Chapter Text
Jacob watched in shock as Mommy Long Legs and Kissy Missy started fighting.
“I knew you were a traitor,” Mommy Long Legs snarled, “but I never expected you to betray a child! Now, where. Is. BECCA?”
The two massive toys continued fighting, and as Kissy dealt a painful looking blow to Mommy Long Legs’ injured hand, he realized he had to put a stop to it.
“Stop, stop!” He shouted at them.
Mommy was now in a chokehold, and Jacob couldn’t tell if she was even awake anymore.
“No, no! Let go!” Poppy shouted at Kissy. The pink giant looked down as Poppy said, “She didn’t do anything wrong! I promise!”
Kissy hesitated, then let go of Mommy Long Legs, whose face had started losing color. She started gasping, trying to refill her lungs.
Poppy sighed in relief, then turned to Jacob. “Sorry about that,” she told him. She looked around the dark Playcare. “This place makes everyone tense.”
“No kidding,” Jacob said. He turned to the female spider. “Are you alright?”
“I’m better,” she replied. She looked at him, and he was surprised to see a hint of fear in her emerald green eyes. “Where is Becca?”
“I don’t know. According to Ollie, she’s in the caverns, though I’m not completely sure I trust him. He’s done a few things to help, but he hasn’t shown himself to me at all.”
“Ollie is trustworthy,” Poppy said confidently. “He’s the reason I was able to get that message to Becca in the first place.”
“Wait.” He looked at Poppy. “You’re the one who sent her that text? How did you even get her phone number?”
She flinched. “A friend helped. Becca knows who she is, and trusts her. That’s how.”
Jacob glared at her, then sighed. “This is just going to get crazier, isn’t it?”
“Probably,” Mommy Long Legs said.
Kissy picked up Poppy to put on her shoulder, and Jacob saw that her porcelain face had a large crack running down it, which had probably come from the train wreck. He felt a little bad now.
He turned to Mommy Long Legs. “This may sound random, but do you guys need oxygen?”
Mommy Long Legs nodded. “Not as much as you humans do, but yes. We need oxygen. It’s why I was struggling so much against her.” She jerked her head towards Kissy Missy, then continued, “I was already low because of my shouting, but it still would’ve taken a few more minutes before I passed out.”
“Huh.” It was pretty cool, but it still concerned him. Why did the workers make huge toys that were much stronger than humans, and had better endurance than humans, just for children? Was it to make sure that they could take care of the children in their areas?
He was pulled from his thoughts by Poppy gently speaking to Kissy. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”
Mommy Long Legs scoffed quietly, and Jacob wondered if she was thinking of CatNap stalking in the shadows somewhere, possibly watching them.
That wonderful thought stayed with him as Kissy bent down near a metal door with a poppy flower painted on it. The pink giant opened it, then raised her paw to Poppy, and the doll stepped onto it.
Kissy then lowered her paw to the metal door, which was part of a small power box. Poppy messed around inside for a few moments, and let out a triumphant, “HA!” and something in the ground moved. A hidden door in the ground lifted up, and the two fake door flaps moved up and out to reveal an elevator.
Kissy put Poppy back onto her shoulder and stepped onto the elevator, or lift, if you were British. Jacob only knew that because he’d lived in England for four years, due to his father’s former job in the military.
He stepped on behind them, and saw Mommy Long Legs jump onto the wall and start climbing it, though she couldn’t put very much weight on her crushed hand.
“It looks like the crash hurt all of us,” Poppy said, looking at him. He hadn’t even thought of that, getting hurt from the crash, followed by the trash compactor, his multiple jumps over gaping pits, and the nightmare caused by the Red Smoke.
“You look worse than I do,” he tried joking.
Poppy looked over at Playcare, then back at him. “Listen, I’m not your enemy.” She gave him a determined look, and said, “but I can’t just let you leave!”
“You do remember that we wanted to come down here, right?” Jacob corrected. “We chose to come down here, even with the risks.”
She winced. “I know, but I still feel bad for all the damage that’s been done to you. We need you! So we can get revenge on those monsters who’ve tortured you!” She then gestured to herself and Kissy. “Who’ve tortured us!”
Mommy Long Legs flinched and looked away, and Jacob remembered that Poppy had been wrapped up in webs before, captured almost immediately after her first taste of freedom in at least twenty years.
The pure rage in her voice at the end made Jacob blink. “But… we’re not down here for revenge. We’re here to help.”
“There’s no helping with him,” she growled. “We’ve been lucky so far, but everyone you’ve faced so far have been disciples of the original: The Prototype.”
“Does he have a nickname or something? Saying his full name like that every time is a mouthful.” Jacob said.
This got a bark of laughter from Mommy Long Legs, but Poppy just looked irritated. “You and Becca are perfect for this. I admit, I wasn’t expecting you to keep everyone you’ve met alive so far, but it makes sense that you would.”
Jacob stood up straighter, then marched over to Poppy so he was as close to her face as he could get.
“Let’s get one thing clear,” he said to her. “I am in no way perfect, and neither is Becca. No human is perfect. We all make mistakes, and I know I have made more than I can count on both my fingers and my toes. Try as you might, you cannot make something perfect, and me and Becca are no exception.”
Poppy blinked. “But… many of the toys have been called perfect—”
“That’s by imperfect human standards,” Jacob interrupted. “It’s as close to perfect as possible, but every machine has its faults. Every human, or toy, has a weakness. I’m more terrified than I’ve ever been before, and Becca can’t kill to save her life. She also can’t stay active for very long.”
“What?” Jacob turned to Mommy Long Legs. “What do you mean? What is wrong with her?”
“Nothing is wrong!” He quickly blurted. “She just has a medical condition known as asthma, which can make it hard to breathe sometimes, including during strenuous activities. That's why she’s usually a couch potato.” Seeing the confusion on everyone’s faces, he explained, “She prefers to stay inside on the couch all day.”
“Well, not in this case,” Poppy mused.
“Yeah,” he admitted. “This is the most active I’ve ever seen her. I guess all it takes is for you to find something you really care about…” He trailed off as they reached the top.
Poppy shrugged, and, as Kissy sat down, asked, “Do the honors?”
Jacob saw a large red button on the extremely complicated control panel and pressed it. Light immediately came back to Playcare, and Jacob sighed in relief. He wasn’t afraid of the dark. In fact, he found it comforting sometimes. He did, however, enjoy having lights after about two hours of darkness. He might as well appreciate it while it was here.
He got back on the elevator, and Poppy continued as they went back down. “Well, regardless of how Becca thinks, it’s going to be pretty difficult to get CatNap on our side. He’s the last obstacle The Prototype has placed against us, and he’s also the most loyal of The Prototype’s slaves.”
“We are not slaves!” Mommy Long Legs burst out. “We all choose to serve him!”
“So, technically everyone who works for him is a servant, not— not uh, that.” He avoided the already spoken word due to the murderous glare he was getting from Mommy Long Legs.
Poppy turned her cold gaze on him. “Do you condone slavery?” She demanded.
“What? No way in heck!” He protested. “Slavery isn’t even legal in the States anymore! It was abolished… uhh…”
He dug out his phone and started swiping across the screen. A few years before, Becca had insisted he get several encyclopedias, one of which was on history. He’d never understood why both her and their parents had insisted on it, but now he was grateful as he searched up the Civil War.
“Over 150 years ago,” he finally said. As soon as he’d said that, the elevator came to a stop, and Jacob realized they were back at the bottom.
“Not here,” Mommy Long Legs said very quietly, so quietly he almost didn’t hear her. Jacob tilted his head at her subtly. Had she felt like a slave in the Game Station, forced to work on the games with the children?
What about Huggy with his security duty? Or CatNap, who had apparently used his Red Smoke to put the children to sleep?
Oh. That probably counts as drug abuse, he thought.
Poppy looked around sharply. “CatNap is coming,” she whispered. “He’s not going to let us get to The Prototype easily. He’ll die before he betrays The Prototype.”
“Didn’t The Prototype order you guys to do whatever Becca ordered?” He asked, remembering the conversation he’d had with Mommy Long Legs in the level above.
“He did,” the pink spider confirmed.
“But if she asked CatNap to do something that counteracted an order from The Prototype… well. Like I said, he’s the most loyal of The Prototype’s servants, so he may choose his lord over Becca.”
Jacob sighed. “Well, only time will tell.”
Poppy nodded. “Me and Kissy will wait up here. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not much of a fighter, and Kissy prefers to stay away from conflict as much as possible, protecting those she cares about being an exception to that.” She added, seeing the annoyed look Mommy Long Legs gave her. She looked back at Jacob. “Ollie will call you. Stay safe, and good luck!”
He stepped off the elevator and nodded, watching as they went back up.
Mommy Long Legs shifted awkwardly. “I’ll go get all the toys who are down here,” she decided. She looked at Jacob, as if waiting for him to argue, before hurrying off.
Instantly the phone rang. Jacob answered it. “Hey Ollie!”
“Hi Jacob!” The young voice replied. “So, I’m guessing Poppy already explained what she knew, right?”
“Sí,” he responded. He only knew a little Spanish, but he might as well keep practicing.
“What does the letter C have to do with anything?” Ollie sounded confused.
“That means yes in Spanish,” he explained.
“Oh. I feel a little embarrassed now.”
“So, what’s your side? What’s the stuff you know that you’ve gotta tell me?”
“Right! I was looking at the power while you were in Home Sweet Home and talking to Poppy, and what Poppy did only works for the lights in the main area of Playcare. To get enough power to divert the Red Smoke, we’re gonna need at least one more generator.” He paused, and thoughtfully added, “Maybe two.”
“Okay,” Jacob jogged over to the main map of the underground orphanage. “Where should I go next?”
“That’s a good question,” Ollie mused. “Everywhere’s pretty dangerous down here.”
“Again, thank you Captain Obvious.”
“Ahem. Our options are pretty limited with how dangerous it is. Especially that playhouse! Yuck!”
“What’s so bad about it?” Jacob asked.
“CatNap sleeps there.” Ollie bluntly said.
“Right. Avoiding as much as possible, got it.” He looked thoughtfully at the board, then at the buildings. “The Toy Store looks like it’s a bit too unstable, so that’s out. Leaving us the Counselor’s Office and the Schoolhouse.”
“I’m gonna have to say the Schoolhouse. It’s got the second biggest generator, the biggest being the one you already activated in Home Sweet Home.”
“Alright. Back to school it is.”
Ollie chuckled. “Sending you the key now!”
Jacob took the stairs under the statue to the control room, and sat that the main control pad was badly wrecked, and he knew for a fact that it had been fine the last time he was down here.
CatNap, Jacob guessed. He’s probably trying to hinder me as much as possible.
He picked up the key Ollie had sent, then went back up the stairs.
Mommy Long Legs was waiting for him, sitting with Snowflake, Berry, Banana, PJ, and two more Wuggies, one red and one green.
Mommy Long Legs gave him a meaningful look, and when he gave her a confused one in return, she asked, “Who are you taking with you?”
“Uh, no one. And before you start arguing, none of you are in shape to come with me. Besides, Huggy is in there already, so I can find him and take him with me. I promise I’ll be careful.”
She sighed, then nodded. After also promising to be quick and to search for Becca in the Caverns after the next generator, he headed off to the Schoolhouse.
Jacob entered the dreary halls of the abandoned school and stopped.
“Alright,” Ollie said. “Make this quick! Find the generator, turn it on, and then get out of there! I won’t be able to reach you on that side of the dome!”
“Bad cell service?” He tried to joke.
“And you won’t be alone!” Ollie was speaking quickly now, probably trying to tell Jacob everything before he lost connection, but his voice was already becoming staticy. “There’s someone else in there with you!”
“Huggy?” Jacob asked. “Ollie, who is it?”
“They’re not your—” Ollie’s voice cut out completely, and Jacob shook the phone.
“Ollie? Ollie, are you there? Answer me!”
Nothing. The line had gone dead.
Just great, he thought irritably.
He jumped as the PSA speakers nearby suddenly crackled to life.
“This is Miss Delight speaking. Please excuse the interruption! Students, remain seated until the bell has rung. And no going in the halls without a hall pass!”
Jacob stared at the speakers, then turned to the hallway.
Being homeschooled might have just screwed me over, he thought.
“Welp. I’m in trouble.”