Chapter Text

Chapter 1
Toby Uses Hedy’s Steam Account

Toby was having a good night. The new chapter of one of his favourite games was released and he'd just finished playing through it and the cliffhanger was killing him. Now he was getting ready to play through the whole game again from the start. Why not after all. Hedy had said he could use her laptop all night while she was busy doing something with Ruby and Puppet.

He'd vaguely heard Ruby complain about being bored as she left with their mechanic, saying she wished she could have another Game™. Hedy scolded her over the words (wishing was banned for obvious reasons) as they were leaving his hearing range. The teenager was probably going to cause so much trouble for them all later but he didn't care. Right now, he was going to play through all three chapters of Poppy Playtime and enjoy his exclusive night with the laptop while the others watched a movie.

As Chapter One loaded in, the screen seemed to glitch out and he leaned forward in concern. He really hoped he wouldn't need to reinstall since he was so close to getting all the trophies-

He stared at the screen. That... wasn't right.

Oh shit.

"What did you do, Ruby?!" Hedy demanded, looking around wildly. They'd been in Parts and Services and suddenly they were somewhere else entirely. Between one blink and the next, they were in what looked like the entrance lobby of some strange and possibly abandoned building. Everything was covered in a layer of dust with miscellaneous litter all over the place.

"Me?! I didn't do anything!" Ruby complained in offence.

"You made a wish ," Puppet ground out, glare firmly fixed on the night guard.

Jeremy pinched his nose while Mike picked himself up from the floor, back positively covered in dust. They hadn't even been in the room with the girls but they'd still been dragged along for the ride. Mike was a little concerned since he’d been fixing the light switch in one of the rooms. He hoped no one got zapped if they investigated when they saw it. Jeremy had been reading and he was pretty miffed that his book was probably lying on the floor of the pizzeria now.

"Where are we?" Vixen asked anxiously, eyes darting around the room. "What's happening?"

Foxy reached out to rest his hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Vix, we'll figure that out," he assured her. Even though he had no idea what was happening. She was still prone to panic very easily so keeping calm was most important.

Mangle looked around curiously, already wandering away to poke around under the counter. He kept tabs on her out of the corner of his eye since she was just as likely to mess with something dangerous as Ruby was. Who he was also keeping an eye on. She was just pouting for now so her reckless curiosity hadn’t kicked in yet.

Puppet hurriedly reached out to snag the minireena that tried to follow Mangle and set her back in Hedy's lap. The Bidybab was hiding behind her chair and eyeing everything suspiciously.

Puppet followed her gaze as she studied the paintings of colorful characters on the walls, faded and cracked by age. Were they in a place for children? Why was it closed? The room had a concerningly ominous aura that made him want to get everyone out immediately. He glanced back at where Jeremy was checking the door. All they could see past the glass was darkness.

Vixen stepped closer to Hedy and Foxy, neither of whom had moved yet. The others decided to be more active in looking for clues with Ruby pacing away from them in a huff. She was both disturbed and strangely calmed by how the others seemed more annoyed than scared, except for the little bots, of course. 

"I don't understand what's going on," she said to Hedy, a little more firmly. 

Hedy patted her on the leg while she continued to glare at Ruby. "The building does not understand when someone isn't serious. I think it sent us somewhere."

"It can just do that?!" Vixen asked, looking at Puppet and Foxy for confirmation. 

"Unfortunately," Puppet said dryly. He squinted at Hedy. "What do you mean you 'think'?"

Hedy bit her lip a little. "I can't sense it at all."

Ruby frowned and touched a wall to check for herself. All she felt was cold plaster. No slight warmth. No welcoming buzz. Nothing. "How can it send us somewhere it isn't?"

"Gee Ruby. I'd love to ask it," Hedy said sarcastically, without checking Ruby's reaction to her snark. She did not want to play Ruby's idea of a game, because they both knew what sort of game she was implying, and that did not bode well for their situation.

"But why?!" Vixen pressed.

"Ruby broke her own rules and made a wish. She said she was bored and wished she had a game to play." Hedy resolved to apologize to Ruby for her attitude the second she calmed down. She was just a little upset at the moment.

Mike froze in his investigation of the edges of the room and immediately eyed the doors in worry. "Exactly what type of 'game'?! "

"I meant hide and seek!" Ruby exclaimed. "Everyone was busy and even Foxy said no for tonight. I didn't mean the deadly type this time!"

She crossed her arms defensively and shifted her weight.

"The worst I thought would happen is the movie would turn off," she said sourly, kicking at the floor in a rare display of teenage petulance. "We haven't had any games with the Funtimes yet. They only watched the paint night."

It was true since everyone had been busy with the Funtimes. Fixing them, teaching them, bonding with them. And Ruby understood that was important. But it was also the first time Foxy had ever said no to a game with her, since he was busy with Vixen. She knew she was jealous and she knew it was stupid. That didn’t make it go away though.

Hedy felt a little guilty now from assuming the worst. "Sorry, Ruby.” 

"Well, we aren't playing hide and seek," Jeremy said cryptically as he read a piece of paper he found on top of a large yellow envelope on the floor near the front doors he hadn’t managed to open. It looked dark outside, with no external lights. He couldn't even make out a distant parking lot except for some vague shapes. He was more interested in the paper anyway.

Everyone thinks the staff disappeared 10 years ago. 

We're still here. 

Find the flower. 

There was a simple drawing of a poppy flower under the note.

He frowned at the words, very confused about who wrote it or who it was for. Them? It still didn't make sense. None of them had worked in a place like this before and he didn’t think any of them had ever even seen a poppy flower in person. It didn’t grow in the area.

He gently nudged the envelope with his foot before using his pen to peek inside. 

There was a yellow VHS tape in the envelope. Figuring it wasn't going to blow up on him, Jeremy removed the tape and read the label. It didn't clear anything up either. "Hey guys, I found--

"Aha!" Mangle suddenly cheered from behind the desk, not even paying attention to the argument or Ruby's sullenness. She held up a green VHS tape.

Ruby blinked in surprise. "Is that a tape ? That's pretty damn rare now. Does it still work?"

She started poking around now that her interest was piqued. All the technology around them was actually pretty old. There was a tape player hooked up to a dinosaur of a television. Ruby blew on the machine, a cloud of dust flying off.

"This thing hasn't been touched in ages. "

"I found one too," Jeremy said, placing the tape he found on top of the VCR player as Mangle handed the green one to Ruby. She turned it this way and that in fascination like it was some great relic of the past.

Damn but he felt old…

Vixen picked up the Bidibab as the rest of them came over.

"We should play them right?" Foxy asked. 

"Is there even power in this place?" Puppet pointed out. 

Mike shuddered. "Is anyone else getting deja vu?"

Foxy patted Mike on the back, half mockingly, half in genuine comfort.

After Jeremy checked the connections between the player and the tv among much teasing over being the only one with real knowledge on how to set them up, they stepped back to watch. Ruby parked herself on the floor just in front of it, looking up as the tape started playing.

"Yellow first," Jeremy decided since he'd been the one to check the machine. He popped the tape in and the tv flickered to life. 

It looked like an old commercial, bad quality and with a tone that hadn't aged well. There was something about it that set his instincts off and he watched carefully.

A man spoke as he walked to the camera. "You are about to see the most incredible doll ever invented. Her name is Poppy, and she is the first truly intelligent doll in the world. A little girl can talk to her, Poppy gives her answers. She is the first doll actually able to have a conversation with a child. Hard to believe? Just watch."

"Hmm," Puppet hummed, already suspicious. It sounded like a description that might have applied to himself, once upon a time.

"Poppy Playtime!" a chorus of children’ voices cheered.

Hedy stiffened.

"Poppy's as lovable as a real girl, and she talks like one, too!" a female narrator said.

"She looks like Baby," Vixen couldn't help but blurt out when they saw the aforementioned doll. "Sort of."

Ruby leaned away from the screen with a grimace. "She looks like trouble. Nothing good comes from life-like porcelain dolls. Nothing."

Hedy nodded in agreement. 

"There's just something... really uncanny about her," Mike added. "I just can't figure out what."

"I'll take your word for it," Hedy said, her voice tense. 

Vixen looked down at her. "What's your problem?"

Hedy just grunted through her teeth as several sympathetic looks were thrown her way. 

"Hi! My name is Poppy! I love you. Can you help me polish my shoes?"

"Why, of course Poppy! Just like a real girl, Poppy always wants to look her best."

"Perfect! Thank you."

Puppet relaxed a little bit. So far, those all sounded like doll responses that could easily be recordings. 

"Hedy has a pretty bad phobia of dolls and plushies," Mangle explained to Vixen with a smile. She still moved to stand protectively behind Hedy and the mechanic relaxed a little. 

Vixen blinked. "Seriously?" She looked pointedly at the Minireena in Hedy's lap and gestured to the Bidybab she was holding. 

"They, and you, don't count," Hedy said immediately, giving the Minireena a little hug.

"You guys aren't dolls," Ruby explained. "You're bots. And that's different from toys. Hedy's not a fan of dolls but her main problem is pushies." She paused and looked around at the faded paintings on the walls. "Um... are we in a toy shop maybe?"

"Shush," Hedy ordered a little frantically. "I'm trying to ignore that possibility."

"Her hair is sturdy and won't come out when you brush it, and smells just like a poppy flower! Is there anything else you'd like to say, Poppy?"

"I'm a real girl, just like you."

"...Don't like that..." Mike said. 

"What's the time?"

"Playtime!"

"I forgot how much I hate adverts for kids. They're grating," Ruby muttered. She was already getting restless, attention drifting towards the different exits out of the room. 

The bots weren't really getting why the humans seemed so uneasy over the doll. They hadn't seen anything odd yet. Then again, they didn't really know what 'normal' toys were like. They rarely interacted with them since the kids were always more interested in the bots themselves.

"And, if you've ever wanted to see how all of the nation's favorite toys were created, 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-"

The video cut out into static before showing a grainy clip of security footage. There was a door at the end of a series of catwalks with a giant poppy flower painted around it.

“Find the flower,” Jeremy muttered to himself, looking back at the paper with a frown.

"Are we..." Hedy asked, her voice taking on an uncharacteristic squeak. " In a toy factory ?" She very obviously glanced at the door to the outside. She had seen Jeremy test it. "Um… we sure that door is locked?" 

"Yeah…" Jeremy said with a wince.

"Can we break it?" Her voice went up a few octaves at his grimace.

Mike grabbed her hand and did his best to calm her down. 

"Toy factory is worse than a toy shop," Ruby mused, wincing at Hedy's reaction. 

Foxy tried the doors himself and narrowed his eyes. "Awfully sturdy doors. Office level sturdy." They didn't even shake when he tried the handle aggressively and he wasn’t holding back his strength.

Vixen's ears were down as she looked around anxiously. What was going on and how did she get back to the pizzeria where things were slowly starting to make sense?

"Green tape?" Ruby suggested, having moved over to Foxy. She was studying the doors as well now, more specifically the lock. She shook her head at something Foxy whispered and they both eyed the doors very suspiciously. The fact that she didn’t even try to pick the lock told the rest of them volumes.

Mike and Mangle stayed by the mildly freaking out Hedy as Jeremy put the next tape in. 

"Hi, my name is Leith Pierre and I'm the head of innovation here at the Playtime Co. Toy Factory. If you're seeing this, then you're trespassing."

"I wouldn't willingly come here!" Hedy snapped.

"Unwillingly trespassing,” Mike agreed, squeezing her shoulder comfortingly.

"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."

Jeremy, Mike, and Ruby all shared a look.

"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! And that's one of the more tame aspects of our security system. No spoilers..."

"What the heck is that supposed to mean?" Mangle asked. She was probably aware of the irony.

"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."

"That's… ominous," Puppet said, glancing around suspiciously again.

Mike seemed the only one genuinely put off. The others were all used to Scott's idea of humor, even before the murders and the 'game'. He was always saying spooky things to night guards or teens who looked like the types to break into a restaurant at night. He didn't really change much after things became actually life and death.

"At least his name's not Scott or Steve?" Mike awkwardly tried to joke.

Hedy didn't appreciate the comparison to her uncle and just ran her hands through her hair with a little groan. " Why a toy factory?!"

The Minireena cooed and attempted to calm her down by patting the mechanic's cheeks and tapping her on the nose while looking worried.

"What now?" the Bidybab spoke up, mostly asking Vixen. The Babs still weren't as talkative to others besides the Funtimes, but Puppet theorized that Baby had encouraged them to at least try to change that.

BB was the most resistant to speaking with them.

Entirely giving up on the door, which just told them trying to leave that way was useless, Ruby prowled around the room. "There's never only one way into a factory. So there's got to be other ways out. This is the public entrance. We need to find an employee one," she said.

She headed down the left hallway marked security and stared at the keypad, baffled. "What the fuck kind of keypad is this?" she asked, ignoring the hissed 'language!' from Vixen.

"Someone just didn't print the numbers, " Mike guessed. "Maybe someone wrote the code down somewhere?"

Jeremy and Puppet immediately started looking around the front desk.

Foxy shared a knowing glance with Mangle before he left her sticking by Hedy while he followed the pair in the investigating.

"Hey there's power in here!" Vixen called from a side room. At the mention of looking for a code, she was excited for the chance to be useful.

Ruby headed across the room and into the other one to search with her. She eyed the train above them with interest but her attention caught on something else.

"Oh my gosh!" she gasped, grabbing a box and opening it. "It's so cute!"

She held it up to show Vixen, stars practically shining in her eyes. It was a blue, gangly stuffed toy.

"If you say so..." Vixen grumbled, rolling her eyes. She stared as Ruby started playing with the little arms. 

Mike had followed her and grinned at the sight. He was more amused by Ruby's antics than the fox, although he hoped Hedy stayed back in the lobby. He assumed she wouldn't find it so cute. Ruby had a massive soft spot for plush toys though.

He also noticed the train and was about to dismiss it as well before taking a closer look. There was something odd about it. 

Ruby looked up to find him tracking it with a thoughtful look on his face. 

"It can't be that..." He muttered. "No way." 

Ruby paused in her delighted inspection of the toy and watched Mike. "What is it?" she asked, following his gaze.

 Admittedly she'd been entirely distracted by the toy and had almost forgotten what they were doing. She knew better than to wander back into the other room with the toy though and gave it a mournful look. She could put it in her bag maybe... It was just so cute. She tossed the box aside as she considered her options.

Jeremy wandered in, raising an eyebrow in mild amusement at the sight of Ruby staring at the toy. The moments when she let herself be a kid were genuinely adorable, although he’d never say that out loud.

"I just want to try something..." Mike suddenly ran out, muttering under his breath. "That’s definitely green…I think…”  

The group in the lobby looked at him with caution and curiosity as he darted past toward the locked door before punching in the code. 

"Mike? Did you find the--" Hedy was interrupted by the whooshing of the door opening.

"Ruby!" Mike called. "I got it!" He looked even more confused than the rest of them strangely.

Ruby bolted back across to the security office, leaving the toy behind in the end. She might come back for it later. The room was dim and the multiple monitors off. There was so much dust on the floor that they kicked up a cloud of it as they walked in.

"How'd you figure it out?" she asked as she started looking around. The blue tape caught her attention quickly. "Hey Jeremy! More old tech!"

He scowled at her as he came in behind her. "I know you know how those work. There's a VHS player at the orphanage."

She just gave him a smile and tossed the tape at him. "These are very brightly coloured tapes. Why do the tape players match them? And what's behind here?" she was poking at the glass that blocked them from a compartment in the wall. Some kind of... something was inside.

Foxy laughed at the face Jeremy made at Ruby.

"You older bots must know how to work these," Jeremy muttered. “I can understand Mangle and Vixen, but you two are older than me!”

"This is more amusing," Puppet admitted immediately.

Hedy weakly laughed at Puppet's rare joke.

Jeremy just rolled his eyes as he begrudgingly put the tape in the player and turned the television on. 

Mike finally answered Ruby's question as the video started up. "Uh... the color code was the train colors in the gift shop."

Puppet blinked. "Tell me you're joking."

Mike shook his head. 

"What sort of security system is that?! A child would have figured that out just from curiosity!"

"Would an adult, though?" Mangle asked. She looked at Mike. "You don't count."

Mike didn't know if he should be offended or not by that and looked at Hedy for a clue.

Ruby groaned at the explanation. "I hate puzzles. I hate puzzles so much."

Which was strange. She was a smart girl despite her disinterest in school. And she was scarily smart when playing games with everyone or making her toys. Not to mention her interest in solving mysteries. Then again, most of them hadn't ever seen her with any kind of puzzle. 

Foxy was the only one who didn't seem surprised and snickered instead, getting a mild glare from the teen.

The television flicked, revealing itself to be an instructional video for the thing in the glass behind the tv stand.

"You're supposed to wear it?" Jeremy wondered. "It seems really heavy."

"...the engineering for it shouldn't work," Hedy said, frowning as the animation demonstrated how to fire the thing. "Why would anyone even make that?"

"Why does a pizzeria have bomb-strength blast doors?" Mike pointed out.

Hedy opened her mouth to argue in Scott's defence but Puppet shushed them.

Ruby looked very intrigued. She pressed her nose against the glass. "I wanna try it," she said eagerly. "Looks like fun."

Foxy looked fondly amused. "Doesn't look too hard to use," he said, already preparing to argue with the responsible adults over letting her use it.

DO NOT FIRE AT COWORKERS

The animation showed the Grabpack operator ripping another person's head off.

MAY CAUSE INJURY

It was very quiet for a moment. They were all stunned enough that they almost missed the next part of the instructions. Something about rewiring.

"...That's not normal, is it?" Vixen finally asked.

They mutely shook their heads. 

"Maybe I should try it out first?" Mike offered.

Ruby looked back to glare at them. "I wouldn't yank anyone's head off!"

"It mentions rewiring and I'm the electrician," Mike continued.

"Good point," Foxy agreed, making Ruby gape at him in betrayal. He avoided eye contact for the moment.

Jeremy looked incredibly grateful to the fox as the glass case opened.

Mike grabbed the thing before Ruby could, shooting her a wary but warning look as she glared and pouted at the same time.

"Out of the way, please," Mike said, sticking his tongue out a little as he aimed to test the grabpack now strapped to his back. It was a lot lighter than he expected. 

He stumbled back from the recoil as he fired, nearly knocking Puppet over.

It was louder than they expected.

There was a crash as the hand grabbed the computer on the desk and pulled it back before Mike could release it. The heavy computer crashed to the ground, Jeremy jumping out of the way to avoid it crashing into his legs.

"...Oops."

"Not in an enclosed space if you please!" Puppet snapped at him.

Vixen ducked to stay out of the line of fire when Mike turned to face the rest of them. She'd probably be okay if her head was ripped off, but she wasn't keen on going through that again.

Jeremy forcibly pointed Mike away from anyone else. "Treat it like a loaded gun," he said firmly.

Mike nodded.

"Do we even need this thing?" Hedy asked warily

The Minireena let out a tiny gasp and patted her shoulder sharply to get her attention. "Door!" she said, pointing at the blue hand of the thing. "Inside door."

They all looked confused until Mike walked out and saw the blue hand print.

"Oh! It must be like a key too," he realised. 

Ruby was definitely pouting and stalked after them. "How was that any less disastrous than what I could have managed?" she snarked at Hedy.

Hedy didn't really have an answer. "Just let him test it out," she argued lamely.

"What is with this security system?!" Puppet stressed, gesturing at the hand print.

Mike looked at him. "Oh right," he said offhandedly. "Mr. Afton mentioned you used to be the security bot."

Hedy frantically motioned for Mike to stop talking with the neck-cutting motion and a wince.

"What?" Mike asked her in confusion. He froze when he noticed Puppet glaring at him. "What did I say?!"

The foxes were all looking uncomfortable.

"Just open the door," Puppet deadpanned, deciding to put his energy into being Hedy's walking stick as she stood up while Foxy wordlessly picked up the wheelchair and handed it over to Jeremy on the other side of the turnstiles.

"Do you need me to pick you up?" Foxy asked the mechanic, well aware he was the strongest one there.

"I got it," Hedy insisted, using Puppet as a brace to climb over with some difficulty. She caught her foot in the turnstile and pitched forward with a shout. "FUCK!"

Vixen ended up being the fastest to react. Foxy had been distracted by Ruby disappearing into the train room and returning as she zipped her bag up and Mangle had been poking at Mike's new toy. The Funtime fox caught Hedy around the middle before she could hit the ground.

"You okay?" Jeremy asked, fully distracted by his sister now, rushing to her side.

"Fine," she huffed as Puppet carefully got her leg free and she got back to her feet. "Thank you," she said to Vixen, ignoring that the fox's still unnaturally sharpened claws had accidentally torn her shirt and left scratches in her side. They weren't much worse than scratches from Kitty, so she barely reacted. They just stung slightly, and she'd rather Vixen not feel guilty about it.

"I tore your shirt," Vixen said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it. Better than breaking my nose or my leg," Hedy said as Mike looked over in concern. The Grabpack was far too bulky for him to get close, so he had to settle for letting the others check while he opened the door.

The door whooshed open as the lock finished reading the Grabpack’s hand and Mangle rushed around him to go in first before abruptly stopping.

"Hello," she said cautiously to something. Her tone was more of surprise and concern than a real greeting to someone.

"Uh oh..." Mike said, leaning to the side and catching a glimpse of what Mangle had seen.

"What?" Hedy asked as Jeremy took her chair from Foxy and let her get settled. She couldn't see through the relatively narrow door just yet. "What uh oh?"

Ruby followed close behind Mangle and her excited squeal made them all jump.

"Oh my gosh!!!!" she shrieked. "He's so cute !"

Mangle called out to her but Ruby ignored her as she bolted full speed at the giant version of the doll she'd swiped from the gift shop. She wrapped her arms around its legs. "And so soft!" she exclaimed. A giant plushie, this was amazing.

It almost felt like the fuzzy statue moved when her full weight hit it but she was too busy cuddling the soft fur to give it much thought. Maybe this place wasn’t so bad.

Bonus: Toby at that Moment

Bonus 2: Jealousy