Chapter 1
Vanessa, Gregory, and Freddy sat on a hill, watching the sunrise and eating ice cream. Vanessa sat under a nearby tree, relaxing under the cool shade as they all watched with awe as the Sun rose over the horizon.
After they all finished their Ice Cream, Gregory was the first to speak, "So, what now?"
She turned to and stared at the young boy that looked no older than ten, "What?"
Gregory responded while still focused on the horizon, "Well, I survived 6 hours in a pizzeria with killer animatronics chasing me, a creepy ass-"
"Language, Superstar!", interrupted the detached head of Glamrock Freddy.
"Sorry Freddy, I meant a creepy killer rabbit lady (she tried not to shudder at that), random messages with codes on them, a weird robot family around a table, (He had a pretty good idea of who those represented), disks that suspiciously sound like therapy sessions that randomly appear in the Pizzaplex, not to mention the recorder for those was in a replica of my me and father's old livi-" Gregory cut himself off before he could say too much, Luckily he had mumbled the last part so neither Vanessa nor Freddy seemed to hear it. "Uh, Anyways, there were also those weird arcade games that had a creepy glitchy black and purple rabbits which screamed, now that was unnerving as hell-"
"Superstar!" Freddy interrupted again, his voice echoing through the early morning air.
Gregory coughed "Actually, uh- Vanessa, do you know what that was and also, what was your deal with chasing me back there?"
She- she didn't quite know how to respond to that without telling the kid an insane psychopath from the '80's, obsessed with the concept of immortality, decided to copy his consciousness on some old circuit boards or something to control and manipulate people without the whole situation sounding something like a fever dream, sounding insane or straight out of a science fiction movie, "Oh, that's, uh... complicated. But I'll try to explain as best as I can without making it too... weird," Vanessa said, choosing her words carefully. She took a deep breath, "I was kind of under the influence of, someone. I'm not sure how to give you a description of them without you thinking that I'm crazy, but HE can sort of be considered to be an anomaly or glitch, but the best way i can describe HIM is as a sort of alive malware for lack of a better description, and to answer your question about the whole 'chasing' thing you mentioned earlier, I really don't remember it at all, like chasing you, I have some blurry memories that barely tell me anything about what happened during those 6 hours, but I don't really know the whole picture aside from the arcade games and why the animatronics were acting- for lack of a better word- quirky during that time".
Gregory stared at her incredulously, trying to process the absurdity of what she had just told him, Luckily, Freddy took over the conversation before he could responded, "But Officer Vanessa, the Glitches only started after you came to work at the Pizzaplex, and for a virus to have such an effect, someone would have had to been implanting It slowly throughout the Plexnet for a few months at least and the only one with access to the Pizzaplex during both the day and night shifts was-"
Vanessa sighed, looking slightly annoyed and frustrated, "Yes I know Freddy, it was me in a way, it's complicated to explain, so I'll give you the whole rundown on who I was before this huge fiasco, My name is Vanessa Anderson and I'm a former worker of Silver Parasol Games, where I worked as a beta tester, after that it starts getting fuzzy, but I do remember getting hired by Fazbear Funtime Service as a security guard, other than that, I only remember bits and pieces, and after that I don't remember anything at all but from what I'm guessing at is that I either was transferred by Fazbear Entertainment or issued a transfer myself to work at the Pizzaplex as again a security guard, I have rudimentary knowledge at IT, so recoding animatronics from scratch and bypassing their safe modes and on top of all, firewalls? That's basically impossible for me to do without help. The one who actually hacked the animatronics was Him."
Gregory looked at her with a puzzled expression, a million questions ran through his mind, however, he decided to save them for later as he had only one question in mind right now, "Okay, you really need to tell us the whole story about this 'Him' sometime, but anyway the real question is that you don't actually remember anything from these last few hours?"
Vanessa gave a weary nod, but a thoughtful expression soon crossed her face, "Actually, I don't remember much of these last few. days, well I hope it's only been days, the only thing i remember recently (at least she hoped it was recently) that is rather clear was playtesting a VR game for the first company I worked with and also following and playing the tapes, She left for me-".
Gregory snorted, "Really? Now 'She'?, but back to the subject, who's 'She' and what tapes?"
Vessa started stuttering a bit "I- I'm not sure about her identity, I call her Tape Girl because of some cassette tapes she left in the games with messages inside for the next tester after her; but when I started playing the tapes I decided to try and find more about her, so every day after I got off work, I tried to figure out her identity so I decided to enter the employees database to try to find her and I managed to narrow it down to two people: Gabriella and Tonya."
Vanessa paused, and took a deep breath before speaking again, "But we'll get back to that later, the question is what about you? Why were you here after hours? I think I have an idea why and I'm 95% sure that your reason to sneak after hours was not to get some free quality time with the animatronics, right?"
Gregory started stiffening "It's uh- complicated to explain" He began to fiddle with his shirt nervously.
"Try me." Vanessa said with a gentle smile, her eyes filled with genuine curiosity and a small of concern.
Gregory snorted "You do realize you literally chased me 6 hours around the entire place and I'm also 95% sure you are or at least were Vanny- (Now she was the one stiffening at the mention of her murderous alter ego), how do you expect me to trust you?"
Vanessa looked at him with a hint of understanding, "Look, I know it's kind of hard to trust me right now, but you have to trust me on some level. If you didn't, would we be here eating Ice cream? Besides you beat the game, Vanny isn't around anymore." At least she hoped she was gone.
Gregory looked at her with a distrustful expression. "And you expect me to believe you that easily?"
Vanessa sighed before speaking up, "Look kid, I understand why you don't trust me, but believe me when I say that nothing connected, related or with the whole Fazbear Entertainment Company is a coincidence, if you were here that means you have something to do with this whole franchise, so 'fess up kid, why are you here?"
Gregory sighed before answering, "I came here because I wanted a warm plate to eat and a warm place to sleep-"
Vanessa's eyes widened in shock at him. "Oh, no," she murmured, reaching out to gently pat his shoulder. "What do you mean by that?" She prayed to whoever or whatever was up there that his response was not what she was thinking.
Gregory took a deep breath, before answering, "I- I'm homeless, my parents died a long time ago, there are you happy now?" He looked up at them, his eyes misty with unshed tears. "My Mom died when I was eight, overdosed on her medication, and my Dad-" He paused, taking in a deep breath before continuing, "He died during his job at this place called Circus Baby's and Rentals, and ever since then I've been on the streets."
"I- I had no idea, I'm so sorry-" Vanessa's voice trailed off, her hand hovering awkwardly in the air before she pulled it back. She felt a pang of guilt for not realizing the depth of his struggles sooner.
Gregory wiped away the tear that had escaped, his voice barely above a whisper, "Save it, It's fine no use crying over it but now I'm curious, what do you going to do with me"
Vanessa looked at him with a mix of sympathy and confusion, "What do you mean, 'What am I going to do with you?"
"Are you going to send me into a foster home or something?" Gregory asked, trying to keep his voice steady. He had heard horror stories about the system and wasn't eager to experience it firsthand."
Vanessa looked at him with a concerned expression, "Kid, No, no way am i going to allow that, not after almost killing you, so guess what kiddo?" She took a deep breath and spoke with a gentle firmness.
Gregory pouted "I'm not five, don't call me 'kiddo'"
She chuckled "Whatever you say kiddo, but I have a good idea, you're going to be living with me in my apartment, no buts or complaining-"
Gregory gasped, "WHAT?!" shouted, in partial excitement.
Vanessa snickered "Like it or not kid, you're stuck with me. Consider this repayment for freeing me-"
She was interrupted by Gregory scooting closer and hugging her tightly. "Thank you," he mumbled into her shoulder. "Thank you so much."
She looked at him with a soft smile, returning the hug gently, "You're welcome, Kiddo. I promise to get you whatever you need once we get to my place," she said, ruffling his hair slightly.
Gregory looked up at her with a small smile, feeling a warmth in his chest he hadn't felt in a very long time. He held out his pinky finger, "Promise?"
Vanessa nodded solemnly, holding out her own pinky and looping it around his, "Promise,"
They both rose to their feet, smiling at their newfound bond. Gregory carried Freddy in his arms as the sun raised higher above their heads, painting the sky in a beautiful canvas of oranges and pinks.
"Ok, but you better keep it, or I'll shoot you in the eyes" He joked, as he took out his FazerBlaster.
Freddy spoke up, "Gregory, please do not do that, it is unsafe to do so"
Gregory sighed, "Ok, ok, Freddy, I was joking, or was I?" He joked, only for Vanessa and Freddy to stare at him with unamused and with a hint of unnerved expressions on their faces "Ugh, no one can take a joke around here, can they? But what are we going to do?"
Vanessa couldn't help but chuckle at his attempt at humor, however she quickly composed herself, "Well, I'm going to contact an old friend of mine that might give us some insight on what Fazbear Entertainment has been doing these days, hire a repair crew secretly for the animatronics-" before she could finish Gregory whined.
"Really!? They tried to kill me!" Gregory protested
Vanessa sighed, she expected this reaction "Gregory, we're actually very lucky, it's Friday which means the Pizzaplex is closed for 3 days for scheduled maintenance, which gives us enough time to repair the animatronics and fix and clean the whole place, find out exactly what has been going on since my uh- brainwashing?, and actually get my- our life back in order."
"... Do we have to repair them?" Gregory whined, still not fully over the traumatic night.
"Yes Gregory, we have to because if I don't repair them, then I will obviously get fired and havig you and Freddy living with me isn't exactly going to be cheap, so we need to keep my job." Vanessa spoke with a seriousness that left no room for argument.
"...Ok, but promise me, that they won't be dangerous anymore." Gregory's eyes searched hers, looking for a hint of reassurance.
"Of course not, I'll force activate their safe mode, it's designed for emergencies" Vanessa said, giving him a reassuring smile.
However, Gregory only groaning in response, "That existed!? Freddy, did you know about this?"
"As Officer Vanessa said that method is designed for emergencies-" Freddy began only to be interrupted by Gregory groaning.
"OH COME ON-" He shouted with extreme annoyance in his voice.
The air rang out with their laughter as they walked down the hill, the early morning light casting long shadows ahead of them.