Chapter Text
Tim looked up as he walked into the front entrance of the building, “Freddy Fazbears Pizza”. He was low-key questioning why he was willing to take this case for Jason, as the restaurant was already under heavy fire from all the disappearances that were occurring there. The place itself already looked sketchy as fuck, but claimed to be a “magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life”. Sounds like bullshit and probably is, if the five missing children, from the same case, were anything to go by. They had been looking for someone to take up the position of the night guard after their last one quit, claiming that, “it wasn’t safe for batman, let alone the average minimum wage worker.” Sounds about right, considering it’s Gotham after all, but still, it needed to be looked into.
After entering he was greeted by a greasy middle-aged man who was not looking his best, and that was being quite generous.
“Oh hey, you're the new night guard right? Ted was it?”
Tim paused- this frightening caricature of a man whose appearance could rival the Joker… was his boss? How did he get to this position in life- he looks like he still lives in his parents’ basement.
“Yeah, that's me alright. Who are you? Are you the supervisor?”
“I’m Dave Miller, the day shift guard and your supervisor.” He introduced himself with a smile, before questioning Tim. “What do you know about the job so far?”
“Um, I’m supposed to work from 12 to 6, and to keep a lookout for any intruders?” Tim replied
“Well I guess you should look out for intruders- but the real threat, oops, I meant thing you’re here for is the animatronics themselves. They tend to get a little… active at night. What with the free-roaming mode and all.”
“Free-roaming?” Tim asked, curious about this part, considering he hadn’t heard much about the animatronics themselves.
“Yeah, but you’ll get a better explanation from the phone guy. While I used to be a nightguard before getting promoted, I still can’t explain it too well. But uh, I think that I’ll probably leave you for the night to get to it. If you need to ask any questions, don't ask me.” Dave explained before leaving, not even waiting for a response from Tim.
“Free Roaming???” Tim thought, still questioning it. It probably wouldn’t matter that much, considering there was likely someone hiding out here, probably controlling or messing with the animatronics to distract the nightguard. But Tim’s not that easily fooled. He was trained by the Batman (™) himself.
Confident in his abilities Tim headed towards the security office, looking around at the strange cheaply done decorations that were meant to appeal to children, but probably would scare them away instead. After reaching the office he waited for it to turn to midnight and right as it did the office phone rang with a message he could only assume was from the so-called ‘phone guy’.
"Hello, hello? Uh, I wanted to record a message for you to help you get settled in on your first night. Um, I actually worked in that office before you. I'm finishing up my last week now, as a matter of fact. So, I know it can be a bit overwhelming, but I'm here to tell you there's nothing to worry about. Uh, you'll do fine. So, let's just focus on getting you through your first week. Okay?
Uh, let's see, first there's an introductory greeting from the company that I'm supposed to read. Uh, it's kind of a legal thing, you know. Um, " Welcome to Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A magical place for kids and grown-ups alike, where fantasy and fun come to life. Fazbear Entertainment is not responsible for damage to property or person. Upon discovering that damage or death has occurred, a missing person report will be filed within 90 days, or as soon property and premises have been thoroughly cleaned and bleached, and the carpets have been replaced."
What? The? Fuck? It almost sounds like they actually planned for people to die on the night shift or something?
“Uh, the animatronic characters here do get a bit quirky at night, but do I blame them? No. If I were forced to sing those same stupid songs for twenty years and I never got a bath? I'd probably be a bit irritable at night too. So,”
Looking at the equipment in front of him, Tim started to experiment with them to see what they do. First, he checked the doors and lights, and well- why does having the doors closed take power? Why is it individual buttons on both sides for doors? What? Ignoring that he moved on to the cameras before hearing the phone guy’s ramblings being interrupted by a familiar ringtone, Coming Back To Life, by Pink Floyd.
“...I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life”
He picked up the call.
“Hey Jason, I’m kinda busy right now, so if we could like, talk later or something that would be awesome.”
“What the fuck Tim? You're supposed to be patrolling with me tonight. Do you not remember any of that? Or are you finally starting to feel the effects of running off caffeine for the past several days?” Jason said, mocking him.
“No, I’m kind of busy with a case right-” Tim started saying before cutting himself as he heard phone guy say something especially suspicious in the background.
“Uh, they used to be allowed to walk around during the day too. But then there was The Bite of '87 . Yeah. I-It's amazing that the human body can live without the frontal lobe, you know?”
“Bite of 87’- what the fuck?” Tim screeched as his brain futilely tried to process the bite that apparently bit off someone’s frontal lobe. How the fuck was that even supposed to work? “Frontal lobe? What?”
“Look, Tim. If you’re doing some of the good stuff, I won’t blame you, I’ve tried it once or twice too, but at least tell me before you go off the deep end? And before we are supposed to go on patrol? Like, I get that work is stressful and everything, but I didn’t realize it was that bad, you know?”
Before Tim could even think of a response he noticed a movement in the corner of his eye. He could swear the rabbit was staring forward at the seats before. But now it was staring at the camera, almost like it knew Tim was there? Maybe he was high, cause this could not be real.
“Wh- th-the rabbit just moved. It’s staring at me as if it knows I’m here.” He said curiously, before continuing to stare at the screen.
“Gosh, I was joking when I said that you were doing drugs or some shit like that, but maybe I wasn’t wrong? Am I right? What? What the fuck???”
“Look it’s the- the case you mentioned earlier… did the chicken just move too?” Tim could not believe his eyes, this could not be real. They were looking at him.
“Wait, what? Are you at the weird knockoff Chuck E Cheese related to all of those missing children? Did you steal my fucking case?”
“Um, yeah? You said you were going to drop it, considering you couldn’t get any leads or evidence, and I offered to help. I was looking for leads on the case, and I realized they had an open job for the night shift. My thinking was that I would pick up the job and just investigate the place during the night since no one else was here. But now I can’t do that because if what phone guy said was right, then the animatronics will kill me on sight. So. Yeah?”
“Should I come over there, Tim? It sounds like you could use the backup.”
“You would probably get killed by the animatronics, plus, according to the shit load of paperwork I had to sign before I actually got the job, if I have to leave the job early, or have people over while I’m on the shift, I’ll get fired. I’d rather not deal with being sued under one of my shitty throwaway aliases.”
“Wow, going all the way in I see, with one of-”
He was interrupted by Tim’s sudden scream as he switched cameras to see the rabbit in the hallway, still staring at the camera. “The rabbit he- it fucking moved! It’s in the hallway now, and it's still looking at the camera.”
Before Jason could respond he checked the main stage camera to see that the chicken had disappeared too. He switched between the cameras but was ultimately unable to find it. “And the chicken is gone too- I knew they were free-roaming but this is going too far. And why is the rabbit still looking at the camera?”
“Well, they are probably programmed to look into cameras or some shit like that, considering it’s a kid’s restaurant where they probably want photos all the time, so like, chill out Tim. Geez.”
“It’s still creepy anyways,” Tim says before hearing ominous heavy footsteps to his left, and unsure of what to do he reaches over and slams the door shut button. After doing this he hears a suspicious banging sound as if something… metallic ran into the door. Already having a bad feeling about this, he turned on the hallway light to see a pirate fox standing outside the glass as if waiting for the door to open.
“Jason I would love to talk but I’m going to have to go-” He said before ignoring Jason’s protests and quickly hanging up to check the cameras. Noticing a percent sign in the corner of the screen he noticed he was at a total of 45% for the last four hours.
“Fuck.” He quietly whispered to himself realizing that even if he does succeed it’ll be by a small margin. He wanted to question why the restaurant wasn’t connected to the city’s power grid, but he did not have the time or energy to figure it out, considering he was keeping away a murderous bunny and chicken at bay.
For the next two hours, he worked to keep the robots at bay, watching them on the cameras and occasionally closing the doors, praying that he would have enough power to make it to the end of the night. Unfortunately, minutes away from the end of his shift he glanced down just in time to see the power hit 0%. As soon as the power ran out, all the lights in the building shut off, the tablet he was watching the cameras on shut down, and the doors slammed open. He couldn’t run or hide because he had no light and no understanding of the layout of the building. He was trapped, a sitting duck just waiting to be stuffed in a shitty animatronic suit and left to die.
As he sat there considering his fate he considered how he had survived so much and was dying here. He had defeated the Joker, Two-Face, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Mad Hatter, Penguin, and had survived the Ra’s. He had saved so many lives, resurrected Batman, and figured out Batman, Robin, and Nightwing’s identities as a child. He was the great Red Robin, a hero of Gotham, a former Robin, and he would die in a shitty children's restaurant. The great hero Red Robin, who went toe to toe with Ra’s repeatedly and lived to tell the tale, was going to die to shitty knock off Chuck E’ Cheese animatronics. As he struggled to accept his final moments, listening to the heavy slow footsteps of his killer get closer the lights suddenly turned back on and he checked the tablet, which said the time was 6 am. He had accepted his death, yet he had survived. In an almost zombie-like state, Tim greeted the morning guard, drove home, and passed out in his bed, completely forgetting how he hung up on Jason earlier in the night in favor of getting some rest.