the yōkai plex (being rewritten) ⚠️READ DESC⚠️

4:30 AM

“So, there is a vent in this a vent in this maze that leads to the Monty Golf catwalks. I believe there is a control panel for the maze around here somewhere," Freddy informed over Gregory's Fazwatch. Gregory hummed and went to the closed door where he found the controls Freddy was talking about.

“These must be the buttons that change the maze. I wonder what the right combination is,” he thought out loud as he started messing with the buttons, basically just resorting to trial and error to find the right combination. Eventually, after some trial and error, he tried bottom 4 four times with the lever down, bottom 3 twice with the switch up, top 1 twice with the switch down, bottom 2 twice with the switch down, and finally pressed bottom two with the switch up. He went back into the maze with his fingers crossed that he got the combo right and eventually found an open vent bathed in a green fluorescent light, assumedly leading to the monty golf catwalks. He breathed a sigh of relief as he climbed into the vent and willed the wind-up toy out of existence. After a painful few minutes of crawling, Gregory reached a small balcony with one of those toy guns you’d see at carnival games where you had to shoot water at a target or something. As he looked around some more, he noticed two cardboard cutouts of Monty with his mouth wide open that looked like targets. After recovering from his throbbing arm, the boy went to the gun and shot at the targets, which turned on the overhead ride and opened the barriers that blocked him from reaching the rest of the catwalks. He jumped down and was instantly greeted by Monty, who came in through the overhead ride with an over-the-top roar before he jumped down, causing the catwalks to loudly rattle, snarling ‘rock and roll’ to Gregory. Then the chase began. Gregory did his best to fill up the splash bucket with his only good arm while avoiding Monty, who noticed what he was doing. Eventually, after a painful few minutes, Monty managed to grab the 10-year-old he was supposed to catch.

“What’re ya’ doin’ kid?” he demanded once he was able to steady the boy. Instead of responding, Gregory managed to get a good hold of his Faz Cam and bring it closer to Monty's face before taking a picture, blinding the alligator, and escaping. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

“Chica to Monty, do you read me?” Monty’s earpiece suddenly crackled to life.

“Loud and clear,” he replied as he went back to chasing the kid.

“How is your part of the search going?” the avian asked.

“I had him, but he flashed me with a Faz cam before I could do anything!”

“Wait really? Is he still with you?”

“Yea. I’m on the catwalks above the golf course.”

“Ok, I’m on my way. What is he doing now?”

“Trying to fill up the splash bucket.”

“That could bring down the catwalk! Ok, uh… does he have any weaknesses?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“If he has a physical disadvantage, you could use that to stop him, or at least slow him down,” Chica explained as Monty took a closer look at Gregory as he went up to a gun and used one hand to fill the bucket.

“He’s only using one arm to work the gun.”

“Ok, that’ll probably slow him down a bit. When he goes to use a gun, scare him away from it and destroy the gun, i’ll be at the catwalk by then. We can figure out the rest from there.”

“Aight, I'll buy you time. Over and out,” monty nodded and tapped his watch, ending the communication. He took a deep breath and scanned the area for the kid, spotting him at one of the guns after a few seconds.

“There you are!” he shouted as he gave chase. Gregory managed to dive out of the way before Monty sprinted into him. This caused the gator to get his claws stuck in the plastic of the carnival gun, allowing Gregory to safely escape to another gun as Monty tried to pull himself away from the machine. This process went on for some time before a new player joined the game.

“Monty! I’m here!” a gentle voice called from the overhead ride. The two looked to see chica hanging onto one of the cars before she jumped down.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Gregory’s heart dropped upon seeing her. He knew that this was the beginning of the end for him.

“Gregory, we’re trying to help you! You’re safe with us!” she called to the boy as he ran from her. This prompted a lengthy game of cat and mouse with her and monty until chica managed to body block one of the last two guns while monty destroyed the other one.

“Why are you doing this?!” the avian asked a little more demandingly than she intended.

“Because you guys have been trying to attack me the whole night! I’m defending myself," Gregory shouted back before he took a picture of her and ran off. Chica yelped upon being blinded. Monty ran over.

“Ya ok?” he asked once they were together.

“Yeah, I'm fine. But I think there’s been a big misunderstanding with us and gregory.”

“What is it?”

“He thinks we’ve been trying to attack him. We need a different approach with this.”

“Ok, what’ve ya got?”

“Call vanessa. I can handle Gregory,” the chicken smiled as Monty nodded back before they separated yet again. It didn’t take long for her to find the boy.

“Gregory, we were never trying to hurt you, we just wanted to reunite you with your family. I’m sorry we made it seem like that was the case. But I promise none of us will hurt you, so please stop running and let us get you somewhere safer than the catwalks,” chica beckoned as she got closer to his eye level.

“I’m not falling for that,” the boy hissed back.

“Gregory, are you alright? I am on my way," Freddy's voice suddenly erupted from the Fazwatch on Gregory's wrist.

“So that’s how you keep getting away from us!” the peppy bird exclaimed upon hearing her friend’s voice before Gregory took her picture and ran away.

“Ok, but you better hurry!” he panicked into his Fazwatch as he ran. Chica took a few seconds to collect herself before hurrying over to monty.

“Vanessa is on her way. Did you get him to chill out?” the alligator asked once he noticed his friend beside him.

“No, but there’s a slight change of plans. Freddy’s been helping Gregory hide from us. Go look for him, i’ll keep trying to get Gregory to calm down,” chica crossed her arms as she explained. Monty nodded and went to find the bear while Chica went over to gregory.

“Gregory, how about this; you go over to the balcony and I'll stay on the other side of the  catwalks until either Freddy or Vanessa gets here and I won't chase you if you don’t use the camera on me. How does that sound?” she offered, stopping a few feet away from him.

“What’s the catch?” the boy asked.

“No catch. You’ll just keep running if I chase you, and you seem to trust Freddy more than me, so there isn’t much wiggle room for me in the agreement. Does that sound fair?” Chica explained with a calm and gentle tone.

“I guess,” Gregory replied as he walked over to the balcony and sat under it while Chica went to the other side of the catwalks.

5:00 AM

1282 words (wow that's quite the jump)