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Memories from the Supply Closet: Foxy's Flight

Foxy had a very specific system for this situation.

First, he peered through the gap in the curtain as inconspicuously as he could. It didn't really matter if the animatronics were around or not, they never really cared about what he did or didn't do. But it was the camera that mattered. If Foxy looked out and that camera was on, he could be sure that whoever was in that booth would be ready for him.

If the camera wasn't on, however, Foxy could afford to be a little more brazen. He'd stick his head out, then one arm, then the other, then his torso, and finally he could emerge entirely. Of course, if the camera ever turned on for so much as a second, he'd shoot back into the darkness of his cove. He'd waited in there for a long time, so a few more minutes wouldn't hurt.

But the camera hadn't turned on this time. Foxy could feel his heartbeat quicken with anticipation as he emerged fully from his cove like a monster from the briny depths of the sea – not that Foxy saw himself as anything of the sort. He was a captain, of course.

Still, even at this point success wasn't a guarantee. Foxy was a pretty fast runner, a fact that he took pride in, but speed didn't mean anything if the door was closed. The captain groaned at the thought; this wasn't the first time he'd been able to leave his cove without being seen, but every time he made a break for it there had been a thick steel wall placed firmly within the doorway, one that refused to recede no matter how much Foxy struck it.

Nay, this be it, Foxy mentally assured himself. This be th' day Cap'n Foxy sails home victorious!

With that, Foxy deftly leaped down and ran, jaw flapping and arms swinging wildly all the way. And as the robot drew close to his destination, what he saw made his eyepatch flip up in shock.

The door was open. For weeks it had been closed, and its contents remained a frustrating mystery to the pirate. But now it was open!

Avast! Time t' pillage n' plunder! Foxy skidded to a stop and leaned expectantly into the room... and was mildly surprised at what he saw.

It was a person. Foxy's jaw dropped once again at the sight. “Blow me down! Th' treasure be a matey!” He whispered.

Foxy couldn't make out most of their features; they were slumped down in a swivel chair, and so their face was held at an angle such that Foxy, who towered above them, was unable to see it. Foxy could make out other things, namely the person's brown, somewhat scraggly hair that reached down almost to their shoulders, the small silver rectangular object that rested in the person's lap, and the dark green shirt adorned with a silvery nametag: “MIKE”

Normally Foxy would have been distracted by the shiny shiny badge and swiped it for himself, but he was too busy being caught off-guard by something else. That name... Mike. Why couldn't Foxy help but feel that he'd heard it before?

Foxy parsed what few memories he possessed, but didn't find anything concrete. It didn't feel recent, more like a memory from years ago... maybe when he was still active he'd met a child by that name. That had to be it – the name did have sort of a comforting effect on him.

Curious, Foxy delicately reached down with his hook hand to tilt the person's head up and get a good look at their features when a sudden scuffling noise to his left broke his concentration. Foxy looked up and turned to see Chica lingering in the doorway, leering into the room with a chillingly sharp stare. For a while she did nothing, but when Foxy opened his mouth to greet her she simply walked off.

Deep down, Foxy couldn't help but think that something felt off with the other animatronics. He hadn't realized it until about a year ago, but there was something oddly... savage about them in the way they stalked around the restaurant and glared constantly. It scared him to the core, not that he'd ever show it. He was a captain, for crying out loud.

Shrugging off his fears, Foxy turned back to the human before him and gingerly placed his hook hand underneath their chin – being careful, of course, to use the side of his hook and not the tip. He lifted the guard's face until it was in view and studied it thoroughly. It was definitely a male - unsurprising, considering that Mike was a man's name, but a welcome answer regardless. His eyes were closed, but the gentle breaths that he took assured Foxy that he was merely asleep.

A thoughtful feeling rumbled through the back of Foxy's throat as he mused. It had been a long time indeed since he'd seen a person from this close a distance. No one ever bothered coming into his cove except the occasional kid, and even then they were promptly pulled back out by their parents. But this... would this man be different? Foxy knew better than to place hope in such a possibility after so many years of being let down... but there was still that tiny little voice that just kept screaming “Yes! Yes! Be his friend!”

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he didn't even notice Mike's head slipping off of his hook until it was almost too late. Foxy swiftly drew his hook hand back to catch Mike with the other. He made it just in time, but the impact was just hard enough.

“Ugh, err, God what the...” Mike mumbled, half-asleep. Foxy froze, his jaw unhinged in a horrified face. Mike groaned softly for a little while longer before waking up sufficiently.

And then he saw Foxy. It was rather scary, Foxy would note later, just how wide the human's eyes become.

The two stayed locked in that strange position for some time. Foxy was the one to break the stalemate first.

“Ah...” Foxy stammered, holding his hook up in greeting. “Ahoy!”

He was immediately floored as the young man let loose a scream that even the animatronics themselves could not hope to match. Even as Foxy locked up from the shock of it, the scream echoed throughout the entire restaurant, scrambling the other animatronics' sensors as it washed over them. Fortuitously, this also caused their systems to reset, and they marched back to the stage where they would spend the rest of the night causing no further trouble. It was a truly miraculous stroke of luck.

Foxy was not so lucky. Being right at the epicenter of the sonic attack meant that he'd taken the full brunt of it, and despite his best efforts his joints had locked up and refused to move; he could move his head just fine, but nothing else So he simply laid on the guard room floor, not able to do much else.

“B-b-bansh-shee's c-c-cry,” Foxy stuttered over and over again. The whole thing was... traumatizing.

Sadly Foxy had little time to dwell on this as the human – Mike – came into view above Foxy, baring the silver rectangular object in two hands with a crazed look on his face.

“Y-y-you won't get me! You won't!!” Mike shouted. “I'll tear you all apart!”

He brought the rectangle over his head, and Foxy knew he was going to bring it down upon him...

“Wait, matey! Spare me life!” Foxy blurted out.

The instant the words reached Mike's ears he froze in disbelief. That wasn't right, the animatronics couldn't talk. Could they? He'd never let them come close enough to find out, so...

“You-you talk?!” Mike demanded.

Foxy nodded as best as he could. “Aye, o' course. I mean ye no harm, I swear it on me ship! I was just yearnin' t' see wit' me own good eye what treasures lie in this here locked chamber! Please believe me!”

Mike studied Foxy incredulously as he spoke, but instead of responding he adjusted his grip on the rectangle in his arms and pulled it open. (It opens? Foxy couldn't help but think. He'd have to ask about it later) The man clicked a couple of buttons and stared in confusion, mumbling to himself. Foxy couldn't make out what he said, although he was fairly certain Mike mentioned something being 'back onstage.'

Heaving a sigh, Mike slammed the device shut and bent down to look Foxy in the eye. “Alright buddy, listen here. I don't trust you guys, I've never trusted you guys. So I'm not exactly obligated to let you off easy here.

“On top of that, I'm really hungry, really tired, and deeply regretting many of my life choices,” Mike growled. “But I just caught a lucky break, apparently, so I'm feeling pretty good right now. Better than I have in quite a while, in fact.

“So I'll make you a deal,” he continued, pointing an index finger at Foxy. “But first, can you move?”

In response, Foxy mentally commanded his right arm – and to his surprise it lifted. It was a slow and delayed movement, but he was still able to lift it all the way over his head. Mike nodded in approval and continued. “Good enough. Now at the moment it is-” He stopped briefly to reopen his folding device and study it for a quick second, then shut it again. “-a little after five in the morning. I want you to pick yourself up, carry yourself all the way back to Pirate's Cove, and stay there for the rest of the night. And I do mean the rest of the night.

“For my part, I promise not to check on your cove for the rest of the night. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here. But I swear...” Mike cut himself off darkly, shooting Foxy the most hellish glare that he could muster. “If you even try to slip out and come after me again, I will know. And I swear that come dawn I will sneak into your cove, and I will take you apart piece by goddamn piece. Trust me, I'm more than smart enough to know how to do it. Understand?”

“...Okay,” Foxy squeaked out.

“Good,” Mike nodded, considerably more calm. “If you can abide by all of this, then come back tomorrow night – through the left door – and I'll let you in willingly. You wanna hang out? Honestly, I could use the company. But I need someone that I can trust, so you're gonna have to prove to me that you're worth that. Can you do that?”

Foxy considered Mike's conditions before nodding in consent. “Aye, tha's all fair 'nuff.”

“Glad to hear it,” Mike nodded again. “Now, can you return to Pirate's Cove by yourself?”

Hesitantly, Foxy brought himself up to a sitting pose, then rose with some difficulty back to his feet. Raising his hook in farewell, Foxy strode out the door without another word. Mike collapsed back into his chair with a groan. If this job didn't kill him, he'd probably do it himself.

------------

Mike's heart skipped a beat when he saw that Pirate's Cove was empty. Lord knew he didn't need any more shocks – his heart was still racing from that... whatever he'd found recorded on the phone when he came in. Mike wasted no time in slamming his palm into the door button, and he breathed a sigh a relief as the heavy metal barrier slid shut.

But it wasn't long before the guard could hear Foxy banging against the door like he always did. That didn't surprise Mike, but what did surprise him was-

“Oy, lemme in, matey! Ye promised!” Foxy cried out from the other side of the door.

Mike didn't know how to react when he heard Foxy's cries. He still remembered the events of the prior night, but he'd made an earnest effort to convince himself that the whole thing had been a sleep-deprived hallucination of sorts. But this just proved that it really had happened.

And that scared Mike. He remembered what he'd promised Foxy – trust and companionship, or at least just the latter, in exchange for one night of peace. Last night after Foxy had departed for Pirate's Cove, Mike had made good on his promise not to watch Foxy for the rest of the night; he hadn't looked at the Pirate's Cove camera even once.

The West Hall camera, on the other hand, Mike did keep an eye on. After all, there was no point in not keeping his cards hidden when his life was on the line. But even then he could say with certainty that Foxy had not made a run for him at all the previous night.

But that meant that maybe, just maybe, Foxy could be trusted... and Mike wasn't sure where to go with that.

Foxy was still banging on the door, and Mike quickly came back to his senses and shouted a quick “Gimme one second!” in hopes of placating him for a little while longer. The guard sighed; how the hell did he get himself into these sorts of places?

“Alright...” Mike sighed to himself, shaking his head in a self-deprecating manner. After all, did he really trust Foxy, one of the four people who'd been trying to kill him over the past week, enough to willingly let him into a place where Foxy could corner and kill him without effort?

Absolutely not.

...But that didn't mean that Foxy wasn't trustworthy enough for that. Mike groaned, for he knew himself well enough to know that once his mind had raised a counterargument, all he could do was debate it out with himself and then ride the results to wherever.

First of all, Foxy had been trying to kill him. Was he really so stupid that he'd just forget that?

Of course not, but maybe it wasn't so simple. After all, Phone Guy had said that the animatronics were only trying to get him “back into costume.” But Foxy hadn't shown any indicators of trying to shove him into a suit. Hell, Foxy hadn't even touched him... wait, no, that wasn't true. Foxy had been holding his chin up. Why had he been doing that? You couldn't so easily carry someone off by the jaw, it just wasn't practical. Unless Foxy was aiming for the neck... but Mike forced himself not to think like that. There was no concrete proof of it.

And Foxy hadn't seemed hostile. But then again, people weren't always what they seemed. Apparently it was something of a recurring thing around here-

No. No. Do not think about that. Mike admonished himself. This job was hard enough without thinking about that.

In the end, Mike was stumped. What was he supposed to do?

“Please, boy! I'm beggin' ya! I want in! I'll do anythin'!” Foxy whined, and Mike couldn't help but notice that he actually sounded sad.

…

…

Oh, damn it. He really was going to kill himself.

Mike smacked the door button.