Portal Timer and Time Travel

Old friends

The walk to the front doors felt like it stretched an eternity and Steve ducked his head when they entered. The walls were decorated with stars.

Bryan led them to a pair of curtains that revealed a security door. He took out a card and swiped it and the door slid into the ceiling.

"Stay here." He whispered and Steve nodded quickly, shuffling behind the curtains.

Meanwhile Bryan was just barely keeping himself from breaking down in tears. He was here... in the old pizzeria. That same greasy smell and the sound of his animatronic friends messing around.

Rockstar Foxy, Helpy, and Lefty seemed to be watching Orville perform a magic trick with a slice of bread. He grabbed the wall to steady himself. Could he really go back?? Everyone was alive here... and yet... he had new friends back in the future, could he really leave them just like that?

"Why do you look so shaken up?" A mocking voice came from above him and Bryan couldn't help stiffening, not from fear as it would appear, but from shock. He looked back, careful to mask his joy with fear and resentment no matter how hard it was.

Damn, Molten looked uglier than he remembered in this form. "It-its none of your business Molten." The animatronic tsked. "Bryan!!" Helpy yelled as she ran towards him. "Bryan I want to play minigames!"

Bryan felt a pit of dread form in his undead stomach. Not the portal...not again. "Ah, well, uh, actually I have a surprise!" Foxy tilted his head suspiciously. "A surprise?"

The owner nodded his head furiously and dashed back into the front area with a quick. "Just give me a moment!" Before slamming the security door closed.

Foxy turned to look at Molten. "What did you do this time?" The bear shrugged innocently.

"Okay listen, we need to pretend everything is normal." Steve shuffled his feet as Bryan continued his ranting. "If we want any chance to get the Portal Timer from Molten we have to act like nothings wrong." He looked back the animatronic. "Do you understand Steve?"

Steve flinched at his name and Bryan sighed. "I know... it, it's not the best plan..." The showtime animatronic shook his head. "It's not that... I just miss everyone."

The man rest a hand on their shoulder. "Dont worry Steve, we'll get back to where we belong. I promise." Bryan ignored how many times he'd been unable to fulfill his promises, he had to try at least. If not for himself, then for Steve.

He turned and slid his card through the door again, pulling the animatronic by their hand.

There was a moment of silence as the present animatronics stared at the other robot ducked behind Bryan. Lefty broke the silence first. "Damn Bryan I didn't know your ego was so big you'd make a animatronic of yourself." The business owner couldn't help but snort out how unironic that statement was considering parts of his rotting corpse were still inside Steve.

And speaking of Steve, he was now peeking curiously from his hiding spot. Helpy jumped at him and he screamed as they both went tumbling backward. "Do you really think this is a good time to buying new animatronics?" Molten asked sarcastically.

Bryan looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?" The animatronic scoffed. "The pizzeria is shut down, or do you not remember?"

Oh. Well at least that gave a rough estimate of where in the timeline they were. "Oh right, uhm..." He scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well he's a custom animatronic so I took the funds out of my own account??"

"And what would you need a custom animatronic for?" Uhhhh, think! "He's my new assistant?" Now that got Helpys attention and she scurried her way off the new and now traumatized animatronic. "What!?" Bryan quickly put his hands up in defense. "No, not like that Helpy! You'll always be my assistant but uhm, Steve, here is lower your amount of paper work."

"So you made him so you would have to do less work." Bryan glared at Molten but it lacked any heat or real anger.

Lefty looked the new animatronic up and down. "Hey, you're face is kinda' like mine! Except I'm just missing an eye and well..." he made a gesture to Steve's open face plate. Foxy elbowed the bear in his side, not that it did anything.

Steve had moved to hide behind Bryan again, occasionally glancing between Molten and Helpy warily. The former would've raised an eyebrow if had any.

Helpy clapped her paws impatiently. "Okay! Now that we did that it's time for mini-games!" She grabbed Bryan by his jacket sleeve. "To the portal!"

She was surprised when the business owner didn't move and was instead just... standing there, staring at her in a sense of morbid silence. "Bryan?" Lefty called. "You okay there buddy?"

Bryan shook his head and stepped back. "Yeah, yeah. It's just-" why were his hands shaking so much?? "Im just not feeling up for minigames today..."

The other animatronics looked concerned (not including Molten) "Bryan...? You never turn down minigames." Steve laid a hand on the shaking mans shoulders. "Y-you should sit down..."

And he did.