Question of Freedom {Freedom AU} [Book One]

Chapter Twelve

  It was a fairly busy day for the restaurant. A number of birthday parties had been booked that day, resulting in quite the crowd of kids and parents. One of the parties were being held in the main showroom, being entertained by the band on stage. Some kids were standing in front of the stage watching, while others ran around.

In the Prize Corner, Puppet had taken it upon himself to help arrange the plushies on the shelves. The employee who'd started doing so, was quickly called elsewhere before she'd even gotten the chance to finish the task. So, he was finishing her job.

After doing so, a small voice, coming from behind him, caught his attention. "Hi." Looking over, the Marionette had to lean over the counter to see who it was talking. A little girl, who looked no younger than six, was stood there–cotton candy covered hands clutching onto the small mass of tickets she'd won. "Can I have a pwize, pwease?"

"Which one would you like?" Puppet asked her, as the little girl struggled to see over the counter to the shelf of plushies behind. Stepping around, the Marionette picked the girl up and sat her on the counter's edge to get a better look. Once she had a good view of all the plushies, her green eyes carefully scanning each shelf.

"That one!" Her little hand pointed to one of the classic Bonnie plushies. "Alrighty!" Giving her tickets to Puppet, the girl watched as he went to take the plushy from the shelf. As he put the tickets away, the Marionette looked at the Bonnie plush with a contemplative look. An idea came to mind. He looked back to the girl.

"Do you want to see something neat?" Her little eyes widened a bit, as she nodded her head–ringletted strawberry hair bouncing as she did so. Setting the plushy down next to her, Puppet held his hands above it. Gold hued, sparkling strings appeared above the plush, making it seem as though they were marionette strings. The girl watched as Puppet pulled his hands up just enough to make the plushy stand on it's little stub, plushy feet.

"Woah...!" Continuing to move his hands, the Marionette manipulated the plushy to do a small little dance. The girl watched in wonder, as the Bonnie plushie then did a little twirl, gave a bow, and promptly fell to a sitting position.

"Soooo coooool!" She nearly squealed, taking the plushy and squeezing it with a hug. Puppet picked her up and put her on the ground. "Thank you!" She exclaimed, before running off to her party's members. The Marionette smiled warmly, but his smile soon disappeared when a different voice suddenly spoke up. "My, what impressive technology you've got here, Dale!"

Puppet froze where he stood, as two men in business suits approached the Corner. He slowly turned to look at them. The younger looking one he recognized as the new boss of this location and others. Though, he could normally be found at their location. Dale Jenson. The other man, Puppet didn't seem to know who it was.

Crap. Puppet thought to himself, realizing what it was the men probably saw. "Thank you, Mr. Lauder." Jenson thanked, as this "Mr. Lauder" character approached the Marionette. The man looked him up and down. "Glad to see you guys are upgrading the older models still in use. A good idea."

Upgrading? Simply thanking the man again, Jeson kept smiling. He wasn't entirely sure how to answer that comment, though. "And I thought 'The Mangle' was an impressive robot. Seems the Puppet is right up with her in the ranks!" Mr. Lauder said with a hearty chuckle. The Marionette merely masked his confusion of what the guy was even talking about.

"You should really be investing this kind of tech at other locations, Dale!" The man suggested, stepping back towards the boss. "I, well, we are definitely considering it. For a future project, maybe?" Jenson replied, making the statement up on the spot to appease the man. "Why wait? Imagine the money you could make from animatronic tech like this!" Dale laughed, a bit nervously, before trying to bring Mr. Lauder's attention elsewhere.

Later into the evening, just about everyone was gathered together in the main showroom. Everyone except for Puppet and Vixen. Puppet had pulled Vixen aside to have a brief word with her. "What's up?" The fox asked, as the two stood inside Kid's Cove. "Vixen, did you use your abilities today?"

"Oh, well, yeah. I thought it'd make things interesting for the kids!" Vixen answered, before noticing the look of concern on the Marionette's masked face. "But um, y'know, it wasn't like, anything huge, or whatever." Puppet sighed, and shook his head a little. "Vixen, I need you to listen to me."

"Okay?"

"Please don't do that again." Vixen cocked her head a little. "Why not?" She asked. "Because humans can exploit you for your abilities. I've seen it happen, and I wouldn't wish the same for you." Puppet explained. "Believe me when I say you'd be doing everyone a huge favor."

"Oh... um, okay. I'll stop, then." Vixen agreed, still sounding somewhat puzzled. However, she picked up on the seriousness in the Marionette's voice, and set her questions aside. "Thank you. That's all" With that, Vixen was excused for the rest of the night, off to join the others.