This was not the first time he had suddenly woke up and sensed something amiss.
However this was so strong.
Maybe because he realized he was face down on cold concrete.
He moved his hand to push himself back up, he looked around his surroundings.
To the sides of him were tall dark grey brick walls, the walls had black hand prints, he didn’t understand if it was symbolic or something much darker.
It was empty however.
He seemed to be the only one here.
He pushed himself up to his feet, immediately once he stood up, his whole body felt like it had a crushing pressure inside, that was a bad sign.
The feeling only came when he arrived in a bad place.
Once that happened, his parental instincts went through the roof, he looked around again.
No one.
He closed his eyes, if he couldn’t see his kids, he needed to know where they were.
He began the process of trying to sense their auras nearby.
As soon as he tried, he felt something grab his whole body and tightly crush him.
His eyes shot open and his legs gave away.
He crashed onto the ground, his pupils wide, his whole body shaking violently.
He had never had that happen before.
His whole body felt like it was on fire. Something was definitely blocking the flow of his magic.
It had happened before, usually nothing would happen, but he had never experienced this crushing burning sensation in his endoskeleton.
It filled him with more worry.
He laid on the cold concrete for a few minutes, waiting for his body to stop shaking violently.
His ears perked up to the sound of banging.
Fireworks?
He looked up to the sky.
He now saw a half finished castle front, with fireworks shooting into the dark grey sky.
He pushed himself up to his feet again, looking at the colorful sign on the castle font.
“JOY JOY LAND”.
What’s a Joy Joy Land? His mind asked, not recalling any place existing.
It looked like a half finished decrepit amusement park, it was interesting to him how the sign was finished and looked extremely clean, but everything else looked dirty and like a given up dream.
He tried to search his servers for any results about this place, only for him to receive an error.
“I’m… not connected to a network…? How is this possible…?”
He had a sick feeling but he needed to know.
He quickly opened up his quick message contacts and saw something that made his mechanical heart stop.
FETCH: OOR
R FREDDY: OOR
R BONNIE: OOR
R CHICA: OOR
R FOXY: OOR
SECURITY: OOR
HELPY: OOR
MUSIC MAN: OOR
G FREDDY: OOR
G CHICA: OOR
ROXANNE WOLF: OOR
MONTGOMERY GATOR: OOR
DJ MUSIC MAN: OOR
DAYCARE ATTENDANT: OOR
They were all Out of Range.
Lefty couldn’t contact anyone.
His mind immediately went into a panic mode.
He was alone in a strange place, his magic wasn’t working, and his contacts were all unreachable.
This had to be a trap.
By Nightmare.
It definitely reeked of his MO.
But why construct a dreamscape of an amusement park?
Nightmare usually made dreamscapes that were more creepy, more towards what the person feared.
Plus this place seemed too detailed for his imagination. Nightmare seemed to put more effort into monsters than the environment.
Who else could have done this though?
More fireworks went off, which told Lefty two things:
1. There were pyrotechnics in the park
2. And someone had to be here, either to set them off or to program the fireworks to launch at a particular time.
Acknowledging that and knowing he would get nowhere if he just kept standing here, he walked forward.
I've gotten a bit into Dark Deception lately too, and I was just intrigued by the idea of one of the Lucky the Rabbit Joy Joy Gang clones being a Nice defect of all the others with no homicidal tendencies whatsoever who hides away in the maze to avoid being bullied by the others. A similar idea for a Nice Trigger Teddy scared of people and warning them because he doesn't want to blow anybody up. It's another shameless 'these evil characters are cute, i want a Nice One to make into a woobie' situation, which I am guilty of doing a LOT.
I hope you don't mind but I wrote a short story about this concept—
Lefty picked up his feet, hearing the maniacal laughter getting louder and the loud thumping behind him. It wasn’t easy, but he had to outrun them if he wanted to survive.
He skidded around the corner, jumping slightly when he heard the wall break behind him which meant only one thing: Hangry was now pursuing him also.
“Get back here! You will join the Joy Joy Gang! Joy! Joy! Joy!”
All that did was prompt Lefty to push harder to run, he was terrified of being captured and reprogrammed, knowing they would likely completely wipe his memory, meaning he'd forget everything— his family, his children, his friends, and his love.
He saw a door ahead and ran towards it, almost jumping towards it as he felt pain shot up from his leg where Hangry had grabbed him before and bit him, luckily he managed to escape but his ability to run was kind of hindered.
He grabbed the door knob, pushing it open and immediately slamming it behind him, he quickly looked around the room to survey the location and spotting items such as a desk, chairs, and lockers, which he could use to barricade the door.
He limped over quickly, pushing the desk forward towards the door and turning it down so the top part of the desk was facing directly foward. He heard the familiar “Joy! Joy! Joy!” taunting chant which prompted him to hurriedly pushed the desk against the door.
As soon as he did that, he was startled to see the door handle rattle violently.
“Hey! You're cheating!!” Lefty heard Lucky scream, “Open this door!!”
He backed away slowly, half expecting Hangry to break down the door as he had seen the pig break down countless walls while chasing him, which that was scary to Lefty, as he couldn’t tell where the pig would come from, he could be sneaking away from Lucky and Penny but running straight towards Hangry, who would be waiting around the next corner, ready to smash down the walls to get him.
For some reason, Hangry appeared angry that Lefty was “inedible” as he described, which Lefty guessed it meant that Hangry would probably eat people and he was terrified for a moment that the pig had killed his kids but he remembered that Hangry commented that he hadn’t eaten anything for “so long” and Lefty breathed in relief, realizing that Alec and Hazel were still alive.
They weren’t here, but they were still alive somewhere else.
“You can't delay the inevitable!! This isn’t the end and I won't lose to someone like you!!”
Lucky viewed this as a game, Lefty shivered, he pressed himself against the wall, raising his injured leg, trying to think of what he could do to fix it immediately so he could continue to search for an exit.
He didn’t know how he came here, only recalling that he was walking downstairs with Fetch by his side to make breakfast, then he woke up, face down on the concrete at the entrance of this twisted amusement park. He didn’t care at this point how he got here, he just wanted to leave immediately, he had a sick feeling this was a trap, a trap designed to separate him from his family and friends so they were defenceless.
He hoped that Alec and Hazel were okay, he knew in the past that he had instructed them as well as Matt and Stanley that if he was unable to protect them, they had to, they had to run to protect themselves and hopefully Lefty would find them later. He didn’t care about being rescued, he did care about what they might do to Alec and Hazel, as well as his other friends.
So far it didn’t appear that these awful machines had Alec and Hazel, Lefty was sure if they did, they would have mentioned it as a means to get him to cooperate. It could mean however that Alec and Hazel were held by someone else, as he had heard Lucky mention an entity named “Malak”, which that completely disapproved Lefty's initial suspicions that Nightmare was behind this, with yet another plan to bring harm to Alec and Hazel.
All he wanted was to get back to them as soon as possible.
His heart leapt when he heard something behind him, he immediately turned his head around to the source of the noise. He saw a locker door had pulled itself backwards.
His suspicion level rose, he slowly marched over, walking to the side of the locker that he saw had opened.
And he roughly pushed it to the side.
The locker easily tumbled down with a loud bang and Lefty heard an audible “OUCH!” from inside it
“I know you're watching me!” Lefty exclaimed, “Come out! I'm sick of you horrible Joy Joy gang members tormenting me!!” He kicked the side with his good leg, hearing another “OUCH!” from inside.
He stood still, prepared to attack, watching the locker door rattle before it swung open.
Lefty backed away, seeing a large gloved hand reach out.
A Lucky robot pulled itself out of the locker, laying on the floor for a moment before standing up straight.
Lefty immediately curled his fingers and delivered a swift punch to his face.
“OUCH!” Lucky exclaimed, holding his nose, “You're hurting me!”
“That's the idea dipshit!” Lefty snarled, “Now let me leave! Call off your gang and all your doppelgängers, let me walk out of here!”
It shook its head, “I'm not doing it!!”
“I don’t care if you’re the leader or the underling! I will keep fighting despite being injured! So it's better if you just stop!!” Lefty grabbed his ears, pulling him down.
“BUT I'M NOT HURTING YOU!!”
“Are you playing reverse psychology?”
“LOOK AT ME!! DO I LOOK LIKE ONE OF THEM??”
Lefty froze, looking over this particular Lucky model. He did notice it didn’t look “show ready” as he would describe it, as it had several missing suit parts, particularly on one arm, from the lower arm to the finger tips, it was just an exposed robot arm. The suit also looked dirty, with obvious mud caked on the feet, dried up black oil around its eyes, the fur at some parts looked matted, like he hadn’t been cleaned in a long time.
“I'm hiding also,” The rabbit explained, “I'm hiding from them.”
“What are you? An unfinished prototype?” Lefty let go off his ears.
“Malak said I'm a defect!”
“A defect...?” Lefty said skeptically, he knew that “defect” could mean anything, it didn’t necessarily mean this one was good, it could mean that it was missing some important programming. He was also a little confused about the tone in which he had said “defect”, like he didn’t understand what it meant.
“I don’t like them... they're mean... so I've been hiding anywhere I could basically!” Lucky exclaimed, “The concept of killing people doesn’t appeal to me.”
“How do I know you're not lying through your teeth right now?” Lefty frowned.
“I know why you wouldn’t believe me... I know you aren’t one of them... one of the Joy Joy Gang, I mean.”
“Indeed,” Lefty answered, “I just want to go home, to my family... I don’t know where the exit is though and I’ve been chased around in circles by those three,” Lefty exhaled, overwhelmed.
“Maybe... Maybe I can help you to escape! I have a map of this place installed in my memory!”
“As if I'll blindly follow you,” Lefty knew he couldn’t just blindly trust anyone in a strange place.
“How can I...? Oh! I know! Your leg!” Lucky pointed at it, “Looks like you've caused some damage to the main connection on the knee joint... you need a replacement if you want to run as fast as you can... I don’t have a replacement part on me right now, but rubber bands can help hold the joint steady temporarily so it won’t break further! Hopefully long enough for you to escape and get back to your family!”
Lefty tilted his head, “Why would you help me?”
“I want to... I've seen too many people being killed... and hearing you have a family... I know they'd be devastated if you died!” Lucky shook his head.
“I... I don’t know if I can trust you...” Lefty admitted.
“How about I tell you what you need to do with the Joy Joy Gang? You just need to electrify them!” Lucky replied, “That'll stun them long enough for you to have a chance to escape!”
“Is there anything I can do about Hangry? He's a real big problem for me right now.”
“Hangry... you can try roaring at him... he doesn’t like animals like lions or bears...”
Lefty frowned, that seemed too simple and he knew there was likely a catch, “Suppose I could... Alright... so...”
“Lucky.”
“For personal reasons, I'd rather not call you Lucky, I've had a bad experience with someone named Lucky and what's going on right now isn’t helping... can I give you a nickname instead?” Lefty suggested
“Okay!” He seemed happy at the suggestion, “What do you wanna call me?”
Lefty thought for a minute, he didn’t want something too silly, or something too unusual, but he wanted it to be distinctive.
“How about... Jai?” Lefty asked.
He saw his eyes lit up, “Ooooo Jai! That sounds so interesting!”
“It means victory.”
“Wow! I finally have a name, maybe I can stop associating myself with... that other guy...” He frowned.
“Well...” Lefty extended out his arm, “My name is Lefty.”
“Hello Lefty! I'm Jai!” He proudly introduced himself, shaking Lefty's arm, “Wow! That felt amazing! Just to introduce myself like that, as someone separate from the Joy Joy Gang!”
“I apologize also for attacking you,” Lefty shook his head.
“Oh I understand and it's forgiven... now how about I find those rubber bands and you can tell me more about yourself in the meantime, I wanna know about your family! If that's okay of course...”
Does Malak and/or Nightmare get annoyed that Mama Bear won't harm Alec?
Oooh I really wanna talk about this AU (or any AU)
Short Answer: Yes.
With Nightmare and Malak working together, Nightmare wants Lefty to be separated from his kids long enough for him to be disposed of by the Joy Joy Gang.
Meanwhile Alec being stuck with Mama Bear was intentional, as Nightmare told Malak about his issues with Meg, so Malak intentionally threw Alec into the woods to meet Mama Bear and her children.
Mama Bear was absolutely willing to kill another moral, even making a game of it with her children, setting them on the victim. However when she had found Alec unconscious outside the cabin, she realized he didn’t look like an adult, she questioned Malak about it, learning he was only 16, which in Mama Bear's eyes makes him a child, which she absolutely does not bring harm to children, even if they aren’t her own.
Malak doesn't really pay attention initially to what Mama Bear was doing (which he realized later was a huge mistake), as she had decided to instead bring him inside the cabin and let him rest. When he came to, he was extremely scared and tried to sneak out, only to be caught by Mama Bear and brought back, with her saying “A child shouldn’t be running off by themselves, you might get hurt.”
Basically Mama Bear becomes really motherly towards Alec and he hates how suffocating it feels, because not even Lefty is that much “in your face” and Mama Bear pesters him about his family constantly (Mama Bear questions the lack of a mother figure in his life).
When Lefty escapes Joy Joy Land and starts making his way out, Malak remembers to check in on Mama Bear, he and Nightmare assume that Alec is long dead, only to realize he's still alive and Mama Bear is actively keeping him alive, by providing food (even though Alec has started starving himself believing the food she makes may be poisonous) and even a bed for him to sleep on, she even starts referring to him as one of “hers”.
Malak reminds Mama Bear she has an obligation to kill any moral who crosses into her territory, but she corrects him by saying she had to kill any ADULT moral, not a child and she refuses to let harm come to Alec, she even pushed Malak away when he tries to take Alec away, so he gives up, figuring he could be amused when Lefty arrives and realizes that Mama Bear is very protective of her bear cubs.
Darkest Frights AU question: Would Alec try to escape from Mama Bear? Maybe going into the basement and heading for the tunnels?
Alec would, he absolutely wants to get out of there, however Mama Bear is keeping a close eye on him, the only way he can get privacy is staying in the room Mama Bear said is now his “bedroom”, which makes Alec annoyed as he already has a bedroom at home and it has a bed much more comfortable than the one in that room he's confined to. Mama Bear seems to keep an even closer eye on him when Malak “warns” her that a “random horrible black bear” on his way to take her child away from her.
I can see Alec maybe sneaking into the basement when everyone could be asleep, he'd have to unlock it of course because Mama Bear would keep it locked so he wouldn’t get out. He'd get into the tunnels, running ahead, thankful freedom is in sight...
Then he'd hear Mama Bear chasing after him, so he runs further ahead, looking behind himself... not realizing there a massive hole ahead...
