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gwenbrightly · 2 months ago

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(Re)building the Future Chapter 9

“I wonder if I’m still banned from the daycare,” Gregory muses as he watches Freddy and Vanessa disassemble the pile of furniture and garbage currently blocking the way to Kids Cove.

“You’ve been banned from the where, now?” Chica asks. She doesn’t seem to understand the concept of lifting things and is currently struggling to move a (empty) cardboard box.

“The daycare. You know, where parents drop off their kids when they get sick of dealing with them?” He replies. He lifts a box of his own, “Here, like this.”

“Oh,” Chica says. “Are you some kind of criminal?”

“I wish. Sun just doesn’t like me ‘cause I broke a couple of rules the last time I was in there,” Gregory explains, thinking he’d have a way cooler story to tell if he was a criminal. He tosses his box carelessly to the side and picks up another piece of junk. The path is almost cleared, now (even if Vanessa and Freddy were the ones who did most of the work).

“Oh,” Chica says again. She’s not sure if she should be impressed or concerned by this revelation.

Gregory doesn’t mind; she’ll probably forget this conversation even happened here in a few minutes. They should probably find a way to fix that for her, eventually. Otherwise it’s gonna get annoying real fast.

“I think Sun probably has bigger things to worry about than your shenanigans,” Vanessa comments over her shoulder, “I doubt he’s handling the closure very well.”

“That’s gotta suck,” Gregory admits, even though he low key still has nightmares from the daycare attendant’s behavior.

“Indeed,” Freddy agrees, feeling sorry for his friend. He knows how much Sun and Moon love seeing all the children. “I imagine he will be quite relieved to see us,” he says optimistically. He clomps down the stairs, followed by the others.

“Aw’, dang it,” Gregory mutters when he sees the damage done to Kids Cove. The (apparently not very structurally sound) lighthouse has collapsed against the pirate ship, splitting it down the center. He really liked that ship. It served him well as a hiding place on several occasions.

“There, there, uh… whoever you are. Don’t be sad!” Chica says, patting his head awkwardly.

“Gregory,” he reminds her, not super sure he likes the sensation. It makes him feel a bit babyish, and she clearly doesn’t know her own strength, with the way she’s whacking him. He doesn’t really need the added headache.

“Right. And, um, what are we doing, again?”

“We are going to Superstar Daycare to see if our friends are there,” Freddy answers. He figures a simple explanation is better than trying to rehash the entire story for her. He picks his way around the slightly battered foam play blocks and debris that litter the floor. The way Fazbear Entertainment has left this place is disgraceful. The children would be so disappointed if they could see Kids Cove right now. Freddy digs his fingers under the end of one of the shutters (which still has the word “Banned” spray painted onto it) and tries to lift it. It doesn’t budge.

“Guess you don’t have a high enough security level,” Gregory jokes. He tries to act tough and kicks the shutter (which turns out to be a mistake). “Oww!” He tells, staggering backwards.

Vanessa rolls her eyes at him. “The gears are probably all jacked up from being left to rot,” she comments, examining the shutter more closely.

“In that case, it may take a little work to get it functioning probably,” Freddy notes.

Vanessa (who continues to remind Gregory of Mary Poppins) pulls an oil can out of her backpack and goes to work loosening up the various gears and chains holding the shutter in place. Her efforts help - to an extent. The next time Freddy tries to raise the shutter, it only moves a few feet before getting stuck again.

“I guess this is as good as we’re gonna get it,” Vanessa comments.

“I’d rather have to crawl under this thing than spend more time in the vents,” Gregory says with a shudder. “There probably aren’t any of those stupid Mini Music Man bots on the other side.” He takes the lead, bending over just enough to slip under the shutter. And nearly runs head first into an endoskeleton that looks a lot like the ones that used to roam the hallways by Parts and Service. He freezes, praying it won’t notice his presence and attack. There are others scattered throughout the area that surrounds the walls of the daycare. On second thought, maybe taking the vents would’ve been better. He gives a little squeak and backs away from the one nearest him as quickly as possible. Don’tmovedon’tmovedon’tmove, Gregory silently begs the endo.

“Hey, Gregory, everything okay?” Vanessa asks, crawling under the shutter to join him. “You’re awfully quiet all of a sudden.”

He wordlessly points at the endo apocalypse.

“Oh. Crap,” she says. She’s never liked those things.

“You two are really scared of those guys?” Chica suddenly appears next to them, “they’re harmless.”

“Harmless?” Gregory doesn’t believe her. As far as he’s concerned, the endos are Public Enemy Number 1 (along with practically everything else in this place).

“They only ever do anything if the Blue Bunny tells them to,” she continues.

Blue Bunny? Gregory and Vanessa glance at each other. Is that what she calls MXES?

“Speaking of blue bunnies, is anyone else suddenly craving ice cream? Mmm… birthday cake ice cream sounds so yummy right about now!” Chica gushes on and on about the merits of birthday cake ice cream for several minutes. Apparently they’re not going to find out more about the endos (or MXES, for that matter) anytime soon.

Meanwhile, Freddy, being the largest and clunkiest member of the group, finally manages to wedge himself under the shutter. He clumsily rolls into the room with a clatter. Gregory and Vanessa shush him and point at the endos, still not convinced that they’re as harmless as Chica claims. Freddy frowns when he sees them. It is an unpleasant sight. A reminder of Fazbear Entertainment’s mass production of animatronics and the lingering question of “What am I, really?”. He really does not have time for another existential crisis today.

“You three are so silly!” Chica tells them, snapping back to reality. She walks over to one of the endos and gives it a hug before anyone can stop her. It doesn’t move. “See? Nothing to worry about!”

“Huh,” is all Vanessa says. Even while half brain dead, Chica can’t help but try to befriend anything that moves (and, sometimes, things that don’t). And yet, this might be the least threatening encounter they’ve had all day. Gotta love that chicken’s luck.

“Still creepy as heck,” Gregory mutters. Just because Chica is some sort of endo whisperer doesn’t mean they’re not nightmare fuel. He can and will steal Vanessa’s taser and use it on them if they so much as look in his direction.

Freddy begins to cautiously weave around the endos and approaches the slightly battered looking door to the daycare. The others follow him. It’s time to see if the Daycare Attendant knows anything about Cassie. And if Gregory is still banned, you know, just for kicks.

—————-

Eclipse hums happily as he wipes down another foam building block and adds it to the slowly growing pile of things he has managed to get to a satisfactory level of cleanliness. The daycare is slowly starting to look like itself again, instead of the set of a zombie apocalypse movie. And to be honest, with Cassie sleeping again and Roxy (blessedly) having taken his advice to take some time for herself and go recharge, there’s not really anything else to occupy his time right now. Hopefully, Cassie stays asleep for a nice long while. His trauma response programming indicates that being awake right now probably wouldn’t help her any. And hopefully, Roxy charges enough that she doesn’t crash on him. He’s already rather worried about her - she is taking everything about this situation so personally, after all! She’s gone and given herself a complex again. Like she always does when she thinks she’s failed someone or something.

At least if he can get this place back to its usual sparkling self, Cassie can wake up to someplace nicer and not so gloomy and scary. Maybe that will cheer her up! Probably not, but it’s worth a try, and if this place stays messy, Eclipse is pretty sure he’s going to lose it. Why Sun and Moon didn’t bother to do any caretaking is beyond him. For some reason, he can’t access any memory data that would explain the mess. Or anything else. Most of the data from the past few months (closer to a year, but he’s not in the right headspace to address that right now) is corrupted. Usually, he would be able to hear Sun and Moon bickering with each other in some back corner of his system, but they’re strangely quiet.

“99 bottles of Fizzy Faz on the wall, 99 bottles of Fizzy Faz,” he hears Helpy singing in the background, “take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of Fizzy Faz on the wall.”

Okay. He really hopes Helpy doesn’t plan on going through all 98 bottles of Fizzy Faz before he finally loses interest. There are so many better songs to sing than that. He points this out to Helpy.

“But why would I want to sing another song?” Helpy asks Eclipse, “when I can keep annoying you with this one.”

“Don’t you have anything better to do?” Eclipse replies. He likes Helpy a lot more during those rare moments when he is being useful instead of going out of his way to be a nuisance.

“Nah, not really. MXES and I aren’t on speaking terms right now and there’s nobody who actually needs my help,” Helpy answers, getting ready to start another round of the bottles on the wall. He’s down to 54 and a half (don’t ask) when Eclipse shushes him. He glares at the daycare attendant with all the fierceness of a marshmallow. “What is it now?”

“I think there’s somebody at the door,” Eclipse tells him.

“Oh,” Helpy says, frowning, “Well, they’d better not need limb replacement surgery. Reliving my days in first aid training once was enough.”

Eclipse can’t help but agree. That was scary. And messy. And stressful. Oh dear! He’s gone and spiraled again. Where are his manners? Whoever knocked on that door is probably getting tired of waiting. He cracks it open and peers out, an instinct left over from when children roamed the daycare (better for avoiding having little Billy or Susy escape and hide in the bathroom until Security finds them). Officer Vanessa, Freddy, - is that Chica? - , and a small boy who triggers a Rule Breaker! message to flash before his eyes, are waiting anxiously on the other side. Huh. Eclipse wonders what the kid could have done to anger his alter egos enough to warrant this kind of alert.

“Hello friends! I’m afraid the daycare is closed right now,” he says diplomatically, just in case Vanessa is hoping he’ll babysit for her. He has his hands full with Cassy. And Helpy. And Roxy, for that matter…

“We know,” the boy tells him. He tries to peer around Eclipse and see inside the daycare.

“We were actually hoping you might’ve seen Roxy? Or a little girl? Or maybe both?” Vanessa explains.

Eclipse tilts his head curiously. How do they know about Cassie? “Actually, I-”

“Ut-Shay the oor-day!”

“What?” Eclipse has no idea what Helpy just said, or why he’s insisting on speaking gibberish. Maybe his system needs to be rebooted. That usually solves weird glitches.

“Shut. The. Door.” Helpy hisses, this time from inside Eclipse’s head.

Eclipse stares at him, then at the group on the other side of the door. “Er… one moment, please!” He says brightly, shutting the door before anyone can question his behavior (he’ll apologize for his rudeness later if he needs to). He marches away from the door and up to the monitor that Helpy has been spending most of his time hanging out in. “Okay. You need to explain what in the Fizzy Faz is going on. And it had better not be that you just really don’t like that kid. You know Corporate won’t let us deny entry to the daycare just because someone is a pain to deal with!” Eclipse glances anxiously back at the door, “and besides, I don’t think we can afford a second lawsuit in one day. This place is a mess, and I can’t imagine Cassie’s parents or guardians will be very understanding when they find out that their child almost died here today! And they shouldn’t be!”

“Yeah!” Helpy agrees, “And that’s exactly why you can’t let Officer Vanessa and the others in! That kid - Gregory - is the reason Cassie is hurt in the first place!”

#fnaf #fnaf security breach #fnaf au #fnaf fanfic #rebuilding au #myfics #fnaf gregory #fnaf freddy #fnaf vanessa #fnaf eclipse #fnaf Helpy #better late than never I guess

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