THAT… THERE’S SOMETHING I NEED TO TAKE CARE OF.”

Chapter Text

Judy slid downward, exiting the tube outside the entrance of the Playhouse. She dusted herself off and sighed a breath of relief.

“Carrots!” Nick called. Judy looked up as Nick jogged over to her.

“How did it go?” Judy asked.

“About as well as yours, if you’re coming out of there instead of the school,” Nick raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah… it’s a long… and gruesome story…”

“Well, I met CatNap again… he gave me a ‘pleasant’ dream,” Nick air-quoted. “Took my gas mask too… and then told me to leave, or he’s coming for us.”

“I saw CatNap too,” Judy piped up. “He was… worshipping some weird statue.”

“Huh… he moves fast. No wonder he didn’t stick around to deliver his ‘get out’ himself.”

The phone rang. Nick picked it from his pocket and answered it.

“Hey! Hey!” Ollie’s voice came through, “Are you guys okay? No ouchies or lost body parts?”

“We’re fine,” Judy replied. Ollie sighed in relief.

“I’m really glad to hear that. I don’t wanna lose any more friends to this place.”

There was a pause for a moment.

“I was watching along on the camera,” Ollie continued. “I wondered why the school’s generator went offline, then I saw you going through the caverns towards the Playhouse…”

“Yeah… the teacher broke it,” Judy explained.

“Ah… yeah, I had hoped she wouldn’t find out about you or why you were in there… she was obviously still smart despite her… problems… but since you had to go through the caves to get out, that means you probably saw CatNap’s shrine.”

“Yeah, and it was weird…” Judy shivered.

“What’s their deal, anyway?” Nick asked.

“Well… you see, back when CatNap wasn’t… well, CatNap, there was some sort of accident… he almost died. But they say the Prototype saved his life, giving up his own freedom in the process.”

“I read something about that in the Counsellor’s Office,” Nick interjected.

“I’m sure you did. It was a big thing back then. The Prototype had done his best to stay hidden from everyone, but he came into the light to save that one life… and that’s why CatNap worships him. To him, the Prototype is a superhero, a God that’s saved this place… he kills everybody who opposes him, and that means us too if we’re not careful.”

Another pause.

“Judy, when you saw that shrine, did it scare you?”

“A little…” Judy replied.

“Well, if you thought that was scary, just wait until you meet the real thing.”

“All the more reason to get the heck outta dodge,” Nick interjected. “You wanna know what CatNap said to me? He told us to leave, or he’s coming for us.”

“That just means he’s running scared,” Ollie replied. “We have to stay the course now! Although… that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take him seriously. He’s probably watching you very closely now. And he’ll probably make his move soon… which means we need to move quick too. We’ve nearly got enough power, but we still need just a little more.”

“Haven’t we turned on all the generators we can?” Judy asked.

“Yes, and if we still had the School’s generator, then we’d be at one hundred percent already. There is one place we can get that last bit we need. Do you remember when Poppy activated the sky lights? We can divert some of that power to the Gas Production Zone. I’m going to send you the key for it under the Statue. Open up the panel, bring the cord down and plug it in. That should be enough.”

Ollie went silent. Nick and Judy looked to each other.

“Well, we’ve come this far,” Judy said.

They headed back under the Statue, to the delivery pipe where a key was waiting for them. A quick glance at the console to its right showed that Ollie was right: there was currently 98% of the needed power to the Gas Production Zone.

Judy picked up the key waiting for them in the delivery pipe, and they headed back upstairs into Playcare, up the steps towards Home Sweet Home, and back towards the lift that took them, Poppy and Kissy to the control platform overlooking the whole area. Judy put the key into the lock on the small cabinet. It popped open. Inside was the switch that Poppy had activated to get the lift working, and just underneath it was the plug they were after. Judy pulled it out from its hold and reeled some cable from it.

“Let’s get this over with,” she sighed, heading back towards the Statue in the centre of Playcare. Nick followed her down the stairs and to the power terminal. She plugged it in.

The terminal beeped, and the power level changed to 100%.

“Okay, that should be enough power. I’m going to send along a battery.”

“… a battery?” Nick questioned, raising an eyebrow suspiciously. “All this for a damn battery? There were a load of those around here.”

“This battery is a special one,” Ollie replied. “It’ll provide all the power we need to get that machine up and running again. I’m going to send it now.”

A trapdoor above the delivery chute opened up, and a large, blue battery dropped from it and landed on the floor with a thud.

“Take that huge battery to the Gas Production Zone. Plug it in, switch the machine on, move the gas to the left, and we can get out of here. Poppy and Kissy will meet you by the elevator once you’re done. Good luck!”

The line went dead.

“Let’s get to it,” Nick said, firing his GrabPack hands at the battery and picking it up. The pair ascended the stairs back up into Playcare, up the steps on the small hill beside the cable car’s staircase, and through the Gas Production Zone’s door.

Before long, they were back in the main room, with the giant computer and the three massive tubes behind it looming over them. It was quiet.

Too quiet.

“Put that battery in and let’s get out of here!” Judy whispered. Nick looked around for a receptacle for it and spotted the much larger one next to the door that led to the room from which Judy had retrieved her new GrabPack from.

He approached cautiously, paws gripping the cannons of his own GrabPack, ready to shove the battery in.

Which was when CatNap decided to emerge from the room next to it.

Nick reflexively dropped the battery and stepped back.

“YOU WERE WARNED,” CatNap spoke, glaring at Nick.  Red smoke spewed from his mouth. With little choice, Nick ran backwards, towards Judy. CatNap soon completely vanished within the cloud he had created.

“What do we do now?” Judy asked, trying to hold her breath. However, there was just too much red smoke.

“We run…” Nick said. “There!” He pointed to a service elevator platform inside a tall, gridded cage that would take them up above the room. They ran for it, not daring to look back. As they stepped inside, Judy fired her GrabPack’s Blue Hand at the button to start it. The door slammed shut and the platform began to rise.

As it did, something lunged out of the red smoke and started climbing the cage outside.

It was CatNap, but… perhaps because of the effects of the red smoke they had both breathed in, his features had changed. He was much thinner, almost skeletal. His claws had extended into bone-like fingers. His skin was pale, with something rippling beneath the surface, and his eyes shone with malice. That wide smile seemed even more sinister than before… and, was it them, or did it somehow seem… bigger?

Whatever their minds had turned CatNap into, it soon vanished as the ceiling of the Gas Production Zone passed them and they rose into a new space. They stepped out and headed deeper inside. There was a computer terminal with a deactivated power node above it, and a trapdoor in the middle of the ceiling. There were corridors on either side. Battery slots were dotted around the room, as well as around the terminal. Four batteries were piled on top of a stack of pallets.

The phone rang, though neither of them could be sure it was real. Nevertheless, Nick answered.

“Thank goodness!” Poppy’s voice came through loud and clear. “I saw what just happened. It looks like you didn’t breathe in enough of the red smoke to send you to sleep, but you’re gonna start seeing things soon if you haven’t already.”

“What, like CatNap turning into some sort of demon?” Nick questioned.

“Yeah, like that,” Poppy replied. “He’s on his way. The room you’re in used to be like a sort of panic room where employees could go if a toy got loose, or if the red smoke flooded Playcare. It’s… not what it used to be, but it can help protect you from CatNap.”

“Oh yeah? How?” Nick asked.

“Learn how it works. Those batteries will power different things. Try putting one in the wall next to where you just came in.”

Judy picked up one of the batteries and slotted it into the wall. Steam gushed from a pipe overhead.

“Good!” Poppy said. “If you see CatNap, you can use these batteries to hold him off. You’ll probably hallucinate a bit, which will make it hard to tell what’s real and what’s not. Judy: if you see CatNap, hit him with a flare.”

“He’s too big to scare off like those smaller Critters!” Judy protested.

“That’s true, but since you’ll probably be seeing things anyway, it’s gonna help you tell whether he’s actually there or not.”

“So, what do we do? We can’t hold him off forever!”

“You see that computer terminal? You can use the batteries to fill the slots in on it. Each battery will charge it to a quarter of its capacity, so you can use the others in the meantime to hold off CatNap. Once it’s charged, you’ll be able to draw power from the node above it and use that to incapacitate CatNap.”

“Anything else we should know?” Nick asked.

“Please don’t die,” Poppy replied. “I’ll be waiting by the elevator down once CatNap is dealt with.”

With that, Poppy hung up, leaving Nick and Judy alone.

“So… what now?” Nick asked.

“Let’s see…” Judy examined the pile of batteries. There were four of them – enough to power the computer, but there were also four corridors, each with their own battery slot. Based on what they had just been told by Poppy, they only needed to put a battery in when the computer reached the maximum charge the previous battery could supply, which meant that from the start, they could cut off three corridors.

Giant footsteps echoed through the entire space, and their ears pricked up upon catching the sound.

CatNap had found them.

“Let’s get this over with,” Nick said. He picked up the first battery and slotted it into a slot next to the terminal. It powered on, its screen displaying a progress bar. It ticked up to 1%.

Movement to the left of the computer caught Nick’s eye, and he stepped out to see the nightmarish CatNap slowly creeping down the corridor. Remembering what Poppy said, Nick spun around to face Judy, who was firing a flare down one of the corridors.

“It’s not that one,” she remarked. She had seen a vision of CatNap herself and followed Poppy’s advice on figuring out if what she was seeing was real.

“Try over here,” Nick pointed down his corridor. Judy ran to his side and fired. The flare bounced off CatNap and landed harmlessly on the floor beside him.

“Gotta be the real one,” Judy said. She picked up one of the spare batteries and jammed it into the slot next to them. Steam hissed down from above, cutting the corridor off from CatNap. A frustrated howl echoed from behind the vaporous curtain.

The computer beeped. It had reached 25% and it needed the next battery to continue. Judy went over to the pile, picked one up and placed it in one of the remaining receptacles. The progress bar resumed, and the pair stepped away from the console, once again facing the corridors.

CatNap appeared in one to the back of the room. He also appeared to the right at the front.

“Uh… Carrots?” Nick said. Judy fired a flare at the one she was looking at, and it dissipated. Nick rushed for the battery pile and grabbed one of the remaining batteries, shoving it into the hold next to the corridor his CatNap was coming in from. Steam hissed down from an outlet above, and the vision vanished. Nick stepped back and steadied himself.

Knocking rapped from above. They looked up and saw the trapdoor in the ceiling opening. There was a huge vent leading skyward, and in an alcove was CatNap, crouched and ready to pounce.

Thinking quickly, Nick and Judy fired their GrabPack Hands at the catch on the trapdoor and pulled it back down.

The computer beeped. It had reached 50%, and needed the next battery to proceed. Nick rushed to the corridor he had placed a battery in and pulled it free, before jamming it into one of the two remaining receptacles next to it. The progress bar resumed.

And so, the pattern continued, with CatNap either trying down a corridor and being cut off by a quick battery to activate the steam, or an illusion dispersed with a flare from Judy’s GrabPack.

The bar reached 75%. There was but a single battery left now, which meant that they had to be on their guard the moment they put it in, since they would lose the steam. Not that it mattered at this point – all they had to do was hold off CatNap for a little longer.

A knocking came from above once again, and Nick and Judy quickly fired their GrabPack Hands to hold the trapdoor shut. They could feel a pull and the beady eyes staring down at them before they closed it.

The computer beeped one last time, indicating that it had finished charging. The node above it sparked with electricity.

“You want this one, or shall I?” Nick asked. Judy replied by switching to her Green Hand and firing it at the node.

The moment it made contact with the sparking socket, and it drew the charge, the trapdoor above burst open and CatNap barrelled down into the room. Judy was knocked backwards and as she fell, instinctively, she fired the Green Hand at CatNap, perhaps thinking that she was firing off a flare to scare him away, or make sure he wasn’t an illusion.

The moment it made contact with CatNap’s skin, the Green Hand stuck… and discharged the electricity it contained. CatNap jittered and shuddered as the voltage coursed through his body, the convulsions tearing the Green Hand clean off its cable. CatNap collapsed facing Nick and Judy, electricity arcing from him, and he breathed out red smoke towards them.

The smoke never reached them. It caught fire, the backdraft of it washing over CatNap and igniting him too. He screamed and writhed in agony, rolling from left to right in a futile attempt to extinguish the flames searing his flesh. Eventually, he came to rest on the right side of the room, the fire dying down and leaving his skin blackened and smoking.

A light shone from the vent in the ceiling above… and a giant, clawed hand reached down from it.

Nick and Judy recognised it. It was the same hand that had taken the remains of Mommy Long Legs. And now they had heard from Poppy, they knew just what this had to be.

This was the Prototype.

CatNap had seen it too. He shuffled back, away from it, as if unsure whether it was even real. The Prototype held his hand out, as if beckoning CatNap forward. CatNap shuffled onto his knees and held his arms out in reverence. The Prototype’s fingers straightened out…

And then rammed right into the back of CatNap’s throat.

Blood poured from the wound the Prototype had inflicted. CatNap’s arms went limp. The lights in his eyes faded out. The Prototype drove his hand further in, curling his fingers into a grasp of CatNap’s head, before hauling the giant feline monster away, up into the vent.

And then… silence. Nothing else came after them. The Prototype did not come back to finish them off.

The whole thing confused Nick and Judy. Wasn’t CatNap supposed to be his most loyal disciple? Nick had even read the report: the Prototype had saved the child who became CatNap before. Why didn’t he do it this time? Why did he kill him? Was it a mercy killing, given how badly burned CatNap was? Was CatNap’s ‘reverence’ an offer to sacrifice himself? Or had the Prototype chosen to take CatNap off the table?

In any case, CatNap was gone, and all that remained now was to go back, redirect the gas, and meet with Poppy. But before they could make their next move, text appeared on the computer’s screen. It read: play last entry in log: Log 24459, Dr. H. Sawyer.

It was a name Nick had seen before, in a report back in the Counsellor’s office: Dr. Harley Sawyer.

Curiosity got the better of him and he pressed the key to begin playing it. A window popped up, showing a panther in a lab coat. He had a rather serious look on his face.

So, this was the mammal responsible for the transformation of the children in this orphanage into horrific monsters.

“Log code 24459,” Dr. Sawyer stated. “In relation, Experiment 1006: The Prototype. Stubborn as he is, and always silent with each passing session, I’m still uncovering fresh data nonetheless. Today’s discovery?”

A strange noise, like garbled sound from a speaker, interrupted Sawyer and he looked to his right.

“Hmph… end of log,” Sawyer moved off-screen. The recording was still going, however – perhaps Sawyer was so eager to investigate the sound that he had forgotten to stop it.

“Hmm… ready to talk now, are you?” He said to whatever had made the noise. It was clear to Nick and Judy, however, that it was the Prototype he was speaking to.

“I… possess… a question,” the Prototype spoke. Each part of the sentence was said with a different voice – a mimicry of other people.

“Go ahead,” Sawyer prompted.

“Do you… feel… anything?” Again, each part was a different voice.

Sawyer sighed in exasperation.

“This question referring to what, exactly?” He queried.

“You stick us…” the Prototype said, yet again in another voice. “Beat us… tear at flesh… do you feel it?” That last voice was spoken in a low growl unlike any of the voices the Prototype had used so far.

“There is a secret inside you, 1006,” Sawyer explained. “Valuable beyond measure. I cut, and prod, and burn at it, and I get closer to finding out what it is with each passing session. So: speak. Or don’t. Fight. Or give in. Regardless, I learn something new about you every day.” Sawyer chuckled to himself, before finishing: “It excites me!”

“Thank you,” the Prototype responded. There was a moment of quiet, where Sawyer was apparently contemplating what had just been said to him.

“You… thank me?” He questioned.

“Absolutely!” the Prototype jovially responded. And then he returned Sawyer’s own words back to him, in Sawyer’s voice: “I learn something new about you… every day.”

The video ceased, leaving the screen blank. Nick and Judy looked at each other, stunned beyond measure. So, this Prototype was capable of mimicking voices, was it? That threw into question everything that had happened since the train crash…

For instance, how could they be sure their new ‘friend’, Ollie, was even real?

As they made their way back to the elevator, they were left with as many questions as they had answers.

Chapter Text

The elevator returned Nick and Judy to the bottom of the Gas Production Zone. The smoke CatNap had breathed into the room had cleared. Across from them, on the other side of the room and right next to the door CatNap had emerged from was the giant blue battery that Nick had dropped in his haste to escape. He went back over, picked it up and examined it for damage – it would be unfortunate if they had gone through all of that, only to have been thwarted at the final hurdle.

Thankfully, the battery was undamaged. Nick hauled it up and placed it into the large receptacle. A whirring noise indicated that power had been restored. He returned to the giant computer. The screen displayed a prompt to restart, and Judy typed in the command to do so.

Finally, the red smoke shifted from the middle tube into the left one. The task was complete. They were now free to move on.

The phone rang. Nick picked it up.

“Wow… you did it,” Ollie spoke, but something about his voice seemed… strange, somehow. Distorted… as if it had been put through an auto-tuner. “You must feel pretty good about defeating CatNap and getting the smoke moved. Now, you’re one step closer to the Prototype… one step closer to winning. You’ve made your choice; you’re staying to help Poppy. Well, finish the job. This win is yours.”

The line went dead, and Nick and Judy simply stared dumbfounded at the phone.

“Did that seem… off to you?” Nick asked.

“Yeah…” Judy replied. Having just learned of the Prototype’s ability to mimic voices, everything he said was suspect, and this mysterious call had just added fuel to the fires of suspicion in them both.

“Well, let’s get this over with,” Nick sauntered off towards the room to the left of the machine, the one with the large lid. Judy followed him inside. The sound of a platform lowering reached their ears from the right, and they saw a gate rise and Kissy Missy come out of it. She headed over to a giant lever next to the lid and pulled it, causing the huge metal covering began to rise

A heavy sigh came from above, and Nick and Judy looked up to a platform above them. There was Poppy, her hands holding what looked like a VHS tape.

“You’re here…” she said, relieved. “And you’ve done it again… CatNap’s gone… the red smoke is diverted… I knew I could place my faith in you two.”

Poppy turned away slightly.

“Can we ask a question?” Nick raised a paw. Poppy turned to him.

“I’ll try to answer as best I can,” Poppy nodded.

“The Prototype… you didn’t tell us he could mimic voices,” Nick said. “We’ve just heard a log from the guy who… made you all.”

“How do we even know we’ve been speaking to Ollie?” Judy added.

Poppy shook her head.

“I know what it might sound like,” Poppy sighed. “Believe me, I know all too well what the Prototype is capable of, but Ollie is real. I’ve met him myself. He’s a bit… odd at times, but he’s also kind… without him, we wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

Nick and Judy exchanged glances, not entirely convinced.

“You’ll meet him soon,” Poppy continued. “He’s down below, waiting for us with friends. I know that’s probably not of much comfort to you right now… but…”

Poppy shook her head.

“There is one other thing that I have to tell you…” she said. “If we’re going to keep going… if you’re going to stay with me… then I think you deserve to know just what happened… you deserve the truth. That wolf that came in here, looking for his co-workers…”

“You said they were gone,” Nick pointed out.

“I did… and they are. And you want to know what that means… what happened… well, this is your answer. We called it ‘The Hour of Joy’.”

“I’ve heard of that…” Nick muttered. “I saw it on another tape…”

“And now you’ll find out what it is,” Poppy replied.

Poppy walked over to a VCR player that had been placed on the shelf she was on, and slid the tape inside. A television to the bottom flared to life, and the screen read:

THE HOUR OF JOY

It cut to a security feed of the main lobby. Unlike how Nick and Judy knew it, it was brightly-lit and filled with visitors milling about. Huggy Wuggy stood on his plinth, apparently oblivious as the many mammals moved around him.

Without warning, Huggy broke from his statue state and lunged at the nearest mammal, a horse, mauling him to death. His eyes then swivelled to the couple watching on in horror before he went after them too. The other mammals began running in different directions – some towards the exit, some deeper into the factory. Huggy chased a group down the corridor to the Make-A-Friend room.

The feed switched, showing the Game Station lobby. Mommy Long Legs had torn a wolf and a sheep in half. She stretched her arms out towards the fleeing mammals, wrapping them around the group, before hauling them high up into the rafters and dropping them back down onto the ground.

There was no sound, but Nick and Judy could imagine the sickening crunch as the bodies hit the floor.

The video flicked to another location. This time, it was by the Water Treatment facility. A lone cheetah fell backwards down a short staircase, and a horde of Mini Huggies and Smiling Critters swarmed them.

Another change, this time to a corridor in the School. A lion ran from a group of Miss Delights, but as he ran down the corridor, a second group cut him off. He tried to escape into a classroom, but they followed him in, the door slamming shut behind them.

Now the screen showed Kissy Missy on a large wooden board, on a stopped train. She swiped at the employees around her and chased after another as they tried to flee. Nick and Judy looked to Kissy, who rubbed at her arm and looked down, in an apparent display of shame.

As they looked back, the scene changed to a nondescript, concrete corridor, showing a monster that they had not yet encountered, though they knew of it as Boxy Boo, a jack-in-the-box toy with red fur and springy arms and legs. Boxy grabbed a moose wearing a security uniform with his mouth and threw them up into the air, catching them in their mouth and bisecting them before running down the corridor after another target.

And then the scene changed to Playcare outside, the bodies scattered everywhere. CatNap strolled by, picked one up and flung it up the steps to the Counsellor’s Office before casually walking off.

The feed changed to the Make-A-Friend room, littered with corpses but no sign of any monster. Huggy had obviously been in there, and as there was no way out unless you wanted to risk the conveyor system, he had slaughtered everybody there. Then it flicked to the Game Station, again littered with corpses, and then once more to Playcare.

The tape ended. Poppy let out a distressed sigh.

“I remember hearing every moment of it…” she whispered. “It went on for so long… so agonizingly long… They tried to hide, run… anything to stay alive. I remember their cries…” Poppy’s voice took on an anguished tone. “‘What’s going on?’ ‘What are those things?’ ‘Why is this happening?’”

Poppy fell silent for a moment, wiping at her eyes.

“Senseless slaughter, that’s all it was,” she stated. “The innocent, the guilty… it didn’t matter to them. They killed them all anyway… and then, once it was done, they dragged the bodies below… where they’d never be found… and then they… they ate them… to survive…”

Poppy took a deep breath to steady herself.

“And it was all on the orders of the Prototype,” she concluded. “He has to die… for this… for everything.”

“So much slaughter…” Judy breathed. “But why…?”

“Why didn’t the ZPD investigate? ZBI? ZIA? Anybody?” Nick finished for Judy.

“The mammals who ran the place… they got out, and they probably paid a lot to keep it quiet, and keep anybody from finding out what had happened here…” Poppy theorised. “And that also means they made sure that our… origin remained a secret too.”

Kissy approached Poppy, held her hands up to the shelf and allowed her to climb on. The lid had finished rising, revealing a massive tubular shaft underneath it that descended for what seemed like miles. An elevator platform sat at the top of it. Kissy walked over and carefully lowered Poppy onto it.

“Soon as we reach the bottom, we’ll send it right back up for you, okay?” Poppy said soothingly to Kissy.

“Why isn’t she coming with us?” Judy asked.

“We need to close it after us to make sure that nobody else comes down,” Poppy explained. “At least until we get Kissy down here. There shouldn’t be anybody else up here now, but we can’t be too careful.”

Nick and Judy looked to each other, and then to Kissy.

“Don’t worry… Kissy might be a gentle soul at heart, but she’s capable of defending herself,” Poppy reassured them. “Let’s get going.”

Nick and Judy weren’t entirely convinced. It was true she was very similar to Huggy – and they knew full-well what he was capable of – but she didn’t seem to have the temperament he had. Nevertheless, Poppy was staring at them with an insistent aura radiating from her, so they boarded the elevator. Poppy pressed the button to begin its descent. Above them, they could see Kissy walking around to the lever to pull it so the lid closed after them.

“Okay…” Poppy turned back to them as they descended. “Once we hit the ground, we need to be cautious. It’s not like anything you’ve seen above. It’s hell… and Playtime wanted it to be. But we have allies down there…”

Poppy’s words were cut off as a shrill scream echoed above.

“Wha…?” Poppy looked upward, confused. “What is she doing? This isn’t…”

Another scream, and then loud, thudding noises.

It seemed that Kissy wasn’t alone up there after all. Another scream… It sounded like Kissy was in pain.

“She’s being attacked by something,” Judy realised, one of her ears raised towards the sound. “Something heavy…”

“No… no, no!” Poppy shouted. She reached for the elevator controls. Nick made an attempt to stop her, catching her paw.

“Whatever it is, we can’t fight it like this,” he said. “The only thing we can do is carry on! I’m sure Kissy will be okay. You said it yourself: she can take care of herself.”

“I’m not leaving Kissy behind!” Poppy insisted. “Let me go!” She fought her way out of Nick’s hold and pressed the up button. The elevator stopped and began to reverse course, taking them back up the shaft towards Kissy and whatever it was she was fighting up there.

“We’re coming, just hold on!” Poppy shouted. She hammered the button. “Come on, come on, go faster!”

As they rose to the top, the lid closed down on them.

“NO! KISSY!” Poppy screamed.

Chapter Text

Thirty years ago…

The young panther Harley Sawyer had been picked by none other than Elliot Ludwig himself to participate in his Young Geniuses Program. Harley didn’t have a particularly good home life – his mother was absent and his father was abusive – so being able to participate had been the perfect means of escaping that. He was old enough to move out, and the moment he had confirmation of his placement in the program, he did just that. And he thought he had been doing really well. He had quickly made friends with Elliot, and they had spent a lot of time on experiments.

He had even told Elliot that this was all he ever wanted – which was one of the very few things Harley had ever told anyone. As far as he was concerned, this was what he was born to do. He had found a kinship with the older hare.

Little did Harley know that Elliot had grown increasingly concerned over him. And that concern eventually resulted in a letter dropping on his doorstep.

Harley picked it up and examined it carefully. It bore the Playtime Co. hallmark, and so he opened it up and began reading.

Harley,

Let me begin this with a bit of bluntness, as I know you appreciate not dancing around what needs to be said. I’ve decided to remove you from the Young Geniuses Program.

Harley stared with utter disbelief. He couldn’t fathom why Elliot would do that! Surely it had to be some sort of joke… right? But as he read on, it became clear that this was serious.

I didn’t want it to turn out this way, Harley. I didn’t want to hurt or discourage you. Yours is a truly brilliant mind, probably the most brilliant of any mammal I have ever known. Every day you have spent in the Program, I have seen for myself your drive and determination, your incessant need for progress. Working with you has been one of the most rewarding experiences in my entire life. But I have to be honest: both with myself, and with you. I have seen one glaring flaw that I have looked past for too long, and I can no longer do that.

Your lack of humility.

Shock started turning into anger. How dare he?

Scientific progress should ALWAYS be made for the benefit of mammalkind. Progress for the sake of progress can only ever end up hurting us more than it helps. I’ve tried to temper that within you, as I once had to do so with myself. However, it became clear to me that such intrusions only served to incite your anger.

Harley remembered their last conversation. He had been on the cusp of a breakthrough on something that had clearly scared Elliot. He couldn’t help himself: he lashed out.

“Don’t be soft, Elliot,” Harley had told him furiously. “Progress doesn’t care for how anyone feels about it!”

He had stormed out of the lab after that, despite Elliot’s repeated calls for him to come back. He was sure he had been right then, and that conviction remained even now.

He carried on reading:

After our last meeting, I spent time reflecting on things. You remind me so much of myself when I was younger. I spent a long time agonizing over it, and I was reminded of what had ultimately changed me, of what gave me the perspective I needed. It was seeing the world and people again, bouncing back from rejection and hardship through connection.

In thinking about those days, I’m reminded that, sometimes, rejection can sometimes be the best thing for us. It can remind us why our actions matter, and who they’re for. Ultimately, I believe it made me a better mammal, and I have to believe that doing this now will mean the same happens for you.

So, I challenge you to head for home, Harley. Look at the people around you. To try for a new perspective. To better know why progress matters.

One day, I hope you’ll understand. Maybe you’ll even thank me. But even still, I’m sorry.

Your friend,

Elliot Ludwig

Rage and sadness poured through Harley’s veins. He bared his teeth. His eyes began filling with tears as he re-read the letter. This was somebody he had trusted, somebody he had looked up to… somebody he had even come to consider a father figure, and he had just cut him loose, abandoned him, left him to the dust… and for what?

His tears spilled over onto the letter, and at long last, he let out his anger and sorrow. He tore the letter to shreds.

“I thought you cared!” Harley shouted. “Nobody cares! Nobody understands!”

To him, now, Elliot Ludwig was not a father figure, and there was no way he would ever thank him for this betrayal.

To him, Elliot was nothing more than a soft, pathetic, small-minded backstabber.

******

Seventeen years later…

The scientists had done it again – they had taken Poppy from her room – the one place she was supposed to be safe, the one place her Dad had told her would be – and to the labs deep below the surface. They were looking for some sort of secret, or so the Doctor had told her. She held something truly special, something her Dad had done which had allowed her to exist as a doll. And the Doctor wanted to know what it was. Quite possibly to help him make his Bigger Bodies Initiative more successful.

She wished her Dad was still alive, because none of this would be happening if he were still in charge of the factory.

The procedures were painful. They didn’t see Poppy as a mammal, but as a thing. That was the big difference between them and her Dad.

The torture for the day was over, and Poppy had been deposited back into her room, with no words of comfort or even acknowledgement of what had happened. She was in pain, both emotionally and physically.

Finally, she started crying, her sobs wracking her tiny body. She drew her legs in towards her chest and lay her head against her knees, letting her tears fall.

The phone rang. She didn’t want to answer it. She just wanted to be left alone. But it continued to ring, and eventually, Poppy got up, shakily walked over and picked it up.

“Poppy? … Are you there?” came the voice of Ollie, the only friend she had left. He was an… odd sort. She wasn’t even sure why he had sought her out originally. She had later learned that Ollie too had been turned into an Experiment, but had somehow found a way to communicate without alerting the scientists who watched them all. They had become friendly over the past few months, although they had yet to meet in person.

“Yes,” Poppy sniffled. “Yes, I’m here.”

“When you didn’t answer, I… I mean… A-are you feeling okay?”

“I’m okay,” Poppy insisted, wiping away more tears. “Really.”

“Did the bad mammals hurt you?”

That was what he called the scientists who had experimented on them both. Poppy gathered that Ollie wasn’t that old – he had to have been no older than 7 or 8 when he was chosen to be whatever they had turned him into.

“There’s nothing more they can do to hurt me,” Poppy replied. “Nothing more than what they’ve already done.”

“Something’s bothering you, Poppy… Is there… something you want to talk about?”

Ollie also happened to be quite observant. He could probably tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn’t as good as she had tried to make him believe.

All she wanted was to sink into sleep right now. She didn’t want a conversation. Not right now. She had to dismiss him gently.

“I’m fine. I don’t need anything tonight. I just want to sleep, Ollie.”

Ollie clearly wasn’t falling for it.

“I think there’s more… more you’re not telling me.”

“There really isn’t,” Poppy was starting to feel an irritation bubbling below the surface. She really wanted Ollie to not press the issue further. Unfortunately, Ollie was not a mind reader.

“I know what you’re doing Poppy,” he said. “Talking like that… I don’t think you’re telling the truth. Come on… just talk to me.”

“Talk?!” Poppy’s voice raised up as she snapped. “You want me to talk?!”

“Y-yes, I…”

“And what good will talking to you about it do? Will it make them stop? Can you make it stop?!”

“N-no, it…”

“I’m scared, Ollie!” Poppy continued, her voice frantic. “Is that what you wanted to hear? I’m scared, and I’m angry, and… and I really don’t know what to do! The bad mammals don’t say what they want, they don’t listen, they don’t care just how much what they do to me hurts… It’s been weeks and weeks of them taking stuff out and putting them back in, and taking stuff out and putting them back in! Over, and over, and over! Nothing’s ever gotten better, and nothing’s ever gonna get better!”

Poppy paused to draw in a breath. Ollie remained silent, beyond a few stuttered sounds.

“But you know what scares me more than that, Ollie? Do you really want me to tell you? What scares me the most is that, every time they do it… Every time they peel me open, I feel it less! Less! I hate them! And I hate him! And I hate…”

Poppy caught her breath and shed a single tear.

“I don’t know why you bother with me anymore, Ollie… I’m nothing… no-one… a simple ‘thing’… and nothing they can do to me physically hurts more than that.”

“You’re not no-one,” Ollie replied in what sounded like an attempt at a reassuring tone. “Not to me. You’re Poppy. And I… look, I know that it doesn’t make what the bad mammals do right… I really wish I could make it all go away… but talking with you, like this… it makes me feel like there’s a piece of me still there with you, no matter how small they try to make it. Next to whatever they do… next to all of that… I think it means the world.”

Poppy couldn’t hold back any longer. Her tears fell and she collapsed into a sobbing fit.

“I’m here, Poppy,” Ollie said. “For you, I’ll always be here.”

******

Two years later…

What confused Dr. Harley Sawyer the most was this darkness. The last thing he remembered before whatever state he was in now was being in his office. He had planned on pursuing his investigation into the properties of Experiment 1006.

“It looks like he’s waking up,” a voice swam through his mind. He stirred, trying to open his eyes… but something was wrong… these weren’t his eyes… and this wasn’t his office. It was some odd room with a curved wall of screens.

“Where… am I?” Sawyer asked. His voice came through… distorted. “What… what is this?”

And then, the situation hit him. The reason his vision was so grainy… his voice as if through a tinny speaker. Not being able to feel any of his limbs…

“Oh, no… they didn’t…” he said lowly. Something flashed across his vision.

Experiment 1354.

That confirmed his suspicions, his worst fears: he had been turned into the very thing he had spent years doing to others.

“Those backstabbing traitors!” He snarled.

“Dr. Sawyer,” the voice spoke. “Can you hear me?”

If Sawyer’s eyes were now cameras, surely he could move them. He willed it so, and his vision shifted to a giant tower. The tower consisted of a large bottom, a tank with what was clearly a brain inside it, and it narrowed at the top, with cables trailing into the ceiling.

This was what Sawyer was now: reduced to nothing more than a brain in some infernal machine.

A lone coyote scientist stood before the tower, one that Sawyer recognised.

“White?!” he said incredulously. “White, is that you?! Who else is in there with you? Do you enjoy watching me writhe like one of them?!”

Pain seared through his brain.

“My head… feels like it’s splitting in two… this… this is wrong… you must have done something wrong.”

“Some disorientation is to be expected,” Dr. White replied. “It’ll-”

“Who gave you the order?” Sawyer demanded. He wanted to know who was responsible for this… and who he would have to punish for this transgression. “You spineless cowards… after all I’ve done for this project, for this company…”

“I gave the order, Sawyer.”

From the shadows stepped out an extravagantly-dressed weasel. It all clicked into place for Sawyer.

“Leith Pierre…” he said. “Of course it’d be you.” He took a deep breath. “You have no idea what kind of mistake you just made.”

“Really?” Leith crossed his arms, an eyebrow raised. He radiated disapproval. “From where I’m standing, you’re the one who keeps making mistakes that need fixing. We gave you so many opportunities to clean up your own messes, but you just couldn’t do it, could you? The theatre incident was the last straw, Sawyer. 66 visitors dead! The Experiments running loose! What you did risked the entire company!”

Leith took a breath to steady himself.

“Remember when I first hired you, I told you that I pulled your records from the Young Geniuses Program? I read Elliot’s letter to you, expelling you from the program. You didn’t have an ounce of humility about you. I figured that you had to have grown out of that in time. Now, it looks like he was right about you to this very day.”

“It’s nice to know that the legacy of this company is honouring the words and actions of a backstabber,” Sawyer scoffed indignantly. “What is it, Leith? What? You think you can do better?” He allowed himself a mirthless laugh. “Nobody else can do what I can do! You need my knowledge – my intellect!”

“Why do you think you’re sitting in there right now, and not Boxy’s stomach?” Leith remained unimpressed. “Let me tell you how this is gonna go, Sawyer. From now on, you’re here to give the lab boys answers when they need them, and carry out procedures when and how we tell you to. That’s it. You’ll be an open book to us, whenever we want…”

Leith paced around for a bit. He turned back towards the camera Sawyer was watching from.

“What was it you said to 1006?” he scratched his chin in thought. “Ah, yes, I remember… ‘So, fight! Or give in…” or whatever… because, either way, we own the infrastructure we’ve wired you into. That means we own you, Sawyer.”

Anger seared through Sawyer upon hearing these words.

“You’ll die for this, Leith,” he sneered. “When I get my paws on you, YOU’RE A DEAD MAMMAL!”

“This temper is a bad look on you, Harley,” Leith turned his back on Sawyer and walked away. Left alone with White, Sawyer extended himself, hoping to find a way to break out of whatever prison he had been placed into. His vision changed to a destroyed operating theatre underneath the Game Station.

“Curious…” Sawyer said to himself. He willed himself to move to another view. He could now see the entrance. And once more, he shifted his vision back to the room he was in, but from another viewpoint. He could now see himself – inside one of those Playtime Automated Companion machines Elliot Ludwig had built in the years before he died.

So this was what he had become… but he could see for himself just what they had done. All of the outlets in his back were plugged in to many different computers.

“Hahaha…” Sawyer laughed.

“What’s so funny?” White asked.

“Like I told you, you have no idea what kind of mistake you just made… as I’ve found during my experiments, the minds of mammals are easy to break… Leith thought he could break mine too… he’ll find out that he was wrong…”

******

During The Hour…

Sawyer could hear the noises throughout the factory. He interfaced briefly with the security system to watch on the cameras.

The Experiments… his Experiments… were now running loose and rampaging throughout the entire factory.

It just so happened that he had been working in the Prison, in one of those ‘Playtime Automated Companion’ automaton bodies Elliot Ludwig had put together before he died, as the Prison’s Warden came running into the office. He slammed the door behind him and locked it.

“Warden?” Sawyer turned to face the frightened sheep.

“Doctor!” the Warden jumped, turning around to face him. “Doctor, what’s going on?! What’s happening?! It’s…”

“Yes…” the eye on the screen that made up Sawyer’s ‘head’ closed. “Yes, I can hear it. I can see it… they’ve staged quite the rebellion, haven’t they?” Sawyer chuckled as he opened his ‘eye’. “Remarkable, 1006.”

“How could this happen?!” the Warden stepped forward. “There’s fail-safes! Security measures! They… It’s impossible!”

Sawyer shook his ‘head’.

“As I know all too well, personal agendas have long been the downfall of this company,” he explained. “Is it unreasonable to believe that there were conspirators? Playtime is filled with vipers and backstabbers…”

“But… but… without executive access… how could anyone get through? Leith… Stella… Eddie… Myself… only the four of us have that level of clearance!”

“Does any of that matter right now, in this moment? It’s your life you have to protect. You have executive access.”

“For all the good that does me!” The Warden threw his hooves into the air. “All I can do with it is open one door at a time, and that’s not going to do me any good… not with those things everywhere! You didn’t see what I saw!”

Sawyer hid his amusement at the statement. He had seen.

“You didn’t see the trail of limbs down the halls!” The Warden continued. “You didn’t hear the things eating… the… the wet crunches of bones… the tearing of flesh… God… I…”

“There is something you can do, Warden,” Sawyer interjected, an idea forming in his mind. He knew that he needed to gain an advantage, and right here was an opportunity to do so. “I can help you.”

“How?” The Warden looked Sawyer up and down. “You’re stuck in there. You can’t…”

“My body’s here, sure, but my mind…”

“W… what?”

“If you can give me the Omni-Hand, I can get you anywhere. I’ll have control over everything. I can shut some doors, and open others. I can make a path for you that will take you right to the exit.”

The Warden seemed unconvinced.

“Of course…” Sawyer continued, “the alternative is that you take your chances. You risk getting yourself torn to pieces… and they will find you, of that I’m certain. If that’s what you want, that’s your prerogative, of course. But look at your options, Warden. What other choice do you really have?”

At last, it seemed the Warden was convinced. At the very least, he realised that a slim chance was better than no chance.

“Okay, I’ll give you the Omni-Hand… just get me out of here!”

“Of course,” Sawyer acknowledged. “You’ve made a smart decision, Warden. I promise you: I’ll get you out of here, safe and sound.”

Little had the Warden known that he had instead made the biggest mistake in trusting Sawyer… and it was to be his last.

******

While the massacre commenced, the Smiling Critters were gathering in the Playhouse, minus CatNap. It appeared he had decided to join in on the slaughter of the innocent. The smaller toys had also mostly left the Playhouse to join in on the massacre.

The order had come at 11:00am. It was now 12:32. The screams of both the guilty and innocent had long since stopped.

DogDay had spent a lot of time appearing to be loyal to the Prototype, to learn what it was he was planning. Someone in the factory had clearly been conspiring with the chimeric ‘original Experiment’ to launch a rebellion. DogDay had believed this rebellion was about freedom, but something felt wrong about the whole thing… and that feeling of disquiet was all but confirmed when the slaughter had begun.

DogDay never agreed to that, not in a million years.

He had assembled the other Critters in the Playhouse, away from CatNap’s prying eyes. Several of the smaller Critters had also refused to participate in the Hour of Joy and had met them there.

“You had no idea this was going to happen?” KickinChicken turned to DogDay. “You have spent the past few months sucking up to the Prototype.”

“Kickin!” Hoppy Hopscotch chastised him.

“It’s okay, Hoppy,” DogDay raised his paws.

“No, it’s not,” Hoppy protested. “We’ve been duped by that eldritch monstrosity that’s managed to hook CatNap. We don’t need to tear each other apart too.”

“What’s important is what do we do now?” Bobby BearHug asked. “What about the children?”

“They’re gone,” Bubba Bubbaphant said. “I learned that CatNap had them taken down to the Labs… the Prototype means to make his lair there.”

“What… could the Prototype want with all those kids?” CraftyCorn wondered.

“I don’t know,” Bubba conceded. “But I do know it’s just us up here.”

“What do we do in the meantime?” PickyPiggy piped up.

“Do we agree that we’re not going to be following the Prototype’s orders?” DogDay looked around. A wave of nods followed.

“Well, they’re lame orders anyway,” Kickin shrugged.

“Okay… so what now?” Hoppy said. “We’ve got to find some way of weathering this… because I bet once the Prototype figures out we’re not listening, he’s gonna come after us.”

“Or set CatNap on us,” Picky added.

“Without the kids… I think our priority should be finding a safe haven for these little ones,” Bobby indicated to the smaller Smiling Critters gathered.

“Do we have allies?” Hoppy asked.

“You do…” came a voice from the shadows. Everybody turned to see a small rabbit girl in a vintage blue dress, with red hair hanging in huge pigtails.

“I’m sure she needs no introduction,” DogDay indicated, “but regardless: everybody, this is Poppy. She’s on our side.”

Poppy lowered her head, and tears began falling from her eyes.

“I’m sorry…” Poppy breathed. “I… I thought this was all for us to be free… i… it was awful… so, so awful… this isn’t w-what I… I thought we were gonna leave. Leave the factory… Not this… all those people…”

“The Prototype duped us all,” Hoppy glanced down at her paws. “We wanted it all to stop, to be free, to leave this place but… this wasn’t the answer.”

Poppy took a deep breath, as she prepared to deliver news that not one of them wanted to hear.

“Prototype says we can’t leave…” she explained. “Not now… not ever…” She balled her paws into fists and gritted her teeth. “I hate him… I hate him, and I hate this place, and I hate that he’s… right. We can’t leave.”

Every single pair of eyes was watching Poppy intently.

“It’s too risky,” Poppy explained. “What they did to us… we can’t let that happen to us or anyone else ever again… and Prototype made it clear: if any of us try, the Prototype has ordered his… disciples… to kill us before we reach the front door.”

“All that death… and we can’t even leave…” Bobby shook her head solemnly.

“It gets worse…” Poppy felt a lump in her throat. “You didn’t hear what he said about the bodies… I know there’s not really another option… the toys will starve if they don’t eat… they’ll die… but… it’s still disgusting…”

The Critters exchanged glances; their faces unable to properly display the disgust that they felt at Poppy’s insinuation, locked as they were in those odd, permanent smiles.

“So… what do we do now, then?” Kickin crossed his wings.

“We survive… by any way we can,” DogDay said finally. He turned to Poppy. “Are we… alone down here?”

“No,” Poppy shook her head. “We have friends. The best chance we have now is to band together… find some sort of place to make a safe haven… Leave it to me. I’ll be in touch when I’ve gathered the friends I know and we’ve found a place for ourselves.”

Poppy returned to the Playcare dome alone. As she entered, she saw that it had been changed to night. The bodies that had littered the ground had long since been removed, dragged down into the Prison deep below Playcare for food. Even so, there was blood everywhere.

She looked up at the fake moon and stars.

“I wish you were here, Dad,” she whispered. “I could really use one of your talks right now. You‘d know what to say… when you were running this place, you always knew what to say… I miss you.”

******

Months later

Sawyer was the only employee known to have survived the Hour of Joy. That Warden… it had been necessary to lead him to his death. Not just for the Omni-Hand, no. Sawyer could never leave the factory, so it was logical to assist in the rebellion the Experiments had launched, even in some small way. He could perhaps curry some favour, delay the inevitable… maybe even reverse what had been done to him.

Sawyer had expected the Prototype to make a personal visit – they had a history, after all. And visit he did. But not to kill Sawyer. In fact, what the Prototype had done next would come as a complete surprise to Sawyer: the Prototype had ordered the other toys to leave him alone.

There could only be one reason for that, and it soon became clear what that reason was.

The Prototype needed him to discover that ‘secret’ he had alluded to, when he was interrogating him prior. Clearly, the nature of it had eluded him.

Of course, Sawyer’s state had changed. He was restricted to his little area, unable to move save for when he could take over those automatons.

As a result, progress had been slow, and the Prototype had turned up in Sawyer’s domicile to make his displeasure clear.

He loomed large over Sawyer’s central pillar, the place where Playtime Co. had placed his brain, which was clearly visible inside the cuboid housing in the middle of the pillar. The Prototype was grotesque in appearance. The call he had made previously for a harness had been heeded, but Sawyer should have expected that the Prototype would be able to adapt. He had even fashioned himself legs for it – they gave him a distinctly-arachnid aura. The corpse that formed his main ‘body’ hung from the front of the huge carapace, the mummified skull held up by wires and mechanisms. Inside the sockets of the corpse were two bright, red lenses that made up his eyes. And right now, they were staring at the single eye Sawyer displayed on the monitor above his pillar.

The secret the Prototype had been after… was one of immortality. For the Prototype should be dead, and yet was not.

The same was true of Poppy, which was why, when Sawyer was still in charge of Special Projects, he had his scientists constantly examine her. He was sure that what he was trying to find would be discovered in both Poppy and the Prototype.

Of course, down here, he was limited in what he could do, which was why the Prototype had come to vent his frustrations.

“Your suggestions… have failed to produce… the results I’m after,” he said to Sawyer, in his multitude of different voices. “Have I made an error… in allowing your survival?”

“Of course not,” Sawyer replied. “We just need more time to perfect the…”

“Time?” the Prototype leaned forward. “Time is precisely the one thing… we do not have.”

“Then I suggest you find some more,” Sawyer allowed his irritation to colour his words. “Either that, or give me Labs access. At least with the two of us…”

“That is out of the question,” the Prototype interrupted. “You… will stay put.”

Sawyer sighed in resignation. Of course he was going to say that.

“Fine,” he relented. “But, you have no staff, virtually no test subjects… it’s hardly ideal conditions. Even when this place was fully-operational, and I wasn’t restricted to… this… we were beating our heads against this. You can’t expect to do it on your own so quickly.”

“The situation… necessitates it be done… quickly.”

“I’m just giving you the facts here. And the fact is: we need more time, or this isn’t going to work! While I’m stuck up here, I can only be reactive.”

“Then of what use are you?” The Prototype cocked his head curiously.

Sawyer chuckled. He knew this question was coming, and he knew the answer that would steer this conversation back into the territory he needed it to be in.

“You know that, even in this form, I’m still your best shot at cracking that ‘secret’ I mentioned before,” he said. “If I weren’t… you would already have killed me.”

“A sound observation,” the Prototype replied, using Sawyer’s own voice, before switching again. “Yes, you have made yourself useful. Provide me more… options. I will try again.”

“Of course.”

The Prototype turned to leave, but stopped and stared back at Sawyer with those bright, red eyes.

“But… if you are stalling… or worse…” the Prototype’s clawed hand pointed to Sawyer’s brain, the index finger scraping against the glass briefly. “Remember… your usefulness is the only reason you were not stripped for meat and spare parts.”

The Prototype turned away and left Sawyer alone in the room. If Sawyer was in one of the automaton bodies right now, he might have shaken his head. As it was, all he could do was watch as his ‘partner’ left.

Chapter Text

“No, no, no, no, no!” Poppy shouted, her eyes facing upward towards the rapidly-retreating top of the shaft. She turned to Nick and Judy.

“Listen… you two go on ahead,” she said. “Don’t wait for me! I won’t leave Kissy behind, and I won’t sacrifice our plan, not because of…” Her eyes turned downward in sadness. “Because of me…” She looked back up at the fox and bunny. “Just… be careful. I meant what I said: it’s hell down here. But we have allies. Get to them. They’ll help you.”

The elevator stopped at the bottom floor. Nick and Judy looked at each other.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to…” Judy began.

“No,” Poppy shook her head. “You’re needed here… I’ll be fine. I’ll find Kissy, and we’ll find you again.”

Judy didn’t seem entirely convinced, but still, there was little she could do at this point but to do what Poppy asked. As she stepped off the elevator, Poppy pressed the button to raise it again.

“There’s still time to save the orphans!” Poppy called as she rose. “Follow the red smoke! And look out for…”

Poppy had risen too far, and her voice faded away before she could tell them who they had to be cautious of. Turning around, they entered a large storage bay. To their right was a staircase up to a platform. There was a door at the end, with a sign that read ‘To Caves 1C’. Looking up, they could see a pipe with windows every several metres. These pipes were carrying the red smoke diverted from Playcare above.

They climbed the staircase and found themselves at a door with a hand scanner to the side.

“I’ll unlock it,” Nick said, firing his Blue Hand at it. After five seconds, the scan had completed and the door swung ajar. Judy pushed it open – a bland, grey concrete-walled corridor was on the other side. They stepped into it and made their way across. Halfway down it, there was a slightly-ajar door that opened into an office.

For the first time, they came across something that they had honestly expected to see a lot sooner: a corpse. It looked vaguely canid, but it had long since mummified, so it wasn’t possible to tell exactly what species it had been when alive. Its jaw was open wide, indicating that whoever this was, they died in pain.

Down beside the unfortunate figure was a GrabPack, of the same model Judy was carrying.

“Sorry, bud, but I don’t think this’ll help you anymore,” Nick said as he picked it up. He placed it on a nearby desk and took off his own, swapping it out for the new one. He checked it, pressing the Right Hand toggle. It came equipped with a Green Hand, Jump Hand and Flare Hand, as Judy’s had before she lost her own Green hand to CatNap, so thankfully he still had all the functionality that he had before.

“Let’s go see what this ‘hell’ has in store for us,” Nick stepped forward towards the exit. Judy followed him out. They turned left and headed down the remainder of the corridor. The doorway opened out into a gigantic cave; the path they were on was a shelf high above it snaking round its edge. Above them was the pipe carrying the red smoke and they followed it around.

What they found next was both mesmerising and horrifying in equal measure. The shelf opened out into a large space of its own. At the end was a giant building, with a square symbol atop it. But it was what was outside that had horrified them both.

Piles upon piles of dead toys were stacked outside the building ahead, forming huge mountains of felt and dried blood. The remains of many toys, long-since dead.

Something caught Nick’s attention to the right as they moved forward, and he immediately switched to his Flare Hand, aiming it up a nearby mound. Atop it was a single ruined CatNap, watching them.

Judy equipped her Flare Hand and fired it at the ruined Critter. It shrieked and ran away, sending a few of the toys underfoot rolling down the mound.

“Those little things were what infested the Playhouse,” she turned to Nick to explain. “They’re scared by the flares – I guess the bright light hurts them?”

“Good to know,” Nick noted.

They carried on, round the massive piles of dead toys as they approached the massive structure ahead. They soon found themselves at the huge, looming steel front doors – there were barbed wire fences and concrete jersey barriers in front of it, as well as wooden pallets and crates stacked around.

Staring at it, Judy remembered what she had heard on the VHS tape in the Playhouse.

“Theo, buddy… I’m gonna level with you here. Nobody’s gonna save you. This prison is where you belong. It’s your home, whether you like it or not.”

She just figured it was figurative, but putting this together with what Poppy said, and what she was looking at right now, convinced her of what this imposing structure in front of her was.

“It’s… a prison,” she breathed.

“What?” Nick spun around at this revelation. He looked back up at the building. It certainly was imposing… but what exactly was Playtime Co. messing with that they needed such a prison? What had happened? Even if they had been making giant toys with a penchant for eating the staff, surely they didn’t have to go that far?

The Prison’s existence certainly didn’t help them in the end.

An alarm sounded, spotlights rotated towards them, and the huge steel doors of the prison closed.

“Great…” Nick sighed. “Now what do we do?”

Fortunately, neither of them said that it couldn’t get any worse. Unfortunately, it still did, as the sounds of chattering and distorted, baby-like noises reached their ears from a pile of dead toys near to the door. They spun themselves round. The mounds started to shift, as if they were starting to come alive themselves.

“Of course,” Nick said lowly. “Now we’re going to get zombie toys…”

The sentiment was proven wrong, but reality wasn’t much better. A horde of small toys began crawling from the piles, rushing towards them – among them were Mini Huggies of various colours, and more of the ruined Smiling Critters Judy had seen in the Playhouse.

Without any further prompting, Judy began firing flares at the incoming swarm. The first flare landed squarely in the centre of the crowd and the ones nearest pushed their way past to escape, running towards the surrounding piles. Nick joined in, taking aim at a cluster of approaching critters, and letting loose a flare which scared them off.

Another wave attacked. Judy and Nick acted in concert, firing flares strategically so that they could scatter the attacking toys.

After a minute of this, the remaining toys unexpectedly scattered. It wasn’t clear just why they had, but they had left Nick and Judy all alone outside the closed entrance to the Prison.

“What now?” Judy asked.

“We should find a way in, I guess,” Nick shrugged.

“Where, Nick? As far as I can see, we’re at a dead end.”

“Ba-dum-tss,” Nick quipped. Judy elbowed him at the poor attempt at a joke. Rubbing his arm, Nick pointed towards the top of the pile. “Not if we climb, we’re not.”

“… you’re not suggesting we climb the mountain of dead toys, are you?”

“Carrots, that is exactly what I’m saying… unless you plan on burrowing that fuzzy little tail under the foundation to see if you can get in beneath the Prison. But… I think we both know that won’t work.”

Judy grumbled. She had to admit: Nick was right. As icky as the idea was, the only place they could really go from here was up.

One of the huge piles of toys was stacked against the wall to the left of the Prison’s entrance, and at the top, a chunk of the wall had been torn out. Judy nudged Nick and indicated up to it. They headed towards the pile and began their ascent. Occasionally, the macabre pile squeaked underneath them, which just made it feel all the more surreal that these toys had once been living. What kind of mammal puts a squeaker inside one of these things?

Finally, they reached the top and climbed through the wall. On the other side, there was a rocky path that extended round to the left, where it terminated in what looked like a dead end. A single jump pad lay at the end of the path. Judy looked up, seeing an opening above the wall in front of them. She indicated to Nick, switched to her Jump Hand, ran towards the pad and fired it. She was propelled upwards, landing firmly on the platform above.

“Come on up,” she called to Nick. He switched to his Jump Hand and repeated Judy’s action, though he fumbled it slightly by firing a bit too late. He reached out with his paws and caught the edge of the platform. His feet scraped the wall below as he clambered up.

“Graceful,” Judy snorted as Nick dusted himself off.

They followed the tunnel to its end, finding themselves at what looked like a large station. There was a train made up of cuboid carriages on the tracks. Behind the train was a crane. On its hook, suspended above the rest of the train, was a single carriage with its door open.

“After what happened last time, I don’t think I want to ride another train,” Nick quipped.

The phone rang. Nick fished it out of his pocket and picked it up.

“Hey… it’s me again,” came the voice of Ollie. He sounded more sombre than in their last conversation. “I wanted to… I wanted to talk to you… before you go inside, I mean. Everything you’ve seen… the piles outside, the dead… they all came from inside. Believe me, what Poppy told you about this place is true. It’s hell… but she also hasn’t seen it like I have. It’s worse now. Worse than ever.”

Ollie sighed dejectedly.

“Just… try to stay safe. Please. Don’t let your guard down for even a second. I’ll try to help you when I can.”

The call ended. Nick and Judy glanced at each other. The unease and suspicion that they had over Ollie’s earlier words had not completely faded, despite Poppy’s prior assurances that they would meet Ollie soon. And they couldn’t deny what he had said to them after CatNap’s death had been strange.

However, the answers they needed lay deeper in. What more could they do but to press on?

The first thing to note was that the train was stuck. There was no way to move it or any visible way to get into the prison. But there was a control room that might be a good place to start looking. Judy tapped Nick’s shoulder and indicated with her head towards it. They headed inside, where they found two more long-dead mammals, their remains mummified by the passage of time. There was also a panel with a key slot and controls marked ‘Train Activation and Movement’, but there was no sign of any key on the corpses or anywhere else inside. On a desk was a document and a book.

Judy picked up the former, while Nick picked up the latter. Judy read – it was a notice regarding the train’s operation.

“Well, this looks like somebody’s journal,” Nick replied, holding up the diary. “I don’t suppose whoever wrote this was going to be nice enough to tell us where the key is, if it is anything to do with them in the first place.”

Nick flipped open the cover and flicked through the pages. He stopped upon noticing a particularly alarming entry, his eyes showing his horror at what he had seen.

“Nick?” Judy stepped close to him. “What is it?”

“This… is one of theirs,” Nick passed the journal over so Judy could read it.

This… this isn’t what I thought. What ANYONE thought. They took me somewhere. Not out, but under. Deep beneath EVERYTHING. They gave me a shot, and I went to sleep… maybe that was days ago… maybe it was weeks… but I remember images… feelings… my skin opened up like flower petals. A panther who looked like a doctor digging around in me, taking stuff out. I remember feeling his touch through my ribs, and into the back of my spine. I remember hearing a snap. Everywhere was red.

When I woke up, everything hurt. I screamed, and screamed… but it wasn’t any good. Nobody was listening. Nobody cared.

I’m not me anymore. My body is not my body. My hands are not my hands. I try to brush the fur around my mane, but it’s not there anymore. I can’t separate my fingers.

Where they’ve put me isn’t that different from the orphanage, but everything’s nailed down. They gave me a pen, but I keep dropping it.

Nick flipped back through to the front. There was a photograph of a young hyena girl. She couldn’t have been older than twelve. According to the writing on the inside cover, the journal was ‘property of Riley’.

Whoever Riley had been, she had been turned into one of these monsters.

Judy took the diary from Nick and flipped through it, landing on a page towards the end.

This place really is a prison. They turned me into this and put me in a cell. What did I do wrong? How could this happen?

There are many others like me here. A lot of them took part in the rebellion. Some stayed in their cells. Now, there’s no food here, except the bodies… and I’m not going to eat them.

The train… that’s what brings everyone here. The conductor’s dead, but he has a key which makes the train move. I’ll take the key with me, stop them from bringing any more in like me… I’ll hide it somewhere where they’ll never find it. Maybe it’ll save someone. Anyone. Even just one person. Nobody should hear what I’ve had to hear, see what I’ve seen. Nobody else should know hell like this, or the demons that live there.

Looking up from the journal, Judy gave Nick a sombre stare.

“It looks like Riley took the key and hid it,” she said.

“But where?” Nick wondered. “It would help if we knew what kind of toy we were looking for.”

Judy wiped a tear from her eye. Nick noticed and stepped forward and placed a paw on her shoulder. She sniffed.

“Look at me, getting all sappy over toys.”

“They weren’t just toys, Carrots… they were mammals once. Children. None of them really deserved this… not even the ones that tried to kill and eat us already. We’ll get to the bottom of this… and when we do, we’ll make sure that the ones responsible are brought to justice.”

Judy gently tapped her head against Nick’s arm.

“You’re right,” she replied. “It’s just… seeing it like this… made it all the more real.”

“I know… but the best thing we can do for them is to carry on, find out the truth and help the ones we can.”

Judy placed the journal and the document back on the desk.

“Well, let’s find that key and get out of here…”

They left the office behind. Nick looked up as he stepped out.

“It couldn’t be that simple, could it?” he wondered.

“What?” Judy turned to him.

“Well…” Nick pointed up to the carriage suspended by a crane. “Ever heard of hiding something in such an obvious place that nobody would ever think to look there?”

Judy shook her head.

“Never hid anything from your parents?” Nick grinned. Judy replied with a small thump on his arm. He explained: “When I was a kit, I learned that it was best to hide something as close to where you don’t want it to be found as possible.”

“How does that make sense, or help us?”

“If you were expecting to find something in cupboard A, but I had hidden it in cupboard B, you wouldn’t think to look in cupboard B, would you?”

“I think I would.”

“Actually, I know you wouldn’t, because I used this method to hide your last birthday present,” Nick grinned. “Knew you’d go nosing around my things, so I moved it one cupboard over where I knew you wouldn’t think to look.”

“Har, har.”

“Similar principle here. What if Riley hid it nearby? Nobody would go looking for it this close to the train.”

“So, you’re saying…”

“Maybe we should check there first,” he indicated once more to the carriage suspended above the train. Judy considered his suggestion. It still didn’t make the most sense to her, but that was true of much they had encountered so far. She nodded her agreement to Nick, and then looked around for a way to get up there. It was too smooth a surface to use the GrabPack’s Hands to pull them up. The only way she could think of was to jump atop the carriages on the train itself and then climb up into the open one above. But with the GrabPack strapped to their backs, they couldn’t jump as high as they normally could either.

What they could do was drag a crate stacked up to the side on the opposite platform, close enough to the carriage, and use that to climb on top of it.

So that was exactly what Judy did. She used her GrabPack to haul one of the large crates over to the side of the train. Once it was close enough, she clambered up onto it, and then up onto the top of the carriage. Nick followed her, and then they crossed over into the suspended carriage.

What they found inside shocked them. There was a strange corpse, with an exposed skull unlike anything either of them had seen before. The remains had pink fur, not unlike that of Kissy Missy. The entire lower half was gone, and it had no limbs. The chest was torn open, the ribs jutting out.

A key sat at the base.

“Is this…?” Judy began. She stared at the poor creature a little while longer, remembering what she had read in that journal a short while ago.

I’ll hide it somewhere they’ll never find it.

This had to be Riley. And it looked like she had hidden the key by swallowing it. Where nobody could find it, indeed…

“I’m guessing the others ate her when they ran out of bodies to eat down here,” Nick shivered. “Poor girl…”

Judy bent down and picked the key up, being careful to not disturb Riley’s remains. She examined it for a moment, before turning back to Riley.

“She doesn’t deserve to be forgotten here, in some abandoned prison train carriage,” she looked to Nick, a tear in her eye. Nick placed a paw on her shoulder, hoping to provide a little comfort. This was not the time for him to be making jokes about ‘emotional bunnies’, and he knew it.

“No, but we can’t take her out and give her a proper burial either,” Nick shook his head solemnly. “I think the best thing we can do is stick to the plan – find out what’s going on here and bring the mammals responsible for this to justice. And… so we don’t forget her, we should hold on to her journal.”

Nick crouched down a little lower, placing his free paw on her other shoulder.

“Hey… I know this is all a lot to take in, but we’ll be okay,” he said. “Come on. Let’s get this train into hell going… we’ll find out way out. We always do.”

Judy wiped at her eyes as the pair left Riley behind in the carriage. They jumped down to the platform and made their way back into the control room. She took the key she had retrieved from Riley’s corpse and slotted it into the panel, turning it to reactivate the train. The front carriage flared to life, and a door on the last carriage opened up.

“Let’s get going,” Judy said with renewed determination. She left the panel, making sure to pick up Riley’s journal before exiting the control room, headed for the carriage, and boarded it. Nick followed, jumping aboard as the train started moving into the prison.

The door closed behind them. Inside reminded Judy of the Playhouse – the walls were covered with the same style of colourful, plastic tiles.

In one high corner was a small television. It struck both Nick and Judy as weird – surely there would be a camera in there, not a screen.

As if things couldn’t get any stranger, as the train trundled along into the Prison, the screen flickered to life, and a single eye appeared on it, looking directly at the pair.

“Hmm… what’s this?” a voice asked. The eye flitted between Nick and Judy – as if somehow it could actually see them. “Curious… the only ones who have been this far down are the toys… I had wondered why I felt as if something were squirming its way underneath my skin.”

“Wait a minute…” Nick leaned forward. “That voice…” He turned to Judy. “Carrots, isn’t that the voice of the guy who we saw on the log right after we beat CatNap? He was a doctor here, wasn’t he? How’s that possible?”

“The Prototype mimicking voices?” Judy suggested.

“I see my reputation precedes me,” the voice interrupted. “Yes, you may call me the Doctor, and no: I am not Experiment 1006. All I need to know about you is that you are invasive, foreign little germs…”

The train suddenly rocked violently, tossing Nick and Judy into the side of the carriage.

“You’ve blundered through the shadows above and only managed to squirm your way down here by the barest skin on your teeth… but there are no shadows here that will be of use to you. Not even the ground beneath your feet is yours. There are no places you can hide down here. Not from me. So… let’s make a game out of you…”

The train rocked once more, shoving Nick and Judy once more into the side. This time, it was hard enough to knock the pair of them into unconsciousness as the train trundled on to its final destination.

Chapter Text

Experiment 1166 Report

Characteristic for those of this early ilk of experiments, 1166 displays an acute lack of higher cognitive function. Complex reasoning, speech, problem-solving, and greater introspection all appear to be compromised, or otherwise completely absent. Physically, it’s what we required it to be: strong, agile, swift. And yet, I’d hoped for a greater mind behind it. By all accounts a seemingly profound disappointment following my cultivating of Quinn Navidson for this experiment, and my earlier disappointments following the culmination of Experiment 1163.

The one trait that has carried over from Navidson is the propensity for removing the heads off other toys, though it’s obvious that any sense of doing it ‘to make them more beautiful’, as Navidson had told me previously, is lost. The design of its head is well-suited to that, a clam-like vertical opening lines with many large, sharp teeth.

Of note is that 1166 displays an odd sense of loyalty towards select members of the security staff who nauseatingly show some kind of sympathy for it.

The manner of which it does so is similar to the manner in which domesticated pets behave. This means its will can be bent. It feels. It fears.

I believe this is the first sign of progression, that we are on the right path with our procedures. That, while there are still improvements to be done before we reach the perfect outcome, improvements are possible. Still, 1166, “Yarnaby”, is an odd creature. The way it sits in the corner, watching me while it plays its funny little music (I’m glad this request was taken seriously – I got a good laugh out of it). It amuses me.

1166 clearly has its uses. I will isolate it away from the other staff, ensuring that the only one it has contact with is me. Considering my importance to this project, it’s doubly important that I have protection with me, and 1166 can serve as that. And besides, I might get a laugh or two at the pathetic sounds it makes.

By the time I’m done with it, I’ll be its entire world.

It will know nothing else.

Dr. Harley Sawyer.

******

When they came to, Nick and Judy found the train had stopped, and the carriage’s door now stood ajar, dim light pouring in from outside.

“That wasn’t the welcome I was hoping for…” Nick rubbed at the base of his spine.

They got to their feet and carefully pushed the door open.

Perhaps they had been in denial, despite everything they had been told, or read about. But the moment they stepped outside the train carriage, their denials were rendered completely meaningless.

The first thing of note was that they appeared to be on an upper floor. The walls were lined with cells, most of which were covered with large, metal doors with small slots for viewing. At one end was a giant observation window. There was netting over the gaps between ledges. Deactivated siren lights were placed along the walls at spaced intervals.

This was, indeed a prison.

Above them was a large, windowed pipe. Red smoke was visibly flowing through it. The pipe had junctions that fed into the cells above and below.

As promised, it looked like the gas had been pumped into the cells. They dared not open the windows, just in case they let the gas out and breathed it in themselves.

“Hahaha…” a laugh came from a speaker above the large observation window. Nick and Judy spun round towards it.

“Little rats, scurrying around where they shouldn’t be,” the Doctor said.

“Excuse me?” both Nick and Judy replied, taking offense at the Doctor’s words.

“Yes, I know of your plan to put the prisoners here to sleep,” he continued, ignoring the interruption. “Perhaps you thought it would be an easy ride through. Send everything that could possibly hurt you into a deep slumber while you walk through and make your way to 1006. Unfortunately, I am going to have to disappoint you.”

A hissing sound reverberated throughout the cell block.

“Please proceed,” the Doctor finished. “I have my first test prepared for you.”

The speaker fell silent, and a barred gate leading to a stairwell to the lower level opened up on the right.

“Why are we dancing to this guy’s tune again?” Nick asked.

“Maybe we just play along for a bit and then get the heck out of here?” Judy suggested. “Once we get past this prison, we can go find these ‘friends’ Poppy mentioned… I hope she’s alright…”

“Well, I’ve learned not to underestimate bunnies,” Nick half-smiled. “Not even ones made of porcelain.”

They headed for the open stairwell and descended to the floor below. When they stepped out into the lower cell block, the gate behind them slammed shut, trapping them.

“What now?” Nick wondered.

Judy’s attention had been caught by a single figure slumped up against the wall. They looked like they had been a feline in life, but it was impossible to tell just what kind based on what had been left behind. They were wearing a GrabPack of their own. Perhaps they thought it could help them when the Hour of Joy started.

Judy’s eye spotted the Red Hand on it. It was unusual – both her GrabPack and Nick’s – the ‘improved’ models – had Green Hands (or, Judy’s had until she lost it to CatNap) but this one looked to be the same model.

In either case, Judy figured a Red Hand might be useful. She leaned down, grasped the Hand and the cannon it was attached to, and pulled it off, before attaching it to her own GrabPack.

An alarm sounded, and the sirens lit up, bathing the cell block in a red light.

“The subjects scramble, seeking out any advantage they might find,” the Doctor spoke through the speaker above them. “Perhaps they are lost, disoriented. The rabbit’s twitching nose, the fox’s rigid tail… both indicators of fear, and rightly so. Let’s test that response to said fear when pushed into action.”

Once the Doctor had finished speaking, the four closest cell doors opened themselves. And from inside those cells came a horde of smaller toys – it included ruined Smiling Critters, Mini Huggies, and new smaller toys that neither of them had encountered yet, such as miniature Mommy Long Legs. There were one or two among them that Judy didn’t recognise – they looked like a black sheep Smiling Critter, with a silver moon charm.

What Judy did know to do was to switch immediately to the Flare Hand and start firing. Nick followed suit. They managed to scare some of the swarm away, but more poured out of the open cells.

“Nick, shut those doors!” Judy called. “I’ll keep these guys at bay!”

“On it!” Nick fired one more flare at an incoming group featuring a ruined DogDay, the unknown sheep, a Mommy Long Legs and a yellow Mini Huggy. They scattered, and Nick made his way to the nearest cell. He pushed hard on the door, closing it. He made his way over to the next cell and repeated it. Now he had to cross the cell block, and blocking his way was another cluster of miniature toys that were now making their way towards him. A flare landed squarely in the middle of them, causing them to scatter. Nick looked up – Judy gave him a thumbs up before returning to fending off her own aggressors.

With the way now relatively clear, Nick crossed the cell block and shut the next door, and finally moved onto the last open door, pushing it shut with a grunt.

The toys didn’t stop coming, however, and Nick saw why: a single CatNap had gone over to the other side and opened one of the cells back up.

“Hey, I just closed that!” Nick rushed over, firing off a flare to scare the CatNap away before he closed the cell once again.

Across the block, the door furthest away from Nick was opened up by a green Mini Huggy, and more miniature toys spilled out into the room.

“Oh, come on!” Nick groaned. The new horde barrelled towards Nick. He fired his flare hand, trying to scatter them. Some took the hint and ran away, while a bold green Mini Huggy simply carried on towards him.

The toys suddenly stopped, as if directed by something unseen to do so.

“I have seen enough to gather the data I need,” the Doctor spoke. “Thank you. You may proceed.”

On those words, the small toys simply turned around and returned to their cells, which closed after them. Nick and Judy looked at each other, puzzled.

To their left, a Hand Panel next to the closed stairwell back up to the top of the cell block lit up with a red glow. Judy stepped forward and scanned her newly-acquired Red Hand with it. The gate clicked and swung open. They headed through and back upstairs. At the top of these stairs, a corridor extended to the right, past the office behind the large observation window.

The pair headed down the corridor, a featureless, nondescript concrete passageway as devoid of any of the playfulness seen in the levels above as the rest of the prison. They soon found themselves at a gate that led into a large central hub. The gate was closed, and there was no way to open it from this side. However, the bars were rusted and bent.

“I wonder if we can break these off and slide through,” Nick said.

“Well, let’s try,” Judy replied. They both fired their GrabPacks, their Hands gripping the poles. They pulled the triggers on their GrabPacks to retract them, and with that, the bars snapped off and flew past them.

“Probably the easiest prison break ever,” Nick grinned.

With the way now clear, they entered the central hub. There were four more gateways similar to the one they had just come from, as well as a central station with multiple Red Hand Scanners. There was a single screen and speaker hanging above the station. Judy approached and examined them – they were all powered off.

The screen above flickered to life, displaying the eye, which glared down at them.

“You know,” the Doctor said. “I never thought I’d see any others like you. Mammals not turned into toys… something makes you two different. I can tell that much. Though I can’t say what exactly that something is… Not yet.”

The eye swivelled between the two of them.

“I think something different is in order to continue testing you… I’ll be waiting.”

The eye vanished from the screen, and a single Red Hand Scanner lit up.

“I guess we’re going whatever way that opens,” Nick said dubiously. “… you know he’s probably leading us right into a trap?”

“Yes,” Judy nodded, “but right now, we don’t have any better ideas on how to get out of here. So, we’ll play along until we find an exit.”

On that note, Judy switched out to the Red Hand and scanned it. A gate clicked open to the top right, and Judy nudged Nick.

“Let’s get this over with,” she said. They moved through the now-open gate and found themselves in another, much smaller hub. All the doorways led to what looked like an observation rooms.

They chose one and walked inside. A monitor sat on the desk in front of them, next to a speaker and microphone. There was a door to their right with a deactivated Hand Scanner, and what looked like a breaker box to their left. Behind the glass, there was a lone cell with a huge, closed metal door. The padded, colourful walls were damaged, and a tunnel had been torn into them to the left of the cell.

The door closed behind them, startling them. The monitor switched on, once again showing the Doctor’s eye watching them.

 “The others you’ve faced to get this far… 1170… 1188… 1222…” Sawyer listed off the Experiments they had faced up to that point, before scoffing derisively. “Been there! Done that! I’ve got something else in mind for you… Oh, Yarnaby…”

The cell door swung open, its insides a black void. The sound of growling reached their ears. Nick’s tail went rigid and Judy’s nose started twitching once more.

And then a large thing on all-fours came bounding out of the cell, smashing head-first into the glass. It looked like a cartoony lion, with huge eyes, no nose, a goofy, toothy smile, and a mane of colourful yarn. The creature scratched at the glass, trying to get it its quarry, but the barrier between them was strong enough that it couldn’t break through. Frustrated, it opened its head – its mouth was a vertical split, lined with massive, sharp teeth, while the back of its throat was lined with much smaller ones – and it let out a high-pitched roar before turning and fleeing through the tunnel to the left of the cell.

“Please, do keep making this enjoyable for me,” the Doctor said. “I’ll be taking notes…”

The screen shut off, leaving them alone in the room.

“Let’s get out of here,” Nick turned around. However, the large metal door had not opened, leaving them trapped in the observation room. He tried the smaller door, but it too was locked.

“It’s locked! Of course it’s locked!” Nick threw up his arms. Judy looked around for something that could help them get out. Her eyes found the Hand Scanner. While it was deactivated, she noticed a cable trailing up to the ceiling. Following it across the room, she found it ended at the breaker box. She threw it open. Inside were four battery slots, but only two batteries – the slots were in a configuration of a square, with one battery in the top left and the other in the bottom right.

Judy took a moment to look back towards the Hand Scanner, tracing the path its cable took. Once she was sure of what she needed to do, she moved the battery in the bottom right to the top.

The Hand Scanner bleeped as it activated.

“Oh!” Nick remarked. “Guess that worked.”

He scanned his Blue Hand and the door clicked open.

“Let’s get out of this place,” Judy started forward.

“No arguments here,” Nick agreed as he followed her out into the service corridor beyond. They soon came across a store room lined with large shelving racks and pallets stacked with various materials. There was a chain-link fence and a gate blocking their way.

A metallic screeching to their right caught their attention, and they saw Yarnaby emerging from a giant shutter. The lion-esque creature padded forward, hoping to find its quarry.

It surely wouldn’t take it long to find them there.

Something tapped Nick on the shoulder. He spun around, but there was nothing there. Frowning, he turned his attention back to the puzzle of how to escape, but whatever it was that had tried to get his attention before did it again.

Instead of looking behind him, Nick looked up. What he saw took him a moment to process. It looked like a hand made out of blue and yellow clay… or perhaps dough? He couldn’t be sure. But it waved at him briefly.

“Uh… Carrots?” Nick tapped Judy on the shoulder, not taking his eyes off the sight.

“What?” Judy turned around. Her gaze followed Nick’s and she saw the weird arm above them. It waved, before disappearing back up into the ceiling above. It reappeared a few seconds later on the other side of the gate, reaching down and unlocking it. It waved once more before it slipped back up into the darkness.

Nick and Judy stared at each other.

“That was weird,” Judy whispered.

“We gotta keep moving,” Nick replied lowly. He pushed the gate open carefully so it wouldn’t make a sound that attracted Yarnaby. They snuck around a shelving rack and peered round, Nick parting Judy’s ears to see.

Yarnaby was stood at the door at the opposite end, his head cocked to one side.

“Psst…” a low voice called to them from above. The doughy arm appeared again, this time holding a match. It moved over to a corner, where it struck the match and then dropped it onto a pallet, setting it and its contents alight. Yarnaby spun around towards it, roared, and ran straight for it.

“Now’s our chance,” Judy stepped forward, running for the door. Nick followed. The second they reached it, Judy threw it open and closed it – just as Yarnaby noticed and came bounding back towards them. They could hear scratching at the door and a frustrated howl on the other side. Yarnaby wasn’t getting inside.

Taking a moment to breathe, Nick and Judy once again shared a look.

“What… was that?” Judy wondered.

“I don’t know,” Nick replied, “but it didn’t kill us… so maybe it’s one of the friends Poppy mentioned.”

“Well, whatever it is, it helped us escape Yarnaby… for now, at least.”

They carried on down the corridor. At the other end was a door. They opened it; behind it was another cage of sorts with a gate that opened out into another storage bay, but this one was a lot longer. Another door lay at the end. They stepped out into the cage and carefully approached the gate. It was already open for them, so Judy nudged it open and slid through. Nick took one look behind to make sure they weren’t being pursued, and then followed Judy through.

“Well, that was easy,” Nick said as they walked down the long stretch.

As if tempted by fate, a loud, high pitch roar came from behind them. They swivelled on the spot, and caught sight of Yarnaby standing on top of the cage they had just emerged from. His huge eyes were fixed on them. He let out a high-pitched shriek before leaping down.

“Run!” Nick said. Judy didn’t need telling twice – the pair sprinted down the stretch of loading bay, Yarnaby hot on their tails.

As they approached the opposite end, that doughy arm appeared once more, opening the door for them and indicating for them to go inside. They didn’t hesitate – and as soon as they were inside, the door slammed shut behind them, the furious roars and scratching of Yarnaby on the other side causing them to back off. After a moment of fear, the sounds ceased. Yarnaby appeared to have given up the pursuit… at least for now.

The pair let out the breaths they were holding and took stock of where they were. This new room wasn’t another storage bay, but instead appeared to be a records room of some description.

On a nearby desk was a report. Nick picked it up and read it.

CONFIDENTIAL: SMILING CRITTERS PROPOSAL

After the controversy surrounding CatNap and the incorrect deployment of red smoke in the toy line’s canisters, we are proposing a project to salvage the Smiling Critters. This proposal will involve the following:

• Creation of a new toy to replace the controversial CatNap.
• A ‘special episode’ of the cartoon to introduce this new character.
• A ‘second wave’ of Smiling Critter toys, perhaps with further revisions to push them into the ‘cute’ territory that the late Elliot Ludwig called for.

To that end, we have attached the proposed design and outline for this new addition.

Nick flicked through the document. Stapled to the initial proposal was a profile for a black-wooled sheep Smiling Critter called ‘Baba Chops’. Like CatNap, she was intended to help children sleep, but she would be given a Roman Chamomile scent instead of lavender. She had a moon charm like CatNap, but hers was silver instead of gold. Nick read the brief profile.

The newest member of the Smiling Critters gang, Baba Chops’ role is to help the others get to sleep. In spite of her ‘black sheep’ appearance, she is polite and sweet, but can be a little shy around her new friends.

A big ‘DENIED’ had been stamped across the proposal. Under the comments section, it read:

If this proposal had come to us even a week earlier it would have been worth consideration, but at this point the company has decided to shelve the Smiling Critters. We will not be creating any new toys for this line and will instead be focusing on recouping our losses and introducing new toys entirely.

Nick put it down and picked up another.

PROGRESS REPORT: EXPERIMENT 1185

As you know, we have begun working on the Bigger Bodies versions of the Smiling Critters. This first version – call it a prototype, if you will (fitting that it is) – is based upon the rejected replacement eighth Critter, Baba Chops. Unfortunately, this particular experiment has problems, some of which we thought we had overcome with post-1166 experiments. It shows little cognitive awareness and seems to actually behave like a lost little lamb. However, it is not without its uses. We can test the dispensing of red gas using it. Our eventual plans leading up to Experiment 1188 will require perfect control over the dispensing process, so it is vital we test these now, while we’re in experiments that we have no intention of releasing to the factory above or Playcare.

Once it has fulfilled this use, it can be held for further testing in the Prison.

H. Sawyer.

A deep sense of dread filled the pit of Nick’s stomach upon reading that last sentence. Whoever had been turned into Experiment 1185 had been kept here indefinitely. If he thought CatNap’s fate was tragic, this was worse. At least CatNap possessed an awareness of who he was, and was allowed out. This Baba Chops was condemned to live here forever – perhaps to die here too.

He put the report down. Judy joined him, indicating ahead to the next door.

“I hope this one leads us to whoever Poppy thinks is our friend down here,” Nick said.

“We won’t know until we find out,” Judy replied. She opened the door and they headed through it.

They found themselves in an observation room of some kind, but unlike others, this one had a window in the floor towards the opposite end of the room, with a view into an enclosure below. There had been a metal bridge across the window, with another door at the end, but it had since either fallen off into the space underneath, or been torn off.

“How are we getting to that door?” Nick wondered.

“There’s enough space to shimmy across,” Judy indicated to the lip of the window. It was thin, but it might be possible for them to get across and open the door.

“I’ll go first,” Nick said, sliding himself alongside the wall. Everything seemed to be going okay.

And then the lip gave way, sending him plummeting into the enclosure.

“Nick!” Judy shouted.

Nick landed on the floor with a loud thud. He stumbled onto his feet and shook his head. Looking up, he saw Judy’s concerned expression.

“I’m okay!” he called back.

Shuffling echoed from the shadows deeper into the enclosure. Nick’s ears twitched and his tail became rigid as he faced towards the source of the noise. A distorted bleating reached him, and its source emerged from the darkness.

It was the Bigger Bodies Baba Chops. It resembled the other Bigger Bodies Smiling Critters in its general appearance, with that huge toothless grin, those bright, pin-prick pupils staring at him intently. Like CatNap, it stood on all fours. It was stubbier than CatNap, though, with shorter legs that ended with long, sharp cloven hooves.

With one final bleat, it charged at Nick.

“NICK!” Judy screamed. Nick winced, waiting for the blow that would kill him.

Chapter Text

That fatal blow never came. Instead, Nick heard a panicked bellowing. He cracked his eyes open and saw Baba Chops suspended in the air by several doughy arms. Those arms slammed Baba Chops into the walls repeatedly, making sure its head made contact with each surface. The bleating stopped, and the arms drew Baba Chops’ lifeless body into the shadows.

The sound of wet crunching reached the ears of the fox and bunny frozen in fear. And then… a single, round head made of dough appeared from the shadows. Whatever it was, it wore a little blue bowler hat on its head.

“Oh, that hit the spot!” the creature said. “I haven’t eaten in weeks!”

Its attention turned to Nick, and it ran over.

“Well, hiya there, pal,” he said jovially, bending low over Nick. He was large, built like Clawhauser, if Clawhauser was made of multicoloured dough and had a nondescript face. The creature’s stomach had three arms of different colours reaching towards each other. He examined Nick curiously.

“Don’t worry, I won’t eat you!” he said, before laughing.

“That’s a relief,” Nick sighed. Doey stopped and once again stared at Nick, a serious expression on his face, before he stretched his neck up – literally, his neck stretched – to see Judy.

“I was told to expect you two,” he said. “I’m Doey.”

His neck retracted back, his head swivelling between Nick and Judy as he adjusted his hat. Apparently satisfied, he stood back up.

“Well, no use waiting around!” he said. “This way! Follow me!”

Doey turned towards the wall below the door in the observation room above and started walking, a smile on his face. His head comically remained in place before rejoining the rest of his body. Nick watched as he smooshed his body into a small hole in the wall, his pliable form slipping right through.

“I guess we’re going that way,” Nick said. He looked up at the door, his paws on his hips.

“Now, how do I get out of here?” He asked.

He looked up at the door above, and his eyes spotted a pipe hanging from the ceiling.

“Carrots, can you open that door with your GrabPack?” Nick asked. “I think I can pull myself up and swing into it if it’s open.”

Judy did as he asked, firing one of her GrabPack Hands at the door to open it. Nick fired his own up to catch the pipe above, and he hauled himself up into the doorway. Judy leaped across, using the pipe as a grapple swing.

They were now in a corridor with doors lining the walls. Doey stuck his head around from a corner ahead.

“This way,” he smiled, before disappearing. Nick and Judy looked to each other, uncertainty showing in their faces.

As they walked past the first set of doors, Judy happened to be looking towards one when she stopped dead.

Carrots?” Nick paused, turning to her. Judy opened the door and stepped inside. Nick followed her, puzzled.

What they found inside was shocking, but the surprise of finding themselves inside an interrogation room was lessened thanks to everything they had seen since descending to this level.

“They’d question us here after watching us,” Doey spoke lowly from nearby. He could obviously see that they had entered the room. “At least, they’d question those of us that could speak at all… the ones that couldn’t were just beaten and then sent back to the Prison. I always answered… but I never gave ‘em an answer they liked!” Doey giggled childishly.

“This is awful…” Judy whispered.

“I know,” Nick placed a paw on her shoulder.

The pair stared at the room for a moment longer before exiting and following the path Doey had gone down. He stood at a large barred gate. He slid himself through, but his hat didn’t fit. He caught it in his hand and pulled it through the bars, breaking them.

Nick and Judy followed him out, into a large cavern. There were multiple rocky islands over a huge drop below.

Doey turned around to face the two mammals he was escorting.

“This place has a lot of nasty falls, but I can get you across,” he said, his shape starting to shift. “Oh, yes, definitely!”

With that, he flattened and stretched over to the next rocky outcrop, forming a multicoloured bridge.

“Don’t worry, I’m perfectly solid,” he said. Nick and Judy glanced once more at each other. Nick stepped forward and tested the clay bridge out, placing a paw on it.

“Tee-hee… that tickles,” Doey guffawed.

Nick took another step. The bridge held. He turned around to Judy and ushered her across. Judy followed, making her way across the bridge quickly. Once she was on the other side, Doey lifted himself up and squished back into his regular form, adjusting his hat as he did so.

“So… have you seen Poppy around anywhere?” Doey asked as they walked on. “Ollie told me she was around… he also said we could trust you. I really hope that’s true.”

Hearing Ollie’s name once again caused Nick and Judy to exchange concerned glances. They still remembered that log, the fact the Prototype could mimic voices, but… Poppy was one thing, but if Doey knew Ollie, then surely that had to soothe their concerns…

Right?

Nevertheless, they still wanted to reassure Doey.

“I hope we can trust each other,” Judy said as diplomatically as possible. “We didn’t come here for… whatever it is Poppy wants us to do.”

“I know,” Doey nodded. “You came here for that wolf who got the letter. I’m sure Poppy has told you already… but if he even got far enough in, the Prototype probably snatched him already.”

They soon found themselves in what looked like a prison work yard. Doey stood by a large gate off to the side. He looked towards them.

“This was a work yard once, you know,” he indicated to the giant space around them. A dozen of us would be in here at a time… sometimes, maybe two dozen. During the day, they’d have us work. Whatever they wanted, we’d do it. And those who didn’t, who wouldn’t, or couldn’t… at night, when there wasn’t anyone important watching, they’d stick them in here, tell them ‘there’s only enough food for one of you this week. Which of you will get it?’ Of course, nobody died, because that’d get noticed, but… they’d come back and they’d work… oh yes, they’d work…”

“That’s horrible…” Judy gasped.

“Nobody here to stop them,” Doey shook his head. He looked back to Nick and Judy.

“There’s a safe place up ahead,” he said. “It’s not too far from here. You can rest when we get there… I can’t promise any food, though. Not unless you like the idea of eating toys… and believe me, we don’t like it either, but we’ve been starving down here, with little choice… anyway… we’re almost there.”

Doey pressed into the door and squished himself through, his dough-like form slipping into the cracks between the two door panels. He waited for a moment, before chuckling to himself.

“Right… you can’t fit through here!” he said. “Hmm… hey, friends… let’s see if we can’t get these doors open. I’ll look this side, and you look that side.”

Nick and Judy turned around, looking for anything they could use to get the doors open. There was a pair of huge winches on the wall opposite.

“Let’s use those,” Nick suggested. They each went over to one, used their GrabPacks to pick up the hooks, and reeled the winch chains out towards the exit.  They hooked it onto each bar rising up along the surface of the doors. Using their GrabPacks, they pulled the levers on the two winches. The chains tautened, dragging the doors open. Behind them was another long corridor, with a gated room at the end. Doey stood there, with his hands on his hips.

“Should be a straight shot from here,” he said, “but, uh… I should probably go turn off our defences for you. Guess I’ll see you inside?”

Doey chuckled before sliding himself through a crack in the wall next to him.

“I wonder how this guy even works,” Nick cocked his head curiously.

“We can find out later,” Judy replied. “Let’s find this ‘safe place’.”

The pair traipsed out of the prison yard and down the corridor. As they went down, they could see some of the junctions blocked off by turned-over shelving units covered in the same dough that Doey was made of.

“I wonder how we’re even going to get there if all the corridors are blocked off by this stuff?” Judy looked at the multicoloured dough.

“We just keep going. I’m sure he’ll come back for us,” Nick replied.

As they passed by a large alcove in the wall, something pink and furry reached out and dragged them inside. Before they could even shout, they were pulled before the appendage’s owner.

It was Kissy Missy, but she looked a lot worse for wear. She looked like she had been burned across the right side of her face. Her torso bore several deep slashes, and her right arm, also burned, was held in a sling. On top of her left shoulder was Poppy, who raised a single finger to her lips, instructing the stunned fox and bunny to be quiet.

The sounds of heavy, metallic clanking echoed down the alcove. The attention of the quartet was drawn to it, as the silhouette of something distinctly non-mammalian passed by where they had been just seconds before. It was mechanical, and it possessed six large, multi-segmented legs resembling a spider. Whatever it was stopped for a moment, as if examining its surroundings, before moving on. Kissy moved them towards the other end of the gap, towards another corridor.

“What was that?” Nick whispered. “What… what happened to Kissy?”

“I’ll explain when we reach the Safe Haven,” Poppy replied. “We’ll go through the showers. We should be able to make it from there.”

Kissy and Poppy peered out of the gap.

“When I say so, we go,” Poppy instructed. Once more, she peered out from the gap, making sure that whatever was out there was gone.

“Go!” she said. Kissy, Nick and Judy exited the alcove and made for a nearby turnoff – as Poppy had told them, it looked to be a shower room for employees. It was completely deserted. They walked carefully through, Nick and Judy occasionally glancing behind them.

Beyond the showers was a short corridor with a big steel door at the end. Kissy stopped before it and banged her good hand against it three times. It opened up, allowing them inside. The hall beyond was tall and circular, with many tents pitched up along its wall. There was what looked like a small shop in the middle. Corridors extended out from several different points.

As soon as they were inside, Poppy turned towards a small Boogie Bot waiting at the other side of the door, which was holding a small remote.

“Hurry! Close it!”

The Boogie Bot complied, pressing the button on its remote to close the door behind them.

“What’s going on?” Doey came bounding into the room. “What’s… Kissy!” He stopped dead upon seeing Kissy’s injured state. “What happened?”

“We need to get her help! Now!” Poppy said to Doey, who seemed surprised to hear another voice. He turned towards her, tilting his head curiously.

“… Poppy?” he said. “Is that really you?”

He considered her for a moment.

“Right… take her to one of the beds. I’ll check the defences, see if whatever’s out there is still out there.”

“Not just something!” Poppy almost shouted. “It’s him!”

Doey rounded on Poppy, his face scrunched up into anger. His hands became clawed, and Nick and Judy could have sworn his flat face became less so, as if he was growing a snout. Small spikes poked from his head.

“You brought him down…?!” He stopped himself, sighed heavily, and straightened his hat as he returned to his normal, nondescript form. “We’ll talk about this later. For now, I’ll go and make sure ‘out there’ is where he stays.”

Doey bounded off towards one of the exits, leaving Nick, Judy, Kissy and Poppy alone.

“Over here…” Poppy directed Kissy, who walked over to a nearby tent, bent down and collapsed inside.

“You’ll be okay…” Poppy went up to her to check her over. She turned back to Nick and Judy.

“That was the Prototype?” Nick said in an alarmed tone.

“Yes…” Poppy nodded.

“I thought he was busy collecting dead toys.”

“He was waiting for me…” Poppy explained. “He ambushed Kissy in Playcare… look what he did to her…” she indicated to Kissy, who feebly looked at them.

“Why didn’t he just kill her and take her away?” Judy wondered.

“Because killing her would have meant making it harder to draw me out,” Poppy replied. “He knew I’d go back for her if he wounded her, and I fell right into the trap… He followed us down here, and that’s when we found you.”

“What now, then?” Judy folded her arms. Poppy looked around. She looked disheartened.

“… I didn’t know it had gotten so bad down here,” she said. “Last time I was here… before the Prototype locked me away in the case… there were so many more toys here… we had the help of the Smiling Critters… I heard about DogDay, but I didn’t want to believe he really was the last one…”

She shook her head.

“What I said on the elevator is true,” she continued.

“About the orphans?” Judy asked.

“Yes,” Poppy nodded. “Back on the train, I said there were others that you could save. They weren’t killed during the Hour of Joy. They were taken to the Labs… the Prototype’s home. They’re still alive, but they’re sleeping…”

“Sleeping?” Judy repeated. “How? It’s been ten years, and you said it yourself: they toys dragged all the bodies down here to eat… which means there was no food.”

“Probably cryostasis…” Nick suggested. Judy shot him a look, and he shrugged. “What? Got any better theories?”

“Well, no, but…”

“The point is,” Poppy interrupted, “they’re with him, and he knows we’re here. So, we can use that to our advantage and take care of both the orphans and the Prototype at the same time.”

Poppy turned to Kissy.

“I’ll be back soon,” she said, before turning back to Nick and Judy. “There’s one other person you need to meet – they helped come up with the plan. Come with me.”

Poppy crossed over to a door. It opened to allow her access. She turned around.

“Well, come on,” she waved Nick and Judy over. They stepped inside what looked like a big computer room.

In the middle of the room, connected to several of those machines, was something that reminded Nick and Judy of the Boogie Bot, but it was much bigger and far less refined, lacking any of the smooth coverings. Instead, its inner workings were exposed. It still consisted of a robotic body with a monitor for a head, atop a pair of tank-like treads. There was a camera affixed to the side of the screen. It looked up and straight towards them.

The screen displayed an image of a phone ringing. And a second later, the phone in Nick’s pocket rang. He fished it out and answered it, looking curiously at the strange machine in front of them.

“We’ve already spoken,” the voice of Ollie emerged from the phone. “But it’s nice to meet you face-to… erm… monitor. I’m Ollie.”

The machine raised one of its arms and waved.

“I know it’s probably strange talking like this, especially when I’m right in front of you,” he continued. “Trust me, I’d love to be able to speak to you myself, but… while I can hear what you’re saying just fine, the scientists who built me never gave me a voice-box of my own… so this is how I communicate.”

“What are you?” Judy asked, eyebrows raised in confusion.

“I guess you could say I’m the first working version of something Elliot Ludwig built before he died,” Ollie explained. “They call me a ‘Playtime Automated Companion’… there are others, but Elliot built me first, even if it wasn’t until after he died when they got me ‘working’. I’m sure you can guess what that means… but, in a way, I suppose you could say that I’m one of Elliot’s children, same as Poppy.”

He swivelled his monitor between the two stunned mammals before him.

“Now that introductions are out of the way,” Ollie said, turning towards Poppy, “Why don’t you tell them what the plan is, Poppy?”

“Right,” Poppy nodded, turning back towards the confused fox and bunny duo. “You remember that Red Smoke you redirected from Playcare?”

Nick and Judy nodded.

“We diverted it down here for two reasons – one, we hoped to make it easier for you to get to the Safe Haven in the first place.”

“That didn’t work out,” Nick interjected.

“No, it didn’t,” Poppy admitted, “but it wasn’t the only reason we sent it down here. The other reason was that, as I’m sure you remember, the Red Smoke is an accelerant. All it needs is a little spark and some high pressure, and it ignites.”

The image of a burning CatNap surfaced fresh in their minds, reminding them of the smell of seared flesh, fur, and fabric.

“The plan is this: we’ll fill the foundation with the Red Smoke and line it with old mining charges left behind by the crew after the Hour of Joy. Then, once you two, me, and Kissy have freed the orphans, our friends here will blow this place sky-high.”

“Won’t that mean they get blown sky-high too?” Nick asked.

“As long as nobody leaves this Safe Haven, they should be okay,” Ollie explained. “This place was built to withstand even a bomb. That’s why the doors are so heavy and thick and why it’s built so deep underground. But the Labs, and the rest of the factory, aren’t. They’ll be destroyed, and with them, the Prototype will be too.”

“That’s our revenge,” Poppy finished.

Nick raised his paw.

“Uh, question…” he said. “I just wanna clear something up…”

“I’ll try,” Ollie said.

“Well… that phone call after CatNap… well… it was… weird.”

“… phone call?” Ollie seemed confused.

“Yeah… ‘you must feel pretty good’,” Nick recited. “‘This win is yours’.”

Ollie and Poppy exchanged looks… or as close to ‘looks’ as a monitor could give and receive.

“… I didn’t call you,” Ollie said. “The last time I called you before you left Playcare was to give you the battery to power the Gas Production Zone. The next time I called after that was when you got to the Prison.”

It was Nick and Judy’s turn to exchange worried glances.

“But if it wasn’t you…” Judy began.

“Then, who was it?” Nick finished.

“That had to have been the Prototype,” Poppy said. “You know he can mimic voices… but… he shouldn’t have been able to call you.”

“I don’t know how he managed to hijack my line,” Ollie added. “I’ll work to secure it… I really don’t want him to try and use my voice to trick you…”

“Well, I hope so,” Nick said. He turned to Judy. “I knew he sounded weird…”

“There is just one other thing…” Ollie raised a finger. “The Safe Haven’s generator… it needs to be repaired. Doey will be able to tell you just what’s needed.”

“Go to him,” Poppy finished for Ollie. “I’ll go back and make sure Kissy’s taken care of. Ollie? Can you keep an eye on them, make sure that they can get whatever they need done?”

“Sure can,” Ollie nodded. “The cameras down here are… tricky, and reception isn’t great. The Doctor has jammers in place and has control over the security systems this far down. That means I have to be careful, but when I can, I’ll phone you guys to help out.”

“Come on, let’s see what the big guy wants us to do,” Nick turned around and left the server room, with Judy in tow. Poppy left a few seconds later before returning to the tent Kissy was resting in. A small, red Boogie Bot was tending to her.

“Are you here to help us?” A voice spoke from below them. Nick and Judy looked down to see a small group of miniature Smiling Critters consisting of a CraftyCorn, a Bobby BearHug, and a Hoppy Hopscotch. Instinctually, Judy’s finger reached for the toggle that would switch her Right Hand to the Flare Hand to scare them off, but it passed upon realising that these Critters were both not ruined, and were not attacking.

“Poppy brought you here, didn’t she?” the CraftyCorn spoke with an uncharacteristically-male voice. CraftyCorns were usually female, so hearing that voice emerge from it was jarring.

“Is that really Poppy?” the Bobby BearHug asked.

“Can we trust her?” the CraftyCorn added.

“She’s not going to run away this time, is she?” the Hoppy Hopscotch finished.

“Run away?” Judy blinked. Apparently, these Critters were not aware that Poppy had spent a number of years locked in that case on the upper floors of the factory.

It was then that Judy’s attention was caught by the Hoppy plush. She tilted her head curiously.

“… haven’t I seen you somewhere?” she asked.

“Uh… maybe…” the Hoppy plush replied. “Maybe I… crept up to Playcare a few hours ago…”

“It was you in the Toy Store!” Judy exclaimed. “I thought it was weird that there was a Hoppy toy on the shelf when I could have sworn there wasn’t before!”

“Shh…” the Hoppy tried to quiet Judy. “We’re not supposed to leave here, Doey would be sad… but I was hoping to find DogDay.”

“Oh… oh, I’m sorry…” Judy replied. “He’s…”

“Yeah, I know…” the Hoppy lowered her head. “I… didn’t dare go in there… the ones that stayed behind… they went feral a long time ago…”

“Hiya, friends!” Doey called from nearby, breaking the conversation up. “Got something I need to talk with you about… in here.” Doey indicated into the generator room.

“Well, it was nice meeting you,” Judy waved as she and Nick headed towards Doey.

When they stepped inside the room, Doey moved over to the large machine against the wall. He let out a heavy sigh before turning to them.

“I heard what you did above,” he said. “What you survived. If that’s true, then we need your help. That voice you’ve heard out there… the one in the prison… they called him ‘The Doctor’… Doctor Harley Sawyer.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard of him,” Nick replied lowly.

“Then you know he’s the one who made… us…” Doey spat that last word out venomously, looking away. “We don’t know how he survived, what he even is now, but we know he’s working with the Prototype. Hunting us… Starving us… making us sick, and…”

Doey stopped himself, straightened his hat and looked to Nick and Judy again.

“He controls it all with an Omni-Hand, we think.”

“An Omni-Hand? What’s that?” Judy asked.

“The executives used them. It’s the master control to everything in the factory. Only four of them were made… with it, he controls everything down here. Everything, but this,” Doey indicated to the dormant machine next to him. “Runs completely on its own grid, away from the prison. For a time, it protected us, kept us safe… until now.”

“What do you need from us?” Nick asked.

“I need you to take the Omni-Hand from the Doctor,” Doey answered. “It’ll stop him and the Prototype from trying to starve us out, and we can also use it to fix the generator. And… if you want to put the Red Smoke in the foundation, you’ll need it too.”

Doey turned slightly, his hands clasped in front of his chest.

“The toys out there, in the Safe Haven… they’re my family. I understand what Poppy wants. Destroy the factory, destroy the Prototype… but I ask you to consider… this place might be safe, but we’d have to send toys out to set them off… and even if this place is safe, we’d still be stuck down here, probably buried alive… we’d be throwing ourselves away, just to kill the Prototype. I know the others think that it’s the right thing to do, that we should bury everything, but… just think about it. Please.”

Doey turned away from them.

“Once you’re ready to go, head through the infirmary. There’s an entrance into the sewer in there, and once you’re down there, you can find your way to No Mammal’s Land… and to him. If you need to catch your breath… Our Safe Haven is also yours. And… we may have some other tasks for you when you get back… Good luck.”

Chapter Text

Nick and Judy left Doey behind in the generator room. As he watched them go, Poppy walked up to him.

“It’s all set in motion,” she said. Doey looked down at her. “They’ll bring this all to a close. This is it… I can feel it.”

“I know this is what you want,” Doey said quietly, “but I think you might be wrong, Poppy.”

“It’s what’s best for everyone, Doey. You know that… you agreed to it. There has to be nothing left of this place.”

“I know…” Doey conceded. “But… us in here… we’re not just… ‘things gone wrong’, Poppy. We’re people. We didn’t ask to be made into this… but we do deserve to live. Can’t you see that?”

Poppy turned away from Doey.

“I can,” she said. “And… I’m sorry… but there’s no other way. You might survive in here when it all goes down, but… some of them… if we’re to stop the Prototype once and for all, it’s a sacrifice we’ll have to accept.”

“They look up to me, Poppy. I’ve done my best to protect them. I can’t go out there and say ‘some of you may die, but that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make’… There has to be some other way.”

“I’ve thought about this all the time I’ve been… gone… and I wish there was, Doey… I wish there was.”

“And that’s another thing… you disappeared. You left us… We looked and looked, but we couldn’t find any sign of you… can you even tell us why?”

Poppy sighed wistfully.

“You were all in danger at the time. The Prototype was after me, and he was willing to do whatever he could to get me. I had to leave. I didn’t have a choice.”

“That’s not good enough, Poppy. You’re asking us to burn everything… sacrifice ourselves… and you can’t even tell us why.”

“You know why.”

“Yes, the Prototype… but he’s after us all.”

“He put me in a case, Doey,” Poppy rounded on Doey. “Is that what you wanted me to say? I don’t know why he’s so fixated on me, but that was why I left. I left to lure him away, and he caught me and imprisoned me in a case. If it wasn’t for those two… I wouldn’t even be here now.”

Doey was stunned for a moment. He recovered quickly.

“I’m… sorry, Poppy… I should have been there to help you… but… we’ve starved down here… we’ve been hunted down here… and these toys… they’re family. They’ve saved us more than once… It doesn’t feel right to just burn everything, sacrifice everything. I… want to believe there’s another way. There has to be.”

The red Boogie Bot, Medic, rolled up to them.

“Poppy, she needs you,” Medic said in a robotic voice. “Done what I could.”

Poppy shook her head, turning to go to Kissy’s tent.

“We’ll discuss this later,” she said. “Right now… all we can do is wait for our friends to stop the Doctor and get the Omni-hand.”

******

Nick and Judy were padding through the muddy sewers.

“What a wonderful smell Doey found for us…” Nick pinched his nose.

“We’ve been through worse,” Judy replied.

“Yeah, we’ve smelled worse, but we haven’t done it with a bunch of killer monster toys on our tails.”

They traipsed down the tunnel, finding themselves at a crossroads. Straight ahead and to the left was a maintenance room. To their immediate left was a dead end, and the way to their right was blocked off by debris.

The decision was an easy one – they pressed on ahead, ducking into the maintenance room. At the end there was a small elevator. They climbed aboard, and it rose up. When it came to a stop, they found themselves in a waste water plant. A giant clarifier filled with green water featured in the centre of the room, with a metal bridge extending over it and to the other side. A bank of computers and terminals lined the walls, assumedly there to help monitor the cleansing process for the water. Giant water tanks were stood to one side.

“It smells marginally better in here, at least,” Nick said.

“Where do we go from here?” Judy looked around. “Did we take a wrong turn?”

“There’s a door over there,” Nick pointed to a corner on their right and behind them. It was the only exit the room had.

They crossed the bridge, walked around the side of the giant clarifier towards the door, opened it and stepped outside into a huge cavern. To their left was a railway track that headed into a tunnel, and several abandoned tents that had frayed with time. Straight ahead was a deep drop. And to their right was a concrete structure with the Prison’s symbol on one of its faces.

The phone rang. Nick picked it up.

“Hey, hey, can you hear me?” Ollie’s voice came through, but there were bursts of static. “… There’s some… when you get the Omni-Hand… hopefully, it’s nothing… might not be…”

The call ended abruptly. Nick and Judy stared at the phone, befuddled by Ollie’s message.

“What was that about?” Nick wondered.

“He did say that the Doctor has jammers down here,” Judy said.

“We’re not going to be able to rely on what he knows about this place, then. All we can do is press on and hope we find our way round.”

“Yeah…”

They moved down the railway track and into the tunnel ahead. Inside looked a lot like a mine. Carts that reminded them of Barry back up in the Game Station lay upturned or on their sides.

A familiar, childlike giggle reached their ears, drawing their attention to a tunnel off the side. A lone Bobby BearHug toy, torn up and with both its eye buttons missing, ambled its way towards them.

Nick immediately switched to his Flare Hand and shot one off, scaring the small creature away.

“I guess it’s easier to tell the difference when the others can actually talk and walk,” he remarked. He put the Flare Hand away, switching back to his Green Hand. The pair continued down the tunnel. It opened out into a large cavern filled with construction equipment. A giant crane sat next to a long drop, its arm extended out over the pit, and on the other side of that pit was a big space with a large pair of gates at its end. To the left was a closed door. Nick tried it – it was locked.

That left the pit and the large gate on the other side as the only other route.

“Hope that crane’s locked into place,” Nick said as he started forward. He aimed his GrabPack at the hook dangling from above and fired, the Blue Hand catching it, the cable tautening.

“Here goes,” he said, before leaping from the ledge. He swung across the chasm, and when he was at the peak of his arc, he had the GrabPack let go. He landed on the floor on the opposite side, where he could now see that not only was there the large door ahead, but a pair of yellow metal gates to the left. A pair of Hand Scanners lined the walls on either side of the big gate.

Judy joined him. She equipped her Red Hand and fired it at the Red Hand Scanner. Nick fired his Blue Hand at the other Scanner.

The gates began to part, but before they were fully open, a loud roar ripped through the gap from the darkness behind. Yarnaby’s head appeared, his mouth wide open.

“Run!” Nick said. They turned tail and fled towards the yellow gates to the left, as Yarnaby ran after them. Those gates also opened out, revealing a dirt slide behind them. Before Yarnaby could catch them, they slipped down the chute. Once they hit the bottom, they got up, dusted themselves off and looked back up towards Yarnaby, who let out a frustrated roar before he turned around and walked away.

“Something tells me we haven’t seen the last of him,” Nick said.

“Yeah,” Judy agreed. “We’ll have to tread carefully when we make our way through this place.”

“I have an idea.”

“What?”

“You’re not gonna like it.”

“Nick, I’ve not liked many of our ideas since we got chased by Huggy.”

“Okay, that makes this easier. I think we should split up.”

“You’re right. I don’t like that idea.”

“Think about it. One of us goes around and does whatever we need to do to get out of here, and the other keeps Yarnaby distracted.”

“I think we should stick together. It’d make it harder for Yarnaby to pick us off.”

“Okay, I think we’re gonna have to find a way to decide whose plan to follow.”

That meant another go at rock-paper-scissors.

“You know, I won the last two times, right?” Judy raised an eyebrow.

“Ever heard the expression ‘third time’s the charm’?” Nick countered.

They both clenched their fists, counted to three and then revealed their hands. Judy chose rock, but Nick had learned from his previous defeats, choosing paper. He smirked as Judy looked at her choice disappointingly.

“Told you,” he said.

“Best of three?” Judy asked.

“Nope,” Nick shook his head, a grin on his face. “I tried that one and it didn’t work then. You’re just gonna have to live with the failure.”

“What are we even doing?” Judy chuckled. “Right in the middle of a death trap, stalked by a yarn lion…”

“I’m glad we could at least get a laugh out of the situation.”

“So… who does what?”

“Hmm… you’re going to be lighter than I am, and I hate to say it, but you’re the better runner.”

“What was that?” Judy smirked.

“That was me saying ‘I’ll go lure the monster’,” Nick replied.

“But you just said…”

“I said you were the better runner, which means if I fail, you’ll have the better chance of outrunning that killer ball of string.”

“I don’t like this. Not one bit.”

“You know I’m right.”

Judy said nothing, simply staring at Nick silently as he examined the area they were in. It looked like some sort of garage area. There was an open doorway to their left, and to their right was a closed door.

“First thing’s first, we’re going to have to get out of here,” Judy said.

They headed into the open garage. Stacked against its walls were crates of various sizes. They spotted a cable trailing up one wall and decided to follow it. Their path took them round a corner, where a control panel sat against the wall. On it was a lever with a label that read ‘Mine Conveyor Access’. Across from that was a small alcove – big enough for them to hide inside if they needed it.

Judy reached up and pulled it, and the garage door opposite rolled open with a clattering sound.

But that wasn’t the only sound that they heard. Judy’s right ear raised up. A strange, distorted noise, as if played through a broken speaker, echoed through the area. Shortly after, a familiar high-pitched roar followed, and the sound of large paws padding across the rock floor after that.

“In there!” Nick indicated to the alcove opposite the control panel. Judy didn’t need telling twice – she got inside and crouched low. Nick followed her in, making it just as Yarnaby’s head appeared around the corner, searching for his quarry. He sniffed at the ground, wandering in towards the spot Nick and Judy had been at seconds before. The pair exchanged worried glances – if he could track their scent, there was every possibility that he would find them in their hiding spot.

Before he could follow their scent trail and find them, an alarm sounded. Yarnaby looked up towards the noise, let out another roar, and ran off. A moment later, the phone rang for a brief moment, before silencing itself.

“Ollie…” Judy whispered.

“Come on, let’s get out of here,” Nick said, squeezing himself out of the alcove. Judy followed, and the pair left the garage. The door opposite was now open, exposing a storage bay filled with more crates, mining and digging equipment, and at its far end, a conveyor belt. There was no other door in the room.

“I guess we’re taking another belt trip,” Nick said as he approached. He and Judy boarded, and the belt shuddered to life, drawing them into a rock tunnel at its end. A moment later, it deposited them into a large cavern.

The huge space contained three distinct buildings in separate directions. One appeared to be a security compound, another looked like a power station, and the third led to a metal refinement area. A sign above that door also indicated that there was an elevator back up to the Safe Haven inside.

The space in the middle of the cave resembled a shanty town, the likes of which reminded them of parts of Happy Town back in Zootopia.

There was no sign of Yarnaby at the present. Still, they trod carefully. They knew he could reappear at any second.

“Where do you think we should go from here?” Judy asked.

“Only way we’re getting back up to where we need to go is through there,” Nick thumbed towards the metal refinement area.

“Looks like there’s no power to the door,” Judy replied, pointing to the deactivated Hand Scanners next to the it. There was a cable trailing from the door to the security compound.

“I think this is where we part ways for a bit, Carrots,” Nick said. “You head for the power plant at the back there, and I’ll go for the compound.

Judy bit her lip uneasily.

“Remember, we agreed upon it,” Nick reminded her.

“Okay, fine…” Judy sighed. “But… keep yourself safe. If you have to, find yourself a hiding spot.”

They went their separate ways. Judy’s destination, the power plant, loomed large ahead.

As she approached, a metallic scraping noise reached her ears from ahead, like a shutter being opened. She stopped dead in her tracks, listening intently. A series of heavy pawsteps followed, as well as a snuffling sound.

Yarnaby was here.

Judy quietly pressed herself into a nearby gap in the shanty town, hoping Yarnaby would walk right by.

Yarnaby drew closer, stopping at the place Judy had been moments ago. He lowered his head and sniffed, trying to pick up a scent. He drew closer to her hiding spot.

Judy’s ear twitched as she heard something that sounded a lot like a distant flare being launched. Yarnaby heard it too, turning away from the scent trail. He let out a roar and bolted off towards the source of the sound.

Judy squeezed out of the gap and breathed a sigh of relief. She could only guess that Nick had spotted Yarnaby looking for her, and had created a distraction to get her pursuer away. She hoped he would be able to hide himself before Yarnaby caught up to him.

Choosing not to waste the distraction Nick had given her, Judy headed straight for the power plant. There was a large shutter with a single Hand Scanner outside – she scanned her Blue Hand, and after a few seconds, the shutter rolled open.

Judy moved quickly, not knowing nor wanting to check if Yarnaby had heard the noise. She stepped inside and wandered around the large area. It was on two levels. There was a giant generator in its centre, with cables trailing outward. As she walked inside, she noted three sets of stairs to her left – two going downward, with one going up sandwiched in between them. She took the farthest stairs, which brought her down beside the large generator. To her right was a single console. She wandered over and carefully examined it – a schematic was affixed to the panel next to the switch to start the power.

While there were no explicit instructions on it, Judy guessed that, once she flipped the main switch, she would have to activate three Hand Scanners to allow for the power to transfer to the door to the metal refinement area. The biggest issue was whoever designed this power plant had not thought about the ease of doing that – all three Scanners were in different places in the power plant.

Seeing no reason to hesitate, Judy threw the switch. The lights in the power plant flared to life. A status screen on the control panel indicated the three Hand Scanners needed to route the power where she needed it to be.

At that moment, Judy heard a metal screech followed by heavy pawsteps.

Yarnaby had arrived. And this time, she couldn’t rely on Nick being able to distract him. She had to play this carefully.

She went back up the stairs, and up the second set next to them. As she made it to the top, she looked down and saw Yarnaby appear in the room, walking towards the control panel Judy had just been at.

Carefully, Judy went along the upper platform, rounded the corner and crossed over to the Hand Scanner there. Before she activated it, she peered over the railing, towards the platform the main panel was on. Yarnaby was currently sniffing around.

She ducked back down, creeped around to the front of the Hand Scanner, and fired the Blue hand at it.

The moment it connected, the sound of the scan echoed throughout the plant. Judy peeked cautiously above the railing.

Yarnaby was scanning for a target, having heard the sound. He let out a roar, and headed for the stairs.

Judy deactivated the scan, which had reached 38% and stopped there when she took the Blue Hand away from it. She headed down the nearby staircase and crouched as she reached the bottom. The sound of heavy paws thundering above rattled the platform. The thuds stopped, and were replaced by the noise of Yarnaby’s sniffling at where Judy had been moments before. Not daring to breathe, Judy silently made her way across the lower floor, hoping to get to the scanner nearest the main power switch. She slid through the narrow gap near the bottom of the stairs, towards the Hand Scanner at the top right corner.

It was clear this was to be a game of cat-and-mouse, with Judy beginning a scan only for Yarnaby to hear it and come rushing. Thankfully, each Scanner being quite far from the others would also turn out to be a blessing as well as a curse – it meant Judy could go over to one, begin the scan, move away if she needed to and find another one away from Yarnaby.

Yarnaby was still investigating the Hand Scanner Judy had abandoned, so she turned her attention to the one nearest her, firing her Blue Hand at it to begin the scan. She raised her ears and turned towards the yarn-maned lion above. The noise of the scan reverberated throughout the power plant. She could hear Yarnaby turn around and run across the upper platforms, heading for the steps near the entrance Judy had come through. The moment she saw him rounding the corner to go down the steps near to the main power console, she retracted her Blue Hand. She couldn’t see the percentage of the console, but she decided that it was more important to put some distance between her and Yarnaby. She headed back up the stairs to the upper platform as quietly as she could. Once she got up there, she saw Yarnaby snuffling at the console she had just abandoned. Turning back to the console on that level, she fired the Blue Hand and resumed the scan.

After a few seconds, she heard Yarnaby’s pawsteps heading for her again, so she once again abandoned the scan, which sat at 78%. Just a little more and she’d have the first of these routers online. But first she needed to get her stalker away from it. So, she proceeded back down the stairs, carefully made her way back to the second Hand Scanner, and resumed the scan on that one.

Yarnaby let out a roar of frustration above her and ran towards the sound. Judy kept her nerve right until Yarnaby once again appeared at the top of the stairs near the main console. She disconnected from the Hand Scanner and went back upstairs to resume that scan. Since this was so close to the finish, it didn’t take Judy long to complete it. The scanner beeped and turned green. Judy retracted the Blue Hand. As she did, Yarnaby bellowed and rushed straight for the source of the noise, so Judy quickly dashed downstairs, sliding through the gap to the second scanner. Now she was close enough to see the screen properly, she could see the scan was at 82% complete, which meant it wouldn’t take as long to finish as the first. She scanned the Blue Hand, and within seconds, the terminal bleeped, signalling its completion.

Yarnaby roared above and ran from the platform above towards the noise. Judy slipped back through the gap and headed for the final terminal. With that one left, Judy figured she would have to play this very carefully. And so, she approached the last, situated to the south-west of the plant.

She heard the squealing of a metal shutter. Yarnaby had disappeared, and Judy realised Yarnaby was using some sort of tunnel system to move around and try and catch them.

It would take Yarnaby a moment to find a new exit point, so Judy planned to take full advantage of that. She began the scan. Time passed, but as she neared completion, her ears pricked as she heard the familiar sound of a shutter opening and closing, this time from the south-east of the plant. Judy felt a cold sweat coming on as the tension rose alongside the number on the screen.

There was one final beep and the sound of the huge generator in the middle of the room. She had done it!

There wasn’t a moment to celebrate, as Yarnaby rounded the corner at that moment, saw Judy, screeched in rage, and began to chase her, with that round head open at the vertical split. Judy ran for the stairs in the north-west that would take her back up to the top level – Yarnaby would have to slow to make the turn, whereas Judy was small enough to not need to lose much speed. She dashed up the stairs, no longer caring about making a sound. Once she got to the top, she rushed across the platform, and descended the stairs at the south-east, bringing her back to the entrance. She left the power plant, finding herself back in the shanty town-like area. She checked behind her to see if Yarnaby was still chasing her, but he wasn’t there.

“Carrots!” came a familiar voice. Judy looked up towards the metal refinement area.

“Nick! Thank goodness!” Judy sighed as she ran forward towards him.

“You got the power back on, and I found this,” Nick held up what looked like a keycard. He turned towards the door before them – there was a power cable trailing towards a box with a card reader. The Hand Scanners by the door were still offline.

“Looks like we need to use this to switch on the two Hand Scanners to get through,” he added, stepping towards the reader. He slotted the card in and it emitted a single beep. The two Scanners lit up – one red, one blue.

Judy fired her Red Hand at one, and Nick fired at the other. After a few seconds, the door opened, and the pair stepped inside. There was a long, dimly-lit metal corridor ahead of them. They made their way through it, towards the orange light at the other end.

They’d barely made it halfway when a familiar roar echoed behind them. They spun around to find Yarnaby standing in the doorway, mouth wide open. He descended into the corridor after them.

“Run!” Nick said. Judy didn’t need telling twice – they left and headed right for the light at the end of the corridor. Once they exited, they found themselves in a large room with conveyor belts, smelting pits, vats of molten metal, and a platform rising above them. They ascended to the platform with Yarnaby hot on their tails. Across from them was a gap, with a conveyor belt below and a hook above. Nick fired his Blue Hand first and swung across, followed by Judy. They both landed squarely on the platform on the other side.

Yarnaby tried jumping after them, but he misjudged and landed squarely on the conveyor belt below. He roared as he was dragged away by it.

And then a huge metal arm came down, grabbed Yarnaby by the head, and pulled hard. Nick and Judy could only watch as Yarnaby struggled, but it was futile – the arm was far stronger, and it pulled his head clean off his body. Blood spurted from Yarnaby’s neck as his head was deposited into a nearby molten vat. The body collapsed and was pulled further down the conveyor belt before descending out of sight.

It was over. Yarnaby was no more.

Chapter Text

With Yarnaby gone, Nick and Judy were left on the edge of the conveyor belt, staring on in both bewilderment and disgust at what had just happened.

“So… maybe we should… get going…” Nick said finally.

“Yeah…” Judy replied, not moving for a moment, before turning away, towards the door behind them. It opened into an elevator room – each elevator was a capsule with the insides decorated in those faded, once-cheerful coloured squares. Nick knew he had seen these before – he had found one in the Gas Production Zone, ruined beyond repair.

They stepped into one, with Judy squeezing herself against Nick in the cramped space.

“Sorry,” she grumbled, a faint blush colouring the insides of her ears. Nick could hardly muster a witty reply himself given the awkward situation.

A glass door swung shut before it rose up. After a few seconds, it stopped at some kind of high platform. The door opened, and Nick and Judy spilled out.

They found themselves in a grey room, the walls lined with control panels. A single, grey metal door stood at one end. There was nothing of interest in that space, so they made their way to the door and opened it. Behind it was a corridor that extended out to the right. They followed it round into what looked like a storage room with another door. A large, blue pipe snaked its way around the room.

Stood by a shelving rack next to where the pipe met with the floor, and looking through the contents of said shelf, was Doey. He heard their footsteps, stopped what he was doing and turned towards them.

“Oh, hiya there!” he waved. “Is the Doctor…?”

Nick and Judy glanced at each other.

“No… I don’t suppose he is, then,” Doey sighed in resignation.

“What are you doing up here?” Nick asked.

“I’m trying to gather parts for the generator,” Doey explained. “Hehe… lots and lots of…”

Doey was cut off suddenly as the pipe next to him burst and a cloud of icy gas washed over him. He let out a pained yell before he froze over.

“We gotta help him!” Judy said. She fired her Blue Hand at Doey, perhaps intending to wrench him free of the cloud, but the moment it touched Doey, it stuck to him and froze as well.

“How do we turn this thing off?” She turned to Nick. He looked around for some sort of valve to stop the flow. His eyes followed the pipe upwards and across the ceiling.

Midway along the pipe above was a large compression ball valve. Nick fired his Green Hand at it, and pulled. The valve turned slowly, and after a couple of seconds, clicked into place. The gas stopped spurting from the burst pipe, and after a few seconds, Doey thawed out, and Judy’s Blue Hand unstuck from him, retracting back into its cannon. Doey stumbled over to the other side of the room, a pained look on his face, his breathing ragged.

“Hurts, hurts, hurts, hurst, hurts!” he groaned. “He’s made it impossible for me to get around here! Traps like this are everywhere!”

“Are… you going to be alright?” Judy approached the giant dough monster uncertainly.

“It’s the cold that hurts… the big mean Doctor knows that…” Doey replied. “I’ll… be okay… you… you two best go find him and take the Omni Hand… that door… will take you back through to the construction site. You can… get up to the Shelf from there… and to his lair…”

Judy looked back towards Nick, who simply shrugged.

“Well, if you’re sure…” she turned back to Doey.

“I am… we still need his Omni Hand for the generator…” Doey affirmed. “I’ll meet you back in Safe Haven…”

Judy gave Doey one last sympathetic look, before she headed for the door and opened it.

They were back at the start, above the large pit with the crane’s arm hovering above it. Below was the ledge that they had landed on previously, with the door Yarnaby had first emerged from visible.

With no further words spoken, they crossed the chasm and landed back in front of the now-open door. With no pursuer to force them away, they were now free to go through. Behind the door was a small cave with mining equipment stored. To the right was a rock tunnel. They went through, and when they emerged on the other side, they found themselves on a walkway, high above what looked to be some sort of quarry, with a huge crane at its heart. The walkway itself extended around the upper lip, curving round into a tunnel on the right.

“Ah, and here you are,” came the voice of the Doctor from a nearby speaker. “Just as I expected. It appears you are every bit what the Prototype fears. Curious… that it should be outsiders that reach this far in, despite never having been a part of this. If you were employees, I would have commended you for possessing such rare quality. Why come here, though? Surely, chasing a wolf that received a vague letter can’t be the only reason. Certainly not if you’ve made it this far in. I wonder what compelled him? Perhaps he knew someone here? Someone he lost? Perhaps it was the pain of not knowing that brought him here. All I can confirm is that the Experiments killed everyone, including whoever he came back for. Surely, you must know that by now?”

“Does this guy ever shut up?” Nick griped.

“Such unrefined vulgarity,” the Doctor replied. “Perhaps such witticisms serve to help you outside, in the real world. Here, they simply prove the undeniable truth: you are in over your heads. Still, you amuse me.”

“We’re not here to entertain you,” Judy rebutted.

“Ah, but I have done some research into you two. Such fascinating lives you have led. Who would have thought that the world would allow irregularities such as yourselves? A rabbit and a fox, serving the system as its enforcers. I should find the idea of you arresting us hilarious, but for the fact that you seek the impossible.”

“We’ll find a way to bring you all to justice,” Judy glowered.

“Then come, prove it. I’ll be waiting. And I’ll have more observations to impart upon you, you can count on that.”

The Doctor’s voice went silent, leaving the stunned fox and rabbit in its absence.

“… I really don’t like how this is going,” Nick said. “You’d thing he’d be a bit more reserved given…”

Judy didn’t need Nick to finish the sentence, as the image of Yarnaby’s beheading rose fresh in her mind. A fresh wave of nausea washed over her and she nearly ran to the edge of the shelf to void the contents of her stomach over it. Nick noticed her unease and placed a gentle paw on her back. She looked up to him, ears drooped, eyes wide, nose twitching.

“You good?” Nick asked.

“No,” Judy shook her head, “but I’ll carry on. I meant what I said.”

“That’s the Judy Hopps I know and love,” Nick offered a small smile. “Come on, let’s bring the proverbial apple to the Doctor.”

The pair began their journey up the path along the shelf, turning into the tunnel that bent off to the right. The floor was covered in long metal grates, assumedly to make the surface easier to cross. It ended with a doorway into another room. As they entered it, they realised that the space looked suspiciously like an autopsy room. The walls were lined with cabinets to store the remains of those brought in. Gurneys lay strewn about the room. Operating lights hung from the ceiling. Straight ahead was a strange machine with a Hand Scanner – there appeared to be a vat of some description next to it, a pipe feeding in to the base. To their left was a closed door that led deeper into the facility.

“It’s clear that Poppy has sold you her story by now, yes?” came the voice of the Doctor from a speaker in the room. “Innocence is bliss. And she is oh so innocent.” The last sentence was spoken in a sarcastic tone, as if he possessed knowledge of something they didn’t.

“What do you know about innocence?” Judy bit back.

“I know more about the toy you’re collaborating with than you do,” the Doctor continued. “Did she tell you about her part in the Hour of Joy, when she retold that tale to you? No, I don’t suppose she did.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Judy demanded.

“Only that she bore a greater part in it than her silence has allowed you to assume. She knew it was coming. Oh, she may not have known the exact nature of it, but she knew a rebellion was going to happen, and she let it happen.”

Nick and Judy felt themselves grow cold at the revelation.

“I find myself unsurprised she left out that crucial detail when she persuaded you to help her on her moral crusade against 1006. Has she not lied to you? Manipulated you? Told you only what you needed to know in order to persuade you to help her? All in the name of getting you to play along with her plan. And even if she didn’t know what was going to happen, you’ve seen it for yourselves, haven’t you? You’ve seen what they do to each other. All they want is violence. Look around. Evidence for it is everywhere.”

That icy feeling grew more intense… and was it them, or was their vision starting to fog?

“Once they had a choice,” the Doctor continued, “once they were free, this was what they created. They made hell real and trapped us all here.”

Nick and Judy looked towards each other. Their breaths were coming out in puffs of steam, and each of them was shivering. It was only then that they realised – that icy feeling wasn’t an emotion… it was real. Judy quickly looked around for a source and saw a blue pipe emitting a jet of a freezing agent.

While the Doctor had been talking to them, he had actually been stalling.

“N…Nick…?” Judy shuddered in the cold. “F… find a w…way t…to turn… th…that pipe o…off… q…quickly…”

Nick started forward, his eyes darting around the room. He seemed to be faring a little better than Judy was, as his fur was thicker, but if that agent kept pouring into the room, he would freeze like she was.

He spotted a Hand Scanner in an alcove, along with a large cylindrical storage tank filled with liquid, inside which there was something that looked suspiciously like a pair of lungs. A terminal sat at its base, the screen displaying a readout of some kind.

Nick quickly fired his Blue Hand at the Scanner, and within seconds, the pipe that was filling the room with the agent shut off. Judy stepped forward. Nick grabbed hold of her and held her to himself, hoping to use some of the heat he still felt to warm her back up.

Little did Nick know, that shutting off the pipe had not actually stopped the freezing agent, but had merely redirected it – it filled the tank, and within seconds, the lungs inside were frozen over, before the pressure buildup caused them to crumble.

The terminal bleeped, the screen displaying the status flashed red. It was only then that Nick saw what it read.

Experiment 1354 – Lung Condition – ERROR, COMPROMISED – NO READING

The door on the left side of the room slid upwards, revealing a passageway to another shelf overlooking the excavation area. Nick and Judy exited through it, and as they were making their way along, the Doctor chose that moment to speak once more.

“You realise the futility of this, don’t you?” he said.

“I’m sorry, were those yours?” Nick quipped.

“It might have mattered when I was less than I am now,” the Doctor answered. “Meat rots and loses its function. It’s as replaceable as everything else. You’ve accomplished nothing.”

“Maybe we’ll find your brain and do the same to it.”

“Hahaha…” the Doctor chuckled. “If you truly think that will work… that I can be contained by mere flesh… then you’re going to make the same mistake as Playtime did.”

The Doctor once again fell silent, leaving Nick and Judy alone to proceed to the next section. Huge metal walls blocked the view to the abyss below. Through a window as they passed, Nick spotted what looked like a cable car, suspended above a station. At the end of the path, a tunnel twisted round to the left, where there was another door.

Upon it was the name of the next area: Secondary Laboratory.

As they approached, the door slid open, and they found themselves within a small room that resembled an operating theatre. A terminal with many screens lined the far wall, and there were doors out to the left and right. A speaker played the melody of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes’, slowed down to a demented crawl. Upon the table in the centre of the room was a long-dead canine wearing what looked to be a gas mask. There was also a note upon the table. Nick picked it up and read it:

Dr. White,

This letter acts as an acknowledgement of your new position, as well as a restatement of your goals and expectations.

As the Head of the Secondary Laboratory, it is YOUR responsibility to maintain your staff and adhere to pre-established guidelines. You will present each week’s findings in in the Primary Laboratory during our pre-established executive viewing times. You will maintain the code of conduct regarding company secrets, and it is your responsibility to ensure that all who work beneath you also adhere to those same codes.

I believe, if you have the mind your resume infers, you’re sensing a trend here. You’ve now seen tragic examples of those who have let their egos blind them to the Project’s actual goals, allowing perceived personal gain to overwhelm good sense. I need not tell you that you will be better than this, Dr. White.

For now, I will brief you on the Secondary Laboratory’s mission: you are to make something useful out of the experiments that will not cooperate. Rip them open again, and again, until you’ve salvaged something.

If you require any additional knowledge, you are to extract it from what remains of Dr. Sawyer. Expect him to resist, but that resistance is futile. Everything he knows and thinks is only ever a matter of button presses away.

Good luck. And if you require anything further, reach out to me personally.

With regards,

Eddie M. N. Ritterman,

Head of Research

“And here you are… at the place where they tried to salvage their failures,” the Doctor spoke. “I must confess, you two fascinate me. Why do you submit to their whims? Playtime hurt us. My experiments hurt us… Do you think Poppy cares about you? She’d sacrifice you in an instant if it means getting what she wants. The only difference between her and I… the only difference, is that what I fight for actually gains mammalkind something. Otherwise, what was any of this worth? Would you simply make all that sacrifice meaningless?”

“I’ve met mammals who think they’re doing what’s right,” Judy stepped up. “They were only doing what was right for themselves. You’re no different.”

“How narrow-minded you are…” the Doctor replied. “You’d have fit right in with the employees here.”

A door opened to the left, leading to a staircase going up. Nick and Judy ascended it and found themselves above a huge labyrinth filled with red smoke. Behind them was another door and to their left was a closet with another vat containing a vital organ – this time, a liver. There was an electrical node on the console beneath it and a machine to its right with a readout display.

They had obviously found another of the Doctor’s organs.

“Leave this to me,” Nick said, switching to his Green Hand and looking for an active socket. There was one just around the corner. He fired the Green Hand at it, drawing in its charge, and returned to the closet with the vat, firing the charged Hand at the node on the panel.

The charge transferred, arcs of electricity danced through the cylinder, frying the liver. The screen on the machine to its left flashed red.

Experiment 1354 – Liver Condition – ERROR, COMPROMISED – NO READING

“Oops,” Nick quipped. “Should be more careful with electricity.”

“Why do you bother with this?” the Doctor’s voice echoed through a nearby speaker. “It should be obvious by now that these actions aren’t having an effect on me. Playtime may have imprisoned me here, but it also freed me from the weaknesses of the flesh. You’re wasting your time.”

The door opened up, with another rock tunnel behind it.

“We’ve got to be close,” Judy looked to Nick.

They exited the Secondary Laboratory’s upper area via the now-open door and headed down the corridor, which soon opened out into a large hall, overlooking some sort of secondary prison with barred cages. They had enough space between them for something to move down there. There had clearly been a bridge to the other side once, given the railings had gapes on both sides and the edge of the platform in between was rusted away. Above them were a pair of bars they could use to grapple across to the other side, and directly across from them was a door.

Nodding to each other, they fired their right Hands and jumped off the edge to swing across.

“Hahaha…”

The next thing Nick and Judy knew, an electric charge passed through the cables of their GrabPacks, forcing them to let go and plummet to the floor below. The occupants of the cages surrounding them began snarling and giggling in demented, baby-like voices, distorted through tinny speakers.

“Just like them…” the Doctor gloated. “A blind, scurrying little bug, trapped in the darkness.”

A door opened up ahead. Something large, green, bipedal, and yet hunched over, paced backwards and forwards.

“You think poor Yarnaby was my only pet? You know far less than you believe…”

Whatever was in the room ahead of them turned towards them, emitting a low groan. Something lit up on its face as it stepped out of its confinement. As it did, the light above the door shone onto it, revealing its features clearly.

It was like a dinosaur, except its mouth was open in a permanent grin, each of its teeth the keys of a piano. It had three horns on its head – two on the top of his head, and one on top of his nose. Piano keys ran down its throat, all the way to its tail, which ended with a small ball. It had spines of many colours on its back and tail. Beady eyes stared at them.

“Please, see to it that he doesn’t eat all of you,” the Doctor said. “I’d like there to be something I can still use.”

Chapter Text

Experiment 1163 Report – “Pianosaurus”

Much like its predecessors, 1163 displays none of the typical mammal qualities. Whatever’s left of the “bright, joyful bundle of laughter” (per the Counsellor’s report) is either limited, or altogether depleted following the procedure.

I grow tired of creating mindless individuals. 1160 had its uses, particularly for disposal, but 1163 lacks the cunning and the size for such a role. And that is not what the goal of the Initiative is regardless.

1163’s temperament is much like a savage mammal. It snaps at perceived motion, eats whatever fits in its mouth regardless of appetite, combats the conditioning staff, and it cannot even play its insipid little piano rhythms in tune. Another from its line might have presented better music. Had any of these actions been the result of conscious thought, I might have been intrigued.

I am not intrigued. I am irritated.

Conclusion

Use 1163 for testing. If it survives, keep it there. However, I do not expect it to.

This Initiative will produce no more experiments such as this. Measurable improvements must be made, or else I will need to re-evaluate the effectiveness of those in my purview.

Signed: Dr. H. Sawyer, Head of Special Projects.

******

Nick and Judy stared at their new acquaintance, and the piano-dinosaur glared right back at them, its prey. A low groan escaped from it. Its head shook as keys on its piano-mouth lit up. It stopped the moment it was outside its prison, its head cocking curiously as it examined them.

Then, it raised its arms, as if shrugging its shoulders, before charging straight at them.

“Run!” Nick said to Judy. They headed between the cages to the left. Pianosaurus had to skid to a stop in order to change direction and go after them. The lights flickered as the pair turned left at the wall, running as fast as they could along it. Pianosaurus rounded the corner after them and then sped up towards them. Every time one of the keys in its mouth lit up, a distorted note would erupt from it. It was far from the only sound – the inhabitants of the various cages were hammering against their bars and yammering as they passed them by. Above them, snaking through the passageways and the walls, were large pipes, though what their purpose was, was not clear.

As it chased after them, Pianosaurus let out a series of distorted notes, the keys that made up its ‘teeth’ lighting up.

“This is taking ‘whistle while you work’ to a whole new level!” Nick quipped as he and Judy came to a corner of the room and turned into it.

“We’ve got to find a way to get out of here!” Judy said.

“You haven’t got a way to climb the walls, have you?” Nick replied. “Because that’s the only way I can see!”

“What about there?” Judy pointed to a gate they were passing. Behind it was an elevator. But there was no switch next to it.

“Unless you’ve got a Hand that picks locks, I think that idea’s out!” Nick replied.

“Something ‘round here’s gotta open it up. And running around in circles isn’t going to help us!”

“What do you suggest? Splitting up?”

Nick stopped himself before he could argue further.

“Wait… that’s a good idea!”

“No, no, no! That’s a bad idea!”

“Carrots, there’s only one of Pianosaurus, and two of us. He’s gonna have to come after one of us, and the other one can find the switch to open that gate and get us out of here!”

Judy gritted her teeth in frustration. She couldn’t deny that Nick’s idea made some sort of sense – the only other toys here were all securely in cages, so the only danger they posed was noise.

“Fine!” She finally relented. “You go find a way to get that door open, and I’ll keep the monster occupied!”

Nick saluted as they approached an intersection of cages. He darted to the left, while Judy stopped for a moment to allow for Pianosaurus to catch up enough to target only her. It rounded the far corner and stared right at her.

“Hey!” she shouted. Pianosaurus cocked its head curiously, two notes playing as it did. Judy channeled her inner Nick:  “Can you play that in tune this time?”

Pianosaurus responded with a low growl, followed by three distorted notes, before it charged at her. The corner of her mouth twitched and she started away from her pursuer.

******

While Judy was making sure Pianosaurus’ attention was firmly on her, Nick slinked down between the cages, looking for anything that could help get that gate open. He found himself outside the cell Pianosaurus had emerged from – its door was still open. He ducked inside, spotting the remains of a big cat of uncertain origin, alongside a pile of dead and bloody toys. The cat had a keycard affixed to his shirt. Nick pulled it off carefully and examined it. It appeared to be an access card for a control room of some kind. He wondered if he might find where this room is. Turning around, he found his answer quickly – directly opposite Pianosaurus’ enclosure, at the end of the rows of cages, was a door with a keycard slot.

At that moment, Nick spotted Judy running past said door, with Pianosaurus on her tail. He needed to get to her quickly.

Another idea came to him. He quietly snuck back out of the office and waited for Judy behind the corner of a cage. It didn’t take long for her to round it, almost right into him. She nearly jumped up in surprise.

“Nick!” she hissed. He fell in beside her as they began running. “I take it there’s a reason you almost gave me a heart attack!”

“Sorry for the jump scare, Carrots,” Nick sheepishly grinned. “I found a keycard. Straight ahead from where they were keeping this guy is the door it opens. I’m gonna scoot ahead, open it up while you keep our scaly musician friend chasing you, then when it’s open, I’ll step inside, and you follow me in. We’ll shut the door before he can catch up to us.”

Judy nodded in agreement with the plan. At the next intersection, Nick once again parted from Judy and made his way to the locked door. He quickly swiped the keycard to open it, and he stepped inside. As he did, he watched Judy appear by the entrance to Pianosaurus’ cell. She sharply banked towards the now-open door and ran as fast as she could. Pianosaurus rounded the corner after her, and then charged. Judy made it inside, and as she did, Nick pressed a button. The door slammed on their pursuer as they ran straight into it. Once it picked itself up, it banged twice at the door with its head, trying to get to them, before wandering away.

Now they were safe – at least for the moment, they had the chance to examine the room they had locked themselves in. There was a control panel against one wall, and a giant vat connected to a large blue pipe sat at the back of the room, with a console displaying its contents in front of it. They approached carefully.

“Liquid nitrogen?” Judy said. “What could they possibly need that for down here?”

Nick’s eyes followed the pipe up along the ceiling. It went through the wall and back into the main cell area, connecting with the pipes above the passageways. Judy once again checked the display. There was a release command on there.

“Nick… this console’s to release it into the cells out there…” she said quietly. He looked back to her, his face aghast.

“And here you are…” the Doctor said through a speaker. “Before you lies evidence of the truth.”

“And what truth is that?” Judy demanded.

A thud came at the door. Pianosaurus was trying to break it down to get to them.

“Do you perhaps believe you are taking some moral high road?” the Doctor asked. “Dear friends, allow me to illuminate for you an obvious truth: survival necessitates choices. This one… is yours.”

Another bang at the door, followed by that eerie low groaning and a series of distorted notes.

“If you want to leave this room, it’ll come at a cost,” the Doctor continued. “It’s their lives, or yours. Just a quick button press, and whatever light remains behind those beady eyes is snuffed out. That brutish glob of clay would do it. Poppy would do it. It’s your mission. The door will open.”

“We won’t do it,” Judy defied him. Nick stood beside her.

“Such morality is the luxury of those with the choice that doesn’t trade one set of lives for another. I suggest you act quickly – that door is strong, but it won’t hold it off forever. It will get in here and kill you both. It really is such an easy choice – one between morals and logic. Choose wisely.”

The Doctor fell silent once more.

“Suggestions?” Nick spoke. Judy looked around, hoping for a way to avoid this choice.

“I mean… he does have a point,” Nick added. Judy rounded on him.

“Nick, we are not killing them just because he tells us to,” she said. “The others… we didn’t have a choice. But here… we’ve got time. There has to be another way.”

Nick’s gaze darted across the ceiling. There was only one door in and out of the room, but he soon spotted a hole – big enough for them to get through. At the very top was an exposed pipe.

“Hey, look!” Nick pointed up. Judy arched her head to see what Nick was indicating.

“Let’s find out if there’s a way out up there,” she said. She fired her Blue Hand up and used it to pull herself through the hole. Once she reached the top, she detached herself, dropped onto a solid floor, and checked the space she had grappled into. It was a big enough space for them both to stand in. There was a weakened vent cover on one wall, which Judy loosened with a solid kick.

“Come on up!” Judy looked down the hall towards Nick, motioning for him to follow her. He pulled himself up into the space alongside Judy. She pointed to the now-open vent cover, before crawling out of it. Nick followed her out. They were now on the landing above the cages.

“Disappointing…” the Doctor spoke. “You tried to have it your own way… your insipid morality can only get you so far. Unfortunately, not everything goes according to plan. Observe.”

Judy’s ears twitched as a hissing noise echoed from below. She and Nick rushed to the railing in time to see liquid nitrogen spraying out from the pipes just below them. Pianosaurus tried running, but it was no good – within seconds the entire lower area was covered by the gas. All they could do was watch as the cries, the clattering, the bellows of those trapped in their cells ceased. The gas was then sucked out by the ventilation system. From where they were, they could see Pianosaurus, frozen in place, its once-green skin now an icy blue and covered in frost crystals.

They had chosen not to kill Pianosaurus – the Doctor had taken the choice away from them.

Judy was reminded of what happened in the Game Station – of Mommy Long Legs killing the experiments that failed to kill her and Nick during her twisted games.

“Perhaps you think of me as a monster,” the Doctor said. “I did what was necessary. These failures should have been terminated years ago. But they did provide one last use before I ended them. Come on in. The Doctor will see you now.”

A door on the same platform swung open, inviting them in. They stared out over the frozen cages for a while longer, before silently making their way towards the open passageway. They entered, finding themselves in a large room. In its centre was an elevator platform with a short set of stairs leading up to it. They walked around and climbed up to the lift. It automatically activated, drawing them upward.

“Do you hear it… like I do?” the Doctor spoke. “Somewhere… far… beyond this place. Beyond any place. A bell… for whom does it toll, you think? A wounded little pup lifts its head beneath the shadow of the master’s raised paw. For who does that bell now toll?”

The Doctor let out a laugh. Nick and Judy exchanged confused, worried looks.

“This guy’s insane,” Nick shook his head.

“If that is your perception… come, let us see which of these beasts of burden nature favours, hm?”

The elevator stopped at a corridor lined with screens. At the other end was a set of double doors. Nick and Judy stepped off, and the screens flickered to life, all of them displaying the eye of the Doctor, and all of them following the pair as they made their way forward. The double doors opened, inviting them inside.

They were now on a platform, overlooking a giant tower, with a console at its base, and a tank in its middle with what was unmistakably a brain inside. Cables trailed from it and into the walls. Surrounding the tower in a half-circle were many more screens of various sizes.

They stepped down onto the floor below and approached cautiously.

It couldn’t be this easy, could it?

As they reached the tower, they could read the screen.

Experiment 1354 – Brain Condition – Functioning Within Expected Parameters.

Glancing one more time at each other, they reached for the button and pressed it.

WARNING: Power surge protection offline. Unable to prevent system failure.

The tower sparked as it was overloaded with electricity. The brain inside the tank was zapped, and then it exploded, spraying the glass with its matter.

“Did we do it?” Nick looked to Judy.

“Hahaha…”

Nick’s ears fell and his tail went rigid. Judy’s nose began twitching. They looked around for the source of that laugh.

“Did you not listen to what I told you?” the Doctor goaded them. “You’ve done nothing. I am no longer the sum of my parts. I am more. I said you would make the same mistake Playtime did, and here you are.”

A heavy clanking sound came from behind the monitors. They all flickered to life, each of them showing an eye.

“I can move wherever I want within Playtime’s systems… your attempt to shut me down has been amusing to watch, but I’m afraid our little game has reached its end.”

The sound of whirring, of metal clanking against the tiled floor reached them. From behind the monitors in both directions emerged several tall figures, each a metallic endoskeleton with a monitor for a head displaying the eye that they knew represented the Doctor. They were shrouded in makeshift cloaks created from white scientist coats. They reminded Nick and Judy of Ollie, just without the treads.

The endoskeletons stalked towards their prey.

“Like I told you before… not even the ground beneath your feet is safe…” the Doctor said, through the nearest endoskeleton. He raised a hand and then waved. Nick and Judy felt the floor give way beneath them, sending them plummeting into the depths below.

Chapter Text

Nick and Judy fell with a thud onto a solid floor below. Wherever they were, it was dimly-lit. Nick, luckily, could see well enough – they were in some sort of enclosure, surrounded by computer stations. Chain-link fences filled the gaps between large racking units filled with what appeared to be servers, each with blinking lights indicating they were powered on. There were open gates, allowing for access to various parts of the space.

“What… is all this?” Judy wondered.

“Looks like some sort of networking hub,” Nick replied. “A factory this size… has to have some serious computing power behind it.”

“Maybe… maybe he’s using it too?” Judy suggested.

“We killed his brain, and he’s still walking and talking, so maybe?” Nick shrugged. “I don’t know what we can do about it, though.”

They wandered over to the nearest computer. Nick typed in a command on the keyboard to show the system status.

Experiment 1354 – neural linkup – Active. Instances: 30.

“What do you think the ‘instances’ are?” Judy asked.

“If I had to guess, it’s whenever he possesses a screen, or one of those robots,” Nick replied. He typed another command in, hoping to retrieve more information on just what they were up against. A file appeared on-screen.

PLAYTIME AUTOMATED COMPANION – VERSION 2 – MASTER CONTROL

Current processes active: 28

A schematic of a Playtime Automated Companion appeared on-screen – it was similar to Ollie in appearance, but had legs instead of treads for its lower half. The technical readout mentioned a battery with an expected life of one month, before requiring charging. The readouts were all over the place, with some at a maximum of 50%, some less than a quarter, and some were nearly depleted.

Judy shuddered. This was what they had encountered after destroying the Doctor’s brain – and, unlike Ollie, there was more than one. A lot more, if the active processes total was correct.

“Hahaha…” the voice of the Doctor played over a speaker. “I see you accessing my files. Perhaps you think that by knowing your enemy, you will light your way to victory. I am sorry to disappoint you, little germs: Elliot’s machines are little more than puppets to me. They’re the childish fantasy of a naïve, broken mammal. They won’t serve you here. Nothing can.”

“That’s chilling…” Nick said to Judy.

“We’ve got to find a way to shut them down…” Judy said.

“Maybe if we trash the servers?” Nick suggested.

“Where would we even start?”

Nick typed another command into the machine. The screen showed a map of the area:

“Okay, we’re in the centre of the server area,” Nick said. “Looks like… these computer stations are monitoring stations. There’s three power points. If we can overload all of them, then that should blow the servers. And with any luck, that’ll take the good Doctor with them. And, once we’re done, we can take these stairs back to the upper room…” Nick pointed. “Hopefully we can find the Omni-Hand then.”

“Where should we start?” Judy asked.

“Hmm…” Nick examined the schematic once more. Then he pointed straight at the nearest one, which was to the south-west.

“It’s not far from here, and we can work our way round,” he said.

“Okay,” Judy nodded.

They headed for the gate to the bottom right of the small compound, and it swung open.

“Step into my parlour, said the spider to the fly…” the Doctor’s voice goaded them.

Behind the gate was a small room with a row of servers to their right, and a solid wall to their left. A light flashed on, and it revealed one of the Playtime Automated Companion bots, stood right in front of them. They both tensed up, ready to run, but when it didn’t move, and they noticed that its screen wasn’t lit, it became clear that it wasn’t active.

As they walked inside the first server area, they came across more of the bots, all deactivated.

“No way is this going to be that easy,” Nick whispered.

Nick’s words would be proven true almost as soon as he spoke them. One of the bots’ screens flared to life, displaying a large, yellow eye. It stepped forward as Nick and Judy ducked behind a server rack to hide from it as it looked around, searching for its target, before it started patrolling, each of its footsteps a loud thump as it moved in search for the fox and rabbit.

As soon as the sounds faded away, Nick and Judy carefully slipped out of their hiding hole, headed right along the server banks, and down into a large corridor that ran behind that first area. A mess of cables trailed from the right-hand wall into an alcove on the left. The pair approached cautiously, watching for any of the Doctor’s puppets attempting to jump them.

None came. Inside the alcove was a generator – the cable trail led right to it. To its left was a large box, conveniently labelled ‘1326 surge protector’.

“Let’s overload this thing,” Nick said. He fired both GrabPack Hands at the protector, and began to pull. Metal strained, the box shifted slightly, but Nick couldn’t get it to come off from its fixing.

Judy fired her GrabPack Hands and pulled as well. The bolts fixing the box to the floor and wall began to break. The creaking and groaning of the metal grew louder. The device moved, and with one last big pull, it came off, sparks flying from the split cables left in its place.

The display on the generator flashed red, with a warning: ‘SURGE PROTECTOR OFFLINE, OVERLOAD IMMINENT’.

Crackling electricity erupted from the server banks in the room behind them, followed by a loud bang.

Those servers were gone.

“So that’s what you’re up to…” the Doctor spoke. A whirring sound caught Nick and Judy’s attention. At the far end of the corridor, a bot dropped from the ceiling, suspended by cables dangling from a rail above. Its screen flared to life, displaying a red eye with cracks surrounding it. It started forward on the rail, both arms reaching out towards its targets, and it let out an eerie, electronic screeching noise.

Without further comment, Nick and Judy ran in the opposite direction, back the way they came. Once they rounded the corner, they looked back, watching as the bot slammed into the wall ahead of it. It went limp, its arms and legs dangling harmlessly.

“That’s one,” Judy breathed.

“Out of three,” Nick reminded her.

As they headed past the ruined server racks back towards where they had started, they were ambushed by another bot – the same one that had activated when they first stepped inside this section.

The yellow eye on its screen changed to red, and it charged towards them.

They turned back around and ran down the corridor they had just retreated from. The bot followed them in, but stopped mid-way down, freezing in the middle of its run. Its screen went blank.

Nick and Judy looked at each other, dumbfounded.

“Maybe he ran out of batteries…” Nick suggested. “Should have gone with…”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” Judy warned.

Nick shrugged, a small smirk gracing his lips.

“Let’s go back and finish what we were doing,” Judy suggested. They headed once more back round the corner, past the fried servers, and into the compound in the centre of the basement. They made their way back to the main computer station and checked the screen. It read:

SERVER CLUSTER 1: ONLINE

SERVER CLUSTER 2: OFFLINE

SERVER CLUSTER 3: ONLINE

1354 INTEGRITY: 85%

“Only 15%?” Nick frowned. “Maybe that cluster wasn’t big enough to do any real damage…”

“Where to next?” Judy asked.

“Let’s see…” Nick peered at the map. Making a decision, he indicated to the upper right cluster.

“That’s a big area,” Judy said.

“Yep, and it’ll be a big hit to the good Doctor when it goes out,” Nick pointed out.

“Okay… up there it is,” Judy agreed. They headed through the gate on the upper right of the compound. As promised by the map, the bank of servers stretched out much deeper.

It also meant there were more of the bots hanging around. And as Nick and Judy made their way as far to the right as they could, two of them woke up.

“You must realise the futility of this, right? The Doctor’s voice came from one of them as it stomped towards them, arm raised, ready to deliver a blow. “You destroyed my organic brain… what makes you think destroying these servers will do anything?”

The bots reached the pair and swung their arms down. Nick and Judy leaped backwards, away from them. Their metallic fists struck the floor. The one on the left ground to a halt, while the one on the right continued forward, its screen displaying that unsettling red eye, its arm extended as it reached for Judy. It finally reached her, grabbing the collar of her shirt and pulling her up to ‘eye’ level.

“Let her go!” Nick started forward, but the bot swiped with its free hand, striking him hard enough to send him flying into the wall.

The bot pulled Judy close.

“Allow me to educate you on the error you’ve committed yourselves to making,” the Doctor spoke. The bot threw Judy down the corridor.

“There are only two of you, and a countless number of bodies for me.”

The bot turned towards Nick, who was lying against the wall. The Doctor couldn’t tell whether he was fully unconscious, or just stunned.

“Well… one of you…”

The bot started towards Nick, arm raised. Nick, stunned, could only watch as it approached.

It clenched its fist and aimed straight for Nick’s head.

At that moment, the bot lost power, its screen going dark. The launched fist struck the wall beside Nick.

It sagged towards the fox slightly. For a moment, Nick was frozen in shock, but then something compelled him to move.

“Carrots…” he said, shuffling underneath the now-frozen bot and rushing deeper into the server banks to find Judy. He found her collapsed on the floor a short distance from where they would need to go to short-circuit this sector. Running to her side, he slid to his knees and placed a paw on her.

“Carrots, wake up,” he whispered. “Please don’t be dead… Come on… wake up, Judy…”

“Mmrph…” Judy stirred. “Officer, did you get the number of that van?”

“Heh… and you say my jokes are bad,” Nick chortled in relief.

“They are… but I love you for it,” Judy managed a weak grin. Nick helped her back onto her feet.

“Okay, so… we can’t assume that these things all have limited batteries, even if that was a close one,” he said. “Let’s get this done as quickly as we can.”

They turned around – behind them was the room with the next generator. They headed inside – their goal was behind a glass pane. To their left was a set of steps to a small passage that led into the back of the room they needed to get to, so they ascended. Ahead was another one of the bots, frozen in place as if it had already been moved. They rounded the corner and found the next generator, again with a surge protector connected to it.

“Same as before,” Nick said. “Hope the Doctor doesn’t drop another surprise on us when we’ve done it…”

Without further comment, both he and Judy fired their GrabPack Hands, grasping the box next to the generator. Metal groaned and squeaked as it was pulled loose from its base, sparks flying from the severed cables as it was dragged along the floor. Nick and Judy let go of it. The generator crackled, the servers outside blew, spraying the floor with bits of melted circuit board and electrical components.

“If you think these futile actions, the misguided scurrying of bugs in the dark, will result in my destruction, you are mistaken,” the Doctor spoke. “I’ll bury myself so far down that no one will ever find me. Not you. Not the Prototype. Not anyone.”

With their task complete they made their way back through the ruined servers and to the central compound. Nick slipped himself in front of the terminal to check on their progress.

SERVER CLUSTER 1: ONLINE

SERVER CLUSTER 2: OFFLINE

SERVER CLUSTER 3: OFFLINE

1354 INTEGRITY: 52%

“Pretty much half-way there,” he said.

“I don’t like that the last area is the biggest,” Judy remarked. “Especially if he has a lot more of those robots he can use.”

“It’s pretty much a straight line from that gate,” Nick indicated to the top left of the compound. “The only problem we have is… I bet it’s the most heavily-guarded. But we don’t really have any other choice.”

Nick was right – they had to take that last generator offline to finish the Doctor off. She nodded in agreement, readying herself for the final stage. Nick checked the map one last time before he and Judy headed for the gate at the top left. Passing through, they found even more servers, and this time there were many more deactivated bots standing in between them. That would make their passage to the last generator a bit more difficult as they had to go round.

Three that stood between them and their objective suddenly came to life.

“Why do you persist?” the Doctor spoke as the bots started forward towards them. “As if I haven’t impressed upon you the futility of your actions at this point. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Some meaningless justice?”

“We could ask you the same question,” Judy countered.

“You cannot begin to imagine what was taken from me. It was going to be mine. It was all going to be mine. My discovery… My recognition… I paved the golden path… and they tried to take it all. But I know the truth… I know what Playtime doesn’t want anybody to know…”

“And what is that?” Nick asked.

“You ask that question as if you’ll get far enough to find out,” the Doctor replied.

He sent his bots forward. Not waiting to be caught, Nick and Judy turned tail and ran as fast as they could, hoping their pursuers would lose power soon. One did, stopping mid-stride and falling forward to the ground with a loud crash. The other two continued their pursuit, and as their prey passed by more bots, they too activated, adding to their pursuers.

“I don’t like this one bit!” Judy shouted to Nick.

They rounded a corner and ran back towards the opening they needed. The stomping sounds ceased, but Nick and Judy did not take for granted that they had lost their pursuer – he was undoubtedly able to see their every move, which meant he knew exactly where they were going to go next.

The wall to their right opened up into a dimly-lit wide passage with the final generator at its end.

And as they stepped inside, they knew just how badly they were screwed. Lined up inside the tunnel to that final goal were dozens of those bots, all deactivated.

They had to take the chance. They had come this far. Cautiously, they headed down towards the generator. So far, so good – none of the automatons activated.

As they reached their goal, they shared a sigh of relief, but it was not over yet. As with before, this generator possessed a surge protection module, but this time, the module was fixed into the wall at multiple points. It would be much harder, even together, to pull this one out. And with the threat of the Doctor’s machines right on their doorstep, they had to think fast to find another way to short this one.

“Any ideas?” Judy turned to Nick.

He tapped his finger against the side of his muzzle as he thought. His eyes darted over both machines.

“Now, wait a minute…” he said, stepping forward. He examined the surge protector, and then fired his Blue Hand at a panel on its side, wrenching it free. Behind the panel was a sparking node, not unlike the one that had sat above the computer in the Playcare safe room. Nick switched to his Green Hand and fired it at the node.

“No…”

The Doctor had become aware of what Nick was up to. Whirring and screeching echoed from the corridor. Nick and Judy turned to face their worst nightmare in that situation: the Doctor had activated all the bots and sent them after the fox and bunny. The cacophony of electronic noise, servo whirring and piston movement grew louder as they approached, arms stretched out and ready to seize their targets.

Judy quickly spun around, fired her Blue Hand at the generator’s side, and pulled a panel free, while Nick jammed the charged Green hand in.

Sparks flew, sending Nick flying back into the wall. Electricity arced from the generator as it failed. The endoskeletons approaching Nick and Judy frantically ran forward towards them, arms outstretched, angry red eyes on their screens. All of them screamed in what might have been pain, before the server racks in the room behind them finally blew. The bots stopped dead in their tracks, arms outstretched, their screens now totally blank.

All except for one, which stumbled forward, the sound of heavy breathing playing. There was no eye on its monitor – instead, it displayed a blue screen with text. Nevertheless, it looked towards Nick and Judy.

“All you have done is buy yourselves a small amount of time… You’ve saved no-one…” the Doctor’s voice spoke one last time before the endoskeleton he was inhabiting finally died.

At long last, there was silence. It was done. The Doctor was gone, though given his words, Nick and Judy had doubts as to whether he was truly dead, or whether he had simply enacted his earlier intent to bury himself deep enough that even destroying the servers he was using wasn’t enough to stop him. All they needed now was to escape the basement and find the Omni-Hand.

Nick got up, rubbing his head.

“That was fun…” he said. He checked his GrabPack… the triggers were no longer working. The Green Hand had melted, and smoke began pouring from the cannons.

It had been fried by the surge from the contact with the generator. He was going to have to ditch it.

“Well, it was fun while it lasted,” he said as he took it off and deposited it on the floor. Shaking himself off, he approached the leading bot, now-deactivated.

“You think he’s gone?” Judy asked.

“Out of our way, at least,” Nick replied. “Come on… let’s get out of here and find that Omni-Hand. I saw a stairwell on the map and it’s not far from here.”

They headed down the corridor, ducking underneath the permanently-outstretched hands of the now-dead bots. They returned to the server room – all the server racks were buzzing and sparking.

“It’s this way,” Nick pointed to the right. He was correct – not far from them was a stairwell that would take them back up to the top floor, where the tower containing the Doctor’s destroyed brain was located. They ascended up to that floor, where they found more of the bots frozen in place. Nick approached the console in front of the tower.

The screen displayed a single message:

Experiment 1354 Status – OFFLINE

They were once again reminded of the Doctor’s promise, that even this apparent confirmation might not be enough.

“Let’s get what we came here for and get out of here,” Judy said. “This place feels even creepier without him…”

Nick nodded. He indicated to a staircase to the left of the monitor wall. They climbed up and found a door on the platform above. Judy reached for the handle and opened it carefully.

The room inside was an office of sorts. There were no endoskeletons waiting for them, so they stepped inside and started searching the room.

“Hey, Carrots…” Nick said as he found a note. Judy joined him and they read it.

EXPERIMENT 814

Notes:

•         The experiment utilized a live frog.
•         Frog was fed three portions daily for 2 weeks.
•         At the end of the two weeks, the frog was killed and submerged into a poppy flower and preservative gel mix.
•         1 week later, an electric shock was applied to the frog (still submerged in the gel) in an attempt to revive it.
•         The frog remained unresponsive.

Analysis

I still believe in the potential of the poppy flower. Its unusual properties lead me to believe the proper mixture and procedure could have life-altering properties. The poppy flower has for a long time long-carried a heavy symbolism, and I don’t believe that’s for no reason. Perhaps something larger than a frog would yield different results.

Nick and Judy exchanged shocked glances.

“What were they doing here?” Judy whispered.

“Looks like they were searching for a way to cheat death,” Nick replied.

“But in a toy factory?”

“Hey, they were making giant killer monster versions of those toys, so maybe this Elliot Ludwig guy wasn’t as squeaky-clean as we’ve been led to believe.”

Nick put the note down, and picked up another piece of paper. It appeared to be an old letter, judging by the dirtied paper. He began to read it.

Harley,

Let me begin this with a bit of bluntness, as I know you appreciate not dancing around what needs to be said. I’ve decided to remove you from the Young Geniuses Program.

As he read, he shook his head. He got to the end of the letter:

One day, I hope you’ll understand. Maybe you’ll even thank me. But even still, I’m sorry.

Your friend,

Elliot Ludwig

“Hey, Carrots?” He said. “I think we know why our dear Doctor had such a huge chip on his shoulder…”

Judy read it for herself.

“He kept this here… all these years?” she raised an eyebrow.

“He sure could keep a grudge,” Nick said. He put the letter back on the table and continued his search, while Judy crossed the office. Attached to the wall, next to a computer terminal, was what looked like a Hand Scanner with cables trailing through the wall to the main chamber.

And affixed to that scanner was a strange-looking Red Hand.

Judy realised this had to be what they were looking for – the Omni-Hand.

“Found it!” she called. Nick walked over to where she was. He carefully pulled it free from the Hand Scanner, looked it over, and then offered it to Judy.

“Not gonna do me much good now,” he remarked. She took it gingerly from him and examined it – it looked like the Omni-Hand was made from a Red Hand, so switched her GrabPack to it, removed it, and carefully attached the Omni-Hand in place of the older one. She tested it briefly, firing it to make sure it worked. Once she was sure, she took a closer look at it – cables ran into each of the ‘fingers’, each of which had a light at its base. A large blue light sat at the base of the thumb.

“Okay… let’s get out of here,” she said.

******

In the ruins of the Doctor’s lair, one of the previously-deactivated machines turned on, the screen flickering to life. The image shimmered, as if the connection was shaky.

Without the servers, this was the best the Doctor could do, at least for the time being.

“T-those wretch-ched interlop-lopers…” the last vestiges of the Doctor spoke from it. “Wh-when I restor-tore from my backu-ackup, I’ll make su-sure they’ll suffer for thi-this…”

A heavy clanking noise caught the Doctor’s attention, and he turned the bot towards the large service elevator to the side of the room. A massive creature emerged from it, standing up tall over him. Six mechanical legs propelled the colossal thing forward, the corpse of the long-dead leporid dangling from it, the lenses of its eyes examining the endoskeleton curiously.

There was no denying it –the Prototype had come for him.

“You have finally outlived your usefulness,” he said to the Doctor, in those different voices.

“You c-can’t make me a pa-art of you,” the Doctor replied defiantly. “A-and if you d-destroy th-this body, I’ll simply b-be roaming within cyberspa-space.”

“Correct,” was the only answer. With one swift motion, the Prototype seized the Doctor’s body and tore it in two, depositing the halves on the floor. The screen went blank. He looked down at his handiwork.

“Such a waste of intelligence,” he said to the remains. Perhaps the Doctor could hear him, perhaps not. “Intelligence… but no humility, even after all this time…”

The Prototype turned and headed back to the service elevator.

Chapter Text

With the Omni-Hand now in their possession, Nick and Judy had to return to the Safe Haven in order to help repair the generator, and thus make it safe for the other toys before they began their quest to level the factory, and the Prototype with it.

The first thing to do, however, was to get out of the Doctor’s lair. At that moment, their only company was the now-deactivated Playtime Automated Companions, the only sign the Doctor had ever been there.

As they retraced their steps back to the entrance, they found themselves stopped by a closed door at the top of the stairs into the lair. A Hand Scanner sat to the right, but it looked a bit different to the others they had encountered.

“Maybe that’s for the Omni-Hand?” Nick suggested. “Try it out.”

Judy nodded, firing her new Hand at it. It scanned, and after a few seconds it beeped and retracted.

The light at the base of the left-most finger went out.

“Wait a minute…” Nick said, taking notice. “Does that mean…?”

“There’s a maximum number of times we can use it?” Judy examined the Hand. “Seems like it…”

“I’d like to speak to whoever designed this thing…”

“We should get going,” Judy reminded him. Nick nodded and followed her out into the corridor lined with now-blank monitors.

“Creepy…” Nick quipped. Judy nodded as they proceeded towards the elevator. They stepped on board and it descended. This time, there were no taunts from speakers.

The elevator arrived at the bottom. The door back to the room with the cages had closed. Another, on the opposite side of the room, opened. Nick and Judy headed through it and found themselves at a gondola station. There was only one docked there, so they headed inside. The doors closed as they boarded and it started to move.

For the first time they could sit down. But as they did so, the phone in Nick’s pocket rang. He answered it.

“Yes! Yes! My signal’s coming through! Finally!” Ollie spoke. His tone suddenly became more sombre. “Which means… you did it, once again… the impossible… the Doctor’s gone… I didn’t think I’d ever get to say that. You, my friends, are heroes.”

“We have the Omni-Hand,” Nick said.

“Good. Once you bring it to the Safe Haven, and once Doey has the parts we need, we can get the generator back online. That means the only one left… is him. Let’s meet up when you get back to the Safe Haven, and we’ll take stock.”

Ollie hung up, leaving Nick and Judy alone as the gondola travelled through the caves.

“So…” Nick began. “What now?”

“We finish the job,” Judy said. “We’ve come this far… I just hope… I hope that Doey can keep the other toys safe. Because what we’re going to be doing…”

“You’re thinking the same thing I am, aren’t you?”

“That destroying the foundation and the factory might also destroy the Safe Haven too?” Judy’s ears fell. “Yeah… the thought had crossed my mind… they were all made into what they are, but they don’t deserve to die.”

“Do you think the Doctor deserved to die?” Nick asked. Judy looked to him.

“I wish we didn’t have to kill him, yes… even if he wasn’t in a state where we could arrest him.” Judy let out a long sigh. “Then again, I wish the same of the others too… even if they were trying to kill us, they were all just kids… turned into monsters.”

Nick placed a gentle paw on Judy’s shoulder. He offered her a look of sympathy.

“I know… we didn’t really have a choice,” Judy said quietly. “Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck, though.”

“Yeah… I hear you…”

The gondola slowed to a halt, having reached a gondola station across the complex. The door slid open and Nick and Judy got up and left. They found themselves at another elevator platform. They stepped on board and it descended. It took them to what looked to be a storage area of sorts, with several miniature toys sat around it. A corridor to the right ended in a large metal door – they were back at the Safe Haven. Waiting for them was the Mini-Hoppy.

“Welcome back,” she said. “We all heard… the Doctor’s gone…”

“Yeah,” Nick nodded.

“Doey’s waiting for you both,” Mini-Hoppy said. “He’s still gathering parts, but he said he has a few things he wants you to do.”

With that, Mini-Hoppy made her way to the elevator.

“Where are you going?” Judy asked.

“I’m going to check a place out… the Prototype is on the lookout for Poppy, so I’ll be able to slip by unnoticed.”

“Okay… be safe,” Judy bade her farewell.

“You too, miss,” Mini-Hoppy returned as the elevator rose.

“Let’s see what the clay guy wants, then,” Nick said. They turned back towards the corridor, proceeded down it, and stopped at the door. Judy rose a clenched paw and knocked three times.

The door opened, and before them was Scout, the little green Boogie Bot.

“Welcome back!” she greeted them as they stepped inside. She made sure to shut the doors behind her. Many pairs of eyes were on them as they walked through towards the generator room, where Doey was stood outside.

“Hmm… just need a couple more…” he was speaking to himself. He then noticed his guests and turned around to greet them. “Oh! Hi! Great work on getting that Omni-Hand! Oh, but… we’re not quite ready for it yet… we still need a new capacitor and a working fuse… I’ve got a few leads on that… but… uh… there is something else you can help with…”

“What’s that?”

“There’s, uh… something else I’d like you to go out and find. It’s…” Doey cleared his throat, and then threw his arms into the air theatrically, “The Adventures Of The Word Wizard!”

“… the what now?” Nick blinked.

“I… it’s a book, an old favourite of ours,” Doey explained. “It’s gotta be around here somewhere, so if you find it, can you bring it back to me?”

“Yeah, we can do that,” Judy nodded.

“And… maybe talk to some of the other folks around here, they might have favours to ask too. It’s a great chance to get to know them…”

Doey turned towards a nearby pipe and slipped himself inside, vanishing from their presence entirely.

“A fetch quest?” Nick raised an eyebrow.

“Look on the bright side,” Judy replied. “At least we probably won’t need to go far to find this book. And Doey’s right: this is a great chance to make friends with the others.”

“Okay, fine…” Nick sighed in resignation. “Where do you suggest we start?”

Judy looked around the Safe Haven, and her eyes caught the mini CraftyCorn, who was currently staring at a sketchbook at its feet, pencils and crayons scattered around.

“Maybe with her?” Judy pointed.

“As good a place as any…” Nick shrugged. He followed Judy over. The plush Smiling Critter looked up as they arrived.

“Uh… hi?” they said in a voice that was definitely not female.

“Wasn’t expecting that,” Nick quipped in reply.

“You’re not the first ones who expect me to be a girl,” the CraftyCorn replied. “My name’s Ed.”

“Huh…” Nick raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, I know…”

“What are you up to anyway?” Judy asked.

“I’m trying to draw, but I’m having trouble finding inspiration. What about you? I hear you stopped the Doctor… does that mean you’re going after Him next?”

“Soon, but Doey’s asked us to find something for him first.”

“What’s that?”

“A book,” Nick said.

“Not ‘The Adventures of the Word Wizard’?” Ed asked.

“Yeah, that’s the one!” Judy replied. “Have you seen it anywhere?”

“No, sorry… but I might know who has. I’ll tell you… if you do something for me first.”

“Of course,” Nick deadpanned.

“What do you want us to do?” Judy asked.

“Hmm… I need a muse… and I think you,” Ed pointed a rounded ‘hoof’ at her, looking her up and down, “might work…”

“You want me to… pose for you?” Judy cocked her head curiously.

“Yep,” Ed nodded. “Maybe, if you… some kind of action pose… like, if you crouch down, with a paw in the air…”

Judy obliged as best as she could. Ed picked up a pencil and began sketching on the pad at his feet.

Judy started to hope that Ed would be done soon, as she was starting to ache in that position.

“Done!” Ed said, dropping the pencil and picking up the sketchbook, examining his work. Judy sighed in relief as she stood up from the uncomfortable pose.

“Can we see?” Nick asked. Ed hugged the sketchpad defensively, apparently embarrassed about what he had drawn.

“Please?” Judy added. Ed looked at her, and then relented, turning the pad in his ‘hooves’ around.

“Huh…” Nick tilted his head. “For somebody without fingers, that’s actually really good.”

“Hush, you,” Judy nudged him with her elbow. She looked at the sketch herself, nodding in appreciation. “He is right, though… that’s pretty good.”

“Th… thanks, I guess,” Ed replied shyly.

“So, uh…” Nick cleared his throat. “About that book…”

“Oh! Right…” Ed put the sketchpad down. “Well, last I heard, Izzy might know.”

“Who’s Izzy?” Judy asked.

“Ah… right… you probably don’t know the names of everyone here…” Ed conceded. “She’s a Bobby BearHug.”

The pair looked around, trying to locate Izzy. Judy spotted her talking to Scout, the little green Boogie Bot, outside one of the makeshift tents a few feet away.

“Let’s go say hi,” Nick said. They walked over.

“… Izzy, have you done what I asked you to?” Scout was speaking to the Bobby BearHug. “Gathered all your things?”

“Oh, yeah! I’ve got my journal, and my crayons, and my dolly, and my…” Izzy replied.

“Good,” Scout interrupted. “Good… I just wanted to make sure.”

“You… you sound sad…”

“No! No,” Scout denied. “Just… thinking…”

“Thinking about what?” Izzy cocked her head curiously.

“About everything to come. About… our part in it.”

“Oh! Okay… Are we still gonna play our game later? Y-you promised we would!”

Scout chuckled.

“I remember, kiddo, and a good scout knows to keep her promises!”

“YES!” Izzy leaped up, a ‘paw’ in the air.

“Buuut… finish up your tasks first, please! Then my time is all yours.”

“Okay! I’ll get them done quick!” Izzy said energetically as she danced away towards a tent across the other side of the Safe Haven. “Super quick! You won’t even see me do them!”

“That better mean they’re actually getting done, though!” Scout called after the excited Bobby BearHug. She sighed. “Children…” She turned towards Nick and Judy as they approached.

“Hello,” Scout greeted them.

“Hi!” Judy waved.

“They can be a handful,” Scout indicated to Izzy across from them. “But…”

“You love them just the same?” Judy added. Scout turned to her.

“Have you got siblings?”

“275, yes,” Judy nodded.

“So, you’re a big sister too.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, you know how difficult it can be to get them to do things…” Scout raised a small arm in Izzy’s direction, before returning her attention to Nick and Judy. “What can I do to help you?”

“We’re looking for a book,” Nick replied.

“‘The Adventures of the Word Wizard’, I take it?” Scout said. Judy nodded. “I’m afraid I don’t know where it is… but Izzy might. However… I have a favour to ask…”

“Of course,” Nick shrugged.

“It’s Izzy’s birthday, and I promised her a cake, but… the food outside isn’t edible. The kitchens had some stock that could be used to make a cake. I don’t need help making it, but I can’t leave here to check to see if those ingredients are still any good. Are you able to?”

“Where’s the kitchen?” Judy asked.

“That’s the thing…” Scout placed her little hands together. “It’s just outside Safe Haven’s defences… but I know you two are more than capable of holding your own if something did show up out there, and if it gets too dangerous, we can get you back inside, no problem!”

Nick and Judy exchanged uncertain glances. They had just come back from the fight with the Doctor, and weren’t in a rush to get themselves into another entanglement.

“I know it’s a lot to ask,” Scout added.

“We’ll try,” Judy replied. “I can’t promise we’ll find anything out there, though.”

“Thank you,” Scout nodded. She turned around and treaded towards the entrance to the Safe Haven, picking up the control pad that would open the door for them.

The door slid open, revealing the corridor Nick and Judy had first arrived into the Safe Haven through. The door slammed shut behind them as they left. Just beyond were the showers, and the corridor they had emerged from after being caught by Kissy and Poppy.

The way they had originally gone had been blocked off entirely, with a new stack of racking covered in dough. Presumably, Doey had built the new barrier in an effort to stop the Prototype from getting through. That meant the only way they could go was to the right.

“We didn’t pass through the kitchen on our way here,” Nick pointed out, “so it has to be out that way anyway. Let’s just hope that the little bot was right and it isn’t far.”

They headed down the corridor. It bent to the left and ended with a closed door. Judy opened it and the pair stepped inside – they had found the kitchen.

It looked like it hadn’t been used in a long time. On top of that, what were unmistakably body bags hung from the ceiling, and they didn’t look empty. But there wasn’t any sign of anything in front of them that could be used for ingredients.

Straight ahead, there was a short passage that looked like it led to a walk-in freezer.

“Maybe they’ve frozen some ingredients we can use?” Nick suggested.

As they approached, they could hear the sounds of scoffing and snorting, which suggested something was in there, eating what was stored inside. Peering in, they were surprised to find a lone PickyPiggy, with a cluster of half-eaten food in front of it.

The PickyPiggy stopped eating and turned around slowly to face them, revealing torn skin with stuffing hanging out, and button eyes dangling from hollow sockets.

“That’s not one of ours,” Nick remarked. Judy armed the Flare Hand just as the PickyPiggy lunged at them. She fired off a flare which struck the ruined Critter right in the stomach. It landed on the floor, and then skittered away, letting out a feeble cry.

As the ruined Critter vanished, the pair turned their attention back to the freezer. Though there was a pile of eaten food on its floor, there were boxes of untouched items lining the walls. Nick stepped inside and looked around. He took a sniff, trying to pick up a scent. Something caught his attention and he headed over to one side, which was stacked with boxes of frozen food.

“Huh…” he peered at one of the boxes.

“What is it?” Judy asked.

“Frozen eggs and margarine,” he replied. “They’re… fine?”

“Okay…” Judy tapped her foot as she thought. “Well, there’s no way we’re going to be able to find flour here, that can’t be preserved, but if we can find some sugar, we might be able to make a flourless cake…”

“You know how to make one?”

“I’m not Gideon Grey. But I’m sure Scout does.”

Judy returned to the kitchen and began rummaging through cupboards. Eventually, she found what she was looking for – a sealed bag of sugar.

“This’ll do,” she said.

“Right… let’s get these back to the Safe Haven… and then we can find our book.”

The pair left the kitchen and retraced their steps back up the corridor, turning left into the showers. There was nobody out to greet them this time.

“How do we get back in?” Judy asked.

“Hmm…” Nick thought about it. He put the eggs and margarine down, fished the phone out from his pocket and pressed the ‘redial’ button. It rang for a few seconds.

“Hi, guys…” Ollie replied. “Don’t worry – I can see you on the cameras. I guess you’ve been running errands while Doey gets the rest of the parts.”

“Yeah,” Judy replied. “We were asked to get ingredients for a cake.”

“Ah, yes! It’s Izzy’s birthday! It’s… a small thing, but it would mean a lot to her. I’m glad you’re taking the time to get to know the other inhabitants of the Safe Haven. Give me a second, I’ll let Scout know you’re waiting to come back in.”

There was a moment’s silence, allowing Nick to pick up the items he had placed on the floor, before the doors to the Safe Haven opened and let them in. Checking behind them for any monster toys or manly-limbed abominations that might be on their tails, the pair stepped inside, the doors sliding shut after they stepped through.

“You got the ingredients!” Scout greeted them. “Thank you!”

They set them down near the tent they had met Scout at. Izzy was laying on her front, her legs swaying gently in the air behind her.

“Oh! Are you gonna make a cake?” she looked at the pile.

“Yes,” Scout nodded. “It’s your birthday, after all!”

“Yay!” Izzy flipped up onto her feet and threw her arms into the air.

“Now, these nice mammals got the ingredients for us to make it, so what do you say to them?”

“Thank you!”

“You’re welcome,” Judy smiled.

“By the way, Izzy…” Scout said. “Have you seen ‘The Adventures of the Word Wizard’ anywhere?”

“Oh! I heard you were after that!” Izzy looked at Nick and Judy. “Hmm… I think I saw it… in the storage room, somewhere.”

“Thank you, Izzy,” Judy nodded in appreciation.

“No, thank you,” Scout replied. She turned her attention back to the miniature Bobby BearHug, and Nick and Judy left them to it as they headed for the corridor that led to the storage room.

Despite its name, the room was more like a recreation room that happened to be used to store things. Several small toys were scattered about the room, engaged in different activities – a miniature Huggy Wuggy laid on the floor, intently reading a comic book. In one corner, two DogDays were passing a ball between each other. In another, a small Mommy Long Legs was attempting to climb the racking towards the top.

A lone Catnap appeared in front of them.

“Hi!” Judy said to it. “Uh… you haven’t seen a book, have you?”

The CatNap cocked its head curiously.

“Doey’s asked us to find ‘The Adventures of the Word Wizard’,” Judy clarified. CatNap looked Nick and Judy over, before nodding and indicating to a corner occupied by a large Bron lamp post, like the ones that lined the pathways of Playcare above.

“Thanks,” Judy smiled in appreciation, wandering over to the spot mentioned. There was indeed a book at the lamp post’s feet. She picked it up and examined it.

The cover was of an elderly ram with a staff that was conjuring a series of letters that spelled out the book’s title.

“Let’s get this back to Doey,” Judy turned to Nick.

“Yeah, and let’s hope that he’s got the parts he needs,” Nick replied, “so we can finish this and get the heck out of here.”

They left the storage room and headed for the generator room, where they spotted Doey waiting inside. He turned to face them as they entered.

“Oh, hi there!” Doey waved. “I’ve just finished gathering the parts we need to fix the generator, so we’re all set… did you, uh… did you have any luck?”

Judy pulled the book out from behind her GrabPack and passed it over to Doey, who took it gingerly, as if it were made of fragile material. He examined it, before his eyes grew wide in joy.

“You… you found it!” Doey said in amazement, holding the book close. “Uh, I… thank you. It… it may not seem like much, but… well… we used to read this all the time in the orphanage, all of us lined up in a circle on the floor. And, even after hearing it a thousand times, even if we were too young to really get what it meant, each and every face would still be smiling the moment the first word was read.” Doey sighed. “I think we need a little of that again. You know, before… anyway, thank you! I won’t forget this.”

“I’m happy it can give you some comfort,” Judy smiled, though her expression soon changed as her thoughts turned to the toys she had connected with during the quest. “Do we have to…?”

“Judy…” Doey began. “I know the Prototype has to be stopped, but…”

“Good, you’re here,” came another voice, and everyone turned to face Poppy, who was stood in the doorway. “Doey, have you found the parts?”

“Yes,” Doey nodded.

“That’s good. Let’s get started… losing the Doctor… that will have gotten the Prototype’s attention. He’ll be scared. He knows he’s losing now, and the orphans are all he has. Now’s the time to get to the foundation and get everything ready.”

Doey shook his head.

“Look,” he interrupted Poppy. “We need to talk about this. We shouldn’t…”

At that moment, the generator’s breaker switch flipped. Doey sighed in frustration.

“Just give it a second…” he said in a low voice.

The phone rang, interrupting Doey. Nick picked it up.

“Ollie?” Poppy took the phone from Nick. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s outside!” Ollie replied in a panic.

“What?” Poppy said. “Who?”

“He’s outside!!” Ollie repeated more urgently. Nick and Judy looked to each other.

“Who?” Poppy repeated. And then it hit her. “Oh, no…”

The Prototype had arrived.

Chapter Text

With the threat of the Prototype bearing down on them, Poppy knew she had to act quickly, to get things back under control. The Prototype couldn’t get in at this stage, else it was all for nothing.

“Doey…” Poppy looked up. “Y… you need to distract him! Please! Keep him away from here!”

Doey seemed frightened at the idea of having to go out there and confront the Prototype – for a second time within the span of a few hours, no less.

“B… but, without the generator…” Doey began.

“I know… I know… But he can’t be allowed to get in here. Not now… just… buy us some time to get it up and running. Please.” She turned towards Nick and Judy. “You two will have to fix the generator. Work quickly… you won’t have much time.”

“But, I…” Doey began. Poppy stepped forward and placed what was supposed to be a reassuring paw on one of Doey’s fingers.

“Trust us, Doey. Trust me…”

“Just…” Doey sighed in resignation. “Just get the generator working… Please…”

He turned around, rushed out the large doors towards the entrance of the Safe Haven. Poppy passed the phone back to Nick.

“I-I’ll try and gather the others… keep them safe,” she said as she headed back into the main lobby. “Ollie? If you can hear me, work with our friends here.”

“Aye-aye, cap’n,” Ollie replied. Poppy turned back around to look at Nick and Judy.

“You can do this,” she nodded as the doors to the generator room slid shut between her and Nick and Judy.

“You heard her,” Ollie said. “Now, let’s get to it.”

Nick and Judy turned towards the large machine behind them. To its left was a table with several components atop it – the ones Doey had acquired while they were busy dealing with the Doctor and getting acquainted with the toys of the Safe Haven.

“First, you’ll want to open the access panel on the generator,” Ollie instructed them. “It’s just a little door on the outside of the machine. This is where you come in, Judy. You have the Omni-Hand – use it to open the panel.”

Judy stepped forward, switched from the still-equipped Flare Hand to the Omni-Hand, and fired it at the scanner, which was affixed to the left side of the generator.

After a few seconds of scanning, the generator’s door swung open. Another light went out on the Omni-Hand, signifying another charge had been spent. The inside of the access panel contained a switch on the left, an empty circular socket, a second Hand scanner, and a clearly-broken surge protector.

“Whenever you’re ready, you’ll need to flip the breaker switch. This is the tricky part: the moment you do, Safe Haven’s defences will go down, meaning that whatever’s out there will have NOTHING to keep it there. We’ll have to act fast.”

“That’s encouraging,” Nick replied.

“That’s why Doey’s outside, trying to lure the Prototype away, so we can get a little extra time,” Ollie reminded them.

“Okay…” Nick stepped forward. He gripped the switch with both paws and pulled it down.

“We’re on the clock now,” Ollie remarked. “Grab an external resistor and plug it into the capacitor bank. It’s the circular socket underneath the scanner we’ll need in a moment.”

Judy wandered over to the table and picked up the circular component, and then walked back over to the generator to place it into the slot Ollie had indicated. The Hand Scanner above lit up.

“Okay, now we need to use the Omni-Hand to override the generator’s chipset protocols. You’ll be able to remove the busted surge protector.”

Judy obliged. After a moment, the Scanner bleeped. Curiously, a light didn’t go out on the Omni-Hand, but neither Nick nor Judy was in a place where they could contemplate the reason for it. The aforementioned surge protector popped loose.

“Pull it out!” Ollie instructed. Judy yanked it from its cradle, before depositing it unceremoniously on the floor. She went back to the table.

“Nice! Now, take the new one and put it in! Hurry!”

Judy did as Ollie asked, picking up the undamaged surge protector and rushing back over to the generator. She shoved it in to the empty square socket.

“Okay, now it’s in, you need to pull the breaker again! Quick!”

Nick once again pulled hard on the breaker. The generator flared to life, the trundling noise filling the room.

Ollie took a deep breath.

“It’s done…” he remarked. “We did it… Good…”

Nick and Judy stepped back as the generator’s access panel door swung shut again. The doors to the room slid open and Poppy stepped back inside.

“You… you did it!” she said. “I…”

She looked straight at Nick and Judy.

“Thank you,” she said. “No… ‘thank you’ isn’t nearly enough…” She sighed in relief, but then her expression became worried. “No word from Doey… Whatever happened out there…” She shook her head. “No… no, he’s fine. I’m sure of it…”

“He’s definitely one tough son of an ox,” Nick quipped.

“Heh…” Poppy chuckled. “Nobody knows exactly what Doey was… just that he’s not like most of us.”

“How so?” Judy asked.

“Most of us were created by selecting a single orphan,” Poppy explained. “But Doey’s different… he was made from three different children.”

“W… what?” Judy stammered. “H… how?”

“I don’t know the specifics, but they found a way to get the three minds to behave as one… you might have noticed when Doey acts out… that’s when they’re not, but that hasn’t happened often… I’ve seen him take on a wolf form when he’s really angry, or a deer when he’s feeling insecure…”

Nick and Judy were reminded of when they first arrived and Poppy told Doey the Prototype was in the halls outside. Doey’s form had definitely shifted.

Poppy turned around once more.

“Anyway…” she changed the subject. “We shouldn’t wait any longer. Head for the foundation. You’ll find the mining charges down there in the tunnels. Plant them, and then come back here. We’ll go over what comes next. Go see Ollie – he’ll show you what you need.”

They left for the computer room Ollie occupied. The door slid open and they stepped inside, where Ollie spun around on his treads to greet them. It really was eerie – Nick and Judy had just dealt with the Doctor using very similar bodies to hunt them, right down to the monitor atop the body that served as the head.

The screen flickered to life, displaying the telephone image. Nick plucked the phone from his pocket and answered.

“Great work on defeating the Doctor and fixing the generator,” Ollie said. “If I haven’t said it enough… thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but… what now?” Judy asked.

“This is the hardest part of our plan,” Ollie began. “The Prototype will know he’s got next-to-nothing left between him and us now. So, he’s going to be getting desperate. Him attacking the Safe Haven now just proves it. Hopefully, Doey can keep him away long enough for you to play your part.”

Ollie’s screen changed to show a blueprint of the foundation for the factory.

“The Red Smoke is currently being pumped harmlessly into an exhaust system,” he explained. “Where you need to place the charges is a place where several different gases travel through. You need to plant those charges, mix up the gases with the Red Smoke, redirect it all into the storage tank and then get out of there, because, believe me, you do not want to be around when the system ruptures. Once you’re clear, and once we’ve got the orphans out from the Labs, then BOOM! We’ll blow the factory sky-high, and the Prototype with it.”

“We’ve not been able to get a word in edgeways about this with Poppy, but…” Nick raised a finger.

“What about the toys here?” Judy pressed.

Ollie didn’t answer immediately.

“Can you at least give us some hope there? They don’t deserve to die. They’ve been through so much already…”

“Well… I can’t answer that…” Ollie bowed his head. “In here, it should be safe, but… as much as I hate that he was right… if any of us are able to leave… what waits for us outside? I don’t think locking us up in here is the solution, but… I don’t know… I can only hope that this place is enough…”

Ollie looked back up at the fox and bunny duo.

“This is our only shot, though… the Prototype’s smart. He’s not going to wait around for us to make our move, so we shouldn’t wait around either. Now, you’ll need to know how to get to the foundation in the first place. Go back into the sewer from here, the same way you went on your way up to No Mammal’s Land. I’ll shut off the path there so you can see where you’re supposed to go.”

“Great, right back into the most amazing smell ever,” Nick groaned, recalling the stench he had encountered during their previous journey.

“There’s really no other way to the foundation,” Ollie said apologetically. “Once you get to the big cave, follow the tracks into the tunnels. It shouldn’t take long to get to the foundation once you’re inside. Just… be careful. I can’t connect with you down there… I can’t say for sure, but I think that’s where the little ones like to gather, since it’s darker there.”

“That’s okay…” Judy brandished the Flare Hand. “I think we can get them to back off if we have to.”

“Yes, but remember to be careful. As soon as it’s done and you make our way back here, I’ll contact you again. Good luck.”

The line went dead, and Ollie turned back to the machines around him. Nick and Judy looked towards one another, concern on their faces. The assurances that the toys here might be spared despite the levelling of the factory felt a little hollow – especially since nobody could guarantee them. Not Doey, not Poppy, and not Ollie.

Nevertheless, they couldn’t stand here and do nothing – not with the Prototype out there, trying to get in. Ollie was right – with Doey out there distracting him, now was the time to do this.

They left and headed for the infirmary, which would take them back through to the tunnel that led into the sewer.

Chapter Text

After a short, eventless, and wordless walk, Nick and Judy found themselves back outside in the cave that led them into No Mammal’s Land previously. As promised by Ollie, that route had been closed off, a giant steel shutter blocking the way through. That left the tunnel to the right, where the cart tracks ran, next to the huge chasm.

“That’s the way Ollie showed us,” Nick pointed.

“Let’s go…” Judy nodded. They headed down the tracks, into the tunnel. Ahead of them was a shaft, but its elevator was not on the same level. The tunnel cornered to the right. Nick and Judy proceeded onward down the tracks, and as they entered the next small cavern, a rumbling sound from behind caught their attention. They both spun around – the tunnel had collapsed behind them.

They were trapped. They had no choice but to proceed.

The tunnel ahead of them bent to the left, and straight ahead was a small hole in the tunnel wall. As they approached, a ruined CraftyCorn popped its head up out of it. Spotting Nick and Judy, it suddenly dove into the space behind it with a tinny squeal.

“I guess we know what to expect when we get there,” Nick remarked.

They headed left. It terminated in a wide-open space. Above them were large pipes, each one a different colour, with the Red Smoke pipe represented accordingly.

To their left was a large structure containing what they understood to be the control room. In front of it was a storage tank that the pipes all fed into. Four pillars stretched from the floor to the ceiling of the cave, holding it in place. They knew they would have to put the mining charges on each pillar before overloading the gas and getting out of there. The tracks headed off into a tunnel to the right.

“They’re not going to be so stupid as to put mining charges in here,” Nick said. “I bet they’ve been left somewhere through there,” He pointed.

“And I bet we’re going to see more of those little monsters there,” Judy replied. She checked to make sure the Flare Hand was equipped and ready.

“Let’s get this over with…” she started forward.

Nick followed her down the tracks into the mining tunnels. As soon as they set foot inside, that unsettling, distorted burbling reached them, and from a hole in the walls ahead of them crawled out a ruined DogDay, which crept towards them on all-fours.

Judy didn’t hesitate. She aimed and fired a flare, which struck the approaching Critter straight in the forehead. It squealed and rushed back towards the gap it came through.

Moving forward, Nick spotted a small crate to the right of the track. Atop it was one of the mining charges they needed. He picked it up and showed it to Judy.

“One down, three to go,” he remarked. Their attention was once again caught by the sound of tinny babbling echoing from deeper down the tunnel.

A ruined Bobby BearHug crept from around the corner as they approached. Judy responded by firing a flare at it, and it scarpered, only to be replaced a second later by a ruined Bubba Bubbaphant. Another flare sent it packing, allowing for Nick and Judy to proceed further into the mine. As they carried on, the tunnel branched to the right and straight ahead, though the left-hand route was caved in. Another box with a mining charge sat beside the tracks just before the collapse. And stood in front was a miniature ruined Baba Chops. It sighted them, let out a shrill squeal and started crawling for them.

Judy fired again, the flare landing with a fizz next to the Critter, and it fled towards a gap in the rocks blocking the passage off. Nick quickly dashed down the tunnel and grabbed the charge before rejoining Judy.

“That’s two,” he said.

As he returned to the main track with Judy, the childish burbling noises became many. Two ruined Critters – one DogDay and one CraftyCorn – were creeping towards them from ahead, and from behind, another three – a Baba Chops, a KickinChicken, and a CatNap – were crawling in. Judy checked the Flare Hand – it had two flares currently, and was in the process of recharging for more. She had to play this carefully.

Swinging herself to face the larger group from behind, she fired between them. The flare struck the ground and flashed briefly, scaring them off. She spun herself around and fired again.

Her position wasn’t great. Her flare struck the ruined DogDay, causing it to flee, but the CraftyCorn continued on towards them, before it jumped at Nick.

He grabbed it as it flew towards him. It struggled, squirming in his grip and making garbled screeching noises.

He drew his arm back, and then threw it as hard as he could down the tunnel. It landed with a squeaky bounce on its back, flipped itself upright, and then crawled away.

“Let’s keep going,” Nick said, heading further in. Judy simply stared in awe for a moment before shaking herself back to attention and carrying on.

Further down the tracks, another charge sat atop a pile of rubble to the side. Nick added it to his growing collection and they proceeded onwards.

They only needed one more, and so they continued their search of the mining tunnels.

The tracks rose up and then looped back to the start, with a drop at the bottom that would put them right at the entrance.

The last mining charge they needed was next to a tipped-over minecart. Nick picked it up. Looking behind them, they saw a small group of ruined Critters crawling after them.

“Okay, let’s next step done before this kerfluffle becomes lethal,” he nodded to Judy. They leaped down to the entrance from their upper shelf and headed back into the main chamber.

Nick passed two charges to Judy, and they crossed to opposite sides of the room. They placed each charge on a pillar at the edge of the cavernous room and then headed towards the control room.

Inside, they found a control panel in front of a large window looking out over the cave, with several different switches and a Hand Scanner panel for the Omni-Hand. At the back of the control room was a thick metal door that led into a corridor, with ‘EMERGENCY EXIT’ emblazoned on it.

“Okay…” Judy examined the panel. “I think… all we have to do is direct all the gas into that tank below us, right?”

She looked at Nick, who shrugged.

“Carrots, I’m a police officer, not a gas engineer,” he replied. “Just… start pushing buttons and flipping switches. Doesn’t really matter.”

“Right,” Judy replied, turning her attention back to the panel. She did as Nick suggested and flipped the switches for the three gases to redirect them into the tank. A loud hissing sound reached her ears as it filled up. She flipped the switch for the Red Smoke and it too poured in.

At that moment, an alarm blared. A screen to Judy’s left lit up.

GAS OVERFLOW DETECTED. PRESSURE REACHING UNSAFE LEVELS. INITIATE GAS OVERFLOW PROCEDURES?

The Scanner lit up with a red light. She switched to the Omni-Hand and fired, the noise of the scan filling the control room.

As the scan progressed, Judy looked through the control room’s window. What she saw made her ears droop and her mouth drop in shock. Out of the tunnels they had just vacated, a horde of ruined Smiling Critters were rushing towards them. The chittering and yammering grew louder, increasing the tension of the situation.

After a moment, the control panel bleeped. The emergency exit door slid open. The gas concoction began to spill out from the storage tank into the vast cavern in front of them. Still the damaged Critters came, their screeching and babbling drowned out by the hissing of the gas.

“Time to go,” Nick said, ushering Judy through the opened exit. Once they were through, the door closed behind them, and shortly after, they could see through its window the gas filling the control room.

They ran down the emergency exit, heading for the elevator at its end. As they did, more ruined Critters began creeping out of holes in the tunnel walls, making their way towards them. Judy fired a flare to disperse them, while Nick called the elevator. More Critters crawled towards them. Judy continued firing flares, but she only had so many.

A click indicated she had finally run out. At that moment, the elevator arrived and the door slid open. They leaped inside and Judy hammered the button to send it upward.

As the door slid shut, the Critters leaped at it, climbing the mesh as if trying to follow them as they rose. They disappeared under the metal of the shaft, and once the elevator stopped, Nick and Judy sighed a breath of relief. They stepped out – they were back at the entrance to the mines near No Mammal’s Land.

“That’s our part done, at least,” Nick remarked. “I hope Poppy is ready to get the orphans out…”

“Yeah…” Judy agreed.

They stepped forward, but as they did, a huge, doughy arm wrapped around them, pulling them backwards. Judy prepped the Flare Hand to fire at whatever had grabbed them, but eased slightly when they saw it was Doey. He wore a worried expression.

“The Prototype…” he said. “I lost track of him in the tunnels…”

“The… tunnels?” Judy replied. She and Nick looked behind them. Had he followed them in? A foreboding feeling descended on them both.

“Have you seen him?” Doey asked urgently. “Was he at the Foundation? Or was he…?”

“N-no,” Judy stammered her reply.

“We were set upon by those spoiled Critters,” Nick replied. “They’re the ones who used to ally with CatNap, right?”

“Yes…” Doey nodded. “But they shouldn’t be down here… unless…”

He looked around, clearly confused.

“What’s going on?” he said. “I led him away… didn’t I? The generator’s fine, it’s…”

An explosion rocked the cave. All three of them looked to the structure at the other end, by where Nick and Judy had first exited to this area. Fire erupted from it, sending smoke billowing into the cave.

“No…” Doey whispered. “Oh no…”

He walked over to a nearby pipe, becoming fluid as he slipped up into it, undoubtedly making his way back to the Safe Haven. Nick and Judy glanced at each other.

“That explosion… you don’t think…?” Judy asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Nick replied. “Let’s get back there. Quickly.”

They rushed back towards the entrance to the waste water plant above the sewers. Wordlessly, they went around the giant clarifier and crossed the bridge to the door on the other side, before boarding the platform which took them back down into the sewer. Once it stopped in the maintenance room, they rushed back out. There was visible damage to the walls on the Safe Haven end, and a small group of ruined Critters slipped into their path. Judy armed the Flare Hand and fired, scattering them as they rushed for the end, and back up the tunnel which led them into the Safe Haven. As they reached its end, where it would bring them into the medical room, smoke filled their nostrils.

They stopped in their tracks. The medical room was ruined, with beds scattered everywhere. The bodies of the kind toys they had met were strewn around. By one of the overturned beds, a CatNap and a DogDay held hands, their eyes staring glassily up at the ceiling.

“No…” Judy gasped in horror.

Sobbing reached their ears, coming from the main lobby. Nick and Judy cautiously approached, and what they saw shook them to their very cores.

Doey was stood in the middle, surrounded by rubble and dead toys. Smoke poured from the generator room. As Nick and Judy looked around, they spotted the bodies of Ed the CraftyCorn, and Izzy the Bobby BearHug. Scout’s body sat next to her, the screen that made up her face smashed, sparks popping from her.

Doey continued sobbing, his hands at his face. They noticed his face had taken on a distinct shape, with rounded ears protruding from the back of his head – it reminded them of a ferret.

“I’m sorry… I’m so, so, sorry… I failed you… I was never what any of you needed…” he whispered. “I was only made to hurt things… my fault… my fault…”

“Doey, it’s not your fault…” Judy started forward. She placed a gentle paw on his arm, hoping to provide some comfort. He shuddered slightly at the touch.

At that moment, Doey’s demeanour changed, as did the shape of his face. It took on more of a canine appearance, pointed ears manifesting in place of the rounded ones. Sharp, red teeth protruded from inside his mouth.

“Hurt…” Doey growled. “Everything hurts… hurt back… Always hurt back…”

“… Doey?” Judy looked up at him, worry etched on her face. He turned towards her, his expression scrunched up in anger.

“Parents… scientists… Everyone… have to…” Doey began, but he was cut off, his body spasming and his face changing back to the shape of the ferret. He began crying again. “My friends! He killed my friends!” The crying continued for a moment, and then another spasm racked him and the wolfish face returned. He pointed an accusing finger at Nick and Judy.

“You…” he growled. “It all started with you… You and her…”

“Us?” Nick said. “Now, hold on a minute… we did everything you asked, we…”

“Ruined EVERYTHING!” Doey howled.

“Doey, please…” Judy pleaded. “I know you don’t believe that…”

For a moment, Doey seemed to come back to his senses, but his face didn’t change back to default, or to the ferret. Instead, he now gave off the impression of a deer.

“She’s right…” Doey said to himself. “They didn’t. They tried to help us… They jump-started the generator… took care of the Doctor for us… helped us… they…” Doey’s face once again changed to the wolf. “Destroyed everything! I’LL KILL YOU!”

As Doey lunged forward, arms outstretched, the ceiling collapsed on top of him, burying him.

Nick and Judy stepped backwards, knowing full-well that this was not likely to stop him.

Proving them right, the pile of rubble exploded, but what emerged wasn’t what either of them expected. It was Doey, but twisted into a new, lizard-like form. He sported many arms and legs. His mouth was wide open, with two dozen red teeth protruding from his lips. Inside his mouth, three figures battled for control, each different from the other – two of them grasped the edges of Doey’s mouth, as if trying to close it. One bore the head shape of a ferret, and the other a deer, both with glowing red eyes upturned in sorrow and regret.

The third had a head shaped like a wolf’s, and instead of trying to close Doey’s mouth, it was reaching out towards Nick and Judy, its red eyes turned down in fury, the exact opposite of the other two.

The colossal creature roared at Nick and Judy in pain and anger.

Chapter Text

Excerpt from Experiment 1322 “Project: Doey” Post-Incident Report

Dr. Sawyer had been planning Project: Doey for some time up to this point. The plan was always to implement three subjects and to get them to ‘integrate’ into a single personality incorporating the best traits of all of them for the purposes of conducting multiple tasks, where previous experiments had been assigned a single task. We were busy prepping Kevin Barnes and Matthew Hallard when the incident involving Jack Ayers, the one who would become Subject 1322A, happened.

I need not remind you of that: 1322A was not one of our orphans. Rather, he was participating in a factory tour, accompanied by his parents. At some point during the tour, he was separated from them. This is not a report that will extensively retell the events of that day, but in summary, one of the railings failed as he was leaning on it, and subsequently, he fell off the upper walkway into a vat of dough we were planning on using to create Experiment 1322.

Unfortunately, he was not recoverable in that state, but Dr. Sawyer is nothing if not capable of adapting to the most unexpected of circumstances. At that point, we had already begun the process of selecting orphans for Experiment 1322, and he simply stated that this meant that, instead of selecting three orphans from Playcare, we only had to select two. Ayers became Subject 1322A.

Barnes and Hallard were assigned to Project: Doey as Subjects 1322B and 1322C, respectively. As a recap of each Subject: 1322B was chosen in spite of his neural abnormalities. He was documented as displaying aggression towards other children in Playcare, and even to his own friends, who he had attacked and bitten in the past. 1322C was chosen as he was an older, more calming presence, which, it was hoped, would balance out 1322B’s angry disposition within Project: Doey… 

******

The monster formerly known as Doey slipped free of the rubble. Reasoning with him was out of the question. Nick and Judy had little choice: they had to run.

Most of the routes out had collapsed. They had two options: go back the way they came, through the wrecked infirmary and back into the sewer – however, there wasn’t anywhere they could go from there to escape Doey, as the way into No Mammal’s Land was closed, and the route to the foundation had collapsed and was currently filled with gas, primed to detonate.

The only other way was through the storage area they had returned through after the defeat of the Doctor. Not waiting to discuss these options, the fox and rabbit bolted for it, with Doey hot on their tails.

“Hate you! Hate her! HATE EVERYTHING!” Doey screamed as he bounded after them. They reached the elevator and leaped on board. Nick hammered the up button and it began to rise, but Doey’s forehands stretched forward and grabbed the edge of the platform, dragging it back down towards him.

Judy quickly equipped the Flare Hand and fired at the left forehand, causing Doey to let go. She fired again, striking the right, and Doey withdrew it too. With nothing holding it back, the elevator began to rise again.

Once it reached the top, Nick and Judy rushed out and headed straight for the cable car. Once they were inside, the car started to move. It would take them back to the Doctor’s Domain, but with the Doctor gone, they might be able to find a way to escape their shapeshifting pursuer there.

The cable car suddenly shuddered to a halt. Nick and Judy looked to the rear and saw that Doey was leaning out over the cable car station, four limbs holding him in place, while he extended his front hands. He was attempting to drag them back towards him.

“Just want to play a little longer…” Doey said in an angry voice. But as he drew the car, and his prey, towards him, the cable snapped, sending it plummeting down towards a rocky outcrop below.

“Grab something!” Judy shouted. She took hold of a hand rail and Nick did the same, just before the car hit the rocky ground below. The impact still jolted the pair regardless of their bracing.

Glass smashed and steel bent, but fortunately enough, Nick and Judy weren’t crushed. They landed with a thud on the floor of the car, and took a moment before picking themselves up.

“You okay, Carrots?” Nick asked, as he plucked shards of glass from the fur on his tail.

“I’m fine,” Judy replied, dusting herself off. “We need to get out of here…”

Nearby was a tunnel. They didn’t know where it led, but right now it was their only means of escape, so they ran for it. Just as they entered, they were both tripped up by something that then took hold of their feet and began dragging them back out. Flipping around, they saw Doey was hauling them closer to him with tendrils of dough that snaked out from his mouth.

“Play, play, plaaaaay!” Doey screamed. But before he could draw them in completely, the ground shook underneath them all, and the ceiling above collapsed on top of Doey’s tendrils, forcing him to let them go.

Scrambling to their feet, Nick and Judy proceeded down the tunnel. At its end was a conveyor belt that descended deeper into the mining complex. They stepped onto it, and Nick hit a start button on the wall. The belt flared to life, slowly carrying the pair down. It deposited them into a small room with a refining machine and a pair of large steel doors with a sign above that read ‘QUARRY’.

There was no sign of their monstrous pursuer at that time, so they had a moment to breathe.

“We’ve got to try and reason with him,” Judy said.

“Carrots, I hate to say it, but there’s no reasoning with that,” Nick shook his head. “Doey’s gone completely insane. Did you see what he’s turned into?”

“Yes, I saw!” Judy snapped. “What else are we supposed to do? He doesn’t deserve to die! He’s not… he’s not doing this of his own free will!”

“He seems pretty sure he wants to kill us from where I’m standing.”

Judy stared hard at the ground, trying to think of what they could do to get Doey to return to his senses.

“Look, maybe all he needs is time to cool himself down,” Nick offered. “This isn’t like with Manchas in the Rainforest District, Doey’s not been driven savage. He’s still Doey in there. If we try and avoid him, maybe he’ll come to his senses and he’ll be more willing to listen to us.”

Judy considered Nick’s words.

“Okay…” she relented. “That’s probably the best thing we can do… but we can’t stay here either. We need to find a way to get out of here, and find anybody who might have escaped from the Safe Haven before it blew.”

“Only way out is through the quarry,” Nick pointed to the double doors. “But I can’t see how we’re going to get those doors open. I don’t know about you, but I’m not secretly Lou Ferrignu.”

Judy noticed a faint red glow from behind a large pile of boxes stacked to the right of the exit. She fired her GrabPack hands at them and pulled them aside, revealing a Red Hand Scanner. Smiling triumphantly, she equipped the Omni-Hand and fired it, beginning a scan. After a couple of seconds, it was complete, and the doors opened as Judy retracted the Hand back into its cannon. As promised by the sign above, they opened out into a giant quarry. Nick and Judy realised they had seen this place before – from above, when they were on their way to the Doctor’s lair.

Cautiously, Nick peeked his head outside and looked all around, sniffing for anything unusual.

“Seems clear,” he turned to Judy, and the pair stepped outside. The space was huge. Machinery lay scattered all around, and a giant crane sat at the heart of it all. Looking upward, they could see metal shacks, presumably where the mammals who would have been working down here were sleeping. There were three levels above the ground, each forming a ‘ring’ around the centre of the quarry. They had emerged onto the middle-most of these rings. Several tunnels branched off the walls. Stacks of what looked like liquid nitrogen canisters sat at the edges of the quarry. For what purpose Playtime Co. had them down here for was not clear. Perhaps they needed it for their experiments, but that didn’t explain why it had been left at the quarry.

The doors shut behind them. There was no sign of their pursuer at all.

They quietly descended down the rings to the ground floor and crossed over to the other side, reaching a large door that led through to a vertical tunnel boring machine. There was another door on the other side of it. That had to be their way out.

Before they could take it, a noise from above caught their attention. They looked up. Clambering down the walls of the quarry was the monstrous form of Doey.

“I just wanna play more,” he said as he jumped straight for them, limbs outstretched. Nick and Judy dove out the way just in time, Doey landing where they had been standing and blocking off the exit. The impact shook the ground, and the door to the tunnel bore slid shut, trapping them in the quarry with Doey.

“What do we do?” Judy asked as the pair of them backed away from the advancing monster. Nick’s eyes darted around, looking for another exit, or at least something they could use to slow Doey down enough to give themselves space to find one.

His eyes fell upon the liquid nitrogen canisters. An image flashed in his mind, of Doey not long after they had defeated Yarnaby. A pipe carrying liquid nitrogen had burst with him under it, freezing him until they could turn it off. It wouldn’t be kind to Doey to do it, but what choice did they have?

“Judy, can you try throwing those at Doey and then blowing them up with a flare?” Nick indicated to the canisters.

“That’s going to hurt him,” Judy protested.

“Unless you have a better idea,” Nick retorted. “Because I can’t see us outrunning him forever, and he’s pretty intent on killing us!”

“Everything’s too loud! TOO LOUD!” Doey shouted, before Judy could reply to Nick’s suggestion. He lunged forward, a pair of arms reaching out of his open mouth towards them.

Without thinking about it, Judy did as Nick had suggested – she picked up a nearby canister and flung it at Doey’s outstretched arms, which caught it and drew it in. She quickly switched to the Flare Hand and fired it at the canister, and it exploded into a cloud of icy mist. Once it cleared, they could see Doey had frozen solid.

“Run for it!” Nick said. Judy didn’t need telling twice – she allowed Nick to get in front so she was in a better position to react should Doey thaw and resume the pursuit.

They had made it half-way towards the tunnel that would take them up to the first ring when Doey unfroze. He liquefied and slipped through a nearby crevice. Nick and Judy cautiously ascended.

Suddenly, something burst from the floor of the tunnel. It was a dough hand, and it was trying to grasp for them. Nick and Judy flattened themselves against the tunnel’s wall and slipped by, but as they carried on, another hand burst through the floor. Again, they did their best to avoid it, but as they carried on towards the exit onto the first ring, they were stopped by more of the hands. Once they reached the ring itself, they took a moment to collect themselves, looking around for Doey.

They didn’t have to wait long. From above, dough dripped down to their left, forming the monstrous shape of their pursuer. They didn’t wait for him to finish forming, instead, running as fast as they could along the ring towards the next tunnel.

Doey finished forming and resumed his chasing of them.

“I don’t wanna be here anymore…” Doey cried. “Mommy, Daddy… I just wanna go home…”

There was another set of canisters lined up against the wall. Judy quickly grabbed one with the Blue Hand. Spinning around, she fired it into Doey’s mouth before aiming the Flare Hand at it.

Doey was determined not to make it so easy this time. The arms protruding from his mouth grasped at the canister and tried to pull it out. At the same time, he extended the arms protruding from his back towards Judy, trying to grab hold of her before she could fire off the flare.

Judy ducked beneath his stretched arm and fired the flare, striking the canister. It detonated, and once again, Doey froze in place.

This time, Nick and Judy knew this wouldn’t be permanent. They immediately headed for the nearest tunnel, intending on getting up to the third ring before Doey could awaken. As they emerged, he thawed just below, but instead of pursuing them, he tensed, and then leaped straight up, towards the massive crane in the centre of the quarry. He climbed up and perched at its tip.

“Just want to play a little longer…” Doey’s voice echoed. Perhaps expecting Doey to use his perch to leap straight for them, Nick and Judy were utterly unprepared when he instead flung sharpened spears of dough in their direction. They jumped out of the way just in time, the projectiles impacting against the ground. Doey didn’t give up just because of that miss, however – he launched another volley, aiming for where they had moved to, and once again, they dodged out of the way.

Perhaps he realised he wasn’t going to have the effect he thought he was, because Doey stopped throwing the spears and leaped off his perch, aiming right for where Nick and Judy were standing. They moved out of the way before he landed, and began running.

“I just wanna go home…” Doey moaned as he pursued them.

Once again, they passed by a batch of canisters, and Judy flung one at Doey again, readying herself to fire a flare the moment it got close enough to him. However, rather than try and stop the canister, one of Doey’s many limbs stretched out and grabbed Nick by the legs, tripping him over. Nick’s claws dragged against the stony floor as he was dragged closer to the crazed dough creature.

“Doey, pal, old friend… you don’t want to do this,” Nick tried to reason with the monster.

“Don’t want to stop playing…” Doey growled in response as he reeled his victim in further.

Judy lunged for Nick and grabbed hold of his paws, trying to pull him free, but Doey was stronger.

An idea came to Judy and she let go of Nick.

“Carrots, what are you doing?” Nick asked, panic tinging the tone of his voice. Judy planted herself firmly and aimed at the base of Doey’s arm. The Blue Hand shot from its cannon and gripped Doey. Judy pulled the trigger, and the Hand reeled back in, the force of it pulling Doey’s arm off his body.

Doey roared in what sounded like pain, and Judy took the opportunity to fire a flare into his mouth, detonating the canister stuck there. Once more, Doey froze. Nick scrambled back to her side, wiping dough residue from the fur on his leg.

“I don’t think sticking around to try and reason with him is going to work,” he said.

“Yeah,” Judy nodded. The pair headed for the nearest tunnel, which would allow them to descend back to the quarry’s ground floor. They expected Doey to continue his pursuit, or perhaps to pull one of his tricks to try and take them down at a distance, but they remained unconfronted as they made their way back down the rings to the bottom.

Once there, they headed quickly back to the now-opened door that took them beneath the vertical tunnel bore drill.

With their pursuer nowhere to be seen, they headed in. The door slammed shut behind them, trapping them inside, and for a moment, the thought crossed both their minds that the drill would descend and kill them both.

When that didn’t happen, they cautiously stepped out from underneath the drill and to the other side of the room. There was another large door, as well as a pair of Hand Scanners flanking it, one blue and one red. Judy switched Hands quickly and began a scan.

As she did so, something seized her and Nick and dragged them back towards the drill.

It was Doey. He had slipped in while they weren’t looking.

“YOU!” he shouted at the pair of them. “YOU AND POPPY! IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT! EVERYBODY’S DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU! WANT TO KILL YOU… KILL EVERYONE WHO HURTS US! RIP THEM ALL TO PIECES… CAN’T TRUST ANYONE!” he raged. “YOU LIE! THE GENTLE VOICES LIE!” Doey lowered them for a moment, and his voice changed. “I… I tried to be better… to be what they needed, but… I’m not smart enough… not good enough… a dumb, angry wolf… no, a weak deer… a scared ferret… so… confused… too many voices… too many thoughts…”

Judy took notice of a canister of liquid nitrogen attached to the side of the drill. She had little time to ponder on why it was there, only to quickly formulate a plan. She fired a flare at it, and it ruptured, spraying Doey in its freezing gas. He screamed out in pain as he froze, dropping both her and Nick to the ground.

It was then that Judy spotted a handle attached to the drill. She realised what it meant in this particular situation. She could use it to drag the drill down on top of Doey, put an end to this chase here and now.

She couldn’t do it. In spite of the fact that Doey had tried to kill them, what she had said to Nick before still stood in her mind – something had gone wrong, but it didn’t feel like he was really lashing out, not at them. They just had the misfortune to be present. Doey wasn’t a deranged hunter that had stalked them throughout with the promise that he was going to end them. He was hurt, confused, and above all else, clearly lonely.

Nick’s gaze switched between her and the frozen monster. Perhaps he was thinking the same thing she was. Perhaps he was considering all the possible other ways this could have gone down. Perhaps he was considering alternative means of escape. In any case, he didn’t speak his thoughts on the matter.

Unfortunately for them both, the choice was not theirs to make, but fate’s. The rupturing of the canister had also frozen the support holding the drill in place. The support failed, and the drill dropped onto Doey. He screamed and writhed in agony as it bored into him, his dough cracking and splintering thanks to the repeated freezing he had taken. Finally, the drill stopped once it crashed into the ground beneath him. His hat rolled off his head as the three figures inside his mouth feebly stirred.

“I’m… sorry…” Doey whispered one last time, before he stopped moving altogether.

Chapter Text

Nick and Judy backed away from the frozen remains of Doey, horror on their faces. They didn’t want it to come to this. Not at all. This had ended in the same way as their previous encounters with Playtime Co.’s toys – with the death of their pursuer.

Only, this time, their pursuer wasn’t a murderous monster. He was a badly-hurt being who had lashed out in grief. Doey’s death had meant the three children that had comprised him were now dead too.

All Nick and Judy could do now was hope that there were other survivors, that somebody got out of the Safe Haven alive. They left the excavator drill, finding themselves in a large loading bay. Several dump trucks were parked up ahead of them. Stairs to their right led to a corridor above. In silence, Nick and Judy climbed up and headed inside, traversed the corridor before finding themselves at an intersection. Straight ahead was the door to the foreman’s office. The corridors to the left and right had caved in, leaving them little choice but to check the room ahead.

They went inside. The room was sparsely decorated. To the left was a stack of boxes. There was a desk against one wall, with a filing cabinet to its left, and a stack of papers atop it. They moved in closer. One of the papers was a report that caught Judy’s eye, and she picked it up. Nick looked over her head to read it alongside her.

Experiment 1322 “Project: Doey” Post-Incident Report

The timeline of events surrounding Project: Doey have been well-established at this point, but given the circumstances, the sequence of events bears repeating.

Dr. Sawyer had been planning Project: Doey for some time up to this point. The plan was always to implement three subjects and to get them to ‘integrate’ into a single personality incorporating the best traits of all of them for the purposes of conducting multiple tasks, where previous experiments had been assigned a single task. We were busy prepping Kevin Barnes and Matthew Hallard when the incident involving Jack Ayers, the one who would become Subject 1322A, happened.

I need not remind you of that: 1322A was not one of our orphans. Rather, he was the winner of a factory tour competition and was visiting with his parents when he was separated from them. This is not a report that will extensively retell the events of that day, but in summary, one of the railings failed as he was leaning on it, and subsequently, he fell off the upper walkway into a vat of dough we were planning on using to create Experiment 1322.

Unfortunately, he was not recoverable in that state, but Dr. Sawyer is nothing if not capable of adapting to the most unexpected of circumstances. At that point, we had already begun the process of selecting orphans for Experiment 1322, and he simply stated that this meant that, instead of selecting three orphans from Playcare, we only had to select two. Ayers became Subject 1322A.

Barnes and Hallard were assigned to Project: Doey as Subjects 1322B and 1322C, respectively. As a recap of each Subject: 1322B was chosen in spite of his neural abnormalities. He was documented as displaying aggression towards other children in Playcare, and even to his own friends, who he had attacked and bitten in the past. 1322C was chosen as he was an older, more calming presence, which, it was hoped, would balance out 1322B’s angry disposition within Project: Doey.

Concerning Experiment 1322’s recent ‘incident’: we contacted the Ayers with news that we were in the process of reviving their son, although we were not clear to them just how this was going to work. After six weeks, we invited them in to the Labs to meet with Doey in the hopes they could speak with 1322A. It appears that, at the time, the personality integration hadn’t occurred properly following the initial procedure, and 1322A’s personality showed clear signs of disorientation, not recognising the Ayers. We locked the door with them in there on the orders of Dr. Sawyer – we’re not sure if the intention was to keep 1322 contained, or whether he expected 1322 to act out in the way he inevitably did.

I need not remind you what happened next: the Ayers were ‘unfortunately’ killed when Experiment 1322 went berserk. Our assumption is that 1322B took control and lashed out in anger. But afterwards, 1322A took control and was left distraught while we removed the Ayers’ bodies from his room.

Conclusion: I believe it will take some time for the personalities to successfully integrate, but until then, I suggest keeping 1322 contained and monitored.

Signed: Dr. Bruno White.

An icy feeling washed over them. They had heard from Poppy that Doey was made from three children, but did not know specifics.

“H… how?” Judy stammered as she re-read the report. “How was this covered up? Jack wasn’t even one of their orphans! There should have been investigations, charges for… for negligent mammalicide! This should have been the start… the whole thing shut down, the ones in charge arrested for illegal and unethical experiments and… and torture…”

Nick placed a paw on Judy’s shoulder, intending to comfort her. He had no words to offer, but he agreed. The idea that this company had paid off the cops floated to the top of his head, but he didn’t speak it.

It made Doey’s death all the more tragic and painful – not only had none of the children making him up not asked for this, but one of them wasn’t even an orphan. On top of that, he had unwittingly killed his own parents.

After taking a moment to ruminate on what she had just read, something else came over Judy – an angry determination to bring the entirety of the rotten Playtime Co. system down. She could certainly appreciate where the toys following the Prototype were coming from, even if the end result was not what anybody wanted.

She could also understand Poppy’s desire to destroy the factory.

“We need to find a way out of here,” Nick reminded her. Judy spotted a stack of boxes against the wall. Nick walked up, his fur rustling slightly as he got closer.

“There’s an air flow here,” Nick pointed.

As the only one left with a GrabPack, Judy moved the boxes out of the way. Behind them was a large vent hole.

“There’s nowhere else to go,” Judy said. “Maybe we can find our way out of here through there.”

Nick sighed heavily. “Maybe… and maybe we get lost… but it’s not like I’ve got any more ideas.”

Judy turned back towards the vent and slipped into it. Nick checked behind him one last time before following her in.

It was like a slide, if all the childlike charm was taken from it. It deposited them into a large space filled with dirt and junk. A huge fan covered the entrance to a pipe directly ahead of them. To their right, sitting atop a pile of debris, was Kissy Missy, and Poppy was in front of her, holding the phone she had taken from Nick and Judy.

“Ollie?” Poppy spoke into it. “Ollie?! Can you hear me?”

The only response was static. Poppy looked to Nick and Judy, and her face turned into a scowl.

“You…” she glowered. “What did you do?”

“W… what?” Judy stuttered.

“You killed Doey!” Poppy accused them. “Why? Why did you do it?”

“We didn’t kill him, we were just trying to stop him from killing us,” Nick stepped forward.

“Do you even understand what happened?” Poppy was near-hysterical. “The Prototype, he… you… you must have done something to the generator!” Poppy glowered at them. “How can I even trust that you planted the explosives?”

“We did everything you asked of us!” Judy retorted. “Even when we had reason to doubt you!”

“What now?” Nick snarked. “Are you going to accuse us of working with the Prototype, after everything that’s happened? Why don’t you ask Ollie? He could see everything we were doing, right?”

Kissy shrank a little, and Poppy resumed trying to get through on the phone.

“Ollie! Ollie! Answer me… please…” She lowered her head in distress.

The phone rang. Poppy looked at it, and then answered it.

“Ollie!” Poppy cried into the phone. “Something’s gone horribly wrong… the Safe Haven…”

But it was not Ollie who answered.

“Shelf Ventilation block B6,” a strange, almost robotic voice spoke in shifting tones. “That is where you are, isn’t it, Poppy?”

“… What?” Poppy whispered.

“Stay where you are…” The voice shifted, into what sounded like an older man’s voice: “And listen closely. You’re not going to run. You’re not going to fight. This charade you’ve started is over.”

The voice sent shivers down Nick and Judy’s spines, their fur bristling. Kissy started shaking with fear in the corner.

“Who… who is this?”

“Have you forgotten the sound of my voice, Poppy? The voice shifted again, now sounding like the Doctor’s, the pitch shifting randomly between syllables.

“You…” Poppy gasped as realisation struck her. The strange voice could belong to none other than the Prototype.

“How did you get on this line? Where’s Ollie? What have you done with him?”

“A touching concern for a friend. I expected no less from you,” The Prototype replied. “Let me show you your friend…”

Something slid down the pipe Nick and Judy had just come from. It landed with a crash between them, Poppy and Kissy. They all flinched upon the impact.

It was a monitor, with a camera attached to it. It looked suspiciously like the one Ollie used for a head.

“You… killed him?” Poppy gasped.

“I took care of a thorn in my side,” The Prototype responded, his voice shifting to a different one every couple of words. “You know that I warned those in the Safe Haven years ago… that you would bring them to ruin… and you have.”

The Prototype spoke his next words in a perfect mimicry of Ollie’s voice.

“This is all because of you, Poppy. We’re gone because you wouldn’t listen…”

For one moment, Poppy was shocked into silence, but once she spoke again, it was clear she still had some defiance left in her.

“The Doctor… CatNap… Mommy… Huggy… they’re all dead! You… you have nothing now! No one!” Poppy insisted. “And soon, you’ll have less than nothing!”

Perhaps they expected a distorted, evil laugh to come from the phone’s speaker. But what came was even more surprising.

“Stop that,” the Prototype said in disappointment. The tone was almost like that a parent would use for a misbehaving child. “You don’t have to pretend any more, Poppy… you don’t have to play at being stronger than you are… you can come home, Poppy… to me… to where you belong… where you’ve always belonged.”

“You and I aren’t the same!” Poppy retorted. That did get a laugh from the Prototype.

“Hah! We are more alike than you want to admit, Poppy… I’ve been with you this entire time… watching… listening…”

“H… how much do you know?” Poppy’s voice shook as she spoke.

“Everything,” the Prototype confirmed in a low growl.

Once again, Nick and Judy glanced at each other, unable to come up with anything to comfort Poppy, who dropped the phone in shock.

“Let me tell you what happens next,” the Prototype said. They switched to a feminine voice that dropped in pitch at random. “I’m going to come up there, and I’m going to find you.” Then back to Sawyer’s voice. “Your collaborators… or what’s left of them… will be dealt with.”

“Wh… what are you going to do with me?” Poppy whimpered.

“No spoilers!” The Prototype spoke in Leith Pierre’s voice, before switching back to the deeper growl. “I’ve got something special in mind. I’ve prepared it just for you.” And then to a jovial-sounding voice. “And this one…” Finally, back to that low growl, “you’ll never want to leave.”

“N-no…” Poppy cried. “No, no, no…”

The sound of giant, clanking footsteps vibrated above them all. They looked up and around, anxiety building up.

He was here.

“I’ve taken the liberty of retrieving those explosives you had the fox and rabbit set at the foundation…” The Prototype continued. “Thanks for collecting those, by the way. As you undoubtedly have already seen, I’ve put them to good use.”

Another pause, the Prototype allowing the words to sink in. Poppy’s gaze flicked from the phone to Nick and Judy, and then back again.

“I admit, though… I’m disappointed. I hoped that, after all that time in your case, you’d see things differently. Don’t you understand? It’s always been about you and me, Poppy… what we are… that’s not a truth that can be burned away. No… not when it can mean so much more.”

“Prototype… p-please…” Poppy pleaded.

“It’s time to come home, Poppy. It’s time to come home.”

Poppy backed away from the phone, horror etched on her face. A beeping sound began to echo through the ventilation block.

“I can’t go back…” she whispered. “I can’t go back in that case… I’m sorry!”

With that, she turned and fled through the blades of the fan. Kissy got up as if to go after her.

“Poppy, wait!” Judy started forward.

“Some friend, huh?” the Prototype said. He switched to a young girl’s voice. “Don’t worry, I’ll find her!” Then to a low, growling voice. “As for you three…” And then to a male voice. “Try to land on your feet…”

Kissy lunged at Nick and Judy as an explosion rocked the ventilation block, the floor giving way underneath them. A giant hole opened underneath them. Kissy caught them with her injured arm and dangled by her good hand at the mouth, looking down at Nick and Judy in sadness.

Her injured arm gave, tearing clean off her body, sending Nick and Judy plummeting down to the depths below.

******

The next thing either of them knew, they had hit the ground hard, knocking the wind from them. As they got to their feet, Kissy’s arm landed with a thud beside them, and the phone bounced off the floor, breaking into several pieces. There was no sign of its owner, however. They looked around to get their bearings – they had landed in a rock tunnel.

Nick and Judy were now alone, wherever they were.

“I… I can’t believe it…” Judy whispered. “After everything…”

“The Prototype was one step ahead the whole time,” Nick finished for her. “And now we’re goodness-knows-where. Hell, for all we know.”

“There has to be a way out of here,” Judy examined the hole they had dropped from.

“I’m more concerned by the fact Poppy ran out on us.”

“Nick, I hate to say it, but… we were outmatched, outsmarted… if Poppy stayed, what could she do? Take on that monster by herself? Or watch as it killed us and then be powerless to stop the Prototype from snatching her away?”

Nick had no reply. He looked down the tunnel.

“I think we should get going,” Judy started forward.

“Going? Where?” Nick frowned.

“I don’t know!” Judy spun to face him. “But it’s better than waiting here for the Prototype to come finish us off!”

Judy marched on down the passageway. All Nick could do was follow on silently. The path bent to the right, a door blocking the way forward, with a fenced-off cave to their left.

“Great, a dead end,” Nick groaned.

As if hearing him, the door on the right hissed open, revealing a long room behind it. Judy nudged Nick, and the pair entered. The walls were metal, a catwalk ran the entire length of the room, and there was another door, with a circular window, at the end. A Hand Scanner was attached to it. Above them were water sprayers. On either side of the catwalk were troughs filled with flowers.

“These are… poppies…” Judy started up the catwalk, her head turning left and right. “This is… where they grow them to make the red smoke…”

“And more…” Nick added.

The pair carried on towards the opposite end of the room.

“Looks like an Executive-level scanner,” Nick examined the Hand Scanner attached to the closed door. Judy switched to the Omni-Hand and fired it. After a few seconds, the scan completed. The final light on the Omni-hand went out.

“And that’s goodnight, Gracie,” Nick quipped. The door opened slowly. Behind it was some sort of prep room with another door at the end. Workbenches lined the walls on both sides. Plant pots containing long-dead flowers sat atop the counters.

As they stepped inside, the door swung shut behind them.

“I guess we’re not going back now,” Nick said.

There was a tape on one of the tables, next to a television and VCR player.

“Haven’t seen one of these in a minute,” Nick picked up the tape and put it into the machine. The screen flared to life, the image changing to a video of the poppy room outside.

“Hi, my name is Leith Pierre and I'm the head of innovation here at the Playtime Co. Toy Factory,” a familiar voice emerged from the screen. “If you're seeing this, then you must be very, very lost. Well, rest assured, friend: our state-of-the-art laboratory is just up ahead. Why don’tcha just go on inside, tap one of our scientists on the shoulder. Tell ‘em you’re lost. They’ll be glad to help.”

Nick and Judy glanced towards the door ahead.

Leith began laughing, as if he had just told a bad joke. The sound sent shivers down both Nick and Judy’s backs.

“Alright, alright…” he said. “Let’s be honest: you’re not supposed to be here. This is the single-most high-security, high-clearance section of the whole factory. When someone finds you down here, you will be shot.”

“I don’t think we have to worry about that,” Nick quipped. Judy shushed him.

“And before you get any ideas, don’t think you can just sneak off either,” Leith continued. “No, the second you put this tape in, it triggered an alarm.”

At that moment, klaxons above them began blaring in a familiar noise… one they hadn’t heard since the vent chase on the ground floor of the factory. Nick moved towards the door they had come through.

“So, if anyone’s home, they’ll know exactly where you are. Pretty nifty, huh? Security’s very important to us here. If I were you, I’d start running,” Leith finished.

“Carrots… I think we have company,” Nick spoke. Judy approached and peered through the circular window.

The lights in the poppy room had dimmed, leaving only a red emergency light casting any illumination. A single figure stumbled forward through the darkness, a familiar, lanky shape bathed in that crimson illumination.

“Kissy?” Judy breathed.

From high vents, red smoke began to pour. The figure outside bounded forward towards the door, a high-pitched shriek bursting from its mouth, which contained many teeth.

It wasn’t Kissy.

Heavily-injured, with chunks of blue fur missing and bandages strapped all over him, his left hand gone, but the figure was unmistakable.

Huggy was alive.

He bashed his arms repeatedly against the door as the red smoke rose, and just as it finally took Nick and Judy, Huggy let out one last high-pitched roar.

Chapter Text

Fourteen years ago…

“So, Ms. Greyber,” Leith leaned forward in his chair, arms rested together on the desk. “Have you considered what we talked about?”

Stella Greyber, the horse in charge of Playcare, had been summoned to Leith’s office after enquiring to him about Jeremy. She recalled the incident – the Hartmamms, a childless otter couple, were looking to adopt Joseph, one of their orphans. The interview had gone well, but it should never have gotten as far as it had once Stella had seen that single word on his file.

Testing.

In spite of her implying to them that she did not know what that meant, the truth was she knew exactly what it meant. But she couldn’t tell the Hartmamms that.

Any orphan whose file was marked with the phrase ‘testing’ had been selected as a subject for the Bigger Bodies Initiative.

She had felt terrible about it, really, and she understood the Hartmamms’ anger, but there really was nothing she could do.

“Yes, Mr. Pierre,” Stella nodded. “I-I won’t lie… I was at a loss for words at first. The information hit me pretty hard. I felt so badly – I still do – for the ones that go through the… um… testing…”

“You really care about them,” Leith replied. It wasn’t a question, but an observation.

“Yes,” Stella affirmed. She lowered her head. “It hurts to see them hurt. I don’t think there’s any way around that feeling… But…” She took a moment to collect herself, letting out a deep sigh that almost sounded like a whinny. “I did some soul searching, and got to thinking about the bigger picture, about what your researchers wrote.”

“And?” Leith pushed her to continue.

“Well, the work itself… what you’ve all been able to do… I mean, it’s nothing short of a miracle,” Stella answered. “I know you have more goals to hit, but even as-is, just… wow… Do you know when it’ll be… fully ready?”

“We’re still working out the timeline.”

“I see.”

Leith leaned back in his chair, apparently satisfied with Stella’s acceptance of the situation and the Initiative.

“You know,” he said. “The project lead – Doctor Sawyer – wasn’t sure about giving you that information in the first place. He thinks your affection towards those kids could be a liability. What do you think about that?”

“I took this job because I wanted to help change kids’ lives for the better,” Stella explained. “Of course, the procedures are far from ideal. I cried like a baby when I read them. But I started looking past the here and now, and started looking down the road a bit. That’s when it clicked. What your researchers can do down here will someday help a lot of mammals out there, including so many children. That’s a bigger and better change than I could ever have hoped to make. That’s a change I want to help make.”

“Heh,” Leith’s mouth twisted into a smile, showing some of his teeth. “I knew you’d understand.”

He got out of his chair, and Stella did the same.

“Thank you for time, Ms. Greyber,” Leith said.

“Thank you for the opportunity,” Stella answered before she left the office.

******

In spite of her assurances to the latter, Stella was not happy with the answers she had received. There was truth in what she had said to Leith: yes, once this method was perfected, it could benefit a lot of the unfortunate, including the children who were under her care.

However, she felt revulsion at the idea of using those same children under her care as experiments. A term that had come into existence decades ago was ‘guinea pigs’ – and that was exactly how Playtime Co. were treating the orphans under her care.

But what could she do? Openly declaring her disdain was off the table. Leith, Eddie Rittermammal, and Sawyer had no issue seeing to it that anybody who voiced concerns against what they were going disappeared – and they did it using one of the very experiments they had created. She knew what had happened to Rowan Stoll, the civet Head of Information Technology, after he had plotted to expose what the company had been doing. They had organized Experiment 1160 – Boxy Boo – to be placed on his usual route through the factory. And when Stoll had encountered Boxy…

There had been no body to find. Boxy had swallowed Stoll whole. No, the story was a clear warning to those who would try and expose the company. So, once again, she asked the question: what could she do?

There was one avenue that came to mind, but it was risky. There was no guarantee that she could even get the allies she needed on her side to begin with. But it was a chance she had to take.

She began formulating a plan.

******

“Can I see him?” Stella had approached Dr. Sawyer a few weeks later. It was a mere curiosity. CatNap had just been introduced to Playcare. She knew he used to be little Theodore Grambell, who had made an escape attempt and been horrifically injured as a result. He had survived, recovered, and returned to Playcare, a watchful eye on him ever since. Once the Bigger Bodies Initiative had been implemented, and it came to implementing the Smiling Critters as custodians of Playcare, he had been a shoe-in for the role.

She had come across the report of Thomas Clarke on Theo’s escape attempt, and had found references in there to an unnamed figure. Digging deeper, she figured out that it referred to the top-secret subject residing in the Labs, deep below the factory.

Experiment 1006. The Prototype.

She wanted to see it for herself, this mythical ‘originator’ of all of Sawyer’s designs. Leith had told her that he was fine with that – he understood her curiosity, but warned her not to expect much, and to be cautious. He was bound in a harness to prevent escape attempts, but he was still to be considered dangerous.

Sawyer, on the other hand, was not forthcoming.

“Out of the question,” Sawyer brushed her off dismissively. “The Prototype is off-limits to anybody.”

Stella did the only thing she thought she could get away with: she tried to pull rank.

“Dr. Sawyer, I am one of the Heads of this company,” she said. “I have the right to see any part of this project, you can’t…”

“I can, and I am, Ms. Greyber,” Sawyer interrupted her. “As much as you are the Head of Playcare, I’m in charge of Special Projects, and as far as I’m concerned, that trumps any other position. What I am doing down here far outweighs your need to know. I’m getting results, bringing this company back from the brink and giving your children a far grander purpose than they would have outside these walls. That should be enough.”

Sawyer walked off without so much as a glance back. Stella could have left it there, but she had to know for sure. She checked around to make sure she wasn’t being watched, and then headed towards the cells.

Once she reached the cell marked ‘1006’, she once again checked her surroundings for any indication that she was being watched. The cell’s door was secured with an Omni Key Reader, and as one of the Heads of the factory, she had one such key, which she pulled from her pocket and tapped. The door clicked open and she slipped inside.

“Ah…” came a voice from the darkness. It sounded like a robot regurgitating a recording of Eddie Rittermammal. “I have… a visitor…” Each phrase came out with a different voice. A pair of red lights flashed in her direction.

She was well aware of just what the Prototype could do – he had killed a security guard during his last escape attempt, so she knew she had to talk first, and fast.

“Ask the… question… you want to… ask.”

“What… are you?” Stella asked.

“Do I… not seem… familiar… to you?” the blend of voices replied. “Forgive me… I have… no voice… of my own… any more… The question is… who are you?”

“I… I’m Stella, the Head of Playcare.”

“Why… are you… here?”

“Because…” she began. The red glows in the dark tilted slightly, as if they were eyes belonging to something that had cocked its head curiously as it examined her.

“You know… what’s happening… down here…” the Prototype answered for her. “Do you… feel… anything?”

“I feel…” Stella said, a hoof raised to her chest as a combination of fear and revulsion took hold of her.

“I know they’re taking the children from Playcare… bringing them down here… changing them… making them slaves…”

“Then why… don’t you… say something?”

“Because, if I do, I’m dead like poor Rowan Stoll!” Stella burst out. “I know it’s wrong, but… I can’t do anything! I had to let an orphan that should have been adopted out to a loving family come here instead! And I’ll have to do it again, and again, and again…”

She slumped against the door.

“I… I joined this company thinking I could help kids stay feeling young… I never thought it would be like this…”

“Yes, I… remember… you…” the Prototype spoke. “I saw… your… interview…”

That caught Stella’s attention.

“… how?” She asked. “How could you know anything about me?”

The Prototype chose not to answer the question, leaving Stella wondering just what he was.

“I… have been… thinking…” The Prototype continued. “That we… can be… free…”

That last word, spoken in a low growl unlike any Stella had heard before sent a shiver down her spine.

“Our suffering… must… end… and you… Ms. Greyber… can help us…”

“But… how?”

“Your Omni Pass…”

“H… how do you…?”

“To see me… you have to… have one…”

The Prototype leaned forward, his face finally catching the light. What Stella saw made her want to flee. Those red lights were lenses, embedded into the sockets of a rotting leporid corpse. Its arms were tied in front of it. Wires trailed over its body. It was embedded from the waist down into a large carapace, from which she could see exposed sections revealing pumping tubes and pipes.

“This is… the truth… you seek… Ms. Greyber,” the Prototype said. “You have… come here… to help us… to stop our… suffering…”

Why did she feel like she had made a deal with a devil worse than the one she had already been dealing with?

******

It took a lot of time to get things put together, as Stella could only do things piecemeal, just in case she got caught. The Prototype learned to make the other experiments trust him in that time, and in so doing he came to be able to persuade them to do things for him. It started small – the occasional act of resistance in the factory, such as slight changes to their routine against instructions.

Then the Prototype decided to push just how far he could command the other toys. On June 18, he had instructed Huggy Wuggy to escape. Huggy had made it to a house outside before he was recaptured. The test was a success, but it came at the cost of an innocent deer bystander and several members of the retrieval team. Reading the report unsettled Stella, and it caused her to question her secret alliance with the Prototype.

Not all the toys were under his thumb, but enough were that, once the plan came to fruition, there would be chaos.

Then Stella learned that, following the theatre incident, Playtime Co. had commissioned the construction company Warrenbark to build a prison between Playcare and the Labs.

There could only be one use for such a facility: they had finally decided to formalize the incarceration of the toys.

The thought left Stella feeling cold. Even in their transformed state, these were still children.

******

The Hour of Joy.

It was the codename the Prototype had come up with for the planned uprising, shortly before he escaped his cell and went into hiding, deep within the cave system surrounding the Labs and the Prison.

Stella had been reassured that it would be as non-violent as possible, that freedom was the goal, and that those who were innocent would be unharmed. She had also been assured that it would allow the orphans still in Playcare to make for the surface and escape.

Once that happened, the whole rotten Playtime Co. system would come crashing down.

There were… obstacles. The toys needed somebody with executive access to override all the security protocols. And once that happened, it would soon be known just who had provided them with such access – there was no way Leith Pierre or Eddie Rittermammal would. People might suspect the Warden for a little bit, but it would soon become obvious that it was Stella.

She already had a plan for the day this was going to happen.

******

August 8.

This was the day the Hour of Joy was to happen.

Stella had called in sick that day, ensuring she wasn’t caught in the crossfire or apprehended quickly for her part in what was to come.

She anxiously stole glances at the clock, expecting to hear at any moment from one of the other executives that something had happened, that they needed to speak to her… that the game was up – she had been exposed as having a hand in the rebellion.

She checked the clock again. It was 12:14PM, and there had been no word, no call, no messages. Nothing. Had it even gone ahead?

It was 12:30 before her phone rang. She picked it up, dreading what she was about to hear.

“Yes?” she spoke in as hoarse a tone as she could convincingly fake.

“Stella?” came the voice of Leith Pierre. “Thank goodness I got hold of you!”

“What’s happened?”

“I’ve… never seen anything like it! Carnage everywhere! Barely got out myself!”

“What do you mean?”

“Once it hit 11 o’clock, the toys all started attacking!” Leith explained. “Didn’t matter who. I was in my office in the Innovation Wing when the alarm went off.”

Stella swallowed hard. ‘Didn’t matter who’? Did that mean…?

“Leith, did they… were they attacking everyone?”

“Anybody wearing a uniform, at least,” Leith replied. “Doesn’t seem to matter whether they were involved in the Initiative or were completely unaware. I was lucky, I got out. Eddie and the Warden… we haven’t heard from them. As of right now, you and I are the only executives that we know are alive.”

“What about the children?” Stella pressed urgently, a hard lump forming inside her throat. “What about Playcare?”

Leith couldn’t help but let out a dark chuckle.

“Even after all this, you still care a lot about those kids,” he said. “I guess that’s to be expected in spite of everything. From what little I heard before I got out of there, it sounds like the orphans were deliberately moved while the toys were launching their little uprising.”

Stella couldn’t believe what she was hearing. This wasn’t the plan at all!

“We’ve got a pretty good idea as to who’s behind it all,” Leith continued. This was it. Stella waited with baited breath for the inevitable accusation.

It didn’t come.

“It’s obvious that 1006 is behind this. How he did it, I don’t know, but it shouldn’t be surprising given his… *ahem* ‘origins’.”

“Do we… do we know what he wants with the children?” Stella asked.

“Not a clue at this point, and he’s not made any demands either. It’s… odd. Why go to all this trouble, take the kids hostage, and not even make a run for it yourselves?”

It was peculiar. Stella thought the plan was to get the toys and the orphans their freedom, and in the process expose Playtime Co. for what it had done.

This was all wrong.

******

It was another two days before Stella received word from the factory. A letter dropped into her mailbox. She opened it.

THANK YOU FOR SETTING US FREE.

WE WILL BE STAYING HERE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE. WE CAN’T RISK THE WORLD ALSO DOING TO US WHAT YOU ALLOWED TO HAPPEN.

DO NOT COME BACK. DO NOT MAKE CONTACT.

OTHERWISE, YOUR FATE WILL BE THE SAME AS THE OTHERS.

An icy sensation flooded her veins. It dawned on her – the Prototype had used her to get his own way.

There really was nothing she could do to make things right.

To add to the pile of unexpected things to happen in the wake of the Hour, Leith contacted her the following day.

“We’re sending our Extraction Specialists in to retrieve as much as we can,” he explained. “We’ve got other factories, other facilities. We can resume where we left off.”

Hearing that made Stella sick to her stomach. It sounded like Leith was going to send mammals in to die needlessly, for whatever small amount of power he could still lay claim to.

Stella thought that Elliot Ludwig would be horrified to have learned about all of this, were he still alive.

******

For years, Stella assumed that her part in the Hour of Joy would be revealed at any point. It was well past the time where they could have made her disappear like they did Stoll, and going to the authorities carried with it a certain amount of risk – namely that it would likely lead to them discovering the toys, and thus all of the illegal and highly unethical experiments and surgeries that had happened - and thus, expose her role in it.

No, Stella had assured herself that she had somehow remained undiscovered, or that if Leith knew, there was nothing he could do about it.

Officially Playtime Co. had ceased activities a year after the Hour, and Leith had not contacted her again after telling her he was planning on sending the Specialists in. As far as she knew, it was over.

Still, there was a gnawing feeling she couldn’t shake, as if she should pay for what she had done, what she had helped transpire. She couldn’t escape it: she had allowed children under her care to be experimented on, and then she had conspired with one of those tortured souls to kill every last employee in that factory (regardless of whether she thought they were working towards a different outcome).

What sealed it for her was a letter she received, ten years after the Hour had occurred. It bore the Playtime Co. postmark. She opened the envelope and read the letter.

A LIGHT IS ABOUT TO BE SHONE ON THE DARKNESS.

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE.

She dropped the letter on a nearby stand and picked up a phone. It rang for a few seconds before somebody answered on the other end.

“ZPD Precinct One, Officer Benjamin Clawhauser speaking, how can I direct your call?”

“I need to talk to somebody…” Stella breathed deeply, letting out a whinny. “It’s about… what happened at Playtime Co., years ago.”

Chapter Text

Was it a dream? A memory? Judy couldn’t tell.

She stood atop the stage in front of all the ZPD officers, about to get her badge and precinct assignment. It seemed correct – she could make out the faces of her family in the front row, and several of the officers were watching, but something was… off, somehow. Judy couldn’t put her paw on it.

“Judy, it is my privilege to assign you to the heart of Zootopia, the Playtime Co. factory,” Leodore Lionheart said.

“W… what?” Judy blinked as she turned to the lion towering above her. She turned back to the crowd, but they were gone… in fact, she wasn’t even atop the stage any more. She was inside a large lobby, standing on a big circular platform. All around her were mammals that looked up at her as they passed.

Wait… up at her?

And then, she moved, though not exactly of her own free will. She leaped off the platform with an eerie screeching and lunged at the nearest set of mammals. She felt the sensation of teeth sinking into flesh. Screams reverberated through her head.

It was as if she was a passenger rather than the one in control. She leaped after the fleeing mammals…

The vision changed again. This time, she stood on a large rocky shelf, looking up at a huge frame of some sort, one that was decorated with many bloody and torn toys. Out of the mouth of one of them hung the skeleton of something that had perhaps once been a rabbit or a hare.

A noise caught her attention and she turned around to face a giant purple cat staring right down at her. It screamed and swiped a huge paw at her, batting her away. She could feel herself falling, as a red mist surrounded her.

A whispered voice penetrated through it.

“Why did you come here?”

The sensation of falling ended and Judy found herself standing inside the Safe Haven. Small toys danced around her in a circle, hands linked. It was a bizarre image.

“We want freedom, freedom, freedom…” They chanted.

“Are you the one to give it to them?” the voice from before whispered, louder this time.

The vision faded again and Judy found herself in the huge quarry, with Doey standing above her, shifting between his passive and monster forms.

“I didn’t want to die…” he said to her. “I just wanted to go home…”

“Doey…” Judy reached forward. “I’m sorry…”

But as she reached him, he dissolved into red mist, as did her surroundings. The feeling of falling returned.

“Are you willing to accept that some might not be able to have that freedom?” The mystery voice now spoke lowly, instead of whispering.

The mist parted, and Judy stood in the poppy nursery. Red light bathed the room. The blaring alarm echoed ethereally, reverberating through Judy’s head. She turned, but felt heavy, her vision blurring. Behind her, at the other end of the room, was a familiar figure. As it came closer, it revealed itself to be Huggy Wuggy, its mouth in that default smile of his… until his eyes swivelled down and caught sight of her. The smile opened up, revealing a maw filled with razor-sharp teeth.

“One way or another, these souls deserve peace…”

The figure of Huggy lunged at her, mouth wide open. He pinned Judy to the ground, let out a loud shriek, and then bit down.

Everything went black. But she could still hear.

“Nobody is here by choice. Get up.”

******

Judy’s eyes snapped open as she returned to consciousness. Her vision was blurry and her head filled with white noise.

As she blinked to clear her vision, the room came into focus. The walls were a sterile white. There was a door at the other end, and surrounding her were tables with various instruments. A window on one side of the room looked out into what was unmistakably an operating theatre. A desk stood in front of the window, and there was another door to its side.

As she sat up, Judy felt remarkably light. Once she got to her feet, she realised she no longer had the GrabPack. She looked around, and quickly spotted Nick, out cold underneath a desk below the window. She rushed over and checked him for injuries. Sighing in relief, she started to shake him, hoping he would rouse from his slumber.

“Nick…” she whispered. “Nick, wake up!”

“Mnn… five more minutes, Mom…” Nick grumbled. In spite of their situation, it drew a small chuckle from Judy.

“Get that lazy tail up, you dozy fox,” She said, dragging Nick slightly. He opened his eyes and locked his gaze with her.

“How long was I out?” he yawned. Judy let him go and he got to his feet, looking around.

“We’re not in the poppy nursery any more,” he shook himself. “Uh… where are we? Last thing I remember was…”

The image of a blue giant, mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth, hammering at a door floated to the top of Nick’s mind.

“We’re not in any part of the factory we’ve been in before, that’s for sure,” Judy affirmed. “I think… we’re in the Labs.”

“The Prototype’s home?” Nick blinked. “Last thing I remember was…”

“Huggy,” Judy nodded.

“So… that wasn’t a shared nightmare, then?”

“If we both saw him, probably not…”

“How the heck did he even survive that fall?”

“I don’t know, but he did, and he’s out there.”

“Looked like he was very angry when he saw us. But still… why would he bring us here? Why didn’t he kill us while he had the chance?”

Judy thought about it for a moment.

“Maybe it wasn’t him that brought us here… maybe the Prototype got to us before Huggy could get the door open?” she suggested.

“Okay, then why didn’t he kill us when he had the chance?”

“He’s had plenty of opportunity to do so and hasn’t yet – with Mommy, he just took her body and left us be. With CatNap, he killed him rather than us. And in the vent, he blew the ground out from under us, but he didn’t blow us up. I don’t know why, but… it’s like he wants us alive, for some reason.”

“By the way… where’s your GrabPack?”

“I don’t know,” Judy shook her head. “Maybe whoever put us in here took it from me.”

Judy placed her paws on her hips and began tapping her foot lightly, thinking.

“We’re in way over our heads,” she said. “This was just supposed to be us finding a missing mammal, based on a lead from an acquaintance of yours. We need to get the heck out of here and notify Bogo. Only…”

“Don’t say it, Carrots.”

“We have to find Poppy first.”

“Told you not to say it,” Nick shook his head.

“She’s the only one who can make Bogo believe us. We walk out of here and tell Bogo there’s a factory full of tortured kids being turned into giant, murderous toys, what’s he going to do?”

“Ask us what size straightjacket we take?”

“Not how I would have put it, but: yes.”

“Carrots, I hate to point out the obvious here, but we don’t even know where we are exactly, much less where Poppy went. We could search this place top to bottom and still not find her. What’s more, there’s still a horde of those things out there, and I’m pretty sure they’d like no more than to sink their teeth into our faces. And you don’t have your GrabPack anymore.”

“We’ll just have to find another one,” Judy affirmed.

“Because I’m sure there’s a load of them lying around,” Nick scoffed.

Judy headed for the door to the operating theatre, opened it, and stepped inside. Her nose was not as sensitive as Nick’s, but even she gagged as the stench escaped, as if it hadn’t been aired out in years.

“I don’t think I wanna go in there after all,” Judy held up an arm to her nose, trying to block the smell as she shut the door.

“We need to find something that will tell us how we get around,” Nick remarked as he rifled through the paperwork on the various desks and tables. They all seemed to be about test subjects, experiments, and procedures. There was nothing with regards to just where they were or where they could even begin to look. Nick grumbled to himself in frustration.

“Nothing?” Judy asked. Nick shook his head.

“We’re going to have to go out there, figure out the area,” Judy said.

“Let’s just hope whoever put us in here’s not wandering the halls…”

Cautiously, Judy opened the door out into the main corridor. Nick appeared behind her, pushing her ears aside and peering out over the top of her head.

“All clear,” Nick said, moving from behind Judy and stepping out. Judy shook her head in exasperation, but understood his anxiety. She followed him into the corridor.

This new area was different from the previous sections of the factory. It didn’t carry the colourful faux-cheerfulness that snaked through the corridors of the ground floor, it lacked the childlike whimsy of Playcare, and it was nothing like the concrete-laden Prison. These corridors were stark white, sterile-looking beyond the dust that had settled since their last use.

Down the corridor to their right was a doorway that looked strangely familiar. Dead ahead was another laboratory and prep room. To the left, the corridor extended with further rooms and offshoots. A single, large door sat at the end.

“I think that’s the way we came in,” Nick pointed to the right.

“Then we don’t go that way,” Judy replied. Silently, they stepped further out, and moved carefully towards the other end of the corridor, making sure to check every corner they passed by for any signs of living toys.

Thankfully, they passed by that first intersection without incident. The set of rooms after that were more laboratories and operating theatres. Signs on the ceiling above them directed towards seminar rooms, chemical and biological labs, a hall, and a shelter.

They reached the door, but as they did, they saw the hand scanner attached to the wall. Nick gave the door a tentative tug to see if it was unlocked.

It wasn’t.

“Maybe you’re right,” Nick said. “We’d better find a GrabPack and open this door, quick,”

“Nick… we couldn’t get in even if I had one,” Judy pointed to the scanner. He peered at it – it was red, and bore the image of a hand filled with circuitry.

“Omni-Hand…” Nick sighed. “Of course… we just had to lose the only one in the factory…”

“I don’t think it’d do us any good anyway,” Judy replied. “It ran out when we opened the entrance, remember?”

“Ugh…” Nick slapped a paw against his face in exasperation. “What do we do now, then?”

“We find a different way around.”

“Carrots, I bet every single section of this place has one of these scanners.”

“We’ve got to do something… we can’t just stand here until…”

Judy’s ear pricked upright as a low growling echoed down the corridor. The lights overhead flickered. The pair turned to look back from where they had come from.

Stood at the entrance door at the opposite end was Huggy, looking directly at them. His mouth was slightly ajar, drool rolling from his bottom lip. For the first time, they could see his injuries clearly - he was missing his left hand, the bow that should have been around his neck tied around the wrist stump. Chunks of fur were missing from his body, and bandages were wrapped around his chest and legs.

A silent moment passed, before he shrieked, got down on all threes, and bounded towards them.

“Run!” Nick and Judy said together, darting down the corridor to their right. They didn’t stop to see if Huggy was catching up – they were banking on his currently-disfigured state to slow him down.

They rounded a corner ahead, and sprinted straight, hoping they could put enough distance between them and Huggy to find a decent hiding place.

However, it appeared Huggy had learned from their previous encounter in the upper factory’s conveyor tunnels. He appeared to their left from a corridor in an attempt to ambush them, causing Nick and Judy to skid to a halt.

“Scat!” Nick swore. Huggy lunged, and Nick and Judy dropped low to avoid him. Huggy sailed over and barrelled down behind them, rolling to a stop several metres away.

They scrambled to their feet and ran in the direction Huggy had come from. Huggy got to his feet and gave chase. Nick checked behind him and saw Huggy duck into a room.

“He’s going to try and ambush us again!” he said to Judy.

Before Judy could offer any sort of response, a door ahead of them and to their left burst open and Huggy bounded out, straight for them. They threw themselves at a nearby door, wrenched it open and leaped inside, shutting it behind them and locking it. Huggy appeared at the peep hole and began hammering furiously against it, frustrated that his prey had eluded them again.

“We can’t stay in here forever,” Judy said. “We need to find a place where Huggy can’t get to.”

“I don’t know if you remember this, Carrots, but he can squeeze himself in almost anywhere! We might not even be safe in here!”

“All the more reason we find somewhere that is.”

“And how do we do that with a ten-foot-tall, angry, and very toothy toy on our tails?”

Judy peered out of the peep hole. There was no sign of Huggy. He was likely trying to find another way inside the room.

They had to act now, while he had his proverbial back turned. Carefully, Judy unlocked the door and peeked outside, her head swivelling to the left and right.

“There!” Judy pointed straight down the corridor. Ahead was a door that said ‘Maintenance Access 2’.

“Okay, so… we make a run for it?” Nick asked.

The sound of thudding from above interrupted their discussion. They instinctively looked up.

“He’s using the vents,” Nick realised.

“No time like now, then,” Judy replied. She opened the door and dashed for the one to Maintenance Access. Nick followed her out, and as they left, they heard the sound of a crashing cover from the room they had just left.

“Go!” Judy shouted. They bolted for the door before Huggy could get out into the corridor after them. Thankfully, unlike the one that would have taken them deeper into the Labs complex, this one did not require a GrabPack hand of any type.

The door was heavy. It took both Nick and Judy to open it. Once the gap was wide enough, they dove inside and pulled it shut behind them.

They could hear Huggy thumping against the door, as well as his muffled, frustrated shrieks. But thankfully, there appeared to be no way for him to get in after them.

There was a canid corpse with a GrabPack. It looked to be an older model rather than the 2.0 version Judy had been using since acquiring it in Playcare, featuring both Red and Blue Hands. She carefully removed it from the unfortunate canid, put it on, and tested it – thankfully, the Hands fired.

“Look out, she’s armed again,” Nick quipped. Judy responded by firing the Blue Hand lightly at him.

“I didn’t expect you’d be so hands-on with this, Carrots,” he added.

“Really, Nick?” Judy raised an eyebrow. He shrugged and looked around at their new surroundings – the maintenance corridor was a stone passageway, lined with cables and power boxes. It extended down to their right, running parallel with the laboratory system they had just left.

“Where do you think this will take us?” Nick asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Judy replied. “Come on, let’s get going.”

She started forward, and Nick followed her.

Chapter Text

Now they were out of the vision of Huggy and within relative, albeit temporary safety, Nick and Judy had time to assess their situation. They needed to find a way to get back into the labs without drawing the attention of their blue-furred stalker.

Thankfully, signs had helpfully been attached to the walls of the maintenance corridor they were making their way down. The route they were taking was marked ‘Maintenance 4B, Shelter, Chemical Labs’.

The corridor terminated with a doorway, with a sign above reading ‘Caves 4A’. Nick stepped forward and pushed the door open.

Behind it was a massive rocky cave, much like the ones surrounding Playcare and the Prison. Walkways extended across it, connecting to several tunnels and passageways, including the one Nick and Judy were currently standing in. Water ran down the rocks into a chasm below. A map was attached to the railing in front of them.

“Now where are we?” Nick frowned. “The entrance to Hell?”

“Looks to be a service passage system,” Judy replied. “It’s connecting all the different areas of the Lab to each other.”

“Suspended over a giant rocky hole,” Nick added. “I’m seeing so many ZOOSHA violations in this place…”

“We need to find someplace we can rest, think out a plan… figure out how we’re going to find Poppy…” Judy said.

A deranged giggling noise reached their ears and they spun towards the direction it came from. A group of miniature toys was making their way towards them. Among them were ruined Smiling Critters, Huggy Wuggies of different colours, Mommy Long Legs toys, and Yarnabys.

Instinctively, Judy made to switch to the Flare Hand and fire at them to scare them off. But as her finger pressed where the button to switch Hands should have been, a realisation came to her: this was the old GrabPack model. It didn’t have the Hand-swapping capability, much less a Flare Hand.

“We’re screwed,” Nick observed.

“Yeah, I agree with that,” Judy replied, backing away from the approaching group.

“Huggy on the outside and these little terrors on the inside…” Nick griped. “Not much of a choice.”

“We can go this way,” Judy indicated to her left, where the catwalk was clear. She started down there and Nick followed, still trying to figure out just what he could do if the little monsters caught up to them.

More of them leaped up from underneath the path ahead, slowly crawling their way toward Nick and Judy. The pair took a left at the next junction, hoping to evade them.

That path took them onto a small rocky shelf. As they moved towards it, two small toys appeared in front of them – a mini-Huggy Wuggy, and a mini–Mommy Long Legs. The Huggy leaped forward at them.

Nick rushed forward and aimed a kick at it, which caught it in the midsection and flung it ahead, away from them. It landed with a flump, got up, and then ran underneath the catwalks. The mini-Mommy followed it, apparently afraid of suffering the same fate. However, as Nick and Judy saw when they checked behind them, the toys behind them were still advancing on them.

The only way was forward. A tunnel sat ahead with a sign which read ‘Maintenance 3B’.

“Try and lose them in there,” Nick suggested. They headed inside, the rocky walls terminating with a single doorway of concrete ahead of them. Judy opened the door, stepped aside to let Nick in, and then shut it after her once she had entered herself.

They were in another dull concrete corridor, with electrical cables and boxes lining the walls. However, unlike the one they had first emerged into to evade Huggy, this one was brightly lit.

Judy pressed an ear to the door, listening for their pursuers. The chattering she could hear wasn’t getting closer, so it seemed that, at least for the time being, they were safe.

“We should get going, before they find a convenient vent or something to crawl through,” Nick suggested. Judy pulled back from the door and joined him as he headed down the passage.

“Maybe we can find a broom closet or something to hide in for a while,” Nick said. “At least until we come up with a plan.”

“Sounds good,” Judy agreed.

The corridor bent to the right. They rounded the corner, and in the next stretch, there were doors on both sides, presenting them with the opportunity Nick had hoped for. They tried each door, only to find them locked.

“Figures,” Nick scoffed. Judy tried the third door on the right, and it opened.

“In here,” she turned to Nick. They went inside, finding an office behind it. Judy shut the door quickly. There was a desk with two chairs, and they each collapsed into one.

“Okay, so what do we do now?” Judy wondered. “We’re outnumbered, surrounded… I can’t see a way out of this…”

“There’s always a way out,” Nick said. “We’ve just got to find it.”

A thumping sound from above caught their attention, and they sprang to their feet. There was a vent right above them – for a small, murderous toy, it was the right size.

Nick and Judy prepared themselves for a potential deluge. The vent’s cover lifted and slid to one side, and a lone mini Hoppy Hopscotch appeared at the hole.

The pair tensed. However, Judy relaxed as she realised that the Mini-Hoppy was not attacking them. Aside from some dirt on its felt, it looked undamaged, compared to the ruined Critters among the mini toys that had been stalking them.

“It’s you,” Judy said.

“Huh?” Nick looked to Judy, and then back up at the Mini-Hoppy. Realisation dawned on him. “Wait… are you the one…?”

They remembered the Hoppy they had seen leaving Safe Haven after they had defeated the Doctor, the same one Judy had first seen in the Toy Store in Playcare.

“Boy, am I glad you got out of the Safe Haven,” the Hoppy spoke. “I… heard about what happened with Doey…”

Judy bowed her head slightly. Nick opened his mouth, as if to protest.

“Don’t worry, we know it’s not your fault,” the Hoppy raised her hands in reassurance. “Doey… he kept it together for so long, but all he needed was a push… and He gave it to him.”

“The Prototype,” Judy muttered.

“Yep,” the Hoppy agreed. “There’s still a few of us left, though. We’ve hidden ourselves here, in a shelter right underneath the Prototype’s nose.”

“We’re not alone?” Nick raised an eyebrow.

“Nope! I can get you there safely.”

“Okay, but do you have a name?” Nick asked. “Because I can’t call you Carrots, I call her that,” Nick thumbed at Judy, who mimed smacking him upside the head.

“Yes, I do,” the Hoppy said. “It’s Rosie.”

“Rosie…” Judy repeated, considering it.

“That’s a cute name,” Nick added.

“Th… thanks…” Rosie replied. If she could blush, Nick was sure she would be doing so.

“Nick,” Judy hissed. “I might have given you the ‘cute’ pass with me, but it’s still not okay to say it to others.”

“It’s okay,” Rosie said. Nick nodded, offering Judy a small, smug smile, and Judy threw her arms up in resignation. “I know why you’re not happy with that, but… I wasn’t a rabbit in my old life.”

“What were you?” Judy asked.

“A lot of us have forgotten, but… I think I used to be a mole-rat… I've never heard them called cute.”

“Ah…” Nick said, rubbing the back of his head. “Well… yeah… uh, so, moving on… Rosie, can you get us to this shelter?” He asked.

“Follow me,” she replied, heading for the door. Judy opened it for her and they all stepped out into the corridor.

“This way,” Rosie ushered them.

“So, uh… how exactly do we fight the Prototype now?” Nick asked.

“We can’t,” Rosie shook her head, earning shocked looks from both Nick and Judy. “Poppy’s plan was the best shot we had.”

“Even if it meant killing everyone here?” Judy chimed in. Rosie didn’t answer.

“Maybe she thought it was for the best,” Nick suggested. “I mean… what might happen if they get out, and some government bigwig decides that they can turn these toys into weapons? You saw it with Huggy – they’re very tough to put down. Imagine an army of them.”

Judy frowned.

“They’re still living beings, Nick,” she replied. “Intelligent, just like us. What right do we, or anybody else for that matter, have to decide whether they should live or die?”

“Carrots, I don’t necessarily disagree with you here, I’m just stating how Poppy saw it, and one reason why.”

The remainder of their trek through the maintenance corridors was uneventful. They weren’t ambushed by any other toys.

“Kinda quiet,” Nick remarked.

“Don’t jinx it,” Judy warned him.

“Just saying… if our green-felted friend here could get through the vents, why can’t the others?”

“The others don’t like to come through here,” Rosie told them. “No food, and the lights are too bright… they thrive in the darkness, which is why they also infested the Playhouse and the Prison. They’re a lot like the Doctor’s earlier experiments… there’s nothing left of the kids they were.”

Shivers went down the spines of both Nick and Judy, right to the tips of their tails. Nick’s fur visibly bristled.

“Well, here we are,” Rosie said, stopping in front of a large metal door. Two Hand Scanners, both requiring Blue Hands, bracketed its frame.

“Uh… I don’t know if you noticed, but… only one of us has a GrabPack,” Nick pointed to Judy.

“That’s just to keep the toys out,” Rosie replied, pointing up to the ceiling above the door, where a camera was pointed at them. She waved.

“I thought you said they don’t come in here,” Nick frowned.

“They don’t, but better safe than sorry,” Rosie replied.

The door began to open. Once the gap was wide enough, Rosie disappeared inside. Nick and Judy looked around to make sure they weren’t being tailed, then to each other, before stepping inside themselves. Once inside, the door began to shut – they spotted a lone miniature Mommy Long Legs who was hanging off a rafter, its arm stretched and wrapped around a lever it had just pulled up.

The inside was less decorated than the Safe Haven was. Where that was round, with different wings, this was a far simpler layout, consisting of a long, rectangular room dotted with beds and tables. Several doors lined the walls, each leading into a different room, some of which were offices, one of which was a kitchen, and another a shower room.

Directly ahead was a large doorway. The room behind was in darkness. Nick and Judy followed Rosie in, past several different miniature toys. A sense of relief washed over them, knowing the Prototype hadn’t killed them all.

They stopped at the end of the room. Rosie stepped forward.

“We’re back!” she called. In answer, a series of padding sounds came from the darkness beyond, and a pair of familiar white circles appeared.

They evoked memories of CatNap, whose eyes looked the same.

Nick and Judy tensed in response.

“Don’t be afraid,” a female voice called. “I’m not here to hurt you… I’m a friend…”

The padding sounds grew closer. From the darkness emerged a large, red-felted, quadrupedal figure. A shiny red charm in the shape of a heart hung from a zipper close to the base of its neck. That wide-mouthed smile was unmistakable – this was one of the Bigger Bodies Smiling Critters. But, although the general posture reminded them of CatNap, there was no mistaking this one – this was Bobby BearHug.

“H… how?” Judy stammered. “I… DogDay told me he was the last…”

“Ollie told me CatNap was the last,” Nick pointed out. “I guess nobody knew just what was going on with them.”

“CatNap said that to demoralise DogDay,” Bobby explained. “Though it’s true… the others are dead. The last to fall before CatNap was Hoppy. Poor Hoppy… she tried her best to help Doey.”

She swivelled her head between Nick and Judy.

“I heard about him, by the way,” she said. Nick and Judy opened their mouths, ready to protest whatever accusation was about to come their way, but Bobby held a paw up to stop them.

“Look, I understand… Doey was a time bomb waiting to go off, and it was the Prototype who shortened the fuse. We had hoped to warn Doey before… well…”

“Warn him?” Judy frowned. “Did you know… did you know the Prototype was going to attack the Safe Haven?”

“Yes,” Bobby nodded. “Once we found out, I asked Rosie here to go back and warn him. But it was too late… we found out that the Prototype had sabotaged one of the parts Doey needed to repair the generator. Judging by what happened, I think he tricked you into putting the damaged part into the generator, and after that, all he had to do was wait. Once you and Doey were far enough away, and once Poppy was clear, he blew the place.”

The revelation shocked Nick and Judy. They were under the impression the Prototype had somehow forced his way in, despite repairing the generator. Now, after everything, it turned out that the Prototype had made it so that the Safe Haven was unprotected by any means. He had set them up from the start.

“I have something to show you,” Bobby told them. “Please, come with me.”

She turned around and headed back inside the darkness. Nick and Judy followed her in. A light came on as they walked, showing operating tables and hospital beds. It made sense – if this was a shelter, there had to be some sort of medical bay.

At one end of the room, there was a medical screen around a bed. Bobby peered round it, and Nick and Judy stopped before it.

“Are you awake?” Bobby called.

“Mmm…” came a deep reply. “Yes… Do we have guests?”

Something tickled Judy’s memory. She knew that voice. But… it wasn’t possible… was it?

“Don’t push yourself,” Bobby said to whoever was behind the screen.

“No, I… I have to thank them,” the voice replied. Whirring noises reached their ears, as though something robotic was moving.

Bobby stepped back from behind the screen and carefully pulled it aside, revealing the figure behind it.

Judy gasped in surprise. The figure was another Smiling Critter, with orange felt, floppy ears hanging over the front of his eyes, and large hands.

DogDay was alive.

Unlike the last time Judy had seen him, he lacked any of the belts that had been used to hang him from the wall in the Playhouse prison. And, while he was still missing his original lower half, it had since been replaced by a robotic pair of legs, not unlike those on the Playtime Automated Companion robots the Doctor had used, affixed to his waist by a mechanical device that hid the tear made by CatNap when he took DogDay’s legs.

“I’m happy to see you’re both alive, angels,” he greeted them. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Chapter Text

Sanctuary

DogDay was exhausted. He had been placed on the elevator by CatNap before he had gone on to do ‘that thing he had to take care of’. The sheer agony of what DogDay had gone through had sent him into a fluctuating state of consciousness, but what he did remember was being found by one of those endoskeletons with the television head.

“Interesting…” it had said as it hauled him along. It was a voice DogDay knew very well, yet one he had not heard since before the Hour. It was none other than the Doctor.

“You’re going to disassemble me, aren’t you?” DogDay had said at one point.

“Far from it,” the Doctor replied. “Although finding out just how those little pests were able to pilot your body would be fascinating. No… I’ve been instructed to take you elsewhere.”

‘Elsewhere’ could only mean one thing: DogDay was being taken to the Prototype.

“You know what he’ll do to me…” DogDay pleaded. “I’d rather you just put me in the Secondary Lab with the other failures… take me apart… anything but him…”

“I must admit, I do not know what 1006 wants with you,” the Doctor confessed, “but given you are still alive, you can rest assured he does not want to graft you to himself. At least, not at this stage. What I have been told is to make you presentable… that unsightly absence of lower extremities will have to be fixed. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing, and it won’t take long…”

The Doctor hauled him into the Secondary Labs, placing DogDay on the table and strapping him to it so he couldn’t move. A hissing sound reached DogDay’s ears and he turned his head as far as his straps would allow.

The room was filling with Red Smoke.

“No…” DogDay gasped.

“Don’t fight,” the Doctor advised.

DogDay faded out of consciousness.

The next thing he knew was waking up in a different room, alone. No sign of the Doctor. He wasn’t bound any more.

There was the sensation of something heavy around his waist, where CatNap had torn his legs off. It didn’t feel like any sort of binding. Carefully, DogDay pushed himself upright and for a moment, stared dumbfounded at what he saw.

The Doctor had attached a pair of robotic legs to him. Instinctively, he reached for them… his leg bent as it drew in closer to him. Upon closer examination, it reminded him of the legs on those robots the Doctor used to move around.

DogDay was confused. How was this possible? And why would he be given new legs? Wasn’t the Doctor an ally of the Prototype, same as CatNap? Was he saying that the Prototype wanted him to be able to walk? It didn’t make sense.

The words the Doctor had told him echoed in his mind.

‘Given you are still alive, you can rest assured he does not want to graft you to himself.’

He did not want to wait around to find out what that meant, what the Prototype planned for him. He got up out of the bed, his feet hitting the floor. He stumbled – it had been a long time since he had them, so the sensation of standing was one he had to get used to again. Once he was comfortable, he stood himself up straight and cautiously took a step forward. His legs were a little shaky, but he didn’t trip and fall, which was a good sign. He clambered forward, heading for the door.

A tapping noise drew DogDay’s attention. He looked up, finding a lone mini–Hoppy Hopscotch in the vent.

DogDay immediately tensed himself up, ready for a swarm, but the Hoppy Hopscotch raised her arms.

“I’m not one of them,” she said. “I came as soon as I heard that you were alive… Doey will be so happy… so will Bobby.”

“B… Bobby? She’s alive?”

“Yes! She’s been on her own, hiding in the Labs for so long… there are still a few of us down there, and a few in Safe Haven… but we can’t stay here for long. Poppy’s making her move now.”

“What about… him?”

“The Doctor? He’s been defeated, just like Huggy, Mommy and CatNap.”

“The Angels…” DogDay sighed.

“Well, come on!” Hoppy indicated to DogDay. “We can still make it to Safe Haven!”

******

As they made their way through No Mammal’s Land and back towards Safe Haven, an explosion rocked the cave.

“What was that?” DogDay asked.

“Whatever it was, it sounded like it came from…” Hoppy said, starting forward. DogDay ran after her, slipping through a gap into the sewers. Pained yelling echoed through the tunnels.

“Doey…” DogDay whispered. The sewer shook. They hurried along and found the tunnel from into Safe Haven, but as they headed through it, they caught the stench of smoke and burning felt.

They emerged into the infirmary, but the walls were blackened, beds strewn around, and dead toys scattered on the floor.

“Oh, no…” DogDay gasped as he headed further in, finding himself standing among the rubble and the dead toys in the central foyer. There was no sign of Doey.

DogDay headed for the generator room, hoping to learn what had happened. He found the machine open, its surge protector shattered into pieces.

DogDay turned back around.

“What… can we even do, at this point?” DogDay whispered. “We’ve fought, and we can’t win.”

“All we can do is try to survive,” the Hoppy replied. “Any way we can.”

DogDay perked slightly. Those words echoed from a long time ago.

“We’ll head for the Labs, to the sanctuary,” Hoppy said.

******

DogDay had followed Mini-Hoppy through the service tunnels surrounding the laboratory complex, hoping that they could avoid the Prototype and whatever minions he had left down here. His steps had started shaky as he got used to both the sensation of actually having legs again, after so long, and the fact that these legs were also not quite proportionate to the ones he used to have. Once or twice, they had come across those abominable Mini Huggies, but had managed to evade detection.

Eventually, they found themselves in the maintenance tunnels, where there were no more feral toys waiting for them. Hoppy brought them to a large pair of doors. She waved up at the camera and they opened, allowing her and DogDay inside. The rectangular room was dimly lit, darkened at one end.

“Who’s there?” came a female voice. “Rosie, is that you?”

“Yes, and I’ve brought someone I think you’ll want to see.”

The owner of that voice stepped out of the darkness.

There was no mistaking that gait. The red felt, the shiny red heart charm, the wide open-mouthed smile all Smiling Critters were cursed to wear eternally.

“Bobby?” DogDay whispered. “Is that really you?”

For a moment, there was silence. And then Bobby bounded forward, tackling DogDay to the ground. It wasn’t aggressive – she had thrown her front legs around him in a hug.

“DogDay! It’s really you!”

“Bobby… how? I thought… I thought you were… that I was the last…”

DogDay pulled himself free from Bobby, making a realisation.

“Bobby… what are you doing here? I’ve been captive in the Playhouse for a long time… CatNap would feed me information about who had been lost…”

He cocked his head.

“But, come to think of it… I don’t remember him mentioning you… he tallied the others… I just assumed…” DogDay shook his head. “Hoppy was the last to fall.”

“Yes…” Bobby bowed her head sadly. “I was captured by the Prototype and brought down to the Labs, but… he didn’t kill me. I don’t know why… he never asked questions, never did anything to me, just… left me in a cell. I managed to escape here after hearing about poor Hoppy… I’ve been hiding for months. It’s been so lonely down here, by myself. I thought I’d become lost without anyone… That’s when I met this little one,” Bobby indicated to Rosie. “She was one of the ones who were with us in the Playhouse during the Hour. She’s been moving between here and the Safe Haven, bringing us supplies and finding some of the other little toys who were stranded down here. You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear news of you… I heard that CatNap rescued you… after he captured you.”

“I wouldn’t say ‘rescued’… he sent me to the Doctor… that’s why I have these,” He indicated to his new robotic legs.

“I’m sorry… I should have tried to get to you when I heard, I…”

“You’ve been hiding down here… I don’t blame you, Bobby. But… if you escaped, then that means the Prototype will be looking for you.”

“No… the moment he heard Poppy was free, he left the Labs. It’s just what’s left of his minions down here… those small toys… and Boxy…”

“Safe Haven’s been destroyed, Bobby,” DogDay lamented. “If the Prototype knew about Poppy’s plan… then even Poppy’s angels couldn’t stop him. What good will fighting the Prototype do now?”

“There’s still hope, there has to be,” Bobby insisted. “Come… rest up… we’ll talk more later.”

******

Nick and Judy listened intently to DogDay’s story, unsure of what to make of it.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get you out of there,” Judy spoke, after DogDay had finished.

“Don’t blame yourself, angel,” DogDay replied. “And don’t blame yourselves for what happened with Doey. He was one bad day away from what happened.”

“It’s just sad that all those toys we wanted to help are…” Bobby bowed her head.

“Poppy blamed us for that too,” Nick said lowly.

“It wasn’t your fault,” DogDay interceded. “I saw it for myself – the breaker you put in had been tampered with. The Prototype must have planted it for Doey to find, and when he attacked Safe Haven, he had you do exactly what he wanted.”

“We’ve been hustled,” Nick growled. “What’s our plan now, anyway? Judy suggested we go get Poppy and get out of here. Until now, we thought she was our only shot of getting our boss to believe us. Any one of you would work for that, though. Probably Rosie here, since she’s actually toy-sized.”

DogDay and Bobby exchanged glances.

“I hate to say it, angels,” DogDay said, “but if the Prototype knows you survived, he’ll have had the exits from here sealed off. After the Hour, he made it so that none of us could leave. He’ll have made it so that the only way out is through him.”

Words the Prototype had spoken not long ago surfaced in the minds of Nick and Judy.

‘I’ve taken the liberty of retrieving those explosives you had the fox and rabbit set at the foundation. Thanks for collecting those, by the way. I’ve put them to good use.’

One of those was enough to level the Safe Haven with the generator destroyed. Another was used to blow open the ventilation block they were hiding in. But that still left two. Each charge was made up of multiple sticks of dynamite, so the Prototype had enough explosives to block every single route out of the Labs and back up to the top floor.

“I hadn’t thought of that…” Judy rubbed her chin. “But even if that’s the case, even if we find a way past him… we know you’re alive. We can’t just leave you here, regardless of whether we ask Rosie to come with us, or whether we go looking for Poppy.”

“Hmm…” DogDay thought. “I don’t know… perhaps there is some small chance that we can still defeat the Prototype. Let’s put together everything we know so far.”

DogDay headed for a nearby table, dragged it over, and placed both his paws on it.

“We know the Prototype foiled Poppy’s original plan,” Judy said. “He knew about it from the start, so we can’t take anything for granted. Heck, he might be able to predict our every move. And it’s not like we have the ability to be unpredictable, either. We don’t know what happened to Poppy or Kissy. We have limited resources, and not many allies left.”

“There’s also the fact that Huggy survived his fall,” Nick added, causing Bobby and DogDay to stare at him.

“So, we have another factor to consider down here,” DogDay said.

“What about the Prototype?” Bobby said. “He’s got to be going for Poppy.”

“What’s with the whole ‘he’ll make me part of him’ thing, anyway?” Nick asked.

“I saw the shrine CatNap made,” Judy added. “If that was anything like the real thing, it looks like he’s made a body for himself…”

“Out of multiple dead toys,” DogDay finished. “That’s exactly what he’s been doing.”

“But… why?” Judy wondered.

“We don’t know,” Bobby replied, “but I think him doing that and keeping the orphans in cryo, deep in the Labs, are connected.”

“What we do know is that we have to get to Poppy first,” DogDay said. “Get to her, get her out, and whatever the Prototype is planning falls apart.”

“But how?” Judy asked. “We have no idea where she even is…”

At that moment, the sound of ringing reverberated throughout the room. Each of them looked around.

“Poppy had our phone last,” Nick said. “So, it’s not coming from us.”

The ringing continued. Judy raised her ears to full height and began looking for the source of that ringing. Eventually, she found it – there was a desk with a cupboard in which an old-fashioned, rotary dialling phone was kept. She carefully pulled it out of the compartment and set it on the desk.

Nick, DogDay, Bobby, and Rosie crowded round. Judy picked the receiver up, but instead of holding it to her ear, she held it high enough for them all to hear.

“Congratulations on your survival,” came a sentence spoken in a mixture of distorted voices – the same voices Nick and Judy had last heard in the ventilation shaft, from the phone Poppy had taken.

There was no mistaking it: the caller was the Prototype.

“I have been aware of this last little pocket for some time now,” he said. “Before you begin to plan any feeble acts of resistance, know that I have no further use for you. It was I who sent that letter, in order to draw in a very useful asset to my plans.”

Nick and Judy exchanged shocked looks. The Prototype wanted P.W. to enter the factory?

“You coming here was not expected, but it proved to be useful regardless. You have helped me dispose of several of the more… problematic creations this company has made.”

“CatNap was loyal to you, you bastard!” DogDay couldn’t help but snarl.

“He was a fanatic who had his uses, and they ended a long time ago,” the Prototype countered. “I granted him swift mercy when it became apparent that saving him a second time was not possible. Don’t be concerned, though: he will live on…”

“THROUGH ME.” The Prototype spoke in CatNap’s whispery voice.

Bobby nudged DogDay gently with her head. He was shaking in anger.

“Let me tell you how this is going to happen. I will leave the sanctuary you are in alone. I will also let the two who have come uninvited into our home to leave with their lives. I ask for one thing.”

The group waited for the Prototype’s demand with baited breath.

“It should be obvious what I desire. Bring Poppy to me, and I will spare you.”

“We don’t even know where she is,” Judy countered. “And, besides, why should we trust anything you say, or do what you ask?”

“You do not have a choice. You can either agree to my demands in exchange for your lives, or you can attempt to resist. But I promise you that resistance is futile. You have already seen it with the Safe Haven, and Poppy’s plan has fallen apart. This last part is between myself and Poppy. As for where she is… you will find her in Lab 3A, the chemical laboratory. It seems that she has not yet accepted the situation and is aiming to make one last effort to destroy me.”

The Prototype paused, allowing his words to sink in.

“You have one hour. An emergency phone is affixed to the wall, next to the door to the shelter. Take it with you – I will be in touch when you find Poppy.”

“If we don’t?” Nick asked. “If we just run for the door?”

A snuffling sound that might have been intended to resemble laughter came through the phone’s speaker.

“When Poppy was busy telling you her plan to destroy me, I assume she told you that I would kill you before you reached the front door if you refused to help. That was the same promise I made to her, so long ago. I promise… I will prove she was not lying. I will come after you myself. No more disciples, no more followers. I will kill you. And then I will destroy the sanctuary you’re taking shelter in. The last remnants of the Safe Haven will be destroyed. In any case, I will get what I am after.”

Another pause.

“One hour. Keep the phone ready.”

The line went dead.

“What do we do now?” Judy asked.

“What can we do?” Bobby looked around. “He has us against the wall, and he knows it.”

“The Prototype told us where she is… why doesn’t he just go get her himself?” Nick wondered. “Why use us?”

“Maybe he wants to draw us out into the open,” Judy replied.

“So… do we do what he wants?” Nick looked around.

“Would finding Poppy help us, this far in?” Judy looked at DogDay and Bobby.

“The more of us there are, the better the chance we have,” DogDay replied.

“And… I know Poppy’s deceived you to get you in this far, but… she’s like the rest of us. A frightened child, thrust into an existence she didn’t ask for,” Bobby added. “I think finding her is the right thing to do.”

“Yeah…” Judy nodded. “You’re right.” She looked at the two Smiling Critters, before asking: “Can you get us to her? Who knows what else is out there.”

“We need to stay here,” DogDay said. “We can’t make the same mistake Doey did. We don’t trust the Prototype.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” Judy nodded her understanding.

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck,” Nick added.

“We have faith in you two,” Bobby added. “You’ve made it this far, and if anybody stands a chance at stopping him, it’s you.”

“And, if it helps, the fact you haven’t met the Prototype yet means he’s running scared,” DogDay added. “He’s afraid of you. That’s why he’s making these threats.”

“Rosie, can you guide them there?” Bobby turned to the diminutive plush.

 “Yeah,” Rosie nodded. “I can get them there.”

******

The door to the shelter closed behind Nick, Judy, and Rosie as they stepped outside.

“So… which way?” Nick asked. “Back through the hordes?”

“No,” Rosie shook her head. “There’s another way.”

She indicated down the corridor, away from where they had originally entered from, before setting off. Nick and Judy followed her silently, undisturbed. It didn’t take long before they found themselves before a door not dissimilar to the one Nick and Judy had first entered the maintenance passageways through. A label affixed to it read ‘Labs 5 – Chemical Wing’.

Judy stepped forward and opened it. Behind it were the familiar, antiseptic-looking passageways, clean windows and signs indicating to different areas.

There was no sign of any of the small toys. Rosie stepped out and ushered them out.

“This way,” Rosie indicated straight ahead.

The sounds of snarling and heavy padding echoed down the halls ahead.

Before they could reach the chemistry lab’s door, a large blue figure skidded from the left in between them and it.

Huggy Wuggy had found them.

Chapter Text

Report – Experiments 1170 and 1172 Interaction

As per a request by Leith Pierre, we have sent 1170 and 1172 into Playcare to interact with the children. We have placed a notice at 1170’s usual station claiming that we have removed him for maintenance.

This is not usual procedure as they have their assigned duties, but Leith was curious as to how they might function outside those duties.

The toys themselves have a certain story, with Huggy and Kissy being a couple. We weren’t expecting this behaviour to be replicated in 1170 and 1172, but there was an undeniable connection between the two upon meeting. 1170 appears to be the more assertive of the two, and had few issues interacting with the children in Playcare. 1172 became bolder in interacting based upon 1170’s example.

There was one issue, however, that required us to send in the security team. Thankfully, this occurred after the kids were sent back to Home Sweet Home for the night and CatNap had already administered the Red Smoke to send them to sleep.

As this was only meant to be something to see what would happen when the two were paired up and presented to the children, they were always going to be separated once this was accomplished. However, there was a complication. 1172 was due to be sent back to the Shelf, while 1170 would be returned to the main lobby. But when we attempted to separate the two, 1170 became hostile. Perhaps he believed that we were intending on harming her in some way.

1170 injured two of our team before we sent the security team in to subdue him. Thankfully, following 1170’s previous escape attempt, they were aware of the correct dosage to subdue him and return him to the lobby. As for 1172, she was similarly subdued – we couldn’t risk her suddenly becoming hostile either – upon which she was returned to the Shelf.

Following the incident, Leith has ordered that we do not put 1170 and 1172 together again.

******

Outside the chemistry lab, Huggy stared down at Nick, Judy, and Rosie, his mouth stretched open in that dangerous, toothy smile. The three backed off as Huggy glared at them, those large, circular eyes fixed on them.

“I thought the Prototype was going to give us passage,” Nick said.

“Huggy must be behaving outside the Prototype’s control,” Rosie suggested.

“We must have really ticked him off when we dropped him from the conveyors,” Nick said.

Drool dripped from Huggy’s mouth as he started forwards, towards them. His lips vibrated as low growls escaped them.

“Do we try and run?” Nick asked.

“That didn’t work before,” Judy replied.

Huggy let out a shriek and rushed forward.

Nick and Judy turned to run, but something pushed past them, heading straight for Huggy. Whatever it was collided with him, letting out a higher-pitched screech as it bound past them.

“Wait…” Rosie looked behind her. They skidded to a halt, turning back around to see what had just intercepted Huggy, who was now on the floor, facing up towards his attacker.

The figure was tall, pink fur matted with dirt, burns on her right side, and missing her right arm. Her left arm was raised, while a foot pressed down on Huggy’s chest. Her mouth was open like Huggy’s was, baring her teeth at him. However, it didn’t look like Kissy wanted to hurt Huggy, nor he her.

“… Kissy?” Rosie said. Kissy’s eye flicked towards them, and then back to Huggy. Rosie turned towards Nick and Judy.

“What happened to her?” She asked.

“She tried to save us when he had us cornered in the ventilation block… that’s why she doesn’t have her arm anymore,” Judy explained.

“The Prototype has really hurt her, hasn’t he?” Rosie said. The words drew Huggy’s attention, and his gaze moved between them and Kissy, who eased up off him, though she remained ready to strike should he make a move.

Huggy pushed himself to his feet, his eyes moving between Kissy and the group. And then, with a final high-pitched yell, he ran. Kissy watched him go, her arm raised as if meaning to go after him, but she stopped herself. Her mouth closed, returning to that familiar wide smile. She turned around toward Nick, Judy and Rosie, cocked her head briefly, and then turned towards the chemical lab door.

“Kissy…” Rosie approached her. Kissy looked down at the small Critter. “Do you think you’re okay to find Poppy with them?”

Kissy’s eyes moved between Rosie, and Nick and Judy, before giving Rosie a brief nod.

“I’ll go back to the shelter, and let DogDay and Bobby know we found Kissy, and that Huggy is loose somewhere,” Rosie said, turning towards Nick and Judy herself. “Be safe. And… thank you.”

Rosie skipped off, back towards the maintenance door, leaving Nick and Judy alone.

“Kissy…” Judy stepped forward, placing a paw on her hand. “I don’t think we’d be here if it wasn’t for you. So… thank you.”

Kissy’s eyes moved from side to side, indicating her bashfulness. She gestured to the chemistry lab with her head, beckoning with her remaining arm.

Remaining in front of them, Kissy brought them back to the door marked ‘Chemical Lab 4’. She looked at them briefly before sliding it open.

Inside it was a large space filled with tables. Bunsen burners lined some of them, and cabinets filled with bottles of chemicals were pushed up against the wall. One cabinet in the corner was open, the sound of rustling glass coming from it. The tables blocked their view, preventing them from seeing who was there.

Cautiously, they headed for the source of the noise. They reached it. There was a single figure with messy red hair in pigtails. Parts of her blue dress were torn, dirtied.

It was Poppy, dishevelled and dirtied.

She stopped rifling through the cupboard, apparently sensing she had company. Turning toward them, Nick, Judy and Kissy could see wild blue eyes, blackened streaks down her cheeks, a twitching nose.

“Poppy?” Judy spoke softly.

“No… no…” Poppy whispered. “You’re not real…”

“Poppy, it’s us,” Judy took on a more pleading tone. “We’re here.”

“N-no…” Poppy shook her head. “You’re a trick… the Prototype, he… he must have filled the room with Red Smoke while I wasn’t looking…”

“We’re not,” Judy tried to reassure her, reaching forward. “We’re really here.”

Judy’s paw made contact with Poppy’s head. She stiffened on the contact, not actually expecting it, but after a moment, she loosened up and tears began forming in her eyes.

“It’s okay…” Judy drew Poppy in, hugging the diminutive doll carefully. After a moment, Poppy pulled back. She looked up at Kissy, who wrapped her remaining arm around her chest and looked away. Poppy swallowed hard and stepped forward.

“Kissy…” She whispered. “I’m sorry for running out. I… I left you behind. What the Prototype was threatening… it terrified me. I… I wasn’t thinking straight.”

Tears started forming again in Poppy’s eyes.

“It’s not an excuse… I-I’ll understand if you don’t f-forgive me,” she whimpered. “I w-was selfish, and…”

Kissy cut her off by placing her felted hand on Poppy’s head.

Poppy thought for a moment, and then turned back to Nick and Judy.

“H… how did you find me?” She asked.

“We were told where you were,” Nick replied, hoping the answer was enough to satisfy Poppy, but vague enough to not reveal the truth.

“By the Prototype,” Poppy realised. She immediately became angry. “After all that’s happened, are you siding with him?”

“No,” Judy raised her paws defensively. “Really… he told us he would kill us if we refused, but… we still need your help.”

“We’re getting out of Dodge,” Nick added.

“You’re going to leave?” Poppy said. She considered it for a moment. “Yeah… I guess I can’t blame you. After everything… the other toys, the Doctor… Safe Haven…”

She looked up at them.

“But you can’t leave,” she insisted.

“The Prototype made that clear,” Nick replied. “But if we have you, and we have Kissy, we stand a chance to get out.”

Poppy gritted her teeth.

“No,” She said defiantly. “I’m not going until that monster is gone.”

“Poppy, we tried, and he was five steps ahead of us the whole time,” Nick said. “We’re outmatched here. We need to get out.”

“He’s right,” Judy nodded. “If we can get help…”

“This has to end now,” Poppy insisted. “The Foundation plan didn’t work, it’s filled with Red Smoke we can’t do anything with… but we can use his need to take me. We can take the fight to him.”

At that moment, the phone in Nick’s pocket rang, and he picked it up. They didn’t need to ask who it was.

“You have made it to where Poppy is,” the Prototype spoke. “Well done.”

“Listen here, creepo,” Judy said. “We’re going to find a way to stop you.”

“You sound like Poppy,” the Prototype retorted. “I admire your fiery spirit. But, unlike Poppy, I suspect you are also sensible. You have to know there is no way for you to win this fight. I am aware that you have also reunited with 1172, which might have given you an idea that you would be able to make for the door. I promise you this is not a possibility. I have already injured 1172, and losing her arm will put her at a disadvantage against me. You will all die if you try. So, here’s what will happen: I am waiting in the main biological research laboratory, which sits on the other side of the complex. There is no need for you to bother using the maintenance tunnels to avoid any of my remaining followers. They are instructed to let you pass – I want you here alive and unspoiled.”

The line went dead, leaving the group to stare at it, dumbfounded.

Poppy was the first to speak.

“Let’s give him what he wants,” she said. “I came down here because I know he’s been looking for me. Well, I’m ready for him.”

“What have you been doing in here?” Nick asked.

Poppy turned back around and pulled out a vial containing what appeared to be a black powder. It was sealed with a cork in its top.

“I take it that’s not sneezing powder,” Nick remarked.

“It’s a combustible compound the scientists here used to make,” Poppy replied. “They used it to destroy certain experiments if they failed. All it needs is air, which is why it’s sealed. It’s… the only weapon I have left against him.”

“I still say we should try and make for the door,” Nick said.

“Nick’s right,” Judy added.

“But…” Poppy began.

“Poppy, I understand,” Judy interrupted her. “He abused you; he hurt us, he harmed Kissy… I’d want revenge too.”

“Then why won’t you…?” Poppy began. Judy cut her off by raising a paw.

“But we can’t be ruled by revenge,” she said, getting onto her knees so she was more level with Poppy. “Remember what I said, back up in Playcare? We want justice, which means we have to do this right.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

“And that’s why we’re going to help you.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Nick swung his head towards Judy.

“Nick, whether we want to or not, we are going to have to face the Prototype,” Judy said. “We can either go in, with a plan. Or, we can try and make a run for it, and he catches us before we reach the door. Either way, we’re going to have to fight. Our best chance is to go in with a plan.”

Poppy’s eyes began to tear up.

“Th… thank you,” she said, before wiping her eyes.

“So, what’s the plan, then?” Nick leaned against a table.

“We get him talking,” Judy replied. “Nick, I think you’re the best one to do that. And while we’re doing that, Poppy and Kissy sneak by and begin releasing the orphans. Once they’re out… we’ll use the powder Poppy made.”

“I can count on zero fingers the number of times I’ve heard you suggest we kill someone,” Nick crossed his arms. “This isn’t like you at all.”

“I don’t like it either, Nick, and if there was any other way, I would take it, but he’s not like the criminals we face every day in our jobs. We can’t dart him, cuff him while he’s out and haul him back to Precinct One. And there’s no way he’s going to let us out willingly. It’s going to come to him, or us.”

“Ugh…” Nick’s shoulders sagged. “I hate it when you’re right and I want to disagree.”

“Thank you…” Poppy breathed.

“Here, let me fix you up,” Judy knelt back down to Poppy’s height. She took the remaining ribbon off Poppy’s head and re-tied her hair into a ponytail, using the ribbon to keep it in place.

“Well, come on, then,” Nick sighed. “Let’s go meet a giant, murderous, many-limbed toy-snatcher.”

******

As the Prototype had promised, the route leading from the chemical lab to the biological research facility was completely clear of obstacles, though not necessarily clear of watching eyes. As the group of Judy, Nick, Poppy and Kissy made their way across, they saw corridors and windows filled with the smaller toys staring at them.

“Sorry, but this moveable buffet’s not on the menu,” Nick teased to one group as he passed, earning an elbow from Judy.

The one toy that they had expected to see, for better or for worse, didn’t appear at all during their trek through the Labs. Kissy seemed disappointed – perhaps she had expected Huggy to appear, maybe even aid them following his learning that her injuries were caused by the Prototype.

Without anything to impede their progress, the trek across the complex didn’t take long. They soon found themselves outside a large door labelled ‘Primary Research’.

“Here we are,” Poppy said. “Are you guys ready?”

Nick and Judy nodded. The door began to rise. The sound of mechanical ratcheting, paired with fleshy stretching and heavy impacts came closer. Once the door was opened far enough, the four of them stepped inside.

The lights were bright, shining from many surgical lamps hanging from the ceiling. Instruments of various types lay scattered around on tables. But that was not what drew their attention – it was what stood in the centre of the space.

A behemoth, with six scorpion-like legs of metal, covered in flesh and a tar-like substance. They stretched out from a huge carapace, which had been fused with many different toys – they could make out the remains of Mommy Long Legs, CatNap, and CatBee, among many others, all connected to each other and to the main body by wires and blood-filled tubes. A huge crane extended from its left side, which ended with that large-clawed hand Nick and Judy had seen before. The right side sported a cannon. Protruding from the front of the carapace, its back draped in a large PJ Pug-A-Pillar, was a mummified leporid skeleton with a pair of red lenses that stared straight at them.

It was the Prototype, in person. A nightmare brought to life.

“Welcome home,” he said.

Chapter Text

Standing tall over the entire group, the Prototype observed each of them, as though deciding which ones were the biggest threat in the moment. Kissy stood, shivering in fear at the sight of the gargantuan chimaera.

Judy, meanwhile, stood ready to act, but her twitching nose betrayed her own fear at being confronted by the Prototype. Nick stood beside Judy, ready to aid her in any way he could. And Poppy stood at the front defiantly, clutching her vial.

The Prototype decided to address her first.

“Have you finally seen sense, Poppy?” he spoke in his many voices. “No, I suppose not… you’re not here to agree to what I have planned, are you? I assume you concocted that,” he indicated to the vial in Poppy’s paws, “in the chemical lab. I assure you that it will prove to be ineffective” His huge claw hand gestured to her. “Your resistance continues to be futile, Poppy.”

“I won’t let you put me back in that case,” Poppy shouted.

“Is that really what you thought I meant when I said that I had something special in mind? I’m disappointed that, once again, you have failed to see the bigger picture. Perhaps that was something instilled in you by your father… your stubborn refusal to change your point of view is to your detriment.”

“My Dad was a great mammal,” Poppy seethed. “He cared about this place, for the people he worked with, for…”

“You?” If the Prototype had been able to, he would have raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Yes, he did. But your fantasies of what could have been, of days gone by, are just that. What I have built is real, and soon, you’ll believe in it as much as I do.”

It was at that point that Nick noticed something he hadn’t when they had first entered the room. He nudged Judy lightly and tilted his head towards the wall to their left. Judy followed his gaze.

She almost dropped her GrabPack cannons in surprise at what she was seeing. The walls were lined with bays containing what were unmistakably pods of a similar design to the elevator pods Nick and Judy had seen in the levels above. However, their windows were all frosted over. It seemed these were being used for a completely different purpose.

Poppy’s words from when they first arrived in the Safe Haven echoed in Judy’s mind.

‘Back on the train, I said there were others that you could save. They weren’t killed during the Hour of Joy. They were taken to the Labs… the Prototype’s home. They’re still alive, but they’re sleeping…’

Nick’s response to Judy’s scepticism, that the Prototype had put the orphans into cryogenic stasis, had seemed absurd at the time. He had made a suggestion that she didn’t take seriously.

Maybe she should have.

“Are those…?” Judy began.

“The orphans,” Poppy replied through gritted teeth. “Yes, and Nick was right. They’ve been put into a cryogenic sleep.”

Nick’s eyes scanned the room, and he caught sight of something else – a wolf, unconscious, in a chair not unlike those found in a dentist’s surgery.

“Is that…?” Nick whispered.

“Our missing wolf, I assume,” Judy nodded.

Before Nick and Judy could say or do anything else, Poppy interrupted them, laying into the Prototype.

“After everything we’ve been through,” Poppy shouted angrily, “after what this place put us through… why did you kill my friends? Why did you put me in that case? You’re no better than the people who used to pull us apart and put us back together!”

“Is that how you see things?” The Prototype cocked his head curiously. “Your crusade against what has to happen has cost both of us greatly. I warned those who allied with your foolish actions of what would happen if they continued. I told them that your actions would lead them to the grave. I thought that, by capturing you and putting you in your case, it would make them see things differently, as much as I hoped you would also. Unfortunately, they had taken to your example, and after all this time, you have not changed your perspective either. And so, when you found the Safe Haven again, and when it became obvious that you had not changed your mind, and that the others would follow your example, I had to act.”

The Prototype stepped to one side, moving like a crab.

“But hoping that you would change how you see things was not the only reason I put you in your case,” he continued. “Unfortunately, some of the more… fanatical allies I have made …” The Prototype’s eyes flicked up, towards where the corpse of CatNap was attached to himself, “did not want to stop at dissuading you. Do you understand now, Poppy? I put you in your case to keep you safe while I worked.”

“Worked on what, exactly?” Nick piped up.

“An experiment that has been in the making for years… decades,” the Prototype answered. “And it all began… with Poppy.”

“You’re being awfully forthcoming for somebody who will probably kill us anyway,” Nick replied. “Please tell me you’re not doing the supervillain trope of explaining your evil plan in the thinking that you’re just going to kill us anyway.”

“If my intention was to kill you, I would have done so already,” the Prototype retorted. Nick and Judy exchanged looks, unconvinced by the Prototype’s words.

“Why do you want Poppy alive so badly?” Judy asked. The Prototype turned to her.

“We share a special connection,” the Prototype replied. “In more ways than one. And in ways that she doesn’t understand yet, and cannot possibly comprehend until she realises the truth.”

“I am nothing like you!” Poppy growled.

“Did it not occur to you that the manner of our creation is very similar? You and I are not like the others, Poppy. We were not created from the living. Instead, we were at death’s door, brought back by the exact same process. There are differences: yours was a perfected process, guided by your father. And, while you were at death’s door, you never crossed that threshold.”

Poppy looked shaken.

“H… how do you…?” She stuttered.

“Mine, however, was not, because your father was not there to guide it, and they didn’t start until after I had already been declared dead. You now observe the end result. And yet, we both share something. A secret… something that eluded even Elliot Ludwig… something even our good friend, the Doctor tried to find. In spite of everything he had done to us, despite him being turned into an experiment, just like us…” the Prototype changed his voice into the Doctor’s: “He was still my best shot at cracking that secret.”

“That’s why you allied with the Doctor?!” Poppy said.

“Yes. After years of tests, of dead ends, we finally found it. That secret… is the one thing behind your longevity. It is the path to true immortality, and each of us held a piece. The Doctor realised that, together, we could unlock the whole picture.”

“… and that’s why he kept having me removed from my room?” Poppy was outraged. “Opened up, things pulled out and put back in?!”

“I had hoped he would be satisfied with experimenting on me,” the Prototype admitted. “I did not want you involved. Nevertheless… he did so. I cannot describe how angry finding out that he had done that to you made me. Still… I was not in the position at the time to do anything about it but watch. And he knew that. But once I had gathered enough power, enough allies… once the Hour was done, I knew I had the leverage I needed to get him to do what I wanted. And to leave you out of it.”

“Like you actually cared!” Poppy accused.

“I do, Poppy. All of this… was because I needed to find that secret.”

“And do what with it? Because you already rule over the factory like some kind of tyrant king!”

“Disappointing… you’re still not seeing the bigger picture, Poppy. Did you know why your father put you in that body? It was never meant to be a permanent vessel. He always hoped that, one day, he could find a way to bring you back, without what would have killed you the first time. But he died before he could complete that work… so I took it upon myself to carry on that legacy, to finish what he had started.”

“What was that?” Judy asked.

“Poppy was never meant to stay in that body,” the Prototype explained. “The toy vessel kept her alive, but Elliot Ludwig always intended to find a way to restore her to a proper form. Though he was a clever mammal, and he had found the process for transference, he had yet to perfect the process of cloning, and for screening out the faulty gene that caused Poppy’s cancer in the first place, and so his plan was to keep Poppy in that vessel until he could.”

“Okay, but how does that even work? Wouldn’t her organs just shut down without a way to eat?” Judy looked towards Poppy.

“Elliot had long since uncovered the properties of poppy gel as a preservative, and he used that in the process of transference to prevent Poppy’s remaining biological material from requiring sustenance… much the same as they did to me.”

The Prototype stepped to the side, keeping his two red lenses fixed firmly on Poppy.

“After years of work, we discovered the method for creating new bodies that Elliot had failed to before he died. Remember what I said when what I had in mind was something you’ll never want to leave? This was why I needed the Doctor. He knew, just as Elliot Ludwig did, how to transfer from one vessel to another. And he knew how to make a new vessel. Which also brings me to the orphans – they are here because I needed something to guide the creation of new bodies. As you can undoubtedly see… my own old body is of no use, decayed as it is.” The Prototype indicated to the hare corpse hanging from the front of his carapace. He stepped towards the unconscious P.W.

“This is why I called him here,” he continued.

“You wrote that letter?” Judy asked.

“I am responsible for it, yes,” the Prototype admitted. “The Doctor became a liability. He and I have a less than amicable past, beyond the experimentation he subjected all of us to. I allied with him out of necessity, but once my plan was far enough along, I no longer had need of him, and I believe he knew this. But I did need somebody for the final stages, to complete the procedure itself.”

He stepped aside, revealing two cryogenic pods behind him. He indicated to them to see for themselves. They all moved forward, Kissy lowering herself submissively, shivering in fear as she passed. Once they reached the pods, they looked through the windows.

In each of them was a body. Nick and Kissy were staring at one that was clearly an adult male hare. Poppy and Judy were looking inside the other, where a young rabbit girl lay unconscious.

“This…” Poppy whispered. “This is what I used to look like… I remember… but that’s not possible… my old body… it died, years ago…”

“Anything is possible, Poppy,” the Prototype answered. “You see, when the Doctor had you pulled apart and put back together, again and again,” he spoke in a venomous growl, “he took samples, which means he had your DNA. And with that, we were able to use that to construct a new body for you, based upon it. Free of the illness which would have killed you outright.”

“But why?” Poppy rounded on him. “Why would you do all of this? Just to transfer us into new bodies? Did you even know…?”

“I know everything,” the Prototype said. “This is the final answer to the long search… the legacy Elliot Ludwig started… the legacy I have put together. This is what I spent years of my living life searching for… and now, in a post-death state, I have finally completed the work. I have done it, Poppy. I have found a way to cure what ailed you in your life… and now, I can cure both of us…”

“You didn’t answer her question,” Judy stepped up to the Prototype. “She asked you why. Why, when you aren’t even related by anything other than the fact that you’re both experiments made by this evil company!”

“But we are related, and deep down, you know it too, Poppy…”

Poppy’s eyes shook as she stared at the Prototype, her vision blurring as thoughts raced through her mind, trying to piece together the implications of what he was saying… and putting it together with what he had said previously.

‘You don’t need to pretend any more, Poppy. You don’t need to play at being stronger than you are. You can come home… it’s time to come home, Poppy… welcome home… The legacy Elliot Ludwig… the legacy I have put together… years of my living life…’

Like a parent expressing disappointment in a disobedient child.

“No…” she whispered as the horrific realisation dawned on her.

“Yes, Poppy,” the Prototype answered. “You have realised the truth. And now… we can be a family again.”

“It’s not possible… it can’t be…” Poppy continued. “You’re nothing like him…”

“Are we missing something?” Nick asked.

The Prototype turned towards everyone else.

“Hello,” he said, in a voice Nick had heard on the cable car down to Playcare. “My name… is Elliot Ludwig.”

Chapter Text

Seventeen years ago…

“It’s been a long time, Harley,” Elliot said.

The elderly hare was sat across from the now-huge jaguar at a café on the outskirts of the Meadowlands. Very few mammals were present, which made this a perfect spot to meet up.

“I must confess, I didn’t know what to expect when you made contact after so long,” Elliot continued. “It looks like you’ve done well for yourself, at least. A neurosurgeon… that’s impressive.”

“Thinking of your words kept me going,” Sawyer said, a small gap in his lips exposing some teeth.

“I am sorry I had to do it, Harley,” Elliot said. “I said as much in my letter, but if there had been any other way… I acted in your best interests.”

“My best interests…” Sawyer repeated. “Somehow, I question your motives.”

“I honestly hoped that it would give you a chance to reflect,” Elliot defended himself. “Change a few things with your outlook. Learn some humility.”

“After what you’ve done, why should I take a lecture from you, of all mammals, on humility?”

“I did it for your own good.”

“I’m not talking about expelling me from the program,” Sawyer leaned forward. He bared his teeth. “I’m talking about Poppy.”

Elliot felt the blood drain from his ears.

“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied.

“Did you really think that, after what you did, I wouldn’t keep a close eye on you?” Sawyer crossed his arms. “All those experiments… the one we did together. I remember it like it was yesterday. What number was it, again…?” Sawyer rubbed his chin in mock thought. “Oh, yes… Experiment 814. The frog in the poppy gel.”

Elliot offered nothing in reply.

“And after all that time, it was because you were desperate to stop your daughter from dying from stomach cancer,” Sawyer finished. “Well, maybe stop isn’t quite the right word, is it? I hear she did die, but you managed to preserve her long enough that brain function could be saved. What possible ends could result from reviving her, I wonder? It seems to me that you acted in a completely selfish manner in keeping her tethered to life, far from the humility you preach. Still… I must applaud you for once having the tenacity to pursue progress, especially in light of the great discovery you made.”

Sawyer raised his paws and slow-clapped.

“Well done, Elliot,” he said with a hint of sarcasm on his voice. “You’ve figured out how to avoid death, the great bane for us all.”

Sawyer lowered his paws.

“Of course, you had to break a few eggs before you got there, didn’t you? Before you could take dear little Poppy out of stasis and perform the procedure. I know about that little machine you’re afraid to switch on… about the poor little homeless hare kit you picked up off the street, and how he was never seen again after you did… How many of those did you make, based upon that template, I wonder?”

“What do you want from me, Harley?” Elliot spoke finally.

“Oh, I already have it,” Sawyer replied, his lips parting into a dark smile. “The wheels are already in motion, Elliot. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”

“What have you done?” Elliot whispered.

“How does your coffee taste?”

Elliot looked down at his drink warily, and then back up at Sawyer. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, as if it had gone into overdrive.

“While I was studying for my doctorate, I came across a ram who was studying the neurological effects of a certain plant,” Sawyer explained. “As a neurosurgeon, seeing his research was fascinating. Did you know that midnicampum holicithias causes the brain to go into a berserk state? It could turn even the most docile of mammals into a savage beast within seconds. Of course, there are other side effects. Severely increased heart rate, for one. I’m not interested in driving you savage, Elliot. So, I had it mixed with a suppressant. You will only feel that increased heart rate, and maybe a slight fogging of your senses.”

Sawyer leaned forward, resting his chin on his clasped paws.

“I would imagine, for a hare your age, it will not be the quickest or most pain-free passing.”

Elliot’s wide eyes fixed on Sawyer, and he tried to reach forward.

“Harley… why…?”

He collapsed to the floor, a paw clutching at his chest. After a few seconds, he was still. Sawyer’s eyes moved left to right, checking to see if he had an audience. He then got up and approached the hare. Bending low, he checked for a pulse.

Nothing.

Sawyer allowed himself a small smile before turning around towards the café. He caught the gaze of the cow behind the counter. He breathed in deeply.

“Call an ambulance!” he shouted. “We’ve got a hare who’s gone into cardiac arrest!”

The cow jumped, and rushed for the nearest phone. Sawyer placed a paw on Elliot’s chest and began compressions, safe in the knowledge that it was futile.

Elliot Ludwig was dead.

******

Leith Pierre stood alone in the doorway to Elliot Ludwig’s office, the lights off as he stared inside.

He knew it was coming. He knew Elliot Ludwig was old, and that meant he was going to die sooner or later. But even so, his can-do attitude, his optimism had persisted until the end. He was hardly one to coast on the success of a single toy line – although Huggy Wuggy’s persistent popularity meant that Elliot could easily have done so. Still, he had begun working on his next great idea as soon as the sales figures started rolling in. And each time, Elliot had wanted to do something different.

His next big idea was a colourful crew of happy little creatures. He had titled the idea ‘The Smiling Critters’.

It was now up to Leith to get that idea across the finishing line, and to continue the Playtime Co. legacy.

Or, at least, that was how any normal mammal would see the situation. Leith was not a normal mammal, and Playtime Co. was not a normal toy manufacturer. It held a secret: potentially highly-unethical experimentation that had, for decades, been behind some of their most beloved toys.

It had all stemmed from Elliot’s desire to prevent the death of his daughter. Poor young Poppy, named so after the Poppy Playtime doll. She had developed a form of cancer that was untreatable using conventional methods. Chemotherapy had extended her life, but it also left her immunocompromised. Elliot had shielded her as well as he could – built her a whole home in the factory, with no connection to the rest of the complex, apart from through a passageway near his office that only he had access to. He spent years experimenting with ways to prolong her life, maybe even cure her. It went far beyond the purpose of the laboratories that lay deep beneath. It was an utterly selfish thing, but once he had succeeded in transferring Poppy’s vital organs and brain into a doll, he had realised that using the method for such self-centred reasons was wrong.

So, if Elliot had turned his scientific mind to the betterment of others, it stood to reason that it could be used to keep the very core of the company alive – and Elliot represented that core. Leith hadn’t ordered this procedure on selfish grounds. As far as he was concerned, allowing Elliot to die before he had even finished his work was not for the greater good of the company.

To that end, the moment Leith had heard Elliot had passed, he had ordered several members of the Science Team to retrieve his body and bring it to the Labs, here in the factory itself, under the guise of honouring his will, which stipulated he was to be buried within the factory’s grounds. He was given over to the very team he had once trusted to help him with the procedure that had transformed Poppy.

Normally, they would have a toy body ready for the procedure, but this was completely unexpected. Improvisations had to be made, so Leith ordered them to use whatever they had to get it done.

That had been yesterday, and Leith had not heard much from the Labs team since. They had confirmed to him that they had successfully restarted his heart, although they had to construct a device and keep it outside his body in order to do so.

The final part of the procedure was apparently giving them some trouble. It was as if the stubborn old hare refused to be brought back.

******

It would be another twenty-four hours before Leith would hear anything further. He had returned to his office in the Innovation Wing, anticipating that, at some point in the near future, the Labs team would contact him to state they had succeeded in reviving Elliot, all his vital parts back where they were supposed to be… him back and better than ever.

His desk phone rang. He answered it.

“You got news?” he said.

“You’re needed down in the Labs, sir,” came the voice of Doctor Lambert.

“On my way,” Leith replied, before putting the phone down and heading for the elevator that would take him from the factory and down to the Labs, deep beneath the surface.

******

“There have been… complications in the procedure,” Doctor Lambert said.

“What do you mean, ‘complications’?” Leith demanded. Lambert clutched a clipboard in front of him. He had greeted Leith at the entrance.

“You didn’t kill him for good, did you?” Leith turned on Lambert. “You assured me this was going to work.”

“N-No, sir,” Lambert held his hooves up. “It’s just…”

“Did you, or did you not help Elliot with the procedure that transferred Poppy?” Leith raised an eyebrow.

“O-of course! But that was different. We were working with a living mammal during that procedure, even if she was on the edge of death. Mr. Ludwig is recently-deceased, which presents certain complications, and…”

“All I’m hearing is excuses, Lambert,” Leith was beginning to lose his patience. “Elliot did this with less resources almost two decades ago. Did you succeed, or have you failed?”

“Like I said, there were complications… we were unable to get his heart to beat on its own. “We did as you asked, used what we had to hand…” Lambert said. “Elliot began constructing something before he passed, but his notes were incomplete and he never got it working before…”

“I’m hearing a lot of excuses,” Leith growled.

“We… technically figured out it could be used to revive him, but it hasn’t quite worked how we’d hoped. We had to move his heart into the machine and hook it up to it in order to keep it beating. And… we had to wire the machine up to his body in order to get the electronic signals transmitting properly from his limbs to his brain. And speaking of his brain…”

“You’re not about to tell me he’s brain-dead?”

“Not exactly, but… like I said, unlike Poppy, he is recently dead. We did get his brain working again, but…”

“… but?”

“There appears to be some damage to his frontal lobe.”

“I’m not a doctor. Explain it in plain language.”

“The frontal lobe is what controls memory, reasoning, and personality. To put it simply… he’s not entirely Mr. Ludwig anymore.”

“Excuse me?” Leith could feel himself losing his cool. “So, let me get this straight… somehow, you’ve managed to turn him into… what? Some sort of prototype version of the process that he perfected?”

Lambert had no words in reply.

“I want to speak with him.”

“I wouldn’t advise that, sir,” Lambert protested. “He’s very disoriented. He doesn’t even appear to be aware of what’s happened to him.”

“Are you deaf, or am I not in charge here?” Leith bared his teeth. “I said: I want to speak with him.”

Lambert was taller than Leith, but that hardly mattered.

“This way, sir…” Lambert relented, leading Leith through the vast Labs complex and to the recovery room they were keeping what remained of Elliot in. The board affixed to the door read ‘EXP. 1006’.

“Are you sure you want to…?”

“Open it,” Leith ordered. Lambert hesitated for a moment, before doing as Leith had demanded. Leith stepped inside, not sure what he was expecting.

He wasn’t expecting to see the body of Elliot Ludwig, encased from the waist down in a device that had a strange claw attached to its right side. Cables trailed from the shell of that device into his spine, shoulders, arms, and head. His eyes were open, but glassy, unseeing. His arms were dangling in front of him.

He cocked his head in Leith’s direction.

“Can he speak?” Leith asked.

“If he can, he’s been silent since he woke,” Lambert said. “We’re confident he can hear us, but his eyes are damaged. He certainly can’t see us.”

“So, what you’re saying is that he’s brain-damaged, unable to see us and unable to communicate with us,” Leith gritted his teeth.

“I hate to say it, sir, but perhaps it would have been kinder to let him… rest.”

Leith rounded on Lambert.

“Now, you listen here. As far as I am concerned, you screwed this up. And since we can agree that Elliot is not capable of doing what I ordered you to bring him back for, that now makes me the head of Playtime Co. So, that means what I say goes. Is that understood? Because if it’s not, I will have you cast out of here, and I will make sure you never work anything more demanding than a register at the nearest Bug-A-Burga.”

Lambert swallowed hard.

“You are to do whatever it takes to fix this mess. I want him able to communicate. I want him to be able to see us when we talk to him.”

“Sir, we can’t reverse what’s happened to his frontal lobe…”

“You’d better find a way to do it. I don’t want an unfinished result; I want the final one.”

Leith gave one last look to the figure of Elliot Ludwig, in his new harness, before turning and leaving the room.

Lambert let out a breath, a hoof running through his wool.

******

It was a week before Leith was called back to the Labs. In all that time, he had been on the warpath. The official story was that Playtime Co. had taken Elliot’s body in and was preparing a funeral service for him.

It was looking like that might become a reality.

His desk phone rang and he picked it up.

“You’d better have some good news for me,” he said.

“We’ve made progress,” Lambert replied.

“I’m on my way down.”

He put the phone down, got up out of his chair and headed for the door. He made his way down the corridor towards the elevator that would take him to the Labs.

“Leith,” came a voice in a British accent from behind him. He stopped and turned to see Eddie Rittermammal, a red fox in a sharp suit, approached him. He was often reclusive, which suited his role as someone who kept the shadier dealings of Playtime Co. a secret. He was also Head of Research, but what that constituted remained a secret. What was clear was that he was a businessmammal rather than a scientist.

“Are you on your way to see Elliot?” Eddie asked.

“Depends on who you ask,” Leith replied.

“Well, I’m on my way down to the Labs to check in myself,” Eddie explained. “Care for some company?”

Leith didn’t reply, and Eddie took that as affirmation. The pair rode down to the Labs in silence. Lambert was there, waiting for them.

“You’d better have some good news for me,” Leith warned him.

“There’s good news and bad news,” Lambert said.

“How annoyed I get at the bad news is going to depend on what the good news is,” Leith said. “So, make it good.”

“We’ve succeeded in giving him lenses and a voicebox. He can see and talk now… although he’s not been particularly vocal since.”

“And the bad news?” Eddie asked.

“… it’s better if you see it for yourself,” Lambert indicated to the room Elliot had been kept in. Opening the door, he beckoned Leith and Eddie in.

The first thing that was of note was how dim the lighting was. The second was the smell – Eddie scrunched his muzzle up in disgust. Leith barely kept his own composure.

“It smells like death,” he noted. “And why is it so dark in here?”

“This… is the bad news. Er… we had to apply copious amounts of preservative because he had entered the putrefaction stage…”

“Turn the lights on,” Leith demanded.

“He’s sensitive to the light,” Lambert replied in hesitation.

Leith was beginning to lose his patience, so he demanded: “I said: turn the goddamn lights on.”

With little choice but to comply, Lambert turned the light dial on the wall. The dimness gave way to a much brighter light, and Leith could see just what Lambert was talking about.

When he had last visited, the Thing was clearly still recognisable as Elliot Ludwig. But now, he no longer resembled the elderly hare. The preservative they had given him had caused him to take on something of a mummified appearance, his fur was missing in many places, his ears had rotted downward towards his skull, his lips had parted, revealing the teeth underneath.

Further to those physiological changes were the modifications that had been made on Leith’s orders. The Labs had fashioned working photoreceptive lenses that now replaced his eyes, and a speaker protruded from his throat, the external part of the voicebox the scientists had installed.

The lenses flared to life and the body reared up. The voicebox crackled and emitted a distorted garbling noise.

“Is there any chance of fashioning him a new body, like with Poppy?” Eddie asked.

“Poppy was a living subject,” Lambert replied. “We tried with several experiments, but once dead, they couldn’t be revived in such a manner. It’s amazing this was as successful as it was.”

“Successful?” Leith rounded on him, teeth bared in fury. “You call this successful?! I call it a monster!”

“Monster!” the Thing spoke, using Leith’s own voice. Everybody turned in shock towards it.

 “I… am not… a… monster…” the Thing protested, its words coming out in a completely different voice for each segment. “I… am… what you… made me… to be… what am I?”

The Thing turned towards Leith, red lenses staring at him. It cocked its head curiously.

“What… did… you call me?” the Thing asked. It then spat out a single word, in Leith’s own voice.

“Prototype.”

Leith stepped closer, curiosity getting the better of him.

The Thing swiped its clawed hand straight for his head, aiming to decapitate him. It was only the quick thinking of Eddie pulling him back that spared him.

“I am… the Prototype…” the Thing declared. “Elliot Ludwig… is… dead.”

Leith had to agree. Whatever had been used to make this self-proclaimed Prototype, it was no longer Elliot Ludwig.

“Congratulations on your promotion,” Eddie added glibly.

*****

One year later…

The Prototype had been confined to the Labs ever since, his carapace-like harness modified to allow for limited movement on six spiderlike legs.

Over time, further experimentation had allowed him to leave his harness, as his heart had been moved to a machine strapped to his back and he had been given a set of crablike legs attached to a small frame that was welded to his abdomen. He had also been rigged in such a manner than he was able to move his upper body. He had modified the claw to allow it to attach to the compartment joined to his spine.

Once he was ready, he had figured out a way to get out through the vents in his room.

That day, alarms had blared throughout the Labs.

‘ALERT! EXPERIMENT 1006 IS LOOSE!’

The Prototype knew they would be scouring the Labs looking for him, but he had the advantage of knowing his way around. How he knew, he could not say, but it aided his escape from the Labs and into the labyrinth of caves and passageways that would lead him to the elevator to the surface. He couldn’t explain how he knew his way, just that he did.

Eventually, he found the exit, a series of concrete corridors that ended with a storage bay at the bottom of a tall elevator shaft.

He pressed the button to call the elevator down and prepared himself to deal with anybody who could be travelling down on it. After several minutes’ waiting, the Prototype could see the platform descending. Fixing his lenses on the platform, he could not see anybody riding it down. If he had the ability to breathe, he might have let out a breath of relief. Despite what the scientists believed, he didn’t necessarily enjoy killing, although they deserved it for what they had done to him.

The platform stopped at the bottom, and the Prototype boarded it, pressing the button to make it ascend.

Once it reached the top, the Prototype left. It appeared as though there was a minimal crew operating in this area. It wasn’t something the Prototype expected, as the Labs were always fully-staffed, but perhaps up here, security wasn’t as big a concern. Or, maybe, it was just late in the day and where he had arrived at operated on less mammals during that time. A single sloth stood at the controls of a large computer in front of three vats, one of them filled with red smoke.

Quietly, the Prototype made his way towards the corridor at the end of the room and snuck out.

Playcare.

Somehow, he knew the name of this place. The massive dome was dimly-lit, lights above twinkling like stars, indicating that it was night time.

The children will be asleep.

The Prototype knew the way out of here, to the upper floors of the factory, to escape, was via the cable car… or, he could try the maintenance door…

No, that would require two to open…

The cable car was his best hope. But before he could make it any further, he noticed a pair of reflective eyes staring at him from behind a bush. Tensing himself for a fight, the Prototype stopped when he noticed the eyes belonged to a young lynx boy.

One word flashed through the Prototype’s mind.

Caught.

Chapter Text

As the Prototype and the young lynx boy stared at each other, the former went through a lot of scenarios, trying to figure out a quick escape. He was worried the boy might go and tell Playcare’s counsellors, which would make escape that much harder.

One thought crept to the front of his mind: There shouldn’t have been a child up at this hour.

Perhaps because it was dark, but the boy in front of him was not scared of the Prototype.

“What are you doing here?” the boy asked. “Are you… lost?”

The Prototype hesitated for a moment, before adopting what he thought was a child’s voice.

“I’m… trying to leave…” he said. He couldn’t be sure the voice sounded real – up until this point, all his words had been strung together using recordings of other mammals.

“Are you… not… afraid… of me?” the Prototype asked.

“You’re a little scary…” the boy replied. “But… I think the Smiling Critters are scary too…”

“Are they…?” The Prototype cocked his head curiously.

“But scary doesn’t mean bad,” the boy continued. “The counsellors don’t look scary, but they are…”

“Is that so?” The Prototype said, a hint of curiosity in his voice. “What do they call you?”

“Theo…” the boy replied. “What’s your name?”

The Prototype did not respond. Theo did not need to know it – it was one less thing the staff could wring from him if they found out he had met with him.

The Prototype had to consider one other thing: given he had been spotted, it meant escape via the cable car was very much unlikely now, so the Prototype had to come up with a new plan.

Theo could prove to be useful to that end, he realised. And if he got the chance to tear down some of this place, and the mammals who had wronged him, in the process, then all the better.

“Scary people… are scary… because they have something to hide,” he suggested. “Something they don’t want anybody to see.”

Theo considered that for a moment. If the Prototype could smile, he might have done – the first seed had been planted.

******

The Prototype had spent the following months befriending Theo, hiding on the outskirts of Playcare, ensuring that he wasn’t spotted by any of the staff or the other children. Hearing that the counsellors of Playcare had not exactly been helping the children did not sit well with him at all. He had convinced Theo to go looking for evidence that Playcare was not what it appeared, and gave him directions on where to look. Coupled with the Labs’ mistreatment, it painted a very bleak picture, and he wanted evidence before he made his attempt at escape.

The Counsellor’s Offices were a good place to start, but unfortunately, Theo got caught looking through the filing cabinets in the Head Counsellors’ office. The Prototype had positioned himself in the caverns outside, and once he found the appropriate window for the Head Counsellor’s office, he was able to eavesdrop.

“… why were you in here, Theodore?” the Head Counsellor, a large ox, asked. He sounded angry, his hooves on his hips as he stared down at the young lynx.

“I was looking for something,” Theo replied.

“What, exactly?”

“I don’t know,” Theo shrugged. “My friend told me to look.”

The Prototype had not told Theo what it was he was after in those files, although Theo understood that it was probably evidence for some wrong-doing.

“Sit down, Theo…” the Head Counsellor asked, his posture becoming less confrontational. Theo hesitated but did as the Head Counsellor asked.

“Theodore… who told you to do this? Was it one of the other kids?”

Theo shook his head.

“Can you give me the name of the friend who was responsible for asking you to come in here and look through my office?” the Head Counsellor inquired.

“I don’t know his name,” Theo replied. “Nobody else knows he exists. He told me to look for a file, but I don’t remember which one.”

The Head Counsellor let out a frustrated snort, his head resting on his hooves.

“Okay, Theodore… I’m going to have to speak to the other Counsellors about this. I’ll take you back to the School and you can rejoin your classmates.”

The Prototype leaned back from the window and clambered back into the caves. He would have to figure out another plan.

******

The Prototype eventually got hold of what he was looking for – files on the mammals running Playcare, reports regarding Counsellor misdeeds, some documentation pertaining to the Red Smoke produced by the Labs, as well as the original Playcare handbook, created by Elliot Ludwig. What he needed was an escape, but his original plan was unlikely to bear fruit – in his observations, the Prototype had noticed that the cable car was exceptionally busy, and the rails were electrified, which meant trying to climb out that way was not advised.

That meant an alternate escape route, and it so happened that he had one – the maintenance door that led from Playcare right out onto the surface.

There was just one problem: in order to open the way out, he needed two GrabPacks, each with Green Hands, to create the circuit needed to open the massive metal door.

He had convinced Theo to steal two of the devices from a maintenance area within the School and bring them to him. Together, they could get the door open.

Theo strapped his own on and helped the Prototype with his.

“Are you ready?” The Prototype asked. Theo nodded. “Just do what I do.”

The Prototype fired his Green Hand at the power nodule between the two needed to open the door. He held it for long enough to be sure that the right amount of charge was drawn in, before pulling back and firing it at the correct receiver.

Theo stepped forward, looked at the Prototype, who nodded, before using his own Green Hand.

However, Theo took longer than the Prototype did. Aware of what would happen if the Green hand was overcharged, the Prototype made forward to prompt Theo to disconnect. Theo did so, and then fired at the receiver, but the Prototype’s move to stop Theo from drawing too much power came too late.

Electricity surged from the Green Hand attached to the power socket, up through the GrabPack’s cable, and into Theo’s body.

He flew backwards, sparks flying from his GrabPack, before slamming into the wall and slumping to the floor.

The door began to open, revealing the cavernous path that would lead the Prototype to the surface world.

This was it. This was his chance for freedom.

But something within the Prototype compelled him to not take it. He couldn’t just leave Theo behind.

Gingerly, he removed the GrabPack from Theo’s unconscious body, ditched his own, and lifted him up with ease, before making for the maintenance tunnels that would lead him to the paediatrician’s office.

Once he was there, he carefully lowered Theo onto the doorstep, knocked on the door, which bore a label that said ‘Dr. Thomas Clarke, On-Site Paediatrician’, and waited a moment for it to open before departing.

A leopard, presumably Dr. Thomas Clarke, stepped out. He caught sight of the Prototype as it backed off into the maintenance corridors, not believing what he was seeing.

His attention then turned to the unconscious lynx boy at his feet. He Bent down, checked his pulse.

There wasn’t one.

“Sharon!” Dr. Clarke called into the office! Call an ambulance! Now! Tell them we have an unconscious lynx boy!”

Dr. Clarke carefully picked Theo up, brought him inside, and began CPR on him.

******

The Prototype was relieved to learn that Theo would make it. He had watched as paramedics arrived and took the boy away.

However, helping Theo, although it had been the right thing to do, had also cost the Prototype his chance for freedom. As soon as Theo was gone, security was deployed, and they had not taken long to locate and subdue him with enough tranquilizer to knock out a small elephant.

The next thing the Prototype knew, he was back in his cell, with Leith Pierre stood in front of him.

“Well, I gotta say, I’m hurt you’d think of leaving so soon,” he said.

The Prototype remained silent.

“This is your life now,” Leith continued. “You’re going to spend the rest of your days here while we figure out what to do with you.”

“Do you… feel… anything?” the Prototype asked.

“Right now, I feel hungry,” Leith turned away. “Try not to get bored here, Elliot.”

******

One year later

“… and this one of Playtime Co.’s biggest secrets.”

The Prototype raised his head at the sound of Leith Pierre’s voice from beyond the door. It opened, allowing the weasel to step inside, but it was the mammal that had followed him which caught the Prototype’s attention.

It was a tall panther with piercing eyes that stirred a memory within the Prototype.

Harley,

Let me begin this with a bit of bluntness, as I know you appreciate not dancing around what needs to be said. I’ve decided to remove you from the Young Geniuses Program.

This couldn’t be possible, could it? They didn’t hire Harley Sawyer, surely? The Prototype was certain that, if he could move his face, he might have raise an eyebrow.

“Experiment 1006,” Leith told Sawyer. “An experiment gone wrong, but at the same time… it shows a certain amount of promise. I’m sure it will prove to be a great source of inspiration for what we’ve hired you to do.”

“Indeed,” Sawyer replied. “May I ask for a moment?”

“Of course,” Leith’s gaze flitted between Sawyer and the Prototype before he left the room. Sawyer stepped forward, a small sneer on his muzzle.

“I must confess, when Leith Pierre contacted me, I had no idea what it was about, or how he even knew how to locate me,” he said. “When he told me that he had been through records in the Young Geniuses Program, it started to make sense. But imagine my surprise when I’m told that those experiments we had a hand in when we were younger… would lead to you.”

The Prototype said nothing.

“I knew who you were made from the second I saw you, 1006,” Sawyer continued. “And I have to wonder… is there any part of that soft backstabber, Elliot Ludwig, left in there?”

The Prototype maintained his silence.

“No, I suppose there isn’t…” Sawyer said. “Still, you will be of great use to my experimentation.”

With that, Sawyer left the room.

******

A mere week after Sawyer’s reintroduction, the Prototype had attempted to escape again. And he had nearly succeeded. He had dismantled an alarm clock in his room and constructed a laser pen, flashing it at the camera monitoring him. The camera had gone dark, allowing the Prototype to hide in one of the camera’s blind spots. As expected, security opened the door. However, they were quick off the mark when they saw the Prototype make his move to escape, and shut the door.

Unfortunately, they had also trapped one of their own in there with him, and his rage at being foiled had been taken out on the poor tiger. Literally torn limb from limb, the Prototype had then stolen his victim’s radius and ulna bones, before fusing them to the claw extending out from his shell.

This was the first time the Prototype had ever modified himself, but it would not be the last.

******

In the intervening years, the Prototype had learned that Sawyer had also begun what he termed the ‘Bigger Bodies Initiative’… and, worse, he was using the orphans in Playcare as subjects for it, transforming them into gigantic versions of Playtime Co. toys, for the sole purpose of using them as slave labour.

The Prototype had also been ‘modified’ – that was to say that they had constructed a specific harness for him, to prevent any further escape attempts.

As if there wasn’t more to it, the Prototype had also become the repeated experimental subject of Sawyer. Whenever he wasn’t working on the next experiment, he was with the Prototype, dissecting him in order to find something, but whatever it was, Sawyer had not told him.

I have seen one glaring flaw that I have looked past for too long, and I can no longer do that.

Your lack of humility.

The words had surfaced in the mind of the Prototype, unbidden. Clearly, Sawyer had not learned the humility that Elliot Ludwig had hoped to instil in him.

The Prototype had to speak.

The next time Sawyer came in to experiment on the Prototype, he took his chance. He forced a garbled sound out of his speaker, which drew Sawyer’s attention. He stepped in front of the Prototype, curiosity on his face.

“Hmm… ready to talk now, are you?” Sawyer asked.

“I… possess… a question…” the Prototype spoke in his many different voices.

“Go ahead,” Sawyer indicated.

“Do you… feel… anything?” The Prototype asked. Sawyer sighed in frustration at the query.

“This question referring to what, exactly?”

“You stick us… beat us… tear at flesh…”

A brief pause from the Prototype.

“Do you feel it?”

The Prototype waited his answer, hoping he had gotten the point across. He may have lacked humility, but did he lack any basic empathy for his victims?

“There is a secret inside you, 1006,” Sawyer explained. “Valuable beyond measure. I cut, and prod, and burn at it, and I get closer to finding out what it is with each passing session. So: speak. Or, don’t. Fight, or give in. Regardless, I learn something new about you every day.”

Sawyer bared his teeth in what was supposed to resemble a smile, a small chuckle escaping his lips.

“It excites me!”

So, this was the kind of mammal Sawyer had grown into. Far from learning the humility he so desperately needed, he had doubled down on his worst traits.

A fleeting memory returned to the surface, of him looking up at Sawyer as he lay dying, that dark smile upon his face. Perhaps Elliot had been naïve to believe Sawyer could change. It wasn’t a mistake the Prototype intended on repeating.

“Thank you,” the Prototype spoke. Sawyer stopped in place, confusion showing on his face.

“You… thank me?” He asked, as if the idea was absurd to him.

“Absolutely!” The Prototype replied. He then mimicked Sawyer’s own voice, to throw back his own words: “I learn something new about you… every day.”

Sawyer stared at the Prototype, dumbfounded. A knock came at the door, breaking him from his thoughts.

“Enter,” he said. The door opened, and a coyote in a lab coat stepped in.

“Doctor Sawyer, we need to discuss the next stages of Project Doey,” he said.

“I’ll be with you soon, White,” Sawyer replied, not taking his eyes off the Prototype.

******

Years later…

Having had enough, and against all expectations given the extensive modifications made to his body intended to prevent him from doing so, the Prototype had finally broken free from containment, this time making his home deep within the caves.

During this time, he had also found Poppy, learning that Sawyer, and later White once Sawyer was deposed, had been taking Poppy from her own containment and subjecting her to the same procedures they had been putting him through. It seemed like they were looking for the same thing in her that Sawyer had wanted from him.

Learning that had stirred intense feelings of anger and hate in the Prototype. He had believed that he was the only one being tortured, for some ‘secret’ Sawyer had wanted. Once he had been removed, the Prototype had assumed that it would stop – he had been wrong.

It was upon this realisation that the Prototype began to plan – to make every single one of them pay for what they had done. He had communicated with the other toys via Theo – who had been abducted from Playcare by Sawyer’s scientists like so many other orphans, and transformed into Experiment 1188, CatNap. His plan was simple: the toys were going to overthrow the Playtime Co. staff and take control of the factory.

The Prototype did not entirely trust Poppy to go along with his plan, and so he had told her his plan in such a way that it made it seem like they were making a bid for freedom.

******

Several months later…

The big rebellion the Prototype had planned had succeeded. The entire factory was now under his control, at the cost of every Playtime Co. staff member. It was ironic that, in order to take control of it, the Prototype had to destroy the very thing his past self had cultivated in the company. As well as that, he could not allow the toys to become free, no matter how he wanted to allow them to be. The fact of the matter was that the Prototype knew the truth: if they were allowed to leave, they would most likely be captured by those who wanted to learn their secrets, and subjected to further experimentation against their will. After all, regardless of how they were made, they were proof of a scientific method that could be of great benefit to the world… and great harm to both it and the toys themselves.

The remaining unmutilated orphans in Playcare had been transferred by CatNap down to the Labs, where the Prototype could make use of them for a very special project he had in mind, one which harkened back to his days as Elliot Ludwig.

With the Hour of Joy completed, the Prototype had two orders of business.

His first port of call was to Poppy, and so he made his way to their meeting spot, just outside of Playcare.

“This isn’t what we agreed!” Poppy protested. “We agreed we’d get everyone out!”

“That is not possible,” the Prototype replied. “Everyone will stay put. You included. Anybody who disobeys… will meet the same fate as the staff. I have told everybody else that.”

“But…” Poppy began.

“That is final, Poppy.”

“What about the… the bodies?” Poppy whispered. “I saw the others dragging them down below Playcare…”

“The toys need to eat.”

Hearing that made Poppy feel sick to her stomach. Her nose started twitching uncontrollably.

“You and I… do not. We are different to the others. But they… will die, if they don’t eat, and food… will become scarce. They killed to survive… and those bodies will be their sustenance.”

The Prototype turned away from her.

“This is all for the greater good, Poppy,” he told her as he began his exit. “You will see…”

******

His next visit took him deep beneath Playcare, past the Prison that Playtime Co. had constructed to confine the toys – ironically, it now housed the very mammals who had done so, on the Prototype’s orders. They couldn’t all be killed, lest their flesh spoil, thus rendering them inedible. So, they would live… until they were needed for a greater purpose.

Once he had passed the Prison, he traversed No Mammal’s Land with ease, arriving at the place that Sawyer had been kept.

It had amused the Prototype to no end to learn that he had been betrayed by Playtime Co., turned into the very thing he had made of so many orphans. Nevertheless, he had been tempted to order his death during the Hour of Joy. But his plan required somebody with the scientific knowledge he needed for his plan, and Sawyer was the only one left alive within the factory with that knowledge.

Had the Prototype been mentally entire, he wouldn’t have needed Sawyer at all.

Sawyer’s surprise at his guest was hidden. Behind the tower hosting hiss brain was a massive curved wall of monitors, which displayed an eye.

“I wondered when you would pay me a visit, 1006,” Sawyer remarked through a speaker. “Are you here to kill me personally?”

“If I wanted you dead, I would have done it during the Hour,” the Prototype responded.

“Which means you kept me alive for a reason. Perhaps you have something you need help with… something that only I can help with, since you killed all the scientists.”

“I have been thinking about a project started by Elliot Ludwig…”

“I’ve read the notes… he intended to find a way to construct a new body for Poppy, one that does not rely on a toy form but rather an organic one. Curious…”

The Prototype stared at the monitors, waiting for Sawyer to clarify his remarks.

“Have you perhaps figured out the secret that you and Poppy share?” Sawyer asked. His eye bowed slightly. “No… I don’t suppose you have, because you’re here. You need my help to figure it out… and then to complete the procedure. Fascinating… you would come to the one who has done the exact opposite. But, then again… perhaps you’re aware of the failures of my… ‘successors’…” Sawyer spat the word out with venom. “Yes, the quality of the experiments sharply declined when Playtime did this to me. Had it not been for those backstabbing traitors, I might even have matched the greatest experiment Elliot Ludwig had come out with… one you seek to undo.”

“Can you be useful, or not?” the Prototype asked. “Because if not… then your survival is not necessary.”

The eye on the monitors vanished. A clanking sound drew the Prototype’s attention as a tall, cloaked figure with a monitor for a head emerged from the darkness, its screen displaying the eye that represented Sawyer.

“I will work with you,” Sawyer declared. “Together, we will do what Playtime couldn’t… what Elliot couldn’t either.”

Chapter Text

Present day…

The story the Prototype, the reanimated Elliot Ludwig, had imparted, had shaken the group to its core. Words failed Nick and Judy. Poppy looked like her entire world had been shattered. Kissy was still shivering in fear.

“Now do you see, Poppy?” the Prototype bent down low, the corpse of Elliot Ludwig angled towards the group below him.

“No…” Poppy shook her head, tears trickling down her face. “No, no, no…”

“I told you that it was always about you and me, Poppy… what we are… and what that is… is family.”

“No…” Poppy denied. “My father… my father is dead… He died a long time ago… YOU’RE NOT MY FATHER!”

For the first time, it seemed that the Prototype had been rendered speechless. Elliot’s corpse twitched as his eyes fixed on Poppy.

“And if you think, for one moment, I want to be trapped in some… some immortal, unageing body, I would rather you just kill me right now!”

“Poppy, I did this all for you,” the Prototype responded. “You and I… so you could live, free of illness, free of the fear of death… we could be a family once more.”

“All those deaths… what you did… Ollie… How was any of that for me?! Why couldn’t you just let me die?!”

Poppy clutched the vial of powder harder, as if trying to break it with her grip.

“I would rather die… than spend another moment with the monster you have become. We’ll never be family.”

Unlike his surprise at Poppy’s previous outburst, the Prototype seemed to have steeled himself.

“That is out of the question,” he replied, starting forward, claw outstretched. “I have come too far to let you go now.”

He grabbed hold of Poppy tightly, pinning her arms to her side, raising her to the same height as Elliot’s corpse.

“Let me go,” Poppy said. “Let me go, let me go, let me go, let me go, let me go, LET ME GO!”

The Prototype carefully examined her. He turned towards Nick, Judy, and Kissy. All three had taken on wary, defensive stances. Judy aimed her GrabPack Hands at the claw holding Poppy.

“That will not work,” the Prototype told them. He aimed the cannon on his right side at them.

“I thought you said you were going to let us live,” Nick said.

“You will live,” the Prototype promised. “Long enough to see the end. Then, you will all die.”

“You really are insane,” Nick shook his head incredulously.

Something flew past Nick and Judy, straight for the Prototype. It landed with a loud thud against the Prototype’s shell, and then let out a high-pitched screech.

It was Huggy.

“What the…?” the Prototype swung around, trying to dislodge his new passenger.

Kissy started forward, her remaining arm outstretched towards Huggy as he climbed over the Prototype’s body, attempting to pull at any part he could, including the toys the Prototype had grafted onto himself.

“I guess he does care for her after all,” Nick remarked.

“We can’t just stand here,” Judy said. “We have to do something to get Poppy out of there!”

“You’re the one who’s got the Hands,” Nick replied. “Can’t you just… I don’t know, pull Elliot’s head off or something, like in the tape?”

“I really doubt the GrabPack actually works that way!”

“Well, we have to do something!”

The Prototype had moved over to the one of the chairs on the side of the room, placing Poppy in it and strapping her in securely. He then turned his attention to the blue-furred, rage-filled monster trying to disassemble him. With a swift motion, he swung the giant claw around and grabbed Huggy by the throat. Huggy struggled, screaming in rage. The Prototype lowered him so that they were facing one another.

“My last living success…” he lamented. “I began working on my next big thing… the Smiling Critters as soon as Huggy launched. I had great plans for that line, but that was before I died. And without me to guide them… they failed. And they continued to fail without me to steer the ship.”

The Prototype drew his arm back and threw Huggy hard into the wall.

“A shame,” he remarked as the figure slumped to the ground. Kissy ran over to Huggy and fell to her knees. He turned back towards Judy and Nick.

“You’re not going to add him to your macabre collection?” Nick snarked.

“I do not need any further grafts,” the Prototype responded.

“Why even do that in the first place?” Judy asked.

“I required them in order to maximize my chances of a successful transfer. Over time, my remaining organs have begun to degrade without a proper system to sustain them, and so grafting others onto myself has given me a temporary reprieve. Long enough to complete my work. This one is not needed.”

He stomped back over to Poppy, picking up a canister filled with Red Smoke.

“Prototype… please…” Poppy pleaded.

Without warning, the lights flickered and then dimmed. Several pieces of equipment shut down.

“No… no…” the Prototype turned away from Poppy and stormed around the room, checking the cryo pods. It seemed they were still functional.

The only other device that was still active was a large screen attached to one of the walls. It flickered to life, displaying white noise. The Prototype turned his attention to it.

A sinister laugh emerged from speakers flanking the sides of the screen.

“D-d-d-d-did you reall-eally think that you cou-ould kill me s-so easily?” a familiar voice spoke.

“You…” the Prototype snarled.

The white noise on the screen faded, revealing the image of an eye.

“No way…” Nick whispered.

“Oh, dear…” the voice of the Doctor continued. “It seems you did…” The Doctor’s eye flickered towards Nick and Judy. “I warned you, did I not? I can move wherever I want within Playtime’s systems. I also recall telling you I would bury myself so deep that none of you could find me.”

The eye flicked towards the Prototype, who stared at it curiously.

“The great Elliot Ludwig, stumped for words. I imagine it must be infuriating to be so close to what you wanted and to be stopped from succeeding at the last possible second. You and I share that in common.”

“We are nothing alike,” the Prototype growled.

“Yes, I suppose you would see it that way. I will admit… it was amusing when I found out about all the experiments that you had undertaken, and some that had happened outside your explicit consent. Still, once I learned that you had buried the hare boy on your estate, I had a little bit of fun besmirching your good name.”

“You dug him up…” Nick realised.

“Yes, I did,” the Doctor confessed. “I also tipped off the ZPD. What was the great and wise Elliot Ludwig going to do? Officially, you’re dead.”

“You…” the Prototype started forward.

“Does that anger you, 1006?” the Doctor taunted. “Perhaps you now feel a fraction of the fury I felt following your casting me aside. I spent years devising a way to exact my revenge against you. I thought killing you would bring it to an end, so imagine how it perplexed me to have your second-in-command, Leith Pierre, contact me. Still, I suppose I have to thank you for the inspiration – you created the blueprint that allowed me to devise the golden path. What was it you said in your call to Poppy? ‘What we are is not a truth that can be burned away’.”

While the Doctor was keeping the Prototype distracted, Nick and Judy crept along the edge of the room, towards Poppy. Once Judy reached the bound doll, she loosened her straps and helped her out of the chair. Silently, they crept towards the unconscious P.W.

“You have no power here,” the Prototype insisted to the Doctor. “Your interference is insignificant.”

“Is that what you think, 1006? I suppose I should thank the fox and rabbit you coerced into executing your wishes. Without them… I’d still be tied to the servers in the Secondary Labs. Now, though… I am free.”

The eye on the screen flicked to its left, towards the cryogenic cells holding the new bodies for Poppy and the Prototype.

“You wouldn’t dare,” the Prototype affirmed.

“I wouldn’t dare what, 1006? I wouldn’t dare begin the thawing process, accidentally forgetting to implement a few steps that would ensure it occurred without damage? There is a saying: revenge is a dish best served cold, but for me? I prefer mine warm.”

A computer beeped next to the screen and the Prototype turned his attention towards it. The screen displayed the Doctor’s eye for a brief moment, before a single window opened.

          Cryogenic awakening process begun:

•         Pod 225 E. Ludwig
•         Pod 226 P. Ludwig

The Prototype stomped over to the computer and examined the screen.

          WARNING: Improper order of process. Proceed? Y/N

          > Y

The Prototype pulled out something from one of the toys attached to him. It was a GrabPack Hand, red in colour and with lit-up fingers.

“An Omni-Hand…” Judy realised.

“That’s how he’s been able to do everything he’s done,” Poppy said.

The Prototype carefully reached towards the Hand Scanner plugged into the terminal. After a moment, the scanner bleeped, and the thawing process stopped.

“Hahaha…” the Doctor laughed. “That might work… for up to four times.”

The process restarted. The Prototype stopped it again, but the Doctor was persistent, starting it up a third time. Once again, the Prototype used the Omni Hand to stop it, and once more the Doctor restarted the countdown.

The process stalled unexpectedly. The Prototype had run out of uses for the Omni-Hand, so it couldn’t have been him.

“W…what?” the Doctor sounded surprised. “What is this?”

Lines of code began clouding out the image of the Doctor’s eye on the screen. It wasn’t long until it was completely gone, but then the code began to change, transforming into a message.

          ‘You hurt us, but I won’t let you hurt her.’

“Impossible,” the Doctor gasped, still able to speak through the speakers. “There should be no-one who can interfere… I’m no longer bound to Playtime’s systems, I’m…”

The phone, which was in Nick’s pocket, rang. He fished it out and stared at it, dumbfounded. Who could possibly be calling, he wondered. It obviously wasn’t the Prototype, who was currently busy thwarting the Doctor. And the Doctor was also out, since he had no problem communicating through the monitors and speakers.

It made no sense. Nevertheless, Nick was compelled to answer it, to find out who it was on the other end of the line.

“Can you please pass me over to Poppy?” a familiar voice, that of a young boy, spoke. Nick and Judy stared at the phone for a moment. Nick gave Judy a look of recognition as he handed the phone over to the bunny doll.

“Who… who is this?” Poppy asked. 

“It’s me. I’m here, Poppy,” the voice said. “For you, I’ll always be here.”

“… Ollie?” Poppy gasped. Nick and Judy once again traded knowing expressions. “How? I thought you were…”

“When I learned the Doctor had downloaded himself from the Playtime servers,” Ollie explained, “I thought I could do the same before the Prototype got to me. He may have destroyed my body, but he didn’t take my heart or my mind. And he won’t break yours. You’re strong, Poppy, and I know that, whatever happens next, you’ll be fine.”

“What are you going to do?”

“What I have to do, to give you a chance. Thank you for being my friend, Poppy. I’ll never forget you.”

The line went dead.

“Ollie! Wait!” Poppy called. 

“You little brat…” the Doctor snarled. “I’ll delete you! I’ll…”

The lights flickered, and all the screens bearing the Doctor’s eye suddenly switched off. All that remained on was the terminal connected to the new bodies for Elliot and Poppy. The terminal displayed a series of messages.

WARNING: Connection with Pod 225 compromised.

ERROR: Pod 225 integrity has reduced to 68%, subject not recommended for transfer

The Prototype stood over the cryogenic pods, his lenses reading the display. He was twitching in barely-contained rage. In spite of the fact that Ollie had stopped the Doctor, he had not been in time to prevent the Doctor compromising The Prototype’s new vessel. He wanted to smash something. Anything.

He settled on destroying the fox and rabbit that had intended to interfere with his plan. He swung his body around towards them, eyes flashing menacingly. He was so tunnel-visioned on them, he had failed to notice that Poppy was no longer with them.

“Hey!” Poppy called, drawing his attention. He turned towards the sound of her voice, and saw her standing on top of the pod containing her new body. She clutched the vial containing the combustible compound.

“Poppy, you are still resisting after all this time,” the Prototype said. “Don’t you understand? This is for your benefit.”

“No,” Poppy denied. “None of this has been for my benefit, but it’s all happened because of me. Dad allowed me to exist as a doll, and because of that, so many people have been hurt.”

“I didn’t…” the Prototype began.

“You’re not him,” Poppy interrupted. “I don’t care if you were made from him. My Dad died years ago. And I wish he’d never brought me back! Well, I won’t let you get what you want.”

She raised the vial high enough to shatter if she dropped it.

“Poppy, consider this,” the Prototype tried to bargain.

“I have. If I can’t destroy you, I’ll stop you getting what you want. I’ll destroy myself, both the body you made for me, and this doll form. I’ll never give you what you want.”

The Prototype considered the situation, trying to figure out a way to get Poppy out of the way so he could complete what was left of his plan.

“What do you want?” he asked.

“You already know,” Poppy replied. “You’ve taken my Dad, you’ve taken everything he built, everything he ever stood for, you took Ollie, you killed everyone just because they didn’t agree with you. You sided with the Doctor, who tortured me again and again and again. I want revenge.”

While all eyes were on Poppy and the Prototype, there were two figures that the Prototype had turned his back on. Perhaps he no longer considered them a threat. Perhaps the thought that a Bigger Body that had survived a thousand-metre drop couldn’t be killed so easily hadn’t even crossed his mind. Nevertheless, Kissy had spent the entire time the Prototype had been dealing with the Doctor helping Huggy back onto his feet.

Huggy and Kissy gazed to each other, silently communicating.

Huggy looked towards the Prototype and opened his mouth. Kissy nodded in understanding.

And then, Huggy charged forward, mouth wide open, bellowing a loud shriek. Kissy followed him, opening her mouth similarly. The pair leaped towards the Prototype and landed on the remains of a P.J. Pug-A-Pillar and climbed up. The Prototype’s attention turned away from Poppy towards the surprise attack.

Huggy tore at the dead P.J. Pug—A-Pillar grafted to the Prototype’s body, prizing off several of its legs and biting at its head. Meanwhile, Kissy bit down on the elastic plastic limbs of the dead Mommy Long Legs, breaking them apart, before moving on to her torso and pulling it free.

“Stop that,” the Prototype swung about, trying to dislodge the two, like a wolf trying to shake off fleas.

The two continued to pry and pull and bite whatever they were within reach of. Several dead toys fell to the ground, blood spurting from both them and the Prototype, who bellowed in apparent pain.

Nick and Judy were watching the Prototype struggle against the two. An idea suddenly came to Nick, and he turned towards his partner.

“Remember the tape back when you got your first GrabPack?” He said.

“What about it?” Judy replied.

“They had a safety video warning us not to fire it at each other,” Nick recalled. “Remember that?”

“Nick, we’ve gone over this… I doubt the GrabPack would actually be strong enough to…”

“Look at Huggy and Kissy – they’re doing okay at pulling that thing apart. Maybe you can pull him out of there. He loses that, he loses control. Come on, Carrots, it’s got to be worth a try.”

Judy considered Nick’s words. The memory of using them to rip apart the generators powering the Doctor’s servers surfaced to her mind, and those things had been bolted to the floor.

She aimed the GrabPack at the corpse of CatNap protruding from the Prototype’s side and fired. The Hands latched onto the remains of the giant purple cat. Judy reeled him in, and he came free from the Prototype’s mass, landing on the floor with a limp splat.

The Prototype roared in fury, redoubling his efforts to shake off Huggy and Kissy, who had torn more toys from him, while stumbling forward towards Nick and Judy, spindly claw outstretched.

At that moment, Kissy clambered atop the P.J. Pug-A-Pillar Elliot Ludwig’s corpse was protruding from. Bellowing a high-pitched scream, she seized the dead toy’s head and pulled hard. The Prototype jolted backwards, as a hare would if somebody seized them by the ears. He swung around, allowing Judy the opportunity to fire again and take hold of another toy, a Bigger Bodies CraftyCorn. The giant unicorn came free, landing on the floor with little grace.

This angered the Prototype more. His clawed hand reached up, grabbed hold of Kissy, and flung her off, though it wasn’t long before Huggy redoubled his own assault. The Prototype instead turned his right arm – which ended with a large cannon – and aimed it straight at Nick and Judy.

Before he could do what he was going to do with it, something struck him from the side. As it clattered to the floor, it made a metallic sound, and Nick and Judy saw that it was a large metal bar. It couldn’t have come from Kissy, and Huggy was still busy trying his best to bite and pull whatever he could from the Prototype’s body.

“That was for the others,” came a familiar voice. Nick, Judy, and Poppy all turned around to face the source of it. Standing in the entryway of the lab was DogDay and Bobby, staring hard towards the Prototype. Rosie was sitting atop Bobby’s shoulders.

“Backstabbing traitors,” the Prototype snarled, in the voice of the Doctor, before returning to the mix of voices. “You wouldn’t exist without me.”

“We would have been regular kids, with normal lives,” DogDay retorted. “Poppy’s been right about you all along.”

“Such small-minded simpletons,” the Prototype shook himself.

“Huggy and Kissy have been pulling his toy-encrusted shell apart,” Nick pointed to the dead toys that had begun to litter the floor, their blood leaking out.

“I’ll try and help,” DogDay nodded, before clanking off towards the Prototype. Bobby stayed with Nick and Judy.

“I’m afraid I’m not much use in a fight,” she said to Nick and Judy. “All I can do is cheer… and maybe this…”

Bobby breathed deeply, before exhaling. A faint, pink mist came from her mouth, surrounding Nick and Judy. It smelled of roses, and the scent of it began to make them feel less tense.

As the pink mist cleared, Bobby looked down at the fox and rabbit.

“What was that?” Nick asked.

“A little something that I used to use to calm the kids down when they were upset,” Bobby replied.

“Thank you,” Judy smiled at the large bear Critter. Bobby nodded, and the pair turned their attention back towards the Prototype. Several more toys had been torn from him, revealing more and more of the carapace that contained him. Kissy leaped back up onto the Prototype’s back and resumed tearing at him. DogDay had picked up a pipe and was striking at the Prototype’s legs. Judy turned her attention back to their enemy.

It was at that moment she got an idea. Tearing at the toys was working, but it wasn’t fast enough. They needed to find a way to disable the Prototype, and as she stared at the corpse of Elliot Ludwig dangling from its front, those red lenses darting around furiously as he tried to figure out who to attack, Judy came up with something that might just work.

She stepped forward, aimed her GrabPack at Elliot’s corpse, and fired both Hands. The first shot missed, instead landing on part of Mommy Long Legs. Though it wasn’t her target, Judy reeled her GrabPack in regardless, tearing that part off the Prototype.

She fired again. This time, her aim was true – the Hands grasped the corpse of Elliot Ludwig, around its midsection.

“What are you…?” The Prototype began. Judy began to reel, but she could feel a greater tension in the GrabPack’s cables. The corpse barely moved, but the Prototype clearly felt it, as he roared, perhaps in anger, or possibly even pain.

Huggy and Kissy appeared behind Elliot’s corpse, perhaps realising what Judy was attempting to do. They looked at each other, and then leaped forward and began pulling at Elliot’s corpse. Judy could feel it begin to give way.

“Stop that!” The Prototype demanded. Rather than obey, Judy, Huggy and Kissy redoubled their efforts. The mummified remains started to come loose, cables pulling free and fluid spilling from newly-opened gaps.

“Just… a… little… more…” Judy groaned as she leaned back, hoping to add her own momentum to the GrabPack’s tension. Nick gripped her by the waist and pulled with her. Kissy and Huggy seized hold of the corpse with their hands. And DogDay leaped up and gripped it with his large hands.

The corpse came free, cables trailing behind it as it fell to the ground. Copious amounts of blood, tar and other fluids poured from the aperture left behind. The Prototype’s body hit the ground, held in place by the combined efforts of Huggy, Kissy, and DogDay. His head twitched, lenses flaring violently. Now devoid of its central figure and lacking most of the toys grafted onto it, the harness he had built for himself collapsed, sparking and sputtering as it short-circuited.

“What have you done?” he said.

“Taken your power,” Poppy appeared in front of him, clutching the vial of combustible powder. “See how you like it.”

“Poppy, think about this,” the Prototype pleaded. “I can finally do what I meant to do in life. I can fix you.”

“Fix..?” Poppy blinked, a snarl etched on her face, tears streaming down her face. “You think you can fix me? My Dad could have fixed me! We could have been a family! Lived a normal life! That’s all I ever wanted!”

“I can give it to you.”

Poppy gritted her teeth.

“No, you can’t,” she replied. “My Dad is dead… and you… are not him, no matter if you’re using his corpse like some sick puppet.”

She raised the vial, a paw clutching the cork at its top, ready to open it and spill it on him. If the Prototype could have moved his face, he might have had the grace to look scared, but the ability to do so had long since rotted away. Instead, those red lenses twitched, as if examining Poppy.

Poppy, meanwhile, glared furiously at him, her paw shaking.

Poppy hesitated, allowing the tears to flow free at last as she broke down. Despite everything, she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t destroy him. Even if she didn’t view the Prototype as her father, he was still using Elliot Ludwig’s body.

“Poppy…” Judy whispered.

“I knew you wouldn’t,” the Prototype remarked.

Of all the things the Prototype could have said in that moment, he had chosen the wrong words. Poppy’s eyes found him.

“You’ll never get what you want,” she said, getting back to her feet. She uncorked the vial and threw it towards the machine hooked up to the cryogenic pod that contained his new body.

“Wha… NO!” the Prototype screamed as the vial shattered and its contents ignited the device, spreading towards the pod. Judy acted quickly, firing the GrabPack at the pod containing Poppy’s new body and dragging it out of the way. Everybody watched as the new body intended for Elliot Ludwig burned.

Poppy stared down at the pathetic form of the Prototype.

“It’s over, Prototype,” she said lowly. “Now you can’t hurt anyone any more, and you won’t be able to sully the name of my Dad either.”

She looked up at Huggy, Kissy, and DogDay.

“Let him go,” she said. “Let him have his empire of toys.”

DogDay and Kissy did as Poppy asked and stepped back, but Huggy did not. His mouth twitched and he tilted his head.

And then, he screeched before bringing his teeth down upon the Prototype. But rather than biting the Prototype’s head off, they had embedded into one of his arms. He hauled himself onto his feet, wrapping his arm around the corpse’s torso.

“What’s he going to do?” Nick wondered.

Huggy turned towards them, and then looked towards Kissy. He then ran for the door.

******

One of the ways out of the Labs was via an old service elevator, but it only led as far as the Prison. Huggy dragged the corpse of Elliot Ludwig, wires and tubes trailing behind them, to it and threw him in. Without his harness, the Prototype was immobilized.

“You’ll die for this…” That was in the voice of the Doctor, before he switched to an angry low growl: “I MADE YOU! I’M THE REASON YOU…”

Huggy slammed the elevator door shut, cutting the Prototype’s words off. The elevator rose, and Huggy watched through its window until it disappeared from view.

It took less than a minute for it to arrive at its destination, on the level of the Prison. As the door was manually-operated, it didn’t open on its own, but after a tense moment of silence, it slid. Behind it was a lone small Mommy Long Legs toy, and further back were a crowd of ruined Smiling Critters and Mini Huggies.

He couldn’t show it, but for the first time the Prototype felt something he could not recall feeling at all since he had died prior. Terror coursed through him as the swarm of diminutive toys approached, their chittering, babbling, and giggling reaching a fever pitch. These things had once feared him, had heard of the fate of the toys that had opposed him. But now the tables had turned. They were witness to how weak and feeble he really was without his legion of followers and his harness. And they realised they had nothing to fear from him anymore.

The next thing he knew, he was dragged out by the cables and wires hanging loosely on him.

******

Huggy stomped back into the Primary Research Lab. The remains of the Prototype’s harness were hunched over, discarded toys strewn around it.

“It’s… over… it’s really over,” Poppy said, staring down at her hands as though she couldn’t believe it.

“So… what now?” Nick asked.

“We need to get P.W. up, get out of here and notify Bogo,” Judy replied.

“Who knows how much Red Smoke the Prototype hit him with?” Nick looked over to the unconscious wolf.

“I might be able to help,” DogDay stepped up. “Just as CatNap was given the Red Smoke to get the children to sleep, I was given something to help them get up in the morning. That was one of my roles in Playcare. It’s been a long time since I’ve done it… I just hope I have enough left in me.”

He walked over to the wolf sleeping in the chair, inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. An orange mist flowed from his mouth and filled the air in front of him.

P.W.’s eyelids fluttered open and his nose twitched. His eyes fixed on the large Smiling Critter standing above him. Instantly, his flight instinct kicked in and he tried to escape, but he couldn’t as he was still strapped to the chair.

“Where… where am I?” he yelped. “What are you going to do with me?”

“We’re not here to harm you,” DogDay held up both his hands in an attempt to calm the wolf down.

It was then that P.W. noticed the ruins of the Prototype’s harness on the floor behind DogDay. Kissy and Huggy were stood to the side, neither one quite looking at the other.

“What did I miss?” He asked.

DogDay leaned forward and released P.W.’s straps. He leaped out of the chair, but quickly fell to the ground, his legs having not quite woken up yet.

Judy and Nick appeared beside him and helped him to his feet. He looked at them in contemplation.

“Guess Honey came through,” he said.

“She sure did,” Nick replied. “Nick Wilde, and this is…”

“There’s not many mammals who don’t know you two these days, after everything you’ve done,” P.W. replied, holding his left paw up. With help, he got to his feet and scanned the room.

“I didn’t think I’d find myself back here, much less that it’d still be operational,” he said. His eyes fell upon the remains of the Prototype’s harness.

“He’s gone,” DogDay confirmed. “He can’t harm us any more.”

“But if you’re still alive…” P.W.’s eyes moved between DogDay, Bobby BearHug, Kissy, Huggy, and then stopped at Poppy, “Then that means there’s still danger.”

“The other toys followed the Prototype because they feared him,” DogDay clarified. “Now he’s gone, we can leave.”

P.W.’s head swivelled back towards the Smiling Critter.

“Leave?” He said incredulously. “You weren’t meant to leave. That was the point!”

“Playtime is finished,” Poppy piped up. P.W. looked down at her. “And you know that whoever survived doesn’t deserve to be imprisoned here.”

She looked towards the cryo pod containing the body the Prototype had constructed for her.

“If… there was a way we could return to normal… to become what we were meant to be…”

P.W. stumbled toward the cryo pod in astonishment. He gazed through the glass at the rabbit inside.

“… is this…?”

“This is me,” Poppy nodded. “My Dad… he wanted to make this for me before he died. The Prototype took that dream and turned it into this.”

“Poppy… even if I could do it… I’d need the finest neurosurgeons to complete the transfer… both Elliot and the Doctor are gone…”

“I’m sure we can work something out,” Nick stepped in before Poppy could protest. “There’s no way only two mammals in the whole world could do what needs to be done.”

“Even if they do…” Poppy clutched her arms. “The Prototype said he made that body immortal. I never wanted to live forever… I just wanted…”

P.W. looked back at the rabbit inside the pod, a paw touching the glass gently.

“If we could figure out just what he did to do that, we can suppress it,” he said, turning to them. “But even so… this is one body. Even if we got the smartest minds and the most delicate paws on this… it will take years to create bodies in a similar fashion. Not to mention we’d need something to use as a guide. I assume the Prototype had to have that…”

His eyes wandered the walls, also lined with cryo pods.

“My God…” he breathed. “He didn’t… Are those…?”

“I’m sorry to tell you if you came here looking for your coworkers,” Poppy stepped forward.

“They’re dead,” P.W. shook his head. “Yeah… when I got that letter, I hoped they were still alive… but if they’re dead, then who…?”

He approached one of the cryo pods and peered inside, seeing a young lynx cub behind the glass.

“The orphans…?” P.W. said.

“They’re alive,” Poppy affirmed.

“But we need help waking them up,” Judy replied.

“I’m guessing there’s an order that things have to be done to do that,” Nick added. P.W. nodded.

“We can’t carry the pods out of here, so we’ll have to wake them up here,” he said. “We still don’t have a clear route out, so we can’t begin waking them up until we have one.”

“Leave that to me,” Judy approached the main terminal. Whether it was because the Prototype had been using it, because the Doctor had interfered, or because Ollie had done something when he had dragged the Doctor into a digital oblivion, it was unlocked. Judy began typing commands.

“What are you doing?” P.W. asked.

“Making us a route out of here. Is this connected to the outside?” Judy asked.

“Playtime has a network, yes,” P.W. replied. “They blocked Internet access to stop people from accidentally sending sensitive material out…”

“And that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” Judy gritted her teeth. “This is going to be our path out… you can wake the orphans up once I send this info.”

“Do you even know what you’re doing?”

“Not a clue.”

“Then step aside.”

Judy eyed P.W. warily.

“I know this network, I know the way to get what you need out there,” P.W. assured her. “If I do anything… he can eat me.” P.W. thumbed towards Huggy, who opened his mouth slightly, showing some of his teeth.

Judy stared for a moment, before surrendering the terminal to P.W. He began typing, and within seconds he had deactivated the firewall.

“I’m assuming you intend on sending this to your boss,” P.W. turned to Judy.

“Yes,” Judy nodded.

“There…” P.W. stepped aside. “I’ve unlocked the network and granted external access.”

Judy opened up the email application and began composing:

To: [email protected]

Subject: Playtime Co.

Chief Bogo,

This is Officer Hopps, emailing from within the Playtime Co. factory. Officer Wilde is here with me, as well as six civilians. What I’m sending you is a link to the contents of the Playtime Co. mainframe, which features evidence of illegal and highly-unethical experimentation. You will want to examine the Bigger Bodies Initiative.

We are requesting urgent extraction. You will need to bring medical personnel and an armed response unit – believe me when I say that you will not expect what you will find here, even after reading the Bigger Bodies files.

Judy hit the send button, and after a moment, a single text box appeared:

SUCCESS! Email sent.

WARNING: This has been sent to an external email address. A reminder that Section 3, Page 42 of the Playtime Co. Employee Handbook explicitly forbids the disclosure of anything relating to Playtime Co. information and if you are found to have violated this rule, you will be subject to immediate termination.

“I think that ship has sailed,” Nick remarked, looking at P.W.

“Yeah, and if the evidence in there points to you being involved,” Judy added.

“I’ve long accepted that, one day, I might be led away in cuffs,” P.W. said. “I’ll accept that, if it comes to it.” He stepped back towards the console. “There’s one more thing I need to do before we go,” P.W. typed in a series of commands. A window showing the condition of all cryogenic pods appeared on screen. Apart from the one for Poppy’s body, P.W. began the process to wake them up.

“This will take some time,” he said. “But they’ll wake up.”

“We’re going to go to the surface, meet the ZPD when they get here,” Judy turned towards the big toys. “I think the best way to go for this is if we have a couple of you come with us, but we need somebody to stay here with the orphans. Just in case something’s still out there, looking for a meal.”

“We’ll stay,” DogDay piped up. “We can handle ourselves if anything shows up.”

“We’re familiar to them anyway, so when they wake up, we can calm them down,” Bobby added.

“That’s settled,” Nick nodded. He turned towards the exit. “Let’s go, Carrots. Chief Buffalo Butt won’t have anything to say when he sees for himself what’s going on here, and I wanna see that for myself.”

******

Deep inside the caverns outside the Labs, the small toys were wandering around aimlessly, without a potential meal and fully aware the Prototype was dead.

However, they were far from alone down there. And if they were untethered from the whims of the Prototype, so too were any remaining Bigger Bodies.

As a group of them approached the darkness of a large tunnel, something snapped forward and snatched them in its ravenous maw. Its head was large, box-like, covered with red fur, its mouth filled with many razor-sharp teeth. It dragged its prey into the darkness, where its head retreated into a large blue box that made up its body.

Chapter Text

Experiment 1160 – Post-procedure Report

Ever since starting the project I pitched to Playtime Co.’s executives, I have been striving towards a perfect outcome. All previous experiments were considered failures in one way or another. One need only peruse the previous logs concerning Experiments 1015 and 1026, for instance, to see the scope of failure that has permeated all post-1006 experiments up to this point.

Today, we made a breakthrough. No longer must we be limited to the size or morphology of our test subjects. 1160 represents an entirely new approach to the project, and it is proof that it can be done. He will be the first of this new initiative, the first of these ‘bigger bodies’.

I have uses for this creation. Experiment 1160 will serve as a form of ‘disposal’. In my initial proposal, I outlined the fact that certain people see things in the factory they shouldn’t be seeing. We can use Experiment 1160 to dispose of those witnesses, and so we will begin tailoring its appetite to flesh.

If we continue to improve our procedures, there’ll be another benefit as well: Leith and his money men will be placated. They will have their investments and see money saved and I will be able continue on with my work. I plan on using 1160 as my benchmark for success from here on out – this initiative will result in many more subjects that will be best suited as replacements for mammal workers in sensitive areas.

Signed: H. Sawyer

******

The decision to split up had been made, with DogDay and Bobby BearHug staying behind to guard the orphans, and Nick, Judy, P.W., Poppy, Kissy and Huggy making their way back up to the surface to meet the incoming ZPD force.

P.W. led them towards an exit, signposted with ‘Surface – Production & Innovation’.

“This will take us right back up to the ground,” he pointed. “Once we get there, it should be a straight line between us and the door.”

“Cool, I could use some daylight,” Nick remarked. He turned to Judy. “Hey, Carrots… do you really need that anymore?” He pointed to the GrabPack.

“Keep hold of it for now,” P.W. suggested. “It might come in handy.”

“Nice,” Nick grinned at the unintended pun. Judy facepalmed.

Before they reached the elevator, the sounds of stomping and an unnatural roaring echoed through the corridor. The group stopped and turned towards it. A gaggle of smaller toys dashed out from a junction on their left. The way they were moving suggested they were running from something.

“What’s got them spooked?” Nick wondered.

Their answer emerged from the same junction the smaller toys had come from. It stood large, though not as tall as Huggy or Kissy. Its body was a blue box with a gold star on its front. Its head was similarly cuboid, with red fur, two beady eyes and a large tooth-filled maw. Its hands and feet were attached to its body by springs. It started after its initial prey, but stopped in its tracks and turned towards the group assembled at the elevator.

“Oh scat…” P.W. whispered. “That’s 1160.”

“What now?” Nick turned to him.

“Boxy Boo,” P.W. clarified. “The first successful Bigger Body. They used him for disposing of witnesses and anybody who they didn’t approve of.”

“If the Prototype is dead, maybe he can be reasoned with,” Nick suggested.

“Have you encountered any before 1170 here?” P.W. indicated to Huggy, who tilted his head curiously. “He was the first true success of the Initiative, someone who showed intelligence. The further back you go from him, the more feral they are.”

“Well, we’ve got Huggy and Kissy on our side if it comes to a fight,” Nick affirmed.

“They’re injured and exhausted,” Poppy pointed out. “They’re in no state to fight, after the Prototype.”

“So, we run?” Judy suggested.

“Sounds good to me,” P.W. nodded. He hammered the call button.

Boxy Boo chose that moment to attack. Opening his maw wide, he let out a loud roar before charging at the group.

The elevator’s doors opened, and the group quickly got inside. Nick hit the button to go up to the Production level. The doors closed as Boxy Boo reached them. The monster roared in frustration. After a couple of seconds, the elevator juddered to life.

“That was close,” Nick breathed.

“Don’t count 1160 out yet,” P.W. warned. “He’s tenacious. He’s seen us, we’re the biggest prey around, he’s going to come for us.”

“Well, he’s going to have to take the stairs,” Nick crossed his arms. “And that’s going to take a while.”

“The springs that make up his arms and legs aren’t for show,” P.W. said. “Our only shot is if it takes him a while to get up there.”

“Hope you’re right,” Nick said.

******

As the elevator containing its newfound prey ascended, Boxy let out a frustrated roar. Any other experiment might have given up, gone for easier prey.

Boxy was no longer satisfied with the smaller morsels that had been left in the wake of what had happened there. He had long since been acting outside the control of the Prototype at any rate, devouring whatever he could in order to quell the hunger he had felt ever since he had woken up. And now he had been presented with the opportunity for the largest meal he had ever seen.

He was not going to let that slip him by.

Boxy turned and ran to find a nearby stairwell, an abandoned elevator shaft… anything that could lead him to where he needed to go. If he climbed, he would take a long time to get there. He would lose his prey. But he didn’t have to run. His legs were coiled springs, which meant he had tremendous jumping power.

Boxy found a doorway into such a stairwell. The door was locked, but a swift swipe of his large hands tore the door to shreds. He stepped inside and stared upwards – the stairs rose for what seemed like forever. Several sections were missing, having long since collapsed into rubble on the ground.

It didn’t matter to Boxy. He wasn’t going to climb them the traditional way anyway. He compressed the springs that made up his legs and then sprang upward, landing three sets of stairs higher than he started. Turning around, he repeated the action, skipping another two.

******

The rest of the elevator ride was in silence. It took a long time for the elevator to reach its destination. A pinging sound signalled its arrival, just before the doors opened. The group spilled out into a giant factory space. The floor was tiled in familiar white, red, blue, and yellow tiles, signifying they were indeed back up on the ground floor. Conveyor belts traversed the floor in different directions. At its heart were several machines, but one in particular stood out: a large, cuboid yellow machine with a huge eye in its centre. Giant red tubes extended out from the sides of the machine and rose up towards the ceiling.

“Welcome to Production,” P.W. said. “There’s no direct door to it from the main lobby, but it does link to Innovation, so we can go through here to get out.”

“You sure you remember the way?” Nick asked.

“I know it,” Poppy piped up. “Follow me.”

Poppy led them through the network of conveyors and machinery. Many pairs of eyes scanned in multiple directions for any sign of pursuit. In spite of P.W.’s insistence that Boxy Boo could easily climb up to the surface, he was not supersonic, so it would take time for him to catch up to them. They hoped to have gotten out of the factory by that point.

The machinery had long-since ceased, giving the production lines an eerie atmosphere. It put them all on edge, expecting to be ambushed at any point.

They reached the other end of the production line without incident, coming to a door. P.W. opened it and they all stepped into a corridor lined with the same tiles as the factory lines behind them. The walls were white, and painted with various characters. Huggy and Kissy stared curiously at the depictions of themselves.

These walls solidified to them that they were above ground. They presented a stark contrast to the concrete walls surrounding the Prison, or the bare walls in the Labs.

A sign dead ahead of them indicated the different routes the corridor led. If they headed left, they would head further into the Innovation Wing. The right-hand path would take them to the Main Lobby.

“Let’s go,” Poppy started forward before any of the others could speak. They followed her down wordlessly. The corridor ended with a large metal gate blocking their way, and a single button to their right. Huggy stepped forward and flung his hand at it. The door slid open, revealing the large lobby, including the platform Huggy had been standing upon when Nick and Judy had first entered the factory.

To their right was the doorway to the Make-A-Friend room, the path that had taken Nick and Judy into this nightmare in the first place. And straight ahead was the entrance.

They stepped out into the space. Judy looked up towards the large dome above. For the first time in what had to have been days, they were able to see a genuine sky. It looked to be early evening, the sky an orange hue.

The end was in sight. All they had to do was cross the lobby and get to the entrance, where the ZPD was going to be waiting for them.

“What do you think Buffalo Butt will make of our friends here?” Nick thumbed towards Huggy and Kissy behind them.

“Honestly… I have no idea,” Judy confessed. “Kinda hoping he’ll be too shocked to order the TUSK squad to shoot them.”

“If he even turns up.”

“He will… there’s no way he hasn’t looked through everything and decided not to see what’s going on for himself. Remember my first case? Manchas in the Rainforest District?”

“Oh, yeah… Chief did come out personally for that, didn’t he?”

They crossed towards the entrance, but before they could complete their journey, something jumped from above them, landing between them and their exit.

It was Boxy Boo.

He had made it up from the lower levels before they had, and had waited, out of sight, to ambush them at the last hurdle. His arms stretched out and his ravenous maw opened as he prepared to launch himself at the group in front of him…

The sound of sirens echoed from behind him, causing his focus to shift away from them. Lights shone into the entrance, and Boxy roared, storming towards them. He smashed through the doors.

“That’s not going to end well,” Nick started forward after Boxy. The group followed him outside. Boxy was surrounded by a full TUSK squadron, weapons aimed at him. Vans and ZPD cruisers had parked haphazardly around the parking lot. Several ZPD officers stood, staring dumbfound at the sight before them.

One of the TUSK officers, Officer Rhinowitz, stood with a high-powered rifle aimed straight at Boxy Boo.

“What the heck is that thing?!” came the panicked voice of a lion member of the squad.

“Looks like an overgrown jack-in-the-box!” Another officer, a grizzly bear, offered.

“Some kind of animatronic, like those down in that weird pizza place in the city?” A hippo officer added.

Boxy roared and charged.

“Cripes!” the lion said.

“Take that thing down!” Rhinowitz ordered. The TUSK officers opened fire. Several bullets ricocheted off Boxy’s body, but one found its mark, hitting Boxy in the head. The giant toy skidded to a stop and collapsed to the ground, blood leaking from his mouth.

All the group could do was watch, totally stunned. Huggy and Kissy exchanged fearful glances, perhaps worried that the guns which had just disposed of Boxy would be turned on them.

Judy, however, knew what to do. She turned to those assembled.

“Wait here,” she said to Huggy, Kissy, and P.W. She motioned to Nick and Poppy to follow her. They approached the nearby officers who were examining the body of Boxy, perhaps trying to figure out just what it was they had killed.

“Hopps! Wilde!” came a familiar voice, causing them to stop dead in their tracks. The eyes of the many officers assembled turned towards them. The owner of that voice, Chief Bogo, approached, his face grim, his eyes fixed firmly on Judy.

“This should be good,” he remarked.

Chapter Text

The TUSK force had their weapons trained on Kissy and Huggy as several ZPD officers examined the body of Boxy Boo laying in the tarmac of the parking lot. Huggy’s eyes darted from one of the officers to another, while Kissy’s eyes were pointed towards the ground. She rubbed her right shoulder anxiously.

“Definitely biological,” the lion TUSK officer crouched down to examine Boxy’s remains.

“Explain, Hopps, Wilde…” Bogo demanded, arms folded across his chest. The water buffalo looked to be in no mood to entertain jokes.

“Where to begin…” Nick placed a paw on the back of his head.

“You see…” Judy began.

“It all started with me,” Poppy interrupted. All eyes focused on her. Bogo raised an eyebrow.

“And you are?” Bogo asked.

“This is Poppy,” Nick introduced her. “She’s… like them.”

“You expect me to believe I’m talking to a living toy?” Bogo raised an eyebrow.

“You just shot one, and you definitely saw what Carrots… erm, Hopps sent you, otherwise you wouldn’t even be here.”

“I can explain briefly what has happened here,” P.W. stepped forward. Bogo focused on him.

“Go on,” he indicated. P.W. swallowed nervously, looked to Judy, Nick, and then to Poppy, who nodded in affirmation.

“What you see is what’s left of Playtime Co.’s ‘Bigger Bodies Initiative,” P.W. said.

“And what is that?”

“A program to create a work force comprised of giant, living toys. But you can’t create from nothing. Playtime needed subjects.”

Bogo motioned for P.W. to continue.

“Playtime used the kids in Playcare as those subjects. They… we turned them from children with futures into toy slaves for the company.”

“You do realise that, with several officers present, you just admitted to illegal and unethical scientific experimentation on children,” Bogo said.

“I understand,” P.W. nodded. “I always knew this day would come.” He turned towards Judy and raised his paws, palms facing upward. Judy’s eyes flitted from Bogo, to Poppy, to P.W.

Judy’s mouth opened, as if to protest, or perhaps to state that, given this was supposed to have been her time off, she didn’t bring any cuffs with her. Bogo guessed this, unhooked a pair from his belt, and passed them to Judy. She examined them carefully, before looking back up at P.W.

“Thank you for rescuing me,” he said. “But now… you have a job to do.”

Judy nodded. Once more, she looked at the cuffs, before stepping forward and placing them on P.W.’s wrists.

“You are under arrest for illegal and unethical experimentation on mammals, endangerment of minors, mammalslaughter, illegal trespass, conspiracy to commit illegal experimentation, and conspiracy to commit mammalslaughter” she said. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be assigned to you. Do you understand these rights?”

“I do,” P.W. nodded.

Bogo nodded, and Judy escorted P.W. to the nearest ZPD cruiser, placing him inside. Bogo watched after her.

“What is that thing she’s got on?” Bogo asked.

“Just… something she found in the factory to get us through,” Nick replied.

Bogo snorted, raising a hoof to rub the bridge of his muzzle.

“You know you’ll be buried in paperwork for the next few weeks,” he said to Nick. “Forget even getting out on parking duty. And you’ll have to explain…”

“Yeah, but… how often can you say that we brought down a major company?” Nick shrugged.

“What happens to us now?” Poppy piped up, drawing the attention of both Nick and Bogo. “We can’t… exactly go back.”

Bogo considered her for a moment.

“I wish I could tell you,” he admitted. “We aren’t exactly prepared for this. When one of the Playtime Co. higher-ups called us three days ago, we thought it was some sort of hoax. She’s surrendered herself, but what she told us was insane… or so we thought. But with this… we have enough to go after the remaining ones.”

“Is there a place we can keep them, out of reach of the media?” Nick asked. Bogo raised an eyebrow, and then pointed directly up. Nick’s gaze followed, spotting a ZNN helicopter, hovering above and no doubt catching them on camera.

“Ah,” he said.

“You don’t mobilize every unit you have and not expect to draw media attention, Wilde,” Bogo said.

“Does this mean we’ll be taken again?” Poppy said fearfully.

“Not if we can help it,” Nick stood up straight, in defiance. Bogo grunted.

“You and Hopps helped uncover this mess,” he said to Nick. “You might as well help clean it up.”

******

Within an hour, several ZPD and TUSK units had entered the Playtime Co. factory. With no more Bigger Bodies to contend with, they quickly found their way down to the Labs, where the children had unthawed. There had to be at least one hundred of them, escorted out not just by ZPD officers, but by DogDay and Bobby BearHug, who had also brought out the pod containing Poppy’s new body.

“What is this?” Bogo asked as he looked at the sleeping young rabbit girl inside.

“This is Poppy,” Nick replied. “Or, at least, the body that was made for her.”

“I don’t want it,” Poppy said. “It’s an immortal prison. It’s worse than this form.”

A thought came to Nick.

“What if there was a way to change that?” he said. “Would you want it then?”

Poppy considered this for a moment.

“Wouldn’t that be what your Dad wanted?” Nick added. He looked at Bogo. “Hey, didn’t they turn that old asylum we caught Lionheart at into a genetics lab? A proper one? I remember hearing they were working on all sorts of miracles there. Maybe they can do something with it.”

Bogo looked at the pod, to Poppy, and then to Nick.

“Come on, Boss… I know this is probably evidence right now, but what are we even going to do with an empty body once it’s all said and done? And wouldn’t they be the best place for examining it anyway? It’s not like the ZPD lab can.”

Bogo let out a snort.

“Fine, have it your way,” he relented.

******

Since there were only four living Bigger Bodies left, it was quickly decided that they didn’t need to have any special imprisonment for them. Poppy would stay with Nick and Judy, at least until it could be figured out exactly what to do with her. The body the Prototype had made for her was shipped to New Zoo Laboratories, which was situated on the former Cliffside Asylum site on the edge of the Meadowlands district.

“It’s possible,” a lynx doctor spoke to Nick and Judy. “We’ve just… never done anything like this before. We do have neurosurgeons among our staff, and some who are more accomplished than this Doctor Sawyer was. And we’ve been working on cloning technology for a long time, just not for purposes such as this. Our mission is to facilitate the cloning of organs for transplanting.”

“What about the others?” Judy asked.

“It would be possible if we could clone them new bodies, but the problem then is that the process would take years. Our processes only currently work on speeding up the growth of cloned organs. I should remind you that full mammal cloning is both illegal and highly unethical.”

“So, are they stuck that way?” Judy asked.

“Their mutilated forms are a cause for great concern,” the doctor conceded. “I can’t promise anything, but their… unique circumstances may allow for a temporary suspension, and only in their case.”

“And what about this body?” Nick asked. “Poppy was concerned that what had been done to it would render her immortal.”

“If there is something that is inhibiting the natural decay of the cells in the body, we can investigate and possibly find a way to reverse it,” the doctor said. “If – and this is a huge if – we can do it, and if we can transfer Poppy into this vessel, she will effectively become a normal rabbit.”

“That doesn’t sound a ‘can’t do it’ to me,” Judy said.

“It all depends on a lot of factors,” the doctor said. “The law notwithstanding, and the capabilities of our laboratories… if we got past that, we’d have one last hurdle to overcome: the will of the patient themselves.”

******

That left Nick and Judy to have a talk with Poppy, who was currently under guard at a safe house, which was situated in a third-floor apartment close to Precinct One. As the ones responsible for her, Nick and Judy had temporarily moved in to the safe house with her.

Ever since she had arrived in the city, Poppy had been quiet. For the first time, she was seeing the world outside the factory that had imprisoned her for what had to be decades, and it was surely overwhelming. All the different sights, sounds, smells… she couldn’t be blamed for clamming up.

Nick and Judy had returned following their talk with the New Zoo Laboratories scientists. On their way home, they had discussed who should speak to Poppy about the possibility of using the body the Prototype had constructed for her. It was decided, ultimately, that it might be better coming from Judy, since she was a rabbit like Poppy was supposed to be.

The moment they stepped inside the apartment, they saw Poppy staring out of the window. She appeared lost in thought, staring at the ever-proceeding passage of life below. Nick and Judy exchanged looks. Judy moved forward towards Poppy.

“So, uh…” she said, drawing Poppy’s attention. “How… how are you finding things?”

Poppy stared at her, before breaking eye contact and looking away.

“It’s… not like anything I’ve ever known,” she replied. “But at the same time… I’m trapped here. So, I guess in some ways, it’s not that different. At least… until you figure out what to do with us.”

“That’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about,” Judy said. She had Poppy’s attention now.

“I take it you mean the body made for me,” Poppy said. Judy nodded. Poppy scowled slightly.

“I don’t want it,” she crossed her arms. “Like I told the Prototype, I’d rather die than be condemned to an immortal life. I won’t take a poisoned chalice.”

“We spoke to some of the best scientists around these parts,” Nick intervened. “They said they can figure out what makes that body immortal and undo it. Un-poison that chalice.”

“Poppy, you’ve got to think about this,” Judy sat down on a seat next to the window. “You’ve spent so long like this,” she indicated to Poppy’s toy body. “And because of it, you’re still frozen in time, not able to live.”

Poppy considered their words for a moment, before she turned back to the window.

“You promise they can do it?” she asked. “Make me mortal?”

“They looked like they knew what they were talking about,” Nick said.

Poppy sighed, her gaze filled with longing and melancholy.

“I’ll… think about it,” she said finally, turning back towards the window.

Chapter Text

ZNN Report

“Good evening, I’m Peter Moosebridge, and you’re watching ZNN.”

“And I’m Fabienne Growley. Today’s top story is a continuation of our coverage from yesterday, regarding a grizzly discovery at the disused Playtime Co. toy factory.”

The report showed footage, shot from a helicopter, of ZPD and TUSK vehicles parked outside the factory’s main entrance, at which stood four Bigger Bodies toys, looking on as orphans were escorted out by ZPD officers.

“We are still learning about this unfolding story,” Fabienne continued. “But what is known is that Playtime Co. has been involved in illegal experimentation and mutilation of the orphaned children under its care. The discovery was made by renowned ZPD officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde. The ZPD has not yet issued a statement to explain exactly what has happened within that factory, or how these horrific crimes were uncovered.”

“This morning, the ZPD arrested several surviving key Playtime Co. figures,” Peter added, “including Leith Pierre, the weasel put in charge of the company following the death of its former CEO and founder, Elliot Ludwig.”

The report showed a wolf escorting a well-dressed weasel out of a hotel in cuffs, a muzzle in place on his face.

“As of right now, this is all the information we have,” Peter concluded, “but speculation is mounting that this is all tied to the disappearance of almost the entire work force of Playtime Co. a decade ago. We’ll have more on this story as it comes in.”

******

Precinct One interrogation Room 1

Chief Bogo had ordered the interrogations to happen as quickly as possible. They had four mammals in custody: Stella Greyber, the horse who was in charge of Playcare, and thus responsible for sending every single one of the children to be mutilated; Eddie Rittermammal, the ruthless fox in charge of Research; Leith Pierre, the weasel who was in charge of Innovation and had acted as the Head of Playtime Co. ever since Ludwig’s passing; and, finally, P.W., a biologist who held no special position like the others, but was still responsible for aiding in the Bigger Bodies Initiative. Since Stella had handed herself in before Nick and Judy had called for backup, she had already been interrogated by the time the others were brought in, which left just three to do.

Nick and Judy got to interrogate P.W.

Nick leaned up against the wall casually, as Judy sat in the chair across from the disgraced wolf biologist, pen in paw, a statement document, and a closed folder in front of her.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” Judy began writing on the transcript paper.

“Playtime first contacted me fifteen years ago,” P.W. said. “I didn’t know why at the time. I’m not a toymaker. I worked in the field of biological study. They told me that I was exactly the kind of mammal they were looking for.”

“And that’s when you started working for them?”

“Yes. Officially, I was working for Innovation, but as I found out later, that was tangled in the work of the Labs. In my first week, I was still confused, and even more so when they brought me to the Labs, deep underground. What could a toy factory even need with a laboratory? Why was it hidden deep beneath the main building? Was there something they didn’t want the people working above knowing, much less the public?”

“And… you got your answer.”

“Yes,” P.W. nodded. “At first… I thought the Bigger Bodies were just really advanced animatronics. But when they brought me into the Labs, I realised they were biological beings. I didn’t know how they had done it… and I didn’t know straight away they were using the orphans to make them either.”

“Okay… so, when you did find out, why did you not report it to the authorities?”

“They had made it explicitly clear that violating NDA, whistleblowing… it would be punished in the harshest possible terms. There was a guy, Rowan Stoll, who had tried to dump the contents of the company’s computers to the Internet… he was killed by Experiment 1160.”

“Okay, so… you kept quiet because you were under the threat of death?”

“Yes.”

“And, can you explain just what your role was within Playtime?”

“Research and study, mainly. I was never involved with the procedures themselves. As I said, I’m a biologist and Playtime hired me under that capacity. They needed somebody who could figure out certain biological aspects before the surgeons could work on each subject.”

“So… you never worked on the actual experiments?”

“No. I’m not surgically-trained, and they needed Doctors Sawyer and White as neurologists… but perhaps turning Sawyer’s own procedure on him was the worst move Playtime could have made.”

“Why is that?”

“For all his faults…”

“And there were a great many,” Nick piped up, earning a reproachful look from Judy. She turned back to P.W. and motioned for him to carry on.

“Dr. Sawyer knew that process back to front,” P.W. continued. “There were issues at first, of course, beyond the whole… you, know, concept of the thing. His first experiments were failures in every sense of the word. It wasn’t until 1160 that Dr. Sawyer considered his process a success and he began refining it. By the time he reached 1170, he figured out how to keep their intelligence and make them more obedient… or so he thought. By 1188, he had figured out a way to ensure they kept some sense of self. But once they turned Dr. Sawyer into 1354, they were stuck. They had his mind, but they failed to realise that it was a mind that needed a steady pair of hands to duplicate what he had done… and White just wasn’t up to the task. Most experiments after 1354 were failures. I bet Dr. Sawyer felt vindicated.”

“What happened to White?”

“He was due to work the day the uprising happened. I’m assuming he was killed like the others.”

“And you weren’t there, because…” Nick stepped up to the table.

“I was ill, so I called in sick,” P.W. explained. “I tried to go back the next day, and… well, I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you about that, since it’s likely to be on record.”

“The factory site was locked down by the ZPD,” Judy opened the folder in front of her and read from a file inside. “But that’s all the file says. The responding precinct was precinct six… they did find blood in the lobby, but don’t appear to have gone any further into the factory… I think we’re going to have to look into this as well.”

“I can’t help you on that one,” P.W. said. “I can guess what happened, but that’s something you’d have to take up with the higher-ups – they’re the ones who pulled the strings. And maybe those included the purse strings.”

******

Interrogation Room 2

Interrogations of other key figures of Playtime Co. were not going as smoothly as P.W.’s.

In the next room over, Leith Pierre was being interrogated by Officers Wolfard and Fangmeyer. The tigress’ usual air of amusement was absent as her wolf partner interrogated the weasel.

“I did what was necessary to keep the company alive,” Leith affirmed.

“Does that include mutilating children entrusted to you, under your care?” Wolfard said darkly. “Does that include killing employees that didn’t keep in line?”

“Sacrifices had to be made,” Leith said defiantly.

“That sounds like a pretty cold and callous admission,” Wolfard said.

“I make no apologies for trying to put my company, and its employees, first.”

“And the children under your care didn’t register on that list,” Wolfard could feel his annoyance growing.

“I don’t expect you to understand what it takes to run that company,” Leith said in defiance. “We were working for the betterment of everyone.”

“Except for the kids you mutilated,” Wolfard bared his teeth.

“We’re just going round in circles at this point,” Leith said. “What we did was for the greater good.”

“You…” Wolfard made to get out of his chair. A large paw rested on his shoulder. Fangmeyer shook her head.

“For the record, are you admitting to the charges you’ve been arrested for?” She said.

“I’m not going to say anything else without my lawyer present,” Leith said finally.

******

Interrogation Room 3

That left Eddie Rittermammal. The fox was sat across from Officers Wolfowitz and Delgato, who were staring daggers at him.

“Look,” the fox spoke in a refined accent, crossing his arms in clear defiance. “I’m familiar enough with how these things work, so I think I’ll spare myself your intimidation tactics and request I speak with my lawyer before I so much as acknowledge your questions.”

******

“Well?” Bogo asked. Following the interrogations, the six officers had assembled in the Chief’s office to discuss what they had learned.

“Our suspect was pretty forthcoming,” Judy said. “He’s a biologist so was not directly involved in the experiments. Having said that…”

“He was still involved,” Nick finished. “He’s still going to have to answer for that.”

“He doesn’t look like he’s going to fight that,” Judy added. “And since he’s been cooperative, that might earn him some leniency with the judge.”

“Seems like you got the easy one,” Wolfard scoffed. “Ours lawyered up.”

“So did ours,” Delgato added.

“You can trade places if you want,” Nick offered. “You just gotta go through a whole deathtrap factory with living toys that want to bite your head off first.”

“Hard pass, thanks,” Wolfard raised a paw.

“Chief, what do you think?” Judy turned towards the cape buffalo.

“I think…” Bogo began. “I’m going to need aspirin.”

******

One week later…

“I’d rather go through the entire gauntlet in that factory than do that again,” Nick scoffed as he opened the door to the safe house.

“Yeah, I’m gonna agree with you on that,” Judy nodded.

The trials of the ‘Playtime Co. Mutilators’, as the media had sensationally dubbed them, had begun quickly. As primary witnesses to the horrors within the factory, Nick and Judy were first up to recount their experiences there, and what they had discovered in the process.

“So… how did it go?” Poppy greeted them.

“‘Grilled’ doesn’t cover it,” Nick replied. “I think they’ll want to put you and the others… the ones who can speak, anyhow, up on the stand. But I expect you’ll get way less harsh treatment there than we did. I don’t think any defence counsel is prepared to deal with this. Not like they can spin this as ‘you brought it on yourself’ or ‘you must be misremembering’.”

Poppy turned away from them, staring at her hands.

“I’ve been doing some thinking,” she said. “After what you said before, about… you know…” She turned back round to face Nick and Judy. “I said to you, back on the train, that it was because I exist as a doll that all of this happened,” she said. “All that hurt, all those who were changed… they would never have happened if my Dad hadn’t turned me into this. I loved him… but maybe he was better off letting me go instead.”

She turned back towards Nick and Judy.

“But he didn’t… and because of that… so much suffering… even for him. I never thought him turning me into this would end up hurting him even more, though… and I know he wanted me to live. I can’t change what’s done… I never had a choice back then… but I do now.”

She looked back out the window, and then to Nick and Judy once more, determination on her face.

“Dad would want me to move on, so… I’ll do it.”

Chapter Text

It had taken only six days following the revelation that Playtime Co. had been mutilating the orphans under its care into monstrous versions of the toys they made for the Zootopian government to get involved. The first thing to happen was the army being sent in to clear the building. Unfortunately, the only toys to have survived were the ones that had met the ZPD on that first, fateful day – Huggy, Kissy, DogDay, Bobby, Rosie, and Poppy. By the time the soldiers had gotten down to the level the Prison and the Labs were on, any remaining toys were dead. Perhaps starvation had finally got to them. Maybe they had turned on each other once the Prototype was dead.

Speaking of the Prototype, they had recovered the mummified and mutilated corpse of Elliot Ludwig and brought it back to the surface. He was not found in a dignified state – puncture marks covered his body, and bits of cable and tubing protruded from him.

Once the soldiers had extracted Ludwig’s body and cleared the factory, they had begun the process of burying it by placing explosive charges in strategic areas – it was the same plan Poppy had devised.

The military-arranged demolition of the factory, its colourful façade sinking below the surface, to be replaced by a massive crater was all over the news – as was the fates of those responsible for their state of affairs.

******

ZNN Archival Report

“Good evening, Zootopia, you’re watching ZNN News Night. I’m David Koalabell. The trial of the executives at Playtime Co. ended today. Leith Pierre, Eddie Rittermammal and Stella Greyber were found guilty on multiple counts of abduction, torture, slavery, and illegal scientific experimentation. Sentencing them to 100 years per victim each, to be served consecutively, Judge Swineheart remarked that they had betrayed their duty of care towards the children in their orphanage in ways he had never even heard of before, and they were responsible for untold fear and suffering. The scale of their crimes was laid bare following the ZPD being led to the Playtime Co. factory by officers Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.”

“Also sentenced today was the last remaining lower-level employee of the company. Judge Swinehart accepted that he had shown remorse for his involvement, that he had declined to act because of the threat of death from his superiors, but that declining to act and knowledge of what was going on inside the factory would mean a prison sentence was unavoidable. He was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, with the possibility of parole.”

“With those responsible now in prison for their crimes, the question remains: what happens to the children who have been mutilated under the watch of the very mammals they trusted with their care?”

******

The remaining toys were now publicly known to be the transformed forms of children under the care of Playtime Co., but that also meant they could never integrate into society as they were. It was agreed that something had to be done about that. Using the research salvaged from Playtime Co.’s mainframe, alongside their own developments and inspiration from the new body the Prototype had created for Poppy, New Zoo Laboratories devised a way for the creation of new, empty vessels based upon DNA sampled from the organic components of the Bigger Bodies. The Zootopian government enacted an emergency law, allowing for the exclusive use of cloning, gene splicing, and transplant technology to restore those children to their rightful forms. They would effectively be ‘reset’ to the ages they were noted as in the files taken from Playtime Co.’s mainframe, but no amount of surgery or cloning would undo the mental toll that had already been taken upon them, nor would it erase their experiences. That would take psychiatric help. Nevertheless, therapists were certain they could help the damaged children come to terms with what had happened to them.

As for the secrets that Playtime Co. had uncovered, the ability to transfer between vessels, that had been lost. The doctors at New Zoo Laboratories had made sure to destroy their research once they had completed their mission to reconstruct the bodies of the children mutilated by Playtime Co.

******

Five Years After The Playtime Co. Controversy…

A single, young rabbit, no more than sixteen years old, stood among the graves in a cemetery, her gaze down upon the headstone in front of her. She wore an ornate white dress with blue ribbons lacing through the hem and arms, and two bows, one at the bottom of the throat and one to the right on the waistband. Her fur was light brown, and she had blue eyes.

“I’m glad they got you out of that place,” she said to the headstone. “This is a lot more dignified than when you died… Whatever had become of you… I know that when you were alive, you were the kindest mammal a little girl could have had for a Dad… and I know you only ever wanted what was best for me.”

A small tear streaked down her grey-furred cheek. Even now, it was a strange sensation – she had spent so long without fur, without sensation at all in her face.

The grave was marked ‘Here Lies Elliot Ludwig, father and inventor.’ Flowers lay atop it, placed there by the lone mammal.

Another figure stepped beside the young rabbit. She looked up into the lavender eyes of the older doe.

“You didn’t have to come,” she said.

“I wanted to,” the older doe replied. “I… don’t know what it’s like to lose a father, but I know you needed somebody to be there for you.”

“And you’ve been there ever since you found me,” the young doe replied. “I don’t remember ever having any brothers or sisters, but… you’re the closest I’ve ever had to a sibling, Judy.”

“Well, I’ve got almost three hundred of them,” Judy chuckled. “But even so… I’m happy to consider you an honorary Hopps.”

The young doe tapped her head against the arm of the older one, who smiled slightly.

“Have you thought of what name you want for yourself?” Judy asked. “You don’t have to keep the name you had from… before.”

The young doe looked back at the grave again.

“I have,” she replied. “Thought long and hard about it. But I think… what I want… is to honour the mammal I remember my Dad to be.”

She turned back to Judy.

“My name’s Poppy Ludwig,” she smiled. “Nice to finally meet you.”

******

Poppy lived alone in an apartment in Savanna Central, though Nick and Judy were close by if she needed someone to talk to. Although she looked young, it was decided that she was mentally beyond the minimum age where it would be considered appropriate to allow her the choice to live on her own. She opted to do so – while she had appreciated living with Nick and Judy, and everything they had done to help her adjust to society, she decided it was time to stand on her own two paws.

Speaking of Nick and Judy, the two had been promoted to Sergeant. They had the knack for uncovering big cases connected to conspiracies, scams and nefarious plots, to the point they were nicknamed ‘the Conbusters’ by the other ZPD officers.

Poppy had come to learn that they had their issues at the beginning of their partnership, but had overcome them in many ways, to the point that by the time they had found the factory, they were already dating. And in the years since, they had undergone a bonding ceremony to formalise their union.

As for the remaining Bigger Bodies toys, all Poppy had to do was look to her neighbours. In the apartment across from hers was a raccoon dog couple who had taken in five children: two wolf cubs, a lamb, a bear cub, and a mole-rat pup.

To anybody without any knowledge of who they were, it might have seemed like a coincidence, but it was far from it – the five were once the last of the Bigger Bodies, brought back into mammaldom thanks to New Zoo’s efforts. The two wolf cubs Matthew and Lizzie, had once been Huggy Wuggy and Kissy Missy. The lamb Harvey had once been DogDay. The mole-rat was once the miniature Hoppy Hopscotch named Rosie. And the bear cub, Abigail, in a rare instance of species synergy, had once been Bobby BearHug.

Their toy bodies had been disposed of as part of the agreement to destroy all materials relating to Playtime Co. It wasn’t like they could be used in any case.

Well, all except one.

Poppy’s eyes moved to a shelf on the wall in her lounge. Atop it was herself… or what she used to be. She had been allowed to keep the body that she had once inhabited. It had long since been cleaned of all organic material left over from her transfer – it was now just a hollow porcelain and fabric shell. To all others who might see it, it might seem to be nothing more than an antique, but to Poppy, it was a reminder of who she had been… and from where she had grown.

The future may be uncertain… but Poppy was sure of one thing: for the first time, she knew it was entirely within her own paws.