Pop Goes the Balloon

"Let's see what I've missed."Image (book cover): https://odaospace.neocities.org/assets/pgb.pngShivering, you look up to see the neon sign of the plex. Though it's been your full-time job for 5 months now something about staring up at the huge letters of "THE FREDDY FAZBEAR PIZZAPLEX", felt ominous.Maybe it was because you hadn't been here in a week, having taken the previous days off for a brief vacation. Not that you didn't like your job, but everyone needed a break once in a while. Maybe it was the thick winter jacket, ski-pants and boots that covered you. Maybe it was the fact you were standing in -25°C cold, winter wondering why you hadn't frozen to death yet.Whatever the case and hoping you don't catch a cold you pull the security card out of your breast pocket, lanyard dangling from it and press it to the badge by the door. A plastic card, one side contained information about the Plex and where to return the card if lost. The other one displayed a photo of you, some random information and your job title, "MASTER TECHNICIAN". In your mind it probably should have just read "CARETAKER" because most of the time that's what you felt like you were doing.But again, you didn't complain. If you really had a problem with the job, you would've just gone freelance again.Stepping into the plex you're greeted by the familiar sign of retro 80s inspired aesthetic and faint smell of pizza and that new car scent.Nobody was running up to greet you, the act in itself unusual. Many a time one of the animatronics were waiting at the entrance to request your help.With a sigh you undo your jacket, revealing a simple dress t-shirt, buttoned up but slightly wrinkled. Dress code policy wasn't that strict but tonight you felt it necessary to at least dress well. After all, it had been a few days since your last appearance.In front you see the familiar golden statue of Freddy, an animatronic bear holding a microphone, likely in the middle of a solo. Around him was a fountain, water spurting out the spouts and an uncountable number of coins in it. Passing it you start climbing the stairs, making for the employees only door atop the stairs.You recall your first entrance here months ago, taken aback by the flashy lights and zany designs. Never heard of Fazbear Entertainment either, just that it was some random fast-food franchise. You knew they were also the subject of a few investigations, rumours about people missing and strange happenings at some of the locations. But other than that, and with encouragement from the representative you first entered the plex with a blank slate.At the time it worried you, especially when you also found out you weren't even the first technician they hired, that the others were chased off or worse. But again, blank slate.Then 5 days later you found yourself the conclusion of an animatronic murder investigation, hypnotized by some green bunny, fighting for your life with a giant purple rabbit, spider DJ thing and against an army of robots as you ascended the arcade. Amongst everything you faced in those 5 days you thought you should have quit.Though despite all that you grew infatuated with the place. Sure, it was dangerous, but the animatronics were charming and fun to be around. Your co-workers were pretty enthusiastic too. The steady income also beat having to advertise yourself and take sketchy freelance gigs. No more roller coaster-climbing was all the reminder you needed to not go freelance.Plus, that huge battle was a one-off thing. The plex had calmed down a lot since then. It didn't mean the place was safe, far from it but at least nothing had tried to kill you since that day. You check your pockets. Everything still in order.One security card giving you access to most of the plex.One phone with a 10,000mAh battery, effectively making running out of power an impossibility. It doubled as a flashlight, the phone you were proud of, especially with how often you heard guards had to recharge their 'Fazbear flashlights'. So far, you'd never had your phone die on shift. Management wanted you to use their flashlights though as you worked alone most of the time they ultimately didn't care.You at least wore a 'faz-watch', a company-branded 'communication' device based off, well, a watch. Complete with a video screen you knew it worked off some peer-to-peer connection and allowed you to remotely call any animatronic or employee in the plex, so long as they were present. You also made some modifications to it, allowing it to charge off your phone. Zero chance of it dying on shift.And lastly, one tazer, consumer-grade. It had come in handy a few times having to zap animatronics and such. Considered a weapon you were given special authorization to carry it into the plex. Officially, the papers said you needed it to work on animatronics, treating it like a defibrillator.You also carried a backpack full of tools, wires and goodies. A walking chop shop, one of your co-workers joked to you about. Though unlike a chop shop you didn't disassemble the 'machines'.Officially, your job was to repair, manage and provide upkeep to the animatronics, equipment and really anything relating to the word 'hardware'. Thankfully they had a team of programmers offsite to troubleshoot software issues. At most for them you'd have to go and manually flick off a switch, other works not 'qualified' to do so.Passing through the employee entrance a few bots roll past you, simple designs, they each only served one purpose. The designers had taken great care to automate many actions of the plex. Various helper bots rolled around the plex, ready to answer any questions anyone had. Some bots distributed maps, some performed janitorial duties, and some just plain kept the place populated.Of course, hiccups did happen, but plenty of employees were always on hand to help the animatronics out, acting as caretakers like yourself. Though not many had the technical expertise you did. So, when it came to the 'important ones', only you were allowed to touch.There were 7 animatronics that you were to care for above all else.5 of them were members of the eponymously Fazbear 5, a rock band consisting of Freddy the Bear, Roxanne the Wolf, Monty the Gator (don't call him Montgomery), Chica the Chicken and Bonnie the Bunny, the most recent* member.* = Recent as in was on a hiatus, more on that later.All styled after the 80s they played a fusion of Glam rock, glam metal and even lately, some progressive and psychedelic sounds. They've been experimenting more recently.The other two animatronics were the DJ, who ran the arcade and Sun and Moon, two animatronics in one. They ran the daycare. Aside from Sun/Moon they all towered over you, especially the DJ, a monster even amongst the other animatronics. From what you learned they were relatively recent additions to the plex, added sometime after the original 4 animatronics.That's the main thing that made the job different from all other gigs you worked on. Despite the plex swarming with animatronics those 7 proved themselves capable of rational thought, problem solving, the mirror test, really the whole spectrum of a Turing test. Vanessa, a night security guard explained that one, she didn't know how/why they were so smart and two, to just treat them as actual people and not some machines. You accepted the premise rather quickly.Being someone who specialized in machines you often found yourself speaking to them as if they were real. This time they could respond back.That's where the 'caretaker' label came from. The animatronics, in spite of their intelligence could often diagnose problems on their own. So instead of a technician you became like a doctor or therapist, being the one to treat their problems and issues. In a lot of cases if there were a dispute between them, they'd come to you or the nightguard. Sometimes it felt like dealing with children...huge children made of metal that could've easily taken you out. A few times they came close too.So, then the job mostly consisted of getting / seeing who needed help and working with them for the night, doing daily check-ins with the others. Aside from physical stuff you also acted as a shoulder to lean on, often listening to the animatronics' problems. Roxanne vent about the staff touching her hair or Monty complaining some employee looking at him funny.In the end, while it may have appeared cumbersome you enjoyed it.When you first started it was just a freelance gig. One simple task. They had a destroyed animatronic and wanted you to fix it. That animatronic was Bonnie, a bassist of the (at the time) Fazbear 4. He was 'slain' under mysterious circumstances and replaced by Monty. Though it took a bit of elbow grease, a few confrontations with Monty, an all-out war in the Plex, and animatronic fighting animatronic you resurrected him, the purple bunny re-joining the band as they reformed into the Fazbear 5. In the end you found out it was Monty who killed the rabbit, though the reasoning of that murder was more complicated than a jealous gator. Either way what's done was done and Monty and Bonnie co-existed peacefully.Now a few floors up you find yourself atop Roxanne's area, the raceway. You looked down. She was present though hard at work on her pirate ship. Despite her incessant care for appearances, she sported an extreme DIY-streak. Even on the first night you met her she was busy working on a kart, having trouble because her paws were too large to fix some screw.As for the pirate ship, she became enamoured with the concept of pirates last Halloween, deciding that her area would now sport some seafaring themes. Done so without input from the execs they let her go crazy, Roxanne wanting everything to be the exact way she wanted it. After all, she was the best designer at the plex.Though the plex listed her as a the "rambunctious Roxanne wolf" she was one of the calmest of the animatronics...unless you asked her about who the best of anything was.Figuring you'd see her later you pass by her area, entering a hallway of offices. One office was reserved for you, though you barely spent time there. Name plague on the door underneath a frosted glass window you pull out your keys and unlock it.Stepping inside you find it exactly as you left it...almost. Ignoring the 'elephant in the room', the office contained two bookshelves on either side of the room containing various reference material and parts, a few pictures on the walls, a large wooden desk with your laptop and charger sitting atop it and two chairs, one behind the desk for you, swivel, and a plain chair for any guests. For the animatronics you had purchased a large beanbag chair. It sat in front of the desk too.A coat rack sat just beside the door, in front and blocking a large picture of concept art of the plex. Curious you took it off one day, finding a safe behind it. Currently, you didn't know what it contained, your boss just remarking it was for emergencies. The plex was teaming with secrets, and you weren't the least bit surprised about it.Placing your coat on the rack and bag down you settle into your desk, opening up a laptop and doing the first e-mail checks of the night. Let's see what I missed.---------------Welcome to Pop Goes the Balloon! This is a sequel to the other FNAF book on my page, Ol' Big Ears. That said, you don't need to read it to know what's going on here. That's why there's a recap above.If you want a complete summary of Ol' Big Ears then read this next paragraph, otherwise just skip to the next one. Here we go! If you want a complete summary of the first book and where we're at here we go. The SB-10 Incident occurs, the plex is burned down, most of the animatronics destroyed and Freddy and Vanessa gone. A private investigator is hired to figure out wtf happened. The investigator finds Gregory, Freddy's head and Vanessa and they are re-instated to help fix the plex (after they were partially blamed for it). The plex is rebuilt, Gregory's work in the plex is rewarded and slowly, things actual return to normal. A year later the body of one of the slain animatronics, Bonnie is found. After going through a series of mechanics you are hired to fix that purple bunny. You do so, igniting a series of events, a murder mystery, a mind-broken crocodile and hypnotic trigger in the animatronics. All of this resulted in a siege that you, Bonnie, Gregory and Moon launch a white bunny and her army of robots. All of this culminated in an event called the "Meltdown Incident". There. That's Ol' Big Ears in a nutshell.While Ol' Big Ears was based off Security Breach, this book is based off Ruin. With how far Ol' Big Ears diverged from Security Breach this is gonna only be loosely related to Ruin. Every character from Ruin will appear here. This story will only feature one crossover (though it'll only appear in 1-2 chapters and not major enough to list. It's also from something that's over 40 years old. Don't worry. It's impossible to guess what it is.Before I continue, I just have a few things I need to put here for any new readers. I'm still playing with the idea of making parts of the story interactive. There may be a poll at the end of some chapters that could change the plot. Maybe...We'll see. As the main character is supposed to be the reader I like the idea. (There won't be any for this preview though). After having taking suggestions for my FNF book (which inadvertently changed huge parts of the plot) I've really like the idea.Unlike the last book this one is split up into Jobs that may span multiple nights or not. Each job focuses on a task given to the main character at the start of each night. For AO3 each job will be posted as a separate story. They can be read on their own though there is a continuation between them. I won't say anything about the jobs, but Job 3 is my favourite because of how absurd it is. If a "next chapter" statement is bolded it means the chapter has a 'boss fight'.If you don't like to use the (your/name) when you're reading as I do, the character's official name is Red or The Technician.(note for Fanfiction.net) As Fanfiction.net filters out URLs in documents you won't see any here. You can always just look them up if you want. They're all on YouTube.I am still a little unsure about the book name. For now, I'm going to go with Pop Goes the Balloon but if you see me randomly change it to Big Bushy Tail that's why. Plus, after asking a few friends the votes for BBT and PGB are equal.The last two chapters of OBE (?x? and BuN) will appear later in the story but modified. Those were just previews after all.The next chapter and first job will be called Chicken Run.