Warning: Once again, this is related content from Five Nights at Freddy's and may be graphic. If you do not want spoilers for the secret of the mimic, please play the game or watch someone play it, and then come back to read this. Have a lovely day, and now back to the chapter.
"That thing is a rogue endoskeleton. It can change its shape to fit into any costume in the building, and now that you're here, it will not stop pursuing you. It has some homicidal tendencies," the slightly off-putting voice echoed from the speaker system.
Moriarty frowned. They had only answered one of his questions, but he knew that pushing for more information was probably futile. So, he decided to ask a different question. "What happened to Arnold Fixxer?"
The room fell silent. It felt like the voice was thinking, debating whether telling this unknown person was a smart idea. Finally, after a few minutes, the voice responded, "He is alive. The entity attacked him after he left and brought him back. The entity thinks he's dead. I can see him on the cameras; he's still alive."
Moriarty felt several of the altars on the edge of awareness sigh in relief, but he knew that based on that description, if they didn't get to him soon, Arnold would probably die.
"Can you help us save him?" Moriarty asked. He didn't actually care about Arnold, but any reason to stick around in this place was, in his book, a plus. Moriarty was very interested in the mysteries of this place.
The ring was silent again before the slightly off voice released a heavy sigh. "Fine, but your data driver does not have the necessary permissions to get you where he is. Walk over to the inventory machine and retrieve Arnold's data driver."
Moriarty complied, walking over to the inventory machine. He selected and withdrew the higher-ranking data driver. He also studied and analyzed the random objects stored in there. There was everything from a random cowboy hat to a mask of a porcupine? It didn't look like a porcupine, but whatever it was, it was labeled as a porcupine.
After retrieving the superior data driver, Moriarty was ready to use it to access the computer. It was clear that Arnold, the previous owner of this device, had collected quite a lot of information and objects he thought would be important. Before Moriarty could delve into all the files, the dispatch voice spoke up. "To get to Arnold, you're going to need to activate the parachute EXE program."
Moriarty, a little suspicious, continued to read over the information on the data driver and eventually realized the only thing he could do was activate that program.
Sighing in both frustration and joy, Moriarty selected the program and hit activate. Slowly, the couch to the left of his position rose up, and a vent opened. Moriarty looked outside to see the strange orange elephant still prowling around.
Deciding that anywhere was better than here at this point, he jumped down into the vent. He wandered through the strange tunnels inside the walls, eventually emerging at the control panel for the welcome stage. As he accessed the computer for the welcome stage, the voice over the intercom instructed him to activate the Goodbye Show. Curiosity now getting the better of him, Moriarty obliged. Music blared, puppets and animatronics moved and sang as a pedestal rose out of the floor with a big red button. Slowly, Moriarty descended down a lift, walked over, and pressed the button.
Suddenly, the platform beneath him began to descend, revealing pipes underneath. Clearly, this elevator accessed some type of overflow apparatus for when flooding occurred. Because of that, sometimes sticks and other junk could get stuck in the gears. This platform had a handy function where he could activate a second gear underneath the one that was stuck. This would allow the stuck gear to be retracted into the platform, enabling movement downwards. More than likely, this tunnel was cleaned every time a flood happened.
But that clearly didn't happen recently, as Moriarty kept having to pull levers to switch gears because the mechanism just kept getting stuck. This issue was only made worse when he passed a wide-open drain that had clearly been damaged not long ago. Suddenly, a giant arachnoid Android climbed out and started chasing him down. It was extremely damaged, which meant it was also pretty slow, but the platform wasn't much faster.
Moriarty had to dodge giant robotic hands as they swiped at him, trying to crush him or lunge towards him to grab him. Eventually, he reached the bottom, where a door leading to the R&D department loomed.
Narrowly dodging a few more swipes from the damaged carnival cadaver, Moriarty quickly opened the door to R&D and slipped inside, escaping the towering entity known as Big Top. He slowly made his way through the R&D department, eventually arriving at a room full of experimental designs.
Investigating the area, Moriarty eventually found a generator, and after starting it, the place lit up—well, most of it did. As he pushed back a curtain on the south side of the room, he found himself in a dark area that felt oddly familiar. This place reminded him of that old pizza chain that went out of business 20 years ago. If he remembered correctly, it was called Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Why did it shut down? Well, some nut job was kidnapping people—specifically children. Nobody knew what happened to those kids, but people had a few terrible guesses.
Moriarty then heard an automated voice over the speaker system in the room. "Edwin's friend Henry used to co-own Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and the two of them wanted to create a new pizzeria to try and generate profits with the mascot costumes and animatronics that weren't making money anymore. Most of the equipment in this building was made specifically for their creation, and it wasn't very useful for developing support items or hero suits. This was their idea zone, their palace of innovation. But after David died, the two of them decided to put a pin in it."
Seeing a computer in the center of the room, Moriarty walked over, eager to turn on the lights. Unfortunately, someone had followed him down, and as soon as the lights flickered on, they began to prowl.
Moriarty quickly hid behind a table and crept to the right side of the room. Finding a hand crank attached to a curtained-off object, he decided to take a risk. He thought, "I might as well hide behind this curtain." Quickly, he cranked the handle, revealing another robot. But this one wasn't moving. Noticing a button on its chest, Moriarty pushed it. The robot popped open, revealing it was some kind of advanced costume.
Before Moriarty could really study it, the entity found him. Thinking quickly, he jumped inside the suit and activated its mechanisms. The suit enclosed his body, making it so he could only see out of the suit's alligator mouth.
The entity froze. This wasn't an enemy; it was another costumed entity like itself. It waved casually and marched off, searching for Moriarty. Sighing in relief, Moriarty started to investigate the area, eventually finding himself at the back of this experimental pizzeria, where the security office was located. The robotic voice echoed through the building again, saying, "So you finally made it. Come on in, and I'll try to explain more about the situation."
Authors note
Yay, I got a chapter done! I hope you enjoyed. This arc will be at most four chapters. Maybe five if I'm feeling spicy. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. Bye-bye now.