A New Start
Chapter 6: The Search

Scott,meanwhile, was worried. Really, really worried.As he walked, he swung his flashlight left, then right, growing moreand more anxious as it illuminated nothing but the bushes that linedthe side of the sidewalk to the left, and the road to the right.

“Freeeddyyyyy!Boooonniiiee! Chicaaaa!”, hecalled. He listened and waited for a moment, before sighing as hereceived no answer. And, really, why would he? Surely, the threewould hate him toomuch to answer after what he'd done to them...

“M-May-Maybethe-e-e-ey're s-s-somewhere in t-town!”, exclaimed a rather wornelectronic voice near him. Scott looked back, seeing Foxy walk only afew feet behind him. He was glad that he at least had the fox withhim. Moreso, he was glad that he managed to give the old bot theability to use her own two legs again! Though it was a worryingsight, seeing her occasionally stumble like that...

Justanother thing he'd have to fix once this was all over...

“Maybe...”,Scott replied quietly. He had already figured that. Though, that didgive rise to a worrying thought. What could the bots be up to outthere? What sort of trouble have they gotten themselves into? Whatkind of fate could've befallen them?

Foxy,on the other hand, didn't think much about that. She was stillprocessing what was even occurring atpresent as she walked behind the man. She sifted through a mentalchecklist, trying to outline what she could infer had happened up tothis point in the simplest possible way.

That...'event' happened.

Shewas shut down.

Muchtime passed.

Shewas rebooted, came to realize that she had a real body instead of themangled mess she used tobeandthenthemansaidsomethingabouttenyearsandffxxxshzzzXYYTTTTT--

Foxystumbled again. To say that her mind felt like an absolute messwould be an understatement. It felt like it was everywhere at once.She felt like she couldn't linger too much on anything too logicallydemanding for too long, or else she'd begin to automatically shutdown from the stress on her CPU. It also didn't help that she wasstruck by a feeling of absolute bewildermentfrom the situation she found herself in as she mindlessly followedthe man in front of her. She felt as if she was suddenly taken out ofher old world, and thrust into a brand new one – though, that waspartially true. She also wondered where the others were...

Click.

Theanimatron blinked as she remembered why she was out here. Howcould she forget?She began to look around in a rather ponderous and futile attempt atlocating her friends. Therewas mostly nothing of interest – just houses and trees and thelike. Basically, normal things you'd replace in a small town. However,as her gaze ventured back toward the sidewalk, something further downthe way did catch hereye.

“Th-Th-There'ssomeone c-c-c-coming!” the fox suddenly exclaimed.

“I-Isit one of the others?” Scott asked, looking at Foxy. The bot shookher head and pointed.

Browarched, Scott looked in the direction she was pointing. He squintedat the faraway figure, before realizing that the figure was that of aperson. A person that was coming toward him and Foxy, a person thatwas running.

Scottstopped, and gestured for Foxy to do the same, as he watched thefigure get closer and closer. Scott considered stopping the person,and asking him about the lost bots, but three things stopped him fromdoing that.

Firstly,asking 'Hey, sir, have you seen three animatronic animals runningaround here by any chance?' sounds silly. Secondly, if the threehadn't been found out yet, he didn't want to give them away.

...Andlastly, the person had already passed the two and was already runninginto the distance. As Scott mentally facepalmed, he could've sworn heheard the poor soul muttering something about...

...Chickenswith panties?

“...Somethingtells me they're that way,” Scott flatly said, looking in thedirection from which the Runner came. He and Foxy exchanged a glance,before walking in that very direction. Scott had a feeling that thiswas going to be a really long night...

Thenext few minutes were rather uneventful, with Scott periodicallycalling for Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica and searching the bushes withhis flashlight. Foxy soon joined in as well, calling out for the losttrio in that ragged voice of hers as she walked alongside Scott. Thiscontinued on for another few minutes, until Scott decided to breakthis monotony by asking a question.

“...Say,Foxy,” Scott began, looking at the bot in question. “I've beenmeaning to ask, what's that on your teeth?” he inquired. From thebeginning, he had noticed that the fox's teeth had an... oddcoloration to say the least. Sure, the other animatrons had ratheryellowed or otherwise darkened teeth from years of weathering, whichScott made sure to clean off, but Foxy's was dotted with some odddark brown specks and blotches... He would have cleaned them offafter he finished fixing the bot up, but the rush of replaceing hishouse partially trashedand three of the animatronics missingresulted in him forgetting until now.

Inresponse to the question, Foxy's head practically snapped towardScott, the animatron's face now full of worry.

“Wha-Wha'd'youmean?” Foxy asked, beginning to grow uneasy.

“I-Imean that they've got some weird stuff on 'em. Like, they look a lotdirtier than the others' teeth were before I cleaned 'em. Ifigured it might've just been some especially drastic weathering,but... I'm not really sure. What's the story with 'em?” Scottasked, before wryly grinning. “I mean, call me crazy, but italmost looks like--”

“I-I-It'snothing!”Foxysuddenly exclaimed, covering her mouth. “N-Nothing!”Scott stepped away from theanimatron, caught off guard by her sudden reaction.

“O-Okay,okay! C-Calm down,” Scott said, putting up his hands in surrender.“I didn't mean to o-offend you or anything,” he said, watching asFoxy slowed her pace a little, keeping her mouth covered. Once theyapproached another streetlight, the animatron grabbed the pole andleaned against it.

“F-Foxy,really! I'm sorry!” Scott exclaimed, growing more worried byFoxy's increasingly distressed nature. He wondered what could'vepossibly been on her teeth that could've resulted in it being such asensitive topic to her. Scott cautiously approached the fox, stoppingin surprise as she moved round to the other side of the pole. Scottsighed, turning off his flashlight.

“Foxy,c-c'mon. A-At least get outta the street. You might get hit.”

Foxy,however, wouldn't budge. She continued to stand behind the pole,staring fearfully at Scott. When he would take a step toward theharried animatron, she could make a motion threatening to takeanother step back.

Andif there's one thing Scott didn't want, it was having the fox stepall the way into the road and getting decimated by a car.

...Ora car getting decimated by her...

“F-Foxy.Foxy, look... I-I'm sorry for asking you about your teeth,okay? I'm sure that it's a real sensitive topic for you, and I guessI should've known that. ...Or somethin',” he said in a fraughtattempt to calm the fox down. “...N-Now, can you please getout from behind that pole?” he asked, holding out his hand towardthe animatron.

Tohis surprise, and profound relief, Foxy shakily grabbed his hand.Gently, he pulled the bot out of the street.

Andin the nick of time too! A short distance away, sirens could be heardby the two, accompanied by the squealing of tires. A black and whitecar would speed past the pair, its engine roaring and sirens wailing.It'd speed into the distance, the illumination of its lightbar beingseen long after it ventured over the horizon.

“...Huh,”Scott idly commented, unsure of what to make of that sight. Thisneighborhood wasn't usually known for crime...

Justanother thing to worry about...

Helooked down at Foxy, who had taken the time to hug the man, seemingespecially downtrodden by the whole thing.

“H-Hey,it's okay,” Scott said, rubbing the animatron's head. He wasn'tsure if it did anything to help her, considering he's pretty surerobots can't feel, but he figured it was a good gesture anyway.Besides, he was still taken aback by how... drastically Foxyreacted to his question. He decided that, for now, he'd have to holdthat thought off until later.

Afterall, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

“S-Say,are you alright now, Foxy?”, Scott asked. The bot in questionlooked up at the man, and slowly nodded. Scott smiled.

“Alrightthen,” he said. “Let's get goin', shall we?”

Andso, they got goin'!

Thenext half hour was much more calm than before as the two continued towalk along the road. As Scott looked around, he almost felt luckythat it was as late as it was. There was hardly anyone out here! Andaside from the guy they saw running, it seemed as though nobody hadreally noticed anything relating to the bots. And even then, thatRunner didn't notice Foxy despite even getting within poking distanceof her! All Scott had to do was replace those animatrons, and get themhome safely...

Meanwhile...

“...Steven,you sure you weren't just seeing things? Like, I'm not doubtingyou or anything, but...”, Russell began as he leaned against hispatrol car. “...Leary'd be real angry if he found out you called usout here just 'cause of something that turned out to be somehallucination or whatever you had.” Horace was a rather stockypoliceman, and one of Steven's colleagues back at the station. He andhis other colleague, Roy, had been called out to the corner of Temple& 9th,the location of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, by Steve. From what theycould make out from the cop's screaming over the radio, he'd beenrobbed by a 'bunch of hooligans in plastic costumes'.

Soundsweird, yeah?

“Horace'sgot a point. I mean, what you're tellin' us here is sounding realstupid, t'be blunt,” Roy commented. “You say you found one of 'emjust sitting around out here. Who the hell would be sittin' around inthe cold, outside some old pizza joint? Aside from us, I mean,” hesaid.

“Listen,you,” Steven said toward Roy in a hardened tone. “I know whathappened, considerin' my damned nightstick is missingat the moment.” Steven paused, raising his arms a little so's toshow his waist, and the space his baton usually is, beforecontinuing. “So don't try and get smart with me. These people inthese costumes - they've been screwin' around inside and outside thispizzeria for lord knows how long, vandalizin' the place and doinglord knows what else. And Iamgonna stop 'em, with yourhelp. Y'understand?”, Steven asked, glaring at his two partners.Roy rolled his eyes, and Horace pinched the bridge of his nose. Hehad a feeling that these late hours were really getting to the poorman...

“Okay,sure, fine,” Horace finally replied. “But how're we even gonnabeginthis little case of yours? We don't know the first thing about howthese people operate, or where they're based. Hell, we didn't evenknow it was that big of a problemuntil you called us. I mean, jeez,Steven, don't you ever think about these things?”, Horace asked,his brow furrowed slightly. Roy, meanwhile, stared wide-eyed at apair of people who he found were standing only a few feet away.

“...Uh,guys?...”

Scottand Foxy found themselves in a staring contest with one, then two,then threepolicemen. When Scott had gotten the idea of heading to the pizzeria,he had expected to replace three robots.Not this, oh goodnessnot this!

“...Uhh,this is a... bad time, isn't it?” Scott wryly asked, taking a stepback. “...Yeah, this is definitely a bad timemyfriendandIshouldgo.C-C'mon,” he said, grabbing Foxy's arm and making an attempt towalk away from the three policemen.

Foxy,however, was having none of that. As she stared at the trio and theiruniforms, she realized that they were, well, policemen!Andif there's one thing she knows for sure, it's that policemen aregreat at replaceing things! Including lost robots! As a result, and withthat choppy voice of hers, she managed to crank out a question.

“Ha-Ha-Haveyou see-see-seen a rabbit, chicken, or bear a-around here?!The-The-They're my friends and-- H-Hmm?”

“...H-Hah,excuse my friend here!” Scott exclaimed as he grabbed Foxy's snoutand held it shut. “She's a real silly sort, don't pay her anyattention!”

Unfortunately,the cops paid her allthe attention.They looked at each other for a moment, baffled, before Steven spokeup. “...Actually, I've been meanin' to ask both of you the samething. And judgin' by your friend there, I'd say she might at leastgive us a few clues as to where those delinquents are...” he saidwith the slightest hint of a grin on his face as he took a steptoward Scott and Foxy.

“I-I-Idoubt that...” Scott said, taking a step back. Steven took anotherstep toward the two, with the pair responding by taking another stepback. Scott didn't like this, not one bit. He couldn't get tangled upwith the police now.Hehad bots to replace! And judging by what the policeman said, he mightnot be the only one with that aim in mind. So, he made the onlychoice available to him at that moment.

Heran.

Andfor the second time that night, Steven Pulaski exclaimed,

“Stop!Poliiiice!”